SERVE GOD AND BE CHEERFUL  
 portrait of John Hacket 
THE RIGHT RD. FATHER IN GOD JOHN HACKET L D BISHOP OF LICH. AND COVENT.  
Aged 78  
Dyed 28. Oct. 1670.  W. Faithorne sculp: 
His face this Icon shows, his pious wit  
These Sermons: would you know him further yet,  
yourself must die: for Reader you must look  
In Heaven, for what's not of him in this Book.    

A CENTURY OF SERMONS Upon Several Remarkable Subjects: PREACHED BY The Right Reverend FATHER in GOD, JOHN HACKET, LATE LORD BISHOP OF Lichfield and Coventry.  
Published by THOMAS PLUME, D. D.  
LONDON, Printed by Andrew Clark for Robert Scott, at the Prince's Arms in Little Britain, MDCLXXV.   

TO His Most Sacred MAJESTY CHARLES II. By the Grace of GOD King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland.  
Most Gracious and Dread Sovereign,  
I Here present with all Humility to Your Royal Majesty a Bundle of Holy Frankincense and Myrrh, hoping that Your Majesty's great Piety will please to admit It among the many Rarities of Your Closet, and at times seasonable into the more sacred recesses of your Mind and Soul. It was the Compound of a late Reverend and Learned Prelate, exalted by your Majesty to be the Intelligence to rule the Orb of Lichfield and Coventry, Who in his ordinary attendance upon your Majesty, your Royal Father, and Grandfather, had the Honour to preach more than Eighty times at Court; and in This one Volume has comprised no less than a Whole Body of Divinity, wherein the Great Mysteries of our Christian Faith are clearly explained, all men's Duty towards God sincerely taught, your Majesty's Regal Authority strongly maintained, the Doctrine and Discipline of our Church (by Law established) learnedly Vindicated.  
Long may your Majesty peaceably retain your rightful Jurisdiction over this Church and State.  
Long may there be in it such Religious and Learned Prelates placed by your Majesty in Higher Spheres, free from Parity and Poverty.  
And long may your Majesty continue like the Sun, not only to Irradiate the Stars of greater Magnitude above, but also in due time to cast more Lustre upon the lesser Luminaries of the Church, that they may shine more bright beneath.  
And then, as your Majesty, like your Blessed Saviour, was attended with an Happy Star at your Birth; so your Majesty shall likewise with Him be attended by a Good Angel at your Death, to translate your Majesty to that Crown of glory that fadeth not away. Which is the perpetual prayer of  
Your MAJESTY'S Most humble Supplicant, and Dutiful Subject, THOMAS PLUME.   

A TABLE Directing to the TEXTS of SCRIPTURE handled in the following SERMONS.  

XV Sermons upon our Blessed Saviour's Incarnation.  

I. UPon S. Luke two. 7. And she brought forth her first born Son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a Manger, because there was no room for them in the Inn, page 1  
II. Upon S. Luke two. 8. And there were in the same Country Shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their Flock by night, p. 10  
III. Upon S. Luke two. 9 And lo the Angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid, p. 20  
IU. Upon S. Luke two. 10. And the Angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people, p. 30  
V. Upon the same, p. 40  
VI Upon S. Luke two. 11. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord, p. 50  
VII. Upon S. Luke two. 13, 14. And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly Host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and good will towards men, p. 60  
VIII. Upon the same, p. 70  
IX. Upon S. Luke xi. 27, 28. A certain woman of the company lift up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the Womb that bore thee, and the Paps which thou hast sucked: But he said, Yea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it, p. 79  
X. Upon S. Luke two. 29, 30. Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, p. 88  
XI. Upon S. Luke i 68 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people, p. 98  
XII. Upon S. Luke i 69. And hath raised up an horn of Salvation for us in the house of his servant David, p. 109  
XIII. Upon S. Matth. two. 1, 2. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King, behold there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem; Saying, where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his Star in the East, and are come to worship him, p. 118  
XIV. Upon the same, p. 127  
XV. Upon the same, p. 136    

VI Sermons upon the Baptism of our Saviour.  

I. Upon S. Matth. iii 13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptised of him, p. 147  
II. Upon S. Matth. iii 14. But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to me? p. 157  
III. Upon S. Matth. iii 14, 15. And comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: For thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness, p. 166  
IU. Upon S. Matth. iii 15, 16. Then he suffered him. And Jesus when he was baptised, went up straightway out of the water, p. 175  
V. Upon S. Matth. iii 16. And lo the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove, and lighting upon him, p. 184  
VI Upon S. Matth. iii 17. And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, p. 193    

XXI. Sermons upon the Tentation of our Saviour.  

I. Upon S. Matth. iv. 1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil, p. 205  
II. Upon the same, p. 214  
III. Upon the same, p. 224  
IU. Upon S. Matth. iv. 1, 2. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterwards an hungry, p. 234  
V. Upon the same, p. 244  
VI Upon S. Matth. iv. 3. And when the Tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread, p. 254  
VII. Upon the same, p. 263  
VIII. Upon the same, p. 273  
IX. Upon S. Matth. iv. 4. But he answered and said, it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, p. 282  
X. Upon S. Matth. iv. 5. Then the Devil taketh him up into the holy City, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the Temple, p. 292  
XI. Upon S. Matth. iv. 6. And saith unto him, If thou be Son of God cast thyself down: For it is written, He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone, p. 302  
XII. Upon the same, p. 312  
XIII. Upon Matth. iv. 7. Jesus said unto him, it is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God, p. 322  
XIV. Upon S. Matth. iv. 8. Again the Devil taketh him up into an exceeding high Mountain, and showeth him all the Kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, p. 331  
XV. Upon S. Matth. iv. 9 And saith unto him, all these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me, p. 340  
XVI. Upon the same, p. 349  
XVII. Upon S. Matth. iv. 9, 10. All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, get thee hence Satan, p. 359  
XVIII. Upon S. Matth. iv. 10. For it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve, p. 368  
XIX. Upon the same, p. 377  
XX. Upon the same, p. 387  
XXI. Upon S. Matth. iv. 11. Then the Devil leaveth him, and behold Angels came and ministered unto him, p. 398    

VII Sermons upon the Transfiguration of our Saviour.  

I. Upon S. Luke ix. 28, 29. And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter, and John, and James, and went up into a Mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering, p. 411  
II. Upon S. Luke ix. 29, 30, 31. The fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. And behold there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias, p. 422  
III. Upon S. Luke ix. 31, 32. Who appeared in glory, and spoke of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter, and they that were with him, were heavy with sleep, and when they were awake they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him, p. 432  
IU. Upon S. Luke ix. 33. And it came to pass as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three Tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: not knowing what he said, p. 440  
V. Upon the same, p. 450  
VI Upon S. Luke ix. 34. While he thus spoke there came a Cloud and overshadowed them, and they feared as they entered into the Cloud, p. 460  
VII. Upon S. Luke ix. 35, 36. And there came a voice out of the Cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, hear him. And when the voice was past Jesus was found alone. And they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen, p. 470    

V Sermons upon the Passion of our Saviour.  

I. Upon S. Matth. xxvii. 24. I am innocent of the blood of this just Person, see you to it, p. 483  
II. Upon S. John nineteen. 34. But one of the Soldiers with a Spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout Blood and Water, p. 505  
III. Upon Gen. xxii. 13. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a Ram caught in a thicket by his horns; and Abraham went, and took the Ram, and offered him up for a burnt-offering in the stead of his Son, p. 516  
IU. Upon John iii 14. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, p. 527  
V. Upon Acts two. 23. Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, p. 538    

IX Sermons upon the Resurrection of our Saviour.  

I. Upon Acts two. 24. Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it, p. 549  
II. Upon S. John 11.43. And when he had thus spoken he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth, p. 558.  
III. S. John xi. 44. And he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with Grave-cloaths, and his face was bound about with a Napkin, p. 568  
IU. Upon S. John xx. 1. The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the Sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the Sepulchre, p. 577  
V. Upon S. Matth. xxviii. 2. And behold there was a great Earthquake, for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it, p. 586  
VI Upon S. Matth. xxviii. 3, 4. His Countenance was like lightning, and his Raiment white as snow. And for fear of him the Keepers did shake, and became as dead men, p. 597  
VII. Upon S. Mark xuj. 9 Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven Devils, p. 607  
VIII. Upon S. Matth. xxviii. 9, 10. And as they went to tell his Disciples, behold Jesus met them, saying all hail, and they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. Then said Jesus unto them, be not afraid, go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me, p. 615  
IX. Upon S. Matth. xxviii. 13. Say ye, his Disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept, p. 624    

V Sermons upon the Descent of the Holy Ghost.  

I. Upon Acts two. 1. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, p. 637  
II. Upon Acts two. 2. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and filled all the house where they were sitting, p. 646  
III. Upon Acts two. 3. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them, p. 654  
IU. Upon Acts two. 4. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance, p. 663  
V. Upon Acts two. 12, 13. And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, what meaneth this? Others mocking, said, these men are full of new wine, p. 672    

III Sermons preached upon Psalm cxviii. 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it,  

The first at Whitehall upon the King's Coronation, p. 683  
The second at Holbourn upon Easter-day, p. 693  
The Third in defence of the Festivals of the Church, p. 702  
The second Sermon upon the King's Coronation, preached at the spital in the Mayoralty of Sir Cuthbert Hacket, upon 1 Sam. two. 30. Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed, p. 711  
A Sermon preached upon the Gowry Conspiracy before King James, upon Psalm xli. 9 Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lift up his heel against me, p. 731    

TWO Sermons upon the 5th. of November, preached at Whitehall before King James.  

I. Upon Amos ix. 2. Though they dig into Hell thence shall my hand take them, p. 742  
II. Upon Acts xxviii. 5. And he shook the beast into the fire and felt no harm, p. 752  
TWO Sermons preached at Whitehall upon Gen. v. 24. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him, p. 762  
Upon the same, p. 771  
III. Sermons preached at Whitehall upon Gen. viij. 20, 21. And Noah builded an Altar to the Lord, and took of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the Altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, p. 780  
Upon the same, p. 789  
Upon the same, p. 798  
TWO Sermons preached at Whitehall, upon Gen. nineteen. 26. But his Wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt, p. 896  
Upon the same, p. 815  
A Sermon preached at Whitehall upon Numb. xxi. 7. Pray unto the Lord that he take the Serpents from us, p. 823  
A Sermon upon Joshua xxii. 20. And that man perished not alone in his iniquity, p. 831  
A Fast Sermon preached at Whitehall upon Nehem. i 4. And it came to pass when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days, and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven, p. 849  
A Sermon upon Prov. three 3. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee, p. 862  
TWO Sermons concerning the Rechabites, upon Jer. xxxv. 6. But they said we will drink no wine, p. 873  
TWO Sermons preached at Whitehall upon John iv. 13, 14. Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, p. 483  
Upon the same, p. 902  
III Sermons preached at Whitehall upon John vi. 11. And Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, distributed to the Disciples, and the Disciples to them that were set down: and likewise of the fishes, as much as they would, p. 911  
Upon the same, 921  
Upon the same, 931  
A Sermon preached at Whitehall upon St. Luke's day upon Acts xi. 26. And the Disciples were called Christians first in Antioch, p. 941  
A Commencement Sermon preached at Cambridge, upon Acts xii, 23. And immediately the Angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory, p. 952  
III Sermons preached at Whitehall upon Gal. iv. 26. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the Mother of us all, p. 964  
Upon the same, 973  
Upon the same, 983    

TWO Sermons preached, upon All Saint's day, in Holbourn.  

I. Upon Rev. vi. 9 I saw under the Altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the Testimony which they held, p. 992.  
II. Upon Rev. vi. 10. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? p. 1003     

AN ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE and DEATH OF THE AUTHOR.  
THE Son of Sirach, a renowned Preacher in his Generation, has given us counsel to commend Famous Men, and our Fathers of whom we are begotten; 
Ecclus. 44.1.  and in the close of his excellent Book has presented us with a large Catalogue of them, together with an Encomium of their Actions, whose remembrance (says he) is sweet as Honey in all Mouths, and pleasant as Music at a Banquet of Wine.  
St. Paul has directly imitated the Son of Sirach, and enumerated many ancient Heroes, not without a due Commemoration; and farther given us a Precept, To remember our Governors, or Guides in the Christian Faith, 
Heb. 13.7.  holy Bishops and Martyrs after their death, as appears plainly by the following words, whose faith follow, considering the end of their Conversation.  
Accordingly in the Primitive times the Bishops of Rome took care that the lives and actions of all holy Men and Martyrs especially should be recorded; For this purpose public Notaries were appointed by S. Clement, say some, though Platina first ascribes their institution to Anterus; 
In vita.  whose Records were far more large than the present Roman Martyrology, or that of Bede and Vsuardus, or the Menologue of the Greeks, which for the most part contain only the Names and Deaths of the Martyrs; but those were a Narrative of their whole Lives and Doctrines, and Speeches at large, their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, famous Acts and Sufferings for the Christian Faith; which were also read sometimes in their Religious Assemblies for the encouragement of others, 
S. Aust. de Civ. Dei. l. 22. c. 8. & alibi.  and are said to have converted many to the Christian Faith. But these long since perished through the malice and cruelty of Dioclesian, in those fires which consumed their Bodies and their Books together.  
Afterwards, when Christian Religion reflourished, the Christian Church resumed these Studies again. St, Ambrose did right to the memory of Theodosius, Paulinus of St. Ambrose, Nazianzen to Athanasius, St. Hierom to Nepotian, Possidonius to St. Austin, Amphilochius to St. Basil, St. Hierom and Gennadius wrote of all Ecclesiastical Writers and illustrious men in the Christian Church from the beginning of it to their own times. And after all these, there wanted not Martyrologers and Writers of Lives, but such as perhaps we had better have wanted than enjoyed their Writings; insomuch that a great Lieutenant under the Papal Standard durst affirm, 
M. Canus lo. Com. l. 11.  that the Stories of the Heathen Captains and Philosophers were more excellently written then of Christ's own Apostles and Martyrs: For those were done so notably, that they were like to live for ever, whereas the lives of many Saints in the Christian Church were so corruptly and shamefully penned, that they could no way advantage the Reader; so that at this day we have two things to bewail, not only that we have lost the true reports of the Primitive Christians, but likewise that the lives of the Saints we have remaining, have not been written by Saints and true men, but by liars, who have stuffed their fastidious Writings with so many prodigious Tales, as are more apt to beget infidelity than faith, and all honest and judicious men are ashamed and grieved to read them.  
For my own part I intent not in this tumultuary haste to write an absolute Life of the Author, or recollect all his Actions praiseworthy, but only for satisfaction of some importunate friends, to represent quaedam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, some few Memoirs and Passages of his Life, which I have received from his Lordship's most intimate acquaintance, and for the most part from his own reports. 
Virg. Ecl. S. Bern. in vita S. Malachiae.  Tecum etenim longos memini consumere Soles! and in them am resolved to sacrifice to Truth, and not to Affection; to the glory of God, and not to humane fame: to write nothing false or fictitious, nor things true in an hyperbolical and flaunting manner, as in a Panegyric; but only a Breviary of his most active and industrious life, where the truth shall be recited without false Ideas and representations, and his Lordship made to appear what really he was, both in his Divine virtues, and humane passions.  
And though I am likely to do all this with very small Acumen and judgement, yet I hope with true zeal, and sincere affection to the glory of God, and honour of the Church of England. The Members of which Church have been reputed of all others the slackest to celebrate their own Worthies, partly I conceive from the humility and modesty of their Principles and Education, partly from the great multitude of incomparable Scholars therein to be commemorated, that such labours would be almost infinite. For which reason the Diptychs of the Ancient Church were likewise laid aside, when Religion was settled, and Christians grew numerous. But yet if the Divines of the Church of England lived elsewhere we may well conjecture what Books the World should have had of their learning and piety: For who sees not the many Volumes of Lives daily published by others, wherein ample Commendations are given to idleness, popularity, and very ordinary deservings; After an impartial reading thereof, I cannot but think that our Own Church has far better Subjects and matter to write upon, if we that survive wanted not ability or affection to maintain our own Cause, and publish the Merits of our departed Worthies to the World.  

Rom. 10.19.  Therefore out of Emulation partly, and shame from a foolish Nation, as St. Paul says, but much more out of a profound sense of the Duty I owe to the Memory of this renowned Prelate, and most of all out of hope of stimulating posterity to the imitation of the virtues of better times, I have taken care to give the World this Account of our Author, and not to permit his Books to be buried (as it were) in the Grave with his Body, mortal and immortal to descend together into the same Land of oblivion.  
Though it be no real Prerogative, but an accidental and contingent thing, How we are born after the flesh, yet it is commendable to search into the Beginning and Causes of such things as we would throughly know, and therefore the Extract and Parentage of learned and great men is usually enquired after in the first place.  
John Hacket was born in the Parish of St. Martin's in the Strand, near Exeter House, upon September 1. Anno Domini 1592. in the happy Reign of Queen Elizabeth, of honest and virtuous Parents, and of good reputation in that place, his Father being then a Signior Burgess of Westminster, and afterwards belonging to the Robes of Prince Henry; descended from an ancient Family in Scotland, which reteins the Name to this day. His Father and Mother were both true Protestants, great lovers of the Church of England, constant repairers to the Divine Prayers and Service thereof, and would often bewail to their young Son after the coming in of their Countrymen with King James, the seed of Fanaticism then laid in the scandalous neglect of the Public Liturgy, which all the Queen's time was exceedingly frequented, the people then resorting as devoutly to Prayers as they would afterwards to hear any famous Preacher about the Town; And his aged Parents often observed to him, that Religion towards God, justice and love amongst Neighbours gradually declined with the disuse of our Public Prayer.  
In our Bishop's opinion Parentage alone added little to any man, no more than if we should commend the Stock of a Tree when we cannot commend the Fruit, Mirari in trunco quod in fructu non teneas, 
St. Hier.  who held that the glory of our Forefathers reflected upon us, was but Color intentionalis, like the sparkling colour of wine upon fair Linen, or as the Sea-green and Purple in the Rainbow, which are not real colours, but mere shadows and reflections: And that never was Pedigree so well set out as that of Noah: These are the Generations of Noah, Noah was a just man, etc. 
Gen. 6 9  And in like manner our Blessed Saviour commends his Forerunner John Baptist, not so much for his Honourable Descent, 
Luke 1.16, 17. Matth. 11.11, 12.  and Miraculous Conception, as for his pious and laborious Ministry, in turning many to Righteousness. This was agreeable to our Bishop's mind, in comparison whereof he little valued all other Titles of Honour  
But in his discourse he would often give God thanks for the place he was born in, viz. that he was born an Englishman, and especially in the City of London. He was indeed a great lover of his own Nation, little England (as he would term it) the sweetest spot of all the Earth, and say that the City of London was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very England of England, Vrbs Vrbium, and wish the Country were a little more sprinkled with her Flour; for in his Travels he had discerned in places remote a Northern rigour and churlishness among our Villagers, wanting that Southern sleekness that was usually found in Cities and great Towns, the Metropolis especially. 
Ushers Ann. p. 54. John 7.52. Anacharsis.  And though there is no place but has in some Age been enlightened with some famous Luminary; The Prophet Ionas was born in Galilee, out of which said the Pharisees, there arises no Prophet. Yet withal it was observed, in Scythia there was never born but one Philosopher, but in Athens all were such: So in all parts of England there have been learned men born, but in London innumerable; and therefore once in a pleasant discourse between Him and a learned Friend, who were reckoning up the Country, where many Scholars were born, and could not presently tell what Countryman Mr. L. was, the Bishop merrily said, As the Rabbins believed when ever any great Prophet was named in Scripture, and the place of his Birth not named, that it was in Jerusalem; so he would take it for granted, by the like parity of reason, since Mr. L's Country was unknown, he must needs be born in London.  
Yet in his judgement it was but a small lustre likewise, that the Place where any Man was Teemed could cast upon him, but he ought rather to give Lustre to it; for Places did not conciliate Honour to Men, but Men to Places; and that little Hippo was more ennobled by great St. Austin, than great St. Austin by little Hippo. And therefore he never rejoiced so much for the City or Country wherein he was born, as for the Church's sake wherein he was baptised and born again; which of all others to his dying day he most loved and admired; and accordingly he would often render hearty thanks to God that his Birth and Breeding was in a Reformed Church, and of all others the most prudent and exact according to the Doctrine of holy Scripture, and the Primitive Pattern; that would neither continue in the Fulsom Superstitions of the Roman Church, nor in Reforming be born down with the violent Torrent as some others were.  
But from these lesser Circumstances of his Birth, let us therefore proceed to those of his Education and Breeding, which are far greater, and do especially make the difference between one man and another; For whereas all by Nature are born alike of the same corrupt Materials, Education only (like the Hand or Wheel of the Potter) makes us to differ, and become Vessels of Honour or Dishonour. Our Birth from the Womb is not as the Dew of the Morning, fair and pleasant, but tainted like the unwholesome vapours of the Night, with the stench of iniquity, whereby all Youth has a great inclination to Vice and sinful pleasure, and consequently that Age is generally the most riotous and carnal part of our life; but in him it happened quite otherwise, for by the Providence of his pious Parents, and vigilance of a strict Schoolmaster, he was well principled and strictly disciplined betimes.  
His wise Parents were extreme careful of him, for he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the only Son and Staff of both their Ages, in whom all their hopes were reposed. 
Virg. Aen. 1.  Omnis in Ascanio chari stat cura parentis; and having received him in their old Age from God, they were resolved in his early youth to devote him to God again; and therefore never suffered him to lose any time, but being very small and young, entered him into the King's School at Westminster; where from his tender years he acquired an habit of rising betimes, and constant study; All the day long he was attended with the eye of a diligent Master, and at night sufficiently tasqued when he went home, and never permitted to know what idleness or vanity was by his own leisure or experience.  
His Master observing his great propensity to learning, would often foretell that there would be nothing insuperable to his good parts, and great diligence withal, and that with those two wings (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
In vità.  as John, Patriarch of Constantinople said of Damascen) the young Eaglet would in time soar very high.  
Of this School he would speak with the greatest respect possible, that it was Musarum Domicilium, virtutis Officina, nobile Doctrinae & Pietatis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the most famous Nursery of Learning and learned men who did excel in all Vocations, 
Judg. 12. Eccls 6.3.  more fruitful than Ibsan that had thirty Sons and thirty Daughters, or than Solomon's happy Parent, who lived to beget an hundred Children; being of opinion that more learned Scholars had been bred at Westminster School since the Foundation thereof, than in any other Seminary of Learning in England or elsewhere; that one School furnishing two entire Colleges of great size in Cambridg and Oxon, besides whom it does send to other places by way of Superfetation.  
A perpetual gratitude he bore to Mr. Ireland his Schoolmaster, and would bewail, that generally throughout England no better Stipends were allowed to that Profession, than which none was more necessary in a Commonwealth, and yet in most places it was so slightly provided for, that it was undertaken out of necessity, and only as a step to other Preferment.  
In this School he first became known to the incomparable Bishop Andrews, who, being then Dean of Westminster, in the necessary absence of the Master, would sometimes come into the School and teach the Boys. There that learned and pious Bishop first took notice of this young Scholar for his great diligence, modesty, pregnancy of parts, strong inclination to learning and virtue, which he afterwards constantly cherished both at School and University to his death: On the other side our young Scholar ever revered this great Person in loco Parentum, often retired to him for advice in his studies, and ever honoured him as St. Cyprian did Tertullian, Tanquam Magistrum.  
To tell how well he passed the Circuit of that School I need say no more but what his Master Ireland said, at parting, to him and George Herbert, who went from thence to Trinity College in Cambridge by election together, That he expected to have credit by them two at the University, or would never hope for it afterwards by any while he lived; and added withal, that he need give them no counsel to follow their Books, but rather to study moderately, and use exercise; their parts being so good, that if they were careful not to impair their health with too much study, they would not fail to arrive to the top of learning in any Art or Science.  
The courtesy of his Election he ever would acknowledge to Doctor Nevil the most Magnificent Master of Trinity College, and Dean of Canterbury, to whom when his Father (though unacquainted) presumed to address in behalf of his Son, he presently bid him spare further speaking to any one, for that Boy should go to Cambridge, or he would carry him upon his own back. So he was removed to Trinity College, Anno 1608. the day before Doctor playferes Funeral, where he first saw and heard the most Eloquent Mr. Williams, than Fellow of St. John's, afterwards Lord Keeper, who made the Funeral Oration for him in St. Mary's the second day he wore a Purple Gown.  
Oftentimes would our good Bishop, like Plato, give great thanks to God that he was not bred among rude and barbarous people, but among civil and learned Athenians; that he was not disposed of to some Monkish Society, or ignorant Cloister, but to the Greece of Greece itself, the most learned and Royal Society of Trinity College, which in that and all other Ages since the Foundation equalled any other College in Europe for plenty of incomparable Divines, Philosophers, and Orators: He would often make mention of his learned Tutor, Dr. Simson, that wrote the Church History, Dr. Cumber a great Critic, Dr. Richardson Regius Professor, Dr. Nevil very splendid and sumptuous Governor; the great Hebrician and Chronologer Mr. Lively, one of the Translators of the Bible, the famous and most memorable Dr. Whitgift, sometime Master, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, and assert it was almost impossible for any man to continue ignorant under the advantage of so great Examples, and influence of such incomparable Instructers.  
Here our young Scholar was quickly taken notice of by the Seniors for his many singular parts of Wit, Memory, skill in Philosophy, subtlety in disputation, excellent knowledge in the Greek and Latin Tongues especially, great sobriety of Life, integrity of Manners, constant diligence at his Book, no day nor hour passing without turning over some Historian, Orator, or Poet, so that his Tutor was forced rather to restrain than to incite him to his study, and would advise him every morning to walk so many turns; yet he would confess sometimes he felt the sleepy humour upon himself; but then his constant rule was, when ever he found himself doubtful, whether to study or loiter, in that indisposition to choose the better part.  
The first proofs he gave of his ability in Logic, Philosophy, and Oratory, were so much above the common sort, that his Preferment was soon presaged in that Society, which he obtained by his own merits, without the intercession of Friends to hoist or heave him up. He was chosen Fellow of the College as soon as he became capable by virtue of his first degree, and afterwards grew into that Credit, that he had many Pupils, and of many of the best Families of Gentry in England.  
One Month in the long Vacation, retiring with his Pupil, afterwards Lord Byron, into Nottinghamshire for fresh air, there, in absence from all Books, and having no other more serious studies, he made Loyola, which needs no other Commendation than to remember that it was twice acted before King James, and what an ingenious Pen says in a Prologue, 
You must not here expect to day  
Leander, Labyrinth, or Loyola.   
After his return to the College from this Diversion, he began to set himself wholly to the study of Divinity, being egregiously skilled in the preparatory learning of Logic, Physic, Metaphysics, and Ethics, with which he had most largely informed his mind, and adorned his soul; and then as Dyer's having dipped their Silks in colours of less value do afterwards give them the last Tincture of Crimson in grain: So our young Scholar having given his mind a large dip of Secular Arts and Sciences became more fit for Divine Speculations; therefore though but a very young man, his first Sermons at St. Mary's and at the Vicarage of Trumpington (which he held with his Fellowship) were so singular and like himself, that (as the learned Bishop Creighton told me) the eyes of the whole University were cast upon him as a Star that would be as bright as any in the Constellation beside.  
He received his holy Orders by the hands of John King, Bishop of London, in December, Anno 1618. This good Bishop had a singular affection and kindness for him, which he expressed upon all occasions; once by accident his Lordship passed through St. Paul's Cathedral, where old Mr. Hacket was walking (as the custom than was) his Gentleman who attended him, whispered to his Lordship, that the goodly old man, who was walking there, was young Mr. Hackets Father of Trinity College in Cambridge. The Bishop thereupon beckoned him to come to him, and gave him joy of his hopeful Son at Trinity College, and bid him when he wrote commend him likewise to him, and let him know in due time he would be a means to bring them two together again. So the matchless Andrews, that great Rewarder of all learning and worth, would oftentimes send him Commendations, and Counsel, and Money to buy Books, sometimes ten Pieces at a time. But above all others he was taken notice of by that Renowned Prelate John Williams, Dean of Westminster, and Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, Anno 1621. a Prelate of incomparable learning and knowledge, not only in Divinity and the Tongues, but in all Laws, Civil, Canon, and Common, who presently, upon his receiving the Seal, sent for Mr. Hacket of Trinity College, and admitted him to be his Chaplain, whom of all his Chaplains he ever most loved and esteemed. And on the other side our Bishop would to his last breath acknowledge the Bishop of Lincoln to be the most happy Instrument of Divine Providence that made him known to the world, and to his death bore a most grateful memory to his great deserts and dignity, notwithstanding all his eclipses and slanders cast upon him.  
When Mr. Hacket was now a great Tutor, and the very Darling of the College, generally beloved, and so contented, as like to have long there continued, my Lord Keeper would have him to his Service, saying withal, As his Majesty King James had been blamed by many for making so young a Keeper: so he expected to be Censured for choosing so young a Chaplain; but his Lordship knew his abilities very well, and would trust no body with the choice of his Servants but himself.  
Two years he spent in the Keeper's Service before his time was come to Commence Bachelor in Divinity, but then begged leave to go down to Cambridge to keep the Public Act, Anno 1623. upon the two following questions: Judicio Romanae Ecclesiae in Sanctis canonizandis non est standum. Vota Monasticae perfectionis (quae dicuntur) sunt illicita.  
The former question was given very seasonably; for the year before, Anno 1622. Pope Gregory XV. had Canonised Ignatius Loyola the Father of the Jesuits, Franciscus Xavier the Indian Apostle, Philip Nereus the General of the Jesuits, and Madam Teresia a Spanish Virtuosa, who had built twenty five Monasteries for men, and seventeen for women.  
He cast his Position into three parts: 1. Because the holy Scripture saith, The memory of the Just shall be blessed, that all Canonization of Saints is not to be accounted superstitious, but by Canonization he meant only a public testimony of the Christian Church, of any eximious Members sanctity and glory after death. 2. That this testimony ought to be given by General or Provincial Councils at least of their own Members. 3. By no means to be left to the breast of the Roman Pontiff, and College of Cardinals. 1. Because they especially attended to false qualifications, which they made undoubted signs of Saintship, which were not such. 2. Consequently had already Canonised unworthy persons, not beatified in Heaven, but rather damned in Hell. 3. For perverse and impious ends, which they ever thought to establish by their Canonization. In all these respects the Pope of Rome (who is their Virtual Church,) was apparently a most partial and unmeet Judge, very apt to be imposed upon himself, and likewise to impose upon others.  
After his return to the Keeper's service he preferred him to the Court to be Chaplain to King James, before whom he preached several times, to the great good liking of that most learned King, and once upon the Gowries Conspiracy, for which a Thanksgiving was continued all that King's Reign upon August 5. and though some people have denied the Treason, yet our good Bishop was assured that the most Religious Bishop Andrews once fell down upon his knees before King James, and besought his Majesty to spare his customary pains upon that day, that he might not mock God unless the thing were true: the King replied, Those people were much too blame who would never believe a Treason unless their Prince were actually murdered; but did assure him in the Faith of a Christian, and upon the Word of a King, their Treasonable attempt against him was too true.  
Anno 24. he was preferred by the Lord Keeper to be Parson of St. Andrews Holbourn. About 12 at night the Keeper sent to speak with him; when he came, his Lordship told him, he was not then watching for his own study, but for his; The Living of St. Andrews Holbourn was fallen, and in the King's disposal, by reason of the minority of Thomas Earl of Southampton, to which upon the mediation of the Bishop he was presented the next morning by King James.  
The same year his Lordship procured for him the Parsonage of Cheam in Surrey, fallen likewise into the King's gift by the promotion of Dr. Senhouse to the Bishopric of Carlisle; the Keeper telling him, that he intended him Holbourn for wealth and Cheam for health; these two Livings being within a small distance, of ten miles, he held till the Troubles came, and though he was a great lover of Residence, and would say Nonresidence was never to be excused, but when utility to the Church, or necessity to the Person for his real health or fitting State required it: Yet he would often dispute the necessity of a Country Living for a London Minister to retire to in hot Summer time, out of the Sepulchral air of a Churchyard, where most of them are housed in the City, and found for his own part that by Whitsuntide he did rus anhelare, and unless he took fresh air in the Vacation, he was stopped in his Lungs and could not speak clear after Michaelmas: But upon one of these he was constantly resident, making as few excursions for pleasure or recreation, as any man living, scarce ever absent from both, nor long from either; in so much that his friend Dr. Holdsworth said, Dr. Hacket resided more upon two Livings, than any Puritan (that ever he knew) did upon one; who usually made more idle Sallies and gossipping Visits from their Charge to Markets and Fairs, and of late to attend Committees, and such Secular Employments, than they whom they ejected for non-resident, did in their attendance at Court or elsewhere.  
Our Bishop would declare, that naturally he was disaffected to live either in City or Court, yet it pleased God, against his disposition to bring him into both, who valued rural retirement and repose at his Study above all the Riches and Dignities of the World, and would often therefore recite those words, Come my Beloved let us retire into the Villages, etc. 
Cant 7.11.  and that unless it were for the service of God, all the world should not hire him to live among Butchers, and Bakers, and Brewers, Tradesmen of all sorts in the narrow Streets of London, where he could not see the Sun but in some few days all Summer: Yet this he willingly yielded to, a great part of the year for the sake of others, knowing with St. Hierom, Sancta simplicitas solùm sibi prodest; Country retirement was good only for himself, but his Place at Holbourn rendered him beneficial to others, and therefore would compare the Contemplative life, spent in Prayer, Study, and Meditation, to Rachel, who was very beautiful, but almost barren; on the other side, an active and laborious one, spent in daily conversation, and holy Ministrations to Mankind, to Leah, who was more fruitful, though less pleasing and fair; and to encourage Divines to this, observed that no less than three of four Evangelists had taken it for their principal Task to record our Saviour's Travels and Miracles, going up and down from one City to another, only St. John took the other Subject to recount to us especially our Saviour's Meditations and Prayers; and therefore he little valued that commendation of many Popish Saints, for leaving the company of Mankind, and retiring into Deserts, where they could scarce have opportunity at any time to exercise Piety or Charity, which was in his opinion to forsake the Blow, and cast off Christ's Yoke, and embrace idleness, if not pleasure.  
At Holbourn he generally resided till the end of Trinity Term, and preached in person upon all the great Feasts of the Church, and all Sundays in Term, when the Judges and Lawyers were in Town, without admitting any supply, and then commonly retired in the long Vacation for health and privacy till Michaelmas Term. Sometimes indeed he would steal out of Town for one Month in the Spring, which he believed no man did so much Epicurise as himself; who ever found a most luscious sweetness in the Month of April, and nothing else so pleasant in this life, as with a Book in his hand to walk and view the fields and flowers, and to observe every blossom how it grew in that delicious season of the year.  
In the last year of King James he was named by the King himself to attend an Ambassador into Germany, at which he was very glad, being most desirous to travel and be acquainted with learned men abroad, saying, only low souls loved to dwell always at home, but more knowing and Divine (like the Heavens above) delighted in business and motion; yet upon second thoughts he was dissuaded from the Journey; for having wrote Loyola, he was told, he would never be able to go safe though in an Ambassadors Train.  
To the Memory of King James no man living bore greater respect than our Bishop did for his great wisdom, learning, pacific disposition, and affection to the Church, to which he thought he might be styled a Benefactor equal to Constantine the Great: His Life he long intended to write, and to that purpose the Keeper conferred upon him Mr. Camden's Manuscript Notes of that King's Reign, till his own death, Anno 1623. and his dear Friend and fellow Servant, Mr. John St. Amand communicated to him many choice Letters and Secrets of State of his own collection, who in like manner designed the same thing, to whom the Bishop recommended the perfecting thereof: But the melancholy Rust of the Civil War had so eaten into that Gentleman's soul, that it had quite unfit him, and the Bishop also having lost many of his Books and Papers upon his Sequestration at Holbourn, was made uncapable to proceed farther in it.  
And now having spent some time in his Country-solitariness at Cheam, where he had no company but his Books (though formerly he never meant to have entered into a married state) he cast his affection upon a religious and virtuous Gentlewoman, whom he made his Wife. With this secret he had never acquainted his Master the Keeper, and therefore doubted how he would take it; but upon his Lordship's first hearing thereof by another hand, he instantly took Coach and made him a Visit, and enjoined him only, as ever he had deserved well of him, to requite it unto Her; by her God blessed him with several hopeful Children; but she died Anno 1637. and after some years he was married a second time to a most select, wise, and religious woman by whom likewise he had a second Posterity, and by both lived to see 32 Children and grandchildren before his death.  
Anno 1628. He commenced Doctor of Divinity, when he preached the Morning Sermon upon Herod's not giving glory to God, 
Acts 12.23.  and being struck by an Angel, and eaten up of worms; and performed all other Exercises to the admiration of Dr. Collins and all other Professors, who dismissed him to London again with an ay Decus I Nostrum! At his return to Holbourn his Fame increased exceedingly, where by indefatigable Study, constant Preaching, exemplary Conversation, and wise Government he reduced that great Parish to a more perfect Conformity than ever they were in before. His Church was not only crowded at Sermons, but well attended upon all occasions of weekly Prayer, and Sacraments celebrated Monthly, besides other times, at which, especially upon the Church's Festivals, not only the whole Body of the Church, but the Galleries would also be full of Communicants; and all things were done in decoro sanctitatis, in the beauty of holiness; few or none would break the public Order and decent Customs of his Church, but the whole Congregation generally rose and sat, fell down or kneeled, and were uncovered together. He liked Ceremony no where so well as in God's House, as little as you would in your own, (was his phrase) but could by no means endure to see in this Complimental Age, men ruder with God than with Men, bow lowly and often to one another, but never kneel to God: He thought Superstition a less sin than Irreverence and Profaneness, and held the want of Reverence in Religious Assemblies amongst the greatest sins of England, and would prove it from many Histories, that a careless and profane discharge of God's Worship was a most sure Prognostic of God's anger, and that People's ruin.  
When a Stranger Preached for him upon a Sunday, he would often read the Prayers himself, and with that reverence and devotion that was very moving to all his Auditors. And upon Wednesdays and Fridays he would frequently do the like, and thereby engaged many to resort better to them, always assuring them, God would soon hear our Prayers in the Communion of Saints. Sometimes, when he had occasion to go into the City, and saw slender Congregations at Prayer, he would much wonder at his Countrymen, that had so little love to holy Prayer; but when he heard of any that would not go to Church to Prayer, unless it were accompanied with a Sermon, he would nor scruple to say, he scarce thought them Christians; and never deemed any Divine to be really famous and successful in his Preaching, who could not prevail with his People to come frequently to Sacraments and Prayers.  
He was a great lover of Psalmody, and above all a great admirer of David's Psalms, so full of Divine Praises, and of all Religious Mysteries, great helps to Contemplation, apt to beget a Divine Charity, being a perfect supply for all our wants, joyful to Angels, grievous to Devils, filling the heart with spiritual delights, and a kind of representation of the Celestial felicity; That he constantly called upon his People to be present at them, and at all parts of the Church's Prayers; remembering them, that after our Blessed Saviour had cast our the Sheep and Oxen, yet he still called His House the House of Prayer, to show that though those Sacrifices were at an end, yet this should never end; and therefore the Apostles themselves after his death resorted to the Temple at the Hours of Prayer. 
Acts. 3.   
He ever took great care to procure a grave and able Curate, a Master of Arts at least, for the instruction of the younger sort in the Church Catechism, Visiting of the Sick, Burial of the Dead, Preaching of Funeral Sermons, Christen and Marriages: These he generally left to the Curate for his Perquisits and better encouragement; and would often complain, that in great Parishes there was not competent maintenance to keep many Curates under the Parish Priest, that might be able to live at the Altar, and better discharge all private and domestic duties of piety, sorrowing that herein Popish Countries were better provided for, who had ten for one that wait at the Altar there more than we have among us; and therefore though he would much recommend daily visiting of the Flock from house to house, yet found it was impossible for one Minister to perform the Public and Private Duties both.  
Private Baptisms he would never countenance unless in Cases of necessity, or some great convenience, as being expressly contrary to the Constitutions of our Church, and greatly derogatory to the dignity of the Sacrament, to be dispensed in a Parlour or a Chamber, and not with that Solemnity that our initiation into God's Church required, 
Brochman Cas. Conse.  and therefore greatly commended the Lutherans, who baptised none at home but the sick and the spurious.  

Heylyn. Hist. of Reform. p. 40.  Funeral Sermons, though he rarely preached himself, yet he defended them to be no Novelty brought in with the Reformation; for John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, hath one in Print for Henry the Seventh; and in Edward the Sixth his time, an Hearse was set up in St. Paul's Church for King Francis the First of France, and a Funeral Sermon likewise preached for him by Dr. Ridly Bishop of Rochester.  
While he lived in this Parish, he would give God thanks, he got a good Temporal Estate; Parishioners of all sorts were very kind and free to him; 
Tit. 3.13.  divers Lords and Gentlemen, several Judges and Lawyers of eminent quality, were his constant Auditors, whom he found like Zenas, honest Lawyers, conscientious to God, and lovers of the Church of England, and very friendly and bountiful to their Minister. Sir Julius Caesar never heard him preach but he would send him a broad Piece; and he did the like to others; and he would often send a Dean or a Bishop a pair of Gloves, because he would not hear God's Word gratis. Judge Jones never went to the Bench at the beginning of a Term but he fasted and prayed the day before, and oftentimes got Dr. Hacket to come and pray with him: This strict Judge condemned one for stealing a Common-Prayer Book out of his Church, whom he could not save, the Judge would by no means forgive him, because of the sacredness of the place, but accepted well of his Intercession, and said he should prevail in another matter; and when the Doctor saw he could not succeed, he thanked the Judge for his severity.  
Anno 1631 the Bishop of Lincoln made him Archdeacon of Bedford, whither he ever after went once a year commonly the Week after Easter, and made the Clergy a Speech upon some Controversial Head, seasonable to those Times, exhorting them to keep strictly to the Orders of the Church, to all regular conformity to the Doctrine and Discipline by Law established, without under or over doing, asserting in his opinion, that Puritanism lay on both sides, whosoever did more than the Church commanded, as well as less, were guilty of it. And that he only was a true Son of the Church, that broke not the boundals of it either way.  
About this time of King Charles the First's Reign it was justly said, Stupor mundi Clerus Anglicanus; and whereas in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reformation Siquis' had been set up in St. Paul's; If any man could understand Greek, there was a Deanery for him, if Latin, a good Living; but in the long Reign of Queen Elizabeth and King James, the Clergy of the Reformed Church of England grew the most learned of the World, for by the restlessnes of the Roman Priests they were trained up to Arms from their youth, and by the Wisdom and Example of King James, had wrote so many learned Tractates, as had almost quite driven their Adversaries out of the Pit, and forced them to yield the Field: So that now we were only unhappy in our own differences at home. But above all the Bishop admired, that People should complain in those days for want of Preaching, wherein lived Brownrig, and Holdsworth, and Micklethwait, and both the Shutes, and infinite more, especially Josiah Shute, whom the Bishop ever termed, Generalis Praedicatorum, in Allusion to the General of the Jesuits, or the Praepositus Dominicanorum; besides many other incomparable Orators in and about the City of London.  
In the first rank of whom our excellent Author may well be reckoned if we consider his acute Wit, deep Judgement, flowing Elocution, singular Learning, and great Reading, whereby (as Porphiry complained of Origen) he made use of all Heathen Learning to adorn the Doctrine of Christianity: Who was expert withal to handle both Testaments, Law and Gospel, that sometimes his Auditors would acknowledge he had (like St. Chrysostom) swarms of Bees sitting upon his Lips, and that nothing but Honey and Milk lay under his Tongue: At other times he seemed (like St. Basil) to be a strong Hail shower, bearing down all before it, and, as was said of Pericles, left a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or wound upon the most obstinate and insensible mind behind him. Yet as Joseph Scaliger would say, He envied the learning of three men, Theodore Gaza, Angelus Politianus, 
In Opusc.  and Picus Mirandula, so the Bishop would acknowledge he could never enough admire Ushers profound skill in Antiquity, Overalls' great knowledge in Divinity, nor imitate Brownrigs Preaching, when he would put forth his utmost powers.  
But let any man peruse this Course of excellent Sermons upon all our Saviour Christ's great Works, and many more remarkable matters of Scripture, which were most of them his weekly Preaching, together with what I hope will hereafter follow, whole Chapters and Psalms of Scripture expounded by continued Discourses upon the Chain of the holy Text from first to last, after the custom of the Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, and other ancient Fathers yet extant, and let him speak impartially if this great Prelate be not for Learning, Piety, perspicuity of Phrase, and knowledge of Divine and Humane things almost equal with any of them.  
Methinks when I read his accurate and divine Labours, and withal contemplate the religious and peaceable days wherein they were preached, in an Auditory equal to the greatest of old, wherein God was served with so much holy Order, I cannot reckon with myself readily where, either by St. Austin at Hippo, St. John Chrysostom at Antioch, or Constantinople, or the famous St. Basil at Neocaesarea, any people were more happy in the labours of a Pastor, or any Pastor more beloved by the wisest of his People. Whatsoever he preached to them once upon the Lord's Day, he preached six times over again in his Pious Conversation upon the days of the Week following, and ever thought that frequent Preaching was but a sorry commendation to any man, unless prepared with study and diligence before, to speak as became the Oracles of God; and likewise attended with agreeable practice afterwards, to make that easy by example, which had been before only dictated in Doctrine.  
While he Officiated here, I must not forget two things more, First, his Charity to the Poor, of whom he held himself bound by his Calling to have an especial care, and be no less than a continual Overseer: Besides his spiritual Alms and counsel upon all occasions freely administered, he gave freely also out of his own Estate upon all holidays, and Prayer-days, and would often engage the Parish Officers so to distribute their Collections as might best bring the Poor to Prayers, to Catechising, and to reap other benefit to their soul at the same time that they received a Boon for the body.  
In all public meetings (which were many in that great Parish) this worthy man would never so much as eat and drink (as the custom had been) upon the Parish Stock, but always bore his own Expenses, though he met upon the Parish Account, so that by his prudence and industry, and frugality for them, the Revenues of the poor were in his time very much increased above what they were formerly.  
But his main concern for that place is yet behind, (Church and Poor commonly go together, and he had an equal care of both) the Church Edifice was fallen into great decay; the Churchyard too small to bury their Dead, and the Church itself too little to contain the Living, so that a great desire he had to build them a new Church from the ground, for which purpose he had obtained the promise of the Patron the most Religious and Noble Earl of Southampton, to confer all the Timber for the Roof, and very large Subscriptions he had procured from the Nobility and Gentry, and from many other well-affected Parishioners for the finishing of the rest; for these he had been soliciting from the time of his first coming; scarce any of quality dying, but according to ancient Piety, at his request left a Legacy to that purpose, which was laid up in the Church Chest. The good Doctor often telling them, how mournful a sight it was to him to see any place excel the Church in Beauty and Magnificence, and that it was not the Fashion in the best times of Religion for any man to dwell better than God, and that the Fabric of Churches ought not only to be suited to the bare Convention of people, but likewise to the riches and wealth of the Parish or Nation, from which God expected a suitable proportion to the setting forth of his glory. And therefore as much as King Solomon's Temple exceeded Moses' Tabernacle, so much did he conceive aught our Churches now adays to exceed the poverty and plainness of our Forefathers, and would often bewail to see the contrary, that our Forefathers were sumptuous in God's House, and poor at home; but we, who are far richer, have built our own Houses rich and new, while God's House lies waste. To remedy this, he was not willing to permit that any rich men's bones should lie sumptuously buried in his Church who never bestowed so much upon God's House in their life as the value of their Tomb amounted unto, saying, Such did not adorn, but trouble the Church.  
By his persuasions many gave very liberally; in particular, I remember the pleasantness of Sir Henry Martin, who at his first speaking bade his man pay him Thirty Pounds; when he received it, because he gave him humble thanks, he bade his man count him Five Pounds more for his humble thanks.  
About Ann. 39 having many thousands in stock and in subscription, he went to my Lord's Grace of Canterbury, to ask his Lordship's leave, that what Workmen were willing might indifferently be entertained by him, without being thought prejudicial to the repair of St. Paul's; but our Troubles came on, and the Long Parliament seized the Money gathered for the repair of both Churches, to carry on their War both against King and Church. Thus was he defeated in his pious intention here, yet God made him happy in accomplishing the like hereafter, as you shall hear elsewhere.  
Long before (viz.) Anno 1625. being the great Plague Year, which happened at the beginning of the Reign of Charles I. upon complaint of the Common Council-men of his Parish, that they wanted room to bury their dead, he purchased for that end the new Churchyard in Shooe-Lane, and because in that sickly time it could not be Consecrated, he obtained under the Bishop of London's hand and Seal a leave Provisional to read his Lordship's indulgence Instrument only upon the ground, with promise of procuring Consecration when the Plague ceased. At the same time with the consent of the Bishop, and his Vestry in Holbourn, he composed a Table wherein were set the Rates of burial in Church or Church-yard, New or Old, and was able to prove, that the like was done in elder times, and therefore the Learned Author was deceived, 
Spelman.  who thought all Churchyards were freely given for the use of the dead: And he found by experience unless you would allow Fees for Funeral Attendances, the Tithes would be too small in great Parishes to find Officers, who must wait upon such occasions both day and night; Likewise unless you make distinction of Prices for burial, all people will be buried in one place, in the very Church, yea, and Chancel itself, if it might be allowed: Nor in a Plague time can you get the Poor born to the Grave, but it will cost dear; and he was of opinion, the Profits, got by the Rich, aught to pay for the Poor, and that there was no more Simony in a Divines payment for some hours attendance upon a Funeral, than in the Clerk's or Sexton's payment for ringing of Bells, or the Heralds for their Escutcheons and other Insignia funebria, now of late grown customary; yet most of these were at first mere Oblations and freewill Offerings, though now due secundum legem Terrae.  
But to come to the most afflicted part of his Life, and our never to be forgotten Calamities, in the late days of darkness and gloominess. He hath often protested, that a long time before, he foresaw our troubles gathering in the Clouds of discontents, and would bewail, that Charles the First, the most Religious and best of Princes met with so bad Parliaments, generally factious, discontented, and levened with Puritans: Whereas Queen Elizabeth ever had calm Parliaments, and that made her Reign glorious, although She assumed more Prerogative than either King James or King Charles; yet than no body cried, Stand to the Liberties of the People; but nothing destroyed Liberty more than the affectation of too much Liberty: Besides, he observed it was the design of Parliaments to put that mild King upon Wars, and then refuse to give him moderate supplies to serve his just necessities, unless he would part with his Court and his Church in exchange, whereby He was constrained to supply himself by way of Loan, which whosoever paid, much more whosoever of the Kings Divines persuaded others to pay, incurred the fury of the opposite Party.  
Then were the Seeds of the future Sedition sown, with an evil report brought upon David's Government, that all the People might loathe it, and after rise up to pluck it down. Libels and licentious discourses were scattered, ever portending future Mutinies, as hollow blasts, and secret murmurings in the Air go before dangerous Tempests at Sea. These things he discoursed, not only from his own observation, but from the prediction of many holy and learned men, and wondered that Cardinal Bellarmin, Mr. Hooker, and Mr. Mead after both should all agree, that the Establishment of the Church of England was not like to continue above seventy or eighty years, the Age of a Man; and he would tell how the late Bishop of Chichester hath said unto him, his Father foretold the same, and Bishop Wren said the same from Bishop Andrews; but above all, Mr. John Shearman, Register to my Lord of Canterbury, told him, that he heard Archbishop Abbot before his death, at a solemn Meeting before many friends, with many tears foretell the same; and it was our Bishop's opinion, that the Spirit of Prophecy was not quite dried up, but sometimes pro hic & nunc God gave Mankind still a knowledge of future Events.  
In the Convocation of 1640, was composed a Book of Canons, which he well approved, always using to call Church Canons so many Buttresses to the House of God, raised up without the walls, to support the building within. Yet considering the swinge of the times, he once presumed to request my Lord of Canterbury not to proceed, but to indulge to the hardness of the people's hearts; for he was well assured, if his Grace could make another Epistle to the Romans, the people then would not receive it, and therefore often wished those Books had never been made in England, 
Selden.  nor the Liturgy sent into Scotland, which he would often bewail in the words of his learned Friend, Liturgia infoelicissimè ad Scotiam missa, where the Secular Arm was too weak to protect the Loyal party in their Ecclesiastical obedience.  
He accounted it no good Omen to have the Sun Eclipsed that very hour the Long Parliament began, in November Anno 1640, though not visible here, save in the disastrous effects: From the beginning thereof all things were managed with Uproars and Tumults: However some hope there was, that upon moderation shown matters might be peaceably composed, whereupon the House of Lords appointed a Committee out of their own Members, for settling peace in the Church, in March following; at the same time the Lords appointed a sub-Committee to prepare matters for their Cognizance; the Bishop of Lincoln had the Chair in both, and was authorised to call together divers Bishops and other Divines to consult for correction of what was amiss, and to settle peace: of the sub-Committee those that appeared and consulted together in Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster (some others were named) were these only, the Bishop of Lincoln, Primate of Armach, Bishop of Durham, Bishop Hall then of Exeter, Dr. Ward, Dr. Prideaux, Dr. Twiss, Dr. Sanderson, Dr. Featly, Dr. Brownrig, Dr. Holdsworth, Dr. Hacket, Dr. Burgess, Mr. Martial, Mr. Calamy, Mr. Hill. Many things for six several Meetings were propounded, but in the midst of May, while (in order to settlement) divers things were upon the Loom, the Bill called Root and Branch was brought into the House of Commons, and that, like Atropos, cut off all the threads of this proceeding, to that the whole matter proved abortive and came to nothing.  
After this appeared nothing but tumultuous Concourses of raging people, seeking to manage all Affairs by the whirwind of their own ignorant clamours, and to remedy grievances without consulting Religion or Justice. He much wondered that any men could think it possible, that the God of Order would ever mend any thing by their means, who (take them one by one) were most ignorant and illiterate, take them all together, were most bloody and violent; and no man preached more boldly against the licentiousness of those times than he, challenging the Boutefeus' to show, wherever the Scripture gave countenance to Uproars and Rebellions? Julian the Apostate reading the Bible with a malicious intention to quarrel at it, said, that Christianity was a Doctrine of too much patience, but he could never find any place in it to object that it was a Doctrine of Rebellion. If the Administration of a Kingdom were out of frame, our Bishop maintained it were better to leave the redress to God, than to a seditious Multitude, and that the way to continue purity of Religion was not by Rebellion, but by Martyrdom. To resist lawful Powers by seditious Arms, and unlawful Authority, was not the Primitive and Apostolical Christianity, but Popish Doctrine, not taught the first 300 years, but much about 1000 years after our Saviour's ascension into Heaven, by the Pope of Rome, the very time the Spirit of God said, Satan should be let loose, viz. by Gregory the VII. who first taught the Germans to rebel against the Emperor Henry the fourth: Yet this poison was now given the English People to drink out of the Papal Cup, while they pretended quite contrary. But our Bishop ever asserted this was not the way to pull down Antichrist, but Protestant Religion, and therefore he warned the Nonconforming Divines, with whom he lately treated, to have a care how they cried up a War, and became famous only in the Congregation (as Erostratus) by setting the Temple on fire.  
To prevent that fatal Bill of Root and Branch, the Committee condescended to print the Liturgick Psalms in King James' Translation, to expunge all Apocryphal Lessons, and alter some passages in the body of the Book of Common-Prayer, and certain other things, which divers of the Presbyterian Divines said were satisfactory, save that the furious Party of them put the Commons upon the violent way: in particular old Mr. John White told many of the party, who still pressed at Conferences for further Abatement of Conformity, and the Laws established; Time would come when they would wish they had been content with what was offered.  
While this Committee was sitting, the House of Commons having now entered upon the debate of taking away the whole Government Ecclesiastical by Bishops, Deans, and Chapters, together with all their Revenue, several Members of that House being friends to the Hierarchy, moved that no man's Freehold might be taken away in Parliament, without hearing them first speak for themselves; whereupon the whole Committee imposed the Task upon Dr. Hacket forthwith to depart to his own House and Study, and meet them again to morrow morning prepared to speak as the Advocate of the Church of England in the behalf of Deans and Chapters. The Speech itself I found among his Papers, which in regard that it was never yet published at large, I have thought meet to add as follows.  

May it please you, Mr. Speaker, and this Honourable House:  
Our expectations to be heard by Council in this great Cause, hath brought us unto you most unprepared to deliver that which might be uttered upon so copious Subject. Yet since we have that favour from this Honourable House, that we may be heard, or some one of us in our own persons, somewhat shall be offered to your prudent considerations, by the meanest and most unpractised in pleading and forensecal causes of all those that attend you this day. The unexpectedness to be thus employed (it was imposed upon me but yesterday afternoon, as my Brethren know) is joined with another disadvantage, that we have not heard upon what crimes or offences of the Deans and Chapters so great a Patrimony as they enjoy is called in question, that we might purge ourselves of such imputations; but only reports that fly abroad have arrived at our ears, that Cathedral and Collegiate Churches with their Chapters are accounted by some to be of no use and convenience. I aim at perspicuity, and therefore I will cast what I have to say into as clear a method as I am able. The use and convenience of Deans and Chapters I reduce unto two heads, quoad res, quoad personas, first in regard of some things of great moment; secondly in regard of divers persons, whom I know the Justice of this Honourable House will take into consideration.  
And first since God hath called his House the House of Prayer, I shall keep a right order, without derogation to any thing that follows, to present them unto you as very convenient for the service of Prayer, which is offered up to God in them daily, both in his Morning and in his Evening Sacrifice. In the ancient Primitive Church (as many learned Gentlemen in this Honourable House do know, and as my Brethren that assist me can attest unto it) the Christians did every day meet at Prayers, and for the most part at the Blessed Sacrament, if persecution did not distract them. Then it is fit in a well-governed Church that there should be some places in imitation of them, where daily Thanksgivings and Supplications should be made unto God. And whereas it cannot be supposed, but that divers remiss Christians do neglect oftentimes their daily duty of Prayer, and some are forced to omit that length to which they would produce their Prayer by their multitude of business, it is fit that there should be a public duty of Prayer in some principal places, where many are gathered together to supply the defects that are committed by private men. And though I am sure the public Duty of Prayer shall find great acceptance and approbation before so Christian an Auditory, yet I confess I have heard abroad, that the Service of Cathedral Churches gives offence to divers for the superexquisiteness of the Music, especially in late years, so that it is not edifying nor intelligible to the hearers. For this Objection in part, I will confess it is strong and forcible, in part I will mollify it. It is a just complaint, Mr. Speaker, and we humbly desire the assistance of this Honourable House for the reformation of it, that Cathedral Music for a great part of it serves rather to tickle the ear, than to affect the heart with godliness; and that which should be intended for devotion, vanisheth away into quavers and air: we heartily wish the amendment of it, and that it were reduced to the form which Athanasius commends, ut legentibus sint quam cantantibus similiores. But though these fractions, and affected exquisiteness be laid aside, yet the solemn Praise of God in Church Music hath ever been accounted pious and laudable; yea even that which is compounded with some art and elegancy; for St. Paul speaks as if he had newly come from the Choir of Asaph, requiring us to praise God in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs. Surely he would not have expressed himself in such variety of phrase, I think, if he had not approved variety of Music in the Service of the Lord. Some will say per adventure, What if this daily duty of making Prayers to God were intermitted in Cathedral Churches? might it not be supplied in other Parochial Churches? I have but thus much to say to this objection. Prayer is the Incense which ascends up to heaven, and brings down God's blessing upon us, for fourscore and two years without interruption God hath continued true Religion among us, and blessed this Kingdom with peace and prosperity, and not without the daily assistance of the Prayers of Cathedral Churches; How the Lord will dispose of us if those places be silenced touching the frequency of that holy duty, it is only in the foreknowledge of God, and no man can guests it.  
Secondly, I will proceed to the other Wing of the Cherubin, the great power of God to work our conversion and salvation, which is Preaching; and therein the use and convenience of Cathedral and Collegiate Churches hath been, and, we hope, may continue so, to be very great. May it please you Mr. Speaker, and this Honourable House; it must be confessed that in the beginning of the Reformation under Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory, many of our Parochial Churches were supplied with men of slight and easy parts; but especial care was taken, that in our Cathedral Churches, to which great concourses did resort, men of very able parts were planted to preach both on the Lords day, and on some week day, as appears by Dr. Alley, afterwards Bishop of Exeter, who preached such learned Sermons in the Church of St. Paul's, that he hath left unto us good matter to collect out of him even to this day. And give me leave, Mr. Speaker, to take occasion from hence to refel that slander which some have cast out, that Lecture-preachers are a new Corporation, Upstarts, and such other words of obloquy. Sir, this is nothing but ignorance and malice; for as the local Statutes of all or the most Cathedral Churches do require Lecture-Sermons on the Weekdays, so from the beginning of Reformation they have been read in them by very able Divines. And it is our humble suit, Mr. Speaker, unto this Honourable House, that if our local Statutes have not laid enough upon us in the godly and profitable performance of Preaching, that by the assistance of this Honourable House more may be exacted; particularly that two Sermons may be preached in every Cathedral and Collegiate Church upon the Lord's day, and one at the least on the Weekdays. Our motion comes from this consideration, that the Divines, for the most part, are studied and able men to perform them; and those Churches are usually supplied with large and copious Libraries, and the Monuments of Antiquity, Councils, Fathers, Modern Authors, Schoolmen, Casuists, and many Books must be turned over by him that will utter that which should endure the test, and convince gainsayers.  
In the third place, Mr. Speaker, I shall name that whose use and conveniency is so nearly and irrefragably concerned by the prosperity of Cathedral and Collegiate Churches, that it is as palpable as if you felt it with your hand; and that's the advancement and encouragement of Learning, a benefit of that consideration, that I am assured it doth deeply enter into the thoughts of this Honourable House. And because our years ascend up by degrees, therefore I will follow this speculation through three of those ascensions. First, touching our puny years in Grammar Schools. Secondly, touching young Students in the Universities that enter into their first course of Divinity. Thirdly, touching grave Divines of great proficiency, who maintain the cause of true Religion by their learned Pen: And first out principal Grammar Schools in the Kingdom are maintained by the charity of those Churches, the care and discipline of them is set forward by their oversight, fit Masters are provided for them, and their method in teaching frequently examined: and great cause for it; for Schoolmasters of late are grown so fanciful, inducing new Methods and Compendiums of teaching, which tend to nothing but loss of time and ignorance; so that it is not enough to nominate Governors to look unto them once in a twelvemonth, or every half year, but there must be care without intemission to see that they swerve not; as likewise for this use, that the most deserving Scholars be transplanted to the Universities by their examination and choice: so that these young Seminaries of Learning depend upon them, and would come to lamentable decay, if they had not such Governors.  
For the next rank of young Students that are to begin the study of Divinity, it must be confessed by all men that are conversant in the general experience of the world, that they will be far more industrious when they see rewards prepared which may recompense the costs which they put their friends to in their education, and make them some recompense for their great labours. It is represented before them how many tedious days and nights they must devour prolix Authors that are set before them; had they not need of encouragement to undergo it? and where there is not a desirable Prize to run for, who will toil himself much to contend for it? Upon the fear and jealousy that these retributions of labour should be taken away from industrious Students, the Universities of the Realm do feel a languor and a pining away already in both their bodies. In a populous College, I mean Trinity College in Cambridge, wherein 70 or 80 Students were admitted communibus annis, I have heard by two Witnesses of that Society, that not above six were admitted from Allhalland-day to Faster Eeve. Let any man ask the Booksellers of Paul's Churchyard and Little-Britain, if their Books, (I mean grave and learned Authors) do not lie upon their hand, and are not sailable. There is a timorous imagination abroad, as if we were shutting up learning in a Case, and laying it quite aside. Mr. Speaker, if the bare threatening make such a stop in all kind of literature, what would it work if the blow were given. To this end both the Universities have sent up their humble Petitions to this Honourable House, which we greatly desire may graciously be admitted.  
The third Rank are those that are the Chariots and Horsemen of Israel, the Champions of Christ's Cause against the Adversary by their learned Pen: And those that have left us their excellent labours in this kind, excepting some few, have either been the Professors and Commorants in the two Universities, or such as have had Preferments in Colledgiat and Cathedral Churches, as I am able to show by a Catalogue of their Names and Works. For such, and none but such, are furnished with best opportunity to write Books for the defence of our Religion. For as in the Universities the Society of many learned men may be had for advise and discourse; so when we depart from them to live abroad, we find small Academies in the company of many grounded Scholars in those Foundations; and it is discourse that ripens learning as the spark of fire is struck out between the Flint and the Steel. There likewise we have copious and well furnished Libraries to peruse, learned Authors of all kinds, which must be consulted in great causes: And they that have such great business in their heads, it is needful that they have otium literarium, a retirement to their studies, before they can bring that forth which will powerfully convince gainsayers.  
In the fourth place, Mr. Speaker and this Honourable House, I shall allege that which is the genuine and proper use of Cathedral Churches, and for which they were primarily instituted; that is, that the Deans and Chapters should be the Council of the Bishop, to assist him in his Jurisdiction and greatest Censures, if any thing be amiss either in the Doctrine, or in the Manners of the Clergy. Some of our Reverend Brethren have complained unto you, that our Bishops have for many years usurped sole Jurisdiction to themselves, and to their own Consistory, and have disused the Presbyters from concurring with them. I am not He that can assoil this Objection, nor will I excuse this omission, as if it were not contrary to the best antiquity. It is not to be denied that Ignatius, Cyprian, Hierom, Austin, and others have required that some grave and discreet Presbyter should be Senatus Episcopi, and be Advisers with him in his Consistory. And as by negligence it hath been disused, so if it be established in the right form again, it will give great satisfaction to the Church of God. But it seemeth strange to me, that when this reformation is called for, the Corporations of Deans and Chapters should be cried down, who were employed in this work by very ancient Institution. What Canonist is there that doth not refer us unto them for this service especially. If it be replied that some able and conscionable Ministers may be assumed to assist the Bishop in his Jurisdiction, and in his Ordination out of several Parishes in his Diocese, I answer, that it is very likely that by this course the sole Jurisdiction would fall into the Bishop's hands again: for when Ministers shall be called unto this assistance, and have nothing but their travail, and their performance of justice for their labour, they will soon grow weary of it, whereas the Deans and Chapters do owe that duty to this Office, that they have rewards for taking that pains, and stand under the forfeiture of their places by the prime intent of their Foundations, if they be not helpful in it. If therefore we desire that Episcopal Jurisdiction may be reduced from the sole Government of one man to a plurality of Assistants, this is the native, the proper, the sure way to bring it to pass.  
The last use of Deans and Chapters touching things of great moment is, that the Structures themselves should speak for the Structures; not that I would draw your eyes only to behold the goodly Fabrics, as the Disciples remembered our Saviour, Master what manner of stones are these? but to put you in remembrance, Mr. Speaker, that after the first foundations of Christianity were laid in this Kingdom, the first Monuments of Piety that were built in this Kingdom were Cathedral Churches; for Parochial Churches are their Minors and Nephews, and succeeded after them. What ill presage therefore were this to Religion? I will not utter it, that those Churches, which were the first harbours of Christian Religion, should in this Age suffer in those persons who are entrusted with their reparation, and have the care and custody of them.  
And thus, may it please you, Mr. Speaker and this Honourable House, I have delivered with as much brevity as I could the great use and conveniency of Cathedral and Collegiate Churches in things of great avail and moment; for Prayer and Preaching, and Advancement of Learning and Ecclesiastical Government, and the Structures of the Churches themselves. Divers persons also I have to name that are concerned in their welfare; and I know that the great and Honourable Justice of this House will take into consideration the condition of the meanest Subject of this Realm, much more of so many.  
Because I will ascend up by degrees, let me first offer unto you, Mr. Speaker, the multitudes of Officers that have their maintenance, and no other livelihood but by them, some one Cathedral Church having three hundred persons and more depending upon it, as Singing-men, Choristers, Alms-men, Schoolmasters and their Scholars, with sundry other Ministers that attend the Church, and the Revenues of it, so that the total number will arise to many thousands. And give me leave, I beseech you, to speak thus much for the Quire-men and their faculty of Music, that they maintain a Science which is in no small request with divers worthy Gentlemen. A Civil Commonwealth delights in softer Music than in Drums and Trumpets. And by the Education of Choristers from their childhood in that faculty you have many Musicians that come to great perfection in that skill; few others that prove to be better than Minstrels and Fiddlers. And those being brought up to no other Education, by the dissolution of Deans and Chapters, you shall not only reduce them to the utmost of poverty, but to the greatest snare of the Devil, and the ground wherein he sows the seeds of all tentations to unavoidable idleness, since they are not trained up in any other employment.  
In the next order, Mr. Speaker, I move this Honourable House to the consideration of the Tenants, who have prospered better by holding Leases from Deans and Chapters, than Farmers elsewhere do prosper under other Incorporations over all the Kingdom. And the Tenants are sensible of their own happiness herein, and have testified it from many places, by tendering their humble Petitions to this Honourable House, that they may continue, as they have done, under their ancient Landlords, which with all submission we must humbly crave may be admitted and perused by this Honourable House. And I cannot blame them to stir in their own case; for good Accountants have cast it up, that if all the Lands of all Cathedral and Collegiate Churches were cast up into one total sum at a reasonable and fair pennyworth, allowing to the Deans and Chapters what they receive yearly, not only in Rents but in Fines, the Tenants in clear gain do enjoy six parts in seven at the least. And we are not they that grudge them this bargain, but are most willing that our Revenues should be dispersed in all the veins of the Kingdom.  
Be pleased, Mr. Speaker, to look now upon the Cities where these Cathedral Churches stand, many of them, especially those that are not maritime, are very poor in Trade, but are much enriched partly by the Hospitality of the Clergy, partly because great numbers of the Inhabitants are chosen to be the Officers of our Churches, partly by the frequent resort unto them, especially where there are large and well furnished Libraries, the great Repositories of learning. These Corporations, which are now the strong ribs of the Kingdom, will become Pensioners and Eleemosynaries, fall to irrecoverable decay, if the help of Deans and Chapters be substracted from them.  
But put into the Scale with these Cities, that respect which is to be had to the young branches of the whole Kingdom, and the weight will be very ponderous. All men are not born Elder-brothers, and all Elder-brothers are not born to be Inheritors of Lands. Divers of low degree have generous spirits in them, and would be glad to make themselves a fortune, as the phrase is. What hopes have they to achieve this in a more ready way, than to propose unto themselves to lead a virtuous and industrious life, that they may attain to a share of the endowment of Collegiate and Cathedral Churches? they only are the common possession of the Realm, lying open to all that will qualify themselves to get a part in them. They are not enclosed in private men's Estates, but they are the Commons of the Kingdom.  
With all humble leave, Mr. Speaker, now let us proceed to speak a little for ourselves, in behalf of the Clergy. We hear it by such as are travelled in parts beyond the Seas, (most of this Honourable House know it to be true that I shall allege, in their own experience) that this Kingdom of England, God be praised, affords better livelihood to most degrees and ranks than the neighbour Kingdoms do: The Knights and Esquires live more plentifully than theirs, our Yeomanry far more fashionably than their Peasants. Then we trust it will not be thought unreasonable, that the Clergy may in some sort have a better maintenance than in the neighbour Reformed Churches. Otherwise we shall become the most vile and contemptible part of the State because of our poverty: and we shall degenerate into such Priests as Jeroboam appointed, the refuse and most base of the people, from whom nothing can be expected, but Ignorance, Superstition, and Idolatry. Neither is our estate better than all other Reformed Churches in this case: for I have heard it from them that have diligently travelled over all the Reformed Churches in Germany, that the Clergy among the Swedes have such Collegiate Chapters with means endowed to the use of the Government of the Church as we have. And the Reformed in France and the Low-Countries do sufficiently testify how much they desire, that they were Partners of the like prosperity, because many of their rarest Scholars have found great relief and comfort by being installed Prebendaries in our Cathedral and Collegiate Churches. I will speak but of a few, whom myself hath known. In the Reign of Blessed Queen Elizabeth Dr. Saravia was maintained in these Foundations; in the Reign of the most learned King James, Casaubon Father and Son. O the renowned Casaubon the Father, what a miracle of learning! add unto these Dr. Primrose, Mr. Vossius, and the great honour of the Reformed Churches, the most learned Dr. Peter Moulin. Concerning whom let me add, with your leave Mr. Speaker, what he wrote lately to an Honourable person out of France, that by reason of great preparations of war in France he feared it would be dangerous for him to live any longer in Sedan: if troubles increased he would come for England: but if the Entrates of his Prebend, and what else he enjoyed in this Church were cut off, the whole livelihood of himself, his Wife, and Children should be taken from him. A pitiful moaning, and to be regarded. But the testimony of an Adversary is that which may most lawfully be used to advantage. The greatest enemy and foul-tongued reviler of the Reformed Church of England was Sanders in his Book of the English Schism, as he terms it. Consult him in the 163. page, as it is in my Edition, how he envies us, and snarls at us for our prosperity of those forenamed Churches; he says that the Royal Queen did judge it fit for the glory of her Praelacy, for the splendour of her Kingdom, for the firmness of her Sect (so he calls our Religion) that in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches she would have Provosts, Deans, Prebendaries, Canons. This was it that troubled him that he saw these Foundations conduced to the stability of Religion: So that I judge by his words a fatter Sacrifice could not be offered up to such as himself than the extirpation of them.  
I go forward now to that benefit which the King and Commonwealth, taking them in uno aggregato, do reap by them. They that think themselves cunning in the King's Revenue do inform us, that we do pay greater sums to the Exchequer by First-fruits, Tents, and Subsidies, according to the proportions which we enjoy by them, than any other Estates or Corporations in the Kingdom: Beside Horse and Arms which we find for the defence of the Realm against all Enemies and Invasions: And this we issue forth with most free and contented hearts: Neither would we stop here. We are not ignorant with what continual diligence and study this Honourable House doth forecast to provide great sums of money for two Armies, and sundry other great occasions. God forbid but we should have public spirits as well as other men. And if we be called upon to contribute in an extraordinary manner to this great charge of the Kingdom which now lies upon it, we shall be ready to do it to the utmost of our ability, yea and beyond our ability; and if we fail in it let us be branded with your anger and censures for our sordid covetousness.  
Now we shall come to an high pitch, imploring the ancient and most Honourable Justice of this House, and for the sake of that famous and ever renowned Justice we hope to find grace in your eyes. We are now by the admittance of Your Honour's favour under that roof, where your worthy Progenitors gave unto the Clergy many Charters, Privileges, Immunities, and enacted those Statutes by which we have the free right and liberty in all that we have. We read it in Records, that in the beginnings of many Parliaments in the first place, divers favours were conferred upon us, and we believe the subsequent consultations fared the better for it. Indeed we meet with stories likewise that the Prior aliens are vanished out of England, that the Orders of St. John of Jerusalem, and the Knight Templars were dissolved. It is true Mr. Speaker, and they deserved it; their crimes proved manifestly against them were most flagitious, and some of them no less than High Treason. God be praised we are not charged, much less convicted of any scandalous faults: And therefore we trust we shall not suffer the like fate, who have not committed the like offences.  
And after our casting ourselves upon your Honourable Justice, I will lead you to the highest degree of all considerations, to the Honour of God. The Fabrics that I speak of were erected to his glory, the lands bequeathed to them were dedicated to his Worship and Service: And to that end I beseech you to let them continue for ever, and to the maintenance of such persons, whom their liberality did expressly destiny to be relieved by them; and withal I must inform you, and I dare not conceal it from you, it is tremenda vox which I shall bring forth, that they have barred all alienation with many curses and imprecations. It is Gods own sentence upon the Censers, which Core and his Complices used in their Schism, with pretence to do God's service, Numb. 16.38. They offered them before the Lord, therefore they are hallowed. This is not spoken after the way of a Levitical form and nicety, for the using of those Censers was anti-Levitical: but this is an absolute Theological Rule out of the mouth of the Lord, that which is offered unto the Lord is hallowed. Again Prov. 20.25. It is a snare to the man that devoureth that which is holy. This is Proverbial Divinity, every man's notion, and in every man's mouth, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Theology preached in every Street of the City, and every Highway of the Field. Let me only add that smart question of St. Paul, Rom. 2.22. Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacrilege? I have done, Mr. Speaker, if you will let me add this Epiphonema, Upon the ruins of the rewards of learning no Structure can be raised up but ignorance: and upon the Chaos of ignorance no Structure can be built but profaneness and confusion.   
In the Afternoon it was put to the Question, and carried by many Votes, that their Revenues should not be taken away; yet not long after, in the same Session, after a most Unparliamentary manner, they put it to a second Vote, and without a second hearing Voted the contrary.  
And now all things tending to violence, it was no longer safe to debate these things publicly, therefore at his House were held constant meetings of the Loyal Clergy, Bishops often, and others, Morton, Brownrig, Holdsworth, Jefferies, and many more, who from thence wrote Letters all over England to all Divines of learning and reputation, especially of the University of Cambridge, to know how they stood affected; Quae vobis mentes rectè quae stare solebant? And to engage them to stand fast in the cause of the King and Church. Amongst others Dr. Brownrig (having been formerly acquainted) sent to old Mr. Dod the Decalogist for his opinion; who answered, That he had been scandalised with the proud and tyrannical practices of the Marian Bishops, but now after more than sixty years' experience of many Protestant Bishops, that had been worthy Preachers, learned and Orthodox Writers, great Champions for the Protestant Cause, he wished all his friends not to be any impediment to them, and exhorted all men not to take up Arms against the King, which was his Doctrine (he said) upon the Fifth Commandment, and he would never depart from it. Likewise Letters were written by them to many Foreign Divines to try their affection in that day of need; Blondel, Vossius, Hornbeck, and (whom he most condoled) Salmasius were sent to in vain, though afterwards that great Scholar came off from his rigour, and made ample amends for his error. Vossius contained himself for fear of the Parliament, and of losing his Prebend at Canterbury, in their possession, which King Charles the First conferred upon him with great liberality. Deodat wrote firm for Episcopal Government from Geneva, and accused the Presbyterians of Schism. Hugo Grotius said, nothing happened but what the wise King James had foretold, and he now beheld with great horrors. Episcopius much pitied the sufferings of the King's Divines, and particularly of Dr. Ward, whom he accounted the most learned member of the Synod of Dort. Monsieur Amyrald declared himself a friend to Episcopacy in a Select Tractate sent hither, which one of that Party borrowed and would never restore, and so it could not be Printed. He who was thus zealous both in and out of his Pulpit in the King's and Church's Cause, could not be long permitted to Officiate in the City of London; one Sunday while he was reading the Common Prayer in his Church a Soldier of the Earl of Essex came, and clapped a Pistol to his breast, and commanded him to read no further, the Doctor smiled at his insolency in that sacred place, and not at all terrified, said he would do what became a Divine, and he might do what became a Soldier, so the Tumult for that time was quieted, and the Doctor permitted to proceed.  
But the War being begun, and all things in confusion, the Orthodox and Loyal Clergy were every where Articled against, and ejected, committed to Prisons without accommodations, but upon unreasonable Payments, such as they were unable to make. In the City of London and Parishes adjacent one hundred and fifteen Parochial Ministers were turned out, besides many hundreds in all Countries more than ever had been in all Queen Mary's, Queen Elizabeth's, and King James', or King Charles' Reigns by the Bishops of all sorts. Some few factious Parishioners Articled against him at the Committee of Plunderers, and he was advised by Mr. Selden that it was in vain to make defences, they would never permit him to preach in that public Theatre, but he must retire to Cheam, and he would endeavour to keep him quiet there; but thither also the storm followed him, for the Earl of Essex his Army being upon their March against the King, took him Prisoner away with them, till after some time he was brought before Essex himself, and others, who knew him, and had often heard him preach at Whitehall, who made him great proffers, if he would turn to their side, which he disdained to accept; They kept on their March, and, as he would say, at length the Princes of the people let him go free.  
From that time he lay hid in his little Villa, as Gregory the Great in his little Sazimus, which he would pleasantly call, Senectutis suae nidulum. There he constantly preached every Sunday Morning, expounded the Church Catechism every Afternoon, read the Common Prayer all Sundays and Holy days, continued his wont Charity to all poor people, that resorted to it upon the Week days in money, besides other relief out of his Kitchen, till the Committee of Surrey enjoined him to forbear the use of it by Order of Parliament at any time, and his Catechising out of it upon Sunday in the Afternoon. Yet after this Order he ever still kept up the use of it in most parts, never omitting the Creed, Lords Prayer, and Ten Commandments, Confession, and Absolution, and many other particular Collects, and always as soon as the Church Service was done, absolved the rest at home, with most earnest Prayers for the good success of his Majesty's Armies, of which he was ever in great hope, till the Tidings came of the most unfortunate Battle at Nazby. He was that Morning at an especial Friend's house ready to sit down to Dinner, but when the news came, he desired leave to retire, went to his Chamber, and would not Dine, but fasted and prayed all that day, and then was afraid, that excellent King and Cause was lost; using to say of Cromwell, 
Livy.  as the Historian of Marius, He lead the Army, and Ambition lead him, and therefore looked far nothing but the ruin that came.  
He was naturally of a very pleasant and cheerful temper, but sad news made his soul retire a great way further into him, and quite of another humour. Indeed no man was more troubled and angustiated in mind for the miseries and distresses of this Church and Kingdom; I have often heard his deep Sighs, and his great Complaints, when he did profess, he did only breath, but not live. I have seen the heaviness of his eyes, when he spoke nothing, his grave and ripe wisdom made him apprehend Fears more deeply than other people did. But when his Majesty's sufferings in Person came, no man could conjecture the load of sorrow that was upon him, He would say he felt his old heart wither within him, and could not but sigh away his spirit; he would often repent He had done no more by Preaching and Writing to prevent it; and after the King's Death, frequently desired nothing else but to depart from this world of sin and suffering, crying out, Satur sum omnium quae video aut audio.  
But next to the Death of his Royal Majesty he would bewail the cutting up the pleasant Vine of the Church of England, and alienating the Church's Patrimony, together with those of the King, Queen, Loyal Nobility, and Gentry, whereby the whole Kingdom of England was then in the hands of unjust Possessors.  
For the city's abetting this bloody War, He was now grown to a strong aversation toward London, the place where he was born, baptised, bred, and nothing could ever move him to go thither more, until the Earls of Holland and Norwich both requested his Assistance at their expected deaths.  
The Earl of Holland was very penitent, for that he had deserted so good a Master in the beginning of the Wars. Norwich was very cheerful in the comforts of a good Conscience. He would much admire, how God sometimes gives secret admonition of things contrary to all humane expectations, for the Earl of Holland had many Messengers came, and told him they had Votes enough, and to spare, for his life, yet nothing would persuade him but he should die within a few days, and so he did; The Earl of Norwich, that knew of no friends yet would not believe but he should escape, and so he did.  
After this he returned to his Rural retirement, to end his Old Age in continual Prayer and Study, omitting all exercise of body, whereupon he fell into a great fit of sickness; and upon his recovery, the famous Dr. Harvy enjoined him two things, to renew his cheerful conversation, and take moderate walks for exercise, assuring him, that in his practice of Physic since these times he observed more people died of grief of mind than of any other disease, and that his studious and sedentary life would contract him frequent sickness, unless he used seasonable exercise. Whereupon afterwards, for his health's sake, he would every Morning, before he settled to his study, take large walks very early to make him expectorate phlegm, and other cloudy and fuliginous vapours, whereby he afterwards continued Vegete and healthful to the last.  
At this time he did much good in the Country, by keeping many Gentlemen firm to the Protestant Religion, who were much assaulted by lurking Priests, who sought to persuade them that it was then necessary to join with the Roman Church, or else they could be of none, for they saw (as the others said) the Protestant Church quite destroyed. But the good Doctor advised them better, that the Church of England was still in being, and not destroyed, rather refined by her sufferings. God then tried us as Silver is tried in the hot fire of persecution, which purifies but wastes not. Then especially our Church resembled the Primitive, which grew up in persecutions, 
Psal. 24.1.  and as the Earth is said to be the Lords in all its Fullness, so the Church of England was the Lords in all its penury and emptiness.  
And in these lowest of times he was full of faith and courage, that himself should still live to see a better world one day, and would greatly blame any of the King's Friends who despaired of seeing the time of the restitution of all things; His opinion was the Youths at Westminster spun a Spider's Web, that could not last long, and therefore was very confident of his Majesty's return, and would instance in joseph's case, who was sometime sold for a slave, imprisoned as a Malefactor, yet afterwards advanced to be Governor of the Kingdom; and in David who was hunted over all the Mountains of Israel, yea, and forced to fly his Country too, and yet after brought to the Throne, and also in Caius Marius, who was forced to hide himself in the Flags of a Fenny ditch from the pursuers of Sylla, 
Livy.  so that the Historian asks, Quis eum fuisse Consulem, aut futurum crederet? Who would ever have thought him to have been Consul, or should live to be Consul again? And therefore when any would say, 
Seneca.  There was but little hope, he would answer Tum votorum locus est, cum nullus est spei; They ought to pray the more, and Prayer was a good reserve at the last cast.  
Accordingly he would acknowledge that his many cares for the welfare of the King and Church of England did often send him to his Prayers, but gave God thanks, that his Prayers did always expel his cares. After a day spent in Prayer, he would tell an especial Friend, he found in himself a marvellous illumination and cheerfulness in the Evening, and that as usually thick clouds in Winter cause dark weather, till they were dissolved in rain or snow; but then the Sun would show himself, and the air grow pleasant again: So sorrows and cares cloud the mind and soul, till we are able to dissolve them into devotion and holy Prayers, and then post nubila Phoebus, and professed, nothing more contributed to his divine joys than his often reading and meditation upon David's Psalms, which he conceived they had done very wisely, who set them in the midst of the Bible, as the Fourth Commandment for Religious Assemblies was by God himself in the midst of the Decalogue.  
In those doleful days that was done in St. Paul's London which Selimus threatened to St. Peter's at Rome, to Stable his horses in the Church, and feed them at the High Altar; whereupon our Doctor was very confident their ruin grew ripe apace, and not long after happened the death of Oliver; of which being suddenly told, and the manner of it, he only said, as Tully of a Villain, Mortem quam non potuit optare obiit; and that we should see within a little while all the world would stink of him, and disdain his Arbitrary and bloody usurpations; and accordingly in a very short time we saw all things incline to work about the happy revolution, towards the accomplishment whereof no man was more active in stirring up the Nobility, Gentry, Clergy, and People to desire a free Parliament, and Petition General Monk to that purpose, whereby he should be a Benedictin Monk, or a Blessing to the Nation, and not a Dominican, Dominari in exercitu. He preached before the Commissioners at Croyden, and first read the Common-Prayer himself to them, at that great meeting for the peace of the Country. And afterward when his Royal Majesty was restored, he laid aside his long Antipathy, and came up to London, where one going to congratulate his coming thither; so (he answered) he did his own, for he hoped in God he did not appear as a Porpoise, only once in twenty years before a great storm, but as an Halcyon for a sign of fair weather; and when he was restored to his ancient Parish and Church again, being one day visited by many sequestered and banished Friends, returned again with himself, whom he pleasantly called his Charonitae, a By name which the Romans gave to them who were restored to their Possessions and Country after they had been proscribed by Sylla. As if Charon had wafted them over the Lake of Death, and brought them back again. At the same time he gave to God great thanks for the opportunity of meeting them again in that place, and prayed God that they might all take notice, first, of the real faults that brought down the late sad Judgements, and be sure to repent of them; and then also secondly, take into consideration the supposed faults or scandals that seemed to do it, and as far as was meet take care likewise to prevent them for the time to come.  
He had been installed one of the Residentiaries of St. Paul's Church, a little before the beginning of the Civil War, to which he was now restored, whereby he was frequently called to preach there, where he could not spare to tell his Countrymen sometimes of their faults, That however his Majesty's most gracious Act of Oblivion had delivered them from all humane Penalties, yet unless they abhorred those sins so easily forgiven by the most merciful and most courteous King in the world, yet the Anger of God would find them out; and though his Majesty had obliged the Royal Party to forget their sufferings, yet the Presbyterians were ever bound to remember their doings. But his deserts were too eminent and well known to be long in any Orb less than the highest in our Church, therefore my Lord Chancellor sent to offer him the Bishopric of Gloucester, which he begged his Majesties and his Lordship's leave to refuse, answering (as Cato) He had rather Future times should ask why Dr. Hacket had not a Bishopric than why he had one.  
Afterward it pleased his Majesty to confer upon him the Bishopric of Lichfield, and recommend that most ruined Cathedral, City, and Diocese to his prudent Circumspection, and Government; He first thought that now in his old age the Charge was too great for him, but because Caesar had commanded it, he would resign up himself to his Majesty's Commands, and willingly put his neck to the burden of the Chair, and to his best abilities not be wanting in his duty to God and the King. But he found in himself a great reluctancy to leave his old people in City and Country, he had so long lived there, that now the place was grown natural, and stuck to him like the Bark to the Tree; but again would sometime say, Holbourn was not the same Parish he left it, a new Generation for the most part rose up in twenty years that knew not Joseph, nor the piety and conformity of ancient times, and that probably young men might suit better with young men, and therefore would accept his Sovereigns gracious offer, and yet always retain a paternal affection and care for them too; and would thereupon show how vain some Canonists were in prescribing an eternal obligation between Pastor and People, whereas he forsakes not the Church who serves it in another place, but in some circumstances it is his duty to remove, when better qualified for that other Church, and his removal duly required of him: For we are not to consecrate our studies and labours to Places, but to Persons, not to any particular people only, but to the glory of God and best advantage of the Catholic Church.  
He received his Consecration December 1661. upon the same day that he had forty three years before received his first Orders, and the Spring following he took his journey to reside upon his Charge, with great congratulations of the loyal Gentry, and most dutiful salutations of the Orthodox Clergy, and unconceivable joy and satisfaction of all people. When his Lordship came to Coventry he was entertained with a Latin Speech, made by Sir Thomas Norton Baronet, and in holy Orders: and again upon his first Entrance into Staffordshire, by Mr. Powel Schoolmaster of Stafford with Another; to which his Lordship presently in the same language gave an elegant reply to every particular.  
The whole Clergy upon this first meeting were of opinion that his Majesty had still the old Apostolical spirit of discerning, having sent to them a Prelate so wise and learned, as they could scarce have wished one altogether so fit for themselves, and 'tis not to have been doubted, if the sole election had been in themselves, 
Theod. l. 5. c 9 Baron. Ann. T. 4. Damasc. de Imag. l. 3.  but that the Diocese would have chosen him as unanimously as the people of Constantinople did Nectarius, to whom no man dissented, insomuch that some say the place wherein they held the Election was ever after called Concord from the universal approbation of the Fact.  
It is much to be admired that the people (who for the most part are none of the best Judges) in those ancient times should oftentimes choose so luckily, 
Paulinus in vita. V. Prefat. Dr. Fell. in vitá Nemesci.  who yet sometimes chose men to be Bishops as St. Ambrose of Milan, Synesius Bishop of Cyrene, and Nectarius an Archbishop at Constantinople, besides others who had scarce received any former Orders, and were some of them not well instructed in all parts of Christian Religion, 
Ep. ad Ocean.  nor indeed baptised: St. Hierom a learned, but sharp Writer, might well gird at this practice Heri Catechumenus, hodie Pontifex; but against our Bishop there lay no such exceptions, who would sometimes rejoice like Greg. Nazianzen, that he had not been made a Bishop before long labour, and much pains spent in preaching and converting others to the Christian Faith, and gave God thanks he had run through all the lesser Offices, had been long Scholar and Fellow of a College, then been made Deacon, Priest, Chaplain, which was equal to Curate, and sometime Vicar of a poor place, afterwards Parson, Doctor, Prebendary, Archdeacon, and Residentiary of St. Paul's, and had discharged all these with great pains in his own person, in the heat of the day, both in time of peace and persecution, so that he did not leap, but by his merits orderly arise to his Episcopal honour and dignity.  
The City of Litchfield has its name from the old Saxon Lice or Carcase, because of the great multitude of Christians thereabouts slain in the Persecution of Dioclesian, which are in the Arms of the City to this day. Therein before the Wars had been a most beautiful and comely Cathedral Church, which the Bishop at his first coming found most desolate, and ruined almost to the ground, the Roof of Stone, the Timber, Led, and Iron, Glass, Stalls, Organs, Utensils of rich value all were embezzled, 2000 shot of great Ordnance and 1500 Granades discharged against it, which had quite battered down the Spire, and most of the Fabric, so that the Old man took not so much comfort in his new Promotion, as he found sorrow and pity in himself to see his Cathedral Church thus lying in the dust; so that the very next morning after his Lordship's arrival, he set his own Coach-horses on work, together with other Teems, to carry away the Rubbish; which being cleared, he procured Artisans of all sorts to begin the new Pile, and before his death set up a complete Church again, better than ever it was before, the whole Roof from one end to the other, of a vast length, all repaired with stone, all laid with goodly Timber of our Royal Sovereign's gift, all leaded from one end to the other, to the cost of above 20000 l. which yet this zealous and laborious Bishop accomplished a great part out of his own bounty, with 1000 l. help of the Dean and Chapter, and the rest procured by Him from worthy Benefactors, by incessant importunity, the Gentry of Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Warwickshire contributing like Gentlemen, whose names are entered into the Registry of the Cathedral; unto which work none were backward but the Presbyterians, whom our Reverend Bishop yet treated with more civility than their cross-grained humours deserved.  
This rare Building was finished in eight years, to the Admiration of all the Country, the same hands which laid the Foundation laying the Top-stone also; All which owes itself to his great fidelity, incredible prudence in contriving, bargaining with workmen, unspeakable diligence in soliciting for money, paying it and overseeing all; Nehemiah's eye was ever upon the building of the Temple, and therefore the work proceeded with incredible expedition. The Cathedral being so well finished, upon Christmas Eve Anno 1669 his Lordship dedicated it to Christ's honour and service, with all fitting solemnity that he could pick out of ancient Rituals in the manner following.  
His Lordship being arrayed in his Episcopal Habiliments, and attended upon by several prebend's and Officers of the Church, and also accompanied with many Knights and Gentlemen, as likewise with the Bailiffs and Aldermen of the City of Lychfield, with a great multitude of other people entered at the West door of the Church, Humphrey Persehouse, Gent. his Lordship's Apparitor General going foremost, after whom followed the Singing-boyes and Choristers, and all others belonging to the Choir of the said Church, who first marched up to the South Isle on the right hand of the said Church, where my Lord Bishop with a loud voice repeated the first verse of the 24. Psalms, and afterward the Choir alternately sung the whole Psalm to the Organ. Then in the same order they marched to the North Isle of the said Church, where the Bishop in like manner began the first verse of the 100 Psalms, which was afterward also sung out by the Company. Then all marched to the upper part of the Body of the Church, where the Bishop in like manner began the 102. Psalms, which likewise the Choir finished. Then my Lord Bishop commanded the doors of the Choir to be opened, and in like manner first encompassed it upon the South side, where the Bishop also first began to sing the first verse of the 122 Psalms, the Company finishing the rest: And with the like Ceremony passing to the North side thereof, sung the 132. Psalms in like manner.  
This Procession being ended the Reverend Bishop came to the Faldistory in the middle of the Choir, and having first upon his knees prayed privately to himself, afterwards with a loud voice in the English Tongue called upon the People to kneel down and pray after him, saying,  
Our Father which art, etc.  

O Lord God, infinite in power, and incomprehensible in all goodness and mercy, we beseech thee to hear our prayers for thy gracious assistance upon the great occasion of this day. This sacred House dedicated of old time to thine honour, hath been greatly polluted by the long Sieges and dreadful Wars of most profane and disloyal Rebels; Thine holy Temple have they defiled, and made it an heap of rubbish and stones; yea they did pollute it with much blood, in all manner of hostility and cruelty. We beseech thee, good Father, upon our devout and earnest prayers, to restore it this day to the use of thy sacred Worship, and make us not obnoxious to the guilt of their sins, who did so heinously dishonour this place, which was set apart for thy glory. Thou art the God of peace, of meekness and gentleness, and wouldst not let thy Servant David build a Temple to thee, because his hands were stained with the blood of war, we beseech thee that this thy Sanctuary, having long continued under much pollution, may be reconciled to thee, and from henceforth and for ever be acceptable unto thee: and that the spots of all blood, profaneness, and sacrilege, may be washed out by thy pardon and forgiveness, and that we, and all thy faithful servants that shall succeed us in any religious Office in this place, may be defended for ever from our enemies, and serve thee always with thankful hearts and quiet minds, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  
ALmighty Lord, the restorer and preserver of all that is called thine, since this Cathedral Church is once again made fit for thy Service, and reconciled to thy Worship and Honour, preserve it henceforth and for ever, that it may never, even to the second coming of Jesus Christ, suffer the like devastation again, that befell it by the impiety and disloyalty of a long and most pernicious Rebellion. Save it from the power of violent men, that such as are enemies to thy Name, and to the beauty of holiness, may never prevail to defile it, or erace it; Confound those ungodly ones that shall say of it, down with it even to the ground. Let the true Protestant Religion be celebrated in it, as long as the Sun and Moon endure. And we implore thee with confidence of thy love, and with all vehemency of zeal, that thy heavenly Spirit may fill thy hallowed Temple with thy Grace, and heavenly benediction. Hear the faithful prayers which thy Congregation of Saints shall daily pour out here unto thee. And accept their sorrowful contritions in fastings and humiliations; and in the days of joyful thanksgivings, let their spiritual and gladsome offerings ascend up unto thee, and be noted in thy Book. Receive all those into the Congregation of Christ's Flock, with the pardon of their sins, and the efficacy of thy Spirit, to suppress the dominion of sin in them, that shall here be presented to be baptised. Let the bones of them that have been, or shall be interred here, rest in peace until a joyful resurrection. Let heavenly goodness be on all those that shall here be wedded in lawful Matrimony, remembering it is the mystery of Christ and his Church made one with him. O let the most Divine Sacrament of Christ's Body broken, and his Blood shed for us, be the savour of life unto all that receive it. Sanctify to holy Calling such as shall be ordained Priests and Deacons by Imposition of hands. And we heartily pray, that thy Word preached within these walls, may be delivered with that truth, sincerity, zeal, and efficacy, that it may reclaim the ungodly, confirm the righteous, and draw many to salvation, through Jesus Christ, etc.  
BLessed and immortal Lord, who stirrest up the hearts of thy faithful people to do unto thee true and laudable service, we magnify thy Grace, and the inward working of thy holy Spirit upon the heart of our gracious Sovereign Lord King CHARLES, his Highness James Duke of York, and his most Religious Duchess, and all Dukes, Duchess', Nobleses, and Peers of this Realm, with our most gracious Metropolitan, and all Bishops, and others of the holy Orders of the Clergy, all Baronet's, Knights and Gentry, Ladies and devout persons of that Sex, and for all the Gentry and godly Commonalty, for all Cities, Burrows, Towns, and Villages, who have bountifully contributed to re-edify and repair this ancient and beautiful Cathedral, which was almost demolished by Sons of Belial. But these thy large-hearted and bountiful servants have raised up this Holy Place to its former beauty and comeliness again. Lord recompense them all sevenfold into their bosom. As they have bestowed their temporal things willingly and largely upon this holy place, so recompense them with eternal things, and with increase of earthly abundance, as thou knowest to be most expedient for them. Let the Generation of the faithful be blessed, and let their memories be precious to all posterity. O Lord this is thy Tabernacle, it is thy House, and not man's, perfect it we beseech thee in that which is wanting to accomplish it. And for all those thy choice servants, whose charitable hands have given their oblation to raise up again this sacred Habitation, which was pulled down by impious hands, give them all thine eternal Kingdom for their Habitation. Amen.  
O Thou Holy One, who dwellest in the highest Heavens, and lookest down upon all thy servants, and considerest the condition of all men, now we have begun to speak to our Lord God, who are but dust and ashes, permit us to continue our prayers for the souls health, and external prosperity of all those that are concerned in this place. Be favourable and merciful to the most reverend Father in God Gilbert Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, our most munificent Benefactor, under whose Government we reap much peace, good order, and happiness. O Lord be merciful to me thy Servant, the most unworthy of them that wear a linen Ephod, yet by thy providence and his Majesty's favour, the Bishop of this Church, and of the Diocese to which it belongs. Be a loving God to the Dean, Archdeacon's, Canon Residentiaries, Prebendaries, Vicar's Coral, and to all that belong to this Christian Foundation. Bless them that live and are encompassed in the Close and Ground of this Cathedral. Pour down the plentiful showers of thy bounteous goodness upon this neighbour City of Litchfield, the Bailiffs, Sheriff, aldermans, all the Magistrates, and all the Inhabitants thereof. Lord, we extend our petitions further, that thou wilt please to bless all that pertain to this large Diocese, for all the Clergy of it, that they may be godly examples to their Flock, that they may attend to Prayer, to Preaching, and to administer thy holy Sacraments, and diligently to do all duties to those under their charge, that are in health or sickness. O Lord multiply thy blessings upon all Christian people in the several Shires and Districts belonging to the Government of this Bishopric, and keep us all, O Lord, in faith and obedience to thee, in loyalty to our Sovereign, in charity one toward another, in submission to the good and orderly Discipline of the Church. And save us from Heresies, Schisms, Fanatical separations, and all scandals against the Gospel. And guide us all to live as becometh us in the true Communion of Saints. Grant all this, O Lord, for Jesus Christ his sake: To whom with Thee, and thy Holy Spirit, be ascribed and given, etc.  
PRevent us, O Lord, in all our doings, with thy most gracious favour, and further us with thy continual help, that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in thee, we may glorify thy holy Name, and finally by thy mercy obtain everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.   
Then the Bishop pronounced a solemn Blessing upon the whole Administration performed, and upon all that were present.  
Then followed the Service of Morning Prayer for that day, two especial Anthems in extraordinary being added. Provision was made instantly for Alms to the Poor.  
And in a very stately Gallery which the Bishop erected in the House where he lived, his Lordship annexed to the precedent Solemnity a Feast for three days.  
First to feast all that belonged to the Choir and the Church, together with the Proctors and other Officers of the Ecclesiastical Courts.  
On a second day, to remember God's great goodness in the restauration and reconciliation of the Church, He feasted the Bailiffs, Sheriff, and all the Aldermen of the City of Lichfield.  
On a third day, to the same purpose, in the same place, He feasted all the Gentry, Male and Female of the Close and City.  
He would often afterwards give God thanks, who had accepted him as an unworthy Instrument to build him an House, that what he could not accomplish at Holbourn in his younger years, when he was more able to take pains, yet He had now enabled him to do in his old age, and far worse times; when he found by experience, the Wars had exhausted not only the Wealth but Piety of the Nation, and that it was far easier under Charles the First his Reign to raise an hundred pound to Pious Uses than now ten pounds: So some observe that in the Primitive Church Charity ebbed lower and lower till the stream quite dried up: the first examples thereof were most bountiful, to provoke the liberality of following Ages; Barnabas gave all his Possessions, and so did many others. Ananias divided half or thereabouts, but the next Age minced it to a considerable Legacy, and then it fell to Charity in small money, afterwards to good words only as St. James says, and I pray be comforted; sed ecquid tinnit Dolabella? seldom one cross or coin dropped from them: the like he observed in our own Church in the Ages past, and present; when Christianity was first planted among us, our glorious Founders built Colleges and Cathedral Churches; the next rank of Benefactors endowed Schools and Parishes; after Ages gave Plate to the Communion, Bells to the Steeples, costly Vestures to the Minister; now it's come to this pass, some Great man will be content to set up a new Pew for his own use, but stick at all other new building, and sometimes at the mending and repair of what was built formerly, and after a while perhaps the World will do just nothing, and then it is time sure for the Gospel to seek out better people, who will bring forth more fruit.  
Two things the Bishop used greatly to bewail in his Diocese; First the great loss and spoil of the Ancient Demeans of the Bishopric, having had many Manors torn from it in the time of Edw. 6. besides an ancient Episcopal House in London to entertain the Bishops when they came up to Parliament, pulled down, with others by the Duke of Somerset, to make room for the building of his new House in the Strand; and his Palace at Lychfield, and Castle of Eccleshal likewise were quite demolished by the late Wars; so that the good Bishop was fain to lie in a Prebendal House, upon which he laid out a 1000 l. to make it fitting for his Residence, and thought to have procured an Act of Parliament to have annexed it to the See for ever; but till he had finished God's House he less regarded his own. The ancient Bishops of this See, and of all others, were famous for the breeding up many young Scholars and Gentlemen to piety and learning in their own Families, as one (that's best able) tells us, that Bishop's Families were Schools of gravity and wisdom, 
Hooker Pol. l. 5. §. 81.  to breed Divines and Gentlemen civilly before they were transferred to Nobleman's and King's Houses, and were as requisite after Scholars came from the Universities to adapt them to business and public charge, as the Universities themselves were for the ripening of such as were raw before: But our Bishop would complain, though he had means enough left for himself and other ordinary uses, yet the curtailed Revenues of his Bishopric, reliquiae Danaum ac immitis Achillî, 
Virg.  were no way proportionable for this great Expense.  
Secondly, far more than this loss to his own See he would bewail the Sacrilege committed upon very many poor Vicarages under his Jurisdiction in that Diocese, some great persons to whom God hath given many Lordships, yet would not allow their poor Vicars a competency of Glebe and Tithes to reside upon, and watch over their Tenants souls in the Country, nor wherewithal to buy Books and become learned men, nor indeed tolerable Preachers: Till better provision was made in this kind, he never hoped to see Christian Religion flourish in the remote parts of his Diocese, and therefore earnestly desired that future Parliaments would take this greatest grievance into their Christian consideration, and cause the joyful Jubilee to be proclaimed, when these Revenues should return to their right Owners, or at least in this flourishing Kingdom, where all others possess great Inheritance, Country Divines alone might not have a scanty Patrimony, and till that were done he had just cause to fear that Sacrilege was the sin of the Reformed Churches, and as the Papacy was much too blame to endure no Reformation in the Church because of their covetousness, so many Protestants were more too blame who reform, not out of conscience, but covetousness; whereby all Church means were of more uncertain Tenure now adays than any other private Estate; for whereas every Mechanic could leave an Inheritance secure to his own Children, only the public Charities bequeathed to pious uses were in danger of being taken away.  
His Lordship would sometime pleasantly compare our times with theirs of the Old Testament, when there was laid up in the Ark for greater security, Aaron's Rod, the Pot of Manna, and the two Tables of the Law; but we read that all was lost but the Tables of the Law; 
1 King. 8.9.  in like Manner now Some men steal away our Discipline, Aaron's Rod; others steal away our golden Pot of Manna, the Tithe of the Church; and if they had loved the Law or Commandments, 
Mart.  they had stole them away too; Sed tu quod facias hoc mihi Paete dolet. But that this should be done by Protestants troubled our Bishop exceedingly, who would much commend Archbishop Cranmer for opposing King Henry the 8. 
Nele●. Adam in vita.  his Alienation of Abbey Lands from uses of piety and charity; and Peter Martyr much more, who when he left the Monastery, 
Ib. in vita p. 35.  would not carry away the least thing from it, but restored a Ring belonging to the House (the Seal of the Abbot) which he was wont to wear formerly; and wished all Protestant Ministers oftentimes to preach upon this Theme, not out of charity to themselves, but the souls of their hearers; not so much to prevent their own poverty and hard fortune for a little time, as the others condemnation and endless sorrow for ever.  
No Bishop ever more desired to have his Clergy pious and learned, that they who were sent to reprove the faults of others might be without offence themselves; but he despaired of such as long as the Vicarages of his Diocese were so exceeding low, where wit and poverty often meeting together, did not always make honest men; yet for his own part he was very careful in all his Ordinations to allow none without sufficient testimony, and to examine all himself, in Latin or in English, as they liked best, that he might better know the State of his Clergy, where he would not spare to reprove whatsoever he found amiss in any sort, their very hair and habit itself, which he always required to be grave and modest, becoming Divines the Ambassadors of Christ, and not like Ruffians and the Wooers of Penelope: To that purpose under his Signification Paper for Orders upon the Cathedral Door was sometimes also written Nemo accedat petitum sacros Ordines cum longâ Caesarie. When ever he found a learned modest Scholar presented to him, he would bid him very welcome; yet after long wars where the Universities could not be attended, and Church Means commonly were seized upon, he would not refuse any tolerable competency of learning, if he found it accompanied with discretion and gravity: Sometimes he would note how he had heard in our troublesome times, that the Presbyterians were so strict in their usurped Ordinations and Trials of Ministers, that he believed in his conscience, he should not have been able to have passed them himself, if he had been bound to appear before them; but in all his Diocese he found none greater Dunces than such as had been of their stamp formerly, several of whom craved to receive Orders from him, and though he could not endure to have the Ark of God drawn by meager and feeble Cattle, yet in hope of future improvement and better conformity he did admit them. He never cared to have any presented to him very young, till the heats which boil in the bloods of youth were well scummed off, if not quite boiled away; affirming that a scandalous Minister had confiscated his own authority of reprehending that in others which he was guilty of himself, and that the Doctrine and Discipline of our Church could never have been so contemptible, but for their sakes, who with their ill lives and manners made all the threatenings of holy Scripture, which they preached, and all the Censures of the Church, which they passed, or denounced, ridiculous and insignificant: yet withal his Lordship ever gave the people warning not to despise the chastening of their Mother; for no man can lightly esteem the power of the Keys upon earth, 
Prov. 1.  and yet be well prepared in heart, to receive the judgement of God in the World to come.  
For better amendment of whatsoever was amiss his Lordship would like St. Austin and other ancient Bishops frequently sit Judge in his Ecclesiastical Courts, and hasten the dispatch of all Affairs, and especially if there were any thing that concerned his Clergy, would always be present at the hearing of those Causes, that neither his Clergy, nor any by them might be wronged: when he went not in person to the Court, he gave ready access at his own House to all who came to complain, even the meanest people, who were grieved with long and tedious Suits, and after hearing what they could say, would sometimes send for the Chancellor and Proctors on both sides, and what he could not redress at home, he would oftentimes go to Court and end there, throwing out many Causes, that had been long depending for trivial matters, and would not suffer any Causes to be entered for defamatory words or trifles without his own knowledge first, to the end they might be composed without much vexation to the parties: by this means his Lordship created to himself much trouble, which he valued not, for the great good he did by it; and though less profit came to the Officers of the Court, yet were they also contented, believing God would better bless them for taking only those Fees which so conscientious a Judge was willing to allow.  
After Ordination he seldom dismissed any whom he ordained without rare counsel, To remember they were Ordained to Cures, not to Sine Cures, the Cure of Souls, the greatest of all others, and wish them every day to think of the invaluable dignity and seriousness thereof, and therefore in all their Preachings to avoid lightness, 
S. Bern.  Quia Nugae in ore Sacerdotum sunt blasphemiae; as likewise all ridiculous gestures, and loud vociferations, empty affectation of words and phrases without weighty and ponderous sense and significancy, accounting that elegant words without solid matter were but perfumed Nonsense, and that there was infinite difference between plainness and rudeness: They had a duty to discharge both to the wise and unwise, and therefore must take care, that the learned Auditor might still learn somewhat, and the unlearned Auditor might understand, not only some, but all. His charge was, that in every thing we should retain this great Principle, to offer to God the very Best we have; whosoever builds God an House, let them build it better than their own, the Ornaments thereof should be fairer than our own, our Sermons there superior to our ordinary discourses or labours in any other kind, arising not from extemporary sauciness, but our studied and best industry; 
1 Tim. 4.15.  and therefore ever warned them, as St. Paul did Timothy, though he had the gift of Prophesying, still to attend to reading as Preaching, and remember St. Paul himself would not preach without Books, and therefore caused them to be brought after him in all his Travels, and sometimes preached the same thing the next Sabbath-day, and therefore probably kept Notes: He conceived it small commendations to any to pour out faster than they took in, and that indiligent and over-frequent Preaching beyond the Preacher's parts, or what the peoples needs required, was no advantage to learning or piety, especially in the obvious way of Preaching altogether by Doctrine, Reason and Use, which of all Expositors of Scripture Musculus first took up, and was one great means to lay the Pulpit open to the profanations of the late times, such Preaching being oftentimes so poor and easy, that every Justice of Peace his Clerk thought he could perform as well as his Minister; whereas a good Preacher had need be skilled in the whole Encyclopedy of Arts and Sciences, Logic to divide the Word aright, Rhetoric to persuade, School Divinity to convince Gainsayers, knowledge of many Tongues to understand Originals and learned Authors; and above all, he would recommend St. Hierom's counsel, 
Epist. ad Paulam.  Discamus in Terris quorum scientia nobis perseverabit in Coelis, for otherwise all kind of learning in a Minister without good Example and innocency of life was but a jewel of gold in a Swine's snout.  
This was his constant advice to his Clergy at Ordinations and Visitations, which he duly held every third year. Visitation of Churches he would maintain was no Filia noctis, started up in a night of darkness and Popery, but an Apostolical Institution, and practised afterwards by all the Primitive Fathers and Bishops. Herein his Lordship would oftentimes be the Preacher himself, so that in his first Visitation Anno 1665. in his Progress in Shropshire, and at Stafford, from the last of May to the fifteenth of June he preached eight times in the compass of those few days, at Bridgnorth, Salop, Elsmere, Wem, Whitchurch, Drayton, Hodnet and Stafford; and confirmed above five thousand persons, whom he required not to be tumultuarily presented, but with the preexamination of their several Ministers, and was in all places most joyfully received.  
So that when he put on his Episcopal Robes, he put not off his Ministerial Labours; no man had reason to say, his Majesty by making him Bishop had spoiled a good Preacher, as it was said of Friar Giles, that the Pope had marred a painful Clerk by making him a powerful Cardinal: nor was he like Julius the third, of whom the Historian complains, 
Onuphrius in vitá.  that he had been formerly a diligent man, but when he came to the Popedom never minded his Study, or the Affairs of the Church more: Our Bishop on the other side professed he found as many cares in his Bishop's Rochet, as he believed Antigonus did in his Royal Purple; and if it were not for the glory of God, and good of his Church, had rather throw it away than hang it about his shoulders.  
St. Paul very well understood his Office when he called it a good work, 
1 Tim. 3.7.  not to be discharged without painful study, often preaching, daily hearing and determining Cases of Conscience, judging in Causes Ecclesiastical, repairing or building of Churches. These and so many other things beside he found to do at home, that all absence seemed tedious and intolerable to him abroad, so that he never slept out of his Bishopric in many years, nor was willingly absent from his Flock but upon extraordinary occasions, as in Parliament, etc. and then would often request my Lord Chamberlain to beg the Kings leave to let him go home before the end of the Session, sometimes in frosty Winter weather, to be like the good Pastor among his Sheep, where they might hear his voice at Christmas and the other great Feasts, and accounted silence a Woman's virtue, but not a Bishops, who, if sickness and great Affairs molested not, was still bound to labour in the Word and Doctrine, and held it a mistake to prefer Governing before Preaching, whereas it was ever contrary, as appeared by 1 Tim. 15.17. Let the Elders that rule well be accounted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine; and therefore the Bishop always preached, and the Presbyter never before him, 
Downam Def. l. 3. c. 2.  but when deputed, or in his absence: so that when he was sometimes told by his friends, that he was now Miles emeritus, and might lawfully lay aside his Preaching pains, in his extreme old age, he would by no means consent, but still lay-by his other Studies upon Saturday afternoon, and retire to his preaching Meditations, and for the most part preached once upon Sunday mornings, both to profit others, and to warm himself. Three Sundays at least every Month he would preach up and down his Diocese, and not only in his chief City of Lichfield, or near to his own Cathedral, but like to a benign Star would irradiate all places within his Orb; He would often take Coach and go more than seven miles, sometimes nine or ten upon Sunday morning, and yet be at Church before most of the Parish, and go home again to dinner, and yet always have the full Service of the Church before Sermon, and many times afterwards rectify disorders in Churches, and sometimes differences about Seats or Pews. This Custom he continued till he died, often mentioning the words of Bishop Andrews, who was wont to institute all his Ministers in curam meam & tuam, and therefore thought he must no more hide his Talon in a Rochet, than they might theirs under a Cassock.  
Thus was his diligence equal to any of the Ancients, and his success answerable, reducing multitudes in all places to piety and conformity with the Church of England, almost like another Gregorius Thaumaturgus Bishop of Neocaesarea, a great and populous City, who when he came thither found but seventeen Christians, and when he died gave God thanks he left but seventeen Pagans. 
Baron. 2.   
This great success did owe itself not only to his frequent preaching and diligent study, but to his eximious piety and perpetual prayer. Formerly he had taken great pains in the Study of Antiquity, and for Ecclesiastical History especially he was inferior to very few; no man could give a better account of the Travels of the Apostles after the day of Pentecost, and the Conversion of the World by the Primitive Christians; and for the History of the Reformation after the second Pentecost, no man I think could give the like Narrative, how miraculously in all places it was effected: In our own Church there was nothing whereof he was ignorant, all the Councils and passages of the Reformation from the first beginning or Matrix thereof he perfectly understood. But of late years he would say his Studies were not to be more wise and learned, but more holy and good, and therefore laid aside Polemical Divinity wholly, and his principal study were Cases of Conscience, Canon Law, and the Liturgies of the Ancient Church, in which he was very skilful; yet would often complain, he found this last an unlearned study, and much against his own nature, who was a lover of Philology and Rationality. But he much wondered that any learned men could, contrary to the practice of the whole Church, 
Ep. ad Protector.  lay aside all use of Liturgies, even against the sense of Calvin himself, who wishes there might be in every Church an uniform Liturgy, (for preservation of Unity, and prevention of Vainglory, and other inconveniencies,) from which it should be unlawful for Ministers to depart; but especially in our Church, where so many young men are ordained, he wondered any wise man would be against a set Liturgy, and refer all the Service of God to free Prayer; and would assert that it was more easy to mar than to mend the Book of Common-Prayer, and therefore we ought not to adventure the one for the other; but in regard the Minister of the Parish was permitted to compose a Prayer of his own before his Sermon, he thought no Sectary had cause to complain.  
Bidding of Prayer before Sermon he never practised, and said no more did Dr. Ravis and Dr. Fletcher, Archbishop Whitgift's Chaplains, afterwards Bishops, who drew up the 55. Canon, whom he knew very well, and often heard preach, and always used a Form of their own, and no Bishops Articles ever examined or found fault with it, and was certainly used by St. Ambrose in Antiquity, and therefore in the Convocation 1640 it was carried for a Form.  
And although it was his mind, that all Students were not to be tied up to Canonical hours, but such only whose Devotion need not be interrupted by necessary study and employment; yet he would rarely intermit them himself, unless want of health, or very extraordinary business constrained him.  
In a morning he would rarely permit any to visit or disturb him, but held that time was made for God, rather than for men, as the Historian says of Charles the fifth, 
Florin. Raimond l. 1.  Manè frequentior cum Deo quam cum hominibus sermo; therefore the first thing after his sleep was his private Devotion, with reading of the holy Bible, Psalms and Chapters, then gentle walking for health, then Study, then Public Prayer, then Private Prayers again before Dinner; presently after Dinner to his Private Prayers again, and then to his Study, unless Ecclesiastical Affairs or suitable Company prevented him for an hour or so; and of all sorts of Prayer, he would especially abound in thanksgiving, using St. Paul's words often, 
1 Thes. 5.8.  In every thing give thanks for this is the will of God, and wish that our Common Prayer had more Forms to that purpose, and would sometimes wonder, that when the world had been so cloyed with Religious Orders, Predicants, Humiliats, Oratorians, Mendicants, and many other titles, yet there was never any called Eucharistici, a Congregation appointed to give God thanks for all the good things wherewith this World is replenished. In the Evening of every day, Recount thy own actions, and the divine preservations, was his rule to others, and customary to himself; and to pray for the pardon of the one, and praise God for the receipt of the other: And in all his Prayers day and night he was a continual solicitor for the peace of the Catholic Church: All his counsels, like Melanchton's, were ever moderate, and he often wished such a Form of Prayer were composed that all Christians might join in, being a great Enemy to sharpness and violence in the matters of Religion, and would often use Erasmus his words, Mihi adeò est invisa discordia, ut veritas displiceat seditiosa.  
After his Majesty's return, and restauration of the Church of England, he prayed for nothing more in this World than the downfall of Mahomet, and the resurrection of the Greek Empire and Church again, and would say, he thought in his complexion and Religion both, that he was the greatest Anti-Ottoman in Europe; he was extremely afflicted for poor Hungary, the Antimurale or Bulwark of Christendom, in the last Invasion, and consequently for the horrible division of Christians through the juggle of the Papacy, for which reason he could not yet foresee which way possible they should unite under one General, who might be able to put an Hook into the jaws of Mahomet, and repulse the Grand Signior into Arabia again, or to his Scythian Cottages; and therefore he never hoped for this happy time till he saw the Papacy fall first, which yet he hoped should never be brought to pass by those Infidels, though he was very much affected with the words of Musculus, spoken above a hundred years ago. Ecclesia Sancti Petri sic aedificatur Romae, 
Loci Com. de Ecclesia p. 299.  ut ad plenum aedificata sit nunquam, citiùsque destruenda sit a Turcis, quam ad finem structurae perducenda a Romans.  
He took the Pope to be an ill Member of Christendom, yet would have no man desire the Devil should pull him down, viz. the Turk; or Goths and Vandals, viz. German Anabaptists and Socinians, for fear the change should be for the worse: the Italians were a civil people, and lovers of learning, the Anabaptists of Germany more ignorant and bloody far than they. From this civility of his own temper he did not much love to fix the Title of Antichrist upon the Papacy, 
Synopsis Prophetica.  yet believed that our learned Divines (Mr. Mede and Dr. More especially) had with that great learning in all kinds so charged this crime upon Him, that he admired his Champions, who daily scatter books of all other matters, could permit their supreme Pontife to be so slandered, (if it were not true) and he thought it frivolous for them to write upon other controversies, before they were able to clear themselves before all the world of this Capital one, and which being true, concluded all other crimes in it.  
Though a reconciliation of all Christians were desirable, yet he held it impossible to be effected, as long as the Doctrines of their Church's Infallibility and the Pope's Supremacy were so obstinately maintained. The Pope was now become like a Blazing-star, dreadful to all Potentates and Rulers; and therefore whereas his two great Friends, Bishop Usher and Mr. Mede, out of Apocalyptical Principles, were of opinion that there would be a general Apostasy, and Dagon set upon his feet again, he could not believe it: For he never feared Christian Princes would be so forsaken of their own understandings, and other Counsellors, as to resign their own Crowns to adorn a foreign Mitre; especially when both Mr. Selden and Sir Robert Cotton had told him, they could show undoubted testimonies, that all the Princes in Christendom envied Henry the Eighth's Act in this kind, and would gladly have imitated him if they durst: But this he imputed to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or want of Magnanimity in them who would not endeavour to recover their own rights, in calling Councils, presenting to Churches, and other Flowers of their Crowns unjustly detained from them by the See of Rome, and therefore ever prayed the Kings of England might still retain their own just Supremacy, without giving up their Regalia to any foreign Jurisdiction.  
He thought the increase of Popery ought to be strictly watched, not only for the perniciousness of the Tenants of their Heterodox Religion in themselves, as being in his opinion Idolatrous and favouring of Rebellion, but likewise for the cruelty and sanguinary minds of Papists themselves, that whereas all Protestants express a charitable respect towards the souls and bodies of all Papists, abhorring all bloody Persecutions of them; on the other side Designant nos oculis ad mortem; Papists ever bear bloody minds towards us, and want nothing but power and opportunity to make as many Bonfires in England, as they had done formerly; and whereas in their excuse, some say, that the many late Treasons against their Princes were but the private Acts of some particular Papists, than he wondered no Pope should ever think fit to send out his Bull to declare that he abhorred them; or that none of their learned men should print books licenced by authority, wherein they were renounced, which he would have given a great deal of money to read.  
The Bishop was an enemy to all separation from the Church of England, of whatsoever Faction or Sect: But their hypocrisy he thought superlative that allowed the Doctrine, and yet would separate for mislike of the Discipline; these men's impudence outwent all preceding Histories; and he would challenge any to show him in all Antiquity for 1500 years where any Christian withdrew from the Church's Communion, much less rose up against lawful Governors, for their imposition of indifferent matters or Ceremonies? though in ancient times they imposed more than we do now; All that were baptised were presented in White Garments, 
S. Ambr. l. de Initiand. Tert. de Cor. Mil.  which the Priest charged them to keep white and undefiled to the Coming of the Lord; and they used not only the Sign of the Cross, but praegustatio mellis & lactis, intimating that they were now brought to the Land of Canaan flowing with Milk and Honey: Standing at Prayers was required upon all Lords-days between Easter and Whitsuntide, and Prayer with their hands extended, after the similitude of a Cross sometimes, which must needs be very tedious; and so many other things in St. Austin's time, that his complaint is well known, 
S. Aug. Ep. 119. ad Ja. & 86. add Cas.  Tolerabilior erat Judaeorum conditio: yet no Separate Churches were then set up for these things: Truth is, he thought the permission of Conventicles did show great irresolution and unsatisfaction in the Truth, administered great tentation to Shopkeepers and sedentary people to be tainted with errors and novelties, of which the English temper is too receptive, people being generally vain and whimsically sceptical, and never to be satisfied, like Him in the Talmud, that would always be questioning why the Sun rose in the East, and set in the West! to whom it was answered, if it should do otherwise he would still complain to know the reason. But above all he held we ought to become wise by former experience, for Conventicles in Corporations were the Seminaries out of which the Warriors against the King and the Church came, and therefore would much admire, that if any man coined false money it was counted Treason; if any man cheated a Pupil or an Orphan he was punished, or if he spread false News he was liable to suffer for it; but if any man published false Divinity to the damnation of souls, or perverting the minds of people from their obedience to their Governors, there was little or no regard of it: Beside, he had often heard from credible Witnesses, it was too usual with the discontented at their Meetings to charge the Church of England with those consequences which they did terminis terminantibus deny, as the making of indifferent Ceremonies to be Sacraments, and in kneeling at Sacrament to worship the Bread; and thereupon be so furious against that reverend posture, as though Kneeling were Popery, and Sitting Protestancy, 
Card. Bona de rebus Liturg. p. 440.  when the Pope himself ever Communicates sitting. These things were only spoken to make our Church odious to ignorant people, and being permitted must needs in time destroy our Foundations again; and therefore he wished that as of old, all Kings and other Christians subscribed to the Conciliary Decrees, so now a Law might pass that all Justices of Peace should do so in England, and then they would be more careful to punish the depravers of Church Orders.  
In matter of Doctrine he embraced no private and singular opinions, as many great men delight to do, in vetere viâ novam semitam quaerentes, 
S. Hier.  says the Father, but was in all points a perfect Protestant, according to the Articles of the Church of England, always accounting it a spice of pride and vanity to affect singularity in any opinions, or Expositions of Scripture, without great cause; and withal very dangerous to affect precipices (as Goats use) when they may walk in plain paths.  
In the Quinquarticular Controversy he was ever very moderate, but being bred under Bishop Davenant, and Dr. Ward in Cambridge, was addicted to their Sentiments. Bishop Usher would say Davenant understood those Controversies better than ever any man did since St. Austin; but He used to say, he was sure he had three excellent men of his mind in this Controversy. 
Hornb. Sum. Controu.  1. Padre Paulo, whose Letter is extant to Heinsius Anno 1604. 2. Thomas Aquinas. 3. St. Austin; but besides and above them all, he believed in his conscience St. Paul was of the same mind likewise; yet would profess withal, he disliked no Arminian, but such a one as reviled and defamed every one that was not so, and would often commend Arminius himself for his excellent wit and parts, but only tax his want of reading and knowledge in Antiquity, and ever held it was the foolishest thing in the world to say the Arminians were Papists, when so many Dominicans and Jansenists were no Arminians; and so again to say the Anti-Arminians were Puritan, or Presbyterians, when Ward, and Davenant, and Prideaux, and Brownrig were Anti-Arminians, and also stout Champions for Episcopacy; and Arminius himself was ever a Presbyterian, and therefore much commended the moderation of our Church, which made not any of these nice and doubtful Opinions the resolved Doctrine of the Church; this he judged was the great fault of the Tridentine and late Westminster Assemblies: But our Church was more ingenuous, and left these dark and curious points to the several apprehensions of learned men, and extended equal Communion to both.  
There is another Controversy that hath been much vexed in our times concerning the case of Divorce and Marriage afterwards; in which it is confessed our Bishop did dislike all those Churches or Polities that were facile to allow separation in Marriage, and much more Marriage after; yet allowed the question was intricate, and such a one as the Pharisees sought to entangle our Saviour withal, and that the Church of England had doctrinally determined neither way, but for practice only judged it better that neither party should marry again after Divorce, while the other lived, and therefore in the Canons of Queen Elizabeth Anno 97; and in 107 Canon of King James Anno 1604. required Caution by sufficient Sureties to that purpose: He condemned not other Churches that allowed it otherwise, but preferred our own Caution before them, and for this he wanted not many more reasons, than were wrote in a hasty Letter to a Gentleman his Neighbour, and published (without leave) after his death, together with his own Answer; but it is no credit to conquer the dead, says the old Proverb.  
While living He would urge for the indissolubleness of Wedlock, the Authority of Divine Institution, how God was pleased to make them Male and Female, and first one, and then two out of one, and then again two to become one, by a Divine Institution, saying, Whom God hath once joined, let no man put asunder. 2. The Dignity of Marriage, which represents the mystical Union that is betwixt Christ and his Church, and His Union with our humane nature, both which are indissoluble and perpetual. 3. The excellency of that love that one ought to bear to the other in Marriage, 
Gen. 2.  For this cause shall a man leave his Father and Mother and cleave to his Wife; therefore it is a stronger relation then between Father and Son; but the Son while his Father lives can never cease to be a Son, much more while the Wife lives can the Husband cease to be an Husband, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he shall cleave to his Wife, 
Gen. 2.  signifying a glutinous conjunction, that will sooner break any where than be parted there. 4. The manner of the conjunction, one flesh, that is according to the Hebrew Idiom, one Man, which supposes the Woman to be the Body, and the Man to be the Soul; so that none can part these, but He alone that can part Soul and Body. 5. And therefore though he conceived Eve did Adam a far greater injury, than when a loathed Strumpet does defile the Bed of Marriage, yet God nor Adam thought of no rupture in the case, but God only pronounced her future sorrow in Conception: indeed Paludanus and Navarre, Roman Casuists, maintain if one party be endangered to be drawn into mortal sin by the other, it is sufficient occasion to separate, and therefore probably would have cited Eve into their Courts, and proceeded accordingly against her; but from the beginning it was not so. 6. In the New Testament he observed our Saviour's answer seemed strange to his own Disciples, insomuch that they replied; If the case were so, it were better not marry at all, which shows how they understood him. 7. To be sure St. Paul would not allow it in a Bishop, but strictly required him to be the Husband of one Wife, 
1 Tim. 3.2.  that is having repudiated one to take no other without exception of any case. 8. He was sure he had in the New Testament six places of his side to one against him, one only carrying an outward face for it, Matth. 19.9. Whosoever shall put away his Wife except it be for fornication, and marrieth another committeth adultery: But Matth. 5. & 32. Mark 10.11. Luke 16.18. all sound another way; Whosoever putteth away his Wife and marrieth another committeth adultery. Rom. 7.2. The Woman that hath an Husband is bound as long as her Husband lives. 1 Cor. 7.10. Let not the Wife depart from her Husband, and if she depart let her remain unmarried: and again the 27. verse; Art thou bound to a Wife, seek not to be loosed: he held it safer to hold with six places than with one: some only say St. Matthew has that which others have not, and he must expound them; yea but one Evangelist is not false without the supplement of another, and St. Mark's Gospel was in some places where St. Matthew's was not. 9 This would have given great scandal in the Heathen World, who a long time used no Divorces; the Romans none for 500 years, 
Tert. Apol. c. 6. Gellius l. 4. c. 3. Noct. Att.  Spurius Carbilius Gema was the first that broke the hedge, a great shame for God's people to be more sensual than the Heathen, that they should exceed them in chastity and integrity. 10. We plight our faith in the face of the Church to hold till death us do part, not till Adultery or any other scandalous cause, which promise ought to be altered if we do not think meet to perform it. Upon these and many like considerations which he would repeat (but I cannot readily remember) I know he held it more safe to bear with a private inconvenience than alter the ancient strictness according to the looseness of our later times, and since ancient Writers tell us the Turtle is pudica & univira, would often wish God would please that the voice of the Turtle might be again heard in our Land.  
Indeed he was a Prelate of venerable strictness and purity, who would much bewail the unruly and horrid licentiousness of our times, which he conceived grew great by the lessening of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction: the Sword of Excommunication was locked up in the Sheath, and the Church had not the Key of it; but men of vicious and lewd lives, who formerly would have been thrust out for seven years, were admitted without censure to the comfort of the Sacraments; and so instead of godly sorrow too many exult in their sins, jest and droll upon them in all Companies, chant their Crimes to Music, and sing them sometimes in the high places of the Streets.  
Our holy Bishop had a very chaste ear, and would never permit the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or tongue-fornications of any, but would presently reprove them wheresoever he was: and he was once at a public Table, where he could not presently allay that profane merriment, so that he put back his Chair, and resolved like Cato, to be gone, till the Company became sorry, and promised to preserve his Episcopal reverence and gravity.  
At a Table no man more cheerful and pleasant, yet ever wisely and inoffensively facete, and would often call upon the company as Plato to the rough Xenocrates, 
Diog. Lacr. in vitá.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to sacrifice to the Graces to obtain hilarity. But according to his own Motto, Inservi Deo & laetare, Serve God and be cheerful. His Salt was ever candid and white, not bitter and biting, without all Sarcasms or Ironies, saying mirth was too good a creature to be abused with any affrontive jests, scurrility, or bawdry. He loved innocuos sine dente sales, 
Mart.  so as to make every body smile, and no body blush: Impudence and drolling upon Divine things he would not allow to be wit, but want of wit; on the other side, God Almighty never forbade lawful pleasures, and they are not more religious and spiritual who are more austere and morose than others. Christ Jesus refused not cheerful meetings, but condemned the sad countenances and sullenness of the Pharisees: and melancholy of all humours he held was fit to make a Bath for the Devil.  
Cheerfulness and innocent pleasure preserves our Mind from rust, and the Body from putrifying with dulness and distempers; and therefore would sometimes cheerfully say, he did not love to look upon a sour man at dinner, and if his Guests were pleased and merry within, would bid them hang out the white Flag in their countenance.  
In his Entertainments he was ever very Hospitable, and held where Divines wanted a competency of Means, besides necessary provision for a Family, to be hospitable to others, it was the fault of the State; but where Divines had good Livings, and did not keep Hospitality, the Governors of the Church were in fault if they did not exact it of them: Yet if he found in his Visitation an evil Churchman that spent vainly and riotously upon himself, he would tell him he was guilty of Sacrilege, and bound to make restitution to the Poor.  
But in all his own Entertainments his Lordship was as free and communicative of his Discourse as of his Cheer; the Mind had the principal share there, for he gave ever such excellent Sauce with his Meat, so many witty Apophthegms and other ingenious sallies of wit, as made every body eat with a better appetite. He loved to be a rational Feeder, not as at a Manger, but a Table, not much caring what his Provender was, for such was all kind of food without talk, Prandium Boum & Asinorum: and his discourse was not only cheerful and pleasant, but most learned and profitable, full of recondite and polite learning, that whoever heard presently became all ear, and was not only better the next day, but for ever. I have heard many affirm, that they never heard more learning from any man than from him, sometimes at the close of a Dinner, at a Table, or in his Arbour afterwards; and though he was very splendid in the Entertainment of his Friends, yet very sparing in the entertainment of himself; for himself he chose rather to have a Table replenished from an Orchard or a Dairy than from the Butcher's Shambles. To eat flesh he thought lawful from the beginning of the World, but never used by Seth's Posterity (the Line of the Church) before the Flood, and still recommended to all Scholars a plain Diet, to which, as Socrates said, hunger and thirst was the best sauce; and for his own part whenever he dined with any other Haugoust he lost the afternoon, and therefore drank so little wine, as to be almost abstemious, and always of a very small sort, and diluted with water for fear of fumes, that hindered his Studies and Prayers, saying withal that whoever eats and drinks temperately sacrifices to his own bodily health, and good temper of mind; but whoever eats and drinks otherwise, must needs have a gross body and a foggy brain.  
After he was made Bishop, it made no change of his former sweetness and affability, still he knew us, and we knew him, like a Star in the Firmament, quo altior eo minor, he rather seemed less to himself for being raised higher: Who ever once discovered insolency in him, or that he bore himself with a big carriage to any man? Humility with honour, and urbanity with high dignity were never more really conjoined, he would still instantly condescend to speak with any Scholar, though never so poor or young. Once when he lay in Channel-row during his Attendance upon Parliament, he rose at midnight and baptised a dying Child at a Neighbour's house, when the Curate of the Parish could not be found; and ever deemed humility was the infallible cognizance or mark to distinguish Apostolical Bishops from others, 
Bede Hist.  according to the old Story of Austin the Monk, who came into England in the time of King Ethelred 600 years after Christ, and pressed the West Britain's of this Island to receive him as their Master and Governor, because he was sent by the Bishop of Rome. A learned Abbot of Bangor having no fancy to his Message, consulted with an Hermit what they should think of this man, and his Message from Rome; harken (says the Hermit) the next time you and your Brethren meet to attend this Austin in Synod, observe if he show any reverence or carry himself humbly when he comes before you; but if he salute not, and bear himself disdainfully, receive him not, for he is no Apostle of Christ. At the next Synod the jolly Prelate entered among the Monks, with a braving courage, never stooped nor veiled his head, but usurped the highest place in the Congregation, as the Roman Legate: at this the Britain's disliked his Arrogancy, and would not receive his Message.  
Yet our good Bishop's humility appeared not only in his outward demeanour, and verbal salutation, which he knew were often forced, and more than was required, and that Rivers were not deepest where they overflow but in their own Channels: but in paying all due respect to the deserts of others without reflecting upon his own perfections; therefore it was not his fashion to undervalue other men's learning, or magnify his own. Upon frequent occasions he would confess his want of Eastern Languages, but in such studies wherein he was conversant, would by private letters give great help to many writers of books, who have confessed in their returns to him that the books were not theirs, but his, and thereupon would have had him to have owned them, or at least to have suffered an honourable mention of himself in those books which he would in no sort permit, that as Camerarius said of Melanchton, he was like a Nightingale, that with his singing sweetly affected all others, but would not endure to hear of it himself. 
Hist. vitae p. 80.   
Notwithstanding this great civility and sweetness of temper towards all people generally, we must acknowledge a vanity and defect in all humane accomplishments and perfections; it being not possible that almost 80 years should be spent in this Age of humane infirmity, and that any man's actions should be all fine flour, without mixture of coarser Meal and Bran; to say so, were not to commend, but to flatter, not truly to represent, but to dawb; our Bishop would often severely censure himself (and said he best knew his own heart) to be of sinners the chief, most unthankful to God for many Divine Talents conferred upon Him, and most wanting especially in many grains of meekness and forbearance to his Neighbours. Indeed he was by nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (as most great wits are) irritable and subject to great eruptions of anger oftentimes, especially if he had met with bold and arrogant, 
Apol. 1. adv. Ruff.  but slow parts. St. Hierom acknowledges the like harsh disposition in himself, and compares himself to an angry horned Beast, and says that all the strict Discipline of Bethlehem and Watchings of Arabia could not mortify this indecent passion in him. God Almighty permitting these most holy and learned men sometimes to betray themselves in such palpable weaknesses, does sufficiently convince us, 
dal. de usu patr.  that humane infirmity cleaves to humane nature, and absolute perfection belongs only to the Divine.  
Yet I will add, that as he was very irritable and apt to be offended, so he was exceeding placable and ready to be appeased; too generous he was to be vindicative, and therefore though he would chide earnestly, yet he ever censured mildly; like the Apostles who had fiery tongues, but gentle hands; besides it was his judgement, that if any man asked unreasonable things, it was much better to chide him away from his house for his fault, than give him good words and afterwards not do it: minus negatur qui negatur celeriter, and would always advise other people, if any thing troubled them to speak it out, and never to retain a dry discontent, and for the most part made his passion subservient to virtuous ends; by his great natural inclination to anger, becoming far more active and zealous in the carrying on his great projectments for piety and charity.  
For any other censures of being illiberal and covetous, which are so frequently and unduly cast upon Divines, examine his life, and few men will appear more incontaminat and free. In bad times when he had lost his best Incoms, and like the Widow of Sarepta, had but an handful of Meal and a Cruze of Oil left for himself and his Family, yet he then thought Elias was worthy of one Cake out of it, and accordingly has given a distressed friend twenty pounds at a time, and would always argue, that Times of persecution were the most proper seasons of charity, and that charity was oftentimes the happy means to preserve us from suffering; for Tyrants more commonly oppress the rich than their inopious Enemies; as the Historian observed in the days of Nero, Alium Thermae, alium Horti trucidarunt, many men might have fared better, but for delicious Gardens and sweet Baths; no man was safe that had a sumptuous Building, or an envied Possession; and therefore he believed it a prudent, as well as a religious act in the Primitive Church at Jerusalem, to surrender their Estates to the holy Apostles for pious uses, rather than to leave them to a violent extension of profane persons in a short time afterwards.  
When he was made a Bishop no man was less lucripetous, he desired to hold nothing in Commendam, he renewed all his Leases for years, and not for lives, and upon very moderate Fines, and spent a very considerable share thereof upon the repairs of his Cathedral, often applying to the Church what the Orator said of the Commonwealth, 
in Laelis.  Non minori mihi est curae qualis futura sit Respublica quam qualis est hodie; while he lived, besides his constant charity to the poor of Lichfield City, he enquired out distressed Cavaliers in his Diocese, and lent them 50 or 100 l. for a year or two upon their own Bill or Bond, and afterwards frequently gave it to them: And thus he did sometimes to persons of a differing Religion, with whom he held no Christian Communion but in this one thing of giving, and never looking to receive again. He reckoned that charitable Expenses left to the power and managment of Executors were more theirs than the Founders, and therefore was resolved to dispense his own in his life time, and not be like the Whale, that affords no Oil till she die and must disgorge it.  
To several Colleges in Cambridge he gave liberal sums of money, to Clare-Hall fifty pounds, to St. John's fifty pounds, to Trinity College he added a peculiar building called Bishops Hostile, which cost him 1200 l. and appointed, that with the yearly Rents of those Chambers Books should be bought into the College Library; and to the University Library he bequeathed by Will all his own Books, which cost him about 1500 l.  
It was his judgement that a Bishop was bound by ancient Canons to dispend his Episcopal Revenues in Acts of charity, and therefore no year passed without some eminent actions of that kind, which were never written in any Book upon Earth, the more certain that they are in Heaven. To the several Prisons in London he sent oftentimes good relief by a Friend, whom he ever straight charged to conceal from whence it came. When the Plague was in London he collected from his poor Diocese 351 l. by November Anno 65. for the City in that woeful time, besides what he sent particularly and bountifully to his old Parish of Holbourn from himself: And all this he did without being burdensome to his Clergy, ever giving them quick dispatch when they repaired to him for Institution, and gave in charge to dismiss them with very small Fees: Whenever he gave any of them preferment he was as clear from Simony as from Witchcraft, which he detested above all sins, and ever accounted it among the fatal Prognostics of a dying Church: 
2 Mach. 4.  When Jason outbid Onias, and Menelaus outbid Jason 300 Talents, it is set down as a prodigious token of the destruction of Jerusalem, and joined with the fiery Horsemen that appeared in the next Chapter to the same affrighting purpose. 
chap. 5.  Truth is, in his poor Church he had but few preferments to give, otherwise he would say, he would never suffer good Scholars to sit close in their Studies unpreferred, while others who less deserved sharkt them away. To give the best Preferments to the worst men was in his opinion to set the Goats on the right hand and the Sheep on the left, which would certainly hasten the Divine Judgement, which would decree righteousness. I will only add further upon this Head, that wherever any object commendable and deserving was represented to him, there needed not much speaking, his charity was Distillatio Favi, like the dropping of an Honeycomb, you need not press it, it would drop of itself, without straining: But for such as were Validi mendicantes, Vagabonds and sturdy Beggars, who had both health and limbs, and yet sought to eat their bread by the sweat of others, our Bishop never would encourage them; for by long acquaintance with Judges, he had heard they were generally Atheists, Libertines living in promiscuous lust, Pilferers, evil Servants to God, unprofitable to the King and Commonwealth, dishonorers of the Christian Name, and therefore sometimes was of the mind to go from the Church to the Quarter Sessions, and complain there that Gods heavy Judgements would fall upon that Kingdom where these were permitted.  
There never was a greater Enemy to idleness than this diligent and painful Bishop, who would seldom spare an afternoon; but nothing could divert him from his Morning study to his last, and say, he was then like a Frenchman, primo impetu acerrimus, best in a Morning, and that Aurora was the Mother of Hony-dews and Pearls, which dropped from Scholars Pens upon their Papers, and ever reckoned that he had great advantage of some great Divines, Dr. Holdsworth and Jeffries, his dear Friends, whom for their late watchings he called Noctuae Londinenses. But by a constant study he had searched into all kinds of learning; he had been a great enquirer into the knowledge of Nature, and made many peculiar observations of very many Creatures, especially Bees, Spiders, Snails, and of all sorts of Husbandry, and would often merrily say, since Husbandry was turned over to Swains and mean persons, the Earth disdained to give so luxuriant a Crop, as when it was turned up laureato vomere & triumphali aratro, 
Pliny.  by a laureate Ploughman, and one that had triumphed in the Capitol, and that it was much easier to be great and rich, than wise and learned; and if it were not below his Profession he would undertake to grow rich by Hops, having strange skill in the weather, and in the nature of the Plant, so that he had an extraordinary foresight when they were likely to take or not: 
Arist. pol. l. 7. Diog. Laert. in vitâ.  as Aristotle reports of Thales the wise man, that one year he bought up all the Oil before hand, when he foresaw the scarcity of the next; but the Bishop intended nothing but Philosophy, and therein the contemplation of the Creator of all things; asserting that the least creature beneath us was worthy the contemplation of our whole life, and yet would not be throughly understood, and that David worthily made a Choir of all Creatures to praise God from the greatest Angel in the Host of Heaven to the smallest Flake of Snow.  
In his younger time he had been much addicted to School-learning, being then much used in the University, but afterwards grew weary of it, and professed he found more shadows and names than solid juice and substance in it, and would much mislike their horrid and barbarous terms more proper for Incantation than Divinity, and became perfectly of B. Rhenanus his mind, 
In praef. ad Tert.  that the Schoolmen were rather to be reckoned Philosophers than Divines; but if any pleased to account them such, he had much rather with St. John Chrysostom be styled a pious Divine, than an invincible or irrefragable one with T. Aquinas, or our own Countryman Alex. Hales.  
For knowledge in the Tongues, he would confess, he could never fix upon Arabian learning, the place was siticulosa regio, a dry and barren land where no water is, and had been discouraged in his younger years by such as had plodded most in it, and often quarrelled his great friend Salmasius for saying, he accounted no man solidly learned without skill in Arabic, and other Eastern Languages, our Bishop declared his mind otherwise, and bewailed that many good Wits of late years prosecuted the Eastern Languages so much as to neglect the Western learning and discretion too sometimes; Mr. Selden and Bishop Creitton had both affirmed to him, that they should often read ten Pages for one line of sense, and one word of moment, and did confess there was no learning like to what Scholars may find in Greek Authors, as Plato, Plutarch, etc. and himself could never discern but that many of their quotations and proofs from them were in his own words, incerta, inexplorata, & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
After all this I would detain the Reader no longer in things of less concern, especially knowing it to be against his mind to permit any Picture of himself that could not represent him within, as well as without, approving what Plotinus said, that the other was only the Image of an Image, and in thirty years commonly out of fashion, and then grew ridiculous, and served only to make people laugh: yet he had one taken by stealth, to which I will add only a touch or two (as is usual) quia me juvat ire per omnem Heroa.  
He was of bodily stature small and slender, in all parts clean and well shapen, of a very serene and comely countenance, vivid eyes, with a rare alacrity and suavity of aspect, representing the inward candour and serenity of his mind: the temper of his body was rather delicate than strong, yet through temperance and custom, grown patient of long sitting and hard study: His voice was ever wonderful sweet and clear, so that Dr. Collins would say, he had the finest Bell in the University, and in one of his Speeches termed him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, i. e. Canora Cicada: 
Hesiod in Scut. Here. & in diebus.  His behaviour was most gentile and civil, no Courtier carried a better mien, nor better understood the Art of behaviour, which though fortuitous and contingent to him, yet much became him in all company. His Apparel was ever plain, not morose or careless, but would never endure to be costly upon himself, either in Habit or Diet, often quoting that of St. Austin, Profectò de pretiosa veste erubesco, he was as much ashamed of a rich Garment as others of a poor one, and thought that they were fitter for a Roman Consul than a Christian Praesul, and accordingly never put on a silk Cassock but at a great Festival, or a Wedding of some near Friend, holding that a glittering Prelate without inward Ornaments was but the Paraphrase of a painted Wall; 
Acts 23.3.  and on the other side, if the Graces of the Mind could be seen, the Beauties of the Body would seem but deformities, nothing being so fair, and to be admired, as the lustre of Divine knowledge, the eye of the soul attended with a fair hand of suitable practice. These two were like Tabor and Hermon, the two stately tops of the Soul, that reach to Heaven itself: And indeed though he had great comeliness and elegance of body, his Divine Soul within was fairer than the lodging without.  
When he was young he had a most lively and acute wit, which rendered him acceptable to all companies, but ever tempered with wisdom and learning, that rendered him more acceptable to the Best; and with it he had a prodigious and immortal memory, whereby he ever bore about him a constant Chronicle of all occurrences, that he was able to give a present account of whatsoever he had at any time read, heard, or seen; even all remarkable alterations and changes of weather that had been in his time were as present to his memory, as if he had seen them written in the Air before his eyes; yet all these no man valued less than he in comparison of his higher accomplishments. He abounded not barely with great learning, acute wit, excellent judgement and memory, but with an incomparable integrity, prudence, justice, piety, charity, constancy to God and to his Friend in adversity, and in his friendship was most industrious and painful to fulfil it with good offices, and withal so ready and able upon all occasions to give good counsel, that he to whomsoever God gave that Favour of his Lordship had a blessing scarce valuable.  
Yet notwithstanding all these Endowments King Solomon's words are true in regard of the body, 
Eccls. 9.2. Psal. 49 10.  There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked, and wise men must also die as well as the ignorant and foolish; and the time was now come that this wise and good Bishop must die. He had finished both Church and Choir, which he beautified with most comely Stalls of exquisite workmanship, and had likewise set up an excellent Organ, the whole Appartements about it, Pipes, Gild, Wainscot-case, etc. cost above 600 l. being a great lover of Church-music, and would much bewail the people's ignorance and fierceness, who loved Guns more than Organs; or else their lasciviousness, that would pull them out of Churches, and set them up in Taverns, and choose rather to sing in Babylon than in Zion. And the last of his Lordship's cares for that Church was for the Bells; he had contracted with very able Founders for six excellent Bells fitting for a Cathedral, which his Executor set up, though three only were cast before his death, and only one (viz.) the Tenor hanged up, which had not been hung so soon, but that his Lordship called upon the Workmen to do it. The first time it was rung his Lordship was very weak, yet he went out of his own Bedchamber into the next Room to hear it, and seemed very well pleased with the sound, and blessed God that had favoured him with life to hear it, but withal concluded it would be his own Passing Bell, and so retired to his Chamber, and never came out till he was carried to his Grave.  
He had done his work, and he must depart to the Church Triumphant. He often said by a kind of presage many years before his death, that some odd October would part us, he felt his body more weak at that Autumnal season then any other, and could not have held out so long, but that he was forced to fly to Physic and Diet to corroborate, or rather keep him from sinking every Spring and fall. Accordingly he sickened upon St. Luke's day October 18. and died upon St. 
Anno 1670.  Simon and Judes day following, aged 78 years, the just time of Athanasius and St. Hierom of old, according to Baronius.  
Within a fortnight before his death he remitted nothing of his former studies; when he was first taken sick he did not conceive it to be mortal, and therefore sent the week before he died to a Friend in London to send him down the new Books from abroad or at home: But being ever upon his Watch-Tower, when he perceived God beckoned Him to come away, than he laid aside his Books, and all Communication or thoughts concerning any temporal matter; his heart was fixed, and not to be removed, from the great Object of Eternal life. He would say to his Visitants, he was a decaying old man, and desire them to avoid the Room; where in confession of his sins he was ever most humble, in godly sorrow most contrite, in prayer most assiduous, in faith most steadfast, in suffering his sickness most patient, in desiring to be unclothed of the Body most joyful and content: He showed no fear of death, not the least sign of any perturbation of mind for his approaching end; but rather rejoiced that the day of the Lord was come, which he had so often desired; and as G. Nazianzen in his Funeral Sermon for St. Basil, rejoices that he died 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, with godly sayings in his mouth, in like manner did our godly Bishop so conclude his days in this world as he looked to begin them in the next, that the end of this life should be suitable to the beginning of the other, and that his last words he breathed forth here should have a good connexion with his first addresses when he saw God face to face there: therefore being in perfect sense he sent for one of his Prebendaries to come and pray with him, who after some holy conference, read the Office appointed for the Sick; after that his Lordship desired him to add two Collects, naming first that for the second Sunday in Lent, and then afterward that for the first Sunday after Trinity (both most pertinent to that great occasion) and then to give the Blessing: which being done he thanked him heartily with a faltering speech, whereby the Company plainly perceived, that with the end of his Prayers he drew near the end of his mortal life, and desired to be left alone; and so all departed the Room save a couple of Servants, who within half a quarter of an hour gave notice of his placid departure, with as gentle a transmigration to happiness as I think was ever heard of.  
Thus I have declared sincerely the Life, the Sickness, the Departure of this worthy Christian Prelate, who lived as good men desire to live, and as many men, that are but shadows, appear to live; and then departed with as easy an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as any man could desire to die.  
His Funerals only remain, which were performed by the Reverend and Learned Dr. Scattergood his Lordship's Chaplain, in the Cathedral Church, where He was interred near the Body of his Predecessor Bishop Langthon, as old people said, both great Benefactors to that Church, under a fair Tomb erected by the Piety of the most accomplished Sir Andrew Hacket his Eldest Son and Heir both of his Estate and Virtues.  
He was attended thither by multitudes of the Loyal Gentry and sorrowful Clergy of his Diocese, all desirous to pay the utmost deuce and rights they were able to his Memory, thinking no Flowers too sweet for his Hearse, and no Box of Ointment too costly for his Burial, all admiring his past Diligence, 
Aeneid. 11.  sage Government, admirable Ministrations, and bewailing the great and universal loss by his Death; Quantum praesidium Ausonia, & quantum Tu perdis jule!  
O Diocese of Lichfield, what a Father hast thou lost! O University of Cambridge, what a Friend! O House of Aaron, what an Ornament! O Church of England, what a Saint! Sic ora ferebant.  
But we will no more deplore his Death, or repine that He is taken from us, but rather rejoice and give God thanks that we ever had Him, and that He lived so long with us.  
This World was not worthy of Him, who was fitter Company for Angels and Stars of Heaven, than Clods of dust and blood below; and therefore God took Him from this Dunghill to stand before his Throne; Where we leave thee (blessed Soul) among the Angelical Choir, joyful in the illumination of the holy Trinity, and ravished with thy contemplation of the Divine and unconceivable glory.  
We will endeavour not only to read and admire, but practise all thy holy Counsels, which now sound more loud from thy Books and Writings, than they formerly did from thy rare Discourses and Preachings.  
We ascribe the glory of all to God, and will compose ourselves to imitate thy Graces and Virtues (O Divine Hacket) whose Name is renowned, and Memory for ever blessed.  
And will hereafter listen with patience for the voice of the Archangel and Trump of God, for the Resurrection of the Dead, the Renovation of the World, the Creation of the New Heaven and New Earth at the glorious appearing of Christ Jesus with all his holy Angels and Saints; and then in the Number of godly Prelates and faithful Doctors of the Christian Church I shall see again my Bishop and Father, and hope to be seen of Him in Glory. AMEN.  
Come Lord Jesus, come quickly.   

 tomb effigy of John Hacket 
OPTIMO PATRI PIENTISSIMUS FILIUS ANDREAS HACKET MILES, F. F.    


JOANNIS HACKET Episc. Lichf. & Coventr. cinerib. sacrum.  
PRimaevae pietatis 
 Et summae eloquentiae Praesulem, 
 Ecclesiae Anglicanae & fidei orthodoxae 
 Assertorem strenuum, 
 Concionatorem etiam ad ultimum assiduum, 
 Et 
 Superstitionis Babylonicae tam maturum hostem, 
 Vt penè in cunis straverit Loyolitas; 
 (Raro exemplo 
 Vt Poeta praeluderet Theologo) 
 Vitae denique integritate, & innocentiâ, 
 Morum suavitate & candore, 
 Charitate ergà pauperes eximiâ, 
 Et liberalitate erga suos insignem typum; 
 (Verbo omnia) 
 Joh. Williams Metropol. Ebor. Patroni sui Ectypum, 
 (Desine ulterius quaerere) 
 Ista omnia Tabula haec unico in Hacketo exhibet. 
 Adversus positum caetera marmor habet. 
 Obiit 28. Oct. 1670. sub anno aetatis suae 79.   

Sistamus ergo! 
 Morae pretium est scire, 
 Quis demum Langthono claudit latus? 
 Solus HACKETUS tanto dignus contubernio; 
 Cujus piae liberalitati debetur, 
 Quod Langthoni cineres non frigescunt. 
 Aedis Cathedralis Lichfieldiae Instanrator illic, 
 Restaurator hìc jacet. 
 Ecclesiae Anglicanae antistitum par ingens, 
 Eóque ingentius quòd sibimet pares. 
 Scire vis Lector, 
 quam multis ille bonis flebilis occidit? 
 Schola regia Westmonast. Alumnum, 
 Collegium SS. Trinitatis Cantabr. Socium, 
 Ecclesia S. Andreae Holbourn Quadragenarium Rectorem, 
 Et Cheam in agro Surriensi Quadragenarium Rectorem, 
 Aedes D. Pauli Residentiarium, 
 Sedes haec Episcopalis dignissimum sibi 
 Praesulem abreptum deflet. 
 Sed ludo te, Viator, 
 Dum inter mortuos refero 
 Eum VIRUM 
 Quem restauratae Pauli reliquiae, & Ceddae ruinae, 
 Quem Hospitium Episcopale SS. Trin. Coll. de novo extructum, 
 Et Cantabr. Bibliotheca libris cumulatè aucta, 
 Longum dabunt superstitem.   

At the head of the Statue upon the Monument is ingraved  
I will not suffer mine eyes to sleep,— till I have found out a place for the Temple of the Lord. Psal. 132.  
At the Feet,  
Quam speciosa vestigia 
 Evangelizantium pacem.  
The Motto of the Coat at the Head of the Tomb,  
Zelus domus tuae exedit me.  
On the opposite Coat at the Feet,  
Inservi Deo & laetare.  
Upon the Grave-stone (that covers the Body) in the Isle contiguous to the Monument,  
JOHANNES HACKET, Episcopus Lichf. & Coventr. heic situs est.    

THE FIRST SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION.  LUKE two. 7. 
And she brought forth her first born Son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a Manger, because there was no room for them in the Inn, etc.  
THis is a part of that joyful news which God did impart at first unto the Angels, which the Angels in the twelfth ver. did reveal unto the Shepherds, which the Shepherds in the seventeenth verse made known abroad, and thereby at first, perchance, it came to St. Luke, which St. Luke made known in this Gospel to the Church; which the Church from time to time hath delivered unto us; which I at this day deliver unto you, and which you must tell unto your Children, that one Generation may comfort another with it unto the ends of the World. I am in love with my Text; but how shall I open and dilate my joy upon it? No, that most venerable name Mary, the blessed Mother of our Lord, knew not how to do it. For although when Gabriel brought tidings unto her, that she should conceive, than she could come out with a strange word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as if her spirit friskt and danced within for gladness; yet upon the birth no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would serve the turn, the joy was too big for the Language of man to deliver. How shall we then express ourselves for the honour of the day? Preaching is our present business; but words were too little, and therefore the Angels turned Musicians and sung it; Music was not enough, and therefore Wise men brought Gifts unto the Cradle; Neither were Gifts the way, for you may see by the cratch and the swaddling clouts that He affected Poverty. The Tongues of men, that is Preaching and Prayer; the Tongues of Angels, that is Music and sing; the courteous Gifts of the Eastern men, Gold, Myrrh, and Frankincense, all are fit for the solemnity of these twelve days, but not all sufficient.  
This happy day made an end of the woeful Captivity of the Sons of men under sin and Satan. See how far David went, when none but the Tribe of Judah came back from the Captivity of Babylon, When the Lord turned the Captivity of Zion, then were we like to them that dream. This is the greatest strain of joy, as we may interpret it. I do not mean that we should doubt whether we were verily preserved from the captivity of Sin by the birth of Christ, whether it were so indeed, or but a dream, like the Poets amorous fancy, Credimus? an qui amant, ipsi sibi somnia fingunt? 
Eclog. 8. Lib. 33.  or as Livy said of the Grecians when the Romans sent them unexpected liberty after their hard thraldom, Mirabundi velut somni speciem arbitrabantur, they were amazed as if they were not awake, but sleeping: but I would have your Soul transported as it were with an Ecstasy of devotion, as if Zeal and the Love of Jesus Christ put you in a dream; imagine strongly that this day is not the Anniversary to be celebrated after many years, but the very day itself of Christ's Nativity. Cannot you think that this Church is the Cratch that received the Babe? O cui cuncta possunt invidere marmora. Cannot you think yourselves to be those Shepherds whom the Angels sent of the good Errand, to look out a Saviour? Who had not rather be one of them Shepherds than any King in the world? Then strongly possess your souls that you see the Son of God; that you stand over him and behold him, as he is wrapped in swaddling clouts, lying in a Manger. O that we could so deeply persuade our Soul that this Text is no report, but a vision before our eyes. So we must do, or else it is not full Christmas joy, it is no true Angelical devotion.  
And then you shall see in this verse Mary laid of her Child: O the passing exaltation for flesh and blood to be such a Mother, and the Child laid in a Manger. O the wonderful humiliation of the eternal God to be such a Son! But that every part of the Text may be handled apart by itself in his own order I will insist upon these five things: 1. Here is the strange condition of the Mother, Et illa peperit, and she brought forth a Son, who by nature was no bearer, for she was a Virgin. 2. The strange condition of the Babe, ejus primogenitus, the first begotten of God was the first born Son of flesh and blood. 3. The strange condition of the Birth, that it was without the curse of woman, without the pangs of travail; the Fathers collect it from hence, that as soon as the Babe was born she could wrap him in swaddling clouts, a manifest sign that there was no debility or weakness in her. 4. The strange condition of the place of the Nativity, She laid him in a Manger. Lastly, the strange condition of men, that there was no room in the Inn for Jesus and Mary; these are the parts of my Text: With great reverence be it spoken, I may call them the swaddling clouts wherewith I must wrap my Saviour.  
First, Let us consider the strange condition of a maiden Mother, Et illa peperit, and she brought forth a Son, who by nature was no bearer, for she was a Virgin. A Doctrine which the Heathen and Pagan men will not admit, and which the Incredulous Jew to this day after his manner derides. The Heathen were so confident that a Virgin could not bring forth, that as Orosius reports, when Augustus Caesar had rest round about from all his enemies, He shut up the Gates of Janus his Temple, and called it the Temple of peace; and enquiring from their Oracles of Sorcery how long it should stand shut; it was answered, Quousque Virgo pariet, until the time that a Virgin brings forth a Son. The Messengers thought this answer to be, as if he had said, 
Oros. lib. 6. c. 20.  it should stand shut for ever: and so they wrote upon the Gates, Templum pacis aeternum, The Temple of peace was eternal. Let me dispute the case with a mere natural man, How doth the harvest of the field enrich the Husbandman? It is answered, By the Seed which was sown in the ground. Say again, How came Seed into the world to sow the ground? Surely you must confess, that the first Seed had a Maker, who did not derive it from the Ears of Wheat, but made it of nothing by the power of his own hand; Qui sine seminibus operatur semina, etc. says St. Austin, 
Ep. 3.  than God could make a man without the Seed of man in the Virgin's womb, who made Seed for the corn before ever there was ear-ring or harvest. Nay, there is an instance for it in the little Bees, as the Poet doth Philosophise, they do not bring forth their young ones, as other Creatures do, by the help of Male and Female together; but they gather the seed which begets the young ones from the dew of leaves, 
Vir. Geor lib. 4.  and herbs, and flowers, and so they bring them forth. Nec concubitu indulgent nec corpora segnes in Venerem solvunt, and therefore the Bee by some is called the Emblem of Virginity.  
And as for the unbelieving Jew, the darkness and blindness of his heart cannot put out the light of Isaiahs' Prophecy, Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son; for what though the word in the Original signify not only a Virgin, but any woman of a young and tender age? 
Isa. 7.14.  Yet in that place, as St. Hierom says very well, it must be nomen integritatis non aetatis, a name of Virginal integrity, and not of young age, or else you drown the astonishment which the Prophet doth so much exaggerate and amplify. I will give you a Sign; why, what sign is it for a young woman to bear a Child? 
St. Aust. Ser. 6. de Nat.  No extraordinary one I am sure. Nay, says he, Ecce Virgo, behold and wonder at it. Behold a Miracle which shall never be wrought but once in the world. This was Virga Aaron florida, nec humectata; Aaron's Rod which was not watered, and yet being a dry stick, which had the help of no sap to make it fruitful, it flourished and put out, and brought forth fruit: So this maiden Mother knew no man, 
Lib. Moral. 1.18. c. 33.  she did not conceive after the manner of women, but by the power of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost shall overshadow thee, says Gabriel. Bene dictum est obumbrabit, says Gregory, Vmbra enim a lumine formatur & corpore, i. e. A Deo & Virgin. The world is full of expression, which says the Holy Ghost shall overshadow her; for a shadow is caused by the resplendency of Light, and the opacity of a gross body standing between: So Christ, who is the shadow of our refuge, under which we stand to couch ourselves from the scorching anger of God's wrath, he was conceived in the womb of the blessed Virgin, that was the body, the Light of Heaven, and the Holy Ghost reflecting upon it. Verbum fuit pater ejus & auditus mater, says Fulgentius; Upon the word of the Salutation of the Angel, and by the Ear of Mary that heard the word, between these two alone he was made man, and they were unto him like as a Father, and a Mother.  
St. Austin says very sweetly that this admirable Creature Mary the Mother of our Lord is in this verse like unto the Church of Christ; the Church is often called a Virgin, the Virgin the Daughter of Zion. ay, 
Sermo. de Temp. 1 9  but since so many faithful Sons are born unto the Church by the Preaching of the Gospel, how can they be the Sons of the Church, or the Church their Mother, if she be still a Virgin? Very fitly and conveniently as he answers, Virgo est & parit, Mariam imitatur quae Dominum peperit; the Church is a Virgin, and yet fruitful of Children; for she is like the Mother of our Lord, who was a Virgin Mother. Why God did make this choice, I mean why he chose this Blessed Virgin of the line of David to carry her own Redeemer and ours in her Womb before all the daughters of women, ask in God's name, and seek the reason; but let this be the ground upon which you build, Sapientia aedificavit sibi domum, Prov. 9.1. Wisdom did build herself an house, God did befit himself with so clean a vessel as there was not a more heavenly creature upon earth, neither since nor before her: and such a Virgin was the purest casket which might be found wherein to lay up the gem of the world. The very body of Christ without the soul was laid up in a tomb, wherein never Corpse were laid before, in a new Tomb, and reason good; for though the soul was flitted away, yet the union between the Body and the Divine Nature was not dissolved: and therefore his Sepulchre was a new Sepulchre which was never seasoned with man before. O then when the living Body and the Godhead were united into one person, very meet and requisite it was that no Child should ever take up that Womb before the Son of God; the son of a sinner was not first to possess that place which was ordained for the Son of God. Moreover as the Woman Mary did bring forth the Son who bruised the Serpent's head, which brought sin into the world by the woman Eve, so the Virgin Mary was the occasion of Grace, as the Virgin Eve was the cause of Damnation: Eve had not known Adam as yet when she was beguiled, and seduced the man; so Mary had not known Joseph, Et illa peperit, and she brought forth her first born Son. And thus you see Sapientia adificavit sibi domum, wisdom did build herself an house.  
To make some use of this point unto ourselves, we see how well the Womb of the Virgin Mary did fit the Birth of Christ: but will you know what manner of house wisdom doth build unto herself, even unto this day? Our Saviour was so well pleased with a Virgin-dwelling for once, that ever since he loves to abide and dwell in a Virgin, and unpolluted heart. Cor simplex est cor Virgineum, a plain dealing heart, such a one as jacob's was: a charitable well-meaning heart is a single heart that hath no guile; such a one is in travel with Christ. Cor duplex est cor adulterum, an hypocrites heart that hath two faces and speaks with two tongues, he conceives mischief, and brings forth ungodliness; this is an adulterous heart: and as concerning the heart of the hypocrite, and malicious, if any man say, lo here is Christ, or lo there is Christ, believe them not. Beloved you see how curiously every feathered Fowl makes a nest to lay her young one, art and reason are not able to make such a work, as the ingenuity of Nature doth; wherefore let it not irk you once again to hearken how to prepare a nest wherein to lay your Saviour; Grace is more choice and curious than either Art or Nature. Still I am resolved it must be a Virgin's breast that is fruitful to bring forth Christ; but in my sense Zacheus was a Virgin; and perchance living in the state of Wedlock. Nay Marry Magdalen was a Virgin in this acception, though sometimes a Sinner given to the flesh: yet Anna the ancient Widow may pass for this Virgin without a Paradox: For as a Virgin is at the dispose of her Father to be given and betrothed, so is the virgin soul altogether into the will of God: and surely in a sort Christ himself is there, for it hath conceived by the Holy Ghost.  
Nothing is wanting that this soul so form into obedience should be answerable unto Mary; but as we read of her, it must be of the house and lineage of David. Saint Chrysostom said of David's heart, it was volumen charitatis, a volume of love and charity, always chanting and singing zeal and devotion, to let your heart say according to the tune of his heart, My heart is fixed O God, my heart is fixed, I will sing and give praise, as if it could not be removed from God nor God from it; and than it is of the house and lineage of David. I have said enough I think to show what is in some competent sort proportionable in a good Christian to the virginity of Mary, that his soul may be made fit to bring forth Christ. St. Bernard calls me back a little, Respexit Dominus humilitatem Mariae non virginitatem, Mary confessed herself that God regarded her lowliness, and not her virginity. Et illa peperit, and the lowly handmaid brought forth the Babe of exceeding glory. Hail thou that art highly favoured, says the Angel: yea but thrice hail thou that art lowly minded: Etiam in coelo stare non potuit superba sublimitas, if we will not beware of pride by the fall of men whose examples are often seen, why take heed of it by the fall of Angels. Heaven would not let pride be unpunished in Lucifer but threw it lower than the earth. Christ would not let great humility be unrewarded in Mary, but exalted it I may say above the heavens; for so you shall perceive by the second part of my Text the strange condition of the child. Et illa peperit promigenitum, etc.  
It was Nicodemus his problem which he propounded to our Saviour, Iterum potest homo nasci? Can a man be born again, or the second time? that which is impossible to Nicodemus is true in the person of our Saviour; 
John 3.  for he that was the first begotten of God before all worlds, is Ejus primogenitus, at a second birth he is become the first born Son of Mary: 
De Nata. Dom. Serm. 16.  De victo genere sumsit hominem per quem generis humani vinceret inimicum, says St. Austin. The Devil thought that at one skirmish in the Garden of Eden he had made a perfect conquest over the poor nature of man, flesh and blood could never rise up again to take arms against him: His malice was like Caligula's, that wished all the subjects of the Roman Empire had but one head upon their shoulders, that at one blow he might destroy the whole generation; but de Victo genere, as the Father said, Christ mannageth the quarrel between us and Satan, so fairly and indifferently, that he took upon him not the substance of Angels, but even the flesh which was overcome, that in the same Nature he might destroy our enemies. The Potter may make what vessels do like him best out of his own clay. But how strangely was the wheel turned about when the Clay did make the Potter; was it not enough to make man after the image of God, but moreover to make God after the image and likeness of man? was it not enough that the breath of the Lord should be made a living soul for man, but that the eternal word of God should be made Flesh; 
Bernard.  utinam sicut verbum caro factum est, ita cor nostrum fiat carneum, O that as the word was made flesh, so our stony hearts, as the Prophet says, may be made flesh, that we may believe and glorify this wonderful generation; but the manner of this generation is a secret of God, within the rail, and I will not touch it.  
Let it suffice us to know concerning her firstborn. 1. That he was never called the Son of the Holy Ghost, though he were conceived by him. 2. That among all those of the genealogy from whom he descended, especially he is called the Son of David and Abraham: But 3. by the nearest interest he was Ejus primogenitus the firstborn Son of Mary. Touching the first, it is an Article of our Creed, that the Holy Ghost was the active principle of the generation of Christ; and why then was he not called his Father? because to be the father of another thing is not enough to be the active principle of it: for even the Sun is the active cause that produceth Worms and Flies, and all those which are called insecta animalia, and yet it is not called the father of those creatures; but a father must beget a thing according to his own kind and species; and therefore Christ was born after the species and nature of the Woman, whereby he is called not the Son of the Holy Ghost, but the Son of Mary.  
Again, as for the next thine observed in the Preface of St. Matthew's Gospel among all those that belong to the line of our Saviour's Parentage, the persons especially picked out are David and Abraham; which was the Son of David, which was the Son of Abraham, and that for this reason, though Christ came from the loins of many others. St. Luke counts 77 descents between Adam and Christ, yet the words of promise benedicentur in semine tuo, it was only spoke unto Abraham and David, that in their seed, that is in Christ all the Kingdoms of the earth should be blessed: And therefore Abraham and David were known by name above others: It was in every man's mouth that the Messias should come out of their stock; the Oath which he swore to our forefather Abraham says Zachary in his Song; 
Maldonat. Lyra, Tostatus.  and blind men and beggars had it at their finger's end, Son of David have mercy on us. The more to illustrate this, you must know that there was a twofold root or foundation of the Children of Israel for their temporal being: 
2 Kings 13.28.  Abraham was the root of the people; the Kingdom was rend from Saul, and therefore David was the root of the Kingdom; among all the Kings in the Pedigree none but He hath the name, 
2 Kings 8.19.  and Jesse begat David the King, and David the King begat Solomon; and therefore so often as God did profess to spare the people, though He were angry, He says he would do it for Abraham's sake: So often as He professeth to spare the Kingdom of Judah, He says he would do it for his Servant David's sake. So that ratione radicis, as Abraham and David are roots of the People and Kingdom, especially Christ is called the Son of David, the Son of Abraham; and to say no more, their Faith in the Incarnation of Christ is of some moment in this point. 
De Incarnate.  David having obtained the name to be called the Prophet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, because he doth so fully express the Birth and Passion of our Saviour; and Abraham's faith is most notable in that one instance says Fulgentius, when He made Eleezer his Steward, put his hand under his thigh, and take an oath in the name of the Lord, not that he thought there was any connexion between his own flesh and the God of heaven, Sed ut ostenderet Deum coeli ex eâ carne nasciturum, but to show that the blessed Babe of Mary should descend lineally from his Loins.  
Who in the third place by the nearest interest, is called Ejus primogenitus, the firstborn Son of Mary. Non quod post eum alius, sed quod ante eum nemo, says St. Austin: not called the firstborn Son as the eldest of them Sons that followed, but as being the first fruits of a Virgin-womb that had none before nor after; here is Isaiahs' Prophecy, Puer natus nobis, a Child born unto us; Natus est non sibi Christus, sed mihi, for He was born not for himself, but for me, and for all the Faithful. Here is Jeremy's Prophecy, Mulier circundabit virum, that a woman shall compass a man; Jer. 31.22. The Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, a woman shall compass a man. For Isaiahs' Child is called a Man in Jeremiah, Insinuans, ei nunquam defuisse virtutem, because in the very swaddling clouts he came forth, not as a weak Infant, but full of power and virtue, as a Giant to run his course. He grew on indeed, says St. Austin, from an infant to a man, but never to be an old man, Crescat & fides tua robur inveniat, vetustatem nesciat. So let thy faith wax more and more; let it come to perfection, and maturity, but never unto old age, as if it drooped and were declining.  
I come to the third strange condition of the Birth, it was without travel, or the pangs of woman, as I will show you out of these words, Fasciis involvit, that she wrapped him in swaddling clouts, and laid him in a Manger. Ipsa genitrix, fuit & obstetrix, says St. Cyprian, Mary was both the Mother and the Midwife of the Child; far be it from us to think that the weak hand of the woman could facilitate the work which was guided only by the miraculous hand of God. The Virgin conceived our Lord without the Lusts of the flesh, and therefore she had not the pangs and travel of women upon her, she brought him forth without the curse of the flesh. These be the Father's comparisons, As Bees draw honey from the flower without offending it, as Eve was taken out of Adam's side without any grief to him, as a sprig issues out of the bark of the tree, as the sparkling light from the brightness of the Star, such ease was it to Mary to bring forth her firstborn Son; and therefore having no weakness in her body, feeling no want of Vigour, she did not deliver him to any profane hand to be dressed, but by a special ability, above all that are newly delivered, she wrapped him in swaddling clouts. Gravida, sed non gravabatur, she had a burden in her womb, before she was delivered, and yet she was not burdened: for her journey which she took so instantly, before the time of the Child's birth from Nazareth to Bethlem was above forty miles, and yet she suffered it without weariness or complaint, for such was the power of the Babe, that rather he did support the Mother's weakness than was supported; and as he lightened his Mother's travel by the way from Nazareth to Bethlem that it was not tedious to her tender age, so he took away all her dolour and imbecility from her travel in Childbirth, and therefore she wrapped him in swaddling clouts.  
Now these clouts here mentioned which were not worth the taking up, but that we find them in this Text, are more to be esteemed than the Robes of Solomon in all his Royalty; yea, more valuable than the beauty of the Lily, or any Flower of the field or garden, which did surpass all the Royalty of Solomon. I may say they are the Pride of Poverty, for I know not in what thing poverty may better boast and glory than in the rags of Christ. His tears are no comfort to them that laugh; his Crach in the Manger is no comfort to them that affect the highest rooms in the Synagogues; his want is no comfort to them that are rich; his mean apparel is no comfort to our costly garments: but this is a comfort to them that want clothing to cover their Nakedness, that Christ himself was wrapped in swaddling clouts. He triumphed over poverty in this poor and base Array, says St. Austin, as truly and verily as he triumphed over death. Now death was conquered by Christ, not that we should not die at all, but that we should vanquish death by the Resurrection: So Poverty was thus led captive, and overcome, Non ut omnino essugeamus, sed ut majori letitia toleremus; not that we should never sustain it, but that we should sustain it cheerfully, and with patience. This was but the beginning of sorrow, to be tenderly bound up in warm clothes, there is a worse binding to come when the high Priests Servants shall find him in the Garden, and lead him away bound like a Malefactor; Feret aspera grandior aetas vincula cum palmam clavus utramque premet, says a Christian Poet; his hands will be straiter bound when they are pinned to the Cross with Nails and Iron; for as the blood which he spent at Circumcision was but an earnest of those drops which he should shed at his Passion: So this wrapping and swaddling of his Arms and Legs was but a representation how he should yield up all his Limbs to be bound unto the Cross.  
O behold this thing, you that think it no Christmas without bravery upon your backs, these were our Saviour's clothes for this good time, he had no other gaudy Garments; but take up the fringe of your own Coats, look upon the Ornaments you wear, and tell me what Saviour it is you imitate; you lay all you can upon your backs to celebrate his first coming into the world, which was in baseness and poverty. I pray you what would you be willing to put on when you shall meet him at his second coming in the clouds? O than our mortal shall be swallowed up of immortality: and as holy Nazianzen says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, nakedness is all the clothing we shall put on at the day of the great Resurrection. Blessed Mary, says St. Austin, began betimes to let her Babe see nothing but modesty about him. Nunc mulieres cum lacte in cunis superbiam infantibus instillant; Now adays, says he, our women do so nuzzle their little Imps in their Cradle, that they suck in vanity as soon as they take the dug; and for the most part (let men be so base to follow it if they will) all our gay fashions come from some she inventrix, as Synesius says of the Wife of Triphon, that it was all her ambition, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to have the name of the curious Lady, and that all fashions were warranted by her invention; when by their leaves I think it is as little for their reputation, as it was for Anak to find out Mules.  
Thus I have followed the stream, not departing from the common adnotation upon this place, which says that Christ did consecrate, and as it were sanctify Poverty by this instance, that he was wrapped in swaddling clouts: which is not so to be understood, I think, as if the first Linen Ephod, which was so happy to apparel the great High Priest of the Church, had been some base or wragged piece of cloth. For beloved, to do all due right to the ever blessed Virgin, she was not ignorant what a heavenly burden she bore, she knew that after the custom of women the time of her deliverance was at hand; she understood the Scriptures as well as the high Priests and Scribes that Christ must be born in Bethlem of Judah, the place to which she went to be taxed with Joseph her husband. Can we then imagine but that this most religious Mother had made preparation for such a Child, and had furnished herself against their journey, Cum lineis pannis purissimis, utpote partus conscia, with the purest fine linen clothes, because she knew the hour of the most happy Nativity was at hand? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says the Greek Text; in one word, she swaddled him up, but sure with all observance, and reverend decency.  
But the poor and abject estate into which this Kingly Babe was cast as soon as he was born will appear most clearly by the fourth circumstance of the Text, the strange condition of the place of his Nativity, 
1 Kings 3.17.  She laid him in a Manger. And will the Lord dwell upon earth, says Solomon when he had dedicated unto his name the most augustious Temple in the world; Was a question made concerning such a Magnificent house, whether it were fit for the Lord? Then what say you to this grot? This Manger of the Stable? As Seneca said of Caius Marius, when he was turned abroad to seek his lodging among the flags of the Fens, Quis eum fuisse consulem aut futurum crederet? Who would ever think that a man who shrouded his head in so mean a place had been the great Consul of Rome before, or should be Consul again? So he that should find Christ in such a despicable corner of a Room where beasts did feed, who could think that it was that God that created the World before, or should judge the World hereafter? But to say the truth, was he not safer among the beasts than he could be elsewhere in all the Town of Bethlem? His enemies perchance would say unto him as Jael did to Sisera, Turn in, turn in my Lord, when she purposed to kill him; as the men of Keilah made a fair show to give David all courteous hospitality, but the issue would prove, if God had not blessed him, that they mean to deliver him into the hands of Saul that sought his blood. So there was no trusting of the Bethlemites, who knows but that they would have prevented Judas, and betrayed him for thirty pieces of Silver unto Herod? More humanity is to be expected from the beasts than from some men, and therefore she laid him in a Manger.  
Do not your bowels yearn, Beloved, to make Christ some amends for this poor entertainment? Do not you persuade yourselves if you had been in Bethlem it should not have been so as it was? Your Zeal is good, and there is no time lost to do it yet. Non erat ei nisi angustia in terris, ut tu ei locum cordis tui proprium dilatares. Christ was straightened for room in the Inn, and thrust into the Stable, that you might open your heart wide, and enlarge it, to give him an habitation to content him. The heart of an Heretic, the heart of a profane person is more loathsome, more unfit for Christ than any Manger in the world; between such a polluted sink of iniquity, and this Manger as it was adorned, there was no comparison. It was the recreation which the old Friars had in their Monastical Cells, to write lies; Legends are for the most part fabulous, and I had as lief believe the dreams of a sick man as believe all the story of our Saviour's birth which goes under the name of St. Bridget: Yet I am altogether inclined to think, that the Stable wherein Christ was born was so beautified for the time with the light of heaven, which did shine in the place, that a Palace of beaten gold could not seem to be half so rich and precious; my reason is, that if the glory of the Lord did shine about the Shepherds in the field with such an heavenly lustre, when the Angels came to sing their Carol, most likely it is, that the same glory seven fold brighter did cast celestial beams upon this place, where this Child was laid in a Manger: But no such beams of Heaven ever did shine upon the heart of a profligate sinner, and therefore I have good reason to say that a Manger amongst beasts was fitter for our Saviour.  
O praesepe splendidum in quo panis inventus est Angelorum: O holy and venerable Cratch which was the repository to receive the bread of Angels. Reclinavit is the strangest word to me in all the Text, that Mary could part with him out of her arms, and lay him aside in the Manger. I did ever think old Simeon much indebted to her for that favour that he was permitted to take him up in his arms; but what, did the Stable and Cratch deserve to be the Throne of the Son of God? Surely, if Jacob understood that there was a Mystery in it, when he laid his head upon a stone to sleep, than it cannot be without many Mysteries that this Infant was laid in a Manger. I will separate all the Meditations which the Fathers raise upon it that he was born in an Inn, and confine myself only to express why this homely Room was lent him in a Stable.  
First, Beloved, Periculosum est inter delicias poni; 'tis full of peril to rest among pleasures and delights; It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, Eccl. 7.2. Adam had his habitation among the sweet savours and most delightful recreations of the Garden of Eden; his senses were so filled with objects of pleasures, that he forgot the Lord: Therefore Jesus Christ the Second Adam, who came to restore all that was lost, pitched upon the worst corner of the house, where there were no delights at all to move tentation. Shall I tell you a paradox which St. chrysostom held? He said, he had rather be cast into Prison with St. Paul, into the house of affliction, than be wrapped up with him into the third Heavens. King's houses, and well furnished Mansions have their occasions of Lewdness, but she laid her Son in a Manger.  
Secondly, Omnis caro sicut foenum, all flesh is grass, and our beauty is as a flower of the field, this caused the flesh of Christ to be laid in the part of the Stable, where the grass is cut down and withered; Corruption sorts with Corruption; the Saints that are in glory, and can die no more, their dwellings are in the highest heavens, which are free from change and alteration, but the Son of man hath put on mortality, and to signify that his body is like unto ours, which shall wither like grass; Reclinavit in praesepi, he was laid in a Manger.  
Thirdly, Learn from hence to condescend unto the Humility of Christ if you mean to ascend unto his glory; for as the custom of those Regions was, this Manger was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Vault cut out of a Rock, as low a place as he could cast himself into; but no man projects so wisely to raise up a mighty building as he that lays a low foundation: It is reported of Sixtus Quintus, how he was so far from shame that he was born in a poor Cottage, that he would sport with his own fortune, and say, he was Familiâ illustri natus, born in a bright resplendent Family, because the Sun looked in at every cranny of the house; it is not the meanness of the place that can justly turn to any man's scorn, nor doth a magnificent Palace build up any man's reputation. Holofernes had a costly Tent to cover him, and yet was never the honester; and it was a pretty objection of Plutarch's against the vain consumption of cost upon the decking of our houses. Quare homines in auratis lectis somnum capiunt quem Dii gratis dederunt: What do we mean, says he, to be at such cost to deck our Chambers? Why will we pay so dear for our sleep, when God, if you please, hath given you that for nothing? the slenderest place served our Saviour to cover his head, Reclinavit in praesepi, She laid him in a Manger.  
Fourthly, and lastly, God provided the Virgin's womb for our Saviour before he was born, man provided a Manger after he was born, that you may see that God is ever worse provided for by man than he provides for himself. Let him provide for himself the manner of an Ark, or inspire the heart of Solomon what Temple should be built unto him, and the world had never such a piece of work for beauty and magnificence. Let him trust to the benevolence of men, I praise God I am not in the place now where I need to complain, but more eyes have seen such Churches, especially such Chancels which our Zealous Lay Parsons of the Kingdom have sacrilegiously unroofed, and uncased the Lead, and left them thatch and straw for a covering, and scarce that too. O God I shame to speak it, surely by all description of ancient Writers, our Saviour was better provided when He was laid in a Manger.  
Their unworthiness deserves to be paralleled with those men of strange condition in the last part of my Text, that kept possession against Christ himself, and shut him out of doors, for there was no room for him in the Inn, nor for his Mother Mary. Was there no Obadiah that would receive a Prophet? No Obededom that would take the Ark of God into his house? Some say, that because the whole City of David was so ungrateful to their newborn King, therefore the Angel of purpose shunned all the Inhabitants, and went into the field to find out Shepherds, and sent them first to behold their Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. Others say, because Bethlem was so pitiless to this Babe, therefore God raised up the fury of Herod, which had no pity of their Babes, but slew all their Children from two years old and under. Surely we all see how the Roman Conquerors carried them away captive from their own Country, neither man nor child hath room to inhabit Bethlem this day, neither is there such a Town as Bethlem standing, because there was no room for Christ. You know the Parable of the good Samaritan, that took the wounded man and carried him to his Inn, and left him safe there, and paid his charges. The sense of the Parable is reduced by many of the Fathers unto Christ himself; He is the good Samaritan that would not let our wounds bleed abroad, but housed us, and lodged us in his own Inn, that is, the Church, to upbraid the incivility of men by the Letter of the Parable, that we gave no hospitality to the Son of God.  
The reasons given why Joseph and Mary were thus excluded are three:  
The first is false, nay, indeed calumnious, that they came tardy, and after all other company to pay their Tribute money: No, Beloved, such an hasty Couple, so forward to give unto God that which is Gods, would never be slack to give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. Besides, if she brought forth her firstborn Son upon the first day of the week, upon Sunday, as some cast it out, than the whole day before she was in Bethlem, for upon the Saturday, or Sabbath she must not travel; perchance they had been longer in the City, and, as we say, danced attendance, being poor persons, before the Officers of the Tribute would dispatch them; and yet all this while no room was made in the Inn, nor in any charitable house for the Nativity of Christ. The indignation against this were able to make us, like Jacob, live under the dew and frost of Heaven; as the Prophet protested, never to climb up to our bed because Christ was so disappointed. 
2 Sam. 11.11.  Or as Vriah said unto David, The Ark abides in Tents, my Lord Joab is encamped in the open field, and shall I go up into mine own house. The glory of Israel was laid in a Cratch, the Salvation of the world was turned into a Stable, and dost thou permit us to live in sieled houses?  
But the second and true reason why the Inn afforded them no room was this: Augustus Caesar's Tax had drawn multitudes unto Bethlem that filled every corner; the true use of it was, that there might be more attendance about the King of Glory to do him reverence and homage; but the greater multitude, the fouler was the neglect, the more inexcusable the disobedience. They that glory in multitudes as a great testimony to prove the verity of their Church are as wise as them that should prove their Harvest to be plentiful because it hath abundance of Thistles. A multitude flocked after Christ in the Wilderness, verily it is to eat of the Loaves and Fishes, not for the Doctrines sake. A multitude followed him into the High Priests Hall, and the whole Rabble cried out, Let him be crucified; A troop of Soldiers watched his Sepulchre, and belied his Resurrection; a multitude was in Bethlem at his Nativity, and there was no room for him in the Inn.  
But thirdly, We may suppose the multitudes had not so pestered the Town but that one Lodging might be spared, if there were horse-room in the Stable, as it appears there was, because Christ lay in the Manger, than it cannot sound in my ear but there might be room made for men in the Inn. Yes, but Lazarus is poor, and therefore he must not come over the Threshold, but lie at the rich Gluttons door; and though the fish of the Sea were so liberal to pay our Saviour's Tribute, the beasts of the Stable so obedient to leave space for his birth, yet reasonable men stood upon it that they would not entertain him for nothing. Booz was a rare example, that took Ruth into his house when she went a begging: Booz was a Bethlemite, but it seems he had left none behind him, for Mary and Joseph were poor, and there was no room for them in the Inn. I know not how it came to pass, but for the credit of Poverty, which was thus despised, not many rich, but many poor in the days of our Saviour did receive the Gospel. As dry wood, says Bernard, sooner taketh fire than that which is green and flourishing: So the poor did embrace the glad tidings of Salvation without resistance, when the Nobles of the world, that flourished in their wealth, refused it.  
O but let Bethlem be ten times more populous for multitude, were Mary of the poorest of the people, which could not be, admitting that she and Joseph paid Subsidies to Caesar; nay, were she a Samaritan, with whom the Jew hated to commerce, yet Barbarians would take her in, and cherish her in the time of Childbirth. Beloved, it is a kind of churlishness that can admit no Apology. This is all that I can say, since men had left their civility to be men, to wipe away that foul ignominy God took our nature upon him, and was made man, even He of whom it is said in my Text, She brought forth, etc. It is a sign of very bad times when we lose pity and humanity to men, and reverence to God.   

THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION.  LUKE two. 8. 
And there were in the same Country Shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their Flock by night.  
A Year is past since I began to handle this part of St. Luke's Gospel, containing the most full and exact History of the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Me thinks I am privy to your memory, that you call to mind summarily what then was said upon the former Verse: 1. The strange condition of the Mother, that she brought forth a Son, who by nature was no bearer, for she was a Virgin. 2. The strange condition of the Babe, the first begotten Son of God was the firstborn Son of flesh and blood. 3. The strange condition of the place, that she laid him in a Manger. Lastly, The strange condition of men, that there was no room in the Inn for Jesus and Mary. In his name who hath given us leave and life to meet this year also in his holy Temple, and for his honour, and to glorify his Son we are come again to the same place, and to the same portion of Scripture, to celebrate this blessed and most auspicious day of our Saviour's Incarnation. They that consult with the wisdom of flesh and blood, may marvel that no room of state was made ready for his birth, no place taken up to receive such an Infant and his Mother; or whatsoever the dwelling were, any place rather than a Cratch and a Manger: but there is little amends made in my Text for this humiliation and poverty. For see what Stage the Angel hath chosen to declare and annunciate him unto the world; the City was too rich, the Temple too stately, the Synagogues had too much of the Pharisees in them, King's Courts were too voluptuous, therefore he assembles those together whom he found in the fields and desolate places. But as mean as their condition was, since an Angel from Heaven entertained conference with them, we may justly employ the exercise of this hour upon them, according as they are mentioned in my Text, There were in the same Country Shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night, and as it followeth.  
In which Text I see no less than seven goodly ears of corn growing upon one Stalk according to the prosperous part of Pharaohs dream. For the place in which the Angel chose to publish the Incarnation here are two circumstances: 1. It was in the same Country. 2. It was in the Field. For the time, which is the third circumstance, it was in the night. For the persons, two more: They were Shepherds, that's the fourth part; They were many, so many as made a Plural number, that's the fifth. Then there are two circumstances of their Office and diligence, they watched; that's not all, they watched over their Flocks, and so we are ascended to the number which I propounded, the Text is distributed into seven branches. pastors in eadem regione, Shepherds in the same Country; at the circumstance we begin.  
There is no place upon earth to which God descended, or to which his Angels approached in holy Scripture, but it is significative and mystical, wherefore names were given to such places by the Patriarches and Prophets, as when the voice for Heaven with held Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, it was called Jehovah jireth, the Lord shall be seen in the Mount. From whence I deduce how these words cannot be empty of some pithy observation, in eâdem Regione, that the Angel appeared unto the Shepherds in the same Country. It was a place between Bethlem and Jerusalem, the same parcel of Ground, as most agree, when Jacob slept, 
Gen. 28.18.  and in his sleep saw Angels ascending and descending upon the Ladder, and when he awoke he built an Altar, and called it Bethel, the house of God. Now where could the first news of Christ's Nativity arrive more properly than in the same place where it was first seen in a Vision? Where could it be published more aptly, than where it was promised to the Patriarches? There Jacob poured oil upon the top of the stone, the first anointing with oil that we read of in holy Scripture: Upon that parcel of Ground, not by chance, but out of providence, he was proclaimed, who is called Christus Domini, the Christ, or the anointed of the Lord. There stood the Altar which was called Bethel, the first Altar that ever was called the Church of God: and from whence should the news of a Saviour issue, but from the holy place which is consecrated and blest to be called the house of God? It was long indeed (for so the yearning and the desire of the world might think) before our Saviour took flesh of the Virgin Mary; yet it was not unmindfulness in the Almighty, He remembered the oath which he swore to Abraham; nay, He remembered the desolate place when he appeared to Jacob in eâdem Regione, in the same Country.  
The further I look into this apparition (Brethren) I see more wonder and mystery in it; for the whole Country of the Jews was in the same distress and misery at this time, into which poor wand'ring Jacob was cast, when he slept by the wayside upon the hard stones for his pillow. Esau hated Jacob, and compelled him to abandon his Father's house, and to retire into desert places; so the overflowing Romans had made themselves Lords of the Land of Jury, and brought all Israel under the thraldom of their Dominion: But behold, as in the pinch of jacob's extremity his soul saw the Vision of a Saviour, so after the same proportion of mercy, in the pinch of Israel's extremity, when the Romans were Lords over them, their eyes saw, and their ears heard the Annunciation of a Saviour; each parcel of comfort landed jump, as God would have it, in the same model of Ground, in the same Country that the Shepherds kept watch over their flocks by night.  
Yet methinks I see another mystery, Beloved: for the Incarnation of our Lord stands as thick with wonders as the Heaven with Stars, and it is this: Was not this glorious Babe born at Bethlem? Why are not the first news of his birth carried to the same City where he was born? It is our discretion to suspect that news, and very justly, which comes not from the place where the thing was done. For answer, This is the secret of providence, I guess, which is hidden under it. You know that Christ was conceived at Nazareth, and born at Bethlem; Lived much at Capernaum, but died at Jerusalem. These Towns of Nazareth and Capernaum, were vulgarly at this day called Galilee of the Gentiles. The truth is, they were given to the Gentiles to dwell in, and by them inhabited in former times; they were destined to the Tribes of Israel, for upon the Captivity of ten Tribes carried quite away by Salmanezar, only Judah and Benjamin were left behind, not able for their small number to fill the whole Land of Canaan; whereupon that part wherein Nazareth and Capernaum did stand was called Galilee of the Gentiles. Mark here the equity and indifferency of the Son of God both to Jew and to Barbarian; He was conceived among the Gentiles at Nazareth, brought forth into the world among the Jews at Bethlem; Lived at Galilee of the Nations, but died at Jerusalem. So in this Gospel, his Mother brought him forth within the Walls of the City, that was proper to the Jew, but the tidings were heard abroad without the Walls in the Country, that was proper to the Gentiles.  
The Collection is not violent, but natural; for so St. Paul argues, 
Heb. 13.12. Salm. Tom. 15. disp. 23.  that Christ belonged unto us aliens from the Covenant, who were not of the Jews that served at the Tabernacle, for Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the Gate. The benefit of our Saviour's life and death was communicated to all people, not only to the Seed of David, passus extra Jerusalem. He suffered not within, but without Jerusalem, because the fruit of his death lay open to all: Ascendens è monte Oliveti extra Bethaniam; Ascended into Heaven upon the mount of Olives without the Town of Bethany, because he opened the Kingdom of Heaven for all believers. But hear what follows in the Jesuit Salmeron, natus in Speluncâ extra Bethlem, born in a Groat or Cave, for so he calls the Manger, without the Town of Bethlem, because the benefit of his Incarnation was open and public to all. Here his observation sticks and is erroneous, 
Case. in Luc. 2. Baron. in an. 1. Christi,  although he hath the judgement of Cajetan to favour him, and the conjecture of Baronius almost concurring with him, for he says, the Stable was in Suburbiis Bethlem, not within, but without the Gates, in the Suburbs of Bethlem. And, what more manifest to convince their fancy than the eleventh verse of this Chapter, This day is born unto you a Saviour in the City of David. The Moral therefore is more fitly made up, as I told you before, that He came first into the world in the City of Bethlem, by which deed he doth intimate that He was made flesh for the Salvation of the Jew, but the tidings were heard abroad at the first publication in the same Country, whereby it appears he was made man also for the salvation of the Gentile.  
Another circumstance of place is in the Text, that the Angel chose the open fields to annunciate the Messias of the world; and who can deem but that they were fitly chosen for the purpose? The Priests of the Temple would not be glad to hear of him that cut off their Types and Ceremonies; they that inhabit the City would not relish such a Prophet, that will say unto them, Sell all, and give it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven. The pleading places of Justice would laugh at his prescription, He that taketh away thy Coat, let him have thy Cloak also. The Seas had heard of nothing but Neptune and Thetis, and the titles of false Gods, all their ships were called by the names of Idols; but the plain Fields had no such prejudicated opinion against a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. Upon their pleasant fruitfulness, the happy news are showered down, as if the dawning of this bright day should change all the Earth into another Paradise. Mystically thus much may be collected, as all increase and abundance wherewith we are fed is brought out of the field, so the Incarnation of Christ should fill the world with the plenty and abundance of Salvation. I will not say, according to the Letter of the Miracle in the Gospel, that the fishermen laboured hard all night and took nothing; so in the darkness of the Law (which may not unfitly be called the night) nothing at all was taken; yes, there was a number of those that believed, but a very small one, here a berry, and there a berry, says the Prophet, upon the top of a bow. The Pharisees compassed Sea and Land to gain one Proselyte, and scarce gleaned up one in all their travel; but since the Church writes itself not Jew, but Christian. Since the day spring from on high hath visited us, the number of the fishes is so great which the Apostles drew into the Ship, that the nets were ready to break because of the multitude.  

2 Kings 4.6.  As the Widow's oil filled every vessel which she could borrow of her neighbours, so the faith of our Redeemer hath filled all Nations in the world. As Job said by Allegory, Petra mihi effundit rivos olei; Rivers of oil trickled down from the rock, and the rock was Christ. During the time of Moses Law what a paucity there was of those that spent their industry to interpret the Canon of the Scriptures; How few are reckoned that shed their blood for the maintenance of the truth? Not any almost that made themselves Eunuches for the Kingdom of Heaven; many Ages yielded small store of Saints. But see what the Gospel hath brought forth like a fruiful field, many Penmen of holy Writings; many Virgins unspotted touching the flesh; thousand thousands of Martyrs. They that have gone about to cast up the number, think that as many have lost their lives for the profession of righteousness in the time of the Gospel, as there were beasts in the old Law slain for Sacrifice before the Altar. Et nunc omnis ager, nunc omnis parturit arbour. Now the trees of the Lord are full of sap, now the Temples of the Lord are thronged with those that believe, as the fields stand thick with Corn in Harvest. This is the good will of him that was born in Bethlem, prefigured to give increase and abundance, because the Angel did annunciate him in the fields, where fruit grows up for the use of man.  
The errors of men are captious, and catch at any occasion to argue for their own defence, and why may not this Text be distorted by some to prove, that fields and deserts are fit receptacles for Congregations of Christians? But for Churches and Chapels they may be demolished, or else neglected. It was an Heresy of the Massilians, as Damascen oserved, that God might be worshipped as well in the Woods or vast Mountains, in any place unhallowed, as in those Oratories that are dedicated to his honour; I would they had left none of their brood behind them; but the first broacher of that corrupt Doctrine (as I have told you once before) in my conceit was Jeroboam, for he made a rent in the Kingdom of Israel, alienating ten Tribes from their Allegiance due to their lawful Prince Rehoboam. But one thing troubled him, that according to the Law all the Tribes must go up once a year to worship at Jerusalem, which was the imperial City of the King of Judah. This was it that cut the very nerves of his conspiracy; therefore you shall find him thus speaking to the people in Josephus: Countrymen, says he, you know the Law, 
Antiq. lib. 8. c. 3.  and are not ignorant that God is in every place as well at Dan and Bethel as at Jerusalem. Vbique vota exaudit, ubique cultores suos respicit; his ear is every where to hear your Prayers, his eye is every where to see your Worship, and therefore there is no such necessity as the Priests talk of to go up yearly to the Temple at Jerusalem. This is Jeroboams Divinity, in one act both an Heretic and a Traitor, he took away the Crown from Gods anointed by violence, and would take away the throne dedicated to God himself by fraudulence.  
Beloved, every Religion knew this, that one house or more, as the worship required, was to be built unto the God before whom they prayed, and in whose name they took an Oath before the Altar. Dagon the Idol of the Philistines had his Temples, and so had the rest; and shall the Assemblies gathered in the name of Christ, shall they only worship in the Mountains and in desert places? The Angel hovered from above over the fields where the Shepherd's abode; because he was a Messenger of Heaven, and therefore proclaimed the Christ under the open heaven; but men that have their habitation upon earth must not so preach Christ as if they had dropped out of the skies; the presence of an Angel did consecrate the waste plains upon which the flocks were feeding, any place was holy for that time where an Angel spoke: but corruptible and sinful man must not think that it is his privilege to do the like, unless the place be set apart for God's service by a lawful solemnity of dedication. 
Euseb. lib. 2. c. 16.  Philo the Jew makes mention of some that worshipped God with most fervent devotion in Egypt, and the parts of Alexandria, frequent in Prayers and Watchings, and it appears to some they were Christians, and they, 
1 Cor. 11.22. Alphon. a Castro. l. 4. Tit. Tem.  says Philo, had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, religious buildings full of reverence and Majesty to praise the Lord. This that Philo speaks of was in the reign of Claudius the Emperor, twelve years and no more after our Saviour's Ascension into Heaven. The Primitive Church flourishing, the Apostles all living, these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, these Oratories and Chapels were built, so ancient is the practice to call upon God in such stately buildings as were appropriated to be the houses of Prayer; 
Council Gangra c. 5. Suorum decret.  and the Reverend Council of Gangra past this Canon against Eustachius an enemy to Church buildings; If any man shall say the house of God is contemptible, and the Assemblies vain, let him be an Anathema. And of the two circumstances of the place that the Angel appeared in the field before the Shepherds, so much and no more.  
Thirdly, I observed for the time, that it was night when the Angel came unto them, I dispute not what time of the night it was. The night was distributed into four watches, assigning the space of three hours to a Watch, to this end, that he who could not endure the tediousness of a whole night to lie abroad under the open air might be relieved at the end of a watch by him that took his place; and it is not improbable that this occasion fell out towards the last watch of the night: For to Premonstrate, that Christ came to bring light, to enlighten every man that came into the world; he was annunciated by the Angel both at the increase of the year, and at the increase of the day. Oriente Salvatore non solum humani generis salus, 
Ambros. Serm. 6. de Nativ.  sed etiam solis ipsius claritas innovatur. says St. Ambrose, at this day Salvation shined upon the soul of man, which had been in the darkness of condemnation, even as our Saviour was born toward the dawning of the morning, when the Sun was peeping out of the darkness of the night. Nay, the same Father goes further. You would think his fancy were Rhetorical, or rather Poetical, but he delivers it for a Doctrine which he did verily believe that it was late at night when the Angel came into the field, Cum sol festinans ob dominicae nativitatis obsequium, etc. When the Sun, 
Ibid.  in homage to our Saviour's Nativity, posted, as it were, and (before the Stars had run their courses cut short the night) shined upon the world many hours before the day expected him, and thus he reasons, if the Sun stood still in the day for the Prayers of Josuah, why might not he shorten the night to behold our Saviour's Nativity? Wherefore at night this Babe of Glory was born that he might turn the night into day.  
A meditation of St. Gregory's may supply us with another reason, 
Greg. moral. Lib. 33.20.  the Sunshine of the day is the great Oracle of manifestation, the smallest Atoms than appear, and whatsoever lay in obscurity is clearly discerned: now we have no clear apprehension of the mysteries of faith in this life as if they lay naked before us, Sancti quamdiu in hác vitâ sunt divinae naturae Secreta quasi sub quadam imaginatione conspiciunt; The Saints in this world behold the secrets of the Divine Nature as if it were in the imagination of a dream, as men think they see Visions when they sleep in the night. I do not go about therefore to span those things which cannot be measured, how that which is infinite and finite are one in personal Union how he was conceived by the Holy Ghost. What perfection of knowledge and grace there was in his Infancy, if you look into the Ark with the Bethlemites you may forfeit your eyes. It is modesty to say these things are incomprehensible, for the Angel did reveal them in the night. They that raise questions, and dispute about those depths concerning our Saviour which cannot be sounded look for thanks because they are industrious, whereas their curiosity seems to me to use him no better than if they crowned him with thorns. We must believe without appoizing the Articles of our Faith to the balance of reason, and then though we see darkly in a glass we are children of the day: But if we will scan the secrets of God by the scruples of humane wisdom, 
Bern. Serm. 5. ex pa●vis in Nativ.  then is our day turned into night. One day telleth another, and one night certifieth another, Psal. 19.2. That is, says Bernard, the day told unto the day, when the Angel came unto the modest Virgin Mary; the night certified the night, that is, the Serpent conferred with Eve when she was fond and curious.  
I am yet under this pillar of Cloud, I mean under this circumstance of time, that the Angel Gabriel addressed unto the Shepherds by night. Captivities that be famous in Scripture are three: Under Pharaoh in Egypt, under Cyrus in Babylon, and under the Devil in the thraldom of sin. Mark what issue every one of these had to obtain liberty: 1. The Children of Israel arose at midnight, and departed out of Egypt: 2. Nehemiah and those few, the first that went out of Babylon to repair Jerusalem arose in the night and went their way, Nehem. 2.12. And thirdly, the great Redeemer, who should pluck us out of the mire, and draw us out of the bondage of Sin, his fame is spread abroad when the Shepherds kept watch over their Flocks by night. Nay, almost no work of extraordinary worth and efficacy toward and after the time of the Passion but it fell out when darkness was upon the face of the earth. To let his Birth alone, and to say no more than my Text doth, Excubarunt noctu, the poor men heard of it that lay abroad in the night. His Agony in the Garden took hold on him by night, when the world was in a dead sleep, his own Disciples drowsy, and could not watch with him one hour. He suffered when the Sun was darkened, and the Stars gave no light. Finally, He arose out of the Sepulchre before any body was stirring in the morning. What is the meaning of this? Even to show that we were dumb and still passives in all the work of our Redemption; we slept, and thought not of help and succour when it was plentifully supplied for our salvation; when no soul awoke to think of blessing, in the dark night of Ignorance Christ was born. We are supine in our sins like men stretched upon their bed, when he sweat drops of blood. We regarded not his Passion when he suffered; we were careless when he arose for our justification. But of the time let this suffice to be spoken.  
That which made up the fourth and fifth parts of my Text is concerning the persons they were Shepherds, and they were many Shepherds, so many as made a Plural number, And there were in the same Country Shepherds, etc. The heathen make much ado, and relate it not without admiration; by what mean and almost despised persons the deep knowledge of Philosophy was first found out and brought to light? As Protagoras earning his living by bearing burdens of wood; and Cleanthes no better than a Gibeonite fain to draw water for his liberty. Chrysippus and Epictetus mere vassals to great men for their maintenance, yet these had the honour to find out the riches of knowledge for the recompense of their Poverty; but the day shall come that these Philosophers will wonder that they found out no more than they did, and be astonished that silly Shepherds were first deputed to find out one thing more needful than all the World beside, even Jesus Christ. Tiberius' propounded his mind to the Senate of Rome, that Christ, the great Prophet in Jury, should be had in the same honour with the other Gods which they worshipped in the Capitol. The motion did not please them, says Eusebius, and this was all the fault, because he was a God, not of their own, but of Tiberius' invention: So lest great men, and Rulers of the earth should disdain at a Saviour which was not of their own discovery, but found out by servants that kept their flocks, I will make it good by reason that the Angel picked out very choice persons for the business, the Shepherds of the Field.  
It is truly and modestly observed by Tolet, 
Tolet. in hunc locum.  Causa cur pastors visitantur est Dei beneplacitum, multae autem congruentiae: Why shepherds were visited by the Angel rather than men of another trade or calling; and in particular, why these Shepherds rather than all besides of the same Vocation, no cause can be assigned, but the mere will and favour of God: but his pleasure having done the deed, much may be said to approve it why it is fit and convenient. To be a Shepherd is a life of great servitude and poverty, as Job says, they spend their time desolate and solitary in the Wilderness, and for vile company they are set with the dogs of the flocks: and these were fit to be the first partakers of the Gospel, because it is powerful in Spirit, but base and contemptible according to the Flesh, A sapientibus non quaerit testimonium qui parvulis se revelat, he baulks the pharisees and Princes of the people, and seeks the testimony of Shepherds, because he reveals himself unto those that are lowly in their own eyes, and poor in Spirit: none more unlikely than they to do a message for Almighty God. When Samuel came to Ishai, and asked for his Sons, that he might pick out the man whom the Lord had chosen, Ishai presented the most likely, as he thought, indeed all but one; There is one more, says he, in the field that keepeth sheep. O, says Samuel, let that David be sent for from following the Ewes great with young. Surely thinks the Prophet, because he hath been despised and neglected, he is the man whom God hath in store to govern Israel. Weak and impotent means are the fittest for the Lord's choice, that men of action and authority may not attribute that unto themselves which is only the doing of the Lord. Praevalet imperitia in rusticitate Pastorum, says S. Austin. 
Serm. 2. de Epiphan.  When such ignaroes as these were sent abroad, to tell in the City what they had heard and seen, the world could not say they were enticed by Eloquence; the enemies of the Faith could not say that crafty Philosophy got ground upon the simple: but as the Devil chose a Serpent, a wise creature above all the Beasts of the field, and all that are in the water, to destroy the world by subtlety; so Christ chose Shepherds out of the Field, and Fishermen out of the Water, as the chief means to repair the world by innocency and simplicity. 1 Cor. 1.26. Brethren, says St. Paul, you see your calling: for so Erasmus will read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the present tense, because the thing was open to all men's knowledge, and perspicuous: but what did they see so plainly? not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but foolish things were chosen to confound the wise, etc.  
Two things are to be drawn from hence; first, that we distort not the Scripture as if it pronounced nothing but confusion to the rulers of the earth; let not the honourable person hang down his head, as if power, and wisdom, and noble blood, and dignity were causes of rejection before God; no beloved, Isaiah foretold that Kings should be nursing Fathers, and Queens should be nursing Mothers of the Church: but it is often seen that the benignity of nature and the liberality of fortune are made impediments to a better life; and therefore Nobles and Princes are more frequently threatened with judgement. I adjoin moreover that the Scriptures speak more flatly against illustrious Magistrates, than the common sort: for if God had left it to men, whose tongues are prostituted to flattery, they had scarce been told that their abominable sins would bring damnation. 2. The comfort of the poor is never to be forgotten in this point: the servile life of a poor Shepherd is as fortunate as great exaltation, when it is made up with this blessing, that Christ is before his eyes; a little that the righteous hath is better than great riches of the ungodly: every small estate with the fear of God is plentiful enough. For thus I reason, if you do not serve God with zeal and charity, and a conscience undefiled, it were pity you should have more than you have; though you were less than the most abject vassal upon earth you had too much. If you be the child of God, strong in Faith, full of the consolation of Hope, operative in Charity, would you wish a better portion than that? do you know whether they that are admired for rich and honourable have so much? Who had not rather be one of these silly Swains, so blessed as to have an Angel appear before them, and to sing the triumphing day of Christ's Nativity in their ears, than to be the Master of the whole Flock who slept at home under his Canopy of Gold, and heard no such matter? In fine, to end this point, a poor birth required no better than poor Shepherds to come and visit in the Manger of a Stable: Wherefore as S. Austin hath it, Let us learn to be rich in him, who for our sakes was made poor. Let us be no more the servants of sin, 
In Natal. Dom Ser. 13.  because he took upon him the shape of a servant. Qui propter nos de terra ortus est in illo coelum possiàcamus, Let us live to inherit heaven through him, who for our sakes was abased to inherit earth.  
Secondly, The good Shepherd that giveth his life for his sheep, would first be manifested to those good Shepherds, that watched over their sheep: Palamque fit pastoribus pastor creator omnium, says the ancient Hymn. Methinks I see his promise revealed to Moses, to Jacob, to all those Patriarches, whose vocation it was to keep sheep, in this one act, that Shepherds are his choice, and before all others, to whom the triumph of his Birth is chanted. Who was the first man that ever found God in Heaven? it was the righteous and innocent Abel, a faithful Shepherd as we read it, Gen. 4. semblably who were the first men that ever found out God upon earth? Why the Angels will suffer none to find him out before the Shepherds have had a sight of him. Inquire likewise of your forefathers, what God did in their days, and in the time of old, and you shall find that the greatest deliverances that ever happened were wrought by Shepherds. I have touched upon it before in another strain: Israel was delivered from bondage out of the Land of Egypt, the very type of Hell, and that was effected by Moses who kept the sheep of his Father Jethro. Judah was delivered out of Babylon, another type of Hell, at the command of Cyrus, who then was a mighty Prince, but once an exposed infant, and trained up to be Shepherd, as we find it in profane stories: but the true deliverance was first communicated to these in my Text, that it might be spread abroad by the Shepherds.  
The point is full of observation, so that I cannot dwell long upon one thing; but this I add; who deserved these joyful news before the Priests in the Temple, and the Shepherds in the field? Marvel not that I join them together, the Temple and the Field being so far asunder: but might Zachary say, Lord we have often offered up the Lamb at morning, and the Lamb at evening, twice a day have we looked for the salvation of the world to come in the flesh when we dressed the Sacrifice. And might the Shepherd say, Lord we have fed our flocks with carefulness, both in the heat of the day and in the frost of the night, not so much for the wool and profit, but that these might be offerings to be slain upon thine Altar. Yet those Beasts are but shadows of him that is to suffer for the sins of the world: When will he come that is substance of these types? Illius aram saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus; why to satisfy this just expostulation, lo, Gabriel appears to Zachary the Priest, and the thrones of Heaven did congratulate those Shepherds with the news, as who should say, leave the Fields, give over your Flocks and Lambs, there is no further use of burnt Offerings and Sacrifice; go and see the Babe that from henceforth will save the poor Beasts from slaughter, and will save the world from their sins.  
Surely these Shepherds had heavenly meditations in their minds, and were most religiously prepared, when this Ambassador of heaven did approach unto them. And you my beloved, I speak to one with another, if that innocency and harmlesness were in you that was in them, you would think many a time, that a divine Beam did shine upon your soul, and that you had your conversation with Angels. They had no State Stratagems in their brain, no projections to profit themselves and to wrong the Commonwealth, no undermining insinuations: do you think they were in Law, and cast about to make their suit endless, and never come to trial? or how to cast a fair gloss upon deceitful merchandise? or how to live by the spoil and oppression of others? no such thing I warrant you: But if the Angel had any joyful tidings to bring in these days, where should he find a man that is harmless and innocent?  

Maldonat.  Thirdly, says a late Writer, Non magnatibus res innotuit ne ad Herodis aures perveniret, the Rulers and Magistrates were not acquainted at first with these news, because God would have his Son concealed from bloody Herod: for had there been great men as honest and religious, nay, better than these Shepherds, which I can believe and prove too (if need require) yet somewhat there was in way of Christian policy, which did enable the Shepherds with more trust, to sound out, and to publish Christ: For might it not have been suspected that faction and division was a breeding against Caesar, if some of the principal men had spread abroad that a mighty Prince was born to redeem his people. I say, it would have put the Romans in doubt of Rebellion: that then which had been Treason in the mouths of Potentates, was Gospel from the lips of Shepherds.  
Fourthly (and I will spare all that may be multiplied beside in this point) Pastoribus rationalium Ovium ante alios divina mysteria annuntiantur: 
Tolet. Ann. 14. in 2. Luc.  There are Shepherds that feed the reasonable flock, whose pains and industry are devoted to watch over your souls; of these you must be persuaded, that the divine Mysteries of Christ's Evangel, are especially revealed unto them. Knowledge is or should be preserved in the lips of the Priest, and you must not think that every man is the Son of a Prophet, to preach Christ, and to teach a Congregation: It is the brainsick fancy of the Brownists, who, while they attribute a sacred Priestly authority to every one of the Sect, they have left themselves none that was fit for the Function. What, you will say, was not Christ first published by poor lay Shepherds, and afterward preached unto the world by Fishermen; and then his Resurrection testified by Mary Magdalen and other Women? why do we debar them of that now, which Christ vouchsafed them before? I answer, Relation is one thing, Revelation is another; to teach a Doctrine is one thing, to testify an act is another: if Christ be born, if he be risen again, to declare this fact and story honest plain dealing Shepherds and silly Women were fittest instruments, and most unlikely to deceive; but in matters of Revelation, yea, or in matter of Doctrine it is otherwise. Moses was a Shepherd, but never undertook to teach Israel, until God marked him out for the business, and inspired him. David was a Shepherd, but undertook not to teach divine Psalms, and instruct the Church, until God instructed him. The Apostles were Fishermen, but never made the Doctors of the world, until the Spirit lighted on them: And they that can show either lawful calling, or revelation that the Spirit hath pointed them out, let them prosper in the work that they undertake, otherwise I must say for the instance of these Shepherds in my Text, that they were but faithful relators and witnesses of what they had heard and seen, but not Ministers of the Gospel of Christ.  
Of their personality thus far: now of their plurality, that they were pastors, Shepherds in the Plural, at least more than one. As some Fathers compute the number of the Wisemen that came out of the East, that they were three, neither more nor less; because three gifts were presented to the Child in his Cradle, Gold, Myrrh, and Frankincense; so these audacious Textmen are bold to say, that there were three Shepherds to whom the Angel came, neither more nor less: and what conjecture moves them to this opinion, but because that heavenly Carol which was sung this day from above, consists of three parts, Glory to God, Peace on Earth, Good will towards men; but whether two or whether twenty, it is known only to the Holy Ghost: This we read and no more. pastors in eadem regione, they were Shepherds in the same Country. It is a point of care indeed, very circumspectly observed in the birth of Kings, to have witnesses of good credit and report in the place, 
Maldonat.  Ne quis falsus pro vero Rege supponatur, lest a supposititious Child should be juggled in for the Heir of the Crown: So Shepherds were called to come to the place where they should find Mary and the Babe, that the testimony of good men without exception might stand firm against all those that should oppose it: And what testimony could be more valid and strong in every part? let the Jews cavil as they will; they which talk of that which is done afar off, may easily be mistaken; but these came from the nearest parts to Bethlehem, even in the same Country. 2. Active and experienced men are more dangerous to trust, but the Education of Shepherds is without guile or devices. 3. Do not tax their report, that it was a sleepy apparition or a dream, for my Text avoucheth they were watching over their flocks. 4. Lest all the credit of the tidings should lean upon one man's voice, pastors, many Shepherds and many Tongues would bear record, that they saw in the City of David a Saviour which was Christ the Lord.  
Now began the Vine, that is the Church, to stretch forth her branches, and all the Husbandmen that could be hired were called to labour in the Vineyard: the time was when one single Dove returned into the Ark. One David sat alone like a Sparrow upon the house top. One Elias that was zealous for the Lord, wandered solitary by himself in the Wilderness: now they did increase into troops and into multitudes. Many wise men drew to Bethlehem to adore the Lord, many Shepherds to visit him. Peter and Andrew, Philip and Nathanael, James and John were called together; the Church brought forth no less than twins at once to show her fruitfulness: a true sign that they belonged to the Land of Canaan, when they hang together full and thick like the Grapes of Eschol in their clusters. A lesson for them that affect singularity, and think they are in tune, when they sing discord flat against all the world. He that is one by himself is little better than one beside himself, and hath no more cause to boast then a Leper had, who dwelled alone, and was cast out of the Congregation of Israel. Esto gutta in imbre grandinis, make a drop in a shower that pours down from Heaven. Christ accepts not of the testimony of one alone, but of many, Vni testi ne Catoni quidem standum, a shaft divided from the Quiver, may be knapped in sunder; when it is in the bundle it is not easily broken. I have done with their pluralities, now I come to the two last circumstances concerning their office and diligence, they watched, that's not all, but they watched over their flocks, that is the sum of all.  
There are two sorts of persons noted for finding out Christ more eminently than others, the Shepherds before all others after he was born, and Mary Magdalen the first of all men and women, as far as we read after his Resurrection. The Shepherds were vouchsafed their blessing, because they watched by night. Vigilaverunt multum, a hard task if you consider the time of the year; and Mary was so prosperous because she rose very early in the morning to seek her Lord, Vigilavit multum. It is hard to say whether ever she slept one wink for care and grief, since the Passion of our Saviour; and God knows who shall be the first that finds him at his second coming in Glory, when he shall come also like a thief in the night: but whosoever he be, this I am sure of, Vigilabit multum, he must be none of them that sleep in gluttony, that are heavy with surfeiting and drunkenness, with chambering and wantonness, he must watch or be fit to waken to find the Lord. The enemies of our soul are mighty and many in number, our temptations steal upon us as closely as they that come to rob in a mist, or in the dark of the night. David you know chid with Abner, because he watched no better about Saul his Master: The thing is not good that thou hast done, 
1 Sam. 26.15.  as the Lord liveth you are worthy to die because you have not kept your Master the Lords anointed. So shall we be rebuked if we do not set watch and guard about our soul; we deserve to die because we neglected to sense our soul from the incursion of those evil thoughts that will destroy it.  
Slothfulness and idleness are all one, as if you took your ease and slept upon your bed; 
Sense. de providen. c. 5.  it is Vigilantia somno similima, a kind of watching that is no better than if you snorted like a sluggard. He that will not waken out of this spiritual sleep of sin for the voice of preaching, and for good admonition, he will be wakened with a mischief: never any so sleepy and sluggish but God's wrath, or the hour of death, or the final day of Judgement will start them out of their lethargy, and then they shall awake, as Samson did that shook himself, when he lifted up his head from Dalila's lap; but the Lord was departed from him. I have multiplied many precepts upon former occasions, that you should be like watchful Shepherds, expecting the coming of Christ: one thing which I do not remember was then delivered shall serve at this time instead of many points of caution. A man that cannot hold up his eyes, and awake when need requires, must be shaken and pinched; violence must be offered to his drowziness. 
Sense. Ep. 60.  So lest we sleep in sin, Excitandus è somno, & Vellicandus est animus; you must prick and gourd your own conscience with the terror of judgement, with the menaces of damnation. Suffer not your eyelids to shut, but sift and shake your own heart; examine yourself, remember what a blessing it is to be a watchful Shepherd, that an Angel of comfort may come and sing salvation unto you.  
Watchfulness as it is only a restraint from bodily sleep is not that which I urge and enforce; this is a season wherein I know its much in use, to sit up late; they that intent games and revels, and pastimes are watchful enough, though they turn the night into day, and the day like heavy sluggards into night: The luxury and voluptuousness of our Feasts in many Families do reach to midnight, and then we think we have kept Christmas, when we sit down to eat and drink, and rise up to play. Perchance excess and surfeiting do so distemper us, that it is well when we have eat and drunk if we can rise up to play. Some relaxation and triumphs of mirth were ever allowed to our Saviour's Nativity, as Mordecay said of the days Purim, that they were days of feasting and joy, and sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor; 
Esther 9.22.  but the Devil envying our gladness hath turned it into riot, and the very madness of luxury: The careful progenitors made it many days work to labour hard, and to leave a fair inheritance to their posterity; and my dissolute heir makes it some few nights play to lose and consume it; as if the day were not long enough: he borrows the best part of the night to make riddance of his patrimony. Great difference between such unlucky night ravens, and these Shepherds in my Text, that watch over their flocks by night.  
I know the application runs in a right line upon the Priests of God, but this is not a place for those instructions: this I will not omit, a certain postilling Friar, that preferred his Monastery before the Pulpit, knowing our labour and his own ease, did thus observe upon the former verse, that Christ was born in a Manger, ut Anchoritarum caenobia solaretur to patronise the solitary Cells of Hermit's and Anchorites, an exact pattern of Solitariness I wiss to be born in a troublesome Inn: nay, in the Stable therefore which is common for all men, and at such a time when Town and Country were gathered into Bethlehem. Every house full of Strangers to pay their Subsidies to Caesar, in the midst of this throng. Is not our Friar much mistaken to put us in mind of a Monastery? but rather we may note, that the blessing of Christ's Birth was first annunciate not to slothful Monks, but to Shepherds that watch over their flocks. Our Saviour is diversely called both a Shepherd and a Lamb, Vt Agnus apud greges annuntiatur. Christ the Lamb is revealed unto Shepherds; 
Tolet. Ann. 14. in 2. Luc.  it is fit they should first hear of the yeaning of a Lamb. Christ the Shepherd is revealed among the flocks: it is fit the flocks should be comforted, that the Prince of Shepherds was born. I add Christ the head of the Church, under whom all Shepherds have their charge, it is fit he should be notified to Shepherds that attend their charge, that watch over their flocks.  
To include you all, every man and woman in the application, suppose you are no bodies keeper but your own: Vigila saltem super animam tuam, why be watchful and prudent over the safety of your own soul; and when I have spoke that word, your soul, I perceive instantly that you have a whole flock to look to, and it is all your own, the affections and passions of your mind; them I mean, if you bridle their lust and wantonness, if they do you reasonable service, you have a rich flock, sheep that shall stand upon the right hand of God: if they usurp and fill you full of uncleanness, they are a flock of goats, that shall be condemned unto the left. What says Cato of our affections? they are to be governed like a flock of sheep, you may rule them altogether so long as they follow and keep good order, but single one out alone, and it will be unruly and offend you: as who should say all our affections, must be sanctified to God, the whole flock; let one passion have leave to straggle and all will follow it to destruction. Many sit up late and eat the bread of carefulness for the increase of riches; but those are the thorns that choke the seed. Let the watchfulness of the heart especially be fixed upon this flock, the desires, the passions over all that issues out of the soul, as the Star cast his beams directly upon the place where Christ was born. Dei secreta non cognoscimus si in terrenis desideriis vigilemus, 
Greg. lib. 23. Moral. c. 20.  we shall not find out the secret of God, that is his Son, if we watch over fleshly and earthly things. Finally, all the providence of our watch will be in vain, as David says, not sufficient to give repulse to the wolf that lies in wait, unless the eye of God keep centinel over us. Our custody is weak unless the Lord send his Angels, as he did unto these Shepherds, to pitch their pavilions round about us: Wherefore pray we that the Watchman of Israel may be always about our paths, and about our beds, who neither slumbers nor sleeps; to whom be Glory and Honour, etc. Amen.   

THE THIRD SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION.  LUKE two. 9 
And lo the Angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid.  
NO Scripture more fertile of wonders, or fuller of variety touching the Incarnation of our blessed Saviour than this Gospel, and therefore I continue in this story year by year upon this glorious occasion. And you may discern how we go up by stairs and degrees in every verse till at last we make the highest pitch that the eloquence of man can fly to. We began with a Treatise of a most humble stile, a Babe wrapped in swaddling clouts, lying in a Manger; from thence we are lead to place and persons of a little better condition, to shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night: from the shepherds by a manifest ascent to the Apparition of an Angel, the Angel of the Lord; from one Angel to a multitude, which is much better, a multitude of the heavenly Host; from that noble Army to him who is greater than all the Angels, a Saviour which is Christ the Lord; And lastly, from that Saviour on earth to his most excellent dominion in heaven, Gloria in excelsis, glory be to God on high. And as in our Church Service we do or should shut up every Psalm with that devout Doxology, Glory be to the Father, etc. as if that were it which gave every Psalm his tune and relish, so glory be to God on high is a verse which may most fitly be said or sung to every circumstance which belongs to the birth of Christ. He was laid in a Manger, glory be to God on high for that humility: proclaimed by Angels, glory be to God on high for their attendance and ministry: manifested to Shepherds, glory be to God on high for instructing their simplicity: finally, to comfort our hearts that night and darkness are dispelled, a glorious beam of light made the earth glister where they stood, and therefore glory be to God on high for the comfort of that heavenly illumination and glory.  
The Text which I have read unto you contains those particulars which are most natural to heaven and most proper to earth, things most truly celestial are Angels, and Light, and glory, all these did join together to solemnize this great Nativity when tidings came unto the Shepherds; and that which properly savours of earth is fear, especially 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great fear, and shepherds not able suddenly to entertain heavenly visions were sore afraid. If you will fully know how and in what triumphant manner these tidings were declared from heaven, and withal with what astonishment they did possess the earth, lend me your attention to these four parts in general: 1. Here is God's Minister employed to divulge the Incarnation, Lo the Angel of the Lord. 2. The pomp and solemnity which the Angel brought with him, the glory of the Lord did shine round about. 3. Here are the persons, though I have spoke largely of them heretofore: I say the persons honoured both with that messenger and that solemnity, the Angel came to them, the glory shone round about them, they were Shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night. 4. How this Angel, and that shining glory did affect these poor men, they were sore afraid: And for your parts dearly beloved, so prepare your souls so to meditate upon Christ's Birth, that when you promise yourselves after your dissolution the joy of Angels, and glory shining round about you, remember to temper presumption with the Shepherd's fear and reverence; and again, when weakness and little faith are sore afraid, be mindful that Christ was born to bring us to that light which knows no darkness, and to everlasting glory: So knit them into your heart, as they are most divinely woven into my Text, And lo the Angel of the Lord came upon them, etc.  
And first, be ready to hear how Gods Mnister was employed to divulge the Incarnation, Lo the Angel of the Lord came upon them; touching whose Apparition five interrogatories must be answered: Quis? what Angel this was of all the heavenly Hierarchy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it should seem one of conspicuous glory, the Angel of the Lord. 2. Quando? when he came, I believe instantly after Mary was delivered; Ecce; lo he came, that note demonstrative expresseth the celerity. 3. Quomodo? the true substance of an Angel is not visible and apparitive to men, he came in some fashion altered from himself: ecce, it was wonderful, lo, an Angel. 4. Quo situ? how he did apply himself to the Shepherd, de coelo supervenit, says one Translation, he stood above them, astitit juxta illos, says another, he stood near unto them, we say, he came upon them. 5. Quare? why men were not accepted to do this office to manifest the Birth of Jesus, but, lo an Angel of the Lord.  
1. Quis? and who was this Angel of all the heavenly Hierarchy? modest ignorance is better than presumptuous knowledge: doubtless the Holy Spirit had given him his Name in this place, if it had concerned our edification: yet he was no novice; but St. Cyprian himself that ventured to call him Gabriel, Veniunt in Bethlehem quam praedixit Gabriel, & invenitur Emanuel, that is, the Shepherds came to Bethlehem as Gabriel had taught them, and there they found Emanuel, who is God with us. Surely so Divine a Father would not bolt out without a mark to aim at, and I discern some colour for that conjecture out of a Grammatical Article. Zachary was visited by a messenger from heaven, as he was doing his office in the Temple, Luke 1.11. There appeared unto him an Angel of the Lord; but verse 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Angel Gabriel was sent to the Blessed Virgin in the City of Nazareth, and as if he were to be known from that holy Spirit who came to Zachary, by this emphatical Article being once named Gabriel; from thenceforth he is spoken of according to his office, the Angel of the Lord. Surely he was one of the most glorious attendants of heaven, one of those principal Seraphins that stand always before the throne of God; the business about which he came was of the highest nature that ever was sent from Heaven to Earth; and therefore who should undertake it but as great a creature as the Heaven and Earth afforded? But the School Doctors say otherwise, who build upon the groundless curiosities of their adulterate Dionysius; list to their speculation forsooth, that Cherubins and Seraphins, Thrones, Principalities, and Dominions are virtues of the highest rank and order, always resident in the Orbs of Heaven, never giving attendance to the Militant Church beneath: But that commonly styled Archangels and Angels (in which degrees they place this Gabriel) they have intercourse and messages as God appoints them to the world below: A brave precedent if you mark it for their lazy Cardinal Prelates, that the active Angels, such as proclaim and preach Christ should be the underlings to the rest, and to pretend that there are others of no such troublesome office and employment, that are the superior principalities. Well, as it is probable with St. Cyprian to say this welcome Messenger was Gabriel, so it is more probable to hold against Dionysius his conjectures, that this glorious Herald who came to publish a Saviour to the world was one of the mightiest and chief of the Cherubins, lo the Angel of the Lord.  
1. The next interrogatory is quando? at what time and season the Angel came. Ecce venit, surely he made no stay, but came with great expedition after Christ was born; if it were not in the same minute or hour, yet it was in a short space after: for he tells them in his Message, This day is born unto you in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. When God was to destroy a people, he thought it fit to make it known unto Abraham, shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do, Gen. 18.17. much more when he was to save a people he would immediately reveal the thing in hand, and lo the Angel of the Lord, as who should say, shall I hide from these religious careful Shepherds the thing which I have done for their salvation. Let us compare in a word Christ manifested to the Shepherds, to the Wisemen of the East, to Simeon and Anna in the Temple: to the Shepherds he was made known the same day that his Mother brought him forth, to the Magis of the East, as the most ancient do collect, twelve days after upon the Feast of the Epiphany, to Simeon and Anna forty days after he was born, when Mary according to the Law came to the Temple to be Purified. The Shepherds were Jews, and he was made known incontinently to them, prefiguring that the first-fruits of the Gospel should be preached before them at Jerusalem, the bread of life should first be broken to the Children before the dogs had the Crumbs which fell under the Table. 
Aquia. 3. P. sum. q. 36. art. 6.  Those Easterlings that brought gifts to his Cradle of Gold, Myrrh, and Frankincense, they were Gentiles, and the Apostles were sent to them in a little distance of time after the Feast of Pentecost, when it was illustrious that all Tongues and Nations should praise the Lord in their own Language. Yet again there shall be another Revelation of the Gospel to the Jews, after forty days, numerus certus pro incerto, when the Gentiles have had their part, Simeon and Anna shall enjoy them, that is, in the fullness of time, and in an hour that we do not think of; a remnant shall be collected, God will gather together the outcasts of Israel, and the dispersions of Zion. Once it was, ecce Angelus, God's Minister stood in the midst of them in this Text pointing the Messias with his finger, who then was in the City of David; now after much attendance, after many an ecce, many a long look the glory of Israel shall be revealed unto them. So much for the time of this Apparition.  
3. Lo, or behold an Angel! soft a while, and let us ask in the third circumstance, quomodo? how we should behold him? a Spirit hath not flesh to be seen, or bones to be felt; in what fashion therefore did he alter himself? surely it well deserves Ecce Angelus, a note of Admiration; for the manner was wonderful. Beloved if the Eternal Son of God did not abhor the Virgin's Womb, those ministering Spirits whom he commands could not abhor the shapes of men; they appeared every way in the same form and fashion wherein we walk upon earth. Yet thus we distinguish them from ourselves, our bodies are begotten, theirs were created; our flesh propagated from the loins of Adam, their substance made extraordinarily, not according to nature, but by the finger of God; our soul quickens the flesh which it possesseth, and makes it live; their bodies which they assumed had not vivification by the breath of life, but only served them for motion and representation: our bodies have the instruments of outward senses to convey sensible things to the fancy, and so to the understanding; they had eyes, and ears, and other sensible organs, non ut sentiant sed ut corpus perfect representent, says the great Schoolman, not to exercise those senses, but for an ornament and compliment sake, lest their bodies should seem monstrous and formidable to the beholders. Finally, their bodies after they had appeared to discharge their embassage, vanished into elements never to return again into that composition, but our bodies shall revive out of that dust into which they were dissolved, and live for ever in the resurrection of the righteous. Some have so commented upon the Apparitions of Angels in holy Scripture, as if they had not truly taken humane shapes, the better to communicate their business to men, but God deluded men's eyes, and bred this thought in their fancy, as if they had seen that which was not visible. I confess there are prophetical Visions in holy Text, when the fancy of certain Prophets was persuaded it saw that which it did not see; it was a Divine passion which made Ezechiel think he saw beasts with wings, and wheels under their feet, chap. 1. It was a mere Divine passion which made Daniel suppose he saw the powerful ram push down all other beasts with his horn on the banks of Vlai, Dan. 8. These objects were conceived by none but by them single Prophets; no other eye could be partaker of it. Now on the contrary that's no prophetical Apparition but a real object which is equally visible to all spectators; therefore the Apparition of Angels was not imaginary, but substantial: for lo the Angel of the Lord was seen of all the Shepherds, and the Angels which Let entertained were conspicuous, not to Lot only, who was a just man, but equally to all the vicious Sodomites: And so much for the fashion wherein he did appear, not as a spirit, but in the shape of a man; and therefore Ecce Angelus, lo an Angel of the Lord.  
4. The next doubtful question is, Quo situ? after what manner the Angel took his place when he came unto them: the Grammarians are at odds, what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should mean, whether he hovered above their heads in the air, or stood in the same level near unto them. Beda prevented this quarrel, and accepts of both interpretations, Sunt juxta nos per amorem, supra nos per authoritatem; they stand near unto us by their love, and they stand above us by their authority. Surely if Christ had not been born to reconcile us to his Father, we had not been worth the coming near, we had been no company for those holy Seraphins: but since he vouchsafed to take flesh and blood, the nature of man came into respect and reverence; the enemy shall not approach to hurt it, but those auxiliary troops of heaven pitch their pavilions round about it, supra, juxta, planting themselves as a fortress for our head, and as a buckler for our arm. And indeed those are the chief things that need good influence and assistance, knowledge and action, head and hand. Some are secret inventors of mischief, plotters and contrivers of disturbance, their brain is a mint of oppression; where is Angelus superveniens? the Angel above? Some know their Masters will, but they do not do it; nay, quite contrary, fear or favour wrings ill effects from them: where is Angelus astans? they want a good Angel at their elbow. Where is Michael the great Prince Qui stat pro filiis populi tui, which standeth for the children of thy people, Dan. 12.1. But whether this celestial Ambassador hovered above their heads, to show the property perchance of a glorified body, or whether he walked and conversed upon the earth as man to note our fellowship with Angels by the Birth of Christ: yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supervenit is one that came suddenly, never looked for at that season; which construction, says Beza, 
Beza in Annot.  is indifferent to both: and well he doth apply the verse unto it, Grata superveniet quae non sperabitur hora, an hour of felicity came at an instant upon us which we never dreamt of: and so much for the manner how the Angel took his place.  
5. Now follows the fifth interrogatory upon which I shall stay longest, why men were not accepted to do this office to manifest the Birth of Jesus; but lo an Angel of the Lord. There are many reasons for that expediency which I will marshal in their order.  
1. As an evil Angel did cooperate to bring death into the world, so a good Angel was a choice instrument to bring the tidings of salvation: for why did the Son of God take flesh? to repair the fall of man. How did man transgress? by the subtlety of the Serpent. Who was the Serpent? our adversary the Devil. Who shall make amends for the mischief which the Devil wrought? one much different in grace, but of the same Essence, and Nature, and Creation, the Angel Gabriel. But you will say no fault was committed by the good Angels, they were neither enticers nor abettors of Adam's prevarication, why should they trouble themselves? true, but a kind of blot did stick unto their name, and for a full measure of recompense they would satisfy for that which was none of their transgression. Our first disobedience was occasioned by a tree, our Redemption was purchased upon the tree of the Cross: We were wounded by the appetite of Eve, we were healed by the Womb of Mary: Here was tree for tree, and woman for woman. So an evil spirit tempted us to our loss, and therefore a good Spirit is zealous to be an instrument of our restitution; there's Angel for Angel.  
2. They were exceeding busy to declare Christ unto the world many ways, Concipiendum, conceptum, natum, before he was conceived to Mary, when he was conceived to Joseph, after he was born to the Shepherds; for they are willing to partake all good things unto us in the Militant Church, because we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, exalted to be equal to the Angels in the day of Christ's second appearing; Choristers of one Choir to praise the Lord, and members of one triumphant Church for ever. They came in humane shapes like unto men, nay, they are often called men in Scripture, Vt demonstrent intelligibilem societatem, cum iis habendam in vita futura, because we shall make up one spiritual society and fellowship to sing Hallelujah hereafter. I am not of their mind that say the Cherubims in many things were unresolved about the Mystery of Christ's Nativity, and that they came with these messages to instruct both themselves and us. St. Peter doth not make good that fancy, because he says these are things ●nto which the Angels desire to look, 1 Pet. 1.12. and Dionysius roves at random, who imputes it to them that they would better understand that point of Faith, because it is written, Isa. 63. Who is this that comes from Edom? but many ancient Fathers do adjudge that the Angels take delight to be present in our Christian Assemblies when we meet in this house together to offer up the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Paul enforceth modesty to the Corinthian women in the house of Prayer because of the Angels, 1 Cor. 11.10. Angelo's testes habent honesti pundoris aut impudentiae, as the most expound, the Angels make one congregation with us, and therefore they are witnesses of their modesty or impudence. Where is then your reverence, your bodily humiliation when you come to God's house? do all things with decency, and well-beseeming devotion; for the Angels are our invisible associates, says holy Bernard. Non ausus es illo presente facere, quod me praesente non anderes? Dare you do those unbecoming things where the Angels are by to witness, which you durst not do for fear of censure if the Ecclesiastical Magistrate did look upon you?  
3. The Incarnation of Christ is, I may say, the perfection of all things in the world; and therefore good reason that all creatures should have some participation and interest in it. Men did share in him in his own sex and person, women in the Womb that bore him: poor men in the Shepherds, great ones in the sages of the East: the Beasts by the stable wherein he was born: the Earth in the Gold that was offered: the Trees in the Myrrh and Frankincense; and to reckon up no more, the Heavens in the Star that blazed: all the works of God, even they which by natural obedience bless him and magnify him for ever, did claim some office to make one in the solemnity when their Creator was born. Why surely some room was left for the Angels, it was fit they should be in the train at the Inauguration of this mighty Prince, and their place, according to their dignity was very honourable; they were God's Ambassadors: and as if they had a Patent to use their office frequently, they had many errands from Heaven, to Mary, to Joseph, to the Shepherds; Non satis est semel missum esse, duobus aut tribus testibus stat omne verbum, says St. Ambrose, They came three several turns and no less, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.  
4. Angelus in carnis specie Christum in carne venturum praenuntiat, says Aquinas, the advent of the Messenger was in some wise a commentary and explication upon the message: the tidings to be opened surpassed the apprehension of a natural man, though he were the wisest Dictator of Philosophy, that the Eternal should be begotten, the Infinite be contained in the finite, that God who is a Spirit incomprehensible should be made flesh. O unutterable mystery! what visible inducement could be thought of to make man believe it? how should the dull and ignorant apprehend this transcendent operation? Behold God's Nuntio, this Angel that came to the Shepherds, go no farther than him; and you shall have an instance what the Almighty can bring to pass; for the Essence of Gabriel was pure and spiritual, not mixed with elements, no bodily concretion in him; yet he tells his errand to the world in the similitude of flesh and bone, notifying that the Spirit of all Spirits God himself should be made flesh.  
5. Angels and Principalities were first upon this Ministry to preach the Nativity of Christ, to honour and countenance their office, who in the same calling do succeed the Angels. Look not upon the poor Fishermen whom Christ did call from the Sea of Tiberius, but estimate your Clergy by the excellency of that heavenly Host who were the first that preached the Gospel to the Shepherds. I take myself off from this discourse in which I might amply proceed, lest you say unto me as one said of Hortensius, that he advanced Eloquence to the skies, craftily meaning that himself might be advanced as an Eloquent Orator in the commendation. If we glory we will glory in our infirmities, and in the Cross of Christ, not presuming upon that amplification of analogy with Angels. I will lay the scene of my reproof beyond the Seas, but I would we were quit of the fault at home: How many exalted Prelates refuse to do that office to teach Christ, especially to poor Shepherds, although a Cherubin of Heaven in my Text did willingly submit himself to do the work. It troubled the Historiographers among our Adversaries to find out one Pope in almost 100 years that was a pulpit man when he became a Pope, that was Pius V, and he but rarely. I may say of such men, as Pliny did of those Emperors who made great suit to be Consuls, and then disdained to discharge the Function. O inscitia verae majestatis concupiscere honorem quem dedigneris, dedignari quem concupieris. O ignorance of duty to affect that honour which they scorned to execute: to scorn to execute that honour which they earnestly affected. Is an Angel no more than fit to preach Christ? and is proud man too good for it?  
6. The fancies of men have assayeed to add this for a sixth reason to the former, that the noble Hierarchies of Heaven do merit some increase and addition of glory by their care and obsequiousness toward the universal body of the Church of Christ; but the matter was better scanned by Biel, who therefore refutes that sentence of Lombard, Tum sequitur si homo non fuisset creandus, Angelus non habuisset summam suam beatitudinem. Then it would follow that the Eternal Felicity of the Thrones of Heaven did depend upon the creation of man: for except there had been a Church here below to which they might administer, they had wanted occasion to demerit some increase of their glory. Indeed it is an opinion that savours of servility and baseness, as if they that stand always before the face of God would do nothing but upon gain and advantage. Alas, they have no other end of their labour but that which every man should have in charity, the increase and enlargement of the Triumphant Church in Heaven; and therefore our Saviour, Luke 12.9. threatens Apostates from the Faith thus, He that denieth me before men, him will I deny before the Angels of God, that is, before the greatest friends and wellwishers of our beatitude.  
Lastly, It is an observation not to be omitted, 
Serm. de Epiphan.  how St. Austin compares three several ways wherein Christ was manifested; to the Shepherds by an Angel, to the Wise men by a Star, to Simeon and Anna devout people that spent their age in the Temple, by the Holy Ghost. Simeon and Anna were exceeding faithful, such as waited and expected every day the salvation of Israel; and therefore the Holy Ghost told them secretly in their hearts as soon as the Babe was brought into the Temple, that this was the Lamb of God which should take away the sins of the world. The Shepherds I presume were just men, but had not so much perfection in the knowledge of the Law to look for and expect a Saviour; therefore an extraordinary Nuntio, an Angel was sent unto them: but the Gentiles utter aliens from the Faith were directed to the Manger by signs and wonders from heaven. So says St. Paul, 1 Cor. 14.22. Signs are for them that believe not, and Prophecies for them that believe: And as the axiom is in Philosophy, every thing is best collated, when it is fitted ad modum recipientis. Now the Shepherds were Jews, and were taught in the Synagogues concerning the Apparition of Angels; the Magis were Astronomers and better knew the course of Stars: The book of the Creature was sit to teach the Gentiles, but a Divine Spirit was better accommodate to teach a Jew, that they might receive the Gospel even as they had received the Law: and the Law was delivered, says St. Paul, by the ministration of Angels. And so much for the first general part, all the five questions being satisfied, which of the Angels this was, when he came, in what figure and apparition, how he did apply himself to the Shepherds, and lastly, why men were not accepted to do this office, but lo an Angel of the Lord.  
The order which I propounded requires now that I speak of the pomp and solemnity which the Angel brought with him, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the glory of the Lord fitly rendered in this place by the vulgar Latin, Claritas Domini, a lightsome brightness or splendour which God caused to shine in that place, making the night unto the Shepherds as clear as if it had been day: So when a lightsome pure cloud did appear in the Dedication of Solomon's Temple, the Text says, 1 Kings 8.11. The glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord; therefore it was not properly that essential glory of God, unto which no man in this life can approach, but lux ante gloriam, the consolation of a beautiful light, which was the shadow, and the forerunner of Glory. But it were a great trespass in Art to run into obscurity and confusion when we are to speak of light. 1. Therefore I will endeavour to show how many ways such brightsome apparitions are observable in holy Scripture. 2. Why this illustrious Glory did shine round about the Shepherds.  
When God would beautify and adorn a thing in some excellent manner, I find that in a fourfold fashion he scatters and transfuses the beams of light and splendour either upon it or about it. 1. Let us reflect our remembrance upon our Saviour's Transfiguration, his face did shine as the Sun, and his raiment was white as the light; as white as snow, says St. Mark: so that no Fuller on earth could make a thing so white. Now we know that Christ was not as yet glorified, his body had not yet put on incorruption: therefore Eluxit splendor à Divinitate, it was the pleasure of his Divinity at this instant to alter his countenance and his garment, and from the union of his Divine nature: this glory did redound upon the outward parts. 2. In the Resurrection, when our flesh shall become an inhabitant of the heavens, not only the face, but all the body of man shall look in a triumphant manner, like a pillar of light, which unspeakable beauty shall result from the soul to the blessing and ornament of the body. So I read, Dan. 12.3. They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. 3. This claritude and heavenly semblance hath shined upon some faces, when it redounded from no inward fountain; as in the Transfiguration of Christ from the personal union of the Divinity; or as in the beatitude of the Saints from their Glorification: But God cast a beam of honour upon them from the comfort of his own presence. So in the forty days that Moses was upon the Mount twice he came down to commune with the Children of Israel, and there was no alteration in him; he looked as one of the other people: But when the Almighty passed by him and proclaimed his mighty name in his ears, than when Moses came down the skin of his face did shine, and the people were afraid to come nigh him, Exod. 34 30. as the purple of one ripe grape doth tincture that which is next it with the same colour, so that flaming Majesty wherein the Lord appeared did cast a new die of awfulness upon the forehead of Moses. And S. Stephen the Martyr had a glimpse of the Glory of Christ, which like a ray of the Sun darted upon his face, and all that sat in the Council saw his face as it had been the face of an Angel, Acts 6. ult. 4. A lightsomness and coruscation hath been shown from heaven, not resting upon the persons, nothing was changed about them, but upon the place where they stood; in the day time when it appeared it was more glorious than the day, and when it appeared in the night it turned the night into day. So it happened unto Paul at noon-tide as he journeyed unto Damascus; hear his own testimony to Agrippa, Acts 26.13. At midday, O King, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the Sun shining round about me, and them that journeyed with me. So it happened to the Shepherds upon Christmas-day as they kept watch over their flocks by night, when the nights are at the darkest, according to the season of the year: the heavens were spread above them like a glistering Canopy, the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and so many ways in Scripture, four in all, God hath communicated light to glorify his own works, and his Saints that praise him.  
You shall hear some opinions what kind of light this was which did spangle in the field, 
Ambros. Serm. 16.  when the Angel came unto the Shepherds. St. Ambrose thinks it was some fulgure of the Stars. Angels, says he, and Shepherds had a voice and a tongue to publish their joy, but the constellations of heaven, Quia voce non poterant, gaudia sua officio protestantur, because they could not utter their joy by a tongue, they express it by their duty to start like lightning into the fields which were near to Bethlehem. And whether he speak it by a figurative amplification or not I know not; but the same Author hath these words, Sol praeter consuetudinem in hac festivitate matutinus illuxit, the Sun prevented the morning watch, and peeped upon the earth earlier than he should, to gild all those fields with his light which were adjoining to the Stable where Christ was born: For. says he, why might not the Sun make more haste than natural to offer service to the Son of God, as well as stand still in the firmament to attend a petty Jesus, Joshuah the Captain of the Israelites? But with the leave of that holy man I conceive, if the Sun had rose miraculously before the time, the Scripture would have expressed it, even as we find it mentioned that the Sun was eclipsed, and the heavens darkened at the Passion of our Lord.  
Others are conceited, because an Angel is a glorified creature, therefore the body which he took upon him did shine triumphantly, as if he had stood in a cloud of light. Hence it comes, says the Cardinal, that among other honours which are decreed to Saints in their Canonization this is one, 
Bellarm, lib. 1 de sanc. beatitud. c. 7.  Pinguntur eorum imagines addito certo quodam lumine in signum gloriae quam habent in coelis: Their images are painted with resplendent rays about them, to signify the light of that glory which they enjoy in heaven. But, beloved, my Text says not, glory did shine about the Angel, or that the glory of the Angel did hollow the place; but the Glory of the Lord did shine about the Shepherds. Therefore I adhere to that learned Author, who says it was Claritas creata prae se ferens divinam majestatem, 
Tollet. in Luc. 2. Annot. 16.  a clarity of light newly created, which bore the evident show of no created Spirit, but of a Divine Majesty: and some are bold to say that this white glorious cloud which dazzled the Shepherds, afterward being compacted into one body, it made that blazing Star which went before the Wisemen from the East unto Bethlehem; and I leave it indifferent to you, as you think fit to believe them.  
But I leave to agitate this point any more, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, what this shining Glory was, and for some profitable use and application I come to the next thing, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, what use there was of it to celebrate our Saviour's Nativity? First, The Lord did put on this glorious apparel, even a robe of light to express the Majesty of his Son who was born to save the world. Mis-conceive not his excellent greatness because he lies in a Manner, but estimate him by this sign from Heaven, that the glory of the Lord did shine round about to honour his Nativity. Christ is obscured in the Stable, says St. Austin, but his messenger shines in the field, Sic opera humilitatis apud nos contemptibilia, illustria sunt in conspectu Dei; so humility may appear contemptible to us, but it is glorious in the sight of God. In the old Testament, says Hugo, though Angels were sent to men upon sundry occasions, yet they never came with this property, as far as we read, that glory did shine about them. Nunc exorto Sole justitiae tanquam solares radii lucidi & fulgentes apparent: but now the Sun of Righteousness did rise upon the earth; they appear conspicuous in their colours like the beams of the Sun. Nothing could resemble Christ so well as this Claritas Domini the brightness and splendour of the Lord, because he is the brightness of the Father's Glory, Heb. 1.3. it is a similitude which gives ample occasion unto faith to make fit constructions. The Father is compared to the Sun in the firmament, and Christ his only begotten to the light of the Sun. 1. Non libere à patre procedit, sed naturaliter, says St. Cyril, he comes out from the Father, not of free choice, as if the Father had power not to beget him, but naturally as the light hath an emanation from the body of the Sun; so that the Sun cannot choose but give light. 2. The generation of God the Son is eternal, even as the Father is eternal: we cannot say there was a time when he was not, no more than we can say there was a time when the Sun had no light: Light is of the same time and antiquity with the Sun itself which brings it forth. 3. Damascen collects truly that the Son of God is inseparable from his Father, 
Damasc. l. 1▪ de fide, c. 9 Cornel. à lap. in Heb. c. 1.  even as light cannot be taken away or parted from the Sun. 4. Another observes how pure a generation that is with which the Father brings forth the Son; because light though it be but a creature, yet it is a pure and a spiritual quality, and comes forth by no contaminated or polluted procreation. 5. It extends further to resemble how the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son, even as that comfortable warmth which cherisheth Plants, and every living thing issues jointly from the Sun itself, and from the light thereof.  
By this it appears how suitably a beam of admirable light did concur in the Angel's message to set out the Majesty of the Son of God; and I beseech you observe, all you that would keep a good Christmas as you ought, that the glory of God is the best celebration of his Son's Nativity; and all your pastimes and mirth (which I disallow not, but rather commend in moderate use) must so be managed, without riot, without surfeiting, without excessive gaming, without pride and vain pomp, in harmlesness, in sobriety as if the glory of the Lord were round about us. Christ was born to save them that were lost, but frequently you abuse his Nativity with so many vices, such disordered outrages; so that you make this happy time an occasion for your loss rather than for your salvation. Praise him in the congregation of the people, praise him in your inward heart, praise him with the sanctity of your life, praise him in your charity to them that need and are in want. This is the glory of God shining round, and the most Christian solemnising of the Birth of Jesus.  
Secondly, This lightsome apparition about the Shepherds, 'tis Typus claritatis Evangelicae, a type of the light and perspicuousness which is genuine and proper to the Gospel. The Law of Moses was given to the people when the hill of Sinai was full of mists and dark pillars of smoke, for there were many things delivered to that Nation of the Jews which were wrapped in darkness, and in thick pillars of obscurity: Types and Ceremonies were difficile to be understood, but the faithfulness of the Gospel is as clear as the light, and the righteousness of God's promise as the noonday. The Law was lucerna pedibus meis, a candle unto my feet: and so says Solomon, the Commandment is a lamp, Prov. 6.23. Nay, as if it were not a clear burning candle David says it is Lumen in laterna, Thy word is a lantern unto my feet; as if the old Law had been no other than a candle under a bushel, as it is in the Parable: but the Gospel is a light as great as the Sun in the firmament, a candle upon a hill, Posita super candelabrum Catholicae Ecclesiae, says St. Ambrose, and the Catholic Church over all the world is the candlestick to hold it. This is not a splendour upon the face only, as it befell Moses, but it is splendour circumquaque, says my Text, it shines round about, and no corner in all the Church which is Christ's Family, but it hath been enlightened.  
A candle will suffice to give all men light that are in the room where it shines, but it is such a light as doth not warm or cherish you. So the Law was a candle whereby he that read might learn, and know the will of God, but it did not warm or comfort a man; nay, it left a man quivering and shaking, extreme chill and cold at the heart: for it is written, Cursed is he that doth not keep all these sayings and do them: therefore the Gospel is a better light, it gives light, and withal heat and comfort, zeal and joy to them that receive it; as it is in the next verse, Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy. How proves he that? why, there is born unto you a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. It is Bonaventure if I mistake not, that says upon my Text, Claritas Dei circumfulsit non tantum exterius in corpore sed etiam interius in ment; the light shined outwardly to the Shepherds, and inwardly in their hearts, that's round about in full compass both in soul and body. O you all presume that the light of the Gospel hath shined upon you as well as upon another, you know Christ, and his redemption, and that's enough for your share; but do you find any comfort in it? are you warm at the heart? if you be cold in your profession, not caring which way Religion stands or falls, indifferent whether Christ be worshipped this way or that way, than the light doth not shine round about you, you have it without but not within.  
Thirdly, The dark night was brightened with a shining Cloud at our Saviour's Nativity, to signify that he should be Lumen solatii in nocte tenebrarum, a light of consolation to them that sat in the dark night of persecution, and misery. Marry Magdalen came to the Sepulchre early when it was yet dark, she wept and afflicted her soul that she found not the body of Christ in the Sepulchre; and lo it was very early and yet dark, a season to increase sorrow: but behold an Angel, whose countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow, did enlighten her heart, and cheered her spirits, that Christ was risen from the dead. Thus light did arise unto the faithful in the darkness of their heaviness. Take another instance of sorrow which was hard at death's door. Peter was kept in chains in prison, and one says he had no better room than the lowest dungeon, 
Lorinus in Acts 12.  Carcer erat teterrimus & obscurissimus & ne die quidquam lucis admitteret, it was such a dark corner, that there was not a chink in it to take in light in the day time; yet an Angel came to him anon before the hour when he looked for death, which was long before the morning, and a light shined in the prison, Acts 12.7. And though no outward beam of light glance miraculously upon the Saints in their chains and captivity, yet the comforter even the Holy Spirit will not fail to lighten their darkness within, as David said, in the midst of my sorrows thy mercies, O Lord, have refreshed my soul. The Fathers of yore who were present at the execution of many Martyrs give us the report, what unspeakable gladness was revealed unto them from above in their fiery trial: the fiery flame which consumed them was like the light and shining of an Angel to solace them. 
Hugo in c. 7. Judic.  Martyr est velut fracta Gedeonis lagena tunc emicat & vincit: it is the saying of Hugo. Every one of gideon's Soldiers had a pitcher and lamp in it, they broke their pitchers, their lamps blazed, and they had the conquest of their enemies: so says he, our body is an earthen pitcher, if martyrdom burn in it like a lamp, and the pitcher be broken to pieces, than we shall have victory against our spiritual enemies, and peace with God.  
Fourthly, Let us make that use of our Saviour's first coming into the world in flesh, which St. Paul doth of his second coming in glory, 1 Cor. 4.5. The Lord cometh who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart; and then shall every man have praise of God. The most obscure things shall be made manifest unto his light, and the thoughts of all hearts shall be revealed unto him. The righteous Lord trieth the very hearts and reins, Psal. 7.10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to try the heart is verbum forense, as when Magistrates examine the truth not by questions only, but by rack and torments, they will have all out in confession: so God is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to draw out all secrets from our inward breast: And it is impossible to keep the subtlest thread of iniquity concealed. When he came to judgement against Egypt, and sent his Angel to kill their firstborn, yet at midnight he knew which was an Egyptian, and which was an Israelite: so though we carry our sins with a demure countenance, and smooth it with subtle hypocrisy, yet his knowledge shineth in the darkness of our hearts as if it were light; and he can distinguish between our inward affections, our thoughts, our fancies, our sighs and yearnings, that this is an Israelite born of the will of God, and this an Egyptian born of the will of flesh. Laban could not find his Idols, because Rachael had laid them privily in her stuff; but the Lord can detect that Idolatry which we keep close in our hearts. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says the Grammarian, the Greeks denominate God from penetrating all things with his eye: and when Christ could see into the profoundness of Nathanaels' thoughts, behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile, Nathanael instantly confessed, Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel. Alas, that we go on still in darkness, and do not understand! are you in your wits that think iniquity is farther from judgement, because it is farther from appearance? do you forget the discovery of Achans wedge, and Gehazi's bribery? do you not recall how the Priests of Bel were detected for gluttons and impostors, creeping in at secret doors to gourmandize the junkets prepared for the Idol? deal squarely and without dissimulation; for you think it is night and no man sees, but the glory of the Lord is round about you.  
Fifthly, No sooner was the world blest with the Birth of this holy Child, God and Man, but the Angels put on white apparel, the air grows clear and bright, darkness is dispelled; therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and walk as children of the light: the earth should be more innocently walked on too and fro, because Christ hath trod upon it; our bodies kept clean in chastity, because he hath assumed our nature and blest it. God's word should be heard more respectfully because he hath preached it: finally our conversation should be honest as in the day, because the dayspring from on high hath visited us. Wicked men are groping like the Sodomites to find out mischief, though God have hid it out of the way. The Saints and Angels are in a state of light, wherein they know as they are known, perfectly partaking of the beatifical vision; between these two there is a middle condition of godly men who see into the way of righteousness, though it be darkly as in a glass; but they that dress them by a glass can discern how to mend any thing that misbecomes them; So the Gospel of Grace is a mirror of the light of Glory; it is not the fault of the Gospel, but of our own darkness, if we learn not of it to put on the true wedding garment. The Apostle calls it the putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ. Vbi animus tenebrescere tentationum caligine coeperit, ad lucem gratiae reformatur. 
Moral. l. 10. c. 19  When the conscience is overcast with the darkness of temptation, it flies to the looking-glass of Grace, and reforms itself by looking into it: This is to vindicate ourselves from the powers of darkness, and to walk decently as in the day. Works of lewdness come from the darkness of our understanding, they love to be done in privacy and not before the eyes of men: abjiciamus, says St. Paul, as if he would have you fling them away to the Devil, and bid him take his own. As a wise servant would not be found with folly in his hand, if he knew his Master were near: so because our salvation is come as this day in humility, and we know not how little he will defer to come in Majesty; therefore abjiciamus, throw away his filthiness from you, lest Christ should come and find profanation in your mouth, oppression in your purse, false tinctures of art and pride in your face, and disobedience in your heart. Every child of light will have his lamp burning in his hand, and by this he will know you whether you be his Disciple, if you speak the truth and come to the light; as if the glory of the Lord were round about you.  
Lastly, A glimpse of some celestial light did sparkle at his Birth to set our teeth on edge to enjoy him who is light of lights, very God of very God, and to dwell with him in that City which hath no need of the Sun, neither of the Moon, to shine in it; for the Glory of God did enlighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. I conclude with St. Paul, Col. 1.12. Let us give thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son. Amen.   

THE FOURTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION.  LUKE two. 10. 
And the Angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold I bring yond good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people.  
THat which is every man's salutation, wherewith he greets his neighbour at this time of the year, is the subject of my Text, a merry Christmas; it is it which we wish one to another among our friends and familiars, and it is it which the Angel in my Text wisheth to all kindreds of the world, as if we were all become his friends and familiars, good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. And surely were it not that the Birth of Jesus made us merry at this season, and put gladness into our hearts, all the year beside would be louring and lumpish, without all manner of consolation, Until God sent forth his Son made of a woman we might not receive the adoption of Sons: Without adoption we had no part in the inheritance, without hope of the inheritance what comfort could the children have? we had been all like Esau afflicted, and desperate when we had no share in the birthright, no part in the blessing of our Father. The Israelites that toiled like Galleyslaves under the works of the Law, had their New Moons, and their Solemn Feasts of Trumpets, and Tabernacles, had many other gaudy days, which carried a show of gladness, but indeed there was no solid consolation in them; they wanted a Christmas-day, the Nativity of a Saviour to make all cheerful: their pleasantness was like the singing of a bird fast locked in a cage, sometimes it chants a sweet note, yet flutters, and is always unquiet, because it is under captivity. Therefore it is to them that Amos denounceth that heavy note, chap. 8.10. The Lord will turn your feasts into mourning: but for our sakes the message is transposed, and the Lord will turn our mourning into an everlasting feast. So said the Angel, not only to a few Shepherds, as in the former verse, but to all that watch over their souls, as they did over their flocks, Fear not, etc.  
It is very manifest therefore that the scope of my Text bends to this point, how Christ made flesh as this day in the similitude of man, that he might redeem that nature from the curse of his Father's wrath, which he had taken into the union of his Person, I say, how the Son of God for our sakes incarnate is our crown, and our rejoicing, the consummation of all our felicity, which thus I prove by a true division of the parts. To that eternal happiness, in which we shall rejoice before God for ever, two things, say the Schoolmen very rightly, do equally concur; Omnis miseria excluditur; omne desiderium expletur, all misery shall be excluded, all desire shall be satiated, and both these two are most remarkable in this Angelical congratulation. First, the depulsion, or sending of all manner of evil and misery from our blessed estate, fear not. Secondly, the inclusion of all those joys and solaces that can be asked, that's laid open in Evangelizo; good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. Privatively the messenger brought no discomfort; nay, positively he brought comfort, which twain put together make up the compliment of our final beatitude.  
In the first general branch wherein the Angel promiseth a deliverance, or award from all evil that might make the Shepherds sorrowful, I consider these particulars for the explication, 1. What they should not fear. 2. How they should not fear. 3. Why they should not fear: in the first they are encouraged that three things be not dreadful unto them, Splendour Angelicus, propria indignitas, legis maledictio, tremble not either at the heavenly glory that shone round about them, nor be dejected at their unworthiness, nor be affrighted at the threatenings and maledictions of the Law. In the second we may consider a natural fear which may be too passionate, and immoderate, they must cast off that; and there is a worldly sorrow or fear which is altogether unprofitable, they must fly that; but there is a religious reverential fear, which is not passio, but donum; not a passion of flesh and blood, but a gift of the Holy Spirit: they must pray for that. The next interrogatory was, why they should not fear? and that for two reasons; Propter nuntium, propter nuntiatum, first in a less principal respect, because an Angel came to comfort them; but chiefly in a more principal regard, because Christ was born to be their comfort. The second general branch abounds much above this, where not only evil is dispelled, but a whole box broken, and all the oil of gladness poured upon their head: wherein you may note, first the Angel's Trumpet, with which he proclaims his errand, ecce behold it; then the errand consisting in no less than seven parts of Benediction. 1. Ecce ego, says Gabriel, Behold I bring unto you, the terms were much amended with Heaven and us, that an Angel came upon a peaceable message. 2. Ecce Evangelizo, he was no Lawgiver that was terrible, but an Evangelist. 3. The sweet air of the Gospel hath some harsh tidings, to take up the Cross, and endure unto blood, and death, but these were tidings of joy. 4. Joys are of several sizes, this is a great one, nay, none so great. 5. Joys and great ones are quickly done, this is gaudium quod erit, joy that shall be and continue. 6. A man may be a conduit-pipe to transmit joy to others, and have no benefit himself; this is gaudium vobis, joy to you, to every ear that hears it. 7. A good nature would not engross a blessing, but desires to have it diffused, and so was this, gaudium omni populo, joy to all people. None of these many circumstances can be omitted, for I must be faithful in making this rehearsal Sermon, as I may call it, and omit nothing of that which the Angel hath preached before me.  
Now let us begin again with every parcel divided asunder. The Angel said unto them fear not; what should they not fear? first, non a splendore divino, let not their hearts be troubled because the glory of the Lord shone round about them. Sore eyes are distempered at much light, and it is a sign there is some darkness within us all, which loves not to be discovered; that the best of us all are much perplexed if any extraordinary brightness flash upon us. A glorious splendour filled the mountain where Christ was transfigured, and it did amuse Peter, James, and John, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, who carry the name of the chief Apostles, that they knew not what they spoke. Out of St. Paul's own mouth concerning his conversion, Acts 22.6. Suddenly from heaven there shone a great light about me, and I fell with my face unto the ground. Well might the Psalmist say, his lightnings gave shine unto the world, the earth trembled, and was afraid. Ever ever shall we be afraid of any surpassing measure of light in this life, because our deeds are darkness. Especially the Shepherd's hearts did mis-give them that the Lord himself was in this marvellous light, it is his decking, and his garment when he comes forth in Majesty, Thou deckest thyself with light as with a garment. Now you know Elias, a man of mighty courage, covered his face with a mantle, when a still small voice passed by his ears, and the Lord was in the voice; than it were strange if poor Shepherds should not quake, when they were persuaded that the Lord was in the light that shined upon them. A learned Expositor confirms what I say, Erat claritas creata praeseferens divinam Majestatem, it was a splendour of glory newly made on purpose, which did bear the evident show of no created Spirit, but of a Divine Majesty. And ever since Adam was diffident of himself in the Garden or Eden, and confessed in this wise, Gen. 3.10. extimui, I was afraid and hid myself, ever since that hour the heart of man is cast down, and presageth some evil to come, when God and his Angels appear, though they entreat us peaceably. The main reason is this, Ne dignam suis meritis accipiant retributionem, our own sins rise up against us, as unanswerable accusers, and we ominate and conjecture that God appears for nothing, but to judge and condemn us. When God and his Angels presented themselves to Jacob in a dream, he breaks out into these words, Gen. 28.27. How dreadful is this place! this is no other but the gate of heaven: Peace Jacob, why dost thou not cry out, how comfortable is this place! this is no other but the gate of Heaven; but it's certain that the very comfort of heaven was dreadful, and unpleasant to men in the Old Testament: and our nature is still corrupted, the vessel is still unclean that receives these blessings, and therefore we are afraid of the great mercies of the Lord, as well as of the great punishments.  
Alas, O Lord, for I have seen an Angel of the Lord face to face, says Gideon, and yet for all that fear, 
Judg. vi. 22.  Gideon is named a mighty man of valour. Manoah the sire of that race from which Samson came, the very name of valour; yet he said to his Wife, We shall surely die because we have seen the Lord. 
Jud. xiii. 22.  The charitable widow of Sarepta was no less afraid of Elias an extraordinary Prophet, Art thou come to slay my son and to call my sins to remembrance? finally Peter drawing a miraculous draught of fish into the Ship as Christ bade him cast out the net, thought of nothing but his own sins, and God's vengeance, Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. But here's a messenger in my Text that bids the Shepherds cashier all these affrightments, neither to be dismayed at the light that shined about them, nor yet that God was in the glory of that light. First, Not to be troubled at the light, for it was to make this doctrine manifest, as if it had been written with a beam of the Sun, that Christ is the true light which lighteth every man, that cometh into the world: And why, says Bernard, did God ordain that light should be instead of John the Baptist, to usher Christ into the world when he was born? but because he would illuminate him without, Qui interioribus ignorantiae tenebris obducitur, who was overcast with darkness within. In him was life, and that life was the light of men, John 1.4, Quae necdum infundi poterat, at divina saltem circumfunditur claritas, as the light was but spread about their bodies here, so it was a sign, that if they would believe in him that was come to be the Messias, and to save them from their sins, their whole bodies should be transformed into bodies of light hereafter in the Kingdom of Heaven: And as every living thing rejoiceth when the night is past, and the Sun appears upon the earth, so they and we have cause to rejoice that the night of Ceremonies passed away, and the clear evidence of truth did shine abroad, Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise, Mal. 4.2. Therefore according to Bernard's elegancy this is the Angels fear not drawn out at large: 
Serm. 6. de Nativ. Dom.  timetis phantasma; en adest veritas. You are afraid of some spectrum or vision, fear not, behold we come with the evidence of truth. You suspect this is the lightning that goes before a thunderclap: No, no, it betokens there is a light risen into the world, which is the comfortable light of men: You suspect death, but I annuntiate life: You fear the gates of Hell, but the Heavens are opened and God is come down among you: You conjecture some perdition, but behold I preach a Saviour, that shall save you from your sins. This is the meaning of the light, which did dance at Midnight about the air, when Jesus was born, and the Angel said to them that trembled at the Vision, fear it not.  
But what if God himself were in that light? What if it were a fiery Apparition darted from the presence of his Majesty? Why yet Nolite timere, Fear it not. Once it pleased our heavenly Father to keep a distance with man upon these terms, no man hath seen God at any time, and lived. Now the day is come when you shall see he communicates himself more friendly to dust and ashes; so St. John begins his Epistle, That which was from the beginning, yet we have seen it with our eyes, we have looked upon it, and our hands have handled the Word of life. It is not from henceforth, since Christ was born, as it was with the Bethshemites that looked into the Ark, which represented the glory of God, and died for it. Now no man hath so much cause to fear his indignation as he that shuns his presence, and fears lest the Lord should appear before him. How did St. Stephen exult when he saw the heavens opened, and Christ Jesus standing at the right hand of God? Do you think the Martyr was amazed to see the sight? No, my Beloved, ever since the Son of God vouchsafed to take flesh in the womb of Mary, it is not a sign of death to see any part of God's glory, but a good ominous presage of everlasting life. Therefore be it that God was in the light which shined about the Shepherds, yet all is well, says the Angel, Nolite timere, Fear it not.  
Secondly, They must take courage, and not be troubled à propriâ indignitate, because of their own unworthiness. Indeed, what might they think within themselves that they were vouchsafed to hear the first Proclamation of this Blessed Nativity. To us these Congratulations? To us, poor Swains, this heavenly Embassage? To us miserable Shepherds these Tidings who are set with the Dogs of the Flock? Tell them to Caesar, or to Herod his Lieutenant, or to the chief Priest; Non nobis Domine, non nobis. We are most desertless Wretches, and why should God bestow such a royal favour upon us? Do you remember, Beloved, how Peter drew our Saviour near unto him, by crying out, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord, Luk. v. 8. The more he requested him to be gone, the more Christ did abide with Peter; so by how much the Shepherds did abase themselves before the Angel the more did the Angel raise them up, and bade them be encouraged to behold the Glory of God. He that did choose little Infants to be his first Martyrs, and ignorant Fishermen to be his first Apostles, and Mary Magdalen a woman, and a sinner, to be the first Witness of his Resurrection, it may appear that his grace is manifestly toward them who have a quick feeling of their own indignity. The blessed Virgin, when she had conceived her Son, came to her Cousin Elizabeth, that God might prove her lowliness, and thus she expressed it; Whence is this to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come unto me? Luk. ay, 43. Whether John Baptist learned this humble confession of his Mother Elizabeth, or whether the Mother spoke it in the Spirit of her Son which was in her Womb I know not, but I am sure in the like phrase of speech John gave back when Christ came near unto him, I have need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to me? Indeed, if none had adjoined themselves to our Saviour's company, but such as had deserved it, they should have done like the Jews, Joh. viij. 9 all men convicted by their own conscience for their unworthiness should forsake him one by one, and leave Jesus alone.  
See how God brings Light out of Darkness, the best encouragement of a dastard fearfulness; the comfort of these poor men was, that they saw nothing in themselves to comfort them; and their reward was great, because they knew they did not deserve it. We use to say, that no man is the nearer to death because he makes his Will, and bequeathes his body to the earth: So no man is the further from heaven because he doth heartily confess himself a miserable sinner, that deserves the condemnation of Hell-fire. If that will please the Lord, as sure it will, better than any burnt Sacrifice, who will not say, with David, Adhuc ero vilior, 
2 Sam. 2.22.  I will yet be more vile than thus, and I will be base in my own sight? This day is a very Catechism of humility, ask me any question about a lowly, and an humble mind, and I will show how this day shall answer it. Suppose it were demanded what is humility? I would say, a conformity to the likeness of Christ incarnate, Vt videret homo quem sequeretur, Deus factus est homo. Few ensamples of that virtue upon earth, therefore that man might see whom to follow, God was made man. But proceed we in Interrogatories; Is not perfect humility abhorrent from the Pomp of the World? Yes, so was our Saviour, who was born without the Pride and Riches of Magnificence. Will it display itself in vain attire? No, he was wrapped in swaddling clouts. Is it t● be found ordinarily in stately Mansions, and Kings Houses? No, he was laid in a Manger. Doth it thirst after the applause of the World? No, upon his first manifestation he was made known to the meanest Shepherds in the field. Did he seek his own praise? No, the Carol of his Nativity was, Glory be to God on high. Did he molest and trouble others? Was he disdainful, as proud men use to be? No, the other part of the ditty speaks him otherwise: Peace on earth, and good will towards men. May a mirable abject Wretch dare to encounter his dreadful Messengers? Yes, with a gladsome courage, it will be an advantage to their lowly mind, that they are guilty of their own indignity, Nolite timere, fear it not.  
The third thing which makes every joint of an humble sinner to quake, is Legis maledictio, the Curse of the Law, and unless that be strucken off we shall fear, though all the Angels of Heaven sang hallelujah, and bade us be cheerful; but this is the greatest piece of alacrity which the birth of Jesus brings with it, that it bids us not to fear the Curse of the Law. With this parcel of comfort St. Paul supplies that which is strictly wound up in the Angel's Message. God sent forth his Son made of a woman, made under the Law, to redeem them that were under the Law, Gal. iv. 5. Yet in a more emphatical Phrase, Gal. iii 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law, 
Hieron. in 3. cap. ad Gal.  being made a Curse for us. First, St. Hierom observes upon it he was factus non natus, not born, but made a Curse. For two things are to be considered in the Manhood of Christ: Both that he was an immaculate Lamb full of grace and truth; and so he was born in the blessing and favour of his Father, This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, Mat. iii And also that he took our person, and our guilt upon him, and so the maledictions due to all Mankind were translated upon him. This was the Scape-goat, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that carried away the malediction of our sins into the Wilderness, that we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life. 2. He was not made maledictus, but maledictum, not accursed, but a curse for us. Some expound it by an Hyperbole, that he took upon him maledictionis cumulum, the whole mass of accursedness; but I like it better to be interpreted a Metonymy, semblably to that Text, 2 Cor. v. 21. God made him, that is his Son, to be sin for us, Peccatum non peccatorem, not a sinner, but a Sacrifice for sin; so he was not accursed, but for our sakes made a Sacrifice of malediction. 3. It is remarkable that it is said, Factus est maledictio pro nobis, not nobiscum. It is one thing to be a debtor for debtors, another thing to be a debtor with debtors. No part of his own debt was in the debt which he paid, but it was for us men, and for our salvation. O miserable condition of mankind, but for this most merciful ransom! As many as are of the works of the Law are under the Curse, and as many as break the Law are under the Curse. How could we be exempted, I do not say from common, but even from desperate fear, unless the Angel had said, Fear not, here is a Propitiation for your sins.  
Will you please to attend how Christ was made somewhat for our sakes very differently four manner of ways: 1. Factus est aliquid pro nobis & nobiscum. He was made somewhat for us, and with us also: So this day he was made man for our sakes, and we are also men as he was; the Children have partaked of flesh and blood. 
Muscul. in 3. cap. ad Gal.  2. Factus est aliquid pro nobis non nobiscum. He was made somewhat for us, but not like as we are; he was made sin for our sakes, but not sinful as we are; him that knew no sin, God made sin for our sakes. 3. Factus est pro nobis, non quod sumus, sed esse debemus. He was that for us which we cannot be now, but that which we shall be hereafter: For us he rose from the dead, ascended up to Heaven, is glorified with Angels, was made obedient to his Father in all things, and we have confidence in Christ that such we shall be; these things he was made that we might be the righteousness of God in him. 4. Factus est pro nobis, quod, nunquam erimus. He was made that for us, which is proper to his own Royalty, and which we shall never be. So he was made our High Priest, our Mediator, our Redeemer, our Sacrifice to make atonement for our sins: but factus pro nobis, that he was made for us is the base and ground of all; there began the death of sin by the life of Christ, and so forth we go on with cheerfulness to abandon fear. The Fathers note it in the Cratch of the Manger where he was laid, a place made unclean with the dung of beasts, but ipsa stercora mundefecit. As his presence did purify the room, albeit the filthiness of the dung; so his Nativity hath cleansed as many as believed in him, albeit the loathsomeness of their iniquities. I have but one thing to say more to this point, noted (as I remember by Gregory) out of the Genealogy of his birth, Mat. i. thrice fourteen Generations are reckoned up, and but four women incidentarily put into the Catalogue. Judah begat Pharez, of Thamar, Salmon begat Booz of Rahab, and Booz, begat Obed of Ruth, and David begat Solomon of her that had been the Wife of Vriah. No women cited in the Chapter but these four, three of which had been unchaste ones, very Strumpets; to cheer up the penitent sinner, that their sins, and his, and the sins of all that believe are done away by him, by him that is above all names, the Son of God, who came into the world to purge us of our filthiness; therefore the true mirth of Christmas is to say with David, Psal. xxiii. 4. Though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil, for thou art with me to save me from destruction.  
Thus far I have enlarged the Angels comfortable Preface to the Shepherds, Fear not, that they should not be dismayed either at the light of glory which shined about them, or at their own unworthiness, which was a darkness within them, or at the malediction of the Law which pleaded condemnation against them, for the Birth of Christ, as I have showed, was a remedy to take all malignity from them. Perchance if the Angel should come amongst us in these days of slumber, and security, he might spare that part of his Message. For where's the man that humbles himself as he ought, as if there were any evil to come? We are all confident, and void enough from fear, if that be good. Therefore I come now to lay the second part of my Text to the former, how we should not be afraid, not with an immoderate fear, not with a desperate damning fear, which dog's a sullen unrepentant sinner up and down, but there is a pious reverential fear, which well becomes the Saints, and now I proceed to speak of those particulars.  
The Schoolmen very rightly consider fear two ways, Quà donum, quà passio, 
Thom. 1.2 ae. qu. 40  gift of the good Spirit of God one way, and another way as it is merely a natural passion. And first I will speak of it, as it is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor, says Statius not so sound, that fear was the first thing in the world that made a God. But I am sure that want of filial and awful fear is the first thing that will make an Atheist, and persuade a man there is no God. 
Isa. xli. 23.  The Prophet Isaiah could say no worse of the Idols made of stocks and stones, but that we should not be dismayed at their Godship, they could neither do good nor hurt. But if we will revereri we must vereri, there can be no true worship of God without a solicitous, and most anxious care not to displease his Majesty. He that is not conscientiously afraid to offend, doth most of all offend. When Zacharies mouth was opened, and began to divine of this day, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited his people, fear fell upon all that were round about him, Luke i 65. it fell upon them indeed, even as the Holy Ghost fell upon the Apostles at Whitsuntide, Acts two. In like manner when the Widow's Son of Naim was raised from the dead by the word which Christ spoke, Fear came upon all that were there, and they glorified God, Luke xvii. 16. Surely they had not glorified God as they ought if that fear had not come upon them. One instance more, 1 Kings three 28. All Israel feared Solomon when they saw the judgement of God was in him: And shall not all the World bow down with reverence and astonishment when they know that the power of all judgement is in God himself? But as for this filial devout fear perhaps we love to hear of it, for the Angels themselves cover their faces with their wings standing before the throne of the most high, Isa. vi. as if the Majesty of God were awful and dreadful unto them. And indeed a solicitousness to do the will of God because he is good and gracious, the study of the heart which is wary and circumspect not to decline from his Law, if you will call this filial fear, it may become an Angel, for David speaks of it as if it should endure in heaven, Psal. nineteen. 9 The fear of the Lord is clean, and endureth for ever. This is it to whose perfection we must aspire, to live justly and soberly, though there were no Hell at all, but purely out of the principle of love and zeal to the honour of our heavenly Father; and what a becoming thing it is unto Religion to approach to divine Prayers, especially to the Table of the Lord with an awful duty, as if we were afraid to speak to God, or to touch the crumbs of his heavenly banquet? Is not this better than to thrust ourselves into such celestial actions with a saucy familiarity, without fear or wit? What is more comfortable than to taste of that Cup which betokens the precious blood that was shed for our sins? And yet the Greek Fathers term it usually 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, tremendum mysterium, a mystery to be trembled at when we partake thereof. Assuredly we may presuppose, that when Mary took the clouts into her hand to wrap about her Infant, when Joseph did assist as it were in the office of a Father, when the Wisemen offered their gifts, when the Shepherds came out of the fields into Bethlem, and peeped in where Christ was laid to see what was done, every action of theirs was mixed with reverend fear and joy, they stood amazed, they prostrated themselves, there was no more spirit left in them, as it is said of the Queen of Sheba when she beheld the royalty of Solomon: therefore the Angel forbids not but after this sort they should dread the Lord, with a filial and reverential fear.  
Nay, I go further, the Angel would not disapprove of that fear which trembles at the wrath to come, and endeavours to live unblameable because God is an avenger of unrighteousness; for to discredit this fear by calling it fervile, and to dehort Christians from it, against which stone some I know do stumble, it shall not be my Doctrine, I hold it not safe and warrantable. If they take fervile fear in that notion in which the Sententiaries do take Attrition, that is, to be displeased at our sins only because judgement will follow, but neither sorrowing that God is dishonoured, nor declining bad occasions, nor intending renovation of life; this hath not a grudging of true Religion in it, it is no more than the trembling of an unregenerate man's conscience, who hath not tasted of the heavenly gift. But if you say that man hath a servile fear who dares not but do his Master's will lest he be beaten with many stripes, be not ashamed of this fear. Our Saviour goes it over and over, and commends it again and again, Luke xii. 4. Fear him which hath power to cast into Hell, yea, I say unto you fear him. The fear of the Lord, says the Wiseman, is the beginning of wisdom. How is it the beginning? Why Faith is the first cause of Religion, and fear is the first effect; as the foundation is the beginning or an house, so after true conversion it begins to go on from virtue to virtue, and this is the first ground work that it lays, Stand in awe, and sin not Psal. iv. It is such a beginning that I will say this, it is impossible to come to a true consolation in Christ without it. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Psal. two. 11. Timor Domini est fidei fundamentum, & firmamentum, says St. Cyprian, Faith, which includes our hope in Christ, had no firmness, nor sure footing, but that it knows in itself it fears the Lord, Love fell asleep with her beloved in her arms, Cant. iii ay. And her beloved was gone in the mean time; So if their be not a mixture of fear with our love, it falleth asleep, it waxeth secure, and loseth her Beloved. If the comfort of our joy be not allayed with some fear 'tis madness and presumption. Again, if our fear be not intermixed with the comfort of some joy 'tis sullenness and desperation. As the Earth cannot be without Summer and Winter to make it fruitful, the pleasure of the one, and the austerity of the other make up the revolution of a good year, so Faith is the Parent both of a cloudy fear, and a smiling hope: Faith begets fear in us in regard of our own weakness, and hope in regard of the goodness of God; hope ariseth out of the faith of the Gospel, and fear out of the faith of the Law. These cannot be parted.  
Indeed, servile fear is an unpleasing word because it grates our memory with this remembrance that our nature is in bondage, and that we are Thralls and Captives to death and punishment; 
2.2 ae. qu. 19 Art. 2.  and therefore the words of Aquinas are very weighty, Timor servilis bonus est, sed servilitas ejus est mala; That bondage which makes us liable to judgement is naught; but the fear which issues from a conscientiousness of that bondage flying to God that it may fly from judgement is holy and good Briefly, let them thus be compared together; a filial fear, which loves God for his own goodness, is like a bright day which hath not a cloud to disfigure it: A servile fear, that dreads God because it dreads the wrath to come, is like a day that is overcast with clouds, but it is clearer than the fairest moonshine night. It is good to have the spirit of Adoption, but it is better to have the spirit of bondage than the spirit of slumber; it is good to be in Canaan, but it is better to be in the Wilderness than in Egypt; it is good to be a Child, but it is better to be a servant than a stranger to the Lord. David most sweetly puts them together, Psal. xxxiii. Behold the eyes of the Lord are upon them that fear him, and that put their trust in his mercy. So I conclude this Point, that the Angels Nolite timere, fear not, doth neither cry down filial fear, which is the modest bashfulness, nor yet servile fear which is the sharp spur of true Religion.  
Hitherto we have spoken of fear quà donum, as it is a gift of the holy Spirit. Now, that I may make my discourse complete, I must speak of it, quà passio, as it is a sensitive passion, and so when it is moderate, it is tolerable; when it exceeds, and will not hearken to the governance of reason, it is condemnable. I will speak but a few words of the first. Nature is excusable when it shrinks from those things that would offend it, and desires to save it from harm by fair and direct means, for in such a case our conscience pleads that there is a reasonable cause and occasion. These are Aristotle's words upon the Point, that a man were stupid, or mad, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. That it is neither dismayed at violent tempests on the Sea, nor at earthquakes on firm Land, like the foolhardy and confident Celts in Scythia: But the day doth admonish me to take my instances from our blessed Saviour, and so I can, no example so fit for Allegation. For why did Christ and his Mother fly into Egypt soon after he was born, when Herod was in a fuming chase? Why did the Angel admonish Joseph to do so in a dream? The Lord could have saved him, as he did Elisha the Prophet in the midst of his enemies, whose eyes he blinded, that they could not see him. And again, says the Text, when he returned out of Egypt he went aside to dwell in the Coasts of Galilee, for fear of Archilaus that reigned in Judea in his Father Herod's stead. Great caution as might be, and yet all this needed not, but because our Saviour would allow a circumspect fear in time of persecution to shift for life. Moreover, you must not think that Christ did fear as we do, will nill we, upon the compulsion of necessity, for he had all passions, and humane infirmities under subjection, so that he could be cast into no consternation but when his own will did consent and accord unto it, yet he chose a fit time to cast himself into a great agony of fear, when he sweat drops of blood in the Garden, lest we should think it a sin at all times to be afraid upon just occasion.  
This then is another fear which belongs to our allowance, but there is a fear which hath a Nolite set before it, an immoderate horror of heart, a symptom of desperation, or at least of infidelity and diffidence; this is that quivering with which God strikes his enemies, as a tree is shaken by the wind to unfasten it from the root. That mark which he set upon Cain was a continual trembling at the sight of man and beast. Pharaoh was never at rest in his mind lest the Children of Israel should grow too fast, and multiply so much that they would be too potent for the Tyrant that oppressed them. He sent darkness to astonish the Egyptians, and they were troubled with strange Apparitions, Wisd. xvii. 3. 
2 Kin. seven. 6.  He sent such a Panic fear among the Syrians, that they verily believed they heard the noise of an Host, and Chariot wheels, when there was no such thing, so they fled, and left to besiege Samaria. The fear of the wicked it shall come upon him, says Solomon, Prov. x. 14. The Jews were very scrupulous with Christ's Doctrine lest the Romans should come and take away their Nation; in conclusion the Romans did come and lead them away in captivity. Timuerunt Judei perdere terram, & perdiderunt coelum, says St. Austin, 
Super. 11. cap. Johan.  Cowards as they were, they were so fearful that they might not lose their possession upon earth that they lost their possession both in earth and heaven. But I come to take the instance of the Day into this Doctrine. How foolishly, how rashly was Herod troubled, because such Miracles concurred at the birth of Christ, 
Euseb. lib. 3. Hist. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  lest his Kingdom should be translated from him? And Eusebius makes Domitian the Emperor to concur with Herod in this Point; for hearing much talk of the Saviour, and deliverer of those that put their trust in him, he was afraid lest the Christians had a King in store to depose him; but afterwards desisted from his persecution, being certified, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that his Kingdom was not of this world, but an heavenly, and Angelical. Nothing, you see, is comfortable to them that have not the true comforter, the holy Spirit in their soul.  
I have given myself large scope to run into this Point that I might join some Use for your instruction with the celebration of the Day. And now I will sum it up when I have discussed one thing how we may know a godly fear, which the Angel would allow, from a tyrannous molesting fear which He would inhibit. And this we must inquire into à posteriori, by the several effects on this wise according to Aquinas, Vel propter mala quae timet ad Deum accedit, 
2.2. ae. qu. 19 Art. 2.  vel propter mala quae timet à Deo recedit. Either for fear of some loss or harm it approacheth unto God, and that's a religious fear; or else for fear of some harm it forgets God, and departeth from him, and that's a criminous and a sinful fear. The Devils fear and tremble, says St. James, but they are never the nearer to be good. Diabolus habet timorem affligentem, non à penâ cohibentem. Satan feels some horror that gnaws and torments him, 
Ales. tom. 2. qu. 100 m. 4. art. 4.  but he feels not the blessing of that fear which should discipline him from sin, and amend him. I will give another difference of this fear according to the gestures of men as they were good or bad. Abraham fell forward on his face when the Lord spoke unto him; in all probability so did St. Paul, when at his Conversion the light from heaven did shine about, so that he and all that were with him fell flat to the ground, and were sore afraid. These in their fear fell towards God, and towards the throne of his footstool: But those ungracious servants of the High Priests that came to lay hold of our Saviour, and to bind him, as soon as Christ had said unto them, Whom seek ye? I am he, they went backward and fell to the ground, 
Joh. xviii. 6.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; as old Eli trembled when he heard the Ark was taken, and fell backward from his Seat upon the ground, and broke his neck. This is a naughty fear which recoils from God, and runs back from his Commandments. Now in the close of this Doctrine: I know every man will desire to know what manner of fear this was which the Angel did repel in the Shepherds; I answer, that in all probability it was mixed of good and bad. There was both an affection of reverence in it to the glory of God which shined in the light which was round about them; and an immoderate passion of humane frailty, which did indispose them to receive any tidings from heaven. No face can be seen in a troubled water; and no message can arrive intelligently at his ear who is perplexed with trembling and astonishment; therefore to quiet their mind, that the Word of grace might receive the fairer impression, the Angel said unto them fear not. Which is the period of my second observation, how they should, and how they should not fear.  
The third interrogatory, which is all I will dispatch at this time, is a question that comes nearer to them, why they should not fear, and that for two reasons, Propter nuntium, propter nunciatum. First, in a less principal respect, because an Angel came to comfort them, but chiefly in a more principal regard, because Christ was born to be their comfort. A good messenger is a good medicine, says Solomon, Prov. xiii. 17. and the condition of this messenger is very comfortable like a lenitive medicine; his congratulation runs, as if he had said, fear not me, as if I were that Cherubin who was appointed to stand at the entrance of the Garden to keep you from the Tree of Life; no, I am sent to prepare his way who is born of a Virgin this day to bring you into Paradise. I have said it, be not afraid, for I am one that stand always before the face of your father which is in heaven, I know that his thoughts are full of mercy and compassion towards you. Moses and the Prophets spoke concerning Christ to come, that he should deliver his people from their sins; but they were sinners themselves, which had utterly disabled their testimony but that they were inspired from God. The Law will reclaim that the same man should be testis, and reus, the person impleaded for guilty, and yet a witness in the fact; therefore an Angel who was guilty of no disobedience, of no breach against the Law, his testimony was unsuspected to testify the birth of a Saviour. Not as if such as they be were stipulatores, 
Heb. v. 13.  sureties unto men for the Promises of God, for because the Lord can swear by none greater he swore by himself, and because he can promise by none greater, he promiseth by himself. It is not for man's sake, or for an Angel's sake, but for his own truth and mercy sake that we believe Jesus was born in the similitude of man to be Mediator between God and man; and since the Son of God hath come among us in the flesh we may reply unto this heavenly Messenger, as the Samaritans did to the woman that drew water for Christ, 
Joh. iv. 42.  Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.  
But you will object, what trust is there in any Creature, be he never so glorious, that he can promise comfort, and say we should not fear? Why, Beloved, we must not set light, or despise their help that God hath set to be our Guardians and Defenders, 
2 Kin. vi. 16.  to pitch their Pavilions round about us. The Prince of the air and his evil Spirits are never wanting to entrap us. But what said Elisha to his Servant in the mountain, when Chariots of horsemen and heavenly succours do present themselves before him, Plures nobiscum, there are more that be with us than against us; Our friends do exceed the number of our enemies, therefore we may be courageous. Besides, the name of Gabriel, supposed to be that Messenger that came to the Shepherds, his name by interpretation is Fortitudo Domini, the strength of God, as if he were a great Bulwark on our side, Quoniam bellum indictum est Daemonibus, upon Christmas day began open hostility against the Devil, therefore it is a good Omen, a blessed presage, that the trumpet of Gabriel blew these tidings abroad, who is fortitudo Domini, a valiant Prince, such a one as Michael was, that conquered the Dragon; as his name is, so is himself the strength of God. Finally, we may be sure that what he said to encourage us was solid comfort without flattery, no false alarm, no smother of sweet words where there is no cause; for there are Mountebanks in Divinity, that will promise many sorts of remedies to a sinsick soul where there is none at all; 
Jer. vi. 14.  As Jeremy describes those false blandishing Prophets, They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying peace peace, when there is no peace. Slightly, or verbis leviculis, says Vatablus, with gibing frumps, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read the Septuagint, 
In Sententiis.  scornful, despising them, whom they seduced with lying hopes. Periculosiora sunt animae secura, quam corpori adversa, says St. Austin; security is more perilous to the soul than affliction to the body. But such messengers, as my Text speaks of, cannot publish a falsehood, because they are ever enlightened with the spirit of truth; we may build upon a rock of confidence if they say Nolite timere, fear not.  
One touch more and this Point is done: You hear that the Tongues of Angels are cheerful, comfortable Tongues, their tidings are no flattery, yet they are words of mirth and gladness. Then it were good me thinks that discretion, and the consideration of Christ's merciful Gospel did mitigate their zeal, who think they are bound to thunder nothing so much to the people as fears, and terrors, like the writer of jambiques that spote anger and poison to put Archilochus into desperation. Let Vices be threatened, but let the hope that accompanies true repentance go together; Let Judgement be put home to the obdurate conscience, but let Mercy be an Advocate for the broken in heart: Let the strictness of Law and the Curse thereof fetch a tear from our eyes; but let the ransom of our sins be set before us, and that Christ will wipe all tears from our eyes. St. Paul wished himself at Corinth, not to affright them, but to rejoice with the Brethren; as it was said of the mild nature of the Emperor Vespasian, Neminem unquam dimisit tristem; he never sent any man from him discontent, but gave him some comfort and satisfaction: So the Gospel is such a sweet demulcing Lesson, that if it be truly preached it must always revive the heart, it cannot leave a sting behind it; You see the Angel delights not to scare, but to comfort the Shepherds, Fear not.  
I shall lead your patience no further than one thing more, why they should not fear, Propter nuntiatum, that's the most principal regard, because Christ was born to be their comfort. This is to be descanted at large hereafter upon the remainder of this Text, and for the present I will prevent what I shall say hereafter but with this one observation, that concerning all such as are terrified, and perplexed in mind, we can do no more than the Angel hath done, preach Christ unto them for their comfort; if the joy of his Nativity will not allay their disconsolate, melancholy desperation, than there is no Balm in Gilead to help them, that's all the infusion of solace which the Angel did pour into the world when it was cast down with sin. Poor soul, that art terrified with a condemning conscience, tell me to what end was Christ born but to seek and to save them that were lost? Was not he partaker of flesh and blood as thou art? And dost thou surmise that he made any for condemnation whose nature he took upon him, unless by their own infidelity they make themselves reprobates? Did he come among us to bring great joy unto all people? And wilt thou thrust thyself out of the number? Did not he weep in his Cratch that thou mightest sing in heaven? Did not he fly from Herod, that thou mightest fly from Satan? Was not he brought forth amongst us in great humility and misery, that thou mightest be translated out of misery into glory? Be not like Rachel that would not be comforted. Fear not little flock, it is your Father's pleasure to give you a Kingdom. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect? It is God that justifieth, who shall condemn us? It is Christ that was born, and died, and rose again to deliver us from all evil; it is he that was made man, that thou mightest be made a glorious Saint, a fellow Citizen with Angels. AMEN.   

THE FIFTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION.  LUKE two. 10. 
Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people.  

Serm. 6. de Nativ. Dom.  IN the same Text where we ended the old year, let us begin the new, Jesus Christ last year, and this year, and the same for ever. To speak of our Saviour's Nativity, says Bernard, is as new at these days as it was in the first Twelfth-tide after he was born. Semper novum est quod semper innovat mentes, nec unquam vetus est quod fructificare non cessat. That's justly esteemed a new meditation which prepares us to newness of life; neither can we say a tree grows old by standing long in the soil, which fructifies continually as much as ever it did before. In the imagination of our Faith Christ seems to be offered up again so often as we remember his Death and Passion in the Sacrament: so he seems as verily to be born again so often as we do faithfully annuntiate his Incarnation. Once we have done that work already in the day itself; the time is not yet expired which belongs to that Solemnity: now we are come once more to the same business to dispatch it, that you may see the difference between the antiquation of the Old Law plucking out the sting of fear, and the publication of the new Covenant the Gospel which breathes unspeakable gladness. First, I have preached upon these words how we should purge out the old leaven of distrustful fear, now I come to show what it is to have a new heart created full of spiritual joy.  
I observed unto you upon the whole verse, that as much might be said from hence to extol the benefit which we receive by Christ's Nativity, as is usually delivered to express that everlasting felicity which we shall enjoy with God in the highest Heavens, to that beatitude of the Saints, say the Schoolmen very rightly, two things must concur, Omnis miseria excluditur, omne desiderium expletur: All misery shall be excluded from our happy estate, and all our desires fulfilled. And both these two are most remarkable in this Angelical Congratulation: First, the depulsion or sending of all manner of evil and misery from our blessed estate in these words, The Angel said unto them, fear not. Secondly, The inclusion of all those joys and solaces that can be asked, that's laid open in Evangelizo, Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. Privatively the messenger cashiered all discomfort, nay, positively he brought great comfort, which twain put together make up the compliment of our final beatitude, and are both deduced from the blessing of the Incarnation of our Lord and Saviour Christ. The first general branch wherein the Angel promised a deliverance, or award from all manner of evil that might make the Shepherds sorrowful, I have done with that, and there I leave it. I come now to the second general branch which abounds much above the former, where not only evil is dispelled, but a cheerful benediction succeeds in the place, Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. Wherein that no title may be lost of such heavenly comfort, first, note the Angel's Trumpet, with which he proclaims his errand, Ecce, behold. Secondly, the errand consisting in no less than seven branches of benediction. 1. Ecce ego, says the Angel, Behold I bring unto you; the terms were much amended between Heaven and us, that the Angel came unto us upon a peaceable message. 2. Ecce Evangelizo, he was no Lawgiver that was terrible, but an Evangelist. 3. The sweet air of the Gospel hath some harsh tidings, to take up the cross and endure unto blood, and death; but these were tidings of joy. 4. Joys are of several sizes, this is a great one, nay, none so great. 5. Joys, and great ones are quickly done; this is gaudium quod erit, joy that shall be, and continue. 6. A man may be a conduit-pipe to transmit joy to others, and have no benefit himself; this is gaudium vobis, joy to you, to every ear that hears it. 7. A good nature would not engross a blessing, but desires to have it diffused; and so was this, Gaudium omni populo, joy to all people. And of these severally as I have put them in a rank.  
Before the Law was delivered at Mount Sinai, the voice of a Trumpet was heard in the Camp of Israel, which sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Exod. nineteen. 19 A Trumpet was a sign of hostility, and of warlike preparation. The Law indeed came like an enemy to condemn us, for we were not able to stand before it; but Christ, who was the end of the Law, made way to his own manifestation by the articulate voice of an Angel, as if it had been the voice of a man, to intimate that the Prince of Peace was approached near unto us, ecce, behold. Out of which word standing in this place I note three things, admiration, demonstration, and attention. 1. Ecce, see and admire this is the greatest wonder that ever was. Name any thing unto me that ever was made, and I am confident to say this is stranger to man's apprehension than any thing that ever was made, the Incarnation of the Son of God. If you love to cast your eyes upon that which is miraculous, look this way, and see the greatest miracle that ever was brought to light. In the beginning was the word, and no word can utter how it was made flesh in time. The eternal Creator was made man of the substance of a woman, and yet his hands did make and fashion the substance of his Mother. The word by which the world was made became an Infant in the cradle, and could not speak. He that bears up the pillars of the earth was born in the arms of Joseph, and carried into Egypt. The Infinite Majesty that hath made the bounds of heaven and earth, being himself without limits or circumscription was bound with swaddling clouts, and laid in a manger. It is not safe to proceed into many of these inquisitions, lest astonishment overwhelm us: St. Paul was wary, and came off thus from the wonderment thereof; Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness, 
1 Tim. three 16.  God was manifest in the flesh: as who should say, the Temple of Solomon had things of much secrecy within the Veil, the Ark, the Cherubims, the Propitiatory, the most Holy of Holies; the Church of the New Testament hath things as wonderful and mysterious as those, arcana fidei, recluse and admirable secrets of Faith, the manifestation of Christ in the form of man, Ipsi quoque Angelorum primati incognita, says Dionysius, 
2 cap. de Divin. Nom.  the Primate of Angels in the triumphant Church is not able to sound the depth of it. So than you see this word is a preface to an extraordinary miracle, ecce, behold.  
Secondly, To cry out unto the Shepherds, behold, is an Adverb of Demonstration; things hard by make us look towards them more than those that are further off; we sit still and muse upon that which we hope will come to pass, but when we hear the bridegroom coming then we bustle and look out. The Prophet would not say barely, Thy King cometh, O Zion, but Ecce Rex tuus, behold thy King cometh. O what an alteration this was, when the invisible God came to an ocular demonstration; and though he be now ascended up to Heaven, yet he hath left his Spirit in our hearts, that we may say with the Apostle, Dominus prope est, the Lord is at hand. 
Phil. iv. 5.  And though the senses of our body do not fix themselves upon him, yet Faith will perceive him strongly and certainly that he is truly present: Faith will assure itself how he stands at the door and knocks, and how it hears his voice. Furthermore let this demonstrative direction put you in mind to live so justly, and inoffensively as if you did always behold God in the flesh. Elias made the right use of this doctrine when he took an oath, Vivit Dominus in cujus conspectu●sto, as the Lord liveth in whose presence I stand. Well says Rubanus upon it, 
2 Kings xvii. 1.  the just Prophet demeans himself as one that stands in God's presence in this life, and he shall surely keep his rank in the same place in the life to come. Ecce natus, says the Angel, Behold the tidings of a Saviour, as if nothing else had been worth our consideration: and how many be there that demean themselves, as if they cared not whether they heed it or no.  
But thirdly, Ecce, behold, it doth not beg, but command attention: when the Lord sends a messenger, is it not fit to note him diligently, and to ponder his sayings in your mind? Philo says that those two words of Moses, Deut. xxvii. 9 Take heed and hearken O Israel are the sum of all the precepts in the Law. Harken O daughter and consider, 
Psal 45.  incline thine ear, says David. What's this inclination of the ear? we cannot bow, 
Lorianus in 1. cap. Jac.  or stir that part as we may the hand, and the knee, Aures hominum sunt immotae, ut sit velox ad audiendum, says one, the ears of man are not to be wagged and moved like the ears of a beast, to the end there may be no impediment in attention, but that he may be swift to hear. But he is said to incline his ear, who hath a submissive heart, and listens diligently to that which is spoken. If a frivolous tale, suppose the feigned pilgrimage of some Errand Knight be told us, every syllable shall be marked so heedily, that you will be able to repeat it, Conticuere omnes, intentique ora tenebant: But if God do send his servants to narrate his will and pleasure, how many disturbances shall they find in their relation of heavenly things? Sarah laughed at the Angel, Pharaoh chafed and interrupted Moses, the Jews misinterpreted Christ himself, Gallio marks not a word that's said, Eutyches sleeps, the Athenians flout at Paul, and say what means this babbler; who will take the pains to tell a message any more to him that will abuse it so neglectfully? and if God should take away the preaching of his word from this people, let them thank themselves who were so defective in all due and reverend attention. But, says John the Baptist, The Friend of the Bridegroom standeth and heareth him, and rejoiceth greatly because of the Bridegroom's voice, John three 29. And so much for this word behold, as it is a note of admiration, of demonstration, and lastly of attention. Behold I bring, etc.  
Now the first of seven things which are remarkable in the message, is that which hath met us often before in all the Texts upon this Gospel, the consideration of the person, that the Angel is sent unto us upon a peaceable entreaty: Ecce ego, Behold I bring you good tidings. The children of men have so often provoked God to send Angels with a sword of vengeance to the earth, that no doubt Gabriel was pleased to bring a welcome message with him. A messenger cannot help it, if he come with sorrowful news; and yet for the most part men will be displeased at such a one, whose tongue doth bode discomfort and infelicity. Joab did tender the welfare of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok, 
2 Sam. 18.20.  when he would not let him be the first that should certify David how Absalon was dead; says he, Thou shalt bear tidings another day: but this day thou shalt bear no tidings, because the King's Son is dead. Therefore if you mark it, Angels that came to inflict punishment, or to threaten some ensuing mischief, came single for the most part, or never above two at once; but to do a good office to men upon earth, to protect Elisha from the Aramites, to annuntiate that the Messias was come into the world they came by troops, and multitudes; no less in this chapter than a multitude of the heavenly host. There were three with Abraham in his tent to tell him that Isaac the son of promise should be born unto him of Sarah in their old age; and we cannot but take notice how one of the three vanished, and was gone when they went into Lot's house, to warn him that Sodom should be destroyed with fire and brimstone. How far are they from this Angelical benevolence, that gird other men with the remembrance of their misfortunes, and insult over their miseries, as Shimei used David in his affliction? a curse will fall upon them that love to be instruments to undo men, rather than to raise them up; that delight in the crosses of their brother rather than in their consolation. Miserable comforters, as Job said of his Friends, that poured vinegar into his wounds to vex them, not to heal them.  
But these holy ones that are sent from above delight to be the Ambassadors of joy; the first of them all that I read of in holy Scripture came to administer help, and succour to the distressed; and that was the Angel that came to Hagar to cheer up her drooping spirits, and to put her into the way of safety, when she and Ishmael the child were almost ready to perish. And now one of them comes in my Text with good news to show that a perfect friendship was made up between all parties, in this verse between Angels and Men; for Ego Evangelizo, I come to rejoice with you as a friend, I bring you good news. 2. A friendship between God and man; for a Saviour is born unto you which is Christ the Lord. 3. Friendship and amity between man and man, between Kingdom and Kingdom, between one Nation and another people, at the 14. verse. On earth peace, and good will towards men. Yet when our sins cry out for vengeance this truce is broke of all sides. The sword of our enemies shall be unsheathed, and all peace shall be dissolved between man and man: our Saviour shall become our angry Judge, neither shall the blessing descend from God to Man. Lastly, the Angel shall draw his sword, and cause the pestilence to cut down thousands upon thousands; as the Mower shears down the grass of the field. I am sure the fury of such an angry Angel sticks still in our remembrance. Therefore let every man for his part keep fast the bond of his tripartite friendship, by sanctification and obedience; then the Angels will come unto us not in fury, but in mercy, saying, Ecce ego, etc.  
I proceed to the next circumstance, Ecce Evangelizo, we render it to bring good tidings, but it is as if he had said, I come to be an Evangelist, I am no Lawgiver whose voice was terrible, I am a messenger of a better Covenant, of the Gospel of Grace. At this Text, beloved, the Spirit of God doth enter the word Gospel, or Evangel, quite to alter the state of the Church from what it had been before. For the better understanding hereof, I pray you mark it attentively, in what manner God did dispense his will and pleasure to his Church from the beginning of the world to the end of all times. And for order sake I will reduce it all to three heads, to a Law which was given by God to Adam, to a Law which was given by Moses to Israel, and to these glad tidings, to wit the Gospel of the New Testament which was given by Christ to all Nations from one end of the earth to the other. 1. Now I buckle to the first of these, a Law was given by God to Adam. That Law was short and commandatory, fac, & vive, do this and live; therefore that is rightly called the Law of Works; but the Gospel says if thou believest thou shalt be saved: therefore that's called the Law of Faith. The same God was the author of both these; both were revealed to men, and to no other creature; both of them according as we perform them promise the same reward; both of them have the same end to make us magnify God for his Wisdom, Goodness, and Justice. Nay, I add, compare the Law of Works imposed upon Adam, and the Law of Faith imposed upon Christians; and both of them are possible to be done: For the first man according to the integrity wherein he was created, and by the virtue of supernatural Grace bestowed upon him, might have obeyed the Commandment given, if he had not turned to disobedience: and by the Divine help of the same grace, we, to whom God hath preached the glad tidings of his Son, are endued with power to believe that we may be saved. Now in a word let us lay the difference of these two one against another: God gave the Law in Paradise as a King in his Justice, but he gave the Gospel in Zion as a Father of Grace and Mercy; according to that Law the reward had been given ex debito, by debt, and due, say the Schoolmen; but to him that believes, the reward is given by mere Grace which excludes boasting. He that disobeyed that Law was to look for the most strict severity of Justice; so condemnation belongs likewise to the unbeliever according to Justice; but perhaps it shall be tempered with some moderation for Christ's sake. Finally, this is the main disagreement, the first Covenant made with Adam did exclude all hope of remission of sins; but the second Covenant made in Christ runs in this tenor to them that live by Faith: your sins shall be blotted out, and your iniquities forgotten.  
After you have understood the first point, how there was a Law imposed upon Adam when he was created and endued with original Justice, you must now give ear to the next thing in order, what heavy and astonishing matter is contained in that Law which was given by Moses to the Children of Israel: and remember that I consider the Law delivered in the two Tables at Mount Sinai, Seorsim, and by itself, separated from all the promises contained in the Prophets, and in the Psalms of David. These than are the remarkable differences between the Covenant written in Tables of stone, and this Covenant of the New Testament in the Blood of Christ. First, God gave the Law at Sinai being wrath with our sins; for whereas we had lost both the wisdom of our understanding, and the loyal obedience of our will by the transgression of our first parent, yet God imposed his Commandment upon us, and exacts such measure of holiness which we are not able to perform: Therefore that Law was given in the barren Wilderness, because it is not able to bring one soul unto God; likewise it was delivered with signs full of wrath, thunder, and lightning, and a dreadful noise, to show that God was full of indignation when he laid it upon us. On the contrary, he made the new Covenant of peace being reconciled to them that were lost, or at least proffering reconciliation in his beloved Son. Read this Doctrine, Heb. xii. from the 18. to the 24. verse. Ye are not come to the Mount, that might not be touched, and that burnt with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which they that heard entreated they might hear it no more: They could not endure that which was commanded: And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake; but ye are come to Mount Zion, and to the City of the living God, etc. Wherefore the Gospel was presented with manifest tokens of love, and benevolence, Ecce Evangelizo, behold, I bring you good tidings. 2. There's a difference arising between the first Testament, and the last, from the several Mediators that came between God and the people. Moses was a servant, faithful in the Family, and he was the Mediator of the Old Testament; Christ is the Son and Heir of all, he was the Mediator of the New: The Law was given by Moses, Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. 3. The old Covenant was ratified with the blood of Beasts; but lo the New Covenant doth much surpass it, which was ratified with the precious Blood of that immaculate Lamb which took away the sins of the world, which is therefore called the Blood of the New Testament. 4. The old Law in St. Paul's phrase contained poor and beggarly rudiments, not able to bring to life: It was a kill letter, the ministry of death and condemnation, it worketh wrath, it entered that sin might abound; it is like Hagar which gendereth children unto bondage, Gal. iv. 24. The Gospel is the power of salvation to every one that believeth, a quickening Spirit; it purgeth us from our sins, it speaketh better things than the blood of Abel. 5. That which Moses brought was an heavy burden, which neither the Fathers nor the Children could bear: but of the Gospel Christ saith, his yoke is easy, and his burden is light, and in it you shall find rest for your souls. Lastly, the Old Testament endured unto Christ, and no longer; wherefore because it passed away it is called the Old: the New Testament remaineth for ever; 
Heb. seven. 16.  so says St. Paul of our Blessed Saviour taking flesh, who is not made after the Law of a carnal Commandment, but after the power of an endless life. No passage or comparison can be made between them, but the Law given at Mount Sinai will appear to be an harsh, and most unwelcome injunction; and that which doth clear us from the curse thereof is Evangelium the best tidings that ever arrived at the ear of man.  
Hitherto I have considered the Old Testament in no respect, but as it contains the kill letter of the Law; but you must not mistake that the Holy Spirit hath interlaced many fast-holdings of Faith, and promises Evangelical almost every where in the Prophets, and in the Psalms of David. Nay, the Old Testament is rather Promise than Law; yet it was fit the rigour of the Law should be repeated that it might more appear how necessary the promise of Grace was, that we could not live without it, and that every man being convicted in his conscience by the sentence of the Law, we might more ardently fly to Grace; for the end of the Moral Law is double, to set us a rule what we should endeavour to do, and to discover our own impotency unto us, what we are not able to do, that we may seek a remedy in the satisfaction of Christ. But this I say that the darkness and obscurity of the Old Testament was enlightened with many excellent promises, that the believing Israelites might be partakers of Faith, and of everlasting life; they had the same Gospel which we have, the same Christ, the same Faith, the same Spirit, sealing the truth of promise unto them. Where is then the privilege? you will say that the tidings are better to us, then unto them, or far surpassing on our side every way. Israel that believed in the promised seed was an heir, but under age, nothing different from a servant. The faithful since the coming of Christ are adulti heirs come to age, such, I may say, as have sued out their livery, past pupillage, past the pedagogy of Ceremonies; for the yoke of Ceremonies was most troublesome, that the coming of Christ which canceled such things might the more be desired. Then they beheld a Messias in types, and shadows, now he is manifest in his own person; then Faith was obscurer, now it is more clear; then the Spirit was given scantily, now it is poured out in full abundance, Abundantia spiritus est elogium regni Christi: then the preaching of Faith was included in the Kingdom of Israel, now it is diffused throughout all the world. Mark it now I beseech you, how these three do differ. The Law did terrify and astonish, there were no good tidings in that. The promise of Grace and Mercy was an annunciation of good news worth the hearing, and it was fit that a promise should go before, that the day of Christ might be longed for, and much desired before he came: yet this did cool the comfort that hope deferred doth afflict the soul. Wherefore when the desire of our eyes did come into the world, to satisfy the Law for us, and to satisfy he expectation of all promises, than it became Evangelium, good tidings, happy news; nothing shall be heard any more to vex us, or to trouble us, unless for want of Faith we would vex ourselves.  
And what ear will not listen to good tidings? when old Jacob heard that Joseph was living, his spirit revived, and Israel said it is enough, Joseph my son is yet alive. Joseph was advanced in Egypt by the wonderful providence of God, that he might receive his brethren in the great distress of famine: these were good tidings to Israel: but is it not much better to hear of this sound out of Ephrata, that Christ is come into the world to feed his brethren in the time of dearth with the bread of life? O quoties & quae nobis Galataea locuta est? as a passionate wooer longs to hear of a sweet message from the party whom he loves, so the Spouse which is the Church rejoiceth to hear glad tidings from the Bridegroom, that so it might enjoy his presence here, that she might dwell with him hereafter for ever. Calisthenes' approached towards Alexander the Great portending much alacrity in his countenance; what says Alexander, An Homerus revixit iterum, are there any tidings to be brought which make you so merry unless Homer were alive again? all that he could pitch upon for good news was, if that divine Poet were alive again to record his story in a long lasting Poem. O how infinitely do these good tidings surpass that ambitious fancy! Christus natus est, a Saviour is born to write our names for ever in the book of life. St. Paul took out this lesson from hence, Quam speciosi pedes! Rom. x. 15. How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of things! 
Isa. lii.  The Prophet Isaiah spoke of them that foretold of the delivery of Israel out of the Babylonish captivity: and if those messengers were welcome that uttered things concerning bodily felicity, much more shall their coming be acceptable, that solace the inward man, the heart and soul. Beauty is that which attracts affections to it, so the Apostles are said to be beautiful, because they drew the world unto them: and it was proper concerning them to say how beautiful are their feet, rather than their lips; for they did not rest in one place, but took the whole world for their circuit, from City to City; and because of their dangerous and painful travel by Sea and Land, the Prophet said, How beautiful are their feet? Despise not therefore such as succeed them, though much unworthy in the same errand, but have them in honour for their welcome message. Though Christ hath not washed our feet to make them beautiful, as he did his Disciples, yet the very word that we have to say doth honour our lips, for they are good tidings, no things in the world compared to the comfort of the Gospel, they are good tidings, etc.  
The main drift of the Text did hang upon this word, how the Angel did Evangelize, that is to say, bring good tidings; now we are cleared, and come off from that: and although there are many things in the Gospel very harsh to flesh and blood, as to leave all and follow Christ, to suffer persecution, etc. Yet these things as I noted in the third place produce joy, joy of a grand size in the intention, great joy, joy of an infinite measure in the extension, everlasting joy, joy that shall be, says the Text: and these are now to be considered together; and first that the Birth of Christ bids us rejoice, and be glad. Can the Children of the Bride-chamber mourn when such a Bridegroom is come unto them? he came unto the world like ripe fruit in the fullness of time; whereupon says St. Ambrose, 
Ambros. Ep. 11. ad Ireneum.  Christus tanquum maturitas advenit, ut nihil acerbum, nihil immaturum, nihil immite sit. He came when all the fruits of comfort were mellow, and delicious, that nothing might be sour, or harsh, or distasteful to his beloved. I alleged the Text of Isaiah before, How beautiful are the feet of them that brought tidings of him: The Septuagint according to some Editions read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what a spring there was in the Mountains when he was preached: whereupon says S. Cyril, as the Spring cheers up the hearts of men, beautifies the earth, and the fields after the desolating frosts of a wasteful Winter; so the preaching of this Nativity made every thing to flourish after the bitter blasting frosts of the Law. If there were such joy at the birth of Isaac, that they called him Isaac from laughter, then let all the earth clap their hands and rejoice, when he was manifested in the flesh that made the laughter of Isaac.  
For our more orderly proceeding, I must consider joy three manner of ways, 1. What true joy doth properly result from the Birth of Christ. 2. What joy may be allowed and indulged to Christians. 3. What joy is condemnable. For the first, that joy which doth properly result from the Birth of Christ, is, Risus ex serenitate conscientiae, the mirth and delight of a good conscience; for he that hath given us his only Son, how shall he not with him freely give us all things? Rom. viij. 32. The Israelites were confident of victorious success when the Ark of God was in their Camp. The Ephesians thought themselves safe and secure when they had but an Image which fell down from Heaven. This was but a fiction like him that dreams of comfort, and lo he is in desperate extremities: but our case is most clear, and happy, to whom the God of Gods made his approach as one friend that visits another, who is the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person. Upon those words of the Apostle, Col. iv. 18. the salutation of me Paul with my own hand, says S. Chrysostom, it was great comfort to the brethren to see salutations, and greetings, and wishes under Paul's own hand. Some comfort it might be, but far short of this, to see not only the word of salutation, but the word of salvation dwell among us, the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. As Pliny said to Trajan of his virtuous Wife, Nihil sibi ex fortuna tua nisi gaudium vendicat, she desired no further interest in his good fortune, but to rejoice, and to be glad at his felicity; so the righteous man leaves the wide world for the children of the world to share it among them, Nihil sibi nisi gaudium vendicat, all that he challengeth for his own is the Blessed Virgins solace, and My spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour. O my beloved, it cannot be uttered what tranquillity and joy is in that heart which seriously apprehends those evident signs that God is reconciled unto us. Those heavens which Pythagoras spoke of that they were never without consent and harmony, that Fable being moralised is agreeable to nothing but to that soul which is comforted in the mercies of Christ. Semper illic serenum est, it is like the state of the world above the Moon, it is ever fair, and clear in that place without any storm or tempest; it is like the tribe of Zabylon, situated in a safe harbour close unto the tumultuous Seas, Aliorum videt naufragia, sed ipse salvus est, it looks forth upon the Seas, and sees how some are tossed in perilous waters, how some are shipwrackt and cast away, but itself is safe under the shadow of Christ, and in no such terror or calamity. The ordinary comforts of this world which concur to the being, and to the well-being of nature may be wanting perchance to a true servant of God; these may a little abate the courage perhaps: it makes us appear, says St. Paul, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as sorrowful, 'tis but as if it were so, Tanquam lugentes, as sorrowful, but always rejoicing. The tongues of men and Angels are not able to devise a message of joy more sweet and allective than this, that our severe Judge hath sent his Son to be our Mediator, and that Mediator to be our Judge, and that Judge to be our Brother; for so he calls us by that term of intimate affection. This is such a demulcing comfort to a sin-wounded conscience, that it leaves our heart in St. Augustine's phrase to be, Thalamus Dei, palatium Christi, habitaculum Spiritus sancti, the marriage-chamber of God, the courtly Palace of Christ, and the habitation of the Holy Ghost. This is the proper joy of Christ's Birth, with which the Angel did accost the Shepherds, the delight and serenity of a good Conscience.  
It is agreeing to the solemnity of this time to speak also of the other branch of joy which is sufferable, and may be warranted, which is called, Risus ad naturae recreationem, pastimes and delightful exercises to refresh the sadness of the heart. And if there be any man whose strictness will allow of no sports, or pleasurable jocundities at this season of our Saviour's Nativity, let me tell him that such austerity is groundless, and hath no foundation in the Word of God; and to censure all innocent relaxation of mirth, because with some men, and in some places it is done with excessive vanity and riot, he wants a grain of Charity. Shall we build no houses to put our head in, because fools built a Babel? shall we plant no Vineyards because Noah was overseen? shall we forswear courtesy because Absalom's kindness was full of flattery? what is another man's sin to my harmless mirth? Joy is in the Text, and if there be harmless joy in the time, no judicious man will disallow it: But why do sickly men imagine that all meats taste rank and unsavoury? it is the ill affection of their own palate: Why do Boat-men think that the shore goes from them? because they go from the shore. So the heart of churlish men is undelightsome, and that makes them to think all delight is vicious. There is a time to weep, and a time to laugh, says the Wise man, Eccles. iii 4. And what time more convenient for rejoicing than this? when Solomon dedicated his Temple to the Lord, first he magnified God in a solemn prayer, than all Israel kept a Feast, and a joyful holy day. This Temple was but a figure of Christ the everlasting Priest: these are the days wherein we celebrate the dedication of this Temple, and after we have magnified God's name in solemn Prayer for his mighty work, we may cheer and refresh ourselves with joy in a lawful measure of innocency and sobriety. Why should we lower and look sad like those hypocrites the Pharisees? who had nothing in them but a form of outward austerity. True joy cannot contain itself in a contemplative meditation; it will exult, it will break forth like John Baptist in his Mother's womb, who rejoiced in the Spirit that Mary had conceived the Messias in her Womb. Nor was that all, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Babe sprang, and leapt for gladness. Whatsoever mirth is honest and lawful, whether spiritual or civil joy, the Angel gives liberty to the Shepherds to use it, Behold I bring you tidings of great joy.  
The spiritual, and the innocent civil joy are both native and proper to these festival days of the Birth of Christ: but by our abuse that which is most frequent and common is the third member of the distinction, which is sinful, Risus ex immoderata & turpi laetitia, a mirth bestained with riot, and all kind of offensiveness. It is time to cry down the noise of all immoderate and wicked pleasures with an heavenly song. How different are our tunes of beastliness from that which the children of Jerusalem did sing upon the Advent of Christ? Hosanna to the Son of David, Hosanna in the highest. How different were their modest garments from that pomp and pride which divers of us do bear upon our backs? they spread their garments in the way to entertain the King of Glory: Christ would not have honoured yours with his feet, he would not have trod upon your Peacock attire which is so vain and alterable. O beloved what an incongruity is this? Christ came down from Heaven to dwell among us, and you rake Hell for merriment to make him welcome. If a Jubilee come once a year wherein you have indulgence for a sweet relaxation in Sports and Festivals, must you needs lose your wits? exeat Cato, as if no sober man all that while were fit for our company: If you will spend a few days of solace and recreation so wickedly, so untowardly, do you not deserve that God should turn your Feasts into mourning, and never suffer you to see a joyful day more? Take heed you use not your liberty for a cloak of licentiousness. Take heed of midnight revels. The Shepherds were not dancing, but keeping watch over their flocks. The Poet Virgil hath billeted the sinful joys of the world mala mentis gaudia, with Famine, and Poverty, and the very Hags of Hell: 
Aenead. l. 6.  and indeed a vicious pleasure is a devilish thing: for lawful and moderate pleasure is the preservative of nature, filthy and corrupt pleasure destroys the glory of our nature: I mean the soul. And so much for this point, that the coming of Christ doth inhibit all extravagant voluptuousness; but for spiritual and bodily pleasure which is lawful, the Angel brought tidings of joy, of great joy which shall be to all people.  
Now I must speak of the two supporters of this joy, 1. That it is great for the size. 2. That it is of long continuance for the measure, gaudium quod erit, joy that shall be unto you. Great joy, says the Angel; he passed it over without a word of comparison, lest he should seem to the Shepherds to have boasted; but yet he meant there was no joy like to this, to attain to such felicity as to have a Saviour born. Other things may make us glad, this is only a vehement, and intensive exultation. Let a carnal man pamper his skin with gluttony, satiate the desires of the flesh with filthy fornication, decline all industrious labour in pleasurable idleness; let him have all things wherein fortune can favour a sensual Epicure. Suppose that neither War, nor Famine, nor Death, nor Dishonour, nor Poverty eclipse his content, yet for all this there is a Melancholy Fiend of Hell that upon sundry frivolous occasions will fret his heart, and break his sleep, and make his passions jar within themselves; and he hath no firm and stable argument to persuade his soul to get out of this heaviness. But if any discontent creep upon him, that hath set up a steadfast Faith as a pillar in his heart, and hath engraven these words upon it, Jesus is my Redeemer; this supports the soul that it shall not be cast down, but it recovers itself from all pensiveness, even as David chid all anguish from his heart; Why art thou so sad, O my soul, and why art thou so disquiet within me? still trust in God, for he is the help of my countenance, and my God. una est ratio vincendi inimicum, laetitia spiritualis, This spiritual gladness and festivity is the principal assistance to vanquish Satan, and all desperate doubts with which he would perplex our conscience: it is a royal joy which comforts us that we shall be heirs of a glorious Kingdom; it is a sanctified joy which gives us promise that we shall not only be Kings but Priests for ever, to offer up the sweet odours of our prayers to God; it is a superlative joy which cries down all other petty delights, and makes them appear as nothing; it is endless joy of durance and lasting for ever, and ever: for my Text says, it is Gaudium quod erit, joy that shall be unto you.  
All the joy upon earth is gaudium quod est, now it is, and anon it is not; joy for a spirit and away, Eccles. seven. 8. as the crackling of thorns under a pot so is the laughter of a fool. Like a gol-sheave all of a flame, and out again suddenly. The end of mirth, that is of worldly mirth is heaviness, Prov. xiv. 13. Times of feasting have a period, every man is glutted at last: he that hath his fill of sport is weary by the late of night, and glad to take his rest. But the joy that you have in Christ is with you all the year, in all your sorrows, in all your adversities; it sleeps with you, it grows old with you, it will change this life with you, and follow you into a better: And my joy shall no man take from you, says our Saviour, John. xuj. 22. Christmas joy was not only for the first twelve days when the Son of God was born, but for all the twelve months of twelve hundred years, and many hundreds after them unto the world's end. So St. Peter doth solace us, 1 Pet. i 8. Though now ye see him not, yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, Eccles. xi. 9 Mark I pray you how much line this Siren world gives a voluptuous man to play with, Rejoice O young man in thy youth, and let thine heart cheer thee, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but when the hook is in his jaws, observe how it is twicht and snatched up at last, Know thou that for all these things God will bring thee unto judgement. So that let the wicked speed never so well in his frolicks, and jocundities, he returns home as Theseus did, with black sails of sorrow; as if he had never made a saving voyage. All their laughter is like the joy of Herod's Birthday, dancing, and revels, and offering of great gifts last for a while, but before evening you shall see an alteration; and when their surfeited Tables are removed away, the last service in the platter is the Head of John the Baptist. But the mirth which we have in the Mediator of our salvation is a song which hath no rest in it, nor ever shall have a close. We begin the first part here, that we may sing the other part in Psalms and Hallelujahs with the Saints for ever. As Christmas is celebrated part of the new year, and part of the old, so it is joy that is in this life, and shall be in the life to come.  
Our last peroration upon the Text is to meditate upon the persons to whom these glad tidings and great joy are directed, Vobis & omni populo, to you, and to all people. And personally to those Shepherds the joy was great, I do not question it; for the Angel did not light upon them casually, as if he took the first he met: chance and fortune are words made by our ignorance, things of no being in the providence of God, but certainly they were picked out rather than any others, because they were men of just and holy conversation, fit to receive glad tidings from Heaven: they were of an humble and a lowly spirit, not of a proud and stiff opinion that would dispute against the Scriptures, which said Jesus was the Christ, like the Scribes and Pharisees; they were useful men to the Commonwealth in which they lived, painful in their vocation, and watching over their flocks by night: Out of all these premises we may collect that God had a respect to them in particular; unto such belongs the Kingdom of Heaven, the good tidings fell upon their head. They did apply the benefit of Faith to themselves, and that Saviour which was born was their Redeemer. And vobis Judaeis, to you Jews; the Text will bear that I am sure; better tidings to you Israelites, than to any other Nation, if you will accept them. The Son of God came of their Fathers according to the flesh: in their Country he came to preach daily, and no where in the world beside; in their eyes he wrought his Miracles, and upon their bodies he practised his wonderful power to cure their Diseases, to make their Blind to see, and their Lame to walk. He professed himself to be more devoted to their welfare, than to all the earth beside, before the Canaanitish woman, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. They were his, he did acknowledge it; he was theirs, but they denied it: he came to his own, but his own received him not. To abreviate my discourse in this point, Evangelizo vobis, they are glad tidings to you, because it is given to you to hear the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven; for blessed is the ear that heareth the things which you hear. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. It is flat cheating in the Devil to put dubitation into man's fancy on this wise, I am partaker of the outward word, but I know not whether God have gone any further with me to give me his inward Spirit to quicken that seed unto immortal life. Beloved, as Christ did institute both Bread and Wine to be the outward Elements of the Sacrament of his Body and Blood; Bread is the substance of food, Wine causeth the concoction, and makes it comfortable food. So the word preached is the food of life, and God never lets it go alone without some drops of the Wine of his Grace to make it nourishing and beneficial, Judas xiii. 23. Manoah the Father of Samson cries out to his Wife, we shall surely die because we have seen God. Nay, says she, If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not receive a burnt-offering at our hand. Neither would he have showed us all these things, nor would at this time have told us such things as these. So let me answer all dubitative Christians, unless the Lord did desire thy salvation he would not put his Word into thy ear, nor his Sacrament into thy mouth. The Gospel is an happy annunciation to every one that hears it, unless he quench the Grace which is offered unto him. Evangelium omni populo, the tidings are auspicious to all people.  
To all people? Trahit sua quemque voluptas. There are so innumerous many fond pleasures, desires, vanities, affections in several appetites; can any thing satisfy them all? yes, it is relishable to every palate that will taste it: though the true delight apprehended is included among the small number of the Elect: yet it is given to all, and no man shall say he is lost for want of a Redeemer, and a sacrifice for his sins. Cum omnibus scriptus significavit omnes, says Origen. 
Homil. 11. in Lucam.  He was taxed in his Mother's Womb by Augustus Caesar, when all the world was taxed, to intimate that he did communicate himself to all the world; that after that conscription of their names in Caesar's enrolment, whosoever believed in him, his name might be written among the Saints in the book of Life. In the first lesson read upon Christmas-day, thus you have it, Isa. ix. 3. They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. A good Harvest is not welcome to one Village, but it is gladsome to the whole Country round about; and when spoils are divided after the vanquishing of an Enemy, every Soldier is enriched, and hath his share: Such a communicative blessing is our Saviour's Incarnation, every man fills his bosom with the sheaves of the harvest: every Christian Soldier that fights a good warfare plucks somewhat from the spoils of the Enemy. The dew of thy birth is as the womb of the morning: A learned Father of our own Church transposeth the Versicle on this wise, Thy birth from the Womb is as the morning dew, which waters the whole earth. As the walls of Jericho fell down before the sound of the rams horns, so the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile, methinks it fell down flat to the ground at this blast of the Angel's trumpet in my Text, that these were glad tidings, not toti populo, but omni populo, not to the whole people of the Jews, but to all the people of the world. The wall of discord is taken away in the universe, which parted those two great houses, and shall not the sweet welcome of the Birth of Christ take away a wall of partition between thee, and thy neighbour which is in thy heart. Can you out of enmity and hatred wish sorrow unto any, when God wisheth joy, great joy unto all? dost thou envy at the prosperity of thy brother, when the Lord would have the same glad tidings common to you both? Lay down old grudge and quarrels with the old year, and begin the new year with a new reconciliation in love unfeigned, and true meaning Charity, and the Lord renew a right spirit in us all. Amen.   

THE six SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION.  LUKE two. 11. 
For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.  
THE Angel hath made a brief Sermon upon a great occasion. The occasion is the Incarnation of our Lord: and who can be so copious upon that subject as the Mystery requires? yet the Sermon which the Angel preacheth, is neither a whole Chapter, nor a whole Gospel, but three verses of a Gospel. In the multitude of words a great deal is lost unto the hearer: the good application of a little, whatsoever we think, will yield the best fruits of increase. But for such divine joy as is here proclaimed, it was fit to roll it up in a small pill, and to minister it to the audience in a little quantity. How is it possible for frail flesh to subsist, and not to be dissolved for gladness, if the Angel had continued his tidings with such matter as he begun? a Saviour is born; unto you a Saviour is born; no petty redeemer, but the Lord strong and mighty, a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. O it was provident care, after the Shepherds had heard a little, to tell them no more at once, but rather to send them away into the City, that they might see the rest. After Israel had shaken off the Chaldean slavery, and the Lord had turned the captivity of Zion, David knew not how to express their astonished joy, but thus, they were like unto them that dream: as Livy says of the Grecians, when the Romans that conquered them sent them unexpected liberty, Mirabundi velut somni speciem arbitrabantur, they received the tidings, as if it had been a pleasing dream, and themselves scarce awake. So our sins have so much discomforted our hearts, that our spirits are confused, and faint, if we receive all the comfort that God sends at once, like a strong perfume the sweetness overcomes our sense. Here's one line for a copy, and enough to be taken out at one time, Unto you is born this day, etc.  
The Text cannot be divided into equal parts, for here is one word among them, which not only in this place, but wheresoever you find it, it is like Saul, higher by head and shoulders than all the rest. As Painters and Guilders write the names of God in glass, or upon the walls with many rays, and flaming beams to beautify it round about, so the name of Saviour is the great word in my Text; and all that is added beside in other circumstances is a trail of golden beams to beautify it. First then with reverend lips, and circumcised ears let us begin with the joyful tidings of a Saviour. 2. Here's our participation of him in his Nature, natus, he is born, and made like unto us. 3. It is honourable to be made like us, but it is beneficial to be made for us; and natus vobis, unto you is born a Saviour. 4. Is not the use of his Birth superannuated, the virtue of it long since expired? no, 'tis fresh and new; as a man is most active when he begins first to run, hodie natus, he is born this day. 5. Is he not like the King in the Gospel who journeyed into a far Country, extra orbem solisque vias, quite out of the way in another world? no, the circumstance of place points his dwelling to be near, in civitate David, he is born in the City of David. 6. Perhaps to make him man is to quite unmake him; shall we find him able to subdue our enemies, and save us, since he hath taken upon him the condition of humane fragility? yes, the last words speak his excellency and power, for he is Christus Dominus, such a Saviour as is Christ the Lord, for unto you is born this day in the City of David, etc.  
The beginning of our days work is from that word, which magnifies him that is the word of God above all things; for he is a Saviour. Time was when the children of Israel had rather Moses should speak unto them than God: Speak thou with us, and we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die, Exod. xx. 19 Now let Israel say, let not Moses speak with us, nor the Law, for than we shall surely die. Above all tongues let the Angel speak with us, that proclaims a Saviour, and we shall surely live. If all comfort in the world were forgotten, nothing but darkness, and weeping, and captivity over all the earth, yet here's a word which is enough to turn all that sorrow into gladness, yea, to turn Hell itself into Heaven; This day is born unto you a Saviour: it comprehends all other names of Grace, and blessing; as Manna is said to have all kind of sapours in it to please the taste. When you have called him the glass in which we see all truth, the fountain in which we taste all sweetness, the ark in which all precious things are laid up, the pearl which is worth all other riches, the flower of Jesse which hath the savour of life unto life, the bread that satisfieth all hunger, the medicine that healeth all sickness, the light that dispelleth all darkness; when you have run over all these, and as many more glorious titles as you can lay on, this one word is above them, and you may pick them all out of these syllables, a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. Abraham could endure to live in a strange Land, nay, he could endure to want his only Son Isaac if God pleased: Elias could want his bodily sustenance for forty days: John Baptist could want the comfort of all society in the Wilderness: Peter could leave all he had and want his substance: Paul could live in bonds and want his liberty: Paphnutius could want his eyes, yea, the Martyrs for Christ's sake could want their lives; but they could not be without the redemption of their soul, they could not want a Saviour.  
The Prophet Isaiah hath foretold that the heaven and earth should join their strength together to make a Saviour, Isa. xlv. 8. Drop down the heavens from above, and let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, that's the effect: and the 15. verse speaks of the person, O God of Israel the Saviour. The heavens must drop down from above, and the earth must open and concur beneath, the whole universe must be put together, the Divine Nature and the Humane, tantae molis erat, to make a Saviour. To confuse the Jews with this place. I have read of a learned Scribe of theirs, one Rabbi Accadoes, who wrote thus before the coming of Christ, that the Messias should come into the world to save men, and the Gentiles should call him Jesus, or the Saviour of the world. Indeed the Gentiles did not only do so after our Saviour's ascension into Heaven, being taught unto it by the Apostolical preaching, but in the time of Idolatry, which is very strange. Tully says in the 4. Oration against Verres, that he saw an Image at Syracuse in Sicily with this Inscription upon it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Saviour, and he admires at the strong significancy of the word, Hoc quantum est magnum est, ut latin exprimi uno verbo non possit, to give salvation or to be a Saviour is such an appellative, that all the Latin tongue was not furnished with a word to set it forth. But what if their language could have fit it? that's nothing unless the soul do unite it to itself, and write it upon the tables of the heart. But that the name may not be an empty sound to us as it was to them, consider these three things. 1. With what honour it was imposed. 2. What excellency it includes. 3. What reverence it deserves.  
For the first of these, an honour in the imposition of a name will ever stick by the person, and the origin hereof came from the chiefest, that is above all, Phil. two. 9 Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name. It was ever of old in the right of the Father to give a name unto his child: Zachary when he could not speak called for writing tables to appoint the name of John the Baptist; therefore Christ having no Father on earth, his Father gave him a name from Heaven. His Father gave it, but he did commit it to the trust of an Angel to bring it; for the Angel was the first that ever mentioned it to Joseph the husband of Mary in a dream. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins, Matth. i. 21. God gave it, the Angel brought it, and men did assign it the eighth day when he was circumcised, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the Angel before he was conceived in the Womb. Hereupon Bernard casts in two observations. 1. It appears in St. Matthew that the Angel called him Jesus before he was born, yea, before he was conceived, Luke i 31. it was Gabriels' message to Mary, Thou shalt conceive in thy Womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call his name Jesus. Men called him so after he was born, and circumcised, Idem quip & Angeli salvator & hominis, hominis ab incarnatione, Angeli ab initio creaturae: for the same Lord is the Saviour both of Angels and Men; of Angels before he was born, from the beginning of the world; of Men in the fullness of time after he was born: That is, the second person in Trinity being the eternal Son of the Father, did confirm the good Angels in grace, that they should never fall; and the same person incarnate, being the Mediator of God and Man, did redeem the Elect, that they should rise again from their sins, and reign with him in glory. 2. The complete imposition of the name was at his circumcision, when he first shed his Blood, as if his Death had been foretold, as soon as he was born; it would cost him blood, not a few drops of the foreskin, but the very blood of the heart to be called Jesus. In Circumcision he was called a Saviour, at his Passion the word Jesus was wrote upon the Cross: then his enemies confessed he was a Saviour, In circumcisione non fuit actu perfecto, sed destinatione salvator; in Circumcision it was told by destination what he should be, and incompleatly, and by inchoation what he was. It was a sign of servitude, and of taking the guilt of sin to be Circumcised; it was a sign of ignominy, and reproach to be Crucified: but this name exalted him, and defended him against the bad opinion of the world, when he was called at the one time in the Temple, and entitled on the Cross at the other, Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews. To drive this point no longer about the honour of the imposition of the name, this is the sum; Angels and Men had their several shares in the dignity to give this attribute to our Lord, but the name was grounded in his own nature of exceeding mercy, and in his office of reconciliation; therefore God alone could give him this name: Innatum est ei nomen hoc, non inditum ab humana, aut Angelica natura, says Bernard, the name was bred with him, and not imposed by men or Angels.  
A name so royally imposed must include a great deal of excellency, that's the next point. 
Acts xviii. 15.  Gallio the Deputy of Achaia was a great scorner of Religion, and because Paul magnified Christ, and the Jews blasphemed him, Gallio said it was a controversy of words, and names, and he would not meddle with it; it was not worth the while. The name of Christ was beyond Gallio's reach to judge upon it. David makes a great account of that which he did vilify, Thou hast magnified thy name, and thy word above all things, Psal. cxxxvii. The names of God, Jehovah are his names as a Creator, and yet to be magnified above all things; but the name of Jesus adds above his power of creation, his goodness of saving and redemption, Nihil nasci profuit, nisi redimi profuisset, it had been unbeneficial to be created, unless we had been happily redeemed: His Words, his Actions, his Miracles, his Prayers, his Sacraments, his Sufferings all did smell of the Saviour. Take him from his Infancy to his Death, among his Disciples and among the Publicans, among the Jews, or among the Gentiles, he was all Saviour.  
The Jews were under the condition of thraldom at this time when Christ was born, under the thraldom of their enemies; and the tidings of a Saviour was sweet news at such a season: yet the Shepherds could not so mistake that an Infant born but that day could go out with their hosts to subdue their enemies. No person upon earth hath such need of a Saviour as a sinner, whether it be peace or war, Pandora's box of mischiefs; all the miseries that can be named are the just reward of a sinner: therefore the Angel doth not specify to the Shepherds, from what calamities he should redeem them; and be called a Saviour indefinitely and absolutely from all. A few particulars would but derogate from the honour of his salvation, he sweeps away all evil at once, like a Spider's web, ab omni malo, he saves us from the whole mass of evil, a Saviour which is Christ the Lord, Jer. xxiii. 7. It shall no more be said the Lord Liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the Land of Egypt, but the Lord liveth which brought the house of Israel from the North Country, the land of Chaldaea. Alas, both these are easy redemptions, to that which calls him Jesus in the New Testament; the Lord liveth who saveth his people from their sins: there begins his mercy at that point, to break the heavy yoke of sin from our necks, to repress the dominion of the flesh rebelling against the spirit, to take away earthly desires from our will, and affections; in a word, to clear us in God's Court, that our iniquities may no more be imputed to us, Who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, Revel. i. 5. 2. He is a Saviour that delivers us from the sting and punishment of sin, which is death: He destroyed our death by dying on the Cross, and repaired our life again by his own Resurrection. 3. He is a Saviour that delivereth us from the power of Satan, that although the enemy tempt and oppose vehemently, yet he should not overcome his Saints. Now is the judgement of this world, now shall the Prince of this world be cast forth, John xii. 32. and so cast forth that he shall never renew his tyranny again, For through death Chrst did destroy him that had the power of death, the Devil, Heb. two. 14. 4. He is a Saviour that frees us from the wrath of God: and when we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son, Rom. v. From sin, from death, from Satan, from the wrath of God. These are the four heads of our Redemption, and these are the excellencies included in the name of Saviour.  
After these things thus declared, methinks the third point should fall in directly without any contradiction: Methinks of ourselves without bidding men should strive to do abundant reverence at the hearing of this word, a Jesus, a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. We have not that feeling of our sins which we ought to have, nor of the wrath of God; for if we had, we would hear this name with greater joyfulness: but the destruction is not near enough to affect us, Hell and damnation are not represented before our face: if those things were so nigh, that we did feel their horror, we would not captiously gainsay that Ceremony of the Church, to veil the head, and bend the knee, and to prostrate ourselves to the earth, in giving honour to Christ for our salvation. Both the Saints in heaven, and the Faithful on earth, and the Dead departed under the earth, all these hath God ordained to bow the knee at the name of his Son Jesus, Phil. two. 10. Indeed to do it toties quoties, at every repetition of the name is not necessarily inferred from thence perhaps; say it be no more than a pious Institution of the Church, to keep us in a faithful remembrance that we do not forget it; yet a dutiful Child will hearken to the voice of the Church, and not wave her Authority and neglect it; as if the Spirit of God had not directed her to prescribe outward things in a decent manner to the setting forth of God's glory. Isaiah could not speak of a Saviour in the Old Testament, but this comes in, Unto me shall every knee bow, and every tongue shall swear, Isa. xlv. 23. and lest the world might suppose, they may be bold and saucy with a merciful Saviour, St. Paul admonisheth how that Saviour shall be a Judge, Rom. xiv. 11. We shall all stand before the Judgment-seat of Christ; for it is written, As I live saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. Beloved now ye are in God's Temple, judgement you neither see nor fear; but imagine with me, the Lord were coming in the clouds, every man's innumerable sins laid open before him to condemn him, in this distraction of amazement is there any thing to put life into your terrified souls, but the name of a Saviour? then let an Angel preach before you, There is no name under heaven by which you can be saved, but only the name of Jesus. Tell me from your own heart what you think if in that case your head would not uncover, your knee bend, yea, your face grovel upon the earth; confess this and amend your stubbornness: it is nothing but the forgetfulness of destruction which makes ye so unregardful to do reverence at the name of salvation. One thing more, and I shall have said enough to this, Zanchy and others allow that soon after the first 300 years it was a custom ungain-said in that ancient Orthodox Church, to put S. Paul's item in practice; and more than that, to bend and uncover at the name of Jesus, and this done, to let the Arrians see, that all worship and honour was due to the eternal Son of God. Though I trust there be now no Arrians among us, is it not fit to hold the Ceremony, that we may keep simple, and perverse men from being Arrians? Princes do not use to lose any part of the honour which was once given them upon any occasion, and will not God look to have that honour maintained which was once laudibly ascribed unto him by all men's confession? he cannot grow less to have his honour impaired, howsoever there may be a mutability in occasions. I will end with St. Augustine's words, Hoc nomen salvatoris mei in ipso adhuc lacte matris cor meum pie biberat, my heart did drink in this name of Saviour with piety and reverence, even from my Mother's breasts. So much for the honour of imposition, the benefit of application, and that worship of reverence which is due to be done at the name of Saviour.  
Now I may say I have built up the Tower in my Text, the strong Tower of David our chief defence; that which remains is but the raising of the Walls, to compass it about: And you remember what we must deal with next, he comes so near unto us that he participates of our nature, Salvator natus, he is a Saviour that is born: born might the Shepherds say? what an Infant whose mouth was not yet opened, so that an Angel spoke for him? can this be that wonderful one ye talk of, that shall deliver us? Ecce venit equitans, that had been more probable to be believed; behold he cometh riding, though it were in despicable humility, Beheld he cometh riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass: But to be born an Infant, though it were his diminution, it was our glory and exaltation. He was born and made like unto us in all things, sin only excepted; not to give us a natural life, such as he took after our image, but to make us partakers of his Divine Excellency, that as we have carried the image of the earthly, we might carry the image of the heavenly. We rejoice at the birth of our own children; the Psalmist calls them arrows in our quiver, as if they were the might of our strength: Yet alas for their birth it would be unto nothing but eternal sorrow, unless it were for the Incarnation of this Infant in my Text, we might curse the day wherein we were born, with Job, and wish the day quite blotted out with Jeremy, but that we cast off our former birth as it were, and begin our life again at Baptism in the name of our Saviour.  
How wisely the Almighty doth fold one work in another, and one counsel in another to perfect the body of the Saints, is past our finding out. Yet it is sweet to inquire into the method of our salvation, and to ask after this mystery among others, why the Son of God would destroy sin in the nature of man? and why he would be born in the similitude of corruptible flesh, to gain for us an immortal inheritance? I must prefer St. Paul's reason in the first place, because it is direct Scripture, Heb. iv. 15. We have not an High Priest, which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. So that Christ as he was God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds, he knew our misery and infirmity; but as he was man of the substance of his Mother, born in the world, so did he feel our afflictions, and compassionate our infirmities: He knoweth whereof we be made, and remembreth that we are but dust. When the bones of the poor cleave to the skin in time of famine and scarcity, when the blood waxeth wan and pale with sickness, when the body is under the torments of a tyrant, in these extremities we may fly to Christ with boldness, and plead unto his mercies. O our Saviour that wert incarnate, thou thyself didst take a corruptible body into the unity of thy person, the chastisement of our peace was upon thy flesh; thou knowest what we are able to suffer, thou knowest our weakness and our frailty.  
As for other causes why he would be conceived in the womb of a mortal woman, and be born to be a Saviour, I will briefly go along with Damascen, who reduceth them to these four heads, that God might demonstrate the goodness of his Love, his Justice, his Wisdom, and his power.  
1. To the first of these the heathen spoke somewhat, but knew not well what they said, Amor Deum gubernat, amoris omne regnum est. Love did rule God himself, love swayed all things in the world: We know and admire the meaning, that the love of the Son turned the enmity of the Father into peace; it turned threatenings into forgiveness, and death into life. Poise every thing in a right scale, and mark the heavy weight of our undeservings, and the nature of man might stink in God's nostrils, which had so much offended him to believe a Serpent; nay, to believe the Devil in a Serpent rather than the lively Oracle of his own mouth: Yet love took away that distastefulness, which the whole Trinity had conceived against sinful flesh; and the second Person became flesh for our sakes, and was made sin for our sakes; by imputation that we might be made sons, and righteous before God, nay, that we might be made the righteousness of God, Rom. v. The Athenians were proud of Pompey's love, that he would write his name a Citizen of their City: for a princely person to accept a freedom in a mean Corporation is no little kindness; how much more doth it aggravate the love of Christ to come from heaven, and be made a Citizen of this vile earth, to be born after a more vile condition than the most abject of the people.  
2. It is not so proper to say God did love us by Christ, for God is love, and in himself, and for his own goodness sake he could not but love the work of his hands; but this is the true and proper understanding of it, that notwithstanding his love to his own justice through the merit of our Saviour's humility he forgave us our sins; therefore his love toward mankind, and his love toward his justice went hand in hand, and could not be parted. He satisfied the vehemency of his love toward sinful man, that he gave his Son to be born of a Virgin, and to become our Mediator: he satisfied the love he hath to his own Justice, and the hatred he hath against sin, when he did impose this office of a Mediator upon his beloved Son, not without shedding of blood. Justice cried out it was meet mercy should not rule all; Adam and his posterity ought to die, or who will answer for them? not an Angel or Spirit, and therefore not the Son of God as he is God; for God is a Spirit. Meet it is every one should bear his own burden: the nature that sinned let it bear the curse of its own sin. Man's nature had sinned, man's nature ought to suffer; but that which our nature should bear, our nature by a fit adequation of recompense could not bear. Our sufferings were not enough to satisfy the wrath of God due to sin. The Son of God is a most valuable person, but not passable: man is passable but not valuable: the one nature ought to suffer but could not, the other could suffer but ought not. That he might be liable to all contempt he was born a Saviour and made a child, that he might be able to pay the price; he was perfect God as well as perfect man, a Saviour which is Christ the Lord.  
3. Love and Justice are mightily declared, that a Saviour was born, and the eternal Wisdom of the Father comes in for her part to be magnified. It is beyond our understanding to say nay, but that the Father might have made a creature fit to satisfy his Justice, to have clearly paid the price of our Redemption, and so to have spared his Son: yea, but wisdom interposed, it was not fit that man should owe his redemption to any other, than to whom he owed his creation; for the value of that benefit would compel us to love our Redeemer, better than our Creator. So Bernard, Plus nos ad charitatem excitat redemptio quam creatio; Therefore God would not so dispose the mystery of our souls health, that occasion should be given to love an Angel or Saint, better than himself the King of Glory. The Son that sits at his right hand by whom he made the worlds, let him restore all things, and the blessing of our Creation, Redemption, and all other good gifts shall meet in one centre. This is pretii difficilimi decentissima solutio, say the Schoolmen, a most convenient payment of a most difficult ransom.  
4. The boundless power, and infinite virtue of the Godhead, I confidently pronounce it, did never appear so much in any other work, as when a Saviour was born. He that knew no beginning, but was from all eternity, to begin to be a man; he that speaks to the world in thunder to cry in a cradle, Verbum infans: he that decketh himself with light as with a garment to be wrapped in swaddling clouts, he that opens his hand, and filleth all things with plenteousness to suck for a few drops of milk at a woman's breasts, we are able to answer nothing to this, but with the Angel to cry out, Rev. v. 12. Dominion and power to the Lamb, and to him that sitteth on the throne for evermore. And so far of the second point.  
The next word to be considered in the Text is like the fleshhook which the Priest had to draw a portion of the Sacrifice unto himself, To you a Saviour is born, says the Angel, Vobis natus, the good turn shall be yours, the blessing yours, you ought to be affected with joy at this wondrous work, for he is your Saviour. Tell the Shepherds that a Saviour is born, and they cannot but understand he is de nobis, like unto us in nature; but tell them, unto you a Saviour is born, that's a great deal more than they understand that he is born for their redemption. It is honourable to be made like us, but advantageous in the highest degree that he was made for us. Let us work upon this mine, and here we shall find the precious metal, fit to pay the price of our debts to God in our steed when we were bankrupts.  
First, we learn from hence, he was born to you, and not unto himself; to your glory, to his own abasement, and exinanition: for his own part he was begotten of God before all times, so noble a Nativity, that when the Father bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the Angels of God worship him, Heb. i 6. Therefore for himself he needed no other birth to be born at all, especially to be thus basely born in the manger of a stable. He took a body as it were sown in dishonour, that we might reap the harvest, and be magnified: Likewise he is called a Saviour, not in respect of his own person; indeed he was his own destroyer, and our Saviour, when the High Priests servants sought to lay hold of him in the Garden; neither doth he go about to escape, or to deny himself: but whom seek ye? I am he. No man would put himself into the hands of barbarous enemies that meant to be his own Saviour: all the salvation that he brought with him looked another way, Titus two. 14. Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity.  
Some few persons are culled out here, for all that shall be shielded under the buckler of this Saviour; unto you a Saviour is born, says the Angel, speaking only to the Shepherds; that's because no more were in the way: But to as many as read these words, and mark them, the word speaks continually, and is never silent; the message is as properly brought to you as ever it was to the Shepherds, to you a Saviour is born. The Prophet Isaiah allows him to all the Sons of Adam, that will lay claim unto him, unto us a Child it born, and unto us a Son is given, Isa. ix. 6. 'Tis a kind expression to rejoice at the good news of another man's prosperity, 'tis incident to a sweet nature to do so: And indeed if Angels were so enlightened with the gladsomness of our benefit, that when they had said it over, they could not choose but sing it also in the verses after my Text, Cum de aliena gratia Angeli exultent, quae nostra est stupiditas? If the blessed Cherubims exult for the grace that we find in God's eyes, what stupidness is in us, if our hearts do not triumph for gladness? for the benefit flows unto us, and not unto the Angels. The Devils fretted and roared out against Christ, because he came into the world for man's sake, and not for their deliverance. Quid nobis & tibi? What have we to do with thee Jesus thou Son of God? we renounce thee, Mat. viij. 29. The evil spirits rage that he is not theirs, the good Spirits of God rejoice that his Father hath made him all ours, being secure of their own glorious estate; they triumph that we shall be exalted to the fellowship of their happiness.  
Well then, to you he is born, not only to the Shepherds, but inclusive to all men; so you have heard in the former verse, his birth was gaudium omni populo, joy to all people; only they are excluded that exclude themselves by infidelity. Facit multorum infidelitas ut non omnibus nasceretur, qui omnibus natus est, says St. Ambrose, the infidelity of many (now infidelity is properly imputed to those within the Church, who had the means to believe and did not) the infidelity of many is a bar, that the Incarnation of Christ pertains not to all men, although he was born for all men. Every man therefore must strive so to love Christ, and to keep his Commandments, that he may feel the joy of this day particularly enter into his heart, and the Spirit testifying to his spirit, unto me a Saviour is born. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, say the Greeks, it comes of the possessive, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tuus, a Saviour restoreth every man to himself; for a sinner is lost not only to God, and the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven, but he is lost to himself, and to the comfort of a good conscience, until Christ restore him again to joy and peace within his own heart, that he may say to himself as Philip did to Nathanael, 
John i. 41.  I have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, etc. Oportet uti nostro in utilitatem nostram, & de servatore salutem operari, says Bernard. Let us make our profit from that which is our own, and let every man collect his own salvation from his own Saviour, To you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise, with healing in his wings, Mal. iv. 2. The Sun enlightens half the world at once, yet none discern colours by the light but they that open their eyes; and a Saviour is born unto us all, which is Christ the Lord: but enclasp him in thine heart as old Simeon did in his arms, and then thou mayst sing his Nunc Dimittis, or Mary's Magnificat, My spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour.  
The fourth thing to be considered, is, what early tidings the Shepherds had of our Saviour's birth, hodie natus, I do not tell it to you, says the Angel, after a month, or after a week, go to Bethlehem and search, and ye shall find this is the first day that his Mother bore him, This day is born unto you in the City of David, etc. Before the blessed seed was promised, for a long while ye have had a state in reversion, that Christ should come in the flesh to save his people from their sins; now the act is accomplished, ye have a state in being, enter upon your happiness and possess it, reckon from henceforth that you have your joy in hand, this day the great deliverer hath taken up a poor Palace in the City of David. According to a natural computation of days we forget the nights, though an Infant be brought forth in the still hours of darkness; yet from thenceforth we call it the Birthday, and not the birth-night of such an Infant, In such accounts (I know not how) we speak of nothing but day, for that's the Dialect of the Kingdom of Heaven, where there is day for ever, and no darkness. So the Shepherds kept watch over their flocks by night, and after the first hour the morning began, as the general conjecture runs, our Saviour was born; yet since a natural day comprehends darkness as well as light, the Angel was pleased to say, This day he is born. This is literal and to the plain meaning; yet I refrain not their allusions altogether, that say, the darkness was removed away by that radiant glory which shone round about the Angels, and that the night was as clear in those parts, as if the Sun had risen upon the earth: therefore upon the comfort of that miraculous illumination the messenger says, This day is born unto you. And David by some men is made to speak to this allusion, Psal. cxxxviii. The night is as clear as the day; which was true, say they, at our Saviour's Incarnation. Others take their liberty to guests, that good tidings make the night be called day, and sad tidings make the day be called night. Heavy misfortunes indeed have fallen out in the night, for the most part. Sennacheribi great host slain in the night, Thou fool this night thy soul shall be taken from thee: a threatening to the rich Epicure, yet it holds not always: But if Christ be the daystar, and his Birth turns night into day, it will become us as the Apostle says to walk as children of the light.  
Curiosity hath gone too far in one question touching this part of my Text, why this late day was esteemed most expedient in God's wisdom to send his Son in the flesh; four thousand years had almost expired, since the seed of the Woman was promised to bruise the Serpent's head: and yet no sooner then hodie, say they, that will search in to all causes: the Angel said to day; but why he came punctually on that day, or in that year, he did not learn the Shepherds; nay, I speak it with modesty, I do not think he could teach himself: Therefore I recoil back from that nicety, and lay down my doctrine in this large lesson, it was expedient that many revolutions of years should run out from the promise of Christ's Birth, unto the actual accomplishment. 1. So great a matter was worthy much expectation, and many predictions of the Prophets. So St. Austin, Quanto major Judex veniebat, 
Tractat. in Jo 31.  tanto praeconum series longior praecedere debebat, the greater the Judge that was to come, the greater troop of Harbingers and Apparitors should go before him. 2. His Incarnation is fitted to the fullness of time, because it falls out equally to try their Faith, that should believe in Christ to come; and to try their Faith who ought to believe that he is come, that he is dead, and risen again, and ascended into glory. 3. Between the time of Adam's disobedience, and the Birth of the Lamb of God, a long space of years doth interlope, that man might have time enough to see, and feel his misery, before the medicine was made to apply unto his sore. 4. God is pleased to confer great honour upon our humane nature, at three extreme distances; in the beginning of the world, toward the midst of it, and in the end of all things. In the first creation God made man after his own Image, so began our excellencies; then he made his own Son in the similitude of man, a long distance went between these two. Hereafter at the period of all things we are sure to have a glorified body, and that our mortal shall put on immortality. Now Christ's Incarnation comes in the midst, because he is the centre of all God's mercies towards us. 5. The Jews, whom Christ above all others calls his own, (He came unto his own, etc.) they did sustain at this time, and for some years had sustained a bondage under the Roman Conquest (perhaps it is our Saviour's pleasure that a great part of the Church shall be under a Romish thraldom against his second coming.) But this bondage was bitter to the Jews, even at this day, when Christ was born, Caesar's taxes were very grievous: (for Mary being ready to lie down, was compelled to come to Bethlehem to be taxed) now in this day of oppression, when the Jews, I believe, thought the yoke of captivity to be more intolerable than their sins, and that they wished for a victorious champion to fight for them, than did God send them a greater Saviour than they wished, or looked for; not to acquit them from the Roman Dominion, but from the pit of Hell. And this is all that can be modestly conjectured about the opportunity of time, etc.  
This day is born unto you, and as near as we can observe the course of the year by Astronomical skill this was the very day; yet it is not that hodie of which the Angel spoke unto the Shepherds: then is not this part of the Text utterly unappliable to us? no beloved, but appliable to us also in the nearest degree: for as we say of the sin of Adam, Actu transiit, manet reatus, the act past away at the first, but the guilt remains upon his posterity: so our Saviour was born upon one particular day which is past, but the merit and virtue of it is never passed, but abides for ever. Wherefore to them that make the right use of this blessing, St. Paul says, it is out of date at no time, but now is the acceptable time (now, when you will yourself) now is the day of salvation. The Prophet Isaiah says the joy of this birth it like the joy of men in harvest; that's for the universality of all those that belong unto the field; but for the extension of time it is not for the season of harvest alone; but for all the year, 
Bern. Serm. 6. in Nativ.  not gaudium in annum, but gaudium in sempiternum. Not an harvest joy for the plenty of one year: but this is the bread of life, whose plenty rejoiceth the eartn unto all ages. It is as good news upon any day, as it was upon one day, says Bernard, that Christ is born. That day comes always anew to them that are renewed in the spirit of their mind; and he is born every day to them, in whose hearts he lives by Faith.  
I must here cut off the circumstance of time, and because the Sacrament must have a time to be celebrated, I will speak but a few words upon the place and conclude. The Angel directs the Shepherds to the City of David, and thither did all the Scribes and High Priests direct Herod with full consent: Bethlehem of Judea was the place where Christ must be born, for so it was spoken by the Prophet. Now Bethlehem is that City of David. I know in the Old Testament the Tower of Zion is sometimes called the City of David, a strong fortress in Jerusalem which David built to curb the Jebusites; but that famous Metropolis of Jerusalem had nothing to do with this birth: Little Bethlehem is here called the City of David, where David was born. Take notice I pray you that the Angel could have called it Bethlehem, to take away all mistaking; but it makes more to the matter to show that Christ came of the house and lineage of David, which was foretold, Psal. cxxxi. Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy seat. And mark how it falls out agreeably, that Joseph and Mary came to no other Town but this to pay Tribute unto Caesar: Had they been only of the Tribe of Judah as David was, no nearer allied unto him, they might have gone up to many other Cities, much more famous than this to be taxed: but being of the stock of David, and indeed the nearest living in blood unto him, therefore they go up to no City but to Bethlehem, the City of David. And thus you see the Angel conferred with the Shepherds in such words as were very proper; they knew the place, it was the next at hand; they knew it belonged to him that should be the Saviour of his people, who according to the Scriptures belonged to David by blood, and to the City of David for his Country.  
A poor caskanet to contain so great a Jewel. Thou Bethlehem, says the Prophet Micaiah, the least among the Princes of Judah; yet big enough to contain the Prince of Heaven and Earth. Little Zoar, says Lot, and yet Zoar was big enough to receive him and his Children safe out of the fire of Sodom. Poor Bethlehem, which had but one Inn for strangers in it all it seems, and that of small capacity, which had no room, no by-corner for a woman to be delivered in, but only the manger of the stable. Mean Bethlehem, unless the Angel had spoke it, the Prophet foretold it, and the Star had showed it to the Wise men, who would not have gainsaid that the Saviour of all men could be laid in such a Village? The Roman Historian made a marvel that so noble an Emperor as Alexander Severus was, could come out of Syria, Syrus Archisynagogus, as they called him in scorn. Behold that Emperor's Lord, comes not only out of Syria, but out of the homeliest corner in Syria, out of the despicable tributary City of David. And as it is in the next verse, not so well born as in the City; but natus in praesepi, born in a dunghil-stable, in Civitate, born in a City? what, a Citizen of this world? no, the words following correct it, he had no room given him among men, but among beasts, a pilgrim and a foreiner on earth; his Kingdom lay not here.  
In a word for all. Joseph and Mary were a poor couple. Bethlehem, a little City, the stable a place of the meanest account in all that City, Shepherds of the lowest condition that were sent to visit him: all things were little, and humble about Christ at his Birth, that nothing might be proud and insolent, and vainglorious about us, if we would be born the Sons of God: but alas how unconformable are we to this lowly fashion of our Saviour? the Feasts of many rich men are for pomp, to let as rich as themselves see their munificence, and not for charity to the poor, who stand in need of refreshment. Apparel superlatively costly, most vain, and most effeminate; how generally it is to be seen upon all people's shoulders, to what excessive bravery is the pride of the whole Kingdom raised in less than the revolution of thirty years, not only in this luxurious City, but in little Bethlehem, in every village of the field. But I am sure the costly pride of the Landlord's apparel shall make the poor Tenant humble: Bethlehem the house of bread, the poor Farmer's grange shall be made small enough, with these new invented expenses. And where men are become lovers of themselves altogether, not lovers of God, not lovers of the public weal, not lovers of the poor members of Christ; in these there is no fruit to be seen of true humility. What a revenue it would be to help the needy, if the tenth of Christmas gaming and dicing were bestowed upon them; yet they that will not give a shilling to the hungry are free enough to dice a pound. Perdere norunt, donare nesciunt, Men know how to be loosely wasteful, but not wisely liberal. Among lawful and good pastimes of this Festival time, it is strange that dicing is crept in among them. The miscreant Soldiers that crucified Christ cast lots, which some interpret to be throwing the Dice for his garments (generally it is so painted) more likely therefore to be a sport for them that keep a Feast for joy that Christ was crucified, than for joy that Christ was born. Beloved, let the greatest part of your Christmas joy be according to the Angel's pattern; first ascribing glory to God, than some friendly pastimes may resemble peace, and joy on earth; but put off all strife, debate, and envy; so you shall observe good will towards men: but at every turn remember the little City of David, remember humility. Bethlehem honora parvam quae te inducit in paradisum, says Nazianzen. Make honourable esteem of little Bethlehem, of lowliness and humility, and that will bring you into Paradise, into the Kingdom of Heaven, where the Lamb of God, this day born in the flesh, sits upon the Throne for evermore. Amen.   

THE SEVENTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION.  LUKE two. 13, 14. 
And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly Host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and good will towards men.  
GOod Christians have ever observed to keep this feast of the Birth of Christ with some decency in Apparel more than ordinary, with bounty of Fare, with Carols of joy, and many other circumstances of cheerfulness. I am sure the decorum of a fit Text for the day is as much, and more requisite than any thing that I have named. A word spoken in season ought to taste better upon the palate of our understanding than meat in season. I have gone that way hitherto, and still continue in it, to teach you some remarkable passage which fell out when our Saviour was born, upon this blessed Day and Season wherein he was born. This portion of St. Luke's Gospel, which by appointment is the second Lesson for our Morning Prayer, hath been the Theme of my Doctrine sundry times, it afforded me to speak of the Nativity itself, next of the Humility, afterwards of the Sermon which the Angel preached upon it, fourthly, of the poor Shepherds to whom these glad Tidings were first published. Now for a conclusion, here is an Host of Angels to confirm all for truth, which one of their Order had said before, and to make the Tidings sweeter and joyfuller by their congratulation. Indeed, all that goes before is made so complete and full by that which they have added, that our Church hath made a stop there, and bids us read no further. The Message which one Angel brought made it known that a Saviour was born in the City of David; had it not been for him the birth was so obscure and private, and indeed so unlikely to be the same which it was, we cannot guests how it should ever have come to light, and been published: But those Tidings which that Angel brought were so strong, so far above reason, so far beyond the deservings of miserable sinners, that unless a multitude of Angels had seconded all that was said before, we cannot guests how it should ever have been believed. The shepherds never said one to another, let us go unto Bethlem, and see this thing which is come to pass for that which one Angel told them; they stirred not out of the field to go see the wonder until an Army of those heavenly Watchmen concorded to it, and chanted it out with a merry noise, Glory to God, etc.  
This convinceth the truth of the Incarnation of Jesus far more than that Text which I handled the last year, though that, as I showed, was a very powerful evidence. For Wisemen to come from the East to Jerusalem, and to have a strange Star for their Leader raised a mighty fame of the Nativity, both in that City, and perhaps in a great part of the world: But if all the Stars of heaven had gone before them, and all the wise Gymnosophists had made a journey, it were but a mean Demonstrance to this, that all the Angels of heaven (I conceive no less of this multitude than of all) should make an Apparition in the air, and Carol the coming of Christ into the earth. The Stars of the Firmament are sometimes figuratively called the Host of heaven; these Apparitors in my Text are not called, but are so, literally and properly. The Wisemen were but Questionists, and raw Disciples, where is he that is born? These say the word when and where, with all other requisite additions, and put it out of question. The Wisemen adored him with costly Gifts after the manner of an earthly Prince: The Angels glorify him with Hymns and Praises after the Majesty of God. In every respect this is the greatest testimony of Christ in all the Scripture, excepting where God used his own voice immediately from Heaven, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. These things are but said now, I will prove it in the prosecuting of the parts, which are these: The Messengers, the preparation to the Message, and the Message itself; or the Choristers, the preparation to their Music, and then the Anthem. The Choristers are 1. Heavenly ones; 2. A multitude; 3. An Host or an Army of them. Their preparation is twofold: With much suddenness, suddenly there was with the Angel; and with much cheerfulness, for they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, singing praise unto God. The Anthem itself hath three rests in it, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and good will towards men.  
And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly Host; these are the Choristers that sung the Carol, and the first thing we note in them, is, that they were heavenly ones. Many things in the former Verses of this Chapter were exceeding mean, if I may not say vile and sordid, touching our Saviour's Nativity: but this portion of the story is of another nature and very honourable; the more his Divinity had hid itself in Clouts, in Flesh, in a Manger, the more it is illustrated by a glorious testimony. The Earth afforded him one of the worst places it had, the Heavens afforded him their very best attendance, the Angels. These heavenly Spirits, you see, gaze not upon the Work of our Redemption, nor upon the Oeconomy of the Church as idle Spectators, but they were employed from the beginning in all the works of the Lord, Job xxxviii. 7. Who laid the corner stone of the earth, when the morning Stars sang together, and all the Sons of God shouted for joy? Some Expositors infer from hence, 
Pineda.  that the Angels applauded and praised the Lord for the Creation of the world; for the Chaldee Paraphrase instead of the Sons of God reads it Acies Angelorum, the Army of Angels: And the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, when the corner stone of the earth was laid, all my Angels praised me with a loud voice. St. chrysostom says upon it, that the Angels admired to see the beauty of the world beneath, they were astonished to behold the degrees of the Elements, the multitude of all sorts of Creatures, their Order, Number, and measure: And by so much were they transported with the beauty of God's Excellency more than we, and of all his Works, by how much they did better perceive that they were wrought with infinite and inexplicable wisdom. This apprehension of the Fathers upon those words of Job I think is not to be refused. Anastasius Sinaita is cited to go a great deal further, that on the fourth day of the Creation the Angels saw the Sun rise in the morning from under the interposition of the Earth, and presently they bethought them how Christ, Sol justitiae, should be born of a pure Virgin, and dwell upon the earth, and immediately they sung this very Song, Gloria in excelsis, as a prevention or prediction what should be sang upon this day, almost four thousand years before it came to pass. But this conjecture supposeth one of these two things scarce to be admitted, either that these heavenly ones foresaw the fall of Adam before it came to pass, as well as God, and that the Son of God should be given in the flesh for a Propitiation to be the remedy; or else another scholastic quidlibet must be received, that Christ was so the head of the Angels, that he should have been Incarnate, and the Angels saved by faith in that Incarnation, though Adam had never fallen; which is but harsh in the delivery.  
This is the true Doctrine, and the right descant upon the Point, these Spirits that dwell in Heaven rejoiced for the Creation of the Earth, when the Foundations of it were laid, as Job says, how much more would they bear a part, and triumph for our sakes at the Restauration, and the Redemption of the Earth? Yet now we are at the truth, mistake not the reason of their joy as some have done; let me but touch upon a petty error, and so proceed to the true causes. It is supposed by many that the Angels are ready to attend the Church with all their help and diligence, and exceeding glad in our prosperity, because they receive an augmentation of their blessedness by their pious Ministry towards the Sons of men. Now this savours of a little servility, me thinks, as if those holy ones did not communicate themselves to be safeguards and watchmen over us without expectation of reward; but Biel presseth it further, Tum sequitur si homo non fuisset creandus, Angelus non habuisset beatitudinem; It would follow, that Angels had never come to the height of their beatitude unless men had been created; nay, it will follow further, they should come short of their full beatitude unless man had sinned, and disobeyed God's Commandment.  
Let me lay down more sufficient reasons therefore for your further satisfaction.  
First, The Angels had always done their best to pitch their Pavilions round about us, and to keep us from the tyranny of the Devil, but they perceived that their protection was not a saving Medicine, it would not cure, it would not keep us in life; but it bred them great content and joy when Christ did manifest himself in flesh upon the earth to heal our sores and bruises, and to overcome that strong man for us, and spoil him, generally to supply in himself whatsoever was defective in their abilities. This is origen's reason, and his Simile follows, as if many unexpert, but well affected Physicians, should spend their pains to no profit about a sick person whom they would fain recover, and hearing that one of renowned skill, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, was come into the City, who would undoubtedly restore the languishing party, all the rest that had attempted it did much congratulate his coming: So our heavenly Friends the Angels could not speed us as they desired, but as soon as they saw the Prince of Physicians was come into the world, first one Angel appeared the Prolocutor of the whole Host, and he broke with the Shepherds about good tidings of great joy to all People, This day is born, etc. All this while the rest of his consort hovered in the air, and at last became visible, and discovered themselves in a Volley (Apparuerunt cum illo Angeli, says the Syrian Paraphrast) exulting and praising God that the Lamb was yeaned that should take away the sins of the World.  
Secondly, The fruit of this birth came to us, and not to them, Nusquam Angelos; Christ took not on him the seed of Angels, but the seed of Abraham, yet they are as forward in praise and thanksgiving, as if the benefit had been their own. Let the envy of wicked nature's envy at this, that God hath such good servants, as are possessed with exceeding joy, not for their own, but for their fellow servants happiness. O most Angelical perfection to account of the blessings that fall upon our brethren, as if they descended upon ourselves. This heavenly Host did sing with mirth upon our Holy day, but it is the Devil's manner to howl and cry at the good of others; if Christ came to save a man, they roar that he came to torment them before the time. Since the deliverance of poor distressed men was the Devil's pain, let the salvation of all those upon whom the faith of the Gospel doth shine be our rejoicing. The foundation of Lycurgus his Commonwealth among the Spartans' was, Ne scirent privatim vivere, that they should not accustom themselves to think of the private, but of the public good, and it is the foundation of charity among Christians, Nescirent privatim gratias agere, that they should not restrain their thankfulness to their own peculiar, but to extend it for favours which do befall every member in the Church of Christ.  
Thirdly, The Choir of heaven sang praise unto God on this day, to set us in, whom it concerned, to us a Child is born, and to us a Son is given; Shall the standers by pour out their Jubilee, and will we hold our peace? Will we make it no holy day, when it only concerns ours, and not the Angel's redemption? Was it not opprobrious to the Scribes, and High Priests, and Pharisees, that a troop of Wisemen should beat out a journey of twelve days perhaps, and peradventure more, and bring all the precious gifts with them that those Eastern Countries afforded, and all this to honour him that was born King of the Jews, and yet his own people neither visit upon those reports, nor search for him, suffer him to fly away into Egypt, and never miss him; he came unto his own, and his own received him not. And when Satan stands forth to accuse the Sons of men, will he not as much cast it in our teeth, the Angels began a pleasant Song for your sakes, and you ungrateful, whose nature he took upon him, did not follow, they, piped unto you, but you did not dance: He came unto his own, and his own rejoiced not.  
Fourthly, Gregory puts in his conjecture among the rest, Dum nos conspiciunt recipi, suum gaudent numerum impleri. Lucifer and his adherents whose rebellion had cast them out of Heaven, did break the numbers of the glorious Angels, and make them less; therefore they break out into singing, because the rooms of those collapsed Angels shall be filled in Heaven, with those penitent sinners on earth, that walk by Faith and newness of life: as Peter and the rest no doubt were much comforted, after Judas had fallen away from his place by transgression, that Mathias was numbered with the eleven Apostles. The Church of Christ hath lost ground in great shares of Europe, and Asia; but what happy tidings are those, and I trust they shall be better and better, when we hear that souls are gained as fast in the furthest India, and remotest America. The Lacedæmonians had a choice band of Soldiers, which they called their immortal Phalanx, because the number was always kept full, at the instant almost when one of the band died, or was slain, another was elected into the order: So the true flock of Christ is certain and invariable, the number cannot be wronged; many Apostates slide away, yet elsewhere many millions are added to the Church. This augmentation of them that are lost makes the Angels glad and sing, Glory be to God on high.  
Fifthly, and lastly, since the eternal Son of God did inhabit upon the earth, the earth was become an amiable theatre for heavenly creatures to play their parts upon. And as the Poet flattered Augustus Caesar, that the spirits of the Decii and of the Scipio's wished they had been reserved to have lived in his happy Reign: so we may say, and yet in no flattering phrase, that the Angels either wished themselves incarnate, or else to minister to Christ continually upon earth in their incorporeal condition. As the Saints arose out of their graves in their bodies, and descended out of heaven in their souls, and appeared unto many in the holy City of our Saviour's Resurrection, so the Cherubims came down from the firmament above, and made their apparition in a visible form to celebrate the mystery of his Incarnation. Not one of the Fathers but have wrote resolutely without doubting, that Angels are part of our assembly in these Congregations ever since, and most intelligently do so interpret St. Paul, 1 Cor. 11.10. The woman ought to have power of her head because of the Angels, that is, to do nothing immodestly, or unchastly, because the Angels would be witnesses of their impudence. And thus far on that point, how the celestial chantors, that modulate their tunes continually before the Throne of God; these were the organs and well tuned Cymbals that welcomed Christ with a Song of Joy unto the earth.  
But beside their heavenly nature they were a multitude, a numberless concourse of them, as some think, even the whole company of Angels, ten thousands of thousands that minister before the Throne of God, as the Prophet Daniel speaks; the windows of heaven were opened, and Seraphins came down as thick as rain: It is hard to say whether it would not have been pain and grief for any of those blessed Spirits to have stayed behind, though it were in Heaven? whether they could have quieted their own desires to be absent from this occasion. I am sure St. Paul leaves out none of them, but citys them altogether, Heb. i 6. When he brings his firstborn into the world, he saith, and let all the Angels of God worship him. Another says, and that's Salmeron, the fields of Bethlehem could not contain all the Angels, supposing as it is truth, that they appeared visibly, Sed ex omni hierarchia aliqui advenerant, sicut in militia sunt multi ordines, but some appeared out of every Hierarchy instead of all the rest; as sometimes certain choice Soldiers are picked out of every Squadron in an Army. It was a matter of great consequence, never any tidings of such weight were brought into the world before; and reason good than that divers should come to testify it: and it was matter of great praise as ever shall be sung; and reason good then that many should come to celebrate it. If you will argue what would barely have sufficed, I confess though fewer had preached Christ in the audience of the Shepherds, and though a multitude of this multitude had been spared, yet the tidings would effectually have been believed, and the whole world have been partakers of them: But it is no contradiction to say, he that will afford honour unto Christ but even a bare enough, affords him a great deal too little. God did not appoint such Glory unto his Son, as did just suffice, but to teach us with what abundant, magnificent reverence he should have been received. He makes the whole train of Angels, as some say, the selected flower of them as others say, attend him, that his advent may be all in all illustrious. Be it so, yet I would it were not so, that some do grudge and cavil at many points of ornament, and decency which they find in our holy Service. May not sundry Ceremonies be left out, say they, and yet our Religion be sound and entire? Indeed our Ceremonies are not necessary in themselves we grant it; why, and what if such great Cathedral Churches had not been built, nor such rich costly ornaments bestowed upon the Roof, upon the Choir, upon the Communion-Table, might not Prayers be read, and Sermons preached with poorer habiliments and in meaner places? well, no man denies but God was faithfully served in Dens, and Rocks, and Caves of the earth, when the Apostles and Prophets were persecuted. Besides, there are that complain, when one Minister may sufficiently and audibly read Service to the Congregation: frustra fit per plura, what a needless thing it is, to have a Choir of Singers discharge that, which ordinarily is no more than one man's labour? They that make these objections, let them consider what errors they fall into; they may as well tax God himself for sending a multitude of Angels to congratulate the birth of his Son, when two or three would have done the business; for out of the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be justified. Why should a reasonable man think it fit to glorify God with bare scanty provision? God hath given us full measure of all his blessings, and running over; therefore no decent Ceremony is superfluous, no rich Ornament too gorgeous, no strain of our Wit too eloquent, no Music too sweet, no Multitude too great to advance his name, who hath exalted us by the humiliation of his Son, and made us capable to live with Angels in Heaven, because Christ was content to lie among beasts in a manger.  
Yet I am not out of this point concerning the multitude that came. Angels came by one, or by two at some other famous births in holy Scripture; now they come not single, or by pairs, but they throng together at this Birth, because this was no petty Saviour. This was he that God gave in his great mercy to call all the ends of the world together, from the East unto the West; therefore all the dwellers in Heaven mustered themselves together from one end to another, and prophesied by their multitudes what increase the Evangelical Church should have, A great multitude of all nations, and kindred, and people, which none could number, Rev. seven. 9 A great draught of fish enclosed in the net, so that the net was ready to break. Some Feasts in the Old Law, as that of the Passeover, and that of Tabernacles, had seven days annexed to honour them. Christmas-day hath twelve days joined unto it, to each out the solemnity; why should he not have most days to solemnize it of any Feast? for through that holy Incarnation the company ot true Worshippers is infinitely larger than it was before. As nothing is hidden from the heat of the Sun, so every corner of the earth is disclosed to the light of the Gospel. And remember that there is no variation or change in God, as he appointed many Angels to sing out his Birth, so to this time and for ever he loves to be glorified by multitudes. Let two or three be gathered together in his name rather than one separatist alone: but if you will multiply those two or three to hundreds, to thousands of souls, O then his desire is upon them that fear him, and upon those thwacked congregations that call upon his name. He that invited the guests in the Gospel did not think his Feast well bestowed till his room was full; therefore he bid his servants scour the Highways and bring them in, that his number might be augmented. I commend your private exercises of Prayer between God and your own heart, that your Father that sees you devout in secret may reward you openly: But those Prayers which you would have most prosperous and successful, send them up in the thickest press of Prayers, when a great assembly opens their lips together. He that joins his spirit with the spirit of the Church shall be heard as if he prayed with ten thousand voices. Finally, to bring this point to the end, Angels flock by multitudes to disperse these tidings, that Christ is born; and who should take up this message after them, but they that are called Angels in the Testaments New and Old. The Priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the Law at his mouth; for he is the Messenger, or the Angel of the Lord of hosts, Mal. two. 7. And then the Church is blessed when there is multitudo exercitus, a multitude of this Ecclesiastical host, a multitude of these Angels upon earth; when there are many among you to break the bread of life. I know after the old Proverb there may be Multi thyrsigeri, pauci Bacchi, many Priests and few Pulpit-men, many of that office and few that officiate: therefore our Saviour bade those that followed him to pray, that since the harvest was plenteous, and the labourers were few, that the Lord of the harvest will send forth labourers into his harvest. God will send forth many Reapers at the last to gather his Wheat into his Barn, and to burn up the Chaff; therefore if there be not many sowers, and many labourers, the sickle will light upon those to cut them down for weeds, that being Angels in the Church, and sufficient for multitude, did not often tune their music after their ditty in my Text, etc.  
The connexion of the next point will fit well with the former; for thirdly they are an host of Angels, and therefore many, nay, they must be very many, and more than one rank or file that make an host-like multitude: the number of fifty or an hundred would make a full train for messengers, but they would be much too few to make an Army: As Tigranes scoffed at the Roman legions which Lucullus led, says he, if they come to me for Ambassadors they are a fair company, if they come against me for an Army they are but an handful. A multitude, though unarmed, are a good safeguard in their populous numbers, how much more when they appear in battle array, and stand readily charged in warlike preparation? But I will come in order to the reasons of this apparition. There are no creatures so mean and weak but God is able to put strength into them, and to raise an invincible host; therefore the very Flies and Grasshoppers are called his Army, and an Army which Pharaoh knew not how to withstand, or which way to drive them back, unless Moses prayed for him. But more eminently than all other creatures, the constellations of Stars are very frequently in holy Scriptures, called the host of heaven: as Deut. xvii. 3. If there be any found among you which hath worshipped the Sun, or Moon, or any of the host of heaven, bring forth that man or woman, and thou shalt stone them with stones that they die, 2 Kings xvii. 16. The reason is given why Salmanasar the King of Assyria took away Hoshea the King of Israel, and the ten Tribes into captivity, because they made them two Calves, even molten Images, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. There is admirable order indeed in the Stars of the Firmament, as in a well-marshalled Camp; the Planets one above another, the Sun running his course in the midst, as in the main battle: nay, there is virtue and influence in them to overthrow God's enemies; but the knowledge after what manner they fight against sinners is too excellent for us to attain unto it: but Deborah the Prophetess said it, that the Stars in their courses fought against Sisera, Judg. v. 20. Josephus says upon that story, that hail, and thunder, and winds were raised up by some planetary aspect, which did great annoyance against Sisera, and the Midianites. Like as Livy says, that the brightness of the Sun, and clouds of dust blown about by the winds fell both together into the eyes of the Romans, when they lost their whole Army at Cannae; and the heavens above caused those incommodities almost to their utter destruction. So Claudian sings of Theodosius the Emperor's Victory, that the heavens above did fight of his side against his enemies. O nimium dilecte Deo cui militat aether: therefore the Stars, whether you regard their order or their efficacy are rightly called an heavenly host.  
And if these visible lights which the Lord hath set in the firmament to distinguish day and night, are a celestial battle, how much more the Angels whom God hath made invisible by nature, and as fierce as fire in activity, Who maketh his Angel's spirits, and his Ministers a flame of fire. 
Psal. civ.  So Elisha presented a muster of them to his servant, not simply as an host, but as a fiery host: the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold the mountain was full of horses, and chariots of fire round about Elisha, 2 Kings vi. 17. Scarce any Prophet but touches upon it, though darkly and mystically, that the Angels are a militia ready to war and fight. David, Psalm xxxiv. 7. The Angel of the Lord (castrametatur) encampeth round about them that fear him. Is there any number of his armies? meaning there is a multitude of heavenly Spirits assisting before the throne of God continually, Job xxv. 2. Who hath created these things that bringeth out their host by number? Isa. xl. 26. I saw in my vision and behold the four winds of heaven strove upon the great Sea, Dan. seven. 2. And these says St. Hierom were the four Angelical powers, to whom the four principal Monarchies of the world were committed: But before any other Prophet of God mentioned that warlikeness which is in Angels, Jacob did, Gen. xxxii. 2. when he was returning with his wife and children into Canaan, the Angels of God met him, and when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's host; and he called the name of the place Mahanaim. Mahanain is of the dual number, and signifies two several Camps; whether he meant the troop of Angels that came to guard him for one, and the servants of his own family for another; 
Pererius in hoc cap.  or rather as a learned Author says, he saw a band of Angels before him, and another behind him. The Angels that particularly protect Palestina received him into that Country, and they that were Guardians of Mesopotamia delivered him up, and brought him thither. You see that the phrase of our Evangelist is confirmed by all the Prophets in the Old Testament; but if it appear that Christ himself hath said as much, you will believe the more that the sense is very useful and mystical. Why Josh. v. 14. when Joshua was about to besiege Jericho, he lift up his eyes and saw a man over against him with his Sword drawn in his hand, says he, Art thou for us or for our adversaries? and he said, nay, but a Captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. Many Pontificians had the rather say this was an Angel, because Joshua worshipped, to help out their bad cause of the Worship of Angels; but Andrea's Masius proves it learnedly that this was Christ himself, who conducted the people of the promise into the Land of Canaan, even as he shall bring all his Elect into the Kingdom of Heaven, and many times showed himself in a visible form as a man unto the Patriarches, to learn them the Faith of his Incarnation in the fullness of time. The same Masius citys some words out of one Moses Gerundensis a Jewish Cabalist, which I cannot omit, says the Jew, There is one principal Angel, the Prince of all the rest, who is the face of God; for it is said, Exod. xxxiii. 14. Behold I will send my presence, or my face before thee. You know how this agrees with Christ the second Person in Trinity, who is called the express image of his Father's presence, Heb. i 3.) The Cabalist goes on, The Jews did much desire to see that principal Angel who he was; they could not know him by any prophetical vision, nor by their Law, whereas the face of God can be nothing else but God himself, and God promised of him to the people, He shall be kind and gentle to thee, neither shall he hold thee to the strict and rigid Law, but shall deal favourably and mercifully with thee. A most manifest description of Christ and his Kingdom, but that his Jewish obstinacy would not let him see it. This we gain out of it, Christ is General of the Angels, and they his Army; Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabbaoth, that is of Hosts, as we say it and sing it often in our morning Hymn.  
These, being under the banner of Christ are the Chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof. These did once turn the point of their Sword against us, now Christ hath reconciled all things in heaven and in earth; and they made this armilustrium, this training in warlike ostentation at the birth of Christ, to give us knowledge and comfort that they will turn their arms against our enemies. That the Kingdom of Satan should be thenceforth brought under, and suppressed, that the strong man should be cast out of his house, and spoiled of all his munition: Therefore this Canticle of theirs is an Epinicium or Song of triumph for a victory assured or obtained, 
Isa. ix. 3.  Like the joy of them that divide the spoil, says the Prophet Isaiah upon the occasion of the Birth of Christ. Here are species praeliantium, & voces cantantium, the habit of War, and the Song of Peace. Their habit shows what was before, war and enmity against the earth; their Song shows what shall be hereafter, confidence and courage against our spiritual foes, and assurance to get the mastery, and so to have joy and peace in the Holy Ghost. If Herod and all his partisans were troubled to hear the wisemen ask, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? what concussion of fear would have been among them to have heard that he brought a multitude of heavenly Soldiers with him into the world? they are a defensive guard unto his little flock; and though Tyrant's rage, though Inquisitions be advanced, though Leagues be sworn, though Armadas fill the Seas and the Air with their Ships and Sails, though the Rulers of the earth take counsel against the Lord and against his Christ; yet there is an Army always ready pressed in the Air, the mighty one hath girt his Sword upon his thigh to deliver his Church in the time of need; and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it: Therefore Solomon says of it, thou art comely as Jerusalem, and terrible as an Army with banners, Cant. vi. 4. Some of little Faith may look upon Christ newly born with fleshly eyes, and may doubtingly say, Nunquid isle salvare potest Israelem? Can this Infant restore Israel? can this sucking babe lead forth our Armies to vanquish our enemies. O see how many legions he can command from Heaven, and then say, it is a vain thing to trust in the forces of man, it is the Lord that hath powers and principalities in store to awe the world: lo he cometh with a multitude of the heavenly host.  
Thus much of the Choiristers, I have now to speak of the preparation to their music, which is twofold; for it was with much speediness, and with much cheerfulness, with much speediness; for suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host. The Choir was not long a tuning, but the Hymn was sung immediately after the Sermon was ended, like a chime that follows a Clock without distinction of a minute: one good work follows another incontinently without any tedious pause or lingering respite: as Pliny said of the Emperor Trajan in his Panegyric, that the people did often give him extemporary applauses, and those sudden acclamations were a sign of their true hearty liking of his government, Quae fingendi non habent tempus, for being done of a sudden, they had no leisure to think how to dissemble or flatter him; so it is a sign our heart is right with the Lord, when we break out into sudden praises of his goodness upon all occasional meditations. When we have received any favour, or when the merciful kindness of the Lord comes into our remembrance, why do we not break forth into a speedy benediction and thanksgiving? at what should we stick? certainly every hesitation is a sin, every moment of delay is ingratitude: it was a Prophetical motion in John the Baptist before he was born, as soon as the voice of the salutation of the Blessed Virgin sounded in Elizabeth's ears, the babe leapt in her womb for joy. Quick motions of zeal and devotion are ever most acceptable. Procrastinating of time is the ready way to be taken tardy like the foolish Virgins. When Abraham entertained Angels, Gen. xviii. he gave them welcome, as I may say, with Angelical celerity. Abraham hastened into the Tent to Sarah, Sarah made ready quickly three measures of fine meal, Abraham ran into the herd for a tender Calf, and gave it to a young man, and he hasted to dress it. See what an active family here was, all upon the speed to do good. Nemo piger est in domo charitatis, a charitable house had not one sluggish person in it. The Cherubims are graven with wings, to put wings to our slothfulness: our heart should fly as fast to all good works, as an arrow out of a well drawn bow. The faithful among the Jews had long waited for the joy of their eyes, the promised Messias, day by day they did expect his appearance; and one of their own says it was a chief part of the service and Prayers in the Synagogues to beseech God that his Anointed, his Christ would come into the world. After this earnest expectation, he comes with as much haste and expedition as heart could wish; messenger upon messenger, one Angel after another, and a third telling his errand almost before the second had done. And because all the Angels equally wish our salvation one as much as another, the whole multitude of them, with the same nimble dispatch, at the same instant proclaim it, That the dayspring from on high hath visited us. Yet before I end this point understand the case right, the heavenly host did publish these glad tidings suddenly, that God should be glorified, the earth should have peace, and good will should be imparted to sinners; not that suddenly and immediately from that moment it should so come to pass. Joseph had a dream sent him from God, that his Father and his Brethren should bend unto him, and he should be possessed of great command: and so it came to pass, but after long imprisonment, and much tribulation. The Angel Gabriel greeted Mary, that she was highly favoured of God, the Shepherds honoured her, the Wise men visited her, Simeon blest her; yet the same Simeon tells her that before her blessedness should be accomplished, a Sword should pierce her own soul. So the Angels give sudden intelligence of glad tidings (and sudden joy makes the passion the stronger) but many years were to turn about, before the effects of their message should be fulfilled; that is, the earth enjoy her peace and God his glory.  
For the speediness of the coming of the heavenly host let this suffice; the other circumstance which concurs with the delivery of their message is their cheerfulness and alacrity, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they praised God with a merry noise, and I must say it, since all Expositors have said as much before me; they sang cheerfully to the God of Jacob. They that offer him praise do honour him, Psal. l. 23. Now after the honouring of God for his own being, for the eternal generation of the word, for the proceeding of the Holy Ghost, the supreme, most excellent, most glorious work is the Incarnation of Christ. This is that noble act, for whose sake all voices that have utterance shall magnify him for evermore. Therefore the usual Evening Anthem in Cathedrals, I and the Psalms sung in private Parishes, I am sure my observation deceives not, was wont to be, Psal. cxlviii. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens, praise ye him all his Angels, praise him all the host, praise ye him Sun and Moon, praise him all ye stars of light, etc. And the first Psalm among those proper ones appointed for morning Prayer begins, The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handy work. 
Psal. nineteen. 1.  About beatitude or final felicity there have been great disputes whether it should consist in action or in contemplation; but the best resolution of the problem is, that praise consisting partly in contemplating the great goodness of the object to be praised, partly in the fruit of the lips, which sends forth that honour our; blessedness shall consist in giving land to the Holy Trinity, and unto the Lamb that sits upon the Throne for evermore. Vidisti vilia, audi mirifica, says St. Ambrose, upon these words, that which the Shepherds saw with their eyes was a little Infant poorly brought forth into the world, and cast aside neglectfully in a corner of a stable: but that which they heard with their ears was strange and admirable, both that all the tongues of men should glorify this child, and that the Angels who by nature had no tongues, assumed bodies for that hour, that they might speak with such a mouth, with such a voice, with such a dialect and language as men use to do, and fill the world with praises of his name, who made himself an improperium, a derision and scorn unto many to take away our infamy, and therefore worthy to be praised.  
The Devil feigned the tongue of man to delude our first Parents, that they should be made like unto God; the good Angels also frame a voice in the air like unto the tongue of man to dissolve the works of the Devil, and to teach us that God is made like unto us. Let the Serpent hiss at it, this heavenly host which consists of our friends and protectors doth sing it out, and warble it, Coelesti quadam & ineffabili modulatione, 
Burgensis.  says the ordinary gloss, with a celestial harmony, far transcending all humane music, and above all possible Relation. A Nurse's lullaby will sing a Child out of crying and frowardness, and make it still: but it had need be a singing Angel, nay the consent and harmony of all the Angels that should cheer up our hearts with the gladness of a Saviour, and wipe away all tears from our eyes, when before we knew ourselves dead in sins and trespasses. And it is good to take it at the best sense; great comfort it is, that these holy Ministers of Heaven came with singing and exultation: It was a sign that there was a great change wrought in the world, and favour and propitiation come about to the full desire of our heart. Angels have been sent with fire and brimstone, as against Sodom and Gomorrah; with wrath and reproof to make all the children of Israel to weep, Judg. two. with a Sword, and with the noisome Pestilence, when David had sinned in numbering the people: but all this horror and dreariment is cast aside by the birth of Christ, says St. Chrysostom: and Angels come with Anthems and Carols of praise. Thus the Lord hath put a song of thanksgiving into our mouth, for he hath done marvellous things.  
If Asaph and that Choir did lift up their note with all sorts of musical instruments in the Old Law, while the Sacrifice was burning upon the Altar, I am sure we have much more cause, not in imitation of Asaph, but of the Angels to praise the Lord with Psalms, and Hymns, and spiritual Songs. Luther, I know not upon what reason, unless it were because the Angels in my Text did begin the Gospel with melody, he makes Psalmody to be one of the notes of the Orthodox Church of Christ. The voice of man certainly is to praise God in its best tunes and elegancies: and the reasons why musical notes are most fit and necessary amidst our Christian Prayers are these four. 1. Rules of piety steal into our mind with the delight of the harmony. The Agathyrsians even to Plato's days were wont to sing their Laws, and put them in tune, that men might repeat them in their Recreations. 2. It kindles Devotion, and fills the soul with more loving affections. Make a cheerful noise to the God of Jacob, says David. As the noise of Flutes, and of Trumpets inspire a courage into Soldiers, and inflame them to be victorious, so the Psalms of the Church raise up the heart, and make it leap to be with God; as if our soul were upon our lips, and would fly away to heaven. 3. An heavy spirit oppresseth zeal, and that service of God is twice done which is done with alacrity: and our Christian merriment by St. James his rule is, singing and making melody to the Lord. When our Saviour and his company were sad the night before his Passion, to put away that heaviness they sung an Hymn, when they went to Mount Olivet. 4. To sing some part of Divine Doctrine is very profitable, because that which is sung is most treatibly pronounced; the understanding stays long upon it, and nails it the faster to the memory. It was a Law of Numa among the Romans, Nihil oportet in transcursu à diis petere, sed ubi vacat, & est otium, we must ask nothing of God by snatches, but with sober deliberation.  
And as our Parochial singing of Psalms is very sweet and requisite, wherein all or most of the Congregation bear a part, so it doth well become Princes Courts, and Episcopal Churches to have more curious and sumptuous music of several Instruments, and a skilful Choir appointed to execute it. It is semblable to that of my Text, where the Angels sung the Service, and the Shepherds gave them audience. If some wayward humours say, this Choiral Music hath no relish with them, it doth not help them in the practice of Religion, they understand it not. I answer, they accuse themselves of many faults in their own complaint: 1. That they understand not that which they have by rote, if they would mark it. 2. They are malicious that would deprive them of that sweetness who are much affected with it. 3. It is arrogancy in a high nature to wish that their own ignorant, immusical, unfashioned humour should be a prescription to a whole Church. To conclude all, I come from public Church Music to our private delight in holy Songs. S. Hierom testifies that in his days, as they walked about the Market, as they sailed in Ships, as they were busy at Work they sung some holy Ditties. It is our solace at home, our recreation abroad, says St. Basil: Neither is it irksome to any but to the evil spirit, for the evil spirit went out of Saul when David played upon his Harp: and David was no profane Minstrel, but a Divine Singer. But I read of two sorts of Heretics that quarrelled it; the Arrians disliked singing of Psalms, because the Orthodox Christians did use it; and the Manicheans because they condemned the whole Old Testament: Insani sunt adversus medicamentum quo sani esse potuissent. They are furious to find fault with that which would have healed their fury. But we have learned to praise the Lord with our best skill, with our best harmony, with our best cheerfulness, from the example of Angels, especially at this time for the Birth of our blessed Lord and Saviour, etc.   

THE EIGHTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION.  LUKE two. 14. 
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and good will towards men.  
O Sing unto the Lord a new Song, for he hath done marvellous things. I will begin the New year from that portion of David's Canticle. Marvellous things they were, you will all confess, that the powerful God should be made a feeble Infant: that a woman should bear him in her womb, who supports the world, and all the Creatures that are contained in it; that the Eternal should be born who had no beginning; never was the like heard or seen before, therefore whatsoever was said of old will not agree to set it forth, it must be a new Song of praise and thanksgiving to our God. So is the Text which I have read before you. It cometh to pass by the providence of God, that St. Luke's Gospel is more cheerful than all the rest, and full of Music: So that he is well called by one, not only the Evangelist, but the Psalmist of the New Testament. The Song of Zachary, the Song of Mary's Magnificat, the Song of Simeon, this Song of the Angels, the Church is beholding to him for reciting them, and to no other Penman of the holy Word. St. Paul calls him Luke the Physician; some of the Roman Church, to serve their own Imagery delights, out of some Histories unallowed, call him Luke the Painter, there is no conjecture for that out of the book of Scripture, which cannot lie: But I have more conjecture for my own opinion, that he was Luke the Musician, (a man of divers gifts and qualities) for the Prophets and Evangelists wrote the Scriptures by divine revelation, yet always with a sweet tincture of their own abilities; The stately eloquence of Isaiah shows his breeding; St. Paul's Logical Arguments show his Scholarship; St. Peter facile Exhortations show his zeal, and plain Education; Finally, if I be not deceived, the repeating of so many celestial Hymns in St. Luke show his musical art and affection.  
Now, the Spirit of the Church hath been ever so directed by God, to take in all the Songs of the New Testament into its public Service and Liturgy, the Magnificat, the Benedictus, the Nunc Dimittis. Thus it is not only with us, but was so most anciently in all flourishing and well established Churches. Neither is this Versicle of the Angels, I mean my Text, left out, but it is referred to the chief part of our serving of God in the celebration of the holy Communion; before we part from the Table of the Lord our Rubrique commands us to sing or say, Glory be to God on high. Indeed, that Prayer as we have it, is enlarged with many other pithy strains of devotion, We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we glorify thee, etc. And such as have wrote of ancient Ceremonies say that Pope Telesphorus made up that excellent prayer of Laud and Thanksgiving, beginning with my Text. Very ancient it is I am sure, because I meet with it for the most part in those pieces which are called the Constitutions of Clemens, and St. James his Liturgy. But for the words which I handle I have great cause to judge that they were the most acceptable Prayer of the Primitive Church, for St. Paul begins his Epistles with grace and peace be multiplied, as much as to say, peace on earth, and good will towards men; and the end of many clauses in his Epistles is that Doxology to God, To whom be glory for evermore, Amen. I wonder that the words themselves are bended in and out with such curious divisions by many Divines, for the Angel hath parted them into three several rests, and I will not go about to mend his work; and whereas Points are raised out of Grammatical constructions of the Verb, whether they should be the Indicative or the Optative Mood it shall be all one to that way in which I will handle the parts, for I will handle every of the three members three ways: First, As a Congratulation or thanksgiving. Secondly, By way of Prayer or Petition. Thirdly, By way of Doctrine and Instruction. Thanksgiving unto God that his glory on high appeareth, that peace doth flourish on earth, and that he is pleased with men; or make it a Prayer or Postulation that all glory may be given to God, all safety to the earth, and that an happy reconciliation may be begun with men. Otherwise, if it be a Sermon or Exhortation, the sum is, that God be magnified, peace preserved, a friendship with God endeavoured; thus nothing shall be lost of this divine musical Embassage, Glory be to God in the highest, etc.  
Now we cannot be to seek, what is the sum of the first member, Glory to God in the highest, it must be thus, the Angels glorify God for sending Christ in the flesh to redeem mankind, and they wish and pray that men may glorify God in Christ; and they teach us that God's glory is to be sought before all things; and so I proceed to explicate it before you. If the Disciples be silent at what time it is fit to praise God, the stones shall speak, says our Saviour, that's ultimum refugium, the last shift and refuge, that the very dross of the earth, if need were, should not want a tongue to magnify its Creator. But it stirs up emulation, and provokes us more, when those that are far above us discharge the duty which we ought to execute, rather than when those things which are much beneath us should give us example. So my Text lets you see, that if men be silent, and set not forth the praise of the Lord, the Angels will speak, and give him glory. It were a great shame for the Commons to be rude and irrespectful towards their King, when the Nobles and Princes of the people are most dutiful and obsequious; so when the Cherubins devote their Songs to extol the most High, it were a beastly neglect in man, a worm in respect of a Cherubin, not to bear a part in that humble piety: But to speak after the method of reason, had it not been more proper for the Angels at this time to have proclaimed Christ's Poverty than his Power, his Infancy than his Majesty, his Humility in the lowest, rather than his glory in the highest? If there wereany glory coming out of this work of the Incarnation, it may seem we had it rather than our Saviour, and he lost it. But the piercing eye of those celestial Spirits could see abundant honour compassing Christ about, where ignorant man could espy nothing but vileness and misery. For first they celebrate the glory of God's justice in sending his Son made of a woman, and made under the Law, to suffer for us that had sinned against the Law, because that Justice would not receive man into favour without a Lutrum, or satisfaction. This stops the mouth of the Devil that he cannot calumniate, and it resounds the praise of God that the iniquity of the world did not escape unrevenged. Caiaphas' meant to speak bitterly, and to blaspheme; but the Lord turned the curse of his mouth into the words of blessing, It is expedient for us that one man die for the people, and that the whole Nation perish not, Joh. xi. 50. Secondly, They divulge the honour of Christ unto the ends of the world, for the mercy that came down with him upon all those that should believe in his name; if his Justice was not forgotten in their Song, surely his Mercy should be much more solemnised. The Angels for their own share were unacquainted with mercy, 'twas news in heaven till this occasion happened; they had felt gratiam confirmantem, but not gratiam condonantem; that is, the Lord bestowed upon the good Angel's grace to confirm them in grace; but for those rebellious ones of their Order that had sinned, they found no grace to remit their trespasses; properly that is called mercy, but a thing so rare and unheard of in heaven, that as soon as ever they saw it stirring in the earth, they sing Glory to God in the highest. Thirdly, They praise the Lord on high for the Incarnation of his Son, because the dignity of the work was so from himself, that no Creature did merit it, none did beseech or intercede unto him for it, before he had destinate it, nothing but his own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and compassion could move him to it; Nemo in hoc opere glorietur, nullius merito ascribatur; no man can ascribe it to his deserts, no man can partake in the glory. What was man that the Son of God did visit him? For him we shall be glorified, by him we have obtained peace, through him good will hath shined upon men, therefore unto him be all the glory.  
This was the Angel's Congratulation, and no doubt God shall be glorified in his holy places on high; but shall that God who is most high be worshipped and glorified by us below? That is it the Angels pray for, and wish for our sakes, and for our Salvation, that we of the Militant Church beneath may extol the name of the Lord, and give him glory. Among men, sinners pray for sinners, and it is but one for another; the People pray for the Prince, and the Prince for the People: The Priest for the Congregation, and the Congregation for the Priest. Great and small there are no odds in that, they requite one another with their mutual Charity, the head cannot say unto the feet I have no need of your Prayers, nor the feet unto the head, Dum singuli orant pro omnibus, omnes orant pro singulis, while every particular man prays for all Christians in the Church, all Christians in the Church pray for every particular man; but as I said, this is sinners for sinners, quid pro quo: But when the Angels are solicitous in Hymns and Supplications for us, it is not that we should pray to them, or pray for them again, but show charity that cannot be requited. They know that many Sacrifices of Prayers are requisite to bless any Congregation on earth, that God may have his due honour from it, and therefore all the powers in heaven above assist us with their intercession. And especially they are mindful over us to make that Petition on our behalf, that we may never forget that our condition is base, and as low as the clay and dust of the earth, and that God is highly exalted above all the world, therefore that we are made to worship him, and to fall down before him, and to render the homage of our humility to our Chief, that is dominion and glory to him that is the highest. We find this title of most high in Melchisedeches title, Gen. xiv. 18. and never before. There it comes in, as some say, whom I approve for this reason: Melchisedech is the first in holy Scripture that is called a King, that being the greatest name of pre-eminency among men. God blazons his own honour just at the first discovery of that name, to show how far it exceeds all earthly Principality, and calls him, Melchisedech King of Salem, a Priest of the most high God. And indeed there was a glory due to that Melchisedech, and to every one in his rank, that is set on high above the people; but take heed we let not our Worship and Service rest in them, and in the admiration of their outward Pomp, and go no higher. God set Princes in their Thrones of Majesty to be bowed unto, and obeyed, that we may rise up in our Meditations, and consider how excellent and superlative he is that gave such power and dominion to men. Before Christ came into the world it was Gloria in excelsis, men worshipped their Idols in every high place, as the Prophets did greatly complain of it; but it was not Deo in altissimis, they worshipped the Host of heaven, and things above, but they did not lift up their hearts to him that sitteth above the heavens. Therefore this is the sum of the Angel's Prayer, that men may give dominion, and praise, and thanksgiving to the true God; and their wish was as effectual as they could desire, for even immediately upon the Birth of Christ Idolatry went down, the heathen Gods were discovered more and more to be but Wood and Stone, the work of men's hands, and the praise of the true God began to be sounded forth in all places.  
The next issue of this first Point is, the Angels teach us by the contents of their Prayer, that God's glory is to be sought before all things. Nihil aequius est quam ut pro quo quis oret pro eo etiam laboret, says St. Austin. Whatsoever we pray for, we must not only stand wishing it, but as much as in us lies endeavour it also. First, repeating often the marvellous works which he hath done for the conservation of those that praise him, and for the destruction of his enemies. O God we have heard with our ears, and our Fathers have declared unto us the noble works that thou didst in their days, and in the old time before them. Secondly, By confessing of our grievous sins, which makes his mercy and his grace so excellent throughout all the world: and depressing our best works to be as ineffectual as our sins unto Salvation, unless the Lord will cover the stains that are in them with the blood of Christ. Surely the reward which he brings with him is much exalted, when we deny not but the best thing we do is less than the least of all his mercies. Thirdly, by defying, by shunning, by resisting, nay, by rooting out the children of Belial that blaspheme his glory; for God will avenge himself of them that are tame and patient when his name is violated, and his honour profaned; it is the glory of humane Laws, and of Princely Justice, that there is no impunity or connivency for them that scandalise the glory of the great King who ruleth over all. Fourthly, God hath his house wherein he hath promised to dwell, let every thing therein be magnificent, full of splendour, bountiful, fit to entertain his Majesty. The Angels might have said, Fie upon the earth when they sang glory in the highest to see Christ tumbled heedlessly in a Stable by most brutish hospitality; I am sure men deserved no glory for this days work, to bestow their Saviour in so ignominious a Lodging; we may all blush to remember it, but that I hope through all Ages we will satisfy for it, as we shall be able, and reform it. Provide for him sumptuously in the beauty of holiness, let no place be statelier than Christ's Church among us Gentiles, because no place was worse than the Manger, wherein he was received among the Jews. These things as I have laid them in order, you may do well to do, and then the good Angels have their wish; but the Devil doth all he can to spoil their celestial music. We like not this partition, says St. Austin, wherein men have peace demised to them, 
Aug. Ep. 127  and God hath all the glory; Et dum gloriam usurpant turbant pacem, but they drive away their own peace by usurping glory. O stulti filii Adae, qui contemnentes pacem, & gloriam appetentes, & pacem perdunt, & gloriam; Fond and silly men that neglect peace, and seize upon glory to themselves, and so they lose both peace and glory. But most accurate is this distribution as the Choir of heaven hath laid it forth; Here is nothing but discord and sedition in this lower world, Nation against Nation, and Kingdom against Kingdom; nay, the very bowels of the Church torn out with Questions and Controversies; here the blessing of peace is most to be desired to bring bone unto his bone, and sinew unto his sinew: In the world above their is nothing but righteousness, and zeal, and purity, therefore the proper Incense to be sent up thither is perpetual praise and glory. Avoid Satan that wouldst confound these things, that malignant Spirit knows it would be no peace in earth if men on earth should hunt for glory, but peace will ensue here if glory be given to him that is above. So runs these words which are the Angel's Congratulation to God, their Prayer for men, their Sermon unto men, Glory be, etc.  
The next staff of the Song is, and on earth peace; for the second happiness on earth is peace, and there is but one blessing, that is God's glory, before it. Some take the word peace in this place personally for Christ himself, as if the Song went, Let God be glorified that hath sent Jesus the Prince of Peace upon earth, who brings good will to men. Qui in coelis glorificatur in terrâ est, & factus terrenus, says one. He that sitteth in the heavens and ruleth over all dwelled upon the earth, and became the peace of earth, and the chastisement of our peace is upon him, Isa. liii. Indeed, he is God from heaven, man from earth, partaker of both in his two natures, and therefore fit to reconcile all, and to put all in peace. It is the Hypostatical union that brings both ends together, the two extremes heaven and earth, and by that inseparable union God greets us with the kiss of love, and gives us osculum pacis, the Symbol of much endeared friendship, the kiss of peace. All enmities were so compounded, and well agreed for his sake, that St. Paul says, He is our peace, Eph. two. 14. The principal reconciliation which he obtained was, that man might have peace with God; for God wanted his own glory through the Idolatry of the world, and therefore men wanted their peace because of their sins. Our first Father's prevarication (we must often look back to that woeful estate) had caused such a rupture between God and us, that no doubt the very Angels wondered how that offence would ever be remitted and forgotten. And indeed, that rent could never have been made up, unless God and man by an infinite dispensation had been pieced together in one person; unless he that is greater than Moses had stood before him in the gap to turn away his wrathful indignation, we should all have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. Justice hath a great voice among the Attributes of God, carries a mighty sway, and it roared out from Mount Sinai, Cursed is he that keeps not this whole Law, cursed be he that breaks a tittle. Then Christ steps in, the Malediction light upon me, I will endure it, but these Sheep let them be spared. Why Justice could not say this was a total indulgence, than it would have clamoured, but only a commutation of punishment; for our acquitment the Lord did lay upon his Son the iniquity of us all. We must not say, this was just, therefore the Lord decreed it, but the Lord decreed it, therefore this was just. Alius solvit pro debitore, aliud solvitur quam debebatur; one was the debtor, and another satisfied: one thing was owed to God, I mean the life of sinners; another thing was paid, I mean the life of an innocent. So Justice had no injury, and Mercy had no denial; but justitia & pax osculatae sunt, two things that stood at distance were brought together, that is, righteousness and peace did kiss each other, Psal. lxxxiv. If we set not Christ before us the Mediator between God and man, our unworthiness would be such, that we durst not ask of God to be appeased with us: We could expect nothing but tribulation and anguish upon every soul both Jew and Gentile, and that all the Angels should be in arms like Soldiers to bid us battle and to slay us. But Christ came into the world like an Herald to stop the battle, the Angels sang of their arms, Salvation appeared unto us, we cast up our eyes with joy to heaven from whence cometh our help, our help cometh even from the Lord, which hath made heaven and earth; therefore when Christ was brought with triumph into Jerusalem, the Song of the people did a little vary from my Text, Peace in heaven, say they, and glory in the highest; for when the great Majesty of heaven was pleased to spare men on earth, the sure part of the amity was peace in heaven, for when Christ had reconciled us to his Father, that the peace came downward, the Covenant was sure, and could never be broken.  
The next peace which the Angels congratulate unto us, is, Interioris domus tranquillitas, if Christ have attoned the variances which our sins made between us and God, peace will succeed within the closerts of the conscience, where there was nothing but horror before, and perturbation: Therefore Theophylact doth thus connect the first and second part of this Song, Gloria in excelsis Deo, quia in terra pacem secit, Glory be to God on high, because he hath made peace on earth. Lord let me not be at war with my own heart, though all the world should defy me and set themselves against me. As a continual dripping of humours upon the lungs consumes the body, so a continual disquieting of mind, as if viols of anger from heaven were ready to be poured upon it, breeds such an anxiety in the whole man, that he will wish his whole substance were dissolved into nothing. O thrice happy when God sends that serenity of favour into our thoughts and cogitations, to make us truly say with David, Turn again unto thy rest, O my soul, Psal. cxvi. 7. This is that peace which the world cannot give. This is St. Paul's confidence against all opposers, Who is he that condemneth, it is Christ that justifieth. When the Wise men asked, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. So sore troubled that he would not spare poor inoffensive babes, who could not offend him; no not his own babes as some say, who were the pillars of his family: when he thrust his sword into them he digged into his own bowels. No man is able to express what a uncomfortable mutiny this wretch had within himself. No plague like a wounded disturbed spirit, whereas old Simeon, that saw death at the door, that felt one foot in the Grave, was exhilerated for all that through the joy which he had in Christ, and warbled that Swanlike Dirge over his own Grave, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace. Wherefore if there be any of you which have a conscience sorely wounded with horror, and even tempted to despair (which God forbid) chide it with David out of that dreadful mood, Why art thou so sad O my soul? and why art thou so disquieted within me? Hath not Christ said there is peace between God and thee, and dost thou say there is enmity? foolish heart, shall I not rather believe the tidings which an Angel brings, than that which thou dost suggest? and doth not he say, Peace on earth? Whosoever will not be cheered up, will not be comforted, will not be established with hope from this sweet proclamation which the Ministers of Heaven sang unto the Shepherds, it had been better for him that he had never been born: nay, I speak it with reverence to God, and condemnation to such a one, it had been better for him that Christ had never been born, because he receives not the Son of God into his heart, neither believes in his Redemption. Many flagitious sins do make men as execrable before God as the devil himself, but he that despairs of God's mercies, as if Christ would not keep his Covenant of peace with him, I may truly pronounce it against him, that he is even possessed with a devil. O cast forth that evil Spirit, and be resolved, the Lord would never have sent his Angel to sing the Hymn of peace unto men, but to revive our souls, and to raise them up from dust and despair, because he is gracious and favourable to all penitent sinners.  
And thus you have heard that upon the occasion of this blessed Nativity of Christ's, the Angels have congratulated both heaven and earth, as David foretold it, Psal. xcvi. 11. Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad. The congratulation to men on earth hath been unfolded in two members, that there is peace above us which passeth all understanding; and peace within us, such as the world cannot give. Thirdly, It follows, they sing and rejoice for our sakes that there is peace without us, and on every side a good way laid open to take away all Schisms, strifes, divisions, debates, and as Solomon says in his mystical Song, the voice of the Turtle is heard in our land. What a hurly burly was in the world before Christ made his Church one body out of all Languages and Nations. They that professed the Law of Moses you know had no communication with those millions of millions that knew no Schoolmaster to teach them but the law of nature. Among those few that were zealous of the Law, the Jew forsook them of Israel of the ten Tribes for Rebels and Idolaters. Among the Jews the Pharisee condemned the Sadducce for an Heretic: Then the Samaritan had an antipathy both against Jew and Israelite; and all these accounted of the Gentiles no other ways than as bondslaves of the Devil. Here was nothing but hate and defiance between one Sect and another over all the world, until Christ broke down the wall of separation, made of two one, invited them all to embrace, and to greet one another with an holy kiss. Thus the Prophet Isaiah upon it, Chap. nineteen. 23. in his stately but dark eloquence, In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and in that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and Assyria; that is, there shall be traffic and friendship, and conversation together, from one Nation to another over all the earth. And indeed National feuds are the more odious and unchristian, by how much Christ hath called all people to the sprinkling of the same water, and to alike participation of his Body and Blood at the same table. And it was well apprehended of one, that God hath given unto men more excellent gifts in the skill of Navigation since his Son is born, than ever they had before; that he might show the way how all the Kingdoms of the earth should be sociable together: for Christ hath breathed his peace upon all the Kingdoms of the world.  
Then I descend from generals to specials. The Angels did not only see that our Saviour had built a wall of Charity, as it were about the whole earth, and made it one, but that his Gospel is the love knot and band of agreement between one member and another in all particular persons. It turns the hearts of the Fathers unto the Children, and of the Children unto the Fathers: it makes peace conjugal between man and wife; for Marriage is a Mystery of Christ and his Church: and the instance which the Apostle lays before us, is, how Christ loved his Church, and laid down his life for it. It atones variances between Neighbour and Neighbour; for it calls upon us to forgive and put up injuries: it non-suits many actions of trespass between man and man, with St. Paul's sweet proposition to the Corinthians, Why do ye not rather suffer wrong? That jangling fellow in the Gospel that came to Jesus to give him authority for his contention, Dic fratri ut mecum dividat, Master, bid my brother that he divide the inheritance with me; our Lord put him off, and would hear of no division: Such motions did jar in the ear of him that was the God of reconciliation. The Law of Moses either was or did seem to be vindicative, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, but the Gospel exhibiteth patience for wrongs received, and benediction for injuries. And indeed the charity of the Law was but partial, as I may say, it admonisheth fairly, Levit. nineteen. 18. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people; but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: But this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or forgetting of all evil done unto them extended only to Israelites, which was not the full and large duty, but an epitome of Charity. If aliens from their own stock had provoked them, though many years before, there's another lesson for it, Deut. xxv. 17. Remember what Amaleck did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt. Such fruit grows upon the bramble of the Law, not upon the Olive tree of the Gospel. God forbid that we should keep a Register what Moab, or Amaleck, or what any adversary hath done unto us; the peace which the Angels proclaimed forbids, that after the beginning of the new year we should remember the enmities or discords that were occasioned in the old: whosoever nourishes old grudges and contentions, when the heavens sing peace, gives the lie unto the Angels. Let your ear receive this with it, that all other practices of Religion, having not peace and perfect amity among them are but forms of godliness, which deny the power thereof. This is not far off to be proved, but within the verge of the Text; for it will not be regarded that you give glory to God on high, if there be not peace below; you must leave your gift upon the Altar, your glory to God, and go home for peace; go and be reconciled to your brother, and then you are a fit instrument to give God his honour.  
Some are always wrangling for the glory of God, as they pretend, and care not which way peace goes on earth. Every theological conclusion, I say not Articles of Faith, but disputable deductions not near the foundation of Faith, must be maintained precisely as they apprehend it, or they cry out that truth is violated further than can be endured: Every ceremonial observation must be either taken off, or discharged punctually as they score a line, or else they contend bitterly that God's Worship is abused. All this while two things are quite forgotten, First, that there is a compass and latitude for men's wits and judgements to be divers one from another, and yet no unity to be broken. All points touch not to the quick; and in such things because every man's reason hath not the same kind of reach and notion, there may be much variety of opinions without all dissension. Secondly, few lay it to their thoughts, that to meet in agreement as far as possibly the conservation of truth will permit, is far more acceptable to God than an inflexible pertinacy, which is rather rigorous than pacificous. There was much ado to settle the pure Doctrine of the Church in the first four hundred years, but nothing availed more than that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the Greek Fathers call it; a condescending one to another, making moderation the umpire of all strifes: By these calm degrees God was more glorified among the Gentiles that were unconverted, who perceived how the Christians kept the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace, than if they had wrangled about every nicety, and prosecuted every disagreement to an utter separation. Peace on earth is a ready means, that glory in the highest may not be scandalised.  
And after all this that hath been said, certainly the Angel's meaning extends itself thus much further, that the Child which was born in Bethlehem, the Messias of the world would direct them in a way, if men would be diligent to observe it, that there should be no bloody Wars of seditious Princes in all the earth, no Armies clattering together, no rolling in blood; it is his property to break the bow, and knap the Spears in sunder, and to burn the Chariots in the fire: and it makes much that this is votum militare, peace on earth comes from the mouth of Soldiers; the Angels were arrayed like an host in battle when they preached it; as if military men could best tell the world, what a blessed thing it is to have cessation from Wars, and sweet agreement. Our neighbour Kingdoms know the true relish of this Doctrine, who live in continual alarms, losses, destructions, desolations; alas their vintage is become not the blood of grapes, but of men. O 'tis a most savage, a very brutish affection in them that are sick of the long continuance of peace, and wish that Leagues and Truces were expired. They are of another mind, I warrant you, that have felt the unutterable miseries of War, for the space of fifteen years and more, in their flourishing Empire without pause or respiration. He that could certainly pronounce before them, that they should enjoy the liberty of their conscience, and no hostility should invade them, they would receive him with as much gladness as the Shepherd heard the Angel say, Glory he to God in the highest, and on earth peace. But the objection is ready to be cast in my way by every man, (I would it were not) that all the divine inspirations of God have ensued plentifully upon Christ's coming into the world, but nothing less than peace. Persecutions, Massacres, Contentions, irreconcilable Wars, these have entered in wheresoever the Gospel hath been taught, and Jesus denied it not, but said unto the twelve, Think not that I come to send peace into the world, I come not to send peace but a sword, Mat. x. 34. Beloved, opposition and war are not the right fruits of the Gospel, no more than Ivy is the fruit of the Oak tree, though it creep upon it: But pre-supposing the malice and corruption of men, the tidings of salvation, though they exhort unto peace, yet they will beget division; for Satan reigns in the wicked, and it makes him rage to hear celestial Doctrine preached; and that impiety which was asleep before is roused up with the noise of the Gospel, and grows tumultuous: this is consequentiae necessitas non consequentis, an accidental misfortune, not a proper effect.  
Yet very true that none is a greater adversary than our Saviour to some sorts of peace, Pax Christi bellum indicit mundo, voluptati, carni, demoni, says Beda upon my Text, The peace of Christ breaks the confederacy which sinners have in evil; it defies the Devil and the vain pomp of the world; it draws the sword against blasphemy and Idolatry; it will not let a man be at quiet within himself when he is full of vicious concupiscence. To make a Covenant with Hell, as the Prophet speaks, or to have any fellowship with the works of darkness, as St. Paul speaks, Illa mala pax est, & indigna hominibus bonae voluntatis, that's a pernicious peace, and unworthy of those to whom that blessing belongs, good will towards men. 
Rom. xii. 18.  But for brethren to dwell together in a good amity, and as much as in us lies to have peace with all men, it makes heaven upon earth. Malignities and disagreements are things whereof the Angels have no experience in heaven; but because the earth is full of mischief and debate, and there must be seditious truce-breakers at all times, that peacemakers may be more approved: Therefore the Angels do not only congratulate the Church, but they pray for it, that it may abound with peace; and they preach unto it that it may seek peace, and ensue it. We know not so well as the Angels do what an Hell it is to be an enmity with God; we perceive not so well as they what a black sin it is to be at strife and division among ourselves: Hear and attend what they wish for our sakes, and will not we wish the same benefit as heartily to ourselves? wish and labour for it; for they that will not do their part to effect that they pray for, they did but dream, and not pray. The Angels in these words gave our Church a pattern to repeat the collect for peace every day in our morning Devotion, O God which art the author of peace and lover of concord. And that which we pray for daily, compose we our charity to practise daily, especially while it is called to day, when we come to the Table of the Lord: The Angel's Song is persuasive, but the Body and Blood of Christ doth more effectually commend unto us this middle strain of my Text, Peace on earth.  
Now I come to the last part of the three: and as the close of a Song is best composed when it hath a soft and a gentle cadence; so it fails not here in the last note of all, and good will towards men. And good will, etc. so our old English Translation reads it with the conjunction copulative; and perhaps upon the authority of some Greek Copies: but for my own part I never saw, or heard of any that had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Yet Beza commends the Syrian Paraphrase for adding it to the clearing of the sense, and so do I. And this is gained by it, that the author of that Syrian gloss goes against the common reading of the Latin Church, that make but two portions of this Angelical Ditty, Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace to men of good will, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, make that noun the Genitive case, as they do, and the whole order is inverted. It is not to be denied unto them but that such a reading is in some ancient Fathers; but the most and the best concur with our Translation. Howsoever let the words have the right interpretation, and that shall make no disagreement.  
The Latin Expositors are divided in it; for some say it is peace of good will towards men: others say it is towards men of good will peace. So Beda, Non est pax impiis, sed hominibus bonae voluntatis, This peace on earth belongs not to all promiscuously, good and bad, elect and reprobate, but to such as are well affected to God's glory. And Leo inclines most that way, In terra pax conceditur quae facit homines bona voluntatis; such a peace is come down on earth, as makes men willing and ready to serve the Lord. Surely this is an enforced sense, and must rightly be understood of God's good will towards men, and not of man's good will towards God; for it is the praise of God, and not of man: it is but a colour therefore of some learned Romanists to say that as it is specified in the first section to whom glory is given, to God in the highest: so it is fitly specified in the second section, to whom peace is bequeathed, to men of good will. For the very word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or good will is mostly referred to God, and not to man: and surely it refers itself to God and his good pleasure, not to men, or to any good will of theirs. I know it, and ever preach that consolation to you, that where there is a diligent and a studious endeavour, God will accept of our good will, though the action be offensive, Vt si sit actionis infirmitas, at sit voluntatis integritas, and the Lord will speak peace unto their souls that are men of good will: but Christ came not to save us, because any of us all were men of good will, and took delight in him: nay, he came unto his own, and his own received him not, and when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, Rom. v. 10. They make far better use of the Latin reading that expound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, men of good will are men whom God hath respected from on high in his good will and pleasure, such as belong to his beneplacitum, to his election and purpose, before the beginning of the world, and are the children of it. So Tolet most ingeniously, on earth peace of good will towards men, Hoc est, ex Dei beneplacito, & gratuita voluntate, non ex eorum meritis, in the Jewish salutation peace was as much as health and salvation; and God grants peace and salvation of good will to men out of his free love, and the eternal counsel of his own will, and out of no merits of ours. Sponte & gratis nullis praecedentibus meritis voluit mundum salvare, says Nyssen upon it. Of his own accord, of his gratuitous goodness Christ came to save mankind, and for no preceding good works, or good will of ours.  
And then the most common reading of the Greek Church is coincident with that true Orthodox sense, and good will towards men; that is, and Gods free grace and kind acceptation towards them with whom he was offended. So St. Chrysost. conceives it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and reconciliation to men. So the Syrian Paraphrast, Et bonum nuntium or Evangelium hominibus, and good tidings towards men: a happy cheerful message to all that will believe in the name of the Lord Jesus; for Christ is our glorifier in heaven, our pacifier on earth, and our reconciler to God. Indeed as there is no difference in the Text between earth and men, so there is as little between peace and good will: peace were rather a captious advantage than a true peace, unless benevolence and good will did follow it. Let God the Father have his glory to himself alone, and to no other; then God the Son will be our peace, our peace that shall have no end, Isa. ix. 7. and God the Holy Ghost, who is the essential love of the Godhead, will seal a pledge and earnest of the Divine Love unto our hearts, and will breathe into us the Spirit of love and good will one to another. Amen.   

THE NINTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION.  LUKE xi. 27, 28. 
A certain woman of the company lift up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the Womb that bore thee, and the Paps which thou hast sucked: But he said, Yea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.  
THis is the Sons day, and not the Mothers: This is Christ's own day, and not mary's. Therefore it is not for the Wombs sake, but for the Fruit of the Womb; not for the Paps of a mortal woman, but for the Infant's sake, an immortal God, that I have chosen this Text. A good Israelitess she was that magnified Christ on this manner; though she was not spoken to, yet her heart was full, and she must speak, for her joy would have stifled her if she had not uttered it. If you mark the Context of the Chapter, immediately before these words our Saviour had taught his Disciples to pray most divinely he had cast out devils most triumphantly, he had answered the Calumniations of the Pharisees most rationally, he had put on glorious apparel, as the Psalmist says, and girded himself with strength: While these wonderful works were fresh in memory, the Lord from on high could have sent Legions of Angels to magnify his Son, and to praise him with celestial Canticles. But to strike the greater shame into the Pharisees that had blasphemed him, he stirs up a woman, a nameless one, a poor Plebeian; one not admitted near him, she stood afar off, and was fain to speak aloud to be heard, Blessed is the Womb that bore thee, and the Paps which thou hast sucked. It was a free acclamation, a sudden start, a passion that came from her spirit ex tempore, and that I may give Christ his full honour, and attribute no more to the woman than is truth, she prophesied in this saying of greater things than at that time she understood. The Holy Ghost gave her the privilege to be the tongue that delivered this Congratulation, but it remains to us to lend it an heart, that we may truly conceive it. For the inward sense of it is the gladsome contents of this day, blessed be the Father of all mercies for the Incarnation of his Son, that he was made of a woman for our sakes, and blessed are all mankind that he hath taken flesh of our flesh, and that he is made partaker of our humane nature. But because it would not prove our benefit that he was born for us, unless he be born in us likewise by faith and obedience, it follows to make our joy and crown complete, yea, rather blessed are they that hear, etc.  
The parts are as manifestly two as the two hands wherewith we handle. First, Blessedness offered to us in Christ's Incarnation. Secondly, Blessedness made complete in our own application. The woman begins the Text in the first part, Christ finished in the second. She said well for his Incarnation, Blessed is the Womb that bore thee; He makes it much better by stirrig us up to the use and fruit of it, yea, rather, etc. She blesseth Christ, and Christ blesseth us: she would have all felicity to rest in him; he would have a share of felicity to be derived to us. A pretty strife between a devout Creature and a merciful Creator, between an humble Servant and a bountiful Master; between a true faith, that heaps all honour upon God, and between a gracious God, that heaps the treasures of his riches upon a true faith.  
To begin with that which the woman said it must be considered two ways, in a Litteral sense, such as flesh and blood revealed to her: And in a Prophetical sense above her understanding, such as the Spirit of God hath revealed to us. Blessed is the Womb that bore thee: And so it was indeed, according to the Latitude of this woman's natural understanding: For first, she knew at large that it was a blessed thing to be an Instrument, or conveyance of any great good unto others. Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber be, blessed shall she be above women in the Tent, Judg. v. 24. She had done her part to work deliverance for Israel. And when Judith had sped in her adventure to cut off the head of Holofernes, says Oziah, Blessed art thou of the most high God above all the women upon earth, Judith xiii. 18. A good Messenger is called an happy, and the feet of those are pronounced beautiful that bring glad tidings of peace. It is a narrow and an abject conceit of some, that think themselves fortunate, and at the best, when they receive and take in all that can be heaped upon them. These men measure felicity backward, for beatius est dare quam accipere, it is more blessed to give than to receive. Though that Maxim be not extant in any of the Evangelists; 
Acts xx. 35.  St. Paul tells us upon his credit it was our Saviour's; The souls of them that are converted to true holiness shall bless the lips of the Priest, the poor shall bless the liberal, after Ages shall bless public Spirits, that do famous things, and are provident for Posterity. A Cistern that contains the waters poured into it is much inferior to a Fountain that sends them forth. It is nothing so laudable to be wrought upon, as to work that which is honourable. Even the Parents, that have enriched the world with such as are ornaments unto it, benediction reflects upon them for it, because they are Conduit pipes of public felicity. Yet all those that have made others happy by their gifts and qualities had been for ever unhappy themselves if the Child that was born this day had not sucked the breasts of a Virgin. O happy Parent! whose Womb contained all the treasure that maintains the whole earth. Somewhat she collineated at this meaning that said unto our Saviour, Blessed, etc.  
And each Parent partakes in this reason, that it is joy and honour to them to have a renowned Son; and it may be this woman was partial to her own Sex, that contented herself to speak of no more than the womb of the Mother. In strict Divinity indeed her words are admirable, for Christ had no Father according to the flesh, but that is more than I collect out of St. Luke, that she mentioned not his Father for that reason: But in all humane births, that prove successful and glorious, the loins of the Father are blessed, as well as the womb of the Mother, and the glory of children are their Fathers, Prov. xvii. 6. Yet in the next construction of mere natural capacity, it was proper to say for his sake blessed is the womb, because barrenness was a curse, and fruitfulness of children a blessing. They that propagate a faithful seed upon earth give the means to replenish heaven with Saints; it is that wherein we exceed Angels, to beget Sons and Daughters in our own likeness; and to continue a Generation like ourselves makes mankind by succession as incorruptible as the Angels. God blessed all living Creatures, mark that, God blessed them, and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, Gen. i. 28. Though the Lord said it in his wrath, that the mother's womb should bring forth children in sorrow, yet he never recalled his former Sentence of grace, but that fecundity should be a benediction. As a rich harvest is joyfully received when the Valleys stand thick with Corn, and a rich Autumn is most welcome when the trees bow down their arms to reach us fruit: So Children, and the fruit of the womb are a most desired Heritage that cometh of the Lord. Old Jacob, anon before he departed out of the world, poured out the strength of his prayers upon Joseph, and this benefit he did impropriate to him, Gen. xlix. 25. The God of thy fathers shall bless thee with the blessings of the breasts and of the womb. But it had been better for us that all women had been barren if the Saviour of mankind had not been enclosed in the womb of Mary. All fruitfulness is to be congratulated, but hers especially, Blessed is the womb, etc.  
Thirdly, I make no scruple to affirm it, that this was the very thought and fancy of the woman that uttered these words, that the Mother was most honoured, full of fame and glory, who had a Son that spoke so divinely, and wrought such heavenly Miracles. It is a great recompense which God gives to careful Parents upon earth, when their offspring live soberly and temperately to be their comfort and honour. Do you question it, but that Rebeckah was pleased above all contents which the earth could afford, when Jacob, whom she tendered as her heart's darling, was so just and diligent in the fear of the Lord? Do you suppose that Bathsheba knew not how many eyes of favour were upon her, how many tongues did congratulate her, when her Solomon was the wisest of all the Kings of the earth that sat upon a Throne? With what exultation did Olimpia speak often of her Son Alexander and his Monarchy? How did Cornelia, the Mother of the Gracchis, please herself, when certain strangers noted her for a plain Matron, that wore no rich or gaudy dress, as the fashion of the Roman Ladies was in those days; but when her hopeful Sons came home, she told her Guests those were her Cabinet of Jewels, Hi sunt mei torques, haec mea monilia. And this is the reward on earth of all Paternal care and anxiety, Spes surgentis juli, that solace which you take in the ingenuous obedience of children, as we call it, towardliness. And the neglect of their breeding (a mischief which is seldom recovered, if the Plant be marred in the first setting and tendance) I say that neglect is a manifest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a plain want of natural affection, which is a denying of the faith: But the fear of the Lord which is instilled into Children from their Infancy is not only the children's, but even the Parents happiness. The rare endowments that appeared in Christ made a certain woman here cast the praise of it upon the Mother, Blessed, etc.  
And thus far in the Litteral sense, as far as flesh and blood could reveal unto her: But if she could have seen into the Scriptures, as the holy Spirit hath enabled us to see into them, there are other grounds of more Evangelical observation. And first let it be noted, that the blessedness which is attributed to the womb that bore our Saviour redounds to all the members of his mystical body. Even as upon that saying of our Saviour to St. Peter, Blessed art thou, etc. Mat. xuj. St. Austin says, that the words should not have a full and illustrious sense unless they were referred to the whole Church: So this saying in my Text were maimed and imperfect unless we enlarged it thus to all Believers, blessed, and thrice blessed are all the Sons and Daughters of God through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, who was he that came down into this wretched world to make it almost equal with heaven itself. Let the Earth be glad, and let the Hills rejoice, let the Sea make a noise, and all that is therein. What a flower of Jessai did the earth bring forth instead of thorns and briers? What a Daystar did shine upon our Hemisphere, which was justly threatened with eternal darkness? What Prince of peace was this which visited us when we were at war and defiance with God and ourselves, and with all the Powers of Heaven? What purity was this which mixed with our uncleanness? What Omnipotent that descended to our weakness? What Immortal that would be dishonoured with our corruption and mortality? All treasures of Wisdom are hid in his age of nonage; all Strength in his infant infirmity; all Riches in his state of poverty; all Righteousness in him that was accused of iniquity; all Freedom from bondage in him that was wrapped up in swaddling clouts; all Felicity in him that was encompassed with weakness and misery: These are the fruits of his Nativity, these are the benefits of his birth and infancy. The Eternal Father did more for us when he made him flesh than when he made the heaven and the earth beside; without his Incarnation the Earth had been our Curse, all the Elements our Plague, the Heaven above our Envy, and the Hell beneath our portion for ever. But as soon as ever the Babe, who is blessed for ever, did open the womb, our fetters were broken in sunder, the kingdom of darkness spoilt, no Malediction remained in the Law any longer, no curse in death. Hoc est Christianae fidei fundamentum, 
Aug. Ser. 9 de Nat.  quia unus per quem ruina, alius homo Christus per quem structura. This is the foundation of Christian faith, this is the scope of all the Scripture, this is the ground work of all hearts ease and consolation, that one man was our ruin, and another man was our reparation.  
As the Apostle says, Heb. two. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? we deserve to mourn if we do not magnify God for this joy: we deserve to be miserable for ever, if we prefer not the blessing we received this day for the very crown of our happiness. Though you now see him not, yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory, 1 Pet. i 8. One man in a family having a fortunate advancement makes his whole blood and kindred fortunate with him; how much more shall Christ make all mankind happy being made one of us, accedens ad nos per id quod assumpsit ex nostro, 
Ibid.  & liberans nos per id quod mansit ex suo. He is come near unto us all by that nature which he assumed of ours; and he hath redeemed us all by that glorious Deity which was ever his own. Finally, there was a concurrency of all sorts of blessedness in this most mysterious Incarnation. The Mother pure from all carnal copulation and incorrupt in her Virginity, the place comfortable to the worst sinners, because he chose his habitation among beasts in a stable, and an ostery for the common resort of all passengers, because he came into the world for a public benefit. The time most seasonable and accommodate, the very fullness of time, as the Apostle says. Whereupon St. Ambrose, Christus tanquam maturitas advenit, ut nihil acerbum, nihil immaturum, nihil immite sit, he came when all the fruits of comfort were mellow, ripe, and delicious, that nothing might be sour, or harsh, or distasteful to us. Tardius enascitur cupressus seris umbram factura nepotibus, says Pliny, the Cypress tree is long a growing, yet when it is grown up to a tree, the shade of it serves for an harbour to the child unborn. So the long expectation of Christ's coming is requited with those blessings that grow up more and more, and spread wider and wider for all generations to come. The company that came from heaven to congratulate this day most glorious, and cheerful, a multitude of heavenly host; and what a mighty army hath he levied to take our part, in respect of those few scattered forces which are against us. The manner of his birth most edifying and instructive, in all abjectness and low estate, in all poverty and humility. A magnificent pompous Saviour would have been a scandalous example, as we may well mistrust it, to the high imaginations of our hearts, and might sooner have destroyed this proud world than redeemed it; we did not want a Champion in arms, but an Infant in swaddling clouts. We did not need a Prince guarded with his Peers, but one in the form of a servant, whose best companions that came about him were silly Shepherds. It was not for our turn to have one that would keep state and ruffle, Superbia non est magnitudo sed tumour, Pride is not greatness verily and in truth; nay, but a tumour that is blown up with appearance. It was for our profit to have one that did empty himself of his glory, and make himself of low degree, that man may blush away his own pride, when he sees the Son of God invested with humility. Finally, the fruit of this Nativity, O the fruit of it is passing delectable and unutterable! grace, illumination, vacancy from fear of condemnation, tranquillity of conscience, angelical protection here, angelical society hereafter: to know the rigour of the Law was the old lesson, to know the Covenant of Grace the new: to live and die were vulgar things, to rise from death and to live for ever came by him, who being our head was made mortal, that we might be immortal members of his body. So I have pointed only to severals as in a map, to the felicity of the Womb he chose, of the place that received him, of the time that exactly fitted him, of the company that congratulated him, of the humility that adorned him, of the precious fruit that grew from him, that the Sum might redound to make up this principal point of my Text: everlasting blessing is the free gift of God to this whole world, through the Incarnation, etc.  
The second Evangelical observation above that which the woman conceived that spoke these words is thus: Both the Womb and the Paps also of common Mothers are obnoxious to many miseries, and to such great ones sometimes that they prove mortal. The subtlety of the Serpent brought this curse upon the Womb of mothers, Gen. iii 16. I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and conception, in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children. That calamity is a common wound to that tender sex, not so apt to bear any sore affliction. But the birth of Christ was without the pangs and hard travail of the Mother. The malediction was not upon Mary, but Blessed was the womb that bore him, Ipsa genetrix fuit, & obstetrix, says St. Cyprian, Mary was both the Mother and the Midwife of the Child: Far be it from us to think that the weak hand of any woman could facilitate that work which was guided only by the miraculous hand of God, The Lord did do his own work; so great, so transcendent without all humane assistance. And mark another reason of St. Augustine's, if any should headily contradict it, Quod sine voluptate carnis concepit, sine dolore peperit; The Virgin conceived our Lord without the lusts of the flesh, and therefore she brought him forth without the dolour, without the curse of the flesh. And many other of the Fathers, for it was their common tradition, have these similitudes upon it; As a Bee draws honey from the flower without offending it; as Eve was taken out Adam's side without any grief to him; as a Sprig opens the bark of a tree to grow out of it; as the light sparkles from the light of a Star: such ease it was to Mary to bring forth her first born Son. Gravida sed non gravabatur, says Bernard, She had a burden in her Womb before she was delivered; yet she was not burdened: that lies upon this proof that she took a journey instantly before she was delivered from Nazareth to Bethlehem, above forty miles; and yet she suffered it without weariness or complaint. For such was the power of the Babe, that he did rather support the Mother's weakness, than was supported. And as he lightened his Mother's travail by 't he way, that it was not tedious to her tender age; so he took away all dolour and imbecility from her travail in Childbirth: This was a benediction upon her Womb, Blessed is the Womb, etc.  
Thirdly, In this the woman prophesied more than she understood; that whereas nature is like Hagar that bringeth forth children unto bondage; and all the offsprings which Mothers bring forth are in themselves accursed from the womb; for we are all born and conceived in sin, Prius reati quam nati; only this child, this Immanuel, this holy of holies was a righteous branch, that knew no sin, that had no part in iniquity; and therefore exempted from that malediction which lies upon our shoulders from the first hour wherein we are born. According to the strictness of the Law, by which no flesh is justified, that sentence is most righteous against us all, Deut. xxviii. 18. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body. Therefore Job sell out with his birthday, and so did Jeremy; for until the time that we are regenerate and born anew, 'tis most true, which they perhaps disgusted in discontent, Cursed be the day wherein I was born; let not the day wherein my mother bore me be blessed. St. Ambrose reduceth it very well to this moral application, let the day of my first birth perish, that I may be accounted to live from the day of my regeneration, Pereat dies secularis ut dies spiritualis oriatur, vanish those days of sin, that none but spiritual days may shine upon me. But all that bitter mourning came from hence, that nothing but wrath and rejection belongs unto us, as we are born in original depravation. This is true in all, one only excepted, who in the similitude of sinful flesh took our nature upon him without the filthiness of it. Blessed was the womb which brought him forth who was blessed from the Womb, who was born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but was the holy one of God, and conceived by the Holy Ghost. If ten righteous had been found in Sodom, it had not been destroyed for ten sake; but when one righteous one was not found among all the sons and daughters of men, when we have all gone out of the way, and there is none that doth good, no not one, Rom. iii 12. What will become of us, when there is not one to make atonement? not one for whose sake the rest may be mercifully entreated? Why, it rested only in him who is one by himself, above all, to be made poor, that we might be made rich; to be made sin for our sakes, that we might be found righteous in him who was born pure and unstained, yet made a curse for our sakes, that we that are born under the malignity of a curse might be made pure and undefiled to live in blessedness for evermore.  
Nay fourthly, before I end this point, she that said Blessed is the womb that bore thee, she came short in her conceit by far, how highly Mary was favoured of God, how highly exalted above all women, that the Infinite did not abhor to be enclosed in her Womb. Never was such honour cast upon any mortal creature, never the like glory incident to any Archangel: Nay, since this fact is past and gone, which is so marvellous in our eyes, none can be capable of such excellency hereafter. And therefore Beza breaks out, Quis non fateatur Mariam infinitis partibus omnium mulierum praestantiam superare? Who will not confess that Mary excels all women in glory by infinite degrees? Is not that home spoken? no just praise can be attributed to so excellent a vessel, that our Church will not say Amen unto it. An evil spirit is in them that charge us for being malignant to her eximious praise; because as we avoid contumacious neglect of her honour, so we do as much decline Superstition and Blasphemy. We never gainsaid that Hymn in their Missal, Beata viscera Mariae Virgins, quae portaverunt aeterni patris filium, Blessed be the Womb of Mary that bore the Son of an Eternal Father. We learned it of the Angel, Luke i 28. Blessed art thou among women. We learned it of her Cousin Elizabeth who was great at that time with the greatest Prophet that ever was, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Ver. 45. Elizabeth renowns her in the very same words that the Angel did, says St. Ambrose, Novit sermonem suum spiritus sanctus, neque unquam obliviscitur: Nay we will rather learn it of herself than of Angels, and Prophets, All generations shall call me blessed. She bare record of herself, and yet she is worthy to be believed; for she sought not her own praise, but magnified the power of God.  
I would some would stay at this, and not pour on such measure as runs over, and cannot be defended. What a vanity is it to tell us that the Angels sing Hymns of her praise in Heaven? for which of them hath ascended up to Heaven to bring us tidings of that? and what an impiety it is to abuse the people with so many thousand Miracles of her aid, assistance, and apparitions, as can be believed by none, but by idiots of most stupid credulity; and with what scandalous profaneness are they transported to call her the Queen of Heaven; to enstile her a Court of Chancery, to which we must sue to mitigate Christ's Justice, to cry out Impera filio tuo Deipara, command thy Son thou Mother of God: as St. Hierom said of Nepotian in his funeral Oration, Foelix qui haec non videt, foelix qui haec non audit, happy she that did not see that immoderate honours done unto her, happy she that did not hear those Blasphemies. When Blesilla a woman that had been most modest in her apparel was buried with great pomp, and a golden Mantle was cast upon the Coffin, says the same Father, Videbatur mihi clamare de coelo non agnosco vestes, amictus iste non est meus, she seemed to me to cry from Heaven, I renounce this pomp, that gorgeous garment which you cast upon my corpse, I will not own it for mine. So methinks the Holy Virgin speaks from heaven, I renounce these superlative super-mortal titles, the worship that you give me, the prayers that you make unto me are not mine. Go not further than this woman did, who did lift up her voice for our Saviour's sake, and said, Blessed, etc.  
I have done with the first general part of the Text, the acclamation, both as a certain woman apprehended the words in her natural understanding, and in that prophetical sense which was above her understanding. Now it will be most material to observe how the Master of all wisdom corrected and refined it, yea rather blessed, etc. First, upon the note of emendation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, yea rather, then upon the simple proposition, Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, yea rather blessed are they; which is spoken not negatively, but comparatively, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Theophylact, Christ doth not thrust out his Mother from the list of the blessed; take heed of such a thought: neither doth he reject it, but that it was to be counted in some part of happiness, that Mary bore such a Son. An accumulation of good in any kind is a felicity much more in this, 
Luke x. 23.  Blessed are the eyes which see that which you see, says our Saviour to his Disciples. ay, and he were to be reputed a stupid stock, that would not have reckoned himself most fortunate to have cast his eyes upon that glorious Babe in the Cratch, whom the poor Shepherds beheld this day with so much reverence; then ascend up in your imaginations, and compare things together justly: Was it not ten thousand times more noble and happy to be his Mother, than to be his beholder; to have fed him with her Breasts, than to have seen him as some did, to have attended him, as Joseph his reputed Father did, or to have held him in his arms as Simeon did, or to have touched the hem of his garment, as one that had a bloody issue did: yet there was somewhat which doth surpass all these: for they that pierced him saw him, Judas touched him and kissed him, the High Priests servants held him and bound him, his Mother Mary bore him, and nourished him with her paps; but that did not make her soul more holy, or more acceptable to God: she magnified God, she believed, she obeyed. From thence and from nothing else we are assured, that her soul reigneth in eternal glory.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, yea, rather; that note is not at all in the Syrian Paraphrast: so we can have no help from thence to understand it. Erasmus says it is a particle, Quae nec affirmat, nec negat; it neither assents to that which the woman uttered, nor yet contradicts it, but leaves it in medio, untouched and unanswered. The Jesuit Maldonat will make Calvin his adversary many times where he is not, and lays to his charge this impiety, that Christ should cross all that was said before. 'Tis not so that the Womb is blessed which bore me, no, blessed are they, etc. Calvin God wot, hath no such asseveration, but thus, Fere pro nihilo haec ducit Christus, & long est inferius, etc. But 'tis large in this form, it cannot be denied, says he, but that God exalted Mary to the highest honour, when he elected and destined her to be the Mother of his Son; but Christ reputes this as nothing, and much inferior to the other: to hear the word of God and keep it, is there any offence in this? not any. And what if it be Maldonats own opinion in other words: thus he, Vtrum que, & quod dictum est, & quod dicendum affirmat, sed dicto, dicendum proponit. Our Saviour affirms that the woman said true, Blessed is the womb, etc. And he affirms it was blessed to hear the word of God and keep it: but he prefers the spiritual blessedness of hearing the word of God and keeping it, before the natural blessedness to bear him in the womb. This is most true, and runs thus in St. Augustine's elegancy, Beatior Maria percipiendo fidem Christi, quam concipiendo carnem Christi. O sacred Virgin much more happy in entertaining the Faith of Christ, than in conceiving the Flesh of Christ. For the second Covenant, which is the anchor of Salvation, is, Crede & vive, believe and thou shalt be saved; not uterum gear & vive, bear the Son of God in thy Womb, and thou shalt be saved. Eusebius Emissenus speaks enough to have angered Maldonat, yet sound and good in true construction; She whom thou dost magnify was not therefore blessed, because she was my mother and bore me, Sed quia verbum audivit, audiendo credidit, credendo custodivit; but because she was glad to hear my word, and what she heard she believed willingly, and what she believed she practised diligently.  
Her own Cousin Elizabeth extended her salutation to this sense, Blessed is she that believed, for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord, Luke i 45. A quip for her own Husband Zachary by the way, who had a message brought him by an Angel, and gave no credit to it, and was strucken dumb for incredulity; but Mary had all applause and congratulation from heaven and earth, from Angels and men, because she heard the word and believed it. Nay, Christ himself hath confirmed this construction most sharply and emphatically, Mat. xii. 48. Who is my Mother? and who are my brethren? and he stretched forth his hand to his Disciples Behold my mother and my brethren, for whosoever shall do the will of my Father that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother. And if it would not profit Mary to have given the bread to such a Son without Faith and obedience, how can any other carnal respect and advantage do us good? fleshly consanguinities and prerogatives make additions in a coat of armoury; but we must stand before the tribunal of God disrayed of all such circumstances. A wise Heathen could taunt at them that boasted the smoky Images of their Ancestors, Vt quod in fructu non teneas mireris in trunco, says St. Hierom, as eloquent as any of the Heathens, Shall we commend the stock of a tree, when we cannot commend the fruit? Finally, St. Paul divorceth the Jews and all others from pretending a carnal propinquity with Christ: says he, We know no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth we know him so no more, 2 Cor. v. 16. The Mother whose paps he sucked must not glory that she fed him, but that he fed her, and gave her living waters of his Word and Spirit to drink. Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it.  
I must not, and if I would I have no time, set forth before you what a secundity of error there is in man's heart about the notion of blessedness. Our Saviour confines our straggling imaginations to this rule, that no good thing of a subordinate condition can style a man happy; 'tis a title to be given to that immense communication of good, when the soul shall enjoy the fullness of him that filleth all in all. But the means that impetrate a reward, and the reward itself are knit so individually together, that nothing is enjoyed in the one, but is affirmed of the other: And he that goes the right way to the eternal joys above, is canonised happy, as if he were in those joys already, Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. The Kingdom of God is not meats and drinks, but a pure and a righteous spirit. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. Basil very truly; a pure and a sanctified soul is the first ascent of happiness. And this is tried by two particulars; first, if we treasure up the precious things of God in our ear, then if we transmit them to a more inward and a safer place, and treasure them up in our heart. Whether your consciences be sometimes vexed with a Sermon, or whether your heart be pricked, or whether the Doctrine delivered be most opposite to your appetite in way of profit, or pleasure, or reputation; yet still remember it is a blessed thing to hear, and a great honour to dust and ashes that God will speak unto you: And he that is cloyed with hearing hath such a surfeited constitution, that he is cloyed with blessedness. Marry her sitting attentive to hear our Saviour, was unum necessarium, not a thing well done, but yet indifferent, and at her own choice whether she would do it or no: but it was, unum necessarium, a necessary part of obedience which concerned her salvation. The Lord from heaven began his law with the command of hearing, hear O Israel, Deut. iv. 1. And so the voice of the Father from heaven began the Gospel, This is my beloved Son, hear him. The fault of this age (to speak the truth) is not in this, that there want hearers; for excepting some few that think themselves wise enough already, and that they need not learn; and excepting some irreligious and profane ones that refuse true wisdom, and never think of their latter end; but the generality in all places will not stick to show their duty in hearing, but with divers they are men's gifts and persons which they admire and follow: if those men teach whom their ear tastes, or if it be such kind of teaching as they will only like in their prejudicated humours, then have with you, they will be present in the Congregation. Whereas our Saviour hath abstracted from all such humane qualifications and scandalous niceties, that the sound of his Ministers should go forth into all the world, and he that hath ears to hear, let him not be so scrupulous in his choice, but let him hear. Paul was pleased to have Christ preached either through contention, or sincerely; all manner of ways, says he, I rejoice, Phil. i. 18. They that came to mock the Apostles as men drunk, were caught by hearing them. They that came to take our Saviour, themselves were taken by hearing, John seven. 37. Many of the negligent rank, that come to gaze about, rather than to attend; many that come hither with affections worse than beasts, depart converted and repentant with a new heart, and a new spirit more like Angels than men. In brief, let the Heathen, that communicate not in the Gospel, enjoy all that this earth and the plenty thereof can afford; yet they, and none but they are blessed that hear the word of God.  
And if you will make a good man, ply him apace with this exhortation to hear, yet know now that is but the first rude draught of him till you finish him with that which follows; he must hear and keep that which he hears. Let him hear the sayings of Christ and do them, than he shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock, Mat. seven. 24. Custodia Sermonis Dei est ejus adimpletio, says Euthymius upon my Text, to keep the word is to do as we are taught, and to endeavour to fulfil the royal Law. This is the very concluding promise which God did send to Israel by his messenger Moses, If thou shalt hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, blessed shalt thou be in the City, and blessed in the field, Deut. xxviii. most divinely the Psalmist, Psal. cxi. 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, a good understanding have all they that do thereafter. So that the understanding of the law of God consists not in knowledge and speculation, but in practice and execution. We must be Servants as well as Disciples. The work of a Disciple is to hear and conceive aright, but the work of a Servant is to do and obey: and though dissimulation will intrude itself into every good thing, yet there may be, nay, there is ten thousand times more hypocrisy in hearing, than there can be in doing. Imperfect fruits are more pleasing to God than bare leaves. A sorry doer such a one as Ahab was, in his sullen and crude repentance, shall have more recompense from God than a barren unprofitable hearer, that thrusts in at all the Lectures and Exercises that City and Country affords. Live so, that all men may see you have often talked with God, and God hath spoken often to you from this holy place; else I must leave you among those that are censured by St. Paul, 2 Tim. three 7. Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. I told you before that Mary sat at our Saviour's feet to hear his Sermon, when Martha minded other domestical business; between those two, Mary's choice was much more transcendent, and unum necessarium, but not unicum, one necessary duty, but not the only; a part of Religion but not the whole: for in another place Mary's part of doing was far better than her part of hearing; I mean her anointing of Christ's head with a box of precious ointment, For this that she hath done shall be spoken of throughout the world, Mat. xxvi. 13.  
Let me make a summary application of all, and so conclude. This day we begin to solemnize the Incarnation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and continue it with a Festival dedication for twelve days following. There are three sorts of men that make most different uses of it; some that are Epicures, and never consider what great work the Lord wrought at this time, that we have an Advocate with the Father, who is the propitiation for our sins: but they consider that feasting and freedom are vulgar in these days, and they take their fill of that: but according to their riotous manners you cannot conceive that they keep the Birth of Christ holy, but that they celebrate a wakes for the making of some golden Calf, for they sit down to eat and to drink, and rise up to play. Secondly, There are others that honour God with their lips, that will say this is an happy season wherein a Redeemer came down among us; God hath raised up a mighty salvation for us all, because he hath sent his Son to take our nature upon him. And as Micah said, being a most idolatrous sinner, Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my Priest, Judg. xvii. 11. So these men flatter themselves in their impenitent lives, Now know I that the Lord will be merciful and spare me, since the word became flesh and dwelled among us. But I hope there are many of the third sort, that conceive unutterrable gladness for the Nativity of their Saviour; but they know withal that as Christ is the meritorious cause of all blessedness, so it is a most barren faith to rest only in the contemplation of that: for as all mankind are blessed that the womb did bear him, and that the paps did give him suck; so it must be accomplished by this obedience, Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. Do you love him for his Incarnation? then keep his sayings, If a man love me he will keep my sayings. Do you wonder that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son? then take heed of maligning and hating one another. He that says he loves God, and hateth his brother, is a liar, and there is no truth in him. Do you honour his humility, then command yourself to imitate him in lowliness of heart? would you do all due celebration to his sacred Birth, frequent his holy Temple, and hear his word and observe it. 'Tis much in every one's talk, who keeps a good house in Christmas. Beloved, you are now at this present in the best that is, Can any man keep a better house than God? would you wish a more delicious banquet then such Confessions, such Collects, such Litanies, such heavenly Prayers, as our Church hath appointed, in which there is nothing wanting but company to attend them; what delicacies are contained in the holy Scriptures both read and preached unto you? what edifying Doctrine in the Homilies which are read on the Saints days, together with the Divine Service? and above all, what Nectar? what Manna? what restoring Cordials are received in the Blessed Sacrament? This is the house which God keeps, who also allows you to be cheerful at home at this season, and commends it to you to feed the hungry; but especially show your thankful heart in frequenting his Church of Saints, that you may hear his word gladly, and obey it dutifully, and reign with him eternally. Amen.   

THE TENTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION.  LUKE two. 29, 30. 
Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word; For mine eyes have seen thy Salvation.  
OUr Text the last year for the solemnisation of this day was, Blessed is the Womb that bore thee, and the Paps which thou hast sucked. Our Text this year makes good the words of our Saviour, Blessed are the eyes which see that which ye see. For so the devout Simeon magnifies his own happiness that the Incarnation of Christ fell out in his days, and that his eyes had seen his salvation. To give him suck was more than to look upon him, to bear him in the Womb far more noble than to dandle him in the Arms, therefore this Text doth follow the other, as the lesser happiness comes behind the greater. Yet if you regard it as a testimony among those Witnesses that confessed Christ was come into the world, it is either equal to the first, or next unto the best. I bear more reverence to the Thrones that stand before the face of God than to compare him with the Angels, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. they are immortal, and cannot see death; Simeon had one foot in the grave, and begged to depart in peace. If they speak from heaven they command us to believe them, he was a frail man, obnoxious to passions, and though he spoke as the Spirit gave him utterance he could no more than persuade. Without all controversy therefore the testimony of Angels, so far as I have laid it forth, is much more excellent. Yet will you come now to other Collations, the Angel preached his hodie natus, this day a Saviour is born, to a few, and to the meanest of the Laity, to certain Shepherds. Simeon testified that the salvation of God was come unto Israel before the best of the Priests, in the audience of all those that were met together in the Temple, and so his saying would go much farther than the Angels when persons of such authority and estimation received them from his mouth. The Angels seemed to restrain the fruit of Christ's birth to the Jews only, vobis natus, this day is born unto you: The Prophetical Ejaculations of this old Patriarch impart him to all, to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of thy people Israel. With all others that witnessed of this day thus far I will contend, whether they were the Shepherds, or the Wise men of the East, they were blessed instruments of God's honour, yet the Scripture hath not given us their names, nor yet described them by any sanctified property; but Simeon is named, and his virtues are remembered, he was a just man, and a devout, and he looked for the consolation of Israel. The rest were like to live, and vigorous of body, some could endure to watch over their flocks all night, some could travel from far Countries in the depth of Winter, neither of them probably near their end, this man was full of days, ready to give up the Ghost, ready to give up his accounts to God, and to answer for every idle word, and at the last gasp, when it was no time to dissemble, he preached that the Babe whom he then embraced was Christ the Lord. He preached it; nay, he sang it likewise, in a more joyful strain than any Witness that had gone before him (except the Angels) his words in his own language (which we have not) were Metrical and Poetical, says Maldonat, the whole tradition of the Church is so universal for it, that Calvin, who useth to condescend to no terms but such as are found in Scripture, is content to call it the Song of Simeon. If you allege, that the Magnificat of the blessed Virgin was a triumphal holy Song, and likewise the Benedictus of Zachary, I will not gainsay it, so I rejoin, which is true, that they were sung in private houses, this is the first Hymn or Anthem in all the New Testament which was sung in the Public Temple. Finally, That I be not tedious in my Proem, this Song, whereof my Text is a Moiety; was uttered with such a divine gravity, that at this testimony, and at no other, it is said, that Joseph and his Mother marvailed at these things which were spoken of him, ver. 33 in this Chapter.  
But to make that which they wondered at easy to be understood, there are these two general parts of my Text, Occidens and Oriens, a Star setting, and the Sun rising, Simeon departing this world and Christ approaching. Therefore the first verse is Epicedium, a Dirge for a Funeral, Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word: The second verse is Genethliacon, a Congratulation of a Nativity, For mine eyes have seen thy Salvation. Simeon would be gone because Christ was come; marvellous strange indeed, for if ever this world were worth the living in, it was when He did live upon the earth, in the form of a man. To sift therefore the agreeableness of those two parts attend to these particulars: First, Here is a Supplicant the servant of the Lord, Lord now lettest thou thy servant. Secondly, The Petition of his soul, to depart. Thirdly, The time which he sets, Now, Lord now— Fourthly, he pleads that he was well prepared to depart, for his heart was in peace, Lord now— Fifthly, the assurance in which he trusted that God would grant him his desire, for it was according to his word. Sixthly, and principally, Here is the reason upon which he framed his desire why he would depart, he had seen that which his soul waited for before it flitted away, For mine eyes have seen thy Salvation. You shall now hear the income of these, if you will attend them.  
The Supplicant styles himself the Servant of the Lord, 
In Psal. cxv.  and he that can say so much for himself may speak with boldness, for the Lord will deal well with his servant according to his word, Psal. cxix. 35. Magna humilitas, sed magna simul dignitas, says St. Hierom; It is great humility to confess one's self a Servant, but it is no little dignity to profess one's self such a Servant, to be the Servant of God, and not the Servant of men by vile obsequiousness, nor the Servant of a man's own Passions by lust and sensuality, nor the Servant of sin by giving place unto the Devil, this is a freedom that excels all other liberty. To serve the Lord, Optabilius est quam regnare, nedum liberum esse, says Philo, it is to be preferred before a Kingdom, how much more before that, which the world calls freedom from servitude. And yet I deny not but the bondage of them that served God faithfully under the Law was very great, they were entrhalled to Ceremonies about Meats, about Apparel, touching Marriages, touching Observation of days, touching the very labour of the cattle in the field, and what not; It was a burden, as the Apostles testify, which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear; yet there was sweetness in all this, because it was done for the Lords sake, though the task had been stricter. David did well set forth the condition of the Law, unto what great bondage it did captivate a man, in these words, Behold, O Lord, how that I am thy servant, I am thy servant, 
Psal. cxvi. 14.  and the son of thine handmaid, a servant in extremity of thraldom, and therefore it was repeated a Servant born, for partus sequitur ventrem, he must needs be so that was the Son of an handmaid; he was born to be circumcised, and to be a debtor to the whole Law. Such were all they that boasted themselves to be the only freemen in the world, because they were the Sons of Abraham. Nay, Simeon was not only such a Servant, as I have hitherto described, bridled under the Pedagogy of Moses Law, but out of the relative terms of my Text I will show that he was in greater subjection and awe; for how doth he call the Lord here? Not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Lord that had power of life and death over his Vassal, you shall not find it used again in all the four Evangelists. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; says Favorinus; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Lord of a bondman, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a freeman, that is an hired servant. I have played the Critic enough; such servants, those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were anciently called so, not because they were paid for their labour which they did undergo in drudgery, but because they were taken by hostility, and their lives were forfeited to the Conqueror, who had power to slay them, yet spared them, and resigned them up into their hands that would lay down a ransom for them. So Simeon confesseth that God had the power of life and death over him; when he might have killed him, out of his clemency he spared him. Behold a Servant then (and such as he was such were all the Jews) a man under the yoke of the Law, and under the power of death. But behold as this day the Deliverer was born, and did quite change the copy of our service. Christ as God did put the Church under the servitude of the Law, but being made man he hath exempted us to the liberty of the Gospel; and though we shall all die, through that sentence which cannot be repealed, yet if we believe that he hath given himself a ransom for us, and live unto righteousness, we shall not die unto condemnation.  
But that you may know what kind of servants they are that retain to that family whereof God takes the care and administration, mind the character of Simeon, which the Holy Ghost gives him in the verses preceding my Text; for his Calling it is obscurely passed over thus, there was a man in Jerusalem. Galatinus says out of the Rabbins that one Simeon the just, was the Master of the great Doctor Gamaliel, and that may very well light upon this Simeon. Much hath been urged to prove him to be a Priest, but to no purpose. Salmeron and Tolet allege, that when a child came to be presented to the Lord, the Priest took the child out of the arms of his Mother, and did not restore him again till he was redeemed for five Shekles of Silver according to the Law, Num. xviii. but how will they prove that a Child might not light into the arms of some other incidentally, as well as into the arms of the Priest? Yea, but Simeon blessed Joseph and Mary, ver. 34. that is a Sacerdotal action. Nay, not always; old Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and every Prophet is an instrument of Benediction. At the last heave, says Tolet, it is an old tradition of the Church to paint him in a Priestly Vesture; an hard refuge, when they refer us for a proof to Pictures, and not to the Word of God. Whether the Priesthood or the Laity may challenge him for theirs I know not; one thing I know, that he was a just man, and waited for the consolation of Israel; a pious holy Father, a frequenter of the Temple, a man uncompounded with the world, but this was his righteousness, that he looked for the blessed offspring God and man, whom the Lord would send to redeem his Saints. You will say, perhaps, did not all the Jews expect the Messias? What did he more than other men? Why, herein he did exceed them, that they did not look for such benefits from the Messias as Simeon did, such spiritual refreshment for the soul and for the spirit. Then, the common sort of people looked for Christ afar off, he looked for him just at that time, near at hand. As Joseph of Arimathea is said to look for the Kingdom of God, that is, to see Christ incarnate even then, in the fullness of time, Luke xxiii. 51. Again, others waited for Christ, but carelessly without any earnest affection, 
De Verb. Apost. Serm. 3.  Simeon even languished with longing, and did passionately desire it. St. Austin says, that he did continually pray for the coming of Christ, and often repeated that of David, Psal. lxxxv. Show us thy mercy O Lord, and grant us thy salvation, and then God answered him, that he would fulfil his hearts desire. Nicephorus tells us a vagrant story, that Simeon was reading those words, Isa. seven. Behold a Virgin shall conceive a Son, 
Lib. 1. hist. c. 12.  and being solicitous what that place should mean, an Angel appeared, and told him he should not die till he had seen that Babe with his eyes of whom Isaiah Prophesied. This is certain, the Holy Ghost had given him some great assurance of it. The Spirit was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, ver. 25. not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not only in him, but upon him, which signifies extraordinary assistance, as when it is said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Isa. lxi. You see now with what endowments of heavenly graces Simeon was enriched, before he called himself the servant of the Lord. His modesty would give himself no better title, yet our Saviour speaks better things of those that believed, Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth, but I have called you friends, etc. Joh. xv. 15. It is not the meaning, that we shall ever out-grow the name of servant, for even at the day of judgement, in the time of our reward, it shall be said, Well done good and faithful servant. But here it is, we are all servants by debt and nature, the Gospel styles us friends by Covenant and Composition. Before Christ was revealed God dealt with them of the Synagogue as with servants, he did not reveal the mysteries of the Trinity, of the Incarnation, of the coming of the Holy Ghost; if he did reveal them to the Prophets, it was ex privilegio, not ratione status, it was by special privilege, not by common publication; that which was a secret among some few is now vulgar to all. God hath disclosed his hidden treasures to us as unto friends. He was their Lord, so he is ours, but he is also our Father. They were his servants, and so are we; but the interest we have in Christ, that hath taken our nature upon him; hath made us more than servants, and exalted us to be his friends.  
Hitherto I have held your attentions to the Supplicant, now the Petition of his soul comes in order, that he may depart. The Servant had a burden that oppressed him, a frail and a corruptible body, and he desires the Lord to ease him of it, and to take it from him. For so St. Ambrose and the Syrian Paraphrast read the word optatively Dimitte, O take me away from hence, and let me depart. And they that say it is dimittis for dimittes, the Present Tense for the Future, bring it up to the same sense, Lord thou wilt now let thy servant depart (so Origen and St. Cyprian read it) for the Hebrews use to make their Petitions in the future time, as thou shalt hear my prayer in an acceptable time, which is a fit form of words to ask in faith, and not to waver, as St. James says; but the word here is Metaphorical in the original, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as you would say in the native term, Lord now lettest thou thy servant be unloosed, 
De bono mortis, lib. 2.  as horses are taken from the Plough, and set up to rest, when they have drawn till Evening and are weary; or to signify, says St. Ambrose, that necessity compelled him to stay here, Ideo dimitti poscit, quasi à vinculis quibusdam, ad libertatem festinaret, therefore he desires to be let loose, as if he had been entrhalled like some Captive, and now would shake off his bonds and attain his liberty. This earth is not our Country, therefore though we have an inbred desire to have the union of the body and soul maintained, yet our willingness inclines to be unclothed of the body, rather than not go from hence, when we are full of days. Quis peregre constitutus non prepararet in patriam regredi? says St. Cyprian, that man were unnatural that affected to be a stranger, and had rather travel always than settle himself at home in peace; revolve in your memory the words of just men in holy Scripture, and you shall find that this is common to them all, to mourn and sigh because their pilgrimage was prolonged, Woe is me that I am constrained to live with Mesech, says David. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Says St. Paul. It is enough Lord, take away my life, I am not better than my Fathers, says Elias. While the body was a Palace, the soul was content to stay in it, now it is become a filthy prison no wonder if it desires to be gone.  
Let not Simeons Nunc dimittis, nor this Doctrine be mistaken, every man's willingness to leave this world, and to die is not commended from hence, but when it is joined with patience, and good internal motives, especially when we find an aptness and good preparation in ourselves, that when we go from hence we shall be joined to the Lord. There is no worse sign in some that God is departed from them than when they are sullen and froward with their life, and care not which way they break violently out of the world so they may depart. Seneca could say, Mori velle non tantum fortis; & patience, set etiam fastidiosus potest; that is, not only stout men are resolved to die, and such as are fortified against fear, but the discontented that cannot bear his cross, had rather lose himself than his peevishness; good and bad upon several reasons are contented both to die and to live, 
Tract. 9 in Ep. Johan.  Sunt homines qui cum patientiâ moriuntur, sunt autem quidam perfecti qui cum patientiâ vivunt, says St. Austin. There are some holy men that exercise their patience to be content to die, there are some perfect men that exercise their patience to be content to live; therefore the motives that induced Simeon to this must be sifted to make him an inoffensive, nay a profitable example. Salmeron the Jesuit follows a most capricious invention, that this reverend Sire, importuned God to put a period to his days as soon as Christ was born, that he might be the first Nuncio to the Fathers that were in limbo, and certify them that the Messias was come into the world, who would exalt them from that lowly condition in which they were held, and conduct their souls into the Kingdom of heaven. This is so extravagant, that I give it you to note the man, and the far-fetched way of their expositions. The true reason is, that this cygnea cantio, this farewell Song of his hath taught us, that there is no terror in going to the Grave; no sting in death, since God appeared before us, and became man, to deliver our souls from the nethermost hell, and to make our bodies like to his own most glorious body. They that know not what their condition may be in the next world must needs think of death with an heavy heart, and sigh and wring their hands when they feel it approaching. He that could see Christ no otherwise than through the dark mists of the Law, did count it somewhat an irksome thing to go out of the land of the living; it was a good King of Judah that chattered like a Swallow when Isaiah told him he should live no longer. But it is incredible to humane reason how it encourageth a faithful man to meet his death with cheerfulness, because, though not in our own bodies, yet in the Apostles and others we have seen, we have heard, and our hands have handled the word of life, and that we know there is plenteous redemption for us in Christ our Saviour. Simeon knew the instant of his dissolution was at hand, and yet he sang away the remainder of his life with joy; as who should say, Egredere ô anima; fly away my soul, fly away like a dove and take thy rest, for now I see that the promises of grace and mercy are true; here is Christ thy Saviour in thy hands, thine eyes do see, thine arms do support thy Salvation; though thou departest thou shalt not go from him, for he is man on earth to comfort thee, and God in heaven to glorify thee. This is it which did animate Simeon to say, Lord let me depart, and therefore as the patriarchs in the time of the Law desired length of days upon earth that they might live to see the Messias, so let us desire a joyful departure to be with him for evermore.  
I proceed, the time which he sets for the accomplishment of his Petition is presently, or at that instant, Now, Lord now let, etc. Nunc, ante hâc non item. As who should say, if I had been summoned to leave my station before this day came, my soul had been in bitterness, and I had been gathered to my Fathers in sorrow, but now my Pilgrimage hath been prolonged till I am full of happiness, now I am fledged with all my feathers to fly away, for what will satisfy him upon earth whom the sight of a Saviour will not satisfy? This Nunc, this welcome instant it is circumstanced with two things especially to be observed, the old age of Simeon, and the miseries of those times wherein he lived; The context of the Scripture hath not expressly described him by old age, yet that's collected out of the words, that he should not see death till he had seen the Lords Christ, meaning sure that he was far stricken in years, and yet not mellow enough to drop off from the tree till the Nativity of Jesus was fulfilled, and he a witness of it; neither would it sound well out of the mouth of any that were not rich in silver hairs, Let me now depart in peace: Observe therefore that he had waited long before the time came that Christ appeared, he might say with David, Expectando expectavi, He looked many a long look before he beheld his Saviour. And this is the nature of God's Promises, they are seldom accomplished till his faith hath been throughly tried to whom they are made, and that he doth even languish with expectation. Some will say perhaps, O I have waited long, this will never fall out as God hath promised. Nay, the more like to be because you have waited; every long put off will have his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and you shall say at last, though I was a murmurer and repined, yet now I see that the Lord is faithful, and will not deceive his servants; the glass of Simeons' life was almost run out to the last sand before the Virgin brought forth her Son, but days were added to his days, that the words of the Psalmist might be verified in him, With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.  
Secondly, Simeon reserved himself for joyful days to see the glory and the salvation of Israel, but even to this now, whereof he spoke in my Text, he had seen as much misery and infelicity as ever had befallen any poor Kingdom in the world. But though he saw all things most contrary to the Promises of God, still he trusted to see the day star shine, and those clouds to be blown over, and having a steadfast hope even against hope, the most high came down from above and comforted his people. Who would not have been weary before this time of the former days? Their Kingdom was given to strangers; and the Romans that hated them were Lords over them; their Sceptre was departed to Herod an Idumean: their Tributes were so grievous, that the poor Virgin Mother, being ready to lie down, was compelled to take a journey to be taxed; their Religion was so profaned, that the Pharisees made the Commandments of God in vain through their Traditions; the High Priesthood, which had been so admirable in the sight of God and man, was conferred by favour and corruption upon the basest of the people; The Temple was defiled with Images contrary to the Law, and such as resisted it, their blood was shed like water on every side of Jerusalem. Notwithstanding these dismal days this reverend Sire was contented to live in all this affliction, he did patiently bear the calamities of the Church and Kingdom, and stayed the good time when Christ should come to help all. This was the season, he knew it according to the Prophets; and seeing so prosperous a sign arise, which assured that the happiness which had befallen his Nation did far exceed their precedent miseries, he was willing now to bring his weatherbeaten Vessel into the Haven. I know what the conceit of the most will be upon it, that when troubles were passed, and consolation newly manifesting itself in his Horizon, it were more proper to say, Vah vivere etiam nunc lubet, O let me live, 
Terent. in Adelph.  and add many years unto me, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation; but was this a time to bid the world farewel, and to say, now let me depart? Indeed this were a strong objection if he had been obnoxious to self-love: But allowing that which must be granted, that a good man judgeth himself most fortunate in the public happiness of others, no wonder if Simeons' desires were crowned with all that his heart could wish, and was content to make a full stop there, when he saw that all Jerusalem, and all his kindred and posterity were in the ready way to be filled with the salvation of the Lord. I have no approved Author whom I dare cite unto you, how long this aged Israelite did live after our Saviour was born and presented in the Temple. Nicephorus says he went immediately from that place to his own home, and took his rest for ever: but this I gather from it, a devout man is or should be always at these terms with God, Nunc dimittis, I am not fastened to this world with the love of it, I have set my house in order, I have thrown away the superfluity of my sins, I am ready to give up my Stewardship when my Master will take my accounts; I have bid adieu to all impediments, Lord receive me when it is thy will and pleasure. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Pythagoras' his Symbol, to have our farthels ready trust up to be gone. Again, reason good he should ask of God to close his eyes, for they could never do him such good service any more, as they did at that instant, when they saw that mighty God in the visible form of a little Infant. The superstition and the barbarisms of the Turks being so well known, I do assent to some stories reported of them, which may seem incredible to civil Nations. I instance in this particular, that when some of their Zealots have made a Pilgrimage to Mecha to do their Adorations to the Tomb of Mahomet, they presently draw hot burning steel before their eyes to put them out, that they may never see any other spectacle, after they have been honoured to see that Monument of their Prophet: Far better a gread deal, and without superstition might Simeon say, mine eyes have seen thy salvation, O Jehovah, now draw their curtains before them, that they may never hereafter see the iniquities of men. To touch the point yet more to the quick, there were some things to come to pass, which Simeon foresaw in his Prophetical spirit, and he chose rather to die than to be present at them. God himself, I may say it with humility, could do no greater favour to the world, than to send us his Son, and to give him a body. The world on the contrary, I speak it with horror, could offer no greater despite to God, than to reproach his Son, and to crucify him. Therefore this Saint begs, that since he had seen Jesus in the bosom of his Mother, and in his own arms, he might not live to see him hanging between two Thiefs; as if he had said, O let me not survive to see the infidelity of mine own Nation: O let me not live to see him crowned with thorns. Lastly, A man's native Country can never deserve so ill, but he will wish it subsistence, that it may not utterly be ruined: and albeit the sins of Jerusalem would call for vengeance and desolation upon it, this loving Patriot desired to be called out of the way, that he might not see her made an heap of stones. As the Historian says that Anastasius a good Bishop of Rome gave up his breath with a broken heart immediately before the Goths had sacked that imperial City, Ne orbis caput sub tali Episcopo truncaretur. So Simeon saw that the sins of the Jews were not yet come to the worst, but that their hardness of heart, rejecting Christ, would draw more grievous judgements upon them; therefore he desired, while matters were not yet come to their extremity, now he might depart in peace.  
I know 'tis trivial with every rash spirit that is discontented with his fortune to say, emori cupio, like Clitipho in the Scene, I would I were out of the world; but it is a good corrective speech of the old man's, Prius quaeso disce quid sit vivere, 
Terent. in Heauton.  learn first to live as you ought; and so had Simeon done, for in the fourth part of my Text he pleads that he was prepared to die in peace, Lord now, etc. It cannot be conceived of him, since we must allow the best men some grains of infirmity, but that his heart had been oppressed with many recurrent thoughts, between that long space that God did first make the promise unto him, unto the actual birth of Christ: never did any Father expect the return of his only Son after twice seven years' travail from month to month, from day to day, as he did watch the advent of the Lord continually, when he should be presented in the Temple: and surely it is likely that Hanna and divers more had heard from Simeons' mouth what the Lord had revealed unto him, and that his credit suffered a little with good people, as if he had deluded them: for the riff raff, if such a thing were come to their ear, no marvel if they taunted him that he was a lying Prophet, and that he was possessed with a spirit of wicked divination: These assaults from without, and the revolving of his heart from within did make his conscience boil like a troubled Sea, because that gracious Oracle which he had received was not yet to come to pass, nor like to be fulfilled in the short remainder of his days, since his candle was burnt to the socket; wherefore at the first glimpse that he viewed the holy one of God in swaddling clouts, this ejaculation starts from him, as if his joy had burst the vessel, like new liquors that swelled within it; as who should say, I began to be troubled, I began to distrust, I was afraid that thy promises would fail; and by so much the more I was afraid of death: now come what will come, I am secure and confirmed, my heart is quiet, my Faith is built upon a rock, Lord, now, etc. just as old Jacob was ready to die for gladness, when he saw that Joseph was alive; says he, now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive, Gen. xlvi. 30.  
And the content which this holy Prophet took in embracing the Messias, who had been so long waited for, could not be better expressed than thus, that his soul was ready to take leave of the world in peace: for as bread imports all manner of sustenance in the phrase of the Hebrews, so peace in their signification imports all manner of good that is desirable, health, plenty, honour, safety, tranquillity of conscience, comfort in the Holy Ghost, all sorts of prosperity, heavenly and earthly are no more but peace in their acception: therefore the interpretations what Simeon would have are many, and all agreeable to pious analogy. First, Euthymius expounds it of the peace of his thoughts, that he did fluctuate before, and hang in suspense what God would do; but when Christ was born he was resolved against all the slights and cavillations of Satan, that the Lord was just in all his sayings, and holy in all his works. There may be security in a bad man, I will not deny him that carnal privilege, who refresheth himself with the comforts of this life, but there can be no stability in him, no setledness against distraction and fluctuation, unless by much meditation he do set Christ before his eyes, as if he were born in him, and endeavour to Incarnate the promises of the word in his soul by Faith, as the blessed Virgin gave flesh to the eternal word by bearing him in her womb. Secondly, Others interpret this peace, de pace intrepiditatis, he did not fear to be dissolved, though his decayed body lay even under the stroke of death, 
Psal. iv. 9  he saw nothing why he should flinch, but that he might say with David, I will lay me down in peace, and take my rest. Before a Saviour was granted to mankind death was death, and Hell to boot; now it is but a sleep without all disturbance, a repose without all annoyance, a releasement out of bonds, a transmigration to felicity: He therefore that will not die in peace knowing that Christ stands at the right hand of God to make intercession for him, and to purchase in his behalf instead of a transitory estate a far abundant exceeding weight of glory, the fault is his own, Vitam in manibus fero, mori non timeo. A strange darkness is before the eyes of unbelieving impenitent men at their last gasp, their conscience knows not how to answer that objection which it makes to itself, Quae nunc abibis in loca? My soul whither art thou going? in what woe or sorrow shalt thou be entertained hereafter? Thus Cain was dejected, Every one that findeth me will slay me, Gen. iv. 14. Thus Nabals dastardly spirit fainted, and nothing brought him to death but the fear of death. His sordid, churlish, inhospitable life here, and the rest of his undeservings represented nothing but horrors to entertain him in the life to come. Sed quis est iste qui de hoc seculo recedit in pace, nisi is qui intelligit Deus erat in Christo mundum reconcilians sibi, says St. Austin: But who is the man that gathers up his feet into his bed sweet and placidly, as old Jacob did, and dies in peace? but he that felt the consolation within him that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. Thirdly, The sense holds very well to interpret it the pace gaudii, he should be gathered to the dead in great joy, because the troubles and thraldoms of his Nation should no more disquiet him. For who could doubt of the deliverance of Israel when he was born, that was the Redeemer of all deliverers? This is that emplaster of which Isaiah Prophesied that it should lenify all their sores, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith our God, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, Isa. xl. 1. And again, the Lord shall comfort Zion, he will comfort all her waste places, he will make her Wilderness like Eden, and her Desert like the Garden of the Lord, joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody, Isa. li. 3. what a quicksighted faith had Simeon that he could see so far into Christ, upon what part of him did he cast his eye, that he could find such a Champion in a little Infant wrapped in swaddling clothes? O what an heavenly light there shines before faith, that the old man could espy in this little Bethlehemite, that he should turn their captivity like the rivers in the South? there was nothing to behold externally in Christ, but contempt, and weakness, and poverty in those days: who will distrust his protection now, when there is nothing to be viewed about him but Power, and Fortitude, and Majesty? O that men should be afraid to perish even in the presence, nay even in the hand of such a Saviour! He that is yet to seek for the peace of joy, though death were at the door, let him consume in his own infidelity. Fourthly, He had purchased peace before his departure, because he had as much as could be asked; his heart was satiated with good things: a very greedy avarice had been in him, if he could have asked any more. And so Theophylact glosseth very judiciously upon my Text, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he that hath gained the sum and substance of all his hopes and petitions, he may justly say that he can bid adieu to this world in peace. So God promised to Abraham, Gen. xv. 15. thou shalt be buried in a good old age, and thou shalt go to thy Fathers in peace, that is, thy desire shall be filled brim full, and measure running over; nothing that thou canst ask in Faith but I will give it thee. So Simeon possessed the compliment of all felicity, he had so much that he could desire no more: for he that hath given us his Son, will he not with him likewise give us all things? And take this to your use from hence, that a wishing heart which is ever thirsting for more, struggling for some addition, and yet some more to that, cannot be said to be in peace, no more than an Hydropical man that thirsts for drink continually can be said to be in health. Crescit indulgens sibi dirus hydrops, the satiating of one concupiscence begets another, and that's like a mill-horse in a circle, that you can never say he is at his journey's end. Therefore if you mean to be at ease, and not to be wracked with care, let to morrow care for itself. Fifthly, And so to give this point its last allowance; Origen and Irenaeus interpret my Text of that peace which Christ came to make between God and man. St. Paul says that when we were darkened in our understanding, walking in the lust of our own mind we were enemies with God: and alas we are sure to come by the worst of that enmity; for who is able to sustain his displeasure: and it was no petty enmity, but God did abhor us, and provide all manner of scourges to plague us both in this world, and in that which is to come. No creatures which are noted for antipathies do shun one another at more distance than God doth abhor an impure soul; and they are not sacrifices of Beasts that could make an atonement for us: they were not Angels that could deprecate the Divine wrath, and reconcile us, they were glad to bring the tidings that an Eternal Son of an Eternal Father had done that good office for us, Glory be to God on high, and in earth peace; it could never be well sung but at this Incarnation, and therefore it could never be well said but at his Incarnation, Lord now lettest thou thy servant, etc.  
You have heard of the supplicant, and of his petition, and the time which he sets, and his good preparation of peace, to go from hence and to be with the Lord. After this it is seasonable to speak of the assurance in which he trusted, that God would grant him his desire; for he asked nothing extravagantly, and without warrant, but it was secundum verbum tuum, according to thy word: and that word upon which he might steadfastly build, is, ver. 26. it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, till he had seen the Lord's Christ revealed unto him. But perhaps you will say, why might it not be his own imagination that deluded him, and no revelation from God? We indeed that walk in the ordinary course of Grace, may be cozened, like Enthusiasts, and think that our own doting fancies are inspirations from Heaven. But Prophets that had extraordinary illuminations were able to distinguish between brainsick notions, and the word of God when it spoke within them. And Simeon, you will mark it when I tell it you, had a double, and a double portion of the Spirit. In the last days, says Joel, Your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. These are different graces for several persons, only in this Prophet, they concurred both. He had the old man's dream to reveal unto him that he should not die till Christ was manifested: and he had the young man's vision to accomplish his happiness, His eyes did see his salvation. No doubt than he had sufficient means to prove in himself that it was the word of God, that is, the word of the Holy Ghost, from whom he received that Oracle: and hence St. Athanasius doth learnedly prove the divinity of the Holy Ghost. And the plenty of this point will contribute this especially unto us, that it is presumption to expect any thing to be granted us, without warrant and promise received from the word of God. That's the Organ or Tongue by which the Holy Ghost speaks with us; and he that puts himself upon any hazardous action, without encouragement from it to bring him off with safety, he makes a snare to bring himself to destruction. Satan durst not be so impudent to tempt our Saviour, to fall down from a pinnacle of the Temple, without pretence of authority from the Psalm, that He shall give his Angels charge over thee; and therefore we justly exclaim against Monastical Vows of perpetual Chastity; and we see how frequently they apostate from their Vow, and wallow in all lust and uncleanness; because it is no where written, if any one will take this yoke upon him, I will assist him, and make it light. It is a miserable thing to have no other staff to lean upon then the word of men, though they call themselves the Church; for the children of men are deceitful upon the weights, they are altogether lighter than vanity itself. To draw this Doctrine straight and even upon the Text, 1. Many will allege Simeons' example, and say they could willingly die if they might see this or that come to pass. Pray observe that such as these seldom or never see their desire come to pass, because they fabricate vain hopes to themselves without the word of the Lord. 2. When that which they longed for doth come to pass, they are content to redeem it with any Physic or cost that they may not die for all their bragging; like the woman in the Fable that was miserably poor, and gathering sticks for her fire, and herbs for her sustenance; being vexed with extreme want, she bursts out into this frowardness, O that death would come to me. Says the Fable, death did come to her to know what she would have, Help me up with my bundle of sticks, says she, I have nothing else to say to you. But this is the sum of this point, all our petitions are but avaricious craving, or unchristian presumption, unless we say, Lord let it be according to thy word.  
And now I shall end my Sermon in that point, wherein Simeon desired to end his life; it is the reason upon which he stood why he would depart, because he had seen that which his soul waited for before it flitted away, For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which is to this effect, the Redeemer is come, let my fetters therefore be broken off; my joy is excessive and superlative, this frail flesh cannot contain it: The new Wine is poured in, O let the old bottles break. Thou hast granted me more than ever thou didst grant to any Prophet upon earth; therefore exalt me to thy Saints in heaven. For all the Prophets could get no more than this answer, that a Virgin should conceive, Immanuel, that is God with us, should be born, and their posterity should not fail to behold him in after ages; but says St. Paul, all these died in Faith, not having received the promises themselves, but having seen them afar off, Heb. xi. 13. Now this Patriarch did far exceed all the Prophets, that he saw the Messias with his own eyes, and none other. And mark the Pleonasmus, not contented to have said, I have seen thy salvation: He doth denote the assurance of the act that he was not deceived, hisce oculis vidi, I have seen him with mine eyes: it is the very Jesus that shall save the world, I cannot be deluded, as Ulysses speaks to Circe in Homer that she should re-transform his associates, 
Lib. 1. c. 12.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, distinguishing true sight from fantastical. Nicephorus, a most corrupt Historian, hath a tale by himself, that Simeon was so far stricken in years that he had been long blind, and as soon as ever this heavenly babe was brought near unto him he recovered his sight; and therefore he magnifies God that his eyes were restored to see the object of all objects, the blessed Child Incarnate: and is it likely that St. Luke would have concealed such a miracle; if it had been true? and would God have let us receive it from so corrupt an hand as Nicephorus? The Scripture says, ver. 27. of this Chapter, He came by the Spirit into the Temple; not that he was led like a blind man. There are some conjectures that rove at random likewise, by what means he should discern such Divine glory in our Saviour. Admit there were other Infants presented in the Temple at the same time, how did he perceive that this was the Son of the most high, rather than any of the rest? I find one Author shoot his bolt, that a celestial splendour came down from Heaven, and shone round about the Child. I find another Author more superstitious than this, that the Blessed Virgin was compassed about with a cloud of glorious light in the place where she stood; and so that honour should terminate itself upon her, and not upon Christ. This is to trifle in a most serious matter, for certainly the suggestion of the Holy Ghost within him was enough to direct him, without any external cognizance: and therefore Nyssen says well, Blessed were the eyes both of his soul and body: his bodily eyes did see the happiest sight in heaven and earth, but the eyes of his soul did respect that which is invisible.  
His bodily eyes did see God made of a woman, an object more beautiful and estimable then even Paradise itself, when Adam saw it at the best. Nay more beautiful than the whole Revelation which S. John saw in heaven, excepting Christ himself, whom he saw upon his throne. Abraham would have given his portion in the promised land to have seen him, David his Kingdom, Solomon his revenues of Ophir; and therefore no wonder if Simeon triumph in it, that the eyes of his body had seen him. But what the eyes of his soul did pierce into, is magnum auctarium, an huge addition. They did see his salvation, and salvation cannot be comprehended but by a lively and an effectual Faith. They did see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, cornu salutis, as old Zachary calls it, in whom God had reposed all the stock and treasure of salvation. But why thy salvation? and not rather ours? had it not been more proper to say, mine eyes have seen mine, or our salvation? There is no difference in effect, one saying is as proper as the other, salutare tuum, for he is the Son of God, the gift of God to us, the holy One conceived by the Holy Ghost, and in those notions Gods salvation, as David says, the Lord hath made known his salvation, Psal. xcviii. 2. Again, salutare nostrum, for he came to redeem us, and to give himself a ransom for us, and so he is our salvation. As if Simeon had said, this is he after whom jacob's heart panted, Gen. xlix. 18. I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord. This is he of whom Isaiah foretold, All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God, chap. lii. 10. He comes with much impotency and weakness, to be presented in the Temple, and to be redeemed after the custom of the Law, with five shekels of silver, but he will redeem us both from the bondage of the Law, and from the bondage of sin, with the five wounds of his body. If such salvation as this were only to be glanced upon perfunctorily, this sage Israelite would have been contented to have seen him, and rested there; but forasmuch as we must incorporate our Saviour in our souls, and endeavour that there be a real union 'twixt Christ and us: therefore in the verse before my Text, Simeon took up our Saviour into his arms, and St. John makes that a great mystery of his own, and his brethren's happiness, that their hands had handled the word of life. Quod Simeon ulnis gestavit nos fide gestemus, he doth bear us up always in his hands, let us bear him and enclasp him in our Faith, 
Homil. 15.  and say as Israel did, I will not let thee go till thou hast blessed me, says Origen. Was it so beneficial to a poor woman to touch the hem of Christ's garment in the Gospel, then how profitable will it be to hold him close in our embraces as this Father did? And as Maldonat says very truly, Non credentis est modo sed amantis, complectimur quos amamus. This doth not only betoken Faith, but exceeding love; we hug them in our arms whom we have in dear estimation, we catch them in our arms, as if we would grow together: so if we love the Lord sincerely, we are one with him, and he with us; we dwell in him, and he in us. This amplexus arctissimus, and he that loves not our Lord Jesus, let him be accursed. Chiefly at this time in the holy Sacrament we see him upon the Lord's Table, we take him in our hands, we incorporate him in our souls by a lively faith; and at his mystical presence in these Elements let us say as it is reported of a Religious Votary called Maria Aegyptiaca, when Zozimus the Abbot gave her the Bread of Life upon her sick bed, she beheld the Sacrament wishly, which is the seal of all Christ's mercies towards us, and broke out into this song of Simeon, Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Amen.   

THE ELEVENTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION.  LUKE i 68 
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people.  
AMong all portions of Scripture that afford matter for Christmas day, I have for the most part hitherto chosen those Texts to speak of before you which are extracted out of the Songs of the New Testament. Our Proverb goes, It is good to be merry and wise. Every Section of the Gospel disposeth us to be wise unto eternal life: but the Canticles which sing the birth of Christ, they teach us to be merry and wise unto Salvation. Nothing doth better agree with this day than a godly Song, Sing we merrily unto God our strength, make a cheerful noise unto the God of Jacob. You have heard me divers times preach unto you out of the Angel's Carol, Luke two. The last year I made my Sermon out of the Song of Simeon, Nunc dimittis; and I am sure I could not furnish myself better this year than out of the Song of Zachary, so appositely doth it serve our turn, both for our spiritual benefit, procured in our Saviour's Nativity, and for our temporal benefit, God having repossessed us after a lingering and destructive contagion in health and safety, to break out into this Thanksgiving, Blessed be the Lord, etc. The Lord turn us unto him, and bring us out of our evil ways, for therefore he visited us. The Lord make us his own peculiar people, zealous of good works, for therefore he hath redeemed us. When you hear of a Visitation and Redemption, I know your thoughts will carry you presently to your late sufferance under a bitter scourge, and to God's merciful deliverance. This is not amiss, and I wish it may be long in your mind to bring forth the fruit of righteousness. But this Visitation whereof my Text speaks, it invites you to look above you, not about you; it invites you to think of that heavenly Infant that was born unto us, not of those Sucklings and Infants that were swept away with the late mortality; and by all means let us prefer the rejoicing that we have in Christ at this time, before that other gladness for our bodily prosperity; intent that chiefly, and the condition of our own particular welfare let that come behind in a latter regard; so did Zachary the Priest, from whose mouth my Text proceeded. God did give him a Son for the comfort of his own Family, and such a Son as a greater than he was not born of a woman, John the Baptist. God also gave him to understand by Prophetical illumination, that the Messias, the Redeemer of the World, was in the womb of the blessed Virgin. Mark now the Piety of this good old man, first he praiseth God for the Incarnation of Jesus, that he raised up an horn of salvation for them out of the house of David, and in the last close of the Song he magnifies that blessing, that such a Son should be born to him in his old age, and thou Child shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest. This is a fair direction for our use, that this should be the first thing in our thoughts, and in our thankfulness, to say, Blessed be the Lord, that the Word was made Flesh, and hath dwelled among us.  
Having told you how well this Song doth become the day, and that the chief note of the Song is in the word Visitavit, the Son of God did visit his people in an humane body; I will yet give you more content out of the Text by informing you that it is a most remarkable Prophecy: from Malachy for the space of four hundred years there had been no Prophet in all the Land of Judaea; and therefore we count all that Apocryphal Scripture, which is thrust upon us from the days of Malachi to Christ, because there was no Prophetical inspiration among the Jews. Behold now when a Prophet was grown such a rare thing among them, the Lord opens the mouth of Zachary the Priest, and he begins to Prophesy. It is well noted of Origen, that after the blessed Virgin conceived our Saviour, men and women wheresoever she came were all inspired with Prophecy. Elizabeth, the wife of Zachary, breaks out into admiration, and how is it that the Mother of my Lord doth come unto me? And she Prophecies, the Child sprang in the mother's womb for exultation that the Messias was under that Roof, that was a mighty Prophecy, not in word, but in deed. When Mary came to the Temple, and brought Jesus with her to be purified after the Law, Simeon and Anna in their several turns gave thanks unto the Lord and Prophesied; but Zachary, though last named, he is the first and most memorable of the rest that spoke mighty things in the Spirit, the reviver of Prophecy after a long time it had lain asleep; and to set an Emphasis upon my Text, the words of it are the first that came from him after he had been dumb, and the first that he uttered after he became a Prophet. In a word mark it that he is the firstborn of the Sons of the Prophets in the New Testament, and this Text is the first fruits of his Prophecy. Christ was yet but an Embryo, his mother but three months gone since she conceived, and yet Zachary speaks with a most Prophetical confidence of things to come as if they were passed already, as if the sweet Babe were born who had not yet opened the womb, He hath visited, and he hath redeemed his people. Take the whole verse now together, which is the exordium of this Prophetical Song, and it contains two parts; the magnifying of the divine goodness, and the reason rendered why it was fit to break out into that devotion. In the first, here is the comprehension of all praise in this word blessed. Secondly, the comprehension of the divine titles, the Lord God of Israel. The next general member why this praise is given is drawn from two acts, that God hath visited, and that he hath redeemed. And the Object of both those acts is it which makes it praiseworthy, and thanks worth; he hath visited his People.  
First of all, here is a full ascribing of all glory to God in this word blessed. O how Zachary did meditate this all the while he was dumb! O how much he desired all the while his utterance was stopped to bring forth these good words to the honour of his Maker! He kept silence a long time from this heavenly Canticle, but it was pain and grief unto him. Now his mouth was opened with the key of the Holy Spirit to discourse of the wonderful works of God; and it was a blessed thing that as soon as he was able to talk, this was the first language that flowed from him, Blessed be the Lord. Two things are the grace and dignity of our Elocutions, Deum laudare, verum dicere, to praise the great Majesty of Heaven, and to tell the truth upon Earth; but why do I divide them two which will most properly fall into one? For no truth so clear and evident as that the name of Christ is blessed for evermore. They that speak the truth of him must speak well of him: and whosoever blasphemes his honour is a Liar, and an Antichrist. As Hezekiah paid the Tribute, which Sennacherib imposed upon him, out of the Treasure of the house of the Lord, and out of the Gold which over-laid the doors of the Temple, 2 Kings xviii. 16. so the praise of God is the chief treasure of our heart, the chief thing that belongs to this holy place, the very Gold of the Temple; therefore when we magnify his name, we pay him Tribute out of the best thing which the Church can afford. Neither is there any good business of Religion, whereof we may be so confident, that we are in a right course, and do not swerve: Our Belief may be grounded upon strong errors, as it is among Heretics; Our Zeal may be transported into Faction, as it is among Schismatics; Our Repentance may be slight and superficial, as it is among Hypocrites; We may be too forward in our Hope, having no firm assurance from the fruits of a good Conscience; Too free of our Charity, when we do not distinguish who are fit to receive it; Too prodigal of our Commendations, when we do not note men's Actions whether they deserve it; but be as copious as you will in magnifying your Creator, and Redeemer, and you are certain the work is very good, most certain that you cannot tread awry. Yet Satan and our own negligence are able to frame an objection against any truth which is most demonstrative. What will our sluggish spirit say? The honour of God doth not depend upon the fame of this World. His glory cannot be raised higher than it is by our Jubilees and Songs, or by our Instruments of Music, no though we could praise him as loud as claps of Thunder. But for all this will you be content to glorify him, if it will bring yourself to honour, though it be no amplification to the Majesty of God? Agreed then.  
And first it is an high advancement, that he will permit us to do him that homage, though we should have no recompense for our labour; it is abundantly rewarded that he will give us leave to exalt him, he hath not dealt so with all people. Unto the ungodly said God, Why dost thou take my name within thy lips? As it is an honour to the Magistrate, that God hath committed the Sword of Justice to their power, so it is an honour to every Christian that he hath permitted unto us to talk of his honour; it is an Angel's life continually to bless him, and sound forth his glory. Therefore that parcel of the Psalm may look this way, let the praise of God be in their mouth, and a two edged Sword in their hand, the one is as great a privilege belonging to us as the other to a Magistrate.  
Secondly, St. Peter grants it generally to all godly people, Yè are an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices to God, 1 Pet. two. 5. What is the spiritual Sacrifice but Praise and Thanksgiving? Therefore let us offer up the sacrifice of praise sweetly and devoutly, and all Christians shall become Priests in that respect, and the holy portion of God; and having offered up this visible sacrifice of praise, we ourselves in our hearts shall become the invisible sacrifice of God, and bring oblation upon oblation unto the Altar, it is nothing worth unless your own soul be the principal Oblation. I press this the rather, because it is so ill forgotten in the Roman Missal: For they that do so often trouble your ears with their sacrifice, and their Altar, have not one word in their Missal, that we, or our souls, should be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice to God.  
Thirdly, In giving glory to the Lamb, and to him that sits upon the Throne, we do not give but receive; for no man can ascribe much praise to God, but out of a large capacity of faith; no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost; no man can speak of the King of Kings, according to his due excellency, but it will procreate devotion and reverence; therefore though God's honour be in the same state that it was before, yet your soul is in better state than it was before by praise and glorification.  
Fourthly, We do all agree with St. Paul, that Charity is greater than the two other Theological Virtues, greater than Faith that believeth all mysteries, greater than Hope that expecteth all Promises, and therefore greater, because it shall abide with us in the Kingdom of Heaven when the other two shall vanish away: So to laud and magnify our Omnipotent Creator is far above all other acts of Religion, because nothing else shall abide with us when we see God face to face. There shall be no confession of Christ our Mediator, for none shall deny him; there shall be no fasting, for man shall eat Angel's food, and have no need of nourishment; no Alms shall be given, for it is life without want and scarcity; no Prayer for forgiveness of sins, no hearing of the Word, no sufferance of the Cross, no intercession for them that suffer, but the praise of God continueth, and supplieth all the rest, uncessantly we shall cry out, Holy, holy Lord God of Hosts, which was, and is, and is to come. Therefore it is called blessing of God, because it shall be our only work when we have attained to blessedness, for God doth bless man by pouring his benefits upon him, and man doth bless God, by confessing the good which he hath received.  
Fifthly and lastly, Whereas our Saviour did abase himself to become man, and emptied himself of his glory for our sakes, we set upon it to do him all possible honour, that we may weigh up again the Scale of his glory, which himself depressed for our advancement; as Peter said unto him, when he went about to do that work of a servant to his Disciples, Dost thou wash my feet, no thou shalt never wash my feet, he contended with his Lord, that he would not cast himself down so far: So Zachary sings a triumphal ditty to bless his poor Nativity, we do all bow at the name of Jesus, who bowed the heavens, and came down to visit us; we advance his Cross in our forehead; we erect our goodliest Churches in his name; we make Christmas day, the high Feast of the year, the great holy day of Praise and thanksgiving; as if the Saints of God had conspired not to let Christ be humbled, though he would be humbled. So when he came to Jerusalem with the meanest pomp that could be imagined, riding upon an Ass, they that had loyal and zealous hearts to him combined to conduct him into the great City in as Princely a manner as they could devise, laying their garments under his feet, and in a manner proclaiming my very Text before him, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. The sum of this first Point is thus much, O sing unto the Lord for it is a good thing to sing praises unto our God; yea, a joyful and pleasant thing it is to be thankful.  
So I have discharged the first Point, that there is a comprehension of all praise in this word Blessed, beside here is a comprehension of the chief divine titles, the Lord God of Israel. The names of the Lord do not consist in compound Epithets, and magniloquous appellations. The heathen did affect that bravery to set out the lustre of their Idols, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. as the Poet Callimachus expresseth it in his Hymn of Diana, she desired an hundred brave names to be given her by her Priests, as many attributes as Apollo had in his Temple. Some will have these to be those vain repetitions of the Heathen, which our Saviour reproves, Mat. vi. 7. taxing them that they thought they should be heard for their much speaking. Sacred titles consist not in number, but in weight, and no words could be more ponderous and significative, and yet contracted into fewer Syllables than these, the Lord God of Israel. A Lawgiver will prefix his most ample attributes before the Pandect of his Laws, and this is the Inscription over the two Tables, Deut. xx. I am the Lord thy God; which is all one as to say, I am the Lord God of Israel. And the very words of my Text seem to be a current Eulogy in David's time, as it is Psal. cvi. 48. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting, and let all the people say, Amen. Which names must needs contain an infinite excellency when they march in a rank together, since if you take them one by one they are most dreadful and venerable. He is called the Lord, because he is the supreme and highest above all things, so every King in his Sphere is a Lord in chief, as Joab said to David, Why doth my Lord the King delight in this thing? He is called Elohim, or God, because he is set over all his Creatures to judge and revenge their iniquities; therefore the Princes of the people are nuncupative Gods in Scripture, because they sit upon the Throne of Judgement on earth to judge between man and man. Or rather he is called God, from his infinite and incomprehensible Essence; Lord, from his power and dominion, but Lord God of Israel by application of his mercy to his Church above all the Kingdoms of the World. Therefore he is to be worshipped as God eternal, to be obeyed in all his Commandments as the Lord Omnipotent, and be magnified and blessed for Israel's sake, because he loved that people above all things, whom he hath chosen to be his inheritance for ever.  
St. Austin cast out the difference on this wise, 
Lib. 8, in Gen. xi.  that the Creator of all things is styled God, and when he gave a Law unto mankind, Gen. two. 15. then he was styled a Lord. But the observation hath an oversight in it, for he is called the Lord God four times in the same Chapter before he commanded Adam to dress the garden of Eden, and to keep it. The Annotation would run better thus, that while all things were in making in the Creation the Creator is termed God, and God said let there be Light, and God said let there be a Firmament; so in every work throughout all the first Chapter of Genesis. When the Creation was quite finished, and the whole Universe of Creatures set in order, then in the second of Genesis he is called Lord. From whence a question is started, much agitated in the School, Whether the great Jehovah may be called Dominus ab aeterno? The Lord from all eternity. 
Dan. vi.  Thou art God from everlasting, that is an Article of faith never doubted of. Nebuchadonosor could see that by the wonders and tokens which were wrought for daniel's sake, therefore he makes a Decree, that men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, and steadfast for ever: But the scruple is, since he did not exercise his dominion before the works which he made were extant, whether the title of Lord did not accrue unto him in the beginning of time, and not from all Eternity? St. Austin moved the Controversy, but out of his wont modesty passed it by undefined. Tertullian against Hermogenes says, 
Civ. Dei li. 12. c. 15;  It is none of the eternal Appellations of the Divine Nature, for it belongs not to the Divine Essence, but to the Power, and the Power could not exercise itself before there was an Object created. Many of the Schoolmen are convicted in their judgement by this reason of Tertullian, and hold to his opinion. I think if St. Austin would have determined it, he would have gone the other way; and for my part I take it to be most probable, that we may say God was the Lord from all eternity, before the Creatures were existent and produced. It is true, that if we measure things by our own power, or rather by our own infirmity, we can command nothing but that which is, and hath a being; but God is the Lord of all things even before they are, and when they yet are not he can command them to have a being; he spoke the word, and all things were made, he commanded, and they were created, Non possunt per mandatum fieri quae non erant, nisi dominium praecederet; things that have no being could not be commanded to be made unless he had dominion over them, that is, unless he were Lord over them before they were made, Rom. iv. he calleth things that are not as things that are; therefore he hath authority as a Lord over things that are not, as much as over things that are. The fair conclusion of it is, the actual relation of the Creatures to his dominion began in time, but their subjection to his will and power is for ever, therefore God is the Lord from all eternity.  
Whatsoever distinction may be put between these names, yet when we praise God let us do as Zachary doth, join them both together; when we confess him, let us do so likewise, as Ionas did, I am an Hebrew, who worship the Lord God that made heaven and earth. When we say our Belief let us do the same, even as the Nicene Fathers did before us, I believe in one God, and in one Lord Jesus Christ. And if you please yourselves to distinguish accurately upon such Titles, because St. Paul hath said that there be Gods many, and Lords many; let us distinguish between them and this supreme one, the Lord God of Israel, who is blessed for ever more. Christ says the Scripture calleth them Gods to whom the word of God came, Joh. x. 34. That Scripture is Psal. lxxxii. 6. I have said ye are Gods, and ye are all the children of the most high. From thence, and from my Text you may state a profitable difference. 1. Dixi, I have said ye are Gods, he hath said it, and that made them so; unless he had Godded them they had had no such pre-eminence. What they have it is by entitling and nuncupation. 2. Dixi Dii estis, there are many of those Gods, not only every Prince and Ruler challengeth it by his Crown, but every Christian hath his interest in it by adoption of filiation. So I cited it from the mouth of our Saviour before, the Scripture hath said they are Gods to whom the Word of God came. 3. Estis, ye are, for a while ye are, and after a while ye shall go from hence and be no more seen; ye shall die like men, but the true God abideth for ever. 4. These heathen Semigods, these that carry that badge upon earth, shall not only die like men, but like sinful men, for it follows in the Psalm, that when they fall God shall arise to judge the earth; after they have judged, they shall be judged upon it hereafter how they have judged: But O man thou must not reply against the God of heaven, his judgements are indisputable. 5. The ever blessed God is praised in every thing that pertains unto him, he is praised in all places of his dominion, he is praised in all his works. He hath done all things well, say the people of Christ, but among the actions of the best men, Sunt bona, sunt quaedam mediocria, sunt mala plura; Among some good there is much evil, among some flourishing sprigs of praise there are divers dead boughs of frailty. 6. These Nuncupative God's preside over Civil Governments, each of them is a golden head over his own Political body, but Christ only is head of the whole Church, from whence the whole body increaseth with the increase of God, he alone is the Lord.  
And it is likewise upon some remarkable appropriation that the Psalmist says, the Lord is his name; he bears it certainly with many notorious marks of difference from all the Lordlings in the world.  
First, The dominion of man is joined with some servitude in the Master, for he that stands in need is a servant to his own necessities: and the Master stands in need of the drudgery of the labouring man, as much, or more perhaps, than that drudge stands in need of the wages of the Master: But all our service is of no use or benefit to the King of heaven. 
12. Civ. D●i, c. 17.  I said unto the Lord thou art my God, my goods are nothing unto thee, Psal. xuj. and therefore, says St. Austin, God did not make the world from all eternity, to show that he did not want the help of his Creature.  
Secondly, All things serve the Lord above, nothing is hidden from the Sceptre of his dominion; but man in the highest Office upon earth is confined to a small scantling of authority; he can command the body of his Vassal, but not his soul. He cannot command his Grass to grow, or his Trees to bear, or his cattle to increase, or the weather to be seasonable: But as the people said in admiration of the Miracles of the Son of God, Who is this that commandeth the Winds and Seas, and they obey him?  
Thirdly, All the Lordship upon earth is subalternate and dependant from a greater command. Master's do that which is just unto your Servants, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven, Col. iv. There is but one Lord, and none but he that is responsive to no other, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Our Saviour, though an unscrutable Abyssus of humility, assumed that unto himself, Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am, Joh. xiii. 13. Such a Lord to whom all the Sons of men do bow and obey; Such a Lord, that though he were David's Son, yet David in spirit calleth him Lord, The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Lord of all things by the Essence of his Godhead; Lord of all things in his Manhood by the Hypostatical Union; but by special interest Lord of all those whom he redeemed with his most precious blood; Lord God of Israel; in which numbers as soon as ever he believed, Thomas concluded himself, saying, My Lord and my God. As we have the Humanity of Christ expressed in the two subsequent actions, so we have as surely his Divinity set forth in these Titles, the Lord God of Israel.  
But that God that filleth the heaven of heavens, and that Lord who hath stretched out the line of his power over the whole earth, he is Cantoned in this Text to a little Region of the earth, but a Molehill in respect of the extent of his Majesty, the Lord God of Israel. It was not with Zachary the Priest in this elegant Canto, as it useth to be with other Poets, who out of affectation do strain their Poetry to make honourable mention of their own Country, where there was neither cause, nor merit: But this holy Prophet had sufficient warrant from the Spirit which cannot err, to nominate him the Patron of this people, rather than of any other, the God of Israel, and that for two reasons, Propter notitiam verbi, propter promissiones seminis benedicti.  
First, The Oracles of the Scriptures were committed to them, and God was not truly worshipped any where but in the Synagogues of the Hebrews, and therefore says the Psalmist, Notus Deus in Israele. God is well known in Israel; there they knew him that he was to be adored, that he was to be feared, that he was to be admired for his excellency; that he was increate, immortal, eternal, and not like the Idols of the Heathen; there was Grace and Religion: other Nations knew not him, therefore he puts them by as if he knew not them, he is the God of Israel.  
Secondly, This whole World is made for no other end, but that Christ may exalt his Dominion in it, and therefore the Nation, of whom he was to come according to the Flesh, that is spoken of as if it belonged to God alone, and all other People were quite forgotten. Well therefore might Zachary say, O thou God of Israel; for upon the Nativity of Christ now it was fulfilled, why long since he was called the God of Israel. His Incarnation, as old Simeon said, it was the glory of his people Israel, his conversation among them was their temporal protection, that their enemies should not devour them, while he was with them upon earth, his word confirmed it, that the children of the Bride-chamber should not mourn while the Bridegroom was with them.  
Finally, His appearance among them in the Flesh was their spiritual exaltation, for he preached to none other but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But Israel doth now no longer stand for those that according to the Flesh descended out of the Loins of Abraham, as St. Paul says, he is a Jew that is one inwardly, Rom. two. 29. So he is an Israelite, that is, a true man, like Nathanael, that hath no guile in him; he that believeth in Christ, that visited and redeemed Israel. And that you may know the term stands now for the Church of the Faithful and Elect, St. Paul calls them that walk according to the rule of Jesus Christ the Israel of God, Gal. vi. 16. You know that Jacob wrestled with an Angel of God at Peniel, and thereupon the Angel changed his name, and called him Israel, because as a Prince he had power with God and men, and had prevailed, Gen. xxxii. 28. he prevailed over men, that is, 
Gen. xxxii. 28.  over his Persecutors, Esau and Laban: He prevailed with God by tears and supplications; and this is the exact description of all those that belong to the Church of Christ, that is, of the Israel of God. Their outward foes shall be subdued unto them when God shall think it time to put an end to their sufferings; they must overcome their spiritual Foes, that is, get the victory over the passions and lusts of their own flesh, vanquish the Devil, overcome the attractive delights of the world, and then they shall be no more Jacob, but Israel; they shall prevail with God. It is well noted by one, that when the Church in holy Scripture speaks of her infirmity, she is called Jacob, when she speaks of her happiness she is called Israel, Isa. xli. 14. Fear not thou worm Jacob, and Amos seven. 2. by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small: but in a thousand places ye shall find, thus saith the Lord God the King of Israel: and never was the Church in more prosperity, then when Christ came among us in the likeness of man; than it was not Jacob the worm, but it grew mighty indeed; it prevailed with him that sits on high: than it was fit the Song should run in the best title, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel.  
You have received the first part of the Text entirely in every particle, the solemn praise of the Divine goodness; now follows the reason in two most glorious acts, why the God of Israel deserveth this praise, For he hath visited and redeemed his people. Blessed be his name, for he hath visited, blessed be the Lord for he hath done marvellous things. We want not many of these for'rs when we ascribe excellency to the King of Heaven. Fame is a good companion for Virtue, I love to see them fast together; let there want no praise if there be a quia visitavit, a good reason for it, a deserving action to advance it: but to spend our good word upon them that have no merit, to speak good of the covetous, as David saith, whom God abhorreth, to cry up Absalon among the people for a little outside formality; such praise is most fulsome, that's broached either by flattery or ignorance. When renown is so ill bestowed upon the wicked, it makes the righteous that they do not regard it. But the object of Zachary's benediction is so gracious, so full of perfection, that when we say all we can in the honour thereof, we shall say too little, for he hath visited, for he hath redeemed his people.  
The first of these is that which makes this the double double Holy day, above all the Feasts of the year, visitavit, he visited: and it is once again repeated in this Hymn of Zachary's, the dayspring from on high hath visited us, ver. 78. Some there be that collect the three capital works of Christ's dispensation out of my Text, and the verse that follows, for that he visited us, say they, it denotes his Incarnation; that he redeemed us, it betokens his Death and Passion: that the horn of salvation was raised up in the house of his servant David, it implies his Resurrection. I think these things are minced asunder, that should not be divided, but all agree that to visit is a word so proper to Christmas-day, as none more, namely to take flesh, and to dwell among us. Doth the same fountain, says S. James, send forth sweet waters and bitter? why that's no such marvel, for this very word to visit is so divers in holy Scripture, that sometimes it relisheth as sweet as mercy can make it; sometimes it is as bitter as the very gall of his anger can temper it: Visitat quando flagellat, & quando miseretur, says S. Austin, God visiteth when he punisheth, and he visits when he pitieth: In the first acception nothing is better known than that of the Decalogue, Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. And again, I will visit their offences with the rod, and their sins with scourges: and in the Latin Translation, Jer. xxvii. 8. That Nation will I visit with sword, with famine, and with pestilence. And Psal. lix. 5. Thou Lord of Hosts awake and visit the Heathen, and be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. From hence we have drawn it into our common phrase, that we call the infliction of the contagious Pestilence the visitation of the Lord. God is ever present with us, but when he shows himself to be present by some exterior and notable work, bringing his Judgement or his Mercy in a conspicuous manner to our City, or even to the doors of our own house, than he is said to visit us. And if it be a visitation of vengeance, yet refrain not to say, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; whether he send his Angel with a Sword to smite us, or with a Song, as at Christ's Nativity to comfort us; whether coals of fire be kindled at his nostrils to consume us, or whether he blow upon us with the breath of his compassion to revive us; whether he give or whether he take away, you know what follows in Job: The effects upon our bodies are divers, but the effect upon our spirit should be one and the same: do you say, Blessed be the name of the Lord.  
But to visit is also taken in good part, as an act of grace and compassion, Exod. iv 31. the people had heard that the Lord had visited Israel, and looked upon their afflictions; then they bowed their heads and worshipped: Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit, Job x. 12. And once more for all, Thou visitest the earth, and dost greatly enrich it with the river of God, Psal. lxv. And welcome be that visitation which brings with it peace, and good will; such was the appearance of him that was born this day of a pure Virgin: he did look out his sheep, and visit them as a Shepherd doth visit his flock, Ezek. xxxiv. so the people of the Jews did well express the significancy of the word, when our Saviour raised up the widow's Son of Naim to life again; a great Prophet is risen up among us, and God hath visited his people, Luke seven. 16. God could have sent his Son to have judged the world, but he did not send him to condemn us, but that the world through him might be saved. This is a benign, and a courteous visitation. But because the word will extend to divers particulars of grace and love, I will do it right to lay them forth distinctly. 1. To visit is the work of one that comes to do a charitable office to a sick person, according to that place, Mat. xxv. I was sick and ye visited me. So Christ came into this world, because it languished of a sore disease, Miseri erant quos visitavit, captivi quos redemit: we were far gone in the infirmities of sin, when we had need to be visited; we were wretched bondmen under the yoke of Satan, when we had need to be redeemed. Visitavit Dominus plebem longa infirmitate tabescentem, says Bede upon my Text; long had the Jews consumed in their sins, faint and feeble they were, destitute of all spiritual succour, near to the brink of death, than came the great Physician to bind up their wounds, and to heal the broken heart: as virtue went out of him, and he healed all manner of fleshly griefs, if they did but touch him; so, much more now he is in heaven he is an indeficient fountain of virtue: and whosoever toucheth him by a living Faith, he shall be cured of his ghostly imperfections, or at least their malignity shall be assuaged. 2. Visitare in the Latin tongue is a diminutive from videre, to see a thing in a glance, and so to pass it by without any great heed; but the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which is used in my Text, is a Composit, and is more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it is rem penitus inspicere cujus egeat, to look upon things very remarkablely, with that purpose to know what it wants. In the tenth of St. Luke the Priest saw the man that was wounded and passed by, the Levite looked on and passed by, but the Samaritan saw him, and had compassion of him; that was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to look on him with a commiserating eye, and a tender heart: and to none can it be so well applied as to the Son of God, he looked upon us steadfastly, and with a melting mercy; he looked upon us as if his very bowels were in his eyes. 3. To give a visit to another is a voluntary courtesy, an act of kindness, that hath no compulsion or unwillingness in it: for he that visits any place or persons, if he did not like them he might keep away; but you cannot imagine more promptness and readiness in any one than there was in our Saviour, to be humbled to that baseness to take our nature upon him. When the Prophet had said, Sacrifice and meat-offering thou wouldst not have, but a body; immediately follows Christ's willingness to accept the motion, O my God, I am content to do it, lo, I come to do thy will, O Lord, Heb. x. how could any thing be entertained more heartily, more cheerfully: he that says in Solomon, harken unto me ye children, and blessed are they that keep my ways: he says also my delights were with the sons of men, Prov. viij. 31. 4. There is not only willingness, but friendliness in the appellation: no man visits another but in the profession of a friend; therefore St. Paul says upon the Incarnation, Tit. iii 4. the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it was a sign that he did not abhor us, nay, that there was peace and bounty toward us, because he did condescend to have such familiar conversation among us. When God talked with Moses face to face, the Scripture expresseth with the admiration of God's love, that he talked with him as one friend talketh with more, but to dwell among us, and visit us as one neighbour and well-willer doth another: surely there must be much more amity and familiarity in that strain of love. This very word therefore that he visited us, is enough to exalt us to be the friends of God. Because he frequented the company of those that had led scandalous lives, to call them to repentance, the Pharisees gave him a character that he was a friend of Publicans and Sinners; and Lazarus is called his friend, John xi. because he did often resort to Bethany, to the house of his Sisters Mary and Martha. Beloved, since this visitation hath declared us his friends, let us be at enmity with all those things which are opposite to the glory of Jesus Christ. 5. It is more than all which I have said before, that he hath visited us, that he did burst the heavens to come down, that is, offer violence as it were to the Godhead to unite it in one person with our corruptible substance. God spoke in times passed to the Fathers by the Prophets, but in these last days he spoke unto us by his Son, nay, he sent unto us his Son. The Prophets were holy men, yet they were but men: here was a nature that visited us far more perfect than theirs, theirs, the nature of Almighty God. They were faithful servants in the house of God, but a servant is an unperfect condition in comparison of a Son: neither were we visited by any of the sons of men, but by his own Son, the Son of God. You know that they of Lycaonia were strangely taken with it, Gods are come down among us in the shape of men, when they supposed Barnabas to be Jupiter, and Paul Mercurius: since they were in such an ecstasy at their own deceit, how should we be affected with the truth that the very God became a perfect man, and was Immanuel, God with us, says David, Psal. viij. 4. When I consider the heavens, the work of thy hands, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained; what is man that thou art mindful of him? or the Son of man that thou visitest him? as who should say, he that hath such rare and excellent heavenly bodies to delight in, what should he do on earth? what is the Son of man, who is nothing but sin and misery, that the Son of God should visit him; O first let it be remembered with faith and thankfulness, lest desolation come upon us, as it did upon the Jews, because we knew not the time of our visitation, Luke nineteen. 44. Secondly, Let us answer the humility of our Saviour with all possible humility, and say as the Centurion did, Lord we are not worthy that thou shouldest come under our roof: well deserved that all the succours of heaven should have fled from us, and abhorred our face; therefore blessed be his name for evermore, that brought us peace from his Father, sanctification from the Holy Ghost, justification by his own merits; humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in the day of his visitation, as the vulgar Latin reads it, 1 Pet. v. vi. Thirdly, Abraham made a feast to the three Angels, when they visited him at his tent door, Gen. xviii. so let us prepare a table to entertain our blessed Lord that is come unto us: not a feast of junkets and costly viands, but let us receive him piously and devoutly, as befitteth such a guest, at his own Table. Ipse est conviva & convivium, He is come to be feasted, and he hath given us his own body to make us a feast, and blessed be the Lord God of Israel, that hath visited us, and given himself to be the true spiritual food for the nourishment of our souls.  
And so much of that act which is most conjunct with the festivity of this day, Christ hath visited us, yet peradventure we should esteem that work of courtesy, and friendship, but of no benefit at all, unless it did extend itself to some further end; and what can our desires wish to follow better than that which comes after in this place, visitavit & redemit, by visiting he hath redeemed his people: It is of such consequence above all things else that are needful to our well-being, that St. Cyprian doth quite drown the former act in the latter, and reads my Text thus, Prospexit Deus redemptionem populo suo, not a tittle about visiting; but he hath provided redemption for his people. Now captivity must be presupposed on our part, because we did await and expect redemption, Miseri sunt quos visitavit, captivi quos redemit, as I said before, our soul was filled with a sore disease, and therefore we were visited: we were also under the captivity of sin and the Devil, and lamentable were our case if we had not been redeemed. Look upon the bondage out of which we were plucked, and it will make us more thankful for the freedom unto which we are called, Ad servum rex descendisti ut servum redimeres, says St. Austin, thou didst descend to be a servant, O King of Heaven, to enfranchise a servant, and to bring him out of thraldom. Remember therefore at once for all, since we all desire to have our part in this redemption, we must all confess we were envassalled in a servitude. So St. Austin against the Pelagians, who denied the traduction of natural corruption from Adam, says he, How can Infants be said to be redeemed in Baptism, unless they were captives before by original sin: Therefore in imitation of our Saviour's mercy, as the Ancient Church 1200. years ago was copious in all deeds of Charity, 
Aug. Tract. 41. in Joh.  so their greatest care was to dispend their treasury to redeem captives: and Paulinus, a Pious Bishop, as some stories say, when all the stock of the Church was spent, put himself into captivity to redeem a poor Christian, miserably chained under the yoke of Infidels. But this charitable deliverance of their brethren from temporal bondage, was to show how gratefully we should take it, that Christ had redeemed all those that would lay hold of his mercies from eternal captivity.  
Secondly, As his goodness is amplified from our captivity, so the redemption is the more valuable, because none else could have plucked us out of those fetters, but the Holy One, our Lord and Master. Says David, no man can deliver his Brother, nor make a ransom to God for him; for it cost more to redeem their souls, so that he must let that alone for ever, Psal. xlix. 7. when we had all incurred everlasting misery, and mercy did so far prevail, that the Divine Justice was content to forgive us, the wisdom of God held the scale, and arbitrated the case, that when a law was broken, and a mediation for pardon was entertained, the best way was not to pass by the fault with a total indulgence, but with a commutation of punishment: And when men and Angels were unfit for that service, then steps in the Son of God, and undergoes the condition in his own person, and became our brother, flesh of our flesh, that, according to the Law being next of kindred to us, he might redeem that which we had mortgaged, Leu. xxv. 25. we had sinned, and so needed a Redeemer; and not so sinned, but God the Father being placable, a Redeemer would serve the turn. And there the point had stuck for ever, and we for ever had been helpless, unless Christ had given himself a ransom for many, Alius solvit pro debitore, aliud solvitur quam debebatur, one was the debtor and another satisfied: one thing was owed to God, I mean the life of sinners, but another thing was paid, I mean the life of an Innocent.  
And let it make a third animadversion, that the manner of our redemption doth greatly exaggerate the most meritorious compassion of the Redeemer; there hath been redemption wrought by force and victory, so Moses brought the Israelites with an high hand out of the slavery of Egypt: There is a redemption which is wrought by intercession and supplication; so Nehemiah prevailed with King Cyrus, to dismiss the Jews out of the Babylonish captivity: or thirdly, either gold, or silver, or somewhat more precious is laid down to buy out the freedom of that which is in thraldom: that's the most costly, and estimable way, when value for value is paid: or fourthly, the body of one is surrendered up for the ransom of another, life for life, blood for blood; and greater charity cannot be shown than to bring redemption to pass by such a compensation. So St. Peter extols that act in our Saviour, says he, ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, but with the Blood of Christ, as a lamb undefiled. So out of his own mouth, Matth. xx. 28. the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. Unto us therefore the mercy of God is most frank and liberal; a gratuitous blessing, a good turn as freely bestowed as ever was any: so that we who received it conferred nothing unto it, but on Christ's part, he laid down a ransom of a most just compensation.  
Fourthly, As all mankind that is flesh and blood in every man and woman is honoured by his Visitation, so all without exceptions are beholding to his Redemption. Zachary the Priest with all his innocency, who is said to have been blameless and righteous before God, yet he blesseth God that he was redeemed. Job, a man so holy, that God bears witness to him; so upright that the Devil could not except against him, yet glad he was to take notice of a Redeemer; that was his anchor upon which he stayed himself, I know that my redeemer liveth. The blessed Virgin, no doubt as holy a creature as ever walked upon the earth, yet her Spirit rejoiced chiefly in this, that she had a Saviour. Great is thy benignity, O Lord, that thou hast given us a joyful recovery from an oppressing pestilence, that thou hast given us all things necessary for life and sustenance: greater is thy goodness that thou hast given us grace to repent, to call upon thee, to direct our heart in thy command, and to believe in thy saving health; but this is the most superabundant blessing of them all, that since we are odious and unprofitable in thy sight with all our imperfect righteousness, thou hast repaired us again by giving thyself a redemption for us. Thrice happy therefore that we know with Job that our Redeemer liveth; and comfort your hearts thus, he came to redeem that which was lost; therefore he will not let that be lost which he hath redeemed.  
Having thus spoken of the benefits of Visitation and Redemption, I should leave my Treatise very imperfect if I should not speak of the Receivers; very briefly therefore concerning them upon whom all was conferred, he hath visited and redeemed his people. It is certain that the generations of mankind are meant by this word, the Sons and Daughters of Adam, and none others. The Angels are called his servants, his ministering spirits, his messengers, etc. but they are never called his people. Godly Bishops and Fathers of the Church have drawn out certain streams from the love of Christ by which the Angels should receive some utility. St. Austin says, his light did shine before them, his example did kindle a desire in them to excel in zeal and obedience, Bernard says, Qui evexit hominem lapsum, dedit Angelis ne laberentur, that is, he whose redemption prevailed to raise up man after he had fallen, it confirmed the Angels in grace that they should never fall. He brought us out of captivity, he preserved them that they never came into captivity: but that which these speak of, that should turn to the utility of Angels, it came from the power and good will of his Godhead, not by virtue of his mediatorship, being made God and man, to reconcile those to his Father, who had offended. The Schoolmen say though he was not Incarnate for the Angels, nor shed his Blood for their sakes, yet the fruit of his redemption did in some wise redound to them, because it compounded the friendship between Angels and men; whereas they were our enemies in God's quarrel, before our peace was procured by our Saviour. Well, this comes to nothing on the Angel's part, it is neither dignity, nor commodity to them, but unto us; therefore we are the clear gainers by all the profit that my Text brings in, he hath, etc.  
In a strict phrase we know who they were that had the happiness to be called his people for many ages; his covenant was made with the seed of Abraham, and with the children of Jacob; but when they ceased to know the Lord, and to obey him, this Covenant was broken: and it is very remarkable how zealously God did manifest it, that his love was turned away from that Nation, Hosea i. he made the children of that Prophet signs and tokens unto them, calling his Daughters lo-ruhamah, I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, and he called his Son loammi; for says he, ye are not my people, and I will not be your God, ver. 9 You see in that place that God hath as it were torn the hand-writing wherein the Covenant was made; it is cancelled, and it will not profit them. That people lost their share in this redemption, because they knew not the true redeemer, nor minded the true redemption: Light came into the world, and they loved darkness more than light; they knew not their Redeemer, the holy One of Israel: In the matter of redemption also they were quite mistaken, never drawing their care inward to the use of their soul; but gaping for a Champion that should fight for them against the Romans; so they were neither delivered from the bondage of the Romans, nor from the power of the Devil. Where then shall we look for his people? beloved, not in one angle of the world, but among all Nations, both Jews and Gentiles. God spoke once and twice, says the Psalmist, first to the old Church of the Jews, than to the new Church of the Gentiles: and as many as call upon him faithfully, they are his people, and he is their King. And that you may be sure the Gentiles have their interest in him, the first in all the holy Scripture that calls him a Redeemer, is Job, and Job is a Gentile. In every Nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him, says St. Peter, Acts x. 35. Nay that which Zachary utters restrictively, he hath visited and redeemed his people, the Angel as one more indifferent to all parties, says, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people: So St. John as liberally and largely as the Angel, he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world, 1 Epist. chap. two. ver. 2. says Prosper very well (a Father that was very cunning in this point) Poculum immortalitatis habet in se, ut omnibus prosit, sed si non bibitur, non medetur. The cup of immortality is in his hand, to bring all men to eternal life, but it will cure none of their sins, but those that drink of it. To conclude all, Christ came especially into the world for his Church sake, and more especially in his Church, for those that are called according to his purpose, he came to purchase unto himself a people zealous of good works. They were to be purchased and made his people; they were not his people before he came unto them. Non veniens suam invenit plebem, sed visitando eam fecit, if he had not visited them, and redeemed them, and taught them, and given them of his spirit to believe in him: nay, if he had not given them his Body to be meat, that whosoever eateth thereof might not die, but live for ever, they had never been his people. Lord draw us, and we will come unto thee, visit us and we shall be healed, redeem us and we shall be made free, make us thy people, and we will serve thee, and praise thee, and bless thee all the days of our life. Amen.   

THE TWELFTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION.  LUKE i 69. 
And hath raised up an horn of Salvation for us in the house of his servant David.  
THe Spirit of God is so constant to the same matter, to the same phrase of speech in Holy Scripture, that there is no Text of prime Doctrine in the New Testament, but likely you may fit it as it were verbatim out of the Old. I put you in mind of it at this time, because David hath not only comprised my Text, but all this Song of Zachary into one verse. Zachary having been dumb for nine months, his unspeakable joy at last burst out, like a River which hath been stopped, and flows forth in a full gush when the Sluice is open. Now whereas when he found his tongue, and began likewise to Prophesy, his Wife and Kindred who were the Assembly that heard him, expected, no doubt, that in the first instance, after he broke silence, he would speak of John the Baptist, a child of much wonder and expectation, whom the Lord had sent unto him in his old age, yet he did not so, but he took the rise of his Prophecy from a mightier work by far; he begins with the Bridegroom, and then proceeds to the friend of the Bridegroom: He begins with the Saviour, and then speaks of the Servant; he begins with the bread of life, and then goes on to the voice of the Crier; he was sent unto the Jews to invite them to eat of it: He begins with the glorius King sprung out of the house of David, and concludes with his own Son, that was the torchbearer to carry the light before him. Of both these, thus the Psalmist with most admirable brevity, Psal. cxxxii. 18. There will I make the horn of David to bud, I have ordained a lantern for mine Anointed. The horn, or excellency of David is Christ Incarnate; the Lamp ordained for that mighty King was John the Forerunner, whom the Evangelist of his own name calls a burning and a shining light. 'Tis St. Augustine's Exposition, and so natural to the sense of the Psalm, that it hath gained upon me to follow it. Yet there is great odds between Faith in spe, & in re, between the prenuntion and the event of these mysteries; between the promise of the Sun rising, and the light which shines visibly upon the world; between the knowledge of Salvation, which was drawn nearer to the Church in Zacharies days than it was in david's when it was further off. In the one it is faciam, I will make the horn of David to bud, in the other it is feci, the counsel of God is actuated, he hath raised up an horn. David was bold to sing it forth, that God would perform his Promise. Zachary was more bold to speak in the Preter-tense, that he had performed, when it was but in fieri, when the Web was yet upon the Loom. Christmas day was not yet come, it was half a year off, before the time was appointed that a Virgin should be delivered: but Zachary knowing the certain execution of God's Word hath made Christmas day in the Text. He doth not only bear witness to our Saviour, though yet an imperfect feature after three months' conception, as if the Child were born, but as if he were in his most able growth, in perfect strength of years, in perfect execution of his power, in the perfect glory of his Kingdom; And hath raised up an horn of Salvation for us in the house of his servant David.  
Now to prepare you to receive the division of the words, you may easily mark, that whereas the former verse contains a general profession of God's mercy to his Church, he hath visited and redeemed his People, this verse contracts it to the particular instrument through whom we are all blessed; as who should say, God hath given Redemption to his People, yet there is no redemption to be looked for but in Jesus Christ, he hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. The principal word of the Text therefore is that which is in the midst, An horn of salvation; it is the Periphrasis of Christ, I will begin from thence. 2. I will declare how God did raise up this horn of salvation when Christ was born. 3. Here is the Lineage of our Saviour according to the Flesh, he was raised up in the house of David, in the house of David his Servant. Lastly, Here is the use and fruit of his birth, which belongs to us, that is, to as many as have the same faith in him that Zachary had, when he opened his mouth to utter this Prophetical Song, And hath raised up, etc.  
In the former verse Zachary says that he would bless, that is, praise and Magnify the Lord God of Israel. And hath he not made good his word? Yes surely; for the praise of the most high cannot be exalted in the tongue of a sinner more than in this attribute, to call him an horn of salvation. There was more obedience and faith in it, (I will not call it merit) but I say it expressed more obedience and faith, that this devout Priest should call a Child, nay, a feature but of three months' conception, as yet curdled like milk, as Job says, in his mother's womb, the horn the strength of our salvation, than for the Angels and Seraphins to sing continually before the Throne of heaven, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts; the Angels extol that infinite Majesty which they behold in glory: This person confessed all that his tongue could utter to the honour of his Redeemer, when nothing was actuated, nothing yet in being to be seen; and when the time came that it should be seen, nothing could be more infirm in appearance. Yet neither the inevidence of the object before he was incarnate, nor the parvity and outward meanness of the object when he was to be incarnate do stumble his faith, but he makes as great a noise to advance his dignity, as words would give him leave, an horn of salvation. Salvation, salvation is our tree of life, restore the Church to that O Lord, and there is Paradise enough in it, though we be shut out of Paradise. It is one beam, and the very principal of that inward light in holy Scripture, which shines in the Meridian of us Christians, and makes us resolve by a secret contract between us and faith that it is the the Word of God, because it treats constantly and in every part of it touching the means of salvation. But the Volumes of heathen men (they are to be seen, and testify what I say) do never aspire to that sublimity: nay, they that referred every thing they had to the gift and goodness of their Idols; Riches to Plutus, joyful Marriage to Juno, Victory to Mars, prosperous Navigation to Neptune, all these, and the very breath of their life to Jupiter, yet the Devil was not suffered to fool them with this gross opinion, that any of their adulterate Deities was worth the name of a Saviour. Salvation belongeth to our God, and his goodness upon his people, says the Psalmist. Salvation had never been known upon earth unless this day heaven had fallen down upon the earth. But though all comfort in this world were forgotten, nothing but darkness, and weeping, and captivity over all the Universe, yet this one word is enough to turn all the sorrow into gladness, nay, to turn hell into heaven. Where art thou O Lord that we may find thee? Wherein shall we inquire for thee that we may see thy love and glory? If I look for thee in the work of Creation, thou art Omnipotent; if I consider thee in the work of Preservation, thou art most vigilant; if I seek thee in the store of all things wherewith thou hast filled Sea and Land, thou art most indulgent; but when the incarnation of my Lord Jesus, and the mystery of Salvation comes into my thoughts, then▪ O God thou art most transcendent, and I am lost in the Abyssus of thy goodness. When I call him the Glass in which I see all truth, the Fountain in which we taste all sweetness, the Ark in which all precious things are laid up, the Pearl which is worth all other Riches, the Flower of Jessai which hath the savour of life unto life, the Bread that satisfies all hunger, the Medicine that healeth all sickness, the Light that dispelleth all darkness; when I have run over all these, and as many more glorious Titles, as I can lay on, this description is above them, and you may pick them all out of these Syllables, our salvation; much more when he is exalted with this adjunct in my Text, an horn of salvation.  
And can so great a thing as Salvation be amplified through so mean an Epithet? Beside, that it is a badge of a beast, it is not of the choicest substance of nature; for what is an horn but the excrement of the Nerves in the outward parts, as Teeth proceed out of our gums within? But as God did not abhor to be made man for our deliverance, so he recoils not from having his goodness compared to the grossest things for our better intelligence: And yet to see the perverseness of the most learned Wits, likely they entangle those Similitudes with intricate difficulties, to which God hath mightily condescended, and even abased himself for our better perspicuity. Did not he intent to set up a plain and a sensible Sacrament before our eyes when his Evangelist hath thus described him, an horn of salvation? And yet what abstruse mistakes are some fallen into, that would be more subtle than the Spirit of God? Abulensis says, that this phrase is originally derived from the horn that shined upon the head of Moses when he came down from the Mount, and had talked with God forty days. And there being this ample resemblance between Christ and Moses, the one brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt, the other acquits us from the bondage of sin and hell: Therefore Christ should take this character from Moses that was his Type, and be called an horn of salvation. I like not this opinion for many reasons: First, Moses had no such disfigurement in his face, as the appearance of horns when he came from God. Ignorant Painters make us ridiculous to the Jews with their childish errors. They know he put a vail on when his face shined, and can they tell how horns branching out would admit of such a vail? Some Limners conceived that the splendour of his face sent forth beams of light, (which indeed Rabbi Solomon calls by a figure cornua magnificentiae) others that were bunglers in the Art, took these beams to be horns, and with the help of the Vulgar Latin Translation, they have made him of an holy Saint a prodigious monster. Their error stops not here; for this character doth so little agree with Moses, that the Scriptuce is very wary never to call Moses the salvation of the people. Why? For salvation comes not by the Law, but by Faith. If eternal life could be attained by the works of the Law, there had been no need of Christmas day, our Mediator had been born in vain, he had died in vain; therefore mark it in Mat. xxii. when the Pharisees asked our Saviour which was the great Commandment of the Law, as if all their study, all their hope and confidence were in the Law, he answers them fully; but immediately he calls them to another question, What think ye of Christ, whose Son is he? As who should say, by the works of the Law shall no Flesh be justified; it were better for you to know and believe in Christ, there is no other name under heaven through which you can be saved. So I cast off this first opinion, to impute horns unto Moses is a vanity, to impute salvation to him is an Heresy.  
Secondly, Some would draw the Phrase from an heathen Proverb. Delrio the Jesuit is not against it. The heathen Jupiter, as their Poets tell us in their raptures, was nourished by a Goat in his Infancy, and for the memory of it, that horn was endued with virtue to bring forth plenty of all things for the life of man, and constantly they call that which exceeds with all abundance, the horn of Amalthea. Now Christ replinishing us with all good things, supplying us with more than we can desire or deserve, in whom we are complete, as St. Paul says, Col. two. 10. he is this celestial horn, about which profane Authors puzzled themselves, and knew not what they said. And shall I ever be persuaded that the Scripture hath borrowed terms of honour out of their Fables to give to the Son of God? It sounds not well to my judgement; yet I subscribe it was an eximious Title of great antiquity; for when God raised up the fortunes of Job again, he had three Daughters, the name of the first was Jemima, which is by interpretation, day; The second Kesia, 
Job xlii. 14  that is, sweet Cassia; The third Keren happuch, that is, the horn of plenty, and the best Editions of the Septuagint have it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. the horn of Amalthea. Yet to strike off that opinion, that horn in the old Adage betokened an inexhaust Fountain of earthly felicity; this horn in my Text is the staff and stay of heavenly salvation: Therefore they differ as much in effect as finite and infinite. Barradius observing that Christ accomplished the work of our salvation upon his Cross, would deduce that from thence he should be called the horn of salvation, because the two sidepieces of the tree do resemble horns; he might as well have said, that the Metaphor was taken from the Altar in the Old Law, upon which the Sacrifices were presented, because the Psalmist says, bind the Sacrifice with cords unto the horns, 
Super Psal. cxxxii.  or extremities of the Altar. Into the number of these that are more elegant than literal in their allusions let me cast in Lombard, thus he, an horn is an altitude above the flesh; and because it grows higher than the flesh, therefore Christ is called an horn rather than a buckler of salvation, because our hope in him is not carnal, but spiritual: and it is he that gives us grace and power to overcome the flesh. These, and such like subtleties I think it fit rather to name than to prosecute.  
But Theophylact hath collected the solid reasons of this Appellation into few words, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. it betokens either the mighty power, or the Kingdom of salvation. An horn is the weapon and strength of that Creature out of which it brancheth, and therefore it is usual almost in every book of Scripture to borrow a Metaphor from it, as the Lord shall give strength to his King, and exalt the horn, that is, the power of his Anointed, 1 Sam. two. 10, and Psal. lxxxviii. In my name shall his horn, that is, his strength and fortitude be exalted; and to break the horns of sinners is to pull down their pride and dominion, Psal. lxxiu I spare to recite innumerous quotations which are extant every where in Scripture; but in this phrase the Holy Ghost intends, that according to the translation which is in our Morning Service, God hath raised up a mighty salvation in the house of his servant David. O puissant Lord and Saviour! who is able to comprehend what infinite power did concur to this effect, that the everlasting God should be incarnate, and become man? This birth may seem to the outward man to be nothing but a spectacle of weakness and misery. Look upon an Infant laid in a Manger, wrapped in swaddling clouts, the Son of a poor Maid espoused to a Carpenter; and from these circumstances the question might be asked, Where is this horn? Where is this strength which Zachary hath laboured to express so emphatically? I answer, That the Nativity of Jesus was the greatest demonstration of the power of God that ever the world received. The Virgin Mary hath commended it to be very true in her Song, verse 49 of this Chapter, He that is mighty hath done unto me great things. And St. Basil says that the Incarnation was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the evidence of the Divine Omnipotency. It is a strange efficacy of nature to conjoin repugnant Elements in the composition of our flesh, as fire and water. It is yet more strange to put an Elementary body and an immaterial soul into one composition; but to join an increated and eternal God in one union of person with these things, it exceeds all other marvels. Neque Adami de limo terrae formatio, neque Evae de viri carne plasmatio, jesu Christi potest ortui comparari, says Leo, the creation of Adam from the dust of the earth, the efformation of Eve from the rib of Adam, both are things to astonish our weak understanding, but neither of these are comparable to his Nativity, that was the Son of God, and the Son of Mary, this is the very firmitude of the horn whereof I am to speak, there are other rights and branches of it: For as God's power doth astonish us that the Word should be made Flesh, so it brings our admiration to more excess that he should become a Saviour, he did overcome his own justice in that act, and an Orator would say, he grew mightier than himself, if it were possible, by sparing us. Certainly, there is good reason in that Axiom of the School, that it was more to save a sinner than to create a world. The heathen had their Saviour's from wasteful diseases and pestilentious contagions, as Pandion and Esculapius: the Israelites had their Saviour's from thraldom and the peril of the Sword, as Moses and Joshuah: But he that delivers us from the wrath of God, and from the pit of hell, he is the strong deliverer, he is the horn of salvation. Finally, The Salvation which he hath brought us hath not only set us free, but it hath put vigour and animosity in us to subdue our Adversaries that held us in thraldom. What the Heathen spoke of another thing I may fitly apply to Christ, Tu spem reducis mentibus anxiis, viresque & addis cornua pauperi; such as were poor and in misery, being fast bound in the fetters of their sins, thou hast refreshed them with joy, and given them horns to push down their enemies. The dominion of sin is abated, the edge of infernal tentations is rebated; Death is swallowed up in victory, the Devil cries out in the Gospel that he is tormented, the gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church; this is salvation obtained for us, not by compounding with our Foes, and ask their leave, but by strong force, and puissant victory; Cornu salutare nobis, sed impiis terrificum. It is a sovereign horn to us, but an instrument of offence against the wicked. His horns are the horns of an Unicorn, with them shall he smite the heathen, even the ends of the world, Deut. xxxiii. 17. the false flattering Prophet Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah put on horns to soothe up Ahab: Antichrist is described with ten horns, and seven heads, Revel. xvii. 3. to denote that he is armed to bring destruction upon those that cleave in sincerity of truth unto the Lord. The Goat and the Ram which Daniel saw in his Vision, chap. viij. had terrible horns rising up between their eyes: These were outrageous tyrants, whom God permitted to gore the innocent like mad Oxen; but here's an horn in my Text to break their malice, as if it were but a slender reed: The Judge that trieth the cause of the helpless against oppressors, and casts them down for ever, but our horn of salvation. Indeed that's his proper work to save and help his chosen; it is by accident that for their sakes he wounds and offends their enemies: he came not to destroy, but to seek and to save that which is lost; he would not the death of a sinner, but that he should repent and be saved: therefore it is due to be called not an horn of mischief, but an horn of salvation.  
Nor doth this word betoken his power only, but his kingdom likewise; as if Zachary had said, God hath raised up a King of salvation to us in the house of his servant David. So said St. Peter before the Council of the Scribes, Acts v. 31. Him hath God lift up with his right hand, to be a Prince and a Saviour. The Chaldee Paraphrast who is very ancient, agrees greatly with this, for what the Psalm hath, I will make the horn of David to flourish, it renders thus, I will make the kingdom of David's glory to sprout forth. Euthymius pleaseth me, who gives the analogy thus, the oil was poured out of an horn with which Kings were anointed (you can instruct yourselves that it was so both in David and Solomon) and from thence an horn, though an evacuation of nature, and a mean thing, became an ensign of Kingly Majesty. Neither was this known only to the Jews, but to the Heathen also; so that their Kings did wear it among the honours, and ornaments of their head: as ours are painted with a mund, and a Sceptre in their hand. Pyrrhus in Plutarch was known in the battle from all his subjects by wearing a Goat's horn in his Helm: and Villalpandus reports of an ancient piece of coin, which had the image of Tryphon the Egyptian Monarch on the face, and on the reverse it had his Crest with a Goat's horn rising up before it. Nay, the same Author says, that it was the fashion of David to wear the like thing in his head-piece: And all this I have alleged, because I would not want proofs, that an horn was the representation of Kingly Sovereignty.  
The meaning then of Zachary is this, that Christ hath abased himself to be incarnate, and to become our salvation; yet he hath reserved this glory to himself in his humiliation, that he will be a Saviour unto none, but unto them that accept of him for their King, and obey him in all things. In almost all books of Scripture he is called a King. I will not take so wide a scope to expatiate in, but strictly I will touch at a little: In Genesis he is resembled in Melchisedech the High Priest, but he was also King of Salem. In the Psalms, yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion: In one of the Lessons for the day, he shall sit upon the Throne of David, and upon his Kingdom, Isa. ix. 7, At his Birth the wise men did inaugurate him in that honour, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? At his triumph when he road into Jerusalem, Blessed is the Kingdom that cometh in the name of the Lord of our Father David, Mark xi. 10. At his arraignment when Pilate asked him if he were a King, he left him in suspense with this answer, thou sayest it: Finally upon his Cross he would not let the title be altered, but there it stood, Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews. The right of this Kingdom was given him in his Incarnation, promulged by the preaching of the Apostles, perfected after his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven, and shall be consummated in the end of the world. He is so fully constituted a King by being called the Christ, that ever since it is the Dignity of all Kings to be called the Lords Christ's, Him hath the Lord anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power, Acts x. 38. in which words St. Peter hath expressed both his Sacred, and his Kingly Sovereignty: and to match him, for the Texts sake, with David in this point, you must call to mind that David was thrice anointed; first at his Father's house by Samuel, the next time at Hebron after the death of Saul, and finally anointed at Jerusalem, a King over all Israel. So Christ was anointed by shedding of blood in Circumcision, by blood again at his Agony in the Garden, and thirdly by the great effusion of his dearest blood upon the Cross: Or will you lay it thus? He was anointed by his Father from heaven, anointed by Mary with her box of Spikenard upon earth, and lastly his dead body was anointed by the women, when it was laid in the Sepulchre. So in proportion there is a threefold Unction to make us Kings and Priests for ever: the first of Regeneration in Baptism, the second with the blood of Jesus in the participation of the holy Communion, and the third of glorification in the Kingdom of heaven; but nihil dat quod non habet, he that crowns us in glory had title to a crown himself; he that makes us Kings, was the horn, or prince of our Salvation.  
This is the stone of offence against which the Jews stumble, that the Kingdom promised so expressly and literally to the Messias was not verified in the person of Christ our Saviour: had he sat upon the throne of David with Power and Majesty, reason would that they should believe; but this is it as they plead which enervates their faith, that he who is set forth so often in the name of a King, should be born so meanly, die so ignominiously, and be acquainted in all his life with nothing but weakness and poverty. 1. Remember this for the ground of my answer, that Jesus Christ was God's only Son, and our Lord, that is our King, is an Article of our Belief, and therefore his Kingdom appears only to the eye of Faith, and is not to be discerned after an earthly manner, in outward pomp and visible glory; for than it were no Article of the Creed. 2. No humane Kingdom came to him by descent; for aught we know he was of the house and lineage of David, but it appears not that he was the true and lawful successor in the right line to the Crown of David. Armacanus makes much ado to no purpose, to derive his pedigree; so that the Kingdom of David might truly be hereditary in him: I say to no purpose; for since the right should come to him by his Mother, and she outlived him, that temporal Kingdom had been in her, and never descended upon him, unless he had survived her, 3. Note it, that the Prophets who prophesied of the Kingdom of the Messias, must not be understood literally, that's not the fashion of Prophecies. How then? why, with Evangelical qualifications, and they are clear that his Kingdom is not of this world, that he was no King to the prejudice of Caesar; his laws pertained to the spirit and conscience: he rules over his Church, and yet was obedient to Rulers: but he had not the temporal seat of David, even as David had not the spiritual seat of Christ: In a regal Throne he did not sit, for he came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, although he was made heir of all things by virtue of the Hypostatical Union: Just as David after he was anointed by Samuel, was debased a while as the meanest servant. But Christ being of the line of David, and having an heavenly Dominion given him, which had influence into the soul and conscience, commanding things in heaven and earth, making all things in the world stoop to the word of his truth, converting sinners to salvation, drawing all the Gentiles to take up his Cross, ruling thus for ever, and to the world's end. I hope you will say (O that the Jews would heed it!) that this is a more excellent Sovereignty than ever David had; therefore God hath made good his promise, and transcended it, that God had given him the Kingdom of his Father David. I lay the point now with all evidence and perspicuity against the infidelity of the Jews, 1. God did promise the Sceptre unto Judah, Gen. xlix. 2. Judah had it in David, and Solomon. 3. It was threatened to be taken away; and never restored again; and so it was in Jeconiah. 4. Whereas the family drooped and decayed, the promise was that it should reflourish in Christ. 5. That it should be a Kingdom greater than ever was before, extended from the flood unto the world's end. Lastly, that it should stand and dure for ever: In all things the Gospel consents with Moses and the Prophets, and the blind Jews that will contradict it, even Judah shall be scattered with this horn, Zach. i 21. and be broken in pieces with the Sceptre of this Kingdom; but as the Prophet infers well, if I be Lord, where is mine honour; and if Christ be a King, where is our obedience? God hath anointed him with his horn of power to be a King, O that the unction of his Grace may distil upon our hearts, that we may serve and fear him. Concupiscence says, I will reign; Ambition says, I will reign; the Devil says, I will reign; the world says, I will reign; but a good Christian will say, Non habeo regem nisi Dominum Jesum. There is no King that shall command my conscience, but Jesus Christ, he is the horn of my salvation.  
The points remaining shall take up no long time: the next that I come to is the verb of action, how God did raise up this horn of salvation? you may know the meaning of this by our own vulgar phrase; for it is our usual saying, that God raiseth up friends to a miserable man, when his relief and deliverance come through those means which he never expected. The house of David had ennobled the Kingdom of Israel more than any other tribe or kindred that came out of the loins of Jacob: is freed the Nation from the oppression of the Philistines, expulsed the Jebusites out of the Imperial City, reared up the stupendious fabric of the Temple, contrived the service of the Priests and Levites into admirable decency, brought them into great respect with Foreign Princes: All this came to them by the Son of Jesse, and Solomon that succeeded him. But in process of time the lineage of David was quite eclipsed, that stately horn was broken, especially when Herod ruffled it, the poor remnant of the kindred plucked in their head, and durst not with any safety own themselves to be of that progeny. Lo the inconstant state of humane things, the sons and daughters of David, who were the Princes of that Kingdom, were become poor artisans and inmates in by-places; and nothing was so beneficial to them, as to be forlorn and despicable. Now chaps in another alteration, more strange than all that had been before, a Virgin of a most private fortune in that stock, not looked upon, not thought upon to repair that decay, she conceives a Son by the power of the Holy Ghost, in whom the honour of David's house was more exalted, than if he had subdued all those Countries which Cyrus and Alexander made tributary to their Empire. This is according to that Prophecy which James applied to our Saviour, Acts xv. 16. in that solemn Council of the Apostles, after this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down: and I will build again the ruins thereof, and will set it up. This kindred, in whom the Majesty of Judah, did once rest, nothing could be laid more flat than it in the revolution of a few ages: and of a sudden this diminution was repaired, no flesh and blood was ever more advanced than that house (if they did not bid defiance to their own honour) that Jesus Christ came from them according to the flesh. This did David foresee and presageth it to his own generation, Psal. cxxxii. I will make the horn of David to flourish: but the Verb decomposit in the Septuagint is most significant, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will make it sprout up again; as when a tree is cut down, and the stock appears to be dead, but a little branch springs out of the root, grows high and tall, and fills up a better room than the trunk which was felled. But the Jew complains to this day, that he can perceive no such redintegration of the house of David. O who is so blind and senseless as that Nation? who would not receive him, that came to be their glory, and being plagued for their unbelief, they will not perceive their punishment and misery; the horn is raised up, and the beast out of which it grew will not own it, or acknowledge it. But the promise of God cannot be made of none effect through their infidelity: There is room enough beside in the world to receive him, though his own exclude him; the horn is raised up, though the Rebels of the house of David reject him. The condition of our humane nature was most innocent and Angelical in the first Creation; we sinned, we fell, our boughs of glory were lopped away, our fruit of holiness was shaken from it, our substance was involved in the general curse of the earth to bring forth nothing but thorns and briers. Thus we continued a despised mass of corruption, till our horn was exalted in the Incarnation of our Lord and Saviour. Then was our nature advanced to one hypostasis with God himself; as if a Giant should bear up an Infant upon his shoulders: so we that passed for no better than blood tempered with dirt, are become as it were emulous with the thrones of heaven by this assumption of our manhood into his person, because he took not upon him the seed of Angels, but the seed of Abraham. And as all that are born of women have some access of dignity, because Christ took the similitude of our nature, so the Church superabounds in two privileges: first, as Gregory notes upon such words as these, 1 Sam. 2. that it is said to the Priests of the Gospel, whose sins ye remit they shall be remitted, etc. yet the like was never said to the Priests of the Law; because remission of sins was brought to pass by him that was made man: therefore from that time forth men were made the Ministers of Pardon and Absolution: that's the horn of the Church, the power of the Keys. Secondly, God hath replenished us that are called by his name with a great abundance of the Holy Ghost; and since Christ was made flesh he hath poured out of his spirit upon all flesh. Lo, these are the ascensions by which we climb up into heaven through this mercy, that the Lord God of Israel hath raised up unto us an horn of salvation.  
Now follows the third part of the Text, to the end the Jews might know that this was the Messias which they expected: here's his lineage expressed according to the words of the Prophets, he was raised up in the house of his servant David. This the Pharisees had learned by rote, and very truly, when our Saviour asked them, what think you of Christ? whose Son is he? and they say unto him david's. Till those days the Pedigrees of the Tribe of Judah were kept unconfused; especially the pedigrees that descended directly from David, and those things which the providence of man would never have kept from darkness and intricacy through long tract of time, the wisdom of God kept them clear and uncontroverted: so that Joseph and Mary were taxed as belonging to the house of David. 'Tis much that St. Matthew would not give Abraham the precedency in the generation of Christ, (he deserved it for antiquity) but sets David in the front, The Book of the generation of Jesus Christ the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. The cause is not to be disputed, but the thing to be granted, that the promises made to David were so comfortable and notorious, that they exceeded the promises which were made to Abraham. Or thus, God did first engage himself to Abraham in these words, In thy seed shall all the Nations of the world be blessed: and the last man to whom he confirmed that promise was David, Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy seat. To amplify it further, our blessed Lord and Redeemer is not only saluted by the Prophets in the name of the Son of David, but by an interchangeable nature, or supposition of identity is called David. They shall serve the Lord their God, and David their King, whom I will raise up unto them, Jer. xxx. 9 and I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a Prince among them, Ezech. xxxiv. 4. I conjecture that the Jews did rather please themselves to call him the Son of David, than the Son of Abraham, because they did rather expect a temporal victorious Monarch out of the line of David. The one was the root of the people, the other the root of the Kingdom: therefore when God says he will not destroy the people, he says he will not do it for Abraham's sake: When he says he will not destroy the Kingdom he says he will not do it for David's sake. And the gross minds of the Jews were set upon the reflourishing of their visible and outward Kingdom: therefore from the Highpriest in his chair, to the poor blind man that sat by the highway side, all of them had one name for the Messias, the Son of David. Yet David was a more perfect type of Christ in those words, where he is said to be a man after Gods own heart, than by possessing the Monarchy of all Canaan; for Christ, and he only, is a man after Gods own heart, and in whom he is well pleased: David was obnoxious to great Rebellions, for which the Lord was much offended. But I mark it further, that in all the New Testament Christ never calls himself the Son of David, but the Son of Man; as Moses, etc. and that for two reasons: First, Referring to the primitive promise of all wherein Christ is first mentioned, The seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpent's head: he points as it were with his finger to that Scripture, that he is the seed of the woman, when he reiterates that periphrasis so often, that he is the Son of man. Secondly, To let us know that not only the house of Israel, but all the Gentiles that came out of the loins of Adam, even all the sons of men that make not themselves unworthy of the promise, do belong to the City of God; all that believe have interest in his Merits and Passion: But because it is impossible that one man should be of the Progeny of all Families, therefore he is severed out to a most noble kindred, the house of his servant David.  
Will you not be a weary with nice points of Genealogies, if I give an answer to an objection which Julian the Apostate made against the kindred of Christ from the house of David? no, it shall not be wearisome, because I will be very brief. That renegado from the Faith did thus argue, that Joseph was but the reputed Father of our Saviour; but his pedigree drawn up to Abraham in St. Matthew, drawn up to Adam in St. Luke, concur both in Joseph: but since the parentage of the Blessed Virgin Mary is not expressed, whose very Son the Lord Jesus was according to the flesh, how doth it appear that he was the Son of David? Take these grounds in order to satisfy you, First, That the Pharisees in the Gospel labouring by all means not to acknowledge him for the Messias, yet never made any doubt but that he came out of the house of David. Secondly, The Gospels of Saint Matthew and Saint Luke were published while the Pharisees domineered and had great authority; yet they never quarrelled at the Evangelists, as if their Genealogies had not sufficiently demonstrated Christ to be the Son of David. Thirdly, Although you find Joseph to be as it were the ground of both Genealogies, marvel not at it; for St. Hierom says, it is not the custom of the Scripture to context a Pedigree by the Mother: if he means that Pedigrees of long descent, such as these, be not deduced from the female stem, it is very true But fourthly, I answer, That in all likelihood the pedigree of Christ in the third of St. Luke rises up from the holy Virgin his Mother. Thus I make it evident in the first of Matthew, Joseph the Carpenter is called the Son of Jacob: now certainly he was the Son of Jacob; for there it is said Jacob begat Joseph. In St. Luke after our reading he is called the Son of Heli: how can it be that Heli was his Father if Jacob begat him? not by Nature, but by Law three ways. 1. By Adoption; so Esther was Mordecai his adopted Daughter: and St. Austin did once opine that Joseph was the natural Son of Jacob, and the adopted Son of Heli: This may reconcile the seeming contradiction of the two Evangelists, yet it is no answer to julian's objection. 2. There was a legal way peculiar to the Jews, you shall find it, Deut. xxv. if a man died without issue his Brother was tied to marry his Relict, and to raise up seed unto him: and the child that should be born, was the legal Son of the Brother that died without issue; the natural Son of him that begat him. 
Ruth iv. 10.  So Booz married Ruth the Wife of his Brother Mahlon to raise up the name of the dead upon his Inheritance. Affricanus a very ancient Author, as Eusebius reports him, affirmed that he had it by tradition from the Jews, the kinsmen of our Saviour, that Heli and Jacob were brethren. Heli dying childless, Jacob married his Wife, by whom he had Joseph; so Joseph was the legal Son of Heli, the natural Son of Jacob. And St. Austin meeting with this report of Affricanus retracted his former opinion, and subscribed to Affricanus. It is a wonder how many learned men did acquiesce in this opinion, as if none were like it. Whereas, cui bono? to what end should two Evangelists spend such pains to describe both the legal, and the natural line of Joseph? and in the mean time the family of Mary should be forgotten, by whom only it may be demonstrated, that according to the Scripture Christ was of the house of David. 3. The safest opinion, and without any intricacy, is, that Joseph was the true Son of Jacob, but the Son-in-law of Heli, by the marriage of the Virgin Mary: so the Virgin being the Daughter of Heli, and Heli being of the stock of Nathan, the Son of David, the truth lifts up its head against all adversaries, that Christ was of the lineage of David. If any one dislike this, as Calvin doth, because Sons-in-law are called Sons, I reply, why not as well as Daughters-in-law, Daughters, Ruth xviii. And if you will admit of the acuteness of Gomaras all is salved: he doth enlarge the parenthesis, Luke iii 23. Jesus began to be about thirty years of age, being the Son of Heli: For that which comes between is a parenthesis, being as was supposed the Son of Joseph, but being the Son of Heli, etc. This reading hath my great approbation, Heli being Christ's Grandfather by the Mother's side: and by this reading, it is as clear as the light of the Sun that Christ was of the house of David.  
Pardon me if I have troubled you with a genealogy, at other times I will forbear; but it is proper to this day. Now I will end all with the use and fruit of his birth, all this salvation, this mighty salvation, raised up to the admiration of heaven and earth; all is for us, and hath, etc. But for this word all the rest were loose, this girds about us, nay it fills our bosoms with it. The Devils renounced his coming into the world, What have we to do with thee, says Satan, Mat. viij. 29. The good Angels had joy derived unto them through his Birth, but neither glory nor salvation; they were ours, because he is ours; because he is our horn of salvation. But in what capacity doth Zachary take him to be his? first, as a Jew; for it was fit that salvation should first be offered to them that were the natural branches. Secondly, As a Priest, salvation came to the Priesthood out of the house of David; that is, the protection of the Church by God and the King. Thirdly, and principally, as a man who is a sinner, that had need of a Mediator: For God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of all mankind. He excludes only those that include not themselves. Want of Faith causeth that he that is born to all is not born to all. Unto us a child is born, says Isaiah, c. 9 and he directs his message to King Ahaz, a man of great iniquity: but Christ was born for him; as likewise he was born unto Zachary a just man, and one that lived most unblamably. The sinner that hath done very wickedly by faith in him, and by repentance, he may be saved: the good man that lives obediently and devoutly without him, he cannot be saved. Finally, since this horn of salvation is raised up unto us, let us lay hold of it, and fasten upon it. Vtamur nostro in utilitatem nostram, let us use him for our best behoof, and draw the proper extract out of him, I mean salvation. He is ours by being made flesh and blood, we shall be his by renouncing flesh and blood: he is ours by his natural generation, we are his by spiritual regeneration: he is ours, his Body and Blood are ours in the Holy Sacrament; we shall be his both body and soul by receiving those mysteries worthily, that is, faithfully, thankfully, charitably, penitently, devoutly. Amen.   

THE THIRTEENTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION.  MAT. two. 1, 2. 
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King, behold there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem.  
Saying, where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his Star in the East, and are come to worship him.  
THe Nativity of Christ was that wonder which came to pass this day, but how he was revealed, and known of them that sought him is the use of the day, for Christ was born that he might be found. And that is the cause that the manifestation of his birth is joined together with his birth, and more copiously handled a great deal both by St. Matthew, and St. Luke; by St. Luke, how the Shepherds were sent to find him in a Manger: by St. Matthew, how the Sages of the East were admonished to come from a far Country that he might be known unto them. God could have brought it to pass, that the blessed Virgin should have been delivered as she traveled to Bethlem, either in the Wilderness, or in the Forest of Lebanon, where none should have been the wiser; but lo this had been contrary to his own work of grace, to fold up his mercy in darkness when light was come into the world. Therefore he called so many witnesses about him, after such a manner, with such new and over-natural signs, that his Nativity was as public as Angels, and Stars, and Jews, and Gentiles could make it. The Angel sent the Shepherds out of the fields to inquire him, as if he would have the whole Country of the Jews flock thither; The Star called the Wisemen out of the East to come and worship him, as if the heavens would invite all the Gentiles to resort to him thither. God diffused the tidings that his Son was born, both to common places, such as Bethlem, and the Stable; and to holy places, such as the Temple at Jerusalem, where Simeon and Anna confessed him to be the light of the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel. Mark it (Beloved) so long as the Witnesses came to worship him, so long as those that had him in their arms praised the Lord, and blessed the day they saw him, so long he was manifested more and more. But instantly he sat in a cloud; as soon as Herod sought to kill him, than he drew back the light by which he was known, and hid himself in Egypt. If then we are now met together with such faith as is fruitful to yield him honour, and worship, and praise, and glory, some strange Star will rise in our hearts, and make it easy to find him out, than those mysteries of my Text shall be opened to us, how he was first revealed to the Gentiles, harken then to that story, which hath been so precious with the Church in all Ages, and begins as I have read unto you, When Jesus was born in Bethlem, etc.  
Each of these verses contain a several portion of matter to be handled by itself, the one concerning the doings, the other concerning the sayings of the Wisemen; first you have their Journey, and then their Errand. First, the toil of their body, and then the zeal of their mind; nothing can be more complete than St. Augustine's judgement upon both, Ambulabant Per fidem, & desiderant speciem. As it is the stage of a Christian to walk in this life by faith, and that race is run so constantly to win that heavenly prize that we may see what we have believed face to face: So these Eastern Travellers went on their way by faith, till they came to Jerusalem, and then like those that had finished their course, Desiderant speciem, they wish that their eyes may be blessed with the hope of their faith, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? We have wearied ourselves, but he is our rest; we have seen his Star; but where is he that commands the course of all the Stars? We have seen a wonder in the heavens; but where is he whom the Prophet calls wonderful upon earth? We have seen the Ensign; but where is the Captain under whose Colours we would be led? We have seen his Star in the East, and are come to worship him. Ambulabant per speciem: upon that subject, with God's leave, contained in the first verse I will speak at this time, and hereafter how they required that faith might be changed into vision. Upon their doings, or upon their journey therefore I consider, 1. Who were the Pilgrims, Magis or Wisemen. 2. Their Pilgrimage, Venerunt, they came. 3. The length of that Pilgrimage, from the East to Jerusalem. 4. The occasion of that journey, when Jesus was born. 5. The place of that birth, Bethlem of Judea. 6. The time of that birth, in the days of Herod the King. O most true delights and joys of a feastival Christmas! 1. To learn what wisdom it is to seek out a Saviour, Wisemen came unto him. 2. What rest we shall find in our soul, when we desire no rest till we have found him. 3. How mighty his Kingdom is, that all Nations shall come from far to worship him: Many shall come from the East, and from the West, and sit down with Abraham, and Isaac in the Kingdom of God. O blessed birth! not only the greatest and most holy places partake of it, as that great and holy City Jerusalem; but little Bethlem, and the most profane Regions of the East, which abounded with Idolaters. O joyful birth! which came not only to pass in the times of good Prophets, Old Simeon, and Anna the widow, but in evil days, in times of sorrow and captivity, in the days of Herod the King: For he alone that was born in the days of Herod can turn our sorrow into gladness. Let these be the meditations, let these be the frolicks and triumphs of our Christmas, these shall make it holy day to our soul to be informed in all particulars, how Jesus was born in Bethlem in the days of Herod the King, and behold there came, etc.  
First, Constet de personis, let the condition of these persons be examined, for every word in the Text must partake of that knowledge; for though they are but obscurely described here, yet all holy Writers have accounted it zeal and not curiosity to labour in the search what they were, says St. Chrysostom, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Chrys. Hom. in Mat. v.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, much watching, and many prayers are needful to find it out. The original Text calls them Magis, out of which word many have suspected that they were of a scandalous profession, we call them Wisemen in our translation, which is a very safe and sure opinion of them, some have entitled them for Kings, but very corruptly, all confess them to be Gentiles, and very truly; and I think I shall satisfy you to the full by considering the persons in this fourfold capacity. First, They that thought the name of Magis to be full of offence and suspicion had much to say for themselves. Simon the Sorcerer, and Elymas the Sorcerer, who could be worse than they? Yet Magus is their title. For howsoever it was meant for a good Appellation at first; yet as the names of Tyrant, and Sophister became very foul and contemptuous by the abuse; so although a Magus was an innocent Artist at first, yet some of the tribe were so far corrupted in their knowledge, that Magic was accounted no better than raking hell, and charming infernal spirits for satisfaction. The least fault in the Profession, and yet that a great one, was judicial Astrology, to make Schemes, and calculate Nativities, from certain houses which they framed to themselves in heaven, and to attribute a fatal necessity to all men's actions from some aspect of the Stars which reigned at their Geniture. As Paul's antecedent life, most adverse to Christ, did no way dishonour him to have it remembered after his conversion, so the Fathers thought it no soil to these holy Travellers to impute the worst unto them, what they had been. Tertullian magnifies God for the great alteration, Primitias gentium ex inferis excitavit, the Lord raised up these that were the first fruits of the Gentiles even from the Jaws of Hell. St. Hillary thinks they were called to mighty Faith from mighty Impiety. Homines professionis à scientiâ divinae cognitionis longè aversae; they were men of a profession most different from the sweetness and simplicity of divine wisdom. But Theophilact lays load upon them to make their conversion shine the brighter; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they were men envassalled to devils, and the enemies of God. And St. Austin, whose meekness would not revile them, 
Serm. 2. de Epiph.  but to make God's mercies appear the greater in them, Sicut praevalet imperitia in rusticitate pastorum, ita praevalet impietas in sacrilegiis magorum; Rudeness and ignorance was predominant in the Shepherds that were sent by the Angels to Bethlem, so wickedness was notorious in these blasphemous Magis, who were led by the Star to Jerusalem, and yet both became the children of God.  
You hear how good and judicious Author's thought that the conversation of these Magis had sometimes been Diabolical. And if St. Matthew wrote first in Hebrew, and in that Hebrew which Munster took pains to publish, they have more to say for themselves, for Magi is rendered by no better word there but grand Impostors or Necromancers. And this opinion of their person, whether right or wrong, is very comfortable; for the most holy man that ever lived, let him judge himself as he ought, and he shall find how much it will refresh his heavy laden conscience, that such grand-tortoes as these, sinners of the highest pitch, were called to the hopes of eternal life; Nemo desperet salutem sibi credenti, qui Magis conspicit donatam: If Magis and workers with familiar spirits are invited to Christ's Nativity, Quid non speramus. They that are enemies may be reconciled to the Prince of peace, as our first Lesson for this day doth call him, they that are Publicans may become Apostles; they that have defiled themselves like Mary Magdalen may wash in tears and be clean, many that are last may be first in the Kingdom of heaven.  
I have satisfied you what comfort comes of it, though these Magis which came to Christ had been the worst of all men, though antiquity had said right, that they were Impostors, and deceivers after the great power of Satan, yet they were not such, as I conceive, but men conversed in the studies of deep wisdom, or wisemen, as we translate the word. Such as are most accurate to give the true sense of names do so persuade me. Suidas saith that Magis were Philosophi & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Philosophers, but of that tribe that dedicated themselves to the knowledge of God. Phavorinus says they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Priests that studied divine learning according to the Religion of that Country. 
Plin. lib. 30. c. 1.  To go higher, Pliny says, the Magis were skilful in sacred learning; and which moves me more, Strabo says, that in his days (and about his days St. Matthew wrote his Gospel) they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Professors of a strict and austere life, as you would say, religious. Whether they were by succession the Scholars of that great Oriental Patriarch for Philosophy, Zoroastres, or Prophet's children derived from the succession of Balaam, all is one which conjecture is true, or whether both be false, but in all likelihood they managed the sacred Offices of the Persian Religion. 
Lib. 3. c. 2.  For Eusebius says, how in his days it troubled the Magis that the Persians became Christians, for by Sacerdotal succession they looked to their own religion, that it should receive no detriment. Diogenes Laertius, in that book which every young Scholar turns over, wherein he wrote very accurately of all Philosophical Sects, says that the Magis attended the Religion of the Gods, prayed, and sacrificed; and for their learning as well as their ministry, Porphyry says they were interpreters of divine controversies.  
Though they were but a bad Priesthood, yet a Priesthood, and a very learned one in their superstitious way. When I first took a hint of this, I laboured to make it truth out of good Authors; the notion must needs be pleasant to them who wear an Ephod in Christ's service; that as silly swains, ignorant Laymen were the first fruits among the Jews, so Priests of a religious calling were the first fruits of the Gentiles, and were incited by a divine assistance to seek and find out our Saviour. But though this be true, yet since my Text speaks not of their office and science about Religion, but simply as they were Wisemen, I will pitch upon that. Such as the Grecians called Philosophers, the Jews Scribes, the Assyrians Chaldeans, the Indians Gymnosophists, the Gauls Druids, this Island Bards, the Romans Aruspices, such were the Magis with the Persians, men that had furnished themselves with all fit knowledge to be their Judges and Counsellors of state. You shall find that seven Wisemen, who knew the Law and Judgements, stood before Ahasuerus the great King of Persia, Esther. i. 13. these were such as the Magis in my Text, the most sufficient directors of all affairs in that mighty Kingdom. Humane Learning and Political Wisdom are so far from being impediments to an man in the way to the Kingdom of heaven, that they are excellent Pedestals for the Pillar of Faith to stand upon; and wise men, if pride do not puff them up with vain opinion, are best able to resist the devil and his tentations, because they best know why they serve the Lord, and have most intelligence to ponder, why they should not be conformed to the fashion of the world. Certainly they are of that rank to whom much is given, and much shall be required of them. Plain ignorant shepherds came to Christ soon after the first minutes of his Nativity, and those harmless unsuspected persons told it abroad in all Bethlehem, that by the foolish things of the world God might confound the wise: (that's a great mystery of our salvation) yet that the Gospel might lose no opinion by illiterate messengers, the Sophi, the acutest wits of the East discharge the same office, that God may be glorified both in the prudent and ignorant. Learned men of all sorts believed and were saved. Zenas a Lawyer, Luke a Physician, Paul brought up at Gamaliel's feet; he had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Felix said, all sorts of art and literature; these were wise men, and never so wise as in this to seek out Christ, and to prefer the simplicity of faith before all the rudiments of the world. I approve it not that these Travellers were Kings, it is an error I will remove by and by; but after the manner of Persia they were honourable in their own Country; yet their quality of wisdom is remembered before their honour. Nay, had they been Kings, the Romish Expositors say it was most apt for the Gospel they should be called Wise men, Majus est testimonium quod datur Christo à sapientibus quam quod datur a regibus, it did more convince the Heathens that their Wise men and Philosophers bare testimony to Christ, than if they had been Monarches. Those are the chariots and horsemen of Israel, burning and shining lights: It strengthens our part exceedingly, when the eloquence of Apollo, and the Athenian Education of Dionysius the Areopagite are converted to the edifying of the Church; but for such as are wise and learned, yet whet those weapons for the maintenance of pernicious errors against true Religion, we pray as David did, Lord turn the wisdom of Achitophel into foolishness, and their subtlety into their own destruction.  
I have declared my opinion for the Priesthood and learning of these wise men, and am not afraid to descent from them, who interpret Magis to be Nechromancers, or vain Astrologers: for even after they had worshipped Christ, still they are called Magi. When Herod perceived he was mocked of the Magis, or Wise men, he was exceeding wroth, ver. 16. 'Tis probable that a name of Odium and scandal should not be given them, after they had worshipped our Saviour. Thus far both these opinions may agree, that the principal of those who visited Christ were reverend Sages of the East, and that some ancient Authors had been informed by tradition, that there were those in their train who secretly were Wizzards and Sorcerers. The best complexion may have a tettar run into it, and the best profession may have some followers that give themselves over to the Devil. And this reconciliation I am more willing to embrace, because it supposeth that a full Chorus, a great company of wise men came to Christ from the East: Not three only, as some say, who dare say any thing. Leo the Great, above 400 years after Christ was born, 
Serm. de Epiph.  is the most ancient Author that I have met with, who stands precisely for the number of three: and how much the circumstances of a true story may be falsified after 400 years, it is too manifest by the records of all ages. The Author of the imperfect work upon St. Matthew, whosoever he was, he is ancienter than Leo; I think he says they were twelve in company, I think there were not so few: For coming from those Eastern hills to Jerusalem, they pass through Arabia deserta, which place was ever infested with the thievish Ishmaelites; so that no passengers would travel that way without good guard. It is well known in these days that travellers will not pass without a Caravan, through those Deserts, and they that do otherwise adventure upon certain destruction.  
This being supposed, that probably they were a troop of Pilgrims, many more than three; that description of them, which was broached by fabulous Writers of the middle age, that they were three Kings of the East; I say this opinion miscarries every way, both for number and quality. No Kings, I say, whose bodies, after I know not what transportation, were afterward interred in Colin: this is grounded merely upon counterfeit Relics, and impudent legends. First, the Country from whence they came will not admit to have so many Kings come out of one Canton of Persia, or Chaldaea, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. one Kingdom can bear but one King at once; a Kingdom with many heads is a Monster. Secondly, All pure antiquity hath omitted to give them the title of Kings, and reason good, for the holy Text of Scripture hath done the same: And surely the Evangelist would have published their royalty and glory, if they had been anointed Princes. It had been fit to be remembered to the honour of the Son of God, that the Kings of the earth did throw down their Crowns and Sceptres at his Cradle. But the honour of God is established upon truth, and not upon fictions: And the Jesuit had better have said nothing than shifted off thus slenderly, 
Maldonat.  Coram summo Christo rege nullus fidelium vocari Rex debet, because Christ is King of Kings no faithful Christian ought to be called a King before him. By as good consequence I infer, because Christ is the chief Priest of our souls, therefore no faithful Christian ought to be called summus Pontifex before him. Had it not been better to confess the plain truth with their late Poet Mantuan, Nec reges, ut opinor, erant, I suspect these Wise men of the East were no Kings. Nay, says Salmeron, in all his writings a most rash Logician, we have two sort of proofs to declare them Kings: First, The Church doth so interpret places in David, and Isaiah, and other Prophets. Secondly, Our ancient Pictures are testimonies to witness it. Stout arguments for such a Champion to use; but for his Idols and Pictures they are teachers of lies and vanities; and for his Church it is as vain an interpreter of the Prophets.  
The old rule is, Omne mendacium est in aliquo vero, every lie is clothed with the similitude of some truth, and so is this: And what might misled some Writers to deem these Magis to be Kings, I will give you a brief satisfaction: First, Their coming to Bethlehem, as with us now adays, so anciently it was solemnly celebrated upon Twelfth-day; and being a double Feast among proper Psalms for the day, the 72 Psalms was appointed to be read of old. Hereupon some ungrounded judgements that the 10. verse of that Psalm was Prophetically spoken of these Wise men, the Kings of Tarshish, and of the Isles shall bring presents, the Kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts: whereas that versicle is to be referred to the calling of the Gentiles, not to these men's persons: so the words following expound the true sense, All Kings shall fall down before him, all Nations shall do him service. So Expositors agree that Sheba stands for Ethiopia, or the South, Seba for Arabia or the East; Tarshish for the North, and the Kings of the Isles for the West. If therefore the reading of that Psalm might prove them to be Kings, the West, and East, and the whole cope of heaven should be confounded. Secondly, There were three other occurrences in the acts of the Persian Monarchies, which made it a little suspicious that they were Kings, to them that did not match time and History well together: One thing was, that after the death of Cambyses, 
Ammian● lib. 3.  for seven descents, the Magis held the Kingdom in their line and profession; but long before Christ's Birth they were cast out of that honour. 
Strabo, l. 16.  Strabo says, that in Augustus his reign they were no more than a College of Philosophers. Another thing was, that none of the Royal Blood could be inaugurated King of Persia, unless first he had been brought up in the instructions and wisdom of the Magis, 
l. 1. de Divin.  Nec quisquam Persarum Rex esse potest, qui non ante magorum disciplinam scientiamque perceperit, says Tully, Vt enim sapere, sic divinare regale ducebant. The old world thought it a princely thing to be very wise, yea, and to have skill in divinations: And as he adds, many of the Roman Kings went first through the Priestly Offices, were Augurs, Pontifices, and grew more venerable by their skill in Religion. Heli and Samuel were Priests that served at the Altar, and Judges of the people, Melchisedech a King and Priest of the most high God. Rex Anias Rex idem hominum Phaebique Sacerdos, says the best Poet. The Hasamonei or Maccabees, Levites and Princes of Judah; so it was as honourable in the Kings of Persia to be skilled in the Offices of Religion before they wore the Diadem. Now all this goes no further, but that every King of Persia was first a Magus; but it makes not for the false opinion which I refute, that every Magus was a King.  
Another inducement to be mistaken was, that there were certain Satrapae, Lieutenants of some Shires or great Cities in Persia, who were styled Kings by some to magnify the great King of Persia the more. So it is said of Tigranes in Armenia, that many Kings ministered unto him, and 70 Kings gathered meat under Adonibezeks table; and many of the Magis were such Kinglings, quidam Reguli, Rulers after that latitude. But God knows, there was no Sovereignty, or independent power in them, such as belongs unto a King. These were great Servants, but far under the title of their Master. I grant them to be very noble, and of dignified place. It appears by the respect which Herod gave them, by his privy conference with them, by a convocation gathered to resolve them, and by their rich presents which they offered to the babe. From hence let the honourable consider as well as the wise, that as it is the prudentest part in the world to seek out Christ, so it is an honour above all honours to worship him. So began the magnificence of Christmas-day, Priests that attended Religion, Wise men that ruled the State, honourable men whose blood was greatly ennobled; all these in the persons of these Magis came to worship the Lord, that the word was made flesh and dwelled among us.  
But when all the learning of the world hath busied itself about conjecture, this is evident truth and no conjecture, that they were Gentiles far remote from the Temple at Jerusalem, which God had chosen out above all the earth for the holy place of his honour. This is the reason that makes Twelfth-day so great a Feast throughout all the world; because in the person of the Wise men a door of Faith was opened unto the Nations that knew not God. As a Star is an heavenly body that is common to all Coasts and Climates to illuminate them, so the Birth of Christ was attended by a Star, because all people should partake of his Grace and Gospel. Behold ye the Philistines, and they of Tyre, with the Morions, lo there was he born, Psal. lxxxvii. 4. As who should say, it should be no prejudice to us that he was born among the Jews in the City of David, for his blessing shall be with us as much as if he had been born in every Country of the Gentiles. They that believe in Christ they are his Countrymen. They that hear the word of God and keep it, they are my Mother, and my Brothers, and my Sisters, says our Saviour. The Prophet Ionas who was a Type of Christ in none of his smallest works, but even in his glorious Resurrection, he was sent to the Gentiles of Ninive, to denote, that through Christ, that great Prophet whom the Lord would raise up, the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven should be opened to the Gentiles. But this is stale now, and little thought upon, because the sound of the word hath gone forth into the ends of the world for sixteen hundred years, who considers this merciful loving kindness as he ought? though at the first every small thing was admired, and it was marvellous in men's eyes, to see any partakers of the heavenly gift, but the very natural branches of the stock of Abraham. Christ himself wondered at the Centurion's Faith, for he was not of the house of Israel, he was astonished at the importunity and zeal of the Syro-phenisian, O woman, great is thy faith! at the Samaritan, who being a Samaritan, was thankful, when nine others were forgetful. These were rare occurrences in the beginning. And when St. Luke brings in his Shepherds to visit Christ in his manger, he doth not say, ecce pastors, behold there were Shepherds of the Jews that saw the Birth of our Lord: but St. Matthew lays an index of wonder upon these Gentiles, Ecce Magi, Behold there came Wise men of the East to Jerusalem. A great change as ever was in the world, to be remembered on this day with most festival Thanksgiving, but never to be forgotten. Every Nation loves to know, above all other Antiquities, when her people were converted to the Faith, as our Country reckons from King Lucius, the French from Clodoveus, but the whole world from this day, from the coming of the Wise men of the East to Jerusalem. But the end of this strange work should especially be kept in mind, and with that I end this point: Our Saviour told the Pharisees to what end God called the Gentiles, The kingdom of heaven shall be taken from you, and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof, Mat. xxi. 43.  
From hence I move a little forward with their motion to the next thing observed, Venerunt, they came; as if the Star had said unto them, seek ye my face, and they had answered with David, Thy face Lord will I seek. As soon as ever Christ was born, cum natus est, at that instant they set forward, and made no delay, Make no tarrying to turn to the Lord, and put not off from day to day, says the Wise man, Ecclus. v. 7. Remigius says, that the Wise men were brought through the air by an Angel to Jerusalem, as Habakkuk was taken up, when he carried meat to the Reapers: but what needed a Star to direct them, if they had not beaten out the way of themselves? the Scripture says not they were brought, but they came, they trod out a long journey with much cheerfulness, though with much distress to their wearied bodies: but where the carcase is, thither will the Eagles be gathered; and no happiness in any place but to be with the Lord. These were honourable persons, and of great account in their own Country, though they were not Kings, as I have adjudged it before, they could have spared their own labour, and have sent their servants into Judea, to have brought them tidings what strange thing had happened: and truly there are too many, that would have excused themselves by messengers, the way being so long and tedious between them and Christ: If it be far to Church from our own home, 'tis too common to mutter at it, and to maunder at a little way, every one would have a Chapel of Ease at his next door: as if it were fitter for Christ to come to them, than for them to come to Christ. You forget in the mean time that God considers your bodily labour; the molestations and inconveniences which you suffer in the flesh for his word sake. To do your Master's work with so much tenderness and easiness to your own person, is negligence and self love; and as you sow you shall reap. Herod, I pray you mark it, at the eighth verse of this Chapter, he would not move out of Jerusalem to look out Christ himself, and yet Bethlehem was but six miles off, but he sent the Wise men to Bethlehem, and bade them search diligently for the Child, and when they had found him bring him word; but because he sat still himself, and set others about it, he never found our Saviour. 
De Temp. Serm. 30.  Oleaster ad olivam non oliva ad oleastrum veniebat, says St. Austin. The wild Olive must come to the natural Olive to be engrafted into it, the natural Olive must not go to the wild Olive, Venite qui laboratis, Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden. The fountain must not come to the thirsty man, but the thirsty man must come to the fountain to drink.  
The place where the blessed babe lay, the Maker of his Mother, is worth the seeing to this day, worth their travel that have resorted to it from West and East; how much more worthy of a journey ten thousand times, when the glorious Infant himself was in the place? Most justly did our Saviour condemn the whole world, that the Queen of Sheba came from far to hear the Wisdom of Solomon; and yet the Gentiles did not flock so fast as they ought to have done, when a greater than Solomon was upon the earth. Tully speaks it of Crassus the Orator, as I remember, being lately departed, we came into the Senate house to look upon the place, where that renowned Senator was wont to stand. What part of Bethlehem, or Jerusalem, or Galilee is not a thousand times more worth the viewing, where any thing can be recalled to memory of Christ's Birth, or Miracles, of his Passion, his Resurrection, or Ascension into heaven? They that can stir up zeal and love to Jesus by those sights, in God's name for me let them enjoy their good affections. Yet for all I say this, the score is not clear between us and our adversaries, touching Pilgrimages, as they maintain them. The first things that were forbidden in the Reformation of the Church of England was worshipping of Images, and gadding to the Shrines of Saints in Pilgrimages: (Excepting the main point of cashiering the Pope's pretended Authority over the whole Church) those two abuses were the first things corrected by Authority in our Realm: therefore the Remists fly at us very fiercely, that we did not according to the most laudable example of the Magis in my Text, who made a Pilgrimage to Christ. What utter disagreement there is between their practice and this instance? here the Servants came to seek their living Lord in a strange Country; is there piety in it therefore for one servant to seek another? and the Lord living upon earth must be sought to; therefore the servant which is dead? or because Christ was thus sought to; therefore the fragments of Saints bodies? or the Sages did this by Gods calling through a Star; therefore they may creep to what Shrine and Monument they will without a calling? Finally, these came to Worship Christ the Eternal Saviour, they come to worship Creatures which is Idolatry: Therefore they may do well to let this example alone to them that will use it better. But so much for the Pilgrimage which will be more commended in the length of it; it was from the East to Jerusalem, and certain Wise men came from the East to Jerusalem.  
If it can probably be detected what Eastern Climate this was, from whence these Pilgrims set forth, we shall measure the true length of their journey with the same labour. It is all one from whence they came, unto that end for which they came, to worship the Son of God, and to get salvation through Faith in his Incarnation, Many shall come from the East, and from the West, and sit down with Abraham and Isaac in the Kingdom of God. East and West, all's alike, welcome from all parts of the world to the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the reason, I guess, why we have such a dark and confused expression in St. Matthew, to what region these Wise men did belong: for what can be more uncertain than to say indefinitely they came from the East? There is no place in the world but hath an Oriental point to some horizon, and so an Occidental point: Every part of the world is East and West to several degrees; but commonly if you speak of the East, and with no more addition, it is taken for that principal part of the habitable world which respects the rising of the Sun to us, and that's India. They that applied it so to my Text, and allow the Wise men to be the Inhabitants of the remotest Eastern Countries, are compelled to give them more than twelve days time for their journey. St. Austin in one place makes them begin their travel almost two years before Christ was born: others mistake as wide on the other side, that they came to Jerusalem two years after he was born; both of them regarded the 16, verse of this Chapter for their Direction, Herod sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old, and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men. St. Augustine's conjecture is easily laid aside, that the Magis were so long on their way before Christ was born; for the beginning of this Chapter is joined by a particle to the end of the next, by a particle of time, Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem: no star appeared, no Wise men made a progress to visit him till he was born in Bethlehem. The second opinion of coming two years after he was born, directly falls out with other circumstances of Scripture, For at the end of forty days the Mother and the Babe did quite leave Bethlehem; and when the days of Mary's Purification were accomplished, 
Luke two. 22.  they brought the child to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord; there Simeon had him in his arms, there Anna spoke of him to all that looked for redemption, and when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord they returned unto Galilee to their own City Nazareth, Luke two. 39 Therefore the wise men could not find him at Bethlehem, unless they prevented him before the forty days were accomplished: And for Herod's killing the children of two years old and under, nothing can be constantly collected from the malice, and overdoing of a Tyrant, Ex propria malitia ampliavit tempus, sicut & locum, as one says, he slew the children not only in Bethlehem, but in all the coasts round about. As he suspected more places than he needed; so he killed not only new born babes, but all of two years old, and like an insatiate Tyrant suspected more persons than he needed. And as Euthymius says, the Magis could not tell him how long Christ was born before the Star appeared: Therefore he slew all the male children from two years old, and under, before the appearing of the Star. The inference of thus much which I have opened upon the case is the coming of the Wise men to Christ, was at least within the compass of forty days before the Purification: therefore no colour to make us suspect, that they were inhabitants in the furthest Regions of the East.  
But strictly, and after a very usual form of speech, the East is that Country in this place, which lay East from Palestina, or the Country of Jury; and so their own home is said to lie nearer or further off, according to several surmises of the learned; some fetching them hard by from the bordering Countries of Arabia: so Justin Martyr says they came out of Arabia, because they brought such gifts as Myrrh and Frankincense; and that was called East in regard of the holy Land; for Job that lived in the land of Huss near to Arabia, is said to be the richest of all that dwelled in the East. St. Chrysostom adjudgeth them to have been of Mesopotamia, and of the posterity of Balaam dwelling in that fruitful land: And Balaam says that Balaac the King of Moab brought him from Aram out of the Mountains of the East, Numb. xxiii. 7. Mesopotamia was East to Jerusalem, and seven or eight common days journey from it; for Laban coming from Mesopotamia overtook Jacob at Libanus in seven days: And the learned Steuchus holds, that the Wise men of Chaldea were called Magis before those of Persia. All this favours the opinion of St. Chrysostom, and lays their journey to be much the shorter.  
But as I laid it down in the first point, the Magis were best known over all the world to be the Priests, and Satrapae, or chief counsellors of Persia, and with greatest trust that can be had to conjectures, we may say, they made a Voyage from Persia to Jerusalem to see our Saviour. Now the nearest confines of Persia are but 200 leagues from Jerusalem; and the Camels of those Countries, as good Authors testify upon their own experience, will travel forty leagues a day; by which proportion it may be collected how possible it is to come in twelve days from the most Eastern parts of Persia to Jerusalem.  
In Divine matters even the smallest things should be diligently sifted, therefore I would not let this circumstance go till I had vindicated it from obscurity: and now these Travellers deserve their commendation, and we their imitation. They lived in honour and safety in their own Country, but Patria est ubicunquè est Christus, that's a man's Country and his home where Christ is reverently worshipped, and where the fear of God is in the place, Harken, O daughter, and consider, incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house. What is honour and safety to a man at home, if true Religion be abroad? (God be thanked we have both) therefore these honourable persons leave their own Country as Abraham did, (I will not extol their faith more than his, or his more than theirs; comparisons are odious) they could not come from the East to Judea, but by Arabia Petrea, a most rocky cumbersome Country, and by Arabia deserta a most thievish murdering Country: and from the heavens above they could have no better comfort at this time of the year, but either bitter frosts to travel in, or foul winter weather, and to continue thus for twelve days together, it was a great proof of zeal and patience, that would run through all difficulties to be satisfied in this one question, Where is he that is born the King of the Jews? twelve day's journey do I speak of? nay, twelve furlongs are a great matter for persons of quality to come to Church, if it mizzle with a little rain, or the air be sharp, or the place thronged, or any slight inconvenience to keep them away: and yet I must tell you these were Wise men that came to Christ through thick and thin, through dread and danger, strid over all molestations; therefore, unless you will have me leave my Text, I cannot call them wise that will spare themselves from God's service for every trifle of inconveniency.  
The cape from whence they came affords one short note more, that they were Easterlings; for in that capacity they were not only Gentiles, but of such Gentiles as had provoked God to anger more ab antiquo dierum, from many ages before, than any other Nation. They were not only Gentiles, but sinners of the Gentiles, as St. Paul says, Gal. two. 15. The tower of Babel was built in the East, that tower whose builders erected it as it were in defiance of heaven: from thence came tyranny with Nimrod that oppressed his people; and, as Histories tell us, the first invention of Images sprung from those parts, in that Tomb which Belus made for the untimely departure of his Son: and from the Mountains of the East came Balaam, and the false Prophets, that loved the wages of iniquity. I cannot say it confidently as St. Chrysostom doth, that these wise men were the best of all those sinners in the East, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that these were better composed to believe than any other. It is manifest this Eastern part of the world was as full of sins as any; and the Scripture placeth nothing in their person, that they had better morality than their fellows; it was the Lords free mercy and compassion, that the Star of his Grace should shine upon them, and that they were selected above many thousands, where all of them, some in greater measure, some in less deserved to sit in the shadow of death, and to die in eternal condemnation: and when Christ was scarce born we see the largeness of his grace, that it was diffused to the furthest parts of the world, and the freeness of his grace, that he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. A blessed Birth, by which many were made alive unto God, who were dead in sins and trespasses. A blessed apparition by which the dayspring from on high hath visited us. A blessed Incarnation by which the wicked mass of our nature is sanctified. A blessed calling of the Gentiles, by which all Tongues and Languages do praise the Lord from the East unto the West, from the North unto the South, O praise the Lord all ye kindreds of the earth, for he hath done marvellous things for us, in giving us his Child Jesus to be our sanctification, and redemption. Amen.   

THE FOURTEENTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION.  MAT. two. 1, 2. 
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the King, behold there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem.  
Saying, where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his Star in the East, and are come to worship him.  
SInce the Lord's day, and the Feast of the Epiphany do light together, this holy day is sure to be observed with frequent Assemblies in all Christian Churches, as it is at this time, in this place. But in former Ages, and in the most devout times, when religious men studied for the fittest occasions to praise the Lord this Epiphany, which we call Twelfth-day, though it fell upon any day of the week, was kept with the presence of the noblest persons, with as much outward honour, with as solemn service, with as many testifications of zeal and joy as any day in the year. For, to crown it with more blessings than one, the memory of three illustrious manifestations of Christ were celebrated upon this feast. First, that which is rememorated in our Church, and no more, the bringing of the Gentiles to Bethlem to see the Lord by the assistance of a Star, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that's the most renowned apparition. Secondly, The Baptism of our Saviour was computed to this day, when the Holy Ghost gave testimony who he was, descending upon his head in the shape of a Dove, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. For the honour of these two memorable accidents Nazianzen calls it festum sanctorum luminum, the feast of sacred lights or illuminations, for Baptism is called our illumination. Thirdly, The miracle of turning water into wine was remembered together for the third manifestation of Christ, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, St. John says, this beginning of miracles did Jesus in Canae of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory. Leo and Chrysologus speak of these three glorious works to be solemnised at this one time; and Bernard, a much later man than they, goes no further, Tres apparitiones Domini legimus unâ quidem die, sed non uno tempore factas; We celebrate three mighty apparitions of our Lord all in one day, though they fell not out all in one time. Therefore not St. Austin, but some other forgetful Author said in 29 Serm. de Temp. that Christ was magnified for a fourth renowned work also upon that day, namely, for the first miracle of the loaves and fishes. Concerning the first three I have authority enough in ancient Writers, and three such miracles to be celebrated in the offices of one feast are enough to give it a principal reputation.  
So gladsome a festival it was, chiefly to sing praises to the Lord for the calling of the Gentiles, that if either King or Potentate withdrew himself from Church on this day it was enough to tax him for a Pagan, and that he did abhor the Gospel. Therefore such as write of Julian the Emperor, and his deep hypocrisy, note in him, that for many years he would come in all Princely pomp to God's house at this feast, lest he should have seemed openly and directly to have renounced all Christianity. I have told you in what price and estimation this Festival was held of old, because nothing was so precious to the Gentiles as their own salvation. Therefore I hope you will do the day that common right to give diligent ear to some portion of the Scripture, while I entreat upon it with what persons, and miracles, and other circumstances the preamble of our calling and illumination began. In the Epistle for the day, if you mark it, we forget not Paul's kindness, that he was a prisoner for us Gentiles, Eph. 3.1. it is worth our thanks and remembrance: much more is it worth the recitation in the Gospel, what Christ became for our sakes, a condition far meaner than for an Apostle to become a prisoner. Paul from a sinful man became a diligent Apostle, Christ being God came unto us in the shape of a sinful man, of an impotent Babe: and was bound, though not in fetters, yet in swaddling clouts, laid up in a Manger as contemptible a corner as a gaol; and being all innocency reputed for our sakes worse than Barrabas, the greatest scandal of the prison; of him St. Paul did preach, and the Prophets did preach, and the Stars did preach, and these Wisemen did preach that we Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of the same promise in Christ.  
I have been copious upon the descent and stock, and other qualities of these wise men, upon their coming, upon their journey so long and perilous from the East to Jerusalem. Three things do equally divide my whole matter, the doings and the sayings of these Pilgrims, and the occasion of both. For their doings and sayings to be equally regarded upon this Text I find that I concur with St. Chrysostom, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, see the virtue of these Wise men, both to come so far, and to speak so far; to come from home for Christ's sake, and to speak so home for Christ's sake, Where is he that is born, etc. The occasion of all is now to be handled, Now when Jesus was born; which is opened by two circumstances, of the place, that was in Bethlem; and of the time, In the days of Herod the King. Now their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or boldness of speaking the truth is drawn to two heads by the Fathers, Vnum quaerunt, & unum asserunt, say they, but here is one question, and two assertions: The confident question, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? The assertions, first, What God had wrought for them, We have seen his Star in the East. Secondly, What God had wrought in them, And are come to worship him. And in the beginning I take the occasion in hand.  
Now when Jesus was born. Is that the Axel upon which all the business of these Eastern Travellers turns itself? No wonder if that beget a great holy day, for Christ's birth is the occasion of all the holy days in the year; If you keep some days festival for the Evangelists, you know how they deserve it, because they were his Penmen and Recorders; if other times are celebrated for the Martyrdom of the Apostles, because they were his Witnesses; the Innocents' of Bethlehem were slain in his quarrel; and Michael and all the Angels fight for the Church, because Christ is the head both of things in heaven, and of things in earth. All our joy, all our triumphs, all our glory move from hence, and from this occasion, Now when Jesus was born. But to what end was all this haste? Why should they make forward to see the Child as soon as ever he was born? What could they report of him when they returned home but that they had seen an Infant? His Tongue was not apt to speak as yet, nor his hands to show any proof of strength and mightiness. They might have spared their labour, one would think, till he had been well grown to years of action and perfection; nay, but the Star calls them forth, and will not let them loiter; if they omit this opportunity, God knows whether ever they have the benefit of a Star to usher them again. The Lord above did know, and the new Creature this strange Star did preach it, and the hearts of the Wisemen were enlightened to understand it; that there was occasion enough to call all the heathen, or at least the wisest of the heathen, or at least the Princes of the West; I say, to call them from the ends of the world to Judea, to see this little Bethlemite lately born, yet greater than all the Angels, though they spring not from fleshly generation: to see him suck at the breasts of Mary for a few drops of milk, who feeds every living thing with plenteousness; to see him supported in a Mother's arms, who sustains the whole world by his power, and founded the Elements upon nothing; to see him cast his eyes about, and newly peep out of those lids of flesh, to whom all things lie naked and discovered, even the darkness of the pit, and the secrets of the heart of man. Nothing can be said, nothing can be thought of this birth but is so mysterious and incomprehensible, that the silly Shepherds, who could not ponder those Magnalia Dei, those Metaphysics which the Angels told them, made known abroad the things which they had heard concerning this Child; but as for these Wisemen, that could delve into a Mystery, when they saw the young Child they fell down, and worshipped him, and presented him with their Treasures; but we do not read of one word they spoke either at Bethlem, or when they returned home to their own Country; the thing was ineffable, and perhaps they praised God in silence and admiration, that such a Child was born, but could not utter it.  
Such as would travel for wisdom had enough occasion for their journey, were it never so far, to behold the very Nativity, though abstracted from the blessing that grows unto it, Oritur origo rerum, that he should have any kind of being in time, who is Ens entium, the cause and fountain of all being, before ever time began. But take him with the stile he had from his very birth, and then every thing must draw towards him, that will not wilfully lose itself, for he is jesus natus, a Saviour born. A man that is like to perish is willing to catch hold of any thing to save himself; whole Kingdoms and Empires, when they are in distress, are ready to put their trust in any man that hath courage to defend them. Alas these are Salvatores facti, Saviour's made, and deliverers by accident, sometimes they help a little, sometimes they quite fail; great expectations are often raised of them, and of a sudden all hopes are chilled, like Augustus his Marcellus, full of great promises, but Hunc tantum terris ostendunt fata, neque ultra esse sinunt, after a little while snatched away, and when the breath of man goes forth, than all his thoughts and our expectations perish; but he that is jesus natus, a Saviour from his birth, yea, and before his birth, he is a Saviour from everlasting, and his deliverances shall never fail. This indeed was worth all the pains the Wisemen could take, though they had run through fire and water, to see that Redeemer, who could make it good as soon as ever he was born, to all that believed in him, this day is Salvation come unto your house, whose birth from the womb was as the dew of the morning which watered all the earth. Beloved, I draw the Point to this instruction, Christus quotidie nascitur sapientibus, though there be but one Christmas day in the year, yet Christ is every day born unto them that are wise in faith: So often as with all due circumstances of Piety you importune the Lord to be reconciled unto you, and to blot out the hand-writing of enmities which is against you, so often a Saviour is born unto you. Move towards him continually, Non pedibus, sed affectibus, not with bodily paces, but with spiritual affections, by love, by obedience, by prayer, by visiting his holy Temple, by drawing near to his most holy Table, by desiring to be dissolved, to be out of the body, that you may be in bliss with him for ever: If you guide not the Compass of your Voyage towards him, which way can you go and not wander dangerously? If he be absent far from you, O run out to seek him: and when ye are yet far off he will run to meet you, so did the Father in the Parable to his reclaimed prodigal Child. Wise Virgins will go forth to meet the Bridegroom; Wisemen will leave the ease and sweetness of their own Country to find out and worship their Saviour; all other joggings about the more they keep off from this, the more they incline to folly. Go therefore to find out Christ this day, or any day, and Christ is born unto you. And so much for the occasion both of their doings, and of their sayings, reduced to the best of all occasions, Now when Jesus was born.  
And this birth hath two circumstances of great consideration, the former is of the place, in Bethlehem of Judea. A place recorded in Scripture, not for any dignity that Christ had by it to be brought forth there; every man thinks well of his native soil, as Paul could not refrain to set forth his Tarsus of Cilicia with honourable mention, that he was a Citizen of no ignoble City; but it is but small lustre that the place can cast upon any man, wheresoever it is his lot to be teemed; the name of Bethlehem stands not here upon any such regard, but to show that all things were come to pass, which the Prophets had foretold concerning the days of Christ: for because our Saviour was laid in his Cradle, and did not speak for himself, here are five Prophecies in my Text that speak for him. First, That Bethlehem was the seat of his first infancy, the Scribes themselves confess that the Prophet Micah said it should be so, Chap. v. 2. But thou Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth unto me he that is to be Ruler in Israel. Secondly, The time, in the days of Herod the King, falls out as Jacob prophesied, Gen. xlix. The Sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. This misery was now come to pass in the days of Herod, a stranger of the Gentiles ruled over them, and the like was never before (excepting the little space of the Babylonish Captivity) since the time they came out of Egypt. Thirdly, The apparition of the Star was anciently mentioned, There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel. It is Balaams' Parable, but the Spirit of God compelled him to utter it, Num. xxiv. 17. Fourthly, The coming of these Wisemen is a Prophetical Prediction, Isa. lx. 3. The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and Kings to the brightness of thy rising. Fifthly, Their Presents, and the Treasures which they offered up are spoken of in a noted Psalm, The Kings of Tarsis and of the Isles shall give gifts, the Kings of Arabia and Saba shall bring Presents. In two verses an allusion to five Prophecies, and all scattered in several Prophets, and all fulfilled together in one concurrency: I do not remember where the like is to be found; but the wisdom of God which disposeth all things so sweetly is wonderful in our eyes.  
But among all these particulars foretold by the Spirit of God, in the present Point I labour to illustrate no more, but that our Saviour was a Bethlehemite. The whole Convocation of chief Priests and Scribes resolved Herod that Christ must be born there, in three verses after my Text. The Jews both of old, and even to this day, as I read in credible Authors, teach their Children by way of Catechism all the Prophecies that concern the Messias, it is likely it was so of old, for every body could speak of this place at the first hearing if you did but name the Messias. It is true that the usual abode of his Parents was Nazareth in Galilee; this did stumble divers good men that were willing to believe. Says Nathanael, Can any good come out of Nazareth? His meaning is, could the chief good come out of Nazareth that should bring redemption to Israel? And in the seventh of S. John others that took him for a Prophet objected, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the Scripture said, that Christ cometh of the Seed of David, and out of the Town of Bethlehem where David was? Now the perverse Jews at this day, with whom the holy Evangelists and their relations are in no credit, prevaricate with the Prophecy of Micah, that it was verified in Zorobabel. So they cavilled in St. Chrysostoms' and Theodoret's days, but admitting that Zorobabel was a Bethlehemite, it is passed their skill to make those words of the Prophet suit with him, Out of thee shall come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been of old from everlasting. Can this be meant of any mortal man, when you hear him measured not by time, but by days of Eternity? This is invincible I suppose against the incredulous. But some sharp-witted Rabbins do recriminate, that our Evangelists words are quite contrary to the Prophecy of Micah, the one says, Thou Bethlehem Ephrata though thou be little among the thousands of Israel. St. Matthew very differently, Thou Bethlehem in the land of Judea art not the least among the Princes of Judah. The least, and not the least, some good interpretation must salve it or it will remain a flat contradiction. One usual reconciliation hath fallen from many Pens, that Bethlehem was very little for territory of ground, or sumptuousness of buildings, (it seems so, that there was but small receipt in it, by the entertainment of the Blessed Virgin, who was delivered in a Stable) but it was no little seat for honour, that the Governor came out of it who should repair the ruins of Israel, and of all Nations. This is a most sensible distinction in itself, but considering that one of these Texts are the quotation of another, it agrees not to me, as if it ended the Controversy. Junius is of that mind, but for a quainter reason, the Scribes would terrify Herod with the expectation of the Messias, and would not relate the Text, 
Aug. de Cons. E●n. l. 3. cap. 7.  thou Bethlehem art little, but thou Bethlehem art not the least, the more to vex the Tyrant. St. Hierom hath a strange fetch to solder all up, that St. Matthew allegeth the words, not originally by the Copy of Micah, but purposely wrong to discredit the chief Priests and Scribes, whose negligence or perverseness was such that they miscited the holy Scriptures to Herod. Though this of St. Hieroms be questionable, yet some others of his own time are much more to be rejected, who grant most dangerously, that some forgetfulness might be incident to the Evangelist through humane infirmity, yet for the better edifying of the Church by the dispensation of the Holy Ghost. 
Lib. 2. c. 11.  Much better St. Austin in another place, all falsehood is abhorrent from an Evangelist, Non solum ea que mentiendo promitur, sed etiam ea que obliviscendo: Not only that which is derived from wilful lying, but even from weak forgetfulness. To be short, among all that toss these words about in their Expositions, I stick close to them that read the words both of the Prophet, and the Evangelist, without any difference: and that's done by drawing Micha's words into an interrogation, Thou Bethlehem Ephrata art thou little among the thousands of Israel? So St. Matthew varies not a jot to say, Thou Bethlehem art not the least among the Princes of Judah. This is no ungrounded conjecture, for learned Authors say, that some ancient Copies of the Septuagint read the Prophet interrogatively; so do some Gothick Testaments translated, as it is thought 1200 years since. Such another place just to match it, is in Isaiah xlix. 6. the Text is bend to speak of Christ, and you must help the sense by a meiosis in the pronunciation, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Judah, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will give thee for a light unto the Gentiles, It is a light thing, says Isaiah, but the Septuagint turn it, It is a great thing that thou shouldest be my servant: and the Chaldee Paraphrast reconciles both by interrogation, Nunquid parum est? is it a small thing that thou shouldest be my servant? so by making an interrogation of those words of the Old Testament, you may unite them easily to the New. And so I have set in joint Micha's Prophecy, that Christ came out of Bethlehem.  
A City worthy for his sake that was born in it, not only to have a strange Star hang over it like a Canopy, but for ever to be called the Star of all Cities, 
Adrichom. Theat. T. S.  the glory of the whole earth. Such as have viewed it, and observed it with their bodily eyes commend it, and Mount Tabor for the most delicious ground in all Palestina. Here the Mother of our Lord brought him forth, there He was transfigured in glory. From Jerusalem to Bethlehem, which are six miles in sunder, all fruitfulness and pleasures are to be found, which that part of the world affords. I know our Saviour had no need of these fleshly delights, who came to endure miseries, and sorrows; yet the earth owed him all the delicacies it could bring forth, especially to bedeck the seat of his Nativity. And I collect the curiosity of the sight from hence, that St. Hierom says, after the desolation of the Country, that Idolaters were possessed of the land; Adonis his Grove was erected where Bethlehem once had flourished; 
Ep. ad Paulinam.  and all Scholars know the meaning of Adonidis horti, Adonis his Gardens were the choicest Fields that could be found. I need not rehearse that St. Hierom spent his best days, and ended his last days at Bethlehem; or that Helen the Mother of Constantine founded so glorious a Church there, that all the world, as far as I can hear, are not able at this day, to show such a pile of building; besides four Monasteries within those walls of her own cost and erection; in one of which the most Holy Paula, a Roman Lady of the great race of the Scipio's, magnified God's name day by day for the Incarnation of Christ, until her own soul left it in carnation. These inhabitants it had, not for the sweetness and commodiousness of the place, which I speak of, but to befit them in their prayers, and contemplations. Here they did often eat the bread of Angels in Bethlehem, which is by interpretation the house of bread. And should not the living bread, which came down from heaven first appear among men in the house of bread? This day, and many other days the table of the Lord is our Bethlehem, our house of bread; of which we may say, after the words of the Prophet forenamed, And thou loaf of bread consecrated for that holy use, art but plain and common food, out of which every one can have but little of them that participate; yet every one whose heart believes unto righteousness, shall with thee receive that body which was born for thee in the manger, and broken for thy sins upon the Cross, that thou mightest inherit eternal life.  
I will not fill up the time with those other reasons which some give, to design out Bethlehem as more fit for this Nativity, than any other seat of the world. The Scripture hath uttered but one thing that way, and by the mouth of the Jews, He cometh out of the Town of Bethlehem, where David was, John seven. 41. The Son of David was born there, that you may be more certain of the promises, that he came of the stock and lineage of David. That little nest had hatched many famous rulers; Ibzan that ruled all Israel most righteously and prudently, a true Ephrathite, as fruitful in his loins, as the Country was of all store; He had thirty sons and thirty daughters, Judg. xii. 8. beside him Elimelech, and Obed, and Isai, and David, and all his valiant brethren: Bethlehem had been an happy Seminary of renowned persons, nunc aliquid supra heroas, after all the former progeny it brought forth at last one of more heroical virtue, even Christ the Lord. And see how many businesses are secretly and unawares administered for divine purposes. Caesar Augustus taxeth all the world for acknowledgement of homage, and to fill his Exchequer; but God did drive it to a greater end, that Mary might come with Joseph to the City of David, and not be delivered of her Babe out of his own Country, Coegit Deus imperatoris edictum prophetiae veritati servire, God caused the Emperor's Laws and Edicts to make way to the fulfilling of sacred Prophecies. Pharaoh allotted the Children of Israel to the land of Goshen to attend his herds and flocks: God had another more principal intention to advance his own glory by their abode in Egypt. Pilate transmitted our Saviour to Herod, and Herod to Pilate again, Ad captandam benevolentiam, to make themselves as good friends, as great men use to be; but the judge that sits above all made them both serve for this end, that neither this, nor that, nor any other unrighteous ruler should be able to find any thing but innocency in him, who was a ●a●b without blemish. God's ends are the magisterial and great ends that set even heathen Princes a-work to bring them to pass; so the commands of the Roman Caesar did instrumentally serve for this, that Christ was born in Bethlehem.  
I proceed to the next circumstance of this Nativity, the time set down according to the King's Reign wherein it fell out, in the days of Herod the King. To reckon men's Nativities from the years of Consuls, or from the Reigns of Kings is a most usual computation; their lives are marks of remembrance upon many casualties passed to all succeeding ages: So certain it is that the worst of Princes, as well as the best, shall never be forgotten. Therefore it is a good advice which the Historian gives, that Kings and Rulers have all things at their pleasure, and live not in want of any thing, while their breath lasts, Sed unum insatiabiliter parandum, prospera sui memoria, 
Tacitus Annal. lib. 4.  but one thing must be studied with all providence, that they leave a prosperous memory behind them. The two and twenty years of Jeroboams reign, the days of Herod's reign, were dismal times; and happier for them to have been buried in silence: But as a sulphurous light that smells ill will be seen as well as the sweetest, because it is a light; so the age of a wicked Prince is a perpetual mark of remembrance, as well as better times. The mention of Herod will come about, though he have no fame but infamy, though death gnaweth upon him, yet he lives in this Text, that Christ was born in the days of Herod the King.  
But I pray you is this all? no more but the time simply set down in such a reign, when the Nativity fell out? Majus opus moveo; there goes much more to it than so: and if one reason be not enough, you shall have two to explicate it. First, To denote what calamities were in that wretched state of the Jews when Christ came into the world: for Herod is remembered at his Birth, as Pilate is brought into the Creed to fill up the Article of his Passion. He could never have been born under a worse Tyrant than Herod, nor likely have suffered under a more unjust Magistrate than Pilate. The days of Herod the King, those were evil days, days of affliction, days of taxes, days of captivity; their children were slain, their glory was departed, Judas Sceptre clean broken. When their case was so pitiful than cometh the Redeemer, when it was so dark than riseth the Star. As his Birth fell out in the sharpest time of the year; in the depth of Winter, so it was every where thereabout the very depth of discontent and misery: and this had lasted very long. Hard affliction and long continuance, what can be more intolerable? Some Postillers show their wit upon these words, that they are called the days of Herod the King, Obbrevitatem temporis in quo reges dominantur, for the period of their reign comes quickly about and after a few days are over, their glory departs with them; and then dust to dust. 'Tis only God that reigns without computation of days for ever and ever. This is a specious conceit, but no comfort to Judah; for Herod had crushed them under thraldom and slavery almost 30 years before Christ came to comfort them; and yet they are called the days of Herod. To make you a brief of a long story, thus stood the case. The Jews had rather have died, than be driven from the letter of their Law; especially in Ceremonies, or judicious statutes. Now one of their republic Laws, and the very chief was this, Deut. xvii. 15. That their King must be chosen from among their brethren, thou mayst not set a stranger over thee which is not thy Brother. And they were so happy, that their rulers were of their own stock from Moses to this man, that then usurped upon them. But how was it then altered? certain rulers called Hasamonei were Princes of that Commonwealth a hundred years together after the captivity: Of that race one Hircanus at last a sluggish man being their Prince, Antipater the Father of this Herod dispatched many businesses for him, and was employed in several Embassies from Jerusalem to Rome. In a word, Antipater and his Sons did all. Hircanus' dying, Herod was constituted King of the whole land which belonged to all the tribes of Israel first by the gift of M. Antony, then by the power of Augustus, and lastly by the confirmation of the whole Senate: but the Jews struggled against Herod's yoke almost 30 years, to shake it off. Much effusion of blood it caused, and when it could not be remedied, they endured it without hope ever to have it helped. So in the height of this sadness and desperation, lo Christ was born in the days of Herod the King. When all assistance of this world fails, than God is nearest: When the Seas work tempestuously, than Christ is walking upon the waves. When the Apostles laboured hard, and could get nothing to sustain them, than God fills their nets with store that they are ready to break: and when calamities are very bitter, and the enemies of the Church in the height of their pride, than what remains but to say, nay to sing it with David, The time is come that thou have mercy upon Zion, yea, O Lord the time is come.  
One of our own Prelates lighted upon a most pithy observation, that all the chief Prophecies about Christ came unto the Israelites when they were most out of heart, and needed comfort. Jacob's, Balaam's, Isaiah's, Daniel's, Haggai's; either they were in Egypt, or among fiery Serpents in the Wilderness, or in Babylon, or in some woeful plight, when Christ was promised; but that was a sudden way to stop the course of all sorrow. I cannot stand upon it, for I must now declare the second reason why Jesus is said to be born in the days of Herod the King, to refer the hearers to jacob's Prophecy, that if Herod reign, than the Messias must come. The tenor of Jacob's Prophecy bears that sense, as the most learned Christians say; it is extant, Gen. xlix. 10. The Sceptre doth not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come. The learned in the Hebrew tongue say, that Shebeth is a Tribe as well as a Sceptre, and the sense may be, the Tribe of Judah shall continue distinct until Christ's coming, whereas the other ten Tribes were scattered, and confused by captivity. But the most learned do assent, what we translate a Sceptre very well, imports Princedom. The Septuagint hath it, A Prince shall not depart from Judah; nay, the Scripture gives light to that sense in other places. Judah is my lawgiver, Psal. lx. 9 And again, 1 Chron. v. 2. Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief rulers. The Chaldee Paraphrase doth notably make good the words for the Christian cause. He that hath dominion shall not be taken away from Judah, nor a Scribe from his children's children, until the Christ come, whose the Kingdom is, and him shall the people obey. The Jerusalem targum as I find it quoted by faithful Authors, hath as famous a gloss as that. King's shall not cease from the house of Judah, nor Doctors that teach the Law, until the time that the King Christ do come, whose the Kingdom is, and all the Kingdoms of the earth shall be subject unto him: the best judgements no way prejudicated did ever so interpret it: Therefore Herod having wrung the Sceptre from Judah, this was the time for the Saviour of the world to come.  
Two things are cast cross in the way to elude the Prophecy, which doubts I must clear up for the honour of this day: First, that neither our Saviour, or his Evangelists did ever make use of that saying of Jacob in the New Testament, to prove that the day of the Lord was come: why, no more doth any Apostolical Writer in the New Testament apply that act of Abraham's to our Saviour's Passion, when he took his only Son Isaac to offer him up for a whole burnt-offering. Yet the Church reads that Chapter for the first Lesson on Good Friday, and did ever so conceive it, and that for good reason; for Isaac was a Type of Christ, In Isaac shall thy seed be blessed. But another scruple is more cumbersome to be removed. It may seem that the Sceptre was departed from Judah, even from those days that Zedekiah was carried away into captivity from Zerobabel, or a little after, to Herod, many hundred years, some of the stock of Levi had the superiority; therefore Shiloh did not come when the government was taken from Judah; and then the Prophecy will not serve our turn, to apply the Nativity of Christ to the days of Herod, upon necessary connexion. For answer, there are many ways to the Wood, as we say proverbially, yet but one fair satisfaction, that I can meet withal, which consists of two heads: First, that the Sceptre which Jacob foretold should not depart till Shiloh came, belonged to the whole Nation of the Jews. Secondly, that appropriatively and principally it belonged to the Tribe of Judah; and upon these two hangs the truth of the Prophecy. You know that which agrees with the event and success of a thing, is the best interpretation of a Prophecy; and upon the event it is manifest, the Jews had a Governor of their own lineage, from Moses until this Herod, whose Father was an Edomite, and his Mother an Ishmaelite. That short interruption of 70 years in the Babylonish captivity is not considerable in so many hundred years: but the Government at sundry ages sometimes fell to the lot of one Tribe, sometimes to another. From Moses to David the Judges were sometimes Ephramites, sometimes Danites of Zabulon, of Judah, of other stocks promiscuously. From David to Zedekiah 470 years the lineage of David had the pre-eminence; from the return of the captivity to this Herod the Hasamonei or Levites sat at the stern: but still he was an Israelite born, and not a stranger, till God appeared in the flesh. All that time before, it was Regnum Judaicum, a Judaical Kingdom, though not in the power of a man of Judah.  

Lib. 18. Civ. Dei. cap. 45. Euseb. lib. 1. Hist. cap. 6.  Saint Austin saw this was the safest construction, Non defuit Judeorum Princeps ex ipsis Judeis usque ad Herodem alienigenam. J●dea did not want a Prince that was a a Jew, until Herod the Foreigner usurped upon them, and before him in Eusebius days the current went that way, says he, The prediction of Jacob was not fulfilled, while Princes lasted of the Jewish Progeny; but from that time that Christ was born, there were no Princes, Ex Juda, aut ex Judaeorum familia, either of Judah, or of the Jewish blood. But because Jacob vented this Prophecy in the benediction of his Son Judah, I will add briefly, that the glory which was common to all the Jews, did fall and rest principally upon the tribe of Judah. To make this even, you must put many considerations together; their name and Nation did flourish most from that time that David a man of Judah was chosen King by God, and anointed by Samuel: all the Kings from him to Zedekiah for 470 years were of the same family. So Judah had the most honourable time of government. After they came home out of captivity, 'tis true that in a little while certain Levites had the principality, yet still the glory was Judah's: For Jacob foresaw that the whole band of Israelites that come from Babylon should be called Jews, from Judah, and after for ever. Almost the whole Country they lived in was only Judah's lot and inheritance. The chief Metropolis Jerusalem where the Prince resided, was at first indeed in the lot of Benjamin, but ever since David's conquest it fell to Judah. Except the person of the Ruler all was Judah's: the Sceptre therefore did not depart from Judah, though the person did: And those Levites that commanded all were called not the Princes of Levi, but of Judah; therefore Judah did not lose his glory quite, until Herod thrust him from it: So that now the great work of the Lord was to come to pass, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, and Jesus was born in the days of Herod the King. My Author, whom I follow, gives a good instance to illustrate it, that the Crown of Spain is devolved by the Marriage of a female Heir to the house of Austria, but the dominion is still Spanish. So the power was devolved upon the Levites, but the dominion was still Judah's, until Shiloh came. So I have done with the occasion of these Wise men's coming, because Christ was born; which birth I have examined from the place, and the time; from the place Bethlehem, and the time in the days of Herod the King.  
I do not profess to deal with the sayings of the Wise men at this time, the consideration of that verse will be an hours work at the least; but I will borrow a little with your patience, for the use of the day out of their question, which is most natural to be spoken of on this high Feast of Christmas, where is he that is born the King of the Jews? God that told them by a Star that his Son was born, could have told them where he was born, and have saved them that labour to ask it; but the Lord thought it more expedient to let them be ignorant for a while, to prove their diligence how they would search it out. When they came to Judea they found not out Christ strait; no more shall we be perfect men in Christ upon the first gust, and illumination of heavenly things. Yet we think commonly, when we have gone a little way, we are at our journey's end, we have found out all that can be found; and for the rest, let nature work, and grace too if it will. It is not good laying hold of that place of the Prophet, Isa. lxv. 1. I was found of them that sought me not. Some are so happy, but all have not that favour from God, Seek and ye shall find is the Text we must trust to. Those are the righteous indeed, of whom David speaks, This is the generation of them that seek thee, even of them that seek thy face, O Jacob.  
I proceed, they sought, and asked for this blessed Infant, but at the wrong place; for they took in at Jerusalem, and sought him there. It seems the position of the Star guided them to the Land of Judea, and then their own apprehension made choice of Jerusalem before any other City. A King was born, Jerusalem the imperial habitation; they concluded like men, certainly he is household there. This was the mistake, a humane error: but as St. Austin speaks to it, Ratione duce non invenitur qui de Caelo revelatus est. Reason was no good Harbinger to appoint him his lodging, whose birth was revealed from heaven. My ways are not your ways, nor my thoughts your thoughts, says the Lord, Isa. lv. His birth was private, but his passion public. At Bethlehem you shall hear of his Nativity, and at Jerusalem of his Passion. All the while they were lodged in Jerusalem the Star which guided them obscured itself, because they were out of the way. While they followed humane conjectures, they were disappointed of their heavenly direction.  
Yet it cannot be withstood but that God had some secret hand in it, that they asked this question in Jerusalem before they fell upon the right place: The Father's meditation is more plausible than solid, that it was an expostulation with the Princes of Judah, why they had not lodged their King that was born in the chief City, and in their chief Palace, Cur in praesepi jacet, & non decumbit in templo? cur non fulget in purpura, sed squalet in pannis? why should he lie in a manger, and not in the most holy place of the Temple? why is he wrapped in poor habiliments, and not in Purple and Gold? but this expostulation need not; for he came not to challenge the world, that they did not attend him with pomp and honour, but because they would not believe in him that was sent to save them. These following are more substantial answers: First, to Jerusalem they came, and so to the Priests; because howsoever God may call some by revelations, and visions: yet he sends them afterwards to be confirmed by the Doctrine of his Priests and Prophets. So Paul saw a light from heaven at first, as these men saw a Star; but Paul was sent to the Ministry of the word, to Annanias to preach unto him. So Cornelius began with the vision of an Angel, but he was made a complete Christian and Baptised by the Ministry of Peter. Beloved, though God give extraordinary helps to call us to salvation, yet wise men will go to the Scribes to ask of them where Christ is, The Priest's lips shall preserve knowledge. But as one says, now every artisan thinks he is a whole convocation of Scribes in his brain, and can tell as well as they. Secondly, By going to Jerusalem the Scribes did tell them where Christ should be born, but went not to see him, or seek him themselves, Divinas literas portabant non adjutorium salutis suae, sed ad testimonium nostrae; they cited Scripture to save the Gentiles, but not to save themselves: they direct others, and themselves are castaways; like way-stones that show others their journey, but themselves are immovable and stir not. Thirdly, They were not sent to the Shepherds that could tell them, but they came to others, that their question might stir up others to search him, that were yet in ignorance. And the questions of the ignorant are profitable oftentimes, not only to the ignorant, but also to their teachers. The question about the inheritance of the Daughters of Zelophahad made Moses study to resolve it, and gave him more understanding in the Law. Fourthly, The Magis asked very boldly at Jerusalem, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? They speak as of a thing supposed to be known, thinking the Jews must know all Prophecies about their own King, better than the Gentiles, for unto them were committed the Oracles of God. But quite otherwise, God sent the Gentiles to be Preachers of these things unto the Jews; and so they are unto this day: and that of David is verified on our part, Thou hast made us wiser than our teachers.  
To end for this time. Ubi est? where is Christ? then avant ubiquity; he is not every where: and it is against the simplicity of the Gospel, to put plain capacities to find out an ubiquity by the Lutheran subtleties of their communion of properties, that the divine nature gives the humane nature all that it hath: But for a plain use to you, if it be asked where is Christ, I will answer it four ways.  
First, The heavens have received his bodily presence; send up your Prayers unto him there.  
Secondly, Where two or three are gathered together in his name, he is in the midst of them: So that if you be a sound orthodox part united to the body of the Church, he will give you of his Spirit, that you shall find him there.  
Thirdly, He gives us to know that every poor afflicted member stands for his own person, Ecce illic Christus. If you will distribute plentiful alms to your poor neighbours against this blessed time, lo there is Christ.  
4. Behold a Table prepared for us, of which food Christ hath spoken it, This is my Body which is given for you, and this is my Blood, Which is shed for you, and lo there is Christ. O Lord, entertain thy faithful servants at that heavenly banquet, and make us partakers of the benefit of thy Nativity, Circumcision, Passion, Resurrection, and all other fruits which thou hast ordained for our salvation. Amen.   

THE FIFTEENTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION.  MAT. two. 2. 
Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his Star in the East, and are come to worship him.  
FRom two several Prophets, and both of them Kings, I collect two things of much praise in a wise man. First, Solomon says, Sapiens diriget gressus suos, A man of understanding walketh uprightly, or ordereth his steps aright, Prov. v. 21. Secondly, David says, A good man guideth his words with discretion, Psal. cxii. 5. So that I find by both these put together that Wisdom consists in these two Points, to order our ways, and to order our words with understanding. After this manner did these Wisemen in my Text, whose matters are come the third time to be handled before you. They spared not to make a difficult journey in the hardest time of the year to seek out Christ, so devoutly they guided their ways; and they did not forbear to confess Christ before ever they saw him, and to tell Herod to his face, there was another King of the Jews, so much greater than he, that not men, but the very Stars were subject unto him; nor should the people where he was born only do him homage, but the remotest strangers of the world came to worship him. So with their words they glorified God as much as with their journey; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostom. Mark the magnanimous virtue of these men, that so tedious a journey should not detain them from coming, nor such a Tyrant as Herod deter them from speaking; so adventurous in their way, as to be commended, and using such liberty of speech, as much more to be approved.  
I have cast the words, you know, into a method of Treatise before, fitting several parts to the chief days of the late Feast. You may remember I made three Points of consideration out of the Text in all. I observed the journey of the Wisemen as they were holy Pilgrims▪ the words which they spoke as they were Christian Orators, and the occasion of both. The occasion is the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour, Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the days of Herod the King, that found us work on Christmas day, it was proper for it. Secondly, Their person, and their journey come after, Behold Wisemen came from the East to Jerusalem, that subject belonged to Twelfth day as you call it, or the feast of the Epiphany, and then I dispatched it. Now follows the oratory or speech of these Eastern Ambassadors in the last place, and that will come out of season at no time, Where is he that is born, etc. From hence you may note for our order of proceeding, that the Wisemen make one question, and give two assertions. The question was, Vn●m necessarium, more necessary than all other questions they could make, were they never so wise, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? The assertions they lay down are thus, First, what God had wrought for them, We have seen his Star in the East; Secondly, What God had wrought in them, And are come to worship him.  
Where is he that is born King of the Jews? So stands the question; but are they aware in what times, and before whom they ask it? Herod had begged away the Jews Kingdom from them, tried all courses to settle it in his own Race, that it might never return to a Jew born, the most suspicious man that ever I read of, lest by some secret practice or open violence his Kingdom should be taken from him: and are these Wisemen that come to pull the Lion by the beard, and to tell Herod to his face they come to worship one that was born King of the Jews? Neq●e vultus instantis tyranni ment quatit solidâ. Can they bring forth their Message? And will it not put them out to deliver it before such a man of blood? I believe that our Wisemen now adays would have been more reserved. But to come to a point; I will not deny but these Sages thought their tidings would have been received with great gladness; but put it to the true exigent, that they found it otherwise, and that all Jerusalem was troubled with their news. Do you find that they faltered for fear, or went from their word? Nothing less, but continue in it to hear what the Synod of Scribes would say upon it; and if the Lord had not warned them in a dream, they had returned back to Herod, to tell him they had found the Babe, and they had worshipped the true King of the Jews, and let him do his worst. The love of God constrained them, and they must speak; though, if God had not prevented, it had brought mischief upon their head. True wisdom, I see, is no such cautilous thing as the World takes it for; no such politic head-piece, that will keep silence for its own safety, though truth, and religion, and all good Government suffer for it, The Son of Syrach was an Oracle of prudence in his time, and this is his counsel, Refrain not to speak when there is occasion to do good, and hide not thy wisdom in her beauty, Eccl. iv. 23. He that hath proceeded to the complete act of Martyrdom, to lay down his life for Christ's name, the Learned in all Ages have promised them rewards of great consequence, as that Martyrdom hath in effect the whole Sacrament of Baptism in it, and infers remission of sins; 
Orig. tract. 12, in Mat●  Origen set the opinion on foot, which all the Shcool-men have followed. But the Scripture on which they ground, is as comfortable for them that confess Christ to their great peril, as for them that lose their lives in that quarrel, Mat. x. 32. Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my father which is in heaven. Christ will confess him to be his, and receive him for his, whosoever shall bear his name before Princes, though it be to his own hazard and calamity. Then it remains that these persons deserve the stile of Wisemen, who took courage against the clamour of Jerusalem, and the frown of Herod, and confidently confessed the Lord, saying, Where is he that is born the King of the Jews?  
And as this resolution of theirs is to be extolled, so the knowledge wherewith they were illuminated is to be admired, that these Philosophers of the East, strangers to Jerusalem, strangers to the Law of God, should give our Saviour the true stile of a King; and of a King though but newly born. They did not mean that Herod had a Son born who was heir to the Crown; they could not mean it, for than they would never have made a question where he was born, but have gone directly to his Father's Palace: Where should he be born else? Besides all Herod's Sons were grown to manly stature; beside, none of his children were born to any right of succession; for in those days the Kingdom of Judaea was appointed to them who were most in favour with the Court of Rome. But the meaning must be, Where is that King of the Jews that is born? That King of whom we have been told, that all Nations shall worship and obey him; For else what had they to do with the King of another Kingdom; as St. Austin says, Nisi ●am agnoscerent regem Judaeorum, qui rex est etiam seculorum, but that they acknowledge, though Jury gave him birth, yet all the world, and all Ages should do him homage. They do not say they came to see him, upon his fame, or upon any exploit that he ever yet did, but upon the presages of that glorious Kingdom which should be his in time to come. O the wonderful working of the Lord! and O the power of his grace, where he gives it an effectual blessing! Some relations or traditions these Magis had had, perhaps from no better hand than Balaams and his Successors, with these poor means, and with the help of the Star; (what Mysteries they picked out of it God knows) they make a better confession of their faith than the Jews did with the helps of all the Prophets, Illi consitentur alienum regem, isti proprium non agnoscunt; yet these strangers did confess a foreign King as it were, the Jews denied him, though most principally he was their own. They were angry to the death at Herod a stranger that he was their King, now God opens them a royal way, that they may have a King of their own, if they will, and yet they refuse him.  
It is an argument of no small force to beat down infidelity, that the heathen in most parts of the world did speak of an extraordinary King that was to come in that age, and some of them directly pointed out Judea for the place. Suetonius says, that it stirred up the Jews to rebellion, because there was a constant saying in all the Eastern Countries (Per●rebuit in oriente toto vetus & constans opinio) mark it for these Wisemen's sakes; 
Sueton. in Vesp. par. 4.  Esse in fatis ut eo tempore Judaeâ profecti rerum potirentur. That it was destined, that about that time some should come out of Judea, that should reign over all the world. 
Lib. 2. de Divin.  And that grave Author Cicero says, a certain fellow, whom he was angry at, interpreted Sibyls verses, that he whom we had or must have to be our King, Appellandum esse regem, si salviesse vellemus? We must call him a King if we would be saved. But he was no such King as Tully feared, that would erect a Monarchy, and destroy the liberty of the Senate. I have been copious before you but lately, that Christ was possessed of no temporal sovereignty, in refutation that Satan showed him all the Kingdoms of the world, and said, All these things will I give thee. The Jews were angry with him that he would not meddle with temporal things, but they themselves have lost all their temporalties for refusing him. Christ was born a King, as the world gave testimony in my Text, and died a King, as Pilate gave testimony in the title upon his Cross, Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews. Nor was he simply a King (allotting him a spiritual Kingdom, as I have lately discoursed upon it) but a King of Kings, anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows, I will make him my firstborn, higher than the Kings of the earth, Psal. lxxxix. 28. His Kingly Office is part of his Mediatorship by which he reconciles us to God, and saves us from our sins, and clothes us with righteousness. And to understand that point of faith clearly, these are qualities of his Kingly Office. 1. To choose out his own Subjects, that is, the members of his Church. 2. To give them Laws to keep. 3. To provide for their peace, and to keep the enemy from them. 4. To call all the world before him in the last and universal Judgement. But that legislation, the appointing of Laws to his Subjects, is the most conspicuous part of that Office in this life, and believe the Prophet Ezech. for it, Chap. xxxvii. 24. David my servant shall be King over them, and they shall all have one shepherd, they shall also walk in my judgements, and observe my Statutes to do them. You see wherein the Kingdom of the Son of David consists, to give us Statutes and Judgements to do them. He commands the heavens above, as it seems by this Star, and who are we that should not obey him? Quis est iste rex tam parvus, tam magnus, nondum in terris loquens, & in coelis edicta proponens? What King is this, says St. Austin, so little, for he is but new born, and yet so great, an Infant that hath not yet spoken, and yet his Edicts are kept in heaven? We are willing and content at his Priestly office, that he should die for us on the Cross, and intercede for us to his Father▪ we are willing he should be our Prophet to teach us, and will you make his Kingly Office stand for a cipher? Shall he not give us Law, and bind us to his Commandments? That Office stands for all the rest, and the Wisemen ask about it instead of all beside, Where is be that is born King of the Jews? So I have done with their Question.  
And I have need to make haste to the first of their Assertions, which is very copious in the contents, Vidimus enim stellam ejus in oriente; for we have seen his Star in the East. The particulars to be inquired into are, 1. What was the substance of this Star. 2. How it appeared in the East. 3. What aptitude there was in such a sign or miracle to bring them to Christ. 4. Why it is appropriatively called his Star. 5. Whether there were no secret illumination, an invisible, but a better star than this, which made them true believers. These sayings of the Wisemen troubled all Jerusalem, says the next verse; and no marvel, for they have troubled the whole commonwealth of Learning ever since, what this Star should be. All Authors meet in one consent that this could be no star fixed and remaining in the Firmament aloft; for how can it be imagined that any of those heavenly lights so remote could point to one Country more than another, to a little Village in that Country, nay to a Stable in that Village? 2. Natural Creatures are no convenient presages of the supernatural works of God. Moreover, they that swallow it down without mistrust that the Star went along with the Wisemen all the way from the East to Judea, these have many more reasons to evince that it was no natural Star. As first, that all other Stars appear unto the world by night, this had a most bright complexion as well by day as by night. 
Epist. 14. ad Ephes.  Ignatius says, or some in his name, that it exceeded the Sun and Moon in splendour. And Prudentius says as much, for Poets will speak loftily, Qu●e solis rotam vincit splendore ac lumine; it went beyond the body of the Sun in light and lustre. Secondly, It had not the motion of other Stars, sometimes rising, sometimes setting, but guided the Magis in a strait line from Persia or Mesopotamia to Jerusalem. Thirdly, Other Stars finish their course, that is, whirl about the Orb in twenty four hours, this passed but few degrees in many days, from the East unto Judea. Fourthly, This Star disappeared at a moment, as soon as ever they were received into Jerusalem, and so long as they stayed there (I believe two or three days) till they were just upon departing it shined not again. Hoc non agit motus sideris, sed virtus plena rationis; 
August.  It must not be the motion of a natural Creature, but the virtue of a supernatural finger that was so punctual. Yet Gregory Nyssen doth so maintain it to be an usual Star of the highest Orb, that he prevents all these objections, namely, that it came out of the Sphere for a time, and hung in the air to do homage to Christ; and he that caused the Sun to stand still, or go backward for Joshua's or Hezekiah's sake, could make a Star to go what motion he pleased for his Son's sake.  
Perhaps such as stick fast to the Peripatetic Philosophy would have the body of the heavens suffer no such violence, as a Star to be missing in it for a time: And therefore Aquinas, against all exceptions, concludes it to be a flame of light newly created for this purpose. 
Tertia Pars. Sum. qu. 16. ar. 8.  Fuit corpus densum multùm habens de lumine specialiter ad hoc opus ordinatum; A solid body fit to receive much light, ordained on purpose for this Ministry. Whether it was made of some pure celestial matter or earthly concretion, that they profess not to know, but leave it to him that framed it. Nor do they presume to deliver any certainty touching the Figure of it, as whether it streamed like a blazing Star or no; yet of all things else they will not permit it to be called a blazing Star; for those Meteors (so they were wont to call them) appear against the Death of Princes, not against their Nativities. But one Friar among others fell out with his wits, that gives us his own fancy for an undeniable truth, that this Star was cast out into the Figure of a child bearing a Cross, and that it portended his blessed Mother should be called the Star of the Sea. Thus he, scarce modestly, considering the heathen called their Venus the Star of the Sea, but I am sure ridiculously. What kind of created body it was fitly, that's certain, form for this purpose, either we shall know hereafter in the Kingdom of heaven, or at least have no curiosity to desire to know it; that's the best resolution. Others stray further from the words of the Text, and say, that the Scripture speaks according to the opinion of the Wisemen, who considering the Figure of it, and the light it gave, call it a Star, but indeed it was no Star. What then? Why, the Holy Ghost, now appearing in the shape of a Star to manifest to Christ, as once in the shape of a Dove, when he revealed him at his baptism by Jordan. As if nothing were worthy to make this Infant known unto the Gentiles but the Holy Ghost. What share the holy Spirit had in this manifestation shall be touched upon anon. Others observing that an Angel told the Shepherds in the field the tidings of the Incarnation, do most approve, that this light, which showed as if it were a Star, was a very Angel of glory, going before the Magis from the East to Jerusalem, in a resplendent visible form. For Angels are called Stars, Rev. i 20. And again, Who maketh his Angel's Spirits, and his Ministers a flaming fire, Psal. civ. This opinion hath St. Chrysostom to favour it, that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an invisible heavenly virtue taking this shape and figure upon it. And Theophylact more clearly in the same key, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a divine and Angelical virtue appearing in the fashion of a Star. 
Chemnit. in Harm.  And one of our late Writers is more punctual how it should come to pass to be an Angel, that when an Angel spoke words about the Incarnation of Christ to the Shepherds, the glory of the Lord shone round about him, and these Wisemen of the East seeing that heavenly and Angelical glory shining afar off, apprehended it to be some new Star, and withal, either by tradition, or illumination at the present, were taught that it called upon them to go and seek the Messias in Judea. Yet this last opinion will hardly be made good, for when they went out of Jerusalem that light appeared again very near unto them at that time, and yet they call it a Star, and not an Angel. In one word, had it been an Angel, why should the Evangelist have concealed it, that an heavenly Minister conducted the Gentiles to Christ, whereas the Scripture tells it, without all circumlocution, that a multitude of the heavenly Host appeared unto the Shepherds watching over their Flocks by night. I incline therefore to the letter, that it was a Star, or luminous body created for this purpose. And marvel not if the Point be so full of doubts and uncertainties; for every circumstance about the calling of the Gentiles is the mighty mystery of God. And so much for that Point.  
In the next place we are left as much uncertain about the appearance of the Star as about the substance: For the Question is propounded, whether it made but one Apparition only to the Wisemen, and being seen but once, gave them sufficient notice to go into Judea; or whether it guided them day by day, night by night, step by step, till they came to Jerusalem. The former opinion is not empty of reason; the latter likewise stands upon reason, and is much more countenanced by Antiquity. The Scripture hath left it undecided, and so both parts may enjoy their liberty, and are fit to be heard. They that incline to the first way, that the Star at one shining taught the Magis to go into Judea, are moved for these causes: First, because they say we have seen his Star in the East; they do not add, that it hath conducted us to you in the West; and in all likelihood the Evangelist would have spoke of it if the Jews had seen it as well as they. And in as great likelihood if such a flaming Meteor had appeared upon that Horizon all the way they went from Persia to Jerusalem, the wonder would have been so notorious, that all heathen Histories, which touched upon those times, would have spoken of it. Secondly, At the ninth verse of this Chapter we read, Lo the Star which they saw in the East, not low the Star which ushered them through all their journey. And thirdly, When they came to Judea they took in at Jerusalem to seek Christ there; but what probability is there that the light of God could carry them to a wrong place? Thus far upon one opinion.  
You shall now hair what some say, and almost all of the best antiquity, for the other conclusion: Namely, that the Star was their constant companion all their journey, and that it rested over all places where they rested, till they came to Jerusalem. First, As the manner of the Fathers is to illustrate the New Testament with the Old; they consider that the Pillar of the cloud went along with the Children of Israel wheresoever they removed, and rested in the place where they pitched their Camps; but this Star attended the Gospel as tha● Cloud attended the Law, and God was as constant in his favour to the one, as to the other. And some go further, that an Angel of the Lord did always remove the Cloud with his motion when the Israelites marched away; mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee into the Land of the Amorites and Hittites, Exod. xxiii. So an Angel did move this Star from the East to Jerusalem: for says St. Austin, Mark how that light vanished not away till they took in at Jerusalem; Hoc non cogit motus sideris, sed virtus plena rationis; I will never say an inanimate Star could so guide itself but by Angelical virtue. No bright Star did shine upon that City, where the Scribes and stiffnecked Jews were congregated, for their hearts were blind, and their understanding did not see the Nativity of Christ. So at his Passion there was thick darkness over all the Land of Judah, for they resisted the truth, and would neither know the mysteries of his Death, nor of his Incarnation. If this were portended, it was an intelligent Star that went with the Magis all the way till they were housed in Jerusalem, as the Cloud passed on before the Tribes of Israel from Mount Sinah till they came to Canaan.  
Thus far upon collation between the Old Testament and New, there are other reasons assayed to be drawn out of the Text that the Star kept way with them to their journey's end; as at the ninth verse of this Chapter, Lo the Star which they saw in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the Child was. If it marshaled them which way to go from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, why not also from their own Country to Jerusalem? At the next verse, When they saw the Star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. The Scribes had told them where they should find Christ, why then should they rejoice so much to see the Star again, but because it was a new thing to have it vanish. Moreover, the Star vanishing when they went into Jerusalem, they suspected Christ might be there, and asked for him; but if their Leader had forsaken them as soon as ever it first shined, they would have asked in many other places. And by what art could they collect that a Star glaring in their eyes in the East, and wagging no further, should notify unto them the Land of Judea rather than any other neighbouring Country. And what skills it that all Histories are silent, and take no notice that there was such a wonder in the World? Though many holy things were common in those days, and well known, yet the Lord chose not the heathen to be witnesses of his glory, and so they overpassed them. Or perhaps the Star was visible to these Wisemen, and the eyes of others were held that they should not see it. John Baptist saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove upon Christ, He saw it, says the Text, Mat. iii 16. it is uncertain if any beside did see it: Paul heard a voice from heaven, but they that were with him heard it not, Acts xxii. 9 Or be it so that many others might behold this Star, yet they knew not to what end it was sent, but made some constructions of humane reason upon it; wide mistakes upon heavenly tokens, as when God answered Christ's Prayer from heaven, that He had both glorified his name, and would glorify it, the people said it thundered. Not to be long in this point, because faith is bound to neither opinion, this is sure, the Star hid itself away for a time, but they recovered sight of it again before their journey's end; so the Spirit may draw back his comfort and illumination for a time from those that are graciously called to come to Christ, their sins deserve it, and God will make them more careful to stand sure, because they have stumbled: but at last, before their journey be done, before they end their days, the light shall be renewed again to guide their feet into the land of the living.  
The third question of enquiry is, what aptitude there was in such a sign or miracle to bring the Wise men unto Christ? Outward aptitude is not always discerned in the means of a man's Conversion: nay, sometimes the means used seem most repugnant to bring that end to pass. Who would have imagined that the way to make a Publican a Disciple, had been to call him from the receipt of Custom, and quite to give over his traffic? yet this wrought well with St. Matthew; or that the Woman of Samaria would the sooner have believed Christ to be the Messias, because she was upbraided to be a Concubine? He whom thou now haste is not thy Husband: yet this way did take with her. These are courses to pose natural reason in the work of Regeneration. But with sundry other persons the Lord did descend in a familiar way to their capacity, and drew them to heaven by things that were obvious to their notion. Baptism or washing often was a thing most ordinary with the Jews; the more ordinary, the sooner did Christ use it to be the initial Sacrament that should bring them unto life. fishermans were put into admiration of Christ's power by a mighty draught of fish; and the Text whereupon St. Paul preached to the Athenians was their own Altar of the unknown God: So the Eastern Philosophers, who were skilful in the Sphere, and in the course of the Stars, are attracted by a wonderful Star to the first taste of Christianity; Vt per Christum materia erroris fieret occasi● salutis, says St. Austin. That contemplation of Stars which lead them out of the way of truth, doth now bring them to him who is the way, the truth, and the life.  
You see what aptitude there was in a Star to be an instrument of the conversion of these Wisemen. There are other apt proportions in it, which Piety and good Meditation hath framed: First, to show that God is able to make use of any of his Creatures, as well as of the tongue of man, to set forth his glory. The Synagogue of the Jews was wont to have Prophets to teach them, but there was not a Prophet more heard in their Land from Malachi to John the Baptist in five hundred years. What skills it? The Lord can make a Prophet out of any thing in the world. Cessante linguâ Prophetarum, Deus locutus est per stell●s; When Prophecies do fail in the Tongues of men, the Stars of heaven shall Prophesy. Secondly, The Children of Israel, as I have noted it before, had a Pillar of safe conduct to go before their Army, they were an innumerable multitude of people, and had need of a fair mark to look upon; why then at least it were requisite, that these few Magis should have a little Star to grace their journey from the East to Jerusalem. Surely, the heavens would be as benign to set out the glory of the New Testament, as to set out the glory of the Law; and the dignity of Christ doth exceed the dignity of Moses, as much as an heavenly Star doth exceed a Cloud, which is but a vapour; nay, there are more odds in the comparison. Thirdly, it was expedient that his Nativity and coming into the world should be attended with great light, as his Death and going out of the world brought darkness upon the face of the earth. Novam stellam declaravit natus, qui antiquum solem obscuravit occisus, says St. Austin; 
Serm. 3. de Epiph.  The true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world was pointed at by a miraculous light when he came into the world, and so much, or rather so little, what aptitude there was in this Star to bring the Magis to our Saviour.  
There are some scruples likewise upon the fourth Question, why it is appropriatively called his Star? For we have seen his Star in the East. The Priscillianists, with as much dotage as heresy, called it the Star of Christ, because this Star had some dominion over his Geniture, for they speak in the Phrase of judicial Astrologers, that impute the actions and events of a man's life to the Horoscope of the Zodiac, or Planet under which he was born. Vain Philosophy, but more vain Divinity! Vain Philosophy, and very strange it is that it should have any credit to this day, after it hath been found out false in so many thousand Prognostications. If they happen to foretell one thing right, they make ostentation of it before all the world, which was mere accident and no cunning; but their mistakes and errors are at least a thousand, 
Lib. 2. de divin.  to one true Prediction. How often, says Tully, have I heard those Chaldeans promise long life and prosperous death to Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey, and many others, whose ends have been lamentable? Therefore he concludes with Panaetius the Stoic, that all Astrology is vain, when it comes to Prediction. Why should not the Stars be as full of influence and virtue over any part of man's life as over his birth-hour? And why not much rather over the first minute of conception (which no man can guests at) than over the first minute of our birth? Certainly the contagion of the heavens, or temperament of the Stars is nothing to that hour, for we see the Child, for the most part, follow the complexion and condition of the Parents; and many by Art and Industry rid themselves of those imperfections wherewith they were born. What moment of day or night, wherein many Infants are not brought forth into the world, some did hap to be born at the same moment with the renowned Affricanus, but says the Orator, Nunquis talis fuit? Was there ever such another Scipio, for all the nativivity of some happened in the same moment? Nothing more deceitful, more offensive in curiosity, more unjudicious, than that which is called Judicial Astrology. St. Austin professeth, that he excluded out of the Church one of those that would set down the fate of men's lives, (as they called it) by the Conjunction of Stars, either reigning at their birth, or some other time of their life, and would not admit him into the society of Christ again, without public and solemn repentance.  
But the Divinity of the Priscillianists was far more corrupt than their Philosophy, that delivered blasphemy to their Disciples, saying, this Star is called Christ's, because it had dominion in his Nativity. Whereas Christ's Nativity depended not on the Star, but the Star on Christ's Nativity. It did not only serve Christ, but it served his servants. For the Israelites removed from place to place as the Cloud did give the sign; but this Star removed from place to place as the Wisemen had occasion for their journey. Non stella fatum pueri, sed is qui apparuit fatum stellae fuit, says Gregory, The Star was not the Fate of the Child, but this Child was the Fate of that Star. The motion of that bright Creature did not move him, but he ordained the motion of it: And the Wisemen knew him hereby to be the King of heaven, because the lights of heaven, or this light, as good as they, did serve and obey him. Chrysologus his elegancy must not be forgotten, Stella haec ministra viae non vitae; non dominantis Domina, sed ancilla servorum. This Star had no influence upon the life of the Child, but was a Lantern to the paths of the Wisemen; It was not a Lord over our Master, but a Minister to our Master's Servants; the coronis of the point shall be St. Augustine's words, 
Lib. 1. contra Faust. c. 5.  Non ad decretum dominabatur, sed ad testimonium famulabatur. The Star which they saw had no regency over him; they sought, but it was a testimony that he whom they sought was Christ the Lord. St. Chrysostom argues upon it, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. in Mat. 5.  the Magis knew no more from the Star, but that the King of the Jews was born, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. but that is not the profession of an Astronomer, to know who is born; but what things shall come to pass hereafter, upon the Nativity of them that are born.  
So having cleared that Question from the authority and reasons of those grave Writers, the fifth observation upon the Star is positively thus to be set down, that there was a secret illumination, an invisible, but a better Star than this which made the Magis true believers. Some, who were mentioned before, did see the assistance of the Holy Ghost so manifestly in the direction of this journey, that they professed it their opinion, how the Holy Ghost appeared now in the form of this Star, as once after, he manifested Christ in the shape of a Dove. There is a day Star which riseth in our hearts, says the Apostle, 2 Pet. i 19 It was an influence into the heart, and not an object in the eye which made the Wisemen dispatch this journey to come and worship Christ. Cathedram habet in coelo, qui corda docet; his Cathedral is in the new Temple of Jerusalem above the Stars, that doth secretly teach the heart. As the times go the efficacy of grace had need be stiffly maintained against bare outward means; Mark the consent of antiquity upon this Point, Non satis fuisset stella, nisi adfuisset fides & illustratio sancti spiritus, says St. Ambrose, they had never moved so far for the Star alone without the illumination of faith and the holy Spirit. Fulgentior veritatis radius eorum corda perdocuit, says Leo, certain impulsions and illustrations of the holy Spirit gave them understanding and will to come to Christ. Deus direxit eos tam in viâ morum, quam in viâ pedum, says Chrysologus. God did direct them both in their inward and in their outward ways. The natural man is not able to discern the things that belong to God; let these alone to themselves, and show them a bright Lamp from heaven, and they would have thought of any thing as soon as of this question, Where is he that is born the King of the Jews? Suppose they had certain Traditions in their Schools, that when such a Star was seen the Messias was come into the world; yet no man could apply himself to seek out Christ, and worship him but by the Spirit of God.  
Every man is full of his conjectures, who should deliver the expectation of the Messias to those remote Gentiles, whether Daniel, or some other Prophet, that was in the Chaldean Captivity: Or whether Balaam who lived in the Mountains of the East a thousand years before Daniel. Nay, 
Author Imperf. operis.  another Author puts it upon Seth, that he left a Prophecy concerning such an occasion, which should fall out against the birth of Christ, and that the Wisemen of the East appointed twelve men of their College to watch that Star every year from the beginning of Autumn to the Winter, and when one of those twelve died they supplied the number, that their Watchmen might never fail. Some Predictions they had, I will not contend about it, preached to the outward ear; yet this had been but sounding brass, and empty words, if the Lord had not secretly moved their heart. What? you will say, and was the Spirit diffused even among the dispersed of the Nations, that lived without the Law? Yes, Beloved, that was more than seldom seen, as the spirit of grace was in Cornelius to send up Prayers and Alms to heaven, before he knew what it was to be baptised unto remission of sins in the blood of Christ. The spirit of direction was upon Cyrus an heathen, 2 Chron. c. ult. 22. he was admonished from God to build the Temple, The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus the King of Persia. And the spirit of Divination or Prophecy was upon the wicked Soothsayers of the Philistines, 1 Sam. vi. 9 they divined if the Cart, in which they put the Ark of the Lord, went up strait to Bethshemesh, to its own Coast, than the Lord had laid evil upon them for detaining it, and so it came to pass. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. Chrysostom, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. in Mat. 5. , God did make the Event answer to the Prediction of those wicked Soothsayers. No opposition therefore in this, but the Spirit bloweth where it listeth, even among the dispersed of the heathen, even among these Wisemen of the East, Dedit aspicientibus intellectum, qui prestitit signum; 
Leo.  The grace of God was in their understanding, and his signs and wonders in their outward eye. And so much of their first Assertion, what God had wrought for them, We have seen, etc.  
Said I even now that the benediction of the Spirit was upon them? So it is evident by the last part of my Text, their second Assersion, what God had wrought in them, and are come to worship him. Many might come a journey to see him as well as they, for that Herod, that cut off John Baptist his head, desired of a long time to see him. Many might see the Star as well as they, and be never the better, for sundry saw as great signs and miracles that never believed. Many of the Scribes knew where he was to be born, and were able to tell the Wisemen, when they knew not; the matter lies not therefore in venimus, or in vidimus, but in adoramus, this is their praise, and this is their piety that they came to worship him, and that they profess they will worship him, though they knew him to be but an Infant new born, and never scan the case in what condition they may find him. The Queen of the South came as far as these men did; but she found a King in all Royalty, and such a glorious Court as never was the like; these men found a Child in a Cratch, the poorest and most unlikely birth that ever was to prove a King; no sight to comfort them, not a word that came from him for which they were the wiser, and yet they were as good as their word, they did fall down and worship him, and more than worship him, present him with their gifts. Why should not they humble themselves to the earth, when they saw the Stars above did obey him, and wait his attendance?  
You will say, If we could see such a Star as they did, the obstinate would be more convinced to do him worship, but it will be more acceptable to worship him though we have not seen. Beside, They adored him when he was so little in his humiliation, who will be slack to perform that homage now he is so great in his glorification? I will rather regard the time than dispatch all that remains. But one thing is to be spoken of, that some take the very foundation of this Point from us, 
Calvin. Musculus.  namely, that the worship of the Wisemen was no religious worship, they came not to exhibit a pious veneration to Christ, as to the Eternal Son of God, but they saluted him with their bended knee, as the Persian manner was to behave themselves before their Kings, But why should Persians tender such civil worship to one that was none of their own Kings, but the King of the Jews? One would answer it thus, to ingratiate themselves into him betimes, if happily he should become the Oriental Monarch in his elder years. 
Calvin.  A conjecture too slight for his great judgement that uttered it. Is it possible that wise men should conceive in him no more than a man, 
Chemnit. Maldon.  and yet do him all Princely honour lying in the Cratch of a Stable? Are they such men as were admonished in a dream by the divine Oracles which way to return home, and yet shall we interpret their actions politically, and not after a divine manner? St. Chrysostom says, They did both adore him in Bethlehem, and preach of his heavenly Kingdom when they came home into Persia. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. St. Ambrose is for the same, they worshipped him being a little babe in swaddling clouts, Vtique parvulum non adorassent, si parvulum tantum credidissent. But they believed him to be more than that little one or they had not worshipped him. 
Serm. 29▪ d● Temp.  To make a full choir of consent, thus St. Austin, Adorant in carne verbum, in infantiâ sapientiam, in infirmitate virtutem; They adored in the flesh that Word that was made flesh, they adored in that Infant the Wisdom of the Father, they adored in that infirmity the mighty power of God. To whom, etc.   

SIX SERMONS UPON THE BAPTISM OF OUR SAVIOUR.   

THE FIRST SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour.  MAT. iii 13. 
Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptised of him.  
YOU shall hear a Story beginning at this Verse, and so ending with the Chapter, how christ did enter into his Office of Mediatorship, and how he began to make himself known to be the Promised Seed, who should reconcile God and Men together. It was, as I have read unto you, at a solemn Baptism which he received from the hand of John. A happy beginning for us men, and for our Salvation; and a Baptism as useful for the spiritual li●e of all Christians as the Air conduceth to our natural conservation. For as the same Air, which God created in the beginning, is the breath which our Forefathers did draw, and which sustains us, and shall serve the Generations of men which are yet unborn: So the Baptism of our Saviour it purged all true believers, that have gone before us, it cleanseth us according to our Faith; and shall work the same good work upon our children's children for ever. It stands us under the Gospel instead of the same comfort which the Rainbow afforded unto the old world. The Rainbow is a reflection of the Sunbeams in a watery cloud, and was ordained as a sign of pacification, that God's anger should no more strive with man. Such a Rainbow was Christ Jesus; (and therefore it encompasseth his Throne round about Apoc. 4.) look upon him, not standing majestically in a cloud above, but wading like an humble servant into the waters of Jordan beneath; look upon him how he sanctifies that Element, which was once a means to drown the World, and now is made a means to save it, look upon him in that posture, as a Rainbow in the water, and you may read Gods sure Covenant made with his whole Church, that his anger is pacified in his well beloved Son, and that he will be gracious with his Inheritance.  
A brave beginning, and worthy to be the first work of his Mediatorship; which is enough to say it will be most worthy your best attention. Theodorus in Aristotle would never play a part in any histrionical sport, unless he might be the first that came upon the stage. He thought the first entrance in any person made the deepest impression in the Spectators. And surely a good onset is no small grace to all that follows. The firstborn were sanctified to the lord 
Gen. viij. 21.  God smelled a sweet savour out of the first Sacrifice that Noah offered unto him; a distinct mark is set upon the first miracle which our Saviour wrought at Cana in Galilee by turning water into wine. And this, being the first work of his Prophetical Office, is transcendently observable, that he came from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptised of him. Which verse is but the preparatory to that which follows, and therefore it affords no more than three circumstances of the main matter, which lies behind at ver. 16. First, It refers us to inquire into the circumstance of time. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee; surely it was some very fit season and opportunity. Secondly, After what manner he would be baptised; with the Baptism of John; it will be necessary therefore to examine the dignity of John's Baptism. Thirdly, The place must not be omitted, which was the fortunate seat where this work was done, not in Galilee, but in Jordan, Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan, etc.  
For the first of these, we need not divine, or follow conjectures of our own invention, how seasonable it was for the Son of God to declare himself just at this present to be the Messias that would save his people; three reasons may be drawn out of express Scripture, and we can have no better. 1. You may read in this Chapter, the men of Judea, and all Jerusalem round about, were baptised in Jordan confessing their sins; John preached the doctrine of Repentance before them, and wrought great compunction of heart in many that heard him; they were afflicted for their sins, and grieved for the days that were passed; Then did the Son of God present himself to be baptised in Jordan: In the midst of their contrition, when their souls were filled with the desire of grace, Then said I, lo I come. Poor People, they began to know themselves in what miserable condition they were, even sick unto death; and when their bowels did yearn, O is there none to deliver us? Then steps in the peace of heaven and earth, as who should say, Is it I that you look for? Is there any beside me that can cure your miseries? Observe, my beloved, how pat the comfort of Salvation comes in after true repentance. David said unto Nathan, 
2 Sam. xii. 13.  I have sinned against the Lord; and Nathan said unto David in the same line, The Lord also hath put away thy Sin. As soon as ever Stephen was besmeared with the blood of Martyrdom, than he saw the heavens opened, and Christ standing at the right hand of God: And Repentance comes but thus short of Martyrdom, that it fetcheth blood from the soul, and killeth the old man with his concupiscence. When tears of godly sorrow trickle down, or at such time as compunction hath a bleeding heart within, though the eyes be dry without, than it hath an imaginary vision, that it sees the Son of God making intercession for us to his Father, and beckoning with his right hand to our wounded conscience that we should be comforted. No man can ever say he languished long in desire to obtain God's grace, and could not find it. Let Mary Magdalen weep, and wring her hands, that Christ is taken away, and if she turn about, glad woman, she shall perceive how near he is unto her. He was born indeed at Bethlehem, Angelis cantantibus, when the Angels of heaven did sing for joy: But being lost as it were to the knowledge of the world for a long space, at the end of thirty years he manifests himself again hominibus plorantibus, when men were broken in heart with Mortification and Repentance at the preaching of John, Then cometh Jesus from Galilee, etc.  
Secondly, The austerity of John's life, and the divinity of his preaching did amuse the world, therefore the Priests and Levites sent to him from Jerusalem, to know if he were the Christ, Joh. i. 19 And another Evangelist says, all the people were in suspense in their hearts, whether John were the Christ, Luke iii 15. Now at this instant, that the servant might no longer rob the Master of his honour, but that the truth might be revealed, if they would embrace it, than he came most opportunely from Galilee to Jordan to be baptised of John. St. Cyril gives this delightful similitude upon it. John Baptist was the Lucifer, or morning Star that ran his course before our Saviour. Now, as the Sun makes his approach in our Hemisphere before this Star is set in the West, and obscures that lesser light with his own glory: So Christ did not lie hid until his forerunner had done baptising, and were gone out of the world; but when he shined most in the great opinion of all men, than a greater than John advanceth himself, and obscures him for ever. How willingly, how cheerfully was the Baptist contented? My joy, says he, is fulfilled, that he must increase, 
Joh. iii 30.  and I must decrease. The word bodes no such thing, as if he should decrease in sanctity, or in the favour of God; but it was his joy that he should grow less in the opinion of the world; that the Church would begin to know the true Messias to be the Bridegroom, 
H●ming. in 3 cap. Joh.  and that he was no more than the Friend of the Bridegroom. It is pretty which some observe, how the birth of John fell out at Midsummer, when the days grow shorter and shorter: chose, the Nativity of Christ happens in that month, when the Sun approacheth, and the days grow longer and longer. So the glory of John was in the wain, and declined to less and less estimation in respect of Christ; but he that is the brightness of the Father's glory ascends higher and higher, the earth shall know him more and more while the Sun and Moon endure.  
Collect this observation to the use of your own life (my beloved) Decresc●t homo, ●rescat Deus; Let man be diminished, and brought low; let God arise, and be exalted. It was not a little decreasing that Paul stood upon, but wished himself Anathema for his brethren, so God might be glorified. And surely, if the blessed Virgin, and the Saints departed have any perceiving, what religious honour is done unto them by some superstitious devotaries, which belongs to none but to the Eternal Majesty on high, I doubt not but it is their usual supplication, O Lord take this honour from us, and lay it upon thyself. God raiseth up Prophets in his Church, not to make them eminent, but that himself may be magnified. This no doubt was a rule well grounded in John Baptist, whose heart was as humble as his Raiment, and when it was bruited abroad that he was the Messias, it vexed his righteous soul, and desired nothing more than that the true Lamb of God would appear that taketh away the sins of the world. He had his wish, when the Son of glory disclosed himself at Jordan. Yet it was not an error, but rather a praise in John, that he was taken for the best that ever lived, because of his conspicuous Piety, for Christ himself. It was not a crime in Peter, that such Saintlike reverence appeared in him, that Cornelius, being astonished, fell down to worship him. It was not to be blamed in Paul and Barnabas, that they carried themselves among the Lycaonians above the ordinary condition of men, insomuch that they called Paul Mercurius, and Barnabas jupiter. St. Chrysostom extols them for it, says he, Let every Apostolical man imitate their sanctity, that they may appear to be better than corruptible flesh, and to live like Angels in this wicked world. So Paul behaved himself among the Galathians, 
Gal. iv. 14.  that they received him as an Angel, yea, even as Christ Jesus. But when it came to a foul mistake, that the men of Lycaonia would have done sacrifice to them, the Apostles were grievously offended, they rend their clothes, and ran among the people, declaring themselves to be men who came to teach the world that they must not rob God of his honour. I am ashamed to read such bald excuses made for Francis, the first Fri●r of his order, that he permitted some to fall down, and do him divine adoration, for they did not worship him, but God that was in him. Is that sufficient? Then it had not been intolerable in Alexander to require divine honours to his person as he was God's Vicegerent in his Monarchy. 
Curtius' lib. 8.  Yet one Hermolaus an heathen in the story of Curtius, exprobrates him that he was violently made away, because he would be worshipped as a God. Some would defend the Friar forenamed by the example of Daniel, Dan. two. 46. when he had expounded Nebuchadnezars dream, the King fell on his face and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an Oblation and sweet Odours unto him. But doth Daniel any more than recite what was bidden to be done? Do you find the King's command was obeyed in this? Certainly Daniel did never consent, but forbade it, and had other honours done unto him, to sit in the King's Gate, and to be ruler of his Provinces. Believe it therefore, that man must not defile himself by touching God's glory; too much of that weigt lay upon John's shoulders when he was taken to be the Christ, and to take that opinion from the Creature to the Creator, Then came our blessed Lord from Galilee to Jordan.  
Thirdly, This Adverb of time Then, it points to the Age of Christ, he began to be about thirty years of age, Luk. iii 23. Then, and not before, did this Star of brightness make his appearance, Then came Jesus, etc. He was made like unto us in all things, sin only excepted; for else we can give no reason, why he would stay to fulfil the perfect age of man before he would take in hand the work of his Mediatorship. A decorum is usually kept among us, that a man is not called to the administration of great business before his person carries some authority in it by the gravity of his years: And therefore our blessed Saviour, that his enemies might not calumniate, or despise him for a novice, put forth himself at that maturity of age which is commonly well allowed for manliness, and wisdom. Not that there wanted perfection, and ability in him, even in his swaddling clouts, and Cradle, to do more than any mortal man could bring to pass; far be it from us to conceit him otherwise. The Union of the Godhead, as soon as he was conceived in the womb, gave him more power and understanding than ever inhabited in any other flesh: And therefore the Prophet Jeremy speaking how he should be enclosed in a Virgin's womb, hath dropped out such a word, that many of the Fathers catch hold of it for an Emphasis, Jer. xxxi. 22. A woman shall compass a man; Circumdabit vir●m, non infantem; though she bore an Infant, yet in his Infant-age nothing was defective in him, but did exceedingly superabound all which could be required in man. Therefore at twelve years of age he made all the Doctors of the Temple astonished at the questions he propounded; but from that time, to the age of thirty, he drew in his head, and in the fullness of ripe years he came to be baptised in Jordan. Dion accounts it an happiness in Trajan, that he began to govern the Roman Empire in his stayed years, 
Dim in Aug. Hist.  (I think he was then forty years old) Vt neque per juventutem quicquam temere aggrederetur, neque per senectutem languesceret; that he was neither rash in execution by the heat of youth, nor slow and timorous by the infirmity of age. But the sacred story of the Scripture will give us instances that accord more aptly with our Saviour. Joseph was thirty years old when he began to govern Egypt, 
Gen. xli. 46.  as who shoul say he was in the flower of abilities. Joseph ruled in another man's right, 
2 Sam. v. 4.  David, the best King of Israel, in his own; and he was thirty years old when be begun to reign in Judah.  
But because our Saviour offered himself to be known in my Text, not in his Kingly, but in his Priestly Office, to be baptised for the washing away of our sins, therefore the the best application will be to find the manner and custom of the Priests in the old Law; and then for your satisfaction, consult with the fourth of Numbers: and it is ten times expressed in that Chapter that the Levites were to wait upon the work of the Tabernacle from thirty years upward, and not before; and at that very age Christ came to the waters of Jordan to be anointed an high Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech. From this example some Canons have issued out in ancient Councils, that none should take the Orders of a Priest before this age wherein our Saviour began to preach. Afterward some years were abated for taking Priesthood, yet peremptorily it was defined (and never recalled, that I know, by any other Council) that none should be allowed for a Bishop under the age of thirty: So the Church of England hath appointed and commanded in the Book of Ordination of Priests, and Consecration of Bishops, which Book is confirmed and ratified by Act of Parliament; and yet it is sometimes dispensed withal in Rome, that Children may hold the Title of the richest Archbishopric in the world; Viderit utilitas, judge whether it be meant for the honour of God, 
O●●. in sanct. lum.  or for the profit of man. Nazianzen urgeth it stiffly, that the measure of this age of Christ is to be respected in every man before he negotiate in sacred Function to teach the Word of God. Gregory collects the same from my Text, 
De Curá. Pas●. p. 3. c. 36  Perfectae vitae gratiam non nisi perfectâ aetate praedicavit; He taught his Disciples how to obtain the perfect life of glory when himself was gone on in his race to the perfect life of nature; 
Lib. 7. Reg. Ep. 112.  and like a good Master-builder, he directs Novices, as St. Paul calls them, 1 Tim. three 6. to forbear a while, and to give place to well-seasoned Timber to make Pillars for the Church of God. I have heard of a more satirical similitude, but a very true one, that the Kine, which gave milk, drew the Ark to Bethshemesh, and the young Calves were shut up in their Stalls at home. I could not but give this instruction by the way, taken from the complete age wherein our Saviour began to execute his Priestly Office.  
There is a rub cast in my way by the Anabaptists, which I must remove, and so conclude this Point; an exception against the Baptism of Infants, because our Saviour was baptised in his manly stature. Nay, rather this collection is to be warranted, that the children of faithful Parents are to be baptised in infancy, even as Christ was circumcised an infant the eighth day: And if any be converted to the Faith in their grown years, it is not too late to come to that Sacrament, for the washing away of their sins, because Christ himself, and many multitudes of elder people were baptised of John. Surely Circumcision in the old Law doth so expressly answer to Baptism in the Gospel, both being the first seals of the righteousness of faith, that it stands uncontrollable, that little ones are to be baptised as well as they were circumcised; and the Ordinance of Circumcision being once appointed to belong to Infants, the Holy Ghost hath spared the labour to appoint any other age for the Baptism of Christian Children, as if no reasonable man could make a question of it. And as all Israel that came out of Egypt men, women, and children were baptised, that is, had the figure of Baptism in the Cloud, and in the Sea through which they marched and escaped the pursuit of Pharaoh; so in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, Bond nor Free, Male nor Female, Young nor Old, no difference of Nations, Age, or Sex, but all are baptised unto the Remission of sins.  
Our Saviour suffered his disciples to doubt somewhat concerning Infants for our better resolution; for when they rebuked such as brought Babes unto him, Jesus called them, and said, Suffer little Children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of God. Suffer them to come? why, we cannot put them into Christ's arms, where he sits in glory, how shall they come unto him then, unless we present them in the Sacrament? Besides, that which follows presseth further, Theirs is the kingdom of heaven; it is not theirs by such right as the Angels hold their place in heaven, because they are free from sin. And how can it be theirs, since they are dead in Adam, unless it be theirs by the seal of some Covenant? And that is the Fountain of Regeneration. I call them regenerate in that Fountain; for as Christ blessed them when he took them up in his own arms, so he blesseth them in our arms; and if they be blest, they are regenerate. And so likewise they are made believers, but after what sort they believe I know not. St. Austin hath two opinions: 
Serm. 10. de verb. Apost.  The first on this wise, Accommodat mater Ecclesia aliorum pedes ut veniant, aliorum cor ●t credant, etc. The Church our mother helps babes with other folk's feet to bring them to the Font, with other men's hearts to believe, with other men's tongues to confess the truth, so he means they are called Believers by the faith of the Congregation till they come to age to know Christ themselves. His other opinion grants, that Infants themselves are believers, even as faith is in men that sleep, who do not perceive it. Aqua forinsecus exhibet sacramentum gratiae, 
Epist. 23.  spiritus sanctus intrinsecus operatur beneficium gratiae; The water sprinkles them with the outward Sacrament of grace, and the Spirit breathes upon them the inward blessing of grace. I see no cause why we may not apprehend this, and assent unto it: 1. 
August. Ep. 57  It is as easy to apprehend they have a faith which they cannot use, as to know they have an intellectual reason which they cannot employ. And to facilitate our assent, one urgeth it modestly thus, it was passing strange that John should leap at the presence of our Saviour in his mother's womb; and though it were an extraordinary case, 
Chemnit. Ex. Trid. Concil. Sess. 8.  yet it demonstrates that the Holy Ghost can inhabit in a babe that is yet unborn, or newly brought forth into the world. Choose ye which of these opinions you will, or choose ye neither, and only be contented to believe concerning little ones, that theirs is the Kingdom of heaven, and therefore they ought to be baptised, for unless ye be born again of water and the holy Spirit ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven. That is the stop of the first general Point, the circumstance of time: 1. Then, when the people were full of repentance, and did yearn for grace. 2. Then, when they began to conceit too much of John that he was the Christ. 3. Then, when our Saviour was of the ripe age of Priesthood, and had seen thirty years in the world, Then came, etc.  
It is time now to draw forward to the next general circumstance, after what manner our Saviour would be baptised; with the Baptism of John. The Point is full of much matter, even as Jordan itself in the time of harvest: But I will obey the limits of the hour, and handle two things briefly, making myself your debtor for the rest as God shall give occasion to pay it. I frame therefore two questions on this sort: 1. Upon what ground John did begin this new ceremony of Baptism never heard of before? 2. What was the dignity, or, if you will call it so, what was the virtue of John's Baptism? I address myself to the former. To bring a new institution into the Church, nay, to bring in a new Sacrament of repentance for remission of sins, this was more strange than if a new star had appeared in the Firmament. What a confidence was in this great Prophet to call all Judea, and the Regions round about unto him to receive Baptism? And yet no print or footsteep in all the Law of Moses where such a Ceremony was commanded. Nay, if they had marked it, it was to break the staff of the Law of Moses, for upon the entertainment of a new Ceremony never heard of before, it did betoken that old Rites and Customs were in their declination, and near unto abolishing. Besides, is it not very strange, that the learned Priests, the wrangling Pharisees, the ignorant people, all with an unanimous consent should submit themselves to this new Ordinance, and yet such an Ordinance as was confirmed by no miracle from heaven (for John wrought no miracle) the true wonder was that so many thousands should flock after him to be baptised without a miracle.  
Yet the truth is, that the most strict defenders of their own Law, and the best Interpreters of it did not gainsay the new use of Baptism as unlawful, for the Pharisees sent unto John, and asked him, Why baptisest thou if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, nor that Prophet? They do not quarrel the Ordinance of Baptism, but what authority John had to baptise. Two things are to be observed out of the forenamed Text for our satisfaction: One, that it was not belonging to the Office of any Priest or Prophet in the Old Testament to baptise unto remission of sins. Another thing is, that the Jews expected the washing of water to cleanse them from their sins under the Kingdom of Christ, as S. Hierom thinks they collected it, Isa. iv. 4. The Lord shall wash away the filth of the daughters of Zion; as who should say, Circumcision was a seal upon Male children only, the water of regeneration under Christ shall belong to Females also. Again, Ezekiel, speaking of the blessings that shall abound in Christ, Chap. xxxvi. 25. seems clearly to express this new Sacrament, Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you; and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness. Moreover, I cannot say whether the Rabbis of deep learning had the knowledge to understand that their Forefathers were by a figure baptised in the red Sea, and in the Cloud which went along with them in the Wilderness. So St. Paul expounded it by the Spirit of God. But the Pharisees, and it seems all the people were persuaded that when the Messias came they should be baptised for the remission of their sins, either by himself, or by some great Prophet who should be his Associate. Therefore if John were the Christ, they confess he may baptise, or if he were Elias, he might baptise. For Malachy foretold, Chap. iv. 5. Behold, I will send Eliah the Prophet before the coming of the great, and dreadful day of the Lord. Or if he were that Prophet he might baptise; not any Prophet inspired from God, that is not the meaning, but the same whom Moses speaks of, Deut. xviii. 15. The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me, unto him ye shall hearken. The Jews had no particular name for this Prophet, the plain meaning is, that Prophet is Christ himself. Now John's answer to the Pharisees was twofold, what he was not, and what he was. He denies that he was the Christ, or Elias himself who shall come perhaps before Christ as an Apparitor at the day of Judgement, or that Prophet. Then they object that he must not baptise, nothing must be innovated in the Church without divine authority, but they wilfully forgot what he said he was, The voice of a Crier to prepare the ways of the Lord; why co jure, as the forerunner of Christ's Kingdom, he betokened a new work was beginning, and a new Ceremony of grace appointed, and he baptised as many as came to Jordan, and did confess their sins, Praecursionis ordinem servavit nascendo, baptisando, says Gregory; he showed himself to be Christ's Harbinger that went before him in Birth, in Preaching, and in Baptism.  
Now ye see by what privilege John did quite alter the old Mosaical Rites, and began to baptise; and I cannot omit how graciously by these means God did turn their superstition into a blessing. To begin with the heathen, who perceived in natural causes that water gives growth to Plants, and Seeds, and fecundity to all things, but they forgot God who made it a fruitful part of nature, and conceited that there was somewhat divine in that Element more than in any other; not could they be contented to rest upon that, which every man knows, that a clean river would wash the dust and sweat from their body, 
Persius' Sat. 2.  but were so foolish to souse themselves every morning thrice over head and ears in some pure Fountain, as if it had some inherent virtue to cleanse the filthiness of their souls. The Pharisees, being more superstitious in their generation than any other Jews, followed the heathen close, Mar. seven. 3. They eat not except they wash often: if they come from Market, except they wash, they eat not; and therefore they quarrel some of the Disciples that they eat with defiled, that is, with unwashen hands. Defiled hands, in the original, are common hands, for whatsoever was commonly touched by them and the Gentiles they called it defiled; and in suspicion they might touch meat, or vessels, or apparel which was unclean by the Law, they washed often to purge themselves from that defilement. This is well illustrated, Joh. two. where we read that at the marriage in Cana of Galilee there were ready standing six water-pots of stone after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three Firkins a piece; these have reference to that Pharisaical tradition of washing often lest they should be defiled. Now mark how God observes both the heathen and the Pharisees in their own weakness, and out of that which they made a vain tradition he makes a gracious Sacrament. 
Conf. Hamp. Court. p. 69.  A good Author citys out of the Rabbins, that the Jews had added over and above Moses his institution of the Passeover, first these words in eating the sour herbs with the Lamb, Take and eat these in remembrance of our deliverance from bondage. And likewise they gave a cup of Wine one to another with these words, Take and drink this in remembrance of the same, etc. And from hence, according to a Custom of their own, our Saviour did break bread, and give wine, and use the same words in his holy Supper. Thus both the Sacraments, to please them the better, had their original from some of their own Ordinances; but cast in a new mould; so the heathen Temples were changed to be houses of Prayer. The Cross, which was no better than their Gallows, is made a significant and laudable Ceremony in Christian Baptism. And lastly, Their superstitious bathe were turned by John, and confirmed by Christ to be an immortal Laver. This I hope satisfies the first question, how this Institution of Baptism began, being never heard of until the days of John.  
The dignity of John's Baptism is now to be examined: It is grown, like many things more, to be full of difficulty because of men's contentions, and without discussion of these three things it cannot be understood: 1, What is the virtue of a Sacrament. 2. That John's Baptism had the same substantial virtue with the Baptism of Christ that it now hath. 3. That in some respects (both Baptisms being one and the same) the Baptism of Christ doth exceed the Baptism of John.  
Sacraments are thus distinguished, into such as went before the fall of Adam, 
Armin. Thes. 60.  and such as went after. Before the Fall there was one Sacrament, and no more, that was the Tree of Life, ordained to be a sign of the Covenant of Works. After the Fall God did not make a Covenant of Works, but of Grace with man, and ever since the Sacraments are Covenants of Grace, and seals of the same: And they of the Old Testament betoken the Covenant promised to our Forefathers, they of the New Testament do imply the Covenant performed. Let me distinguish again, that in the Old Testament all the Sacrifices, and a great part of the shadows and Types are sometimes in the Fathers called Sacraments, because they had a signification of Christ to come; but Circumcision and the Paschal Lamb they only had the Promise of Grace and Reconciliation annexed unto them: which is a great deal more than bare signification. 
Rom. 4.11.  And as St. Paul speaks honourably of Circumcision, that it was a Seal of the righteousness of Faith, so our Church thinks it not fit to speak contemptibly of the faith of the righteous men under the Law, nor of those visible signs which God appointed to establish his Promise unto them, but we make them equal in efficacy with Baptism and the Lords Supper. That according as their faith did apply the Promise unto them, their Sacraments were as profitable for Salvation as ours. Only these are Circumstantial differences: 1. That our Sacraments are merely spiritual, which betoken nothing of this world: The Jews Sacraments had somewhat in them both, which belonged to the body as well as to the soul; for Abraham received the sign of Circumcision that he should be the Father of many Nations; and the Paschal Lamb was a remembrance that they came out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 2. As the light of Faith is brighter with us, the measure of the Spirit more abundant, so our Sacraments are justly said to to be, Virtute majora, more efficacious because we are endued with better means of application. 3. Our Sacraments are actu faciliora, to wash and be clean, and to eat bread and drink wine, are performed with more facility than the cutting the foreskin of Infants, or the slaying of a Lamb to eat it with sour herbs. 4. Take all the Types and Sacrifices of the Jews together, which were an heavy burden because of their multitude, than our Sacraments are numero pauciora, we have but twain, and so their number is not troublesome. These are accidental differences; but otherwise, 
Tractat. 45. in Jo.  as St. Austin said of Manna, that it was to them, as the Lords Supper is to us, In signis diversis fides eadem; the Elements were divers, but such as begot the same faith, and are tokens of the same Lord Jesus Christ, and beget the same Salvation.  
That which thwarts this Doctrine is the distinction of the Schoolmen, that the Sacraments ordained in Moses Law were significancies of Grace, but the Sacraments of Christ did exhibit and confer Grace. What means that? Surely, he that did eat the Paschal Lamb by faith, to him it was spiritual nourishment, and he that eats the Lords Supper, to him only it is spiritual nourishment. I can see no odds. The late Romish Writers disclaim their gross opinion maintained long ago, that in men capable of reason and knowledge (for we set Infants aside) the taking of the Sacrament should add a benefit to the Receiver, Ex opere operato externo, sine motu interno, says Biel, by the mere outward act, without an inward preparation. This opinion their Cardinal Controverser disavows; for he that eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks his own damnation. Then if Faith be requisite in the Participant, I cannot see how one Sacrament exhibits Grace more than another. It is far from my meaning to diminish the excellency and virtue of our Sacraments. No, 
Con. Faust. lib. 19 c. 11.  I had rather set all disputations aside, and say with St. Austin, Quorum vis inenarrabiliter valet plurimum; that is, their power prevails in such a sort as we cannot utter how it is. Yet this may be safely taught, that they are not helping and partial causes of Salvation to be joined in office with the merit of Christ, but only Instruments ordained to work Salvation by the Promise of God, and the application of a lively faith. origen's words express much if I could explain them, Non sunt justitiae, 
Orig. in Mat. Tract. 25.  sed conditurae justitiarum. The Sacraments are not our righteousness, but as sauce makes meat fit to be eaten, so they make righteousness fit to be put upon us. The Word preached is the power of God to every man that believeth, not as if there were any Magical power in the pronunciation of the Syllables, but because it prepares ye to faith, and is a means by which the Spirit works his efficacy. So the Sacraments, setting aside the merit of Christ, and the Sanctification of the Spirit, are not available; but by those Instruments the Father hath promised to work, the Son to communicate the merit of his Passion, and the Holy Ghost to sanctify us. I am sure it is no disparagement to compare him that hath received a Sacrament with the blessed Virgin that received our Saviour in her womb; yet when one cried out, Blessed is she that bore thee, and the Paps which gave thee suck; Yea, says Christ, Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. So the Sacraments are wonderful helps, great trials of obedience, Seals of mercy, increasers of charity, the best comforts of the soul in the world; they are all this, I confess, if they be received in faith.  
So I have spoken of the virtue which is in all kind of Sacraments, the next part of my remonstrance is that the Baptism of John hath the same virtue with the Baptism of Christ. Take my reasons briefly: 1. It was the Baptism of Repentance, and Repentance cannot be taught without faith in Christ, and Remission of sins in his blood; take them two away, and Repentance is but a lesson of heathen Philisophy: Put them both together, and is there not all the benefit of Christ's Baptism, faith and forgiveness of sins? Nay, directly, Mar. i. 4. John did preach the Baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And indeed, no man can separate true repentance from remission of sins, At what time soever a sinner doth repent him, etc. 2. The scope of his Baptism was to warn men to fly from the wrath to come: that is the true washing of the Spirit. Says he to the Pharisees, when they came to him to Jordan, O ye generation of vipers, who hath warned ye to fly from the wrath to come? 3. Our Saviour foretelling to his Disciples that the time was coming at the feast of Pentecost, when they should have a greater blessing from heaven than ever they had before, Acts xv. John truly baptised with water, but ye shall be baptised with the Holy Ghost not many days hence: Then the Disciples had no other Baptism but Johns, until they were baptised with fire, and surely they had a true, and an efficacious baptism. So Apollo's knew of no other baptism but Johns, Acts xviii. 25. and yet we do not find that he was sprinkled with any other baptism. 4. This reason is of great weight, if john's were not the true baptism of the Spirit which Christ received, then either all we have received a baptism divers from our Saviour which were very comfortless; or else we have not received the baptism of the Spirit, which were every whit as comfortless. 5. John baptised at the same time while the Disciples of Christ did baptise, even till the time that he was shut up in prison by Herod. And this he ought not to have done if his washing had been uneffectual; but to have it laid down when a more perfect Sacrament was a foot: These are the reasons sufficient, as I suppose, to prove that the Baptism of John had the same substantial virtue with the Baptism of Christ.  
This is that opinion against which the Tridentine Council doth thunder forth Anathema: 1. Because it is called the Baptism of John, and therefore a mere external Ceremony, which is distinguished from Christ's Baptism that is accompanied with internal Grace. Beloved, I conceive it was called John's Baptism, not as if it wanted the grace of God from above (for the Pharisees durst not reply to our Saviour's question, that the Baptism of John was from heaven, and not from men) but because it began with John; even as the Law of God is called Moses Law, because Moses was the first Mediator of it. Sacraments are of three sorts; Praenuntiativa venturi Messiae, Some that promised a Messias to come, as Circumcision and the Paschal Lamb; Some that promise the Messias now a coming, monstrativa venientis, as the Baptism of John; Some that promise the Messias is come already, annuntiativa exhibiti, Baptism and the Lords Supper; these meet all in one centre of faith, and have the same efficacy. 2. It is urged, that John puts a difference between his baptising and Christ's: I baptise you with water, he shall baptise you with the holy Ghost, and with fire. I answer with St. Hierom, Ex quo discimus, 
In 4 cap. Isa.  homo tantùm aquam tribuit, Deus spiritum sanctum. From whence we learn that the Ministry of man suppeditates only water, the power of God suppeditates the Holy Ghost; wherefore one sign is not opposed to another, but the Ministry of man to the authority of Christ; otherwise it will follow, that now the Holy Ghost is given by him that baptizeth. The baptism of the Spirit is not another Baptism, but an heavenly blessing upon the baptism of water, and it comprehends all the benefits of the New Testament, that is, all the merit of Christ. 3. I confess this is strongly opposed, Acts nineteen. 3. that some Disciples of Ephesus who were baptised unto the Baptism of John were baptised again in the name of the Lord Jesus; as if John's washing had been a watery Meteor rather than a Baptism. Of many answers I like but two to this place: First, says Lombard, all were not rebaptised whom John had baptised before; the Disciples were not: for whatsoever some Apocryphal stories say that Christ baptised his Mother, St. Peter, yea, and John Baptist himself; yet the Scripture says he baptised no man; but where a substantial error might be committed or apprehended in John's Baptism, there the parties were rebaptized. Now, it is my own conjecture out of the Text, that these men were baptised after our Saviour's Passion, In nomine venturi Messiae, in the name of Christ to come, who was come and had suffered for mankind, therefore to correct that fundamental error it may be the Disciples of Ephesus were baptised again. Secondly, I see no exceptions at this answer, that the Disciples of Ephesus were only baptised in John's Baptism, and Paul teacheth, that all whom John baptised were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. Therefore, at your leisure mark the fifth verse of that Chapter. Act nineteen. that they are the words of Paul, preaching how John baptised, not the words of St. Luke how they of Ephesus were rebaptised, and that very difficult place is easily answered. Wherefore it stands I am sure as most probable of two opinions, that the Baptism of John, to which Christ came, is the same with the Baptism of Christ, and as for these that curse our opinion with Anathema, I say unto them, Woe unto those that call light darkness, and make the truth a lie.  
Though so ancient Fathers may seem to descent from me, yet they are not so uncharitable to bid Anathema to any in so disputable a point. 
Lib. 5. Con. Donat. c. 11.  I am sure St. Austin having disputed on both sides, concludes, he would not strive eagerly with him that should say, sins were remitted in the Baptism of John, meaning, it did not essentially differ from the Baptism of Christ; yet I will end with this third observation, that in some less principal respects the Baptism of Christ doth exceed the Baptism of John. I will name five distinctions:  
1. In formâ verborum; John baptised in the name of the Messias that came after him, Acts nineteen. 4. and it was more advantage to teach it to every of the Jews, as he baptised them, one by one, than to proclaim it to the whole multitude: But Christ bade his Disciples choose another form, and for that he would not take all honour to himself, it must be in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  
2. They differ in amplitudine nationum. John meddled with none but such as were within the Regions of Judea, Christ bade his Disciples to except no people, but to wash all Nations from their sins.  
3. Christ's Baptism transcends john's in varietate personarum; for it sounds not to likelihood that John baptised Infants; they could not confess their sins, nor learn the doctrine of Repentance; nor be taught the coming of the Messias, such only came to him: But Christ's Baptism pertains to little ones, and his spirit was poured out upon all flesh, your Sons and Daughters shall Prophesy, and your young men see visions.  
4. Christ's Baptism hath the upper hand in gradibus efficaciae, the Spirit is more operative in Baptism since Christ did go to his Father to send us the Comforter than ever it was before.  
5. It is greater than John's baptism in modo necessitatis. The Sacraments of the New Testament had the seeds of life in them from the first institution, and they were good to the receiver; but they were not imposed by necessary commandment till the old Law was quite abolished, and that was at the Resurrection, says Leo; or at the farthest, in other men's opinions, 
Leo. Ep. 4.  at the feast of Pentecost. So John's baptism was always good, never necessary; Christ's baptism is always good, is, and ever will be necessary unto the end of the world.  
These are less principal differences, the substance of both being the same, for one thing yet remains to be proposed, that the Baptism of John opened the gate unto everlasting life, as some have showed by an Allegorical reason taken from the place, where John did baptise Christ, in Jordan, says this Text (not a private dipping in a Chamber;) and of all other places of Jordan it was Bethabara, Joh. i. 28. which is, being interpreted, Domus transitus, the house of passing over; even in all likelihood where Joshuah divided Jordan, and passed over into the Land of Promise, this is the circumstance of place which I propounded, the fortunate seat where this work was done, to betoken that as Joshuah brought the twelve Tribes at that very standing through the River into that pleasant Land which was promised to Abraham, so Jesus will bring us through the sprinkling of water into the Kingdom of heaven. AMEN.   

THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour.  MAT. iii 14. 
But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to me?  
IN which Text you may see that ancient Sentence verified, how an ambitious man is afraid left too little honour be cast upon him, and an humble man is afraid of too much. Our blessed Saviour saw multitudes of Penitents coming to John to be baptised, and to confess their sins. Among these people, whose iniquities stood in need of cleansing, he steps in for one into the River Jordan, not to receive Sanctification unto himself, but to sanctify the waters unto others. O exceeding dignity! far above all honour that ever was vouchsafed to any Prophet; for to which of them was it said at any time, Dip thine hand in water, and anoint the head of my Son? And therefore Christ was pleased to give this Character of John, that he was more than a Prophet. More than a Prophet, not only in the Office which he sustained, to be the immediate forerunner of the Messias, but more than any Prophet or Patriarch in the expression of his humility; Jacob wrestled with God, but it was to get a blessing from his Angel, he would not be denied, John the Baptist wrestles with the Son of God, to decline the blessing which was brought before him, and fain he would be denied: His hand shrunk up, and durst not attempt to pour water upon his head, who is the immortal head of the Church visible, and invisible, both of men and Angels. He thought it no sin to disobey, when he was required to such a work, which in his eyes appeared far too excellent for any creature. Therefore conceive him modestly starting back, and making this reply to our Saviour, Lord, why dost thou tempt thy servant? Why wouldst thou put the Potter into the hand of the Clay? What is it to thee to be dipped in water? Whose precious Blood shall wash away all sins, and mine in the reckoning among the rest. Behold this exact humility, more than any Prophet expressed, how John forbade him to be baptised, saying, I have need to be baptised, etc.  
The matter of the Text may be handled in these three several Points: 1. The Baptist did declare how jealous he was of God's honour, therefore the Text says, he forbade Christ to come under the Ministry of a Sacrament; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he would fain have put him by, thinking it ignoble for the Lord of all Lords to descend so low. 2. He disables himself, and makes profession of his own vileness and infirmity, I have need to be baptised of thee. 3. He ends with the admiration of his Saviour's humility, And comest thou to me? Yet again, I will consider him in the exercise of the three spiritual virtues, Faith, Hope, and Charity: 1. He believed this was the Christ as soon as ever he saw him, and that made him interpose to forbid him stoop so low as to be baptised, there was his faith. 2. He confesseth that he relies upon him to be baptised with his Spirit, and to be saved through his merits, there is his hope. Lastly, he breaks out into an ecstasy of admiration, as soon as ever he saw him, like old Simeon that sung a Canticle for joy; Comest thou to me, O thou expectation of the World, O thou desire of our eyes? There was his ardent love, these are his Faith, his Hope, his Love; and remember that every tittle of his praise is the rule of your practice.  
Set your attentions now upon the first part of the Text, that John was jealous of our Saviour's honour, and forbade him to be baptised. The interpretation of the word certainly is not so harsh as it may be thought to be in the strict Grammatical sense; to forbid according to the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is to thrust back with the hand, as I would derive it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to push away with the arm, or some member of the body: But I cannot, I must not suspect John of such rudeness; I incline much rather to the moderation of the gloss, Non negat simpliciter, sed deprecatur; He did not stubbornly deny his Master what he bade him do, but fearfully, and with reverence declined him. In the story of the old Church we find that some renowned men being called to the Office of a Bishop hid themselves out of the way; some debased themselves in writing, as most unfit for such a calling; nay, some disfigured certain parts of their body, whereas the ancient Canons admitted none to that place but such as had perfect limbs, and strait proportion; yet they were not accused for this, that they contemned the authority of the Emperor, but they were rather noted for a great deal of modesty, that they set themselves far under that esteem which the world had of them. So this unwillingness in John to baptise our Saviour was not a countermand against his offer, but a pleading with God, that his Ministry deserved not to be so highly exalted. You may parallel this action with Moses, when he excused himself, that he was not eloquent enough to speak to Pharaoh; with Jeremy, when he laid open his own imperfections, that he had not the graces of a Prophet, 
Jer. i. 6.  Ah Lord, behold I cannot speak, for I am a child; With the Centurion that laid a bar in Christ's way, when he was coming to his house, I am not worthy thou shouldst come under my roof. Finally, with Peter, Luk. v. who thought such company as himself not to be meet for the Son of God, Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.  
One comparison more with St. Peter in another place will fit our turn exactly, Joh. xiii. 6. Lord, says he, dost thou wash my feet? No, thou shalt never wash my feet: This were very audacious, to oppose his own will against our Saviour's, but that no man knows how bold humility may be with God, and give no offence. Upon this very instance S. Ambrose excuseth both John and Peter, 
Ambr. lib. 3. de Sacr. c. 1.  for their meaning was not pertinacious to remove Christ from his intended purpose, but to withdraw themselves because of their own unworthiness. And I had much rather take this distinction than be their accuser, Non crat inobedientia, sed humilitatis pavor; It proceeded not from disobedience, but from the abashment of humility. Michol was ashamed of David's dancing, that man should humble himself so much before God. Now the opposite to her scorhful folly must be very good in John, who is ashamed that God should humble himself so much before man. Shall the Clay say unto the Potter, What is it that thou hast made me thus? No, that were presumption. But may not the Clay say unto the Potter, Why hast thou made thyself thus? Yes, that is reverence and humility. Therefore Peter plucked away his feet from his Master, as who should say, Dost thou stoop to wash my feet, to whom all things in heaven and in earth do bow and obey? It was fit for an honest servant to have such a consideration. Therefore John Baptist likewise trembled to dip his hands in water, and to sprinkle it upon the Lamb of God. As who should say, in St. Ambrose words, Tu venis ad me peccatorem? Dost thou come to me a sinful man, as if thou wouldst lay down thy sins, and know'st no sin? Did it not become a Prophet to make a scruple before he entered into such an action? It is an excellent judgement that St. Bernard gives on both parts, 
Bern. 1 Ser. de Epith.  Magna utringue humilitas, sed nulla comparatio, quomodo enim non humiliaretur homo coram humili Deo? A great vie of humility on both sides between Christ and John: Yet both being truly censured John is no way comparable with Christ; for it is not strange to see a creature cast himself down before his God, when God did first drink of that cup, and began to cast himself down before man.  
The emulations of men are foolish, and we contend for the most part who shall exceed another in vanity; and of many of us it may be said, as once it was of two great Roman Lad●●●, Non minùs vitiis quam aliae virtutibus emulabantur; They strove as much, which should be most vicious, as other chaste ones did, which should be most virtuous: Not so this excellent Prophet, who did aspire to imitate the Son of God in humility, and thought it the best part of Religion to be fearful of presumption. As Tertullian spoke what a strict care he had not to offend, Timeo ab omnibus indulgentiis Domini mei; I am afraid to accept of all that licence which God hath given me: So John Baptist was so afraid le●t he should be exalted above measure that he thrust back that honour which the Lord himself imposed upon him. He that will strive with God that he may not be too much lifted up, I believe such a one would be easily persuaded to make no dissension in the Church for the defence of his own meritorious righteousness. Nay, if God himself shall speak to his praise, (I do not say to attribute strict merit to his work) but if God shall give him testimony, I was hungry, and thou gavest me meat: I was naked, and thou didst clothe me, in this the Lord pardon him if he deny it modestly; When did I see thee hungry? Or when did I see thee naked? I must not omit to give you this observation into the reckoning: John had passed the whole course of his life with an even obedience, stuck at nothing, though never so hard and austere, this one instance in my Text excepted, wherein he was loath to yield. He was content to converse with beasts in the solitary Wilderness; he thought he had enough when he made his meal of Locusts and wild honey: His rough hairy garments were fit enough, and fine enough in his opinion: Imprisonment and death in a good cause were as welcome to his heart as life and liberty. He that was obedient and pleased in all this, can there be any thing so much against his mind that God should ask him twice to do it? Yes, he knew not what to make of our Saviour's offer to come to him to be baptised: (for doubtless the lesser is blessed by the greater) in this he was scrupulous: And he that never flinched for abundance of misery (there can be hurt in that) knew not how to entertain this glory which was put upon him (there may be danger in that) and it could not displease that he was jealous for God's honour, but he forbade him, saying, I have need, etc.  
The zeal which we have seen in John, that God's excellency be not diminished, leads us to the consideration of his faith, and they are spiritual qualities wont to go hand in hand. Take the Centurion for an example, who protested against our Saviour's coming under the roof of such an abject sinner, and incontinently Christ gave him this Encomium, I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel. Attend to this comparison. What means our Saviour? That this Centurion was the most faithful of all believers? Cajetan, I think, puts home to the true sense of the words: 
Cajet. in 8 cap. Mat.  1. Non dicit non inveniam, sed adhuc non inveni. He doth not say, I shall not find so great faith, when after my Ascension the whole mysteries of salvation shall be revealed, but as yet, in the beginning of my manifestation, I have not found so great faith. 2. Christ did seek for increase of faith among the Jews by Preaching, by Signs, and Miracles, and he found more in this Centurion than in any other since, the time of his Preaching, whereof the second year did run on; but those words are no denial that there was not greater faith in the blessed Virgin his Mother and in John the Baptist, for they believed before he began to Preach, and before he began to do Signs and Wonders in Israel. Therefore the Centurion's faith was greater than any, that were drawn to believe by Doctrine, and the power of Miracles: in which respect John the Baptist transcends the Centurion; for he had not heard a word fall from our Saviour's mouth, he had neither seen nor heard of any mighty work wrought by his hand; nay, he did not so much as know his face, till even now that he came to Jordan, and yet he knows and confesseth that he was the Lamb without spot, and wondered that he should come to be washed in the Baptism of Repentance.  
Bernard speaks to these words upon it, Valde humiliaris Domine, Lord, thou wert marvellously humbled, almost so far that thou couldst not be discerned, only John perceived thee who thou wert: Qui per utriusque mater ni uteri parietes te cognovit. Yet he knew thee through the womb of his own mother Elizabeth, through the womb of thy blessed Mother Mary; thou couldst not be unknown to him through those double walls, but he leapt for joy. Here Expositors have made some work for our resolution upon a double doubt. I have told you that our Prophet gave Christ a welcome into the world by springing in his mother's womb: Yet he professeth that when he came to Jordan he knew him not; but he that sent him to baptise told him, it was he upon whom the Spirit should descend from heaven like a dove, Joh. i. 33. Yet we see in this Text he knew him, and forbade him to be baptised before the Spirit descended upon him in any bodily shape. St. Hierom hath not waded to the depth of the answer, for here he sticks, that John at the first view perceived he was the Son of God, yet knew not till he saw the visible sign of the Holy Ghost upon him, that he should save the world through the cleansing of water. This cannot hold, for before John had seen him this was part of his Doctrine, He that cometh after me shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost. 
Tractat. in Joh 5.  S. Austin was troubled with an error of the Donatists, that the Baptism of an Heretic or wicked person had no efficacy to cleanse the party baptised. This pestilent opinion was fresh in his days to be refuted, and very strongly he proves this conclusion, That Baptism is of sovereign virtue by the power of him into whose name we are baptised, neither is it corrupted through his fault by whom it is administered: Therefore as most men use to do, he draws this Text to his purpose, Innotuit per columbam Dominus, non ●● qui se non norât, sed qui in ●o aliquid non noverat. John knew the Messias by the token of the Dove, not simply, for he knew somewhat before, but respectively through that sign. He learned somewhat which he knew not before, namely, that the virtue of Baptism was not imputed to the Servant, but to the Son of God, by whom we receive the Holy Ghost. This exposition supposeth what we must not grant, that so great a Prophet as John was not ignorant how the gift of God, which sanctifieth the heart, cometh only from the Lord of light.  
St. Chrysostoms' answer, me seems, is best, both for soundness and perspicuity▪ When Jesus came to John, John did apprehend him by a double knowledge, both by a sudden inspiration, and afterward by the sluttering of the bird upon his head. The infinite wisdom of the Father had so disposed, that Christ, after his coming out of Egypt, lived at Nazareth till about thirty years of age: All this while John lived in the Wilderness of Judea, had contracted no familiar acquaintance with our Saviour; nay, had never seen his face till they meet at Jordan; left the Pharisees should say, when John bare testimony of him, all was devised between them, as plots use to be laid by them who are of intimate familiarity. But as soon as ever the Eternal Son of God showed his head at the brink of waters, the Spirit suggested unto John, This is he whose way thou art sent to prepare; as when David came out of the field, and was brought before Samuel, the Lord said in secret to Samuel, 
1 Sam. 16.12.  Arise, anoint him, this is he. And for his further confirmation, the Promise was kept, which was made unto him about the descending of the Dove, whereby he had an experimental object to strengthen his faith; and a warrant from that illustrious miracle to preach him to the Jews with greater confidence and authority. Therefore he knew him not till even hard before the Dove came down, and was completely confirmed when the Dove fate upon him. O great faith! which embraced the Lamb of God, and fell down at his feet in all humility as soon as one spark of illumination was kindled in his spirit, before a visible sign appeared; and to show that here after faith shall be rewarded with the vision of God, it was given to him to see the Spirit in the form of a Dove. Let this be the end of the first general part of the Text.  
In the next part this holy Saint makes profession of his own vileness and infirmity, I have need to be baptised of thee. From which words I will speak to these three particulars: 1. How far forth it is to be understood that there is a need to be baptised. 2. That John was not clean from sin, for he makes his moan that he had need to be baptised. 3. He looks for that Baptism from none but Christ, a testimony of the next Theological virtue; As if he had said, And now Lord what is my hope? Truly my hope is even in thee. I have need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to me?  
For the first of these, we have need of that which God hath set down by his own Ordination shall be necessary for us; for nothing is necessary in itself, but as the Lord hath decreed and made it so. Wherefore this is my first Proposition, That the use of Baptism is simply necessary to a true Church, and where it is not in use, as among Jews and Mahometans, that alone is enough to defy them, that they are not members of that body whereof Christ is the head. It is not to be opposed, that the due administration of the Sacraments is an inseparable note of the Church. For the Church being an outward company of Professors that depend upon the grace of God; How can it outwardly be discerned that we depend upon him, unless we accustom ourselves to the outward means that seal and assure his blessings unto us? Touching Baptism therefore it is necessary to a company of Believers who make a Church, it is so necessary, that they could give no evident token of their Christianity to men if that mark of our initiation into the visible Church were omitted. Though Baptism, as I will show instantly, is not simply necessary for the invisible incorporation of Infants in to Christ; yet it is certain that the sprinkling of water gives them that visible incition, whereby they are engrafted into him. That must be our ordinary practice, or else we are none of his flock, he is none of our Shepherd. In the description of Paradise we read of two things that were in it; Pleasant Rivers of waters, and Trees which did abound with fruit for sustenance. So the Church, in whose blessings Paradise is restored unto us, hath spiritual sustenance for life in the Lord's Supper; and water of Regeneration in the other Sacrament. Without these two it is no more itself, and therefore the Church of God in general may say, I have need to be baptised, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it is a necessity laid upon me.  
My next Proposition consists of these terms; Suppose that there are some grown to years of knowledge, able to discern between good and evil, who from their birth were Paynims, Mahometans, altogether ignorant in the truth of Salvation, but at last the light of heaven hath shined upon them, and by the preaching of the Word hath wrought upon their hearts to believe; such Converts must desire to be washed in the Sacrament of water, and confess that they have need, and that they would be baptised. First, I say, they must desire it cordially, and with all the affection of their mind. If it be not the only Lesson of the Gospel, yet I am sure it is the main drift of Christ, and his Apostles, to teach all men to attain to Salvation by humility. Therefore to pluck down our high imaginations (see the admirable wisdom of God's Dispensations) he hath made man subject to those creatures which are much beneath himself, that they should be the sanctified instruments to make him partaker of everlasting life. Naaman the Syrian thought great scorn at first to make use of an whole River to recover his Leprosy. Now, le●t any man should have such insolent thoughts, that he would not be beholding to small things for his salvation; they that will be heirs of heaven, must come to a Font, and be glad of a little sprinkling, in token that Christ's blood will cleanse them from their sins: They must kneel and fall down likewise at God's Table to pick up the crumbs, and to taste a little of his banquet of bread and wine. And he that despiseth these Elements, as poor rubbish for so great a purpose, he despiseth God himself, and his heart is not right with the Lord. It is an essential propriety of faith to long for the Sacraments, even as the Hart thirsteth after the Rivers of waters. And he that sets those Mysteries at a low price, as if it were not material to his souls benefit, whether he used them or no, the Devil hath puft him up to destroy him, he wants the true life of Faith, and is given over to the captivity of Satan. I say no more than God hath denounced against the uncircumcised, Gen. xvii. 13. My Covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting Covenant; the uncircumcised manchild shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my Covenant. Beloved, if an Israelites child died before the eighth day, which the Lord appointed for Circumcision, that did not offend the Lord, neither was the child accounted out of the Covenant; but if an Israelite of ripe years, or a stranger within his gates did despise Circumcision, that soul was cut off in the anger of the Lord.  
My third Proposition touching Converts of ripe age is this, that if they desired Baptism, and were prevented by the suddenness of death, the Lord will accept the desire of their Faith, and their soul shall not suffer for the want of Baptism. Two Texts in the New Testament imply a strict command that we must all be baptised, if we desire to be entered into the Covenant of grace, yet I will draw from them, that they are not altogether without limits, and mitigation. Mar. xuj. 16. They are our Saviour's words, He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. Mark with what wariness the words are repeated, not thus, he that is not baptised shall perish; only the other member is taken into the threatening, He that believeth not shall be damned. To be an unbeliever, to avoid the Sacrament out of disdain, and not to be prevented by necessity, that is the crime which, according to our Saviour's words, shall not be unrevenged. Hear in another place what he presseth more strictly upon Nicodemus, Joh. iii 5. Unless a man be born again of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. Here is no time limited, but it is spoken as if instantly the institution of Baptism were in force, and that from thenceforth no man could plead his right to the Kingdom of heaven without it: Yet we know the soon that it took place was not till anon after his Resurrection, when the Disciples had the word given, Go and baptise all Nations, etc. For as he said elsewhere, Joh. vi. 53. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. the words run in the Present tense, yet he did not perfectly declare what he meant, nor put in force, till he eat his last Supper with his Disciples. So it appears, that Text before cited, Unless a man be born again of water, and of the Spirit, is not without limitation; and the next verse clears the matter on this sort, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit; where we see the Spirit alone is able to regenerate a man, and not always necessarily both water and the Spirit.  
Bernard in his 77 Epistle to Hugo writes more diligently, I think, than any before him in this argument: He proves from the confession of the eldest Fathers, that some may go out of the world without this Sacrament by unavoidable necessity, and their faith shall suffice to save them as if they had been baptised; his saying is very memorable, Sola interdum sides sufficit ad salutem, & fine ipsâ nihil sufficit. Sometimes faith alone is enough to bring salvation to a man, and without it nothing is enough. Valentinian the Emperor, having given battle to the Sarmatians, and other Scythian Rebels, broke a vein with out-cries to his Captains, and eager encouragement to his Soldiers, 
Ambros. de Obits. Valent.  and soon after died in his Tent unbaptised; yet St. Ambrose comforts his Subjects in a Funeral Oration that their Emperor's soul was with God; because his life was religious, and his heart desired the benediction of that Sacrament. 
De Civ. Dei, lib. 13 7.  St. Austin enrolls all Martyrs in the Catalogue of the Saints of heaven, albeit Persecution snatched them away suddenly before they could be baptised: And that God will remit their sins who lay down their lives for his sake, Quantùm si sacro fonte abluerentur, as if they had been washed at the sacred Font. Why, this was well and charitably concluded; not as if Martyrdom did equal the virtue of Baptism, but because it was joined with an eminent faith. Now, God may see as much faith in one dying as if he were to suffer Martyrdom, Fides idonea martyrio, licet non interrogata martyrio, says Bernard. Therefore that faith shall stand them in as much stead as if they had actually been brought to Martyrdom. Finally, Whereas John Baptist may seem to desire this Sacrament in my Text, saying, I have need to be baptised, it appears not (whatsoever some Apocryphal Stories say) that Christ did baptise him in water; but the Learned say, the willingness of this confession, and his Martydom which he suffered under Herod did supply the want thereof, and his faith did save him.  
A fourth Proposition follows, that we have good reason to hope for the salvation of such Infants, being born within a believing Church, as were deprived of life before the outward Element could conveniently be applied unto them to wash them from their sins; because some have gone too far in doubting against this, take my reasons in order: First, It is never questioned in the old Law but that the Male children of the Jews were blessed in the Lord which died before the eighth day▪ having not received the Seal of Circumcision. I will not urge that Circumcision was omitted for forty years, all the while they traveled in the Wilderness, it was with God's especial dispensation, so that no detriment redounded to any soul because of Circumcision. I instance in David's child, the first he begat of Bathsheba, it died the seventh day, and yet the King, who doubted not to enjoy the Crown of a better life, comforts himself, and expects that his soul should rest with the Child after death, 
2 Sam. xii. 23.  I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. Secondly, We have no Promise for the Seed of Infidels, but we have express testimony from the Spirit, that the Seed of faithful Parentage is holy from the birth; and if the root be holy, so are the branches, Rom. xi. 16. Nay, albeit one Parent be an unbeliever, yet if either Father or Mother make but one believer, the Children are sanctified, and for that ones sake they are not unclean, 
1 Cor. seven. 14.  but holy. It is true, that we are all in ourselves born children of wrath from our Mother's womb: But God is gracious to the thousand Generations of them that fear him, much more to their very next Generation; and because their Infants are his children's Children, the guilt of their sin is blotted out, and he is pleased to give them adoption of Sons. What else is the fruit of that Promise, that the offspring of the Faithful are in the same Covenant with the Fathers? 
Heming in 3. cap. Jo.  The Promise is made to you, and to your Sons, and to them that are far off, Acts two. 39 The constancy of the eternal Covenant, made to the Posterity of the Just, appeared, says one, in those extraordinary motions of Jacob when he wrestled with Esa●, of John Baptist when he congratulated the coming of Christ into the world, the spiritual ecstasies of both these before they were born. Therefore it is no unjudicious opinion to say, that Infants are brought to Baptism, not to take them into the Covenant of Grace, but, being of the Covenant before, to seal it unto them. If any man make a Scruple, whether the Covenant be made to the Infants of Christian Parents as fast and firm as to the Jews and their Children, let him not doubt; nay, assuredly the Covenant is made unto us much stronger: For Christ came into the World to confirm the Promise made from the beginning of the World, 
Zanch. in 5. cap. ad Eph.  and to turn over God's mercies in a more ample manner unto the Gentiles, Of his fullness we have received, and grace for grace, that is to say, plenty of grace and benediction.  
This was the second Reason; thus I propound the third. I have formerly proved and delivered this Doctrine, that to such of riper years as desired Baptism, and were unawares prevented, the willingness of their faith was reputed to them for Baptism. Why, this shall also comfort us for the tender fruit of the womb which died without the Sacrament, as soon as it yawned the first breath; for when they are baptised, the faith of the Church, and of those that present them at the Font, is by God reputed to be their own: So if they be cut short before they be outwardly engrafted into the Congregation of Christ, the willingness, and desire of the same Church, and of their Parents, shall be imputed by our merciful Father to be theirs also. Lastly, I will pawn the practice of the best Churches in the world to prove it, when they were in their ancient purity. It was a Ceremony both among the Greeks and Latins to appoint but two solemn times of the year for the Baptism of Infants, 
Leo Ep. 62.  Easter and Whitsuntide. Indeed, leave was given to dispense with this Ceremony if Passengers unbaptised were like to be cast away at Sea. If War, Pestilence, or Persecutipn threatened their imminent ruin, if Infants did dangerously languish. But I pray you how often do Infants die away in the turning of an hand, before it can be perceived? Therefore the Sacrament had not been deferred unto those two solemn times if either Greeks or Latins had thought that Infants deprived of the Laver of Regeneration should eternally be deprived of the glory of God.  
The fifth Proposition dispatcheth the long discourse upon this Point. It is thus: We are to hope well of the safety of Infants not baptised, yet we cannot be so confident of their welfare as when the Church hath prayed for them, and given them the blessing of the Sacrament. Let the worst come, that our children passed away without the sprinkling of water (it is fit to be prevented in a due course as much as may be) yet it is a sweet consolation that we have a general taste of God's Mercies, and gracious Promises towards them; but no good Christian can choose but think so divinely of the Sacraments, that our comfort is more perfect, and better satisfied, when they had the special seal of grace before they departed. And if any man's fancy lead him to hold that both shall be glorified, yet where the honour of the Sacrament lights, the greater glory shall follow, I had rather assent to this opinion than gainsay it, though I know not how to prove it. And let me end this Point as he begins his Poem, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Water is the best Element in the world. The Air for natural life, the Water for spiritual. And my exhortation is, that you endeavour to see the Sacrament conferred upon all Infants (as far as it is possible) because John says, I have need to be baptised.  
I must now proceed to show that John found imperfection in his own heart, and therefore thus bemoans himself, I have need to be baptised. Two Expositions I suppose are natural to this Point: 1. I have need to be baptised with thy Spirit, and to receive thy grace. 2. I desire that the infinite merit of thy bloodshedding may be applied to me for the washing away of my sins. The Baptism of the Spirit is the infusion of heavenly grace into the soul, and John confesseth he had need of it. Need, I mean of the increase thereof, although he had it in great abundance as soon as he was sent to prepare the way of the Lord. Abraham was circumcised in his old age, and yet was justified before he received Circumcision, Rome iv. Cornelius was baptised, having received comfort before from the Angel that his Prayers and Alms were pleasing to God. When great multitudes of the Gentiles had their hearts touched from heaven, says Peter, Can any forbid water, that these should not be baptised, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? Acts x. 47. In these instances it is seen, that some grace did prevent the Sacrament, and yet the parties, who had received the Holy Ghost, came willingly to be baptised. For God doth not give all his grace at once or twice, but more and more is added, and supplied to the former Dose, and though the outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day; therefore the holiest Prophet alive, while he carries flesh upon his loins, may say, and aught to say, I have need to be baptised of the Spirit.  

Yet it is contradicted.  This interpretation is accepted of all sides; and what rubs can the other find, that John did implore the mercies of Christ for the washing away of his sins? Though he in a mortifying phrase, and most contrite humility may seem to put himself in the number of sinners, (and so I have cited St. Ambrose making that sense of his words, Tu venis ad me peccatorem? Dost thou come to me a sinner?) Yet there are some that say unto him, as Peter did to our Saviour, Master, spare thyself: So they to another purpose, spare thyself, do not condemn thine own innocency, thou art not polluted, neither hadst thou any corruption in thee, which could extend unto a mortal sin, for it is written, Luke i 15. He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. That John was sanctified before he was born is it which hath made the scruple. This is the doubt then, which I am to clear, that a man sanctified from his nativity, I before his nativity may be a sinner, whose iniquities have need to be washed away in the blood of Christ. To be sanctified from the womb, it is a word of divers constructions, and when I have named them all, choose ye which you will, and my conclusion will be inviolable. First, It hath been usual to say, such Infants were sanctified from the beginning of their life, to whom God hath very soon demonstrated some extraordinary favour. 
Lib. 4. de Fid. c. 4.  So St. Ambrose says of Jacob the Patriarch, that it was a sign of grace in him before he was born that he wrestled with Esau in the womb of Rebecca. Ephraim 
Orat. de Transfig. Christ.  the Syrian says as much of Moses, that a divine blessing was upon him as soon as he was exposed in the Ark of Bulrushes, because Pharaohs Daughter, when she looked upon him, could not choose but pity him. Yet neither of these were so undefiled in their way, but that they had need of remission of sins.  
Secondly, St. Austin hath this interpretation, that to sanctify him from the womb is not to pour extraordinary grace into the Infant at that rawness of age, but to ordain him in due time unto Sanctification. 
Aug. Ep. 57  Sanctificavi, i. e. destinavi sanctificare, it is spoken of as a thing done in the present, because God's Predestination is sure from the first conception. As the Gentiles are called the children of God before the Doctrine of faith was preached among them, because they should be made the children of God, as it is written, Joh. xi. 52. that Christ died, not only for that Nation of the Jews, but for the children of God that were scattered abroad; the instance is in Jer. i. 5. I knew thee before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified, and ordained thee a Prophet unto the Nations. Even Maldonat confesseth out of these words, he was sanctified, because from the first minute of life he was ordained to be sanctified, Non per inspirationem Prophetiae sed per destinationem, not as if he were inspired so young, but so young in the eternal Council he was appointed to be inspired. It is in effect as St. Paul offers himself to us in the like phrase, Gal. i. 15. It pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace. To separate from the womb is the same as to sanctify from the womb; 
Cornel. à lap. in 1 cap. ad Galat.  Separare est à patre, matre, rebusque terrenis rem segregare, & Deo consecrare. It is to draw a thing from Father, Mother, and all earthly relations, and to appropriate it to God. And yet this Apostle sighs it forth, that he is the greatest of sinners, and yet separated, or sanctified from the womb. And surely it is a Text of validity to prove that Jeremy was not cleansed from the foulness of Original sin, for he reviles the day of his birth, because it brought forth nothing but a miserable sinner: Cursed be the day wherein I was born, let not the day wherein my Mother bore me be blessed, Jer. xx. 14. I am very loath to lay any faults to the Saints of God, yet after all answers, and shifts, I cannot see but that Jeremy in those words is guilty of great impatiency.  
Thirdly, To be sanctified, not only from the womb, but even from the earliest minute of life, in the conception, is to be endowed with eminent motions of grace, not usual to other Infants, and so it was in John the Baptist, in whom two things of Gods especial goodness were remarkable; for the quantity that he had an exceeding portion of the Spirit, in which regard he was more than a Prophet; for the time that he received it, it was from the womb, yea, and in some signs before the womb had opened to bring him forth, in which regard he was more than the child of any Prophet; these two the Angel hath put together, He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb. This was inundatio spiritus, the Spirit abounding in him, as a River at high-water fills the banks; but in the most probable opinion it was not emundatio spiritus, it did not cleanse his soul from corruption in every part, but it instructed him with virtue more than ordinary to do great works. For God forbid but that a man may be said to be sanctified, and to be full of the Holy Ghost, although the infectious poison of original sin do still remain in him Which original contagion reigns in the wicked, is much abated and kept under in the Just, was lessened by God's especial favour, more than usually, in John; but the malignity thereof is not quite taken away till our mortal have put on immortality. The reason is very slender, that the sin, wherein his mother conceived him, was taken away before he was born, because he seemed to have a passion of faith before ever he saw the light, when he leapt at the presence of our Saviour; for that might be a transient passion (and no doubt it was no more) and nothing lets but sin may abide also where the Spirit of grace doth inhabit and continue. That which is alleged to prove him to have some defilement, like all the Sons of Adam, is far more forcible: namely, where the Scripture says, how all are conceived and born in sin. Where it lets us know in another place, how God hath concluded all under sin, that he might have mercy upon all. And St. Austin upholds this cause, Nemo dici potest renatus, nisi prius sit natus. Christ says, Unless a man be born again he cannot be the child of God. Surely, common sense will lead us to this notion, a man must be first born before he can be born again; and if carnal birth go before Regeneration, than no man can be cleansed from all sin before the birth of the womb. Besides, out of the same reason that St. Austin brings against the Pelagians, to prove that the leprosy of Adam's sin is in little Infants, by the same I will prove it to be in John, because the wages of sin is death (Christ only excepted, who took our sins upon him) and the beheading of John is a remonstrance that the meritorious cause of death was in him, I mean iniquity. To give full measure to this Point, and running over, Mat. xi. 11. Verily, says Christ, among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist, yet he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. I leave the multipliciousness of Expositions upon that Text, and betake me to St. Hieroms, Aliud est coronam justitiae possidere, aliud in acie pugnare. The least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than John; because he was in his race, and did struggle against sin and Satan, the least in the kingdom of heaven hath his Crown upon his head, and is past the fear of tentation. So I have shown that John had some frailties of flesh and blood in him, wherefore most submissively he flies to the true Altar of mercy for a pardon, I have need to be baptised of thee.  
Let the Saints of God have their due honour, but let the mercies of Christ, and the benefit of his blood shed upon the Cross, be dilated to every one that dies in the Lord, which was the reason why I prosecuted the last Point. And it is according to the humility of John to set forth his low estate when men would exalt him. For the more the Ambassadors of the Jews did magnify him with Art thou the Christ? Art thou Elias? The more did he abase himself, saying, There is one among you, whose shoes latchet I am not worthy to unloose. Displiciat sibi unusquisque in se, ut totus in Deo placeat. 
Ratbertus.  Be displeased every man with himself, and God will be pleased with thee. This was of all comforts most intimate to the Prophet's soul, that he saw his own need, and knew the right way to call for succour. And the less hope he had of himself, the more hope he had of God. O how his hope quickened, and exulted when he saw his Redeemer at Jordan, whom he had never seen before! He saw such comfort coming down with him, as the Angel brought to Peter when he was in hold; now the prison doors are opened, get thee lose from thy sins. But what speak I of Angels? They had been sent indeed upon messages of joy, there had been Patriarches, there had been Prophets in the world, these were like fair diamonds, whose light sparkles in the eye, but gives no warmth to that which is cold: But, as the Psalmist says, Except the Lord build the house, the labourers labour but in vain. Except the Son of God had vouchsafed in his own person to build the Church, we had never reaped the fruit of eternal life. John Baptist was an Israelite, yet he trusts not to the Seed of Abraham; Born under the Law, but he knew it were death to rely upon that kill Letter; He was a Prophet sanctified from the womb; he cares not for that; For what had he which he had not received, and could he boast then as if he had not received it? Finally, He was full of fasting, austerity, preaching, all manner of works, yet he relies not upon them; for when we have done all we can we are but unprofitable servants. These are the strongest stays of humane trust that can be built upon, yet he flies from them all, and runs to the all-sufficient merits of Christ for succour. This was a right aim taken, Ac si oculo rubricam dirigat uno; this was a strait line drawn, bringing his hope just upon the Lord and giver of life; I have need to be baptised of thee. The time hath stopped me from proceeding to the last part, which shall be made the beginning of our business upon the next occasion. To God the Father, etc.   

THE THIRD SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour.  MAT. iii 14, 15. 
And comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: For thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.  
IF ever such an Argument could be laid before man, wherein it. might become his wit to dispute it with God, I think verily it fell out in this Story, which I continue in that Text that I have read unto you. I will not except that instance, which is able to amaze any Reader, when the Lord spoke unto Abraham to take his only Son Isaac, and to offer him up for an whole burnt Offering. I conceive very well what a strait Abraham was in, and that the bowels of nature were never at such a quandary what to do: Yet he yielded at the first warning, and said it should be done. But this trial, wherein Christ assayed what his forerunner would do, when he came to be baptised, is more perplexful a great deal. God proved his servant Abraham what he would do for his bidding, with a mortal Son that must die: Here God proves John Baptist, what he will do to his own immortal Son, by whom he made the worlds. And to take away the life of Isaac was nothing so hard a case of demur, as to make the least abatement from the glory of Christ. When God offered so much, was it not very disputable with man to bethink him how to take? But howsoever this was the greatest appearance of scruple that could be imagined, yet I must lay my hand upon my mouth, and say with Job, How should man contend with the Almighty? The way of the Lord is equal, though the best Saints on earth may fail in their judgement, and know not how to find it out. As none of the men of Timnah could guests at the meaning of Samsons Riddle, but Samson himself revealed it: so none could interpret the paradox of Christ, why he would be baptised, but Christ himself, Suffer it to be so now: For thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.  
So much as I shall narrate to you of this Story at this time consists of these two parts in general: 1. How John Baptist lost himself in a doubt, And comest thou to me? 2. How Christ helps him out of it, And Jesus answering, etc. John makes a question of that which Christ commanded, Christ commands him again, and puts it out of question. The doubt of John is no pertinacious error, but an admiration mixed of love and humility, Comest thou to me? Our Saviour accordingly deals gently with him, not with the least check to betray any offence, but after these two ways, Sicut Dominus imperans, sicut Preceptor docens. First, As his Lord he lays his strict command upon him, Suffer it to be so now. Secondly, As his Preceptor he teacheth him cause for if, For thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. His power to say the word and impose upon him had sufficed; but he gives him reason likewise for his better satisfaction. These are the particulars to be handled.  
It is the small pittance which remains of my Text since last day, how the Prophet hath lost himself in admiration, Comest thou to me? At which words I am now to enter my Treatise, and shall soon dispatch them. John puts his speech into a form of wonder, how could he do less? When he saw the Lord of heaven and earth put himself into the form of a sinner, and into the condition of a servant. Do you ever read in the Gospel that the Angels brought tidings of his low estate, that he would be made flesh, but that they cry out in their Preface, Ecce, behold, as if they could not utter the message without admiration. Faith is nothing else but a long continued astonishment, which knows not how to utter itself, because the Lord hath done such marvellous things for us. But above all, this exinanivit seipsum, this exinanition, and making himself almost nothing for our sakes, it puzzles them most who are best able to consider it. Something we would fain say to it, and when we have brought it forth, it's nothing but wonder and exclamation. So did Elizabeth the mother of this Prophet; Whence is it that the mother of my Lord doth come unto me? So doth the Prophet himself break forth, when the undefiled came to the waters of cleansing, Comest thou to me? Dost thou wash my feet? Says Peter to his Lord. Quis dicere poterit quantum inter hoc Tu, & illud mihi intersit discriminis? says St. Austin, O how far are those two words remote one from another; Thou the great Jehovah, and I an abject worm, and dost thou wash my feet? The selfsame infinite odds John Baptist acknowledgeth between himself and the Messias. The breadth of the earth may be measured, the height of heaven may be taken, but the distance between these two terms cannot be fathomed, Thou, and I, Thou an incomprehensible God, and I a small fragment of thy works, And comest thou to me? And let me add this to the rest, John Baptist had greater reason than Peter to cry out at our Saviour's humiliation, and to say to this effect, What meanest thou Lord? This shape of a servant doth not become thee, for Peter had seen long trial before, that Christ was made poor that we might be made rich, and made himself of no account, that we might be exalted; but John was put upon the first proof of all, hence he began to depress himself, and to communicate of those things which sinners did when he came to be baptised in Jordan. Besides, it is a greater sign of infirmity to come as it were to be cleansed among the polluted than to take the office to cleanse the defiled, therefore it was a greater argument of humility to come to be washed in Baptism, than to take a Towel and girt himself withal, and to wash his Apostles feet. It was no small thing therefore that made John Baptist speak like an astonished man, Comest thou to me?  
Thus you see, how not only an ordinary person, such as we are, but a great Prophet, whose stile above all others was, the Friend of the Bridegroom, such a one may lose himself, not only by searching into the height of God's glory, but by meditating likewise upon the depth of his humility. St. Chrysostom says, John Baptist should have taken the rise of his admiration a little further off, not from the Baptism, but from the Nativity of our Saviour. The wonderful abasement was that the infinite God would be made a miserable man; all other parts of humiliation fall in sweetly, because he would be made in the form of sinful flesh. When you consider how he would be enclosed in a Virgin's womb, be tempted, be despised, be buffeted, be crucified, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; among so many sorrows, and contempts never marvel if he would be baptised. There were four things that might seem doubtful to John; but to which of them may not a most answerable satisfaction be given, according to the mystery of our Redemption which Christ had undertaken?  
1. Comest thou? As who should say, I am thy Messenger to go before thy face: Why didst thou not send for thy servant, but hast come unto him? Let it suffice to say to this, that the Sacraments must not be commanded, except in case of necessity, to wait upon us at home, but we must come to them; behold as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their Masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her Mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until he have mercy upon us.  
2. Tu venis? Dost thou come in humility? Dost thou come in infirmity? Let it suffice to say to that, who should be humbled but God to expiate for the pride of man? No humility could be meritorious but from him, who in his own person did abound with glory; an humble Prince is a rare sight: a beggar, if he be not humbled, there is nothing more disdainful; if our soul cleave unto the earth it deserves no reward, for such a poor estate belongs to our sinful condition; but if the Son of God come down from heaven, and make himself less than the Angels, that humility is stupendious, and will satisfy for our presumption. And as humility was infinitely meritorious in Christ, so it became him to be suspected for infirmity; Factus quasi unus ex aegrotis, eo gratior erat medicus; in that he would seem to be sick for our sakes, it was more cheerful to us, that he became our Physician.  
3. Add me venis? Thou who aboundest with all things, dost thou address thyself to him that wants? When Solomon had built a most stately Temple to the Lord, He admired that God would come down into it in the brightness of his glory. But will God indeed dwell on earth? The heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house which I have builded. Alas here was no such sumptuous receptacle at Jordan to entertain Christ, and comest thou to me? Let it suffice to say, He that would suffer by the hands of cruel enemies would make no difficult thing to be baptised of a friend. Did he endure that Judas should kiss, and betray him? What marvel if he did permit a good Prophet to wash and anoint him to his Priestly Office. Thus St. Austin to good purpose, Did Christ admit a servant to baptise his heavenly Master? Nullus à conservo non dignetur accipere: Then let no man think his fellow servant too mean an Instrument to offer him the blessing of the Sacraments. Good news were brought by Lepers to Samaria, and they were entertained with joyfulness. Let him be a Leper, let him be a sinful man, to whom the dispensation of God's mysteries is committed, yet his weakness shall not diminish from the invisible power of Christ, who in all Congregations, and at all times is the High Priest, that blesseth the outward means for the use of thy salvation. If Judas did baptise it was not hurtful to them that did partake of his Ministry; a leaden Seal may imprint the stamp of God upon thy soul as well as one of better metal. Should Paul refuse to warm himself because Barbarians did kindle the fire?  
4. Comest thou to me, that baptise none but unto remission of sins? Let it suffice to say unto it out of the Lyturgy of our own Church, that Christ did sanctify the flood Jordan, and all other waters, to the mystical washing away of sin. Therefore he came no otherwise to Jordan than as his Angel is said to come down into the Host to battle; Non ad periclitandum, sed ad vincendum; not as if danger could come near unto himself, but to repel danger that might come near to his own people; but of this I must make a full treatise the next day; and at this time no reason so ponderous as his own, by which he helped John Baptist out of doubt, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us, etc.  
These words Christ spoke to John in a double style of speech, Sicut Dominus imperans, sicut Magister docens: As a Lord by his absolute power over his Subject, Suffer it to be so now; As a Master willing to instruct his Disciple, For thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. In the first of these I will be brief, the latter is of more copious observation, Suffer it to be so now. A word to the wise is enough, says the Proverb, 
Mat. xx. 28.  it seems so, that John Baptist was awed with these two short words, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Suffer it to be so now. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ now, he means in the state of exinanition, being made of no reputation among men, and having taken upon him the form of a servant, in this low condition the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to lay down his life for many, therefore howsoever the days will come that the world shall see him in his power, and great glory, yet suffer it to be so now. One distinction therefore makes all straight and even between Christ and his forerunner: For let the person of our Saviour be considered God and man united together, so John was not mistaken if he thought it unexpedient for him to be baptised: But weigh him in another scale, in his Office of Mediator, as he came to do all servile things, thereby to gain unto us the adoption of Sons, so he must bring that most desired work to pass by Baptism, Fasting, and Tentation, by his Agony and bloody Sweat, by his Cross and Passion, by his precious Death and Burial, and through all other shapes of Poverty, Vileness, and Humiliation.  
My Beloved, there is such an exceeding distance, such an interval between the most excellent person of Christ, and the lowliness of his Office, that the conceit of an Archangel is not able to measure it. 
Bern. Ser. 2. Missus est.  Videas potentiam regi, sapientiam instrui, virtutem sustentari, says Bernard. You may see him that had all rule in heaven and earth obey, and be governed: the wisdom of the Father taught and instructed; that virtue, which holds up all things, itself supported. Let me not lose a Syllable of that Father's Elegancy in this Point, Videas pavere fiduciam, salutem pati, vitam mori, fortitudinem infirmari; That which gives us all confidence, itself did fear, and was amazed, safety itself did suffer, strength itself was weak, life itself did die. Thus eloquence runs wittily upon this discord, 
Serm. 11. de verb. Apost.  the most glorious person, and the most inglorious Office of our Saviour. St. Austin makes Elisha the Type of our Saviour's humiliation by very agreeable proportions, when he raised up the dead child of the Shunamite to life. Elisha sent his servant Gebazi with his Staff before him, so the Law came into the world by Moses long before the Incarnation of our Saviour. At last the Prophet made haste in his own person. Venit grandis ad parvulum, salvator ad salvandum, vivus ad mortuum; The great one came to the little one, the Saviour to that which was lost, the living to that which was dead. And as Elisha laid every part of his body upon the Child, and so shrunk up his body to make it no larger than the child's body: So Christ did make himself equal to us little ones, Vt efficeret corpus humilitatis nostrae conforme corpori gloriae suae, to make our vile bodies conformable to his most glorious body. Finally, as that Prophet by prostrating himself did bring life again into that which was dead; so Jesus by making himself an ignominious reproach to the world, did justify and acquit those who were appointed to everlasting death.  
Thus you see why our Saviour's answer strikes upon the circumstance of that present time, Suffer it to be so now. He came in the form of a Servant, and, as long as he emptied himself in that shape, he would do the duties of a Servant. Sine modo, now I will be baptised of thee in water, hereafter I will baptise my Church with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. As yet I stand for one of the multitude, as yet the Holy Spirit hath not descended upon me, to make me manifest to the world that I am the Son of God, therefore suffer it to be so now. Mark, I beseech you, how in the lowest depression of a servant he keeps the Majesty of a Lord: For he makes himself a servant by his own command, Sic volo, sic jubeo, it is my own pleasure to make myself a worm, and no man, yea, a very scorn and derision of them that are round about me. As Cesar did not lessen his own dignity, because he would both command as General, and yet work in the trenches like the meanest Pioneer, Dux consilio, miles exemplo; and as Helen, the Mother of Constantine, was not under the honour of a Princess, because she would dress the Blains and Ulcers of poor Cripples in the Hospital: So the mighty Son of God was not diminished in his glory, because he put himself into the rank of abject ones by his own yielding and accord, not by compulsive necessity. His obedience did not spring from any legal servitude, as one whose Parents did beget him in bondage, nor from any penal servitude, as one that was enthralled by trespasses or violent captivity: But he did put his neck into the yoke, and did appoint himself certain years of misery and abasement; therefore he lays his authority upon the Prophet, that it should be so, Suffer it to be so now. And is not this example worth the learning? That God is better served by him that hath a yielding spirit, and will stoop in humility, than by him that is stiff to maintain the honour of his person, and will not condescend for the advantage of much good from his place and dignity. You shall have them that will defend Augustine the Monk, that would neither veil his head, nor bend his knee to the British Monks of this Island that were met to receive him. Forsooth, such courtesy did not become him, because he was the Nuncio of the Apostolical See. There was a great Clerk that bolstered up the fiery humour of Pope Paul the Fifth in the Venetian quarrel, and bade him keep his dignity inviolable, whatsoever became of peace, with this Text to inflame him. Arise Peter, kill, and eat. O if there be any such evil Monitor that provokes you to stiffness and stubborness by the consideration of your Greatness and Principality, answer him with our Saviour, Sine modò frater, whatsoever I be in pre-eminence of honour let me forget it now; many things unworthy our person must be swallowed up for the glory of God. When Shimei reviled David, Abishai would have had his head for it, suffer it to be so now, says David, though he were the King of Israel, I must pass it over without revenge, it is the Lord that will afflict me. There are such as will blow coals, especially to incense great men, if their inferiors chance to trespass. Are you not noble? Of ample fortunes? Of great power and reputation? And will you not crush an underling that affronts you? But such injuries, as your blood could not put up, your office, which you sustain must remit, that you are members of Christ, linked together in love, which is the bond of perfection. Christ's Office of Mediatorship made him be contented with those abasements which where far unworthy of his Majestical person, But suffer it to be so now, etc.  
This Point, which I have latest handled, was the strict command of Christ over John Baptist as his Lord; in that which follows, as a Preceptor he teacheth his Disciple, and gives him reason that he might know upon what ground he must obey: Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness; in which reason, so many words, so many notations six in all, which will require discussion: 1. What signification the word righteousness hath. 2. What is required to fulfil it. 3. How it was fulfilled in this Baptism, for our Saviour hath put an Emphasis upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Thus I must fulfil it. 4. How it can be said that the coming to John's Baptism was the fulfilling of all righteousness. 5. Why the Proposition speaks of more than one, of us in the Plural. 6. That Christ did fulfil all righteousness at this time, not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in a strict necessary rigour, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for decency sake, because it did become him. So you see every word is ponderous and observable, Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Of these as the scantling of the time will permit.  
The significations of the word righteousness or justice are four: First, It is the name of all virtue taken in the lump, where none is wanting. So did the Philosopher state it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Justice is not a part, or a fragment of Virtue, but the whole continent of it. And so it is to be found in God only, and in no other Creature. And thus our Saviour did fulfil all righteousness, because we had fulfilled all manner of wickedness. And so St. Chrysostom understands this place, that to make our peace with God, Christ was tied to the exact performance of all the Commandments. Secondly, Justice is one particular branch of Virtue, which is thus defined, Constans & perpetua voluntas jus suum cuique tribuendi; A constant and perpetual resolution to give every man his own: And St. Paul puts it in one Precept, Rom. xiii. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Render therefore to all men their deuce. And Christ was most respectful to see that every one had their own both in heaven and earth, according to that most admirable principle, Give unto Cesar that which is Caesar's, and to God that which is Gods. Thirdly, Justice is taken for faithfulness in our word, and being exactly true in our promises; and certainly lying is a fraudulency most opposite to Justice: Thus did our Saviour shine in righteousness, full of grace were his lips, neither was any guile found in his mouth. Yea, let God be true, says the Apostle, and every man a liar, that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and overcome when thou art judged, Rom. iii 4. Fourthly, Righteousness doth many times very properly signify that integrity which is found in a man according to that special Office which he sustains. There is a particular Justice belonging to every state and condition of man's life by itself: A just Father, a just Counsellor, a just Judge; and so likewise in the particular condition of that Office, a just Saviour and Mediator. Out of this last acception surely we may best pick out the meaning of my Text. For this humility and obedience which our Saviour did now profess in coming to Jordan with the multitude to be baptised, it could not be reduced to the observance of any Ceremony in the old Law, nor to any Precept of the Ten Commandments, wherein a necessary part of justice consisted; but it was agreeable to the person of his Mediatorship, and he was accountable for all such duties as parts of righteousness. For let the Sacrament of Baptism be considered in two sorts: First, from the efficient cause, that it was established by divine authority. Secondly, From the end, in that it signifies the washing away of sins; in both these respects it pertained to his Office to be baptised, who was the Mediator between God and man. In the former regard we have his own confession, I came to do the will of my Father that sent me; and although necessity did not lie upon him to meddle with that Ceremony which betokened the cleansing of sins; yet it was expedient that he should not contemn, but do honour to his Father's Ordinance. What did it concern him to be subject to his Parents? To be Circumcised? To keep the Feast days of the Jews? But because it was a part of righteousness to apply himself devotionately to all divine Institutions. In the latter regard, though his own soul was pure, neither was iniquity found in him: Yet he bore the iniquity of us all, and we have need of washing, not our feet only, but our hands, and our head. 
Homil. 6. in Epiph.  It is a full saying of Maximus to this purpose, Justissimum erat quia totum suscepisset homimem, ut per omnia hominis transiret sacramenta. Since he took man upon him, with the guilt of all his corruptions, it behoved him to pass through all those Sacraments, which are the means to take away our corruptions. So you see what righteousness signifies in this place, Non justitiam aequalitatis, & legis; sed aequitatis & vocationis; 
Paraeus in hunc locum.  Not such justice as is commanded in the Law, but a decent equity according to the Office and vocation of his Mediatorship.  
The next thing to be considered is the fulfilling of righteousness: Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Every one, in whom the Spirit of God abides, hath a good purpose to do justice, and the works of the Law; but he that fulfils righteousness, and is exact in his ways without all reproof is the Son of God. I say, as for us, that know God by faith, and live in tabernacles of flesh, wherein there is always malicious resistance against the inward operations of grace, we are all transgressors of righteousness, it is impossible we should fulfil it. Let every man humble himself before God, confessing that he is a great sinner, because Christ humbled himself for us all, to come to that Sacrament which is remediable for Sin. 
De Perfect. Justit Resp. 15.  St. Austin was troubled with one Celestinus, who opposed him, that one of the Sons of Adam might be exactly righteous in this life, notwithstanding the manifold tentations of frailty. St. Austin rejoins, are we not all taught to say the Lords Prayer? But if any could be clear from trespasses, he need not say, Forgive us our trespasses. We do not say therefore that there is a man without sin; we say there may be a man without sin. Quomodo autem possit, & per quem possit, de hôc quaeritur; But the question is, how, and by what means he may be so? For the Orthodox Church did never mean a man could be so in this life, until he were translated to the Kingdom of Glory. Attend what it is which the same Father brings under the compass of sin, and let every man examine himself by that, Peccatum est, cum vel non est caritas quae esse debet, vel minor est quam esse debet, sive hoc voluntate vitari possit, sive non possit. It is a sin either not to have charity, which we ought to have; or to have less charity than we ought to have: Though we could avoid that defect by our own will, or though we could not (meaning sure our inability to fulfil the Law by the corruption we draw from our first Parents) the guilt lies upon us for want of charity. Who can tell how oft he offendeth? Says David, Is there any man then upon earth who can tell how oft he offendeth? Rely not therefore upon thyself, but upon Christ, who alone was able to fulfil all righteousness.  
The Devil tried him in the Wilderness, whether the perfection of all justice were in him: But was repelled, and he could not draw him to forsake his righteousness. The Scribes and Pharisees worse than Satan misdeemed the Doctrine of Christ, how his Discipline would be some new thing quite different from obedience to the Law: But our Saviour prevented their ill surmise, saying, I came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfil them, Mat. v. 17. To destroy the Law is either to take the true sense from it by false interpretations, or to cancel the force by which it obliged, or lastly, by malice and presumption to violate and infringe it. For violation of the Law they did accuse him, but not convince; Pilate, who did strive to do them favour, was compelled to say, I find no evil that he hath done. For delivering the right sense and meaning of it his interpretations were most divine, and discovered the vanity of Pharisaical Traditions. Whereupon, says Theophylact, as a Painter laying fresh colours upon an old Picture, Non delendo, sed perficiendo tollit priorem imaginem, makes as it were a new Image, not by blotting out the old, but by varnishing and washing it new again: So Christ gave, as it were, a new Law to the Jews, not by expunging or adding any thing, but by applying the natural exposition to the Text. As for cancelling the force by which it tied, it is true indeed that he did abrogate all Ceremonial Figures and Shadows, because such things were to vanish away when the substance was exhibited in his own person. Wherefore Cajetan marks the words accutely, that Christ did not say, I will destroy no part of the Law, no not the Ceremonies, but Non veni solvere, they shall be laid aside hereafter, but I came not to destroy them in my own person. So St. Stephen was accused, Acts vi. 14. We heard him say, that Jesus of Nazareth shall change the Customs which Moses hath delivered us. Summarily therefore, thus our Saviour fulfilled the Law and all righteousness. The Law consists of four things, Prophecies, Moral Precepts, Ceremonial Rites, Judicial Statutes. He fulfilled the Prophetical part personally, exhibiting himself to be born, to be crucified, to rise the third day, to ascend into glory. In the volume of thy book it is written of me that I should fulfil thy Law, than said I, lo I come. 2. He fulfilled the Moral Law, not only by giving it the right interpretation, but by exact obedience; whereupon he said, Which of you can accuse me of sin? 3. He gave life to the Ceremonies, pointing to their true meaning, as instead of the Circumcision of the flesh, exhorting to the Circumcision of the heart. 4. Whereas the judicial Law of the Jews did mention temporary and corporeal rewards and punishments, Christ changed that stile of speech into spiritual and eternal.  
No doubt but Christ did fulfil all righteousness, for he came not to do his own will, but the will of his Father; his justice was multiformous in all the actions of his life, from his Cratch to his Cross, yet my Text says that he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, thus by receiving Baptism, by that one act fulfil all righteousness. I know not one bad interpretation upon that Point; which is rare among Expositors to be so divers in their judgements, and yet all allowable. One says it is meant, quoad inchoationem justitiae, that so it behoved him to begin the course of righteousness. That was but one act of his humility, but the first wherein he did manifest obedience: So Baptism is the first step that we make into the Church of Christ, therefore because light was the first thing that God made among his visible Creatures, and Baptism is the first of his spiritual graces, it hath ever been called in the Greek Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or the illumination of a Christian; it is the day of inauguration, when we first claim right unto our title of the Kingdom, because we are adopted the Sons of God. Surely, the ordinary gloss conceits the words otherwise, but very profitably. Righteousness is either Legal, which consists in an exact obedience to all the Commandments of God; Or else Evangelical, which knows Salvation is not attained unto by the works of the Law, but thus, Repent and believe, and thou shalt obtain remission of sins; therefore Christ speaking in the person of us, who are his members, says to John, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Thus must we fulfil all righteousness, by calling upon men to repent, and be baptised in the true faith, and their sins shall be covered, and blessed is that man, or righteous is that man to whom the Lord imputeth no sin. This was the Doctrine taught in the Church every where three hundred years past and more; Omnis justitia impletur ex gratiâ; All our righteousness is fulfilled through grace, and not through works, Ut nullus ex operibus, neque ex arbitrio glorietur; they are the words of the gloss, to the end that none may boast of works, or in the power of his own free will, but acknowledge himself guilty of damnation, and obnoxious to the dreadful justice of God; let us fly to that grace which freely washeth away our sins, Thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness. Chemnitius makes this apprehension of the Text. Christ did omit no means, to reconcile us to his Father, that we might be justified before him, and this he brought to pass two principal ways: 1. When he gave himself an Oblation upon the Cross to take away our sins. 2. When he did institute the means and instruments to apply that meritorious satisfaction unto us; on this wise therefore he did fulfil righteousness by sanctifying the Sacrament unto us, which is the especial medium to apply the righteousness of faith to every one that shall be saved. Another, and the last sense of this word, that likes me also, consists in these terms. By receiving this Sacrament of Baptism we are tied, as far as we are able, to fulfil all righteousness: It behoveth them, that profess the true Faith, to keep themselves undefiled from the world, and to be holy unto the Lord. As Rachel cried out to Jacob, Give me children or else I die; so a sincere faith cries out unto the conscience, Let me bring forth good works, or else I shall be a dying faith, and altogether unprofitable. Do we make void the Law through faith? Says St. Paul, God forbid: yea, we establish the Law, Rom. iii 31.  
So it appears how righteousness buds forth from Baptism; our conscience being watered with the heavenly dew of that Sacrament, it makes us fruitful with good works: Sed in istôc nequaquam sunt omnia, will some man say. Will that serve instead of all righteousness? For our Saviour saith, Thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness. God gave the word, great was the company of Interpreters, and his Spirit is in them all. You shall hear the several consolations which they pick out from hence: 1. To be a perfect teacher, and a perfect doer of God's will; these are Tabor and Hermon, the two fruitful hills upon which the blessing of the Lord descends. To be a Teacher and not to do well is very bad, like Hophni and Phinehas those dissolute Priests, who polluted the holy Sacrifice. To do well and not to teach is laudable and good, but it is not excellent; for to be an instructor and a doer is a degree of perfection beyond it, Omne tulit punctum; it is more blessed to give instruction than to receive; therefore our Saviour was abundant in both, Praeivit in exemplo quod verbo docuit; He did lead the way of obedience by example, and afterward did preach it to the people. Blessed is he therefore that is not only a teacher, but a doer of the word, this is to fulfil all righteousness. 2. Suum cuique; there are but three heads from whence all justice is distributed, and they may be drawn out of this Baptism; for by receiving Baptism we are obedient to the institution of God, we provide a salutiferous medicine for our own soul, and by letting our light shine before men we do edify our brother: But to render that which is due to God, to our own soul, 
Abulens qu 70. in ho●. cap.  to our brother, is to be perfect in every line of justice, therefore in the universality Christ might say thus he did fulfil all righteousness. 3. Says St. Austin, Quid est impleatur omnis justitia? Impleatur omnis humilitas; The Son of God had this meaning how he fulfilled all righteousness, because he condescended to the lowest step of humility; for there are these three fall as I may say, one lower than another. To be subject to a Superior, and not to prefer himself before an equal, is justitia sufficiens, sufficient humility, and no want; To be subject to an equal, and not to prefer himself before an inferior, is justitia abundans, that is not only justice enough, but large and abundant humility; but to be subject to an inferior, yea, the most mighty God to be subject in Baptism to his Creature, this is justitia perfectissima, most perfect lowliness, none can submit itself more; and thus indeed to make the pride of base man to blush, who is but dust and ashes, Christ did empty himself of his glory, and fulfilled all the righteousness of humility.  
The fifth word of consideration is the plurality of persons spoken of in the Proposition, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness. It was fit indeed for our Lord Jesus to perform all obedience to the Law, in every tittle and minim that is commanded, because it lay upon his person to undo the curse of the Law. Surely, John's name must stand for a cipher in that work, for Christ alone trod the Wine-press of his Father's wrath, neither John, nor any of the Saints were made copartner with him in our redemption. By his one Oblation of himself once offered, he made a full, perfect, sufficient Sacrifice and Oblation for the sins of the world. What means this saying therefore in the Plural, Thus it behoveth us? Take again what the Spirit hath supplied for exposition of this word in divers manners. One way it is satisfied, that Christ, according to that excellent power which is in him, speaks of himself regally as of many, Joh. iii 11. We speak that we know, and we testify what we have seen, and yet Christ only spoke to Nicodemus. Again it is a sweet consolation that after the taking of any Sacrament, we are no more one, and one, and so to be reckoned single by ourselves; but Baptism and the Lords Supper are the very bonds of perfection, and make us all members of one mystical body; the Scripture is admirably accurate in this particular, as 1 Cor. xii. 13. By one Spirit we are all baptised into one body, and have been all made to drink into one spirit. Here it appears that we are become one spirit by drinking one cup of the Lord; and one holy lump, because we are sprinkled with one spirit in the water in the name of the Lord; so our Saviour phraseth the sentence of my Text, according to this mystical union, Thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness. One other Paraphrase is very plain and literal, and perhaps therefore the more natural. John was loath to put his hand unto the water, to cast it upon the head of Christ, his Master rectifies his error, and tells him it must be done, it is expedient for both: Obedience is required in the Servant, humility in the Lord, thus it behoveth us on both sides to fulfil all righteousness. Take the last conjecture of the word with you, and, as I approve it, the most useful. Christ was made righteousness and sanctification for us by shedding his innocent blood, which is testified in the water of this Sacrament. He alone is the meritorious cause of our Salvation: But the application of this justice is not to be expected to fall upon our heads without ordinary means, and such instruments as God hath appointed. Ye are God's Husbandry, says St. Paul to them of Corinth, but we are labourers together with God, 1 Cor. three 9 He regenerates by his word which is committed to the lips of sinful men; he cleanseth and sanctifieth his Church by the washing of water, whereof we are made dispensers; therefore our Saviour hath joined this Prophet to himself, not by way of merit (God forbid) but by way of instrument and ministry, in the work of our redemption, thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness.  
Now I shall end this Text in a word, that Christ did fulfil all righteousness at this time, not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in a strict necessary rigour, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for decency sake, because it did become him; Thus it becometh us, etc. Many abasements our Saviour did endure, and became obedient in many parts of humility, which could not be exacted at his hands in strict justice, as he took our nature upon him, but they were certain voluntary strains of lowliness, which were full measure pressed down, and running over. As for his dolorous Passion of the Cross that could not be escaped, it was the cup which he must drink to satisfy for the sins of the world; therefore he preached to his Disciples in this unavoidable expression, Nun oportuit, etc. Ought not Christ to have suffered, and thus to enter into his glory? But to stoop like one of the multitude to the Baptism of John, was not of absolute necessity, but a decency which did well befit his humiliation, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, thus it becometh us, etc. A comeliness in every one is to be observed according to his Christian calling; and decency (though necessity were set apart) will prevail much with tractable and honest dispositions. Some will bend to nothing, but to that which is clearly expressed in so many words out of the sacred Text. But what if decorum require it to be done? (though it be not in specialty contained in Scripture, but in general Maxims) why, surely than it cannot be neglected if we will offer up to God a perfect Sacrifice. Whatsoever is fitting for an outward sanctification of a sincere heart, you cannot omit it without maiming that ingenuous comeliness which is required at our hands.  
This is not my own fancy, for I observe it frequently in St. Paul, that he argues from that which becometh a Christian, 1 Cor. xi. 13. Judge in yourselves, is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? 1 Tim. two. 10. Let the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broidered hair, But as becometh women professing godliness, Eph. v. 3. Fornication, uncleanness let it not once be named among you as becometh Saints. Where is that wrangling excuse now for all your pride and bravery? Will you be stiff in your opinion that you may paint, and powder, and crisp, and clip hair, and use all those Island dog tricks about your head, because the Bible doth in no place by name condemn these things. Beloved, if the Spirit of God had penned a thousand Bible's more, they could not have contained the Catalogue of all those Peacock fashions, into which you transform yourselves from time to time, therefore one rule stands for all, that you must do as becometh women professing godliness, and remember that there is a decency to be attended in Christianity. I will not say to you, as St. Paul did to the women of Corinth, Judge in yourselves if this be comely? We should have wise reformation for all faults if you were made the judges who are quite addicted to vanities. Who shall tell you then what is decent for Christians? Will you rather believe the handmaid that attires you? Or the Waiting-woman that hath wages to flatter you? Or those Gallants that call themselves your servants, and would have you proud that they may idolise you? Will you believe these rather than the Priest of God, whose soul must answer for every word he teacheth you? Learn from him, what it is that becometh you to fulfil righteousness.  
Much might be enforced from hence likewise, to commend unto you all the Ceremonies so exactly appointed by the best of Reformed Churches, I mean this of England, God be glorified for his grace towards us. We do not urge them so peremptorily as to say, thus it is necessary to be a Christian, but thus it becometh us to serve the Lord; and that which is decent in God's house, I say again, will ever prevail with tractable and godly dispositions. You cannot hear or meditate too much upon that of St. Paul, Phil. iv. 8. Whatsoever things are just, or venerable, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, and let me add, whatsoever things become us, these things do, and the God of peace shall be with you. Amen.   

THE FOURTH SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour.  MAT. iii 15, 16. 
Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptised, went up straightway out of the water.  
AT these words John Baptist hath changed his mind, you may perceive, but not his humility. It was his persuasion, that it could not behoove him to minister the Sacrament to his Saviour. But since Christ would have his hand to do that duty, he puts himself upon the office, and performs it. Whether did he refuse at first, or come on at last with greater humility? Nay, the further we go in the actions of the Saints of God, they will manifest unto us that they are better and better. For is it not more lowliness to obey, when he was taught a reason for it, than to tremble, and to start back at the presence of Christ, because he was confounded at his coming to Baptism, and was not taught a reason? Every virtue is so much the better rooted, when it knows the true cause of its own rectitude. In this John said very well at verse 14. (which I have handled lately) I have need to be baptised of thee. Though he were a most bright vessel of honour, yet he did feel a defect in himself how far he wanted the grace of God to open his eyes a little clearer; and his desire was secretly fulfilled, the spirit of illumination did slide into his heart, and made him to understand about what work of ignominy our Saviour came into the world, and would begin from hence to do after the custom of a despicable sinner. O glorious God, that at the same instant did baptise him of whom he was baptised. Quomodo creavit Mariam & creatus est à Mariâ, sic dedit baptismum Johanni, & baptizatus est à Johanne; As he made the Virgin Mary his mother, and was made man of the substance of the Virgin, even so he baptised John with the Spirit, and was baptised of John in water. Nothing was ever done in the Church, which was eminently noble and eximious, but with an opinion, that a Spirit from heaven was sent to reveal it. So in old Legends they report, that the Angels of God did whisper divine Oracles into St. Ambrose; that Doves were sent from heaven to infuse holy wisdom into Basil and Gregory; that the soul of Paul was sent to gild over the Writings of Chrysostom with Eloquence, nil sine numine. So the Spirit, before he appeared in a bodily shape upon our Saviour, entered by his invisible power into the heart of this great Prophet, and he that before denied to baptise his Master because he was humble, is now ready to baptise him, because he is more humble; for after Christ had spoken, Then he suffered him. And Jesus when he was baptised, etc.  
That which is here described in the Baptism of our Saviour comprehends three things: 1. As the naturalists call it, here is removens prohibens, that which did prohibit the effect is removed away, John resists no more, Then he suffered him. 2. Here is the effect itself, Jesus was baptised. 3. That this beginning was but a preparatory to greater matters which should follow, therefore he went up straightway out of the water.  
First, I must insist upon this consideration, that the obstacle of John's doubting is taken away, than he suffered him. The woman of Samaria, because she knew not our Saviour, gave him no water to drink: John Baptist, because he knew him to be God immortal, gave him no water to be baptised. An ignorance very inoffensive was in them both, and so they were easily corrected with a word; for they that wander for want of knowledge, and not for want of obedience, are easily brought into the way when they are taught the truth. Moses did soon put off his shoes when he knew the place whereon he stood was holy ground. Marry Magdalen took our Saviour for the Gardener, when he was risen from the dead, but she fell presently at his feet and worshipped him, when she knew it was the Lord. Peter did demur, and hesitate what to do when the sheet was let down before him with all manner of four footed beasts; but straightway learned that nothing was common or polluted which the Lord had cleansed. John was loath to take the honour upon him to pour water upon our Saviour's head; but you see he need not be bidden twice when the Lord commanded; he did wisely consider what was enjoined him by the divine authority rather than what did become his own unworthiness, and did as he was bidden without any more repugnancy. Vera est humilitas quam non deserit comes obedientia. So, I think St. Austin, there dwells an humble mind, you may be sure, which is associated with tractable obedience. 
Eth 7. c. 9  Aristotle falling into the praise of that sententious judgement which in some men is very exhortative, that weaker capacities should hearken to such men's opinions without any manner of contradiction; for their eye is fixed upon a true ground and principle for whatsoever they deliver; therefore where age, and experience, and prudence meet, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, you ought to submit to their bare dictates and sayings, no less than if they were the most forcible demonstrations. This was most wholesome counsel for the ignorant; for they will learn more a thousand times by believing their Teachers, than by framing their wit to a captious inquisitive course, admitting nothing for good unless their own line can fathom it. John Baptist was a right Scholar to make a good proficient, whose reason was confounded, and knew not what Christ did mean, yet because it was his Masters will he was obsequious against the grain of his own reason, Then he suffered him.  
The praise which S. Chrysostom gives to this holy man is thus in a negative expression, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he yielded quickly, he was not immoderately contentious, for the Holy Spirit makes us mild, and apt to consent; the adverse Spirit makes us unquiet and vexatious to our neighbours: As God describes the refractory Israelites, who did ever resist their Prophets, Isa. xlviii. 4. I know that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow is brass. This obstinacy, you see, in the Prophet's phrase, is a sign of an iron age, and I pray God we be not fallen into it; for where almost shall you find that men had not rather themselves should overcome than a good cause? Always more studious of victory than of truth. When Christ asked the Pharisees whether the Baptism of John were from heaven, or from men; though they could not deny it was from God, yet they would not say so, that the quarrel between them and Jesus might be endless; Timentes lapidationem, sed Magis timentes veritatis confessionem, says St. Austin; they were afraid to be stoned of the people for their obstinacy, but they were more afraid to confess the truth. What a fond affected glory is this? Men account it among the flowers of their reputation not to be conquered in an arguement, though it be never so absurd: Like the two Harlots before Solomon, nothing in their plead but clamour and reiteration, the one said, Nay, but the living child is mine, and the dead is thine; the other said, Nay, but the dead is thine, and the living is mine. This is it which hath plucked the Church of Christ into so many Schisms and Heresies, that proud wits, when they are in the wrong, will never sit down quiet, as if they were convicted; and which is the calamity, that our sins have justly deserved, the Church must stay for peace till Sophisters and contentious have nothing to say; that is, when they shall be brought before the Tribunal of God, and have not one word to answer for the crime of their invincible obstinacy.  
Of pertinacious busybodies that will not be convicted, when their errors be made apparent, there are many sorts. How stiff we are in civil brabbles, never condescending to pacification, every corner of the Kingdom is full of examples. Do you know what you mean by that common Proverb of violence? You will not lose your will though it put you to cost; Not lose it, said you? O that you knew what will this is that you stand upon, and you would never keep it. It is the fuel of all cruel provocation, the Gum that stiffens your anger, the infernal fury that makes deadly feuds, the defiance of love and charity, the cross-bar of brotherly agreement; nay, it is Satan's best advantage to make you miserable like himself in everlasting fire. Is this that will for whose sake you will spend your estate to maintain it? Is it not enough to lose your soul, but that you will pay costs for damnation? The heathen Greek Authors were very tart in their Proverb, when they spoke of them that contended only for contention sake, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that they strove for no more than the shadow of an Ass. And Lucian, who is a professed flouter, says it is upon this occasion. An Athenian was to ride to Delphos, and hired an Ass to carry him; In the heat of the day he reposed himself behind the Ass, and made benefit of the shadow to keep his body from the Sun; the Owner, that went along to bring back the beast, would not suffer it, but demanded to sit in the shadow himself, for he let out his Ass, but not the shadow; the Contention, says Lucian, went so far, that it came into the Court. This is the Story, somewhat light, I confess, but good enough to warn brabbling persons, that they strive not about the shadow of an Ass. Away with obstinacy therefore, which is the endless repulse of godly Union, and let truth prevail; for what should prevail, but that which is stronger than all things? The greatest Learning in the world must be a slave to Faith, and the greatest Majesty in the world must be a slave to Reason. Plato writes to Dion, the Ruler of Syracuse, Pervicaciam tanquam solitudinis parentem fuge; Fly obstinacy and wilfulness, it will beget you a solitary melancholy life, for all your friends will forsake you. Creon in Sophocles would follow his own mind, harken to no admonition, and so brought all to ruin. Tiresias speaks to him not to be stiff, and stubborn, for it was ever the forerunner of great calamity; and hath these two similitudes: First, When a torrent of water breaks into a place, the little Willows that bend, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they are not removed; they that will not give way are rooted out of their place. 2. When the Pilot of a ship will not turn his sail to the winds, nor observe how to let a turbulent wave pass by him, he splits his vessel; therefore the conclusion of the Point shall be with Solomon, An haughty spirit goes before a fall; and it savours much more of a Christian mildness to be easily drawn off from our own imaginations than to hold a stiff opinion in our teeth, in despite as it were of all wise persuasions.  
To be wedded to our own will and fancy is very bad in temporal affairs, but an inflexible perverseness is ten times worse in spiritual purposes. It was a just invective wherewith St. Stephen reviled the Jews, Uncircumcised in hearts and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost. First, the heart is uncircumcised, full of swelling and pride: Such a distempered heart pollutes the ear, and will not hear of wholesome Doctrine: and when the ear is not tractable to receive the truth, then follows the resistance of the Holy Ghost. The great opposers both of Law and Gospel in holy Scripture were Sorcerers; men that were bewitched, as St. Paul says of the Galathians, that they would not obey the truth; such as could not endure to hear there was any divine wisdom revealed from above, which was above their own magical Philosophy; and as some of our adversaries have said blasphemously, that they had rather err in some things with their Pseudo-Catholick Church, than be in the right Cause with the Reformed: So those Magicians, when their senses were convicted, that the finger of God was with Moses and the Apostles, yet had they rather err in their own hellish way than go uprightly in the way of God. Simon the Sorcerer what did he see in Peter's Apostleship to oppose it? Elymas the Sorcerer, what did he hear from Paul's mouth to contradict it? Only they must not seem to be overcome lest their name should be diminished among such as admired them. God did smite the Magicians of Pharaoh with blains for resisting the truth, and yet you never read that they repented; twice their skill prevailed to imitate Moses, and to do wonders like unto his, in the third Plague they failed, and were not able to perform it. Moses turned the waters into blood, they did the like. Moses brought abundance of Frogs upon the Land, the Magicians did so with their enchantments. At the third time Moses smote the dust of the ground, and made it become Lice over all the Land of Egypt, at this the Magicians were at a gaze, and could not perform it. St. Austin notes upon it, In signo tertio defecerunt, fatentes sibi adversum esse spiritum sanctum. They failed in the third sign, as who should say, the Holy Ghost, the third Person of the Trinity, did fight against them; they resisted the Spirit of God, and the same Spirit resisted them.  
Certainly you shall confess out of holy Scripture, that not only these, but all other refractory men are enchanted with a kind of Sorcery, who are contumacious, and will not believe what the Word of God doth evidently persuade them, 2 Tim. three 7. There are some, says the Apostle, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth; for as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth, men of corrupt minds, reprobates concerning the Faith. There are some who are always learning; why, there is no hurt in that; nay, it is most worthy of praise. Seek the Lord and your soul shall live, says David, seek his face evermore. 
Aug. Tract. in Evang. Joh. 63.  My often named St. Austin hath a pure meditation upon it, Quaeramus inveniendum, quaeramus inventum; ut inveniendus quaeratur occultus est, ut inventus quaeratur immensus est; That is, seek the Lord that he may be found, seek him when he is found; be ever learning. His glory is hidden secretly, therefore he must be sought that he may be found: And his glory is immense and infinite, therefore seek him evermore when he is found. But how comes it to pass that such as are always learning never come to the knowledge of the truth? Because they deceive themselves, and think that God hath made them wiser than their Teachers. They will do nothing unless their own ignorant surmises, and private spirit, and doting revelations give them satisfaction. There are labourers great store in the harvest, you cannot say that you want Teachers, I would we had not cause to complain, that we want Learners. Every illiterate man is as peremptory in his own opinion as if he were not a Disciple, but a Judge of Divinity; and if they be checked for perverseness, that they will not let the Pastor of their soul persuade them, they are ready to reply, as Zedekiah the false Wizzard did to Michaiah, Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from us to you? Take heed of this stiff-necked perverseness, as well in Civil matters, as Spiritual. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says the best Poet, let us condescend one to another, I to you, you to me, and reach out our arms to hold peace and charity fast between us. As for the obstinate and contentious, they are far from the spirit of John Baptist, who knew himself to be most insufficient to baptise our Saviour, yet after one words direction he obeyed, and Then he suffered him. And this is enough to be spoken of the first part of the Text, unless some turbulent spirits among you do still resolve to be obstinate in their obstinacy.  
John refuseth no more, and the impediment of this famous baptising is removed away, so the instrumental cause being aptly prepared, now follows the effect, Jesus was baptised. The reasons for which Baptism I will first pass on, and then some meditations of Use upon it. I draw the reasons why Christ submitted his own Person to be baptised into five heads. First, that an Institution so poor and despicable in itself might not be contemned; for what can be said more to give it warrant, and authority, than to say, Thus my Saviour was washed in Jordan? What so divine an instigation to press us all to come unto the flood of living waters, to thirst for that immortal spring of grace than this, that the Son of God himself did not decline to be partaker of the Baptism of Repentance? To what end did he apply that remedy to himself, whereof most manifestly he did not stand in need, but that sinners should wishingly affect it for their souls health, whose infirmities before the eyes of God and men do want a remedy? Christus recipiendo Johannis baptismum instituit suum. John did neither point to any Prediction to enable him to baptise, which was spoken of by the Prophets, no miracle from heaven did shine upon his labours, that all men might say this is the finger of God; the Scribes and Pharisees, although they durst not gainsay because of the people, yet they did not encourage and applaud his Ministry; this Ceremony therefore had fallen away like water, which is spilt and cannot be gathered, but that the mirror of heaven and earth, that draws all men after him, came to Jordan to be baptised of him. God dwelleth in light incomprehensible, and he is too great to be imitated by man: Man himself is a creature of much corruption, and is a most ticklish uncertain example to be imitated by man, the wisdom from above therefore did provide for us in the safest wise. Vt videret homo quem sequeretur Deus factus est homo, says Leo; To set up a spectacle fit for our eyes to look upon, God himself was made man. And as our own Histories report of Cesar, being somewhat reproachfully repelled by the ancient Britain's, insomuch that his Cohorts kept themselves in their Ships, and durst not land; at last Cesar cast forth the chief Ensign, their Eagle, upon the shore, waded forth himself into the waters, and bad the best daring spirits to follow him: So to make my Parallel complete, the beginning of the next Chapter manifests that we have a Ghostly enemy to encounter; our Ensign is not an Eagle, but a Dove, that came down upon the waters, our Commander is the mighty God, who first casts himself into the waters of Jordan, that we may follow him, and at the same Sacrament defy the Devil our enemy, and all his works. A comfortable General that would wear his own Colours. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. Paul, The author and the finisher of our faith, Heb. xii. 2. which Text may comfortably be reduced to the two blessed Sacraments; for in his Last Supper he was the Author of our Faith, most probably it being supposed that first he eat bread after he had blessed it, and then gave it to the Disciples. In Baptism he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the perfecter and finisher of faith; for John did begin that wholesome Ordinance, and Christ did finish it, and stamped a Seal of Authority upon the Institution, because himself was baptised.  
Secondly, Christ was not only baptised, to seal the Sacrament with his Privilege, and Licence, but in that act he did sanctify the waters to the blessing of his Church. If Naaman had not been filled with the disease of Leprosy Elisha had not sent him to Jordan to wash and be clean: If there had not been some impurity upon the best of the Apostles, our Saviour had omitted his Ceremony to rinse their feet in water, and to wipe them with a Towel. Because every Infant is polluted with blood from the nativity, Occiso magis quam nato similis, says Seneca, more like to one that is killed, than to one that is born, therefore it is rubbed with water to take away all defilement: So unless much filthiness did inhere in every child of Adam, 
Ezek. xuj. 4.  the Sacrament of waters had not been ordained, as if we were refined with Fuller's Sope. There are but two Baptisms spoke of in the New Testament, the one of Water, the other of Fire, and both are put together for the use of our impurities, that all defilement may be driven out. Molliora per aquam, duriora metalla igne expurgantur. If there be spots in Linen, or in any thing that is soft and supple, we take them out in water; if it be dross in stubborn Metals we decoct it, and scum it off in a furnace of fire, So our nature is most soft and supple to contract every kind of iniquity as easily as a cloth is stained: And our heart is hard like iron, stubborn and refractory to forsake iniquity; therefore God applies Water and Fire to purge us to the bottom, Water in the outward Laver, Fire in the inward Spirit; so by Christ's humility, who vouchsafed to dip himself in such water as we do, he merited of his Father, that we should be baptised with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.  
Non mundari voluit, sed mundare Jordanem, says St. Ambrose, he came not to be cleansed, but to cleanse the River Jordan, and all other waters for the mystical washing away of sin. Unus mersit, sed lavit omnes, unus descendit ut ascenderemus omnes; One Jesus dived into the River, that we might all rise up from the death of sin; one man descended into the Pool in great humility, that we might all ascend up into glory. Therefore if any man ask, why he, that was whole in every part, would step into Bethesda, as if he were diseased, why the immaculate Son of God would wash with sinners? Let him take this answer, That he was brought to Baptism, even as the Spirit came down upon him anon after from heaven in the shape of a Dove. It was not for want of the Spirit before, or that any thing could be added to that plentiful grace which did inhabit in him, but to call for the Holy Ghost, that it might rest upon his Church. So it was not for want of cleanness, that he suffered such a Ceremony at Jordan to be done unto him as belongs to them that are impure, but to make the Sacrament virtuous and powerful for them that should take it after him. Pro nobis Christus lavit; imò nos in corpore suo lavit; all our defilements, if we repent and believe, are washed away upon his body. There were certain legal cleansings with water in the Statutes of Moses, Figures of things to come, and ordained to satisfy for pollutions that happened through chance and ignorance; but Christ submitted himself to the Ordinance of the New Testament, and avoided them. For 1. They were Figures, what should he do with such things that was the very truth? 2. They appertained to the polluted: What reference could they have to him that is immaculate? 3. They were appointed for trespasses of ignorance: What application could they have to him who knows all things in heaven, and earth, and under the earth? And lest he should be mistaken for one in the rank of sinful men, as if he came to be baptised for the same end that we do, John pronounceth him holy after the strictest manner in another Gospel, not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. Chrysostom, behold him that is without sin, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, behold him that taketh away the sin of the whole world, his soul must needs consist of nothing but untainted righteousness.  
He did communicate in his Last Supper with his Disciples, and this was his difference from them; he took the Bread when he had blessed it, Ad spirituale solatium, non ad augmentum gratiae; not to augment grace and charity, as we do, but for the delight of his Spirit. So it delighted him to sanctify the waters of our new Birth to the washing away of our sins, Vnde ista vertus aquae? St. Austin speaks like one astonished, Whence comes it that the poor Element toucheth the skin, and mundifieth the heart? But even from him, whose hem of his garment an impotent woman took in her hand, and Christ perceived that virtue was gone out of him; and as you must not conceive any Physical inherent virtue was in his clothes to stop an issue of blood, as there is in some stones and herbs, which in their substance are medicinal; so you must not mistake as if Christ had sanctified all Rivers, that a strange hidden virtue is infused into such water as is blessed to baptise, whereby ex opere operato, by the mere aspersion the soul should become unpolluted; but by this act of our Saviour's it was ordained and instituted to be the matter of that Sacrament which should sanctify the Children of God. Neither doth the Doctrine of this reason stretch so far, as if God could not have caused Jordan, and all other Fountains to take away pollution though Christ had never been washed in his own Person; for that immortal Laver is the medicine of our souls, because the virtue of the Holy Ghost is upon it. Spiritus novit locum suum, as many of the Fathers; when the world was first made the Spirit moved upon the waters, and he keeps the same place in our New Birth, when we are made again, children I mean by adoption, and grace, and so far of the second reason.  
Thirdly, It appears from hence what the Prophet Isaiah foretold, Chap. liii. 6. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all; because he hath received our sins upon him, and offered himself as bail for us to his Father, to discharge us from malediction, therefore he was baptised in the form of a sinner, and was reckoned among those that had need to be washed for their sins. In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful, and a faithful High Priest, Heb. two. 17. Nazianzen makes all things consist in these three Points; man may be said to be born thrice: 
Orat. 40.  1. A miserable Infant from his mother's womb. 2. He is regenerate, and born again by water and the holy Spirit. 3. He is brought to life again at the last day, when the Grave shall give up the dead; in every one of these Christ was made like unto man by his Nativity, by his Baptism, by his Resurrection. But to be made like unto us in Baptism was more against his dignity than both the rest in some comparisons. His Mother brought him forth indeed in the form of a poor helpless Infant; yet you will grant that to be an Infant is the order of nature, and not a misery. He did overcome death at his Resurrection, nothing was ever done more triumphantly, he did overcome such enemies which to that time had been unvanquishable; but he came to Baptism in the person of many sinners, that as he had honoured our nature in his Birth, so he might purify it in Baptism; to be made sin for us, and by imputation to bear our iniquities, is part of those unknown torments of our Saviour which cannot be uttered: Christo innocentissimo maxima fuit crux tradi iniquitati, says one, it was not such a sorrow to Christ to be delivered up to Caiaphas, to Pilate, to the Soldiers, to the Cross, as to be bound over to carry the mass of all our sins upon his shoulders, Who his own self bore our sins in his body upon the Cross, 1 Pet. two. 17. Moriar prae amore amoris tui Domine; O let me die for love of that great love of thine O Lord, as one cries out upon it. There are three things miserable and afflictive in the nature of man, and, that our Elder Brother Christ Jesus might be like unto his Brethren in all things, he did in some manner undergo them all. The first are taedia naturae, the tedious and irksome difficulties of nature, as hunger, thirst, weariness, sharp punishments, and fetters, there was never any Martyr better acquainted with these than our blessed Lord. The second are languores naturae, the diseases and defects of nature; but these belong not to mankind in general, but are personal mishaps, for this and other reasons our Saviour was clear of them, yet he did bear all those sicknesses and maladies for us in compassion; as St. Paul says, Bear ye one another's burdens, Gal. 6. that is, by mutual pity and affection; so Christ did take our diseases upon him by compunction, and commiseration for his brethren. The third are deformitates naturae, all manner of sins which are the ugly blots and deformities of nature; and those he did bear for us, not by being made a sinner, 
Chrysol. Serm. 150.  but by representation, when he stood before John in Jordan like one that was defiled. He came to undergo infirmities, and to confer strength: to take injuries, to bestow dignities; to stand for a sick person, and to bring health; to represent a sinner, but to act a Saviour. That is the sum of the third reason.  
Fourthly, St. Austin imagined that Christ had another intention in his Baptism indirectly, and by the by, Vt Daemoni se occultaret; 
Lib. 3. de Mirab. Scrip. c. 5.  for the device of a stratagem to mock the Devil, that he might not be known of him, but to draw Satan into the combat of a tentation, which fell out in the beginning of the next Chapter. The Figures out of the Old Testament were not unknown to this cunning Serpent, that it must be only an Heifer without blemish, and a Lamb without spot which was offered up unto the Lord to be a Sacrifice of atonement: Therefore he must be holy and undefiled who should be sent from God to bruise the Serpent's head, and to save the people from their sins. Then this projecting Satan makes no question to rank him for a defiled person, that came to be baptised; therefore he doth infer foolishly, that upon advantage of fasting forty days, he might tempt him to sin against the Lord. Because the Devil and his Angels make it their life and pleasure to delude us silly men; God makes it his glory in our just revenge to mock and delude our enemy; as the Priests of Baal abused the poor people with hypocritical false pretences, therefore Elias turned those scoffs upon themselves, and flouted the Priests of Baal. It is strange, that when as the Devil glories in the subtlety of a Serpent, yet God should make his understanding so blind, that he never perfectly understood how Christ was the eternal Son of God, that came to destroy his grizzly kingdom, until he had suffered upon the Cross, and died for the sins of the world. First, Satan's eyes were dazzled, that he could not learn whether Christ was born of a pure Virgin, because, by God's providence, she was married to Joseph. Besides, like a mere man he was obedient to his Parents, and for thirty years neither preached nor wrought any miracle. In the first issue he sees him baptised, in the representation, at least, of a sinful man; he sees him in a great peril upon the waters nigh to drowning; observes he kept no austere life, but eat and drank with sinners; finally, views him betrayed by a Disciple that was his own familiar friend, then beaten and bruised by every cruel Officer. All these badges of infirmity put together did drive those Fiends of darkness to surmise this was not He that should conquer death and the nethermost Pit. At last, the most refined of the ancient Authors do ingenuously collect, that when Satan perceived him answering nothing before Pilate, but willing to be offered up, than he began to interpret this was the Lamb dumb before the shearer, so opened he not his mouth; and finally, at the Passion of the Cross he might see plainly, that God had darkened him not to find the truth, and that his Dominion, through his own malice, was taken away for ever by the death of Jesus. Therefore I return, where I began the reason, this wicked one was entrapped to think our blessed Lord was a sinner because he was baptised. Says Origen upon the Passion, Christ was visibly crucified in Mount Calvary, 
Origen. in Jos. homil. 8.  but invisibly the Devil and the powers of Hell was nailed to the Cross; so I may say, Christ was visibly baptised, but Satan and his Host were invisibly drowned in those waters, because they were sanctified in this washing to save us from our sins. And that is the sum of the fourth reason.  
For brevity sake I will join our last reason, and some meditations of Use together. Our Saviour came to be baptised, Vt per novum ritum homines ad novitatem introducerentur; that by his example, to undergo a new Rite and Ordinance, men might be drawn from old customs to newness of life. The new Ordinance had ratification, and authority from the act of Christ, as I have showed before; he was both circumcised, and baptised; but, says Bernard, 
Bern. Serm. 4. de Epiph.  Illud mihi tenendum tradidit quod ultimò suscepit; He hath delivered to me to have and to hold for the perpetual Sacrament of the Church that which was last in being; for the form of a new Covenant was established to evacuate the old. But what's a new form if the old corruptions be retained? What an eyesore is a new piece in an old garment? As good be an unbelieving Jew after the ancient tincture of the Law, as be a novel transformed Christian after the old leven of the Devil. As St. Paul put the Romans in mind of their first rudiments, so must I remember you, Rom. vi. 4. Therefore we are buried with Christ by Baptism unto death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so also we should walk in newness of life. Here are three things in order that have a pious connexion between them, first a burial as it were in the water, than a death, and after that a rising again. First, I say, the plunging, or dipping in the water resembles a burial; for although, to favour the weakness of Infants, we cast no more than a dew of water upon their face; yet when young men converted from heathen Idolatry, required the Baptism of the Church, their whole body waded into the River, even as they that came to John stood up to the neck in Jordan; yea, and in hotter countries Infants were dipped into the bottom of the Font; this the Fathers called a resemblance that the old Adam was buried in the waters; St. Paul makes it a mystery that we are buried with Christ, 
Damas' lib. 4. de sid. c. 10.  therefore I find that some were wont especially to baptise on the Saturday, wherein Christ lay in the Grave; and a threefold immersion of the Child into the water was an usual Ceremony, because Christ lay buried three days in the Sepulchre.  
After the representation of burial in the outward Element, the good use of that Sacrament tells us we should die unto sin. I say, first buried, and then die; for the end of being buried with Christ is, that we should die daily unto sin. This order is no hard thing to conceive; for suppose a man by mischance sunk into the bottom of the water, before he loseth his life and dies, it is true to say that he is buried in the stream which is gone over his head; therefore upon this burial-resembling baptism it behoves you to die unto the world, and to mortify your members upon earth. The death of sin is thus to be conceived, not an utter privation of all evil, but a beating down of concupiscence; it is a death to your Adversary the Devil when he cannot reign in your mortal body. Weeds which are cut down perhaps will grow no more, but their savour still stinks upon your dunghill: So you may shear down the viciousness of your life, like an unprofitable weed, lay it dead, and let it grow no more; but it will ever leave a noisome smell in our nature. While we live in this world flesh is but a dunghill of corruption: it made St. Paul have a great desire to be dissolved, that he might be a sweet savour in Christ.  
As we are buried, and die with Christ in Baptism, so we must rise with him through the faith of the operation of God, Col. two. 12. For when Christ is given to us to be our life, to what end should we die, as it were, with him in the Laver of new birth, unless it be to rise up in a new life? This meditation cannot choose but stick by you if you will always carry the remembrance of those words before your eyes, Abrenuntio Satanae, I renounce the Devil and all his works. They are a part of your Indenture that you made with God, and how will you answer the violating of your Covenant? 
Lib. de Init. c. 2.  St. Ambrose declames thus upon it, Tenetur vox tua non in tumulo mortuorum, sed in libro viventium. Praesentibus Angelis locutus es, non est fallere, non est mentiri. This word is recorded not among the dead, but in the book of the living. The Angels were present in the Church, when the Sureties in your name gave their faith to God, therefore hold you to your word; you must not falter, you must not lie unto the Lord. Walk in newness of life; that Phrase hath somewhat in it, that is not said barely in a new life. In novis vivendi formis; let there be no kind of likeness and conformity to thyself as once thou wert, a neglecter of Prayer, a Traducer, a Fornicator, a Drunkard, an Oppressor. Here is a Temple built up new unto the Holy Ghost, which once was a den of uncleanness; that which is to come of my life is altogether consecrated to the glory of my Saviour, look not therefore before me now, but get thee behind me Satan.  
You have now heard all the five Reasons upon the second part of the Text, why Christ was baptised. I said in the third place it was but a preparatory to greater matters which should follow, therefore he went up straightway out of the water. The Text says, straightway, as who should say, he stayed not long upon that Circumstance, no more will we. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he did ascend out of Jordan, and very presently, both these are the crumbs of the Text, and they must not be lost. Literally it imports that Christ stood not upon the shore, having a few drops of water cast upon him, but he went with his whole body into the River, to intimate that if God should not help, the deep waters of our sins would take us up to the neck, and the stream had gone over our soul. So Philip and the Eunuch went down into the waters, Acts viij. 38. That great Courtier of Queen Candace stripped himself of all his clothes before his servants, that he might wash from head to foot. What was it to him to be naked in the sight of divers men? He was so ashamed of his sins, that he forgot all other shamefacedness. Thus he pressed close to the example of our Saviour, who went down into the stream of Jordan; and it being not the time of harvest, when that River used to fill his banks, he went up, and ascended from the Pool. St. Austin allegorizeth, Confestim ascendit, ut ostendat quam gravi onere in baptismo liberamur: He went up nimbly to the banks, to show that by Baptism we are lightened of the great burden of our sins, and fit to ascend unto our Father.  
Others fasten this observation upon it, that Christ went straightway out of the water: For his Baptism was done with more speed and expedition than the common peoples; the reason is this: Among the multitude every one was baptised confessing their sins, that took up some time to detain them before they parted. Christ stayed for no more than the sprinkling of the River, who had no sins to confess, and straightway went out of the water. St. Luke affords a pious conjecture, Luk. iii 21. being baptised, he prayed. Therefore to teach us with what reverence these great mysteries are to be entertained, he made haste incontinently to the shore to fall upon his knees, and pray unto his Father. Adoremus coram creatore, says the Psalmist, O come let us worship, and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our maker.  
If we are to worship him, even as low as with the most humble prostration of our face upon the earth, because he created us, and gave us the life of nature; then what knee can be so refractory as not to worship and fall down, when we celebrate his infinite goodness in either of the Sacraments that he hath redeemed us from eternal death, called us to the participation of grace, and given us assurance in those blessed Seals of his Covenant that we shall enjoy the life of glory? Remember what I said in the beginning, beware of obstinacy. Lastly, He went up out of the waters to show us every good deed is a step into another: Do but enter into the practice of one good action, and increase will soon follow;, when you have begun happily, God will teach you to proceed, and to put your Talon into the way of increase. The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob, says David; that is, he loveth the perfect Sacraments of the New Testament better than the types and shadows of the Old. Now Baptism is called especially one of the gates of Zion, for that it is but the first door to let us into the Church. The Church itself is an upper Chamber (as Christ is said to eat his Passeover with his Disciples in superiori caenaculo) the highest in the world next to heaven itself; there are many stairs, and degrees of virtues upon which we must climb till we come to the top of the hill. In Baptism we go down as it were into the River, and sit in the lowest room of humility; but as speedily as we can we must advance our soul, and go up from grace to grace, from virtue to virtue, and you shall hear that voice of joy from Christ himself, Friends sit up higher. AMEN.   

THE FIFTH SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour.  MAT. iii 16. 
And lo the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove, and lighting upon him.  
AS Moses said unto himself when he saw the splendour of a bright fire in the bush, so do I say unto you, Let us now turn aside, and see this great sight: Great in the Object, great in the Persons, and great in the Mysteries. Great in the Object to be seen, for lo the heavens were opened. And what mean trash was that which Satan did offer to the view of our Saviour, in respect of this, all the Kingdoms of the world made visible in the twinkling of an eye? Great in the Persons to be understood in their several apparitions, for these are the great Estates that rule the world; God the Son manifested at the Baptism of water; God the Holy Ghost to be discerned in the sensible shape of a Dove; and God the Father, whose glory was heard in the voice, This is my well beloved Son. This is no usual matter, it must be some extraordinary solemnity which is graced by the full concourse of the Trinity. I find it so once at the Creation, Gen. i. and I find it at this time when Christ is baptised. Man was created a brittle vessel for the Potter's use, without a Metaphor, the servant of his Lord; and to let him know to whom he owes his Creation, every fountain of life is recited in the Story: The Father, the Word which was in the beginning, and the Spirit which moved upon the face of the waters. But in the New Testament we rise up higher from the state of Servants, and become the Sons of our heavenly Father; and that we may know to whom we owe our adoption and grace, once again in this place Christ comes to Jordan, the Holy Ghost descends in the bodily shape of a Dove, and the Father utters himself in a voice from heaven.  
Now for the mysteries, I am bold to say, the Church is capable of no greater than are here contained. First, Here are all the causes and instruments of our Salvation implied: The Sacraments, which are the Seals of righteousness; the word taught, which begets faith; and the Spirit which moves upon them, and putteth life into them both. The Father is in the Word, the Son sanctifieth the Sacrament, and the influence which blesseth them both unto us is the Dove, which rested upon that sacred head, unto whom all the members are fitly compacted. And besides all these primary causes and instrumental helps of salvation, here is an Epitome of all those benefits which the Mediatorship of Christ will procure unto us. The Heavens, which were shut before, set open to receive us; the Spirit of Sanctification to be poured out upon us; and that God will be pleased in us through his only beloved Son. To recapitulate these things premised briefly, the Mysteries are so great, as none so superlative: The Persons manifested infinitely glorious, as none so excellent; the Object so delightful to the eye of the soul, as none so amiable. And lo the heavens were opened unto him, etc. Of three immortal benefits, which our Redeemer hath procured for us, this Text contains a couple, and both declared in no ordinary fashion, but by the wonderful power of God. First, Here is a wonder wrought above, Lo the heavens were opened unto him. Secondly, Here is another wonder come down below to the world beneath: And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove, and lighting upon him. These are the two members of the Text, the first part whereof is opened already; (for how could we unlock that hidden Mystery, unless the Key of David had unbarred it?) And lo the heavens, etc.  
Take notice in the first part of the Text, that here is a word of invitement to draw our eyes upon it, Lo the heavens were opened. Nature hath made man with that erection of face to look upward, that he must often view the heavens; but the sight is never clear enough, without abundance of grace, to see them open. Wherefore without the advantage of the second Miracle in the Text, we should never be capable to conceive the first; Christ procures the Dove to descend, he makes the holy Spirit light among his Saints; and then our eyes which were be-darkned before shall be ready to look up and perceive, Lo the heavens were opened. In this order I shall briefly discourse upon it: 1. What is meant by the heavens standing open. 2. What did procure and obtain it. 3. How this Miracle fell out to glorify Christ. 4. What joy and comfort it implies to all those that are of the household of our Saviour.  
The first inquiry is to this purpose, what is meant and expressed by the heavens standing open. We do but grope in the dark for such notions as this, and men's opinions are divided into five several conjectures.  
First, When the true glory of the heavens is made visible to the eye of a man upon earth, God imparting, and revealing to the senses of his body a taste of that happiness, which is laid up for them that fear him. So Stephen was ravished with such a sight, and cried out, I see the heavens opened, 
Acts seven. 56.  and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. It is not needful to say that the parts of heaven were set open like a window to let him look in; but as it is concluded in fairest probability, Oculus ejus porrectus fuit usque ad coelum empyreum; The glance of his eye was endowed with virtue to penetrate through the clouds, and through the spheres unto the Throne of God. This acception doth no way agree with my Text; for the heavens are said to be opened in this Scripture, that all the multitude might behold the miracle; but you must not think it was given to them all, good and bad, to pry as far as to the highest, and most secret Ark of glory above.  
Secondly, Sometimes the heavens are said to be opened, Non reseratione elementorum, sed spiritualibus oculis, says St. Hierom, not by a real apparition in the heavens, but the intellectual fancy travels in childbirth with a divine passion, and it seems to be opened to our soul when it is wrapped as it were with an ecstasy sent from God. So Ezekiel, being ravished from himself in the Spirit, saw the heavens opened, and the visions of God. In like manner Paul was wrapped up into the third heavens, and saw unutterable strange things, but he could not resolve himself whether he were in the body when he saw them. This is intellectual Vision, which cannot agree with my Text, for the rarity of the wonder is, that divine things became obvious to men in a visible manifestation, the Son of God in the flesh, the Holy Ghost in the shape of a Dove, the voice of the Father brought sensibly to the ear: Then surely this apparition of the heaven opened came not secretly to the understanding, but openly to the eye of man.  
They that go the third way bind themselves to the plain Letter of the Scripture, that some part of the heaven was drawn open like a Curtain, that a prospect of glory might be seen, to enamour the soul of all Spectators. Others reject it, and say, that it were superfluous to make a rupture in the heaven, if not impossible. Thou hast molted the heavens, and founded them like brass, Job xxxvii. Suppose that true in the Literal sense, it follows that it is therefore inviolable to be broken asunder by any natural cause, howsoever God can crack their solidity, and rend them asunder. Yet hear with what subtlety it is pleaded that this were superfluous; for Heaven is a Diaphanous body, you may see through it; we behold the Sun, and fixed Stars so many thousand thousand cubits distant from us above the Spheres, why then should the junctures of the Orbs be opened to show an Object, when they are more transparent than the air? But admit the heaven is opened, what shall fill the Hiatus or vacuity? All the Element of fire and air would not suffice to replenish a breach from the concave of the Moon to the highest Orb. You must not say the space is left void; Vacuum was never heard of in nature, besides, unless the space of the rupture were filled up, no species could be conveyed unto the eye to make an Object visible. For when some Philosophers delivered, that if it were not for the interposition of the Element of Air a Fly might be seen as far as heaven: Aristotle shows their error, that, if it were not for the medium of the air, no man could see a Millstone at the distance of an inch. These reasons according to nature are undeniable, that the heavens need not be really opened to discover any thing above; but if God would have it so, to make it a complete evident sign, that by our Saviour's mediation the heavens shall open and receive our bodies hereafter into glory, then is it frivolous in man to dispute that it must be superfluous.  
Fourthly, Lira, when he had studied upon it, how the heaven was opened, says it was no more, but that the Air was disparted by a great glance of lightning. The Heathen indeed called that the opening of the heaven, Ruptoque polo micat igneus aether. 
Silius.  It was a lightning from heaven that cast Saul upon his face unto the ground, Acts ix. 3. And among other terrors of God's Majesty, David rehearseth this, Psal. xviii. 13. The Lord thundered from heaven, his lightnings gave shine unto the world, the earth saw it and was afraid. By the rule of these instances this opinion should be discarded; because this opening of the heaven was sweet and amiable to the beholders, no ways terrible; yet since it is obvious in heathen Writings, especially among their Poets, to allow some flashes of bright lightning for fortunate and auspicious, therefore I do not disprove, nor yet greedily embrace this conjecture.  
Fifthly, The Air is so often taken for the lowest heaven as nothing more usual; he reigned Manna upon them, and gave them food from heaven, Psal. lxxviii. 25. And when the Deluge did drown the world, it is said when the Air poured forth rain, that the windows of heaven were opened, Gen. seven. 11. Wherefore a mutation in the Air above might be a representment in this place that the heavens were opened; as thus, a fair and delightful passage might seem to be spread abroad by the condensation, or thickening together of the upper part of the Air, making it a shining body; and by the rarefaction of the lower part of the Air, through which the object might be conveyed with much grace and beauty to the beholders. Now out of these three last conjectures how the heavens were opened choose ye which ye will: The first is literal, but full of difficulty; the second not improbable; the last without exception, and above all the rest most usual.  
Being past the first consideration, what is meant by the opening of the heavens, which I acknowledge is not clear from all uncertainty, the next Point, I am sure, is most certain, what did procure such a Miracle, that the glory from heaven did appear to men upon earth, for it is evidently certified, Luk. iii 21. Jesus being baptised, 
Jam. v. 18.  and praying, the heaven was opened. Elias shut up the heaven by the word of the Lord, and he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain unto the earth. If the supplication of the Servant was in such force with the Master, then how forcible must the Prayer of the Son be, of the well beloved Son before his Father? He shall not only bring down the rain upon us like Elias, but the waters above the heavens to fall down upon our heads all the searching graces of the Holy Ghost. But from each of those examples you may see what part of Religion that is which is clavis coeli, the Key to open the gate of heaven, it is Prayer: For how should God open the heaven to you if you will not open your lips to God? I return to the pattern of Elias, whose words were commendatory to close, or unclose the sky, according as he made intercession to God. Well did Elisha entitle him the Chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof, Quia magis juvabat Israelem oratione & zelo, quam magna curruum, & equitum multitudo: Out of the Chaldee Paraphrase, for his Prayer and Zeal did stand Israel in better stead than a multitude of horsemen and Chariots. Observe with me two things most remarkable in his Prayer, and then think if he were not a man like to prevail in his intercessions. 
1 Kin. xviii. 42.43.  1. He cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, as if by that strange, humble, miserable gesture he would compel God to hear him. 2. He rose from his Prayers, and fell to them again seven times and no less, and never made an end till his Servant told him he saw a little cloud rising out of the sea. He that will give over for seven times seven repulses, and will not be importunate with the Lord, it were pity his desires should be successful. Such constant, such contrite devotion, how can it choose but pierce the clouds? The High Priest went once a year into the Holy of Holies with the perfume of Incense. What is Incense but Prayer? What is the Holy of Holies but the Kingdom of heaven? O that you would believe (which I am sure you ought to do) that no part of Piety is so beneficial to the soul as Prayer. You will remember my saying perhaps, when you are upon the bed of your last sickness, that Prayer is the Key to open the gate of heaven, that Prayer is that address of the soul with which God appointed we should draw near unto him. Now I know the most of you had rather spend your pains another way: but at that last hour of anxiety, unless God forsake you for your sins, your heart will be intent upon nothing but upon zealous Prayer. It is but a circumstance drawn into my Text from another Evangelist, therefore I will pass it by with Bedes observation, that Prayer is an active and a passive Benediction; it draws God to us, and by the same motion draws us to God; as if a ship lay at Anchor tossed upon the waves, you may pluck the Cable with your hands, and think to hale the ship to you, but the Cable being of stronger tack will pluck you to the Ship. The Prophet Isaiah in his Prayers was confident he could not be denied, therefore he cries out, O that thou wouldst burst the heavens, 
Isa. lxiu 1.  O Lord and come down: Our Highpriest Jesus offered the sweet odours of his Prayers unto his Father, and lo the heavens were opened unto him.  
The second consideration of the first Point is ended, but I would you would diligently begin to practise it. Thirdly, I shall recite it before you, how this Miracle fell out to glorify Christ. Therefore the Text says, Lo the heavens were opened to him; opened manifestly for the view of all beholders that were present; but opened unto him, because it was meant for his inauguration, to honour his Mediatorship, who came to redeem mankind from the curse of endless death and captivity. Therefore imagine not, as if the whole heavens did seem unveiled to discover all their glory, but only so much of the Firmament did spangle like a Canopy advanced in state over our Saviour's head, as might betoken his Celestial Dignity. The Father at this Baptism proclaimed him from above to be his well beloved Son; and to make us understand that his love, where it lights, consists not in sweet words of affection only, he did attire the Air in most Princely beauty to honour his wellbeloved, in whom he was well pleased. chose, at the Passion of Christ the Sun denied his light to the earth, and the Regions above did never look so terrible as then with black clouds and darkness, for he carried the malediction of us all upon him, and it was a day of wrath and vengeance, when God took punishment upon all iniquity. We read of no Angel that was near to behold him at that dolorous hour upon the Cross; belike it was a sight so ingrate and pitiful to behold, that they withdrew themselves; but at the triumph of his Baptism, it is not mine, but St. Augustine's opinion, that the heavens, 
Serm. 37.  which reach as far as the habitation of all blessed spirits, were opened, Vt in coelestibus esset miraculum, de his quae agebantur in terris; that the Angels might take this amiable spectacle into their view of those things that were done upon earth; for would it not ravish the Powers of Heaven to peep into this Mystery, that the Son of God should stoop so low in the River Jordan? That a mortal man should hold up his hand above his head to baptise him▪ When Israel came out of Egypt, and the house of Jacob from the Babylonish bondage, the deliverance was so gladsome to the Land of Canaan, to receive her ancient Inhabitants again, that the Mountains skipped like Rams, and the little Hills like young Sheep. When the Apostles prayed among them that were converted, and had received the Holy Ghost, the place was shaken where they were assembled, as if the ground could have cleft for joy, Acts iv. 31. Then could the Heavens contain to burst themselves for joy when Christ was initiated into his Royal Office? The Earth was obsequious to the honour of such as were earthly; the Heavens did honour Christ at his Baptism; for the second man was from the heaven heavenly.  
Now I come to fill up the last thing considerable in this Miracle, what joy and comfort the opening of the heavens affords to all them that believe in Jesus. The heavens were opened, the Dove descended, a voice from above proclaimed the good will of the Father; to rejoice our hearts, that the immortal Laver of Baptism is able to cast all those blessings upon us; not that all those were not in Christ, and due to him before the Sacrament. For did he then begin to have the Spirit rest upon him who is of the same eternal substance with the Spirit? Or was that the first time when the heavens were opened to him, of whom it is said of old, Heaven is my seat, and Earth is my foot stool? Nor did his Father then begin to call him Son; for we read in the book of the Psalms, Thou art my Son, this day, that is from all eternity, I have begotten thee. When God spoke, and answered our Saviour's Prayer from Heaven, Christ turns to the Jews, saying, This voice came not for me, but for your sakes, Joh. xii. 30. Likewise, he might expound upon the opening of the heaven, this was not for me, but for your sakes. Restincta est aquis baptismi romphaea flammatilis quae claudit paradisum, says Ratbertus. A fiery flaming Sword debarred the way into Paradise by God's appointment, which flame is mystically quenched in the Baptism of our blessed Mediator; and now, as if the Angel had said, I will stop the way into Paradise no more, the Heavens were opened. And if Marriage be called honourable, inasmuch as he vouchsafed his Presence at a Marriage at Cana in Galilee; then Baptism is most honourable and blessed, because he was more than present at it. He came in his own person from Galilee to Jordan to be baptised; To what purpose should this Scripture say, Lo or behold the heavens were opened? Unless it were a continual opening from that time to this, how could we behold it? If open, and immediately shut again, it were not so proper to say unto us, behold. But if they always stand open by the meritorious Redemption of Christ, than it is an apt Phrase to say, Behold the Heavens were opened unto the world's end. The Schoolmen collect a threefold opening of the heaven in holy Scripture, and every way through the power and act of Christ. Says Alice, In baptismo aperta est coeli janua per figuram, in passione per meritum, in ascensione per effectum. 1. The gates of heaven were opened at this Baptism; as in a Type or Figure that they should be opened, and God will certainly make good whatsoever he did but shadow in a Figure. 2. They were opened at the shedding of his blood upon the Cross, as by those means, which did meritoriously procure the opening: Therefore we sing in the Te Deum, When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers. 3. They were opened effectually, when his own glorious body entered in once into the most Holy of Holies, when the heads of the everlasting doors were lifted up at the day of his Ascension; And where the head doth sit at the right hand of God, the Members of the body, having their sins washed clean away, shall reign also.  
The Earth never opened in holy Scripture but upon some Curse for the destruction of man: The Heavens never opened, but that some mighty Blessing might distil down upon us, the probatum whereof is in the second general part of my Text, for the first Miracle, which we have handled, did but make way unto the second: And after the heavens were opened, he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove, and lighting upon him. That John Baptist had this Miracle so clearly in his eye that he saw the Spirit of God, I find it not so material to the business of the Text as to insist much upon it. For although some observe upon it, that the first Witness that preached of the Son of God is conceited to be the first Witness that saw the Holy Ghost; yet the Miracle happened not so much for John's sake, as to lead the whole multitude into a right apprehension, that Jesus was that holy One which came into the world for the redemption of Israel. John was born of a barren woman, his Garments very strange and uncouth, no better than the skins of Camels clapped about him as they were flayed from the beast, his austerity of life stupendious, his Preaching powerful, high in estimation, so that all the Regions round about came to him to be baptised; this drew them to conceit that none could come into the world to be compared with John. But Columba columbam docuit; the Dove taught the Dove, the Spirit taught the Church who was the Christ the Saviour of mankind, by the descending of the Dove. That which I will speak to this Point briefly shall be branched out into a threefold inquiry: 1. Whether this were a living bird, or no more than the figurative Apparition of a Dove. 2. How aptly the Spirit came in one figure upon Christ: in another of fire and cloven tongues at the day of Pentecost upon the Apostles. 3. That the figure of a Dove doth sweetly admonish us of the properties of the Holy Ghost.  
What manner of Dove this was is not a question of such doubtful resolution as the former, how the heavens were opened, for treading in the path of the Scripture, as I adjudge it, we may find the truth. For three Evangelists say that the Spirit did sit upon him, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as it were a Dove; then add St. Luke unto it, that the Dove came in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in a bodily shape, and these put together, me seems, do strongly prove two things: 1. That it was not viva columba, a Pigeon out of the Dovecoats with a living soul, for to notify that there was but the outward fashion, and resemblance of such a bird; in three Gospels we read it was but quasi columba, like a Dove. And yet that you may not take it to be mere Phenomenon, a shadow to persuade the eye, having no substance in truth, St. Luke hath not omitted that it was a bodily shape, Verae effigies columbae, a body created for this service, having the true lineaments of a Dove. To make both these opinions good by several illustrations. And first what need it to be of the true Species of Doves? Was not miraculous Omnipotency as much seen, to frame such a shape out of the Elements at an instant, and to put motion in it, to descend upon the head of Christ, as if it had been a very foul? It was a work which could not be effected but by the infinite and incomprehensible Trinity. For the Dove was a representation of the Holy Ghost, 
Aug. de Temper. Serm. 37.  the voice which came from heaven did speak the Father only, the humane nature was united only to the Person of the Son, but the Dove, the voice, the humane nature, were the works of the whole Trinity, which coequally works all effects in the world. You may fully conceive what natural composition this Dove had by those bodily shapes wherein the Angels or God appeared of old to the Patriarches, they were not actuated by a soul, but moved about by God or his Angels for the present turn, as a Ship is by the Pilot. When their Errand was dispatched the body vanished away into air: So the use of this Miracle being accomplished at Jordan, the Dove was no more seen, but instantly resolved into Elements. Besides, that which came down upon the Disciples at Whitsuntide was a cloven tongue like as of fire; did ever any man say it was fire indeed? So this Apparition upon the head of Christ was like a Dove. But for what purpose or necessity should it be a Dove indeed? For Christ was man indeed, because he took upon him the nature of man to redeem it; therefore the reason is forcible that the Holy Ghost should not come down in a Dove indeed, because he took not upon him the nature of a Dove to redeem it.  
Secondly, I gathered from St. Luke though it had not the life of a Dove, yet it had lineaments and compacture of true substance like a Dove. Christ came among us bodily in the flesh, wherefore, says St. Austin, to show that the assumption of a corporeal nature did not make an inequality of persons in the Godhead; a voice was heard from heaven in the Person of the Father, as if it had proceeded from the instruments of the body, and a bodily Dove did descend from heaven in the Person as it were of the Holy Ghost. Likewise the coming down is the motion of a body. The Spirit is every where, and cannot descend to any place, which was not filled with his presence from the beginning of the world, but in hôc signo, in this bodily shape, 
Luk. x. 18.  and effigy he came down. And mark, Beloved, the Devil is Spiritus cadens, I saw Satan fall like lightning, down he tumbles to the nethermost Pit, and all that follow him; but the Holy Ghost descends like an humble Spirit, according as our Saviour bids us place ourselves at the Feast, Go and sit down in the lowest room; 
Luk. xiv. 10.  but literally descension is infallibly the motion of a body. And otherwise the wonder had herein consisted, not that such a Dove was seen, but that such a strange spectacle appeared to John, and to all the multitude, which was not to be seen. John did see the object, it did not fantastically in a shadow deceive him, as if he saw it. And it is a touch worthy to be observed by the way, that my Text says he saw the Spirit, which is a clear Metonimy of the sign for the thing signified, for in truth he saw no more than the outward sign of the Spirit. To call the holy Spirit by the attribute of the Dove is a Sacramental signification, not an essential mutation, just such a form of speech as when Christ broke bread at his Last Supper, and said unto his Disciples, This is my body.  
I proceed to that which follows, how aptly the Spirit came in one figure at this time upon Christ, in another of fire and cloven tongues at this day of Pentecost upon the Apostles. If I would rake old Heresies out of their dead embers to refute them, here I had occasion. The Arians extorted from hence, that Christ did receive the mighty gift of Sanctification at this Baptism, and other admirable graces of the Spirit, which he had not before. If they were worth the refuting, I could tell them, Joh. i. 14. As soon as ever the Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us, he was full of grace and truth. On the contrary, the Macedonian Heretics, men of corrupt minds, did make a difference of dignity between Christ and the Holy Ghost; as the body of a man was more excellent, which belonged to Christ, than the body of a Dove, wherein the Spirit sat upon him. Then belike if an Angel should come in the shape of a man, or of an Eagle, which is more glorious than a Dove, he should also have the pre-eminence. But the blindness of the error came from hence; that they did not distinguish how Christ took upon him the nature of a man, but the Holy Ghost did not assume the nature of a Dove. Let these blasphemies go, let them rot and consume with the Authors which invented them; the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all one, in Glory equal, in Majesty coeternal. Upon occasion of Baptism the Master sent forth his Disciples, saying, Go, and baptise all Nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Can I pass by the surpassing wit of St. Austin upon that place? Non in nominibus, sed in nomine patris, 
Tract. 6 in Job an.  & ubi unum nomen est, ibi unus Deus; Not in the names, but in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Where there is but one name and no more, there is but one God, and no more; As in like argument St. Paul, Gal. iii 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were the Promises made, he saith not and to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ.  
Let me return into my own path which I am to beat, that Christ had one sign of the Holy Ghost coming down upon him, and the Apostles had another: Upon which diversity thus I find the Father's exercising their wits in several meditations.  
First, The Spirit sat upon our Saviour's head in the shape of an whole entire creature, in no other figure but a tongue upon the Apostles, which is no more than a little part of the body, 
Salmeron. tom. 4. pa, 1. tract. 7. Moral. lib. 2. c. 41.  for we receive the grace of God by scantlings, and pittances, and small measures, the whole Spirit flowed into Christ in all abundance. In like manner Gregory shows the odds between his fullness and ours, in Analogy between the head and other members of the body. A body hath the sense of touching only and no more, the head is the continent of all the five senses; Ita membra superni capitis in quibusdam virtutibus emicant, ipsum caput in cunctis virtutibus flagret. So the Saints have several gifts and ornaments divided among them, some in one kind, some in another; but the head of the Church hath all, flourisheth with all those virtues united in himself, which are parted among his members.  
Secondly, The tongues of holy men, and Prophets did often promise grace and reconciliation to the world; and therefore a tongue did sit upon them, as it were a Crest of Armoury; a Dove, when time was, did actually exhibit that God was pacified, 
Gen. viij. 11.  and appeased when he had been wroth: I mean the Dove which returned to the Ark with a dry Olive branch in her mouth, in token that the waters were dried up, and that Noah and his Family might come forth with safety. Therefore a Dove most properly did belong to Christ. Most properly I say, but more transcendently, 
Homil. 13. in Mat.  says St. Chrysostom now than ever. The first Dove did comfort the world, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that punishment was taken away; this Dove is a sacred pledge that grace and blessings shall be bestowed upon us. Now it appeared not to bring one man and his family safe into the possession of the earth; but to bring all Believers safe into the possession of heaven.  
Thirdly, The Spirit came not to Christ in fire, for he was full of Zeal; nor yet in the shape of a tongue, 
1 King. nineteen. 12. Maldonat. Mat. xi. 29.  for full of grace were his lips; But discite quia mitis, learn of me, because I am meek and gentle; therefore, says Bernard, the Dove came to testify the placidness of the Lamb. Quod agnus in animalibus, columba in avibus: such as the Lamb is among the beasts of the field, such is the Dove among the fouls of the air. 
Calvinus.  Fire is stern, and formidable, Christ would have none of that; that which sorts with consolation to recreate a trembling conscience was his peculiar choice, therefore the third Person descended like a Dove, and sat upon him.  
Fourthly, The tongues, wherein the Apostles received the grace of God, were cloven and divided, not to signify a rent, and a division, Linguarum distantiae non sunt schismata, but because there is a diversity, and a dispreading about of the gifts of God. Then comes down one single Dove, to honour Unity: Spiritus sanctus divisus in linguis, unitus in columbâ, 
Tract 6. in Johan.  says St. Austin, it was pride which caused that diversity of tongues; it was the Holy Ghost, through the humility of Christ, which sanctified that diversity. Quod turris dissociaverat, 
Gen. xi. 7.  Ecclesia collegit. Babel the Tower of pride scattered the world, the Church, 
Eph. iv. 3.  which is the Tower of humility, gathers the world together. But the Dove was the Ensign of our Saviour's Kingdom standing for the unity of the Spirit, which is the bond of peace.  
Fifthly, The Holy Ghost was made manifest to the Church, first in a Dove at the feast of Christ's Baptism, afterward in fire at the Feast of Whitsuntide, to betoken it is the same Spirit which requires innocency in the Saints, but would not have them forget Zeal. Ne dolum habeas in columba demonstratum est, ne simplicitas frigida remaneat in igne demonstratum est. Guile and circumvention are to be banished from Christianity, if the Dove sit upon your head it will instill simplicity; but simplicity may be chil, and faint in a good cause, therefore if a Pillar of fire sit upon your head it will infuse fervency. There was no fire wanting in Stephen the Martyr when he did asperse the Jews with all manner of disdainful reproaches, because they were stiffnecked, and uncircumcised in heart. There was no Dovelike simplicity wanting, because he prayed for them that stoned him. And so far of the second point how aptly the Spirit came like a Dove upon Christ at his Baptism, in cloven tongues and in fire upon the Apostles at the Feast of Whitsuntide.  
The conclusion of the Text rests now upon this Point, that the figure of the Dove sweetly doth admonish us concerning many properties of the Holy Ghost. It sat upon Christ's head, not to enrich him with any heavenly treasure which he wanted before, but to derive the manifold issues of sanctification into our heart. Solus injuriis se subdidit Dominus, sed solus gratiam non quaesivit, says St. Ambrose; all manner of ignominies, and buffet, all manner of injuries upon the Cross our Lord and Saviour took them to himself alone, but the coming down of the Spirit that he took not to himself alone; I will pray unto the Father, and he will send you another Comforter. Open your heart wide therefore, and this Dove will fill it. A dumb creature ye know, and may signify many things, and because I am persuaded the Holy Ghost came down in that shape which had the largest number of significations for the advancement of piety, therefore I will hold me to my task to collect all that are profitable, and omit none. And because it bears a similitude which will increase into many applications, I will enter upon that occasion; first therefore it is animal foecundum, it is a bird of a most teeming fertility, and whether any bird that flies doth breed oftener I am not certain, I believe not many; such fecundity there is always in a lively faith: Like the trees of Eden, always bearing fruit, never without some good work; either the tongue is praying, or the ear is hearing, or the heart is meditating, or the eye is weeping, or the hand is giving, or the soul is thirsting for remission of sins; and every pious action is like a pomegranate in Aaron's garment full of kernels, to betoken it will seed farther, and spread in infinitum. This is faith's fertility, therefore the Spirit harboured himself in the shape of a Dove.  
Secondly, The Gall is the drought of cholerical matter in man's body, out of that distemper proceed anger, revenge, and malice, but the Dove hath no gall, or if Aristotle hath observed it better than others, so small a one that it can scarce be perceived: So the Spirit loves to inhabit in a mild and gentle soul without wrath and fury. The wrath of man worketh not the will of God, for his will is mercy and forgiveness. The Dove will entreat for Miriam as Moses did, and shield off the revenge of David from Nabals' folly as Abigail did; and crave pardon of Philemon for his fugitive servant Onesiphorus, as Paul did, The bruised reed shall not be broken, and the smoking flax shall not be quenched; therefore when James and John called for fire from heaven upon the Samaratans' their check was, 
Luk. xi 55.  Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of, as who should say, ye have forgot the coming down of the Dove.  
Thirdly, The harmlesness of that bird is notable, it hath neither beak nor talons to tyrannize over smaller Creatures, Sine armis extra, sine felle intus; the smallest flies or gnats may hum about it and take no harm; for it devours nothing wherein there is life. There is not, I dare pronounce it, a more Saintlike ornament in any Christian than a Dovelike innocency. Devour not one another by greedy gaining, by racking oppression, by strict advantages, by extortion, by treacherous blind informations. He that wrongfully fleeceth his neighbour of all his substance to increase his own store, would eat the flesh likewise from his brother's arm like a savage Cannibal if he wanted sustenance. The spoils which you have robbed from others, perhaps they shall be found upon thy back at the dreadful hour of judgement; but will our Saviour say, thou didst not learn this thou extortioner from the Dove that sat upon me.  
Fourthly, The Dove feeds cleanly, not upon Carrion like Vultures, Corvi de morte pascuntur; Crows peck upon dead carcases, but it picks up grains of corn, and the purest fruits of the field. Me thinks in this property I see the Spirit invite us to the Table of the Lord; What corn-food so pure as that which our Saviour broke, and gave to his Disciples saying, Take eat, this is my body. Non hoc corpus quod crucifigetur, etc. not, as St. Austin glosseth, my very body which shall be crucified, and my very blood which shall be spilt, that was the gross understanding of the sapernaits, to think our Saviour meant his fleshly body. The Dove is no devourer of that fleshly body of Christ, which he assumed from the Virgin Mary, but it satisfies its spiritual hunger with those pure crumbs of bread which are the Sacrament of his body.  
Fifthly, It is impossible to teach a Dove to sing a cheerful tune, for nature hath engrafted in it a solemn mourning; Gemitus pro cantu; and it is the Spirit that puts compunction into our spirit with groans unutterable. Sometime hang up the Harps of mirth, and sit down and weep. You never read that God will honour your joy in his eternal remembrance; you are sure he will not forget your mourning, says David, Psal. lvi. 8. Thou tellest my slittings, put my tears into thy bottle, are not these things noted in thy book? Yea, not only doth he bear them in mind, and keep them in register, but, if some Interpreters err not, he wears them upon his head, Cant. v. 2▪ My head is filled with dew, says Christ, and my locks with the drops of the night; as if he wore our tears, says the Paraphrast, like drops of Pearl upon his head. Dry eyes, and unrelenting hearts are the curse of God, Ezek. xxiv. 23. Ye shall not mourn, nor weep, but ye shall pine away for your iniquities.  
Sixthly, The Holy Ghost useth the wings of Angels, the wings of the wind, the wings of the Dove, a bird of strong flight, for the Spirit is swift in operation, what he doth he doth it quickly, Nescit tarda molimina. Abraham ran forth to meet the Angels that drew to his Tent, Sarah made ready quickly three measures of fine meal. Abraham's young man ran to the Herd to fetch a Calf tender and good, Nemo piger est in domo charitatis; in a charitable Hospital family every man hastened to a good work, as if he had flown like a Dove. Was not Paul a brave winged Apostle, that traversed much of Asia, and preached the Gospel in every place from Jerusalem to Illyricum?  
Seventhly, The Doves eyes are fixed upon the Rivers of waters, Cant. v. 12. some say out of vigilancy, to espy therein the gliding of the Kite that flies above, and to save itself: So the spiritual man looks backward to the first waters wherein he was dipped, to the Vow which he made in Baptism. There he remembers his Garment was made white, and he must not slain it; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is not only to wash away filth, but to give tincture or colour to that which is died: So in Baptism the foul spots of iniquity are taken forth, and by sanctification a clear gloss is set upon our soul. It was the exhortation of old at Baptism, Accipe vestem candidam immaculatam, etc. Take this white garment pure and undefiled (it was their Ceremony to put on such) and keep it undefiled against the day of the lord Et grege de niveo gaudia pastor habet, says Lactantius; The Shepherd rejoiceth to see the fleeces of his Lambs fair and unspotted. These are pennae deargentatae, as the Psalmist says, the Doves wings are silver wings, and if they be bright Silver here, it will be changed into a better Metal hereafter, a Crown of Gold, whose wings are silver wings, and the feathers of Gold.  
Lastly, As it was touched before, in the days of Noah the Dove was a presager of a better world to come, and in this Text likewise it is Nuncia futuri seculi, the happy annuntiate that there is a better world to come when these evil days of sin and misery are ended. 
Eph. i 13.  So we are sealed with the holy Spirit of Promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance; the Spirit is a pledge of that possession which is purchased for us in the Kingdom of heaven, whither he bring us, etc.   

THE six SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour.  MAT. iii 17. 
And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.  
SPeak O Heaven, and hearken O Earth unto the word of the Lord. The Earth must keep silence, and give ear, when God is his own Orator himself, and utters his pleasure with his own voice. As it is usual, when some great Palace is raising from the Foundation, that the Master of the Possession will lay the first stone with his own hands: So the Church being to be built up again in the New Testament, not upon the foundation of Works, but upon Faith; not upon Moses, but upon Jesus Christ; Lo the mighty God publisheth the first tidings of reconciliation from his own mouth, and himself, in the Prophet Isaiahs' Phrase, doth lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, and precious; for the Foundation which sustains the whole body of the Saints, is no other but such as is contained in that brief Proclamation which I have read unto you, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Some of the Fathers very aptly call the Text God's ample testimonial given to his Son, that the world might receive him gladly, being about to preach the glad tidings of salvation. Moses, you know, would not offer himself to the Children of Israel, to be the means that should release them from Pharaohs bondage, before he had a token of Credence, who did send him to the People, and the Lord said unto him, Thou shalt say I am hath sent me unto you. So our High Priest and anointed Saviour would keep that form, to have a clear testificate to commend him to the World. Now a Dove was but a dumb show, and might be interpreted many ways, wherefore an articulate, and a majestical voice was heard from heaven, which would pierce the ears of all that were gathered together, and could not be mistaken.  
In that nature therefore as a Testimonial given to him, that was now about to be the great Preacher of righteousness, I will divide the Text: 1. The Person that did bear witness, it is the Father. 2. The manner how he testified to the honour of his Son, by a voice, Lo a voice. 3. The authority of that voice which was every way to be accepted, because it was from heaven. 4. The Person to whom the witness is born, to a Son, This is my Son. 5. What is witnessed of him in respect of himself, that he was beloved, This is my beloved. 6. What is witnessed of him in respect of our consolation, that he is filius complacentiae, in whom, and through whom the Father is well pleased: That is to say, not only beloved in himself, but procures us to be beloved likewise for his sake; for all that by Baptism have put on Christ, are unto God as Christ himself is, Filii, dilecti, complacentes; Sons, beloved, well pleasing. So the Text is our Saviour's Testimonial, and our own Consolation. And lo a voice, etc.  
The Father is become a witness to glorify his Son, that is the first consideration to be made upon my Text. The Spirit hath done his part before, now the voice the Father is come to perfect this great solemnity; and so the justice of God agrees with his own Law, 
Deut. xvii.  Ex ore duorum, aut trium testium; Out of the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established; was ever any truth so strongly confirmed, so undeniably maintained, that the Father which made all things should ratify it sensibly in the audience of men? Never was it heard of, but only in this case, which is the top of all truth, that Jesus was the Son of God. Other truths we are well persuaded of, which come from the light of reason, or from the testimony of man; yet reason may be blind, and man may err, but it is impossible that God should lie, Heb. vi. And admit it to be good (for who can control it?) that the Prophets and Apostles were inspired from God, so that the contents which they have written are certain and infallible; then his divine wisdom which gave them that instinct whatsoever he utters immediately from himself it may well stand upon comparisons, that it is much more infallible. So St. Hierom distinguisheth between that truth which is increate, and which is infused and participate that the truth of the Saints is called a lie in respect of that verity which abideth in the Father, 
1 Tim. vi. 16.  Yea, let God be true and every man a liar; in which words, says he, it is implied, that God alone is true, even as he alone is said to have immortality; for although he hath communicated immortality to Angels and to the souls of men, yet it is not their own immortality, but his love and favour to give it to them. So the Prophets and holy men were inspired with true knowledge, yet it was not their own truth, but his illumination.  
Wherefore the Church by way of external testimony was ever the best approved, and most faithful witness of Christ: yet this testimony, so much beneath his Person, were unauthorised and fruitless, but that it is always governed by the inward Spirit of the Father. Aquinas in a certain Sermon upon the Pentecost hath drawn up those things which bear witness of Christ into a certain number; and that the verdict is given from twelve the most principal things in the world. God the Father in this Proclamation, God the Son in his own Confession, God the Holy Ghost in the Dovelike Apparition, the Angels at his Nativity, the Saints that rose from the dead, the Miracles which he wrought, the Heaven which was darkened at his Passion, the Fire when he sent the Comforter in that Element upon his Disciples, the Air when he commanded the winds to be still, the water when he made the Seas to be calm, the Earth when it shook and quaked at his Resurrection; and lastly, Hell itself, when the Devils did acknowledge him, call him Jesus of Nazareth, and saying, We know thee who thou art. But above all, this testimony in my Text enforceth credence upon us more than any other, as St. Ambrose thinks, Si dubitatur de filio, paterno non creditur testimonio? If there be any spice of unbelief in your heart, run hither to take it out; for will you not take the Father's word for the excellency of his Son, that this is the Sacrifice in whom he is well pleased? Show us thy Father, says Philip, and it sufficeth, Joh. xiv. 8. Much more resolutely might the Church say, Let us hear thy Father and it sufficeth. We ask no surer warrant to confirm our faith: For as Abraham answered the rich man concerning his brethren that did not believe, If they hear not Moses, and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one arose from the dead: So I may say to all that receive not the faith, If they will not believe the Father, in whom all the treasures of knowledge are hidden, than they may question if there be light in the Heavens, perspicuity in the Air, life in their own souls, every thing that flesh and blood can allege must be dark and doubtful to their capacity. God spoke from above through the air, and it received his voice; and when he speaks in our hearts shall not we receive his testimony? Thus St. Ambrose in a sweet strain upon it, Credidit mundus in Elementis, credat in hominibus; credidit in exanimis, credat in viventibus; credidit in mutis, credat in loquentibus. The rude Elements of the world were taught to admit the doctrine of Faith, then much more let men embrace it; inanimate things took the Symphony from the Father's mouth, let things which live much more receive it; the dumb things of nature were taught to embrace the voice; let those things which have tongues much more praise God for glorifying his Son. To the upshot of the Point I add this, and have done: John Baptist did bear witness to our Saviour, but his witness was too mean for so great a Person; Quo ad nos, in regard of our apprehension, the testimony and approbation of holy men is a great matter: but in regard of the honour of Christ, it was fit that the Father who is coequal should testify of the Son, and so doth the Son of the Father, which is excellently knit up in one Text, Joh. v. 32. There is another that beareth witness of me, and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. So by the voice of the Father we know the excellency of the Son, and by the preaching of the Son we know the truth of the Father: This is their mutual testimony.  
In the second place the manner follows, how the Father testified to the honour of his Son, and that is by a voice. Every Creature whether it live, or whether it be inanimate, every season of the year, every blessing for our use that the earth brings forth, though it be dumb yet I am not ashamed to say, that it speaks aloud, how there is a God that made us, and preserved us. To this purpose St. Paul spoke to the Lycaonians, Actc xiv. 17. The living God left not himself without witness, in that he gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. Since therefore all the Elements continually are dumb witnesses of the glory of God, how easy is it for the Father Almighty to put a tongue into the air, and make it speak. I will not argue upon the strict terms of Logic, how this can be called a voice, being not uttered by the Throat, and Palate, and other Instruments of a rational Creature; God is a transcendent above all the Arts in the world, and many things proceeding from him are not to be examined by such rules; this I may definitively say, it was sonus articulatus, an articulate intelligible sound of words, as if it had come from the tongue of man. And I would pass by this Point, but that two things come in my way: 1. How properly the Father is known by a voice. 2. How well it expresseth the comforts of the Gospel.  
Upon the first the School doth distinguish, Efficientia vocis erat à totâ Trinitate, declaratio spectat ad solum patrem; Every effect belongs equally to the whole Trinity, therefore this voice was as well the work of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, 
Tom. 6. cont. Serm. Arian. c. 13.  as it was of the Father: For so St. Austin beat down the blasphemy of the Arians, who taught that the Father gave some honour to the Son which he had not; nay, says he, Ille transeuntium verborum sonus non sine filio factus est, alioquin non omnia per ipsum facta sunt; That transient voice, which was intended to glorify the Son, was made by the Son, otherwise the Scriptures had not said, All things were made by him, and without him nothing was made. But though the efficiency of the voice be common to every Person of the Trinity, yet the signification of it was appropriated to the Father, for he said the word, and by it he made the worlds; he spoke and all things were created. The Lord said indeed, let the Firmament be made, let the light be made, and all things else, not by oral prolocution, but by the Decree of his holy will, and as one said, Facilius est Deo facere, quam nobis dicere; God can sooner make all things visible and invisible than we speak of it; therefore the Phrase runs, as if all things were existent at the uttering of a word. And I know not if any similitude do speak that ineffable mystery of the Holy Trinity better than this, from the manifest pronunciation of a speech, wherein are these three things together, which cannot be parted. The voice begets a word spoken, and there is truth in that word which was spoken by the voice: So the Father is the Voice, the Son is the Word, the Spirit proceeding from them both is the Truth; and these three are all one and undivided. So you see why the Father is resembled in the signification of a voice.  
I must adjoin also how well this doth express the comforts of a Gospel. The Law was a dead Letter, litera occidit, by the strength of sin it killed us all, because we were not able to perform it. The Gospel is viva vox, a quickening living voice, such a one as quickened Lazarus, when he was four days in the Grave. The Law was heard in Trumpet and Thunder upon Mount Sinai. Now comes a still voice, such a one as would not scare a Dove away, now comes Music from heaven, now comes obsecro vos, that fair spoken language of the Apostles, I beseech ye brethren. This is such a winning allicient voice, that the words that proceed from it are rather kisses than words; therefore the Church, speaking to the praise of the Gospel's sweetness, begins the song on this wise, Cant. i. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. The first time that ever we read of God's voice in the Old Testament, you shall hear what Adam says upon it, Gen. iii 10. I heard thy voice in the Garden, and I was afraid. But at the first time that you read of God's voice in the New Testament it is made smooth, and soft to our ear, with This is my beloved, and here I am well pleased. What else to be concluded from hence? But that an evidence, and manifestation of faith shall be discovered to all men: As when one telleth his mind to his Friend, not by messengers, or by Script, but face to face; Thou spakest sometimes in dreams and visions to thy people: But says the Lord, I will speak with my Servant Moses mouth to mouth, Num. xii. 8. So by the revelation of the Gospel we are all become as precious to God as Moses was, and the Lord talketh with us as one doth with his friend face to face. And with all succinctness that is the sum of the second Point.  
Neither must I insist long upon the third thing noted, which is the great Authority that this voice doth carry, because it came from heaven; and Lo a voice from heaven. The Oracles of the Gentiles were wont to come out of hollow Caves and Rocks. The Law of the Hebrews was delivered from the top of a smoking hill: but as Judges and great Magistrates were wont to publish their Laws from their Throne of State, so doth God deliver the Law of Faith from Heaven; and that Firmament above it is the Throne of God. When the Earth opens it is to swallow Chore, Dathan, and Abiron: When the Heaven opens it is to pour out consolation. The Gospel reckons up three times that the Lord spoke from heaven above, and at each time it had the same Theme to magnify the Saviour of the World: The first time at his Baptism, the second time at his Transfiguration, the third time anon before his Passion, when the Son begged earnestly, Father glorify thy name; the Father answers him, I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again, Joh. xii. 28. And that you may be assured how that celestial voice continues to speak unto us in the accent of comfort, John tells us he heard a voice from heaven, saying, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, Rev. xiv. 13. Bode no evil with your tongue to any, since the Lord out of his habitation speaks nothing but love and benediction towards us. The voice of God is an open heaven, but as for the curser and reviler his throat is an open sepulchre.  
Sursum corda. The tidings of Salvation come not from beneath, they hover above our head; therefore lift up your heart, lift up your understanding, and you will easily perceive that every part of sacred Scripture is a voice from heaven. I know unless the inward testimony of the Spirit prevail upon your soul, and induce it to believe, all external Arguments from the judgement of the Church in all Ages, from harmony of truth, from fulfilling of Prophecies, and whatsoever else will be insufficient to persuade you. Yet if any thing more than other will puzzle the refractory it is this, that in every part and scope it sounds like a voice from heaven, far otherwise than the books of humane learning. That which drives our labours and studies only to the glory of God, that which propounds no other reward but the fruition of God, that which talks of no acts and monuments but such as belong to God, this must be divine, and from above, Nec vox hominem sonat; Surely it must be a voice from heaven. But do the Heathen thus in any of those three parts of their Sciences, either in their Moral Institutions, or Natural Disquisitions, or Historical Narrations? In their Histories they write to honour men, in their Philosophy to know the World, in their Moral and Politic Axioms to make a just and a noble Patriot for his Country. No Tract throughout all man's wit and learning but only in the sacred Scriptures like a voice from heaven. Perhaps here and there a Sentence of theirs may soar aloft: but as Kites fly high, yet still look down to the Carrion upon the Dunghill: So the stile of the Heathen may rise up in some things as it were in the clouds; but from thence they look down how they may be famous, and popular. And that is no better than a blast of vanity; sure it is no voice from heaven.  
Beloved, this is a most illustrious opening of the Gospel, that the heavens assumed a tongue, and began to speak; wherefore it is for good reason that our Saviour had that diction so often in his mouth, He that hath ears to hear let him hear. Let me be bold to add, he that hath a tongue to confess let him praise the Lord. As we delight to have the Lord speak to us, so it delighteth the Lord to have us speak to him. And as the Father did vouchsafe to send his voice from heaven to earth, so let our lips be full of Prayers that we may send our voice from earth to heaven. God is not an Echo, nothing but empty voice; we read of his face, and his presence, and his right hand, at which there are pleasures for evermore. And as Absalon, though he were a disloyal Son, yet he did wishly desire to stand before his Father: Says he to Joab, wherefore am I come from Gerar to Jerusalem if I may not see the King's face? So the rebounding of the voice from heaven is to inflame our affections that we may see his face in heaven. So shall it be their fair lot and inheritance who are Fìlii, dilecti, complacentes, Sons, Beloved, in whom he is well pleased. These are the Testimonials due to Christ, and flowing from Christ to us, which now I come to handle.  
The fourth annotation is the Person to whom the witness is born, the Eternal Father witnesseth to his Eternal Son, Thou art my Son. The best way to know so much concerning the eternal Generation of Christ as sufficeth for a good Christian is to speak little of it. Among the Gods there is none like unto thee O Lord, says David, & among the Sons of God none like unto that Son who is the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father, Joh. i. 18. Other Sons, I will declare by and by, are adopted by his grace, Sons not begotten but by denomination of good liking, as it is Mat. v. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God; but Christ is the only begotten, being of the same substance with the Father, for surely that doth rightly explicate the Phrase, to be in the bosom of the Father; not as the Arians would evade it, that to be in the bosom, was to be the wellbeloved of the Father. God loved the world, and most dearly such as believed, yet where do ye read that such are said to be in his bosom? It is a word, by St. Chrysostoms' exposition, 
Homil 14. in Johan.  which agrees to Christ alone, wrapping up much sense as it were in a Syllable, that he is of the same substance, the same power, the same knowledge with his Father, lying in his bosom, and participant of all his secrets. Sinus est divinitatis arcanum, 
Tolet. Annot. 54.  in quo est filius; That bosom is the secret essence of the Father, by which he made all things, and knows all things, and there is the Son. To be called a Father after the manner of men rests upon three things: 1. That the Son have his being from part of his substance that begets him; then a Picture cannot be said to be the Son, but the work of him that draws it. 2. Father and Son must be of the same nature and species; then the Heaven is not the Father of Flies and Gnats, 
Salmer. tom. 4. tract. 24.  though the heat of the Sun begets them. 3. It must be a living thing that begets another living thing in its own likeness; then fire is not the father of fire, though one spark kindles another. But God begets a Son without these conditions and exceptions; for his Son is not such another, but consubstantial. Not a part divided from the Father's substance to make him, but of the same substance with the Father. Yet there is another ground of difference laid down by St. Austin, 
Serm. de Temp. 38.  that among us it happeneth to a man to be a Father and is contingent: But in God it is no happening accidental thing. The Father was always a Father, and the Son was always a Son. 
Ad se Deus, ad filium Pater.  And though he be a Father by a relative notion, and not according to his substance, yet nothing is said to be in God by accident, as if he were mutable. That peculiarity of a Son in Christ distinguished from us is best set down by St. Paul with least curiosity, Rom. viij. 32. God spared not, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Filio proprio non pepercit, we read he spared not his own Son. That Translation doth not altogether satisfy me, for at the third verse of the same Chapter we read, God sent, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, his own Son in the similitude of sinful flesh; but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more emphatical, he spared not his own proper Son. Therefore though we be truly called Sons, yet not so properly as Christ.  
But David would be any thing, though it were but a doorkeeper, to be in the house of the Lord, so let us be styled which way soever the Sons of God, and it sufficeth. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the Sons of God. And tu es Filius, say the Fathers upon my Text, 
1 Joh. three 2.  comports that the captivity and servitude of the Old Law is changed into the liberty of Sons. Adoptio est similitudo filiationis naturalis; Adoption makes him that was not born a Son be taken into the similitude of a Son. And we have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear (that was the condition of the Law) but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption, whereby we cry Abba Father. What an Ocean of comfort breaks into our soul upon this Meditation? Five thousand Cubits higher than all the comforts of this world, as the waters in the time of Noah are said to be fifteen Cubits higher than the tallest Mountains. For first, If we be Sons of God, Christ will not refuse us to call us Brethren. Yea, when he was risen from the dead in his glory, he sent Mary Magdalen to his Disciples, saying, Go tell my Brethren. Secondly, To be exalted to be a Son doth enfranchise us to take the inheritance of the Kingdom of heaven; For if Sons, than heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, Rom. viij. 17. Thirdly, If Sons, it is a great word, but I speak it by authority of Scripture, than we are Gods, Psal. lxxxii. 6. I have said ye are Gods, and ye all are children of the most highest. For God made his Son participant of our infirmity, that by the merit of his humiliation we might be made participants of his Divinity. And, besides Consolation, great names are great Engagements. O what a strict exercise of holiness and obedience lies upon his soul that will be called the child of God? Noli degenerare a praecelsis cogitationibus filiorum Dei; Degenerate in nothing beneath that high cogitation, how thou art become the Son of the most high. Should I that am made partaker of divine Parentage surfeit my body with meats and drunkenness? Why, it is loathsome in a Swine. Should I satisfy my lust promiscuously against the bond of Matrimony? Why, it is odious in a Dog. Or should the Sons of light lay snares in the dark to malice and despite the innocent? O it is detestable in the Devil. Be not a foolish Son to dishonour your heavenly Father. It is observed in many of the noble Romans, Cato, Scaurus, Cicero, Antoninus, how they were unhappy in nothing so much as that they had Posterity; for their vicious branches blemished the glory of the root from which they sprung: So a dissolute Christian makes that venerable name of Father come into contempt and reproach. Mallem videre de malis editum, quam de bonis lapsum, as Cassianus said; It were better for a Reprobate that his Father were an Amorite, and his Mother an Hittite, than to be a stain to the heavenly Parentage when he is called to be a Son of God. It was the motive which St. Austin pressed from the example of the Heathen, if Varro was not ashamed to encourage valiant men to think themselves descended from Jupiter and Hercules, or some other heathen Puppet, though they belied their knowledge, that the fancy of coming from such Progenitors might provoke them to great Achievements: Then a Christian is engaged to all manner of Divine, and very Heroical works of godliness, when his heart shall prompt him with this remembrance, be not a blemish to the glory of thy Father in Heaven.  
So much for that part of the Testimony, Christ is the eternal Son of God, and by him we are called to adoption of Sons. Now the Spirit could not stay here, but proceeds to glorify him further, This is my beloved Son. This is my beloved, and thou art my beloved, we read it both ways in several Evangelists, Ne uno modo dictum minùs intelligatur, 
De Consens. Evang. c. 14.  says St. Austin; that the words expressed two manner of ways might be more clearly intelligible. Thou art my beloved Son, and this is my beloved Son do admonish us two things out of this diversity, both that the Father is highly pleased in his Son, and that in him he is well pleased with us for his Son's sake. For he hath accepted us in the beloved, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Eph. i. 6. This title of beloved is three ways agreeable to Christ: 1. Super omnes dilectus est à patre; That above all things he is beloved of the Father; an infinite love must needs result upon the begetting of an infinite wisdom. Amor Deum gubernat, amoris omne regnum est, the heathen were wont to sing it, and knew no reason for it; but we know why, that God himself was ruled by love, love swayed all things in the world. God himself is ruled by love, that is, the Father is entreated by the merits of his Son to break the yoke of his own justice from off our necks, and hath put the dominion of life and death into his hands, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow; as if he chiefly delighted in the honour of his Son. The Schoolmen acutely assign him the pre-eminence of the Father, above all things with this distinction, that he was Dilectus quia filius, not Filius quia dilectus, Beloved, because he was a Son, and not made a Son because he was beloved, which is the condition of them that are adopted.  
Secondly, Christ is Paterni amoris erga nos argumentum, the proof of God's exceeding love to us; for so God loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that who so believeth in him should not perish, but have life everlasting; so he loved it, that there is no measure or similitude to compare it. The gradations of Bernard, by which he draws up our soul higher and higher to meditate upon the divine love are these: 1. Prius nos dilexit, it were fit the Lord should be sought unto by such underlings as we are, yet he began in way of affection, and prevented us, well contented if we would correspond, and answer his offer. 2. Tantillos dilexit, he loved us, and ordained to make us a people, when as yet we were not. 3. Tales, he loved us again in his best beloved when we had defiled our creation. 4. Tantus, O the immenseness of his love, he that is greater than the Heavens said unto us poor dust and ashes, let me be your Saviour. 5. Tantum dilexit, so constant was the passion of his love, that it brought him to the Passion of the Cross. 6. Tam gratis, of his own free love without merits foreseen in us to deserve it, he bequeathed unto us an immortal inheritance, this is the purchase of that wellbeloved, in whom he cannot but be well pleased. As in the breastplate of Aaron there was holiness written to the Lord, that the people might be accepted, when he offered incense for them; so the love of God is written with the pen of a Diamond in his Son never to be blotted out, that looking upon him we might find grace and favour to be received into glory.  
Thirdly, Christ is beloved, because he was obedient in all things; we are all children of wrath that have rebelled against our Father. God looked down from heaven to see if any would seek after him, and we are all gone out of the way, they were all become abominable usque ad unum, and that one was Christ. This voice prevents that infidelity which some might imagine upon his Passion; for they that looked with fleshly eyes might think he was one rejected and forsaken of God, they might think him under the frown and malediction of his Father, for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a tree; but howsoever in the representation of our sins the Sun may discolour him, and make him look black, yet he is fair O daughters of Jerusalem, and though we be prodigals that have wasted our Father's goods, and misemployed the portion of his grace, yet the voice from heaven shall never be proved a liar concerning Christ, This is my beloved Son. Behold my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased, Mat. xii. 18. God is love, and if the Son take the name from the Father, may he not rightly be called the Beloved? If I be a Master, says our God, where is my fear? If I be a Father where is my honour? And may he not add, If I be the love of the Church, where is the love to requite it? For without love we may keep all the rest to ourselves. If we fear him without love, 
Bern. Serm. 83. Cant.  it is abject and servile; if we honour him without love, it is flattery. Love made the world of visible creatures: and it must make the new world of Saints and Angels. Truly did one say that the Emblem of a pious heart was, Carbo ignitus divini amoris flammâ absorptus; A fiery coal wasting away all the gross and earthy parts of it with the flame of divine love. Were never any tears better bestowed than one I read of in ancient times, whose eyes did shed drops to see God's glory scandalously abused by those that lived about him; and being asked, What ailed him to grieve so much for other men's sins? It was his wont answer, Quia amor non amatur; 
Lap. in 1 Ep. J●h. c. 4.  because love itself was not beloved again. For if you loved me, says Christ, yo woe l keep my Commandments. Intimate love thinks nothing too much, and too tedious to be done for the beloved; yea, it thinks nothing too bitter to be suffered, no more did Christ for his Church. The Spouse doth interlace it among her love-delights, that she should suffer for the Lord, so it is figuratively couched, Cant. i. 13. 
Serm. 43▪ in Cant.  My love is a bundle of Myrrh to me. Says Bernard, Myrrah amara & aspera, etc. Myrrh is rugged and bitter, yet of sweet fragrancy: So tribulation is harsh, but sweet for Christ's sake. And again, Fasciculus Myrrhae dilectus mihi; My Beloved is fasciculus, but a little bundle of Myrrh, but a little corrasive of affliction whatsoever we suffer, Quia leve prae amore ipsius ducat, quicquid asperi immineat. If our affection be strong and entire to God a great deal of sorrow is nothing, it is but a little bundle; for I reckon that the sorrows of this life are not worthy the glory that shall be revealed. Give me a resolute will ready to do all that God bids: Give me a contented heart, ready to endure all that God imposeth, and then as thou shalt be an heir with Christ in the inheritance of heaven, so thou shalt share with him in his sweetest title upon earth, Thou art my beloved Son, etc.  
The last part of the Testimony comes now to my hand to be be dispatched, that Christ is Filius complacentiae, in whom and through whom the Father is well pleased. O delicious words! fit to be uttered by a voice from heaven, and at the appearance of the Holy Gbost; Partem aliquam venti Divum referatis ad aures. We have delighted our hearts in the former Treatises to consider that from Servants we are become Sons; from a People justly hated we are become beloved; but to whom do we owe all this? Surely, as Mary and Martha said to Christ, If thou hadst been here my brother Lazarus had not died; So may we turn it, and say, if thou hadst not been here, we had all died in our sins. Therefore the voice points upon him, that we may take notice how he is worth the knowing, Hic est quem quaerimus, hic est. This is he that hath turned anger into reconciliation, and enmity into peace. As who should say, I was once pleased at the making of the first Adam, and I said all was very good; for he was endued with original righteousness, that he might have done all things well: How much better am I pleased with the second Adam, who hath done all things well? and though it repented me afterward that I made man my Son, yet now I am pleased with all that repent for my Son's sake. Therefore thou art he for whose sake I will give heaven to them who have deserved the nethermost Hell, thou art he by whom I have ordained to execute my pleasure to save the world. To whom therefore do we owe our Salvation? Or what moved our Father which is in heaven to elect us to the fruition of his glory? If you will have an answer both clear according to Scripture, and befitting our own humility, it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the good pleasure of the Father, whose will is the true and only cause that can be given for the happiness of all things that shall enjoy him who hath predestinated us to himself unto the adoption of Sons by Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of his will, Eph. i. 6. To ascribe our Election to any thing discerned in ourselves, as I apprehend it, shakes the foundation of the Gospel, which in every passage makes Salvation the free gift of God by grace in Christ. But Christ is both the exemplary, the final, and the meritorious cause of our Salvation; The exemplary, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son, 
Aquin. 3. Pa. qu. 23. ar. 4.  Rom. viij. 23. From whence Aquinas fetcheth it, that Christ is the true Pattern by which we are predestinated, respecting the manner by which we obtain that infinite good, which is by mere grace: For as the humane nature was united to the Godhead by no precedent merits, so by his mere good pleasure, without any thing precedent in us to attract him we shall be united to his glory. 2. He is the final cause, of our Election; for to what end are we beloved? To what end plucked out of the jaws of Hell like a brand out of the fire? But that he might be glorified among his Brethren. God ordained his Son to be head of the Church, and then he gave unto him a portion to be members of his body. Wherefore the Church most aptly is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the fullness of him that filleth all in all, Eph. i. ult. As if Christ had not esteemed his own glory to be full and perfect without us. But 3. He must also be acknowledged the meritorious cause of our Salvation: For God so loved the good of his Creature, that he did not forget to see his own justice satisfied by the obedience and death of Christ, which satisfaction the Father looked upon as the meritorious cause that we should be ordained to adoption of Sons. God looked upon the ransom of this Sacrifice when he did predestinate us to Salvation, which surely is the sense of this voice, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.  
Therefore this clause of my Text was St. Paul's warrant for so much as he wrote to the Colossians. Chap. i 20. It pleased the Father to reconcile all things unto himself by him; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. The selfsame three things which are considerable in my Text, and not yet opened are here likewise in their proper notions: 1. That peculiarly above other Persons of Trinity the Father is said to be pleased with us, and the Father reconciled. 2. That it is assigned to the Office of the Son by itself to please and reconcile. 3. That the Father is pleased in all things both in heaven and earth by the reconciliation of the Son; cursorily of each. For the first; still the Scripture speaks that the Sacrifice placatory was offered up to the Father, that he might draw us to himself, who were aliens, and castaways; When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, Rom. v. 10. Believe it that every sin is committed against the whole divine Majesty; and as every person in Trinity was dishonoured in the offence, so we have need of pacification with all in the reconcilement. But that the Scripture makes us rather take notice how the Father is reconciled unto us there are two reasons: One that the Father is the Fountain of all Divinity, the first person in order against whom we sin; yet we sin against all. So the first Person in order that is reconciled unto us, yet we are reconciled to all. 2. Though every work belonging to the Church be the conjunct act of the Trinity, yet there are proper Offices belonging to several Persons to make our conceit more methodical: So we know it by the phrase of Scripture, that it is proper to the Father to receive us into grace, proper to the Son to pay the price of our redemption, and proper to the Holy Ghost to seal it to our hearts, and to beget assurance in us.  
It follows secondly, that it belongs to the Office of the Son to make us pleasing, and to reconcile us to God. There is no other name under heaven but his in which Salvation can be hoped for, Acts iv. 12. for should the Angels, or should men be appointed to such an Office, to knit us into amity again with God, and to reduce us to that eternal concord, who were become open enemies? It could not be: For Angels and men owe as much obedience for their own part as they could perform. Neither ought it to be; for it was not fit that man should owe his Redemption to any other than to whom he owed his Creation: for the value of the benefit would compel us to love our Redeemer better than our Maker. So Bernard, Plus nos ad charitatem excitat redemptio, quam creatio. Therefore God could not so dispose for our souls that occasion should be given to love an Angel, or Saint better than himself the King of glory. The Son that sits at his right hand is the Person in whom he is well pleased, who thought it no robbery to be equal with God: He alone was fit for this dispensation, who by an exceeding mystery did receive and accept the Sacrifice of reconciliation as God offended in his divine nature, and yet did offer up that Sacrifice to the divine nature being the Mediator God-Man.  
The close of all is sweet like the rest that the Father is pleased in all things both in heaven and earth by the reconciliation of his Son. Reconciliation is the knitting up of Friends into amity again, and reducing them to concord that were enemies. Then how can it fitly be said, that God is reconciled with his Sons, whom he loved from everlasting? Says Beda to it, Deus miro modo quando nos oderat diligebat; He loved us according to that nature which he had made, and hated us according to that sin which we had made. Neither is the Father so said to be reconciled to us upon earth, as if he loved us at any time now when before he did not; 
Thom. 3. Pa. qu. 49. ar. 4.  Sed quia per hanc reconciliationem sublata est omnis odii causa, says Aquinas; but because by this act of reconciliation all cause of anger and displeasure was taken away, I mean our sins were covered, and the righteousness of Christ imputed to us.  
And as the Angels minister to us, so let me minister one speculation about them to the Text. God is pleased in Christ both with things in earth, and with things in heaven. No question but Christ is head of the Angels, as well as of men, for they, as well as other members, receive direction from Christ, and are illuminated by him, so that an influence is poured on them from Christ, as members take from the head, but as one distinguisheth judiciously, Influens in Angelis, 
Penottus lib. 6. c. 5.  non est finis incarnationis, sed quiddam incarnationem consequens; It was not put into the ends why he was incarnate to infuse virtue into the Angels, but it is a gracious consequent which fell out upon it. This perhaps will not be doubted of. But how can it be said, that he did reconcile unto himself things in heaven, that is, the Angels by the blood of Christ? They had never made any rupture with the friendship of God, as men had, and could they be reconciled? Certainly the word Reconciliation properly taken is only agreeable to us, who were Sons of wrath, but are become elect and precious through Christ. But Analogically it is truly said, 
Davenant. in Col. i. 20.  the Angels were reconciled in Christ, because he obtained for them to be confirmed in grace, and to be so established in the divine favour, that it was impossible any breach or rupture should come between, therefore this establishment in grace to them is the same that reconciliation to us. That beatifical and glorious eternal life which the Angels have with God is a reward far above the merit of any Creature: Therefore Angels are admitted into that glory not by condignity, but as they challenge Christ for their head, and themselves members of his triumphant body. Paul therefore adjures Timothy before God, and the elect Angels. There is no election either of Angels or men but with respect unto Christ; and the good Angels are called the Sons of God, Job xxxviii. not as begotten of him (for Christ is the only natural Son, as I have said before) but because they are adopted through Christ, therefore this is the beloved Son in whom with Men and Angels God is well pleased. But to us especially this benefit is extended, who were perfect enemies, but being justified by faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.   

XXI SERMONS UPON THE TENTATION OF OUR SAVIOUR.   

THE FIRST SERMON UPON Our Saviour's Tentation.  MAT. iv. 1. 
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil.  
I Have already entreated before you of many things concerning our Lord and Saviour, his Incarnation, Circumcision, Adoration by the Wisemen, about his Baptism in Jordan. Let us not rest here, but say as that devout man did unto him, Luk. ix. 57 Lord I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. Therefore I invite your attention to go with me into the Wilderness, another passage of his pomp and victories, and to see him tempted of the Devil. In Num. xxi. 14. a Book is mentioned which was called the wars of the Lord. Rupertus says very well, 
Lib. 2. de vict. Dei. c. 18  that the whole Scripture will not unfitly bear that name. Quid aliud continetur, vel agitur in sacrâ Scripturâ nisi bellum & certamen verbi, ad destructionem peccati & mortis? What is contained and agitated throughout all the contents of that divine Book, but Christ warring and striving to destroy sin and death? And if the whole Scripture were summed up into one Chapter, you might draw out this Verse for the Contents, Gen. 3.15. I will put enmity between thee, and the woman, and between her seed, and thy seed. As if the Lord had said, the Devil hath drawn my servants to consent to him, Facti sunt socii & consentanei rebellionis, they are agreed like friends, and have conspired in one rebellion against me, but I will dissolve this friendship, and turn it into hatred, I will break this agreement, and turn it into opposition: I will divide them into an enmity that shall never be reconciled.  
Three things I admire especially in the dispensation of God's providence herein: First, We were his enemies rather than the Devils; yet when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, Rom. v. 10. Secondly, It is well for us that the Lord said, ponam inimicitias, he would make the quarrel between us, and Satan break out into an open enmity. It is an act of his most gracious wisdom to take away those weapons from the Devil wherein he was so cunning. Leave the Devil to his wiles, and deceits, and he goes away a conqueror, proclaim him an open enemy, and we have far more advantage against him. Thirdly, To the end this great Adversary might be beaten, and vanquished to our hand, our Saviour fought a combat with him in the Wilderness, and overthrew him, the narration of which great enterprise begins thus, as I have read unto you, Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil. In the handling of which verse it will be worth the labour to insist upon these five things: 1. Here is the hinge upon which all the story turns, Christ was tempted. 2. We must work somewhat out of the consideration of the Tempter, the Devil. 3. The time which the Devil chose to set upon him, then says my Text, that is, in the next place after his Baptism which went before. Immediately, says St. Mark, as soon as ever the voice from heaven had said, This is my beloved Son. 4. Christ's manner of addressing himself to the combat, He was led up of the Spirit, or as St. Luke more emphatically, Being full of the Holy Ghost he was led by the Spirit. 5. Here are the Lists where the Combat was fought, or at least begun to be fought, the Wilderness, Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit, etc.  
Christ put himself upon a Tentation, that is the first part of the Text, and the Load-star by which all is guided, that pertains to the whole matter which I am to handle in this story. Other things did fall out at the same time, but this was the drift of our Saviour. For although we read that he fasted forty days in the Wilderness, yet the purpose of his going thither ultimately was not to fast, but to be tempted; fasting was an accessary, he must fast when he was there, because there was no food to be had. So Moses fasted forty days in Mount Horeb, yet he went not up to the Mountain to fast, but to receive the Tables of the Law. Therefore St. Mark says that Christ was forty days in the Wilderness tempted of Satan, but he never speaks of his fasting. It is true, He did expose himself to both those infirmities, in his body he suffered hunger, in his soul tentation, both at once; but his purpose was not to show how his natural body could subsist a long time without the sustenance of meats, but to manifest his strength and innocency in the trial of Tentation; That he might say with David's words, and St. Austin says they are his own speech, and his own words, Psal. cxviii. 13. Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall, but the Lord helped me. There are many things which will leave our wits in a maze, if we cast our eye down from the top of Christ's Majesty to the bottom of his infirmity; the bread which came down from heaven did hunger, strength itself was weak, comfort itself was sad and heavy, life itself did die; but that purity and innocency itself, in which no unrighteousness could be found, should be instigated over and over to most horrid sins, raiseth one point of admiration more than any thing else. Magnum fuit facinus Deum conspui, & alapis caedi, verum haec omnia ad malum paenae spectant, etc. It is a mystery of humility, that God himself would be spit upon, and beaten, and be crowned with thorns, it was very much, and yet these at the very worst were but the evils of punishment; to be solicited to distrust in his Father's providence, to be ambitious, to be an Idolater, these are far more incompetent to the Son of God, because they are the evils of sin. Let me search it therefore very diligently through all the causes, which may be useful to your learning and instruction, why Christ would be tempted of the Devil.  
First, He yielded himself to be assaulted with strong provocations of evil, that he might pity us the more, because he knew in his own case and trial what hard encounters we had with the enemy. As if a General of a field would lie perdew, take his rest on the bare ground, assign a place unto himself in battle where he knew there was the greatest danger, that he might the better understand and commiserate the distress of the common Soldier. St. Paul comforts his brethren the Hebrews with a double consolation. First, That Christ our High Priest is gone into heaven to make intercession for us there. Secondly, That he bore all our afflictions upon earth, and knows our infirmities here, Heb. iv. 14. Says he, we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, and we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all Points tempted like as we are, yet without sin: so far as sin might not be admixed, or have any place in him, so far there was no kind of sorrow or tentation which we undergo, but he bore his part; therefore he sustained not the languors of fevers or sickness, which are contracted usually by Luxury, always by ignorance to preserve the constitution of our body in good plight, both which are most unworthy of this High Priest. And as for sin, he suffered the outward invitement of tentation in great measure, but not the inward rebellion of concupiscence, to which we are obnoxious, in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let not our hope therefore be utterly pressed down with the weight of our sins, Christ will have compassion because he knows the devices of our Adversary, and how feeble we are to make resistance; his Spirit shall not strive with man because he is but flesh; and if weak flesh be overcome sometimes by the spirit of darkness, he will not be extreme to mark what is done amiss, Quia fragilis est in homine conditio, non eos ad aeternos servabit cruciatus, says St. Hierom, Every trespass, wherewith our frail nature is deceived by the devil, shall not be punished with eternal fire. And the knowledge of God, discerning of what corrupt metal we are made, doth not only cause him to free us from eternal torments, but also to mitigate his temporal chastisements, Gen. viij. 21., And the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Because the imaginations of man's heart are so evil, and will lead him into disobedience, therefore the Lord is merciful. Once he destroyed the whole earth, because all flesh had corrupted its way, to satisfy his Justice, but no more than once, that he might not turn justice into wormwood and bitterness. Sweetly St. Ambrose, 
Lib. de No & arcâ. c. 21.  the Lord extended his universal revenge but once; Vindicta ad timorem proficit, magis quam ad naturae commutationem, quae corrigi in aliquibus potest, in omnibus mutari non potest. The Lord doth not reiterate his universal punishments, for he knoweth that depraved nature may be corrected in some, it cannot be changed in all. Moses in this point is seconded by David, that the discerning of our infirmities doth stir up God's compassion, Psal. ciii. 14. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him; Novit enim figmentum nostrum; for he knoweth our frame, he remembreth that we are dust.  
That is no marvel indeed says Gregory, to say he knows our frame, and the stuff whereof we are made, for there is nothing hid from his knowledge. What special notice doth he take of it more than any thing else? Gregory answers, 
Lib. 3. Mor. cap. 9  Figmentum nostrum scire est hoc in seipso ex pietate suscepisse. He knows our frame more nearly and intimately, because he assumed such a frame, such a natural body into the unity of his own Person. Naturam nostram non solùm creando novit, sed etiam assumendo: 
Cap. 13.  He knows the condition of man's nature not only by Creation, but also by Assumption. Cyril of Alexandria did foresee an objection might rise from hence, and thus prevents it: What if the Word had not been made flesh? Had not the Word notwithstanding perfectly known all the diseases and infirmities which happened to that mass of flesh which itself created? Yet it is answered, that Christ, had he never been incarnate, had known the very secrets of our hearts and reins, only he had not adjoined this knowledge unto himself after the experimental manner. This is the difference only, which doth actuate our comfort much the more, Scientiae divinae ea notitia, quam effert experientia, accessit. That knowledge, which is feeling and experimental, was added to the divine omnisciency. He knoweth whereof we are made, he hath shared our mourning; our sorrows, and tentations; he knows this dunghill metal of ours is full of putrefaction, and he pities it. To this one alluded ingenuously, that Christ did anoint the eyes of the blind man with spittle and clay, Joh. ix. 6. Vt seipsum excitaret magìs tali spectaculo ad commiserationem; 
Lorinus in Psal. ciii. 14.  That he might behold that object, to stir up his commiseration. You see by all this, I have built upon a sure ground, that our Saviour knowing experimentally the conflict of tentations, what a mighty Giant this Goliath is, that defies the Israel of God, and how weak we are to make resistance; it takes away the edge of his severity, and enables him to plead our pardon before his Father. So we ourselves ought not be iron Judges, unrelenting Censors, but to look upon delinquents with a passionate regard, and to pass our sentence upon offenders with this dram of moderation, at least in our judgements, we ourselves have been tempted, and know how hard it is to resist the devices of the Devil.  
Secondly, The first Adam was disgracefully overthrown by the Serpent, therefore the second Adam did redeem this disgrace by overthrowing the Serpent in his own Tentations; for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil, 1 Joh. three 8. The Scripture accommodates a Parable to make us remember it, Luk. xi. 22. Satan is the strong man that kept his Palace in peace; for he held a Princedom over the Sons of men; but a stronger than he came upon him, even our Lord and Saviour, and overcame him, and took away his Armour, wherein he trusted, and divided his spoils. Dignus vindice nodus; a recovery fit for him that had the greatest power in heaven and earth, that the Sons of men might sing Songs of triumph, not David hath killed his ten thousand, but Christ hath subdued that enemy that exalted himself above all that were made after the Image and likeness of God. Alexander moved Calisthenes to tell him, 
Plut. in vit. Alexand.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how a man might purchase to himself a name to be the most famous of all men? Calisthenes gave him a smart answer, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Let him kill the most famous of all men, I suppose he meant of his enemies; and this our great Champion hath done for us by frustrating, and retorting all the tentations of Beelzebub the Prince of Devils. It was our nature, which he so much contemned, that made him contemn the Son of God, and adventure upon the holiest of all, with confidence to get the day; all the Posterity of mankind were so baffled in Adam, that when Christ walked about in the similitude of man, Satan supposed it was but Veni, vici, Come and conquer. This day therefore the reproach was taken away from us, when our chief Captain showed the way, that even flesh, yet not through the arm of flesh, but by the Spirit, should be able to subdue our Ghostly enemies.  
Thirdly, Not only our former stain and ignominy is repaired, because Christ was tempted and overcame, but since that time also tentations have not that irresistible force which they had before, their malignity is much abated. Some ancient Writers, especially Origen, have puzzled their wits to conjecture, what loss the Devil incurs when he is foiled in a tentation? One thought that the same Devil could never tempt again; like a Captive that yields himself up to the Conqueror, and is never suffered to bear Arms again. Others had rather say, that the same infernal spirit could never turn head against the same Person any more who had once got the Mastery. Others thought, but themselves knew no reason for it, that the Devil once repelled cannot tempt to the same sin any more. I wish no man to build his judgement upon such divinations. Beelzebub is by interpretation the God of a Fly: Chase away Flies, and yet the scent, which alured them before, draws them back again to the corruption which they had sucked before; so I take it for an allowed truth, that the Devil retires not quite for any repulse, but as we see it in men or beasts in any Duel, the longer they are beaten, the worse they fight: So the more we quench the fiery darts of the Devil, the more we disable his despite, and make him impotent. If the Tempter could have foreseen that Heroic virtue in Job, and in the holy Martyrs, he would have recoiled away, and not touched their person. Now every man reaps the fruit and praise of his own labours, but the valiant acts and victories of our Saviour are public advantages; for as his Death had a mortifying force against the Old man which is in us, and a quickening force toward the New man, so his Tentations had a dulling force against the Devil, and a strengthening force for us, to make our arms break a bow of steel. 
Aug. in Psal. xc. p. 2.  Ideo tentatus est Christus ne vincatur à tentatore Christianus, says St. Austin; Christ did vanquish the Devil in his own tentations, that we might be unvanquishable. This is our confidite, Joh xuj. 33. Be of good cheer I have overcome the world. Si tu vicisti gaude, quid ad nos? The Father makes one return a churlish answer, rejoice yourself, if you have overcome, what is that to us? Yea, Beloved, this is our Interest, that his skirmishing is our peace, and his victory is our triumph.  
O how he hath sanctified tentations, and made them wholesome, which before were rank poison. Those things which were the baits to draw us to damnation, are now become the instruments of our happiness, blessed is the man that endureth tentation, 
Jam. i. 12.  for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of life. Whosoever perceives his own concupiscence allure him to do evil, let him call for a Second to aid him, if he be not able himself to endure the brunt, I mean for Jesus Christ; he will be a party in all those quarrels, if you call upon him faithfully, ever since he was tempted of Satan. Lord let me not fight alone, lest my foes prevail against me. Thus tentation begets fear, and fear begets prayer, and prayer calls for succour, and heavenly succour will assist us to be conquerors. Gregory encloseth it in his meditation, 
Moral. lib. 2. c. 37.  Vnde pertimescit homo enerviter cadere, inde accipit fortiter stare, that tentation which makes a just man distrust he shall fall, affordeth him occasion to set his feet upon a sure place. Cast not yourselves therefore into tentation Brethren, but when you are in them endure them with joy and courage, 
1 Mac. three 2.  as it is said of the Maccabees, that they fought with cheerfulness the battles of Israel, so go on with alacrity against those innumerable evils that take hold upon you: The just man triumphs with David against the powers of darkness, as if he saw them already made subject unto him; they are cast down and fallen, but we are risen, and stand upright. Pelopidas being environed with an Ambush, alas, says his Lieutenant, we are fallen into the hands of our enemies: And why not rather our enemies fallen into our hands, says Pelopidas? So let not the name of Satan and tentation be dreadful unto you, he hath more cause to fear he shall be repulsed, than you have reason to fear he shall prevail, since Christ hath blunted his weapons in this conflict. The Fathers call that verse the Saint's Jubilee after their trial with the evil one, Psal. lxvi. 12. We went through fire and water, but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place. And therefore I bequeath St. Paul's exultation to your use, Thanks be to God, who hath given us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.  
Fourthly, Christ was tempted, to give us an example how to encounter with the roaring Lion, and to win the Mastery. As a young Learner will observe diligently every ward and thrust that an experienced Gladiator makes, so the Holy Ghost hath set down for our advertisement every passage, how Christ did turn and wind the delusions of the Serpent. These things had need to be scanned beloved; we had need to be cunning at our fence; for if the Devil sought our overthrow in Christ, how much more will he do it in ourselves? If these things were done to the green wood, what will be done to the dry? But mark how the man of God's right hand chased away the enemy, mark how he demeaned himself from first to last, and you are fortified with the best precedent that ever the world afforded. Ut cujus munimur auxilio, ejus erudiremur exemplo, says Leo, he looks upon our conflicts from heaven, and helps the weaker side both by the presence of his grace, and by the precedent of his example. Observe him, that we might instance in all his ways, retiring into a desert from the contagion of the world, observe him fasting, observe him drawing his shafts out of the quiver of the holy Scripture to maintain his cause, and say, this is the true Charm to make the evil Serpent break, as Daniel in the Apocryphal story choked the Dragon with lumps of strong confection. Christ himself could not receive increase of the Spirit, either by being baptised, or by being tempted, for he had the fullness not of sufficiency, but of abundancy before without measure, but it was for the proficiency of his members that were under him: And therefore the Schoolmen have a disceptation, 
Alice. tom. 2. qu. 101. mem. 3. art. 3.  since Christ was much greater than the Angels, and did far excel them in grace, why he should be tempted of the Devil? For we do not read that any of the Angels confirmed in grace were ever tempted. One of them answers, Quia Angelus non habet membra sub se, quomodo Christus habet. Christ is head of a body, and hath members under him to give erudition unto by his example, and so have not the elect Angels. Wherefore if the Children of Israel looked up by faith upon the brazen Serpent in the Wilderness, that they might be healed when they were wounded; how much more should we look attentively upon Christ's Tentation in the Wilderness that we may not be wounded of the Serpent? The Fathers in their piety say, it is easier to avoid ten sins that compass us round about, and have not yet taken hold of us, than to recover ourselves sound again from any one sin that we have committed. It is the Angelical part of Christianity to take out this Lesson, Prevent us, O Lord, from evil in all our doings. There is a great deal of the old man, and his ragged lining in the best repentance. You may learn repentance from Christ's Gospel, but not from Christ himself; but innocency and clearness of life, and to be impregnable against tentations, not Verbum Christi, but Christus Verbum, not the Word of Christ, but Christ the eternal Word makes you cunning in that by his own example. He that knows not the experience of many tentations doth not well know himself, says St. Austin, Nescit se homo nisi in tentatione discat se; 
Serm. 72. de Temp.  But he that knows not the experience of Christ's combat, will not know how to deal with tentation.  
Fifthly, Says Bonaventure very acutely, he began in the ministry of the Gospel first to refute the false Doctors before he taught his Disciples the truth, first, to beat down the Synagogue of Satan, and then to build the City of God: First root up the Tares, and bind them in bundles, and then dress the Wheat. A Bishop must be able by sound doctrine both to exhort, and to convince gainsayers, Tit. i. 9 Conviction of falsehood requires the greater care and diligence, and the great Bishop of our souls begins with that. How soon were all divinity learned? What little pains would go to Preaching and Exhortation, if it were not that Heresies and Falsehoods beget us a most laborious drudgery to refute them? Innumerable errors are disseminated that they are like Augias' his Stable, so foul that they are never to be cleansed. It held our Saviour forty days in the Wilderness to untie all the knots of Satan; and thus we must build up Jerusalem, like Nehemiahs' builders, with the Sword in one hand, with the Trowel in the other. Having the Sword of the Spirit to cut in twain the snares of the wicked one, you shall the sooner build up the walls of Zion.  
Sixthly, And then I take off my hand from this Point; Let no man say I am cast out from the face of the Lord, because he is beset with daily tentations. God had one Son that was free from sin, but he hath no Son that is free from the encumbrances of Satan. If there be no more in it than an outward occasion cast before you, to try if you will bite, which is Exterior pulsatio, as a man that comes not into the house, but stands without, and knocks at door. This is your praise in the highest respect, that your virtue is impenetrable. As the Lord sent a blast upon Sennacharib, and made him return to his own Land without drawing blood from Judah: So this ghostly enemy hath not prevailed so far as to win the outworks of your innocency. Such a tentation is but an Antiperistasis, that augments the heat of virtue. 
In cap. 4. Lucae. 1 Sam. xx.  As St. Ambrose gives Joseph this Encomiastic, Nun tentatio Joseph virtutis est consecratio? Nun injuria carceris corona est castitatis? That unchaste offer which joseph's Mistress offered unto him, it did consecrate, it did deify his chastity. Jonathans' Arrows were either on this side his Lad, whom he sent out into the field, or else shot beyond him: So the darts of Lust were either wide of Joseph, or shot over his head; an impregnable chastity is not so much as scratched with these shafts of love. Bring the case of such a one before Bernard, and he doth excuse him from all guiltiness, Non nocet sensus, ubi non est consensus, imò quod resistentem fatigat, vincentem coronat. This would Satan have; that is no blame of mine, unless my consent yield, and say, this would I have. But more of this by and by, where I will show that Satan's sinful Propositions were no way sinful to Christ that rejected them.  
But I speak of that, which I confess is very unusual, a tentation repulsed, and no part of the Commandment broken, he that toucheth pitch shall be defiled. Few are like those three servants of God, to be cast into the Furnace, and not to have the smell of fire about them. But what if it please the Lord to have us exercised with the assault of some infirmities, so that our conscience doth witness against us it is taken in the snares of sin? Far be it from us to think that the Lord doth permit it to our condemnation, and not rather to better us in obedience. As a little wedge is beaten in sometimes to drive out a greater, so a little tentation is suffered to creep in that a bigger mischief may not enter. The falling into some sins in the best of God's Servants is an anticipation against pride, that they may not be puffed up with their own righteousness. Animam oportet assiduis saliri tentationibus, says St. Ambrose. Some errors and offences do rub salt upon a good man's integrity, that it may not putrify with presumption. And whosoever is molested in heart, because the enemy doth not cease to pollute him with evil desires, and bad cogitations, let him hope that God doth sift him as he did his great Servant St. Paul, 2 Cor. xii. 7. Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me. To spend no time about the diversity of Interpretations what this Messenger of Satan should be, I give my voice on their side that assign it to be carnal concupiscence; for whose sake the Apostle says, 1 Cor. ix. 27. I bring under my body, and keep it in subjection; and against which he complains, Rom. seven. 23. I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin. This spawn of depravation, whatsoever it was, did produce a good effect, that he who was dignified with many revelations might consider he was a frail man for all that, because of his inward rebellion in the flesh, and his often imperfections. Stimuli carnis sunt stimuli orationis. Those thorns in the flesh did prick him on to continual prayer. O blessed fruits of regeneration, when our very sins shall make us serve the Lord with the better appetite! And now I conclude the first general part of the Text, for I think all other reasons may be easily reduced to these six, which I have run over, why Christ was tempted of the Devil.  
In the second general part of the Text this Tentation hath an Author, whose name is derived from calumniation and reviling, that evil Angel to be known of all men because he is to be shunned of all men; one often to be remembered, and ever to be detested, of much fame in the Gospel as Pilate is in the Creed, because his malice is outrageous against the Church both in heaven and earth, of many titles (for he is a great Prince over the children of disobedience) none worse than that which is his common denomination, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the reviler, or the Devil. The first accusation which he invented was against God himself, whom he traduced for interdicting the fruit of one tree to our first Parents, although their allowance was all things beside, which the earth brought forth in great abundance. And if God himself were not free from his slanderous impeachments, they that are devoted to God's honour must needs be obnoxious to his manifold calumniations. And because he doth commence new matter of reviling before the audience of God continually, St. John calls him the accuser, who doth accuse our brethren before God day and night, Rev. xii. 10. Let every sin reduce itself to the head and fountain, and the slanderer will be more ashamed of his chief than any. Gluttony is first known in Esau, Drunkenness in Noah, Tyranny in Nimrod, Polygamy in Lamech, Murder in Cain, but reviling in the Devil. Nor is reviling only the murdering of a man's good name, but directly it is a sin that is guilty of more blood than any other iniquity. And therefore the Devil, whose mouth is the great bellows that blows defamation abroad, Christ gives him his due when he says he was, Homicida ab initio; A murderer from the beginning, Joh. viij. 44. All the miseries which did befall the Martyrs and holy men began in slander, and ended in slaughter. Naboth first accused wrongfully for blaspheming God and the King, and so put to death. The Elders stirred up false witnesses that said, they heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses, and the holy place; the next news you here, he is cast out of the City and stoned. Our blessed Saviour was first wrongfully cried out upon, that he made himself a King, then led away to Pilate to be Crucified. Is not this the fruit then of this Divinity? Beware of slandering and evil speaking; it is Peccatum sanguinum, peccatum daemonum; The sin of bloodshed, and the sin of Devils. The very Prince of Devils is characterized by being an accuser, not because a man may not sometimes accuse, and yet be a charitable Christian, but because the more he accuseth the Elect of God, the more it tickleth, and delights his envy, says St. Austin.  
To this of St. Austin Lactantius hath added another reason, 
Lib. 2. divin. Inst. c. 9  Nos criminatorem vocamus quod crimina, in quae ipse illicit, ad Deum deferat; We call our great Adversary a Devil, or Calumniator, because he delates and reports our faults to God, to which his own wiliness did entice us. First he empoisons us with bad suggestions, and makes us guilty, and then discovers us. The reason why he tempts is to gather proofs of accusation against us that we may be condemned, and Christ upbraided on this wise, See these Servants of yours, see those Children of men how full of all iniquity they are, for whom you have shed your precious blood. These slanders and foul detractions of his, though we do not hear them, yet I have satisfied you so far herein out of my Text, because his name imports them. But we do feel it to our hurt and molestation, that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Tempter, as it is in the third verse of this Chapter. The word itself I would not have you think it is altogether evil, for even God is said to tempt man, Non ut ipse, sed ut ij quos tentat se cognoscant, says St. Austin; not that he may bring any thing to light, which was unmanifested to him, but that our own effects may be known to ourselves, and to all the world, as Deut. xiii. 3. The Lord your God proveth you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul; but the vulgar Latin reads it, Vt palam fiat, to make it known that you love him. Again, one man may tempt another, to find what excellency is in him, as the Queen of Sheba came to prove Solomon with hard questions; besides, there is a good Tentation wherein a man is bound to prove, and to try himself, Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves, 2 Cor. xiii. 5. In all these acceptions the Word is innocent; but there is an abusive Phrase for man to tempt God, as if we had not good experiment of his power and goodness, but would search it further; but let not us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted, and were destroyed of Serpents, 1 Cor. x. 9 Lastly, the word Tentation taken for allurement and provocation to sin is proper to Satan, and to Satan's instruments.  
Among military rules this is one in all Authors, it brings some advantage with it to study the nature and condition of our enemy. I will beat a little upon that advice. I have met with some who have hummed and hawed at it whether there were any Devils or no, as if it were a thing that were disputable. Perchance these give credit to nothing further than their outward senses apprehend, after the manner of beasts; or like the Sadduces, that held there was neither Spirit, nor Angel, because they could see none. If you ask them, if Christ did not cast out divers Devils from those that were possessed; their evasion is, perhaps those might be enormous sins. But could sins, which are no substance, but qualities, cry out, and tear a man, and run into the Swine, and confess Christ? This is such an opinion, says a late Writer, 
Musculus.  Ac si oves putarent fabulam esse de lupis; as if the Sheep should think Wolves were but a tale, there were no such creatures that sought to devour them. St. Austin brings in such an unbeliever objecting, How should I overcome Satan? How should I repel him whom I cannot see or perceive? Well enough, says the Father, Facile habent remedium, se ipsos interius vincant, & de illo foris triumphant; overcome the instigations of evil motions within, and you triumph over the Devil without.  
None hath described the puissance of our ghostly enemies more tragically than St. Paul, Eph. vi. 12. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickednesses in high places. Every word of this description is Vae, vae, Woe be to them that are not strong to resist. Our Adversaries in their essence are Spirits, in their form invisible, in their designs wicked, in their power rulers of this world, in their subtleties dealers in darkness, in their place they have the higher ground much above our reach, they hover in the air, in high places. The Prophet Isaiah demonstrated the weakness of the Egyptians, That their horses were flesh and not Spirit, Isa. xxxi. 3. The odds are the more against us, that our adversaries are Spirit, and not Flesh. Daemonum tanto major nequitia, quantò natura nobilior, says Aquinas. The more noble is the nature of hellish Fiends, the more dangerous is their wickedness: The more fleshly is our nature, the more weak our resistance. An Epicuraean will say perhaps, that gives himself over to all licentiousness, it is not in me to withstand the assaults of the Devil, why should I go about it, since I am made of a corruptible Elementary substance, which cannot hold out against a spiritual wickedness? But to make all such sinners inexcusable, God hath made us a recompense, and we have as good help on our side, to say the least of it, as they have of theirs, partly by the help of his assisting grace, partly by the Ministry of good Angels. Some there are likewise that cry out, man is unequally dealt withal, because the Princes of darkness have that odds of us in their multitude, they boast that their name is Legion. Dionysius, called the Areopagite, as I read it in Aquinas, reduceth the damnation of all sinners to this Multitudo Daemonum est causa omnium malorum; the world is so over-laid with numbers of Devils, that from thence ariseth all damnation. I would not set so much by that single authority if St. Hierom had not said, Communis est doctorum opinio, this is the common received opinion of the Doctors, Aer iste coelum & terram medio dividens plenus est contrariis fortitudinibus; The whole Element of the Air between heaven and earth is full of Diabolical troops, that rise up against our soul, and oppose our Salvation. Howsoever this is but opinion, and I am sure the Scripture doth no where put us in the perplexity of such a terror. And that of Anthony the Eremite is confessed to be but a dream, that he saw all the space between heaven and earth full of Satan's snares to catch the souls of men. Against these dreams and opinions I set the saying of Elisha on the one hand, There are more that be with us than against us: And the promise of our heavenly Father to the Children of Israel on the other hand, One of you shall chase a thousand, and two of you shall put ten thousand to flight.  
Howsoever in all distress of tentation here is our refuge in this, or the like Prayer, Wilt thou suffer the destroyer, O Lord, to prevail against me? Wilt thou permit him to say, there, there we have devoured him? God spoke once and twice that power belongeth unto God, Semel atque iterum ob firmitatem; once and twice, because that truth is strongly established. He that hath said unto the proud waves of the Sea, hitherto shall ye go, and no further; He doth say unto Satan, Hitherto shalt thou tempt, and no farther. It is not for the Devils deserving, but for the wicked man's undeservings that God doth give him his licet sometimes, Go and do harm upon the earth, I will permit thee that thou be a lying Spirit in the mouth of ahab's Prophets, 
F●stius in cap. 6. ad Eph.  Non merito malitiae ejus sed transgressionis humana data est ei hujusmodi potestas, says a Schoolman; Not for the good that he hath done, but for the much evil that we have done. He is made a Prince of the world, therefore turn unto the Lord and he will quickly cancel Satan's Commission. A Tragedian upon the Roman Theatre repeating this verse, Nostrâ miseriâ magnus factus es; the Auditors did all apply it immediately to Pompey, surnamed the Great, thou art grown to the name of great by our baseness and servile flattery. So we have made our arch enemy a great tyrant, by our rebellion and iniquity. Therefore do you but cry out, De profundo clamavi, out of the deep have I called unto thee O Lord, and the Lord will bind him that hath bound us in our sins in the bottomless pit.  
I have expatiated thus far upon the condition, malice, number, and efficacy of these spiritual wickednesses in high places. Now I restrain myself to meditate how at this time Satan chose out Christ for his object. Our Saviour was not touched upon by the Tentations of the World, or of the Flesh, but he was tempted of the Devil. And St. Cyprian gives a sweet reason for it, Honestiùs cum spiritu, quam cum carne luctamur, nemo libidinum morsus evasit illaesus; A man may preserve his holiness and integrity and yet encounter the Devil. No man is troubled with the concupiscence of the World, or of the Flesh, but he comes off with some detriment. You shall know what all these three tentations are severally, and then mark if it be not true.  
First, For the tentation of the World, that is, when some unlawful desire is stirred up in a man, to wish inordinately some things in the world. The world therefore is said to tempt by casting objects in our way, which are occasions to make us stumble and fall, as the shadow in the water made the Dog let go his piece of flesh, says he in the Fable.  
Secondly, For the tentation of the flesh, that is, sometimes taken for all manner of wrong desire that opposeth reason or faith, so Idolatry, Witchcrafts, Heresies, Seditions are called the works of the flesh, Gal. v. 20. but properly it is our affection towards some sensual things against reason, or the Word of God, either in the avoidance of some evils of punishment which should be sustained, or in coveting some pleasures which should be avoided. According to St. Paul's stimulus in carne, whereof I spoke before. Both these you see leave some mark and impression of evil behind them, for sin is sin in the first suggestion, and could in no wise be compatible to Christ, who was a Lamb without blemish in all respects. And whereas Satan propounded stones to be made bread, and all the glory of the kingdoms of the World, Divines do rightly distinguish, Christ was not tempted of the world, or of the flesh, Ad ea tamen quae carnis & mundi sunt, but he was solicited by Satan to enjoy the pomp of the world, and to embrace those pleasures wherein the flesh lusteth against the Spirit.  
Thirdly, It remains alone, since he would be an High Priest tempted with like infirmities unto us, that he should be tempted of the Devil; for that assault might happen with all the might and main that Satan could direct it, and yet Christ be blameless and undefiled; according to that Text, The Prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me, Joh. xiv. 30. That sin doth not follow as a necessary effect from such a tentation of the Devil, I prove it two ways: 1. From that common rule, Peccatum in actu proprio consistit; That which is the act of another cannot be called my sin; my sin must be my own proper act. Therefore if the suggestion of Satan had no success with me, it was his envy, but the resistance shall be imputed to me for innocency. 2. I prove it from another rule, speaking only of actual sins, Nemo peccat propter id quod vitare non potest; No man is put into such a plunge, that sin is inevitable, that he could not choose but sin. Who can hinder it, that Satan shall not so much as offer to seduce me? I cannot avoid the attempts of the evil Spirit, but through Christ I may avoid to consent unto him. It is impossible but scandals and tentations should come, but woe unto him by whom they come. The difference between us and our High Priest is this. Satan creeps into us by invisible insinuations, he slides into the inward closet of our breast, and there begets polluted imaginations, libidinous delights, wicked designs, and intentions. There he gets in says Biel, though we perceive not any such guest in the inward room, Sicut lumen penetrat in profundum aeris, & ibidem manet; As the light is transfused through the air, though the air feel it not. A fit similitude for the Angel of darkness. But the tempter came to Christ, not by an inward induction, but in an outward visible appearance. And his presence or his speech were no more contagious to Christ, than when the Sons of God stood before the Lord, Satan also was among them, and had leave to speak his mind against that holy patient man, Job i 7.  
I will conclude this Point, and begin that which shall end all, Jam. i. 13. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. He cannot be tempted with evil, therefore that exterior pulsation of the Devil was no ensnarement to Christ; and Chrysologus makes this use of my Text, take heed ye repine not at God for the author of evil and tentation, they are the works of Lucifer and his Angels. When you hear those Fiends make it their office to tempt (an office not imposed by their Maker, but assumed by their own malice) In Deum hoc non imputent homines, astris non imputent, naturam non criminentur. Revile not God, throw not the mischief upon nature, pick no quarrels with the Stars. You see whose work it is, heaven and earth are Gods, and sin is the Devils. God hath made his good Angels to be our custody, and appoints them their Provinces how, and whom they shall protect. Evil instigations, impugnations, are from the Spirits of darkness, only God appoints the order, as he shall see fit, for the punishment of rebellious ones that have forsaken him. Deus ordinatè novit uti malo. Evil tentations are the Devils; God, whose Providence guideth all things, doth sometimes restrain and limit them, always methodise and direct them. Whom in the end of all we call upon by hearty and zealous Prayer to assoil and defend us from our ghostly enemies. AMEN.   

THE SECOND SERMON UPON Our Saviour's Tentation.  MAT. iv. 1. 
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil.  
IN the elder times of the Church, every man can tell you, who is a little acquainted with their customs, that particular Churches, especially those that were the principal and greatest Seats, did keep an anniversary commemoration of the noble acts of the Saints, and chiefly for them who had endured hard encounters for the name of Christ, either into bonds and imprisonment, or some other stern calamity, who were called confessors, or into blood and death who were called Martyrs. And this Ceremony was well instituted in praise and admiration of their victories, who would not let that truth be overcome which was in their possession. Therefore their memory was kept fresh every year for a double benefits sake, says Minutius Felix, Defunctis praemium, & futuris dabatur exemplum; The dead were much renowned, and the living were no less edified by their example. What were the conflicts of men that we were so mindful of them? And should not we much more remember this for ever famous conflict of the Son of God? Brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle, and High Priest of our Profession Jesus Christ, who girded himself with strength, and with the power of the holy Spirit, and broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. Magnify him therefore that rideth upon the heavens as it were upon an horse, praise him in his noble acts, praise him in his excellent greatness, yea, and rejoice before him. This opposition of the whole battery of Hell against him, his constancy to suffer it, his victory to tread it under feet, hath not only a due commemoration of it once a year, in the Gospel for Ash-Wednesday, or the first day of Lent, but every week in the year, so often as we read the Litany, we speak of it to his honour, and to our comfort, By thy Baptism, Fasting, and Temptation good Lord deliver us.  
A great omission might be imputed to Divines, me thinks, if Poets in their versifying fury should be able to raise the Wars of Troy to such an opinion in all Ages, and we should flag in setting down the most terrible battle that ever was fought between Christ and Satan, the trustiest Champion, and the deadliest Enemy of man's Salvation one against another; I say, it were a shame to our negligence not to be blotted out, if we should not prosecute the description of every circumstance, I for my part with all requisite industry, and you with all attention. I take this first verse therefore into my hands once again, which was thus disparted into five points. 1. That among other parts of humility, wherein Christ our High Priest was made like unto us, He was tempted to sin. 2. It is expressed by what sort of tentation, neither by the concupiscence of the flesh, nor by the vanities of the world, but by the outward solicitations of the Devil. 3. Here is the time and opportunity which Satan chose with all despite to set upon him, then says my Text, that is, in the next place after his Baptism, which went before. Immediately, says St. Mark, after the voice from heaven had said, This is my beloved Son. 4. We may learn from hence how Christ was marshaled to the combat, he was led up of the Spirit, or as St. Luke more emphatically, Being full of the Holy Ghost he was led by the Spirit. 5. It is no idle word in the verse, that we have the Lists where the combat was fought, at least where it was begun to be fought, the Wilderness.  
In the first place at this time I must bend my meditations to the third of these particulars, having dispatched the other two in their place before, and that is the time which Satan thought he nicked very right for his purpose, then, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it was the Motto of the wise man Pittacus of Greece, know the seasons and opportunities of time, and you can hardly fail of that which you enterprise: Yet all things fell out contrary to the imaginations of this subtle Serpent, that the time which he thought was most in season was most out of season: it was no such a critical hour as he hoped for. But why was Christ tempted then? So lies the question, and thus I answer it in the first place, because our Saviour had been lately baptised; 
Luk iii 21, 22.  then as soon as ever he was initiated in the Sacrament of purification, than the engines of iniquity were planted to overthrow him. If Christ had been as one of us, who are prone to relapse into our former filthiness, after we have vowed a new life to God, this had been a likely way to have sped, and as dangerous as the counsel of Achitophel. A Penitent that hath newly bid adieu to all unclean conversation, newly gone out of Sodom, goes upon a ticklish ground, and stands not so sure, but that he is easily thrown down. Lucerna recens extincta levi flatu accenditur; 
Granaten.  how often have you seen a candle put out by a mischance, and blow the snuff presently while it is hot it flames again: So carnal concupiscence being but lately corrected in a good Convert by the fear of God, take heed the Devil blow not presently upon the snuff, for an easy matter will make it flame again. A man that hath lately begun a good work which is pleasing to God, must keep a Midsummer watch over it, a double guard more than he shall need when he is grown into custom and continuance. So Chrysologus doth abet this very reason which I give upon my Text, Diabolus primordia boni pulsat, sancta in ipso ortu festinat extinguere. Satan hath a more malicious aim than ordinary at the first fruits of holiness, he would crop the beginnings of reformation before they grow up to perfect fruits of amendment of life.  
The smallest bird can pick off the blossoms of a tree; if that blossom be not nibbled away, but grow a fair apple, the hurt is small that the fouls of the air can do unto it: So the firstlings of a godly life are in the greatest danger; upon maturity of holiness, when the fear of God is well rooted in the heart, those unclean Harpies of the air, the Devil and his Angels shall be less able to annoy us. Scit quod fundata subvertere non potest, says the former Author; Satan wants no sagacity to observe his advantages, but is aware that if the Camp put their Spade into the ground for a few days, and cast their trenches, they will hardly be displanted. An Army that is not long set down before a place is more easily removed; so I say once for all, that I may roll the same stone no more, expect to find the greatest impediment from the Tempter at the beginning of a good work. As the Children of Israel were never so full of Wars as when they first set foot into the Land of Canaan. How many Factions bandied against David when he first took upon him the Kingdom? Prohibition upon prohibition against Nehemiah when he laid the first stone to re-edify the Temple. When the first foundations of heaven were laid the proud Angels themselves fell: upon the first plantation of Paradise Adam fell: upon the first promulgation of the Law the Israelites worshipped a Calf in Horeb. Because the first fruits are the Lords, therefore this rebellious monster would corrupt them. Be not troubled therefore (so St. Chrysostom comforts) if you be infested with perilous tentations after Baptism, after receiving the Lords Supper, after your Prayers, after your being at Church, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, This follows of course, it will often be so. If you seek to quench the Devil he is nothing but fire and flame. But especially a Jew or Pagan being of ripe years, renouncing Infidelity, and receiving the waters of Baptism for the remission of sins in the blood of Christ, they are the persons at whom the Adversary will strike with all his force, after the similitude of this tentation. There is a Text somewhat obscure, Luk. xi. 24. That an unclean Spirit walks through dry places, seeking rest and finds none▪ St. Hierom doth thus interpret those dry places, Loca inaquosa sunt gentes aridae, nondum aquâ baptismi irrigatae; Towns and Villages are scited by springs and rivers for the most part; dry places, where no waters are, want the frequency of men, and thither the unclean Spirit resorts; these dry places, says he, are those barbarous heathen upon whom the dew of heaven did never fall, I mean the sprinkling of Baptism: 
Tolet annot. 5.  But among these the malicious one finds no rest, Non invenit requiem, quia non habet cui noceat; these, alas for them, are quite lost already, he finds no rest among these, for he wants matter to work upon, therefore he returns to the house from whence he came, to the house newly swept, to them who were lately baptised, and had put on Christ.  
Secondly, Just before the Spirit of God came down upon Christ in the shape of a Dove; and although that Spirit was upon him in all fullness and abundance ever since he was made man, yet that apparition did manifest him to have received the rich talents of grace in most plentiful measure. Hereupon was the envy of the Devil inflamed, In majorigratiâ major tentatio; Where there is the most sanctification, it falls out very often that there is the most tentation. The Devil is like a thief who will venture for the greatest booty; they that beset an house to rob it, says St. Chrysostom, look for cash, and where tentations beat hard against a man, it is to be granted that there are good gifts in the soul, of which the envious man would bereave us. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it is evident that there is a great treasure committed unto thee, because Satan would break in and steal. If you ask who are most empestered with the assaults of the wicked one, the question, says Aquinas, is to be divided with this distinction, Potentia Diaboli est respectu infirmorum, fervour respectu perfectorum; the weakest and worst of men are most obnoxious to his power and domination, the strongest and best of men are most obnoxious to his assault and fury. Among all the twelve Disciples he can easiest possess the heart of Judas, but among all the Twelve he did most desire to winnow Peter. Where God gives a man a large measure of grace, withal he gives the Devil the larger Patent Do not say, I am cast out of the sight of the Lord, and faith is much weakened within me, for the provocations of ungodliness vex me sore: It is quite otherwise, Christ will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able to bear, but a stiff knot can endure a more massy wedge, and a strong defendant shall have a strong Antagonist. Faith is called a Shield, the Word of God a Sword, Righteousness a Breastplate; is not such Artillery as this fit for an hot skirmish? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, He that hath the weapons of the Spirit let him gird them about him to fight. And this is it that I say why Christ was now tempted upon the manifestation of the Holy Ghost, for the more grace, the more tentation.  
Thirdly, There is no bait at which the old Serpent will bite sooner than the lofty commendations of the Saints. At the Baptism of our Saviour, and the descension of the Holy Ghost, there came a voice from heaven that did resound his glory far and wide, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil. The heathen were wont to say, be moderate in the commendation of any man, whatsoever was over-praised was obnoxious to the envy of the Gods. Indeed, as for the Gods of the Heathen they were but Spirits of damnation. And whatsoever is highly praised, an hellish envy dogs and follows it to take away the Garland from it. Breves & infausti populi Romani amores, says the Historian; Those whom the people of Rome did much prosecute with their love and applause they were never long prosperous. What was the beginning of Jobs affliction? But those words wherewith God did so graciously testify to his integrity, Hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth? Job i. 8. Some, that are bold to conjecture, say as much for David, the envy of the Devil was stirred up against him, because he was called a man after Gods own heart. They carry the same conceit upon the first time that Peter was smartly rebuked, Get thee behind me Satan; immediately in a few verses before that Encomium was given him, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock well I build my Church. Nectens ipsis ex vincula sertis. As the Poet, says the waggish Boys, took Silenus his Garland, and made fetters therewith to bind him: So Satan contrives mischief out of the Garlands, out of the praise of the Saints. And certainly too much elevation of praise is a dangerous precipice to be tumbled into temptation; or if it do not work to the ruin of the living, this wolvish projector can bring his ends about to the injury of the dead. For certainly the large Panegyrics and Commemorations made yearly upon the Festival of the Saints and Martyrs, (whereof I spoke in the beginning) stirred up the envy of the Devil to sow Tares among the Wheat, to beget invocations of Saints, prostration before their Images, adoration of Relics, and the whole spawn of Idolatry. If God lend his own voice to the praise of Christ, this infamous Lucifer attends close to blot it out, and to make God a liar like himself, for if he could have entered the tentation of any sin into Christ, he had not been the Son in whom the Father was well pleased.  
Fourthly, Christ had spent thirty years of his life in Judaea, and it is most probable to hold, that in all that space Satan did not cast the least tentation before him. Was this the time for the powers of darkness to begin their fury more than ever before? So it seems, and for this reason; for those thirty years he was obedient to his Parents without the least noise made that he was the eternal Son of God, that came to save the world, and passed away his time in such obscurity, that there is no print or footstep of any rare action that he did, save that he disputed with the Doctors at twelve years old in the Temple. But as soon as he began the work of his Mediatorship in open publication, as soon as ever he began to advance the Banner of faith, that all that believed in his name should be saved, Hell could contain itself no longer, but belched out defiance against him. The Heathen had a common Maxim which Plutarch liked not, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Plut. in vit. Dion.  the Apparitions of evil Spirits never infested any one that was wise and judicious. This did not relish with that Author, because Dion and Brutus, a pair of most renowned Captains, were even distracted with Phantasms and visions that haunted them: So he, whose opinion is good, but upon another ground, and it is thus. Satan hath ever strived to set shoulder to shoulder against them who have either been the beginners, or the restaurators of the Doctrine of the Kingdom of heaven. That word of the Angel set him on fire worse than Hell itself, Evangelizo vobis, I come not with the Law, but I do Evangelize, I bring good tidings of great joy to all people; and when Christ began to set that Gospel on foot, it was insufferable to the Devil, he must tempt him in the Wilderness. Remember the tempest which was raised when Christ was embarked to sail over the Lake of Genazeret to the Gaderens. It was a tempest conjured up, I suppose, by means Diabolical, that the Gaderens, who were the most part Gentiles, might not hear of Righteousness, and Salvation. The Spirit cried out to Paul to come over to Macedonia and help them; He and Silas found no better entertainment than to be scourged for coming to Macedonia, Acts xuj. 9 How long, how many hundred years were all the skilful men in the world deluded, nay, how long bewitched? I may well use that word, that neither by the Sphere, nor by Navigation, nor by any other conjecture, so many nimble wits and industrious men could not find out so large a portion of the world as America. We were all so long held in ignorance, that those miserable and vast multitudes of Nations might be held in infidelity. And our late Story's report, that many dear Servants of God, who have sailed thither, as well to enlarge Christ's Kingdom as their own means, have suffered most unusual wrecks and storms at Sea; nay, that they have encountered Phantasms and Apparitions in all likelihood Diabolical.  
I will make no long excursion here, but a short Apology for one that deserved well of the reformed Religion. Many of our Adversaries have aspersed Luther with ill words, but none so violent as our English Fugitives, because he doth confess it that the Devil did encounter him very frequently, and familiarly, when he first put Pen to Paper against the corruptions of the Church of Rome. In whose behalf I answer, Much of that which is objected I cannot find in the Latin Editions of his works which himself corrected, although it appears by the quotations some such things were in his first Writings set forth in the Dutch Language. 2. I say no more than he confesseth ingenuously of himself in an Epistle to Brentius, his meaning was good, but his words came from him very unskilfully, and his stile was most rough and unsavoury. St. Paul says of himself, that he was rudis sermone, 
2 Cor. xi. 6.  rude in speech: But Luther was not so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the word used in Paul, as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, after his Dutch Monastical breeding, and his own hot freedom, by nature he had a boisterous clownish expression; but for the most part very good Jewels of Doctrine in the dunghills of his Language. 3. If the Devil did employ himself to delude and vex that heroical Servant of God, who took such a task upon him, being a simple Monk, to inveigh against Errors and Superstitions which had so long prevailed, why should it seem strange to any man? Ribadenira sticks it among the praises of his Founder Ignatius Loiola, that the Devil did declaim and cry out against him (believe it every one of you at your leisure) and why might not the Devil draw near to vex Luther, as well as roar out a great way off against Loiola? I have digressed a little with your patience, to make Luther's case appear to be no outrageous thing, that weak ones may not be offended when they hear such stuff objected out of Parsons, or Barclay, or Walsingham, or out of Bellarmine himself. If Beelzebub was busy with the Master, what will he be with the Servants? When Christ did begin to lay the first corner stone of the Gospel, than he was led into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil.  
I will suffer a reason of Tolets to make up the fifth place before I leave this Point. Christ presented himself upon the desert of the Wilderness to undergo his tentation, before he had wrought many Signs and Miracles, to put a mist before the Devils eyes, that when he did not ween him to be the eternal Son of God, he might give the onset without distrust; not as Ahab went disguised into the field, lest the Army of the Syrians should bend their forces against him; but to delude the great Adversary, lest he should retire when he suspected to be overmastered. Sicut luctator inclinat corpus suum ut supplantet alium; Bernard's similitude I think. Our Saviour omitted no evidence of humility and infirmity to win the day of Satan by this abasement. As a cunning wrestler dops downward as low as he can, that he may fetch over his Antagonist. But this Point will meet us again upon a larger entreaty. These five reasons if you can remember them, will give you satisfaction, I suppose, what time and opportunity this was, which Satan chose with all despite to set upon our Lord and Saviour, the word of time is very emphatical. Then was, etc.  
The next general part comes now to be handled, how the Spirit like a Grand Marshal brought Christ into the field to combat with the Devil, He was led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness. I will deliver my mind upon this hint in these four particulars: 1. Of what Spirit this place is to be understood. 2. How the Spirit did lead him. 3. Why this passage is inserted into the Story, that he was led up of the Spirit. 4. It will be expedient to annex unto these, How the grace of God doth lead us, and draw us on to vanquish the Devil, and all the corruption that is in us, and to be the Sons of God. Because there is mention of a good Spirit immediately before my Text, that descended from heaven upon him in the shape of a Dove, and all the business after my Text concerns an evil Spirit that assaulted him with many tentations, therefore the quaere ariseth, which of these did lead him into the Wilderness? The Syriack determines it plainly, Ductus â spiritu sancto, he was led by the Holy Ghost. And it is of more moment, that certainly the Syriack Paraphrase took it from St. Luke. Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they that understand Grammar, and the original Text, do easily discern, that the same word in the same sentence implies one and the same thing, the latter being an effect of the former, for being full of the Holy Spirit, he was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness. And I will parallel it plainly anon with that of St. Paul, Acts xx. 22 Behold I go bound in spirit to Jerusalem. Moreover, the Devil approached not unto him, till after he had fasted forty days he began to be an hungry; for he had no motive to begin his tentations, till he perceived he was in the distress of hunger like a weak man. Therefore it was not Satan that carried him into this place where he fasted, for then the tentation had begun before he had set foot in the Wilderness. The case is clear, to say no more of the first Point, that the Spirit which led him was the influence, and impulsion of the Holy Ghost.  
The second thing to be asked is, how the Spirit did lead him. This can be conceived but two ways: Either by inward instigation, or removing him suddenly from one place to another, which is called outward translocation. Each way may be admitted, for both are according to Analogy of Faith, and both are favoured out of the Greek Text of sundry Evangelists. You shall read in St. Luke, Chap. iv. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he was led by the Spirit, which doth imply, that the Holy Ghost did inwardly inspire that resolution into him, and did assist continually while he abode in the Wilderness. You shall read in St. Mark, Chap. i. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness, as if he had been transported thither in some wonderful rapture. And my Text is read thus in St. Matthew, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, He was led up of the Spirit. The Proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, sursum, to lead up, hath either regard to the situation of the Desert, which was by far the higher ground in respect of Jordan, where our Saviour was before: Or else that he was exalted from the earth, and carried away by the Spirit through the air, until he came unto that place, where he spent forty days in Prayer, Fasting, and Meditation. I dare not contend out of the Scriptures, but that the Spirit wrought both ways upon Christ, both carrying his body into the Wilderness, and instigating his mind.  
No unusual thing in the first sense, for the Spirit to transport a body suddenly through the air, without the motion of the feet, to a place of far distance. And although the whole Trinity God the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost concur to that action, and produce it, or perhaps appoint an Angel to be the instrument, yet it goes under the name of the Spirit, because that Miracle impresseth a strange virtue into a material body, as if it were spiritual. How Enoch and Elias were translated on high in their bodies I have declared my mind not long since: And surely, before Elias his last translation into heaven this did befall him often times, Obadiah was jealous of it, 1 King. xviii. 13. It shall come to pass when I am gone from thee, the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know not. What Ezekiel reports of himself, I cannot say but it was rather an imaginary than a real rapture, but thus he, Ezek. viij. 3. The hand of God took me by a lock of mine head, and the Spirit lift me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem. This could not be imprinted in his imagination, but that it was possible to be done really. And Gregory meditates well upon it; Every regenerate person during the time of this mortal flesh is so lifted up between heaven and earth; 
Moral. lib. 31. cap. 7.  Adhuc ad superna plene non pervenit, sed tamen ima dereliquit; His conversation and his heart are not altogether in heaven, but they are higher than the earth. What a direct instance is that of the Prophet Habakkuk? 
Dan. xiv. 37  He was carrying food to the Reapers in the Land of Jury, and the Angel of the Lord took him by the crown, and bore him by the hair of his head, and through the vehemency of the Spirit set him in Babylon. Neither need this be rejected for Apocryphal, since there is an example to match it, Acts viij. 39 The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, who was then at Gaza, and he was found at Azotus, which two are forty miles' distance after the best descriptions of the Holy Land. A Faith that is but linum fumigans; a dusky faith, and shines not clearly, may easily admit this, for if the birds can cut the air with their gross wings naturally, who will not be persuaded that God can make the body of man more nimble and fit for such a motion by his supernatural power? But I marvel at those Expositors, who are squemishly conceited against that opinion, that they did not frame this objection: God doth not use to work Miracles only to show tricks, as one would say, no necessity requiring. Then cui bono? Why might not Christ have gone into the Wilderness step by step? What occasion of moment should urge the Spirit to transport him? Beloved, it was thus far expedient, that Christ should vanish, and no man know which way he was departed, that he might avoid the honour which the multitude would have done him upon that voice which came from heaven, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. So in the sixth of St. John, after the miracle of feeding some thousands with a little bread and a few fishes, Christ perceived that they would take him by force and make him a King, therefore he made a sudden departure, none knew whither till his Disciples met him walking upon the Sea in a dark night, and a great storm, Mat. xiv. 23. This is reason then sufficient, to decline the people, who were astonished at the testimony which was given him from heaven, that the Spirit snatched him away in a rapture into the Wilderness.  
Why this interpretation of the word should not take with you I know not, but I am sure the next must take, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, He was led by the Spirit, that is, the Holy Ghost did inspire this heroical resolution into his humane nature to fight with, and to overthrow the tentations of the Devil. I shall reach this doctrine unto you the better upon certain questions: And first, what needed this Preface of all other before this mighty work, that he was guided by the Spirit? What action throughout all his life did not deserve the same commendation? A young Rhetorician dedicated an Oration to one Antalcidas. What is the subject of your Oration quoth he? Says the young Orator the praise of Hercules. Fie man, says Antalcidas, what needless pains have you taken? Who did ever dispraise Hercules? So it may seem as redundant an expression, to say that Christ was led by the Spirit at this time, for through the grace of Union, and the grace of Unction he was always conducted by the Spirit. It is sufficient for answer to this, that this was the first exploit of those that Christ did act, to show he was the Christ, and the Mediator of God and man; therefore this clause being prefixed to the foremost of his actions, is a title to all the rest, he was led of the Spirit. 2. It is not to be taken per modum inhaerentiae, that he was now full of the Holy Ghost, as if he had received a larger measure than he had before, but by way of manifestation, for the Spirit even now had visibly descended upon him in the shape of a Dove. Semper fuit actus à spiritu, sed jam maximè ejus vis apparuit; the common gloss of the best Writers: The Spirit did always lead him, and dwell in him, but now it did appear and put forth its strength. I move another question, (be not offended that I move these hard things as it were by way of Catechism) are the leadings of the Spirit of more sorts than one? Yea, these two are degrees one above another. The first is general to all the Sons of God, for they are all stirred up to faith, and hope, and good works by a divine illumination. If ye be led by the Spirit, then are ye not under the Law of the flesh, Gal. v. 18. The second is special, to the chiefest, and principal Ministers of God, as Kings, Prophets, 
1 Sam. x.  and Apostles, when Saul was anointed King over Israel, the Lord gave him another heart, his Spirit came upon him, and he Prophesied. So Christ our anointed Prophet prepared himself for a famous enterprise, and he had the badge of God's good liking, The Spirit came upon him, or he was led by the Spirit. Suffer but one interrogatory more, and it is this: Did the Spirit thrust on Christ, and as it were hale him with compulsion at this time? So a man might hap to fall into that error by St. Marks words, The Spirit driveth him into the Wilderness. And the Vulgar Latin gives the same offence, Luk. iv. 1. Agebatur a spiritu; he was pushed on by the Spirit. For answer, hard words are soon mollified by good construction. The very Heathen could say, Generosus est animus hominis, magisque ducitur quam trahitur; Man's will is a free generous thing, and had rather be led fairly than drawn forcibly. Therefore the other Evangelists must be expounded by St. Matthew, that the Spirit led him by illumination, and propounding the will of his Father unto him, not by violence and coaction. So Cajetan, Non vis significatur, sed efficientia, & impulsus spiritus; All was done by the efficacy, and motion of the Spirit, nothing by compulsion.  
Some there are, who care not what old Pillars of Divinity they pull down, to set up their new devises, that hold, that Christ did obey his Father, and the Divine Law with so much liberty and freedom, 
Exam. Censur. c. 17. p. 190.  that it were no offence to say, Christ could not have obeyed his Father, not have kept the Law, and so by consequent have sinned; and whereas it is certain he did not sin, they will neither allow that the Hypostatical Union was the cause of it (O strange Theologie!) nor yet the grace of Unction, wherewith he was anointed above his fellows, (O strange impudence!) Neither of these was fundamentum impeccabilitatis; And all this to maintain, that because he did merit by his obedience, his will was not determined to do good, but left indifferent to good or evil. Away with this over audacious disputing; Christ could not but fulfil all righteousness; I must do the works of him that sent me, Joh. iv. 9 All good things conducible to the work of a Mediator were necessary to be done: And it was necessary, Gods will being declared, that it should be fulfilled of Christ, although he was not necessitated by a violent determination, 
In. cap. 4. Mat. qu. 3.  but moved willingly and obediently unto it by a certain persuasion. Non necessitatus erat, sed propter illud quod necessarium erat sponte motus, says Abulensis; The object propounded was necessary to be done of him, though he accepted it with much alacrity and desire, and no way driven by constrainment. Therefore this was not like Peter's case, Another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldst not, Joh. xxi. 18. But the hand of the Lord was with him, and carried him whither he liked himself. Non invitus aut captus, sed sponte & liberè venit, says St. Hierom; He was not drawn on as if his own will drew back, but rejoiced as a Giant to run his course. To say no more but this, 
Isa. liii. 7.  Oblatus est quia voluit; It was his own good will that he was slain for the sins of the world; it was his own pleasure not to dread death, and it was as much his own pleasure to grapple with tentations. And so much for that question, how the Spirit did lead him into the Wilderness.  
You shall now be partakers of the third thing, why this passage is inserted into the story, that he was led up of the Spirit? Good reasons are rather to be esteemed by their weight than their multitude; take these few to content you.  
1. The Spirit is said to lead him, because the did not run on blindfold, but knew the task which he undertook, he foresaw the difficulties that he would meet, and weighed them in the balance of judgement and discretion; Non ignarus, sed consilio ducebatur, says St. Ambrose; The counsel of the Spirit did enlighten him to see what he had in hand. Saul thought that David was but a foolhardy Stripling, and knew not what a perilous thing it was to fight with such a Giant as Goliath, Thou art but a youth, and he a man of War from his youth, thou art not able to go against this Philistine. But David showed the reason of his confidence, the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the Lion, and out of the paw of the Bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. He had considered God's mercies and protection, therefore he was led by the Spirit into that noble action. Beware to plod on, like Balaam, with our eyes shut; never discerning what is before us. Try all things, and prove your own heart if you understand which way you walk unto the Lord. Ephraim feedeth on the wind, and followeth after the East wind, wherein the Prophet deciphers them, that know not what they seek after; or at least how they would comprehend it. Some eat and drink their own damnation, because they discern not the Lord's body; they come by custom to the Table of the Lord not with solemn and faithful preparation, these are not led by the Spirit. Some lay their hand to this Blow to preach the Kingdom of Christ, but never bethought them seriously what it was to bear the Ark of God upon their shoulders; they took the Priest's Office upon them only for the hire and wages, but never examined whether they were inwardly called, these were not led by the Spirit. The Widows in St. Paul's days, who were to continue in supplications night and day, these were not to be taken into that Society which attended the Church under threescore years of age, 
1 Tim. v.  and such as had been diligent in every good work: In after Ages, out of more presumption than due care, some were accepted to take the vow of continency upon them at the age of forty: Others more dangerously admitted Virgin Votaries at the age of twenty five: And now every youngling at the age of fourteen is solemnly received to be incloistered in an unmarried estate for ever, before they know the hazard of their own frailty, the iron bondage of such a Vow, or how to avoid the continual tentations of most discontenting melancholy: these took their snare upon them by fond enticements, and ignorant devotion, they were not led by the Spirit. This was St. Ambrose his reason of this phrase.  
2. The next owes itself to St. Hilary; Non aliter tentatus est quam spiritûs permissu, & auxilio; He was led by the Spirit, that is, he maintained this quarrel against the Devil by the permission and assistance of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost is not an idle Spectator, but a party that leads us by the hand, and holds up our hands to conquer these Amalekites, as Aaron and Hur held up the hands of Moses. The Apostles were like things shut up, that durst not come abroad till they were filled with the Spirit, that had no heart to offer themselves to the trial of any affliction, but kept out of the way; But in God's help, as David says, they leapt over the wall, and ventured forth out of that narrow imprisonment, and to make some satisfaction for that privacy, when they lived as recluses, they traveled boldly through all places of the world, baptising all Nations in the name of the Lord Jesus. What dared they not do for the honour of God when they were led by the Spirit? The Children of Israel made no scruple to pitch their Tents within the borders of their enemies if the Pillar of cloud did remove before them; so wheresoever the grace of God doth carry a man, God's glory being his undoubted end, (without all vain delusions, and carnal reservations) he may be bold to venture. As we read of Samson, that before he did those great and heroical exploits against the Philistines, he was possessed with the Spirit of the Lord, and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, when he slew a thousand of the Philistines with the jawbone of an Ass, Judg. xv. 14. So it holds in the works of Regeneration, Patience, Obedience, denying of ourselves, taking up the Cross of Christ, mortifying the body of Sin, these cannot be done unless the Spirit of the Lord do move upon us.  
But according to the method of the Psalm, first we must trust in God to pluck our feet out of the snare, before he lead us in the right way, and set us upon a rock of stone, where we shall not be moved. First, lead us not into tentation, that is, leave us not to ourselves, and then bear us on Eagles wings, and bring us to himself, Exod. nineteen. 4. We do not so much deprecate in the Lord's Prayer that we should not come near the assault of any tentations, as that we may not be drawn into the midst of them, and there left unto ourselves. Most excellently the Apostle, Heb. xiii. 20. The God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, through the blood of the everlasting Covenant, he will bring us out of the Pitfalls of the Devil, that is implied, for it follows, he will make us perfect in every good work to do his will. Aristotle hath a rule in his Rhetoric's, how that must needs be an excellent thing, which the worst men desire they may seem to have, though they want it. As liberality must needs be a graceful virtue, for few are so sordidly covetous, but that they love to be accounted liberal: So the guidance of the divine Spirit necessarily must be the most laudable principle of all humane actions, for there is not so palpable an hypocrite that will confess he was led by his own Concupiscence, or seduced by his Passions; no, he will pretend it is the fear of God, and his Conscience that doth lead him in all things. What wonder if Christian Hypocrites have such conceits? For the King of Assyria, a Most profane Blasphemer, thought it was the best way to make the same pretention, when he came to pluck down the living God; Am I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, go up against this Land to destroy it. And I would it were not the disgrace of these times, that many such live among us, who have their secret stratagems and desires to make havoc of the small revenue of the Church, and to pluck down the glory and dignity of it, but with the same ungodly flourish that the King of Assyria made, We are led by the Spirit, the Lord said unto us, go and destroy this, as they most impudently, and ignorantly call it, Superstition. I will give them the Prophet ezekiel's woe for their reward, Ezek. xiii. 3. Thus saith the Lord God, woe unto the foolish Prophets, that follow their own Spirit, and have seen nothing. These are led on by their fury to bring to pass the works of the evil one, not led by the Spirit, 
Heb. xii. 2.  as our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, our Arch-leader was, to overcome the tentations of the Devil.  
The third reason is out of St. Chrysostoms' Quiver, and I cannot exceed beyond that at this time: Non simpliciter profectus, sed abductus. God did inspire the Evangelists to write in this manner; how Christ was led when he went into temptation, rather than that he went of himself simply without more addition, because no man should offer himself rashly and voluntarily to be tempted, unless God did put some constraint and impulsion upon him. It is a most cautilous note if you observe it; for take the matter right, and consider Christ in himself alone, without respect of leaving an example to the Members of his body, and it was laudable in him to wish some trial, that he might encounter the Devil, and spoil him of his Kingdom; Tentationem exoptare in eo qui succumbere nequit est laudabile; say the Schoolmen. It was an heroical magnanimity in Christ to wish tentations so might fall upon him, because he could not be vanquished. And therefore some gather an observation contrary to St. Chrysostom, that our Saviour went into the Wilderness, and fasted forty days, and after was an hungry, destinating that the Devil should find him out. Obviam procedit Diabolo quem scit non pug naturum nisi lacessitum; He went out to dare the Tempter, because he knew he would not come on and fight, unless he were provoked; yet it is the sounder way to collect, that for our instruction, when we should examine this Story, Christ did not go in a bravado, or a challenge to offer himself to be tempted, but the Spirit led him; as who should say, this was not Curtius in foveam, a precipitated intrusion. Let not man expose himself to temptation, Dubia est victoria, who knows that carries the badge of Adam's frailty in his body, whether he shall come off with victory or captivity.  
Happy is that man and the Lord shall bless his integrity, who will not come near the suburbs of sin; for no man can keep the Commandments, unless he be careful to avoid the first invitations of evil, and to shun the farthest and remotest impediments of obedience. Have you seen little children dare one another, which should go deepest into the mire? But he is more childish that ventures further and further, even to the brim of transgression, and bids the Devil catch him if he can. I will but look and like, says the wanton, where the object pleaseth me; I keep company with some licentious persons, says an easy nature, but for no hurt, because I would not offend our friendship. I will but bend my body in the house of Rimmon, when my Master bends his, says Naaman; I will but peep in to see the fashion of the Mass, holding fast the former profession of my faith. Beloved, I do not like it when a man's conscience takes in these small leaks, it is odds you will fill faster and faster, and sink to the bottom of iniquity. I have read of a Bishop that was performing the Office of Baptism to many that were converted from Gentilism, and when a Virgin came near the Font of an extraordinary beauty, he desired a substitute to discharge the place, for he would not please his eyes, no not for a few minutes, to look upon such an object as alured his fancy. What a careful Christian this was, that kept off occasions of sin, and would not suffer them before him, as David charged his treacherous Son Absalon to keep a distance, and not to come near Jerusalem. Hannibal, that approved Soldier, placed himself in a battle where many Darts of the enemy flew round about him; and when some commended him, that he ventured his person upon the mouth of danger; you mistake, says Hannibal, I am more ashamed of myself this day than ever I was in my life; that being the General of the Field I came in peril to be wounded. This is well applied to every Soldier that fights under Christ's Banner; when we are run into tentations, it is good and blessed to come off with the least impairment to our innocency. But why did you come so near the flame, that you were in peril to be scorched? Job comforted himself, that he had kept his eyes from wand'ring. Jeremy was careful neither to lend upon Usury, nor to borrow upon Usury. In a word, when Tentations fall upon you by God's permission, resist them manfully; but if you mean to be led by the Spirit, do not wittingly and daringly fall upon tentations. This is the sum of the third observation, I defer the fourtn to a larger tractate. To God the Father, etc.   

THE THIRD SERMON UPON Our Saviour's Tentation.  MAT. iv. 1. 
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil.  
THis Text, you see, will not let me go, I have been parting from it twice, and still it invites me to stay: As the Levite took his farewell at Bethlem sundry times, and could not get away, Judg. nineteen. And now I have good cause to tarry, being led by the leading of the Spirit: Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile with him, go with him twain, says Christ, Mat. v. 21. And if the Spirit of God compel us to go with him one Sermon, we will go with him twain; it cannot be irksome or weary to follow such contemplations. But it is fit I should satisfy you, where I stick in this verse for the present, that I do not proceed how Christ was tempted, wherefore he was tempted, by whom he was tempted, when he was tempted, I have rid my hand of these discourses. Likewise I have passed thus far, how Christ was marshaled into the field by the divine impulsion of the Holy Ghost, Here I resume my task into my hands, where I left it. That which remains for me to survey, and for you to exercise your attentions upon is this: First, Since Christ himself was led by the Spirit when he went forth to fast and pray, and to fight against the Devil, therefore I will make enquiry how the grace of God doth lead us to eschew evil, and to do good. And secondly, I will bring you along to consider the place whereon our Saviour planted himself to encounter his enemy, it was the Wilderness.  
How all men, whom God calls to the saving truth by the preaching of the Spirit, are led by the Spirit; that is, governed and directed by his grace, is the Doctrine with which I begin; in which intricate subject I confess myself to be in a Wilderness before I come to the last part of my Text, if ever there were a question which troubled the whole world it is this, How the will of man is guided unto Salvation by the supernatural help of God. It is run into a Proverb, that there are three things almost impossible to be traced: The one how a King doth govern his Kingdom, (the secret reasons of state make the course of his actions so obscure; Cor regis inperscrutabile, says Solomon.) The other, how grace doth govern the soul; And the third, how God doth govern the world. We are sure divine motions move within us, and yet we know not how they move. Our Saviour did admonish us it would be a hard matter to understand, when he spoke of the Holy Ghost who doth regenerate us, The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou knowest not whence it comes, nor whither it goes. What impression a spiritual quality doth, or can make upon a spiritual substance, Philosophy cannot judge of it; but so far as the Scripture opens the mystery, Divinity may examine it, and faith must believe it. In these labyrinths wherein so many run upon this Point; I will give you my judgement in that method wherein I have always directed myself, a method to give God the glory of all that which is good, to make sinners humble because they have no good in themselves, as of themselves, and to make us all diligent in good works, that we may not neglect the gift which is given us in Christ through sluggishness and security. The grounds upon which I will insist are these: 1. We must be led by the Spirit before we can work any thing which is good. 2. I will unfold how we are led by initiating or preventing grace, when we are first made partakers to taste of the hopes of a better life. 3. I will show how we are led by preparatory grace, which goes before the complete act of our regeneration. 4. With what great and mighty power the Spirit doth lead us in converting grace. 5. How we are led by subsequent grace, and sanctification, which co-operates, and assists us after our conversion. To these heads I will briefly and peaceably reduce a volume of litigious disputation.  
1. I enter into all by this door, before the Spirit come down upon us, and lead us with his sweet motions, our heart can produce nothing which is good. The heathen are no competent witnesses in this cause, how far nature is weakened in all virtue, and how much it is prone to all evil, they know no supernatural strength above nature, and therefore could not acknowledge the efficacy of it. In a word, we must not believe man how far he is corrupted, but God, for man must not be judge in his own cause. The Pharisees likewise shall not be heard to speak in this Point, whose arrogancy made them enemies to grace. You remember with what contempt they asked Christ, are we blind? Joh. ix. 40. Alas of ourselves we are all under that woe, Vae vobis duces caeci; Woe be to you blind guides, Mat. xxiii. 16. Whither will a blind man's feet carry him but into a pit, or into a snare unless he have a leader? By nature this dark blindness is upon us, for else why have we a Leader? Omne id naturae deesse intelligitur, quod spiritus sancti operâ communicatur, says St. Austin; Whatsoever is put into us by the Holy Ghost manifests how much was wanting by nature. The good Spirit may say of his direction as Job did of his charity, I was eyes unto the blind, and feet unto the lame, Job. xxix. 15. The heathen erred from the truth through ignorance, the Pharisees through arrogancy, among Christian's none offended more foully than the Pelagians, partly through subtlety of wit, partly through arrogance. What shifts did they not invent rather than confess the truth? Sometimes calling the endowments of man's nature, even under this great blemish of depravation, by the name of grace. When that would not serve, yet they would allow no grace to support man's free will, but the external preaching of the Word, and dispensation of the Sacraments. 3. When this would not satisfy the Church, they went thus far, they did not hold there was grace of sanctification to prevent us from sin, but grace of mercy to remit our sins. Yet they stood under condemnation, and at last this was all that could be wrung from them, supernatural grace was necessary, not simply to strengthen us to do good, but only to do good with greater facility.  
Whereas it behoved them to have accused nature in this present state of malignity so far, that now it is become that accursed ground, which of itself brings forth nothing but thorns and thistles. There is not only a possibility in our will to sin, as there was in Adam before the Fall, but a violent and a precipitious inclination to transgress the Law. The Saints, and the heaven are not clean in God's sight, says Job, How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water, Job xv. 16. The will of man is of that nature it cannot rest naked, devested of all desires, unfurnished of an object, and since in its own rebellion it hath forsaken God, there is no relief but it will betake itself to the unlawful concupiscence of the Creature. Mark how peremptorily St. Paul concludes against man, as he is left to the will of his own flesh, Rom. viij. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be. In the state of this miserable captivity under sin (for we are servants to that which we obey) the will of man is partaker of its own freedom which grows with it, and cannot be parted, that it is not held under necessity to commit this or that sin, naming any particular act, what you will; but under sin it is held, so that the evil which we would not, we shall do, and the good which we would, we shall not do. But Christ is our Advocate, and he will speak for us more than we could or durst say for ourselves; hear his testimony, Joh. xv. 4. The branch cannot bear fruit except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. Because these words are parabolical, he speaks roundly in the next verse, Without me ye can do nothing. It is not meant of natural or animal works, as eating, drinking, walking; indeed we can do none of these things unless his omnipresency and omnipotency support us; but here it is meant of such things as are praise worthy before God; without me, that is, without the divine assistance and help which I have merited by my obedience ye cannot bring forth the fruits of righteousness to eternal life. Yet I pray you mark one thing to qualify some men's severe opinions, Christ did not say, whatsoever ye do without me, even with the best moral rectitude and justice shall plunge you further into damnation. Every thing which comes from a mere natural man is so bad and defective that it shall do him no good toward the attaining of everlasting life, but some things have a moral honesty according to the law of nature, which do not deserve Hell fire, but rather they are such things as shall make their damnation more tolerable. The branch can bring forth no fruit unless it be in the tree, Frugiferum opus est quod ad vitam aeternam refertur; That is a frugiferous work which God rewards in his Kingdom. No such fruits can grow from nature which wants the conduction of the Spirit. St. Paul very cautiously, 1 Cor. xiii. mustering up the works of an unregenerate man, which want Charity, says he, If I do all these things, and want charity, they profit me nothing; not simply, that the continence of Socrates, the temperance of Scipio should hurt them; but they profit me nothing, a natural man brings forth nothing which can profit him to eternal life.  
St. Austin doth so diligently ponder every word of the Text now cited, that I must impart his sweet labours unto you. Without me you can do nothing, so our Saviour. Had he said without me you can do little, or without me you can do no excellent thing, or without me it will be hard and difficult for you, or without me you can perfect no good work, than there had been some evasion for a man to trust in his own abilities, but to say without me you can do neither much, nor little, greater things, nor inferior things, with ease or with difficulty, neither finish nor begin; this chaps off all boasting in the powers and industries of the natural man, Without me ye can do nothing. The Eunuch plainly felt this impotency, and when Philip asked him, Understandest thou what thou readest? Says he, How can I unless some man should guide me? As the sick person complained at the Pool of Bethesda, he wanted some man to put him in when the water was troubled; Verè homo fuit illi necessarius, sed homo ille qui Deus est, Says St. Austin; He wanted a man indeed to cure him, but no other than he that is God and man Jesus Christ: So the Eunuch wanted no other man to guide him but he that was made the Son of man, that we might be made the Sons of God. And upon those words of the Eunuch; thus St. Hierom. We come not to walk in the paths of life, Sine praevio & monstrante semitam; Without celestial aid to prepare the way, and go before us. Let me strike these two strokes more upon this point and I have done with it; first when I say nature is so unfit to produce any good, so indisposable to attain the Kingdom of heaven; let no man say, Why should I strive then against the stream of my inbred corruptions, I will give myself over to work all filthiness with greediness. This is a devilish resolution: But rather say, I will be very instant in prayer with my God, that he will take away this heart of stone, 
Aug. lib. de nat. & great. c. 15.  and give me an heart of flesh. For in the like case, the Tongue can no man tame, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison, Jam. iii 8. So St. James. It is not his meaning, that we should suffer this unruly evil to do what it list, and permit it without any manner of reformation, but with all contention of heart to implore the divine assistance, that this member of unrighteousness may become an instrument to serve the Lord. Secondly, Those Nations whom we perceive to be led by the viciousness of their own nature, and not to be led by the spirit; we cannot say without great error and obstinacy that these are appointed to everlasting life: if the heathen had sufficient means of salvation, what privilege had we in the Church who have the Word and Sacraments, and the infusions of sanctification to make them profitable. Thou know'st, Lord, why these do sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. Bonus es in beneficio certorum, justus in supplicio ceterorum, says St. Austin; Thou art very good to those to whom thou art gracious, thou art very just to those that are punished. This is St. Paul's doctrine up and down, Eph. two. 12. It cannot be controlled. He describes the wretched estate of the Gentiles, before salvation appeared unto them. We were aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the Covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. How can it be affirmed that they want not help to bring them out of this captivity of sin? When St. Paul says, Spem non habentes, they have no hope. This is the condition of nature which is not aided by the Spirit.  
2. Now I will unfold how we are led by initiating, or preventing grace, when we are first made partakers to taste of the hope of a better life. In this Point I will annex the explication of two things: First, That there is such an initial preparatory grace in them that are not yet justified and converted. 2. That in the first entrance of it the Spirit doth produce it in us solely and entirely, the will of man conferring no strength at all. Concerning the former of these two conclusions; I say there are many good internal effects wrought by the power of the Word, and the illumination of the Holy Ghost, which enter into the hearts of them that are not yet converted, as some knowledge of the divine will, sense of sin, fear of punishment, grudge of sorrow, some earnings to be delivered, some hope of favour. This is a middle state between natural corruption, which is altogether enmity with God, and between perfect regeneration when we are called to adoption of Sons. I marvel this should not be easily admitted for these reasons. The Philippians had fellowship in the Gospel; St. Paul calls this the beginning of a good work in them; and he trusts God would perform and finish it, Phil. i. 6. Yet more clearly, Heb. vi. 4. he shows there are antecedent portions of grace in many, before they are converted and made heirs with Christ, yea, in such as never were engrafted lively in Christ, he calls it thereby the name of illumination, tasting of the heavenly gift, tasting of the power of God, tastings of the Word of God, and in some wise being made partakers of the Holy Ghost. Yet these having but these first preparations of grace, may backslide, crucify the Lord of life, and put him to an open shame. The similitudes, which are used to show how grace doth possess the soul, do plainly show as much: 1. As in natural generation, there are many previous dispositions, which go before the introduction of the soul into the matter: So there must be many antecedent preparations of the divine blessing before our spiritual regeneration, that we be born again, and become the Sons of God. 2. Gratia se habet ad animum sicut sanitas ad corpus; Grace doth raise up the soul from sin, as health doth affect the body, and bring it out of sickness, but there is a middle state of recovery before health be perfectly regained; so there is a previous illumination, and good direction in the mind and will, which go before our conversion, that we be actually made the living members of Christ.  
Some are afraid to call this grace, and yet they cannot avoid it; for they are compelled to call it auxilium Dei; a special help of God flowing from his providence. Sometimes they abhor not the name, but say it is gratia reprimens, an assistance of God, whereby such as are not converted may repress the occasions, or commissions of some heinous sins. Either they allow it to be as much as true grace, or no better than nature; for many evils may be avoided, and repressed by nature, no good thing can be done without grace. It is therefore that internal calling wherewith God doth seriously invite those to repentance, and belief in Christ, who have the tidings of salvation brought unto their ears. I say, I speak of those only, who are called to hear the word of faith, and of none other. God might have left them in their blood, as the Prophet Ezekiel speaks, and given them over to the reprobate sense of their own mind, but because he requires a new Covenant from all those to whom Christ is preached; therefore he gives them new abilities, lest he should seem to invite them in vain; but being supplied with these internal excitations of supernatural help they are unexcusable. This is the way to give God the glory, and to make all the hearers of the Word know what talon they have received: But the force of exhortations, and expostulations were taken away, if a sinner were converted by Enthusiasms, and sudden inspirations. If God would immediately bring a man to himself without feeling of his sin, without hating it, without desiring pardon, it were superfluous to say, 
2 Cor. vi. 1.  We beseech you that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. I marvel you are so soon removed from him that called you to the grace of Christ, Gal. i. 6. They that heard St. Peter's Sermon, Acts two. 37. at the beginning of it were unbelieving and rebellious Jews, before he had ended, they were terrified, felt the guiltiness of innocent blood upon themselves, desired freedom, submitted themselves to direction, Men brethren what shall we do? All these were good internal effects, but as yet they were not converted and regenerate, as yet unbelievers; for had they believed, they had never made that question, What shall we do? They come to that in the next verse, says Peter, Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. Well, they followed this counsel; and then, at the soon, and not before, they were justified in Christ, for thereupon it is said, There were added unto the Church above three thousand souls. So I have made that conclusion undeniable, I think, that Christ doth produce some effects of initial grace before conversion.  
The next conclusion is, that since the natural man hath no powers in the freedom of his will to do good, therefore the first effects of grace that are brought forth in us, the Holy Ghost doth produce them solely and entirely, the will of man conferring no strength at all. As the ground receives the seed which is cast into it, so a natural man takes the good seed from God which he casts into him, passiuè & receptiuè, only passively, and by way of reception. Even they that will not be beaten off from their tenet, but that the will of man hath some cooperancy with God's grace in the act of conversion, yet they give their suffrage to this doctrine, that this preventing grace, or grace of preparation is res infusa, not comparata, a thing infused from above, not gotten by our diligence or acquired, even as the air doth not dispose itself to admit the light of the Sun, but is illuminated by the presence of the Sun. They are best known by the name of Semi-pelagians who would not admit this truth; for it was taught in their School, that the beginning of faith was from man, and the increase from the power of the Holy Ghost. But why did they teach that the beginning of faith was from man? Because they imagined that the talon of grace was promised to them that used the talon of nature well; Habenti dabitur, to him that hath it shall be given. But I would have them find me any such Covenant in all the Scripture, which God made with man, that such as negotiated the talon of nature well should have an increase of grace for their reward. It is a trespass, and a foul one, to belly a man, and to father Covenants upon him which he never made; the offence is greater to allege Covenants from God, and yet no tittle leaning that way in all his Testament. The powers of nature are blindness of understanding, obdurateness of will, perverseness of affections, what reward can be due to these but eternal death? When thou wert in thy blood, Ezek. xuj. that is, when thou wert under the loathsome filthiness of sin, and under the condemnation of death, I said unto thee live, that is, I began to extend my mercy of vivification upon thee.  
The beginning and introduction of all Christian virtue is to think of God. From whence comes this? From any good parts wherewith we were born? Go to the fountain of wisdom, and ask there; We are not sufficient of ourselves to think any thing of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, 2 Cor. three 5. The next a b c, and first rudiment of goodness is to pray to God. Is nature a sufficient Mistress to teach you that? Is it not the Spirit which the Lord sends into us crying Abba, Father? I will pour upon the house of David the Spirit of grace and supplications, and upon the Inhabitants of Jerusalem, Zach. xii. 10. Thus St. Austin proves that the very firstlings, and proems of all our Christian dispensations are from God, because St. Paul said, 
Lib. de Predest. sanct. c. 2.  I obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful, 1 Cor. seven. 25. Misericordiam consecutus sum ut fidelis essem, non ut fidelior essem; That I was made faithful, or had any faith it was the benefit of God, and not only by way of increase or augmentation that I was made more faithful; otherwise we should lead the Spirit to take his aim from us, and not be led by the Spirit, a Passive Verb, and fit to express that we are merely passive in the first preparations of faith. I shall speak anon touching that efficacy of the Spirit upon the heart of man: But touching the work of preparatory grace, in the first onset it brings illumination with it, it dispels darkness from our understanding, it makes us perceive we are gone astray in our sins like sheep that are lost, it makes us know God is to be feared, it makes us discern that we are in a wretched estate; this illumination cannot be resisted; Mens nostra ipsum scire effugere non potest; Philosophy doth dictate that we cannot repel the knowledge of a thing palpably demonstrated before us though we would, it pierceth as easily into the mind as a needle through a thin cloth. Yet I do not say, this grace which first possesseth the soul, and makes it willing to good motions, which was most averse before, doth compel a man or force him; compulsion is a word of hostility rather than of favour. It comes with that sweetness and authority together, that it will not be said nay. Thus we are led by the Spirit in the first introduction of preparatory grace.  
The third thing to be considered is, how the Spirit doth lead us all the while we use this preparatory grace before conversion? St. Austin comprehended all in this short rule, Primùm gratia Dei operatur bonam voluntatem, deinde per eam. First, God's grace doth effect a good will in us, and then by that will so illuminated and excited it produceth good effects. Then the will of man according to that free liberty it hath (which is helped toward good works, not taken away) doth all things with that indifferency, that it may cast away this initial grace or embrace it, work fruitfully with it, or unfruitfully. This is that qualification, and condition of grace which some wicked ones are said to resist, this is that Spirit which other sensual men are said to grieve. They will not understand, they will not be gathered together, they will not follow their Leader through the servile liberty of their own concupiscence. It is this first pittance and portion of a good life that many are said to begin in the Spirit, and to end in the flesh. In the work of conversion, though a man hath power to resist, it being founded in the natural liberty of the will, yet no man doth actually resist the grace of conversion, yet this grace of preparation many do resist out of the pravity of their will, in which respect they are said to quench the Spirit.  
I cannot speak so much as I might in this subject, but because the understanding of God's favour and justice, and the provocations of our own duty depend much upon it, therefore I will give you some short rules and corollaries to bear away:  
1. I do not say all men, but as many as are invited by the preaching of the Word are made partakers of some preparatory grace, for as a Vein and Artery run together in the body natural to convey blood, wherein the life consists, so the Word preached and some measure of supernatural grace go hand in hand in the mystical. Therefore St. Paul says, We are Ministers, not of the Letter, but of the Spirit. It is told to no man in vain that Christ died for him, the possibility of apprehending the benefit of that sacrifice is offered him, if he do not hinder the work of God.  
2. In this previous grace, and for the good use of it we apply unto you the exhortations, comminations, invitations of all the Prophets and Apostles, giving you truly to wit that God hath given you the means to be saved, if you do not reject them. The last end at which we drive in all our Sermons is your conversion and regeneration, that is the Crown of all diligence in this world; but the immediate and next end that we labour is that men and women do their diligence to make good use of this preparatory grace.  
3. This grace of preparation before conversion is shorter in some than in others; God did presently hasten the conversion of Paul, of Lydia, of the Jailor. Why may he not do what he will with his own? And give a Penny to them that have laboured one hour, as soon as to them that have laboured ten? But usually there is large trial, and with some this preparatory grace continues alone till anon before they end their life.  
4. God forsaketh no wicked man within the Church, till he hath quenched this grace, and interrupted the chain of those means which were prepared for his conversion. Prius quam deseratur neminem deserit, & multos desertores saepe convertit, says Prosper; which is in part thus Englished, 2 Chron. xxiv. 20. Because ye have forsaken the Lord, he hath also forsaken you. Solomon was an excellent Divine as well as a Philosopher, Prov. i 24. Because I have called, and ye refused, ye have set at nought my counsel, they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord, therefore I will mock at their calamity; but though he forsakes none until they forsake him, yet he forsakes not all that forsake him. So said Prosper, Multos desertores saepe convertit. Peter and Judas both did reject this grace of preparation, and fall from it, yet the one hath efficatious grace given to convert him, the other hath not. This inequality is from the pure pleasure of God, and no man can sound the depth.  
5. Some are much more largely watered with this heavenly dew of preparatory grace, all may drink their fill, but some have their cup brim full; some are endued with more patience, proved with fewer tentations. Yet none can justly grudge, why hath he five talents and I but three? Why doth God stand longer at the door to knock for him than he will for me? God is not bound to follow men with all manner of grace.  
6. If these works of preparation be not hindered, if this grace be not quenched, God will follow the soul with saving grace. Not that any man in the world did ever use this precedaneus help so well, but that it deserved to be taken from him. How many sins do we incur? How stubborn, how disobedient is the heart of every man? Here we might be for ever forsaken according to our misdeeds, but the Lord will accept of small endeavours as great accomplishments. In a word, the good use that we can make of this gift of God is no way meritorious to salvation; the ill use of it in those that perish is demeritorious, and makes them justly undeserving to be called to salvation. This I am persuaded is the true doctrine of this Point, to stop the mouth of them that are lost, and to show the plenteous riches of God's mercy in the vessels of Election.  
Fourthly, I labour for the easiest notions I can invent to make these intricate things plain, the fourth Point will require an intelligent Auditor, with what great and mighty power the Spirit doth lead the children of God in converting grace. I have spoke of the first preparation of grace, and the will prepared, so I must speak distinctly of the act of renovation, and the will renewed; and the nature of renovation or conversion is best conceived in these six heads: 1. What this converting grace adds above that preparatory help. 2. God doth work it alone, and the will doth passively receive it. 3. It doth infallibly attain its effect. 4. It is no violent compulsion upon the will. 5. It is more than a moral persuasion. 6. This is not repugnant to the Promises, to the comminations, or to the exhortations of God. First, It adds this above preventing initial grace, that it doth but dispose a man to life, but after this act, we may say justly, this man is born of God. That is common to them that are lost, who quench the first beginnings of divine assistance by their own evil will, this is only given to the elect servants of Christ. God works by several quantities and doses of Sanctification. 1. That they can resist if they will, as in Adam before his Fall. 2. In others that they will not though they can, as in those in whom he doth conserve his preparatory grace. 3. In others, that they will not, nor cannot in the introduction of that act, as in them whom he doth actually convert. 4. In others that shall never can nor will, as in the Angels and Saints of heaven. God foresaw if he should only give this grace of preparation, all men in the Church would either resist it at the first, or fall off at the last, (for if Adam did pervert that grace which gave him possibility to stand, before his will had declined to evil, how much more will we pervert that grace which gives us no more than possibility to serve God, who have a depraved disposition to evil?) therefore he decreed to give converting grace, especial grace, efficacious grace to some, out of the riches of his mercy, by which they should infallibly be brought to Salvation.  
The next branch which I drew from the root of this Point was, that God alone doth work first the act of Renovation, and the will doth passively receive it; The Pelagians ascribed freewill to man, to do that which is spiritually good, without any beam of grace, therein both we and the Pontificians decry them: But many of the Pontificians ascribe to man's will, that it doth cooperate with God's grace in the act of conversion, and hath freedom to take or refuse it: That the Holy Ghost leads the will no further than a middle state of indifferency, Hoc agite sultis; and then a man doth either mar himself, or else make himself the child of God. This is a famous controversy between many Divines, now I had rather say, there is a passive power to receive this supernatural transmutation, where God will confer it, but no natural power to produce this act either by itself, or with any other. For I did ever conceive, that which is left to man to specificate the act, and as it were by his choice to perfect it to be saving grace, should be more than God's work, to bring the will by exciting grace to an equal poise, and to say to man as it were, now turn the scale which way you will. Further, I could never like it, that God should be present at our conversion by his Spirit not principally, infallibly, predominantly, but contingently concomitantly, for so there was a possibility that Christ should come into the world, die for the sins of the world, impetrate grace for all the Members of the Church, and yet not one be saved, there being no determinate ordination, but that all might refuse it.  
I had rather say with the Prophet, Turn thou me and I shall be turned, thou art the Lord my God, Jer. xxxi. 18. I had rather examine it by such terms as the Scripture useth, than by man's Philosophical constructions. When I read that the conversion of a sinner is to make a man a new creature, to raise him from death to life, it impresseth this notion in my mind. What doth the Creature confer to God's act when it is created? Nothing. What assistance doth a dead man afford when he is raised to life again? Nothing. Such a thing is the heart of man when it is regenerated, and in that moment when it is exalted to be an heir of the Promise. Put this Text into the balance of humility, and it will weigh down all that can be said against it, Joh. i. 13. We are born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. From the warrant of this very Oracle St. Bernard dispersed that common saying, Quid agit liberum arbitrium? Breviter respondeo salvatur, etc. What part doth man's freewill perform in conversion? I answer briefly, it is saved. This hath reference to God that doth the deed, to man in whom it is done. God is the Author of that Salvation, freewill is receptive, and takes his benediction. Whether St. Paul also doth not decide it judge ye, Eph. two. 10. We are his workmanship, his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (that is, all due to him, nothing to us) created in Jesus Christ to good works; it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves. And is it not he that hath regenerated us, and not we ourselves? The Psalm runs on, we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture: He that made us men without concurrence of our own help, will not he make us the sheep of his pasture without our active cooperancy? I am sure the Parable says, when the sheep went astray, the good shepherd did not lead it home, or direct it home, but took it home upon his shoulders. 
Lib. de bono Persev. c. 18.  St. Austin most perspicaciously and plainly strengthens this Doctrine from the word which the Lord spoke to Elias touching those Israelites, his chosen ones, who had not gone after Baal, Yet have I left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. It is not said seven thousand are left, seven thousand have left themselves unspotted from Idolatry, God takes it wholly to himself, I have left me seven thousand knees which have not bowed to Baal.  
Thirdly, I make up the sum with this Proposition, God's act in the conversion of any sinner is not frustrated, but doth infallibly attain its effect. For in those that are called according to his purpose, he doth not only bring them so far as to have a power to believe, and to have certain spiritual habilities which can choose the good and forsake the evil, but by the efficacy of a secret and ineffable operation, I confess, he doth bring forth from our will being renewed the very act of believing and conversion. It is God that worketh in you both to will, and to do of his good pleasure, Phil. two. 13. For if he should only give us posse credere, posse converti, we should do as our first Parents did, and much sooner than they, as I showed before, start aside like a broken bow, and never bring that possibility into act, therefore this eminent special grace is not an act produced by the will, but a bonity infused into the will, called by Prosper, Prima supremi agricolae plantatio, God is the husbandman that doth engraft that first plantation in us. That secret influence and illapse from heaven is sooner believed than demonstratively learned; but this methinks the most litigious may grant, that it is easy for the most high to draw the will after him powerfully, infallibly without any violence offered to the nature of it. Resistency is taken away only for that act, not the full and final power to resist. It hath ever a bitter root in this life, which hath an eagerness and pronity to resist the counsel of God, I only say that that resistibility is suppressed for this moment, that it should not break forth into act. What should repel this grace, says St. Austin? Nothing but the hardness of our heart. Now that malignity is curbed, for it first takes away the hardness of our heart; and how can our perverseness resist this admirable work of God, when it prevents that perverseness, and frames a right spirit within us, that we will not resist? This is the proper notion of this phrase in my Text, agi spiritu, to be led by the Spirit. As Aristotle says of beasts that follow an instinct of nature, Non agunt sed aguntur: So in the act of renovation we are not fellow-workers, but are led, and carried whither the Spirit will, And as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God. Rom. viij. 14.  
4. We know divine mysteries best by negative expressions, and therefore I go on fourthly, that this immission of efficacious grace is no violent compulsion upon the will. Compulsion, I said, was a word of hostility, and not of favour. When God doth his work in us throughly, energetically, that it shall not fail, by a Catachresis it is called a coaction: So it is said in the Parable to them that were sent to bring in the blind and the lame, Cogite intrare, compel them to come in. I say this is a Catachresis, so Prosper the great director of this way that I take, Hanc abundantiorem gratiam ita credimus potentem, ut negemus violentam; We believe this eminent abundant grace worketh with great power, but not with violent compulsion. For because of those previous preparations I spoke of, which make us know, and have some desire of heavenly things, God saves no man against his will, therefore it is no violent attraction; for no man is ordinarily saved that hath positive repugnancy, though in the momentary act of conversion he doth add no auxiliary cooperancy. Nay, so far is this most abundant benediction of the Spirit from offering coaction, and force to the will, that the will of a regenerate man doth instantly show its complacency, and turn itself too God. This efficacious motion is infused from God, and in the same moment exercised, and put into act by man; for to that end it was inspired by God, that man should produce the act of believing and adhering to Christ. This is an Altitude for faith to look upon. Voluntas est subjectum istius volitionis, & causa suae volitionis in eodem instanti? I think verily the not marking of this hath caused much debate, that the will of man in the act of conversion is the subject upon which God works faith, and itself the cause which doth produce the act of faith in the same instant. They have my suffrage that say, how these two cannot well be divided in time one from another, God's operation converting a sinner to be his Son, and the act of believing in that man converting himself to God (no object can be for a moment in the will, but it must affect it one way or other) but in order of nature God's inspiration is first to be conceived, and then man's embracing and assent. Thus it appears the agitation of this divine motion is not by force and compulsion, but with a sweet and fatherly attraction; and the effect is no way rough, and against nature, but above it: For to limit, and determine the indifferency of the will is not the destruction of free will, but the perfection; witness the Saints and Angels who are confirmed in grace that they cannot sin. If the Son make you free, then are ye free indeed; which is thus expounded by the Apostle, Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, 2 Cor. three 17.  
Fifthly, I annex, that the powerfulness of this converting grace is not well expressed, when it is entitled but a moral persuasion. The hearts of Kings (and surely of all other men whose power is less free) are in the hand of God, and he inclineth them which way he will; persuasions may labour upon the affections, it is the scope of an Orator, but the most flexanimous Rhetorician that ever spoke cannot be said to have the hearts of his Auditors in his hands; that is a phrase out of humane capacity. What moral persuasion was there in this? Christ called Peter, and Andrew, James and John, and Matthew from the receipt of custom, and they left all and followed him. Show me any ground here for moral persuasion, that is, probable allegation of reason? Not a word more spoken than follow me, or perhaps, I will make you fishers of men, few words God knows. But a mighty efficacious impression was secretly instilled into the heart; there it was, it must needs be that celestial irradiation which made them leave all to follow Christ, whose outward appearance was most contemptible, and his society, according to the wisdom of the world, most dangerous. Persuasion can but propound an end, and as every man is affected, so he likes the end which is offered. We that disperse the Word have the Office to persuade you to the Kingdom of heaven, but God forbid he should bring us no further. The Devil can suggest and persuade likewise, and prevail above his Maker's persuasions, as it appears, Gen. iii therefore ascribe the honour due unto the Lord, that his Spirit is more efficacious to produce good than Satan to produce evil; therefore his work consists not in persuading, but in governing and inclining the heart.  
Finally, To dispatch this Point, I said, this potent and infallible assistance of converting grace doth well consist with the Promises, and threatenings, and Exhortations of holy Scripture. There are other matters objected against this, but at the last you will find all sticks at this knot. For after some wrangling in the end it is confessed God can restrain the liberty and indifferency of the will, and make it bring forth what act he please; and it must be allowed that the taking away that liberty to work either good or evil is not the destruction, but the perfection of the will. The angry question is, Whether the removing away that liberty and indifferency from the will in the act of conversion can consist with this order, that a man shall be commanded to convert himself to God upon the condition of eternal life, and upon the commination of Hell fire? Now I must tell you, this was the very thing that Pelagius quarrelled St. Austin, for saying, Da Domine quod jubes, & jube quod vis; Give me to do what thou commandest O Lord, and then command what thou pleasest. But take all my answers like grapes upon a cluster: 1. They that make this objection know we are commanded to have the first grace of illumination, and they acknowledge it is freely and merely wrought by God; Why then do they stumble at converting grace, that conversion should be commanded us, and God altogether cause it, and yet allow it in preparatory grace? 2. Doth not the Scripture frame our tongue to speak thus? Make you a new heart, and a new spirit, Ezek. xviii. 31. there is a command: I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you, Ezek. xxxvi. 26. there he doth execute in us what himself commanded. It is to be magnified and admired, not to be disputed of, when God will work that good by his Spirit within us, which he might in rigour without that extraordinary help exact of us. 3. Whither will Divinity be tossed about if this be not certain? That our just and omnipotent Lord commands such excellent things, which we cannot attain to perform, that we may be excited to pray unto him for succour with a vehement and a flagrant devotion. 4. He commands, and he fulfils, and he rewards crowning his own gifts, and no works of ours, that glory may be ascribed to his name for evermore. The Synodal Epistle of all the African Bishops (St. Austin being one of the Society) encourages me that these answers are far more reasonable than the objection. Jubet Deus homini ut velit, sed Dominus in homine operatur & velle, jubet ut facias, sed operatur & facere. He hath charged us to will that which is good, but he effecteth that willingness in man, he says, Do and thou shalt live, his grace enables thee to do, and thou shalt live for ever. Let this suffice to teach you how we are led by the Holy Spirit in converting grace, and I think it most comfortable to put our hope in God, and not in ourselves; Cursed is every one that putteth his trust in man, Jer. xvii.  
5. To dispatch all I will be brief in the fifth Point, how we are led by subsequent grace and sanctification, which co-operates and assists us after our conversion; this is that truth wherein all dissentious parts conjoin and accord: That Voluntas liberata concurrit ad bonum opus eliciendum cum gratiâ divinâ; the will of man having conquered the dominion of sin by converting grace is made free, and then it freely conjoins itself with God's grace to produce a good effect. Then it lies upon our own diligence, never wanting the directing virtue of the Spirit, to increase the good gifts of Sanctification by acts of often doing well; then we do further and promote those holy inspirations to a plentiful or unplentiful increase. This is not passively to be led by the Spirit, but to walk in the Spirit; as it is Gal. v. 16. Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. In a word, this distinction reacheth over all which can be said upon this matter. There are some actions which principally concern the well being of a justified man, without which regeneration cannot consist; these are they, the turning of the heart to God, a true belief, a faithful conclusion of our life in the fear of God and the peace of a good conscience; justifying grace doth so attend the production of these actions, that the Lord in his own good time makes us able for these things, willing to do, and actually to perfect those necessary parts of salvation. Other works of obedience, as to do this or that good, to shun this or that evil, all these especilly and particularly considered, do not concur to our saving health, as to the very making or marring of it. In the practice of all these particular good instances the motions and conduct of the Spirit are never wanting to them that are regenerate more or less, but sufficient to have kept them blameless in every particular; but in many of these we sin often, and are wanting to the co-operation of grace through our own stubbornness in the will, and sensuality in the affections.  
I will conclude. You see how diversely we are led by the Spirit, how many sundry ways we are assoiled from Sin and Satan by the direction and efficacy of grace. The natural man is able of himself to bring forth no spiritual good work. The Lord doth totally, and with no assistance of vitiated nature, bring forth the first good preparatory grace in the will. From thenceforth unto conversion this previous preparatory grace is made effectual or uneffectual by man's freewill. In the act of conversion and renovation (wherein all the controversy about freewill is moved) the Lord doth turn our heart unto himself, the will for the act being the passive subject, and at the same instant it is the cause of a good action in turning itself to God in subsequent grace unto the end of our life, the will being made free from the dominion of sin works together with the motions of celestial inspiration. This is the sum of all: If any thing be delivered too briefly, impute it to the compass of the time: If any thing be hard to be conceived, impute it to the deep discourse of the matter; If any thing be defective in the discourse, give God's grace the glory of all, and impute it to my infirmity.   

THE FOURTH SERMON UPON Our Saviour's Tentation.  MAT. iv. 1, 2. 
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil.  
And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterwards an hungry.  
MAny things were rightly applied by him, that compared the success of the Children of Israel, upon their entrance into the Land of Canaan, with the circumstances of this combat between Christ and Satan. 1. the Israelites were miraculously brought through the Red Sea; so the first glorious Apparition of our Saviour, which went immediately before this business, was the Baptism which he received of John in Jordan. 2. The Israelites pass from the Red Sea into a great and solitary Wilderness: So our Saviour was led after his Baptism into the greatest Wilderness of Judaea, a place uninhabited by man, for he was with the wild beasts, Mar. i. 13. Then the Israelites were in great distress for foot, hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them: And Christ had nothing to eat in that place, he fasted forty days, and forty nights, and was afterward an hungry. 4. As the Israelites were pined with hunger, so they had bloody Wars with all the Nations of Canaan, many a time have they fought against me might Israel then say: So many a time did the Legions of Hell attempt me, might our Lord and Saviour say, yea, many times did the powers of darkness compass me about, but they have not prevailed against me. On the one side here was first the Red Sea, than a journey into the Wilderness, than scarcity of Food, than War and fight: So on the other side, here was first a Baptism, than a sequestering into the Wilderness, than a long Fast, and then a long conflict with the Prince of Devils.  
Moreover, the men of Israel did appear in that forlorn and despicable fashion before the Canaanites, that they were much scorned and vilified (so God provided) we seemed in their sight but as Grasshoppers said, Caleb and Josuah; this drew the Kings of Canaan forth to beat them back, and so were overwhelmed in their own pride and cruelty. Thus in all points did our Saviour deal with Satan, the Eternal wisdom against the wisdom of the Serpent. He flies into the Wilderness as one abandoned of the World, there he continues in great necessity, as one whom none would succour; not a morsel of food supplied him by God or man; Adversarium non virtutis jactatione, sed infirmitatis ostentione provocat; thus he provokes, and draws Satan out against himself, not by a boasting challenge, but by the appearance of much infirmity. No man's counsel at hand to comfort him, for he was in the Wilderness; nothing to strengthen his feebless, for he was fasting and hungry, much abated in the vigour of his body. Christus non solùm provocat, sed velut arma ministrat hosti, says St. Austin, this might seem as if he did lend his enemy weapons to overcome him. But what the Apostle said of himself through the grace of Christ, Christ might more truly say of himself by his own power, When I am weak I am strong, as will appear in the sequel. This is premised, to let you know, that the present matter which I have in hand consists herein, to unfold with what outward infirmity Christ addressed himself to this terrible bickering with the Devil; and that in four Points: 1. From the place, it was the Wilderness; the greater solitude, the more dangerous the tentation. 2. He was fasting; the more feeble the body, the more flat and dull are the operations of the Spirits. 3. The continuance of the fasting was as great as ever was read, Forty days and forty nights; a large while to get nothing for bodily sustenance. 4. The consequent is, he was afterwards an hungry: Though the divine power had underpropt nature a long time, yet nature was now left to itself, still the more advantage for the enemy.  
This Wilderness, whatsoever it was for a barren desolate place, it deserves my labour to survey it, because it received this guest for forty days, our Lord and Saviour. A worthless, and therefore a nameless piece of ground, unprofitable to bring store into the Barn, but profitable to yield some pious meditations. Some devout Christians who loved to visit those Countries and Regions, which Christ frequented, have given it a name, which it holds in Cosmographical descriptions to this day, Quarantena, quaranta implying no more than Christ's continuance there for forty days. There are other small Deserts in Palestina, the Desert of Maon, the Desert of Ziph, the Desert of Judaea, this was distinguished from all these by being called the great Desert, where there was no habitation. They that retired thither, unless they brought their provision, must resolve to keep a fast. At this day our faithful relators say, nothing grows upon the ground but a few Dates, and Christ was there at such a time when the trees did bear nothing. His Baptism at Jordan is calculated to fall out at Twelfth-tide, and his departure into the Wilderness being next after his Baptism, those forty days were in the Months of January and February, when, above all other seasons, the Trees of the field, a few excepted, have not so much as Leaves to hang upon them. The Devil could not have offered the first tentation in the Cities, or Villages, or in the fruitful grounds neighbouring to any habitation, a bare Heath, that yielded nothing but Flints, did occasion this Proposition, Command that these stones be made bread.  
The first emergent observation from hence is noted in the interlineal gloss, Tunc maximè instat Diabolus ad tentandum, cum viderit solitarios; The Adversary doth especially take hold of a man to tempt him upon a melancholy solitariness; beware of those sad oppressing thoughts, which a man loves to keep to himself alone; take advise of them, whose judgement can direct you, and whose charity can comfort you. When you feel instigations of iniquity grow upon you, the chief thing which Satan desires is▪ that you would smother them, and not reveal them, that you would break off conversation from all your friends, and avoid Society. He knows his advantages, when he gets a man into a wilderness, I mean, a melancholy retirement. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says Euripides; one hand can fight but weakly. As a Dear that is struck knows by instinct what a danger it is to be single, and therefore will heard himself if he can; so do not separate yourself from the face of men upon tentation, that is the way to betray your soul, but unite your force against the Tempter by mixing yourself with good men, and praise the Lord, as David said, in the great Congregation. Quae facilitas? Quae securitas? 
Lib. de amicit.  Quae jucunditas est habere cum quo aequè audeas loqui ut tibi? As I read it in a certain work that carries St. Augustine's name; What felicity? What security? What hearts ease it is to talk to another with as good confidence as thou wouldst unto thyself? Two are better than one, as Solomon shows it in a threefold similitude: 1. 
Eccl. iv. 10.  If one fall dangerously into a pit, a good companion will lend him his hand to raise him; he that is alone hath not another to help him up. 2. If two lie together they have heat, St. Hierom makes an Allegory of it between David and Abisag, Frigidiores ferventiorum societate in virtute incalescent; They that are colder in Piety will be warmed by their Society that are more fervent in charity. 3. If one prevail against one, two shall help him; united force is a strong safeguard, 2 Sam. x. 11. Joab divided the battle between him and Abishai his brother. Says Joab to Abishai, If the Syrians be too strong for me, than thou shalt help me; but if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee, than I will help thee. Thus judgement will order the battle in our spiritual warfare, I will not trust to myself alone, lest tentation press me sore, but I will have succours at need. We are not like Eagles, which never fly in a flush, but one by one, because no bird is so strong that it can pray upon it: But we are compared to sheep, that must be led to the Pastures in a flock, and take heed of straggling.  
This Doctrine is no way repugnant to that which I shall deliver by and by, that it is profitable to abandon the contagion of the wicked world: neither do I disrespect those tractates of the Fathers, which extol the benefit, that some have found, by retiring for a while in to an Hermitage, or the Cell of an Anchorite. A few examples of some admirable men, that have sped well in that fortune, ought not to be a leading Card, that it should be a condition of life to which weak ones should be exhorted. What was good in a very few, in times past, says one with a good distinction, it was Secundum preeminentiam gratiae, non secundum congruentiam naturae; It sorted well with the pre-eminence of the extraordinary grace which they had, but it was not agreeable to the ordinary complexion of humane nature. A man sequestered into a Desert and Solitude, as he cannot always have his affection's intent upon Prayer, and divine Meditations, so his vacant idle hours, which must be very many, will proffer him innumerable imaginations of the worst condition. Grant, says Chrysologus, that for many hours he think of God, yet for almost as many he hath nothing to think of but himself, Si nihil excellens in seipso reperit, tristatur de seipso cogitando; when he finds little good in himself worth his cogitations, it will put a uncomfortable sadness into his mind to offend the soul: But I could retort in this Argument as Tully did in such another case; says he to some Idolaters, who defended the Deity of Neptune, you say many seamen came safe to Land that called upon Neptune, but let me see how many were drowned for all their calling upon Neptune. So some have made a Catalogue of those good despisers of the world, that served God excellently in the solitary Wilderness: But let me see all their names that took the Hermit's Staff and Weeds upon them, and fell into a remediless melancholy, and lost their wits, and their comfort with the delusions of the Devil. It may do well with some for a while, it is not to be continued, if they fancy strange Apparitions to themselves, and have hard struggling with the Tempter. Aristotle could say, 
Lib. 3. Pol. c. 7.  a man that is evil is not fit company for himself. Some strong working fancies, though they could retire where the Devil could not find them out, yet they carry their own Tempter about them, they carry fire within them, therefore it is not solitude that will help such, but a commerce with wise and discreet men, and such stirring negotiations as will scarce give their fancy leave to be vacant to itself, and to be idle. Bonaventure hath one distinction full of good matter: 
Lorinus in cap. 4. Eccles.  Mala est solitudo per inopiam dilectionis, misera per defectum consolationis, honesta per quietem contemplationis; To eschew Society for want of brotherly love and charity is very wicked: To eschew Society for want of comfort in Christ is very miserable; but to take up a solitary retirement sometimes for quiet contemplation is holy and delectable. But he that knows himself obnoxious to tentations, and affects solitude and privateness, is Daemon solitarius, as Aquinas calls a Monk that goes abroad without his Mate, and his infirmity is much too weak to encounter that great Adversary, who sought out Christ in the Wilderness.  
And now I turn to another inquiry, why Christ abode in the Wilderness, and at this time, so immediately before he did first preach the Gospel in Judaea? The time was now expired of his subjection to his Parents, and it could be no way convenient he should return unto them again, when he was now to begin the work of him that sent him, to preach the kingdom of heaven throughout all Judaea. But had he entered into any City or Village, his enemies would have said his message was devised by men, some subtle conspiracy had set him on, therefore the furthest from all suspicion was to sequester his Person into the Wilderness. Moses was forty days in the Mount alone before he brought the Tables from God. John the Baptist had abandoned the company of men, and lived many years in uncouth places almost like a Savage before he preached the doctrine of repentance. A new form of Religion came forth with more admiration from those unknown solitudes, and would be more steadily believed that it came from God, and not from man. And it is not a thing to be attributed to the blind chance of fortune, but to the wisest providence of God, that Christ was in solitudine, disparted from all other company, and left to himself alone, when he fought our battles against the Adversary of our Salvation. I have trodden the Wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with me, Isa. lxiii. 3. In his Transfiguration Moses and Elias did appear in glory with him, but shortly they vanished, and he was left alone. In his Agony in the Garden he went up to pray apart by himself; Peter, James, and John, that were with him were so heavy that they could not choose but sleep: And well might they sleep for any thing they had to do in that business, the whole work of the Mediatorship lay only upon his shoulders; neither Angel, nor Saint could sustain the least part to be his Coadjutor. This was a conflict in a place which none frequented, that it might be said of some of his noble works, all shall believe, yet none did see. Singulariter inspectorem, adjutoremque Deum volunt habere haec certamina, says St. Cyprian; None but God must behold him, none but God did assist him in this Duel. There are some works of Christ, say the Schoolmen, which are not necessary to be seen of all, 
Abulen. in cap. 4. Mat. qu. 6.  yet it was expedient that some witnesses should be present at them, because they were done to make the World believe in him; and himself said, The works which I do openly, they testify of me. Those Miracles which did demonstrate his power had ever some Spectators; some saw how he gave up the Ghost upon the Cross, how he was risen from the dead, how he ascended into heaven; therefore St. Luke says, 
Luk. i. 2.  he received his Gospel from them that were eye-witnesses of the Word. But there are things, which especially tend to Moral Doctrine and Instruction, as that he prayed all night alone, that he was tempted alone in the Wilderness, and fasted forty days, it concerned not such things to be seen of any, but to be barely related by the Evangelists, that we might believe them, and use them to the information of our life upon fit occasion. But I reduce all to this Head, The solitude of the Wilderness did best befit him in this work, because he began, continued, and ended the work of the Mediatorship by himself, and by no other assistance.  
Where some of the Fathers have given Christ's Humility large praise, to banish himself as it were for a time into the Wilderness, I will follow them likewise in their observation. The immediate Miracle which went before was the descending of the Holy Ghost upon him in the shape of a Dove, and the voice from heaven, This is my beloved Son; If Christ would have prosecuted the honour which the people would have given him upon these wonderful Signs, he might have rode to Jerusalem in triumph, and been received with an universal admiration; but he chose rather to decline the Exclamations and Hosannas of the City, and retired into the Wilderness. Adam in horto superbus, Christus in deserto humilis; Much better it is to be humble with Christ in a barren Desert, than to be proud with Adam in a delicious Paradise. This miserable solitude was not capable of the provocations of those sins that Eden was; this was a Land of penury, where Satan was overcome; that was a garden of abundance, where he got the victory. And by how much that Paradise was too glorious a dwelling for the Sons of men, therefore they were driven out: So this desolate Wilderness was too mean a receptacle for the Son of God; for St. Mark debaseth it with this description, That the wild beasts frequented it. And perchance the tamer, and more tractable company than the Scribes and Pharisees, and the Rulers of the People; those beasts proved more innocent and harmless to him, and at last he was fain to tell the men of the Land, that they were metamorphosed into beasts, and into the worst kind of all, O ye Generations of vipers, etc. Son of man, says God to Ezekil, thou dwellest among Scorpions: But Son of God thou didst die, and wert crucified among Scorpions; he changed for the worse company when he came from the beasts in the champion fields to the Pharisees in Jerusalem. But to what a diminution of his excellency did Christ descend? To what a low fall from that glory which was due unto him? To be cast out from among the company of Angels, into a desert to be a companion of beasts. He, before whom thousand thousands are said to minister, and ten thousand thousands are said to stand before him, Dan. seven. 10. Instead of this Royal Train, none but the savage cattle compass him round about. His humility is the expiation of our pride, he consorts with beasts that we may have fellowship with Angels; He lives peaceably with Wolves and Tigers, to obtain grace for us, through the merit of his obedience, that our brutish affections may be subject to reason, and to the Law of God. So St. Hierom made me bold with this Allegory, Tunc bestiae nobiscum sunt, cum caro non concupiscit adversus spiritum; Then we and the beasts live quietly together, when the Flesh doth not covet against the Spirit.  
None of these descants, which I have drawn from the best antiquity, upon Christ's removing into the Wilderness, but were fit to be noted. I have my own share to cast in, that herein Christ was a lively exhibition of the Type of the Escape Goat, of which you shall read a strange Ceremony, Leu. xuj. 20. The High Priest was not to come at all times into the holy place within the Veil, no more than once a year. First, he was to offer a Bullock for a sin-offering for himself; then he was to present two Kids of the Goats before the Lord at the door of the Tabernacle, according as the lot fell, the one Goat was slain, and his blood sprinkled within the Veil: As for the other, this Ceremony was appointed; Aaron put both his hands upon the head of the live Goat, and did confess all the iniquities of the children of Israel over him, and did put them upon the head of the Goat; and the Goat did bear away their Iniquities into a Land not inhabited, and he was let go into the Wilderness. The Learned in their best conjectures do expound it after this sort in an Allegory: By the Goat which was slain and sacrificed they understand the Humane Nature of Christ, (for Christ suffered only in his flesh:) By the Scape-goat they understand his Divine Nature, (for according to his Divinity he could not die, he could not be crucified) and yet it was the infinite value of that nature that bore away all our Iniquities: For as God could not suffer for sin, so man alone could not satisfy for sin. Thus by very good Analogy our Saviour Christ is the Scape-goat, upon whose head we laid all our sins. And the better to give light to this Mystery, he was really sent into the Wilderness, in my Text, to put us in mind, that the Goat which was sent away into a Land uninhabited was a Type of him; and therefore St. Mark speaks of a violent expulsion, Expulit eum in desertum; The Spirit did drive him into the Wilderness.  
A little spoken concerning these Typical shadows will quickly rise to enough. I come to that Doctrine, which is aptest to conclude the first general part of my Text, how Christ made himself often a stranger to this world, and showed it by retiring unto unfrequented places; 
Maldon.  Quasi in mundo extra mundum ageret, says one, as if he minded another world much more when he lived in this. His flesh was not ill pampered, or fattened for sin, and yet he fasted: His integrity was untaintable, ill examples could not seduce him, the viciousness of the age could not infect him, yet he drew back sometimes from those scandalous contagions, as if he had said to one of us, or to every one of us, give thy soul such respite sometimes, that it may abandon all earthly cares for a time, and have leisure to talk with God. As Christ invites his Church from the empestring of multitudes of people, and secular businesses, Come my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us lodge in the Villages. Cant. seven. 11. We had need of longer Vacations than Terms, more rest to serve God than stirring days to enrich ourselves; that we may ask God forgiveness at leisure for the sins which we did commit in our business. Come ye apart into a desert place, and rest awhile, says our Saviour to his Disciples, Mar. vi. 31. All cannot receive this saying, you will say, all have not the way and opportunity to retire themselves bodily from the conflux of the world; but there is a way for every man that his mind may pluck itself out of the throng, and adhere to God. So St. Cyprian bears off all objections from this exhortation, Etsi omnes diversorium non excipiat loci, animi tamen omnino necessaria est solitudo; All men cannot cast the World behind their back, and go alone into remote places, but it is necessary for the heart of every man to say often, my God and I am alone together, I am solitary with him often in the midst of troubles.  
God hath made man a sociable creature, if the contagion of the world doth not make him unsociable. Who can live with patience or comfort, where he sees the Creator of Heaven and Earth dishonoured daily? No reverence in the lips of children, but swearing and profanation: No faithfulness in men's words, but deceit and guile: The trust of Guardians turned to supplantation; the league of Friendship turned to treachery; the bond of Wedlock so impiously, so often wronged in Adultery. Whom can the Living trust for righteous dealing? Whom can the dying trust for an upright Executor? What good man doth not feel the passions of Lot within himself at the recital of these things? His soul vexed with the filthy conversation of the Sodomites, and therefore from thence he was glad to fly, and retire to Zoar. This made the Prophet Jeremy complain, O ye that dwell in Moab, leave the Cities and dwell in the Rock, Chap. xlviii. 28. Fuge seculi mare, & naufragium non timebis, says St. Ambrose; Sail away into some little streams, and leave that Ocean of ungodliness, which is in the most frequented places, and ye shall not fear Shipwreck. St. Basil extols it in the height of Gorgias the Martyr his praise, that he left his native soil, and all society, and made the desolate woods his habitation. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he detested the buyers and sellers; the forswearers and liars. I told you before that Eremitical solitariness was much in danger of tentation, but one answers it, better fight single against Satan, one to one in the Wilderness, than fight against Satan and wicked men, who will entice you to sin as fast as Satan. Therefore let them take out my Lesson, and eschew the frequent Societies of populous places, who find the Contagion of pestilent multitudes rub some rust upon them, and infect their integrity. It is not the place, but the corruptions of the place, which the meditations of the Fathers gathered out of my Text, do lead you to abandon; therefore the words of our Saviour shall stand in the last place to shut up this Point, Joh. xvii. 15. I pray not that thou shouldst take them, that is the Disciples, out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil. So much for the circumstance of the place.  
My Sermon thus far hath been upon the Wilderness; against the handling of the next Point it is fit to ask, What went we forth into the Wilderness to see? Why, to behold Christ fasting before he fought with the Devil: Though that is not all he did there, (for there is much more behind) yet this is enough to make it worth our labour, Esurivit panis, sicut defecit via, sicut vulnerata est sanitas, sicut mortua est vita, 
August. in Evang. Job. Serm. 41.  says St. Austin; By the same wonderful dispensation that the way of life was weary, health itself was wounded, life itself died, by the same dispensation the bread of life fasted, and was afterwards an hungry. A sanctified fast hath two religious ends in it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as St. Paul says, 1. To chastise our own body, and to take revenge upon it. 2. To put it into a good temperature for the minds sake. Neither of these causes could be set before Christ in this long fast, for his Flesh had never rebelled against the Spirit; neither was there any inordinateness in his natural constitution which could be corrected by temperance. 
Musculus in hunc locum.  Some therefore hold an opinion that Christ went not into the Wilderness to fast, that fell out so indeed, and was a necessary accessary, because there was no food to be had. You know the people ran after Christ into these spacious fields to hear Christ preach, and not to fast with him, yet there they continued three days fasting, and had nothing to eat, until four thousands were fed miraculously with five loaves, and two fishes. In like manner Moses went not up into the Mount to fast, but to receive the Tables: and truly this opinion is not to be contemned; for St. Mark remembers that he was in the Wilderness tempted of Satan, and quite omits his fasting. This is pressed the more zealously by some, and with sufficient probability, to show upon what weak foundation they build, who fetch it from hence, that Christ observed the fast of forty days, on purpose to constitute a yearly Lent in the Church for ever, or a Quadragesimal fast, for if it were by accident that Christ fasted here, that can be no constitution of his intendment. Nor indeed did he appoint any such thing, as I will show in just time. Yet I concur not in the main sentence with those Authors; for it seems to me, this was purposed by Christ to go into the Desert and spend his time in Prayer and Fasting: Now was the conflict at hand, now was the first institution and undertaking of the greatest matter in the world, the salvation of mankind, and could not begin with a better Praeludium than an extraordinary Fast. In this I will be directed by the interlineal gloss, Jejunat ut tentetur, tentatur quia jejunat; He did fast that he might provoke tentations against himself, and he did provoke tentations because he fasted.  
For the better explication of the causes why he was pleased to fast, I will lay down the distinction of Christ's will, as I find it considered in the School three ways: Sicut ratio est unibilis corpori, sicut est omnino conformis Deitati, & ratione membrorum. 1. The soul is united to the body, and for that union sake the will desireth the good of the whole man. 2. God and man were united in Christ into one person, therefore his will was subject in all things to the divine Law and pleasure. 3. He was the head of the body, which is the Church, and therefore his will did graciously affect the prosperity of his members. In these three respects there are so many causes of moment why Jesus fasted: 1. Because it is profitable to conserve the whole man against tentations. 2. It was the divine pleasure to provoke the Devil to give the onset, by macerating and enfeebling his body, and Satan's foil was the greater, because he was the challenger. 3. He had regard unto his members, to avenge himself on the Tempter by the victory of temperance, who brought sin into the world through our first Parents by the sin of Gluttony. Other causes I leave behind for refutation.  
First, I say, it gives us a lesson to fast, and withdraw the ordinary sustenance from the body, when we perceive ourselves in likelihood to encounter some temptation. King Jehosaphat had a great battle to fight with the Ammonites, and before the conflict he set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a Fast throughout all Judah, 2 Chron. xx. 3. So did Esther when she undertook the great danger to go in to Ahasuerus against the Law, to intercede for the deliverance of the whole Nation of the Jews, she would not venture upon so great a peril unless all the Jews would fast three whole days before the Lord, and neither eat nor drink, Est. iv. 16. What should I say more out of many examples? Ezra suspecting what great opposition he should find to re-edify the Temple of the Lord, he proclaimed a Fast, that all the People might afflict themselves before God, Ezra viij. 21. And St. Basil, a great Practiser of this doctrine, as any was in the world, which is better than a Teacher, bid all his Scholars take it upon his word, that Sobriety was the best Antidote in the world to expel the venom of the Devil. This holy Father was so good a spiritual Physician, that the Church had not a better since his time, I think, to prescribe a good diet for the soul. Adam went out of Paradise with a full stomach, poor Lazarus went fasting to heaven, scarce fraught with the crumbs of the rich man's Table. Moses did fast upon Sinah for forty days when he talked with God: But the People, who in the mean time did commit Idolatry, sat down to eat, and to drink, and rose up to play. Daniel refused the meat and drink allowed him from the King's Table, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to honour his temperance and fasting, the very Lions, into whose Den he was cast, were taught to fast and hunger, and not to eat up Daniel, who was thrown before them to be a prey unto their teeth. Thus far he.  
If you ask me wherein we honour God, in what part it may be referred to his glory, to deny all manner of sustenance to ourselves for a time. Beloved, thus it stands, that we acknowledge ourselves in fact, not in word only, to be unworthy of all those good gifts, with which he hath replenished the earth, that we deserve no longer to be fed with his liberality, and so we humble ourselves before Almighty God, confessing we deserve not, with the little Whelps, to pick up the crumbs under his Table; and desiring that they who deject themselves under his mighty power, may not be trodden down by Satan and his Ministers of perdition. Moreover, take away Oil from the Lamp, and the flame will go out by little and little; and surely hunger and thirst, and afflicting the body, joined with prayer and repentance, shall obtain this mercy, that the violence of Voluptuousness and Luxury shall be abated in our sinful flesh. Not that a Fast is acceptable to God of itself, without other good offices of Religion, but being well accompanied with Prayer and godly sorrow (for as the Apostle speaketh, Bodily exercise profiteth nothing of itself;) it disposeth and inclineth us to mortification and chastity. In times of old, abstinence and fasting more than ordinary were held a special part of their praise that did practise them. It is the character of Anna, the religious widow, how she continued in prayers and fastings, Luk. two. And our Saviour himself teacheth how to fast, and proposeth a reward to them that did it well, and not for ostentation and hypocrisy, Mat. 6. There Christ taught it, and here he did it; this is the true demonstration of the Spirit, Cum dixit quid faciendum sit, probat faciendo. As the old bird will fly forth sometimes, not upon necessity, but to teach her young ones to fly after: So Christ fasted in the Wilderness, not to gather strength by that means in his own person against the Devil, but to teach his young ones as well as they could to fly, or flutter after him, and he tells us there is a kind of Devil which will not be cast out but by prayer and fasting, Mar. ix. 29. If any man put in a cross, saying, How can Fasting have a defensive force in it against temptation, since almost all Writers say upon weighty considerations, Christ had not been tempted but that he fasted? I answer, Our case and this are far unlike: Satan durst not assail Christ so long as he doubted him to be the eternal Son of God, but upon his fasting and hunger he took boldness to join issue with him, because he falsely collected from those signs he was but the Son of man. Neither do I deliver unto you, that he will not tempt such as fast and pray, (for I have taught already how envy drives him on, that where there is abundance of sanctity, there will be abundance of tentation) but I do deliver, that Fasting and Prayer shall have prosperous success to overcome temptations. So Aquinas, Si non profuit jejunium ut non tenteris, tamen profuit ut à tentationibus non vincaris. I do not promise you peace from tentations, though you fast often religiously before God, but I promise you victory.  
The second part of Christ's will and pleasure in this Fast is ratione membrorum, to do our humane nature honour by temperance, for the reproach which it suffered by intemperance, and to triumph over the Devil upon the same conditions that he overcame our first Parents. There was the First Adam, here was the Second; there was a Paradise where the first man had store of all things, here was a Wilderness where Christ had nothing: that disobedient Son of God eat of that which was forbidden, this most obedient Son of God refrained from those things which were lawful. Adam did not eat for need, but for his lust, he was not an hungry: Christ was so abstinent that he would not satisfy necessity, for he was an hungry. By gluttony we lost our honour, and fell low to be compared to the beasts that perish: But here is one that continued and maintained sharp hunger against all tentations, who in the beginning of this story kept company with the beasts, but in the end was ministered unto by Angels. Uno tanto jejunio universam Johannis abstinentiam superavit, says Cajetan; This one fast, and his constant continuance in it, maugre the devises of the old Serpent, did exceed all the abstinence of John the Baptist, who for many years fed upon Locusts and wild honey. For John was abstinent to himself, Christ fasted to bring us out of the thraldom of Satan, 
Alice.  and for the expiation of our Gluttony. Quaelibet actio Christi fuit nobis meritoria, passio ejus & meritoria & satisfactoria, it is commonly said of the School Divines. The Death and Passion of Christ did both merit for us before God's mercy, and satisfy for us before his justice; but every part of Christ's obedience, as this fasting among the rest was meritorious for his members. Such wits as delighted in holy ingenuity, have applied the several parts of Christ's merit, and sufferance, and passion unto us in the notions of Physic and Chirurgery. Curavit non per diaetam cum jejunavit; per electuarium, quando corpus & sanguinem dedit in coenâ discipulis, etc. He took upon him to cure us by the prescription of a diet when he fasted: By an Electuary, when he gave his body and blood to his Disciples in his last Supper: By a Sweat when drops of blood trickled from him in the Garden: By an Emplaster, when his face was smeared with spital: By a bitter potion, when he drank Vinegar upon the Cross: By cutting and lancination, when his feet and hands were pierced with nails, and his side with a Spear. There was no disease of sin whereof we were not sick, there was no kind of cure to be invented which was not practised to restore us. And so much for this exercise of fasting, as he made use of it for the members of his body.  
Thirdly, As his will was always subject to his Father, according to that Prayer in the Garden, not my will, but thy will be done, so the Divine Nature did suggest a reason to his Humane Nature to fast, to put a fallacy upon Satan, that he might peremptorily conclude Christ was no more than a man, who suffered hunger, and sought for somewhat to eat in the Wilderness and was not replenished. As if a Lion should put on the skin of a silly sheep, to draw on a ravening Wolf to set upon him, and thereupon devour the Wolf who came to be the devourer: So our Saviour walked about the Desert in the person of a silly man half famished, the Tempter was in great suspense, and knew not what to think of him, and stood ambiguously in this Dilemma says St. chrysostom: He hath fasted forty days and eat nothing, I dare not meddle with him, this is no man; but after forty days ended he is hungry, and wants food, I will give him the onset, this is no God. So Jesus grazing about like a poor sheep that could find nothing but stones for fodder, the Wolf grins upon him, but he proved to be the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Impar congressus Achilli; and the wild beast of the Forest was repelled by him that led captivity captive; the more infirmity pretended on Christ's part, the more glorious the victory. Fames Domini pia fraus est, ne caveat tentare Diabolus, says Bonaventure; This fast and hunger was a pious fraud or stratagem laid by God to draw on Satan to tempt his Lord and Maker, and so prove him guilty of a most foul rebellion. 
Serm. de Temp. 157.  St. Austin doth so receive this opinion, that he rejects all others; it may be said, says he, that fasting came after Baptism, even as a good diet is to be kept after health recovered for fear of a relapse, but that is impertinent, Illius causa jejunii non Jordanis tinctio, sed Diaboli tentatio fuit; This fast had no reference to the dipping in Jordan, but to cozen Satan, and make him rashly adventure upon the ensuing tentation. So St. Ambrose likewise, and almost all the best Authors of the best antiquity. It is a fatal requital upon some busy wits, that as they are sharp and sore deceivers, so when their own turn comes about, they are as sorrily deceived. Marcus Crassus was one of the cunningest flatterers that ever was; and yet no man so easily, 
Plut. in vitâ Crass.  and so notoriously gulled with flattery. So Satan is the grand Impostor of mankind, and yet this grand Imposture was thrust upon him, to enter combat with Christ, who is invincible and omnipotent. And let cheaters and cunning practisers beware, that their own shot rebound not upon themselves. God hath a retorsion in store, a fallere fallentem, which will fall upon them in spite of subtlety and circumspection. They think they work closely, and no harm shall happen unto them, I am sure that David prophesies how certainly they shall be stewed in their own sauce, they are taken in the crafty wiliness that they imagined for others, in the same net that they hid privily is their foot taken. The ways of a Serpent are slippery, and treachery shall be tripped up with treachery: The Lord hath spoken it, and the Lord hath done it.  
I have set these three reasons why Christ fasted in the foremost rank, because they are warrantable. Brentius, I think, mistook when he interserted this for a reason: It is a great anxiety, or a great sickness which keeps a man from his meat for a few days; so, as he thought, the tentations of Christ were so violent and horrible, that for forty days he eat nothing. I suppose, when I come to show, at what time the Devil began his work, I shall make it appear, that no tentation was offered to Christ until the fortieth day. Howsoever the Author took his aim amiss; for although we read that our Saviour endured a most violent conflict in the garden, when he sweat drops of blood in his Prayer, the case is not the same in this conflict with the Devil. In the Garden he stood before his Father, representing himself not as the beloved Son in whom the Father was well pleased, but under the imputation and malediction of all our sins, and he struggled with his Father's justice, that he might bear our iniquities in his own body upon the cross. This was a wrestling indeed to put all his strength and powers in a heat, and all his spirits in an agony. But to beat down the suggestions of the evil one it put him to no solicitousness, or anxiety, never was victory got so easily. None of those poisoned darts could stick in him, this was the Lamb without spot that could commit no sin, but came to take away the sins of the world.  
This error is easily put off, the next opinion is maintained more pertinaciously, that this fasting was part of that obedience, by which he merited exaltation of his Father, and in like manner the penance of fasting is meritorious to the obedient members of his Church. Thus they. I will examine this strictly by several pieces. First, to enter into a tedious disputation how, or what Christ did merit by his obedience, cannot consist with the time, and it doth not piece well with my Text. But take a little knowledge of it by this similitude; the Angels of heaven have a double operation, 
Alice.  one that they stand always before the face of our Father which is in heaven, another that they are ministering Spirits, and do good offices to the Church upon earth; as they do always stand before God, so they must needs be completely blessed, having the substance of their reward, but as they assist and help us, so they have some kind of increase, or as it is called accidental addition to their reward: So Christ in the union of the two natures could not but ever behold the divine glory, so that the fruition of that eternal happiness was ever conjoined to him; but inasmuch as the dispensation of our redemption was his continual exercise upon earth, so that deserved him some additions to his glory, in the glorification of the sensible part of man's nature, the speedy resurrection of the body, his speedy ascension or exaltation into heaven, and as some do add, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow; or if so be these things were so intrinsical to the hypostatical union, that they could not be parted from it, yet thus it may be well agreed, Mereri est de debito facere majus debitum; These things accrued to Christ meritoriously, because that which was due by the hypostatical union was made more due by his humiliation. I add secondly, that the great abstinence and sweet temperance of our Saviour's life was part of his humiliation, 
Calvinus.  but for the forty days wherein he fasted I concur with them that maintain this was no part of his abstinence. What abstinence could there be, says one, in this miraculous act, when all that while he had no provocation in his appetite to long for meats, no more than the Angels have who taste no corruptible things? The faculties of nutrition called for no sustenance. God repressed the appetite, says Cajetan, from feeling the provocations of hunger and thirst, even as he suppressed the devouring quality of the fire, that it should not burn the three constant Saints that were cast into it.  
I make it my third reply, though Christ's obedience in his humiliation was meritorious, yet there is so much disparity between his obedience and ours, that men can take no measure of it. I do not only mean in this difference, which is so well known, that he did exactly fulfil all the Law of God, and for our part in many things we sin all. There is another thing which puts as wide a difference between us, Christ obeyed his Father because he would, we because we must; He obeyed without any terror pronounced to compel him, we obey under the commination of hell fire, if we be slack in our duty. We are servants commanded to our task, he did the works of him that sent him, as a Prince receives the dignity of a province from his Father, to administer it to his honour, and if he had refused it, it could not turn to his prejudice; therefore both Angels and men owe as much obedience for their own part as they can perform; but the dispensation of Christ's humility was not imposed, but freely undertaken, and by that virtue and title meritorious. In the last place therefore, all the effects of Gods will are pleasing unto him to be done, and so it is pleasing unto God to have us humble our souls sometimes before him with fasting and mourning, but a good duty is wronged when the more rigid defenders of merit of condignity say, that there is an equivalency and proportion between the studious keeping of some appointed Fasts with other voluntary afflictions, and the reward of eternal life. Is it not enough to say that our imperfect obedience pleaseth God, and shall be rewarded according to his own promise and free grace? Will it not satisfy us to go to heaven by mere mercy, and undeserved liberality? Beware to gild your works by the name of merit (why should the ungodly make such proud boasting?) Dip them in the name of free remission of sins by the blood of Jesus Christ, and God will give glory to us his adopted Sons because we give all glory to the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father. AMEN.   

THE FIFTH SERMON UPON Our Saviour's Tentation.  MAT. iv. 2. 
And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterwards an hungry.  
LET it not trouble my Auditors, because I shall speak at this time of that Fast which our Saviour kept forty days; this is not the proper season, I confess; and if any man be ready to say, as one Philosopher in Laertius quipt another, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Why do you handle a matter that behoves us in a time that doth not behoove it? My answer is, If I picked out this for a single Text at this time, my oversight were unpardonable; but you know I take the parts of this Story in order, and must follow my subject as it happeneth to be discussed. Indeed our Church, which doth always follow the steps of pure Antiquity, hath appointed this portion of Gospel to be read yearly upon the first day of Lent. For the memory of any great thing is better preserved, when it is remembered solemnly about the time that it happened. So God said to the Children of Israel upon their coming out of Pharaohs bondage, Remember this day continually in your generations, Exod. xiv. 3. 
In Festo Pentecost.  And upon a great memorandum thus the Lord said to Ezekiel, Son of man write the name of the day, of this same day, the King of Babylon set his face against Jerusalem this same day, Ezek. xiv. 3. And many have cited Nazianzen when they commend a word spoken in season, Ex verbo illud potissimum quod est tempori convenientissimum; That which best suits the time is best spoken out of the Scripture. I subscribe to this wise direction; and I do not violate it now out of neglect or contempt, but upon apparent necessity; that I may leave no gaps in this Scripture, which I handle about our Saviour's conflict with Satan, but fill up the exposition of every verse as I proceed, with such meditations as I am able to afford.  
I come therefore to the remainder of this verse, which is due unto you to be explained, and it consists in two things: The continuance of our Saviour's fast, and the consequent. The continuance that he fasted forty days and forty nights; the consequent, that he was afterwards an hungry, The one is a supernatural elevation, the other is a natural condition. In the first he showed his divine virtue, in the second his humane infirmity. Upon the former the Devil feared he was the Son of God; upon the latter he persuaded himself he was no more than a mortal man. Whether is more strange, that having flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone, he should make his appetite forget to ask for sustenance so long? Or being the Son of God, who filleth every living thing with food, himself should hunger and want? In the first we admire him, Be thou exalted Lord in thine own strength; In the second we love him, because he was made poor that we might be made rich; in both we magnify him. Attend to these particulars, and first that he had fasted forty days.  
Forty days and forty nights, not now a day, and then a day, at several times, for that is easy and ordinary, but all at once without intermission. The Grammarians have meddled with this Point to confirm it by this rule, 
Bo●ae Annot.  Jejunavit quadraginta dies non diebus, quia tempus continuum ferè quarto casu ponitur. Nouns of time expressed plurally in the Accusative case do betoken such a distance of time continued, and not interrupted. Therefore Christ observed a continuation of fast from the first day to the fortieth; no man, I think would understand it otherwise; and if any were so captious St. Luke would not suffer him, for his words are, in those days he eat nothing, Luk. iv. 2. There is no efficacy in numbers said the wiser Philosophers, and very truly; but some numbers are apt to enforce a reverend esteem towards them, by considering miraculous occurrencies which fell out in holy Scripture in such and such a number. So Tolet in a sort magnifies this number of forty days, that it is numerus mysteriis significandis accommodatus, a number coincident very often to the greatest mysteries, and noblest works of God. Forty days it reigned upon the earth in the days of Noah, when God cleansed the great sins of the world by water. Caleb and Joshuah returned from searching of the Land of Canaan after forty days, Num. xiii. 26. Christ continued upon earth forty days among his Disciples after he was risen from the dead before he ascended into heaven. The Ninivites were forewarned that they should be consumed after forty days if they did not repent, and turn unto the Lord. Thus it came to pass, for what reason we cannot tell, but God knows why his Providence doth so exactly, and so often keep that measure of time in great signs and wonders; Non potest fortuitò fieri, quod tam saepe sit, says one, 
Maldon. in hunc locum.  whom I never find superstitious in numbers. It falls out too often to be called contingent, and the oftener it falls out, the more to be attended.  
Yet it is the safest conclusion, and hath least impertinency in it to say, that Moses fasted forty days at the institution of the Law, and Elias as long at the restauration of the Law, so Christ kept even with them, and fasted just as long as they before the publication of the Gospel. As Ionas was three days and three nights in the belly of the Whale, so shall also the Son of man be in the lower parts of the earth, as if Christ had been studious, or rather would teach us to be studious to keep the pattern, as near as we can, of the good Generations that went before us. I would be sorry such ignorance should be in any here to make a question, whether Christ could have continued to fast not only for the space of so many days, but all his life, without the corruptible aliments of meats and drinks. But if he had produced his abstinence from all food longer than Moses and Elias for the space of many months, or many years, it would have been incredible to many, that he had been perfect man of the substance of his Mother, and Heresies would have had strong grounds for delusions, that he had not a fleshly, but a celestial body. How much better did his humility condescend to the likeness of his own Prophets? And because he came but in the shape of a servant, he would not exceed all example, or outgo the miraculous fast of his fellow-servants; he would have the world take knowledge of him to be a mighty Prophet, at lest no ways inferior to the best that ever lived, therefore he fasted forty days and forty nights like Moses and Elias. But in this the one is as divers from the other, and as much excels the other as can be imagined; Moses and Elias were preserved by God's mighty arm, that their natural complexion might subsist without sustenance, but Christ's virtue was in himself, and of himself, absolute, independent; they were kept safe by an external power, Christ by his own Godhead, and by no derivative virtue.  
Such glorious miracles are rather to be adored with admiration than to be followed with imperfect imitation. And because a large field of controversy lies before me in this Point touching the observation of our Lenten temperance for forty days, whether that ordinance were regulated by the example of Christ. I will lay down three several heads of opinions in their order, and bring you by degrees, I hope, to the truth of the controversy. 1. I will inquire whether Christ did intend to ordain a prefixed time of abstinence in the Church for forty days by his example. 2. If that be not so sound to hold, yet whether it were an Apostolical Tradition. 3. If that can neither be proved, yet whether it be a laudable Ecclesiastical Constitution. To the question of the first enquiry many of the greatest Doctors in the Church of Rome answer, that the observance of the Quadragesimal Fast, binds all Christians from our Saviour's example. So Cardinal Bellarmine, Non verbis praescripsit hoc jejunium Christus, sed exemplo praecepit; we have no such ordinance in express words throughout all the Scripture to say, do thus, but it is an ordinance from Christ's example. And Maldonat the Jesuit, though Lent be not founded upon Christ's Commandment, yet it is founded upon his Example, and that is enough to say it leans upon divine Authority. Beloved, it behoves not us to lay burdens upon men's shoulders which God himself hath not imposed. Whatsoever is commended to us for decorum and order sake, we do it for conscience sake; but whatsoever is no more but indifferent in itself, and is obtruded upon us, sub opinione necessitatis, as necessary and irrefragable from divine Authority, when it is not so, we reject it. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith God hath made you free, 
Lib. de horet. bapt.  says St. Paul, Gal. v. 1. So St. Cyprian in the like case, opposing them that invented traditions of their own, and called them Gods Ordinances, Periculosum est in divinis rebus ut quis cedat jure suo; It is of a dangerous consequent to yield any thing to be a divine injunction which is not.  
Therefore advising upon these rules, I give a flat Negative upon the first question, the Quadragesimal Fast is not necessarily to be observed from Christ's example. The old rule of divinity is a sure one, Imitamur in moralibus, admiramur in miraculosis; in miraculous works we adore Christ with admiration, in Moral Institutions we will follow him with imitation. He anointed the eyes of the blind man with spittle and clay, contraries to the cure according to nature, and therefore we magnify him; is it not a most Heterogeneal Mimic from hence to make a mixture of spittle and oil to an Infant baptised, as if the Apostles had wanted ceremony to the Sacrament, when they baptised with nothing but water? If any man love me he will keep my sayings, says our Lord; but he never added, If any man love me he will tie himself to my example where I never prescribed him to follow me. For my part that which happened to St. Peter works exceedingly upon my understanding in this case; when he saw his Master walk upon the Sea as upon a solid Pavement, he desired he might do the like, and to let him know such miracles are to be looked upon with the veneration of faith, he sunk into the waters, and was in peril of his life. To stop every cranny of objection that can be made, I read that the examples of Christ's mighty works are sometimes pressed upon us to be drawn into an Analogical imitation, 1 Pet. two. 21. Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps. How is that? Being reviled he reviled not again, when he suffered he threatened not; and as he died for us, so we should offer ourselves up to him as spiritual Sacrifices; and as he died and rose again the third day, so we should die unto sin, and rise again unto newness of life. From hence, says Maldonat, this is right our case; for we take not upon us to eat nothing for forty days as Christ did, but we keep a canonical temperance for forty days. Imitamur quia sequimur, quamvis non assequimur; This is no more than the Analogical imitation. Those other imitations of some similitude have a precept in the Book of God, and this hath none: Therefore let them teach, that their imitation, being not Scripture proof, is but a voluntary, and a diaphorous Constitution of the Church, and the Church of England will never be their adversary. For so it is frequent in the Writings of good Antiquity, to allege Christ's example for their observance of the forty days fast, not according to the Roman Tenet at this day, 
Videl. in Ep. ad Phil. apud Ignat.  that Christ established it necessarily in all places from that time forth unto the end of the world, but they alleged Christ's example to countenance their voluntary and Ecclesiastical Sanctions.  
What can be more direct on my side than St. chrysostom, Homil. 47. in Mat. Christ did not say, as I fasted forty days, so do ye follow me in fasting, but learn of me because I am meek and lowly, and ye shall find rest for your souls. Surely, if he had given any particular order for fasting in the New Testament, the most proper time to have settled it had been when the people told him, the Disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast often, but thine do not: But then he utters no more but this in general, When the Bridegroom is taken from them they shall fast; Here is no direction for time or manner, all that is left free to the sound discretion and occasions of the Church. They do but dally with Scripture that collect from the forenamed words when the Bridegroom is taken from them they shall fast, therefore the sixth day of the week in every week must be a day of fasting and abstinence, because on the sixth day of the week the Bridegroom was taken from them, and died upon the Cross. What more insolid than this? For by collections from Irenaeus, and others, it is evident, 
Videl. loc. Predicto.  that even the Roman Churches did ceremoniously keep the fast of Saturday long before they observed a portional abstinence upon the sixth day of the week. But let me not make you lose the head of my argument by this Parenthesis, that Christ being demanded why his Disciples did not fast, he leaves an indefinite answer with them, The days will come, when the Bridegroom is taken from them that they shall fast, but for allotting any particular time not a tittle of Commandment. Let this be added, that when the ancient Fathers call their quadragesimal Constitution an imitation of our Lords fast (there is no hurt in the Word, if it mean not that his example was a necessary pattern to be followed) I say, they allege also for the convenient observing of that institution, how Moses and Elias fasted forty days in the old Law; and indeed, they might lay hold upon one as well as upon another, for Christ made his Fast even with theirs, to show that the Gospel which he brought did not descent from the Law and Prophets. But the illation is good in this wise, as the Jews were held to no necessary imitation of Moses and Elias, no more is there any necessary obligation to hold the Christians that they should punctually observe a portional abstinence, according to the time of forty days, that our Saviour fasted.  
So I have put off the first conclusion with good confirmation, I think, on our part. Now I have to do with another sort, that hold our Lenten temperance to be an Apostolical tradition; hereby they burden the consciences of men that a partial fast of forty days is not merely derived unto us by Humane Laws, but by Apostolical Authority, a Sanction which came from men immediately inspired from God, and therefore to be strictly held as any other Dictate of the holy Gospel. And they that break Lent are condemned as Prevaricators of the divine Law. But these opinionists are of two sorts, the one Sect far more severe and unreasonable than the other, who not only defend that a convenient abstinence is to be kept for forty days by Apostolical Authority, but that even the abstinence from the flesh of beasts for that time, and changing our diet into Fish and other Viands is by Apostolic command. But their reasons are far worse than their opinion, making a distinction as if one meat were more sanctified than another, whereas all things are alike unpolluted to him that eats God's Creatures with thanksgiving, and a resolved conscience, and with temperance: But thus the Friar's flash out, that the Seas were never cursed for the sin of man, the earth was cursed for his sin, therefore the food of the Sea is better allotted for times of sorrow and repentance, than what? Than the flesh of the cattle, yea, by this reason than the herbs of the Garden, yet the feeding upon herbs and roots was ever accounted the clearer abstinence. Such another imagination is this, that Christ fed upon Fish after his Resurrection, so he did upon an honey Comb, and yet the Bees gather the fruits of their labours from the flowers of the field, and not from the weeds of the water. Such another rotten Argument is this, that all Flesh was destroyed in God's anger in the Deluge, but Fishes were saved alive in the water. You need require from me no better confutation of this cause than the naming of these reasons, for who will not resolutely say that such frippery as this never came from Apostolical judgement. The Decretals of the Pope, (a work wherein I am sure the Church of Rome can have no wrong done it) but those Decretals attribute unto Telesphorus, that he was the first that commanded the Clergy for seven weeks before Easter to refrain from the food of flesh, this is but barely said, and not proved; but if it were proved, all the Apostles were dead before Telesphorus was born, therefore no way probable to be an Apostolic direction. And indeed I find certain glances in the Fathers, that the Clergy did admit of this institution before the rest of the people did, which makes it more firm, that it was Abstinentia cibi secundum Ecclesiae regulam, an abstinence from some kind of food by a mere Ecclesiastical imposition to try their obedience. Surely they may name ten places out of antiquity before they allege one to the purpose, that is for the commutation of their ordinary diet from flesh into fish. Some quote Serapion in Socrates, that entertained a Guest hard before Easter, and being destituted of all provision except a piece of dried salted flesh, he set that before the stranger, who scrupulously refused it, and said he would not break Lent because he was a Christian; Serapion answers, To the clean all things are clean, eat it because you are a Christian. From hence I collect, 1. That Lent was kept by a Canonical Ordinance two hundred years after Christ in Serapions days. 2. That to abstain from flesh was the Civil Law of the time as it is with us, but so easily dispensable, that you may conclude, it was no Apostolical Ordinance. I will adjoin one place of St. Austin most falsely quoted by Salmeron the Jesuit, 
Lib. 30. contra Faust. cap. 3.  1 Tim. iv. St. Paul says it was the Doctrine of Devils to forbid meats; Faustus the Manichean infers, than Moses in the Old Law wrote the Doctrine of Devils: No says St. Austin, Quadragesima â vobis sine vino & carnibus, non superstitiose sed divinâ lege servatur. 1. You Manichaeans abstain both from wine and flesh in Lent. 2. You observe it as from a Divine Law, that was the error of the Manicheans, to receive it as from divine Law, it was not the Tenet of the Orthodox Christians; the Church of Rome itself will stand for me in this quotation, because no man is restrained from drinking of wine during that fast, no not by their Injunctions. So I have enough discovered their groundless opinion who take upon them to defend that abstinence from flesh in Lent is an Apostolical Constitution.  
Therefore some state the matter in these words, that although the prohibition of some meats for forty days be corroborated by Ecclesiastical Law and Custom, yet a strict and severe abstinence for so long was delivered from the Apostles to the Church to be kept for ever. So Cardinal Bellarmine quotes St. Ambrose, but in those Writings whereof he is not certainly the Author. But St. Hierom is truly alleged I confess in saying it was the Apostles tradition; but the testimony of any Author, though a very reverend one, is little available, since no man said so before him from the Apostles age to his own, 
Videl. loco Praedict.  which is a long distance of four hundred years. A late Writer delivers his mind very roundly, that the Fathers took many things out of adulterated books, as Pastor's Visions, Clemens Constitutions, the Gospel of Nicodemus, and such like, and called these Apostolical traditions. Indeed, nothing lets but the Fathers might be deceived by the Writings of Impostors. This answer I am sure deserves not to displease, that many things were called Apostolical Traditions which came not from any of the Twelve, but from the Scholars of the Apostles. So Tertullian calls Luke, 
Praefat. in Come. Lucae.  not an Apostle, but an Apostolical man; and says Maldonat the Jesuit, those were called Apostolical men, Qui quamvis Christum non audivissent, audivissent Apostolos; Who, though they had not heard Christ, had heard his Apostles. Now it is a main odds whether the Apostles or their Scholars transfused such Traditions to the next generations, 
Collat. 21. c. 30.  Intererit multum Davus ne loquatur an Herus. I will balance St. Hierom with Cassianus, and St. Austin, men of the same Age. Says Cassianus; while the Apostles lived upon the earth men were obedient to refrain from surfeit and luxury, all this while no times of fast were kept, because the whole life of Christians was addicted to Parsimony and moderation: But when these good men were gone to God, and temperance began to be forgotten, then was the fast of Lent bidden, 
Epist. 86.  and appointed to draw men to compunction and repentance. Cardinal Bellarmine hath no answer to this Authority, but Cassian knew not what he said. But St. Austin gave a studied and meditated answer to Casulanus, Quibus diebus jejunandum sit aut non jejunandum Apostolos non constituisse; There is a contradictory to St. Hierom. The Apostles did not constitute when we should fast, and when we should not. Alas what an impertinent labour it is to heap quotations that there was a Quadragesimal observance anciently in the Church, when they do not touch the question, whether it were by Apostolical Tradition. 
Canon. 5.  The Nicen Council doth appoint indeed that every year in all places two Provincial Synods should be held, 
Catech. 1.  one before the Quadragesima, that men might serve God the better when strifes were appeased. This is all, and Cyril of Jerusalem says a great deal less. Thou that loyterest all the year long, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, wilt thou not bestow forty days time in Prayer? There is mention of Prayer, nothing of Fast, and not one word of a Fast derived from Apostolical Tradition.  
And of all other Arguments this will never be satisfied. Lent was never kept uniformly in the former Ages, but after most different fashions almost in all the Churches of the world. In the beginning the term of forty days was so far from being usually kept, that it had no other name but Jejunium Paschale, the fast that went before Easter. Well, the name of Quadragesima grew on to be commonly received, but the Moon is not so variable as the several customs of that Fast, all Authors, who have wrote of this subject, 
Euseb. lib. 5.  toss that place of Irenaeus up and down; Some keep strictly but one days fast for the devout penance of that time, some two days, some more, some forty; and some when they fast account twelve hours unto the day, some four and twenty. Is this like to be an Apostolic Precept where there was no unity in the observation? Among those that would tie themselves to forty days observation, the greater part of old did exempt the Sundays. Dominico jejunium celebrare nefas esse ducimus, says Tertullian; It is a great crime to keep a fast upon the Lord's day. 
De Coron. milit. Praefat. i ● Psal.  So Hilary, to name no more, Constitutum est ne diebus Dominicis jejunetur; It is appointed there should no Fasts be held upon any of the Lords days. Now for an exact compliment of the number of forty, others did borrow four days from the precedent week; and Gregory, six hundred years after Christ, was the first that settled the time how Lent should begin from Ash-wednesday; they that continued their fast all that week, and all the space till Easter day called it Quinquagesima, the Monks brought it to a Sexagesima, the Friars to a Septuagesima, almost forty days doubled, is it likely, if the Apostles had set things in order the bounds at all times should be thus removed? Shall I give you full measure in two things, lest this discourse; which is laborious to me, be tedious to you? First, The Disciples of our Lord did not design out the limits or manner of this Fast, for no body knew when to begin their Lent till the Council of Nice had settled that discord, because the exact time for the observation of Easter-day was uncertain till that Synod had concluded it. All the while the Church was unresolved of the one, without question it was unresolved of the other. Secondly, For the most part these two Constitutions are yoked together to keep a solemn abstinence in Lent, and that none should fast upon any day of the week between Easter and Pentecost: The same obedience was required to both, both accounted equally laudable, but as ceremonies of decency and no necessity: So alterable that the one is quite forgot, therefore I conclude the other can be no Apostolical Tradition.  
You have heard me discover their error, that maintained the yearly observation of a Quadragesimal Fast to be necessarily grounded either upon Christ's example, or upon Apostolical Tradition, now I will proceed to show, that it is an Ecclesiastical Constitution, a lawful Constitution, and a laudable. There are many that speak very reverendly of this time of moderation in diet, and yet they will acknowledge that the Heretics, who are named from Montanus, did first begin it; and that the Orthodox Church did follow them in that, lest they should seem to be outgone in the thing of good praise, and austerity by the enemies of the Gospel. This were no discredit to a good Institution, for to imitate the Heathen in that which is just and honest cannot choose but bring forth a good effect. We may borrow a Jewel from an Egyptian, but not an Idol. Howsoever the original is not well known, but this is well known, that the custom hath been transmitted to us from generation to generation. Both by the Greek and Latin Churches without contradiction for the space of 1300 years. And St. Austin said in his time, Ecclesiae consuetudo roboravit; 
Ep. 11●●  The practice of the Church hath confirmed at what time of the year all men should unanimously keep this Fast. And let me tell you, we do not keep the same time that our Saviour did. The learnedst Calculators of time ascribe his Baptism to the sixth of January, immediately he began his fast which continued to the middle of February: For the most part we begin our Lent where he ended, but many times later; Ecclesiae consuetudo roboravit; that is the answer, the custom of the Church hath so confirmed it. So the observation hath descended to us from hand to hand, and our own Church treading in the steps of pure antiquity hath admitted it. Beloved, the days of the year, which are of especial observance, are either days of joy, or days of fasting and sorrow. The chief day of joy is that wherein Christ rose from the dead, and it appears that the Apostles appointed it for the solemnity of Christian meetings weekly, and called it the Lords day; but God left it indifferent to the Church to appoint themselves their own days of fasting, and mourning, and repentance, for we owe all our gladness to God, but we owe all our griefs and sorrow to ourselves. And indeed Fasts are things to be dispensed with to sundry persons, and upon divers occasions, therefore Almighty God left these things to the discretion of Authority in particular places.  
A great tyranny is exercised in this matter, when the Roman Church, which is but one particular of the whole, will prescribe Laws of abstinence from meats to all other Churches. The lesser Churches indeed, for uniformity sake, were wont to have a respectful regard to the Ceremonies and Adiaphorous Rites which Imperial Cities; and Patriarchal Sees did follow. Not, I say, as if the richer and mightier Church did; or could bind the smaller to the prestation of her customs, but because in things honest, and without exception it was meet that the noblest places should be rather imitated than descend to imitate others. But O the advantages that Pride will take! courtesy in a while was turned to necessity, and the Roman Bishops did dare to challenge all Churches for Heretical that do not profess uniformity with them in all Fasts and Ceremonies. But all the Ink in Italy is not enough to blot out the Canon of the Council of Chalcedon, consisting of six hundred Bishops, that the Churches of Constantinople, because the Emperors kept their chief Palace there, should have, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal Privileges with the Church of Rome. And it is a Story known to all Divines, when Monacha, St. Augustine's Mother, came to Milan, St. Ambrose kept Institutions of Fasts divers from the Church of Rome, and was never quarrelled for it. Look among all the reasons of the Fathers, which persuaded the fast of forty days, I find not one that says itwas expedient to be kept, because so it seemed good to the Roman Pontifical Authority. The Institution depends upon a custom received from one to another in particular Churches.  
A Constitution it is then propagated unto us from age to age. The next quaere is, whether it be a lawful Constitution? That is, whether the Church hath power to make Laws for appointed times and qualities of Fasting? That the Magistrate may bid a Fast according to the convenience of some seasonable occasion it finds no contradiction, unless, perhaps, some Anabaptistical fury doth oppose it. So did Ezra, so did Esther, so did the King of Nineveh, so says Joel, Proclaim a Fast, call a solemn assembly; and in all occasions of woe and calamity to forget our food for a time, and to intend nothing but spiritual exercise, I know no Christian Church in the world but doth practise it. But admit there be no extraordinary woe apparently like to fall upon us, either by Sword, Famine, or Pestilence, may not certain times and revolutions of the year challenge an abstinence and parsimony in our diet, if the Church will have it so, as Friday in every week, some Saints Eves in every Month, the Ember Fast, as we call it, every Quarter, the Lenten abstinence and prohibition of some meats every year? I have said enough before the Primitive Antiquity was very constant and regular in these observations de facto; now I will refer you to the proofs of holy Scripture, that it may be done de jure. Zach. seven. 5. There it appears that for the space of seventy years, while the Children of Israel were in Captivity, in all that space, as the year turned about, they did solemnize Fasts in the Fifth and in the Seventh Month, not by God's Law, (we find no such Precept) but by their own Ecclesiastical Ordinances. When ye fasted in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even unto me? Their hypocrisy is blamed, because they did not humble themselves before the Lord as they ought, but the Ordinance was irreprovable.  
The next stone that I will move is that Text, Luk. v. 33. The Disciples of John complain that they fasted, and the Pharisees fasted, but the Disciples of Christ did not fast. What Fast is this which they object unto him? For it can be no Statute of God's Laws. Who would have kept it sooner than Christ and his Disciples? For he came to fulfil the Law, and not to break it. It could be no Fast of private devotion, for it had been most injurious to cavil with Christ for pretermitting their private Fasts; it follows therefore that they were Fasts publicly kept, enacted by the Synagogue, observed not only by the Pharisees, but by godly men, John's Disciples. Only Christ did dispense with his train, because the Children of the Bride-chamber were not to mourn while the Bridegroom was with them, and to show that he was above the Synagogue. Moreover, it is very strongly probable, that all the Jews were bound by their own rules, and by no other, to fast upon every Sabbath until the sixth hour of the day Josephus, their own Historian, testifies so much; the Gentiles, among whom they lived, did deride them for it; and the Scripture gives us some light for it, Neh. viij. 3. The ears of all the people were attentive to the Law from morning until noonday, and at the twelfth verse, they were dismissed, and went to meat. 
Eccles. Polit. lib. 5. come. 72  But our judicious Hooker argues very learnedly upon Mat. xii. 1. Christ walking through the fields the Disciples plucked the Ears of Corn: The Pharisees challenge them for doing that which was not lawful to be done on the Sabbath day. The bodily labour to rub the Corn was no such great trespass that it should offend them; wherefore nothing could displease them but the breaking of the Fast before the sixth hour; and our Saviour's answer doth apologise not for their bodily labour, not for making bold with another man's Corn, (it was no theft, for the detriment was not valuable) but he defends them that they satisfied their hunger by the example of David, when he eat the holy bread. And thus the Scripture approves the Doctrine which I teach, that it is lawful for the Supreme Magistrate of the Church to proclaim observations, both for convenient seasons, and for ordinary times of fasting. I find indeed that one, Aerius by name, cried out for Christian liberty, and pretended that Canonical Fasts were unjust thraldom; but I find that the Church remitted none of her Discipline for all his clamour, and he was counted but an Heretic for his labour.  
But is it lawful not only to ordain a time of abstinence, but also during that space to turn our ordinary food into another species and quality? It is. For that you may see what power the Church hath, the first Canon that ever the Apostles made in the face of a public Council was an ordination to inhibit the Brethren from meats offered to Idols, and from blood, and from things strangled. A temporary Canon it was to last for the space, while the Jews took offence at the Gentiles converted unto the Faith, but after the scandal was taken away the force of the Canon ceased, witness one Text for all, 1 Cor. viij. 8. for in all appearance the worst of those meats forbidden was that which was offered to Idols; yet St. Paul, when he wrote that Epistle, says, it was lawful for a man to eat that meat offered to an Idol, so he did not eat it with the conscience of an Idol. Well then, the Church did frame an injunction to make all men refrain from certain meats for a time. As for this exception against some kind of diet for forty days, which is called the quality of Fasting, to say the troth, the conscionable Writers of the Church of Rome will confess it is nothing less than a Fast properly taken. Be it so that Flesh yields the most copious nourishment, yet the greater sort of men are better pleased with the delicacies of Fish, choice of Wines, suckets, and Electuaries; it can be no Fast to replenish a man's self with these, not only for necessity, but even to flatter his Palate, and to give his appetite satiety, therefore even these things, according to the intent of the Church, should be taken with greater parsimony and abstinence than we do at other times. And then I will show, it was impossible for the Church to take better care for the avoidance of gluttony than to appoint order for the quality of diet; for no proportion can be set down in a general form and direction for the special quantity what every man should take for the space of forty days; for a little pittance is a great meal to some queasy stomaches, and a great allowance again would be too little to keep others in health, who are of strong and sudden concoction. Consider this reason, and it will satisfy you for what cause your diet is moderated for forty days in the quality of our meat, and not in the quantity. Daniel fasted but half a Lent, but three weeks, and he inhibited himself for that space not to taste of Flesh or Wine: In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks, I eat no pleasant bread, neither came Flesh or Wine into my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all till three whole weeks were fulfilled, Dan. x. 2. Howsoever, to close this Point, obedience single by itself is better than fasting; for fasting is reduced to the virtue of temperance, obedience to the virtue of justice, giving honour to whom honour belongeth, and of all the cardinal virtue's Justice is the fairest, and the principal.  
A lawful Constitution I have proved it, but because many things are lawful which are not expedient, it remains to be sifted, and nothing remains but it, whether it be a laudable appointment. Certainly, it is laudable in a very great degree, both to rectify our appetite in the concupiscible, and in the irascible part: In the concupiscible, to abate our inclination toward the pleasure of our Palate, and make us abstinent; In the irascible, to curb our lawless stubbornness, and make us obedient. Seneca, an Heathen, did perceive there was some defect in their Government, that the people were not prohibited some kind of food for a time, to make them know their subjection to the Magistrate, Nullis animalibus nisi ex fastidio pax est, says he. The Creatures can never be at rest and quiet any time of the year, when the Laws will have it so, but when we loathe them; and we aim at temperance by our own palate and stomach, not by the Law of the Magistrate. Remember how directly you tread in the steps of Adam, and follow the first sin that ever he committed, if you set more by the pleasure of your Palate than by the duty of obedience. St. Austin conceived this benefit would redound by that partial abstinence, Qui ista vitamus quae aliquando licent, imprimis peccata fugimus quae omnino non licent; We that for a while deny ourselves those things which are lawful, 
Serm. de Temp. 64.  will be the better prepared to shun iniquity, which is altogether unlawful. I omit one thing, (for in this copious subject I must make an Epitome, not a full Treatise) I omit, I say, the enumeration of all Political Emoluments, those are in every man's tongue and knowledge, to maintain Fishing, to enrich the employment of Mariners, to inure us to hardness in the times of peace, if Wars should exercise us abroad, or at home, to spare every young thing in the Spring of the year, and to preserve the multiplication of the beasts of the field, these things are commonly dictated from the bar of the Civil Governor: But will you know the spiritual advantages? Why, we appease God's wrath by humiliation, and dejecting ourselves for the sins of the whole year; which we committed before. It is a special time destined to sweep away the filth of the whole house; for as in Moses Law, Leu. xuj. 30. All the people once a year did afflict themselves for expiation of their common sins, so it is good to have a public time allotted, to deprecate the Divine Wrath, that it may not fall upon the whole Nation. Again, all the Writers of all Ages cannot be deceived; and all confess with one mouth, that a moderation of diet, especially continued for some considerable time of temperance, must needs abate the violence of voluptuousness and luxury. And because we see it in the examples of Peter, and Daniel, and many more in Scripture, that Fasting doth elevate the mind, and make it more capable of spiritual thoughts, therefore it is well ordained, that the most notable Fast in the year should go before the great Anniversary Communion of Easter. I know some will say, divers of the Reformed Churches have disused this ceremony, to profess an abstinence in the quality of their meats for forty days. They can best answer for themselves, and do answer, that their people, if they retained that use, would be seduced with Superstition: But for our parts we have more cause to fear a pound of Gluttony than a dram of Superstition; and more reason they should conform to us than we to them, since some of their own do ingenuously confess of our Divines, that we are Purioris antiquitatis retentissimi; most retentive of purer antiquity. In a word, there is no necessity by God's Word to keep a Lent of forty days, therefore those Churches are not condemnable: But because the use hath been propagated to us in so many Ages, both in the Greek and Latin Churches, I presume to say that our custom is more justifiable, and more laudable.  
One thing for the last relish, the Quadragesimal Fast is grounded upon long custom of time, upon Ecclesiastical Constitution, and Political Confirmation, therefore it is not like one of the arch Precepts of the Law fac, & vives, do this, and live; man was made for those virtues of Faith and Charity, to which Gods Laws do immutably bind him, but the Lent was made for man, and not man for it. The Libertine is too scandalous that tusheth altogether at this Ordinance; but they that terrify weak consciences, that do not punctually observed it at all times, are too rigorous, that I may not say too Pharisaical, who lay such heavy burdens upon men's shoulders under pain of damnation. The Laws of the King which belong to the especial good of the Kingdom, or for advancement of piety, cannot be broken without manifest incurring of a great offence before God; but the Laws of Fasts concern not the main substance of Religion, or the necessary welfare of the Commonwealth, therefore, according to the indulgence of the Supreme Magistrate, it may well be thought, that they are not rigorously to be understood, but civilly, that is, we are to give heed unto them, that we do not break them with open contempt or scandal, or out of the humour of a Libertine, or any such neglect, for than it is sin unto thee. But where such food cannot sufficiently be supplied, or if infirmity grow upon us, or where some honest or reasonable cause shall be offered, neither contempt being in our hearts, nor scandal given by our neglect, they that do contrary are not held neglecters of their duty, or contemners of the Magistrate. As upon Feast-days we dispense with men's necessities for bodily labour, so upon Fasts respect is had to our weakness, lest we should suffer harm in doing good.  
Thus much hath been spoken upon the continuance of Christ's Fast forty days and forty nights, I will be brief in the consequent, He was afterwards an hungry. The Devil is exceeding subtle, and works much upon advantage; no greater advantage for his tentations than penury and necessity: Yet Christ would hunger, when he was to be tempted, as who should say, I am in that plunge, which the Devil wisheth, and yet let him do his worst. I know not how Satan came by the knowledge that he was an hungry, unless Christ discovered himself by searching for food, and making enquiry where it might be expected, and finding none. This is manifest, his appetite was destitute, and in some distress; all the time of the forty days going before he was sustained by the divine virtue that he should not hunger, afterwards he suffered nature to have its course. This only may be thought a little strange, that after Moses and Elias had ended their fast of forty days, we do not read in Scripture that they were an hungry; why should the Holy Ghost leave it written, that there was more infirmity in Christ than there was in them? Because no more is spoken of Moses and Elias, than to show how the divine virtue did manifest itself upon them; but our Saviour did exhibit a proof that the virtue of God was in him, and the infirmity of man.  
Only remember that Christ had satiety and hunger in his own power to manifest them when he pleased; Qui Dominus est totius terrae, Dominus est naturae suae, says St. Austin; He that was Lord of the whole Earth, know it, and mistrust it not, he was Lord also of his own nature; it was in his power to lay down his life when he pleased, therefore it must be in his power to hunger when he pleased. Hunger and thirst, pain and sorrow were as naturally in Christ as they are in us, but with two marks of difference: First, Christus non contraxit defectus naturae sed assumpsit; Christ took such defects upon him, he yielded to undergo them, but we do merit and contract them; to deserve infirmity, and to assume infirmity are two divers things. Secondly, Impotencies of nature do command us, we cannot command them. If we have watched and fasted any long time, sleep and meat are tribute which nature calls for, and must be paid; but our Saviour had them under subjection quantum, quando, quomodo, to take them not out of necessity, but voluntarily, in no measure but when he pleased, at no time but when he thought fit, in all respects according to his own wisdom and appointment. Now to that God who was made poor that we might be made rich, that was made exceeding sorrowful that we might rejoice, that did hunger and thirst that we might be filled with good things, be Praise and Honour. AMEN.   

THE six SERMON UPON Our Saviour's Tentation.  MAT. iv. 3. 
And when the Tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread.  

Prov. xxx. 19  OF four things hard to be understood, one, says Solomon, is the way of a Serpent upon a stone or rock. Via colubrina super petram. Proverbs for the most part have some dark allusion in them, rather than a literal meaning, and so hath this. Satan is the Serpent, Christ is the Stone, Tentation is the way of the Serpent, and nothing more obscure than the way of that Serpent's tentation upon this elect precious Stone in Zion, the chief Stone in the corner, as the Prophets call him. Concerning this Verse, which I have read, it is debated by learned Authors what fetch the Tempter had. Some say his scope was to satisfy his own distrust, and to find out whether Christ were the very Son of God; he found no sin in our Saviour, he heard the voice from Heaven at his Baptism, he had learned what John Baptist testified of him, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world; this was enough to convince all the Furies of Hell, and to put it out of doubt; yet Satan was extreme unwilling to be persuaded of that, which would put him to so much sorrow, and for all this he is no further than if; If thou be the Son of God. Some say the Devil's drift was to draw Christ to offend God with some capital iniquity, and if this project could possibly have succeeded the redemption of mankind had been utterly marred, for no Sacrifice would serve our turn, but a Lamb without spot, that is undefiled.  
Surely, some sin or other was part of the intendment in this first Tentation, because it is evident he counselled Christ to sin against heaven in the Tentations following. Therefore in this first onset the Devil was not only an Explorator to sent it out what Christ was, but an evil Counsellor to allure him furthermore to disobedience. Exploravit ut tentaret, tentavit ut exploraret, says St. Ambrose. Yet I must resolve you, before I do any thing, what sin it was which the wicked one did drive at. Many are so curious to suit this Tentation in every Point with the tentation of our first Parents (and what need that be so exactly sought for?) That they give sentence it was the sin of Gluttony, and nothing else to which he was prompted. Yes surely, to some other sin as well as that, and much rather than that, for if Satan had required no more than to make Christ dissolve his fast, and eat, he would have brought him bread, and not put him to it to make bread of stones. Moreover, there is small likelihood that one should sin much in Gluttony by eating bread. And especially I would have you mark, that Christ answered the Devil out of the Scripture, not by a Text which should exhort to sobriety, but to rely upon God's providence in all things; Man liveth not by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Wherefore if Gluttony be one skirt of the matter, yet certainly, according to Christ's answer, the sin mainly proposed was to make him distrust in God, and to satisfy his wants by unlawful means.  
And thus I have premised for your better understanding the drift of this wicked Fiend, what mischief he would draw on by the words of my Text. If he had other secret policies, which we cannot reach, peradventure he had, then let us say with the Spirit of God, We have not known the depth of Satan, Rev. two. 24. But now I have made you able to conceive how my Text may be broken into conspicuous parts. The Tempter came to Christ for two ends, Vt cognosceret, ut corrumperet: 1. To know Christ. 2. To Corrupt him. To corrupt him two ways; principally, by Infidelity; consequently, by Gluttony. In the first we must watch Satan as a spy, and beside the words of espial two circumstances shall be enquired into: 1. When Satan made this address. 2. How he made this address, in what shape and fashion. For the tempter came; coming is a bodily motion; And he said unto him, speaking proceeds from corporeal instruments. These little circumstances have some weight in them, but the burden of the first part comes after; where Satan plays the spy and explorator, If thou be the Son of God, etc.  
And when the Tempter came to him, is it not very natural to move this question upon those words, When the tempter came to him? Whether all the days that he continued in the Wilderness Satan was at his right hand to make him stumble at some stone of offence, or whether the wicked Fiend approached not unto him till the forty days were ended, there is the scruple. And perhaps there is truth on both sides, so I would judge it, if it were left to my arbitration. What more plain than St. Luke's narration? He was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness, 
Luk. iv. 2.  being forty days tempted of the Devil. So that it will agree with the Scripture, that there were certain light skirmishes of Tentations between Christ and the Adversary all the while he was in the Desert, but such faint assaults, that they deserved not the relation. 
Homil. 24. in Luc.  Origen is of this judgement, and this is his saying, As the World could not hold the Books if all things were written which Christ did, so the World could not hold the Books if all his Tentations were recorded. Why not altogether probable, that he passed not one day in the Wilderness without some Diabolical affront, since his whole life was full of those hellish indignities? Witness that praise which he gives to his Disciples, Luk. xxii. 28. You are they that have continued with me in my tentations, his tentations were continual. This is one part of Christ's Passions and sufferings, which the World takes little notice of, the impostures of the Devil doing him molestation without ceasing. Well might the Greek Liturgy urge him in their Prayers with these words, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, By thine unknown torments sweet Jesus have mercy upon us. Gall and Vinegar were not so untastful to his mouth as the offensive objections of Satan did grate upon his ear. Nec in aurem tantûm Christi injectae sunt, 
Brentius.  sed penetrarunt cor ipsum, & perfoderunt animum ejus, says a late one. Nor were these Tentations harsh only to the ear, but their heinousness pierced his very heart. Conceive thus much, if a solacism rudely spoken is able to move the patience of a polite Grammarian, than Blasphemy continually spoken by the wicked Angel must needs be a great contristation to the Son of God. This is pleaded on the one side, that in all the forty days some petty light tentations were darted by the Devil against our Saviour: And on the other side, again this is truth and reason, 
Paraeus.  the red Dragon did not begin his main battle, nor did he propound those three infamous desperate Propositions upon which we entreat, till the forty days were ended. So I will allege St. Cyprian to balance the Authority of Origen; Postquam quadraginta dierum abstinentiam consummavit accessit Diabolus; After our Lord had gone through the abstinence of forty days, than the Tempter came unto him. It is as fairly seen as the light, that there was no ground for the first tentation till the long fast was absolved, and Christ's hunger did press him sore, and call for sustenance, than he provokes him to contrive for bread by any means in the world rather than want it. Away with this tedious fasting, and satiate your appetite. Signum panis petit, qui signum jejunii pertimescit, the eloquence of Chrysologus. Satan could not abide this miracle of fasting, he had rather see him juggle for bread. So the first question when the evil one came is now no more doubtful unto you. He came oftentimes before with some weak provocations, but at the end of forty days he put his Plough as deep as he could into the ground, and harrowed up all the subtleties of Hell to prevail against him that is invincible.  
Now for the shape and figure in which the Tempter came to our Saviour, that is another circumstance of inquiry, and very briefly upon it. In his own substance, you know Satan is a Spirit, and this was the Arch-spirit of infernal darkness, (for surely, 
Lib. 9 Civ. Dei. c. 21.  says St. Austin, the Regiment of Hell would trust no inferior Goblin to try masteries with the mighty Son of God.) Yet there is no likelihood that he did offer himself now unto Christ in his invisible spiritual nature. Undoubtedly he did exhibit himself in an humane body like some charitable good man, that came to condole with our Saviour, 
Tolet. in c. 4. Lucae. Anno. 11.  and was right sorry he had no sustenance. I commend his ingenuity that first observed it, how Satan did clamber higher and higher in every Tentation, and still changed his outward appearance to do the feat the better. First, as a man, he did commiserate humane wants and necessities, and insinuates the sin of Infidelity. Secondly, He transformed himself into an Angel of light, and urgeth him to presumption and vainglory. In the last bout, having now deceived himself that Christ was not the eternal Son of God, he did truly manifest the Luciferian, audaciousness and impudence, and in his own shape he provokes the most holy one of God to most horrid Idolatry. The Thief comes not but to steal, says our Gospel; and the Impostor of the world comes not but to deceive; Totus quantus est mendacium est; Every thing in him was lying, and fiction, and delusion: The promises which he made were lying promises, the pity which he pretended was lying pity, the Scripture which he quoted, as he quoted it, was lying Scripture, and the shape in which he came was a lying shape. Alas that man, who was made an excellent Creature after the Image of God, should degenerate so much in all goodness, that his shape should grow a fit coverture to cloak the cozenage of the Devil. Might not this be the art of this our capital enemy? That since God cursed the Serpent, because the Devil came in his shape to tempt our first Parents; so the Lord might be exasperated to curse mankind, because his only Son was tempted to wickedness in the shape of man. Beloved, this inference from hence may be our instruction; We know not in what form or transmutation Satan will come to seduce our souls, therefore be wise as Serpents. And since our own shape is not free from his Impostures, as it follows in the next verse, Mat. x. 17. Beware of men. Take heed that beauty tempt you not to wantonness: it is but dirt well tempered with blood. Let not pleasing words steal away your heart from the truth, that is but to dance when the Devil Pipes. Every man that speaks contrary to faith and holiness his mouth is become the instrument wherein Satan speaks his Oracles. And so much for that circumstance, how he disguised himself in the shape of man.  
After this I will lay hold of one of the main parts of the Text. The Tempter had two ends in casting forth these words before our Saviour, Vt cognosceret incognitum, ut corrumperet cognitum; First, to learn more perfectly that which he terribly mistrusted; whether Christ were the Son of God; and upon this do depend some remarkable observations. And to make this Point profitable I begin from hence, that Satan had not yet perfectly discovered who our Saviour was, and therefore he wrought in this Mine in the first Tentation to find it out. Many of the Fathers do acknowledge that this was part of his business; and St. Hillary doth well express it, Erat Diabolo de metu suspicio, non de suspicion cognitio; The Devil being rather suspicious, than clearly resolved, took this course to find it out, whether this were the Seed of the woman that should bruise the Serpent's head. And mark how his words lie to this purpose: He did not say, since you are hungry bid this stone be made bread, that were to entice him to bare gluttony; Nor thus, you are the Son of God; bid this stone be made bread, but in a doubting irony, If thou be the Son of God. It is strange that a Spirit so subtle by nature, so intellectual, so vigilant to espy Christ in all his ways, so able to understand jacob's Prophesy, that the Sceptre was departed from Judah, and therefore Shiloh should come, should hold off so long, and doubt of that which was clearly manifest. There were some Divines in St. Hieroms time that took a middle way for their opinion, how the Inferior Furies of Hell did long before believe and tremble, and had cast it up for certain that this was the Son of God; but Beelzebub, the Prince of Devils, was so much blinded with malice more than all the rest, that he continued a time after all the rest in ignorance, and Infidelity. But this is merely their own fancy without the suffrage of the holy Scripture. The darkness of unbelief was upon all the Angels of disobedience; for Satan, who is the accuser of the brethren, and no doubt complaineth to God, that many of his Elect are slow of belief, hath this malicious slander retorted upon himself, that after many evident tokens, better known to him, than to weak men, he faltered and doubted shamefully, 
Salmeron.  as my Text says, If thou be the Son of God. This was like for like repaid unto him, he blinds our hearts with sundry fallacies, that we should not know good from evil; and God blinded his understanding, that he should not discern truth from falsehood. And that you may not marvel that the Tempter should be dubitative in so manifest a case, and knew not which way to incline, recollect one thing that did infatuate him, he being the Angel of pride, and judging all events according to the pitch of his own ambition, how could it come into his mind that the Son of God would debase himself with so much humility? And so it hath fared ever since those days, nothing hath so much hardened their hearts, who are slow of belief, as pride and insolency; For it is the arrogant conceit we have of our own wit which hinders sometimes that we do not subject reason to the knowledge of God.  
I must be careful in this Point that one place of Scripture may not make another obscure, especially to leave no shadow of contradiction between one Text and another. In this business Jesus fasting forty days in the Wilderness the Devil seems not to understand perfectly that he was Christ the Lord. In the Synagogue of Capernaum, Luk. iv. 34. the unclean Spirit calls him by his name, and title, and Country, Jesus of Nazareth, I know thee who thou art, the holy one of God. So intelligent above any of the Jews, that he is the first that ever called him a Nazarite. Nor do I reckon upon these words so much that the evil Spirit said, I know thee who thou art, for Satan is a liar, and must not be credited when he speaks truth: But the Evangelist St. Luke says in his own person from the inspiration of God, he suffered not the Devils to speak, for they knew that he was Christ, in the same Chapter, verse 41. Beloved, distinguish the times and the matter is reconciled. Before the encounter of this Tentation the enemy knew him not, Christ's humility and extreme exinanition did shadow him that he was not discerned. After the infamous repulse that Satan suffered in these Tentations, and upon the admiration of some other subsequent miracles, he was compelled to confess, thou art he that art come to torment me, and to destroy my Kingdom, the holy one of God. So Nazianzen exprobrates to the Arians, how they resisted that truth after so much Preaching and Writing, which the very Devils believed, though unwillingly, after the manifestation of some signs and tokens, that the Son of Mary the Virgin was the Son of God coeternal and consubstantial with his Father.  
All that knew Christ to be the Lord did not apprehend him after the same manner: His Disciples, and generally all that belong to the true Church, find him out per lumen fidei, by the revelation of supernatural faith, so you must understand that in St. John, No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and no man knoweth the Son but he to whom the Father will reveal him. Secondly, The Angels of heaven, who desire to peep into these mysteries, they know him per lumen gloriae, by the illumination of celestial glory. Thirdly, The Devils, who are able to collect from signs and conjectures far more than any man, these were convicted by his outward works and miracles, as the Centurion cried out when the Sun was eclipsed, and the veil of the Temple was rend in twain, surely this was the Son of God. St. Austin hath two rules of great direction to them that would be satisfied in this question: 
Civ. Dei. lib. 9 c. 21▪  1. Christus tantùm innotuit Daemonibus quantùm voluit; That cannot be denied, Christ was disclosed to the Devils so much at a time as he saw fit to reveal himself, and no more; therefore their reason lacks weight that object, how the very evil Angels, being at first created full of rare perfections, must needs know the mystery of the holy Trinity, and that was such a principle of divine knowledge as could never be lost, and by consequent they could never misconceive who was the Son of God. 
Estius.  This Argument is sand without chalk, and doth not hang together: For all that rebellious Regiment being cast out of heaven, they were bereft of that excellent knowledge, and of all other supernatural endowments, and now they apprehend no more of God than God thinks it expedient for his own glory. So stands the second rule of St. Austin, Sic eis innotuit sicut eis terrendis innotescendum fuit. Christ opened himself to Satan, even as in the revenge of his justice he thought it fit to increase his terror and amazement. It was not a saving knowledge to the Devil, no, nor a knowledge so much as to make him cautious, but a knowledge that increased sorrow, and inflamed him with hatred. Concerning the most wicked of men it is said, None of the Princes of this world knew him, for had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of life● But Satan knew him, and knew the Prophets, what a glorious triumph the ignominy of the Cross would be unto him, and as Isaiah saith by his death, My righteous servant shall justify many; he knew he should destroy his own kingdom by the death of Christ, yet Satan did prosecute against him, and put it into the heart of Judas; for since God had appointed his Son should die, the Devil could not hinder his counsel, and an outrageous malice made him run desperate upon his own ruin. This sprig of the Devil's condition is planted in too many, who are maliciously carried away with that Hell within them which hunts for vengeance: Here is one drives his neighbour through all the Purgatories of the Law, and yet perceives it must eat out his own estate and beggar him: Here is another will quarrel to the death, though nothing more certain than fall under the Sword, or hang under the Gallows. How many bloody Assassins have crept out of Friar's Cells and Jesuits Colleges, and have lifted up their hand against God himself, I may say, in the person of Gods Anointed? This blow they are sure shall both curse the Miscreant that did it, and the Religion that taught it. These are not weakness of men, infirmities of the flesh; though men would be wicked, yet unless the Devil were in it, and his desperate malice to boot, such apparent sottishness could not be in their wickedness.  
The agitation of this first Point lies but one question further; whether this argument of the Tempter's were strong enough to discover the true Son of God, Command that these stones be made bread. Creation is an act proper to the Lord, and certainly incommunicable to any creature; for there is an infinite distance between something and nothing, therefore nothing but an infinite power can make something of nothing. Now to create is either simply to give a being, where there was none before, as to make the earth and the heavens of nothing, or to produce a thing out of such matter as was no way prepared for such a form, as to make a man of the slime of the earth: For it is as much to produce one substance out of another in a moment, which was no way prepared for alteration, as it is to create it out of nothing. These could not choose but be Satan's principles to be confident in this experiment, If thou be the Son, etc. You will say perhaps, did not Elisha the Prophet increase whole vessels of oil from a little Cruse? And yet this is no warrant to say he was the Son of God. Beloved, Elisha did make the Prayer for the poor Widow's sake, and God did multiply the oil into that mighty quantity; therefore we must run to this answer: Either Satan hath more quickness and insight than men have, to know when a miracle is done immediately by God himself, or by his Servant; whether by the prime Independent power, or by the second and derivative power, or else there is no evasion but we must say, for all his art, the Devil required no sufficient argument to convince his Infidelity. This Christ might do as the Son of God by excellent adoption, not by eternal generation, and this will make that frequent saying of Athanasius true, 
In cap. 4. Luc. Annot. 10.  that the Devil was an Arian. Cardinal Tolet, a man of no small wit, goes further in his conjectures than any man hath done before him. Thus he objects, Whither would this Serpent wind himself? Or what would he find out? The very Son of God by such a miracle as this? Did not Moses work stranger conversions before Pharaoh? And yet Pharaoh did not say, this is the Son of God, but truly this is the finger of God, or the power of God that worketh in Moses: Nay, the evil one himself is able to bring about strange prestigiations, as were seen in Pharaohs Sorcerers. You see how hard it is to ground our faith, as the Devil would do his upon miracles. Yet Satan was more cunning in this way than any man can be, for his judgement did lean upon two principles, first, if Christ turned stones into bread, the hand of God was in it, for our Saviour was holy and unblameable, no way tainted with Magical Sorcery, and if any Daemoniacal Art were in the fact, the Prince of Devils must needs be aware of it. Secondly, God worketh no miracle by the hands of his Prophets or holy men to confirm delusions, but to testify to truth and innocency; therefore if he did provoke him to turn stones into bread, it would be for a true testimony, that he was the very Son of God: If he do this miracle and be not the Son of God, the eternal truth should confirm a lie, which is impossible. This was Satan's cunning Philosophy, and now you see the very nerves of his Argument.  
Let me draw out one Corollary for your Instruction. The first part of Satan's engine was ut cognosceret, to prove God a liar if he could. I heard a voice say, you are the beloved Son of God; but are you so indeed? This desire to litigate and quarrel with God's truth made him fall into a strange doting ignorance, almost incredible in so intelligent a substance. What, he that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of a most vast capacity of understanding, because of his spirituality, and so many thousand years' experience. He that thought he could open the market of knowledge, and sell what he pleased to our first Parents, Ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil, that he should stagger, and for a long time mistake the very foundation of all truth, that Jesus was the Son of God; Is not this passing wonderful? Why, this comes of it, when any will bend their wits to object against the plain truth, when it is manifest, than God requites their iniquity with this dulness. 2 Thes. two. 1. For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. Strong delusion, 
Muscul●●  we read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, so St. Paul; and I had rather translate it the efficacy of error. Tentation is from the enemy, the efficacy of Tentation is not from him, but in the power of God: So falsehood is from the Devil, but the efficacy of falsehood, that this error should prevail to seduce the Reprobate, that is in the hand of God; For if the efficacy and event of error were from the Tempter, nothing would help us, but that all men should be deluded. The event and prevalency of errors comes from God's permission upon them that would not obey the truth. Let me put this now into your mind; it is the fashion of the World to have men's persons in admiration, some are carried away with the opinion of their learning and good life that walk not after the wholesome Injunctions of the Ceremonies and Discipline of our Church, 
Lorinus i● ver. 16. Ep. Judas.  as Salvianus says very well, Tantùm dicta existimant quantus est ipse qui dixit, nec tam considerant quid legunt, quam cujus legunt. They measure truth, not in itself, but by the opinion of him that defends it, nor so much consider what it is they read, as whose it is they read. Purge out this leven, I beseech you, and remember, when men would expound all things by their own private spirit, God will turn their good gifts into vanity. Likewise if some others stand upon it, that there is no sort of Learning but abounds in the Church of Rome, and why should not the most Learned wear the Garland? Let them know this is as foolish an inference, well considered, as his in the Proverb, that the Peacock must sing best of all birds, because it had the fairest train. Julian the most learned Emperor, Galen the most learned Physician, Porphyry one of the learnedst Philosophers, all were Atheists, and without God in the World. The Novices of the Roman Colleges are sworn to particular opinions, and to a particular belief, and then study their course of Divinity to maintain it. So it comes to pass, They study to maintain a lie, as Satan did against Christ, and thereby they are catcht in strong delusions. And let this suffice for the first general part of the Text: That one end of these words which Satan cast forth was ut cognosceret, to learn more perfectly that, which he mistrusted before, that Christ was the eternal Son of God.  
And because he had more Hooks than one to his Angle, remember that beside his curiosity to explore him, his words likewise are full of malice to corrupt him: Command that these stones be made bread. The boldest and most flagitious attempt that ever was, to make Christ sin. Murdering of Sacred Princes, devices to blow up the Majesty of an whole State, conspiracy to root out whole Nations, endeavouring to burn up an whole Empire with Nero, betraying Christ himself to be crucified with Judas, all these ugly sins, not only single, but put all together, have less horror and impiety in them than this attempt, to lie in wait to draw sin and impurity from the most pure God. We cannot compare Satan so well as with himself, therefore I go further, the great rebellion of Lucifer, for which he was first cast out of heaven, made him not so guilty of high disobedience as this Proposition did, to tempt Christ to Gluttony and Infidelity. His first presumption is collected out of these words of Isaiah, I will be like the most High; 
Isa. xiv. 14.  but this presumption hath more rancour in it by far, the most High shall fall into wickedness, and be made like unto me. Ero similis altissimo, I will ascend as high as the glory of God, 
Ferus.  so the evil Angel coveted his own perfection in excess; but Altissimus erit similis mihi; I will bring down the most High to trespass as I have done, that is to covet God's imperfection. The very Angels are not pure in his sight, says Job; now this was the Devils practical gloss, neither shall he be pure in the sight of the Angels; But how foolish is the Serpent become, the subtlest of all Creatures, how foolish is he become because he will not understand the truth of God? O Lord thou art purer than the heavens, thou art Justice, and Righteousness, and Innocency itself; and therefore the Church doth sing a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his honour, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts. One Scripture says, he cannot lie, another Scripture, that he cannot deny himself, and another, that he cannot be tempted; Where was Satan's prudence to make an impossible motion? How had he forgot his cunning to pump for an iniquity out of the Well of everlasting purity? Some pretention yet there was for this plot, and some hope, no question▪ as the Jews cloaked their own malice before Pilate with this excuse, Had he not been a Sinner we had not brought him unto thee; so there was some likelihood to make him offend, as it appeared to Satan, and surely thus he collected it.  
If Joseph, who was espoused to Mary, be his Father I shall prevail, whatsoever is born of flesh is flesh, whatsoever is begotten by carnal generation is conceived in sin: But if it be true that the Angel said unto Mary, the Holy Ghost should overshadow her, yet the will of every man, if he be true man, is indifferent, and apt of itself to turn to evil, as well as good. Now perhaps it was not possible for the Devil to understand, how the union of the Godhead did determine that indifferency of the will only to good, and did exempt it from all possibility or inclination to evil; and the rage of malice dulling the sharpness of his intellectual parts, he proceeds upon the Premises, the second Person of Trinity is become flesh, and born of a woman, that in the same nature, wherein mankind sinned, they might be redeemed; but if this fleshly nature could be contaminated with sin, God would dissolve the Hypostatical Union, and cast it off: Dissolve the Union, and he cannot be the Mediator between God and man, and then the Sons of men shall be left without hope of redemption for ever. And it may be the Devil had that foolish forecast in his mind, when he stirred up Judas to betray him, that by his death he might dissolve the union between his Godhead and our humane nature. If any man will answer these Scholastical discourses, and say, the Devil hath no where revealed his own counsels; I reply again, we need not be ashamed of the modesty of St. John, Rev. two. We have not known the depth of Satan, but this one thing is not dubitable, he would have tempted Christ to sin. We can all easily discern the Devil's deformity out of this Sermon, what a grievous crime it was to solicit God to do unjustly; but what if this be our own fault many times (dearly Beloved?) Will you not diligently amend it for the time to come? When you see it is the blackest crime in the Devil. 1. He that sweareth by the name of God and lies, what doth he but implore the name of God to bear false witness to his Perjury? Would man make God sin for his sake? And is not man a Devil? Again, he that pretends he hath made a Vow unto the Lord, and that his Vow constrains him to do some wicked thing, doth he not make God the impulsive cause of his abomination? Another prays for nothing more heartily, than that the Lord will pour out his vengeance upon those whom he hates, although they be innocent. What is that else but to say? Do thou kill that man for my sake, who art a most just God, whom it becomes not me to hurt, that am a most wicked sinner. And though we have not Satan's opportunity to tempt Christ himself face to face, yet remember that Kings are Gods Vicegerents upon earth, and whosoever wrongs their ear with any corrupt communication, or flattery, he comes the nearest of any man to this sin in my Text to tempt God himself to evil. Non ab acervo, sed à sement furantur, says Plutarch: They that propound evil things to the Ruler of the People, they do not steal from the Barn, or from the Stack, but from the seed-corn itself, and by the Civil Law that is double thievery.  
There are under parts likewise of this Tentation, and certain insinuating ways to wriggle it in, which are fit to be discovered. First, He closeth with Christ upon a most artificial obtestation, If thou be the Son of God. It is good Oratory, you know, to importune a man to do a thing by that which he will not for shame deny. If you be an Israelite serve the Lord; if Christ be your Master, follow peace and humility. These are deep adjurements: So Satan turns this Rhetoric upon our Saviour, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But Beloved, be strong to resist these adjurations, when they are turned upon you as stones of offence. It is vulgar and trivial to cog a sin into a man with these lispings, if you love me let me obtain this at your hands; if you be my friend deny me not, as you are a Gentleman refuse me not in this, or another evil association; retort such evil adjurements as these in the name of God. I know no such sweetness in love and friendship as to serve God together in the unity of the same Spirit; I know no such obligation upon the honour of a Gentleman as to keep a good conscience. Sell not your soul away for a few fair words, for which so dear a price was paid as the blood of Christ.  
What other device do you mark? Why, two in one word; Command that these stones, says Satan; Mark what a great believer the Devil is turned, it is in your power you can command it. Nay, it is in the Greek Text, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, say the word. God made all things by the word of his power, and you are that Word, if you say it, it is done. As if he would profess such a faith as the Centurion was commended for, dic verbo, say the word and my servant shall be healed. Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum. I will not make a long Narration, for the honour of Religion, what mischiefs have been brought to pass by colour of Religion; but I will tell you for a warning of such hypocrisy, that as the curse of Jacob stuck close unto his Sons, who made Circumcision their stratagem to kill the Sichemites, so the curse of God shall stick close to them, who cheat, and betray, and sow discords, devour Widows houses, make merchandise of holy things, upon pretence of Sanctity: For how is God abused by this fraudulency, when he may truly say, many sins are done, which had never been committed, if there had been no Religion in the World. The other insinuation is the facility of doing it, he persuades to that which is as easy as to breath, speak but half a word and these stones are made bread. Sin indeed is like suretyship; it is an easy thing to get into bands, but very troublesome to get out of them; Facilis descensus Averni. It is a wide gate, and no rub in the way, that leadeth to damnation, but these foul actions, which are so easy to wicked men, that they cannot avoid them, the Lord makes them very difficult to them that are regenerate and born again. He hath set a watch before their lips, so that they cannot speak the word, which is dishonourable to his holy name, or if they do speak it, it is with much reluctancy; and by this you shall know that heavenly grace is in your heart, when you cannot do those things at all, or at least with much unwillingness, which the children of Satan do with great facility. This touch and away for those three insinuations, upon which the Devil did slide in his tentation.  
Hitherto I have spoken upon no more, but in general that the Prince of Devils attempted to make Christ a sinner. And whereas his allurement in particular partly struck upon Gluttony, partly or rather upon Infidelity, how he urged unto Infidelity shall be deferred unto a larger explication, and I will only add a few words upon his tentation to Gluttony before I conclude. A marvellous subtle beginning, he propounds nothing but that which nature necessarily calls for; the most spiritual, the most holy men in the world must have somewhat to content hunger, therefore supposing that there is most Angelical sanctity in Christ, yet since there is humane infirmity likewise, it must be repaired with sobriety. Nay, if any religious purpose of fasting hinder him, yet what holy man did fast for any long space, but he would take bread and water of affliction sometimes? That, it seems, did not dissolve the religion of his Fast. Is not this a fair curtain to draw before the mischief of his tentation? Nay, many Expositors are so puzzeled with the legerdemain of this craft, that they conclude that sin of Gluttony was not so much as aimed at; or alas there is small likelihood that one should sin in gluttony by eating bread when he was an hungry: And as small likelihood that he should sin if he made bread miraculously out of stones, when he was pressed unto it by Famine. For twice he multiplied the Loaves and Fishes miraculously in the Wilderness, when he had compassion of the People, who were ready to faint for want of bread, and who did ever find fault with it? Theophylact was driven into such a strait with this objection, that he answereth, Christ was tempted to gluttony because he was tempted to superfluity. Cum panis unus sufficeret, postulavit lapides in panes converti; When one loaf would have sufficed to have assuaged his hunger, the Devil demanded no less than all the stones that were before them to be made bread; and the Relators of the holy Land say, that in that Desert where Christ fasted, called the Mountain of Quarantena, divers stones black in colour, and large in quantity are showed unto travellers, as the very stones remaining to this day, at which the Devil pointed in his tentation. St. Matthew, it is true, relates that the Devil spoke Plurally, Command that these stones be made bread. St. Luke tells the same story in the Singular number, Command that this stone be made bread. It is well reconciled, as if the Tempter had overreached himself at first, and made an unreasonable motion, and then comes off, if it like you not to change all these stones, yet at least be pleased to turn this one into bread.  
Since therefore the Tempter at last moved for no more than the supply of one loaf of bread, wherein lies the suspicion of gluttony that he persuaded him to that? In a word thus it was; No man could have called it intemperance in Christ, 
Jansenius.  if being very hungry after a fast of forty days he had made bread, and brought it miraculously out of the hard stones: but upon occasion of hunger to obey the Devil in procuring our meat, it had been a grievous gluttony. He that cannot abstain, and should marry because the Devil bade him, to him it were incontinency. He that should use lawful recreation because the Devil bade him, to him it were voluptuousness: He that should rest his weariness, when the Devil requested him to it, to him it were idleness: So to eat bread upon his motion, whom we must fly and abhor, it would come into the rank of the deadly sins, and pass by the name of Gluttony. We deceive ourselves, if we think so well of Satan's kindness, that he is tender of our health, and would not have us fast too long, rather he desires our death, and that all humane nature were dissolved into dust and ashes, what cares he to have stones turned into bread? But to have men turned into beasts, into Swine that wallow in fullness of bread and luxury. If he can get Sodom to delight in fullness of bread, he knows their end will be fire and brimstone. Signum panis petit, qui signum jejunii pertimescit, says Chrysologus; He loves to see the miracles of bread and feeding, he cannot abide to see the miracle of fasting and temperance. Your sobriety shall make the Devil drunk with wrath because he cannot overcome you. And when the Tempter is vanquished, and hath given us over, yet the judgement of God is to come, his dreadful judgement which is to be feared, if we live in riot and wantonness. But will you not fear that judgement? Mark our Saviour's counsel, after a long description of the wofulness of that last day, thus he concludes; Take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life; and so that day come upon you unawares, Luk. xxi. 34.  
Mark, I pray you, how Satan useth to speed those with his courtesy that will be obnoxious to him. Instead of some relief for hunger he brings stones. Lapides esurienti offered, 
Chrysologus.  humanitas talis est semper inimici, sic pascit mortis author, sic invidus vitae; What man is there of you, whom if his Son ask bread will he give him a stone? Mat. seven. 9 It were no humanity indeed, but look for no better courtesy from the Fiend of Hell. A stone and bread are most opposite substances. Hawks may take pebbles for casting, but there is no nutrition in them; yet this is our enemy's courtesy, you want bread, here is a stone for you, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Thus the Author of death will feed you, who envies the life of men: But our God is very liberal, he openeth his hand and filleth all things living with plenteousness, he openeth and never shutteth his bowels of compassion against his children; he withholdeth no good thing from them that lead a godly life. On the contrary, Satan's service is most bare and wretched. The Prince of Poets sets Famine and Scarcity next to the suburbs of Hell.  

Aencad. lib. 6.  Vestibulum ante ipsum, primisque in faucibus Orci  
— malesuada fames, & turpis egestas.  
Judas presently gave up all that he got in the Devil's service, and his life to boot in a most hideous death: But Honesty, howsoever some wicked Proverbs say it ends in beggary, I say, if it be kept constantly without halting, it is seldom a loser in this life, but I am sure it is an infinite gainer in the life to come. Serve the Lord therefore with zeal and innocency and your wages shall not be denied you. I know he will outbid all the world, all the Princes of the world, and Satan himself the Prince of riches. Did he ever put such a scoff upon the hungry, as make you bread out of stones; He opened the hard rock indeed, so that waters flowed out for his people, but he did not bid them bite upon the rock for bread, but he reigned down Manna from heaven. Convert your hearts and your thoughts to the holy Sacrament. Doth God put us off there, Command that stones be made bread? No, he makes bread become the body of his dearly beloved Son by the application of faith, and he that eateth of it worthily shall be made one body with Christ, and live for ever. AMEN.   

THE SEVENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviour's Tentation.  MAT. iv. 3. 
If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.  
OUR present business consists herein, to refute one of the Devils Arguments. When he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own, 
Joh. viij. 44.  when we oppose him with the truth, we speak from God. And God give us understanding in all things, for it is no easy task to bolt out the mischievous imaginations of this Adversary. As it is accounted the chief Art of an Orator, that his words may seem to be but plain Narration, and no Art at all: So it is the sharpest strain of Wit, which makes it appear to be nothing less than wit, but plain simplicity. Take heed, and beware of this deceit in Satan. But as David enquired of the Lord how he should go to battle against the Philistines, 
2 Sam. v. 23.  and the Lord said, Thou shalt fetch a compass behind them, and so smite the Philistines: So we must not view this tentation of Satan's in the front, and seek after no more, than all the said will appear to be full of faith, and full of pity; but let us fetch a compass behind him, and you shall find strange iniquity covered under the cloak of simplicity. They that will craftily infer some falsehood will tell some truth, but this subtle Disputer hath conveyed his words with those artificial colours, that he hath spoken nothing but falsehood, and yet nothing but truth.  
If you will take him in this sense, thou art the Son of God, and thou canst make bread of these stones, both parts of the speech are very true: Or if you put it into one Sentence, the Son of God can turn stones into bread, that is very certain; the Lord can bring forth effects above nature that shall astonish us. Nay, take it hypothetically, as if he would know Christ better by a sign from heaven, if thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread; it is the voice indeed of a weak faith to require a sign, but of a faith that fain would be strengthened. Quo teneam noo mutantem Protea formas? None of these ways can you say this is falsehood, or this is a Diabolical stratagem; therefore we must fetch a compass behind him, or look through his secret intentions to discover the worst, for their inward parts are full of wickedness, says the Psalmist. First, If thou be the Son of God includes a negation upon a false persuasive, his meaning is, you are not the Son of God, you are not his beloved, the voice which spoke from heaven at your Baptism did but flout you, you want the very necessaries of life and sustenance; doth God deal thus with his Sons? No, ground your distrust upon this penury, and scarcity, you are not the Son of God. Secondly, The other part of the tentation, Command that these stones be made bread, it is not spoken to extol his excellency; as who should say, do this miracle, because you have the power of God; but thus, provide for yourself by any means lawful or unlawful rather than starve, that you may not die like man.  
This is the enemies Chain-shot, two deadly bullets made fast together, discharged out of one Canon; two such impious rules, that I may well call them the two Tables of the Devils Law. This is the first, whosoever is in distress let him think himself to be none of God's children, for God doth not care for him. The second on this wise, whosoever is in want let him raise his own fortune by hook or by crook, and as it were in despite of God let him care for himself. You do not read indeed that the Tempter himself spoke so broadly; no, there were no policy in that: but this is the very fetch of his grave seeming counsel, when you have transposed all his words in their right place. Now to make all fit for your instruction by severing one part from another observe these four things: 1. That the Devils dubitative is a Negative, if thou be the Son of a God, is a deceitful persuasion we are not his Sons, he would dissolve the confidence we have in God. 2. To resist the Devil we must labour to take away this Spirit of distrust, and have affiance that we are the Sons of God. 3. Much less must we leave our trust in him, because we are driven to hard necessity, and want bread. 4. Though we should want, and somewhat distrust, yet lest of all must we fly to projecting, to cozenage, to extraordinary devices to help our necessities, which impiety the Devil covers with a neat, finical phrase, Command that these stones be made bread. All this Preface must needs go before, and now, I think, the sequel will be very perspicuous.  
My door of entrance is at this Point, the Devil's supposition was more than half a denial, that Christ was not the Son of God: Therefore we gather from the first fruits of his Temptation, that he would extinguish our faith, and fill us with doubts and objections, that we might not trust in the rock of our salvation. You know what your Adversary useth to suggest upon every small trouble, upon every slight occasion, you are not the Son of God, you are not in the state of grace, his providence sleepeth, his eye of compassion is not upon you. If he can but loosen your faith by this murmuring and diffidence, he is sure he hath stopped the way against you for entering into your Father's glory. The Lords of the Philistines had two Pillars to bear up their house, we have but one to bear up all the spiritual building of Christianity, and that is faith; if that be bowed down, better the roof of our house had fallen upon our head, for the wrath of God will fall upon us. All Metaphors, all Figures, 
Col. two. 6.  all Words were too few for St. Paul to commend unto us a steadfast belief, As ye have received Christ the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted, and built up in him, and established in the faith. If Satan take away our root, how can our branch flourish? If he break our band, all that is bound up will shatter in pieces; If he cut off our Anchor, our Vessel will be driven upon the Rocks. If he overcome our trust in God, he will subdue all unto himself, for this is the victory that overcometh the World, or we shall never overcome it, even our faith, 1 Joh. iv. 5. How did the Serpent fasten his sting in our first Parents? But by persuading them that God cared not for them, he had created them to be base, and ignorant, and dishonourable: He would not let them eat of the tree of Knowledge that they might better their condition. How did he expose the Israelites to shame and nakedness but by disclosing their distrustful and rebellious heart? At Massah and Meribah they chid with Moses, and tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord amongst us, or not? Exod. xvii. 7. The Devil knows when we fall out with God, we will the sooner serve him, and retain to the contrary faction. You see (Beloved) our whole fortune is embarked in one bottom, in this resolute affiance, that God is with us from the beginning to the end of our life, in want and in abundance, in liberty and captivity, in evil report and good report, and he will never forsake us. The words of the Prophet Isaiah are sweeter than the dropping of an honeycomb, Isa. xlix. 14. Zion said the Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the Son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will not I forget thee. I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me. St. Austin attributes so much to the power of faith against all the machinations of hell, that he says the very Lesson of it being said by rote is able to defend us. 
De Symb. ad Catech.  Ipsa recitatio symboli retundit inimicum: The very repetition of the Creed doth beat off the enemy. How much more mighty is the true feeling of faith when it lives within us? If thou canst believe, saith Christ, all things are possible to him that believeth, Mar. ix 23.  
Let Satan therefore keep his demur, his hesitation, his If thou be the Son of God unto himself. Let him not take away your Garland by wavering, for he that wavereth is as a wave of the sea, sometimes rising aloft, sometimes carried down to the Deep. Let him not dry up the very fountain of grace. So the Greek Fathers did always entitle faith, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the mother, the spring of all celestial gifts. If any man say, what faith, what spring is this so much commended? Briefly I will borrow this description to make it facile. No man can have so much as an historical faith, and well attend it, but he must taste of some fiducial application, that he is under the wings of the Almighty, and looks for safety under his custody. Nemo rectè potest credere Deo, quin & in Deum, is no bad rule, but I stand not upon that. The faith of the Elect, by which we shall be able to overcome our Ghostly enemies, is not that which taketh all the holy Scriptures in the lump to be true, but it is a willing, a lively, and an effectual assent to the Promise of the Gospel, that Jesus the Son of the blessed Virgin Mary is the Son of God; and is the Saviour of all those that repent and believe. I say, it is a willing; and approving, a rejoicing assent; not forced, like that of the Devils and wicked men, who are convicted by the evidence of truth, and with great horror and disdain confess it. Moreover, I said it was an effectual assent, not a knowledge swimming in the brain, informing the judgement, but not reforming the heart, such as hypocrites have: But the understanding being enlightened by the Holy Ghost the will embraceth that which is good, the heart is purified by it, it works by love, and transforms us into a new conversation answerable to that which we believe. Now this belief in Christ, which is the keeping the condition of God's Promise, doth imply three acts: The first of assent, that he is the Saviour of all those that believe in him (which assent when it is lively and effectual is the proper act of that faith whereby we are justified before God.) The second act is of application, when believing truly he is the Saviour of all that believe; I therefore believe that he is my Saviour, which is the act of that special faith, by which we are justified in our own conscience. The third act is of trust and assurance, that because I do believe not only that he is the Saviour of the World, but also my Saviour, therefore I rest upon him for salvation. So says our Saviour to his Disciples, Let not your hearts be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me, Joh. xiv. 1. But this is not the act of faith as it justifieth us before God, nor yet the proper act of special faith, which doth justify us in our own conscience, but a fruit and consequent thereof: and such a fruit as the Devil would pluck from the tree, with this scrupulous injection, if thou be the Son of God.  
Now I will let you see as in a Map, by pointing at spots of ground for whole Countries, how faith is the fountain of all divine graces, and therefore when Satan can make us reel and totter in our opinion, whether we are the Sons of God, there is not one Christian function in us stands sure, but all the parts of true Religion are out of frame. For first, how can a man hope and wait for the performance of the Promises, that doth not believe that they belong unto him? Faith being the substance of things hoped for. How can a man have true peace of conscience, who is not persuaded that God is reconciled to him? How can a man rejoice in God, who is not assured of God's favour towards him? How can a man be thankful to God, who is not persuaded of God's love and bounty to him? They that have sinned how shall they be persuaded to turn unto him, if they be not persuaded that his mercy is ready to receive them? No man can perform obedience who is not persuaded that his endeavours are accepted of him. No man can pray fervently, who doth not assure himself that he shall be heard. For so the Apostle, How shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? Rom. x. 14. Who can patiently bear afflictions, who is not persuaded that those fatherly chastisements proceed from God's love, and and tend to purge him, as the Chaff is Winnowed from the Wheat? Who can worship God with zeal and devotion, who is not resolved and comforted that his service is accepted of him? Hope, Joy, Peace, Thankfulness, Repentance, Obedience, Prayer, Patience, Worship, all these will vanish away like a morningmist before the Sun if the Devil can make you distrust with such a tentation as this, If thou, etc.  
And no marvel if in the first place, and before all other parts of sin, Satan labours to fill the World with little faith; he can spare enough of that out of his own store to infect all the earth; for who so great an Infidel as himself in this very tentation? The words indeed come off very roundly and confidently, that the Son of God with one word can command all the stones in the Wilderness to be made bread. But to what end I pray you? Whether you say for Christ's sake, or for the Devil's sake, every way it will chime Infidelity. Argue in the first place why it should be done for Christ's sake? For if he were God, what need he make bread of a stone, that could make it of nothing? Or though he were hungry, what need he make bread at all? Is not the bread of heaven able to live without material bread? And Chrysologus revies it with his objection, Nun potest panem vertere in saturitatem, qui potest in famem lapides immutare? He that can turn stones into bread, is it not as easy for him to turn hunger into satiety? And had this been a good Angel, as he was, I believe, the worst of the bad, should he instruct Christ what to do? Sus Minervam? Who hath been the Counsellor of the Lord? Says the Prophet. Quid illi consilium tuum, cui sua sufficit virtus? What Spirit can teach him wisdom, who giveth wisdom to the simple, and hides these things from the wise and prudent? Now argue if there be any thing but infidelity to ask such a sign for the Devil's sake? The working of a miracle is ever destinated to win some to the faith, that were weak before, or upon some other divine reason to promote God's glory. Where the Father's glory could not be advanced by signs and wonders, the Son kept his miracles to himself. No sign was wrought before Herod, though he did much desire it, for his heart was set upon perverseness to withstand the power of God. And Christ did not many mighty works in his own country because of their unbelief. And so says St. Cyprian, it had been against all rule and equity to have wrought a miracle in the Desert, Coram inemandibili Diabolo, before that Fiend of hell who is incorrigible; and uncapable of faith. He that can turn water into wine can turn stones into bread; but the Devil is so obdurate in malice, past all grace and repentance, that the very stones in the street shall sooner confess that Jesus is the Christ than he will give glory to the Living God. Chrysologus plays his part again upon this Point. You that haunt the Wilderness to tempt the Son of God, what would you do with a sign from heaven? Cui nihil subvenit ad salutem, cui totum restat ad paenam, cui & signa proficiunt ad ruinam; Nothing will help thee, nothing will resore thee. All the good that is done in thy presence shall turn to thy punishment: All the miracles that ever were wrought shall make for thine everlasting torment. And so I have showed, whether the Tempter called for stones to be made bread for Christ's sake, or for his own sake, every way it was unjust, every way it was the note of Infidelity.  
So far I have taught you from the first Point, that the scope of this first temptation was the sin of Infidelity, and from thence I have illustrated, that, above all other mischiefs, Satan suggests deceitful persuasions, that God careth not for us, and labours to dissolve the confidence which we have in God. Now this is the sum and head of the second general part of the Text, that we must strive to take away the Devils I F, this spirit of distrust, and have affiance in Christ that we are the Sons of God. And because this Doctrine comes all to one pass with that which is called certitude of Salvation, a Doctrine which in my judgement is abused very often both by them which defend it too rigidly, and by them that oppose it totally, therefore I will institute a methodical tractate upon it in these five members: 1. That the Holy Ghost doth beget a true and an humble assurance in many of the faithful touching the remission of their sins in this life. 2. The Holy Ghost doth beget this assurance in them, by causing them to examine what good fruits they have produced already from a lively faith, and do resolve to produce thereafter. 3. This comfortable assurance is not the formal act of justifying faith, but an effect which follows it. 4. This assurance is not alike in all that are regenerate, nor at all times alike. 5. No mortified humble Christian must despair, or afflict his heart, because scruples arise in his mind, so that he cannot attain to a strong confidence or assurance in Christ's mercies. He that can attain but to a conjectural hope, or some beginnings of gracious comfort, shall be blessed before God, who will not quench the smoking flax. And upon all these I will be very plain, because it is a necessary Treatise for the weaker capacities.  
You shall hear the first conclusion again, and the proofs upon it, That the Holy Ghost doth beget a true and an humble assurance in many of the faithful, that their sins are remitted. There are two degrees of justifying faith, the one is a lively assent to the general promise of the Gospel, that Christ came into the world to save all those that believe: The other is the application of it to a man's self, that he is thine and my Saviour. By the former we are justified before God, by the latter we are persuaded in our conscience, and in some measure assured of our justification. The former degree is the work of the Spirit regenerating us, the latter is the Spirit of adoption sealing it to us after we have believed. Every man is bound upon pain of damnation to have the first degree of faith, to give assent to the Promise of the Gospel: And the second degree may be attained unto out of the former, and aught to be endeavoured, for the great increase of our love and obedience to God, and for our own most singular comfort; yet it is not commanded to all the faithful upon pain of damnation. Many times a true justifying faith, but a weak and imperfect faith, cannot get so far; therefore I said the Holy Ghost did beget this assurance in some measure in many of the faithful, I had said false if I had said in all. And I called it, you must mark, an humble assurance; for first, it hath many quivering and trepidations, many symptoms of fear and trembling, no rash and audacious presumption. Secondly, It grows out of the acknowledgement that for sundry iniquities we deserved the condemnation of the Law. For they that feel not their misery will neglect their misery, and never care to apply Christ unto themselves. But the humble will seek the Lord, and rejoice in his saving health; and then they have not only an intellectual, but a fiducial assent to the Promises of the Gospel; and that fiducia or assent doth arise out of the very nature of true faith: yet I do not say, that true faith in all that have it doth put forth this act as it ought, and as it may; but every faithful man hath such a foundation, upon which he may build an actual assurance, if he will rightly consider his own state to which God hath called him, the Lords custody over him, and the faithfulness of the divine Promises.  
The efficient cause of this fiducial persuasion I said was the Holy Ghost; and I am sure I have it from our Saviour, Joh. 14.20. at that day, that is, after the sending of the Holy Ghost, you shall know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you. Can any thing be plainer? Indeed, general Promises are particularly applied by the Sacraments which seal unto us the blood of Christ, that it was shed for the sins of this and that Receiver. Also we apply general Promises to ourselves by the word of absolution: For although God only pardons sins, yet he hath promised to his Priests, if our hearts be well disposed to admit their work (Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis) What they lose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven; but the special motive is the inward testimony of the Holy Ghost, speaking in the conscience of true believers by the effects of grace. This last is it which is opposed by some, namely, that there is no assurance ordinarily begot by the Testimony of the Spirit to a man's private spirit, that he is the child of God. But this I will prove. This is not denied, that this is the faith of the Gospel, on which we lay hold for eternal life, whosoever truly believeth on Christ he shall be saved; and cannot a man infallibly infer, but I do through God's grace truly believe in Christ? Cannot a man search into his own heart, that he doth receive Christ, not only in his judgement by a firm, willing, and unfeigned assent, but also by an earnest desire to be made partaker of him, and by a settled resolution to acknowledge him to be his Saviour? Surely the mind is not ignorant of its own actions when it understandeth, when it assenteth it knoweth itself to assent; when it desireth it knoweth itself to desire; when it resolveth it knoweth itself to resolve. Much more is it able to examine itself, being holpen by the Spirit of God. I may boldly say, the Letter of the Scripture is not more plain for any point of Divinity than for this, Rom. viij. 16. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. Either we can feel this witness, and make use of it, or to what end is it given? And why else are we bidden to feel and try that good work of the Spirit, if it be in ourselves? Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith, 2 Cor. xiii. 5. The true sorrowful penitent hath not less comfort now, than if Christ were still upon the earth. But to some of them, while he lived in Jury, it was graciously spoken, Daughter be of good cheer, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, be confident thy sins are forgiven thee. And again, I have prayed, Peter, that thy faith may not fail; he let Peter know so much, that he might enjoy that comfortable persuasion. They that oppose, frame this retorsion: Some of the most excellent Saints, as Peter and Paul, knew that Christ did live in them, and that they were living members of his body for whom God had received the Crown of life; yet this they attained unto, not by the ordinary strength of faith, but by extraordinary revelation. No such matter, for says St. Peter, Give diligence to make your Calling and Election sure; 
2 Pet. i 10.  This exhortation were frustrate, to stir up our diligence for that work, if certitude of salvation come only by extraordinary revelation; and St. Paul protesting, that neither life nor death could separate not himself only, but us, many more of the Elect from the love of God, draws his persuasion from such reasons as were common to him with all the Saints, Rom. viij. 32. to the end of the Chapter. Because God hath not spared his own Son for our sakes, because with him he would freely give us all things; because Christ is risen from the dead, because he sits at the right hand of God, and makes intercession for us. And now I will draw up my meaning in this first conclusion. 1. Nothing but true faith can breed this particular application, that any regenerate person should have affiance for his own salvation. 2. That true faith doth not attain it in all, but is kept back in many by tentations, afflictions, weakness, want of instruction. 3. Every good Christian ought to endeavour to get this assurance. 4. Many, without presumption, have that steadfast and infallible comfort of Christ's mercies applied unto themselves. 5. In all that are truly justified it hath a sure foundation to beget it, if they would well examine it. Let no man therefore cavil upon any of these Points single, unless he remember them all together.  
The second conclusion follows: the Holy Ghost doth beget this certitude of salvation in some measure in the faithful by causing them to examine what good fruits they have produced already from a lively faith, and do firmly resolve to produce hereafter. Let a well-guided conscience search how contritely we have repent us of those sins which we have committed: What good works we have brought forth (I mean good in their kind according to the manifold imperfections of our frailty) examine whether they were done to be praised of men, for fear of the Magistrate, for fear of infamy, or for God's glory. Whether we would not willingly leave all we have, life and all, rather than lose our integrity. Examine all these things after God's Word, and not after the fashion of the world, and what strong and serious resolutions you have for the time to come; and upon strict inquiry if you find a good account, then conclude, I feel the Lord dwell in me by his holy Spirit, I feel by these good effects he will not forsake me. If any look for Enthusiasms, as if God should whisper this to them in their ear, they are much deceived. Mark by what Index St. Paul directs us; 
Rom. viij. 1.  by the marks of sanctification, There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 
1 Joh. two. 3.  And St. John clean throughout his first Epistle, Hereby do we know that we know him, if we keep his Commandments: And by this we know we are translated from death to life if we love the brethren. St. Austin thus upon it for an interpreter: Let every man enter into his own heart, and if he find there brotherly charity, 
In 1 Ep. Joh. tractat. 5.  let him be secure, for he is passed from death to life. I confess it, and I admonish you upon it, it is no such easy thing as the most imagine, to try and find out whether our charity be rooted in a lively faith. And in examination of particular actions, from whence it must be manifested, there may be much deceit, much mistaking; this causeth doubtings and fears, and suppositions, and intermissions of confidence. Yet this is a possibility to sound the depth of a man's own heart, and so St. Austin pleads on my side again, A man may know the charity wherewith he loveth his brother, better than he knoweth his brother.  
Some there are, and not a few, who would cloy the Doctrine of special faith with this absurdity, That many are encouraged thereby to run on in all manner of iniquity, as if it were no matter how many, and how grievous sins they committed, so long as they were assured by this special application of Christ that all their sins were remitted. But mark this second conclusion, and it is abundantly enough to put to silence this cavillation. For if we say we feel ourselves translated from death to life by the fruits of mortification and vivification for the time past, and by a firm resolution to produce better fruits for the time to come, how will this agree with continuing in the works of the Devil, and yet to collect we are the Sons of God? There is no coherence in these two; nay, there is a flat contradiction in the terms: For the practice of sin, especially of any great crime, cannot possibly stand with the assurance of special faith. You cannot say, I do verily believe I shall persist without interruption in the grace of God, unless you add, I do firmly purpose to walk in all the ways of God. Eternal life is given conditionally, believe, that is, believe effectually, and thou shalt be saved; Now it were extreme folly to make God a liar, to think we should attain everlasting life without keeping the condition, or giving all diligence to keep it. As for the rejoinder to this, it is altogether as weak as the objection, that many live debauchedly, and yet presume and crack of special assurance. I know that the most wholesome truth that ever was taught may be distorted to ill use, and so this Doctrine taken with the left hand may prove hurtful to some; evil men will distort the Scripture to their own perdition. Yet it is against reason, and against the grounds of special faith if any man will look upon them but with half an eye: For whosoever live like Libertines, regardless to please God, so far ought they to be from being certain of life eternal, that according to that present state of bitterness wherein they are, unless they mend, they are certain of eternal damnation. The Grasshopper feedeth only on the dew, and Ephraim feedeth on the wind, Hos. xii. 1. A man that is in a dream may be deceived, and think he sees what he doth not, shall he that is awake therefore, and knows what he sees, misdoubt that he is deceived?  
I do defend it, and maintain it, and that upon good consideration, that there is no motive in Divinity of greater force and efficacy to encourage a man to do well, or to preserve him from heinous sins, than to fix in his heart that Christ died for the sins of the whole world, and for his sins in particular; and albeit he is laden with iniquity, and hath abused the blood of the Covenant, yet by repentance and newness of life he is persuaded that blood shall not be in vain to him, but that God hath remitted his sin; and is this a stumbling-block to make a man a hypocrite? Will any but a most riotous unreclamable Son run on in lewdness, because he knows he hath an indulgent Father? Or waste and consume his means because his Father hath entailed his Land upon him? The Prodigal in the Gospel came to himself, and turned a new leaf, because he knew he had a Father would receive and forgive him. Shall we abide in sin because grace abounds? Rom. vi. 1. St. Paul cries out upon it as the greatest Solecism in Divinity. The more a man is assured of God's love towards him in Christ in pardoning his sins, in redeeming him, in glorifying him hereafter, the more will his heart be inflamed with love towards God, and towards his neighbour, yea, towards his enemy for God's sake; the more studious he will be of his glory, the more desirous to please, the more careful to obey, the more ready to return and repent when he hath offended. I say it will be so, not barely it ought to be so. Paul and Peter, and divers in the Gospel were assured upon Christ's words of their Salvation, do you ever read they were less faithful in their ways, or any whit the more presumptuous? If words can be clear and legible these are in St. John, 1 Ep. three 2, 3. We know when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is, and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. As if he had said, A man cannot steadfastly hope for glorification but it will make him purify his heart. I must gather up my meditations briefer in the three following Conclusions.  
And the third is in part already opened, that this special assurance is not the formal act of justifying faith, but an effect which follows it. Faith is called special faith two ways: 1. Because our Lord Jesus and his merits is the object of it, and so it is called faith in his blood, Rom. iii 5. For although by that faith which doth justify we believe all the Articles of faith, and the whole Word of God, as well threatenings as promises, yet the object of it as it justifies is Christ, and in regard of the general compass of belief it is called special faith. 2. It is called special faith in regard of the effect, by which particularly and specially we apply Christ unto ourselves. Some have most inconsiderately taught, That this special faith in the latter sense, or particular application is the very essence of justifying faith. Which opinion hath drawn upon itself a world of scandal, and absurdity. By faith we obtain remission of sins, that is, the Covenant of the Gospel. But by what faith? It cannot be by this special assurance. For certainly a man's sins must be forgiven, before he can be assured they be forgiven, what more idle than to be assured by special affiance that we were reconciled to God, before we were reconciled: therefore in order of nature there is another degree of faith which goeth before, by which we are justified before God, and that is a lively and effectual assent that this is most true, that Christ came into the World to seek and to save that which is lost. This is eternal life, that we might know thee the only God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent, Joh. xvii. 3. And as that is a plain speculative Text, so we have the exercise and practise of it, Mat. xuj. 16. Our Saviour asked his Disciples, Whom say ye that I am? Peter answered, Thou art Christ the Son of the living God. This was his intellectual asset to the truth of salvation, and thereby he was justified: Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona, blessed for that confession. Therefore special assurance is not the formal act of justifying faith: In a word, our confidence is begotten by God's mercy, our confidence doth not beget God's mercy.  
We live in our Mother's womb as soon as ever the soul possesseth the body, yet we feel not when life was first given: So we live by faith, and we are justified by acknowledging the mystery of salvation, as it is Rom. x. 9 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved. Yet we do not feel or perceive we are justified, till the actions and fruits of faith put themselves forth abundantly in us. Infants are engrafted into Christ by Baptism, before they can perceive their insition; and do not say this reason holds not in us, we are of age to understand our own belief. It is not our understanding that makes God gracious unto us, but his own free mercy: And in this respect many like newborn babes receive the kingdom of heaven. I mean, that divers go out of this World into Abraham's bosom, who never overcome distrusts and tentations, at least till they are even going out of the World. But this charitable and most true assertion were invalid, if particular application of Christ's mercies by firm assurance did justify a sinner. I resolve it therefore unto you, that general assent goes first in order, that Christ, perfect man and perfect God, is the Saviour of all those that believe; then we draw a particular assent, that he is my God, and my Saviour; then our boldness and assurance, that by him we shall pass from death, and reign with him in glory, is the effect of that particular assent; and so the Scripture speaketh, Eph. iii 12. In whom we have boldness and access, with confidence by the faith of him; Here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which causeth us to speak with alacrity to God, here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which may assure itself any thing, and these are effects produced by faith in him, that is, by justifying faith. Not to cloy you with more than one other quotation, 1 Tim. three 13. They purchase themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith, which is in Christ Jesus. The object of faith is verum, the object of certitude and assurance is bonum. Faith is a persuasion or assurance of the mind, though working upon the heart. Affiance is an affection of the heart, though proceeding from the assurance of the mind.  
Now hear the fourth Conclusion speak; This affiance, or special assurance is not alike in all that are justified, nor at all times alike in any man: This Conclusion will serve to quiet the troubles of the Conscience two ways: First, When the same man at sundry times finds himself so divers from himself, now full of spiritual Consolation, a few days after that his comfort is but lukewarm, at another season almost stark cold: let no man think his case remediless, because of these alterations in his Spirit. Many times doubts will arise, and continue long with a terrible perplexity. Nevertheless, though I am sometime afraid, yet put I my trust in thee, says David. Psal. lvi. 11. When these flat contrary persuasions come into your mind, yet God will never leave you so destitute of his grace, but that you shall have some strength left to pray to be delivered out of those tentations, that the bones which he hath broken may rejoice, and a happy wading out of those doubts may prove to be the greater confirmation. The spirit of a good man is sometimes well enlightened with assurance, sometime a little obscured, sometime very dark, after there shall be a long and a lasting serenity in his Conscience. As a woman that hath newly conceived begins to suspect her conception, by and by some other signs cast into her mind that she is deluded: Afterwards she feels the fruit of her womb quicken, and then her opinion is constantly confirmed. Faith after the manner of alterative qualities hath its growth, its declension, its reparation. It grows to an infancy, then to youthfulness, then to a stronger age, and the more it lays hold of the Promise for its own blessing, the more it cleaves fast to the foundation.  
Besides, this should procure them peace of mind, who cannot allege that great confidence for their own part, and strength of assurance that others seem to challenge to themselves, yea, and truly have. Every tree doth not shoot out his root so far as another, and yet may be firm in the ground, and live as well as that whose root is largest: So every faith stretcheth not forth the arms of particular assurance to embrace Christ alike, and yet it may be a true faith, that lives by charity, repentance, and good works; some faith abounds with one sort of fruits, some with another. God is delighted with all that are good, and he will reward them. In all kind of Divine Conclusions some are more doubtful spirited than others. In our very meats one believeth that he may eat all things, another eateth herbs, Rom. xiv. One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth all days alike. Let not him that is strong in faith despise him that is weak: So one hath examined himself, is persuaded especially by his good endeavours to please the Lord, and by the redemption of Christ's blood which he felt effectual in him in the Sacraments, rests every way assured that Christ will glorify him at his second appearance: Another dares not take such solid comfort, for he is more oppressed with tentations, more afflictions come upon him, and chiefly perhaps ignorance darkens his understanding, give this man leave to say, and he shall be heard, Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief.  
Because I said that ignorance especially darkens the understanding of them that are so weak in faith, you shall know wherein. Many are plucked back from particular affiance in Christ because they know not the method how to proceed. For they are taught that nothing is to be believed with the certainty of faith, unless it be contained in the Creed, or in holy Scripture; but they cannot find this or that man's Salvation written there, therefore▪ they are posed how to apprehend it with the certainty of faith. I make my answer, First, how easy it is to reduce it to one of the Articles of the Creed, or more than one, but especially to this, that we believe the forgiveness of sins. But to the main Objection, all the Doctrine of Faith which we believe is written or deduced out of holy Scripture; but the act wherewith we believe is in ourselves, and not to be looked for in Paper and Ink: No, but that is wrote in our own hearts through the testimony of the Spirit by good examination. Now the Major Proposition is, Whosoever believeth steadfastly shall be saved in Scripture: The Minor Proposition, but I believe steadfastly, is wrote by the Spirit in our own heart, therefore the Conclusion is divine and good. And because it dependeth upon an Argument, whereof the principal part, which draws on all the rest, is totally and immediately revealed in Scripture, therefore the assurance of a man's particular Justification is lawfully reduced to the assurance and certainty of Faith. Another fair pretence causeth divers men rather to leave place in themselves for some distrust than to aim at strong assurance, because it relisheth much more of humility to be cast down at the recognition of our manifold sins. Indeed, it is good to ponder our own unworthiness and imbecility so far as to make us humble, and to acknowledge no good can come to us from any thing that is in ourselves; but it is a false humility which makes us doubt of the faithfulness of God's Promises: So to be humbled is a fearful sin, and perhaps a greater sin than any for which a man is humbled. If we stay more upon ourselves than upon God, we shall distrust; if more upon God than upon ourselves, we shall believe. If you say you cannot believe because of your own unaptness and unworthiness, I instance with St. Paul: So did not Abraham, Rom. iv. 19 Being not weak in faith he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundreed years old, nor the deadness of Sarahs' womb. Therefore keep your humility you speak of, and lose it not, yet rule it by this, oppose not any difficulty in yourself, as if it could make frustrate the power and goodness of God.  
The fifth Conclusion is a true, and, I suppose, a very comfortable farewell to this Point; no mortified humble Christian must despair, or afflict his heart, though he cannot attain to a strong confidence or assurance in Christ's mercies; he that can proceed but to a conjectural hope, or some beginnings of gracious comfort shall receive the reward; for Christ will not break a bruised reed, or quench the smoking flax. Every may is bound to assent to the Promise of the Gospel upon pain of damnation, (for that is it which is called justifying Faith) but it is no where threatened, be thou certified of thy Salvation in particular, or thou shalt perish everlastingly. Whosoever doth truly believe shall not perish, but have everlasting life, Joh. iii 6. It is not said, Whosoever hath not examined himself in the reflexed act, and knows not that he believes, shall endure the wrath of God. Let every man pray for it, labour for it, not shut his ears against good comfort; let a weak Christian at the weakest estate believe his sins may be remitted; let him desire remission, and he shall receive forgiveness, though he have a conjectural hope only, and no infallible assurance. It is not necessary in a true justifying Faith that all dubitation should be quite excluded; it is well if at last it be overcome, especially in the last enlightening before death. Let such as have the drawings-back of infirmity cheer up their spirit, that many are undoubtedly received into glory, who can say no more, but I suppose the fruits of my faith, though they were imperfect, are without hypocrisy; I suppose I believe, therefore I suppose I shall be saved.  
When we talk of Certitude and Assurance of Salvation in this life, I am afraid the Ignorant extend the word so far, as if they must be as secure and persuaded, as that we see one another with our eyes. Whereas indeed the word may well import no more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spei, as a learned Prelate of this Church did style it, a full comprehension by hope. And mark how in two several Points much must be abated from that which we call a plain sensible evidence: For first, The Key which opens to all, is to believe the Evangelical Promise made in Christ to all that believe. And this we are certain of; But how? As we speak by the certainty of adherence, not by the certainty of evidence. Now that doth argue an imperfection in our faith. Secondly, A good Christian applies the general Promise to himself by a reflexed act, and examining how he hath served the Lord with zeal and sincerity. Now the circumstances of particular actions have much uncertainty in them; howsoever this application, being not pure Scripture, is no way so certain and indubitable as the Articles of the Creed: Therefore such sauciness is to be controlled, if any say, I know I shall be saved, as certainly as I know Christ died for the sins of the World. That Article of faith is immediately and totally revealed in Scripture; this other Collection riseth out of the observation of a man's own qualities and actions. Catharinus says, That the Tridentine Council doth not gainsay, but a man may know by faith that he is in the state of grace, but it denieth only that this can be known by the certainty of faith; And he that depends upon Christ for his mercies towards him by a lively comfortable hope, may undoubtedly be said to depend upon his mercies by faith, for all good graces grow from faith, and Faith is called the substance of hope, that is, of things hoped for, Heb. xi. 1.  
Now I will take up and conclude: Assurance or Affiance that we are born of the Spirit, and are the Sons of God is that which we must labour, which we must pray for, which we must hope, which we must believe. Distrust and despair is the Devil's engine to subvert this true Consolation, and Rock of our Salvation, therefore he did insinuate this mistruct or scruple to our Saviour, If thou be the Son of God. But, From all evil and mischief, from sin, from the crafts and assaults of the Devil, good Lord deliver us. AMEN.   

THE EIGHTH SERMON UPON Our Saviour's Tentation.  MAT. iv. 3. 
If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.  
A Roman Orator in the days of Tiberius the Emperor, Afer by name, had so often taken in hand the worst part of every Plea to defend it, that at last his credit was prejudicated, and it was enough to say, Afer pleads on this side, therefore the justice of the cause is on the other side: So all that Satan can propound or allege I damn it every syllable; all that he exhorts unto is impiety, all that he counsels is treachery; if he say the Son of God should command that stones be made bread, I say the contradictory is true, and he should not. And this I have proved before by discovering that this motion contained two great sins in it, Gluttonny and Infidelity: Gluttony obliquely, Infidelity manifestly. And already I have replied against this distrustful voice, If thou be the Son of God, and have proved that we must all labour for a fiducial assurance that God is our Father, and we are his Children by adoption and grace, that we must apply Christ unto ourselves without suspicions and hesitations, without the Devils I F, If thou be the Son of God.  
But as the later the night grows the darker it is, so the further I go on to reveal the sinful mystery of this saying, the blacker is the tentation, and the more deformed. It is either known unto you already, or will appear manifestly unto you when this hour comes about, that there are two opinions of which carnal men do especially surfeit, Epidemical diseases, which slay as many souls as any two vices you can name, you may smell them in my Text out of the strong breath of the Devil. First, that every Son of God is always provided of bread, and hath sufficiency, if not satiety of all worldly necessaries; and therefore if any man be in distress and want, let him take it to heart that God hath cast him off, he is none of his Sons, for he provides not for him. Secondly, Whosoever wants bread let him never ask God for it, but fetch it out of the hard stones, get it by any stratagem or device, let him remember to furnish himself with the slight of his own wits, since God hath forgot him. These are the upper and the nether Millstone by which Beelzebub grounds despair and worldly sorrow out of one principle, and all manner of injustice and wrong dealing out of the other. I called them lately the two Tables of the Devil's Law, unto which it is easy to reduce the most common sins that reign, these two I make the parts of my Text, which being throughly traversed will be sufficient to take up my discourse, and your attention.  
The first of those false rules, which the Tempter teacheth, is this, that we must measure our filiation, that God is our Father, and tenders us as his Children; by this note, namely, by our portion in this life; if we have a full supply of worldly blessings than call him Father; if you be pinched with sharp necessity, than never call yourself his Son; a rule fitter for a beast to know his Master by, than for a Christian to know his God by. A Dog will wait upon him that gives him Crumbs under his Table; the Ox by this sign knoweth his Owner; the Ass, though a stupid Creature, knows his Master's Crib by the allowance of his Provender: But Brethren, will you depend upon such a carnal mark to know the Lord, and make yourselves fit to be compared with the beasts that perish? Fides est rerum invisibilium; Faith hath an eye upon invisible things, it is the evidence of things not seen: But the Devil in his Catechism contradicts the Scripture, and says, Fides est rerum visibilium; If you have not a competency of these things which you see, why will you believe you shall be partaker of those things which you do not see? Thus the Flesh is so partial in its own behalf, that unless it have provision, it will not suffer the Spirit to say, Thou God carest for me, and wilt never forsake me. There is a passage well wrought into a Fable, 
Terent. beauton. act. 5. se. 4.  that shows the true disposition of a natural man. Chremes casts off his Son Clitipho for attempting a Marriage without the consent of his Parents; the refractory young man knew not how to revenge himself, but pretending suspicion before his mother, that he was none of her true Child, but some exposed Brat, or Changeling whom they had fostered for a time. Alienus sum, subditus, volo parentes meos ut commonstres mihi. So the Devil would whisper into our ear, if God cast us off, and gives us not relief and nourishment, it is fit we should disavow him for our Father; and especially he thought this a good motive among the Jews, who had all temporary blessings promised unto them in great abundance. That Promise made them so touchy, that they quarrelled, yea, and denied the Lord which had done so great things for them, if their desire were not satisfied. At Massa and Meribah when they wanted water, Is the Lord among us or no? Exod. xvii. 7. Upon the pressure of their Enemies, the Angel could not make Gideon believe at first, that the Most High was the Watchman of Israel that overlooked them; If the Lord be with us, why then is all this fallen upon us? Judg. vi. 13. In the Psalms of David it were without end to instance, how the Prophet expostulates, Awake, why sleepest thou? Why dost thou turn away thy face? Why dost thou not see our misery and trouble? And at last, seeing Gods enemies have the upperhand of his Servants in these external blessings, my feet were well-nigh moved, when I saw the ungodly in such prosperity. In this common Theme, I take it as I light upon it, you shall hear my reasons, which flatly check Satan's rule, that there are and have been divers oppressed with necessity and want of bread, and yet God doth not cease to be their Father, and they must retain the consolation that they are his Sons.  
First, and before any thing attend to this consideration, If every good Christian were satisfied at all times with temporal blessings, we should appear to serve God for our own profit, that we might lack nothing which concerned this transitory life. But Abraham flies his Country and hath not a foot of ground to dwell upon; Jacob and the Patriarches have no food in Canaan, unless they go into Egypt for it; Peter and John have not a mite of Silver and Gold, no not for the use of Charity, that the World may see, there are some that serve the Lord for pure zeal, and not for the wages of Fortune, as we call it. The Devil, in whom it is proper to calumniate virtue, he gashed at Job with his Tusk, and slighted his integrity, as if he were a mercenary friend of God; Doth Job serve God for naught? His substance is increased in the Land. And therefore to confute Satan, the Lord put him to the utmost trial, and took away almost all he had. It is good humility to say unto out Father with the Prodigal, Make me as one of thy hired servants; that is, Put me into thy Family though I be in the lowest rank, a door-keepr in thy house, as David said. Put me to any drudgery and labour, but it is not the meaning, he would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. an hireling, one that would do his Father just so much service as he was paid for. Of such a one the Orator said, Non est amicitia, sed utilitatis mercatura; So in our Dialect we may say, 
Cicer. lib. 2. de legib.  It is not to glorify God, but to merchandise Religion; Like that saying, 1 Sam. two. 36. Put me into one of the Priests Offices, that I may eat a piece of bread. It is pity he should eat, that would not be a Priest to serve at God's Altar, unless he might eat by his Office.  
St. Thomas the Disciple had not yet taken out the true lesson of faith, when he required to put his finger into the print of the nails, and to thrust his hand into Christ, else he would not believe; but they are further off than he, that will not believe, unless they may finger their gains, and thrust their hand into the commodity of the world; I and perhaps look for honour to boot, bare riches will not content them. Many Sons of perdition, even in the ancient and pure times of the Church, started away to rank Atheism, and renounced their Baptism, upon discontent that some promotion did not fall upon them. Ammianus Marcellinus could s●y in his time, it would encourage a man to be a Christian, if he might be chosen Bishop of Rome, and so flow with wealth and dignity. Gratis poenitet esse bonum; O base earthly mind! that would be an Infidel, unless he might be a rich believer. Every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts, says Solomon: But he that loves God for his own sake, 
Prov. nineteen. 6.  and not for God's sake, he hates him. Honours, and affluency of all store are not contrary to Christianity; nay, many times God gives the one with the other, and they agree together well enough: But if not, there is the trial whether we will be mercenary or no. What said the three generous Captives to Nebuchadonosor, Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us out of thine hand, and will deliver us; but if not, be it known unto thee we will not serve thy Gods; that is, no worship will we afford save to the Lord of Heaven, though it cost us our life. 
Dan. iii 17.  These were right, that looked to save nothing by their Religion but their soul. Godliness is great gain, says the Apostle, for it gains a man in this life joy and tranquillity of Spirit, that he hath done that duty which belongs to his soul. It is the punishment of sin for a man to know he hath sinned, and to remember it to his torment; so a good deed is rewarded that you can say you did it, Sanctitas praemium est sancè operantis; therefore follow not the Lord for the prey you look for; for bread, as Satan would have you; the Kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink; therefore where there is scarcity of all things, let there be plenty of righteousness. Before I come off from this Point, let not one word which Jacob did speak stumble you, Gen. xxviii. 20. Jacob vowed a vow, if God will be with me, and keep me in my way, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, then shall the Lord be my God. Beloved, it were a gross error to take jacob's words absolutely as if he would have the Lord keep Covenant to give him bread, and raiment, or else he would not serve him. What more sordid than those words in this sense? Or more unworthy of Jacob? But the words have respect to a Vow, and to a particular worship of God, as it is verse xxii. First, He would set up that stone for a Pillar, that it might be as a Temple where the Lord should be worshipped; And secondly, He would give the tenth unto God of all he had. He doth only covenant to sanctify these particularities of Divine Worship to Jehovah, if he found prosperity, and relief in that dangerous journey. Therefore I conclude this Point in defiance of Satan; we must be the obedient children of God though we want bread; and the most righteous are in scarcity sometimes, that they may not seem to serve for an earthly reward.  
Secondly, God doth not suppeditate bread always to him that is his Son, that he may loathe this World, and look for a recompense for all this misery, not among these hardhearted generations of men, but among the habitations of the blessed. Say to the righteous it shall be well with him, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings, Isa. iii 10. As Philostratus tells of one that desired his Son might not be Musical, and therefore sent him to learn of the worst Musicians in the City, that their scraping and jarring might make him not care to learn it: So God provides for many whom he loves, nothing but the harshness and worst entertainment of this world, that they may learn to loathe it. Cujus bonitas non specie praesentium, sed futurorum utilitate pensanda est, says St. Ambrose; Estimate the fatherly goodness of the Almighty, not by the austere education wherewith he holds us under in this life, but by the amplitude of our Patrimony in his Kingdom hereafter. The beggary of virtue is grown a Proverb, the Martyrology of the Saints is grown a Volume, the felicity of their enemies is grown a wonder; Mirabor hoc si sic abiret. It is impossible but there must be another reckoning for these things; the patient abiding of the meek shall not always be forgotten: But as Christ said to his Disciples, so may these to their enemies, that have trod them under, We have meat to eat that you wot not of. 
Joh. iv. 32.  And as Elisha said to one of the braveries of Samaria, that God would fill the City with great plenty, but he should be never the better; Videbis, sed non gustabis. So may Lazarus say to the remorseless Glutton, Thou shalt see the banquet which is set before me, but thou shalt never taste of it. The voluptuous had so much set upon their Table in the first course now that they shall never have a second. Nemo transit à deliciis ad delicias, rarò quisquam in hôc seculo primus est & in secundo. There were no alteration in the condition of naughty men, if they could pass out of this life from pleasure to pleasure, but many times he that is the Favourite of Fortune here, shall be the least in the Kingdom of heaven, that is, shall be quite excluded from thence hereafter. The Heathen in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, did never deify a poor man; indeed they would allow it to some of their Kings and Princes, that they became Stars in the Firmament, and would call the Constellations after their names, but they could not see whither the poor harmless man goes, to a place above the Stars, and where they shall shine above the Stars in glory: Take courage therefore to say, It is my turn to want for a while, I shall be replenished hereafter, he filleth the hungry with good things, and the rich shall be sent empty away. Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, when thy youth is renewed like the Eagles, Psal. ciii. 5. There is a Mystery, says St. Austin, in joining them two together, for there is no satisfaction of good things for the righteous man, until his youth be renewed like the Eagles; meaning the last Resurrection, when God shall be all in all. The upshot is, that the Sons of God may be dear unto their Father, and yet want bread, for though our wages be small upon earth, yet great is our reward in heaven.  
Thirdly, Though this Son of God, to whom the Devil spoke, our blessed Saviour were innocent, and yet suffered so many sorrows, that hunger was the least; not for any evil in himself, but for our iniquities; yet the best in the world beside are rebellious children, and sometimes God breaks the staff of bread for their sins, and whips them with the mild chastising of want and scarcity, as he did the Prodigal Son, to bring them home again. Praestat sentire lenitatem patris, quam severitatem judicis? Is it not better to feel the scourge of a Father to amend us, than the Axe of a Judge to cut us off? Is it not better with Lazarus to want the crumbs of the rich man's Table here, than with the rich man to want a drop of water hereafter to cool his Tongue in hell fire? If thou do evil, says God to Cain, sin lies at the door. From whence some do truly meditate, so long as an impenitent man continues in this world, he is in his own house, and may lurk there safe and secure; but when he departs this life, and comes out of doors, Vae capiti, woe be to him then, his torment was deferred to be increased. When Hagar and Ishmael had spent their bottle of water, and were ready to give up the Ghost for thirst, was not this a good time to remember how injuriously Sarah had been despised, and Isaac mocked? And that both he and she were the root and fruit of fornication? He that in the distress of scarcity will smite his hand upon his breast, and examine his secret faults, and say, I have sinned against the Lord, this man hath made great gain of his poverty. Quisque optat cum sanâ ment lamentari, quam cum insanâ perpetuò ridere, says Gregory; Who had not rather with the enjoying of his wits be weak, than with the loss of his wits be strong and merry? So who had not rather feel the Famine and misery of the world and repent, than flow in the satiety of all things, never feel the sting of his sins, and die impenitent? As one said, that good Fathers sometimes have wicked Children, lest virtue should seem to descend by natural inheritance; and again, wicked Fathers have sometimes virtuous Children, that wickedness may not run on in a perpetual propagation; so riches and abundance, lest they should be thought to be no blessings at all, now and then fall upon the best: And yet lest you should think them the best of all things, now and then they fall upon the worst men. Or as another draws out the line of justice very well, no man is absolutely good, or absolutely evil; but as the best have some evil in them, so the worst have some good, some talon of nature which serves for the use of Commonwealths, increase of Arts, public peace, or some ornament of the Universe, therefore the good of the worst men is rewarded with a gift of outward fortune, and the evil of the best men is punished with scarcity; no wonder therefore if he that is the Son of God do sometimes pine for lack of bread.  
Fourthly, Though a good man labour and watch, and cannot earn the bread of his carefulness, yet he shall fill his bosom with better fruits, for occasion is given hereby to the righteous to exercise these three spiritual graces, Prayer, and Patience, and Charity. Prayer comes after trouble and necessity, as Resurrection comes after death. Even the very Philistines were driven to repentance, to restitution, to send back the Ark of God into his own Land, when the Lord smote them with Emerauds, and diseases. If such fruits grew from an evil stock, when a vengeance and calamity was in their Land, then much better fruits of sighs and prayer will bud from them who are planted by the rivers of waters, who weep and lament that their iniquities have deserved such great chastisement. The Beasts and Fowls of the air do lack and suffer hunger, that by the voice of nature they may call upon the Lord to be replenished; then the young Ravens do call upon him, and the Lions roaring after their prey do seek their meat of God. He is the door which opens to let forth all blessings spiritual and temporal; Quam nemo nisi ebrius ignorat, as one says ' None but a reeling drunkard can miss the door into which he should pass. David seems to utter a Paradox, Psal. xxxvii. 25. I never saw the righteous forsaken, nor his seed beg their bread. Surely experience is opposite to this, and the Posterity of many have been in great want, whose memory is blessed for their righteous conversation. Some have very well turned the Verb beg into a Participle begging, and then the construction is fair, I never saw the righteous forsaken, nor his seed forsaken begging their bread; for they are not forsaken to whom the Lord gives patience in the inward man, though they be destitute and forsaken. Let God wrestle as he will, and cast us down, yet we must pray, and suffer, and not let him go until he bless us. But abundance of all things is a great slur unto devotion. In Egypt where the River Nilus overflows their grounds constantly instead of rain, and where the heaven is clear continually above, nemo oratorum coelos aspicit; the heathen could say so, God had fewer Prayers made unto him there, than in any place of the world. Therefore lay the beginning of this Point unto the end, is not the soul better than the body? Is not the spirit of Prayer better than a full barn? Is not a little holiness better than all the Vintage of Abiezer?  
Moreover, we are commanded patience, we promise patience, and I hope we resolve patience; now that we may draw this good motion out of the secret corners of our heart distress and penury will put it in practice. This is it which St. Austin calls God's great allowance above thousands of Gold and Silver. Patrimonium fidei & patientiae in cord. Christ makes the righteous sole Executors and Administrators of his patience. Be not tormented with emulation, though you see another shine like a bigger Planet than yourself, though you see the most vicious man set over you in advancement; Dabo huic novissimo sicut & tibi? The Owner of all the Earth may do what he will with his own, he will give unto him that is last in his favour as unto thee, nay, more than unto thee in this life, yet I cannot call it more if you will balance those light wares with the talon of your Patience. When God took all from Job, yet says Gregory, Patientiae munere coronabatur; He was crowned like a Saint in heaven with the victorious Crown of patience upon earth. Is it not better to suffer in the present because we had not these things to use, than suffer because we had them, and did abuse them? It is a saying attributed to the supposed Dionysius, Divinae justitiae est non emollire optimorum fortitudinem materialium donationibus; It suits well with the Divine Justice and Providence not to make the fortitude of his Saints effeminate with abundance. And if they had always their Salary of earthly blessings here as upon compact, their Religion would be more weighed down with Avarice than confirmed with patience. The last spiritual exercise which is caused by the need and want of Gods beloved is this, that merciful minded men may fill the bellies of the hungry with the bread of their charity. God hath suffered his fire to waste away the habitation of the poor man, that your contribution may build him up again a covering for his head, and those good works shall receive you into the everlasting Mansions. The waves of the Sea swallow up the substance of our brethren that our collections may restore it again; and this is it which Solomon calls, Casting our bread upon the waters. Jacob and the patriarchs were well-nigh famished in the Land of Canaan, that Pharaoh might relieve them with his Granaries. Christ was made poor that we might be made rich, and for the good use of our riches he hath made many poor. I did read you even now what Exposition might be made upon those words of David, I never saw the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread; some not unfitly do bend it to this sense: The Psalmist commends liberality in the preceding verses, and those that are prone to relieve the helpless. Now lest any man might object, yet I may clothe others so far that I may leave myself naked; I may supply others, till I be drawn dry; No, says he in that verse, no misfortune shall come to such liberality, I never saw the righteous forsaken, meaning such righteous as he spoke of before that are liberal and lend, I never saw his seed beg their bread. The charitable shall have his loan again, sometimes corporally, sometimes spiritually, always certainly. And thus you have heard my reasons to control Satan's rule, that there are and have been divers oppressed with necessity and want of bread, and yet God doth not cease to be their Father, and they must retain the comfort that they are his Sons.  
Only take in this to the advantage of the Point: As Satan is vigilant to espy who are in want, and to suggest doubts and infidelity into their heart, so there is no man shall think he is not in want, if he will be ruled by his persuasion. I told you before out of Theophylact what he propounded to our Saviour, Cum panis unus sufficeret, jubet lapides in panes converti; When one loaf of bread might satisfy a man's hunger, he required all the stones in the Wilderness, which were near at hand, to be turned into bread. It is he that makes our prodigal Feasters wish their cheer were better, when they have already too much. To have bare enough in his construction is to want, and nothing is sufficient but an Epicures superfluity. Perhaps the plenty which is present will evict the greatest murmurer, and make him confess here is well and enough for the present occasion. O but, says the Tempter, are you sure of large suppeditation for the time hereafter? If you are not aforehand with the world, you are in a bad case and want bread: If your condition be not more comfortable than your Prayer, Give us this day our daily bread, you may pray and perish. Howsoever, Beloved, do you rely upon this, that God's providence will be the best interpreter of his own Prayer; he that bids you pray for the sustenance of one day, best knows how he will cherish and relieve you tomorrow. Whereas in the former petitions we are taught to ask that the Kingdom of heaven might come; it were unwise, having so good a thing in our wish, to ask much for the bread of this life. One days dimensum is enough to ask for at once, for who knows whether after a day he shall go from hence for ever, and be no more seen? If happily a worldly man be satisfied to say, I have enough for one, and enough for my time, Soul thou hast much goods laid up in store for many years; yet Satan will object that you want bread, for you have not enough laid up for your Posterity, and for many generations; and because men know not how their stock may increase and fructify, therefore they dilate their appetite in infinitum, and say after the words of that Disciple, Whence shall I have bread for so many that come out of my Loins, that every one may have a little? Gehazi did not say his Master had need of Naaman's Raiments or his money; but there were two children of the Prophets lately come to him, and he would have two change of Raiments, and a Talon of Silver for them: So, many will confess they have wherewithal to serve their own turn, they cannot complain but their own necessities are liberally provided, but they would have change of Raiments, and Talon upon Talon for their children. And if it were possible like Noah, and those that came out of the Ark with him, they would have the whole world to be distributed among their Sons and Daughters. All these ways our Adversary the Devil doth shape discontent in our hearts, to make us say, we lack and have not enough; then he objects, Who is then your Father that should provide for you? What Son is he that wanteth bread if he have a merciful Father? And so far upon the first general part of the Text.  
And as this Satanical rule, upon which I have spoken, depraves our judgement in the most capital conclusion of true Religion, the next rule, which I now come to open, bars and corrupts our practice in all manner of justice and righteousness, it is thus, whosoever wants bread let him get it by any stratagem or device, by any unlawful slight, which Proposition, though it be not expressed in such plain terms in my Text, yet the wit of Satan neither would nor could insinuate that bad meaning in any other Language to Christ than as we read it, Command that these stones be made bread. I know Christ hath extended his miracles to supply worldly blessings to his people, especially at a push, as Peter found ready pay for his Master's Tribute, and for his own out of the head of a Fish; and lest the people should faint that had continued fasting three days to hear Christ preach in the Wilderness, a wonderful increase of food was multiplied to satisfy many thousands out of five loaves and two fishes. God did get himself glory by these works in the sight of all Jury. But the case is quite altered in this which Satan demands. Christ was private by himself in the Desert, when he had fasted forty days and forty nights and was afterwards an hungry; the Devil had no colour in that place to bid him filch, or cheat, or do any base office to feed his belly: The worst therefore he could say, was altogether to omit he should call upon God; nay, rather since the Lord had destituted him of all provision, without expectation of help from the Divine Providence, do the best you can for yourself, Command that these stones, etc.  
This is that Maxim which those Heathens, that had no Equity nor Philosophy in them, did maintain, Quocunque modo rem, stand not upon the niceties of Truth, and Law, 
Calvinus, Paraeus, Musculus.  and Justice, but get your living as you can; Victum tibi confice quem Deus non suppeditat, as our most literal Expositors do Paraphrase my Text; God cares not for you, but shift for yourself as well as you can, you must have bread. Such are those irreligious and discontented words, 2 Kings vi. 33. The evil is of the Lord, what should I wait for the Lord any longer? There is no Commandment of the two Tables can be unviolated, if you remove the bounds of justice, and give your wit and conscience scope to make a fortune upon all juggling and devices; Blasphemy, Idolatry, forswearing, unhallowing the Lord's day, Rebellion against the Magistrate, Rapines, murders, Lying, Dissimulation, want of Remorse, all these sins which we knew of old, and all those new sins, which mischief can invent, are incident to him that cares not to grow rich by God's blessing alone, but by any sort of Policy. Judas had an impatient heart that he did not raise his fortunes by Christ's service, he got little or nothing under him; How easy it was for Satan to enter in at this gap, and to put it into his heart to accept of thirty pieces of Silver to betray him? If Christ would have bid most, and given him Gold for Silver, Judas would have tried his cunning then to have betrayed the Devil. Ad mercedem pii sumus, ad mercedem impii. Therefore the Devil brought him speedily to an untimely death, lest he should revolt for a greater reward, and retain to the contrary faction. And as for the thirty pieces, the wages which he took both to sell Christ and his own soul (for the High Priests had so much more than they covenanted for) Judas durst not keep them, they durst not receive them, the Pension of innocent blood, none durst finger it; but as the holy man said, He hath swallowed down riches, he shall vomit them up again, Job xx. 15.  
Because the Lord doth sometimes allege the Heathen against the disobedience of his own Servants, to provoke them by a foolish people, therefore I will give you an instance from the morals of an Heathen Philosopher, whom he did condemn, for such as were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, such as took where they had no right, 
Eth. lib. 4. cap. 3.  and heaped possessions and gain unto themselves by unjust dealing. And very judiciously he premiseth, that there are two sorts of men that pluck much to themselves by unjust rapine, who are transcendent sinners above the usual stile of them that are noted for filthy lucre, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Tyrants that invade whole Kingdoms that are not their own, and sacrilegious persons that lay hands on God's portion, and to satisfy their own Avarice, despoil that which is consecrated to holy uses. The first of these, Usurping Tyrants, do not repine that they want a little bread, but, like Ahab, they are sick for vexation, and cannot eat their bread with joy, unless they may have Naboths Field, nay, unless they may have whole Regions that are not their own. This was a Goatish barbarous Conclusion, every Nation had a Title to that Kingdom which was better than their own. Such as these will pretend, not to satisfy their need, but to feed their pride and luxury, and care not how much blood they sell to buy a wrong name, a dignity which the Lord did never give them. Take heed of the bread of violence and oppression, says Solomon; though in the beginning such bread be sweet to the Palate, 
Pro. xx. 17.  yet afterward their mouth is filled with gravel, and then follows gnashing of teeth, in which Christ deciphers one sting of torment belonging to eternal damnation. The Amalekites spoiled the Kingdom of Israel, burnt Ziglag, and took away the women Captives; but while they were eating, and drinking, and dancing because of the great spoil, David smote them from twilight even till the Evening of the next day, 1 Sam. xxx. 17. The other sort of transcendent unjust ones are they who if they be not prosperous in the abundance of wealth to join house to house, and Land to Land, God himself shall not keep his own from them, these are the Sacrilegious; they are not common stones that these men move to become rich, but they will command that the stones of the Temple be made bread. The Sons of Eli the High Priest (for I will confess it to our shame, that the very Priests themselves in all Ages have not been quit from Sacrilege) would lurch from the Sacrifice itself the best part of the Sacrifice; and the vengeance fell from heaven, not only on their own persons to be slain in battle, but the Ark of God being under the custody of such wicked Levites was taken by the Philistines, and carried away in triumph. Even mighty Princes have smarted for this sin; for when Belshazzar called for the golden and silver Vessels which his Father had taken out of the Temple of Jerusalem, that he, his Princes, his Wives, and his Concubines might drink therein, in the same hour was the hand seen which wrote upon the wall, that his Kingdom was taken from him. No Nation so Idolatrous but abandoned them which made private gain of that which was due to the Altar, to the Priests, or any way to the honour of their Gods. It was strict, and strange justice in the Athenians, that put a little boy to death who had scraped off a little Plate of Silver from some shrine in Diana's Temple; 
Aelian. var. histor. lib. 5. c. 17.  but the reason of that severe Sentence was Metuebant ne sacrilegus evaderet; if he had lived to be a man, they feared he would prove notoriously socrilegious.  
These which I have spoken of, Tyranny and Sacrilege, a mere Naturalist could call the two transcendent tops of injustice. There are others under these indeed, yet of a most vile condition, that eat their bread by wrongful dealing, when it is grounded with the Devils Millstones; and according to Aristotle, my former director, these may be ranged into three sorts: Such as maintain themselves with no calling, such as use a bad calling, and such as cheat in a good Calling. We must eat our bread by Prayer to God, and good employment in the world, that is, by the duty of Invocation, and by the fruits of our Vocation; therefore he that fills up no place or part in a Commonwealth to earn his gains must needs take the Devil's counsel to live by unjust means, command that these stones be made bread. I consider not so much in this censure Parasites and Flatterers, that subsist by fawning upon those that will be gulled with assentation; nor Buffoons and Jesters, upon whom the Philosopher toucheth, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, such as lead an apish ridiculous life, a far greater curse than if they would undergo God's curse, to eat their bread with the sweat of their brows; but I speak of them, whose impious hands maintain them no otherwise but by pilfering and stealing; what swarms of these are round about us in every corner of the streets, yea sometimes in this very house of God? More witty wicked inventions are excogitated, I am persuaded, in this City to cheat, to filch, to circumvent, than all the Nations beside under the Sun are aware of. If ever any sin grew a monster in a State, this is improved to be so in ours. And the good suffer this shame for their sakes who are bad, that thievery in other Countries is accounted the National blot of this Island. It is not imprisonment, it is not branding, it is not a fatal death that will deter them: Nay, it is not the fear of eternal fire hereafter; it is not that denouncement, that they shall lose the fruition of God's glory. There is a Kingdom and a Treasure in Heaven, where Christ says, Thiefs shall not break in and steal. If I had leisure to accumulate many words, I could say unto such no more in effect than St. Paul hath done, 2 Thes. iii 12. We command them that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread. His meaning is plain, that every man must eat such bread as he may call his own by honest and lawful possession; if we will be fed with the blessing of heaven, we must not scrape our goods together by the art of the Devil. Da panem nostrum, non alienum. How absonant is their Prayer to their practice who pray for their own substance, and yet make any man's substance their own, according to the Devil's counsel, because they want it.  
The next of kind to these are those that use a bad Calling; that heathen Wise man hath named but three sorts, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Gamesters, Usurers, and Panders. By the first he means such as drive no other trade or negotiation to maintain their livelihood but profuse Gaming; Is it not a misery to see a great Patrimony upon a Table, set ready to be adjudged who shall have it by so base and dull an Instrument as a bale of Dice? I read in the life of Augustus Caesar, when he recreated himself to deceive the tediousness of time with any Game, such moderate Stakes were set between him and Maecenas; that the blowing up of a young Heir and all his Inheritance in one night must needs be reckoned by the Sages of good times for the exercise of a bad Calling. The second limb of this division, which is an Usurer, is so guilty in his own conscience of that bad opinion which the world hath of him, that hitherto he durst never profess himself of any Calling; as yet no Company was ever founded for that Profession in this City, and I think it is your own rule, no Company no Calling, or at least a bad Calling. This is not the right way certainly to better a man's estate, command that this Wax and Parchment be made bread. St. Basil is very confident in his opinion that it is the sin for which penury of food doth sometimes pinch the whole Land, this is that iniquity which turns bread into stones. Renounce your Usury, says he, that the Earth may bring forth her increase, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. It is unnatural for Money to beget Money; therefore while you make Money, which should be barren, to be fruitful, the Earth, which useth to be fruitful, becomes barren. The third sort of those, in that Wise man's enumeration, who live by a most reprobate gain are those accursed people that keep unclean Brothels, and profess an Ordinary for the Devil. These are they, in St. Paul's phrase, that sell the body of Christ to be made the body of an Harlot, or the body of a Fornicator. At this time of the year (the devout and penitent time of Lent, if you will make it so) all the Churches in Italy, which are under the Papacy, do labour and persuade, more than through all the year beside, that those common Prostitutes will bewail their former life, renounce the evil world, and enter into the strictness of some Cloister for ever; whom they call their Convertitaes. And God send our Labours and Preaching in this City a good harvest in this kind, that these odious persons, the names by which they are known are unfit for my mouth, that all such, I say, may be touched in conscience, lament their beastly life, and never more make sale and merchandise of fleshly iniquity. O Lord how long hast thou forborn thine anger, and not utterly consumed us, that this abominable sin is not more strictly looked into in all places, and utterly rooted out? And yet for all they talk of their Convertitaes in Italy, it is among them but like Hydra's heads, when one is cut off, three new ones grow up in the room, and ever will be so, while their great Prelate is at a certain price with them for toleration. Is not this above all other trespasses, forenamed the direct sin to which the Tempter exhorts, to make money by any wicked courses, to take Gold out of the Devil's bag. The first that led the way to this covetousness, that ever I read of, was Caligula the Emperor, the worst not only of men, but even of four footed beasts. Vectigala inaudita capiebat; mark ye, 
Sueton. vit. Calig. Parag. 40.  he took a Tribute that was never heard of before, Ex capturis prostitutarum quantum quaeque uno concubitu mereret; he was allowed from every Stews in his Dominion a most impious proportion to fill his Coffers.  
The final branch of the Division is, that they make bread of stones, that is, they get their living by the Art of the Devil that cheat and cozen in a lawful Calling. If the Angel of the Lord were to sprinkle the blood of an innocent Lamb upon every door-post where a true Israelite dwelled, that was not faulty in this kind, I fear he would have but little work among us; Velure duo, vel nemo. There are not many of that mark. Is not all kind of Manufacture grown more slight, more vile by far than it was in the former Generations? Compare any work which comes from your hands now adays with that which was wrought and done in the days of old, and the extreme odds would make you ashamed if there were any conscience in your dealing: And yet you will spend more Oaths to justify your bad Wares than our Forefathers would spend words to commend their good. As Usury is defended by some that the common Traffic of Nations depends upon it, so Lying will be defended in time by the same rule; there can be no Shops opened, there can be no Merchandise without it. 'Tis grown a word of course, like an Interjection without which you cannot breathe, to swear you cannot afford it so cheap, when you equivocate most impudently. And all being truly considered, well▪ may you swear it, when you sell away your faith with your Ware for so little profit. Let me but repeat that verse which St. Paul took up, and do you apply it, the Cretians were always Liars, evil beasts, and slow-bellies, Tit. i. 12. Beloved, there is not one cheat which you put upon your Chapmen, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they are your friends that come to lay out their money with you, there is not one circumvention with which you abuse them, not one false Weight, or Measure, not one deceitful word, not one false Asseveration, not one adulterated Oath, not one unreasonable Item, but God writes it down in his Book, by which you shall be judged at the last day, more carefully than you keep your Shop-books. To end all, do not make haste to be rich by unjust means, for so you will fall into manifold snares of the Devil. When you engross thousands, you can have but one man's meat, and one man's clothing, and quite beside your expectation you shall not leave a blessing with this substance, but a great curse upon your Posterity. A little which the righteous hath is better than great riches of the ungodly. Satan's wily Projections were ever fatal to the undertaker, but justice and righteousness shall have peace and comfort in this life, and eternal glory in the life to come. AMEN.   

THE NINTH SERMON UPON Our Saviour's Tentation.  MAT. iv. 4. 
But he answered and said, it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.  
WHatsoever Satan said before was not worthy of an answer, and if our Saviour had held his peace, as once he did, when he was examined before Herod, that wicked motion had deserved it, Command that these stones be made bread. But an answer is given in these words which are my present Tractate, partly to wrack the Tempter with suspicion, partly to demonstrate how weak all our objections are when God comes to answer them, and partly to make the Church partaker of his wisdom, that his sayings may be our Meditations from day to day, and from hour to hour, when we are met together in these holy Assemblies.  
First, The answer left the Tempter most irresolute, and without all satisfaction. Satan was loath to seem to doubt of Christ, and would not ask, Art thou the Son of God? And yet he laboured with all cunning to discover it. Therefore Christ keeps him off that he was never the nearer to find him out by this answer. Dominus sic fallit ut vincat, sic vincit ut fallat, says St. Ambrose; the Lord deluded his enemy that he might overcome him, and overcomes him by strength of Scripture, that he may still delude him. He could have cut him off with a word, saying, As the Father hath life in himself, so the Son hath life in himself, what need this transmutation then of stones into bread to satisfy my hunger? but he would not rejoin explicitly one way or other, either I am the eternal Son of God that want not bread, or I am a man of much infirmity, but indefinitely thus, pick what he could out of it, Man shall not live, etc.  
Secondly, This answer declares how easily God's wisdom will overmatch the subtleties of men, since Satan himself could not maintain his own objections. So the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sadduces, all were put to silence in the Gospel, that they durst ask him no more questions, and yet many men flatter themselves that although they have been revengeful, malicious, unjust, extortioners, yet let them have a fair, and a just hearing at God's Tribunal, and they would be able to justify their own Integrity; according to the like which Job said, Chap. xxiii. 3. O that I might come even to his Seat, I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments, I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me. Beloved, let such conceits fall off and vanish, God is not mocked, his wisdom is not dazzled with inventions and excuses; entrust your cause with Christ to plead it for you, and be sure, for your own part, you are not able to answer one for a thousand. One question, and almost one word made him speechless that came to the Marriage not having on a wedding garment. Christ answers to the Tempter in this place to instruct us that all his sayings are solid, irrefragable, and unanswerable.  
Thirdly, This answer, which confounds Satan, confirms the Church with manifold knowledge, as namely, in these several Points into which I will distribute the Text, and they are three: Sedes argumenti, applicatio, argumentum ipsum. 1. The seat of the Argument, or the place from whence it is taken, It is written, written in the holy Scripture, written in the Law of Moses, and particularly written in a certain place of Deuteronomy, which entreats of Manna that came down from heaven. 2. The Application of it is to Christ our Lord, man shall not live by bread, and therefore this is appliable to him as touching his humanity. 3. The Argument or Text itself hath these four Doctrines, three directly, the last by inference. 1. That man is not necessarily bound to ordinary sustenance, man shall not live by bread alone. 2. God can nourish man by every word that proceedeth out of his mouth, that is every way that it liketh and pleaseth him. 3. Nothing can nourish unless God bless it, for man liveth by the word that proceedeth out of God's mouth, that is by the will of God. 4. There is another life for man to look to beside this life which is sustained with bread; so St. Cyprian and others collect upon the words put together, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word, etc.  
But he answered and said, it is written. So his responsion was not the invention of man, but the very Oracle of God. This was Romphea in ore, out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword, Rev. i 16. This is the Sickle which cuts down all the Tares which Satan sows among the good Wheat; this is the Ark of God before which all the Idols of the Philistines fall flat to the ground; this is the Trumpet of Joshuah whose noise overturneth the Walls of Jericho. How can our tongues sufficiently praise the holy Scripture, which teacheth us to speak not with the eloquence of man, but with the tongues of Angels? Take it from us, and we may say as Samson did, if his Locks were shaved away we shall be weak as other men, nay, quite unable to open our lips against the Philosophy of the world; but give us that weapon of the Spirit in our hand, and we shall tread down our foes as the dung under our feet. Satan himself cannot stand before this charge, Scriptum est, it is written, Dimittit aures bellua centiceps; Such Charms, such Music is able to make the Serpent burst in pieces. We are penned up into the Scriptures as into our sheepfolds, while we contain ourselves within them there we are safe, the Wolf may howl, but he cannot bite us: There we are in the Tower of David, where we cannot be assaulted; but as David acknowledgeth, If my delight had not been in thy Law, I should utterly have perished in my trouble. Wherefore, my Beloved, 
Psa. cxix 92.  make the holy Scriptures some part of every days business, read them, and as you read pray to God to interpret them, read them with humility, that when God sends an Interpreter you may not cavil, and be wise in your own conceit, but understand them; read them with continual diligence, that one day may teach another, and your elder years may be wiser than your younger. Finally, read them with patience, that such things as are obscure may not deter you, but hold on and proceed, and you shall find somewhat clear, that it will dispel the mists of obscurity. Consilio spiritus sancti factum est ut quae obscura sunt in Scriptures per apertiora possunt illustrari, says St. Austin. 
De Doctrine. Christ. lib. 2. cap. 6.  God hath compounded easy places with difficile, that you may have some fruit ready to reap, and some to be gathered and expected hereafter unto the ends of the world.  
As we read of Manna that it was saporous to all Palates, and every man might taste in Manna whatsoever he loved to taste; so the Scripture hath all good relishes in it, taste and try, and it wants nothing which is delightful for the soul unto salvation. No Book in the world hath so many rewards for virtue, no Edicts set forrh by all the Princes of the world so many punishments for iniquity; no store-house among all the Papers in the world so full of consolation; such lofty wisdom delivered in all simplicity, such fortitude commanded with so much sufferance and patience, such strict justice observed with so much equity and forgiveness is not to be found elsewhere beneath the Sun, save in those Volumes of the Holy Ghost. Let your eyes love to gaze upon this Fountain, as the Doves in the Canticles are said to gaze upon the waters; and if you will gaze upon them with a Dovelike innocency, you will read them for these five ends.  
First, You see in my Text that Christ quotes them to repel the Devil. He fought against the Flesh by fasting, against the wicked World by retiring into the solitary Wilderness, but against the Devil with the authority of the Word of God. You shall seldom meet with an Apollo's that is mighty in the Scripture, with such a one as Antonius of Milan, who was called Arca Testamenti by them that admired his cunning in the Scripture, his memory was like the Ark wherein the Law of God was laid up, seldom shall you find such a man but he will overmaster at least the very criminal, and notorious suggestions of the Devil.  
Secondly, Read them to learn Christ and his glory in them, for this end our Saviour directed the Pharisees to Moses and the Prophets, and the Beraeans are styled more noble than those of Thessalonica, because when Paul preached Jesus, they searched the Scriptures whether those things were so, Acts xvii. 11.  
Thirdly, Read them for the consolation of that glory which is laid up for you. These things were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope, Rom. xv. 4. All the Traditions in the world beside leave the mind fluctuating, and miserably uncertain into what state hereafter the soul shall be received.  
Fourthly, Read them to be instructed in the study of Piety and good Works to the glory of God. Thou hast known the Scriptures from a child, to make thee wise unto Salvation, says Paul to his Timothy, in that 2 Epist. iii 15. In all the exhortatives, and Pandects of Laws which the Heathen made, there was not only the omission of some excellent virtues, but the permission, the very institution of some notorious vices.  
Fifthly, Read the Scriptures, not to engender questions, as very many do, but to produce Peace, and to be the end of all Controversies. To keep up Discords when the Law and Gospel is in our hand to decide them, nay, to inflame the more because we have waters from the Well of life to quench them is Satan's imperial device; he is now grown so cunning to wring what he list out of the sacred Text, that he presumes Scriptum est shall little hurt him. And to the end the Scripture may be more unapt to cut off Controversies, the sharpest Controversies in the Church are raised upon the very Scripture. As 1. upon the incorruption of the sacred Text. 2. Upon the validity of Translations. 3. By augmenting them with Apocryphal Books that are not inspired by the Holy Ghost. 4. By interposing they are an incomplete rule without unwritten traditions. 5. That they prove nothing indubitably without the unanimous consent of pure antiquity. 6. That all the Lay part, or at least the unlearned are to be interdicted the reading and possessing them, as well because of their obscure sense, as because the ignorant may suck out of them the venom of Heresy. 7. They jossle the Church and Scripture together which should be superior. 8. They have wrangled themselves almost into Atheism, that they know no way but by an historical faith or man's testimony that this is the Writ of God. Thus because the Scriptures are given to overthrow the Kingdom of Satan, Satan hath done his endeavour by these bad instruments to overthrow the Scriptures. But I say again, Beloved, let us read them not to increase the rent of the Church, but to moderate contentions, 
In Psa. xxii.  and to stop the gap. Thus St. Austin in a sweet strain of concord to please both God and man. Fratres sumus, quare litigamus? Non intestatus mortuus est pater, etc. We are brethren, and therefore should not strive, especially since the Will and Testament of our Father is before us to end all branglings. Men fall out sometimes about the goods and inheritance of the dead, but if a Will be found, the quarrel is quickly taken up; read how your Father hath bequeathed all things and you can ask no more. Brethren, we have the first and later Testament of our Father, open them, peruse them; How do you read there? Will you not stand to his Will and Ordination? Why, the Law will compel you. As for a Father upon earth, Jacet in monumento, & valent verba ipsius, sedet Christus in coelo, & contradicitur testamento ejus. He is rotten in his grave, and yet his will given under the testimony of man quiets all suits; Christ sits in heaven for ever, and shall not his Testament, confirmed by the Testimony of the Holy Ghost, be an end of all Controversy?  
So far I have pointed at the utility in reading, and well using the holy Scripture, because the Scripture is the seat of Christ's Argument, as I called it. And more particularly he doth honour the Law so far, as thrice together to quote none other but the words of Moses. Moses, whom above all the men in the world Satan hated, as appears by his striving with the Angel about the body of Moses; to advance the Text of Moses against Satan, was lapides loqui, not to turn stones into bread, but to turn his words into stones and to cast them at him. Moses is truly called Oceanus Theologiae, the Ocean from whence all the Prophets since his time did borrow their divinity. Aquo, seu fonte perenni, vatum divinis ora rigantur aquis. Moses his Pen was the first that ever drew History. For when Alexander the Great took Babylon, his Preceptor Aristotle was most diligent to preserve and examine the most ancient Histories in the Babylonian Libraries, and their Computations come short of Moses above two thousand years. Moses his subject so admirable as none to be compared. The Creation of the world, the first foundations of the Church. The first institution of Marriage, the Fall of man, and the Promise of Christ. And God chose him above all men to receive his Commandments out of the dark Cloud, for which his excellency hath been renowned above all men in all Generations. But as the chief Lesson in all the Prophets is the coming of Christ in the flesh, so none more express for that than Moses. If you believed Moses, you would believe in me, says our Saviour. In every of his Five Books he hath left some notable instance for this, a Beacon upon an hill; The Seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpent's head, Gen. iii Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us in the Paschal Lamb, Exod. xii. The Serpent lifted up in the Wilderness, even so the Son of man was lifted up, Num. xxi. In Leviticus all the Ceremonial Sacrifices were Types of him, especially the Scape-goat. But above all, Deut. xviii. A Prophet will the Lord your God raise up unto you like unto me, hear him. This is that Prophet who is the chosen quiver out of which Christ takes his shafts, 
Ferus.  Mallens doctrinâ Moses quam miraculis pugnare. Our Saviour had rather convince the Devil with Moses than with Miracles.  
And above all the Scripture, or above all other works of Moses, Christ hath refuted the Devil only out of the Book of Deuteronomy, at every turn that he spoke unto him. Whether Moses were anciently divided into a Pentateuch, or five several Books, whereof this is the last, I concur with them that doubt it. This is certain, the seventy Interpreters were the first that called it Deuteronomy, for the Jews gave the Five Books no other names but the first words of the Book. A singular, and most select piece of Scripture it is, containing the whole body of godly practice and true Religion, for the King, for all Magistrates, for the Priests, and for the People. It is Moses his Cygnaea cantio, the last exhortation which he made before he took his leave of the world. And it is supposed there is more Divination in the Spirit in the nearest enlightenings before death than at other times, as if the soul were almost out of the earth, and a little in heaven. The great Prophet took such abundant care to preserve it, and to put it into the hands of all men, that it was wrote in stone for an eternal memorial, Deut. xxvii. 3. Every seventh year it was to be read to all the people at the solemn Feast of Tabernacles, Deut. xxxi. 10. The King was enjoined to keep a Copy of it, and read it all his days, Deut. xvii. 18. And after he had spoke it, he wrote it, and delivered it to the Priests. Ruminate upon this, that you shall not find such instances for the memorial of any other sacred Book, and that Christ drew only out of this fountain to quench the fiery darts of the Devil; and although comparisons, I know, are odious between one book of God's Word and another; yet some excellency will redound out of the premises to this Scripture in every man's imagination. It took the name of Deuteronomy because when the Law had been delivered before, this is a repetition of the Law again; Nunquam nimis dicitur, quod nunquam satis dicitur. Moses was not ashamed to preach the same things over again, no more was Paul, To me, says he, it will not be irksome, to you it will be profitable. The Law had need to be repeated often for our rebellion and depravation; and perhaps because the oldest men of Israel were all dead in the Wilderness for the sin of murmuring, who had first heard the Law, it was fit to propound it again to the new Generations. That I may not be too tedious in this I will only add what St. Hierom says, Deuteronomy or the second Law is a prefiguration of the Gospel or Evangelical Law, Sic habet quae priora sunt, 
In Prologue. Galeat.  & tamen novae sunt omnia de veteribus. So the Gospel doth antiquate no moral thing which is old, and yet old things in the Law become new in Christ by the faith of the Gospel. Heaps of Expositors follow this hint, that Christ retorted Texts of Deuteronomy upon Satan for this reason, because it affords a kind of shadow of the Gospel. A weak reason for so many to be in love with since it was not God that imposed the name of Deuteronomy on that Book, but men that did interpret it. Why that Book was only in Christ's mouth upon this occasion let no man take upon him to determine, but it will teach us to search diligently for some excellent Treasure in those Lines, which were thought worthy to be applied, and them only by the wisdom of the Son of God. And thus much for the seat of the Argument, and for these words, It is written.  
Before I come to the words themselves we must pass over the second Point, that the application of them is drawn to Christ. The place originally is to be read thus, Deut. viij. 3. He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with Manna which thou knewest not, neither did thy Fathers know, that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. It was Christ's pleasure to have himself comprehended in this rule, our case is his case, he will far as we fare, he trusts in God's blessing as we ought to trust in it; in a word, he answers altogether as man, and not as God. As the Israelites had no Corn or Harvest in the Wilderness to make bread, yet they had sustenance equivalent or better which fell from above round about their Tents; so Christ intimates, the same providence could help him, though he wanted bread which supplied the Iraelites, of whose stock he was descended. He could have confounded Satan with his Majesty and power, but it was more tormentuous to the Adversary to be thrown off as with the weakness of mere man and his humility. This is not it which Satan looked for, to hear Christ answer him by the title of man, and far less did he look for it, that he should get the upper hand of him in that title, a triumph which is most molestious to his pride above all other punishments. Here it began that he should be subject to man's nature, yet it was that nature counited in one person with God, but hereafter all the band of Hell shall be turned over to the children of men, who have been the children of God, that they may insult over them. Do ye not know that the Saints shall judge the world, says St. Paul? 1 Cor. vi. 2. Nay, know ye not that we shall judge Angels? Not only comparatively, because our works are better than theirs, as the Ninivites and the Queen of the South shall rise up in judgement against the unbelieving Jews, Mat. xii. But directly our suffrage shall go to their eternal condemnation, because they have rebelled against God, and hated his Church. What an honour, what a prerogative is this, not only to escape condemnation, which our sins deserved, but to have judgement committed to our power against our enemies, and yet for all this promise how dissolutely, how profanely some live, as if they would rather justify than judge the wicked world, and the evil Angels? I cannot hold from interserting one thing what Lapide the Jesuit says upon that place of St. Paul, that the righteous shall be Assessors with Christ, and sit next him in judgement, Vt Cardinales cum Papâ, just as the Cardinals assist the Pope to judge all men, so he marring a true Doctrine with a most vile Similitude.  
I forget not that I am like to digress, therefore I return, that you may observe with me, how nothing would choke Satan more than to baffle him with the infirmity of man, and put this to it, no Text more unwelcome to him than this to hear of Manna in the Wilderness. 1. This was it which cherished their whole Host, whom the Devil thought irrecoverably undone for want of sustenance. 2. It stopped the mouth of discontent, that there was no more murmuring. 3. The ceasing of it on the Sabbath day was a most effectual motive that they should sanctify that day unto the Lord. 4. It did not serve the body only, but it was a spiritual refection likewise, and a representation of the holy Communion of the Lords Table. So St. Paul, the old Fathers did all eat of the same spiritual meat, and drank of the same spiritual drink. 5. Manna was laid up in the Ark, with the two Tables, and the rod of Aaron, that the Lord might be thanked for it by a perpetual Commemoration. All these rubs were in Satan's way, when Christ cited this Text to expunge his tentation. What should this Sophister do now? The words of the Scripture are evident, and unanswerable. Why, it is worth the while to mark it, he had nothing to retort for the present, but passed on to another allurement; but after a a while he provokes the Pharisees to make an objection against our Saviour upon the very same instance, Joh. vi. 31. What Sign showest thou that we may see and believe? What dost thou work? Our Fathers did eat Manna in the Desert, etc. This was to turn Christ's own weapon, as he thought, against himself; but in that demand of the Pharisees, and in this tentation of Satan's there is the same sin of presumption, who would dare to prescribe God; the Jews would have had bread miraculously after the same way that their forefathers had, when now there was no lack; the Devil would have bread made after a new way, which never was before, as if God's Providence were drawn dry unless the stones were mollified into loaves to be eaten. No, says out Saviour, and now I come to the verybody of his answer, man shall not live, etc.  
Which being divided into many Propositions this, was the first, that man is not necessarily bound to ordinary sustenance, man shall not live by bread alone. And that will bear a double construction: First, That God is able to preserve life in whom he pleaseth without all material Aliments. So Calvin on this place, Vt desint omnes cibi, solam ejus benedictionem ad nos alendos sufficere; His benediction is alimony enough though there were no meat in the world. For he can preserve the body of man in such an orderly mixture of all parts, that the elements shall be at peace in our body, no quality shall feed upon another, heat shall not dry up the moisture, parch the juice of the veins, the pangs and girds of hunger and thirst shall not molest us: But as the fire was inhibited that it should not burn the three Children that were cast into the Furnace, so natural heat within us may be inhibited by God's command that it shall waste nothing away in all our composition. So St. Hierom, Spiritus sanctus aliquando supplet locum cibi & potus in corpore; The Holy Ghost is called our food in the Book of God, not only in a mystical sense, but sometime the virtue of the Spirit supplies the place of bodily refection, that we shall not need to ask for it. Thus it must be, if the stories of good Authors have not exceeded the truth, that the devoutest Christians of the Greek Churches could hold out healthfully with such often, and such long continued fasts, that now adays I could promise them but short life that should follow their steps. Moses was fed forty days with nothing but the Law; Elias fed as long, or rather fasted as long upon that zeal which he had for God's glory. Satan could not deny this, for as we are created by a word which was Almighty, so we may be kept alive by a word which is Almighty, made of nothing, and preserved out of nothing. This is not to be resisted. The Doctrine is as clear as day, according to the Analogy of faith. But if Christ's answer had carried this sense, I believe the Tempter would have cavilled thus. Right as you say, bread is not absolutely necessary for life, no nor any other victual; God can sustain you as he hath done hitherto by his power, but you see you are hungry and must have bread, he hath forsaken you.  
Beloved, the most easy and literal sense of Scripture for the most part is the truest; and surely because our Saviour likened his own case to the Israelites, who though they had no bread wade of corn, had Manna instead of it which came from heaven. Therefore the answer is this plain passage, what compels me to turn stones into bread? There are innumerable helps beside to keep me from famishing. Is there no way, say you, but this to do me good? Yes, God hath spread a Table in the Wilderness for Moses and all Israel; and more instances might be added even as thick as stones; The Widow of Sarepta kept house for herself, her Son, and the Prophet Elias a long time with a little meal in a barrel, and a spoonful of oil. All the Markets in Samaria were suddenly stored with that which the Aramites their enemies had left behind them. It was not yet revealed to Satan, how many thousands were fed in a desert place with five loaves and two fishes, and the fragments which remained did much exceed the quantity of the meat that was whole. It is ancient story, though it be not Canonical Scripture, how the Angel took up Habakkuk by the hair of the head, and carried him and the meat which he had in his hand for the Reapers to Daniel in Babylon. I fear it will not deserve a memorial among these honest Records what some relate in the lives of the Eremites, that Paul the Anchorite, being solitary in the vast Sands of Egypt, which yield not a morsel for the belly, every day an Angel of heaven set half a loaf of bread before him, and made it up an whole loaf every day when Anthony the Eremite came to keep him company. If this were alleged, as some stick not to do it, to illustrate the Verse which Christ quoated, I think Satan would rejoin, Where had you this tale? This is a Legend of mine own fiction. There are other examples which I ranked in order before, like a file of Soldiers to conquer the Devil, and the richest and newest which was at our Saviour's hand was that of John the Baptist, who found a good diet in the Wilderness to make him temperate, and serve God out of Locusts and wild honey.  
The motion which the Tempter made, being thus examined in the true Explication of Christ's answer proves to be as unreasonably sensual as Esau's urging for jacob's Pottage, he would seek no further for any meat, that he must have though it cost him dear, like Philoxenus in Aelian, that could not pass by the steam of a Cook's shop but he must take a bait where his scent did lead him. So Satan to our Lord, go not into the Towns or Villages near at hand, satiate your appetite just at this present, and without delay, even where you stand, Command that these stones be made bread. And should not man wait God's leisure and time when he wants bread, since the beasts of the Forest, when hunger rouzeth them out of their Dens, know not readily where to get their meat, and yet are content to seek it of God; the Fowls of the air have no barns to lay up store, not a grain of Corn before hand, yet they flutter out, and pick up and down, and at last return home contented. Not unusefully therefore doth one change the words of this first Proposition into this Paraphrase, Man lives not by bread alone, Non cibo parato vivit homo, sed qui sponte se offered; Man shall not live alone by that which is artificially cooked and provided, but even by that which nature suppeditates, as John Baptist lived by Locusts and wild honey; and so the Patriarches before the flood lived altogether upon fruits and herbage, and upon the voluntary offerings of the Springs and Mountains. Si ad naturam vivitur tam superfluus est coquus quam miles, says Seneca, If Nation would not rise up against Nation what use were there of Soldiers, and if men would give their body but just as much as would content nature there were no use of Cookery. Yet God doth suffer our nature to exceed in the use of his blessings, that we may abound with thankfulness; but if the Patriarches did praise and bless God's name more for a few Salads than we do for all the luxuriant store that the Fields and the Sea afford, than their Temperance should judge our Gluttony, and their Thanksgiving shall condemn our Unthankfulness. But so far of the first Proposition, Man shall not live by bread alone, that is, man is not necessarily bound to ordinary sustenance. The second follows in this sense and interpretation.  
God can nourish man by every word that proceedeth out of his mouth, every way that it liketh, and pleaseth him. Whatsoever the Constitution and Decree of the Lord is, that is called his Word. Verbum appellat, quia verbo omnia creavit, dixit & facta sunt. He that spoke the word and all things were made, a word and a deed to him is all one. And therefore the Shepherds in the Eclogue which they had together about going to Bethlem to find Christ, 
Luk. two. 15.  use this speech, Let us go see, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, This thing which is come to pass is very right sense, but in the Greek it is, this word which is come to pass. God's words are not faithless, nor full of vain ostentation as men's are, his words were as those were which Daniel says were written with a hand upon the wall; for his hand doth hold his word to execute and bring it to pass. To make you a little further acquainted with the Phrase of Scripture, Egressus est sermo ex ore, is an Hebraism to signify the resolute pleasure both of God and man. The thing proceedeth from the Lord, says Laban, We cannot speak unto thee bad or good, Gen. xxiv. 50. A Domino egressus est sermo; the word proceedeth from the Lord, that is, he hath decreed it, and we cannot withstand it. In like manner the Idolaters contest with Jeremy, Chap. xliv. 17. We will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth to burn Incense to the Queen of heaven, that is, after the swing of desperate sinners they would do what they list. The insisting upon this Phrase is not in vain, but the very key to open the plain effect of Christ's answer, which very profitably leaves us to make use of it in a double construction.  
First, says Tolet, Verbum quod procedit ex ore Dei est res quam Deus in victum hominis destinavit; Man shall live by every word that goes out of the mouth of the Lord, that is, by every thing that he will bless and appoint for the use of sustenance unto him. And so Abulensis doth instance and exaggerate it; 
In Deut viij.  the Lord is not that Father, who if his Child should ask him bread would give him a stone, but if he would infuse the virtue of nourishment into boards, into stones, yea, into the flesh of Serpents, we should prosper with them better than with all the Culliss and Electuaries in the world. How unsearchable are the ways of the Almighty, how the Infant from the first conception is nourished in the Mother's Womb? When Philosophy hath spoken what it can, the chief part must be left to Divinity to say, it is fed by the word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God, such things as would poison one Creature are delicate dainties to fatten another; It is as God hath allowed every thing for man and beast in their own kind, that we might allow him his glory.  
Secondly, Man shall live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord, that is, by all his Promises, and by every Vocation which he hath sanctified to relieve us. And this agrees most aptly with Christ himself in the dispensation of his Mediatorship, and with the instance of the Children of Israel who were fed with Manna in the Wilderness. This is the prime rule which leads every man into some hope of prosperity that manageth an honest Calling. That every one shall live and thrive who holds him to that way which God hath appointed him. The Israelites journeyed from Egypt into the Wilderness, not of their own head and will, but by God's Ordinance; why, it was impossible they should famish doing as he commanded them: So Christ went not rashly into the Desert, but he was led by the Spirit, he did as the Lord would have him do; this was his Vocation, therefore though he could not make stones become bread, God would find him sustenance some other way. No conscionable man will set his servants to labour and not provide them honest fare to strengthen them when they follow their Master's negotiations. Says Christ to the Seventy Disciples, When I sent you forth without Scrip, or Shoes, or Money, did you want any thing? They answered, not any thing; for they went upon their Master's Message, and they lived upon that word which proceeded out of the mouth of God. The Priests indeed that serve at the Altar are to live by the Altar; in their case it will be granted, that they shall live by that word which proceedeth out of the mouth of Christ; but it sorts as well to those that supply any other honest Vocation which God hath allotted if they will bond their desires to moderate sufficiency, and not to supersluity. Socrates an Heathen could cry out, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that he suffered extreme poverty for defending the Worship of God as well as he could against the Idolatry of the Heathen; so much more the true Champions of Christ's honour may take up the same complaint; yet the Lord is innocent of the blood of those just men, he never failed to afford them a sufficient vital proportion if their enemies would let them enjoy it.  
The Heathen Morals are like the base Court, by which we have the next entrance to the glorious Courts of God, and those Heathen conject their shot to the use of this Point in a Story, or a Fable, which you will. 
Theocr. eidul. 7.  Comates a young Shepherd tended the Flocks of a hard Master, but the Stock increased exceedingly under his hand; for Comates sacrificed one Ram every month to his God to preserve the cattle, which damage being known to the Owner, the churlish man imprisoned him in a hollow tree with intention to starve him: But his God provided for him, that the weeping of the tree should quench his thirst, and that Bees should swarm in the hollow trunk; with the help of the Honey-Combs Comates kept life, which being perceived the anger of his Master relented. Godliness hath the promise of this life, and of a better, says St. Paul. And this tradition of the Jews, to which I am credulous doth confirm it. You know in 2 King. iv. there is a Widow much in debt, whose Sons should have been sold for bondmen; but Elisha multiplied her Pot of Oil into many Vessels, which yielded sufficient moneys to satisfy her Creditors. This woman, says the Text, ver. 1. was a Wife to one of the Prophets, and she tells Elisha he knew that her husband feared the Lord. The Jews say, this woman was the Wife of Obadiah, who at his own cost and peril kept the Prophets of the Lord in Caves, and fed them at his own charge so long that all his means were wasted. This may be, for Obadiah could not choose but be at great expense, and was not only a keeper of the Prophets, but a Prophet himself: and see how the Lord did ransom his Sons from slavery by a mighty Miracle; it was God's pleasure Obadiah should cherish his Servants, and he would not suffer him or his Posterity to be losers by their Piety. There are such that do not set themselves on work according to the word which proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord, and as for them need and wretchedness shall vex their souls. There are runagates, says David, that shall continue in scarceness. Let me put you in mind of a runagate bred in our Kingdom, one upon whom God did let his anger fall for a thousand Lies, Forgeries, Rebellions, Calumnies, it was the Romish Priest Sanders, 
Camden. Elizab. p. 1583.  whose brains beat at nothing but to dishonour a Royal Queen, a true Religion, and to set the whole Realm of Ireland in combustion. This Caitiff, says the most learned Historiographer of this Kingdom, being disappointed and forsaken ran mad and wild into the fastnesses of the woods, and there ended his life in most miserable famine. So, says he, that Divine Justice closed up that mouth with Famine which was ever open to slanders and rebellions, for Letters and Orations were found about him, being dead, to stir up treasons and seditions. God can nourish by every word that proceedeth out of his mouth, and they that walk not after his word, but would root it out, shall perish in their scarcity.  
The hour passing away calls for the third Proposition, which is, Nothing can nourish unless God bless it, for man liveth not by the bread only which he cheweth in his mouth, but by that word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God to bless it, and give it the virtue of sustenance. As if Christ had said, Though these stones miraculously be made bread, yet hunger would continue if God were displeased at it. All the sustenance in the world shall not nourish if he curse it. When a fruitful Land becomes barren, and a fat soil well tilled and sowed doth not yield increase, every man will be ready to take up David's Psalm, It is for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. Like Sodom and Gomorrah, like Abnah and Zeboim, where not any grass groweth, but the whole Land is Brimstone, and Salt, and Burning, Deut. xxix. 23. And why will you not mark as well how God chastiseth some for their secret sins, so that their food gives them no strength, but they pine away in the midst of plenty? God gave bread to the Israelites, but sent leanness withal into their soul. So Haggai upbraided the people, Ye eat, but ye have not enough, ye drink, but ye are not filled. It is the grace of God which gives meat in due season so that health and comfort go together with it. And heretofore I have used this similitude to give it light. Sometimes when we apply Physic for any disease, we are bid to seethe such and such herbs in running water, and then to drink the water. If this help us, we all know it was not the water which did the sick man good, but the decoction of the infusion: So it is not bread or drink, considered barely in itself, which doth nourish the body, but the blessing of God infused into it. Daniel, and the three Children of the Captivity that were with him, prospered better with Pulse and water than any of the Babylonians with the continual portion of the King's meat. What was Adam the better for eating the forbidden fruit? Or were the Jews one whit the worse in health and good plight, because many sorts of meats were interdicted them? As the Land of Canaan was made double fruitful every sixth year, and brought forth a double proportion by the blessing of heaven, because in the seventh year it lay fallow: So where God's benediction is upon you, though the poor have but a little yet every morsel shall have a double benediction. The hungry shall be filled with good things, and the rich shall be sent empty away.  
Therefore look up to heaven and give thanks, as the little birds do when they sip a drop of water. If thou obeyest the Lord, thou shalt be blessed in the City, and blessed in the Field. As the Fable is, that the Unicorn dips his horn into the River, and makes it wholesome for all the beasts to drink, so the mercy of the Lord shall breathe upon all thy sustenance, and sanctify it for cheerfulness and health, and thy bones shall be filled with marrow and fatness. But though we take our meat from God, yet through infidelity it seems to me we will not take his word, that he will concoct it to vivificate and strengthen us: For if you do trust to that secret infusion that he gives unto his gifts, why are you so solicitous what you shall eat, and what you shall drink? Why do you confect every thing you take with such licious cost? Why do you ingurgitate yourselves with superfluity? I am sure this makes it evident, that you will neither trust God nor nature, unless all the Art which Luxury and Wantonness can excogitate be added unto it. As Elkanah said to Hannah his Wife, Am not I better to thee than ten Sons? So let it run in your mind, as if the Lord spoke it to you in your ear, Am not I better unto thee than all the Corn in the Fields? Than all the cattle upon a thousand hills? Than all the Cookery in the world that can be sweet upon the Palate? What is bread? What is a plentiful Table without my benediction? Man shall not live by bread alone, etc.  
The last Proposition shall be the more succinctly handled, as it is least of all the meaning of the Text. That there is another life for man to look to beside this which is sustained with bread, the inward man, the spiritual man, which lives upon the first word which I handled in my Text, Scriptum est, it is written. Non in solo pane, vivet homo, non potior pars hominis, quae est anima, as St. Ambrose; The better half of man, which is the Soul and Spirit, lives not by material bread, but by the Word of God. A heavenly Doctrine, and is not minded; yet not the proper and native construction of the verse I confess. Yet the reason why some Fathers inclined to that meaning in their Commentaries was, forasmuch as Christ mentioned the Word which proceeded out of the mouth of God; now indeed that particle (Word) is not in the Hebrew Text, which goes no further than thus, Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every (thing suppose) that cometh out of the mouth of God. The 72 Translators made it up, by every word; and so St. Cyprian and others made this plausible sense, that bread indeed strengthens man's heart, but the soul liveth by the Law of God. Yet in this meaning the Devil had had room to prosecute his Argument, and would have said, Give your soul such comfort as befits the soul, yet that is no impediment but the body also must have his necessary refection. Satan dares not be so impudent to deny, but there is somewhat in man, which is to be cared for more than the flesh; for he himself is a Spirit, which will make him confess, that a spiritual substance deserves our solicitous love before a body which is made of dirt. Therefore the banquet for the soul is like Benjamins' Mess five times, yea, five hundred times as good as the victuals of this Carcase. Martha was careful to provide meat for the families, her Sister Mary sat at our Saviour's feet, and fed upon the Manna of those divine words which fell from him. You know who made the comparison, Mary hath chosen the better part. A Philosopher, that preferred solid knowledge before the best diet, could say, He had rather be invited by Plato than by any Nobleman in Athens, for he that supped with him might be the better for his discourse the morrow after. O how much better is it then to sup with Christ? Sometimes tasting of his Sacrament, sometime hearing his Priests deliver the Mysteries of Faith, sometime reading the mellifluous story of his Gospel, sometime meditating, often praying that we may not suffer a famine of the Word, which we justly deserve for our sins, but that his sayings may sink into our hearts, and nourish us, that we may grow up from grace to grace, from virtue to virtue, that we may eat the bread of life in the Kingdom of Heaven, and never hunger again. AMEN.   

THE TENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviour's Tentation.  MAT. iv. 5. 
Then the Devil taketh him up into the holy City, and setteth him on a Pinnacle of the Temple.  
AT this Verse Satan fenceth against Christ with a new weapon, and after the tentation of the Wilderness Now follows the tentation of the Pinnacle, wherein Christ fulfilled that Doctrine in the Gospel, He that will compel thee to go with him one mile, go with him twain; for it was no presumption in our Lord to go with him from one trial to another because he was sure he should outgo him. 
Plutarch in vit. Flam.  As the Romans said of Hannibal their enemy, that he was a perpetual fire, Cui nihil deerat, nisi qui eum excitaret, that would instantly flame if any man would stir him up: So neither loss nor victory will make the Devil sit down with peace; he is a perpetual fire to kindle sin in man, that wants nothing but an occasion to stir him up. When he could do no good by his first Patent, taking away all that Job had, he comes and sues for a new Commission, that he might touch his flesh and bone: Semblably, when his first onset took no effect, and could not penetrate our Saviour, to make him satiate his hunger by unlawful means, now he deals with him in a most different way, whether he would be taken with pride and vainglory. He that will not despair of his Father's Providence but that he shall be fed, will he then presume of his protection, that in the midst of the greatest dangers he shall be preserved?  
Let not the Pontificians take my similitude in ill part, for I shall speak no more than the truth. As they have particular ways to ravish all men's affections, and to fit each humour, that every fancy may be satisfied, and every appetite find what to feed on; they have the dignity of a Cardinal to allure the magnificent mind, the humility of a Capuchin to agree with a despiser of the world: Employment enough for the stirring metalled spirit of a Jesuit, and ease enough for the sullen restive disposition of a Monk, a Cloister of Virgins for the chaste, a street of Courtesans for the dissolute. So Satan will be with some in the desert Wilderness, with others in the populous City: Practiseth with one man upon his hunger and poverty, with another upon his ambition; no retiring place so low but he hath an Engine to use in that, 
Oratio. pro M. Caelio.  no Pinnacle so high but he can reach at that. Cum tristibus severè, cum remissis jucundè, as the Orator did point out Catiline for a Devil incarnate; he can sigh with them that want, but to make them murmur: laugh with them that are merry, but to make them voluptuous and exceed; fly as low as you will, and as high as you will. Which alteration you shall find between that tentation which is passed already and that which is now begun; Then the Devil taketh him up into the holy City, and setteth him on a Pinnacle of the Temple; In which words are to be noted four things; Ordo, Modus, Locus communis, Locus proprius. First, The order of these tentations, that this is the immediate, and next tentation to the former, for then the Devil took him. Secondly, The manner is by assumption, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he took him up. 3. The more common place to which he took him, it was to the holy City Jerusalem. 4. Here is the peculiar and proper place, he setteth him on a Pinnacle of the Temple. These are the parts of that Argument which at this time lies before us.  
Now this is the reason why I make the order of these tentations one, and the first part of the Text at this time, because St. Luke puts this tentation in the last part, which St. Matthew accounts the second; and this which St. Matthew reckons for the second St. Luke refers it last. For after Christ had refused the motion to make bread of stones, it follows according to St. Luke, The Devil took him up into an high Mountain, and showed him all the Kingdoms of the world in a moment of time; but our Evangelist gives his Narration the accent of time, Tunc assumpsit, than he took him up into the holy City. Because therefore St. Matthew shows the Connexion of order, it is believed generally that he hath the perfect consequence of the story. One says, that in some old Copies of the Greeks St. Luke concurs passage by passage with St. Matthew. Jansenius, a learned Author, it seems, had found some such thing, and I believe so had St. Ambrose, for whereas he wrote Commentaries purposely upon St. Luke, yet he keeps no other order but the selfsame which is found in St. Matthew. Howsoever this is no jar or contradiction between the holy Writers, but a variety which begets many good Meditations when we think upon it.  
First, Aquinas did thus excogitate upon it, 
3. Pars. qu. 41.  Quandoque ex inani gloria venitur ad cupiditatem, quandoque ex cupiditate ad inanem gloriam. The tentation upon the Pinnacle was directed to beget vainglory, the tentation upon the Mountain tended to beget immoderate coveting of worldly things. Now for these two there is no choice in the precedency, for sometimes vainglory would support itself by coveting in excess, and sometimes a covetous affection drives a man into the itch of glory.  
Secondly, All sins are not equal, yet there are some capital sins that in several respects are of an equal deformity between themselves, and then they take their turn in holy Scripture, one interchangeably to be set before the other. Murder and Adultery, Adultery and Murder are flagrant crimes, and in some comparisons one is the greater trespass against our brother, in some comparisons the other. Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, so Moses ranged them in the Law to the Jews. Thou shalt not commit Adultery, thou shalt not kill Rom. xiii. 9 So St, Paul disposeth them writing to the Gentiles. Indeed in the Hebrew, Murder is first forbidden, for being is simply better than well-being; but in the 70 Translation Adultery is first forbidden, for comparatively well-being is better than being. St. Matthew therefore following the Hebrew says Christ did thus rehearse the Commandments to the young man; Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit Adultery, Mat. nineteen. 18. St. Luke following the 72. citys our Saviour saying to the same man, Do not commit Adultery, do not kill, Luk. xviii. 20. So Pride in some cases is worse than Covetousness, and therefore our Evangelist entreats first upon the tentation to Pride; in some cases Covetousness is worse than Pride, and so the other Evangelist writes first of that tentation which instigated unto Covetousness.  
Thirdly, St. Luke laid those two tentations together which were commenced in the Wilderness and Mountains, and then with less confusion to the Readers apprehension speaks of that which fell out in the City, and upon the Temple. 
Tostat. in 4. Mat. qu. 31.  Many times the Scripture by anticipation brings in the history of a thing before the precise time wherein it was done, as Mat. xxvii. In the description of our Saviour's Passion this accident is brought in, that many dead bodies of the Saints arose, and appeared in the holy City to many, and yet it came not to pass upon the Passion day, but when Christ was risen from the dead. This Maxim is of good direction to the wise that can understand it. Ordo artificialis in narratione rerum saepe est utilior ad intelligendum quam ordo naturalis. To transpose things in an history artificially is many times better for our understanding than the plain natural order. But this tentation, as it is sorted in St. Matthew, is well placed both by the natural truth of the history, and by the artificial method of it. And thus much briefly to make this Point even between these two most divine Evangelists.  
I put on to the next thing, which is most strange in this tentation, and verily to be admired, the manner of it, to which Christ did submit himself, it is by Assumption, by carriage through the air, Then the Devil taketh him up into the holy City. It was a good Spirit which led him into the Wilderness to the exercises of Fasting, and Prayer, and Contemplation, the very same which sat upon his head at Baptism in the shape of a Dove. Now here is another Spirit retaining to the contrary faction, who is ready not only to lead him, but even to carry him through the Air to the most conspicuous Turret in all the City of Jerusalem. Some of the ancient and pure stock of Writers were so loath to preach this Doctrine in the Church, that Satan did bear up Christ between Heaven and Earth for fear of offending weak ones, that they made other constructions of it which will no abide the test. St. Cyprian expounds it as if all this had been done by Vision and Imagination: But will Cyprian say, that Christ was urged to cast himself down to the ground putatiuè, not really, but in imagination? Or will he grant that our glorious Champion did vanquish his Adversary but in fancy and opinion? Exilis esset Christi victoria; Then Christ had but little to boast of, and the Scripture would never have recorded this act as the most famous of all victories. Beside these, many other Interpreters in a more rational way confess this was a conflict truly and apparently fought, and that the Devil really took him up, Pedibus ductum, non volantem; he went along from the Wilderness up to the top of the Pinnacle on his feet upon the Devil's provocation. And this opinion they maintain upon the meaning of the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which is sometimes Simpliciter assumere, not Assumptum transfer; barely to take along in company, not to transport or transpose in the taking, as Christ took up Peter, and James, and John into the Mountain where he was transfigured, that is, he made them his Associates, but their own feet did bear them. The Verb indeed will bear both significations, and more fit a great deal that in this place it should bear the latter, and not the former. For first, the great Wilderness, which is generally allowed for the place where our Saviour was tempted is distant from Jerusalem a journey of two days, supposing all the way should be trod on foot; now all the three tentations were dispatched in part of one, for Christ fasted forty days and no longer, and the Tempter did not settle to his work till upon the end of the Fast. Secondly, If Christ had gone up stairs to the top of the Temple, what means the Scripture to say that the Devil set him on a Pinnacle? Or thirdly, with what authority or favour did our Lord get up unto the top of that holy place, since none but the Priests came so far as into the Temple or sanctuary, and the people were admitted no further than the outward Porch? Fourthly, If there had been stairs to ascend to the Pinnacle, and Christ had passed up that way, than there had been no colour for this presumptuous Proposition, Cast thyself down, etc. the answer had been very obvious, no, I will return back the same way I came. I forsake this opinion therefore, because it cannot be defended against these objections, that Christ did only go along with Satan to the holy City.  
The third opinion, which being opened and enlarged, will much better show the mischief and subtlety of this tentation, is thus, Then Satan did transport our Lord from the Desert, wherein he fasted, to the highest Battlements of the Sanctuary. This will appear hard at the first to the infirmity of some Auditors. So Gregory did suppose it would trouble some when he wrote the truth, Aures humanae audire expavescant; Some men's ears for a while will be unwilling to hear it till the scruples be removed: But when you shall understand how much the patience, the wisdom, the power of Christ did surmount hereby, how at every turn he overreached Satan in his own contrivances, you will grant the Exposition to be sound, delightful, and profitable. Mark, I beseech you, doth it appear a thing not to be assented unto, that Christ would fly through the Air with Beelzebub the greatest enemy of God? That seems uncouth, but this will allay the horror of it. Remember Satan was permitted at this time to use all his engines to provoke our Saviour to sin, if Christ had refused him to cut a passage through the Air with him as far as the principal Pinnacle of the Temple, it would have left him confident that our Lord durst not hazard himself to that tentation. Let him do the best he can or he will never confess himself utterly conquered, Nemo victus est quandiu pugnare vult. No body is quite beaten as long as he offers to fight again; and if he were not beaten at all his own weapons, the wicked Fiend would say he had not lost all his glory. Origen therefore brings in the Devil to say, you have well answered about my Proposition for making bread of stones, but will your courage serve you to go with me to the highest Tower of the Temple? And then in his phrase Christ answers, Duc quò vis, tenta ut placet, 
Gregor. hom. 16. in Evang.  sustineo quae suggesseris; Come your ways, I will not stay behind, see I am ready for you at all suggestions. What, ready to be put into his hands and be carried? Even so says Gregory, it was his Father's will, and his own patience and humility; Quid mirum est si se permisit ab illo duci, qui se pertulit ab ejus membris crucifigi? It is nothing strange to adventure himself to be taken up by Satan, knowing by his own power and virtue his passage should be safe, when as none will deny but he suffered himself to be led to Caiaphas, to Pilate, to Herod, to Mount Golgotha by those that were the members of the Devil to be buffeted, to be scourged, to be crucified. Now this opinion certainly seems not rigid to the understanding Auditor; and yet to mollify it more St. chrysostom and many his learned followers say, this miscreant came not to Christ in his own most ugly Diabolical shape, but was now transformed into such a glorious humane shape, as the Angels of light were wont to assume when they came from God. And upon this fair appearance he closeth with him. The Angels of God are your guard and custody, and lo I am an Angel of light that will conduct you with all diligence and tenderness. This is the first deception which Satan swallowed, he thought he was so perfectly trasfigured, that Christ did not know him, like the Ass in the Fable, having put on a Lion's skin, he thought the Countrymen would not know him by his long ears: but our Saviour let his enemy play with his new disguise as if he passed without discovery. O how easy it is for the sharpest wit, when it would be wiser than God, to be more ignorant than a beast! God did open the eyes of Balaams' Ass to know a true Angel; then, what should hinder the Son of God to know a counterfeit?  
But secondly, Is not this a matter to be stumbled at? To be taken up, and born away, implies a kind of power and superiority in him that beareth another, for his virtue must exceed the others. As the Angel had authority over Philip, when he lifted him suddenly from Gaza in the Desert to Azotus, Acts viij. And Habakkuk was in subjection to that Angel, who took him up by the hair of the head, and carried him into Babylon. Beloved, All such transportations are not alike; some earthly bodies indeed are removed miraculously and violently from one place to another, conferring no virtue of their own to the motion, but suffer themselves to be moved by some spiritual efficacy applied unto them, as in the forenamed instances of Habakkuk and Philip, and in Paul who was wrapped up, he knew not how, into the third heavens. Again, some bodies make use of another thing to bear them, as a Chariot, or any Instrument, so the Psalmist says of God himself, that he came flying upon the wings of the wind; and in this sense St. Austin justifies, that Christ was neither violently nor imperiously carried by Satan, but moved himself by his own virtue, and let the Devil assist as an Instrument. Says the Father, 
In Psal. xci.  Si dicas meliores sunt: qui portant quam qui portantur, ergo jumenta meliora sunt hominibus. If you litigate that the bearer is better than him that is born, than you shall confess that the beast is better than the man that rides him. And in this circumstance likewise Satan was egregiously cozened to his exceeding contumely; for when Christ permitted himself to be lifted up from the earth, it seemed to Satan that it was his strength and power which carried him away, and though much unwilling to be caught up in that wise, yet being an impotent man he could not help it. Thus the evil Spirit was deluded, to ascribe that to his own power that came to pass by the hand of God. Like the Fly in the Fable sitting upon the Axletree of the Cart, when it was moved apace, took it to itself that the Cart was driven so fast, and cries out, see what a dust I make. So this evil Angel either took up Christ in his hands in that body which he had assumed, and thought it was in his power to stay him from falling; or as spiritual substances in some men's Philosophy can move a corporeal thing by emanation of virtue which goes from them, though they do not touch it, as the intelligences move the heavens, and so Satan not touching Christ at all might think it was his force and efficacy that snatched him up from the earth to a Pinnacle of the Temple. But the former way is more likely, as if he would show him how the Text of David was literally meant, He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up. Beloved, as the Devil did arrogate that he took up Christ on high by his own force and arm, yet it was nothing so: In like manner he thinks that all those hold their tenure of him who are exalted by wicked means, he took them up to a Pinnacle of the Temple, he raised them up to civil honour. Indeed, wicked persons live as if they owed their service rather to Satan than to God for their preferment; but it is the Lord that sets both good and bad in the seat of dignity, the powers that be they are from God. For this cause I have raised thee up, he spoke it to wicked Pharaoh, that I might make my power known in thee. Let mighty ones therefore remember they are God's liege men, and not the Devils. And they that rise up like smoke from hell fire, like smoke they shall vanish into nothing.  
So I have showed it was not in the power of Satan to carry our Lord whither he would, but Christ suffered this Assumption of Satan's out of patience, not out of infirmity, and suffered himself to be lifted up on the Cross, and at last he came to the third Assumption to be received up into glory. There is a third thing remains to be satisfied, which every one will expect, what a gazing sight would this be, for all the Region over which Christ did fly, and for the populous City of Jerusalem? It must needs be an object upon which all men would cast their eyes; and why is it not more spoken of in the Gospel, and objected to our Saviour by his enemies? It is no solid answer to say it happened in the night, and none were aware of it: For the tentation which follows must needs be done in the clear light, when he showed the Son of God all the Kingdoms and glory of the world in the twinkling of an eye. The true answer is, that Satan was more overreached in this surmise than in all the rest. For he thought by this hover aloft in the Air to make Christ a spectacle to all the world, that men might think him some Inchantor or Magician by riding above in the clouds; in the mean time, says St. chrysostom, Christ made himself invisible, that he was seen of no man, the Devil being no way privy to it that he did abide invisible. So, Joh. viij. ult. the Jews took up stones to cast at Christ, but he hid himself, and went out of the Temple, going through the midst of them; what was this to hide himself, and to go through the midst of them? But to pass through the throng invisible, as among others Euthymius noteth.  
No point of cozenage and sorcery was practised more of old by the Imps of Satan than these flyings aloft, these aereal supervolitations to the wonder of the world. Nero Caesar was given much to Incantations, and to experiments above nature, 
Sueton. Parag. 12.  especially in this kind. Suetonius says, that one of his Flatterers would undertake to fly up to heaven at his command, but got a tumbling cast for his labour, insomuch that some of the party's blood did light upon Nero himself as he sat to behold this new sight in the Theatre. I will not say that this was Simon the Sorcerer, spoken of, Acts viij. because he in the Theatre did personate Icarus in sport, but Simons was a solemn undertaking to confute the Doctrine of Peter and Paul by flying up to heaven. So it is in the book called Clemens his Constitutions, that this child of the Devil began to take his flight up on high openly before all the people of Rome, 
Baron. ann. 68, Parag. 16, 17.  and at the instant Prayers of the Apostle Peter he fell down headlong and broke his legs. Because that Book is justly suspected for an adulterate work, Arnobius, who wrote in the Reign of Dioclesian to all the Gentiles, says as much, Cursum Simonis Magi nominato Christo evanuisse; The flight of Simon Magus was crossed in the name of Jesus Christ. This was grown so common either by Mathematical engines, or by Witchcraft, 
Juvenal.  that every Impostor did begin to profess it, Graeculus esuriens in Coelum jusseris ibit, says the Satirist. The Prince of the Air thought to amuse the world, and to do stupendious works in his own Territories; but he that sits on high shall laugh them to scorn, the Lord shall have them in derision. These are but foolish Antiques, and Mimics of the proper sending up of our spirit to God, by desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ by having our conversation in heaven, and delighting in those joys which are laid up for the Saints, and by fervent Prayer which carries up the heart to God upon the wings of Zeal and Innocency; so the Psalm mentions, how a man may raise himself even unto the top of the holy City, which is the new Jerusalem, in heaven, My soul flieth unto the Lord before the morning watch, I say before the morning watch. And so much for the second general Point, the manner of this tentation, which was by Assumption, Then the Devil taketh him up, etc.  
The holy City is the Locus communis, the place largely taken to which he was carried out of the Wilderness, and that is the ground to work upon for the third general Observation of the Text. This must needs be the Periphrasis of Jerusalem, because God had a Temple no where else but there; and St. Luke hath spared this Periphrasis, and named the place, he took him to Jerusalem, and set him on a Pinnacle of the Temple. The eminent honour which this place had for many Sacred and Political Privileges made Satan desire to contaminate it with the greatest sins, as with the Martyrdom of the Saints with the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, with sundry other crimes; and with this presumptuous precipitation, if he could have drawn Christ unto it. In Psalm cxxii there are three things which made very much to the praise of it: 1. It was a City compact together, the strongest Tower of defence in all the Kingdom. 2. There sat the Thrones of Judgement, even the Thrones of the house of David. And 3. Thither went the Tribes up to give thanks to the name of the Lord, so that for Fortitude, for Civil Justice, and for the use of Religion, for being an holy City it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the very eye of the Land of Canaan. But especially the name of Jerusalem in holy Scripture is rather the name of God's Church, than of a place which contained material building, and therefore very aptly called the holy City. Nay, there is not one word beside in all the Book of God, which contains the whole threefold estate of the Church that I can remember, namely, both the Synagogue under the Law, and the Gospel under Grace, and the blessed Communion of the Saints in heaven. For Jerusalem, as the Grammarians note, is a Noun of the dual number, to signify both the Militant part on earth, and the Triumphant part in heaven of them that are sanctified, and joined to Christ the head. No place so pregnant as Gal. iv. 25. where St. Paul shows a double Jerusalem upon Earth, the Synagogue, and the Gospel; Jerusalem which now is, says the Apostle, which desired to be under the Law, under the rudiments of Moses, was in bondage with her Children; but Jerusalem which is above, not meaning the Choirs of Angels in heaven, but the Church Apostolical which is watered with the dew of heaven from above, That is free, which is the mother of us all. Here are two Jerusalem's, one above another, the Antitype above the Type, the Substance above the Shadow, the Son of God exhibited in the flesh above the Figures and Sacrifices of the Levitical Priesthood. But in both respects it was called the holy City. For as concerning the Law of Ceremonies, there was no other place but it where they were purely exhibited to God; and as concerning the New Testament, or Faith in Christ, there it began, Repentance and Salvation were preached unto all Nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And for this relative holiness which that City had by being the chief and most ancient Seat of the Oracles of God even Heaven did borrow a name from Earth, and hath not despised to be called the upper Jerusalem; St. John says, when the old Elements of the world did pass away, there was a new Heaven and a new Earth, and he saw the New Jerusalem coming down from God, prepared as a Bride for her Husband, Rev. xxi. 1. For these causes it had Nomen super omne nomen; A name above all names among all the dwellings upon earth, even as Christ had a name above all names among the Sons of men.  
But as the Serpent did find a way to come into Paradise, so he resorted to this holy City. It is his joy to make that a Cage of unclean birds which was the Sanctuary of God: It is his industry to sow Tares in the midst of Wheat; it is his envy to make an evil Leprosy rise up in those Walls where Christ's name is praised; it is his pastime to pollute the holy City, that the Lord may abhor it. And this was easily brought about by the Devil; Jerusalem hath run his own fortune: God's honour did abide in it for a while, and after a while it became an hissing to all the Earth. Once there was no other place in all the world that was holy, there was no other Metropolis, no other Sanctuary, all the habitations of the earth beside were Idolatrous, therefore from that ancient purity, wherein it excelled alone, it is called Sancta, an holy City. The former renown did so remain upon it, then when it had been guilty of the blood of all the Prophets, and had crucified Christ himself, yet after all this the Spirit of God lets it retain a name fitter for its ancient Sanctity than for its present Iniquity, Many dead bodies of the Saints arose, and came into the holy City and appeared unto many. Alas! now it is neither holy, nor yet a City, but first a Theatre upon which all wickedness was acted, and then an heap of ruins. Although after the change of many names which it hath suffered, Adrichomius says, that the Turks in their Language call it the holy City to this day. How well doth this parallel the state of the Roman Pontificat at this day? We are often told, (and the oftener the less reason) here did the Apostles Peter and Paul preach, and suffer Martyrdom; here have thirty faithful Bishops successively suffered for the name of Christ; here have the Arrian, the Nestorian, the Pelagian Heresies been refuted, this is the holy City. Yes, as Jerusalem is so entitled for the pure Worship of God which was once professed there, not for the present faith and sincerity, all places have admitted impurity and corruption; for it was denounced to man that the whole Earth and every part of it should bring forth thorns and thistles unto him. All Kingdoms and Cities have their periods, and shall have them, to show that God's Kingdom only is perpetual: All Nurseries and Seminaries of Faith have had their full Tides and their Ebb their times of Grace, and their aversions from it, to show that truth is only established in the heavens. And I doubt not, but after the revolution of those years and days, which God hath prefixed in his secret knowledge, it will be more easy for our Posterity than it is for us, upon great alterations that happen in all places, to prove, that where the Papacy now reigns it suffers the same fate with Jerusalem, was, but is not the holy City.  
Well, to seek further into this Point, the Tempter did devise rather to pollute Christ than the City of God, to which he brought him, yet certainly thither he brought him, because that place did serve his turn better than the solitary Desert. Our Saviour's own Kindred were ambitious to have him manifested, Show thyself unto the world; and this was the very Pin which Satan did drive at, that Christ would affect to be gazed upon and admi●ed, Digito monstrari & dicier hic est; to be pointed at for the mighty Prophet, upon whom the Spirit descended at Jordan in the sight of all the people. What went you out into the wilderness to see? There is nothing to be seen in the Wilderness, that is no place for pride to do its work in: But come to Jerusalem, and there are thousands of spectators to take notice of a Prophet. This is the nature of vainglory to mingle itself in a populous throng, where it may be observed, Ut pueri Junonis avem: For all other sins are a little kept back either with fear or modesty; but pride were not like itself if it could blush or be dismayed. The Adulterer is a sinner in secret; the Covetous extorts with slights and cunning; the Slanderer is like the Pestilence that flies in the dark, Alia vitia fugiunt à Deo, sola superbia se opponit; All other sins keep out of the way, as well as they can, but pride is not ashamed to be manifested, nay, it loves to have witnesses of its folly and insolency. Jehu would have all men know what a notable Reformer of Religion he was grown, Come see the Zeal which I have. Haman would have it seen through all the streets how much he was honoured by King Ahasuerus. What man would buy honour so dear but to be known in place and authority? Who would be at such costly charge for bravery of Apparel but to make ostentation of it before company? St. Luke intimates, Acts xxv. 23. that Agrippa and Bernice came forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, with a great appearance, and much pomp, as if they had rather come to show their Train and Magnificence than to hear Paul's Sermon. A mighty crime, and a great indignity against God, and yet I fear as common as the highway, for some specious persons to come to Church, and make a garish lustre of their pride rather than to do the work of a good Christian in devotion to Prayer, and attention to the Sermon. This is that Itch which Satan hath rubbed upon self-admiring pride, sometime to be gazed upon at one place, sometime at another, by the Court, by the Theatre, by the Congregation assembled to praise God, by the whole City, if it be possible, as it was purposed in this Tentation. But the more publication Pride makes of itself, the more scandal is given, the more scandal the more guiltiness, and the more guiltiness the greater condemnation. Satan loves these open, these flaming sins, that weak ones may run to them like Moths to the light of a Candle, and be touched and scorched with coming near them. There was a sin driven to the head, 
2 Sam. two. 22.  when Absalon went in to his Father's Concubines in the sight of all Israel, having a Tent spread upon the house top: Or that of Rabshakeh, to blaspheme, not in private, or before few persons, or in an unknown Language, but in the audience of an whole Host; there is more Atheism, more hardness of heart in such public flagitiousness. Beware of such presumptuous sins where a cloud of Witnesses will not quell our conscience. It was open and scandalous pride to which the Devil thought to bring our Saviour when he brought him to be a gazing stock to all Jerusalem.  
Beloved, Ye learn from hence, that since the Tempter chose the populous City for the fittest place to engender pride, therefore the cure of Pride is retirement; he that can contain himself from being much seen, and can avoid the conflux of multitudes, hath proceeded far to get the victory of vain glory: But if ever Satan were busy to prevent that good remedy in this Kingdom, he bestirs himself in these days. Alas! the Country hath no shows and spectacles to draw the silken people together, no Visitants to resort from house to house, no such Arts and Objects to corrupt Modesty and Chastity as elsewhere: Nay, what if this cunning Angel thrust in this exception, in the simple small Hamlets of the Country, you shall have a Sermon but once a week on the Lord's day very plainly delivered; here you may run to Lectures and Exercises elaborately studied everyday, and almost every hour of the day, therefore leave these melancholy desolate Habitations of the Country, and come up to the holy City. And if this populous Ninive, wherein so many Jonases preach Repentance every day, had made as many virtuous as it hath spilt and marred, I would think Satan had no plot in it to drive up all our Gentry to this common receptacle, but since experience confesseth how publicly, how privately infectious the place is, I must infer, no tentation hath been more pernicious to the whole Kingdom than to bring up so many Families from the innocent Wilderness to this holy City. Hic homines fiunt; after they have resorted hither some few Terms, having no business to pass away their hours but upon the meditation of all kind of vanities, very often they return home with new Oaths and little Faith, with new Fashions and little Humility, with new Compliments and little Friendship, with new rules of House-keeping and little Hospitality: Not to forget likewise to their shame, with a new face and much skill in washing and painting; with new diseases and much unwholsomness. Seneca, an austere man, who was bound by attendance on the Court to live continually in the City of Rome, accused himself thus, Nunquam mores quos extuli refero; I never bring home such good conditions in this corrupt City as I carry abroad: I would Christians could perceive such evil fruits growing upon them but as well as an Heathen did. I would not be so sharp in this Theme, but that I see the very bane of all virtue grow from hence, that so many of the best quality nestle in these infectious parts of the Realm, having no employment, but abounding with ease and idleness; and yet so much new building, so much room is made to receive them. As the Greek Epigram played upon Hermogenes, whose nose was bigger than the rest of his face, that it was no good Language to say the nose of his face, but the face of his nose; so it is now grown more proper English to say, the City of the Suburbs than to say the Suburbs of the City. But that which is now almost impossible to be mended, I leave it to be lamented; for certainly when so many flock together only to see and to be seen, the Devil must needs hold a Fair among them to utter his worst ware of Pride in great abundance, for which reason he brought out Saviour out of the Wilderness into the holy City: and so much for the third part.  
Now lastly hear the peculiar and proper place to which he took him, and setteth him on a Pinnacle of the Temple; there are many questions even out of Architecture moved upon these words, so officious are all Arts, as it becomes them, to show their skill upon the holy Scripture. But briefly there are three opinions upon this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which we translate a Pinnacle, what part of the Temple it was, and of what Fashion. Remigius would have it a Seat where the Doctors preached, jetted out like a Pergalo, and called in Latin Podium; perhaps it was cast out in the fashion of a wing, and therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the Roman Orators spoke to the people pro rostris, out of a Seat made like the Beak of a Ship, and therefore called rostra. Questionless the ordinary gloss followed Remigius in this fancy, for it delivers, that the Devil took him up to a place which had been often infected with vainglory, In Cathedrâ doctorum multos deceperat inanis gloria; many of the Pharisaical Doctors, who sat in the Chair of Moses to teach the people, loved the praise of men more than the praise of God, and were infected with vainglory. But this opinion will quickly vanish when it is rationally opposed. For the Pulpit out of which Solomon prayed, and left it for the use of teaching, was but five Cubits high above the people, and it was within the outward part of the Temple, and it was fit to be no higher that the voice of the Teacher might come clearly to the Auditory. But surely the place from whence our Saviour was egged to take his leap was an exceeding Altitude. And I find that the height of the Temple was one hundred and twenty Cubits, 2 Chron. three 4. There is no probability that their Rabbins sat so far aloft above their Auditory to preach unto them. I think the second Temple wanted sixty of that till Herod finished it with Altitude and Glory. Others having looked upon exact delineations of the Temple deliver that the Roof of the Temple was built flat after the manner of all the Jewish buildings; and as all private houses were commanded by the Law to have a Battlement about them, to keep them from danger that walked upon the top of the Terrace, so the Temple had a Battlement about it adorned in several spaces, which perhaps were made like Wings, and called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Pinnacles. How those Battlements were capable for Christ to stand upon they describe not, but I am sure, according to Josephus, 
Lib. 6. Bel. Judai. 6.  no man could set his foot upon the flat Roof of the Temple, Quod aureis verubus horrebat acutissimis ne ab insidentibus avibus pollueretur, says he; it was stuck thick with gilded Spires as sharp as Needles, that the birds of the Air might not mewte upon it, and defile it. We Christians dare do all unseemliness against the Walls of our Churches, no reverence of the place will deter us; but the Jews were so careful, that they would not endure the Fowls of the Air should lay their dung upon the top of the Sanctuary. Thirdly, others draw out Models of the Temple, having at each corner lofty Spires, higher than all the rest. I know not whether David alludes to them when he speaks of Polished corners of the Temple, Psal. cxliu 12. and upon one of these, I think, in best propriety of phrase and matter Jesus was placed, as upon an Altitude conspicuous to all the City, though, as I told you before, our Saviour declined that intention of Satan's, and made himself invisible.  
The observations from hence shall be two: First, that the Devil chooseth the highest place he could find; And secondly, the most divine place of all where to pitch the ground of his tentation. Upon the first, I mean not so much the local elevation of the place, to which I could add, that Satan loves to ascend on high, to build up a sin as high as Babel, and that David was aloft, walking on the housetop, when he fell into unlawful love with Bathsheba, let this pass, for as great sins may be practised in the lowest corners of the earth: but I mean, after the figurative Exposition of the Fathers; they that have clambered up to some high Pinnacle of Fortune, they whom God hath made eminent in any gifts of Art or Nature, let them take heed that Satan stand not at their right hand to puff them up with Arrogancy. If you despise those whom you see beneath you, whether it be a Pinnacle of the Kingdom, or a Pinnacle of the Temple upon which you stand, remember by that mark that you must needs come thither of the Devils setting. Many that have designs upon promotion think the bird is catcht when they are advanced, they are as sure as a Ship in the Haven, which need fear no tossing; when if they understood their own condition well, it concerns them to be more vigilant of themselves, and of their affections than ever. The wiliness of the Tempter hath made it as hard a thing to moderate a great fortune, Servare modum rebus sublata secundis; as it is to guide a Ship Royal under all the Sails. Therefore St. Austin said upon my Text, Non est laus stetisse in pinnaculo, sed stetisse & non cecidisse; It is no such cunning thing to stand upon a Pinnacle, but to stand sure and not fall, there is the cunning. The Historian says true, many were thought fit to govern till they were trusted with Government, for this evil Angel hath such inveterate malice against all those that bear rule and title, that it is very rare to find a man so well affected to God's glory, to the Church, to the public good when he sits at the Stern to govern as when he was a private man. Divers that had true hearts to all good purposes when they stood upon the same level with the common people are quite metamorphosed by that time they get up to the top of a Pinnacle. Satan passed them over in the throng, but he joins close to them when they are exalted. S. Paul's was a rare temper, and to be found but among men of most divine graces, that could stand safe any where, and not pollute his conscience, I know both how to be abased, and how to abound, Phil. iv. 12. God is very abundant in his mercies to endue some with that spirit, that they are as humble, as just, as conscionable upon a lofty Pinnacle as upon the lowest Pavement. But more usually those Potentates whom the Scripture records have fallen into the snares of destruction. Joab was resolved he could not be great enough without the fall of Abner, nor Naaman but by pretence of Idolatry, nor Sanballat but by hindering the work of the Temple, nor Felix but by Bribery, no nor Nicodemus himself but by some dissimulation. If every good Saint hath his Angel Guardian, as certainly every honourable Magistrate hath an evil Angel of hostility to oppugn him, every high Pinnacle hath his Satan.  
Lastly, Observe how the wicked One would pollute no common place but the very house of God, he setteth him on a Pinnacle of the Temple. Many times when a City is taken by the enemy, some strong Castle or Fort holds out which is not won so easily. The Church is God's Castle, his Tower of defence against all spiritual iniquities, and Satan would not only take possession of the holy City, but of the best Fortress which God held in it, and brings Christ to be tempted upon the top of the Temple. All places are pervious unto him, he is shut out of none, you shall find him, says chrysostom, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in the Exchange of Merchants, upon the Bench of Judges, in the Temple of the Priests. And above all places on earth if he make us his instruments to defile the holy Temple, God's glory is put to the greatest scandal and reproach. And this is brought to pass so many ways, that it is plain to see there hath been a most witty complotter in the treachery. 1. When any Prelate is so puffed up that he thinks himself too great to be a doorkeeper in God's house, but will be higher than all the Church, and se● on the top of the Pinnacle, who sitting in the Temple of God exalts himself above all that is called God. 2. The Temple is defiled by setting up Idols in the Courts of our heavenly King, even in the midst of thee O thou Sanctuary of the Lord. 3. By offering up unclean Sacrifice, either false Doctrine, or impious Prayers, or superstitious Worship, or corrupted Sacraments. 4. When men set their foot within the sacred Tabernacle with carnal thoughts, with worldly imaginations, with no zeal or attention. 5. To bring any profane work, any secular business within those walls which are consecrated to the name of the Lord. This is that Camel which the Jewish Priests did swallow when they strained at a Gnat. For they told our Saviour that he broke the Sabbath, he did not keep the Law, but they themselves did licence and allow the profanation of the Temple, by bringing Merchandise into it, selling of Sheep and Oxen, and changing money, and you know how Christ revenged it even with anger and indignation. I must borrow time to tell you how Christ did bestir himself in the reformation of that abuse more than in any thing else throughout all the Gospel. For first he corrected that fault twice over, in the second of St. John's Gospel, in the beginning of his Ministry, and Mat. xxi. toward the end of his life anon before he suffered. You see what an obstinate evil it was which would not be redressed for one admonition. 2. When he came to Jerusalem there were many other faults, flagrant crimes, wherewith the place abounded yet the first thing he reform was the abuse of the Temple. 3. He would not tolerate the least profanation, wink at no fault, for he would not permit that any should carry so much as a Vessel through the Temple, Mar. xi. 16. 4. He reform this trespass, not only by preaching and quoating Scripture against it, but by a scourge and by violence, by word and deed. And surely if words will not serve, God will bring blows to maintain the reverence of his house that it be not contemned. What a dissolute carriage it is to see a man step into a Church and neither veil his head, nor bend his knee, nor lift up his hands or eyes to heaven? Who dwells there I pray you that you are so familiar in the house? Could you be more saucy in a Tavern, or in a Theatre? This is no other but the very gate of heaven. says Jacob, when he had but a vision of God and his Angels. Brethren renounce the Devil, let him not alienate your reverence from that place which God hath specially appointed for the saving of your soul. Holiness becometh thine house for ever, O holy blessed and glorious Trinity. AMEN.   

THE ELEVENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviour's Tentation.  MAT. iv. 6. 
And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God cast thyself down: For it is written, He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.  
IT is altogether unknown to man when a sin comes merely from the suggestion of his own heart, and when it comes from the tentation of the Devil. But in one case, eminently above many others, it is most likely that there is some hellish provocation when out of good principles and religious grounds our heart is quite turned out of the way to rebel against the Lord. Ely the High Priest had a tender fatherly affection; Who could turn this wholesome water into poison to make him wink at the vices and dissoluteness of his Sons but Satan? David was a thankful Prince, and loved to remember how God had multiplied his favours upon him, yet upon this stock grew that evil fruit to number the people. Why the Text says, Satan stood up against Israel, 
1 Chro. xxi. 1.  and provoked David to number Israel. King Josias was an enemy to the Heathen that knew not God; and he, that deludes good motions, made him so irreconcilable, 
2 Chron. xxxv. 22.  that he would fight against Pharaoh Necho to his own destruction, and hearkened not to the word which came from the mouth of God. Certainly the hand of Joab was in this, and in all such fallacies, where a good fountain is made to send forth sweet waters and bitter; as to sin because grace abounds, to neglect public Prayer because faith comes by hearing, to cark and care too much for the world, because a man would provide for his Posterity.  
And this master-wit of Hell laid this bait to make our Saviour swallow it in this present tentation. For Christ being demanded to make bread of stones; he replies, that he was confident in his Father's Promises, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Are you so confident? Thinks the Tempter; and upon this confidence I will thrust you on. Have you appealed to Cesar? And to Cesaer you shall go. It is true that you say, God is very gracious, and will not destitute you in any want or danger, you have answered very well, therefore cast yourself down from this Pinnacle, and be confident still God will look to it that you shall be supported. This is the very train discovered, and made as clear unto you as the light of the Sun. In the former tentation he would drive Christ to unlawful means; if that take not, because he trusts in God, then trust in him still, and refrain from the use of things lawful; so St. Austin distinguisheth, that his first fallacy was, Deum defuturum ubi promisit; that God would not help, where he had promised to assist; and the second fallacy, which now I am to handle is, Deum adfuturum ubi non promisit; that God would help where he had not promised to assist. Where many things are to be found out in one verse, they must be divided severally, and in this order I take it to be expedient. 1. Here is Satan's demand, Cast thyself down. 2. Upon what supposition he demands it, Why, if thou be the Son of God. 3. Upon what authority, authority enough, for it is written. 4. Upon what assistance, why, the best in the world, whether it is the supreme, or the instrumental. The supremeis God, He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee; and the instrumental are the most glorious, powerful, and excellent creatures in all the world, the whole Host of Angels, in their hands they shall bear thee, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. These are such particulars as the wisdom of the Spirit hath left us to consider upon these words; and as I begin at Satan's demand, so I make two branches of it, the Motion, and the Mover. The Motion is tumbling headlong, to be cast down: and the Mover must be himself, Cast thyself down. To the handling and use of these are required your ear, my utterance, and God's grace to both.  
I begin with the Motion and if the meaning of him that counselled it had been well carried, it were a motion easily persuaded to him that is of an humble spirit; a good man is ever ready to be directed to go and sit down in the lowest room, and to be abased to the very centre of humility. When the heart is in good awe of God the joints will bend unto the earth, O come let us worship and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker. This we are sure is far from Satan's purpose, and can be no construction of his words. Optat omnes cadere qui se sentit prae omnibus cecidisse, says St. Austin; He would have all men fall in that sort as himself hath done, with aspiring and presumption, that they might never rise again. The Beast in the Fable which had lost his tail made an Oration before all the Beasts of the Wood what a comely thing it was to want a tail, and very useful, and so concluded that they would all cut off theirs; but the Fox made answer, You intent not to make us decent like yourself, but to have us all as deformed: After the same manner the Devil Preacheth unto Christ to descend from the top of the Pinnacle to the bottom, not to set him in the posture of an humble man, but to make him arrogant like Lucifer; for such a violent precipitation, says he, can do no hurt at all to such a one as you are, a most holy one, that are called the Son of God. I will use Bonaventure's saying upon it, Satan did interlace lofty pride with this lowly seeming motion. Vt descendendo corporaeliter faceret cum superbire spiritualiter, ut simul esset ascensus vanus, & descensus verus; That he might fall down bodily, and be proud spiritually, and so he thrust together a frivolous presumption, and a dangerous descension. How much is humility abused when Pride will wear the colours of that good virtue to deceive the world? There was gross ambition in Absalon's stooping to steal the hearts of the people. The Scribes and Pharisees would dop to the ground when they greeted their friends in the Market place; The same Bishop that hath more Princely Augustious titles ascribed unto him, than would fill up a Sermon by themselves, subscribes himself very often Servus servorum Christ; the servant of the servants of Christ. As a Kite will sweep the earth with his wings, that he may truss the Prey in his Talons, and fly aloft to devour it: So all the crouches and submissions which an ambitious man makes are to get somewhat which he seeks for, and to clamber to promotion. This is observed, because Satan impels Christ to cast himself down, not for true humility sake, but upon vain glory to flutter in the Air, that all Jerusalem might take notice how precious he was to the care and custody of all the Angels.  
In the next place convert your thoughts to this, see what kind of Miracles they are which the Devil delights in: the working of Miracles is reduced to God's Omnipotent Prerogative beyond the ordinary Law of Nature. And Christ did often put it in act to save, to revive, to comfort the body, to convert the soul. Nay, but these are no part of the Devils ask, neither cure the sick, nor give eyes to the blind, nor raise the dead, nor help up Eutiches again, as Paul did, when he fell from the upper window of the house to the ground, none of these good offices of mercy doth he require, but mitte te deorsum, if you be the Son of God tumble down, and confound yourself. Non signa humano generi salutaria, sed perniciosa requirit, says Bernard; Do some pernicious Miracle and then you please him. Beware of those men whose wit, whose counsels, whose directions tend to nothing but to some men's ruin and destruction. Hic niger est, hunc tu Romane caveto; you see who is their Leader, and whose steps they follow. The Heathen could say, how that Orator must needs have much malice in his complexion, who was a better Accuser than a Defender, that could sooner find a hole in his Adversaries cause than help his own Client; so it is Satanissimum, let me use a new word in this case, he is a very Satanist, upon whom that description of David lights, Destruction and unhappiness is in their counsels, and the way of peace they have not known. 
Exod. viij. 7.  The Magicians of Pharaoh could bring forth Frogs upon all the Land of Egypt as well as Aaron when he stretched forth his rod, but the Magicians with all their Enchantments could not rid the Land of those Frogs as Aaron did when he cried unto the Lord. Enchanters are permitted to work strange mischiefs, but the Lord hath reserved it to himself to work strange mercies. Ahitophel was exceeding wise no doubt, accounted the Oracle of his age, yet we know no instance of his wit in all the Scripture wherein he had his hand but in most turbulent and seditious propositions. The Devil made use of his craft to serve his own turn: but a wit that is sanctified with God's grace, know it by this character, it had rather make than mar, advance than pull down, preserve than destroy, reconcile than put at enmity. When the voice from heaven spoke to Peter as he was in a trance, Arise Peter kill and eat; the meaning was he should eat of such things as the Gentiles did, which were prohibited before, communicate with the Gentiles, convert the Gentiles: Now do you think that Cardinal's mouth was not full of gall that made this Exposition of the Miracle, Arise Bishop of Rome, wage war with the Venetians and kill them because they will not obey your Interdict. Certainly this man's breath was like the strong East Wind that brought most of the grievous Plagues of the Land of Egypt. I do not like such Prophets, though Micaiah was wrongfully reputed such a one, by Ahab, that never prophesy good but evil; nor such Disciples, as would show their authority by calling down fire from heaven; nor such unlucky spirits that are like the malignant Planets, which produce nothing but maleficous effects. When Songs were sung in every Street of Greece that Philip had eraced the fair City of Olynthus, O but when will he build up such a City? Says a silly woman, and then I would sing too. An ill turn is quickly watched; for beside the venomous inclination of our own nature to do hurt. You shall have the Devil to boot to help it on, he counsels like an enemy, no miracle which brings good with it to mankind, but destruction, Mitte te deorsum; Cast thyself down.  
Let me discover another property of the Tempter's out of these words, that it is his art to bring a man up by little and little to some high place, that so he may send him at once with his head downward; as the Eagle carried the shellfish aloft into the air to let it fall upon a Rock, and crack in pieces. First, He made Herod's Flatterers canonize him like some Deity, It is the voice of God and not of man, immediately he see him abased so low as to be eaten up of worms. First he lifts up Adam with a conceit to be made like unto a God, knowing good and evil, to the very top of perfection, to the intent he may be made like unto the beasts that perish. First, Nebuchadonosor admires his own greatness and excellency; Is not this great Babylon that I have built by the might of my Power, and for the honour of my Majesty? Presently he was driven from men into the Wilderness to eat grass like an Ox. All Tyrants and Usurpers that have held their dignity by ill means, and lost it with great shame, are the amplification of this matter; many of them set up for so short a time, and so hastily pulled out, that it may appear to all men Satan meant that nothing but their ruin should be remembered. Dionysius the Tyrant fell very far from the height of the Pinnacle upon which he stood, his Princely condition being altered into the life of a poor Schoolmaster; but for Heathen Examples Valerian the Emperor is sufficient to stand for all; a Monarch at the height of the Roman Empire, his name venerable at home, 
Trebel. Pollio.  and terrible abroad, so accounted of for some good parts, Vt puderet virum altius extollere, says the Historian, that modesty would not permit to extol any man more. Well, the great Enemy of the Church had raised him thus high to persecute the poor Christians very furiously for all his good qualities, and then he gave him up into the hands of Sopores the Persian to be his Vassal, his footstool, and at last the subject of the extremest cruelty. If the meditation hereof will not prick the Conscience of them that get advancement by Bribery, by flattery, by offering themselves to be instruments of base designs I know not what will terrify them. It is an easy matter to get the Devil lend you his hand to help you up, but take heed, he will pluck you back with a mischief. The Edomites pretended good will to the Israelites, but in the day of their calamity, they cried, Down with them, down with them unto the ground.  
This is the Lords manner, when he means to exalt a man, he will first humble him, and cast him down; the Devil's method is quite contrary, first exalt the man whom he means to cast down; first mount them up to the clouds that he may swing them off to the bottom of the nethermost Pit. As it is happy to have been miserable, since the Lord will recompense the low estate of them that feared him, so it is miserable to have been happy by wicked means, for Satan will bring those to shame that have been promoted by him. It was but a small descent for Christ to come down from a Pinnacle of the Temple into the outward Court, in respect of that great abasement which he did undergo for out Redemption; he stepped from the highest Heaven, from the glory of the Godhead to be enclosed in a Virgin's womb; he humbled himself to the death, even to the death of the Cross; but did his Father leave him there? No, therefore he was highly exalted, therefore he had a name given him above all names. And all those that are conformable to his Ignominy and Passion shall be conformable to his Glorification. If you find Joseph in the Prison, read on, and you shall find him the chief Ruler over all the Officers of Pharaoh. Job was not left upon the dunghill, but raised up again to be the mightiest of all the Inhabitants of the East. The latter end of David was not to follow the Ewes great with young, but to be advanced above all the house of Israel. Or if this World do not make the righteous amends for their humiliation, trust unto him that cannot lie, how for a momentary affliction they shall have a far abundant exceeding weight of glory. This is God's liberality, many that are last shall be first: But this is the inconstancy of the Devils favours, many that are first shall be last. The root of a tree the longer it grows it shoots deeper and deeper to the Centre of the earth; so misfortune puts a period quickly to the prosperity of all those that are the Sons of Belial, the longer they stand the more they are in declension, the faster they fall down: But the righteous are like the young Plants, the longer they grow the more they shoot up their branches toward Heaven. Behold, my Beloved, here is a double fortune to be run, and the election is yours; Will you begin from the lowest foundation of humility, and so rise up by the hand of God; Or will you hoist up to the Battlements of the Temple, to a Pinnacle of Presumption?. Quando quis estimaverit se consistere in sanctimoniae summitate, positus est super pinnam templi, says Aquinas; He that thinks he is as holy as holiness can make him, he is on the top of all the Temple; I beseech you make a wise choice. No man can fall from humility to do himself hurt, Non habet unde cadat; A man may fall from a Pinnacle of vain opinion, and be dashed in pieces.  
This Point cannot be left before one Observation more close it up; beware of leaping from the top of the Temple to the bottom, go down by steps and fair degrees; remember, I pray, that it is Satan's motion Desilire non descendere, to skip down from the Pinnacle to the ground, and not to come down by even paces in order. God hath ordained means to bring every good end to pass; he that thinks to jump into the end without using the leisure and use of the means flies upon the Devil's wings, he goes not in that line which the Word of God directs him. The Apostle speaks of some that make haste to be rich, they will not expect to thrive by honest labour, and by competent gains, but it must be had presently by any Art or Device. This is quite to skip that course which Justice and a good Conscience prescribes. The holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper is many times made ready for us, but there are many preparations required, that you should make yourselves ready for it. There must go before a due examination both of your Sins, and your Repentance, a remembrance of Christ's Passion, and a good spirit to apply his bloodshedding to your own benefit, a charitable reconciliation of yourself to God and man. Now if you will take one of the Devils strides, he will bid you pass over these things, and come to that heavenly Banquet without these preparatory steps, and so you shall eat and drink your own damnation. It is fit likewise that all our life should be a meditation of our death, to number our days one by one as we go down to the grave: No, says the Tempter, jump down from the Pinnacle to the bottom; it is a melancholy cogitation, never think of it till it comes, do not go down fair and softly with fear and trembling, but defer all your repentance to the last hour, and then commend yourself to God. And none are more in fault in this kind than they who begin at the top of the golden Chain at Election, and Predestination, and strait leap into the assurance of their Glorification; they are Predestinated to his Kingdom, therefore theirs is the Adoption of Sons, theirs is the inheritance without more ado. Soft and fair, this is a jump from one end to another without steps, there must be a ladder of practice to come to these things or your boasting may be in vain, and you may fail of that Salvation wherein you falsely glory. Examine your Love if it be sincere, examine your Repentance if it be very mournful, and make you most resolute to be a new Creature; Examine your Faith if it be steadfast and immovable, prove it by such fruits as will grow upon a living tree, and then God hath given you leave to rise up upon these degrees, to ascend in these effects from one to another till you lay hold of the highest Link, and say with the Prophet, I am thine, O save me; I am thy Child by Adoption and Grace, and thou art my Father who hast elected me before the foundations of the World. But beware of these desultory motions to fall down from aloft, and not pass by such steps and stairs as God hath ordained. And so much for this motion to which the Tempter persuaded Christ, Jace teipsum deorsum; Cast thyself down.  
Next let us see how the Tempter would have Christ take his fall from the Pinnacle of the Temple, why he would have it to be his own voluntary act, Cast thyself down. And subtly continued to palliate this horrid Vice, as if it had been humility. Humility must be home-born, flow from our own willingness, without the least compulsion or constraint, Cast thyself down: For they that are pressed down, and would get higher if they could, they are not humiles, but humiliati; it is their cross fortune, not their mortified affections that they are not upon the top of a Pinnacle. But as I have said already, you can taste no such thing as pious humility in the Devil's counsel. But first, as St. Hierom shows, he doth much betray his own weakness in this, to commend the execution of this tentation to Christ himself, and not to take it into his own hands. He can persuade, he cannot precipitate a man whether he will or no. Nemini potest nocere nisi ipse se deorsum miserit; It is not in his power to throw you down if you will save yourself. No Sorcerer, no worker with familiar spirits had ever the power to hurt the meanest Magistrate in the Commonwealth that examined them, or any Officer of correction that did chastise them. His Dominion is inhibited that he can take away no man's life by hostile violence: It is one of the flowers of Gods own Royalty that life and death are before him only; he giveth breath, and he calls it away when he pleaseth. And as Satan cannot hurt the body of man but by our own consent, and by our own permission; so he must ask us leave, and work it by our own perverse will if he ensnare our soul in any iniquity. He cannot break open the door, no, nor so much as draw the latch, but if he find the door open, and the room swept and garnished, than he enters in, Luk. xv. Some ungodly ones think they have made a fine excuse when they cast their faults upon the Devil. If you have blasphemed or reviled, it was he, I wiss, that was the cause of it; if you have spilt blood, it was he that did direct your hand to this heinous fact; if you lived in malice, it was he, no doubt, that crossed you from many purposes to be reconciled; what cares he to let you run on in these excuses? You deceive yourselves, your Debts increase, and I am sure he will never pay the score for you. I allow it unto you, that he is as subtle to cast scandalous objects in your way as malice can make him; as forward to excite you to all evil as diligence will suffer him; as vigilant as a restless spirit can be to divert you from all good. But what of all this? If you will not lend him your own freewill to practise with he is quite excluded. All those Antecedents are but invitations to evil, not compulsions: Malorum immissor non impulsor. If you will not cast yourself down headlong he cannot thrust you into wickedness. In this Text he confesseth that the last and complete power is in ourselves to hurt ourselves, and not in him, all precipitations are his counsels, but our own motions, Cast thyself down.  
Then the Tempter could not cast our Saviour down, it is his restraint and weakness, moreover he would not though he could. For Nullum praecipitium nisi voluntarium est praesumptio; No tumbling cast had born the guilt of presumption with it, unless it had been voluntary, and of his own doing. And now I am come to the most horrid part of this second Tentation, wherein Christ was provoked to destroy himself with his own will, to be guilty of his own murder, the most irremediable sin, as much as I can perceive, that can be committed. Though he would not come down from the Cross and save himself, but was led with all patience as a Lamb unto the slaughter, yet his death was inflicted upon him by pilate's Soldiers, he was not his own Executioner. The Jews never spoke more despitefully against him than when they asked, Will he kill himself, because he says, whither I go ye cannot come, Job. viij. 22. No, let Satan put such desperate resolutions into the heart of Judas the Traitor to make himself away. And some Historiographers would persuade us that the Devil obtained this very request of him, which he moved to Christ to cast himself down from some lofty Pinnacle. 
Mat. xxvii. 5.  St Matthews words must be true that he hanged himself; and St. Luke's words must be true, that falling down headlong he burst asunder in the midst, Acts i 18. Theophylact says, the bough of the tree bended to the ground upon which he hung, and since he could not dispatch his life that way, he broke his neck down a steepy Mountain and burst in twain. And now all Ages call him Reprobate, as well for this desperate conclusion of his life as for betraying Christ. There were some Heretics, of whom I think one Petileus was the Author, these did foully err, 
Alf. Castr. verb. Martyr.  and hold, that a man being conscious to himself of some sin that was worthy death might put himself to death, that it was an act of justice, yea, and a Martyrdom, and upon this ground, whether shoved I say, more foolish, or more impious, they Canonised Judas for a Martyr. But St. Austin shows that their Argument jars against two common principles: Nemo potest esse judex & reus; It is incompetible that the same man should be both the guilty person and the Judge. 
Civ. Dei. lib. 1. c. 16.  2. Nocentem hominem privata potestate occidere non licet; It is murder for any private man, not authorized by a lawful Magistrate, to execute death upon a Malefactor. Judam execramur quamvis sceleratum hominem occidit. Judas was a Malefactor, and could not kill a worse man than himself, yet that sin alone without the rest was damnation, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the slaying of himself.  
Remember the Commandment, Thou shalt not kill; Whom not? Neither yourself, nor your neighbour, for you have no more power to hurt yourself than another, the body is Gods, and the Temple of the Holy Ghost. And who gave you leave to pluck down a Temple? Nature inclines a man to the conservation of himself, and what a detestable thing it is to violate the chief Maxim of Nature? Which is this in St. Paul's words, No man hates his own flesh, but loves and cherisheth it. No man indeed, but he that makes haste to be no man, that he might the sooner be a Devil. The Heathen went thus far, that a man is put into this world as a Soldier is put into some File, or some place of the Watch, from that station he must not stir till his General calls him, Et majori supplicio afficiendus est desertor vitae quam desertor militia; And is not he more worthy of punishment, that leaves the place where God did put him, before he was summoned, than he that comes off from the Watch, before the General calls him? If the love of your soul, the dreadful expectation of Hell-fire will make you decline a sin; take heed of this, for God's sake, above all others. All other sins when they are committed have yet some leisure to beg mercy, and at what time soever a sinner, etc. but how can the Lord put such a sin out of his remembrance, where it is impossible there should be time to repent? Vt laqueo respiratio, it a prohibetur desperatione spiritus sanctus, as Bedae said of Judas; they stop their own breath, and with that desperate act exclude the Holy Ghost from inspiring any sanctified cogitation into them.  
What can befall a man in this world to defy Heaven and Earth at once? And to die the death of the damned without redemption? Bethink yourselves judiciously; it cannot be want, torture, or calamity, for though these be very sharp, especially to those that are impatient, yet they are not so smartful as the stinging of a Bee, nor the biting of a Flea, compared with the Lake of Brimstone, into which they irrecoverably send their own soul, that let out of the body with their own violent hand. Nor should it irk a man to stay God's leisure till he be dissolved, for any reproach or ignominy that he hath incurred, for so your former dishonour is not forgotten, but ten times more divulged and increased. See how public shame, which followed such desperate persons after their death, did work with some of Miletum, as Plutarch reports it. Many of the Milesian Virgins, through the persuasions of some Diabolical Philosophers, hanged themselves. To stop this unnatural fury, when no reason would revoke them, the Magistrates made a Law, that the bodies of all such should be left naked in the open Marketplace for ten days, and the fear of that worldly shame did for ever after rectify those who were living that they held their hands from violence. But what other impulsive cause can be named? Can the remorse of sins past breed such a destructive melancholy in any man's disposition? God forbid. This is to cast Mountains upon Mountains, and to make all worse. Sins are not covered by heaping one upon another, but blessed is the man whose unrighteousness is forgiven, and whose sin is covered. There is another life given to expiate your iniquities, and not your own, even the blood of Christ. Repent you seriously, and be merciful unto yourself, and then God will be merciful unto you. Yet Achitophel with all his politic reach could not make use of these plain notions, but confounded himself, partly with the guiltiness of his rebellion, partly with the fear of his reputation. For it is very likely he shuffled his Game thus: If Absalon overcome King David, Hushai hath given the better counsel, and so I shall live in disgrace: If David prevail, which is very likely, he will take away my life because of the pernicious Plots which I have laid against him. See how this witty Wretch could forget that David was a merciful Prince, and did not execute one of his enemies in cold blood. But God lets the wits of the wisest turn addle, who meditate to be Authors of their own ruin, and to cast themselves down from a Pinnacle upon the Devil's suggestion.  
But God keeps all those from this sin whom he means to have converted and be saved. The Jailor took out his Sword, and was ready to have fallen upon it, but Paul cried out at the instant, 
Acts xuj. 30  Do thyself no hurt; and soon after he was baptised, and believed, he and his house. Paul may loathe this world, and desire to be dissolved, but he must wait the Lords leisure, and not hasten his dissolution. It was the blessing of the Lord upon mankind, Increase and multiply. To replenish the world is a Benediction; to take one of God's Servants away, unless by the hand of justice, and that the Magistrate doth in the person of God, is a Malediction. What spirit was in the Tridentine Fathers to make the second book of Maccabees Canonical? Wherein Razias is commended in most fluent phrases that killed himself. 
Epist. 61.  I know St. Austin says, Razii mors narratur non laudatur; it is but a narration of the fact, not an Encomium. Let any child read, Chap. xiv. toward the end of it, and judge if he be not extolled for it with most artificial commendation. 
Civ. Dei. lib. 1. c. 23.  The same Father is more Orthodox in another place, that pious reason is to be preferred before examples, Quae tantò dig niora sunt imitatione, quantò excellentiora pietate; which are no further worthy of imitation than they excel in Piety. And again I may say, Why did the Roman Martyrology Canonize the Virgins of Aquileia, Who drowned themselves to avoid certain barbarous Ravishers. For as Aquinas treats upon the fact: 1. Fornication were a less sin than violent murder. 2. If they had not refused that carnal sin as much as they could, yet Repentance might have washed away the spot of that crime; in the other act of unnatural violence there is no insequent time to call for grace and mercy. But 3. since violence overcame them, the sin was none of theirs, but the Ravishers. 
Ibid.  As St. Austin said of Sextus Brutus, and Lucretia, Duo fuerunt & unus commisit adulterium; the sin was wrought between two, and yet one only committed adultery, because Lucretia was forced. But you will say, and why doth St. Paul put Samson in the beadroll of the Patriarches, that had obtained the Promise, if every one that is guilty of his own violent death be a Reprobate? St. Augustine's answer is, Latenter à spiritu sancto jussus est. Samson had departed out of this world a Castaway if he had not been prompted to pull down the Theatre of the Philistines by some inward motions sent from God. But some litigious one will say, Was any sin ever committed but such an answer will make it a virtue? Beloved, Samsons case was not every man's, for first he had extraordinary Revelations of the Spirit, God did work many Miracles by his hands. Secondly, Samson prayed that his strength might be restored, that he might be avenged of the Philistines, and the Lord did give him strength for that purpose beyond the capacity of a natural man. Put these together and they make a particular case, that he above any other of the like sort was directed by the Spirit to pull down the house upon his enemies. But in my own private judgement I have ever thought that Samsons care was not to bring certain death upon himself, but only to hazard his life in a great venture, which is lawful in Military Stratagems against enemies; as to enter a breach upon the mouth of a Canon, a Soldier may come off with safety, but it is odds he dies for it. A Seaman being boarded blows up the Deck, he may escape himself, but his chance is very hazardous; and for aught any man is able to say to the structure of this house which Samson plucked down, he saw no possibility but he might escape, although he professed he would adventure to die with his enemies, a mixed case it was, not very hopeful, nor quite desperate. Howsoever St. Augustine's answer, as I have illustrated it unto you, is very satisfactory, that he was moved unto it by some special instinct from God. And so far upon this Point, wherein I have laboured to let you see that the Devil hath not a more poisonous Arrow in his Quiver than to excite one to kill himself. Bear with me if I have been copious in it; Who can say enough against a sin so horrid, so unnatural, so unpardonable? It did not content the Devil that Christ should fall from the Pinnacle, unless it were his own voluntary act, If thou he the Son of God cast thyself down.  
After this demand of Satan's, I propounded to entreat upon what supposition it was demanded, If thou be the Son of God. This thorn is yet in his foot and pricks him, he would fain put it out of doubt whether this were the eternal and only begotten Son of God. And he follows the search in these words, as if he were no Infidel, but by way of Concession yielded this, thou art the Son of God, therefore it can be no harm to thee to cast thyself down from a Pinnacle of the Temple. Which is as St. Paul writes, If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead, he was certain to atttain unto it, and therefore that IF is a Particle of Modesty, not of Hesitation. As Ribadenira says of Father Ignatius, 
Lib. 4. c. 18.  that he halted of the wound which he received at Pampelune, but so little that the most curious could scarce discern that he halted: So Satan distrusts whether Christ were the promised Messias, but so artificially, that he would not seem to be distrustful. But distrust he did, and did rather presume Christ was no more than some excellent Prophet than otherwise. For he knew that God could not be tempted, the crafty Angel had that understanding, therefore he hoped mainly he did but bicker with a man. And a certain Expositor plays wittily upon this notion, that St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke deliver the manner of this tentation, but St. John speaks not a word of it. For as he collects, the other three begin their Gospels with Christ's temporary Generation, how he was made man; St. John begins thus, In the beginning was the Word, from the generation of God; but because God cannot be tempted at all he found no place in his Gospel for this story. Well, because Christ eschewed the Tempter's craftiness in the former bout, and held him yet in suspense; he lifts at him now with all his strength, and thinks to be upon the rack no longer; this second, If thou be the Son of God shall discover all, he doth not doubt it. Et verbo & facto est exploratio; It is an exploration driven home both by word and fact. 1. He took him up to the Pinnacle. Would he be taken along by him if he were the mighty Son of God? Why not? As an invincible Champion, that dare fight upon any ground with his Adversary. 2. The Messias was expected both at the holy City, and at the Temple, and he brings him unto both to see if he would acknowledge his Kingdom. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion, Psal. cx. 1. And again, The Lord shall suddenly come to his Temple, even the Messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in, Mal. iii 1. Yet Satan could gather nothing from this, for he made himself invisible in this transportation, and was not seen. Hereafter, at his own season, the whole City and Temple shall ring of him, Behold thy King cometh unto thee meekly upon an Ass. 3. He popped in a place of the Psalm (but hereafter more of that) very perversely, hoping Christ would declare himself, and say, the application of this Psalm belongs to all the holy Saints, but not to me that am greater than Saints and Angels. But Christ spared that labour, and gave him Scripture for his Scripture. 4. Upon the tentation itself he presumed it would perfectly come to light who he was. For if he cast himself down, thinking he should be safe as when he passed through the air, and yet catch hurt, it is as he could wish: Or if he catch no hurt, and cast himself down, that Miracle must allow him to be the Son of God. All this the wisdom of our Redeemer declined, proving that man's life must not be cast into danger where there is no necessity; thus you see the Devil laboured hard and yet could not resolve the Riddle that troubled him, If thou be, etc.  
And now let me show you, that this vile Connexion which he hath made is against all reason and consequency, If thou be the Son of God cast thyself down. There is as little Logic in this Hypothetical Proposition as there is Divinity in that verse of David's Psalm, as he hath quoted in the words following. And as some observe, he was out as much in the choice of place to which he carried our Saviour: For Battlements use to encompass the Roof in an high building, that they who walk upon the open Leads may be preserved from falling: Now the Devil would make use of Architecture the clean contrary way, that he should cast himself down from the Battlements; like Cacus the Thief, he draws all things backward to a wrong use. So he wrings reason in these words quite of one side, If thou be the Son of God cast thyself down; Cum convenientius diceret, si filius Dei es ascende ad coelum, says Chrysologus. It had been a better Inference to say, Because you are the Son of God ascend up to heaven. If your Father's Kingdom be above look after your inheritance, and seek those things which are above. And as Christ answered the Jews, so he might put off Satan, Vos deorsum estis, ego de supernis; You are from beneath, I am from above, Joh. viij. Elijah removed himself from the presence of Ahaziah to the top of an hill; and Ahaziah sent one of his Captains and fifty men with him, saying, O man of God, thus the King hath said, come down quickly; and Elijah answered, 
2 Kings i.  If I be a man of God let fire come down from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty; and ye know two Captains and their Companies were served so. For if he were a man of God why would they be Instruments to a Tyrant to fetch Elijah to be slain? So fire and brimstone remain unto the Devil and his Angels for this tentation. For if Christ be the Son of God, why should he fly down upon the wings of presumption to dishonour God and his own body?  
I see now who is the author of that fallacy which, I fear, hath cost many a soul the loss of eternal life, that such as assure themselves they are elect ones, they are the Sons of God, may make bold with their Father's mercy, may rely upon it, and now and then transgress his Commandments for their pleasure, or profit, or some other fleshly consideration, there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus; God sees no sin in the righteous, though they fall they shall rise again, and many more such deluding Axioms as they apply them, which I beseech you return back again to Hell with him that invented them. Lay the redemption which you have in Christ's blood, and the hope which you have through him to be partaker of everlasting glory, and all other benefits which you have received, and that when we were enemies we were reconciled to God; put your own unworthiness and disdeserving to these, and lay them all strait together, and then consider if you are not tied in all strict obedience to do all which the Lord hath commanded you. No such motive in the world to an ingenuous conscience to live a most strict and austere life as because the mercies of Jesus Christ are infinite. St. Paul knew that he bade fought a good fight, and therefore a Crown of life was laid up for him, yet how chary he was to walk in a strait rule, turning neither to the right hand nor to the left? He would wrong no man, defraud no man; nay, he would depart from his own right for the Kingdom of heaven's sake. All things are lawful to me, but all things are not expedient; which Tertullian put into these words, Timeo ab omnibus indulgentiis Domini mei; I refuse some things which God hath allowed me; he would eat no flesh while he lived rather than offend his brother. The Devil could not entice him to this or that liberty upon such a supposition as this, If thou be the Son of God; but rather thus, I am the Child of God, therefore I will not hearken to an enticer; I am the Son of God, therefore I will not dishonour him that hath begotten me again by his grace; I am his Liegeman, and have taken his Sacrament, I must not rebel against him; I have washed my garments white in the blood of Christ, how should I defile them again?  
But this is the Devils use to urge mighty things at their hands that take themselves to be the best Sons of God rather by presumption than by true vivification. He will buzz into their ears, if you were a notable Christian above your fellows you would cast out Devils, raise the dead, cure diseases, you would do some famous miracle: and so he sets on others, if you have good gifts of the Spirit, though you be an illiterate man, and have no ordinary calling to dispense God's Word, yet you may Interpret Scripture, Preach, Expound, Rehearse, Prophecy. Ambitio sanctitatis ad insaniam usque nonnullos perduxit; The ambition to appear more holy than others enforceth some men to Phrantiqueness and Lunacy. It is Salmeron the Jesuits rule upon my Text, and a true one; but because he hath not illustrated it by examples I will do it for him. The Sectaries of Montanus, that claimed to have his Spirit, thought it belonged to their Church to have four times as many public Fasts as all other Christians. The Circumcelliones among the Donatists would break their necks down from an high Wall rather than resort to any Congregation but their own, as if they were purer than all others, and this they boasted to be Martyrdom. Praecipitia facit, 
Chrysol.  sic martyres facit in Affricâ, says a Father upon my Text. A mere Heathen man Empedocles threw himself into the raging fire of Aetna to be called a God. Deus immortalis haberi dum cupit Empedocles ardentem frigidus Aetnam insiliit. But what were those that Cassianus speaks of but mad men through affected zeal? As this, Certain Novices were sent by their Abbot with some food to an Hermit, and lost their way in the Desert, 
Lib. 4.  and rather than eat of that which they were bidden to deliver to the Hermit, 
Collat. c. 27.  they would starve for want of sustenance. And one Mucius a Monk was bidden cast his crying Child into a River and drown it, which he did, and his Governor told him it was like the faith of Abraham. O phrantique Hypocrisy! Into what incredible attempts it will drive a man? Gonzaga the Jesuit, so much extolled by the Fatherhood, 
Dum Pseudem. c. 6.  was exceeding pensive if any man was friendly and loving to him, forsooth he would have the World to hate him; and this is pretty, that they say he did affect to preach ridiculously that he might be scorned and laughed at. In a word, all their blind obedience, which is an indefinite undiscoursed surrendering of themselves to the will of a Superior, a swallowing down any thing that is commanded, and never chewing the cud why or wherefore, it is but a mad affectation of holiness, of men stupid in foolery, that would seem to be dead unto the world. This is that obedience by which they say, if a man were dignified so much as to talk with an Angel, if his Superior called him, he must come instantly away. These are whimsies in the head, when the Devil prompts them to do some strange tricks, more than ordinary Christians are able; even as he would have put our Saviour upon a supernatural shall I say? Nay, upon a contra-natural exploit, because he was the Son of God. Whereas the true marks of Filiation, and Adoption are these, Humility, awful Fear, Faith that works by Love, hate of Vainglory, Denying of ourselves, giving all honour to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. AMEN.   

THE TWELFTH SERMON UPON Our Saviour's Tentation.  MAT. iv. 6. 
For it is written, He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.  
THey that meditate mischief against others, usually they begin with persuasion, and end in hostility; their first way is subtlety, and their last is violence. 
Plutarch. in vit. Themist.  As Themistocles told the men of Andria, that he had brought two great Goddesses with him to exact Tribute of that Island, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Persuasion and Necessity: First, I pray do it, and then you must do it. The Devil held our Saviour play all the while he was on the Earth with the same method. For a long space he laid his train privily to overcome him with Art and Tentation, at length he made his assault openly to bring him to his Death and Passion: Vulpes in primo congressu, lo in crucifixione; at this bout he made towards him like a Fox with many trim persuasions, but when he stood out persuasions, he rose against him like a Lion; as David prophesied, They would tear my soul in pieces like a lion, while there is none to deliver me. In this story of Scripture, upon which I insist, he practiseth the Arts of the Fox, upon which subtle creature Gregory lends this Observation to our present matter, Nunquam rectis itineribus sed tortuosis anfractibus currunt; they never run strait on, when they are hunted, but make an hundred windings and doublings, that it may be more difficult to trace them.  
So Satan never went right on with any Proposition which he made to our Saviour, sometimes he urgeth one way, sometimes another, comes forward, and falls back, practiseth like Pharaoh with Moses, who professed he would deal subtly with the people of Israel. One while Pharaoh makes an offer to let the men of Israel go serve the Lord in the Wilderness, but not their Children, nor their cattle; then he changeth his Sentence, and detains them all: Then he gives them leave to take their Children with them, but nothing else; at last he gives order to let them all be gone, Children, and Herds and Flocks, Bag and Baggage, they should have all to be rid of them. Beloved, there can be no good meaning where there is so much alteration and inconstancy. Square dealing stands upon one firm base, hold fast to that without being removed: Delusions and devices hop about like Ignis fatuus. This holds very right on the Tempter's part in my Text. You see he shifted ground from the Wilderness to the Temple, and then he flies back from the Temple to the Mountains in the Wilderness. He tries if he can make him despair, than he falls off, and ventures to make him presume. Upbraids him at first that God would give him no bread: Persuades with him by and by that God will give him all his Angels: First, he would put the working of a miracle into Christ's hands, command that these stones be made bread: Next he refers the work of power to the Angels, He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up. Thirdly, He assumes the doing of great matters to himself, All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me. He laboured with our first Parents neither to believed God, nor the Word which he spoke, now he makes a show that he would have Christ both trust in God, and in his Angels, and in his Word the holy Scripture, For it is written, He shall give his Angel's charge, etc. The whole verse was thus distributed to you before. First in order I propounded the demand which Satan made, Cast thyself down. 2. Upon what supposition, If thou be the Son of God, (there I ended with the hour.) 3. Upon what Authority? Why, upon the warrant of the holy Scripture, For it is written. 4. Upon what assistance? Why, the best in the world, which here is twofold, Supreme and Instrumental. The Supreme is God, He will give his Angels charge concerning thee: The Instrumental helps are the first Instruments of all Creatures, the whole host of good Angels, In their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.  
And first I must meditate hereupon at this time, that the wicked one hath quoated the best Authority which the Church hath to justify the lawfulness of his demand, Scriptum est enim, for it is written. Perhaps he had never thought of Scripture at this time but that Christ put him in mind of it in the fomer Tentation; and it was his old sin, Ero similis altissimo, I will be like the most High, do every thing as Christ did, not out of pious imitation, but out of perverse affecting an equality. And because Christ had the start of him to fly first to the Word of God, therefore the Devil doth both quote Scripture, and carry him to the Temple, as if he would show Religion and Sanctity double as much as our Saviour did. Joab in his necessity will fly to the horns of the Altar for sanctuary, as if the Lord would protect a Rebel, that had set up a concurrent against his lawful King: So the Devil will fly to the Scripture for a need, as if there were any refuge there for him that had been a Traitor to his God. Occasio fallendi est maxima, ubi est maxima authoritas, says St. Ambrose; the most perilous way to deceive is under pretence of the greatest authority. Therefore the Tempter comes like a Divine with a Psalter in his hand, you know how well he counterfeited Samuel, putting on the shape of that good Prophet to abuses Saul, and here he counterfeits David, nay, therein he counterfeits the very Spirit of God. A man would have thought Satan would have skipped the Book of the Psalms though he had searched over all the Scripture beside. It is the Volume of joy, of consolation, of alacrity, the very Songs of Angels. Is any man merry? Let him sing Psalms, says St. James. Is there any use of that sweet harmony for him that lives in perpetual torment?  
But they that mean to abuse the Sacred Text, instance in those places, where you would least expect to find them. From the Commandment to sanctify the Sabbath day the Pharisees wrung in their exception, that it was not lawful for Christ on that day to exercise the works of Charity, to cure the sick, to heal the impotent. The Donatists penned up the Church of Christ within the limits of Africa, for in the Song of Solomon God says to the Spouse mystically, Vbi pascis? Vbi cubas sub meridie? Cant. i. 7. Tell me (O thou whom my soul loveth) where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon? As if the true Church therefore were limited to those Southern parts or Meridian. Is it not as wonderful to fetch the Cardinalitian dignity of the Church of Rome from this Text, 1 Sam. two. 8. Domini sunt cardines terrae? The Pillars of the earth are the Lords, and he hath set the world upon them. Or Adoration of Images from this Text, that Jacob worshipped leaning upon the top of his staff? Heb. xi. 21. And is not a Lay Presbytery screwed in to govern the Church instead of the most ancient Hierarchy of Bishops from this quite mistaken Citation, 1 Tim. v. 17. Let the Presbytery, the Elders that rule well be accounted worthy of double honour, especially they that labour in the Word and Doctrine. I will not put myself to the task to go any further in this reckoning; for all Schisms and Heresies, and almost all sins will shroud under the Patronage of the Word of God. Yet such is the pureness of that Fountain, that it is not pudled, though dirty Swine do wallow in it, nay, though the Devil himself run headlong into it, as he did into the Sea. Here he tumbles about in this Psalm to cast dirt upon it, yet the Psalm is no whit less sacred and venerable than it was before. Et malè quod recitas incipit esse tuum; as he did use it most blasphemously it was not Scripture, but rather Magic and Incantation. For first, according to St. Hierom, the Psalm pertains not to Christ, but to his Members, they have the promise that they shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty, and the Arrians, who did mainly contend against the Orthodox that David made the Hymn upon Christ, and not upon pious men, do but follow the Exposition of the Devil. But of this hereafter. 2. He did quite abuse the meaning of the Prophet. The Angels are appointed by God to keep the faithful in safety against their enemies; but the promise extends not to him that will throw himself into danger, and be his own greatest enemy. 3. He curtalled the holy Scripture, and left out these most emphatical words, In omnibus viis tuis; that God shall keep thee in all thy ways. Surely he was ashamed to mention these words, 
Bonavent. in Luc. 4.  for it can be none of a man's ways to cast himself down from a Pinnacle of the Temple. Diaboli est truncare autoritates; this is a devilish craft which God abhors, to lop off somewhat of the Scripture, that the remainder may do hurt. If any man shall take away from the words of the Book of this Prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life. God is most highly abused when his sayings are mangled and misreported: How much more when a whole Commandment, and of principal consequence against worshipping of Images, is omitted in many Missals, I know not upon what pretence of brevity? Even among men 'tis taken for the sign of a most contumelious affection to report one Sentence, or one Comma of a man's speech without the supplement of all Circumstances, As Serapion served Severianus, If thou diest a good Christian, says Severianus, 
Socrat. lib. 6. c. 11.  and not an arrant Reneigo, Christ was never made man. Serapion brings him to his answer for this Heresy, that he maintained Christ was never made man. Thus the Devil had what he pleased, and made use of what he lust in the Psalm, and so, like a broken glass, it was for no service.  
Fourthly, says St. Ambrose, why did he not go on to the end of the Psalm, at least why did he not take in the very next verse, Psal. xci. 13. Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and Adder, the young Lion and the Dragon shalt thou tread under thy feet: Quare siles super Aspidem & Basiliscum, nisi quia tu es Leo & Basiliscus? Satan is the Lion and the Adder, whom not only Christ, but every good member of his flock should tread under his feet; these were his own names, therefore he durst not recite them. And yet the time was, I can tell you, when the Devil made as good use of that verse as he did of the precedent verse when he tempted Christ; it seems he loves to be tempting with this Psalm, but thus it was. Pope Alexander the third persecuted the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa by Arms and Excommunications till he brought him upon his knees, 
Baron. ad An. 1177. num. 5  and lower than his knees in all servile and base submission, and Alexander setting his foot upon the Emperor's neck (a scorn which Alexander the Great never put upon Darius) insulted over him with that verse which next follows the Devil's quotation in my Text, Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and Adder, and shalt trample the Dragon under thy feet. Nothing makes worse corruption than that which is best of all wnen it is marred and spoilt, and nothing makes worse sense than the Oracles of God when they are perverted. And as Samson having his Locks cut off, wherein consisted the spirit of Fortitude, was weak as another man, so the Scripture mutilated and mangled, having not the native and wholesome interpretation wherein the efficacy of the Spirit consists, is of no force or validity. The Devil himself was not afraid of the name of Jesus when it was not rightly used. Acts nineteen. The holy Incense was to be offered up in the Lords Censors, so the Scripture hath a right savour in it when it is offered up with the meaning of the Holy Ghost, Delaiah brought a false Prophecy to Nehemiah to hide himself from his enemies in the Temple, but Nehemiah would not hear him, Chap. vi. 10. 'Tis a grace of God which every one of us should beg often upon our knees that he would open the true meaning of the Scripture unto us, Who hath the key of David, that openeth, and no man shutteth; that we may not distort those good Lessons to our perdition, and by our own ill digestion convert the most sincere milk of the Word into the rankest poison.  
These two cautions shall be the conjunct uses of this Point. First, that ignorant men be not removed from the truth by misconceiving such doubtful places of Scripture, which are fittest to be argued by them that sit in Moses Chair. It is a laudable conjecture of a modern Author; that the Devil knew our Saviour was not brought up in the Schools of knowledge; all the Jews could descant upon it; Whence hath this man learning? Is not this the Carpenter's Son? And therefore he mis-scited the Scripture unto Christ as unto an illiterate person that could not discover him. 
Acts xviii. 24.  Every man is not an Apollo's, mighty in the Scripture, some such the Lord doth ever provide for the building up of his Church, who are able to convince the gainsayers, and the weaker brethren must be satisfied by them, whose lips the most wise hath appointed to preserve knowledge. Secondly, Beware to trample upon Pearls as Swine's do; beware to touch the Scripture with defiled hands: He that dispenseth this portion of meat to his fellow-servants should not only be a wise Steward, but aught to have a clean heart, and a sincere conscience. I dare say it prospers much the better with a good man. Let Paul deliver any thing out of profane Authors and he makes it profitable: Let Satan deliver any thing out of the Prophets, or the Gospel, and he makes it abominable. Origen compared it so before me, Paulus assumpsit verba de his quae foris sunt ut sanctificet ea. 
Homil. in Luc. 31.  Paul did sanctify Poetry and Philosophy with his gifts, the Devil did pollute Divinity with his distorsions. What more pithy than this of Solomon? Prov. xxvi. 7. The legs of the lame are not equal, so is a Parable in the mouth of fools: For as the legs of the lame will not reach one another, so the Scripture never fits his purpose that doth not use it to the glory of God. When Plato said, that certain Daemons, I know not what aerial Spirits, offered the Prayers of mortal men to the Gods. Says St. Austin, 
Lib. 8. Civ. Dei. c. 19  what Prayers do they offer? Incantations? Or holy Petitions? Si magicas nolunt tales Dii, si licitas nolunt per tales; If they be Charms God will reject that they bring, if they be good Prayers he would not have them to bring them. So I may say, Why do the Devil and his Angels, or why do the Sons of Belial usurp those words which the Prophets and Apostles have written? Unto the ungodly said God, 
Psal. li. 16.  why dost thou take my Covenant into thy mouth? If it be true and entire Scripture, God will not hear it from them; if it be ill applied Scripture, God will not hear it at all. Aquinas puts forth a question, Whether a man may expound Scripture who hath committed any mortal sin whereof he hath not repent? He answers it, if it be a sin secretly committed he may do it; for God will make Reprobates Instruments of his glory; but if the sin be publicly known, it is better for such a one to hold his peace because of the scandal, I see no reason but rather to say, whether the sin be secret or public such a one should not dare to take God's Laws into his mouth until he have made atonement for his iniquities by newness of life and repentance. 
Ambros. in Psal. 118. Sect. 5.  Obmutescit facundia, si aegra sit conscientia; The tongue will lose its cunning to persuade where the conscience is defiled. I doubt not therefore but Satan's woe and torments shall be increased for mixing Scripture with his most presumptuous tentations. They are not worthy here to be answered that bawl at the Reformed Churches, because they allege Scripture for their Reformation, but none of their Doctors wrought Miraracles to commend their Doctrine. Nec Diabolus à Scripturis abstinuit, says one of them; 
Barclaius Parenes. lib. 1. c. 5.  no Sir, Nec à miraculis. The Devil, says he, did fly to the Scriptures, but once Sir in these three Tentations to the Scriptures, but twice here, and often after and before to miracles. It is for a faith newly planted to advance it upon miracles, not for the most ancient faith emerging out of darkness, where it was much obscured. In that case our Doctors quote the Scriptures, not like the Devil, as these Rabshekahs say, but like Christ in the verse following, when he confuted the Devil. And so much for the third general Point, upon what authority he moves Christ to tumble headlong, Scriptum est, It is written.  
In the last part of all Satan would be our Saviour's remembrancer what assistance he may promise unto himself both Supreme and Instrumental. The Supreme is God, the Instrumental are the Angels. Ille mandabit; He shall give charge. It was some modesty in the Devil that he would not name God with his blasphemous throat, but understands him by the Pronoun of excellency; and none other can be meant, because he calls them his Angels, that is, his Domestiques and his Family. There is nothing strange in these words, how the very Devil knew that God is tender to preserve his Children. Every living thing, nay, every inanimate thing hath some instinct, that he supports all things with the word of his power. When the Sea wrought tempestuously, Ionas i. Every Mariner called upon his God. An Atheist, that in his jollity will know no God, put him suddenly in fear of death, than he will find a God to call upon. O testimonium animae naturaliter Christianae; When malicious wit is surprised unawares, that it cannot corrupt Nature, Nature being left to itself will fly to the Almighty for defence. Quench not this spark of Nature, I beseech you, but call upon the Lord in time of trouble and he will hear you. Take the Devil at his word, that our heavenly Father will give his Angels charge concerning you. Do not distrust that for shame which Lucifer durst not deny: But first take this Weapon by the handle, and turn the point against the Devil, St. Hierom shows you how. If God will keep me in all my ways, as you confess, certainly he will preserve me from you. He will not give you over to him above all enemies in the world that he should oppress you. He was not so busy about Peter but God was more vigilant. Peter, Satan hath desired to winnow thee, but I have prayed that thy faith should not fail. Secondly, This tender charge unto which we are committed bids us by all means regard our safety, and avoid our enemies. Non tam magna pro nobis in coelo sollicitudo gereretur, si non magna nobis necessitas incumberet; All the powers of heaven would not be so solicitous for us, but that we are thrust upon great necessity. God hath placed us in the midst of so many and so great dangers, that we may keep ourselves within the Walls of a good Conscience, and within the Fortress of Prayer and supplication. He that understands what hard adventures he must undergo will provide accordingly, and he that is solicitous to be saved did never want Salvation.  
Thirdly, Let not an innocent man be afraid of those enemies whom the Devil in all likelihood doth raise up against him; be not out of hope because your foes are visible, and your help is invisible. If you were steadfast in faith an intellectual comfort is far greater than a sensible; yet all things are knit together in such a link of Charity, that if men be not Recreants, and forget that heavenly order, which puts the weaker under the protection of the stronger, all people may feel and handle the succour which is appointed for them. Not to draw your attention so high yet as the custody of Angels, observe in this lower Region God hath committed the Children to the nurture of the Parents, the Woman to the safeguard of her Husband, the Subject injured to the justice of the Magistrate, the Sick and Impotent to the refection of them that are whole, the Poor and Naked to the liberality of the Rich. Every weak and distressed is appointed his Protector by God's Ordinance that is strong and whole; and that Patron that looks not to those poor Clients, with whom he stands incharged, let him take heed that himself wants not a Patron when he looks for Christ to be his Advocate. But when a whole Nation of true Believers, nay, when a whole world of Christians have been persecuted all at once, Who looks to that? God. And will give them the wages of wicked Servants, that should have been nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers to his precious Portion, and yet had their chief hand in the Tragedy against it. And because the whole earth sometimes fails of their duty towards the Church, therefore the Lord hath his Angels in store as the last and infallible refuge, that the less we are beholding to the Earth, we may acknowledge ourselves the more beholding to Heaven. If David's bowels earned for a rebellious Son, 
2 Sam. xviii. 5.  and gave all the Captains charge, Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalon: Verily the Lord will put his Ministers upon that good Office to be a Wall of protection to his obedient Sons. Aut eripient periculum, aut eripient animam; Either they will take your afflictions from you, 
Psal. xxxiv. 7.  or take you from your afflictions. The Angel of the Lord tarrieth round about them that fear him, and will deliver them.  
And though the Devil meant nothing less than truth in his Sermon, since he would needs preach, let us lay hold of this for a true ground, that the good Angels are very certain to keep their charge, as they are commanded; they are like the diligent Soldiers under the Centurion's authority, He says unto one go, and he goeth, and to another come, and he cometh. But their charge is set and appointed them, it is not in their own free choice to lend their assistance where they please. So the Schoolmen draw many questions to this Principle, Non sunt liber â potestate praediti, sed ministri ad nutum Domini. The reason is twofold: First, All things must be done in order, and without direction and appointment, whom the Hosts of heaven should guard, how far, and at what time; the Discipline would be altogether confused in that heavenly custody. Secondly, The knowledge of those blessed Spirits is finite, they are not present at all our troubles which we suffer on earth, they being far remote in heaven; they know not the groan of the heart, it is out of their Sphere to apprehend what succour is needful for Infants that cannot moan themselves, that cannot ask it; of all these things they must be made acquainted, and then their Province is allotted unto them by the especial Commission of God. Wherefore as they are given by nature and grace to love Mankind, so by a special Mandate and charge they are bound unto it. Peter imputes his deliverance out of Prison to the Angel's Ministry, but principally to the Lords word and authority; he doth not say, that the Angel pulled him out of danger of his own motion, but now know I that the Lord hath sent his Angel, and hath delivered me from the hand of Herod, and from the expectation of all the people, Acts xii. 11.  
It was a good speech of Jonathans', 1 Sam. xiv. 6. There is no restraint to the Lord to save by many, or by few; Had he but added one thing more the speech had been complete, and full of faith, there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many, or by few, or by none at all. Then to what use serves the Auxiliary custody of Angels when the strength of all protection is in God alone, without the subordinate performance of any Creature? To dissolve this Question into many Answers: First, They that say their Creed and understand it, that God is the Father Almighty, and have the Theory that his virtue by itself is all-sufficient; yet when it comes to the experience and practice, they will boggle, and be much unconfident of their own security, if some powers which are ordained of God, and more familiar to us than his infinite Essence, be not promised to relieve us in the day of our Visitation. Israel had great cause to have strong affiance in him that had brought them out of the Land of Egypt, yet a weak Plant had need of a Prop to be bound unto it, and therefore their Charter was thus enlarged, Behold I send an Angel before thee to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared, Exod. xxiii. 20. This was ex abundanti, somewhat given above that which needed, for the rudeness and infirmity of our faith. Secondly, The Ministry of those blessed Spirits is used here below, not for the defect of the supreme power, but to show his Majesty and Dignity; as earthly Princes have their Stipatores, some bands of Noble Gentlemen to stand about their Person, rather for Pomp than necessity: Yet it begets obsequiousness and awe unto their Majesty. Pavorinus, a man of rare skill in Learning, whensoever Hadrian the Emperor discoursed with him, 
Spartianus in Hadriano  condescended in all things to let the Emperor overmatch him; and when his friends thought it too much obsequiousness, Favorinus thus excused himself, I will permit him to be more learned that hath thirty Legions of Soldiers under his command: So the employment of that heavenly Host lends no assistance to God, but proclaims him that hath so many terrible Ministers to command to be most dreadful, and glorious, and who is able to stand before his Host? Thirdly, The Angels and Saints shall make up one Triumphant Church in heaven, the whole body of things in heaven, and things on earth being gathered under Christ the head, therefore they are knit together in these good Offices of defence and guardianship as a taste of that unity which shall be complete hereafter. And indeed it is through Christ that these parts are recollected together, which were disjoined before. 
Col. i. 20.  It pleased the Father to reconcile all things unto himself in him, whether they were things in heaven, or things in earth. He is that Ladder upon which Jacob saw Angels ascend and descend; and so Christ, speaking of that reconciliation which he had wrought, told the High Priests, Hereafter ye shall see the heavens open, and Angels ascending and descending. Fourthly, Aquinas doth thus excogitate: 
Sum. pa. 1. qu. 113. ar. 1.  There are two ways wherein man stands in need of help, to have grace infused into him, and to be guided and assisted in perfecting that which is good, Deus immediate hominem inclinat ad bonum, infundendo ei gratiam; God only and immediately doth infuse supernatural grace into the heart. Sed inveniendae sunt congruae viae ad perficiendum bonum; But in the ways which are of advantage to finish and absolve that which is good, we are under the care and diligence of those ministering Spirits, even as Satan hath confessed it in my Text, He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee. And so much for the Supreme assistance, which the Devil did promise Christ; I have begun to touch upon the instrumental helpers as they were under the Lord's appointment, but now I will finish the time with a more large Explication of their aid and protection, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, etc.  
Hortensius' the Orator commended the brave quality of Eloquence to the heavens, that himself might be lifted up to heaven in the commendation: So the Tempter spares not to give the Angels their due, and much more than their due, that his own presence and assistance might be the more regarded; For this is the cunning of it; Habes Angelorum custodiam, & ego ipse Angelus lucis sum; The Angels are all your Servants to attend you, and I that am so near at hand unto you am an Angel of light. Well, for his part he shall be detected to his shame what he is after the third Tentation, howsoever he roves extreme wide from the scope of the Prophet David, Scriptum est ad corporis consolationem, non ad capitis; This promise of Angelical safeguard belongs not to the tuition of the head, who is above all, 
Homil. 31.  but to the consolation of the body. The beginning of the Psalm receives the righteous into the Sanctuary of the most High, and he shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty; but Christ is that Almighty under whose shadow the Angels themselves are received. So Origen retorts, should the Angels watch left he dash his foot against a stone? Nisi Iesus adjuverit Angeli offendent pedem suum; yea, unless Christ be about their paths, and about their ways the Angels shall dash their foot against a stone, and never rise; they borrow their illumination, their confirmation in grace, their whole subsistence from Christ, and not he from them. What could be more spitefully cast forth than this comparison of the Tempter's? What could be more contemptuous to Christ's glory than to make him a Pupil of the Angels? What more opprobrious to all faith? As if we did fly to such a Saviour who was not sufficient to keep himself, but had a convoy of God's best Servants to deliver him. So the Jews, following their Father the Devil, frumped him upon the Cross, Let us see if Elias will come and help him, when he called not upon Elias, but twice together upon God. The Lamb of God, when he was so flouted by the Jews, yielded up the Ghost, and did not contradict them, because they deserved for the hardness of their heart to live and die in their error; so he did not vindicate himself from this indignity of Satan's, that he was Lord of the Angels, and not under their Pupillage, Satan would have laid his ear to that, but it might not be discovered unto him, that he might still lie upon the rack of doubtfulness, and infidelity, manger all his Tentations.  
Christ was not ashamed to let his Prophets and Apostles say, thou madest him a little lower than the Angels, Heb. two. 7. But the next words do recompense that humiliation, Thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands. But how lower than the Angels, will some man say? Not ratione naturae assumptae; not because he took flesh of the blessed Virgin; for he keeps that body in his glory, and yet as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, God and man, he is Prince of all the Angels: But thus it is best read, thou hast made him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for a little while lower than the Angels, in his Mortality, in his Passion, while he lay in the Grave, before he rose from the dead, but after that no longer in any respect lower than the Angels. Satan shall see and malign that after the tentation is finished, at the eleventh verse of this Chapter, Angels will come and minister unto him, as honourable Servants, not as Jobs Friends, who were his Allies and equals: He shall see at his Agony an Angel from heaven comforting him, 
In Psal. xci.  Non ad necessitatem sed ad servitutis exhibitionem, says Remigius. Not as one that had need to bring help, but that aught to give attendance. Nay, because you read, Acts i passively that Christ was taken up into heaven, and that two men, meaning two Angels, stood by in white apparel; therefore St. Austin says that Angels bore him up in their hands into heaven, not because he should fall if they had taken away their hands, but they were delighted marvellously in that homage and employment. And thus the Father amplifies it, The Lord hath said, heaven is my seat, Quia coelum portat, & Deus sedet, ideo coelum melius non est; If the heaven be his seat and carry him, yet is not he much better that sits upon it? So is Christ much better than all the Angels though it should be granted to Satan that they did bear him in their hands.  
But for our part, to whom this benefit is meant, let us own it, and confess it is our Psalm, it is our consolation, those hands of the Angels are reached out to hold us weak ones up, left at any time we dash our foot against a stone. They plucked Lot and his Family out of Sodom, they guarded Jacob from the wrath of Laban, they went before the Israelites through the Wilderness, and through all their trouble, they filled all the Mountains round about to protect Elisha, they destroyed the Host of Sennacherib, and saved the holy City. We are not only Oves in medio luporum, Sheep in the midst of Wolves, but also Oves in medio Angelorum, Sheep in the midst of Angels; over every Wolves head there is an Angel, so that we are hooped about both above, and below: Above, for our defence; below, for our perdition. What should move the very Heathen to harp upon this string? Or who did light their Candle to find it out? One of them speaks thus roundly to the matter, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Plut. in lib. de futa.  there are certain Angels appointed about the earth, who are Guardians and Bishops, or over-lookers of all humane actions. Surely, that which moved them to this Sentence must be, to consider what plots and conspiracies against the innocent are often revealed in a way clean contrary to the reach of man's wit; what mischiefs are prevented by that which we call Chance and Fortune, that is, by the way of God's secret Providence, which cannot be discerned: And what comforts flow into the minds of the distressed, which no mortal man could administer? Good reason will conclude, some heavenly Ministers must be the Instruments of these strange and unlooked-for blessings, or they could never come to pass. In these straits of time take these Aphorisms briefly upon it. As Solomon says, The righteous may be bold as a Lion. We have such to fence us, of whom more may be said than of the valiant Israelites, one of them shall chase a thousand, and two of them shall put ten thousand to flight. Nedum Angeli, sed & Christus ipse, says one; if thou think not them enough, you are under the tuition as well of Christ as of his Angels. Yet secondly, man's life must needs be full of enemies that even the Cherubims of heaven are so solicitous of our safeguard, Non tam magna pro nobis in coelo & in terrâ sollicitudo gereretur, etc. Bernard doth often rouse up himself to think that God sees we are in more danger than we ourselves can perceive, because he provides such an Army to be on our side against all hostility. Thirdly, Si homines requirant Angelorum auxilium, necesse est ut suum officium faciant; You must look to your own quarter, and the Angels will look to theirs: Set your affections upon heaven, and your hopes upon God's protection, yet do not separate the wit of the Serpent from the innocency of the Dove. It is the best sign that the powers of heaven are watchful over a man when that man is watchful over his own safety. But where God is angry with a sinner, he makes the good Angels cast him out of their hands to be trodden down of his enemies. When the Lord was angry with the Synagogue of the Jews, which he calls his Vineyard, to which he had been wanting in no grace and favour; Go to, says he, I will tell you what I will do to my Vineyard, I will take away the hedge thereof, Isa. v. 5. Auferam sepem ejus, i.e. Angelorum custodiam; I will take away the fence of the holy Angels from it, and leave it to be trodden down. And why hath he committed us to the tutelary help of Angels? Not to adore them, for Christ says within three verses following, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Nor to pray unto them; for there is neither Pattern nor Precept to authorise it, but to prevent us from dangers, to assoil us from our Ghostly enemies, to bear us up in their hands, lest at any time we dash our foot against a stone.  
He shall give his Angel's charge, and they shall bear thee up; This Commission granted to a Plurality of Angels doth note, that one Angel is not here deputed to a man, but all to every man; Stapleton, and others of that side, do rather strive to rail Calvin, than to dispute him out of this opinion. Set aside the conjectures of many ancient learned Authors, 
Comment. in Acts xii.  there is not one tittle in Scripture to reprove what Calvin says, Figmentum de binis cujusque geniis profanum est; It is but a profane excogitation to say, that every man, as soon as he is born, is molested with the impugnation of a bad Angel, and is committed to the defence of a Good: against the former part, that every man hath one evil genius to oppugn him, how improbable it is, since we read, that Legions of evil Spirits have entered into one man? And that bad men have their good Angel Guardian, where is their evidence to prove it? Nothing, 
Zanch. lib. 5. de Nat. Dei. cap. 1.  but because it was an old Platonique rule, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, every one, good and bad, hath his Daemon or his Genius like a Page to wait upon him; and then the Schoolmen do thus divine, that bad men had need of a good Angel to wait upon them, Ne noceant aliis quantùm possint, to debar them that they may not do so much hurt as they would. But that every good man hath his Angel Guardian I confess is more generally maintained, and yet not without this diversity, some say he is deputed to every good Christian after he is baptised, some say, to every Elect one from the first moment of the Nativity; and so say all that follow St. Hierom, 
In Mat. xiii.  magna est dignitas animarum, ut unaquaeque habet ab ortu nativitatis Angelum deputatum; Yet again these Opinionists jossle, for some quote Austin, 
Lib. 83. qu. 74.  that an Angelical power is deputed to tender every visible thing in this World. In Rev. xiv. mention is made of the Angel that had power over the Fire; of another, Rev. xuj. that had power over the Water, as if every Element had its Angel Guardian. But if every visible Element and every material thing be under the custody of an Angel, that reason of Aquinas, 
Vasq. par. 1. tom. 2. q. 245. cap. 1.  which all the Schoolmen suck up for the guardiancy of all men's souls, must needs fall to nothing: But thus he; Men are incorruptible, not only in the Species, but also every one in his particular form: Now he infers, 
Pa. 1. q. 123. ar. 2.  the divine Providence is conversant chiefly about incorruptible things, therefore that Providence doth as much tend one man as an whole Species of Beasts and Plants, therefore one Angel is allotted to every one man as to every one whole kind of other things to perish. Thus you see there is no agreement but rangling about this Point, because it hath no foundation in Scripture; therefore Lombard, 
Lib. 2. qu. 11  though some of his fellows pinch him for it, concluded very wisely, that it is to be doubted whether every man hath his particular tutelary Angel.  
In the search of holy Scriptures this Text remits us to believe, that the Angels compass us about by troops and multitudes: We find Lot, his Wife, and his two Daughters taken out of Sodom by no more than two that came unto them: We read of innumerable Chariots in the Mountains that did appear to succour Elisha and his Servant. There is but one Angel set over Greece, and one more over Persia, Dan. x. they that contend for the opposite either name one verse. Mat. xiii. which speaks not of one, but of many Angels, Their Angels do always behold the face of your Father which is in heaven; or that other refuge out of a Text many ways expounded, Acts xii. 15. When the Maid affirmed how Peter knocked at door, whom all that were present supposed to be in prison, they said it is his Angel. Theophilact and Bede say, they meant it was his soul, he being newly slain by Herod, as they feared and suspected. Some holy Fathers, otherwise of great learning, did dream that the souls of good men departed did visit their Friends; which when Vigilantius denied, St. Hierom very harshly, Quare martyres post sanguinis effusionem tenebuntur inclusi? Why should the souls of the Martyrs be locked up, and not permitted to wander abroad? A question of more anger than reason. Well, if the words be not to be construed as if it were the soul of Peter, but a very Angel, yet Cornelius à Lap. dares to call this Angel Michael, the great Prince; and surely they will not say he was the particular Guardian of St. Peter. Strange excursions are made upon it, how the Angel Guardian will personate a man so verily, that every man shall take it to be the very man; the same Jesuit tells, how a Priest being asleep, his Angel celebrated Mass for him; and that an Angel fought for another Soldier while he was at Mass. Among the Miracles of Ignatius Loiola reported at his Canonization, this was affirmed, that he, being at Rome, did appear unto one at Cullen, and transact business with him; but whether he at Cullen that told this were drunk or sober it is not reported. A thousand gulleries and fictions have been raised from the conceit of the Angel Guardian, and all grounded upon this, that the people within said Peter's Angel was without; Now to end this Point, and to cut off all credit from that Text, it must needs be most ignorantly and inconsiderately spoken, for an Angel doth not use to knock at door, and desire to be let in, who is a Spirit, and could come in, though the doors were shut.  
Coronidis vice, to cast up the whole account of this Text, suffer me to add both the intention of the Angels care over us, and the extension, and so I will conclude. The intention consists in this, that they will put their hands between us and harm, in their hands they will bear thee up. In wnich figure we alas are compared to Infants, they to Nurses, or Mothers, that will keep us in their own arms to save us from falling. Surely, they will not stick to carry so mean a similitude for our sake; for that you may not dread God's Majesty, he compares himself but to a Hen that clucks her Chickens under her wings, Mat. xxiii. The Chicken which is under the wing, though it be very safe, yet it is out of sight, but that which is held in the hand the eye will be carefully cast upon it; therefore this is a phrase of as tender pity and compassion as almost can be devised. Were it in this stile, they shall admonish you of dangers at hand, it were a loving part, but we are admonished of dangers every week, and yet fall into the snares of Satan. Did the consolation run in this form, they shall go before you, or compass you about, they shall look to your going out and coming in, it would deserve to have God's name blessed for that appointment; yet though Angels go before us, unless they will carry us out of our own ways we shall run into the broad path that leadeth to destruction. Well, admit it were as God said to Israel, I have born thee on Eagles wings, and brought thee to myself, Exod, nineteen. 4. Yet it comes short of this love. The Eagle carries her young ones on her back, but to lift up a thing upon the shoulders is to make it a burden, and not a delight; that which is born in the hands is nearer to the bosom, ever in remembrance, most tenderly provided for, therefore out of infinite love Judah was comforted, I will grave thee in the palms of my hands, Isa. xlix.  
This is the intention of their care, which is yet amplified by the extension, the Angels will support you, and hug you in their hands, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Burno Herbipolensis is more figurative in his Exposition than the very figure of the words: Says he, the Law was written in Tables of stone, but these Guardians will take care that you offend not against the Law. He might as well have said, and better, they will provide that you sin not against Christ, who is called a Stone, against which who so offends it will grind him to powder: but literally we may confide, that every part of our body is under the charge of God's holy Ministers, not only our head, but our feet; yea, the very hairs of our head are numbered. And this difference is prudently noted between those evils, from which all good men shall be awarded. 
Agellius in Psal. 91.  First, They shall tread the Lion and the Dragon under their feet, in which all infestious dangers are understood of malicious persons, that devise to hurt the Innocent; than it is further promised they shall not hurt their foot against a stone, that is, no mischances or misadventures, shall fall upon them. So Job hath connexed them, Chap. v. 23. Thou shalt be at peace with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee: That is, neither meditated mischiefs, nor ill luck shall overthrow thee; thy life shall be kept charily from thy professed enemies, yea, thy very foot from all disastrous contingencies. This is the Lords doing, and his Name be glorified both for his own providence, which is always about our paths, and about our bed, and for the charge and tuition of his holy Angels. To God the Father, etc.   

THE THIRTEENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviour's Tentation.  MAT. iv. 7. 
Jesus said unto him, it is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.  
THis is the second repulse which was given to the Tempter, who had disputed, as he thought, upon good supposition, If thou be the Son of God: Upon good authority, For it is written: Upon good assurance, For he shall give his Angels charge concerning thee. This was an Argument subtly compact together, and yet it is fully answered. Beloved, I reduce it to this head of Admonition, when the wicked have done all they can, and disguised their plots with as much safety, as wit can invent, yet the Lord will find a flaw in their contrivance, and say, here I will make a breach, here I will enter in. As Ahab was admonished of his death by the Prophet Micaiah if he went to Battle against Ramoth in Gilead, yet he thought to meet with no harm in spite of the Prophecy, for he had buckled his Armour about him from head to foot; but a certain man drew a Bow at a venture, and smote him between the joints of the Harness that he died. The Lord directed the man's Arrow to that place where Ahab lay open to death though he thought he had been impenetrable. Goliath came down to fight with any Champion that Saul should send against him, with his Shield of Brass, his Coat of Male, his Greaveses of Brass, his Helmit of Brass, and so impudent he was in defying God, that I may say his Forehead was of Brass. This Giant that thought himself invulnerable all over David smote with a stone in his brazen forehead that he died. I could be luxuriant in Examples, I will speak but once more. 
2 Sam. vi. 8.  The Jebusites were within the strong hold of Zion, and they boasted it could not be taken, therefore they derided David, but David found a way to send up his men by the Gutter, and smote the Jebusites; they were surprised at one weak passage which was not fortified, and never dreamt of it.  
I lay all this down at the door of their conscience that dare venture upon any conspiracy or injustice, if they think their work so strong that it will hold out all detection. I tell you when you have made your Covenant with Hell by forgery, false witness, perjury, corruption, subornation, and with all the forms of damnable iniquity beside, God will start an Objection, which was never foreseen, that shall unmasque all their villainy. You cannot stop your gaps so close but he will break open your hedge: for here is a precedent in my Text, the wittiest Juggler in the world, and the Father of devices, he could not wind up his reasons so well but Christ did easily find an end to unravel them. Jesus said unto him, it is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. The answers of our Saviour grow stronger and stronger; before he replied affirmatively, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God; Here he decides the Objection with a Negative Rule, (and Negative Precepts are stronger than Affirmative,) tenent ad semper, they bind a man at all times, at every minute of his life. Again, Christ answered to the first tentation, Non est necessarium, he might have made stones become bread, but there was no need of it. Unto this Tentation he answers, Non est bonum; not it may be spared and left undone well enough, but it must not be done, it is unlawful. But at both times our Saviour's answer was a true Elench most pat against that which the Tempter urged, and that in two respects. First, here is Christ's Scriptum est against Satan's, Scripture to counter-poise Scripture, he censures the Devils malicious interpretation of Scripture by Scripture truly applied, Again it is written. Secondly, Satan blew the coals of presumption, Cast thyself down, etc. Christ puts them out with the still waters of Siloah with godly fear and circumspection, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. These are the contents of the Text, which you shall make yours by attending unto them, and I by opening and enlarging them.  
Will a Thief sue a true man in the Law whom he hath robbed and despoiled by violence? No surely, he will avoid the Law, if he can shift it, for it will certainly condemn him. Yet Satan hath persuaded Christ to rebel against heaven, he hath robbed God of his honour, and yet pleads his cause out of the holy Scriptures, and flies to them: Our Saviour was glad to catch him there, and holds him hard to Scripture whether he would or no, Rursum Scriptum est, again it is written. The evil Spirit perceived his own error, that it was unadvisedly done to deal with those Tools, and remove his suit out of that Court in the next Tentation. And because he was once beaten upon that ground, he would never meddle more with Scriptures. But Christ goes them over and over, Again it is written; for the oftener you use the Word of God, you shall speed the better with it. If any thing in the Prophets or Apostles be strange unto you, blame yourself if it be for want of acquaintance; every man will be to seek in the way where he goes but seldom. The more you use that sharp Sword of the Spirit, the more expert you will be to handle it. Threaten the Devil that you will lay this stone in his way if he shall approach you, that you will betake you to the Testament of God again and again if he come against you; and while the Scripture lasts there is no conquering of a righteous man, for his defence is impregnable.  
But after what sort doth Christ meet his enemy in the face? Again it is written. What, doth he knock Scripture against Scripture? Is there civil discord in the Word of God within itself? Are there Twins of several natures and conditions in it, like Esau and Jacob in the womb of Rebeckah? Not so Beloved; Christ allegeth Moses against the place of the Psalm which the Tempter quoted, not, as we say, to drive out one nail with another, but by way of Harmony and Exposition, to show that the Devil did misalledge the Psalm of David, because he gave it a sense repugnant to the Text of Moses. It was a blasphemous assertion of Pighius, let his Pew-fellows salve it as they will, that the Sacred Bible, without the Gloss and Exposition of the Church, was like a Nose of Wax, you might pull it strait, or turn it which way you would. If it speak not clearly of itself, but be obnoxious to a good sense or a bad by men's interpretations, they might pass that censure upon it, which is horrid to be spoken, that a man of a clear notion and stile might indite a Book of less danger to give offence than that which was inspired throughout by the Eternal Spirit. Aristotle could say there was no use of an Indefinite Rule, because there was no certainty in it: Such, says he, was called a Lesbyan Rule, 
Lib. 5. Moral  it was made of lead, flexible, and would bend to any thing that you would measure with it. To settle reason by the example of men's actions, and not to reduce men's actions to the notions of common reason, were it not ridiculous? To apply the Law to men's manners, and not to make men's manners be directed by the Law, were it not preposterous? So let the Scripture expound unto men the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven. But if men will teach the Scriptures how to expound themselves, were not that most arrogant and most blasphemous? If the Trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the Battle, says St. Paul? 1 Cor. xiv. 18. The Scripture is the Trumpet of God, that Trumpet of which St. Hierom speaks, that it always sounded in his ears, Surgite mortui, venite ad judicium; Arise ye dead and come to judgement. And how uniform the sound of it is, no way dissonant from itself, I read it in an Allegory, Num. x. 2. God spoke unto Moses, Make thee two Trumpets of silver, of one whole piece shalt thou make them, that thou mayst use them for the calling of the Assembly. The two Trumpets are the two Testaments, they call the Assemblies together, all Nations from the East unto the West to serve the Lord, and they are made of one whole piece, because they do no where vary or contradict themselves. As the whole world, before the confusion of Babel, was of one Speech, and of one Language: So the whole mass of Scripture is of one consent, and one harmony; they may make discords in it indeed, that are building Heresies in their own fancy like the Tower of Babel.  
I recollect all this to one Head, That Christ replied out of the Law to confound that which Satan quoted out of the Psalms; not as if Scripture were made to jossle against Scripture; not as if it were a fencing School, that had foils for the Challenger, and for his Antagonist that answered him, for than we should never have peace; but to show that the Devil had stained the true Word of God Christ produced another place of the Word to parallel it; and if this Text do prohibit unnecessary daring, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God, then Cast thyself down from a Pinnacle of the Temple is unauthorised, albeit the Promise goes, He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee, etc. To dispatch this out of hand, the misconstruing the Word of God is the beginning of all strife; the true Allegation of it is the end of a Controversy. Therefore upon the surging of Heresies the holy Fathers were wont to convene in Councils, or great Assemblies, Positis in medio sacris Scriptures; the holy Scriptures ever lying in the midst, they were the Centre of all their opinions, and by them they built up the Church in unity, which was divided before. By them the Faithful stopped the mouths of Lions that they could roar no more. And as Socrates says, 
Socrat. lib. 3. c. 12.  when Babylas the Martyr's bones were buried near to the Oracle of Apollo, the Oracle spoke no more; so the clamours of all Satanical men are hushed by the sound of the two silver Trumpets. By one blast of the Trumpet Satan was outed from his first tentation, and by another blast in these words from a second tentation; Rursus scriptum est, Again it is written, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.  
I pass from these few glean in the first part of the Text to the full sheaves in the second. A Medicine works upon a Disease to expel it partly by similitude, partly by contraries: So our Saviour provided an Antidote against the Devils pernicious counsel, partly by similitude, giving him like for like, Again it is written: partly by contraries, resisting presumption with modesty, with fear and reverence, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. This Precept is so full of cases and instances, that it is like a thick over grown Wood, and the ambiguities so many, that I can light upon no man that hath made a clear path to go through; and the reason is, that there are such multiplicious significations in this phrase, to tempt God, that you cannot describe it in one Proposition. The great Schoolman was fain to shuffle it up thus, 
Aquin. 2.2. qu. 97. art. 1.  Tentare Deum est explorare an Deus sciat, velit, aut possit id quod ei proponitur; To tempt God is to inquire unnecessarily what God hath folded up in his Knowledge, or laid up to do in his secret Will, or comprehended in his mighty Power. You perceive plainly, this is not to draw one strait Rule, but to spread an ambiguous thing into many branches: I am purposed therefore to impart my apprehensions upon the point unto you on this wise. First, how many ways God may be tempted without offence. Secondly, how many ways it is sin to tempt him. Thirdly, wherein the trespass doth consist to tempt the Lord. From hence the ordinary hearer shall learn some instances for his share, and the intelligent Auditor may apply all cases, which I must omit for brevity to these general Rules.  
The first Doctrine to be passed over is, how many ways the Lord may be tempted without offence. One, and the prime instance is, when we cannot help ourselves by any natural means, where all the possibilities, which humane Providence can imagine, have failed us, therein to cast our burden upon the Lord, and to look for some extraordinary deliverance from his protection is a tentation of Faith, and not of Presumption. This Psalm xci. from whence Satan drew his Text to inveigle our Saviour, He shall give his Angel's charge, etc. I say, this Psalm goes very far to strengthen my observation; for if you mark it, those perils from which the most High hath promised to deliver us, are not such things which we may avoid, Proprio Marte, by our own Arm, but they are things quite out of our own defence, as the snare of the Hunter, the Pestilence, the flying Arrow. What good can we do ourselves against such invisible mischiefs? If we had means to help ourselves, thank God for that supply; but his Omnipotency is for that time discharged. But the Promise of the Psalm doth extend to them who fly to extraordinary Providence when ordinary industry will not serve the turn. Luther says very well therefore, that the Contents of that xci Psalms are not for every man's humour now adays; he means, it is not for those who will expect what the Lord is able to do for them in some strange way, when necessity doth not thrust them upon it to have such expectation. The usual similitude of the School is this, he that gallops an horse, only to mark how swift he is of pace, Tentat equi virtutem, he doth it to find out the metal of the horse; but he that puts him to his speed upon a journey, doth it not to find out the worth of the horse, but to rid the way for his business: So one man leaves the event of his affairs totally to God's especial succour, that he may try his goodness or his omnipotency; another man flies to the same goodness and omnipotency, because necessity hath enclosed him about; the former tentation cannot be approved, the latter cannot be condemned. I will fit the Point with an example to make it easier. Every sickness is not unto death, and therefore the Lord hath appointed Drugs for the maladies of the body. Altissimus creavit medicinam, says the Son of Syrach, The most High hath created Medicines, and a wise man will not despise them; therefore they chose an ill matter to commend, who praised St. Agatha, that she would never take any remedy for the infirmities of her body, Habeo Dominum jesum qui solo sermone restaurat universa; this was rash adventuring. Far otherwise, that woman in the Gospel, diseased with an Issue of blood twelve years, and had spent all her means upon Physicians; when no receipt of man's skill would do her good, she put her faith in a Miracle, and came near to touch Christ, to explore if she should be cured by laying her finger upon the fringe of his Garment, and so it came to pass. First, the course of Nature had failed, and then the Lord blessed her for relying upon a supernatural Medicine. When we have nothing, and see nothing like to fall unto us, we may resolutely say with Abraham, God will provide; and as Jehosaphat said, There is no strength in us to stand against this great multitude, now we know not what to do, our eyes are toward thee, 2 Chron. xx. 12.  
This is the declaration of the first instance, that it is no unlawful tempting of God, when it is not wantonness, or curiosity, but the last and most extreme necessity that puts us upon it. The next instance is thus framed, such as had commandment, or Prophetical instinct from God to ask a sign from heaven, or to look for some wonderful effect, these did not offend by unlawful tentation. The Disciples, when they were sent abroad two by two to preach in several Cities, had a Rule given them by Christ, To take no provision with them for their journey; they did so, 
Luk. ix.  as they were bidden, and that bidding made it no intrusion upon their Father's Providence. The Lord also bad Gideon bring his Soldiers down unto the water, 
Judg. seven.  and he would try them by a sign which of them should go against the Madianites, the Lord did say it, and therefore it was fit for him to obey that miraculous direction. And Divines agree, that it was not a fair answer in King Ahaz, when God bid him ask a sign either in the depth beneath, or in the height above; he answered, I will not ask, 
Isa. seven. 12.  neither will I tempt the Lord; for the favour was propounded unto him both for his own part to increase his faith, and much more for the instruction of all the people, therefore he should have asked it. But sometimes, though upon no express command, yet holy Prophets upon some divine instinct, have tempted God to grant them a sign above the common and ordinary way of nature, and yet their ask was laudable, as Gen. xv. God is very gracious to Abraham in all the passages, I, and commends him for his faith; yet Abraham says, Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit this Land of Canaan? And a miracle was wrought to establish the Promise unto him. Thus you must interpret, wheresoever in holy Scripture you find such eminent men ask a sign, to whom God talked familiarly, or poured Revelations into them, or spoke unto them in Visions, that they had a Prophetical instinct for it, which makes their case different from us that walk by ordinary faith. Now I pray you mark, that many times wicked people undertake things of a strange condition by instinct, and bring them to pass, but it is not Prophetical; for it is an instinct of which themselves are not aware; as the Mariners were prompted by instinct, no doubt, to cast lots, and the Lot fell right upon Ionas, yet they had no feeling that the hand of the Lord was in it: But it is a Prophetical instinct which makes the act warrantable when the party employed in it by God, knows it, and understands it to be such, and concurreth with God as well in will as in the work. Eliezer, Abraham's Servant, was sent to provide a Wife for Isaac, and coming to Mesopotamia, to the City of Nahor, he makes this Prayer, O Lord God of my Master Abraham, send me good speed this day: Lo I stand by the Well of water, grant that the Maid to whom I say, 
Gen. xxiv. 14.  bow down thy Pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink, if she say, drink, and I will give thy Camels drink also, may be she that thou hast ordained for thy Servant Isaac: And it was so in the event. The Scripture makes no description of this Eliezer for a Prophet, yet if he felt a motion from God to try the Marriage this way good and lawful: if not, howsoever God let it come to pass for Abraham and Isaac's sake, the course was not excusable, but superstitious. The like judgement I pass upon Jonathan, for God only knows by what inspiring or revelation he did this; he went up against the Philistines with his Armour-bearer, and he resolves, if they say come up unto us, 
1 Sam. xiv. 10.  we will go up, For the Lord hath delivered them into our hand, and this shall be a sign unto us. Though some say, this was not to doubt of God's excellency, but of their own act, yet that distinction avails not to explore the success of your own act by means unordained for that use, unless divine instinct do help, it is a vicious tentation. Yet this I will add, Jonathans' act may be rescued from being taxed for a tempting of God, and exposing themselves to most doubtful peril, in that two of them fought with an whole Host; for the place was narrow, where they could grapple but one to one, and Jonathan had the upper ground; and the Promise was ratified in the Book of Moses, That one of them should chase an hundred, and two of them put a thousand to flight. Therefore Gods Command, or his Promise, or a Prophetical instinct do qualify those things to be virtuous actions, which otherwise were tentations ill adventured to anger the Lord.  
Thirdly, Weighty and extraordinary callings had need of a mighty faith to undergo them; and such men of old had a liberty allowed unto them, to try their Vocation by some sign, or some powerful work of God, both for themselves, and principally for the people that were committed to their governance. As Moses pleaded when he was destined to be the Captain that should bring Israel out of Egypt, Lo they will not believe me, 
Exod. iv. 1.  nor hearken to my voice, they will say the Lord hath not appeared unto thee; presently he was satisfied, God bade him cast forth his Rod and it became a Serpent. This the Lord did bear withal, and let him require an extraordinary Warrant for an extraordinary Function. So Gideon being a poor Thresher was called upon by the Angel to sight for Israel against the Madianites, he deprecates, that the Angel would take it no offence if he desired the encouragement of a Miracle to raise his faith to an eminent pitch; Be not angry with me, let me prove thee once again with the Fleece, let it now be dry only upon the Fleece, and let dew be upon all the ground. To a private man this demand had been sin, but to Gideon to sustain that excellent person which the Angel imposed on him, at least it was tolerable.  
Fourthly, and finally, there is a speculative inquiry or Antecedent to prove God's will and power by Signs and Tokens, and that is unlawful; and there is an experimental or consequent one to inquire after God's goodness in a man's own self by descending into the effects and enumerations of his mercies, and proving our own Spirit, and that is lawful. So Mal. iii 10. Bring ye all the Tithes into the store-house, and prove me therewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven unto you. It were sinful to pay Tithes to that end, as if you would tempt God by that conclusion whether he could open the windows of heaven, and help you with store; but consecutiuè, the trial is good, do you that, and God will do this; put it to the success, if the Lord do not triple his bounty unto those that pay him his Tithes and Offerings; this is to taste and try how gracious he will be to our obedience, not to put him to such effects, as we imagine in the capreols of our own fancy, for that is a culpable tentation.  
So this Point being traversed as much as I intent, and the time will give me leave, I leave it behind me, and proceed to the next, What are the general heads of those presumptuous ways, wherein the party sins that tempts the Lord, And surely one principal and notorious offence is committed, when a man exposeth his life to unnecessary dangers, upon an ill-grounded confidence, that God will bring him off with safety. Upon this instance our Saviour toucheth in my Text alone, and upon no other. The Rule is written in Moses, and it is large and copious, Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God, Deut. vi. 16 Not you of the house of Israel in no case, I know not how the 72 Translators came to read the words in the Singular, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord; but our Saviour doth so quote the words, and makes them serve for this case, that it was most profane to urge a man to fall from a Pinnacle of the Temple upon a falls assurance that the Angels would be at hand to prevent the danger, for no man must wittingly throw himself into the jaws of destruction, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Life is a gift of Nature, it is common to Beasts and Fowls of the air, to the Plants of the Garden: Now natural things must be kept and sustained on our part by natural means; we must not depend upon supernatural and miraculous protection, that happens so seldom, that there is no Rule or certainty when it shall be done; sometimes it is done, not for our fleshly and natural benefit, but for God's glory.  
Paul would not have had the Centurion put to Sea in stormy weather, and when they would not hearken to him it cost them the loss of all they had but their lives, so much was God displeased with such adventurous enterprises. When man loseth his wit, that he is not tender to save himself, it is a sign that God gives him over to mischief, and will not be his deliverer. It was a desperate senseless speech of Ignatius Loiola, that he would put forth to Sea without Sail, or Oars, or Tackling, if his Superior bad him; for God hath made no Promise to conduct a man in safety that leaves himself to such tyrannous commands upon blind obedience. Says Solomon, A wise man feareth and departeth from evil, but a fool rageth and is confident, Prov. xiv. 16. David ended the matter conscionably, but began it presumptuously, when he desired that some would give him of the waters of the Well of Bethlem by the Gate. This was a desperate demand, for his three Captains were fain to fetch it with the imminent peril of their life, breaking through the whole Host of the Philistines: But David rolling things in his second cogitations his heart smote him; says he, O Lord, far be it from me to drink it, 
2 Sam. xxiii. 17.  is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? God taught man this provident respect, to decline his own peril, and not to tempt him by wading into dangers farther than unavoidable necessity pushed him. I say the Lord commended it in a certain Law, Leu. xiii. that he who had the uncleanness of Leprosy upon him, should dwell alone without the Camp, and that no clean person should come near him because of the Contagion. The whole must not mix themselves with the unsound, where diseases have a dispreading infection. They that come necessarily to succour others, either in a spiritual or a temporal way, are not to be dissuaded, because it is to be yielded that the blessing of God's mercy will go along with them that bring necessary reliefs of charity. But promiscuous Visitants are to be admonished, that they tempt the Lord whose presence is no way needful, but are mere rash adventurers. I have an example that may deter the refractory, if they will mark it: When the Plague was great in Israel David went up to the threshing flore of Araunah to offer Sacrifice. You will say, Why not to the Altar before the Tabernacle? That was the true form of Religion. Why, the Tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the Wilderness, and the Altar of burnt Offerings, was at that season in the high places of Gibeon, 
1 Chro. xxi. 30.  and David could not go before it to ask counsel at God, for he was afraid of the Sword of the Angel of the Lord: That is, the place was much infected with the Pestilence, that is the Sword of the Angel, therefore David durst not go up to Gibeon. Qui amat periculum peribit in illo; He that loves to walk dangerous ways shall perish in them. Even King Josiah, one of the most lovely Darlings of God's favour among all the Kings of Judah, fell under the Sword for pressing further against his enemies than the word of the Lord did permit him. The ancient Eliberitan Council Enacted that all those who plucked down the Idols or Temples of the Heathen should not be accounted Martyrs, though they died for the faith of Christ, because they plucked Persecution upon themselves, and provoked their own Martyrdom. Paul fled away from his enemies, where his life was sought, not that he said untruly, he desired to lay down his Tabernacle, and be with Christ. Neque quasi non credendo in Deum, 
Lib. 22. cont. Faust. cap. 36  says St. Austin, sed ne Deum tentaret, si fugere noluisset: Nor as if he had no hope in God's assistance, but because no providence was to be omitted, to preserve life, lest he should tempt the Lord his God.  
2. In another way the Lord is tempted, when we will not believe him, unless we see Signs and Wonders, and provoke him to let us see some print of his Omnipotent hand, or we will fall off, and trust in him no more. When once our faith grows so dainty and queamish, that it will be fed with miracles and wonders, it will pine away to nothing. When we have a little miracle, we will ask a greater, and a greater after that will not serve the turn. Thus it was with the Pharisees, for when Christ had been long among them, and done such mighty works, as the like were never heard of, yet these Tempter's urge him to do some new feat for their sake, Master we would see a sign from heaven. Why, they had scarce wiped their eyes since they had seen one; and now they call for a sign a fresh, as if those were none which they had seen before. God hath threatened such signs and tokens to show them openly to the world, that these who ask so boldly for signs would be out of their wits to see them, There shall be signs and tokens in the heavens, the Sun shall be turned into darkness, and the Moon into blood. If God should terrify them with these sights they would say, Lord show us no signs. Yes, if you will tempt the Lord, and stint, and prescribe him to work Miracles, you shall have these or none. Have you lost all your Humility, that you should hope or desire that God would produce the most noble effects of his omnipotent hand for such a sinner as you are, which he reserves only to magnify his holy Name? note that therefore for the second way to tempt the Lord.  
And thirdly, there is another crooked branch, much like unto the former, growing out of the same root; not simply by declining natural means, but by declining all means; having no calling, using no labour, cashiring all providence, and yet expecting to live and thrive, as well as they that eat the bread of carefulness by the sweat of their brows. They look to be God's Sparrows, that lay up nothing; neither sow nor reap, and yet hope to be fed. But Solomon's Pismire is so little, that they cannot see the similitude, that the sluggard should lay up for Winter, and tread after the providence of that forecasting creature. When Christ was in the Wilderness far from any provision, he made use of his transcendent power, to multiply many portions of food out of five loaves and two fishes: but when he was near a Town, he sent his Disciples to buy some food, John 4. There is a way to use this world, as if we used it not; these tanquam non utentes, God loves exceedingly; such as seek for necessary means of life, as if they sought it not: such as possess that portion of riches which they have freely, charitably, being willing to communicate, as if they possessed it not. Finally, such as use the delights of the world, yet sparingly in offensively, as if they used it not. These I say are tanquam non utentes: but wretchless regardless humours, such as are absolutely non utentes, that will not seek after the natural benefits which God hath given, but let his benefits drop down in their mouths like Manna, and come to them; these contemn Art and Nature, and industry: these are one rank of them that tempt the Lord.  
Then they shall stand for the fourth, that make holy vows, and bind themselves in a perpetual obligation, where God hath given no promise of assistance, that they shall be able to perform them. The Apostles were offended with them that enjoined Christians to observe Judaical Ceremonies, after Christ's Ascension into Heaven; not merely because the Levitical Law was not only dead and buried, but even become mortiferous to them that used it, but because there was no promise any longer, that the grace of Christ would assist them that undertook that kind of Worship, which was discharged and abrogated. The words of Peter are plain to this sense, Acts xv. 10. Why tempt ye God to lay a yoke upon the necks of the Disciples? God is tempted, when ye expect his Grace to bless you in those inventions of Will-worship, where he never engaged himself to be present with his holy Spirit. I step into this observation: some have the gift to be Virgins, without any dangerous reluctancy against the rebellion of the flesh, all the days of their life: but there is no express and punctual promise made, that such as will endeavour it, pray for it, be earnest to attend it should be able to lead a vowed single life, without the remedy of Matrimony: therefore it is a gross presumption, and no modest assurance, for any one to bind himself by Vow to perpetual Virginity; for such a man or woman will seem to engage God to give them victory over all Concupiscence, that they may not be beholding to his holy institution of Matrimony. But we see it by woeful experience, and they are too impudent that deny it, how such presumption and tempting of God, instead of unspotted Virginity, falls very often into most gross carnality.  
Fifthly, to use such things again, which either always, or for the most part have been unto us an occasion of sinning, is to tempt the Lord, whether he will let those things prevail against our souls, which so often have proved unto us an occasion of falling. Look not on the wine while it is red in the glass, says Solomon; and that's a proverb too which the Prophet useth, Put not your finger upon the hole of the asp: listen not to a smooth enticing tongue, though you think yourself and your constancy as impenetrable as flint, yet a little rain wears out the hardest stone insensibly, we know not how, falling drop by drop upon it. We do not read what became of Naaman after he craved leave to bow down sometimes in the house of Rimmon, I fear his integrity suffered some detriment; but I am sure both he and all men else are guilty of those sins, towards which they drew near and approached, when they might have kept further off. I am sure we do read of Amnon what an hell of iniquity he brought upon himself, when he entreated that his Sister Tamar might stand before him: a conscionable man that feared to do evil, would have turned away his eyes as from a Basilisk,; a moral man could do it barely to be renowned and spoken of, and for no further end. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says Alexander; he would not look upon those eyesores, the fairest of the Persian women, for fear of incontinence. Shall not Religion make us as cautelous as popularity made the heathen? he that dares sail near the Sirens within hearing, hath forfeited himself to unlawful pleasure; he that dares come close to the threshold of sin shall be plucked into the doors, for he hath tempted the Lord his God.  
And sixthly, this smells of a most audacious spirit, provoking wrath, and urging the patient God to indignation, when you make slight of all the terrors and minacies in the Law, as if they were high words: but do what you will they shall never fall upon you: this was the first imposture that Satan put upon our first Parents. The threatening of the Lord is very strict indeed, but nequaquam moriemini, do you not regard it, you shall not die. O how it exasperates the Divine Justice, and draws down severity, when any one deludes himself, that the vengeance denounced against him is, but, as one said of the Pope's Bull, vacui murmur culicid, the humming of a poor empty gnat. Some dispute it with Originists, that at the end of certain years the damned shall be released from Hell: As for the sentence of eternal fire, Magis minaciter quam veraciter dictum. Those words have more terror in them then verity. Some would make it good by their wit, that the souls of Reprobates shall have no sense of roasting and burning in fire; but only be damnified and deprived of eternal happiness, not to stand before the face of God; at least that nothing but the loss of the beatifical presence was threatened against the disobedience of our first Parents. And some men's hearts are hardened against all the thundering of Judgements, which shall be discovered at the last day, as if they were Chimeras or poetical fictions. Such as these do most strongly tempt the terrible Judge, to open the earth immediately, and swallow them up quick into Hell like Dathan and Abiron, that their bodies and souls may feel the pains of Hell sooner than all other men, because they provoked him with their infidelity.  
I have reserved to speak of one strong temptation in the seventh and last place. To ascribe some notable effect unto a thing, unto which it was not enabled or appointed by nature, or by the Divine Ordinance revealed for such power and efficacy: therefore it is very ancient Canonical Law which forbade that any person indicted for a fault secretly committed, and therefore accused either upon bare suspicion, or upon the mouth of one witness, should purge himself by dipping his arm in hot scalding water, or by walking between ploughshares red hot, unequally laid, which was called the Ordeal Fire: for these creatures thus employed have no force by nature to manifest a truth, and much less is any promise annexed unto them, to be the instruments of examinatory Justice by Divine Revelation. If it be pretended that God appointed the woman suspected for Adultery to drink a draught of bitter waters, 
Numb. v. 24.  which should discover whether she were innocent or no; I answer, That this one instance was peculiarly enacted by God, who no doubt would assist such miraculous proceedings, as were of his own institution: but it is an unpardonable boldness to imitate him in his Omnipotent Ordinations; and to ascribe unto other humane causes, that they shall reveal hidden things, which cannot be searched by man's wit, which is proper only to the Creator, is to commit Idolatry obliquely, and to seek that from a poor contemptible creature, which is to be expected only from Almighty God. Nor doth my Doctrine hold only in things that are common and profane; but even things of the Divinest use are abused, when we would wring out from them to detect Thefts, or Murders, or other Trespasses, which cannot be discovered by the ordinary way of Justice. Therefore this Canon of a Provincial Council in Worms is disliked by grave Authors, That if any things were stolen in a private Monastery, where some Monk must needs be the Thief, and all denied it, every one of them should receive the Holy Sacrament, with these words pronounced, Corpus Domini nostri sit tibi ad probationem, Let the Body of our Lord be thy trial or probation. This was an insolent temptation, for the Sacrament is taken to Commemorate Christ's Death until he come; not to detect such as were suspected of pilfering.  
And however the sifting out of truth, to discover the enemies of Gods Anointed, and to lay open perilous talk against his Sacred Person, may require such means and trials, as are justly to be denied to all other cases; yet we see the renowned Piety of his most Religious Majesty, that would not have truth decided by the sharpness of the Sword; no, not in a matter that concerned his own Royal Safety: and when the Laws of the Realm did directly put that course into his hands, and when his Royal Ancestors in this Island, and sundry Princes in other Kingdoms have often used it: for all this his excellently guided Conscience would not hazard the blood of an Innocent, (as one party must needs be so) where there is no certainty of assistance promised from God, that the guiltless should be the Conqueror. My Text hath directly led me to praise God, that hath so guided the heart of his Majesty, not to tempt the Lord. I did not strain to bring this note in by force, for I wish no mercy if I do not vehemently abhor slattery.  
But how ill is this noble example followed by the vulgar? no toy can be lost, no secret which we desire to know be kept in obscurity; but being impatient to want their will, an hundred senseless Charms, and old Wives devices, and casting Figures, and casting Lots, shall be sought after; which God hath no more appointed to manifest hidden things, than the wagging of a Feather; or the shaking of a Leaf before the Wind. Beloved, mark this Rule, Si non potest sciri, quare inquiritis? secreta ad Dei tribunal spectant. It may be the thing we inquire after concerns us deeply, and would give us much quiet and content to find it out: but where God hath denied you the ordinary means of discovery, it is a sign that he means to reserve it in his own power and knowledge; therefore to fly to these extraordinary ways, (ways after our own hearts, but never allowed in the word) is to endeavour by force to pluck it out of God's bosom. If the Lord should offer you a miraculous, or supernatural assistance to unrip any secret wickedness, it were not to be refused: as in a few examples, the casting of Lots is granted in Scripture, either to reveal some hidden truth, or to foreknow somewhat to come; but out of those cases such things are not to be meddled with, nor in no wise to be taken into your consultation. For it is not in the power of those that use the Lot, nor in the nature of the Lot to effect that necessarily, whereunto it is employed: therefore I damn it as an indirect means, that is taken up against or beside the will of the Lord. Let me give you to see, that one word of excuse which is very trivial is very erroneous, and I will hasten to conclude. Many do object that the Scripture hath no pregnant place in it, which condemns the decision of truth, or the finding out of hidden things by Duels, by Ordeals, by Lotteries, by other Divinations. ay, but can you show me where the Scripture hath bid it to be done? or else you have said nothing: for where no Faith is, the act which you undertake cannot be free from sin; but where there is no warrant of the Word of God, there can be no Faith. Do you think it is possible to build Faith hereupon, that such a course is not directly forbidden, it cannot be: for Faith without the Word, and without promise is not Faith but presumption. So I have delivered my mind, how many ways it is offensive to tempt the Lord.  
I have prepared all things before, to say little to the last point: wherein the trespass consists to tempt the Lord. In two things: first, in Infidelity: secondly, in want of due reverence to the Divine honour. 1. It is a token of little Faith, yea of Infidelity, to be uncertain, or unskilful in any of the Divine Attributes: but he that tries God, it makes his action guilty, that either some whole Attribute of the Divine Nature, or some degree of excellency in it is unknown unto him: as Ananias and Saphira put it to the trial, if God had so much knowledge to discover their dissimulation. Zachary tempted him, whether the message which the Angel brought were verily the Divine Will. The Israelites misdoubted his power, when they said, Can he prepare a Table in the Wilderness? Secondly, He that tempts a thing upon no necessary cause, esteems light of it, and makes no reverential account of it as he ought; but that he may toy with it at his pleasure: as he that will pluck a Lion by the lip, certainly he neither fears the anger, nor the strength of the Beast: So he that will assay what God can do, only to satisfy his own curiosity, it is evident he sets very little by the Divine Honour. But we were not best to make sport with Samson, as the Philistines did, lest he pluck the house about our ears. 
1 Cor. 10.22.  Do we provoke the Lord to anger? are we stronger than be? O provoke him not, lest he swear that ye shall not enter into his rest: but with holy reverence, and steadfast faith submit yourselves to his revealed will. Amen.   

THE FOURTEENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviour's Tentation.  MAT. iv. 8. 
Again the Devil taketh him up into an exceeding high Mountain, and showeth him all the Kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them.  
THe Scripture makes mention that there is a season at the return of the year when Kings go forth to battle. This is not the time, 
2 Sam. xi. 1●  all men know it well enough; quite contrary, now it is usual that the wearied Soldier should draw himself out of the Field into Garrison. But all times and seasons are alike unto our Adversary the Devil, all the changes and quarters of the year will serve his turn to fight against us, who walks about continually seeking whom he may devour. Wherefore I bring him out before you, to let you see how he laid about him in his last skirmish, for this third is his last tentation. As the Carthaginians in their third Punic War lost their City and Kingdom to the Romans, and never bore Arms more; so you shall see Satan so repulsed at this onset, that he left the Field to the Conqueror, and never after propounded any blasphemous tentation in a visible shape to the Son of God. David was much emboldened to fight with Goliath, and assured himself of Victory, because he had grappled with two savage beasts, and slain them both, and thus spoke cheerfully to Saul, Thy servant slew both the Lion and the Bear, and this uncircumcised Philistin shall be as one of them: So the first tentation was unto our Saviour like a ravenous gluttonous Bear, Command that these stones be made bread. The second was like a ramping and a roaring Lion, all boldness and presumption, Cast thyself down from a Pinnacle of the Temple; Now he that escaped both these, out of the paw of the Lion, and out of the paw of the Bear, shall triumph most victoriously over this great Goliath in the last and most bewitching tentation, which begins in this form, Again the Devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him, etc.  
How divers is Satan from himself? How unlike is this course to that which he took before? Since Christ was so tender of his safety, that he would not fall headlong, the Tempter casts his Net on the other side of the Ship, and promiseth as much as any man can wish in this world that loves himself. The odds therefore are very great between the former motion, Cast thyself down from a Pinnacle of the Temple, and between this motion, Behold all the Kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, etc. The one is Passio corruptiva, make away yourself, utter ruin and corruption: This is Passio perfectiva, the perfection and solace both of the eye and the heart to see the pride of the earth, and all the excellency of it as upon a Theatre. The ways indeed are divers, but the malicious intention is the same, or rather far greater in this, which I will demonstrate piecemeal as I handle the several particulars, of which these are to be considered in this present Verse: 1. The importunity of Satan, he is upon our Saviour again, Again the Devil taketh him up. 2. The variety of his shifts, from the Pinnacle of the Temple he taketh him up to an exceeding high Mountain. 3. Note by what gate or passage he would enter his tentation, by the eye, Ostendit illi, he shows a goodly object unto him. 4. The dignity of the Object, he shows him Kingdoms. 5. For the amplitude and generality, All the Kingdoms of the world. 6. In their most amiable and desirable shape he showed them in their glory, All the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. 7. Satan showed himself to be an arch Juggler, or Praestigiator, as Artists call it, for St Luke adds, that he showed all this in a moment of time; these are all distinctly to be handled; and first of his importunity, Again the Devil taketh him up, etc.  
A close Solicitor, and a diligence worthy to be commended, if it had been in a good cause: But they that are in a wrong way are most zealous in their course, and negotiate for hell more urgently than we do for heaven. Many a soul is lost for want of teaching and instruction, it is very dreadful to remember how God will require it at our hands; but in this Satan triumphs, that never any soul escaped him for want of instance and prosecution. And I hold it for a true Position, that many times he is assiduous to subvert good men, where there is no hope of speeding, to provoke God to be angry with our lazy negligence, upon the comparison. I believe the Devil never thought to proceed so far as to a second tentation with our Saviour, much less to a third, but to get what he looked for at the first motion, yet since he found an hard match of it, and was twice repulsed with such evidences of Scripture as could not be answered, he redoubles his boldness, and thinks in the end to weary out our Saviour, as Dalilah did Samson, with importunity. St. Paul besought the Lord thrice that the Messenger of Satan might depart from him: The one prayed often, the other pricked him often. The evil Spirit vied it with the good Apostle; the one exceeded in the number of devout Prayers, the other was not one whit behind in the number of fleshly tentations. St. Austin compared the Devil to a Mastive Dog, Qui nec percussus ab hominis laceratione separatur; Beat him, thrust him away, stave him off, break his teeth in his head, yet he flies upon you, till he have torn and devoured you: So this incensed Adversary, never to be reconciled, will not be quite driven from you with Vows, with Fast, with Supplications, but listens to hear you say, as one discouraged with perplexity, I am weary of my groaning, until this tyranny be overpassed.  
But that tyranny is uncessant, the hatred of the Devil hath no stint; expect it, be ready for it, and let it not sting your conscience with horror, if you find somewhat within you always warring against the Spirit; tentations are not like some diseases, which are not incident to a man above once in his life, scape once and secure for ever, but like hereditary infirmities which are ever recurring to torment the flesh. A quotidian is more like to be cured, if it be well looked to, than an Ague whose Paroxysms keep longer distance. Nor shall the Tempter again, or his importunities bow down our neck under the yoke of sin, these quotidian fits shall not weaken the inward man if the fear of the Lord be ever in our heart, and his name often between our lips to conjure down the Regiment of the Prince of darkness. 
Apologet.  Invidiâ coelum tundimus, non solùm voluit orari, verùm etiam pulsari, says Tertullian. God would not only be called upon, but bids us beat at door, knock and cease not, till we overcome him with importunity. Make this Collection moreover from the Point; none so good but by continual assault Satan thinks he may pervert them; so none so bad but by continual instruction we may reclaim them. The Conversion of the very Mahumetans is to be hoped for; for if your Doctrine fall drop by drop upon their stony hearts, why may not those Flints be worn in pieces? Even the Calling of the Jews is to be laboured for, though they be dry sticks cut off from the tree, from the natural Olive, yet being perpetually watered with instruction they may live again. 
2 Tim. iv. 2.  Preach the Word, be instant in season, out of season, so Paul wrote to his Timothy. Which Text is an Hyperbole; for as Gregory says, the Word would hurt itself, Si habere importunitas opportunitatem nescit; If that which is preached out of season were not fitted to be seasonable, if importunity did not watch an opportunity. But the Greek Fathers do generally follow St. Chrysostom's qualification, Opportunum est libenter audienti, importunum invito; The Word is ever in season to him that is willing to learn, but always out of season to him that hateth to be reform. Yet he that thinks Reformation an untunable Song, may be brought about with continual instancing, and inculcation. Shall the good Shepherds be weary to seek that which is lost, and gone astray? When the Devil will have no nay, but tumbles out tentation upon tentation to destroy souls? And so far upon his importunity, again he taketh him up, etc.  
His variety of shifts is the next thing considerable, that he removed from a Pinnacle of the Temple to an exceeding high Mountain. Hereupon some have taken needless pains to commit a great error; I mean those that have searched out Geographically for the highest hill upon earth, as if the Devil had taken up Christ to that Altitude from whence he might behold the furthest prospect. Some conceiting the Mountains of Ararat to be the nearest to the Firmament, because the Ark rested upon them when the waters were assuaged: Some contending for the Mountains of Teneriffa to exceed them, for they are higher, says Aristotle, than all that part of the air, which hath either clouds, or winds, or vapours, or any disturbance in it: Others pleading for the Riphaean hills, whose Promontory to the Basis casts a shadow of thirty miles and more, which exceeds all other parts of the earth in height, by that measure and proportion. But if these were ten times higher than they are, they should no whit necessarily concern my Text, for they are all of a vast distance from Jerusalem, and are quite out of the Land of Canaan; but we have no warrant to say that Christ in his bodily presence did remove farther upon earth than the Land of Judea but when his mother fled with him into Egypt. Neither was it the advantage of the hill altogether whereby Satan showed all the Kingdoms of the world unto our Saviour, as I will explain by and by.  
Not to insist much upon Topography, but thus in brief, Jerusalem itself was environed with many delicate hills, Her foundations are upon the holy hills, says David, some of those excelled in bigness; some of a lower scantling; Zion and Hermon were but little, Libanus did overpeer these two, and so did Basan, Even an high hill as the hill of Basan, Psal. lxviii. 15. It is not evident which of those higher Satan made his choice, but without contradiction it was an high hill, as the hill of Basan. A spire or Pinnacle of the Temple was a lofty eminence, what did drive him to leave it for the top of a Mountain? Why is it not so with all Projectors to shift inventions, and try new conclusions, as fast as the old couzenages are detected? and there is a superstition in some, weakly grounded, God knows, to change the place which hath not been lucky unto them. Balaac the King of Moab was a great practiser in this kind; when Balaam had rather blessed Israel than cursed them, upon the high places of Baal, says Balaac, Num. xxiii. 13. Come I pray thee with me unto another place, and curse me them from thence; and when Balaam had no power to speak evil against Israel there, but said there was no enchantment against Jacob, nor divination against Israel, Balaac changed again, ver. 27. I will bring thee to another place, to the top of Peor, peradventure it will please God that thou mayst curse me them from thence. But it is not the shifting to this place or that place that breeds contrary affections in a good man: Coelum non Animum mutant; 
Gen. xlix. 4.  Where there is an inward principle of goodness firm and sure under every cope of heaven the mind is unalterable; Such as are like Reuben, unstable as water, and therefore should not excel, as his dying Father told him, such let them but cross the Seas, and change air, and they change their Religion: For such ungrounded resolutions the best counsel is, to keep quiet at home, where they may serve God with an upright heart, and not be carried away with Satan from the true Temple of Christ to those high Mountains, or cities of seven hills, where they shall be tempted to Idolatry.  
Now what if this mountain, which Satan took up like the throne whereon he would reign, what if it had been devoted to most gross Idolatry before? Would it not be thought the fitter place for such wicked service now? For that black hellish motion which follows, All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me: Nay further, what if the wisest, and one of the most illuminate Servants of God, did miscarry upon that Mountain? Had not Satan some hopes then to pervert Christ? Whom he took to be a Son of God, not the eternal and only begotten Son. I dare propound my conjecture, I call it no more, that Solomon did commit Idolatry upon this very Mountain, 1 Kings xi. 7. Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the Children of Ammon; assent unto this as you like it. I will only add to this Point, that the place was chosen to raise a great expectation upon that which should be propounded. Parturiunt montes, if it were divine doctrine; a Mountain was thought a fit place to deliver it to call up the attention of the Auditors. So that excellent Sermon was delivered to the Apostles on the Mount, Mat. v. Docturus Apostolos culmen perfectionis montem conscendit, says St. Austin; Christ taught them from on high, because he exhorted them to the top of perfection. Or if they were Prophetical Visions, so God did use; one of the Angels carried John in the Spirit to a great and an high Mountain, and showed him the New Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Rev. xxi. 10. So the hand of the Lord brought Ezekiel, and set him upon a very high Mountain to see the new City, and the new Temple, Ezek. xl. 2. Yet these were but raptures or illuminations of the fancy after a divine manner, and no more. But if Satan played the Mimic to imitate God specially in this action, there is much likeness in a case which I have not yet remembered; But thus: The Lord spoke unto Moses, Deut. xxxiv. to go up to the top of Mount Nebo before he died, and from thence he showed him all the goodly Land of Promise, from Dan even to the Land of Jericho, which the Children of Israel should possess, whom he had brought out of Egypt: This is it certainly which the Tempter imitated, and, like a presumptuous fiend, placeth, not Moses a servant of the Family, but Christ more excellent by far than Moses; not upon Mount Nebo without the Land of Canaan, but upon an hill near unto Jerusalem: not to see one Territory, and there to die and not enjoy it, but to see all the Kingdoms of the world, and to take them in possession. A man may see with half an eye, this was to vilify God's Miracles and Promises, and to extol his own. But that must be more copiously touched in the sequel. Enough of the second Point, the third is to this purpose, by what gate or passage the Devil would bring in his Tentation, and that is by the eye, Ostendit illi, He shows him all the Kingdoms of the World.  
There is nothing so soon enticed, and led away as the eye; We are almost all like Laban's Sheep, every man's heart conceives as the delight of his eye doth impress upon his fancy. O these fair Orbs, which the Workman made to be the casements of light, but they open to let in death into the soul. There it began to show itself to be an Instrument that had lost all purity when Adam and his Wife were called, and hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the Trees of the Garden. Whereupon, 
De Verb. Dom. Scr. 18.  says St. Austin, when Adam had a pure conscience he had a single eye, and loved to stand before the Lord, Postquam peccato sauciatus est oculus caepit lucem formidare divinam; But when his eye grew sin-sore, his guiltiness would not let him look upon the divine splendour, Refugit in tenebras, veritatem fugiens, umbras appetens; Now it had rather seek out secret places, and dark empty shadows than the eternal truth. Here the eye began to fall from its primitive honour, and ever since it became pernicious. Says the Son of Sirach, What is created more wicked than an eye? wherefore it weepeth upon every occasion, Eccles. xxxi. 3. St. John reduceth the whole brood of sin to these three Seed-plots, 
Joh. two. 16.  all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. First, there is Achans eye, that lusteth after Silver and Gold, and costly Babylonish Garments; such eyes commit thievery upon all costly things that they behold: Some would have all as far as they can look. Hell and destruction are never full, so the eyes of man are never satisfied, says Solomon, Prov. xvii.  
But this is not all, there is Shechems' eye that lusteth after the beauty of Dinah, Nay, less than the lively Person, a very Picture is able to strike the eye, and dead colours can inflame it with lasciviousness. Ask Ezekiel if it be not thus, Cham xxiii. 16. Aholibah saw men portrayed upon the Wall, the Images of the Chaldaeans, as soon as she saw them she doted upon them, and sent Messengers unto them into Chaldaea. And not unusually this malignity hath extended to spiritual fornication; for it is often alleged, that the workman's cunning, and beauty of the Image hath bewitched the eye, and drawn the vain beholders to commit Idolatry; and these fair lights thus degenerating to be the brokers of wanton sins are called by Plato, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Panders and Bawds to corrupt the Soul. And yet there is another capitol mischief imputed to the eye by St. Austin, 
Lib. 3. de Symb. cap. 1.  Ad concupiscentiam oculorum pertinet nugacitas spectaculorum; Gazing after all manner of vanities and spectacles of bravery, filling the mind with rank effeminateness and idleness, casting away most unthriftily the good hours of our life to see, and to be seen. The theatres are not large enough now adays to receive our loose Gallants Male and Female, but whole Fields and Parks are thronged with their concourse, where they make a muster of their gay clothes, acd that day is counted the luckiest of the Week, not wherein they have done God most faithful service, but wherein they have glutted their eyes abroad with gaudy Gallantry. Did Solomon mean such as these (can you tell?) when he said, The eyes of a fool are in every corner of the earth? But I am sure they are of a condition much better than these whom Christ meant, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Mat. v. 8.  
Such as are not of a very strict conscience to look to their integrity think they may easy defend themselves against this charge; for is not every thing which is visible made to be seen? And more fit to be seen, if it be a comely piece of Art or Nature. St. Bernard brings in Eve excusing herself for looking upon the forbidden fruit, Oculos tendo non manum, non est interdictum ne videam, sed ne comedam; That is, 
De grad. humilitat. 1.  May I not cast mine eye toward the Tree? I do not reach out my hand to it. The Tree is pleasant to the eye, and though I am forbidden to eat, yet I am not denied to look at it. The Father takes upon him to answer, as if he had been by to talk with her, Hoc etsi culpa non est, culpae tamen indicium est. The darting of the eye formally is not the transgression of the Commandment, but it begets the transgression of the Commandment. Behold the heaven, and the earth, and all the works of the Lord which he hath made in such manifold wisdom, the invisible things may be understood by things which are seen, and the well-governed eye shall teach the heart to glorify God. Wherefore mark the consequent, what passions your eyes beget in your soul, examine your own frailties, prove your strength and your weakness, keep your innocency, and look your fill, but turn away your eyes when you perceive that the devil shows the Object. Job said, his heart should not walk after his eye, that his eye should not stray from reason. But what if the heart chance to wander after the eye? What remedy then? Christ never gave a more angry Precept in all the Gospel than upon this occosion, If thy right eye offend thee, 
Mat. v.  pull it out and cast it from thee. 'Tis an Hyperbole, so all conclude: For the world in a short time would be left as blind, as ever Bartimaeus was, if it were a literal Lesson. It is not the defacing of the body, but the bridling and killing of concupiscence which the Precept commands. The body must not be defaced, because of the quarrel which we have against the Law in our members, and the sting that is in our flesh: That was the barbarous Religion of the Priests of Baal to cut and mangle themselves with knives. St. Paul testifies for the Galathians how obedient and respectful they were unto him, and that if it had been possible they would have plucked out their own eyes and have given them unto him, Gal. iv. 15. There is no doubt of the natural possibility, but they could have plucked out their eyes, possible therefore is as much as lawful; it was not possible to do it with a safe conscience, and with the fear of God: Therefore Christ bade no more but cut out the concupiscence, and vanity of the eye and cast it from thee, but preserve the Instrument. We meet with that Adverb of Admiration (Ecce, behold) in above an hundred Verses of the Gospel to command our eyes from transitory things, and to bring them to those spectacles of grace and happiness. He that meditates seriously upon some inward thoughts takes no notice of that object for the present upon which he fastens his eye; so a mortified man, that is dead to the trash of this world, and alive to God, shall see all these Kingdoms, and the glory of them which Satan presented to our Saviour, and never be dazzled with the Object. All these enticing baits shall stand before him, and be neglected as if he never beheld them. Non refert quid, sed qualis: All things in the world are fit to be seen, but every one hath not the Poets sullen eye, Oculo irretorio spectat acervos; every one hath not fitness to see them. 
Horat. lib. 2. Other.  For example, Lot's Wife was forbidden to look towards Sodom, for the compassion towards her native dwelling would make her murmur at the Lord who reigned fire and brimstone from heaven upon it: But Abraham was a sure man, he rose up early in the morning, and looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and saw the smoke of the Country go up as a furnace. It is manifest by this, that unstaid, and ungoverned eyes must not take that liberty to wander abroad which Abraham may, whose heart is steadfast with the Lord. Learn to know how far you may use all your bodily senses, and your eye especially, without prejudice to Justice, Temperance, Chastity, Modesty, and venture no further. And though it be not in man to guide himself, yet it is in man to direct his prayers to God for assistance, as David did, Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken thou me in thy way, Psal. cxix. 37. Here I shut up the third Point, that the Devil would bring his great Tentation through the passage of the eye. Ostendit illi, he represented a gaudy show, he showed him, etc.  
The next thing to be considered is, that Satan would put no small mote in our Saviour's eye, but the greatest beam he could find out, the fairest Commonwealths and Dominions of the world, Ostendit illi regna, he showed him Kingdoms. One large delightful Lawn hedged with even rows of trees, one flowery Meadow with a purling stream running by it, one beautiful Garden, a Belvidere with rare figures of composures; any one of these is a Feast for the eye to glut itself upon; but the variety of all these over the face of the whole earth to be presented in one Landscape, had been able to have struck any mortal man with sensuality: nor were these things offered to be viewed as parcels of private Inheritances, but as the annexes of Empires and Kingdoms, rebounding names to rattle in the ears of ambition. How many appetites have been even sick of longing to see some one Monarchy in the very height of the victory; the Historian himself was struck with passion when he wrote of Alexander's Conquests in the East, and bemoans all Grecians not born in those days, who were not so happy as to see that Monarch set in the Throne of Darius, for than was Greece at the top of her glory. The Roman Empire was no less goodly sight at this season in the days of our Saviour, having left but few Kingdoms beside itself to be seen in the known and habitable world. I speak of these things now only as they were set forth to be seen, and not as they were offered to be given, till I come to the next verse.  
And meddling with it no further, it will admit these brief deductions: First, that it is more advantage to the Devil to make us partakers of the sight of these things, than to make us Masters of the actual possession: hold the cherry bobbing at our lips, and we are eager to catch it; when 'tis tasted 'tis gone, and no more regarded: let us be placed where we may see the dignities and Kingdoms of the world like pictures in a Gallery, and our covetous affections will be ravished with the desire; and the way to keep us in love of those things, is to keep us in longing: but when we enjoy them, our appetite will be turned into disdain, because they do not answer our expectation. St. Ambrose cut this path into my Text, for our meditations to walk in. Saith he, there are treacheries, disturbance of rest, violence, injustice, a thousand angariations in the Kingdoms of the world, none of these are perceived while you stand off, and look upon them: all's well while you gaze on these transitory things from the top of the Mountain, bona terrena pluris sunt cum non habentur, & desiderantur, quam cum possidentur: they are more worth upon the seeing, than upon the possessing; therefore he showed him all the Kingdoms of the world.  
Secondly, though Satan did not perfectly know Christ, yet he saw him composed to a most sanctified way; therefore he sets before him his great glass of vanities to fill his fancy with muddy cogitations; Kingdoms, and Dominions, and glory are not a spiritual man's Element; secularia negotia vehementer à spiritualibus avocant, these secular objects do entice the mind from heavenly muse. Christ preached in the Temple, in the Synagogues, in the Streets, in a Ship, in a Mountain, in the Wilderness; but in the Court of Herod, and in the Judgement Hall of Pilate he held his peace: he was Master of his eloquence, as well as of silence, and could have spoken there: but it was to show that in the midst of Princely pomp and secular negotiations you may speak heavenly things, but you shall be heard at leisure. Let Satan be a Statist, and a meddler with Kingdoms, as this Text shows he is, that's a pattern for none, who are altogether set apart for religious service, but for the Order of the Jesuits, who wriggle themselves in to be the Cabinet Counsellors both to great and petty Princes, not only in Europe, but beyond the Line in Peru and Goa, in more Kingdoms than I think verily the Devil showed our Saviour. The general Constitutions of their Order, as we may read them in print, do strictly command them in severest manner no way to meddle in State matters, or in King's affairs. But verte folium, I would we could see the other leaf of special instructions; for in their practice the world never saw the like Corporation for stickling in all Kingdoms and Civil Governments, but I leave them with him that useth to show all the Kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them upon the top of a Mountain.  
Thirdly, this is the Tempter's way, if not to show to the eye, yet to buzz into men's thoughts, and to possess them with strong apprehensions that they are not unlikely to get Kingdoms, and Glory, and Exaltation; fools men with imaginations of strange fortunes and advancements: as the Bramble in Jothams' Parable thought itself fit to be a King over the Trees of the Wood; and the Thistle in another Parable would have the Cedar's Daughter married to his Son. The Holy Ghost thought it fitter to deliver these senseless, impossible, ambitious projects of men in Parables, than to speak plainly, how folly and melancholy make some men suck at the Dugs of hope, and fill themselves with wind and vanity. Luther expresseth this madness in this phrase, that every man hath a Pope in his belly. It seems the truth of his saying may go far, if such mean persons as the Mother of Zebedees' Children, the Wife of a silly drudging Fisherman, could make such a Petition, that one of her Sons might sit at the right hand of our Saviour in his Kingdom, the other at his left. Who had greater fortunes than David? and who did expect less? Psal. 131. I do not exercise myself in great matters, which are too high for me, but I refrain my soul, and keep it low, like as a Child that is weaned from his Mother: he restrained his soul, and would not let it wander in ambitious speculations; he weaned it as a Child from his Mother; from the Earth, which is the Mother of us all, and from her transitory abundance.  
But though all which Satan did show could not move Christ one jot, yet in the next point the amplitude and generality of the object I am sure is worth our admiration, he showeth him all the Kingdoms of the World: and St. Luke adds, that he did not carry him about in any long travail, but so suddenly, that it is expressed in a momentary motion, in the twinkling of an eye. There hath been some shame and disorder, some soul blur upon every Realm and Territory in the earth, therefore the Devil durst show all, and every parcel without any prejudice to his own proceedings. The description of a Platonique Commonwealth, an Utopia, or new Atlantis is to be found in ink and paper, but never among men. There have been treacheries, tyrannical intrusions, disinheriting the true and lawful Successors, deposing of anointed Princes in every Government of the world; such horrid things have passed every where to get Kingdoms by blood and violences, and all kind of cruelties; that Kingdoms so set forth are fit only for the Devil to show, 'tis pity any History should record them, qua terra patet fera regnat Erinnys, as David said, the whole earth is full of darkness and cruel habitation. Satan hath quite marred this world, and made it fit for himself, and for his own children to look upon. Omnis seculi honor est diaboli negotium, says St. Hilary; that is, all kind of honour is so degenerated and stained, that the wicked Fiend makes it his business to represent it all unto our Saviour. Nay but Satan showed all the Kingdoms and the glory of them, therefore none of their soils and deformities. Very right indeed, as St. Ambrose catcheth at that word, ostendit regna & gloriam, celavit taedia & labores, he showed the best outside of Kingdoms, the pomp, power, attendance, and riches; but he did not represent within this pleasing object the multitudes of cares, the distractions, the fears and jealousies, all those restless vexations that dance within the circle of a Crown, and cannot be separated from Sovereignty: well be it granted that these were kept out of sight: I concur with St. Ambrose that they were, yet I deny that he was able to show the true and essential glory of the Kingdoms of the world, for the first original beauty and integrity which they had is quite gone, irreparably lost, and never to be recalled. All the foundations of the earth are out of frame, says the Psalmist; the ancient Landmarks are removed, all Nations have been invaders, have been invaded, every man means for his own ends, and not for the public: peace is loathed if it be long kept: Princes would overrule, and Subjects would but half obey; how can the glory of Kingdoms be shown, when almost nothing is in that fashion wherein God ordained it. Do you think a large Territory of Land, a fruitful Soil, a rich People, a ruffling Gentry, a warlike Nation, terra potens armis atque ubere glebâ; do you think, I say, that these are the original and essential glory of a Kingdom: belike Satan would have ye believe so, and since he could show no more, my Text speaks after his meaning and purpose, He showed him all the Kingdoms, etc.  
But admit he had not presumed to meddle with the glory of the Earth, it is enough to take up our admiration that he showed every quarter and parcel of it, yea, and that in the twinkling of an eye: and upon this, whether miracle or delusion, I will spend the time, arguing two ways, in what manner this could not be done, in what manner possiby it was done; but since the Scripture is silent concerning the modus, no man must define resolutely thus it must be done.  
First than it must not be conceived, as if Satan did, or could show any thing which was not manifest to Christ before. Ostensio fit quasi ignoranti, to take upon him to show the world unto Christ, was to suppose there was ignorance in him, before whom all things lie naked, and unto whom all the foundations of the world are discovered, the attempt comes to one pass, as if a mortal man would teach an immortal Angel what incomprehensible glory is laid up in heaven; nay the odds are far greater, if I would go about to amplify it. The metaphysical Maxim is, duo accidentia ejusdem speciei non possunt esse in eodem subjecto; as two sweetnesses cannot be in the same lump of sugar, nor two hardnesses in the same piece of steel; so the knowledge of all the Kingdoms of the world was in Christ's mind before, in him were all the treasures of wisdom, therefore the Devil could not cause any knowledge there; for two knowledges of the same thing cannot be in the same understanding.  
Secondly, neither did the evil spirit fortify the sight of Christ, or put virtue into his eye to make it see more than the organ did see before, non quod visum ejus qui omnia videt, amplificaverit, the Lord of Heaven and Earth indeed is able to put strange perspicacy into the eye of man, if he please, to make him see things clearly and distinctly at a mighty distance: so he caused Moses at 120 years of age to go up to mount Nebo to look upon the land before him, and to die there. First God put courage into his heart to go thither to die, with as much cheerfulness as if he had been invited to some Festival entertainment; secondly he put virtue into his aged eye to see all the remote Regions as perfectly as if they had been Valleys close by, and all lying under mount Nebo, on which he stood. Now as for the eye of Christ's body, surely it needed no such amplification of visual virtue; for assume it for granted, that all parts of his humane nature were so perfect, that his eye could clearly behold any thing though at never so far distance, I mean how far soever the visible object could cast a species, no gross opacous body casting itself between: for Christ being made like unto us in all things, sin only excepted, I allow no possibility to any created one to see through the thick interposition of earth and stones, that Lynceus was able to do so, Poets did invent in in a Midsummer Moon: But I resume no species could multiply to our Saviour's sight, and fall upon it with never so acute angles, though the distance as long as between a star in the highest Region, and this earth, but he could clearly receive the object, as present at hand before him. Having such virtue in his eye, he could receive no amplification, neither could any visual virtue upon the highest Mountain on earth make him to see all the Kingdoms of the World ot once; for Philosophers grant enough, that an object may appear in one Horizon to an excellent sighted eye three hundred miles off, and more they think impossible.  
Nor thirdly did Satan work any perturbation in Christ's fancy, to make him imagine he saw that, which indeed he did not. To be conceited that things are present, and before a man, which indeed are not, if it fall out in one's sleep it is no more than a dream: if it come to pass by Gods working supernaturally, it is a prophetical illumination; so God wrought such wonderful passions upon the fancies of Ezekiel and St. John; and the Monks say that it pleased the Lord to show unto St. Bennet in a trance, a little before he died, all the Kingdoms and Empires upon the face of the earth: but if such a thing come to pass by the Devil's mists and devices, than it is praestigiation or delusion; but Satan had no such power to abuse the senses or the spirits of our blessed Lord, moving disorder in his body, or in his head, by which course only he can procure fanciful and vain imaginations of things that are not. Besides if this show had been no more but deluding the fancy, to make it credulous he saw the whole world when he did not, what needed he make choice of an exceeding high mountain to go up to that? That might be done every where: and he might as easily work it into his fancy, that he was upon a mountain when he was not, as to see a most ravishing object of all the earth when he did not. But that which I said before is most convincing; that Satan had no power to disturb our Saviour's fancy inwardly; neither is He that is above the wisdom of men and Angels subject to delusion.  
As it was impossible to be brought to pass after these ways that I have touched upon, to represent all the Kingdoms of the World before our Saviour, so there are other ways how this might be done, without any flat contradiction or absurdity.  
As First, Satan is able, if God permit him, to compose certain species or models of all the Kingdoms of the world, bubbles as I may call them in the air, to last for a little while, for the twinkling of an eye, and so to vanish; and for the better colour of his juggling, that they were the real Kingdoms of the World, and not their counterfeits; he assumed Christ up into a most lofty prospect. These are delusions not in Christ's fancy, which I disclaimed before, but without him. Nor were they any delusions unto Christ at all, because he knew them what they were, that they were not true, but feigned images. The most piercing objection that can be made, is, than he did not show any Kingdom unto Christ, but only the glasses and models of them all. So it must be indeed by this description; yet they are called the Kingdoms of the World per modum signi, because the glory of the World was cunningly displayed in those counterfeits.  
Secondly, though it be passed the skill of man to perform (for I am no Rosicrucian) yet it is not past the capacity of man to imagine it possible, how Satan might make the species of all the Kingdoms of the World conjointly be seen before Christ's eye by refractions, (per artem speculorum positorum in commodâ habitudine,) one terse clear body, like a Glass receiving the shadows or species of things from one to another, and in a very quick instant all displayed in the air round about that Mountain, being fitly prepared to receive such fractions. But I will not trouble you nor myself with such intricate optical Philosophy as must make this good.  
But thirdly, I am most strongly possessed with that way which is most easy and obvious; though it be pelted with objections, that Satan showed our Saviour all that pleasant Country that might be seen from the top of the Mountain, and did indigitare or monstrare, show the rest by pointing to the flourishing Monarchies of the World, which way they lay, as in a Cosmographical Sphere. But this exposition will be cavilled with, that he could not be said properly to show all Kingdoms. Not so properly, indeed, as He that travels through every Region, but secundum ultimum posse, he showed him all as far forth as his skill and power would permit him. Neither is it necessary to hold so hard to the Text, that every angle of the world was made apparent, and nothing unshewn. The note of universality stands oftentimes for multitude: He showed him the most part of the Kingdoms of the world, or perhaps all that had glory in them, that is Victory, Peace, Civility; not barbarous savage Nations, who had neither Cities of munificence, nor Laws of good government, nor wealth, nor honour, nor any thing desirable.  
Others that can oppose this opinion, and yet give no sensible reason of their own to expound this Text; but these object, that discourse must take up some time, if Satan spoke upon all the Kingdoms of the World, this could not be done in the twinkling of an eye. But no man can read an Author, but he will find many such hyperbolical speeches. The Syrian Paraphrast translates St. Luke in brevissimo tempore, Satan did it in a trice, in a very short time, beyond the imagination of man to think how it should be done so quickly; that's the meaning of the Holy Ghost. It was his subtlety to hurry over things, that Christ might have no time of deliberation, but be surprised of a sudden, before He could give a well meditated answer. I know it may be descanted upon likewise, that such things told upon relation could not move any man's appetite so well as to muster them before the eye. Segnius irritant animos dimissa per aures, etc. therefore I say, this was a mingle of tentation, all that could be was showed unto the eye, and the rest was supplied by narration. Use which of these last opinions you will, or if none do satisfy, yet believe the Text to be true, for that must be believed, though the manner be unsearchable. The Lord will come at the blast of a Trumpet, and all flesh shall be gathered together in the twinkling of an eye, and then all mysteries shall be opened to us; among other things that are not yet discovered, how the Devil took our Saviour up into an exceeding high Mountain, and showed him all the Kingdoms of the World, and the glory of them in the twinkling of an eye.   

THE FIFTEENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviour's Tentation.  MAT. iv. 9 
And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me.  
BErnard meditates upon our Saviour's suffering on the Cross, that there were tria pungentia, three sharp pointed Instruments that ran into his flesh: But the first more lightly; The second much more sensibly; And the last made a further entrance into his body than all the rest. The thorns plaited on his head razed the skin, the Nails went through his hands and feet: But the Spear made a ruder and a deeper wound through his side into his very heart: So these three Tentations of the Devil succeed one another like those tria pungentia, every one had a sharper point, and a greater sting to do mischief than the other, but it was not possible they should stick like thorns and nails in the Son of God. The tentation to make stones of bread was an advice to make bad provision for the sustenance of this life; there was Spina necessitatis, Satan would have pricked Christ on with the thorns of want and necessity. The tentation to cast himself down from the top of the Temple, was to draw him to a violent and a presumptuous death, as bad as that nail, if he could have fastened it, which Jael struck into the head of Sisera. The third tentation is a mash of all the venom which the Devil had left, Peccata peccatis producta; here are sins hanging upon sins, one at the end of another, to make up the length of a Spear. In a word, here is a brood of sins in a nest, four apparently without all subdivisions. First, Peccatum habendi, he offers him the sin of Covetousness to give him all the Possessions of the world. Secondly, Peccatum regnandi, he would rub Ambition upon him, and put into his hands all the Kingdoms and Power of the world. Thirdly, Peccatum malè credendi, he would seduce him to believe that all these things which God alone brings forth from his treasure were his to dispose. Fourthly, Peccatum turpiter adorandi, he durst ask that which is so horrid, that it is able to curdle a man's blood to repeat it, that Christ would fall down and worship him.  
Aquinas builds the gradation of these three Tentations on this sort: First, The evil Spirit demanded no more of Christ, quam quod appetunt quantumcunque veri spirituales; 
Tert. pa. quest. 41. art. 1.  which the holiest men in the world, and most endowed with the Spirit must use, but to refresh and feed his body. Secondly, He required that which holy men ought not to do, yet it is incident through frailty now and then for holy men to do it, to jump down from a Pinnacle out of ostentation, and to be gazed upon for vain glory. But he climbs up in the third tentation to such a motion, as never any spiritual and holy man can commit, to be bribed with wealth and honour to forsake the Lord, and to adore his foulest enemy. Therefore in both the former temptations he began with this preface, If thou be the Son of God, but he leaves out those words when he makes this Proposition in my Text, for the Son of God would never commit such black Idolatry, though he could give more than all; yet he lays all at the stake for this venture, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Though Satan's Kingdom be not divided, yet his Tentations may. But first I will read you my Text as St. Luke hath enlarged it, that we may miss nothing which the Spirit of God hath uttered upon these words. Thus that Evangelist, Chap. iv. 6. All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them, for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will give it; if thou therefore wilt worship me all shall be thine. Now, I suppose, we may charge these particulars upon the Text made up out of both the Evangelists. First, Wherein the enticement of this tentation consists, why in giving, in most liberal remuneration pretended, Dabo, I will give. Secondly, What, and how much he will give, and that is twofold. As a Mammonist of Wealth, he will, he says, put into his hands all the Riches and Possessions that the eye can see, All these things will I give thee. And as a Lucifer of pride he tells him that he will give him title to all the honours of the world, all this power will I give thee, and the glory of them. Thirdly, he shows Christ his evidences, Quo jure, by what right and authority he can make over all this unto him: In these words, For that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will give it. Fourthly, and lastly, Every Bait hath his Hook under it: So this promise is laid upon a most impious condition, if Christ will fall down and worship him. Set your minds now upon these things, and I will deliver them in their order.  
Every tentation had some clawing provocation in it peculiar to itself; now the sharpness and dangerousness of this tentation is in giving, that is the first Point, Dabo tibi, I will give thee; that is a speeding word, we must confess it to the shame of the world. Every one is a friend to him that bringeth gifts, says Solomon. All Satirical Invectives, Fables, or Morals, Writings of every cut and fashion are full of this, that these things which Satan requires are commonly to be bought, Worship, Homage, and what you will: The Tongue of man, the Knee, the Heart, nay, Body and Soul together are to be purchased: As you bring with one hand, you shall carry away Favour and Justice in the other. The access of profit carries the main stroke in every thing; The Heads judge for reward, and the Prophet's divine for money, Mich. iii 11. They that should be most clear from this fault you see are chiefly in the reprehension. No man knows with what stint he would spend, or how much he would lay up, therefore, unless where the conscience is much refined from greediness, it is a pleasure to sacrifice to our net, and above all things to catch at that, which comes in with so much easiness, as Dabo, I will give thee. Hazael King of Syria must have a present, 
2 Kings xii.  even all the hallowed things that were dedicated to the Lord, that he might not come up against Jerusalem. Felix the Governor without a feeling would not set Paul at liberty. The corruption of the times was such in Israel, that men thought the Prophets as greedy as themselves, and would not ask them counsel of the Lord without a gift in their hand. 
2 Kings viij.  Benhadad sent a Present of all the good things in Damascus, even forty Camels burdens to Elisha to inquire if he should recover of his sickness. And Saul more apparently being counselled to go to Samuel to ask which way he should return home, made a stand at it, saying, What shall we give to the man of God? There is not a present left. This polling Covetousness was very ordinary, no doubt, in that Land when the People knew nothing, but the Prophets were devourers of gifts, and would not open the Oracles of God unto them without Satan's compliment, Dabo, I will give thee.  
The giver that would corrupt another, such as the High Priests that delivered Judas thirty pieces of Silver to betray his Master, such a one, you see by the instance of my Text, doth supply the place of the Devil. I am sure God gave no man wealth to this end, to buy another out of his honesty; the eternal Law says that virtue only should be rewarded, and he that keeps the Commandments; therefore to give a Pension to man or woman to be vicious is to cross that supreme fundamental Law by which heaven and earth are governed. Fie that so good a virtue as Liberality should be so scornfully imitated. No virtue is more often commended by God than bounty and giving, but above all moral qualities it is most plausible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Aristotle hit the reason in a word, it redounds to the common benefit of others, more than any other virtue, which begets it favour and affections. Now to cast dirt in the face of this virtue Satan sets up a liberality, which is of a most different condition, and nothing of kin to it, when the great Patrons of sin care not what they bestow upon them that serve their turn for flattery, for injustice, for lust, for sensuality. When poor Lazarus wants a draught of cold water, a shower of Gold shall rain down into the Lap of Danae; the wages of an Harlot are far greater, for the most part, than the recompense of most faithful and honest service. The Egyptian Rhodope out of the gifts of her Lovers was able to dispend enough to build a Pyramid, an expense so great that few Kings in Egypt could accomplish it. If the Daughter of Herodias show herself lascivious and immodest, Herod will cast away half his Kingdom upon her, or if that be too little, he leaves her to be her own carver; she may ask any thing, Dabo quodcunque volueris, I will give thee whatsoever thou wilt ask. O that noble qualities were as sure of Patronage as Instruments of wickedness are sure of means and maintenance. As Suetonius said of his Nero, Pecuniae fructum non alium putabat quam profusionem; He thought there was no use of riches but waste and profusion: So in the Line that Satan draws out there is no use of giving but to procure Idolatry, to fall down and worship him. Cursed be those hands that open themselves wide to any one, man or woman, to make them the child of perdition. Judah gave his Ring to Thamar to hire her unto Fornication. I believe he repented him with many tears of bitterness because old Jacob did so abundantly bless him: but let me propound unto him that is prone to do the like; will you abuse those blessings, those temporary blessings which God hath given you to buy Souls for the Devil? Christ hath given a ransom out of his blood to redeem that soul from Hell, and will you give Gold and Silver to buy it into Hell again? Was there no poor Member of Christ whose body you might save with that money wherewith you destroy a soul? He that giveth to the needy dareth to the Lord, but he that purchaseth any one to be sinful by his bounty, he dareth to the Devil.  
This that I have spoken of was the sin of Balaac to barter, and be at a price with Balaam to do an evil act, to curse them whom the Lord had blessed; and it is the Chapman that makes the Market, woe be to the giver that tempts the weakness of man with such a forcible provocation, Aureo pugillo ferreus murus frangitur, says the Heathen; A Hammer of Gold will beat down a Wall of Iron: Yet is there nothing to be said to the receiver? Shall his hand be clear that hath taken when he is called to answer? Nay, none more accused by the Spirit of God, none more criminous: They are companions of thiefs, every one loveth gifts, and followeth after reward, Isa. i. 23. Neither is robbery their alone indictment, but the worst of sins against the Second Table, Blood and Murder. Shut not up my life with the bloodthirsty, in whose hands is wickedness, and their right hand is full of gifts, Psal. xxvi. 9 He that takes reward to do evil takes a fee to lose his own salvation. Nay, what toil and drudgery some will undergo to earn the wages of iniquity? Minori labore margarita Christi emi poterat, says St. Hierom; You might accompass that invaluable Pearl in the Gospel, whereof the Parable speaks, that the Merchant sold all he had to buy it; I say, that Pearl might have been gained with less danger and industry, the whole treasure of the Kingdom of heaven. Espencaeus, being a Romish Doctor, and a most learned, may be bold with his own friends, who hath revealed more corruption and bribery in the Roman Court than a modest Protestant could almost believe: As Pensions taken not only for the punishment of incontinence past, but to lay down somewhat beforehand for the time to come: What if the Visitors met with such as resolved to be chaste, yet the common Levy was exacted of such a one, Habeat si velit. O shameless word, he may use the sin if he will. Then the Taxa Camerae, as they call it, is far worse than it, which was a Table, wherein every one may know what it will cost him for any sin committed: Omnibus absolutio empturientibus est proposita; no delinquent could want absolution, but he that came short of payment, I will rip up no more, and I had as lief you should see the ugly visage of most sordid covetousness by their glass, as in any corrupt customs of our own. An unjust taker runs upon the Devil's score, and he shall be delivered over to the Tormentor till he have paid the utmost farthing.  
But will you confound Satan? And leave him not one tool in all his warehouse, and invention to work upon you; 
Annael. lib. 1●.  learn that Lesson perfectly which Tacitus puts in the mouth of a worthy Magistrate, Nihil venale in nostris penatibus, aut ambitioni pervium; I am not to be won either with money or promotion. Give them their bribe back again, and put every man's Silver in the mouth of his own Sack, and let them take it home again, as Joseph dealt with his Brethren: And as Abraham kept his hands from the Presents of the King of Sodom, I would not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldst say, I have made Abraham rich. Gen. xiv. 23. More sharply St. Peter to Simon Magus, when he would have given to have received the Holy Ghost, Thy money perish with thee, Acts viij. The Clementine Constitutions say upon that passage, that if the Apostles had taken that Sorcerers money they themselves had lost the gifts of the Holy Ghost for ever, even as Adam by eating the forbidden fruit lost Innocency and immortality. It is no bad answer which Esau gave, when he refused jacob's Present, he had plenty and enough of his own, as who should say, a man of his fair Possessions was in better case to give than to take. I would we had not lost Esau's conscience now adays; for I fear none shark so ravenously, or gripe gifts faster than they that have abundance. Qui minus habent semper aliquid addunt ditioribus; they that are neediest and barest must pay to the rich man's Box. Upon those words, Acts xxiv. that Felix expected Paul should give him somewhat to be set at liberty. St. chrysostom asks where Paul should have it? How could he come by Silver or Gold to cast into that Sack of corruption? The Father conjectures wittily, that Paul came to Jerusalem with money which he had collected at Corinth, Macedonia, and other places for the poor Saints, and Felix his teeth watered to devour all that which was gathered for the poor Christians of Jerusalem. Well, Esau was in good case to keep his hand clean from gifts: And is not he in better case whose conscience is fixed upon this Memento; He that hateth gifts shall live, Prov. xv. 17. And he that is greedy of gain troubleth his own soul. If wealth will not increase but by the wicked Mammon, I shall spend less in Luxury here, and have my wages increased an hundred fold hereafter in the Kingdom of heaven. Fabricius spurned away all the Treasure which Pyrrhus sent him, and yet a man so short of Revenue, that Pyrrhus his Messengers found he kept house with nothing but Herbs and Salads. Three things, says Gregory, are most Evangelical Sacrifices, Castitas in juventute, parcitas in ubertate, liberalitas in paupertate; A chaste youth unspotted touching the flesh, sobriety in plenty, and a liberal heart which could not be corrupted in poverty. I believe Satan thought his Dabo, I will give thee, would soon conquer our Saviour, because he had so little: Certain charitable women ministered to him of their substance, and maintained him. If he were put to pay Tribute to Cesar, he put the Fishes of the Sea to pay it unto him. Dominus noluit habere quod perderet, & ideo pauper huc venit, ut Diabolus non haberet quod auferret, says St. Ambrose. Our Lord had no Riches to lose, but came into the World as poor as ever any did, for, that the Devil might not use him as he did Job, he had nothing to be taken away. But because the subtle Serpent learned in Jobs case the surer way was to give Riches than to take away, therefore he plies our Saviour's Poverty with this offer, Dabo, I will give thee: But Christ came to sanctify Poverty in his own Person, that it might not stumble at golden Balls, and fall into evil; for God hath chosen the poor of this world to be strong in faith and integrity. And so far I have dilated that the sting of this third Tentation is in this word, Dabo, I will give thee.  
But the noise and wonderment is in the muchness or quantity, what mighty boon Satan promiseth to give, all the Riches and Possessions that eye could see, All these things will I give thee. This was no piddling, but so round an offer, as he could go no higher; and so much he stakes down at once, that he would make himself unable to give for ever after. I could tell you of most bountiful Donations given by some of the Heathen Emperors. Those vast Principalities, and masses of Gold which Nero gave to Tiridates are beyond my Arithmetic, and almost my belief, the Crown of Armenia, a Million in Cash, and more than the whole Kingdom of Armenia was worth in entertainment. It was a most munificent somewhat indeed, yet a sum that is quite drowned if you name it with this offer in my Text, which hath no stint and measure, Haec omnia tibi dabo; I will give you all the riches of the earth, not a drachma debated. We say Proverbially, It is an ill wind that blows no man profit, and an ill bargain that makes no man the richer: So these very embers of Hell shall give us some light, and these baits of Satan shall abound unto the use of our knowledge in these following Observations.  
First, That which whispers into us immoderate desires, and a vast expectation of earthly things is an evil Genius. Satan propounds a world of Wealth at once, and cannot speak under Millions: But Almighty God, howsoever he distributes a mighty Inheritance to some, yet he prepares all men by his Gospel for Poverty, and Banishment, and loss of all they have. He bids us pray for no more than our daily bread, and having food and Raiment let us be therewith content, 1 Tim. vi. 8. A little water is a great blessing if Samson can get it out of the Jawbone of an Ass to save his life; A morsel of bread and flesh Morning and Evening is Elias his dimensum; A handful of Meal, and a Jar of Oil was the whole Provision of the Widow of Sarephath: The distributions of temporary Fortunes, when God gives them, are thrifty and sparing, that every one may have a little as the Apostle Andrew said. Jacob wondered at his own increase that he was grown a rich Shepherd, With my Staff I passed over Jordan, and now I am become two Bands, Gen. xxxii. 10. Such another example is scarce to be found as that of David, whose Cup was filled brimful. God magnifies his bounty towards him by the mouth of Nathan, I gave thee thy Master's house, and the house of Israel and Judah, 2 Sam. xii. 8. yet these were but the narrow Territories of the Land of Canaan, far from this insatiable Possession, All these things will I give thee. The prodigal Child in the Parable, though a most rank consumer, yet this evil Spirit had not entered into him, for he desired no more of his Father than the portion of goods which fell unto him: But the Devil cuts out no portions for his Minions, he disciplines every one of them to aim at all that can be gotten, to be like a rolling Snowball, ever gathering, and growing bigger and bigger. 
Juvenal. Sat. 14.  Quis metus aut pudor est unquam properantis avari? There is no such bridle as shame and modesty in the heart of him that makes haste to be rich, I say, he wants the bridle of shame, I do not recall my word. Either cruel Usury, or pestilent Cozenage, or base Corruption, or sordid Penuriousness, or unchristian slackness in Charity; some of these must concur to raise up a mountain of Wealth from a mean beginning. When Sylla, that powerful Roman, made very witty Apologies for those evil courses he took to oppress the Commonwealth, one choked him with an unanswerable Objection, that he could not be thoroughly good that had scraped so great wealth together, and was born to nothing. God will bless and reward industry with gainful success, that is to be presupposed and granted for the encouragement of those that are diligent in an honest Calling; but these boundless gatherers, that would know no end of getting, have their Bank in the Devil's Mart, for it is he that bids them carry more and more, that they shall never have load enough, All these things will I give thee. St. Austin very truly lays the crime of Covetousness, not upon that abundance which a good rich man hath, but upon the corruption of his will, 
Serm. de Temp. 05.  and upon that which he would have; Avaritia est esse velle divitem, non jam esse divitem. It is no breach of God's Commandment to be rich, but to long and thirst for more. They that will be rich, says St. Paul, fall into temptations and snares, and many hurtful desires; Dives qui fieri vult, & citò vult fieri. Let fortune come in quickly though the Devil lead it by the hand. Beware of these swelling purchasing imaginations, that are ever reckoning upon more: confine your heart to moderate contentation if you will live in peace. 
Homil. 19 in Joh.  Nay, St. chrysostom says, the less you desire and want, the less you shall live like a mortal man, and the more like an immortal Angel. Quanto paucioribus indigemus, tanto magis Angelis appropinquamus. But above all remember, that God directs the soul to be contented with a little, the evil Spirit would have you engross the whole earth, and perhaps he could suggest devices how a luxurious man might be able to spend all the wealth in the world if he had it: but immense Projections, for riches come from the motion of the evil one, All these things will I give thee.  
In the next place let us declare against these words of Satan, that his gift is not more spacious than it is unjust. He presents before Christ the whole earth and the fullness thereof, and our Saviour looked upon all those things not with the eye of concupiscence, but as a Physician looks upon a disease, without any passion of infirmity: But Satan would be his very gracious Benefactor, and put all into his hands. Would he undertake it? But what should become of that portion and possession in which every man was estated? The poor man that had but one Ewe Lamb, should he lose that? Naboth, that had but one field of his Father's Inheritance, should he be turned out of that? Should the very Nervs of all Justice be cracked in sunder, Meum and tuum be banished out of the world to make up this Donative? This is like the condition which Saul required of David, he would make David his Son-in-Law if he would give him two hundred foreskins of the Philistines. David must not only provide him that which was none of his own, but be the destruction of two hundred men to give Saul a Present: So Satan would rob the whole world to make up an excessive liberality; A Legerdemain which he devised from the beginning, to give that which was none of his own, as when he gave Eve the forbidden fruit which God had both planted and reserved. And this is the most tyrannical and unconscionable injustice in the world to wring and extort from one, and to cast it away as wastefully and profusely upon another. This was the familiar sport which the ancient Comedians made, (it was sport with them that knew not God) for a lustful young man to cozen his own Father, and lavish it all upon some sumptuous Harlot. This is the most remorseless prodigality of our own times, to steal with one hand, and to scatter it away most excessively with the other. How many ungodly borrowers take up upon credit, that which they can never restore, and leave the Lender in the lurch to his utter undoing; and this wicked shift is made, not through necessity to satisfy nature, but to be bountiful to such Ravens as pick from him upon his Creditors cost. An encloser of Commons, that draws out his sin the longer by depopulating the whole Village, turns forth a swarm of poor People to the mercy of the wide world, by whose ruins he advanceth his own Posterity. Aristotle says, that a Prodigal that gives away nothing but his own, 
Lib. 4. Eth. c. 5.  and draws himself dry by such neglectful spending is rather a fool than a vicious person: but that Prodigal abounds as much with viciousness as the other doth with folly, that cares not from whom he takes, that he may be giving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'Tis vicious indeed; for 'tis the Devil's vein of giving, says my Text; he considers not this man's right, or that man's in his goods and chattels, or what belongs to the Widow or Orphan, absolutely all these things will I give thee.  
Ina and Offa, and some other Saxon Kings that reigned in this Island; but they especially were the greatest Patrons to this Church of England that ever it enjoyed either before or since their days: perhaps it would pose any Histories in the world to show the like. Yet I must tell you, that the Bishop of Rome hath been a great giver to Religious Maintenances in this Kingdom, and which is very strange, it cost him nothing, he was never the poorer: For he gave away the greatest part of the Tithes in the Kingdom from the Parsonages and preaching Ministry, to maintain contemplative men, as they called them, in Abbeys and Monasteries. This was the first spawn of Impropriations: now this is giving drawn by the copy of the Devils Charters, impoverishing the right owner to give a stranger: not robbing Peter, as we say, to pay Paul, but robbing knowledge to pay ignorance; robbing the Pulpit to feed lazy Lubbers: in a word, it was to pluck the fleece from the Sheep's back to keep the Wolf warm. Antonius de Rosellis, a Canonist of Naples defends this Position, that the Pope, as he is Christ's Vicar on earth, hath a right to all things in this world, and may take from one whatsoever he will, and give it to another, without fraud or injury. This Book is licenced in Italy, and never found fault with by the Inquisition. I shall meet with this business more aptly, when I come to open the next point, where Satan boasts, that he would give the Son of God all the Kingdoms of the World: yet in the mean time is it not worth an objection, that this power and privilege to give all things cannot belong to the Devil, since another hath claimed it in print, and Antonius de Rosellis proves it for his Client out of this Text, Henceforth will I make you Fishers of men? The scurvy luck of it is, that those words were not spoken to Peter only, for than it seems to be a Fisher of men had received this gloss, to sweep all into his Net, that the whole Generation of mankind doth enjoy upon the face of the earth. But this is apparent, here are two that lay claim, they can give all these things to any man; who shall carry it? but perhaps there is no jealousy between them, and they will agree among themselves. Some man would imagine so from this Text: the Dragon hath given to the Beast with seven heads, all his power, his seat, and authority, Revel. xiii. 2. And so much for that observation.  
Somewhat else must be in it, that Satan unasked, and unsought to, is so ready to part with all that he can give. God is very liberal, and opens his hand, and fills all things living with plenteousness, but says the Apostle, dives est in omnes qui invocant eum, he is rich unto all that call upon him: We must ask, and seek, and pray unto him (good reason for it) and then he will give us a blessing. And is this greater dealer of riches in my Text the Devil more forward in liberality than God? for he passed his word voluntarily unpetitioned; all these things will I give thee. There is some guile in this you may be sure, it cannot be otherwise. Beloved, the Lord God defers not to be gracious, he stakes down, and puts us in possession of his benefits, and no good thing doth he withhold from them that lead a godly life. But the Devil makes his adherents stay, and look for reversions when they fall, he dodges and deludes men with vain hopes of the time to come, he will give all things: let such as Ephraim take his word, that fill their belly with the East wind, for he doth give nothing. He called Christ the Son of God in the two former Tentations; do you think if he had riches or honours to dispose, the Sons of God should be the better for his liberality? ne'er a whit. A poor Philosopher that could get nothing among hardhearted rich men, said they were like trees hanging over the side of a rock, which had fruit in great abundance, but Vultures and unclean birds eat it up, no man could come at it to gather it. So whosoever fares the better for Nabols wealth, David shall be sure to go without if he ask him any thing: but it may be they shall have a fair promise, if they can keep life with that; like this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, this future tense in my Text, he is not furnished for the present, but dabo, I will give thee; Why are his Chariot wheels so long acoming? says the Mother of Sisera, when she looked for her Son that was slain and dead. So, with much vexation to be deluded shall the wicked say, where is my hire which the Tempter promised? when shall I receive my wages: Oh it will come anon, says this delayer, stay for it and you shall speed at last. Doth God deal so deceitfully with those that trust in him? no, says David, I have been young, and now am old, yet I never saw the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread. For although the plentiful reward of the faithful is not on earth, but in heaven, yet they have a testimony of his liberality in this life that he doth deposit somewhat in earnest, and lets us not build only upon promises, carnalis populus si parva non acciperet magna non crederet: We are flesh and frailty, and must have a little in hand, that we may the better believe we shall receive an hundred fold hereafter. Mark now the unequal ways of the wicked, 
2 Pet. three 4.  who grumble at God, as the Apostle says, for delaying his second coming, and that the glorification of the resurrection is not revealed, whereas all things else which the Prophets have foretold in Scripture are exactly fulfilled, and nothing but Christ's second appearance remains to be revealed: and yet these worldlings will believe the Devil without repining, and yet among all his promises from nequaquam moriemini downward he hath performed nothing.  
The first time that ever he pawned his word to mankind in three particulars, he broke it every title: 1. Ye shall not die, yet we are all become tenants to the grave, and no man can escape death. 2. Ye shall be as Gods; far otherwise we are become as beasts. 3. Ye shall know good and evil, but alas we are blind and ignorant, that refuse the good and take the evil. And are not these promises as faithless, all things will I give thee? yes undoubtedly, he would take away all that we have, and all that we hope for, and gives that satisfaction which Cesar Borgia did, when he drew many of the noble family of the Vrsin together, upon pretence of good will, and then slew them; says this arch-Hypocrite, it was their fault that believed me. St. Chrysostom had no faith in the Devil's asseveration, but speaks thus upon my Text, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, when he makes show that he will give much to man, his intent is to rob him of all. Will you reap this fruit from the observation before I leave it, be faithful of your word, and huddle not out promises, you care not what, which you never purpose to perform: that's the Devil's dealing. If you separate your word from your meaning, you separate your honesty from your conscience: It is the common sin that follows buying and selling; God be merciful to you, your ●ords fall from you like leaves in Autumn, the owner cares not which way the wind blows them. The first thing that you break is your word, and many times the whole estate breaks after it. David asks, who shall dwell in the holy tabernacle of the most High, and he answers three times in that Psalm, they that are just and faithful in their sayings; he that speaks the truth from his heart, v. 2. he that hath used no deceit in his tongue, v. 3. he that sweareth to his neighbour, and disappointeth him not, though it were to his own hindrance, v. 5. David desired to know by some sign whether he should come into the presence of Saul, or fly from him. Why Jonathan kept his word with David: Jonathan desired that David would be merciful to his Posterity after him, David swore unto him, and kept his word with Jonathan. But be you just in your promises to your brother, and God will make good unto you the promise of eternal life: the Lord is faithful in all his sayings, and holy in all his works.  
The next collection from hence shall be this, that the Devil would not offer less than all he had to win a Soul: he would not offer a trifle for that which he knew was the most precious thing upon earth. And it is a little excuse, though far from a good answer, when a man is fetched into a sin for a great bewitching recompense: pretio octuplicis stipendii illectus, as that famous Renego pleaded for himself, that he was enticed back to the Church of Rome, with a stipend eight times greater than he had in England; but to be enticed from our heavenly Father, like a Child with toys of no estimation, it accuseth us that we do not value our own soul at so good a rate as the Devil doth. What a narrow mean reward was that for which the lying Prophets did change the service of God? Ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley, and for pieces of bread, Ezek. xiii. 19 What will you give me, says Judas, and I will betray him? And you do not find that he did drive the Market with the Priests and Elders, but took the first sum that they appointed him. 
De passion. Dom. Serm. 9  Anima lucri cupida etiam pro exiguo perire non metuit, says Leo. A greedy covetous mind will damn both body and soul for a little money. What could Esau have taken less than a mess of pottage, especially made of lentils; the meanest pittance of relief that a beggar looks for at every door? and what had Esau in this world to exchange for it so precious and valuable as his Birthright? the Law shows the dignity thereof, that all the firstborn were peculiarly consecrated and given unto God, Exod. xxii. 
Gen. xlix. 3. Deut. xxi. 17.  29. they were next in honour to their Parents; they had a double portion of their Father's goods. Until the Law was given the firstborn administered the Priesthood in the Family, that was a sacred thing: and yet more sacred, he was a type of Christ, for Christ is called the firstborn among many brethren, Rom. viij. 29. Moreover and above, it was a type of our adoption, and being heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven. See what a vile exchange Esau did make for all this heavenly dignity, that the Holy Ghost for good cause calls him a profane person, who for one meals meat (and for such a course meal) sold his birthright, Heb. xii. 16. If we will prostitute ourselves so cheaply to the Prince of darkness, and ask less than for shame he can offer, to put ourselves into the bondage of iniquity: mark what will follow, the Lord will debase us, as we have debased ourselves; 
Psal. xliv. 3.  thou sellest thy people for nought, and takest no money for them, says the sweet Singer of Israel: or as Moses told the Israelites, if they sold themselves to commit iniquity, they should be sold for slaves, and no man would buy them, Deut. xxviii. 68  
But for all this, I must give you to know in my next admonition, though Satan offered all that is in this world, yet he did not offer enough for that which he would gain, namely to win a soul: every thing under the Sun comes short of that appretiation; much more in this case it is to be considered, that if our Lord Jesus could have been supplanted (which was impossible) all mankind had perished: for upon his righteousness, and upon his perfect obedience did depend our Crown and our Salvation: if therefore one soul is worth the whole world and more, what could be valued against all the souls in the world? But I will instance upon this for our use; there is nothing so valuable that should bribe a man to commit the least sin against our Heavenly Father. You will smile at the Indian Savages, that part with gold, and spices, and amber, for glass beads, and saffron brouches; yet whosoever sins for the mammons of iniquity, barters for a far more unequal merchandise; you change immortality for death, eternal joy for continual care, a certain treasure for uncertain riches, the most happy fruition of the Creator for less than the felicity of a dream: aut transeunt nobis viventibus, 
Angust. de Tempor. Ser. 50.  aut dimittuntur nobis dormientibus; the living may lose all they have got by injustice, but for certain the dead cannot keep it. What is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? Luke ix. 25. if he lose himself, the word following is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the vulgar read it, detrimentum sui faciat: from whence a good Expositor says, 
Toletus.  there is no comparison in the purchasing of earthly things: non solùm cum damnatione aeternâ, sed etiam cum jacturâ gratiae Dei, though damnation and hell fire were not incurred, to suffer the loss of the Holy Spirit, and of the Grace of God. Wherefore all that Satan could show, and let him show as many worlds as Alexander could wish, all is not worth such a cringe as he would have the Son of God to make, to bow down, and commit Idolatry. We read of one Apostle so abounding in charity to his own Nation, that he could be content to lose his part of heaven, cupio anathema esse pro fratribus; it was St. Paul who was willing to be anathema for his brethren, that God might be glorified in all the people of Israel, but he would not exchange the least degree of his sanctity, and faith in Christ for all the muck in the world. Joseph had rather lose that was comfortable to him in this life, liberty, good name; yea the garments from his back then be defiled with lust. I have no instance fit to come after that of Moses, Hebr. xi. 24. who by faith refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Philo says of him, that Thermut the only child and daughter of Pharaoh, being long married, and quite barren, wanting issue to succeed, feigned herself big, and at last to be delivered of Moses, whom she found in an ark of bulrushes exposed to be drowned, him she brought up for her adopted child, to inherit all the Kingdoms of Egypt. But because Idolatry reigned in that place, he could not worship the Lord there with pure and undefiled service, he wandered away from this regal fortune to keep sheep in the Wilderness. O most magnanimous servant of God, that had rather keep sheep with a pure conscience, than be a King among Idolaters! for how much wiser is it to purchase eternal felicity with a little misery, than to heap up eternal misery by enjoying a little felicity. There are things to come far more precious than these which the tempter extols: but alas he did offer nothing to speak of to countervail the loss of a soul, when he mouthed these words as a donative which could not be refused, all these things will I give thee.  
Finally, to go but one deliberation further, though Satan was incredulous, and would not be persuaded, that Christ was the eternal Son of God consubstantial with the Father, that had taken our flesh in the Virgin's womb to redeem us, yet he could not but observe how holy and zealous He was in all his ways, endowed with sanctity beyond all the Prophets that ever lived, therefore this Tentation must needs be ill placed, and most unseasonable: for God is all manner of riches to those that serve him unfeignedly, 
In Psal. cxxii.  and with an upright heart: Plenitudo deliciarum, & sufficientia divitiarum Deus est, no strong line, but a sweet and most emphatical meditation of St. Augustine's. Where God abides, there goes with him the alacrity of all delight, and the inheritance of all riches. Where was St. Paul's Exchequer think you? in what corner of the world did his rents lie? that he wrote to the Philippians, I have all, and abound, Philip, iv. 18. Satan cannot be so shameless to offer any thing to him that hath all already: there's work for an Auditor, let him cast up those sums if he can, and make them even, 2 Cor. vi. 10. as having nothing, and yet possessing all things; such Apostolical spirits (those few that are) measure themselves wealthy, not by the weight of silver and gold, but by the grace of God which inhabits in them, and doth enable them to refuse more than Satan can pretend to give. There was somewhat else which St. Peter looked for that was not in the Inventory of all this baggage, which the tempter would impart to Christ; these are his words: Lo we have left all, and followed thee, what shall we have? Mark. x. 28. this is odd, you will say, to leave all, and then to fall a demanding, and looking for more: but first he looked for the promise of the coming of the Holy Ghost, which David prayed for; Incline my heart unto thy law, and not to covetousness: rather a dram of virtue, than a talon of fortune. Secondly he looked for the glorification of body and soul, where Satan shall no more stand at our right hand to tempt us, where the spirit shall be ready, and the flesh as willing to fall down and worship the Lord for evermore. Amen.   

THE SIXTEENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviour's Tentation.  MAT. iv. 9 
All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.  St. Luke more largely renders it thus, chap. iv. 6. 
All this power Will I give thee, and the glory of them; for that is delivered unto me, and to whom soever I will give it: if thou therefore Wilt Worship me all shall be thine.  
YOU heard before what vast sums of wealth the great Prince of the riches of this World did commend out of his most abundant, but deceitful liberality to our Saviour: all these things will I give thee. Solomon had a mighty Tribute, 666 talents of gold yearly, and silver as the stones of the street: all his vessels were of pure gold, silver was not anything accounted of in the days of Solomon. Yet the whole revenue of Solomon was but beggary to those come in which Satan promised in this place, haec omnia, whatsoever the globe of the earth contains without exception, or deduction. But as if the Tempter would exceed himself, and rise above all expectation, his mouth speaks greater things by far in that which follows now to be handled, than in those particulars which I opened before, for he will engage to make our Saviour Lord of all the Kingdoms in the World, all this power will I give thee, and the glory of them, he should have that into the bargain. Pompey the great, saith Livy, made the Romans Lords of so much land by his successful victories, that unless he had taken so many captives, as he did, the land could not have been tilled and occupied: and again he made them Lords of so many captives, that unless he had seized upon so much land, the captives could not have been received and harboured. So the Devil offered our Saviour so much wealth, that unless he had promised to give him all the honour of the world, it could not have been spent; and again he offered him so much honour, that unless he had promised him all the wealth in the world it could not have been maintained.  
But what will all this come to? here's a shower of wealth and glory poured down, what thunderbolt comes after it? timeo Daneos, & dona ferentes, shut the gift out of doors till ye know the condition, why it should be received: a wise man will be as careful lest any thing should be basely given him, as he will be circumspect that nothing be unjustly taken from him: for many times the intent of pernicious liberality is to make a man incur the foulest sins in the world to avoid ingratitude. The woman had a cup of gold in her hand, but it was full of abomination, Rev. 17.14. so the purpose of this great gift is to take the Devil's Dam with a Dowry, to be raised up on high above all the Dominions of the Earth, ut lapsu graviore ruat, then to fall down from that height, and to commit Idolatry. What were the several particulars which I charged upon the whole Text the last time, it will be fit for me to repeat, and for you to hear. First, wherein the forcible enticement of this last Tentation consists in giving a speeding word I told you, and very provocative, dabo I will give thee. Secondly what, and how much he would give, and that's twofold: First, as a Mammon of iniquity, all riches and possessions that the eye could see, and, as a Lucifer of pride, the power of all the Kingdoms of the World, and the glory of them. Thirdly, he shows Christ his evidences, quo jure, by what right and authority he can make over all this unto him, in those words for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will give it. Fourthly and lastly, every bait hath his hook under it, this promise hath a most impious condition annexed unto it, if Christ will fall down and worship him.  
I have spoken of the former part of the gift which this insolent Braggart made ostentation to bestow, he would put all the riches of the world into one donative, and confer it upon our Saviour. I will look back no farther upon that which I have delivered already: but the other half of his gift, to which now I must proceed, smells more rank of boasting; for if it please you, he will turn all the Kingdoms of the world into one Monarchy, and settle it upon Christ, all this power will I give thee, and the glory of them. This will bring his ends to pass indeed, or nothing: he that will not be bought with honours, no not with great advancements, no not with Princely Royalties to swarve from righteousness, you may turn him lose against all the enticements of Hell, for a Christian that is unvanquishable. But the Tempter hath sound out by long experience, that such pure matter is rarely to be found in the dross of this world: he sees that men do seldom deny him any thing, if he can accomplish the desires of their aspiring thoughts: He makes good bargains of his petty promotions, how much more of his greatest? There are enough, and too many, that for a little command, a vulgar title, for a mean remove will turn their backs to God, and their faces to Satan. There are undergrowing ambitions, which shall not need to be carried to the top of a mountain, and have Kingdoms shown unto them; let them be lifted but to the lowest Steeple in a Diocese, and they will commit Simony, and forswear it: To be a Ruler over thousands will shake an ambitious man's honesty very far to compass it, nay to be a Ruler over ten, which is the lag end of all honour, some will violate their conscience rather than go without it: what if it were to be but Doeg, the chief Herdsman of Saul, to have the greatest superiority over beasts; Why Doeg was both a promoter and a bloodsucker for that contemptible promotion. The twelve Disciples, Christ himself walking just before them, fell out among themselves into hot words and contention, quis esset major, which of them should be the greater. If one had been the greatest, as in very good sense they were all equal, what should he have got by it? to be the chief over eleven, that had left all, and were worth nothing. If the Tempter be aware of this, as our infirmities are not hid from him, that men will tread virtue under foot, to crawl up to a petty advancement, than he would easily think this provocation in my Text were irresistible; all this power and glory will I give thee, and all the Kingdoms of the world.  
If Balaac will say to some, I will promote you to great honour, as he did to Balaam, all the Angels of heaven should not hinder them from going to it: ambitious persons will break through the hedge of all honesty for a title of high preeminence, and when their indirect courses carry them down to the deep, their fancy flatters them, that they go up like Elias in a whirlwind to heaven. There was nothing hanging with Christ upon his Cross, except a title over his head, Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews. And why a great title crucified with him? though he deserved that Inscription, and a far greater than Pilate or all the world could invent, yet above all the sins of men, ambition, and great titles, which too often are obtained by crooked courses, they deserve to be crucified. Man's thoughts fly upward like the sparks from the fire. Core and Dathan cannot endure to be less than the greatest. Every man would be a Moses in the Commonwealth, every man an Aaron in the Church. Brethren forget brethren in way of Sovereignty, as Joseph's brethren did consent to kill him, or sell him away, rather than bow unto him. Absalon, a Son and Subject, abjures his duty to his Father, and his Prince. Athaliah defrauds her own child, to get the supreme authority in her own hand. This struggling for greatness, especially for a Crown and Sceptre, hath occasioned more iniquity, more flagrant sins, than any one storm that ever was raised. Si violandum est jus, regni causâ violandum, says C. Caesar: he would do no body wrong for less than to gain a Kingdom: but he thought it impossible for a man to temper himself in that tentation, that had opportunity.  
And why should the appetite of supreme honour bewitch a man sooner than any thing else from the fear of God, and draw him from it? because power and glory are two such specious and attractive things, which are intrinsecal to the dignity of Princes: and Satan, I warrant you, did not forget to cast those two words in Christ's way, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them. There is power in Princes as well to advance where they like, as to punish offenders; and reason good they should be served with all humble reverence, and have the highest glory on earth ascribed unto them, because they are set over us for our good to maintain public peace and true religion. The power which Pharaoh had, oh how it pleaseth an haughty spirit! he tells Joseph what he would do for him in this phrase, without thee shall no man lift up his hand, or his foot in all Egypt, Gen. xli. 44. or that majestical terror which Nebuchadonosor put upon all that were under him, nothing more greedily sought for. Says Daniel to Belsbazzar, The most high God gave Nebuchadonosor thy Father a Kingdom, and glory, and honour: whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive; whom he would he set up, and whom he would he put down, Dan. v. 19 Satan knew that to manage such power as this is a whetstone able to set akeen edge upon any mortal appetite. But if any one love to govern with a soft hand, and affect not the execution of that awful power, to put terror upon inferiors, yet the glory with which Sovereignty is bespangled, will rob a man of his heart, and steal it from him. Who would refuse to be a Solomon? his Palace was beyond all buildings; his Throne so costly, 
1 King. x. 20.  that there was not the like made in any Kingdom: the Meat of his Table, the Attendance of his Ministers, and their Apparel, the Queen of Sheba had never seen or heard of the like. Such pomp as this would make a man believe he had built his nest in the stars. Satan thought his tentation struck home, when he promised such glory as this unto our Saviour. How much more was this motion most persuasive when he beleaguered him with this offer, to pluck the fairest feather out of every Monarchy, and invest him with it? where there was any power, or any glory fit for his wish, it should be cast upon him. David had a Kingdom of much power, yet of little glory; for his reign was full of trouble and rebellion. Hezekiah had a Kingdom of much glory; great treasures, great magnificence in his house; yet it was of small power, for he was an Homager and a Tributary to the King of Assyria; and he sent him word, 
2 Ki. xviii. 14.  that which thou puttest upon me I will bear. But the Tempter says, none of these defects should trouble Christ, he would cull out for him all the choice and desirable things, the power and the glory: as the Poet said of his Stilicho, the good things which were scattered and divided in many hands, in te juncta fluent, they should all meet in him, as in their centre.  
Though the spider's web be made on the top of the house, yet it is quickly swept away: so all ambitious thoughts which scale up upon the Devil's ladder are quickly dismounted, if you will remember, that no man can subsist on high who hath the plummet of iniquity to weigh him down: though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung, he shall fly away as a dream, yea he shall be chased away as a vision of the night, Job. xx. 8. When Herod sat in his Majesty, but was exalted against God in the pride of his heart, an Owl presented itself before him on the top of his Throne, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Homer calls it, 
Iliad. ω.  a bird of fatal prediction, and Herod himself took it for a presage of some sudden and miserable death; and so it came to pass. Methinks every one that hath hoist himself into advancement by impiety, should often see some such dismal Owl before him, an infallible presager of great misfortune; for God will be glorified in their ruin, that did not account his service before all things to be their glory, and the glory of the world. O what an happy thing it is, when God shall call a dignified and an honourable person his friend! as it is in the Parable, friend set up higher: but I will never clamber up by base and sinful arts, that God shall say, art thou ascended higher O mine enemy? God hath taught us to pray, My will be done, and mine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory: in the Devil's Academy the lesson goes thus, worship me, and let my will be done, and thine shall be the Kingdom, the power, and the glory. Satan cares not to whom he passeth away that Doxology, that chain of praise and honour, which belongeth to God, Kingdom, power, and glory; for he pointed to the Kingdoms of the world, they were included in the gift, and said, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them, as who should say, if Christ would make a God of him, he would make a God of Christ: ka me and ka thee: fall down and worship me, as if I were a God upon earth, and thou shalt have Kingdom, power, and glory, as if thou were't God in heaven. This Satan spoke not of himself, but like Caiaphas, he prophesied he knew not what. I must not forget where one good turn hath deserved another, much after this example. The Conclave of Cardinals, that know the Pope to be justly no more than a Bishop of one Diocese in Italy, enstile him above Caesar, and all free Monarches that are anointed Kings: and the Pope to requite it, knowing the Cardinals in their original to be but Parish-Priests of Rome, hath given them precedency above all Princes, mulus mulum scabit. This is my Text directly borrowed to make that match, if you will fall down and worship me, ye shall have power and glory.  
But to return: Get thee hence Satan, says our Saviour in the next verse, or as He chides in St. Luke, Get thee behind me Satan: He is behind all the servants of God, in many degrees worse than the meanest Christian: it cannot be in the capacity of such an underling to be the Patron of honour: Medice cura teipsum; why doth he not recover the glory which himself hath lost, if he be an advancer? beside, such an ambitious spirit, if he had any thing to give, would never part with his Royalty; or if he had ends to communicate and impart, for certain he would pass over David, Hezekiah, Josiah, that broke down Groves and Images, and used all hostility against his Idols. Away with such a giver. He that seeketh honour and a blessing with it, let him seek it of the Lord, and look upon himself with that comfort that David did, when God had brought him from following the Ewes great with young, to set him with the Princes of his People; David sings it merrily, Psal. iii 3. Thou art my worship, and the lifter up of my head. As for Simon Magus that grew great with Nero by Sorcery; 
2 King. xuj.  and Vrijah the Priest, who won King Ahaz favour for profaning the Altar of the Lord, and Rhehoboams young Courtiers that swayed all by flattery, and giving evil counsel; every dignity that such men get shall be an evil destiny unto them; for God is a jealous God, and will deface that Coat of honour, where the Devil was the Herald, that sold it for iniquity. And whereas the wickedly advanced takes it upon Satan's word, that power and glory shall be the supporters of his Escutcheon, it shall be much otherwise in the proof. Is it power they look for? God wot it shall be thraldom. Falsam spondet potentiam. Qui facit peccatum servus est peccati, says St. Austin. There is no such servitude in the world as to be sold over to sin; and his servants ye are to whom you obey. Is it glory they hunt for? but it will fall out to be their description which the Apostle makes to the Philippians, whose glory is their shame: Either their memorial shall perish with them, or their infamy shall be depainted in some better history to after ages. To conclude this point, stop your ears at such promises as kingdom, and power, and glory, and pay such sacrifices of praise to him that owes them. I will magnify thee O Lord my King, said David, Psal. cxlv. and at the 12 verse, he speaks it open, that thy power, thy glory, and mightiness of thy Kingdom might be known unto men.  
Thus far I have proceeded to show, that promotion, especially to the noblest, honours, to power and glory, is a fiery dart so dangerous to speed, that Satan seldom casts it in vain. Then imagine how far he hoped to prevail, when he drew his arrow to the head, and solicited Christ with the promise of all the Kingdoms of the world? All this power will I give thee, and all the glory of them. A magnanimous lie, and he that would study for such a thing could not tell a louder. Though by prestigiation, or some hidden art, he could show all the Kingdoms of the world in the twinkling of an eye, yet it is not so easy a task, with his leave, to give all the Kingdoms of the world in the twinkling of an eye: he must have a strong stomach, and a most robustious belief, that could concoct this opinion, that all the Rulers of the earth, even the mighty Roman Monarches, the greatest of all Princes in that age, would submit their Crowns, and take law from another at the first ask, and never draw sword for it, nor give battle to resist it. It was a short Motto which Pompey gave touching his speedy victories in Asia, yet the work was longer a doing than so; Veni, vidi, vici, he came towards them, and looked them in the face, and vanquished them. Yet Satan pretended to make briefer work than this Motto; execrable spirit, he dares to assume that which is proper to the Almighty, to speak the word, and the whole World should have a new face of government; and that he could remove Kings, as Christ said his Disciples by faith should remove mountains, be thou cast into the sea, and it should be gone. Perhaps he remembers how suddenly himself was deposed from glory; I saw Satan fall like lightning, says our Saviour, which flasheth through the air, and is out before you could think of it: and when God pleaseth all the Kingdoms of the Earth shall have as sudden a transmutation, when he shall come in glory, and take all power and dominion into his own hand, to judge both the quick and the dead. But in the mean time the Thrones of Kings are established in Heaven, the powers that are they are from God, and it is not in the strength of Satan to confuse those Governments which God hath put in order; therefore he is a liar with an hyperbole of impudency, to say, all this power will I give thee, etc.  
Yet by these words Ambition is accused to be an unstinted sin, for why should Satan offer all, but that he knows it to be an unlimited passion, which is not satiated with one Crown, but would subject every corner of the world unto itself. The Sun can endure the Moon to partake with it in giving light unto the earth, the Sun to govern the Day, and the Moon to govern the Night, but amongst these proud imperious Spirits, some can endure no Superior, and some no equal. Every one that is not their Vassal is held their Enemy. Fire is a raging Element, and would turn all other Elements into itself if God should not temper and assuage it: So if God should not raise up Adversaries to oppose some men's Ambition, they would bruise the four quarters of the world with a rod of Iron. Is it not enough to write this word under a terrestrial Sphere for an Empreza of large Dominions? Sol mihi semper lucet, it is always day in some of his Realms, if the Sun set in one of his Kingdoms, it is shining in another; Is not this enough I say? But further to betray a mind that aims at all, these Letters were engraven upon a Gate at Rome at a solemn time of Triumph, Vnus Deus, unus Papa, unus rex catholicus. I will not interpret them out of Latin, for I hope they shall never be turned into English; I think if God should create a new earth, which never was made before, some would lay claim to it. As Fr. Victoria, and sundry other Divines stretched their learning to prove it out of the Gospel that the whole Tract of America, possessed before by millions of Owners, but newly discovered to Europe, did every whit belong to the King their Master. The cares, the anxieties, the watchings that a good Ruler suffers, to keep a small part of the earth, which God hath given him, in Justice, and the love of true Religion: The Eagerness, the Fury, the Frenzy that the Ambitious hath to clasp and compass all that God hath made here beneath, which is more wide and ample by far than it is possible for one man's forecast and providence to keep in order. None shall be more willing than Satan to make one man Lord of all, for that is the ready way to mar all: And when that enemy of our peace hath stolen away our content, he cares, not what we compass, though it were all the power and glory in the world; for without it we shall seem losers to ourselves, and such as are always wanting. When Eve was Lady and Mistress of the whole world without a Competitor, yet because there was a Godship higher than that estate she was not satisfied with her portion, but would try conclusions to be like unto God knowing good and evil. But to contract this Point, I give it this minatory farewell: He that extends his Ambition to get all power and all glory, he that knows no top in that honour that he would mount to, shall be cast down into misery that hath no bottom, into the bottomless pit.  
It is but late that I told you in a former Sermon upon this Text, that when the Tempter made an overture to Christ of all the Riches in the Universe, that the gift was not more spacious than unjust: for it cannot be supposed how one man should be seized of all that is in the world by his proper right, but by ejecting all Possessors in the world, and respectively every private man, from that Inheritance which he held before. And that the wicked one may be constant to himself, at all times alike stark naught, he deals worse in this half of his liberality than in the former; for if he intent to make Christ the Catholic Monarch of the world, and give him all the power and glory of it, it must need fall in that all the Kings and Princes of the world must be deposed from their Sovereignty, and strike sail to the new erected. A discovery not to be passed in silence; It hath been defended by many Pens of late, that Gregory the Seventh was the first that ever broached the Doctrine and Practice together, that the Anointed of the Lord might be unking'd, and stripped of all their Royalty by the effulminations of the Romans Pontife. Lo you now that the learned of the Protestants should be so much over-seen in Antiquity, for here is a Classical Author in my Text that holds that opinion about a thousand years, a little over or under, before Hildebrand had his honour. For that Gregory the Seventh flourished much about a thousand years after Christ, that very time which the Spirit of God said should be fulfilled, and then Satan should be let loose after that one thousand years for a little season. But, as I said, Hildebrand was not the first broacher of that disloyal Paradox, here is his chief in my Text; and to confirm what I say, Matthew Paris, our own Historian of great fame, avers, that the said Pope at his death (which was in banishment) cried out of his own wicked ways, and treacherous Principles against his Lord the Emperor, and confessed that the Devil set him on to disturb the whole world with mutiny.  
Yet how little the Successors in the Papacy have profited by his repentance I will tell you by that which is disputed daily in the School of one Tyrannus, that I may allude to that of St. Luke, Acts nineteen 9 Those Dogmatists are divided three several ways: Some conscientious Romanists have taught that the Pope may not at all intermeddle with the disposition of earthly Kingdoms, either to restrain or depose Princes though tyrannical, or heretical, or blasphemous: Their conversion is to be zealously prayed for, in the mean time their yoke is to be born with patience, and we must kiss the scourge of God. The Sorbon Divines of Paris do generally carry this badge, and the Protestant Churches unanimously speak this Language. The second Tenent is that the Temporal Sovereignty of the whole world is inherent in the Office of Christ's Vicar, as they call him, to give, change, alter, or confirm the Titles of particular Princes, as his infallible judgement shall lead him. Let every brain that is not distempered judge what a Doctrine this is. Non sani esse hominis non sanus juret Orestes. The third Tenent which Cardinal Bellarmine and the Jesuitical Pack maintain, is a modification of the former. The Pope hath no temporal Sovereignty at all annexed by virtue of the Papacy; but Indirectè & in ordine ad spiritualia; indirectly, and to remove the impediments of the common good, especially of the Church, he might send to the people by his Briefs that they owe no subjection to a wicked King; that he could take off their Oath of Fealty, and free them from Perjury, that he hath power to excommunicate such Princes, and translate their Kingdoms from them to such as he shall adjudge to be more Catholic. Whether he will arm the Son against Father, the Brother against the Brother, a Rebel against his true King (all these have been done) why it lies In scrinio pectoris, he may collate the Dominions of such Princes on whom it liketh him. Pray you how much doth this opinion differ from the second? You may easily find, it is but white money turned into Gold, and comes all to one payment. For the Bishop of Rome is made the Judge himself when a Kingdom wants a fit Governor for the good of the Church, for the wholesome administration of Justice; since therefore all Regal Authority hangs upon Papal discretion, it comes all to one pass with that most impudent second opinion, which says, the Power and glory of the Kingdoms in the world are absolutely in his donation.  
It is no toying in so main a cause as this, which concerns the Crowns and Sceptres of all Sacred Princes therefore I will demonstrate that I plead against them according to the charge of their own Bill. Thus Baronius, to begin with him, who speaks his mind in these words for his holy Father, 
Annal. tom. an. 1074. Num. 56.  whom our Lord Jesus Christ the King of glory hath constituted a Prince over all the Kingdoms of the world. Augustinus Triumphus, All Power and Royalty is subdelegated from the Pope to other Princes. No man can give him any Sovereignty which he had not by right before. Nec Constantinus dedit quicquam Sylvestro, quod non prius erat suum, says he; The Canonists talk of Constantine's donation to Sylvester, giving him the temporal Principality of Romania, he gave him nothing but that which was his own before, that, and all beside, was St. Peter's Patrimony. And some of them stake Scripture to prove it, but most untowardly; as, that all power is from God, therefore all power Regal and Imperial from Christ's Vicar. Yet more sinistrously from those words, If I be lifted up I will draw all men after me; that is, if I had an Army strong enough I would recover all the Signories of the earth into mine own hand. Practice is a plainer Argument than Book-words; I will satisfy you then in that. Alexander the Sixth (a giver that will do but small credit to the gift) but such as he is, take him with all his faults, he bestowed the whole West-Indies upon Ferdinand King of Spain, Ex merâ liberalitate & motu proprio, as the Patent ran. Their own Histories say, that Athabaliba, King of Peru, maintained his Royalty by fight against that Grant till he was taken Prisoner in Battle, and then cried out, that Pope could have no virtue, or reverence to the God of heaven that gave away another man's Dominions from him: but I will bring the case home. That Bull which Pius the Fifth signed with his own Seal, wherein he excommunicated the most blessed Queen Elizabeth, hath this Line in it touching his own authority to use that incomparable Lady so unchristianly, Hunc unum super omnes gentes, & omnia regna principem constituit; God had constituted him over all Nations, and over all Kingdoms. O what vaulting spirits are these which run in the Veins of wretched man? This forgetful Prelate, grant him his own ask, from whence his original came, and it is from a most humble Apostle, whose actions being all of them recorded, not any one do lean toward Sovereignty or Principality: Yet his Successor in challenge exalted above all that is called God will be a parallel Line, and side with him in my Text, who makes nothing to dispose of all the Regal Dignities in the world, All this power will I give thee, etc.  
Let this be enough which I have said, to have been discoursed upon the immensity of that honour which Satan challenged to be in his Jurisdiction; I proceed to show upon whose shoulders he would be content to lay it, upon our Lord and Saviour, Tibi universam hanc potestatem. As for the thing itself, he wished that Christ had it in good earnest, I make no doubt of it, namely, that his fortune had been to be an earthly King, to be a Caesar Caesarum, the Conqueror of all the Dominions in the world, rather than such a one he suspected him for, that Messias that came to redeem his People, and to invite the Nations far and wide over all the earth to the fear of the Lord. Let him be all in all in a temporal Kingdom, rather than Saviour, that came to erect the spiritual Kingdom of faith, to the subversion of the powers of darkness. Conceive now unto yourselves as if he had spoken more largely on this wise, to Christ: I find you hungry and forlorn in this Wilderness, neither train to attend you, nor food to cherish you. Alas that such a one as you should be thus negglected 'tis pity; you are not honoured enough according to the great gifts of sanctity that are in you. Why, you are worthy to be Lord of the whole world, if promotions went by desert. And will you live in Famine, and Scorn, and Humility, and at last be crowned with thorns, and crucified? Nay, follow my directions, and you shall be crowned with Gold, and sway the whole Universe with a Sceptre, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them. It came to pass with our Saviour after this Proposition as it befell chaste Joseph in the house of Potiphar: He would not be incontinent, yet upon defamation of incontinency he was clapped up in Irons: So Christ would no such Kingdom as Satan offered, yet upon suspicion that he went about to make himself a King, his death was contrived, and his accusation laid before Pilate, he that maketh himself a King is not Caesar's friend. I have often both read it, and seen it, that Pride, Vainglory, Faction, and I know not what, have been laid to the charge of the Innocent by some uncharitable mouths, who have spread it so far, that for all their innocency they could never wipe off the stain: Many times the more they decline those crimes, the more occasion is taken to accuse them. Every thing that Paul could say, or do to purge himself, wrought him envy and misreport, that he was turbulent, and a mover of sedition. He could never shake it off with all his meekness and modesty. Well, if mischief and defamation must have their course, the remedy is easy, though it be desperate, commend your innocency to God. The Lord of life himself was haunted with a wrong opinion, from the time that Satan made this motion to his death, that he had a purpose to be a Monarch, and to display his Banner against Cesar in the quarrel of the Jews for their ancient liberty. The people would have made him a King, Joh. vi, and he hid himself out of the way; yet that would not acquit him; his very Disciples not seldom, but even till after his Resurrection, till they saw him taken away to heaven, looked for honourable command, and superiority under him. It cost the sweet Babes of Bethlem their lives that the Wisemen of the East called him a King. It lost him his own life (as I touched upon it before) that the children of Jerusalem entertained him with that acclamation, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord, Luk. nineteen. 38.  
That question was and is scandalous to the Jews, was and is a stumbling-block to some Gentiles, what manner of Kingdom belonged to Christ as he was man. Before ever the Magis of the East said, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? The Angel upon the first tidings of his Incarnation told the blessed Virgin his Mother, The Lord shall give unto him the Throne of his Father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his Kingdom there shall be no end, Luk. i. 32. From hence some Papalins (whom I formerly refuted) style him a Temporal King, who bequeathed all his Dominions to his chief Apostle St. Peter, and he to one that is his Successor, if it please God, in all but his Sanctity. Then the perfidious Jews object, since the Prophets say, that the Messias shall be a King, and sit upon the Throne of David, the Messias is not yet come, because Christ did not triumph and exercise Lordly authority upon the Throne of David. To draw out truth against both these at once like a two edged Sword, I lay down these three things: 1. That neither the Prophets, nor St. Luke do teach that Christ had a Temporal Kingdom. 2. That he had Dominion given to him by his Father over all earthly things, but not by way of ruling all things like a King in his Kingdom. 3. In most proper and safe construction we must say, his was a spiritual Kingdom.  
I will be brief in all these, especially in the former: To make much ado that Christ had no temporal Kingdom, were to light a Candle at Noonday. The case is clear; for I hope we will believe him rather than his enemies. These are his words, Joh. xviii. 36. My Kingdom is not of this world, if it were, my servants would fight for me, that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but my Kingdom is not from hence. He meant, say some Papalins, that the world gave him no Kingdom, neither chose him a King, yet he doth not deny but he received an earthly Kingdom from God. A most empty Objection: For Pilate sat his Judge to examine if he made himself a King to injure Cesar. The same Pilate liked his answer so well, that he told the Jews he found no fault with him: But would Pilate have put it up, if he had answered no better? That he claimed a Kingdom indeed by a right and title derived from heaven, frivolous, and the Cavil of the Jews comes to nothing, that God would set the Messias upon the Seat of his Father David. Stretch not the Phrase too far, and the meaning is: 1. The Messias should come out of David's Loins. 2. And be a King as David was. 3. Not after that way, an earthly Potentate, but after a more noble, glorious, perfect way than ever David governed. And I pray you how could it be, that he should be a King over Judah and Israel as David was, when that Kingdom was taken away from David's house before Christ was born; and a Prophesy denounced it should never return to that house again. So it was foretold to Jeconiah, Jer. xxii. 30. Write this man barren, there shall be no man of his Seed to sit upon the Throne of David, and to have power any more in Judah. In a word, Scripture elsewhere shows, that to sit upon David's Seat, was to have the Jews subject unto him, not after a carnal way, but to be worshipped of them in spirit, and to enjoin them to keep his Laws and Commandments for their salvation. So it is, Hos. iii 5. They shall seek the Lord their God, and David their King, and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.  
Secondly, I said, Christ had Dominion given to him by his Father over all earthly things, but not by way of ruling all things like a King in his Kingdom, for by uniting the Humane Nature to the Godhead, through the admirable influence of that Hypostatical Union: So the very Manhood was made Lord over all things, according to those places, Mat. xi. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: And in these last days he spoke unto us by his Son, whom he made Heir of all things, Heb. i 2. And that you doubt not, how he had power over all things as being man united with God, he whose name was called the Word of God, had a name written on his thigh King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, Rev. nineteen. 16. Super femur; mark that, Upon his thigh, that is, upon his Humane Nature. Now this in him was of a more eminent and sublimed condition than all Regal Authority on the earth. It came to him the most glorious way that ever was, by the Hypostatical Union; not by Conquest, Inheritance, Election, Donation, or any earthly sort. 2. His power reacheth not only to command the outward actions, but the very thoughts and conscience. 3. He is over things sensible and insensible, Men and Angels, quick and dead, heaven and earth and the very Regions of darkness. 4. When men die their glory perisheth with them, but of this man's Kingdom it is often testified there is no end: Yea, after his death he rose again, and then began his Dominion to be most absolute by many exterior works. It was his pleasure oftentimes to exercise this power, and privilege, even while he debased himself in all humility. Did he not consent to the destruction of the Gadarens Swine, and curse the barren Figtree? Because his jurisdiction extended to any thing in the world. Did he not send for the Ass and the Colt with absolute command? saying no more, but the Lord hath need of them. Did he not charge the Soldiers to let his Disciples alone? And no man touched them. All these are Arguments of indefinite authority.  
But this Government, which is most ample, perfect, eternal, was not after a Regal way, as David and Solomon were Kings in Israel. It was not contrary to the Rulers of the earth, usurping any power, to thwart and control theirs, but a transcendent exaltation above them, and above all things visible and invisible, yet withal he was most obedient and subject unto them, paying Tribute unto Cesar, and meddling with no Humane Laws, to divide their Inheritance that were contentious. If he had professed himself an earthly King, it had hindered the work which he had in hand, to persuade men to the contempt of honour and glory: Yet having all power given him of his Father it argued the more humility, that he made himself subject to most vile men, therefore it is put into the Creed, that he suffered under Pontius Pilate, meaning that he took his death with patience under the authority of a most unjust Governor. 
Aug. Serm. 29. in Jo.  Therefore St. Austin endites these words as from our Saviour's mouth; Hear me Jews and Gentiles, hear me Circumcision and Uncircumcision, hear me all ye Judges of the world, Non impedio dominationem vestram in hôc mundo; Enjoy the Principalities of this world unto yourselves; I do not hinder them.  
In the third Conclusion I determined, how in most proper and safe construction we must say, that Christ's Kingdom was a spiritual Kingdom. I have set my King upon my holy hill of Zion, Psal. two. 6. The Psalm speaks of a spiritual Zion, as St. Austin notes, because it is termed an holy Zion, therefore it must be understood of a spiritual King. His Unction, was not that Celestial, and not Corporeal? With my holy oil have I anointed him, with the grace of Unction. Such as the Unction is, such must be the Kingdom, a spiritual Kingdom; His Priesthood was not carnal, such as Aaron's was; but spiritual, such as Melchisedeches was: Like as was his Priesthood, so was his Kingdom. Those whom God had given him, What were they? His Disciples, that never forsook him, those that were born again of the Spirit. His Subjects were Spiritual, therefore his Kingdom could not be Terrestrial. The Law of Moses was carnal, so it was esteemed imperfect, and is disannulled; the Law of Christ, which is set up instead of it, is the Gospel, which prescribes a reasonable and an holy service: Where the Law of Christ is spiritual, his Kingdom must needs be within us, it is a Ghostly Kingdom. Finally, all the good things thereof concern the Spirit, grace, peace of conscience, remission of sins and eternal life. Says Fulgentius, 
Serm. de Epiphan.  the Gold which the wise men of the East offered him in his Cradle showed him to be a King, but not such a King as will have his Image and Superscription in the Coin, but such a one as seeketh his Image in the hearts of the Sons of men. After the Angel had said, The Lord would give him the Throne of his Father David. Mark how divinely the words are qualified in the next verse, And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his Kingdom there shall be no end. He shall reign, and did reign here, not in regno sed in domo, in no Monarchy, but in a Family, in the house of Jacob, that is, in the household of the Faithful; for alas they are but a Family to the potent multitudes of Unbelievers. One question before I shut up the Point. Christ was promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Principally to Abraham. What means the Angel then to omit Abraham and Isaac, and to speak of one and no more, that he shall reign in the house of Jacob? Why, the house of Abraham had Ishmael as well as Isaac, but Ishmael was the Seed of the bondwoman, which figured those that pertained not to the freedom of the Spirit. The house of Isaac had Esau as well as Jacob, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated. He reigned not in all the house of Isaac. But all the twelve Sons of Jacob were Circumcised, all blessed, all represented the Church, all heirs of the Promise; and because Christ's Kingdom was totally spiritual in the Faithful and Elect; the Angel very properly delivered his Errand, that He should reign in the house of Jacob.  
This last part of my Sermon was very necessary to be insisted upon, that our Lord Christ invested himself with no such honour as Satan tendered to him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them. Yet he had a Kingly Office, adjoined both with Priestly and Prophetical Offices. Those are holy Functions, the Devil likes not them, he never spoke of them. Nay, let us have the Priesthood to serve God, or let us take nothing without it. St. Peter tells us, we shall be Regale Sacerdotium, a Royal Priesthood. We shall have a Kingdom and a Priesthood combined together, far exceeding all the power and glory which mortal men do manage. Run fervently to the end of the Race, and you shall have the prize. Deus vult omnes suos athletas coronari, says St. Hierom, God will have all that try Masteries for his sake receive the Laurel, and the Crown of Victory. Every Saint hath his Kingdom, who is clothed with immortality, and honour to live with the Lamb of God for evermore. But you will say, What, Abraham a King? Moses a King? Peter and Paul Kings? Where are the Nations which they govern? Where are their Subjects? Regnum est ubi nulli inimico subjicimur, non quia populus nobis subjicitur. A full answer, it is a Kingdom because all our enemies are trodden under our feet, not because any of the Blessed are Liege-men and Vassals unto other. In the fruition of that Kingdom a main part of the Sovereignty will be, that he shall be trodden under our feet, who is so impudent and audacious in my Text to offer all the Kingdoms in the world. God replenish us with the Kingdom of his grace in this life, and exalt us to his Kingdom of glory hereafter. AMEN.   

THE SEVENTEENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviour's Tentation.  MAT. iv. 9, 10. 
All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me.  
Then saith Jesus unto him, get thee hence Satan.  
OUR natural Philosophers say very truly, that a Serpent lays not her eggs one by one, but they come from her in a cluster, like a rope of beads, and hang one at another in a string. Satan deserves no better comparison than a Serpent; the sins which he suggests no better comparison than the eggs of the Serpent; and nothing can be truer than the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or application, that one sin is never hatched alone, especially if it be a great one, but it hath a train to follow it. God challenged his people that they had broken the bond of marriage between him and their soul, not with one adultery and no more, but the Prophet chargeth Jerusalem, fornicata es cum multis amatoribus, thou hast committed fornication with many lovers, that is with many sensual pleasures. Upon this consideration virtue is compared to salt (have salt in ourselves, says Christ to his Disciples) of which you cannot take up one corn alone upon your knife's point, but many grains will cleave together: and upon the same respect wickedness is compared to the sands of the sea, one mote is very rarely severed by itself; sand is a Noun Collective, which supposeth many motes of dust; for there is not any sin but respectively to divers parts of disobedience it may be called by divers names. David emplunged himself into many crimes, what with Bathsheba, what with Vriah, what with Joab, whom he made his evil instrument. Peter fell into three denials one after another. He that will praise the Lord as he ought, in the uprightness of his life, must honour him upon a ten-stringed Lute, upon all the Commandments; and he that wilfully fails in one instance will put every string out of tune; for he that committeth one sin is guilty of the whole law.  
These funiculi peccatorum, cords of vanity, sins entwisted one within another come into my mind from this third Tentation in my Text: 
Lib. de Pati●n. c. 11.  so that Tertullian is justified in his saying by this practice, multiplicia spiritus incitamenta jaculantis, the rebellious spirit hath more than one shaft for his bow, a quiver full at least, as it is Psal. xi. 2. For lo the ungodly bend their bow, and make ready their arrows within their quiver: For what sin hath not the Devil committed in these words, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me: furtum, perduellio, mendacium, blasphemia, they are all here in the height of their offence: Furtum, the largest theft that ever was committed, he would give all the substance in the world to Christ, but then he must rob the right owners. Perduellio, a most foul attempt of treason, he would give him all Kingdoms and honour; but then he must depose all just and lawful Princes. Mendacium, not a plain lie, but a very monster of untruth, as St. Luke hath it in large, for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will give it, Lastly, Blasphemia, a blasphemy that vies beyond all the rest, if thou therefore wilt worship me all shall be thine. Now I have added to make up my Text at this time, how easily God doth cut off all these heads of Hydra at once with his revenge and justice: for this short rebuke of Christ is enough to control the Devil with all his sins about him, Get thee hence Satan, or as St. Luke, Get thee behind me Satan. The words than which I have read amount to four parts, the Gift (which I have entirely dispatched,) the Giver, the Condition, the Repulse: The Gift furtum, both to rob private men of their peculiar, and Kings of their Royalty: The Giver mendacium, a lie without all shame, that all the honours of the world were at his dispose: The Condition blasphemia, he bargains that Christ should earn all this by falling down to worship him: But the Repulse is justitia, God's vindicative justice; Get thee hence Satan, words of anger and revenge, as I will show anon: but first I will disclose what a great giver Satan would make himself, All these things will I, etc.  
Twice, as it appears in the two former Tentations, the Devil used all his cunning to discover if Christ were the Son of God: and since our Saviour would not reveal what He was, Satan is the more bold to make himself the Son of God, as if he were that holy one to whom the Father had committed all power in Heaven and in Earth; All these things will I give thee. This will be the easiest way to sift this saying, wherein the wicked one usurps to himself that he advanceth to all honours, to consider what likelihood of truth there is in those words by accident, and secondly what great unlikelihood.  
Marvel not that I give it for a conclusion granted, that there is some colour and likelihood for Satan to say, this is delivered to me, and to whomsoever I will give it: for he is the Prince of the power of the air, that spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience, and whosoever is successful in promotion by iniquity, the Devil did sway the event so far, that he calls himself their Benefactor. Abimelech and Zimri got Kingdoms by treachery: Joab wrought himself into Abners honour to be Captain of King David's Host by murder: Jason and Menelaus in the book of Maccabees strove one against another for the High Priesthood by Simony: there are not so many names of honour as there are sins, crying sins, sins died in scarlet that have purchased them: The infelicity of it is so general, of such long continuance, and so desperate against all hope of redress, that Satan speaks as if he had forgot that this power was ever out of his hand. For upon the event, we may lament it, but cannot deny it, he brings the basest instruments into private favour with mighty men, he bestows offices, he presents to Churches: Difficile est Satyram non scribere, no abuse in the world will provoke a suffering spirit sooner than this, to be satirical: nostrâ miseriâ magnus factus es, we may be ashamed, and our ambition blush for it, that the most hateful of all God's creatures should have cause to boast, that all manner of dignities and titles depend on his beneficence: yet the world is not so bad, but that he is a shameless slanderer in that saying; far be it from us to number the righteous with the wicked, to bestain all dignified persons with an evil reproach, as he doth, to condemn all the worthies of David, that wickedness was their original, because sometimes Satan hath a predominant faction among them. He was a great Prince indeed in the Emperor Tiberius his Court, scarce any advancement escaped him, 
Tacit. lib. 4. Annal.  but went through his hands; ad Consulatum non nisi per Sejanum aditus, neque Sejani voluntas nisi scelere quaerebatur; Every one that would be Consul used Sejanus for his preferment, and every one that would have preferment, Sejanus used him for some criminous villainy. Thus the eloquence of the Historian exaggerates the naughtiness of the times: yet a little after, when things grew much worse, rather than mended, in the reign of Nero, Paul had many friends, and Christ had many faithful servants even in Caesar's Household.  
The Spirit of God in the holy Scripture doth but very rarely amplify the numbers of the Saints, nay rather it speaks of them with the least; many are called, but few are chosen: and fear not little flock, it is your father's pleasure to give you a Kingdom. But Satan thinks to have credit from his multitudes, and pretends to the whole retinue of them that have power and glory in the world, whereas divers carry the true virtue of nobility in their heart, as well as the title of nobility in their name, and owe no service to him. God doth permit the wicked sometimes elsewhere to reign for the sins of the people; his antecedent will is upon all men, especially upon the most renowned, that are next and immediately under him, Be ye holy as I am holy; but he permits Ahab and Manasses to take their turn in the Kingdom of Israel, to scourge the people for their sins, and therein the adversary prevails against God's velleity and complacency: now that inch which God gives, Satan calls it an ell, and boasts that all the Princes of the Earth do hold in fee of him. What, says he to Christ, do you think to sit upon the seat of your Father David by fasting and prayer, and by retiring for the discipline of your soul into the Wilderness? no, if you will rise, and be some great one, you must come to it by me, frame yourself to the fashion of the world; the disposing of all Royalties and Honours are delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will give them. Omne mendacium est in aliquo vero, (that's the ground of this first point which I handle) every falsehood leans upon some truth, that it may appear not to halt lamely, but to go upright. To that end doth the Tempter cog in this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for that is delivered unto me: fatetur tradentem, he doth acknowledge by that word, that there is one above him, who gives the Letters Patents of all honour and glory, he is only entrusted as a Minister to deliver it. Well, this will not serve his turn: like those conjuring Oracles, which abused the Heathen of old, which had always an ambiguous meaning; so the Devil in every proposition he makes, as in this particularly, hath some concealed aequivocation. This is delivered unto me: but by whom? let us discover his pol-foot, which he would conceal; not by God, he durst not belly his Maker so much, but by the custom and practice of the world, and custom is the strength and soul of a Law; we have corrupted the pure stream of honour with flattery, with gratuities, with slavish services, with Simony; they that bid for advancement by such crooked means trust the Devil to keep stakes, and if you will have them, you must ask him to deliver them. We have put the conveyance of many promotions into his power, by the sinful practice of ambition, as if he were our great Feoffee in trust, as King Darius in the story of Esdras yielded himself up, and all the power of his Majesty to Apame his Concubine; she might take his Crown from his head, and put it upon her own, and he waited her courtesy to receive it again. In such a sense it is true, Satan hath a great share of honours to bestow, but he received no such authority in God's name, as his words darkly conveyed do seem to challenge it, for that is delivered unto me, and unto whomsoever I will give it. Some there are that make this climax or gradation to cast another shadow of truth upon his meaning, Man was created Lord of the whole world, and God bestowed the dominion of all things upon him which this Globe of creatures contains; afterward by transgression man became the captive of sin and Satan, for his servants ye are to whom ye obey, that's Gospel: so that the Devil having Lordship over him, who was Lord of all, the whole world and the pomp thereof became to be his fee, in our title that were captivated to him. But I list not to stretch so many conclusions to make him speak truth, who was a liar from the beginning. This shall suffice for that deceitful likelihood of truth, which is in this motion: it will be more glory to God, and more benefit to ourselves to examine the unlikelyhood.  
The Devils Ministers have dared to contest with those Powers that were ordained of God: the contentious Hebrew asked Moses, Who made thee a Prince or a Judge? The Pharisees maundred at Christ, By what authority dost thou these things, and who gave thee this authority? and doth the Devil suppose it shall go unasked, when this imperial sway was put into his hands, to deliver all Kingdoms to whomsoever he will give them? Promotion, says the Psalmist cometh not per spiritum ventorum, it cometh neither from the East, nor from the West, nor from the South: no nor per spiritus infernorum, it ascends not up from the pit with the spirits of damnation; for why? God is Judge of the Earth, he setteth up one, and plucketh down another, Psal. lxxv. 6. This excessive claim of Satan, to impute unto himself that all Kings hold their Sceptres of him, calls his whole faith in question: that Charter cannot stand with Solomon's Verdict which he hath given upon that title, for thus he speaks for the Lord, Prov. viij. 15. By me King's reign, and Princes decree justice; by me Princes rule, and Nobles, even all the Judges of the earth. In true and exact propriety rendered: the learned in the original tongue render the word, not by me Kings reign, but in me Kings reign. God reigns in them as his Deputies, they reign in God as their Author and Authoriser: wherefore it is elegantly noted by one of our own Writers, that Melchisedech is the first King spoken of in Scripture, and he is brought in without Father, without Mother upon earth, to show that Kings are God's generation, who only his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, none can declare his Generation. St. Chrysostom says very well, that this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the especial dignity of Kingly estate, that it comes from God; and therefore Popes (who now assume most unchristianly, if not anti-christianly, to depose anointed Princes, and translate their Kingdoms to their enemies) they were wont to write to Kings with all lowliness of stile, wishing them health and long happiness in eo per quem Reges regnant, in him by whom Kings reign, that is in God, under whom in their own Dominions they are next and immediately supreme Governors. 
1 King. i 30.  David swore by the Lord unto Bathsheba, that Solomon his Son should reign in his stead: an Oath is the strongest proof of humane faith; so that by an Oath God and man have put it out of all doubt, that the Most High alone doth appoint who shall sit upon the Throne of David: but huic injurato crederem, we would sooner believe David, though he had not sworn, that the Power and Principality of Kings depends upon God, than Satan with all his promises and protestations, that he hath the Monopoly of Sceptres and Diadems at his command: All these things will I give thee.  
And before whom could he have told this tale, to be taken in a lie so soon, as by driving this bargain with Christ? as if a thief should steal Plate, and offer to sell it to the owner: or a Plagiary, filch a great deal out of a book, and rehearse it for his own before the Author; so the Tempter had robbed Christ of that Honour and Majesty which was most properly his own, (I mean he robbed him of it by the blasphemy, and falsehood of his tongue) and then brings it to Christ to barter it away for other merchandise: Autori quae autoris sunt repromittit: What theft more palpable than this? the Father gives all things by the Son, by him He made the worlds, by him He hears the prayers and supplications of the Church, by him He gives us health and salvation, by him He gives Rulers and Princes to go in and out before his People; and yet Satan intrudes, as if he were our Mediator in part at least in settling Thrones and Monarchies, he was the means for those things: and it was his hap, I say, the more to discredit his impudence, to tell this tale to our Saviour, from whom truly and indeed the Kings of the Earth do hold their Royalty: Vtrobique regnatur per Christum, he sets the Crown on their heads that wear them, both in this world, and in the world to come. Observe it, that He rides upon the white horse with many Crowns upon his head, Revel. nineteen. 12. This is a Vision, and this is the interpretation of it, that those that honour him He will honour, he settles the Royalty on whom He pleaseth; not one or two Kingdoms, and bequeatheth the rest to the fortune of war, to the free choice of popular elections; much less is any such good thing delivered up to our adversary the Devil. Christ had many Crowns on his head, for the whole earth shall stand in awe of him; he lifteth up whom he pleaseth, and setteth him with the Princes of his people. When Wisdom proclaimeth that of Solomon, which I laid for my first ground in this point, by me Kings reign, indefinitely it is to be understood of God, but restrictively of Christ the second person in Trinity; he is appropriatively the wisdom of the Father; he is meritoriously, and by way of an Impetrator, the conduit pipe of all benefits to high and low, rich and poor; therefore we endear all our prayers to God with this conclusion, per Christum Dominum nostrum, through Christ our Lord.  
But what dulness was in the Manichaeans to fall upon such Texts as this, and to build upon them, that the God of Heaven made all invisible blessings, and that Satan had divisum imperium cum Jove, he was Lord of all visible and material things? What? are any of these the sooner his, because he said they were delivered to him, and to whomsoever he would he gave them? Why, it was as cheap in his mouth, and he could have said it with the same labour that he could help whom he pleased to the Kingdom of Heaven. It is the Most High that ruleth in the Kingdom of men, and he appointeth over it whom he will, Dan. v. 21. The cause of preservation is the cause of constitution; God rules the hearts of the Subjects to obey, and gives them commandment for allegiance and fidelity; if any commotion be like to rise, the Lord stilleth the raging of the sea, and the madness of the people: from God is the power of sovereignty, and through his good spirit the duty of obedience: but Satan stirs up seditions, jealousies, and cross humours in people never to submit; therefore he plucks down the Kingdoms of the world, and obscures the glory of them: he is not the founder of order, but of confusion. O but says the Manichaean, if Satan have not the total managing of these Powers beneath, yet a share cannot be denied him. They that govern by tyranny and injustice, they that lift up themselves in their pride against heaven, shall we not yield that these are of his ordination? No, why the Prophet Hosea says chap. viij. 5. Ipsi regnaverunt, sed non ex me, they have set up Kings, but not by me, they have made Princes and I knew it not. In my opinion the literal and textual answer to that place is, that they chose unto themselves Heathen Idols, Gods of silver and gold, and forsook the Lord: Howsoever this distinction giveth unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and unto God that which is Gods. Regnaverunt non ex me quoad viam, sed quoad potestatem: that evil way which they chose to follow, that perverse manner by which they reigned and troubled all was not from God; but he gave power to Manasses, to Rehoboam, to Ahab, as well as unto David, unto Josiah, and to the best Kings that ruled with righteousness. Or as another limits it, a Deo bono sunt potestates, a malo Angelo potestatis ambitio; the Power on earth is Gods, the ambition to usurp that Power is the Devils: Take that which is thine Satan, and leave the rest to Christ. When occasion is given to speak of a wicked Magistrate, the Phrase is Hos. xiii. 11. I gave them a King in my anger, angry I was when I gave him, but I gave him though, and that which He gives, we must take it, and keep it, be it scourge, be it blessing: it is most foul rebellion to say the Lord shall not fasten evil upon us, we will not keep that which the Lord hath given us. And so much for the claim of the Giver in my Text, whom we have found to have no right or title to deliver unto any one the Kingdoms of the World, and the glory of them. Indefinitely all King's reign by Christ, good and bad, but the justice of the good more peculiarly is from the grace of God, the tyranny and ambition of the worst is from the suggestion of Satan; and nothing about them is his but that which is worse than nothing, the iniquity of Princes.  
Now I proceed: The gift was furtum, theft in the highest degree; that which he proffered was not his to bestow: the giver mendacium, he falsified his evidencies, and laid title to that which was only Gods to bestow. The condition now follows to be handled, which is fire and sulphur mixed together, blasphemy and idolatry, he requires that Christ should fall down and worship him. Let me begin upon this point, as Solomon said, when Adonijah asked Abishag to wife, Let him ask the Kingdom also. Satan himself was not able to speak such another word, I think, for horror and impiety: it exceeds that sin, for aught we know, by far, which provoked the Lord at first to cast him out of Heaven into chains of eternal darkness. For Isaiah tells us in the Parable of the King of Babylon, chap. xiii. the insolency of that sin consisted in these rebellious terms, ero similis altissimo, I will be like the most high: but this is more superlative a great deal; let the Son of God fall down and worship me, I will be a God above the Most High. I do not wonder that some Expositors go about to mollify the meaning of the words a little, as it were impossible there could be a literal sense of such an horrid proposition: But their endeavour, methinks, thrives not. To adore Satan, says one, is any way to obey him, and be subject unto him: Adoratio Diaboli subjectionis est, non devotionis. He did not ask to be adored, as if he were an eternal divine essence, unto whose person the devotion of religion was to be directed, but he would have Christ stoop and bow unto him, and to acknowledge by that gesture, that the honours and riches of the world depended on him: or as another lays his meaning forth on this wise, you are the Son of God that come to take my Kingdom from me, do me homage for it, and you shall have it without striving: these are all the odds in the pretended interpretations, these think he required of Christ civil reverence and subjection; such as great Emperors have from petty Princes, that hold somewhat in homage and service under them.  
Others much more congruously to the Scripture, teach, that he made a flat and plain demand to have religious adoration done unto him, as to the God of this World; whether he would have it done after St. Matthews phrase, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that his own person should be the object worshipped; or whether in St. Luke's phrase, word for word, if thou wilt worship before me, that is, worship God above in me, who am his Vicegerent to communicate riches and honour; these two ways drive at one aim, and do not differ, for certain he would have no less than religious service done unto him: for our Saviour's answer questionless was add oppositum, and He controls the Devil for ask that religious honour which was due to God, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. He had stepped thus high before the coming of Christ, to be supplicated by the Heathen Romans in their Idol Vejovis, that he should not hurt the fruits of the earth. Before Christ dissolved the works of the Devil he was sought to, and consulted with in the Oracles of the Greeks: in those days too he was worshipped in all the Idols of the Nations, the ancient godly men of the Church say, that the wicked fiend lurked substantially in all graven Images which were set up; and when Idolaters bowed to stocks and stones, he had their homage done unto him: Nay, he had purchased sacrifice to himself, and of the dearest and most beloved things, They sacrificed their Sons and Daughters unto Devils, Psal. cvi. 37. Satan having been puffed up so long with the Devotions and Ceremonies of a bewitched people, he would not go less, but demands more than ever he had before, when even now he was upon the time to lose all; If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.  
What though Satan be incorrigible? And the labour is lost to review and reform that blasphemy which he hath spoken, for he will never retract it, and confess his fault: Yet some things may fall to our profit out of this wicked saying, and those things which are written for his condemnation are written for our instruction. I will follow St. Ambrose for my Leader, who hath noted two things remarkable from hence for our use: First, that the beginning of this tentation is Covetousness, All these things will I give the; and the end of it is Idolatry, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Who would think that these two sins Covetousness and Idolatry had such great affinity between them? Idolatry averts the heart of man more than any sin from the Creator: The stain of Covetousness is, that it converts the heart more than any other sin to the immoderate love of the creature: Great sins both, and yet it appears by this they differ toto genere in their formalities. They do so, and so, many Rivers which rise not from the same Springhead, flow for many miles in several Channels, and at last close into one stream: Thus Idolatry which riseth out of the sins of the first Table, and Covetousness which is opposite to the Commandments of the Second Table, yet both these glue together after a while, as if they were inseparable. St. Paul binds them both like tares in one bundle, Eph. v. 5. No covetous man, who is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of God and of Christ. 
Gen. xli. 42.  And as Pharaohs Dream was doubled twice, because the thing was surely established: So the Apostle doubles the same Lesson again, because it was most true, and most remarkable. Col. iii 5. mortify your members upon earth, Fornication, Uncleanness, etc. and Covetousness which is Idolatry. It is an Alchemy, wherein Satan is skilful, to turn Gold into Idolatry, and Idolatry into Gold. He put Nebuchadonosor to great cost, and much expense of Gold, to advance Idolatry: But he is at fee with them that are poorer, to give them Gold if they will turn Idolaters. So the love of money begets the love of Idols; and he lays his train in that order in my text to buy himself worship with his money, All these things will I, etc.  
For Idolatry the Lord rooted out the Canaanites from the Land of their Fathers, and when the Covetous shall know what affinity he hath with an Idolater, it will reclaim him, I hope, lest he be rooted out, like an accursed Canaanite from the Land of the Living. Divine Expositors do sundry ways testify to the truth of this Proposition, that Covetousness is Idolatry; several heads have their several opinions, yet every opinion hath some sting and Acrimony in it. Clemens of Alexandria begins, Every man's last end he puts for is his happiness; every man's happiness is his God. And a money-scraper projects more for that than he doth for the grace of God. Coelum apertum est, & Deum non quaerit, aurum absconditum est, & terrae viscera recludit; The heaven shuts not itself against them that call for grace, that is easy, he looks not after it: the Ore is hidden in the dark veins of the earth, and he will dig to Hell to find it. St. Chrysostom says, Id est cuique Deus quod maximè amat, à quo vitam & necessaria expectat. He is an Idolater without an Hyperbole that will sin against God's honour rather than offend his own heart in seeking profit; from whom doth he expect relief, help, comfort in the time of trouble? If he thinks the lining of his Purse is best able to administer these things; he hath said unto his Riches, you are my trust and my assurance; he should have said so to God. The same Father considering in another place, that Christ admonisheth what a base Treasure that is which Thiefs may break in and steal, breaks out, that a covetous man so defrauded, may cry out as Laban did, Who hath stolen away my Gods? Tales sunt Dii tui, ut quis eos furari queat? Are your Gods such trash, that they cannot keep themselves from stealing? Then let him be your God alone who is the watchman of Israel, that keepeth all in safety? I allege St Hierom next, and no man interprets St. Paul more literally that Covetousness is Idolatry; Imaginem sive sculpturam nummi colit; His eye is taken with the very Picture and Stamp upon the Coin, and he shows it more reverence than becomes a Christian to do to a corruptible thing. St. Augustine's suffrage is of moment with the best. Fruitur nummo & utitur Deo, quoniam non nummum propter Deum impendit, sed Deum propter nummum colit; A covetous man makes use of God to set his stay upon his unrighteous Mammon, for he doth not bestow his riches for God's sake, but he loves God for his riches sake.  
I had rather troul over the rest than be tedious. Gregory distinguisheth that the Covetous is an Idolater, Non exhibitione ceremoniarum, sed oblatione concupiscentiarum: Which is thus worded in one of the Schoolmen, Non ex compacto sed obsequio; Not by an outward ceremonious Adoration (for which St. Hierom in some part accuseth him) but by offering up his heart. And perhaps Aquinas would be so understood in his distinction, that the love of money is Idolatry, Non secundum speciem sed similitudinem; Not that it hath the very Essence of Idolatry, but a great likeness and similitude. As a Lover may be said to Idolise a Mistress, to whom he is too obsequious: So a man may be said to Idolise his Substance when he puts himself upon all servile baseness to obtain it. And so Theophylact concludes it, or rather inverts it from the words of David. David says, that the Idols of the Heathen are Silver and Gold: Theophylact turns it, that Silver and Gold are the Idols of those Christians that put their trust in uncertain riches. I have almost panelled a Jury upon this Point; yet if that will not serve, he, that is wiser than the wisest of men, hath spoken enough to bewray that Covetousness is Idolatry, Mat. vi. 24. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. He serveth Mammon as he serveth God, and parts stakes between them, and that is gross Idolatry. Or if it be true that Plutarch says, Malice will teach a man more sometimes for nothing than a sweet Friend with all his good counsel; learn it from our Adversary, from the Devil, that he makes one of these sins reach unto the other, and to clasp fast in one, he begins in Covetousness, and ends in Idolatry, All these, etc.  
I promised you two observations out of St. Ambrose upon the Point, this makes the second, that Satan indents to raise up our Saviour to all the Kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them upon these Premises, that he must fall down and worship: Now this must make him bold to demand it, that Pride will undergo any servile Office to win Promotion. Ambitio ut dominetur servit, & curvatur obsequio ut honore donetur. Machiavelli may write his pleasure, that Christian humility dejects the spirits, and embaseth a good courage: I cross his opinion utterly, and say, that the truly humble Christian hath the most generous and lofty stomach of all others, which defies Flattery, and fawning, and Court-crowching, and stands upon resolute terms to be beholding to none but to God and integrity for exaltation. Is not his Spirit more dull and narrow that makes his Fortune out of bowing, and scraping legs, and diseasing themselves to be the shadows of great men to attend them at all times and hours? Certainly so. What bondman could put up more than Aristippus did? He wiped off the spittle very patiently which a great man had thrown in his face, and excused it, that a Fisherman would endure to be wet all over to catch a few Smelts, why not he then suffer so little moisture to catch a Whale? Such scorns the Ambitious must suffer, that are high Projectors, Serviet aeternum qui parvo nesciet uti, says the wise Poet. No servant shall drudge more, or endure more than he that will not be contented with a little. They that bear the proudest head, you may perceive that they study to follow new observancies, and new Vassalage, throwing themselves down beneath the feet of them that will raise them up. Their vote and suffrage must go with them, of whom they have their dependencies, be the matter never so imprudent, and unequal, as if they had changed not their consciences, for there is nothing cheaper with them than that; but even reason which makes a man that they may be in the rank of great and glorious; yet baseness becomes them best, 'tis pity their fortune should be mended, Absalon when he aimed at no less than a Kingdom by treachery, could persuade himself to compliment to the ground with every Peasant to win the hearts of the people. They that look to be advanced by Jezebel did stoop to Baal. You see such as hunt for honour take it in good part to be thrown to the ground like Balls, that they may rebound the higher. Sixtus Quintus was the most crouching Friar in all his Cloister, the most yielding observant Cardinal in all the Conclave, but the most imperious haughty Pope that ever governed. The heat of the Sun lifts up a vapour from the Dunghill, and in time it becomes Thunder. This is enough to show that the dignity which the ambitious attains unto is mixed with much baseness and servitude. Satan did presuppose it, when he called for so much homage and bowing down, before he would part with all the Kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them. I will conclude it with this deduction from it. Can you endure the waitings, the comes again, Superba fastidia, the commands, the disdains which a great man puts upon you in hope of his liberality at last? O then take up the Cross of Christ, suffer affliction for a season, sit down a little in the lowest room; worship, and fall down, and kneel before the Lord your Maker that he may say unto thee, Friend sit up higher in the Kingdom of heaven.  
I have handled before you the shameless lying of Satan, that challenged unto himself power to give all the Kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them: and then his horrid Blasphemy, demanding that Christ would fall down and worship him: Now follows our Saviour's justice, the repulse which he gave the Tempter, and the vengeance which he took of his enemy; Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence Satan: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a word of anger and imprecation often in that language, as you would say, Abi in malam rem; Get you gone with a mischief. St. Luke puts more to it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, get thee behind me Satan; which confutes those Expositors that consulted no further than St. Matthew, and have made quiddetts upon it, that Christ did not reprehend St. Peter, Mat. xuj. with the same chiding that the Devil hath here. Yes, even the very same, because Peter suggested most carnal counsel from the evil one, he suffered this reprehension, Get thee behind me Satan. But I leave to touch that any further, it is not in the Verge of my Text. This is the first time throughout all the three Tentations that Christ calls him by name Satan. And surely Cajetan says well upon it, Quia manifestavit se esse principem mundi, Christus non ei amplius respondit ut homini; Because he manifested himself to be the Prince of this world, Christ communes not with him now in the former key, as if he were a man. And unless he had revealed himself perhaps our Saviour would have forborn to detect him, that himself might have remained undiscovered to be the Son of God. Well, though the Tempter borrowed shapes before to hide himself, notice is taken now what he was, and with much passion our Lord shook him up, Get thee hence Satan. Our Saviour passed over the two former Tentations mildly, but purposes of Idolatry deserve no meek answer: The irreverent usage of God's House when it was defiled with money-changers, and the most irreverent abuse of God's glory in this Text stirred up fire in Christ, more than in all other cases, and made him hot and vehement. Moses the meekest man on earth, that would resent no injuries against himself, when God was dishonoured in the Calf which the Children of Israel worshipped, his anger was so kindled, that he threw stones at the Idolaters, and broke the Tables which he had in his hand, as who should say, the Law is broken: Let not God's quarrel want a Patron in you, and you shall not want an Advocate with the Father in Christ.  
But what did Satan suffer upon this rebuke? What was he the worse for it? You can scarce imagine how to conceive more punishment out of so few words than some contemplative men have collected from these.  
First, If the High Priests servants were terrified, and fell backward, when no more was said unto them but Ego sum, I am he, than what amazement must this reproof strike? Get thee hence, get thee far from me thou presumptuous Spirit. This did not only cast him to the ground, but even bruise him under our Saviour's feet, Rom. xuj. 20. The least check from the Lord is able to make the stoutest stomach look pale as death. When thou with rebukes dost chasten man for sin, thou makest his beauty to consume away. O if that dreadful Judge speak one word of anger, who is able to abide it?  
Secondly, To be commanded away by one that appeared a man of weakness and infirmity, what a great fall was this from that high opinion which even now the Devil had of himself? He went away, says Chrysologus, and was fain to give glory to him of whom he asked adoration. He boasted of giving a Kingdom to Christ, and Christ gives Law to him, and he must obey it. Before, he would be Christ's Leader, he lead him to the Mountain, he took him, nay, carried him to the Pinnacle of the Temple; now he is compelled to change places, and come after, Get thee behind me Satan. Yet I do not say he hath the dignity to come immediately next after Christ, Solo Deo minor, that is the title of anointed Kings upon earth: Nay, this reproachful word, Get thee behind me, deposeth him under all the servants of God. Non retro Christum solùm, sed post omnes qui spiritum Christi habent ire cogitur; He is not only set beneath the Son of God, but is an underling far after all those in the Church that have the spirit of Adoption.  
Thirdly, You know that this word, Get thee behind me, was a word of hostility in Jehu's mouth, What hast thou to do with peace? Get thee behind me: So this rebuke proclaims the Devil an enemy, whom God drives away, and puts him out of his view and sight, like an antipathy to the Godhead. Ejicitur à facie Dei, as one says; he was cast behind, God hid his face from him, he should never more see the beams of that comfort.  
Fourthly, It is not expressed, whither Christ did banish him, when he charged him with his Vade, Get thee hence; to some woeful banishment, that is certain, but to what degree of woe is most uncertain. The Devils, not long after this story, in spite of their infidelity acknowledged him, and trembled for fear which way he would send them: Therefore they besought him that he would not send them into the depth, In abyssum, into that inestimable depth of woe in the nethermost Hell, Luk. viij. 31. And some do so interpret, Get thee hence, as if Satan before these Tentations were cast out of heaven into the earth, but from this time that Christ rebuked him, and bid him avant further, he was cast from the earth into the lowest darkness. They are questions not to be heeded which some move, whether the Prince of the air were bound fast by these words, 
Tolet. in Luc. 12. Annot. 54.  that he should hurt the earth no more by his own person, but by his instruments: Or rather whether not until anon before our Saviour's Passion, at those words, Now shall the Prince of this world be cast forth: Or whether the binding is to be accounted from some other time, Apoc. xx. Tyrannis vivit, tyrannus occidit. Whether the great dragon, so called, be chained up or not, God knows; his tyranny and mischief lives in the power of other instruments, all the Church of God knows that by experience.  
Fifthly, These words, Get thee behind me Satan, are our Saviour's epinicium, or Song of triumph, that he hath conquered the Adversary both for his own peace and kingdoms sake, and for the members of his body. So many gross sins were reform throughout all the world from this time forward, especially in the redress of Idolatry, that some say the malicious weapons of Satan are rebated, and their edge taken off. Indeed, if it be meant with this distinction that follows, the doctrine is acceptable; the Devil hath less power since Christ came unto us in the flesh; then he had before, Non quod demonum sit imminuta virtus, sed quod fidelibus per Christum abundantior concessa est gratia. The Devils are as malicious, as instant, as operative, as cunning as ever they were, but since the holy Ghost hath put upon us the Armour of light, since grace hath abounded through Christ, we are better able to resist our Ghostly Enemies.  
To conclude all, whosoever is tempted of his own evil concupiscence; let him spend no time to please himself with the first motions of sin, but let him rebuke his own heart instantly in these words, Apage Satana, get thee hence away, depart from me Satan. Conjure the wicked Spirit out of thy breast by speaking hatefully and reproachfully to the old man within thee, and to his corruptions. The rod of the wicked shall not rest in the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous put forth their hands to wickedness, Psal. cxxv. 5. And though in many things we sin all, and who can say he hath not offended? Yet take heed ye commit not sin with greediness as if you delighted in the servitude of iniquity; nay, as if you did it with that full resolution, that you saw hell fire before you, and yet you will not be reform: This is to gaze the Devil in the face, and to have no remorse of conscience. But if frailty steals upon us, yet extinguish not the ardour of zeal, which would fain be delivered from that captivity, let it cry out, I am carried away with the violence of my depraved nature, and the evil which I would not, that I do. This is to commit sin, but with such a delight as is mixed with great unwillingness: The love of God still abideth in us, and we cry out against the Tempter, Get thee behind me Satan. Though a good man be carried back sometime in his pious endeavours, yet he looks towards God's glory, he minds that chiefly, and he will not cast his eye off. He moves not willingly toward the Devil, though the Devil tread upon his heel behind him, and sometimes prevails to pluck him back from God. But remember how David composed himself, and with that I end, I have set God always before me, therefore I shall not fall. AMEN.   

THE EIGHTEENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviour's Tentation.  MAT. iv. 10. 
For it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.  
THE Lacedæmonians had this Lesson in the private Instructions of their State, and observed it as far as they could, ut nunquâm cum eôdem host ter confligerent, by no means to give battle three several times to the same Enemy; for that Enemy encountering them so often, might learn to overcome them by their own ways and stratagems. Why, Satan hath this advantage to try masteries the third time with our Saviour; neither did Christ vary one jot from his usual manner of defence; he fights with the same sling, and with a stone taken out of the same brook as before, scriptum est, for it is written: the written word is all the refuge that our Lord did seek: Satan knows full well at what guard He will lie; doth then the adversary speed ever the better for this? can he improve that knowledge to help himself? Nay, but far otherwise: Christ is so surely fixed upon one true ground, so constant to that rock of the Divine Law, which is stronger than all the waves of the sea that some against it, that his adversary discerned at last the longer he strove the more unable he was to maintain the quarrel: If the tempted entrench himself within the Scriptures, indignation shall vex the tempter, but he shall never prevail.  
The Devil believes and trembles at it, that all the Law is irresistible, and shall triumph over the enemies of the Lord: but this Text (after which no more was said, as if more could not be spoken (it contains a more strict and high command than any other portion of the Law: it extends not only to transgressors to hedge them in their duty, that they may not start from it, but to the blessed Angels that are confirmed in grace, to the damned Devils that are incorrigible in sin, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, worship and adoration is looked for at all these and every particular, whether they be such as are comforted under mercy, or such as are tormented under the Judge's fury, or such as sing praises for ever before the King of glory, all must bend and do him homage. At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, both in the highest region of souls, in the middle region of the Militant Church, or in the lowest region of Hell, at that name every knee shall bow both of things in heaven, and things in earth, 
Apolog. l. 1.  and things under the earth. Therefore Justin Martyr called upon all the Heathen, with whom he disputed, to receive this charge which my Text gives: This, says he, is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the greatest, that is the most spacious Commandment of all other, a Charter between God and all his Creatures. That upon which David speaks on this manner, thy Commandment is exceeding broad, Psal. cxix. 96. this is a chain to which all the works of the Lord are fastened, and therefore our Saviour was sure it would bend his opposite with whom he disputed, that he should not reply, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Where the Text is so clear I will not make it hard to be understood with dividing it. The specials to be spoken of are these: First, the Lord God is to be worshipped: Secondly, the Lord God is to be served: Thirdly, He only to be worshipped and served: therefore fourthly, whatsoever things they are beside to which men do offer religious worship and service, let them mince and excuse it with what distinctions they please, they run into flat Idolatry.  
Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God: let this be first the query upon the first point: tu adorabis, is there any emphasis in the Pronoun, thou shalt worship? Is the Commandment directed to the Tempter? for that doubt I find in St. Chrisost. whether it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Precept, or a Repulse; a Doctrine, or a Defiance, Thou shalt worship? I answer it in several conclusions: First, the outward act of worship and adoration is enjoined continually even to the spirits of damnation, and they must perform it. God hath put all things under Christ's feet, the Grave, and Death, and Hell: Who is meant by Hell but Satan and his Comrades, that are sunk into that place of sorrow? wherefore he was bound to pay worship himself where he called for worship: and let all the Angels of God worship him, Heb. i 6. yea and the Devil forceth himself sometimes to pay this tribute unto Christ, though much against his will and content; but sometimes he doth outwardly worship him, that he may not fall into greater torments. For as a Servant that hath run away, and is taken, falls down at his Master's feet, that he may not be beaten, so this unclean spirit having entered into a man that lived in tombs in the Country of the Gaderens, when Christ came into those coasts, the Devil did not keep the man close out of sight, but came forth to meet Christ, and worshipped our Saviour, Mark v. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the very word in my Text, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Luke seven. 28. he fell down in that body, into which he had entered, before him; and he besought him very much that he would not send him away out of the Country. Indeed it is seen by the sequel, that Christ scorned his homage, and bade him come out of the man, and he durst not but obey him: you see then this Commandment stretcheth even to things beneath the earth, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God. Secondly I put this to my answer, that for the other clause, to serve God only, the Tempter's malice is irremediable, he hath turned away from obedience so stubbornly, that he is wholly possessed to defy the Kingdom of Heaven, yet God may call upon him, to serve him only, from time to time, requiring that reasonable service which he might have discharged by those faculties wherewith he was created, before he marred them. A Servant that hath money given him to buy necessaries for his Master's use, may be urged to make good those things, though he hath negligently lost, or lavishingly consumed the whole sum which was put into his hand, and utterly disabled himself to take up the merchandise: so there is no injustice in God to claim fidelity and service continually from those apostate evil spirits, although they are incorrgible, and can afford no better submission than murmuring and blasphemy. Yet after both those full satisfactions, I had rather say, nothing was Satan's, in these words, but the Repulse, and the Commandment is wholly ours, and for our instruction; for where the Law is given it is given to be a Schoolmaster to bring them unto Christ: and none but we men, whose nature he took, have purchase in Christ, and a lively hope in the redemption of his most precious blood.  
No devotion or duty to God is expected from Satan (though it may be commanded): my Text requires but that which Christ calls an easy yoke, and a light burden, and all the Sons of the Freewoman are made to bear it, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. The Holy Ghost speaks to us men, and to no other: if we know these things, happy are we if we do them. 
Jo. xiii. 17.  First then let us beat upon the knowledge of the Commandment, which requires, you hear, worship and service: service, that is to have a general care to be obsequious and pliant to all Gods holy will; and worship, which is all external veneration, which becomes the creature towards such a Lord, who is of an infinite Majesty: or if you will observe these two titles in my Text, Lord and God, and divide these two parts of Religion between them: O God we will bow and kneel, and fall down before thee; can a man be too reverend to his God? and O Lord, all that thou command'st us we will endeavour to do: can a man be servant enough to such a Master, who is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords? But Dominum Deum tuum adorabis, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God: of that by itself in the first order, which is that point of Religion that is principally opposed to the Devil's temptation. And upon this it is to be noted, that Christ hath rather expounded the Law of Moses than kept the very word of it: the words are thus extant Deuteron. vi. 13. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him. And is that rendered to the true sense, will some object, thou shalt worship the Lord? are fear and worship so much the same, that they may be called by the same name? even so beloved; for it is but an easy Metonymy to take the effect for the cause; especially such a proper effect as flows naturally from the cause, and cannot be parted: for as St. Paul said, Show me thy faith by thy works; so do I say, show me your fear by the fruits, if it be not a dead fear, you will fall down and worship. The Servant that feared fell down, and besought his Master, Matth. xviii. 16. they that fear the Lord will be humble: they that are humble will worship often on their knees toward his Holy Place. And I never knew any Sectaries busy the Church with objections, why they would have licence not to prostrate themselves in lowly gesture at some offices of divine service, but they drew their argument from this, that then at such an occasion it was not meet to express fear, but boldness and confidence. They that speak against due reverence cannot choose but speak irreverently: For thus some stand stoutly upon it, that they would not kneel when they receive the consecrated elements of the holy Communion, because kneeling is a gesture of inferiority, and abasement; now in that Sacrament we are to act the parts of Christ's Guests, in imitation to resemble our co-heirship with him in his Kingdom, therefore they will not lose their right of fellowship with Christ by kneeling, but take the benefit of their fortune and sit down. I pity weak ones that are so seduced in conscience; but it is a most foul oversight in the seducers that have learning and knowledge to thrust out humility at that time, when they know how that sacred Supper is the most absolute type of Christ's wonderful humiliation. This comes of it when they will imagine any part of Religion disjoined from the fear of God: for when they have blasted fear, presently they say, we will not worship. That Woman Luke seven. who was a sinner sometimes, but had her sins forgiven, and was now a co-heir with Christ, yet still she stood behind him, fearing to be too bold, and kissed his feet, and bowed down to the ground in token of adoration: The Text says moreover she loved much, to poise that other Text of St. John 1 Ep. iv. 18. Perfect love casteth out fear: but love is never perfect till we reign with Christ in the Kingdom of Heaven.  
I will yet be a little larger, how the fear of God and the outward worship of God are knit together: it must be so, because our Saviour in my Text hath so interpreted Moses. The common distinction rightly understood will be the best help to this doctrine. There is a finer and a courser fear; the courser is called a servile fear, as when servants do their work lest they should be chastised, and were it not for the rod that hangs over them, perhaps they would let it alone: yet this is it which David commends (that you may not think it utterly disgraced by being called servile) Stand in awe and sin not; this was in the ancient Israelites, and it made their Prophets, and their Prophet's Children obedient, and because it produced a good effect, search, and you shall find it came from God, Rom. viij. 15. You have not received again the spirit of bondage to fear; therefore the fear which imports bondage comes from the spirit of God: as Paul said which way soever Christ be preached it is well, so which way soever God be served, it doth well: and it is a pleasant thing to pass to Heaven by much fear, even by the gates of Hell. Carni opus est timore, spiritui fiduciâ, the flesh must be dejected with fear, and the spirit must be raised up with hope and confidence. Happy is the man that feareth always, but he that hardeneth his heart falleth into mischief, Prov. xxviii. 14. Now there is a fear of a finer thread, which is timor filiorum, this ariseth out of the love of God, when we take care not to displease, because He hath made us, and poured all his benefits upon us; because it is the best of all things to enjoy his favour: Nothing so much to be loved as God, therefore nothing so much to be feared, that He be not offended; they that love most abound with it: This is a joyful fear, which outlasts all the fears of this life. The fear of the Lord is clean, and endureth for ever, Psal. nineteen. 9 
Isa. vi. 2.  This reverential fear is in the Angels: the Cherubins standing before God cover their faces with their wings, awing his glorious Majesty, the Elders before the throne fall down prostrate, and cover their faces with their wings. As the New Testament calls God charity, God is love, saith St. John; so the Old Testament calls him fear, Jacob swears by the fear of his father Isaac, that is by God himself, Gen. xxxi. 43. Fear therefore is a vein that runs through all Religion, and whatsoever buds out of Religion may be called fear; it is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all piety, the first and the last▪ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, Prov. i 7. and the end of all is fear God and keep his Commandments, Eccl. xxi. 13. The Lord threatens to the end we should be dejected, that's worship annexed to servile fear: and the Lord multiplies his blessings upon us, to the end we should bow down and be thankful; that's worship annexed to filial fear. True fear doth continually worship our Redeemer; desperate fear, like the impenitent Thief doth blaspheme him: and these two differ as much as sharp sauce that gives an appetite to the stomach, and poison that destroys the vitals.  
So far that the word fear in the Law is changed into worship in the Gospel: for so it was fit to refute the Devil, who said, all these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. And the worship of God is that Theme, which without more circumstance now it befalls me to handle. What is it to worship God? what is required unto it? every man knows thats the first question to be asked: and I will make you a very satisfactory answer out of a devout example, which is thus: St. Matthew says there came a Leper and worshipped Christ saying, Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Math. vi●i. 2. that's the word of my Text. You shall meet with this party again Mark i 40. What find we there? there came a Leper to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him: yet another Evangelist says more to make it clearer, Luke v. 12. Behold a man full of leprosy fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean. The collection from hence is this, when these scattered members are put together, that to worship the Lord is to kneel down unto him, to fall down on our face before him, and to beseech him by earnest prayer. Be advertised in one thing, that to worship, to kneel before, to bow down unto in reverence are media vocabula, as we say, terms for civil respects between man and man, as well as for religious offices between God and Man: a great confusion falls out thereby in the handling of this doctrine, and it cannot be avoided. Says St. Austin, 
Civ. Dei. lib. 10. c. 1.  in linguâ latinâ non habemus ullum vocabulum quod solùm dicatur de cultu Dei, there is not any word betokening the worship of God in the latin tongue, so proper to it, that it may not be communicated to man: all tongues are alike in that poverty of expression. In the New Testament the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is constantly kept for the outward worship of God, saving that Matth. xviii. the Servant who feared to be sold away, he and all he had, is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and the Parable speaks of an earthly Master, though the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Epiparabola come home to God: in the English tongue the nearest word that is meant only of divine honour, and a little too high for civil reverence is adoration: If you say you adore an earthly man in our language, we almost esteem it flattery: But they are not words or outward gestures which can decide, what it is which properly constitutes the essence of that worship which God claims. The word adore I said might have a religious meaning with us, but in no tongue else. Says Valla very well adorare includit orare & supplicare, voce uti, 
Lib. 5. c. 11.  & plicare genu: the word adore doth import the humble petition of the tongue, and the supplication of the knee: but these are things common and promiscuous to civil and holy uses. All the reverend deportments of the body, which piety ascribes to God, civility without offence performs sometimes to Magistrates and Superiors. It may be some Nations had their Customs, to keep certain peculiar venerations of the body for God alone: as the Athenians put Timagoras their Ambassador to death, quòd Regem Persarum tanquam Deum salutasset, because he did obeisance to the King of Persia as to a God: I know not what peculiar bend of the body they appropriated to their Gods, it was a national custom of their own (and for my part I will not say a bad one) but nature hath no such ground to limit the most humble gestures of the body to God alone. Prophets in holy Scripture have fallen on their face before Kings, and great men have fallen on their face before Prophets.  
Though this doctrine be most true, yet Cardinal Bellarmin did not pick out Abraham so luckily to make him the example of it. He says that Abraham prostrated himself alike to God, to Angels, and to the Honourable men of the Sons of Heth. I say, and will manifest it, that the Scripture says, he made a difference in his congees to them all. Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, Gen. xvii. 3. When he went to meet the Angels, he bowed himself toward the ground, Gen. xviii. 2. When he spoke to the children of Heth, Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people, Gen. xxiii. 7. You hear he fell on his face to God, he bowed himself to the ground to the Angels, and he bowed himself, without more addition to the people of Heth. But this distinction is not kept by other holy men, who walked perfectly before the Lord: therefore I stand upon my former ground, that neither by simple terms, nor by postures and bowings of the body can it be resolved what worship is proper to the Lord; 
2.2. qu. 103. ar. 3.  for my part I could never make an intelligible interpretation of that distinction in Aquinas, so well accepted by some, that there are so many forms of adoration as there are kinds of excellency: for honour and worship are done to the person for the excellency which is in it. Now excellency is either divine and infinite in God, which deserves that adoration called by him latria; or humane excellency which is grounded, or in men's honours, or in their virtues, and so deserves civil and political reverence; or it is an excellency less than divine, yet more than humane, which is in the Angels and souls of holy men departed; and that claims the worship of dulias unto itself. Put this into plain meaning he that can, and show me how these three are distinguished in outward or bodily adoration. I will agree that in those things we worship, we do apprehend excellency three manner of ways. First there is cultus sacrosanctae religionis, the religious and pious worship which we give to God for his omnipotent and most glorious excellency. Secondly, there is cultus civilis subjectionis, the worship which we give to our superiors in authority, as we live in political subjection, because they are set over us for our good. Thirdly, there is cultus moralis reverentiae, the worship of moral respect and reverence, which we give to some for their good gifts and qualities, although we are not under them in any political ordination. All these worships are performed upon several excellencies apprehended in the persons worshipped; but the act of worship itself, as concerning that which the head, the knee, the hand, or any part of the body doth execute, may be the same: for the distinguishing of one and another must be in the heart and mind, as I proceed now to show at large unto you.  
The definition of divine worship must be thus framed, adoratio est talis veneratio exterior quae ex corde pio & religioso procedit: that's the adoration due to God, and to him alone, which with the exterior veneration of the body proceeds out of the pious and religious intentions of the heart. If you yield any token of outward obeisance, and mean it to honour him who hath made you, redeemed you, sanctified you, and conferred all other benefits upon you, than it is raised up from civil homage and duty, and is become divine worship; a distinction will help the memory of them that can conceive it a little further. There are three things which concur to that virtue which we call the worship of God. First the act of the understanding must put forth itself to apprehend and know the glorious excellency of God, that he made the whole world out of nothing, and susteins all things by the word of his power. Then secondly, the act of the will comes in, wherein we assent and apply ourselves to adore his excellency, to magnify him, and devote our hearts unto him. Thirdly, these two joined together do urge and command the exterior act of worship which is performed by the body: tanti est adorare, all these must be in it, if it be true adoration. S. Paul speaks of some that have the forms of godliness, but deny the power thereof. The formal cringing and bending are but like a part played upon a Stage, if they be severed from the power of godliness, from the knowledge of the understanding what glory belongs to God, and from the will and purpose of the heart, to exalt his holy name both privately and in his holy Temple.  
Well, I can but call upon you to prepare your hearts, and you will every one say, I am sure my heart is fixed O God, my heart is fixed. The Lord knows, but we that are your instructors do not, whether that internal part of worship be well discharged by you: therefore I come to that quarter of the virtue, whereof men may be witnesses if it be carefully executed; unto outward adoration (it was upon the quarrel of outward worship that Christ here disputed with Satan) God had respect to Abel and to his offering, Gen. iv. 4. to Abel, that is to his internal piety; to his offering, that is to his external worship: Abel had been unrespected at that time if he had not been good at both. And as a plaster of cordial ingredients laid to the stomach, or an unction well slicked upon the skin comforts the spirits within, and makes them execute their vital functions cheerfully, so outward reverence helps us greatly against our dulness and drowsy infirmities. The lifting up the hands and eyes make a man crave more passionately; the knocking of the breast whets our repentance with indignation against ourselves, bowing down the head and knee imprints into us the great distance which is between God and us: the uncovering the head makes that needful thought sink into our heart in whose presence we stand. Glorify God with your body, 1 Cor. vi. 20. Tertullian and S. Cyprian read it, Portate Deum in corpore vestro, Carry God in your body, in every joint and member of it. It may be they met with some Greek Copy that read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Our Religion is compared to a Marriage, there is a contract between God and our soul; and this is gained from the similitude, that the Wife is the Husbands as well in body as in affection; and so are we the Lords. As Man and Wife are but one flesh, so Christ the Bridegroom of the Church did assume the whole man body and soul into the unity of his person. He hath conjoined them both unto God, and let us conjoin them both to the worship of God. A Sermon cannot be spent upon a subject which doth more deserve our exhortation. The Lord created a Star on purpose only to bring the Magis of the East to worship Christ, and they did so, even when He lay in most despicable manner before them in the Manger of a Stable, and shall we be slacker to kneel before his footstool, when he reigns triumphantly in the highest Heavens? the Heaven and Earth, the Stars and Prophets, all lead us to the worship of God. Scriptura & mundus ad hoc sunt ut colatur qui creavit, & adoretur qui inspiravit; so St. Cyprian. The Scripture and the world are to this end, that He that created the one, and inspired the other might be worshipped. It is no mean duty which made those wise men of the East take so tedious and long a journey, to post in twelve days from the mountains of the East to Bethlem; and that other Traveller Acts viij. the Treasure of the Queen Candace came from the uttermost parts of Ethiopia to Jerusalem, and all for no other end but this, to worship. The Scripture says so expressly; and when they had done that, they went home again.  
We had need carry a very true heart to God in these days; for many of us put him off all together with the zeal of our heart, and think it will excuse us if we neither honour him with our body, nor with our substance. He shall have neither our goods, nor our knee, but likely we put it off He shall have our soul; why, this is only to give God his thirds, as a reverend Father says; to compound like Bankrupts, and give him two parts less than we owe him, and yet we look for ten thousand times more than He owes us. We have some that are to be suspected for a kind of Sadduces among us, that believe no resurrection of the body, else they would never palter with discipline, but be more forward in the prostration and worship of the body, than the Church could be to command them, Some have given a great blow to this duty, by harping upon the bare words of S. John, and not digesting the true meaning of his Text, Joh. iv. 23. The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Mark the occasion why this was spoken, and the words precedent. The woman of Samaria moved a doubt, whether God was to be worshipped at Jerusalem, as the Jews taught, or at Mount Girizin, as the Samaritans taught: Now the Samaritans worshipped God falsely, they worshipped they knew not what, says Christ. The Jews held strictly to Moses Law, and observed figures and shadows of things to come, which were all to give place and vanish upon the incarnation of our Lord. Now it is easy to discern the substance of our Saviour's answer, what it is to serve God in spirit and truth. Truth is opposed to the false superstition of the Samaritans; Spirit is opposed to the Jewish figures and sacrifices: And Christ tells the woman God will neither be served any more after the Samaritan way or Jewish way, but after the newness of the Gospel: The hour cometh, and now is, when ye shall neither worship the Father in this Mountain, nor at Jerusalem, but they shall worship him in spirit and truth. Do these words exempt the worship of the body? nothing less: The word spirit is not taken there for the soul divided from the body, signifying only an internal act of the spirit, but for all manner of virtuous actions, as well external as internal, which proceed from the grace of the Holy Spirit, being acceptable to God, because the Holy Spirit brings them forth, not because they are figures of things to come. I will sing with the spirit, says St. Paul, 1 Cor. xiv. 15. and yet singing is a bodily action. He did worship in spirit, when he said, For this cause bow I my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus, Ephes. iii to come to a point. Remember therefore how we adore God in spirit, when we adore him with those outward gestures of the body, to which we are stirred up by the Spirit of truth. And so much of the first member of my Text, which I laid out to be handled by itself, the Lord God is to be worshipped.  
The next duty is the other Pillar of Religion which upholds the Church of the Elect, the Lord God is to be served. By worship, you know already, we understand all humble outward devotion and reverence. Now by service you must conceive the inward conformity of the heart to all duty and obedience. The will of the Lord is revealed to us two manner of ways: Either as he doth promise us blessings and benefits, and assures us great rewards in the Kingdom of heaven: Or as he doth stipulate and covenant with us what we shall do to obtain his favour. In the former respect as he hath given us the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth most liberally, and as he doth promise greater fruits of his mercy most graciously, we fall down and worship him for his benefits: but as he doth condition with us to do somewhat for his sake, that he may leave a blessing with us, we serve him faithfully, and bind our inward faculties, our soul and our mind, to be prompt and ready to execute all obedience. That you may the better compose your hearts to attend Gods will in all things, and to serve him, I will supply your knowledge with these few motives following.  
First, There is no other Lord beside our God properly called, 1 Cor. viij. Though there be that are called Gods, (as there be Gods many, and Lords many, that is by opinion and nuncupation) but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. And again, Eph. v. 4. One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism; one God who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Super omnes dominio, per omnes providentiâ, in omnibus justificatione; Above all by his Dominion, through all by his Providence, in all by sanctifying us with his grace, and justifying us from sin. He that is subject to none, inferior to none, independent of himself in all his power, He may well be called a Lord, and such a Lord deserves to be served: Petty Magistrates hold of Prince's favours, and Kings hold their tenure under God. Therefore some of the Roman Emperors having the perceivance, that they could command nothing absolutely, if he that sat above the heavens did stop it; they would not be called Domini, because themselves were servants in relation to the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, therefore their circumscribed power did not answer the title. When the Scripture brings in the most High, the saying is, Haec dicit Dominus; Thus saith the Lord. If we would examine this after the stile of man, you would say Lord of what? Why universal Lord without any particular designment? Specifications to be Lords of this or that are earthly phrases, are notes of minority. Attalus the Martyr was asked, what name that Lord had whom he served? 
Euseb lib 6. histor. c. 3.  Says he, Qui plures sunt nominibus discernuntur, qui autem unus est non indiget nomine; Where there are many Lords they must be distinguished by their properties; but what need that Lord a name for distinction, who is the only Ruler by himself, without any equal, or partner in his dominion? now since we must serve (for sin hath brought servitude into the world) whom would a man choose to serve, but that only Lord, to whose sheave all other sheaves do bend, and who only hath authority?  
Secondly, In all service you will consider in what state and place it puts you. Do so in this and spare not. But let St. Peter be the Judge, 1 Epist. two. 9 Ye are a chosen generation, a royal Priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people. There is royalty in the very service, Cui servire est regnare; To do him service is a Kingly Ministry. Nay, there is more in one of our Church Collects in one Line of it than in the most Augustious title of a King. God whose service is perfect freedom. A King may be so much subject to naughty passions as he shall be in vile thraldom to his own sensualities, and so he is made a greater vassal than the poorest of his Subjects: themselves are the servants of corruption, for of whom a man is overcome, of the same he is brought in bondage, 2 Pet. two. 19 What appearance of sovereignty was in the voluptuous Licinius? Of whom Tacitus says, 
Lib. 3. Hist.  Tanta torpedo invaserat animum, ut si principem eum fuisse caeteri non meminissent, ipse oblivisceretur. Such a stupidness had possessed his mind, that unless others had been mindful towards him that he was a Prince, himself would have forgot it. You see then there is no freedom but by killing the strength of sin, and living unto God in new obedience; if by one offence death reigned by one, they that receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ, Rom. v. 17. Sin holds the sinner under tyranny, grace makes the righteous man reign in this life, it is the Apostles phrase. Therefore Christ, who gives us freedom, despised not to be called a servant to his Father, Thou art my servant O Israel, in whom I will be glorified, Isa. xlix. 3.  
Thirdly, That fawning heathen did humour his Patron for this reason, Et habet quod det, & dat nemo largius. So the Lord hath all manner of riches in store, and he withholdeth no good thing from those that serve him, No Master in the world is so munificent to reward his Ministers. 
1 King. x. 8.  Let me borrow it from the Queen of Sheba's mouth, what she said of Solomon's attendants, to apply it to those of God's household, that perform the task he sets them: Happy are these thy servants that stand continually before thee, being now made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life, Rom. vi. 22. The poor bondman among the heathen had no more wages than food for all his drudgery, the more hardhearted they. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says Aristotle; 
Oecon. lib. 1. c. 5.  give a bondslave provender like a beast, and he is paid for his labour. Did God ever use any of his retinue that serve him so hardly? They have all their meat in due season, and plenteously: says he in the Parable, How many hired servants are there in my Father's house that have meat enough? Yet this is nothing I may say to the remainder, this is but the Almsbasket of his liberality. What say you to this? That he gave his only Son to redeem his servant, and that the Servant might be spared even that most beloved Son did undergo the most bitter death of the Cross; and all this, that such servants as forgot the Lord, who had done so great things for them, and rebelled against him, might be coheirs with Christ in his Kingdom. Who would not serve such a Master? If he say go, who would not make speed to follow? If he say do this, who would not do it? He hath given us such hire, more than all the world beside can lay down, that we will worship the Lord our God, and he only shall be served.  
I should wrong the matter I handle if this question were not moved, How we should feel the comfort in ourselves that we serve the Lord? I answer by a Negative by an Affirmative examination. Negatively, when we think that we have never laboured enough in our Lord's Vineyard to earn our penny: Or as it is elsewhere very clearly set down to take away all boasting from our works, when we have done all we can, say we are unprofitable servants. The Affirmative Collection may be best drawn from a saying of Christ's, Mat. vi. 24. No man can serve two Masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will cleave to the one, and despise the other. Here I gather, that the two notes of a good servant are deligere, adhaerere; to love and to cleave fast to his Master. Those Servants that loved King David, such as Hushai, and Ittai, and Ahimaaz would take part with him to the death in Absalon's rebellion, those were good Servants: It was love that made Jacob such a diligent Shepherd under Laban to suffer heat and frost. Laban never had the like to tend his flocks. A servant that takes a delight to please, you may trust him with any thing both for Faith and Diligence. Nemo meliùs obtemperat, quam qui ex caritate obsequitur, says St. Ambrose; no man will obey God better, or go further to discharge his Law, than he that is roused up by the zeal of love and charity. But he that doth the Lords work without pleasure and delight doth it with unwillingness, unwillingness breeds sloth, and between these all their service is left-handedly performed as if it were never intended. Si quid invitus facis, fit de te, magis quam id facis, says Prosper; Whatsoever you did grudgingly without love, it was drawn from you, but never done by you, and as if you had not been the doer, you shall never be rewarded. Beside deligere I said there was adhaerere, a good servant was no flincher, but stuck close; not a Fugitive, as Ionas was; not an Apostate, as Demas was; not one that began in the Spirit, and ended in the Flesh, the Galatians were thought to be bewitched that did so. The Bondman in the Old Law that loved his Master, though the time of his releasement was come about, would be bored through the ear for a ceremony that he would never part from him. St. Paul was the fast man above all we read of that was glued unto the service of the Gospel; Neither death, nor life, nor Angels, nor Principalities, nor Powers, nor things present, nor things to come, etc. shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Yet I will end this Point in the words of one of our own Prelates, 
Davenant. c 4. ad Colos.  a faithful Minister of God bestirs himself with respect to that one Master to whom he cleaves in all the works of his Vocation, Ac si nihil aliud esset in hôc mundo praeter illum, ac Deum. As if there was none in the world but himself and God, himself to obey, and God to be served with all possible diligence.  
This cleaving fast unto one Master, doth link itself in with the next Point, that the Lord God is only to be worshipped and served. Let it not start your patience, that I name it, now the time is past. I am not about to huddle it up at this time, being the most copious subject, and of the choicest variety, in my judgement, in all Divine Learning. But this Doctrine you shall, carry away with you at this time, It is no impediment for Servants to show all diligent duty to their Masters on earth, because one verse of the Gospel says, No man can serve two Masters; and because my Text says of our Lord in heaven, him only shalt thou serve. Him only indeed in Religious Service, in Divine Worship and Adoration; he is the only Master that we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over our spirit and conscience, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, we must be diligent to attend our governor's according to the flesh in Temporal and Civil Offices and Functions. Col. iii 22. There St. Paul gives a Livery to all Servants to wear, not upon their back, but upon their heart: Servants obey in all things your Masters according to the flesh, not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, as fearing God. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord ye receive the reward of the Inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. Mark those last words, we serve but one Master, though we have one in earth, and another in heaven, for we serve him on earth for his sake, and for his command that is in heaven. When a petty Magistrate bids you do this or that in the King's Name, you obey not so much him that speaks unto you, as the King's Authority which he lays upon you: So, that service which is performed to man by the ordination of Christ is performed to Christ himself. Servit Deo, qui propter Deum servit homini, as St. Hierom says upon that place of St. Paul; The Lord hath set you on work to serve a Master upon earth, it is his service, and not man's, do it diligently and faithfully, 
Davenant. Ibid.  and as your Masters on earth must justly give the hireling his or her Wages, so over and above God will see it rewarded. Vtilitas operis ad homines respicit, animus operantis ad Deum; The benefit of that outward work which a servant doth redounds materially to man: The intention of his heart that works justly and truly is bend in conscience to God. These Masters are not contrary one to another, but subordinate, and you shall be paid on both sides.  
In as much as you did it to one of these you did it unto me. See how God is willing to engage himself to owe us for all our Ministerial labour. I know that Text was fitted by Christ to works of Charity, that he who gave a cup of cold water to one of his little ones for his name's sake, gave it to himself; but it is a general Axiom, to be applied to all humane Uses and Offices which we do one to another under God, In as much as you did it to one of these, you did it unto me. The Apostle goes so far in this Point, that though a Christian were a bondman to an Infidel, yet the Christian must do his task, and submit himself unto him, for temporal Authority and Dominion is not founded in grace; And if Infidelity do not cast a man out of his Government in a private Family, is there any show or appearance that Heresy or Infidelity should make a Prince uncapable any longer to hold his Kingdom, but lay him quite open to deposition from all his Dignity? Neither Infidelity nor Tyranny can exempt Subjects or Servants from that homage which they owe their Superiors on earth, because we are tied to subjection to these, not for their own sakes, but for God's sake, and he will not dispense with us. Let St. Peter teach his Pro-Peter that would be, 1 Ep. two. 18. Servants be subject to your Masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. It follows, For this is thanksworthy towards God. Let me dispatch. You hear it not written, no man can have two Masters, he may have two that are subordinate, God's Service being ever preferred before man's: You hear indeed no man can serve two Masters, that would be equal, not subordinate, or Contraria praecipientes, such as call you contrary ways at once, or bid you do contrary things, for in that case one must be served, and the other neglected. They that are set over you on earth must command the same thing that Christ commends, and then with the same pains you content them both. But if the lesser power on earth shall say, harken to me for this time, and to God at some other turn: Nay, said the mouth of the Apostles, Whether it be fitter to obey God or you, judge ye. Iniquum est ut illis pareatur contra Christum, quibus paretur propter Christum. Says the just man, we serve our Masters on earth for Christ's sake, otherwise all underlings would rise up, and cry out for Anarchy and licence, which they wrongfully call liberty; but we submit unto you for Christ's sake, and would you be obeyed against Christ when you should never be obeyed but for Christ's sake? No, in all things lawful and honest I subject myself, so I make myself a Minister to God and man conjointly, but not divided. And thus Servants obey their Masters on earth, and yet observe my Text most religiously, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. AMEN.   

THE NINETEENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviour's Tentation.  MAT. iv. 10. 
Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.  
AT the same time that our Saviour alleged these words out of holy Scripture against the Devil, He bid him apage, get thee hence, as who should say, this was true doctrine, but no way for his turn. Even as Elisha said to the Nobleman of Samaria, there should be store of corn in the gates of Samaria, tu tamen non gustabis, but it shall do you no good, you shall never taste of it. Assuredly though Satan was sent away from this godly doctrine to his own place, and this sentence of Holy Writ was thrown after him, like a stone at a dog, to make him be gone the faster, yet it invites us to come about it, as Wisdom says in Solomon, Come near my children, not get you hence, harken unto me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. For that proposition in Logic is a direct teacher, which speaks positively, as they say categorically, what is to be done; so doth this, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God: and then it is very satisfactory, and leavs no question after it, for it hath an express sign or note in it, which every proposition should have, which will be clear to the understanding, and him Only shalt thou serve.  
That particle of the Text is like the point of the Loadstone, referring to whom all religious honour constantly and unchangeably is to be performed. Do but imagine that word [only] were in another print from the rest, or in capital letters, as that which is the emphasis of the verse, and whereupon all divine duty doth lean, and there needs no more preface to prepare you for that which follows. Upon this word I will speak now according to its own property, that is, of nothing else at this time. That God is only to be worshipped and served, shall be my only Treatise; and I will go in hand with it two ways: 1. Building up the true doctrine affirmatively: 2. Beating down those wrong opinions that offend against it. For whatsoever things they are to which men do offer religious worship and service beside the Lord, let them distinguish that they do it improperly, with a less religious worship, with reference to Almighty God; let them slick it over with what gloss of wit they please, I am on the Lord's side, and in his behalf I plead, that they run into some kind of Idolatry. But first plainly and affirmatively, without rubbing against the adversary's errors, that God only is to be worshipped and served.  
In the first place I must not conceal from you, this word upon which we stand so much (and good reason for it) but this word Only is not to be found in that verse, which is quoted by our Saviour, Deut. vi. 13. the margin of your own Bible, and indeed all Expositors ancient and modern, hold that to be the very Scripture which Christ doth here apply, and thus you find, thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. I but 'tis not written there, thou shalt serve him only. Hath He added to the word? put case He should add to the word (as in this instance He did not;) but put case He should, it were free for him, but for none else to do it, He may do what He will with his own. After Moses had finished the Law, and the Lord had said thereupon, cursed is he that addeth unto it, yet the book of the Psalms and the Prophets were put to it, and after all these the Gospel, and the whole New Testament was added; yet none of those were the patches of man's wit, but the increase and supply which God himself gave to his own eternal Oracles. Yet I give not this answer, as if Christ had thrust one syllable into the Law to give it more sense and authority than it had before: He came to fulfil the Law, but not to overfil it: For first Christ said nothing but that which is written; if not here, yet in another Prophet, and one spirit is in all the Prophets: consult with Samuel, 1 lib. chap. 2. v. 3. Prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only: that's down right, as my Text hath it, I need not give it a grain to make up weight. Then there's for Satan; he cannot say but he was refuted with very Scripture. Secondly, let us keep unto those words of Deuteron. for surely those were intended, and the word only is there in effect, the next verse makes it good, that it could not be excepted. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him. Well, but will God admit any partner? otherwise we must serve him alone; just so: for it follows, ye shall not go after other Gods, of the Gods of the people that are round about: served him, and no other God whatsoever. Why, then it is a clear aequipollencie in Logic, thou shalt serve him only. The Devil is most perverse and litigious, yet he never denied it.  
Thirdly, be satisfied yet further, that the 72 Translators, so called, having the right understanding of the Text, that God commandeth all glory, and worship, and divine service to himself without comperes or sharers, they render the Hebrew in those Greek words which our Saviour quoted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, him only shalt thou serve. Now all do yield that the five books of Moses were translated by those 72 Jews of great learning, 
Antiquit. lib. 12. c. 2.  whom Eleazar the Highpriest sent to Ptolemy Philadelphus for that purpse: So much both Philo and Josephus acknowledge, though they speak of no more. Occasion is taken from hence by some to cry up that Greek Translation of the Old Testament, because our Saviour allegeth these words as those Septuagint have made them up, and not as they are in the pure original Hebrew. I will not stand upon this Theme any long time, but say much in brief. First, that St. Paul lays a firm ground how the Jews had the Oracles of God committed to them, it was one of their National Privileges; therefore their tongue is the matrix and fountain from whence we are to expound what the Holy Ghost hath delivered in the Old Testament. I deny not but the Jews themselves might use the Copies of the Greek Language, for there were many of them, and some conjecture, that where we read of certain Hellenistae, 
Bolduc de Eccles. post legem c. 5.  Greeks that came to our Saviour in the Gospel, they were those Jews that rather used the Greek Translation than the Hebrew; perhaps being more easy to their capacities, for their common speech in those days was Syrian, and Hebrew was taught in Shoals as we teach Latin, therefore some suppose there was a Faction of Hellenists among them, they and the Scribes, who damned all Scripture which was not in their own Hebrew tongue, being upon all occasions at hot variance. So you find there was a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, Acts vi. 1. To return to my conclusion some Jews did not abhor to read their own Law in the Greek tongue, yet these were but a Faction; for when St. Paul says the Oracles of God were committed to them, and by way of high privilege, he must mean it of that idiom which their Fathers spoke, wherein it was first wrote, and whereof their learned men for the present were the Doctors. Secondly, though the Hebrew was, and is the authentic language for that part of Scripture, yet there was a most venerable Translation of it into Greek, which our Saviour, the Evangelists, and Apostles used: it kept the sense, yea the words of the Hebrew for the most part so exactly, that our Saviour, who taught the Law according to it, did say, one jot or title of the Law should not perish. St. Hierom says, if that Translation had been purely extant, he would have spared his own pains, and not have undergone so laborious a task to turn the whole Old Testament out of Hebrew into Latin. Thirdly, that pure Greek Translation was used by our Saviour (though not in Greek words but in Syriac) not as preferring it, or matching it with the original authentic Hebrew, but partly because it was most frequent, and most known, for they all spoke the Greek tongue in all the hither parts of Asia, after Alexander the great had exalted the Grecian Monarchy; partly to import, that a door of faith was now opened to the Gentiles, and that they should reap those heavenly things, since the Jews, thought themselves unworthy of them. Fourthly, this Greek Translation, which at this day goes under the name of the 72, is of far less value and authority than that which was so honoured with our Saviour's mouth: 
Praefat. in 1. lib. Paralip.  for I will believe St. Hierom in this case, being a most exact Linguist (rather than those Fathers that took languages upon trust) but thus Herald Germana illa antiqua translatio corrupta est, & violata, ac pro varietate regionum diversa feruntur exempla. That old genuine Translation was corrupted and violated: and several Copies of it were shown and used in several Kingdoms of the World. Enough of this, wherein I have laid down my mind briefly for the satisfaction of understanding Auditors, upon occasion that Christ cited these words, not barely as in the Hebrew, but with an addition, yet a clear and a natural addition, as it is in the Greek Translation; Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.  
Now to the positive Doctrine. Him only: his name can stand with no other name, and no other name can stand Colleague or Partner in his worship: it is an embasing of gold to join any other metal with it; how much more to say this Sacrifice, or this Altar; this Temple, or this sacred Service; this Vow or this Prayer shall be divided between the true God and some other supposed Deity? Did not He make man Lord only of all the Creatures, and him only after his own image and similitude; Did He not take man's nature only upon him? nusquam Angelos, He was not of the nature of Angels, but of the Seed of Abraham? Did He not redeem us only, and not the evil spirits, when we were as far lost as they. Finally, are they not our bodies only which He will raise from incorruption, and not the beasts? What, all this for us, and for us only? and yet do we halt between him and other Gods; as if we had some pious worship for him, and some for whom we think good beside: We are so free of our Religion forsooth, we cannot keep in bounds to him only. It would move our laughter to see a weak-brained man pay half his debt to his Creditor, and the other half to one where he never stood engaged: if this be ridiculous, then to pay our devotion to any thing in heaven or earth, which we owe all and entire to the God of heaven and earth, is both scornful and idolatrous: ille mihi & non alteri, ego illi & non alteri: well concluded of Bernard. He hath made us Christians alone his chosen people, therefore He shall be my King, to whom alone I will pay worship, and honour, and adoration. The wise men of the East that came a long journey to worship Christ, and laid down the offering of their homage at his feet, never opened their treasures, that we read, to give any Present to Herod: if you give a religious tribute to any other King, but to this alone, He disdains your payment. All or none, like the true Mother of the Child: and better give him two mites, if two mites be all we have, than give him a talon with Ananias and Saphira, if a talon be but half our inheritance. St. Austin asks why the Romans worshipped all kind of Idol Gods they ever heard of, but never worshipped the true God? He answers, because the false Gods, after the good fellowship of the world, loved company, and would permit any to be partners with them in adoration, the true God would be left out if there were any but himself: for it is against the nature of him that is infinite, almighty, incomprehensible to be equalled or matched in any thing.  
Religious honour and service is that retribution which a reasonable creature makes for the blessing wherewith it is blessed: Who is it that blesseth us with all manner of store? is not that easily answered; and it is as quickly rejoined; then let him only be worshipped. If there be any other created power, to whom you impart religious veneration, let him help you if he can when you stand in need, and go to the Gods whom you have chosen to seek for succour. Worship him all ye Gods, says David, Psal. xcvii. 7. No creature so great that can be greater than the name of a God: and whatsoever excellency it hath, yea the rather because it is very excellent above its fellows, it must kneel and bow to the supreme Majesty; Worship him all ye Gods. Why then infer, he that is to discharge divine honour, is not to be prosecuted with divine honour: religious worship belongs to him that owes service to none: nothing that we can suppose with a sound wit is like genus subalternum fit to worship, and fit to be worshipped; a thing that doth adore God, who is above him, and is adored of men that are beneath him: what perturbation were this in Religion? and Religion is as God himself is, pure order, and not confusion. There are some whom I glance at, who are not sound in this doctrine; yet think themselves as safe as under Ajax his Buckler with this distinction, that latria or the principal religious service is proper to God alone, but dulia a less principal religious service may be performed in good Christian sort to Angels and Saints, to their Relics, or to their Images, and they think there is such force in those words, that God must take that answer, for all it is written, him only shalt thou serve.  
I will put some diligence to the examination of this distinction; as first, how it came in use; then if those two words have any proper difference in their signification, and then what meaning there can be in it, that God should have one kind of religions worship done unto him, and the Creatures another. The words are both of them Greek, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and the first that attempted to distinguish them was St. Austin, whose praise is, that He was the most rational and intelligent writer for argument of all that lived in that flourishing age, but when he meddled with the tongues he was out of his Element. Erasmus cannot choose but smile at him sometimes in the margin, when he will forget himself, and tamper with Greek phrases, vide ut graecissat. Now this distinction must needs have weak hold, when a man of no skill was the inventor: tractent fabrilia fabri. Yet how was St. Austin put to it first to excogitate that way? I have searched it, and it was thus. Because there is some religious honour certainly due to God, which is incommunicable to any creature, the good Father laboured for a word which should be proper to this worship, and given to nothing else, that equivocations and ambiguities might not trouble his Doctrine. This was judiciously thought of; yet I told you before that all languages are defective in this point, no word which stands for religious worship, but is also promiscuously applied by good Authors to civil devoir and reverence. Finding no help for this in the Latin tongue, he borrowed the word latria from the Greek tongue to make it Latin, that it might signify no other worship, but that which is due to God: as if it could have lost its proper signification in the Greek by becoming Latin. Says he, Latria est cultus Deo debitus, qui in latino uno vocabulo nuncupari non potest: Now the use of all good Authors will not permit this, as I will show by and by. But by their leave that say they borrow of St. Austin, where doth he say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is another species of religious worship, which is divers from latria? I cannot find that, nor they neither: yes, it is extant, that He teacheth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an honour to be given to Angels and Saints: but doth he say, that honour is an inferior part of religious worship? at no hand; nor of religious worship. I believe mistakes have passed on both sides, 
Aquin. 2.2. qu. 103. ar. 3.  that worship hath been divided by our Divines into religious and civil, without further explication: for some acute wits have objected, that the honour given to a person is grounded upon some excellency in him, but excellency is threefold, therefore there must be a threefold honour or worship: there is the divine and infinite excellency of God, which requires an honour peculiar to itself of the highest strain; then there is humane excellency, consisting in such honour and reverenced qualities as men have, to which a civil reverence is to be paid. Between these there is another excellency which is supernatural, that grace and glory which the Angels and Saints have, here they demand that some honour above the ordinary civil garb should be paid to supernatural excellency: This I believe S. Austin for want of words called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but never meant it was a religious expression: But to make things clearer, I have divided worship before into three parts; the first is of most holy religion to God alone, the second of civil subjection to our Superiors, honour to whom honour belongeth, as the Apostle says; but the third must not be forgotten, when we give moral reverence to some (not upon the relation of being subject, and under them) for excellent endowments, so Kings have fallen down prostrate before Prophets, so Abraham bowed down to the three Angels; and this moral reverence is greater or less as we apprehend the person to have natural or supernatural excellency: This surely was St. Austin's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and so the meaning of his distinction is tolerable, but he states a difference in words which are not to be differenced, as I will declare it briefly.  
The words both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, either of them stand for all sort of worship confusedly, of religion, of moral reverence, and of civil subjection. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, each word in Eustathius denote a Servant, if there be any odds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the more enthralled and captivated Servant: for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the hired Servant a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which signifies the wages of an hired one. But an hirling is at his own choice, whether he will do a man's work or no: but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Bond servant, part of his Master's possession, he mustgirt him to his work and cannot avoid it: therefore we are God's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, his Servants that must do his will, his Bond-servants, we ought to obey him in all things, though He had covenanted to give us no wages. 'Tis the greater subjection, if you stand upon words, and therefore due to the greatest. I press further, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture stands not only for holy service, but for civil observance, Matth. xviii. that Servant that owed his Master more than he could pay, fell down and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he worshipped him: but evidently, Levit. xxiii. 3. The Seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, an holy Convocation, ye shall do no work therein, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, so it is in the 72. which must not stand for Religious, that is the day proper, but for secular tasks and businesses. Once again let me strike upon the same Pin, How often do both these words present unto us the same thing? Even Gods holy service, Rom. i. 9 God is my witness, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Whom I serve in the Spirit. In the same Epistle, Cham xuj. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they serve not our Lord Jesus Christ. And nothing more fairly marked out, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in a Religious relation is only due to God, than that Text, Gal. iv. 8. St. Paul tells the Galatians, that while they were Gentiles, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Ye served them that by nature were not Gods. The Argument is fixed on this, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 religiously belongs to the true God, and not to Angels, Saints, or any nuncupative Gods. So the Arrians were accused of Idolatry by Athanasius, because they professed to worship Christ, and yet confessed him not to be God eternal, coequal with his Father. They had no such distinction as latria and dulia to shift the Objection.  
I have been compelled to fight with words, I know with little profit to the ordinary hearer, but the skilful will bear me witness, these things could not well be omitted upon this Theme. Now I come to ponder the meaning of the distinction, yet no Pontifician whom I have read hath made a clear meaning of it. Yes, some will say, they hold latria is a supreme religious Adoration to be given to God alone; Dulia is an inferior religious worship aptly given to persons or things of some supernatural graces, or divine relations. That is, God hath his due reserved, the Angels, the Saints, and their Images, and Relics are worshipped Absque latria; which is to say in strictness of Grammar, they worship them without worship. For latria put in English is Worship. But I leave that, and demand, here are two Religious Worships in their Church, the one to God, the other to some of his Creatures, what belongs to the one that doth not to the other, if both be religious? Do they differ in degrees only? That the intention of the heart is bend more earnestly to honour the one, and with less zeal and ardour the other. That is no real difference, for so the same man praiseth God with more vehemency of spirit at one time than at another. Or is it diversified to be another species of Religious Worship, by performing the same external garb, and the like internal honour to the Creator, and to the Creature; but with this odds, that the Devotee doth apprehend God as an infinite essence, but the created substances as fellow Servants, and therefore no way to be worshipped above Servants with Godlike honour? This I think is all that can be said, I have read no more said for it; yet this is nothing, for so the understanding only conceives a different object, but it is not demonstrated, that the will or the body brings forth several acts of Worship. And it is enough to overthrow their error, if they would mark it, that they say, how they consider it is but a Creature which they adore with duly, or secondary religious Worship, for the foundation of all religious Worship is Excellentia infinita apprehensa sub ratione primi principii, & summi boni nostri; An infinite perfection of excellency, on which all things do depend for their first being, and for their last happiness. So St. Austin, Haec est religio Christiana, 
Tract. 23. in Johan.  ut non colatur nisi unus Deus, quia non fecit animam beatam nisi unus Deus; Religious prostration seeks out no object, but such as can make the soul blessed for ever, and that is the only Lord. St. Hilary, In maledicto est religio creaturae; 
De Trin. lib. 8.  All Religion done to a Creature is accursed. That Weathercock Spalatensis, after much search in antiquity, confesseth, that Nazianzen in the Greek Church, Gregory the Great in the Latin Church, knew of no other Religious Worship but that which is called Latria, 
Lib. 7. de. Rep. c. 12. num. 45. & 47.2.2. qu. ar. 8.  the veneration of God. Nay, their great Schoolman Aquinas, I will make him the Judge against himself, Religio est virtus exhibens famulatum Deo, in iis quae specialiter pertinent ad Deum; Religion is a virtue which doth perform all Ministry to God in those duties which peculiarly belong to God. Go now and say against all these reasons and testimonies, there is some kind of Religious Worship pertaining to a Creature. I have heard some interpret it thus, it is not denied but we are to give honour to the blessed Angels and Saints, yes verily, God forbid else. Then they encroach, that we are taught by our Religion to give them that honour; therefore that honour which we do give them is Religious. A most unlearned Assumption. Religion teacheth the Children to honour the Parents, yet it is not Religious honour, but Civil, that is given to our Parents. Religion teacheth a Mariner or Ploughman to follow his Calling diligently, yet those are not religious, but worldly businesses. Religious Worship is the actus elicitus, the immediate act which flows from Religion, but all other honest, civil Offices are actus imperati à latria; Actions wherein Religion governs us, and teacheth us, but they are not properly called religious. In a word, no such excellency can be apprehended in a Creature to have religious honour done unto it, for Religion binds the soul for ever to that it worships, and that is only to God. Therefore I conclude the first Dogmatical part of my Text, that Christ included all kind of religious honours, exempted none, when he said, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. And when the Pontificians profess to ascribe a Religious Dulia, but no Latria to a Creature, their Practice and their Doctrine cannot agree if they yield Religious Worship, of what kind soever, to any thing save unto the Lord our God; if it be not Idolatry, it is gross Superstition; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The glory of a pious heart be given to God alone, and not to God and the ever blessed Virgin joined together; as the Jesuits generally conclude all their Books with that Blasphemy.  
There is more of my task behind, though but little of it can be spent in this hour, to demolish the errors of them that have offended against this Imperial Law, Thou shalt worship, etc. Sundry false opinions have beaten upon these words as upon an Anvil; open enemies, and deceitful friends have risen up against it. Some are totally, some in half, some are quarter Idolaters, but the least corn of that sin is as heavy as a Millstone to plunge them without repentance into damnation. In many of the Errors to be refuted I will be at a word, and dispatch; in some I will insist the longer, where I find them worth my labour. Those transgressors that worship not God alone are of three sorts: The first are such as make another God than the Lord of heaven and earth in their own heart, and worship that invention. The second are they that kneel unto the true God, and yet reserve some part of Religious Worship for his glorified Creatures, as the Blessed Virgin, the Angels, the Saints both living and departed, both themselves, and their very Relics shall have some part of their Adoration. Thirdly, Beside the honour which they give to the invisible God, they find out a way to worship him in visible works of their own hands, in Images, in the figure of the Cross, in the Elements of the Lords Supper. All these are Aberrations, for there is but one truth against them all, Thou shalt worship the Lord, etc.  
First, God loseth all his honour at their hands that frame a new God in their own heart, and do all their service to it, like the Ephesians, that hallowed no other power in heaven and earth but a Goddess of their own acceptation, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. This is the most gross Idolatry of all other which professeth not the true God one whit, and professeth that to be a God which hath no subsistence, but the Metal of Gold or Silver, or any other stuff upon which the Artist exercised his invention. This is the foul and apparent transgression of the first Commandment, but to worship the true God in a manner contrary to that he hath commanded, in a piece of bread, or in an Image is Idolatry by reduction, and against the Second Commandment. But the transgression of the Heathen was most vicious that knew no God but the works of their own hands. The Scripture says, they sinned more grievously that worshipped Baalim than they that worshipped the true God in Jeroboams Calves: For Jehu called the Israelites that worshipped God in those Calves the worshippers of the Lord. But when Ahab was not content with that sin, but was seduced by his Wife Jezabel, who came of the Idolatrous Zidonians, says the Lord, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat, he went and served Baal, and worshipped him, 1 Kings xuj. 23. It is more pestilentious, you see, to worship a stark Idol than to worship the true God in an Idol, though both are abominable. But I will not speak of that stupid Idolatry of the Heathen, whose own folly hath laughed it out of the world, if the workman could have put life into his work, the Statue would have worshipped him for making it. All those puppet Gods are fallen down like Dagon of the Philistines; and the Jewish Writers observe well, that Dagons' feet and hands were broken off from his body, Parts adorationis abscissae sunt. The Philistines worshipped that stock with their bended knee, and their hands lifted up, therefore the Idol lost his hands and knees. Furthermore Dagon fell down upon his face, Non tantum jacens, sed super os jacens, ut videretur adorare arcam Domini; He was laid in a posture as if prostrate before the Ark of God; as if the Heathen, and all their vain inventions should be turned into the praise of the true God, Worship him all ye Gods. I will close this Point with a Paradox, They which most abhor all Pictures and Images at this day, they which hate them more than they should do, even in relation to civil use, commit great Idolatry in this first conclusion; for Jews and Turks, those I mean, worship not the true God, but a Figment of their own mind, I avouch it, what they adore is a mere Figment of their own; it is not a Creature, that they deny, and very truly; neither is it the Creator and Lord of all things, for they do not worship Three Persons in Trinity, and one God in Unity. This is the most subtle and pernicious kind of Idolatry of all others; the more pernicious because so hardly discerned. But thus I have made good by Paradox, They that hate all Images are the greatest Idolaters.  
I proceed to the second Tribe of them whom I indicted of Idolatry, even those that know the true God, and serve him, but yet allow a modification of Religious Worship to some of his Creatures. In the censure of this Crime I will begin with that sin which is most to be detested. Satan had an eye upon Idolaters that some worshipped the Elements, and built Temples to the Fire, to the Water, and Earth, and made themselves Priests for those abuses: Some kneeled unto the Sun and Moon; the Children gathered sticks, the Fathers made the fire, and the Women made Cakes to the Queen of heaven, that is, to the Sun, which was a Feminine Idol, and is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in St. Paul. Nay, Satan had traced out that Angels were adored by some superstitious, therefore being puffed that he was a most excellent Creature in his Essence, and none of the least Angels, he demands worship of our Saviour, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. This Idolatry which, he would have, is so rank above all other, that it smells of the very fire and brimstone of Hell. Because St. Paul says what the Gentiles sacrifice to Idols they sacrifice to Devils, some of the Fathers expound it, that the Devils lurked invisibly in Idols that were worshipped, so they themselves at the second hand were worshipped in Idols. He may lurch homage by those slights, but I do almost doubt whether it be possible for any man to be so intoxicated and seduced as directly to honour the Devil. For my part I give no credit to such stories as are written of the Indians in Calicut. They that write Cosmography or Navigations leaze up such reports from Seamen and Mariners, and may be fit to be read in a sleepy day, but never to be believed. Those Indians they write of are a most ingenuous witty people in all Manufacture that comes from them, and I cannot think them of such a dark capacity in Religion, to worship that odious Fiend of Hell. Marry if there be such among them as are Witches and Sorcerers, though Satan croucheth to such, and is commanded by them, yet they be Idolaters in a most high delinquency, because they compact with the Devil, yea, and are sealed to him by certain Characters.  
For the Children of God are received into Covenant with God, first by Circumcision, then by Baptism, therefore obliquely they take the Devil for a God, who enter Covenant with him by marks in the flesh, or any other sign, as it were in imitation of a Sacrament. And it makes it worship according to the true properties of Worship, when they take his promises for some benefits to be received, and reciprocally return him promises of obedience. This is to attribute verity to Satan, that he will do what he says, and power that he can bring extraordinary effects to pass, and so they worship him both by faith and confederation. These are they against whom Moses speaks so often in the Law, that they must not be suffered to live if they be detected; he had been brought up in all the learning of the Egyptians, and knew the ways of their most accursed Sorcerers. And because every one baptised unto Christ doth detest this sin from the bottom of his heart to give honour to the Devil, therefore look to it that you do not touch the skirts of it before you are aware by Ignorance, Perverseness, or Curiosity. It is idolising of the Devil to consult with those for any satisfaction, whom we suspect to have confederacy with the Devil, whether they have or no. There shall not be found among you a Consulter with familiar Spirits, or with a Wizard, or a Necromancer, Deut. xviii. 11. It is Idolising of him to use divinations by dreams, by calling on the dead, by the tunes of birds, by Lots, and generally by all such means as are not directly natural, or appointed by God to find out the truth. Many things are Diabolical where there hath not passed any Diabolical communication: And in such things where you offer no service to Satan, yet you busy yourself, before you take heed, with the Art and Spirit of Satan. You would think it were rigid Divinity to say, that it was in some wise an Idolising of the Devil to expel Aches and Diseases by Charms, and strange words which you understood not? What do you know but that Satan may be secretly called upon in those words, when you think you do nothing less than call upon him? That great Divine Zanchius confesseth of himself, 
Zanch. de Redemp. p. 674.  that he rid himself of the Toothache by muttering certain strange Lines which he was taught in Italy: But he repented him for the fact, because, for aught he knew, it was the Devil's receipt, for God and Nature never appointed such remedies to cure diseases. And so much be spoken against the idolising the worst of all God's Creatures the Devil.  
Nor are the best of his Creatures to be honoured with Religious Worship, no not good Angels, nor Saints, living or departed. I must not spare any that wander from my Text; for God himself is the complete and entire Object of all Religious Worship, Him only shalt thou serve. Show me where the Church is bidden to adore Angels with divine Adoration. What so much writing and zeal to maintain that, so much fury to bid Anathema to them that dislike it, and yet no exhortation in all the Bible to commend it. Was ever any punished by God for default that way? Any one so much as checked or quarrelled for it? The Letter of the Scripture presseth upon all things else to the least scruple if they be forgotten. If God's House be not honoured, if his Tithes be not paid, if his Prophets be evil entreated; yet for the religious reverencing of Angels not one word of expostulation to advance it in the Law or Gospel. Nay, St. Paul says, they that teach the worshipping of Angels do but beguile you with voluntary humility, Col. two. 18. O, say the Rhemists, if any should attribute such pious culture to the Angels as Simon Magus did, making them equal with God, than he is within the reprehension of that Text. A frothy evasion, for who regards what Simon Magus did? The Apostle gives us a general caution, That we be not beguiled by worshipping of Angels. Is there no trespass unless they be equalised with God? Then the Platonics taught good divinity, for they worshipped their Daemons or Angels, not as the first causes of all things, but as Spirits employed by the first Principle of the world. If an Angel from heaven teach the same doctrine in his own case which Paul did, surely two such Witnesses both in one tale cannot be refused. The instance is more beaten than any high way, Rev. nineteen. 10. St. John certainly being even beside himself with the excellency of Revelation, fell at an Angel's feet to worship him, who said unto him, See thou do it not. I leave it to your judgements if this be not a monstrous prevarication of Bellarmine's, That the Angel might have accepted that dutiful homage, if he had pleased, and did not make shy of it before Christ was incarnate, but in honour of our Lord's incarnation, who took our nature upon him, Angels from thenceforth will not be religiously worshipped by men. Therefore we do what becomes us when we fall down to worship Angels, and Angels do what becomes them when they refuse it; thus Herald But, I beseech you, if learned men may take such leave to interpret Scripture, they may turn it to any thing. Doth the Angel say any such thing to John, that the times were altered, human nature was now more precious than before, and grown too good for such servile observance: No, but very plainly in the Text, See thou do it not to me, I am thy fellow-servant, worship God.  
Mark both his reasons, first, I am thy fellow-servant. Fellow servants are to worship one Master together, not one to worship the other. Yes, says the Adversary, hereafter we shall worship together in the Church Triumphant, and be styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Why, we have the same excellency and beatitude which then shall be revealed in a lively faith, and a steadfast hope. And if they shall be less honoured of us hereafter than now, the Angels should lose honour by our being exalted into heaven. Nay, 
Lib. de ver. relig. cap. 55.  rather their glory shall be increased to requite that sedulous care which they had over us here against the tyranny of the world and the devil. I will wish no other Author but St. Austin to speak on my side, says he, Let us believe that the best Angels, and most excellent ministering spirits do desire that we may worship one God together with them. Honoramus eos charitate non servitute; That is, we love them for their good will, we do not serve them, Nec eis templa construimus, they would not be so honoured of us, for they know, none better, if we be holy, we ourselves are the Temples of the Holy Ghost. This we have learned out of the first reason, what the Angel meant, Fall not down before me, I am thy fellow-servant. Beside it is added, Worship God. Can any question be made but St. John would worship God? Surely he was not to be taught that: No, but he was to be roused out of an ecstasy, that God only is to be adored with a sanctified fear, and no Creature. It is easy to cast a scruple in any man's way, so the Pontificians give us an objection to pick, Josh. v. 14. A man stood over against Joshuah with a drawn Sword; Joshuah demands, Art thou for us, or for our Adversaries? The supposed man replies, Nay, but a Captain of the Host of the Lord am I now come. Then Joshuah fell on his face to the earth, and did worship. First, the Antagonist presumes, without all suspicion of denial, that Joshuah did worship the Angel. But the Text says no more than as soon as he knew God had sent him a Captain from heaven he did worship: But if it were Religious Worship it was done not to the Angel, but unto Gods upon the coming of the Angel. When such things come before us as are signs of God's presence and grace, of his mission and institution (not of our own invention, beware that) it is good pious devotion to fall down and worship God when those things are before us. As it is most laudable in us to kneel, not to the outward Elements upon the Lord's Table, but unto God at the receiving of Christ in those Elements. So Moses probably fell down at or before the burning bush where God spoke. When the fire came down from heaven to consume the Sacrifice, it was a sign of the Lords special presence, and the people fell down and worshipped, 2. Chron. seven. 3. Thus Joshuah seeing the Captain of God's Host come to succour him fell down and praised the Lord. This answer I dare build upon; yet if it were extorted, that either Joshuah worshipped this Angel, or Balaam that other Angel, who bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face, Num. xxii. 31. It is not, or ever will be proved, that these were religious Adorations, but very great moral reverence done unto them, more than to any men on earth, according to their Celestial and Supernatural excellency. But Angels are not to be religiously worshipped in heaven, why then on earth? Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and that is in this precept, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.  
Yet a few words before I end. To adore the Eucharist, the Relics of Saints, the Figure of the Cross, or Images of Christ and his Servants departed is to commit Idolatry with inanimate things; those being all alike in that, I will keep that bundle of Tares for another occasion. But the superstitious worshipping of Saints is so near of kin to that of Angels, against which I concluded before, that the same Notions I used before, and a little added, will clearly condemn it. We must not think more divinely of a Creature than a Creature is capable. And even in this we have cause to bless God that our Religion is repurged from most strong defilements, that our common Prayers have none of those blasphemies, which some chant over to the most glorious Virgin the Mother of our Lord. And all this happens that they impute more Divinity unto her, then is competent to a Creature. So the Heathenish Lycaonians saw that Paul and Barnabas were men, but they thought some Divinity did inhabit them such as is in God. Certainly, so the good Centurion Cornelius was mistaken, for he gave unto Peter both civil observance as unto a man: But because the Lord did bid him send for Peter for his souls Salvation, he thought there was a genius in him above a Creature. Otherwise Peter had not corrected the reverence he did him, with those words, Stand up, I myself also am a man, Acts x. 26. His cogitation had apprehended some divineness in Peter, which made him commit a religious prostration for which he was rebuked. And indeed an opinion is bread in the superstitious touching the Saints departed, that there is more Divineness in them than they can receive, else they would not bow down themselves to the mention of their names, and make supplications unto them. When I commend myself to the Prayers of any man upon earth, I attribute nothing unto him falsely as divine, he hath ears to hear me, he hath memory, faith, and chariry to commend his brethren to God: But when I do the like to the Saints (granting the distinction that they call upon them to intercede, not to perform their request) but when I do the like to them, I make them stand in the place of God, to hear all men every where at once perhaps lifting up their voice, nay, perchance no more than the thought of their heart unto them. Solius Dei proprium est ubique omnes audire & exandire; It is the excellency of God alone to hear, and attend to all men in all places at once. Therefore he makes an Idol of that Saint, in whom he supposeth as much virtue and excellency to hear him (how much soever distant) as is in God himself. I omit burning Incense to their Shrines, making Pilgrimages to their Sepulchers. Building Churches, wherein their memory may be worshipped and invoked; And making Vows in their names, which is one of the flowers of God's eternal royalty. They that are such earnest devoties to Creatures, and think there is not work enough for a Christian to worship God alone, deserve that gross delusion, which hath started from some of their own Confessions that many names are enroled for glorified Saints, and great Patrons of the Church, whose souls are tormented in Hell. Let God be worshipped for the holy Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs departed, so shall we ourselves, we trust, one day have a place in that Celestial Choir, where the Lord our God is only worshipped, and he only served day and night without ceasing. AMEN.   

THE TWENTIETH SERMON UPON Our Saviour's Tentation.  MAT. iv. 10. 
Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.  
I Am come to this Text again in the zeal of Elias, to let no kind of Idolater be unrebuked, that doth not worship the Lord, and serve him only, according to these words, which were Law at first, and our Saviour by reciting them hath made them Gospel: Take the Priests of Baal, says that holy man, and let not one of them escape, 1 King. xviii. 40. I will trace his steps in this cause, and will rather be a man of contention, as Jeremy became, by taking the Lords part, then suffer Rags and Relics, Stocks and Stones to have an attractive virtue more than magnetical, to draw religious honour and adoration unto them. If men would hold their peace, these things which I now proceed to arraign and condemn for having holy worship done unto them, have no tongues to defend themselves. They are not Angels or Saints departed, they have neither life nor motion in them, neither the Cedar that grows in Libanus, nor the Hisop that grows on the top of the wall; but the Trunk of the Cedar, and such other things as Art hath made unfit for any further benefit of nature. 'Tis strange that sharp-witted men will take pains to extol such dull inanimate things as can never thank them. And concerning inanimate liveless things, how superstitiously such glory, as belongeth to God alone, hath been imparted unto them, I shall spend my labours at this time: for concerning rank Heathen Idol Gods, imaginaries Deities, and concerning the Host of Heaven above, and the Spirits of darkness beneath, how they are idolised by some, I have maintained the judgement of our Church before. But our quarrel against the Pontificians to vindicate all religious worship latrical and dulical to the Lord of Heaven alone, is, like a Suit in Law that holds many Terms, as long a quarrel as upon any other common place in all Divinity. I am in hand at this time with the same Controversy again, to protest against four things; namely 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Religious adoration of the Relics of Saints; 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Religious adoration of the Elements in the Lord's Supper; 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Religious adoration of the Sign of the Cross, and that most stiffly and impudently maintained; 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Worship of Pictures and Images, whether resembling Christ or his Saints. Woe is it for the Church of Christ, that we must spend an hour in these dissensions: but what peace can there be while these Idolatries are maintained under the name of great devotion, and anathema denounced against them that cry out for the Lord, and for his Christ, to them glory and worship, and to none but them. And now I have sounded the trumpet to this battle, I betake me to the particulars propounded: First that Religious adoration of Relics confronts the verity of my Text, etc.  
But in the Exordium if any one shall ask how do our Opposites worship or serve Relics, or any of the aforenamed? I will satisfy him, that for the intentions of their heart in their inward reverence towards these things we could not accuse them but that they profess and teach, it is religious and holy honour; for if it were no more than precious estimation to some of those things, we would not disfavour their practice, but consent unto it: and for their outward behaviour which expresseth the affections within, judge if this be not to worship; to kneel unto, to kiss those things, to prostrate the body, to hold up the hands and eyes, and uncover the head before them; judge also if this be not serving of them, censing of perfumes in those places, lighting candles to honour them, adorning with the richest cost of jewels and gold, Circumgestation, Procession, Supplication, Festival days appointed for their service; and, as much as all these, Guilds and Religious Orders appointed to attend them: This is square and open dealing, that I impute Idolatry and Will-worship unto them upon grounds of practice and confession. Nay, I have not said all, no not by half, touching that over respect which is done to the Relics of Christ and his Saints: They exalt them above the Altar: St. Ambrose thought it a great honour for himself, or any deceased Bishop, to lie under the Altar: they call that adoration which is given to them meritorious. The Priests teach the people, that there is a kind of grace communicated to those Relics, they take Pilgrimages to them, swear by them, carry parts about as Prophylacticks against bodily and ghostly evil, and pronounce indulgence for venial sins to them that fall down and worship them. Beside the main sin, see the uncertainty of all this: Of Saints they have mightily multiplied the number, and of their Relics far more than is possible to belong unto them. Yet it is impossible to know by faith who are Saints deceased, but those whose memorial is recorded in Scripture; and for their Relics it is not denied, they are conjectured at by mere humane credulity: The bones of a Varlet may be carried in procession for the bones of a Martyr; decem millia talium rerum Romae fiunt, says L. Valla, Ten thousand such cheats are done at Rome, yet he a Romanist that said it. But these Impostures are maintained, as Demetrius busled for the silver Shrines of Diana, because the custody of Relics brings in more gain than the Revenue of a rich Archbishopric to places much frequented.  
These Trinkets that we speak of are of two sorts: First some external things of apparel, habitation, or some other civil use belonging (as they spread the rumour) to Christ, to his Apostles, or some glorious Martyrs or Confessors: Far be it from us to gainsay, but such things, if they be right, are very venerable, both for those that once possessed them, and for their very antiquity: whatsoever thing hath belonged to a person of noted worth deserves a valuable esteem for the owner's sake. The story is in Aelian, that some studious Scholars bade great sums of money for an earthen Candlestick that had been Epictetus the Philosopher's: the victorious Sword of Edward the Third is a monument among us; how much more preciously and charily would we preserve such parcels as could be derived from Christ, and his most holy Saints? at least this negative honour should be done, not to dishonour them, to burn them, and sport ourselves with the ashes, as we are often slandered. But at this point we make a stand, and detest it, where Religious worship is offered to them. For what should win us to the other opinion? I know not; O there is sanctity in all such things which those admired Worthies of God did wear or use! what in all them? I know, when Christ pleased, virtue did go out of him to the very hemm of his Garment: it was not a natural or physical virtue which went necessarily from him, as fire heats the air, or a man's body the garments upon him: whatsoever Christ assumed for ordinary uses and conveniencies as He was man, it had not holiness imprinted in it: not the Beast He road on, or the Ship He preached in, or the ground He trod, or a thousand things more: He sanctified only where it was his express pleasure to sanctify. But grant all things about him to be sanctified, yet nothing but himself to be adored. For sanctification is either essential, and that is only in God, or rather God himself; God is holiness, and that is to be worshipped: or it is created sanctity, and then it is either that infused and inherent holiness which is in the hearts of good men; or it is that relative sanctity by which some things are called holy as applied to holy uses, the Church, the Lords Table, the Font, and many things beside are called holy in that low respect. Do any of these deserve adoration for that use? I trow not; but the garments or other utensils of holy men were never called holy for that relation, which is merely civil and secular. The Handkerchiefs and Aprons which were brought from Paul's body, and cured diseases, is only urged for this purpose out of of Scripture, Acts nineteen. 2. 'Tis true that the Vestments of Paul did cure diseases by miracle where he was absent, that they which were absent might admire his doctrine, though they did not hear it from his mouth: Here's a miracle, that's apparent, but here is no adoration, that's falsely presumed. Every thing which God made the instrument of a miracle, He made it not for an object to be worshipped. I will clear that upon the next instance  
Which concerns the bones, or other parts of the body of Martyrs deceased. 

Anno Christi 55.  
August. l. 22. de Civ. Dei. c. 8.   Baronius reckons up in his Annals many Legends, what miracles came to pass at the Sepulchers of the dead that died in the Lord: the very Oil that burned in the lamps before their Sepulture cured sundry sicknesses: The very flowers that touched the Coffin of St. Stephen restored many weak persons in the very age of St. Ambrose and St. Austin; both of them testify, that a blind man received his sight coming to the Burial-place of Gervasius and Protasius. Well, it shall not be denied that God wrought these mighty signs and wonders at their Sepulchers, to commend that faith which they maintained so constantly to the death; not as if there were any celestial virtue in their dust and ashes, much less to point them out thereby to be glorified with religious worship. Surely if God meant any such branch of holy service unto them, their living bodies had deserved it, rather than their dead, when they carried the Image and similitude of their Maker: and still I retort, that miracles are no warrants for adoration: else the Waters of Jordan that cured Naaman of his leprosy, the Waters in the Law that discovered to the jealous Husband whether his Wife were false or loyal, the Clay that was daubed upon the Blindman's eyes, all these should be adored. And I step in upon them further, that the Reformed Churches do more honour the dead bodies of the Saints than they: we carry them to the Grave with Christian reverence, and decently inter them in assured hope of the Resurrection. They do that to the Saints which God said he would do to his Enemies, dig up their bones from their Sepulchers: Thou art cast out of the grave like an abominable branch, Isa. xiv. 19 Elisha's bones lay quiet, unremoved, not taken out for adoration, for pomp or lucre, albeit a dead corpse was raised to life that touched them. Moses carried Joseph's bones out of Egypt into the Land of promise; they were preserved 300 years unburied in the Coffin by prophetical instinct, to confirm the faith of the Children of Israel, that they should return out of bondage into the land from whence their Fathers came: Now these bones were never taken out of their Grave, but carried to their Grave by that divine Moses, and all the Princes of the people. And what says St. Austin of Moses himself? Deus ipse Mosis corpus honoravit, dum illud propriis manibus sepelivit, God did honour the body of Moses, because He buried it with his own hands. If the people might have honoured Moses bones, why were they hid out of the way, that no man knoweth of his burial place to this day? The devotion of good times (yet I know not whether it were too far) took up the Carcases of Martyrs which were interred in meaner places, to carry them to the Cathedral Churches of Imperial Cities. So Constantine the Great caused the bones of St. Andrew, Luke, and Timothy to be conveyed, and that in solemn Procession from their first obscure Burial-places to his own City▪ (I believe this was it which moved Vigilantius first to contest against the Relics of Saints) yet these were enclosed in the earth again, and not denied a quiet Grave, that they might be kissed and worshipped. What need more testimony than St. Hierom, who spoke as ho●ly for the due respect to be had to Saints Relics, as ever any did, yet he states the controversy against Vigilantius thus, Nos martyrum reliquias nec colimus, nec adoramus, sed honoramus; We neither worship nor adore the Relics of Martyrs, but honour them. Now decent burial is the honour of their bones, as I proved before; and so much for that point.  
In the next place, as Christ urged my Text against Satan, so I do allege it against them that profess a superstitious adoration of the Cross: for the very Cross on which Christ suffered hangs so near to the former Treatise, that it is accounted the very Flower of Relics: Prima crux non modò inter imagines, 
3a P. qu. 25. art. 4.  sed etiam inter reliquias habenda est, says Aquinas, the first Cross of all stands both for an Image, and for a Relic to be adored. The Pontifician Authors have emulated one another, who should say most for the Worship of the Cross: deterior qui vicerit, he that hath gone farthest hath wrote foulest. Aquinas speaks all at a breath, that it behoves to give it latriam, the highest religious service which is given to God, cum habitudine & relatione ad prototypum, with importance and relation to the Prototype that suffered upon it. Turrecremata finds out three ways to worship the Cross, either as it represents Christ's arms stretched out, and himself suffering, or as it was honoured by touching his very body, or as in some places his blood was sprinkled upon it. So Turrecremata leavs it, but one Salesius (quoted truly by Chamierus I make no question) thus disposeth it: 
Chamierus, tom. 2. lib. 22. c. 2.  Ordinary Crosses, exemplified by the first, are to be adored as all Images. The very first Cross, as it is a Relic of Christ, is to be worshipped with the adoration of hyperdulia, but as it represents Christ crucified, and is sprinkled with his blood, it deserves latria, the same worship that Christ himself hath: thus that Salesius. Costerus hath a crotchet by himself: 1. That every Cross must have more veneration given it than the Images of the Saints. 2. That which had Christ nailed upon it must have a more precious religious veneration than all Creatures: but where a drop of Christ's blood shall appear to have coloured it, there not the wood of the Cross, but Christ in that drop of blood is to be adored. Thus they all study, as it seems to me, which of them by the acuteness of his learning should run furthest into Idolatry.  
Here is zeal, as it seems, but not according to Scripture, that's not once thought of in all these conclusions: That one word is enough to dash all their sophistry; but to tear all their devices piece-meal, listen briefly. First, the Figure of the Cross represents our Lord as He died for our sins. I deny that, it represents not him in the matter or in the figure; it may represent the sufferings of sundry others, yet if by use and often remembrance it doth more especially recall his passion to our mind, it is no more to be adored than the word which is preached upon the same occasion: But if I should swallow that, how it exemplifies unto us Christ crucified, that comes not home to the mark, that it is fit to be adored. The Brazen Serpent prefigured how Christ should be lifted up, and die upon a tree, yet when the people fell down before it Hezekiah made it away, and would not suffer it. And how hath it necessarily merited religious honour because our Saviour's body touched it? happy were they that saw him, and touched him by faith; but it was no happiness to Judas lips, to the Executioners arms that lifted him, to the thorns that sat close upon his brows, or to the wood that bore his body. And whereas they make great reckoning that some of that blood which saved us was to be seen where it had run down upon his Cross, I answer with reverence, that if mine eyes were so happy to see any true tokens of my dear Redeemers blood, I would bless God with all humility of heart and body to behold a drop of that stream which flowed from my Saviour, that my poor eyes should see part of the richest ransom that ever the world had; but I must not give it divine worship. For ancient Councils tell me, the Humanity of Christ ought to have divine honour done unto it, as united personally to the Godhead; therefore those drops of blood divided from the unity of his person were not religiously to be honoured.  
It is easy to multiply fluent phrases on their side, as that the Cross was the Chariot in which our Lord triumphed over death, the Ladder upon which he chose to go up to heaven: that wood once accursed, in which He took away all malediction from us. Well, all this is as if you had said, that the Cross by accident was an instrument of his glory and our salvation, as much as the nails were, and no more. It was not the Cross that made him triumph, but the Death He sustained on the Cross: for by death he overcame death, I said they did not once quote Scripture in all this Argument, but a few of their loose rovers, venture at the xxiv. of Matth 30. Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven. It is worth the sifting to answer it: What if that be an Hebraism, as some say it is, that the sign of the Son of man is the Son of man himself, signantèr & perspicuè venturus, most evidently and expressly coming in the Heavens to judge the world; or if with more likelihood the Sign of Christ is not Christ himself, yet whether the Apostle means the wounds in his Body or his Cross; or it may be a strange Star, such as appeared at his Birth, who knows? but here's no hint of Adoration; no matter for the rest, be it what you will. But the last refuge is to betake them to Legends and strange stories, especially in two instances, I will not cloy you with them at large: but first we are told how Helen, the renown of our Brittany in her age, and the Mother of Constantine, had a divine admonishment how to find the Cross which had been lost above three hundred years: And long after when the Pagans had taken it by violence from the Christians, that Heraclius the Emperor fought with Chosroes and his Persians to recover it, and that stones from heaven fell upon the Persians; never the like seen but once in the days of Joshua. Touching the Invention of the Cross by Helena, though St. Ambrose speaks of it, yet it sticks hard with me to believe it, because Eusebius omits it, who spoke of other renowned works of Helen's, and how Constantine her Son found out the Holy Sepulchre; but let it have credit, and that of Heraclius too, though both deservedly suspected. What will it come to? the Book of the Law was as strangely found out by Josiah, and more certainly, yet never adored. Elizeus his bones were found by casting a dead man into his Grave, and nothing followed: Yea, Saul found out his Father's Asses by divine admonition. And for the miraculous and victorious recovery of it from the Persians, remember how powerful and wonderfully God made the Philistines restore the Ark again, but far from any purpose to have it religiously worshipped. The material Figure of the Cross was never in common use till Constantine's days, than it was reared up as the Trophy of Christ, who had subdued all things to himself. Indeed the transient Sign of the Cross, striking their hand or finger thwart through the air was in great use in very ancient times: (that you know being a transient whiffing of the hand could not be adored) but they used it to keep safeguard over every member of their body, and to drive away Devils. They had some cause I suppose to make an operative sign of it in those days, when God was present with them by miracles. Our reason and experience tells us that now they are ceased, so that we step not after them in that imitation. And being but an adiaphorus Ceremony, they are too blame that affect it in our Church, further than where it is commanded in Baptism: for I do ever guide myself in this case by that rule which St. Austin says St. Ambrose taught him, use such Ceremonies, and no other, as that particular Church hath appointed wherein you are: there are no banks to keep us in order, if that be contradicted.  
This may suffice to be spoken against them that deceive themselves in voluntary humility, and worship toward the Cross of Christ; to maintain which superstition the Pontificians contend sharply with words: to uphold the next Idolatrous Tenet they have fought against us cruelly with fire and sword; 'tis their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, their adoring the Bread or Wafer-cake consecrated, but they say transubstantiated in the Lord's Supper. This opinion is their Basilisk that hath murdered so many holy Martyrs, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that set their hearts against it. To make their Divinity seem devout and plausible, it walks upon two crutches. First it claims right from the new Philosophy of Transubstantiation, saying that Christ in his whole manhood is carnally and corporeally there under the species of the Elements. Secondly, that the Lords Supper is not only a Sacrament, wherein Christ gave himself in bread and wine to his Disciples, but also a Sacrifice, offering himself under those Elements, or their species to his Father at that time, upon which far-rooted error the Priest doth offer Christ every day to God in the Mass, and having it in his belief, that it is an Expiatory Sacrifice both for quick and dead, all that are present fall down at the Elevation, and worship the Hostia: But if there be neither Transubstantiation, nor any such external Expiatory Sacrifice in the Lord's Supper, their practice without more question is confessed Idolatry.  
I will not take a large swing to dispute upon such copious matters, but briefly by what conjecture or divination can the wit of man make a Sacrifice of it? Did Christ do any more than give thanks and bless the Elements, and then broke and gave to his Disciples to eat, and bade them do the like for ever in remembrance of him? upon which of these clauses can a Sacrifice be grounded? St. Paul says it is appointed unto men once to die, 
Heb. ix. 28.  so (that is by death) Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. Attend, says the Adversary, He offered himself but once, the Priest may offer him oftener; nay, but if he offered himself to his Father in his last Supper, and again at his death upon the Cross, He must offer himself twice, and that's repugnant to Scripture: But we are told the Paschal Lamb was both Sacrament and Sacrifice; it is not denied; yet thus it is truly resolved. As the Paschal Lamb was ordained to be eaten in remembrance of Deliverance and Redemption, so it answers to the Lords Supper: but as the Beast was a bloody Sacrifice slain to God, so it answers to Christ on the Cross: the Scripture confirms it; for when Christ was dead before the Soldiers came to break his legs, the Type of the Paschal Lamb is called to mind, not a bone of him shall be broken. But were it a Sacrifice, as it is but the Commemoration of a Sacrifice, yet it proves not adoration; it hangs all upon the slender thread of Transubstantiation, which will quickly break, as when a spark of fire lights upon a thread of Flax. 
1 Cor. xi.  For St. Paul calls it bread five times in one Chapter after Consecratian: This doth not evince us, say the Romanists; for there are examples to match this, that many things converted into new substances carry their former names. Aaron's rod, which became a serpent is yet called a rod. Adam saith of Eve, she was bone of his bone. The Governor is said to taste of the water which was made wine: so St. Paul calls the Host bread, because it had been bread, yet after consecration it is not. Well, I say these instances are not matches. First, Eve was made out of the bone, the serpent of the substance of the rod, the wine of the substance of water; and therefore propter materiam ex quâ they are called Synechdochically, what they had been: but is Christ's body made of the bread productiuè? (so they were wont to speak indeed) than it is not that Christ who was made of the substance of the blessed Virgin, for their Christ is made out of bread. No, now they philosophise that it is adductiuè, all the substance of bread is annihilated, and Christ's body fills that place which it had. Secondly, in the rod, in that bone, in the water when the substances were changed new accidents resulted from the new form, but here are the accidents of bread and wine palpable to all the senses. Surely if God by his omnipotency would cause the colour, and taste, and scent, and moisture, and thickness of bread and wine to be there without their substances, He would have given that gift to the faithful receivers, that they should have tasted none of those creatures to contradict his mighty work; which were a far less miracle than the other.  
And how can they so abstract, but they shall terminate religious worship to the external species of bread! if they look upon it, and thereby remember Christ's Passion, and fall down to glorify him for his benefits, so will we: but they profess Christ's body to be in the Priest's hand, and there they worship him; then the accidents of the Elements which remain are part of the Object which they adore: a man may idolise mere colours, I am sure, where there is no substance; as a Rainbow which is nothing but shadows of colours by reflection, may be idolised. The word which we hear preached is to be reverently received, yet not adored: now the Sacrament is but verbum visibile, the Gospel of faith, as well made visible to the eye, as audible to the ear; and God forbid but we should receive it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as St. Paul says, worthily, with due expression of outward, as well as zealous intention of inward reverence. Behold the creatures of bread and wine, non quà sunt, sed quà significant; not as they are elementary food, but as they are significant of greater things. And for that significancy we bend our knees in the receiving to our Lord Jesus Christ; not to do honour to the Elements; let none be so simple or so uncharitable to say it, nor to any visible thing present; but to the Immortal God who hath saved us by the blood of his Son, as of a lamb undefiled. Now upon the taking of the bread and wine not absolute necessity, but decency and order call for the duty of our knee. The visible Sacrament is objectum adorationis à quo, non ad quod: upon occasion of seeing those things we do worship, but the worship is not terminated to those things. The people of Israel for certain worshipped before the Ark: was the Ark any better sign of God's presence, than the Bread and Wine are of the Body and Blood of Christ? The Ark was called Jehovah, so those Elements are called his Body and Blood for the representation and Sacramental relation. Throughout all the Old Testament wheresoever the people of God had notice of the divine presence and grace in signs ordinary and extraordinary they have with free conscience bowed down and worshipped. Moses fell down to God when he saw the fire in the Bush. Joshuah worshipped not the Angel, but Jehovah at the sight of the Angel, Josh. v. The people fell down and worshipped when they saw the fire from heaven fall on the Sacrifice, 2 Chron. seven. 3. Nay, Ezra cast himself down before the House of God, when there was no House standing, but the remembrance of the place. What if a devout man walking through goodly Fields of standing corn, and marking those plentiful blessings should uncover his head, yea and kneel to give God thanks? were not this well done? much more (though not any worship is done to the bread) when he sees that bread, in which by faith he receives Christ and all his benefits. I will follow this point no further: happy is he that believes, and doth neither commit Idolatry to the outward Elements, nor grudge at due and devout reverence to be done at the most Holy Supper of the Lord.  
Methinks now our last business of all touching the worshipping of Images should be but sport to skirmish with Babies and Puppies, like the fray that is spoken of between the Cranes and the Pigmies. O strong delusions in the hearts of men, that there should be any cause to contest with Christians in such a Controversy! Blasphemy, Witchcraft, Murder are not more plainly condemned in Scripture, than to set up an Image for adoration: and if Gods own words uttered with his own mouth from Mount Sinai in thunder and lightning will not serve the turn, to what end is it to dispute or preach against it? but for Zions sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest. The worshipping of Images is accounted no slender Ceremony among the Romanists, but a branch of Religion wherein they show great zeal to God and the Saints. The Tridentine Catechism provides that the catechised in their childhood should learn this (for Catechisms are principally for youth) that it is not only lawful to have Pictures and Images in Churches, (wherein they see we assent so far) but to exhibit honour and worship unto them. Parochus sanctorum imagines in templis positas demonstrabit ut colantur, left the people should think the Images stand in the wall for a cipher, or for bare ornament, the Parish Priest shall admonish his Flock that they stand there to be worshipped. So Cajetan: those stand not for fashion sake only in the Church, like the Cherubins in Solomon's Temple, 
Cajet. in 3. Thom. q. 25. art. 3.  merely to be looked upon, but to be adored: and this is upheld with so much vehemency, that they accurse all such as oppose it, and with so much cruelty that we learn out of their own story, that Balthasar Hin●marus was burnt at Vienna, and Aegidius Hispanus at Sevil, for denying that Religious Adoration was due to Images. Beside what Panegyrics, Praises, and Poems have been made in honour of those Statues, before which many miracles have been wrought? though nothing truly done but by imposture and delusion: What injunctions given to Penitentiaries to creep unto them? What offerings of Plate, and Coin, and Jewels bestowed upon them? and by the bounty of fools they are made richer than the givers; and the living are defrauded of the works of mercy, to deck an Idol with sumptuous bravery. And after all this madness and cost to uphold the credit of their Bellarmine's voluntary confession is worthy to be noted, nihil periret de fide aut religione si nulla ficta vel picta esset imago; Faith and Religion should suffer no loss, though there were no Image in the world. This is even such another lightning as came from him in his Controversies upon Justification: for after all his arguments to make the good works of the faithful have a merit of condignity, he concludes, tutissimum est, yet it is the safest way to hope to be saved by Christ alone: so after all his sophistry for Images this is plain dealing, nihil periret de fide & religione, it were not the worse for Faith and Religion if there were no Images at all.  
Lend your ear now to the stir that is made among their Writers, what portion of Religious Worship is allowed to their Pictures and Statues that stand for Christ especially, and likewise for the Saints. That infamous second Nicene Synod, whose Canons are precious in the eye of the Church of Rome to this day, that pack of Idol-mongers condemned all such as said their use went no further than to put us in mind of Christ: nay Tharasius, the busiest man in that ill work, said, all that confessed they did esteem venerably of sacred Images, and would not adore them, were hypocrites. It was there defined they should have Religious Salutation and Adoration, but not latriam, the most Religious Worship which is proper only to God. The Tridentine Council leaves men to pick what they can out of indefinite words, and says only such Images are to have Veneration made to them, and Holy Worship. There are three Sects of opinions among their learned men, who differently state the case. Durandus says, that Images are not adored but improperly, and by abuse of the word, quia ad praesentiam earum fit rememoratio exemplarium, tunc adorantur in praesentia imaginum, they being at hand do make men remind Christ, and think upon him; and than Christ is adored in the presence of the Image, but not the Image at all. Such remembrances sometimes might be spared, because of the danger and scandal; yet this opinion is moderate. I only dislike that he says he would not have the people so taught: for Christ bade his doctrine should be preached upon the house top to all the world. Secondly, the Jesuit Valentia commends the doctrine of Aquinas, that the Image and the Semplar is to be worshipped with the same act of adoration is most true, most pious, and very consonant to the decrees of faith: and Azorius the Jesuit says, that's constant Theologorum sententia, the most constant opinion of their Divines: I am sure worse can hardly be. Vasques the Jesuit thinks he hath cast on water to cool this hot opinion by saying, that the Image of Christ and Christ himself are worshipped with the same worship together, as Thomas says, but the intention of the worship is meant not at all to the Image, but to the Prototypon. Suarez is of a third opinion, and says, to oppose Durandus, that the act of worship is intended and directed to the Object before them, that is to the Image; yet to oppose Vasquez, that it is homage inferior to that they do to Christ, but some worship rests even in the very Image propter prototypon for Christ's sake: it is suppositum quod adoratur, non ratio adorationis, sed quoddam adjunctum. Bellarmine is of this last opinion, but involves his mind most intricately to avoid all opposition. Says he, we are indebted to some Images in a Religious Worship, which is an imperfect form of worship, and is reduced to that worship which is due to the substance for which they stand: As Christ's Image must have an honour reduced to latria, but inferior to it. The Images of the Saints not such worship as pertains to a Saint, sed cultus inferior qui dici potest dulia secundum quid, vel dulia anologicè & reductiuè: dulia after a sort, reductively, and by proportion. The best understanding of these quidlibets are, that they were meant not to be understood. We may profess ignorance of such minced meat without blushing, when Vasquez says, Mille modis difficultatem illius doctores explicare conantur; their Doctors have tried a thousand ways to untie these knots, and still questions start up to puzzle them. I remember what Eutropeus says, that when Irene the Empress had maintained the Worship of Images with horrid unnatural cruelty and murders, for seventeen days together the wether was most unusually dark certainly to notify the blindess that was come into the world by the Doctrine of Images.  
Let them varnish their cause with what art they will, let us hear what they can say that their doctrine falls not foul upon the second Commandment; marry that they have nothing to do with Idols, which were the shapes of imaginary Gods, such as never were extant: how prove they that, that an Idol is a resemblance of that which never had any true being, because St. Paul says an Idol is nothing. I am sure this shift is as good as nothing; for properly in the Greek tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is any artificial resemblance of a bodily thing, answering part by part unto it, so that it hath a right in nature to stand for it: but according to Scripture, and the phrase of ancient holy Writers, Idola fiunt ex simulacris quando adorantur, any graven similitude or image, when it is once adored, it becomes an Idol. The fashions of all things in all places are rehearsed in the second Commandment, in heaven above, in earth beneath, in the water under the earth; and yet if you make a Figure or Statue of any of these to worship it, that's an Idol, and you an Idolater. As Lucullus was ashamed to fight with the Asiatiques, whom he vanquished so easily; so I am ashamed to toss an objection about which hath no tang of probability in it. An Idol is nothing, says the Scripture, that is it hath nothing of divine Majesty in it to be adored. As Euripides says elegantly of lazy men, they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a very nullety nothing. Says St. Chrysostom upon it, an Idol is nothing, because there is but one God, and none beside him: The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, those are those nothings when they are idolised: 
Lib. 1. cont. Faust. cap. 5.  and St. Austin, the Pagans worship those things which are, but they are nothing to make Gods of; they can not help us, they can not save us. St. Paul therefore adds 1 Cor. viij. 4 an Idol is nothing in the world, and there is none other Gods but one.  
Our Adversaries must knock another arrow, this was headless: why, it is pretended they do not leave God, to worship Idols of wood or metals, which the Law condemns, but they worship God in the Image, or the Image with God, or the Image for God's sake; let them vary it as they will, 'tis naught every way: for where hath the Almighty condescended that such Concomitancies should be co-worshipt with him, or for him? never, never, there are no ligaments for such a conjunction. Our Divines have often rubbed the salt of some instances in their sores, and yet they do not feel them. The Children of Israel when they worshipped the similitude of an Ox that eateth hay, do you think they cast away all thought of the Lord their God, and went to it down right with that molten Effigies? I believe the weaker capacities among them might do so, as the Pontificians confess that the ruder and simpler among them fall down and worship the very substance of the Image that is before them; but Aaron and the Princes of the people bowed not to the golden lump of their own Bracelets and Earrings, but to God in that similitude of an Ox. The Lord had given them manna or food from heaven, and an Ox among all the customs of the Heathen which they had seen, was the Emblem of plenty; so Joseph, who was the Granary of Egypt by his providence, Moses calls him the firstling of a Bullock; and T. Livy says, when Minutius had supplied Rome with corn in time of great necessity a golden Ox was set up in the Marketplace to honour his memory; that beast you know ploughs up the furrows of the earth to receive the seed which yields the increase of the year: from this superstition a Calf or Ox (for a Calf, remember it, is not the name of the age) was the Object wherein they worshipped God. Ferus a Roman Writer, confesseth, 
Com. in 7. cap. Act.  that the Israelites did honour God himself in their molten Image: He had reason to say so, for Aaron, who best knew the meaning of it, proclaimed against the morrow a Feast unto the Lord Jehovah. And though the people were mad with their own inventions, make them not so bad, that when they cried out, These are thy Gods which brought thee out of Egypt, Exod. xxxii. 4. they meant their Baby which they had made but yesterday: That plural number is in the singular, Nehem, ix. 18. They made them a molten Calf, and said, this is thy God that brought thee out of Egypt, attributing that power to the sign for the thing signified. Indeed the Psalmist says, they forgot God who had done so great things for them. Why? because they obeyed not his word: They knew it was not their Idol, but the Lord who had delivered them, yet they are said to have forgot the Lord, because they worshipped him after their own inventions, and did not obey him. Next to this, weigh but the actions of Micah of Mount Ephraim, Jud. xvii. he that can but spell words and put them together, shall find his Mother dedicated her silver to the Lord for her Son, to make a graven Image. Micah had these Images for the honour of God, and having those abominations, still professed himself a Priest of the Lord; therefore this must be his crime, that he worshipped God in his Images. Cajetan and Abulensis are of that judgement, 
In 17. cap. Jud.  that where the Idol hath a peculiar name, as Baal, Ashteroth, the people seduced served the very Idol; but where the Idol had no peculiar name, as in my instance of Micah's Images, and the Calf that Aaron made, there they served the true God in the Idol. If this be not directly the Popish Doctrine, the Sun hath no light in it. To be even with their evasion every way, the very Heathen as well as they could apprehend the eternal God by the light of nature, worshipped him in their Idols and Penates; few or none of them thought the matter of an Idol to be a God. Seneca says, 
Qu. nat. lib. 2 cap. 45.  says, that by Jupiter standing in the Capitol with lightning in his hand, they understood the Preserver and Governor of all things, the Maker of the world. Mark now, nether the Jewish, nor Heathenish Idolaters did any more than worship the true God, in, or before, or with their Images.  
Give them audience by the way how they profess both moral and natural Philosophy for their defence. Moral first, how he that honoureth the Image of the King honoureth the King himself: this is called St. Athanasius and St. Basil's morality, and so it is; but Lord how little to the case? The Arrians contended that glory was to be given to one eternal God, but if one were the person of the Father, another of the Son, there were two Eternals to be glorified; those Father's answer, the Son is the Image of the Father, the express image of his person, and the brightness of his glory; and he that honoured that Image of the King, honoured the King himself. Is there not main difference between the carved Image which stands for Christ's manhood, and between his personal filiation, wherein He is the Image of his Father? The outward Image stands for Christ by humane imagination, it hath no eminent undeniable right to present him; but Religious Adoration is founded upon that Union which is personal, substantial, relative, by divine ordination. And for the moral rule, he that honours the King will honour his Image, it holds only in negative honour, a good Subject will not deface the King's Picture in a despiteful spleen against the exemplar, no more do we dishonour the Images of Christ and the Saints, unless where flagrant Idolatry is committed to them; then with good zeal they may be burnt or defaced, to do God honour against the Creature. Is their natural Philosophy any sounder? 'tis Aristotle's Idem est motus in imaginem, & exemplar; 
Lib. de Memor,  his meaning is the abstractive understanding considers the abstracted notion of a material thing, and the thing itself at once: the verbum intellectus, as it is called, the intellective word and the real thing understood at once. This is all he says; but they have made a matter of it, that when I see Christ's Image, and rememorate Christ upon it, and then worship him, I must worship the Image together with him. To deliver you quickly out of these thorny passages, I say there cannot be the same motion of the mind towards this Image and the Exemplar, for the mind is fixed upon the Image as upon a Sign, and upon an Object much inferior to the Exemplar, The Image is a thing create, Christ uncreate: they confess a respective difference, that Christ is adored simply and for himself, the Image in regard of similitude and reference to the principal. The Image is not the terminus of worship for itself, but for Christ's sake; therefore the motion of man's heart toward Christ and the Image cannot be one, but divers. When I desire the means because of the end, here are two distinct actions and motions of the will, to wit election of means, intention for the end. But with them the worship of Christ and his Image is one and the same physical act of the body at once; they talk that it is virtually twofold; but if they hold there is the same motion of the mind too to both at once, that will make it complete idolatry.  
No marvel, you see, if you have quite lost the second Commandment out of some Portresses and Breviaries, when they have found it again in their larger Missals they will not keep it. When men have rampared witty shifts against truth, it is in vain to tell them from S. John, Babes, beware of idols; or from St. Paul, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, What agreement hath the Temple of the Lord with idols? they will tush at it, and say they mean the Idols of Pagans. St. Pet. 1. Ep. c. iv. v. 3. speaks against lusts, excess of wines, revel, abominable Idolatries. Speaks he not against the lust and drunkenness and riot of Christians? verily and as manifesty against Christian Idolatries. But if they toy with the Scripture that is against them, let them point to that Scripture that doth licence their religious honour done to Images? for faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. What not one Text to suit for them? then belike it holds of Tradition: nay, Suarez says neither Scripture nor Tradition hath commended it, but invaluit ex praxi & consuetudine ecclesiae, practice and custom hath allowed it. How easily, if time did not shorten me, could I show that for the first 500 years neither the Image of Christ or his Saints were set up in any Church: so little was the practice of worshipping them on foot. 
Lib. 7. cont. Celsum.  A little of antiquity will spend but a little time, says Origen, Who, having his right wits, after the Commandment of God, will look upon Images to pray to them, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Or by the sight thereof offer prayers thereby to him that is resembled? St. Austin upon the 113. Psalm hath a full Sermon of it, these few words are the pith, quis adorat vel orat intuens simulacrum? who is he that doth either prey or worship looking on an Image? who is he? marry an Idolater. 
Procap. in 11. cap. Gen.  Procopius hath a memorable passage, that from twenty Generations after Adam the Son did ever survive the Father, which is most natural, but There buried his Son Haran, who was the first that made Images, and God made him an example for doing a work so hateful to him. I will confine myself to one instance more; Serenus Bishop of Marseilles offended that some fell down to Images in Churches, whereupon he took them down and broke them to pieces about the year 600: He writes to Gregory the first to know how he liked it; Gregory answers, you do very well to teach your people not to worship those Images, but you might have let them remain for Ornament. Thus Pope Gregory the first; but before 160 years after, Pope Gregory the third maintained tooth and nail against the Eastern Bishops they were to be worshipped. What's answered to all these authorities? why, the Fathers condemned the using Images after an unlawful manner: they might even distinguish as well of lawful lying, and lawful treason and adultery, as to tell us a tale of lawful idolatry.  
No Scripture, no Tradition, no Antiquity stands for them, and verily no Reason: for why is not every man adored for being the true Image of God, as well as a Statue? hear a subtlety; man is capable of some civil reverence in himself, if he were worshipped, it would fall out the worship would be terminated unto him for himself, but a portable God of metal or stone deserves no honour for itself, therefore it cannot likely be mistaken, how all the veneration done to it is done for God's sake: what will they say then to such Images and Crucifixes as have moved their head and eyes miraculously? such as have sweat like men, spoke like men? such things are often done by tricks and juggling; is not that a scandal to the ignorant, to make them bend the whole act of worship to the very Image; as the Gentiles were often deluded by the Devil, when he made his Idols and Oracles speak? Thus they lay baits to destroy the soul of their weak brother, to advance their own inventions. And for the credit of all Miracles wrought before Image-worshipping, let Biel speak: sometimes such things are effected by the working of Satan, to delude superstitious Devotaries: Deo permittente, exigent● talium infidelitate; God permits it for their destruction, and their own infidelity deserves it. I am almost concluding: mark what honour God hath peculiarly called for to himself, and that's to worship a thing religiously to impart it unto it. He bade his Church of Israel kneel toward the Ark of his glory, and worship him. The people did not see the Ark, for it was within the Veil, but they were bidden to worship the Lord before his Footstool, or before the Ark. Now to translate this manner of adoration to their own Will-worship, to worship God before Images, as He willed that himself in the Old Law should be worshipped, looking towards the Ark, is all one as if they had sacrificed to their Images, which is confessed idolatry. But I pray you what satisfaction shall be made to my Text (it satisfied the Devil and put him to silence) Thou shalt worship, etc. Thus they shuffle with it, when Christ says exclusively God only is to be worshipped, all persons are excluded that claim latria, but not appertinences or concomitances, such as Images, that are adored for the example sake. Belike by this answer it must be so, his Devilship must not be served or cringed; but if he can turn himself into the shape of an Image of Christ, or one of the Saints, he might have his ask. You see into how many shapes he turned himself in these Tentations: he can change himself into an Angel of light, and why not as easily into as fine an Image as ever Nebuchadonoser's was. Thus their own wit may bring them to do the foulest act in the world, to fall down and worship the Devil. How much better are our souls, and our Religion in safety, when we ascribe all praise, glory, service, and worship to him only that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb for evermore? AMEN.   

THE TWENTY FIRST SERMON UPON Our Saviour's Tentation.  MAT. iv. 11. 
Then the Devil leaveth him, and behold Angels came and ministered unto him.  
THat Conqueror, that had given his Enemy a great overthrow, was wont to set up a signal of his Conquest in the same place, for every Passenger to look upon, and it bore the name of a Trophy. Therefore I will call this Text the Trophy of our Saviour's Victory which he got of the Devil: A Trophy advanced by the Holy Ghost, to let us see the Adversary whom we chiefly fear is vanquishable, and may be put to flight. Never was such an Enemy subdued, never were the weapons of holy Scripture used so skilfully before, never did such fruit and benefit redound to the whole world from any victory; and yet with what little ostentation is this great enterprise concluded? Then the Devil leaveth him, and behold Angels came and ministered unto him. This is the way of God to do famous acts, and not to noise it to men with all circumstances of exaggeration, as we do now adays. They are praised in these times that are Animalia gloriae, that desire to do things worthy of renown, that they may be praised; And better let them sponge up fame than things famous should be omitted. Yet there is a more Christian way than this: For that divine learning, which we gather from the Gospel, leaves such impressions of modesty upon all worthy actions of Christ, or of the Saints, that their good works are never set out with the trappings of eloquence to adorn them; barely related to be imitated, and never garnished to be applauded.  
This Text, and every story which the Evangelists have recorded touching the miracles of Christ shall justify this saying of his, 
P●l. vit. Claudii.  Joh. viij. 50. I seek not mine own glory, as Ennius said of Scipio Affricanus, quantam columnam faciet populus Romanus quae res tuas loquatur? What a great Pillar must the people of Rome make, if all thy noble exploits were engraven upon it? So I may say, What a great Volume must the Holy Ghost have written, if every Miracle of our Saviour's had been amplified with a due compensation of glory? That labour, as I said, is spared, to teach us to be prodigal in doing good, and thrifty in seeking praise. Let a man do things laudable for virtue's sake, and no other respect; and honour will follow him when his carcase is rotting; as hair, and nails, and excrementitious parts of the body will grow when that body is dead and consuming. So this Trophy of the great victory against Satan, so I called my Text is as plain and modest terms as could be indicted: But as I doubt not but the Angels glorified our Saviour for it then, so we will speak of the might of those marvellous acts now, as the four and twenty Elders do, Rev. xi. 17. We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and waste, and art to come, because thou hast taken to thee great power, and hast reigned; and let us add, because thou hast subdued our grievous enemy in all his tentations. And according to that great humility and modesty, which I said was very notable in this report of our Saviour's triumph, I will break the words into these two even parts: The Decession of Satan, and the succession of the good Angels. As there is but one Comma in the Grammatical reading, so there is but one part divided from the other. Then the Devil leaveth him, there is the decession of the evil Spirit: And behold Angels came and ministered unto him; there is the succession of the good. To these somewhat now directly and distinctly.  
Then the Devil leaveth him. I will propound four Questions to it, and answer them in their order: When Satan left Christ? Why he left him? To what place he went upon the leaving? And if ever he returned again after he had left him? All these have reference to this Text, and to the Antecedents of this tentation, as I will declare in their severals. The first question, When he left him? Is answered by St. Luke, Chap. iv. 13. when the Devil had ended all the temptation. He had run out his line, and tried all his strength, our Saviour stood it out till his Enemy tilted the very dregs of his Gall, and drew them out. He that undertakes an ill cause cannot except, but the hearing of it was very fair, if he may plead out his matter till he can say no more; so the Tempter cannot say he was cut off before he came to a period, he was provided of better Arguments, but he was stopped from proceeding, he could not make these cavils for shame, for his departure was not commanded until he ended all his tentation. Like the Martyrs of old, who lived and died in the best times of grace, it is recorded in their Diptyches, that their patience did weary their very tormentors: So the innocency of Christ did weary the malice of the Devil to assault it, his constancy to God's honour did nonplus the Blasphemer, that he knew not which way to turn him, or upon what occasion to ground another temptation. St. Ambrose says, that Satan had run over all manner of wickedness in those three motions which go before my Text: And that the Scripture would not have said he had ended all his mischief, Nisi in his tribus esset omnium materia delictorum; unless all naughtiness were couched in the triple mystery of iniquity which preceded. And to make this interpretation good out of the mouth of two Witnesses, St. Austin concurs in these, 
De mirab. Script. lib. 3. c. 6.  In Diaboli tribus propositionibus tota iniquitas, in Christi tribus responsionibus tota justitia; All kind of sin is thrust together in the Devils threefold Propositions, and all kind of justice is comprehended in our Saviour's threefold answers. St. John says, that there are three roots which supply matter to all the fruits of impiety, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. I know it may be fetched about, and some wits have tried it, that the three former devises of Satan do belong to this division; Gluttony, or commanding stones to be made bread, is that which is otherwise called the lust of the flesh; Ambition, or vaulting from the Pinnacle of the Temple to be gazed upon, stands for the pride of life; Covetousness, which would be owner and possessor of all things in the world, is ascribed to the third general sin, which is the lust of the eye; thus some of the Fathers have fitted these three particulars of tentations, and the three seed plots of sin in St. John one to one, I will not say how properly, a searching wit may compass in any thing. But all the three ways of Tentation are exactly to be observed from hence, from no part of Scripture more exactly, and so he may be said to have ended all his tentation: For some are tempted through infirmity, some through ignorance, some are emboldened in open and profane malice to defy the Lord. When it was motioned, that he should make stones of bread, he laid siege, as he thought, to his hunger and infirmity, which could not well withstand it: when he incited our Lord to fall down from a Pinnacle of the Temple, it was to make him destroy himself through ignorance, expecting in vain that Angels should come between him and harm to succour him. Lastly, when he urged Christ to fall down and worship him he required a sin of most obstinate malice, and flat Idolatry. By Infirmity, by Ignorance, by Malice, these are all the ways that the Tempter works, therefore having run through all these, it may pass for current that he had ended all his temptation.  
I infer but one thing from hence, that those Spirits are become merely diabolical, and poisoned all over with hell, that spare no kind of sin that they can commit, but defy the Lord as far as the Devil can thrust them on; such as swear all kind of Oaths in their wrath, commit all kind of extorsions in their Covetousness, defile themselves with all kind of lust and drunkenness in their intemperance. Herod's cruelty had no stint, he slew omnes infants, all the Infants of two years old in Bethlem. Israel went a whoring after strange Gods, till they had committed all kind of Idolatry, and made them high places upon every Mountain, says the Prophet: Thou hast spoken all manner of lies that may do hurt. O thou false tongue, says David▪ Though the Character which I shall give was Nero's, it agrees to all them who sin as much as life, and strength, and means, and opportunity will suffer them. He grew by degrees so infinitely wicked, that nothing can be fathered so horrible upon him, which his suitable manners would not render credible. Nothing can be pleaded for such, but that they deserve an infinite punishment, who would sin in infinitum, if they could. When they have ended all the sins they can commit, they shall be commanded to their own place of eternal woe, as Satan was, when he had ended all his temptation.  
The question why he left Christ is the next in order, to which I will answer many ways: First, quia jussus; he was bidden depart, and therefore there was no staying for him, Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered, let them also that hate him fly before him. The Lord hath set every thing in its place and order, and what is there which he cannot root up and displant again? If he say unto this Mountain, be thou cast into the Sea, it shall be carried away with the breath of his mouth; Or unto Adam, get thee hence out of Paradise; or unto any Nation, be thou carried away into a strange Land; or unto the whole heaven and earth pass away and be gone, they shall pass away, and be rolled up as a garment. And to come to the likeness of this very case in my Text, when Christ threw out sundry evil Spirits with a word, 
Luke iv. 36.  the Jews were amazed, and spoke among themselves, saying, What a word is this? For with authority and power he commandeth the unclean Spirits, and they come out. The Magicians and Sorcerers can cast out Devils, Non ex authoritate sed pacto; Not by any power and virtue which they have, but by compacts, and infernal Sacraments between them and Satan. The Apostles and Evangelists did cast out Devils, Non ex authoritate sed ministerio; not by their own authority and strength, but as ministerial instruments which God appointed over the evil Angels. But Christ with absolute and independent authority lays his charge upon the Prince of Devils, and he could not keep his ground against him. Now let me ask you (Beloved) whether will you be led gently by the word of Exhortation? Or be compelled violently as stubborn and stiffnecked, whither you would not by the dreadful and irresistible word of indignity? Let me invert those words for this motive, which Christ used to Peter, When thou wert young thou walked whither thou wouldst riotously, intemperately, profanely: But when Christ comes to judge thee for these things, another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldst not. Draw near to God in Prayer, and in the works of mercy, than Faith and Sanctification will pluck you a little nearer and nearer; if your iniquities separate between the Lord and you, you shall be cast afar off. O who is able to endure that word, Decede, Depart from me ye wicked? Lord, whither should we go? For in thy presence there is life, and at thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore.  
Another reason why he fled from the presence of Christ is, Quia victus; he was so beaten out of all falsehoods and inventions by the evidence of truth, that he was ashamed to appear any longer before the face of the Conqueror. So St. Ambrose, Etsi invidere non desinat, tamen instare reformidat, quia frequentiùs refugit triumphari. Satan's envy to hurt the Saints is never mitigated, yet he loves not to deal with those that foil him often, lest men should triumph over him for his fruitless endeavours. If a penitent sinner's humility breed joy in heaven, an innocent man's steadfastness against tentations must breed envy and amazement in hell. The frustrating of bad attempts against our soul will add honour to the reward which we shall have in heaven, and Satan will be loath to make any man too much a Conqueror, lest he get too much glory in the Kingdom of heaven for his victories. If he could have foreseen that heroic virtue in Job, and in the rest of the Martyrs, certainly he would have recoiled away, and never have touched their persons. As it was said of M. Anthony, that Augustus, his fellow Triumvir, had been so fortunate against him in all Games and Recreations, that in the end he durst encounter him in nothing, Formidavit genium Augusti genius Antonii; There was a Genius in Augustus which did over-awe the Genius of Anthony: So the Ghostly Adversary is afraid of such devout persons as Zachary and Elizabeth, who walk blameless in all the Commandments and Ordinances of God; if he do but see their lips move in Prayer he is suspicious of his own weakness, 
Serm. 3. in Lazar.  and their fortitude, that they will bruise his head. Therefore St. chrysostom likens him to a Dog that waits at Table, while you feed him he stirs no● from you, show him no kindness, but kick him, and spurn him from the Table, and he runs away from your severity; which is thus Morallized in an Apostolical rule, Resist the Devil, and he will fly from you, Jam. iv. 7. Or if he do not fly because he is overcome by you do you fly first, and that is an undeniable means to overthrow him; walk not in the counsel of the ungodly, abhor their ways, abandon the occasions which entrap your frailty; fly Fornication. 1 Cor. vi. 18. My dearly beloved fly from Idolatry. 1 Cor. x. 14. And in another passion, The love of money is the root of all evil, O man of God fly these things. 1 Tim. vi. 11. Joseph fled from his Mistress' importunity, and so overcame the Devil of lust. Upon which St. Austin speaks, Non verendum fugere, castitatis palmam desideranti obtinere; It is no cowardice in him to fly away that would wear the palm of chastity. Antigonus being put to disadvantage gave ground to his enemies, what says an hotspur that was near him, Do you fly? Not fly, says Antigonus, but Vtilitatem à tergo sitam persequor; I only prosecute that profit or advantage which is behind me: So if it be useful to avoid the baits of sin, make away as fast as your feet can carry you where such evil occasions cannot overtake you. For this cause some are said to leave the world, and to retire unto their Prayers; not that any man can go out of the world till God receive his Spirit at the last hour; but because they are sequestered into a strict course of life, as into another world, where the old man and his concupiscence cannot find them out. And so much for the second reason, why the Tempter did leave Christ, Quia victus, he was beaten and deluded, the sting of the Dragon would not enter into Christ, and yet he had ended all his temptation.  
Put the last reason to the former, why he left our Saviour, and the Point is done, Quia idololatriae convictus, because he was both guilty, and convicted of Idolatry for the Antecedent suggestion, If therefore thou wilt fall down and worship me all shall be thine. No disputation is to be held about such blasphemy as this, but take that which is thine own, and be gone, without any longer parley. There is no Society, no Communion in Christ to be held with Idolaters; they must leave us, or we must leave them. Whether the Idolatry be Error personae, a quite mistake in the person, taking those things for God which by nature are no Gods, (this was Idolatry indeed at the worst, and in the most loathed deformity) or though it be but error in modo colendi, an idolatrous manner of worshipping the true God, whosoever are infected with either of these crimes are to be shunned much more than those in the Old Law that had the infection of Leprosy in the flesh. The Children of Israel worshipped the true God in the Calf that Aaron made (I have said enough of that before) there was no error in the person whose honour they propounded, they meant all to God; but it was a misbegotten invention of their own, which could not consist with the pure and sincere worship of the divine glory; the superstitious manner was enough to cut them off from the Congregation of their Brethren. For Moses charged the Sons of Levi not to excommunicate them, but to be their Executioners (a particular severity for that fault, and for no other) put every man his Sword by his side, and go in and out from Gate to Gate throughout the Camp, 
Exod 32.27.  and slay every man his Brother, and every man his Neighbour, and every man his Companion, and they did so. All Neighbourhood, Companionship, and Brotherhood was to be dissolved with Idolaters. Elias fled into the Wilderness, or took up a private Mansion in Sarepta, and such secret places, rather than abide in the face of Israel, where the filthy worship of Baal was professed: And though he had shown himself to Obadiah, yet he would not go down with Ahab to Jezreel till the whole Fry of the Priests of Baal was destroyed. And which is more remarkable in God's Judgements against that capitol sin, for three years and a half no Rain had fallen upon the earth in all that Land; but as soon as ever those that sacrificed to Baal were slain, in the very next verse says Elias to Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink, 
1 Kings 8.40.  for there is a sound of abundance of rain. You see that the Heavens did deny sustenance to the earth even until the very hour that Idolatry was abandoned. I ground my Doctrine but very seldom upon Prophecies which are not fulfilled, or whose interpretation is not very evident, yet for once I will be bold to cite another man's judicious conjecture, that the Spirit of God in the Revelation, Chap. seven. doth so bury Idolatry in oblivion, that he would not have it named in that Catalogue, where the true servants of God are rehearsed. For those holy ones, who had the Seal of the living God, are reckoned in the Apostolical number, because they lived and died in the Faith of the Apostolical Doctrine, twelve thousand out of each of twelve Tribes, and the Tribes are named from the Kindred's of Israel, even the Sons of Jacob, yet none are said to be sealed of the Tribe of Dan; and though Manasses be mentioned, yet his brother Ephraim is not spoken of, but Joseph, the Father of them both in his place. I approve that Interpreters way, that says the names of Ephraim and Dan are not in this List, because they were the first that let in Idolatry into the Church of God after Moses died. The certainty of that is to be found in xvii and xviii Chap. of Judges. Micah, a man of Mount Ephraim, was the first we read of that had an house of Gods, 
Chap. 17.  and a molten, and a graven Image (he kept these in honour of the true God, you may see that in the Chapter as clearly as your hand at noonday, that is no excuse) in Chap. xviii. The Da●tes rob this man of his Gods, and the children of Dan set up Micahs graven Image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh; for these Idolatries the names of Dan and Ephraim are not in the blessing of that book of life. Then what agreement can be made with them, or what unity in the outward profession of the faith, who will worship God in Pictures and Statues, and give religious honour to Creatures? Moses incited Levi that such should not live; Elias would not converse with men, till the whole ging of those that served Baal was destroyed: the Angel of God omits the names of Dan and Ephraim in the recitation of the Faithful; our Saviour forbore to send the Devil packing for the two former Tentations, but utterly casts him off, and as one says upon my Text, excommunicates him from his blessed company, as soon as ever his mouth form Idolatry, Then the Devil leaveth him.  
We use to send Spials after our enemies in battle, to mark where they take up their lodging, whether they march fairly from us, or whether they are put to flight. After the rule of this policy it may concern us, you see, to note whither the Adversary betook himself when he departed from Christ. So that the next question is not unnecessary to be answered, to what place he went upon the leaving our Saviour. Some do so interpret it, as if this mighty Fury before these temptations were cast out of heaven into the earth, but from that time that Christ rebuked him, and bade him avant further, he went away from the earth to the lowest darkness: And that Beelzebub was bound he should hurt the earth no more in his own person, but only by his Instruments. Binding is metaphorically taken to be bridled from doing mischief, if not altogether, yet at least in some restraint: So our Lord speaks in a Parable, Mat. xii. 29. that in casting out Devils, he entered into the strong man's house, and bound that strong man, and spoilt his house. Bound him from tormenting those whom Christ would spare. But as yet he was not bound in chains of eternal darkness. No less than three of the Fathers, Irenaeus, Hilary, and Hierom expound that in the xii of St. Matth. by this place of my Text, that the strong man was bound when Christ retorted all his temptations. As yet he is loose to do hurt, and shall be loose for the trial of the Elect, and for the punishment of ungodly doers, till Christ have gathered all his Saints about him in the Kingdom of heaven. 
2 Pet. 2.4.  The evil Angels are reserved unto judgement, it is St. Peter's phrase, they shall find the worst at last, and that they know well enough; for when our Saviour dealt roughly with them, and even afflicted them with some pain, as it is supposed, when he cast them out of men possessed, they expostulate it as an injury, Art thou come to torment us before the time? As who should say, What? Tormented before the day of Judgement? I like it not therefore to have it so expounded, that the Tempter went from Christ to take up his lodging in Hell for ever? Surely, against the Passion of our Lord, the Prince of darkness, and all his Litter, had their free exercise to stir up enemies against him more than ever. Says he, This is your hour, and the power of darkness, Luke xxii. 53. And if that were done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry? If they might use the Master so, what exemption can the Servants expect? They may rove about, and hurt the world till the day of Judgement: They thought they asked but their due when a Legion of them petitioned not to be sent in Abyssum, into the bottomless pit of Hell at that time, and not to be committed to that woe sooner than the last and dreadful day of the Lord.  
He had his licence then, when he went from Christ, to go to and fro in any place of the earth, and to walk up and down in it; as he once answered God in the history of Job, Quocunque eunt sua secum supplicia circum ferunt; Wheresoever they go they carry torments about with them, Envy, Desperation, the terror of endless Wrath to come, and unspeakable vexedness to be deprived of the vision of God's glory. These are the Plagues that cleave unto them who depart from Christ. But how is it intelligible that this banished Spirit could leave our Saviour? Adam when he was new fallen was no wiser than a newborn babe, that hid himself from God: And as Adam had lost the spirit of Innocency, so Ionas had lost the spirit of Prophecy when he fled away by shipping from him, whose dominion is in the Sea, and his right hand in the Floods From him therefore Satan could not go, from the light of his countenance, from the comfort of his face he might go. Nemo loco, 
Rupertus.  sed iniquitate à Deo elongatur; No distance of place is remote from him, who is with every thing, and about all things, and in all things; He is as much in that place which every Creature takes up as the Creature itself, yet without any impediment to the locality of it; but our iniquities separate between God and us, and where there is the most sin, there is the greatest separation. But to come to the plainest, and most textual answer, Christ's Manhood is not receptive of Omnipresency, so the Devil left his Humane Nature for a season, and was not near it; he went away to seek out those with whom he might more probably skirmish to get a victory. If I should say, the Tempter went not far from thence, but hovered somewhere about Judaea, the conjecture were not altogether without a foundation; reason leads me to think he was very inquisitive about our Saviour's ways, and watchful to espy what miracles he wrought, what he said, how he might stir up enemies, and unbelievers against him, and some, worse than Parricide, to betray him. St. Luke says, He left him but for a season, after these temptations, as if he were ever in harms-way to offend him. But above all, I perceive by another of the Evangelists, that the brood of Hell frequented the Land of Jury, in the days of our Saviour, more than all other places in the earth, a Legion of them in one man, many Regiments of them in others that were possessed. There was their Theatre to play their wicked part, where the Gospel might be most offended, rather than in all the world beside. Therefore St. Mark says, one of the Devils, which he cast out, besought him that he would not send him out of that Country, Mar. v. 10. They should want work in unfrequented places: Idolatrous Cities, though most populous, were their own already; their quickest trade lay in Judaea at this time, here grew the unwillingness to leave that Country: But now it is time to leave that question, to what place Satan shifted when he was commanded to leave our Saviour. Give ear to the next question, Whether ever he returned again?  
It is St. Luke's meaning, that we should take notice he returned again, and infested our Saviour after this bout, for he says his departure was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for a season, and no more. It was but for a short truce indeed, till he had cast about to rise up against Christ in another fashion, not by tempting him to sin, but by exercising his patience under rebukes and misery; and finally, to work his death by treachery. He knew him by this time to be his own Lord against whom he had rebelled, in whom it was impossible to imprint any blot or blemish of iniquity: But because that Humane Nature which Christ had assumed into his Person was of the Seed of Abraham, and therefore obnoxious to death; the Devil plotted his destruction from time to time, and wrought his purpose at last by putting it into the heart of Judas to betray him, being not advised out of the Scripture (as he might have been by reason if God had not blinded him) that our Saviour by death would overcome death, and pull down the mighty one from his seat by triumphing on the Cross. An ordinary curse ever since upon malicious persons, the ruin of those, against whom they are bend, falls upon their own head, and crusheth them to pieces. But this was the service for which Satan returned again, to vex his body after a season, because his soul was spotless, to oppose his prosperity because he could not hurt his virtue. Thus Bonaventure compriseth it, Tentavit emollire per blanditias, sed modicum tempus tentabit frangere per miserias. Now he tried our Saviour with fair offers, after a while he will thrust at him with foul calamities: Now his own hand is in the work, but then his Instruments.  
The use of it shall come home to ourselves thus: The Lord sometimes takes off our foe from us, and gives us breathing time after temptations, it is but for a season, not to flatter ourselves with quietness and security, 
Calvinus.  but to repair our ruins to keep out the batteries that will ensue. It is but a refreshing after the fit of an Ague, the sick day is coming again: Like a calm upon the Sea, while a sweet gale blows, what; sensible man will not have all things ready for a tempest? Remember the Parable, Luke xi. And what the unclean Spirit said, I will return into my house from whence I came. Like the Assyrian Soldiers, when they had once found the way into the Land of Judaea they could never be dealt withal to forget it; Hezekiah, or whosoever might hire them to go home again for one year, but the next Summer following they were sure to make a new invasion. And do not stand too much upon affiance, I have conquered these and these tentations often, I dare trust myself now upon the brink of these sins, and shall never be thrust in; to make such security more doubtful and suspicious Cassianus hath a fit similitude; says he, A Fox will stretch himself for dead that Poultry may come into his reach and never fear him; yet if they do stalk towards him, they shall find to their cost he is not past doing mischief: So the Tempter will give back, as if he were fled for ever, but he departs only for a more seasonable opportunity, and will return again with seven spirits worse than himself, when you are worst prepared. The holiest Fathers of the Church had flesh and frailty in them, and can speak in this point as well by Experience as by Art and Meditation, 
Greg. lib. 3. Mor. c. 8.  and this is their common verdict, Quo valentius vincitur, eò ardentius ad insidias instigatur. If he be vanquished by him that is strong in faith, it sharpens his edge the more to make his part good again by Art and subtlety. And so much for this last Point upon the first general part, Satan departed from Christ but for a season.  
But now he is gone, though like a Wolf regardant, looking back upon the Flock from which he was beaten: And Christ had such company in exchange, that my Text bids us mark and see the succession that followed, and behold Angels came and ministered unto him. This Particle of wonder, Behold, is a Dial or Index to three things: First, To note a moral alteration, a lewd one is dismissed to receive an holy train in his room; here was an accursed Spirit parlying with Christ, instead of him here is a volley of Angels. Whosoever he be that hath taken delight in the company of wicked men, and sorted himself with those that have not the fear of God before their eyes, let him cast them off, and abandon their Society, and he shall find heavenly comforters in his soul, as if Angels ministered unto him. Qui expellit à se Satanam, allicit ad se Angelos; Bid Satan get him hence, and the Angels take it for an invitation that they should pitch their Pavilions round about you. Lot lived like a stranger in his own City, and conversed not with the men of Sodom, they called him a stranger, he shut himself up, and barred his doors against those filthy people: What could he do more to keep the ungodly from his very sight, as David said? Thus estranging himself from the conversation of pernicious sinners he made himself sit to give hospitality to Angels. A good Lesson for these times, wherein ribbald roaring company is rather sought for than declined. A strange thing, that a Christian, who feels some comfort in Christ, and desires salvation in his blood, should, with so much affection and longing, thrust himself among them, whose desperate behaviour is easily perceived, if repentance help not, to tend to utter damnation. St. Paul was weary of his own body, called it a body of death, and groaned to be delivered from it because the Flesh rebelled against the Spirit. Did he loathe himself that he might love Christ the more? And will you invite those into your friendship and fellowship that blaspheme Christ? Shake off this dust from your feet, all profane, intemperate, lascivious persons from your familiarity, if either you expect that God should give his Angels charge of you in this life, or make you partakers of their fellowship of heavenly glory in the life to come.  
The next thing towards which we turn our eyes at this word behold, is the alteration of rest and quietness; before, there were assaults, and troubles, and molestations, all this is changed in a moment into peace and tranquillity, which shall be the certain issue of all those that fight a good fight with patience, Semper asperiora laetiorum vicissitudine mitigantur; 
Salm●ron.  Rough beginnings have joyful events, by the temperature and vicissitude of God's gracious mercy. Such as were called prosperous among the heathen, most usually the best share of their fortune was in the forepart of their life, and their end was lamentable; the seven first years in Pharaohs dream did betoken plenty, but the seven last years famine and scarcity; the head of Nebuchadonosors' Image was of Gold, and the toes of Clay; the rich man had a great time of gathering, more than he knew where to bestow it, but in one night lost his soul and all. This is an unkind, and an unnatural method to taste the sweetest at the top of the Cup, and after a little sipping to have our teeth set on edge with Aloes. Doth it not taste better when the gracious providence turns the lot thus? First, a Deluge, and then a Rainbow: First, a Captivity, and then a joyful return: First, a Dioclesian, and then a Constantine: First, the impugnation of the Devil, and then the Congratulation of Angels. Man goeth forth unto his work, and to his labour until the evening, says the Psalmist: There is a time to give the body a cessation from toil; and do you think the Lord doth not measure out, when he will give the soul and spirit relaxation from misery? As a stranger is received at night, and bids God b'you in the morning; so indignation, and the severity of chastisement are strangers unto the Lord's clemency, he calls vengeance Peregrinum opus, his strange work, Isa. xxviii. Therefore it shall be dismissed from him like a stranger, after it hath stayed a while. Heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning, Psal. xxx. 6. Tentations have their bout, and the storms of hell their period, but the good Angels know their qu when to enter, and to turn the scene, Behold the Angels came and ministered unto him.  
And once more this note of admiration, Behold, bids us regard to what alteration of dignity the truly humble are called, Recusavit dominatum in homines, 
Fstius.  & habet imperium in Angelos. Our Saviour turned away from that ambitious suggestion, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: He desired not to have a Kingdom in this world, or to have the pre-eminence of men, and lo the pre-eminence over Angels is given unto him: And it is more dignity to have two Angels minister unto him than to have ten thousand Kingdoms. Every part of Christ's humility was inlaid with honour to recompense it. To be laid in a Manger was not so vile as it was most magnificent to be adored of the Wisemen of the East; to be visited by Shepherds was not so contemptible, as it was most glorious to be proclaimed of Angels. To ride upon an Ass was not of such debasement, but the cry of the children made amends, Hosanna, blessed is the King that cometh in the name of the Lord. It savoured not so much of infirmity to be tempted of the Devil, but it is supplied as much with Majesty to be attended by the Cherubins. No part of his humility went without a reward from the first to the last; nay, the last part had amends made for all. He humbled himself unto the death, even unto the death of the Cross, propter quod, wherefore God hath highly exalted him, etc. Humility was his direct way to glory; but we think we are out of the way to promotion unless we shift and shuffle for the highest place, and the chiefest room in the Synagogues. The first shall be last, and the last shall be first; This is a riddle to them that love to set their feet upon a rising ground. Yet David hath laid a curse upon preposterous ambition that it shall decline, That which should have been for their wealth, says he, let it be unto them an occasion of falling. The holy Father Basil lost no honour in this life by shunning the dignity which was intended him, and flying away into obscurity, when he was called to be a Bishop. The Apostle Bartholomew is reported in some histories to have been of the blood royal of the Kings of Egypt. Was it any diminution to him to have left all to be a poor Disciple? Is there any Christian King that doth not wish he had rather born his Office of Apostleship than have swayed a Sceptre? When Princes die their honour shall not follow after them, but those twelve humble ones of our Saviour's train shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel. If spiritual thoughts will lift a man up to heaven; an humble man is mounted above the earth all the while he seeks those things which are above. Themislius, an holy man, put this Lesson in so pure a verse, as it is beyond translation, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, his heart sunk down when ambition puffed him up: but he felt his feet upon the Angel's Ladder going up when humility cast him down. Our Saviour despised all the Kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and behold Angels came and ministered unto him.  
From this note or preface of attention I pass on to their person that came to minister unto Christ, and they are Angels. As the Philistines stood on a Mountain on the one side, and Israel on a Mountain on the other side, and there was a Valley between them from whence both the Armies might behold their two Champions David and Goliath fight it out: So I dispute not against their conjecture that say, the good Angels stood gazing from one prospect, and the bad Angels from another, to mark which way the Victory of this Duel would incline between Christ and Satan. On the good Angels part this is certain, we are put to no trial by our enemies visible or invisible, but they come gladly to the speed of it, and look upon us both with compassion and admiration. We are made a spectacle unto the world, and to Angels, 
1 Cor. 4.9.  and to men, says St. Paul. As the Heathen did flock in multitudes to the theatres to see the Christians cast unto wild beasts to be eaten, which was no little part of their persecution, that their enemies fed their eyes in sport with their misery: So the blessed powers of heaven came to behold the same spectacle, to compassionate that cruelty, and to fortify the sufferance of the Saints. And if they can be content to be present at the skirmishes of the Scholars; can it be supposed they would be away at this time, when the Master of the fence was to play his Prize? Beloved, to put this further, sometimes the Angels gave attendance to Moses Law, and the Law itself was delivered by a Mediator in the hands of Angels. But their study and delight was such in the Gospel of Christ, that they gave all diligence to learn and understand it in all the mysteries. St. Paul says that he was a Minister to preach the grace of God, and to teach the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, says he, To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God, Eph. iii 10. A most observable Text of Scripture, that the Angels of heaven are the learneder for noting those passages which are taught touching the Mysteries of our salvation in this Church on earth. And St. Chrysostom, the loudest Trumpet of that Apostles glory among all the Fathers, cries out, See if Paul be not an Evangelist as well unto Angels as unto men. This is marvellous, and not to be admitted as if the good Angels knew not the Incarnation of Christ before, and the calling of the Gentiles. For how could they be ignorant of those divine Lessons which were so obvious and common in all the Prophets? Admitting then that the whole substance of that Doctrine was known unto them long before, yet many circumstances were revealed unto them by the actions and passions of the Church in aftertime. What then? Was Paul, or are we able to explain any thing for the better capacity of Angels? No certainly. Non addiscunt per Ecclesiam docentem, sed per ea quae geruntur in Ecclesiâ. Those principal intellectual spirits do not profit by the preaching of our Ministry, but by things managed experimentally in the Church, which were not so clear in Prophecy, or speculation, as when time revealed them. They knew that Christ should bruise the Serpent's head, but when they saw it actually performed in repelling the three antecedent temptations, than the mystery of God was made known unto them experimentally by the Church. Those significations of the Gospel which the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, 
1 Pet. 1.12.  even those things the Angels desire to look into; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to stoop down and look into, as Peter and John stooped to look into the Sepulchre, that is, bowed down in humility to look into the great mystery of the Resurrection. They are not inanes speculatores, fond and curious gazers, but most observant and most humble learners, they will stoop unto the knowledge of the wisdom of God. And that the Angels did note and pry into all things which our Saviour did in the dispensation of his Mediatorship, the posture of the Cherubins upon the Ark is no unsignificant Figure: Says God, The faces of the Cherubins shall be toward the mercy seat, Exod. xxv. 20. As if the Angels did never cast their eye off from Christ our Propitiator from the Mercy Seat; but did continually desire him in the fullness of time to have mercy upon Zion. So I have made it known, that such diligent attendants, who listened faithfully to all the occurrencies of the Gospel, must needs be at hand when Christ had ended his combat with the Devil.  
And so ready at hand, that it is noted, these Angels are not said to descend from heaven, as if they had been far off in another world, but to come and minister, which betokens a near attendance, They came and ministered unto him. And now Satan sees more by the event, by this officious service of the Angels, than he could extort by all his temptations. Homo est quem ipse tentat, Deus cui ab Angelis ministratur; He must be a man that suffered such temptations, but he must be a God that had such Ministers. Christ came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, Mat. xx. 28. That is, in St. Paul's words, He took upon him the form of a servant, Phil. two. 7. For the very form of a man is the form of a servant. Yet this servant thinks it no robbery to be equal with that God to whom all the powers in heaven and in earth do bow and obey. But wherefore came the Angels now? Do they come to bring assistance when the Devil was vanquished, and had left our Saviour? This were as the Adagy goes, Post bellum auxilium; Choraebus brought succours to the Siege of Troy when the fray was ended. They miss of the right intention that think the Angels came for this end: It was not to strengthen him against his enemy that was beaten and vanquished, but to minister and stand before him for these reasons: First, possibly to spread a Table for him in the Wilderness, and bring him meat, because he had now fasted forty days and forty nights without intermission. Not as if he could not be supplied without their provision, but it was his pleasure they should attend upon his diet, to let his enemy see there was another way to feed his body than to make stones of bread. And this was it, it may be, that plurally many Angels came to minister unto him. Had they been required barely to provide him necessaries, one Angel could have brought enough of sustenance to give one man a meal, but because this was intended not for any necessary relief towards his person, but to show his excellency above those heavenly hosts, Behold a multitude stood round about him, and Angels came and ministered unto him. Secondly, they might come to comfort him after these many Agonies he had with the powers of darkness. Ad solatium refero, so Calvin on my Text. When he prayed earnestly in the Garden to have the Cup pass from him, there appeared an Angel unto him from heaven strengthening him, Luke xxii. 43. This was their promptness to do all duteous offices to the Son of God, Non ex necessitate, sed ex officio, not for necessity, as if he wanted such as they, but out of bounden obsequiousness. Toward us their care and charity is truly necessary, and their friendship to succour us in our conflicts is the mercy of God; as the Angels took up Lazarus to heaven after much want and poverty into Abraham's bosom. Thirdly, they ministered unto him, may be well interpreted, they worshipped and adored him; For when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, 
Heb. 1 6.  and let all the Angels of God worship him.  
Their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. i. ult. that is, their Ministry is for the praise and glory of God, whether it be that they sing Alleluja to him in heaven, or help his Saints upon earth all is one, the one work or the other are both of them their Liturgies: For they minister only to Christ, or for their sakes that shall be heirs of the Promise; as St. Paul said, He sustained all things for the Elect, 2 Tim. two. Therefore it is an overcurious, yea, and false distinction to put degrees between Angels, that some laud the Lord continually before his Throne some minister to his Church; and nothing for the foundation of it but this Prophetical place, Dan. seven. 10. Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand thousands stood before him. There they stood indeed, only to be sent away of the Lords Errand when he should dispatch them. For what Scripture can be clearer than the foresaid place? Are they not all ministering Spirits? Let the Sectaries of Thomas limit it, and distinguish upon it an hundred ways, but the Context of the Chapter will never bear it. For first, the manner of the Apostles bringing it out, nun omnes? Are they not all so? An Interrogation, as if that were a common notion, and never doubted. Secondly, in the precedents it cannot be shifted but that he speaks of them all, excepts none, To whom of the Angels did God say, thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Thirdly, if he did compare Christ but with one part, and not with all the Angels, the Hebr●ws would have excepted against the main scope of his Epistle, that Christ was not more excellent than all creatures above all comparison. Let it be grounded then for the conclusion of all against the fancies of the Pseudo-Dionysius, all are ministering Spirits, In ministerium Christi propter homines, lent unto us out of pity and charity, but attending Christ out of homage and duty. His they are, so we call them now by faith, and such we shall perceive them to be by Vision at the last day, Mat. xuj. 27. The Son of man shall come in the glory of the Father with his Angels. AMEN.   

VII SERMONS UPON The Transfiguration OF OUR SAVIOUR.   

THE FIRST SERMON UPON The Transfiguration.  LUKE ix. 28, 29. 
And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter, and John, and James, and went up into a mountain to pray.  
And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white, and glistering.  
BECAUSE St. Luke doth more completely narrate all the circumstances of our Saviour's Transfiguration than the other Evangelists; therefore I have chosen to entreat out of his words upon that glorious miracle. I confess he that reacheth this mystery, must ascend with Peter, and James, and John, he must climb up to an exceeding high mountain of speculation, which toucheth the very heavens. But why should that confuse you, (Dear beloved) when there is so much pure glittering, and illumination upon the mountain? our Saviour's face shined with glory, for his Gospel is perspicuous: Moses ane Elias, the Law and Prophets were clear and lightsome, and the cloud which overshadowed the place, I mean the virtue of the Holy Ghost will embrighten all obscurity. There is hope then out of the explication of this story, that you shall all be transfigured from darkness into light, and from ignorance perhaps in some part into the knowledge of the truth.  
And whereas I have purposely destined this work apart for this time of the year, I think I have begun it in the ripest opportunity. I find among ancient Liturgies, 
Granaten. in dominc. 2. Quadrag.  that the miracle of the Transfiguration was the Gospel appointed for the second Sunday in Lent: the reasons were two, partly to exhort all Christians in strictest times of penitence to be transformed into new men, partly because it is certain this strange accident fell out in the beginning of the Spring, not long before our Saviour's Passion: for Moses and Elias came to tell him a short while before his death what he should suffer at Jerusalem. Yet again I find in the old Latin Calendar, that some Churches kept a Feast in memory of the Transfiguration upon the sixth day of August. But this was done upon a fancy, they call it a Tradition, 
Ludolphus lib. 2. c. 3.  that when Christ bade his Disciples not to tell as yet of those things they saw upon the mountain, till a more convenient time, they obeyed, and revealed it not in five months following till the sixth of August; and upon the publication of these things at that season, they did consent to honour the memorial of the day with the celebration of a Feast. Without prejudice to those ancient customs be it spoken, I have a surer ground to stand upon, that this is the proper time to preach upon it, soon after the great Feast of our Saviour's Resurrection is accomplished. My authority is Matth. 17.9. As the three disciples came down from the mountain, Christ charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man until the Son of man be risen from the dead. And beside it shall appear in due order, that the principal scope of the Transfiguration was to learn us, what the excellency and glorification of a body shall be that is raised from the dead.  
But because it is fit to work in the Lord's Vineyard at any hour of the day, and to dress this Tree of Life, the holy Scripture, in every bough and branch at any instant and occasion of time; therefore cutting off that Preface, I will mark out those things which are fit to be handled severally in the words now read unto you, and they be four, quando; quibuscum; quâ humilitate; quâ gloriâ: at what time Christ was transfigured; what associates he took with him; with what humility he prepared himself; with what glory he was dignified. The Time is noted by three circumstances, dicta, dies, iter. 1. After some sayings he had uttered. 2. About an eight days after those sayings. 3. When he had gone up to a mountain. In the second branch, his associates are Peter, John, and James: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he took them to see his glory, it was his association. St. Mark adds by way of emphasis, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he took three only, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, privatim, he sequestered them apart from this world, that they might see his glory. Thirdly, he prepared himself for this illustrious accident in great humility, inter precandum, he had prostrated himself before his Father in prayer. And then fourthly, this majestical glory came upon him two ways; quoad vultum, quoad vestitum, in his person, in his apparel, in his flesh an astonishing radiancy, the fashion of his countenance was altered; in his clothes an admirable purity, his raiment was white and glistering. I cannot be copious upon so many particulars; of some more largely, of the most succinctly.  
In the first circumstance of all, the Spirit of God hath noted out the Time, and therefore I must not balk it, no not in any of the three respects, post dicta, post dies, post it●r. First, after those sayings, says my Text: inquiry shall be made what words those be, and with whom he had that communication, which went before the demonstrance of his glory in two preceding verses in this chapter. Christ exhorted his Disciples and many others to the assurance of his Cross, and that they might know he was able to recompense their sorrows, who endured affliction for his name sake; yea, and would recompense it, he speaks thus, The Son of man shall come in his own glory, and in his Fathers, and of the holy Angels; and I tell you of a truth, there he some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Kingdom of God. He refers the multitude to look for the last day of judgement, when he would come in infinite Majesty to call the World before him; but he refers certain nameless persons to expect after a while a pregustation of some heavenly apparition, wherein they should see how he would be clothed with power and excellency, when he came to sit upon his Throne, and to call the Nations before him, they should not taste of death, till they saw a spectacle of the Kingdom of God in his transfiguration: This was the occasion which made him exhibit his body with that glorious lustre in the Mount: and yet some have ignorantly distorted those words to another purpose: There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Kingdom of God: 
Jo. 21.23.  what doth it mean say they, but that John the Disciple, whom Jesus loved, should live till the last day of judgement, as the report went among the Brethren, how that disciple should not die. Thus Theophylact, and the counterfeit Hippolytus: that error which hath run through so many Pens grew from hence, that when Peter being told with what death he should glorify God; asked, What should become of his fellow Disciple John? Christ gave him no clear satisfaction (because his question deserved it not) but only thus, 
Tolet. in cap. 21. Johan. Annot. 10.  If I will that he stay till I come, what is that to thee, follow th●● me. Let it be but probably discovered what coming Christ speaks of, and there is no great perplexity in the saying. Attend therefore; this coming is nothing less than that great coming in personal Majesty at the last day, but his coming in wrath and judgement against the Nation of the Jews to punish them, and quite to extirpate their seed from Jerusalem. Touching this coming by the fury of the Romans to execute his vengeance, St. James speaketh to the faithful converted from Judaisme, and then sore afflicted by the Synagogue; Be ye patient, and establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh, Jam. v. 8. Whereas therefore ancient stories have delivered unto us, that all the other Apostles were swept away by Martyrdom before the final destruction of Jerusalem, only John outlived that time, even till the reign of Trajan. This then is a plain meaning of our Saviour's answer, if I will that he live till that dismal day, when I come to destroy this people which hath crucified me, what is that to thee Peter, thou shalt never see that day; but prepare thyself before for a speedier Martyrdom. And to what use should the Apostle live a mortal life upon earth unto the end of the world, and yet never appear to any man? he lived to see the coming of God's judgements against the holy City, and he, together with Peter and James, lived to see a mirror of celestial glory in the Transfiguration, that's the meaning of our Saviour's promise going before my Text; There be some standing here, who shall not taste of death, until they see the Kingdom of God.  
It follows to be noted in the observation of the Time, that after these sayings he fulfilled his word, neither at the instant, nor after a long distance, but about an eight days after these sayings: It was neither so quickly dispatched, before they had meditated upon it, nor so long put off, that they could forget it: be it about an eight days, or about eight thousand ages, it is but a little while to God, who measures all things by Eternity. Now in these words, which are the very front of the story, there are two days odds in the relations of the Evangelists: St. Luke, you hear, says about an eight days after; St. Matthew and St. Mark, after six days. Doth not this account differ? no, not a whit: six days complete did go between his sayings and his mighty work; St. Matthew and the other speak of that time only: but in a part of one day, he had said, there be some standing here who shall not taste of death until they see the Kingdom of God: in part of another day He took those three up into the mountain, and so St. Luke computes exactly, 'twas about an eight days after those sayings. So hath the Divine wisdom disposed, that the same thing should be repeated in several Gospels with some alteration of phrase, but with no difference or contradiction, and that for two causes. When outwardly there seems to be some disagreement between the Text of one Evangelist and another, these difficulties do whet our industry to study the book of God: there must be knots and mysteries hard to be understood, ut homo semper discat, Deus semper doceat, that man may always learn, and God may always teach unto the end of the world. 2. Says another, si per omnia consentirent, nemo putarent eos seorsim scripsisse, if they had all jumped in the same words quite throughout, (as some say of the 72 Interpreters in the Old Testament) it might have been imagined that the Gospels were not writ at distinct times, and in distinct places; now the dissonancy of their phrase doth warrant us to say, that the Evangelists did not cast their heads together, when they committed the Scriptures to writing, but wrote apart; and yet the same spirit which was in them all brought out an harmony of the same truth from several Authors; apprehend it if you will by this vulgar similitude: A Gardener curious in devices, had taught four several learners to draw the same artificial knot upon the ground, and every of the four laid out his knot as he was instructed upon several beds, but each set it with several kinds of herbs; you will not say I hope but the knot is the same, albeit the herbs planted upon it are different. So all the four Evangelists were taught by one Holy Ghost to draw out the same model of our Saviour's life, his Transfiguration, his Passion, his Resurrection: the herbs indeed with which every Gospel is planted are divers, the narrations differ in words; but that's the excellency of the truth of our Gospel, that in several phrases every one of those holy Scribes sets down the same Lord Jesus Christ. This I have added to the illustration of this seeming difference, after six days Christ was transfigured, 'tis true; and as true, it was about an eight days after these sayings.  
The last respect unto the time is joined with the place, this Transfiguration fell out after he was gone up into a mountain to pray. A valley is as capable of God's glory as a mountain, for God is God of the valleys as well as of the hills, whatsoever Benhadad the King of Syria said to the contrary: but Christ chose this high hill as well for the exercise of Prayer, as for the mystery of his Transformation: there may seem to be two intentions that he desired such a place for prayer, quia coeli conspectus liberior, 
Maldonat. in ca 17. Mat.  quia solitudo major: First upon the higher ground there is the more free contemplation of Heaven, the place to which we lift up our eyes and our hearts in prayer; for though our Lord is every where, both in heaven and earth, and under the earth, yet thither we advance our devotions as to the chief Throne of his Majesty. Next our Saviour left a concourse of people beneath, and went to the mountain to pour out his devotions there as in a solitary sequestration, where he should not be troubled. Into such unfrequented hills he did often retire alone, as if he would teach us to bid all the world adieu, and all earthy thoughts, when we utter our supplications before our heavenly Father: neither doth it seem expedient to act the miracle of the Transfiguration upon a meaner Theatre than an exceeding high mountain, to show what ascensions must be in their soul who have a desire to be exalted to God's glory. Our heart, according to its own evil inclination, cleaus unto the dust like a serpent, 
Bernard. in Ascens. Dom. S●rm. 4.  our thoughts are of low stature like Zachaeus, if they will climb up, let it be for no other end, or errand, but, as he did, to see Christ. There are two mountains, says Bernard, which we must ascend, but not both at once. First, there is the mountain where the Son of God did preach, Mat. v. and after that go up to the mountain where he was transfigured, Mat. 17. Non solum meditemur in praemiis, sed etiam in mandatis Domini: I beseech you first meditate upon the Sayings and Commandments of God, and afterward upon his Transfiguration, upon the reward of glory: and not, as it is the vain custom of the world, run on presumptuously upon assurance of glorification, and to forget the true order, first to ascend upon the mountain of obedience.  
If you think it material to my expositions, to know what mountain this was on which the dignity of this great work did befall, you shall be informed in that also; I know none but Ephrem the Syrian, that says it was Mount Sinah: He had his fetch, oportebat in eo suggeftu consignari novum testamantum, in quo conscriptum fuit vetus: it behoved, he speaks as if he would appoint God, it behoved the New Testament to be chiefly honoured in that place where the old Law was delivered: But God is not bound to man's witty divinations; for this Mountain, as it appears in our Saviour's journeys, 
Ad Eustoch. jam.  was in Galilee, and Sinai is in Arabia, Galat. iv. 25. St. Hierom did long dwell and study in the Region of Judaea, and he says in his Epitaph or Funeral farewel to Paula, that it was Mount Tabor: And Euthymius interserts as much, Psa. lxxxix. 13. upon those words, Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name. This was so constantly believed, that Helen the Mother of Constantine built a Church upon that ground, to celebrate the place where Christ had been wonderfully dignified: and if relations deceive us not, there are the ruins of two little Chapels more upon Mount Tabor at this day, erected by some superstitious conceit, because St. Peter said, Master, let us build here three Tabernacles. All that I read beside is in Josephus, that it was the most craggy and steepy high place in all Galilee, in some parts inaccessible, the fitter to resemble the Kingdom of Heaven, to which we cannot ascend but in one rugged path, repentance and faith: And the Historian, who was a famous Captain, also adds, that he built a wall about it in 40 days, that the Jews might defend themselves there, as in a strong Castle, from the incursion of the Romans. 
2 Ep. 1. c. v 18.  It is more than all these have said, that S. Peter calls it the Holy Mount: This voice we heard when we were with him in the holy mount: Holy because the Sacred Trinity did open itself in that place, as I will show hereafter: holy, because Jesus the Holy of Holies did shine there in the bright lustre of beatitude: not as if there were any holiness in the soil, and all other earth profane: God did not mean so, when he said to Moses, Put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place on which thou standest is holy ground; but because it puts an holy reverence into a man that approacheth either in body or mind, and thinketh seriously what wonders were done upon that holy Mountain. So I have done with the first part of my Text, the circumstance of time and place, which is the entrance into this Miracle: It cannot be unpleasant to examine the smallest parcels of such divine works to them that love the History of Christ.  
In the next general part we read, as there was choice of time and place, so there was choice of persons, He took Peter, and John, and James. What ado should we have had with some men if none but Peter had followed his Master into the Mountain upon this glorious occasion? 
Leo Ep. 61.  as it is Leo caught hold of it to speak strange words, and such as may amuse the Reader. The Lord did take Peter into the fellowship of the indivisible Trinity. When the Wolf in the Fable peeped into the Shepherd's house, and saw him and his servants dress a Lamb to be eaten; says the Wolf, what a stir would have been made if I had done as much? So I dare be bold to say, what quarrels and exclamations there would have been if Luther or Calvin had said as much: But Leo had tentered St. Peter's praise to the height, because he claimed himself to have a Prerogative by his succession. Yet it is well to take off all claim of supremacy by this instance, that John and James were in the company. Non infra Charites, said the Latin Proverb, a good meeting was spoiled if there were less than the number of three, the number of the Graces: but Christ did not choose so many, because it was the fittest number, but we must believe it was the fittest number, because He chose so many; neither was his force united by their company to do any thing the better, as it useth to be among men, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; but being destinated to be witnesses of this same Miracle, the Law had said it was a complete testimony to confirm any thing by the mouth of three; and Christ was punctual, that the Jews might not cavil, as if He were defective in any circumstance of the Law. St. Ambrose is very elegant in a mystical acuteness, he says thus; the glory of the Resurrection is that we hope for, the way to that glory is to believe in the holy Trinity, and to ground them in the belief of that Trinity, Christ did not exceed that mystical number, but assumed three Disciples to be present with him in Mount Tabor, when Christ in visible splendour, the Father in the voice, the Holy Ghost in the bright cloud, did manifest themselves upon the Mountain.  
And when our Lord had chosen twelve Disciples out of all the people in Judaea, it seems these three were the choice of that choice, and the flower of that company, selected for great matters: If it be an honourable thing, as St. Chrysostom rightly holds it, to be in the List of those friends whom Paul saluted, Rom. xuj. than it cannot but be more renowned, to be those egregii assumpti e grege, those egregious servants whom Christ employed above all the rest, all the Apostles, Judas excepted were David's Worthies, but they attained not unto the first three. Somewhat was in it, that whereas it was usual for our Saviour to be followed with three attendants at least, wheresoever He went to work a Miracle, that we never find him vary, but constantly to accept these same three, and no other: as when He raised up the Maiden to life, Mark v. 37. and when He prayed, and fell into his agony in the Garden before his Passion, Matth. xxvi. 37. and at this Miracle in my Text, when He made his glory to appear. That excellency paramount which some have observed in these three above their fellows is this: In signis primus corruscavit Petrus, sanguinem primus fudit Jacobus, doctrinâ illustris fuit Johannes. Peter is more noted in the book of the Acts than any of the Twelve for working Miracles: James was the first among the Twelve that suffered Martyrdom: and John was the Eagle that sored highest of them all in his Doctrine and Divinity. What aptness there was in these three more than others I know not, I leave it to God to give the grace of dispensation to one more than another, who alone knoweth the heart, and sees what is fittest for his own glory. We see no outward sign to discover that they were better prepared to see this Vision than the rest of their fellows: they slept when they should have watched, and they spoke most ignorantly when they awoke, as if they bade been still asleep: therefore modesty will give no conjecture why they were preferred before their Brethren, but the bare will of Christ, who will exalt those more conspicuously than others whom He is pleased to honour. As God said, that He gave the Law to the Israelites, not that they were better than their Neighbours, but because the Lord had a pleasure in them, and in their forefathers. It is not obscurely taught in the verb assumpsit, He assumed and took to him Peter, and John, and James, what indisposition they had of themselves to receive such heavenly things: and in all supernatural works we rather draw back, than help on: we had need to pray for God's assumpsit, to take us up unto it: this corruptible body, and corrupt affections press down the soul. Nemo venit ad me nisi Pater traherit eum, saith Christ, no man cometh unto me unless the Father draw him. There is a preparatory, grace wherewith God invites us to salvation; but his mercy stays not there, for there is a special grace over and above that wherewith He draws us. Draw me and I will run after thee, says the Spouse. Hale us un to thee, O Lord, and pluck us on with the cords of love; our heart is heavy unto death, and cannot follow unless the Father draw us unto him. Coge nos intrare cum Coecis & claudis: We are those blind and lame in the Gospel, I beseech thee, O Father, compel us to come unto thy Feast. These three famous Apostles were not forward of themselves to ascend up to the holy Mountain, but assumpsit, their Lord and Saviour took them with him.  
It were impertinent to observe some men's needless labour in their questions, why Andrew was none of this Coram, none of the three prime, being the first of them all that followed Christ, Joh. i. 40. and the instrument that brought Simon Peter his brother to see the Messias? Why should it trouble us that he was omitted? For we never read in the Gospel that it troubled him; his eye was not evil because his Masters was good, since the Holy Ghost fell down upon them all at the Feast of Whitsuntide, it bred neither repining, nor emulation, that these three were partakers of some private mysteries. 
Homil. in Matth. v●.  St. Chrysostom commends the ingenuity of St. Matthew above all, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. He did not conceal the honour and privilege of those Apostles that were preferred before him. A brave Athenian offering himself in competition with divers, to be one of their grand Council of 50, then newly to be chosen to govern that State, and being left out of the number, used this saying, He was glad there were fifty more sufficient than himself to govern the Commonwealth. So Matthew repined not that himself was not in the company, but was glad that Christ had three more eximious than himself to be witnesses of the Transfiguration.  
Yet there is a good crop to be reaped out of this question, and no offence shall be committed through curiosity, why the whole Company of the Apostles went not up into the Mountain with our Saviour: they had all seen him work many miracles; they had all seen him walk on the sea, to let them know when he pleased his body was not gross and heavy: they did all see him pass through the midst of the Jews untouched, when they sought to stone him, to let them know his body had greater agility than ours, when He pleased, and could pass away undiscerned. But all might not behold in Mount Tabor, what manner of splendour a glorified body should have. What was the reason of the impediment? Damascen thinks the greater part did stay behind, that Judas might not see the beauty of the Kingdom of Heaven, who was reserved for chains of endless darkness. This answer is personal; the next is very plain and literal: Vt mysterium secretius ageretur, many witnesses are not fit to keep a secret, and Christ called out a paucity to stand by at this Solemnisation, because he would have it concealed till he was risen from the dead, He bade them tell no man in those days what they had seen, for what reasons it seemed fit unto him to have it carried so privily for a while, I promise to unfold when I come to treat of the 36. verse of this chapter. The third reason is very pat, 
Druthmarus in Matth. 17.  though it be figurative: though there were very good men left below the Mountain, yet this partition of three in one consort, that did see his glory, nine in another knot who were left out, doth betoken, multi vocati, pauci electi, that many are called, and few be chosen. Moses took up no more than Aaron and Hur when he went up to Mount Horeb to talk with God; Christ took no more than the fourth part of the Apostles when He went up to Mount Tabor that God the Father might talk to him, 
F●rus ibid.  Major pars remanet terrae adhaerens; the more numerous part of men cleave to the earth below: Elias sits alone upon Mount Carmel like a Sparrow sitting alone upon the housetop. The valleys are too full of them that mind earthly things. Two men went up into the Temple to pray, vel duo, vel nemo, when there is a throng abroad without the Temple. O curvae in terris animae! so much heaven to receive us, (for it is of an incomprehensible capacity) so little earth to possess (for it is but a drop of water, and a crumb of dust) in respect of the world above: yet we strive to enlarge our possessions upon earth, which will not hold many rich inheritors at once, and neglect Heaven, which would contain us all, and afford every one a Kingdom to reign with God. So far I have collected what I knew fit to be observed upon the three Disciples who did associate our Saviour.  
It followeth in the third part of the Text, Christ prepared himself for his Glorification with great humility; facta est inter precandum species ejus vultus altera, etc. as he prayed the fashion of his countenance was altered. Christ need not pray to his Father, as if He that was God and Man in one person could not bring all things to pass without a prayer. That was Martha's error the Sister of Lazarus, Joh. 11. I know now whatsoever thou askest of God He will give it thee; but Christ doth intimate in the same chapter, that without ask, the Father did always hear him; yet, through the whole course of his being abased upon earth, He did make requests unto God upon all occasions, that the Head might fulfil all that righteousness which his Members should perform. The matter of his prayer who is able to recite it what it was, since either He prayed in spirit, and did not lift up his voice; or else prayed a part, that the Disciples did not hear? Or if they did hear, yet they have not imparted the relation of it in the Gospel. This I may safely say, there is a Prayer which would make a very convenient Collect at such a time, Joh. xvii. 24. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me. Surely it sounds well to reason, that he prayed for that which He obtained before He stirred from that place, namely that his Divinity might cast a splendour through his body in a most amiable and visible form, and that a type of the glory of the life to come might be revealed to these three Apostles: even so the same thing must be continually in our supplications, that the glory of Christ may be spread far and wide from Nation to Nation, which is the large of that Petition which himself taught us, Thy Kingdom come.  
And as he prayed the fashion of his countenance was altered. O the wise God, that would have the glory of transfiguration fall upon himself at no other time but in the fervour of prayer. Miserable men are those that desire not to be transfigured, and to cast off the old man; but more miserable that think to be transfigured without continual prayer. An Hypocrite would seem to be a transformed man; Satan would appear to have transformed himself into an Angel of light; Hypocrites and Devils all love to make a show of transfiguration, but they did never pray to God to change their inside, which is nothing but filthiness, and to be renewed in the spirit of their mind: or if Hypocrites do pray, it is with such a faint desire, as if they had rather be denied than speed: they are not instant with God, they are not constant, or if you will have a good thing impressed in a rough word, they are not pertinacious: tamdiu orandum, quamdiu transformemur in viros alios; hold on, and cease not to pray, till you be changed into new men. As a Distiller keeps his extractions at the Furnace, till he see them flower and colour as he could wish; so, as long as we feel the relics of the old Adam remaining, especially while we feel them reign, and get the dominion over us, we must ply our Saviour day and night with a restless devotion, and a flagrant importunity, and I am sure while we pray, not the fashion of our countenance, but the fashion of our heart shall be altered. What a molesting Suitor would Gorgonia the Sister of Nazianzen have been to any Prince upon earth? She was not troublesome to God: yet says Nazienzen she should protest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, she would make him ashamed to deny her, and never rise up from her knees, till the light of his countenance shined upon her. 
Hieron. Ep. 9  S. Hierom loved his Nebridius, of whose perseverance in Prayer he testifies, certè sic semper erat orans Deum, ut illi quod optimum esset eveniret; he was an uncessant Petitioner to God, so that nothing befell him, but that which was fittest for him. I opened my mouth and drew in my breath, for my delight was in thy Commandments, says David, Psal. cxix. 131. in which verse is to be understood, that Prayer is the very breath of the spirit, 
Bernard. de Natur. Divin. cap. 2.  without which the spiritual man can no more live, than the natural man can live without the breath of air: The lungs must be always cooled with the Element of air, and faith must always be inflamed with the breath of supplication. Will you hear the ample commendation of a true Prayer comprised in two words? In quâ tanta sit fides ut speret omnia, tanta devotio ut Deum videatur cogere; let it be strong in faith to hope all things, strong in patience to persist at all times, and I know not what it is not able to effect; to cast mountains into the sea, says Christ, to be transfigured, says my Text, into the glory of God; to bring Peter out of Prison when Herod had locked him up within a brazen Gate, yet then at the dead hour of the night did the Angel bring him forth, and at the same time of midnight Peter found the Church at prayer for his deliverance, Acts xii. 5.  
Well, I pray you remember, that when our Saviour went up into the Mountain, as well to be transfigured as to pray, yet the Text names this only, that he went up into the mountain to pray; that name stands in chief, and drowns the mention of the other business, as if Prayer were a greater work than that resplendent Transfiguration. And what needed he to pray, but to bring us upon our knees humbly and frequently before his Father, and our Father. As Solomon's Temple had three especial Ornaments, the Golden Candlestick, the Table of Shewbread, and the Altar of Incense; so three things of principal use do correspond to these in the Church of Christ; the Word Preached, which doth enlighten our darkness, is the Golden Candlestick, which is dearer, says David than much fine gold. Instead of the Table of Shewbread we have the Communion of Christ's Body and Blood, the Table of the lord 
Ep. 201.  And instead of the Altar of Incense we have that which is much sweeter in Gods nostrils, the Incense of Prayer. Now abide these three to direct us in a good way, says Bernard; Verbum, Exemplum, Oratio, the Word Preached, the Edifying Examples of Holy men, and Zealous Prayer; but the greatest of these is Prayer; Ea namque operi & voci gratiam & efficaciam promeretur: for whether they be the actions of a pious life, or the words of an eloquent tongue, it is Prayer which accompasseth from God's mercy that all should be effectual. I have amplified this the more, because some Ignaroes out of a preposterous zeal shuffle off this Christian duty with a most wicked and a regardless negligence, if any man be transfigured from such a corrupt opinion by that which I have delivered, it is that which I aimed at, and which I desire of God; yea it is that which our Saviour intended, when he would be occupied in Prayer at that time, and in nothing else, when he was transfigured in glory.  
Now in the fourth and last general Observation upon the Text, as our Lord prepared himself with much humility in Prayer, so in the consequent he was exalted in much honour, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. Beloved, we are all like the Children of Israel standing below the Hill, and dare not go up to pry in to the mystery of the inscrutable glory: Let it suffice us to inquire into three things that follow, which we may safely do, since all Scripture is written for our instruction. They are these: 1. The Final Cause, why Christ was transfigured: 2. The Efficient Cause, from whence this splendour was derived: And 3. The Effect itself, alteration in his countenance, whiteness and glistering in his raiment. In these three I will be brief without offensive curiosity, to make us not only search, but find out the cause why He would be transfigured I have regard to this rule of Damascens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
O●at. de Transsig.  every thing that Christ did in his conversation upon earth it is to be referred to the good of man.  
First then I render this reason; that the Redeemer of Souls lived in great humility upon earth, nay, like an abject worm, to attract the love of the Church; now he changed himself into this admired excellency to increase their faith, St. Peter pronounced a Confession of faith for all the Apostles, Matth. xuj. which their Master did exceedingly commend, Thou art Christ the Son of the living God. Yet they who did see the Majesty of God to be in him, and did adore it, were as yet ignorant of what glorification his body was capable, which was the Veil of the Godhead. He had suspended all outward appearance of Divine lustre, that it should not show itself in him. To this meaning you cannot well choose but refer that of the Prophet Isaias, chap liii. 2. He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him: that is, he was pleased for a season, not to look like one whose body had an illustrious influence from the soul, and from the union with the Godhead, he did suppress it, till he was pleased to make it known, Psal. xciii. The Lord is King, he hath put on glorious apparel, and in another place, Thou art clothed with Majesty and honour. Indeed to have a brightness in his body as great, or greater than the light of the Sun, was as natural to that humane nature, which is united to the Godhead, as it is for the Sun to shine in the Firmament. The Disciples marvailed that his face should glister this one time, so that no Fuller on earth could make a thing so white, whereas the greater marvel is, that it was not so at all times. 
Grana●en. loc. praed.  Majus miraculum fuit hujus gloriae influxum reprimere, quam eam perpetuò retinere; It was a greater miracle to restrain the apparition of this glory at any time, than to have it always dwell upon his face: for blessed souls, which enjoy God always, have a virtue of claritude in them, which redounds of it own accord into the body. Therefore well might the Psalmist say of Christ, whose soul was always blessed, Thou art fairer than the children of men. And though at other times his brightness was discoloured by humility; yet now he removed the cloud, and let his Witnesses see the fair beams of his Divine honour for a little time, which is the first motive of his Transfiguration.  
Secondly, by this Apparition the three Disciples saw in what form he would come to judgement. It is no dreadful thing to a good man, either to see, or to meditate with himself in what manner Christ will come in the Clouds at the last day to call the Quick and the Dead before him. The Wicked that know they have crucified him again, and trampled the blood of the Covenant under their feet, will run into the dust for fear of his glorious presence, and call for the Hills to cover them, and the Mountains to fall upon them: as for the Righteous that then shall be found upon earth, in whose hearts he hath sealed the promise of his Holy Spirit, they shall tremble with an awful reverence; but when they have gained their memory to recall that he cometh with his reward in his hand, they will praise that pomp of Judgement, and say, now our labour is at an end, we shall reign for evermore. 
Ratbetius in 17. Matth.  And because Christ did appear in Mount Tabor no otherwise than as he means to come to Judgement, therefore he did qualify the light of his face to be no greater than the light of the Sun: his body, which is strange to consider, shall have more resplendency than that mighty Lamp of Heaven; but it is not for the Wicked to behold them: they shall see him shine upon his Throne, but with as little comfort as sore eyes gaze upon the Sun, or with as little joy as we see flashes of lightning in a terrible thunder, non dat lucem videntibus, sed pavorem, which is not sent to illuminate us in darkness, but to aghast us with the apparition. Of this more at large hereafter. But this is the second motive of this Miracle, he transformed himself into that Majesty wherein He will judge the World. Thirdly, He did represent himself as the Argument and Idea of that beautiful Reward which the bodies of the Just shall have in the General Resurrection. The Pharisees required a Sign, and Christ told them, they should have no sign, but the sign of the Prophet Ionas, that a body being swallowed up in death should come to life again; but these few Disciples over and above the Sign of the Prophet Ionas, had the Sign of Transfiguration, which is the dainty and delicate part of the Resurrection. Say no more but that God will be the Redeemer of his Elect, yet it would amuse a man to think what should become of this vile body, every member whereof hath been a thousand times an instrument of iniquity: well, even this very naughty flesh shall have a beam of Divine mercy shine upon it; it is impossible to make it ought in this life, but a sink of corruption; no Fuller upon earth can make it so white as God can. In these days the Soul is full of bad concupiscence, and the Body is made miserable: Hereafter the Soul will be full of grace, and the Body shall be made delectable. And mark it, that the Disciples had their item not to talk of these things till Christ were risen from the dead, because the Transfiguration was intended to make up the compliment of our joy touching the resurrection of the Body. And to sink it deeper in our hearts, that this brightsom alteration did not concern the Spirit, but the Body; his raiment was white and glistering, which is no more than the shroud of the Body. In a word, God did never reveal that He could take away the essential properties of a true Body, and yet keep it a true Body: they that believe so much believe beside the Book; but in this Miracle appeared that God can add a celestial and beauteous form unto a Body, so that the Sun in all his brightness shall not come near it. This is the seed of that faith which St. Paul preacheth, It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in honour. Praise the Lord therefore in Body and Soul, since both shall be invested with a Royal Dignity to make them both fit for the society of Angels. But herein we exceed the happiness of Angels, they are glorious Spirits, we shall be glorified both in body and spirit. So the Prophet, Isa. lxi. 7. They shall possess the double in their land, everlasting joy shall be with them; Duplicia possidebunt: their Soul filled with the vision of God, their Body transfigured in glory.  
Fourthly, this wants not a grains weight of a principal cause, the Son of God in the days of his exinanition looked like a person for this once of divine authority, ut crucis scandalum tolleret, that their minds might not be cast down with despair to see the misery of his Cross, who had seen his glory upon Mount Tabor. Now he looked more Angelical than a Cherubin, than he looked more ruthful than the poorest Lazarus; now the greatest in heaven did speak graciously unto him, than the scum of the earth reviled him; he than was glorified at one time could not be compelled to shame and ignominy, but from his own patience and yielding would be crucified at another. Sicut luctatores corpus inclinant, says a Father; Christ wrestled with Satan, and though that old supplanter the Serpent did bruise his heel, yet he could not get the Mastery: Christ stooped low like a Lion couching for his prey, and when he might seem to be cast down this was his feat to overturn his adversary.  
Fifthly, The fifth and last Reason hath a Moral Use. There is an old man with his corruptions to be metamorphosed in us all, sicut Pelias recoctus, as the Fable goes, that Medea bathed the body of Pelias with certain magical drugs, and from a decrepit old man transmuted him into a vigorous youth. This is a figment; for no man spent his young years so well, to deserve at God's hands in this world to be young again: but there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a renovation in the spirit of our mind. God will not know us in our own form and filthiness, unless we put on the Image of Christ: As Jacob obtained his Father's blessing, not in his own shape, but in the Garments of Esau; so we must sue our blessing, having put on the righteousness of Christ; then the Lord will receive his servant, 
Gen. xxxiii. 10.  and say unto thee as Jacob did unto Esau, I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God.  
You have heard the final cause more ways than one, why this Miracle was wrought, I may speak somewhat of the efficient cause, how this splendour was derived, and further than so I must not proceed now, because of the time. Many obscure points will come to light by ask this question: Whether this lightsome beauty like the Sun did appear in our Saviour's face from the beatification of his humane Soul, or from the union of his Divine nature? First you must understand, that the great School-man Aquinas took the best end of the cause into his hand, when he answered to neither of those two members, but rather to the purpose of the question in this wise, 
3. P. Qu. 45. ar. 2.  fuit haec qualitas gloriae, sed non corporis gloriosi, quia nondum erat immortalis: this Transfiguration was a quality of glory, but not of a glorified body, because He was not yet passed death, and raised up to be immortal, and impassable. In this distinction is covertly included, that it was not such a brightness as the Soul shall communicate to the Body, when it is reunited in a joyful resurrection, but was created at this time by the Divine power, to foretell and shadow what would come to pass with much increase in the Kingdom of God. Praelibatio regui Dei fuit haec transfiguration, says Cajetan: this was but the Landscape or Pattern of the true happiness which shall be in the Kingdom of Heaven. It was a far more excellent splendour than that of Moses or Stephen upon earth, but not so perfect, or proper, as is derived from a Soul that is perfectly beatified. Moses his face did shine like a God when he came down from the Mount, yet it was ab externo colloquio, because he had been a Companion with God. Christ's face did shine ab innatâ gratiâ & potentiâ, not because he was the Companion of God, but because he was very God, and was the fountain of all grace and beauty to communicate it to others. Neither was St. Stephen's irradiation any more than a preparative of the Resurrection, and a declaration of his innocency: to make the Council afraid of wrong judgement; all that looked upon him saw his face as it had been the face of an Angel. But that which happened to our Saviour was not from an external gift; as Stephen saw Christ standing at the right hand of God, but from an internal influence and emanation of the Deity.  
Moses and Stephen were but Passengers, and not to be compared in any sort of excellency with their Lord, who was God and Man. Yet by the dispensation of the Divine Power, it was not such a total illumination in Christ as results from the Soul unto the Flesh, when both shall come to appear before the living God. The reasons are very full and home for the proof. 1. The Soul in the state of eternal happiness shall derive amiable splendour to all the outward parts of the Body, but no further. In this present case the very garments were changed into such an outward gloss, as the like was never seen: Therefore this must be some brightness created for this instant by the Deity. 2. Splendour is but one of the Ornaments of a glorified Body, when the Soul doth transfuse the benefits of beatification into it, it shall be a Spiritual Body, it shall be nimble to pass from place to place like an Angel, or like a thought; likewise it shall not be obnoxious to death, or dolour, where were these? Because therefore this was but a partial, not a total glorification, it flowed not from the Soul. 3. It was not so large, not so complete a claritude and beauty as will adorn the Lamb of God hereafter, but a pittance and measure attempered for their weak reception that should see it. His face did shine like the Sun: What but like the Sun? so much is promised to the faithful, that they shall shine like the Sun in the Kingdom of his Father. And think you that the Lord is not greater than the Servant, and shall much excel that proportion of glory which we expect? Therefore Lyra says, this was an Ornament of the same true glory which we shall have hereafter, quantum ad essentiam, sed non quantum ad modum; it had the very essence and truth of such illuminated brightness as the righteous shall have in Paradise, but it had not such an ample measure and proportion. 4. To make it sure and uncontradicted, that this was not like to that glory which shall be derived from the Soul in eternal joy, that is does connaturalis, this is passio transitoria. Then it shall be a natural endowment never to be separated away. Now it was but a transient passion, soon on, and as soon off again, even as soon as ever the voice from Heaven had spoken. Permanency, unchangeableness, never altering Eternity are so proper to future blessedness, that without them it is not to be imagined. St. Paul was elevated by the Divine grace to see and hear things unutterable in this rapture: that is, as I believe, he saw the very Divine Essence in a short prospect and away; yet Paul by this exceeding favour was none of the Beati till after his dissolution, none of the Classis in St. Matthew, Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God, quia beatitudo denotat permanentiam; Beatitude is not the participation of the best thing in the World for a little time, but for ever and ever.   

THE SECOND SERMON UPON The Transfiguration.  LUKE ix. 29, 30, 31. 
The fashion of his Countenance was altered, and his Raiment was white and glistering.  
And behold there talked with him two wen, which were Moses and Elias.  
IN a well laid description an Artist represents things that are absent so verily, so lively as if they were before us. As Scaliger says of Virgil, he did not read it in his verses, but did even see the Mountain Aetna belching out fire, and impestred with smoke and vapour. But no Art so powerful in man's Writings to call back things that are done and passed, and to clothe them with such significant words as if they were before us, like to the Pen of the Holy Ghost. Do but observe for our present instance, how St. Matthew began to delineate the beauty of Christ transfigured, how St. Mark added fresh colours to make it appear more excellent; and then how St. Luke's Pencil cometh after all, and finisheth the Picture, and you will say upon attentive heed, these are not words which we read, but even Christ himself in his Majestic glory. St. Matthew begins thus, His face did shine as the Sun, and his raiment was white as the light. Doth not this call the Idea of your Lord into your mind, as if your eye beheld him? He said much for the face. St. Mark speaks loftier for the Garment, His raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow, so that no Fuller on earth can white them. Then St. Luke neither compares him to the Sun above, nor to the Snow beneath, but says enough to make us conceive, that positively it was a greater splendour than could be likened to any created thing, The fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. A vegetous faith is able to say unto a Mountain, be removed into the Sea, and it shall be removed; much more is it able to carry the soul into the highest heaven, into the presence of God by such a steadfast apprehension, as it cannot judge itself, whether it be in the body, or out of the body. Thus let every man's faith say at this time unto his Soul, be thou removed into Mount Tabor; thrust in with Peter, and James, and John, persuade thine heart thou seest as much by relation, as ever they saw by apparition, there is thy Saviour having laid down the austere front of a Judge, and looking like a specious Bridegroom, The fashion of his countenance was altered, etc.  
Now that you may hear things laid down in order for a stay to your memory, you will grant unto me that there are two things which make a spectacle to be wishly looked upon, Res mirae, & personae mi●ae; strange and uncouth things, strange and unexpected persons. Come therefore and see most rare things in the first part of my Text, Christ even now an object, in which you could discern nothing but poverty, and humility; Momento turbinis, and as quick as a flash of lightning. He hath put on such a countenance, and such apparel, as the clearest day light, and the driven snow did not equal him, His countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. Then for strange persons, such as long since were departed, and gone out of the world, because the world was not worthy of them they return in visible shapes to play a new part upon the stage of the earth, Behold there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias.  
I enter upon the handling of these Points without more circumlocution. I have acquainted you before with two things of main consequence in this Miracle of the Transfiguration; first, the final cause why Christ was transfigured. Secondly, the efficiency from whence this exceeding brightness was derived. Now I come to set it forth unto you, first in his face, then in his raiment. Distil out the very best that all the Heathen have wrote, and it is not able to teach us so much as is contained in this portion of Scripture, touching the immortality of the soul, and the beatitude of the life to come. Here are the two last Articles of the Creed exemplified and set out in their real truth, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. The immortality of the soul, and the resurrection of the flesh are confirmed in the persons of Moses, and Elias, who are brought forth to appear before mortal men face to face: And our Saviour makes himself a spectacle of the happiness of the world to come, for the fashion of his countenance was altered; or thus in another Evangelists description, his face did shine as the Sun.  
I may say unto him as Daniel did to Nebuchadonosor upon the interpretation of his dream, Tu es caput aureum, Thou O King art the head of Gold, Dan. two. 38. But we are sure if that head be gold, the inferior members under him shall not be iron and clay. Of his glory we shall all receive, and with the light of his face all the body shall be beautified. This is a Beacon shining upon the top of an hill, which shines from the East unto the West, from one end of the earth unto the other: But it is a pacificous Beacon, which portends peace, and not war; where you read that the Lord looks like burning fire, there he threatens us to beware of his indignation, so John makes a character of Christ, Rev. i 14. His eyes were as a flame of fire, in a great commotion of passion the eye will look like a forge of wrath, as Tully displays Verres, ardebant oculi, toto ex ore crudelitas emicabat. His eyes did burn with anger, cruelty did every where sparkle out of his face. The Philosopher says, that the Fancy is seated in the middle Region of the brain above the eyes, which upon great and sudden wrath calls up the spirits hastily unto itself, and with that swift motion they are heated, and seem to flame in the eyes, Flammea torquens lamina, says the Poet of his Turnus. Therefore this phrase of speech is borrowed from the manner of men, that the eyes of Christ were as a flame of fire. And it bids us kiss the Sun lest he be angry, if his wrath be kindled yea but a little, blessed are all they that put their trust in him. But at this apparition, which I entreat of, he did recreate his servants with his looks. Here is no mention of f●●e in his eyes, but of light in his face, and that is always taken in good part for an auspicious Omen, They looked upon him, and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed, Psal. xxxiv. 5. They that stand before him, and have a reflection from the light of his countenance, shall not knit their brow, and look down for fear unto the earth, as Cain did. Yet more than so, this Sunshine Majesty, wherewith he was beautified, doth not only dissipate shame, but serve us with the hope of Salvation, Make thy face to shine upon thy servant, O save me for thy mercy's sake, Psal. xxxi. 16.  
It is a good thing to be safe under his mercy, the cheerful aspect of his face doth promise that at the least. And doth not this glistering transmutation assure us likewise, that his grace shall shine in our hearts to produce the fruits of life? The life is the light of men, says St. John; and by inversion it is true to say, that this light is the life of the soul. Therefore this was not the irradiation of the Sun, or any other star, which though it be a comely creature, yet it is but an inanimate thing; but to show it was Lux viva, and Lux ad vitam, living light, and light that begetteth eternal life; therefore it sparkled from the living flesh of the eternal Sun of God. And it may be observed, how usefully St. Matthew says his face did shine like the Sun; not as if he did then illuminate half the world at once with his face, for then the rest of the Disciples, who went not up to the Mountain, must have known somewhat of this alteration (it being most probable, that the Transfiguration fell out in the night) but because the Sun doth enough on his part to shine unto all men, and if any want the benefit, it is not for defect of the light which is spread sufficiently abroad: So Christ by himself and his Priests hath annunciated the truth openly, that it is our own fault, and not his, if it be not tendered to all people, and known throughout the world. 2. The Sun before he ariseth sends out beams, and gives some light to the Horizon, but makes the day more clear when he is risen upon the earth: So Christ did give the Patriarches a glimpse of faith before he was incarnate, and lived upon the earth, but he did embrighten the Church much more with faith, when the world had heard, and seen with their eyes, and looked upon, and their hands had handled the word of life. And do you mark who were present witnesses at the fulgor of this transfiguration? Both Moses and Elias who had lived on earth in the Age before, and three Apostles who did live in that present Age, because he was that light which gave the lustre of faith both to the former, and to the latter Ages of the world; take heed your heart be not thick clay, and gross earth, which will not admit and give transparency to this spiritual light; He that believeth not abideth in darkness. It is perilous to be in darkness, and most horrible to abide in it; and without faith you shall abide in the darkness of Hell for ever.  
Though this which I have said already be much, yet this prospective of admirable light leads us further; for in this Transformation the Master did show what Liveries of glory the Servants should wear when they should dwell with him in his Kingdom for ever. 
Judg. viij. 18.  As Zalumna said to Gideon of gideon's brethren, so doth this enlightened countenance of Christ say unto his Saints, As thou art so shall they be, each one according to the form of the Children of a King. No Soothsayer, no Palmister, no judicial ginger is able to tell any man the event of his life, what honours and promotions shall betid him. But he, unto whom all the wisdom of the world is foolishness, Christ, hath manifested not in word, but in sign the true state of the blessed for ever, they shall shine like the Stars in the Firmament, or like the Sun itself at Noon day. And because this may seem to be an Hyperbolical comparison, I will raise you up higher in your thoughts (though I shall seem to speak strangely) that the Sun comes short of that enamouring fair light, wherewith the bodies of the just shall be clothed, that are raised in incorruption. My reason is strong enough, for the Sun is not made to stand for ever in heaven, but when the whole heavens shall be rolled away with a noise, that mighty Planet shall melt away with heat; therefore it cannot shine so beautifully and divinely as that body which shall be immortal, and have no seeds of change or corruption in it. Alas I am so far from aggravating any thing, that if I had a thousand tongues and inventions I should speak faintly and depressively of that supernal Palace, which is filled with light, which no man now can approach; you must conceive that which I cannot urge in speech. All the light which is in this world is but like a Glow-worm to the day, in respect of that Mirror of marvellous light in the heavenly Jerusalem, where millions of millions of Saints shall be gathered together, and every Saint shall shine more sweetly and Majestically than the whole Globe of the Sun; what a ravishing object will this be? What an unutterable concurrence of illumination, especially when the sense of the eye shall be perfecter than the Eagles a thousand sold, and no whit dazzled to behold it? O Lord what good things hast thou laid up for them that fear thee? And thus you see what the Transfiguration in our Saviour's countenance did portend; Light of grace in this world: Light of glory in the next: And light of mercy and comfort in respect unto them both.  
We know that God dispenseth all things much better than we can reach into the cause; yet I will suffer an ignorant man to ask, Why did not Christ appear at all times upon earth thus glorious, with the Majesty of his Divine Nature shining in his face? Then the Jews, and the whole world would have received him, and never doubted. Would they are you sure? And yet we are sure Peter denied him, John and James forsook him, albeit they had seen the glory of his Transfiguration. But Beloved it was more fit to be darken and shadow over his excellency, as he used to do; otherwise the earth could not have told how to have conversed with him, how to have entertained him, how to have looked upon him, if he had openly manifested himself to be the eternal Son of God, as clearly as we know it now adays. Besides, it was not necessary for him to be always illustrious, it was necessary for him to die and suffer, therefore he came into the world, like Codrus the Athenian into the Army, with rags and poverty, in vile estimation, that the High Priests and Pharisees might proceed against him as against a wretched man, and a Malefactor. His ordinary fashion of life upon earth was shame and dishonour; he took a turn for once and no more to have the fashion of his countenance altered in glory. Non pristinam formam amisit, sed qualitatem mutavit; or as Cajetan, this transformation was neither assuming a new substance, nor turning his face into new Figures and Lineaments, but brightening the outward superficies with a new lustre of glory. 
Tert●l. lib. de resur. carnis.  And Tertullian argues it to be true; when the Lord retired to a mount, and did as it were cast a new robe of light all over, both upon his face and garments, Lineamenta Petro cognoscibilia servaverat. Peter, after he awoke out of sleep, did still acknowledge him by his Lineaments, there was the ancient feature of his visage without any alteration. Yet I conceive that in the Resurrection of the Just every Countenance, which had disfigurement in it, or any monstrous disproportion, shall be new shaped and fashioned. Because that great workmanship of God which abideth for ever shall be conspicuous to all eyes with most exact decency and comeliness. One thing more may yet be expected from me to be spoken of for the finishing of this Point. St. Luke says, that his countenance was altered, and his raiment glisteren. Was that all? Was his face only glorified with light, and not the rest of his body? There are some that hold how his whole body was transfigured, and bedecked with light, and that the radiancy of the body did shine through the garments, and make them brightsome; and they think that St. Matthews Text doth favour this opinion, for he speaks of a total transfiguration first, and then of the shining of the face, He was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the Sun. The matter is not great which way the truth stands. But I assent to that which is the more probable Tenent, that the rays of splendour did issue out from no part of his body, but from his face only. For which of the Evangelists hath put forth a word, that any part of his body, his face only excepted, did shine with brightness? Nay, hath not St. Mark Epitomised St. Matthews meaning most intelligibly? He was transfigured before them, and his raiment was white as snow; He spoke of the Transfiguration but in one word, because it was but in one part of the body, that is in the face. And I urge it strongly from the final cause. The end of his being transfigured was not to dignify his flesh, with that dignity which he shall have, when it is exalted in glory; (for then very fit all the body should have been amassed into an excellent shape) but the time was not yet come. The end was to exhibit a taste of that future glory, which the Saints shall have in the Resurrection; and for that end more need not be required than St. Luke hath explicitly set down in my Text, His countenane was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.  
As the face of Christ did bear the greatest share of ignominy at his passion, being buffeted, being spit on, being pricked with thorns, so the honour of his Transfiguration did light upon his face rather than upon any other part of the body, because God's reward shall make amends in every kind for the despite of Satan. The Jews did strip him of his Garment, and arrayed him with a robe of scorn, and then led him to be crucified: So God to show that his his Son deserved no such ignominy made his garments to shine with unspeakable purity. As Lapidaries say of a true Diamond, that whereas other precious Stones have some colour in their Superficies well known by name, as the Ruby and Saphir, but the colour of the Diamond cannot be well called by any name, there is a white gloss, and a sparkling flame mixed together, which shine fairly, but render no constant colour: So we cannot say what manner of show the Raiment of our Saviour did make. These two did concur to the composition of the beauty, Candour & lux; A whiteness mixed with no shadow, a light bedimmed with no darkness. It was white and glistering, says our Evangelist. White as the light, says St. Matthew. And his face being bright as the Sun, his raiment exceeding white as the snow, says St. Mark; these two make such a medley, that no Painter can think how to ground a colour to resemble it; Altera pars de coelo splendidior sole, altera de terrâ candidior nive. The Divine Nature of Christ is from heaven, and that exceeds the very Sun in the heaven in brightness: His Humane Nature is from the earth beneath, and that did exceed the very snow upon the earth in whiteness.  
They had more fancy than sure foundation for their doctrine, that grounded upon this place, how the bodies of the righteous, when they are risen, and stand at God's right hand, shall not abide naked, but be overcast with a Regal Robe of excellency. Neither will it help that they fetch a proof, Rev. vi. 11. that the souls under the Altar had white Robes given to adorn them; to make the true interpretation of these things more passable. First, I will speak of the alteration in Christ's Garment, then of the candour and whiteness. It is well known in holy Scripture that Christ is called our garment, and that as many as are true members of the Church are called Christ's Garment. Gal. iii 27. As many of you as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ. There the Saviour of mankind is our Robe. Now we read of the conversion of the Gentiles, and their being gathered into the Church, Isa. xlix. 18. Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold all these gather themselves together, and come unto thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament. As Charity useth to be painted full of young children, some hanging upon her Arms, some upon her Breasts: So the Son of God is love itself, and all his Children lay fast hold upon him, and hang about him as a Vesture covers the body, these are his Garment which shall shine for his sake in the Kingdom of heaven for ever. Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchis, was visited by a great Lady in Rome, who came in a specious fashion with her Chains of Pearl, and Ear rings, and Jewels about her. Cornelia expected till her Sons came home, who demeaned themselves before her with awful duty, and fit obeisance, and to these she points, saying, Hi sunt gemmae meae, torques & monilia mea; These are my Jewels, and my Pendants that adorn me. At such a value Christ accounts all those that live in him by faith, these are his Garment which is white, and glistering, and no Fuller upon Earth can make a thing so white, no earthly felicity can be comparable with that heavenly glory. Philosophers and Heathen Orators these are Fuller's upon earth, their wits are not able to reach to the imagination of that spiritual joy which Christ hath prepared for them that fear him: And they that have a Pharisaical opinion to be justified by their own works, these are Fuller's upon earth, that would make all clean by the Art of man Alas, it lies not in our skill, in our endeavours, in our righteousness, it is Christ that can present a Church all glorious, not having spot or wrinkle; he will set us as a Signet upon his arm, and as a seal upon his right hand, he will wear us as a robe of dignity, and bedeck us with grace and glory, so that no Fuller on earth can make a thing so white.  
There are three things metaphorically called Garments, in whose whiteness and purity consists the perfection of all our happiness, Stola sanctitatis, justificationis, gloriae; 1. Here is the fair Robe of sanctity and innocency in the first place; as God says of some good ones in the Church of Sardis, Rev. three 4. They have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white. They had not defiled their Garments, that is, they had not spotted their Conscience with uncleanness. Therefore the Primitive Church emblematically did stir up such as were baptised to righteousness and holiness of life, by enjoining them that Ceremony, to wear white Garments at the time of their Baptism, Accipe vestem candidam, immaculatam, quam perferas sine maculâ ante tribunal Domini, says St. Ambrose; Thou that comest to be made a Christian, take this white unstained garment, and keep it unspotted unto the day of the Lord. 2. There is the robe of Justification, when God looks upon us, not as we are in ourselves, but as we are clothed with the merits of Jesus Christ: Non est breve pallium; it is no scanty short Cloak which will not come down to the foot; but it reacheth over all, from our conception to our death, it is spread over all our sins both original and actual, and hides all our deformities, Put you on the Lord Jesus Christ; O fair nuptial garment, which will bring us into the Bride-chamber of the Bridegroom for ever! 3. The robe of justification makes us fit to be invested with the robe of glory. That eternal life, which we desire and expect is moralised in the name of a white garment, because such apparel was used among the Jews upon occasion of gladness. The Wiseman commending a life which was always led in mirth and alacrity without lumpish austerity, says he, Let thy garments be always white, 
Eccles. 8.9.  and let thy head lack no ointment. And because the life of Angels and Saints shall be nothing but singing of Psalms, and pleasance, and festivity before God for evermore, therefore the Angels appeared in long white garments in our Saviour's Sepulchre, Mark xuj. 5. And to express that eternity of joy which we shall have in bliss, Christ would not be transfigured without this circumstance, that his raiment was white and glistering.  
Albedo vitae puritatem, splendour doctrinae eminentiam significat; That Allusion shall be noted to conclude this Point, whiteness commends a pure, and an innocent life, glistering commends the word of truth in the holy Scripture, that it is as clear as the Sun at noonday. But it is not an outside of purity which will stand the trial before God; Hypocrites may go in sheep's clothing, a fair and a clean nap may be upon their coat without, when their inside is a ravening Wolf: So Heretics will parget their Doctrine over with plausible reasons, I perhaps through the power of Satan they will shine with miracles, but take heed you do not worship their Idol, because it shines like Gold. Haeretici falsa dogmata fullonicant ingeniis suis, says Origen; 
Hom. 3. in Mat.  Heretics set a bright gloss upon their false opinions, they in his construction are those Fuller's upon earth, that would make their doctrine, if it were possible, as white as truth, but if you pattern it with the Scripture, you shall see it colours not with that spiritual light which comes from Christ. That Doctrine which hath the simplicity of the Spirit without the knotty entanglements of man's wit; that which says, let God have the glory, but to us belongs shame and confusion of face: That which impresseth humility into the thoughts, zeal and devotion into the heart, all manner of virtue into the practice. This is that true light which comes from heaven, no Fuller upon earth, none that sit in the pestilent Chair of deceitful tongues can make a thing so white, and every one that is of the truth loveth the light, and hateth darkness. And so far upon this admirable vision, His countenance was altered, and his raiment white and glistering.  
These were res mirae; strange and uncouth things, the next general part of the Text doth handle personas miras, strange persons, whom a man would not expect in that place, and at that time, Behold there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias. If any of the people had been by, that took him to be Elias, or Jeremias, or one of the old Prophets, they should have seen a difference in this Vision between the head and the feet, between the Lord and his Servants. For surely some of the old Prophets, two for all, and those whom the Jews did most admire, came upon this Theatre to be seen, that Christ's glory might appear the more. Let the eyes of Peter look upon them together, and see if Christ's glory be not far exalted above all the Saints, Quantùm lenta solent inter viburna cupressi. Among the Gods there is none like unto thee O Lord, Psal. lxxxvi. 8. Non in Angelis coelestibus seu in altissimis, says the Chaldee Paraphrase, not among the Angels, nor among any of the blessed souls that live in the highest places. Was this such a business to be taught, will some men say, to bring the dead out of their graves? Can any mistake that the honour of Christ is far exalted above all his Servants? For to which of the Angels did the Father say at any time, Sat thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool? (Beloved) are there none that keep the festival days of the Saints with more devotion and observance, than the first day of the week for ever to be sanctified because Christ rose from the dead on that day? Do they not make more Pilgrimages and Vows to some Patrons of their own invention, who have been but men? Are not there more Temples erected in their name? More costly Ornaments bestowed upon their Images? More Prayers poured out unto them than to Christ himself? And had I not need to remember you that two men, who were now glorified, talked with Christ upon Mount Tabor, that they might appear like little stars obscured before the greatest Planet? Moses did but verify in person what he had taught in a Song before, Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the Gods? Who is like unto thee? Exod. xv. 11.  
I adjudge it for another reason, that two men beatified came to talk with him, because he would not seem to engross the light of glory to himself without derivation to others. It is not a treasure to be reserved unto himself, but a communicable donative. The glory which thou gavest me I have given them, Joh. xvii. 22. As a seed-corn is fruitless unless it die, and bring forth stalks of Wheat: so Christ compares himself to such a grain of Wheat, which must die to bring forth much fruit, or else it abideth alone; as if all were marred unless we were accommodated by his fruitfulness. The King's honour is in the multitude of his people; the joy of the Father is in the Olive branches round about his Table: The glory of the woman is for the children to grow up, and call the mother blessed: The felicity of these consists herein to have some that are partners of their felicity. But God is all-sufficient to contemplate his own glory though he had never made the world: he did not make man to praise him, as if he wanted voices to magnify his name, and make him God. Yet he is pleased to express his love so far that his honour should be alone unless the goodly fellowship of Saints and Prophets were round about him. Except a seed-corn fall into the ground and die it abideth alone, Joh. xii. 24. Lord, why dost thou esteem thyself alone, and heaven to be solitary without us? But O man, how canst thou be without him in thy heart on earth that would not be alone without thee in heaven? Behold when he brought down heaven upon earth in his own body, two of the Elect brought down their glory to the Mountain to assist him. His own Disciples were yet but earth, and corruption, and therefore incapable of such illuminated brightness, 
Paraeus in Mat. 17.  till the time should come to be translated out of the prison of mortality. And Angels were not fit to be his Compeers at this bout, because he manifested the glorification of the flesh, which pertains not to Angels, but to Men. None of the living would serve the turn to appear with him in Majesty, they were not supernaturalized to undergo it, nor any of the Angelical Order, they were not of the right Predicament: two men came down unto him, who had been exalted into Heaven; and now I will show with what great congruity these two men, who were Moses and Elias.  
But to omit nothing which is fit to be observed, I will make three general heads of this matter. 1. Whether all Elias, and all Moses did appear both body and soul. 2. From whence they came to be Parties at the celebration of this great Miracle. And 3. If I can reach so far, Why they became the representative persons for the whole Body of the Saints in Heaven. To the first, that these two Witnesses presented themselves in bodily shapes, there is no wit so scrupulous, I think, that can make a question of it; for S. Matthew says, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, these men were seen of Peter, James, and John. Then they were heard talking, and by their talk discovered to be those grand Prophets, as I will show hereafter. They talked as men to men, 
Caj●●an.  vocally, not in an intellectual fashion as spirits do. And the Apostles in their ecstasy mentioned the making of Tabernacles to shroud them in; but a Tabernacle is a Coverture for a Body, and not for a Spirit. The controversy doth not consist in this, therefore I pass it over. That which hath caused diversities of judgements to arise is herein, what manner of Bodies these were wherewith Moses and Elias were clothed to attend the Transfiguration of Christ. I will make bold to remove away one opinion of St. Augustine's as quite out of the cancels of truth, and then proceed. He doth not deny but the dead through God's concession may, upon such occasions as the Lord directs them to, appear unto the living: he citys Samuel brought up by the Witch of Endor to speak with Saul. What if that were not Samuel, 
Lib. de Cur. pro mort. ca, 15.  but an evil Spirit? or an Imposter? he citys Ecclesiasticus. He objects what if that Book be refused, because it is not in the Canon of the Hebrews? Then he citys our present instance of Moses and Elias: yet he falls off again, and thinks the Saints themselves appeared not, but seemed to appear by the Ministry of Angels. Many times in the Old Testament, when the Angel is sent from God as a Legate. He speaks in the person of his King, I am the Lord thy God; therefore he presumes that Angels in this place might be called by the names of Moses and Elias, for whom they appeared. The same most excellent Author is more orthodox in other places upon this point. This cannot well consist. Christ's glory was true, and not ficticious, it betokened a true estate of blessedness to us miserable men hereafter, therefore it cannot piece well together, that all this should be confirmed by ficticious and imaginary Witnesses.  
Now I venture forward: and first I will speak of Elias how he came in his own body, then of Moses: I have a reason for it, and St. Mark's words lie so, there appeared unto them Elias with Moses. In what body should Elias be an assistant to Christ's glory now, but in the same body wherein He was taken up in a whirlwind to Heaven? 
2 Ki. two. 11.  Henoch and Elias were ever parallelled to be of the same condition in God's favour, that their Body was never dissolved from the Soul, but in their whole substance assumed up on high. Some Jewish Rabbins have presumed to teach more than Scripture, that the Bodies of Henoch and Elias were dissolved into Elements in their rapture, and nothing but their Soul was received into Abraham's bosom. I smell the leaven of the Sadduces in those Rabbis, for certainly the origin of it came from such as they who resisted the truth, that a Body could not be exalted to heavenly places. Is not St. Paul enough to silence all tongues of that language, Heb. xi. 5. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death. If Enoch did not see death in his translation, and that's the fair letter of the Scripture, no more did Elias. 
Heres. 64.  Says Epiphanius Henoch and Helias their Bodies and Souls were never parted, but remain undivided for ever. Henoch lived a married life, Elias was a Virgin, to show that continency in Marriage and Virginity shall both be glorified in the great day of the Resurrection. Thus Epiphanius; and I could name a multitude of concurrents, who are advowers of the same sentence. They that list to be contentious gainsay this Doctrine touching Elias his Body, that it never was corrupted, from the common theme of man's mortality; Death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned, Rom. v. 12. Death passed upon all men: what's that but a just Sentence and Decree, and none can say, Why am I born to die? But there is mercy and power in the Most High, to spare, and to execute his Decree upon whom he pleaseth, Heb. ix. 27. Statutum est, that presseth home, says the Antagonist, it is appointed unto men once to die: that's the Text indeed, but not statutum est omnibus, it is appointed unto all men once to die, as some do read it. The ordinary end of men is death, but God hath his exemptions, and privileges to limit that Statute. I tell you a mystery, says St. Paul, We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed; there's one limitation. They that are found upon the earth at the second coming of Christ shall not die, but shall be snatched up with Christ in glory: non separatione formae, sed immutatione qualitatum, their Soul shall not be taken of the Body, but corruptible qualities shall be taken from the Body. So it was in Elias his Rapture, the Body was not destroyed, but only that corruption which was in his Body. Again it is appointed unto men once to die, semel, once, and no more: Yet the Shunamites Son, Jairus Daughter, Lazarus, and many others brought back from their Graves died twice; there's another limitation of the Statute. Nothing concludes from thence, but that Elias his Body was never dissolved, in that Body wherein he talked with God at Mount Horeb, in the same Body he heard God talk to his Son at Mount Tabor about the time of the Transfiguration.  
But as for Moses, after what manner he came to Christ in the shape of a Body, I cannot speak with any certainty: To hold that the elements were compacted into the figure of a Body, that he might use it for that occasion, and then disperse it into air when the mystery was finished, hath an ill relish in it: because imaginary shapes, like Pageants to be set up for a while, and straight taken down again, were not fit demonstrations of the truth of the Resurrection. 
Orat. de Transf.  Damascen observes wittily, that it is likely how the Promise, which God did long before make to Moses, was now fulfilled, Exod. xxxiii. 23. That thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen: meaning, says he, that the eye of man could not see his Divinity, but he should have the honour to see Christ incarnate. That is not unfitly called posteriora, or exteriora Dei, the out parts, or the Veil of the Godhead. Now was that desire of Moses fulfilled, and the Son of Man in excellent beauty stood before him; but had he not seen him with his own eyes, all had not been according to his first desire and affection: And me-seems that this conjecture is not weak; if Elias had appeared in his own flesh, Moses but in a fantastical shape, this had derogated from the dignity of Moses, who was the Prophet, than whom none was greater from the Law to John the Baptist. The Jews oppress us again with their figments in a second opinion, saying, that Moses was so beloved of God, that he never saw death, but continued in his Body for ever, as Elias doth. Josephus tells us his mind herein so plainly, that I perceive the most did follow him; that when Joshuah and Eleazar had parted with Moses upon Mount Nebo, he was taken away from them in a Cloud, and advanced to Heaven; but to make the people quiet, that they might not talk too much of his exaltation, and attribute too much honour unto him, he left it written, that he died in the Land of Moab. But this doth peremptorily contradict the Holy Word in divers places: He died, and was buried in a Valley in the Land of Moab, Deut. xxxiv. 6. according to the word of the Lord. That word is in the same book, Deutr. xxxii. 50. Thou shalt die in the Mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people, as Aaron thy Brother died in Mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people; therefore if Aaron died, as we know he did, Moses was not translated, that he might not see death.  
Nay, the next opinion is more probable than so, which takes away the offence which the former opinion gives, and attributes great honour to Moses: namely it consents, as it ought to do, that Moses died, and that God by the ministry of his Angels did lay down his Body for a while to be buried in the Land of Moab: but it did not abide in the earth there to be corrupted, but was presently restored to life again, and translated to immortality: and because he did not abide in death, 
Brentius Homil. 88 Lutherus. Maldonat.  therefore it is said, that no man knoweth of his Sepulchre unto this day. I draw to this side the rather, because in the ninth verse of St. Judes' Epistle the Angel did contend and dispute with the Devil about the Body of Moses. Some say the contention was, that the Angel bound the Devil not to reveal where his Body was buried, lest the children of Israel finding it out should venerate and adore his Sepulchre, and run into Idolatry: Some say because the Angel buried him against Bethpheor, which was a place of most diabolical Idolatry, and Satan struggled not to be turned out of that place by the burial of this holy man. I see no incongruity to say, because the Angel did not only contend, but dispute, says Judas, not about the Burial, but about the Body, that the argument was, why the Body of Moses should be restored to life? and not rot and putrify in the dust. This opinion is maintained by Luther, by Brentius, and by the Jesuit Maldonat: and it puts all in good square to defend (and it may be done for aught I see without any absurdity) that the Body of Moses was reserved in immortality with the Body of Elias, and both were in all readiness to come to our Saviour's Transfiguration. Yet a number of Doctors have a fourth strain, that Moses his Body was gathered by the power of God just at this time out of the dust, and he took it up so long as this miracle lasted, and then laid it down again, and either resumed it shortly after when our Saviour rose from the dead; for then many dead bodies of the Saints arose, and appeared unto many in the holy City; or else he awaits God's leisure to be clothed with his flesh for ever at the solemn and general Resurrection. This cannot be gainsaid, for nothing is irksome to God's Saints, which most conduceth to their Master's glory.  
Yet once I must speak again, that there is a fifth opinion, and most commonly defended, That Moses his own Body was reunited at this time to his Soul, and that it did abide with him for ever, and he did never lay it down more. If we keep not this Opinion steady, it will be much shaken with this Objection, That Christ is commonly known by this property, to be the first who rose from the dead to die no more: 
aliens. c●nt. Bel. cap. 10.  The firstborn from the dead, Colos. i. 18. The first-fruits of them that slept, 1 Cor. xv. 20. Some answer he is the first of them that rose from the dead, as he is said to be the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world. He was crucified from the beginning of the world, and rose from death from the beginning, not actually, but virtually; for the power of his Death and Resurrection were available ever since the Promise was made. Secondly, he is Primogenitus, the Firstborn, the strength, the might of them that rise, for he rose by his own will and virtue; all beside him not by their own power, but by the power of Christ. But I shall neither satisfy myself nor you with an answer, till I add a third thing, that Christ was the first-fruits of them that rose from the dead, and ascended up with his Body before the Majesty of the glory of the Most High. For here I must bring in a very fit distinction, though not used by many, that it is one thing to make a Body change corruption into incorruption, so shall all our Bodies be when they are raised from the dead; another thing to make our vile Bodies be changed into glorified Bodies, that shall not be till they are exalted into the highest Heavens. Elias his Body being translated was incorruptible; so was Moses his Body, if he had it before the Transfiguration, or if he retained it after; but Christ Jesus was the first of them that rose from the dead, whose glorified Body entered into the highest places.  
I have been very brief in this intricate Controversy, which is so stiffly disputed of all sides, and it will make the next point come off more easy. From whence Moses and Elias came to talk with Christ at his Transfiguration. I conclude out of the former question, that Elias was translated up on high in Soul and Body, that's indubitable; and that Moses rose out of his Grave, and assumed his own Body at this instant Miracle; of all opinions that, I take it, is most probable. Therefore I say, Elias came down from whence he was ascended before, and Moses rose up from whence he was descended before. So the Son of God did demonstrate, says S. Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that he had the power in his hand both of life and death. By Moses says Aquinas are represented all those Saints whose bodies from the beginning of the world to the end lie buried in the dust: by Elias are understood the whole stock of men and women that shall be found at Christ's second coming living upon the earth, and both kinds shall be summoned to appear before him. Oh that we may come from heaven to meet him, as Elias did, that we may shine with repentance, and faith, and charity; these are the characters of them that shall be bold to stand before the Son of God in Majesty: and they that have these endowments, do as it were come from heaven with Elias to meet our Saviour. But to the point; we make no scruple from whence Moses his Body came to mount Tabor: from whence, but from the dust of the earth? the difficult question will be, out of what place of sequestration Elias came with his Body: To which briefly, as I am able to conjecture, not to certify you.  
St. Cyprian was not earnest to inquire it, when he left it off thus, quo raptus sit Elias Deus novit, whither Elias was taken up God knows: yet sure he means, he had not been taught, nor could teach into what Region of Heaven he was assumed; yet he never doubted but he was in some Canton of that Celestial Habitation. The Scripture says no more of Enoch, but he walked with God, and he was not, for God took him, Gen. v. 24. But of Elias in plain words, that he went up in a whirlwind to Heaven. The Septuagint Translation mars all when it renders it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he was taken up as it were into Heaven. There is no such diminution of, as it were, in the sacred Text: He went up to heaven, says the Original. That could not be the Element of Air, which is sometimes called Heaven; for the Air is rather the Seat of Satan, who is called the Prince of the Air, than of the Blessed: from thence come turbulencies, and winds, and tempests, but they are at rest from all labour and unquietness. Nor can it be meant of that Heaven of the lower Orbs, for then, they should be hurried about every day with the swift motion of the Spheres from East to Occident. Where then could Elias be reposed but in the Heaven of happiness, in the tranquillity of Abraham's bosom? as Dathan and Abiram were swallowed alive into Hell, so Enoch and Elias were lifted up alive into Heaven.  
Heaven is taken two ways, both for the place, and for the state and condition of it; and both ways I have good ground to say, that Elias was in body among the spirits of the Kings, and Patriarches, and Prophets, and just men, who are dead in the love of God: and all they went to Heaven locally as to their place, and to Heaven figuratively, that is to joy and happiness. Which I oppose to the adverse and very erroneous opinion maintained by the Schoolmen among the Pontificians, that the spirits of just men, which departed before Christ's ascension into Heaven, were reclused into a receptacle called Limbus Patrum, which was the verge or fringe of Hell, where they suffered no pain, but sustained a temporal loss, having not as yet admittance into the Courts of the House of our God. How unconsonant is this to our Saviour's words? Many shall come from the East, and from the West, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac in the Kingdom of God. How unlike to that Phrase of David, Lord, who shall ascend into thy holy hill? how unagreeing to the title of Abraham's bosom? wherein Lazarus was in a long distance from the gulf of sorrow. But to go one step further, and no more at this time: did not Christ by his ascension open a passage to the Souls of the blessed, to draw nearer to God in the highest heavens than ever before? yes verily I believe it; and I am compelled to maintain it by St. Paul's Doctrine, Heb. ix. 8. The way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first Tabernacle was yet standing; that is while the Law of Moses did endure. Their Souls departing were at rest in Heaven in the hand of God, no way obtruded near the confines of Hell, as the Schoolmen taught, who either could not, or would not discern a medium between the Limbus of Hell, and the highest Heaven. They lived by the same faith that we do, though not with the same evidence and fullness that we have; therefore their Souls departing had a dimension of happiness allotted for them, yet not with that fullness of joy which now they have, nor perhaps with that measure and proportion which they and we shall have hereafter. Beloved, remember and consider Heaven is so large and spacious, that it is fit to admit divers Quartering and Mansions in it: the Archangel's Throne, the Angel's Palace, the blessed seats of the faithful since Christ's ascension, the Refrigerium of the faithful before his ascension, a Tabernacle allotted for Enock and Elias; all these might be several, yet Heaven big enough to make room for all. In my Father's house there are many mansions, says Christ that went before us to prepare a place. And To thee O blessed Saviour, etc.   

THE THIRD SERMON UPON The Transfiguration.  LUKE ix. 31, 32. 
Who appeared in glory, and spoke of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.  
But Peter, and they that were with him, were heavy with sleep, and when they were awake they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him.  
WHen I compare many parcels of Sacred Scripture, and many fictions of the Heathen together which are of great similitude; I perceive that Satan intended to discredit the holy Writ by devising Fables so like to the sacred truth. I do verily think their Deucalion and his flood, was taken from the story of our Noah and his Deluge: Their Hippolytus refusing the tentations of Phedra, and yet accused by her for a Rape, is our Joseph after the same manner impeached by his lustful Mistress: Their Hercules is our Joshuah: Their Bellerophon carrying Letters to cut his own throat is our Urias so betrayed by David: Their Nisus of Megara and his fatal purple hair cut off by Scylla is our Samson and his locks cut off by Dalilah. So their infamous transmutations of their Gods into Bulls, and Swans, and a thousand lying shapes were published by the Devil to make the Transfiguration of our Saviour suspected. Shame upon such gross Figments, which can no way darken the manifold light of the Gospel, so palpably counterfeit that they need no refutation. As Irenaeus passed his censure upon them, 
Iren. lib. 1. cap. 35.  Victoria est sententiae vestrae manifestatio, it was victory enough to the Christian cause to tell and relate their absurd opinions.  
But in reference to the Metamorphoses of those Idol Gods St. Peter justifies the truth of our Saviour's Transfiguration thus: We have not cunningly devised Fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye witnesses of his Majesty, 2. Pet. i. 16. The Heathen write how their Gods were changed upon earth, but to their shame and ignominy: The Son of God was changed miraculously upon earth, but into a body of resplendent glory. When God was come down to men upon earth, the Heaven did seem to come down upon earth to God. When the Greek Emperor John Palaeologus was drawn into Italy by Pope Eugenius the forth to be present in the Florentine Council, 
Binnius Florenti●. Concil. p. 1.  the City of Venice entertained him so magnificently with their Streets all guilded, and their Boats and Galleys as rich as their Streets that the Greeks in astonishment at the bravery cried out, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Earth was become a Heaven for that day. I have met with no parcel of a Story in my reading more fit to be applied to this occasion. When Mount Thabor did harbour our Lord, and our Lord did glister with beatifical brightness, and the Saints above did come thither in their Princely array, and the very clouds did look more white than Lilies, and the voice of the Father spoke more pleasing than the sweetest Music, This is my well beloved Son. I may justly cry out, the Earth was become an Heaven for that day. All things else in the Gospel are intermixed with much humility, this one Treatise lifts up my stile, and makes me say, Paulò majora canamus; This piece which I spread before you is nothing but Triumph, and Majesty, and Glory.  
Unto these words which I have read unto you I am proceeded in this subject, and by so much as I have read in these two Verses St. Luke hath more than the other two Evangelists, to wit, that Moses and Elias talked about Christ's sufferings in Jerusalem; and that Peter, James, and John were asleep, and waking of a sudden were startled at the transmutation. I have spoke severally the last day in what bodies Moses and Elias did appear, now I proceed to these persons that appear; And because I must not break the joints of an History I take the parts whole thus: First, With what fitness these two were presented rather than any other for celestial witnesses, Moses and Elias. Secondly, What they meant by this communication to speak of his Passion, and Sufferings, They spoke of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. Thirdly, That the earthly Witnesses Peter, James, and John were asleep at the beginning of this Miracle. But Peter, and they that were with him were heavy with sleep. Fourthly, The mists of drowziness were dispelled, they did awake, and then they saw the Vision, and as the next Verse will prove it, they heard the conference. To these do you give Attention, and I my Exposition.  
The Lord did not pick twain out of so great an host of blessed Spirits to stand upon Mount Thabor, but that there was some hability, and fitness in their persons rather than in any other. And the first mark eminently stamped upon them for this work is this, The Law and Prophets do equally and concordiously bear witness to Christ. Moses the first handler and publisher of the Law; 
The Law and Prophets.  Elias the greatest by far of all the Prophets, O Elias, how wast thou honoured in thy wondrous deeds? And who may glory like unto thee? Ecclus. xlviii. 4. As the King's Coin is stamped on both sides; so the Gospel like a piece of currant Metal is engraven on the one side with the ancient testimony of the Law, on the other side with the strong Predictions of the Prophets. Says Philip to Nathanael, We have found him, of whom Moses in the Law, and the Prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth the Son of Joseph, Joh. i. 45. But Peter might go further, and say, We have seen him attended, and waited on by Moses and the Prophets. The Law, and the Prophets, and the Gospel make good Music, when they are three parts of one song, but if you make several Airs, or several Ditties of them you mar all good harmony. We see Moses and the Son of God together, says St. Ambrose; so often as we read that portion of St. Matthew, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might. We see Elias and the Son of God together so often as we read that desire inflamed to maintain God's honour, I have been very zealous for the Lord of hosts, 1 Kings nineteen. 8. That zeal made Elias fast forty days, and eat nothing: And Christ doth answer it again, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. O how amiable it is to unite Moses, and the Prophets, and the grace of Christ all together, to look upon them in one prospect, to interline the Old Testament with the New. But if you part Moses from the Prophets, or the Prophets from Moses, or both from Christ, you shall not find any glory in them. The Samaritans received no Scripture but the Books of Moses: The Jews receive none but Moses, and the Prophets: The Christian puts them all together, and so Moses and Elias appear with Christ in glory. And although many things are very difficult to be understood in the Old Testament; in some places we do see Moses plainly, in some places he is hard to be understood; yet this Miracle gives us comfort, that in the holy Hill of God, in the glorification of heaven, there we shall see Moses and Elias, all that is wrote in the Law and the Prophets very clearly, and that one jot or tittle is not perished which the Penmen of holy Writ did foretell should come to pass. For example, in Exod. xx. 19 the Children of Israel cry out to Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die. To this demand God makes a full and explicit answer, Deut. xviii. 18. They have well spoken, I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee, they shall hear him. Here is a middle way difficult to be understood, neither would God speak, unto them in thunder to terrify them, and Moses could not abide always to be their Speaker, as they would have it, but a Prophet should come like unto Moses, like unto him in humane nature, but far more admirable in grace and power. Why, behold this dark mystery is expounded at this Transfiguration, 
Tol●t. Annot. 63. in hoc caput.  for Moses is brought to confess of Christ, this is the Prophet spoken of like unto me, whom you are bound to hear. For the glory which was seen now, the affrightment which took the Disciples, the bright cloud which overshadowed the place, all these happened now, even as it was at Mount Sinah, call to mind what Covenant was then made, and how this is the time to fulfil it. Thus you see how Christ's glory makes the Law and the Prophet's intelligible, which is the first reason why Moses and Elias did appear in glory.  
Secondly, These are they that had undergone many sorrows upon earth for the defence of their God, and after much tribulation did win the crown of life, in whose faces the Disciples might behold, that through fire and water, through cross and calamity, through ignominy and dishonour we must enter into glory. None so famous for exposing their lives to all dangers as Moses and Elias. There was but a Bulrush between Moses and death when he was set afloat to be drowned in his tender infancy. And if Jezebel and all her Gods could cut Elias throat, she swore he should not have a day to live, 1 Kings nineteen. 2. What sharp encounters had the one with Pharaoh? What dismal threatenings did the other denounce against Ahab? The one was driven out rudely and violently from the presence of Pharaoh: The other banished himself into the Wilderness, and could not be found for three years. Here were a fit couple, that could show their long Pedigrees of afflictions to be called the Sons of God. These were fit indeed to preach of Christ's Cross, and of his sufferings at Jerusalem. They that suffered much might aptly and confidently commend the sufferings of the body to the Disciples: Si vis me flere dolendum est primùm ipsi tibi. And here John and James the two ambitious brethren might see of what condition it behoved those men to be who in our Saviour's Kingdom should sit the one at his right hand, the other at his left. What had they done for their Lord's sake as yet, when they asked that bold demand, but to walk with him in Judea, to travel from place to place safe enough in their own Country? Once indeed they were scared with a great tempest upon the Lake of Genezaret, which might have fallen out upon any other occasion, and then they cry out desperately, Lord save us we perish. But upon their haughty demand Christ asked them, Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? It was a cup of wormwood and tribulation, such as Moses and Elias drank of to the very lees, and those are they that appear with him in glory; those are they that sit in his Kingdom, the one at his right hand, the other at his left. Their countenances have been sad, now they smile for ever; they have worn sackcloth and ashes, and mingled their drink with weeping, now they appear bedecked with Majesty. For if none might enter into King Ahasuerus Gate clothed with sackcloth, Esth. iv. 2. Then much more all that are deigned the presence of the King of heaven shall shine triumphantly in glory.  
Thirdly, The objects of Moses and Elias standing conspicuously before the face of these three men would instill into them the imitation of their holy life, and impectorate to them those good examples, whereby they themselves should become mirrors and examples to after Ages. Their Justice, their Prayers, their Temperance, their Constancy to true Religion, their hatred of Idolatry all these were texted in their face; all their noble acts were remembered by seeing them, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says chrysostom. The history of the Saints warms out hearts within us to read it: Historiae sacrae inspectio, est quasi compendium resurrectionis ante oculos habere, says one. To entertain our time in reading the Sacred History, is to cast our eyes upon a model of the Resurrection: But to be brought in place where there was an ocular Apparition of Moses and Elias, was to gain both a model of their Resurrection, and a Chronicle of their History. It is a good thing to call the dead into consultation with the living; where God promiseth to send the former and the latter rain to the earth, 
Deut. xi. 14.  many apply it mystically to this purpose. The Examples of the Patriarches and Prophets well digested into our use are the first showers of rain, or the dew of the morning: The Examples of Christ, and his Apostles, and such as have shined like burning lights since their days are the latter rain, or the dew of the Evening; but these drop down one after another, and fill the Church with spiritual increase. No observation more appertinent than this, which I find attributed to St. Hierom. Moses was first inspired to write the Book of Genesis, which contains the acts of the old World, before he published Exodus, which contains the Law. A fair method which came from heaven, First instructed to write the History of Antiquity before he Penned a Pandect of Laws for the use of Posterity; lest he should rashly proceed to teach the Children before he had wisely learned the Examples of the Fathers. I will set my rest upon this Text of Scripture, that there is not a pithier Precept in all the Sacred Volume, Deut. xxxii. 7. Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations; ask thy Father and he will show thee, thy Elders and they will tell thee. It is a very satisfying thing when a truth comes to us by a good descent, as the Poet bragged of his stories, Quae Phoebo pater omnipotens, mihi Phoebus Apollo. God did inspire Moses and Elias to know what sufferings his Son should undergo at Jerusalem; they preached it before the Disciples, the Disciples to their Scholars, they to the next, and so from Generation to Generation it is an Heir-loom to the latest Posterity. Alta mysteria per majores ad alios debent devenire; Let great mysteries be devolved from the mouths of famous forerunners, such as Moses and Elias. The Devil himself was ashamed of upstarts when they came to be broachers of their own fancies, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye? Sometime it is as hard to know who were the broachers of new Doctrine as to understand the Doctrine itself. As Tiberius scoffed at a conceited Roman, proud enough, 
Tacit. Annal. Civit.  but of no good Parentage, Curtius Rufus videtur mihi ex se natus; Curtius Rufus did beget himself, he had no Progenitors. So ignominious it is to press any thing for current which is a brat of yesterday invention, and doth not bear a pass from the example of our forefathers. Beware of novel Doctrines, and observe it when you will, if they do not beget new Vices; as a Millstone new-pecked fills the meal it grinds with more gravel than one that is smooth with use. Therefore gather such Manna as fallen very early in the Morning. Inquire for the old, I mean for the oldest way, but habete salem, be sure it be salted with Apostolical Doctrine, and then it will not be tainted with corruption. That we might not only fetch our Examples so far as the Apostles, but a reach beyond them likewise, here were two old Sires of great authority and veneration that came to Mount Thabor, Moses and Elias.  
Fourthly, I had occasion the last day to make a difference between these two Saints thus far, that the body of the one was always living, the body of the other, that is of Moses, came from the dead, which is an improvement to the truth of that Article of our Creed, that Christ shall bring all to judgement, both the quick and dead before him; The dead in Christ shall rise first: 
1 Thes. 4.17.  Then we which are alive, and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds. How many applications may be deduced from thence likewise, that the dead and the living came to teach, that Christ should die upon the Cross, and live again unto the glory of the Father? Or thus; to teach us Mortification, and Vivification, that we should die unto sin, and live unto God. But referring your memories back to that which is past, I stay myself upon this Notion, that Moses and Elias come from the other world unto this, to let us see, and that it is undeniably true, that there is a life remaining after this is ended, and of a much happier condition, a life of glory. It is the complaint of them who dispute stiffly for their own infidelity, Nullus de mortuis resurgit; None come from the dead to teach us that are living; but since we mean the Apparitions of them that should come from the other world, they should say, none come from the living to us, who in comparison to them may be called the dead. But to answer to the meaning of the objection, words may be reform with ease. Have none been sent with tidings to us from the habitation of the other world? Yes, twice apparently to go no farther. At the first bout Moses and Elias from Mount Thabor; at the second bout a witness without all exception, our blessed Saviour, who rose the the third day from the dead, continued forty days upon earth teaching the things of the life to come, until the time even now at hand, that he ascended into glory. After that powerful Testimony, which they have given, what can be said more? If all our dead Friends should be returned unto us, they could add nothing to that which they have testified, and to that which the faithful witness in heaven hath signified in holy Scripture, I mean the Spirit of God.  
This is the peevishness of our humane Wisdom, yea, rather of our humane folly, to earn for tidings from the dead, as if a Spirit departed could declare any thing more evidently than the Book of God which is the sure Oracle of life? This was Saul's practise, neglect Samuel when he was alive, and seek after him when he was dead. What says the Prophet, Should not a people seek unto their God? Should the living repair to the dead? Nay, rather to the Law, and to the Testimony, Isa. viij. 19 
Ad Antioch. qu. 35.  Among the works of Athanasius I find (though he be not the Author of the questions to Antiochus) a discourse full of reason, why God would not permit the soul of any of those that departed from hence to return back unto us again, and to declare the state of things in Hell unto us. For what pestilent errors would arise from thence to seduce us? Devil's would transform themselves into the shapes of men that were deceased, pretend that they were risen from the dead (for what will not the Father of lies feign?) and so spread in any false Doctrines, or incite us to many barbarous actions, to our endless error and destruction. And admit they be not Phantasms, and delusions, but the very men, yet all men are liars, but God is truth. I told you what a Necromancer Saul was in the Old Testament, he would believe nothing unless a Prophet rose from the grave to teach him, there is another as good as himself in the New Testament, and not another Pattern in all the Scripture to my remembrance, Luke xuj. 27. The rich man in Hell urged Abraham to send Lazarus to admonish his Brethren of their wicked life; Abraham refers him to Moses and the Prophets. He that could not teach himself when he was alive, would teach Abraham himself being in Hell, Nay, Father Abraham; but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.  
The mind is composed with quietness to hear the living; the Apparitions of dead men, beside the suspicion of delusion, would fill us with ghastly horror, and it were impossible we should be fit Scholars to learn, if such strong perturbations of fear should be upon us. How much better hath God ordained for our security, and tranquillity, that the Priests lips should preserve knowledge? I know, if God shall see it fit to have us disciplined by such means, he can stir up the Spirits of the Faithful departed to come among us: So after Christ's Resurrection many dead bodies of Saints which slept arose, 
Mat. 27.52.  and came out of the Graves, and went into the holy City, and appeared unto many. This was not upon a small matter, but upon a brave and a renowned occasion: But for the Spirits of damnation, they are tied in chains of darkness, there is no repassage for them, and it makes more to strengthen our belief, that never any did return from Hell to tell us their woeful tale, than if any should return. It is among the severe penalties of damnation that there is no indulgence for the smallest respite to come out of it. The Heathen put that truth into this Fable. 
Horat. lib. 1. Epist. Ep. 1.  The Lion asked the Fox, why he never came to visit him when he was sick: Says the Fox, because I can trace many beasts by the print of their foot that have gone toward your Den, Sir Lion, but I cannot see the print of one foot that ever came back: Quia me vestigia terrent omnia te advorsum spectantia, nulla retrorsum. So there is a beaten, and a broad road that leads the Reprobate to Hell, but you do not find the print of one hoof that ever came back. When I have given you my judgement about Apparitions of the dead either descending from Heaven, or ascending from Hell, I must tell you in the third place, I have met with a thousand stories in Pontifician Writings concerning some that have had repassage from Purgatory to their familiars upon earth. Notwithstanding the reverence I bear to Gregory the Great, I cannot refrain to say, He was much to blame to begin such fictions upon his credulity; others have been more to blame that have increased such Legends; and they are most to be derided that believe them. O miserable Theology, if thy Tenants must be confirmed by sick men's dreams, and dead men's fantastical apparitions! To end this Point, and the first general part of my Text together, a thousand guiles and deceits may entrap them that build any thing upon dead men's news; but this Apparition of Moses and Elias was warrantable from all delusion, because they stood by Christ, and because of their communication, which was Prophetical; I come to speak of that in the second place, They spoke of his decease, etc. Upon which subject these particulars shall be succinctly handled: 1. That the Cross of Christ is all in all, and before any thing in the world to be spoken of. 2. It was spoken of even in the midst of this Apparition of glory. 3. Moses and Elias came purposely to speak of it. 4. They spoke of it in no disconsolatory phrase, but much to our comfort, that it was a decease. 5. They spoke of it completely in all circumstances that it was to be accomplished. 6. They designed out the place where all the Prophets had been slain before, and where the Sacrifices were slain every day in the Temple, And spoke of the decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.  
To begin with that which is the leading Lesson, whether Moses and Elias directed their words to Christ, or to his Disciples is uncertain, if they communed with Christ, as with more probability they did, yet their talk was so audible and distinct, that the Disciples heard it, a Lesson at which they were always ready to stop their ears; yet now it is beaten into them line after line with many repetitions, that the Cross of Christ is all in all, and before any thing else in the world to be spoken of. These two Saints who were enlightened with all knowledge befitting their glorified estate, could have uttered lofty discourses about the Trinity, about the highest Heavens, about the distinctions of Angelical Offices, and the like; but they understood themselves and us so well, that this is the Epitome of all saving knowledge, the Decease which Christ should accomplish at Jerusalem: 'tis that which will open Heaven, 'tis that which will glorify us, 'tis that which will exalt us to the society of Angels, and nothing else. O let my heart dwell often upon the wounds of my Saviour for the profit of my Soul, rather than upon all the eloquence and wit in the world. There is more to be learned by meditating upon his Passion seriously and devoutly one day, than by ripping up all other needless questions through the whole year: 
Si Christum discis satis est si caetera nescis;  
Si Christum nescis nihil est si caetera discis,  Says the Old Verse: If you have learned Christ crucified for thy sins, do not bewail thy ignorance, simple Soul, though thou knowest no more; if thou hast not learned his sufferings, and that with his stripes thou art healed, bewail thy knowledge, great Master of Arts and Sciences, though, except that one thing, thou hast learned all. And what though you fix your speculations upon Christ himself? yet all is in vain that you can preach of Christ, until you set your notions afloat upon his blood, and sail down to this out of all, that he was crucified for our transgressions. If you be not enemies to his Cross, you will easily agree with the truth of the whole Gospel; if you do not agree with his Cross, as with the only cause by which we obtain salvation, you will be an enemy to all the truth of the Gospel. Turn this key right, that we are justified from our sins by his blood shedding, and all is open: wrench the door with any other key, as if we would pick open the lock of Heaven gates with our own sufferings and righteousness, and all is shut. Surely St. Paul did pattern his preaching by this Copy of Moses and Elias, 1 Cor. two. 2. I determined not to know any thing among you, saving Jesus Christ and him crucified.  
Secondly, Yes indeed, this was fit communication for Paul, to impart nothing else to the Corinthians, who did abound with the Greek Philosophy, and eloquence; and it sorted the better to speak of nothing but the sorrows of our Lord, while fears and persecutions, and death did daily environ them; but in my next Observation it shall appear, that this discourse was well chosen, rather than any other at the Transfiguration of glory: here was nothing upon the Mountain but celestial joy, and in the height of this joy no other talk to entertain the time but about a Cross, and about a woeful tribulation. If our sorrow be not enlightened with some joy, it will turn to a melancholic desperation; so if our joy be not dampt with the sadness, and seriousness of some sorrow, it will fly out into excess and presumption. The Grecians did not allow their frisking Lydian Music to be played without the gravity of the Dorique Instruments, which they called in one name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. So David tuned this mixture upon his Harp, Psal. two. 11. Serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice unto him with reverence. Surely Peter and the other Apostles thought they were past all the bitter storms and frowns of the world, where the place whereon they stood was more bedecked with beauty than ever they had read of Paradise, as if God had reigned down Heaven upon Earth; their mind was filled with this saying, and their lips in the next verse spoke nothing less; Give us the Kingdom which is prepared for us, give us the fruition of thy glory. Nay hold, and take this before, prius de chalice cogitate quam de regno; Drink of my cup before you reign in my Kingdom, hear Moses and Elias preach of my Cross before you be enthronised among the Elders to sing praises unto the Lamb for evermore. But was this a gratulatory Oration fit for the Prophets to make to Christ? in the brightness of his Excellency did He love to hear of this above any thing that He should die an ignominious death at Jerusalem? yes it was as the most pleasant thing to our Saviour, and none so acceptable to be spoken of. When a poor woman anointed his head with ointment in the house of Simon the Leper, he defends her for it against the indignation of his Disciples, says He, In that she poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my Burial. 
Mat. 26. 1●.  I have a Baptism to be baptised with, and how I am straitened till it be accomplished, Luke xii. 50. never was such haste made to any place as he made to Mount Calvarie, there past but a little time from midnight to midday betwixt his Attachment, his Arraignment, and his Execution, as if his feet had stood upon thorns, until his head were crowned with them. The content he took in those torments is thus laid forth in St. Paul, who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross, Heb. xii. 2. A certain Author makes an elegant comparison between that triumph when Christ road upon an Ass to Jerusalem, and between this triumph of the Transfiguration on Mount Thabor. 
G●anatensis.  Infesto palmarum illacrymat considerans mala nostra, in hoc festo mirabiliter exultat recolens mala sua. Though he was then received with Palm branches, and shoutings, yet he wept upon Jerusalem to consider their sins: at this Feast he is all glorious, and rejoiceth for our sakes to hear the commemoration of his own sorrows.  
And thirdly it must not be forgotten, how Moses and Elias were those chosen Orators which spoke of his decease that he should accomplish at Jerusalem: all that was mystical in the Types and Shadows of Moses Law, all that was darkly delivered in the deep style of the Prophets concerning this passion is explained against the teeth of the Jews; Moses, and Elias came to interpret themselves. Moses, say the Fathers, saw what medicine and healing was in the cross, when he lift up the brazen Serpent in the Wilderness to cure the people that were stung and wounded: and Prudentius in a sweet versifying way, that Moses learned how all spiritual foes, Death, Satan, Sin, and Hell should be vanquished by the Cross, when by the stretching out of his hands the Amalekites were destroyed in Battle by the Children of Israel, Passis in altum brachiis, sublimis Amalech premit crucis quod instar tum fuit. Again, they make the same Commentation upon Elias, that he laid his body upon the Child's body, his hands upon the Child's hands, which he brought to life again, even as Christ did stretch himself out upon the Cross, and hath quickened us being dead in our sins, having forgiven us all our trespasses, Colos. two. 13. and not us only, who have been born since the time that his blood was actually shed; but all those who lived with the Fathers under the Law, and from the beginning of the world, who did believe to escape eternal death by the blood of that Sacrifice which should be offered up upon the Tree of malediction. A strange Medicament, that the drops of this sacred blood should cure so many millions before itself was extant. If an Herbalast say he will make a Panacaea, a rare juice of salutiferous roots the next year, can it cure this Spring? yet the Remedy of the Cross which came to pass in after ages, did as well cure the faithful in the former, as in the latter world ('tis never too soon to believe and seek after Christ, never too late to believe and repent.) Moses and Elias are Proxies for all those who died before the coming of Christ, that it was beneficial and pleasant to them to have this communication, that He should die at Jerusalem: Libenter exules de reditu in patriam loquuntur: by our own just demerits, and by the sin contracted in our first Parents, Moses and Elias, and all the Sons of Adam were justly exiled from the joys of Paradise; but do thou suffer O Lamb of God, and thou wilt open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers. Tell me if it were not joyful to banished men to speak of those means which should restore them to a Kingdom. This was the last thing that their Soul did meditate upon earth; upon the meditation of his passion, they, (as we also ought to do) did shut up their last breath; and this is the first thing which they have to say when God did grant them tongues to speak in the Resurrection: Discamus ea in terris, 
●p. ●d Paulinum.  quorum scientia nobis perseveret in coelis, says St. Hierom: Let us learn such good lessons here upon earth, whose knowledge may remain with us hereafter in the Kingdom of Heaven. Here it is remorseful (fit it should be so) to think of his agony and passion, because our sins are before us, those very Judasses' which betrayed him; in the society of Angels the case is altered, there it is no sad discourse to speak of it, for the guiltiness of our sins doth no more infest our memory, every thing that the Lord willeth is pleasant and acceptable to us; therefore in my fourth Notation, Moses and Elias speak of Christ's sufferings in no disconsolatory phrase, but much to our comfort, that it was a decease, and spoke of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.  
Fourthly, A mitigating word to lenify a harsh sound of a most dreadful thing. The Heathen men did love to do, and to speak courageously, and yet they who know no worse by death than that it was the cessation of our being, or the dissolution of Soul and Body, did describe it by the most judicious Pen that ever wrote among them, to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of terrors the most terrible, what if they had known the Scriptures, that God spoke in his anger, that it is the wages of sin, and unless mercy prevent judgement, that it is a departure into endless misery. But get up courage again O frail mortality, the Son of God through death hath overcome death, the Serpent hath lost his sting. As willingly as a Passenger deceaseth, or departeth from a strange place to his own home, with such quietness and composed satisfaction of mind we go from hence for ever, where we shall have an abiding City. Be not unfurnished for a sudden journey if God call, but say with Simeon, Lord I am ready to depart in peace. Tully said, that a worthy man in a good old age made no more than an exit, or a decease out of a Theatre with a plaudite. The Scripture varies the name of death in good words; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a tranquil rest, Blessed are they that die in the Lord, they rest from their labours; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a sound sleep, our brother Lazarus sleepeth, Jo. xi. Sometimes it hath the title of an exaltation; As Moses lifted up the brazen Serpent in the wilderness, so shall the Son of man be lifted up. And my Text names it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a decease: as the Prophet hath called that Book which entreats of the Children of Israel's departure out of Egypt, Exodus, their decease out of that Country of captivity and slavery: so if your soul cleave not too much to the dust of the earth, death is no Bugbear, no quivering meditation, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as joyful a decease to us, as that was to them, a departure out of bondage and misery. O what death can be dreaded since Moses and Elias spoke so mildly of the death of Christ? Had his days been cut off without all pain, sorrow, or ignominy, take the Proposition thus barely without amplification of his wounds and sufferings: mortuus est pro peccatoribus, he died for sinners, the just for the unjust; who could sufficiently estimate the dear price of his payment, or the miserable contract of our debt? Mortiferum fuit, quod non nisi morte Christi sanari potuit, the wound of sin in our Soul was very mortal, which made the Immortal die to cure it. Lord, it is not one Soul in every man, nor ten thousand understandings and cogitations in that Soul which can cast up the estimation of that matchless benefit: How much more when Christ's death is dispread into a full description of all circumstances; the longest Gospels by seven parts in all the Church Service are read upon the Passion; and yet more must be conceived than can be wrote of it in the largest Folio. Yet I will print that Breviary of St. Paul in my memory to read it day and night, Galat. iii 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. But that eternal life which he purchased to us thereby hath candied over the bitterness of death, and it is called by a soft, gentle word, a decease; and spoke of his decease which he should accomplish, etc.  
Fifthly, If, as I intent to speak in the fifth place, all the circumstances of his death were opened; Peter and the rest did hear what manner of decease it was. There were many Pikes to be passed through, a complete order of afflictions to be undergon, and accomplished; Fat Bulls of Basan have compassed me on every side. His miseries stood round about him, and Gods predeterminate counsel was the circle, there was no moving out, till every enemy had spent his spite upon him: so many stripes and wounds foretold in several Psalms, so many sharp pangs and doleances commemorated in several Chapters, and he could not give up the ghost till all these things were come about, and every jot of the Scripture fulfilled. St. John hath set this down with the accurate wisdom of the Holy Ghost to be admired, Joh. xx. 28. Christ hanging upon the Cross had power to lay down his life at any minute at the first twitch of pain, and though weariness and the agony of sweat, and the torments he sustained made him very dry, yet he could have died in that thirst, and never called for drink. But after all things in the Scripture were fulfilled, one verse of David was unsatisfied, They gave me vinegar to drink, Psal. lxix. 2. therefore He cries out I thirst, and having received no better than vinegar, he bears testimony, that then all Prophecies about his Passion were ended really and in truth, his word was consummatum est, all was finished: and at that stop he bowed his head, and gave up the Ghost: Inclinavit caput, as if he had said, I have held out thus long against the fury of man, now I willingly die, I will hold out no longer against the truth of God. Very wittily the Author of the Questions to Antiochus, whom I cited before, all enemies were come about our Saviour on the Cross, and had the foil, 
Qu. 76.  only death hovered aloof, and durst not approach; ideo Christus inclinato capite vocavit eam, antequam inclinaret caput propiùs accedere verebatur; therefore when all things were accomplished Christ nodded with his head; and called death unto him, which durst not approach unseasonably before He bowed down his head. How sweet it is to sleep in death, when we have accomplished all things that are acceptable to God? even so Christ did not decease till he had finished all things which were due to his Father; and then this world could not claim him a minute longer; but woe and bitterness shall be in that man's end, who hath been troubled about many things in this; but in no one thing that is good can show a dispatch; much more how far is He from saying with St. Paul, I have finished my course, hence forth is laid up for me a Crown of life. Sow your Seed, ripen your Harvest, that it may be gathered into the Barn. Let not your conscience begin to lament about the last hour, and say I have promised repentance to the Lord, I have promised works of mercy to the poor, I have promised reconciliation to my Brother: these fruitless words will come in judgement against me, for I have accomplished nothing.  
This second general part sticks only at the last word, the Place where Christ should suffer is designed by Moses and Elias, they spoke of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. Jerusalem indeed was grown to be the Scaffold upon which the best blood on earth had been spilt for many ages. It cannot be that a Prophet should perish out of Jerusalem, Luke xiii. 13. and Christ did them no wrong, when he taxed them with that officious cruelty, that they laboured to draw the execution of all the Prophets to themselves. Nor yet is the meaning so universal, that all the Martyrs had perished within their Walls: The greater part did, and enough to dishonour all the daily Sacrifices which they offered up in the Temple, when they polluted themselves with the Sacrifices of the Saints. True indeed that Jeremy the Prophet, as Epiphanius relates, suffered in Egypt, Ezechiel in Chaldaea. Jezebel in her time put to death many excellent men in Samaria, and Herod, as Josephus says, cut off John Baptists head at the Castle of Macheranta in the utmost confines of Galilee. But Jerusalem was become the Gulf which had swallowed more holy blood than all other places. And I mark it in St. Paul, when Agabus told St. Paul by the spirit, that he should be bound in chains, and shortly after die for the confession of the faith, as yet God had not revealed that he must go to Rome, and testify his name there; but Paul makes haste to Jerusalem, as if he would meet death in the face in that great Metropolis, which was so infamous for many Martyrdoms. Well, this is that City which had so incurred the anger of the Lord, that he suffered it to fill up the measure of all iniquity, and be odious to all Generations for crucifying the Lord of Life. Yet the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have fitly translated at Jerusalem; For Christ did not suffer within the City, but without the Gates. I will take my thread from St. Paul to lead me in this way, 
Heb. 13.  from the 11. to the end of the 13. verse. The bodies of those Beasts whose blood is brought into the Sanctuary by the High Priest for sin, are burnt without the Camp: Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without the Gate. Let us go forth thereforce unto him without the Camp, bearing his reproach. Of those Beasts with whose blood the Sanctuary was expiated, and their flesh burnt without the Camp, you may read Levit. xuj. 27. They that served at the Tabernacle had no portion in this Sacrifice. So Christ was carried out of the City to suffer, and they that still retain the yoke of Ceremonies upon their neck have no part in him. He suffered near to Jerusalem; he came unto his own, but they cast him forth. He suffered not in the Temple, 
Serm. 9 de Pass.  for says Leo, Crux Christi mundi est ara non templi, Christ's Cross was an Altar, of which the whole world should partake, and not that Temple only. Nay, to go further, He was crucified out of the Privileges of that Jewish City, to betoken that the blessing of his Passion would light upon the Gentiles. The use which the Apostle makes is, as he went forth of Jerusalem, so let us go forth of the Camp to God. Extra urbem, extra mundum sequamur Christum; let us leave our Pleasures, our Riches, our Country, our Life, and this whole World, when it is requisite to do God honour by those means. Quid est egredi ad eum, videlicet communicemus cum eo passiones, says St. Chrysostom, What is it to go out to him, but to follow the example of his patience, humility, and sufferings: then we shall go out from our sins, and come into his glory. And so much briefly for every part of that Communication which Moses and Elias had in the Mount: They spoke of his decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.  
There is a whole verse yet remaining to be excussed, which I read unto you. I would not be prevented, but to speak of that which follows entirely by itself, yet I will so handle this with a short Paraphrase, that I may not be tedious. But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep. This is right man and his regardlesness; God shines in his works, the Law and the Prophets preach daily, and yet men sleep: No, nor the strong out-cries and exclamations of our Saviour in prayer could keep them awake. Lord, if thou shouldst not make intercession for us with strong cries and groans unutterable, when we slumber, and regard not our own misery, what endless woe would fall upon us? but here's the difference between Moses and Elias immortalised in their body, they talk divinely, and between the best men Peter and the Apostles in their corruptible nature, they are but drowsy lumps of flesh: So it ought to be, to impress this humility into our heart, quod Apostoli dormiunt ignaviae est, quid ipsis contigit spectaculum felicitatis Dei gratiae. It is our own idleness that makes us sleep: and when we slept in death, it was Gods mere mercy, no merit of ours, that sent us happiness and glory: it is not our vigilancy or our industry that can attain to such excellent things, but by God's grace and clemency.  
Yet we must not think to fold our arms together, and sleep out our time with Solomon's Sluggard, and yet be made happy; we must awake from sin before we receive the hope and comfort of that future glory in this life, and we must awake from death before we can see God and his glory face to face hereafter. O that we could awake from the sluggishness of the flesh, and open our eyes illuminated by faith, than we should see many admirable mysteries, which now pass away from our knowledge, and we never seek them out. Wake thou that sleepest, stand up from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. There is an eyesalve of Prayer, and humility, and long-suffering in these days of trial, to dispel the mists of darkness which obscure our faith, and when we awake up after thy likeness, O blessed Jesus we shall be satisfied with it. AMEN.   

THE FOURTH SERMON UPON The Transfiguration.  LUKE ix. 33. 
And it came to pass as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three Tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: not knowing what he said.  
UPon my entrance into the handling of this beautiful miracle of the Transfiguration we found Christ at Prayer, and he continued in that exercise by himself alone, for he needed not to have his Petition recommended to his Father by any other mouth, by any Intercessor in Heaven or Earth. He indeed prays for every man's wants, but in all the Gospel throughout no man prays for him. 
Contra. Ep. Parm. lib. 2. c. 8.  Pro quo nullus interpellat, sed ipse pro omnibus, hic unicus, verusque mediator est, says St. Austin. He in whose behalf no man solicits the Father to bless him, and he whose Lips bless every man, this is the true and only Mediator of Mankind. But though we found Christ at Prayer, yet we did not find his Apostles waking to say Amen. If God be for us, who can be against us? Rom. viij. 31. I answer the Apostle, though God be for us all, a man may be his own Enemy, and fight against himself. Christ was occupied in Prayer: Who could be against Peter when his Master was on his side? But Peter slept while his Master prayed, therein he was against himself. Thrice our Saviour rose from Prayer in the Garden, and found him sleeping, therefore the watchful Cock was a sign unto him soon after that he had denied his Master thrice. So, to lay this upon our own building, if the three Disciples, whom Christ took with him to Mount Thabor, had employed their time in watchfulness, and Religion as their Master did, doubtless the Lord had guided their understanding in the right way; but because they laid them down to rest when they should have prayed, and did not lift up their hands as an Evening Sacrifice, therefore the Lord sent upon them the Spirit of slumber, Rom. xi. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an imagination as dark as the darkness of Egypt, in which they could discern nothing, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aquila reads it, Isa. xxix. 10. a strong drowziness which is in the manner of a Lethargy, a Spirit of error and stupidity. Lo what words do come from Peter in my Text, let him shake himself as Samson did when he came out of sleep, and he shall find that the Spirit of the Lord was gone from him. He did not watch and pray, that he might not fall into error, therefore he slept and fell into error that he might pray to come out of it. Because his tongue was tied when it ought to speak, therefore when he began to speak he knew not what he said.  
And that shall appear unto you both this day, and once again God willing upon this whole Verse which I have read. At this present I have bounded my meditations to go but half way, It came to pass as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master it is good for us to be here. All this matter must not be drawn into an heap, but into this order: 1. What came to pass, which caused Peter to speak now, when he had been silent before. Why Moses and Elias were taking their leave, and he would have retained them. It came to pass as they departed from him Peter said. 2. To whom he did direct his speech; not to his fellow servants Moses and Elias, but to his Master, Peter said unto Jesus, Master. 3. That his Disciple went about to teach his Master in the words following, Master it is good for us to be here. Those being the words of especial use to spend our time upon, I will enlarge myself to show that they contain three things to be well allowed, and six things to be doubted of, that I may not say condemned: 1. At the first blush that he saw Christ in glory he said it was bonum, he was excellently delighted with it, for the glory of the Gospel is no affrighting thing, but a delectable object. 2. He said true, it was bonum nobis, good for us, for God doth show his glory for us, and for our satisfaction. 3. It is as true, that it is very good to be continually present with his glory, and never part from it; O it is the best of all goods to enter into the joy of our Master. Thus far he built upon a Rock, his foundation is infallible. In the rest he builds upon the sands, yet to censure the errors of so great an Apostle with modesty, I will contrive all that is objected against him into six questions: 1. An bonum non videre mortem? Whether it were good for us not to see death? 2. An bonum non affligi? If it be good to remain in pleasure, and not be afflicted? 3. An bonum sit in terrâ manere? Whether it could be good to dwell always upon the earth? 4. An bonum sit quod paucis solummodo bonum? Whether that can be a true good, which is restrained to few? Bonum nobis, if it were not enlarged beyond those that were present. 5. An bonum consistit in aspectu humanitatis? Whether it could be the supreme good of man to behold the Humane Nature of Christ only beautified, without the revelation of his divine glory. 6. An bonum sit Christum non crucifigi? If it could be good for them that Christ should entrench himself in Mount Tabor; and never go to Mount Calvary to be crucified. These are the parts of the Text, not one to be spared. They shall not trouble you with length, though they do with multitude.  
I begin with the occasion which moved Peter to speak, it was the departure of the two Witnesses, Factum est cum illi discederent ab eo dixit. He was ever prompt to speak; and now he could not hold, when those two, the most heroical Prophets that ever had lived did now come from another world, and were returning again to their own place. What eye could be satisfied with looking upon such men who did live upon earth rather like the Sons of God than the Sons of men? Go not yet is the phrase of civility to any Friend, whose presence is welcome; as you know the Father of the Levites Concubine urged the Levite to stay from night to night, Be content, and tarry this night also? I pray thee, and let thine heart be merry, Judg. nineteen 6. Then who could do less than interpose when such strangers as these did begin to turn their backs, Moses and Elias, that they should never depart. 
Terent. Adelph.  Nae illiusmodi jam nobis magna civium penuria est. There is ever such a scarcity of excellent personages in the world, that we may do well to seek all means to keep them when we have them. Sure we must attribute it to a sympathy; and I know not what instinct to call it in Abraham to the love of rare persons, that when he knew not the Angels to be Angels, 
Gen. xviii. 3.  but mortal passengers, yet upon the first sight of them he entreated, and bowed himself down to the ground, that they would turn into his Tent, and rest under his Roof. This is my opinion also of Cleophas, and the other Disciple, who knew nothing by our Saviour, but that he was a wayfaring man, as themselves were, yet they could not let him go, but they constrained him to stay with them at Emmaus, 
Luk. xxiv. 29.  and to go no further. But this importunity of Peter was more like to Elisha's affection, who was even fond of the company of his Master Elias. When the Sons of the Prophets had said unto him, Knowest thou not that the Lord will take thy Master from thy head this day? He hung upon Elias wheresoever he went, and when he would have shaken him off twice or thrice, he swears two Oaths as deep as could be taken, 
2 King. two. 4.  As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth I will not leave thee. There is a Darius in Herodotus that protested, if he were to choose, he had rather have ten faithful Subjects, such as his faithful servant Megabyzus was, than be possessor of the whole Monarchy of Greece; as if one excellent Spirit were as valuable as a Kingdom. And there is a Darius in holy Scripture, to whom Daniel was as dear as ever was Megabyzus to the other; he did justly deem that daniel's life was the fortune and felicity of his Empire, against whom when the Grandees of Persia had conspired to cast him into the Den of Lions, 
Dan. vi. 14.  the King laboured until the going down of the Sun to deliver him. Happy times should those be, if two such Heroes at once should be upon the face of the earth as Moses and Elias, 
Virgil. Aenead. 8.  Si duo praeterea tales Idaea tulisset terra viros, says he. Then was the Church a Coronet stuck thick with Jewels, when it had twelve Apostles at once. But when the Sun had passed through those twelve Signs, and they were taken from among us, such an age did never succceed them, but Emulations and Heresies rose up, a poison which was rank ever since in the Church unto these days.  
Though the worth of St. Ambrose alone might seem to be enough to hold up virtue and goodness in any one part of the world, yet O how he deplores the decease of Paulinus, as if half the happiness of that Country round about were buried in his Grave. (Beloved) pray to God every day to raise up a good Generation in our times, and when you have them, magnify God, and desire his mercy to continue them. If Moses and Elias be departing, speak as Peter did, that you may be heard. When such are taken away I will leave you David's Song to sing; a sad ditty God knows, Psa. xii. 1. Help Lord, for the Godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men. Neither was Peter more instant to retain these two Prophets upon earth, than the good Christians in a little while were instant with God to retain Peter, when his life was at the last extremity: for when Herod had imprisoned him, and the Angel set him free, at the time of midnight Peter found his friends at prayer for his deliverance, Act. xii. 5. Yet I enforce not this, as if Peter's zeal in the instance of my Text did not miss the mark, the spirits of the Blessed are purified from this contagion of the world below, and are at rest from their labours, and therefore their residence is not to be required upon earth: neither shall incorruption be obtruded hither to inherit corruption. The wise Poet had learned, that the happy Ghosts of his Elysium were no company for mortals; no not anchises to be embraced by his own ●on; Ter conatus ibi collo dare brachia circum, ter frustra comprensa manus effugit imago. Only the formality of his desire is laudable, and as right as can be to be imitated, that we are to labour by intercessions, and supplications, that such excellent Worthies as God sends among us may not be taken away, for whensoever they go it may be timely to them, it must be untimely to us. But for the materiality of this desire, to retain those persons Moses and Elias, the mistake shall be discovered in due order, but this shall suffice for the occasion, which made this Apostle speak, It came to pass as they departed from him, etc.  
I have somewhat to say in the second part, but very briefly, that although Peter being scarce awake, took upon him now to teach, yet he confesseth that by true authority Christ was his teacher; for he said unto Jesus, Master: or if he had forgot it, the voice from Heaven in two verses following would have put him in mind, This is my beloved Son, audite eum, hear him, he hath the words of eternal life, his own acknowledge it: Full of grace are his lips, the Prophets foretold. Never man spoke like this man, 
Joh. seven. 46.  those Whelps the Pharisees sent abroad to suck his blood, confessed it. This is the Master that cannot lie, that cannot lead us into error, hear him. You see it is fit to defer the issue of this point, what obedience we owe to his Mastership, to hear him, till I come to speak of the voice, which was heard from Heaven. Only I must tell you, the word which St. Peter useth is of good observation, and must not be neglected. St. Matthew and St. Mark are full of Hebraisms, and they keep the word Rabbi; St. Luke speaks more usually in the flowers of the Greek Language, and Rabbi or Master with him is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The force of it implies superiority and regiment, qui rei cuipiam sit praefectus, who is set over another to appoint him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Polit. lib. 4. ca 15.  says Aristotle, that is, a Commonwealth hath need of many sorts of Governors; so the Church hath need of many Rulers, to see that all things be done decently and in order; but there is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, one who hath the preeminence in all things, the Master, who is over all, and above all, which is Jesus Christ.  
I mean not, as it is alleged out of Bartholus, and some of the impudent Canonists, that Christ, as he was God and Man, was Lord of the whole World Monarchically, and Peter after him, and by Peter's right the successive Bishops of Rome, by which fetch those branded Flatterers entitle their Popes to the direct right of all the Kingdoms of the earth; indeed the Devil promised our Saviour all the Kingdoms of the World, and the glory of them, and since He refused it then, the same Devil by the mouth of those Canonists proffers it again, to try▪ though He will none of it himself, if some other in the name of a Vicegerent will take it for him. This is not the meaning of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but that he is our Master in Heaven and Earth, the Head to which all the Body is fitly knit by joints and bands, Colos. two. 19 Joints and Bands; Beloved, neither of those words is idle or superfluous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commissurae, the joints are all those blessings and benefits which are bestowed upon us, and knit unto us, Christ by reciprocal gratitude: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, juncturae are all those offices of Christian charity which bind the Members one to another, all things which belong to the Communion of Saints, and hold us together under the Head, which nourisheth us with his influence. Now it is a very ill disjunction which some make, to argue upon the two natures of Christ, according to whether he is our Master, and our Head: If you name the one or the other alone, you will confuse your own Creed, and know not what to believe; for all the conditions belonging to a Head are in neither, but in both. First it was fit the Church should have such an Head, which is agreeing and conformable to the Body, which is knit unto it; a spiritual Head and fleshly Members are not consonant to make an unity: Therefore Christ and his Church are said to be like Man and Wife, which are one flesh, Ephes. v. 31. But the Head of the Church must be fit to nourish every part of the Body with spiritual blessings, and make it increase with the increase of God, this can come from none but the Divine and Infinite, who can give spiritual life alone, and quicken them which are dead in their sins; this He can do as he is Magister Verbi, & Magister Spiritus; who but Christ is Master of the Word preached? and who but the same Christ is Master of the Spirit, which gives power unto the Word? You see then it is no complimental Name which is given to Christ in courtesy, but a Title of due Royalty, and condign Authority, when we call him Master. Master, says Peter, it is good for us to be here.  
Upon the same Bank of earth you may gather Flowers and Weeds; the Flowers are set by art in the Garden, the Weeds are the natural offspring. So in this same speech which the Apostle uttered in a rapture of love and delight, here are good conclusions to be approved, and bad contents to be reprehended: but the errors arise naturally out of the words; the good conclusions are rather forced than natural, yet they deserve the precedency in my discourse, and this is the beginning, that when Peter started out of sleep, and saw Christ in glory, it pleased him at the heart; bonum est, says he, this is good, and he never spoke truer in his life. The bravest Nations in the World, when they have been at the height of their Empire, have took more pride and delight in Theatrical Shows, and Magnificent Spectacles of Triumphs than in any other pomp; for the satisfaction of the eye, when it meets with a right object, is above any other pleasure. But all other things in the world are Counterfeits to right Jewels in respect of the Object of Divine Glory, when the eye gets that to gaze upon, the Soul dilates itself with such greediness to be filled with it, that it would be infinite to receive it. O how amiable are thy dwellings thou Lord of Hosts! Psal. lxxxiv. David takes up his verse, and goes no further to express it, but leaves off with indefinite admiration. And Theodoret refused to comment upon those words, non tam explicandus sensus, quam intimo sensu degustandus, the sense and meaning of that Verse is not to be expounded, but to be relished and tasted by our affections. We have stolen a name from virtue, and called our Riches our Goods; but beware to steal from Heaven as Prometheus did, and to call the fruition of any thing upon earth good, if the delights of the earth could speak, they would say unto you, why do you call us good? nothing is good but to dwell in the Tabernacle of the Most High. One day in thy Courts, says the Psalmist, is better than a thousand. The days of this Life are called Thousands of days, the Life of Glory is called One day. These are called Thousands for the mutability, that's called One for the unchangeable eternity, says St. Austin. Howsoever it is true in this sense, the shortest salutation of those supernal joys is more satisfactory Canis ad Nilum, a touch and away, than the longest satiety of these transitory exhilarations. Two great Prophets rise from the dead to represent the glory of the life to come, three living Disciples, Peter especially, are ravished with it, si mortuis non credideris, saltem viventibus credas, either believe the dead or the living, which you will, it is a good thing to see Christ in the Majesty of his glory.  
Mark those words, says Tertullian, with special note, quae fingendi non habent arbitrium, extemporary acclamations wherein a man hath no leisure to invent dissimulation, so out of the first pure passion of his mind, which could not be forged, St. Peter cried out when he saw the Glory of Christ, bonum est, it is good. We cry out of the times now adays, and the Age we live in, but the more unthankful we; for we do, or may live more happily by far under the New Testament, than the Jews did under the Old. Every vision of Majestical glory did exceedingly terrify the ancient Israelites. 
Exod. xx. 18.  When the Lord came down upon Mount Sinah with triumph, and with the sound of the Trumpet, the people removed, and stood afar of, and durst not come near it: now the Gospel hath expelled this fear so far, that the Spectators did not shun the glory of Christ when they saw it, but desired they might continue upon the place where it was for ever. Deus se magis amandum exhibet, quam spectandum, says one upon it: God doth exhibit himself in the New Testament rather to be loved than to be dreaded, and doth not now intent our terror, but our comfort. The glory of the Gospel is like God's Rainbow in the Clouds, not only a beautiful, but a merciful Token, a Bow with the string towards the earth, so that it is not prepared to shoot arrows against us. As Pliny said to Trajan of his virtuous Consort, nihil sibi ex fortunâ tuâ nisi gaudium vendicat, so all that a Christian challengeth for his own is the blessed Virgin's solace, My spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour. Beloved they forget that God is called the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolations, they forget, that since Christ is come in the flesh, the Dove is returned with the Olive branch of peace in his mouth, who fill the minds of men with melancholy desperate doubts, and do oftener cast before them black stones of condemnation, than white stones of absolution. Cheerfulness and a delightsom countenance becomes the Disciples of Christ, howsoever the austere Pharisees censured our Saviour himself for a Winebibber and a Glutton, because he was sociable, and did not always lowr and pout after their hypocritical fashion. St. Chrysostom neither lived with content to his own heart, nor gave content to other, because he was untractable to all manner of joyful familiarity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; 
Socrates l. β. c γ.  he was so earnest for sobriety, that he run into a Cynical austerity. Some, not unfitly I think, contend so much that a Christian is to deport himself in a sweet consolatory fashion, that they understand Solomon to that meaning, Eccl. ix. 8. Eat thy bread with joy, and let thy garments be always white, as if none should put on mournings for the Gospel sake, unless they wanted a good conscience to rejoice in Christ. Though the splendour of the Law was terrible, yet the glory of the New Testament is amiable: bonum est, says St. Peter; it is a good thing to see the Majesty of our Saviour in perfect beauty.  
Secondly, Thus far the Apostle gave a right judgement upon the vision, and thus much further, that he said it was bonum nobis, intended not so much for Christ's exalted bravery, as for our good. When I began this Miracle, I cited a rule out of Damascen, and I repeat it again, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the impulsive cause of all things that our Saviour did upon earth was the love which he did bear to the generation of men: yea the Lord hath made man the scope of all his other works in a subordinate way to his own glory: For man is made to serve the Lord, and the earth is made to serve and supply the use of man, and both ways man is made happy, and not God, says Lombard, Et quod accepit obsequium à creaturis, & quod impendit Deo, either to take homage from the Creature, or to do homage to the glory of God. 
1 Cor. three 22.  All things are ours says St. Paul, whether it be the world or life: whether it be the World as the Vassal of our service, or Life eternal as the Crown of our service. When our Saviour did exhibit himself in this rare feature at Mount Thabor, quorsum haec? was it not to catch our hearts, and affect them with the vision? he did not present himself as Agrippa and Bernice did, Act. xxv. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, with great pomp and estate to show the regal lustre of their Royalty: no the very Heathen were contented to say, that the supreme power of Heaven must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, contented with himself, and needed no accessories to set forth his honour: as Caesar spoke in a lofty contempt to his mutinous Soldiers, an vos momenta, putatis ulla dedisse mihi? so it would sound better from God's mouth, All the creatures upon earth cannot confer a scruple, or the least moment to advance his excellency. Christ was not contemptible by being made humble, nor more renowned than he was before by appearing in Majesty: Every way he is unobnoxious to the censure of man, because every way he made himself fit for the good of man: and when he joined both humility and glory in one act, both were for us. See his lowly modesty when he road upon an Ass to Jerusalem, see his triumphs of dignity at the same time in those popular acclamations, Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. But all was to this end, that we might see and hear the honour of God, and the fruit of our own salvation: all the brightness which shined upon him in Mount Thabor was to enlighten our darkness. Bonum est nobis, says Peter, it is good for us.  
3. Yet once again I will speak, that the Apostle did speak the very truth in a third Point, it was good to be continually present with Christ's glory, and never part from it, Bonum est esse hic; there is no mutation in perfect joy, but an abiding for ever. We cannot change for the better to go from the beatifical presence of God, how could Peter choose but desire to hold him to that when he had begun to taste of it? I have read in some obsolete stories of Lazarus who was raised to life after he had been dead four days, and some others of the like kind, that their soul had seen a little of the happiness of the life to come, and being brought again into the body by the word of Christ, they were never seen to laugh or smile, either because they knew better than others that there was no true joy upon earth, or because they were melancholy to have their happiness interrupted. My soul longeth, and fainteth for the Courts of the Lord, says David, Psal. lxxxiv. 2. If he could faint with desire to obtain that which he had never seen, how might this Disciple faint and languish to leave that which he had seen. 
Luke 2.37.  Old Anna the Widow departed not out of the Temple of God day nor night; which is as much in effect as if St. Luke had said, Whatsoever place is called by God's name deserves our frequent company, and I say unto you of this house, where now we are, which is called by his name, Bonum est nos esse hic, it is good for us to be here. St. chrysostom tells me of some great Princes in his time that desired upon their deathbed to be buried in the Porch of the Church, that although they were taken away from being present at the holy Service, which they were wont to love, yet their bodies even in the Grave might as it were be doorkeepers for ever in the house of God. 
De ascens. Dom. Serm. 4  I will conclude this general part with Bernard's words, Quid aliud videtur bonum, quam in bonis animam demorari, quandoquidem adhuc corpus non potest? What is good for a man, but that his soul should abide and persevere in good meditations, and good works, since there is no good place of continuance upon earth to receive his body.  
You have the flower of St. Peter's Speech bolted out, but there is more bran remaining in six Conclusions that follow, which I propound by way of question; and thus first, An bonum sit Christum non crucifigi? If it could be good for them that Christ should entrench himself in Mount Thabor, and never go to Jerusalem to be crucified. Lord grant us not our own wishes when we desire evil unto ourselves; for this Apostle unwittingly desired as much mischief to fall upon his own head as the Devil could wish. Peter was well strucken in years, his person of grave authority, his affections full of well-meaning love to Christ, therefore this was but one of three times that he made bold to resist his Master's passion, and dissuade it, Mat. xuj. 22. Be propitious unto thyself Lord, thou shalt not be killed by the Scribes and High Priests: At another time he cut off Malchus ear in the Garden to save his Saviour. And though he durst not openly dehort him now (for he was checked before, and called Satan for that fault) yet the same meaning is closely conveyed in these words, Master it is good for us to be here. What should I say? It was not his opinion alone, but it seems all his brethren were of the same mind, they knew not the Scriptures, and thought the Church might do well enough though Christ did never die upon the Cross; for when Peter alone did speak in this cause, St. Mark says Christ turned about, and looked upon all his Disciples, Mar. viij. 33. And then rebuked Peter, Get thee behind me Satan. Peter gives him the title of Master if he would stay there and not die; but St. Paul shows, that even by death he won himself the Mastership, Col. 2.18. He is the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the pre-eminence. His deceived Servants thought that it was inglorious for him to die, whereas it was an honour to the Lamb of God to be brought unto that Altar, So it behaved Christ to suffer, and to enter into his glory. I have met with one who delivered his opinion very eloquently, how fit it was for our Saviour to remove from this place where his Disciple would have fixed him. Says He, this is not the Mount where our Lord must end his days, but the fatal Calvary. His face shall not shine with light, but be disgraced with spital, and smeared with blood. His Garments shall not be white to honour him, but in scorn and derision. He shall not stand between Moses and Elias, but hang between two Thiefs. Thou Peter shalt not think it good to be with him, but run away and deny him. The Father shall not call unto him from heaven, Thou art my wellbeloved Son, but the Son shall cry out that he is forsaken of the Father. There shall not be a bright cloud over the place, but darkness over the face of the earth. Finally, no other Tabernacle shall be built for him, but a Cross of malediction.  
2. And might not Peter counsel him without offence against this ignominious death? No my Beloved: For it is not to be excused how he knew not the Scriptures, that this was the course appointed for the redemption of the world, the hungry could not eat their bread until it was broken: We could not quench our thirst with the water of life till it was poured out of his wounds: We could not be healed of the sting of death till the brazen Serpent was lifted up, Ionas must be cast out of the belly of the Whale before he preach to the Ninivites. Christ must die and rise again before the Disciples be sent to preach to all Nations. The lxx Psalm hath this title, A remembrance to the chief Musician, and the first words of the Psalm are these, Haste thee O Lord to deliver me, make haste to help me O Lord. As who should say, Thou that art the chief Musician, unto whom all the Angels of heaven sing their Alelujah, haste thee to redeem us by thy precious blood. Go up to thy Cross and suffer, for it is time that thou have mercy upon us, yea the time is come. But you will say, Had it not been most barbarous in Peter according to the tenure of that Psalm in the Exposition which I have given to wish the death of Christ? First, it might become his own Apostle that did tenderly love him neither to urge him, nor dissuade him, but to say, The will of the Lord be done. Next I must tell you, it is no such horrid thing as a weak Christian may imagine, to have prayed unto the Father, that his Son might die upon the Cross for our Redemption, Even so Father, because thou wilt have it. Yet this distinction must mollify it, Intuitu nostrae redemptionis, non ipsius cruciatus, says Lombard; Rejoicing for the benefit of our Salvation, but sorrowing for the bitterness of his Passion; grieving for his sorrows, but giving thanks with gladness for our own deliverance. Therefore in no wise did Peter give right counsel, when to decline the issue of that dismal Passion, he said, Master it is good, etc.  
But Ne quicquam sapit qui sibi non sapit? How should he be a good Counsellor for his Master that was not wise for himself? For I ask in the next place, An bonum non videre mortem? If it could be good for Peter and the two Disciples not to see death? No surely, there is a gain and advantage to be made by death, Phil. i. 21. Then when we languish, as we think, of our last sickness, than we begin to call our sins to remembrance, than we look over the Covenant of the Law, which we have so often broken, than we breathe out our soul in Prayer, and fill our eyes and our heart with repentance, the sense of imminent death takes away the sting of death by contrition, and a most conscientious examination of the days that are past, one hour well employed about that time is better than a year in diebus illis, when we were remiss and careless. Even Balaam the Sorcerer did perceive what Sovereign Physic of Salvation God did administer to his Saints upon their sick bed, and therefore he cries out, O let me die the death of the righteous. A righteous man's death is like the Cherubin standing before the Garden of Eden, that with one blow lets him into Paradise; and would Peter stay in the Mountain, and want the best Schoolmaster of Repentance and Mortification?  
Besides, it is a good thing to be weary of every thing, even of life itself, till we come to heaven. I know a man may desire to die out of frowardness. I praise not that. As Elias and Ionas were fretful because they were crossed, and in that vexation of mind they desired to die. This is rudeness and impatiency to desire to die, because they would not live as God would have them. But there is earning to get above the desires of frail nature, and to desire to put off the body that we may put on Christ. 
Psal. 120.5.  So Nazianzen begins an Epistle to Nyssen out of David's words, Hei mihi quia incolatus meus prolongatus est; Alas for me, that I see any more days upon earth, when I cannot see that we have kept that peace in the Church, which we have received from our Forefathers. And I forget not the Poetry of Theodore Beza, he lived so long till he had made Elegies upon the Funerals of all his learned Friends, at last he heard of a choice pair, Gualther and Lavater, that they were dead, to honour whose memory thus he begins: Semper ego infelix lugenda in funera fratrum vivam superstes omnibus? Shall I unhappy outlive all my Brethren to make Epitaphs upon them? He that sees many days and nights sees many calamities: And therefore one said elegantly of John the Apostle, who outlived all his fellows, but died not a Martyr as they did, 
Lorinus in Psal. 120.  that to live to such an extreme old age was his Martyrdom. Longaevitas Johanni Martyriam quoddam fuit. Surely God multiplies the days of a good man oftentimes that he may please him the more by desiring death. Do not deplore, with Micah of Mount Ephraim, that our false Gods are taken away, but that we are so long kept from the true God. Of this good desire of dissolution and departure Peter would deprive himself by affecting a fantastical kind of felicity in Mount Thabor, Master it is good, etc.  
I call it fantastical felicity, because it ariseth from the love of the flesh, which thinks all is well enough when it is removed far enough from sorrow and trouble; therefore I ask in the third place, An bonum sit non effligi? If that condition of life be well chosen in this world which appears, as this did to Peter, to be exempted from all affliction? Solomon said no, and he is to be believed, when he speaks by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, Eccles. seven. 2. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting; (those were two divers things in his days; but now every house of mourning must be an house of feasting and banqueting) but he adds, Sorrow is better than laughter, for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. What a petty Kingdom had this Apostle chosen for himself and his fellows? a Paradise, as he thought, without thorn or briar: no labour in it, no exercise, no adventuring for Christ, no profit for the Church, somewhat like Monastical Recluses every one in his Tabernacle, and in such places where there is least stir there is the greatest tentation. Is this the holy ground whereon he would set his feet and never depart? No, it was better for him when he walked unto his Master upon the waters of tribulation. Danger is the best Centinel in the world to make us watch our enemies. Fear is the best warning-bell to call us often to Prayer. Tribulation is the best Orator to persuade us to humility. O Lord in trouble have they visited thee, and they poured out a Prayer when thy chastising was upon them, Isa. xxvi. 16. If any man be afflicted let him pray, says St. James, but if any man be not afflicted, let him fast and pray, for he is in the greater danger.  
Plato was requested to draw a book of Laws for the Commonwealth of the Cyrenians, he said he would take time, and they asked him how long? He answered, Till some great calamity befall the City, for hitherto they had been so happy that no Law giver could appoint them such Rules as were fit to govern them. And surely St. Austin was not of St. Peter's mind, he would not have chosen to inhabit in a Mountain devoid of all misery, for he had proved the world, and found it true, Mundus ille periculosior est cum se allicit diligi, quam cum secogit contemni. This world will bring more hurt about when it allures us to love it than when it vexeth us to hate it. A pretty Fable is that in the Moralist, of a man that sought Pearls upon the Seashore at a low tide, he lighted upon many shells of good Pearl able to enrich him, and he ventured upon the Shelves for more and more, till the Tide came round about him, and he could not scape with his life: O, says he, I should have learned wisdom of the God of Nature, who cast these Gems loosely and regardlessly upon the Seashore, as things rather to be lost than found. At last he besought a fisherman, who came that way, to take all his Pearls for his pains, and save his life in his Cockboat. As he was taken in an ambush of the Sea in the midst of his good fortune, so mischief arrests the worldly man in the midst of prosperity. When Peter was scourged by the High-Priests, when he was imprisoned by Herod, when he was under Nero in the Lion's paw that devoured him, these were good times for the health of his soul, that as the outward man perished, the inward man might be renewed daily. But to be in a brightsom pleasant habitation; Grave est, molestum est, periculosum est, says Gregory; It was dangerous, it was obnoxious to many inconveniences, which will appear yet further by the fourth question, An bonum sit in terrâ manere? Is there any rest upon earth on which we may say, It is good, etc.  
4. Where shall the Dove rest his foot? If we would be contented with the present state we enjoy, yet all things will change, and though all things should remain as they are, and never change, yet we would never be contented. The Sea is a new Sea every Tide, the earth is a new earth every month, or every quarter at the longest distance, the same mutability whirls us about, and the things that we possess. Whether I be upon Sea or Land, upon Mount Tabor or upon Mount Hermon, I carry myself about, and shall be weary of it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he was a Cynical Philosopher indeed that ran over every kind of life as unsatiated with it, but it was not Philosophy, but the state of flesh and blood that taught it him. The City had no Recreation, The Country no Society, Studies of Arts were laborious. Navigation perilous, run over all the world and he would ask for somewhat which he wanted, what content then could Peter take in one Hill, though it were furnished with a most desirable Vision? How quickly would it have cloyed him to have been long there, like a Lark, hopping upon one turf of grass? Though God prepare for us a new Heaven, and a new earth, yet he must give us a new heart likewise to delight in them forever. For it is not the object alone, but the disposition of the soul which receives it, that must make us say, When I awake up after thy likeness I shall be satisfied with it.  
The Poets set down this case of St. Peter in a pretty Fiction, that the Goddess Calypso offered Ulysses her pleasant Island to live there always, and to be immortal upon it. But her tentation would not take, he preferred to refuse this offer, and return home to his own Country. Pleasure is not a Goddess, but a Sorceress, which would offer us the like, Bonum est esse hic, this is a fair inheritance, were it not a gay thing if this were heaven, and you imparadised in this pleasant seat for ever? O no says celestial love, go out my soul, go out, take the wings of the morning, fly away to thy Country above, the heavenly Jerusalem, and then rest for ever. Philip, that mighty Macedonian, feasted many Wits at a Banquet, and he propounded a question to be argued before him, What was the greatest thing in Nature? After many Opinions one collected all that had been said, and concluded, Neither was Philip himself the greatest of all things, 
Lorinus in Psal. 83.11.  nor the Hill Olympus, nor the Sea of waters, nor the Sun in the Firmament, Sed cor quod res maximas despiceret; the greatest of all things was an heart that despised the greatest things which are in this world beneath. Unclog your affections from all contents of this miserable life, if Tabor itself transport you, the best part of the Militant Church where Christ's glory shines, which by God's mercy I am confident we enjoy, yet forget that, and yearn for the Church Triumphant. Be willing to bequeath the earth to the succession that follows you, and your body to the ground, and your soul to God.  
5. I am ready to move the fifth question (alas, when I consider it, how unfit is the natural man for spiritual things?) An bonum sit quod paucis solummodò est bonum? Whether we should call that good which is appropriated to ourselves, and not communicated to many? This is it for which Origen thinks that Satan stirred up Peter to utter these words, to entreat him to bless that little company upon Mount Taber with his presence, and to leave all mankind without redemption. O too forgetful, Nimiumque oblite tuorum, both of the other nine Disciples, and of all that people that sat in darkness, and in the shadow of death. It was the most Jewish maliciousness that the Jews had to challenge God that his mercies and blessings belonged to their Nation, and to no other Kingdom, but this contraction is far more unreasonable to beseech Christ to smother his glory in a private corner with Moses and Elias, and three Apostles, as if these were the five wise Virgins enough to enter into the Marriage Chamber of the Bridegroom. If one member be honoured, all the members shall rejoice with it, but when all the members of the body are honoured, 
1 Cor. 12.26 August in Psal. 139.  every member shall rejoice much more. Tolle invidiam & tuum est quod habeo, tolle invidiam & meum est quod habes, says St. Austin; Be not you envious, and that which I have is yours: Let not me be envious, and that which you have is mine. A carnal man you see wisheth his own happiness with the consequent infelicity of all the world beside, let me oppose unto this the stupendious example of a regenerate man, that wished his own damnation for the salvation of a great people. I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, Rom. ix. 3. Some have commented upon it, that Paul was unadvised in those words, and offended God. Nay (Beloved) the Holy Ghost cannot be unadvised, by whose instinct he wrote, and he doth Preface in the beginning, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not. St. Chrysostom cannot speak better than he did upon that verse, Quia nos longè sumus ab hâc dilectione Pauli, ideo intelligere ejus verba non possumus. We want so much of that love to our brethren, 
Paraeus in hunc locum.  which Paul had to his, that we are not able to make a good construction of his meaning. Yet I will direct you in a few words: Paul did not desire to be separated for his brethren's sake from the charity and friendship of Christ, (for then he should love man better than God) but from the felicity and sweet fruit of that friendship. He would perish for ever, not as Christ's enemy, but as an offering for his Nation. He doth not desire to be out of the love of Christ, but out of the Vision of Christ. The conversion of an whole people, he thought, was more for God's glory than the salvation of one man; therefore although God's Election must stand, and that was impossible which he desired, yet so long as he loved his brethren in God, and not against God, it was no excessive love. And that is the judgement of Calvin.  
But to draw to the use of the Point, you see that perfect charity squints not at its own benefit with the great detriment of others; Bonum est nobis is bad divinity, and bad civility, it spoils Church and Commonwealth; that which is good to one, or to a few, will never thrive if it be not good for many. It is true, he is one of the fools of the world, that is not wise for himself, but he is one of God's Reprobates, that is wise for none but for himself, Nequicquam sapit qui non omnibus sapit. When every man is his own end, all things will come to a bad end. Blessed were those days, when every man thought himself rich and fortunate by the good success of the public wealth and glory. We want public souls, we want them, I speak it with compassion, there is no sin or abuse in the world that afflicts my thought so much. Every man thinks that he is a whole Commonwealth in his private Family. Omnes quae sua sunt quaerunt; All seek their own. Did St. Paul write it against us, or against the Philippians? Chap. two. 21. Can the Public be neglected and any man's Private be secure. It is all one whether the mischief light upon him or his Posterity. There are some, says Tully, 
Ep. ad Attic. lib. 1. c. 25.  that think their own Gardens and Fishponds shall be safe when the Commonwealth is lost. Doth he not call them fools by craft? Away with this bonum nobis, to intend our own good rather than the general, it was the greatest error that St. Peter committed.  
6. To the last question briefly in a word, An bonum consistit in aspectu humanitatis Christi; Could it be the supreme good of man to behold the Humane Nature of Christ only beatified? Surely, the Humane Nature shining as light as the Sun was a rare object, that Peter could have been contented with that, and no more, for his part for ever, yet the resolution of the School holds certain, 
Lyra.  that blessedness consists essentially in beholding the Divine Nature which is the fountain of all goodness, and power, and in the fruition thereof, accidentally it consists in beholding Christ's Humane Nature glorified, and in the consequent delectation. These things must not be enlarged now, because I am prevented by the time. To God the Father, etc.   

THE FIFTH SERMON UPON The Transfiguration.  LUKE ix. 33. 
And let us make three Tabernacles, one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias; not knowing what he said.  
EVery small sin that a man commits cannot choose but make a long reckoning before the Judgement of God; for one error which St. Peter did incur hath made us work enough to examine it at two several days. You have heard before, that whether he had a mind to hinder the crucifying of Christ, or whether he desired not to see death, not to be afflicted, to continue in a pleasant habitation upon earth, whether he aimed at his private without respect to the Universal Church, or whether he fixed his thought upon Christ's humane nature glorified for his utmost blessedness, every way his words are censurable; Master it is good for us to be here. Now it follows, because he could not build his opinion upon a good ground, he will build a Tabernacle upon his opinion. And let us make three Tabernacles, etc. He that will not desire much shall not sin much: the greatest score of our sins grows from our wishes: It is a great mastery to bridle the tongue, but it is a greater victory to bridle the heart. Pompey the Great being in the University of Athens, every Sholar offered himself to dispute before him to show his learning; but when every man had had his turn, there was one that continued to say nothing, and when Pompey asked why he alone was mute among all the company, says he, that the Romans may know, we have one Philosopher that can hold his peace. But neither all Athens, nor all the World, no nor the Apostles of our Saviour could boast that there was one among them could hold in his appetite. We are either for faciamus or habeamus every hour of the day, either to have this or that, or to make some new thing which we wanted. And how soon our thoughts may become vile with desiring things in this World below, when Peter is not excused for desiring to cast all earthly conversation behind his back, and to remain in a kind of Paradise upon Mount Thabor, where Christ was transfigured. He thought he had found out a medium between Heaven and Earth, he knew it was not Heaven, he saw it was more gay and glistering than earth, a content between both: O no, it was no discreet choice, to desire to sit down as it were in the half way under a golden Canopy, and not to run out unto the end of the race, where the reward was to be received. He knew not what he said.  
It is obvious upon this occasion to make the same charitable construction for St. Peter, which Paul did for the Jews, I bear them record they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. The Jews were eager to retain their ancient Ceremonies, and despised that the Gentiles should be invited to the fellowship of their happiness, this bears the definition of zeal exactly; zelus est affectio ad quam sequitur ob vehementiam dolour, tum ex consortio aliorum, tum ex defectu rei quae desideratur; zeal is an affection so vehement that it afflicteth itself, if either it want what it desires, or if others do participate it. So the Apostle wished that the Vision in Mount Thabor might ever last, was even faint for sorrow, when the Cloud carried Moses and Elias away, and the emulation was so strong, that he desired the Vision might be private to himself, and a few more; bonum est nobis, it is good for us: Here is ardour and pain in wishing, ut res habeatur, & sine consortio aliorum, to enjoy a good things and to be singular, without comperes; therefore I will divide the Text apologetically out of St. Paul's words, that here was zelus erga Deum, sed non secundum scientiam. Zeal towards God's glory is the first part of the Text, Let us make three Tabernacles, one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: but zeal not according to knowledge is the second part, not knowing what he said. A division being ever made, for perspicuity take these three things to your consideration out of the first part, fabri, fabrica, possessores; the Builders in this word faciamus, and let us make; the Building, three Tabernacles; the Possessors, Christ and the two Saints assisting him, one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: In all which I will explain two things jointly with the other Members, Peter's purpose what he aimed at in zeal, and his mistake wherein he erred, his zeal was not according to knowledge.  
Faciamus, let us make. I give the first place for method sake to the consideration of the Builders. If he had said unto Christ, do thou make three Tabernacles, the work it is certain would have soon been at an end that way. God made the World by his Son, and his Son at one word could have made three Tabernacles, who spoke the word, and all things were created. Every house is built by some man, but he that built all things it God, Heb. iii 4. therefore if he had said, do thou make these Tabernacles, it would have been the suddener dispatch: that's the general neglect indeed, the more shame for us; let God build and repair his house himself for us, or it is like to be let alone. Nay herein St. Peter was right, since God hath given all the materials upon earth, let man offer before he is asked to make an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. Let us make and work for him, reason good, we are his servants, hired by every day and hour to do some task for his honour. Nor doth Peter put it off with vos facite, do you John and James work and build, I will give aim and look on, another worldly trick to put all upon others, if any thing be to be done for Christ's sake, and exempt ourselves both from charge and trouble: many do love that God should have somewhat given him, and somewhat built him with their neighbour's purse; like the Ape in the Fable, that took the hot Chestnut out of the fire with the Cat's foot. Here is one that had not so learned to glorify God, but with his own tongue, and with his own hand, says St. Ambrose, Non laudasse contentus, etiam ministerium pollicetur. Peter praised this beatifical Vision, Master it is good, but he knew that praise is a very cheap part of God's service, and therefore he offers his pains to be doing somewhat in honour of it; a wide mouth, and a close hand is the character of an hypocrite; the birds of the air have sweet voices, but they have no hands to work for their Master: an operative Religion becomes him that hath a body to serve God, as well as a soul. Faciamus, let us make. If you think this Mountain to be uninhabitable, and inconvenient, depart not for that, I offer my service with my fellow Disciples to make you bowers to entertain you.  
God never required by his own mouth and Oracle any mortal man to build a place for him, but the most conspicuous Prophet, and the most conspicuous King in all Israel, Moses for the Tabernacle, and Solomon for the Temple; and therefore Peter asked no ignoble office from Christ, when he would be appointed from him to make him a Tabernacle. If thou wilt, let us make here three Tabernacles, he asked his leave, Matt. xvii. 4. Of that humble submission I will speak a word by and by: one thing calls me to consider it first, that here is an infallible note of a large and a vehement love affectus sine mensurâ propriarum virium, an affection which never measured how it could perform that to which it offered: true love doth not consider how it shall be able to finish that which it undertakes: we undertake to renounce the Devil, and all his works, to keep all the Commandments, which all our frailties will not permit, but love adventures to try what it can do; and therefore love is called the fulfilling of the Law. Mary Magdalen came to enbalm our Saviour's body in the Sepulchre, and never thought till she was hard by, that there was a stone upon the Sepulchre which she could not roll away: when Christ was risen, and she took him for the Gardener, Sir, says she, If thou hast born him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Why, a dead body useth to be born by four strong men to the ground, and this had need of more help, when his body was wrapped up with an hundred pound weight of sweet spices; yet out of more confidence than strength she said she would bring his corpse again into the Grave. So Peter and his helpers would raise up three Tabernacles in Mount Thabor, having neither Workmen's tools nor materials, nor skill I think in that Trade, yet he would dispatch a Building instantly, that he would, to receive his Lord, and those two Gloriosoes that were with him; if Christ let him alone, what unartificial work he would have made: But true love strides over all impossibilities, nihil erubescit nisi nomen difficultatis, it would be ashamed of itself, to think any thing were difficult. You see his aim was above his skill: and will it fully excuse him to say all was out of love? never lay it upon that love, Christ loves well, but if it be love that is right and considerate, says a most accurate Father of our own Church. St. Paul commends love on this wise. 1 Cor. xiii. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nihil perperam facit, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, doth not behave itself unseemly, keeps decorum, forgets not what belongs to duty and decency, than the Lord accepts it. Love may, and doth forget itself otherwhile, and then the Heathen man's saying is true, importunus amor parum distat a simultate, he that loves God inconsiderately, and perversely, is a kind of enemy: Peter thought, let him work, and then there they would stay, and all should be happy, whereas there can be no true happiness where there is so much as faciamus, any bodily work.  
Though there was a fault, yet love makes it but a diminutive error in him, and as in every Evangelists relation we may read his love, so in St. Matthew his obedience, if thou wilt let us make three Tabernacles: and well remembered of him that Christ said, I came from Heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me, Joh. vi. so though Peter thought himself in Heaven, yet he must not do his own will, but the will of the Lord: Nay, if it were not for doing our own will against his, there would be nothing but Heaven; Cesset propria voluntas, & infernus non erit, says Bernard; Give up your own will to the will of the Lord, into his hands and direction, and there would be no Hell in the world. The chief part of our wisdom is not to lean upon our own wisdom: Let his will guide all, that cannot deceive us, whose will it was to suffer death upon the Cross, because our own will had destroyed us. A Client will refer his Cause to the direction of his Counsel, a Builder the Fabric of his House to a Master of Architecture; the Lord will plead our cause against them that strive against us, the Lord will build up the decayed places of Jerusalem, and make us polished stones for his own Temple: except the Lord build the house their labour is but lost that build it; si tu faciamus, not our will, but thy will be done; if thou wilt let us make, etc. This makes for the Apostles defence, but there is some coliquintida in all things that man can do or say; for as Peter consulted with God, so he consulted also with his own fancy. But in spiritual things, says the Apostle, I consulted not with flesh and blood, Galat. i 16. Here is Peter holding God in one hand, and his own carnal imagination in another; and indeed this was not to ask, if Christ would such a thing, but to tempt him to be willing to that which was scandalous and inglorious to his Majesty, say the Apostles, Acts i Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom unto Israel. Their question may seem to be submissive, but it was not, there was venom in those fair words, for they would have him willing to establish a temporal Sovereignty in Israel. I will conclude this first part with an exact rule of St. Paul's, Be ye not unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is, Ephes. v. 17.  
So much for the Builders, faciamus, let us make; I proceed to the Fabric or Building, tria Tabernacula, three Tabernacles; either Booths compacted of arms of trees lopped off from the trunk, called attegias by the Old Latins, or pleasant Arbours of living boughs, which are writhed in arch-wise over head, and every sprig close twisted in, to fence off the weather, called arbuscula topiaria; the best Shelters to receive these great persons that the poor man could think of, whether the Mountain could afford them or no, we have no evidence to make it appear, that was never thought of when he spoke it, for he was so surprised with joy, that he had no leisure to recollect himself, but herein his zeal was very generous, he would fain build another world, and never see this again: Quem seculi hujus illecebrosa non caperent, gratia resurrectionis allexit, says St. Ambrose, though the provocations of this world could not entangle Peter, yet he was catcht with that fair sight, how God will honour us in the Resurrection: there he would build, there he would fain set his rest: to dwell in a Tabernacle made of boughs and bushes with Christ, and Moses, and Elias affected him better than to enjoy a Palace in this sinful World. Exilium in Pompeii causâ est tanquam patria, says a Roman, that a man could not miss his native Country, that endured banishment in Pompey's company; I may say in a better capacity of truth, that the three Disciples could not miss their Parents, their Children, their Friends, their Possessions, their Country, no nor the whole World beneath, if they could but reserve a Tabernacle in any secret place, wherein they might enjoy our Lord Jesus Christ. The Prophets who were preserved by Obadiah's favour, were contented to live in a Cave, where they might serve God without Idolatry; and Peter would possess a newfound World, not inhabited by evil men; alter alteri magnum theatrum sumus, a few good ones are enough to enjoy one another without a contagion of the multitude.  
Alas, when he would needs be making a place for Christ, that he could devise no better Structure than a Tabernacle. But will God indeed dwell on the earth says Solomon? Behold the Heaven, and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee; 
1 King. viij. 27.  how much less this House that I have builded. Solomon thought so meanly of the goodliest Temple that ever was built for God's honour, what a Building was here then not worthy to be named? Let us make three Tabernacles. As he was laid in a Manger when he was born, so he was never housed richly and sumptuously all the while he lived upon earth, never till Joseph of Arimathaea composed his body decently in a fair Sepulchre, which is not an excuse that we should make him vile houses now, but a provocation to make him amends on our part, for that contempt which was offered him when he lived in Judaea. As for the instance of my Text, that Peter offered him a Tabernacle made of a few sticks, it is to be born with, both because he knew not what he said, and he was able to do no better. True love is satisfied, that all will be taken in good part, which is well intended. As Jacob set up a Stone, and poured oil upon it, and called it the House of God, Gen. xxviii 18. what would you have him do that had no better at hand? but where the Land abounds with costly and sumptuous materials, can ye bestow them better than upon the Church of Christ? Do you not persuade yourself, that there the Lord hath heard you often from Heaven, and given you all manner of things that are good? and can you suffer those walls to be unadorned, where you have been prosperous? or can any heart be so hardened to suffer that Table to be unfurnished with Ornaments, at which we have often been fed with the Bread of Life, and the Cup of Benediction? I charge not this place with any such neglect, but I commend and pronounce them blessed especially, who have been liberal, that God's honour might be set out among us in the beauty of holiness; and I lament it where it is otherwise; for it is a mournful sight methinks to see any place excel the Church in preeminence and magnificence; not as if I thought the Lord did favour us for fair walls and roofs without a fair inside: but first it signifies the almightiness of God, when we honour him with the best and chiefest of all outward things: and secondly it makes our zeal shine before men, that we love our Heavenly Father better than all the wealth of the Earth; and the Lord loveth a cheerful giver.  
The best Temples that we can dedicate to God are our sanctified Souls and Bodies, and therefore St. Austin said, alluding to this Text, Qui Deo vult facere tabernacula, praeparet ei penitralia cordis, He that will make a Tabernacle for God, let him prepare a clean heart: this is well said, if we play not the hypocrites with this figurative Religion. If some men be incited to offer up the Sacrifice of Alms unto Christ, they tell you, spare them for that, and they will offer up the Sacrifice of a contrite heart. Are not these two ill divided? bid them worship, and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker, that they hold superfluous, for they will bend the knees of their heart. Are not those two ill divided? Charge the rich men of the World to repair God's decayed Churches, and make them beautiful, that draws money from them too fast, therefore they say we will build a Sanctuary to the Lord in our inward heart. Be not deceived, God cannot be mocked with these metaphorical excuses. I had rather offer with St. Peter to build a Tabernacle unadvisedly where there was no cause, than be backward to build a Tabernacle for the mighty Lord, where there was a cause. Because Moses and Elias had preached Christ unto the Disciples, they would do something again to requite it: not hear the word of God gratis as some do, as if they would give no money for it. If you will give nothing for that precious gift which cometh from above, take heed the Lord do not say to you at the last day, What good service have you done in all your life that I should give any thing to you? as some men have their customs not to give, so undoubtedly God hath his custom not to reward. As David said to Araunah, The Lord forbid I should sacrifice unto him of that which cost me nothing; so Peter would not hear a Sermon of Christ crucified, and do no good thing for it, faciamus, etc.  
These Tabernacles which he spoke of, being an allusion to the Church, I find them agree very well in this, that the Militant Church is but like a Tabernacle, portable from one place to another, to be taken down in one place, and to be set up in another, always removing. As we see the Gospel began to shine most bright at first in the Eastern Countries, and now it hath pleased God, that in the most conspicuous purity it is carried into the West: From Jerusalem it removed to Antioch, from Antioch to divers places of Achaia in Greece, further and further every Age, till now that the multitude of the Isles do praise the Lord; like a Militant Tabernacle or Pavilion pitched where God pleaseth to fight against the Devil and his Angels, and to win ground from him that would destroy the Earth, Psal. cxxviii. 3. The Wife which is spoken of there, and likened to a fruitful Vine, is an Allegory of the Church. Now the Church while it wanders upon earth, is vitis in lateribus domus, a fruitful Vine upon the walls of the House, it stands without the doors of the Palace; but when the Church shall be settled quietly in the upper Jerusalem, it shall be vitis in penetralibus domus, the Vine shall be translated into the midst of Paradise, there it shall be a City abiding for ever, and no longer a removing Tabernacle.  
Now you have heard St. Peter's zeal in the Fabric which he moved to be built; in the progress of this point you shall hear these Tabernacles of his were but wild Chimaeras, or as we say, Castles in the air: for he took Mount Thabor as it was now adorned with glory for the Heaven which he desired to enjoy; therefore to what end, without great error, could he erect a Tabernacle there, either for sacred, or for civil use? To make a Church, or an Oratory in Heaven to praise the Lord, was a most wand'ring fancy. St. John says of that Vision which he saw in his Divine rapture before the Throne of God, Templum non vidi in eâ, I saw no Temple therein, in that supernal City of God, for the Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb are the Temple of it, Revel. xxi. 22. In this world we are gathered together into the House of God, to make Prayers together, to hear Instructions, to dispense the Sacraments; but in the next life these Forms shall cease, for we shall have a most blessed Mansion in God himself as in a Divine Temple for ever. So the Prophet Jeremy foretold that in the new World there shall be one Sabbath for ever, but no Pastors to teach the Flocks, no Sheep coats to drive the Flocks unto, no Churches, no Tabernacles for Divine Service, but all things in a better estate and condition. These are his words; They shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest, saith the Lord, Jerem. xxxi. 34. But the most Expositors take the words of the Apostle in relation to a civil use, as if he would make small Sconces or Tabernacles upon the top of the Hill to shelter Christ, and Moses and Elias from the injuries of the air. Such things he had wanted himself when he was a Fisherman, and spent his time and labour near about the Sea of Tiberias; he did often miss a poor Shed to keep him from foul weather, and now he knows not how to gratify Christ and the two Prophets, but by building Tabernacles, that they might find no annoyance in the Mountain. What if God had sent a Worm to make these Bowers he talked of wither of a sudden, as the Gourd of Ionas came to nothing in a day, where was his Shelter then? if God had not made a better Heaven for man, than man it seems would make for himself, he should exchange this World for small advantage, and pass from misery to infelicity. Where God is seated in his holy places, there is neither heat nor cold, storm nor tempest, no offence or affliction, tuti sub matribus agni balatum exercent, as safe as the nursling Child is in the bosom of the Mother, in such safety and tranquillity the Saints are reposed with Christ above, and therefore it is called Abrahans Bosom. Hills are nearer to God's Thunder, said the Heathen Poets, than the bottoms of the Valleys; therefore this was no steady Anchor for a man to trust to, though Mount Thabor had been never so high: and although the plain fields are more obnoxious to the inundations of Seas and Rivers, yet in the days of Noah the waters prevailed fifteen cubits higher than the tallest Mountains. As for the glistering of Mount Thabor, perhaps the Apostles who expected Christ should take upon him an earthly Kingdom, they might swell in their heart, and thinks it carried the semblance of a Prince's Throne, why the natural pulchritude of the Earth in one flower, in a Lily, excels Solomon in all his Royalty, how much more doth the supernatural glory of the Throne of God excel it. The Son of Sirach speaks of the triumphing Majesty of Simon the Son of Onias, and among other comparisons, that he looked like a Rainbow in a cloud of dew, Ecclus 50.7. A Rainbow is mixed of fair colours, and is a comfortable sign, but it melts away presently in a cloud of dew; such a dropping imaginary thing is all the glory upon earth, a Rainbow in a cloud of dew. There is an excellent passage to this purpose in the next verse, when I come unto it. Peter would have satisfied himself with that glory which bedazled him upon earth, and while he was yet speaking there came a Cloud, and overshadowed him, and took that glory away. Some dark Cloud interposeth itself, and bedusks all worldly glory, then shall we be left in fear as he was, and that's the sting which is ever in the tail of that admiration, which thinks a slash of vain pomp is a very Heaven upon Earth.  
So far we have seen what an unnecessary thing it was to propound the making of a Tabernacle at this time, for wheresoever God's glory doth appear there is protection and safety goes with it; it was to as little purpose as if he would have built an Ark like Noah, where there was no fear of a deluge. The children of men shall be safe under the shadow of thy wings, says the Psalmist; there's Tabernacle enough for all that fear him: but Peter is excessive, and would have a plurality of defences, faciamus tria tabernacula, let us make three Tabernacles. Why, shall Moses and Elias part one from another? or shall both be disjoined from Christ: Herein St. Peter was no good Harbinger, for these must lodge together, Evangelium, Lex, & Prophetae unum habent Tabernaculum Ecclesiam Dei; the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Commandments of the Law, the Histories and Predictions of the Prophets make up one Catholic Church dispersed through all places of the World, propagated through all the Ages of the World, unus Pastor, unum Ovile, there is but one Shepherd, and one Sheepfold; and whom God hath joined into one family let not man put asunder into three Tabernacles: Non quaerere debes quam prudenter hortabatur, sed quam fervens caritate Dei, says St. Ambrose. If you examine what the Apostle said by wisdom and sage judgement, you shall find a great defect; but if charity and zeal may cover a multitude of faults, here is much to answer for him; love is ready to commit faults by too much presumption, but it is a good argument to excuse them. Peter's was an error of love, and so to be passed over with a light reprehension, but whosoever in these days shall set up three Tabernacles in the Church, one for Christ, one for Moses, and one for Elias is a Schismatik: As we have two eyes, and yet they see but one object, and two ears which hear but one sound; so the Law and the Prophets, and the Gospel are the eyes and the ears of a Christian (blessed are the eyes that see what they demonstrate, blessed are the ears that hear what they deliver, for faith cometh by hearing) yet we see but one Redeemer; there is but one Mediator between God and Man, the Man Christ Jesus. We hear but one truth, and our hearts and affections must all be of one mind; there is but one Faith, one Christ, one Baptism; there must be but one Church, and one Tabernacle: As Charles Duke of Burgundy said in a Scoff, 
Coming. p. 93.  for his part he loved the Kingdom of France so well, that where it had one King, he wished it had six; so where the Church is one entire Body, one Tabernacle and no more, Satan wisheth it were ten, that there might be strifes among us, I am of Christ, and I for Moses, and I for Elias: even as among the Corinthians, I am of Paul, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. This emulation and Schism comes of it, to make more Tabernacles than one; faciamus tria, etc.  
From the Builders and the Fabric I proceed thirdly to the Possessors; one for Thee; one for Moses, and one for Elias: little Cottages, yet Peter considered, they would be somewhat for them that had nothing before. Foxes have holes, and the Birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head, ipse faber domum non habuit, he had not an house to lodge in, though they called him the Carpenters Son. Moses was thrust into an Ark of bulrushes, Elias was turned out into the vast Wilderness; Marmoreo tumulo Licinus jacet, & Cato parvo, Pompeius' nullo. The mighty men of the World took up all the room from Christ and the Prophets; all that the Apostle could make them were little Canopies of boughs, and glad he had that for them, that they might not want an Habitation. What a narrow thing is man's wit? though our will and desires are infinite, he would confine him that is unconfined, put all the light of the Sun into a Nutshell, take up the vast waters of the Sea into a spoon, that is, comprise all the glory of Christ in a wicker Tabernacle. How shall they praise his name from one end of the world unto the other? How shall he ascend up on high with Majesty and honour? Be thou exalted O God above the heavens, let thy glory be above all the earth, Psal. lvii. 11. Christ's Kingdom is more communicable than to be thrust into a corner. If they shall say unto you, Behold he is in the desert, go not forth, behold he is in the secret Chambers believe it not, Mat. xxiv. 26. In like manner, if they shall say unto you he is in Mount Tabor, or in a Tabernacle, do not regard them; Numen ubique est, he is in heaven, and in earth, and in all deep places. Yet in this unadvised ejaculation it is true, he that will make any fabric for a sanctified end, and out of a religious respect, Faciamus tibi; Let us make it for thee O God was very right, if he had gone no further. Churches are only consecrated, and dedicated to the Almighty, our English name is proof, to go no further, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ say the Greeks, the Lords house, from thence we say Kyrk or Church by adding words of aspiration. At the erection of the Tabernacle, Exod. xl. 31. At the consecration of the Temple, 2 Kings viij. 11. It pleased God to give a manifest sign from heaven that he possessed both. And because the Lord did so solemnly show his honour in those excellent places, therefore it is fit they should be appropriated to him by us with a most solemn dedication, both to make them public for sacred offices, and that the builders may surrender their right, and make God the owner for ever, and to make it awful to every man, that they be not polluted with profane abuse. What, says St. Paul, 
1 Cor. 11.22.  have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? Where you see, even before Churches were erected, he gave an admonition Prophetically, that these two are things for several places, to eat and to drink customarily, and to pray and preach. Christ's Tabernacle indeed must be for our duty belonging to Christ, and for no other service.  
And though Peter thought not himself and his fellow Disciples worthy of a Tabernacle, (he thought perhaps they should be quartered with Christ to be his Ministers there) yet he propounds as much for Moses and Elias as he did for our Lord, one for Moses, and one for Elias. 'tis is the fond and offensive love of superstition to dishonour the Saints when they would heap immoderate honour upon them. He spoke far too much when he would exalt them to equal honour with their Maker, and yet he spoke it much to their injury when he would deprive them of the beatifical Vision, and sweet Society of Christ. For to confine them to their own Tabernacles was to make them want the joy of their eyes, which the Angels desire to behold, and to see his sweetness these two great Prophets came down from heaven. I am glad Salmeron the Jesuit fell in with me in this Point, says he, they do all fall upon this rock on which Peter did, who are so addicted to some peculiar Saint, that they will equalise him with Christ himself. This is to advance them to equality with God to make Tabernacles and Churches to them as unto God. St. Austin liked not that, 
De Civit. Dei lib. 8. c. 27.  and therefore that none might mistake he distinguisheth, Nos Martyribus nostris non templa sicut Diis, sed memorias sicut hominibus mortuis fabricamus; We do not erect To the Martyrs as unto God, but Tombs of remembrance as unto men, whose spirits live with God for ever. And in another place we allow them Monuments of honour, but not Altars of divine Service, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. Basil; Divine Worship is due to God, an honourable memory to the Martyrs. Herod the Great was at great charge about the Temple of Jerusalem, the work was good, but his end was vain glorious and popular. So men of liberal zeal, but erroneous superstition, built some Sacred Houses, and did impatronize some Saints to be the Tutelary powers of those Churches and Oratories, the work is good, but the end is corrupt; not that the sacred buildings are called by the names of Martyrs and Apostles, as this is by St. Andrew, we use those names by way of mere distinction to know one sacred place from another which perchance they imposed upon superstition. Distinction of names is for variety sake, and to take away confusion. Sometimes by one Saint, sometimes by all the Saints, sometimes known only by the name of the Founder; sometimes some famous work denominates them, as Anastasia or the Resurrection, and St. Sophia or Wisdom, anciently the two most goodly Churches in the world, and both in Constantinople. Usually they are entitled by some renowned Martyr, whose acts are worthy to be had in remembrance. Nay, sometime for mere distinction sake the buildings retain the names of fabulous Saints, as Pope Gelasius himself condemned the Legend of St. George for Apocryphal, they may add St. Christopher, and divers more. Yet the holy Oratories are no more dishonoured by those names, than the Days of the Week by the Idol Planets Gods, than the Ship which carried St. Paul by the sign of Castor and Pollux, than Daniel who was called Bellishazzar from the Idol Belli! Names of distinction are arbitrary, and inoffensive to the judicious; but Sacraries or Churches, though they carry divers names, are only to be built to God, and consecrated to his Worship, not one for Christ, etc.  
Herein as Peter knew not what he said, so he said somewhat which Expositors wonder how he should know, namely, he calls these men Moses and Elias; but how was it revealed to him? The Text intimates how they spoke to Christ, but no where that Christ spoke to them, and used their names to make them familiar and well known. And certainly he had never seen so much as their Pictures to make himself acquainted with the fashion of their countenance. The Jews did hold themselves so strictly to the Letter of the Second Commandment, that they made no Picture or Graven Image without God's especial Commandment. To resolve this doubt almost every Writer hath laboured to make his own ingenuous conjecture most probable. Says Theophylact, Moses might say, Thou art the Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the World, whose Passion I prefigured in the institution of the Paschal Lamb: And might Elias say, Thou art the Christ whom we believe shall rise again from the dead, and that thy power over death might be believed I raised up the Widow's Son to life. Another way, says Christianus Druthmarus, Elias might say, ascend on high, and lead Captivity Captive, even as I mounted up to heaven before Elisha. Then Moses might vie with him, Do thou deliver thy Saints from Hell, even as I brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt. Did both express that they two had fasted forty days, and that they alone above all others had that symbolical mark with Christ? Might not the one bring the two Tables of the Law in his hand, as if they were his Escutchion, by which he would be known: And the other perhaps came in his Chariot of fire that bore him up to heaven, that is a fourth way. So wise an Author as Tolet might have taken any of these conjectures, 
Tolet. Annot. 70.  rather than his own, forsooth, that Elias came as he is described, 2 Kings i 8. An hairy man with a girdle of leather about his Loins; and Moses came, as their vulgar Latin most ridiculously sets him forth, Cum cornutâ fancy, with Horns, for where we read his face shined according to the Hebrew, they read his face had horns. Indeed, this would well become some of their late Canonised Worthies, who do rather deserve horns to be fixed to their heads for Monsters than the irradiation of beams for glorified men. Zachary Chrysopolitanus hath a Scholastic way by himself, Nec probo, nec improbo. That Peter and the other two Apostles were partakers of some heavenly glory, when they saw the Transfiguration, and therefore had that spark of happiness to know all persons whom they saw intuitiuè, as if they had been glorified. So he discerned these to be Moses and Elias whom he had never seen before, by that gift of grace, whereby every Saint shall know all the Society of Saints by name after the Resurrection. I will not enter upon that Theme to enlarge this opinion, whether we shall know one another perfectly in the life to come. Luther very judiciously held the affirmative part, the very same night that he gave up his Spirit to the Lord. But to Zacharies opinion I give this dash, that Peter was no partaker of glorified qualities at this time, especially by way of knowledge, and the gift of discerning, For he knew not what he said.  
There are reasons to be glanced at, before I leave this Point, why Peter would impale Moses and Elias in Mount Thabor in his Tabernacles to keep his Master company. First, he thought, says one, that none were more gracious with God, to be fed miraculously with corporal sustenance, so that for their sakes they should all have food enough. Moses obtained Manna to fall from heaven about the Tents of the Israelites for forty years; at his desire he brought Quails, and opened the hard Rock so that waters flowed out. And the very Ravens, that use to devour all they can get, they did spread a Table for Elias, and brought him bread and flesh. Secondly, Fain would Peter defend his Master, that he might not be delivered up to the high Priests to be crucified. Now he bethought how near Moses was to drowning, and his life was preserved; how near to be stoned by the people, and yet protected, Num. xiv. How violent was Jezebel against Elias, and yet he escaped? These had been very fortunate in their preservation, therefore he would make Tabernacles for these to dwell with Christ. Thirdly, If Mount Thabor should happen to be environed with enemies that came to hale them to judgement, why Peter may surmise let Moses have a Tabernacle here, and he can bring Plagues upon Plagues against them that will meddle with Christ, as he did upon Pharaoh, and all his Host: Let Elias have a Tabernacle here, and he will call for fire from heaven to devour their Captains. These are the glosses of ancient Writers, but I would not confidently say it that the Apostle had all, or any of these weak policies in his head when he spoke these words. Surely he had not time to confer with John and James, no nor upon the sudden starting of fear any leisure to roll things in his own reason, much less to apply reason to Divine Faith. It was an extemporary Ejaculation, and a very infirm one, not knowing what he said.  
All the first part of my Text was zeal to Christ's glory, the next part shows it was Zeal not according to knowledge, not knowing what he said. Upon these words some have quite mistaken the fault, some have aggravated it too much, some have excused it too far, some have delivered their mind, as I conceive, with reason and moderation. The Historiographers of Magdeburg in the first place conceived the case amiss, who thought that Peter would have three Tabernacles built upon that flore in memory of the Transfiguration, whereas he would have made his Fabric, not for the remembrance of the work, that was past, but for their cohabitation for the time present and to come. In the next place Origen lays so great a crime to the Apostles charge, that he says a Diabolical Spirit seduced him to say these words to impedite his Master's Passion; for in the sixteenth Chapter of St. Matthew when he dissuaded Christ from his sufferings, Christ said unto him, Get thee behind me Satan, therefore all such seducements, as this was, must be Satanical. St. Mark knew the reason of Peter's transgression better than Origen, this is all that he says, Mar. vi. 9 He wist not what to say, for they were sore afraid. It was not the evil Spirit of darkness but the spirit of fear that misguided him. And as for the Passion of our Lord, who more ready than Satan to hasten it? Did he not put it into the heart of Judas, that he might procure the death of Christ? Did not Christ say to the Jews, You are of your father the Devil, and you would fulfil his desires, when they sought to kill him, Joh. viij. It was too much therefore in Origen to amplify an Error so far. There may be Perversus error in excusando, & perversa delectatio in accusando; A dangerous partiality in excusing a fault, and a dangerous delight in accusing. Pascasius Ratbertus doth very well to impute all to his amazement, yet he also conceives him more amazed than I can imagine, namely, that waking out of sleep, Putabat quod resurrectionis speciem solutus carne per extasin jam videret; He thought he was out of the body, and that in an Ecstatical fancy he beheld the Resurrection. I apprehend him not so much deluded.  
Bellarmine is so dim sighted when he list, that he can find nothing in all St. Peter's words to be called a sin, no not when he would have enjoyed Heaven upon Earth, and said, Master, it is good for us to be here. Licet in tali excessu mentis errate potuerit Petrus, certe peccare nullo modo potuit; Though Peter might err in this ecstasy, yet he could not sin, for he knew not what he said. Indeed Paul had been a blasphemer, and a persecuter, Yet he obtained mercy, because he did it ignorantly in unbelief, 1 Tim. i 14. Though he did those things through ignorance, yet those things were sins, for why did he obtain mercy, but because he had been a sinner? So it betokens a sin that Peter said he knew not what. Our Saviour told James and John they asked they knew not what, Mar. x. 38. Was there not a trespass for all their ignorance? They that crucified our Saviour knew not what they did, Luke xxiii. 34. Was it not a bloody sin for all their Ignorance? St. Paul says of false Teachers, they understood not what they said, nor whereof they affirmed, 1 Tim. i 7. God will pardon slips of ignorance that they shall not be judged with Hell fire, but we must not excuse them so far that they shall not be judged for sins. Therefore of all Opinions their moderation sounds to my ear most judicious, that make this error of Peter's a small sin because it proceeded from vehement love, but yet a sin because it proceeded from precipitated ignorance. Excellently Optatus against Parmenian, touching some other slips of this Apostle, Ipsius Sancti Petri beatitudo veniam tribuat, si illud commemorare videar, quod factum constat, & legitur; Let not blessed Peter think amiss, if I show him offending, where the fact is manifest, and recorded in holy Scripture. The Gloss took the right estimation of Peter's words upon this hint, that Christ gave him no answer again; it was frivolous and inordinate he spoke, and Christ gave him no reply to approve it; yet it was no impious speech, therefore he gave him no sharp rebuke to condemn it. St. Ambrose descants upon it many ways, and gives this close, Proximum indulgentiae est quod de excessu venit pli amoris; That which comes from the excess of love is pardonable, and will obtain indulgence. As Poets and Orators make men speak strangely strong lines, as some odd brained men call them, so fear, admiration, joy, rapture drew these words not well weighed from the Apostle. And though we shall give account of every idle word, yet the word of God hath taught us that not only where sins are of small growth, but even where sin abounds, grace will abound much more, through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.   

THE six SERMON UPON The Transfiguration.  LUKE ix. 34. 
While he thus spoke there came a Cloud and overshadowed them, and they feared as they entered into the Cloud.  
UNruly passions can yield no cause why they are stirred up, but our own natural impotency, they surprise us of a sudden before we can meditate why we did admit them, and therefore are obnoxious to many questions why they should be so, but it is not easy to afford a reasonable answer. Says David, Psal. xxvii. 1. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom then shall I fear? The Lord is the strength or protector of my life, of whom then shall I be afraid. He could pose himself to ask, why he should be fearful, yet he could not be rid of fear. It is apparent in his Psalm that there were two arms of comfort to embrace him, Light and Protection, and the Gloss doth branch them thus, illuminatio spectat ad animi consilia, salus ad removenda corporis pericula, that Light is to direct the counsels of the mind, that Protection is to remove away all hurt and offence from the body. Had not Peter all this before him that David speaks of? and after the most ample manner that ever was seen upon earth? and yet he was so weak in heart, that his fear was exceeding strong. Peter might truly say the Lord was his light, for here was a Cloud to illuminate him, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a bright Cloud, says St. Matthew, it was God's Cloud above any other, and God was in the Cloud, as it is manifest in the next verse; then he might truly say the Lord was the protection of his life, for the Cloud overshadowed him, and so he was safe as a Bird under the feathers of the Almighty: but if you ask him with the Psalmist, Of whom then shall I be afraid? he is not able to reply.  
In the compass of this accident of the Transfiguration I find him thrice exceeding fearful, every time upon a new object and occasion: but you must find out this by looking narrowly into the History, as all the three Evangelists have related it. Observe St. Mark, and he implies that Moses and Elias appeared, who preached of our Saviour's Sufferings, as I have told you before, Peter and the other two Disciples heard it, and trembled at it so much that he spoke distractedly, says St. Mark, He wist not what to say, for they were sore afraid. Then St. Luke, as I have read it before you in my Text, notes that they were perplexed at another bout, when the Cloud appeared, and that Christ, and Moses, and Elias entered into the Cloud. St. Matthew reveals another thing that troubled them, how a voice from Heaven was heard, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear him. When the Disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. I have met with no Expositor, who hath observed these three distinct occasions, and eruptions of their fear, yet they are all apparent to him that will examine it. And I mark it, how every new passage of admiration in this Miracle took them with a quivering, till at the third time Christ encouraged them; therein St. Matthew hath helped us with a passage, which the others have omitted, Matth. xvii. 7. Jesus came, and touched them, and said, arise, be not afraid. Therefore piecing that addition in St. Matthew to this Text in St. Luke, which I must do to handle all occurrences in this Transfiguration faithfully, the parts will arise to these two, the Fear of the Disciples, and their Succour. In the first part I will handle the Passion itself, and the Object which stirred it up: the Passion was inwardly very great, They were afraid, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, sore afraid, says St. Matthew, and outwardly it bewrayed itself; for the same Evangelist says, they fell on their face. The Object which put them into fear in the Text is a Cloud, described by two properties, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it was a bright one, says St. Matthew, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an overshadowing one, says St. Luke. Nor did these only affright them, but the Passion Sermon also which Moses and Elias made, and the Sermon which the Father made out of the Cloud, This is my beloved Son. In the second general part their Succour hath two tastes of mercy in it, contactum, he touched them, alloquium, and said arise, be not afraid. Thus I have made this part of the story complete by an harmony of all the three Evangelists which have wrote upon it, and to these I am now ready to apply my Doctrine and Exhortation.  
The Disciples Passion is that which led us to handle all the other parts, and therefore I begin with it, They feared. As the Egyptian Priest upbraided Solon, because the Grecian Histories entreated of things but lately done, and of no antiquity, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, your Greeks are always Children: so I may say of Greeks and Egyptians, and all the dwellers upon earth, we are always Children; for our own distrustful nature, although no evil come nigh our dwelling, doth discipline us with fear, as if we were Boys that were always under correction. An hair brained fear is foolish, you will all confess, and Solomon says, that joy is madness: then between them both you may gather, that the wisest of all are not long in their wits: but as St. Paul said of the awful authority of the Magistrate, Rulers are not a terror to good workers, but to the evil, Rom. xiii. 3. So I may safely say, God is not a terror to the good Saints departed, but to the bad that remain, because our own heart is only evil continually. The very merciful works of the Lord are doubtful, every strange thing that he doth among us is terrible, every punishment a little begun by our own suspicions makes us more miserable. As the Spartans' call their Country, because of their rigid Discipline, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a tamer of men, that would pluck down saucy boldness; so God hath put the hook of fear into our nostrils, the whole world hath so many Monsters to scare us, that it is in one part as well as in another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it takes down high spirits, and dejects audacity.  
And among all the instances of Sacred Writ, which show the instability and changeableness of high content upon earth, seek for such another as my Text affords, and I think you cannot match it. What felicity can be durable in this mortal life, if this could hold no longer, to see our Saviour transfigured in glory, and Moses and Elias talking with him? even now the Disciples had a glance of celestial beatitude, their hearts entranced with that pleasant Vision; 
Brentius in Luc. homil. 88  of a sudden comes a sad Catastrophe, their joy is snatched from them, and upon the same ground where they were so much delighted they are sore afraid. 
Plut. in vit. Camil.  As the Historian says of Manlius Capitolinus, who had both triumphed in the Capitol, and been condemned in the Capitol; Eundem locum habuit & eximiae gloriae, & tristissimi exitus monumentum, the same place was both his honour and his ruin. So on the same Hill Mount Thabor, uno pede, upon the same standing, uno momento, even in the same moment, the Disciples were in a Trance of joy, and in a Trance of trouble. As when Moses was born, the Mother was glad for joy, that a man Child was born into the world, but instantly she drooped, when he was taken away to be exposed to drowning and destruction: So as soon as ever any earthly pleasure is begotten unto us, presently it is snatched a way to be drowned in tears upon some woeful occasion. Health is waited on by sickness, comfort by tribulation, mirth by fear, even as the heel of Esau was in the hand of Jacob. Even now Peter had set his rest upon this place for ever, Master it is good for us to be here; but after this qualm you hear him say so no more, now he had as lief be gone as stay; so soon shall every thing upon earth cloy us (so it hath pleased God) that nothing but Heaven may content us. Thrice happy though we feel it not, when in the midst of full satisfaction, and all the help and countenance this World can give us, some cross point comes in our way, that we may be willing to forget our own People, and our Father's House. As the Poet makes his Aeneas to be scared out of Carthage, where he was lulled in sensavity by divine menacies in a Dream, so the Lord is most gracious when he frights us out of the love of this World: as Absalon set a fire on Joabs' Corn to make him leave Jerusalem, and come and speak with him: so the Lord must send the Sword, or Famine, Fire, or Water, some destroying Element, else we shall linger and delay before we come unto him, some bright Cloud or other must stare us in the face, that we may turn our back to these vanities, and look to thee O God.  
And surely to shake out that ill expressed desire, Master it is good for us to be here, it was Christ's pleasure that Peter should be male-contented instantly upon the former motion, I say he was winnowed with this affrightment to drive away that chaff: For it was otherwise at his Baptism, when there were heavenly tokens came down upon earth, a Majestical voice did speak from the Clouds, the Holy Ghost came down like a Quarry in the shape of a Dove, yet no perturbation, for aught we read, among them that saw it: But I must tell you I do not praise them for that: there were Gods favourable Kindness and his Majesty combined together; and we must not take hold of these with the loose rains of joy only, but likewise with an awful reverence, Exultatio summae bonitati, timor Majestati debetur; we lift ourselves up with joy to feel his merciful goodness, but it becomes us to cast ourselves down with fear to see his glorious Majesty; what say we to a stranger instance than this I have named? Joh. xii. 18. Christ prays unto the Father, Father glorify thy name: the Father answers, I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it. The multitude said it thundered; a strange Thunder which should speak articulate words, and yet we do not find in that Chapter that the folk who heard it were amazed. What, are these three Disciples more whitelivered than all others, to be scared with far less than Thunder? a strange comparison indeed says Rathertus, nisi quod ibi superbia tumet, hic autem humilitas pavet: there pride stood up stiff against the Lord, here humility quaked and fell down before him: a blessing is soon forgotten which is but tacked on with joy; when fear drives a nail in, it stays the faster in the memory. Wherefore though fear doth argue sin to be in man (for none would fear, but such as are liable to punishment) yet oftentimes it is a good work wrought upon a bad ground, and is rather a Gift, than a Scourge of God. Such as it was, and a great fear it was, yet Christ did bear with it in his Disciples, he would not break a bruised reed, he would not reject them for a little infirmity; for howsoever now they did both sleep, and were afraid at his Transfiguration, yet he ventures once more, and tries them again, calling none other but these same, Peter, and James, and John, when he prayed, and fell into an agony in the Garden. Beloved, do you bear with the weak, and the Lord will strengthen you.  
Now this fear of the Apostles was not only in the perplexedness of their thoughts, or in the paleness of their face, but it cast them down to the ground; They fell on their face, Matth. xvii. 6. And here is another Moral worth the marking, The higher we reach, and know not what measure is fit for us, the sooner we catch a fall: even now Peter would have been exalted to the fellowship of Christ's glory for ever, being but a sinful mortal man, and with this aspiring thought presently he sinks to the earth, Quantò quis ampliora quaesirit, tantò magis ad inferiora collabitur, says Aquinas, none so like to tumble to the lowest place, as they that seek things too much above them, too far from their comprehension. Babel was too lofty a Building, therefore the Builders were scattered abroad, and made most contemptible, by the confusion of tongues. Adonijah besought Solomon so proud a request, that he asked his own head off. Great things are gay, but small things are securest. Beside, this very posture of theirs is a dumb Sermon, enough to teach them wit, and therefore our Saviour gave no answer to the motion, Master, it is good for us to be here; it sufficed that when they would have climbed up into glory without more trouble or alteration, they fell down flat, and measured their length upon the earth, as who should say, the Earth expects your body, the Grave requires your flesh, before you can be Resiants with your Master in glory to see his face for ever: therefore when St. John saw Christ in his Majesty, he did not forget what he had done at Mount Thabor before, but, says he, Revel. i. 17. Cecidi ante pedes, quasi mortuus; When I saw him I fell at his feet as dead. It is not this life that is capable of enjoying such excellency, death must be the passage to let us see such happiness: only this was the difference, the usual manner of burial is for the face to look up towards Heaven, as expecting at the first moment of the resurrection to see God, now the Disciples grovelled with their face upon the ground, as not being worthy to expect his glory so soon as those that are already laid in the dust.  
Now because we read of the High Priests Servants, Joh. xviii. 6. that as soon as Christ had said unto them, whom seek ye? I am He, they went backward, and fell to the ground; therefore Gregory from one instance makes a large note, Sancti in fancy cadere solent, impii retrorsum, that the good Servants of God use to fall upon their face when they are afraid, wicked men are overturned backward when they are terrified; and yet we read 1 Sam. xvii. 49. that when David's stone sunk into Goliah's forehead, he fell upon his face to the earth. Indeed the falling upon the face is a gesture of adoration in the living. Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, Gen. xvii. 3. Joshua fell on his face, and did worship, saying, What saith my Lord unto his Servant? Jos. v. 14. So Ezekiel, When I saw an appearance of the likeness of the glory of God, I fell on my face, chap. i. 28. The Samaritan fell down on his face at our Saviour's feet, Luke xvii. 16. nay the Devil when he would make himself a God put in this condition, si cadens adoraveris, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. We are so far from these gestures of reverence and humility nowadays, that you would think that Christian half mad, or to be a great Hypocrite, that would hurl himself down to the ground to pray to God, that were sordid and dusty would some people say. If you refrain Adoration to save good Apparel, I pray you wear worse clothes, and put on better affections: To stand upright and pray, to sit and pray, to lean and pray these are more for your own ease than God's honour. I have heard some say that upright men and sitters were a kind of Canters, but I never heard they were a kind of Christians. I have left myself, says God, 7000 knees that have not bowed to Baal; as if every knee would bow either to God or Baal: that man that will not kneel to God worships his own perverseness and imaginations; and though he worship neither Stock nor Stone, yet because he stoops not to God as he ought, he stoops to his own fancies, and therein is an Idolater. To knit this to the Text, I doubt not but the three Disciples did do homage and reverence to God's glory before them, and therefore Beza says upon their falling on their face fortasse proni adorarunt, it may be they did bow themselves down in adoration, yet fear was more predominant in them at this time than reverence, and Christ said arise be not afraid, putting them two together. And so far upon the Passion of fear in the Disciples, both in the inward and in the outward consideration.  
You must now expect to hear of the Object which put them into fear, and that's a Cloud, described by two proprieties, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it was a bright one says St. Matthew; and it was a Cloud of covering and protection, it overshadowed them; but that which made them sorrowful as well as fearful, was, that the Cloud appeared as if it would wrap away Christ, and Moses, and Elias, for they entered into it. After you have heard of so great a fear, will you not wonder I should begin with so small an occasion, as nubes venit, there came a Cloud? How many do we see racking in the Sky every day, which do never trouble us? Holy Athanasius made it a Proverb, that such vapours are no ways dreadful; for so he did cheer up his heart against his own persecution, nubecula est & cito transibit, it was a Cloud which would disperse away, and never hurt him. But there is nothing so devoid of harm which will not afrighten the stoutest stomach, if God direct it for a terror: A still voice beat strong upon Elias his ear; the whole Camp of the Aramites ran away when they did but think they heard a noise: the figure of a man's hand dampt King Belshazzar: a Whip of small cords shaken in our Saviour's hand made the Money-changers overturn their Tables for haste, and run out of the Temple. 2 Macch. iv. the Author of that History says, that the Lord made the Clouds in the air appear like a great Battle, and like horsemen fight to the terror of Jerusalem; it is an easy thing therefore for him that dwells above to make a little Cloud seem a terrible spectacle: And this which shook the Disciples had some extraordinary qualities in it, to strike the outward senses with amazement; it had not the conditions of a natural Meteor; for it had much more brightness than any other part of the air, it was a Cloud that rid close upon the earth, and was not exalted as they use to be into the higher parts of the air, it was framed like some beauteous Chamber to receive the Son of God in Majesty, together with Moses and Elias, it was dissolved at an instant, as soon as ever this apparition was dispatched: This was enough then to cause astonishment, that the finger of God was in this Cloud above the ordinary course of nature.  
Now there is not the least empty Cloud which the wind blows about, but the Lord appoints it for some end and service, much more you will allow there were manifold causes for the sending of this Cloud, and the judgements of the skilful conceit them to be these.  
First, the Lord did show, that He could frame a better piece of Architecture of a sudden than Peter could imagine to build: he spoke of three Tabernacles, which would be long in piecing together; God in a moment creates one Cloud to receive them all better than an hundred Tabernacles. Such a one as Moses and the Israelites had in the Wilderness to shadow them against all offence. Such things the Heathen did drive at in their Poetical Fictions: but I am sure the Lord is able to pitch a Cloud between his chosen and their enemies, that the hand of violence shall not touch them, neither shall any evil come nigh their dwelling. Trust in the Lord in the time of danger, if ever our foes should rise up against us, and say, though we are not within the fence of strong Walls and Bulwarks, yet if thou O God of Hosts will cast but a thin Cloud between us and our enemies, we shall be safe under thy wings until their tyranny be overpast.  
Secondly, a Cloud did interpose itself to qualify the Object of the Transfiguration, and to make it fit for the Disciples to behold it: the Cloud indeed was very bright, yet it was dark and opacous in respect of Christ's body which did exceed the very light of the Sun: Which St. Chysostom proves, that I may add somewhat more than I have said before to this purpose, in these words, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, his face was compared to shine as the Sun, yet says he, the Disciples bewray how it did exceed that example, for they never fell down for fear to see the light of the Sun, but they fell down to see the light of his body: Therefore this Cloud did cast itself between, as if Christ would put a Veil upon his face, that their weak sight might the better behold him. 
1 Cor. xiii. 12.  In this life we must look through a Cloud, we must expect to see him as in a Glass darkly, hereafter we shall see him face to face. Mark the infirmity of man's nature in this sinful corruptible condition, and let us learn humility; it was not enough that Peter, John, and James were not transformed in the Mount, as Christ was, 
Paraeus.  no nor as Moses and Elias were, our vile flesh is not receptive of such celestial excellency, but to abase them and us further, a shady Cloud opposed itself before their eyes, because we are not fit, nor worthy to behold such pure happiness in these days of vanity: Such knowledge is too excellent for me, says David, I cannot attain unto it.  
Thirdly, this Cloud was set up for a Landmark to limit curiosity, and to drive men off from approaching too near to pry into the Divine secrets: where God sets up a Cloud it is a manifest sign that those are our bounds, and we must not break them. As when the Lord came down upon Mount Sinah it was full of smoke and vapour, that his Majesty might be concealed in those thick mists, and none of the people, no not so much as a Beast durst come nearer under pain of death. What a becoming thing it is to look no further into God's secrets, than he hath given us eyes to see; and when there is a mystery which the wisest God hath given no charge to search into it to say, I see a Cloud between me and this secret, and I must go no further. The Devil himself doth not envy us knowledge, but he doth envy us obedience. The ancient Apostolical Creed consists of twelve Articles to be believed, as they are commonly divided; Pope Pius the fourth made them twelve four and twenty, such as they are; and if we want more mysteries of faith and knowledge to work upon, I doubt not but Satan would allow us a thousand: But as the Romanists, who have twelve Articles of Creed more than we, yet have one Commandment less (for the second is quite left out of their Portresses and Breviaries, no nor the least mention of it made in the Expositions of the great Schoolman Aquinas) so the restless wit of man runs presumptuously upon all uncouth paths of knowledge, which he should not tread: but he keeps off from the Law, and Good Works, as if there were a Cloud, say I, between them, nay as if there were a Lion in the way: and so there is, but it is that Lion which goes about night and day seeking whom he may devour. But as our Proverb is of speculative men, that dare inquire into any thing, though it be never so much above their capacity, that they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, sore aloft in the air, and talk in the clouds; so the Apostle intimates that they are not wise unto sobriety, and being drunk with curious knowledge, as the Jews very falsely said the Apostles were with new wine, they must needs stumble and fall.  
Fourthly, and I am sure this reason searcheth the true cause of the Cloud as near as any. God the Father in the Old Testament was wont to utter his voice out of the thick clouds of the air, and so he continues his holy will in the Gospel, and therefore prepared this Cloud to preach from thence the words which follow, This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear him. It was thus when he spoke unto Moses himself, Exod. xxiv. 16. the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai, and the Cloud covered it six days, and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the Cloud. Some more veneration certainly redounds to the Divine Majesty, by drawing a Veil before him, that his glory may be kept secret. The Mercy-seat from whence God promised the Children of Israel to tell them all things whatsoever they should do, it was covered with the wings of the Cherubins, that every rash eye might not behold it: But this was not all, that a shadowed darkness should beget veneration, there was another reason, that men might see no manner of shape or resemblance, to make them figure the Lord in any form, and commit Idolatry. 
Tractat 35. tom. 6.  I will take Salmeron the Jesuit at his word in this Notation, Ne si aliqua effigies videretur, Deus pingeretur, a Cloud did invelop the glory of the Father whensoever he spoke, that men might not say they saw his likeness, and therefore paint, or carve an image like unto him. And since the Lord continues to speak out of a Cloud, as well in the New Testament, as in the Old, surely his purpose continues the same to bridle our inclinations to Idolatry. O that men knew what this Cloud meant, and they would never be so forward to make the Images of God; and they that will not learn that wholesome lesson from the Pillar of Cloud, shall be consumed by the Pillar of Fire. 
Rob. Steph.   
Let us come from the substance of it to the qualities; and certainly St. Matthew hath left us matter to work upon, that he says it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a bright Cloud: it seems it looked like that part of Heaven which we see in a fair night, and is called via lactea, the Milky way, which is the concurrence of the light of many small Stars, as if it were a Lane made or paved with dimpling Stars. Such a Cloud must needs be more delectable than the clearest Summer day, which had no thickness in the air, but were all serenity: And such it must be in a great measure in Aquinas' interpretation; for when Peter talked of Tabernacles, close shady Arbours to keep out the light of the Sun, he was thus confuted says Aquinas, that light did rather become the Saints, than shady darkness, Claritas mundi innovati erit sanctorum tabernaculum, when there shall be a new Heaven, and a new Earth bedecked with infinite light, that's the Tabernacle of the Blessed which shall abide for ever. But the chief reason was to fulfil that promise, which David knew should be performed, the Lord shall make my darkness to be light; 
Psal. 18.28.  here was the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the World, Jesus Christ, it is He that came to bring a Lantern to our feet, and a Light unto our paths, that we should not stumble and fall. In the Old Testament the Clouds where God appeared were densissima & tenebrosae, thick and dark Clouds, Exod. nineteen. 16. vapours and pillars of smoke; in the New Covenant the darkness is dispersed, and the Cloud remains white, and of a pure lustre: For the first Testament is full of Ceremonies and Shadows of things to come; the Covenant of Faith in the Gospel exhibits the manifest and open truth: says Paschasius Ratbertus, it was neither a fiery Cloud, nor a dark Cloud, but a brightsom, quia non in igne terroris nunc venit, non in caligine caecitatis, sed in lumine veritatis; the terror of fire is overpast, the mistiness of Clouds is cleared, truth comes forth like the morning, and is ascended to the height like the Sun at noon day. Nay as the things to be believed are clear, so there are no mists and fogginess in their affections, where the spirit of grace will abide, Non calligat affectibus hominum, sed revelat occulta, says St. Ambrose; Our depraved imaginations shall not make the truth a lie, but God shall bring to light the hidden things before the eyes of all men.  
What's the whole Gospel indeed but nubes lucida; a very Cloud in itself, but made lightsome and perspicuous by the gift of interpretation. For although the Veil of the Law is removed away, yet even among the Evangelical Writers, there are says St. Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, certain things hard to be understood, 
2 Pet. 3.16.  the Incarnation of our Lord, the Resurrection of the Dead, the ineffable mystery of the Holy Trinity; still we are in nubibus, these are thick Clouds, and it is impossible for the natural man with the dim eye of nature to see through them; without doubt great is the mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh: Faith is a very mysterious thing, but that the cloud is illuminated by the revelation of the Holy Spirit; and as he that sees through the Water, or through a Cloud; suppose an Oar through the Water, or the Sun through a Cloud, will rather trust to his judgement, than to his outward sense, which would much deceive him; so because we do all see the secrets of God through a thick Cloud, let us rather trust to our faith, than to our reason, there are many strong delusions incident to reason, because it looks through the clouds of sin and infirmity. And Beloved, as for the Priests that should keep the Key of knowledge, what is their Office and Calling but to make Clouds appear bright? And therefore Christ said of his Apostles, Vos estis lux mundi; Ye are the light of the world. Though now adays it is the fashion of many to make that which was lightsome before appear as dusky as a Cloud. Such as especially about God's unsearchable decrees tangle knots, and ravel Divinity, that you shall find no end: And after much is spoken or written you may say, Incertior sum multó quam dudum, I was in a Cloud before that was dark, now I am in a smoke that puts out my eyes. All the light which some voluminous Compilers afford, which would teach men Gods secret purpose in their Election, and the way of their own heart in their Conversion, both which are inscrutable; it is like a Candle in a Thiefs Lantern, perhaps they see a little themselves, but I am sure no body else shall be the better for their light. Finally, to end this Point, God, who can colour a thick Cloud with whiteness, and make it transparent, is able to lay the dark conveyances of our hypocrisy conspicuous and naked before him: Laban could not find his Idols because Rachel had hid them in her Tent, but God can discover those sins which are our greatest Idols though we have set them up in the inmost corner of our heart. If the Spirit of Elisha went along with Gehazi, when Gehazi ran after Naaman to take a Bribe, than the Lord that gave that Spirit to Elisha traceth along all the Compacts of Simony, all the fine conveyances of Bribery, all manner of Corruption though it be dark as midnight. The fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is, 1 Cor. three 13. When it once catcheth fire it will be light enough for being secret any more. The sootiest Coal when it flames is a very visible object, and when once Christ brings our works to the great Conflagration of the last day, than they shall no more lie hid, but be revealed both to our shame, and to our condemnation.  
The next thing of observation in this cloud was, that it overshadowed them. So they saw a diminishment of that light which was in Christ's body transfigured by little and little, and it somewhat took off the amazement of the Apostles by abating the splendour which troubled them by little and little: but of that enough before. All that have taken pains to expound this miracle do generally accord herein, Obumbratio Dei est symbolum divinae protectionis; Where God doth cover any thing with a miraculous shadow, it promiseth that the Divine Protection is round about it. Leonidas the Grecian was told that his enemies came marching in such full Troops against him, that their Darts when they threw them up would cover the light of the Sun: Leonidas puts it off with this stout courage, Tum in umbrâ pugnabimus; then will we fight in the shade. A courageous word, and made very fit for a Christians mouth. Believe in the Lord, and we are all under his custody and defence; beseech him to stretch his wings upon us, and the Holy Ghost will overshadow us, In umbrâ pugnabimus, to that shadow we betake ourselves to shun the fire of anger, and the heat of concupiscence; under that shadow will we fight against our Ghostly enemies. We have two Regenerations, or new births, a spiritual, an eternal. The spiritual Regeneration which begets us again to life, when by nature we were dead in sin, is Baptism. At that Sacrament the Holy Ghost came in the shape of a Dove to resemble innocency: The eternal Regeneration is the Resurrection of the body, and I have often told you, that the Transfiguration is a model of a body risen from the dead, and at that mysterious work the Holy Ghost came in a cloud that overshadowed them, to signify protection and safeguard in eternal security.  
Beloved, the protection of the holy Spirit consists not in Walls and Bulwarks, but in a shadow, in a refrigerium that comforts the heart, and of all protections it is the strongest, and the surest. I do not say it is a resisting defence that we shall not be hurt, that we shall not be spoilt, that we shall not be killed, then let Peter have stayed where he was still, and kept out of harms way for ever; but the shadow of the Holy Ghost is an Antidote against the fury of the world, it possesseth a stout Christian Champion with patience that he cares not to be hurt. And what can trouble him who is strengthened in the inward man that he is above the malice of the world? He that can overcome his own weakness is a great deal too hard for his enemy's strength. Gather us under thy grace O Lord, as the Hen doth gather her Chickens under her wings, and though heaven and earth should knock together our shadow would save us from destruction. Fond fear, the furthest from reason of all our passions, Why did not the Disciples know their own strength and assurance when this cloud did overshadow them? Did not the Lord declare that he took them into his protection? And yet they were afraid. But we are all so guilty now we deserve the effects of wrath that we distrust God to be angry when he takes upon him to save us. Like a man that chooseth a runagate Arabian to convoy him in the Deserts, wore afraid of his convoy than of his enemies. But we do ever deal with our gracious Father as if he were persona malae fidei, one that broke truce, and to be suspected. We are jealous of his love, jealous of his providence, jealous of his protection. The Proverb says, That a friend wrongfully suspected turns an enemy. And if we will not believe that God will be our Saviour, we shall know he will be our Destroyer. Be not afraid as his Disciples were when his merciful cloud did overshadow them.  
I must suppose, and I wish I may not be deceived, that you have not forgot how I entreated at large that Moses and Elias preached at large upon our Saviour's decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem, that put the Disciples which heard it into a passion, and no more of that again for brevity sake. Another wave of fear came upon the neck of that in this Miracle, when the Lord with his own voice spoke in honour of his Son from heaven. You must expect to hear of that upon the handling of the next Verse, though after some pause of time perhaps, when God shall give a fitting opportunity; but that which occasioned them to fear in my Text was, that all that good company whose presence delighted them so much was entering into the cloud, and they were afraid they should part one from another. Our last English Translation, which I confess is a very accurate one, and I seldom disagree with it, yet in this place it is able to confound the Reader; thus we have the words, They feared as they entered into the cloud. Who would not think this were the meaning, that they feared as themselves entered into the cloud. Yet it is not so; for the Greek hath cleared it by using two several Pronouns in this verse the cloud, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 overshadowed them, the Apostles, Peter, John, and James, but they feared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is plainly spoken of others, not of themselves, and we might thus have translated it to make all clear, They feared when those entered into the cloud. Euthymius refers those to be only Moses, and Elias, 
Toletus.  the common Exposition is that Christ also was one of those; and when Peter and the other two saw their Master and the two Prophets enter into the clouds, and themselves left apart they were afraid, perhaps, they should be quite separated from Christ, and those glorified Saints. I told you before how loath they were to part with Moses, and Elias, but it went a thousand times more against their mind to part with Christ.  
A Cloud was a very suspicious thing that it was prepared to take him away for ever, especially if the Cloud were advanced above the ground, above the top of the Mountain, as Clouds usually are, then if Christ had entered into it, those who were present would surmise, he is going up on high for ever. Moses his body was taken away, God knows how, and till this day no man knows what became of it. Elias went away in a whirlwind, many sought for him, but he was not to be found: And why might not the Disciples, being in a great fear, have this Cloud in a jealousy that it came to take away their Lord? There is a certain Commentator of eight hundred years' antiquity, by name Ratbertus Paschasius, who says, that although this Cloud did not take him up to heaven now, yet it was the very same cloud which took him quite away from his Apostles upon the Ascension day, Acts i. Non dubito quin ipsa est illa nubes quae suscepit eum ab oculis omnium Apostolorum. The man is very confident of that opinion, wheresoever he had it? This he might say for certain, Christ did ascend in a Cloud, and we all shall ascend in the Clouds at the last day, 1 Thes. iv. 17. We which are alive shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Once St. Peter was so weak in faith that upon a Miracle of a great draught of Fish he cried out. Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man. Now he was grown so strong in love, that nothing was more bitter to him than departing. In a while after this accident of the Transfiguration Christ prepared the Twelve with many reasons and consolations that he must go away, for if he went not away the Comforter would not come, but when he did go away he would send them the Comforter, even the Spirit of truth. Upon these terms it was fit they should be glad to have him ascend unto his Father, but having not as yet bequeathed any such promise of the Comforter, it made them aghast to think he should enter into a Cloud, and be no more seen. Beloved, if God take not away the influence of his Holy Spirit from us, we know he is always at our right hand, though in his humane body he sitteth at the right hand of God. Live justly, and chastely, and soberly as if the Son of God were always before your face, and though he be entered into the Clouds, though he be entered into Heaven your Conscience shall be comforted.  
I must make an end of the first general part of the Text because of the time, and I have put myself into a narrow straight to speak of the second, the succour which Christ did administer to his three Disciples to quit them out of fear, which S. Matthew hath remembered, he touched them, and said, Arise, be not afraid. Though he seemed before to be going far off, and as it were quite forsake them, yet now he draws so near as to touch them with his hand. Perhaps no more was done by Christ, than the bare Letter of my Text acknowledged, he did but lay the ends of his fingers upon them; and if he pleased there was as much virtue in his finger's ends to quicken the Spirit of these men that sunk down with fear as there was in all Elias when he stretched his whole body upon the Child to bring it to life again. The Angel Gabriel did but touch Daniel, when he was fallen upon the ground, and set him upon his feet again, Dan. viij. 18. But behold a greater than Gabriel, whose touch is more comfortable, and more significative, Eâ manu recreantur ad fidem, (I think it is St. Hieroms saying) quâ creati erant ad vitam; Those hands which made them and fashioned them to receive natural life, the same hand did work a supernatural effect upon them, and did raise them up to a boldness and assurance of a good hope in Christ. Yet I will not say but that which is here called a touch may import the giving of his whole hand to assist them, Postquam altos tetigit fluctus, says the Poet, when he meant that the Ship did sail upon the Sea. Therefore to touch here may be no less than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Manum supponere, to stay with the hand and arm, which we use to do to a man that is ready to sound and sink, The Lord upholds all such as fall, and lifteth up all those that be down, Psal. cxlv. 14. But David explains himself in another place, that all sorts of men promiscuously good and bad do not attain this favour, he restrains that universal Proposition, Psal. xxxvi. 24. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. It is said of the evil Angel, I saw Satan fall like lightning, Luke x. 18. The Lightning is darted out of the Clouds, and never ascends again, but is lost in vapour; so are all those that imagine wickedly, and whose heart is not steadfast in the lord Nescit stare superbia, & si ceciderit non novit resurgere, says St. Ambrose. Pride will catch a fall, and God will leave it to shame and confusion, never to recover again. But a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again, Pro. xxiv. 16. As the young birds fall out of the Nest sometimes, but the old one takes them up, and carries them where they shall be safe: So trust in the Lord and you shall not be cast down, but his hand will be ready to catch you that you shall not be bruised. All parts of man's body, which are made for defence, are attributed unto him for our preservation, from the arm to the hand, from the hand to the finger, from the finger to the least touch. Against great oppressions God opposeth that his arm is stretched out: When he will fashion out deliverance with wonderful salvation, as if a workman wrought it curiously with a Tool, than the Prophets speak of the hand of God; when he doth assist us suddenly, and with great facility before we could think of help, that is said to be done per contactum, by a touch and away, as in this case, He touched them, and said, arise be not afraid.  
These are his words, who when the earth hath been feared with Winter, makes all things to flourish again when he reneweth the year with his goodness, so when the heart of man is frozen with fear, by his word he makes it spring with joy. His Countenance was fair and lightsome, his tongue as comfortable as his face. As St. Ambrose says of the Writings of St. Paul, Quae Epistola Pauli non melle dulcior, lacte candidior? Every Epistle which he wrote was sweeter than honey, whiter than milk: So the beauty of Christ Transfigured was whiter than milk, and his words were sweeter than the honey comb. He can look frowningly, and make his Foes fall down before him; he can speak in Thunder, and make the earth to quake; the very voice which came from heaven in this next verse did confuse all that heard it, This is my beloved Son, hear him. Vt conspectus & vox Dei nos dejicit, ita tactus & vox Christi erigit, says St. Hierom; The Lord hath a voice to cast us down, and a voice to raise us up again. Especially, Consolation shall succeed fear, and that instantly, when God did bring it upon us: He never lead his Chosen into trouble for his sake, but he brought them off again with comfort. Christ had taken Peter, and James, and John into Mount Thabor, whatsoever they suffered there, it was by his conduct, and for his sake; it was the brightness of his glory, the lustre of his clouds, the voice which came from Heaven to magnify him that made them afraid, in his behalf they suffer, and therefore they are sure to be raised up. His mercy doth so far engage him to relieve all those who find any oppressure for his cause, that a little trouble shall soon end in a great deal of joy, a little amazement shall soon be blown over with a great deal of satisfaction, a little fear shall soon be rid away with a great deal of loving kindness. For when the Disciples were dejected with the awfulness of his Majesty, presently he touched them, and said, arise, be not afraid.   

THE SEVENTH SERMON UPON The Transfiguration.  LUKE ix. 35, 36. 
And there came a voice out of the Cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, hear him.  
And when the voice was past Jesus was found alone. And they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen.  
IN divers manners God spoke in the old time to our Fathers by the Prophets, Heb. i 1. and in as divers manners he hath spoken to us in the New Covenant by the Evangelists. Variety is delectable, when it doth not jar, but make up unity. I have gone along in this story of the Transfiguration upon the Text of St. Luke, but by the way I made advantage to insert every passage out of St. Matthew, and St. Mark, which is remembered in them over and above St. Luke's Relation; nor will I wrong the Subject which I have handled so much, to fail in that diligence at this time, because it is the last act in which I shall dispatch my Meditations upon this Miracle: Wherefore when I have inlaid the Story with those particulars which occur in all the holy Authors, it will be perfect thus. I gave you account upon the last occasion, what the Eternal Father uttered from above concerning his Eternal Son: the glory which he gives his Son riseth up in two tops, namely the honour which He finds with the Father, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, and that obedience which all the world must yield him, hear Him. Now as soon as this voice had ceased to speak, all the bravery of his Transfiguration vanished, and was seen no more; so says my Text, when the voice was past Jesus was found alone: hereupon the three Disciples wondered what was become of Moses and Elias, and the fair Cloud that overshadowed them, S. Matthew says they lifted up their eyes, and saw no man save Jesus only; nor did they only look up to Heaven for what they miss, St. Mark says, they looked round about, and saw no man any more save Jesus only with themselves. Now touching the consequent of all, mark what followed, and all's done: my Text says, they told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen; St. Matthew supplies why they told of nothing, and how long they concealed the matter. As they came down from the Mountain, Jesus charged them saying, tell the vision to no man till the Son of man be risen again from the dead. St. Matthew says the Disciples were enjoined secrecy, but he omits that they obeyed; St. Luke says they kept secrecy, but he omits that they were enjoined, therefore St. Mark hath compacted both into his Story thus. As they came down from the Mountain he charged them they should tell no man what things they had seen till the Son of man were risen from the dead; and they kept that saying with themselves.  
Having thus laid all the Narration close together, I do not strictly hold me to the narrow compass of my Text, but I will divide that which remains to be spoken of this Miracle, in the full amplitude, as I find it in all the Evangelists. And I will confine my discourse and your memory to be helped by four Particulars. First the Father did commit all Power and Authority to the Son, in this word, Hear him. Secondly, that the Church might the better admit his sole Authority, and none other, all other persons of excellency vanished, and Christ was left alone, the Disciples looked up, and looked about, but there was none left with them, save Jesus only. Thirdly, Christ did put his Authority in execution, as they came down from the Mountain, he charged them they should tell no man the things which they had seen, till himself was risen from the dead. Fourthly, the Disciples did as he commanded them; they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen. Of these to God's glory, and with your patience.  
Being now to enter upon the Exhortation to hear, I hope all my Auditors will be attentive. The Ear is that Omer wherein we must receive the Manna which comes down from Heaven, and the Heart is as the Ark of the Lord wherein we must lay it up. The Ear is the Tunnel through which the liquor, or new wine is poured, the Heart is the new Bottle that receives and keeps. Offer yourself pliantly and diligently to take in the words of wholesome doctrine at the brim of the Ear, and God will shake them down lower and lower, till they come into the Heart. All things in this World beneath are under the conditions of vanity and corruption, and therefore the Eye hath nothing to see which is worth the seeing; but the Word of God is pure and undefiled, and therefore the Ear hath somewhat to hear which is worth the hearing. Our Saviour never provoked the Eye to circumspection, with he that hath eyes to see let him see, but he called upon the Ear for attention very often in the Gospel, He that hath ears to hear let him hear. By extraordinary dispensation the Lord hath converted some by inward motion, before they were appealed to God's service by outward calling: and his Spirit spoke to their inward Heart, before they heard the sound of faith preached to the outward Ear. For we know not how the Wisemen of the East came to know, that the Star which went before them belonged to him that was born King of the Jews, but by a Divine inspiration, and so we must leave that strange work to the secret power of God that called them, for we read no more of them after that one place, how they lived or died in the true Religion of the Son of God. God did suggest to old Simeon that the Babe which came into the Temple with his Mother was the Christ. John Baptist sprang in his Mother's womb at the Salutation: In like manner Cornelius found favour before God by an instinct from above, which spoke to his inward conscience, before he was made a Scholar to hear the Church teach and instruct him: yet the love of him that called him to be an elect Saint stayed not there, but commended him for his Soul's instruction to be Peter's Disciple; Send to Joppa for one Simon, whose surname is Peter, he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. The ordinary means of salvation is to lend an ear to them who bring the glad tidings of peace, for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, Rom. x. 17.  
The very Heathen could say, that the most barbarous Nations would be civilised and brought to good nurture, if they would but hear Philosophy taught among them, Nemo adeo ferus est qui non mitescere posset, si modo culturae patientem accommodet aurem: but far better effects must needs follow, where Christianity is publicly taught, and well observed in every man's private attention. There are three sorts of them whose ear is shut, when the Lord knocketh at the door to have them open. First, the Ignorant that doth not listen when he calls; I fear there are too many so ungrounded in the first rudiments of Faith, so unacquainted with the Text of Holy Screpture, that they conceive as little of that which is taught, as if we preached in an unknown Language, whose illiterate dulness makes plain English as unfruitful as Latin Popery. These I may liken to David's description of Idols, They have ears and hear not, noses but they smell not; they do not apprehend, nor smell the sweet savour of life in the Word of life, therefore they set like Images in the Congregation, they have ears and hear not. Secondly, there is the wilful and perverse, that will not hear what is taught, if it rub up his conscience, and offend him; this is like David's deaf adder, that stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to the voice of charmers charming never so wisely, Psal. lviii. 5. such were the Jews that could not endure to hear of the eternal glory of Christ, as soon as ever Stephen had said, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God, they cried with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him, Acts seven. 27. God did open heaven unto him, and they shut their ears against him. And well they deserved, says Nyssen, to be left to such obdurateness, they deserved not to receive such heavenly harmony into their ears, as the sinful Samaritans shut their Gates against our Saviour, for they deserved not to entertain him. There is a third Auditor, whom I may call the distracted man, and cannot listen when God calls; so many fancies and affairs buzz in his brains when he comes into this sacred Assembly, that he is presens' absens, as little here as if he were quite away. When there is such a noise within, we must needs lose our Errand when we knock at the ear without. I called this the distracted Auditor, because he is like that man in the Gospel possessed with an unclean Spirit, that was both deaf and dumb; and he that is deaf to hear, I conclude he will be dumb to pray. Out of this it is easy to deduce, ignorance must learn to understand the truth, obstinacy must take no offence at the truth: The busy imagination must leave all cares and fancies at home, and come to Church to mind the truth, and then my Text will take place, and prevail upon you, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear him.  
I am loath to find fault with them that will but seem to be diligent in these most negligent times. Yet that affectation which some have not only to spend, but even to waste their time in hearing, calls to mind the difference which Isocrates put between his two Scholars Ephorus, and Theopompus, the one by his good will would never take his Book in his hand, the other by his good will would never lay it out of his hand; the one (said their Master) had need of a Spur, and the other of a Bridle. Let me not be interpreted as if in this place, in the sight of God, I durst blame them that love to hear, for blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness; but where Religion is well planted, and we rather want obedience than knowledge, I would not have well-meaning people make Preaching an every days Tale (for too much familiarity breeds contempt) but, excepting some special occasions, to make it Sundays Religion. A stomach overcharged is more prone to crudities than good digestion. A seasonable rain enricheth the Earth with store, but when showers come too fast one after another, the fruits of the field are spoilt with must and rottenness. And I would have this long-eared Age consider, that six days practice in the Week are few enough to make use of one days instruction. The Horseleech sucks full, and then drops off, and is good for nothing, take heed of that. Especially take heed you be not puffed up in your mind, that the number of Sermons which you hear shall be imputed to you for righteousness: For as the Superstitious count their Prayers upon their Beads, so some count their Religion by the multitude of godly exercises. As the woman with the bloody issue said within herself, If I can but touch the hem of his garment I shall be healed: So some seduced weak ones, If we do but hear, and hear often we shall be saved. You deceive yourselves, for still I inculcate, it is not audire, but obaudire, not the bare hearing, but the fruit which comes by hearing that is acceptable to him who gives the reward. This same simplex auditus, to afford God the bare courtesy to hear him, Turks and Pagans may do that, and yet never believe. To go further, this same simplex credulitas, to hear all, and to trust God so far, that all which he says is true, sinners and reprobates may do that, and yet never amend. But they that are obedient and dutiful take the charge right, who are not only hearers, but doers of the Word of God. This is that hearing which our Saviour puts into one verse both in the right and the wrong use, Jo. viij. 47. He that is of God heareth God's words; ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.  
And as hearing is no virtue unless we obey, so obedience and hearing are not matched right together unless we intent them, and apply them unto Christ, the voice from heaven said, Hear him. When God the Father had spoken from above, This is my beloved Son, and when he had said it twice for the stronger confirmation, once at the solemnity of Baptism, another time at this miracle of the Transfiguration, who would have thought any more needed to be added? It is much that we should put him to it to say this moreover, Hear him. What strange men are we that we should be taught to hear him, when we know he is the Son of God, in whom alone the Father is well pleased? But the beginning of this Point shall be to show, that this administers Consolation, and remous away some sadness which might have grown upon the Disciples. Moses and Elias did appear upon Mount Thabor before they were looked for, and were gone in a trice before their departure could be suspected, like Cato that came into the Theatre at one door, and went out at another; Ideo tantum intrarunt ut exirent. Surely the Disciples thought if these would have stayed they could have hung at their lips, and heard the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven from their mouth. No, says the voice, let them go, here is one that is the chief Master in Israel, far above Moses and Elias, hear him. Moses will stand dumb while he speaks, and this is Moses his own Doctrine concerning Christ, A Prophet will the Lord your God raise up unto you like unto me, hear him, Deut. xviii. Moses confesseth of himself, O Lord I am not eloquent, I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue, therefore hear not him, Exod. iv. 10. Elias is rigid and severe, and will call down fire from heaven, hear not him. Peter knew not what he said in this very story. David said it in his haste, but it is very true upon deliberation all men are liars. Lying is not all that is naught in the mouth of man, filthiness and blasphemies issue from some uncircumcised lips, no ways fit to be heard, as Eliakim, the servant of Hezekiah, 
2 Kings 18.26.  besought that odious tongued Rabshekah to speak in such a language as few or none might understand him. The talk of him that sweareth much maketh the hair stand upright: and their brawls make one stop his ears, Ecclus. xxvii. 14. In a word, men may bewitch us with their fair words not to obey the truth, but we are sure how all that Christ speaketh is just and righteous, therefore let men vanish away, the truth of the Lord abideth for ever, hear him. Again, the Disciples might be confused, not only for the departure of Moses and Elias, but because the form and fashion of Christ did return to his wont humility, the fashion of his countenance did no more look like the Sun, neither was his raiment white and glistering; what amends can be made for this loss? But that God declares, our happiness consists not in seeing, but in hearing. His Person must ascend unto the Father, and his glory dwell there, but his Word abideth for ever; if we keep his sayings we are Christ's. and Christ is one with us, hear him.  
Be it the abrogation of Moses Law, be it the contempt of the world, the denying of ourselves, the sufferance of the Cross, the losing of our life, all is one; his roughest Precepts are to be obeyed, hear him indefinitely, without restriction or exception. As the Blessed Virgin his Mother said unto the Servants at Cana in Galilee, Whatsoever he saith unto you do it, Joh. two. 5. Be the Commandment great or small it claims obedience, whosoever breaketh one of the least Commandments, and doth not repent him, shall be counted the least in the Kingdom of heaven. Some man, I know, hath framed this cavillation already in his own heart, if Jesus Christ were now upon the earth, as sometimes he was in the Land of Jury, who would not travel over Sea and Land to hear him? This Precept should be kept with all alacrity. Indeed the words which dropped from his own lips were most winning and pathetical Therefore this voice might justly challenge the Jews to give him fair audience, and hear him speak, and they could not refuse him. If Tertullian presumed in his Apologetic to the Emperor, that the Christian cause in his days had never been cried down if it might have been heard speak in the trial of judgement, much more must it hold in the person of Christ himself. Nolentes audire quod auditum damnare non possunt; The Judges would not hear our Plea, says Tertullian, for had they heard us with patience they knew they could not cast us, so the gracious words which fell from our Saviour made those Officers relent at least, if not repent, that were sent to betray him. Never man spoke like this man, Joh. seven. 46. They broke out into that passion before the Pharisees. They had heard but little from Christ, says St. Chysostome, yet enough to turn their hearts from that purpose which they were sent to execute. Cum mens fuerit incorrupta non longis sermonibus opus est. Few words will prevail where the mind brings no corrupt passions to hold off the truth. This is to show that the Oracles which the Son of God spoke from his own mouth were most moving and gracious, that tongue was able to charm the very Devils to obey him. Why, Beloved, we do hear him speak continually in the Church, as verily as if he were now among us, and preached daily, as sometimes he did in the Temple at Jerusalem. So St. Paul commends the Thessalonians that his Doctrine took with them, as if they had heard Christ himself, Ye received it not as the word of man, but, as it is in truth, 
1 Thes. 2.13.  the Word of God. For whatsoever we believe, if you ask after the formal cause of faith, the answer is, neither because the Apostles writ it, or the Church delivered it, or such, to whom God hath committed the dispensation of the Word, do preach it, but because God reveals it, the formal cause of all faith is divine revelation, therefore hear Christ speaking among you to this day, not by the instrument of his own tongue, but by the revelation of his Spirit. I say, the formal cause of faith is divine revelation, but the Church is the mouth that utters it. And therefore because the Church is the Pipe which conveys those sacred mysteries which Christ reveals, our Lords own sentence was, If he will not hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Ethnic. 
Mat. 23.2.  The meaning is, while the Church directs you in a right line. The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses Chair, all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, observe and do. You hear what awful submission is due to them who are sent from God to teach you. Perhaps you will demur upon those words of our Saviour. For in that same Chap. Mat. xxiii. 16. Christ calls the Pharisees blind guides, reproves their interpretation of Scripture for saying, If a man swore by the Temple it was nothing, if he swore by the Gold of the Temple he was a debtor. Generally he gave his Apostles a caveat, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, not meaning their Bread, but their false Traditions. But take our Saviour's exhortation in a right construction, and thus it is, all that the Scribes and Pharisees recite out of Moses and the Law, observe and do. They are the mouth of God by their place and calling. When they speak the truth, all is one whether you hear them, or Christ, or God speak from heaven, it is the same Gospel, and all have but one intendment. 
Mat. 10.40.  He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that heareth me heareth him that sent me; you know who spoke it. This voice did not purpose the present Age should hear Christ only, but that the future Ages should hear his Priests, when they speak like Shepherds, and not like Wolves. That is the just Latitude of this Precept, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear him.  
The first part of the Text would require much more to be spoken, but here must be the end of that, because much more remains behind: Therefore in the second Point, that the Church might the better admit Christ's sole Authority, to hear him, and no other; all other persons of excellency vanished, and he was left alone. The Disciples looked up, says St. Matthew; and looked about, says St. Mark, and when the voice was past Jesus was found alone. Whether they that come back from the dead depart from us again, as did Moses and Elias in this place, or whether our living Friends, whom we tender dearly, go from hence for ever unto the dead, let this comfort remain with you, that the best Friend of all sticks by you, Christ is with you, and stays behind. And much better it is to find him alone than all the world beside without him. Vnus Iesus satis superque nobis est. So I think Gregory, It is an happy solitariness to be forsaken of all other, and to be left with him alone. St. Austin, enumerating the several Temples which the Romans built to their Deities, reckons up one for Virtue, another for Felicity, another for Fortune. Says the Father, If the Heathen had been wise men, at least they would have spared the Temple of Fortune, and made no use of that, Quid ei sufficit cui virtus felicitasque non sufficit? He that hath virtue and felicity hath enough, or he will never be contented: So he that can keep our Saviour hath the fullness of joy abiding with him, and he cannot choose but be satisfied. What small hearts-ease had the Blessed Virgin to find all her Kindred at home and to miss him? And if his Room be empty, the house is in a pitiful case, though it be furnished with all manner of store beside. When the whole World was lost in the Deluge of waters, one Ark was unto Noah instead of all the world beside to save him; so when all things flit away, and consume by little, my Father and Mother forsake me, our friends, our means, our strength, our health, our life, Tu autem Domine non dereliquisti; one Redeemer is all, and more than all. As when the leaves drop off from the Tree, yet the Sun continues to comfort it, and make it spring again; so the reliefs and pleasures of this Age shall wax old with time, and be shaken off as the leaves before the wind; but nothing shall separate us from the love of God, and nothing shall separate God from the love of us.  
And as Christ is enough for all, so this one reason is suficient why the Disciples found him alone; yet I have another to spare, which is this: Postquam legis & Prophetarum umbra decessit, omnia in Evangelio reperiuntur; When the Shadows and Types of the Law and Prophets are dispersed away, the Gospel abides for ever, and is the true repertory of all things that belong to salvation. The Law of Moses is a kill Letter, no flesh living shall be justified by the works of the Law. The Spirit of Elias breathes nothing but fire, and perdition to them that sin against the Lord. O God, what will become of us, miserable offenders, if we meet with such as these? O remove these away, and let us find Jesus alone, who came into the world to seek and to save that which is lost. A poor Prisoner must needs suspect that he should have a bloody trial, when such angry Judges came from heaven as Moses and Elias; let them rise off from the Bench and depart, and leave our cause to be heard before a Saviour so full of pity, who is all bowels, all compassion, An potior judex? Puerisve quis aptior orbis? He will not recompense us according to our misdeeds, but deliver us from the Tormentor. The poor woman taken in Adultery had a sweet taste of this Doctrine. Christ cast a scruple of conscience before her bitter Accusers, which made them slip away one after another, than the day began to go on the poor sinner's side, When Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst, Joh. viij. 9  
Beside, I have repeated it to you very often, that the Transfiguration was an Idea or Model of the Resurrection; and therefore Christ was left alone, to let you see the condition of that period of time, when all things shall pass away at the end of the world, Vt Deus maneat omnia in omnibus, when Christ shall be our portion alone, and the glory of every thing in earth shall vanish, and come to nothing. And he alone is an hundred fold those all things else which we enjoyed in this life, according to the reckoning of the Gospel; and yet that is but a modest comparison, a finite proportion for an infinite. In this course of life, which now we lead, every man acts his part in the mutual Communion of Saints and we have all need one of another. For as the members depend upon the head, so every member doth want his fellow member to support him; the hand cannot say it hath no need of the foot, nor can the eye say it hath no use of the ear; we must have the help of Moses and Elias, and all those bright shining stars that have gone before: And the Ages to come shall acknowledge that they were the better for the help of those good men which these times produce: But after the final consummation of all things we shall no more be put to these shifts to require the assistance one of another; though there were no Moses, no Elias, no Peter, no James and John, yet every one shall be perfect in Christ, and shall be filled with the fullness of him that filleth all in all. St. Hierom, in a certain Epistle to Amandus, takes upon him to interpret the words of St. Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 28. on this wise. All things shall be subject unto him, that God may be all in all. Says he, our Lord and Saviour is not now all in all; but, according to the several distributions of his gifts, a part only in every several man. For example, Wisdom in Solomon, Zeal in David, Patience in Job, Interpretation of dreams in Daniel, Power of Miracles in Paul, Faith in Peter, Virginity in John, In caeteris caetera, but when the end of all things shall come, than he shall be all in all, Vt singuli sanctorum omnes vertutes habeant, ut sit Christus totus in cunctis; That every Saint may be filled with all virtue, and the fullness of Christ may be in all alike. And so far on the second part, that Jesus was found alone.  
This is the Argument of the third part of the Text, that when God from heaven had commanded the Disciples to hear his Son, and left him alone to be heard instead of the Law and the Prophets Christ put this authority in execution, for as they came down from the Mountain he charged them they should tell no man the things they had seen till the Son of man were risen from the dead. The usual stile of our Saviour to his Apostles was Ite, praedicate, Go and teach all Nations: What you hear in secret go and preach on the house top. What I tell you in darkness that speak ye in light, Mat. x. 27. At this miracle quite contrary, what is here revealed? He is marvellous light that you must conceal in darkness. First, Let us make use of it in thesi to illustrate that saying of solomon's, Eccl. iii 7. There is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak. There is a ripe season for every thing, and if you slip that, or anticipate it, you dim the grace of the matter be it never so good, as we say by way of Proverb, That an hasty birth brings forth blind whelps; so a good Tale, tumbled out before the time is ripe for it, is ungrateful to the hearer. Where controversies about some difficile Points of Divinity have rather begot rage in the minds of men than obedience and devotion, it hath been the religious care of godly Magistrates in all Ages to interdict those disputes on all sides that peace might ensue, and dissensions by little and little be forgotten. When there hath been cause to make use of this policy in our own Church, would you think that some would exclaim against it under this colour, that it is a tyranny, if truth have not liberty to publish itself at all times in season, and out of season? And yet such late Writers, (whose judgements, if I should name them, few, I think, would refuse) subscribe to this Maxim, Intempestiva confessio veritatis plus nocet quam adificat; A confession of truth out of time and season doth rather hurt than edify.  
I will draw home to the instance of my Text anon to prove this, when I have laid a stronger foundation out of another Text, Matth. xuj. 20. Then charged he his Disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. This was a temporary Precept, like that about the Transfiguration, to conceal it till after the resurrection. Why, the confession which Peter made for all his fellow Disciples was very right, that's undeniable; to know that he was the Messias the Saviour of the World was necessary to salvation, that's indubitable: what was in it then, that this should be kept close, and not be divulged to every creature? the reason follows, because he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the Elders and High Priests, and be killed, and rise again the third day. I prove it that this was the reason, Luke ix. 21. even in this very Chapter, he straight charged and commanded them to tell no man that he was the Christ of God, saying, the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected, and slain, and rise again the third day. yet I must drive on a question further; Why should this Article of faith be suppressed that he was Jesus Christ because of his ensuing Passion? Why, 1. you know many were scandalised to see him crucified, who had been persuaded that he was the Son of God; if he be the Son of God let him come down from the Cross: Noluit ergo Christus quod se moriente paucis accidit omnibus accideret, says St. Hierom: therefore by concealing that doctrine Christ prevented that all should not fall from the faith through infirmity, as some had done: Before his glorification had made amends for the great humility of his Passion, he knew it would rather lose him Disciples than gain him any, to advance this Doctrine openly, that he was the Eternal Son of God. 2. Our Lord and Saviour did ever foresee and provide, that he would commit nothing which might hinder his death and passion, that his willingness to die for our sakes might appear the greater: No doubt he could have manifested himself, his Divinity, his Innocency so openly, that Pilate would have forborn to condemn him, and the Jews to crucify him: But woe is us then, where had been the ransom to redeem us from eternal damnation: Therefore this mystery was so attempered, that some rays of his Divinity did appear sufficient to convert his Enemies if they would have learned, and therefore they are inexcusable; but with that qualification and diminution, that pestilent men were left in unbelief, and did not assent that he was the beloved Son in whom the Father was well pleased. For had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of life, 1 Cor. two. 8.  
Thus I have sifted this Interdict of our Saviour, that he bade his Disciples suppress that he was Jesus the Christ for a time, that the light might break out more clearly after his Ascension, when the clouds of his Humility and Passion were removed away. I shall leave an Objection behind my back if I take not away one scruple: what here Christ forbids, Mat. x. 7. he commands, for he sent his Apostles abroad, and when ye go, preach saying the Kingdom of God is at hand: and what's that but the Kingdom of the Son of God? 
Hieron. in cap. Mat. 16.  St. Hierom takes it away thus, it seems to me not to be altogether the same thing, to preach Christ, and to preach Jesus Christ, Christus commune dignitatis est nomen, Jesus proprium nomen est Salvatoris; as who should say, Jesus our Saviour is the name of God, Christ is his name of dignity, as he is the great Prophet, and the Messias of the World: Therefore he sent his Disciples to preach the Kingdom of Grace which Christ had brought into the World, but not evidently till after his Glorification, that he was the Son of God coeternal with the Father; therefore I have sufficiently ventilated this Cause, how Truth is the rich Treasury which God hath given us, it is not necessary to lay out all the stock, at all times and occasions, but as judgement and discretion will light the candle, to let us see how much is fit to be brought forth to gain our Brother, and to glorify God. Est & fideli tuta silentio merces; silence doth advantage more oftentimes for peace sake than free utterance. Demosthenes and the other Orator Aeschines fell to boasting among themselves, which of them had taken most at one time for a see to plead a Cause. Aeschines named a great sum, and too much perhaps for an honest man to take at once from a Client; but Demosthenes slighted it, and replied, he had received twice as much at one time to hold his peace. But from this variance of these large-bribed Orators, I will give you this application; When a discord is unfortunately raised between party and party, among the Members of the same Church, so that the factions grow stiff and rigid on both sides, the best way is to command silence to all, that the fire of strife and emulation may go out for want of combustible matter, and in this case not he that violates the peace by stickling much, but he that obeys and holds his peace, deserves the greater reward. This power our Saviour exercised over his Apostles, to tie their tongues for a time, that they should not publish the glory of his Transfiguration till men were fit to receive it.  
He charged them they should tell no man of the things which they had seen. I would but so much humility might be marked from hence, as would repress insolence and vain boasting: Christ laid his command upon this matter rather than upon any other, and imposed silence upon all the three Witnesses, that they should not blab the Vision of his Excellency abroad. How much unlike is this to them who had rather lose an ounce of their blood, nay the sweet odour of virtue, than an hour of fame and popularity: And so much good as is done, and not openly known and divulged, is soon repent. Where shall we find such a modest temper as that of St. Paul, so much admired by Theophylact? after fourteen years he tells the Corinthians of the Revelation which God granted him, and of his Rapture into Paradise, and in all that space he did never impart that celestial honour which was done him either to friend or stranger; and then he was ashamed that he was put to it, says he, I am become a fool in glorying, ye have compelled me: 
2 Cor. xii. 11.  but what fools are they then that will make such proud boasting without compulsion? Jospeph being but a child, he did as a child, and having the inspiration of two several Dreams, he could not hold, but made all his Brethren acquainted with them, to his own affliction; He dreamt a dream, and told it to his brethren, and they hated him the more. Therefore in his riper years, though God had given him the spirit of Prophecy, he would not divulge himself that he had the interpretation of Dreams. He bade Pharaoh's Butler remember him when he was in place. And according to the old Saw, qui bene latuit, bene vixit, he contained himself from manifesting the Gift of God which was in him, till the Butler could not choose but call him to mind to put Pharaoh's heart in peace. Elizabeth hid herself five months after the Lord had made her conceive a Child miraculously to the astonishment of all the World, that great Prophet John the Baptist. The Blessed Virgin was saluted by an Angel from Heaven, conceived by the Holy Ghost, visited by the Wisemen from the East, she encountered every day many strange celestial Tokens, and yet made no noise of these things to the World, but kept all these sayings in her heart, Luke two. 51. The mighty power of God will shine and show itself at last, be not ambitious to have it displayed for your own ostentation. Christ refrained to have the Vision of the Transfiguration presently notified. He charged them, etc.  
Generally the Fathers consider the Apostles but as Novices in sacred matters, who were yet but in training up, and as deficient in those abilities which were requisite to handle such a mystery. Sacred things, says the Greek Proverb must not be touched 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, with unwashen hands. This made the ancient Fathers of the Church as fearful to come into a Pulpit, as our raw Scholars now adays are forward. You need not charge these hasty Predicants, as our Saviour did his Disciples, not to speak of that for a certain time which they know, I would they could be admonished not to be so bold to speak of that which they know not. I am not certain for the greater part of such that they have seal; but I will bear them record with St. Paul, it is not according to knowledge. But will you know the spring head from whence this abuse ariseth: How can they preach unless they be sent? And why was Authority so overseen to send them? licentiâ sumus omnes deteriores, it is the licence which enables for those things wherein they have no ability. Yet again another Text of St. Paul rubs my memory, multa licent quae non expediunt, there are too many such licences granted which are not expedient. If men would let knowledge ripen in them before they speak, and not blurt out any thing with extemporary barbarism, the Word of God preached would not come so much in contempt; for a Parable is an undecent thing in the mouth of a fool, Prov. xxvi. 9 Our Saviour destined a large space of time to have the cogitation of his great Works mellow in the thoughts of Peter, James, and John, before they testified them to the World; which is another reason why they must not speak of that which they had seen, till the Son of man was risen from the dead.  
Another reason shall stand in the last place of this point; it is fit that they, and none but they should preach of Christ's Glory, who are affrighted with nothing. The Apostles were very timorous, and would desert a good Cause, if they were strongly opposed: you know the infirmity of Peter that could not answer the challenge of a silly Damosel, but denied his Master. This was in diebus illis, when the Holy Ghost had not yet come down upon him in the shape of a fire: afterward he durst speak the truth, though he had been in the midst of fire: nay he could not repress the Gospel, his will was overcome, and could not revolt, if the literal sense of the Text be right, as sure it is, We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard, Act. iv. 20. Grace was as it were turned into nature in them now, as in the Angels confirmed in grace, says the ordinary Gloss. Vino coelesti ebrit se continere non poterant, says Lyra: the Scoffers of Jerusalem said they were full of new wine; it was indeed by a figure a celestial wine, with which their spirit was inebriated; and as a drunken man's tongue will not lie quiet, so in this resemblance they were such that could not but speak the Gospel of Jesus Christ: they were these times of courage which Christ had destined, that in them his Transfiguration should be revealed openly. Moses found not constancy in himself, and therefore would have balked God's Message, says he, Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh? So the eleven Disciples were so fearful after out Saviour's death, that they shut the doors upon themselves, where they were assembled, for fear of the Jews: and after the Resurrection we read that Christ did many times erect their courage, which was dejected, with these words, Be not afraid: and therefore he said unto them, Tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high, Luke xxiv. 49. When that power had possessed them with spirit and resolution, they had leave to unfold this mystery, and not before, he charged them saying, Tell the Vision to no man, till the Son of man be risen from the dead.  
In the fourth general member of the Text, as they were enjoined, so my Text says they kept secrecy, they told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen. When I first entered upon this part of the Gospel, I told you that the Latin Churches keep an annual Feast in memory of the Transfiguration upon the sixth day of August, for this reason; the Transfiguration itself fell out in the beginning of the Spring, a few weeks before our Saviour's Passion. The three Disciples which saw it being admonished to be private in that which they had seen, till more convenient time, confessed it not in five months following unto their fellow Disciples, and then made a solemn publication of it upon the sixth of August; which day thereupon had some sacred honour done it. Obedience is a virture of great necessity even in the smallest things; and they that are subject to obey, must not examine with what little prejudice a small command may be broke, but rather consider with what great ease it may be kept. Things forbidden, says the School, are of two sorts, Quaedam prohibentur quia mala, quaedam sunt mala quia prohibentur; some things are absolutely evil in themselves, and therefore are prohibited, as Murder and Adultery; some things are prohibited by just authority, and therereupon respectively become evil, as the eating of the forbidden fruit in Paradise; if God had not expressly prohibited that Tree to man, it had been no sin to taste of it: So our Saviour made that sinful by his command, which otherwise had been harmless to be spoken of, if he had not encharged his Disciples to obsequiousness; and they performed that secrecy which they undertook, not envying their Brethren the relation of the things which they had seen, but observing that time of restraint which their Master had prefixed: And thus they reap praise even out of their infirmity, that although they were unfit to speak of such transcendent miracles as yet, yet they knew their duty to hold their peace.  
Dear Beloved, the wonderful works of our Lord were never brought to pass to be hid like a Candle under a Bushel, and to remain always undiscovered; no it was Paul's defence before Felix and Agrippa, that every thing which belonged to Christ was advanced to the open view; These things, says he, were not done in a corner. The Heathen had their sacra Cereris Eleusinia non divulganda, the Ceremonies and Rituals of Ceres never to be divulged; the more shame for those Idolaters to have such filthy abominations in their Temples, which they durst not publish. Christ did only sequester his secrets for the most apt times of manifestation: Dies dici eructat verbum, one day certifieth another. Time is the most prudent Master in the world. In those days appointed for silence Peter, and John, and James did shut up the secret committed unto them, but only in those times, and now it is left to be preached to all Nations, as to you at this time, ever since the Resurrection of the Son of God. The Catechumeni in the Primitive Church, that is the novice Christians instructed in the Rudiments of Faith, and not yet baptised, were not permitted to be present in the Church at the celebration of the Lords Supper; such as are baptised have admittance to partake of all Mysteries, when they can examine themselves, because they are baptised into the Faith of his Resurrection: And yet there is a Veil drawn before our eyes till the times of great accomplishment, I mean the Resurrection of the body; then we shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, which shall enlighten us to behold all things that conduce to our eternal happiness. AMEN.   

FOUR SERMONS UPON THE PASSION OF OUR SAVIOUR.   

THE FIRST SERMON UPON THE PASSION.  MAT. xxvii. 24. 
I am innocent of the blood of this just Person, see you to it.  
AS Pilate sat in Judgement upon our Saviour, so are we met together this day to sit in judgement upon Pilate. The Ruler marveled when his Prisoner stood before him, and said nothing for himself: But now is the time to speak, it was Christ's good pleasure to leave his cause to be defended by us who should live in after Ages, and wheresoever the Gospel is preached throughout the world the Word doth testify; now in every man's mouth Christ is pitied, and Pilate is censured. When they reached a Reed unto our Saviour they put an Emblem in his hand, says St. Hierom, that their own infamy should be indicted against them to after Ages, Calamum tenet in manu ut inimicorum sacrilegium scriberet; The Reed was in his hand to pen the sacrilege of his enemies.  
But pilate's crime shall be the least part of our Meditation, that, which I would require to be the fruit of your attention, is to beware of committing the same faults which we tax in another, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Plut.  a reproach retorted upon ourselves is a double infamy. For as the Orator said of the Faction of Augustus and Antony, when Caesar was treacherously slain, Tyrannus occidit, tyrannis vivit, the Tyrant was suppressed, but not the Tyranny; so when Pilate shall have sentence against him, we must every man also arrain his own infidelity, which thinks itself innocent of the blood of Christ, or else I must tell you plainly, that you do condemn the Hypocrite, and acquit Hypocrisy. He that says he did not crucify Christ is his greatest crucifier; he that will confess that they were his blasphemies which spat upon his face, his Briberies that nailed his hands to the Cross, his gluttony and drunkenness that gave him Gall to drink, his wrath and malice that pierced him in the side, his disobedience against Magistrates that bruised him in the head, his wanton Apparel that stripped him of his Robe, he that will not only die with Christ in his arms, as old Simeon did, but acknowledge that Christ died by his arms, he shall find peace at the last, and righteousness with the God of his salvation. What became of our Saviour's Reed, and of his Robe, we find in holy Scripture, they were taken from him by the Soldiers; but it is not written whether any man took up the Crown of thorns, as if that were our share, or any man's else who is goaded with true compunction. And to say truth, all the sins which we do commit, let us make the best of them, are but thorns and briers, but if we confess them in humility, and ask pardon in tears and contrition, than they are corona spinea, a crown of thorns.  
Before I begin either to judge Pilate, or to examine ourselves, I must tell you of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a figure of confusion which is most proper to the Devil's Rhetoric. For in one and the same breath, nay, in the selfsame period, he will do three divers things: Lie, and tell truth, and Prophesy. Lie like himself, tell truth like a believer, and Prophesy like an Angel of light. One most perspicuous instance is, Mar. i. 24. The unclean spirit exclaims against Christ, Jesus of Nazareth what have we to do with thee? No? Not with God that created them, that was a lie of malice. Art thou come to torment us? There was a touch of Prophecy. I know thou art the holy one of God; that was as true as Gospel. You shall have just these three parts now in pilate's Apology, Mendacium de seipso, verum testimonium de Christo, Prophetiam de populo. 1. I am innocent of this blood, that was false. 2. He confesseth Christ to be a just person, that was true. 3. He threatens the people, that if that just person died, the vengeance should light upon their head, vos videbitis, that was a Prophecy. Every man is his own flatterer, else Pilate had not thought himself an innocent. God will be cleared by every man's conscience, else Pilate had not preached for our Saviour's righteousness. But how easy a thing it is to discern, and protest against other men's faults? Else Pilate had not Prophesied. We take account of our own imperfections as it were at midnight, when there is no light to discover us, than we run into error, and plead, that we are innocent. We see God in his works, as by a dim candle, and confession of truth will be extorted from us, that He is a just person. But we behold the crimes of those men that walk about us, as at noon day, and in the clear Sunshine, and then we Prophesy, vos videbitis, you that are sinners shall be punished. Here is as very a Riddle as the old Sphinx, made of three divers forms, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in the forepart a Liar, in the next a true one, in the third a Prophet; and all these three in my Text, I am innocent of the blood, etc.  
I begin with Pilate in the first member of his speech, the untruth which he tells in his own behalf, I am innocent. A vice which had been fitter for the meanest of the people than for the Ruler of Jury, the supreme Deputy for the Roman Empire. For truth, as Synesius doth define it, it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as who should say, that a word truly spoken is a Gentleman born, falsehood and lying are but beggarly begotten. But this is the wisdom of the World, whatsoever we can coin for our own reputation, it is not falsehood, but the strain of an Orator. And as the Optics do determine, that in the composition of all colours there is lucidum and opacum, one part which shines and makes a lustre to the eye, another part dark and gross which casts a shadow; so there is such an ingredient of two qualities in the actions of men, lucidum and opacum, some black deformity which is concealed, somewhat that glisters and shows fair to the outward appearance. Alas, that is it which puts us into a good opinion of ourselves, that is it which prompted pilate's tongue to say before the people, I am innocent. Every disease, says Hypocrates, is the more dangerous, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, when our face is so much changed, that our friends cannot know us. But who is in so bad a case as that man, who is so desperately diseased that he doth not know himself? St. Austin hath marked out two examples especially for this purpose. First, the young man in the Gospel, that talked of keeping all the Commandments, was bad to follow Christ, and did not; Matthaeus peccator secutus est vocantem; Matthew the Publican that sold and bought sin, and could not deny that it was a trade of iniquity, he left all to attend our Saviour when he was called. Secondly, He doth compare St. Peter with himself; there was a Peter that thought his fellows might be faint hearted, and run away, but for his own part he knew his courage was stronger than all tentation; but there is another Peter, or the same Peter of another mind, who was ashamed to show his face, and went out and wept bitterly, and of the twain he was the true Apostle, Salubrius sibi displicuit Petrus quando flevit, quam sibi placuit quando praesumsit; Wretched was that Peter who did presume upon himself, happy was that Peter who did dislike and bewail his own infirmities.  
Are you well advised upon how many nice Points innocency doth stand that dare advouch your own integrity? First, I am guilty of all the sins which I do not hate in another. The Church of Pergamos did not deny the faith, but God took up this quarrel against them, That they did not hate the Doctrine of Balaam and the Nicolaitans. Again, I am guilty of all those sins which I do not rebuke in another, Qui tacet consentire videtur; the judgement hereof fell upon Eli and his house for ever. Again, I am guilty of every sin wherein I gave way to the lewdness of another, and did not restrain it. The Kings of Judah, when they did not cut down the Groves and demolish the Images, which they themselves did not worship, yet their memory is Taxed, that their heart was not perfect before the Lord, because they were not zealous to cut off iniquity. Now put all these together, these nice observations of an upright heart, and then let Pilate tell me who was innocent? Leucatius, a Roman well reputed of, would needs stand in defence against the City that all his actions had been unblameable in every circumstance: But I will never sit Judge in this cause, says Fimbria, whom he chose for the Umpire, Quia justitia innumerabilibus officiis continetur; For justice contains so many duties that it is hard to number them, but to observe them all impossible. Indeed the Heathen were so modest in this Point, that in all the Language of Greece, that rich and copious Tongue, there is not one word which is proper for Innocency. To say truth, says Tertullian, what should they do with the word in their mouth, and want the matter in their heart which it signifies? Quid si nos solum innocentes sumus? Innocency, such as the world can afford, it is among Christians, or no where. Who is the man than that would put on the white Robe of a Saint, and cast it over his crimson sins? Let him first, as it useth to be, draw out his life with o Pencil in black colours, and confess his iniquities. What soul is that which, like a chaste Virgin, would become the Spouse of Christ? Nec magis alba velit quam det natura videri; as the Poet speaks. Let her lay no compliment to that beauty or deformity which God hath afforded her. And he that thinks himself less than the greatest sinner shall not be so great as the least Saint in the Kingdom of heaven.  
But let no man deceive himself, as if a confession of course would serve the turn, such as we say by rote perchance at the beginning of our Morning and Evening Service. There is not such an hypocrite, I am persuaded, in the world, that thinks his soul blank, and to have no spot upon it. Every man must go a little further to try what opinion he hath of his own righteousness: Is the rumour of War, or the fear of Pestilence, or the calamity of a Famine in the Land? This is a case to prove an humble Consessionary: For if your heart smite you, as if you knew enough by yourself to provoke all that vengeance, it is well, you have made a strict examination: But if you look about you to see who should blush first, and take it to himself, you are not in good terms with God and a good Conscience. Behold what St. Peter preacheth, the Heavens and the Earth are reserved for fire against the day of judgement. Will an humble sinner lay his head upon his Pillow with the Prophet Ionas? And suffer the rest of the Passengers to cast lots upon the trial, and find him out that hath offended? A true Disciple hath learned that his wantonness hath subjected every Creature to vanity, so that they must be purged by the fire of God. Such a one will strive to put out the flame with tears of contrition, which he and his Concupiscence have kindled in heaven and earth. Finally, you cannot be ignorant, that there was Copiosa redemptio, plenteous redemption in our Saviour's Sufferings, enough and to spare a man would thinks. Suppose that fewer stripes had been laid upon his back, fewer buffet given him on the face, fewer thorns plaited upon his head, I say, had all this been spared, but his death upon the Cross, had not our ransom been sufficiently discharged? O but persuade your Consciences, every man in particular, I beseech you, that the overplus was paid for you, and that your Bond must be canceled out of the superfluity of his sufferings. Bonarum mentium est ibi culpam agnoscere ubi culpa non est. There is no hurt in that. He that doth not look upon his own sins with that detestation that he would look upon those that multiplied ignominy upon Christ, he hath washed his hands in pilate's Basin.  
Now I proceed to show what crime it is which Pilate would so much abandon, it is the crying sin of Murder, Innocens sanguinis, I am innocent of blood, a fault which God would not pardon in Cain, though he were the firstborn in the Generations of men. In the sin of blood Jehoiada the Priest would not spare Athaliah the Mother of the King. David would not spare it in Joab the Captain of his Host. Jacob would not forgive it in his own Sons Simeon and Levy, but did revile them in his blessing. A fault which St. Austin, looking upon the bare story, doth tax in Moses for killing the Egyptian, but St. Stephen defends him, Acts seven. that it was a courage inspired from God. The life of any thing that bears God's Image is to be gently handled: For if the body be the Temple of the Holy Ghost, than our soul is the Priest, and to cast the Priest out of the Temple, it is not only violence, but profanation. But above all, the Heathen men were so tender to confess that bloodguiltiness could obtain pardon, that Socrates in Phaedon tells it upon his knowledge, Animam quae caede alicujus polluta est fugit quisque; though a murderous man upon better behaviour were admitted to the Elysian joys, yet he lived solitary by himself, and was quite abandoned. The Philosopher Aristotle speaking what things those were which were not Enthymems for an Orator, that is, no fit subjects for a probable Argument, excepts nothing but committing of murder, for no Rhetoric can ever make so foul a sin to be plausible.  
How God himself hath accustomed man for meekness, and not for cruelty, I will give you a short survey out of the holy Scripture: before the Flood we had no food but herbs and fruits, no blood was lawfully spilt that we read of for 1600 years, except it were for sacrifice. When flesh was allowed to our Table (for after the Flood the green herb and the trees afforded not such nourishment as they had done before): to eat with the blood from the Law until Christ was meat unhallowed: Nay, the Churches of the Gentiles were held unto that Ceremony by the Apostles, Acts xv. and long after the Apostles no man did eat either blood or strangled. Gregory could say in his time, Non diu est ex quo Christiani suffocatum aut sanguinem comederunt, it was but yesterday, in his time, since that strict observation was canceled: and I hope we can all collect, that if it was unlawful for the mouth to taste blood, it was more execrable for the hand to spill it, or for the heart to thirst for it. When Lepers and blind men, when sick folks that had Fevers; nay, when such as had Devils came to Christ, he put forth his hand and touched them, and they were healed; but the woman that had the bloody Issue put her own finger upon his Garment, and our Saviour laid not his hand upon her Disease alone, because it was an Issue of blood. Now shame be it unto Christians to fall into deadly quarrels upon terms of Honour, and count it reputation to shed blood, when Pilate had the conscience to shun the infamy: Surely he that thinks it a disparagement to receive the lie, did never scan what Honour was, unless he think it a far greater infamy to be a wilful Murderer. Seneca gives it as a Character of the most pure and harmless Age of the World, that there was no single Combats fought in fury, no bloody Wars of seditious Princes, odium omne in feras verterant, all that they killed; it was in hunting, and having spent their anger upon their Game they were satisfied.  
But no cruelty hath more offended the Church in all Seasons, than exposing of men's lives to death in Sports and Recreations: the adventuring of their young Champions to encounter wild Beasts, to propound reward unto their Sword-players to kill each other upon their Theatres, it could not but be a great eyesore to all Christians that knew how precious every life was unto God, for which the Son of God did pay his life. Homo occiditur in hominis voluptatem, scelus non tantum geritur, sed docetur; quid potest inhumanius, quid acerbius dici? they are the words of St. Cyprian. A pleasure it is unto you barbarous Nations, to see a man's throat cut with skill and dexterity; you have Masters to teach it, Schools to practise it, and, which is worst of all, eyes which do not weep, but smile to behold it. But for your part, Beloved, enlarge your bowels with clemency and compassion; as I would love to do good offices in Christian burial, much the better for joseph's sake that took my Saviour from the Cross, and laid him in his own Tomb, so I would hate a bloody mind much the more for their sakes who did scourge and pierce his body. Upon that meditation I would resolve to be a true man, where Pilate was an hypocrite, and say in defiance of all the world, etc.  
The rather did this Deputy endeavour to clear himself of blood, either because he had been taxed before for extreme severity. The Galilaeans were rebellious, and he mingled their own blood with their Sacrifice: it was that, as some conjecture, which put enmity between him and Herod: or rather he shunned the imputation of blood, because he was a Ruler and a Magistrate. Ferrum adhibere nisi in extremis neque civil, neque medicum. As in the Body of man, so in the Estate political, that Member should be very corrupt which is cut off with the Sword. Many Executions are no more honourable to the Judge, than many Funerals to the Physician: Mercy and Clemency are stronger than Lions to support the Crown of the King; and that Throne shall be established, says Synesius, where the People are afraid of nothing so much as for the King's safety. It is said of Trajan the Emperor, that he was both subtle and industrious to examine the crimes of Malefactors, sed mallet non invenire quod quaerit, quam invenire quod puniat, that it pleased him better not to find out that which he sought for, than to find out any thing which must be punished. The life of Jehu the Son of Nimshi, is it not a strange Legend as ever was recorded? no act or exploit of his memory remaining in all the Scripture but interfecit, interfecit, here he killed one, there he murdered forty, than he slew 400; but as soon as all the Enemies of God were cut off, then says the Text, he slept with his Fathers, as if his work were done, and he died for want of more employment. But I need not enlarge my discourse in this point, we having not so much cause to preach to man, as to praise God for lenity.  
And I have not so learned Christ, to think the Sword of vengeance doth not become the arm of the Civil Magistrate. David had a good purpose to build a Temple unto God, but it was not accepted, because he was a man of war, and had shed much blood, 1 Chron. xxviii. Why was the work then cast upon Solomon his Son? had not he given sentence of death against Adonijah, Joab, and Shemei? and is it not as lawful to cut off the Enemies in war, as Malefactors in peace? First, the hearts of Warriors are not always bend upon justice, as the heart of the Magistrate: than it is the Word of the Judge that fetcheth blood, but it is the Hand of the Battle; therefore God himself hath thus distinguished, that the blood of War did defile King David, but the blood of Civil Justice did not cast a blemish upon Solomon. They that cannot distinguish between vengeance and just authority, are like the Moabites that looked upon the waters, and saw them ruddy, and thought it was effusion of blood, when it was the brightness of the Sun, and the light of Heaven.  
But was Pilate so tender of taking life away? did it come so hardly from him to doom the Sentence of death against a Prisoner? Lord, what Dam did they suck, into whose hands our Ancestors fell; the Grey-head, the Reverend Praelacy, the fruitful Womb of Mothers, all were sentenced unto one fiery Execution for Religion's sake. Surely it had been a Praemunire in the Court of Rome to have shown mercy unto any man, or to talk of clemency. It was the disposition of the old Indian Philosophers, says St. Hierom, Eorum disciplina juvare non nisi justè novit, nocere nec justè; they would do good only when there was justice to do it, but they would not hurt any man, no not when they had reason for it. The Papists are as far from this meekness, as Dan from Beersheba, that let out floulds of Christian blood to maintain their unbloody Sacrifice. When Cyrus the younger would have slain his Brother Artaxerxes, see the tender compassion of the Mother; she bound him about her own neck with the hair of her head, and it was a sufficient Sanctuary to save his life. Our holy Martyrs and Professors were bound to the Church their Mother by Baptism, by Truth, by Faith, by Charity, by the Prerogative of Natural Branches, and yet like a Perfume of Incense they were burnt to ashes. It is enough: and they cannot hate the false Church by the Canons and Confession of Trent; may hate their parricidious and malicious minds by the fire in Smithfield. It is a Saintlike indulgence, that we do not meet the same measure into their own bosom, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; no it is canticum canticorum, the Canticle of our Church, and the Song of the Spouse of Christ, I am innocent of blood.  
Now I will bring Pilate upon his last Trial, from innocens sanguinis, to innocens hujus sanguinis, to the trial of this man's blood, and you shall see how he mocked his conscience, that he was innocent of the blood of Christ: those few things which he could say for himself are these. In the first place, He stood upon it before all the people, that Christ was harmless, and guilty of no crime or imputation. Ecce prius absolvit quam damnat; if Christ was harmless why was he beaten? here's a Judge indeed, fitter for Outlaws and Robbers than for a civil Corporation; first he absolves, and then condemns his Prisoner: As St. Austin said to Lucretia, Nocentior fuit quae seipsam interfecit, quantò erat in causâ innocentior; Lucretia was the greater Murderer of herself, because Lucretia was innocent. So it holds in the crucifying of our Saviour, and nothing doth more aggravate the fact to make Pilate nocent, than that he confesseth Christ was innocent. When Sylla did send out his Guard to cut off the head of Antonius the Orator, the well-spoken man did so bewitch the Soldiers with fair words, who came to kill him, that they hung down their heads, wept, and spared his life, till he sent other Assassins more cruel than the former, who did the deed. Lo a greater wonder; Christ making no declaration of his Cause in pathetical words, cast such a look upon the Judge (O what a sight it had been to have seen his face but for that moment) that he could not but confess the heart was true, where the countenance was so honest. Thus, according to the case of Antonius, in the first assault the Balance of Justice was held even, till the Ruler's inconstancy, and the People's importunity weighed it down against the best alive: therefore the clearing of Jesus from all faults by protestation is nothing to make Pilate innocent.  
Secondly, what can he say beside in his own justification? marry like a tenderhearted Murderer, he would not let his own hand be upon him, but sent him as a Malefactor of Galilee unto Herod: Call you this commiseration, to be delivered from the Adversary to the Judge, from the Judge to the Torturer? Is John Baptists head so soon forgotten, that it could be suspected of this? Herod he would pity Christ! could it be imagined so chaste a person could find good usage before such a man, whose Marriage was incestuous? This was like the removing of the Prophet Jeremy from the King's Prison to the Dungeon of Malchal, Jer. xxxviii. But thus it was fit to be, say the Fathers, to toss Christ between Annas and Caiaphas, Herod and Pilate, that he might be reviled by four slanderous Judges, as his glory should be revealed in the Gospel by four Evangelists: yea Pilate and Herod interchangeably made another mystery flat against themselves. For Herod clad our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a white shining Robe, says St. Luke, as the Ancients read it: Pilate did alter the colour, and made it purple, says St. Matthew, to express against their own corrupt proceedings, that he was candidus innocentiâ, rubicundus martyrio, that his Soul was white with innocency, and his Body died purple with passion: according to that which Solomon spoke mystically of Christ, I am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the Valleys; the White Lily of the Valleys in his sanctified life, the Red Rose of Sharon in his bloody sufferings. There is a superstition in some men, and perchance it is all the Religion which they have, they will not put their own finger into an ill Cause, but they make no scruple to solicit and procure it by their Instruments. This was a piece of Statism which Saul observed against David, let not my hand do him hurt, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him. Like our lascivious Gallants, who call them Bawds and Panders who deal for other men's sins, and are Officers for these voluptuous Markets, but to enjoy that sin, which their Instruments compounded for, as they think, it is no stain to their reputation. So Pilate in my Text shifts our Saviour from his own Tribunal (Justice forbid that He should hurt him) but he removes him into Herod's Court, to receive his Sentence from a Tyrant. Alas than this was not enough to make Pilate innocent.  
But thirdly, his Apology stands upon one point more: for perceiving the insatiate rancour of the Jews, that nothing would content them except they had revenge upon the Body of Christ, he stripped him naked, and scourged him, that his stripes might give satisfaction, and his life be saved: Debilem facito manu, debilem coxa pede, vita dum superest bene est, says Maecenas; a smart in the hand, or in the head, may be patiently taken to save our vitals. 'Tis true, that such pity is in the wisdom of the Judge, when a lesser offence is compared with a greater; but it is more injustice to chastise an innocent like a petty malefactor, than to punish a petty Malefactor like a notorious Offender. The Jews cried out, that if he spared his life, but I say if he raze his skin, he is no Friend to Caesar: but as it happens unto some Beasts, that if they taste of blood, it puts a thirst into them to make them raven and devour every prey that they catch: So the drops that trickled from his shoulders put a ravenous appetite into the Jews, to thrust a Spear into his side as deep as to his heart, to make a passage for a greater effusion: the very nakedness of his body when he was stripped to be scourged, and to be crucified, says St. Austin, was irksome to a modest man. Obtenebratus est sol ut celaret pudicitiam creatoris in nudo corpore, says the Father: but to take such a scourging, that Pilate himself shook his head to behold the man, Et fuit in toto corpore sculptus amor, says a Christian Poet, that the testimony of his love was enamelled, or engraven in every part of his body, to fall into the hands of such Executioners, that did overdo their Commission, and would gratify the People in their Function, as much as their Master had done in his Sentence before them; will this defence hold water to make Pilate innocent?  
Then let us hear his fourth Allegation. When he had made a Protestation of Christ's integrity, but it would not be believed: when he had tempted Herod to end the Trial, but the Cause was returned to his own Court; when scourges were applied to take off the edge of his Enemy's cruelty, yet nothing was heard but crucify him in the voice of the Multitude, he casts about to save him by the privilege of the Passover; choose you who shall be released, Barrabas that seditious Murderer, or Jesus that is called Christ. Is it come to the choice, and the People made Arbiters? then no doubt Christ must prepare for the Altar, and Barrabas shall be hircus emissarius, the Scape-goat let to run away into the Wilderness: Et mecum certasse feretur may the Son of God say? shall the Joy of Heaven and Earth come in scrutiny with Barrabas? but we have no quarrel against him: Non reprehendimus O Judaei quod per Pascha liberastis nocentem, sed quod occidistis innocentem, says St. Austin; If you have a mind, O ye Israelites, to save a sinner at the Passover, spare not to show mercy, who can be offended at it? But if that be a business fit for the day, it cannot be a good work to kill an innocent. Upon what occasion the custom was grounded to acquit a Thief at the Passover it is not upon record. Some are confident that it was very ancient in memory of their own deliverance out of the Land of Egypt; some think it was later, begun after the Roman Conquest, upon this occasion; Their Cities of Refuge were quite taken from them, because the crimes of blood and death were translated from the Law of Moses to the Tribunal of Caesar; wherefore this courtesy was instead of a recompense, to release unto them one Prisoner at the Passover. Now I strike at Pilat's hypocrisy; for this custom, says Lyra, was not ex imperiali sanctione sed consuetudine, the surrender of one Malefactor was not strengthened by the Imperial Law, but by courtesy. Why did not Pilate then confine the Roman mercy to this just person, but leave it indifferent, as well for him, as for the benefit of a Murderer. There is no such Beast in the World as Demetrius and the City of Ephesus broke loose into a mutiny: what they choose, or what they refuse, the greater part are always ignorant: take the people in this wild frenzy, and they would like the company of Barrabas before any man, such an hair-brain would make a Ringleader fit to cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, let him be crucified. Had Antiochus, the chief Enemy of their Nation, been living, and set up against our Saviour, surely the voice had gone, not Him, but Antiochus; wherefore to propound Christ and Barrabas it was a delusion, and will not hold to make Pilate innocent.  
Give him water now to wash his hands; manus lavet, sed facta non diluit, says St. Ambrose, he will never wash off his crimes: yet certainly it was a Ceremony which will rise up in judgement to the confusion of the Jews; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they could not but be pricked in conscience, says St. Chrysostom, for it was no Roman Custom, but the Ceremony of their own Law, Deut. xxi. that if a man were found slain in the Field, and it was not known who had slain him, the Elders of the next City should behead an Heifer in the Valleys, and wash their hands upon it, saying, our hands have not shed this blood, neither our eyes seen it. And according to this Ordinance David did meditate, Psal. xxv. 6. I will wash my hands in innocency, and so will I go to thine Altar. And to this Statute Pilate did allude, but as one objected to Cicero, that his Accusations were powerful, and his Defences slender; so this was as sharp as the sting of a Cockatrice to wound the Jews, but as weak as paper proof to defend Pilate. Xanthe retro propera, never let water have the operation so much as to cleanse his hands, since he condemned Christ, who was the fountain of living water springing up into everlasting life.  
Yet in every circumstance that I have laid open, I must confess he doth show some motion of a relenting heart, and I think he would have been constant, if the People had not took upon them to overrule the Judge; qui me tradidit tibi majus peccatum habet, Pilate hath his share in the sin, but the death of Christ will be most burdensome to his own Nation. This is the preposterous course of the world, when the Tail must lead the Head, and the Head go backward; yet the inconsiderate many had rather wander, so they may go foremost, than keep the right way and let others go before them that know how to lead. In the multitude of counsel there is peace, and a good Senate is stronger than a wall of brass, but to be carried away as Moses was, with the murmuring of these people at Massah and Meribah; to save Amalech and the fattest of the Sacrifice, as Saul did, because it went by most voices, this is a dangerous popularity. The greatest sedition in the Roman State fell out in the Tribunship of the Gracchis, when they rather chose to give attentive ear to those that walked in the Marketplace, than to the sage and prudent Body of the Senate-house: They both made an unfortunate end; and better cannot come of it, says Plutarch, when the same man will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, both the Magistrate and the Servant of a multitude. There are two things which David wondered at in the power of God, to still the raging of the waves, and the madness of the people, Psal. lxv. 7. both will swell as high as the clouds in an hour, and grow calm in a minute. If there had not been a wiser Captain in Jerusalem, when Paul preached in the Temple, Act. xxi. that ruled his place with authority, Paul had been stoned to death for his Doctrine; but he commanded the multitude, and they obeyed. I would Pilate had learned but one lesson from his own Master Tiberius, these are his words in Tacitus, I will endeavour, ut offensionum pro utilitate publicâ minimè pavidum me credant; the Fathers of the Senate-house should know, he was not afraid in a good Cause to offend the multitude. This Precept had qualified Pilate, not to give up the Messias of the World unto the rage of the people; than not so much had troubled him, as his Wife suffered in a dream; as innocent had he been of the blood shed upon the Cross, as he was clear of the bloody sweat which our Saviour cast himself into by a miraculous agony in the Garden.  
Somewhat there was in it, beside the rude importunity of the people, why Pilate had but half an heart either to absolve or to crucify our Saviour: Somewhat was in it indeed, for Satan was in it if we may believe Alexander Ales. It was the Devil that tempted Judas to betray his Lord, and there his tentation prevailed; but being suspicious upon some alteration that Christ was the Eternal Son of God, and ready to suffer death for the redemption of Man, collecting it, as we conjecture out of Isaiahs' Prophecy, that this was the Lamb standing dumb before the Shearers; now he casts jealousies into Pilat's mind to save his life, as I have read concerning the Parthians, that although they hated the flourishing Commonwealth of Rome, yet nothing did displease them worse, than to hear of any great casualty of fire that had wasted the City, because the ruins were but an occasion to make the reparation more glorious: So the old Serpent bestirs himself that the sentence of death may not be denounced against our Saviour, lest his ruin be an occasion to build up mankind with an everlasting reparation. Therefore horror is struck into Pilat's mind, but the suggestion prevails not; the Sacrifice is offered upon the Altar of the Cross, suggerendo vicit suggerendo vincitur; he suggests a motion into Judas his mind, and was a Conqueror, he suggests a motion into Pilat's mind, but himself is conquered.  
This opinion of Alice glisters, but it is not gold; for the Revelation which Pilat's Wife did suffer in a dream to warn her Husband not to meddle with this just man, it came from God; it is St. Augustine's opinion, in somniis patitur, ut ne ampliùs pateretur, she that suffered that good motion in a dream, shall not suffer any more for ever. Nay if the Devil were so forward to cast in hindrances that our Saviour might not suffer, why did he not turn the stream among the vagabond multitude, that cried out Let him be crucified? I am sure they did rather run headlong, as if their heads did swim with such a spirit as was in the Swine of the Gergasens. Therefore I leave this opinion as fidei dubiae, if not as false, yet at least as suspected and apocryphal.  
What need any other cause be given, why Pilate should halt between Justice and Popularity, why he should be half for Christ, half for Barrabas; but the modest answer of St. Paul, Deus quos vult indurat, he was a Vessel of dishonour, and therefore to be dashed and broken. To open the heart of a Thief upon the Cross, non minus suit quam petras concutere, it was as great a wonder as to open the Graves of the dead: Pilat's heart was only rend in twain like the Veil of the Temple, but it was not opened. The Fathers have a subtle resolution of this case, and yet a profitable. Pilat bore the person of the Gentiles, and in their person his bowels did a little earn to pluck the Son of God out of the hand of his Enemies: but when he grew unstable, and was vanquished, he cast the curse upon the Jews, vos videbitis, you shall see to it. It was the providence of Heaven, ut gentilis deprecatione ultio sanguinis istius à nobis ablata sit, that the vengeance of his blood should be denounced against Israel, and the Nations excused: but yet Pilate was but mongrel good, and therefore his hand was in this bloody passion, as well as the men of Jerusalem: both Jew and Gentile did concur to his sufferings, says Origen, ut pro persecutoribus qui oraret, gentiles non excluderet; that when he prayed for his Persecutors, the Gentiles might be at one end of his persecution, and be partakers of his Prayers. Had Pilate been as malicious as the Jews, we poor souls had been liable to the vengeance of his blood; had Pilate stopped his ears against the outcries, and never yielded to the passion, we had not been in the number of those Persecutors for whom he made intercession, therefore this luke warm Magistrate began with jacob's voice, but ended with the hands of Esau; neither could he say he was innocent of the blood of this just man.  
Nay then I must tell you (to forget Pilate a while) were you all in this Assembly, (dearly beloved) of none other but of the very choice and flower of the resurrection of the just, a Rank of Patriarches, an Army of Martyrs, a Company of holy Prophets, yet Qui omnes conclusit sub peccato, omnes conlusit suh homicidio; he that doth lay sin to every man's soul doth lay the murder of our Lord and Saviour to every man's charge for the redemption of sins. And then are you better than your forefathers? Are you more righteous than the Prophets, that you alone are innocent? No, you are also the crucifiers of your Redeemer, and if your consciences do not say so, bear witness of my words for an action of slander. Solum peccatum homicida est. Not Pilate but hypocrisy, not Caiaphas but Simony, not Herod but incestuous lust, not the Soldiers but Bands and Troops of Rapines and Blasphemies were the murderers of Christ. When a Bullock was slain for a sin Offering to make an atonement for the whole Congregation. Leu. iv. 25. All the Elders of the City, says Moses, shall lay their hands upon the head of the Bullock, that they, being the representative body of all Israel, might testify that every soul in Israel was accessary to the death of the Sacrifice. This was a figurative expression, how the whole Generation of mankind did concur to be guilty of the bloody Oblation of the Son of God. As the trial hath been seen upon murderers when they have drawn near to the Carcase which hath been slain by their hands, either fresh blood from the wounds of the Carcase, or an issue of their own blood, hath betrayed them, as some say; so let me question you, when you stand before Christ, especially when he stands before you in the holy Sacrament, do not your hearts bleed within you to express your guiltiness of his Passion? O give the flux a passage to come out, I do not say in blood, but in tears, which are the blood of the soul. The bleeding of the Vine draws away the life of the tree, and leaves it barren of the Clusters which should hang upon it, but the flowing of tears makes us fruitful to bring forth many Bunches of good works, not the Clusters of an earthly, but of an heavenly Canaan.  
And now let me ask you, as I would ask of men that eat those places out of horror wherein they have spilt another's blood; I say, Why do you love this world so much wherein you have killed Christ? Why are you not weary of this place? What can please us in such a soil, which should be unto us all as Aceldema was to Judas, the Theatre to act sins, and therefore the field of blood? Wherefore do we not rather say with Tertullian, Nihil nostri refert in hoc mundo, nisi de eo quam citò excedere? We Christians have nothing to do in this earth, but to make haste to forsake it for a better, especially abandon the thoughts of deadly revenge, do not wish for more blood at any hand, we have all spilt enough already in the funerals of our Saviour, were he not both a Sacrifice slain for us, as he is a Sacrifice slain by us, more than ever we could answer for. Make not your revengeful heart like Golgotha, where Christ was crucified, a place of dead men's sculls.  
But least any man should be swallowed up with too much grief because he is indicted for this heinous crime, the bitter death of his Saviour, let him take this for his comfort, to put gladness in his heart; it is not one death that our Lord Jesus doth stand upon, Passus est quia voluit; he never shrinks for one death, but stretched out his arms upon the Cross to embrace it. Take heed only that you do not crucify him anew. Nay mistake me not here, though you sin ten thousand times over, yet he can die but once for you; but my meaning is, the Summa totalis of all men's sins did abase the Son of God to the ignominy of the Cross, yet this dolorous day was from God's preordination: But that we may not crucify him anew, first, Do not neglect his death as if it were some common and uncommiserated anguish. Secondly, Do not run into admiration of your own merits, as if, had there been all such as you in the world, his Passion had been spared. Lastly, Do not presume upon grace, as if Remission of sins were a safe Indulgence for sins to be multiplied. They that do commit such things are guilty, not once, but often, to crucify the Lord of life.  
To conclude then against pilate's falsehood and hypocrisy, three things do concur in the crucifying of our Saviour, Destinatio passionis, executio passionis, iteratio passionis. In the Predestination of Christ's Passion God did look upon all mankind, the Elect especially, as lapsed into sin, and therein Pilate was not innocent. The execution of his Passion upon earth was committed by the envy of the Priests, the cruelty of the Soldiers, and the power of Pilate. What though his mind did not consent? Yet he lent them his authority. Herod was not willing, it seems, to have John Baptists head, but it comes all to one pass if Herodias must have her content; and therefore in the execution was not Pilate innocent. The iteration of his Passion lights upon those who make an impenitent end, and do not apply his sufferings to their sinsick conscience; and since Pilate lived a Vagabond for ever after, and died like a desperate castaway, either by drowning at Vienna, or falling upon his own Sword at Lions (that is the difference of the History) neither in this respect, nor in any else could he say, I am innocent of the blood of this just person.  
And so I pass to the second general part of my Text, from this lie which Pilate told, to his true testimony concerning Christ, that he was a just person. Yet I commend this disposition in Pilate, that when he found no cause of dislike, among all the slanderous tongues in Jerusalem he alone would speak well of Christ. It was a word better placed than that of Photion, who praised a lewd person with this excuse, that good men did not need commendation. The Devil was a murderer from the beginning, for indeed in the beginning of time he was a Slanderer, Non qui ferro, sed qui verbo malefico interficit homicida est, says St. Austin. He that takes away a man's good name is a manslayer, as he that takes away my life. This same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to bear true witness of all men's actions, I wonder it is no more in request; it is the thriftiest virtue that you can entertain. In rewards of Gold and Silver what we give away we want ourselves, but in giving good words, and in making good report of other men's deeds, we do not diminish our own fame, but increase it.  
To come nearer to the cause in hand. How did our Saviour's righteousness appear unto Pilate that such good words came out of the mouth of a Roman, who was a stranger to Christ? There is scarce any talk of him in the Gospel before this Chapter. Why surely, you will say, for a Prisoner to justify himself, the way is, to clear his indictment and accusations before the Magistrate. Now the Adversary did cast in four Crimes against the life of Jesus: One before Caiaphas, Mar. xxvi. that he would destroy the Temple. 2. That they found him perverting the Nation. 3. That he forbade to give tribute unto Caesar. 4. That he said openly he was Christ a King. These three Allegations are together, Luk. xxiii. 2. and none but those three brought before Pilate. You know now the Bill of indictment. What satisfaction did the Prisoner give I pray you? Did you ever read of his Answer? No, not a word came out of his lips, Silentium habuit pro advocato; Bare silence was his Advocate. Fortè verebuntur filium, says the King in the Gospel. Fortè, peradventure? What doth any such word of doubting make in the mouth of God? But the Lord would not seem to determine that any would be so malicious to kill filium complacentiae, the innocent Son in whom he was well pleased. His slanders were so notorious that he held his peace, and was pronounced innocent. Now you are not afraid, I am sure, that I should hold you too long with multiplying many words in our Saviour's behalf; Christ thought it needless to say oft, and therefore I may spare much pains in that Point in so Christian an Auditory. For method sake and the direction of your memory thus I will proceed, first to lay down two reasons why our Saviour would stand dumb in the question of his integrity. Secondly, I will draw a short defence against the four calumniations of the Jews, not that our Saviour needs it. For I tell you he would not move his lips to make an Apology but for your use and instruction.  
For the first of these: The silence of Christ in a matter that concerned his life, it was not well interpreted by any man for want of the illumination of the holy Spirit. Is he beside himself, thinks Peter, standing in the High Priests Hall? Can he say nothing to his Accusers? And because he spoke so little Peter would speak too much, thrice he denied him and forswore him. And is this the great Prophet of Galilee? Thinks Herod, who preacheth in every Synagogue, not like the Scribes and Pharisees, but with power and authority. Surely, he may teach Fishermen, but when he comes before Tetraches and Princes he is quite daunted and out of countenance. But as the Fathers do Comment ingeniously upon the place, he dropped a word or two before Caiaphas and Pilate, but he did utterly seal up his lips before Herod, Quia vocem ejus abstulerat? How should he speak before him who had taken away his voice? For what was John Baptist but the voice of Christ? Doth he despise my Authority thinks Pilate? Doth he esteem me not fit to command in the Seat of Justice that he doth reply to no Interrogatory but such as like him? Vbi respondet pastor est, ubi tacet agnus. When he did lift up his heavenly voice, than he took upon him the person of a Shepherd that fed his flock; when he held his peace, than he carried himself as that Ecce agnus, that remarkable Lamb of the Flock, which stood dumb before the Shearers: Thus Peter, and Herod, and Pilate, all were scandalised, therefore I come prepared to contest against the World by a double reason, how expedient it was for this just Person to hold his peace.  
The first is this, Ambiunt defendi qui timent vinci; Let them defend themselves who can be convicted; his life could not be tainted with any suspicion, his works were clear from all imperfection: Then what need an Advocate? Susanna tacuit & vicit; Susanna stood impeached between the two lascivious Elders that had tempted her, she did not beat the Tribunal, and call to heaven and earth for witness of her innocency, this had not become her Virgin modesty, but standing dumb in her righteousness God did plead her cause by the mouth of Daniel. The very Romans gave that respect to an approved man Q. Metellus, that the whole Bench forbade him to take his oath in a controversy to be debated, lest they should seem to distrust so reverend a Citizen. So for these crimes wherewith our Saviour was impleaded, Non confirmat tacendo, sed despicit non refellendo (says the Gloss;) His silence was not a sign of consent, but an argument of untainted integrity. And Pilate himself did peep into this mystery. For as it happened to a Client of Rhodes in Plutarch, that the Advocate of the contrary side spared not to defame him, and cast out his Cause as unworthy of the Court, but the Judge all the while sat still, and said nothing; Non refert quid ille loquatur, sed quid ille taceat, says the Rhodian; It makes not against my Cause that the Advocate rails, but it makes much for me that the Judge holds his peace: So Pilate did not weigh objections by the malicious out-cries of the Jews, but by the generous and inoffensive silence of the Son of God. Sophocles in his elder years was accused by his Sons for doting, and mispending his goods to the impoverishment of their Inheritance. What defence doth the Father make? Contest before the Areopagites with his own Children? Nothing less; he knew the awful authority of a Father, and would not stoop so low as to prove and send a cause with those whom he had begotten; but sends his Tragedy, called Oedipus Colinaeus, the work of his grey hairs, to be read over before the Judges; Hoc non est opus delirantis hominis, that was not the work of a doting man; there was but that one acclamation heard, and so he was absolved. In like manner our Lord and Saviour was God from everlasting, and by him the worlds were created, his hands had made and fashioned every one of these malicious Jews, when their substance was yet imperfect in their mother's womb, shall he not disdain then, as well as Sophocles, to contest in judgement with his own Creatures. Ask Job, if it be fit for God to come in judgement like the Son of Man. No, let his patience speak for his humility. His fasting forty days for his sobriety, his miracles and healing the sick for his charity, his cleansing of the Temple of buyers and sellers for his zeal to the House of God. Let Judas speak before he goes to his own execution, let the Wife of Pilate speak and her vision, let the Ruler himself speak his conscience, and if these be silent the stones shall speak, but let Jesus hold his peace, and taciturnity itself shall prove him a just person.  
Indeed I have seen a great evil under the Sun, I do honour our Courts of Justice for my part, and the municipal Laws of the Realm, but I cry out shame upon this fault, that it is grown an art among pleaders to be a good Accuser. He that can aggravate a crime well, is in good hope to be a thriving Practiser. Alas, if Accusers were charitable, Innocents' should not need to pay so dear for learned Counsel to defend them. That which might be dispatched by yea and nay is grown a volume, and if it be wyre-drawn by Statute upon Statute it will fill five hundred sheets of Paper. Brethren, this ought not to be so for pity sake, let it not be so costly a matter to be a just person. The truth of the Lord says David, Psal. xii. Is like Silver purified seven times in a furnace of fire. But this custom is grown so chargeable, that the truth of an honest man must be purified seven times in Silver. If we had less eloquence among pleaders, and more plain dealing, a just person might come before Magistrates, either as our Saviour prepared his Apostles, Care not what to say, The Holy Ghost shall direct you in an answer; or else the Judge might find the defendant to be innocent, as Pilate did esteem our Saviour when he answered not to his Accusers, but stood dumb before him.  
But hear a second reason more forcible than the former from the unanimous consent of all the Fathers. Christ held his peace when his just dealing was suspected before Pilate, Ne passionem suam impediret; Lest upon manifestation of his good life, his Passion had been hindered. And what would he not suffer, suspicions, infamies, imputations rather than the work of our Redemption should become void? Though he went leisurely on foot from one City to another to preach the Gospel, yet he would needs ride to Jerusalem to suffer: nay rather than his Cross should be left behind or come tardy after, he would carry it part of the way upon his own shoulders unto Golgotha. There passed but a little time, from midnight to midday, betwixt his Attachment, his Arraignment, and his Execution, as if his feet had stood upon thorns until his head was crowned with them. After the manner of men, who expect verily to be gathered to their Fathers, his Grave was provided before he was dead in joseph's Garden. Why did he not take Judas to Mount Olivet? Why did he not carry him with Peter, and James, and John, and cast him into a dead slumber in the Garden? nay mark the Commission which he had for his Enterprise, fac citò, do it quickly, as if he had been sent like Ahimaaz, to outrun the rest of the Servants, and to be the first that should betray him. I had like to have said Judas was not the only one that did betray him; let me speak it with reverence, did he not betray himself, when he gave up his life saying, Whom seek ye? I am he. Take all the lump together: so forward of his journey, so mindful of his Cross, so hasty to dismiss Judas, so well provided of a Grave, who would not presume that he would suffer his backbiters to revile him, and say nothing?  
David made this Cause both a Psalm and a Prophecy, a Psalm of remembrance, and a Prophecy of wonder; I held my tongue, and spoke nothing, I kept silence, yea even from good words, but it was pain and grief unto me. His heavenly tongue, should it have pleased him to touch the string of defence and apology, would have made the Judges to licence his life, and to fall down and worship him; the Servants would have said to their Masters, as the High Priests did sometimes to their Servants, when they were astonished at his speech and words, What are you also taken? to say more than this, had he but shed a few tears when they smote him on the head, as Moses did in the Ark of Bulrushes, some mild spirit, as merciful as Pharaohs Daughter, would have rescued his life from the power of the Enemy. So I have given you two observations warrantable, why so just a person should neglect to purge himself of his accusation. First the Enditements were grossly slanderous, and therefore he would not speak. Secondly, he would endure such contradiction of sinners, as the Apostle speaks, rather than purchase deliverance from the Cross, to hinder our redemption.  
The consideration hereof will bring forth two Sons more unto Jacob, a double speculation arising from the former: First that Jesus could have hindered these bloody passions: But secondly out of endless compassion he had set us as a Seal upon his hand, and as a Signet upon his right arm, and love was strong to death: Passus est quia voluit, He would not hinder them.  
Posse & nolle nobile. He could have hindered his death. The Jews were so far from thinking that such a feeble man in outward appearance could deliver himself, that they did not think when He was fast and nailed that God could deliver him. He trusted in God, let him deliver him if He will have him. Insultando quod non fieret, non credendo quod factum esset, says St. Austin; not supposing that God could rescue him, but braving him with that which was impossible. O fools and slow of heart! this was not the unruly Sacrifice impotent to help itself, bound with cords to the horns of the Altar, but such a Prisoner as St. Paul was Act. xuj. who might have sprung out of prison when the doors were opened by the Angel, but yet contented himself in bonds without liberty or enlargement. Give me leave to forespeak your attention, and I will discourse unto you briefly in the conclusions of the Schoolmen, how the humanity of our Saviour might have been exempted from death and passion.  
First, had it pleased him to discover his Glory, as he did at the Transfiguration in Mount Tabor: would He but charm the Jews from their furious outrage with one graceful word, what Devil durst have laid hands upon him? Tun' homo audes occidere Caium Marium? says the Consul Marius, and so daunted his Executioner. Thus than our Saviour had escaped their hands, divinitatem publicando. 2. Where were the Legions of Angels that did attend him? That Host of Princes who solemnised his Nativity with peace on earth, and good will towards men, would have recanted and sung a song quite of another nature, to guard him from his passion. And thus our Saviour had escaped, exercitum producendo. Durandus tries his skill for a third reason thus, corpus in se mortale ad immortalitatem perducendo: If you ask what he means by it, I will enlarge his mind. Our bodies do decay and decline every day more and more unto corruption necessarily, because it is passed the cunning of any mortal man, to know precisely to a crumb of bread, what nourishment is best to fulfil the place of that which decays daily in our body: but as for Christ, scivit in alimento quantum necesse fuit sumere ad restaurationem deperditi, He having the treasures of all wisdom hidden in him, needed not the advice of any man to instruct him, how the decays of nature being justly repaired, could preserve his mortal body in a sound constitution for everlasting. Scotus thinks this reason too weak, and so do I also: For although Christ had this inspection to discern wholesome from unwholesome in all the works of nature, yet consumption and dissolution would happen to his body from two things: The first prejudice to his health would be impuritas alimenti, the earth and all the fruits thereof yield not such strength and virtue as they did before the Flood of Noah. Si Adam habuisset alimentum nostrum mortuus fuisset senio, says the same Schoolman very boldly; if Adam in his best estate had been fed with such meats as we are, and none besides, age had brought him to his Grave. Again there is potentiae nutritivae debilitatio, that gentle heat which gives warmth to the faculty of concoction would have gone out like a candle in the socket; and therefore it stands for a conclusion in his Divinity, that a medicinal intelligence of herbs and fruits, and other viands had not drawn out our Saviour's life unto immortality.  
There is a fourth reason how Christ could have restrained all agony and passion from his body for ever, and it is without exception. Death in a reasonable creature is the wages of sin: they are relatives secundum esse, so that a man may say, here is a sinner, and therefore a dead man; here is the Tomb of a dead man, and therefore the Grave of a sinner. The next conclusion cannot be parted from the former; for if Sin and Death be acus & filum, if one do draw the other after it, than there must be some miraculous disposition in that man's body, who is no sinner, but innocent as an Angel of light, and yet obnoxious to death as a vile transgressor. Where then lies the miracle in the substance of our Saviour? why thus: the whole Manhood was united to the whole Godhead in the Union hypostatical, but the influence, the grace and privilege of the Divine nature was not diffused over the flesh, nay it cast not the celestial beams upon all the parts of his Soul till after the resurrection: but it shined only upon the superior faculties of the will and understanding. The strength then of our Samson did lie in capite, in the Divine nature, which he would not use to immortalize his Body before the Resurrection. Potuit relaxare influentiam divinae naturae, ut in inferiorem portionem redundar●t, says Biel. It was a miracle then, that He could confine the influence of his Godhead for a time to the superior faculties of the Soul; and I think you will confess, that there was no miracle done by necessity or compulsion: but upon this presumption, that the flesh was left unassisted of the Divinity, there follows a threefold necessity of his death and dissolution. The first is called necessitas naturae, nature would have dropped away when it grew mellow ripe according to the course of humane constitution. The second is called necessitas coactionis; supposing the malice of the Jews, and his obedience to unjust Authority, he must have suffered by necessity of compulsion. The third is called necessitas finis, a necessity of death lay upon him from God's eternal Decree, to accompass the happy end preordained, which is man's Redemption.  
But what is the fruit of this Doctrine now? where are the sheaves to fill our bosom? you will say now, I doubt it not, that Christ had power to lay down his life, and to take it up. Then enlarge your hearts to receive St. Augustine's Meditation: Amplius tenemur Christo quod liberè voluit pati, quam quòd necessario; Our engagement had been less if Christ had suffered by absolute and imperious necessity, but we praise our God the more, we bless him, we magnify him, we give thanks unto him with the greater affection, because our Sacrifice is of choice and liberty.  
But I pass from the consideration of the mighty power which was in our Saviour: Had he rejoiced like a Giant to run his course, what death could have seized upon him; had our Samson awoke out of sleep, and shook himself, no fetters could have held him; But if you will lay your ear to the sweetest harmony that ever was tuned, ad aquae lene caput sacrae, if you will give attention to the soft and still bubbling, from whence sprung all our salvation, voluit, in a word, he would not plead his innocency before Pilate, he would be offered up, he would be crucified. It is a memorable accident which Plutarch doth report of a Sacrifice in Lacedaemon: The Priests were in great distress for an unspotted Beast to be slain; Satan, no doubt, desiring to supply them with fuel to kindle their Idolatry, an unspotted Heifer swum over the River, and laid itself down before the Altar. I know not the truth of this Story, but sure I am, that I know a Sacrifice which will fit the Parable. For when wrath had fallen upon Mankind throughout all Generations, and a burnt-Offering was wanting to appease the Lord, to the end that Isaac, and the Sons of Promise and Election might escape the blow of death, the chief Ram of the Flock, vir gregis, even Jesus Christ, thrust his horns into the Thicket, and entangled his strength in the guilt of our sins: so Isaac was saved, and the Ram was sacrificed. Voluit, would he suffer? was there no remedy but to cut off the Head to save the Body? had not Christ humbled himself so far as to the death of the Cross, yet had not our Redemption been finished by the ignominy of his poor Nativity; the lowliness of submission to his Parents; the pang of his Fast; the horror of his Agony in the Garden; might not all other reproaches have ransomed his life? This curious Question the Schoolmen ask, therefore let them resolve it.  
First, says Biel, consult with Nature, ask her if she do not sometime use superfluity for the greater elegancy of her workmanship: plura ad unum assumit, sicut duos oculos. Why might not man have been a Cyclops? why might not Nature have spared an eye? but if she will make pairs where a single instrument might serve, why should we limit God's grace? and scant it to just as much passion as would fit the turn? since there is plenteous redemption with our God.  
Seconly, Per suavitatem peccavit homo, per asperitatem maximam satisfecit, it seems there was some delicious relish in the fruit forbidden, as it was very pleasant to the eye: The taste of Adam was of a most sapid and quick mixture; the Apple was of the most refined composition, being the food of Paradise, and Gods own Plantation; these could not but leave a touch upon Adam's lips sweeter than the Honeycomb, or Manna in the Wilderness. Now set the Scale of justice in an equal poise, the transgression was sweetness, the satisfaction must be bitterness: the transgression was pleasure in the highest degree, the satisfaction must be grief in the very gall of bitterness; but what so bitter as death? especially the Cross, that death of malediction.  
Thirdly, this is the Masterpiece among Lombard's reasons, but a flower picked from St. Augustine's Garden; Deus justitiâ voluit Diabolum vincere, non potestate: the Dragon and his Angels do plead against Michael and his Angels, that the Judgement might be proportioned to the Crime committed. But what did Satan accomplish by his impleadment? God doth not deal like Pilate and the corrupt Judges of the world, shift the Law out of their sight, when it doth not serve the turn, and stand a tiptoe upon their Power and Prerogative; He doth not deal with Justice as Festus did with Paul, Go thy ways, I will speak with thee at another time, Justitiâ ' vincere voluit non autoritate, Satan is confounded by God's Justice, not by his Authority.  
Fourthly and lastly, as Draco the rigid Magistrate wrote his Laws in blood, so Christ that innocent Lamb wrote the Instructions of patience in his own blood. Let the great Rabbis of Divinity dispute it, whether one drop of our Saviour's blood could not save as many Worlds as there be sins in this World, that is infinite; yet he took his share of all sorts of persecution, ut nobis praeberet exemplum patientiae, that when we are persecuted and stung with fiery vermin, we might look upon the Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness, and be comforted with patience. For now by the Examples of his Sufferings, when my Soul languisheth with any calamity, I will turn me to my Lord, and lay my wounds to his wounds, my tears to his tears, and my mouth dipped in gall to his mouth, and my disgrace to his reproaches. Finally in all my afflictions, I will seem as it were to read his Title upon the Cross, Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.  
I have drawn out my Clue very far, to enlarge the true testimony that Pilate gives of Christ, though he forbore to open the trial of his integrity, which had he undertaken, his arm was strong enough to disarm his Persecutors, and to delude his Enemies; but compassion of our misery made him draw out a long line of torments to stripes, to buffet, to death, to consummatum est, till all was finished. We may well give his tender heart that honourable title which St. Chrysostom gave unto St. Paul, a volume of charity. Is there any weak conscience in this place that marvails at our Saviour's proceedings, and makes it his own case, whether it be fit to plead innocency before the Magistrate, or whether wrongful accusation should be endured without an answer; for such a man I give this Doctrine for his resolution. As the Passover was divided into two Portions, part thereof was to be eaten, and that part which remained to be burnt with fire; so among the actions of Christ, some are to be eaten, that is, drawn into example, as his Prayers, his Purse of charity for the Poor, his converting of Publicans to the fear of God; some are to be consumed with fire, that is to be adored with faith and zeal, but not to be drawn into imitation, as his miraculous fasting, his walking upon the seas, and this compassionate silence before Pilate, he would not speak to shun death, that our hearts and tongues might be blessed through his name, to praise and magnify him for ever. For as Caesar said of his Soldiers, when they were offered conditions to depart with safety, Caesaris milites salutem dare solent non accipere, that they used to give such benefits, not to receive them; so Christ came into the world, not to take his life as the gift of Pilate, but to give life to every one that should repent, and believe in the Gospel.  
I have one bough yet to prune off in this branch, and then I will proceed. Great bundles of Wast-paper are printed every month, and discharged against us by the busie-headed Jesuits, to disparage the integrity of our Reformed Religion: for the most part such slight and unlearned stuff, that we may say in another sense than Christ's Disciples did of Solomon's Building, Lord what manner of stones be these? yet if every Scribbler be not answered, the Challenger goes out of the field, and cries victoria. I think it was Crassus the Roman, that replied not one word to a foul-mouthed fellow, who railed on him by the way, till he came to his own doors: Light him home, says Crassus to his Servant, and bring him to his Lodging. Beloved, it doth become our patience to show the same contempt to these idle Pamphleteers, and it becomes our Profession to show them as much courtesy, that is to light them home to the Kingdom of Heaven, if they will hear our Doctrine. When Israel fought with Amelech, but the victory was swayed by the hands of Moses held up by Aaron and Hur: It was not the hand which fought, says Nazianzen, but the hand which did not fight that conquered Amelech: And it is said of Scaevola, non retentis, sed amissis manibus, he put the Etruscans to flight, not by using his hand, but by burning it off; so though we give a Truce and respite to the Pen which should write, yet the patience which doth not write, and the mildness which neglects their bitter words shall confound our Adversaries. We dare launch into the Seas, as the learned Writings of this Kingdom can testify: our Ship, that is our Religion is sound, and will hold out water against all objections▪ It is our modesty to harbour sometimes in the Haven, to shun Pirates and stormy winds, lest we should encounter with ignominious Rabsheka's: and be persuaded, it is no loss of reputation unto us, no gain unto our Enemies, that we stand dumb like Jesus before the Jews, and say nothing at the Bar of Pilate.  
I have prosecuted my method thus far, to avouch the integrity of our Saviour against scandalous accusations, when his lips were closed: but as a Rest in Music is not the close of the Song, but a seasonable stop to make the next relish more graceful and harmonious; so after the pause of silence which our Saviour made, you shall now see the better how false and malicious the crimes of indictment were. Before Cajaphas the Highpriest (as I told you) this only was objected, that he threatened to destroy the Temple. Three other capital crimes are laid against him, Luke xxiii. 2. that he perverted the Nation, that he denied Tribute unto Caesar, that he made himself the King of the Jews. Here are two great sins against the Ecclesiastical Weal, to pluck down the Temple, and to pervert the Religion; and two outrages against civil peace, to pay no Tribute, and to encroach upon the Title of the Kingdom; let him be crucified a God's name, that pleads guilty to such abominations; but if no more can be said against Jesus, and we can show in every particular, that all this was forgery, then let Pilate wash his hands, and protest before them all, that the life which they would take away, is the blood of a just person.  
We heard him say He would destroy the Temple: Never was such a syllable spoken: Is not this the Temple wherein He bestowed his first blood at Circumcision? a pair of Turtle Doves for a Sacrifice at his Mother's Purification? Did He not shed his tears over this House of God in that pathetical lamentation? O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! did He not spend his disputations with the Doctors, his Sermons among the People, his Prayer unto the Father, and all under that holy Roof? And now is his zeal turned to his reproach, that He would pluck down the Sanctuary? a while before did He not scourge the profane Merchants, and cleanse the Temple? and now is He suspected for laying waste the dwelling place of the Most high? Nay, let them offer Swine's flesh there, let them change money, and sell Doves, I would rather bear with Superstition, with Profanation, than with extreme Sacrilege. O beware Beloved to open the lead of the Roof, or to rend the walls of that Habitation where God's Altar was enclosed; He shall offend less that throws down any Mansion House in the World, than he that cuts up but the Bramble-bush, if he knew it, wherein the glory of the Lord appeared. 'Tis pity that the stony hearts of men should suffer holy Buildings to moulder and crumble away into desolation; I see a compassionate example before mine eyes. O ye rich men of the World, who is your God that you do not repair it? But those Sons of Belial who prevent these ruins, which time would bring upon the Houses of God, 'tis more pity they should see the grey hairs of age in peace. Surely as the Heavens, which are the upper Court of God's House, shall melt away and be dissolved only by the power of God; so Churches and Oratories here below, which are the nether Courts of his Sanctuary, should never be defaced in this World by any arm of flesh, till the whole earth shall pass away, and Gods own finger deface these Monuments of glory.  
See but the hypocrisy of these Jews and Herodians, they that are so careful a Temple should not be destroyed, are furious to destroy the body of a man which is the Temple of the Holy Ghost. Like the Popish Inquisitors, most bold and zealous to curse those hotspurrs in our Kingdom, who threw down a Church in their wrath, and broke down the walls in their blind affection; yet they themselves made havoc of holy Praelats, and did persecute their lives unto death, and this was called Justice and Catholigue Religion: to conclude this Accusation. And why do they impeach our Saviour that He would destroy a Temple: no such matter God knows. Solvite templum hoc, what means that? why, the Temple of his Body: Why then, who but they themselves do destroy the Temple which He spoke of? meaning the Temple of his Body. The crime then, you may perceive, as it was objected against our Saviour it was slanderous; but take this to the advantage of your instruction, what judgement will God pour upon them who rob the Altar, and spoil the Patrimony of the Church, since these unconscionable Jews do confess, that whosoever would destroy a Temple deserves to be crucified.  
Yet Pilate was a Gentile, and perchance would not heed the eracing of God's House, therefore to make the Romans look about them, they have a second Objection in store, That He would pervert the Nation: Not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some read it, the Nation of the Romans, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, our Nation. Forsooth they fain an Accusation, that he taught contrary to the Law of Moses, and if new Doctrine be published, let the Rulers look to it; for this is as apparent as the light of the day, that new Religion is ever new Rebellion; but I do not say so of old Doctrine renewed. It is a strange stupidity which the Devil puts into some men's heads, you cannot persuade them to change for the better. Simonides would rather learn the art of Forgetfulness, than the art of Memory. Velleius the Epicuraean was afraid of nothing more than to have learned Problems cast into his head, which might rouse him out of ignorance. Gryllus was so well in a Hogsty, that he was unwilling to leave his swinish life, and turn man again. Are there not a thousand examples of wanton Ladies, that had rather be Girls and Younglings, than grow into years of understanding and discretion? So the Jews had rather be ever kept under the pedagogy of the Law, than be perfect men, and cast off the yoke of Ceremonies, and live in the liberties of the Gospel: Nisi cessassent ceremoniae, non discernere licuisset hodie quorsum essent institutae, says our learned Calvin: had not those Shadows and Figures ceased in their due time, when Christ brought a body into the world, they had seemed impertinent, we had never known for what they were instituted. The Levitical Ceremonies were so obnoxious to alteration, that the Schoolmen have set down their state in no less than five Conclusions. 1. They were ever mortales, the Covenant of these Observations was to fade away, and not to endure for ever. 2. From the time of John Baptist to the Burial of our Saviour, they were moriturae, inclining to dissolution. 3. Upon the Commission which the Apostles had to preach the Gospel at the Feast of Pentecost, they were mortuae, quite dead and expired. 4. As the Corpse of a great Personage is not interred but in a decent time after his departure, so till the weakness of the Jews was well instructed, they were sepeliendae, laid out to be buried. But lastly, when the faith of Jesus Christ was preached unto all Nations, they were mortiferae, not only dead, but deadly unto him who should distrust in Christ, and make himself a debtor to the Law of Ceremonies. Wherefore says St. Austin, Sicut hyemi aestas succedit sensim addito calore, etc. As Summer doth succeed Winter, and brings heat to thaw the Ice which went before, and gives light also to clear the darkness of the short days, so the Messias was presented to the world, to set on fire the frozen hearts of them who were but half believers, and did also enlighten those mystical observations.  
But whosoever shall scan our Saviour's Sermon in the Mount, Matth. v. Let him report if such a Teacher do deserve ill of the Law of Moses, if such an Interpreter could pervert the Nation. Every Text thereof was so mis-expounded, that, like the Pool of Bethesda, there was no virtue remaining in it, unless the Angel of the Covenant, Christ Jesus himself had troubled it. Touching then the perverting of the Nation, you see the report is malicious: Yet take this for your instruction, that those Romish Emissaries, Priests and Jesuits, who shall lurk in thievish corners to pervert Religion, where Scripture is in every tittle received, and Gods Laws unviolated, they that privily teach a Doctrine against Allegiance and Fidelity, should be sharply chastised, since the very Jews did think that man that did pervert the Law of Moses deserved to be crucified.  
In the third impeachment envy is cast upon our Saviour, that he forbade to give Tribute unto Caesar. What? neither allow God his Temple, nor the King his Tribute? These are faults indeed, if they could be proved. Alas nothing less. Could he be an enemy to Tribute, who was a friend to Publicans? Especially in such a Commonwealth where they were Vassals by War, not only Subjects by Allegiance. Can he deny that which was due, whose Discipline was so famous, to part with our Coat also, if our Cloak were taken from us? First reconcile these contradictions and then accuse him. I will give Pilate no Bribe to absolve him, but only the Penny upon which he preached, Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and unto God that which is Gods. But because Christ would not have such witness as might speak for him, he borrowed the money of a fish, wherewith he paid the Tole-gatherers, the dumbest creature of all that are sensible. In the days of Alexander the Great, says Josephus, the Jews were so forward to pay Tribute, that when Alexander took great delight in the Prophecy of Daniel, which was applied to his own Conquests, he promised any favour to the Jews which they should request. They asked no more than to be exempted from the seventh years Tribute, because they sowed no Lands in that year, nor reaped any Harvest: But for the other six years, the heart of the people was as the heart of one man to pay a portion of their yearly increase. Why was the memory of that Age so soon forgotten? Covetousness encroached every day, they paid their Tribute but with a single hand, and cursed with a double heart▪ and no man was so filthy in their eyes as a Tole-gatherer, and a Publican.  
Beloved, the Treasury of the Prince is the vena porta which conveys blood and life to all the veins of the body of the Realm. The justice which protects you at home, it is the King's expense; the peace which you have abroad with foreign Nations, the burden lies upon his Revenue. The Magnificence of the Kingdom, the maintenance of the Navy, the relief of noble Families decayed, the rewards of good Subjects, all these are an exhausting of his Treasury. Our common happiness might unhappily be dissolved if these were not publicly maintained. I will but name the Fable, and leave the Application to yourselves: The Mule was overladen, and the Horse that stalked refused to ease him of the superfluity of his burden, till at length the Mule sunk down dead, and then the Horse was fain to carry home both the burden, and the Corpse of the Mule. We are to impart Subsidies, says St. Austin, not so much in the name of Kings, as in the name of Fathers of our Country. Gratius est nomen pietatis quam potestatis; and God forbid but we should relieve out Fathers. The Athenians says Plutarch, for private virtues were the best of all men: But in public virtues the Lacedæmonians carried away the glory. And who had not rather see a Kingdom flourish than a Family? When Constantius, the Father of Constantine, was upbraided by Ambassadors of Asia for his poverty; his Subjects, to take away that defamation, piled him up such an Exchequer in three days, that the world had not a more plentiful. A good man, says Seneca, accounts himself rich because he hath the Air to breath in, the Sea to sail upon. Neque quicquam magis esse suum judicat, quam cujus illi cum humano genere consortium. That blessing wherein all men did partake, he did esteem his own most properly. If I would proceed in this Argument I might be copious in the praise of our own Nation, especially of this most illustrious and magnificent City, wherein there have been at all times so many cheerful givers; and who would be guilty of such a crime, which the Jews did think worthy to be crucified?  
The last accusation pretended was not against the Coffers, but against the Crown of Cesar, that he made himself a King. A cunning piece of villainy. For as Joseph was accused for an Adulterer by Potiphars Wife because he would not be an Adulterer: So Christ is accused for making himself a King, because he would not be a King when all the people sought to cast that honour upon his shoulders, Joh. vi. My Kingdom is not of this world, says Christ. Why, what a God's name is his fault then? Had Cesar any Land in another world? In hoc mundo regnum habet, non de hoc mundo, says St. Austin; He had infinite power and authority in this world, but it was not of this world, but of an eternal Kingdom. True Prophets and true Priests have been always the trustiest servants to Kings, and religious Kings have been always the advancers of Priests and Prophets. See their interchangable affection in doing mutual honour one to another in holy Scripture. The Prophets have entitled their Books the Books of the Kings, and King Solomon hath called his divine Book the Book of the Preacher. And would Christ who was the Chief Priest, and the anointed Prophet cast any indignity upon Caesar? King's are the Images of God, and the highest powers, says Nazianzen, do resemble Images drawn to the feet, the middle sort of Rulers are likened to Pictures drawn but to the waste, the lowest in authority are like Pictures drawn but to the neck and shoulders, but all in some sort are the Image of God. And would Christ deface his own Image? By reason indeed of the Omnipotency of his Divinity there was some Regal Majesty glittering upon earth in Christ's humanity. Augustus' Domini appellationem sicut maledictum exhorruit, says Su●tonius. Augustus took it for a scoff to be called a Lord, as if his soul did divine there was a greater upon earth. The Reed put into Christ's hand, the Crown upon his head, the bowing of the Knee, the Title upon the Cross, these were calumnies and revile on the Jews part, but on God's part, secret mysteries of his Spirit to make his enemies afford him the Ensigns of a Kingdom. Nay, ipsa crux tribunal fi●it, says Origen; Upon his very Cross whereon he hanged he stood like a Judge between the nocent and the innocent. All this was nothing to Caesar, to challenge the chief place among malefactors.  
One thing is worth your adnotation, that because Pilate and the Roman Empire did give wrong sentence of death against Christ, who did not make himself a King, therefore the self same Roman Empire doth endure this malediction from God that it should endure the pride of a Bishop unto this day, who calls himself the Vicar of Christ, and sets himself in a Throne above their Emperor. The fault was cast upon Christ, but the Pope commits it. To end this Point, If the Jews thought him worthy of death who made himself a King, they that have a Doctrine to unmake a King as they please, to sport with their Crowns, what do they deserve? And let the Jews be Judge, and not the Jesuits. calisthenes was asked how a man might be most famous, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, let him kill the most famous. A fit answer for our Roman Parricides, who above other Christians are rebaptised in baptismo sanguinis, in the blood of Princes. Speak Pilate, and you outrageous murderers of the Jews, do they not deserve to be crucified?  
So now to recapitulate these false crimes objected, the Temple was unviolate for any thing Christ had done; the people unperverted; Tribute granted; Caesar honoured. Venit Princeps mundi, & in me non habet quicquam; let Pilate speak if he were not a just person. How should a man be avenged of his enemies? Plutarch answers, by being so good, that they cannot reproach his honest conversation: So did our Saviour, and surely it would pity any heart in the world, that such a Saviour, such an innocent Lamb should be slain. But such a Sacrifice it behoved us to have, which was holy, unblameable, and undefiled. And, to conclude this second general part of my Text, be careful, my brethren, to keep a good conscience, that when you shall crucify this mortal body, and the affections thereof; as you must do daily, you may endeavour to be a just person, to walk in all the Statutes of the Lord, that you may offer up a clean Sacrifice to God your Creator and Redeemer. And so much for Pilat's true Testimony that Jesus was a just person. I am innocent, etc.  
And now I betake my meditations to the last Point of all, Vos videbitis, you shall see to it. The depravation of his own nature made him forge a lie in the first words, I am innocent. Conscience extorted truth in the second, that his Prisoner was a just person. A strange instinct brings forth this last part, Vos videbitis, you shall see to it. Marvel no more at Caiaphas, that he could Prophesy, One man must die for all the people, but rather marvel how Pilate should Prophesy, that all the people must die for the blood of one man. As Sallust said of the desperate times of Rome, that men were so ill affected, Vt intenta mala quasi fulmen optarent, se quisque ne attingat; That they wished mischiefs might fall down like a thunderbolt, only every man was so careful as to pray for his own head. So Pilate calls for a curse upon all Jury, but first he shields his own head, he is innocent. You never knew a Fortune-teller skilful either in Palmistry, curious Metaposcopy, or of the Devils secret counsel in judicious Astrology, that could read aught in his own destiny; as Seneca said of the Soothsayers of Rome, that undertook to tell Prodigies by the entrails of beasts, Plus sapiunt in alieno jecore quam in suo; That they had a better insight into the entrails of other things than into their own: So we are all very cunning in vos videbitis, to denounce those judgements which will befall other men, but we ever misinterpret what will betid ourselves. Harsh judges we are of other men's faults for the most part, but worse Prophets; not so charitable as Elizaeus his bones, to bring the dead unto life, but like Micaiah unto Ahab, always portending some disastrous thing to come to bring the living unto death. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the Grecian General said to Chryses, when will we leave this ominous Prediction, to be chanting some deadly Prophecy against our brethren? Like Pilate against the Jews, Vos videbitis, You shall see to it.  
Many Jews had Prophesied against the Abominations, and Idolatry of the Gentiles. Pilate is the first Gentile in Scripture that Prophesied against the Jews. Alas then if the wrath of God be kindled, yea, but a little, what is it that can save us from indignation? Vos videbitis? shall Israel be lost? Shall Judah, the firstborn of God, be wiped out of his mercies? Is there no title for the protection of a sinner? Joab is fled to the Altar, what shall become of him? Ask Benaiah when he cuts his thread. The Altar yet is an eternal refuge for others; Shall it not stand for ever? Ask the Prophet who made it shake with fear, as with an Earthquake, that it should be thrown down. The Temple is an everlasting habitation, shall it not last as long as the Sun and Moon endureth? Ask our Saviour if one stone shall be left upon another. The people of the Land are the Sons of Abraham and Isaac; is not their Covenant to endure for ever? Ask St. Paul if the natural branches be not cut off and withered. The Land howsoever is that plentiful Canaan, fruitful, by the report of Caleb and Joshuah, more fruitful than report could make it. Shall it not always be the Lady of the earth? Ask Titus and the Romans, if it be not a nest for Screech-owls, and an hissing to all that shall live in the world. How is the destiny of all things turned about? Neither security remaining to fly unto the Altar, nor the Altar remaining in the Temple, nor the Temple in the City, nor Inhabitants remaining in the Country; but City and Country defaced unto all Posterity. See, Beloved, how no privilege upon earth will keep conditions with us, except we keep conditions with heaven. As Tertullian said of the Devils, Pluvias quas jam sentiunt repromittunt. When they perceive much moisture in the Air by their natural sagacity, than the Soothsayers tell us we shall have rain, so Satan knowing that judgement was begun already in Judaea, Pilate begins to Prophesy, Vos, etc. The murder of our Saviour should be their endless calamity.  
The Passions of Christ were so innumerous, so spiteful, that to draw them unto certain heads if all were reckoned up, I would confess it impossible, but to instance in the principal parts I will divide them into four quarters, that you may see how the punishment of the Jews is proportionable to the injuries which they did unto out Lord: 1. He was bound like a Malefactor, and are not the Jews made Bondslaves and Captives for ever? 2. He was blinded that he might be buffeted; and what is so blind as the heart of that Nation? 3. He was spat upon, and reviled; they hated him without a cause. And no people under the Sun every where more hated, and disaffected. Lastly, He was murdered with the death of the Cross, the death of malediction. And according to their stubbornness and infidelity, we can scarce say less in charity, than that the death of malediction is fallen upon them. As the Prophet Amos said, For three transgressions, and for four I will not turn away my punishments from Israel: because they sold the righteous for Silver, and the poor for a pair of Shoes. To be enthralled without Liberty; to be blind without Light; to be hated without Love; to be condemned without Mercy; thus I have quartered out the dismal sorrows of that Nation which spilt his blood, and speaking a word briefly of each part I will conclude this exercise.  
First, They bound the Messias, and they themselves are Captives. That Caesar whom they stood so much for before Pilate, even he did pervert the Nation, and destroy the Temple. In Mount Olivet they did first lay hands upon Christ, in Mount Olivet, says Josephus the Roman Soldiers did first entrench themselves to besiege Jerusalem. The unutterable misery of their City how it was taken and defaced is so common a story that I will not spend the time to rehearse it. As the punishment of the Deluge was fifteen Cubits higher than the tallest Mountains of the earth, so the punishment of that City was fifteen times greater than that mighty City. Within the Walls the Famine was so great, that it parched their bodies, and dried up their living moisture, that Children had not tears to weep over their dead Parents. Nay, the living had not strength enough to dig a grave to bury the dead. Without the Walls their Prisoners were so paid with the same coin, which they dealt unto our Saviour, Ut spatium crucibus deesset, & corporibus cruces; That the field did not afford room enough to set up so many Crosses; or had there been space in the field, there was not wood in the Mountains to make so many. And do they not think the Cross of Christ did work in this affliction? As Tertullian said to the Heathen, you have sent offerings heretofore to the Temple, you have bestowed gifts upon Jerusalem, Nunquam nunc dominaturi nisi Deo in Christum deliquissent. Nay, says Josephus, if the Sword of Titus had not cut them short, their crimes were so unnatural and so desperate, that the wrath of Sodom and Gomorrha had reigned down upon them. When that desolation shall come, says the great Prophet, whom they hanged on a tree, you will call upon the Hills to cover you, and the Mountains to fall upon you. Sic in cavernis & collibus se abscondiderunt, says Beda; they did lurk in Groats and Caves of the Rocks to avoid the Romans, and so fulfilled the Prophecy ever since that black day, O populus natus ad servitutem. They have lost the remembrance of liberty. They cannot say of any parcel of ground in the earth, this is our field and our possession. Of all the men upon the earth, they are the only Nation under heaven, that have neither portion in earth nor in heaven. When the City was lost, Adrian would never suffer them to return to see it, unless it were to mourn and sorrow, and then they must pay for it. Sic qui sanguinem Christi vendunt, jam suas lachrymas emunt; They bargained for Christ's blood, and they pay for their own tears. Non est tutus Judaeus ad Ecclesiam confugiens, says the Canon Law. They only have no safety, though they betake them to the protection of a Church. Other men are Lords of that wealth which God hath bestowed upon them, but they are Tributaries ad placitum, sponged every year as the necessity of the Prince requires. Money can never prosper with them since they bought our Lord. Indeed Judas sold him, the Jews did buy him, and they gave him to Pilate, and so the Gentile hath purchased him. Other men can be avenged of the insolences of their Adversaries, and so every man lives in peace under his own Vine, and under his own Figtree, but they are never quiet for violence and outrages committed against their person. Ideo Judaei pacem habere non possunt, quia seditionum principem eligere maluerunt, says Isidor. How can they hope for rest who refused the Prince of peace, and chose Barrabas the Prince of seditions?  
The next Viol of vengeance is the gross darkness of their heart ever since they blinded our Saviour. If Samson be blinded and put to scorn, shall he not pluck down the Theatre upon the Princes and upon the People? If Elisha be scoffed at, shall he not call for Bears to devour the Children? The Disciples forsook Christ, and ran away at midnight, this night you shall be offended at me. In nocte scandalizantur, says Origen; and Peter plunged himself into that fearful denial ante gallicinium, before the crowing of the Cock, this betokened that they sinned out of ignorance, and therefore were received into favour upon repentance: But for the High Priests and Elders, Mane facto consilium capiunt, when it was morning they took counsel against Jesus, Hoc est scientes peccant in lumine, says that Author; They sinned by broad daylight as it were, against their own conscience; and they that did so much abuse the light are cast into a long darkness for ever. The miraculous Eclipse of the Sun, says St. Hierom, an Emblem of that blindness which should possess them, was not over the whole Hemisphere of the world, but only in Jury: For neither Grecian Astronomer, nor Arabian do speak of it. Wanderers they were in the Wilderness about forty years, wanderers they have been in their vain imaginations almost two thousand. Then they were directed as the clouds went before them, now they are guided by Vapours and Pillars of smoke. After our Saviour's Ascension eight years were spent when St. Matthew wrote his Gospel, and yet even to that day they did report and believe that his Disciples stole him away by night. What, when the Soldiers slept? If they were broad awake, says St. Austin, why would they suffer the body to be so conveyed? If they were fast asleep, which way came they to know the conveyance? Beda takes this to be not a story, but a Prophecy in the Gospel, that the Jews shall be so hardened in unbelief, that they shall give credence to that report for ever.  
This it is to curse themselves, with such an everlasting curse, His blood be upon us, and upon our Children. Sanguis ille veniat super nos, sed in ablutionem; Let his blood come upon us all, I beseech God, but to wash away our sins in the Laver of Regeneration. But upon whom it comes for vengeance it must needs put out their eyes, and make them stark blind. A bloodshed eye can never see well. A man never fares worse than when he is his own carver. No greater infelicity can betid us than when we have our own wishes. Inter vota imprecantium senescimus, says Seneca. No marvel if we do not thrive in this world. What by our own prayers, what by the prayers of our friends, who shoot wide of the true good, we spend our age in imprecations. The Jews here did ask such a thing, that they never had the reason more to ask any thing that was good. They see no more than if a beam were in their eyes, a beam as big as the tree of the Cross of Christ. And so much for the second punishment, the blindness of the Nation.  
But thirdly, A just reward is fallen upon these murderers, that the haters of the Lord should be despised in the eyes of all men, Canes facti sunt filii, & filii facti sunt canes, says Theodoret long since. Those who were called dogs in the person of the Syrophaenician woman are beloved like the Children; and those that were Children are spurned at like Dogs under the Table. If we meet a Jew, our fancy makes us believe that we see our enemy. Nay, the most part of men presage no better luck after their sight than if some dismal beast had been in the way which our superstition is afraid of. Truly we may say of their dejected countenance, and that malignant Mark of Cain in their face, as Caesar did of Cassius, Quid Cassius sibi vult? mihi pallor ejus non placet. Cassius did dart treason in his eyes, and they dart murder. I will not report it upon tradition, because fame is but the Postmaster to carry lies, that the savour of death is in their bodies to this day, or that their Children are born with knots of blood in their hands. This I may be bold to say, it is an heavy vengeance, and the great judgement of God, if these things be true: But true or false, the anger of God is broke out upon them, that the whole world with one consent should speak such things unto their infamy, as their Conquerors thought them not worthy to be Freemen. So as if they had been worse than beasts, and not fit to make good bondslaves, thirty of them have been sold at a base price, than an Ass head was sold in Samaria, or than they sold our Saviour. Alas, they that find none to love, to regard, to pity them, to prise them at an honest rate, they are in Hell already, but God forbid that I should teach you to hate a Jew. Every living soul, for which Christ died, is the object of a Christians charity. This is the very day wherein we offer up our prayers, both at Morning and Evening Sacrifice, for the salvation of Jews and Paynims, according to our Church Liturgy. I come now to end this long discourse with the fourth malediction, to wit, that we may well fear that they and their Children die an accursed death who crucified our Saviour.  
They that were so nice as to deny to come into pilate's house in the days of the Passeover, lest they should be defiled with blood. What will become of their poor souls when they shall be thrust into the Valley of Hinnon? Into the Tophet of damnation? Timent contaminari habitaculo alieno, non timent contaminari scelere proprio, says the Gloss. It was a perilous thing to set foot in pilate's doors, that would defile them. But what destruction will it be to take the mystical house of Pilate, I mean the Kingdom of darkness over their head for ever? They that ignominiously bade our Saviour come down from the Cross, the greatest Cross in the world is come down upon them, says Nazianzen. Forty years did the Lord prove them in the Wilderness, seventy years in Babylon. But as Christ said unto Peter, Thou shalt forgive thy brother unto seventy times seven times: Even just so many years were there by true computation between the return from Babylon and the destruction of the Temple. Now they have endured almost one thousand seven hundred years of desolation. O that the anger of the Lord would go no further, than they might sing a Jubilee for ever. But the Prophet Isaiah doth threaten them, Though you lift up your hands I will not hear your Prayers, because they are defiled with blood. Their Mothers were fruitful for nothing, but to bring forth abundance of them who might be slaughtered. Beside the number, as great as the sand upon the Seashore that perished under Titus, in the Wars of Adrian, when they gathered themselves under Barcosdau, their Pseudomessias, twice as many, say our Histories, were slain with the Sword as came out of Egypt. Assyria and Babylon have known their Captivity; Vespasian drove them into Italy; Adrian from thence into Spain; They have been cast out into Britain and cashiered; Into France and banished; Out of Spain by Emanuel and Ferdinand expulsed. O where shall they rest at last? But where there is no rest for ease, no Christ for Redemption, no pity for consolation.  
Yet, believe it Brethren, (the Lord hasten the day of his merciful visitation) the time will come when a Remnant shall be saved. The Holy Ghost did dip the Pen of St. Paul into Prophecy, and he cannot deceive us. Wherefore one glosseth thus upon my Text, Vestrum peccatum, vestra poena, vestra ut & omnium redemptio. Your sin it is O Israel, your punishment it must be, and see to it further, for if his Persecutors do repent, your redemption it shall be. But to construe the words of the Prophets touching a visible Kingdom of the Jews to come, a new Jerusalem, another Temple, a potent Monarchy over all the World; Let this fancy prevail with other men, for my part I will say to it as one did in the like case, His victoribus herbam porrigo, sed elleborum. Two things, says St. Hierom, are of great obscurity in the New Testament, the Kingdom of Antichrist, and the restauration of the Jews. We know all about what hour Christ gave up the Ghost, so we shall be able in some conjecture to trace the steps of Antichrist; but at what hour Christ arose from the dead we cannot tell, Ita majus est mysterium quando Judaei restituentur, quia est quaedam resurrectio, says the Father? So it is a more intricate mystery when the Jews shall be restored, because it is a kind of resurrection.  But O Lord we call upon thee, and beseech thee to begin thy Kingdom of grace in our hearts upon earth; Also to call home thine ancient people the Jews, and to hasten thy Kingdom of glory. Put thy fear into us all, that we do not crucify our Lord anew by Blasphemies, by uncharitableness, by an Impenitent heart, lest we be brought into the bondage of sin, lest our heart wax gross and want understanding, lest we lose thy favour as thine own Israel did upon earth, lest we lose the light of thy countenance in heaven for ever. O Lord hear us, and be merciful to us for his sake who died upon the Cross, etc.  

THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE PASSION.  JOHN. nineteen. 34. 
But one of the Soldiers with a Spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out Blood and Water.  
WE cannot meddle with any part of our Saviour's Body this day but we shall touch a wound; and the greatest of them all without controversy is this in my Text. 
Jo. 20 27  Thomas might put a finger in where the nails had entered; but where the Spear had opened his side Christ bade him thrust in his hand. Of Evils be sure to choose the least, as David did; but of Blessings, such were all the wounds of Christ's Passion, wisdom without art will lead our meditations to the greatest: 
Gen. 14.10.  And as Lot chose the Plain of Jordan to dwell there before all the Land of Canaan besides, because it had variety of Springs of waters: so this wound was the moistest, and had the most plentiful issue of all the five, it gushed out into two streams of blood and water. I have not found such a passage in the Meditations of the Ancients, that they came to drink at the hands or feet of Christ, although the blood trickled down from them also. 
Chrys. homil. in Matt. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  But it is usual with them in their Allegories to speak unto their Soul, as if they laid their mouth unto the side of our Lord, and did draw at it for the Fountain of everlasting life. Did they suppose, said I, that they laid their lips there? Nay Bernard could not satisfy his desire, 
Serm. 30. in Cantica.  till he found a way to lay his heart upon the place; and at length thus he hit upon it: he believed as he had received, that this Soldier's Spear entered at the right side of our Saviour. Now says he, that Elisha stretched his living Body upon the dead Corpse of the Child to raise it again to life: it is a figure that Christ should apply his Body to our body, which is dead in sin, that it might live unto God; his mouth which bled with buffeting, upon our mouth that hath been full of deceit and bitterness; his brows enamelled with the pricks of thorns, upon our heads which have contrived mischief and malice; his hands which were riveted with nails, upon ours, that they may be washed in innocency; his feet upon ours, that have trod in the crooked ways of the Serpent: then the Orifice of this Wound, laying his right side to our left, shall lie directly upon our heart, and cure that part which disperseth iniquity to all the body.  
The other three Evangelists, exact in most circumstances of the Passion, have all omitted this violence done to the dead Body of Christ. surely had they wrote like mere men, you might have thought the long story of these sufferings to be so lamentable, that they could not for very compassion draw it quite out to an end. John says in the next verse, that he saw it done, and that he knows he speaks the truth. Amatus, & amans vulnera Domini, the beloved Disciple that loved the wounds of his Master, and would not let one of them be unrecorded: this is the last wound that the Son of God received, and therefore it is recorded by the last Evangelist. The whole Story is comprised in this one verse, and it will yield us these two points; the malice of the living, and the blessing that came from the dead. The malicious action contains four circumstances. 1. Who was that evil person who did offer ignominy to the Body of Christ, one of the Soldiers. 2. What was the violence he offered, he pierced him with a spear. 3. Upon what part of his Body this fury did light, upon his side. 4. When he smote him: you shall find by the thirtieth verse when he had given up the ghost. In the second general branch, which is the blessing that came from the dead, there is the mystical opening of the Fountain of life, wherein I consider first the two streams severally, Blood and Water. 2. Their Conjunction, Blood and Water together. 3. Their Order, first Blood and then Water. 4. The Readiness of the Fountain that gushed out, the stream could not be stopped, no not for a minute, forthwith there came out Blood and Water. Of these in their order.  
Vnus militum, one of the Soldiers did a despiteful fact upon the Body of Christ. The Romans having the whole Nation of the Jews under their subjection at this time, did gratify them notwithstanding in many things to prevent rebellion; and to satisfy their Law, which forbids their dead to hang upon a tree after Sunset, lest the Land should be defiled. Pilate gave them leave to take away the Bodies this day crucified from the Cross. Wherefore to dispatch the Malefactors, that they might be taken down, two Thiefs had their legs broken, in whom there was life remaining. It seems the chief Centurion would not be more rigid than the Law, to do any further despite to Christ when he was dead already; (yet the cracking of his bones to splinters was the chief thing the Jews intended) but one of the Soldier's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Chrysost.  certainly says the Father for a fee to please the people, thrust a spear into his side. I doubt me that those who delighted in war bore no good will unto our Saviour. His birth was destinated by providence unto the days of peace: his Name was the Prince of Peace, his Doctrine was utterly against the Sword, qui gladium sumpserit gladio ferietur; now see what comes of it when he is fallen into the hands of Soldiers. Joab and the mighty men of the Camp were all for Adoniah, and all against Solomon. Adoniah was like to live in the field as his Father David had done, but Solomon's hand must spill no blood, that it may build up a Temple. The Emperor Probus let a word of meekness slip from him, 
Vopiscus.  equus nascetur ad pacem, he hoped to have horses brought up to do service in peace, and not in war, and the Captains of the Host cut short his days: and so it fared with the great Preacher of Peace. Christ had as good be guarded by one of the Pharisees, as by one of the Soldiers: As Aristotle said of Bees and Swallows, Nec feri sunt generis, nec mansueti; they were neither reckoned among those creatures that were wild, nor those that were tame, but of a middle sort: Such was the condition of these Spear-men, somewhat ruder than civil men, somewhat tamer than Savages, but violent in their disposition as they are pleased or provoked.  

De corona militis.  Yet I am not of Tertullian's mind, to fall out with the whole Profession of Chivalry for one Miscreants sake that pierced my Saviour's side, or for four at the most, as some say, that scourged him. Quis requiescet super lonco, quo perfossum est Christi latus? for by that reason we should fall out with the Priests and High-Priests too, who were deeper interested in the business than the Soldiers: The Sons of Aaron were his first Enemies: as you would say Heretics and corrupt Teachers, that sow Tares among the Wheat, were the first Adversaries against the Church of Christ. The Military men were his last Enemies, they that wounded him in my Text, and belied the truth of his Resurrection afterward, watching at the Sepulchre. So the Battles of usurping Princes put on pestilently to be the last ruin of the Church; Caesaris milites, Caesar's Soldiers, such as these were his Soldiers that would be an Universal Monarch, the Caesar over all the Princes of the earth. Some Expositors out of their respects to the honour of a Martial life, would have this person to be ne unus militum, no Soldier at all rightly called, but by abuse and usurpation: and I think you will say they speak reason when I tell you why. When Hannibal was Master of the field against the Romans, a People of Italy called Brutiani revolted to the Conqueror's side: But fortune turned, and the time came that the Romans had cleared the Coast of the Carthaginians, 
Gell. noct. ● Atti●. lib. 10. cap. 3.  and could take revenge of their Enemies at home, than they neither would let those Brutiani live so happily as in Peace, nor so honourably as to bear Arms in War, but took them along with their Camp, and made them Lictores & Lorarii, that is base Instruments for correction and execution of Malefactors: so that by good conjecture this was but unus è Brutianis, an Executioner, and not a Soldier, but as he lived in the Camp. Now where villainy was bred in the bone, and the condition of the man was to be like Satanas' emissus ad vexandum orbem, appointed to vex all that came into his hands, what could be expected, but that he should thrust his Spear into the bowels of an Innocent. As it was said of Maximinus the Tyrant, who was born a Barbarian both by Father and Mother: in quo fuit conscientia degeneris animi; he did not apply himself to good, because his conscience always told him that his original was base and degenerous.  
Let him be as bad as we would have him, or as good as the Text calls him, he was as we are in one thing, a Gentile, and not a Jew, a Gentile that did malice Christ. The divisions of both those two great Houses did concur to these cruel and dolorous sufferings; that both in their Posterity to the world's end might think themselves indebted to expiate so great an offence: both had an interest in these bloody passions, prosecuting our Saviour's death; ut qui pro persecutoribus oraret, Gentiles non excluderet, says Origen, That since he prayed for his Persecutors, the Gentiles, who were at one end of his Persecutions might be partakers of his Prayers. And the counterfeit Gospel of Nicodemus tells us what success this Gentile had upon our Saviour's most potent Intercession and Prayer for his Enemies. For this Longinus, that name his new Godfathers have given him, having lost the use of one eye long before a little sprinkling of this blood did light upon it, and restore it again. The miracles and the grace of God made him a Christian, and finally a constant profession of him that was crucified made him a glorious Martyr: Whether the Story be true or false I dispute not; 
Super 15. Matth.  this Author knew that there was a possibility we might believe it: For 'tis true that St. Hierom said upon the conversion of many Publicans and Harlots, Christus est succinum ad congregandas sibi stipulas & paleas; many who had copious vices were drawn unto Christ, as the Coral and the Jet draw chaff and straws, and things of the least moment about them.  
Men and Brethren, to this day Christ is crucified, to this day Armed men and Soldiers bend their fury against the Church of Christ, are about his Cross. For as the Philosopher said that an ill man was the worst of all Beasts, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for he was armed with wit and reason to do injustice. So every sinner is not so strong as a Soldier to hurt, nor furnished with ability to be so bad as he would be, he wants a spear to thrust Christ into the side: as Isaiah said of the Army of Senacharib, which threatened sore against the Temple of the Lord, but fell short of their purpose. The Children are come to the birth, and are not able to bring forth. But when I see Power and Authority make the worst use of it to oppress: when I see a pregnant Wit set itself to scoff and libel: when I hear Eloquence whet her tongue to plead against the innocent, alas, say I, this is robusta iniquitas, this impiety is armed with a Spear, the weapons of malice are girt about it, my Saviour and his poor Members are sure to smart for it: Says the Prophet Ezekiel chap. xxxii. they shall go down to Hell with their Weapons of War, that is with their violent and powerful sins. Transgressor's we may be, Soldiers that fight against Heaven I hope we will never be. Cast away the weapons of Satan, and put on the armour of light. I have done with the Person, I come to the Violence offered, lanceâ fodit, he pierced him with a Spear.  
The hand of Jereboam which was stretched out against the man of God dried up, 
1 K. 13.4. Lib. 4. c. 7.  and withered: the hand of the Emperor Valens shook with an extreme Palsy, and could not subscribe to the Banishment of Basil the Great, says Theodoret; but the hand of the Persecutor, which aimed at the Body of Christ himself, that was steadfast, no infirmity in it, no sinew shrunk. Let these go their way, says Christ of his Disciples, when they were all taken together in the Garden; let not these be apprehended: the Shepherd rather than the Sheep, the Master than the Servants; 
Aeneid. 9 Super Psal. 33.  In me convertite ferrum; whosoever escapes, his own flesh shall never flinch at torment. St. Austin asks why his dearest flesh was pierced, and despitefully mangled, but according to the Scriptures, not a bone of him was broken; quia ossa sunt electi, & eorum virtutes, his flesh was the Sacrifice which must be offered upon the Altar of the Cross; but his Elect and their Virtues are understood by his bones, and whatsoever betides himself; yet his Elect, that is his bones, must not be broken. In the Similitude of the Vine, whereunto our Saviour is compared more than once, 
De Passio. Domini.  Bernard hath thus continued the Allegory; that in Circumcision he was vitis praecisa, a Vine that was pruned; and though a little cut, yet no substantial part was wounded. In the captious questions of the Pharisees when they felt his mind, whether he held it lawful to give Tribute unto Caesar, or not, and the like; there he was Vitis circumfossa, a Vine which was under-digged. But when subtle questions proved too weak to undermine his Wisdom, than he was Vitis perfossa, the last malice was to boar the Vine quite through the heart, that it might utterly wither away, and reflourish no more. Weak inventions, and the devices of them that knew not the Scripture, nor the power of God, for it was impossible that he should be held of death. He laugheth at the shaking of a Spear, as Job says of Leviathan.  
The vulgar Translation reads my Text miles aperuit, that the Soldier opened his side, as if the gate of Paradise was now set open, which was shut before against the Sons of men. We read not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he opened, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he pierced him. He made a Schism in the body of Christ, and divided one part of it from the other. O labour for the unity of the Church, decline Faction, as you would shun a Serpent in the path. Every division pierceth through the skin of my Saviour, through the side into the heart. 
Judg. 5.  For the divisions of Reuben are great thoughts of heart. But Fodit lanceâ, so St. Hierom reads. He digged into him with a Spear, a word of Husbandry and fructification. The Plowers ploughed upon my back, and made long furrows, 
Haimo Lorinus. Psa. 21  meaning the scourging that he suffered. Sputis sicut fimo impinguatus. His face was laid over with spital as tilth is spread to fatten the Land. He was drenched in blood like a field that is watered with wholesome springs. They digged into his body like as the ground is turned up to make it fruitful. They digged, and there they found a Treasury which had been long hid, the salvation of the Gentiles, says the Father. 
Hieron.  That you may see Abner a great Prince in Israel in the hands of Joab, who smote him into the fifth rib, here is Christ wounded with the same kind of cruelty, his side was pierced with a Spear.  
I have told you what it is to be a Soldier in Arms against God, and what it is to open and divide the flesh of the Son of God, but what sins are their Spears that are bend against his breast? Producta peccata, sins of long custom and continuance, extensive impieties, such as St. Paul calls the old man, when a sin waxeth upon us like the grey hairs of our age, 
1 Sam. 24.  that is a long Spear in Satan's Artillery. When Saul did first malign at David he cast a Javelin at him, Jaculum Saulis, that was but short and a hasty fit of anger, but when he would never cease to persecute the man of God's right hand, than you shall read of Hasta Saulis, a Spear which David took from the head of Saul. Inveterate malice which will not be reconciled, it is Homer's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I may say a Spear of such a length that one end is above ground, and the point in Hell. one fit of Intemperance in Noah, one Oath in Joseph, one Superstision in John when he fell down before the Angel, these have their turn, and they return no more. Happy Saints which dashed the Babylonish Children against the wall. But there is a sin which doubles in the mouth of the sinner like that of the Edomites against Zion, Down with it, down with it unto the ground. Like Crucifige, crucifige, Crucify, crucify him, as if once would not serve the turn. And there is a treble sin like St. Peter's denial three times over. And there is iniquity of four links as Amos said, For three transgressions, and for four I will not turn away my wrath from Damascus, saith the Lord. Seven Devils went out of Mary Magdalen. Ten times the heart of Pharaoh was hardened. Our Saviour puts the case, if one man offend another, Septuagies septies, Seventy times seven times. There are sins like the staff of Goliah's Spear, 
Serm. 8. de Pass. Dom.  as big as a Weavers Beam. I will tell you what other sins Leo likens unto Spears, and so I will finish this Point. In vain, says he, did the Jews keep their own hands from violence, in vain do they think that they made not the wound, because a Soldier digged his side. Qui venenata vocum spicula, & letalia verborum tela jaciebant; Their teeth were Spears and Arrows, and their tongue a sharp Sword. They shot reproachful speeches like shafts of death as out of a well drawn bow; all blasphemers that revile the Saints are as guilty of this wound as the Soldier that pierced his side with a Spear.  
I must now speak of that part of his body whereon the Spear did light; and to use the Father's Elegancy, Venimus ad cor dulcissimum jesu, & bonum est nobis esse hic; We are come even unto the place where the heart of Jesus lies, and it is good for us to be here. O sacred Passion! O dearest wound! This is a breach for the righteous to enter in, 
Gen. 28.17.  This is none other, as Jacob said, but the gate of heaven. Why did the Watchmen smite thee, as the Spouse said? What did direct their arm to touch that place? How durst an uncircumcised Soldier dare to enter upon thy heart, even upon the Holy of Holies? Literally all this was done lest they had not finished their work of damnation. For no mortal wound had been given to our Saviour before, as some think, and therefore when Joseph came to beg the body for burial, 
Mar xv. 44.  Pilate marvelled if he were dead already; the Jews mistrusted some delusion, and to be sure to dispatch him, a Soldier was suborned to thrust a Spear into his side. As who should say, he talked when he was alive of going to his Father, and that from thenceforth we should see him in power and great glory; no matter whither he go so we be rid of him, as Bassianus said of his brother Geta, Sat divus frater meus, dum non sit vivus. 
Spatian.  Strike him to the heart, and then let God deliver him if he will have him. Delilah enquired diligently of Samson where his strength lay, that she might maim that part of the body, and leave him weak like another man: So these implacable enemies ransacked every part of the body to let out life. If life be in the blood of man, the blood was exhausted many ways. If life be in the brains, as others say, the Crown of thorns was sufficint to offend them; If life be in the heart, there it should have no refuge, for one of the Soldiers pierced his side with a Spear.  
Now you that are babes in Christ, like young ones in the nest, implumes pulli, hatched under the wings of Christ, until you be fledged with feathers of Gold; Behold the tender affection of a true Pelican, hath drawn most precious blood from his breast to revive his young ones. And all you that will enter into the Ark, and be saved from the wrath to come, behold a door is opened in the side that you may enter in. You that want, and have any thing to wish, this is the beautiful gate of the Temple, lie down here, and ask your Alms. One said of our Saviour's hands, 
Lorinus Psal. 145.1.  Non possunt claudi ad beneficia, quia in cruse fixae & apertae sunt; Benefits must drop from them, they cannot keep close because they were opened upon the Cross: So in his side a gate is made that will never be closed against thee. Thomas found it open, and so shall I. You have heard of the Marriage of the Lamb, 
Apoc. 19.7.  and that his Beloved hath made herself ready. Behold the time when he made a Wife unto himself, and when the Marriage was celebrated. For as Adam was cast into an heavy sleep, and then God opened his side, and made woman out of the man while he slept. So, says St. Austin, Christ bowed down his head, as if he did but nod, 
Tractat; in Johan. 120.  and sleep upon the Cross; the side of the Bridegroom was then opened, that with blood and water he might make a Spouse unto himself, which is the body of his Church. Thou hast ravished my heart my Sister, my Spouse, says Christ, 
Cant. 4.9. Septuag.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou hast ravished my heart; as if we had not robbed him of his blood, but of his very heart, so infinitely is he enamoured upon the salvation of his Saints. Vulnerasti cor meum, that interpretation goes current with the Fathers, thou hast wounded my heart my Sister, my Spouse, thou hast wounded my heart. Twice wounded you see: His enemies did wound him, and so did his Beloved. There is a carnal wound, which was done by the violence of the Soldier, there is a spiritual wound which he suffers for compassion of his Elect. Woe worth their malice that rend the wound in his flesh; blessed be his own mercies which made a spiritual wound of love in his heart.  
Why was thy side wounded, O mirror of sufferance, when head, and feet, and hands, and every part of thy body had suffered before? Me thinks He answers, because he would teach us throughly to crucify the old man in our sinful flesh. It is not enough to look to thy feet, and thy paths: It is not enough to set a watch before thy lips, to make a Covenant with thine eyes. Open thy heart, dive into the depth of it, there thou shalt find the root of evil and concupiscence. 
Homil. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  St. Basil reasons seriously, why our Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount, Mat. v. was more earnest to repress the inward corruption of concupiscence in the heart than the outward disordered actions. As for outward sin, says the Father, it cannot be done without attendance of circumstances, opportunity, and time of execution, and yoke-fellows to draw on iniquity with Cartropes, and bodily labour. But the evil thought of the heart is still born without noise, it is conceived with less labour than breathing, it is fruitful at all seasons, it betrays not a demure look; than it boots not to crucify, and afflict, and subdue the whole body, unless the grace of God pierce into the bottom of our heart. But let me ask again, (and it is sweet to question it) Why was thy side wounded O blessed Jesus? Was it not to show that thou didst not love us in tongue, and in word only, but at the very heart? John the Disciple did but lean upon his breast, and yet he carries the title away from them all, Discipulus amatus, the Disciple whom he loved. The breast was shut when John did lean upon it; now his side is opened, his Elect may go into his very bowels; and see how he loved them. The Use is proper for the place we are in, for the world slanders the Court much, or else there is more protestation of good will than sound affection among you. Court holy water is an ancient byword, your consciences know best whether you deserve it, God and his Christ have given you a most notable example to amend it: It was not enough for our Saviour to stretch out his hands, as if he would embrace us; nor yet to pray earnestly, and forgive us, but to show what the love of a Christian should be to a Christian, he suffered the precious Casket to be broken open, and let us see his heart.  
Yea, I will ask but this once, why was thy side pierced and opened O sweet Redeemer? Was it to set up a mark for our devotion? That we may lay our mouth spiritually at it, 
Chrys. John Homil.  and suck at the fountain of eternal life? Thomas touched it with his hand, and it proved to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ a demonstration for belief: O taste and try how sweet the Lord is. Let us be called dogs, such dogs as the Canaanitish woman was, full of faith, so we may lick these wounds as the dogs did the sores of Lazarus. 
Socrat. lib. 1. c. ●.  Constantine the Emperor kissed the hollow pit of Paphnusius eye, kissed it often, which had been plucked out for the profession of the Gospel. The Jailor washed the stripes of Paul and Silas. The wounds of them that suffer for the name of Christ are the wounds of Christ himself; let them be more honourable to us than the most unspotted beauty in the world. To end this Point. We read of blessed souls under the throne of God, 
Apoc. 6.9.  there they are safe and happy; we read of Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, 
Bernard in hymnis.  there he found refreshment. But I, even I, says Bernard, will direct my soul unto this gaping wound, thither it shall fly, I will take my aim at it; Hora mortis meus slatus intret jesu tuum latus. A door it is, but a narrow door, cast away the superfluity of sin, and the immoderate care for things of this world. These are great burdens upon our back, and a Camel cannot enter in at the side of Christ; but especially, they that look to pass through a raw and a tender part, must not have the thorns of malice about them lest they tear and offend the wound of Christ. It is a wound of love, and by antipathy would bleed afresh if the malicious should approach unto it.  
The fourth and last circumstance of the Soldier's violence is now to be scanned that pierced ejus latus, Christ's side when he had given up the Ghost. A carkess bereft of life is no more a man, but the image of a man. Now, as some have expressed their malice against their enemy's Image, when his person was out of their reach, as the Antiochians broke the Statues of the Empress Pulcheria for anger: 
Theod. lib. 5. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  So the Soldier runs his Spear at an Image, at a shadow, at the cold body of him who was stiff and dead. A stout Soldier I wiss, such a one as Aristophanes gibed at, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  he dare kill none but him that is slain already. For with whom doth this Champion fight? The divine nature of Christ is uncapable of a wound negatively, unless he confounded the natures of our Saviour with Eutyches, and thought the Son of God to be passive, to have been scourged and crucified. Which opinion when one of his Sectaries would have propounded to Philarchus an Orthodox man: 
Theodorus Anagnos. lib. 2.  Philarchus did thus ingeniously put him off, and told him that he had haste of other business and could not intend him, for even hard before he had received Letters that Michael the Archangel was dead. That is a Fable, replies the Eutychian, an Archangel is not subject to frailty and mortality. Is not an Angel, replies Philarchus? And would you persuade me that the Deity of Christ is mutable and obnoxious to change? Ejus latus then did not concern the nature of God; and for the nature of man the part being bereft of a soul, as well he might have smote his Spear upon the trunk of the Cross.  
Well might Isaiah say that he was a Lamb dumb before the Shearers, could any Lamb be more dumb? His teeth were set, his mouth closed up, as the world thought, for ever, and yet is Christ in the hands of the Shearer. I will scourge him, says Pilate, and let him go. What Pilate? Think you that such Adversaries will be answered with a scourging? Though you crucify him they will not let him go. Who knows what immanity had been shown if Joseph had not hasted to take down the body? The living, it was wont to be said, the living are they at whom malice shoots, and not the dead, Livor post fata quiescit. Nay such as could never obtain a good report from the world, while they lived among us, fame hath renowned them when they were laid in their graves: As Theodoret said of St. Chrysostom, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was more desired after his death than when he daily lived among them. Our Saviour was not so lucky; his Persecutors are the same first and last, both while he breathes, and when his Soul was departed: in his Examination they change his Raiment, and put a Reed in his hand, and then they mock him. As he was drawing on, and at the last gasp of life, they say he called upon Elias, as if he had prayed to Saints, and then they mocked him: and when he bowed down his head like fruit which is mellow ripe, and drooping off from the Tree, than a Soldier thrust a Spear into his side. Most savage men, they sport themselves with that flesh which is the eternal glory of our nature.  
And what cause was in it that Christ would suffer this after passion? what fruit was there of such a Wound? for the Schoolmen say, the Church was not redeemed with the blood which came out of this Wound, neither was it washed clean with this water, quia post mortem non est locus meriti; after the Epilogue of his bloody Agony, that he cried out all was finished, no part of his Passion, say they, was meritorious. What need we subscribe to so much curiosity? but the fruit even of this Wound was threefold. First to show that Christ doth compassionate, and hath a fellow-feeling with the Members of his Church unto the ends of the World. Think you that he never was wounded since he was taken down from the Cross; yes, he was a Lamb slain from the beginning of the World, and is a Lamb that will be wounded unto the ends of the World. Why did you not feed me, and clothe me you uncharitable? Matth. xxv. Why do you persecute me Saul? Acts ix. he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye, Zach. two. O what a tender thing it is, not only to be in the body, but in the very eye of Christ, in the apple of his eye? are not the bowels as tender as the eye; perchance more tender. 
In imagine ejus excusâ.  Therefore a Christian Poet said of Savanorola the Martyr, that Christ did beg to have his own Bowels saved, that they might not be consumed with fire. Parcite, sunt isto viscera nostra rogo. 2. If they have called the Master Beelzebub, what will they call the Servants? if they have ignominiously abused the dead Body of Christ, then certainly Tyrants will dishonour the dead Bodies of his Servants. But what were Wicklif, or Bucer, or Fagius, the worse for it? We that live feel the indignity done unto them says St. Austin, 

De cura pro mort.  
Cicer. Tus. lib. 2.   but they have no feeling of it themselves: no passion affecteth the dead for this disgrace: but we are they that are affected with compassion. Lysimachus in Tully threatened Theodorus to crucify him, and to let his body rot upon the Tree; meâ nihil refert, humi ne an sublimis putrescam, says Theodorus; a poor revenge, what is it to me, whether my body rot under ground, or above ground? If Heathen men were so resolute, that accounted the body quite lost, then will we be much more courageous, whose Saviour was so despitefully handled in times past, and who have hope of the Resurrection in times to come. 3. The art of patience and sufferance it is instar omnium, none so useful as it to them who must take up the Cross: would you be ready for the fiery Trial as Paul was, when he was wrapped up into the third Heavens; whether in the body, or out of the body he knew not? would you pass by your torment in the flesh, as Christ did this wound which he never felt: Consepeliamur cum Christo, let us die with Christ, let us be buried with Christ, Colos. two. 12. If two sleep together they have heat, says Solomon, but how can he be warm that is alone. True, says St. Ambrose, si duo dormiant, if you sleep with Christ, 
Ep. 16.  your faith will be warm, your courage warm: Frigidus est qui non moritur cum Christo, he shall be bitten with frost, he shall be nipped with every storm that doth not sleep, that doth not die with Christ. Give me any other reason if you can, 
Bernard de Pass. Dom.  why the Martyrs went oftener to death with Psalms in their mouths, than with tears in their eyes, but because they were dead unto the World. And what is it to them that are dead, though a Soldier thrust a Spear into their side?  
I have done with the first general Part containing four Circumstances of the Malice of the living. Now let us lay our mouth to the sacred Stream, the blessing which issued from the dead, forthwith came thereout blood and water. This is the Honeycomb that came out of the Carcase of Samson's Lion▪ this is it, even the price of our sins, which is the blood of the Lamb. At Evening you say it will be fair weather, for the sky is red, as you shall find it prognosticated, Matth. xuj. 
Qu. Evang. lib. 1.  How is it made red? or how doth the day grow clear? rubet coelum Christi sanguine, says St. Austin, our Redeemer hath dipped his blood upon the Sky, as upon the door posts, Exod. xii. and then the day is clear, the Sun of consolation shines upon us. 
Levit. 4. ●.  When an Offering for sin was offered up, the Priest was commanded to dip his finger in blood, and to sprinkle it seven times before the Lord, septies sanguis, no less would serve the turn: and think you that Christ did fail in this perfect number? no not once, if you will count it. 1. He was circumcised, and there was blood. 2. He sweat in the Garden not without drops of blood. 3. He was buffeted upon the mouth, that must needs draw blood: Then the scourge upon his back, the thorns plaited upon his head, the nails driven into his feet and hands; those three likewise could not be without great effusion of blood. At the seventh and last time a Soldier thrust a Spear into his side, and then came forth a stream of blood. The heart of man hath entangled itself with seven deadly sins, like the Woman of Samaria, seven had taken her to wife: according to the number of the capital sins, seven times did Christ lay down the price of a Ransom, seven times the blood was sprinkled before the Lord: but when I say seven, I do not exclude many more, it is numerus finitus pro infinito. The rich man in the Gospel besought Father Abraham, that he would send Lazarus with his finger dipped in water to cool his tongue. There was a foul mistake in the Petition, to ask for water, why not rather for blood? 'tis blood that quencheth the fire, which without it is unquenchable.  
And yet there is some use of water. O the use of it is excellent and unvaluable, therefore water also came from the side of Jesus. It is a wonder that this dolorous Passion of our Lord did not call for fire to rain upon Jerusalem, as it fell down upon Sodom and Gomorrah; which lest it should be, here was a pipe of water opened to quench the wrath of God. Four great Rivers were little enough to water the Garden of Eden, this little Spout is enough to water all the World: for when all other Interpretations fail us, the Stream that bubbled out of the side of Christ is the water above the Heavens; all Israel drank of the Rock in the Wilderness, every Soul which was a thirst drank. What a copious deflux was that? So all the Israel of God may drink of the spiritual Rock, his Spring is no less abundant, and that spiritual Rock is Christ: A spiritual Rock did Paul say? he was used no better than if he had been a very Rock of Stone. 
Exod. 17.  As Moses struck the Rock with his Staff, so was the Body of Christ with a Spear, and water gushed out apace. Now at several times there was a threefold passage of water in our Saviour, sudoris, lacrymarum, lateris, the one when he sweat in the Garden; the second was the distillation of tears, and the third was this Fountain which was opened in his side. Put the seven Issues of blood, and the three Issues of water together, and here are ten Drink-offerings according to the number of the Ten Commandments which we have broken.  
Divinity is nothing else but a Tractate of admiration; and lo a Miracle, the last of Christ's Miracles before he was buried: as the first Miracle which he wrought was by the Element of Water at Cana in Galilee, so his last Miracle was in Water which came out of his side: for that this was no natural Issue they know full well that have tried Dissections and Anatomies. And where did you ever read that an Apostle urged the truth of that which he recited so far, that he knew his record was true, and that the thing was done that we might believe; I say where did you ever meet with such a Protestation in the Bible, if the thing entreated of were not a Miracle? The sweat was miraculous in the Garden, the blood was miraculous which streamed afresh from the dead body, so was this gush of water from his side most supernatural: whether some inward part of Christ was resolved into this Element of a sudden, or whether it was newly created for the purpose, let them dispute it, who love to seek that which they can never find. But I am sure the water was miraculous; and far be it from us to think that it was not water, as some have doubted, but a spumeous phlegmatic humour. As Christ himself is truth, and not appearance, so this humour had not the name and appearance only, but the essence of water. There are three that bear record on earth, says St. John, the Spirit, the Water, and Blood; the Spirit which he gave up when he groaned his last, and that was a true Spirit; the Blood that drilled down from him, and that was true Blood; the Water that leakt out of his side, and that was very Water. So much of the two Streams severally considered; now I come to the Conjunction, Blood and Water.  
For his love could bring forth no less than Twins, sanguis & aqua: if he would undergo the Law, was it not sufficient that he was circumcised and wounded in the flesh? but he was baptised also in Jordan, there was satisfaction both by Blood and Water. When he suffered the sharp Agony in the Garden, water alone had been a sign of a terrible conflict with his Father, but there trickled from him blood and water. When the whip did tear his flesh, and the thorns enter into the quick, many do modestly suppose that He mingled tears with blood; and then at every passion there was blood and water. John Baptist was the Forerunner of the Bridegroom, he came only in water; the Martyrs were the friends of the Bridegroom, they came in blood: Christ is the Bridegroom himself, and he came in blood and water. When the Spouse was asked what a one her Wellbeloved was, Cantic. 4. she answered he was white and ruddy; white in water, and ruddy in blood: not by water alone, says our Apostle, Ep. 1. chap. 5. that had made but half a Mediator; but by water and blood. Sanguis ejus super nos was the cry of the miscreant people, they condemned him in blood. Pilate pronounced the Sentence, but washed his hands at it; he condemned him in water. Let them behold whom they have pierced, says Zachary: let his Judge and Accusers behold their fact in one, 
Zach. 12.10.  in blood and water.  
I told you of the Miracle before; now I will tell you of the Mystery of this work, or rather of the Mysteries, for they are more than one: 
Tract. in Jo. 120. Tolet. omnia.  aperuit ostium miles unde Sacramenta Ecclesiae manârunt, that's St. Augustine's observation; the door was opened, and the Sacraments of the Church issued out: What all of them? it seems he knew of no more: the Sacraments of the Church came forth with Blood and Water: For as the Romanists make Bread serve the people by a Synecdoche for the whole Supper of the Lord, so Blood by a Synecdoche in this place stands for all that Sacrament. There was Divinity even in the cold stream that flowed from the side of Christ, and it speaks like the blood of Abel; as if he had said, away with your Paschal Lamb, cease hereafter the circumcision of the flesh; blood and water shall take place now, I deliver them to be your Sacraments: you shall be born again by water, and you shall be fed with that Cup which is the New Testament in my blood: but why blood? and wherefore water says St. Ambrose? 
Lib. 4. de Sacra.  this question will bring on a second Mystery, aqua ut emundaret, sanguis ut redimeret: wretched Babes we were brought forth into this world, as Elisha brought the Aramites blind into the midst of Samaria among their Enemies. Shall I smite them, my Father? shall I smite them, says the King of Israel? O no, says Elisha, use them friendly, and set bread and water before them. Thus I say we were born obstinati ad peccatum, destinati ad judicium, polluted with iniquity, bound over to condemnation. Shall I smite them says Justice now I have them here? shall I consume them at once? O no says our blessed Master, I will wash away their pollutions with water, and make them white as snow: I will redeem them from condemnation, and lay down blood for blood. Here is a strain of courtesy far higher than that of Elisha's, not bread and water, but water and blood. Moses was sent to deliver Israel out of captivity, he was tractus ex aquis, as his name tells us, saved out of a River where he was cast to be drowned; he came by water: but the deliverance stuck a long time, and could not go forward, Moses' Miracles, Aaron's Eloquence, the Plagues upon Pharaoh, all could do no good, until the door-posts were smitten with the blood of the Lamb. First Moses in water, and then the Lamb in blood: their Redemption was made perfect in blood and water. And these two streams at the last cast were enough to drown an Heresy, which Christ knew would spring up like a Tare among the Wheat. That's the third Mystery. Martion he foresaw would doubt of the truth of his body, whether his substance was flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone, or but an airy fantastic I know not what: Nay surely it had an elementary composition, for here was water; and it had the composition of the humours, for here was blood: 
Aquin. 3. P. 9.167.  so Aquinas and the School Divines consider it, even for this cause as a fountain of providence, that for conviction of Heresy his side was pierced, and etc.  
But while I consider these two Blessings as they are Miracles and Mysteries, so they are extra nos, coming from Christ, but not coming to us: but upon some application you shall find them intra nos, lying at every man's conscience: First, that which was blood and water in Christ must be tears of much anguish for your sins in you, and true compunction of heart. I do not ask for a sullen grief in Nabal, which smothers the heart in desperation, and cannot vent itself in a weeping eye. I do not ask for the weeping eye of a Crocodile, which is not commanded by the compunction of the heart: that were like gideon's Fleece, which was wet when the Floor was dry; but I ask for Mary magdalen's eye melting into tears, and for David's sinful heart melting in his breast like wax; the one is the root, and the other the fruit of repentance, blood and water: Quicquid Christus in corpore, mater sustinuit in cord, every stroke that did fall upon the body of Christ did light upon the heart of the blessed Virgin Mary. So who can think upon that which she did suffer, but must suffer as much as she did think? my pride, my gluttony, my wantonness, my blasphemy, my oppression, my profaneness; what have you done? do you know whom you have killed? O no, Father forgive them. My sins knew not what they did: now they weep for it, now they are pricked in heart, and that's my blood and water.  
Secondly that which was blood and water in Christ, what is it more in us? amor erga Deum caritas erga proximum; it shall be in me a provocation toward the fulfilling of the whole Law, to love God and my Neighbour. St. Paul speaks of a resistance unto blood; and who is he that is dearer unto me than my blood but my Redeemer Christ? Our Saviour speaks of giving my Alms away; or if I have nothing else in store, let me give but a Cup of cold water, for his name's sake, and it shall not lose a reward. And who are they that must have my water, my alms, yea a plentiful gift from my hands? it is my Brother, my Neighbour; or if you will love him better for God's sake than for your own sake, he is one of the Members of Christ: Martyrdom is welcome for Christ's sake, my love shall express itself in any good office for my Brother's sake, Martyrdom and Charity are my blood and water.  
Thirdly, and so you shall have your full doses of these two streams: sanguis valet contra iram, aqua contra libidinem. Remember this last Application: all our sensual and brutish affections are drawn into two heads by Philosophy, the irascible part, which is rectified by patience and endurance of evil, and the concupiscible part which is rectified by abstaining from that which is an apparent, and a deceitful good: if your stomach fret within you, and malign at tribulation when the Cross of Christ is laid upon you, prick the angry vein to save the Soul, let out the blood of an impatient heart: if your appetite be intemperate, your concupiscence effeminate, dry up the body by fasting, parch it even like a Bottle that is hung in the smoke. Venus' orta mari; drain out those superfluous streams that surcharge the body: sufferance of evil, and abstinence from the baits of pleasures, these are my blood and water. And so much touching the Conjunction of these two streams. Now I come in a word to the Order, first blood, and then water.  
Some may say to the blood here, as the Midwife did to Pharez, who strived to come into the world before Zarah his Brother, Why didst thou make a breach? why art thou the first? Malice, Beloved is ever full of confusion, it heeds not where it begins, nor how it proceeds to vengeance: but blessings are like fruit taken in their season, they descend in their order, as in this place by blood and water. For do but consider how these two were applied even now to the several virtues of a Christian, and you shall find that blood hath the preeminence, and deserves the first place: for is not compunction of heart better than sorrowful tears? is not martyrdom for God's sake better than charity to our Neighbour? is it not a greater conquest to suffer evil patiently, than to abstain from deceitful good? aquâ vocati, sanguine electi; is not Election better than Vocation? If all these Comparisons hold, as I think they do, blood is preeminent in way of blessing above water. 2. Here were the great Legacies paid unto the World, the two Testaments upon the death of the Testator. The Covenant of the old Testament was continued by Sacrifice, renewed by Circumcision, altogether confirmed by effusion of blood. Well, the Covenant of the New Testament is established in Baptism, in the Pool of water. O what a comely thing is Order! God kept it in his very death, the Old Law was first drawn dry in the Blood, and the New Law succeeds it in the stream of Water: and I like his Meditation well that said, our Saviour had first uttered out every drop of blood from his veins, ut nos ad bibendum de aquâ aeternae vitae invitaret, to invite us from thenceforth to drink of the water of everlasting life.  

Lorinus 1 Ep. Joh. cap. 5.  Our Romish Adversaries stand much upon that which I handle now; for say they, if the two Sacraments had been precisely out of Christ's side, then St. John would have made his Relation thus, A Soldier pierced his side, and there came out Water and Blood: for Baptism is our beginning in the Church, our first milk, and after that, when we know how to examine ourselves, as St. Paul says, than we come to the Supper of the Lord; just so as they would have it. Aquinas, a sure man of their own side, compares the Sacraments in this wise: Baptism is a Sacrament of the greatest necessity of the twain, the Supper of the Lord is of more perfection, though not of so much necessity. Well then, since we must aim at perfection, as the Apostle says, why might not Christ give the first place to that which makes us perfect, and the second place to that which is first in time, but lag in perfection? nay rather than we should make use of this Text for no more than a yoke of Sacraments, they will allow it to be a Figure of none but of the Supper of the Lord; for their wine is dashed with water in their Chalice, and this Text is the Authority for it, blood and water. I am sure the letter of the Scripture is on our side, that use pure wine in the Eucharist, de fructu geniminis; I do not read that Christ gave his Disciples ought but wine to drink: I deny not but some of the ancient Fathers concur with them; but it is apparent I can make no better excuse: they forsake the Letter, and build upon an Allegory. He that feeds upon the Letter of the Text feeds upon Manna; he that lives by the Allegory, feeds upon licious Quails. Israel may desire such curious food, but God was better pleased when they were contented with Manna. I have done with the Order  
The period of all in a word is the readiness of the Fountain, which could not be stopped for a moment: Forthwith came thereout blood and water. Love is no delaier, no protractor of time, ready to do good, speedy in execution: good deeds did not hang in our Saviour's fingers, as they do with many of us; our hands unclasp to part with any thing, like a lock that's rusty, and goes hard, you can scarce open it. Abraham's forwardness in entertaining the Angels, and the dispatch that he made, is as much commended as his hospitality, Gen. xviii. Abraham, says the Text, hastened to the Tent to Sarah. 2. Sarah made ready quickly three measures of fine meal. 3. Abraham ran to the Herd for a tender Calf. 4. Abraham's young man did haste to dress it; nemo piger est in domo caritatis, not a slothful person, not a protractor of time in all the House of Charity. Such expedition did our Saviour make to express his love to the World; he yields up his body in the flower of his age, not a wrinkle in his brow, not a grey hair in his head, he made haste to suffer. Judas, says he, what thou dost do it quickly; as who should say, I know thy heart is against me, and that thou wouldst sell me into mine enemy's hand, yet for old acquaintance sake do me the courtesy to protract no time, what thou dost do it quickly. There past but a little time from midnight to midday betwixt his Attachment, his Arraignment, and his Execution. This was a Paschal Lamb eaten in haste, as God gave Moses in charge, for the Lord will hasten you out of Egypt. And to come to the instance in my Text, his joints were stiff and cold, the moisture of his body congealed, long it would be, I should have thought, before a few drops of liquor could come forth, with much violence and chafing the flesh. O but the Testator was dead, his Sacraments are the Seals of his mercy, wherewith he assures his Promises unto us, and he would not have the World stay one whit for their Legacies, capiat qui capere potest, out it gusheth like a torrent, and forthwith came thereout blood and water.  
All you that thirst for the living God be as ready to drink, as he was to give, else we are magis mortui quam mortuus, as dead as death itself, and past recovery. Repent you, but instantly; make restitution of all things wrongfully gotten, but instantly; be reconciled to your enemies, stick not at it, but instantly; instantly I say, but continue those instants unto your lives end. Our Saviour compared his love towards Jerusalem to a Hen that gathers her Chickens under her wings: let this Comparison be the Pattern of our love to Christ: You know the Hen must not sit for a spurt, and be gone, than her eggs addle, and the Brood is spoiled. Take the application unto your conscience: nourish the good motions of God's spirit in your heart, sit upon them as the Hen doth upon her Brood, that they may quicken in you by a lively faith. We had need to do it; for as Christ was sudden and made haste to express his love, so he is sudden and will make haste to judgement. Surely I come quickly, they are the close of our Bible. Even so come Lord Jesus, and prepare us for thy second coming, that we who drink at thy mystical Wound here, may be satisfied with thy goodness as out of a River in thy Kingdom of glory. AMEN.   

THE THIRD SERMON UPON THE PASSION.  GEN. xxii. 13. 
And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a Ram caught in a thicket by his horns; and Abraham went, and took the Ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his Son.  
THe place where this memorable Sacrifice was offered up had a name given unto it by Abraham in the next verse to that which I have read, Deus in monte videbatur, or Deus in monte apparuit; which is interpreted, God is seen, or God did appear in the Mount; 
Sup. Gen. hom. 9 c. 21.  from which name Origen raiseth this Meditation, Nihil hic corporeum sentias, sed quae Scripta sunt in spiritu videas. Do not think in the story of this Sacrifice that you see a Ram, or that you see Isaac, you must apprehend it in Spirit, and believe that you see nothing but the Oblation of the Son of God upon the Cross. To this end our Church hath made this Chapter one of the Lessons for this day, the first that was read in Morning Service, and I have warrant that the practice was ancient, because I find it was so in St. Augustine's days, 
Serm. de Temp. 71.  for excusing himself that he had not expounded this Scripture to his Auditors all the time of Lent. He gives this reason In Vigiliis Paschae propter Sacramentum dominicae passionis reservatur; it was ordained to be handled upon a Good Friday, because of the mystery of our Saviour's Passion.  
There is a Text, John viij. 56. which Christ allegeth to the Pharisees, Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad. Which of his days? Or when did he see it? It is not mentioned, I confess, and that makes a variance among Expositors. 
Extra 43. in Johan.  St. Austin glosseth upon it, that Abraham and all the Prophets had a Revelation of the Incarnation. St. Hierom conceives it to be that day when the mystery of the Trinity was opened unto him, 
Sup 8. Dan  Gen. xviii. Tres vidit & unum adoravit; He saw three Angels, and worshipped but one. But divers whom I could name, especially St. Ambrose, 
St. Chrys. hom. 54. in Johan.  that wrote whole Books upon the story of Abraham, say, that my Text was the glass wherein he saw that joyful day. Vidit diem immolationis in Ariete; He saw the day wherein Christ was crucified for our Redemption in this Ram that was burnt upon the wood instead of Isaac; 
Ambr. lib. 1.  and shall not the Children of Abraham look so far into this Type to see the Oblation for our sins which is past and gone already, 
Abrah. c. 8.  when Father Abraham so many years before did discern the day to come? Elevemus oculos, as it is specified of him in my Text; let us lift up our eyes, and look about, and we shall find it plainly dividing the whole Text into these three parts: 1. Here is Studium sollicitum, a careful and a solicitous heart upon the matter, Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked. 2. Here is Presens auxilium, help at an instant, in the best opportunity, behold, behind him a Ram caught in a Thicket by his horns. 3. Here is Sacrificium succedaneum, one Sacrifice answering for another, or coming in the place of another, as it is in the words following, and Abraham went and took the Ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his Son. Every one of these shall be subdivided, as we handle them in order, the leading part of the three is Studium sollicitum, the carefulness and solicitousness of Abraham, That he lifted up his eyes and looked.  
Isaac was not nearer to be slaughtered, when the Sacrificing knife was at his throat, than we were to be condemned, when God was wrath with all the Posterity of Adam for the disobedience of that one man, but the timely voice of mercy was heard from heaven, the Angel of the Covenant appeared, as if he had said, Miserebor cujus miserebor; the remnant of the Election are appointed to be spared. Isaac shall live; God hath spoken it, and he shall not see destruction, then at the instant when the Angel bad, Save the Child, and lay no violent hands upon him, than Abraham lifted up his eyes: So that the first emergent observation is this, It was Gestus benedicentis, 
Gen. 4.6.  The gesture of him that blessed the Lord because his mercy was revealed. Indeed, if God had not said that Isaac, and in him the promised seed should live, our countenances would look like death, and be cast down as cain's was, guiltiness would not let the sinner look towards heaven, for corruption cannot enter into these incorruptible places; our transgressing Parents withdrew from the Lord into the thicket of the Garden, and could not abide to appear. 
Gloss. ord.  Nuditatem non audebant ostendere talibus oculis, quae displicebat & suis; They durst not show their shame and nakedness to such glorious eyes which was irksome to themselves. 
2 Kin. 20.2.  Hezekiah turned his face to the wall when his doom was told him, that he must die and not live. And our Saviour doth insert that passage into the story of the Publican, 
Luke 18.3.  surely afflicted for his sins, that he would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, all did not please him that he saw there, be it never so glorious a body. As St Basil spoke like an eloquent Orator in his Homily concerning Paradise, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Rose was a delightful flower, but it made him ashamed to use it, because that thorns and pricks grew upon it, Gods curse for the sin of man. So the firmament of heaven showeth the chief handiwork of the Maker, yet to some it is a dreadful sight, because the God of vengeance will show himself from thence when he comes to judge the earth. As David said to Absalon, the Son of his displeasure, let him turn to his own house, and let him not see my face: So the severity of God said unto man, In terram reverteris, turn again into your own place, from whence you came, into dust and clay, but you shall not lift up your head to stand before me in the Kingdom of my glory. O but mercy begged the life of Isaac, Et levavit oculos, And Abraham lifted up his eyes. Anatomists say, that there is one Nerve more descending from the brain to the eye of man than in any beast, that it may turn up it seems with greater readiness and facility. Now to stand gazing up into heaven, a thing which the Angel reproved in the Disciples, Acts i 11. but as if the voice of the tongue, and the affection of the heart were encircled in the eye, to laud and magnify his name that remitted vengeance, and spared our soul from death. I approve the old Philosophy, Visus fit intramittendo species; but allowing this divinity, Visus fit extramittendo gratias; if nothing else, yet an eflux of thanks goes out of the eye when we look up to heaven. At the cxx Psalms begin those Psalms of David which are called the Songs of degree. And see by what steps he marcheth up in those degrees to the Mercy Seat of God. In the cxx Psal. I cried unto the Lord in my distress, there his voice ascended. In the cxxi. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, there his eye ascended. cxxii. Our feet shall stand in the gates of Jerusalem, there his feet ascended. cxxiii. Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens, at every other step or degree his eyes are cast up; for Christ hath not only opened the Kingdom of heaven, but also opened our eyes, and put courage into all believers to look up unto the Kingdom of heaven, and therefore as I said, it is gestus benedicentis, the gesture of him that blesseth the name of the Lord.  
Secondly, It is gestus admirantis, an expression of wonder and astonishment, Abraham's heart was full, so overcome with the loving kindness of the Lord, that he stood dumb, and knew not what to say, but in admiration of his mercy lift up his eyes to heaven, as if these thoughts did rise up in Abraham's fancy, Sarah the Mother of my Son did muse how a Child could be born unto her, in her old age, but she did ill to laugh because the Lord had spoke it; then give me leave to ponder how this Child can live any more when the mouth of God hath spoken that he must be sacrificed for a burnt offering? Nay, O Lord, Non unum redimis sed unitatem; In this act thou dost not so much redeem this one from death, as the unity of all the faithful in this one; all those Nations that shall be blessed in my name, wilt thou spare them all as thou sparest Isaac? What are our merits? What justice is in us? What is man that thou wilt not visit him with indignation? Thus the soul of Abraham was in an ecstasy to consider the mercy of God, wonder had possessed him, we see it in this cast of his eye, that he looked up to heaven. When the Lord turned the Captivity of Zion than we were like unto them that dream, says the Prophet. The deliverance was so fortunate, so much it did outstrip their hope, that they did receive it at first, not as that which was done indeed, but as a delightful dream. As Livy, relating how the Grecians were strangely strucken with sudden joy, upon the day when the Romans sent them unexpected liberty, says he, Mirabundi velut somni speciem arbitrabantur; they thought it was a pleasing vision in their sleep, and not the happiness of them that were broad awake: So when God did really make good that Promise which the Devil pretended, that he would bring about, Non moriemini; You shall not die. The faithful Patriarch knew not how to apprehend it at the first, but his eye did testify that his soul was ravished with the mercies of the Lord. The wicked shall not end half his days, the seed of the ungodly shall be rooted out, eternal fire is prepared hereafter for them that shall be turned over to the Devil, and his Angels, there shall be much wrath and vengeance every where among the dwelling places of the unrighteous, but as for Isaac, and they that are born according to the Spirit, Noli tangere, says the Angel, the hand of violence shall not come near them; as the Poet in his Eclogue brings in Melibaeus wondering at the clemency of Cesar to his fellow-shepherd, when all the neighbour-Cottages were burnt and wasted, Vndique totis usque adeò turbatur agris: So when God shall work so much destruction in the world, redemption is an admirable thing where it lights. John Baptist, as we read it in the vulgar Latin, blazeth out with two notes of astonishment, one upon another, Ecce Agnus Dei, ecce qui tollit peccata mundi: Behold the Lamb of God, I and again, Behold him that taketh away the sins of the world. In two respects it is to be wondered at, without any prejudice to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or fullness of our faith, as I will show by the examples of two memorable women in holy Scripture. Whence is it that the mother of my Lord comes unto me, says Elizabeth? Why did she marvel at it? 
Beda in Luc.  Quia non sui meriti, sed divini fatetur esse muneris, says Beda; because it was a favour of mere grace, and not a recompense of merit. And again, the blessed mother of our Saviour astonished at the Angel's message, that she should conceive and bear a Son; Quomodo, says she? How shall these things come to pass? Tanquam certa de facto querit de modo fiendi, 
Lira.  as it is the common answer, She was sure it should be so, she marvelled how it should be so, and that was a blameless admiration. Both these passions did Abraham suffer, he knew there was no worth in man, that God should release him from condemnation, he knew not the manner what should be paid for his ransom, his eye did fix itself upon the throne of God to find the mystery out, and so you see it was Gestus admirantis, the expression of wonder and astonishment, that Abraham lifted up his eyes.  
Thirdly, It is Gestus inquirentis, besides that he lifted up his eyes, he looked about him from the tops of Moriah, it is the demeanour of him that did seek out for a Sacrifice to be offered up unto the lord 
Sen. Ep. 13.  Reges Parthes' non potest quisquam salutare sine munere, says he; No man was admitted to salute the Parthian Kings, unless he brought some Present in his hands, so because Abraham came to this Mountain to worship before the Angel of the Lord, he looked, and enquired for some Oblation, that he might not turn back until he had laid a gift upon the Altar. Many will lift up their eyes, but they list not to seek an Offering for the Lord. Such are best pleased with devotion when it comes off with as little cost as may be. Nay, says David, when Araunah would have born his charges, I will not sacrifice to God of that which shall cost me nothing. An Objection is framed in the School, that the Piety of the Jews was more acceptable to God than the piety of Christians, because they in their daily Service were at great expense to provide beasts for the Altar, we are at no such charge in our Spiritual Worship, it is enough if we offer up a broken heart in mortification, a thankful heart in Praise, and a devout heart in Prayer: But this puts not our Purse to any trial like the Oblations of the Jews. To cancel and wipe out this opposition it is answered, that we supply that charge of the Sacrifice of beasts, In Sacrificio Eleemosynarum, in the Sacrifice of Alms to the poor. The hand must look about it where to give, as well as the eye look upward where to be thankful. A distribution to the wants of the needy it is Pro sacrificio, and prae sacrificio, in place of sacrifice, and to be preferred before all sacrifices. Mercy is a better Oblation than a Beast that is slain [this day] you know how much was paid for the price of your redemption, but not the price of corruptible things, as Silver and Gold. Spare, O spare some portion of that which you spend profusely in the consumption of vanity at this solemn time of redemption, to redeem the distressed in Prisons that are fast bound in misery and iron. Look about you as Abraham did and you shall find I assure you Arietes prehensos in Vepribus. Ram's shall I say? Nay, they have scarce any fleece upon their back, but they are catched fast poor Souls by the horns in the Thicket, thence they cannot stir unless Abraham will take them, and offer them up for an Oblation to the Lord. Above all other casts of the eye this same Gestus inquirentis pleaseth me best to look about that we may present some gift upon the Altar; to frame a collocution with our own soul, as David did, What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits? And so you have the first part, Abraham's care and solicitous heart, He lifted up his eyes and looked.  
It follows, here is presens' auxilium, his necessities are supplied at an instant, behold behind him a Ram caught in a thicket by his horns. In holy Scripture Verba and res both words and things are considerable one with another: So it is here, the word is Ecce, a note of attention bestowed upon the Text, the thing is Aries, a Ram bestowed upon Abraham. And that you may know him from all the Flocks in the world, there are two Marks set upon him. The one more obscure, that he is Aries post eum, a Ram that was behind him; such a one as was without a figure to be offered up long after Abraham's days, in another Age: By the other Mark he is easy to be guessed at. For whose arms were nailed to the Cross? Whose head was dimpled with thorns? You know the man. That was he that was caught by the horns in a Thicket. I address myself to the four particulars, Ecce, behold, it is a note of attention bestowed upon the Text.  
A strange sight indeed to be just in the way at the instant when Isaac should be redeemed at the instant when Abraham looked about him for such a thing. 1. But let the Eunuch read, and God will send an Interpreter, let Cornelius pray, 
Muscul. in hunc loc.  and God will provide an Apostle to bless him. Mean well to the Worship of God, and himself will administer, and suppeditate necessaries for the execution of the work. Abraham would fain present an Oblation, why, Ecce, behold his wish; and it pleaseth me very well that Interpreters confess that they do not know which way this Ram came into a Thicket in the Mountain of Moriah; perchance, says one, 
Lutherus. Perenus.  he was productus in vepribus, created at that instant in the bush. Perchance, says another, he was Adductus ab Angelo, the Angel conveyed him thither from some other Flock feeding about the place; and, as the most say, 
Muscul.  perchance he was a stray that of himself came wand'ring to this place as God would have it, and stopped there at the nick and opportunity, when the Lord had need of it. St. Austin runs over all these opinions, and gives his Reader leave to take which he will, why thus it should be, let Interpreters wonder still, let them all say Ecce Aries, behold a Ram, but never know how he came thither; for believe the Gospel and this was Christ's own case, Joh. ix. 29. The Pharisees cry out, as for this fellow we know not from whence he is. And all the people say, Joh. seven. 27. When Christ cometh no man knoweth whence he is. Such was Melchisedech, a perfect shadow of our Saviour, before this Ram was heard of, without Father, without Mother, without Genealogy. Strange is the Apparition of the Ram, strange the descent of Melchisedech, stranger than both the coming of Christ into the world, Quis enarrabit. The Prophet confesseth that all men are posed, and none can declare his Generation. Yet that the Ram was of new created in the Thicket, the guess is Theological, he that created all things in the beginning, his arm is not shortened to this day. That it was picked out of some other Flock, and brought thither by an Angel, the interpretation may be admitted, it skills not what Shepherd was the owner, as our Saviour sent his Commission for the Ass and the Colt, Lose them and bring them with you, if the Owner ask you what you do, Dicite Dominus opus habet, say the Lord hath need of them, so the Angel might enter upon any fold, and take his choice, for the Lord hath need of a Ram, all things are his possession; Christ did exercise this propriety when he cursed another man's Figtree, and made it wither, when the Gargasens took their Swine to be their own, but the very Devils confessed they were his, and asked his leave to go into them. And as Elias eat his Cake and the flesh made ready upon the coals, from whomsoever the Ravens brought it, for it was God's appointment: So Abraham burned the Ram upon the wood from whomsoever the Angel brought it, for it was God's provision. Again, 
Mart.  that it was Aries fortuitus, a Ram that straggled thither by fortune, it is not an opinion to be misliked. O quantum est subitis casibus ingenium! things that seem to be done accidentally, there is many times much observation in them; that which is casualty according to the second causes is deep providence in the divine wisdom. Our ignorance hath made fortune, nay, it is not quite made, but only painted, 
Nat. Deo.  Et tam facile deleri potest quam fingi, says Tully, refer all to the abstruse reach of Providence, and you may blot out the name of Fortune as easily as you have invented it. Thus you see that this note of attention behold puts us to wonder at the apparition of the Ram, and now let us come indeed to see and behold him.  
Ecce Aries, behold a Ram, that is the thing bestowed upon Abraham, and at this Point I may say my Text is like the clean beasts in the Law, it divides the hoof, two ways the sense is divided, and both belong unto Christ. Isaac, says Origen, was first presented to be slain, but he was drawn back from the slaughter, and the Ram was burnt in his stead: So Christ both God and man was arraigned before Pilate, condemned and brought to Golgotha to be crucified. But his Divinity was uncapable of corruption and passion, only the Manhood, like the Ram, was offered up, the stream of Writers goes the other way. In Isaac the whole communion of Saints is shadowed, in Isaac are all the Nations of the earth comprehended that shall be called blessed, it was no easy matter no not for these to escape death, so maliciously had our sins beset us round about, but the Lord took his Elect out of the jaws of death, As a Shepherd, says Amos, taketh a Leg or an Ear out of the mouth of a Lion; but the poor Ram bore our griefs, the chastisement of our peace fell upon our blessed Redeemer, and with his death we are made alive, Man being in honour had no understanding, but is compared to the beasts that perish; we indeed deserve no better comparisons, but Christ the excellency of his Father's glory, Non solum per hominem sed etiam per pecudem, est figuratus, says St. Austin. His honour is figured disguised, I may say not only in the names of men, but in the names of beasts; not one of them which the Priest did slay in the Temple to make an atonement for sin but in some resemblance or other it was Christ, In tauro videas fortitudinem, in hirco similitudinem peccati, in ariete principatum, in agno innocentium; In the Oxen that were brought to the Altar, you see the strength and mightiness of his power, in the Goats that he bore the similitude of sinful flesh, in the Ram his Principality, that he governed the Flock; in the Lamb his meekness and innocency, but before the Law this in my Text is the first by name which the Fathers took notice of as a type of the Sacrifice upon the Cross, Quis in ariete figuratus nisi Christus spinis Judaicis coronatus, of this Type St. Austin is bold to say this Ram in the Thicket was but a relish and pregustation of him that was compelled to wear a Crown of thorns.  
It is the first praise that Pliny gives to this harmless Creature, Magna huic pecori gratia in placamentis Deorum, among other atonements, it was very gracious to please and pacify the divine powers how could Idolaters confess so much, unless with Caiaphas they prophesied and knew not what they said. Indeed, we can say omnis huic pecori gratia in placamentis Domini; All our atonement, all our reconciliation, all our pardon it rests upon the head of this Oblation, the principal of the Flock; Who can think upon the innocence of the Sheep and not remember this spotless Sacrifice without sin? Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, 1 Pet. two. 22. Non Petrus erat qui haec dixit adulatus Magistro, sed Esaias praedixit, says Cyril; Peter did not say this of himself, to flatter his Master, he had it from an Evangelical Prophet, Isaiah foretold it under the name of an innocent sheep led unto the slaughter. The Pharisees called him Carpenter in disgrace, but they could not call him Sinner; Clamant, habet damonium, non Clamant, habet peccatum; they cry out he had a Devil, and yet their tongue would not let them say there was a fault in him. Our Saviour proclaims it, Quis vestrum, Which amongst you doth accuse me of sin? Again, who can think upon the meekness of the sheep and not remember this Sacrifice that was led dumb before the Shearer? Moses was meek, yet he commanded that the Adulteress should be put to death; Christ was meeker, his sentence was clemency every jot, Joh. viij. Go and sin no more. Moses was meek, yet he brought Mandatum lapideum, a stony Law to the People: Christ was meeker, and turned those stones into bread at his last Supper, he set before them Mandatum triticeum, Take and eat in remembrance of me. At his Baptism a Dove sat upon his head, Columba super agnum, a Dove upon a Lamb, meekness upon meekness. What heart could be more intenerated and mollified than that which prayed for his Persecutors? Yet once more let me speak; who can think upon the profitableness of the Sheep, and not remember this Sacrifice, that did yield commodity both in life and death? He lived in innocency of life for our imitation, he suffered in the bitterness of death for our redemption, ut afferret remedium in passione mortis, ut praeberet exemplum in innoecntiâ vitae, says Leo; Innoceny, Meekness, Utility, all do correspond that the Angel should take one of the Flock rather than any other Beast to prefigure the Sufferings of Christ.  
And we must not omit that among all the Flock the Ram was culled out to be substituted for Isaac, propter masculam virtutem, never was there more need of a masculine courage, and a spirit heroic, than to tolerate and endure so much as our Saviour did this day, stripes and strokes, blasphemies and buffet, thorns and nails, to drink up all the bitterness of the Cup, to fight with God himself and his wrath in that Agony in the Garden; every vein of the body vented blood, quia de toto corpore, id est de Ecclesiâ emanaturae sunt passiones martyrum, says Prosper, because the Martyrs should suffer in every part of his Body, which is the Church. Such a Samson we had need of, that could break the green with'hs, and snap the cords in sunder. Such a Lion we had need of sprung from the Tribe of Judah: and it falls out, I know not whether by art or by arbitrary imposition, that the Latin word Aries for a Ram comes from the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Lion come to his growth and vigour. I am sure he that is the Ram in my Text is likewise the strong Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Very appertinent is that which I find related in Ortelius concerning the Christian King of the Abyssens, that he gives for his Crest a Lion holding a Cross in his paw, notifying that Christ stuck to his Passion and his Cross, with that power and fortitude like a Lion, that no tentation, nor Devil, nor infirmity could pluck him from it: An Angel came to strengthen him says St. Luke. I pray you, did the Ram give back then? was the Lion frighted? did weakness creep upon him? not so, but because in the very gall of affliction he had strength and courage; therefore he did merit to be strengthened by the ministry of Angels. For example, in this Militant state of the Church, they that courageously endure their trial, at length shall not want Divine consolation. This Exposition likes me best which ascribes all masculine courage to the Ram which was caught in the Thicket. Ecce aries, behold a Ram! why John Baptist makes him younger above a thousand years after, Ecce Agnus Dei, behold the Lamb of God. Nay in one mystical verse, Gen. xlix. 9 Judah is called a Lion's Whelp, and a strong Lion, and an old Lion; great diversity of age in so few words. I must say of these places as St. Austin did, reconciling the Prophecies of Esay and Jeremiah, To us a Child is born, says Esay, Mulier circumdabit virum, says Jeremiah, A woman shall compass a man, and both speak of Christ. Why? time says the Father doth not make him older than he was before the beginning of the world, sed insinuant ei nunquam defuisse virtutem, but if the Child be called a man, it is to insinuate that full strength and perfection was always in him. Now you have seen the thing which was bestowed upon Abraham. The Wife of Manoah could say, if the Lord were pleased to kill them, he would not accept a Burnt-offering at their hands, neither would he have told them of a Son to be born; much more may I say, if the Lord were not pleased with Abraham and his Seed, he would not have given us a Burnt-offering, nor told us of him that was to come in the ends of the World, as it is in the first mark which is upon this Ram, He is Aries post eum, Abraham saw a Ram behind him.  
For long it was indeed, long after Abraham's days, that the manifestation of this Shadow was revealed in the death of Christ. My father, says Isaac in the 7. verse of this Chapter, behold the Fire and the Wood, but where is the Lamb? Isaac spoke of no more than the present time; why, God will provide himself a Lamb says Abraham. He was more cunning in the mysteries of faith: futura respondet filio de presentibus requirenti, says Origen, he put off his Son to the future age, to the times to come, than there would be a propitiatory Oblation worth all the blood beside which was spilt in the world. This was Abraham's Prophecy of Christ, he saw a Ram behind him: And I will tell you why it likes me to expound post eum, behind him, 
Civ. Dei. lib. 6. c. 23.  rather to time than place, rather post seculum, than post tergum; for St. Austin tells it for news upon St. Hierom's credit, that the Jews with whom St. Hierom spoke in Palestina confessed unto him, Vbi immolatus est Aries, ibi postea crucifixus est Christus, that by infallible tokens they know that Christ was crucified in the very plot of ground where the Ram was offered for a Burnt-offering: as for the place than Abraham stood by the Pile of Wood, and looked upon it; but it is a mystery in time that the Oblation for Isaac, and for all the Elect, was bound unto the Cross in after ages. Vnus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem; Mercy was sudden, and ready to promise, that the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpent's head; but the Divine Wisdom for the exercise of faith made the World look many a long look before the thing was accomplished. It was afternoon says Irenaeus, as we read the cool of the day, when the Gospel was preached to Adam, that there should be a Saviour, Quod adventus redemptoris ad mundi vesperam factus sit, because time was far spent, and the Evening of the World approached, before the Advent of the Redeemer; the Dove came in the Evening with an Olive branch in his mouth to the Ark of Noah: Simeon was grown old at the very brink of the Grave: Anna was far stricken in years before the Light of Israel did shine upon them in the Temple, the revolutions of Heaven had had their courses for many ages before the Star appeared at Bethlem. But because the case is altered in our days, and the Ram is as much before our times, as it was behind the time of Abraham. Let this Mark pass as an obscure one, the next is printed and engraven in him, by which he may easily be known, for he was caught in a thicket by his horns.  
S. Austin writing upon the Prophecy of David concerning Christ, I will open my mouth in Parables, Psal. 78. meditates thus upon it, there would be no perplexity in it, Si sicut os suum aperuit in parabolis, ita aperiret etiam ipsas parabolas; if he had opened the sense of the Parable, as he did open his mouth in Parables; but the sense of this mystery which I have read stands so direct before us, as the Angel did in balam's way, that we cannot turn aside and miss it. If there be any variance it lies in a word, and in the upshot that will make no variance at all. The Septuagint and all the Fathers that follow the Translation read it. Video arietem prehensum in arbore Sabec, he saw a Ram entangled by the horns in a tree, which is called Sabec: the Interpreter forbore to give the Tree any other name but Sabec, as it is in the Hebrew: and since the whole Ram was held fast in a Tree, well might St. Chrysostom say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, see the Lamb of God fastened by the two hands to the Tree of the Cross; upon that accursed Tree his arms were plucked out at length, as if you might have seen him beckoning with his hands to both ends of the World, to the furthermost places of the Earth to come unto him, and to be Members of his Church which He had watered with his blood. When the left hand, as the Tradition goes, when that hand which is next his heart was first driven through with a nail unto the Beam, than you might have seen nature shrinking at it for pain, and the body contracting itself; when you might have seen the other hand reached too far, and plucked out with violence, here we must conceive the immensity of his griefs; the veins bleeding, the nerves racked and distented, the bones disjointed, the wounds of the stripes made wider, the wood of the Tree unsquared, and the rough bark upon it chafing the tender flesh, the weight of his body oppressing him downward as he hung, and the harmony of all the ribs about his breast dissolved: In a word, as Tully said of Milo the Wrestler, that his arms were detained so fast in the cleft of a tree, that there he remained to be eaten up by the Wolves of the Forest: so my Saviour hung by the arms upon the Cross while the Wolvish Jews gaped upon him with odious revile, and at length devoured him. One thing I cannot omit; what kind of death more like unto this in all the Scripture, than the death of Absalon caught fast by the head, in the arms of an Oak tree, thrust through the heart with Joabs' darts, as Christ's side was pierced with the Soldier's Spear? is Absalon therefore justified? is it enough to boast of likeness of punishment without likeness of innocency? Martyrem causa facit non poena, they are not Martyrs that die for errors in Religion, not the sufferance of death, but the sufferance for a good cause that makes a Martyr.  
But this Thicket, as Aquila reads it, and as all the later Writers do follow it, is no Tree properly, but spinarum perplexitas, an intricate Hedge of thorns, wherein the Ram was entangled; retentus in rete cornibus, as Symmachus hath it, as if he were catcht like a Bird in a Snare among the bushes; it is as much in a Parable, as the Gospel speaks directly, that they plaited a Crown of thorns upon his head, who is our strength our might, the horn also of our salvation, and our refuge. Victimae coronabantur, as Pliny says, Sacrifices were brought to the Altar with Crowns of flowers, and Garlands upon their heads. The Priest of Jupiter brought out Oxen and Garlands, Acts xiv. 12. and therefore it came to pass that the Ram had his Garland upon his head, before he was burnt upon the wood, but it was a twist of thorns. Let us insist upon it a little, that we may gather grapes from these thorns which pricked our Saviour, that we may see the good will of him that dwelled in the Bush.  
First, no measure of affliction should seem too much for a Christian, sorrows if they be without number should not be accounted too grievous a chastisement, since Christ was pricked with as many thorns as his head could bear, Vidit haerentem in spinis says my Text, Abraham saw the Ram sticking in the thorns, not the thorns sticking in him, Qualis est haec praedicatio? what manner of saying is this? but an expression, that there were more wounds in his body, than sound flesh, that was not mangled; Et fuit in toto corpore sculptus amor, says a Christian Poet: the thorns of the field catch the Fleece, and tear off locks sometimes, that is more the Shepherd's loss than the Sheep; but Blessed Jesus thou wert stripped of thy Garments, and the skin was flaid off, and then the thorns were dinted into the flesh; the least touch of pain was too much for thee, but let not thy Cup seem too sour to thy Children, the greatest dose that can be given is not too much for us.  
Secondly, as Tertullian said, abstulit omnes aculeos mortis dominici capitis tolerantia, there will be tribulations, there will be sorrows in the world, but the mortal sting is gone, the thorns of all our persecutions and vexations are stuck in the Temples of our Saviour, his sufferance hath blunted their sharp points, that they shall not run in so far as to our heart, to make our spirit sad and heavy within us: quite contrary to Synesius his Art of Gardening: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he would have strong and unsavoury roots planted near to Rosetrees, that the neglected root might draw the ill sap and venom of the earth into itself, and save the Rosetrees harmless; but here the Rose of Sharon did save the Garlic and the wild Roots harmless, and drunk up the bitter juice into itself, lest God should come and root us out of his Vineyard.  
Thirdly, we read of a purple Robe put upon the back of Christ, of bowing and bending to him, of a Reed in his hand, of a Crown upon his head, alas it was thorns: all these Ensigns of Majesty were put upon him in scorn. What doth this mockery express? Quod regnum Christi in hoc mundo ludibrio futurum sit, because the Kingdom of Heaven in this world, that is the Kingdom of Christ in his Church should be made a taunt and a byword to them that sit in the Chair of the scorner: the Power Ecclesiastical, and the Hierarchical Dignity of it is flouted at by them, that would neither allow the Head of it a Crown, nor the supreme Priests their Mitres, but trample all Rule and Order under their feet.  
Fourthly and lastly to end this part, the place where the Ram is caught is a Thicket of thorns, but what place was this afterward? Quantum mutatus ab illo? as I told you before from St. Hierom, that the Cross was set up upon the very plot of ground where the Ram was sacrificed; so upon the next part of this Hill of Moriah Solomon built the Temple, for so it is 2 Chron. three 1. Then Solomon began to build the House of the Lord at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah, and why may it not be that the Jebusites who inhabited that Hill, are called thorns in the eyes of Israel, why may not that be their Nickname, because thorns had overgrown their Habitation? certainly in the Thickets of thorns there are the Walls of the Church reared up; such a choice was made, as the famous Antiquary of this Island hath wrote for the foundation of the Abbey which is the next to this place, the ground was sometime called Thornega. Thus you see we must lay our foundation in thorns, we must sow in tears; the higher we build from earth, the further from the briers, than our sorrows will be trampled down, and we shall reap in joy; and though thorns were a curse which was laid upon the vast World, yet to plant in thorns shall be a blessing to the Church, whose faith shall be refined in affliction, as Gold is tried in the furnace. Remember how St. Paul styled himself to Philemon, Vinctum Christi, a Prisoner of Christ, not the Jews Prisoner, not Festus his Prisoner, not Caesar's Prisoner, but rejoicing in his Bonds for the Gospel, a Prisoner of Jesus Christ. And so far of the second General Part, praesens auxilium, Abraham's necessities were supplied at an instant. Behold behind him a Ram caught in a Thicket by his horns.  
In the handling of the last Part I must obey the time; I called it Sacrificium succedaneum, one Sacrifice answering for another, or coming in the place of another. And Abraham went and took the Ram, and offered him up for a Burnt-offering in the stead of his Son. 1. Abraham went and took the Ram; so to apprehend and lay hold upon Christ, that's our duty. 2. And offered him up, that's only consonant to God the Father. 3. For a Burnt-offering, there comes in Christ's part. 4. Instead of his Son, there's the redemption of the Elect, I hope there comes in our part. The hand of faith; the good will of God the Father; the full satisfaction of God the Son; The full redemption of all that shall be saved. With these four Points briefly we will end. And Abraham went and took the Ram. It was the comfortablest hand that ever Peter felt, when upon the danger to sink and perish in the Sea, Christ stretched forth his hand and caught him. So it was the most comfortable thing that ever Abraham caught hold of, to apprehend this Ram in the Thicket, partly out of natural affection, partly supernatural: the life of Isaac lay at the stake just before, all the Sons of promise that he had, and if he be cut off, call him no more Abraham, call him Abram again, for how can he be the Father of many Nations? or if that be made good in Ishmael, yet shall Isaac die, the joy and laughter of his Father, as his name goes; quasi nusquam alibi gaudium ei restaret, as if there were no joy without him. Once Abraham had fought valiantly against five Kings when He was young, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. Chrysostom; what a hard thing was it for him in his old age to fight against nature. O had not his natural affections a brave occasion of joy to work upon when a Ram was put into his hands instead of Isaac, and all this sorrow prevented? but the Spirit's comfort is the eyesight of the Spirit into supernatural blessings; hereby there was the gladness as Jacob laid hold of an Angel; so did Abraham of this Ram, the principal of the Flock, the Leader of all the Sheep in the Pasture, he was sure of a blessing before he parted with him. Joabs' hands may be plucked from the Altar of refuge, Saul's hand may be rend from the Garment of Samuel, the Children of Bethlem may be plucked from the arms of their own Mothers, and slain before their eyes; but who so apprehendeth the merits and mercies of Jesus Christ, he that doubteth not as Thomas did, and yet approacheth by faith so near as to put his hand into his wounds, as if he would bury his sins in that Grave; he shall lie safe in that Harbour, and never be removed from the love of God in Christ. Caius Caesar his foot slipped, landing upon Africa, and the palm of his hand fell upon the ground, verso in meliùs omine teneo te inquit Africa, turning it to the best luck, than I have thee Africa says he, and I will hold thee. What man is it whose feet have not slipped? whose sins are not so burdensome as to cast him down? the turning of the luck is where our hand lights, God send our lot fall in a fair ground, that we may say teneo te redemptor meus, teneo te Domine; I have laid hold on thee, O Lord, I caught thee fast my Redeemer. So did the Father of the Faithful, he went and took the Ram, he took him and offered him; for so it follows, the same which he received, the same he gave back again. Quip Dominum sui ipsius dono honorat, says one, he did as much as the best in the world can do, that is, to honour God with no other gift but with the same that God himself did give before: but in this word Abraham acts another person than Abraham, obtulit, he offered up the Ram; and who did of●er up the Son but God the Father. When Abraham went out of his own Country, and grew rich in a strange place, who was he then in the resemblance but Christ the second person of Trinity, says St. Austin, Qui relictâ Judaeâ ubi natus est apud gentes prevalet, who leaving the faithless Country of Jury, where he was born, purchased to himself an Inheritance among the Gentiles: but when his name was interpreted Pater multarum gentium, a Father of many Nations; and when this Priestly Office in my Text lay upon him, obtulit, that he offered up the Ram, there we see the first Person in Trinity of him; in this we see how God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that who so believed in him should not perish but have life everlasting. Deus liberalitatem cum hominibus certavit, says Origen, he makes God in this place to contend with Man in liberality. Abraham spared not his Son whom he loved, no more did God: this was his only Son, so was he Gods; but his Son was mortal, and must die once; God's Son was immortal, and his Father made him, that he might unmake him; he made him flesh that he might bring him to the Grave; his Son should die for his own sins, Christ died for ours; his Son had been chopped off at once, without sense of dying, God's Son was tented, and beaten, and bruised, and wounded from midnight that he was taken in the Garden to this hour of the day, wherein we speak of it, which was turned for sadness into the first hour of the night. In the Levitical Law the Priest laid his hand upon the head of the Sacrifice when it was to be killed. Quia patris voluntate suscepit nostra peccata filius, says one, because the Son was an Expiation for our sins by the will of the Father; so Luke xv. 23. Bring the fat Calf and kill him, says the relenting Father, that he might bid welcome home to his Prodigal Son. But you will say, how did the Father offer up the Son? Let the blame lie upon Judas, and Pilate, and the Soldiers: but what did God? you shall hear the Schoolmen answer it appertinently. 1. Praeordinando, who but the Father preordained it before the foundation of the World. 2. Voluntatem patiendi humanam naturam infundendo, 
Thom. 3. p. 2. Sum. q. 47. Ar. 3.  it was he that did infuse an obedient affection into the Soul of the Manhood, and did persuade it to be willing to suffer. 3. Non protegendo a persecutoribus, he that did not deliver him out of the hands of his Persecutors: when he might have sent an hundred Legions of Angels to scatter his Enemies, it was his charity towards us to offer him up for a Burnt-offering.  
At this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Burnt-offering, there comes in Christ's part; a Burnt-offering is that where all the flesh of the Sacrifice is quite consumed with fire, grant us therefore both the active and passive obedience of Christ for our justification, grant us the merit of his humility, with the merit of his death, or else it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, some part was sacrificed for us, but it was not an whole Burnt-offering. Consider that every vein of his body had evacuated blood, that every inch of his flesh was gashed with wounds, as the Firmament stands thick with stars, consider that every faculty of his Soul was sad and sick with agony and distress, and then tell me if he was not a Sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in every part, when Christ himself concluded with consummatum est, as who should say, all the bitterness of anguish is passed upon me that can be imagined; then the Sacrifice was quite burnt out, and the Passion ended. Yet listen to one word which our Saviour uttered, and then we will not stick at a scruple that may be made, how his death was shadowed in a Ram that was burnt, when his body suffered no corruption, nor incineration, but was crucified upon the Cross? We must weigh this doubt in the Balance of that heavy Speech, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me; it was not, it could not be the outcry of his own Soul that was in desperation because itself was forsaken; it was the voice of him that sustained the punishment of those who were plunged into despair and condemnation, Non suscepit opera, sed stipendia peccatorum, our sins did not properly lie upon him, but the wages of our sins. Now will you see a Burnt-offering indeed? now will you see a fire of brimstone flaming more violently than if a Mountain did burn from the top to the bottom? Flammae inferni in animo Christi insufflantur, says Brentius; let us speak warily, 
Brent. Hom. in Luc. 62.  the pains of Hell had not got hold upon him, but he saw the fire of vengeance which was prepared for us; it scorched I may say the very compassion of his heart: when he saw that his Father's justice would kindle it for the sins of the world, not a spark could take hold on him; Sed tu quod facies hoc mihi Pete dolet, it set him all on fire, as if he were a Burnt-offering, for fear that we should suffer it: the darkness which was over the face of the earth, non solum incurrerunt in oculos, sed etiam in animam Christi, says Brentius, it did not only appear like night to the eye of his Body, but his Soul for our sakes did see and dread the utter darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. A little before, when he said in the Garden, My soul is heavy unto death, there he did grapple with the horror of death, and conquered it; but when he lifted up his voice upon the Cross, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? there he did struggle with infernal fire, there he did grapple with the horror of Hell, and conquered it. Tell me I beseech you, are you not affected with these things, like Cleophas and the other Disciple? do not your hearts burn within you to hear them? if you feel such a spark of fire blow it and kindle the whole man to be a perfect Oblation, an whole Burnt-offering to be presented to God. Immolata sacrificia sunt perfecta studia virtutum, says Origen, an whole Burnt-offering is he that hath quite renounced the world, consumed the root of concupiscence, denies himself all unlawful desires, crucifies the old man, suffers zeal even to eat and devour him, increaseth charity so far to inflame his heart, as if his frail flesh could scarce subsist because of the love of God. For such a one the Son of God became, a Burnt-offering, that He might not perish in everlasting fire: this is the full satisfaction of Christ to purchase the full of redemption of them that shall be saved in the last part. Abraham offered up the Ram in holocaustum pro filio, instead of his Son.  
The Jews, as their own Rabbis testify, did so much rejoice in after ages for the deliverance of Isaac, that in the Feast of Tabernacles they sounded the praise of God with Rams horns, as if they had been Trumpets, because a Ram was substituted to death instead of their Patriarch: Alas for pity the spilling of Isaac's blood it is of no price for the redemption of a Soul, it is not a sufficient Pawn for his own head, 
Aenea. 5.  much less for the sins of the World; Meliorem animam pro morte Daretis persolvo, as Entellus said, when he offered up an Heifer instead of Daris; so the Ram in my Text, the Lord of the Flock, an Atonement of infinite value must bear the Curse, and the Cross of our iniquities, and lay down his life for his Sheep: a strange Sacrifice consisting of two Natures in the Personal Union of God and Man must satisfy God for the absolution of Man, such a one as suffered not for himself, but was offered instead of Isaac, & pro semine Electorum, and for the Seed of all the Elect that shall reign in glory. The Heathen had a glimpse of some such thing in their superstitious manner of Expiation; for if ruin did threaten any State or Kingdom, they thought it possible to remove the public vengeance upon one or a few more that would willingly undertake it, whom they called Piaculares homines, men that took upon them the punishment or calamity due to all the people; and Caiaphas did seem to allude to this, when he told his fellow Priests, that one man must suffer for the whole Nation; Caritas in patriam, impietas in Christum, his charity towards his Country was laudable, his impiety against Christ was damnable. One man must suffer indeed, unum pro multis dabitur caput, as he said of Palinurus, so this was the true Pilot of the Ship, that guides his Church in the tempestuous waves of tentation, and the Pilot only was cast away in the storm, that Isaac and the Sons of Promise might come safe to the Haven of eternal happiness.  
To end all, let us all conceive, and let our hearts be strongly possessed with the credulity that we are going with Abraham to Mount Moriah, to the Hill of Divine Worship and Adoration; take Isaac along with you, that is all your laughter, your joy, the strength of your pleasure in this world, to offer it up unto the Lord; then trust and be assured Isaac shall be spared, and the Ram shall die. Thus Bernard unfolds the Allegory, Non peribit tibi laetitia, sed contumacia Domino vives, sed crucifixus mundo, you shall not lose your joy, nor your heart's solace; wantonness, lasciviousness, rebellion of the flesh, these shall be offered up and consumed, you shall live unto God, but be crucified unto the World. Cum laetus accesseris ad Deum iterum tibi reddet quod obtuleris, a sweet Meditation of Origen's, when it is gladness and delight unto you to come unto God, when you bring Isaac for a Sacrifice, you shall not lose your Offering, but again it shall be restored unto you, as he that multiplied his Talents by good husbandry, they were his own for his labour, and more to boot, take the single Talon and give it to him that hath ten Talents saith the Lord. You that live in excess of pleasure and jollity, you that think Abraham hath lost his Isaac, that a religious and a devout life, obstinately averse from the sweetness of your time-consuming mirth and sport, is but sadness and melancholy, and mistaken. As no man heard the Music of Heaven but Pythagoras, so such as have lost the exulting bravery of the world in appearance are the only men to whose soul the harmonious joy of Heaven doth reveal itself. Like young Abishag in David's bosom; so Isaac and the fruit of joy and gladness is always before the eyes of Abraham: Your heart shall rejoice, and no man shall take it from you, says our Saviour. Almighty God grant that we may esteem it the greatest treasure of our joy and felicity, that Jesus Christ, a Sacrifice well pleasing to his Father, hath died for us, and that his blood hath washed away our sins, and purchased us an Inheritance immortal with the Saints. AMEN.   

THE FOURTH SERMON UPON THE PASSION.  JOHN three 14. 
And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.  
THough King Hezekiah destroyed the substance of the brazen Serpent to avoid peril of Idolatry, yet Christ hath renewed the memory of it in this Text. Neither was it fit that the remembrance of it should die, because it represented the death of him by whom we live for ever. The Disciple to whom our Saviour directed these words was Nicodemus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Ruler, a primary man, ver. 1. the best in quality of all the Jews that had yet come to Christ to be taught. The Text, I am sure, is not grown less than it was, but still it is fit to be preached of before a Ruler. Rulers are illustrious in their outward splendour and Titles: Let them use them nobly, and he that is greater than they will make them greater. But Christ calls Nicodemus to a new way of honour, to be all glorious within, and tells him copiously that this is to be achieved two ways. First, By regeneration of holiness, he must become a new man, he must be born again, he must be born of the Spirit, or he cannot see the Kingdom of God, ver. 4, 5. Secondly, By Justification, through Remission of sins in the blood of a Saviour, and of this my Text speaks magnificently, as Moses, etc. So that Nicodemus the Ruler hath no readier way to amplify his honour than to be acquainted with the Passion of our Lord: And no way more direct to understand that salutiferous Passion than to possess his imagination with the figure of the Serpent which was erected in the Wilderness.  
Christ could have taught him the mystery of his death in another Type, and a little more ancient, the immolation of the Paschal Lamb. But first Nicodemus took good liking to our Saviour from his Miracles, No man can do these miracles that thou dost except God be with him, ver. 2. Now the mactation of the Paschal Lamb had nothing in it, but that which was ordinary in the external work; but the use of the brazen Serpent was a mighty miracle. Secondly, As many Lambs were killed as there were households to eat them, whereas there was but one Serpent made; which comes nearer to the just resemblance, that the Son of God by his one Oblation of himself once offered up, made a sufficient satisfaction for the sins of the world. Thirdly, The Lamb was presented as other Viands are in a dish: The Serpent was set up aloft as an Ensign, a clearer pattern of the exaltation of the Cross. Fourthly, In the consumption of the Lamb God did embalm the memory of his great mercy, and keep it fresh how he passed over the houses of the Israelites, and did not kill them, as he killed the Egyptians: But the Serpent was set up for the cure of those that were bitten with Serpents. In the former Type the people were sound and whole, in the latter Type they were stung and sick, and they that are whole do not perceive so well that they have need of the Physician as they that are sick. Lastly, He that did feed on the Paschal Lamb did eat by faith: And he that looked on the Serpent did see by faith. But though faith is the evidence of things not seen, yet the eye is more of kin to faith than the ●aste, because it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a bodily mind, as the Heathen said, and our most heavenly sense. In a word, there were many other Figures of Christ's sufferings, but not any so plain as this for the use and application of it, that none but true believers can be saved by his sufferings.  
To the full satisfaction therefore of that which is concerned upon this day, here you have Christ upon his Cross two ways, both in the Old and in the New Testament: For the Old Testament, in the best and most exact Figure; for the New Testament, in a direct and literal prediction. The figure contains these parts, first the symbolical thing, a Serpent. Secondly, The posture of it, it was lifted up. Thirdly, The place, in the Wilderness. Fourthly, The end for which, Sicut Moses, as Moses lifted it up. The Prediction of the New Testament is to fulfil the Figure: And that denotes 1. The Person, the Son of Man. 2. His inglorious glory, must be lifted up. 3. Here is a sic for the former sicut, a correspondence with the manner and the end of the Figure, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.  
First, Here is Christ crucified in the Old Testament in a symbolical sign, which is a Serpent. When his body hung upon the Cross it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as St. Luke calls it, a sight for all the People to look upon that were present; for outwardly it was the deed of wicked men. But there was profundum crucis, as St. Austin observes, part of the accursed Tree was under ground for the stronger fastening; the end and use of it, which came from God, which is discovered to them that search by faith, is thus in a short sum, a remedy against that punishment which our sins had deserved; therefore to make a complete survey of this Serpent, first we must look upon it for our sins sake; secondly, for our punishment; and thirdly, for our remedy. And first by the object of the Serpent we see sin in the Author: Satan is traduced openly in this memorial for that Tempter that persuaded our first Parents to eat of the forbidden fruit. It is his contumely to see himself disguised in so base a creature; as God would not permit him to come in the form of a better creature, but in this vile shape to do the office of a murderer, so he is exposed to all Ages in the pourtract of that shape, that his pride may see itself in a vast distance of declension: an Angel in Creation, a despicable worm in his own mischievous Assumption. But as St. Athanasius doth well observe, there was a Serpent the Instrument, and there was the Devil the Engineer, two several natures compacted in some sort into one person, and joining in one stratagem to cast man out of Paradise; So God and man, two natures in one person, met together in our Redeemer to reduce us unto the favour of God, and to repossess us in a better Paradise. And as the Language of sin was first taught through the mouth of a Serpent in the Garden of Eden; so that it may never be forgotten, it is continued in the dumb show of a Serpent that was set up in the Wilderness. Secondly, By the object of the Serpent we see sin in the infection and contagion of it. It is the biting of an Adder, not perilous only to that part which is wounded, but dispreading all over, even to the vital parts of the body. Every drop of blood soaks in the malignity of that which is next unto it till there be no soundness remaining: So one part of our body being tainted with the poison of sin traduceth its corruption to another; if the ear be tickled with filthy talk, the loins will be unchaste: If the eye be wanton, the heart will suffer and wax impure: If the body pride it without, the soul cannot be humble within; every sense and faculty about us is a gangrene to another, and if you give up one member you give up all to be instruments of uncleanness. There is yet more contagion in the tooth of the Serpent, by committing one transgression you are at the brink of the pit to fall into another; the second offence makes the way smooth and slippery for the third. Peccatum quod per poenitentiam non deletur mox suo pondere ad aliud trahit, says Gregory; Every sin that meets not with the Antidote of Repentance hath an operative and a venomous nature to fetch in another evil spirit like unto itself. An high mind carries us to wrath, and wrath to revenge, and revenge to malice, and malice to murder. Thus it runs on like a spark in the stubble; and unless grace extinguisheth it, it is as unquenchable as the fire of hell. Beside, there is yet another Serpentine and pestilentious derivation in the works of darkness; one sinner is a thousand sinners more in the dangerousness of his Leprosy; one Absalon is an host of Rebels; one Ringleader is a shoal of Heretics; one Jeroboam is a Kingdom full of Idolaters; one incestuous person endangered the whole Church of Corinth with fornication, says St. Paul; and he was the occasion of his Proverb, That a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. A drop of Poison mars a glass of Nectar; Serpunt vitia, & in proximum quemque transiliunt, & contactu nocent, says Seneca. Stand far off from those that are impious, they have a catching disease about them, there is an infectious exhalation transpassant from man to man, because the first sin was the biting of a Serpent. Thirdly, By the object of the Serpent we not only see the Author of all sin, and the infectious venom of it, but likewise a cunning craftiness which Satan hath entailed to the mystery of iniquity, lying in wait whom he may deceive. 
Eph 4.14.  There is nothing that will lurk more subtly to do an ill turn than some sort of Serpents, or steal an opportunity more warily. Then why should not all plots and mischievous arts of cunning be as hateful as an hissing Adder? Nay, why not as odious as Beelzebub himself the Prince of Devils? Some such there are, that have their sharpness of wit from no better founder than the old Dragon, that have no measure in their dissimulation, no trust in their word, no fidelity in their oath, no remorse, no distinction in conscience whom they ruin; and these are counted useful, and fit for employment. I do not altogether blame the Turks for reputing natural Idiots to be Saints. I am sure they are Saints in comparison with such cunning Merchants: But a true Christian is somewhat compounded out of the better part of them both, as it is Rom. xuj. 19 I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil. This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says Nazianzen inoffensiveness tempered with much intelligence. The simplicity of the Dove mitigating the subtlety of the Serpent. To say all in a little, Sin is supported by Stratagems, but Justice by grave knowledge. Therefore love wisdom because it comes from God: Practise innocency because it comes from Christ: Hate subtlety because it is the badge of the Serpent, abhor mischief, it is the work of the Devil.  
This is for the general, we all see what sin is in the Image of the Serpent. More particularly, the Israelites saw their own sin in that spectacle wherewith they provoked the Lord, Num. xxi. 4. The people were not turned aside from the promised Land, but were wearied with a long journey, and in their bitterness they spoke against God and Moses; They that serve God for temporal things will quickly murmur when they want rest and ease: If the ground be not soft under their feet they think it tedious though it should bring them to heaven. Beside, they loathed Manna; it was too light for their hot stomaches, and it did not satisfy. Somewhat else they would have, yet they could not tell what themselves: As they that are not contented with the bread that comes down from heaven shall be gnawn with the worm of superstition, that will never give them quiet, but these are the hints that provoked them to speak against God. A little painfulness was repined at as a great deal of misery; and a great benefit was repined at as but a little favour. Now they that whet their tongues like Serpents, was it not meet they should be stung with Serpents? They that spat Poison against their Maker, did they not deserve a poisonous castigation? Or will they dare to murmur any more when they see their punishment cast in brass, and abiding for a durable monument? If we murmur against him whom we are bound to praise and love, is not that disloyalty? So did the Israelites. If we murmur at small evils that may be tolerated, is not that impatiency? So did the Israelites. If we murmur at good things, for which we should rather give thanks, if we murmur at Manna, the precious nourishment of the soul, is not that abominable ingratitude? So did the Israelites. And what should this sin be likened to but an Asp, or a Viper? No Serpent is so much a Serpent as a grumbling spirit, that is ever murmuring at God and Moses. And this is the first use of the Brazen Serpent, to turn unto it as a book wherein we read our sins. Peccatum peccati cognitione curatur. For the first cure to be applied unto sin is to make a recognition of it with an humble and a contrite spirit, so did the truest Penitent and the greatest sinner King David, I know my transgressions, 
Psal. 1.3.  and my sin is always against me.  
The next contemplation upon this brazen Image is not immediately to step from sin unto the remedy, for the vengeance due unto sin is to be considered between them both. Behold the bitter pain which Christ endured upon the Cross, and it accuseth us that the disobedience was monstrous, which must be expiated with so much sorrow. quam gravis sit peccati conditio prodit remedii magnitudo, says St. Austin; How great the guiltiness of sin was appears in the magnitude of the remedy. And no less it is apparent how insufferable that wrath was which we escaped, because he sustained so much wrath that bore it in our stead. Note the malediction which we had merited in the maledictive death which our Saviour did undergo, and then it will be a pleasant thing to go to heaven as it were by the gates of hell: But there is nothing more dangerous than deliverance out of danger, if we forget the jeopardy. I will bring this clearly out of the matter we have in hand. The Creatures that annoyed the Israelites were Serpents: For a serpentine sin deserved a serpentine punishment: I will send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of the Serpents of the dust, Deut. xxxiii. 24. The teeth of other beasts might have procured a dismal slaughter, but because a Serpent was accursed above every beast of the field, the wounds that they made did superadd unto death the meditation of a curse, and that their judgement was compounded with malediction. And this was prosecuted in the figure, that the brazen Serpent was lifted upon a pole to keep in mind that sting of the Law, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. Therefore you cannot deny that this is a looking-glass of Justice before we come to mercy. As Christ crucified is a type of condemnation to unbelievers, but a sacrifice of salvation to those that trust in his Redemption. Oleaster says that the first Epithet that God gave to this Figure was to call it a Fiery Serpent, Num. xxi. 8. because a fire of Coals did continually burn within it, that first it might strike dread and horror into all that saw it before it healed the impotent. The fire of hell was annexed to that grace and blessing which came from heaven, as if the sword of justice had been put up in the Scabbard of mercy, but they were never asunder. Lose not yourself in applying mercy, and nothing but mercy to your conscience lest it befall you as it doth with a Bee that is drowned in its own honey: But correct presumption and confidence by converting to some remarkable objects of indignation. When Achan that troubled the Land was executed, They raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day, says the Holy Ghost, Josh. seven. 26. God doth not suffer grievous punishments to vanish as shadows, but he makes them continue as Pillars for Ages to come. Burial did not abolish the memorial of his trespass, as it was engraven upon the Monument of an Egyptian King that went down with much sorrow to his grave, because of his sacrilege, In me quis intuens pius esto; He that looks upon my Sepulchre let him learn to be religious. You read of Lot's Wife in the same Gospel where you read of Mary Magdalen, of her Pillar of salt as well as of the others box of Ointment. There she stood congealed in the open field, and never went down to the dead that she might be always in the remembrance of the living: So the Brazen Serpent did exhibit those mortal Serpents which annoyed Israel in their journey. Like to like. And this the Lords of the Philistines had heard of, and did imitate it, 1 Sam. vi. 4. For they sent home the Ark with a trespass-offering, five golden Emerods', the very figures of the diseases wherewith they were chastised. I know no pattern that could lead them into that fancy, but only this in my Text. The right use of it, whether the Philistines knew it or no I am uncertain, is this: That when a punishment is exemplified in a figure, and resembled to the life, it is a deprecation that God would withhold it from us, and mitigate his wrath, but so that we cannot be ignorant that his Arrow is still in his Bow, and he hath not removed away his hand, but is ready to send his Army of Serpents again, if we return unto our sins.  
And now according to the exact method of mortification, having done our duty to set our sins and our punishment before us, we may look towards the Serpent as a remedy: And it shall come to pass that every one that looketh upon it shall live, Num. xxi. 8. A welcome sign to that poor People of the old Law; the delights of the Synagogue for which they lifted up their hands to Heaven were length of days, health, and sound habit of body, poor accessories of a transitory happiness; they rested in such favours more than in better things that concerned their Spirit and their Soul; wherein they succeed them that value the benefit of their Physician above the blessing of their Bishop. But God did time it with them according to their imperfection, and gave them a new Salve for a new Malady, that their flesh might rejoice in the living God. The Land by which they passed was full of noxious Vermin; Who led thee through the Wilderness, wherein were fiery Serpents and Scorpions, Deutr. viij. 15. If God had kept them from the teeth of this venomous brood, ●equid erit pretii, should he have gotten any thank for his protection? affliction unfelt is unregarded: It was better to have some sense of a wound, that they might know what a Deliverer was in the experience of a Cure. Or if Dictamnu●, and the secret virtue of other herbs had relieved them (as Moses was skilled in all that Science) the work of Nature, and not the God of Nature had been magnified. But Discorides says, that an hot venom, namely that of the Dipsas and Causon, are incurable, therefore in a desperate case, when all secondary causes were unprofitable, nothing but a Miracle made them whole that were diseased. And that which was most abhorred, a Serpent was hanged up, as if it were not enough to be cured, but they triumphed over that which annoyed them: Out of their mischief came the mitigation of their pain, as cunning Leeches confect Treacle out of Vipers, and Oil of Scorpions out of Scorpions: a Serpent was the Instrument both of death and life; for it is God that kills and makes alive again; as a Whale devoured Ionas, and a Whale cast him alive upon the shore. Again here was no application per contactum, to the green Sore, which is the ordinary course of Chirurgery, not so much as an Unguent besmeared upon the substance of the Serpent, the new device of Vnguentum armarium, not so much as the touch of Moses hand upon the part ill affected, as many of the Strumosi are touched this day by God in the finger of the King: No more was required of them that languished, but to bestow the cast of their eye upon the Figure, that God only might have the glory in the Medicinal operation; For he that turned himself toward it was not saved by the thing which he saw, but by thee O God the Saviour of all, Wisd. xuj. 6. Yet more strange, the Remedy having no congruity with the relief of the Disease, God did supply the efficacy; but this was like spittle and clay upon the eyes of the blind man, fitter to make him blind than to make him see. Rabbi Joseph says (I say it upon his credit) that to look upon polished Brass, is present death to him that is bitten with a fiery Serpent. To reconcile these enmities in nature, to make antipathies afford friendship, to turn destruction to be preservative, to overcome one death by another, it doth not only lighten my thoughts to the incomprehensible power of our Creator, but it breaks me off from this object before I am aware, to consider Christ and his Passion, wherein these effects are gloriously conspicuous: he is the Serpent lifted up in the Wilderness.  
A Similitude of great humiliation: Non solum per hominem, sed etiam per pecudem est figuratus, says St. Austin; the mighty one by whom the Worlds were made did not only take the form of a Man, but is disguised in the figure of a Beast; and among Beasts, if any be more filthy than another, we all know it is a Serpent: Yet thus much we must abate in him from the nature of that pestiferous brute, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says Nazianzen, it had the shape, but not the poison of a Serpent: God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, but no more than in the likeness, and condemned sin in the flesh, because no iniquity was found in him: all that came out of his mouth was an antidote, and not a venom: His Maligners called him Carpenter in scorn, they could not call him Sinner; dicunt habet daemonium, non dicunt habet peccatum; they slandered him and said he had a Devil, but their tongues would not let them lie, nor permit them to say he was a Transgressor: a Dove was not more innocent than this Serpent. No Heresy methinks is more incredible, if St. Austin had not faithfully reported it, than that of the Ophitae, who kept a Serpent under the Altar, to creep out, and lick their Oblations which they brought to God, as if a noxious Dragon were a seemly imitation of this Image in my Text, that had no offence in it. What agreement was there between poison and no poison? Nay, between that which wounded, and that which healed? Between a Destroyer and a Saviour? It must be harmless at lest which stood in his stead that came not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And indeed, the best that we can say of the Figure is, That it was harmless, and no very Serpent: But it were dotage to suppose that the material thing had any secret virtue of restauration, no more than the Figure of the Cross upon the post-fact is operative, a superstition which our Church hath justly disclaimed. He sent forth his word and he healed them, says David; it was God's Word and Promise that cured them, and not the brazen Element. But Christ contained remedy in himself, and in his all-sufficient Sacrifice; For the Son of righteousness did arise with healing in his wings, Mal. iv. 2. What hath he not healed if we will lay the plasters of his Passion to our sins? By his Poverty he hath condemned Covetousness; by his charitable Prayers for his enemies implacable malice; by the price for which the holy One was bought and sold Sacrilege; by his Crown of thorns Ambition; by the humility of his Cross Pride; by his Gall and Vinegar Luxury; by his Patience Impatience; by his infinite Love, Envy; all his torments were preservatives against poison, every part of him is sanity. And that not only because this Figure was unvenomed, but chiefly because it was a dead lump, and not a living Serpent, Mortuus serpens vivos superabat, says Macarius; The living Serpents were charmed by the dead one, that they had no power to kill. The blood of Christ purgeth us from our sins, and his death was our victory against death that we might live for ever. It was well done of Nicodemus to spare no cost to embalm his body: It was piously done of Mary Magdalen to pour her precious Ointment upon his head against the day of his burial; for therein we became the savour of life unto life, and his Funeral was our immortality. As Samson found his honey comb in the Carcase of the Lion, so the Church finds sweetness in the bitterness of his Passion. Caiaphas' did not feel the vigour of his own Prophecy, it slipped from his tongue, and not from his heart, That it was expedient that one man should die for the sins of the people. His Successors contradict it obstinately to this day, and control it thus: How can he save us that is crucified? I return them an answer from my Text, How could a dead lump of Brass expel their poison that were wounded? If they depended upon a thing inanimate for the life of their body, wherefore do they not attend the mystery, that they must depend upon a Saviour put to death for the life of their Soul? Attenditur serpens ut nihil valeat serpens, attenditur mors ut nihil valeat mors, says St. Austin. The Jews looked upon a Serpent to be freed from Serpents; and Christians look upon death to be delivered from death. There is one analogy more to be collected out of the unity of the Figure. One Serpent was lifted up for the general preservation of all the Camp of Israel. Not twelve distinct ones according to the number of their Tribes, and much less no uncertain multiplication according to the number of their Families. Nulla salus sine unitate; The hope of health and remedy is founded in unity. Our Gods are not Plural, our Redeemers are not many; they that have divers Saviour's have never a Saviour. They that have tutelary Martyrs for almost every Church, and Patron Saints distinctly for every Kingdom, they have so many Serpents lifted up, and they look so many ways that their wounds stink, and are corrupt through their foolishness, and they prosper no way. We have one head to which the body is knit; one Shepherd to guide the Flock; one corner stone in the building; one Serpent in the Wilderness; One Mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. An infinite virtue can admit of no co-partnership. I tremble at their infidelity that frame Scholastical Cases out of their own brain, how others are subservient to the Son of God in the work of our Redemption. But he says, I have trod the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with me, Isa. lxiii. 3. Whether an Israelite chanced to be stung in the head, or in the face; whether upon the breast, or in the lower parts of the body; one Serpent upon the Pole was enough to heal all. So we have sins original and actual; of commission and omission; of ignorance, infirmity, and presumption; of thought, word, and deed; Vndique morsus; we are stung from the crown of the head to the soul of the foot. 
2 Cor. 5.15.  But as all are dead, so one died for all, that they which live should not live unto themselves, but unto him that died for us, and rose again.  
Now for the material part out of which this Figure was carved, it was not wrought in stone. The Law was written in Tables of stone, but grace and mercy are of another complexion. It was not Silver or Gold (though they in some sort are most correspondent in nature with Serpents, for they are the bane of godliness and justice) but we were not redeemed with corruptible things, as Silver and Gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb undefiled. It was erected in the strong and durable substance of Brass: For one Generation passeth away, and another cometh, but the virtue of Christ's Cross is perpetual, and endures for ever. It is not my excogitation, but Isidors, In serpent mortuus, in aere aeternus; Dead as the Serpent upon the Pole, but durable as the Brass, because the benefit of his death continues always. Therefore his blood is called, The blood of the everlasting Covenant, Heb. xiii. 20. Sooner shall all the brazen Pillars and Monuments upon earth be resolved into dust than one jot of this Covenant should be violated; the merit of his Passion makes intercession for us continually before his Father, and never ceaseth. Behold our Pardon is engraven in Brass, never to be blotted out, it is too strong to be dissolved. I look not upon that which is fluxive and changeable, but upon a propitiation in Brass: Yet not upon the Altar of Brass lest the Israelites should think that their own Sacrifices of Sheep and Oxen did help them, but upon the Serpent of Brass, to let them perceive that it was the Sacrifice of Christ that healed them. Beside, could a Statue of Brass endure more injuries than were laid upon the tender body of our Saviour? Could an Anvil sustain more stripes and blows? When Job began to sink under the pressure of his afflictions, says he, Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of brass? He was a man that had the courage to suffer much, yet he had not a brazen body; infirmity made him sink, and wish for death; but Christ endured for our sakes as a man of brass. I pray God we have not hearts of steel that do not consider it. Above all the Prophets Isidore doth well to call Jeremy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the most passive of them all; therefore God ordained him to be the dungeon of misery in these words, Behold I have made thee this day as an iron Pillar, and a brazen Wall, Jer. i. 18. So Christ endured the merciless wrath of his persecutors, as if he had been scourged and crucified not in flesh and blood, but in brass or iron. What a raging heat there is in a furnace of brass? So Christ complains in his Agony as if he had been a molten furnace, Lam. iii 13. From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them. Therefore God appointed Moses to make a fiery Serpent, Num. xxi. 8. It seems the Serpent was like a Censor of brass, and the fire of Incense was put into it, that it might be a sweet savour unto the Lord, ascending up with the prayers of the Congregation. Or what is fitter to express the two natures of God and Man in one person than brass when it gloes with fire? The Humane body without, and the fire of the Divinity within, these are the Ingredients of that Mediator who bruised the head of the old Serpent, took away our reproach, and abolished our Iniquities. Therefore the fire was as necessary for our use as the Brass, the Brass that is the Manhood to suffer, but the Fire that is the Godhead to make the sufferings of infinite price and inestimable value. But that which we translate, as the seventy two have guided us, a fiery Serpent, is Saraph in the Original, which if it signify fire it is Celestial fire, for from thence comes the word Seraphim the highest order of Angels, who are inflamed with the zeal of charity. O how much of that fire was in the Serpent that healed us? What a Grove of love was in his heart, which no eye nor thought can penetrate? Who could have passed through so many thorns, and nails, so many scoffs and derisions but that his love was like fire that could not be quenched. Lord, if thou hadst not loved me, thou hadst not been born for me: But if thou hadst not loved me more than thyself, thou hadst not died for me, thy humility bore all; thy patience overcame all; but love sat at the Helm of the Ship, and that commands all. O thou sweet Tyrant, says Nazianzen, how strong are thy fetters with which thou tiest the Son of God? And so I have done with the Serpent for his own frame and composition, for the present use of it, and for the Mystery. I come to the Posture, it was exaltation, for Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness.  
For else how could six hundred thousand men and more have recurrence unto it in their necessity to look upon it if it had not been lifted up? Justin Martyr, who had reason to be skilful in these things being a Samaritan by birth, says that Moses having fastened the Serpent to along Pole, erected it upon the top of the Tabernacle, and then the remotest person might easily glance upon it; for every Tribe keeping the distance of two thousand Cubits, that is an English mile, from the Tabernacle, Josh. iii 4. and the doors of all their Tents opening inwards towards the Tabernacle, their eyelids could not open but they must see that object, which was the Mast of the Ship, or the Spire of the Steeple upon the Church of the Tabernacle. Others consider it as an Ensign, or Banner, as if God had prepared to fight for Israel against the spiritual wickednesses in high places. But if we fall into the slumber of Metaphors we shall meet with nothing but dreams. It was disposed by the most High, that the remedy to which the people were bidden to look should be exalted, that the interior thoughts of the heart might fly to God for succour, after the precedent of the exterior contemplation. Israel might stoop to the earth to gather Manna for the sustentation of their body; but they must look towards heaven for their preservation, and to be delivered from death and hell. I see nothing but corruption under me; salvation and immortality are on high above me.  
Translate our meditations from the sign to the thing signified, and a Serpent elevated upon a Pole was Christ hanging upon the Cross. It is his own exposition, Joh. xii. 32. And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me. This he said signifying what death he should die. He calls not that most rueful death his ignominy, or his confusion, or his humiliation, but a lifting up, a promotion, an exaltation. Can you devise a more cheerful word for so sad a business? Three ways he was lifted up, Vt victima, ut victor, ut mediator. In the manner of his death as a Sacrifice; in the triumph over death, as a Conqueror; in his glorification, to sit at the right hand of God as a Mediator. First, The manner of his death was ordained that he should hang upon a tree, wherein pain, and reproach, and malediction might fall together like so many bitter waters in one torrent. The magnitude of the pain refers unto numberless considerations. Begin from hence, that his body was weak and enfeebled with Agonies, with watchings, with scourge, with bearing his Cross; then this torn and bruised body was stripped naked, so that his raw wounds took air, and their smart was much augmented. After this began the execution, his feet and hands were pierced with nails, where the quickest sense of the body doth most resent offence; his Nerves and Arteries were cracked and distended; his body hanging upon its own weight; his arms were plucked out to his little ease, and great vexation, further than their natural longitude: But the further they were stretched the greater Emblem it was that he was ready to embrace us. His feet were plucked down, and fastened to a Pedestal, to let us know he will not go from us till we depart from him. The concurrence of so much torment parched the roof of his mouth, and made him thirst, and that thirst of his cannot be quenched but by our faith and repentance which is liquidated with tears: All these concurring forced his life from him that he gave up the Ghost. But tantò mirabilior resurrectio, quantò mors certior. Since his death was so certain, that none could choose but know; his Resurrection is more triumphant, that none can choose but admire it. And as the pain was excessive, so the ignominy of that death was superlative. Pone crucem servo; To hang on a Cross was a death for servants, not for Freemen and Citizens. Paul, a Citizen of Rome, was beheaded; Peter, one reputed a vile person, was crucified. It was the destiny of none but slaves, till Constantine in honour to our Saviour did utterly forbid it to all Malefactors. Yet he whose service is perfect freedom endured it, that he might abrogate the thraldom of sin by the chastisement of bondage, and lead captivity captive. Add unto all this the malediction of that death, for cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. Yet Christ avoided to be slain among the Infants of Bethlem; he would not be cast down the steep Mountain in Galilee; nor be stoned by the Pharisees; but to expiate the first sin by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, he was exalted on a tree like the Serpent in the wilderness. And there is somewhat of observation in it, that he suffered in an elevation between heaven and earth, to purge the Region of the Air from the infestation of the Devil. 
In Psal. 148.  Who was Damnatus ad acrem tanquam ad carcerem, says St. Austin, thrown out of heaven to remain in the air as in a prison, and therefore called by St. Paul, The Prince of the power of the air, Eph. two. 2. Nay, Hesiod the Heathen Poet came to this knowledge (by what tradition I know not) that wicked spirits, enemies to mankind, were diffused over that Element. Therefore Jesus dying upon the Cross gave up the Ghost in the air that he might cleanse the air from those flying Serpents, that is from Diabolical infestations, says St. Athanasius. 
Lib. de. Incar. verbi.   
Secondly, He was mounted upon his Cross as a Conqueror over that which was trodden down and trampled under feet; wherein he seemed to be condemned he condemned the world; wherein he took infirmity upon him, he showed invincible fortitude; wherein he suffered death he overcame the power of Death; From that fatal Tree which the Jews prepared for an indelible ignominy, Potentia redemptoris secit gradum ad gloriam, says Leo; The puissance of the Redeemer made it a degree unto glory. The Devil stirred up all sorts of men against him, his Disciples to deny him, the Jews to accuse him, the Soldiers to crucify him, the Passengers to blaspheme him. The more opposition the greater was the triumph. For the Psalmist makes it a Song of Jubilee, They came about me like bees, and are extinct as the fire among the thorns Let me give it a simile from another feast coincident this year upon the day of the Passion. The Patron entitled to the noble Order of the Garter sits victoriously on horseback, and the Dragon is beaten under his feet, and cast upon his back: So our Champion rides in triumph upon the Cross, and his enemy fell before him: For Christ was visibly crucified, but the Devil invisibly, says Origen. When our Saviour was transfigured, and appeared in glory, than Moses and Elias spoke of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem, Luk. ix. 31. As if there were no fitter time to speak of his death than in that clarification, because his death was the purchase of glory, in that abasement he was exalted, and did exalt us that believe in him in that machine, and craned us up by his Cross to heaven. And therefore he promised unto the penitent Thief when he was upon the Cross the joys of Paradise, because his Cross did open Paradise to all believers. Two things are notorious marks, that this kind of death, so vile in appearance, was a constructive exaltation. First, that the imperial Ensign of the Roman Army in the days of Constantine the Great was cast into the figure of a Cross, known in ancient Authors by that obsolete word laborum, it was a victorious auspice to have the flag of the Cross, which was never overcome, to fly before them. Then it came to be extolled even to the top of the Crown of Kings: A locis suppliciorum fecit transitum ad coronas Imperatorum, says St. Austin. Once it was infamous for a sign of a servile death, now it is translated as it were from Golgotha unto the Crowns of Emperors. Fructus arborem exaltat, jam honor est non horror; The fruit that hung upon the tree hath taken away all ignominy from the tree, now the horror of it is changed into a Trophy of honour. As the Serpent was lifted up, so there was power, and exaltation, and victory in the sacrifice of our Saviour.  
Thirdly, As the Son of God was conquerant in death, so he was glorified after death. He humbled himself to death, even to the death of the Cross: wherefore God hath highly exalted him. By his Cross and Passion he hath entered into heaven, there to sit at the right hand of the Majesty for ever. Now he is exalted in his Resurrection death hath no more dominion over him; now his name is blessed and hallowed, as the balm from which our salvation distilleth; now his Kingdom is enlarged from Sea to Sea, and the uttermost parts of the earth are his possession. Now his people are gathered unto him to magnify and praise him; all Kings shall fall down before him, all Nations shall do him service. These are the success and the consequents of his humiliation. Therefore as you would not envy his greatness in his Resurrection, so do not despise the meanness of his Passion. 
Serm. 10. de Temp.  Non te pigeat videre serpentem in ligno pendentem, si vis videre regem in solio regnantem, says St. Austin; be not troubled to see him lifted up upon a Pole like the brazen Serpent, if you desire to see him sit upon his Throne as King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Ought not Christ to suffer these things, and so to enter into his glory? And let this confirm our faith, and make us willing to be conformable to his sufferings. The afflictive way, nay, the destructive way of persecution is the advancement of a Christian; to be plucked down is to be lifted up; Through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God, Acts xiv. 22. As some did swim to shore upon planks in that shipwreck wherein St. Paul was a companion, Acts xxvii. so being all of us in the common naufrage of sin, none are more safe than they that swim out upon the Cross which God hath laid upon them. If we must bid farewell to temporal prosperity, let us see what Pearls of patience and repentance we can find, as Job did, in the dunghill of sorrow and misery: If Tempests blow stronger and stronger let us strive, with Elias, to go up to heaven in the whirlwind, what we want in the Church Militant, continue steadfast in the truth and it will be supplied in the Church Triumphant. But in what estate soever you are, be lifted up from the earth, and let your affections be above. Let not Satan get the upper ground, and make advantage of it against us beneath. Is he in the air? Then shall my heart be in heaven. Is he upon an exceeding high mountain in his tentations? Then will I fly up to the Sanctuary of the Lord upon the wings of a Dove. For the Mountain of the Lords house is established in the top of the mountains, Isa. two. 2. Would he have me look upon the Kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them? No, I will look upon him who despised glory, and hath purchased honour by his opprobry, upon him who was lifted up like the Serpent in the wilderness.  
Draw near now, and come unto that place where this miracle was acted. It was a waste in the borders of Edom, a nameless and a barren piece of ground, unprofitable to bring store into the barn, but profitable to yield some pious meditations, it is the wilderness. There was no place that received Israel where some memory or monument of God's mighty hand was not left behind, in Egypt, in the Red Sea, in Moab, in Basan, in the Wilderness. But this last put them to the greatest trial, it was ilium malorum; sorrows that met them single elsewhere, rushed all upon them in the Wilderness. There they suffered war and weariness; thirst and hunger; plagues and mortality. And though they called for redress they had none, only they had a cure for the biting of the fiery Serpents: So in this Pilgrimage upon earth all manner of offences and afflictions are familiar unto us; and though we fast and pray they shall not be taken from us. No man must look for comfort, or plenty, or pleasure in a Wilderness. Let it suffice for all, that we have a remedy against the venom of the Serpent, against the deadly sting of sin. For if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is our propitiation; not that we should not be afflicted, but that we should not perish, but have everlasting life. I will make one question to the Point, that I may give many answers. Wherefore was so great a deliverance obscured in the Wilderness, where the world could take no notice of it? As the Disciples pressed our Saviour to go into Judea that men might see his works. If thou do these things show thyself to the world, Joh. seven. 4. So had it not been better that the most frequented Cities had been spectators of this wonderful power of healing? And was not the Wilderness a little too secret for the fame and publication of it? I answer first, that is not the vogue and acclamation of the world that the God of sanctity aims at, but the faith of the Elect. The fewer that saw these wonders, the happier for them that believe and never saw them. Many works of the Lord are not necessary to be seen of all, but to be believed of all: and for the greatest mysteries all must believe though the eye did not, nay, though it cannot see them.  
Secondly, Because the making of this Serpent by Moses had a typical drift in it to set forth Christ, we shall not see him more like himself than if we go forth to find him in the Wilderness, thither the Spirit led him forth to be tempted, and he fought against the Devil so strongly in those Lists, that he vanquished him by his innocency. Adam in horto superbus, Christus in deserto humilis; Adam was accommodated with too much pleasure, where the Serpent enticed him, therefore the second Adam pitched his battle in a Desert of a contrary condition. It was a Land uncomfortable for solitariness, neither fountains nor fruits in it, nothing but penury where Satan was overcome; but it was a garden dressed and delicate, filled with all manner of store, where he got the victory. But is it not better to be humble with Christ in a barren Desert, than to be proud with Adam in a delicious Paradise? Fight against the Tempter upon the same advantage that our Captain chose. Meet him not where pleasures abound: meet him not in the Garden, but in the Wilderness. Come my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us lodge in the Villages, Cant. seven. 11. There is much contagion in the communication with the world, therefore the Beloved is invited rather to some harmless privacy. Fuge seculi mare, & naufragium non timebis, says St. Ambrose. Sail away into some little stream, leave the Ocean of ungodliness, which is in the most frequented places, and you shall not fear shipwreck. Our Saviour made himself often a stranger unto this world, and retired into a Mountain alone, or into the Wilderness, Quasi in mundo extra mundum ageret; To teach us to live in this world as if we lived without it. When we find ourselves infected with the conversation of Court or City, it is the Wilderness we must fly to, a retiring to a private reckoning between God and ourselves, if we mean to be cured of Serpents. We had need of longer Vacations than Terms; more rest to pray and repent than stirring days to get wealth; that we may ask God forgiveness at leisure for those sins which we did commit in our business. Come ye apart into a desert place, and rest awhile, says our Saviour to his Apostles, Mar. vi. 31. All cannot receive this saying, you will reply, all have not the opportunity to come out of the crowd, some there are whose worth and dignity keeps them always in action. To these I say, as our Saviour prayed for his Disciples, I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil, Joh. xvii. 15. Says St. Cypriaen, Etsi omnes diversorium non capiat loci, animi tamen omnino necessaria est solitudo; All men cannot, must not cast off care, the Church and Republic cannot spare their company, that they should sequester themselves into remote places. O but let not the heart lose that happiness which is denied unto the body. I may be vacant to good meditation in the midst of troubles. I may stand before men, as my Calling requires, and be alone with God. Pious Meditation, which will not mix with any secular thing, is like an hermitage to the soul: Like a Wilderness wherein I have leisure to look steadfastly upon that Serpent who is the cure of Serpents, and the Balm of Gilead.  
Lastly, (for the time breaks me off that I must conclude) there is no place more open or common in the world than a Wilderness. There the Image of the Serpent was fixed, as a public benefit, which was prohibited to none that would look upon it. They that stood nigh, they that were far off, it was indifferent to both if they beheld it steadfastly. So Christ crucified is alike unto all that believe, and call upon him; to Jew, and Gentile; to high and low; to Rich and Poor; to the generations that are passed, to us that are further off, and to the Generations that are yet to come. Let it not trouble you that the Brazen Serpent was lifted up in the midst of the Camp of Israel, as if it only served for the Latitude of that Meridian. It fell not to their lot in Canaan, or in Jerusalem, but in the Wilderness, which was every man's soil, and every man's possession. Therefore the root of Jesse is called an Ensign of the people to which the Gentiles shall seek, Isa. xi. 12. 
Serm. ●. de Pass.  All have their part in this Ensign, the banner of our Victory, Christ exalted, that will seek unto him. Crux Christi mundi est ara non templi, says Leo; The Cross of Christ was an Altar, yet not a private one belonging to the Temple: but public blessing to the whole world. That is the reason that he suffered not within Jerusalem but without it, to the end that all men that purify their hearts by faith may claim a property in his Oblation. Jesus that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without the Gate, Heb. xiii. 11. Therefore let us go forth unto him without the Camp bearing his reproach. First, Let us go forth unto him, and seek him out as stranger that have no abiding City, but as Travellers that live in Tabernacles, and are passing to our own Country through a Wilderness. They that have set their rest upon earth, and say, here will I dwell, for I have a delight therein, they shall never find out the comfort of the Cross: but use this World as a Pilgrim, that would make haste with good speed out of it, and you shall find your Saviour by the way. He is not in the secret Chamber, or in the Closet, or in the Palace, in none of these permanent and enduring habitations, but in the trac of the wayfaring men, that is in the Wilderness. And then the Cross of Christ stands upon such ground, where there is neither gain nor pleasure, no more than is to be looked for in a Wilderness: Therefore St. Paul makes this further use of it, let us go forth unto him without the Camp bearing his reproaching. Extra castra, & extra mundum ejusque splendida exeamus, says Theophylact; Leave the pomp, and beauty, and jingling of these vain things; if you stick to them you must perish with them, for they all shall perish. If you will remain in Sodom, you must be destroyed in Sodom. Is it not better to go into a Desert where there is nothing to eat, than to live among belly-gods where there is nothing but Gluttony? Is it not better to repent in Sackcloth than to be profane in Purple? Is it not better to want and seek God, than to abound and forget him? Serpens, sitis, ardour, arenae dulcia virtuti. A well disciplined Christian praiseth God for all imcumbrances of adversity, for the Serpents that fly about him with the stings of malice and infamy, for sickness and languor, for pain and weariness; he did not look for kinder, or more placid entertainment in a Wilderness: But he that looks steadfastly to the Serpent that is lifted up in the Wilderness, to Christ Jesus that suffered for the mitigation of our sorrows, for the cure of our wounds, for the accomplishment of our joys, for our victory over death, and for our entrance into life everlasting. AMEN.   

THE FIFTH SERMON UPON THE PASSION.  ACTS two. 23. 
Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.  
CHrist was crucified between two Thiefs, the one a Blasphemer, the other a Penitent; an unfit place for Jesus the righteous, very incongruous to sort him among Thiefs, though both had been penitent. But lo St. Peter exhibits him in my Text in another posture; on the one hand he sets before the Jews the demonstration of all his holy ways while He lived in humility, on the other hand his victorious resurrection, when he began to step into glory. The verse before my Text is the sum of his admirable, innocent, and best deserving conversation before he was betrayed into the hands of men, Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God among you by Miracles, Wonders and Signs, which God did by him in the midst of you: the verse behind my Text is the blazoning of his eternal life after He had destroyed death, whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. In the first He lets them see their malice that they killed an Innocent, in the second He lets them know the impotency and weakness of their malice, that He was revived again, and exalted into Glory: the goodness and miracles which were conspicuous in him should have bred him reverence from his friends, and that the hand of violence should not touch him: but his loosening the pains of death, and breaking the bars of Hell asunder, must obtain him homage and worship from those that were his enemies. By the former description, that He was so approved, so well known for doing signs and wonders, their conscience would confess that He was a man sent from God: by the latter description, that he shook off the sleep of death, as Samson shook off his fetters after he awoke, their faith ought to confess, that He was God that came down to man. Thus stands my Text supported between the double honour of our Saviour, on the one side his Noble Acts, how He lived in righteousness among men, on the other side, or on the reverse, his Resurrection, how He lives again in Power and great Majesty above the Angels.  
This is the right way to consider his Death and Passion, and then you shall have no scandal at his Cross: have you not seen him pictured hanging on the Tree, with his Mother on the right hand, and the Disciple whom he loved on the left? if you have that figure in mind, you cannot forget the order which St. Peter observes in these three verses (the Breviary of the whole Gospel) whereof my Text is the Centre; behold the sufferance of Christ, that's the middle, the love knot, the band of all; then the same of him that went before his death, like Mary that bore him in her womb, and the fame that went after his death, like John the Evangelist, who was the faithful Witness of his Resurrection. And so I have told you how the Text stands among its neighbour verses, but in itself, and in its own contents, it is the most proper work of that Meditation which is due to this time of Lent; it is a calling of sins to remembrance, a provocation to repentance, and both these through the consideration of the bloody Passion of our Lord and Saviour. Now that shedding of the blood of Christ, which both accuseth us of sin, and cleanseth us from all our sins, is referred here to two causes that brought it to pass, two most several causes, and out of most divers ends; to God and to man. First, He was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God; it did not happen, as a mischief that could not be avoided, by the sudden exclamation of the people, or by the inconstancy of Pilate, no the Council of the Holy Trinity had sat upon it, and concluded it before all time. Secondly, as the ordination of his death was to a good end, and from God; so the execution came from the Devil and his Instruments out of most malignant respects: that is, ye Jews that brought him to the Judgment-hall and urged against him, and did not leave till ye had murdered him, your hands were wicked that took him, and crucified him, and slew the Lord of Life.  
Begin we with that Cause which was a Cause before all time, and then with that Cause which was a Cause in time: Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. What is this determinate counsel? what is this foreknowledge? how was Christ delivered through those means? these are the first Doctrines to be opened. 
Eth. lib. 6 cap. 9  Counsel or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Aristotle is to canvas and to consider doubts discreetly and providently before some action is to be effected, and to conclude out of those doubts well weighed what is best to be done, that is it which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or understanding: 'tis very true, this is the way and progress of man's wit, to run through uncertain objections, and at last to come to clear determinations: and counsel among us is a rational remedy against rash and precipitate proceedings: beware to think that these rules do conclude Almighty God: there is counsel in God, not by way of deliberation and discourse, but because his infinite wisdom hath decreed all things, both which way they shall tend, and the bounds which they shall not pass, and that's the event of counsel: 
Thom. 1. p. q. 22. art. 1.  Concilium dicitur non propter inquisitionem, sed propter certitudinem cognitionis, says Aquinas, that is, counsel is attributed to God, not because He doth advise and demur, much less because He doth require the suffrages and opinions of others: but forasmuch as He hath established all things, how they should be effected in the fullness of time, therefore that Order and Decree, which is the upshot of counsel, among men is called to help the infirmness of our capacity, counsel in the Most High. Damascen was so scrupulous in this, that he chose words on purpose to distinguish between God and Man: In Deo est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a resolution, as you would say, not a consultation; for all things are manifest to him at once, both of things that are, and things that shall be, nay of things that are only possible in themselves, and never shall be. But St. Paul prevented Damascen, and avoids that distinction, by putting those words together to make up one sense, Ephes. 1.11. Being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Will and Counsel, are united in the operations of God; when you hear of his counsel, conceive the wonderful and mysterious wisdom of God; when you hear his will is joined unto it, observe his free power and authority: it was of old the description of a Tyrant, that his will was law, sic volo, sic jubeo, he managed all things according to the decree of his will; but if you looked for counsel, you should find nothing but rashness, and for the most part injustice; but in all the Statutes and Ordinances of God there is counsel in his will, summa ratio, verity and judgement in all things that he hath appointed: yet summa libertas nothing impels God to any Decree but his own free will and election, tempering all things with wisdom and justice; God doth decree both the means and the end of all things, and hath set them a Law, as David says, that they shall not pass.  
In the next place some light must be given to this other term in the Text, the Foreknowledge of God: to foresee a thing before it be actually effected comes to pass in a threefold manner, either by the insight of natural causes: So Artists can foretell at what day and hour Eclipses of the Sun and Moon will happen; or by rational sagacity, as a prudent man can espy how affairs will succeed when a good foundation is laid; or by Divine inspiration, when the Lord from above doth give a spirit to his Prophets to behold things to come, as if they were present before their eyes. These three are thus laid down after the measure of our own understanding, but when we speak of God's foreknowledge it is of another fathom: for first all things that were, that are, that shall be, are present to him at one instant, those successions of time, past, present, and to come, which are differences to us, are none at all to God, his knowledge, which is eternal, reacheth with one simple act even to the producing of effects in time without all variation, and therefore is called Prescience very improperly, and with much dissimilitude from humane ways of prescience. 2. Our foresight is bare foreknowledge, not able to put forward a good event, and as unable to prevent a calamity. Abraham could truly presage that Israel should come out of Egyptian bondage, but he could not hasten the time of their return: Isaiah could foretell that Judah should be led away into captivity, but he could not mitigate their bondage: but God's foreknowledge hath his hand and power always annexed unto it: for whereas my Text says Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God; St. Peter says Acts iv. 28. that Herod and Pilate and the Gentiles were gathered together against Christ, to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. He doth not only foresee good how like it is unto himself, and evil per dissimilitudinem sui, how unlike it is unto himself, but his providence intervenes, and manageth that evil which he foresees will arise out of the corrupt and depraved will of the creature to his own glory. It were an Epicuraean dream to imagine there is such a dull barren knowledge of things to come in God, as should not interpose, but leave all things to their own course and swing: therefore Stapleton had no such just cause to declaim against Beza, for rendering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place not Prescience, but Providence. God did not provide, that is, decree it antecedently, that Judas should sin and betray Christ, but since the Creature will decline from good, consequently the Lord decrees the evil man shall not be restrained, but shall be suffered to heap vengeance upon his own head. Let Stapleton chafe at Estius, a great Doctor of their own, that says Prescience in this place stands for Predestination, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and praedestination of God. Now Providence is the ordaining of all things to a good end, but Predestination is the ordaining of God's chosen Portion to a blessed end. I am sure Tremelius for Foreknowledge doth translate it Providence out of the Syrian Paraphrast: and do but mark the scope of this place, and you will find that Prescience here is annexed with Providence. For whereas the Jews thought that Christ had fallen into their hands through unability of defending himself from his Enemies, St. Peter beats down that error, that God's determinate Counsel and Providence was in the fact; but that had been a very weak Apology to say, that God foresaw it long before. And so much concerning these simple terms, to wit the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.  
Now that the righteous God, in whom such counsel, and such foreknowledge do reside, should deliver up his most innocent Son and our dear Saviour unto death, that's a mystery to be weighed with modesty; the Text says positively God did deliver him, yet we know there is no injustice in the Most High, therefore this scruple is worth the scanning: First of all it is an harsh and offensive speech that some use, who perhaps mean well, that God did appoint and preordain Judas to betray his Lord, and the Jews to crucify him; and the reasons which they use to excuse the Phrase, as if God thereby were not made the Author of sin, seem to me to want sufficiency. Zuinglius says, justo non est lex posita, you can set God no Law, therefore whatsoever you attribute unto him is no sin, because sin is the violation of a Law. Beloved, there are some things which cannot consist with God's glory, and that's an eternal Law as we may call it, observed by God to do nothing against his glory: He cannot lie, He cannot deny himself: thus the scripture speaketh. And Abraham talking face to face with God, says he, God forbid that the Judge of all the world should do unjustly: Would thou punish the righteous with the wicked? as who should say, that were to thwart the eternal Law which must not be infringed. This lays the opinion of Zwinglius flat. There is another pretence from very venerable Authors, that God purposeth and ordaineth the same act which man executeth; but man hath an evil end in it, so it becomes iniquity to him, whereas God intends a pious end, and therefore concurs not to man's iniquity; and they give a fair instance of their meaning out of my Text. Christ was delivered of his Father to save the World, that was the merciful and gracious work which was God's destination; but he was delivered of the Devil to make the Jews guilty of his death, of Judas for lucre sake, of the Priests and Pharisees for envy, of Pilate for fear: the scope of Pilate, of the Jews, of Judas was extremely distorted, so they became guilty of a mighty sin in the same work wherein God was righteous. This will not down with me I confess for safe Divinity; for first it favours that opinion of some Libertines too much, that it is no crime, but praiseworthy to do evil that good may come of it. Secondly, it cannot be shifted according to this opinion methinks, but that God ordains man to fall into that act, wherein he cannot choose but have a bad intention, and most divers from the good purpose of God. And it is but a lame leg to hold up an halting cause to interpose, that God can work good out of evil, and bring light out of darkness; therefore though He preordains evil, He will wind it up well to his own glory: for surely they do not think of God as they ought, that He is all pure and holy, that think sin must be referred to God either as an efficient cause of it, or predestinately as a deficient cause, to declare his honour. Why, God stands not in need of our good works to set forth his praise, O my God my goods are nothing unto thee, says the Psalmist, much less doth he want our sins and our transgressions to make him glorious.  
Thus I have premised that they have not my consent that say, that God ordained or decreed that Judas should betray our Lord, and that the Jews should blaspheme him, and despitefully entreat him: thus rather I would propound it to you in a far safer way, as I conceive, God did not decree those criminous actions of Judas, Herod, Pilate, etc. but He did decree the Passion of Christ, and did settle it in his sixth and eternal counsel, that he should shed his blood as a Propitiation for the World: actio displicuit, passio grata suit. I am led along with the judgement of Leo the Great in this point. Thus he. 
Serm. 16. de Pass.  Did the iniquity of them that persecuted Christ arise out of God's Counsel and Decree, and that heinous treason worse than all villainy? Did the hand of Divine preparation arm them to it? this must not once be imagined of that supreme justice that governs all things: Multum diversum, multumque contrarium est id quod in Judaeorum malignitate est praecognitum, & quoth in Christi passione est dispositum; that is, there is great dissimilitude between these two, how God foresaw the malignancy of the Jews, but it was his own disposing and ordination that Christ should suffer: therefore it comes to this sense, He was delivered to death simply, without addition of a death procured by sin, through the determinate counsel of his Father: but the conspiracy, and envy, and bloody outcries that concurred in his death, the foreknowledge of God did apprehend it would be carried with that violence, and decreed to suffer it: Non inde processit voluntas interficiendi unde moriendi, says the same Father, God did not will after the same manner to have his Son die, and to have him barbarously crucified. To allot him unto death was very just, because that Lamb of God did take upon him the iniquity of us all; and Leo adds that God could have commanded some holy Prophet to have sacrificed Christ before him, even as He commanded Abraham to offer up his only Son Isaac, and the Lord of life and death might have permitted Abraham to strike the stroke without impiety, but to allot him to such a death, wherein factious Enemies delighted themselves in his pains, that cannot consist with such a God as hates the least impurity.  
But my Text you will say declines it not, but that both his death, and his deliverance into the hands of the Jews, that is the manner of his death, both of them were ordained of God: and so they were, but with this correction of the proposition, omnia vel ordinata sunt à Deo ut fiunt, vel ordinatum non impedire, quò minus fiant, all that is good is ordained of God that it shall be, and all beside that is evil is ordained of God that it shall be suffered to be, and in those things which are to be referred to permission, I mean all the works of the Devil, I do not exclude the determinate counsel of God, nay it must necessarily be present at it: Quicquid permittit Deus consultò & volens permittit; there is Justice, and Wisdom, and Counsel from above employed about those things, wherein God is highly displeased: For first, no sinner in the world can say he was so permitted to enter into sin, that no impediments were cast in his way to avert him, some illumination he had, some instruction to draw him back, some remorse of conscience, though not in such measure as did infallibly prevail upon his crooked will. Even Judas himself was deterred from his Satanical proceedings, by the prediction of his Master's mouth, one of you shall betray me; by the warning of the sop; by rebuke and confusion, Judas betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss? though the treachery was permitted, yet these were impediments, though not such as would take place with a Reprobate. Secondly, God is no idle Spectator upon the actions of men whether good or bad; where he permits the Devil to draw us into temptation, his hand is not quite taken off from our sins, but that he moderates our offences, and that many ways, as stopping our sins at such a quantity and excess, that they shall go no further; they that had power given them to kill Christ, had not power to break his legs, a bone of him could not be broken: and the Lord sets other moments of time than the sinner casts about for himself: as no man could lay hands on Christ (yet the Pharisees fingers itched at him) because his hour was not yet come. Therefore thirdly it must hang together with that which goes before, that God disappoints a wicked man of that which he intends in his naughtiness, and brings it about to his own glorious ends. As Joseph said to his Brethren, Ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good, Gen. l. 20. Deus cogitavit id ipsum in bonum convertere, Junius adds that unto it. God did provide to convert it unto good. Neither is our faith endangered hereupon to suspect God as the cause of sin, because he draws his own ends out of evil; that He may do, and yet be no Author of sin, but abhor it, because He is Lord of those Creatures that sin and rebel against him; and the Creature can no more exempt itself from his dominion, because it is sinful, then because it is sinful it will escape his Law, or dissolve itself to nothing.  
So then the antecedent Doctrine is summed up into this Thesis. If you ask in these terms, what was the cause of Christ's death, the answer is, it was God's Decree, and eternal Statute, for as much as He loved us with an everlasting love, and would not spare his own Son to pull us out of destruction. Again, if you ask who was the cause that Christ was buffeted, spot upon, crowned with thorns, crucified, the answer is, the Devil and his Instruments; but when the Lord foresaw how their cruelty and blasphemy would abound, his Counsel did direct, moderate, confine their sin; and his loving kindness towards us, that He might show us plenteous redemption did permit it. The ancient Fathers of the Church thought this the truest and most inoffensive conclusion, to refer the injurious slaughter of Christ not to God's ordination, but to his permission. You heard Leo's judgement before, to whom St. Austin agrees. The Jews enacted a sin which the righteous Lord did not compel them to do, 
Tracti. 53. in Johan. In Act. homil. 5.  for no sin doth please him, sed facturos esse praevidit, quem nihil latuit, but this was foreseen of him to whom nothing is concealed. Yet St. Chrysostom more clearly, that the scope of this part of St. Peter's Sermon to the Jews is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it was not their rage and violence which could have prevailed against Christ, if God had not permitted it; for as He did not command the evil Spirit to seduce Ahab and his flattering Prophets, but the Devil offering himself, and being most desirous to do that mischief, God gave him leave, and would not inhibit him; so the Jews were not authorized, or ordained or stirred up from God to show that prodigious hatred to his Son, but He yielded him up to their fury, and did not deliver him: therefore Christ did not say, Father why hast thou given me up into their hands? but my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?  
Surely this is the scope of my Text, and I believe they shoot wide from the mark, that collect from hence, that St. Peter's meaning was either to excuse their heinous trespass, or else to comfort their wounded conscience, because Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God: no all the comfort which was administered is vers. 38. Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. There is no comfort under the Sun, no balm in the world for a miserable sinner, but repent, and believe that there is abundant mercy in the satisfaction of Christ Jesus: and for excuse, that little extenuation of their fact which could be made, is chap. iii ver. 17. Ye desired a Murderer and killed the Prince of Life, but I wot that through ignorance you did it, as did also your Rulers: these are plain and divine Allegations, and there is no colour to help the greatness of their sin either from the determinate counsel, or from the foreknowledge of God; not from the determinate counsel, for they had not an eye in the crucifying of Christ to comply with God's counsel, but to satiate their own spleen and hatred; for impious men may execute that which God is content should come to pass, and yet they do nothing less than obey God; for obedience is not grounded upon the thing done, but upon the readiness and duty of the will in doing: beside, was there any Law that commanded the High-Priests to crucify our Saviour? for God doth ever reveal his will in some Law. No such Law I am sure, therefore no obedience in this bloody work of the Jews. For no man can be said to obey that doth not know the will of the Lord, neither doth direct his actions by the Rule of any Commandment; And what had they to do with God's secret counsel? They had not the least glimpse of it; Therefore my Text chargeth them home, Ye have taken him, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain him. It is an error to amaze a man, that reads it in the Pope's Canon Law, that because it was the counsel of the holy Trinity, and the obedience of Christ to humble himself unto death, even unto the death of the Cross, therefore the Jews had sinned deadly if they had not crucified him. It was well rejoined by one, 
Cartwr. Rem. Tes●,  that he wondered how the dumb and dead Paper did not stand up, refusing to take that ink wherewith such an abominable blasphemy should be printed, whereby the immaculate Lamb of God, in whom there was no sin, is affirmed to be justly and worthily condemned.  
But will the foreknowledge of God, and that permission which followed it, plead any part of their pardon? Nothing less; his foreknowledge compels no man into the way of perdition. God foresee iniquity in us because we will be evil, but we are not made evil because he foresees it. There have been always some in the world whom the Devil hath blinded with pernicious error, making them dream of inevitable Fate and Destiny, chiefly knitting this fallacy to fool themselves, that God's foresight cannot be deceived, therefore such sins as he foresaw they would fall into are not to be declined. 
Lib. de bono pierce. c. 15.  St. Austin reprehended one of his College or religious house for this saying, Qualiscunque nunc sim, talis ero qualem me Deus praescivit; Whatsoever I am now, at last I shall be no other than just as God foresaw I should be: Whereas, says the holy Father, his saying had been better on this wise, God foresaw I should be such a one, either as I would make myself by sin, or by his grace and piety. If I can I will clear that which makes the Objection seem to be difficult. No man can be condemned for actual sins unless he do commit them through his own wilfulness. But nothing is wilfully done which is inevitably and necessarily done; and freedom is quite taken away unless you take away all kind of necessity. But God's prevision from all eternity infers a necessity through the supposition of it that nothing can alter from the way, wherein before all time he saw all things lie naked and open before him. This is the Objection, and the Answer is most solid and punctual, though not so clear and easy to common understandings as the Objection. But thus: That which God foresees shall be but presupposing that God saw the effect in its causes that it would be: Therefore it is all one to say, that God sees it that it is, and it is impossible but whatsoever is, when it ●s must be even so as it is. Yet a little nearer to perspicuity, you may consider an action either in the putting forth and the doing, or when it is past and done. In the doing God foresaw man had power either to do, or not to do, and therein foresaw he was left to his freedom, and the liberty of his own counsel; thus God saw from all eternity that man was not put upon evil or destruction necessarily; then consider that action as foreseen of God to be done and committed, so it is necessary: But no otherwise, than as we know it was necessary that Lot was drunken, because that which is past and gone cannot be recalled. You see an Archer drawing his Bow, you see he may choose whether he will let the Arrow fly from him or not, but when it is gone out of the Bow, it is not in his will and power to resume it. So God did foresee the thoughts of the Jews, and when they were shooting out their Arrows, even bitter words, yet after the liberty of their own will they might have stopped and refrained; then he saw that they took to the worst, and chose death rather than life, so he let them walk in their own inventions, which made them stumble and fall. Perhaps you will yet plead against God, and say, the Lord knew the ways of wicked men, and he is Almighty, and could have stinted their iniquity, that such hellish effects should never have been wrought. I sweep away this cavil with a word. God was not wanting to put impediments, and very great ones, in the ways of Christ's enemies, that they might have desisted and been wise; but if these were made unsufficient, know that he is not bound to use Omnipotent means to repress impiety. It is his great pleasure to put his Creature to the trial of obedience, therefore it had not stood with his wisdom either to have made such a Law as man could not break, or to endue him with such abilities as he could not transgress. He will hedge in the way of sin to some, on whom he casts his best good liking, he will remove the objects and occasions of lewdness far from them, they shall not come within the grasp of fearful tentations. He would not let Paul kick against the pricks, nor hale men and women, that acknowledge Christ, before unrighteous Judges; but all men are not Paul's in God's dearest love and purpose. Some are given over, as these Jews were, to a reprobate sense, but according to their own wish, their blood be upon their own heads, for God was innocent.  
Now it is time to draw this Point into a Conclusion, and in this form and use; Let no calamities or malignities of this world offend us, though the Church of Saints goes by the worst oftentimes, let it not provoke our soul to say in its bitterness, is there any Providence above? Is there any knowledge in the most High? Quis putat esse Deos? He that will cut a man off, when he begins to narrate a matter, and not hear his tale out, will quite misconceive him, and lose the sense of his Narration: So it happens to them that look rashly upon some miserable events in the world, and search no further; the uppermost part of those things which they see is Satan reigning, Sin increasing, Justice declining, Religion mourning: But the bottom and the nethermost part of this tragical spectacle is Profundum justitiae & sapientiae; eternal Justice revenging these injuries, celestial and inscrutable wisdom drawing peace out of contention, repentance out of sins, content out of poverty, and an innumerous increase of faithful men and women out of bonds, and captivities, and persecutions. They have not the patience to hear God tell out his tale, they will not lend their eyes so long to see him bring his work to consummation, that do not discern into his holy counsels, that at last he will wind up all those things that appear most disproportionable to his honour, to the high advancement of his glory. Was ever the name of God defied in any thing so much as in the shameful death of Christ? Ah thou that buildest the Temple in three days, come down from the Cross and save thyself. And again, He trusted in God, let him deliver him if he will have him. And yet this that seemed such a blur to God's renown, was converted into such a good use, that all the blessings that ever we received in this world were not so fruitful, so beneficial to us, as the death of Jesus. Look not upon the superficies of his sufferings, as some do, and no more, a Picture in a glass-window will read you that Lesson; but look into the inward sanctuary, into the bosom of this mystery, that he was delivered by the determinate counsel, and foreknowledge of God.  
You have hitherto attended to the first part of my Text, that the ordination of Christ's death was from God, and to a good end and purpose; the latter part, which I will but snatch at and away, is, that the execution of his death came from the Devil and his Instruments out of most malignant respects, Him ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Ye have taken, this is no backbiting, no defiance at a distance, where the Jews did not hear him, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, withstanding them to their face; as St. Paul calls it. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. chrysostom. O how boldly the man of God speaks being compassed about with those murderers? Some are fallen in our days into a most ridiculous way of reproof and exhortation if it be compared with this. They will discourse very earnestly what obedience the people owe in the audience of the King; and again, they will preach how the King is tied to justice and equity far from Court in the audience of the People: Inveigh against engrossers of Grain in the City, and against false Merchandise in the Country. This is a most preposterous course, and no way intended to edify their Auditors. So St. Peter might have taxed the Idolatry of the Gentiles in the hearing of the Jews, and the sin of the Jews that they killed Christ in the hearing of the Gentiles; but that partition had been very ill divided. For it were like that Paradox in Chirurgery, called Vnguentum armarium, to cure a man without application of the remedy at an hundred miles' distance. No, St. Peter had no such Quacksalver tricks in Divinity, but directs his reprehension to them that were before him, Ye have taken, etc.  
And all the Jews were rightly thus accused, (except those few of men and women that were his Disciples and followed him) for if they were not such as accused him falsely, yet they were such as suborned Caitiffs to betray him. If they were not in the plot of betraying, they were in the sin of delivering up to Pilate; if not among those that delivered him up to judgement, yet among those that cried out Crucify him in the time of judgement. Nay, though they did not cry out, nor so much as in their hearts consent to his unjust trial, yet they held their peace, they suffered wrong to prevail and did not resist it. They did not put off the Roman Soldiers, and stay their fatal hands; in one respect or other they were all as guilty as St. Peter chargeth them, By wicked hands ye have crucified and slain him. Some of the Jewish Rabines slout at these words of St. Peter's to this day, saying, the Christians are quite mistaken to impute unto them the crucifying of Christ, for they had no such kind of death in their Law, and they did all things à punto according to their Law, they crucified no man. They had but four capital punishments for Malefactors, says Maimonides, after the tradition of Moses, killing with the Sword, stoning to death, hanging on a tree by the neck, and burning. But the infliction of crucifying was unheard of to their Nation. Thus they. And whereas Cardinal Baronius, Cardinal Sigonius, Justus Lipsius, and some other learned men, contradict the Rabbins in this, I think they did amiss not to believe their great Doctors in their own Laws and Customs, wherein they were most expert.  
The true retortion is, that in the days of Christ the power of life and death was taken out of the hands of the Jews by their Lords the Romans that reigned over them; therefore they implore the Roman Magistrate that he would condemn and execute their Prisoner after the Roman Laws, and the Romans did deal with him after the rigour of their Laws, which sentenced all those that were convicted of sedition and raising tumults to the bitter death of the Cross. So Christ foretold to his Disciples anon before he entered into Jerusalem, That the Son of man should be betrayed unto the chief Priests and Scribes, and they shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him, Mat. xx. 19 It was not the custom in Israel to strike nails through the feet or hands of any that were hanged up, says Maimonides, Nay, the most accurate Casaubon says, that there is not one word in all the Hebrew tongue for being nailed to the Cross, so little were they acquainted with the punishment. This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my Text, affigentes, which the Vulgar Latin most ignorantly reads affligentes, is heathen Language, and unknown to the Jews. The Rabbins, in contempt of our Saviour, call him in their Tongue sometimes as you would say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he that was hanged; but their Tongue could not furnish them with a word to say, he that was fastened to a tree. There may be divers ways of hanging on a tree beside crucifying; and the Old Testament useth ever the general phrase, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree. The only place in the Old Law which hath respect particularly to the death of the Cross, is Psal. xxi. 17. They pierced my hands and my feet. Therefore the Rabbins have endeavoured to corrupt that place more than any other in all the Bible. But the Psalmist alludes to that which the Jews should procure, and the Romans execute. 
Sozom. lib. 1. c. 18.  One only place selected out of Sozomen by Casaubon avails much to prove that crucifying was not a Jewish but a Roman fashion: For Constantine thought that no Malefactor was worthy to die on a Cross, because our Lord had so suffered, the just for the unjust, therefore he took away that penalty of crucifying used before by the Romans, says Sozomen.  
Therefore the vulgar Latin Translation mistakes the words of my Text, but hits the sense very well, for it hath not Per manus impias, by wicked hands, but Per manus impiorum, by the hands of the wicked; as if it were in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, with an Article, which would make it personal. But then the meaning is, ye Jews have taken him, and by the hands of the wicked, that is, of the Gentiles, have crucified him and slain him. So Christ foretold, The Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of sinners, that is, into the hands of the Gentiles. We that are by nature Jews, and not sinners of the Gentiles, says St. Paul, Gal. two. St. chrysostom understands it two ways, either by the hands of Judas, or by the hands of the Soldiers. It is all one; for consider it well, and it is rather the worse on their side than the better: They suborned Judas, they importuned Pilate, they stirred up the Soldiers. St. Peter passeth over these instrumental, accidental coadjutors, and directs his invectives against them that had the chief finger in the murder, that set all the wheels a going; Ye have taken him, and crucified him. If David could discern the hand of Joab in the woman of Tekoahs' Parable, then be sure the Lord doth espy the chief Actors and Complotters of all mischief, and rebellion, though others appear in the fact, whom they have exposed to censure and dangers. Statists love to bring about odious projects by the hands of underlings, as the Ape in the Fable would take the Chestnut out of the hot Embers with the Cat's foot. But God will send his Angels to gather up the Tares in bundles, all that were Complices in the same sin shall make one bundle both Jew and Gentile. For there is no connivance in God's justice, no ignorance in his wisdom, no partiality in his sentence, To him therefore be glory for ever. AMEN.   

NINE SERMONS UPON THE RESURRECTION OF OUR SAVIOUR.   

THE FIRST SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION.  ACTS two. 24. 
Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.  
A Resurrection Text out of the first Sermon that ever the Apostles Preached upon the Resurrection, preached in their full vigour of sanctification, immediately after they had received the Holy Ghost, to let us know that Whitsunday was principally ordained for this end, to make Easter-day famous over all the world: for when God filled Peter, and all that were gathered together with that new wine of the Spirit which is mentioned in the beginning of the Chapter; what did it produce in the first instant? what effect did immediately flow from it as an essential property? read and mark from my Text onward to the end of ver. 36. this is the nail altogether struck upon; this is the Theme gone over and over, that God had raised up Jesus; the Book of the Psalms did prove it, and the Disciples were witnesses of it. O mystery of mysteries, and wonder of Miracles! the first lesson of faith, the Cornerstone of the Building, the most necessary Pillar of the Gospel, indeed the bloody passion of our Saviour which was delivered us in the former verse, and the victory over death after that bloody Passion, which I shall instance upon in this verse; these two are the supporters of all Christianity, take away these two Pillars, as Samson broke down those that held up the Theatre of the Philistines, and you ruinated the whole Tower of Faith, and demolish it to nothing. Very fit it was therefore that all the tongues wherewith the Holy Ghost had endowed the Apostles with utterance to speak, should concur in this one point, and go no further in their first days labour, namely that Christ was become the first fruits of them that slept, that his soul was not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption. And because this Sermon of St. Peter's in the forenamed respects is such an illustrious testimony of our Lord's resurrection; therefore both Eastern and Western Churches have selected this Chapter of old to be the second Lesson for the Evening Prayer of this great Festival; so our Liturgy reteins it, which never recedes from good antiquity: and where our Church hath gone before me in her judgement, I thought it meet to follow her at this time in my duty, and to parcel out my Text from that great variety which the Chapter affords upon this occasion in these words, etc.  
The division that I will give you upon this verse shall be easy to conceive, and that will help out some things which are a little difficult in the handling of the parts. First here is the Resurrection of our Saviour barely and positively affirmed, whom God hath raised up. Secondly the compliment of it, God loosed withal the pains of death. Thirdly the necessity of it, for it was not possible that He should be holden of death. He humbled himself, and became obedient to death, therefore He was raised up: He undertook the death of the Cross, being fast bound in misery and iron; but as fast as they bound him God loosed him from those pains: neither were these things arbitrary, accidental, obnoxious to any human impediment, but contrived and fixed by God's inevitable Decree, ought not Christ to suffer, and so to enter into his glory, says the mouth of truth and wisdom? There is an oportuit upon both, he must suffer, and he must overcome those sufferings. Oportuit, the former must be, and it was impossible he should fail of the latter. Or you compose this Text with the Points of the former Text, immediately connexed with it, and see the amends made by God's mercy for the Jews fury. Ye have slain that holy one, says the Apostle; but what follows? God hath raised him up. Ye have taken and crucified him, but see the alteration, God hath loosened all the pains and pangs of death: He must not escape your hands, it was permitted unto you from above, he was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God: And he must escape all his ghostly enemies, sin, and death, and hell, for it was impossible he should be holden of them.  
Whom God hath raised up. Since the world began there was never any thing opposed so much as this, that Christ rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. For what shall we think of others, when the Apostles of our Lord did not only suspend their belief when tidings were brought of it, but with some disdain rejected it? For when Mary Magdalen, and Joanna, and Mary the Mother of James did tell the Eleven what the Angel had testified, their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not, Luc. xxiv. 11. Nay, when Christ had appeared to ten of that company, Thomas only being out of the way, they could not all persuade him that they had seen the Lord alive. Was ever any Tenet of faith so difficultly received even into the hearts of the best men? Then you may be sure that when this good seed fell into worse soil it was miserably choked with thorns. A sudden and a strong Faction combined against it instantly after it began to sound abroad, Acts iv. 2. The Priests, and the Captain of the Temple, and the Sadduces were grieved at no other part of their doctrine but this, That they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection of the dead. Josephus says, that as long as the Sadduces continued, till they were all destroyed, they became as horrid, and savage as beasts in cruelty, raging against those that affirmed the immortality of soul and body. When that Doctrine spread itself abroad, and came to the Philosophers of Athens, Some censured Paul for a babbler, some for a setter forth of strange Gods, Acts xvii. 18. And St. chrysostom says upon it, that Anastasia, which signifies the Resurrection, was accounted a God which the Christians only worshipped. The same Paul opening the knowledge of the Gospel before Festus and King Agrippa, that Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead; Festus broke out in reviling at that passage, Paul thou art beside thyself, much learning doth make thee mad. I would the opposition had gone no further, but St. Austin and Epiphanius in their Catalogues of Heretics rehearse more Adversaries against the Resurrection of Christ than any other doctrinal Point that concerns our Salvation. Simon Magus wrote many books against it. Basilides, a venomous Dogmatist, taught that Christ as he was led to be crucified vanished away by Art and Praestigiation, and that Simon of Cyrene, who bore his Cross some part of the way, was put to death in his stead, but that Jesus did never die, and therefore was never raised from the dead. The dross of so many Heresies was stained through these wicked wits, that the Church might enjoy truth more triumphantly after such great resistance.  

Acts 26.8  But let me go on with the Apostles question, Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the Dead? He that created the soul and body of nothing, doth it not appear much easier to him to join them together again in one substance when they are separated? Finemque potentia coeli non habet, & superi quicquid voluere peractum est. To expound that Heathen Poet by our Heavenly Poet, Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, in earth, in the sea, and in all deep places. He that will consider how every day is renewed after the night hath overcast it by the dawning of a new morning; how every year is renewed, after the cold and darkness of Winter, by the return and advancement of the Sun; how the naked Trees reflourish by the Vegetative virtue of the Spring; how Flies, and Moths, and the brood of the Silkworm have no motion, no quickness, no token of life in them for many months together, and yet instantly quicken again when the warmth of the Sun beams do cherish them: Finally, to end in that chief instance, for the Scripture hath made it so, how the seed of Corn falls into the ground and dies, and then revives again, and brings forth much fruit; he that puts all this together rationally will more easily consent, that it is not improbable that God will show more wonderful signs of his workmanship in man, being next under the Angels the beauty of all his Creatures. An unwise man doth not mark this, as the Psalmist said, and a fool doth not understand it. St. Austin says that Tully in his 3. lib. de Repub. disputed against the reuniting of soul and body. His Argument was, To what end? 
Civ. Dei. lib. 22. c 4.  Where should they remain together? For a body cannot be assumed into heaven. I believe God caused those famous monuments of his Wit to perish, because of such impious opinions wherewith they were farced. But to his slender Argument, the body raised up shall have shaken off all malignancy of flesh and blood, which made it unfit for heaven. And when it is become a glorious body, why not a body inhabit heaven as well as a spiritual celestial soul converse upon earth? But Plato was more Theological than Tully, and he taught very truly, that souls could not remain separated for ever without their bodies. And though he put not a reason to his opinion, there is a very sufficient one, Posse perficere materiam est animae hominis essentiale. 
Biel. lib. 2. Senten. c. 2.  It is the essential difference, for aught we know, between the Spirit of a man and an Angel who is a spiritual substance, that man's soul hath an aptitude, a desire, a natural reference to inform, and actuate a body, and so hath not an Angel. Therefore it cannot be that this natural aptitude to dwell in flesh should be in it unto all eternity, when it is separated from the body, and never be satisfied.  
Perhaps some will think that this labour may be spared to show the possibility of a body to be raised from the dead, for here is that power in act, it is done, it is manifested in Christ, it cannot be controlled, Whom God hath raised up. Some have wondered at our Saviour for his Birth, his obedience to his Parents, his Poverty, his Passion, that he should humble himself so far; but no man can take hold of any occasion to wonder why he should be raised from the dead, and glorified so far! It was conformable to the eternal justice of his Father to exalt him that had humbled himself so much; Lowliness shall not always be left in the dust to be despised. Therefore some of the ancient Writers make those words by Analogy to suit with Christ, Psal cxxxix. 2. Thou knowest my down-sitting, and mine uprising. And that of Micah in the same Key, Chap. seven. 8. Rejoice not against me O mine enemy, when I fall I shall arise. Obedience and patience shall not be forgotten at last. Every Valley that subjecteth itself under the mighty hand of God shall be exalted. Jesus Christ though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God, 2 Cor. xiii. 4. Secondly, Satan must make this restitution for the wrong that he had done to an innocent. Death had dominion no further than sin did reign, so that it was a most unjust usurpation in death to seize upon him who knew no sin; the Devil set on his Instruments to kill our Lord, and prevailed, but Hell and the Grave must needs regorge that which they had so unjustly received. That eternal Law which hath destined most several retributions to the pure and impure, would not suffer that he should continue in death, whose soul was pure, and his body undefiled. The Resurrection of us sinners is out of grace and mercy, the Resurrection of Christ is out of merit and justice. Both shall arise alike, as St. Austin says, Similiter surgent corpora, quae dissimiliter orta sunt, Christi, Adami, nostrum. 
August. Ep. 49.  Bodies that were diversely framed and made as Christ's, and adam's, and ours, shall not rise after a divers manner, but have the same kind of Resurrection. Yet the excellency of the head is above the members, (for though the head and members are conformable in nature, yet they are not in virtue.) Therefore I bring it home to my second reason that God is pleased in his loving kindness that we should overcome death, but he consented to his own justice that Christ should overcome death for Satan must make restitution again because he had slain an innocent. That is the second reason upon the main, whom God hath raised up.  
Thirdly, As God hath turned the sting of death to our benefit, so, much more out of the Resurrection of his Son he hath given us a salve of consolation. For if his humility and reproach were our blessing, how much more his glory? Death is two ways abolished, first, by the pardoning of our sins, for it is now become the passage to heaven for all penitent sinners, which before was the gate of hell for all transgressors. Secondly, It is much more abolished by the Resurrection, evacuating all that mortality had caused by the restauration of soul and body into an integral composition. We have three grand enemies combined together against us, Sin, and Death, and Hell: But through the happy victory of Christ of all these Enemy's Death doth least harm, and therefore of all our Enemies he is last destroyed. Among the Heathen death was their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the most amating terror that could be set before a man, the reason, for they knew neither how that loss should ever be repaired, nor what entertainment their Spirit should find in another world when it was departed. But God hath provided better things for us, not to let us fluctuate in these fears and uncertainties: Nay, we are enlightened to know, that the malediction which was in death is extinguished, how that which was at first inflicted as an entrance into perpetual pain is now a rest from all our labours, Rev. xiv. Furthermore, that it is a rest from sin, for while we draw in our breath we suck in iniquity, grace doth mitigate our pronity to evil, nothing but death will quite stop and repress sin in us, the wisdom of God providing, that as sin brought death into the world, so death should utterly abolish sin out of the world. So death dissolves the works of the Devil, but the Resurrection dissolves the works of death. It is the last thing that the Saints desire of God to be clothed again. With that request being heard they leave wishing, and the end of all desires must be the crown and top of all felicity. Finally, to bring it home to the Person of Christ, whom God raised up, much was our benefit by his Death, but much more by his Resurrection. For lay these two in comparison together, to be eased of misery, and to be brought into a state of joy and gladness: Is not the addition of some good thing more thanksworthy than the taking away of some evil? Why, thus it stands with those two blessings which our Saviour obtained for us, they are the words of St. Austin I think, Sicut humiliatus est moriendo ut nos liberaret à malis, ita glorificatus est resurgendo ut nos promoveret ad bona. As he was humbled unto death to deliver us from the evil of death, so he was glorified by rising again that he might bring us to happiness and glory.  
And of this great work of raising up enough at this once, this being the tenth of these Easter Festivals wherein I have spoken upon the same Argument and occasion before you. Yet I have a little to add before I leave this first Point touching the Agent, and the Patient. God was the Author of this great work, and Christ in his own body returned again to life, whom God raised up. May not the Power and Majesty of Christ seem to suffer in this, that St. Peter says, God raised him up? For our Saviour did often give the Jews to know, that he would raise himself again from the dead on the third day, Destroy this Temple, and I will raise it up again in three days, Joh. two. 19 And without any Parabolical speech, Joh. x. 18. No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself, I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. Why then doth not the Apostle clearly attribute unto him, that he was the Author of his own Resurrection? Because he spoke of his Humane Nature first impotently obnoxious to Passion, and then powerfully restored to life. The Omnipotent virtue to revoke the soul into the body again was in the Divinity of Christ, not in his Humane Nature. Therefore Christ declareth in those words of St. John, that it is not in the power of man to reserve the soul in the body when the pangs of death are upon it; but for his own part, though deadly wounds should be gashed in his body, yet he had power through the union of his Godhead to stay his life, and not to lay it down. Likewise it is far from the ability of man to reunite his Spirit to his Flesh when it is separated, but the Divinity of our Saviour kept personal union with the body in the Grave, and with the soul when it is flown away, therefore he could bring them together again to remain in incorruption; the ancient similitude was, 
Tolet in 10. Jo.  As a man that draws a Sword out of a Scabbard holds the Sword in one hand, and the Scabbard in another: So the Soul was unsheathed from the body, but the Divine Nature held personal union with them both. And as the Weapon is fit to be put into the Case that held it, yet it cannot sheathe itself without the hand of the Ownor thrust it in: So the Soul of Christ was restored again to the body, not by any virtue, or activity in the humane soul, but by the Power of God. Christ was made like unto other men in all things, sin only excepted, and remade, 
Lib. 3. heres. c. 20.  or raised up like other men. Si homo non vicisset inimicum hominis, non justè victus esset, says Irenaeus; The Enemy of man was overcome by a man, else he would have clamoured that he was overcome by Power and not by Justice. Therefore St. Paul, to let us know that Christ was left in death as man to be raised up, 
1 Cor. 15.21.  says he, As by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.  
Him God raised up, him, that man Christ Jesus that was crucified, the selfsame body, let me touch upon that, and then I will go on to new matter. The Resurrection of our Lord is the Sampler of ours, that very same material Flesh that died was revived again in him, and so it shall be in us. The impious Socinians, the last and one of the worst and most pestilent Sects that ever was in the Church, teach that we are not bound to believe it as an Article of Faith that we shall rise again in our own bodies. Why then the same dead shall not rise again, for if they want one essential part, and the matter is one essential part of our composition, it is not the same man. Matter is the principle of individuation, or numerical distinction say the Metaphysics. And the old Pythagoraeans could not deny in their Paradox of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, if one man's soul came by many transmigrations into another man's body, it was another man. But leave we the help of humane reason, though that be strong on our side, and come to Divinity. All the Ensamples or Preludiums of the Resurrection both in Old and New Testament were of such as had life restored to them in their own body, the Shunamites Child, the Widow's Son, Lazarus the Brother of Mary and Martha, the Saints that came out of their Graves in the holy City, and Christ himself that came out of the Sepulchre. And let any equal Auditor judge if Job were not an Anti-Socinian, Job nineteen. 26. Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall behold for myself, and mine eyes shall see, and not another. And is it not equity, that the righteous in the same body wherein they have worshipped God they shall be glorified, that the wicked in the same body wherein they have lusted after evil things they shall be punished? I will name no Fathers to Patronise this cause, for all concur with one voice, that as God raised up Christ, so he will raise us up in our own bodies.  
With the Resurrection of our Saviour, which I have handled hitherto in the first part of my Text, there is adjoined in the next place the Compliment of his Resurrection, the full weight and excellency of it, having loosed the pains of death. Solutis doloribus inferni, having loosed the pains of hell, so the vulgar Latin; and I will now go over the divers interpretations of both readings. The first, which is the reading of our Translation is the right and best, therefore I will begin with that. First, St. Chrysostom's judgement upon it is, that when Christ came out of the Grave death itself was delivered from pain and anxiety, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, death knew it held him captive whom it ought not to have seized upon, and therefore it suffered torments like a woman in travel, till it had given him up again. Thus he. But the Scripture elsewhere testifies that death was put to sorrow, because it had lost its sting, rather than released from sorrow by our Saviour's Resurrection. Secondly, Cajetan understands by the loosening of the pains of death, the undoing or taking off those penalties which he suffered in triduo mortis, in those three days while he lay asleep in the Sepulchre. But what penalties are those in his construction? Why one thing irksome unto him was that the body and soul should be divided in sunder, the other that the very place of hell, to which his soul descended is in itself ordained for torment? Et mora in inferno erat paena infamiae, as another said, any stay or delay in hell was a derogation to his honour: and for the body resting in the Grave, though then it have no sense of smart, yet for that while it is sub mortis victoriâ & imperio, under the charge and Empire of death. There is somewhat near to truth in this Exposition, as I will manifest by and by, and somewhat clean mistaken. For all the sorrow and punishment of Christ was finished in his death, that was the consummation of all his penal sufferings. Wherefore his body was not kept in the Grave, much less his soul made progress to Hell, to bear any penalty, revenge, or sorrow for our sakes, or to satisfy for our sins, but to fulfil all righteousness, to confirm our faith that he was truly dead, and to captivate the Devil. Therefore his Resurrection did not cut off or mitigate any sorrows which he sustained in death, I cannot consent to Cajetan if he mean the contrary. But if he take not sorrows in a proper signification, but Metaphorically for the bands of death, as the Syrian Paraphrast reads it, Solvens funes mortis, loosening the cords or twists of death, so I think it to be the very marrow and true sense of the Text, that God raised up his Son, not Christ, but God, the sense continuing in the same person, having loosened or unbound him from that death wherein he was detained three days.  
But if it agree to the Person of Christ, that he loosed the pains of death, though it be a little violence to Grammar, me thinks then thirdly it comes to this interpretation, that Christ had paid, (you know that is solvere too) he had undergone, he had satisfied the pains of death, or a most painful death. So Beza says it may be taken here, Dolores mortis pro morte dolorum; The pains of death, for a death full of pains, even all that spite and malice could wreck upon him, Andradius likewise in his defence of the Tridentine Faith agrees with Beza, that Christ after he had given up the Ghost, and paid the debt of Nature upon the Cross, was acquitted or exempted from the sorrows of death, that is, from a death full of sorrows, sorrows that were not only deeply impressed into the body, as far as whips, and thorns, and nails could reach, but exceeding anguish and pain of mind, sighs and horrors that we can not conceive: Thus far only we may peep into it, that God was represented to him most angry at our sins, that He felt the malediction of his wrath lying upon him for our sakes, especially that He was troubled to shed his blood for so many ungrateful wretches that had no regard of it; these were the sorrows of death that compassed him about; but that He should put on the horror of our guiltiness so far, and suppose himself to stand in our person at his Father's Tribunal, even to the forgetting of himself, to the confusion of his reason, to the pangs of desperation, as if He felt hell about him, whatsoever a grave and worthy Author says to this point upon my Text, and in other places, I draw my consent from it. Exceeding sorrows both of body and mind got hold of him, but they were loosened and finished upon the Cross. But will some man say, why doth St. Luke speak of these in order after his Resurrection? I answer, that Christ satisfied the wrath of God to the full upon the Cross, and paid that debt for which He was our surety, to the utmost farthing: Thereby He loosed the deadly sorrows, yet it did not appear so well that He had loosed those sorrows, till the time He rose from the dead, therefore the victory over those sorrows being estated as it were in his rising again, St. Luke ascribes it to his resurrection. I have not spared you see to open this third and most common opinion unto you; yet I rather satisfy myself in this Interpretation, that as it was Gods work to raise up Christ, so it was his act to lose the pains of death, solvere i. e. irritum reddere, all that the pains and sharpness of death could do was to divorce his Soul from his Body, and God did frustrate and dissolve all that by uniting them again in the Resurrection.  
And according to this true reading of the words which I have hitherto beaten upon the Expositions are easy and full of consolation; full of consolation I say; for neither could the Scripture say that the sorrows of death were all paid, neither had it been possible for Christ to have got out of the Grave, if there had been any one sin, though the least in the world unsatisfied. The other reading is strange to the Original, yet admitted by all them that are bound even to the errors of the vulgar Latin Translation, and often quoted and cited for great authority in some Controversies, solvens dolores inferni, having loosed the pains of Hell. 'Tis true that Irenaeus and some others of good credit of old do use the same; and our Critics tell us of one ancient Greek Copy that concurs with them; and a learned Bishop of our own Church reconciles the seeming difference on this wise, that by death in that place is meant, not the first but the second Death; the second Death you know is eternal punishment in Hell fire, and in his opinion it comes all to one pass to say, having loosed the sorrows of death, and having loosed the sorrows of hell. This will be examined by and by: but first I will premise how some have blundered themselves in this reading.  

Ep. 99  St. Austin in that famous Epistle of his to Evodius, propounds it, though very faintly, that it is not improbable that the Soul of Christ went into Hell in triduo mortis, and carried away with him some that were there tormented; and if none other were released, yet at least Adam was: If the Father can be expounded to mean that Christ blotted out the hand-writing against us, harrowed Hell, and took away all power from it against penitent sinners, and so preserved Adam and other just men from that place of torment, his Judgement is right; but if his Sentence be flat for the other meaning, that any of the damned were redeemed of those pains, that so he loosed the sorrows of Hell, than we forbear to give him credit. But you shall hear him in the right anon. Secondly there are more than many that think they have found their so much contended for fire of Purgatory in my Text: for neither the Schoolmen, nor almost any other of the Church of Rome do take the word Hell in the Creed properly and literally as they ought, for the Hell of the Damned, it is their Doctrine that Christ went virtually thither, but not locally; no in their common Tenent he descended but to the Limbus of the Fathers, or to the place of temporal sorrows, where some were detained for a while for the satisfaction of some venial sins. Therefore Bellarmine having laid his conclusion at first that Christ descended to the nethermost Hell, afterward went from it, and held with their common way, that in his substantial presence he went at the most no further than Purgatory. This Pill being commonly swallowed among men, it purgeth this fancy out of divers of their Authors, that Christ redeemed not the damned out of Hell, but He released many by a Plenary Indulgence out of Purgatory. This is nothing else but to make the Scriptures chime according to that idle conceit that runs in their brains. And thirdly Aquinas shuts this opinion out of doors to take in another, to wit, that to lose the pains of Hell, was to lose the pains of the Patriarches and Fathers, who were sequestered in a Receptacle of ease, but not admitted into any joys of Heaven till Christ had first ascended: but what pains had these that were to be mitigated, if they lived in quiet refreshment, and in no pain at all? he answers that they were full of sadness and affliction of mind, because their deliverance was so long stopped, and Christ stayed so long before He came in the flesh to release them. But I rejoin, if they were in such a state as they describe, dato non concesso, they might be full of desire and expectation, but without any molestation or anxiety. All these opinions which I have ranked foremost, as they miss the meaning of the Text, so neither are they right according to analogy of faith.  
But the last Paraphrase of the words, though it rove from the meaning of the Text, yet it is sound according to analogy of faith, 'tis thus that Christ loosed the sorrows of Hell, not as if ever He had felt the sorrows of Hell in himself, and shook them off, but He subdued Satan for our sakes, 
Ep. praedi●.  and delivered us from those pains, with which we should have been held and captivated. And herein St. Austin speaks to this point most intelligently, that it is easy to understand how these sorrows were loosed to set us free, quemadmodum solvi possunt laquei venantium ne teneant, non quia tenuerunt; as the snares of Hunters may be untied, not to redeem that which is caught, but that they may never catch any thing. No man will ever deny but that we may be as well delivered from that torment which is deserved, as from that which is inflicted, and to prevent the Devil that he should not tyrannize over us, is to lose and break in sunder the fetters that he had prepared for us, and enough to make us confess with David, Thou hast brought my soul out of hell, thou hast kept my life from them that go down into the pit. The three headed Monster that fights against us is the strength of Sin, and Death, and Hell put together: Sin must not reign, Death must no more sever Soul and Body, Hell must have no power to receive and torment us, all these must be vanquished, or else Satan's Kingdom is not quite destroyed: and Christ subdued them all: but the greatest and most perfect Conquest that He made, whereof we most triumph in this life is, that He overcame Hell, or loosened the sorrows of Hell: For Sin doth remain in us here, though the force be broken; Death also prevails against our body, though it shall be but for a time; but here is the fullness of our Redemption, and of Christ's Victory, that Hell is absolutely conquered, and shall never lay hold of them that believe.  
And I must go one step further with them that follow this interpretation, wherein my judgement favours them for true Doctrine, that Christ did locally go down into Hell, when He loosed the sorrows of Hell for his Elects sake. 
Lib. de An. cap. 55.  Christus inferos adiit ne nos adiremus, says Tertullian; Christ went into Hell that we might never come thither: and Fulgentius is a great light to this Article of the Creed. 
De Pas. Dom. lib 3.  It was fit that the Son of God being without sin should descend as far as man had fallen by sin, and so He freed all the faithful of the world from the beginning to the end, that they should never come thither. I will fill the Scale with no more authorities than St. Austin's, this is his Sentence, it was convenient that Christ should descend into Hell to procure us freedom from Hell; as it behoved him to die, and to rise again the third day, that we might not die for ever, but rise from death. Some that affect not this way of Christ's local descending into Hell, rejoin thus, that no man denies but Christ delivered us from the power of darkness, and that He spoilt Principalities and Powers, 
Colos. 1.13.2.15.  and made a show of them openly; but it is not certain by what means this was done, by his Divinity, or by his Humanity, or both; by the virtue of his Sufferings, Death, Burial, Resurrection, or by the real Descending of his Soul in that place: nay one Lutheran Confession is not averse to think that He went thither both in Body and Soul in the very moment of his Resurrection. 
Confess, Suevica. art. 2.  I believe by the penetration of the gross body of the Earth they would bring in some succour to help forward their Consubstantiation. The most equal way to try this is the express Letter of the Scripture, the clearest exposition of the Apostles Creed, and the greatest consonancy of reason.  
The Testimonies of Scripture most firmly to be insisted on is Ephes. iv. 9 That he ascended, what is it but that he first descended into the lowest parts of the earth I know this may well be expounded, that Christ was humbled to be a man upon earth in the form of a Servant But if the learned and pious Fathers that were of old may be the Judges of the interpretation: And who fitter? the lowest parts of the earth are the nethermost Hell. Beza hath cited a parallel place out of the Psalms to make these words of the Apostle agree unto the Incarnation of our Lord, Psal. cxxxix. 15. My substance was hidden from thee, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth: But St. Paul doth not use to obscure plain Doctrine with strange Poetical Phrases: and Estius hath requited Beza with another place out of the Psalms to confirm my Doctrine, Psal. lxiii. 9 Those that seek my Soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth; that is, the enemies of the innocent should go into the place of the damned: The other Testimony of Scripture, for I will press no more, is Psal. xuj. 10. and rehearsed by St. Peter in this Chapter, Thou shalt not leave my Soul in hell, etc. What pains some men have taken, to no fruitful end that I know, to make these words bear any sense rather than that which is literal; no man that marks their diligence must deny, but the Soul in divers Authors is taken for the Body, and Hell for the Grave, and so they patch it up, Thou wilt not leave my life in the Sepulchre: but why should literal Scripture be so eluded? St. Augustine's rule is, that when the literal sense of the Text sounds somewhat that is sinful or impossible, then discreet and learned Interpretations must mollify the letter: but it is not to be suffered, where good divinity is contained in the letter, as there is in this: the meaning is, as no flesh in the Sepulchre was ever free from corruption but only Christ's, so no Soul in Hell was ever supported and assisted by God, and not forsaken, but only Christ's. So Fulgentius most divinely, anima immunis à peccato non erat subdenda supplicio, & carnem sine peccato non debuit vitiare corruptio: Christ's Soul knowing no sin, went not to Hell to pay any debt of punishment, for an innocent could not be obnoxious to those flames and torments; and his Body never executing any evil act, could not be tainted with corruption and putrefaction. Is it not therefore consonant to reason to stick to the letter of Scripture, when it bears an Orthodox exposition of faith: and whether we say that Christ being free among the dead, to walk whither he would, his Soul being separated in death first showed itself to the Saints in Joy to their exceeding comfort, then to the Unbelievers in Hell to their woe and confusion; or whether we say He descended, that such as believed may never be thrust into that infernal Prison, or rather that He brought his triumph over death with him before the face of Hell, and brought those unruly spirits under his yoke, entered upon the strong man's house, and spoiled his house, as it is in the Parable Matth. xii. All these ways are agreeable to God's word, and to be admitted without contention.  
Thus far upon Scripture attended by reason. Indeed Stapleton says, that two Articles of the Creed are not to be found in Scripture, this of Christ's descent in to Hell, the other of the Catholic Church. I confess in his sense they are not to be found in Scripture, but in ours they are. But last of all attend what light the very Creed itself will give to the confirmation of this Doctrine. The ground that a learned Father of our own Church lays I take to be most rational. Thus take these words properly and not figuratively, as it is fit in a short abstract of faith; next let them have a sense different in matter from all other Articles, or else they were a superfluous repetition; then let every Article keep a true consequent order of time one after another, or else it would make a strange confusion, and all other Expositions will give place. Some of the Romish and some of our own part have taught, that when Christ was crucified he sustained the pains of Hell: but observe against them how this Article should come in most preposterously after his death and burial, which was in time before. Others make this sense of it, that he was dead, and detained in death; others to be no more but that he was buried; but according to these opinions there shall neither be property of phrase, nor difference of matter in this Article from them that went before. To be dead and buried are as plain speeches as be in all the Creed, and should these be explained by an enigmatical Phrase to descend into Hell, rather to obscure than to explain the former. Observe how our Church of England hath differenced it from death and burial, art. 3. As Christ died for us, and was buried, so also it is believed (mark, that's another point) that He went down into Hell. And the thirtieth Article of the Church of Ireland doth not satisfy me, that this line is in one comma, I know not whether by the negligence of the Printer, He was buried and descended into Hell.  
I cannot come to the third part of my Text, and I have done as much as the time will permit upon the second; only let me add, let weak capacities be no ways discomforted, though they cannot explicitly understand the meaning of this controverted Article of the Creed, Christ's descending into Hell: they must believe that Christ vanquished the Devil for our sakes, that's necessary both for their comfort and salvation. And all Articles of Faith are not equally necessary and fundamental. Gregory Valenza, and many others, I think not imprudently, hold that the main and necessary points for unlearned simple people to believe, are the great works of God remembered in the principal Feasts of the year, Christ's Nativity, his Passion, Resurrection, Ascension into Heaven, and the coming of the Holy Ghost. And though this Article of the Descent into Hell contain an excellent mystery of Faith, yet it comes not near the excellent knowledge and use of the former. Suarez the Jesuit writes confidently, that if by an Article of Faith we understand a Truth which all faithful people are bound explicitly to believe, so he did not think it necessary to reckon it among the Articles of Faith. The Nicene Creed in our Common-prayer Book hath left it out. Ruffinus says that after 400 years it came into the Latin Church, and like enough, for St. Austin expounds the Creed five times, and Chrysologus of Ravenna, ann. 440. six times and never glance it. For that Creed called the Apostles, was not so drawn up by the Apostles, for aught we can find in good antiquity, but called so because it contains the sum of all Apostolical Doctrine: one part of it was laid too after another, and this I believe was the last addition of all. Therefore it is a main arm of faith, that Christ loosed the sorrows of death, and a Truth it is no doubt, though not of such prime consequence, that He descended into Hell to lose those sorrows for our liberty: but the main Pillar of Faith is the first Comma of my Text, that God raised up Jesus from death, and it was impossible He should be holden of it. AMEN.   

THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION.  JOHN xi. 43. 
And when he had thus spoken he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth.  
AMong all the miracles that our Saviour wrought this suscitation of Lazarus, or raising him up from the dead, it was his true Benoni, or Son of sorrow. None came off with so much anxiety, none cost him so dear in all the Gospel. Twice he groaned in Spirit, and once he wept, his Passions were as variable as the life and death of Lazarus. Look back to the fifteenth verse, and you shall see it wrought comfortably, I am glad for your sakes that Lazarus is dead. Look unto the 35 verse and you shall see it wrought bitterly, 
Serm. de temp. 104.  Jesus wept. What alterations are there, says St. Austin? Gaudebat propter discipulos, flebat propter Judeos; horum fides confirmabatur, horum incredulitas augebatur. It joyed him for the Disciples sake, that their faith would be confirmed and revived: It grieved him for the Jews sake, whose hearts were hardened. The preparation then of this Miracle was not without sorrow, but the event and sequel was worst of all. For although the Counsel of the High Priests stomached at our Saviour long before, 
Abulen. in 21. Mat 9.56.  yet they wished his life no hurt till he had wrought this wonder which all the world were amazed at. From that time Caiaphas began to talk like a Wizard, That one man must die for the people, and Christ must suffer. Now you see good cause why our Lord might groan and weep, Israel shall pass over into Canaan, but Moses must die upon Mount Nebo, the birth of Benjamin shall be Rachel's funeral, Lazarus shall be revived, and Jesus crucified.  
Yet I can tell you one thing, Beloved, how the Son of God shall neither groan nor weep for Lazarus, but rejoice in Spirit and be glad, even at this day be glad, as he stands at the right hand of God, and it lies upon you to do it. Did he then groan for the infidelity of the Pharisees? Then sure he will now rejoice if we believe in his works, and have faith in the Resurrection. Did he then weep because his own death was contrived for doing good? Then he will now be comforted if you take heed that you do not again crucify the Lord of life. T●llite lapidem, as it is in verse 39, remove the stone, the hardness of your heart, and joy will follow in heaven for the conversion of a sinner. Do you consider that the days past were a time of mourning and sad contrition? Why, here is a Text which was not preached without Christ's mourning and lamentation. Do you remember his Passion but the other day? Why, this is the Text which was an occasion to bring him to his Cross and Passion. What do you meditate upon this day but our Saviour's issuing out of the Grave? Why, here is Lazarus broke out of the Tomb, Lazarus come forth.  
Which words, as I have read them, rise up into two eminent heads like Tabor and Hermon. You shall perceive that the business in my Text is a work of great dignity, that is one part, and a work of great Divinity, that is the other part. The dignity consists in these two Points: 1. In that which Christ had spoken before, when he had said thus; And what was that? He prayed unto his Father; wherefore it is dignum oratione, a work worthy of a Prayer for the preparation. 2. It is Dignum proclamatione, it was cried with a loud voice, and fit to be published to all the world. The Divinity appears in these three circumstances: 1. Exeat mortuus, that a dead man is summoned to appear. 2. Exeat Lazarus, Lazarus after four days departure comes forth. 3. Exeat ligatus, one who was bound hand and foot with Grave-cloaths walks upon his feet. O strange Divinity! the Monuments which were shut did open, for Christ did call who had the Key of David. The dead who lay in silence could hear his tongue, for it was the same voice which makes the Hinds bring forth young ones, and called Adam from the dust of the earth. The body which lay putrified four days gave no offence in the smell. Christ was at hand, who is a sweet savour for us unto God. The feet which were bound with Grave-cloaths could walk before him, for in him we live, and move, and have our being. Was not this excellent work worthy of a Prayer? So far we have gone this day in our morning Sacrifice. Was it not worthy of the proclamation of a loud voice, fit to be preached that the world may hear of it, and believe, and be saved? And that is the business which doth now take up your attentions. With these two circumstances of the Miracle I must first begin, the preparation of our Saviour's Prayer, and the promulgation of his loud voice or preaching, And when he had thus said, etc.  
That is, when he had prayed unto the Father. Dimidium facti qui benè caepit habet; 
Horat. Epist. lib. 1.  And he that begins his work with Prayer, as Christ did, hath half dispatched it. Vox clamantis, the voice of a Crier was the forerunner of Christ when he came upon the earth: Vox orantis, the voice of Prayer must be the forerunner of our necessities when we look for any thing from heaven. As the people shouted when the foundation of the Temple was laid, grace grace be unto the first stone of the building, so let the foundation of every thing be laid with shouting and strong Ejaculations to our God, that he may say upon the moving of the first stone, Grace be to the building. In Gen. xii. Abraham removed three times to several quarters, and still before he pitched his Tent he built an Altar to Jehovah; remove not, stir not, enter upon no new task before you have built an Altar. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. Chrysostom; wheresoever you are pray, and your own heart is a Temple, or the Altar of Jehovah. Religion is the Bow, and the heart is the String, but Prayer is that which bends the Bow, Religion is unbent as it were, and the Shafts cannot fly until Prayer dispatch them.  
Well might Peter, who was prompt of tongue, and ready to speak upon all occasions, be counted a chief Apostle; for Prayer, which is the tongue of Religion, and our Consciences Orator, is the chief of all our virtues. Debilem facito manu, debilem coxâ, pede; no matter for infirmities in the feet, for diseases in the hands, so the dumb Devil be not in our tongues. The penitent Thief had no hands to hold up, they were nailed to the Cross, no knees to bend, for his legs were broken, he had a tongue to say, Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom, and it did him service enough to open Paradise. O the delusions of the Devil! For all this that I have said, you shall sooner make ignorants and vain people believe that Diseases are curable by unsignificant Charms, by unhallowed mutterings, than by godly Prayers: As if the Devil could go further with Nonsense than a good Christian with Faith and Prayer. One Talon in the Gospel could do no good, for it was but one Talon upon the return, but one single Petition will fructify like a grain of Wheat into stalks and handfuls. For as it is said of the nine Muses, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, call but upon one by name, and all her Sisters beside will assist the invocation; so call but for one blessing piously, and though you ask but for a drop, much abundance of waters of comfort will gush out when the spout is opened. Fear not Zachary, says Gabriel, when he came to tell him of the birth of John, for thy prayers are heard, Luk. i. 13. Why surely, says St. Austin, 
Q. Evang. lib. 1.  he prayed for the whole Congregation at that time, and not for Children. Not for Children, for his Wife was old and barren, he despaired of Issue. What of that? He prayed for the public good, and God gave him joy in particular, he prayed for the Congregation, as it was fit for the Father of a Flock, and God made him the Father of a Son.  
Such notice was taken of this solemn Prayer which our Saviour made for Lazarus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
〈…〉. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  says St. chrysostom; a Church was built from the ground in that place, where the Monument of Lazarus had been before. For who would not flock to pray in that place where Jesus had prayed unto his Father? It was na Oratory whereby the Prelates of the highest state might learn to officiate by Christ's example, and execute in their place. Alas of too much contempt to pray in the Congregation. 
Plin●. Paneg.  The proud Emperors of Rome did so persuade themselves, Vt sibi viderentur Principes esse desinere, si quid facerent tanquam Senatores; They thought it did derogate from the Magnificence of a Prince, to employ their pains toward the public good like Senators. So to mutter Mass once a year is enough for the Roman Bishop, to bless the people with so much breath as to pray for them by the Book; O it is too mean a Function for a dignified person. What? And was it a disparagement to the Son of God, to pray among the people, when he raised Lazarus?  
The Arrians indeed did object against Christ's Divinity in this place, for making a Petition in the behalf of Lazarus. Where was the virtue of his own Godhead? Where was his Omnipotency? Say those graceless Heretics, is it not a token of infirmity to ask that of another which we are not able to do by our own efficacy? And doth this offend them that Christ should pray that he might conjoin with us in our infirmities? But to give a larger resolution to the doubt. Says Martha in the 21, 22 verses before, Lord, if thou hadst been here my brother had not died, but I know even now whatsoever thou dost ask of God, God will give it thee. Christ then had no need to pray for Lazarus to support his own power, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to satisfy the desire and weakness of Martha he betook him to a prayer. Says the Centurion, Lord, only say the word and my servant shall be healed. Be it so, says Christ, and he went no further. O says another, Come and heal my daughter, vouchsafe your presence to the sick person; Why, Christ came and healed her. Could they ask any more? Not only the diseases were remedied, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it was done in what fashion or circumstance they pleased: Will Martha have her brother raised with a formal supplication before? She hath her will, and Jesus prayed unto the Father. It was not done then for Lazarus his sake, it needed not: not for Martha's sake only, but for the people that stood by; nay, that's not all, not for them alone, but for us, and for as many as shall hear the Gospel preached to the ends of the world.  
For as the beating of the wings, and the crowing of the Cock raised up Peter when he was buried in the sins of the High Priests Hall, so the knocking of the breast, and the voice which cries unto the Lord before the morning watch is that which must raise us up from the luxurious beds of sensuality. Some Orders of Mendicant Friars wander about, and present themselves to the eyes of men, but say not a word for an Alms to make themselves known to the ear of the charitable. This is rather sharking than begging for benevolence. Let them bear the badge of St. Francis, but we the badge of Christ, ask and pray for a quickening spirit if you would be raised up to newness of life. Hezekiah having emptied his heart of some words which were well disgusted out, a as if he had opened a vein in each eye to let out tears, by that means saw fifteen years more after a desperate sickness. Ahaziah's Child perchance had gained twice fifteen years, if the Father had done as much, but it lived not fifteen hours after the King had sent for Physic to the God of Ekron. Like Coriolanus, whom the people thought worthy of any favour, if his proud heart would have stooped and asked for favour. Not long before the destruction of Jerusalem, the great Gate toward the East, fast barred and locked, opened of its own accord, 
Euseb. lib. 3. Hist. c. 8.  says Eusebius. This is good luck said the more confident Priests, Deus aperuit nobis portam bonorum; God hath opened unto us a gate of good fortune of his own accord. Nay, said the more wise, Hostibus introitum patefecit; He hath opened a gap for the enemy to come in, and that proved to be the truest Divination. Dear Beloved, if a blessing fall into your lap, when you were dissolute, irreligious, and never thought of God to give it, the gates of your heart being barred and fastened, do you dream, like the foolish people of Jerusalem, that a gate of good fortune is opened of its own accord? No, no, beware the after-clap. It may be pleasant, it may be rich which comes without a Prayer to usher it into the world, but, like a base-born child, it is seldom prosperous. Me thinks I should be very much afraid if God had sent me any blessing, for which, either in special, or in general I had not earnestly prayed. Whatsoever good thing you possess, and never prayed for it, I pity your title, you came to it by robbery.  
And so much for the first dignity of this work, it had the preparation of a Prayer. Jesus first cast up his eyes, and opened his lips to heaven before he stooped to the Corpse beneath, and opened the Monument, before he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth. He cried with a loud voice, and that is the dignity of the publication.  
When our Saviour issued out of the Grave the third day, it was done early in the morning, the stone was rolled away, and no noise was heard, that which was done, was done with wonderful silence. Why doth Lazarus come out with a loud voice? Nay, why shall the Angel at the Great Day call the dead out of the earth with the blast of a Trumpet? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. Paul, meaning, no doubt, some shrill clamour, because the Son of God would have his Resurrection an Article of the Creed, and Faith is of things not seen. Yea, because he did meditate nothing but to abase and obscure himself, and to do us honour. O glorious voice which summoned Fishermen from their Ships, Publicans from their trade, Matthew from the Custom-house, Paul from the bloody City of Damascus, and Lazarus from the Tomb. To hear him pray, there was Rhetoric in that to incline every heart unto Piety: To see Lazarus revived there was Logic in that, a demonstration of his Divinity: To hear him cry aloud there was Music in that, no note was ever so sweet, no tune of such a relish as the voice of our Saviour. In Demosthenes' scriptis, magna abest pars Demosthenes'; It is said, that much of Demosthenes is lost in his Writings, because the matter was set forth with such a graceful utterance. And surely, unless we supply it with faith, much of our Saviour's Miracles is lost to us for want of living in that Age, when we might hear that loud voice which commanded the Miracle.  
It is not a superfluous phrase, when we read it often, that Jesus opened his mouth, and saith; Aperuit os suum, qui in veteri lege aperire solebat ora Prophetarum; 
Aug. Serm. Dom. in mon●e.  God did open the Prophet's mouths in the old world, but he opened his own mouth, and told his own tale in the Gospel. O what contention of spirit? What earnestness our Saviour did use when he did watch a good turn for any of his poor Members? He would venture to break his own sides rather than not to break the gates of death which did lock up Lazarus whom he loved; as Antigonus rend his Lungs, 
Plut. in vi. ●leom. Tert. Apol.  and so died, with encouraging his Soldiers. Duritia vincenda est non suadenda, says Tertullian; you must not use fair means and persuasions to them who are in a Lethargy of sin: Like old Eli to Hophni and Phinehas, What my Sons? I hear an evil report. Qui timidè rogat negare docet; he that asketh any thing faintly teacheth you how to deny him; Qui timidè redarguit peccare docet, and he that chides faintly teacheth you to despise him, and puts on audacity to sin the more. Where is the courage of Elias? Where is the tongue of St. chrysostom, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, His life was like a flash of lightning, and his doctrine like a clap of thunder. As fast as the Pharisees could throw stones at St. Stephen, he threw darts of rebuke at them. Stiffnecked, uncircumcised in heart, despisers of the Law; this was to speak against sin like a Commander and a Magistrate, not like a Petitioner. This was to cry with a loud voice, to speak as it were under correction against Sacrilege, usury, corruption and the like, to touch them as if you were loath to be understood, God will say it is not Preaching but Libelling.  
What labour? What contention was this? The softest whisper had it not been enough to command Satan, and Hell, and the Grave? As Pompey said of his own power in Italy, Si tellurem pede pulsavero copiae militum prodibunt; 
Plut. in vit. Pomp.  So soon as he did but tread upon the earth it would serve him with a puissant army: So Christ if He had but trod upon the Serpent's head, upon the Grave stone, would it not have sufficed to have ransomed Lazarus, and all the bodies that were buried? Yes it had sufficed. But this is dignum proclamatione, fit for a loud voice to proclaim it. Prayer, like a good Angel, went before it: Publication, like the Trumpet of Fame, comes behind it. You know it well, says Paul to Agrippa, speaking of the Resurrection, it was not done in a corner. Two Angels appeared in the Tomb where Christ rose from the dead. Angelus nuncius Dei & resurrectio erat annuncianda; Angels are the Messengers of heaven, and this is the prime and principal message, Go tell Peter, go tell my brethren. How solicitous was Christ to have it told? Every one he met was sent to publish it. And they that nestle in their Cells and forget this office, summon them like dead men to come out of their Monuments, Lazarus come forth.  
This was matter for a loud voice then, and business for the Pulpit now, the suscitation of Lazarus, but do you not disgrace the dignity of a Preacher, when every petty vain occasion doth challenge the honour of a Sermon before it? If ever there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a good work marred for being done unseasonably. Now it is when grace before meat will not serve the turn, but every luxurious feast must have the Benediction of a Preachers pains before it. 
Plut. in vit. Lucul.  Quis te ferat caenantem ut Lucullus, concionantem ut Cato? Much less is it to be endured, that some body must make a Sermon, because Lucullus hath made a Supper. It is such a flout upon our Calling me thinks, as the Chaldeans put upon the Jews in their Captivity, they in the height of their jollity must have one of the Songs of Zion.  
I have done with the Dignity of this work, I proceed now to the Divinity thereof, which is branched out into these three powerful circumstances, Mortuus excitatur, a dead man is raised. 2. Lazarus four days dead is raised. 3. Lazarus who was bound is raised, and comes forth. Mortuus excitatur, behold that principally, a dead man is raised.  
It is noted in Jerusalem, that she was implacable against the Prophets of the Lord, for twice our Saviour called upon her, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee; and yet her anger would not cease, no not for a double Admonition. It is noted of St. Paul, that his mind was most bitter against the Saints, for Christ was fain to toll on both sides, once and a second time to summon him by his name, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? The persecuting Rage of Jerusalem was invincible, the Malice of Saul was hardly bridled, 
De Temp. Ser. 104.  both more headstrong than Death itself: Non sustinuit mors secundas voces Domini, says St. Austin; Death was obedient at the first Command, our Saviour called but once and no more, Lazarus, come forth. Could you blame St. Peter, whose heart earned and was sorrowful, that Christ said the third time, Peter, lovest thou me? One word is enough to make Hell itself fly open. O Lord, are our Hearts more hard than Hell, that thou hast so often spoken, and still they are shut up?  

Coming. p. 208.  Lewis the 11 th' of France was wont to say that he passed away his time in making or marring of men: an honest confession: for whether they be Kings or meaner persons, their power is prone as well to root up as to plant, as well to pluck down as to set up a Building. But Christ hath not only passed away time, but meditated from all eternity how to make the World and Man especially, how to remake him and restore him again, 
Beda sup. 21. Mat.  being consumed to ashes. And therefore says Beda very well, Mirati sunt discipuli de exiccatione arboris, quia omnia ejus miracula antehàc erant ad bonum; the Disciples did marvel exceedingly to see the Figtree cursed and wither away; our Saviour did never meddle with any thing before, but it was the better for him. The Jews talked of their privilege to have one Prisoner let loose against the Feast, and that was a sweet one, the seditious Barrabas: the true King of the Jews did let lose a Prisoner indeed against the Feast, and that was holy Lazarus: for this Miracle was wrought not long before the dolorous day of his Passion, as you may see by the sequel of the Gospel: 
Tom. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. Chrysostom; as who should say this was but an introduction to make the world believe in that great sign which followed the resurrection of the dead. Non est admirationi una arbor cum tota sylva in eandem altitudinem excrescit, says Seneca: no notice is taken of one tall Cedar, when all Lebanon is full of the like; so we do not spend much admiration now upon the raising up of Lazarus, because many dead bodies arose, and appeared in the holy City, yet upon the first delivery of this man from the Goal of death, having been four days dead, it was a thing not heard of, and a matchless Miracle.  

Plut. in vit. Dem.  Demetrius, as he was a most devilish Statesman, so this was one of his Maxims as bad as any, whosoever they be that stand in your way cut them off: it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, like those things which must be granted in the Art of Geometry, before they can proceed any further. The High-Priests and Pharisees had got this godly Lesson from their Father the Devil; and because all the world did stare upon Lazarus as upon the great work of Christ, needs must they consult how to kill him. Was there ever a more foolish Senate? when they saw Christ could raise him again as oft as he pleased, yet the Projectors of the Sanhedrim set their wits and their cunning how to put Lazarus to death. O happy man if he do fall into their hands, if Christ will give them leave to cut him off. Four days together hath he been dead, that God and his blessed Son may be glorified in his suscitation; once already did he lose his life for the honour of his Saviour; let him be tormented, be imprisoned, be crucified the second time for Christ's sake, and who was ever so happy as Lazarus to make one poor life serve for a couple of Martyrdoms, indeed it were an hard case, as St. Austin sets it down, 
Serm. in Joh. 52.  ut idem homo semel nasceretur & bis moreretur, to be born once, and to die twice; and therefore St. Chrysostom would mollify the matter, that at this time of four days sleep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he was rather reposed in his Mother's Womb, than in a Sepulchre, but his condition in very deed was not pitiful but very fortunate, to be born but once, and to die twice for God's honour.  
But here is one question first, and more will follow. Was Lazarus stone dead, as we say, the Soul quite separated from the Body, and the spirit departed? or was it anima sopita, but a Soul laid a sleep, the functions being discharged from working for a time, and no more: If it were not so, yet it is able to pose a man, why Christ should say unto Mary and Martha, non est infirmitas ad mortem, this sickness is not unto death, in the 4. verse of this Chapter; to the Question afterwards, to the Text in the first place. The Scripture would be satisfied, and so it shall: Mors non imminebat ad mortem, sed ad miraculum, says Lira very well; 
Super Text.  how shall I expound it to you? the languishment of his sickness did not encroach upon him, that death might close up his eyes for ever, but to disclose a Miracle. 
2. Phys. c. 2.  As Aristotle said he would have death called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the termination of life, but not the end; as if we lived only to die: so this infirmity was not unto death, as you would say, to make it the end of the work, but that God and his Son might be glorified. To the Question then: Totus Lazarus de monumento exit, qui totus ibi non erat, 
De Temp. Ser. 104.  says St. Austin; dead he was then, and his Soul undoubtedly departed; his Sisters that had tried their best for his recovery, would not send him forth rashly to his Grave, but that all conclusions, whether any breath remained were first examined. Nay should you take a living man and bind him with grave clothes head and foot, enough to smother him, and lay him in a cold Rock of Stone so long in such sharp weather, (when after this time the High Priests had a Fire within doors in their Hall,) enough to starve him, and let him want food four days, enough to famish him; I say, though he had been laid in quick, you would never more have heard of him till the general Resurrection; and therefore Jesus said unto the Disciples plainly in verse 14. Lazarus is dead. No Parable, no figurative speech, alas it was too true, our Lord himself wept, his friend Lazarus was departed, Jesus said plainly, Lazarus is dead: Profundè mortuus, sed altus est Christus in misericordiâ, Christ's mercy was deeper than the grave, or he had never seen the day more. Do not graceless Sinners, the accursed seed of Cham, do they not tremble at this, says St. Austin? 
Serm. 52. Johan.  Si amicus Christi moritur, inimicus quid patiatur? He is descended into the Grave whom our Saviour loved, whither shall they go, into what Bottom shall they be cast (if there be a bottom) whom he hates and refuses?  
There is yet another Problem riseth up in this Text as well as Lazarus, What say you to the Disciples that caught the words from our Saviour's mouth as if Lazarus had been cast into a slumber, our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go to wake him. I go to wake him? What, so far as Judea? It is strange to think that the Disciples would believe a man went so far to raise up one that slept: And yet when Christ spoke like a Divine they answered him like Physicians, If he sleep he shall do well. 
August. Ser. Joh. 44.  Utrumque verum Christus dixit, Lazarus mortuus, Lazarus dormit, mortuus vobis, dormit mihi; all was true that Christ said, both ways he spoke good Divinity. Lazarus is dead: he was so; dead to them that could not recover him. Lazarus is asleep: he was so; no more than in a sleep to him that could restore him. Do you not a little marvel that the Apostles should so misinterpret Christ's meaning, and take his words in at the left ear? Why were they so slow to understand, that to awake from sleep was to rescue from the power of the Grave? Blessed are these days, Beloved, to whom much is given: the Book is unclasped, the Mysteries are open, we are now as well instructed that the dead shall rise again, as that the Trees shall put forth in the Spring, which stood upon the ground like withered trunks in the Winter: Or that the day shall break in the Morning, when it is but the first crowing of the Cock, and darkness upon the face of the earth; but until Christ was risen, and ascended, and that the Holy Ghost had filled them with an Evangelical Spirit, the Resurrection from the dead was a language they understood not. 
Canas. lib. 4. c. 5.  The ancient Church had a Ceremony to light but one Candle on the Altar on Easter Eve, all the rest standing by it were put out, to signify that the whole faith of the Resurrection of the Son of God, for that time was only in the Virgin Mary, and in no other Apostle. 
Abulen. in Praef. Mat. q. 14.  Fides explicita resurrectionis in solâ virgine remansit, was a common opinion; and surely the Resurrection from the dead was one of the latest Articles which was explicitly believed. And at this time they were but ill prepared to make good Believers; no face is well seen in a troubled water, and no mystery of faith can sink in deep when the mind is fearful. Alas, say they, Master, spare thyself, it is death for you and us to go into Judaea, let Lazarus sleep, his Sisters will be careful to awake him. Fear is but an evil Counsellor. There was resolution in our Saviour, such as you might expect from the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. And as when Syracuse was oppressed Dion bethought himself how he might safely attempt to succour them, 
Plut. in vit. Dion.  at length most generously broke off that demur, Me de meipso consulere non decet pereuntibus Syracusanis; It was too late to consult how he might save himself when his dear Countrymen the Syracusians perished: So it was out of time to tell our Saviour of sparing himself when Martha was discomforted, Mary wept, Lazarus dead and gone, let them take up stones to cast at him, but first tollite lapidem, take away the Grave stone, that his friend may live again. Like Homer's bird that fed her young ones and was herself an hungry, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, So Christ, like the loving Dam, will hatch the young ones in the Shell, yea, in the Tomb, though himself be taken. Though it is sure they will shortly cry out, let him be crucified, yet will he come to Judaea and cry with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth.  
But as the stone is in the Plum, so the most difficult question is inmost, and now to be handled. Four days the body of Lazarus lay without life and sense, the soul was parted: But where did the soul rest in quatriduo mortis? What place had it to rest in for four days, until it returned to the ancient habitation? St Paul was wrapped into the third heavens, there all knowledge is to be had, all mysteries to be expounded, and yet he knew not how he came thither, whether in the body, or out of the body, he leaves it altogether uncertain. And shall I tell you, but a worm upon earth, what became of another man, when Paul in heaven knew not what became of himself? Look among the bold conjectures of the Schoolmen, and as the old man said of his Advocates, who did rather puzzle him than instruct him in his cause, 
Terent. in Phorm.  Incertior sum multò quam dudum; The farther you go on with their Problems, the further you are from resolution. And so many places have they allotted to receive souls, 
Sparta. in Adrian.  that Adrian may well make a doubt, Animula vagula, blandula quae nunc abibis in loca; it is hard to say by their rules, at which end of the Town a soul should go out to take a journey.  
Origen would say, that all souls were created fzrom the beginning of the world, and are sent in their turns to take bodies upon them as God disposeth. That the soul of Lazarus when it flitted out, being to be presently united to the flesh again, returned to the place where souls expected to be committed into bodies, as if it were a new birth, not a Resurrection. This favours of Plato rather than of the Scripture, and therefore I rather dismiss it as a Fable. And yet it helps not much to say his soul was translated to the place where Enoch was first reserved, and then Elias. Enoch's translation was not as they imagine, in a solitary Tabernacle, where he was reserved by himself in the outward Courts of heaven, for than was Adam in a better estate in Paradise. God did make him an helper to keep him company. Surely, if Enoch were not among the blessed that did see God face to face, he was more happy upon earth when he walked with God, Gen. v. wherefore there was no such thing as recessus Enoch if these conjectures fail not.  
What other Closet have they thought upon to hold the soul of Lazarus? Why, Infants which die unbaptised, mark the argumentation, who are charged with no fault but Original sin, which in their Divinity is but the privation of grace that should have been conferred, are allotted to a place called Limbus infantum, where they are not in torment, but are excluded from seeing the glory of God, a punishment like unto their sin, not of sense, but of loss and privation. Yea, but how know you that Lazarus was unbaptised? One of an holy Family, much endeared to the love of Christ, it were strange if he had neither gone out to John into the Wilderness to partake of the Baptism of Repentance, nor could be so much beholding to the Apostles to give him the Baptism of Christ. Shall I press it further? The foreskin of his flesh was circumcised after the manner of the Jews: and the Circumcised were in the Covenant as well as the Baptised. What say you now? Doth not Limbus Infantum smell of a forgery?  
But what think you of the commodity of Purgatory, thither run many of the later Expositors, and say that the soul of Lazarus went before them. Like the Quadrature of a Circle, so is this cleansing Lake, a thing of much discourse and no appearance. As Geographers, when they do not know what inhabitants possess a Country, they fill the empty place with the Pictures of Lions and Tigers and wild beasts, so the Papists not knowing what kind of coast this Purgatory is replenish it with hideous Ghosts, and tormented Spirits. But surely, if Lazarus had been removed among those souls of little ease, would Christ have delayed his coming to the fourth day? Since the Schoolmen grant that the pains of Hell are no greater than those of Purgatory, only that there is more comfort in these, because they shall have a determinate ending. Nay, Martha was an unkind Sister, and so was Mary, that never spoke for his deliverance from pain, if these pains be so unsufferable. Some of the Fathers, I do confess, speak ambiguously, as if his soul had retired ad inferos, which is no other than Hell itself, although they speak of no dolour or calamity going with it. Some place of darkness there may be, say they which expound them, where pain is not heard of: And to little purpose is that fancy of Poetry cited out of Prudentius, 
Sunt & spiritibus saepe nocentibus, Paenarum celebres sub Styge feriae,  
Exultatque sui carceris otio. Vmbrarum populus liber ab ignibus.  where there is no desperation nor worm of conscience there is no Hell, those are worse than fire and brimstone. Desperation and an evil conscience were far from this man, and therefore no unknown dark corner of Hell could be a retiring place for the soul of Lazarus.  
Now as the servants of Elisha would needs go look for Elias whether he were fallen upon the Mountains or the Valleys, all this while Elias was ascended up into heaven. So to seek out the Spirit of Lazarus either with Enoch, or in Limbo, or in Purgatory, or in Hell, it is but lost labour; for the Spirit of one whom Jesus loved so dearly, why was it not all this while, as well as the soul of the repentant thief, in the joys of Paradise? Nay, but, say the Adversaries of this opinion, once a comprehender of the joys of heaven is a comprehender for ever, and never more turned out to be a weary Pilgrim in the state of misery. When the soul is once ravished with that unspeakable joy of the Beatifical Vision, it is impossible to draw it back from that object. Angeli non sic foras exeunt ut visione Dei priventur; The Angels when they came upon messages to the Sons of men were at the same instant possessed of the Vision of the divine glory in heaven, at the same instant that they did officiate upon earth. So that the Spirit of Lazarus if it were once in Paradise it would never yield to return to mortal flesh, but to a glorified body which stands always before the face of God. I answer, The eternal Godhead of the holy Trinity, which makes the beholders so happy, it is not speculum naturale, but voluntarium; man doth not see into it what he would see in the vehemency of his own desire but what it pleaseth God to reveal, and so far forth as he doth inflame the heart of man to desire it. Why might not God lay his hand upon him as he did upon Moses, and cover his face, deferring the felicity of the highest degree until the more full times of refreshment were accomplished.  
O but you will say, had he been but in the Cliff of the Rock with Moses, and suffered there to see nothing but the hinder parts of God, yet who would not rather still abide in the Cliff of the Rock than be translated into the throne of a Monarch? Grant him but a doorkeepers place, the worst share in heaven, grant him but a good passage out of this vexatious world, and what benefit can it be to return again? Were he no higher than the Orb of the Moon, yet he were better there than in Canaan, a Land flowing with milk and honey. 
Civ. Dei. lib. 21. c. 14.  Quis non exhorreat & mori eligat, si rursus ei proponatur aut mors perpetienda, aut rursus infant●a. Who would not rather choose to die, says St. Austin, than live again but the age of infancy, wherein we remember not any evil we received. But when Lazarus was passed the danger of Tentations, quit from storms, put safe into the Haven, was it not an injury to be brought back again to try the danger of the Seas? 
Confess. lib. 8. c. 10.  When Monicha was drawing to her end, What should I stay for here any longer my Son, says she? There was one thing that made me desirous to live, to see you a Catholic Christian, this I have seen, now I desire to be dissolved: So might Lazarus say, I desired mine eyes might see my Redeemer, and I have seen him; to be beloved by my Lord, and he hath called me friend; to see him entertained in our poor Cottage, and my Sisters have received him; it is but loss to me to stay. Yea, shortly my Saviour is to be crucified, shortly to ascend into heaven, and should I return to earth to lose him? Nay, what good to be done in such a place, where there will be nothing but the envy of the Pharisees, and the blasphemy of the High Priests against my Saviour?  
Dear Beloved, I can quickly dispatch an answer to this, and show that the soul of Lazarus was happy to recoil again from heaven into the body. There are degrees in the habitations of heaven one above another, and one Star differs from another in glory; put case that the righteous Abel was the first Saint dying in God's favour. But John Baptist was the greatest that was born of a woman; and the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of our Lord, was a most glorified Vessel, which all generations shall call blessed. These living and dying four thousand years after Abel came later into the Kingdom of heaven, yet as late as they came, both being crowned with a more excellent Crown than Abel was, which of them obtained the more desirable felicity? Without question the Blessed Virgins Lot was the better; for what are four thousand years reckoned in the time before to such an increase of joy for ever and ever. Here is Lazarus his case. Few days had he seen, three years were the most that he had resorted to our Saviour, perchance he had suffered not so much as ignominy for the name of Christ, to blood I am sure he had not ventured or resisted, yet his eyes being closed according to the measure of his faith he is received into Abraham's bosom. Let him there abide you will say, if Christ love him truly let him return no more to mortality. 
Fuit Episcupus & Mar●●. ●bul. 〈◊〉 Reg. 17.9.  Nay, not so, Lazarus come forth, see the days of thy Saviour's Passion and be not offended; confess his name and be scourged, take your possessions once more into your hands and spend them upon the poor; preach the Gospel as if the Angels had sent you back to bring more souls to bear them company, die not in your bed the second time, but upon the Cross as your Redeemer did, then return the way which you know so well to the fellowship of Saints, and bless the mouth which said Lazarus come forth, for the second life I may well assure myself hath gained joy of a thousand fold increase in the life everlasting. The first voyage was short and safe, but not of the greatest profit; the last was long and dangerous, but as if you went for Gold to India.  
Thus I have showed that Lazarus was verily dead, the soul quite flitted from the body, that no other place but heaven did receive it, that it was no miserable fortune to assume flesh again upon earth, but an occasion to promote him to a far abundant exceeding weight of glory. Now a word of the power of Christ which coupled again those parts divorced the soul and body, not by breathing a new life into the body, but by breathing out a loud voice, Lazarus come forth.  

Plut. in vit. Anto.  Such as had been but banished their Country in the days of Caesar the Dictator, and were restored again by the grace of Augustus and Antony, were called Charonitae, as if they had been wasted back again into this world, when they were quite extinguished. Those Roman Potentates would be esteemed Gods of another world, that could unlock a man from the fetters of banishment; needs than must he be greater than the Kings of the earth, whose authority can break the bars of death, and bring the Prisoners forth from the captivity of corruption. The Scythians, says Lucian, swear by these two Idols as the Gods of the world, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by the Wind, and by the Sword. 
Lucian in T●●●ride.  Hic spirandi est author & ille mortis; The one gives breath to live, the other takes life away. Now that which gives life, and that which takes away life can be no less than a God, say the very Scythians. These heathen knew no more of God's power than to give life, and to take away life: Had they known what it was to restore life again, that would have been the chief power of divinity even in their estimation. 
Tertul. Apol.  Majus est restituere quam dare, quantò miserius est perdidisse, quam omnino non accepisse, It is more admirable to restore the soul again than to create it at the first, because it is more miserable for the body to have lost a soul, than never to have received it. 

S●lden. de Diis Syris. p. 38.  
Aquin. 2.2. Q. 164. ar. 1. Civ. Dei. l. 15. c. 2.2 c. 83. a. 111.   The great Clerks the Athenians could not tell what to make of the infinite power of the Resurrection. It is pretty that St. chrysostom observes upon them, Acts xvii. when Paul preached unto them, and mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or the Resurrection of the dead, they thought this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been a God, the unknown God, at whose Altar they did worship.  
Evil men can abuse that which is good. God can make good employment of that which is evil. Death upon the first sin was named to be a punishment: It is Meritoria in Martyribus, and I may say, Gloriosa in resurgentibus; it is made an instrument of great reward unto the Martyrs, and the passage to an Article of faith to believe in the Resurrection. We call them that are dead in the Lord, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; alas there are no such now, Abraham dissolved into dust is no longer Abraham, the soul cannot be called Abraham, only the whole man both soul and body, but so stead fastly do we trust the dead shall rise again, Quod defunctorum animas nominibus suppositi appellamus, says Thomas; We speak of the dead as if they were now alive, because they shall live again, even as Christ spoke to the corpse of Lazarus, 
Chrysostom Tom. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not as to a Corpse, but as to one living, not as to one that was dead, but as to ears that could hear, Lazarus come forth. And it is well, says the Father, that among all the Corpses in the dust Christ picked him out by name; as who should say, now I will have none but Lazarus to come forth, others shall appear in their time, otherwise all the Legions of the dead had come to light, and stood thick upon the earth from the East unto the West. Indeed the souls under the Altar cry our, Quousque Domine; feign would they stand before him like Enoch and Elias, so eager they are and vehement instantly to have tongues to speak, and hands to hold up, and knees and heads to bow, as if they were not contented that their days to come for those things were days of eternity. We shall meet together all in the same Livery, clothed with bodies of youth according to the measure of our Saviour's Age, Eph. iv. Alexander out of a surly Magnificence, 
Plut. in vit. Phoc.  Soli Antipatro & Phocioni salutem scripsit in Epistolis, never wrote in the top of his Letters I wish you long life and prosperity but only to Photion and Antipater. But God will direct his voice to every member of his Church, one summon shall call forth Abraham and Isaac, and all the world, which at this time begins for a relish of faith, but with this person alone, Lazarus come forth.  
And thus much for the first thing wherein the power of his Divinity appeared, Mortuus excitatur, a dead Man was raised. Now that Lazarus after four days was raised, that he which was bound came forth of the Grave is discourse for some other time. Thus much only in a word upon the present occasion. The next thing that you shall read concerning Lazarus after he was raised is this, he sat at Supper with our Saviour in the second verse of the next Chapter. Why, behold the Supper of the Lord, there is the next place where you are to meet with Christ after you are risen from your sins, 
Virgil. lib. 1. Aen.  and the preparation of this Table to replenish your hungry souls with grace is as great a testimony of our Saviour's Divinity as to raise up Lazarus. Tu das epulis accumbere Divum; it is the highest power of God which he confers to his Church upon earth, to give them leave to meet together before the food of Angels. As Manna melted away with the Sunrising, and new store fell upon earth the next morning which is a kind of Resurrection; so you that have quenched God's Spirit, that have melted away his grace, and let it putrify for want of good employment, this is the Morning, this is the Season to gather a new Omer full, that you may cherish and increase your faith. Which that you may do, etc.   

THE THIRD SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION.  JOHN xi. 44. 
And he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with Grave-cloaths, and his face was bound about with a Napkin.  
THis is an Easterday Text, notwithstanding that the party entreated of is Lazarus; for as John Baptist was born a little before the birth of Christ, and John was the Forerunner of his Nativity: so Lazarus rose from death but a little before Christ rose, and was the Forerunner of his Resurrection. The Jews Passover was nigh at hand, so you shall read in the 55. verse of this Chapter: certainly it was not long before Christ the true Paschal Lamb was offered upon the Cross, that this Miracle was done, Feriâ sextâ ante Dominicam de Passione, says one, the Friday before Passion Sunday, 
Ludolphus. pa. 2. c. 17.  which is nine days past. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. Chrysostom; he put them into admiration with this work, before this great day of admiration came.  
Nor have we a Praeludium only how our Saviour should conquer death, in this Chapter: but you shall resent, and perceive some resurrection wrought upon every person that had interest in this story. First the news of Lazarus death was brought unto Christ beyond Jordan, his Disciples being with him. What did this advantage them? 
Serm. 63.  why, Mors Lazari cum Lazaro, & discipulorum fides surgit cum sepulto, says Chrysologus. Lazarus was translated from death to life, and this did increase the Disciples faith, which lay half dead before. 2. Martha solicits for her Brother: and 'tis strange that Christ came to Bethany on purpose for Lazarus sake, and yet spent more time with Martha than with them all. The case is plain, says Theophylact, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, alas her belief was near unto death, almost quite gone, and Christ came especially to quicken her with his grace, that was Martha's resurrection. 
Tractat. 49. Joban.  3. Her Sister Mary was a woeful woman, and she falls down in compassion about out Saviour's feet; St. Austin takes her to be the very same Mary that was the public sinner, which washed his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head, Luke 7. whereupon he infers, Maria peccatrix magis resuscitabatur quam Lazarus, Mary the Sinner was more revived when she was made a penitent Saint, than Lazarus was when he was made a living man; that was Marries resurrection. 4. Here were divers Jews that came to comfort the two Sisters, they were witnesses of this work, and did glorify God and believe; Christ thanked his Father for it. Whereupon says St. Ambrose, Non unum Lazarum, sed fidem omnium suscitavit; it was a Resurrection day not for Lazarus alone, but for the faith of all the multitude that were present, whether they were the Disciples, or Martha, or Mary, or the multitude of the Jews, they had not been as they were, if Christ had not made one in every part of the Miracle: wherefore let us make a difference between them that came to gaze, and them that came to believe a Miracle, from the twelfth of this Gospel, and the ninth verse: The Jews came not only for Jesus sake, but to see Lazarus also: We come not together this day so much to see Lazarus revived, as to see the strength of Jesus above the power of death.  
I have entered once before into this verse and the former, both which rise up into two eminent heads like Tabor and Hermon. First it is a work of great Dignity, that's one part, and a work of great Divinity, that's the other part. The Dignity consists in these two points: First in that which Christ had spoken before, when he had thus said: and what was that? he prayed unto his Father, wherefore it is dignum oratione, a work worthy of a Prayer for the preparation. Secondly, it is dignum proclamatione, it was cried with a loud voice, and fit to be published to all the world. The Divinity appears in these three Circumstances. 1. Exeat mortuus, that a dead man was summoned to appear. 2. Exeat quatriduanus, Lazarus after four days departure comes forth. 3. Exeat ligatus, he that was bound hand and foot with Grave-cloaths, and his face with a Napkin, he comes forth of the Monument. O strange Divinity! the Sepulchers which were shut did open, for Christ did call, who had the key of David: the dead who lay in silence could hear his tongue, for it was the same voice which makes the Hinds to bring forth young ones: the Body which lay putrified four days gave no offence in the smell, Christ was at hand, who is a sweet favour for us unto God; the feet which were bound with Grave-cloaths could walk before him, for in him we live and move and have our being. Was not this work worthy of a Prayer? was it not worthy of a Proclamation? so far I have gone already, as likewise into the first Circumstance of the Divinity, that a dead man was raised up. As Aelian says of the Sybarites, that they invite their Guests to a Feast a just year before the day of the Feast, so long is it since I promised you the dispatch of this Text, and now I am come to perform it: you see what remains for this hours employment, the two latter Circumstances: Quatriduanus excitatur, Lazarus is raised up, after he had been four days in the Grave, and 2 ligatus excitatur, it was he that was bound hand and foot with Grave-cloaths, and his face with a Napkin: two strange parts of his resurrection, not lightly to be passed over: for to speak of a Miracle suddenly, and in a word, non dat lucem videntibus, sed pavorem, 
Chrysol. Ser. 64.  it is like lightning says one, the flash that glides by of a sudden, it may terrify the eye but not enlighten it.  
First of ille quatriduanus, he came forth alive, who had been four days asleep in the Monument. It is hard to persuade death to part with any thing it hath gotten. The Devil strove with the Angel about the Body of Moses, think you that Death would not strive with Christ much more about the Soul of Lazarus? what, a Guest of four day's continuance, and let him go? I may say to the Grave as the Prophet said to Ahab, for letting Benhadad escape? 
1 King. 20.  Why hast thou let a man go out of thy hand, who was appointed to utter destruction? Wherefore St. Chrysostom brings in Death to complain of this fact for a sore grievance on this wise. Elias raised up a Child whose soul was departed for a time; Elisha did as much likewise; this I took for a violence done to nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but here's a Conqueror that's more violent than them both, he takes a dead man out of my chaws, who stinks, and hath been four days in the Sepulchre. The same Father replies again, this is a small thing to raise up one from burial after four days, do you complain of that? what if he were putrified? what if he were dry bones? what if he were dust and clay? yea what if that dust were converted into other creatures? Adam shall be clothed again with flesh; Noah hath lived in two Worlds, he shall live again in a third: And according to the Basil Edition of the 72. Job was one of those that rose and appeared in the holy City unto many, Matth. 27. Si attendamus quis fecit, delectari debemus, potius quam mirari, says St. Austin: 
Tractat. Job. 4●.  If we do but attend who it is that doth all these things, we shall rather break out into a passion of Joy than into Admiration. For Christ that died for us, and rose again for our Justification; he hath the Keys of Life and Death, and therefore we shall not see corruption for ever. Martha had a faith that God could raise up her Brother again, and that He would do it if Christ would pray unto him; I know even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. O Woman, says Chrysologus, thou art yet but of little faith, Judex ipse est quem tu postulas Advocatum. 
Serm. 63.  wouldst thou make Christ thine Advocate to plead thy Cause? Nay, Comfort is nearer at hand, he is the Judge whom thou wouldst make an Advocate; It is in his own power to raise up thy Brother after four days.  
Two days our Saviour abode beyond Jordan after Lazarus was dead, and after he set forward to Bethany, he made two days Journey of it before he came to the place; all this while the Prisoner was fast locked up under the Gates of Death. Belike Lazarus could not be released till Christ came unto the Cave where he was laid: 
Tractat. 49. Joh.  No such necessity, Beloved, Vbicunque Christus steterat, patebant inferi. Hell must open her mouth in any place where Christ did set his foot; nay in any place where he should but say unto the Grave, I will, be thou opened. Therefore another Reason must be given why Lazarus stayed until the fourth day for his Enlargement. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. Chrysostom; Ionas and Lazarus both were Servants, they must not jump with Christ in the same Privileges in every thing, than the Servant should be equal with his Master. Ionas came out of the Whale's Belly the third day, so did Christ out of the Tomb; but Ionas was alive, and Christ was dead, there was the Difference between the Servant and the Master. Christ rose from the dead, and so did Lazarus; but Christ the third day, and Lazarus the fourth; there's the Difference between the Master and the Servant. The Resurrection of the dead is an Article of the Creed engendered in the heart by a very strong Faith, 'tis mirabilium mirificentia, as one says, The astonishment of all admiration; and when it shall be reported by the Women, that an Angel told them it, the best of them all will doubt, Thomas and many more will flatly deny it. What deny that Christ could quicken himself the third day, when he raised up Lazarus the fourth?  
Lazarus was unto Christ, as Aaron's Rod was unto Aaron: The Sedition of Dathan and Abiram opposed Aaron, and would not acknowledge him to be the High Priest; That shall be tried, says the Lord, and Aaron's Rod, which was a dry stick, budded buds and bloomed blossoms, as if it had been living, more than all the other Rods of the Tribes of Israel: So Lazarus was laid up in the Cave, like the Rod of Aaron in the Tabernacle; and when his life was restored the fourth day, it proved that Christ could build up the Temple again in three days, which they had plucked down before. What shall we say then? That the Resurrection was more wonderful in Lazarus by one day, than in Christ himself? Nothing less. For Christ was raised up by his own power, and Lazarus by the power of Christ. Christ's death was violent, his very heart, as some think, was digged through with the Soldier's Spear. Lazarus his death was natural, and no principal part of his body was wounded, or impaired. Si aliud videtur vobis mortuus, aliud videtur & occisus; if it be one thing to die in the peace of nature, and another thing to be made away by violence, Ecce Dominus utrumque fecit, here are examples of both that returned to life, Christ the third day from the death of violence, Lazarus the fourth day from the death of nature: both are from the Lord.  

Plantus.  As a Servant said of an unlucky day wherein all things went cross, huic diei oculos eruere vellem, he vished the Sun had never shined upon it. So this fourth day hath not a little troubled Satan: Upon the fourth day, Gen. i. 14. God set lights in the Firmament: to what end? to divide the day from the night, and the light from the darkness. Periisti Satana, this is a fatal day with the Devil, who would have mingled night with day, and darkness with light; but now his works are discovered: The fourth year hath been as climacterical unto him, and as much out of his way in the 13. of St. Luke and the 7. verse. These three years, says the Lord of the Vineyard, I have looked for fruit, and find none, now I will cut down the Vine: nay says the Dresser of the Vineyard, stay but this year also, and the fourth there are hopes it will bring forth grapes and please the Lord. To say thus much for our Evangelist St. John, the fourth Evangelist gave the shrewdest blow to the stratagems of Satan, and hath so proved the Divinity of Christ, almost in every verse, that Ebion and Cerinthus were confounded, and Heresy is proved a liar to her face for ever. Even so was this number critical unto death in the Resurrection of Lazarus, three days he was given for lost, and upon the fourth day Christ cried with a loud voice Lazarus come forth.  
There is a moral sense besides that whereof I have spoken, and that is like fine flower bolted out of the Letter, and it yields like the bread which our Saviour broke to the multitude, and will satisfy thousands. Death was the reward of sin. In that Lazarus was dead and buried, I read the Parable of a sinner upon his Sepulchre: In that he was four days dead he must be magnus peccator, says St. Austin, no small offender can be meant by that, but a grievous sinner. Where have you laid him says Christ? O what a dreadful question is that? Lord know me for one of thy children; but know me for a sinner, rather than not know me at all. Let it not be said unto me, Depart from me, I know you not. Projectus sum à facie oculorum tuorum, says David in the person of a castaway, I am cast out of the sight of thine eyes. Perditum nescit ubi sit, it is God's language, he pretends he sees not them, he knows not them that were lost. Adam where art thou says God. O Adam, that question had confounded thee, if Christ had not answered for thee, Lo I come. Where are the other nine says Christ of the Lepers, de ingratis quasi ignotis loquitur, ungrateful men were not in Christ's Book, he knows not what becomes of them, nor whither they wander; so to inquire of Lazarus, as if he knew not where he was laid, is to set him forth as the similitude of a great sinner; ubi posuistis? where have you laid him? nay but this agrees not perchance with his Sister's message, He whom thou lovest is sick; and again, See how he loved him. Yes it agrees full well. Si peccatores non amaret, Deus de coelo non descenderet, it was out of a most compassionate love that God descended from heaven to save sinners. Behold he loved him: and yet Lazarus stands for the Parable of a sinner.  
That foundation is laid, and then you shall know the better what is meant by lying four days in the Sepulchre. First we are all dead born; man as soon as he sees the light his heart is in darkness, he brings the seeds of original sin with his frail flesh into the world, and then he is dead one day. 2. Nature hath dictated a Law unto us. The Gentiles are a Law unto themselves says St. Paul: and when we do those things which Nature herself is ashamed at, and blusheth, than we are dead the second day. 3. God gave us a Law by Moses, for the spark which he had kindled in nature was almost put out, and it was time to dig that into stone which was worn out in flesh, and he that violates the Law of Moses is dead the third day. 4. Sin is grown strong by the Law, Precept upon Precept made us the worse; corruption in the soul is like an ill affected body, it desires that most which is forbidden: And therefore Christ gave us Legem Evangelii, a short Lesson, Repent and believe, which is called the Law of the Gospel; and if we violate that Law, it is the fourth day of death, and we begin to stink in the Sepulchre. What an hard task hath Christ? what a troublesome work have we put him to? to diminish the power of original sin, to rectify the impairs and decays of Nature, to satisfy for the Law, but above all to mollify a stony heart that will not believe, to quicken an unrepentant heart, this is dignus vindice nodus. Martha and Mary sent to Christ when their Brother was sick to come and help, now he had more need of Christ, quatriduanus est, this is the Parable of a sinner that will not believe the Gospel. Help Lord, and raise us up, for who else can do it but the Lord?  
Five Miracles you shall meet with in this Gospel of St. John, four of which are recorded by no other Evangelist, every one is greater than another, but this is the Masterpiece. The first was turning of Water into Wine at Cana in Galilee. 
Joh. 2.  Christ at the first conversion makes us quite other men than we were before, 
Joh. 2.  cold water becomes warm and cheerful wine. 2. Follows the scourging of the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple, that signifies contrition and compunction of the heart, when thievish fancies, such as steal away our soul, are cashiered from the holy place. 3. A man was healed at Bethesda that had been sick of an infirmity 38 years. 
Joh. 5.  Custom in sin, and want of devotion is a sore languishing sickness, it is more to cure them, than to cast the den of thiefs out of the Temple. 
Joh. 9  4. A man born blind was restored to his sight; he that languished 38 years had enjoyed health before, but he that was born blind was never better, and it exceeded all the rest to dispel ignorance, and blindness, quando synteresis extincta est, when the light of the conscience was quite put out. But fifthly, what talk we of sickness or blindness, the dead man, the Graves Tenant for four days, dead by original sin, dead by imperfection of nature, dead by disobedience to the Law, dead by unbelief and want of faith in Christ, dead four days is raised up. Tollite lapidem, says Christ, away with the stone, removete legis pondus, & gratiam praedicate, away with the burden that lies heavy upon him, preach grace, and remission of sins unto him, and he shall live.  
Behold another Moral of the same Authors in the Sermons de tempore, if they be St. Augustine's. Sin when it is made very sinful, grows up by four degrees, titillatione, consensu, facto, consuetudine. 1. By delighting in the suggestions of sin (not but that suggestions of sin are sin; but I speak of the growth of sin, and not the root.) 2. By consenting to those delights. 3. By committing the evil whereunto we consented. 4. By continuing in the custom of delight, and consent, and committing evil. Delight is the rotting of the seed in the ground, Consent is the blade, Commission of evil is the grown fruit, Custom is the root that fastens it to the ground: the seed may quickly be picked up, the blade may be blasted, the fruit may be cut down, but the root lies deep hidden, you must plow, and turn up the earth, and dig deep before you can get it out. In the 3 former parts the waves of ungodliness are coming up, but custom is the inundation of iniquity, the stream that goes over our head. It was said of one Mandrabulus, that the Oracle of Apollo pronounced against him that he grew worse and worse. For out of a thankful mind for all his happiness received, the first year he offered up a Gold Cup; he repented him of his cost, and the next year it was a Cup of Silver; yet he thought he was too bountiful, and the third year it was a Boul of Wood; the fourth year he thought he had been thankful enough, and gave just nothing. Now, says Apollo, is Mandrabulus as bad as He can be. So the heart which pleaseth itself with vicious cogitations is much corrupted, yet God may still have the better part. The heart that makes a bargain with Satan to do injustice is half the Devil's, yet the Body is not defiled with the act. The body also may be an instrument of uncleanness, than the heart is even lost and gone, yet it may detest the fact, and return unto the Lord. But when custom hath as it were sealed the Covenant to the Devil, and delivered up the Deed, the case is very desperate, all the heart is in the enemy's hand. Lazarus is under a Grave-stone four days. Difficilè surgit quem moles malae consuetudinis premit, he will hardly swim above water again that is cast into the bottom of the Gulf with a Millstone of evil custom about his neck. Yet Christ can quicken him, as he did Lazarus, I do not deny it: but let no man treasure up sin, as it were to prepare himself to repent of such a mass of iniquities: but let no man despair of that repentance if frailty have overtaken him. If you feel yourself incline to presume of repentance, says St. Austin, oppose against it the uncertain hour of death: if you feel yourself incline to despair of repentance, oppose against it the abundance of grace. Moderation is the best. When sin doth post from delight to consent, from consent to act, from act to custom, yet after four days, says Christ, Lazarus come forth.  
So much of that circumstance, Lazarus quatriduanus, that being four days dead he was raised up to life. It follows to be considered, Lazarus ligatus, he was bound hand and foot with grave-cloaths, and his face with a Napkin. He was laid like a pledge in the grave, and bound for security. Christ was willing to release him, some bonds he canceled himself, and some he left to be untied by others. As for the bonds of death God did bind them, and unloose them; as for the bonds of the grave-cloaths let them unknit them that made the knot, God did untie that which God bound, let men untie their own work, and then they are sure there can be no deceit. As if our Saviour had said, I know you will say of Lazarus as you did of the man born blind, This is not he. Will you deny it? But here is your own bond, can you deny that? Is not this Lazarus? See but what infirmity Christ pretended in the beginning of this work, and how powerfully it ended. Jesus wept in the 35 verse, as if it were a pitiful case indeed, but he could not help it. He asked where they had laid him? Lord, dost thou ask for the grave which was hard by, and yet know'st thine own self, no man told thee, being two days journey from Bethany that Lazarus was dead? Then he asked for help to take away the stone, Debile initium miraculi; a weak beginning, God knows, how should we expect that he should open the gates of Hell, that with a word doth not command the Sepulchers to open. Doth this offend you? What and if you see not only a dead man after four days raised to life, but also to walk before you, when his feet and hands were bound? As if he moved like an Angel, rather by the will of his own Spirit than by bodily instruments. This was the conclusion of the Miracle, and whatsoever the beginning was, the end was admirable. As Samson went away with the Pin and the Web, Judg. xuj. 14. which were tied to his hair, whatsoever Delilah bound him with still he walked: So Lazarus went away with his bonds, as if he had triumphed over death, and carried the Ensigns away, that is the grave-cloaths with him.  

Acts 12.  Peter's Chains fell off from his hands, and so he avoided the imprisonment of Herod. Peter thought so strangely of this to walk when his fetters were off, that a great while he wist not it was true that was done, but thought he saw a vision. What did Peter think of Lazarus then? For he was one that stood by. His eyes were blindfold that he could not see his way; the hands are the blind man's Candle, and serve to feel out the way, and they had Manacles. The feet had Shackles that should tread the way: Yet as if he had flown out of the Grave rather than walked, Lazarus came forth, he was in the Sepulchre, shortly to be brought forth as if he had been hatching in his mother's womb rather than in a Cave of interred men. He was, says St. Chrysostom, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, like a babe new born wrapped in swaddling clouts, rather than like one in a winding sheet. But when he walked without the use of feet or hands, he was like Paul wrapped up into the third heavens, whether in the body, or out of the body he knew not.  
It is a great comfort unto us, says Irenaeus, that Lazarus came forth cap-a-pe the same man that he was laid in the Grave, nothing altered about him, Igitur eâdem animâ, eodem corpore sumus resurrecturi; it shall be our own body, it shall be our own soul in the Resurrection, no substances newly created. Lazarus could best speak for the soul that it must be his own, because his former fancy and remembrance still remained: And his Sisters could speak for the body, they knew what they had folded up, and what they found when they had unfolded it. And therefore some think that it was unto Martha and Mary that Christ spoke in the end of this verse, Lose him and let him go. When Elias raised up the Son of the Widow of Sarepta to life, he gave him to his Mother; when Elisha restored the Shunamites Child to life, he gave him to his Mother; when Christ raised up Lazarus from the Grave, he puts him into the hands of his Sisters, that they may untie what they had bound before; nay, when he rose from death himself, he appeared first to Mary Magdalen. What is the reason that at every turn the women had the Resurrection first declared unto them? Because they did first occasion death, therefore to show that by faith they were excusable of the fault, they had the first news of the life of them that rose again. Lord, says Martha, if thou hadst been here my brother had not died. She put all the fault upon the absence of Christ. Nay, woman, says Chrysologus, Nisi tu fuisses in paradiso; If thou hadst not been in Paradise thy brother had not died. But Lazarus is bound that you may untie him, and give him breath, who first did stop his breath by eating the forbidden fruit.  
Exiit ligatus, he came forth bound. Lazarus was not glorified in body by this Miracle as the Saints shall be, yet here you shall see one of the properties of a glorified body; and they are reckoned up to be four by the Schoolmen, Claritas, incorruptibilitas, spiritualitas, motus agilitas. 1. There shall be an exceeding brightness in those bodies, as our Saviour's body shined so white at the Transfiguration, that no Fuller could make a thing so white. 2. They shall be incorruptible. Summer and Winter, Fire and Sword could do them no violence, as Christ said unto Mary, Touch me not. 
1 Cor. xv. 44.  3. They shall not be gross like our bodies, and sustained with meat. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. 4. It shall be nimble in motion like an Angel, flying as Philip did from Gaza in the Desert to Azotus suddenly, gliding upon the wings of the wind, not depending upon feet as we do, and to prefigure this property in a glorified body hereafter, Lazarus came forth bound.  
The vulgar Translation puts in a word to make the Miracle more strange, Statim exiit, that Lazarus came instantly forth without delay, though his feet and hands were bound, and his face with a Napkin. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says Nonnus, he came not out like one that was shackled, and halted because of his impediments, he ran swiftly before them all. For Christ useth not to do his work lamely, and by halves. St. chrysostom makes this comparison: As a horse and his Rider listen at the Race when the word shall be given, and take it at the first syllable to be gone. So says he, as soon as Christ had but said, Lazarus come forth, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he started out like the horse at his game, and came on with speed and cheerfulness; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, like one that watched the Sepulchre rather than the Corpse. Chrysologus brings in the Devil who is the Jailor of death wonderfully amazed, that our Saviour called for a dead Corpse, and makes him to speak thus: Let him have the man he calls for, let him have him bound hand and foot if he will; let us not stay so long as to untie the knots, make no delay, Ne dum tardius unum referimus, omnes cogeremur afferre, lest while we prolong the time to restore one dead man he should call unto the Graves to restore them all. As Luther called upon the Pope at first to have but one error amended concerning indulgences, and while he trifled, and hung off to do that, Luther cried so loud, that he caused divers Churches most happily to mend twenty more: So death hastened away Lazarus being bound, lest if he stayed more would follow him. As the Egyptians hasted away the Israelites at midnight to be gone; let them go with their Jewels and Riches which they had borrowed, for if they stayed they were afraid to lose lives and all. Thus much of the literal sense, that Lazarus came forth bound, and that instantly says the Latin vulgar Translation.  
Now for the Moral which is the Use of this Point, wherein thus I will proceed: 1. What it is to come forth. 2. What it is to be bound. 3. Concerning the binding of the feet and hands. 4. Concerning the binding of his face with a Napkin. Briefly of these, that we may make such haste from the Text as Lazarus did from the Tomb.  
What is it to come forth? Do we first question that? Poenitet, & surgit: Confitetur & prodit, says Burgensis; To repent of sin is to rise from it, to come forth is to confess it which was hid before. When Jonathan and his Armour bearer appeared to the Philistines, 
1 Sam. xiv. 11.  the Philistines derided them, saying, See how the Hebrews come out of the holes where they hid themselves. So, profane men will laugh at you if you betray yourself so much unto any man as to confess your sins and imperfections; but God is well pleased when you do not disguise yourself in hypocrisy. When the Publican smote his breast, 
Serm. 8. tom. 10.  Arguebat aliquid quod latebat in pectore, says St. Austin; He pierced his own heart, and gave it vent to draw out that acknowledgement, God be merciful to me a sinner. Why hast thou eaten of the tree that I forbade thee, says God to Adam? What is this that thou hast done, says he again to Eve? He calls both them to an account, 
Greg Moral. lib. 22. c. 13.  that they may make an humble confession, and be pardoned. Serpens persuasor qui non erat revocandus ad veniam, non est de culpâ requisitus, says Gregory; but the Serpent was never questioned. It was bootless for him to confess, and give an answer, because God never thought to pardon him. To accuse ourselves of great disobedience what is it but to magnify his mercies who remits our sins? Si nos accusemus, 
Serm. 8.  & Deum laudemus, bis Deum laudamus, says St. Austin, Then if we condemn ourselves, and praise him, what is it but to give double praise unto his name?  
As gall and bitter humours come off from the stomach with great distaste unto the mouth: So, it doth not please our palate, it offends our tongue to bewray those vices which our heart would fain conceal. ay, but all this while Lazarus is in the Tomb, he is close kept, and stinks, said Martha. While you would not be known of that which is past, 
Greg. ibid.  Non te Domino, sed dominum abscondis tibi; You do not keep yourself close from God, but you keep God from yourself: You take a course, a woeful course, that you may not see his face that sees all things in the world; but you cannot bring it about, that he who sees all things in the world may not see you. I have not covered my transgression, says Job, as Adam did, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom; 
Job 31.  a testimony of a sound conscience howsoever his body was diseased. Vir iste magnus in virtutibus suis, mihi certè etiam sublimis apparet in peccatis, says Gregory. Job was a man of eminence in his virtues but I renown him in his very sins, because he opened them to him that will have mercy.  
The confession that we speak of is thus amplified further in my Text, that Lazarus came forth when another called him. Many take a pride to descend to so much humility as to impeach themselves, but if another condemn them, and provoke them to acknowledge their faults, they deny it with indignation. You must not say that he is a Swearer, though himself comfesseth he is a Blasphemer: You must not say he is Intemperate, though he confess himself to be Luxurious. You must not say that he is uncharitable, though himself confess that he hates his enemies; thus while we arrogantly defend ourselves against reproof, it is manifest that we did accuse ourselves but out of arrogance, or for fashion sake, or out of hypocrisy. In this vicious Age I admire Chastity, and Justice, and charitable works, but considering the stubborn imaginations of men's hearts, I do not so much wonder at those virtues, as I do admire the humble confession of a sinner, when he is chid and reproved by him that hath the charge of his soul It is not so hard to shun some sins before they are committed, as to cry guilty when they are committed. And therefore to teach us to come out of the close dens of sin by confession, Christ says Gregory, did not say to this man revivisce, but prodi foras, not Lazarus live again, but Lazarus come forth.  
Secondly, Let us learn what it is to be bound; it is to be plunged in sin like Simon the Sorcerer, who was in obligatione iniquitatis; In the bond of iniquity, Acts viij. 23. As debtors are in bonds to pay what they owe, or else to yield their bodies to imprisonment. Wherefore our trespasses are called our debts in the Lord's Prayer, Mat. vi. Lex a ligando. It is good to keep the Law of God, there is no greater freedom in the world, but they that take freedom to have their own swing, and to do what they list, are held unto the greatest slavery in the world. 
Job 11.12. Greg. Moral. lib. 10. c. 15.  Man is born like a wild Ass' Colt, says Job. The wild Ass is not bridled, and he taketh his pastime where he will in the Wilderness; but such beasts as are of use and service must be tied unto the Yoke: So the natural man gives his lusts and desires what they ask, no command controls him, but he is held with the cords of his own sins, saith Solomon, Prov. v. And who is such a Vassal as he that can deny the lust of his own concupiscence nothing? Herod was bound by promise to Herodias, and so he could not save the head of John Baptist, who might have cut off the head of Herodias had he been a free man. Judas had taken Press-money of the Devil, and he must betray his Master. More than forty men had bound themselves by oath to kill St. Paul. O what a Tyrant is Satan! He binds Kings in chains, and Nobles with links of Iron. And when the hand of one Ruffian might have killed a silly weak Apostle, he knits above forty men with one knot to eat nothing till they had dispatched him, as who should say, You shall starve if you will not be Murderers.  
God hath set bounds unto the Ocean Sea, and hath said unto it, Hither thou shalt go, and no further. Can any man say so to his own lusts, thus far I will sin, and no more? You fools that gaze upon beauties, and put your feet into unchaste doors, and say that you will go no further into wantonness. You doting Covetous, that think it nothing to corrupt yourselves with one base reward, and say you will leave at that. Idem facis, ac qui è monte se praecipitans velit sistere. says Tully; You are unwise as he that did cast himself headlong from a steepy rock, and thought he could stop before he lost his breath. Sin hath no moderation. Qui facit peccatum est servus peccati; He that commits sin is the servant of sin, you cannot play fast and loose with the Devil. If you be once bound, it will ask you plenty of tears, and many groans of repentance that Christ may make you free. Sin is not like the green with'hs that tied Samson, and broke like a thread of Tow; but like the fetters cast upon poor Joseph, The Iron entered into his soul, says David. It is such a long captivity as the Jews suffered in Babylon, it trusseth you up, as the tares were bound in bundles for everlasting fire, Mat. xiii. Can the Ethiopian change his skin? Or the Leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil, Jer. xiii. 23.  
Now because sin is a bond, especially sin that is enormous and scandalous, not only Satan by inclining them to evil, but God in his justice holds them fast to it that they cannot get loose. For the Priest he casts another bond upon that, Quodcunque lig averitis, whatsoever you bind upon earth; they bind none but incorrigible and contumacious sinners that is one bond for another, and then the Lords bond is thrown upon them both, whatsoever you bind upon earth it is bound in heaven, the bond of iniquity is upon the sinner, the bond of Ecclesiastical Censure is upon the bond of iniquity, the bond of God's judgement ratifies the bond of Ecclesiastical Censure. How can the planchers fly out when they are thus hooped about? A threefold cord is not easily broken. Ligantur poenâ qui ligati fuerunt culpâ à bonis operibus, says Lira; 
Super Mat. 22.  They are bound over to eternal punishment in the life to come, who in this life bound themselves from doing good.  
Thirdly, Let us understand what it is for a sinner to be bound hand and foot. Manus non extensae ad eleemosynam, pedes tardi ad bonum, so says the Gloss. Hands that were shut to the poor, and gave no Alms, feet that have not frequently walked to the house of God, these were bound in this life when they should have executed their Function, and then follows, Take him, and bind him hand and foot, and cast him into utter darkness, Mat. xxii. The hand is the principal Engine of all other instruments, and if it be bound, we may direct much perchance, yet can execute nothing. But there is no music in that eloquence, where the tongue persuades enough, but the hand is like the hand of Jeroboam, dried up and withered. He that takes upon him to teach, and direct, let his hands be loose, that he may give a demonstration of his Doctrine in his own works, and then it is powerful. Dux consilio, miles exemplo, as it was said of Caesar: He gave the counsel of a General, he did the work of a Common Soldier. The Sun under a Cloud looks as if his glorious beams were shut up and imprisoned: So it is a dark and a gloomy Profession of Piety to cast no beams abroad; let your light shine before men that they may see your good works. If your hands, I mean your good deeds, be bound up, the bonds are such as Lazarus had, and worse, the swaddling bonds of eternal death. Pedes sunt affectus sensuales qui terrae adhaerent, that is the usual Moral, by feet are understood our sensual Passions, and Affections, which cleave unto the earth. Indeed Lazarus will walk better with those feet, when they are obedient to reason, and bound to her Law than when they are loose, and run their own ways. Excellent Servants to be guided, but unruly Masters to command. O let your affections be set upon heaven above, and not fix themselves upon earth beneath, and then you may say with David, I will run the way of thy Commandments. So much for the binding of the hands and feet.  
The last Point, and that which shuts up all, is to open this Mystery, that Lazarus his face was bound with a Napkin. Lazarus came forth with his winding-sheet about his body, with his Napkin about his face; here again is the Resurrection of Lazarus distinguished from the Resurrection of Christ. As for Christ's grave cloaths Peter looked in, and saw them wrapped together, when his body was without. And what caused this difference Beloved? 
Salmer. To. 11. tract. 10.  Why, first to answer a false rumour which belied both Christ and his Disciples at once, even for that cause our Saviour's linen clothes were left behind in the Monument, You will say his Disciples came by night, and stole him away. But if they took out the body, why did they leave the linen cloaths behind? Had desperate thiefs such leisure to uncase him, and to fold up several parcels by themselves, when a guard of Soldiers were round about them? Now when as no such objection should be made against Lazarus, he came forth with his winding sheet knit about his hands and feet, and his face with a Napkin, 2. Lazarus rose out of the Grave, but to die again, he was virbius. One poor life served him to change it for two deaths; and therefore he came abroad like a mortal man, 
Orat. 2. de Resurrect.  with his rags wrapped about him to cover his nakedness. But Christ's, says Nissen, rose to immortality, and therefore left those clouts in the grave which had been cast about him. That blessed life which we shall enjoy needs not garments to clothe the body. In the days of innocency Adam and Eve walked naked, and were not ashamed, they saw no uncomliness in it. Then shall apparel much less be an ornament to a glorified body. And therefore Elias mounting up to heaven in the fiery Chariot left his Mantle with Elisha: But he in our Text returned to the estate of frailty and corruption, his face was covered with a Napkin.  

Octag. 3. quest. lib. unus.  Thirdly, says St. Austin, Lazarus in the Tomb was the figure of a sinful man, Lazarus coming forth was the type of one that was born again, and is regenerate. But as touching a man new born and regenerate, still there remain in him, Vinculum peccati, & velumignorantiae; The entanglements of some sins, and the vail of ignorance. The bonds about the feet, and the Napkin about the face. But as for Christ's linen clothes in whom there was nor sin, nor ignorance, but a soul full of grace and truth, why should he carry away his shroud, or his Kercher? No, he bequeathed them to the earth, and left them to the Monument. Let us be wise unto salvation, and not too curious in searching these things, the Text doth admonish us. For why was Lazarus his face covered, though his Spirit was returned unto him again? St. Austin answers, Quod in hâc vitâ per speculum videmus in aenigmate, postea autem facie ad faciem; Because in this life we see darkly as in a glass, but hereafter we shall see God face to face. As concerning natural Causes and Effects, says Aristotle, 
1 Metaph. c. 1.  we see into them, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, with Owls eyes by day, that discern nothing clearly, but as concerning the Mysteries of Godliness, we look upon them as Moses did upon the Land of Canaan when Jordan was between; we are in one Country, and see afar off indistinctly the prospect of another. As Rebecca took away her vail when Isaac came toward her, that she might see his face, so this vail shall be taken from the Church, which is the Spouse of God, when he draws near unto it: Now Lazarus his Napkin is about our face. O that thou wouldst rend away this vail O Lord, 
Psal. 123.  that we might see thy glory! Behold, as the eyes of Servants look unto the hand of their Masters, and as the eyes of a Maiden unto the hand of her Mistress, even so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until he have mercy upon us. AMEN.   

THE FOURTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION.  JOHN XX. I. 
The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the Sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the Sepulchre.  
THis is the day which the Lord hath made; and thus begins the Gospel appointed for this great day of the Lord. A Gospel of which I may say it is full, even to the brims, of Divine Meditations. For here are those two Christian Pillars that uphold the Church of God, such as shall never be removed, Fides & Fidelis, the faith of the Elect, and relatively an elect Vessel that received the faith; a principal Article of our Creed, that Christ rose again the third day from the dead; and a very illustrious instance of Mary Magdalene, who was brought to believe in that Article. 1. The Faith which must be believed, to sanctify our contemplations; 2. The Faithful that did believe, to bring us to a godly practice. So the Spirit of God hath led Mary Magdalene to the Sepulchre, to see that Christ was risen from the dead; and the selfsame Spirit hath led us, to see the love and piety of Mary Magdalene. And as this devout woman hath obtained a place of memorial for her name among the blessed of the New Testament, because the example of her zeal did shine before us; So our names shall find a place among those that are recorded in the Book of Life, such honour shall they have that follow after.  
My Text begins a story concerning that first witness to whom our Lord and Saviour's Resurrection was revealed. Now upon so much of the Story as is recorded in this verse five things shall be handled, First the Condition of that Witness before whom our Lord did first appear, after he came out of the Grave, Marry Magdalene. 2. You may note the Constancy of her love, that she remembered him after death, and came unto his Sepulchre. 3. It is to be ascribed to her Faith, that she chose the right season, the first day of the week. 4. The Expedition which she made, is a token of restless diligence, that she came early, when it was yet dark. 5. An Accident of admiration encounters her, that she seeth the stone taken away from the Sepulchre. No Witness more classical for Gods use, than Mary Magdalene a repentant Sinner: No love more expressive, than to show affection even after death; no season so fit to be watched as the same which Christ foretold, how the third day he would rise, which fell out on the first day of the week: no fruit that doth better become Faith and Love than vigilant diligence without sloth; Repentance, Love, Faith, Diligence shall ever be thus requited, that God will show them a sign from Heaven beyond their expectation.  
The condition of the person is the first thing that we encounter, Marry Magdalene, cometh unto the Sepulchre. She came not alone, but other Associates did bear her company, such as were devout women, and loved our Lord. But our Evangelist knew a reason that she alone was worth the mentioning, instead of all besides; and upon her name only his Narration runs, that Mary Magdalen came unto the Sepulchre. The Scripture hath not forgot some of those that were her Associates, in other Gospels; St. Matthew says, Marry Magdalen went forth as it began to dawn, and the other Marry; St. Mark names three, Marry Magdalen, and Mary the Mother of James, and Salome; St. Luke speaks of an indefinite number; but every Divine Writer begins with Mary Magdalen, she and Joanna, and Mary the Mother of James, and other Women that were with them. But this Woman in my Text was more fervent and passionate in the cause, she incited all the rest to go with her to the Sepulchre, wherefore she is remembered by our Evangelist in a kind of singularity above all the rest; John himself was the Disciple of Love, and was careful to eternize her name in this story, which did abound in Love above all her Fellows. Some ancient Writers knew not how so good a Work could be done, wherein many religious Women conspired together, without the most Blessed Mary the mother of our Lord. Rather than it should turn to her disesteem to stay behind, Sedulius, Nyssen and Nicephorus were willing, I think, to mistake, that the Woman whom St. Matthew calls the other Marry, was the Holy Virgin. The disadvantages which this Opinion brings with it were not thought upon, that another name should stand before hers, to be passed over with such an easy mention as the other Marry, and not the mother of our Lord, a thing which especially St. Luke useth not to forget. And what an instance of moment were this, that among all others our Lord did first appear to Mary Magdalen, after he was risen from the dead? Surely his mother had been partaker of that sweet Vision as soon as any, if she had been in place to behold him. 
Lib. de Pass. Dom.  Bernard invents a reason to satisfy himself (though perhaps it will not satisfy all men) why the Blessed Virgin did willingly absent herself from coming to the Sepulchre the first day of the Week; because her Faith abounded more than all the rest. She was constantly persuaded that Christ was risen upon the third day, even as he had spoken before, and she would not go to the Sepulchre to seek the living among the dead. But if any man should cast a doubt, that the Holy Scriptures would not have concealed such a superexcellent strain of Faith in the Blessed Virgin, if she had believed the Mystery of the Resurrection, when the Disciples and all other were mistaken: besides that none of the Church did perfectly understand the Scriptures, until the Holy Ghost fell down upon them at the Feast of Pentecost; I say, if any should cast in such a doubt, I know not how it would be resolved. I have no Warrant to affirm any thing in this point, neither doth the Scripture express when Christ did appear to his mother after his Resurrection, to show he was no accepter of persons in way of carnal Affinity. He did appear to more than five hundred brethren at once, doubtless she was one of them; he did appear to the eleven, and to them that were gathered together with them. Luk. xxiv. 33. I may suppose the Blessed Virgin was there, because she was John's charge to take her with him: but certainly she was none of that Train, which came early in the morning with Mary Magdalen to the Sepulchre.  
Then let us proceed and say from hence, that God hath done great honour to this Sex, to make them the first Instruments that should know and declare his Resurrection. Where were the Apostles at this time? Alas, they were terrified, and had shielded like Men to the Passions of the Flesh; they were shut up close for fear of the Jews, and durst not show their heads; only a few Women which had followed Christ, were more adventurous than all the rest; and as if it irked them to care for their Life any longer, since the Life of the World was put to death, una salus nullam sperare salutem, they step out boldly, let come what will. Wherefore to give you St. Augustine's words, Munus Apostolicum viris creptum ad breve tempus eis resignat, the Apostolical Office was taken from the Disciples for a time, and it was given to them to preach that wonderful work of God, Christ risen from the dead. Audentes tu Christe juvas, you shall lose nothing to be courageous in a good cause: that great glory, to see the Son of God in a vision, now alive again, was given to them that did adventure to find him. Secondly, none wept so much for his death as these tenderhearted souls, the Daughters of Jerusalem, they were the first that mourned, and they are the first that be comforted, the greatest partakers of grief for his passion, are made the first partakers of joy for his Resurrection. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. And if there be any that repine much at their own daily misfortunes, who say they have bu●●●ttle joy in this world, let them strike their hand upon their breast, and say it is because they have taken but little grief. Jesus is our Passeover that was sacrificed for us: but you heard the Ceremony read to day, which God appointed; the Lamb must be eaten with sour herbs, or else you must not taste of the Passeover. Christian, whosoever thou be, that art taught this day, what a victory thy Saviour obtained against the Grave, and against the nethermost Hell, if thy heart be not replenished with joy upon the tidings, if it do not assure unto thee the seal of the Divine Promise, which is the earnest of thine inheritance, it is because thou hast not eaten sour herbs with the Passeover. Thou hast not yet afflicted thy voluptuous heart sufficiently as Mary Magdalen did, and the other women before they came unto the Sepulchre.  
Thirdly, women are the first witnesses in daily Childbirths how we are born into this world children of wrath, and God hath revealed to their knowledge in the first place, how we shall be made alive again, and become heirs of salvation. For Resurrection is the birth of the dust, and when the Grave had given up the dead body of Christ, these women came, as it were, unto the labour, much about the time that the Monument did groan, even when an Earthquake had gone just before it. Once it was their curse to have a woe pronounced upon them, In dolore paries, In sorrow shalt thou bring forth Children, Gen. iii 16. Now they see another manner of travel, that God can quicken us to life again not miserably, but triumphantly; and the earth shall give up the dead with joy and gladness. Fourthly, we may well know him to be the same Christ who was crucified, and rose again the third day, because he chose no better witnesses than these were for so great a mystery. The world, it may be, will contemn such simplicity of the Spirit, but, because it so pleased our Saviour, Mary Magdalen, and the women are most authentic witnesses; and beyond all exception. Shepherd's address unto his cratch where he was born. Women unto his Tomb where he was risen from the dead, that you may see how Satan's method of deceiving is quite contrary to God's method of saving. The Devil dealt all by craft to tempt our first Parents in the shape of a Serpent, and Christ deals all by simplicity, and innocency, through the testimony of Shepherds, through the testimony of Women. If you be hard to believe the things which were very strange at his Nativity, and at his Resurrection, examine these persons and ye shall have plain truth without tricks and turnings. A righteous cause needs not a supportance by Art and subtlety; a piercing wit may find a way to make a bad action seem good, but when the action is without controversy good already, the devices of a sharp wit will never make it seem better, for truth is least suspected when it is not varnished over with Policy. Lastly, To end this Point, among all other women Mary Magdalen the great sinner is with the first that comes unto the Sepulchre, to refresh our conscience, which is oppressed with the fore burden of iniquity, that our Redeemer liveth, to gratify repentant sinners in especial wise that fly unto his mercy. If it were fit for Mary to bury her sins in that Grave, it will be fit likewise for thee, and me. Repentance may be described to be the Resurrection of the soul from the death of sin. And this Resurrection from sin, which I may call Metaphorical, hath a fast interest, none so sure as it, in Christ as he comes forth from the darkness of the grave, and shines upon the world. All men shall be restored to life, just and unjust; for the Son of God redeemed the whole nature of man from the corruption of the Grave; and the Devil did utterly lose jus mortis the whole dominion of death, because our Saviour being an innocent was put to death, over whom he had no dominion: But the glory of our Saviour's victory was to conquer two at once, Hell and Death: So the Prophet Hosea cries out in form of an Epinicium, O death where is thy sting? O hell where is thy victory? And from his own voice he declares his glory, Rev. i 18. I am he that liveth, and was dead, behold I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of Hell and of Death. Therefore this great Festival is the penitent sinners holy day, for whose sakes both the Keys are turned, for whose sakes both the Gates are opened, that the soul may pass from the judgement of Hell, and the body from the rottenness of corruption. And thus it appears, why Christ was first seen of Women in his bodily manifestation after death. It was granted to their courageous attempt, that durst come unto the Sepulchre, it was for the consolation of their Antecedent grief. It was to show them a difference between their bringing forth a child to life, and Gods resuscitating our dead bones. It was expedient to have a testimony from such harmless Witnesses. And Mary Magdalen is supereminently named above them all, for she was a most contrite penitent and Christ died for their sins, and rose again for their Justification.  
It is my course now according to the Propositions of my Text, to remove forward to the meditation of her love, which was so constant, even after death, that she came unto the Sepulchre of our Lord. A faith, though it be never so weak, never so languishing, yet it will produce some effect which is worth the noting. For instance, as I cannot maintain but there was a defect in this woman's faith, so according to that little faith, no man shall deny but there was a great deal of love. As concerning faith, it is apparent that she mistook the Scriptures in two things: First, that she thought to find Christ's body in the Sepulchre, as if it were possible he could be held of death longer than the third day. The Angel gave an item to the women that their coming was a vain labour, 
Luk. 24.6.  Why seek ye the living among the dead? Remember what he spoke unto you when he was yet in Galilee. He did foretell it so expressively how he would rise from the Grave after three days, that all his enemies took notice of the saying, but those women were hard of belief, or else they had forgot it. Secondly, It was Mary's error, and common to all her Partners to bring Spices to anoint our Saviour's body, the other Evangelists express that they came with such preparations, purposing to apply them to the Corpse that it might not putrify. It seems they understood not David, Thou shalt not suffer thine holy One to see corruption. It was not thought upon, as it fell out, that the flesh of Jesus was not like ours which is rank and sinful, his was pure and undefiled, which had never deserved to suffer rottenness and putrefaction: And they ignorantly come to the Sepulchre with Spices to embalm him, 
Calvin. Harmon. Mat. 28  that his body might not be polluted. But is there no way to excuse this forgetful and deceived faith? It is a good mixture of praise and dispraise which a certain Author puts together. It was an error not to be defended to think that Christ was held of death, and lay still in the Sepulchre; but because the custom to anoint dead bodies was an assured hope that the flesh should rise again to immortality, therefore setting their particular error aside touching the person of Christ, in general their respect was full of faith, and honour, and devotion toward the Resurrection of the body, which general notion of so good an Article of faith won them pardon for this particular incredulity.  
But I said before concerning this little faith, no man must deny but she showed a great deal of love. As Thomas noted into what danger our Saviour embarked himself, when he told his Disciples Lazarus is dead, and we will go unto him; Let us also go and die with him, says Thomas. So there was Soldiers abroad to watch the Sepulchre, Spies in every corner from the High Priests to mark who did confess, and honour our Saviour, to go to his Tomb was in effect to say, let us go and die with him, we care not for our lives. True love esteems it sweet to suffer for his sake, to whose memory their affection is constantly devoted. And why did she address unto the Sepulchre? A stone was rolled upon the mouth of the Grave, and it was sealed with pilate's Seal, she could see nothing; but she drew near to that which she loved to see, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. chrysostom. It did her good to walk in that Garden where the body of the Son of God was laid, such a Garden which enclosed him who was the Flower of Jessai, says the Prophet. This was a Paradise to overmatch that Garden, which was once in Eden, by how much the second Adam risen here from death to life, was better than the first Adam, who fell there from life to death. This was such a place as could not choose but strike her with reverence: as Moses stood before the bush which burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed; so Mary came to stand before the Sepulchre, where that divine body lay, the first fruits of them that ever rose from the dead, the Spear had entered his heart, the whips and thorns had torn his flesh, yet by his own power he lived again, the bush was not consumed. Think with thyself, if thou wert now kneeling by that Cave of the earth, where thy Saviour's body lay, what abundance of tears it would make thee shed for thy sins? What a desire of heaven it would beget in thy soul? What a contempt of this loathsome earth? I do ever rise up from those relations which I read, or which Pilgrims make of those places with a mortified heart. Certainly Helen the Mother of Constantine, St. Hierom, and Paula made an admirable use to inflame their zeal, by frequenting this very place which Mary did. And my knowledge and Religion are in a dream, or else Devotion without superstition is the most heavenly thing in the world. We come into the Capitol, says Tully, only to please our eyes with looking upon that Bench in the Senate; where the renowned Orator Crassus was wont to sit. So Mary Magdalen came with a resolved opinion, that it would give her great consolation to come near that place where Joseph had interred her Saviour.  
St. John's History is brief, and hath made him omit this clause of the Story, remembered in St. Luke, That they came with Spices which they had prepared; with sweet spices that they might anoint him, says St. Mark. Why Joseph and Nicodemus had bought an hundred pound weight of Myrrh, and Aloes, and wrapped them with the body of Jesus, was not that enough? Pardon them if they overdo their part, Amor non credit satis esse factum nisi ipse faciat, says one; cordial love thinks all is not done that should be, unless itself be at the doing. This chargeable spicing and anointing the dead was in use among the Gentiles, for so they interred their deceased friends, who are men of renown and Nobility. So the Greek Poet reckons this Ceremony in the Funerals of Patroclus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, so Virgil's Misenus, 
Aen. lib. 6.  Corpusque lavant frigentis & ungunt. Donatus the Grammarian gave no other reason but this, Ut cadavera mortuorum citiù● flammam conciperent; To make the Carcases consume to ashes the faster when they were put upon a pile of wood to be burnt. Although others gather out of the Heathen, that they esteemed it Piety to wash away all filthiness from the Corpses of the deceased; and the Officers that took the care of such things were called Pollinctores quia pollutos ungerent. But, among divine Writers, all do embrace this as a strong conjecture, and indeed not to be denied, that the Servants of God embalmed, and anointed the dead both in the Old and New Testament in honour of the Resurrection. So Joseph commanded the Physicians to embalm his Father: So certain devout Widows washed the body of Tabytha, and laid her forth in an upper Chamber, Acts ix. 37. Let me not omit how Christ himself did approve of that Ceremony while he was living: A woman broke a box of Ointment of Spikenard very precious upon his head; and when some had indignation at it, he forbade his Disciples to trouble her, saying, She is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying, Mar. xiv. 8. That woman spent her cost upon him, when he was alive to give her thanks. Marry came to pour her Spices upon his Grave when she thought he was dead; true Love is munificent to them who are dear unto it when they live, but more abundantly when they are deceased.  
Now carry your attention with you to the third part of the Text, that no season was so fit to be watched as this, which the women laid hold of, The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalen: This coming was upon the third day after Christ had been laid in the Grave; and it was upon the same day, which from thenceforth was called the Lords day, wherein our holy Assemblies every week do meet together; these two things are fit to be examined before I leave the Treatise of this Point. From the beginning of the world was there never any thing of so great expectation, as the success of this day, whether that, which Christ had so often foretold should come to pass, that he should die, and the third day he would rise again. How busy were the women to come abroad, and try what they could learn? And I verily think the waves of the Sea roll not about so fast in a Tempest as the thoughts of the Disciples beat within their heart, and earned within them between fear and hope, whether the day were like to prove glorious, or uncomfortable; well, God did rather go beyond his own word than come a whit behind it. He made this third day the most memorable Feast that ever the Sun shined upon. It was a third day when Joseph released his brethren out of Prison, Gen. xlii. 18. On the third day in the morning, after the people had come to Mount Sinai, the Law of God was delivered, Exod. nineteen. 16. On the third day Esther put on her Royal Apparel, and stood before Ahasuerus, and desired him to be good to her Nation, Esther v. 1. On the third day Abraham came to the place where his faith was tried, and Isaac was restored back again alive, when the sacrificing knife had been at his throat, Gen. xxii. 4. To come near to the mark, the third day Ionas was cast safe upon the Land out of the belly of the Whale; and that was the sign which Christ gave to the Jews, able to convince all infidelity, as Ionas was three days and three nights in the belly of the Whale, and then came forth alive, so Christ burst open the Monument the third day, and appeared unto many.  
Reason may be busy to inquire why the Son of God prefixed such a space of time for his Resurrection, before he would quicken his flesh, rather than any other. Certainly, there is but one modest conjecture, which is this, he would lie no longer, than some hours of a third day in the grave, lest he should keep the weak faith of his Disciples too long in suspense, yet sooner he would not open his monument, lest his enemies the Jews should pretend, he was but cast into a swoon by the sharpness of pain, and not truly dead. These following I will allow for ingenuous allusions and no more; that our Redeemers body was bereft of life unto the third day, to appease the offended justice of every Person in Trinity, God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; to signify that we were dead in sin by thought, word, and deed. To bring unto eternal life them that believed either under the Law of nature, under the Law of Moses, or under the new Covenant of grace. To restore the three parts of spiritual life unto us Faith, hope, and charity. Tria sunt omnia, says another, three days are the sum of man's life both here and for ever. A day of labour in this World, a day of rest in the Grave, a day of reward in the Resurrection. If there be any Son of Adam that would have a fourth day Dies otii in hâc vitâ; A day of ease and pleasure in this life, such a one is Lazarus quatriduanus & putet. It may be said of him as the two Sisters said of Lazarus their Brother, He hath lain four days in the ground and begins to smell. Three days are all, labour, rest, and reward, these are allusions, I said, to the Resurrection of Christ upon the third day. One thing is very observable, to match this circumstance of the New Testament, and an accident which fell out in the Old. Even this very day wherein Christ arose, and gate dominion over death, the same day, which was the third day after the eating of the Passeover, Moses brought the Children of Israel through the Red Sea unto dry Land, certainly intimating that they went through death to life, and so did Christ.  
St. Peter hath a Text, 1 Epist. 1.10. which doth authorise me yet to search further, and more diligently about the time of this Resurrection. Says he, The Prophets have enquired, and searched diligently, what manner of time the Spirit of Christ did signify, when it testified before hand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory which should follow. And surely, there is a great mystery couched in the circumstance of time, that the Evangelists have differently set down other observations, that concurred upon the Resurrection, but all of them in one phrase do agree in these words, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that this wonder was wrought upon the first day of the week; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, una Sabbati; The Jews gave such honour to their Sabbath, that every day following had the denomination from it, the first, second, and the third day after the Sabbath, and so unto the sixth. The Latin Church in their Liturgies hath given the same honour to Easter Day, for Easter day by principality being called Feria, the Holy Day; The Latins from it call the days of the week primam, secundam, tertiam Feriam, and so unto the sixth. Our vulgar English calls the first day of the week Sunday, and all other days following are denominated from some of the Planets, we received such Language in this Island from our Forefathers who were Paynims, and knew not God, but we differ from them in the intention; they did it out of Idolatry to the Sun and Moon, etc. we to signify that God made the Host of Heaven, and all the Stars thereof. Moreover, una Sabbati literally rendered is not the first, but one day of the Week, because one is the first ground to begin numbering; and Theophilact says the Lords day is called the one day of the Week, either because it is the only day, from whence the blessing is procured for all the rest; or besides it is a figure of the life to come, Quando una tantum dies est nequaquam nocte interpolata; when there shall be but one day for ever, and no night of darkness to interrupt it. Thus much of the words.  
The matter of the Point is of a more profitable use. And hence I begin, that as God the Father upon the first day did begin to make this visible world of Creatures; so Christ rose the same day from the dead, to signify that a new Age was then begun. 
In Apol. 2.  Resurrectio est alterius mundi spiritualis creatio, says Justin Martyr, The Resurrection is well called a creation of a new spiritual world. On the first day of the Week God said, Let there be light, and he divided between the light and the darkness. Verily on that wise on the first day of the Week God brought the light of the world out of the darkness of the Grave, and the life, says St. John, was the light of men. Now this infinite work to tread death under feet, and to bring all flesh out of corruption into the state of immortality, being more eximious than to make man in a possibility at first to die, and perish, therefore all Christian Churches have desisted to meet together at holy exercises upon the Sabbath of the Jews, and the first day of the Week is the day appointed to sanctify out selves unto the Lord, for what reason I will now unfold, and it is a case of no small perplexity.  
And let me auspicate from the Text and Authority of Holy Scripture, and these places following do conspire to verify the Truth. Acts xx. 7. Paul abode seven days at Troas, the seventh day of his abode was the first day of the Week, than (and not before it seems) upon the first day of the Week, when the Disciples came together to break Bread, that is, to partake of the Lords Supper, Paul preached unto them. This seems to approve, that in the Apostles time it was no more in use for their Disciples to meet upon the Sabbath, but as well to honour the Resurrection, as to separate from the Rites and Customs of the Jews, in the Spirit of God they did convene together on the first day of the Week. From Preaching and Administering the Holy Communion, let us come to Collection of Alms. 1 Cor. xuj. 2. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come. How can this be expounded, but that distributions were made to the poor upon the first day of the Week in their most solemn Assemblies? For if the meaning were, that every man should set apart a share of his own gains upon that day in his private Coffers, and not in the public Treasury, when their Congregations were together, than Collections had been to be made from house to house, when Paul was to come, who desires it might be laid up in readiness, as it were in one stock, before. 'Tis pity we are fallen from that good order, but in the most ancient Church, I find that they never missed to carry the Poors Box about every Lord's Day, witness this place of St. Cyprian; 
De oper. & Elcem.  Locuples es & dives, & Dominicam celebrare te credis, quae Corbanam omnino non respicis? Thou that art rich and wealthy, dost thou imagine thou keepest the Lord's Day as thou oughtest, and dost cast nothing into the Treasury? Thirdly, as the last day of the Week, when God rested from his works, was called the Sabbath of the Lord, so it is of much moment to the point, that the first day of the Week is called the Day of the Lord or the Lord's Day. Rev. i 10. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, as it appears, Rev. i 13. John was walking on the Sea shore meditating upon holy things in the Isle of Patmos: Very probable that there was no solemn meeting to praise God, as it ought to have been, among those Pagan Islanders, otherwise John had not betaken himself to solitary Meditations; but see how he was recompensed, Nactus est Doctorem ipsum Deum, quando fortasse deessent quos ipse doceret, 
Bright. Revel. ca 1.  when he was disconsolate, because he wanted Auditors to teach, God preached unto him the Mysteries of the Age to come. But to enforce the Text forenamed for an Argument; we have but two things in the New Testament called the Lords, the Sacrament is called the Supper of the Lord, 1 Cor. xi. 20. and this day of Christian Assemblies is called the Lords Day, (the Lord's Prayer and the Lords House are good Phrases, but our own, not the Scriptures) but as we keep the Feast of Passeover no more, but instead thereof eat the Lords Supper; so neither do we observe the Jews Sabbath any more, but instead thereof we keep the Lords Day.  
Thus far I have pressed the Authorities of Sacred Scripture: The Authority of the Primitive Church, and so downward to this Age, will convince it clearly against any that is obstinate. Ignatius was St. John's Scholar, 
Epist. ad Magnes.  and as if he had learned of his Teacher, he writes thus, Let every lover of Christ celebrate the Lords Day, which is dedicated to the honour of his Resurrection, the Queen and Princess of all days. Justin Martyr commands the same day to be kept holy to the Lord every Week, in his 2. Apolog. So doth Tertullian more than once, and I cited St. Cyprian before. The Council of Laodicea speaks thus resolutely: Anathema to all those that rest upon the Sabbath; 
Canon. 29.  let them keep the Lords Day, when they observe a vacancy of labour, and do as becometh Christians. 
Canon. 20.  The great Council of Nice doth not command the first day of the Week to be kept holy, but supposeth in the 20. Canon, all good Christians would admit that without scruple, and then appoints other significant Ceremonies to be kept upon the Lord's Day from Easter to Whitsuntide. I need not reckon downward after the Nicen Council, because, in one word, I have not heard or read that it was opposed by any of the Fathers. They knew that an appointed time must be allotted for every necessary Duty; and certainly upon the abrogation of the Old Sabbath, not Man, but God did appoint a time for so necessary a thing as the religious Service of his Name. Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his own Sabbath, lying all that day and night in the Grave; and to hold that the Sabbath, which is but a Shadow, is to continue, is to hold that Christ the Body is not yet come; yet that being laid apart, let us allow God a seventh day for sanctification, so much is divine in the fourth Commandment: and what seventh day, but the same which Christ sanctified in his Resurrection, which is the new Creation of the World, the same which the Scriptures point at, the same which the Church hath constantly kept in all successions. Salve festa dies, toto venerabilis anno, says Lactantius; and Origen says that Manna did begin to fall down about the Tents of the Israelites the first day of the Week, and in the same day you are bound to bring your Omer to gather Spiritual Manna in your holy Assemblies, that your Soul may eat and be satisfied. When the Proconsul's of several Provinces enquired who were Christians, to punish them; you shall find in the Acts of the Martyrs this was their Question to descry them, Dominicam seruâsti? What, do you keep the Lords Day? The good man being persecuted answers, Christianus sum, intermittere non possum, I am a Christian, and cannot intermit it.  
Do we differ from the Jews then in nothing but exchanging day for day? Yes, Beloved; as in sanctifying Gods name we are to go beyond them, because the Spirit is given to us in more abundant measure than it was to them; so in nice Points of rest and cessation from all bodily labour and exercise, we are not tied so strictly as they were. I wonder from whom they had their Doctrine that teach the contrary. I know they will not say they had it from the Fathers, I know they cannot say it justly. I appeal to the best lights of this latter Age. Out of the French Reformed Churches I cite Beza. 
Beza in Apoc. 1.  Thus he: The keeping of the Lords day is an Apostolical, and a divine Tradition; yet so, that we are not tied (he means by God's Law) to observe the Judaical cessation from all kind of work, for to observe the Judaical rest were to change the day, 
Euseb. vit. Constant. lib 4. c. 16.  and not the Judaisme. Imperial Laws, made by Constantine and other godly Princes, did first interdict, that no open and usual buying and selling, or other Merchandise should be used; for it is fit for the better sanctifying of the day that we should sequester worldly affairs, and be altogether vacant to God. Thus far he. Out of the Germane Reformed Churches I will cite Paraeus, This is his Argument; Who first approves that the Lords day is to be kept with a decent cessation from manual labours, and that it is very scandalous to pollute it with usual secular affairs, but if any will run further, to impose upon Christians the Rites and Ceremonies of the Jewish rest in their Sabbath; thus he convinceth them. The observation of the Jewish rest was figurative and typical; and all those figures of truth were to be kept under pain of severe judgement, because the figure was the pledge and Protestation of the truth which should come to pass; now there being no such figurative dependence upon the sanctification of the Lords day, we are tied only to such rest as shall adorn and beautify our Worship of God upon that day, I mean both our Morning and Evening Sacrifice. Beware therefore to be a Jew in opinion, but beware to be a dissolute Libertine in practice. Violate not this day, nor any the like in the whole year with Negligence, Idleness, Luxurious Pastimes, or Riot; give thy body rest, 
Basil. Hex. homil. n.  that the soul may be more busy in the holy work; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, rest which is not employed in the fear of God is the Mother of all wickedness. I cannot end this Point better than with those words of St. Basil.  
Let me adventure with your patience upon the next Point, and I will defer the handling of the last. That which I mean only to speak of is Mary magdalen's expedition, her restless diligence, her watchfulness without all sloth, She came early, when it was yet dark. Every hour seemed seven to this pious Matron, till she came to the body of Christ, the Sabbath of the Jews was but now ended, and she had much ado to refrain coming before it was done. The Stars of the night had not yet run their courses when she set forth toward the Monument, for it is probable she kept the Sabbath at her own Town, and she dwelled at Bethany two miles from Jerusalem, yet by Sunrising, when it was yet dark, she was come to the Sepulchre, a journey of two miles, and had brought her Spices with her. She had no sleep I believe fell upon her eyes for thinking of her Saviour. I am sure she had no leisure to paint her face, to powder her hair, or to dress herself with finical curiosity. We had divers, I confess, that came early this morning to the holy Sacrament, when it was yet dark, I praise them for it. We have others that seldom or never find the way to Church till the Afternoon, you may know by their vain Attire, tricked up in Print, what they were doing all the Morning. At last we have their company scarce with half a thought to please God, but with their whole heart to be praised of fools, and to please such wanton and adulterous eyes that gaze upon them. What a coil is here with this carrion flesh? Ye are but painted Sepulchers, full of rotten bones, and not worthy to come with Mary to the Sepulchre of Christ, much less to come to the Communion of his body and blood. O proud mortality, they that make their Looking-glass all the Text which they take out in the Morning, little think that the Grave may be the Pew in the Church wherein they shall be placed before Evening. Now they walk abroad so strong with sweet smells, that they are able to perfume a Sepulchre with Spices; in less than four days all this delicacy may turn to stink and rottenness. Come early to the Sepulchre, that is, think of death in your young blossoming years, how suddenly ye may be cut off, then leave to fashion yourselves after this French, or that Italian dressing, and spin a poor shrouding sheet which may wrap you up in the earth against the day of the Resurrection.  
I hasten. Was it yet dark when Mary came, when St. Mark says punctually it was at the rising of the Sun? What an intricate case some have made of this objection, which is nothing in itself! For the Evangelist doth not mean, it was so dark that the women could not see about them, for then all they reported would be taken to be fancy, and not a known truth: But the Sun newly rising some obscurity of darkness remains in some places, especially it might be so about a Monument which was cut of a Rock in the Earth, and the Monument in a Garden where shady trees do not suddenly admit light, and the Garden perhaps lying under an Hill, and compassed about with a Wall, some dusky darkness may incloud such a place early in the Morning. They shoot wide therefore that expound the darkness figuratively, that the Scriptures were not opened as yet how Christ should rise the third day, and all the World was benighted in the darkness of incredulity. There is no need to strain the Text so mightily; 
Serm. 82.  and yet Chrysologus hath invented a more forced Interpretation. Thus he. As the day was shortened at our Saviour's Passion, and the Sun did set in an Eclipse a long time before the natural Evening of that season, so at his Resurrection the Sun rejoiced, and was so officious to attend him that he rose certain hours before the natural season of the day. Therefore according to the natural rising of the Sun it was very early when Mary Magdalen came, but if you consider the extraordinary appearance of that glorious Lamp upon the Earth before the time, so the Sun was risen, and yet it was the time of darkness. This is more subtle than solid, my first interpretation was the sure resolution.  
I will ask but one question more to clear a doubt, and so conclude. All the Evangelists, no doubt, do purpose to set out the diligence and watchfulness of Mary, that none have omitted to describe what an early Pilgrim she was. Had they no other end in it? Yes surely, to express the timely Resurrection of our Lord. As David sings it, Exurgam diluculo; Awake my glory, awake Lute and Harp, I myself will awake right early. But how can you then inch out the time to say resolvedly, that he lay three days in the belly of the Grave? Beloved, you must measure the days by a Synecdoche. He was buried toward Evening upon the Jews day of preparation, and so lay interred some part of the Afternoon, and all the night. Upon the Jews Sabbath he rested in the Sepulchre all day and night, upon the first day of the week he continued in the state of death some hours of the Morning, and very early he came forth an eternal Triumpher; he fulfilled the Scriptures therefore, and withal made haste to fulfil his Promise, to rise the third day. Euthymius expresseth it more elegantly than I can. Quod citius quam sit constitutum efficitur potentiae est, quod tardius imbecillitatis. Christus non solùm promissum explevit, sed etiam gratiam velocitatis addidit. To be eardier than our promise is a sign of some let and infirmity: 
Euthy●n. in Mat. 28.  To be beforehand with a Promise, is a sign of power and efficacy. The Promise of the Son of God was that in three days he would build up the Temple of his body again: He did so, and more than so, soon after the third day was begun. Behold the prestation of his Promise, and the acceleration of his favour joined unto it; so we have seen both his truth in the Promise, and his love in the speediness, doing even above his Promise, To whom be honour, praise, and glory for ever. AMEN.   

THE FIFTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION.  MAT. xxviii. 2. 
And behold, there was a great Earthquake, for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.  
THE greatest matter which we preach unto you throughout all the year is that of this great Festival, Christ is risen from the dead. All that we preach beside holds of this in chief, score out this line and ye blot out the contents of all the Gospel. St. Paul says it, If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching in vain, 1 Cor. xv. 14. You hear of what great consequence it is to preach of the Resurrection, and yet I cannot tell you from any part of holy Scripture at what moment of time, or after what manner our Saviour rose from the dead. Thou knowest it O Son of David, who dost open, and no man shutteth, who dost shut, and no man openeth. He opened the Grave, nor Death, nor Hell, nor pilate's Seal could shut it against him: He shutteth up this mystery from us, when he came out of the Grave, and no man is able to open it. Is this the reason, because his Disciples, and the very best of his Chosen were incredulous upon this day, and it would not enter into their hearts how he was risen from the dead, though he had often foretold it, and therefore he did punish them to conceal the manner of his Resurrection from them, though no doubt they did much desire to know it? Or was it for this respect, 
In Catenâ Graec. Pat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  as another says, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, we know not the hour when he rose from the dead, neither is it possible to know the time when we shall rise from the dead? Now it was obscure, when he came again to life, and it will be as much obscure when he will come to judge the world at the general Resurrection. Or was it rather to inform us, that since we receive this principal Article of our Creed plainly, and not examining many needless particulars, so must we receive all the Tenets of Faith naked and unclothed from all questions of curiosity.  
The secret things belong unto the Lord our God. Yet thus far we may dare to encroach, that the Resurrection of Christ fell out within the compass of the words which I have read unto you. It came to pass very early in the morning on the third day, I told you so the last year at large, now I come nearer to the Point. For all that say any thing to the incidency of time agree in this, that about the time the earthquake shook the place, or about the time the Angel descended, or about the time the stone was rolled away, among these Circumstances one or other, he awoke out of a sleep, and came forth of the Sepulchre. Needs then must you hear from hence some good tidings of joy and triumph. The last words of my Text are memorable to this purpose, that the Angel sat upon the stone, Quasi fidei doctor, 
Homil. 74.  & Magister resurrectionis, says Chrysologus. Upon these concurrencies, presently the Angel sat down like a Doctor of faith in the Chair of Authority, and like a Master to teach the Resurrection. Where the Angel sits him down to teach, the case you will presume is worth the hearing. The two things generally in which I fix my thoughts are these, motus and quies, a motion, and a quietness. Of motions there are three: 1. The foundations of the Earth opened, and behold there was a great earthquake. 2. The Heavens were opened, for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven. 3. The door of the Grave is opened, He came and rolled away the stone. But albeit these things are turbulent in the doing, great tranquillity shall follow. Surely, the earth presently was settled and stood still, for the stone was steady, the Angel composed himself at rest, and sat upon it. To these I will add such explication as God shall give me leave to utter.  
An Earthquake was a royal trumpet to proclaim this victory, the greatest that ever was obtained against an enemy. The deep murmur and hollow sound which came from beneath the earth gave notice at one blast to Heaven, and Hell, and to all Judaea, that the Son of God about that instant (as I do verily believe) did break the gates of Brass, and smite the bars of death in sunder. It was heard to heaven, and the Angel came down at his cue, as soon as ever that triumphal sign was given, wherein I have given you my opinion, and not mine alone, but of sundry others; that the coming of the Angel was not a cause, but a consequent of the Earthquake. Tremuit terra, non quia Angelus descendit de coelo, 
Paraeus. Chrysolog. hom. 74.  sed quia ab inferis dominator ascendit. The ground trembled, not because the Angel descended from above, but because the Conqueror ascended from beneath. And I know not a prettier diversion in all the Scripture to put off that which might be expected than this is. Who would not look that the story should run thus? Behold there was a great Earthquake, for Christ arose from the dead. But the Holy Ghost, to keep that Circumstance out of our knowledge at what time he arose, did divert it in this manner, Behold there was a great Earthquake, for the Angel even at that instant and occasion came down from heaven. And as heaven did partake of this noise when the earth was moved, so I doubt not but the horror of it went down to Hell, and troubled the Spirits that abide in chains of darkness for ever. In all likelihood this great body of the world did quake from the Superficies to the Centre of the Earth. 
Gerardus harm. de Resurrect. c. 2  And Luther was possessed with this pious credulity, that in this Earthquake the ground was parted with a large Hiatus from the Sepulchre to Hell, and in the moment of that concussion of the ground our Saviour arose to life, descended visibly to Hell, made show of his Resurrection there that Satan and Death were under his feet, and presently came out of the Pit, which could not shut its mouth against him. 
Salmeron traci. 8. tom. 1.  As Luther may enjoy his own conjecture, so thus far we may concur, that the terror of the Earthquake did penetrate to the Kingdom of the Devil. And how far the Inhabitants of Judaea were affrighted at it, it appears in the most courageous, in the band of Soldiers, who were tumbled to the ground at the noise like the stone which was rolled from the mouth of the Sepulchre; and no marvel, 
Hier. qu. 6. ad Hedibiam.  for St. Hierom either by his own persuasion, or by tradition delivers, that the rumbling of the earth was so great, Vt cuncta concuteret, & eversionem terrae funditus minaretur; That it josselled every thing together, and threatened the subversion of this Universe.  
To what end have I amplified it thus far, but to make you conceive it fell out immediately through the wonderful hand of the Almighty? Philastrius in his 54 Heresy enrolls it for an Heresy, Si quis terram moveri putet naturaliter; If any man shall say, that an Earthquake comes to pass by natural causes; there he went beyond the Line; for it appears evidently in Philosophical inquisitions, that exhalations, and hot air may be instrangled within the bowels of the earth, and seeking a way for a larger room, or else to get forth, it breaks out with a terrible violence, and removes some parts of this heavy Element. To deny this were to put out the eye of reason. Yet in this Earthquake that pertains to my Text, I assent that there was no preparation of natural causes to produce it: For just when our Saviour's soul went out of the body at his Passion; and just, I think, at the moment when his soul returned again into the body at the Resurrection; the earth was smitten in a wonderful manner, that the world might take notice that the like was never heard or seen. And as I do resolutely conclude, This motion of the Earth was supernatural, so I hold off from the usual opinion, that the Angel was made God's instrument of the execution, the manner, the consequence of it so great, that I am persuaded it was immediately the work of Christ himself. 
Homil. 77.  Leo cubile in quo habitat tremere fecit, says Chrysologus rationally, and elegantly; The Lion roused himself up from sleep, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah roared, and made his own den to quake. Inferior operations are committed to the Creatures, the chief abide in God. When Lazarus was raised from the dead, says Christ to the Disciples, Take ye away the stone, and afterward being come forth of the Cave, Do ye lose him, and let him go. So the Angel was an actor in the noble work of this day, to roll away the grave-stone, to dismay the Soldiers, to comfort Mary Magdalen, and the other women to preach the mystery to all: But it was Christ himself that shook the ground from the Superficies to the Centre, this Ecce, this Behold, me seems bids us behold how it came from God, and not from his Minister the Angel, and behold there was a great Earthquake.  
I remove forward to that which is more useful to be taught, from the efficient to the final cause, for what purpose was this great trembling and concussion of the earth at the Resurrection of our Saviour? I will set forth six reasons:  
First, it makes us conceit that there was a great struggling, and a combat between Christ and Death; Death was brought unto the Bar, impleaded before Almighty God, divested by just judgement from all power, found guilty because the guiltless and innocent was slain. It was permitted to seize upon us Prisoners. But it spared not the Judge himself, which is Christ. We that are slaves and servants were put under the dominion of it, and Death presumed to offer violence to our Lord; it was suffered to rage against men, and it was bold to assault God. Death, according to the great Doom, was the wages of sin, how justly is the yoke of its tyranny broken when it became the murderer of righteousness? But how hardly would it lay down the authority which it had so long usurped over all mortal flesh? So many Patriarches, so many Prophets, Quo Tullus Dives, & Ancus, so many Princes and Kings whose bodies crumbled into dust, and their ashes were never made whole again, and when this Law, which had so long continued, was to be broken, what could be expected but that the earth would groan and struggle against the Resurrection? When I speak of Death, you know that I mean the Devil, who had the power of death, 
Salmeron. tom. 11. tract, 3.  he had deluded himself with this fallacy, Cruse vivus non descendit, quomodo sepulchro mortuus ascendet? Christ came not down from the Cross when he was alive, how will he be able to come out of the Grave when he is dead? He that had so much cunning was best able to deceive himself; but with what resistance and murmuring the Prey was taken out of his mouth it is best set down thus briefly instead of a large description, Behold there was a great Earthquake.  
Secondly, It betokens what noise and tumult there shall be in all the Elements at the last and great Resurrection. There is a day to come, when the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain, Isa. xxvi. 21. Then shall the whole earth shake, and be dissolved as when one wipes a dish, and turns the other side, says the Prophet. 
Di●g Laert.  And therefore Diogenes the Cynic in a flout would be left above ground when he was dead; for one day, says he, all will be turned topside turvy, and then I shall lie right. 
Hag. two. 6.  Haggai, speaking of that great and dreadful day, expresseth it by Earthquakes and Commotions. Yet once is a little while, and I will shake the Heavens, and the Earth, and the Sea, and the dry Land; and I will shake all Nations, and the desire of all Nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory. Such a clashing and perturbation shall precede our future happiness, that the sudden change may the more affect us, from extremity of amazement in the twinkling of an eye to extremity of glory. Instead of many places this of Ezekiel will fit us for all, 
Eze. xxxvii. 7.  Ecce commotio, & accesserunt ossa ad ossa; Behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. If it were nothing else but so many Monuments of stone cracking asunder, so many Graves yawning, so many Bones grating one against another, this would make a strange sound in men's ears; how much more when the dust shall be shaken from the very Centre, that the Dead since Adam may have all their limbs again? When the Elements shall melt with heat, and the Heavens pass away with a noise; when the Impenitent shall howl, the Unjust skreek out, the righteous lift up their voice of thanksgiving, and the Angels sing Haleluja, all this together in a medley will make a strange commotion, which is prefigured in the antecedent of our Saviour's Resurrection, Behold, etc.  
Thirdly, It signifies that the Majesty of the Lord was upon the earth to defend his people, that he came down, and trod upon his footstool, that he alone is terrible against all other terrors that may trouble us, that he is present to protect all those that love the coming of our Lord Jesus. When he came down to deliver the Law the earth shook, even as Sinah also was moved at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob; the Mountains owed that homage to tremble when the glory of the Lord was upon them. And though it was dreadful, yet so long as God was present in the midst of them the Host of Israel knew they were in safety. So the Monuments did quiver and tremble when Christ did break forth of the Grave in triumph, which did at once beget these seeming contrary passions in them that believe, an awful reverence, and a bold encouragement. This the Fathers collect because Mary Magdalen, and the other devout women were now upon their journey when the Earthquake began, yet they went not back, neither stopped in the way, but advanced with cheerfulness to the very mouth of the Sepulchre. When a blazing Star appeared in the days of Vespasian; says he, It threatens not fatality to me, but to the King of Persia, who nourisheth long locks, like the streaming flame of a Comet: So those holy women did truly apprehend that the buzzling of the Earthquake was their protection, and bad men's confusion.  
And here a fourth reason offers itself, the anger of the Lord did roar out of the earth against those Jews who thought to prevail that death should devour him, against Pilate that allowed his Seal to this conspiracy, and against the Soldiers that watched the Sepulchre. An unexpected judgement of which they did not dream that the earth, which is a most dull and silent Element, should burst into many pieces to chide their infidelity. 
Diog. Laertius.  Pittacus the wise man had such confidence in the stability of the earth, that it is delivered for his saying, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, you might trust the Earth, it would do you no harm, but the Sea was not to be trusted. Foolish wise man, that understood not how terrible a vengeance the shaking of the earth is when the Lord is angry. In the fourth year of Nero, which was the twenty seventh year after our Saviour's Passion, more than one quarter of the City of Rome was beaten flat with an Earthquake, and all the Inhabitants slain. And six years after that, three the most famous Cities in all Asia were ruined by this judgement, Heraclis, Laodicaea, and Colophe. The same fatality hath swallowed up the Cities of Colossus and Nice; it were endless to rehearse particulars. And although Christ would not interject such sadness with the joyfulness of his Resurrection-day, to procure death and ruin to his enemies by this Earthquake, (we read of no such mischief done by it in the Text of Scripture) yet I believe it is unutterable how this accident did shake and appall the Soldiers. Miseri quos tunc percutit pavor mortis, 
Chrysol. Serm. 74.  quando securitas vitae redditur; Unhappy wretches, who at that time were most of all strucken with the fear of death, when Christ did give us this demonstrance to be secure of eternal life. I leave it to you to consider, how an evil conscience diffused chillness and quaking into all their bones. They must needs reel, and totter, and fall down desperately to the Earth who are weighed down with the Plummets of their own guiltiness. And what a miserable folly was this, to tremble because they were loath to die, yet their office was at this time to be mortis satellites, deaths guard, appointed to be adversaries to life, and to hinder the Resurrection?  
Now because the Consciences of these evil men were only wounded, and no other harm done by the Earthquake, therefore fifthly some say, that the place round about did rather dance for joy than quake for trembling. As when Israel came out of Egypt, the Psalmist says, The Mountains skipped like Rams, and the little Hills like young Sheep, Surely under that Hyperbole is to be understood that the motion of the Earth did bewray some gladsome entertainment. As the Disciples prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled, Acts iv. 31. It is expounded generally, that the Earth did move with gladness, and reverence, because the Saints kneeled upon it. Horum sub gressibus ergo laeta movetur humus, says Arator. And as the Child sprang within Elizabeth when the Blessed Virgin came unto her with our Saviour in her womb, and says she, How is it that the Mother of my Lord doth come unto me? So the Earth did rejoice and tripudiate when our Saviour came forth alive out of the belly of the Grave; as who should say, O dust thou shalt be ennobled, and compacted into an incorruptible body. And how is it that my Redeemer comes forth, and lives for ever? I will put no more Oil into this Lamp than Beda's words, distinguishing between the two Earthquakes, the one at the Passion of Christ, the other at his Resurrection, Terra quae in passione concussa fuerat horrore, jam prae gaudio exilire videtur. The whole Land of Judaea did quake with horror when he hung upon the Cross, but it danced for joy when he rose out of the Grave; so I have rendered the fifth reason.  
The Sixth is Allegorical, and thus in brief, that our hearts must be shaken, and inwardly troubled with compunction and repentance before we believe steadfastly in the Resurrection of Jesus. 
Acts two. 37.  Peter preached, and they that heard him were pricked in heart, and said to him, and to the rest of the Apostles, Men and brethren what shall we do? 
Acts xvii. 27.  There was an heart-quake before they believed. Paul and Silas prayed, and sung praises to God, and suddenly there was a great Earthquake, than the Jailor came in trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Here was an heart rend and torn, a commotion in his conscience greater than an Earthquake, and then he believed. When Eve took and eat the forbidden fruit, 
Chrysol. homil. 74.  says an eloquent Father, there was no Earthquake, no horror to affright her. O that the Palsy had possessed her fingers, O that her teeth had chattered, that she might not have eaten, but vitiis semper serviunt blandimenta; All was hush and still, nothing but fair allurements do minister to our vices: But at Christ's Resurrection the sound of an hideous noise was fierce, and terrible to the ear, Virtutibus austera & fortia sunt amica; Harsh and austere occurrencies are best agreeable to virtue. Roul the thoughts of your heart up and down like a tempestuous Sea if you mean to make a fair voyage to heaven; the commotion of a troubled spirit will breed eternal peace. As Paul was smitten down before he believed, so faith must be beaten into us with violence, and therefore behold there was a great Earthquake at the Resurrection of Jesus.  
Unto the motion of the Earth I conjoin the next circumstance of my Text, which I called the motion of the heaven; it were like Copernicus his fancy in Astronomy, to think that the Earth did only move, and the Heavens stand still at the operation of this Miracle. No, the everlasting doors were set open, and the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven. Here is one Keeper more than the Jews looked for about our Saviour's Sepulchre, one more than Pilate appointed. One mighty Prince of that supernal Host, whose countenance was able to daunt a Legion of the best Roman Soldiers; perhaps there was a multitude with him to celebrate the Resurrection, as there was a multitude that appeared in the fields of Bethlem to rejoice at his Nativity. But this Angel, I may say determinately, was one of the most royal Spirits that stand before the face of God for ever. To make short, I will not defer to give my reasons presently, how sweetly the eternal Wisdom did dispose to let an Angel show himself openly both at this place of the Grave, and upon the celebration of this great day.  
First, Those ministering Spirits had been attendants upon all the parts of our Saviour's humility, and reason good they should be occupied upon all occasions of his exaltation and glory. Since we read of Angels that gave all diligent attendance at his birth, the holy Spirit of God knew that men would look for their company at the Resurrection, I mean, that we who know him now by faith would expect their mention upon this occasion in the Book of God. Besides, his Resurrection is a birth, not called so because of a resemblance how man is brought to life out of the womb of his mother in natural Generation, but properly in itself according to the phrase of Scripture, Acts xiii. 33. For Paul preaching at Antioch that God had fulfilled his Promise in raising up Jesus again, says he, As it is written in the second Psalm, thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. So that these Phrases, it seems, are equivalent, this day have I raised thee up from the dead, and this day have I begotten thee. And surely, as a Father of our own Church says very well, the news of his birth, if God had so pleased, might well have been brought by a mortal man, it was but the entrance into a mortal life: But the news of his Resurrection do become the mouth of an immortal Messenger, because it was an entrance into life immortal.  
Secondly, The women came out of doors to embalm Christ's body with a great deal of confidence, they never thought how many difficulties were in their way, and such difficulties as could never have been mastered if the Angel had not been sent to facilitate all things for them. They mind not how the High Priests would excommunicate all those that professed to believe, or do good to our Lord and Saviour; they came to touch a dead body, which was pollution by the Law, they stand not upon that: The Sepulchre was guarded with Soldiers, who would permit none to come near it, they would try that. The Grave was sealed with pilate's, perhaps with Caesar's Seal, which none must cancel on pain of death, they would venture that; The Grave-stone was exceeding heavy, as much as twenty men could move, says Nicephorus, and barred strongly with Iron; and they were out of doors, and far on their way before they thought of that; then they ask, Quis removebit? Who will roll us away this stone? As who should say, God will send us some assistance in so good an enterprise, we will put on, and hope for that; and the Lord, to make their Pilgrimage prosperous, 
Gellius Noci. Att. lib. 6. c. 1.  sent an Angel from heaven to remove away the stone. Scipio Africanus besieged a City in Spain well fortified every way, and wanted nothing, and no hope did appear to take it. In the mean time Scipio heard many causes pleaded before him, and put off one before it was ended, to be heard three days after; and being asked by his Officers where he would keep his next Court, he pointed to the chief Citadel of the besieged City, and told them he would hear the Cause there, in that space he became Master of the Town, and did as he had appointed. He was not more confident to enter into a City rampared against him, by his valour, than these women were to enter into a Sepulchre by faith sealed and shut up, but the Lord is present with courageous attempts, and he sent his Angel to assist them.  
Thirdly, This showed, says St. chrysostom, that he who had been buried there was God as well as man, Cum ad sepulchrum tanquam in coelo ubi Deus habitat assisterent, for Angels were as officious at the Sepulchre as they use to be in heaven, which is the throne of God. If men be laid in their Tomb the worms attend them, corruption goes to corruption: But the body of Christ, even when the soul had left it, was still united in one person with the Godhead; as when a bowstring is snapped in twain, yet both parts of the strings do still remain in the nocks of the Bow. So the body of our Saviour was holy and venerable, because it retained the personal union of the Godhead, and the Sepulchre where it was reposed deserved the attendance of an Angel.  
Fourthly, If not an Angel, who else would be believed in so great a matter as this was? Tell me, who could give testimony beside that would be credited? The Disciples were never so tardy to conceive, never so unapprehensive in any thing else as in this; They knew not as yet what the rising from the dead did mean. Observe the talk of Cleophas and the other Disciple, Luk. xxiv. 21. And guess at all the company beside. They confess Christ had been a Prophet mighty in word and deed, whom Pilate and the Rulers had condemned to death and crucified, but we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. As who should say, being he is dead there is an end of our hope, we look for no more redemption from him. God loves to have better witnesses than these in all his works, that we may not say he takes us unprepared, we were not well wrought to credulity. David said it in his haste, what if he had said it upon premeditation, All men are liars? It was not fit so fundamental an Article of faith as this was should be preatcht at first time by lying lips; nay, rather by an Angel who was confirmed in grace that he would not lie. And how little had the authority of any man swayed Mary Magdalen to believe, when albeit an Angel had told her the truth, how Christ was risen, yet she distrusts, and runs to Peter and John with a quite contrary tale, that some body had taken away her Master's body, and she knew not where they had laid it; and therefore because an Angel could not put that faith into her, Christ took it in hand and disclosed himself.  
Fifthly, An Angel appears at the mouth of the Grave after Christ came to life again, who is the first fruits of our Resurrection, which is in effect to promise that we shall be exalted after death to the society of Angels. Thus a worthy Author observed it before me. The finding of an Angel in the place of dead bodies, is for a pledge that there is a possibility and hope that dead bodies may come into the place of Angels. Why not the bodies in the Grave to be advanced in heaven one day as well as the Angels in heaven to be about the Grave this day? And I pray you mark it with me. There are many Apparitions of Angels recorded in holy Scripture, yet this one time and no more (if I be not mistaken) an accurate description is made, what manner of Robe and Garment they did seem to wear. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow in the next verse to my Text. The Holy Ghost would never have instanced in the bright colour of the Garment, but to show with what Angelical shapes we shall be clothed in the Resurrection.  
6. Lastly, Angels desire to be present at every thing wherein mankind is benefited, that they may rejoice with us. No envy, no malignity in them, that we shall be made perfect in both parts of nature both in body and soul, and so in that respect exceed them, who are only spiritual substances. For they that rejoice when one sinner is converted, how much more do they rejoice that all mankind shall be delivered from the Prisons of death, and beautified with immortality? they fought with the Devil about the Body of Moses, they will strive with death and corruption about the restauration of our bodies. For God will send forth his Angels, and they shall gather his Elect from the four corners of the earth; this is meant of their Ministry to rake up our bones and dust together at the great day of the Resurrection. Surgente Christo terrenis redditur coeleste commercium, now Angels came down in bodily shapes, because Christ had exalted frail flesh unto incorruption; now they talk familiarly to God's servants as with the tongues of men, because our tongues shall be made Psalteries of the divine praise for ever.  
I have done with the Angel's descent from heaven, and now I come to the third motion, which was particularly about our Saviour's Sepulchre, He came and rolled back the stone from the door. When you hear that the door of our Saviour's Sepulchre was a great stone, and a stone rolled upon it, you must not conceive the manner by such Tombs and Monuments as we have now adays: Neither will I refer you to those types and Medals, which are printed now adays, and taken from the fashion of the Sepulchre which at this day is to be seen in the Holy City, and is kept by certain Orders of Friars with great reverence. For with what assurance can I say it is the same Sepulchre wherein our Saviour lay? 
Lib. 3. de vit. Constantini.  when Eusebius says, that in the reign of Constantine the Emperor, the place was nothing but a rude heap of earth, so that there was no memory remaining of our Saviour's Burial place. But those of the learned that seem to me to speak probably say thus. Jerusalem was seated upon a rocky place, so that all their chief Monuments were digged out of stony Quarries. Every Family of noble reputation (as the learned Casaubon notes it out of the Rabbis) had a Sepulchre proper to itself, 
Casa●b. Exercit. 16. Num. 99  with a certain number of hollow places, or excavations, to receive the Corpses of that Family: Some say there were wont to be thirteen in every Vault, some say but eight: In such a Vault belonging to Joseph of Arimathaea was Christ laid; a rocky stony Moument it was, lest some should say he was digged out by some secret Mine; a new one, wherein never any had been laid, lest they should say not He, but another body rose; a Tomb not belonging to himself but to another man, because he neither died nor was buried for himself, but for us men, 
Catech. 13.  and for our salvation. St. Cyril helps us further to know, that the Monuments of the Kings of Juda and Israel were raised a little above the ground, but the Tombs of all others of that Nation who were under the Princely rank, were hewn out seven cubits under ground. Eusebius very directly says of his Tomb it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Cave; but none so pat as the Prophet Jeremy, Lam. v. 53. They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. An hollow descension into a low place is called a Dungeon. And as we cover a Wells mouth with planks of wood, or with lead, so in sundry places of Scripture it appears, that they rolled great stones upon the mouth of their Caves: And surely Joseph of Arimathaea barred this Sepulchre with a stronger stone than ordinary, that our Lord's body might not be abused by the malice of his Enemies. Howsoever it was charmed by God's protection, that man should not meddle with it; a celestial Minister turned it aside from the mouth of the Pit. A Cherubin in the Old Testament shut up Paradise, and stopped the way of joy against us: An Angel in the New Testament opens the Graves of sorrow. He came and rolled back the stone from the door.  
'Tis certain that the Scripture gives no reason why the Angel did it, but this was one end, to declare the truth of the Resurrection; for after the Stone was cast aside, says he, Come see the place where He was laid, He is not here. It is not from the power of man, but from Angelical help, from Divine grace, that we are led into the knowledge of the mystery of the Resurrection. The Law of Moses, says one, was written in Tables of stone, and therefore was likened unto a Stone, a Millstone, which if Christ did not bear off the weight, would grind us to powder. Now the comfort of Redemption in Christ, his Passion, Resurrection, Ascention, the Coming of the Holy Ghost, are mystically delivered in the Old Testament, but are covered over darkly with the Letter of the Law as with a Stone; but after the resurrection from the dead was well believed, the Stone was rolled away, I assure you, great knowledge of Divine things ensued, never before that time was the substance of faith so perfectly apprehended. 
Chrysol. homil. 77.  Beatus lapis qui non minùs corda aperit quam sepulchrum, says that Father whom I have often cited upon this Text. Happy stones at whose opening, and rolling away, not only the Sepulchre was unclosed, but our hearts were opened to believe. Beloved, if there be one among you that is dull to conceive, and slow to believe, it is a sign that the Stone is not yet rolled away to him; all is shut up to that poor Soul, and he sees nothing, such a man's Key must be continual prayer, it behoves him to cry out earnestly, Lord take away this stony heart, and give me an heart of flesh, Lord shut not up thy loving kindness in displeasure, send down thy Holy Spirit to remove away all carnal impediments; open mine eyes that I may look into thy Sepulchre, and believe thy Resurrection.  
Now the Scriptures assigning no cause for the rolling away of the Stone, but to manifest that he was risen, not that he might rise in his body, when the mouth of the Cave was open: and further as Gregory Nyssen urgeth, the Angel doth not preach, that he rose even now since He came down from Heaven, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, surrexit, he hath risen, he hath departed out of the Grave, as if he spoke of a thing that was passed before his coming; from whence you may observe what a perplexful question ariseth to be handled, how the Body of Christ being now made alive again, came out of the Sepulchre. I do not find the several opinions collected together by any man, some may escape me, but as many as I have noted, I will rehearse them all. One opinion among the Ancient Fathers, and the most general, if they be well understood, is thus, That He came forth by his own mighty power, after what sort we cannot tell, for God would not trouble us with those strange effefts, which we are not able to apprehend. 
Paraeus in Matth. 28.  So one of our late Writers after much ado concludes, Divino nutu viam sibi aperuit, mirando, & nobis inexplicabili modo; he made way to come forth as he would himself, in a miraculous and unspeakable manner. These are Paraeus words. And I put Calvin in this rank, who goes no further, 
Calvinus in harm. Musculus. R. Steph. Ma●loratus.  but Christum ante surrexisse quam ab Angelo sepulchrum aperiretur, Christ rose before the Sepulchre was unbarred by the Angel: but he determined not what way, and it was a becoming modesty in him. I could name a multitude more, but divers have borrowed the words of Musculus. Christ did use the external ministry of Angels to roll away the Stone for us, not for himself. He that rose to life, though death were upon his Body, could come forth into the Garden though the Stone were upon the Sepulchre. But after what sort he came forth, all these put their finger upon their mouth and say nothing. To determine after what manner great mysteries are brought to pass, when the Word of God is silent, hath done more hurt to the Christian Church, by procuring endless Controversies, than all the Persecutions that ever were raised. I concur therefore in mine own judgement with this first rank of Divines, yet you shall hear the second, That he issued out the Stone remaining on the mouth of the Grave, creaturae mutatione, non sui corporis; by an alteration caused in the Stone, not in the Body of Christ. So Justin Martyr, he came out by the Stone, even as he made the Seas fit for his own feet, and for Peter's to tread upon. No mutation can be said to be in Christ's Body, 
Qu. 17.  for the Father says it was corpus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a solid Elementary Body; certainly Peter's body also was heavy and earthy, for after a little while he began to sink; yet he at first walked upon the Seas, because Christ stiffened the ways to support him and Peter, like a solid Pavement. So the Stone might be attenuated, and made thin, as easy as air to transmit a body. St. Austin reports of a Ring fallen from a woman's Girdle, 
Civ. Dei. lib. 22. c. 8.  yet the Ring remaining and the Girlde whole and unbroken: Admit it were true, yet the Ring passed not through the substance of the Girdle, but the one substance passed by, while in a moment by God's power the other gave place unto it. So the place through which Christ's Body passed (admit no rarefaction of the Stone) might be whole and shut by and by, and straight after he passed by it, not in the instant of his passing, that's contrary to the nature of a true body. 
Fulk. Rem. Test. Matth. 28.  Some in credulous Jew, when Malchus ear was cut off, and presently on again, might think the Sword had never gone between his ear and his head, yet we are sure it did. In such a starting while, which could not be perceived, might the Stone yield to Christ's Body, and come together again: or if not made thin, parted of a sudden to let him pass by, and in an instant come close together again.  
Thirdly, some ancient Writers, and divers moderns hold probably, that Christ made his egress repagulorum cessione, non penetrationum dimensione; not as if one body had penetrated another, but the Stone in the trembling of the earthquake started off from the mouth of the Cave, and closed again, till the Angel rolled it quite away. This is made the more credible from Acts 5.23. the Apostles were shut up in the common Prison, the Angel brings them forth, the Officers being questioned confess, The Prison truly found we shut with all safety, the Keeper's standing without before the doors, but when we had opened it we found no man. Therefore this opinion doth thus distinguish, ante devolutum lapidem prodiit, non ante concussum, he passed forth out of the mouth of the Cave, not before the Stone was shaken off with the Earthquake, 
R●mis●s in 28. Matth. ●●●us lib. 4. Senten. dist. 8.  but before it was rolled away. The fourth opinion I have read in no Author, but I find it cited by one or two, once in the Remish Testament, and again in Estius, potuit prodire per rimam ostii vi subtilitatis; as he came into his Disciples when the doors were shut, so he came out of the Sepulchre when the door was shut, by some chink or cranny, where the passage was not stopped close: This I know, that they who speak to this purpose upon other occasions do quote St. Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 44. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body, because a body raised from the dead is called a spiritual body, many do assume that it hath no grosseness as our bodies have, but can attenuate itself as a thick piece of gold is malleated and made ductile into a thin leaf, and so to pass through a narrow crevice. Beloved, this opinion is not so simple as some would make, for the learnedst Clerk in the world cannot define what manner of spirituality a glorified body should have, neither shall we understand it, till we come to know in Heaven, even as we are known. Yet I confess I am puzzled when I think, that by this cobweb subtlety Christ must needs lose the figure and lineaments of a manly body: beside Theodoret, Tertullian, and all that wrote against the Marcionites, do stiffly maintain the truth of Christ's Body, to be no aereal, fantastical thing. Beside, I will frame an argument as well against these, who hold our Saviour slipped in by a chink of the door, when the doors were shut, as against the Pontificians, who define he came through the wood of the door, and so violated nature: both these Tenants are contrary to that which himself said to Thomas the Apostle, to remove the suspicion that he was no spirit; says he, Handle and see me, for a spirit hath not flesh and bone, as you see me have, this had not been enough to prove the truth of his bodily presence and resurrection in the body, if they had been persuaded he came in as an aereal spiritual substance, or by penetration of the door contrary to nature.  
In the fifth place Zwinglius, and Sadael, and some others of the Reformed Churches, conceived there was so much difficulty in all the four opinions which I have run over, and finding no compulsive reason to be driven out of the plain way, delivered their sentence, that the Angel tumbled the stone from the door of the Monument, and then the passage being clear Christ came forth without a miracle. Certainly, as well as I could peruse the Scriptures, though I see nothing in them to favour this opinion, so I see nothing in the Sacred Text to contradict it. I would the Fathers had countenanced it. Leo the Great did, howsoever some would shuffle it: but he proving against the Marcionites, that Christ had no fantastical body, breaks out; Can his substance be fantastical which was nailed to the Cross, lay in the Sepulchre, and the Stone being rolled away rose again the third day? therefore the scruple is, that the general consent of all the Fathers beside bend that way, how the Grave was not unclosed when he rose. Non indigebat ut amoto lapide surgeret sicut Lazarus, says St. Austin, he needed not like Lazarus to have the stone rolled away, that he might come forth: 
Hamil. in Matth. ●●.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: St. Chrysost. the Grave was open after he was risen ftom the dead; nay in plain terms he says, the Seal and stone were still untouched. Set aside that reverence which we bear to these glorious lights of the Ancient Church, I see no absurdity which follows, if we said, he rose to life, when the Stone was rolled from the Sepulchre. But in all these opinions nothing is grossly repugnant to Faith or Nature, only I had rather addict myself to the first opinion, which considers not how or which way he came out of the Grave, but says the manner was miraculous and inexplicable.  
But I can in no wise digest the sixth and seventh opinions; I must couple the Pontificians and Lutherans together, though the one side be Transubstantiators, the other side Consubstantiators. The Lutherans say boldly and blindly, that his body passed through the stone, so the substance of bread, and the substance of Christ's body are both together in one place in the Sacraments. The Faction of Rome say he went through the stone; but what's that to them? who hold not that the substance of Bread and his Body remain together after Consecration in the Host, but the substance of bread is abolished, and his body remains under the quantitative dimensions of bread: but they infer, if two bodies may be together in one place by Divine power, than one and the same body may be in divers places at once by the same power without a contradiction: 
Aretius.  For these are equivalent, and of the same capacity. There want not those who deny that the possibility of the one is so probable as the other; but to make haste, I will speak of this Pontifician opinion, as they refer us for the like to other instances in Scripture; and then as they refer it to the Eucharist: their Allegations are, that Mary remained a Virgin after Christ's birth, quem clausa virginitas ad presentem tulerat vitam, clausum sepulchrum ad vitam reddidit sempiternam. Marics virginity was not enclosed when he was born, nor the stone rolled away when he rose. 'Tis strange that this was ever urged, when the Holy Ghost applieth that Scripture to our Saviour, Luke two. 23. Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. And her virginity consisted in this which she spoke to the Angel, virum non cognosco, I know not a man: and truly such a Nativity as they speak of cannot properly be called a Birth. The second instance is very witless, 
Luke iv. 30.  when the Jews would have thrown our Saviour down an hill, he passed through the midst of them, and went his way. A most blind inference to say out of those words, his body passed through the midst of their bodies, and as much to the purpose, as to have cited, that he sat in the midst of Doctors at twelve years of age. It avails as little in the third plate to cite St. Paul, Heb. iv. 14. We have a great Highpriest that is passed into the heavens. Is this objection of any strength, unless they think the Heavens could not be opened to receive him, of whose opening we read so many times in the Holy Testament? therefore their strength lies only upon one place, Joh. xx. 19 when the doors were shut, where the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst. Ind clausus exist, hic exclusus intravit, these two St. Austin makes to be very like; being shut in the Sepulchre he came out by his own power; 
August. de Temp. Serm. 159.  being shut out of doors he came in by his own power. Well, let it be answered that Christ's body did not penetrate the dimensions either of stone or door, as I told you before, but that a passage was made for him miraculously, so that in a moment, which could not be discerned, they gave way, and made him entrance: and though this answer like not our Adversaries, I am sure they cannot refute it. And is this fair dealing? when St. John doth not tell how Christ came in the doors being shut, from thence to pronounce how Christ is present in the Holy Communion? and see their inference, Christ came in to his Disciples the doors being shut, ergo Christ's body being in heaven, the same body is in the Priest's hands in ten thousand places at once, and in every little crumb of the Host his whole body is present. He that understands this consequence is more than a mortal creature.  
I will run over their chiefly alleged subtleties, and dispatch all. Bellarmine affirms that the corporeal substance of Christ partakes the spiritual manner of Angelical existence, that is, he is present in the Eucharist substantially, not quantitatively. 
Lib. 1. de Euchar. c. 4. 3 P. Qu. 76. ar. 4.  And yet Aquinas and He himself confess, that the substance of Christ's body is not there naked, or divested of dimensive quantity; it hath quantity there, but is not there after a quantitative manner: to have quantity, but not the nature of quantity, is not this a flat Chimaera: to be in the Host substantially, but not with quantity and local dimensions, I have read it from them a thousand times, but could never found what it should be. And shall I think those millions of godly, but unlearned Souls in the Church must learn such distinctions to obtain salvation? but a late Jesuit would thus illustrate it, the soul of man is an whole soul in every part of the body, an Angel at once in distinct ubities, or places: the thoughts of man may be at once in many quarters of the Earth: God is in Heaven and Earth at once, therefore the body of Christ may be in many Hosts at the same instant. I answer there is not one of these things alleged will fit the purpose: for every Angel is definitively in a place, so that being in one site he removes to another. The soul is immaterial by nature, and the form of the body: the thought of man is an intentional motion and action, and not a corporeal or spiritual thing. God is every where, because he is infinite: but Christ's humane body is finite, material, limited to certain place and measure, and differeth from all the former things: therefore it hangs not together from the pretence of those instances, that the same identical body of Christ is multiplied in the Sacrament of so many thousand Altars.  
Thus their sophistical cavils have compelled me to go with them one mile, and for the last conclusion I will go with them twain. But say those subtle Writers, if God can put an whole Camel in the eye of a needle, may he not put the whole body of Christ in the least part of a consecrated Crum? In this Objection they strain at a Crum, and swallow a Camel. Christ did not say that a Camel continuing in his ordinary quantity can pass through the eye of a needle, but by a supposition, a rich man making Mammon his God may as easily pass to Heaven. But lest we may seem to be averse to God's omnipotency, I go further, that there is a twofold power in God, ordinata & absoluta; one according to the order which himself hath fixed by his Word and Will; the other according to the infiniteness of his Essence, which exceedeth his Will. According to the power of God measured and regulated by his Word and Will it is impossible that a Camel in his gross bulk should pass through the eye of needle, or that the whole body of Christ can be in a bit of bread, or that he is substantively present in many places at one instant. We do not say that the infinite Essence of God could not have ordained these things to be possible, but he hath in every place of Scripture revealed, that He will not have these things to be possible. 
Contra Pranean.  The power of God is his will, and what He will not, He cannot, is the saying of Tertullian. Now that God will have it possible to have the body of Christ pass through the dimensions, and solidity of the Grave-stone He no where affirmeth, and therefore I do utterly reject the Pontifician interpretation.  
I have finished what I had premeditated upon all the three motions in my Text; at last we see all was composed into quiet, and the Angel sat upon the Grave-stone. But here I will rest myself at this time, and proceed no further. Almighty God roll away the stone of ignorance and stubbornness from within us, and settle all these things in our hearts, for Jesus Christ his sake, who died for our sins, and rose again as this day for our justification. AMEN.   

THE six SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION.  MAT. xxviii. 3, 4. 
His Countenance was like lightning, and his Raiment white as snow. And for fear of him the Keepers did shake, and became as dead men.  
THere is no day mentioned in all the Scripture upon which so much business and action is recorded to fall out, as upon this grand day, the day of our Lord and Saviour's Resurrection. The holy Evangelists, according to the secret wisdom of the Spirit, write in a confused order the sundry accidents of this day, which with your patience I will set down very briefly every one in their own place. Marry Magdalen and the other women bought Odours and sweet Spices to embalm the body lying in the Sepulchre, and to that end came forth very early in the Morning. As they hastened on the day there happened a great Earthquake, and the Angel of God rolled the stone from the Sepulchre. The Watchmen who kept the Monument are sore afraid at the sight of the Angel, and at the opening of the Grave; they certify the High Priests all that was done, and the High Priests outface the truth with lying and corruption. Now Marry Magdalen and the women being come to the place where the body had been laid miss it, and wonder at it. Mary runs to Peter and John, and tells them, they have taken the Lord out of the Sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. While Mary was gone the Angel comforts the other women that stayed behind, fear not, ye seek Jesus which was crucified, he is not here, but he is risen, go tell his Disciples, etc. Yet these women went not far from thence. But in this space Peter and John came to the Sepulchre, and found the Monument empty, save of a few linen clothes. Marry Magdalen also comes back to the Sepulchre, and weeps that her Lord's body was gone, but then Christ appears first unto her, whom she took to be the Gardener. Presently she goes and tells the Disciples she had seen the Lord. The other women who had fled from the Sepulchre, and were amazed, said nothing to any man of that which the Angel before did bid them say, for they are yet incredulous; and then comes in St. Luke's relation, that they looked again into the Sepulchre, and the two men in white whom they saw, said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but he is risen. And as St. Matthew adds, he goeth before you into Galilee, there shall ye see him. Then they returned, and told all these things to the Eleven, but they seemed to them as idle tales. And as these women went to tell the Disciples Christ did meet them according to the Angels promise, and saluted them, and they held him by the feet and worshipped him. These rumours went abroad into every man's mouth, and toward the setting of the Sun Christ adjoined himself to Cleophas and the other Disciple as a waifaring man, and was known of them in the breaking of bread, whereupon they return to Jerusalem and tell the Disciples. Now the Disciples had a message sent them to go into Galilee, and there they should see the Lord, but out of fear and incredulity they durst not move out of doors. Therefore on the same day at Evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst of them, and said peace be unto you. This was the fourth Apparition which he made on this very day.  
A day of so many noble acts and chances that it is able alone to make an history; and a history of that great moment, that St. Paul writes as if a lively and effectual assent to this Article of the Creed, to this one Article, were able alone to make a Christian, Rom. x. 9 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. And although there are other limbs of truth which make up the body of Christian Faith, yet if any man ask me about Faith, as one asked Christ about the Commandments, which is the first and greatest Commandment? So in the Point of belief, if any one shall say, which is the first and great Article of the Creed? I would boldly reply, this before any other, The third day he rose again from the dead. The matter then which it behoves us to speak on at this solemn Feast, for the quality it is the very Essence and Elixir of our faith, and for the quantity so copious, that above all the narrations of the Gospel it is most venerable and delightful for the variety of the story. I have passed already, as the year hath come about, into these Points, how Mary Magdalen and the other women brought sweet Odours and Spices on the first day of the Week to embalm his body, and that as they were on their way three strange motions came to pass, the one in the whole Element of Earth, the foundations whereof were opened, behold there was a great Earthquake; and then the heavens were opened, for an Angel came down from thence; and then the Grave was opened by the rolling away of the stone.  
Now follows the Text which I have read in order; wherein is contained this section of the story, the Angel puts on a terrible appearance, and removes away those that would not believe, and so makes room for those that came devoutly prepared. If the Band of Soldiers had stayed at the Sepulchre, these godly women durst not approach for fear of violent ravishment, nor durst the Disciples have come near, lest these hirelings should spill their blood. But, to prevent all outrage, the Angel put on a look like lightning, and made the hearts of these miscreants faint, and when they were driven off, the zealous women, and the Disciples were admitted to see this glorious work which the Lord had wrought, and to testify what they had seen to all the world. The two verses which enter us into this part of the story may be thus distinguished: The first is a description of God's Watchman of his celestial guard, His Countenance was like lightning, and his Raiment white as snow. The second is a description of pilate's Watchmen, and his Roman Guard, For fear of him the Keepers did shake, and became as dead men. God's Angel is notified by his Visage, His Countenance was like lightning, and by his Raiment, it was white as snow. pilate's Ruffians are much betrayed by outward fear, for fear of him the Keepers did shake, but the inward damp of conscience was most terrible, they became as dead men. Of these particulars that God may be glorified, and you edified.  
You have seen the figures of many Angels and Cherubims about the Tombs of Princes and great men, carved by the Art of the Statuary, but all the histories of the world afford not such an instance, that a very Angel sat upon a Grave-stone, excepting this occurrence at our Saviour's Resurrection. St. Luke says, that the women saw two men clothed in white; St. Mark says, it was a young man clothed in a long white garment, but they were not very men that came from the dead, as Moses and Elias were seen in the Mount at the Transfiguration, they were true Angels in the visible shapes of men, who took it now for a dignity to be seen in a body, because our body was exalted to be incorruptible in the Resurrection of Christ. Whether then they be called Angels, or men, all is one; but when St. Matthew mentions one Angel, and St. John reckons two; when St. Mark says there was one young man in white, St. Luke says there were two men in shining garments; Is not this a discord? No not at all. There was but one Angel that spoke to the women, now St. Matthew and St. Mark refer us only to that person that was the speaker. St. Luke and St. John labour to tell us the number of those witnesses that were present, and testified of his Resurrection, and they were two. This is no difference, when some write of the singular person of that Angel which spoke, and others in the plural person of those Angels that witnessed. You have heard the reason why this Angel is called a man, and why but one is named though there were two in place; now I will put this unto it, that he came to the Sepulchre neither as a man alone, nor as an Angel alone, but as an Angel and a Man. John Baptist the fore runner of the Nativity came poorly clad, with a vesture of Camels skins, and a leathern Girdle about his loins, his Errand was to witness to the Son of God coming to us in great humility, but this Angel, who is the forerunner of the Resurrection, assists a work which was most noble, and therefore at all points, Visage and Garment he is exceeding glorious; the Angels that appeared before Abraham and Lot had no eminent note of honour in their outward shape, and so passed for mere men; but Angels at this opportunity would be known to be Angels, and therefore this spiritual Ambassador is not diminished in his Majesty by appearing in the figure of man, for his Countenance was like lightning, etc.  
God could, and can send forth his Angels in what form and disguise he pleaseth, and this Messenger is strangely appointed, terrible in the aspect, else all over amiable; there is dreadfulness in his face, and gladness in his garment. And this diversity refers us to seek out, that there were two different effects to be brought to pass, In terrorem reprobis, in blandimentum bonis, says Gregory; 
Gregor. de Passion. Dom.  here were unbelieving Soldiers to be dismayed, and such a countenance would make the proudest of them all to stoop; and here were faithful women to be comforted, therefore the raiment was like a Bridegroom, that came to call these women like the five wise Virgins into his Chamber. This is the more notable in the observation, because you never read that the women did see this flash of lightning in the visage of the Angel, they saw a young man sitting in white, in a long white Robe, St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. John have not one word in their context that these good souls saw any thing but amiable consolation. But that lightning which sat upon his countenance was an object to daunt the wicked, and was presented only to the Keepers that watched the Sepulchre. In a great passion of anger the eye will look like a forge of wrath, as Tully said of Verres, Ardebant oculi, toto ex ore ejus crudelitas emicabat; and so the Poet of his Allecto, Flammea torquens lumina; 
Aenaead. lib. 7.  indignation did sparkle out of their eyes like fire: Even so this Apparitor that came from heaven did personate vengeance and destruction, which a man may read in this visible evidence, His countenance was like lightning. Consider and make this use of it, if one Angel was so dreadful at the Resurrection of Christ, what fear and astonishment will come upon the wicked at the general day of the Resurrection, when they shall see the Father sit upon his Throne, and thousand thousands of Angels ready to execute vengeance round about him. Alas a flash of lightning is quickly gone and passed, but thunder will follow this lightning to cleave the hearts of Infidels in pieces, that worked wickedness, and will not believe. St. Hierom says that this was the Trumpet which kept him waking that he slept not in death, for by the grace of God this meditation sounded always in his ear, Surgite mortui, venite ad judicium, arise you dead out of your graves and come to judgement.  
Think what a day that will be when all flesh shall come to answer in their own person before that Bar what they have done in their body, whether good or evil. The Prophet Amos speaks of some that were despisers of all justice and charity, and yet thought the disquisition of that day would go so well with them that they longed for the trial. Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord, to what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness and not light, Amos v. 18. Every good Angel will be an affrighting spectacle to the ungodly, for they shall be known to be the mowers that have the charge to take the Tares, and to burn them in unquenchable fire; and if their presence be unsufferable to the guilty, the Majesty of God which they have so much dishonoured will infinitely increase their perplexity. The face of Moses, who was but a Minister of the Law, was not to be looked upon by the Israelites until he had cast a veil before his skin. Who then will be able to endure him who is the Judge of the Law, unless he speak for us to the Father who is the propitiation for our sins? Adulterers, Extorsioners, profane persons live so securely as if they disinherited no such matter as a dreadful reckoning at the second coming of Christ. 
Sueton. par. 81.  Apollodorus gave a commonitory supplication to C. Caesar not to be present in the Senate that day when his life was sought by a strong conspiracy, which had he read, the danger had been prevented, but he shuffled the Paper into his bosom, and never regarded it, which cost him his life: So the sacred Scripture is put into the hands of the ungodly, let them read it, if they will, and understand, that vengeance abides those that continue in any grievous crime; the countenance of God's Angels is like terrible lightning, 
Psal. 96.13.  and is set against them to divide them in twain. In Rev. iv. 8. the four beasts, which is by many expounded the four Evangelists, cease not to cry day and night, Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Hosts, which was, and is, & qui venturus est, and which is to come; all this the impenitent shuffle off, till at last destruction shall take them unawares.  
Again, the Angel's countenance was like lightning, not only to portend that there shall be great terror at the general day of the Resurrection, especially among accursed Reprobates, such as these were that kept the Sepulchre; but beside, lightning is a sudden unexpected glance, to note that the last day of the Lord will come very suddenly, and give no warning. But this is warning enough to a provident man, that Christ says he will come very suddenly, and give no warning. Our Saviour's resolutions in all other points of Divinity are very copious, direct, and punctual, yet touching the coming of the Son of man to judge the world; whensoever his Disciples, or any others asked him that question, all that he did ever reply in the Gospel was most unsatisfactory, as I may say, and full of ambiguity. Vt Magister aliquid docuit, ut Magister aliquid non docuit, says St. Austin; that which was fit to be known he taught them like a Master, and that which was fit to be hid, like a Master he concealed it. And he would have that day concealed that it might come unexpectedly like a flash of lightning, for many reasons. For there are some evil servants in the Gospel, that if you persuade them the Lord will delay his coming, will waste and mar all, and beat their fellow-servants; there are others, as St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians, that will be shaken in mind, and troubled if you say that the day of the Lord is at hand. To prevent that neither the one shall be secure, nor the other troubled, we know not when his Apparition in the clouds shall be, but with great suddenness it shall be, as when lightning breaks out of a cloud, and glides from the East unto the West, whereof no man was aware before he saw it. This is one of the privileges of our Lord, who is head of the body, above all the members of the body, that the Scriptures did indigitate he would rise again the third day after his death and burial, but neither day, nor year, nor age is specified of the general Resurrection, when our Carcases shall be raised up to incorruption. It is a common rule, and best expressed in Bernard's words, Dies ultimus salubriter ignoratur, ut semper praesens esse credatur; It is good and useful to be ignorant of the day of judgement, that we may always think it to be at hand, and imminent. And whereas the custom hath held in all Christian Churches since the Apostles (I know not any custom which hath found less contradiction, for this hath found none at all) to gather all persons that can examine themselves to the Lords Table at the Feast of Easter, among other sound and fruitful reasons rendered this is one, because it is no imprudent conjecture that God will raise our bodies out of the Grave, about the same season of the year that his own body was brought back again from the dead. It is fit therefore to sanctify our vessel at this time as well to eat his flesh and drink his blood by faith as to make our Lamp ready to meet the Bridegroom. And that he may not come upon us unawares like a flash of lightning, let us send up our prayers unto him with much zeal and strong intercession, as St. Hierom says, like a clap of thunder.  
Another varies the meaning why the Angel had this fashion in his countenance on this wise, 
Ferus.  Aspectus sicut fulgur, quia omnia abscondita erunt clara; This lightning in his Aspect doth betoken that our most hidden sins shall be revealed, and that all things shall lie naked and open before the judgement of Christ. To what purpose doth Adam hide himself in the shade of the Garden? Or Ionas lie concealed under the hatches of the Ship? Or Saul imprivacy himself in a Cave? Or Benhadad run into an inward Chamber? Doth the Adulterer look for impunity that he walks to his stallion by twilight? Or the Thief that he gets his prey in the darkness of the night? Nec teste quisquam lumine peccare constanter potest, says Prudentius. Some have that check of modesty in their blood that they cannot sin with alacrity where there is any light, if there be but a Candle in the room they must put it out; miserable shifts and mists raised before their eyes by the Devil, who can work no greater infatuation among the wicked than to puff them up with this blind error, as if they had Gyges' ring upon their finger, that they might walk where they would and never be discerned. But the lightning will pierce into every corner, those eyes of Christ which are likened to a flame of fire, Rev. i 14. let nothing escape them unrevealed, and as a Burning-glass transmits' the beams of the Sun to shine upon those things which it will set on fire, so God's eye is upon all the works of ungodliness both to view them, and to revenge them with everlasting fire. If Elisha could say that his heart went along with Gehazi, when he ran after Naaman to take a bribe, doth not the Spirit of the Lord much more attend all secret compacts of bribery and corruption. If Elias could tell Ahab all the conspiracy that He and Jezebel had closely framed against Naboth, so that Ahab cried out in astonishment, Hast thou found me out O mine enemy? then no innocent blood shall be spilt without witness, no Inheritance craftily wrung from the true possessor, but the God of Elias shall challenge them for it, so that the wicked shall be astonished, and say, hast thou found us out O Lord? and are all our misdeeds before thee? To end this point; let the good Christian say with David, Blessed is the man whose unrighteousness is forgiven, and whose sins are covered; not so covered but that thou O God knowest them all together. St. Hierom says it thus, Peccata deleta per poenitentiam nunquam patefient, they shall not be discovered to our shame before Men and Angels at the public reckoning of all faults, or at least their deformity, and that guilt in them which calls for vengeance shall be covered; and though our sins be known, yet it shall be to our triumph and praise, if we be truly penitent, and detest that in ourselves wherein we have rebelled against a loving Father. And so far on the first point, that the countenance of the Angel was like lightning, which teacheth us, that there will be great terror to the wicked at the solemn day of the last Resurrection, that Christ will come suddenly like the lightning out of the clouds, and that the light will discover the most hidden wickednesses of the Sons of men.  
I called, you know this first verse, upon which I entreat, a description of God's Watchman, and by that name Angels are often called in holy Scripture. I saw a Watchman, and an holy one come down from above, Dan. iv. 13. This Angel in the superior parts had an aspect like lightning, and from thence downward his raiment was white as snow. The times are taxed that there are some such who come to Church to see faces, and to look upon gay clothes, I am afraid I may believe it: Why, here is employment in my Text for such Auditors, though they be the worst that can come to a congregation; as we have looked our fill upon the countenance of the Angel, so now I refer you to look upon his clothing. Look over all the Apparitions of Angels in the Old Testament, and in the Gospel till you come to this place, you shall never read that they had apparel, or what kind of apparel they did wear. This is the day for whose sake they took a new Habit, a new Comportment, a new Splendour; and these three things are taught us in this Raiment white as snow, puritas, gaudium, gloria. First that purity belongs to all those that hope for the resurrection of the just. So St. John 1. Ep. iii 23. We know when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is, and every one that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure. And although the Angel did personate this purity only in the outward superficies, yet our instruction rests not in that, but refers us to the purity of the heart. The pattern which is set before us is far from a fair semblance without a good inside, no, 'tis extra albedo, intus Angelus, great pulchritude without, and within an Angel. That grace to the outward eye which man saw, is nothing to those internal invisible graces which only God saw. Sometimes one may be compared in holy Scripture to be as white as snow, and yet be impure. Gehazi went out from the presence of Elisha a Leper as white as snow: and therefore David knew that the purity of the inward man must exceed all natural similitudes, lavabis me, & dealbabor supra nivem, thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than the snow. We come into the world odious and defiled, therefore we wash in the Sacrament of Baptism that we may be cleansed, yet again we grow obscene, and wallow in the mire of this world, therefore we do often crave the blood of Christ in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to cleanse and purify our conscience; and after all this he that toucheth pitch shall be defiled, he that useth this world shall be contaminated; therefore repentance, which sometimes I hope brings tears with it, must stand us often in stead to purge out the spots of uncleanness, and this is our pureness before God, that we sorrow for our impurity. But remember I beseech you to keep your vessel chaste and undefiled, for as this Angel appeared white as snow when Christ rose from the dead, so let us go to our Graves as white as Doves in innocency and simplicity of heart, that's the colour of hope, and purity belongs to all those that have hope of a glorious resurrection.  
Secondly this snowy resplendent Vesture in the Angel is the Ensign of great joy, for joy had never so good reason to break out heartily and redundantly as that Christ was risen from the dead. The Sun and Moon in the Firmament do set every day and rise again, no great joy to see those bright Lamps again, because we certainly expect them: but all that retained upon Christ, thought when he was crucified, such was their little faith, that he was lost for ever: and therefore when he came unto them, and showed them his feet and hands, they believed not for joy, and wondered, Luke xxiv. 41. and afterward being throughly persuaded of it, they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, v. 52. O Lord who is able to express what triumphs there were in Heaven, when the Souls of the Saints perceived that Death was overcome, that Hell had lost the victory, and that they should be clothed with their bodies for ever; on Good Friday the Heaven and the Earth mourned, the Eclipse put all in black: on Easter day the colour is changed, Heaven and Angels are all in white. From this great Festival to the end of the next Lord's day, they that were baptised went all in white (for the ancient Church took a delight to be ceremonious in these things) and therefore the next day, called Low Sunday by us, the Low Sunday in respect of this the highest day in all the year, with them was known by this name, Dominica in albis, the Sunday for wearing of white Garments, and this colour was so constantly observed for the figurative signification of exceeding joy. When Israel came out of Egypt, and the House of Jacob from a strange language, the Mountains skipped like Rams, and the little Hills like young Sheep, Psal. cxiv, And why is that one of the proper Psalms appointed to be read on this day? because if the joy could not be expressed, but by such strange Hyperboles, when the People of God came out of the Bondage of Egypt, then what unutterable gladness it is that the Son of God broke the bondage of death asunder, and by his own victory brought us all out of the captivity of the Grave for ever. It was a Proverb in their Heathen Entertainments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it is a sign of good welcome when the Porter which lets you in is cheerful: the Cherubins are the Porters of Paradise, in former times holding an Instrument of minacy in their hands to keep us back, now they appear gladsome, and will conduct us with joy to Christ. I told you before that in all the other Evangelists the pious women that came with spices to the Sepulchre to embalm Christ's Body did not see the afrightful rutilancy in the Angel's face, but only this fair gladsome Robe, he looked like a Priest to preach Christ's Resurrection, pur âque in veste Sacerdos, a good decorum in the Heathen Poet's verse, 
Virgil Aenae●d. 12.  although some are so foolish nowadays, that they had as live see lightning, as a white Garment upon his back that supplies the place of the Angel. But the Angel himself were not able to satisfy all such quarrelsome consciences, therefore I let it pass. The use of his coming was to stir us up to joy, to rejoice in God. In the world we shall have tribulation, but this is a blessing of which neither fire nor water, nor any tyranny can prevent us, we shall have a joyful resurrection.  
And as the Jews had the Law written in the Fringe of their Garments, so we may read this observation likewise in the long Robe of the Angel, which was white as snow, that it was idea gloriae, the Idea of that triumphant glory, which shall be in the bodies of the Elect, when they are raised up in immortality. Indeed if no such reason should be assigned, it would be hard to answer this objection, Quid facit indumentum ubi tegendi necessitas non habitat; What should a Garment do where there is no need of covering? neither heat nor cold, Summer nor Winter. Whether they that rise from the dead shall be naked in their bodies is a captious question to be propounded. Nakedness had no shame in it, I am sure, in the days of innocency before Adam fell, and then indubitably it will have less cause to blush in Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, was the opinion of the Greek Fathers: and therefore the white Robe of this Celestial Messenger was rather figurative of the brightness of our glory, than a description of our Vestments. And the Scripture is constant to that phrase, to make us constant in our expectation. Those few names in Sarda which had not defiled their Garments shall walk with me in white, Revel. iii 4. and the Precedent of all Patterns, our blessed Saviour, at his Transfiguration, in which he showed what manner of Citizens we should be in the Heavenly Jerusalem, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. The Pharisees required a sign, and Christ told them they should have no sign, but that of the Prophet Ionas; for Ionas rose as it were out of the Whale's belly to preach destruction against Nineveh; so all that the Soldiers knew by Christ's rising should be lightning to burn them up: but the godly women that saw this Angel over and above the sign of the Prophet Ionas, saw this glorious Apparel to betoken the dainty and delicate part of the resurrection. In these our evil days, our Soul is full of rebellious concupiscence, and therefore our Body is made miserable; hereafter the Soul will be enlightened with all kind of grace, and the Body shall be changed to be incorruptible. Equal or like to the Angels the Elect shall be, Christ hath so promised; and in a mutual assurance these Angels that came in white were made like to us. Like to us I say, but not the same: For howsoever they took upon them this glorious appearance, yet it was nothing to them: they are glorious spirits, we shall be glorified both in body and in spirit; they shall possess the double in their Land, Everlasting joy shall be with them, Isa. lxi. 7. Duplicia possidebunt, this is their double portion, their soul shall be filled with the vision of God, and their body shall be bright like this Angel's Garment, yea fairer than earthly resemblance can decipher. And so much for God's Watchman upon the first verse, and for those occurrent meditations which fell out upon it, His countenance, etc.  
Against these the next verse opposeth pilate's Watchmen, watchmans indeed out of suspicions and infidelity, not out of devotion and reverence. Soldiers they were, and no worse than of a Roman Garrison: but Soldiers in a piece of Arras would have served as well. Are these Romani rerum Domini, Roman spirits, whose brave resolution is a Proverb throughout all the world, miserable Keepers that were set to daunt others, and yet themselves shake for fear, and became as dead men. The Doctrine of this point will make up several Propositions to be considered. First, That the stoutest of wicked men have their great fears; 
1.  for their own heart tells them, that there is one against them, against whom it is impossible to stand. The Philistines are mistrustful, Who is able to withstand these mighty Gods? The Aramites are quelled, if they do but think they hear a noise. All the Money-changers of the Temple run away from a little scourge, if Christ take it into his hand. The High Priests Servants armed with swords and staves fall flat to the ground, if He say no more unto them, but whom seek ye? I am Herald Non potest stare, quem conscientia destituit, quem impellit reatus. He that hath plummets of sin upon his conscience must sink to the ground, it is impossible his legs should bear him. And do not think this doctrine is less to be credited, because there appears most resolute courage in many blasphemous Ruffians, that are scarce half Christians, that neither fear roaring Seas nor Earthquakes, as the barbarous Celts were wont to say of themselves: for howsoever they are prodigal of their blood, and had rather die than seem to quail; yet if you could see into their breast, it must be that you should find a natural damp there, because the Soul will be inquisitive what shall betid it hereafter, and it is impossible it should speak comfort unto itself. A Wolf is a most adventurous Beast, yet he cannot run a furlong to seek his prey, but he looks about to watch who follows him, because he knows he is hated; so the stoutest of the ungodly is bridled by the terror of an evil conscience in all his pride and glory. I confess that some portion of fear is a passion incident to the righteous and best disposed. Many things may intimidate a good man or woman, for want of instruction, what the Divine assistance can bring to pass, out of a soft complexion, out of a remorse for sin more acute in some than in others, and out of too much love to themselves, and those things upon earth which are most dear unto their love (for such imperfections are in the best) but it is not such a confused malignant fear as the enemies of Christ feel, which makes Judas burst in twain, which makes Arius fall in pieces, which makes Cain surmise every one that sees him will kill him, which makes Tyrants they dare not trust their nearest Servants, nor their dearest Children, which makes the Keepers of the Sepulchre shake for fear, and become as dead men.  
Secondly attend how terror falls upon them that think to terrify Christ's Saints, they that were set to affright the Disciples are more affrighted themselves. 'Tis true that the zealous women which came with Odours and sweet Spices to the Sepulchre were much amazed, yet the Angel spoke mild and gentle words unto them, and bid them, be not afraid; but the Soldiers were overwhelmed with perturbation, and never comforted. Let Pilate set another Guard upon his Guard, for these are daunted, upon whom both He and the Jews relied to maintain their fact which they had done against God, and Man. But the terrible men are requited with terror. Pharaoh did never threaten Moses so sharply, but before he saw him again he was in a worse perplexity than Moses, for some grievous plague that was fallen upon him. David fled from Saul, and yet Saul was more dejected in his heart than David. Eusebius says upon the resolution of the Martyrs, that their Persecutors were more afraid to see them suffer their torments, than they were to endure it. And some Heathen Historians testify to this, that Julian the Emperor had a device to trouble the Christian Church above measure by allowing and furthering the Jews to build up the Temple at Jerusalem again, but the Workmen and their Taskmasters were let from proceeding, by thunder and eruptions of fire, and many such impediments which came from Heaven. Satan was sent to buffet Paul, but Paul did buffet Satan by mortifying his body, by praying to the Lord that the rebellion of concupiscence might be taken from him. The poor man in the Gospel possessed with Devils, who foamed and gnashed with his teeth, and was even torn with violence, this man was not so much tormented as the Devils were to be cast forth, and sent headlong to the Sea. Of all stories methinks those are the pleasantest to read, to see a malicious man stewed in his own sauce, burnt in the same fire which he kindled for his neighbour. An invading Enemy driven back with a mighty overthrow; a litigious person cast in Law to his undoing. A merciless man in the Gospel changing places with him whom he cast in prison, Matth. xviii. Hamans' plot against Mordecai executed upon himself: the Lions that were kept hungry to eat up Daniel devouring those that accused him; the Soldiers set to scare all the well-willers of Christ that came to the Sepulchre, and themselves scared out of their wits that their heart was dead within them. The Dogs are sometimes gored and paunched by the Beast which they hunted: and they that meant destruction to the Saints are first destroyed. O Lord let the malice of them that are ill affected to Christ and his Flock be ever so requi●ed.  
Thirdly, let it be attended that the fear of death is exceedingly in the hearts of them that do not believe in the Resurrection. Alas they that set all their stake upon this life, and are persuaded when this puff of breath is stopped, that they shall sleep in an eternal night, and never be wakened more, can you wonder if they be infinitely aghast upon the summons of death? 
Rabanus.  The Stag when he is at bay, and ready to be plucked down, and torn, sheds tears naturally, and drops of sorrow trickle down from him, because he shall part with his life for ever, and be utterly annihilated. So an unbeliever, who knows of no better condition that shall befall him than happens to Beasts, that is not established in faith, that though worms eat this Body in the Grave, yet our Soul shall be clothed with flesh and bone, and enjoy an everlasting union in the highest places; this man looks upon death as the extremity of all evils, in which there is nothing but irreparable loss, a thing that can admit of no consolation. Resurrection is the edge of all valour and fortitude, there can be no courage without it. In assurance of it there is no sting, there is no terror in our dissolution. 
1 Cor. 15.32.  Says St. Paul, Why stand we in jeopardy every hour? why have I fought with beasts at Ephesus if the dead rise not? as who should say, there's the encouragement of all that endure for the name of Christ. Now these Soldiers whom the Jews obtained of Pilate to watch the Sepulchre, were so far from apprehending this comfort, that this Tabernacle of ours, when we lay it down, is sequestered for a time, till God restore it again out of the dust, that they kept that place on purpose, that there might be no resurrection. According to their great demerits therefore, those that were the most envious adversaries of life did shake for fear, and became as dead men.  
Fourthly the Soldiers feared exceedingly, because they had been aiders to the malice of the Jews to crucify Christ; now when they saw the Sepulchre open, the stone rolled away, the Angel sitting upon it, and by these signs the Resurrection declared, that He whom they had put to death most barbarously was greater than death, and Lord of the Angels, their guiltiness must needs shake them to pieces, and extreme horror stare them in the face. When St. Peter came to that verse of his Sermon, Act. two. 36. God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. The Jews that heard this, they were pricked in their hearts, and cried out, Men brethren what shall we do? St. Chrysostom says that many of those who had cried out in Pilat's Judgment-Hall, Crucify him, crucify him were at the Sermon; so perhaps those Soldiers that had cast lots upon his Vesture, and he that thrust the Spear into his side was at the Sepulchre. The greater would be their oppressure of fear, when they had been actors in the Tragedy: They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, Zach. xii. 10. a most melancholy object to his Persecutors. Eusebius says, that the Jews did recall to mind that innocent blood of Christ which they had shed, upon the time that their City was besieged by Titus, and that the thought thereof did so enfeeble their hands, that they could not fight. Although their own Historian Josephus will not impute the calamity of the City to that fault, but confesseth sin did reign in Jerusalem at that time so copiously and prodigiously, as the like was never in Sodom and Gomorrah: but certainly the suspicion of that sin hath debased the courage, and broke the heart of all the Nation of the Jews to this day. St. Paul writing to the Hebrews bids them cast aside 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Heb. xii. 1. the weight of their sin; and I do not remember that he useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a weighty ponderous sin to any other but to them. I know we ought all to be sorry and lament that Christ was crucified for our sakes, for those manifold sins that we have perpetrated; and solum peccatum homicida est, therefore we must be crucified with Christ in mortification, and be buried with him in Baptism: but the personal procurers of his death were the capital transgressors, their sin was died in his blood as it were in scarlet. The Son of man must die and be betrayed, but woe unto that man that doth betray him and crucify him. Beware therefore, that we do not crucify to ourselves the Son of God a fresh; the exposition is in the words following, that we do not put him to an open shame, Heb. vi. 6. by heinous scandalous sins to cause Christ's name to be blasphemed, that is to put Christ to an ignominy, and as it were to crucify him again. Such crimes will leave a sting behind them, that will never cease to wound your conscience, especially at the hour of death. The Gentiles at first could not endure the Sign of the Cross, it called their sins to remembrance; but how will it tear your heart within you, when you call to mind that the ignominy of Christ crucified is in your Soul? The Soldiers saw what abomination they had committed, when an Angel beautified Christ's Sepulchre with his presence, and for fear of him, etc.  
Fifthly the Soldiers could not keep Christ's body in the Sepulchre, as they were appointed by Pilate and the High-Priests, therefore they feared those that had commanded them the task: an evil Instrument is ever afraid of those that do employ him. The Pharisees were angry with their Servants and Officers, that they did not bring Christ unto them, and lay hands upon Him, Joh. seven. 43. yet it was not in them to do it, no man could lay hands on him then, for his hour was not yet come. So the Watchmen knew what offence would be taken that Christ's body was taken out of the Sepulchre, yet they could not stop it. No servitude in the world so heavy, so dangerous, so full of fear as to observe a wilful unreasonable Tyrant. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Aristoph. Plutus.  Nebuchadonosor put his Chaldaeans and Soothsayers to death, because they could not tell him the Dream which himself had forgotten, Dan. two. 12. It is a just reward of wicked Instruments that they were always suspected, always secretly hated by those that practice with them. And when I have told you but one story in that kind (I could be voluminous) you will say, Oh jam satis est, it is enough to represent the certain perdition of them that minister to ungodly practices. But thus briefly, Pope Paul the fifth fell out with the whole State of Venice, 
Quar. of Pope Paul. lib. 1. p. 23.  interdicted all their Dominions, began to raise arms against them for imprisoning the Abbot of Nervase, whose crimes, beside many other foul offences, were these three: 1. He poisoned his own Brother, and wrought the death of a Prior of St. Augustine's Order, and his Servant, because they were conscious of it. 2. He had long time the carnal knowledge of his own Sister, and empoisoned her Maid lest she should betray him. 3. He caused an Enemy of his to be killed, and after that empoisoned the Murderer lest he might accuse him. This is related by no Protestant Pen, but by Friar Paul of Venice, 
Abbot.  of the Order of the Servites. Nor do I report it to let you know what kind of offender the Pope protected, but to manifest how He brought all those to an untimely end, that had either the privacy, or their parts to work for his iniquity. I do not pity them that may foresee this, and yet will be other men's instruments to facilitate their damnable projects. I do not pity these Soldiers, that would attend the High Priests service against the Lord, and against his Christ, and now are weary of their service; they shook for fear, and became as dead men.  
Lastly, to end all, the wicked have fair warnings, these fears and quivering are good Tutors and admonitions: when the house gives a crack before it falls, the Inhabitants may shift for their lives; and he that will not mend by terror and minacy, let his end be misery. A standing water that is never troubled, hath no commotion in it, must needs corrupt: so an even fortune, that is not acquainted with frowns and afrightments, is most incommodious for a Christian; but he that will make good use of fear, though he shake, and cannot stand, he shall fall into the arms of mercy. But these impious Watchmen were no longer mortified than the Angel looked upon them. There was no serious affection of sorrow in them. Sicut ment alienati expavescunt ad momentum, simul tamen obliviscuntur se timuisse; As a phrentique is awed for a while with his Keeper, but flies out into wild fits, as soon as he turns his back; so this Roman Garrison (who may represent the whole condition of Reprobates, a little terrified, but never amended) they had a qualm of guiltiness came over them, but they did not search into the true cause and original; and as soon as ever they had communicated with the High-Priests and Elders, their impudence was encouraged, their hands bribed, and their tongues bought at a price to publish abroad the most wrongful, the most sinful, the most senseless forgery that ever was invented: therefore since they were no better for that terror which a good Angel struck into them, it is to be much presumed that the Lord did turn them over to evil Angels to be tormented for ever. Dear beloved, that which stands before us this day is not an Angel of the ordinary Hierarchy, but the Angel of the Covenant, Christ our Lord in the Sacrament of his blessed Body, not clothed gorgeously, but in the poor Elements of Bread and Wine. And let us come to these with joy and not with terror; not as dead men, unless it be unto sin, and living unto God: and yet bring store of fear and reverence with you. The Greek Fathers call this Table 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the mysteries of dreadfulness, lest we should not receive them in a clean vessel, and with all due preparation. O I beseech you remember you come to receive Christ who is risen, and sitteth at the right hand of God, wherefore come out of the Grave of your sins, from your long accustomed crimes wherein you have been buried, not four days with Lazarus, but many years, and then we shall encompass Christ in his glory with Troops of Angels for evermore. AMEN.   

THE SEVENTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION.  MARK xuj. 9 
Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the Week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalen, out of whom he had cast seven Devils.  
ALL that concerns this most Christian Festival may be referred to two words, Christus resurrexit, & apparuit; that Christ rose from the dead, and that he appeared after he was risen. That he rose from the dead on this day there were good tokens of it, the earth trembled, the Stone was rolled away, the Monument was opened, the Soldiers that kept watch upon the place were dismayed and fled away, the body was not to be found in the Sepulchre, and Angels of light, heavenly Spirits, that would consent to no fraud or sin, ministered in the Grave where the body had lain. Who were the Witnesses that could testify to all this that it was very true? A Catalogue of people, some of one condition, some of another. The whole Corpse du Guard of the Soldiers, though they were corrupted to tell a lie; the Women that brought sweet Odours and Spices to embalm him; and lastly, two of his own Disciples, Peter and John, who saw what God had done, and returned from the Monument with some little faith, but with great ecstasies of wonder and joy, indeed with a concurrence of all these passions, that no man can well tell what to call it. See, my Beloved, here was the grand Article of Faith come now to the birth, yet all this that was passed was not able to bring it forth. It put Christ therefore, I will not say to the trouble, but to the exercise of five several Apparitions upon this day. 1. He was seen of Mary Magdalen. 2. Of Peter, although we meet not with the manner how Peter saw him, but the Apostle Paul says he was seen of Cephas, then of the Twelve; it was his happiness by himself alone to behold him alive again upon this day, Luk. xxiv. 34. The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon. 3. He manifested himself to the cluster of those Women that came to anoint his body. 4. He discovered himself to those two that were going to Emmaus. 5. He came in the presence of all the Disciples at Evening when the doors were shut. These were the Cinque Ports, I may say, of his sweet manifestation at this season. And it falls out very well to my purpose, that my Text says the first that saw him after his victory over death was Mary Magdalen. For this will make even with Eve, upon whose disobedience I have preached so often. I have showed unto you divers times how by a Woman came the first vengeance of death; now I shall show you (if God please) how by a woman came the first notice of the Resurrection from the dead; and both happened in a Garden. In a Garden life was forfeited unto death: And in a Garden life was recovered from death. But death was threatened to Eve towards the darkness of the Evening; he that conquered death made show of his victory openly to this holy Woman early in the Morning. And this is David's Song accomplished, Heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the Morning. The Text offers much to be spoken of, I cannot reach at all, but I will select so much only as will serve for the continuance of an hour. First, here are circumstances of time which show a coherence between the Resurrection and Apparition of our Lord. The Apparition as well as the Resurrection was upon the same day, On the first day of the Week, and much about the same time of the day, very early in the Morning. Secondly, The Apparition itself was made to Mary Magdalen, who is described that she had the first fruits of Christ's love for the present, he appeared first, etc. And 2. she that was the object of his great mercy for the time past, for it was she out of whom Christ had cast seven devils. Unto these particulars are required your Attentiveness, and my labour.  
To begin then, These great marvels happened on the first day of the Week. We are not those that esteem one day more than another as it is the mere flux of time, but we are those that must remember how God hath glorified himself in one day more than another, and never so much on any as on this day, The first day of the Week. As God the Father upon the first day did begin to make this visible World of Creatures, so Christ rose the same day from the dead to show the beginning of a new Age. Resurrectio est alterius mundi spiritualis creatio, says Justin Martyr; The Resurrection is well called a Creation of a new spiritual world. On the first day of the Week God said, Let there be light, and he divided between the light and the darkness. Verily in the same sort upon the same day God brought the light of the world out of the darkness of the Grave, and the life, says St. John, was the light of men. Now this infinite work to tread death under feet, and to bring mankind out of corruption into the state of immortality, being more eximious than to make Adam in a possibility to die and perish, therefore all Christian Churches have desisted to meet together at holy exercises upon the Sabbath of the Jews, and the first day of the Week hath been solemnly appointed from the Apostles even to this Age, to sanctify the name of the Lord in public Congregations. It is but a fretful question, which is too much agitated now adays, since the first day of the Week is designed to be sanctified to the praise of God from the Resurrection of our Saviour, what time we may borrow for the use of domestical affairs, and harmless recreations. He that is persuaded in his conscience no part of the day must be spared from God's Service, let him so do according to the resolution of his conscience; no man can be offended that he is earnest for his own part to keep the whole day unto the Lord. Again, he that is persuaded that the Lord must have his due service on that day, but that he is not tied to a strict Sabbatical servitude, surely his knowledge is good, and he may use his liberty, but without scandal to his brother. To the first I say, be a zealous Christian in keeping the Lords day, but be not a Jew in opinion. To the other I say, give thanks to God for the freedom to which he hath called you, and that he hath eased your shoulders from the servile burden of the Jewish Sabbath, but be not a Libertine in practice. And this is the sum of that which I will say to the first Point, that this marvellous work was done upon the first day of the Week.  
Now the Holy Ghost hath not only satisfied us with the designation of the day, but because the more particularity, the more certainty, therefore the Spirit hath condescended to name almost the hour of the day, so that I am sure we may guests near upon the time, for it was early on the first day of the Week; which denotes two things, that the Lord made haste to rise from the dead to comfort the Disciples, and that Mary Magdalen made haste to comfort herself with coming to the Sepulchre. Christ started up suddenly, out of sleep like Samson, before the powers of hell, those Philistines were aware of him. To this, it may be, David alluded in Exurgam diluculò, Awake my glory, awake Lute and Harp, I myself will awake right early. Nescit tarda molimina spiritus sancti gratia. Be not you slow in paying your debts to God, God is ever beforehand in fulfilling his promises to you. The words in the Second Psalm which are applied, Heb. i. to our Saviour's eternal Generation, are referred by the same Apostle, Acts xiii. 33. to his Resurrection. Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. I cannot pass it over, that the Vulgar Latin reads it, Ante luciferum genui te; Before the Morning star have I begotten thee. Very fitly to this Doctrine which I teach, that Christ rose early this day before the Morning Star appeared. Now that one Scripture may not seem to fall foul upon another these two must be reconciled, how he that rose so early ante luciferum, how he can be said to be three days, like Ionas, in the belly of the Grave? The answer is, you must measure these three days by a Synecdoche. He was buried towards Evening upon the Jews day of preparation, and so lay interred some part of Afternoon, and all that night. Upon the Jews Sabbath he rested in the Sepulchre all day and all night. Upon the first day of the Week he continued in the state of death some hours of the Morning, and very early he came forth an eternal Victor; he fulfilled the Scriptures therefore, and withal he made haste to fulfil his Promise upon the third day. Euthymius expresseth it more elegantly than I can. Quòd citiùs quam sit constitutum efficitur potentiae est, quòd tardiùs imbecilitatis. Christus non solùm promissum explevit, sed etiam gratiam velocitatis addidit. To be tardier than our promise is a sign of some let and infirmity, to be before hand with a promise is a sign of power and efficacy. The promise of the Son of God was that in three days he would build up the Temple of his body again, he did so, and more than so, soon after the third day was begun: Behold the performance of his word, and the sudden dispatch of his favour joined unto it: So we have seen both his truth in the Promise, and his love in the speediness of the act doing above his promise. Moreover, I would have it be marked, that as he rose early, so he was sought early by Mary Magdalen. The desire of Christ held her eyes waking, and I believe she had took but small rest since Christ was crucified; as soon as it was possible to have access to his Monument she came unto it. I know not whether you are to learn it, but it was not the usual manner of the Jews to bury their dead within the Walls of their Cities; to a Garden, you know, the Corpse of our Saviour was carried, into the Suburbs of Jerusalem; therefore she was compelled to attend till the Gates of the City were opened, and passage being made, she came before the break of day to the Sepulchre. And believe it, she sped much the better that she was such an early visitor; do not imagine but the eye of the Lord unto this day is upon those that make haste to come unto the threshold of his sacred House; and they are greatly deceived that think they shall find God as soon if they come late to Church, as if they come early. I pray you tell me, is there any part of the Service so mean and unuseful that you can be content to spare it? Or do you think that God is asleep, and by that time the Congregation hath roused him up, than it will be time enough for you to come in and join in Prayer? O ye loiterers, Do you know the hurt of it, when ye lose the opportunity of one minute to serve the Lord? Pliny in his Letters to Trajan reports of the Christians, that they had Ante lucanos congressus, they met together before day to read the Scriptures, to pray, and sing Psalms. I confess, there was great reason for it then, because they held their Assemblies when their Enemies were in bed, that they might not know of it. But I am sure, since the Apostles time, never were so many miracles wrought as at those early Vigils. And that I may conclude this Point with one use more, Man's life is but a day, and what part of life is the early morning of that day but Youth? If you will do well unto your own souls, seek out Christ betimes, when the Sun of Reason begins to dispel the darkness of ignorance in your tender age: Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth, and God will not forget thee, nor forsake thee in thy old Age. Some Fiend of hell made that Proverb, Angelicus juvenis senibus Satanizat in annis; as if the Child could be taught too soon to choose the good, and to refuse the evil, as if young holiness were obnoxious to become old iniquity. I will ask you, Why do we Catechise the younger of both Sexes in Lent, but to teach them to seek Christ early against Easter? I will come to a less matter, why do we ever paint Angels with the faces of young men or Children, but that youth is a fit stock upon which we should engraft the heavenly virtues and holiness of Angels. If Mary Magdalen gained by rousing herself up early to seek Jesus Christ, seek him then, I beseech you, when he may be found, that is, with the most timely opportunity.  
I have done with the circumstances, which were but Preambles to the substance of the Text, that substance may easily be discerned from all the rest, for the Kernel taken out of the words is this, that Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalen. As it is said of St. Thomas the Apostle, so of her, she believed more than she saw, yet, according to the dimness of faith which was in those times, unless she had seen she had not believed. If Christ, as soon as he was risen, had ascended immediately unto heaven, if no Witnesses had been left behind, that could say they saw him, and eat with him, and conversed with him, the words of truth would have wanted credit with the world, because our wisdom is rather carnal than spiritual: Therefore says St. Peter, Acts x. 40. God raised him up the third day, and showed him openly, not to all the people, but unto Witnesses chosen before of God. This made the Apostles set their Seal to the confirmation of it, Luk. xxiv. 34. The Lord is risen indeed, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as you would say, in good earnest he is risen, and hath appeared unto Simon. Now let no man contradict it, for Peter hath seen him with his eyes. But let me tell you, the bodily eye ought not to come in for his part to peep into those mysteries into which Faith doth search. The secrets of the Kingdom of heaven which we believe are invisible and incomprehensible. But Christ considered it was but New Moon with the Church, now it was but Tyrocinium Ecclesiae, the fresh-man-ship, I may say, of Christian Religion; and the young graft must be held with Props from the shaking of the winds, which are needless to be used to an old Tree whose root is fastened. The Apostles, and sundry women, and divers brethren did see Christ after he was risen, this was milk for babes, but now we must believe that which we have not seen, and the vision of God and of his Son shall be the reward of faith in the Kingdom of glory. Last of all he was seen of me also, says St. Paul, as of one born out of due time, 1 Cor. xv. 8. Then look not to see him manifest in his fleshly presence any more till he comes in judgement: For the Apostle seems to me to say plainly, that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the last of all that shall see him in that manner.  
So having settled the groundwork, that he appeared, I draw on to consider by what degrees he appeared; and that is suppeditated to us with much variety out of the twentieth Chapter of St. John's Gospel. The last year, you know, I handled that part of sacred story fit for the day, how this woman having complained to the Disciples that the body of our Lord was stolen away, Peter and John ran hastily to see the wonder, and she would not be left behind, she follows them to see what they could make of it; they found it true as she had related, and departed full of great admiration. This poor Wretch alone continues at the Monument, and resolves not to stir till she have better satisfaction. Quantum bonum est assiduitas & perseverantia? says Theophylact; Shall not assiduity and perseverance reap plenteous fruits of comfort? Yes, no question; yet because she was a narrow-brimed vessel, observe how God pours his favours into her, as it were by spoonfuls, that she might not be overwhelmed with the excellency of revelations. She that had often looked into the Sepulchre, and was sure the body she sought was not there, I know not by what divine instinct she looks in again. Whether it were as Tully said of Crassus the Orator, says he, we came into the Capitol to please ourselves with looking upon that Bench in the Senate, where that famous Citizen was wont to sit: So she looked in now with a resolved mind that it would delight her to view the place where her Saviour had been interred, though nothing else were to be discerned. But lo she spied that there she did not look for, two heavenly Ministers all in white, the Grave which always before was the den of worms, was now become the throne of Angels. And it came so to pass, first, to refer us to that which shall befall all the Sons of God, our bodies shall be buried by the Ministry of men, as Christ's was by Joseph and Nicodemus, but we shall be raised out of the dust at the last day by the Ministry of Angels. Secondly, says St. Hierom in his Epistle to Hebidias, this was enough for all parties, if they would think upon it wisely, that the body of our Lord was not stolen out of the Grave by any malicious Adversaries, because the place was so well guarded with the custody of Angels. And thirdly, Jesus appeared by these as by his Proxies, they stand in his stead for a while to tell Mary, to tell the other women, He is not here, he is risen.  
But behold she looked for a greater than these, for him of whom it is said, When he bringeth his firstborn into the world he saith, and let all the Angels of God worship him. And with a little motion, with a turning about, he was just behind her, and now first she got the sight of him. She got the sight of him, but lo here is another degree of his appearance before he was clearly revealed, he was presented to her in such a fashion, that as yet she knew not that her blessedness was so near her. She mistook him, it is hard to say how, for the Gardener that dressed those grounds. But how came this ignorance upon her? I do not believe that Christ carried a rake and spade in his hand like a Gardener, as vulgar Pictures make bold to set him out. He might offer himself in a poor habit, and without any upper Garment, like one that was not far from home, and being so early in the ground, these circumstances would suit so well to no man as to the Gardener. Very well, this conceit might have taken her if our Lord had been a stranger to her knowledge: But this is marvellous, she sought none but him, she knew no man's person in the world so well as him, and yet the first glimpse he is any body but himself, he is a Gardener. How comes this? I have it for you, I think, out of two Texts of the Gospel. In the 12. verse of this chapter it is said, that after Mary had seen him he appeared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in another form to two of them by the way. Yet concerning the same parties we read, Luke xxiv. 16. Their eyes were holden that they should not know him. We may collect thus much out of both these put together, that in those forty days wherein Christ walked upon the earth after he was risen, he seemed by his Divine power to wear many sorts of Garments, but he wore none, for a glorified body needs not the coverture of Apparel, and the eyes of those that saw him had not the power to perceive who he was, until such time as he saw fit to disclose himself. And take it for very truth that I say, their outward senses had no power to judge of their object, but when he pleased; for as I will show in good time by and by, Mary talked with him, and did not know his voice, till he opened her ears. When he thought it due time, and not before, her eyes and ears recovered their faculties. But I confess the question doth yet depend upon a little more resolution, why Christ would let her continue a while deluded, that she knew not who he was. I answer, she deserved not to partake of more favour, she loved much indeed, but we cannot say that she believed much: She believed no more than the Highpriest would have all the world believe, that his body was stolen out of the Sepulchre. Since therefore she was more zealous in her love towards Christ than all others, he appeared unto her; but because she would not believe in his resurrection, no not for the testimony of the holy Angels, therefore for a little space he hid himself from her, contriving that in his body now, which he doth continually in the sending of his Holy Spirit, a little love shall have some reward, but he will come and dwell with them, and be known of them that believe without wavering. As yet he passeth with this woman for a Gardener: and that was no unhappy error: it was he that did sow the seeds of faith in her heart, and planted repentance in her soul, that it might grow up and prosper to amendment of life. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, she supposed him to be a Gardener, it is true in the allegory, but not in the letter. Take heed that our carnal affections do not impress Christ into our thoughts otherwise than he is. When we are full of earthy, low, flat cogitations, we frame a God of a strange fashion to ourselves. As Mary Magdalen giving no trust to the Angels that he was risen from the dead, took him for no better than the Gardener. But to strike up this point to the head, whatsoever Christ seemed to her, he was himself without all transformation: he had now a glorified body, he did not change the form and lineaments of his body: it was the poison which the Manichaeans sucked out of this Text, says St. Hierom, that forasmuch as the Lord seemed to this woman divers from himself, he was divers from himself, and had a fantastic body, not made of flesh and bone of the seed of the woman: ridiculous: he contived very God, and very man in the unity of one person; the same man Jesus Christ that was born of the Virgin. But his wisdom did contrive it so as to reveal himself to this party by degrees. First by his Proxies the Angels; Secondly by the shape of a Gardener; now thirdly he threw the Veil aside, and showed himself clearly as he was unto her, and she that desired but to find him dead, found him living for ever.  
The manner, the manner of it I say, is that which is well worthy of a godly ear to mark it: for which I still refer you to the 20. of St. John. Our Saviour when he came in presence gave her occasion of discourse on this sort, woman why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? Good expressions both of a most passionate love, weeping, and seeking: Yet to seek did befit her diligence, but to weep was out of date at this time, and convinced her of a reprovable weakness. It was no day to spend tears upon, which offered occasion of eternal joy, and shall so continue a day of gladness every week while the world endures. But says St. Austin, she that wept for her Brother Lazarus, and obtained his resurrection with tears, she makes assay, if by weeping she could obtain the resurrection of Christ. But whatsoever may be thought her infirmity in weeping, it was gracious in God's eyes, when it was joined with seeking. Doubtless, says St. Paul, God is not far from every one of us, Act. xvii. 27. yea, but he is always near at hand to those that seek him: not far from any, but thou Lord never failest them that seek thee, Psal. ix. 10. Marry had done as much as diligence could express, she had wept as much as grief could express; now Joseph could not choose but make himself known to his Brethren; now Jesus would hold the woman in suspense no longer, but he changed the accent of his voice, and spoke so tunably that she knew him at the first word, he said no more but Mary, as God said unto Moses, Thee have I known by name; and then she turned and said, Rabboni, as who should say, I know the voice of my Master, and I am thine Handmaid. It sounded well in her mouth to call him Rabboni or Master, now he was alive, for she continued to call him Lord, when she took him for lost, and that he was no better than one of the dead. When all ignominy had been cast upon him, when none would own him for a Lord, yet she reserves his title to him, they have taken away the Body of my Lord. It savours therefore of justice, that she is the first that after his resurrection professed herself his Servant, and said, Rabboni, which is Master.  
Now in the manner of this appearance three things are eminent among many that may be observed. First Christ was known by the tone of his voice, when this holy Saint mistook his person. Therefore you see by this where you shall always have Christ, seek him in his Word, and there you shall find him. He sends us unto them, Joh. v. 39 Search the Scriptures, for in them ye look to have eternal life, and they do testify of me. In the works of nature we may understand that God is good; by the crisis of reason we may beat it out, that he is a rewarder of them that serve him: by the tenor of the Law we may read what Ceremonies will please him: but if you would meet with Christ look him out in the words of that sweet and blessed Covenant of our salvation the Gospel. O how sweet is that word of God which is the only instrument, and none but it, to make us see Christ our Redeemer. As we have heard, so have we seen, says David; love to hear his word, and then you shall see him, see him here in his Sacraments of grace, and hereafter face to face in his Kingdom of glory. Secondly it lies in his own breast, I may say, and in the power of his own saving grace, when his Word shall be effectual to bring us to the knowledge of him. Mark it that Christ spoke more largely, and more distinctly, one would think to this pious Matron, when she mistook him, than when she came to take notice of him: He began thus with her, Woman why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? Was not this Sermon enough to bring her into the right way? yet the darkness of her mind continued, and she had no stronger faith, but that his sacred Body was transported out of the Sepulchre by some malicious injury, and not revived by his omnipotent Divinity: Yet after this he speaks unto her again, speaks but a very little, no more but Mary, and her heart was opened. Like that celebrated piece of Rhetoric which C. Caesar used to his Soldiers, with no long oration, but with one word, Quirites, he drew them to accord, and appeased their mutiny. So that there is hope, as we pray, and put our trust in God, that although some have taken arms in this Island, and will not lay them down, notwithstanding much hath been said by way of treaty, much hath been written by way of motive and persuasion, yet God knows his own time, and will bring it to pass, we trust, when some few lucky words, to which the Lord will give his blessing, shall distil down as a joyful rain to bring forth the sweet fruits of peace and obedience. It is not line upon line, word upon word, but the assistance of the Divine Spirit with the Word that works knowledge and salvation. With a short invitement, follow me, and I will make you Fishers of men, Peter and Andrew left their Nets and followed their Master. With a little call or beckoning rather Matthew forsook the Custom-house, and became an Apostle: A little was said to Zacheus, and it produced wonders in him: Lesle was said to the Saint of my Text than to any of them all, no more but Mary, and she saw and believed. Thirdly, here the doctrine of St. John is verified, chap. x. 14. I am the good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. Do you not spy an excellent order in the words? the Sheep do not know him first, but in the first place he knows the Sheep, and then it follows, that they know their Shepherd and his voice. So he knew Mary Magdalen, and called her aloud, and then she was brought to confess the Lord. St. Paul corrected his own language to keep close to this method, Gal. iv. 9 Now after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, our salvation begins at that end, God hath chosen unto himself a people zealous of good works, as who should say, first he knows who are his: but it is very preposterous to invert this, as if first of all we did our endeavour to be known, that is to be elected of God: and to this is a witty allusion made Cant. two. 9 My beloved looketh forth at the window, showing himself through the lattess: As if Christ did look through a Grate, and saw us when we saw not him.  
It is enough to have said thus much of the Apparition: The remainder of my Doctrine must be raised out of the person of Mary Magdalen, etc. If this be the same Mary that was Sister to Lazarus of Bethany (many learned Pens contend for it, and let them for me) but if it be the same woman, Christ hath made good his promise to her, and gone beyond it: his promise was, 
Matth. xxvi. 13.  that wheresoever the Gospel was preached, it should be told for a memorial of her, how she had poured an Alabaster Box of Ointment upon his head to bury him; but far more than so, wheresoever the Resurrection is preached of, she is enwrapped into the story, and extolled by a kind of singularity above all other persons: he appeared first to Mary Magdalen, a thing which I dare say she did not request, neither was that ambition in her to aspire to such a prayer, that she might see the Lord before any of the faithful, but it was a favour that was cast upon her. Some immoderate zealots to the honour of the Blessed Virgin do little less than offer violence to the Evangelists, for omitting, that Christ declared himself immediately after he was risen to his Mother before Mary Magdalen saw him. To prove it is impossible, therefore to believe it is incredible. None of the Ancients, but Sedulius a Poet, do adventure to affirm that Christ made any apparition to his Mother, to show he was no accepter of persons in way of carnal affinity. He did appear to the Eleven, and to those that were gathered together with them, Luke xxiv. 33. I suppose she was there at that time, because she was St. John's charge to take her with him. He did appear to more than 500 Brethren at once, it may conveniently be concluded she was one of that Assembly, always preserving this privilege to Mary Magdalen, that he appeared first to her; she was the first that saw Christ risen from the dead, and the first that preached he was risen from the dead, for she told it to the Apostles. Yet that ye may know what soundness there is in Traditions, Nicephorus pleads Tradition, that after he rose to life, first he made himself known to his Mother. So Rupertus, who allows to Mary Magdalen that she saw him first inter testes praeordinatos a Deo, as a witness that should first preach him. But the Blessed Virgin saw him before, as one that did first rejoice in him. Bernard also thinks to elude the Scripture with a distinction, that his holy Mother did first see him on this day, non ad confirmationem dubii, sed ad consolationem gaudii, not to confirm her faith (so he appeared first to Mary Magdalen, who wavered and disinherited) but no fill her with gladness. If these things were so, why did not the Book of God explain them? if these things be not so, why do they pretend Tradition without authority? The truth is Gerardus a learned Lutheran hath taught us with more likelihood than ever any before, how some unwary Clerks stumbled upon this error. Epiphanius in his 68 Heres. against the Marsalians lapsing in memory, allegeth the words of Christ, Touch me not, to be spoken to his Mother, when he first rose from the dead, which indeed were spoken to Mary Magdalen, and from hence came the misprision, that he appeared first to his Mother, when he rose from the dead.  
Not out of desire to quarrel any thing that might justly concern the honour of the Blessed Virgin, but for truth's sake I have vindicated this Scripture, that Christ first appeared to Mary Magdalen, she saw his resurrection in the first bud, and not only as others did in the blown flower. You might have imagined this favour would have fallen upon his Apostles, or upon Joseph of Arimathea, the Lord of the Soil where he first appeared, but he was first found of her that first sought him; especially he came first to her who gave greatest attendance to meet with him. She brought a company of women with her to the Tomb before the Sun rose, they were all vanished but herself: She fetched Peter and John, they came, and looked in, and shrunk away. Their going away commends her staying behind, she held out to the last, till at last her joy was fulfilled. Reason good that those that run longest in the race should be first rewarded. Our patience I fear is not so firm and steadfast as hers was: if we have not every thing we ask for at the first, we think our zeal is prejudiced, and we utterly give over: as if God were not our King, on whom we waited, but our Servant, that must come at the first call. Whereas you shall never speed with a twitch and be gone, but with importunity and pertinacy. The Kingdom of Heaven is gotten by violence, and the violent take it by force. But beside, as all note, it was her great love to Christ that made her partaker of the first-fruits of his glory; a love that hath great perfection in it in contraries, in the hardiness of her courage, and in the softness of her mourning. In the hardiness of her courage: for do you know upon what pikes she run, to stay so long at the Sepulchre of our Lord. As Thomas noted into what danger our Saviour embarked himself when he told his Disciples Lazarus is dead, and we will go unto him, Let us also go and die with him, says Thomas. So there were Soldiers abroad to watch the Sepulchre, Spies in every corner from the High-Priests, to mark who did confess and honour our Saviour; to go to his Tomb, much more to stay at it, was in effect to say, let us go and die with him, we care not for our lives. But true love esteems it sweet to suffer for his sake, to whose memory their affection is constantly devoted. And she that was thus magnanimous to die for him, was a true woman in compassion, and wept exceedingly, because his body was lost. They were tears mistaken, as most tears are, unless we weep for our sins. As one says well, our life is full of false sorrows, and false joys; we laugh when we have no cause to be merry, and we weep when we have no cause to be sad: So Mary laments that Christ's body was not in the Sepulchre, which truly known was the greatest cause of rejoicing that ever the world had: No man's injury had brought that to pass, but his own power and glory; yet certainly her weeping was reputed as an office of love and zeal, because she did it ignorantly out of a pious intention: and we are all so addicted to profuse mirth, that God doth seldom make a bad construction of mourning. But alas how often do we lose God by sin, through our own default, which is the worst taking away of all, and yet we afflict not our heart at the mischance, we grieve not for it. O weep for the light of that grace which we often lose, and the dayspring of comfort will rise again in our consciences.  
But it may be for all this Christ would not first have appeared to her after he was risen, but that she was one out of whom in times past he had cast out seven Devils. To the letter of the words be thus much said before I come to make application out of them, the story runs concerning this Party, that she had led a very wicked and a scandalous life, for which she suffered this judgement from the Lord, and very deservedly, that she was made a prey to the Devil, and seven evil spirits entered into her, possessed her, wracked her, and tormented her. But if seven evil spirits should take up their quarter in every Strumpet, in these days wherein they abound, I think their would not be Devils enough in Hell to furnish them. I know that some who dip their Pen too much in allegories, expound it, not as if the very Devils themselves, but as if the seven deadly sins had taken up their seat in her. This is wrong, for Luke viij. 2. we find that there were with Christ certain women that had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, among whom was Mary Magdalen, out of whom went seven devils. Therefore it is not to be gainsaid, but she was really dispossessed of seven infernal spirits that had entered into her. Upon the account of this benefit she began to turn her heart to the fear of the Lord, and grew up from grace to grace, till no Disciple of her sex was more godly in her profession, more servant in love, more sincere in amendment of life. Now out of all the Train that believed in the Name of the Lord, he chose this convertita, whom he had so mightily raised up to newness of life from the power of Satan, I say he selected such an one to appear first unto her, that the Church might know that such humble sinners as were partakers of his greatest mercy, should also be partakers of his greatest glory. And let every conscience which hath been oppressed with the burden of iniquity refresh itself with this hope, that our Redeemer liveth to gather those unto him, whose iniquities have been many, but they are washed clean in his blood, and are buried in his Grave. As you have those comfortable words sounded in your ears before the receiving of the Lords Supper, Come unto me all ye that are weary, etc. But thus Christ did as it were celebrate the resurrection of the body from the dead, and the resurrection of the soul from sin, in this interview between himself and Mary Magdalen. All men shall be restored to life, good and bad; for the Son of God redeemed the whole nature of man this day from the corruption of the Grave, and the Devil did utterly lose jus mortis, the dominion of death, because our Saviour being an Innocent was put to death, over whom he had no dominion. But the glory of Christ's victory was to conquer two at once, Hell and Death. So the Prophet Hosea cries out in form of triumph, O Death where is thy sting? O Hell where is thy victory? 
Hos. 13.14.  and from his own voice, Revel. i. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead, behold I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of Hell and of Death. So in his own person he showed that he had conquered Death; in the person of Mary Magdalen that he had conquered Hell. Beloved, this great day is Christ's Festival, and it is the Holiday of every penitent sinner, because first he appeared to such an one, to Mary Magdalen. For our sakes both the Keys are turned, and for our sakes both the Gates are opened, that our bodies may escape the curse of corruption, and that our souls may be delivered from the judgement of Hell, through Jesus Christ the first fruits of the dead, and that first appeared to an humble Convert. AMEN.   

THE EIGHTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION.  MAT xxviii. 9, 10. 
And as they went to tell his Disciples, behold Jesus met them, saying all hail, and they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.  
Then said Jesus unto them, be not afraid, go tell my Brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.  
YOU may call to your remembrance that my subject upon Easter-day the last year was, How Christ was first seen after he rose again from the dead, of one whom he had raised before from the death of sin, he appeared first to Mary Magdalen. And in this Text other women have the next turn to see him appear in order of story. That Sex, it is apparent, had the honour of the day, in the first and second bout, that the power of God might be seen in the weaker Vessels. The women brought sweet Spices to embalm his body; and they encounter that which was sweeter than all the Spices in the world, the Vision of the Lord, who came forth from the dark places of the dead to life again. There is not the weakest capacity among you, but must needs observe, that the relations of these things are very diversely set down in the four Evangelists. And there is not the learnedst capacity among men, that can distinctly unfold how they should be reconciled. I suppose the Primitive Church, I mean, the Disciples that were taught by the Apostles, and other Scholars taught by them, were informed of the true Exposition, how every thing happened in its order, but the tradition is lost. And they who boast they have kept the Traditions of the Church faithfully, are not able to give us a clear rule how to refer these confusions to a certain order. St. Paul, 1 Cor. xv. rehearseth sundry ways how Christ was seen of many after he rose from the dead, yet he utterly omits how he was seen of these devout women. St. John, Chap. xx. speaks of the famous interview between our Saviour and Mary Magdalen, and no more. Our Evangelist in the beginning of this Chapter mentions Mary Magdalen, and the other Marry, that is, the Mother of Zebedees' children, he goes no further. St. Mark quotes another woman, that is Salome. St. Luke names also one Joanna, she was the Wife of Chusa Herod's Steward; and indefinitely he folds it up, that there were other women whose particular cognisance is not revealed. And divers things are related divers ways of these, which may be reconciled as divers ways without jar or contradiction.  
The stiffest knot in the dissension is, that although St. Luke and St. Mark record, how the Angels appeared to the women, and spoke unto them of Christ's rising, yet they do not say that Christ was seen of them. St. Mark relates that he was seen of Mary Magdalen. So doth St. John, they go no further. St. Matthew holds him to Mary Magdalen, and to one other Mary, that is all. Yet he involves at large, that as the women (not those women only) went to bring tidings to the Apostles of what they had seen and heard, Christ did meet them by the way. For the perplexity of these Narrations some do argue, that none of the women saw him this day risen from the dead but Mary Magdalen, and that when this Scripture says that he did appear to the women plurally, yet it is a Synecdoche speaking that of many which was verified but in one, for but one saw him instead of all her companions. This is not so probable; for it would work better if this truth were manifested by a multitude of Witnesses. Others also consider, that Mary Magdalen saw him alone, and was controlled at that time not to touch him, therefore it must be another Apparition, when divers women did touch him, and worship him. Some say therefore that in a very little compass of time Mary Magdalen saw him twice this day (unless there were two Mary magdalen's, as St. Ambrose would have it) first alone, and then immediately with her Consorts. Yet that seems not so congruous (I can say no more against it) that two Apparitions should be granted to her in a few moments. Therefore without any pertinacy in rejecting the conjectures of others, I conceive this second Apparition of Christ, which we have in hand, to be made to Mary the Mother of James, Joanna, and Salome, with other devout women of Galilee, when Mary Magdalen was lately departed from them to tell her errand to the Disciples. Laying my ground upon that opinion, I deduct these parts out of the Text: First, I will treat upon it what proceeded from the women. Secondly, what proceeded from Christ. Touching the women again, I will handle first what they did before they saw Christ; secondly, what they did after they had seen him. Before they saw him they went to tell his Disciples somewhat. After they had seen him, 1. They came to him. 2. They held him by the feet. 3. They worshipped him. That which belongs to Christ is contained in his Action, and his Words. His Action is thus expressed, Behold Jesus met them. His Words are first a Salutation, All Hail. 2. A Consolation, Be not afraid. 3. A Commission, Go tell my Brethren that they go into Galilee. 4. A Promise, There they shall see me. These are the several talents which God hath committed to me in this, and now I will employ them for my Master's profit.  
The women, before they had seen our Saviour, went to tell his Disciples; that must be our beginning. They went, and went to and fro sundry times upon this occasion. It could not choose but be observed by the eyes of them that gaze upon Passengers, and would quickly reason upon it, what make these abroad, that they cross the streets so often. It was more infamous with them of the East, than it is with us, for women to gad openly from place to place. The married woman is described in Plutarch, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, treading upon a Tortoise, as an emblem that it was good for her to stay at home, and to carry her house upon her back. But these holy Matrons had a clear conscience in them, that it could be no blemish to their honour to lackey up and down in so good an occasion, and upon the Errand of an Angel. If uncharitable persons censured them, God forgive them, still they went on. Nay, whereas undoubtedly all will say that a sober gate, without much acceleration, doth best become that Sex, and especially in public, yet no pace would serve them but a gallop. In the verse immediately before my Text they did run to bring his Disciples word. The Heathen paint Mercury with wings at his heels: The Messenger of good tidings should make haste. Nescit tarda molimina spiritus sancti gratia. God loves quick dispatch in his business. When we are suspensive, and long about that which is good, we lose the thanks that he would give us; that which is done sincerely is never done slackly. Therefore Jesus met the women not as they went, but as they ran to tell his Disciples.  
Says the Text moreover, as they went to tell his Disciples, therefore some had put an Errand into their mouth: Even so, for it was an Angel that gave them direction what to say to our Saviour's Disciples. I take not upon me to guests at the reason of the secret Counsels of God, but a cause there must be for it, and a great one, that the Angels of heaven appeared above once this day to the Women, and talked with them of Christ's Resurrection: And they might have told the same news to the Apostles, yet they did not, but sent the women in their stead. What! Would not one Angel visit them in his own person? Is it upon dislike? Because they fled away from their Master in the Garden. Or is it a trial upon their big spirit, who frequently contended among themselves which of them should be the greater, whether they would not disdain that women should exceed them in Visions and Revelations? For many times Superiors cannot digest it, that such as are under them should exceed them in the grace of God. But many times he regards the low estate of his Handmaids, when the Rich are sent empty away. The Pillars of the Church, the Apostles, are admitted to hear what these women saw at the Sepulchre, that adventured boldly abroad: But no such glorious Creatures came to them, who were shut up for fear at home. And, for my part, I think this was it which did cross the credit of their Message. The Women told the Disciples all that happened, it may be confusedly, with distemper of fear and joy, but they told them the truth, And their words seemed to them as tales, Luk. xxiv. 11. For thus they would collect in all likelihood upon the merit and dignity of their Apostleship: It cannot be that the Angels would appear to such as these, and balk us; this is but a Tale. Those Messengers of God would come to us in the first place, to us the Servants of the beloved Master, and not to the Women. But God sees not as man sees. The Spirits of light came to these humble Handmaids, and taught them: And afterward by the Orgain of their mouth the Apostles were edified, that taught all the World. The Gospel is not ashamed of this innocency, and simplicity; ask us from whom our principal Doctors were first instructed, and we answer roundly, from a few silly women, that the power of salvation may appear to descend, not from Learning and humane Wisdom, but from the demonstration of the Spirit of God. And this was a project to outreach the providence of Pilate, and the wary consultations of all the High Priests. The Sepulchre was obstructed with a great stone, and as Nicephorus says, that a strong Hoop of Iron fastened it to the contiguous stones of the Monument, sealed also with the Governors' Seal, that it might be a capitol crime to burst it open. And such crafty heads would not omit to set Spies upon the Apostles that they durst not look abroad; as if the business were as safe as they could wish if they were prevented from divulging rumours that Christ was risen from the dead. See therefore how their subtlety was outstripped, God selected Witnesses whom they scorned and disdeined; certain Women are inspired to go and tell his Disciples. St. Paul expresseth this mystery in his own case, 2 Tim, two. 9 Though I suffer unto bonds, yet the word of God is not bound. To which word says St. Chrysostom, if our warfare were carnal, if we were Soldiers that fought for the inheritance, and glory of this world, our attempts were restrained, when our hands were tied with Chains. But fight the battles of Christ a Prison is no impediment, our tongue shall declare the glory of God, nothing can bind it but fear or infidelity: Tie up the hands of the Husbandman, and he cannot sow his seed; but pinion the Seed-man of the Word of God, and his tongue is at liberty. Linguâ non manu seritur verbum, quod nullis vinculis subjacet; The Seed of the Word is sown by the Tongue, and not by the Hand. Men may be silenced, as the Apostles were, for a season, but truth cannot be silenced. In the defect of other Ministers the Women preached the Resurrection, they went to tell his Disciples.  
This part these good Daughters of Jerusalem acted before Christ appeared unto them that I may handle that which concerns them by itself presuppose we that Christ met them, and appeared, which I will treat of hereafter, what did they then? Why, as reason did require, they intermit their motion awhile of running to the Disciples, and come unto him. To whom else Lord should they go? Is there any thing so sweet as thou art to draw near unto it? If we come not to thee we wander out of the way, and turn aside from our own happiness. Whatsoever we are about it is a gain of time to come unto him by the way, and we shall arrive the sooner at our own ends if they be just and honest. And I cannot keep it out of my mind, but that after our Saviour was risen from the dead, there was some courteous accent in his voice, and some sweet invitement in his look, more than people were acquainted with before he was crucified. He called one woman by name, Mary in the Garden, he said no more: And she was instantly ravished with joy to hear his tongue utter but two syllables. So there was such sweetness in the countenance of his immortal body now risen from the Grave, that though the women were terribly afraid, yet they stepped forward, and came unto him. Nay, to come unto him in this glorified state Peter gird his fisher's Coat about him, and cast himself into the Sea, and swum unto him. Note it that these good women recoiled from the Angels when they saw them, and gave back, their countenance was like lightning, and dismal to the beholders: But when Christ was before them they come unto him nearer and nearer. Let them that have a mind to such superstition talk of Angels and Saints for their Mediators and Intercessors. But Lord give me leave to come directly to thee, and to thy Child Jesus, there is my comfort and my confidence. Securtus loquor ad Dominum meum quam ad aliquem sanctorum, I think it is St. Augustine's. I can pour out my mind more safely unto Christ my Lord than to any of the Saints. St. John came too near to the Angel when he fell down to worship him: But make up more and more to your Saviour, you can never come too near to him. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden. Whither do you fly away for fear of your sins? Do you not hear that he calls for us? That fear which keeps you from him is not reverence, but despair, it is not humility, but infidelity. Are you distrustful that you may be too forward? Not a whit, if you believe and repent. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, Heb, iv. 16. Come unto him in this life, says St. chrysostom, and he is a throne of grace. Hereafter we dare not come unto him, for than he is a throne of justice.  
Well, their next action shows that they must come, and come very near to do that which they did, for they held him by the feet. Hold fast devout Matrons, you were before like waves of the Sea, tossed about with suspicions and uncertainties, you were carried hither and thither with doubtful fears whether Christ would come again from the dead, as he promised, on the third day, but now you have your hand upon the Anchor, upon his feet, hold them fast, and your faith shall no more be shaken. You touch his flesh, you feel the pulse of his veins, his joints and bones are under your fingers. You have explored that he is no Phantom, or Delusion; the true and the same body committed to the Sepulchre is alive again. All this your sense suggests unto you, because you hold him by the feet. But the times of this happiness are passed away, no expectation now of enclasping him about the feet; but Mitte fidem in coelum, & tenuisti, says St. Austin; Extend your Faith into heaven, and you shall touch him there. Secondly, They that held him by the feet had the occasion to honour those parts of his body which had been pierced with Nails for our sakes upon the Cross. And I doubt it not, but to show themselves thankful for his death, they did offer to lay their modest lips upon his wounds. As when Paphnutius his right eye was plucked out for being a constant Christian the Emperor Constantine kissed the hollow pit from whence the eye was taken in reverence to his sufferings. Thirdly, Take it in the most simple and plain sense, to take him by the feet was one of the most observant forms of lowliness that could be expressed. So did that Shunamite demean herself to Elisha, when her soul traveled with agony and desire to have her Son revived to life. Marry Magdalen her penitent and humble prostration is reduced to this, when she washed our Saviour's feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. The most expressive Poet notes it that it was the best garb for a passionate Suppliant, 
Aeneid. 11.  Et genua amplectens effatur talia supplex. So when the tongue of these devout women did cleave to the roof of their mouth in a sudden astonishment, and they could not bring out one word, not so much as Rabboni; all that Mary Magdalen could say ex tempore, yet their dumb actions were instead of a voice. There was much Congratulation, and Thanksgiving, and Prayer contained in this gesture, They held him by the feet.  
One great scruple troubles all Expositors upon this Point, why Mary Magdalen was repulsed from him, Joh. xx. 17. with Touch me not, and yet these women were not repulsed, but admitted to hold him by the feet. They that make no first and second Apparition, but say that Mary Magdalen and these women did not see him at two times, but altogether at once, are confounded very much in their answer, and resolve it that Mary Magdalen did touch him as well as they, (which doth not appear) and that these persons were interdicted when she was, though St. Matthew hath passed it over in silence; and that is a conjecture which hath no expression in the Word of God. Musculus, a man of good judgement otherwise, hath failed most of all in his opinion, I think, for he says, that this beavie of good women did not lay hands upon his feet, but offered it; and it is a phrase of Courtship in this Complimental Age, that such as give a visit of humble respect to a great person, say that they come to kiss his hand, though they do not use that particular Ceremony, so these stooping low to worship him are said to hold him by the feet, though they did not go so far in their salutation, as the Letter expresseth. But here is a word too strong for that evasion, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they held him, it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not lightly to touch, but to seize upon him as strongly as their grasp could hold. Let not the truth then be denied; let two Apparitions be granted, and at the first time Mary Magdalen was denied leave to touch him, and these had permission to hold him fast. What was in it that the favour was so unequally granted? Why first, there was nothing did repugn, but that a mortal hand might touch his glorified body without offence. They that went to Emmaus, and met him by the way, are reported to have constrained him to go no further, which imports at least they held him in a friendly manner by the Arm: he invited all the Disciples to feel if he had not an elementary Composition of Body, Flesh and Bone; and S. Thomas put his whole hand into his Side, and wallowed it there, and Christ felt no pain at all. Then simply there was no Offence to touch, unless some circumstance in the act make it irregular: and so it is supposed, that Mary Magdalen, though a vessel of great holiness, yet she had forgot that Christ was past the times of humiliation, when he was a worm upon earth, now he had taken his Kingdom and his Glory upon him after he was risen from the dead; and yet she came familiarly to him upon the old acquaintance, and would have given him such a Welcome and Embracement, as she was wont to give him at her Brother's house at Bethany, as she was wont to do she called him Rabboni, and as she was wont to do, she would have touched him; but where there wanted Reverence, Christ corrected her mildly, Touch me not: But as for these Women that prostrated themselves at his feet with Adoration to worship him, they had leave to touch because in heart they had tasted the fruit of life. The Ark of God would not endure Vzzah's touch, he died for it; but the Priests that came near it with holy access, had authority to touch it, and it was the dignity of their Office. Not to roll this stone any longer, that good Saint, Mary Magdalen was mistaken, as if Christ lived again no otherwise than as her Brother Lazarus did, to converse in the world as he had done before: Touch him not with the finger of that little Faith. But they that saw some greater excellency in him than before, and fell low on the ground before him, they may hold him by the feet. Yet there is one Interpretation beside, which casts no imputation at all upon Mary Magdalen, and I like it the better: 'tis thus, Christ had great use of her to dispatch her to his Disciples, it being expedient to send her upon that errand; yet she was loath to depart, surmising that she should see him no more; therefore when our Saviour would have her to insist no longer in expressing her love, says he, Touch me not, I am not yet ascended to my Father; which is to this effect, I am not yet ascending or going away, you shall have more time to converse with me hereafter, but now it will do more good to my Disciples to hear I am risen, than for you to stay and touch me; depart, insist no longer in these expressions of Love, touch me not, I am not quite going away to the Father. But for these Women who made no such fond delay, but laid their hands on his feet, and worshipped him and rose again, no such Interdict was upon them, as Touch me not: which is the Sum of this Point.  
And the next thing they did confirms me that the holding his feet was unblamable, and a sanctified action, for they worshipped him. If when the first begotten was brought into the world, it is said Let all the Angels of God worship, then when the first begotten from the dead came into Jerusalem his excellency proclaims it, let all that behold his glorified presence worship him. The wise men fell down before his Cradle and adored him, when he lay in a poor and despicable manner: and this was their wisdom to see the brightness of the Godhead in the dark Lantern of his Humanity. Nay the evil Spirit having possessed the body of him that lived in the Tombs fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, what have I to do with thee, thou Son of God most high? Luke viij. 28. Hell itself is not so refractory, but that the Spirits of darkness confess he is to be worshipped, and they did it. It was not their own body, but in that body over which they had command, they did that function of their own accord, before they were bidden. Yet it was not thanksworthy in them, because they executed no more than the duty of the outward gesture. I do highly commend the lowly service and inclination of the body. O let down your body to the very ground before your Maker, as these women did: a man cannot be too reverend to his God. And as a Plaster of cordial Ingredients laid to the stomach, or an Unction well fomented upon the skin without, comforts the spirits within, and makes us more cheerful in our vital operations, so outward reverence helps us greatly against the dulness and drowziness of our heart: the lifting up of the eyes and hands makes a man ask in prayer more passionately: the knocking of our breast provokes our repentance to a more eager indignation against ourselves: the bowing down the head and knee makes us the better to understand the great distance between God and us: the uncovering of the head fills us with that necessary consideration in whose presence we stand. Glorify God with your body, 1 Cor. vi. 10. Tertullian and St. Cyprian read it portate Deum in corpore vestro, Carry God in your body, that is, bear your Religion openly in the observance and humility of your body. Christ is the Husband of the Church, an Husband to the Soul of every Christian; now this is gained from the similitude that the Wife is the Husband's both in her body, and in her affections: so we are Christ's as well in our bodily worship, as in our spiritual adherence to him. But because the act of worship, as concerning that which the head, the knee, the hand do execute may be used to our superiors in civil demeanour, as well as in religious usance to God, it is the addition of sanctity conceived in the heart and mind, which makes it Religious Adoration: for the complete definition of it is thus, adoratio est veneratio talis exterior, quae ex corde pio & religioso procedit; that is, that's the adoration due to God, and to him alone, which with the exterior veneration of the body proceeds out of the pious and religious intention of the heart: If you yield any token of outward obeisance, and mean it to him who hath created you, who hath given you all that you have, who rose from the dead that we also might rise with him, than it is raised up from civil homage, and it becomes Divine Worship. These apprehensions were in the hearts of these women, and thereupon their bodies bowed down in lowliness, and so it wants not one grain of due weight, but that it was the worshipping of the Lord Jesus.  
From those things which were personally performed by the women I remove forward to all that which was personally performed by Christ, and that is contained in his action, or his words: his action is but in this one passage, Behold Jesus met them. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not to overtake one, or to come behind them, but to meet them full but, as our phrase is; therefore it hath somewhat in it divers from that Apparition which was made to Mary Magdalen, and it can not be the same: for he stood behind her, and she turned about to look upon him, but when he presented himself to these Women, he met them face to face. They were going to tell his Disciples and he that was no hindrance to their journey stood in their way. Behold and marvel at it, for the hope of the Resurrection was out of their heads; they came to embalm his dead Body, not to see him living: Or suppose we that the Angels had lately persuaded them to that Faith that he was alive again, yet to speak indifferently, they had no cause to expect him in that place, or any where near to Jerusalem, for the Angel told them thus in the 7. verse, Behold he goes before you to Galilee. Was there any cause therefore that they should think to bless their eyes with him before they had made a journey into Galilee? but behold the Angels had not all the mind of the Lord revealed unto them: Jesus met the women hard by where the word was spoken, and long before they went into Galilee. So it is with all who are dear to God. They look not for the vision of God till they are dead: for no man shall see God at any time and live. Yet before we get into Galilee, before the Soul ascends into heaven, he grants us that blessing to see him often with the eye of faith. As the place is one part of the wonder, so there is another Ecce, another behold in the time, just as they were going to tell the Disciples that an Angel had published at the Monument that the Master was risen, just than he met them. 
Salmeron.  One hath made a good note of it, qui communicant Christum aliis ipsum altiùs intelligent. Teach the ways of the Lord to others, and thou shalt understand them the better thyself: Communicate unto the ignorant what thou knowest of Christ thy Saviour, and thine own knowledge shall increase unto thee in the communication. A great encouragement, though the mysteries of faith are deep and inexplicable, yet to preach them as we are able, because we have this hope, that Jesus the revealer of all secrets will meet us by the way. And yet behold again, that Jerusalem being so populous, and at this time of the Passover thronged with all sorts of strangers, he was discerned of none but of these women, these he meets and salutes them. This is their reward that they left their soft Couch, and some hours before the Sun rose came to seek the Lord. The Servants of God are called generatio quaerentium, Psal. xxii. This is the generation of them that seek thee, even of them that seek thy face O Jacob. He says in the Prophet Isaiah, that he was found of them that sought him not, much more will he be found of those that sought him. Ask St. Cyprian why many that thought themselves Eagles could not behold him with their piercing eyes, and that this little Nest of Sparrows, these few women did encounter him, St. Cyprian says, quae ardentiùs dilexerunt, quae devotiùs quaesicrunt, such as loved him more affectionately, such as sought him more devoutly, they have the blessing to enjoy him. But a wiser than Cyprian, even Solomon, says it, Prov. viij. 17. I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me. In a word, Christ meets all those that go in the way of faith and obedience, as these women did. And as the Father went out to meet his prodigal Son before his Son did look for him, so go on in repentance, in love, in zeal, in holiness, and you shall see the unexpected day of the Lord.  
After this hear the words which our Saviour spoke to the women. St. Paul heard his voice from heaven, but did not at first see him. St. Stephen saw him stand at the right hand of God, but did not hear him speak, these persons had the blessedness both to hear him and see him, and his tuneable voice gave them this salutation before they spoke to him, all hail. It is no question but Christ spoke unto them in the Syrian or in the Hebrew tongue, and their word of love and courtesy to one another when they met, was shalom, or peace. And so the Syrian Paraphrast renders these words of my Text, pax vobis, peace be unto you. But the Evangelist hath kept the Greek form of salutation, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rejoice. The Latin tongue useth that word which was usual in the mouth of the Romans, when they gave the wishes of a good day unto any, avete, an old Latian word, whose meaning themselves did not know. The Poet Martial was a good Critic that confessed it. Exprimere Rufe fidicula licet cogant Ave latinum, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non potes Gracum. Now at last to descend to our language, we express it as you read it, all hail, which is a Saxon ideom for all health. The optative form of the Hebrews was Peace, of the Greeks Joy (they were merry Greeks) of us English health. The common custom was, that friends should meet friends with auspicious words, with congratulation of happiness one to another, whensoever they came together upon appointment, or incidentary occasions. Among the Heathen Humanity, and Civility, among us Christians Brotherly love is the original to salute one another with a Prayer when we meet. But who is he among an hundred that thinks the name of God, and a Prayer is in his mouth, when he bids a Good morrow, or a Good even to his Neighbour; he hath no perceivance of his all hail, or of those charitable words that come from him. He doth not bless his Brother after the meaning of the phrase, but he talks by rote like a Parrot. And as it is most supine negligence to mean no good in our salutation, and will fall into the condemnation of idle words, so it is most devilish to give the outward salute of good words, and to have war in our heart. As Joab spoke peaceably to Abner, that is saluted him, and then smote him that he died: as Judas gave all hail to his Master, and betrayed him with a signal of a courtesy. A familiar thing in this wicked world, to bid God save, and God speed to them whose destruction we covet, and to think of cursing in our heart at the same instant when the form of blessing is in our mouth. Shame be to our dissimulation that it is but a form. It began to be so odious among the Heathen to salute out of wanton fashion, when they meant no kindness, that it grew in use among them to confirm their Greetings with an oath. In one of Terence his Comedies this passage is between two Servants, 
Hecyra.  Salve mecastor Parmeno, & tu aedipol Syra, they swore they did verily mean them all the good wherewith they saluted them. But this would not mend the matter in our dissembling age, for we have many that will salute, and swear, and yet intent mischief to their neighbour, and so will mix malice with perjury. I leave them to the bitterness of their own sins, and to have their portion with Hypocrites. I am sure the salutation of our Saviour did really bring peace, and joy, and health to them that were saluted. Gaudere eas jubet, quae condemnatae erant ad habendum merorem, says Euthymius, womankind in Eve was condemned to sorrow, Gen. iii Now Christ bids them rejoice, and obliterates the handwriting of sorrow that was against them. Avete, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; now be merry and joyful, now that you have seen with your eyes that Christ is the resurrection and the life: the Heavens and all the powers therein, Archangels and Angels, Patriarches and Prophets, all Saints must be glad at those news; all hail to this day, for all the Feasts and Sundays of the year borrow their festivity from Easterday. This is the day which the Lord hath made, etc.  
It is an easy thing to make us break out into carnal and voluptuous joy, but it is not easy to make us apprehend spiritual joy. Christ spoke the good word unto the women all hail, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, rejoice, There is somewhat in original sin which makes us great misdeemers: it is not one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that will set us right: though Christ himself pronounced it there were some signs which betrayed these parties that they were sore affrighted, they said nothing for aught appears, and therefore it is likely they were strucken dumb with the astonishment: their countenance I suppose changed, and every joint of them shaked when they held him by the feet, and therefore the gracious Lord adds be not afraid. We may put it at large thus, I come as a friend, I have saluted you with peace and joy, therefore be not afraid of me as if I were an enemy. So joseph's Brethren being mistrustful of some great evil were enheartned by joseph's Steward, Peace be unto you, fear not, Gen. xliii. 23. The comfort of the salutation was reinforced by this consolation, that there was no cause to fear. When reason hath repulsed the fallacies of our passions by good arguments, fear will diminish by little and little. But here's a case wherein reason could afford no succour; for what could reason conceive touching the resurrection of the dead? It is a dreadful thing to man's wit, let it be never so dispassionated, to see one come alive out of the Grave: for it is a most natural thing for a man to tremble when he sees an accident far above nature; therefore the exhortation must proceed from Christ, and supernatural grace in such an instance as this: Fear not. The Angels said as much unto them before in the same syllables, he is risen, and be not afraid. Comfortable speeches indeed, yet they did not take; it required a greater Doctor than they to inculcate that Lesson. Christ preacheth it, and it took effect, they did remit of their fear; for the Angels spoke unto the ear, and Christ unto the heart. And when the conscience is enlightened by grace, it cannot choose but see, that the greatest avoider of fear is to know that Christ is risen from the dead. 
Job 18.14.  Death is called the King of terrors by Job, as being the strongest of earthly fears, and yet this is quite assuaged in them that have an assured hope of joyful resurrection. 
Job 19.26.  Why boastest thou thyself thou Tyrant, that thou canst kill the body, death is not extinction, but an intermission of life: My bones shall be covered again, when worms have eat my flesh, and with mine eyes I shall see my Saviour. It is the Whetstone of fortitude in battle, and in all dangers, scelus est rediturae parcere vitae: who but a base mind will dastardly preserve that life which shall return again? An application of the Holy Spirit will make a good Christian as stout as a Lion, setting the most valiant object of the Resurrection before him. Though the Pharisees would hate them to death that should testify how Christ was raised in power; though the Scouts of the High Priest were abroad to note them in the black book that travelled about that errand; though the Soldiers were grim and cruel, and would spare none that should refute their falsehood, that the Disciples had taken away the Body while they slept, yet these weak women dare do any thing to confront the evil world, since Christ had said unto them, be not afraid.  
After this they have a Commission to dispatch and depart, Go tell my Brethren: they must not stay and dispute it, Lord whither should we go, thou hast the words of eternal life, send us not away from thee, for in thy presence there is the fullness of joy. If the Blessed Virgin was not happy that her paps gave him suck, but that she heard the word of God and kept it, than it was no happiness to see Christ, or to touch his feet, but to do his will and obey it. It was not a time to feed still upon this gladness, and to stay with him, but go and impart it. There was a season when Mary Magdalen was commended for sitting still at his feet, and choosing the better part, but now blessed are the feet that stir and walk upon this errand to bring glad tidings of salvation. As the Samaritan Woman did well not to stay with Christ, but it was better to go into the City, and to tell her kindred that she had found the Messias. Beside, their Commission was a special dignity to go from him, and to bring a Message to the Disciples: neither did they pretext as Moses did, we are ignorant women, (slow of speech, let Aaron rather be sent) unfit for the preaching of these mysteries. Christ knew what sufficiency and aptitude was in them better than themselves, and therefore they must undertake to go to the chief Princes of the Church, to them that succeeded Aaron in his Bishopric. The Apostles lurked at home for fear, so that Christ was fain to find out new Apostles to preach him, these Daughters of Jerusalem. And as their Commission had dignity in it, so it was very pleasing, and full of sweet address to those that sat disconsolate: Go tell my Brethren: they that run away from him, and forsook him, did not look, it may be, for so sweet a Title: No doubt their hearts did catch at it as soon as ever they heard it, 
1 K. 20 33.  like those that came from the King of Syria, thy Brother Benhadad. The Angels did not give them this style, but plainly thus, Go tell his Disciples; and it was well, considering their fault, that they did not lose the name of Disciples; but Christ exceeds the Angels in loving kindness, and is not ashamed to call them Brethren, Hebr. two. 11. But the more he advanceth his Servants in title, the more ought they to depress themselves; the more he calls us Brethren, the more let us cast ourselves down before him as Servants to the Mighty Lord. This also they learned into the advantage, that now Christ was risen in immortality, he had not put on another body, or changed his nature: he is still as we are in his fleshly substance, and therefore calls his Disciples Brethren. And this we are taught likewise, that he doth acknowledge them for his Brethren, after he appeared in glory: even as Joseph claimed kindred of his Brethren in the top of his honour. Haughty men will forget their old acquaintance when they rise unto promotion; but in true morality, amicitia non dissolvitur per fortunae accessionem, a true friend will persist a friend, though he ascend to a noble accession of fortune. Christ being made the greatest that ever was upon earth calls these Fishermen his Brethren.  
Lastly, as their Commission had dignity, and sweetness in it, so they were sent with profitable tidings, to tell the Disciples they must go into Galilee, and there they should see the Lord. What ailed them, I may say, that they were not already gone into Galilee? for Christ had told them, Mat. xxvi. 22. When I am risen again I will go before you into Galilee. Nay albeit the Women repeated this unto them they did not stir. What? though they would not go with him to his Cross, would not they remove into Galilee when they were warned by Christ, and now readmonished by the Women? What might it be that hindered them? shall I tell you what I think? they had forgotten what Christ said; and the tidings of the women made them keep closer to that place where they were. Can it be that these women saw him in Jerusalem? then surely say they the Lord will appear unto us in this City, though we do not travel into Galilee. But why did the Lord appoint the great intercourse between him and his Disciples in Galilee? First it was remote from Jerusalem, where much danger was, there he might discourse with his Disciples with more privacy and security. Secondly the Apostles were all Galileans, and for their sakes he did this honour to their Country. Thirdly, to eject Satan out of his possession, for it was a place of much sin, called a place of darkness, and the land of the shadow of death, Isa. ix. 2. Fourthly, there were many Disciples in Galilee, and Christ had intended a famous meeting to appear to them all at once, as some say on Mount Thabor, where he was transfigured; and that here it was where he was seen of more than five hundred Brethren at once. Be it as it would be, he promiseth they should see him there; and he was better than his promise, for upon this day at Even they saw him at Jerusalem. Here is nothing that savours of any old grudge or displeasure, no repealing of the former promise, because they had forsaken him in the Garden, but a confirmation of all loving kindness passed, and an exceeding favour superadded: that their souls might not be tortured with that long procrastination, not to see him till they went into Galilee, he prevented the time, and appeared to them in their own Chamber before they slept. To this Christ who is faithful in promises, and gracious in loving kindness be all glory. AMEN.   

THE NINTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION.  MAT. xxviii. 13. 
Say ye, his Disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.  
IN the Parable where the King made a Marriage for his Son (and I may truly apply it, this day was the glorious Nuptial of the Son of God) but in that Parable, the Servants went out for Guests into the high ways, and gathered together all, as many as they found, good and bad. So the Evangelists have filled up the story of our Saviour's Resurrection, with all kind of Circumstances of Saints and Reprobates, truth and fictions, good and bad. It is agreed by them who have exactly wrote an harmony of the Gospels, that Christ made five Apparitions, and no fewer, all of them upon this triumphant day, after he was risen from the dead, to the devoutest of all others, men and women, that loved the Lord. The first, to Mary Magdalen; The second, to the other Women that were going from the Sepulchre to tell the Disciples what the Angels had said unto them; The third, to Peter, Luc. xxiv. 34. The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. 1 Cor. xv. 5. Seen of Cephas, then of the Twelve; The fourth, to Cleophas and the other Disciple toward the setting of the Sun, to whom he was known in the breaking of bread. The fifth, to the Disciples late that night. Whereas they had received a Message to go into Galilee, and there they should see the Lord, yet out of fear and incredulity they moved not out of doors. Therefore on the same day at Evening, being the first day of the Week, when the doors were shut where the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst of them, and said, Peace be unto you. And howsoever some of those portions of Scripture are read for the Gospel to morrow, some for next Sunday, yet all those five Apparitions happened upon this one day. He appeared so often to the best of those that loved him, but the relation of his Resurrection was made also on this day to the worst of those that hated him. The Angels spoke it to the Women in the hearing of the Soldiers that he was risen to life; the news went from bad to worse, the Soldiers tell the High Priests and Elders what they had heard and seen; the High Priests again sophisticate the news, and tell them fraudulently to Pilate for the Soldier's safety; then Pilate and the High Priests agreeing together fill the whole Nation of the Jews by their cunning with incredulity.  
Look not therefore to hear me speak at this time of those good Saints, to whom the mystery of Christ's Resurrection was the savour of life unto life, but of those wicked Infidels, who by their own impiety made it unto themselves the savour of death unto death. There is not one good person within the compass of the story, whereof my Text is a part. It is Manipulus zizaniorum; If ever, according to the Parable, God sent his Angel to gather the worst Tares in one bundle by themselves, here they are. The High Priests prevaricating with God and his Angels, the Soldiers corrupted, Pilate the Governor mispersuaded, the people wholly seduced, bad is the best: Yet St. Matthew, and no other Evangelist, hath interserted this piece of treachery among the other sweet Narrations of this most happy day. And for these causes, if St. chrysostom hit it right, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, truth will have the better audience, when it passeth through the mouths of most contrary Authors, say not that his Disciples, and such Women as had Christ in admiration, spread these things abroad, for the malignant Soldiers speak the same. 2. That we may see that very hour, when God did first smite the Jews with that vertiginous spirit to hearken to Cabalistical Legends, to the doting dreams of the Rabbins, as they do at this day, that is in St. Paul's Phrase, 
1 Tim. 4.7.  to profane and old Wives Fables. For indeed this Text is a mere Romancy, as arrant a Jewish Fable as ever was told: A Conspiracy so full of rotten Fictions, that nothing is true in it all, but that it is a Conspiracy, and that it is a Fiction. 1. Then we must bolt out the Confederates, Gebal and Ammon join together the High Priests, the Elders, and the Soldiers. 2. The way of Confederacy is by putting a forged Tale in the Soldier's mouths, they must avouch any thing that the Priests suborn, Ye shall say. 3. The Plot is collaterally against the Disciples for being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, breakers up of Graves, and robbers of the dead, Say ye his Disciples came by night. 4. The main intended contrivance was to discredit the true Doctrine of our Saviour's Resurrection, Say ye his Disciples came by night and stole him away. 5. In the last place I will handle the improbability of all, of what contradictions the Plot consists, never to be pieced together, for all this, if it like you, must be done while they slept. Say ye, etc.  
The Text being part of a Confabulation of some that laid their heads together to do mischief, in the first place it will be most proper to speak of these Confederates. On the one part, to see that men of the best gifts and qualities are the most wicked Sons of Belial when they are left to themselves, they are of no worse credit and calling than High Priests and Elders. The selected Tribe of God to burn Incense to his name, and offer Sacrifice continually, the eyes of the people for counsel, and their tongue to pray for them: So blessed by Jacob, and by Moses in the name of their Father Levi, that nothing but such an horrid sin as a conspiracy against Christ could unbless them again. Every house thought itself happy to receive one of that order, so Micah of Mount Ephraim; every Lot of Israel took them for innocent and unsuspected, as it is 1 Mach. seven. 14. One that is a Priest of the Seed of Aaron is come, and he will do us no harm. Marcus dixit, ita est, their word was Law, and their righteousness unquestioned. All this credit they had, that now the Devil might use them the better to suppress a manifest truth. When one did highly commend Julian the Cardinal the Pope's Legate at the Council of Basil, Sigismond the Emperor answers, Tamen Romanus est; for all your great commendation this man is a Roman; So the High Priests sat in Moses Chair, were zealous of the Law, fasted, looked sourly, pretended much affection to the Temple of the Lord, Tamen sunt Pharisaici, for all this praise they tasted deeply of the Leaven of the Pharisees, and envied it that God himself should send his own Son to have more authority among the people, or to be greater in estimation than they; such as loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. That was a mild character of our Saviour's; but the meaning of it is, they had rather conjure with Hell to maintain their Error, than retract it with open repentance, and incur a little shame for their former obstinacy. When Lazarus was raised from the dead, and all the people wondered at it, presently the High Priests warn their Council to meet, (for upon every good deed they fell a conspiring) and the matter propounded to the Council was, What do we? For this man doth many Miracles. O fools, and slow of heart! 
Joh. 11.47.  If he do many Miracles, what should ye do? But confess him to be the Son of God, and fall down and worship him." Is Lazarus revived to their knowledge? And doth it not say unto" them, why will ye perish and not believe? Nay, God invited them thus far, that those mighty sinners, the Authors that put Christ to death, heard of his Resurrection on this day within a little while after he was risen, and by their own Ministers, such as were of their own Faction, that watched the Sepulchre, those told them very certain tidings, that an Angel of God had said to certain devout women, He is risen, he is not here. They saw it, they heard it, they quaked for fear and felt it, they could not be mistaken. O God what abundant means were these, to let them know the truth and be saved? For all this they are at their old santez, What do we? This man is risen from the dead, let us cast a mist before men's eyes, that they may never believe it. Thus that which should have begot Faith in them begot madness; and that heart will never be well softened which is hardened with the very grace of God. Was Pharaoh ever religiously mollified that waxed stubborn after so many Messages which Moses brought, after so many Plagues on Earth, so many Wonders from Heaven? He never had a true relenting heart that dodged the grace of God so often. Beloved, that Pharaoh, and these High Priests, let them be your examples, what a fearful thing it is to make ill use of those good means which are ordained for your salvation.  
But I am not yet off from the main Point, the Priests are one part of this wicked combination, and they invited the Soldiers to join with them in the Plot against Christ's Resurrection, and undertake for another Plot, to make Pilate wink at all passages, and be pleased, Davos Davos omnia, these are the wits that carry the whole stratagem before them. For what Impostures will not pass for fair dealing when they are recommended upon the credit of the Chief Priests? jis qui occaecantur authoritate sacerdotali facilè pro veritate obtruditur mendacium. When well meaning men have the persons of some great Clerks in reverence, and think the Spirit of God is among them; how easy it is to fall into great errors upon that trust? That it is no wonder if many stick obstinately to Popish superstition, whose eyes are dazzled with Pontifical Authority. Woe be to them who are rotten in their own foundation, and yet inveigle others to build upon their conscience. And mark who those others were, whom the High Priests made their Confederates, some of those Soldiers that watched the Sepulchre. So the Fox and the Lion are yoked together, Vulpina pellis & leomna; force and policy, wit and violence. The Sword of Paul, as Pope Julian the Second said, with the Keys of Peter.  
Some of the Watch came into the City, and showed the High Priests all things that were done, ver. 11. At first they told the certainty of Christ's Resurrection, and gave God the glory; and made a just Apology for themselves, that they were charged indeed to look to the Tomb, that the body which was in it might be kept safe, and unremoved; but some dreadful Powers from above came down, and broke open the Sepulchre; who could blame them therefore that they did not fight against Heaven? If they might have been let alone to themselves, they had said no more, and gone away well excused. But the High Priests, more unjust by far than these Heathen, make them unsay every word, which they had spoken true, and scandalise God's name among the Heathen, by teaching them to blaspheme. A very hard case, that in all likelihood these had been far more honest and sincere if they had never consulted with those that by their Duty and Office were their Teachers. But a little matter, alas, draws men into the highway of iniquity, and the Priests could no sooner propound treachery, but the Soldiers are in the knot. First, they carry more reverence to man than unto God, and conjoined to betray the greatest Article of truth in all the Gospel to do their friends a favour. Secondly, See how soon the wicked forget into what great fear they were put, it was but even now that they quaked, and became as dead men at the Apparition of an Angel, their sin was before their eyes, that they should watch his Sepulchre, of whom the Prophet had said, Thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption; the guiltiness of this took all their courage from them, yet within two hours after at the most they are deeper in the same wickedness than ever they were before, as if the terrible admonition they had early in the Morning had been seven years since, or before man's remembrance. So let the Plague, or Famine, or Sword of the Enemy be removed from a Nation, in one year, nay, in one month you shall see the sins of wont and custom as high and as rise, as if that People had never been beaten with such calamity. When Moses had interceded to God to rid away some sore judgement from Pharaoh, after a little pause he was never the better: But when Pharaoh saw there was respite, 
Exod. 8.15.  he hardened his heart, Exod. viij. 15. So the Soldiers seeing there was respite, and that the revenging Angel did not follow them at the heels, fall immediately in a little space into a fouler service than before. Thirdly, As the saying is very true, Facinus, quos inquinat, aequat; great men lose much of their superiority and power when they match themselves with their underlings in a bad deed; the basest servants are their equals when they have made them consorts in their iniquity. The High Priests lost all their veneration in the esteem of these Soldiers when they were guilty one to another of a mutual Confederacy. They should and would have been as fearful to do any wicked thing in the presence of the High Priests as in the presence of an Angel; but now they carry no awe at all to them who had forgot their reverence to their God.  
Fourthly, We read at verse 11. they were but some of the Watch that concurred in this devilish stratagem against Christ, and his Disciples, but the Chief Priests are indefinitely named, not some of them, but the whole Fraternity, for none are excepted. So divers Synods of Christian Priests and Bishops have with one mouth protested against the Faith, with one Pen subscribed to Heresy, so that the unity of Priests, let some say what they will, is not always a token of God's Spirit upon them, but sometimes of Satanical Confederacy. Of the Soldiers, who watched the Sepulchre, but one part only came into the City, and of that part it may be but a few of the chief sticklers consented to evil, the rest, perhaps, were like those two hundred in Jerusalem, who were called by Absalon to Hebron, 
2 Sam 15.11.  of whom the Scripture witnesseth, That they went in their simplicity, knowing nothing. Among this Band of Soldiers, and among those that were tempted to tell the forgery, he that writes the Calendar of the Greek Saints, Simeon Metaphrastes, nominates one Longinus, and brings him in for a Saint on the Fifteenth of March, the next day after Christ was crucified. Metaphrastes hath patched together this Legend of him, that it was he who pierced our Saviour's side with a Spear, and that a drop of the blood which streamed out fell upon the eye of Longinus, whereof he had lost the sight before by some mischance, and this drop of blood restored him to the sight, yea, and to the eyes of his mind, presently to confess Christ and believe. How will the next story hang with this? That for all his conversion and belief, he was by appointment of Pilate one of them that watched the Sepulchre of Christ; surely, all those were evil instruments, and the Angel handled them accordingly, by striking a fear into them like dead men. But proceed we, for Metaphrastes says, that Longinus, and two more with him, refused the evil ways of the High Priests, stiffly avouched the truth of the Resurrection, for which he incurred the great hatred of Pilate, and the Jews, and when they despited him for it he gave up his Soldier's Cassock, and Belt, would serve the Romans no more, went into Cappadocia to preach the Gospel, and became a Martyr. But that you may know Metaphrastes is no sure Author for Canonising of Saints, Baronius at the end of this, and another story I shall tell you anon, bids the Reader beware, says he, As Paul admonisheth, prove all things, hold that which is good.  
But before I leave this first Point of my Text, mark that, which is most apparent, how the Chief Priests and Soldiers pieced together, 
Ver. 12.  why the Elders and the Council gave large money to the Soldiers, like Claudius his Witnesses, of whom Tully says, they knew him to be a man of no faith, for they would not speak one word of his side till their hire was in their Pocket. Emitur à custodibus argento resurrectionis silentium; 
Hilarius.  The Jews gave money to the Soldiers to keep the truth of the Resurrection in silence, and by so much the more is the Resurrection of Christ grown so famous, because this Bribery is so infamous, (they offer a little Silver to them that will conceal it, God doth infinitely outbid them, and offers the Kingdom of Heaven to them that preach it, and publish it.) For the Pharisees, who, no doubt, were the principal in this action, were most greedy of gain, and loath to part with their substance, especially by the lump, wherefore they would never have given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, large money, much more than they covenanted for, when they hired a Cohort to watch the Sepulchre, I say, they would never have given so much to the Soldiers to stop their mouth if there had been any probability left to outface the truth; no certainly, if it had been possible, they would have brought them in for carelessness, or treachery, but the matter was clear, it could not be answered so; they must poison the whole Band with money, or the truth would come out to their shame and infamy. O what folly there is in the wisdom of the wicked? What prudent man would ever hope that a Multitude would keep counsel? That among so many Witnesses none would blab it out in a corner? That no Scoffer in the ranks would take their money, and laugh at them for their impiety? Or that God would not raise up some other faithful Witnesses though all these did continue in Perjury? It was a Proverb once in the Christian Church, that it had Golden Priests when it had Wooden Chalices, that is, a brave Clergy in the times of poverty and persecution; but when Riches flowed in, that they had Golden Chalices, they had for a great part but Wooden Priests. I find this most true in the Synagogue of the Jews, that in this Age they had more wealth than they knew how to use well, for in these three last Chapters of St. Matthew, four times, and no less, they did most grossly abuse that Talon which the Lord had given them: 1. They gave Judas thirty Pieces of Silver to betray his Master. 2. They were at charges to bribe a Multitude with swords and staves to take our Saviour in the Garden. 3. They set a Watch to look to the Sepulchre, expense was drawn from them for that use. And 4. They gave large money to have the Soldiers say, as it is in my Text, His Disciples came, and stole him away by night. Pecuniam quae in usus templi data fuerat, vertunt in redemptionem mendacii, says St. Hierom; which I would English, They took a part of God's portion to see the Devil. One says, that this is a note of the Antichrist, Proditur venturus armatus pecuntis; a Tradition goes that he shall be full of money, able to bribe abundance to take his part, so that they shall maintain falsehoods and errors against their own conscience. Not unlikely to be true, and I am sure the mystery of Antichrist began betimes, even on this very day, and let us all take notice of it, to whom the Resurrection of our Saviour is sweet and precious, what an horrid and Antichristian sin Bribery is, both in the Giver, and in the Taker, that the Devil did fly to that sin rather than any other, thereby to subvert the glory of God, and the dearest consolation of all Christians, the Resurrection of Jesus. As Brimstone will smell in woollen, so all sorts of Bribery, intended to the prejudice of truth and innocency, smell of that abominable corruption which put the Chief Priests and the Soldiers into this deep confederacy, that shall be succinctly handled, now I have made the rest that follows more easy to be understood by opening the condition of the persons that carried the plot between them.  
The way of the Confederacy follows, by putting a forged Tale in the Soldier's mouths, they must say any thing that the Priests suborn, Say ye. There is a threefold lie, 
Lib. de Mendac. c. 14.  says St. Austin: 1. Vain Fiction, which doth neither harm nor good, Quod fit merâ mentiendi libidine, a mere trick of scurvy custom without any bad intention, yet this is a sin. 2. There is a lie which hurts one party to help another, and that is a greater sin than the first. 3. Tale est quod nulli prodest & obest alicui; there is a lie which is pernicious to some, and beneficial to none, that is worst of all; such stuff was this that was persuaded to the Soldiers. Roman Soldiers were wont to be commended for their fidelity above all Military men in the world, In Rom. militibus rarò fides suit desiderata; They were very trusty and true in the praise of all Histories, and God gave them grace to bring truth with them as far as from the Sepulchre to the Council Chamber of the High Priests, but there they lost it, there they were bought out of it, and to this day the Jews, if they could, would make us unsay all the truth that we tell them. O beware of such as turn away their ears from the truth, and give heed unto Fables; especially, note those for the enemies of Christ, like these in my Text, that will hire others to forge, to dissemble, to forswear; these are they that drive the Devil's Market, and they must look for the reward from him, he is their father, the father of lies and liars. But what reward shall be given thee thou false tongue? Even mighty and sharp Arrows, with hot burning coals.  
We detest Bawds and Panders very justly, the wicked dealers for other men's filthy Lusts: Ought not they to be as much detested (I think they ought) that are other men's hirelings and Instruments to vent their falsehoods and dissimulations. Anthimus, 
Surius de vit. Pa. lib. 2.  Bishop of Nicomedia, was enquired after to be put to death for being a Christian, and being found had the courtesy offered him by the Sergeants, that they would tell the Tyrant that sent them they could not find him, they were resolved to be so kind, and Anthimus had his leave to make an escape; but the thing wrought in his conscience, and rather than they should tell a lie for his sake, he went after them, and offered himself to suffer death. But Sisera was not so streight-laced, as we use to say, 
Judg. 4.20.  he would have been content, nay, he desired Jael, If any of the Pursuers, asked for such a man, to say no man was there. This is the case which of all others may seem most plausible, whether one might be entreated to tell an untruth lawfully to save the life of another, that is followed by an enemy. St. Austin quickly resolves it, you must not do a wicked thing to save your own life, much less doth it urge you to corrupt your own soul to save another man's body. So he doth extol Firmus Bishop of Tagastum, Firmus nomine, firmior voluntate; into whose house a fearful person fled for fear of Assassinates, and being asked for him, Respondit nec mentiri se posse, 
Cap. 13. lib. Pradict.  nec hominem prodere; he answered, he must not lie, and he would not betray a man to them that thirsted for his blood, and from this answer he would not be beaten with many wounds. O take not away from me thy truth, says David; not Eloquence, nor a shrill voice like a Symbal, nor a musical warbling as sweet as a Siren, none of these are the honour of a man's lips, truth goes beyond them all. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says Synesius; A word truly spoken is nobly born, falsehood and lies are beggarly begotten, that is, either out of foolish easiness, or out of fear, or out of base reward, as when the Soldiers had the Bribe in their hand, they must say any thing that was put into their mouths, Say ye.  
Say ye: Why let such as they are talk their pleasure; But who would believe them? A lie hath a kind of croaking harshness in it at any time, especially from such reporters as these. I am induced to suppose that the High Priests were half jealous of them, that all was not Gospel which they related about the Angels appearing, and the body risen, and would they have the people trust them more than they did? But here was God's judgement upon that stiffnecked Nation, though these were heathen men, without God in the world, vile Mercenary witnesses, of no credit, yet their tale was received of the Jews as if Moses had brought it; and it is reported commonly to this day, says St. Matthew. If St. Matthew meant at that day when he wrote his Gospel, that was eight years after, says Theophylact. Justin Martyr says, 
2. lib. contra Tryph.  that in his days, more than an hundred years after, it was taken up among the Jews for a true story, and that they wrote Letters to their Countrymen over all the world, to assure them it was so, and no otherwise. But in holy Scripture that phrase, to this day, notes the durance, and long continuance of a thing, the twelve stones which Joshuah set up on the banks of Jordan are there to this day; after Dagon fell on the Threshold, the Priests of Baal tread not on the Threshold to this day, so this figment was commonly reported among the Jews long after, that is, unto this day. See what Prophets were their Instructors, after they had set their heart to resist the truth; Testimonium Martyrum nolunt audire ut vivant, 
Aug. hom. 37  & testimonium dormientium receperunt ut pereant; They stop their ears at the Doctrine of the holy Martyrs that invite them to eternal life, and receive the witness of Soldiers, that belie themselves, saying, they slept and did not; and belie Christ and his victory over the Grave, saying, that such men, as I think, they knew not, His Disciples came and stole him away by night. Attend potius eum qui emit te, non eum qui mendacium emit tibi. 
De verb. Dom. Ser. 45  Listen unto Christ, and learn of him who hath bought thee with a price, with the price of his own blood to inherit eternal life; listen not to them that gave a price of money to buy a lie, whereby thou shalt be swallowed up of eternal death. And beware to be either active or passive in false subornations, either the giver or the taker. Beware of lying lips, and a deceitful tongue, all these are most odious for their sakes that would have undermined the credit of our Saviour's Resurrection. Wherefore putting away all lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour, for we are members one of another. 
Eph. 4.25.  Buy the truth, and sell it not, Prov. xxiii. 23.  
Now the Jews have rigged their Witnesses, and set them forth so well greased in the hand that they dare say any thing; We are come in the third place to that which they must say: First, They must lop at the branches, and strike at the root afterward, the Disciples must be first drawn into danger; that they are breakers open of graves, and robbers of the dead, his Disciples came by night. Poor souls, they thought they had taken the safest way that the wit of man could invent to escape both envy and danger, they were shut up, stirred not abroad, meddled with nothing; but let a man live as private as he can, as retired as he can, if malice mean him an ill turn it shall fall upon him; Christ was private enough in Mount Olivet, yet there he was attached. And it is an argument unto us, that many times they fared better through God's providence, who adventured themselves abroad in ill times, and contested for the name of Christ, rather than they that out of humane providence would hide themselves and their gifts for fear like a Candle under a Bushel. But whether in a private or in a public life the Disciple is not better than his Master. If Christ's Doctrine and Miracles were so ill entertained by the Pharisees, that they hated him to the death, yea, and beyond death; his Ministers shall feel their anger before the storm be ended; the very name of a Disciple was grown a taunt and reproach. The Synagogue thought it had called the blind man all to nought, when they said of him in their passion, Thou art his Disciple, Joh. ix. This is an infallible character of a base and ignoble spleen to grudge at all those that depend upon such as they persecute, to despite the poor Disciples for Christ's sake. As Zedekiah commanded not only Jeremiah the Prophet to be laid up in Prison, but Baruch his Scribe to be apprehended, Jer. xxxvi. 26. And the Jews, when they could not tear Paul in pieces, nor come at him, they beat Sosthenes his Companion, whom he had converted to the faith, Act. xviii. The old devilish State rule was, leave no whelps living of the brood of a Lion: so the Pharisees would destroy all those whom Christ had gathered about him, if these were made away they thought there was not a tongue left that would wag to offend them with this truth, that Christ was risen from the dead.  
His Disciples came by night; did they, will you stand to it? then call the Disciples and the Soldier's face to face, and examine them before Pilate: reus ore proprio respondere debet, it is the Law of Nations and Nature, that the accused in all Courts of the world must speak for themselves against their accusers, this is most indifferent justice it cannot be denied, to believe a tale against a man without suffering him to say what he can for his innocency, is barbarous and inhuman proceeding. He that came to the Marriage Chamber not having on a Wedding Garment, was not cast forth till he became speechless, and could not answer: But the Disciples have no shadow of law or trial permitted unto them, but are impleaded and condemned behind their backs, his Disciples came by night. Since they were not permitted to say aught to clear themselves, I will anticipate a little of the last point, and say one thing for them, how improbable this defamation was, with little partiality to their person. They that ran away in the Garden from their Master when he was alive, because a few Bandogs of the High Priests had him in their teeth, how dared they adventure against an whole Cohort of Soldiers to come near his Sepulchre when he was dead? though one of them drew a sword, and smote a Servant of the High Priests, it was before Christ was gripped in their clutches; but since they saw him dead, nil iste nec ausus, nec potuit, their hearts fainted, they shut themselves close, and durst not be known where they were, are these likely to rescue their Master's Body from a Roman Garrison? Loquere verisimilia, speak likelihoods, though they be falsehoods. Good wits says one love to make discoveries of treasons where there are none, it makes their own perspicacy and discerning admired, but they do it upon seeming and strong conjectures, but here is no scent in this tale to follow it to any probability. The truth is a knavish wit might have found out many more colourable evasions, but with this fiction, if it took, the High Priests set forth themselves not only for wise men, but to have Prophecy and Divination in their spirit; for in the former chapter, verse 64. they request Pilate, that he would command the Sepulchre should be made sure, lest his Disciples come by night and steal him away: No better excuse therefore to advance their credit to be Divine and Prophetical, than to charge the Disciples with the same fact, even as they had foretold it a day before. Nun sex totos menses prius olfecissem? says old Demea: So these were such cunning men, that they had the Disciples plot in the wind, before ever it was intended. Silly fellows, God wot, for all this cunning, fifty days full had not run on after Christ rose from the dead, but St. Peter and his Associates filled all Jerusalem with their Doctrine, that Jesus was risen from the dead, and that He whom they had crucified was both Lord and God. Where were their wits to foresee this and prevent it? and when the fame of it was openly begun, how will they mend it? lay not night works to the Disciples charge, as if they durst not avouch the Resurrection but in darkness, dies diei eructat verbum, one day certifieth another, and one night telleth another, that Christ rose by his own virtue, and by no fraud of the Disciples to turn the nights of ignorance into manifest light, and to bring us from the night of Hell and the Grave into everlasting day.  
But the malignance of the High Priests against the Disciples was a less crime than their envy against the glory of Christ, that's the fourth point of my division, and their main drift to discredit the true Doctrine of his Resurrection, Say ye his Disciples came by night and stole him away. Virtutem magistri faciunt esse discipulorum crimen; these are rotten Jewish Fables, for Christ rose by his own virtue, and was not surreptitiously conveyed away, but they make this Divine virtue in Christ to be an hellish vice in the Disciples; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, breakers up of Monuments of the dead, a most infamous crime, in the judgement of all Laws, Heathen and Christian, accounted among the Enditements of Sacrilege, not only because the Corpse is laid up in a place, but because the body of a Christian is sacrum depositum, interred in an assured hope of the Resurrection. It was hateful in the very Beasts to root up the Carcases of the dead; 
Histor. Animal.  Aristotle imputes it to the ravening Hyaena, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to long for the flesh of man, and therefore to turn up his Grave to devour him; and Pliny adds to it, that it is commonly believed, ab hôc uno animali sepulchra erui inquisitione mortuorum, that no brutish creature but that Hyaena is so brutish, to despoil the dead in their Sepulchers: but if any men or women did trespass in this kind, as more savage than beasts, either they were accounted Witches, that ransacked for somewhat to make incantations, or the most odious kind of Thiefs, 
Suidas. Favorinus.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, such as stripped the dead for their Winding-sheet. Pope Sergius found out another way, neither of the former, but for a worse end, if worse might be than Witchcraft; for after his Predecessor Pope Formosus was dead, he caused his body to be taken up, arraigned it at the Bar, cut off an hand or some fingers from it in disgrace, and then threw him into Tiber. But the Disciples are charged with an Enterprise more scandalous and wicked than all these, to steal their Master out of his Monument, and then to preach a new Religion to the World, that He was risen from the dead.  
The Cretians are always liars, says Paul, Tit. i. 12. not as they were Cretians, as if that were a National vice, St. Paul did not revile the whole Nation, but because they gave heed to Jewish Fables. This one Jewish Fable, 
Ver. 14.  if they had no more falsehoods, is so contagious that it envenoms the whole truth of Christianity: For if Christ be not risen from the dead, then is all our faith in vain, 1 Cor. xv. but the vanity was the High Priests, vanitas vendens vanitatem, in St. Augustine's words: For although they might colour this Allegation, that the Disciples undertook this cozenage for the honour of Christ, who had foretold, that if the Temple of his body were destroyed he would raise it up again in three days, yet would they have been imprisoned and scourged, yea and died for the testification of the Resurrection, if they had been guilty of such false play, that this was nothing so, but that they had stolen away the body? It makes much for the confirmation of our faith, that the Soldiers and the Jews complain Christ's body was not in the Sepulchre on the third day. Hereupon S. Chrysostom framed this Logical dilemma against their infidelity: The body of Jesus which was deposed in the Grave, in that Grave on which you rolled a great stone, and sealed it with a Seal; how comes it to be missing? either it is risen, or stolen away: how could it be stolen away, when you set it to be watched with a Band of Soldiers: the theft might have been suspected if you had not hired so many to watch and look to it, but your own suspicion and policy hath shut you out from that excuse; therefore it must be that the third day he rose again from the dead: Aut mortuum nobis reddant Judaei, cujus custodiam susceperunt, aut vivum adorent; since the Jews took the care and custody of his body, either let them bring him forth dead, or worship him, as we do, that lives for evermore, and is the Fountain of Life. 
Histor. lib. 1. cap. 21.  Gregorius Turonensis tells a story (but Baronius says you shall choose whether you will believe it) yet he avers he took it out of those Letters which Pilate wrote to Tiberias the Emperor, how the Pharisees and Rulers were most offended at Joseph of Arimathaea for begging the Body of Jesus to bury it, and committed him to a Prison which had no doors, but letting him in at the Seiling, and closed it up again, but an Angel of God made the walls to open and shut again, and brought him out. Afterwards the Priests being angry at the Soldiers upon the first report that the Body of Christ was gone, the Soldiers contested with them, reddite vos Joseph, & nos reddemus Christum; do you tell us what is become of Joseph whom you kept, and we will tell you what is become of Christ whom we kept. Every figment and device of the High Priests was retorted upon them, but the Devil had emboldened them to say any thing, or to do any thing against the Resurrection. 
De Resur. Serm. 1.  St. Bernard makes an elegant allusion upon it thus, Senior frater occisum nobis saginatum vitulum indignatur, foris stat, omnino non acquiescit intrare, as the elder Son in the Parable was offended that the fatted Calf was killed for his younger brother, he would not come in a-doors, he refused to mix with his father's Family; so the Jews are displeased that Christ is sacrificed for us Gentiles, they come not to our Churches, they despise our Congregations. O says the Father, if his Cross doth scandalise you, let his Resurrection confirm you: you say let him come down from the Cross, and we will believe him, si non creditis resurgenti, utique nec credidissetis descendenti, if you will not believe in him now he is risen to life again, you would never have believed in him though he had delivered himself from death. The rich man said in Hell, if one came from the dead his Brethren would believe, therefore they of the High Priests Faction made themselves unfit to receive any article of faith, because they strained their wits to belly the Resurrection.  
Now in the last place I come to handle the improbability of this formal Tale and Fiction, of what contradictions the Plot consists never to be pieced together; 
Suidas in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  for all this, if it like you, must be done while they stepped. Say ye, etc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; it was a Proverb in Greece, if a man talked idly, that he told a tale, as if he crept out of a Tomb. I am sure this story about our Saviour stolen out of his Tomb is as doting a Dream as ever was told out of a Tomb, no part hanging together with congruity to another. Certainly it was with them, as God said He would deal with them that built Babel, 
Gen. 11.7.  Go to, let us go down and confound their language, that they may not understand one what another says. The error of those Jews was affected, and very wilful, they knew that Christ was risen, and they would not know it, and voluntary errors are ever punished with great blindness, they that will believe a lie shall fall into strong delusions.  
First, why would the Soldiers (say they slept?) why would they be brought to put themselves into such infamy and danger: Infamy, that such a crew of them would be talked of to have slept and snorted on the ground about the Sepulchre like Swine in their drunkenness: but danger also; admit the High Priests for all their fair promises could not have pacified the Governor? where had they been? according to the Laws of some Countries, they that were to watch the Corpses of Malefactors executed, were to answer Body for Body. When Herod sought for Peter and found him not, 
Acts 12.10.  he commanded the Keepers should be put to death, yet they could not help it; will these Soldiers say they lost the Body by negligence, which they should have kept, and do they look to be rewarded? ille crucem sceleris pretium tulit, hic diadema. This forgery would have cost them dear if Pilate had been a just Magistrate: But the High Priests knew what a notable, Ruler should sit upon the cause, they could tell the Soldiers before hand how he should shuffle up all, and pronounce as they would have him; but it had been justice they should have suffered for this fault, which they never committed, I mean for sleeping in the time of their charge: as David killed the Amalekite, who made a formal tale that he slew King Saul when indeed he did not. One wonders at it, and for very good reason, that all of the conspiracy were not afraid, lest in the very moment that they began to publish their fiction Christ should have appeared and stood before them, and convinced them for their forgery. As when Athanasius was accused at a Council for breaking of Arsenius his Readers arm in his rage, just at the nick Arsenius came in presence of the Council, and it appeared upon his body that he had suffered no such violence.  
But such cautions were so little in their thoughts at that time, that they considered nothing at all, a thick darkness which might be felt was fallen upon them: for who would ever produce witnesses that were a sleep? would their testimony be ever taken unless the Judge were asleep too? and if the body was stolen away while they slept, which way did they come by the spirit of Prophecy to know the Disciples did it rather than other men? or why did they not follow them and take it from them? or why did they not crave pilate's Warrant to search for it where they had conveyed it? durst they not abuse pilate's Authority so far? and dared they mock God? Into what confusions, and inextricable errors a man falls that sins against his own conscience? I could waken them with many questions more, but I will not be tedious. But who will believe them, that in such a great Court of Guard, as no doubt this was, all the Band slept at once, and not one of them so careful as some say a Flock of Cranes are by nature, to watch by course? or how could they all sleep, when that which they had in charge was of so much rumour and expectation; or is it possible such a deep Lethargy was fallen upon them, the air being so sharp, that anon before they had a fire of coals within doors, that none of them should waken, either when the Disciples went in, or came out of the Sepulchre; the creaking which the stone would make when it was rolled off from the door must needs be heard a far off. Answerable to this too the linen clothes which were about the Body were in the Sepulchre by themselves: Had they such leisure to strip those off, and stay longer by far than they needed? had it not been a better concealment for the Body to bear it away wrapped than naked: Beside Myrrh and Aloes which were cast about Christ's Body were most glutinous things, and would stick to the flesh so fast, that they could not be taken off without much cunning, and long patience. Unless witnesses which were asleep may say any thing, these things were impossible to be reconciled. And his observation was right true that made it, that the Priests might have spread this rumour with far more safety and likelihood, if they had never trusted the Soldiers to tell the lie for them. But God would not let them see their way, 
Matth. 27.62.  that all Ages might be astonished at their folly. For this Guard of Soldiers was not begged of Pilate to compass the Sepulchre about till Christ had lain one night in the Grave, till the day after he was crucified. If they had said his Disciples stole him away the first night before the Watch was set the lie had been the stronger; but with far less cunning they impute the loss of the Body to the Soldier's negligence, not looking well to their charge the second night, Say ye his Disciples came and stole him away while we slept. A sleepy Project; Nec fide constantes, nec in perfidiâ, men of no faith, and of most foolish infidelity. I reduce the Use of it to that notable Memorandum; Where men are averse from hearing truth, God dazzles their mind with gross and senseless deceits; yea though they be High Priests, as we know who they are that entangle themselves with a thousand absurd questions about the Sacrament, because they will not be driven from their idolatrous practice to adore the Elements. But let us approach unto it with simplicity of heart, setting aside all contention and frowardness, let us believe in Christ in this breaking of bread that our eyes may be opened, let us drink of the fruit of the Vine in remembrance of his bloodshedding here, that we may eat and drink with him in his Kingdom. Finally, as being risen with Christ, let us seek those things which are above. AMEN.   

FIVE SERMONS UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost.   

THE FIRST SERMON UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost.  ACTS two. 1. 
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.  
IN this Book of the Acts of the Apostles you have the Evidences and most ancient Records of the Primitive Church. Christ in the four Evangelists taught us what an absolute Church should be, and St. Luke practically hath given us an exemplar what an absolute Church was and flourished in the time of the holy Apostles. In the first Chapter of this Book you may note what a thin company, and small Society was first entrusted with the Gospel of Christ. How the number of the Twelve was made complete again after the loss of Judas by the election of Mathias, and these together with some other Disciples made up 120 names, ver. 15. Pusillus Grex, a very little flock indeed, as many as conveniently met in one dining room or upper Chamber, and these to deal with all the world, not half so many as Gideon selected out of thirty thousand to save and deliver Israel from the Midianites. Though it was a most stately Altitude in the Roof of Solomon's Temple, that the height of it was 120 Cubits, yet it was but a narrow scantling for the Primitive Church of our Saviour to have but 120 Disciples. Could these few, would flesh and blood say, be heard over the face of the whole earth? Well, says King Ahaz, it is all one unto the Lord to save with many, or with few: And as if the Lord had thought these too many to propagate the Christian faith. Salmeron says, (I know not from whom he had it) that fourteen of those 120 proved arch Heretics, and sowers of false Doctrine, and then that little number of faithful ones was more than the tenth part diminished.  
But put this second Chapter in the balance against the first, and you will say there were labourers enough for God's Harvest though half of them had been spared. Consider what excellent, unutterable, and even Godlike gifts they had given to them at this Feast of Pentecost, so that all Nations and Languages that dwelled round about were astonished in this Chapter at the grace that came out of their lips. One of them was able to deal with many thousands of natural men, that were not illuminated, and to confound them in their wisdom. And now I purpose to adjoin myself, God willing, to that Treatise, what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, what wonderful works these were which God poured upon those that expected the influence of his grace at this season, how many and manifold gifts were given upon this day in one gift, the gift of the Holy Ghost. At this time I will go as far in that subject as my Text will lead me in these Points. First, Here is the time of the Holy Ghost's coming, the day of Pentecost. Secondly, The company that received the Holy Ghost, all of them, a multitude, with whom anon we shall be better acquainted. Thirdly and principally it is to be noted, how they were prepared to receive the Holy Spirit. Which I draw to two Heads, they were una, and Vnanimes, they were all in one place, no strangeness or separation one from another, and they were Vnanimes of one accord, which is divided into two blessings, though they were not divided, for they were in vinculo pacis, and in vinculo spei; they were knit in the bond of peace by concord, and all knit in the bond of hope by patience and expectation that the Holy Ghost would come upon them. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, etc.  
That Doctrine which our Saviour preached to his Apostles in the seventh verse of the former Chapter is fit to begin the first Point, The Father keeps the times and seasons in his own power, and all his good fruits he brings forth in such due seasons, that the season is as fertile of observation as the fruit itself; so it will fall out to engender copious observations, that the Holy Ghost was given now unto the Apostles just at this Feast, and not until this day, the Feast of Pentecost. Let us have recourse to the Law of Moses, that we may make ourselves perfect in this mystery. God spoke unto Pharaoh to let the Children of Israel go, that they might hold a feast unto the Lord in the Wilderness, Exod. v. 1. Therefore when they were brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and a stretched out arm, they did perform what the Lord intended, they did hold a Feast, not presently, but after they were out of the dread of the Egyptians, just fifty days after the Passeover that Pharaoh was content to send them away. And from thence the Greek 72 Translators put it into one word, and called it Pentecost. The Hebrew Doctors all say that the first Pentecost was celebrated on the sixth day of the third month; so reckoning after their Tradition from the second day of the feast of unleavened bread, which was the sixteenth day of the first month, it made a complete number of a Pentecost, or fifty days, and was called therefore the Feast of Weeks, because they were to number exactly by days and weeks, and not to miss the day which the Lord had appointed. God was very curious and exact in his Commandment.  
Well, this Feast was first solemnised at Mount Sinah after they had cast Egypt at their back fifty days, what were the conditions and reasons for which it was instituted? Let me resolve that, and you will understand all. First, In remembrance how joyful and thankful they were that they came out of Captivity. Oleaster notes very truly, though one of the Jesuits carp at him for it, that the remembrance of their long Captivity was one end of this Feast; it is so expressly, Deut. xuj. 12. Thou shalt keep the Feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God, and thou shalt remember thou wast a bondman in Egypt. Secondly, On the same fiftieth day that they came out of Egypt the Law was delivered upon Mount Sinah, or Horeb, for Horeb is but a part of Mount Sinah, and the memorial thereof was ever after celebrated upon this yearly Feast. So St. Hierom says in an Epistle to Fabiola, Dedicatio legis est Pentecoste; The Pentecost is the dedication of the Law. Thirdly, It had another respect to make it holy, for it was called festum messis or primitiarum, the Feast of Harvest, or the Feast of First-fruits; for as soon as they put in their Sickle into the Wheat harvest, they baked two Loaves leavened made of fine flower of the first fruits, and waved them before the Lord, and offered them up with many bloody Sacrifices. Now this was not put in ure at the present, but it was a festival Ceremony not to be omitted, to celebrate God's mercies for the fruitfulness of the earth when they came into the Land of Canaan. It is true that the Feasts of the Passeover, and of Tabernacles were observed in an holy wise seven days together, at the feast of Weeks or Pentecost they kept but that one day sacred to the Lord, because it was the beginning of Harvest, and God put no decrees upon them to make them loiter from their daily necessary labour, but it was an high solemnity as fallen out in all the year, Dies celeberrimus, & sanctissimus, as the Vulgar Latin reads it, Leu. xxiii. 21. where we read that then they should proclaim and call an holy Convocation. So I have summed up the three occasions of this Feast in the Old Law, first to give thanks for their deliverance from bondage; Secondly, to honour the day wherein first they received the Law at Mount Sinah; and thirdly, to offer up the first fruits of their Harvest; will you see now how aptly the gift of the Holy Ghost was distributed at the same time, When the day of Pentecost, etc.  
First, Whereas the Jews did celebrate at the Feast of Pentecost their enfranchisement from the house of bondage, so the benefit of liberty was augmented this day much more than ever it was before. This Satan knew well enough, and therefore the longest thing wherein he held the Church in ignorance was about the sending of the Holy Ghost, long after the name of Christ, and his power was received, whole Cities and Societies confessed they had not so much as heard whether there were an Holy Ghost or not. Ignorance in those Points which are necessary to salvation is the greatest thraldom and captivity in the world. False Prophets, says S. Paul, do lead captive silly women laden with sins, 2 Tim. three 6. I spoke not only of such as sat in the darkness of death and were lost; these were like Samson in fetters, having their eyes put out, but the Disciples, the flower of Christ's train saw nothing in holy mysteries as they ought to see, till the influence of this glorious day cleared there eyesight, their eyes were held, their hearts were held, they knew not which way their Redemption was brought about, and how Israel was restored. Our Saviour took out but one Text in all the New Testament, it is out of Isaiah, and it is to this very purpose that the Spirit of God redeemed us out of the captivity of ignorance; the place is extant, Luk. iv. 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. This comes home to the matter I am sure. Yet moreover, this is a day of restitution unto liberty, because it dissolved the Church from the tye and yoke of Levitical Ceremonies, from those multitude of Statutes which overwhelmed the people with observation. As Pharaoh was drowned in the red Sea, so the tenure of Mosaical Ceremonies was drowned in the blood of Christ which was shed upon the Cross, and on this Feast we received the Seal of the Spirit that we were rid of them all. So far I have demonstrated that at this time we shook off the bondage of Ignorance and Ceremonies, which makes it a feast of Pentecost to us Christians, as well as it was to the Jews.  
Secondly, You shall find the other correspondency marvellously kept between the Law and the Gospel. Christ at his death was slain not only as the Paschal Lamb, but even when the Lamb was slain on the Feast of Passeover. Now from the Feast of Passeover, or rather from the second day of sweet bread, reckoning fifty days, the Children of Israel came to Mount Sinah, and there received the Law, which was kept ever after with a most sacred memorial; so fifty days after Christ rose from the dead the Apostles and the Church received the Spirit of Sanctification. And I am sure we have much more cause to renown our Pentecost than the Jews had to honour theirs. If the Law, which was the ministration of death, was so thankfully remembered, how much more the dedication of the Gospel? For this day, as the Fathers say very well, was the first dedication of Christ's Catholic Church upon earth. They were made the Sons of the bondwoman by the Law, we are made the Sons of the freewoman by the Spirit. We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but we have received the spirit of adoption, Rom. viij. 15. A sinner could have no comfort in the Pentecost of the Jews, they had the Law, and that condemned them, this was miserable comfort. We have gladsome tidings this day, not from Sinah, but out of Zion, which bids us live by faith in Christ. In no other Feast of the Jews might Leaven be eaten, it was an heinous transgression, but the two loaves of the first fruits were to be baked with Leaven which were dedicated to God at this Feast, Leu. xxiii. 17. Expositors say no more to it but thus, 
Oleaster.  Leaven was put into the dough of new corn, Vt panes sapidiores essent, to make it more savoury; certainly so vulgar an interpretation is much under the meaning of the Holy Ghost. I would rather say it had a mystical construction, that Leaven was allowed at this Feast to intimate that the Holy Spirit would bear with the leaven of our nature, with our sins of frailty and infirmity. And it is observable that this is the number of the Jubilee, every fiftieth year was the Jubilee year, which was a time with the Jews to restore all men to their Lands, which were sold away by ill-husbandry, and a general forgiving of all debts: So this day was a true Jubilee for remission of Trespasses, it was at this time that Peter preached remission of sins to all that did repent and believe, to all without exception, for, says he, the Promise is to you, and to your Children, and to all that are afar off, even to as many as the Lord our God shall call. So I have showed that we received the divine Spirit of grace at Zion at the same time that they received the terrible Law at Sinah, which makes it a greater Feast of Pentecost to us Christians than it was unto the Jews.  
Thirdly, We agree no less with them in the next similitude for keeping this day. The Israelites, according to the early maturity of corn in that climate, began to put their Sickle at this time into Wheat Harvest; so the Apostles from this day forward went forth to reap that which the Prophets had sown, gathering much fruit unto eternal life, and bringing the Wheat of God into his Garner, unto the everlasting praise of the glory of his grace. Their Barley Harvest, such was the condition of their Soil and Husbandry, begun at Easter, their Wheat was begun to be cut down seven weeks after at Whitsuntide, and the latter was called Tempus primitiarum, the Time or Festival of First-fruits which were presented to the Lord. So God breathed his spirit into man at the creation of Adam, that was the first Harvest; which spirit being choked by him, and coming to nothing, this day there was a second emission of the spirit into man, fully to restore and renew him again. Now the two Loaves of First-fruits, which at this time by the Levitical Sanctions were waved to the Lord are rendered after the spiritual gloss of our Church, to be amor Dei & proximi, the love of God, and the love of our Neighbour; and these must be weaved or heaved up after their manner: what's that; why our integrity and piety must shine before men, that they may see our good works, and glorify our Father that is in heaven. Beloved, here's the difference, they gave first-fruits of earthly things this day unto God, but this day we celebrate the memorial how God gave First-fruits of heavenly things unto man. In Rom. viij. 23. St. Paul speaks of the first-fruits of the spirit in a diminutive sense, as the inchoation of grace, the enlightening of faith, the hope of better things, that what he hath begun in us he will perfect; but the first-fruits of the spirit which the Church reaped this day was that which sanctified the whole lump for ever after; for this last correspondency, and for the other forenamed, the Apostles in a most acceptable time expected the Holy Ghost, when the day, etc.  
A most delicious gift poured out from God in the very strength and deliciousness of the year: A festival time it was you have heard, and such a Festival as brought a Concourse of many Nations to Jerusalem; so it appears in this chapter. I have my authority from St. Ambrose, that the Lord had this time much in mind to do it honour many years before, for some Jewish Tradition hath encouraged him to say that the certain season when the Angel came down to the Pool of Bethesda to trouble the water, that whosoever stepped in first might be made whole of his disease; it was but once a year, and that once was the Feast of Pentecost. Mark how the Lord designed out that day for his Angelical Miracle. I will not engage myself into that Chronological question, whether our first Whitsunday when the Holy Ghost appeared in fiery tongues was the very Pentecost of the Jews, or rather the day after: To the latter opinion many incline, upon that slight reason, because St. Luke writ this Story of the Acts 28 years after Christ's ascension into heaven, and then the Jews Pentecost was abolished: the doubt is much uncertain, wherefore I let it pass. But I can assure you that in very ancient times of the Christian Faith, yea in the most ancient, if Clement his Constitutions were warrantable, this day was kept with as high honour and devotion as the zeal of our Forefathers could excogitate. Says Eusebius lamenting that his Master Constantine the Emperor died at the same time; if I should call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Holiday of Holidays, we should not err. He adds, that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it had honour done it seven weeks together. This in my apprehension refers us to three things. First the Church was wont to sing that cheerful Anthem of Alleluia every Sunday from Easter to Whitsuntide, an arbitrary Ceremony at the discretion of every particular Church, and our Church of England since the Reformation continued the custom according to the first Liturgies set forth in Edward the sixth his Reign to sing or say alleluia from Easter to Whitsuntide at Morning Prayer. 2. By the ancient Prescript no Fasts were bidden all those seven weeks, nothing but joy and exultation was heard and practised. 3. During all that space they did not kneel at time of Prayer, but stand upright looking towards Heaven, 
Can. 20. Nicene Council.  from whence the Holy Ghost descended, Nefas erat de geniculis adorare, in Tertullian's time; these were ancient Rites and Prescriptions to magnify this day in the beauty of holiness. But whereas Eusebius adds that Christ ascended into Heaven the very same day the Holy Ghost descended; this was his oversight, though not his alone, who would not pick the right sense. Act. i. 3. that Christ was seen of his Disciples but forty days, speaking of the things of the Kingdom of Heaven; therefore on the fourtieth day he was taken from them into Heaven; and ten days after the plentiful showers of grace did rain down upon the Church, the time is so precisely noted says Isidor Palcusiot, to refute that proud Heretic Montanus, who said the great promise of the Holy Spirit was not fulfilled at the Feast of Pentecost, but long after in his days. This is the glorious day which the Lord hath made, wherein he summed up the compliment of all his benefits, as the sixth day was the compliment of the Creation. All other preceding mercies were but words to this, the Holy Ghost is the Seal or Signature of those words, to make the deed the stronger, in quo signati estis, Eph. iv. 30. in whom ye are sealed unto the day of Redemption. Rejoice in this day, and keep it holy before the Lord, not in decking the body▪ in full diet, in sport, in idleness; but in thankfulness, in purity of mind, in spiritual consolations, in the feast of a good conscience, 
Homil. 35. in Evang.  and ever set before you at such seasons what Gregory said, Quid prodest interesse festis hominum, si contingat deesse festis Angelorum; What profit is it to keep holiday with men, if we should be excluded from keeping holiday with Angels for evermore.  
So much for the time of the Holy Ghosts coming; I repent me not that I have been long in it, for it was most material. The persons that received this power from on high are next in the way of my discourse, omnes, all of them. Many there are that understand this note of Universality collectiuè, not as meant of all that were present, but of all the Apostles. The whole Church was gathered together for the Election of a new Apostle, that's apparent in the former chapter, and the lot fell upon Mathias. The number of names together were about an hundred and twenty. Among these there were divers women, Marry the Mother of our Lord is expressly mentioned for one of them; these continued together in prayer and supplication even until the time that the Holy Ghost did fill the Room. Now I would put the case into this distinction, whether the spirit came down upon them all? upon them all in some great measure no question, but not upon them all with the same virtue, and power, and illumination. Many talents of rare perfections were distributed among all the Believers that were present men and women, for else Peter had not applied the place of the Prophet Joel so pertinently ver. 17. of this chap. In the last days I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. St. Hierom leans to this side, and says that the mighty gift of grace was given to all that believed, even as God took the spirit of Moses, and gave it to the 70 Elders, and it came to pass when the spirit rested upon them they prophesied, and did not cease, Num. xi. 25. Elegantly St. Austin to favour this opinion, Christ warned his Apostles not to stir from Jirusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, and that not many days thence, that is 10 days after his Ascension they should receive the Holy Ghost: But says the Father Christ gave this spirit not only to them, but to ten times as many as the Twelve, to sixscore in all, Ea est fidelitas, imo liberalitas Christi docens nos pauca promittere, 
August. Serm. 116. de Temp.  sed decuplo plura praestare, this is the just dealing, nay the liberality of Christ, which bids us promise no more than we will perform, but rather perform ten times more than you promise. But whether the cloven tongues which looked as if they had been of fire did descend upon the whole Congregation, men and women, may a little be doubted, for they were Types and Figures that the Lord would send forth of his Servants to be bold and fervent Preachers in all Nations, and women were interdicted from the public ministry of Preaching, though in the beginning they were employed in some private labours of the Word. And if the women had the gift of tongues they did not utter them in this Chapter; for when all were amazed to hear such diversity of languages from illiterate ones, and such as never traveled, some mocked and said, these men are full of new wine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in the masculine gender. And 'tis not to be despised for an observation, that ver. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, all are said to be full of the Holy Ghost, and ver. 3. the fiery tongues are said to sit not upon all, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, upon each of them, meaning I conjecture upon each of the Apostles, but I will not strive for it.  
In the old Missals, I am sure, I have not perused the latter, it reads the Epistle thus, omnes discipuli, all the Disciples were with one accord in one place, and Beza says in two ancient Greek Copies, he had found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, all the Apostles, and none other mentioned. Certainly they were primarily intended to reap the benefit of the day: For it is well noted by the first Writers, that there were four things proper and peculiar to the Apostles, given them for the gathering together of the Saints, which were not communicable to any other Servant of Christ. The first was immediate vocation from Heaven; St. Paul demonstrated, he was not inferior to the best of the Apostles, because of that property. The second was infallibility of judgement in the necessary points of faith. 3. A Generality of Commission to have the care of the whole world committed to every one of them, to exercise their power in all places, towards all persons. 4. To speak in all the tongues and languages of the world, to confirm their Doctrine by signs and miracles, and by the imposition of their hands to give the like miraculous gifts of the spirit to others. For although the having of miraculous gifts, and the power to work miracles was not simply proper to the Apostles, yet to have them in a sort, as by the imposition of their hands to give the spirit unto others, and to enable such as they thought fit to do signs and wonders through the finger of God, this was a benediction upon the heads of the Apostles from the great day of Pentecost, and only upon them. Simon Magus, that Mammonist, you may remember, would have bought it of them, but had a curse instead of a blessing. Nay when Philip the Deacon had baptised some at Samaria, the Apostles went to confirm those whom he had baptised by imposition of hands, that they might receive some extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost. And as these graces were reserved only for the Apostolical honour in their time, so were they never since passed over to any by succession. Instead of immediate calling, God be praised, we can show our Vocation derived by succession from the Apostles: Instead of infallibility of judgement we have the direction of the Scriptures to guide us in finding out the truth: instead of general Commission over the whole World we have particular assignment of several Churches, and parts of Christ's Flock to feed: instead of their miraculous gifts, and power to confer them to others, we have that faith which was confirmed by the Apostles miracles. And so I have declared that many, even all the Believers that met together shared in the blessings of this day, but the Apostles had an excellency and preeminency above them all for the government of the Church, not disputing what particular irradiations and sanctifications the Blessed Virgin had, which we may suppose to be incomparable beyond all others, such as were fit for her to receive, but they are not here revealed.  
But of the persons hitherto, I can spare no more time for that; for it is worth much observation how they were prepared to receive the Holy Ghost, which I handle in this order, howsoever the words lie, first that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, first unà, then unanimes, they were all in one place. To be altogether in one City, in Jerusalem, and not to stir from thence till they had received the Comforter, even the Spirit of Truth; to that purpose Christ laid his command upon them: but they were met together not only in one City, but in one house; not only in one Vineyard, but like Grapes they hung together in one cluster. Behold how good and how pleasant a thing it is for Brethren to dwell together in unity? In public they consorted together, Luke v. ult. they were continually in the Temple praising and blessing God together: in private they held fast the same friendship and amity: by this, says our Saviour, shall they know you to be my Disciples, if you love one another. Whether it were the time of praying, or hearing the Word, or breaking of bread, mark it in several places of this Chapter, they did it with cheerfulness and mutual friendship, they were never asunder. Unity in matter of circumstance, in matter of place carries blessing and edification with it, that we are Brethren: it is the Lords doing to make men to be of one mind, to dwell in one house, Psal. lxviii. 6. We read it in our last Translation he setteth the solitary in Families; that is he reduceth the dispersed into unity, and outward conformity. I told you, and pressed it earnestly about this time the last year, what an acceptable thing it was to God, that when Noah and his Sons and Daughters were all the living of men and women that were left in the World, that these should all praise the Lord together in outward unity with one voice, and with one Sacrifice; this was called a sweet smelling savour: so much it delighted God this day to see the Church met together, those 120 names, that after Ages might know how well compacted the Primitive Church was, that there were no divisions or distractions in their Body. God be praised for the multiplication of his Saints now over all the world; we cannot meet now under one Roof as these did, nor sit down in rows in one Field together, as those 5000 did, whom our Saviour fed in the Desert; the bounds of all the Land of Canaan are not able to hold us; God be glorified for the increase. Our unity of place is to meet in those public Assemblies, which are allotted to particular Churches, at those appointed times which are enjoined us: In no wise to slack our presence here on the Lord's day, to flock together on other festival days, at Morning Prayer on week days to be much more diligent than we have been; (fie upon our tardiness and excuses in that duty!) do we look that God shall bless us in our Persons and Calling, to take a Benediction away with us to serve us the whole week, and come no oftener? is not he the God that makes men to be of one mind to come to the Temple together, and there to receive the Holy Ghost? Chiefly I wish heartily in Christ that they would consort together with us, who take no offence at our Doctrine established, but make a separation and strangeness both from us, and among themselves for matter of Ceremonies and things indifferent. They that are baptised into Christ, and one Faith, why should they not come together with one accord in one place? I must not be prolix. I will say no more to it, but let us say with St. Paul, Hebr. x. 39 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, We are not of them who separate or draw back unto perdition. Unto perdition, let that be noted.  
The observation of this point gains thus much more out of St. Austin. 
Lib. de Spir. & lit. ca 16.  As all the Tribes of Israel were gathered together about Mount Sinah to hear in what manner the Law was proclaimed, so here was an agreement of all persons to join together to receive the Holy Ghost; but in that admirable similitude there is this dissimilitude, that the people were prohibited with many terrors to come near the place where the Law was delivered, but at this time the Holy Ghost was sent unto them, who expecting the promise, were all with one accord in one place. And Calvin conjects much unto this note, that the minds of the faithful were exceedingly encouraged and changed for the better, the stoutest Champions of them all had no manlike fortitude in them before, the Shepherd was smitten, and instantly they were scattered, and ran away for fear: now the very women had hardened themselves against all danger, they mix themselves together in one place with that holy company, and fear no evil that can happen unto them. A resolved constant mind, an heroic heart to take up the Cross of Christ, and to suffer unto the death for righteousness sake is a sign of much grace in the soul, and an admirable preparation to receive the greatest measure of the Holy Ghost. And that you may not think this Apostolical Society had crept into a dark corner where no espials could find them out. Many Authors that have laboured to understand where it was, say it was a spacious goodly Room of as much note as any private House in all Jerusalem, and frequented so often by the Apostles, that their haunt was known through all the City. All that I have met withal conclude it was the same upper Chamber where our Saviour celebrated his last Supper, and so consecrated the place. Nicephorus and Cedrenus say it was the House of John the Evangelist, for he took the Blessed Virgin to his own home, and she was now among them; a slender guess, God wot, and repugnant to many circumstances of Scripture. Theophylact says it was the House of Simon the Leper; how can that be, when his House was in Bethany, Matth. xxvi. 6. Euthymius says it was the House of Joseph of Arimathea an honourable Counsellor, and had goodly Rooms to receive them. Baronius goes with the most voices, all are but conjectures, that it was the House of Mary the Mother of John, whose surname was Mark. 
Descrip. Hirosol. num 6.  To this Adrichomius consents, and says this was the place where 3000 Jews were converted by Peter and baptised: thither Peter betook himself when the Angel brought him out of prison, there Stephen and others were made Deacons, there James the Brother of our Lord so called was consecrated Bishop of Jerusalem; there the first Council of the Apostles was held, Acts xv. All ancient Authors conclude it was about where the Tower of Zion stood, and this is certain, that Helen the Mother of Constantine did build a goodly Temple upon the same place to honour that holy ground. It was a Figure of the whole Church of Christ, so much the more to be remembered, and the Church is a Figure of the Kingdom of Heaven, where all the Saints, and I trust all we, shall praise the Lord with one accord in one place for evermore.  
It follows now, as the outward Bond of Peace was with this Society, so they were clasped together faster with the inward Bond of Agreement, with the unity of the same spirit, they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with one accord. There cannot be a more proper, true, and certain disposition to make us meet for the Holy Ghost than unanimity: As the Halcyon, so our Naturalists say, never appears but against fair weather, so the Spirit comes either not at all, or not very plentifully unto us, until he find concord among us without jars, and tranquillity without bitterness. The unity of the Apostles is called by the Fathers parasceve spiritus, the way-making to receive the grace of God; and if the Patient be prepared aright, the Agent will do his work the sooner and the better. No gifts of benediction are given to strive, and oppose, to fight one against another, but for charity and edification; therefore it was the beginning of our Collect three Sundays passed, Almighty God which dost make the minds of all faithful men to be of one will; and it is a principal part of our Gospel for this day, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. That peace which Christ left among the Apostles was as it were an earnest penny put into their hands, that they should have the full donative of the Comforter from above. Our Saviour was born in the days of Caesar Augustus, when a still Peace was over all the world, now He pours out his holy spirit upon them that were of one accord, and of one heart: the one was his first act upon earth, the other is his last, than he was clothed with our flesh, now we are invested with his spirit.  
This remarkable amity and Saintlike brotherhood among the Members of the Church, which had no ruptures, was well prefigured in the old Feast of Pentecost, which was kept by the Jews. For Levit. xxiii. 19 upon the day of Pentecost among other Burnt-offerings, the Priests were appointed in the name of the whole Congregation to offer up two Lambs of the first year for a Sacrifice of Peace-offerings. You will say that's no strange matter to present a Peace-offering to the Lord; true indeed, particular persons did it often in their own behalf, but Maimonides observes it, that the public Body, the Universal Church of the Jews never offered any Peace-offering but at the Feast of Pentecost. O who will work this work for the Militant Catholic Church, that we may say of all the parts of it omnes unanimiter, they conclude all for the Orthodox Faith with one accord? Some strange salvation must drop out of the clouds, we know not how, to work this Atonement, yet on both sides let every man take heed he make not the rent bigger with more obstinacy, and greater separation? sweetly did a meek Moses of our own Church write, there will come a time when three words uttered with charity and meekness shall receive a far more blessed reward than three thousand Volumes written with disdainful sharpness of wit. It may seem a wonderful and unanswerable scruple, that many in the former Ages of the Church did so much transcend us in these days for gifts of Miracles, gifts of Devotion and Learning, for Watchings and Fast, for Industry and assiduous diligence, for most prosperous success in winning many Souls to the Kingdom of Heaven: but the true cause is that their unanimity and pious agreement opened a wide gate to admit sanctification into their breast, and our discords exclude it. No spirit can give life to Members dismembered, unless they be first united and compact together. Ezekiel knew not how scattered bones could live; but the bones came together, bone to his bone, and then the breath of the Lord came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, Ezekiel xxxvii. 10. The Scribes and Elders of the Jews, in few years after our Saviour was crucified were like broken bones scattered and divided, like as one breaketh and heweth wood, every year by bribery or calumniations the High Priest lost his dignity, and a new one was substituted. Josephus most impartially hath related that there was no care of Religion, no zeal for the Law among them, because there was nothing but bandings and factions in their Synagogues. Here was no accord, and therefore no Holy Spirit came down into their habitations. Against the Congregation of the famous first Nicene Council, the Fathers that met together, it is not to be concealed, forgot themselves so far, that they put up innumerous Bills of complaints one against another before the Emperor Constantine. The Emperor knew this was a most repugnant beginning to the good work they had in hand, to enter into the consideration of Christ's business with distracted enmities, therefore he threw all their bills and brabbles into the fire, and then bade them proceed in the name of Christ, and in the grace of his Holy Spirit. Their heart is divided, now shall they be found faulty, says the Prophet Hosea, chap. x. 2. A contentious stickler, that loves to be the head of a Faction, and to disjoint things out of peace and quietness, I wonder whether ever he thinks how the Apostles were composed and prepared, when they received the Holy Ghost. Fuerunt omnes eâdem animatione simul in unam; so St. Austin reads, they had one heart, and one mind, and one inclination to advance the Kingdom of Christ, they were all with one accord in one place.  
I enter now upon the last part of all that I may find the way out of my Text, and conclude, it is the other Preparation for the coming of the Holy Ghost, as all the Disciples were knit in vinculo pacis in the bond of peace and concord, so they were united together in vinculo spei in the bond of hope by patience and expectation; they were ejusdem unanimitatis, and ejusdem longanimitatis, they kept together for the promise of the Holy Ghost till fifty days were fulfilled. God made the Israelites number fifty days after their coming out of Egypt before the Law was delivered, ut adventus sui desiderium accenderet, to make their hearts burn within them with longing for his coming: so he put off the coming of the Holy Ghost for the same space of time, to make them think of his promise with eager expectation. The Jews called it the Feast of fifty days, and the Feast of weeks, for whether we reckon by days, or weeks, or years, we must wait the Lords leisure, and say expectans expectavi, Psal. xl. 1. I have waited patiently for the Lord; and say with our Saviour, not my will but thy will be done, that is, not my time, but thy time be fulfilled. Where is the faith, where is the humility of those rash spirits, that will not tarry the fullness of time, but have all things at their whistle by and by, or quarrel with God, as if he had forgot them? They received this blessing of wonderful grace that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, long abiders, in the 13. verse of the former chapter, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or perseverantes, ver. 14. such as continue till the day of promise was fully come. He that believeth let him not make haste, says the Prophet Isaiah; God will do all things by his own leisure and maturity, if he happen to stay stay for him, Habak. two. 3. for at last he that cometh will come, and then he is no flitter, his gifts are without repentance, and he will abide with us for ever. AMEN.   

THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost.  ACTS two. 2. 
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and filled all the house where they were sitting.  
THE Feast of Christ's Resurrection, and the Feast of Whitsunday or coming of the Holy Ghost are distant one from another fifty days in space of time, but are as near to themselves as the bark unto the tree in real substance, and in spiritual conjunction. In the Resurrection the strength of Hell was weakened for us: In the descending of the Holy Ghost the virtue of Heaven was made powerful in us. In the first the doors of the Grave were unlocked, that we might not be held in death: In the other the windows of heaven were opened, that we might be partakers of the life to come. The Resurrection reduceth the soul into the body again, which was dissolved by the sin of Adam: The coming of the Holy Ghost doth again reduce grace into the Soul when original Justice had been taken from it by the same man's transgression. These are paralleled in primo gradu, and the comparison may reach a little further to our present business, that there was a great noise caused at Christ's rising, For behold there was an Earthquake, Mat. xxviii. 2. And lo as great a noise from above at the coming of the Holy Ghost, for behold there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind. These two honourable Feasts having such near relation, I have found out most principal Texts for them both this year out of the same Chapter for Easter day, Ver. 24. whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: For Whitsunday in that notable portion of the story which I have read unto you. And I told you upon the last great solemnity, that Whitsunday was principally ordained for this end, to make Easter day famous over all the world.  
But the principal fruits of this day are three, if we may comprehend an Ocean of graces in so small a number. In the zeal of our Prayers we passed them over in the Morning Collect; and that Collect extracted them from the Epistle and Gospel appointed. Thus you may perceive that the Service of the Church of England is the treasure of my observations. The Collect runs upon these three Points, Teaching, Illumination, Consolation. God which upon this day hath taught the hearts of thy faithful people, for heavenly Doctrine began to be made common to all the world from this day. Yet many hear the Word, but most unprofitably; therefore it follows, that God hath sent us the light of his holy Spirit to have a right judgement in all things. And many have the benefit of true Doctrine, and the help of Illumination, but with much sorrow and persecution, therefore the Holy Ghost came down also, that we might rejoice in his holy comfort. Thus far the contents of that short Prayer have helped me. The Gospel for the day runs altogether upon the last branch, upon Consolation, I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter. The Epistle falls upon the two former, upon Doctrine and Illumination, and that in two sensible miracles. For Doctrine, that a sound came from heaven as of a mighty wind, to foreshow, that the sound of the Word should go forth into all Lands; for Illumination, that cloven tongues appeared, and sat upon them as it were of fire. The noise was as a Trumpet to wake the World; the fiery Tongues as so many lights to let them see their visitation. Thus the Holy Ghost is presented to both the senses, to the Ear, as to the sense of faith; to the Eye, as to the sense of love. The Ear is the ground of the Word and Doctrine, and that gives the first admittance to Faith; and therefore the Holy Ghost began his operation there, according to my Text, and that in these particulars to be considered: 1. That God caused a sound to be heard upon the descending of the Holy Spirit. 2. The manner of the sound is resembled to a Wind. 3. To a sudden wind. 4. To a rushing mighty wind. 5. It was from heaven. 6. It filled all the house where they were sitting. All these particulars are worthy of my labour, and your attention.  
That there came a sound from heaven at the mission of the Holy Ghost is the first thing remarkable. A sound first to call in them that were without. Secondly, To demonstrate the Office of them that were within. As the chiming of Bells calls us together to Church, so an audible sound from heaven was a warning to the Jews to flock to that place where the Apostles were gathered together. The Master of the Feast in the Gospel sent forth his Servants, and invited the Guests, and bade them be told what preparation he had made for their coming; so the men of Jerusalem had as sensible an invitation to draw them to the great Feast of the Gospel, as if a Canon had been discharged in their Ear. Or if they were yet unprepared to taste of such Manna as fallen from heaven into their lap, yet the Lords doings were so palpable before them, that their consciences must be extremely stupefied with malice, if they made an ill interpretation of others that were then filled from above with the great power of God. And indeed Oecumenius says that the sound did pierce the ears of all that were in the City, that such as were curious to know the reason might come and see, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that the open manifestation of the miracle might preserve it from calumny. But you will say, it did not gain the good opinion of the Jews; for all the gift of Tongues had such a forerunner, not vox clamantis, but sonus intonantis, not the voice of a Crier, but a peal of thunder to bring it into the world, yet the people did disgrace it with a vile imputation of drunkenness. True, it proved as ill as could be expected; but says St. chrysostom, if they said the Apostles were full of new Wine, when these signs concurred, what would they have said without them? The most graceful and melodious sounds in the world are lost to deaf men; and though a clamour, and a cry from heaven were come down, as it is in my Text, yet it moved not those that, like the deaf Adder, 
Psal. 58.4.  had stopped their ears. The Serpent in that place is called in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by Antiphrasis, or the contrary, because it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unperswaded Creature, all Art and Charming is spent in vain, it will not listen, it will not mitigate its venomous wrath; and so the Translator Apollinarius says upon it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that when the Adder is mischievously angry, for the time of his violent anger, and while that lasts, he is stark deaf, though he can hear by nature. So such as are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Tit. i. 16. Disobedient, and reprobate to every good work, though they have the sense of hearing by nature, yet when they are violently set upon infidelity and stubbornness, they give no more attention to the sound that comes from heaven than do the stones of the Temple. When Stephen preached so divinely to the Jews, that the heavens opened in the time of his Sermon, Acts seven. 56. as if way had been made for the Angels and Saints to be his Auditors; even then, when the gates of heaven stood wide open at the grace of his words, they, that should have given him best attention, stopped their ears and ran upon him. But the sin of them that will not hear let it lie upon their own head; they cannot say but there hath been a Trumpet among them to awake them from the sleep of sin. The sound which God hath sent forth is shrill and loud to call in those that are without, And he that hath ears, etc.  
But secondly, the Spirit came in a very audible sound, to declare what a door of utterance should be opened from thenceforth to the Messengers of Christ, That their sound should go out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the World, Rom. x. 18. The Gospel preached to every creature under heaven, Col. i. 23. How many were in that lamentable condition like the Disciples at Ephesus, that had not so much as heard whether there were an Holy Ghost? Angels themselves began to be Preachers, when a door of entrance was opened, that the Word should run swiftly throughout all the world, when good tidings were diffusive, great joy unto all people. 
Psal. 193.  The sound came flying upon the wings of the wind, that there was neither Speech nor Language upon the earth but their voices were heard among them. The Law made a great din when it was published, there came thunder with it, and the noise of a Trumpet louder and louder. 
Exod. 19.19.  Yet this noise was spread in the Desert of Sinai, in a desolate and uninhabited Region: But this sound, which happened when the Gospel was authorized to be preached in every Nation, it had audience in the most populous place of all Judaea, in the City of Jerusalem: As who should say, it was a communicable sound which should be received into the Imperial Cities of all Kingdoms. I draw this only observation from it to your holy practice, that the Lord loveth fragorem vocis, not a whispering silence, but an exalted voice, a loud exclamation to praise him. Open confession of God's name is an effect individually connexed with a true lively faith, so says David, Psal. cxvi. I believed, and therefore I spoke. There are three things hateful to God which jar against it: 1. Hypocritical profession, when the protestation of the mouth is not rooted in the heart. 2. Abnegation of the Faith, whether they deny the truth for fear, or for resolved Apostasy. 3. There is another way to sin against the confession of the Faith, and that is, malum silentium, not to glorify God openly in our profession, when it concerns his honour; in whose person the Psalmist speaks, I kept silence, yea, even from good words, but it was pain; nay, it will be pain and grief unto them. St. Paul complains of those Christians that were of Rome in his days, that none would openly declare themselves of his side in the time of persecution, At my first answer none stood with me, 
Rom. 10.10.  but all forsook me, I pray God it may not be laid to their charge, 1 Tim. iv. 16. The Lord would not have it lurk only in the secrets of our breast, that we are Christ's Disciples, but that it should resound abroad to his glory, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. And let God's service be performed on all sides, on the Priest's part, and on the people's, with fervour and strength of voice, like the sound of many waters. You may pray tacitly in the heart, but sure the holy Spirit came not from heaven like a vehement sound, to teach you to fumble in the mouth, and scarce to open your lips when you are in Prayer. Prayer is a calling upon God, Call upon me in the time of trouble, Psal. l. Nay, a roaring for very disquietness of heart, says the same Prophet in another place. Our humble Petitions are called Vituli labiorum, Heb. xiii. Their lips will offer their sacrifice aloud, if the true incense of zeal do burn within; for our Saviour says, Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A troubled soul, I grant it, sometimes cannot utter itself; sometimes a dumb-born Prayer is very powerful, as Hannah the Mother of Samuel is the great instance of it; but in the ordinary way, assuredly the more strength of voice we put to our Supplications, the more we shake off the drowsiness of the flesh, the more we stir up the grace of the holy Spirit, which loves that the Echo and cheerful sounds of the voice should ascend up to heaven.  
But the Scripture doth not leave at this, that there came a sound from heaven, it goes further, and tells us the manner of the sound, that it was like unto that noise which is caused by a vehement wind. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as if the wind had blown, but it was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says Oecumenius, that you might not imagine the holy Spirit to be a corporeal breathing, like the vaporous substance of the wind, therefore the quasi is very significant, that it had but the similitude of the wind. Yet it is very inquirable, why like that more than any thing else? If we had been left to guests what sound it was, why might not we have imagined it to be the purling of some soft streams? Or the humming of Bees about their Hive? Or the voice of harpers playing with their harps, Rev. xiv. 2. None of those it was, but as the fragor of the wind. And when God declares his virtue in some sensible object, you must persuade your reason there is some great relation between the sign and the thing signified. Did not our Saviour illustrate unto Nicodemus our Regeneration, or new Birth from the blasts of the air? Joh. iii 8. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the voice thereof, and knowest not whence it cometh, or whither it goeth, so is every one that is born of the Spirit. Yet more feelingly; when he did infuse into his Apostles the power of the Holy Ghost, bequeathing them that great Sacerdotal privilege, Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted, and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained; Was it not conveyed by blowing upon them like the wind, by insufflation? Joh. xx. 22. He breathed on them, and saith unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost. Now I will tell you together where both the mystery, and the use of it do consist.  
First, As the breath which we send forth comes from the warmth of our Lungs, and of our bowels within, so the Spirit proceedeth from the substantial love of the Father, and of the Son. What was the meaning then of that sensible expiration? But that as the breath which he vented out came from his Humane Nature, so the Holy Ghost which he breathed on his Disciples came from his Divine Nature. And this must follow, to give it you by the way, that Christ is very God, for who but God can communicate the Holy Ghost? For it was Gods Promise, that He, and none but He, would pour out his Spirit upon all flesh, Isa. xliv. And it stands as well proved that the Holy Ghost is God, for the prime and supreme power to remit sins is the Holy Ghosts he was given to the Disciples for that end, and none can forgive sins but God alone. Secondly, Christ communicated his spiritual gifts by breathing; to show that he, even the same Lord, was the Author both of our temporal and eternal life. For in the Creation the Lord breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, Gen. two. 7. But this life shall pass away, and the body shall crumble into dust. Why, behold the breath of the Lord will go forth again to cause a joyful Resurrection, as it is in the Prophet's vision of the dry bones, Ezek. xxxvil. 5. Thus saith the Lord unto these bones, Behold I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. Yet if this body, wherein sin reigns, and inclines it only to dead works, were not quickened by grace, better it might be for us that we had never been born, therefore the life of Sanctification was begun in the Church, as it were with a gentle gust of wind, when Christ breathed on his own, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. So you see this outward sign of insufflation was constantly used, at our Creation, at our Resurrection, at our Sanctification, to show how it is the same God that worketh all in all. Yet St. Ambrose comes in with a third Meditation upon it: Says he, 
Serm. 10. in Psal. 118.  God did give man a living soul at first by breathing or inspiration, to let him see he did not only give him a temporal or carnal vivification, but grace and sanctity to live for ever. But when man had lost this primitive grace and original righteousness, it was fit to let us know that such losses could be repaired by none but Christ, therefore Christ breathed again upon man, to demonstrate that he was the restorer of those immortal blessings, which exceed our merits, and pass all understanding.  
But when Christ was ascended up on high, the Spirit could not be infused immediately from the breath of his mouth, but, in Analogy to it, it came into the place where the Apostles were gathered together like the murmuring wind, or the breath of heaven. As Solomon foretell it in his Poetical Ode, Cant. iv. 16. Awake O North wind, and come thou South, blow upon my Garden, that the Spices thereof may flow out. And here again I shall pass through some humane Comparisons to the illustration of most divine Mysteries. First, of all Elementary Creatures the Wind is the most active thing in the world, nothing so quick and active as it, Vsque adeo agit ut nisi agat non sit; when it is not active it is not at all, no stirring of the air no wind. So it is with the Spirit of faith and love, the very being of it consists in being operative. What shall I do to inherit eternal life? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. chrysostom, it impels the heart to be never out of motion in some spiritual exercise. Either the Tongue is praying, or the Ear is hearing, or the Heart is meditating, or the Hand is giving, or the Soul is thirsting for remission of sins. When the Spirit beats not in the Pulses, there is no spirit in the body, it is a dead Carcase; and in whomsoever there is a cessation from all good works, you may say it justly that there the Holy Ghost is extinguished; there is no difference between a standing Puddle, and a dead Sea. And cousin not yourselves with a vain confidence, that albeit you be altogether barren and unprofitable, no fruit of Sanctification budding from you, yet Semen Dei manet, the sap may be in the root, the virtue in the Seed-corn, though it do not put out. These may-bees are pitiful Anchors of hope, and miserable comforters. Will you say the wind is up when there is a still Serena, no puff of air moving? Then think as little that God dwells in that breast where there are no tokens of Sanctification. Secondly, 
De temp. Serm. 188.  I have it from St. Austin, Flatus ille à carnali palea corda mundabit; The Wind is the advantage of the Husbandman to winnow Chaff from Wheat, and where the Spirit blows upon the conscience it will purge it from all dead works. The cares of this world, the thought of getting Riches, anxieties for honours and advancements, these overspread the life of a natural man left to the ways of carnal reason; but as soon as ever we begin to sift and discuss these cogitations by the doctrine of the Spirit, they vanish and disperse, Tradam protervis in mare Creticum portare ventis; they are light and empty of true goodness, and so are blown away to the Father of errors and delusions, 
Hom. de spir. sanct.  to the Devil himself from whence they came. Thirdly, Says St. chrysostom, Suppose a Ship be well appointed with Pilot, Mariners, Sails, Cables, Anchors, and all convenient appurtenances, to what use will all this serve if the winds stir not? So let there be profound Judgement, quick Invention, neat Eloquence, and all the graces of Art in a man, these will not bring a man one whit onward in his Voyage, to the haven of happiness, to the kingdom of glory, unless the sweet gales of the Spirit carry him forward, those are the wings of the Dove upon which the Soul shall fly away and be at rest. Another Author, taken for St. chrysostom, 
Author. imperf. operis homil. 10.  writing upon St. Matthew, composeth it thus, As the ground doth not fructify by rain alone, but there is a prolificous virtue in the winds, which blows upon the fields, and makes the Spring to sprout: So it is not our Doctrine alone which converts your Souls, though it distil like the soft drops of rain upon the earth, but benediction of inward grace that goes with the word breathes salvation upon our heart. The Letter may kill, but the Spirit quickeneth, and in our Evangelical Priesthood we are Ministers, not of the Letter alone, but of the Spirit also. Qui instat praecepto praecurrit auxilio; the words of Leo, which I take to be solid truth in this Point; when God presseth us with the outward instruction of his Word. He impresseth the secret operation of his Spirit to make it fructify.  
And now to come to another portion of the Text, it agrees very accurately with the nature of that supernal gift which God infuseth into his Saints, that the Spirit came with a sudden flaw of wind. And I am very willing to make that collection of it, which divers have done before me, Datur haec gratia ex improviso, & sine meritis; Grace is a blessing that comes unlooked for, unawares, nay, it is impossible for an unconverted man to say, now I am prepared for it, now I expect it, now my heart is ready to receive it; for there is no good preparation for grace in the soul of man till some portion of it have entered before. Natural dispositions cannot attain to bring in supernatural grace. Therefore the first influx and admission of it must needs be sudden and unawares. As you can make no rules for the Wind, why it should blow South to day, and North to morrow, why from this Point of heaven at such a season rather than from another: So there is no aim to be taken how this or that man was first partaker of the heavenly light, which is thus couched in our Saviour's words, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation, neither shall they say lo here, or lo there, for the Kingdom of God is within you, Luk. xvii. 20. For what observation can we make, or through what tokens can we collect, that God will begin to draw a sinner unto him? Will you say he lives justly, and chastely? If they were Christian justice and chastity the seed of the Spirit was in his heart before: If they be but moral conformities, he is still the Child of wrath, and those laudable actions were but sins, or imperfections with a good gloss. Will you say they desire and pray for the holy Spirit, and therefore this illumination comes not suddenly, but with invitation? O but says the Arausican Council, which handled this Point of the grace of God more copiously and Orthodoxly than ever any Council did, the utterance, nay, the very thought of every good Prayer, it is instilled by the divine irradiation of God's help, and the Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of Prayer; and if any man say, that the grace of God is bestowed upon our Prayer and Invocation, and that grace did not first enable us to make that Prayer, he contradicts the Prophet Isaiah, 
Isa. 65.1.  and the Apostle Paul, who both have these same words, I am sought of them that asked not for me, I am found of them that sought me not. Thus that Council, whereby you hear, that we, whose nature is rank corruption, do not prepare and dispose the way to attract the blessing of heaven upon us by little and little, upon congruity of God's favour; it comes suddenly and unawares, when we least deserve it.  
It must not be let alone without this addition to it, which is S. Ambrose his descant on it, Nescit tarda molimina spiritus sancti gratia; the spirit of purity and renovation is quick and sudden in the work of conversion, he doth not linger, and mature his good effects by soft leisure; he doth not creep like a snail, or as a Father of our own Church says, like a Serpent, Serpentis est repere. Commonly motions that come from the old Serpent the Devil creep upon us, and men grow bold in iniquity by degrees, Nemo repentè fit pessimus was the old Proverb, but where the Lord loveth, the man whom he chooseth, he doth in an instant take away his stony heart, and give him an heart of flesh: And as the Resurrection of the dead shall be in an instant, so in an instant he translates him from death to life. It is done with such dispatch and celerity, that the gift of Prophecy, nay, of Sanctification is called but the touch of the lips. Says the Angel to Isaiah upon the living coal which he brought from the Altar, This hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged, Isa. vi, 7. The loyal Israelites that feared God and the King are called a band of men whose hearts God had touched, 1 Sam. x. 26. O admirable workman, says Gregory, Mox ut tetigeret mentem docet solùmque tetigisse est docuisse; 
Homil. 30. in Evang.  He doth but touch and teach, and the mind is reform in a moment, as soon as ever the finger of his Spirit is laid upon it. An Apostolical Spirit came suddenly upon St. Matthew, penitent restitution upon Zaccheus, confession and grace upon the Thief on the Cross. The Eunuch made haste to believe, and as soon as he believed, he would be baptised of Philip at the next water he came to, and go no further. Men must not neglect present motions of grace, though suddenly rising in them. Now the Lord moves my heart, and now at the first touch I will obey the Spirit. This is a brave and a pious resolution: But if you let the grace of God knock at door once and twice and do not open, it is to be feared that you will grow deaf after a while, and never hear it. Modo & modò non habebant modum; Anon, and to morrow, and hereafter at more leisure, and as Festus said to Paul, Go thy way for this time, when I have a convenient season I will call for thee; these are not words of good manners to so great a King as the King of heaven. Can Impenitancy, or continuance in evil be good at any time? Then break it off at the first pang and throw that the Conscience suffers for it. The Spirit is a sudden wind, he deceives his own soul that continues in a long consumption of any sin, and thinks to be helped out of it by a lingering remedy.  
The description of the suddenness hath not been unuseful you see, and we shall collect as much from that which follows, that it was Flatus veniens, & vehemens, a rushing mighty wind. Methinks I see the Spirit of God set out here in his manifold strength and efficacy. Is there any thing in itself so thin and poor as a puff of Air? It is neither Iron, nor Brass, nor Bones, and yet what strange effects it works? Turns up Oaks and Cedars by the roots, breaks the Ships of the Sea in pieces, casts down Bulwarks and Fortresses; so Epiphanius received it from some good hand, that God overthrew the Tower of Babel with a violent wind. So the principles of the Spirit seem to be very mean and foolishness to flesh and blood; the Instruments in which it wrought homely illiterate Fishermen; yet the learning of five Synagogues, putting their wits together, was not able to resist the wisdom, and the Spirit by which Stephen spoke, Acts vi. 10. It brings down strong Holds and high Imaginations; it brings into Captivity every exalting thought to the obedience of Christ; Wisdom, Learning, Might, Majesty, 
2 Cor 10.5.  all have stooped before it. As the Scripture says often that the Spirit came mightily upon Samson, and then his Foes were sure to fall before him; so it rusheth upon some holy men with a gallant heroic zeal, and then all the subtleties of Satan are not able to make a part against it. No Fear can dismay them, no Persecution can make them hide their head, no Favour. or Reward make them swerve from a good conscience, no Discipline so strict that they will not undertake for the love of Christ. The Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force, Mat. xi. 12. The Kingdom of heaven was among the Jews, but Rapuit regnum coelorum Centurio; The Centurion did as it were invade it, and take it from them, for upon his confession our Saviour said, I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel.  
Neither is it only expedient to make it manifest that the Spirit is strong and mighty, like a stiff vehement wind in actu exercito, in the power of it which the Saints of God have to exercise to others, but also in actu primo informante, when it enters into the heart of them whom God converts, it comes with a mighty force, and will not be gainsaid with the opposition of our rebellious nature. Neque resistere ultra potest, cui velle resistere sublatum est, says a Reverend Father of our own Church; that is, neither shall our vicious nature resist the mighty working of Gods converting grace, since the first thing that such grace works is to conquer our perverseness in resisting. I do not say but our will hath always a liberty and indifferency in it to do, or not do: To choose or refuse; but the act to resist is suspended for that time by the grace of God, and though resistency be never taken away in this life, but is ever smothered and couchant in the bitter root of our corruption, yet according to the efficacious and sweet motion of grace, God disposeth that it shall not come out into act. It is not therefore the power to resist which is taken away, for then the will were violenced, and nature quite transformed, whereas grace is the perfection, not the abolition or destruction of nature; It is only the actual resistency which is stopped. Most excellently Prosper, Hanc abundantiorem gratiam ita credimus potentem, ut negemus violentam; There is a special abundant grace which is the Lot of that remnant which shall be saved, and this we believe that it hath powerful success upon the will, but makes no violent, that is irresistible, entrance. But it carries all the affections with it with a most urgent, undeniable, persuasive force; it ravisheth a man from himself, he feels himself as it were compelled in spite of Tyrants, in spite of death to confess the truth, We cannot but speak the things which we have heard and seen, Acts iv. 20. Nihil imperiosius side. The Spirit of God hath a most imperious authority over the soul where it will dwell, a smooth tongue in an eloquent man will win much upon his hearers, and draw them far, but the Spirit of God is a commanding principle; a rushing mighty wind, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says Oecumenius, this is a sign of abundance of vehemence, it is the breath of God whose might is invincible.  
But thirdly there is another way that some conjecture at the vehemency of the Wind, and that was to strike terror. Into whom you will say? In some sort, says Calvin, into the Disciples themselves that received the Holy Ghost. Thus he most judiciously, Nunquam ad recipiendam Dei gratiam ritè sumus comparati, nisi domitâ prius carnis confidentiâ; That is, we are never fitly disposed to receive the grace of God, until our carnal pride and security be beaten down, and humbled. Some roaring terrible wind of judgement, and the expectation of hell fire, if we repent not, must shake us sound. Or else we will fall asleep in our sins, and wallow in wantonness with the slumbering soft noise of mercy. As the Spring of the year, wherein all things grow, begins roughly with March, and ends sweetly with May, so Renovation and New-birth it begins austerely with the angry pedagogy and Discipline of the Law, with consternation in a troubled Spirit, then begin the fruits of the Spirit to spring up, but it proceeds to gladness and rejoicing, and to peace in Christ. First, the strong Wind passed by Elias, that rend the Mountains, and broke the Rocks in pieces, than an Earthquake, and a fire, and after the fire a still small voice. The Angels coming to the Blessed Virgin had first fear and astonishment in it, than greeting and salutation. So the Wind that came at the Feast of Whitsuntide did first roar and terrify them that were gathered together, afterwards it was as Oil that comforted, 
Bern. Serm. 23. in Cant.  and as new Wine that maketh glad the heart. So says Bernard upon the conclusion of it, Tranquillus Deus tranquillat omnia, & quietum aspicere quiescere est. God is peace, and sets all at peace, and to behold him in whom our soul rests is to rest for ever. But others say, for all the mightiness of the Wind it is not expressed that any fear did fall upon the Apostles, the vehemency of the sound was to corroberate the Apostles, and to let them know there were blasts in store to cast down their enemies. Such as repelled the Darts of Maximinus the Tyrant into his own face, when he gave battle to the Christians: Such as hath dispersed the invincible Navies of our Enemies, Et conjurati veniunt in classica venti. Christ descended gently as the rain into the Fleece of Wool, in the days of his exinanition. He shall not cry, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street, Isa. xlii. 2. But now he is exalted into glory, and hath the rule put into his hand, he will thunder and break forth in strong violence against his enemies.  
Thus far you have heard that the Holy Ghost came sensibly and audibly to the Ear like a sound, the similitude of that sound was the noise of the Wind, the Attributes of it two, sudden and mighty, and yet these two Points are undispatcht, the terminus à quo, it came from heaven; and the terminus ad quem, it filled the house where they were sitting. But briefly. The first of these moves much to one thing that is handled before, that there is vehement strength in the grace of God because it comes from heaven; 
Acts 5.39.  says the great Counsellor Gamaliel, If this work be of men it will come to nought, but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it. The Winds naturally arise out of the Caves of the earth, they steam from beneath, and blow laterally from one Coast to another: So are worldly graceless devices, all unsanctified counsels, they blow from beneath, from the Forge of Satan, the principles are drawn from Ambition, Hatred, Emulation, Treachery, and have an oblique collateral motion, which is profound dissimulation: But the root of grace is above in heaven, and grows down to the earth; it fetcheth all its drifts from Peace, from Religion, from Charity, from the Sanctuary, from the Glory of God. Strip all your politic projects from their fair pretences, and see the ground and foundation upon which they rest, and you will find them to be hollow and putrified vapours. Again, slight not the harmless ways and simplicity of good men, for if you could discover their conscience as God doth, you would find their scope and aim to be celestial. And nothing comes from heaven but with this purpose, to convert our earthly inclinations into heavenly directions.  
And let this superficial inspection satisfy for the term and place whence the sound came, it came from heaven. The end of our work is the consideration of the place where it stayed and lighted, It filled all the house where they were sitting. If you expect to have it treated of how the blast of the Spirit did fill the house, I must put you off to the fourth verse of this Chapter, where it is recorded of the Apostles, that they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and better speak of it touching men than touching the Room of an house, that Christ is the fullness of him that filleth all in all. Moreover, if you look for any touch upon the House itself, remember I told you such Traditions for it last year as I found in Antiquity, but with this modest conclusion, that the Point was not material, and all humane Records are uncertain. This we may, and must build upon, that it was an upper Room of some dwelling in Jerusalem, Acts i 13. and of large capacity we are sure to contain at least one hundred and twenty persons, ver. 15. Perhaps also of sufficient bigness to hold those three thousand that were converted, ver. 41. of this Chapter. To that other Circumstance also, that the men and women are said to be sitting in the house when this blessing came down upon them. I have little to add, I love reverence of gesture with all my soul; yet I love not to be so nice as some, that hold it so necessary for the Apostles to be humbled on their knees, when the grace of God fell on them, that they say the meaning of the Text is not sitting but kneeling, howsoever the words go, and that to sit signifies not the posture of their body, but their habitation. I confess and believe, if they had looked for the Comforter at that moment, they would have cast themselves down upon the ground when the Majesty of God was in the place, and I persuade myself they did instantly kneel and give thanks, as soon as they perceived what mighty work God had wrought upon them: But remember they were taken suddenly, and unawares, in some honest communication no doubt. And being so unprovided, why might not Christ begin this Miracle while they were sitting, as well as Christ appear from heaven to Paul as he was riding, or God appear unto Moses while he was keeping sheep? Excellently Cajetan, Non horreo sessionem corporalem, cum nihil indecens inducat; I am not scrupulous or troubled at their sitting, as long as it was done with no obstinate, irreverent, disobedient affection. O but the Roman Missal for this day hath this Hymn, Orantibus Discipulis Deum venisse nunciat. While they were at their prayers, they mean kneeling, the sound gave them warning that the Holy Ghost was come. Well, this case is quickly resolved, their Hymn is mistaken, and let them mend their Missal and not mend the Scripture.  
Is there any thing more to be extracted out of this last Point? One thing, and that is all. It is a remarkable note of a most acute Father of our own Church. Thus: This Wind filled not all the Country, or all Jerusalem, but that house where they sat. Nay, says he, and very truly, that Room only of the house where they were assembled. One Room for an whole house is a frequent Synecdoche. Natural Winds breath over many places at once, but this Wind blue electiuè, by choice and discretion. The Spirit blows upon certain places where it will, and upon certain persons, and they shall plainly feel it, and others about them not a whit. It is a peculiar wind, appropriate to the place where the Apostles are, that is the Church, else where to seek it is but folly, the place it bloweth in is Zion. This is the Divinity of that great Scholar Bishop Andrews, that the Spirit hath not cast an universal diffusion over all the world, but it blows by election and choice, that is at God's good will and pleasure, upon that place only where Christ hath his Church. For what use can they make, or have they ever made of the Spirit, to whom the name of Christ and salvation in his blood was never revealed? The purpose of giving the Holy Ghost is to make the Seed of the Word fruitful in our hearts, that we may believe the Gospel, that we may live holily according to the profession of our Faith, and that through faith, which must work by love if it be true faith, we may be saved. AMEN.   

THE THIRD SERMON UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost.  ACTS two. 3. 
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.  
OF all Mysteries, of all Visions, of all Revelations which the Church ever had, this that is contained in my Text hath one peculiar blessing, that it is most easy to be understood. I can give no reason for it but this, that as natural light makes all colours visible to our eyes, and itself most visible: so the Holy Ghost causeth all celestial Doctrine that concerns eternal salvation to be revealed to the knowledge of faith, and makes himself to be most apparent and intelligible. Therefore I cannot but observe it unto you, that some Angel or some Saint departed did always interpose their presence at the other mighty works of the Gospel, only they forbore to show themselves at this Feast of Pentecost upon the sending of the Holy Ghost. I will spread this before you in a trice, and my conjecture upon it. At the Nativity of our Saviour, many Angels were employed to divulge it: At his Transfiguration, Moses and Elias appeared to ratify it: At his Agony in the Garden, an Angel waited there to strengthen him: At his Resurrection, two Angels in white appeared in his Sepulchre to glorify him: And lastly, at his Ascension, two others clad in as white apparel as they, did testify of him. But upon the descending of the Holy Ghost the Angels did quite withdraw themselves, I am sure they came not in any bodily shape into the place where the Apostles were gathered together, for that were as the Proverb says facem soli praeferre, to light a candle before the Sun at noon day: and that illustrates all things, can be illustrated by nothing but by himself. This is the comfort then of my Text, that we have light on every side to walk in: this is the great latitude of the benefit contained in it, that it gives us vocem & scientiam, linguam & ignem; both tongue and fire, both science and elocution, sapere & fari quae sentiat, to conceive clearly that which is fit to be learned, and to utter distinctly that which is wisely conceived: And therefore in one word we owe unto this blessed day, both completely to be made happy, and completely to know our happiness.  
No marvel if the Old Church, many hundred years since, which was most prudent in appointing Festivals, did constitute, that between Easter and Whitsuntide all the fifty days should be destinated to joy and gladness that all the people should sing haleluja with a loud voice, so often as they met in their holy Assemblies; that there should be no fasting days, no mourning, no not so much as the dejection of kneeling on the ground, but to stand and pray all that space of time, these Fathers were exceeding full of ceremony to express the gladness which they had for the gift of the Holy Ghost. And therefore Bernard calls the Lenten strictness that goes before Easter, Quadragesimam luctus & paenitentiae, the forty days of godly sorrow and repentance: but he calls the time following to Whitsuntide, Quinquagesimam gaudii, the fifty days of Exaltation (for our joy doth surpass our sorrow). At Easter we are assured by Christ's Resurrection that the body shall rise from corruption: at Whitsuntide these fiery tongues do manifest that the Soul shall rise from darkness and ignorance, and be partaker of the marvellous light. And because this mighty miracle was communicated to the Apostles in most sensible objects, therefore I told you the last year that the third person of Trinity disclosed his glory and power openly two ways, to their ear and to their eye; by a sound unto the ear, by a lightsome brightness to the eye: to the ear as to the sense of faith, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven, etc. to the eye as to the sense of love, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, etc. Whereupon I will enlarge myself unto you at this time in these particulars. 1. That the Holy Ghost presented himself to the Primitive Church in a visible object. 2. For the principal substance of the apparition, it was a Tongue. 3. Lingua dispertita vel sectilis, it was a Cloven Tongue. 4. Quasi ignis, it was a fiery Tongue. 5. It was lingua, or ignis, or spiritus insidens, this Tongue, or this Fire, or this Spirit, take which you will, it is all one, but it rested or sat upon each of them.  
We begin with an Apparition representing not some Angel or other glorious creature putting on a sensible shape, but the third Person of Trinity, the Eternal Spirit consubstantial with the Father and the Son, He offered himself as this day in a visible Figure, to the Apostles, and divers other believers that were gathered together in Jerusalem. St. Austin in his third Book of the Trinity maintains that all the Persons of Trinity did appear in visible shapes to the Patriarches of the Old Testament, one or two upon one occasion, and a third upon another occasion. Tertullian and Epiphanius are stout in their opinion, that none but God the Son, called the Angel of the New Covenant, did lay aside his invisible glory in the old times, and appeared to men; I will not engage myself in that quarrel, but for one thing I am at certainty, that when the Law was delivered at Mount Sinai, the Godhead did not condescend to any apparition at all, the people were forbidden so much as to imagine they saw any resemblance of the Most High, says Moses, Ye saw no similitude, only ye heard a voice, Deut. iv. 12. But the Lord grew more friendly and familiar with us that profess the Gospel. We have seen, we have heard, our hands have handled the word of life: this day the new Law began at Mount Zion, and we did not only hear a voice, as it is in the former verse, but according to my Text they saw a similitude, that which was wrapped up in dark Parables to the Fathers, we see that truth as clearly as it were the Sun at noon day. They had the Veil before their eyes, says the Apostle, we behold the fair beauty of God, and the Veil taken away, and rend asunder; they did dishonur God by worshipping visible things instead of the Invisible Creator, and therefore they might not see any resemblance of him for fear of transgressions; and if we worship vain things that are not Gods in this world, we shall utterly be deprived of seeing his glory, and lose our reward hereafter. But the special intent of this apparition was to comfort the Apostles for all the tribulations that they were to sustain; for as their faith was corroborated with some vision of God here, so it assured them that the same faith should be rewarded with a perfect vision hereafter in the life to come. He that believeth doth as it were shut his eyes, and takes all upon trust that he believes, yet upon such trust as cannot deceive him, the trust of Divine Revelation: so that he sees God, as I may say, though he do not see him, as it is Hebr. xi. 27. By faith Moses endured the wrath of Pharaoh as seeing him who is invisible: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to see him that is invisible is contrary to reason, but reconciled by Divinity: but if at any time the most renowned Servants of God had some glimpse of his Majesty in an apparition, as it was at this time, than it seals that promise unto them which they have made, Matth. v. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God: they shall, I say, for all their consolation is de futuro, in hope, but not in act, whether this Vision of the Holy Ghost, or any other before it, they saw nothing to speak of in comparison of that which shall be revealed. Says Epiphanius he that looks through the funnel of a Chimney may truly say that he sees the Heaven, but what doth he see? neither the height, nor the breadth, nor the vastness of it; so he that sees some resemblance of the Holy Trinity, sees somewhat of God darkly as in a Glass, but he sees not so much of the immensity of his glory, as he that sees the Heavens above but through the eye of a Needle. To close this point, what doth the Lord require from hence? but that our eyes should be chaste and pure, and sanctified to his service; because He let the benediction of his Spirit shine upon them? and that amends might be made chiefly in that bodily instrument, through which we have dishonoured him with wantonness and concupiscence. What is created more wicked than an eye, says the Son of Sirach? and therefore it weepeth upon every occasion, Ecclus. xxxi. 13. God hath placed our eyes in the uppermost part of man, to be Sentinels in our Watch-Tower, and to give us warning of those things that may hurt us: but quis custodiet ipsos custodes, unless we set a Watch upon this Watch we shall be betrayed to the sins of the flesh. We live like Laban's Sheep, every man conceives folly, as his eye beholds vain things and party coloured. Seleucus' King of Locrine enacted a Law to have the unchaste eyes of Adulterers pulled out, to punish the trespass in the fountain of the sin: and Democritus the Philosopher pulled out his to prevent the danger. We have had an evil eye, Matth. x. eyes full of adultery, and then as Sal●ucus said, or rather as our Saviour said, oculus eruendus, an eye good for nothing, but pull it out and cast it from you: but as the whole man shall be made a new lump through the reformation of inward grace, so that the same work may be wonderful also in our eyes, the Holy Ghost cast his beams upon them at this Feast of Whitsuntide, and there appeared unto them, etc.  
Hitherto I have made a general survey of the Text, that it contains an Apparition sent from Heaven: in making access to particulars the first thing notorious in the Apparition is, that the matter, and, as it were, the substance of it is a tongue. The whole world was mad against the truth, crying out distractedly like those of Ephesus, Acts nineteen. Then there was need of the voice of a charmer to make them still and attentive with some heavenly incantation. The Church was going forth in a militant order to fight the Lords Battles, therefore the Lord gave a Trumpet to his Ministers to utter forth a certain sound that they might prepare themselves for the skirmish, 1 Cor. xiv. 8. Briefly the Gospel was now to launch forth, and to float upon the waves of many trials and persecutions, and therefore it had need of a Helm to turn it about whithersoever the Governor listeth; and that little Helm is the tongue, Jam. iii 4. I told you even now that the wantonness of the eye had a gracious vision to amend it; so here came a remedy from Heaven to correct the iniquity of our mouth, which is the very forge of Hell, and a tongue descended from above to sanctify it. As the Devil can put no worse thing into us than an evil tongue, and then it becomes the worst member that we have, Jam. iii 6. so God can send us no better thing from the store of his mercies than a tongue to praise him: and then David calls it in the old Translation of our Psalms, the best member that we have. Psal. cviii. 1. We had need to let that Prayer come in often among our earnest supplications, that God would touch our lips with a coal from his altar, as he sent a Seraphin with that blessing to the Prophet Isaiah. It is very meet that we consider in our vote with the Psalmist, Set a watch before my mouth, pone ostium circumstantiae, 
Psal. 141.3.  as the vulgar Latin hath it, make such a door for my mouth, that I may look to every circumstance of every syllable that passeth out: Oret lingua ut dometur lingua, Says St. Austin, O let the tongue pray for itself that it may be ruled: how often trips it in swearing? how often doth it murmur in discontent? in boasting above measure, in pride lofty, in anger furious, in perjuries blasphemous, in curses bitter, in vain talking never quiet; glib as honey in hypocrisy, subtle in lying, smooth in deceiving, impudent in flattery. What a happy thing it is to have a fence about the lips, that no such evil spirits as these may come in or out? and notwithstanding all these exorbitancies of the mouth to which we are so obnoxious, God can purify our speech, and season it with salt that it shall not corrupt: For if man by wit and industry can tame wild beasts which he hath not made, can not the Lord much more tame the tongue which he hath made? a Watch can suppress and curb those in, that would break out of their holds, and the Lord can make such a door for our lips as shall inhibit all the petulancy of vain breath, and shut and open for his own glory? Ostium aperitur & clauditur, says Gregory unto it, a door is made to let our friends and familiars in, but to keep out thiefs and robbers; so the tongue must be open to confess our sins, and shut if hypocrisy shall attempt to excuse them: the mouth must be open unto the praise of God, and barred against our own commendation; it must be open to teach the humble, but shut and silent if the obstinate will not learn, for answer not a fool in his folly says Solomon: He that openeth and no man shutteth, he that shutteth and no man openeth can give us this power from above to speak unto his praise, and to be silent unto evil; therefore the Holy Ghost descended in the apparition of a tongue.  
To pierce further, as far as observation will give me leave upon this point, as the tongue naturally is an instrument of two functions, of speaking, and of tasting; so these extraordinary tongues were destined for two properties, to preach the Gospel, and to discern spiritual things in their true gust and sapor. The first intent was to give the Apostles a door of utterance, to proclaim salvation to all that were prepared to hear, and that all men should confess with boldness that Jesus is the Christ. The Spirit came in the former verse like a rushing mighty wind, that was for inspiration, for the Apostles own sakes, to sanctify themselves, but the gift of tongues was for elocution, to impart the benefit to more than themselves. This is the ancient gloss of the Fathers upon my Text, especially gregory's, 
Past. Cu. lib. 2. c. 4.  and that in two places, pastors primos in linguarum specie spiritus sanctus insedit, quia quos repleverit de se protinus loquentes facit; the Holy Ghost sat upon the first Pastors of the Church in the shape of a tongue, for whomsoever of that rank the Divine Spirit fills, he opens their lips to preach the Lord Jesus. In both of St. Paul's Epistles to Timothy one of his Injunctions upon a Bishop is that he should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, apt to teach. In his admonitions to Titus the same lesson again, A Bishop must be able by sound doctrine to exhort, and convince gainsayers, Tit. i. 9 and St. Hierom says very truly how that character is more appropriated to a Bishop than all the rest: the rest ought generally to be found in all holy Christians not to be given to filthy lucre, nor to quaffing of wine, to be the Husband of one Wife, to be hospital, just, unblameable; but this is intrinsecal first to Episcopal, then to Priestly vocation to be cymbolum mundi, the loud Cymbals of the world, the tongues of the Church, to be apt and painful to teach. And therefore Espencaeus, though of the Roman party, exclaims much against the Pontifician Bishops for giving Monks and Friars licence to preach, who are no Successors of the Apostles, 
In 1. cap. ad Titum.  and therefore never received an Evangelical tongue in their Predecessors; but says he, the Prelates that ought to do that work themselves will not, and therefore they grant licence to those to teach the Gospel who ought not: but he cries out unto them to live according to St. Paul's Canons charged upon those two famous Bishops, Timothy and Titus, and then eant Episcopi, & see a docendi necessitate, si possint, excusent; mark that, Reverend Fathers, says he, and excuse yourselves if you can from the necessity of preaching. No, there is no excuse, for these tongues descended now after a mighty rushing wind, quasi exeuntes è loco tonitrui, as if they had been bolts after a clap of thunder, to signify that these are the Trumpets which God sends forth to call us to repentance before the day of Judgement: Ante adventum judicis ipsi clamando gradiantur, says Gregory. And howsoever some may justly attain to such place in the Church as to sway the Staff of Government in their hand, yet they must remember that they are never released of this duty, that their tongue must edify. In the old Book of Ordination in this Church as well as in the Church of Rome, the Bishop Elect at his Consecration had the Bible given him in one hand to teach, and the Pastoral Staff in the other hand to govern the Flock. It was never meant he should let fall the Book out of one hand, and hold the Staff in both: nay beware he be not beaten with the Staff that lets go the Book. Latratu & baculo rabies luporum deterrenda est, says St. Hierom, 
Ep. ad Oecanum.  that is, if the Wolf come near the Sheepfold, he must not only be threatened with the Staff, but the Dogs must bark at him likewise, and then he will leave his Prey, and take him to his heels. St. Austin presseth the same Doctrine out of St. Paul. Ephes. iv. 11. He gave some Apostles, and some Evangelists, and some Pastors and Teachers. Says he I collect from hence that every Pastor, that is every Bishop must be a Teacher; for it is not said he gave some Pastors and some Teachers, as it went before, some Apostles and some Prophets, but Pastors and Teachers are put together without a distinctive member, ut intelligerent Pastores ad officium suum pertinere doctrinam, 
Ep. 59  that Pastors may know how teaching is included in their duty, and cannot be separated from it. This than was the principal intent of giving the tongue at the Feast of Whitsuntide, as it is Isa. l. 4. The Lord hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season. First then negligent silence in Pastors is a stifling the grace of God: Quantùm vitae merito aedificat tantùm destruit silentio. Secondly, affected silence is affronting the grace of God, as those Orders of Friars that bind themselves by vow and institution of life not to utter a word excepting one day, or it may be one hour in the week, sometimes not so often. Agatho the Anchorite is commended in the lives of the Fathers that he never spoke: what is this but as it were to advow not to receive the benediction of the Holy Ghost. Finally to be preproperous and overhasty to teach the Gospel is to prevent the Spirit, or rather not to wait for the grace of God. For Christ had first rooted the knowledge of the Word and Scripture in the Apostles, and then endued them with a tongue; but they that start up Teachers before they be grounded in the Word, speak with their own tongue before they have received the tongue of the Holy Ghost.  
But the tongue supplies another office in nature, and that's to taste: The ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meats, Job xxxiv. 3. so the Spirit makes us feel and know the good things of God that are in us, even as the tongue makes us relish that which is sweet upon the palate, and will be delectable for nourishment: Nay we do not only taste the things of heaven slightly, and as we say upon the tip of the tongue, but the same Spirit makes us to ruminate upon them, and chew the cudd, my heart is always musing of thy testimonies, says David. O 'tis a comfortable thing to have a taste of Heaven in our Soul, to have some persuasive Experiment that the Holy Ghost dwelleth in us, especially to have it proceed to that most pleasing Sapor, when the Spirit shall testify to our Spirit, that we are the Sons of God: but in all that are meetly disposed to Eternal Life, there is some perceivance, in others more, in others less, there's some Taste, some Consolation, that Christ is in them and works in them by Faith and Love; and the more you taste it, the more sweetness you shall find to breed an Appetite. The Natural Man perceives not the things that are of God, he counts the Doctrine of Christ and him crucified to be Madness and Foolishness, he thinks they that kill his Apostles do God good service; he puts bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter, Isa. 5.20. there's all the Taste that he hath, he wants a Tongue to dijudicate of the Manna that comes from Heaven, which no man knows but he that receiveth it. Rev. two. 17. He to whom it is given to know what is the height, breadth and depth of the Love of our Lord Jesus and his Redemption; he accepts of all things in a divers manner from him to whom the mind of the Lord is not revealed; he interprets the Poverty of Christ to be the Riches of the World, his Ignominy to be the Triumph of the Saints; Tribulation for the truth is a Refreshing to his body, Mortification and pious Sorrow a dainty Lenitive to his soul; he receives the Doctrine of our Ministry not as the Word of Man, but as it is indeed, the Word of God; he cannot but speak the Truth, though his life lie at the stake for it, negare Dei verbum non valeo, quia spiritus sancti linguam habeo, 
Homil. 30. in Ezek.  it is Gregory's, I cannot deny the word of God, because the Holy Ghost hath given me a tongue to speak it. To conclude this point, no man can have a smack of the Kingdom of Heaven, but through the relish of this tongue, no man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost, 1 Cor. xii. 3. as we are born children of wrath, in our unregenerate estate we have bitterness in our throat, and the poison of Asps under our lips, how can we savour the things that are of God? but the Spirit makes us a new creature, and takes away all this sourness, and ill relished acrimony, and then his fruit will be sweet unto our mouth, Cantic. two. 3.  
Having delivered unto you the substance of this Vision, which is a tongue it follows to speak of the Figure and Form of it. It was cloven, that's truly called the Figure; and like as of fire, that's truly called the Form. A Tongue was a Commission, and an enabling of the Apostles to preach, but a Cloven Tongue was their hability to preach unto many. The Syrian language was all that they could speak before, and in that they faultered too, and mouthed it rudely and unelegantly, a silly Damosel quipt even St. Peter with it, Thou art a Galilaean, and thy speech betrayeth, yet such a tongue as it was they were unlettered men, and could speak no more, all the world beside were Barbarians to them, and they Barbarians to all the world. But the Lord knew that they had need of many tongues to pay that great debt which they owed his Church; ite, praedicate universae creaturae, go and teach all Nations from Jerusalem and Samaria, even unto the ends of the world. I would a little satisfy my Auditors before I go any further, that would know how the tongues did resemble a cloven figure that sat upon the Apostles. If you look upon such types of it as Picture-drawers have framed, remember that there is no heed to be given to their Pencil, for they will extremely abuse your ignorance; they usually represent the Apparition, as if every Apostle, and the Blessed Virgin sitting in the midst of them, had a little lamp of fire, like the flame of a small Torchet blazing upon their head, and so would thrust this belief upon the rash gazer, that God sent down a show of many fiery tongues into the place where this holy Society was gathered together; and that there was singularis flammula, a little flame proportioned somewhat like a Tongue, sitting upon each of them. Now this is nothing suitable to that which immediately ensued, and was prefigured in this Miracle, namely, the speaking with divers Tongues to the fit intelligence of all Nations. The most probable conceit that I can frame of it is, to imagine how fire disparts itself into flames, especially, a celestial irradiation, like the light of the Sun, that was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, like as of fire. Fire, you know, will cast out many flames in sharp and Pyramidal points, or as the Sun lays his beams forth in many ejaculations, nothing fits it righter than the expansion of the fingers of the hand, so this fire did glister like several beams in proportion to the Tongue when it is rather pickant and sharp than broad, and in that sort, as I fancy it, as is above the skill of any Limner in the world to paint it (for the Holy Ghost perhaps intended not to be set forth in Workman's Art and Imagery) and so it multiplied into the show of several disparted Tongues, as many of them seemed to sit upon every several Apostle.  
My drift is to make this conceit of it enter into you, that from one Language the Apostles grew expert of a sudden to speak many, their Harp now wherewith they praised the Lord was not only ten stringed, but ten times ten stringed to make a more cheerful melody to the God of Jacob. The Tongue which was confined before to a little corner of the world in Palestina, and there only to bless the Creator that made us is now set at liberty, that in all Languages it may glorify the Saviour that redeemed us. And as the Fathers do very well show it, this is a plain reversing of the curse of Babel by the blessing that came out of Zion. For as God pulled down that proud Tower which those insolent Builders intended by the confusion of many Tongues, so he built up the new Jerusalem in an instant by the gift of many Tongues; and as diversity of Tongues was a punishment to scatter Rebels for their pride, so diversity of Tongues was made the only means to reduce Infidels that had not heard of God into the unity of the Faith. And they that advanced themselves against heaven, says Gregory, lost the communion of that one tongue which they had, but they which submitted themselves to the good will and pleasure of Christ obtained the communion of all Tongues which they had not. Sic humilitas unitatem meruit, & superbia confusionem. And all this was done visibly upon this one day, that we may believe the Church shall never want Gods invisible grace, that is, though not in this kind, yet in some other benefit. A miracle in the same kind, they that are the common minters of Miracles, dare not urge or pretend. And although nothing be more expedient for the settling of the Gospel in an unknown world, such as America was within one hundred and forty years, than the gift of Tongues to be able to speak to those Savages to their own understanding, yet the Jesuits have never arrogated that any of their Order who visited those parts, could speak new Languages by inspiration; only Turcellinus, a man of no forehead, nor modesty, says, that Xaverius the Jesuit spoke but his mother tongue to the Indians of Goa, and that all those heathenish people did understand him as if it had been their native Dialect; an impudent forgery confirmed by none, disavowed by Acosta of his own Society, and quite contrary to the nature of a Miracle, that Infidels and Pagans should be inspired to understand, and the Christian that converted them should have no extraordinary inspiration to speak. Therefore as I said before, we have no kind of invisible grace in the same kind that the Apostles had cloven tongues, that is a faculty to speak by instinct with all Nations, but the Lord did never give to any Age more blessing in the learning of the Tongues than he hath done to this, furnishing men with rare skill to be able to communicate in speech with those of the world beneath us, which is a sign to me that he is gathering the World unto him by the calling of all Nations, and hastening his Kingdom.  
But now I gather in further upon this Miracle, Can any thing be more Diametrically opposite to the good intention of it than public Prayers recited in a Tongue unknown to the ignorant people, to which they cannot understandingly say Amen? Why hath God sent down this Vision of Cloven Tongues, but that the Lips of all Nations and Languages may as well publicly as privately resound his glory? If Beasts and Birds could speak they would utter nothing but that which they understand; and shall reasonable men be tied through the tyranny of Churchmen to fumble words by rote like Beasts? It is against Nature, which gave us a Tongue to be the interpreter of the mind to those that listen to us. It is against Reason to make the Laiques say Amen to the Priests, when for their part they are uncertain whether he blessed them, or cursed them. It is against Scripture, 1 Cor. xiv. If you speak in an unknown tongue, how can he that supplies the place of the Idiot say Amen? And Lyra says upon it, If the People understood the Priests they would serve God better, be converted sooner, answer much more devoutly to the Contents of the Liturgy. It is against the Scope of the Holy Ghost, who enabled the Apostles to speak with divers Tongues, that all people might hear and know, and know and believe to eternal life. It is against all possibility of Edification: For where knowledge enters not first, how can zeal and desire be kindled? 
Harding.  Ignoti nulla cupido. And it is an impious derision of one of the Romish to say, that although the Priest stand at the Altar so far distant from the people, that they neither hear nor understand, yet the people may be taught by Signs and Ceremonies. It is quite against the old Imperial Laws; Justinian the Emperor strictly commanding all Priests so to officiate in the Church, that their voice might come distinct and intelligible to all the people present, that they may answer again, as is their duty. Finally, it is most utterly against the ancient use of the Church, one example for many. St. Hierom says that at the Funerals of Paula the people sang Psalms, some in Hebrew, some in Greek, some in Latin, and Syriack, all in their several Dialects to praise the Lord for her happy departure. So I have delivered what is most opposite to the gift of Cloven Tongues; one thing more for a caution, that a double tongue is a gift of the Devil, as a cloven tongue is the gift of God. The cloven Tongue was the dispersion of many beams out of one flame, of many Tongues out of one root, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says Oecumenius, so that there is unity in the root, and distinction in the stalks; but the double tongue (which St. Paul bids Deacons take heed of, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. three 8.) that is, Lying, Equivocation, Flattery, sowing dissension, double mindedness, Jam. i. 8. (Omnis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) he that hath a double tongue hath a double mind, an heart and a heart. He praiseth that to one Faction, which he defies before the other. He commends a man to his face, backbites him behind his back, he confesseth Christ where it is advantage, and denies him where it is advantage. Cum tristibus severè, cum remissis jucundè, as the Orator said of Catiline, he can curse and bless with the same breath, out of the same Fountain come forth sweet waters and bitter; these, and many more than these are the juggle of a double tongue, but the Lord will say unto them, double unto them double, according to their iniquities, and divide them in twain, that they may have their portion with hypocrites.  
I have been copious, as the time would give me leave, upon the Figure of these Tongues, that they were Cloven, next you must mark their Form, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as it were fire, cloven tongues as it were fire, and let a certain learned Interpreter have his judgement to himself, that it is an Hypallage, for there appeared fire as it had been Cloven Tongues, yet still it is but appearing, and as it were; the sound was a real sound that came from heaven, all beside was but Similitude and Apparition. Very fire was not needful, nay, it would have been offensive, and have scorched the part upon which it sat; But it was such fire as appeared to Moses in the Bush, Exod. iii The bush burnt with fire, and the bush was not consumed. Such as the Evangelical Prophet Isaiah did foresee, Isa. xliii. 2. When thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. To be inspired in a moment to speak all sort of Tongues the Apostles did never dream of, 
Mar. 16.  Christ did not foretell them any thing which sounded that way. But they had prediction of this part of the Miracle both from John the Baptist, He shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire, Mat. iii 11. and from Christ's own mouth, I am come to send fire into the earth, Luk. xii. 49. Which the Fathers, for the most part, interpret of that which came down at this Feast of Pentecost. All the Plagues of the Old World, as if the Elements had spate out their venom, became blessings under the Kingdom of Christ. The Old World was drowned with Water, the New World is saved by Baptism; and as I said but lately, God pulled down the Tower of Babel by the confusion of Tongues, now he built up the New Jerusalem, by the multiplicity of tongues: So he sent down fire upon Sodom to consume it, here he sent down fire upon his Church to save it.  
But because all the Apparitions which the most wise God doth send are full of Signification and Doctrine, it concerns the Text to have it diligently enquired wherefore the Holy Ghost did descend in fire?  
First, Look back to the Mosaical Law delivered at Mount Sinai, at the promulgation of it there came smoke, 
Ep. 494.  and thunder, and flashes of fire, therefore, says Isidor, Vt unus Deus in utroque testamento agnosceretur; that you may know that the same Lord is Lord of both the two Testaments, in the first settling of the Gospel likewise there came down fire from heaven. The Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, in his right hand was a fiery Law, Exod. xxxiii. 1. Whereupon the Chaldee Paraphrast says, that his right hand wrote the Law out of the midst of the fire, so the holy Spirit doth write the Law of Christ in our hearts as it were with an hot Iron Mark, making such a stamp as will never be got out.  
Secondly, And I mean principally likewise, the brightness of fire concurred in the Tongues to import that boldness, and fervour, and efficacy which goes along with them, where the Lord doth give the mouth utterance to speak. Tongues of flesh, and words of air will not serve the turn to convert souls, there must be fire put into the Tongue, somewhat above natural force and power that must bring it to pass. Says the Son of Syrach concerning that renowned Prophet that awed all Israel with his Preaching, then stood up the Prophet Elias like fire, and his word burned as a lamp, Ecclus. xlviii. 1. There is a burning vigour in the Word of God when it is luckily applied to the conscience of a sinner. As Cleophas and the other Disciple said of the communication of our Saviour, Did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and opened unto us the Scriptures? Luk. xxiv. 32. And we must be warm, and fervent ourselves in our Message, that we may warm others with it. Ardeat orator si judicem velit accendere, says Tully, 
2. lib. de Orat.  that was his crafts-master in that kind. Let the Orator be fervent if he means to heat the Judge in his cause, so the Ambassadors of God must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Rom. xii. 11. Fervent in spirit, if they mean to thaw the frozen hearts of their Auditors. So says Gregory upon this very occasion of the fiery Tongues, Otiosus est sermo doctoris, 
Homil. 30. in Ezek.  si praebere non valeat incendium amoris; Our Preaching is frivolous if it do not kindle the fire of divine love in our Disciples. Therefore St. Paul writes thus to Timothy, 2 Epist. i 6. To stir up the gift of God that is in him, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to quicken and kindle the fire of the gift of God that is in him. Vt sopitum ignitum suscites, 
Erasmus.  to rake up the fire together, and make it flame that it go not out. The gift of God is a lively flame kindled in our hearts, which the Devil and the flesh would put out, and that monition quench not the spirit is the watch word against it, and we must labour, as much as we can, to foster it, and keep it burning. But he that is a lukewarm Christian, neither hot, nor cold, indifferent to serve God, or to disobey him, he is a loathed morsel which God cannot digest, and because he wants fervour it is a manifest sign that the Spirit is departed from him.  
Thirdly, The Spirit came at several times in the shape of a Dove and in fire to show what mixture out of them both is most pleasing in a Christian, Quia ne que placere Deo simplicitas sine zelo, neque zelus potest sine simplicitate; the Dove, is the Emblem of gentleness and simplicity; the Fire, of zeal; neither is zeal good without meekness, nor meekness without zeal. We must not lose our fervour in tameness, nor with preposterous zeal forget gentleness. And well doth Gregory hunt this Parallel further, that the Spirit did descend upon Christ in the similitude of a Dove, upon the Apostles in the similitude of fire, for God will be mild as a Dove toward us, if we will be hot as fire against ourselves. That he may spare us with his mercy, let us be angry at ourselves with godly revenge. And so they that made no bones of lies and fictions have renowned St. Dunstan in his Legend, that a Dove descended from heaven upon him, Et remigia alarum scintillantis ignis splendorem prae se ferebant, says Capgrave. And the wings of it, when they were stretched out, 
Capgrave.  did sparkle like fire. Their meaning is in this Fable, as I call it, to set him forth as most full of the Holy Ghost, upon whom both the Dove and fire descended.  
Fourthly, says St. Austin, where God causeth the Tongue to speak the truth, 
De Tem. Serm. 185.  fire, that is sorrow and trouble, will follow, Ignis portendit tribulationem, quam propter linguas erunt perpessuri; The fire imports that tribulation which the Apostles must undergo by preaching the Gospel. The Devil did rage against those that were the Pillars of the Church, and of true Doctrine, and blew the coals of many a fire to consume them.  
Fifthly, and to shut up that Point, the Tongue being left to itself is full of much corruption as I have amplified already, and it had need of a purging fire to cleanse it, and refine it. In all the old Sacrifices of the Grecians Homer says, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they threw the tongue of the beast into the fire, whereupon says Coelius Rhodoginus, Comburendo linguas perperam dictorum labes expurgabant; They made expiation thereby in the flames of fire for all words that had been spoken offensively. St. James says the Tongue is a fire, Chap. iii 6. meaning a fire of discord and mischief, and that fire had need to be corrected by another fire from heaven, or else the torments of hellfire would be the end of it.  
And now we will rest at last in that Point which is the resting and settling of these Tongues, There appeared unto them, etc. and it sat upon each of them. It sat? Why we spoke of Tongues in the Plural number before; What Enallage is this? Cajetan, and the most Divines interpret it that the fire sat upon each of them. Calvin by a Metonimy of signi pro re signatâ, that the Spirit sat upon each of them. The Syrian Paraphrast refers it directly to the Tongues, and puts it in the Plural number, sederunt, they sat upon each of them. Indeed, to refer it to many Tongues, and yet to make the Verb of the Singular number is the best exposition of all, it sat, to show that it is one Holy Ghost in the administration of divers gifts, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as I said before, one root and many stalks, There are diversity of operations, but it is the same Lord that worketh all in all, 1 Cor. xii. 6. But upon whom did they descend and sit? For now I make haste. Upon every one of the hundred and twenty that were gathered together? Or upon the Apostles only? Somewhat is in it, that when all are named to whom this fire appeared, all to be filled with the Holy Ghost, yet the Tongues are said to sit upon each of them. In two ancient Copies some of our Critics say that the Text runs, they sat upon each of the Apostles, and I think that a very probable gloss. The Reasons are, First, the Spirit in some particular manner was promised to them only, Acts i 7. Secondly, when some Scoffers said they were full of new wine that had the gift of Tongues, St. Peter makes his apology for himself and the Eleven only. Thirdly, it is said hereupon that they all spoke or preached the mighty things of God. This befits the Apostles, and not those one hundred and twenty, among whom was the Blessed Virgin, and other women, whose office it was not to preach. Fourthly, the standers by said, Are not all these of Galilee that speak with divers tongues, which was true in the Apostles, now Judas was taken away, but very improbable to agree to all the rest. Howsoever let there be no discord about this, it is not worth the while; no more is the next quere upon what part of them the Cloven Tongues did sit? That is not expressed, but in all likelihood it was their head, for thereunto all Expositors do give their suffrage. The Spirit must be in summo loco, we must give it, and the inspiration thereof the pre-eminence in all things. These Tongues, 
Lib. 8. c. 2.  says Gregory, did encircle about their head, Vt novae coronae spirituales capiti eorum imponerentur, as if the King of heaven had crowned them with spiritual Crowns from heaven. They are ridiculous among the Pontifician Writers that would fetch it from hence that Christ did ordain the Apostles Bishops at this time, and used this Ceremony to touch their head from heaven, for Consecratio Episcoporum est in capite, as they urge it out of Clemens Constitution: For another while they confess that the Episcopal character, and all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and authority was given them in those words, As my Father sent me, so do I send you.  
These things being thus put out of the way, the main Doctrine agreed on all hands is, that the sitting of the Tongues did betoken the constant abiding of the Spirit, he is no flitter, he doth not come with a lick and away, but his gifts are without repentance. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, so St. chrysostom, and his true follower Oecumenius, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, both agree that the Spirit was settled upon them, not to depart away. It is a fire like that on the Altar, permanent and never going out; according to our Saviour's Promise, Joh. xiv. 16. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter, that may abide with you for ever. Some of the Schoolmen find a knot in this plain Doctrine, whether the Apostles, and all upon whom the Spirit did now abide were confirmed in grace. Certain Ecclesiastical Historians trouble them in their conclusions, who say that Nicholas the Deacon, from whom the Nicolaitans were derived, and many other ringleaders of Heretics were present at this time, and although the Spirit descended upon them, yet they forsook their first faith. The answer is, if these stories be Authentical, these gifts were gratiae gratis datae, not gratum facientes; Gifts which God did graciously give, not gifts which made them gracious to God that received them. And the continuance and residency of these tongues is established in these words, that the Comforter whom Christ would send should abide with them for ever; that is, it should abide in the Church, that is in them, and in their Successors unto the ends of the world, till Christ should come again in glory, as I will open upon the next verse. AMEN.   

THE FOURTH SERMON UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost.  ACTS two. 4. 
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.  
ALL the joy which we celebrate for the famous acts of Christ is irksome to the Devil; and the particular Solemnities, which we keep, are grievous to those that shut their eyes against the truth. Upon the yearly day of our Saviour's Nativity the Jew is sad and displeased, because he believes not, that he that was born of Mary a pure Virgin was the Son of God, and the Messias whom their Fathers looked for, that should sit upon the Throne of David for evermore. Upon the high Feast of his Resurrection the Sadducee gnasheth with his teeth, because he denieth that the dead can be raised to life. So upon this triumphant Feast, wherein we abound with comfort for the sending of the Holy Ghost, the Pelagian is malcontented, who is an enemy to the efficacy of Grace, and the more cause we have to maintain the dignity of it, and to be throughly disciplined what the Holy Ghost hath wrought for our Soul, because the Church is miserably soured of late in all places with the leaven of Pelagius. Again, as all the parts of our Saviour's Mediatorship were several degrees to advance our Salvation, and like the several steps of jacob's Ladder to bring us nearer and nearer to Heaven, so in this comparison the sending of the Holy Ghost is the loftiest degree, and as it were the top of the spire, which is next neighbour to the Kingdom of Glory: for as man in his first creation had but an incomplete being, till the Lord breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, so man in his reparation was but incompletely restored, till Christ did send the Comforter to infuse into him the breath of sanctification. This day therefore is the concluding Feast of all the great days, wherein we rememorate the noble works of our Lord; and to go further, this Text is the upshot of all the blessings that were conferred upon the Church in this happy day. Christ took our nature upon him that he might die for our sins; he suffered and was crucified that he might reconcile all such to his Father as would repent and believe: repentance and faith to please God cannot enter into the heart of the natural man by his own abilities; a power from Heaven must be the means to bring that about, which is so repugnant to our corrupt nature. Traverse over the mystery of our Redemption, and you shall find that the work is at a stand, till supernal grace poured in do draw it forward: as Physicians say that spiritus est ultimum alimenti, the last concoction, and the most refined part of our nourishment is that which makes the spirits; so the donation of the Holy Spirit is the accomplishment and final resolution of all the benefits which we partake in Christ.  
And the last payment collated by that precious liberality to enrich the Church for ever is here in my Text: nay indeed it was but a preparation before, the talon of grace was not tendered till now. That which was set forth in figure in the former verses, is here exhibited in real substance. Before a rushing wind made a noise, here was the very thing imparted which was shadowed by the wind: before certain fiery tongues made a glittering that sat upon their head, now their own tongues became most fluent, and voluble with wonderful eloquence. In brief, to the exact building up of the Church two things were required, which are not wanting, but abound in this verse: First that the Lord should speak unto the Heart; Secondly, that he should speak unto the Ear, by an invisible word and by a visible: He spoke invisibly to the Heart, when they were all filled with the Holy Ghost; he spoke visibly to the Ear, when his Ministers began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Nay more, to gather a Society together, whose Labours should be dispread over all the world, it was expedient that the Lord should confer both ordinary and extraordinary Gifts upon them: His ordinary Blessing (and indeed nothing is blest without it) is some quantity of Sanctification; his extraordinary Blessing is twofold, to send such as are not lightly sprinkled, but filled with the Spirit, and to speak with divers Tongues, that their sound may go forth into all the World. Yet again, to show the Amplitude of God's allowance to his Primitive Church, he makes a double provision, first for every Disciple, as he is one Member of this Body, and so all and every one of them were filled with the Holy Ghost, and then he provides for all the Members of his Body junctim in one union and communion, they began, etc. so that here's the inward and the outward blessing, the ordinary and the extraordinary, the particular and the universal. The inward, ordinary, and particular blessing is this, that they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.  
If you look for the provision with which the Primitive Church was stored, look for it in this Chapter, and you will find out upon judicious survey that there are three things which make it plenteous with all manner of store, pastors, Verbum, and Spiritus; First certain Pastors allotted to the sacred Function to guide the souls of the People. 2. the Word of life which is put into their mouth to be preached unto all Nations. 3. The Spirit of grace accompanying the Word, to make it fruitful and prolificous in the hearts of them that hear it and obey it. That some were ordained Pastors and Bishops to teach and rule the Church, that's clear, the Apostles met together in Jerusalem with one accord, as Christ had appointed, and the Cloven Tongues which came from Heaven sat upon each of them, that was their Commission to take their Bishopric upon them: that the Word was delivered unto them which they should preach, and Elocution to impart that Word to every Kingdom and Language, that's as clear. Eight times in this one Chapter St. Peter quotes the Scripture of the old Testament, and with divers tongues according to the capacity of all the Nations and Languages that were met together; and that the Holy Ghost was infused with much abundance at the same time, that's as clear and pregnant as the rest, 'tis twice gone over in my Text, both in the beginning, and in the end, they were filled with the Holy Ghost, and the Spirit gave them utterance. A Church without lawful Pastors is but a Synagogue of Schismatics; a Pastor without a Tongue is but an Idol Shepherd, or a dumb Dog: a Tongue without the power of the Spirit is but sounding Brass, or a tinkling Cymbal: As St. Paul said of the three grand Theological Virtues, Now abideth Faith, Hope, Charity, these three, but the greatest of these is Charity; so I say of these necessary parts that constitute the Church the Ministry, the Word, and the Spirit, but the chiefest and most excellent of these is the Spirit. In some strange manner God may have a Church without a consecrated Priesthood, as when Adam and Eve were first placed in Paradise; he may have a Society of holy Servants without the Word taught and proclaimed by the organ of a Tongue, as the Angels are illuminated to know his will by immediate inspiration; but with reverence let me speak it, I cannot see which way the Lord can have a Church without the Gift of the Holy Spirit. God may be known by his wonderful works and effects without his special grace; but can he be present in the soul of man, and make it blessed by knowing his Divine will to please him without his special grace? Praesens est in quantum praesentem facit beatitudinem; if he make all his good to pass before us, it must be by these means, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, Exod. xxxiii. 19 Those creatures that seek no higher perfection, nor greater good than a temporal being, and that which is found within the compass of their own nature they may attein thereunto by the strength of nature without any other help; but Men and Angels that seek an infinite and Divine good, that is everlasting happiness, which consisteth in the vision of God, they cannot attain their wished end, which is so much removed from them, and so far above them, unless they be lifted up unto it by a supernatural force of grace. Eternal felicity is the Haven to which they sail, and it is no ordinary wind, but the stiff gale of the Holy Spirit that must bring them to the Port of endless glory; that is, they cannot ascend of themselves, they may be lifted up to the Vision of God: especially Man since his woeful fall (they are the words of the tenth Article of our Church) can have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the grace of God by Christ preventing him, that he may have a good will, and without the same grace working with him when he hath a good will. Natural habilities and inclinations at the best reach no further than to dispose all things well for the honour and preservation of the natural being, but when we are put to it, and become content, yea and rejoice to lay down our life for Christ's sake, which is the abolition of the natural being, this vigour and strength must come from a supernatural influence, that is from the fire of the Spirit, which is predominant above the breath of nature.  
This hath given you satisfaction, I suppose, that it did more import the Church to receive the Spirit than any other benefit. I draw forward to a more distinct inspection of it: and the first scruple about which I find a difference is this, Whether the very Person of the Holy Ghost be meant in this place, or only certain impressions of his Gifts and Graces? I will straighten myself to a short answer, both the Person of the Holy Ghost was here, and the virtue of the Holy Ghost, that which sat upon the head of each of them in cloven tongues as it were, was the infinite Majesty of the third Person of Trinity in that apt and visible similitude: but that which filled them was not the very essence but the operation of the Spirit. Implet non seipso formaliter, sed dono quod producit, say the Schoolmen; he that filleth all things with his presence, cannot be said formally to fill one thing more than another; but he that blows where he listeth with his inspiration, is said to fill those whom he sanctifies, not with his essence, but with that inspiration. The Founder of School Divinity is noted for one error above the rest, that he makes the Grace of God to be no effect of the Holy Spirit, but the essence of the very Spirit to purify the thoughts and mind. He stuck too literally to St. Austin, 
Serm. 185. de Temp.  and so wandered from the right way. For thus that Father preaching upon my Text, Christ was present with his faithful Servants this day, not by his Visiting Grace, but by his Personal Majesty; atque in vasa non jam odor balsami, sed ipsa suba sacri defluxit unguenti; their vessels were not only perfumed with the odour of the sweet Ointment, but that fragrant Balsam, the very Unction itself did flow abundantly into them. To this it is most proper to rejoin, that St. Austin meant it of the extraordinary Apparition of the Holy Ghost upon this day, not of his ordinary inspiration: For in the same Sermon he says, that the immortal Spirit is vicarius successor redemptoris, the Deputy to succeed our Saviour in the Church, now he is gone away on high. But how is he Christ's Deputy, not as if by his personal communication he wrought his gifts in us, but thus, quod Salvator inchoavit, peculiari virtute Spiritus Sanctus consummate, the faith which Christ did begin in his Apostles by teaching them daily, the Holy Ghost did perfect by the special virtue of sanctification. No Text doth more evidently convince that the infinite and increated essence of the Spirit is to be distinguished from the finite and created qualities which he infuseth, than those words, Jo. seven. 39 He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters; but this spoke he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ those are all the words in the Text, for the Holy Ghost was not yet, we make it up, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given. But stand we to the words of Scripture, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Holy Ghost was not yet: This will never hold without differencing the third Person of Trinity from his sanctifying effects; the Person was before, and had no beginning, but nondum erat manifesti muneris efficacitate, says Theophylact, as yet he was not revealed in his plentiful efficacity. The close of the Point is thus, the very Person of the Holy Ghost came down into the place where they were gathered in an external visible form, and his effects or efficacy was breathed into them in wonderful gifts.  
But concerning those gifts wherewith they were filled there's another scruple, whether they were saving graces, such as are collated upon them that are the Elect of God, or whether they were only miraculous assistances, as Prophecies, Gifts of Tongues, Gifts of Healing, and the like, which are impressions indeed of the Holy Ghost, not that they sanctify him which hath them, but they are given to men for the confirmation of the holy Faith. That which brings this into doubt is a Tradition that hath no good founder, that some Apostates and Revolters (as Nicolas the Deacon, from whom the Nicolaitans are derived) were some of this Assembly, that are said to be filled with the Holy Ghost, and it is not to be contradicted, but that gratiae gratis datae, habilities to work miracles may be in those that make shipwreck of a good conscience. Yet that Exception, though it may hold in others, yet it is not to be applied to these persons, and to this season; not to these persons, for it is most likely that none but the Apostles were partakers of the Divine illumination, which came from Heaven upon this day: and the Apostles, no man calls it in question, had the talents of that grace delivered unto them, which saved their souls. It is a masterless and a false fame that any castaways were in the number of these that were filled with the Holy Ghost. Christ himself is said to be full of the Holy Ghost, Luke iv. 1. and the Blessed Virgin gratiâplena, full of grace: and St. Stephen the Captain of all Martyrs, full of the Holy Ghost, Acts vi. and Barnabas the Son of Consolation full of the Holy Ghost, Acts xi. None but such as were peerless Saints are deigned with that praise: to give this scruple a full satisfaction, regard the time and season wherein this dew of heaven did drop down into the Fleece of wool, it is the day so long before promised, wherein the Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh, the scaturigo, the first spouting out of the Spirit; and do you think that this being the original from whence the spring began, that all the best Balsams and Liquors did not flow into them that received it? I resolved therefore, that these persons in my Text did not only partake such gifts as made them wonderful in the eyes of the world, but such also as made them holy and acceptable in the sight of God: that is, it did not only speak in their tongues, but it was diffused in their hearts. To end this matter, remember what manner of spirit that is which God bestows, it is from above, it is holy, it is not our own but Christ's; a Spirit from above, and not from beneath: as St. Paul says, Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but of God, 1 Cor. two. 12. Spiritus mundi est per quem arripiuntur phanatici, says St. Ambrose, that's the spirit of this world with which fanatical men are led, which drives them into contention, or vain glory; but they are enemies to peace, and savour not the things which belong to God. And since we are bidden to deny ourselves, if we will be Christ's Disciples, we must also deny our own private Spirit, and submit ourselves to the Spirit of the Church, which is the Spirit of God, for our Saviour hath promised to be with it unto the end of the world. Take heed of this hot windy humour, which makes some cleave pertinaciously to their own imagination, and attribute far more to their own ignorant judgement than becomes them. The Spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets: but if any one think that some new mysteries are revealed to him, which the Church never heard of before, and begin to trouble our peace with his falsesly pretended raptures and enthusiasms, 
Ezek. 13.3.  I say unto such in Ezekiels words, Woe unto the foolish Prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing.  
Thus far I have spoken of the Gift, which was given to the Apostles to supply the room of Christ himself, now he was gone and ascended into Heaven. Hominem portavit in coelum, & Deum misit in terram, says St. Austin, he carried away his Manhood into Heaven, and instead thereof he sent down God unto the Earth, I mean the Holy Ghost: and this Gift, more worth than all the world beside, is his usual and continual favour, but the measure of it is more than ordinary, repleti sunt omnes, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. And Leo did very well to mark it, that this was not spiritus inchoans, but cumulans, not the initiation but the accumulation of the Spirit, the augmenting of the old stock, which the Apostles had in a good quantity before, not the beginning of a new. They had the Spirit before, as appears particularly in St. Peter, when Christ told him he had prayed that his faith might not fail, therefore he had a portion of faith. In general it is most manifest, that Christ breathed on them all, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. But as it appears by Elisha's request to his Master Elias, there are single, and there are double Portions of the Spirit; there is a single Talon of Grace given to one Servant, two to a second, and five Talents committed to him that was most entrusted by his Master: there are such as have a little of this Manna in their Omer, and them that have it top full: And these that received the Holy Ghost at this Feast were such as were not sprinkled, but replenished with it, quibus nulla pars animae mansit carens spiritu sancto, says Cajetan, the fruits of sanctification did not grow thinly in them, here a berry, and there a berry upon the top of a bough, but pious conformity to Gods will, obedience and the fear of the Lord were in every faculty of their soul and body. The Romanists oftentimes put in such impertinent cautions, that their bedging in of some needless exception lays waste the truth of God. Among others of that bad stamp this is one, that the Apostles and other holy men are said to be filled at this time with the Holy Ghost, because an Increase was put to that which they had before, but the Blessed Virgin was so full before, that she received not any new addition; or if she received a new distillation of it now, illud erat ut in nos tantum effunderet says Lorinus, it was for our sakes that it might overflow, and be transfused from her to us: even as Christ was full of grace and truth from the first moment that he was incarnate, and yet for our sakes the Spirit came upon him, when he was baptised in Jordan, Matth. iii a most scandalous comparison between the Infinite and the Finite, between the Creator and the Creature; for though Christ thought it no robbery to be equal with God, Philip. two. yet it is a great robbery of the Divine honour to make the Blessed Virgin equal with Christ. But to keep to mine own work, the Apostles had an earnest penny of the Spirit before, but they came to the fullness of it by degrees: first they were baptised, and so had an introduction unto sanctity; afterward Christ breathed on them, that was their proficiency: last of all came this mighty rushing, and cloven tongues as it were fire, and sat upon each of them, that's their perfection: by nature and of themselves they were of the earth earthly, but they were regenerate and born again in Baptism, that's an Element above the Earth. The next step of their heavenly promotion was, that the Lord breathed on them, so the Air is above the Water. In conclusion the Holy Ghost came down upon them in fire; this is a sign that they were now full to the brim, for that's the Element which is above the Water and the Air, and is the next to Heaven. And well may it be called a fullness, not that the Vessel of any of their hearts was so replenished, but that God could have poured in more, if it had seemed good unto him; for nothing but the essence of God is all sufficient, and can admit of no augmentation; but never was there such copious measure of it either diffused among the Israelites in the Old Law, no nor imparted to us Christians since this Generation did leave the world. Rupertus says upon it, it was now, now when this Ocean of the Spirit was poured out that the Devil was bound, and cast into the bottomless pit, though that is rather to be ascribed to the virtue of Christ's Passion, and to his blood shed upon the Cross.  
When Mary poured a Box of spikenard very precious upon our Saviour's head, Judas grumbled, and said quorsum perditio? to what end is so much waste? and lest any profane person should so gibe at this blessing, and say to what end was so much plenty and superfluity of the Spirit? take these reasons with you for your use and instruction: and I will begin with two Maxims of reasons. 1. Si natura non deficit in necessariis multò minùs spiritus sanctus, if Nature is furnished with all instruments and faculties fit for its work, surely the Holy Ghost would not be scanty in any thing that should conduce to resound the Glory of God over all the world. 2. Speculative men tell us, tantum medii sumendum est, quantum ad finem conducit, he that is a wise Appointer will lay forth so much means as will bring the end to pass. Put these together, and it will follow that here was neither too little, nor too much; nothing wanting, nor yet to spare. The work of the Apostles was the greatest Task that ever was put upon men's shoulders: Christ gave them one Commission which might be discharged with some moderate pains and adventures, to preach unto the lost sheep of the House of Israel. Their second Commission might seem unto flesh and blood insupportable, Go and teach all Nations, etc. How much ground was to be trod? how many deaths to be hazarded? how many subtle Philosophers to be convinced? we preach unto them that are brought up in Religion, and are glad to hear us; they were sent to those that stop their ears at them, and could not endure the name of Christ; their heart therefore, their judgement, their courage, their patience did require a far other proportion of the Spirit than will suffice a common Christian; their filling must be more abundant, because they were to empty it out to so many. And unto whomsoever God hath imparted more copious grace, let him not despise his Brethren, but let him use that plenteous Gift for the benefit of many, for the edification of the Members of Christ's Body, or else the blessing that did adorn him will condemn him.  
The next thing we learn is, that we must strive, and contend, and pray for the fullness of the Spirit; it is not every Modicum and pittance of it which will content him that truly loves the Lord. The Son of Syrach says of that wisdom which sanctifieth all things, They that eat me shall be hungry, and they that drink me shall yet be thirsty, Ecclus. xxiv. 21. And very certain none so eager to have more grace as they that have a liberal portion already. None so instant to get ten Talents as he that hath received five. Let Elisha have some enlightenings of a Prophetical Spirit, and then he makes bold to ask that a double portion of Elias his Spirit may rest upon him. Gregory says it is the property of the fruits of the Spirit, Cum non habentur in fastidio sunt, cum habentur in desiderio; They that have them not, either never miss them, or think vilely of them, they that have them do insatiably desire them. It is a sign of a disdainful lothsomness in nature to come to the Fountain of living waters, and to do no more but sip, and wet our lips with it. He that hath a truly heavenly gust of it pleno se proluit alveo. As St. Paul phraseth it, We are all made to drink into one spirit, 1 Cor. xii. 12. Still we shall call for more and more, not because want and dryness doth afflict us, but because desire doth please us. Nemo primo statim die ad satietatem potatur spiritus sancti, says Calvin; no man is made Christian enough in a day to go to the Kingdom of heaven, unless it be in such a rare example as that was of the penitent Thief. It is a false spirit that says unto any mortal man, it is well if you can keep at this stay, and prove no worse. I know the greatest part of indifferent Christians are so affected to carnal content, that if it were possible to measure out to a drachm what quantity of righteousness would serve them to be endued with, that they might attain salvation, they would reach so far if the grace of God would assist them, but would take no care to seek any further. I say, if they knew the trick how to make just a Saint and no more, they would spare a labour for seeking beyond that Point, and for the rest sacrifice to carnal security. Christianum esse probant, minimum esse non probant, as St. Hierom speaks; they do not love a man unless he be a Christian: And again, they will not love him if he be a vehement and an earnest Christian to serve the Lord. Certainly it is a sign that there is no sanctification in that conscience where there is not a studious longing of the soul for an augmentation. The learned among the Heathen love to talk of strange Creatures; and Plutarch tells of a fish, whereof if a man taste but a little it is hurtful, if he eat it up all it is medicinal. True or false be his story it comes fit to be applied, a little holiness will vanish away like a morning mist, as Hosea speaks; nay, it is prone to turn to man's hurt, for when there is but little of it, it turns to hypocrisy; but as God hath given us plenteous redemption in Christ, so we must return him plenteous faith, and plenteous obedience, with all our heart, and with all our soul, and love our neighbour with a plenteous love, even as we love ourselves, and that is to be filled with the Holy Ghost.  
Let this be the conclusion of the first part of my Text, the inward donation of the Spirit; the outward exercise of it remains to be handled, They began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. The Spirit which is signified by the wind and inspiration is necessary to all Christians who are invited to faith. But as it appears in Tongues, so it was requisite for them only that were sent to teach all Nations. That is, if God had meant only to make good men of them the wind would have sufficed, but intending to make good Apostles of them he gave them to speak with other Tongues; with other Tongues, which is simply, and without any Periphrasis termed the speaking with Tongues: For when Peter preached to the Gentiles of Cornelius house, Acts. x. 46. the Holy Ghost fell on them, and the Jews heard them speak with Tongues, and magnified God. In St. Mark, our Saviour promised his Disciples that they should speak with new tongues, Mar. xuj. 17. not with tongues, such as were never heard before, for that were direct canting, as we call it, and it would turn to no profit of edification, but they were such tongues as were new to them that spoke them, and they had the faculty to utter them in a new manner, by a sudden inspiration, and for a new work, which was not begun before, to call all the Gentiles unto the knowledge of salvation, that there may be one Shepherd and one Sheepfold over all the world. And then was verified that of the Prophet David, There was neither speech nor language, but their voices were heard among them, their sound is gone out into all Lands, and their words unto the ends of the world, Psal. nineteen. The miracle is stupendious, the end of it much more admirable than the miracle. It is a glorious remonstrance of the infinite power above, that from one Tongue and Dialect these holy men should be expert of a sudden to talk with all Nations whom they encountered. The suddenness was wonderful, to get such a volubility, so as Mithridates had never the like, without all study or premeditation. Says Leo upon that circumstance, quam velox est sermo sapientiae? Et ubi Deus est Magister, 
Serm. 1. in Deut.  quam cito discitur quod docetur? The Word of Wisdom runs forth very swiftly, and where God is the Instructor, how soon doth he learn us that which he is pleased to teach us? The multiplicity of that which they were able to utter was most ineffable, their voice did come distinct and intelligible to all people, that they might say Amen with an understanding heart when the name of Jesus is blessed in the Congregation. Quot linguas quis callet, totidem viris aequipollet, as the old saying goes; A man stands for so many men as he can speak Languages, and therefore look how many Tongues one of them could speak, in effect and sufficiency he was so many Apostles.  
You see this well enough, I will stand no more upon it, the Miracle was one of the greatest that ever was brought to pass. Even as those Jews that resisted the Holy Ghost were convinced in heart to think so, their astonishment is expressed in three several terms, ver. 6. and 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the multitude was confounded, they were all amazed and marvelled. But they did not see the end of it, that it was the opening of the door to bring the Gentiles into the Church, and our induction to be admitted into the number of the people of God. How could our stony hearts be mollified during so many Generations, during the long time of ignorance that no man preached in our Confines to make us understand him, we were Barbarians to him that spoke unto us, and he that should speak was a Barbarian to us. The Prophets of the Old Testament that had the will of the Lord revealed to them in all kind of Mysteries, were tongue-tied that they could not express themselves to the Nations that sat in darkness: And as one says very elegantly, Religion before was as the Music of a Monochord, now the Harp of the Apostles was not only ten stringed, but even ten times ten stringed to make a cheerful noise to the God of Jacob. The Tongue which was confined before to the little corner of the world in Palestina, and there only to bless the Creator that made us, is now set at liberty that in all Languages it may glorify the Saviour that redeemed us. And as the Fathers do all hit upon it, this is a plain reversing of the curse of Babel, by the blessing that came out of Zion. For as God pulled down that proud Tower which those insolent builders intended by the confusion of tongues, so he built up the new Jerusalem in an instant by the gift of many Tongues: And as diversity of Tongues was a punishment to scatter Infidels for their pride, so diversity of Tongues was made the only means to reduce Infidels that had not heard of the Word of God into the unity of the faith. And they that advanced themselves against heaven, says Gregory, lost the communion of that one Tongue they had, but they that submitted themselves to the good will and pleasure of Christ, obtained the communion of all Tongues which they had not, Sic humilitas unitatem meruit, & superbia confusionem. And all this was visibly done upon this day, that we may believe the Church shall never want Gods invisible grace, though not in this kind yet in some other benefit.  
For in this kind the Lord did not assist his Church any long time; surely after the first hundred of years it was scarce conferred upon any, although Prophecies and gifts of healing did continue among some eminent persons afterward for a great space. Irenaeus seems to speak as if some few had the gift of Tongues in his time, Lib. 5. c. 7. which was about one hundred and fifty years after Christ's Ascension: But after him I find no Author touch upon it, and perhaps Irenaeus speaks of the time when he was very young, and knew Polycarpus and the Scholars of the Apostles. I make no reckoning of Antoninus the Plorentine, nor of any reports which he and his Pew-fellows make concerning some of their Friars, whom they say God did inspire with all sort of Languages. They have whetted their tongues, I am sure, with sharp lies, and in that respect, they have one tongue more than a good Christian should have. They that are the common minters of miracles dare not urge or pretend this faculty of all kind of Languages in our days, because they would quickly be descried when they came to parley with learned men. For though nothing be more expedient for the settling of the Gospel in an unknown world, such as America was within one hundred and forty years, than the gift of Tongues, to be able to speak to those Savages to their own understanding, yet the Jesuits do not arrogate that any of their Order, who have visited those parts, could speak new Languages by inspiration. Only Turcellinus, a man of no forehead or modesty, says, that the Jesuit Xaverius spoke but his Mother Tongue to the Indians of Goa, and that all those heathenish people did understand him, as if it had been their native Dialect. An impudent forgery testified unto by none but himself, disavowed by Josephus Acosta of his own Order, who was long in those parts; and quite contrary to the nature of a Miracle, that Infidels and Pagans, who perhaps never believed, should be inspired to understand, and the Christian that converted them should have no inspiration to speak. Salmeron is much troubled that he could not give that magnificent report to his Associates, that they spoke with new Tongues by inspiration in India, as well as the Apostles did, when they were sent to teach the Gentiles. But because he would not have his Order give ground to the Apostles (see the stomach of the man) he makes this comparison, that it is no less Gods benefit and grace to take pains to learn a strange tongue than if it were immediately poured out from heaven; nay says he, In illâ adipiscendâ plus meriti positum est; It is more meritorious to achieve it by much industry than by inspiration, as it is more praiseworthy to raise up a fortune by a man's own diligence, than to have it bequeathed him by inheritance. I was astonished when I read this, that this Loyolite should dare to compare, and to prefer himself and such like even before the Apostles of our Lord, and prefer their smattering in Tongues before the mighty Miracle of this day, the greatest that ever was granted to men. I confess, it is the wisdom of God which teacheth learned men their exact insight into the Sacred Tongues, and the Lord hath furnished many Heroes of the Reformed Churches with such exquisite skill in that kind far beyond our Adversaries, that out of their overflowing envy they have called us Pedants, and Gramarians. But God be thanked many of our Linguists are able to communicate in Speech with those of the world beneath, which is a sign to me that God is gathering the world unto him by the calling of all Nations, and hastening his Kingdom.  
These being the general extractions of this last part of the Text, both touching the matter of it, and touching the end for which it was done, which is the form of it. I will spare much of that which remains rather than exceed my time upon this day, and yet I will rather point at the particular inferences than quite omit them. 1. It is to be collected from the persons that received this utterance of Tongues, that the Tongue is a member of diligent employment in an Apostle, for how can he discharge St. Paul's Canons, to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, apt to teach, fit to reprove, and exhort, unless he open his lips in the great Congregation, that his mouth may show forth the praise of the Lord. But remember that this hability was only infused into Apostles and Teachers. How shall they speak unless they be sent? Let others be contented with that monition, He that hath ears to hear let him hear. Suarez the Jesuit makes the case of the Blessed Virgin to be transcendent, that she did not only receive the power from heaven to speak with divers Tongues on this day, but she was able to do as much long before. Therefore she conversed with the Wisemen of the East, and had skill in their Eastern Tongue, and when she fled away into the Land of Egypt with our Saviour she wanted not the knowledge of that Language. Cajetan denies that ever she had this gift of Tongues. For to what end? It was not her part to preach unto the Gentiles. And for the coming of the Wise men of the East, my answer hath more likelihood than Suarez objection, that they brought Interpreters with them: For they asked at Jerusalem, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? And all the people understood them. Let this grace therefore be ascribed only to the Apostles, and to such as in those days joined with them in the same labour. 2. When they had these Tongues, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they began to speak. But first, they were endued with Spirit, and then with a Tongue to speak. God doth first cleanse the mind within, and then he puts his Word into the mouth of his Pastors. Unless the heart have a sincere feeling of that which it speaks, there will be a jarring in the Tongue as in a Bell that is cracked, or an Instrument that is broken. Without the help of the air the Organ of the natural voice cannot speak, and without the Spirit there is no speaking in the name of God, Why dost thou take my Laws into thy mouth, since thou hatest to be reform? The Exorcists of the Jews that had no faith, the Devil flew upon them when they began to speak of holy things, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye? 3. Mark what an alteration the impression of the Holy Ghost makes in our very speech. Now they begin to speak with boldness, with Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, with all Comers, Jews and Gentiles. Nay, ye shall be brought before Kings, says our Saviour, yet fear not to profess my name, Dabo vobis os & loquelam. Here was a great mutation since that time, that Peter could not hold parley with a silly Damosel but he faltered. We have tongues now adays, but certainly we are empty, and have none of this Spirit, or else we would be bolder in delivering the Message of the Lord.  
Thirdly, They began to speak with other Tongues. Moses habuit linguae balbutiem, as one says; Moses that brought the Law had scarce the use of one Tongue, he confessed he was of a slow speech, and of a slow tongue, Exod. iv. 10. But the Gospel was not terrible like the Law, which would make the tongue of him that brought it to falter and tremble, but it is sweet upon the tongue, and full of grace were their lips that brought it. 5. Wherefore this variety of Tongues, but that all may praise the Lord as well publicly as privately in a known Language? What a tyranny it is in the Roman Church; that the Common People in the time of Mass are edified by nothing but the mopping, and nods, and gestures of the Priest. Lyra confesseth, that if their vulgar Auditors understood to what they said Amen, they would serve God better, be converted sooner, and answer much more devoutly to the words of the Liturgy. 6. When the Apostles spoke it was not with the demonstration of humane wisdom, but with the power of the Spirit, as the Spirit gave them utterance: And yet it was not baldly and rudely performed, for my Text says, the Spirit gave them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Sententiosa & mirifica loqui, says Beza; To speak sententious and admirable matter. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. chrysostom; they were Apophthegms, and ponderous sayings which they brought forth, they spoke Magnalia Dei, the wonderful works of God, ver. 11. Yet now adays that is said to be spoken by the Spirit, and nothing but that, which is frothy and windy, and perhaps never a wise word spoken; and other men that have care of every word which they deliver in the sight of God, and in his name, that is studied affectation, or some such bitter censure. Whereas St. Paul requires in Titus' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, sound and learned doctrine, Tit. i. 9 And St. Peter, If any man speak, let him speak the Oracles of God, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, rational discourses, 1 Pet. iv. 11. So our Saviour promised his Disciples, I will give you a mouth and wisdom, not a mouth only, but wisdom with it, so that all your Adversaries shall not be able to gainsay it, Luk. xxi. 15. Finally, the Prophet Isaiah speaking in the person of an Evangelical Priest, The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should speak a word in season, Isa. l. 4. And so to end all, let us send up our tongues of praise and thanksgiving to heaven, to the gracious God that did send down the blessing of these Tongues to his Church upon earth. And the same Lord Jesus exalt us to his Church Triumphant, where with one song, and with one voice we shall sing glory to him for evermore. AMEN.   

THE FIFTH SERMON UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost.  ACTS two. 12, 13. 
And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, what meaneth this? Others mocking, said, these men are full of new wine.  
MEntion being made in the former part of this Chapter what effects the Mission of the Holy Ghost as upon this day wrought in the Apostles, the next thing, which is disclosed in these two verses, is, what entertainment it found in the World. What entertainment should it find, but joy and gladness, and thanksgiving! it was a shower of grace that fell from Heaven, and every drop of it more valuable than an Orient Pearl, which made the whole earth, barren and unfruitful before, spring out with spiritual increase, that from thenceforth the Wombs of Mothers should not bring out men but Saints. It was not as upon the sixth day of the week in the Creation of the World, that God did breath into man the breath of Life; but upon this first day of the week he breathed into his Church the breath of Righteousness, and filled it with the seeds of future Glory. From the Feast of the Passover the Jews were to number seven weeks, and then they kept a most solemn day, called the Feast of Weeks, or the Feast of Pentecost; that's this very day: instituted to recognize how at that time they came out of Egypt from the Bondage of Pharaoh, and received the Law, which was delivered upon Mount Horeb. But to expunge the memory of that occasion, God did superinduct a far greater blessing upon this Festival day, and poured out his Spirit in a bountiful and miraculous manner upon his Disciples at Jerusalem. Was there a season appointed to congratulate the deliverance of the Jews from the Captivity of the Body? and doth not this Mercy exalt itself above the other, that they are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, to be enfranchised from the slavery of Sin and the Devil? Was the remembrance of the Law a perpetual rejoicing, though it were a kill Letter? and is it not ten thousand times more comfortable to receive the power of the Holy Ghost which enabled them to keep the Law? Did they take it kindly and cheerfully to receive the Law written in Tables of Stone? And is not the change a great deal better on this day, to have it written in the fleshly Tables of their Heart? Then the Lord gave them but one Talon, and they made but small multiplication of it, nay they were the Servants in the Parable; and who but they, that bound it up, and buried it in a Napkin? Lo here are five Talents delivered unto us, a greater Sum than ever the Children of Men received before: And answer me now in equity what entertainment the Mission of the Holy Ghost should receive in the World? Not to deceive your expectation with many words, the case is thus. The best of the Jews that came to the God-speed of this days work, professed ignorance, and knew not what to make of it; the worst of them exhaled envy and rancour out of their malignant minds, and jeered at it: And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, etc. The parts must needs arise to these two heads, Grande miraculum, Grande ludibrium: First a great Miracle, for it wrought these three things; first Amazement, they were all amazed; secondly Doubt, they were in doubt; thirdly earnest Search and Inquisition, for they said one to another, what meaneth this. But though the greater part were thus affected, and therefore it is said they were all amazed, meaning the greater number, yet divers turned it to mockery, and said, these men are full of new wine.  
First the sending of the Holy Ghost was construed to be a great Miracle, by all that saw the effects of it in the Apostles, and in the beginning it is expressed by a passion that took away their reason for a time, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. they were amazed, than it troubled their reason, they doubted; and finally it exercised their reason, for they asked after it. Amazement is a word to express the highest and most sudden admiration that can take a man; when astonishment doth seize upon the faculties of the mind, and bind them up for a little space, that they have no power to exercise themselves, as if they were Planet-blasted. The Latin word Attonitus is he that is scared with a sudden clap of thunder, so that he is stupefied for a while: but the Greek word in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 goes further, for the right signification is, they were beside themselves, or they were in an ecstasy. So our Saviour's Kinsmen being themselves out of their wits with ignorance, thought that our Saviour was transported, when he preached the Gospel, and knew not what he said; therefore their opinion was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he is beside himself, Mark. iii 21. Ecstatici qui non sunt in potestate mentis, they that are amazed have not their mind present for the time, it is dizied and confounded; so that this Miracle wrought upon the Jews after the highest pitch of admiration. Let us interpret it to the best, that joy did overcome them to see the riches of all goodness poured out upon the Sons of men. Their Forefathers were astonished with fear at the delivery of the Law, and they are astonished with joy at the coming of the Holy Ghost. The Gift itself, the Persons that received it, the Operation which it did exercise in them to speak the glory of God in all Tongues and Languages, all are transcendently wonderful, that the wit of a natural man especially is not able to comprehend them.  
The Gift itself in the first place is so celestial, that the Lord himself is not more wonderful in all his works than in sending the Holy Ghost; so hidden from the knowledge of the world, so rare to be found, so beneficial to mankind, that he that marvels not at it is himself a Miracle. Are you amazed at things which are secret and very abstruse in their nature? none more close and unperceivable than this. As the wind passeth by, and is not perceived, so God breathes the Spirit of grace into the Soul and is not discerned; there it sanctifies, there it reforms, there it changeth the mind, and yet we cannot understand what manner of quality it is: a thing of no appearance, and yet of infinite efficacy. Our senses are the Cinque-ports of all humane knowledge, if any thing come into us, either it must enter by those passages, or we have no means to know how it should enter without those passages: But when we feel the agitation of grace in our heart nothing is left us but to say, Lord, how camest thou hither? We know not which way thou camest. The Jews were sealed outwardly in the Body with the Mark of Circumcision, whereby every man knew his Brother; but our Mark is privily imprinted upon the Soul, the Holy Spirit, whereby we are sealed unto the day of Redemption, whereby God only knoweth his Elect. God knows it, the Conscience of the faithful feels, but if we go about to consider what manner of Essence or Influence it is, it will amaze us that we cannot understand it. Again, do you wonder at things which are rarely found? then marvel to see how sparingly the Grace of God doth grow upon the Earth. To whom hath the Arm of the Lord been revealed? and who hath believed our Report? The Sun illuminates half the World at once with his Light, and leaves the other half in Darkness: but the tenth part of the Sons of Men are not beautified with the Light of Grace; nay the sixth part of the Earth hath not heard whether there be an Holy Ghost. It strikes me with Admiration, how so many do want the Heavenly Calling; for the Ravens and the Sparrows do not want the comfort of their daily Food, Naturas rerum minimarum non destituit Deus, the smallest things that be God doth not leave them destitute: yet there are Millions of men and women that continue in a barbarous and unrepented life. So that it turns to be the Subject of Admiration to find out those few that are the small Remnant of Jacob. Christ himself marvelled at the faith of the Centurion, a Commander and so submissive, a Gentile and so devout; an Example seldom seen, and the Lord did marvel at it. So he lifted up his voice in Acclamation to the Canaanitish woman's praise, O woman, great is thy faith; a denied Supplicant and so constant, a disgraced Supplicant and so patient. Seldom doth the Grace of God inhabit where it proves so well: But O love the Saints, and magnify God in their good success. Such as serve God truly in spirit are no usual sight: therefore the coming down of the Holy Ghost was matter of Amazement. But above all, the Effects and Benefits of it are so beneficial to mankind, that it amounts to the highest admiration. It opens unto us the meaning of the Scriptures, without which the Eunuch may read, but he knows not the interpretation: it teacheth us to pray with zeal and faith, without which our words are but babbling: it makes us hear the Word of God to our edifying and salvation, without which it is lost in stony or thorny ground: it puts the taste of Christ's Body and Blood into our mouths when we receive the Sacrament, without which we eat and drink our own damnation: it comforts us, though we find the horror of sin in our conscience, and tribulation in the world, without which the vengeance of God, and the wrath of man would overwhelm us: it seasons our actions with piety and obedience, without which nothing that we can do, but is corrupted with the root of bitterness: it intenerates the most stony Hearts, it hath civilised the most barbarous Nations, it hath brought in Nurture and the Use of Laws and Discipline among them that lived by nothing but rapine and robbery: it hath made the Flesh of Man, which was a Cage of uncleanness to be the Temple of God. Upon whomsoever the Spirit of Grace doth rest, the Lycaonians may say of them without offence, Gods are come down unto us in the likeness of Men. You may justly extol it with a boundless Praise, and a boundless Praise must needs close in with an Ecstasy of admiration. You would bless yourselves with wonder to see a mighty Cure wrought upon the Body by the Finger of God, a Cure above nature: and is it not more astonishable to see a supernatural Cure wrought upon the desperate Diseases and Distempers of the Soul. If one that is born blind be made to see, O then they cry out, Never was the like seen from the beginning of the world. Consider yourselves I pray you in the better part, are we not by nature blind, and ignorant, groping in darkness, and cannot find a true step to Heaven? The Spirit is eyes unto the understanding, it makes us walk in marvellous light, so that we shall not dash our foot against the stones and ruins of tentations: which of these two is the greater Miracle? To cast out a Devil from him that is possessed would make the Earth ring of the mighty virtue: Doth not Grace cast out a Legion of Devils from the Soul. To skip over all other instances but one, no Miracle which Fame did publish with a louder Trumpet than to raise the Dead, chiefly to raise up Lazarus that had been four days dead. Why, a continuance in sin is the death of the Soul, and no Paradox it is to say it is an immortal death. Yet Christ rolls away the stone of impenitence under which it is buried, looseth our hands and feet which were bound with the cords of Satan, calls us forth from the Grave of Custom, renews our spirit, and makes us live unto holiness: and you being dead in sins and trespasses hath he quickened, Colos. two. 13. So you see how hard it is to know the Spirit, how rare to find it (for totus mundus in maligno positus) how copious and infinite in his Effects and Benefits; it is above our capacity to measure it, and most worthy of amazement to admire it.  
Now as we know the Gift of the Holy Ghost better than these Jews, so it is the more admirable to us, by how much we know it the better: but the persons of the Apostles were better known to the Jews than to us: and that circumstance they fell upon, as a strange thing which they could not dive into, why the Lord did put so great a Treasure into such homely Vessels. There was not a Moses among them, skilled in all the Learning of the Egyptians; not a Joshua in all the cluster that could lead a Battle; not a Samuel that had worn a Linen Ephod from his childhood before the Lord; not a Rabbi, not a Pharisee, not one of polite Education. It is that which confounded the Multitude at the 7. verse,; Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans. There was some reverence done to them in that Character; they might have said, are not all these Fishermen, Publicans, and Idiots? Truly if there were nothing else, these very Apostles were enough to prove the Majesty of God: 'tis strange to work good upon any of us all; our will is knotty timber, our heart hollow and unsound: what can the Workman make of such stuff? but to commit the Talents of the Holy Ghost to such as these, and to make them the Bankers from whom we should borrow the stock of the Church, this is his exploit alone, who can make a grain of mustard seed dispread into a tree, that the Fouls of the air may build their nests in it. Lord what are we that thou hast given such power unto men? But Lord what art thou, that hast given such power to most homely and simple men? O Lord how excellent is thy name in all the world? Thou that out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast ordained praise, and put the Eloquence of the earth to silence by such unlookt-for Instruments. These were no men of spirit, active, and stirring in the world, such busy heads would never be fortunate to propagate the Gospel of peace. Again, they were of no honourable Order; the Spirit had more use of humility than of dignity. Inspirat non inflat, as one said very well, it inspired them, it did not puff them up. To be short, they were not of the Scribes and Doctors that were Proficients in Arts and Learning, that the work of God might disperse the greater amazement through such who were noted for ignorance and infirmity. Yet they were not sent forth like Idiots and Fishermen, that knew nothing but their Mechanical trade, but were endued with power from on high to teach the Mystery of Godliness in all the Tongues that could be spoken. Which is the next provocation to transport them with wonder, as we read it, ver. 9 How hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?  
It will ask travel and pains through the whole life of a man to be cunning in two or three Tongues; good Linguists know what study it costs them to come to a Grammatical excellency in a few Languages, much more to a voluble pronunciation of them. But to preach Christ Jesus in all the borders of the earth required more dispatch than to begin to get the elements of learning; therefore by a shorter cut God gives them an inspiration to speak all Tongues in a moment, and to preach the true sense of the Scripture in all those Tongues, Sentire quae velint, & loqui quae sentiant; they had words to clothe their matter as they pleased, and they had matter to utter as well as words. Quid voveat dulci nutricula maejus alumno, quam sapere & fari quae sentiat? They needed no more abilities than wisdom to know the mind of God, and a tongue to declare their wisdom. As in the beginning, when God created the Heaven and the Earth, he spoke what he pleased and it was done; Let there be light, and there was light: Let there be a Sea, and there was a Sea. So in the first foundations of the Church it was no more, but let there be a revelation of the mysteries of the Gospel, and there was a Revelation: Let there be Tongues, and there were Tongues: Let there be a fountain opened in Jerusalem whose several spouts may water all the quarters of the world, and it was so in the twinkling of an eye. If God himself had come from heaven in his own Majesty, his Almighty Word could not have been clearer than in this miracle. Such as have an incredulous grudge in their minds, an Ague that will never leave some carnal hearts, they are troubled with a longing when they hear of this, O that we had lived in those days, when the arm of power from on high was made so manifest. We take things up as the long revolutions of time have committed them to us, but we live not in the days of wonder, we see nothing for us by this strange omnipotency. Beloved, if there were a new Gospel to be preached, we should have new Tongues, as the Apostles had, to publish it; but the truth hath been preached round about the world to all Nations, the continuance is old, therefore why should new Wine of new Miracles be put into old bottles? Then it was meet, I mean on the first Whitsunday, that the Gentiles should understand, that way was made to call them to Salvation, which could not be confirmed better than to hear the Cross of Jesus Christ published in so many foreign Dialects, and that the Prediction of the Psalm is fulfilled, 
Psal. 193, 4●  His sound is gone forth into all the earth, and his Word unto the ends of the world, there is neither Speech nor Language but their voice is heard among them. Now it is confessed that it is accomplished, and were not a miracle a most unnecessary, and supernumerary thing to confirm it? Hold you content that the Spirit is yet upon your tongues, the seal is printed upon them, to pray to God, to bless one another, to comfort one another. If any thing will amaze a man in these days it is the bitterness, the murmuring, the swearing, the lying, the slandering of the tongue; that we should do God more dishonour with one tongue than the Apostles did him honour with twenty.  
So much for that Passion which took away the reason of them that were present for a time, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they were in an ecstasy, they were amazed. Now follows that which troubled their reason, and exercised their reason; I will put them both in one, they hang so close together. They were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Doubting is the unquietness of the mind, which proceeds from ignorance: It flutters about like Noah's Dove, and knows not where to set its foot; they wanted the Anchor of faith to fasten them to some certain resolution, for as yet they knew not the Scriptures of the Prophet Joel, to which St. Peter directed them, Ver. 17. It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh. Doubtfulness is the fruit of carnal wisdom, it holds to nothing steadfastly, it hath more faces than Janus, looking every way, and on every side, and hath as many thoughts as there be minutes in the hour; and it is impossible it should be fixed until it pitch upon some clear Text of Scripture, and say, this is the truth, I build upon it, for so it is written in the Word of God. The benefit of the holy Spirit descending as this day upon the Church was to bring us out of the windings, and crooked Lanes of doubting, and reduce all opinions to one settled conclusion, that there was no salvation to be found but in the meritorious Passion of Jesus Christ. The Academics of Greece were so far from any certainty of knowledge, that it was the perfection of their learning to doubt of every thing. Whereupon an Egyptian Priest reproved them for that puerility, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, you that call yourselves Wise men of Greece, you are always Children: what God was, what Beatitude was, what the Soul was, what the state of men in the next world was, nay, what Virtue was, so many Philosophers so many minds: As fast as one built an opinion, another pulled it down with his objections, doubt was both the pleasure and the torment of their wits. It is the Christian faith alone, rooted in us by the operation of the holy Spirit, never to be shaken or removed, which delivers us from all diffidence and inconstancy of doubts. The more miserable is the condition of our times, wherein wanton wits make Problems and Disputations of divers Points of Divinity, which were embraced before by all the Worthies of the Church from the beginning of Reformation. Had we no Scriptures before? Or no helps of learning to expound them? Or no illumination of the Spirit to know the sense of them? Or is this the Age of new Revelations? To doubt of that which hath been in a good frame so long must needs put Unity into Multiplicity, Charity into Discord, Peace into War, and Faith into Infidelity. But upon the first Introduction of Christian Religion, at the first Mission of the Holy Ghost, humane infirmity had some leave to doubt, that it might learn; so these dubitants said one to another, What meaneth this?  
Many of those that flocked about the Apostles, and were amazed at the Tongues wherewith they spoke, are called devout men, ver. 5. of this Chapter, so it seems because they desire to come out of their doubting by framing such a question whereby they might learn what the power of God did intend. Ita cum stupore admirari Dei opera convenit, ut simul accedat intelligendi studium, says Calvin; so wonder at the works of God, that withal you express a desire to understand them: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says the Proverb, propound doubts with this modest submission, that wise men may expound them unto you. The error was that they asked one another, the blind enquired of the blind which was the way out of the wood, the ignorant conferred with the ignorant, such as God had not revealed himself unto argue the Point among themselves, and they omit the Apostles who were in place, and could best resolve them. When the people will be their own Teachers, and never consult with them who are Gods Interpreters and Ambassadors by their calling, will not St. Paul's Prediction be fulfilled upon them? Desiring to be Teachers, they understand not what they say, nor whereof they affirm, 1 Tim. i 7. Though their Counsellors were not the wisest, a riff raff multitude of all sorts, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says Oecumenius, a mixture of hot and weak heads, yet their question tended to an occasion of knowledge, What meaneth this? Just so their Forefathers, when they saw the Manna which fell from heaven, asked one of another, Manhu, as we have it in the Margin of our Bibles, What is this? Exod. xuj. 15. I will answer for both parts as Moses did, both for that which reigned from heaven then for the sustenance of their bodies, and for this which was poured out for the blessing of our souls, this is the bread which the Lord hath given you from heaven. But Beza reads this question potentially, Quid hoc rei esse possit? What will this come to hereafter? These unlearned men are furnished with abilities to talk with all the world. It is not a seed or two which they have got, but they received a strange gift from God above in the whole sheaf. What will the Lord bring to pass from these beginnings? That was well considered: For God doth not work secundum ultimum potentiae; all that he can do at once. He began with an handful of men, and the Church increased to as many as the Stars in heaven for multitude: He gave them a Cup of new wine at this Feast, he did not leave till they had a copious Vintage, and the Presses overflowed with liquor of eternal life: In one day he made this truth exalt itself above the opposition of the Jews, in a few Ages he made it too strong for all the contradiction of the Heathen. When Luther, and a few that hearkened to him, began to burnish true and Orthodox Doctrine from the Rubbish of Popery, the adjacent Kingdoms that heard of it looked for small propagation. But they that yearned in their bowels to see the expulsion of superstition, expected a large progress from that small beginning. Their hope was upon this question, Quid hoc rei esse possit? What will this come to? It is God's manner to work himself mighty honour out of small appearance. And although the advancement of Religion is hindered abroad (and I would it were not stopped at home) the Jews are obstinate, Mahumetans are prepotent Adversaries, the Heathen are wilfully addicted to worship strange Gods, yet the leaven of the Spirit hath not lost its virtue, it will, in those seasons which God hath appointed, breath through the whole lump. And still my heart attends to the efficacy of the Gospel which may be kept back, it cannot be suppressed, what will this come to before the end of the world?  
Thus far we have conversed with them that were much affected with the miracle that God bestowed, as on this day, an Ocean of the Holy Ghost upon a small Assembly of Saints. Now you shall hear that there was an ignoble off-scum of the people, that made but a mockery of it, Others mocking, said, these men are full of new wine. St. Basil says they were the Pharisees that made this derision of God's power. In a bad action, where none are named, the Pharisees above all others deserve to be suspected. Their whole life was hypocrisy, and what is that but a mockery of God, and a Stage-play to personate holiness. Oecumenius says they were the Plebeians, as the most ignorant are the greatest Taunters, flouting agrees best with foolery and base breeding. For certain they were Jews, for Peter turns his speech unto them, ver. 14. Ye men of Judaea, and he confutes them with the testimony of the Prophet Joel, ver. 16. and that Prophecy was only in the hands of the Jews, a scoffing Nation, and now it is returned upon their own head. For it is even to be pitied that they are hooted at, and derided publicly as they walk in the streets, in all Kingdoms where they have purchased to themselves an habitation. How often did they gibe at our Saviour and his Miracles? As when he said that Jairus daughter was not dead, but slept, they laughed him to scorn. When he preached that plain and evident Doctrine, that men cannot serve God and Mammon, the Pharisees, who were covetous, derided him, Luk. xuj. 14. And that you may know the Servants were used no worse than the Master, they called our Saviour a Wine-bibber, Luk. seven. 34. And you may be sure at such a great occasion as this, the devil would keep his wont, and do all despite to the Spirit of grace, and strive to put off the incomprehensible work of God with a jest, These men are full of new Wine. So that as soon as God sent fiery Tongues from heaven upon his Apostles, the Devil likewise raised up fiery Tongues from Hell, and put them in the mouth of his Apostles. Envy and despitefulness cares not what reproach it puts upon good men, though there be neither sense nor probability to make it credible. That is right 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the word which is here used, to vent any thing against the credit of holy persons, whether it be right or wrong. It was impossible they should persuade it in any one that they were overtaken with new Wine; for there is no such liquor to be had in May, not till September at the soon. But slanders use to rove at random: And new wine, say the Greeks, will sooner intoxicate than old, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But what sign was there to make the objection credible that the Apostles were drunken? Did their tongues falter? Were their eyes red? Was the Gesture foolish? I know no man but Carthusian who goes about to invent a sign which should put the Jews into that unlikely suspicion, that as the face of Steven, when he was full of the Holy Ghost, did shine with brightness, so the countenances of the Disciples had a splendour and ruddiness in them with the fire of the tongues which sat upon their heads, which made the rash Gazers conceive that they were inflamed with drink. As the countenances of many that are most sober, being red with the heat of the Liver, make the uncharitable surmise that they are intemperate; so I remember a story, that Cassius, Bishop of Narnia, was despised by King Toteila, because he was high coloured, whereas Cassius was most abstemious, but high coloured by natural infirmity. Another thing concurred, that it was the Feast day of Pentecost, wherein the Jews were wont to rejoice, yet it was not their wont to solemnize the day with Feasting till the morning Sacrifice was offered up, and that time was not yet come. Therefore St. Peter answers, That these men were not drunken, for it was but the third hour of the day. They that are scandalous in the sin of drunkenness use not to be gone so soon. 
1 Thes. 5.6.  They that are drunken are drunken in the night, says St. Paul, that is most usual. Although some do spend the whole night in quaffing until the morning, In lucem semper Acerra bibit. Some prevent the rising of the Sun, and are scarce sober one hour of the day; whose souls lie under the Prophet's woe, Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning to follow strong drink, Isa. v. 11. But Peter did not strive to make an invincible refutation of their slander, because their scurrility was so improbable and ridiculous, and a defence which is over-anxious makes a good cause suspicious. Had the accusation been true, it had deserved a scorn, as Noah was derided when he was drunken. The drunkard makes himself an Ape for Boys to sport with his brutishness; a natural fool is not such an object for derision and laughter: So that passively it is true what Solomon says, Wine is a mocker, Prov. xx. 1. It exposeth itself to the flouting of vain persons here, and shall reap the scorn of God hereafter.  
But says St. Cyril, the wickedness of man shall turn to the praise of God, and this slander of the Jews shall expound some Prophecies of Scripture, and the mystery of the Holy Ghost. It is granted, says the Father, the Apostles on this day were full of new Wine, Novum verè erat illud vinum, novi Testamenti gratia; that is, it is the grace of the New Testament which makes glad the heart of man. Inebriabuntur pinguedine domus ●uae; the Vulgar Latin keeps that word, Psal. xxxvi. 8. we read, They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. And again, Cant. v. 1. I have drunk my wine with my milk, meaning both the comfort and the nourishment of the Gospel, O friends drink, yea, drink abundantly O beloved. To this pertains another Psalm of David, xxv. 5. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies, thou anointest my head with oil, my Cup runneth over. Here is the oil of the Spirit, here is the Table of the Lord, here is the Cup of Christ's blood, an overflowing Cup, sufficient to save a thousand worlds. This Cup is that which ravisheth our Souls, and carries up our Spirit to Heaven to partake of the body and blood of Christ when we come to his holy Table; this is Sobria ebrietas, non madens vino, sed ardens Deo; This is a sober drunkenness, an inflammation, not with Wine, but with the love of the Lord Jesus. Happy were these Apostles that were drunken with drinking of him, who says, I am the Vine, and ye are the branches. But here is the difference between the meaning of these Scoffers, and the meaning of those that make it an heavenly mystery, he that is drunken with Wine looks like an incarnate Devil, he that is drunken with the Spirit looks like an incarnate Angel.  
I will stay a little while more, not very long, to show how the mighty gifts poured out upon the Apostles on this day was a spiritual drunkenness. First, excess of Wine procures forgetfulness of things past, so the Mission of the Holy Ghost made them that were converted to Christ forget the Ceremonial Law of Moses; saving that little that was tolerated for a time to satisfy the weakness of the Jews, it was laid aside as if it were quite dead, and out of remembrance. Thus St. Paul doth as it were make his Shears to pass between the Old and the New Law, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, Phil. iii 13. Upon that accident that there wanted Wine at the Marriage in Cana, the Gloss says, Vetus legis vinum defecerat in nuptiis Ecclesiae; none of the Wine of the Law remained at the Marriage of the Christian Church, it was tilted and spent. Secondly, He that is giddy with wine makes no distinction of persons, knows not his Friends from his Foes: So he that is full of the Spirit renounceth all friendship, affinity, parentage in respect of the engagements of holiness and Religion. Per calcatum perge patrem. If thy Mother hold out her Breasts to entice thee from God, if thy Father stop thy way, shut thine eyes against the one, tread upon the other; make no respect of persons in that cause. It is the praise, and a most magnificent one, which Moses gives to Levi, Deut. xxxiii. 9 Who said unto his Father, and to his Mother I have not seen him, neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children. Thus the mighty working of God works an ecstasy in his Servants, that they care not for their nearest Relations, if they be a bar to the Kingdom of Heaven. And who cares if revilers call it a drunkenness of the Spirit? Thirdly, Much Wine gives a great edge to valour and courage, In praelia trudit inermes, it runs into any danger, because it knows not what is danger: but there is nothing of such animosity, nothing so undaunted as the Spirit of God. The righteous is bold as a Lion, says Solomon. It must needs be that strength is doubled in him because he hath two lives in his heart, this life, and the life to come. What could the world say, but that some illapse from heaven was in the breast of the Apostles, that those miselli, those neglected worms should overtop the terrors of Councils, of Prisons, of Death, of Devils. Let such as Rabshekah call it drunkenness, it was the boldness of the Spirit. Fourthly, Wine is a rejoicer of the heart, Ecclus. xl. 20. But what joy is comparable to that which is begotten by the infusion of the Holy Ghost? Let the righteous rejoice and be glad, let them also be merry and joyful. A good conscience, recreated by the Promises of God, and assurance of forgiveness of sins, is like a volary of sweet singing birds, chirping and carolling within the Soul nothing but the pleasant notes of heaven, and immortal blessedness. When we sing Psalms of cheerfulness let Scorners censure it for vanity, but it is the new Wine of the Spirit which makes the heart glad. Lastly, As the airy vapours of wine make a man to broach his secrets and reveal them, Arcana recludit, so the Holy Ghost coming down this day did open the fountain which was sealed up before; the Mysteries of Gods eternal counsel, brought to pass in time by the Incarnation of his Son, were made manifest to all the world. This was it which confounded the Jews, that were present, to hear those abstruse things of Godliness divulged, and they did not understand them. The Spirit made the Apostles pour them out, and they could not hold, they were transported above natural to supernatural reason, and they were carried above themselves, as men even drunken with great Revelations. Upon those words of St. Paul. 2 Cor. v. 13. Whether we be beside ourselves it is to God: or whether we be sober it is for your cause; says Bernard, Audi sanctam insaniam; Festus told Paul he was mad, here he professeth little less for the Gospel sake, he neither says that he was sober, and he doth not contend whether he were beside himself or no. Such as he was, he was for the Church sake, possessed of the Spirit, and full of that new Wine, which gave him a tongue of utterance to preach Jesus Christ, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Gentiles foolishness.  
These uses rise out of an holy and mystical sense of the words, and that is no thanks to these taunting Jews, who being full of malice, a sin that is worse than drunkenness, burden the Apostles that they were full of Wine, or as the Syrian Paraphrast reads it without mincing, these men are drunken. The just upright man is laughed to scorn, Job xii. 4. Isaac the Son of Promise was scoffed at by Ishmael the Profane, Gen. xxi. 9 The Septuagint calls it Ismaels' play, or sport, Illa lusio erat illusio, says St. Austin, it was his pastime to mock the righteous. Be prepared therefore against evil words and reproaches, you must have your share of them if your conversation be Christian. First you have a Paracletus which is a spirit of comfort to bear them off with patience: Then you have a Paracletus (for that is the word) an Advocate to answer against the Accuser of the Brethren, who shall discover your innocence, Apoc. xii. 10. There is no good action but the Devils claw of scornfulness is upon it. At our Saviour's Resurrection the Jews made the Apostles Thiefs, they forsooth had stolen away their Master by night; and at the coming of the Holy Ghost they make them Drunkards. But this was a baptising with the Holy Ghost, not a sousing with Wine; it was somewhat poured on them, no strong drink poured in them; it was no drunken thing, but rivers of living waters springing up to everlasting life, and this he spoke of the Spirit, which they that believed on him should receive, Joh. seven. it is the fountain of the water of life issuing from the Throne of God, and of the Lamb, Rev. xxii. So Moses likened the inspiration of Prophecy to the dew falling on the herbs, or to the rain poured on the grass, Deut. xxxii. It is no distempering heady liquor, but the Cordial of joy, and the Balm of Gilead.  
If then the effusion of the Spirit was taxed with drunkenness, what do you that think profane persons have devised concerning the Cup of the Sacrament? Horrendum dictu, because it is our Saviour's Doctrine by a figurative speech, that the Cup is the New Testament in his blood, the heathen traduced the Christians soon after the Apostles days, that they killed a Child in their private Feasts and Sacrifices, and drank his blood. And a long time it was before the heathen Magistrates would be persuaded, that such as partaked the holy Communion were not murderers. Indeed it is true, though they understood it not, that such as partake unworthily are murderers of their own souls. But again, if God's mighty miracle was scoffed at, when he gave grace to his Apostles to preach so divinely, what will profane persons say to our weak Doctrine, so much inferior to theirs? Quoties dicimus, toties judicamur, nothing is more snatched at to be made matter of idle talk, and frumping discourse, than that which is delivered in the Pulpit. Take heed, and remember that Michol was barren, who scorned ac David, that no Scorner might be begotten of her, says St. Ambrose. But the Devil hath got a new way to bring both Preaching and Praying into contempt. For Preaching let every one practice it that will, and then it will come to pass I am sure, if not Musto pleni, spumâ pleni, if they be not full of new wine, they will be full of froth. Says the Apostle, 1 Cor. xii. 29. Are all Prophets? Are all Teachers? Are all workers of miracles? It can no more agree that all should be Teachers than that all should be workers of Miracles. As for public Prayer, the deriders of sanctity call it not new wine, but they call it worse, by the name of that homely broth, for which Esau sold his birthright. But as the Prophet said to the calumnious Jews, against whom do you sport yourselves? Against whom do you make a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? Against whom do you shoot out Arrows, even bitter words? Are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood? Isa. lvii. 4. But this is the derision which Satan would put upon Religion in this unsanctified, unpeaceable Age. First, take away directly the public Liturgy of Prayers, that the people may have a little extemporary acquaintance and no more, with that to which they say Amen. Next, let every man preach that challengeth he hath the gift, sorrily God knows, and then he knows that Preaching will come to nothing as well as Prayer. Beware that you let not our great Adversary subvert all Piety and Religion by these encroachments; bad men may mock holy Ordinances, but God is not mocked. Fear the Lord, reverence his ways, receive the blessings of the Spirit with thanksgiving and praise, rule the Tongue to glorify him that made it, to set forth his honour that gives it utterance. AMEN.   

THE FIRST SERMON UPON THE CORONATION.  PSAL. cxviii. 24. 
This is the Day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and he glad in it.  
THE words which I have selected to preach upon are part of a Psalm which excels both in the Letter and in the Spirit; rich in the literal sense, copious in the spiritual, the Kingdom of David set forth magnificently in the one, the Kingdom of Christ glorified in the other. Sometimes the ditty of the Song points directly at the Throne of David, and sometimes at Christ's Triumphs over his Death, and his victorious Resurrection. I cannot choose between them both but think of the Country of Mesopotamia, the fruitful Garden of the world, girt about with waters, the Rivers did flow in and out in all quarters of the Land, and the Land was much more pleasant, for the windings, and intricate Maeanders of the Rivers. So this Hymn hath a most delightful alternation in it, skipping often from Christ to David, and from David to Christ, with sundry melodious changes, as if it purposed to make the Reader lose himself, if he did not curiously note the Narration. There hath been much ado among Expositors, whether the Psalm should concern them both, or only one of them, choose you which you will. Some refer it all to David, and to the rejoicing of the People in his behalf, that they saw him happily inaugurated King of Israel, after he had been long kept back by the House of Saul, and many other potent Enemies. The Jewish Rabbins make no other construction of it, and they follow the Chaldee Paraphrast, who doth thus read the 22. verse of this Psalm, the Builders did reject the youngest of the Sons of Jessai, and would not let him reign over them, but he hath deserved to be received for their Prince and Governor, therefore we will keep holy day and rejoice. Thus Vatablus and Isidore Clarius, and many others of this latter Age have dived no further than into the superficies of this Scripture, that is, into so much and no more than concerned the Monarchy of David.  
But they did not see into the bottom that looked no further: for the Ancient Fathers of the Church, not one but all have discovered so manifest a Prophecy concerning our Saviour, that nothing can be clearer. It is a general rule, that David in most of his Psalms had more regard to Christ than to Himself; in this more eminently than ordinary, so that the New Testament is full of the application. Pick out the 22. verse: The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner: according to three several Gospels our Saviour demonstrates that himself was the Stone which the Scribes and Pharisees refused; but God had exalted him to be the Head of the Church both ih Heaven and Earth. St. Peter proves as much in the audience of many thousands of the Jews, and none of them did contradict him, Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom ye crucified, 
Acts 4.11.  this is the Stone which is set at naught of you Builders, which is become the head of the corner, ver. 26. of this Psalm, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: I doubt not but all the loyal hearts of Juda and Jerusalem did congratulate David in those words, when he entered into the Royal City, but all the Multitude of the People applied them to the Advent of the Messias, Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Matth. xxi. 9 And indeed St. Hierom says that the Jews in their Liturgy of old were wont to read this Psalm in their Synagogues for the Messias sake, and did put it among those Prayers in which they did heartily desire the coming of Christ the Lord: Nay says Cajetan the 17. verse can become the mouth of no mortal man, but it is the voice of the immortal Son of God to say, I will not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. Therefore those Authors that had the most judicious palate have acknowledged, that sometimes David's matters are brought into this Psalm, and sometimes Christ's, nay sometimes both of them in one verse; as in my Text. The beginning of the Psalm, says St. Chysostom, was a Celebration for the setting on the Crown upon the head of the King of Israel, but ex improviso mutavit argumentum, in a sudden ecstasy the Prophet changeth his argument, and speaks of Christ; nay says Euthymius if a man will be acquainted with the stile of the Propets, let him remember that this is their custom, intercidere solent sermons & in rem aliam transire, ne adversarii manus injiciant, they use to break off abruptly, and fall from one thing to another, lest if the Enemies of the Truth did understand them, they would make away those holy Writings, to the irrecoverable loss of the Church of Christ.  
This was necessary to be premised, that you might know what to look for out of my Text, namely David's Day in the Letter, and Christ's Day in the Spirit. In the Case of David no man doubts what day is pointed at, surely it is the day of his Inauguration, when after much resistance made by his Enemies at last he did enjoy the Sceptre of all Israel quietly and peaceably, and there was an Holiday instituted to remember it, with sacred Solemnity. The Lord had made that Day happy unto David, and the People did celebrate it in a joyful and religious manner, I need not to tell you how proper that construction of my Text is to this Day, wherein God hath settled our Anointed Sovereign over all the Kingdoms of his Father; and I trust you profess your due thankfulness to God for his most pious and religious Reign, and that we have great cause to rejoice and be glad in it. But which is that among all the days of Christ which God did make more transcendently than the rest? there's a little scruple in that point. I find one or two refer it to the day of his Nativity: but their reasons are weak, and they are no considerable number to be followed. St. Hierom and St. Austin are in the right, I think, for they apply it to the whole time of the Gospel, wherein the terrors of the Law are broken, and all things are most sweet and pleasant to penitent Believers. Behold now is the acceptable Time, now is the Day of Salvation, says Isaiah, and that day reacheth from the time that Remission of sins is preached in the blood of Christ, unto the end of the world. Now as the Text is common to all Evangelical Days, so there is one Day that lifts up its head above them all, the most memorable Day of our Saviour's Resurrection, than it was verily fulfilled, as Peter urged it, that the Stone which the Builders refused became the head of the corner. St. Chrysostom, Nyssen, and almost who not? pitch upon Easter-day for the particular application of this Text: that was the Day wherein God did bring forth a more eminent work than in other common days, and upon every Sunday in the year for that Day's sake, the Church hath appointed sacred Assemblies, that we may rejoice and be glad. Well then of David's Day first, and from thence how particular Holidays may be ordained to magnify Gods extraordinary benefits; next of the blessed Age of the Gospel, wherein we have great cause to rejoice and be comforted, for Christ hath wiped away all tears from our eyes. And last of all I shall take the right opportunity to speak of the glorious Feast of the Resurrection, and how the Church doth keep the weekly Feast of the Lords day, to rejoice and be glad in it.  
And first the Holy Ghost hath left it written for the honour of the Lords Anointed, This is the Day which the Lord hath made. There is one thing in that form of speech which jars a little against the ear; how can it be said that God did make one day more than another? for he hath framed all Times and Seasons alike, the Sun knoweth his going down, and he maketh it return again every morning to give light unto the World. In the Hymns of the Heathen he is called Diespiter, the Father of all days indifferently: it is he that sets the Heavens in perpetual motion, and makes the hours run on, and when he calls back his word the Plumbets shall go down, and time shall be no more. 
Jansenius,  It is granted therefore that he giveth continuance and being to all days after one sort: and for the Phrase of my Text a new Writer hath well expressed himself, Non includitur mensura temporis, sed conditiones tempori incidentes, it is not meant of the Day which the Sun makes with his diurnal motion, but of the great Work which was wrought in that Day: that is, not that God made that Day more than others, but that He made more in that Day than in others. It is vulgar to impute the condition of things which fall out in some certain days to the days themselves per metonymiam adjuncti, although a day, as it is merely a space of time, cannot possibly be capable of such Attributes. We take liberty to call this a cold, or a moist day, not for its own sake, but because coldness and moisture happen in the day: so for the contingency of glorious things, we call the day itself glorious, and to renown the memorable acts of the Lord, we have got a use to speak thus, This is the day which the Lord hath made. In 1 Sam. 12.6. according to the Original, and that's pointed at in our Margin, it is said that the Lord made Moses and Aaron: why, are not all that are born of a woman the works of his hands as well as Moses and Aaron? therefore our Translation hath rendered the sense rather than the word, that the Lord advanced Moses and Aaron: In like manner we may read my Text thus, This is the Day which the Lord advanced, for he made it remarkable with an extraordinary favour, and thereby gave it a Dignity and Exaltation above its fellows. The going out and the return of every year are from the Almighty, with the store and abundance that it brings forth, but when the clouds drop fatness with unusual plenty, than the Prophet says, that he crowns that year with his goodness, Psal. lxv. 11. So some principal Days are crowned above the rest, as this Day wherein through the sun shine of his mercy he set a Crown of pure Gold upon the head of David his Servant. Piety forbid that we should not thankfully receive the most vulgar benefits. I know that common things are commonly neglected, but learn to see God in small things, or you shall never see him in greater. If I had learned it of no other, yet I find enough in Seneca for that use, Communia negligenda non sunt, etc. neglect not to give thanks for common and quotidian favours, for life, and health, and suppeditation of food, that the Sun doth shine upon us, that we have the air to breath in, that the Sea doth ebb and flow for navigation. There are days of small things, as Zachary calls them, chap. iv. 10. but those small things are to be considered of us with a grateful heart, who are less than the least of all his mercies: but how much more requisite is it then to observe those days, wherein some eminent blessings are conferred upon us? what a behooveful thing it is, every man for his own part to keep a Calendar of the famous Acts of the Lord? for our Birth, for our Baptism, for great Preservations, and to represent them before us at the return of every year with grateful acknowledgement from the bottom of our heart: and when God doth see that we are so mindful of a prosperous Day, he will grant us many prosperous Years, and for the period of joy, a most prosperous Eternity that shall never have a period.  
This is made as plane then as you can wish, upon what special Prerogative the Lord is said to make a particular day? because he doth appoint some special favour to fall out upon it: and the Wiseman's Question is answered, Ecclus. xxxiii. 7. Why doth one day excel another? when as all the light of every day of the year is of the Sun. It is not the material light which distinguisheth the nobleness of Days, but he that made the Sun more excellent than the other Stars of the Firmament, hath made Princes glorious as the Sun in the Orb of the Commonwealth, and a Day of a Prince's Exaltation is like a Prince among Days, and in that capacity to be magnified. Such a day is said to be made by God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, because God himself, and none else is the Author of the Power of Kings, He and none but He took David from following the Ewes great with young, and set him over the Princes of his People. In a word, since the Day is taken for the Work of the Day, the real meaning of the first words of my Text is, this is the King which the Lord hath made; Samuel anointed him, the People shouted, and cried, God save him; but the Lord did constitute him the Ruler of the Twelve Tribes, and gave him his Sovereign Authority; the Crowns of Glory in Heaven, and the Crowns of Dignity upon Earth are both held by Christ. God reigns in Kings as in his Deputies, and they reign in God as in their Author and Authorizer: and this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says S. Chrysostom, the chief Dignity of their States, that they hold not their Sovereignty from any mortal means, but immediately from God: Per me Reges regnant, Prov. viij. 15. Solomon acknowledgeth that he held his Tenure of one, and but of one, that was greater than himself: Of him that is the Root of all Majesty, according to the determination of the Prophet Daniel; The Kingdoms are Gods, and to whom be will he giveth them, Dan. iv. 14. And God is highly to be blessed that hath given such power unto men, for better not be at all, than not to be under Rule and Government: For it is not as Core the Ringleader of the great Sedition thought, that Moses took too much upon him, because he guided the People with a faithful hand; he took upon him that Authority which God had given to his Vicegerent, and they that questioned it did not rise up against Man, but against the Ordinance of God: Omnia per illum, all things are of him, as St. Paul says, Rom. xi. 30. but all things are not of him as Kings do reign by him; other Creatures have their dependence one of another in the connexion of natural causes, but the Power of Sovereign Majesty is not mixed with Earthly Causes, but hath an immediate copulation with the Power, the Providence, the Constitution, yea and the Castigation of God, if it do not decree righteousness; For God is the Judge, he patteth down one and setteth up another, Psal. lxxv. 6.  
If there be any cavillation therefore with free Princes, as there was with Moses, Who made thee a Ruler? we will answer it by remotion of false and pretended Causes. 1. Satan hath arrogated the disposition of all earthly Magistracies to himself: as Luke iv. 6. when he had shown unto Christ all the Kingdoms of the world, and the Glory of them, says he, All this power will I give thee, for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will give it. Execrable Spirit, he dares assume that which is proper to the Almighty, to speak the word, and the whole world shall have a new face of Government, and that he could remove Kings, as our Saviour said, that by faith his Disciples should remove Mountains: he remembered how suddenly himself was deposed from glory, that he fell like lightning. And when God pleaseth all the Kingdoms of the World shall have as sudden a transmutation, when he shall come in Glory to take all Power and Dominion into his own hand, and to judge both the Quick and the Dead. But in the mean time the Thrones of Kings are established in Heaven, and Satan is a liar with an Hyperbole of impudence to say, that it lies in him to manage or alter those Governments which God hath put in order: O how many have gone to Witches and Necromancers, and raked Hell to be informed how it should far with the succession of some State or Empire; so did Valens in the Ecclesiastical History, so did Julian the Apostate, and nothing did sway with him more to apostatise, than because some Heathenish Priests foretold by Demoniacal Divinations that the Empire should descend upon him: What can be more repugnant than this course to Honour and Religion? it is God that makes the Day wherein Kings reign, and not the Prince of Darkness, that is condemned to eternal night: it is God that is highly exalted above the Heavens, and not Lucifer who is fallen from glory, and is debased beneath the Earth. But secondly what say we to Intruders, that make their own Day, and exalt themselves in the Throne of Dominion? as Adoniah exalted himself, saying, I will be King, 1 Kings i 5. and as Athaliah did take the Sceptre into her own hand, when God did never give it her: why, mark the lamentable end of them both, and then you will perceive the irregularity of their action. Let not the smoke glory that it riseth up of itself, for so it vanisheth; infelicity must be the event of that promotion, where God doth not say, friend sit up higher. Thirdly, lest Tyrants should snatch this honour to themselves, there are such as have thought of a Remedy worse than the Disease, namely that the Ratification of all Principality should depend upon the voice of the People, and the continuation upon their good liking, with a quamdiu se bene gesserit, to have and to hold his Governance no longer than the popular opinion shall commend his good behaviour: their reasons are, first because when men and women multiplied, and began to fill up the Body of a Commonwealth, it was their own act and consent to put their necks under the yoke of a King. Admit it were so, yet you will not say but it was God and his inspiration that directed them to make a Supreme Head unto their Body, for all order proceeds from that wisdom which comes from above. Neither is it fit to be granted that it savours of the wisdom of God, or of the well-ordered reason of man, that in the first foundation of Kingdoms the Subjects set a Ruler over them, to hold from thenceforth according to their windy and fantastical approbation. The Bond which is made in Marriage is knit by the act and consent of man and woman; yet being once made it doth not depend upon their consent, but it holds of God: In like sort at first were Kings espoused to their Kingdoms, God did give the Bride, as I may so say, to the Husband, and so the connexion is indissoluble. Again, howsoever it holds in other Republics, yet in that wherein God especially delighted, I mean the Israelitish, when the People thought it honourable for them to have a King like other Nations, they did not call an Assembly, and appoint themselves a King, but they referred the matter to the Lord, and he selected Saul out of all their Tribes, to go in and out before them. Secondly, such as have meditated nothing but the confusion of an Anarchy have thus muttered, if none but God doth make the Day of Anointed Princes, than none but He can unmake them, none but He can chastise them for injustice and violence. Then how shall the cause of the poor be revenged, when the Man of the Earth exalteth himself against him? What an irreligious manner of arguing is this; as if there were no hope of justice and redress, if the cause be committed to God only? When Samuel told the People that it would fall out, that their Kings whom they desired would be very burdensome to them, and inflict sore oppressions upon their State, says he Clamabitis in illo die, you will cry out in that day, 
1 Sam. 8.18.  he doth not say you will reject your King, and set up another, but you have no other remedy but to cry out unto the Lord, and forasmuch as your sins have deserved that oppression the Lord will not hear you.  
Hitherto I have made it good against Satan, and all infernal Sorceries: against Tyrants that attempt to exalt themselves, and against all popular Factions that would seem to have an interest in the making and marring of Princes, that God is the initial cause, the conserving cause, the sole Fountain and Author of all Supreme Sovereignty. There is but one Adversary more to struggle with in this point, that Hildibrand● spirit in the Church of Rome, who either directly or indirectly claims authority to himself to take account of the Government of Kings, and when he pleaseth to break their Sceptres with a Rod of Iron: It is no toying in so main a Cause as this, therefore I will demonstrate that I charge them right. 1. The great number of the Canonists defend without any circumlocution, that the Temporal Sovereignty of the whole world is inherent in the Office of Christ's Vicar, to give, change, alter, or confirm the Titles of particular Princes, as his infallible judgement shall lead him. Thus Baronius, who speaks his mind in these words for his Holy Father, whom our Lord Jesus Christ the King of Glory hath constituted a Prince over all the Kingdoms of the World. Says Augustinus Triumphus all Power and Royalty is subdelegated from the Pope to other Princes, no man can give him any Sovereignty which he had not before, nec Constantinus dedit quicquam Sylvestro, quod non prius erat suum, says he, some talk of Constantine's donation to Sylvester, that he gave him the Temporal Principality of Romania, he gave him nothing but that which was his own before, that and all beside was St. Peter's Patrimony. But Practice is a plainer Argument than Book-words. Alexander the Sixth, a Giver that will do but small credit to his Gift, but such as he is take him with all faults, he bestowed the whole West-Indies to Ferdinand King of Spain, ex merâ liberalitate, & motu proprio, as it is in the words of the Bull. Their own Histories say that Athabaliba King of Peru maintained his Dominions by fight against that Grant, till he was taken prisoner in battle, and then cried out, That Pope could have no reverence to virtue or to the God of Heaven, that took away another man's Kingdom from him. You see now that this Successor of St. Peter, as he would be styled, lays claim to that which St. Peter never dreamt of to belong to him, for how could his imagination comprehend such things when he knew they were disclaimed by Christ, Joh. xviii. 36. My Kingdom is not of this world, if it were my Servants would fight for me, that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but my Kingdom is not from hence. God gave unto Christ the Heathen for his Inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the Earth for his Possession, that is to dilate his Spiritual Kingdom over all the world, but neither that himself, or his Apostles should excel in any Temporal Dignity. It remains therefore against all opposite Parties, that the Kingdoms of the World are the Lords, and he doth set his Anointed in their Thrones out of his holy Hill: and therefore when Popes of old did write to Kings, their usual stile was to wish them health; in eo per quem reges regnant, in him by whom Kings do reign, that is in God above. And all this is to declare, that David held his Crown from none but God, because upon the Solemn Feast of his Inauguration it is said, This is the Day which the Lord hath made.  
All Kings are made by God, yet not all alike: there is more of the Divine mercy and favour in the making of David a man after Gods own heart, than in making of Saul, one whom it repented God that ever he made him; more of his sacred workmanship in the making of Melchisedech a King of Righteousness, than in the making of Nimrod a King of Violence. They that sow the fruits of righteousness in peace, those be reges primae intentionis, Kings in whom God and Man do especially delight: and they that have been compassed about with most cruel Wars abroad, and with most terrible Enemies and Treasons at home, and yet have waded prosperous out of all these dangers, those be reges primae providentiae, Kings of miraculous providence above the trivial current: and you that have read the two Books of Samuel, and the first Book of Chronicles, meet with a thousand passages what memorable marks the Lord had set upon the person of David: which of you doth note the mean condition out of which he did rise, and the Throne to which he was exalted, but you will say digitus Dei, you do mark the print of God's finger in the work, collect the imminent dangers which he escaped, the fury of Saul, the Hosts of the Philistines, the Duel with Goliath, the Plots of Ahitophel, the overawing of the Sons of Zeruiah, the almost inevitable Conspiracy of Absalon, and finally the Usurpation of his other Son Adonijah, even while he was upon his Deathbed, and you will say there was never any Potentate begirt with so many assaults, and brought off with such safety, that there was not an hair of his head did perish. As David's Day hath these characters in it, so we are to glorify the sweet Providence of God, that our Royal Sovereign's Day hath none of them: For first, the mean Parentage of David did much prejudice him, it was a word of contempt that he could not claw off, to be called the Son of Jessai, the Son of a poor Yeoman in Bethlem. But his Majesty's Throne hath been the Throne of his glorious Ancestors for many Generations, and a concurrence of the best blood in the world doth meet in himself, and in his Royal Progeny: For domestical Enemies, God be praised, for the terms of eleven years of his most Religious Reign never any durst show their faces; if they should, I trust we should see their heads shown for a direful spectacle to after Ages. But whereas the blessed Princes that upheld our Reformed Religion have been hemmed about with Treasons upon Treasons every one of them, God hath so confounded them in their malicious devices, that His Sacred Majesty hath hitherto gone in and out before us without the least whisper of any infernal attempt against him; no Prince in this Island, that professed the same Reformed Faith, being able to say as he can, that neither popular commotion, nor secret conspiracy hath hitherto reached itself against his Royal Person, and God grant such safety to himself, and such true and loyal hearts to his People: and that gracious protection will make us see that the Buckler of the Most High is on every side of him, and that his name is written in the Book of Life. Another thing is, David was very much exercised in wars against the Philistines, and his Sword did never come out of the Field without a Conquest: but the best Victory is bought with the price of much blood, and therefore ours is both a more joyful condition, to enjoy the halcyon days of peace, than to be renowned for the most triumphant days of war: As Seneca said of the innocent days of Satur's Age, that there were no terrible Battles fought by seditious Princes, odium omne in feras verterant, they killed none but wild Beasts in hunting: so it is far more Christian in our days to hear it talked that Dogs do chase Stags, than that Men devour Men, as they do in our neighbour Nations, But as David was the first King of Israel that maintained a Navy of Ships at Sea, both to procure safety, and honour, and wealth to his people, so it will be written of our Dread Sovereign, that he hath matched if not exceeded all his Predecessors in that glory.  
Touching the Personal Qualities of David, Gifts of Virtue and Grace, I confess they were rare, and will admit but of few Comparisons: never such an Enditer of holy Songs, never any did exceed him in Zeal and Piety: never since the world began did any Monarch heap up such a mass of Treasure to build up the Temple, an hundred thousand Talents of Gold, a thousand thousand Talents of Silver, and Gold and Silver without number, 1 Chron. xxii. for ordering the Service of God in the disposition of the Priests, in settling the sacred Music, he was so exquisite as the like was never heard of: and in ordering all temporal affairs he was wise as an Angel of God, says the woman of Tekoa: for his mercy in forgiving offenders, you shall not meet with the like till you ascend up to God himself: how soon did a few courteous words in the mouth of Abigail cool his anger, when he was in a most chaffing indignation? what horrid revile did he put up which Shemei cast upon him? how indulgent he was to have spared Absolom, the lewdest Son that did ever rise up against a Father? When God did give such Ornaments to his Servant, it may well be said that he made the day wherein he crowned him: and for our due acknowledgement of God's favours poured upon the head of our Augustious Sovereign, you cannot deny but he is religious, pious, temperate, gentle, prudent, good in all respects as David was, but blemished with none of his vices. But I will not make my Sermon a Cento of his deserved Praises, not for that reason which Plato gives, that it is folly to commend any man while he lives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, because man is a changeable creature, and may alter from good to worse: I fear not this, I see such constancy, and stiff perseverance in all virtuous ways in our Illustrious King; but partly because all Encomiastic Exercises are censured for flattery, and do soon prove scandalous to the Auditors; partly because the Temple is a place selected for the Praise of God, and not of Man: but I will confidently say, that since we are so prosperous a People in a religious, wise, just, chaste, merciful, and temperate Sovereign, no Nation under the Sun, all things duly weighed, hath more cause to confess than we, this is the day which the Lord hath made.  
And I may well say hitherto I have spoken of a Benefit, now I am come to our bounden thankfulness, we will rejoice and be glad in it; as who should say, this is the Day which God made for this very end, that we should rejoice and be glad in it. As the Lord loveth a cheerful Giver, so he loveth a cheerful Receiver of his mercies, he would have us consign it in our countenance and gesture that it pleaseth us, and delights us exceedingly to be partakers of his Propitiations: And surely this is no hard request, no heavy yoke I am certain, to require us to rejoice, and be merry with them that keep holy day, to accommodate ourselves to the season: It becometh the righteous to be glad, it becometh them to be merry and joyful, says our Psalmist. If we descend into the consideration of our manifold sins, we had need of a long Lent set apart to bewail them; nay the Church very anciently provided that every week in the year we should cast up that reckoning, and singled out two whole days, Wednesday and Friday, for fasting, weeping, and mourning. Yet since there is nothing worse for our proficiency in sanctification than to be swallowed up in grief and melancholy, therefore it is the will of our Father that we should recreate ourselves in solemn Festivals for the remembrance of his benefits, which my Text calls to rejoice and be glad. The same passion of Exhilaration perhaps is set forth in both these terms, yet it is usual to ascribe them severally, the one to the Body, the other to the Soul, referring joy to the Body, and gladness to the Soul; for we owe ourselves to God in both, and we must honour him both in the inward and in the outward man: Cor meum, & caro mea, they go both together, Psal. xuj. 9 therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth, my flesh also shall rest in hope. In such times as great Benefits are to be celebrated, we must not think it enough to joy in our bosom, it must break out into some sensible tokens: and yet again we must not have a clear face, and a cloudy overcast heart, but let our Body and Soul be equally devoted to triumph in the name of the Lord. I dare not open too wide a gap for mirth, lest instead of thanksgiving it prove to be licentiousness: Solomon, among other varieties, would prove his own heart with mirth and pleasure, and behold it turned to vanity, Eccl. two. no passion more obnoxious to degenerate into vice, therefore gaudete in Domino, let the Lord be in the joy both of Body and Soul, and forget not that the speakers in my Text promise not a carnal but a religious Festival, wherein the Lord should be praised. For the 27 verse of this Psalm in our reading promiseth a Sacrifice to God upon that Day in his holy Temple, Bind the Sacrifice with cords unto the horns of the Altar: but the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. and it is followed by the Vulgar Latin, which reads it, Constituite diem solemnem in condensis usque ad cornua altaris, appoint an holy day, that the People may stand thick in the Temple from the Porch up to the horns of the Altar. Some part of the day must be spent in the Church upon our Solemn times, or else our rejoicing is not sanctified. It is the mirth of Fools, or rather of Madmen, to suppose that Christmas Holidays are well kept with gaming and revelling, that Whitsun Holidays were made for nothing but Wakes and Dancing, that the Solemnity of May-day being the Feast of two Apostles, Philip and Jacob, consists in decking up houses with green boughs; or as in old time the Common People celebrated Allhollan-day with nothing but ringing of Bells. Lawful Exercises and Pastimes may be used to refresh both the body and mind, but unless we intermix the solemn Service of God at those times, and spend some hours with godly profit in the Church, it is but the Feast of Fools, or perhaps worse, the Feast of Epicures. So the Prophet mentions some Swinish Carousers, that thought they did solemnize their King's Day in a jovial manner with drinking healths till they lost their wit, and their health: In the day of our King the Princes made him sick with flagons of wine, Hos. seven. 5. Such Tosspots celebrate a Feast to the use of the Devil, and not to the Glory of God. But it was unto that Glory that this Song, and this Day which is chanted, and this Joy which is so cheerfully professed are all dedicated, This is the Day which the Lord hath made, etc.  
But how hard a thing it is to draw men and women with their good will to Church? for some have stretched all their wits and their learning to defy our Church, because it hath appointed Holidays for solemn occasions of Prayer and Thanksgiving: and the greatest part of the Kingdom, not out of opposition, but out of negligence and slothfulness doth omit the due observation which belongs unto them. You give yourselves over at such times to cessation from work it may be, to Sports and Games, and Interludes, the Fields shall be all day full of loose persons, and the House of the Lord empty. It is true that rest from labour becomes an Holiday, yet the very vacation from labour is not simply pleasing to God, but the better to follow Religious Service: and beware to confound rest and idleness, as if they were all one; they are idle whom the painfulness of action causeth to avoid that labour, whereunto God and Nature bindeth them; they rest that either cease from their work, when they have brought it to perfection, or else give over a meaner labour because a better and more worthy is to be undertaken: therefore though some part of an Holiday is indulged to put gladness into the life of them that are toiled with continual work, yet the substantial character of the day is to meet together in our Religious Convocations, and to adore the Name of the Lord.  
I shall not be able at this fag end of the hour to traverse this point as I would, some satisfaction I will give you now, God willing, and defer that which remains to a more spacious occasion. My Doctrine which I lay down is this, that it is lawful for any Church to celebrate what Feasts it will, so all be done with order and edification: And I say more that every Church ought to set apart Solemn Times to remember annually the extraordinary works of God, though such designed and determinate Days are not commanded in Holy scripture. And I put to this moreover, that God doth accept what the Church in due consideration doth voluntarily consecrate to Religious use. I will put two parts of my Proposition together, that this was lawful to be done, and that it ought to be done. Nature did teach the Heathen, 
Hooker lib. 5. part. 72.  God taught the Jews, and Christ by his own practice while he was upon earth taught us, that to meet at Extraordinary Times for the celebration of Excellent Things was just and righteous. One doth eloquently and very truly commend the various fruit of keeping such Sacred Times in this full Encomiasticon. Festival days are the Splendour and outward Dignity of our Religion, forcible Witnesses of ancient truth, agnizing of great Benefits received, Provocations to the Exercises of Piety, Shadows of our endless felicity in Heaven.  
First, I will begin at the last of these, That there must be great consolation in the due keeping of an Holiday, if you rightly understand it, because it represents the joy which is laid up for us in the Kingdom of Heaven: and it is a most comfortable expectation, when the very outward countenance of that which we are about on Earth, doth prefigure after a sort that which we tend unto in the everlasting Habitations. Bear but this in mind, that the Rubric days in the Almanac do prefigure that celestial condition, wherein being mixed with Angels, we shall sing Hallelujah to the Lamb for evermore, having no worldly toil or vexation to distract us, and this would make us most cheerful to bear a part in a solemn Congregation. The Kingdom of Heaven was but darkly revealed to the Jews in the Old Testament, and yet to bear in mind the glory which is laid up for the Godly, they devoted a portion of every Day to the Divine Service, in the Morning and Evening Sacrifice; a portion of every Week upon the Sabbath, a portion of every Month upon the New Moon; a portion of every Season of the Year, the Passover in the Spring, the Feast of Pentecost in the Summer, the Feast of Tabernacles in the Autumn, and in latter Ages the Feast of Dedication in the Winter. Every seventh Year was a Solemn Year for the Cessation of all Ploughing and Sowing, and that's a contracted Age: Every Fiftieth Year was most solemn for the memorizing of the Grand Jubilee, and that's a long protracted Age. If they did so often represent their longing to be at rest in heavenly places, much more doth it concern us under the Gospel, who are nearer neighbours than they to that future glory.  
Secondly, such gandy days are most meet for the agnizing of great benefits received. I esteem the more of this reason, because it is St. Augustine's: 
Civ. Dei, lib. 10. c. 8.  Ne volumine temporum ingrata obreperet oblivio; by Festival Solemnities and set Days we dedicate and sanctify to God the memory or his chief benefits, lest unthankfulness and forgetfulness should creep upon us in the course of time. Nor is it enough to remember some notable favour upon one day and no more with great pomp and splendour; for the revolution of time will obscure that, as if it had never been, the constant habit of doing well is not gotten without the custom of doing well, without an iteration of holy Duties: Beside such as are weak and tottering in faith might imagine that we did set no high price upon the Nativity of our Lord, upon his Passion, his Resurrection, his Ascension, and upon the Coming of the Holy Ghost, if we did not extol him for them with some outward and eminent acts of glory.  
Thirdly, the principal Articles of Faith are nailed fast to our memory by clothing great Feasts with some transcendent tokens of joy and holiness. At the Feast of Christmas every simple body is put in mind that Christ took our nature upon him, and was born of a pure Virgin. On Good Friday even Babes and Children are taught that he died upon the Cross to redeem us from eternal death. Easterday proclaims it, that our Saviour rose again in his own Body from the Grave, and will raise up our Flesh at the last day to be like his own glorious Body. Ascension day, or Holy Thursday rememorates every year, that He is gone up into Heaven to be our Intercessor with his Father, and to prepare a place for us. Whitsunday, or the Coming of the Holy Ghost, is like a fair Landmark to instruct the most unlearned, that though our nature is most corrupt, and averse from all good motions, yet the spirit is poured into us, whereby in some weak measure we become obedient Children, and cry Abba Father. These are the Days which the Lord hath made, and when we devote ourselves to magnify him upon these occasions, they prove the best means to teach us the Catechetical and fundamental points of faith. And as Christ was great in himself, and in those works of grace, so He is great in the Angels of Heaven, great in the Apostles, in the Evangelists, in all Saints and Martyrs; and the choice is made by our Church of the Flower of all occasions in this kind publicly to praise the Lord: and it is very fit, I say, that there should be a sensible difference between these and common days, both for our thanksgiving, and for the profitableness of our piety. God's works are all worthy of observation, but not at all times alike to be remembered: for as the Lord by being every where doth not give unto all places one and the same degree of holiness: but the Church is more sacred than the Highways of the Field, though God's Immensity and Omnipotency is alike in both; so neither is one and the same dignity competent to all times, although the Omnipotency of God doth work in all times: but as his extraordinary presence hath hallowed and sanctified certain places, so they are his extraordinary works, which have worthily advanced certain times: for which cause they ought with all men that honour God to be in more honour than other days.  
I should add two things more that are very ponderous to confirm this truth, one from the practice of some holy persons in the Old Testament, whose constitutions God approved; the other from the practice of our Forefathers in all Ages, and 'tis fit to tread in their steps in things that are laudable, honest, and indifferent: but this shall not be huddled up, I will dilate it hereafter. To dispatch all, beside our holy due of the Lords Day we are now to celebrate the King's Day; and for good reason in all equity we ought to do some Religious Service on His Day, who is the defender of our Religion. Next under the Providence of God who but the King doth maintain the Truth among us; therefore on what day of the week soever this Day lights, it becomes us to set open the Door of the Church, and to praise the Lord, because we have freedom to come to Church all the year by his grace and protection. We have no Romish Superstition, no Anabaptistical or Presbyterian Anarchy to make this holy place irksome unto us. God be praised that has given his Anointed a faithful heart to serve him, and to uphold his People in the right way, that they may hold up clean hands to Heaven. 
Euseb. l. 3. de Constant. vit.  I do read that Constantine celebrated an yearly Feast for his Victory against Licinius. I read that the Church of Alexandria celebrated a Day yearly wherein the waters assuaged after a great Inundation. I read that Alexius Comnenus appointed a perpetual Holiday for the memory of the famous Emperor and Lawgiver Justinian: nay, St. Ambrose calls to mind, 
Sozom. lib. 6. c. 2.  that Felix Bishop of Cuma kept that day every year in a magnificent manner to God, 
Lib. 1. Ep. 5.  wherein he was consecrated Bishop. Thus former Ages have given us light, that we keep in the Circle of that which is lawful, when we adorn the Anniversary Day of the Inauguration of our most noble King with joy and festivity in the sight of God: and first let us confess the Lords benefit towards us, and say as the People did of Solomon, Because thy God loved Israel to establish them for ever, therefore made he thee King over them to do judgement and justice, 1 Chron. ix. viij. Secondly, let as put up Prayers and Intercessions to the Divine Majesty, to give great prosperity to our Anointed Sovereign, to his Royal Consort, and to their Posterity for ever. AMEN.   

A SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION.  PSAL. cxviii. 24. 
This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.  
IF you have ever seen a piece of Coin stamped with one face upon the fore-side, and with another upon the reverse, than set that, fancy before you to understand the double sense of this Text. First, If you ask according to the Letter, whose Image and Superscription is this? I tell you, and I have told it you once before, it is david's: And this is the triumphant Hymn of the devout men of Israel, exulting that God had given them such a King to go in and out before them: If you ask according to the Spirit to whom this Verse belongs? most certainly it aims at Christ, and that two ways, either calculating this Day for the whole Age of the Gospel, that is the day which God hath made to put gladness into his chosen, through the remission of our sins, because the dayspring from on high hath visited us: Or else in a more eminent sort it is the joyful acclamation of the Church upon the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus, that being the most honourable, and most welcome of days, because the Resurrection hath ever been esteemed the most glorious of all the works of the Gospel. I have spun out the first of these concerning David to the last thread, now my Web which is upon the Loom is concerning Christ; that is, I have given unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and it is very expedient, as the more principal duty, to give unto God that which is Gods. Indeed, I cannot say that I am come to the heart, and to the vitals of the Text till now; till now that I apply it, not as formerly to the Lords Anointed, but to Christ himself our Lord anointed. And I have clear way made me for this interpretation, as clear as I can wish, for never any that have received the Book of the Psalms for spiritual and divine melody, but do reckon this Psalm, and especially this part of the Psalm, to belong to Jesus the Author and finisher of our Salvation, The Doctors of the Jews, says St. Hierom, did use to sing it in praise of the Messias. And the Doctors of the Christians must be all of one Chorus to chant it merrily to the Son of God, because four places of the New Testament, that is witness enough, have made a challenge unto it, that this Psalm is an Allelujah, or Hosannah to the Son of God. And because the words of my Text are obvious to be recited upon any memorable and plausible occasion, sometimes they have been drawn to congratulate humane affairs, yet with this reservation, that none under heaven hath a true interest in them. I read that in the second Constant. Council held under Justinian the Emperor, Johannes Presbyter, as he was called, did extol the unanimity and most concordious proceedings of it with these words, This is the day, etc. I read that one Cyriacus, a just and a learned man was made a Bishop, and the people so well pleased with his Election cried out, Hic est dies Domini. But Gregory the Great told the people, that no Creature ought to be magnified with that solemn note which belongs to the Creator: 
Lib. 6. Ep. 7.  But he adds, Cur ista reprehendo! Qui quantùm gaudia mentem rapiunt scio. Why do I chide you for it? It was your gladness that did transport you. It was your charity that made you so exult, and your meaning was not to give the honour to man, but unto God.  
And so I have laid the corner stone of my Text, that Christ is the subject of this Prophetical and triumphant acclamation. And because there are two opinions how he is the subject of it, that variety shall divide my Text. Briefly and plainly, either this day, which the Lord is said to have made, is meant of the whole time of the Gospel, so St. Hierom, and St. Austin, with a fair Troop of learned Writers beside, or else it is understood of that day, wherein Christ arose from the dead, which is the Epitome of the whole Gospel. Now these two opinions are so equally embraced, that I find that the Church in her solemn Service hath favoured them both. First, some that have taken pains in Liturgical Antiquities tell me, that this Psalm was of old appointed to be recited by the Priest every Sunday in the year, that is an evident argument, that the day which the Lord hath made, belongs equally to all the days which shine upon us since Christ was incarnate, that is, to the whole duration of the Gospel. Again, it hath long continued, and is used to this day in the Church of Rome, that my Text is set in the front of the gradual for Easter-day, and is repeated in the same manner constantly for six days after that high Feast, which demonstrates that it hath principally been applied to the glorious mystery of the Resurrection. Give me leave therefore to bring them both into my Treatise, one after another: And upon each to speak of two things, De beneficio divino, de officio humano; the one half of the verse is God's benignity, This is the day which the Lord hath made, the other half is man's acceptance and duty, We will rejoice, etc.  
You know I have already answered to the Interrogation Cujus? Whose day this is? Whose but Christ's? And for certain it cannot be his day as he is God from everlasting. His goings out are from all eternity, Micah v. iii Again, this is dies factus, a day that is made, and such an adjunct cannot suit with him that was never made, but is the everlasting one before the world began. It is that day therefore which was made with him when he was made flesh. It is a courtesy among men for a Creditor to give a day to him that is behind hand to pay his debts. Have patience with me, says the servant that was arrested, to the cruel Exactor, and I will pay thee all. But the Lord knew that it would not help us one whit to have the favour of the longest day that could be set to make payment for what we owe unto him; nay, the longer we live, the longer is the Tally of our sins; the reckoning will be the more inflamed by giving us time to discharge it. Therefore God made a day for his Son, and appointed him a season to offer up a price in our stead, and through his satisfaction the hand-writing is discharged which was against us. Yea, but S. Luke remembers us that there are many days belonging to the Son, Luk. xvii. 22. The days will come when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man. What day of all those is this? Why not one but all those days since the world received him, and received him with the glad tidings of Salvation; all Evangelical days at large, every day that we hear his voice, and harden not our hearts, is this day. It may very well be opposed to that dismal day wherein our first Parents transgressed and fell, that was a day which the Devil made, and he took his pastime in it, because the League of friendship was broken between God and man; but the Lord made a new day to repair us again by the mediation of Jesus Christ. Non est dies miseriae quam ipsi nobis fecimus, sed dies redemptionis quam fecit Dominus; I think it is St. Augustine's, this is not the day of misery which we brought upon ourselves, but it is the good day of pacification and redemption which God created.  
It is not to be thought that the whole current of the Gospel is called a day, but that the nature of it will endure that name in some fit and excellent proportion. For,  
First, There was no day until a day was set that Christ should come into the world; darkness did cover the earth, and gross Doctrine the People, as the Prophet says, no night that troubles melancholy people with strange and horrible Apparitions could be more dismal than the time was, before some Evangelical Promises were preached to the drooping conscience. Take a sinner or malefactor that knows not how God hath sealed his pardon, and what is this earth better than a prison or a Dungeon unto him? where he lies fettered with the bands of a long night, and is exiled from the eternal providence, as it is Wisd. xvii. 2. O what a Sunshine there is in the salvation of Christ's name which bringeth the Prisoners out of Captivity, it is a day which is an introduction to an eternal day, where there is light for evermore. So says Arnobius, Dies cui non succedit nox, quam horae non dividunt, quem umbra non impedit. It is a day which is not divided by the short space of moments and hours; no Eclipses can obscure it, no night can succeed it. Day began with Christ, and it shall continue with him for ever.  
Secondly, The Gospel is a most brightsom day compared to that Age wherein the Jews walked under the Ordinances of Moses, For what was that Law but an Evening with many shadows? All things in their Religion were Types and Figures unrevealed, which caused an ignorant Priesthood, and a People of a gross capacity. Wherefore St. Austin observes, that our Saviour was brought forth into the world at midnight, but the glory of the Lord which shone round about the Angel that brought the tidings made the night as clear as the day: But the Law was delivered on Mount Sinah at Noontide, but with so many mists and dark pillars of smoke, that it made the day as obscure as the night. Do but put yourself to one Task, to examine by the Contents of the Law how you will come to the knowledge of the Resurrection of Christ, you will not say but it was very meet for an Israelite under the Law to know it; but alas, they did grope in the dark, and it is hard to say whether ever they did find it, for what Type or shadow did come home to demonstrate it? You must not reply that it did appear in Ionas, who came forth alive, after he had been three days and three nights in the belly of the Whale, for this was no Lesson for them that lived in eight or nine Ages from Moses unto the days of Ionas. Neither must you urge that the first Temple was plucked down to the ground, and another reared up in the place, which Temple did so prefigure Christ's body, that in that respect Haggai says, The glory of the second house was greater than the first, Hag. two. 10. This could never inform the people's judgement all the while that the Tabernacle was under Tents. Truly all that I can lead you to in this case is to the Ark, which was but an Epitome of the Temple. Nay, nor to the Ark itself, but to the three holy Relics which were laid up in the Ark, in them with a little curious observation, you may find a rude draught of the Resurrection of our Saviour. The two Tables of the Law which God gave first to Moses were broken, but they were new hewn, and written over again, there was the reparation of the work of God, which seemed to have been utterly lost. The Pot of Mannah was in the Ark, and this resembled Christ; the Pot was like his Humane Nature, of the earth earthy. The Manna, like his Godhead was above nature, and came from heaven, why this Manna would not keep above two days at the most, after that it would putrify, but that which was put into the Pot did outlast the two days of putrefaction, and for aught we know was never corrupted. Finally, Aaron's Rod was a dead dry stick, but it shot forth like a living Tree, and brought forth Almonds. Now if the Resurrection of Christ, the very Pillar of faith, was to be collected out of such dark obscure shadows, what a gloomy night was the time of the Law? And what an illustrious day is the Gospel, which speaks this mystery so plainly to the capacity even of Children and Idiots, Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him.  
Yet I will confess that we are not yet come to broad daylight till the general Resurrection of all flesh is accomplished. Very sweetly says one of the Moderns, Tempus gratiae aurora est, quae diet vicinior est quam nocti. This time of grace is not complete day, but a complete morning, which hath little in it of the night, and much of the day. That is, if you compare us with those of the Synagogue, we are partakers of the day: If you compare us with the life to come, when our glory shall be revealed, and Christ shall be all in all, than we are yet in a dusky condition, and have not hitherto shaken off the night. St. Paul hath nicked it with most proper words, Rom. xiii. 12. says he, The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Processit nox, not Praecessit, as the Vulgar Latin does misread it, darkness is much abated, not quite dispersed, for as yet we see darkly as in a glass, but the dawning of the day is risen in our Horizon, for God hath given us the explicit knowledge of all Mysteries that conduce to our Salvation. When the Church had first rest from persecution, it had leisure to invent a splendour of Ceremonies in setting forth the Service of God, among others I find that this was practised in the fourth Age, 
Steph. Durantus lib. 1. cap. de Evan.  that when the Deacon went up to some high place to read the Gospel, there were certain attendants in the Church, called Acolythi, that carried two Torches lighted before him, Ad demonstrandum quod de tenebris infidelitatis venimus ad lucem fidei; to signify that we have thrown aside darkness and infidelity, and are come by the help of the Gospel into marvellous light. So St. Hierom against Vigilantius, in the daytime, in the Eastern Countries, when the Gospel is read Candles are lighted, not ad fugandas tenebras, sed ad sigum laetitiae demonstrandum; not that such artificial light adds any thing to the light of the day, but it is a token that light is come to us, and we are glad of the illumination. Give us leave then to say without boasting, that wheresoever the name of Christ is professed, and in no place else, there is the acceptable time, there is the day of salvation. As there was light in Goshen when all the Land of Egypt was in darkness. But especially we shall show that we do believe that the day spring from on high hath visited us, if we keep that one rule which St. Paul hath enforced upon it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Let us walk honestly and decently as in the day; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, either the energy of the word means, that because many eyes are witnesses of our dressing in the day, we will then habit ourselves more comely than in the night, when none, or only those of our Family behold us: So the Christian Church is like a City upon an Hill, which cannot be hid, the eyes of all Nations are bend upon it, therefore let us walk soberly and justly, that we give no scandal to the enemies of the Gospel. Be as careful to apparel your souls handsomely with all grace and virtue in the sight of God, as you are observant to dress your bodies decently in the day, that nothing deformed may appear in you to the eyes of men. Or it may thus concord with the Apostles intention, such as are dissolute will forbear to riot it in the day, they that are drunken are drunken in the night. A Nation that is more civil in the night than in the day is hardly to be found, unless it be true that some do tax us for such a Nation; but all distempers of roaring and mischief for the most part break out in darkness. Well then since the Gospel is a perpetual day, not so little as a Lantern unto our feet, that is but dim, but a light from heaven above the light of the Sun, Acts xxvi. 13. Let us walk honestly as children of the light, knowing we are made a spectacle to God, and Angels, and Men.  
So far I have entreated upon the Lord's benignity, he hath not only crowned David to be a mighty Potentate in the Land of Canaan, but in the day of his Son Christ Jesus he hath crowned us all Kings, and Priests of righteousness, and hath given us a long day to rejoice in even for ever and ever. Now follows our acceptance and duty, since this day hath appeared to the wish of our heart, We will rejoice and be glad in it; as who should say, as the faithful Israelites did keep one day for David's Inauguration, so in the day of the Gospel we must always rejoice for the Kingdom of Christ. Upon the establishment of this Kingdom all the Creatures are adjured to express their gladness, Psal. xcvi. I quote that place, for there is none like it to this purpose; thus the Psalmist, ver. 10. Say among the Heathen that the Lord reigneth, let the Heavens rejoice, and let the Earth be glad; let the Sea roar and the fullness thereof, let the field be joyful, and all that is therein, then shall all the trees of the Wood rejoice before the Lord, for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth. Tenerae militiae delicatus conflictus, as Gregory says, We call our Pilgrimage upon earth a Christian warfare, a wrestling with Powers and Principalities, an affliction of the flesh, the sufferance of the Cross, etc. And are all those affrighting words converted into this Lesson, Rejoice and be glad. He that will stick with God for the duty, Jubeas miserum esse libenter; let him eat the bread of sorrow, let him live in misery and mourning, when he need not. Can the Children of the Bride-chamber mourn while the Bridegroom is with them? Says our Saviour to the Pharisees, when they grudged that his Disciples did not humble and macerate themselves with fasting. But the days will come that the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then they shall mourn. Two things I deduce from hence: Out of the latter words it appears, that dismal times will befall the Church Evangelical, by bloody persecutions, by the venomous tongues of Heretics, sharper than any two-edged Sword. Yet those woeful Calamities result not out of the Gospel itself, but are extrinsical mischiefs that force themselves upon it. And though the Bridegroom be gone he hath sent the Comforter, and in the midst of sorrows his enlightenings do enrich the soul, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, we converse says St. Paul, among sad events, as if we were sorrowful, but in good earnest we are always rejoicing. But secondly, it appears from the exordium of our Saviour's Sermon, Can the Children of the Bride-chamber mourn while the Bridegroom is with them? That the Gospel in its own nature is a Bride-chamber, or solemnisation of a great Marriage, wherein there is nothing but joyfulness and festivity. Says the Apostle, 
De habitu virg.  Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, that was the constitution of the Gospel: Well, what follows? Therefore let us keep the Feast, 1 Cor. v. 8. St. Cyprian reads it, Festa celebremus, let us keep the Feasts, let us all days festival for Christ's sake. St. Paul alludes to the Feast of unleavened bread among the Jews which was held seven days continually without ceasing. In like sort let us celebrate such a feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity, and Numerus septenarius est symbolum universitatis, to keep it for seven days is from the mystical number of eternity to keep it for ever and ever. Clemens says, Vniversa vita justi est quidam celebris ac sanctus dies; 
Lib. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  All the life of a good Christian is holy day. Pope Sylvester meant it so, when he changed the common names of the week days, and called them all Ferias. Feria prima, secunda, and so forth. Nay, our own Church intends it so likewise, therefore in our Cathedral Churches solemn praise are sung to the Organ all the year long with the voice of melody; and in Parochial Churches every day of the year when Morning Prayer is read after the Confession and Absolution of our sins, the Introitus, or Introduction appointed is an Hymn, and thus it begins, Come let us sing unto the Lord, let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.  
If I descend to some particulars, wherein our Evangelical gladness consists, I know it will be more satisfactory to the Auditory. First, It brings with it a spiritual delight. Secondly, An external gladness which opens itself in signs and tokens. The spiritual delight which we treasure up within the soul looking steadfastly upon Jesus that died for our sins, and rose again for our justification, is heavenly and unutterable, it is a superlative joy that cries down all other petty delights. It is risus ex serenitate conscientiae, as the Fathers call it; not Sarahs' giggling, but Abraham's laughter, when he believed that Isaac should be born, and involved in the same belief, that Christ the Redeemer should be born out of the stock of Isaac. The external utterances of a pious joy are these: 1. Days of rest from bodily labour; for the meaner labour must give way, when a better, and a worthier is to be undertaken. And while the mind hath just occasion to make its abode in the house of gladness, the weed of ordinary toil and travel doth not become us; therefore it is fit that ordinary labour should sometimes surrender itself up to the service of God. 2. To laud the name of the Lord, and to give thanks unto him are the only language of our thankfulness. Says David, I went with the multitude unto the house of the Lord, in the voice of praise and thanksgiving among such as keep holy day, Psal. xlii. 5.3. God doth not deny it, but he that offereth him praise doth honour him; but will you know how that honour is best exalted? Make a cheerful noise to the God of Jacob, singing and making melody to the Lord with Psalms, and Hymns, and spiritual Songs. If the Jews might justly say, how can we sing the Lords song, while we are in a strange Land, while we are in Captivity? Then we must acknowledge on the contrary, how can we choose but sing the Lords Song, being delivered out of captivity? Singing of Psalms is a most proper exercise of our reasonable service. Curious Music upon costly Instruments is an admirable alarm for devotion in Cathedral and Collegiate places, where such as are wise and skilful do come together to enjoy it. Yet still the people have their Vulgar Psalms to solace their hearts, and they that mock at such innocent harmony have great want of charity that they will not descend to the weakness of their poor brethren. St. Hierom tells it of his days, that as the people walked about the Market, as they sailed in Ships, as they wrought with their Needle they sung these holy Ditties. Says St. Basil, this is irksome to none but to the Devil; let scoffers mark that, for the evil Spirit went out of Saul when David played upon the Harp, and David was no profane Minstril, but an holy Singer. 4. Another effect of Christian joy is to give, because it abounds. A joy that will not distribute to the needy is a shrunken withered joy, nay, a joy that will carry the curse of God with it, because it wants fruits: And a joy that will carry the curse of the poor with it, because they are suffered to pine and languish in our public gladness. 5. And lastly, all sorts of mirth, and innocent recreation, wherein our Substance is not exhausted, nor our time trifled away, are agreeable to our Christian Conversation, the heart cannot always be intentive upon the glory of God, Miro modo ex amore Dei homo aliquando non cogitat de Deo; At our times of respite from sacred Offices, to delight our sullen nature with harmless pleasure, it rubs off the rust of melancholy, and puts alacrity in us to rejoice always in the Lord. Away with the lowering of the Pharisee, and take heed of austerity which is groundless, and hath no foundation in the Word of God.  
And here I stint myself to proceed no further upon the first part which I laid forth, for you have heard enough that the whole current of the Gospel is that Day which the gracious mercy of the Lord did make, all things without it are anxious and grievous, all things with it are sweet and delicious, and therefore it is the very joy of our heart. But as commonly a Diamond is more valuable than the Ring wherein it is set, so if I will take our Grammarians at their word, annus quasi annulus, that a Year is a Circumvolution of Time that hath no end, but runs round like a Ring; then I may speak it out of the mouth of all antiquity, that the High Feast of Easter is the Jewel of the Year, whose lustre hath been most beautiful in the eyes of godly men in all Ages. As there is mention in Scripture of an Holy of Holies, and a Song of Songs, so Nazianzen calls this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Solemnity of Solemnities; others the Metropolis of sacred Feasts, the Queen of Holidays, and like the Virgin Mary among Women, so this among the Days of the Year, all Generations shall call it blessed. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ by Epiphanius, the great Assembly, the greatest Concourse of Christians throughout all the year. Such a Concourse, that when that day came, the most bloody Persecutions could not deter them from assembling together; they that hid their heads in dark places, and Caves of the earth, would come abroad, and fill up a Congregation, as if they had rather choose death, than be wanting to praise God for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. A goodly fair Church being built at Alexandria, but not yet consecrated, Athanasius was blamed that he suffered the People to meet together for the performance of Divine Service in a Church that wanted Episcopal Consecration; his answer was it was the Feast of Easter, and all other Churches were too little to receive those multitudes of Christians in the City, and their ardour was so great, that in despite of my authority they would fill up the most capacious Church against that principal Solemnity. I should make you surfeit with story, if I should tell you what religious care Christian Emperors and General Councils of most famous Bishops had to settle this holy Festival, that it might be kept more solemnly than all the Feasts of the year. Cui non dictus Hylas? who doth not know that it was worthy to be considered and ratified by 318 Bishops in the first Nicene Council? and they had reason to do so; for it appears though other holidays dropped in one after another in later times, yet the Apostles themselves, and all Ages deduced from them, did celebrate one day yearly for the Resurrection of our lord 
Euseb. lib. 3. de vit. Const.  Therefore says Constantine the Great in his Oration at the Nicene Council, be it lawful for us Christians, rejecting the Jewish manner, to honour that day, which ever since the Passion of Christ hath been observantly kept until this time, and let us transmit the due constitution of it to all Ages to come. 
Ep. 118.  And so St. Austin commending the pious use of this Feast, that which is an inviolable Custom in all Orthodox Churches of the world, and hath none to gainsay it, it must be confessed that it was established by the Apostles themselves, and that's authority enough. And those were most concordious and happy times, that it being but a Ceremony of Decency and Order, none did lift up their tongues against it. These latter Ages have been more froward and combustious; though David pointed it out with so clear a Prophecy, This is the day which the Lord hath made; though the Angels appeared in white early this morning in our Saviour's Tomb, that is in the Garments of joy and gladness; though St. Paul says upon our Christian Pasche, Let us keep the Feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity, though the Apostles in all likelihood ordained it; though both Eastern and Western Churches kept a solemn Jubilee upon it, yet some have snarled at it, and would neither give it any particular honour, nor appoint any Service suitable for that happy occasion. The Church of Geneva was at that point once, but I am far from blaming Calvin for it, as some have done; for their giddy-headed multitude had banished him out of their City, at what time they quite erased out all holidays, and when he returned again, he did prevail with them to re-establish the two great Feasts of Christmas and Easter. And for that which happened before, he answered se nescio & invito factum esse, it was neither done with his will, nor with his knowledge. It is more than I know if any other Christian Church in the world did keep no Feast for the Resurrection of Christ, saving that this thankful remembrance of Christ's victory over Death was forgot in the Church of Scotland, till by the learned and pious industry of King James of Blessed Memory, about eighteen years passed they did consent at an Ecclesiastical Synod, to receive five solemn Feasts in honour of our Saviour, and Easter for the principal. O how these Churches would have been inveighed at in Athanasius, and Hierom, and Austin's days? I dare confidently say it, they would have been excommunicated by General Councils, none would have held communion with them, during the time that they had no solemn Easter, as long as they did not keep the Day which the Lord hath made. Aerius excepted against that Holiday, and presently he was scored up for an Heretic. But our Church, which is most decent in all good order, and reasonable Ceremony, doth not only give honour to the grand Day, but to the two Days following, as the enlarging of our faith and joy: and this is exact according to ancient order: For in Nyssen's first Sermon on the Pasque it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Three days Festival, and St. Austin speaks of it as a thing known, that there was tertius festi dies, a third day solemnised, that as Christ rose the third day, so the memory of it was kept in three days continuation.  
Some have stood much upon it, that the time when Christ rose out of the Grave is not called a Feast, but a Day, as if there had been somewhat in it to make it a Day, rather than any other time. Chrysologus gives his reason as one that is transported with joy beyond the truth, that in the Morning wherein our Champion overcame death, the Sun rose earlier by certain hours than the natural season, Vt redderet lucis horas, quas terror Dominicae passionis invaserat, to make restitution of those hours of light which were lost by the Eclipse of the Sun at our Saviour's Passion: and so it should be called a Day, because it was miraculous, and longer than the natural proportion of a Day. But this is without the Book, and rather Poetical than Theological. But secondly, to more purpose it justly bears the title of a Day; for were it not for the benefit of Christ's Resurrection we had been buried in eternal night, our bodies had gone down into the Sepulchre, as into the Land of darkness, to perish and rot, and never to see the light more: Nox est perpetuò una dormienda; but through him who hath planted us into the similitude of his Resurrection, we awake from sleep, we stand up from the dead, and Christ shall give us light. 3. The claritude of those glorified Bodies which we shall put on in the General Resurrection will make us carry Day about with us whithersoever we go. You know how Christ did look at his Transfiguration, his face did shine as the Sun, and his raiment was white as the light, Mat. xvii. 2. therefore it must needs be day with the Saints for ever after they are risen from the dead, since according to the Pattern of their Master's beauty their faces shall shine like the Sun in the Firmament. But fourthly, whether these curiosities touch the Point I am not sure, upon this I dare build, that it is called the Day which the Lord made, because no greater work than the Resurrection of Christ was made upon any day since the world began: for two things are to be considered in it, Quod apparuit in Christo, & quod nondum apparuit in nobis, that which was wrought upon Christ's Body, and was seen in him, and by virtue of his rising from the dead that which shall appear in us hereafter. O infinite Power which quickened Jesus again, the life and soul of all the Members of his Body, and would not let him see corruption. I know not how to compare the noblest Acts of the Lord, as many have done, I dare not do it; as whether it were more to create a man out of nothing, or to recompose a man again, when his Soul was flitted, and the Substance of his Body passed about into innumerous Transmutations, after the revolution of five or six thousand years: This I know, that on our part it had been better for us never to have been, than not to have been restored to the Image of God which was defaced in us; and simply to be is nothing so well, as to be made incorruptible in the outward man, and the inward man to be restored unto Righteousness and Holiness of life, Besides, after the Creation God did cease from his work, and there is no new thing under the Sun; but after the Resurrection of Christ, God doth continually save his people from their Sins: Or if you interpose that as the Father did rest the last day of the Week from the Works of the Creation, so the Son did rest on the first day of the Week, having absolutely accomplished the Work of our Redemption; then I infer, if the Rest of the Father, ceasing from creating material things, did sanctify a Day, than this greater Rest of the Son must much more sanctify a Festival. As the new Heavens and the new Earth shall be more glorious than the old, which are subject to vanity; so the Jewish Feast on the Sabbath for the Remembrance of the Creation, is nothing so honourable as the Christian Feast of the Lords Day in Remembrance of the Resurrection: Therefore at the close of the Benefit, let me admonish you of the Duty, We will, etc.  
When Israel came out of Egypt, and the house of Jacob from a strange Land, they came home again to the Land of Canaan, from whence they were descended, like men that had lain long among the dead, and were quite forgotten: But with so much mirth and joy as is unutterable, their mouth was filled with laughter and their tongue with joy. This was but a Type of the Body brought back out of the Grave, therefore this gladness will become us much better in the Substance, than in the Figure. Christ is returned victoriously out of the Sepulchre, and in that victory hath redeemed us all from the captivity of the Grave, then how requisite is it that our mouth should be filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing? for the Lord hath done very great things for us, whereof we are glad. There was never any Society, I am persuaded, more disconsolate, more crest-faln, than the Disciples were upon the Eve of this happy Resurrection, their faith failed them, and their courage failed them; they locked themselves up, and sat drowzily like men that had lost the fairest expectation that heart could imagine, and had neither life nor soul. Heaviness did endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Jesus came into the midst of them the doors being shut, and showed them his feet and his hands, Then were the Disciples glad when they saw the Lord, Joh. xx. 20. before the Lords Ascension, though their minds were yet somewhat carnal, yet they were glad that his sayings were verified in despite of the Jews, that He was risen again the third day. The old Father confuted his churlish Son with that principle of good nature, it was meet that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again, Luke xv. 32. Again the Disciples were very frolic, because when they saw the Lord revived again, they were persuaded that He would restore the Temporal Kingdom unto Israel, a thing which erroneously they had long looked for: but after his Ascension then their joy was high swollen, and full to the brim, for it was illuminated by faith, they rejoiced that he was risen, and gone up in glory to possess his Kingdom, for when Christ our life shall appear again, then shall we also appear in glory.  
But because ancient Customs are things that will stick to the remembrance, I will borrow a little time to impart unto you what glad remonstrances the Old Fathers of the Church were wont to make of it.  
First their very outward Garments were of the best they had, and full of splendour; not out of pride and wantonness, but to testify that in every circumstance they did magnify that holy Mystery of Christ's rising from the dead, and to witness in their outward habit, that the resurrection of the dead is the clothing of us with new and immortal apparel. Therefore Nazianzen wishing for his own dissolution cries out, take from me this ponderous Garment, that is, this sinful corruptible Body, which makes me sweat and faint, and give me a lighter that will never trouble me.  
Secondly, their Churches were tricked up with the best bravery that they could get, that the very Walls of God's House might bear a part in their rejoicing: As for Processions from one Church to another on this day, I find no such Custom in the best Ages of Religion: Although in some late hundred years it is in use at Rome, that their chief Prelates visit the seven principal Churches in grand Procession, because, and alas for so poor a cause, that Christ, after He was risen, bade his Disciples go before him into Galilee.  
Thirdly, the Word of God was preached laboriously, and studied for that occasion, Ex verbo illud potissimum, quod est tempori convenientissimum, says Nazianzen; let that Scripture be handled which belongs to the Season: and beside the Sermon their Service was set forth with all gravity and sweetness of Music. Laeti exultantesque celebremus, says St. Ambrose, etc. let our shrill voices proclaim it that we are glad: and Theodoret gives warning, that this Panegyrical Day be kept honestly, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; not with drunkenness and riot, and profuse laughter, but singing Psalms, and hearing the Word attentively.  
Fourthly, this Feast was the solemn time for receiving Baptism, this and the Feast of Whitsuntide, and, unless in case of necessity, it was never given of old at other times; all that were presented at Baptism coming in white Garments, professing thereby that they would keep their righteousness pure and immaculate until the second coming of the Lord.  
Fifthly, as Baptism is the washing away of sins, which could not choose but comfort their hearts over all the Church, and make them cheerful, so the confirmation of that Faith was the receiving of the Holy Communion of Christ's Body and Blood, which all did universally apply themselves to, that could examine themselves, and none did fail, whereupon says Leo, this is the peculiar Blessing of Easter-day, ut in remissione peccatorum universa gaudeat Ecclesia, that the whole Church had cause to rejoice that remission of sins was sealed unto them, that is, either in the Sacrament of Baptism, or in the Supper of the Lord.  
Sixthly, whereas it was disputed and tossed about extremely at what time all Christians should keep their Easter, the holy Bishops that were otherwise at odds, consented in two things, the one that it should begin immediately after the sorrowful affliction of Lent was laid aside. The other, that it should be appointed in the sweetness of the Spring, when the year is most delightsom and beautiful, Et laetitiam conciliat huic festo verna amaenitas, says one, the amiable verdure of the Spring is joined unto it to make Easter more joyful.  
Seventhly, some did alter the year, and set the beginning of it from the Feast of the Resurrection. We come very near it in one computation ourselves. This I find, that as some friends do send Presents one to the other at the beginning of the new year. So Nazianzen says, 
Orat. 42.  that at Easter all were wont to give either Oblations to God, or Gifts to their Neighbours, or Alms to the Poor: For Festival Solemnities are a due mixture of Praise and Bounty. The Jews at the Passover did offer to God the first fruits of their Barley, at the Feast of Pentecost Loaves made of new Wheat, at the Feast of Tabernacles the first fruits of other Fruits which they had gathered. All pompous days had some mixture of liberality.  
Eighthly, in Theodosius the Emperor's time a Law passed, to the end that all might keep their Easter merrily without interruption, that no Process or Arrest should go forth in any Court against any man from the Sunday before Easter to the Sunday after Easter, that is, for the space of fifteen days.  
Ninthly, as the Political Magistrate was so respectful of this Festival, so was the Ecclesiastical: For the ancient Council of Ancyra ordered, 
Can. 5.  that to the end all might rejoice and be glad this day, Excommunications, Suspensions, and all Censures should end at Easter; nay the great Council of Nice took care, that in every Province or Diocese a Synod of the Clergy should be held every Lent, to set all matters straight against this time, that there might be no variance, no quarrel, no complaint remaining: As if this were our Jubilee, wherein Servants were manumitted from Bondage, Debts were remitted, and Possessions restored to the owners that had sold them. Certainly the holy Fathers meant that above all the Feasts of the year this was our joyful Jubilee.  
Tenthly and lastly, the principal stamp of gladness set upon this day was, that the first day of the week, namely Sunday is kept holy every day of the week for Easter-days sake; of which I will make a larger work hereafter. But every Sunday was strictly kept with such solemn postures of joy, that the last Canon of the Nicene Council interdicted all Christians from kneeling on those days, they must pray standing, that is cheerfully, and kneeling was supposed to be the gesture of affliction and humiliation.  
The end of all these Edicts and Ceremonies was to let us know, that the Lord had done great things for us, for which we ought to rejoice, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, even to skip for joy; for true joy will break forth, as John did in the womb of Elizabeth. Death is a comfort against all sorrows, and the Resurrection is a comfort against Death, and Christ is our comfort that we shall have a joyful resurrection, and the holy Sacrament is our visible comfort, that we still live in Christ for evermore. AMEN.   

A SERMON UPON THE Church Festivals.  PSAL. cxviii. 24. 
This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.  
THE Substance of Religion is to fear God, and to praise him. The Circumstances thereof are to perform this in fit time and place, and to do all things belonging to his Worship decently and in order. It is for the sutableness of time that I continue my Meditations upon this Text, for there are many things which are but accidentary to the main, and yet of such forcible consequence, that nothing can stand without them. So opportunity of time is such a forcible annexion to the performance of Divine Service, as no external thing is more available. The sweet tongue of Music would be unpleasant if it kept not time, so the Christian Melody which we make to God would want the grace and delight that is in it, if days and times were not solemnly and prudently divided, to call holy Assemblies together for the work of the Lord. If I speak of time like a Naturalist, it is but the measure of the continuance of things that have a being given unto them, and it neither works in them any real effect, nor is itself capable of any. But passing it by in this low regard, and taking it in hand Theologically, so the hours which are appointed to present our reasonable Sacrifice in the House of the Almighty, are of such great consideration to the furtherance of Piety, that they are woven into Religion like sinews into the body, neither can we spend our time more profitably than to speak of time, as it is to be referred and allotted to the glory of him that made all time.  
But that I may leave no part of my Treatise naked, but cover that which I shall run through with some portion of my Text, I must put you to call to mind what I delivered in general in two Sermons, that these words excel both in the Letter, and in the Spirit. In the Letter they are part of a Psalm, which was sung for David's sake, and for that Festival, which the People kept to God, for his Inauguration, when he was made King over Israel. In the Spirit they reach to Christ (as David in most of his Psalms had more regard to Christ than to himself) and that with two interpretations. By some the whole Age of the Gospel is entitled the day of Christ; for through the Gospel the terrors of Sin, and Death, and Hell are broken, and we are comforted on every side to rejoice and be glad. By others, among all Evangelical days the Feast of the Resurrection is picked out by way of eminency; for never did the Sun shine upon any day, wherein we had more cause to triumph and be joyful, than when the Son of God, having been crucified for our sins, did rise from death the third day to conquer mortality and corruption, that we might live forever. These Points being dispatched in their proper season, what is left to be handled? Two things of great moment, Beloved: First, the Resurrection of Christ did not only sanctify that one day wherein he rose, but occasion was taken from thence to sanctify the first day of every Week to the Lord, because Christ rose on the first day. Hence I am your debtor to show how this, and every Sunday is the day which the Lord hath made, and we must rejoice and be glad in it. Secondly, Forasmuch as an holy day was appointed that all Israel might worship Jehovah for that precious benefit that so good a King, as David was, reigned over them, therefore the Ordination of Festival days to profess thanksgiving for the high and excellent works of God becometh the Church for so good a sanction, and becometh the righteous to be joyful in them. Then of the Lords day for our ordinary Assemblies in God's House, and of holy Festivals for our extraordinary Assemblies, these are the matter of my ensuing Discourse, which I will follow upon the touchstone of truth, and for the benefit of your edification. Concerning the day which we keep weekly in the name of the Lord I must speak of it two ways, in reference to Gods making, and our rejoicing, in reference to the Divine Sanction, and out Sanctification. The Divine Sanction of the day must be traversed in four Points: 1. What ground we have for keeping the Lords day in the fourth Commandment, 2. What ground we have for it from the Resurrection of Christ. 3. What ground we have for it in the Gospel from the Precept of Christ or his Apostles. And 4. What ground we have for it from the practice of the Apostles, and from the practice of the Church in all ages. In this piece of a Sermon I will deliver you my mind upon this Controversy, which now adays makes voluminous disputes.  
First, It is manifest that the Fourth Commandment hath another air and Constitution in it than the other Nine. Those Nine being consonant to the light of natural reason, so that they bind the Conscience without a Lawgiver; this is neither principle or necessary conclusion of natural reason, in such a clear manner, as that a judicious man shall be forced upon understanding the terms to yield assent unto it. And I wonder that any one should stumble so grossly to say that it is natural Law to keep every seventh day, that is, the last day, or the first day of the Week holy, when the distribution of time into Weeks is arbitrary, and not natural. This Commandment therefore having a composition in it divers from the rest, it hath somewhat in it particular to the state of the Jewish Synagogue, and somewhat that binds the Christian Church: For it doth not stand for a cipher in the two Tables at this time, as if the force of it were expired, but there is somewhat in it which is Moral, and obligeth mankind unto the end of the world. The enforcement of the seventh day in strict and Sabbatical rest is out of date, as well as the rest of the Pedagogical Ordinances of Moses. But there is this Kernel within the shell, that holy Assemblies are for ever to be called together at fit and convenient times to praise the Lord; nay further, reason and gratitude cannot imagine a more fit and convenient time than the constant solemnising of a Seventh day; nay, than the constant observation of this Seventh day, the first day of the Week. Therefore I determine, that we ground the keeping of the Lords day upon the fourth Commandment, not upon the Letter of it, for that were Jewish, but upon the natural equity, or moral contents of it. We recede from the Letter as much as can be; for they rested, and we work on their Sabbath, but to rest on the seventh day, and to work on the seventh day cannot flow out of the same Statute. For the moral equity, we give all diligence to obey it: and he that rejects the Lord's Day, or violates it, transgresseth the Fourth Commandment, because though neither that day there mentioned, nor the determination of a Seventh day is absolutely commanded, yet it is deduced out of it by consequence. It is enough to have general and common Rules for Ecclesiastical Orders of time and place under the liberty of the Gospel. And God gives us the light of discretion to draw out special rules at what time, in what place, with what Decorum and Order to meet together; and if the governance of this discretion be not observed, the Spirit of the Lord is disobeyed. The Lord hath not given over his interest in our time, but that we must allot some days and hours to his Service, as it were for the redemption of all our time which is due unto him. Neither hath he given us a vagrant liberty to serve him when we will, but the out-going of the Morning and Evening must praise him, and we must often throng together at solemn times to worship him. To go further, though the Commandment hath not prefixed us a day, for it prefixed no definite day but the Sabbath to the Jews, yet it hath given us light what ought to be done by way of prudent Constitution, viz. that we of the Evangelical Kingdom should grievously sin, if we did not voluntarily devote as much time to the honour of God as the Jews were bound to do. And then since the Lord did enforce why that day was enjoined to them, it was the day wherein the Lord did rest from his work, and it was most pious that they should remember the benefit of the Creation: This doth unavoidably suggest unto us, that no day of the seven is fitter for our celebration than Sunday, or the first day of the Week, when Christ rose from the dead, he having dispatched all the works of exinanition, and given us manifest assurance and joy for our eternal redemption.  
And so I fall into the next member propounded: what ground we have for keeping this day weekly to the service of God in the Resurrection of Christ? Some, what have been heedless in their assertions, have confidently delivered, that the Lords day is clearly instituted in the work of Christ's Resurrection; nay, that the Resurrection did apply and determine the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment to the Lords day. These go so far that all proof and reason forsakes them. It is true, that our Saviour's victorious rising from the dead was a good occasion which the Church took to celebrate this day, but that act of his rising from the dead was not instead of a Law to appoint the day. They are not the works of God, but his words that institute Laws; and where there is no Imperative act of the Lawgiver, there can be no Law to bind. In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and all things therein, and rested the seventh day, yet that Cessation of God from his works had not made that seventh day in every week holy to the Jews, without his pleasure signified to keep it. So the Resurrection of the Lord doth not make the Lords day a solemn day for Divine Service in all our Generations by a compulsory Statute, unless it were said in the Gospel (and so it was never said) you shall keep the first day of the Week holy in honour of the Resurrection. Without some imperative word or sentence to declare God's pleasure we cannot deduce a Law. And if the Resurrection of itself, without a Precept annexed, had exalted it to be an holy day, St. Paul would never have agreed with them that esteemed all days alike, Rom. xiv. Out of this perverse zeal to make a rule out of Christ's works without a Precept, some would not be baptised till the age of thirty years, because Christ was baptised no sooner. Others stood nicely upon it that Orders of Priesthood were to be given to none before that age, and for no other cause, but because he preached no sooner: Infinite fancies would be multiplied if these ways were allowed for good Divinity. It is safe and true to say, that the day is kept congruously, but not necessarily for the Resurrection sake. And surely, the Primitive Church could have made choice of no day of the Week more proper and convenient for the Religious Worship of God in honour of that principal Article of our belief, and the corner stone of all the rest. Ignatius calls every Sunday, 
Ep. ad Mag. Ep. 119. c. 43.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Resurrection day. St. Austin says, Dominicus dies Christi resurrectione declaratus est, & ex illo coepit habere festivitatem suam. Words which will bear no other construction, howsoever some do torture them, but thus, that the Lords day is published by Christ's Resurrection, and from thenceforth began to be a Festival. 
De verb. Apost. Ser. 15.  And again, Domini resuscitatio consecravit nobis Dominicum diem, & promisit nobis aeternum diem; The resuscitation of Christ hath consecrated for us the Lords day, and doth promise us an eternal day; yet there is no Imperative Edict from heaven to make it so, but the light of holy discretion did guide the Church to appoint it so. 
Ser. 154. de Temp.  St. Austin hath clustered together many other admirable works of God done upon the first day of the Week, in which God did make his first Creature of Light; In which the Israelites went through the Red-Sea upon dry Land; In which Manna did first fall from heaven; In it was the first miracle of water turned into Wine; Of the five loaves and two fishes; In it Christ was baptised, rose from the dead, appeared often to his Disciples, sent down the Holy Ghost, and wherein we expect that at the last day he will come to judgement: But the Resurrection is pre-eminent above all things else that happened in it, and that blessing, though it do not ratify a Law, yet it is the occasion why this day is Weekly celebrated. But I must tell you that one Analogy is ill prosecuted by some, though it be vulgar in men's Writings. That the Lords rest must be sanctified on what day soever it falleth (that is not true, unless there be a Law to enforce it) therefore as the Sabbath was held holy when God rested from the works of the Creation, so Sunday must be kept holy, wherein the Son of God after his rising from the Grave rested gloriously from the work of our Redemption. That last clause is falsely presumed, for he made perfect our Redemption at his death, and the price was paid for our sins, not by his Resurrection, but by his Sacrifice on the Cross, and then he gave up the Ghost, and said, It is finished. The day of the Passion therefore, 
John. 19.30.  if you respect it as a resting from satisfying for our sins, deserved to be made a continual Holy day, but it was not meet to be kept with joy. And mark it I pray you, that we honour the day of his rising every Week rather than that of his suffering, not because it is a better day, or the day of his rest, for he rested in the Grave, and did spend his Resurrection day in much action, but because it is the first day unto the Church of joy and gladness. And a chief ingredient in an holy day dedicated to God, is to rejoice and be glad.  
I proceed to the third thing to be inquired into, what ground we have to keep the Lords day from any Precept mentioned in the Gospel, either delivered by Christ himself, or by his Apostles. Certainly, it never proceeded out of our Saviour's mouth to appropriate this designed day to his honour; and we must take heed to thrust Laws upon him of our own invention which he never imposed. If such a thing had come from him, no time had been fitter to express it than when the Pharisees cavilled at his Disciples for plucking the Ears of Corn on the Sabbath day, Mat. xii. Then he might have retorted, that the observation of the Sabbath was expiring, but he would constitute the first day of the Week to be the heir of the Sabbath. Yet our Lord was so far from such a motion, that whereas he reproved the Pharisees with much indignation, Mat. v. and vi. Chapters, for their lax and dissolute interpretations of many moral Laws, he corrects them often in the Gospel for being so strict in the rigid performance of the Sabbath, which he would never have done if it had totally consisted of moral duties. But about the definite appointment of a day Christ is silent, for his Precepts in the New Testament are altogether touching spiritual worship. And says St. Paul, Carnal ordinances were imposed upon the Jews until times of reformation, Heb. ix. 10. Nay, whereas the Jewish Sacraments were nicely tied to days; as the Child must be circumcised on the Eighth day, and the Paschal Lamb must be eaten on the Fourteenth day of the First Month, these Ceremonies being expired, and Christ giving new Sacraments in their place, Baptism and the Lords Supper, no days are punctually prescribed for the use of them, but in all Ages it hath been left to the liberty of the Church, and that liberty hath been used piously and prudently without all manner of Scandal. For there are no particular Laws for Circumstantial observations of what time, and place, with what Garments, with what Liturgy of Prayers. The reason is, Christ hath called us to liberty, and we are not hedged in such straits as the Jews were.  
Yet if the right of the day be founded in any Apostolical Precept, it is all one as if it were the immediate voice of God, for they had the Spirit of Christ, and they had his Commission, Mat. xxviii. 20. Go and baptise all Nations, teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you. If they have taught us any thing this way, it is commanded by Christ. Now in all the Epistles Apostolical there is but one place that hath any seeming to speak Imperatively, 1 Cor. xuj. 1. Concerning the collection for the Saints, as I have given order to the Churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the Week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, etc. Here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Constitution from St. Paul; but about what? Not for Church Assemblies to meet together on the first day of the week. He doth not say, when you are together give to the poor, but let every one lay somewhat by him. And that, imports that they were to deduct somewhat from their gains in their private Family, Apud te repone, & domum tuam fac Ecclesiam; lay by your Alms at home, and make your own house the Church, says St. chrysostom. But admit that this were a solemn day, as I will not stand in it but it was, as well for religious Assemblies, as for charitable Contributions, yet St. Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the order he took was for Alms, and not for appointment of the Lords day, that must come in by way of Practice, of which I shall speak by and by, and not by way of Precept. Shall I conclude then that no Commandment can be found in the New Testament which will reach to the imposition of this day? Not so neither. It is enough if we have general warranty for it, though not particular. The Church hath ratified it to be kept holy in all Ages. And Christ hath confirmed their act to be most obligatory, He that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me. None can appoint a day but God by way of excellency, or original authority, but the Fathers of the Church being appointed Rulers by Christ, may do this by delegate and derivative authority, and by virtue of their Commission. It is as slender as a rush to object, that the Lord is the immediate founder of that holy time, because it is called the Lords day. If it be Gods own immediate assignation, point it out. Neither is there any impediment, but that the Church may give the name Lords day to any holy day, as well as a Bishop's Consecration of some fair structure may cause it to be called the Lords house, or as the laying on of his hands may make one that is a Layman be called a Minister of our Lord Jesus Christ. But you will say, it were a faster tye to hold, that the Injunction is immediately from God, then mediately from the Church. Beloved, Saul was appointed a King immediately from God, and Hezekiah came not so to the Crown as Saul did, but by succession of blood. Yet were not the People as much subject in conscience to Hezekiah as to Saul? I trow they were. So Aaron was called by God to be the High Priest; Zadok was put into the place by Solomon, he reigning under God. And was not Zadok to be obeyed in his Priesthood as well as Aaron? It is a common, but a dangerous error, to think that pious Ordinations are but weak and impotent, if they be conveyed by the mediation of the voice of the Church. Whereas if they be convenient means to the better fulfilling of the Commandment of God, they are subordinate to the Divine Law; nay, they are incorporate into it, and become sacred and venerable. And remember, that the Composers of them are sacred Persons, and authorized to that Office by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and the Commission of Christ.  
The last Member of our enquiry is, what ground we have for sanctifying this day in the name of the Lord, from the practice of the Apostles, and from the practice of the Church in all Ages. And this tenure, as I conceive, will prove so strong, that it will make it not only a firm Ecclesiastical Sanction, but also a Divine Institution. There are manifest footsteps, that the Apostles were occupied in Sacred Offices upon this day, that is uncontrollable. The first day of the Week, the Disciples came together to break bread, that is, to celebrate the Supper of the Lord, and Paul preached unto them, Acts xx. 7. I know that Paul taught every day of the Week sometimes, Acts nineteen. 9 But this preaching, joined with the breaking of bread, and that eye which the Church in all Ages hath cast upon this place, as a pattern fit to be followed, it makes it eminent and remarkable. Again, the first day of the Week being signed out in the Churches of Corinth and Galatia for relieving the poor, it may well be inferred that it was the practice of the Apostle and Apostolical men, to exercise Religious duties upon that day, than the day was graced with this name of dignity, to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Lords day, Rev. x. 10. For though it may be put off, that the recurrent day wherein Christ rose is called by St. John the Lord's day, yet that evasion is taken off, because Apostolical men, who no doubt did keep the sound form of words, did use the very same word while the Apostles were living, and immediately after. Ignatius, whose felicity it was to be St. John's Scholar, says he, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. let every one that loves Christ keep the Lords day holy. And as he speaks so did all others that were near his age. The practice of the Apostles is so pregnant for it in Scripture, that all the Fathers of the nearest times unto them call it their Institution, and Tradition. So doth Irenaeus, St. Basil, and a multitude of the same rank. To put this Point home, because it especially concerns the Doctrine which I have in hand, it may be truly opposed, that the practice of the Apostles doth not always make a necessary Imperative Law. Sometimes it binds, as when we find them frequently join Fasting with Prayer, and where we meet with their strict Discipline, that they delivered up obstinate offenders to Satan, and cast them out of the Church, but elsewhere their practice draws on no absolute necessity, but leaves us to our prudent liberty, and ties no harder, as appears by their Colleges of Widows to wash the Saints feet, by their Feasts of Charity, etc. For whereas St. Paul says, That which you have heard and seen in me, that do, Phil. iv. 9 It is a Commission that they may imitate him in any thing he did, for he did nothing but things lawful, yet it infers it not to be necessary to do all things as he did. As a Physician may say to his Patient, eat whatsoever you see me eat, which is spoken by way of warrant, not of necessary observation. Well then, since the practice of the Apostles sometimes leaves us at liberty to follow them, sometimes presseth the duty upon us, and we must do as they did, how shall we know the one from the other? In my small reading I could never find it cleared yet; but you shall have my opinion of it: 
De Baptism. contr. Donat. l. 4. c. 24.  It is a rule in St. Austin, Quod universa tenet Ecclesia, nec Conciliis institutum, sed semper retentumest, etc. Whatsoever is not defined by any General Council, and yet is practised by the whole Church, it hath been delivered from hand to hand by the Apostles. Here I take the hint, that some things were delivered by the Apostles for order and decency sake, which were but temporary, agreed only to some times and some places, and every Church received them freely, with their own liking: but whatsoever is derived from their Exemple, and is dispread over the whole Church, and hath continued in all Ages; so hath the observation of the Lords day, that was at first grounded in the practice of the Apostles not to be received indifferently, but to be admitted as a Divine Institution. Now I sum up the Orthodox Truth, as I take it, by what right and tenure we keep the Lords day holy. 1. Not by virtue of the Letter of the fourth Commandment, but by the natural equity, and moral contents of it, and reasonable consequences deduced out of it. 2. The glorious act of Christ's rising from the dead did not constitute the first day of the week to be a day of perpetual sanctification, but upon good congruity the Church took occasion from thence to celebrate this day unto the Lord. 3. There are no express imperative words in the New Testament immediately to command it, but in general principles, that we are to obey our Rulers in all things. 4. and lastly, It is established in the practice of the Apostles, and so uniformly received in all Ages, that it is most probable they purposed it not for an Ecclesiastical Sanction which is alterable; but for a Divine Institution, which is perpetual and unalterable.  
This labour which is passed hath been spent about this Day in reference to Gods making, that which follows is upon the same Subject in reference to our own rejoicing, we will rejoice and be glad in it; that is, God hath sanctified the day, and we will sanctify it, that is, God hath sanctified it by ordaining it to sacred use, and we must sanctify it with an holy gladness, employing it chiefly in religious conversation. We must separate it from profane uses to divine, we must meet in holy places, we must come together about holy purposes, harken to holy things, and this must be our chief delight, that we keep Holiday to the Lord. Attend the time therefore with all cheerfulness and diligence, which summons us to appear in the House of God: 'tis religionis discendae & introducendae medium, the only and most available means to keep Religion in life and being. Our sins are very grievous I confess, and there is much unjust communication in the world; we do not deal usually as between Brother and Brother, but as between faithless Infidels and utter Adversaries; but to what extremity would our sins wax, if we did not pray to the Lord in his good day to guide us with a good conscience all the week after? Mark therefore that the fourth Commandment is set in the midst of the Decalogue, in the end of the first Table, and before the beginning of the second, as if it were the common nerve of Religion; take away this, and we shall neither know the duties of the one Table, or of the other, either to God or our Neighbour. It is very meet therefore, and our bounden duty, that we should every one set forth a large share of this Day to the honour of God in Public Assemblies; not for a spurt of time, and then apply ourselves to other affairs; as Christ bid us go every day into our secret Chamber to praise the Lord; but according to the appointment both of God and the Church, the best part of the day must be surrendered up to the use of Prayer and Preaching, that God may have both his Morning and his Evening Sacrifice, to declare his truth in the morning, and his faithfulness in the night season, as David says. And therefore I have noted it to myself how in every Age for at least 600 years after Christ, Godly Bishops did lengthen out Service by little and little, to keep us the longer at Church. At first there was but an Epistle and Gospel read, and the Lords Prayer said, and then they went to the Communion: then the reading of the Psalms was added, then certain Lessons out of the Old and New Testament; then came in the Litany, than the Confession with divers Collects of Prayers. And our own Church above all others draws out the Service with the Ten Commandments. Some there are that complain we spend not the Lord's day totally or sufficiently in the House of Sanctification, and yet with the same breath they will complain of long Prayers, and will of purpose decline Cathedral Churches, and never come at them, because Divine Service is continued there an hour longer at least than in Parochial Congregations. But how can time be better spent than in this Holy Temple, that commands all time? The Sabbath was made for man under the Law, and the Lords day is made for man under the Gospel; yet it is called the Lords day, and not man's: it is made for man, that is for the instruction of the Soul, and the refreshing of his Body; but it is his day to whose honour it is set apart, for the spiritual worship of Christians in all days, much more in this, is terminated to God.  
And I speak it with gladness, that it is a good sign that the fire of Religion burns within our breasts, when we devote ourselves so much to pious Exercises on Sunday, that a great number are loath to hear of external joy and gladness. The more observant we are of this time the more we please God, if other actions of our life be suitable to that Profession. It is a careful strictness, that we will not accept of all that indulgence which Christ hath given us: and yet it is St. Paul's mind, that we should stand fast to that liberty to which Christ hath called us: and that truth may not be prejudiced I must tell you, that in the opinion of all learned men of all Churches throughout the World, excepting a few among ourselves, joy and gladness are allowed for a portion of this day. And that when God is sanctified in our holy Assemblies at Morning and Evening, the remainder may be discreetly and soberly dispensed withal. Remember what I said, that the day wherein Christ suffered being pretermitted, the day wherein he rose from the dead was selected for the weekly season of Divine Service, not because his Resurrection was a greater Benefit to us than his Passion, 
Apol. c. 16.  but because it was the Feast of Joy, Diem Solis laetitiae indulgemus, says Tertullian; we set apart Sunday for gladness and cheerfulness, meaning that one use of that day was to refresh us after toil, yet God being first served with all due attendance: for Recreations, when they keep you from the House of God, are not only vain, but sacrilegious. In the most ancient Church, if any professed to last on this day, or to put on the weed of sorrow, he was excommunicated: In the last Canon of the Nicene Council all Christians are exhorted to stand praying on this day, and not to kneel, because it betokened affliction and humiliation. It was never denied but that it might harmlessly be divided between sanctity and harmless pleasure. This would never be stumbled at, if you would but mark, and how can you choose but mark it? that Sabbatical rest was a yoke upon the neck of the Jews, a bodily exercise, which in all the Gospel is never urged upon us, who are only taught that perfect way of Spiritual Worship: therefore Sunday succeeds the Sabbath in point of sanctification which is spiritual; not in point of vacation, which is bodily and ceremonial. Our day is not figurative, as theirs was, and therefore requires no such nice prohibitions of that wherein no internal holiness can be placed; and it is all one to tie Christians to the strict rest of the Jews, as to their strict day. Sanctification and Joy are the contents of this day, which we are to cast our eye upon. Inchoatur sanctificatione, porficitur glorificatione, we begin in sanctification, we shall end in glorification: it is a day which will bring us to that day which is not divided by light and darkness; but it is all light fitting our perpetual joys for evermore.  
And now I could wish that the hour were to begin again, being to speak of Festivals or Holidays, for our extraordinary Assemblies, I have spoken of them heretofore, as they do carry the outward countenance of that joy which remaineth for us in Heaven: as they are the agnition of great Benefits received, and as they are fair Landmarks to teach unlearned people the principal Articles of Faith: this was a prelibation of this point of Doctrine, and that which the time will give me leave to add more, will not be so much as to cloy you: for I will but touch upon three things. 1. What days may be allowed for Festivals. 2. Why they may be allowed. And 3. upon what a basis they are to be disallowed. For the first, it is nothing so with any Festivals that I shall name, as it was with the Lords day; that is founded in the practice of the Apostles, and he is a sorry Divine, qui nescit facere legem de prophetis, that cannot frame a Law out of godly practice. But no other holidays can claim their Example. 
Lib. 5. Hist. c. 1.  Says Socrates, it was the purpose of the Apostles not to enact Laws for the celebration of Feasts, but to give us lessons for the instruction of a godly life, and for piety. Only the Feast of Easter was kept solemn while some of the Apostles were living, yet that hath no evidence in Scripture, as Sunday hath, but in humane Histories of good approbation; nay the whole preceding week before Easter was strictly observed, not with cessation of bodily labour, but to call Christians to Church upon every day, so that the day of Christ's Passion was religiously solemnised, and likewise the day of the Institution of his last Supper, immediately before the memory of his Passion. The next grand Peast that was anciently honoured over all the Church, as appears in Tertullian, was Whitsunday or Pentecost: yea in all the 50 days between Easter and Whitsunday solemn Service was celebrated (without cessation from labour) no fasting, no kneeling upon their knees all that time. Halleluia was sung Morning and Evening: And Ascension-day was peculiarly dignified by itself; and this held till the year 466. at which time Claudianus Mamercus, Bishop of Vienna in France, did begin Rogation week, or the Supplication of three fasting days, to desire God to bless the Fruits of the earth, then sprouting up, and of a sudden all the world did like his custom, and follow it. Neither Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, or Tertullian speak of Christmas-day, that I can tell of: but Theophilus Bishop of Caesarea doth in his Paschal Epistle, and so doth St. Cyprian, so that in likelihood it was kept about the year 200: and long before Constantine's days; that the Tyrant Maximinus knew, for he burned the Christians in their Churches upon the Feast of the Nativity, as Maximinus says: 
Lib. 7.  So that the five Feasts of Easter, Whitsunday, Christmas, the Passion and Ascension were most anciently kept before Constantine's Reign, while the Church was under persecution, and had no leisure to invent superfluity of Ceremonies. These are kept, and no others, by the Lutheran Churches, as I find in Chemnitius; by the Palatinat Churches, as I find in Paraeus; 
Super Rom. c. 14.  by the Low-Country Churches, as I find in Rivetus; by the Churches of Scotland, brought in by the pious care of King James 1618. the Churches of Geneva are a little singular, and observe none but the Feasts of Easter and Christmas: the Churches of Helvetia acknowledge the five great Feasts, as appears by Hospinian. Yet moreover after the year 300 the Feast of Christ's Circumcision grew famous, especially in Alexandria; and the Feast of the Epiphany was most gloriously hallowed in Constantinople.  
These are dutifully retained in our Church, together with his Presentation in the Temple and his Annunciation by the Angel Gabriel. We do likewise praise God publicly upon other days, upon the Feasts of the Apostles and Evangelists, and all Saints not named. We keep the Memory of St. Stephen the Martyr, one for all and the Memory of the blood which the Innocents' shed for Christ: We celebrate John the Baptists Nativity, for the Scripture says many shall rejoice at his birth. Finally, we solemnize a day to God in the name of Michael the Archangel, to give thanks for the protection of all the holy Angels: 
Art 15.  and herein the Bohemian Churches accorded with us, as I see in their Confession: yet these Ordinances we uphold, because they are beautiful to Religion, and contain nothing repugnant to faith and good manners, not by any long antiquity, as I was able to speak for the former Feasts: For Polydore Virgil was most unadvised when he wrote, 
Lib. 6. de Inu. rerum, c. 8.  that these Feasts were kept from the Apostles times: one distinction is to be ruminated upon, that there were some hundreds of years passed between the keeping of such Feasts in Private places, and universally over all the Church. Where any Apostle or Saint flourished in his life, or sealed the Faith with his death, that particular Place or City did celebrate his Festival, 
Euseb. lib. 4. c. 14.  it gained no further, as very anciently the Bishop of Smyrna wrote, that Polycarpus his day was at hand, and he would call the people together to celebrate it devoutly. For the universal acceptance of them in all Churches, the most will acknowledge that it began at the soon in the sixth Age under Gregory the Great, but with the best search that I can make, I cannot perceive that Public Holidays were kept in the names of Peter and Paul, Andrew and John till in the Ninth Age, at a Council gathered at Mentz by Charles the Great; and some Festivals dropped in stragglingly long after, as in the names of St. Thomas, St. Bartholomew, and St. Luke in the Twelfth Age; so that it is no great antiquity which upholds those Saints days, but these reasons following.  
First, that we may give thanks that the Church had such examples, and be stirred up to the imitation of their virtue.  
2. As the Scripture hath not commanded such days, so it hath not forbade them: and in things honest and laudable we must obey them that are set over us in the Lord.  
3. A solemn Fast may be proclaimed to avert God's Judgements, Joel two. 15. and if God allow a meeting of rest upon some new occasion of a doleful event, will he not permit piety to triumph with joy and gladness, when the whole race of mankind doth or may participate the benefit?  
4. As there is nothing repugnant in Scripture, so there is something very consonant to it: For though the Jews were directed like Children in all their Ceremonies, yet the whole Nation being delivered from the Plot of Haman, Esther and Mordecai ordained a Feast in memory of it, Esth. ix. 21. and we must not think they meant to make it a Merry-wake, but a time to praise God. In the Jewish Ritual they had a set Service for it, as one says: and it is vainly put off, that this was a Divine Law, and not an Ecclesiastical, because it is entered into the Scripture. For do they find that God sent word by any Prophet? no such thing: Mordecai suggested it, Esther solicited it, Ahasuerus a Heathen King ratified it, and so it went current with the People. Again, Jo. x. 22. our Saviour went up to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of the Dedication; and was not that Feast a voluntary Sanction of the Synagogue? it must be confessed: for when Antiochus had profaned the Altar of the Temple, 1 Mach. iv. Judas Machabeus instituted a perpetual Feast toward the end of November to dedicate it again unto the Lord. The principal grudge of some wrangling men is against the Feasts of the Saints, not against the Feasts of Christ, and that because they have been Idolatrously abused in the Church of Rome: their common Maxim is adiaphora non necessaria horrendâ idololatriâ polluta sunt abolenda. I will explain them. Things necessary to Religion, though abused are not to be abolished, as the Word and Sacraments, but adiaphorous things abused with no less than Idolatry must for ever be laid aside: and these have caused Pilgrimages upon opinion of merit, Invocation of Saints, Worship of Relics. This foundation is false; for by this slight the Devil would blow up all our Ceremonies, and we should not have one left: Our Churches must be plucked down, and the Bells hang no longer in the Steeple, for they have been exorcised, and baptised. I yield that a Ceremonious Ordinance polluted with Idolatry is to cease, if the abuse can not be taken away; as Hezekiah could not stop the people from worshipping the brazen Serpent; but when manifested good comes, and evil is but suspected, the former wrong being redressed, what equity is there to cast it off.  
I should fight with many other such objections, but want of time will part that fray, and I shall meet with them all to the capacity of the understanding, by showing upon what abuses holidays are to be disallowed. 1. It is impious to institute them immediately to the honour of the Saints. Some of the Children of our own Mother have scandalised us for that fault, and yet Card. Bel. doth acquit us: but we cannot acquit him, for he delivers it roundly, that the honour of the day doth immediately and terminatively belong unto the Saints: but we enstile the day by their name for their memorial sake as some called their Months by the names of their Emperors, but in those days we do only worship God. 2. It is very lewd to employ them to vanities. Interludes, idleness, and not the service of God: take heed the Lord do not say I will turn your Feasts into mourning. Siccine exprimitur publicum gaudium, per publicum dedecus? says Tertulliam. 3. To abound with excessive number of holidays is a fault likewise, it cannot consist with charity to lay so many injunctions and burdens upon men's consciences: It made St. Austin cry out, Tolerabilior esset Judaeorum conditio, the Jews were less vexed with Observations than Christians. Clemangis complained of the excessive number in the Roman Church, and especially that they read the Legends of Saints upon those days, and not the Scriptures. Numerositas festivitatum cives decet non exules, says one, his meaning is, to keep many holidays was fitter for Heaven than for Earth. 4. As a needless multiplication, though for good Saints, and good occasions is bad, so to appoint them for false Saints and bad occasions is ten times worse: their Corpus Christi day instituted by Vrban IV. an. 1264. upon a forged Miracle is most disallowable, they carry the Host in Procession to have a Creature adored. A solemn day is kept by them for the Ascension of the Blessed Virgin into heaven, which hath no probable Author till Damascens time in the year 800. There's another a great deal later for her Immaculate Conception, as if she were sanctified in the womb, and had no original sin. Some are consecrated to Saints that for aught we know never were, as Christopher Hippolytus: some to such as never were Saints, as Ignatius Loyola the Founder of the Jesuits, a man compounded of nothing but vainglory, dissimulation, and subtlety. Canus their own Bishop could say we honour the memory of divers for Saints on earth, whose souls are tormented in hell. 5. It is a great tyranny to teach that they immediately bind the conscience, whereas they bind only mediately as coming from the lawful Magistrate; they bind for good order sake, and to avoid scandal, and no otherwise: If they bound immediately, why are some ancient Feasts quite put down, as solemnising the 50 days between Easter and Whitsuntide. Lastly, To thrust many abuses together, our Adversaries please themselves in bodily rest, and going gaudily, in opere operato without faith and repentance. Let there be holiness within, or it is a folly to keep holiday without: they think God gives more grace at such times than other; that their prayers are sooner heard at such times, that the Devil flies from them at those seasons, which must proceed from this Tenet, harsh in the very words, that there is a sanctity inherent in this day: whereas the Church cannot make a day holy in itself, but per metonymiam adjuncti, in regard of those duties which we are to perform to God: Holiness becometh God's House, holiness becometh his People. And God grant we may so order our days here, that we may sing with the Angels, Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Hosts, which was, and is, and shall be for evermore. AMEN.   

THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE CORONATION.  1 SAM. two. 30. 
Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.  
THis solemn Festival which you keep this day (Right Honourable, Right Worshipful, etc.) shall give you I trust, among other good works, that plentiful reward, which is in the first part of my Text, God will honour you because you honour the Resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ. Our Saviour was contented to take three Disciples into Mount Tabor, and no more, that they might view the glory of his Transfiguration; but behold a greater Mystery than that, Christ is risen from the dead, and therefore all your Tribes and Companies are gathered together, not for once and no more, but three days in their order, for the more solemn consummation of that great Feast, which indeed is the chief Pillar and the strength of our Faith. Beloved, since this day, as you all know, is but one of the followers of the principal Feast, what could I choose to speak of more fitly than that which shall instantly follow upon the grand Resurrection, when all that are dead shall arise out of their Graves, and appear in Judgement, and that is no other than this Sentence pronounced from the mouth of God's Messenger. Them that honour me, etc.  
For as Empedocles said that two things made this world at the first, Lis & amicitia, that is to say, Union, and Separation; So when we shall all appear before the face of the terrible Judge; Union and Separation shall make two great parts of the next world, some set on the right hand, some cast off unto the left; them that honour me I will honour, there is the union of the blessed with Christ, as he reigns in glory: And they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed, there is the separation of the Chaff from the Wheat, they shall be made a scorn, and a reproach, and the Lord shall have them in derision. You see then, and every ordinary capacity may discern that I must not cast my Text into one mould, as Moses made two Trumpets of Silver of one whole piece, Num. x. For in this portion of Scripture, as sometimes in the womb of Rebekah, Jacob and Esau, two Nations, 
Gen. 25.23.  are divided, and the one people shall be mightier than the other. Of them therefore that honour God, and shall be honoured, let us speak distinctly by themselves, and in the first place their pre-eminence deserves it, and two things will fall naturally into that discourse, which chiefly augment the celebrity of this day. 1. The happy Inauguration of a most illustrious and a gracious King. 2. These Pennons and Triumphs of your charity, which are placed before mine eyes. God maintain the King's honour, and give him the necks of his Enemies under his feet; God maintain the prosperity of your famous City under his just and careful Government, and God comfort the Widow, the Diseased, and the Fatherless under the refreshing of your charity. Salus Regis Salus Populi; as we truly say, that the safety of the King is the safety of the People: So I may as truly say, Salus Civitatis Salus Pauperum; the safety this City is the comfort and refuge of the poor and needy. To knit all these together. Salvation to the King, the King's blessed Government to the State, the charity of the State to the afflicted, and those that are in want. I say, to bind all these fast in one, I have chosen this Text to compass them about, Honorantes Honorabo. Them, etc.  
Which words that they were spoken to Eli the High Priest, a person of quality and esteem is not to be doubted; and that the Message was sent from God is as clear, and never controverted; but by whom the Message was brought I do not read in the Text, and therefore it was never resolved. Yet, among many reasonable conjectures, I am not against theirs that think an Angel was sent on purpose to give the charge: for Angels (let us speak after the manner of men) are Faeciales Coeli, the Heralds of Heaven, and can best skill of dignities and promotions in heavenly places. The blessed Virgin Mary herself was to learn of them that she was highly favoured of God, and therefore Honorantes Honorabo deserves to be an Angel's Message. Besides, Eli the High Priest was the first and chief Master in Israel. Then God might pick out such an Instrument, why not? Who was above Eli in wisdom, and might be able to teach all the Priests in the world, and that was an Angel. But it skills not who did utter it since the Spirit of God did indite it, not for Eli alone, no Scripture was written for one man's sake, it serves the turn most fitly to all them that are mighty in Dignity, or mighty in Substance. And as Pyrrhus spoke of the Senate of Rome, that it was Senatus regum, every man in it looked like a Prince and a Commander; and as Zeba and Zalmunna said of the Sons of Gideon, that every one looked like the Son of a King: So there is an Excellency, nay, some divine Majesty in every of these words, and so I will divide them. First, Here is Honour in Deo, an Honour residing in God. Secondly, Honorabo, I will Honour; that is, Honour à Deo, Honour communicated and diffused from God. Thirdly, Honour propter Deum; Honour for Honour, a Covenant established to the advancement of our glory, if we glorify God.  
To begin with these parts in order; and lest we should strain courtesy, and expect at God's hands, whether He should honour us first, or we do Honour unto Him: Let Honour in Deo, the Honour due unto God, have the first place, and before all other in this discourse. If we were enjoined to magnify and worship that which was base and despicable, like Gods of Silver, and Gold, than cause might be shown why flesh and blood should disdain it. O Beloved, it is the King of Kings, and the excellency of Jacob; He sits upon a Throne that is circled about with a Rainbow, Rev. 4. A Rainbow was his first Covenant, which He made to spare the World, and reason good that his Throne should be compassed about with Mercy. Next unto the Rainbow sat Twenty four Elders, that had Crowns of Gold upon their heads, supposed to be Twelve Patriarches, and Twelve Apostles, that propagated his glory unto all Nations, both Jews and Gentiles, as who should say, All Kings shall fall down before him, all Nations shall do him service. To shut out all objections: It is certain that Majesty and Dominion lose the hearts of men that should obey, and purchase Envy, and Hatred, which cannot shift itself sometimes into Lowliness, and Humility. O see and be astonished at it, if God have not submitted himself to the fashion of man: For as the Ark of God, when it was in the Wilderness, had Pelles caprinas supra byssinum, a Covering of Goat's hair, upon the silken Curtains which were costly and precious; So the Lord Almighty, who most properly is clothed with light, as with a garment, hath also put on flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bones, that by all means He might allure us unto his Love, sometime adoring him in Honour, sometime admiring his Humility. And I give them over, as past all good, that are as stubborn as Cato, of whom it is said, Dictatorem odit, nec minùs Caesurem; He neither loved the Dictator in his great Office, nor Caesar in his private Calling; that are not affected with the poor Nativity of the Son of man, nor with the excellency of God in the highest heavens; Love Jesus that was made man, or where is thy thankfulness? Honour and praise his name that ruleth over all, or where is thy devotion?  
I know it will be more profitable to my Hearers, to instance in those particulars of Honour and Worship, wherein God especially is delighted, and I propound these four to your Christian practice: 1. We must magnify his Name. 2. Obey his Word and Commandments; and thus far the Angels go with Man, and no farther; but it is not enough for us. Angelis dimidium mundi factum est, sed nobis totum; Heaven is but half the World, which is made for Angels, but Heaven and Earth, the whole compass of the World, is made for Man; Therefore 3. in the third place we must give reverence to his Sacraments, as to the Seals of his Love and Mercy. And 4. obey his Magistrates. Let us draw this division to some rule, that you may be sure it is full and complete. First, you know God is to be considered in his own Essence, bare, and naked by itself; next these three Attributes and properties are most inward unto it, his Wisdom, his Goodness, and his Power. Now the Essence of God is declared by his Names, his Wisdom is revealed in his Word, his Sacraments convey his goodness unto us, and Kings and Princes bear the Image of his Power and Authority. If any man can find out more ways to honour the Lord, let him go on and prosper. I had rather praise his name upon a ten-stringed Lute with David, than with St. Peter set up three Tabernacles, and no more, and come short of one of those which I have propounded.  
But first of the honour due unto his Name. As the Sun is the cause of our knowledge to distinguish the hours of the day upon the Dial, and yet we know not our time by the Sun itself immediately, but by the shadow it casteth: So the Essence of God is the cause of all things, and yet we have not his Essence, but his Name revealed unto us, this is the Oracle of the inward Temple, and the Star that leads unto holy Bethlem where Christ is laid. Unto this Name we should lift up our hands in Prayer, and for this Names sake stretch them out in Alms unto the poor. And as David asked if there were any of the Race of Jonathan left, to whom he might show mercy, and Mephibosheth was brought unto him, an impotent Cripple, but the Son of Jonathan: So let us inquire if there be any thing of the Lord remaining among us, if all be not lost by the Fall of Adam, that we may do honour unto it; alas it is but a small thing, it is but the Name of our God, but let us make much of it, as he did of Mephibosheth, let it be in great esteem and veneration. When I speak of the honour due unto his Name, I mean the honouring of God himself at the mention of his Name. Our Mother-Church of England as careful, that I may not enter into comparisons, as any Church in the world, to take away the yoke of superfluous Ceremonies, and yet very provident to make the body of man submit itself to a decent outward worship of holiness, hath prescribed unto us, by a Canon, that while we are in God's House at the mention of the Name of Jesus we should do reverence with the Knee, and uncover the Head. I know not by what peevishness of some, or by what presumption of others, it is more neglected in many Congregations of this City than elsewhere throughout all the Realm. Doth that Name which imports Salvation and Redemption from your sins no more affect you? Or do you give no more obedience to the Church-Authority? Are you not Fidelis in minimo, faithful in a small matter? How do you look that your heavenly Father should appoint you to be faithful over much?  
I am not ignorant that some have made Sorcery rather than Religion, and Blasphemy than Devotion of the holy Name of Jesus, as among others, that Friar that said when our Saviour did bend his head upon the Cross, it was not as the Scripture says, to give up the Ghost, but he did bow it unto the Title, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. And Pope John the Twentieth gave an Indulgence to any body, for the pardon of one enormous sin, that should do reverence at the hearing of that Name: yet on the other side me thinks, they set light by their Salvation, that neither will do reverence themselves, nor love to see if in another, at the mentioning of that holy name. To make a difference between the names of God, that one is more holy than another, it is not my opinion, and I think, is scarce honesty in the Schoolmen, to distinguish as they have done, that when we call God, the Just one, Omnipotent, Wise, and the like, they are Attributes belonging to the Divine Nature from everlasting, and therefore to be respected with the highest Adoration, but when we call him Lord, Creator, and Redeemer (what's that but Jesus) they are Nomina in tempore à Deo sumpta, relative names assumed since the beginning of the world, and therefore Dulia, a petty Worship will serve for them; to cross this absurdity I confess, that God is honourable alike, as in one Appellation, so in another, but our eternal happiness is granted unto us by this Appellation more than any other. But when as Samuel came to anoint one of the Sons of Jessai for a King, Eliab was beautiful in his eyes, and so was Abinadab, and so was Shammah, but God would have the Horn of Oil poured only upon the head of David: So let every tongue confess, that the names of Jehovah, Elohim, Immanuel, and Christ, are reverend, and glorious, and worthy that our knees should stoop unto them as low as Earth, and our lips carry them as high as Heaven. But Peter hath wrought Miracles by the Name of Jesus, and Paul hath preached glorious things of the Name of Jesus, therefore my Soul and Body shall be prostrate to that Name especially which is wonderful and holy. The neglect of this is an undutiful omission, yet I reckon it not in the place of the greatest sins.  
But the greatest reproach and dishonour which the Name of God doth suffer is in the mouth of the Swearer and Blasphemer; that is the Tongue whereof St. James speaks, that is set on fire from Hell. Yea and Nay, the trial of all truth, is accounted in this dissolute Age precise and simple communication. What God is he that you swear by so often? Is it not he that gave you breath, and can stop your breath at a moment? Whose Blood is that you swear by? Even that Blood which should wash away your sins is unto you an occasion of more pollution. Whose Wounds are these you swear by? Even those Wounds wherein you should bury your sins make them live unto condemnation; as St. Hierom said, Ipse aer constupratur scelestis vocibus; that ribald obscene talk did adulterate the air: So I may say of Oaths that are vomited up from the superfluity of sin, Ipse aer profanatur scelestis vocibus; the Air is profaned and unhallowed by abusing the Name of God. Lord to what an excess this windy airy sin of Swearing is come to? I think for one reason the Devil may be called the Prince of the Air, because he is the Prince of such blasphemous language. And so much for the Honour due to the Name of God.  
But secondly, to Honour his Name, and to disobey his Word, is to imitate those disloyal Subjects of the Emperor Maximilian, they called Maximilian scornfully Regem Regum, a King of Kings; it was because the Nobles that were under him lived like Kings, without subjection or obedience. Or it is to make such a God to ourselves, as the Church of Rome makes Bishops in the East, the one is called Bishop of Antioch, another called Bishop of Jerusalem, and Title enough they have, if that would maintain them, but nothing else. Keep your Master's Commandments, and love his Ordinances, to do them, and then God is Honoured. Concerning Obedience, read and observe the life and death of Saul, he would sacrifice to God, and that of the fattest cattle among all the Flocks of the Amalekites. Why, this was Honour one would think: No, it was not juxta Verbum Domini; according to the word which was brought unto him by the mouth of Samuel, and God prefers Obedience before Sacrifice. This is the reason, says Aquine, in Sacrifice we offer up the flesh of a beast, but in Obedience we offer up our own will unto God. The Jews did so much esteem the kill Letter of the Law, that they wore it as the chief ornament of their Vesture, in the Fringe of their Garments, as Frontlet's before their eyes, and about the wrists of their hands; mark but that, before their eyes for meditation, about their arms for practice and execution. There is a rule in Physic, says a learned Bishop, Per brachium fit judicium de cord; The Veins come from the heart to the hand, and there Physicians take their Crisis by their Pulse and motion: So it is in Divinity, you must make conscience of your knowledge by your practice, and obey the word. David held the word of God, super mille pondo auri & argenti, above thousands of Gold and Silver. Solomon esteemed the Law to be as bright as the Sun in the Firmament, Praeceptum Domini lucidum illuminans oculos. You have heard of Idolaters that have worshipped the Sun and Moon: Much more let true Believers reverence the Law of God, which is brighter than the Sun in the Firmament, for so Elias thought, and he covered his face with a Mantle as soon as ever the Lord spoke, as if the voice of the Lord were eyes sufficient to see by, and he needed not the eyes of this body. But far above Kings, and Prophets, and all the Sons of men, the holy Angels are so ready to do Gods will, that you shall scarce once read in Scripture that they were bid to go of God's Errand, but before you could say, Do this, they were gone to dispatch the Lords Employment. Surely, as it was a great abasement for the Word, which was God, to be united to the flesh of man, so it is a great Honour for man, who is but flesh, to be united in obedience to the Word of God. To contract myself in this Point. Remember what manner of Law it is that we should obey, St. Paul says, it is sancta, justa, bona; holy in respect of God that gave it, just toward all men in civil commerce, good for ourselves to live in peace and safety. What yoke then is more easy than the yoke of that Law which is holy, and just, and good?  
Now in the third place, as the Air which we hear sounding in our ears, by concretion says Philosophy, becomes clear water, and may be seen, so the Word of God, which we hear preached unto the Ear in the holy Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper, becomes verbum visibile, a visible word in wine and water. Honour one and honour the other, for though they be twain in the administration, yet in effect they are but one and the same, one in application of our Saviour's merits, and the mercies of God; one in fruit and efficacy to wash away our sins, and to cleanse our Soul. For as the bright Constellation which we call the Morning and Evening Star is one and the same: So Christ in Baptism is the Morning light which illuminates Infants anon after they peep into the world; and Christ in his Last Supper is the Evening Star, Vltimum viaticum, a light to show every man the right way out of the world that is going to Heaven. As one said of Prayer, that it was due unto God when we rise, and when we go to bed, as a Morning and an Evening Sacrifice, and therefore it might be called, Clavis diei, & sera noctis, the Key to open the day, and the Bolt to lock in the night: So I may say of the two Sacraments, that they are Clavis Ecclesiae, & sera Coeli, Baptism the Key to open a door, and give us admittance into the Church of Christ, and the Eucharist is such a confirmation of grace, that it is like a bolt that shuts us up into Heaven. What reverence, what devotion can be too much for such blessed mysteries?  
Mistake me not, when I speak of Reverence and Devotion, I mean nothing less than Adoration and Worship to the Elements. I allow not, nay, I abhor Popish Elevation and Procession. I fear this lifting up of the Host ever since the Devil took up Christ to a Pinnacle of the Temple. I detest their gamish and gaudy Procession, as if our Saviour did think it an Honour to ride upon the Pope's Palfrey, as Haman did upon King Ahasuerus Horse, away with such ridiculous gesticulations: But I am ashamed on the other side, that there should be such froward Persons, such unthankful Receivers of the Sacrament of thankfulness in our Church, that deny the duty of their knee to the Supper of the Lord, their feet stand stiff like the two Pillars which upheld the Theatre of the Philistines, and Samson can scarce pluck them to the ground. The very Devil durst not deny the truth in this Point. Ask him what it is to honour, Mat. 4. to fall down and worship. As Maecoenas spoke of a Roman, that being amazed forgot to kneel unto Caesar when he came in his presence, Hic homo timet timere Caesarem; so these men are afraid lest they should overreach themselves, and give God more honour than his due. It was an excellent speech of Scipio Africanus, who being to ride in honour, refused to sit in an Arch Triumphal, Quia seni praetereunti non potuit assurgere; if an old man passed by he could not rise up and do him reverence. Beloved the Table of the Lord is a time of great triumph and solemnity, and God is not passing from us, but coming to us, and is this all the honour that we will do him to stand upon stilts rather than kneel? Will neither the apprehension of Christ's Passion move us at that time? Nor that Prayer which is used, that body and soul may be preserved unto everlasting life, will not that make us fall down? Nor the consideration how Christ did humble himself for us unto the death of the Cross, will not that make us humble? Let it be the reproach of such profane men, that Manna is fallen down from Heaven round about our Tents, and they will not stoop to gather it.  
The fourth and last Honour which redounds to God, is to obey the powers which are ordained of God. It is good Divinity every day, it is the proper Theme of this day; O Lord make it a victorious and joyful day to thine Anointed Servant, and our most gacious Sovereign, many and many years, and make it an happy and a triumphant day to his People that are under him, and to their Children that are yet unborn. Nazianzen, speaking of Kings and Rulers to be the Images of God, says, that Monarches and Kings in respect of God were like Pictures drawn clean throughout to the Feet; the middle sort of Governors, to Pictures drawn to the Girdle; the third rank, and lowest in authority, to Pictures drawn but to the neck and shoulders; but all in some sort are the Images of God, (only Christ is the express Image of his Person that sat down at the right hand of his Majesty, Heb. i.) O let Man, who is made according to the similitude and likeness of Gods own goodness, be faithful and Loyal to obey Kings and Princes, in whom he hath imprinted the Image of his power and authority. Marry Magdalen sat at our Saviour's feet, his Disciple John came nearer to his head, and leaned upon his breast; so God hath put all the world under his feet, but Kings and Rulers lean as it were upon his breast, as coming nearer to his love. Now as the Altar was a refuge for them that fled unto it, so Kings being as it were united unto God by an invisible copulation, they are like privileged persons always next unto the Altar, and the hand of violence must not hurt them. He that despiseth you despiseth me, and he that honoureth you honoureth me.  
But the Jesuit is more subtle than any beast of the field, and he puts in a quarrel against Gods Anointed, that if any prove an Heretic or a scandalous person to the Church, nolumus hunc regnare, than he hath lost the privilege of his Unction, and his Sceptre shall be broken by the Pope's effulminating Authority. I cannot answer this traitorous opposition better than by an Emblem of a Diamond with this word, dum formas minuis. He that pares a Diamond to make it give a better lustre, and to point it artificially, impairs the worth and value of the Diamond, so to cut such large allowance from the due which God hath granted without that qualification to his Vice-gerents, under pretence to make their Kingdom more beautiful and religious, is the next way to break the neck of all Sovereignty; it were well we had less of their art, and more of their honesty. As Agesilaus wrote to the Judges in the behalf of Nicias, if Nicias his Cause be good, let justice prevail, if his Cause be wrong, let favour prevail, but be sure that Nicias prevail. So say I, if the Sceptre of the King be a Sceptre of mercy and righteousness (God be blessed it is) than we will honour it for righteousness sake, if it should go wrong, and not as we would have it (so it hath fared with other Commonwealths) the Throne of the King is established in heaven, and we must honour it for God's sake, but be sure the King be honoured and obeyed. There is a Fable which Plutarch hath to this purpose; the Tail of the Snake began to cavil with the Head, because the Head did always lead the way, and direct the Body which way it list. The Tail would not be contented unless it might go foremost by course and the Head come sometimes behind; but what followed upon this new contrivance; the Tail pricked itself in thorns, the Body was bruised, every part offended, and at last the Head was entreated to take upon him to lead, and then the whole body was contented. Beloved, our part is to pray to God that the Head may run on in the right way, like the matchless Pair that went before, the mirror of women, pious Queen Elizabeth, and the most excellent and learned of all wise Princes that ever were, or shall be, blessed King James. Our part is to submit our wisdom to the secret counsels of the King, and to demonstrate our faithfulness and love more amply, by how much the times are like to be dangerous and troublesome; but for the Tail to go foremost it is a dishonour to God who hath given the Crown and Sceptre to the King, and it can breed nothing but disorder and confusion. To sum up these four things now whereof I have spoken, when we have magnified the holy name of God, and kept his Laws, and duly reverenced his Sacraments, and obeyed his Magistrates, then are we mounted in Quadriga Domini, in the Chariot of the Lord as Elias was, to fly up to heaven.  
But alas, what are we when all this is done, that we should be said to honour God? When Homer described the Feasts of his petty Gods, and what they did eat, says an Heathen upon it, Misellos Deos quando illis dimensum homines suppeditant, the Gods were in a pitiful case, if they had nothing to eat but what men afforded them; so it were a disloyal opinion to think so of God, that we could give him any honour which he had not before. Manu tuâ tibi damus Domine, says St. Austin, We give thee O Lord, but we took it from thine own hand to give thee. All our reasonable service which we do to God, is like an whole Burnt-offering, which is quite consumed, and nothing of it remaining, to feed the Lord. Rivers and Fountains innumerable run into the Mediterranean Sea, Nec putant saporem maris nec remittunt quidem, says Seneca, they make not the Sea sweet, nor one whit less brackish than it was before. So it is with the service which we pay to God, He was as glorious before Man was made, as ever He was since so many Kings were created to praise him. It is an argument of Excellency to have honour, and our God is excellent above all things; but it is an argument of some defect in nature to grow greater by receiving honour: doth the Sun grow clearer? or the Moon brighter? or the World larger than it hath been? Extollere se quae justam magnitudinem implere non possunt: Whatsoever is come to its full growth cares not for more, nor cannot enlarge itself: So God receives no increase of glory by all the piety of Prophets, Martyrs, and Apostles, either in the Militant, or the Triumphant Church, but we shall receive a true increase of happiness by the honour which God hath promised in the second member of the Division propounded. Honour à Deo, all honour is from God: wherefore He saith, honorantes honorabo.  
Honorabo, I will honour; I need not crave your attention to this Doctrine, it is a word that will make more men cast up their eyes to heaven, than all the ten Commandments, the conversation of the whole world aspires upward, and we are all like men clambering up an hill, some are helped up by their friends hands, some by a prosperous wind; some catch hold of the boughs and bushes; no man despiseth himself to stay beneath. The Bramble thought itself fit to make a King, Judg. 9 The Thistle would have the Cedar's Daughter married to his Son, 2 King. xiv. The little Spider says Solomon would be in King's Palaces, and the proud Eagle builds his Nest in the Stars, Obad. ver. 4. Vain Astrologers that meddle with Heaven no further I am afraid but by starlight, range among the Planets to find out honorabo, what preferment themselves shall come to, or those wise men that sent them to look. It was an excellent answer of Cardinal Pool to this purpose, and well known to many. One skilful in Astrology told him that he had calculated his Nativity, and great things were portended him: It may be so says the Cardinal, but I was born again by Baptism, and so you must calculate my Nativity from that day, and then tell me if you can what honours shall redound unto me, as who should say, it is neither Nature, nor Planets, nor good luck, but God alone that brings to advancement. Ego honorabo, I will honour. Promotion, says the Psalmist, cometh neither from the East, nor from the West, that is, says the Gloss, neither from this House of Heaven, nor that corner of the Planets; or as another commenteth, neither by the fall of one man, nor by the rising of another, but ego honorabo, I will honour.  
Let me declare this Blessing of God in particulars. The Life of man is divided into three Ages. First here is our Conversation upon earth, whose Honours we call Political Promotions and Advancements, but the days of this life are few and evil, and the Honours are as short. The second Life is the voice of Fame when we are dead, according as we live in the good report of men, or be quite forgotten. And the last Life is the Life of Glory. Tendimus huc omnes, haec est domus ultima; the first Life may be Obscurity, and the second Infamy; but our Soul shall be satisfied abundantly, if the last Life be Glory. Thus you see God hath dispersed his blessing of Honours: 1. In Title and Preeminence; 2. In a Blessed memory; 3. In a Crown of glory.  
Observe it in the first, that there is a twofold end why God gives honours to some peculiar persons in this life; in utilitatem, & humilitatem; first to derive some public benefit from one man, and secondly to work humility from a worthy spirit. He that will be the greatest among you, saith our Saviour, Mark viij. let him be as the least of all, that's for humility, and as Servant unto all, that's for use and ministry.  
The first end of every man's high calling is to be a helper unto many. When God gave Moses and Daniel, and David to the world, he gave it a mighty gift, but when he set these men with the Princes of his people, it was as great a miracle in his love, as with a few loaus to feed thousands in the Wilderness. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says Synesius, and to place a good King in a Kingdom is the shortest and most compendious way in God's providence to amend all men. See what a wild fancy Plato had in this point, but fit for the purpose: He taught that the most pure and active Souls descended from Heaven, and of their own accord took upon them the shape of humane Bodies upon earth only to make good Lawgivers and Magistrates, and having established a prudent Commonwealth, returned to God from whence they came: there was honour undergone for the profit of others. I would you did reign, says the Apostle to the Corinthians, 1 Cor. iv. 8. 
1 Cor. 4.8.  that we might reign with you. I hope no man thinks that Paul was ambitious, all his aim was for the propagation of the Gospel. Here was honour desired to do good to the Church. Olim officium erat imperare non regnum, says Seneca: once it was a place of some employment, not a bare Title to be honourable. And in that one action for my part I did like Cato more than in any other, when he sued to be Tribune of the People: He was ever backward in seeking preferment, but at that time the Commonwealth was in great distress, and had need of an honest Magistrate. A good man seeks for Honours for the good of others, as the Moon gets nothing for herself, but new labours and new travails by borrowing light of the Sun, and thus much the poor Friars beat out by their own brains, that never came near the Court nor Promotion, Appetere gloriam propter proximum, charitatis est, propter seipsum, inanis gloriae. Charity incites us to get honours for the good of others and vain ostentation to have it for ourselves. So did Mordecai preach unto Queen Esther, or rather prophesy that God meant well to the whole Nation of the Jews in her Royalty: What knowest thou whether thou art come unto the Kingdom for such a time as this? that is to prevent Haman and his conspiracy against the people.  
O Says wild Esau what is this Birthright to me? He knew not how to use the honour that God had given him; indeed what is Promotion to them that slain it? it belongs as well to the Lion and the Leopard, to the Image of the Beast in their Coat of Arms, as well as unto them that do not fear the Lord. You Great ones of the Earth says Synesius, fortune hath befriended you, suppose that I speak it to the best dignified, and the most wealthy of this Assembly: Now the World is envious and calls her blind, unreasonable Goddess, that none but fortune would have bestowed her Largesse so untowardly, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, let her not be reviled for your sakes, let her not be ashamed of what she hath done in heaping up such store upon you. Let your deserts, your liberality, and your charity be her defence.  
I hope there is not one among you that is so well conceited of his own righteousness, not such a Pharisee in the Tribe, that thinks God gave him ten thousands and more for his sake, and for his Posterity; alas, no: what is there more in him for religion and holiness, than in a meaner man; no, beloved, give them their natural passage, derive them to the common use, and do not appropriate so great an increase.  
Omnes slavii decurrunt in mare, says Solomon, all Rivers run into the Sea. 1. There is Mare aquarum, the Sea of waters, into which all Rivers cast themselves, so it is true in Philosophy. 2. There is Mare politicum, and so we pay tribute to the King, that's the Sea which the Rivers sometime replenish as need requires. 3. There is Mare divinum: Gods Glory is a Sea into which all praise and devotion must flow. 4. There is Mare pauperum, a turbulent Sea indeed, the great wants of the poor, into which charity must not fall like a drop from a Penthouse, but it must empty itself from all hands as Rivers gush into the main Sea. The wealth of this City is not so great, but the indigency and distress of the poor is as great. The Rivers may be very full and swell, but the Ocean cannot be too full. And I pray learn this one lesson; the Poor are not superfluous helps of the State, they are not such as can be wanted and spared. The honourable person stands as much in need of the drudgery of the labouring man, as the labouring man stands in need of the reward of the rich. The state of him that sits upon the Bench is maintained by his own abundance, but his necessities to which he must set his own finger without the servitude of Vassals is supplied by the hard bondage of the poor. As for similitude; The Elm-tree is green at the top with the beauty of his own boughs and leaves, but it is green at the bottom by the Ivy that clasps and leans upon it. I give the top and chief beauty in this similitude to your own abundance, but then there is beauty in it indeed, when it is a shadow to refresh the low Shrubs beneath it; the Blue Coat wherewith you cloth the fatherless is more precious in God's sight than your own Scarlet. Your Halls for several Companies set out with all magnificence and cost, are not such stately buildings in God's eyes as are your Hospitals and Bethlems, and such pious Houses for the crazy and diseased. Blessed are those Benefactors before God, and their names shall be honourable on earth that have enlarged the Revenues of those charitable places, and their faithfulness likewise shall be rewarded into their bosom that are put in trust with the custody of that portion, and discharge it with a good conscience, which will not be afraid to give an account to God. For this cause God hath put you in authority, in utilitatem publicam, for the public good.  
I have insisted long upon this, the next end why God gives honour in this life, is not only to return benefit unto others, but to reflect humility upon their own Soul. A thing which the Princes of the Earth are not aware of, but we should appear the more vile in our own eyes as God exalteth us: alas what are Titles? what's Birth and Nobility? Natalibus distinguimur, dum sumus, noble blood runs in men's veins no longer than they run the short race of their life. When death picks us out, vale inquit ambitio, it cashiers that ambition, and in the next world we shall all meet, as if we were letters in the Alphabet; A. ante B. without distinction of pomp and greatness. The figure of a Pyramid is a fit similitude before his eyes, that is rising higher and higher in the advancements of the world, for the bottom is broad and spacious, but as you rear it up more and more, so it grows less towards the top, to teach earthly Potentates to think more humbly of their own greatness, as they thrive in exaltation. It was Pompey his fault to burst at the last; Quia sibi uni parum magnus videbatur, he was Pompey the Great in other men's eyes, but never great enough in his own. He that riseth so high in the fancy of his own pride, is like a man that climbs up upon the great boughs of a tree without danger, but aspiring to rest upon the smallest boughs above his head, they would not bear him, and so he tumbled to the ground: Honour and Dominion is never safe, but when the foundation is humility. There is a memorable story of a Cardinal of Sicily a good man (as it happens sometimes) he was called to the Election of a new Pope, and esteeming it a most divine honour, looked for nothing but Prayers and Devotions, yea and Revelations from Heaven to pick out a man for so great a place. He found it quite otherwise: ambition managed the business: there were nothing but threatenings and banding, and base offers; Sic fiunt Pontifices Romani, says this Cardinal of Sicily? Do you make Popes on this sort? and so took his leave of Rome for ever. O when I call to mind ezekiel's Vision, that the further he looked into the Temple, the greater abominations were to be seen, than I think if this good man had cast his eyes from the making of Popes by faction to the unmaking them again by treachery and poison, it would have made him cry out, These men came not in by God's honorabo, and therefore they went out with a mischief: infelicity was the end of that honour which was not begun in humility.  
Let my speech sink into the heart of all those whom God hath advanced to the rule of his People, let the meanest find favour in their eyes as well as the greatest; mercy and justice, love and charity you owe them alike to all the world, to Caius and Titius alike, to Neighbour and Stranger. An elegant Minstril if his Music be delicious, a sporting Stage-player and the like shall be admitted into the noblest Assemblies, and I am sure it is better than sport and music to a worthy Magistrate to hear a man oppressed with wrong relate his grievances, and redress them. Pudeat aspernari fratrem quem Deus non aspernatur filium, says St. Austin; Do not despise him for thy Brother whom God hath accepted for his Son. This I have spoken for the first share of honour which God giveth in this life, and that for these two ends; in utilitatem, & humilitatem; First to promote the public good; Secondly to be depressed in humility.  
But alas! what do we speak of Promotions in great places, this is small comfort to the poor man although it came from God. A poor Philosopher told a rich man that invited him He was set at the lower end of the Table, ut ultimum locum cohonestaret, to bring the lowest room in credit: So divers and very rare Personages are but underlings in this life, ut ultimum locum cohonestarent, but these may partake of honours in the second life, from the voice of fame, for the memorial of the just shall be blessed saith the Lord. Very briefly of this. You have known loving Fathers bequeath somewhat to their Posthumi, to their Babes which should be born after their decease, in whom they could never take joy nor comfort; so divers at the last gasp of their life have bequeathed Monuments and places of liberality to charitable uses, to reap that glory after their decease which they should never hear of. A question may be asked in this place, if it be lawful to call Colleges, or Free-Schools, or Hospitals after the Founder's names, that posterity may know them, and testify their pious affection. I must mollify the answer propter duritiam cordis vestri, because of the hardness of men's hearts, for I had rather allow it as good, and give some indulgence to human infirmity which itcheth after praise, than Structures of Charity should fail, and the hands of the liberal should quite be dried up. But this is truth, without yielding one whit to man's frailty, good works offend not, because they are seen, but when their upshot and scope is to be seen, that their praise may be divulged. Si times spectatores, non habebis imitatores, says Gregory; as who should say, it is good to have our light shine, that men may behold and imitate it, not that they may behold and applaud it, as the Schoolmen express it, ad profectum aliorum, non ad ostentationem sui, not for our own reputation, but for our Brother's edification. 'Tis a sign of a generous and noble spirit to do good things among other scopes and intentions to purchase a good name, contemptu famae contemnuntur virtutes. Certainly the propagation of a good name, when it is not ambitiously coveted and affected, it is a leaf of Gods own Chronicle, and a blessing of many days wrought by his power who is the Ancient of days.  
He that compared glory unto virtue, as the shadow unto the body, hit of a good similitude, sometimes the shadow is cast before the body, as when our glory is reported in our own ears: Sometimes the shadow is cast behind the body, as when the memory of our good deeds remains after us, and this is from the Lord. Oblivion cast upon some is like the Plague of darkness cast upon Egypt. 
Jehoash. Amaziah. Azariah.  Three Kings of Judah sprung from a wicked Race, (of whom our Saviour came touching the flesh) are quite omitted in his Pedigree, Mat. i. as if they had never been, and who they were it shall not be named for me since the Holy Ghost despised to reckon them. Tola judged Israel twenty three years, and all that he did is not so much remembered as that Paul left his Cloak at Troas. Joabs' valour is forgotten among the Worthies of David because of his cruelty. It is Alexander Hales his observation, that the Scripture doth spend some Chapters to relate the Fall of Adam, because Man recovered himself by the Promise made in Christ: But not a word is spoken concerning the Fall of Lucifer, and the Evil Angels, neither in Moses nor the Prophets, except it be under Parables; and since it was their sin to rise against God, they could not procure such an instance of their memory in God's Books as to have the story of their Fall. But a good name is a precious ointment, an Ointment which is consecrated and made holy by the blessing of God.  
Well, let us proceed to the third and last portion of God's Honour in tertio seculo & aeterno, in the life everlasting, and here is comfort in the end. For let the worst be made of the good man's fortune, his calling is not honourable but private, and his infamy perchance not private but public. Naboth dies for Cursing, and Stephen for Blaspheming, and both were innocent. Now where is Honorabo? What is become of the Honour that God promised? And yet who deserved it better than such a man? Nemo virtutem Sanctius coluit, quam qui boni viri famam perdidit, ne conscientiam perderet; No man loves Virtue more than he, that had rather die with an ill name than with an ill conscience; Where is such a man's Honour? Where the Philosopher's Country was when he pointed up to heaven. Blessed are you, says our Saviour when men revile you, and speak all manner of evil falsely on you for my Names sake, rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in Heaven. There no Julian is an Emperor, no Sanballat a Magistrate, nor Caiphas an High Priest. Si Honour diligitur illic quaeratur, ubi nemo indignus honoratur, says St. Austin; Double my portion there, O Lord, and as Mephibosheth said, Let Ziba take all; and surely this Honour is best agreeable to the Text, Honorabo, I will honour him. It is a blessing in future, at such a time I may say, when time shall be no more. Not as the Gloss hath it, Qui benè utitur dignitate conservabo eum in statu dignitatis suae; He that manageth any promotion of Honour justly and faithfully I will keep him in it, and not cast him down. Nay, admit that faithfulness and just dealing be an occasion to cast him down the sooner, as it befell Aristides, still Honorabo is a good promise; when greatness is eclipsed upon Earth heaven stands sure, and there the condition of this promise is best fulfilled. O could we but see the revelation of that glory with Stephen the Martyr, though every Devil in hell stood round about, threatening a Millstone to cast at your head, you would not so much as turn your eyes for a moment from that heavenly Vision to save your life. It were endless to fall upon this discourse. As a stone cast into a fountain multiplies Circles in the water, and the last is the greatest: So every Circle of Heaven would give a new Apparition of glory, but the last is greater than my tongue can utter. Let it suffice us to know, that in the greatest scorn of the faithful, and when envy reproacheth their good name, that there is a blessing laid up that we may believe against hope, this Promise in my Text, Them that Honour me I will Honour.  
And now I am come to the third general Member, which is the Covenant or Composition. God must be Honoured, I began there; man would be Honoured, I ended there; but reason good if Man would have a free gift, that God should have his due. Honour propter Deum, Honour for honour, it is the highest step in my Text, and an eternal Covenant. Now you shall see every bone come to his bone, every part of my Text come to his part, which will in some sort revive that which hath been spoken. First, I told you God had a Name to be sanctified, and so the Children of Men desire the blessing of a good name in their memory, there is one pair to kiss each other. Secondly, God hath his Magistrates and Vicegerents to be obeyed, and such Honour as they have it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the end of a civil life, says Aristotle; there is another couple, if ye can join them luckily. Thirdly, God hath instituted holy and religious Sacraments the Seals of his Kingdom of grace, and use them well, for the Seals of the Kingdom of Grace are our Patents for the Kingdom of Glory. Thus you see in every point the glory of God doth reflect glory upon Man; Let them meet and clap their hands together.  
There are some that would part stakes, and give God some Honour, but keep back a portion to themselves. So the Pharisees were as cleanly in committing sin as in washing their hands often; and God should have long Prayers so themselves might be praised for praying; this is to divide with Ananias and Saphira, but beware of the portion of Hypocrites. Some are so intent to their own Honour that they quite forget God, Let us get us a name say they that builded Babel; Nobis non Domino, a name for ourselves, and not for God; and then we see what follows, their Language was so confounded, that no man could call another by his name, and so they parted. Thus it was Herod's death to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. eaten up of Worms; but his first ruin was to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, eaten up of Flatterers, those that shouted in applause of his Eloquence, when he made his own funeral Oration, and gave not God the glory. Bernard says, that glory in this life is like the word of Christ spoke to Mary Magdalen, Noli me tangere, Touch me not as yet, I am not ascended to my Father; when I am translated into that Kingdom to see my Father, then shall I also abound with Glory. But Glory, what art thou to me in this life? Touch me not, I am not ascended to my Father. If the Devil tempt us to usurp upon that Honour which is due unto God, answer as Joseph did to the Tentation of his Mistress, Gen. 39 Behold my Master, my good God hath put all things into my hand, there is nothing that he hath not committed and delivered unto me beside thee that art his glory. How shall I do this evil then to take thee unto myself, I mean his glory, which art, as it were, the Wife in his bosom. When David in Psalm cxiv. had described the manner of God's deliverance of the Children of Israel from Captivity, that the Mountains skipped like Rams, and the little Hills like young Sheep. In the beginning of Psalm cxv. he sings this Song, Non nobis Domine, non nobis; Not unto us Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give the glory. Not unto us, not unto us; Why is it twice repeated? That is, says one, neither to Jew nor Gentile; neither to the Jew that observes the Law, nor to the Gentile that believes the Gospel. Whether you be a doer of the Law, or a repentant sinner, Not unto us Lord, not unto us. Nay, it is strange which follows, but unto thy name give the glory. What, should he give glory unto himself? Or should we do it? No, he did not say I will give glory unto thy Name, that had been an arrogancy, as if his free will could have done it, but unto thy name give the glory. Da Domine quod jubes & jube quod vis; Give me grace to glorify thee, and then unto thy name I will give the glory.  
Now than if God's grace do enable us to give him Honour, the Honour which he repaies again, is a reward of mercy, and not of justice, Propter promissum, non propter debitum; out of the promise of his goodness, not out of the valour and merit of our goodness. You know in temporal estates, every man that Honours the King must not expect honour again, but peace and justice under his protection. It is true. But this is the royalty of our Christian calling Honour is requited with Honour. Ask and it shall be given you says Christ; It? What shall be given you? Says St. Austin, Non dicit quid dabitur, quia est nomen super omne nomen, desiderare nostrum non est terminus bonitatis Dei. It is a gift far greater than we can ask or think, and yet shall we have Honour for Honour? But suppose we could pick out in all our life a deed of Charity, a penitent Tear, or a Prayer which we could call good, Recte facti fecisse merces est. A good deed is rewarded in that our conscience can say we did it, and yet shall we have Honour for Honour? But alas what is our righteousness? As vile as the most polluted cloth that is dipped in blood. One said of the Infants of Bethlem, that Martyrdom was a great Crown to be put upon so small an head as an Infants was, Remondus ridet & in paruâ magna corona comâ. But if the malice and treachery of our heads were considered, they are more unfit to were the Crown of life than the head of an Infant, and yet to doubt it no more we shall have Honour for Honour.  
But you will say, wherewith shall we honour God? With the heart, by desiring him; with the mouth, by confessing him; with the hand, with the plenty of your Substance by enriching Gods portion. You are fallen upon an Age, where there is more large occasion to Honour God with your ability than in many Ages that went before you. I see a spectacle to be commiserated in this old Fabric before mine eyes. O that God would stir up many Nehemiahs among you to re-edify his Temples, and Churches, which are decayed and impoverished. Harken to another Proposition: In the Republic of the Jews, in the Fiftieth year, the year of Jubilee, the Land, which was sold away from any Tribe, returned again to the Tribe, and to his Family that sold it. You see, and I hope do pity it at least, into how many Tribes the portion of the Church is divided, how many Impropriations have almost laid waste the dwelling places of God, God stir up a religious heart in many of you to imitate those Worthies, who have bequeathed of their Wealth to regain unto the Tribe of Levi that which was so sinfully alienated from them. Fifty, and fifty years and more to them are run out, and still our Inheritance is in the hand of Srangers, and there will remain, unless by your bounty you will repossess the Church again in those holy demeans which by divine right belong unto it. It is worth your knowledge to give you notice how riches came first into the world, says Abulensis in his question upon Genesis. Cain, and Abel, and Seth burned whole burnt-offerings in the open field upon the floor of the earth unto the Lord; the great fire of those Sacrifices melted Gold and Silver in the veins of the earth, lying near unto the Superficies, and purged it from dross, as in a refining Furnace, which being congealed men found out the use of it, and how precious it was, and so by this man's conjecture Riches were first found out by doing Honour unto God; and is it not most natural to repay them back again, for God's honour, and to expect a better recompense?  
The Text, I confess, doth most properly touch upon the Clergy themselves, upon the Priests of God, Honorantes Honorabo, they may claim it especially as their due; for I told you the Message was delivered by an Angel to Eli the High Priest, and to his Sons, who had succeeded him in the Priesthood if they had been righteous. Let the Sons of Aaron especially praise the Lord with the two Silver Trumpets, Verbo & vita, their painful doctrine, and their pious and peaceable life; and than if all other honour fail they shall be thrice honoured when the Archangel shall call them out of the Grave with his Trumpet to the Resurrection of the Just. If you will see an honourable Priest indeed, read the Ninth Chapter of Ecclesiasticus. It is the praise of Simon the Son of Onias. 
Ecclus 50.  What a declaration is there? What a Description of his glory? Beyond all the Eloquence, that ever I met with in humane Oratory, if the delight of the Subject do not deceive my judgement: Such Honour in his Robes when he was clothed with the perfection of Glory; such Majesty in the manner of his Sacrificing; such shouting with the Music of the Temple; how the High Priest stretched his hands over the Congregation, and gave them the blessing of the Lord with his lips; then how the People bowed their face to the ground, and worshipped the Lord; lastly, how Simon himself was honoured in the Congregation, shining like a Rainbow in a cloud of dew. They that will please themselves let them read it, and learn both, what it is for the Bishop to ravish the People with devotion, and for the people to return all reverence and honour to the Bishop. I know this Doctrine is against the stomach of a troublesome Faction in the Church. If God and the King should give Honour unto his Priests every day, they would grudge against it every hour. No Honour or Lordship for that Coat say they, as if because our Saviour called the Disciples the Salt of the earth, we must be all set, like the Salt, at the lower end of the Table. If Joseph were honoured in the sight of all the Egyptians that laid up food in Pharaohs Granary, shall no honourable place belong unto them that lay up spiritual food in the Temple for the people of the Lord? Can you turn this Text, and say it was not preached to Eli, Them that Honour me I will Honour?  
Let me answer one Objection, and so I will end this first part, What is this that God saith, Honorantes Honorabo, he will Honour his Saints, when such as have filled the Commonwealth with outcries, and the Church with abominations, are Rulers and Potentates in every Age? When the rich Glutton is clothed with Purple and fine Linen every day; they that make this complaint, let them turn about and look where they are, in Earth, or in Heaven. One asked Aesop why the Weeds grew faster than the Flowers in his Garden; says the wise man, Quia terra est horum Noverca, & illorum Mater; The Earth is own-Mother to my Weeds, and Stepmother to my Flowers: So says Christ to his Disciples, Doth the World hate you? And no marvel, you are not of the World, your Conversation is in Heaven. But will you have a Paradox indeed? God never gave honours to a wicked and pestilent person, Why, but how came he to have them? Is not all Honour from God? Yes, but they were not given to him. Dati sunt Avo Proavoque, dati seris nepotibus, says Seneca, they were given to the good Grandfathers, or Forefathers that used them well, or they are prepared for the Sons or Nephews who will use them better hereafter. Mamercus Scaurus was a known Adulterer, and yet the Romans chose him Consul, not intending to give him Honour, but forsooth his Father had been an excellent Senator, Et indigne fert populus Romanus sobolem ejus jacere, they were loath to disgrace his dissolute Son: And surely God will much more respect the thousand Generations of them that love him, and keep his Commandments; for the honours which a dangerous person hath are not his own, they are hatched for the Children yet unborn, that the promise may coextend only to the just. Them that honour me I will honour.  
All this while we have been in the first part of Pharaohs Dream among the goodly Kine, and in a golden Harvest, now we come to the second, to the lank ears of Corn, to the ill-favoured Cattle, to those that cast God's honour behind their backs, till he cast them away into utter darkness, for so says the other member of the Text; They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. 
Lib. 3. c. ●.  Theodoret in his Ecclesiastical History having discoursed briefly upon the life of Julian the Apostate, broke off abruptly and would not speak of his Successor the Christian Emperor Jovinian, till he had begun a new Book, and a new Treatise: it were a great Trespass says he to write their Acts and Monuments upon the same Paper. So I affected this method I confess to spin a new Web, as it were, and to frame a new discourse, when I came to them, who are the contemners of God's glory. The former Promise, honorantes honorabo was fit I told you for the day, this latter minacy of God's anger is rather fit for our Age, and for the lamentable profanation of our times; They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Which words, as it seems to me, will best bear this division of two parts, 1. Here is ignominia indigna a disdain much undeserved that God should be despised in the opinion of man. 2. Here is ignominia dignissima, a scorn and disdain justly deserved, such a man set at nought in the eyes of God. First, I note that here is a disdain much undeserved, that God should be despised in the eyes of man. As one said that there were no Adulterers in Lacedaemon, and as Solon thought that there could be no Parricides in Athens; so I ask, 
Plut. Vit. Ly●.  are there any in the world guilty of this blemish to despise God? There have been some men so completely furnished with Heroical virtues, that they were esteemed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, men above the reach of obtrectation and envy; surely then the mighty God, whose glory is incomprehensible, whose power is infinite, his Majesty is far above contempt and disdain. Beloved the enormity of this evil act to despise is not grossly against the Essence of God, as if that could be contemned, but by reducement it is a sin of so great extension and compass, that it will be most necessary for your use, and my orderly proceeding, to confine ourselves to a rule that hath certainty in it. The properties of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or contempt are most distinctly set down in the 2. of the Philosophers Rhetor. as Artists know, and them I will lay down before you, by which, when you examine your own practice, you will know whether you be among those that despise God.  
The first sign of despising is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. we contemn that which we neglect to understand, as when a prudent man will not beat his brains to study curious and unlawful Arts, it is manifest he doth despise them; so whomsoever thou art, that art not painful to understand the Sum of thy faith, and the mystery of thy salvation, it must be granted, that thou setst it at no price and estimation. I do not say that every man's capacity will serve him to be a skilful Divine, labour for so much knowledge, as is referred to God's Worship, whatsoever the best inquire after beyond that Solomon calls it sorrow, Eccl. i. I call it curiosity. Brethren, I beseech you be persuaded that ignorance is a fault, for there is a Sacrifice appointed to make an atonement for it in the Old Law; besides, David had been uncharitable to pray to God to pour out his indignation upon the Heathen that do not know him, unless their slothfulness not to know him did deserve it. For your better satisfaction, there is a threefold ignorance; the first is called invincible ignorance that could not be helped, I call it the ignorance of the Woman of Samaria, how could she tell that Christ was the Messias, until he revealed it unto her; this was not to be blamed. The second is called affectata, ignorance that is wilful and affected. I call it the ignorance of Pharaoh; Who is the Lord that I should let the people go? He could not away with it to hear of the name of the Lord, and therefore his opinion was, that Religion was an idle man's exercise: You are idle says he to Moses, and therefore you say, Let us go worship in the Wilderness. A practised liar will not understand, that every word of dissimulation in buying and selling is cozenage and hypocrisy. A man that loves increase of wealth will not conceive that any usury is a gross sin, and the bane of charity. He that thinks a little is too much for the Church will not be informed that Sacrilege authorized by custom can be Sacrilege; these proceed from stubborn and affected ignorance. The third is called supina, ignorance growing upon us by sloth and carelessness, this I call the ignorance of Nicodemus, he knew not the mystery of regeneration, and what it was to be born again of the spirit; simple education God knows for a Master in Israel. I fear to speak it, but it is most true, there are many that know as little now adays with their Bible's open as our Forefathers knew in the time of Popery with their Bibles shut. How many are there that pass for Believers like the men of Ephesus, Act. nineteen. and yet know not whether there be an Holy Ghost or no? how many Anthropomorphites, God help them, that know not that God is an infinite Essence, comprehended in no place, but think he hath eyes and hands and feet according to the bare letter of the Scripture, as whole Covents of Monks fell into that illiterate opinion says Socrates. Your own regardlesness, that you do not search into the ordinary discourses of Divinity, it is the cause that most Sermons are obscure and fruitless to the hearers, and that which we think is as easy as milk unto your Palates, it is strong meat which cannot be digested, because of your ignorance. Thus when you set it so light, whether you know the mystery of godliness or no, is it not to despise the Lord?  
Secondly, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: those things which we despise we put out of mind and easily forget, forgetfulness is a sign of contempt: How many preservations, how many strange deliverances have befallen us? so apparently miraculous that our enemies were compelled to say this was the finger of God, and yet I am afraid most of us would seldom remember them, if they were not printed in the Rubric of our Almanac: how much sooner is a senseless Winter tale remembered than a sacred story? how new is that unto your ears this day in many things which perhaps you have heard from the Pulpit twenty times before; that which we hear once a week concerning faith and good works, is sooner out of our head than that which we hear but once in an age from a Proclamation: as Tully said of old men's memories, Nunquam quemquam audivi oblitum quo loco Thesaurum obruisset, he never read of one that forgot where he had laid his treasure. So those things only fix themselves in our head which are set in our heart, and that only slides away like water which we regard not. The first thing which the Devil stole from Eve was her memory, God said in the day you eat you shall surely die, she said she must not eat lest peradventure she should die: Thus we forget instantly what God says, like Eve; nay we forget what ourselves said, like Peter: he would not forsake his Master, but hold out when all failed, and alas he was the first that denied him; how often is the next thing that follows our repentance, fresh iniquity? how often is the next thing after our prayers, profaneness? and than do we not forget what we said ourselves? Orlandine in his Story of the Jesuits affairs makes his Protoplast Ignatius Loiola to be so fortunate in carrying all the substance of the Scripture in his mind, that had the Scriptures been utterly lost (a thing perchance which he wished for) Ignatius could have delivered all points of faith without book. I would you were all as truly such as Orlandine feigned and imagined him to be. I would you were such as that Antonius of Milan, who by those that admired his cunning in the Scriptures was called Arca Testamenti, the Ark wherein the Law of God was laid up to be kept. I would you would make them your inheritance as David did, Thy testimonies have I claimed as mine inheritance for ever. Like righteous Naboth, though Ahab and Jezebel, the Devil and the flesh would extort that Inheritance from you, sooner die than part with it: but when you are so oblivious and forgetful of all holy things, Gods blessings, your own repentance, and the sweet relish of the Scriptures, is it not a sign that you despise the Lord?  
Thirdly, contempt is seen in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not to take it to heart, not to be wounded with compassion when Zion is wasted, and God's honour is trampled under feet. Like Gallio the Deputy in the 18. of the Acts, that professed he sat in judgement to take up discords of civil peace, but if a controversy come before him about the Law of God, let it be right or wrong he would not meddle with it. But Lot was grieved and afflicted with the filthy conversation of the Sodomites, 2 Pet. two. 7. though Persecutions of blood be not upon our land (and O Lord be gracious still and for ever to keep them from us) yet a righteous man suffers some persecution in his soul, when filthy conversation jets about before his eyes. Phineas was inflamed with zeal to see Adultery in the Congregation, and slew both Zimri and the Moabitess, Num. 25. Ezekias' rend his Garments, and put on sackcloth when he heard the blasphemy of Rabshekah against the living God. Horror hath taken hold on me, says David, because of the wicked that forsake thy Law, Psal. cxix. 53. there is not such a Sacrifice offered up unto God says St. 
Super Psal. 118.  Ambrose, as a zealous conscience that is eaten up as it were and consumed because the fear of God is imminished among the Sons of men: nay, says he, take away zeal for God's honour, and you take away the office, the excellency, nay the very nature and substance of an Angel. Old Polycarpus went always right with the true Doctrine of the Church, but because Heretics grated his ears with their unsavoury opinions, he cries out, 
Euseb. lib. 5. c. 20.  Deus bone in quae tempora me reservasti at haec audiam? Good Lord, why do I live to hear such pestilent speeches against thy glory. Beloved upon these your Festival days of pomp and ostentation, give ear a little to the calamities which the Protestant Church doth suffer at this day under the hands of Tyrants that do not love the purity of our Gospel. Our Brethren that suffer the least share of their fury are threatened, and besieged; a most Valiant and Illustrious King through the covetousness and mutiny of his own Forces much weakened and dejected, the flourishing Inheritance of the Rhine quite rend away from the true and ancient Possessors. Can, O can you forget when the Tribe of Benjamin was as it were quite cut off with the edge of the sword, 
J●d. 21.1.  that the Eleven Tribes remaining came to the House of the Lord, and abode there till Evening, and lift up their voices and wept sore, and said, O Lord God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to day one Tribe lacking in Israel. The Country Palatine was a strong Pillar to uphold the happy proceedings of the Reformed Churches; our Confederacy is now much weakened in that damage; Away with Sports and Revels, and gaudy Pastimes, a Tribe it wanting this day in Israel; let us mourn for it in our Prayers, and engage our fortunes for it in the field; He that doth not condole for the great blow given to the Church, doth he not slight the miseries of Zion and depise the Lord?  
Harken now to the fourth sign of scorn and contempt, which consists in this, to speak ill of those things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. who are precious to God, and of high esteem, as when Hezekiah called the brazen Serpent Nehushtan, a lump of Brass which the people did superstitiously adore, it is manifest that Hezekiah did despise the vanity of the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the saying is, speak that which may be lucky and fortunate, both to yourselves and others; let the Praises of God and his Saints be in your mouths, the Lord delights to have their names exalted and magnified. See what a commemoration S. Paul hath made of the faithful departed, Heb. xi. he passeth not over one without some Encomium of his zeal and piety; nay our Saviour gave Mary Magdalen his blessing, that wheresoever the Gospel was preached in all the world, it should be reported to her honour, what costly ointment she had poured upon his head, and should we be so froward as some are, to put down the solemn Holidays which are allotted to the memory of the Evangelists and Apostles, upon whose foundation I mean their doctrine, and not their person, the Church is built throughout the world, I fear that God would be offended at us, and impute it to our disdain, that we despised him, because we grew weary to revive the memory of his Saints. Many are willing that Bartholomew or any other Apostle should hold a Fair in the City, for the quick uttering of Wares and Merchandise, but they would not have the Church opened upon a solemn day for St. bartholomew's. My Brethren both may be well done, but the last of the two much better than the other, for I hope you will know St. Bartholomew was a Churchman, and not a Merchant. Another fault there is, let it lie upon the score of private persons, and not upon the whole Church. The adoration which the Church of Rome ascribes to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Invocation of Saints which they maintain, St. Peter's Supremacy, and the Pope's Succession in his person which they defend as their life, these opinions are false and superstitious: but none of those noble persons have therefore deserved ill at your hands, that in the heat of the controversy we should insult over St. Peter's faults, or make havoc of the Relics of the Saints, or speak slightly of that incomparable vessel the Virgin Mary, and mince her title of Blessed, 
Lori. Act. 1.14.  when the sacred Hymn says, that all generations shall call her blessed, leave this to the railing Jew, who in disdain calls our Saviour not Ben Mariam, the Son of Mary, but Ben Aariam, the Son of her that is vile as smoke. As for such backbiters of the glorious Children of God, like as the smoke vanisheth, so shall they be driven from the presence of God. And I pray you what credit is it to our Church to make such a bustle, as some private men have done about scandalous Ministers, as if the Clergy were grown so disordered, that the most necessary thing to be provided for in the Weal Public were new Laws for the rectifying and deprivation of scandalous Ministry. When sundry Petitions were put into the hand of Constantine the Great at the famous Council of Nice against some Bishops and Priests and Deacons, he threw them all into the fire with this answer, He would not have complaints in that kind so public, but if he knew how to cover their trespasses, he would cast his own royal Robe upon them. As you wish that God might not be despised, as you wish the Jesuits might not triumph at your Ministers, beware to make such a mountain of that which private advertisement might better rectify. Many of my Brethren of good parts are unfurnish with means, and where poverty and wit meet together, I confess they seldom make an honest man between them; God give them grace to bear their wants more religiously, and with less scandal; but I hope you will not think the whole Loom is bad, because the List is corpse: But for those that are so ready to blur their reputation, whom God hath appointed to burn Incense before his name, that is, to pray for his people, is it not a sign that God is despised by them?  
Fifthly, To step into the observation of a judicious Commentator, it is an apparent disgust of contempt, Minimè ad minas contremiscere; not to tremble at his anger that threatens. Primos in orbe Deos fecit timor, says Statius, not so sound: that fear was the first thing that made a God, 
Calvin.  but I am sure that want of fear is the first thing that will make an Atheist, and persuade a man there is no God. The Prophet Isaiah could say no worse of the Idols made of stocks and stones, but that they could do no evil that we should be dismayed at them, Isa. xli. 23. Every part of our Saviour's Passion was undergone to satisfy in the kind wherein we had most prevaricated. Our Extortion wounded his hands, our Gluttony gave him Gall to drink, our want of fear put him into the strongest part of his Passion, that Agony full of great fear in the Garden when he sweat drops of blood; as for them that hear lamentations read unto them, that have heard the vengeance of Captivity, and the Sword threatened to a wicked Land, and yet their heart is not quailed, their courage is undaunted, it shall fall out unto them, as it did unto the Philistines, they brought out Samson to play before them, and made a mocking-stock so long of his Arms of Steel, that at length he plucked down their Temple about their ears, and brained them. A filial fear, that loves God for his goodness, is like a bright day that hath not a cloud to disfigure it: a servile fear, that loves God for fear of the wrath to come, is like a day that is overcast with clouds, but it is clearer than the fairest Moonshine night. It is good to have the Spirit of Adoption, but it is better to have the Spirit of bondage than the Spirit of slumber. It is good to be in Canaan, but it is better to be in the Wilderness than in Egypt: It is good to be a Child, but it is better to be a Servant than a Stranger to the Lord. The Lions roar, and the Beasts of the Forest are moved at his mighty voice, the winds arise, and the sowls of the air flutter and lay them down in their Nests, the thunderclaps rend the air, and the Spirits of Princes are dismayed and troubled; but if the God of the Winds, and of the Seas, and of the Thunder threaten and menace us for our sins, shall we not much more dread his fury, and look pale at his indignation? But when we bear all prodigious signs and wonders without crouching; when we esteem not the terrors (God help us) that are now round about us, is it not a sign that God is despised?  
Sixthly, To take another Arrow out of the same Quiver, it is a sign we undervalue the power of another, Minimè ad opem ejus consugere, not to fly to his help when we had need of relief; so when the Israelites blurted at Saul as if he did not look like the man that could lead out their Armies against the Philistines, Nunquid iste salvare potest Israelem? Can such a man as this save Israel? It is a manifest token that they did despise him. God is much offended when we neglect him in prosperity, and he is no less displeased when we do not fly to him in misery. You are for the God of Ekron in your sickness, says the Prophet to King Ahaziah, when he sent thither for remedy, is it because there is no God in Israel? A word, if you mark it, that relisheth of most sharp indignation, it is because there is no God in Israel. Invoca me. 
Greg. lib. 21. Ep. 2.  Psal. ●. Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will hear thee. Invocantibus miseteri desiderat qui monet ut invocetur, says Gregory; God hath a great good affection to be gracious unto them that invoke him, when he puts us in mind to be invoked. The Children of Israel were miserably oppressed with bondage under Pharaoh, yet their cursed hearts had rather put up their wrongs, and suffer them, than be beholding to the Lord for their delivery. Trajan had rather pine away with Leprosy than call upon the name of Christ, whose Servants he had persecuted. Wizzards and cunning Soothsayers, so called, some run to these for relief. Tutelary Angels that have the Patronage over several Kingdoms (so well do they know what God hath appointed in Heaven,) imaginary Saints, that are fortunate in expelling some particular disease (as it is thought,) some run to these for protection. Non defensoribus istis, our hope is not in such miserable comforters as these, but the Lord is our refuge in the day of trouble. If we say unto the needy that God is his portion, and he must not steal; if we say unto the sick, that the Prayer of the Faithful availeth much, he must not fret and be disquiet, and yet he rageth, and curseth at his afflictions; if we say to the opppressed that God will judge their cause, and yet they desire to break the net that held them in by violence, and to take private vengeance into their hand; Where is their patience? Where is the testimony that they fly to the Almighty in the evil days? Is it not a sign that God is despised?  
Seventhly and lastly, to end this Point, let me borrow but the speech of the angry Goddess, when she thought she should be contemned, Et quisquam numen Junonu adoret? Praeterea aut supplex aris imponat honorem; that is, when Sacrifice comes not in plentifully to the Altar, it is an indignity second to none, and God doth greatly disdain at it; if his Churches beg your liberality for their reparation (beg they must by a Brief, and that impudently, or else they shall lie in the dust) but when they do crave your help, pour in plentifully into the Corban: He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly. If his Priests plead for the due, and true portion that belongs unto the Altar, do not construe Divinity so much amiss, as if the Doctrine concerned their profit only, but did nothing pertain to inform your just dealing. Your voluntary benevolences, though they be large and bountiful, shall excuse no man of Sacrilege where that which is due is pinched and impaired: He that wrongs the Altar, I mean the Church, in Shillings, nay, in Pence, that are due to it, they are not his Pounds of benevolence shall make him an honest man in the sight of God. Do not flatter yourselves in what you are not, and let me tell you the truth, one of your poor Farmers, that occupies under you but one hundred pound Land by year in the Country pays as much to the Church Demeans by due as five, nay, as ten wealthy Landlords in the City: And yet you think yourselves the best pay masters to the Church, but no man of understanding believes you. He is called a wise Steward in the Gospel, but his deeds were the actions of a Reprobate that bad his Master's Debtors set down fifty for one hundred, and fourscore for another: I should be this unjust Steward myself if I should not tell you justly and faithfully what you owe to my Master in Heaven; they have more cunning than faithfulness that teach you how to strike off part of the Sum. And yet I beseech you mark one passage in the unjust Steward: He doth not come with Quid dabis? How doth your mind stand for a benevolence? What are you pleased to give my Master? But, Quid debes? What do you owe my Master? Pay your Debts first, and talk of your Supererogation afterwards; as if you should stop the free passage of a Spring, and then think to recompense the Owner with a Glass of Rose-water: Such a kindness it is to stop the rights of God's Ministers, and then think to make them amends with some contribution of courtesy. O let not this fair object of your manifold charity before mine eyes be blemished with Sacrilege, for when the Sacrifice is withdrawn from the Altar, is it not a great sign that God is despised?  
So much of that general Point drawn out into the several branches, Ignominia indigna, a disdain much undeserved, that God should be despised in the opinion of Man. The upshot of all that I have to say is in that which follows, ignominia dignissima, a scorn and disdain justly deserved, that the abusers of God's Glory shall be set at naught in his eyes: They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Mercy and Justice are in all the works of the Lord. Behold the sweetness of Mercy in two things, gathered out of that which is before us: 1. The order of these parts will insinuate it unto us; for promise doth go before minacie, the affection of love before the destruction of anger. Them that Honour me I will Honour. God begins at that end where there is a reward in the right hand. They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed, that is the conclusion, the last refuge upon which he is thrust with vengeance in the left. Mount Gerizim is the first hill that God mentions, Deu. xxvii. the Mountain upon which Levi and his fellow Tribes should bless Israel. Mount Ebal is prepared in the next place, the Mountain upon which Dan and his fellow Tribes should curse the People. Behold I set before you this day life and death, blessing and cursing, Deut. xxx. 19 As Medicine is the first offer of Chirurgery, Amputation of the putrified part is the last and desperate help that Art doth administer. 2. God will Honour the Good, he takes it upon him, that benediction is his proper act. It is set down passively, and no otherwise, that the wicked shall be lightly esteemed. Come you blessed of my Father, Mat. xxv. Benediction is from God. Go ye cursed, says Christ in his anger, cursed by your own sins, cursed by the malice of the Devil; he doth not say, cursed of my Father. Surely somewhat is in it that God will never take the act of Malediction upon himself, Isa. xxviii. 21. The fury of his wrath he calls alienum opus, his strange work, his strange act that he will perform. Non est opus Dei perdere quos creavit, says Lyra. It is a strange work, and comes as it were unwillingly unto God, to destroy those whom he hath made. And therefore we have it in a Prayer of our Liturgy, especially against the visitation of the woeful Pestilence, God whose nature and property is ●ver to have mercy and forgive. Peregrinum opus est, ut puniat qui Salvator est, says St. Hierom upon the forenamed place; it is an improper work for him to curse, who is the Author of blessing; for him to destroy, who is the Saviour of the world; for him to put any man to light estimation, from whom proceedeth all honour and glory.  
And as Mercy gives a sweet relish to this Text, so Justice is no less conspicuous, for here is a punishment so proportioned to the fault committed, as if God had studied to retaliate, may I express it as we do barbarously in a Vulgar Proverb, Qui meccat mockabitur; he that despiseth me shall be despised. You do well know Adonibezecks confession, his Thumbs and Toes were cut off, as seventy Kings having their Thumbs and Toes cut off, 
Judge 1.7.  gathered meat under his Table as I have done, so God hath requited me, says the Tyrant. So might Pharaoh and Egypt have confessed, that as they did exercise cruelty upon the Infants of Israel, so the Angel slew all their Firstborn in a night. As the Seed of the Righteous was cast into the water to be drowned, so Pharaoh and all his Hest were drowned in the Red Sea. So Charles the Ninth of France, who published himself to be the Author of that bloody Massacre committed upon many thousand innocent Protestants in the Streets of Paris, blood was his end in great quantity, 
Cam. Eliz. anno 1573.  says the famous Annalist of our Island, sanguinis profluvio inter longos & graves dolores expiravit; the blood could not be staunched, which gushed out from many parts of his body, and so after long and grievous torments he gave up the Ghost. An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; blood for blood, Children for Children, drowning for drowning, ignominy for ignominy, this is the retaliation of true Justice, They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.  
Where is the advancement of the Proud? Where is their honour that would be noble, and yet tush at the true nobility of Virtue and Religion? Like as I have seen in the Emblem of a Fool, that thought to fly aloft, and had a Plume of Feathers in one hand, to carry him up like a birds wing, but there was a stone in the other hand. The word was, Non tam pluma vehit quam grave mergit onus; So, vain ostentation is but a Feather to lift a man on high, God's wrath is like a Millstone to weigh him down, and to lay his honour in the dust. In a corrupt Age he may perhaps be advanced that had rather be great than good, but because much of greatness consists in the opinion that men have of them as well as in the title: Honour in honorante, 
Arist Eth. Lib. 1.  the world was never so bad yet, to hold him great in the common estimation that had no conscience to be good. Want of Piety, want of the fear of God, doth eclipse the most generous qualities of Nature and Morality, and make them contemptible. Solomon wrote most choice Philosophy upon the Plants of the earth, from the Hyssop on the Wall to the Cedar in Lebanon; yet Posterity neglected to preserve those Monuments of his wisdom, though they were the Labours of a King, because Lust and strange flesh made his wisdom despicable. Julian, a man of rare moral qualities for an Emperor; Ulpian, the greatest Lawyer. Galen, the greatest Physician; Plotinus, the greatest Platonist, Porphyry, the greatest Aristotelian; to descend lower, Aretine, the quaintest wit of Italy; we vilify the men, and set a mask upon their good parts, as God did upon Jeroboam, that he made Israel to sin, because their Religion was Atheism, and Profanation.  
I have told you before that Eli the High Priest was the man shot at in this Text, not for any personal crime of commission in himself, but for a sin of omission, because he did not reform, or else severely punish, the unpriestly behaviour of his two Sons Hophni and Phineas. One part of disgrace that fell upon him is in the third Chapter following my Text, 
Abule●. 1 Sam. 3.  and the first Verse; Sermo domini erat pretiosus in diebus istis; the word of the Lord was precious in those days, there was no open Vision; that is, Cessaverunt responsiones divinae & Propheticae in illo tempore; Prophecy and Divine Revelations were well nigh deceased in those times for the wickedness of the Sons, and the indulgence of the Father. Moreover, in the next verse to my Text, God says he will cut off his arm, and the arms of his Father's house; that is, the Succession of the Priesthood should be removed from that naughty Generation. Afterward it is denounced, that there shall not be an old man in his house. Alas, Counsel must needs perish when Age and Experience doth not govern. Thus you see that for want of bridling, nay, for want of deposing, and not utterly cutting off of scandalous Sons of his own body, Eli the High Priest should be so despised, that is, his Succession should fail, the wisdom of old men should not support him, and divine Revelations had utterly forsaken him. Tell this to the Bishop of Rome, to him that would be the sole High Priest of the Church of Christ. Are there any Christians in the world more riotous, more lascivious, than his Sons the Cardinals? And by your leave it is often seen that some of them are his Natural Sons. Is there any Father more facile and connivent than he? That it seems will ever hearken to the counsel which Nicholas Archbishop of Capua gave to Pope Leo the Tenth, Ne quid omnino reformantur, 
Sleid in. lib. 12. Com.  at any hand, whatever the Lutherans said, to mend nothing; How can we then refrain to despise them, as the Lord said the house of Eli should be despised? Can we believe that Succession hath not been long ago cut off from the chair of the Scorners? Shall we delude ourselves that the Revelation of Truth is among them? Or that the Oracles of infallible illumination are not more precious among them than they were in the days of Eli's declination? They take upon them the Honour of Eli, I know they are guilty of the faults of Eli, and of crimes much more flagitious; was the Scripture written for any one man's sake? Shall not the infamy also of Eli be inflicted upon them? As my Text says. They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.  
Yet it were happy, for the despisers of God, if this were only their doom, to be inglorious in this life, and a scorn of men, as I said before, that the best Saints of God had marks of ignominy branded upon them: 
2 Cor. 6.8.  Stephen died in the name of a Blasphemer; Naboth died in the name of a Traitor; St. Paul, who was entertained by the Corinthians instar Angeli, as an Angel of God, 
Lib. 2. Noct. Attic. c. 6.  passed among the Jews and Tertullus for a pestilent fellow; but as Aulus Gellius said of the Epithet illaudatus, that more was meant by it than not to be worthy of praise, it was as much in true sense as innominandus, Neque unquam nominandus, one that should never be named or mentioned; so to be lightly esteemed in this place is to be put out of God's Check, to have their names razed out of the book of life, when the Saints carry Palms in their hands, and Crowns upon their heads, who have made their red Robes white in the blood of the Lamb, they shall be cast out of doors among the foolish Virgins, with a Non novi vos, Depart from me for I know y●u not. Can any thing be made more vile and abject than not to know it? Others will say perchance, Lord thy hands have made us, and fashioned us, by thee have we been upholden ever since we were born, how can it be that thou that knowest all things shouldst not know what we are? In Mat. xxv. when Christ spoke in the person of a Judge, how he would challenge the uncharitable for not refreshing him in Hunger, nor in Prison, nor in Nakedness; they make answer, as if God either knew not their thoughts, or knew not them throughly, or knew not what he said, Domine quando te vidimus esurientem? Lord, when did we see thee in hunger? Therefore God puts this derision upon them at the judgement, since you think I am mistaken in you, Non novi vos; be it so as you would have it, I know you not.  
Which interpretation puts me in mind of the last Point, and the very height of these men's miseries, for to be cast aside as an igno●e person, is a most light esteem, but being utterly forlorn and miserable, then to be made a ●lout and derision, it passeth all other scorn and contumely. Says the Lord, Prov. i 26. I will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh. So he seems to triumph and insult over the Devil and his Angels, Isa. xiii. How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer, thou son of the Morn? In the Second Psalm there is mention of as great a Faction, banding against the Lord, as could cluster together, the Heathen rage, the People tumult, the Kings and Rulers of the Earth take counsel. God is despised, and beset round as it were with the Bulls of Basan. How shall this strong conspiracy be broken? Why, in the fourth verse the Lord laughs and hath them in derision. Do you make a question how all these shall be oppressed? Non est res difficilis, 
In Psal. 2.  aut laboriosa, ludendo facturus est quoties libuerit, says Calvin; It is no hard matter to bring to pass, the Lord will do it at leisure, nay, as it were with sport and pastime. The wicked can look for no other but to be put to shame hereafter, and lightly esteemed: For as they that honour God are called Oves à dextra, Sheep on the right hand; oves propter fructum & naturae mansuetudinem; Sheep, for that they yield fruit to the Shepherd, and because of the innocency and patience of their nature: So the despisers have their Name, 
Homil. in Mat. 34.  Haedi à sinistrâ, Goats on the left hand. Quia salaces & per praecipitia incedunt, says Origen. Because of their petulancy, and that they walk in slippery places, ready to break their necks. Finally, says St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is not mocked, that is, not without retorting scorn for scorn, for they that despise him shall be lightly esteemed. Now from all contempt of his glory, from all contempt of his Word and Commandment, Good Lord deliver us. AMEN.   

A SERMON Preached upon the Gowry Conspiracy BEFORE KING JAMES.  PSAL. xli. 9 
Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lift up his heel against me.  
THere is one way, says Plutarch in Demetrius, to make the whole world the better, one course to be taken to put shame into all men's faces that they dare not sin. It is but thus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not to suffer the acts of evil men to pass unregistered, let their names be known, and their deeds set forth in black colours, that they who could find pleasure in a sinful life, may be discouraged by an infamous memory. Cum de malo Principe posteri tacent, manifestum est eadem facere praesentem, says Pliny; It holds not only in Princes, but in the manners of all men. When we dare not speak of the vices of other men, it is a sign they are rise among ourselves. Can we then pass over this high and unsufferable wrong done to an innocent person in my Text? Such a complaint as can hardly be matched in all the Scripture. For say that one friend hath parted from another, as Demas lest St. Paul; or that Ziba being trusted did fail Mephibosheth; or that Jobs acquaintance, whom he fed with his Morsels, did shun him in the days of his sorrow; yet for all these crimes to meet in one man, disloyalty against friendship, treachery against trust, ingratitude against daily benefits, this is strange, quod nulla posteritas probet sed nulla taceat, fit to be blazoned, that for infamies sake the most prostigate may fear to do the like. This is my Scope, there is the Centre where I will fix the foot of my Compass, and whatsoever I do add more is the Circle drawn about it.  
In the days of King David's persecution, you would think the Text were sit for none but him. Expositors indeed are not all of one mind to say who it is that is pointed out for this disloyal enemy. Perchance his ungracious Son Absalon, an untimely Usurper; perchance Joab the Captain of his Host, trusted with the command of all his Forces, and yet complotting with Adonijah to supplant Solomon against the Father's affection. But most likely, and you shall hear at this time of no other, it was the great Statesman Achitophel, admitted into the secrets of his bosom, and rewarded with the best honours of his Court, even he, his own familiar friend, in whom he trusted, which did eat of his bread, did lift up his heel against him. In the days of our Saviour's humiliation the Text doth so fit his turn, and that St. John saw in the thirteenth of his Gospel, and did so apply it, that at the first blush you will say it doth directly serve to express his pitiful case, and the wickedness of Judas who did betray his Master. Judas that followed him when he had no where to lay his head, and could a friend do more? Judas that dispensed his Alms to the poor, surely the greatest trust that could be laid upon any servant by so charitable a Lord; Judas his guest at all times, and more especially a partaker of his Last Supper, take him with all these titles, and yet did he lift up his heel against his Master. One interpretation more of this Text is revealed in this our Age. And it is verified in application to none so fitly as to our most renowned Sovereign in the happy and successful deliverance, which God gave unto him this day against his enemies; his Companion in recreations, his confederate in counsels, of the same unanimity of Religion, that had broke the same bread at the Communion Table did rise up against the Lords Anointed. But he that lifted up his heel was supplanted himself and cast down, praised be God for evermore.  
You see here are three examples of Traitors, so notorious, that we who live may almost be ashamed of Mankind: and there are three examples of them who suffered so innocently, that we may be proud there were men so good to endure it. Wherefore I will draw my discourse into such a method that neither Achitophel may be forgotten that wronged King David, nor Judas omitted that betrayed his Master, nor those wicked Imps let alone in silence whom this day bathe made notorious to Generations. Achitophel's treachery hath the precedency in time, and therefore it shall be handled in the first part, in whom you shall see three things: 1. How odious it is to violate friendship, yea, mine own familiar friend. 2. How hateful it is to wrong the trust reposed in us, My friend in whom I trusted. 3. How impious it is to forget the benefits we have received, to spurn against him that seeds us, He that ate of my bread hath lift up his heel against me. Judas his Apostasy is the second part of my Text, and in him let Heretics discern, how grievous it is to wound their Saviour whom they have served, and let our Runagates to Rome and Rheims consider what a lamentable backsliding it is to leave the sincere Altar whereon they have eaten the body of Christ and drank his blood. I would our own Island had not brought forth such men as make up the third part of my Text, in whose desperate attempt you shall see how the best alive are not only like to spill their good turns upon barren sands, but also to lose their life, their country, their liberty, even where they had cause to look for nothing but due homage and fidelity. An first attend unto David's complaint, etc.  
Yea, mine own familiar friend; no virtue wins affection to it sooner than humility, and behold we have it here in the lowest degree; for David doth not reach out his Sceptre, to keep his Servant at a distance, but draws him near unto his breast, and calls him the friend of David. The Shepherds in Sophocles complained of their Sheep, that although they held their Sheephooks over them as if they did command, yet in truth they did but wait upon the Flocks, and were their servants, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. So if we do truly examine it, it is the misery of all greatness; they that sit in the highest place as our Governors do perform more good offices for our use than if they were our servants; yet for the maintenance of Authority, and to keep Inferiors in awe of their power, they seldom stoop so low as David doth, Yea, mine own familiar friend.  
A tyrannous insultation over servants is out of practice for the most part in our Kingdom, let it be censured at large among them whose insolency deserves it; their scourge and tortures did but breed this Proverb amongst the Romans, So many Servants so many enemies. An id Dominis parum est quod Deo satis est? Is not that sufficient for man which will content God? If obedience and good endeavour doth suffice the Lord, shall man be unsatisfied with his Servants diligence? Servi sunt? Imò humiles amici, non ministeriis sed moribus estimandi, says Seneca. Look not upon our families as upon men under the yoke, but as upon friends that profess lowliness, respecting rather the good disposition of their mind than the condition of their place. So David moderated his Court rather like a Society than a Kingdom; that as Plutarch said of the Syracusians being besieged, every man was more solicitous for the safety of their Captain Dion than for their own escape, so in David's affliction the whole Court mourned rather for his misery than their own, only the pernicious head of Achitophel revolted being his familiar friend.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says Sophocles, a faithless friend is the so a rest bile that can be touched. Methinks as Jonathan laid aside his bow and arrows approaching to embrace David, so the name of friend should disarm the heart of man, that no instrument of malice should be left to give offence: It is like God's Rainbow in the clouds, a sure token of reconcilement and preservation: it is the uniting of more souls in one, like the Rod of Moses, and the Rod of the Egyptians which were united into one Rod, Exod. 7. that as Joseph said of Pharaohs dreams, the dreams are two, but the interpretation is but one; so among friends the hearts are two, yet there is but one joy, one desire, and but one affection between them both. O what an accursed crime it is to cancel such a Bond, much more to falsify and corrupt it? more unnatural than to divide one living Child into two dead parts like the uncompassionate Harlot. St. Basil did so cleave to the familiarity of holy Nazianzen, whom he called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or his necessary friend, that he thought not his knowledge solid, or his study profitable, or the daylight to be clear without him. Zenophon was so inflamed with the love of Proxenus, dear to him as his own soul, that he changed his bookish life, and entered into a dangerous war, as he confesseth, that he might follow him as the shadow did the body.  
Perfect Lawgivers, says Aristotle, have had more careful regard to settle friendship in their polities, than to settle justice; for there is a recompense and satisfaction for any fault that infringeth justice, put it is passed our value and exceeds all estimation how to salve up an injury which abuseth friendship: besides there is prevention in all points of justice that an innocent may sustain no hurt, but the wounds of a false friend, how is it possible to avoid them? such an Achitophel is like hot iron taken out of the fire which neither gloes nor shines, but burns more violently than the flame that threatens. We have a Test to try gold says Euripides, a Touchstone to betray deceit in counterfeit metals, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: but to know the mischief of a dissemblers heart, there's no mark or character to discern it: Moreover every man hath a share in his whole friend, in all his estate and faculties, but every single man hath but his part in that Commonwealth whereof he is a Citizen: then reason within yourselves, can he that wrongs a friend, who is all and every whit his own, be true to that Kingdom wherein he hath but a share and moiety? As the Poet warned the Sparrow not to build a nest in Medea's Statue, for she spared not to kill her own young ones, and could the little birds, who were but Inmates, expect succour from her? so believe him not that he will be just to others, who was unjust to his other self: Let him be rooted out, let him be cut off like unprofitable Ivy that undermines the building upon which it creeps.  
It is a solid reason in School Divinity, why Devils cannot inflict a corporal torture upon the Sons of men without some especial commission for the fact, because since immaterial spirits are always about our paths, and as near unto us as our garment unto our flesh, although they cannot be discerned, it might tend to our unavoidable destruction, if inability did not check their malice: It were well for us if a false friend had not more advantage against our life and safety than the Devil; his access unto us is as free as Satan's, his mischievous intentions as little discerned: here is the difference, the Devil can hurt you but by fits, but a fair-tongued Hypocrite at all times. As David killed Goliath with no rugged stone, but with a smooth pebble out of the brook, and when the Army of the Philistines could not prevail the embracements of Dalilah confounded Samson: It is not the Majesty of Eglon that can save him, if Ehud come with ave rex, and courteous salutations. Abner is but a dead man if Joab encroach with ah my brother, and embrace him. Pope Sixtus Quintus, second to no man to make an Orator for the Devil, was much mistaken in the Consistory, when extolling the Parricidious Friar, who slew Henry the Third of France, made it a wonder that so mean a person in the form of a Petitioner, should pass all the King's Guard, and without resistance, execute that execrable treason. Quite otherwise say I, had he come armed, and reviled the King, and professed defiance, than it had been strange if the Guard had not cut him short, and defended their Sovereign: but in the habit of an humble Subject that bowed unto his King, in the form of a Beadsman that came praying in the shape of a supplicant that sued for justice, was this such a wonder that so Vile a Fox should strike the stroke? nay David knew that evil could not be avoided, when his own familiar friend did lift up his heel against him.  
Such friends as Achitophel was our unworthy Age is packed with, great observers in the time of our dignity, devoted to our good fortunes, shadows of our prosperity: but if Absalon the Usurper thrive, than they shrink like Sheba, we have no part in David, they are gone like the fishes in the small Rivers that come up into the Brooks at full tide, and return into the Sea at ebbing waters: Fugiunt amici cum probari debuerint, says Seneca, 'tis a hard case, friendship is but a mere name before distress come to try it what it is, and when you come to catch hold of the succour of faithless men, you grasp water: and the rule is infallible, cui placet pretium in amicitiâ, placebit pretium contra amicitiam, they that love to taste some benefit in their friendship, may be induced to like a benefit so well as to betray friendship to obtain it. Aelian and some other such scatter-stories as himself, do make more reports of Dogs and Elephants, of Birds and Horses, and some other unreasonable creatures, that they did either compassionate or relieve, if they were able, the miseries of those Masters whom they had long attended, than of reasonable men What? have we lost both nature and good nurture, and have the beasts found it? This made the Prophet complain, Psal. xii. They speak vanity to their neighbour, and flatter with their double heart. This made Obadiah tell Jerusalem, that the men of her peace, and those that eat of her bread deceived her. This made Jeremy advise the Jews, Jer. 9 Take ye heed every one of his Neighbour, and trust not in a Brother, for every Brother will utterly supplant. This made our Saviour protest that a man's Enemies were those of his own House; this made King David decipher Achitophel in my Text, Yea mine own, etc.  
Secondly, I proceed to consider in this complaint, how hateful a thing it is to wrong the trust which is reposed in us; My friend in whom I trusted. I cannot but break out abruptly with the Psalmist, I have hated the sins of unfaithfulness, and as the old Patriarch said of his Sons Simeon and Levi, that drew from the Sichemites the holy blood of Circumcision, that they might the sooner spill their life's blood upon the ground, O my soul come not thou into their secret, into their assembly mine honour be not thou united. Let us instance in some points of trust. To betray a secret is fit for none but Doeg the Edomite, a Beast set to keep the Beasts of Saul. The Lacedæmonians sitting in counsel had a Ceremony to charm their doors, as if no secret should get out of that circle, and Alexander says Plutarch was wont to set his Seal upon their lips, to whom he had committed his affairs of trust. Tertullian reports of the fidelity of an Athenian Woman, who was made privy to the counsels of Harmodius and Aristogiton, and being brought before a Tyrant that urged confession from her, rather than she would do it she spat her tongue in his face.  
In matters of greater trust, if greater may be than silence, the old Roman Laws urged men to perform such faithfulness, that an orphan Child committed to the pupillage of a friend lay upon his charge to look unto it next to his own Parents, next to the Orphan the Client that had committed his Cause to his Patron's protection was to be respected, and both these before their own Brethren. Gellius abounds with testimonies to prove it, primum locum juxta parentes tenere pupillos, proximum locum clientes, says the Author. And the Poet Virgil in the detestation of that wicked Guardian which slew young Polydor for his Portions sake, makes the very trees to drop blood that grew in the place where the child was buried. Did I say before, that Simeon and Levi broke fealty with the Sichemites? Did they deal any better with their own Father? Jacob put two things into their charge, his Flocks and their Brother Joseph: 'tis true, they did tend their Flocks, but you know their usage to their Brother. O ye fools, says St. Basil, if dreams be vain, why do you vex him for a dreams sake; if dreams be true and infallible, why do you think to thwart and hinder the Divine Providence.  
If infidelity did only breed an ill opinion in that one disloyal party which commits it, the matter were not great; but for one Achitophel's sake jealousies, evil suspicions, wrong surmises are counted the wise man's character in this subtle generation. Epicharmus his saying went current with Tully for a most sage dictate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: 'tis the very strength and sinews of prudence to distrust and be circumspectious. Thus Sycophants and Impostors have changed the face of the world, and the innocency of the Dove is nothing so much respected as the wiliness of the Serpent. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; let them that dare trust that man who is too much mistrustful. Have you been deceived? says St. Ambrose, do not dislike yourself for that. So was our Saviour in his Apostle Judas, ut nemo aegre ferat erasse judicium, pertisse beneficium: and I see no reason, why he that is a wise man should seem a fool, because he that seemed an honest man is proved a knave. Simonides was conceited of the Thessalians that no man could overreach them, but did he commend them for this? Take his reason with you, and you will say no. Stolidiores esse quam ut possint decipi. They were such gross Idiots, that no man knew their disposition how to practise upon them. I did ever think meanly of the wits of Sycophants; all the glory that they reap is this, the Impostor had no faith, and he that trusted in such men had too much charity.  
If the portion of the Fatherless be made over to thy custody, remember old Tobies friend Gabael of Media, who delivered up to Tobias the Talents sealed. In the cause of the distressed Client be as trusty as Solomon was to the Harlot, and let her have her own. If thou hast betrothed a Virgin, remember what Jacob endured, with what constancy he persevered in the love of Rachel. Lastly, There is not a greater trust in the world, than to be deputed a shepherd over the flock of Christ. O be faithful and vigilant, break the bread of life which Christ hath bequeathed. But if the Portions of Orphans cleave fast to your hands, how can you hold them up to that Saviour, who committed himself to joseph's trust when he was a Babe, and was not deceived? If the cause of an abused Client rattle in your mouth, how can you plead for mercy to him, who did plead so well for the woman taken in Adultery, and she was acquitted? If the faith of some poor betrothed Virgin, whom you have wronged, cry for vengeance, how can Christ, the faithful Spouse of the Church, attend to your supplication? If your poor Lambs pine for want of milk, how shall the great shepherd Christ Jesus afford you the comfort of one drop of water? O the sobs of Orphans, the cursings of Clients, the tears of abused Virgins, the bleat of your Flocks, the revealing of secrets. Arcanique fides prodiga perlucidior vitro; and this Psalm of David against Achitophel his false Counsellor will ring over heaven, and cause judgement to fall down upon such who lifted up their heel against them that trusted too much to their slippery infidelity. Yea mine own familiar, etc.  
Now the third complaint is sorest, he that did eat of my bread, Magnificavit dolum, did exalt mischief against me. It hath been said in scorn of the Epicure, that the palate of his mouth was more sensible than his heart, it is well that somewhat would please him. But Achitophel had neither feeling of David's true love in his heart, nor any taste of his benefits in his mouth, friendship and food were both lost upon him, Comedebat panes, and yet he is his enemy. As in the overflowings of Nilus the corn fields are the better, and the fatter for it, but Serpents and Vermin grow out of the fruitfulness: So the overflowing of benefits begets nothing in an ill disposition but Worms and Cankers: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. Bazil. Not a Cur so fierce but will fawn upon you, and lick your hands if you feed him; Birds are not so wild but by giving a little meat unto them, in time they may be brought to pick up crumbs at your Table; what a brutish thing is ingratitude, that the beasts may be won with that which would not win Achitophel? Nay, there are such, says the Father, that you lose them when you bestow kindness upon them, and envy will repine that you have ability to supply their wants. Jupiter hospitibus num te dare jura loquuntur, etc. The Table of hospitality was ever accounted a sacred thing. And St. Austin thinks that Christ did reveal himself to Cleophas and the other Disciple in breaking of bread, rather than in any other sign, because they offered him part of their own entertainment at Emmaus. And Salt was a Symbol of friendship among the Heathen, because feeding at the same board was an uniter of affections and amity. The Greek Proverb makes it the basest kind of love, to have the relish of a Parasite in a man's mouth, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. to love no longer than we are fed. But here is a canker worm that devours the sap of the tree that feeds him, like unnurtured beggars, served plentifully at rich men's doors, and yet take advantage how they may break in and rob the house where they were relieved.  
You may as soon reduce the babbling of a mad man to reason as to take any measure of this vice of ingratitude. Can you search the depth of that which hath no bottom? It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Sieve or Colender which contains nothing that you pour into it. It is gone like the wind which passeth by our ear, and you shall hear of it no more. Take the great instance from him whose case was most pitiful. Why was our Saviour put to death? For envy. Why was he envied? For his good Works. What good Works had he done? He fed the hungry, and this bountiful Lord hath Gall and Vinegar presented to him. He raised the dead, divers of their own Nation, and yet the giver of life is put to death; Devils were cast out of another, and the cleanser of the house is defiled with spittle. Can any reason be given for this? We may say indeed, as one did, to our own shame, that there are a sort of men, Divites aliorum jacturis, immortales funeribus; such as are rich by other men's losses, and immortal by other men's funerals: but what reason can we yield for that? none at all. It is a sin without a bottom, and therefore it hath the greater affinity with Hell and damnation.  
I have thought it one of the Devils principal projects, that since the story of the Athenian and Roman Commonwealths were the most likely to be turned over and perused, you shall not pass the Annals of five years but some memorable example of ingratitude will cross your way. In Athens it was malum epidemicum; their all deserving Miltiades, Cimon, Aristides, Themistocles, discarded, disgraced, imprisoned, a City full of severe Laws against ingratitude, Sed moribus suis quam legibus uti maluerunt, full of opposite practice to the Laws. In the Roman Polity Camillus, Africanus, Scipio, Manlius, many more either dethroned from dignity, deprived of life, or banished their Country; wherefore Africanus spat in their face again, when dying in exile he did appoint this Epitaph for his Tomb, Ingrata Patria, ne ossa quidem mea habes; he did not bequeath so much as his bones to his ingrateful Country. These are the Devils Landmarks to guide after Ages by such disloyal precedents; we want not history then to pattern this vice by example, but if you ask for reason, as I said before, it is deeper than the Sea, and you cannot sound the bottom. Unless this may give a little satisfaction to the curious, that the flower of virtue hath been always untimely cropped in Popular Government, when the multitude are more prone to darken glorious deeds with envy than to make them famous by reward. And I could never find in my reading, that a deserving person found a due recompense in any State but by the bounty of a Monarch. And therefore it is a thousand pities, that our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, our Kings and Princes, that appoint prizes to them that best behave themselves in the Combat, that they should light upon ungrateful Courtiers, like David's undermining Achitophel, his familiar friend, that eat of his breads etc.  
I hope the truly noble and magnificent mind will say to this, Non nova mî rerum facies inopinave surgit; that he full well knew and foresaw he must lose many good turns when he bestowed them among men. Est tanti ut gratum invenias experiri vel ingratos, says Seneca; One thankful man is so precious a jewel, if you find him out, that it will quit cost to try twenty that are unthankful. Shall a good man lose the employment of his bounty because evil men have forgot the retribution of gratitude? God forbid. Show me an Usurer that hath broke up trade for being cast behind by one bankrupt; Show me a Seafaring man that leaves to traffic for one losing voyage. Post malam segetem serendum. You cannot show the man that will hold his hand from the seed hereafter, because one crop did not answer expectation. Nay, I had rather preach, that there was never more than one covetous Judas in the Church, who loved thirty pieces of silver better than a thousand blessings of his gracious Lord. I had rather persuade you, there was never more than one projecting Achitophel, who would contrive subtleties against David, who advanced him to the highest honour of his counsel; I will say that there is no mouth but doth bless him that feeds it, no needy soul but doth pray for him that relieves it, rather than discourage the liberal Benefactors, & weaken the hands of them whose hearts are enlarged to help the poor with their plenteousness. Again, the truly charitable delights in his own good deed, because it is given and bestowed, not because it is returned. The glory of the Roman Commonwealth, says M. Antony in Plutarch, appears not by the rich tributes they receive, but by the chargeable succours which they afford to their distressed Confederates, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Lastly, If you shut up your compassion against all men, because a few unthankful have put up your kindness in the dark, taking no notice of your hand that gave it, you commit not only rigour, but great injustice, to punish more than have offended.  
As for him that rewards evil for good leave him to God to receive his judgement. Serpent's can bear poison to envenom others, which doth not harm themselves, but the venom of the malicious shall be his own bane. The Viper dropped into the fire which hung upon St. Paul's hand, Acts xxviii. as if it had taken punishment of it own self, Quod nihil ad se attinens corpus attigisset, because it light upon a body which it should not have assaulted; but Achitophel, not so conscionable as this Viper, whom it irkt to have touched the Saint of God, broke his own neck for madness, because he could not supplant David. When Scevola ran his Weapon at King Porsenna, but miss his mark; the good King entreated him so courteously, that he made his enemy to say, Ego fortunae non succenseo quòd à bono viro aberraverim; I am not angry at Fortune which turned away my Sword from so good a man: But this Politician in my Text had not the grace to rejoice and be glad that his Lord and King did escape his pernicious stratagem; but, ambitious of nothing but to seem wise, disposeth his house in a prudent order and hangs himself. And because I cannot leave such a miscreant in a better place, here ends my treatise of Achitophel, of David's complaint, and the first part of this exercise, Yea mine, etc.  
And as Achitophel left himself hanging between heaven and earth for all men to gaze upon, so likewise hath Judas in the second part of the Text. I am now come from the complotting Statesman to the Apostatical Churchman; from him that dealt perfidiously with David, to him that was the traitor against David's Lord, The Lord said unto my Lord, Psal. cx. Corruptio optimi est pessima. That which is sweetest, when it is corrupted is most unsavoury; and by how much an Apostle of Christ was an office of more sanctity and faith than a Counsellor of King David, by so much the corruption of Judas is more soul than the corruption of Achitophel. To be called the Friend of his Creator, to be trusted by him who was the wisdom of the Father: to eat of the Paschal Lamb with him who was the Lamb of God, and yet to be the man that did ensnare his life, methinks the Devil did not enter into Judas, but Judas was more likely to enter and possess the Devil. Of every branch let me speak a little, as I did in the former complaint, Yea mine own familiar friend.  
Origen was so astonished to see Judas have this honourable compellation, that he would make us believe in his 35. Hom. upon St. Matthew, that no good man is so called in the Scripture; Friend how camest thou hither not having a wedding garment? he was bad: to him that grudged that he received but one penny in the Parable, Friend I do thee no wrong, take that which is thine own and depart, he was stark naught. But Origen did not remember that Abraham was called the friend of God, or that the Lord talked with Moses as one doth with his Friend, or that John Baptist was called the Friend of the Bridegroom, for the honour of these Saints be it spoken, it is strange that Judas should be styled his own familiar friend. But such reasons as I have picked up I will briefly lay down before you.  
1. Judas did bear himself as the friend of Christ, like a false dissembler. I will instance only in that profane kiss, a sign unto those that should lead him bound unto Caiaphas. Why did not the Traitor say, him whom you shall see chiding and reproving me, him that spits upon me, and accurseth me; no, he trusted too much to the lenity and gentleness of his Lord, therefore him whom you see me kiss hold him fast. St. chrysostom knows not which he should blame most, whether the High Priests, for sending their Servants with swords and staves, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a sweet muster for Priests to make says the Father, I would the High Priest of Italy would mark it; or whether Judas that came to betray his Master with a kiss. If thou wert not ashamed of the fact, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is it possible thou shouldst not be ashamed to give thy accomplices such a token? But out of that mouth, which had bargained for the wages of iniquity, nothing could come from those lips but a sign of mischief. O let no false Brother be encouraged, that the Son of God did not detest the kiss of an hypocrite, Non ut simulare nos doceat, sed ne proditionem fugere videatur. It was not to embrace a false friend, but he would not thrust him back, lest he should seem to decline and avoid his Passion. Would you not think, but as Elisha put life into the Shunamites Child by laying mouth to mouth, so Judas much more might have received life by laying his mouth to our Saviour's? Had it not been probable, that since the woman was cured of her bloody issue by touching the Him of his Garment, much more Judas should be cured of a bloody heart by this royal favour? No, beloved, they are not the lips that kiss him, nor the womb that bore him, nor the paps that gave him suck, that make any one happy, but a heart without guile, and love unfeigned. Small comfort it is to Judas, that upon this outward sign of courtesy he is called his own familiar friend.  
Secondly, Judas doth pass current with this mighty name because Christ did use him as a friend. Bad as he was, the Spirit of God is not ashamed to call him one of the Twelve, Ne tam exiguus numerus esset sine malo, says St. Austin; that we may see how corrupt the world is, since in so small a flock there is a Wolf in sheep's clothing. The time will give me leave to make but one instance of our Saviour's good offices unto Judas, and that is the washing of his feet. Nay, Lorinus tells it as a received tradition of the Church, that among all the Disciples Judas was the first whose feet our Saviour washed, to satisfy his aspiring ambition. Sed quod lavit gratia inquinavit perfidia, says St. Ambrose; Grace would have washed him clean, but that perfidiousness stained him like a Blackamoor. And could Judas lift up his heel against him, whose precious hands had washed those heels in all humility? Like Sciron the murderer, who placed his Throne by the Cliffs of the Sea, and constrained Passengers to kiss his feet, whom he spurned down the Rocks, and broke their necks. Could those feet be swift to shed blood? Could they find the way into the High Priests Hall after they had been bathed and wiped with the hands of a mighty Prince, which notwithstanding cast themselves under the Traitor's feet? What could the mighty God do more, than to draw poor dust and ashes to him with this title, Yea, mine own familiar friend?  
Thirdly and lastly, the name of friend is not plucked away from Judas, because Christ stretched out his arms, and was ready to receive him into friendship if he had repent. Whither doth this lost man run with his thirty pieces of Silver? Is there not an High Priest to go to greater than all the Priests in Jerusalem, that he runs to Caiaphas to cast them before him in desperation? As Tacitus said of Claudius Apollinaris, a vain inconstant man, Neque fidei constans erat, neque constans in perfidiâ; so Judas knew neither how to be faithful to Christ, nor how to behave himself when he was treacherous. When he had trained a Plot to betray his Lord, he knows not how to make amends to renounce the treachery. Had he but stood and wept among the Daughters of Jerusalem, or ran to Golgotha to learn repentance from the converted thief, then surely he that bore the iniquities of all the world upon his Cross would have felt no more burden, if he had carried the sin of Judas. And so much for the last reason, because our Saviour is ready to be reconciled to every contrite man, therefore he did expect this fruit from Judas, and calls him his own familiar friend.  
I proceed to the next branch of his crime, He whom I trusted did lift up his heel against me. But because our Saviour knew before what was in man, or in the heart of man, it must stand as a question to be debated, why he would lay himself so low as this humility, to trust in Judas?  
1. Bucer comparing this place of the Psalmist with the same as it is cited, Joh. xiii. 8. finds these words to be left out in St. John, the man in whom I trusted, and so rejecting Judas as never worthy of our Saviour's trust, applies himself to give no answer.  
2. Leo and Euthymius varying from some stories, which cast infamy upon Judas, that he slew his Father, and was incestuous with his Mother, to the end that he might honour our Saviour's choice in the twelve Apostles, inclines to that opinion, that Judas was once good, and worthy of our Saviour's trust. Yea, Theophylact is willing so far to excuse the Traitor, as if he did not sell his Master, thinking to bring him to the death of the Cross, but having had experience, both at the brow of the hill, when the people would have cast him down, and likewise when he escaped stoning in the Temple, by passing away in form invisible, how it was in his power to delude his enemies, I say Theophylact conceits of Judas, that he did expect Christ would now have acquitted himself from the judgement of Pilate. Beloved, this is my rule; Where men cite conjecture, and not reason, it is free to gainsay or incline to their authority: But where the Scripture gives up a spark, it is enough for us to light a Candle by. Now says Christ, very early after he had chosen his Apostles, John vi. Have I not chosen you Twelve, and one of you is a Devil? This methinks disables Euthymius his opinion, and from the beginning there was no grace in Judas.  
3. The common current of Expositors confine the trust which this man had to the credit which was given him to bear our Saviour's Purse of Alms and Charity. What they say cannot be disallowed as improbable; yet it seems Christ put little trust in such an officer, for when a payment was to be made of Tribute unto Caesar, the money was borrowed of a Fish, and laid in the hand of his true Apostle St. Peter to disburse it.  
4. This is the construction of the Gloss, Christ had that eye of trial over all things, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and therefore it could not be verified in him, that he put any confidence in so ungracious a practiser. Sed membra crediderunt. As Christ was persecuted in the person of the Church, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? So he trusted in Judas in the person of the Church, which did whilom believe in him for a true Apostle. Yea, Leo tells it with as much confidence as if he had seen it, that no Apostle did cure more diseases, or cast out more Devils than Judas; and he passeth in old stories for no indiligent Preacher. O how often do such false Teachers enter in passing for Seeds-men, and sowing Darnel in the field. So that the Church may say of such Labourers, Yea, mine own, etc.  
5. St. Ambrose his judgement shall be the close of these opinions, and, as I conceive, it carries weight, Periclitari maluit judicium suum Christus quam affectum; Christ had rather we should conceive hardly of his judgement than to think he is not of the same affections with us. He had undertaken our frailty, and would show it in this part of his humility. He that hungered could have contented nature without meat; he that slept in the Ship could have satisfied nature without a slumber; he that is more inward to our heart than our own selves could have displayed the secrets of Judas openly: yet it did please him otherwise, to show his agreement in civil commerce with the frailties of men. St. Chrysostom, preaching upon St. Paul being struck blind from heaven, hath this Moral upon it, Nemo meliùs videt quam qui caecuttit; No man sees better than he that hath been once blind: According to which I say, No man is more prudent than he that hath been once deceived. Therefore that we may patiently suffer our judgement sometimes to be abused, our Saviour put himself in the way to be a mirror of that humility, And his own familiar, etc.  
He that did eat of my bread: Here is another Article to fill up the measure of Judas his indictment. What, another obligation? And yet betray his Lord? I am ashamed to say there is so much iniquity in the nature of man: But it is too true, that a small kindness, as it will work no good, so it will work no hurt upon the worst men, whereas a multitude of benefits provokes ingratitude to hate the Author. Beneficia eo usque laeta sunt dum videntur exolvi posse, says Tacitus; That which may be repaid is well accepted of, but some are so devilish, that instead of good will, they return hatred, when they know they must die ingrateful. So did this false Apostle, who, not contented to be an under confederate, was Dux eorum, says St. Peter, Acts i 16. the Ringleader, the Captain of them that took Jesus. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says my Text, He did lift up and exalt his power; Magnificavit dolum, says the Chaldee Paraphrase. He did advance his treachery, not like Dan, An Adder in the path lurking to bite the horse heels, to make the rider fall backward, Gen. xlix. 17. no such lurking Adder, but as a flying Serpent, magnificavit dolum, he lift up his heel, he triumphed in his ungodliness. And yet will you know what interest he had in his Master's favour? Comedebat panes meos, he did eat of my bread.  
If we follow the interpretation of the Gloss, it is to be understood de buccellâ quam intinxerat jesus, of the sop which was dipped, and given into his hands with this reproach, To whom I give the sop he shall betray me, John xiii. 26. If we follow Cassiodor, he says this bread is Doctrina in quâ spiritualiter epulamur, Christ's continual preaching and instruction, which is the food of the soul. So David, repeating my Text in a Paraphrase, p. 55. turns it thus, We took sweet counsel together, there was the trust; and walked in the house of God as friends, there was the bread which was eaten. But if we follow St. Hierom, and a list of Worthies after him, it is to be understood of the blessed Sacrament. Say it were the Sop, and did you ever hear of a Conscience so feared up? That durst be treacherous when he was branded with the suspicion, Tu es homo, Thou art the man. Say it were the preaching of the Word, and what Adder would have stopped his ears except this Serpent? When that voice charmed him so often, at which the Angels are astonished, and hide their faces. Say it were the bread of the Celestial Communion, and how stubborn was this unbeliever that could not relish how precious the body of Christ was before he did betray it.  
Beloved, I would that Judas were to be blamed alone. But if we could consider what things the Lord hath done for our peace; who is he among us all that hath not had his ●op, that is, some particular token, some especial means, God's hand reaching out a good occasion unto us as well as unto Judas? We have not the lively voice of the very Oracle, but we have the Letter of the very Oracle, and the true Prophets of the very Oracle, reading the Law in the Congregation, expounding faith and good works from the Pulpit, giving to you all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the portion of your food. And we cannot say but there is a Pot of Manna in the Ark; the holy Supper provided at solemn Feasts, heavenly meat dispensed in due season, whereof we have been partakers. Now if after particular warning, a token best known to every man's conscience, if after the Word preached, if after the Sacrament of Christ's own body, we wax stubborn and rebellious, as David charged Achitophel, as Christ impeached Judas, so will God indite thee, Yea mine, etc.  
Had I not read of the poisoning of an Emperor with the Cup of the Eucharist, and of a suspicion that a Pope was made away with the consecrated Host, I should have thought that none had come to the Communion Table with a murderous heart, but only Judas. But now I have considered, that to enter into conspiracies with the Sacrament set before them, is as solemnly kept, and as usual with the Jesuits, as to tune Instruments before Music. I can give an instance for what I say in that execrable Powder Plot; they that have transubstantiated the Wine into blood, and the Cake into raw flesh, are fed for nothing but to pray upon the flesh of their enemies, like Diomedes horses, and to drink their blood. Tam bibit hoc avidè, quam bibit ante merum. They are not beholding to the Devil for his temptation, Mat. iv. To turn stones into bread. Let the Devil rather be beholding to them, and learn how to turn bread into stone, and brain there our familiars. Melchisedech brought forth bread and wine for Abraham after the slaughter of his enemies, if you would moralise it, after the mortification of his sins; but was ever such an holy Table spread to furnish any man to go out to battle to kill his Friends and Confederates? I have not many words to speak against this violent sin, the extinguisher of all grace, and the shame of nature; but I will speak home. Whosoever frequents this Supper, and beats out Plots upon this Table as upon the Anvil of malice, like Judas, like the Jesuits, the root is Hell, and the fruit is certain condemnation.  
St. Austin, in his twelfth Sermon upon St. John, hath given me the hint to go one step further; The good members of the Church, says he, are set forth in the person of St. Peter, In Judae personâ reprobi, the lost part, the Reprobates are charactered in the person of Judas. Wherefore there is great reason from hence to cry after collapsed Heretics who renounce the Faith which once they professed in sincerity, and to summon those discontented Runagates who fall off from our Church to the glorious superstition of the Papacy with this compassionate verse, Yea, mine own familiar friends; yea, my Children that have sucked my breasts have drawn blood from me: such upon whom I have laid hands of Ordination have broken the Covenant, and smote me with the Palms of their hands, their Pen hath wounded me with bitter Motives: Such as have eaten my bread, and compassed my Communion board like Olive branches of peace round about my Table, they have called me the Seed-plot of new Doctrine, and the Mother of Sacrilege, they have lift up their heel against me, and kissed the proud feet of my Adversaries. We have no such enemies against our peace, no such slanderers of our Church, no such forgers of Calumniations almost incredible, as among those fugitives that have skulked to Rome and Downy, to worship the Gods of the Groves. As if they could not prove themselves to have forsaken us, unless they had forsaken natural affection, and the ingenuous colour of modesty.  
Away with them rebellious tongues, let them pack to other Kingdoms, we are not afraid as Pyrrhus was, that they who spoke evil of him at home, would backbite him worse if they were banished and sent abroad. No, I am glad there is Sea enough about the Island to purge away such filth from the shore retrimenta populi. Let them who abide with us be more courageous, like the remnant of gideon's army, and be confident, that although some, which were harnessed and carried Bows, have turned their backs from us in the day of battle, yet by the hands of the residue the Lord will give victory to his chosen people. But as Cyrus in Xenophon speaks of the manner of the Median hunting beasts in Gardens, that they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, hunt beasts that were bound; so to follow these turncoat Fugitives, which have sheltered themselves in Cloisters, and are sworn to do us mischief, it were vincta venari, to pursue that which was entangled, therefore I leave them with Judas and this brand upon both their foreheads, concluding the second part of my Text, etc.  
I am now descended in the third place to the stratagem of this day, and am fallen upon the haters of my Lord the King. A King who is an uniter of Kingdoms into one body as David was of Judah and Israel, none more zealous, no not David himself, for the prosperity of Jerusalem, and the magnificence of the holy Temple. Under Christ not only the Supreme Head, but under Christ the most careful Watchman of our Churches; and as Christ did tenderly affect his Apostles above all other men, so the Successors of the Apostles, the Reverend and most holy Bishops of our Church, have found not the smallest place in the love of our gracious Sovereign. Surely above all men if the Clergy be not careful to set forth the honour of this day with great joy and solemnity, it is their ignorance, or their negligence. Ignorance is the very annihilating of a Scholar, negligence the foulest fault in a Labourer.  
Had these furious Swordmen that laid their weapons to his throat sound an austere Master, nay, a Tyrant, they must have born with it, and not touch the man that bears the character of the Lords Anointed. But his Peers are verè par●s, welcome as his equals, his familiar friends. Had they been out of the lists of counsel, not acquainted with secret affairs, what should they do but be thankful for the peace which they enjoy without trouble, and pray for that Government which fills them with plenteousness without their labour, but they were familiars in whom he trusted, adventuring his Royal Person not only under their roof, but under their locks and custody. Lastly, had his bounty no way flown into their Coffers, (and whose bounty among all the Kings of the earth hath replenished more?) yet their bodies are secure by the protection of his Laws, their souls secure by his maintenance of true Religion, their goods secure by his Courts of Justice, and yet his own, etc.  
Did eat of his bread, that is true. But to feed upon the King's hospitality is a courtesy every day common to thousands that visit the Court: But for a mighty Monarch to grace his Subject's Table with his Royal Presence, and to eat of his bread, this is not the felicity of every one; Pauci quos aequus amavit Jupiter, it is a respect of high honour where it lights, and the glory of an illustrious Family. And out of doubt that mind must be very sordid and avaricious, that esteems it not the more noble grace, to make their service find acceptation that they may expend somewhat rather than receive somewhat of a mighty Potentate. I can spare no more time to publish the black sin of the Authors of this treachery. It was Dionysius his saying to Plato, that if he should dismiss him, and give him leave to depart for Greece, Plato would make him the common talk of Athens; Do not think O King, says Plato, that we have so little care of learned conference that we would choose you for our discourse. So I hope, beloved, that our hearts are so full charged with thankfulness to God for this days deliverance, that in twenty years and more we have no leisure as yet to think of the Malefactors. Let this day be spent, and many days following, only in Prayer, and Supplication, and Thanksgiving to that God who hath given victory to his Anointed, and will do to his Seed for evermore.  
Nay, let me add one thing coronidis vice, and I have quite done; we have found this verse to tax Achitophel, to condemn Judas, and lastly, to lie at their door who perished deservedly this day in their own fury. Bonaventure hath yet smelled out another enemy, and such a one, as none more familiar, none more intimate to any of us all. Is not this fair warning beloved? And will you know who it is? O man it is thyself. He that prays to God to bless him from his enemies is afraid of malice, indeed it is a dreadful thing. He that prays to God to bless him from his friends is afraid of treachery, and indeed no mischief less avoidable. But let me pray to God to bless me from myself; no enemy so full of flattery, so like to prevail, so cunning in tentation. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it is the Civil War which wastes the inward parts, it is the carnal man against the spiritual. Self-love is every man's disease. Why? You are your own familiar friend. Confession of sins can hardly be extorted from us. Why? We trust to ourselves too much. Gluttony and Riot are within our Walls. Why? We feed ourselves, and are our own carvers. From our enemies defend us O Christ, from Foreign Invasion, from Domestical Conspiracy, from the malice of Satan, and from the corruption of this vile Flesh, the body of death which we carry about, Good Lord deliver us. AMEN.   

THE FIRST SERMON UPON THE Fifth of November.  AMOS ix. 2. 
Though they dig into Hell thence shall my hand take them.  
WE have two sorts of holidays and Festivals to call Assemblies together into the Church of God: Some in honour of the Saints who are our friends, that their Piety may redound to our imitation: Some occasioned by the malice of our enemies, to sing praises for our preservation; both are useful, if we advise aright. And who knows, whether King David was instructed better from Hushai his Friend, or from Shemei that reviled him? He that would be safe, says Plutarch, and walk sure, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he must either have true Friends, or bitter enemies. And, as God would have it, the Church hath plenty of both sorts: Saints of honour in heaven, spiteful men to undermine it upon earth: darkness beneath to complot treachery, light above to reveal it: There is both manus fodiens, an hand digging into Hell against us, and manus educens, the eternal hand that fashioned all things on our side, to take them out. Beloved, here are two chief instructions from two main ways to inform our faith, blessed is every one that hath duly prepared one heart to receive them.  
Which that we may the better do, I pray observe what a lofty Hyperbole the whole verse doth consist of, threatening the ungodly, that they shall neither have advantage by Heaven nor Hell. Though they dig, etc. They that go about to cast away themselves, are not in their way except they wander. And that you may know how sinners straggle whithersoever they go, mark what several interpretations the words do bear. Hugo the Cardinal his Exposition is thus: Si descendero in infernum, hoc est si profundum malorum confiteri nolo; If I keep close in my breast the secret of my sin, yet God will reveal it to my confusion: Si ascendero in coelum, si de justitiâ meâ superbiero; Though I extol my own works as high as my Saviour's merit, yet my righteousness shall be found an abomination. The Chaldee Paraphrase leads us to this interpretation; when the Army of the King of Babylon shall come, though you hide yourselves in Vaults and Caves, yet your flight shall be in vain; Quamvis ad aras fugitis, though you climb up to the Altar as Joab did, yet the Sword of Benaiah shall cut you short. Lyra's opinion is the third, and divers from the others; Si recurrerint ad consulendum Daemones pro suâ evasione sicut Saul fecit; Though they dig into Hell, and consult with Witches and Sorcerers, as Saul did, yet all shall come to nought: and then, Si ascenderint in coelum sanctos invocando; though they call upon all the Saints in heaven, yet shall not that superstition help their cause.  
But had Lyra or Hugo lived in these our days, or for eighteen years past had any wrote upon Amos but a Jesuit, one interpretation beyond all these must needs have met them in the face, they could not shun it. For to dig into Hell, and to climb up into heaven, they are all in all, both root and branches of that most execrable Powder-plot. Wherefore you may conceive as if the Prophet Amos had thus spoken: Though they dig into Hell, or though they undermine our Kingdom with vaults, and Sellarage, their impious labour shall come to nothing, but to their own utter shame. Yea, though they climb up into Heaven, though they canonize the enemies of God, and the King, and make Saints and Martyrs of them whom justice did execute, yet their sin shall be revealed in this world, and remembered to their condemnation in the world to come. If thy body were equal to thy mind, says one to Alexander, Alterâ manu orientem alterâ occidentem tetigisses; A short reach, and nothing to this stratagem. Never was any work composed of such contrarieties, that had the Devil at one end, and the Saints at the other, Hell at the bottom, and Heaven at the top. They mount up to heaven, they go down again to the deep, says David, Psa. cvii And in the next verse he concludes, that Mariners upon such giddy motions stagger like drunken men, and are at their wit's end. What, Shall I not much more be bold to say of these men, that dive into Hell, and would be enthroned in Heaven, are not they at their wit's end? Are they not drunk with the cup of abominations?  
You see then I have two ways to seek out these Powder Conspirators; toward Hell, and thither you may trace them by their digging: toward Heaven, but they never came thither for all their climbing. Were there no more Garnets' upon earth, nay, no more wellwishers to such treasons in this our Realm, than there are in Heaven, it were a blessing that would deserve the solemnity of another Holiday, wherefore I will turn me to the left hand only, and seek them out where I am sure I shall not miss, that is in the first part of the verse, Though they dig, etc. Who they were, whom the Prophet Amos speaks of, it bears no great sway in our present occasion. Who indeed but the Children of Israel? Being now in God's sight as Ethiopians in the seventh verse of this Chapter, Idolaters that swore by the God of Dan and Beersheba, and by the sin of Samaria in the latter verse of the former Chapter. And you know now-adays who are like unto them, that were once an elected Church, and the Israel of God, but now have almost overtaken the Heathen in a kind of mimical Idolatry: But let them pass with that fault, and God amend them, it is not pertinent to the work of this day. My provision upon these words shall be laid out in this rank and order: 1. Here is the negotiation of the wicked that they dig: there wants no pains, there wants no secrecy. 2. Here is the object of their employment, and that is Hell. 3. There is a twofold end implied, why they undertake such a business; either for their own refuge, as I told you out of Hugo and the Chaldee Paraphrase: Or rather to undermine others, which is more agreeing to Lyra. 4. Here is the frustrating, and the defeating of their work, Thence my hand will take them out; snatch them from their thievish corners, and take his Chosen out of all their trouble. Beloved, to what toil iniquity puts men to? 1. They dig and labour. 2. To what secrecy? What dread of conscience? They dig into Hell. 3. How unprofitable is the event? For when all is done they are apprehended by the hand of God, not unlike St. Peter's fishing, Luk. v. 5. Master, says he, we have toiled hard, and all the night, and caught nothing. Which is like St. Paul's gradation, who calls them works, unfruitful works, and works of darkness, Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.  
I begin with the Action, wherein two things are to be observed, the labour, and the Secrecy. Digging it imports labour; sin itself it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and most burdensome it is to them who are servants to obey it. Whatsoever we do, as we are men, it is an action under one of these three heads: For it is either an action of Fancy, and prevents the concurrence of the will, and is neither good nor bad: Or secondly, it is an action of the will, but rash and sudden, and prevents advice and deliberation, which impeacheth both the value of a good deed, and diminisheth the malice of a bad: (for as touching sudden passions, and temptations that take us unawares, there hath always been some mitigation in the Laws of Man; and pardon, no question, before the judgement of God.) Or lastly, the will hath dwelled some time upon her object, and consulted, and delighted in it, and then if the work be amiss, this is that which, as St. Paul says, makes sin exceeding sinful. And now, beloved, this is that which our great Adversary desires in us, to make us lay the Cockatrice Egg, and hatch it, and bring it up; to put us to fodere, to dig and take pains to be sinful: To make the Prodigal Son bind himself Apprentice, and feed Swine, a strange homage, and a most base attendance, to plow up iniquity, as the Prophet speaks, and to reap ungodliness.  
Egypt was the Type, and Figure, the very platform of Satan's Kingdom. There is nothing but gathering stubble, and groaning under taskmasters, making brick, and more brick if we flinch under the burden. And the heathen when they would make us believe that they had peeped into Hell, and seen all, make no relation but of toil, and hard usage that the souls were put to. One at the wheel, another drawing water: some rolling stones, and some twining cords: every corner full of fretful industry. For if Satan himself take no rest, shall his instruments look for ease and softness? Six days thou shalt labour, God requires no more. Nay, thou shalt labour seven days, Sunday and every day alike, and break the Sabbath, that is the Doctrine of the Tempter. I speak to them that can judge of the secrecy of States, and the wisdom of the world, what a Labyrinth Matchiavel hath put his disciples into to learn his mysteries and principles of treachery? How many Centuries of Rules to be observed? (Which I know not, but by the Index) it will ask brains to dig and delve for that invention of iniquity, but pure Religion, and undefiled may be comprehended in the smallest Medal, Love thy neighbour as thyself. All Liquors, that are wholesome for the sound are for the most part simple, and unmixed; but how many extractions go before, how many distillations and decoctions follow after to make a Poison? Cariùs venenum quam vinum bibitur. It is an easy matter to tread the Vintage, and press out the juice of the Grape in great plenty: but you must attend the fire and furnace to confect a drachm of poison. So the service of Baal is but vassalage, his Priests roar from Morning to Evening, they lance and wound their Carcases, fodiunt ad inferos, they dig to Hell; but the service of the Lord passeth away with joy and melody. A sacrifice of Prayer at Morning, and a sacrifice of praise at Evening▪ an heart without guile towards men, a steadfast belief in Jesus Christ, this is all. And yet will you say, the ways of the Lord are grievous.  
The forbidden fruit, you know, it was not planted in the skirts of Paradise, near to the hedge, where any man might reach it; but in penetralibus, in the midst of the garden; as if God had hidden sin from man, but that the Serpent made him industrious to find it out. Quid irâ laboriosius, says Seneca? Look upon the pale face of anger and envy; Is not that sin a labour? Consider the loathing of surfeit and drunkenness: is not that sin a labour? Go to the Hospitals of incontinent lascivious persons, see how their marrow and their bones are consumed; is not that sin a labour? Will you laugh a little at the pitiful object of a covetous man? (No, we will not sport ourselves with his vanity, the Lord shall have him in derision;) but when he denies sleep to his eyes, and meat to his belly, and rest to his bones, to scrape in a mite more to his heap; is not that sin a labour? Finally, let us look upon our Parliament Pioners, such another Band as Judas brought from the High Priest with Lanterns and Staves to betray Christ; three years they kept this Fox in their bosom, till at last it eat out their bowels. Three years, O Lord, they did behold thy heavens above, and all that time did never think of Hell that was within them: Did they not plow up the Seas to and fro in conference with foreign Nations? Did they not plow up the Land with their own arm, and possessed vaults with all Munition, as if they had belonged to the Devil's Armoury: When were any Gentlemen daintily bread put more to labour? What use shall we make now of all these instances? But cast off the bondage of iniquity; be not vassals to the Prince of darkness, since Christ hath made you free.  
O but you will say, the work of Godliness is very great; the Gospel is a yoke, the way to glory is straight and narrow. So it is. And no question if you look not upon the reward to come, every course in the world is painful. Life and death, the fear of God, and the power of sin, all are vexation of spirit in this corruptible flesh. But, Beloved, who gave you feet and hands? Who did frame your body woven with veins, and strengthened with sinews? What may God Almighty say that did all this? As that Roman did to his Son? Non te genui Catilinae sed patriae. Since you needs must work either in my Vineyard, or in the Devil's Dunghill, turn unto him that gave you limbs to work, they were not made to dig into Hell, but for my employment, and my glory.  
And so much for the tedious labour to the which the ungodly do enthral themselves. Now secondly, digging doth imply that they cast about for conveyance and secrecy; a thing that God did always reprove, ever since he divided between the light and darkness. The Ferret, the Mole, and the Coney, those creatures that dig into the ground were unclean food to God's children, Leu. xi. Spiritus movebatur super expansum, Gen. i. the face of the world lay open before God, when the Spirit moved upon it; but there are an evil sort of men, whose Spirit never moves upon the face of the earth, but live as if they were strangers in our Horizon, and traded with our Antipodes: close, and subtle, fearful of nothing but a revelation; you can scarce fathom how deep their soul lies within their body. When Saul enquired for the Prophet Samuel, every Maiden whom he found carrying a pitcher of water could certify him, that the Man of God did sacrifice on the top of the hill, 1 Sam. ix. But he was fain to inquire and search over all the Land to find out the Witch of Endor. Apemantus the Cynic, says Plutarch, never thought himself better than in the company but of one more; his Partner Timon never thought himself more cheerful than when he was quite left alone. The face of man will ever carry so much reverence, so much of the Image of God, that outrageous sins will turn away, and be loath to appear before it. Herodotus reports of certain Indians, that were wont to blaspheme the bright Sun when it rose in glory, as if the nights were too short to commit filthiness. Why, but our very name is enough to dispel darkness from our actions. We are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Greeks, as if men, and day-childrens did not differ one letter; and they that lurk, and retire, like Sisera in the Tent of Jael; and live like Meteors, the imperfect bodies of nature, in a cloud, they seem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to repine at their birth and creation, which hath brought them to the light. Besides that the substance of our nature is more naked from the womb than any beast, without hair or feathers, without scales or shell to cover us, like the Fishes of the Sea: Besides this, I say, Nature hath provided that the Countenance of no creature doth betray the inward disposition so much as the face of man. Then let Herod the Fox know, and the profound Craftsmen of our age, that God hath half opened the heart of man in the complexion of his visage, as Isaac did open the two Wells in the Valley of Gerar, and if you dam and stop up the windows of your breast, as the Philistines did the Fountains, let us call them as he did, The Wells of hatred and contention, Gen. xxvi.  
There was great devotion no doubt in the Vigils of the Primitive Church, praying, and singing Psalms in the dead hours of darkness, as if they were prepared to meet the Bridegroom at midnight; but because this custom smelled of too much secrecy, it was wisely left off as an offensive Ceremony. And, that all may be done in the face of the Congregation, though we allow, and exhort you unto private Prayer in your secret Chambers; yet the chief part of the Liturgy, I mean the Lords Supper, it is a Communion of Saints, and but in case of sickness or extremity never to be dispensed in private Families. And now, I pray you, call to mind the bloody conjuration of this day, to whose secrecy those desperate Pseudo Catholics swore even at the Table of the Lord. Was not Religion turned topsie turvy, when those sulphurous traitors, and their Father Jesuits, turned the Communion of our Saviour to a non-communion, to link and combine themselves in eternal silence? That Sacrament of Charity, the strongest tie of love that ever God made, became an Oath to unite the malice of Satan: Sweet Jesus, thy side was opened to let out that blood which they drank down to close up their sin in darkness; Thy body was exalted on high upon the Cross, that the world might look upon thy sufferings, which they broke and took secretly, as if it were to be buried for ever, and should never rise and appear in glory. And thus they thought to carry their stratagem, as the High Priests Servants did, when they blinded our Saviour, and smote him, saying, Ariolare nobis quis te percussit, prophesy if you can who they were that smote you down. It was commended for plain dealing in Agesilaus, that he was wont in his travels abroad to take up his lodging in the Temple where he lighted, as if he that revealed himself to men by day, would not conceal himself to the very Idols by night. Alas how can they expect to shine hereafter like stars in glory that are openly seen, whose actions are as unknown to the world as hidden qualities? Or how can they make St. Paul's word good, that the vail is taken away under the Gospel, that have taken away all knowledge from the people, and instead of explicit faith profess mystery?  
For if ever false wares were sold to ignorant people under dark lights, the Lay part of Rome have been so abused; the Jesuits shall carry it for the best Jugglers that ever practised. Such tricks are pretended to enthrall their Novices in belief, that if you resolve their cause into the last principles, the unnurtured people have nothing but Templum Domini for their share. First, Every Prayer they say it is a Creed, somewhat indeed they mutter in an unknown tongue, but for aught they know, instead of a Prayer it may be a Blasphemy. And is not that Religion masked in secrecy? Yet if the Church doth not teach them explicitly, the Word of God will teach them to pray: but as the Spirit said to Christ, so do they to the Scriptures, Quid nobis & tibi? What have we to do with thee thou Book of God? It were as good for the Philistines to bring the Ark into the house of Dagon, 1 Sam. v. And is not that imperfect Religion masked in secrecy? Well fare the Fathers; yet they talked of them much: to much purpose indeed, when like the Feast of King Saul, many Guests are there, but David's place is empty. Index expurgatorius hath left the Parable behind, and sponged out the Moral. As when one painted a Cock untowardly, says Plutarch, to his no great commendation, his Friends advised him to drive away all true Cocks from coming near it; so Falsehoods are maintained, and Truth must not stand cheek by soul in the Fathers; and is not this Religion masked in secrecy? Well, though the Doctrine of the Fathers be brewed and spoiled with their compositions, yet hold fast your Traditions, say the Tridentine Bishops, and all is well. And how came they (do you think) into credit? No question, says Salmeron, but our Saviour delivered them to St. Peter in the forty days between his Resurrection and Ascension. No question but Salmeron can never prove it; and is not this Religion masked in secrecy? Nay, says Melchior Canus, Heretics may be busy with other proofs, yet the Schoolmen will stand the shock against all incursion of Adversaries. Those are of good use many times, but many times, and perchance more often, the winding stairs, where you are still going down from conclusion to conclusion, and never see the bottom; and is not all this Religion masked in secrecy? The sum of the first part of my Text is this, in the actions of the wicked there is nothing but labour in the undertaking, and shame, which makes them dig to shroud themselves. Now I come to their object, ad inferos fodiunt, Though they dig into Hell, etc.  
The Souls of wicked men and evil Angels (says St. Austin) have these three qualities: Rationem, passibilitatem, aeternitatem, and all these blessings turn to a curse. 1. They have reason, to be apprehensive of misery. 2. Obnoxiousness to passion, that they may feel the smart of misery. 3. Immortality, that they may groan in endless misery. O ye transgressors of God's Law, can you deny that you have knowledge, what are the sufferings of damnation? Why God hath given you reason, are you not sensible that sometimes in this life you find a torture in your soul? Why, but God hath made you sensible and passive. Why are you so wilful, O ye desperate ones, to cast Heaven at your back, and when Hell is before you, and the eternity of damnation, to outstare the Devil, and dig into his Kingdom? Mark how Hell itself cannot open its mouth so wide as the wicked would have it; they dig a bigger pit to enter in. Non expectamus tentationem in multis sed praevenimus, says St. Austin. We are in many things of our own accord so hasty to do evil, that we do not wait for bad suggestions, but even prevent tentations.  
All Nations whom thou hast made shall worship, coram te, before thee O Lord, says David, Psal. lxxxvi .9. If you look upon God your faces shall shine with innocence like Moses in Horeb, Stephens at Martyrdom, or our Saviour's at his transfiguration: And then you must not dig downward, but say to the Tempter, get thee behind me Satan, and leave it to treacherous men to beat their brains out with knocking their heads against the gates of Hell. Vultures ad odorem putredinis statim convolant, incorruptum corpus non attingunt, (says Plutarch;) Vultures will flutter about a putrified carcase: but they have nothing to do with that which is clean and sincere. Therefore Idolaters are in their right way, and whither should they dig but into Hell?  
Which Phrase of the Prophet Amos may be grounded upon these four Reasons: Sinners dig into Hell, 1. Propter infinitatem peccati, Iniquity is infinite like Hell, and hath no bottom. The waves of ungodliness will take a man in the first conceit to the ankles, in the delight unto the knees, in the act unto the middle, in the custom to the neck, in the contumacy the stream will go over our soul. When we set foot into any bad action, who knows his journey's end? Labitur & labetur in omne volubilis aevum. The Romans had an order in their Court, to cut off a suit of intricate debate, and called it Ampliùs, when they would thereafter determine more of the matter. Such an Ampliùs was in David's Adultery, such an Ampliùs in St. Peter's denial. Like a Cylindrus rolled down an hill, so is the sin of our heart; if you once let it go, who can stop it? As it is said of fluxus puncti, that the least point may run into infinite, so can Satan malleate transgressions broader and broader, and bring in seven devils more, where there was but one before; and draw out as it were one Ox hide into many thongs to compass a City.  
2. This Phrase doth note sterilitatem peccati, the unfruitfulness of sin. They that dig would find it foundation; they that dig into Hell miss their aim, and find none. As when one that sleeps thinks he eats, but when he wakes his appetite is hungry: So worldlings have nothing but in a dream, and when they awake they grasp nothing. That World which the Devil promised to our Saviour could be but some fantastical representation, because he showed it in the twinkling of an eye. Sin is like the tomb of Queen Semiramis, that talks of a treasury to be hid within it, but he that digs into it shall lose his labour, and be laughed at for his covetousness. Satan's Sophistry never had good conclusion; and when you gather his harvest all is but Tares. Wherefore out sins are compared to the hairs of our head, and the sands upon the Sea shore. What are the hairs of our head? Neither blood nor marrow, but the excrements of our body. What are the sands of the Sea? But the barren wash which the Land hath spewed out. Such are the Sins that entangle us.  
But for such sinners as we have to deal with, there is to day a third reason why they dig into Hell. Propter similitudinem cum damnatis, for their resemblance to the evil spirits, and the damned. Those unhappy souls (says Aquinas) in whom all good must needs be extinguished, Volunt ex invidiâ omnes illud malum perpeti quod ipsi patiuntur; they desire that all the world may sink into the same Lake of fire with themselves. And whereas the rich man requested to have some body sent to convert his brethren. Ay says that learned Doctor, he knowing that a remnant must necessarily be saved, out of the root of envy had rather his own should escape harmless than another, though they lest deserved it, but absolutely they wish the damnation of all. Our Parliament underminers, how like are they to these envious prisoners of darkness? In whose eyes no life found grace to be preserved, neither King, nor Progeny: Judah, nor Levi: Nobles, nor Communality: the Reformed, nor the Romish. They did not thirst for one draught, but for a bath of blood. Again, says Alice, the Fiends of Hell are so malicious, Vt synteresis in iis extincta sit; that the light of well-guided reason is extinguished in them. And his Argument is this▪ Quia in gohennâ se vellent esse, potius quam non esse, ut pugnent contra Deum; They had rather remain so tormented than be quite abolished: that the red Dragon and his Angels might fight against God. Was it not thus with those Romish Priests, the main actors in this intended Tragedy, who chose to lurk within this Island in despite of Laws awd terror, only to stir up Treason and Rebellion, rather than to take fair leave granted to depart, and to pack for ever.  
Lastly, There is a fourth reason noted by Lyra, why some are said to dig to Hell, because they use Sorceries, and enchantments, vain miracles to deceive, and in the power of Antichrist strong delusions. When a Thessalian Strumpet was accused to Olympias for enchanting her husband Philip's affections; she hath a smooth painted face, and an alluring tongue, says Olympias, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there needs no other Witchcraft. Neither will I accuse the Roman Church for dealing with familiar Spirits (yet deluding Miracles are the next wall to Witchcraft) but golden Promises, and ambitious Titles Have been their Sorcery to entice away some discontented persons from us, and then they glory in their victory and conversion. It is well known, you may get Fish enough with poisoned baits, but what are those fish good for when you have them? All that came to the Inchanteress Circe she won them to be her own; a slender purchase, when they degenerated into Hogs and Asses. Neither let it move you, beloved, to hear a Jesuit boast, that they have won the flower of our Gentry and Clergy at several times, and left the ignorant part behind. When the Athenian Orator called the Lacedæmonians unlearned; true indeed, says Plistonax, we are the only Greeks that have learned no ill manners from you. It is our own case God be praised, who of all Nations are least seasoned with the Tridentine Leaven. But let them use their arts, and inveigle them who were lost from the beginning, dig into Hell; yet surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel, says Balaam, Num. xxiii. 27.  
Were our foes spiritual powers of darkness in high places, as they are but men, yet for our comfort, first says St. Austin, Devils can do no more than God permits, Quare nec propitiandos, nec timendos existimamus; They are not worth our fear, or our courtesy, never flatter and claw them with kindness to bind their hands. Secondly, Upon the speech of the Prophet Elisha to his Servant, Plures nobiscum sunt, Hugo concludes that we have the better side, and that the number of good Angels exceeds the bad. And Aquinas is not without a reason for it: Sin, says he, is against the natural inclination of an Angel, Ea verò quae contra naturam fiunt in paucioribus accident, but in the effects of nature in any kind, it is never seen but that nature doth more often hit, than miss. Thirdly, Our Countryman Alice gives us this courage. Thirdly, That although the Devil, who began the quarrel but with a Serpent's sting, and in these last days is grown more fierce, and will end it with a Lion's paw; yet, Major est Christi gratia ad ligandum quam fuit prius; the virtue of Christ is more efficacious now than ever before to bind him fast. What shall I say then, since the worst of Devils are but God's Sergeants, not executioners by their own power. Since Michael and his Angels are the better number, and more courageous, since Christ hath the key of the bottomless pit to bind the binder's, Quamvis ad inferos fodiunt, though they dig into Hell, Zion shall dwell in safety.  
Having dispatched the Action, and the Object, it is to be examined what use these Fugitives can make of Hell. Why 1. To escape danger, and betake themselves to safety, says Hugo. 2. To inchant and complot against the innocent, says Lyra. Beloved, let your patience stay a little, and only see what the wicked would have. Every creature under the Sun hath a natural inclination and propensity to save itself, and to avoid that which may destroy it. The Lamb yeaned but yesterday makes haste from the Wolf; the Chicken newly hatched hides itself from the gliding of the Kite. As for Sinners and Reprobates, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they are so foolish, that when destruction doth threaten them, they dig into Hell for Saviour's. Like a runagate servant that was well-nigh overtaken, and ran away to hide him in a Mill, Vbi te occuparem nisi in pistrino, says his Master, it is the very place I wished to find you in. Somewhat like to that which Photion said of his bitter enemy Aristogiton, whom he visited in prison, Vbi congrediare cum Aristogitone libentiùs quam in carcere? In all the world the jail was the fittest place to encounter Aristogiton. So these Fugitives have chosen their rendezvous where God would have them; fodiunt ad inferos, etc.  
It was the Elegy of Heraclitus the Philosopher, Vivis esse unum omnibus & communem mundum; all that are awake know they live in one world together; Dormientes in peculiarem mundum divertere; men that dream, and are in sleep, every one in his fancy is in a world by himself. Give me leave to turn the River into my own Channel. The godly man that knows his sins and trespasses, knows he is in that world where God may take vengeance of him: But the presumptuous sinner, as foolish as the man that dreams, thinks his life secure, and that he is in a newfound world, where God cannot find him out. Whom God destinies out to destroy, it is his providence to make them find out a place, instead of preservation, for their own destruction. I will begin with Catesby and his fellow Assassinates; They lived in plenty amongst men, and in favour with their Prince, but being uncertain what might befall them, they devise a stratagem to advance their heads, that they might never be removed: why in this was God's providence to overwhelm them in their own cruelty. So one of the Cassii, being perfidious to his own Nation, and luckily discovered, fled to the sanctuary of a Temple, his own Father sentenced to have the door damned up, and so to starve him, there was his Sanctuary. Among five Kings of Canaan that were discomfited, Josh. x. in all likelihood, some or all might have escaped by flight, but they take a Cave at Makkedah over their head, and there they are enclosed. Jonah was sick with fear, and durst not walk upon the ground when God was displeased at him, then to make all sure he prepares for shipping: A strange resolution, as if the Sea had not as many deaths as there are winds that blow from all the corners of the world, as many graves as there are billows surging. How often have we seen our friends, like superstitions Gamesters, shift their ground, and remove into fresh air, and pleasant dwelling for their health, who have laid down their Carcase in that dust where they looked for recovery? In manus tuas Domine, in manus tuas; Into thy hands O Lord, into thy hands alone we commend all we have. Heaven is the only treasury where we may cast our two Mites safely, as the Widow did, I mean our soul and body.  
This then is the first part of folly in these profligate persons to dig for Saviour's into Hell. But secondly, they are a kind of men who cannot build except they pluck down; they purchase nothing but by other men's ruins, therefore they undermine, they would settle Religion by undermining the truth, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. We have had experience of such ill neighbours; alas, when we did stand before their faces, they did design us unto death, and we may say as David did living with Saul in his frenzy, As the Lord liveth there was but a step between us and death. Circa serpentis antrum positus diu non eris illesus, (says Isidor;) here lurks a Serpent, and there a Viper, and who could tread any where and not be bitten? Quid gloriaris tyrant? Faithless men, why do you boast so much of your refined wits that you can do mischief? When Songs were sung in every Town of Greece, how King Philip had defaced the fair City Olynthus: But when will he build up such another City says a silly woman? That would be cared for. Take away conscience, and dispense with the Word of God, and every soft Spirit, and silly man could cheat as much as any promoter.  
It was never otherwise from the beginning of the world, but that a bloodthirsty rabble have always treacherously opposed the new settling or reviving of the faith. The Israelites began to be a visible Congregation in Egypt to call upon God, let us deal subtly, says Pharaoh, and cut off the Male Children; there was one plot. The next change of their State was in Captivity; but finding favour in a strange Land, and growing to a competent number of religious souls, Haman had like to have cut them off in the twinkling of an eye; there was another plot. The next change after the Captivity was the Incarnation of our Saviour. Sweet Babe, no sooner is he born but Herod calls for the wise men privily to destroy him; there is a third plot. Anon after our Saviour's Ascension Ceremonies are evacuated, and Paul preacheth the Gospel, than their heads were busy to pluck down the Cedar, and plant the Heath-thorn, and more than forty men bind themselves with an oath to take away his life. Here are four plots, and since that time there have been four thousand. An honourable story for our reformed Zion, and if we glory let us glory in our infirmities, that for a long time the Monasteries of Friars, the Colleges of Jesuits, and the Consistories of Cardinals have been nothing but Conventicles to conspire against us. They seem to practise as against the eldest heirs of God's Inheritance, and they like younger Brothers by wile and by guile would fain succeed us.  
So I have let you see the two ends, why the wicked spend their time about this fearful object, which is Hell. First, For their own safety, and therein they deceive themselves. Secondly, To undermine others, and therein God will deceive them. The frustrating of their end is the last part of my Text, in these words, Ind educet eos manus mea, etc. The preservation of the innocent doth necessarily follow upon the detection of their enemies; yet a question stands in my way, and I must remove it, both in this place, and elsewhere, Why God doth more often express how the treacherous-hearted are enclosed, than how his Children are delivered? Because their wickedness doth more deserve shame, and detection, than our slender righteousness can deserve preservation: and therefore they are pointed at more visibly, inde educet, etc.  
Here are two discomforts for all those that lay baits against the soul of the righteous. 1. Ind educet; thence he will take them, God's eye is never off though they dig into Hell. 2. Manus ejus educet; though Hell be on their side, yet this hand is mightier, and will break them in pieces like a Potter's vessel. For the first; The eyes of God are upon the conspiracies of men like burning-glasses, and cast a light upon those things which afterward they will consume to ashes.  
The very Heathen, says Clemens of Alexandria, thought that nothing did more completely make a God than to see all things, and to be seen of no man; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Wherefore one says of the Crocodile, that the Egyptians in that vain Idol did resemble a God, Quia ex omnibus aquaticis habet oculos obtectos ut cernat, nec cernatur; It hath eyes so befilmed that perceives afar off, and is not perceived. What should we light Candles to the Gods in the day time (says Seneca) giving that wipe, as I think, to the Jews, Quoniam lumine nec Dii egent, & ne homines quidem delectantur fuligine. For neither God can stand in need of Candle-light, and men can take no great pleasure in smoke. In vain then shall sinners earth themselves in Vaults, and make Sellers their secret Pavilions to hide their head. Though Mountains were tossed upon Mountains between heaven and them, yet is not the eye of God's Divinity more active than Christ's Humanity? Though the doors be shut to enter in, and come unto them, I will search Jerusalem with Candles, saith the Lord, Zeph. i. 12. That is not all, the grave shall open, and give up her dead. The Grave is a place deep and hidden: but Hell is a darker corner than that, yet Satan himself appeared before the Lord. Job i. But above all darkness, the thoughts of the heart are most obscure; and the secrets of all hearts shall lie naked before him. Quo fugis Encelade, quascunque accesseris oras sub Jove semper eris. You are as near to God's eye in the utmost part of the Sea, as standing before his Altar.  
But secondly, that the counsels of evil men may be of no effect, as the eye of God is always open, so is not his hand folded up in his bosom, but his hand shall take them thence; that hand which never any saw alone but King Belshazzar, and you know what followed, his Kingdom departed from him. Indeed, all the parts of the body which are made both for defence and offence are attributed unto God for the confusion of his enemies. From the arm to the hand, from the hand to the finger, from the finger to the least touch, if he do but touch the Mountains they shall smoke. Against great invasions there is brachium Domini, a stretched out arm to deliver Israel from Egypt: But when he will fashion out deliverance with wonderful salvation, as if a workman had wrought it curiously with a tool, than the Prophets speak of the hand of God: but when the Lord doth demonstrate his great affection, and give us to learn some godly lesson by deliverance, Verè digitus Detest hic, that is a token of the finger of God. His finger, beloved, doth always point, his arm is always stretched, his hand is always open. And as Vegetius said of Chariots armed with sharp Scythes; that at first they were made for terror, and afterward forscorn: So is it with all malicious practices, which are beaten a while upon the forge, and Blacksmiths are busy at the fire to hammer out some Engine for our affrightment, but the Lord comes down and brings victory to his Chosen, that he may go up on high like a Conqueror with a merry noise, and as the Lord of Hosts with the sound of the Trumpet.  
Holy Bernard was touched with a spice of vain ambition in a godly Exercise, but recovering himself casts away Satan with these words, Nec propter te hoc opus coeptum est, nec propter te finietur. So we may be bold to say in the name of our God touching our Religion, it was neither reform for Satan's sake, neither shall it be deformed by his Conspiracies. Propter salutem duorum hominum duo millia porcorum perierunt, says St. Austin upon Mat. viij. that two men might be saved from the Devils that possessed them two thousand Swine ran headlong and perished in the Sea: Much less will the Lord suffer so great a flock as he hath in this Kingdom to be yielded up to the prey of the hunter: or that the wild Boar of the wood should root it up, Quamvis ad inferos, though he should root and dig to Hell, etc.  
When John and James would have called for fire from heaven, Christ rebuked them, saying, You know not what spirit you are of; as who should say, that is not the Spirit of the Gospel. O beloved, they that would call up for fire from Hell, what Spirit wot you are they of; Why, that that ever was, and ever will be the spirit of the Jusuite Papalins. God rebuke them. Lord, how often have I said with myself, surely the calamity of the poor Indians is much to be lamented, whom God hath delivered over into men's hands of such bloody Religion; certainly the report of those Millions whom they slew with the Sword is as true as lamentable. For what would they not do against savage men that worshipped Devils, and are forlorn of God, who would have caused the Channels to run with blood in that Kingdom where Christ is truly praised? But the hope of the Hypocrite, says Job, shall be swept away like the Spiders Web. Spider's Webs, you know, are spun from the vapour of their own poison, from within their secret bowels: So are the devices of the treacherous. Spider's Webs are woven in the darkest and most unfrequented corners of the house, so are the devices of the treacherous; Spiders Webs are long a framing, with much curiosity, but a feather sweeps them away in a moment, so shall be the devices of the treacherous.  
But admit that God be so careful for us, and so powerful against tyrants that seek after our soul, Vt te ipsum serves non respicis; shall we cast all the burden of our safety upon God's providence? Because Christ is praying and watching in Mount Olive●, shall Peter sleep? Is it enough to have a Sermon of Thanksgiving to day? And an Anthem to sing an holy Jubilee? And leave all the rest to God's hand? Shall we not remove the occasion which may bring us into bondage hereafter? Tant â sollicitudine petere audebis quod in te positum recusabis? Will you pray so heartily for that unto God, which you will not set hands to, when you may do it for yourselves? Arise Barak, and lead thy captivity captive thou Son of Abinoam. I see it methinks in all your Countenances, that every man is more willing to honour this day, than the very day wherein he was born into the world; for we are born in tears, we are preserved with laughter. God forbid that the enemy should have the upper hand, to make this day a byword for ever, and to be blotted out from among the days of solemnity. But whether they dig by Sophistry to pervert the weak and faithless: Or whether they give words as smooth as Oil, having War in their hearts; or whether they send over Emissaries, Boutefeaves to devise against Jerusalem, Lord keep thine anointed King in safety, make his Crown flourish long upon his own head, and upon the head of our most illustrious Prince, and for ever uphold our Church and Commonweal, that as thy truth hath brought it out of darkness of error, and thy hand hath protected it from dark Conspiracies, so it may shine in these Kingdoms for ever as the Sun in the Firmament, and as the faithful Witness in heaven. Even so Lord Jesus. AMEN.   

THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE Fifth of November.  ACTS xxviii. 5. 
And he shook the beast into the fire, and felt no harm.  
IT comes to pass from our desire to see mankind multiplied, that almost no Infant is born into the world without the eyes of many to behold it; but if any one have escaped a jeopardy with the hazard of his life, as he is a creature newborn again from danger, so we cast our eyes more wishly upon the person. As many as the house could hold resorted to see Lazarus revived, John two. Solomon's Porch full met at once to see the Cripple use his Legs, Acts iii All the Island ran together to behold St. Paul who had shaken a Viper into the fire and felt no harm; and that selfsame Miracle is the employment which your patience doth now attend upon. And though we regard the deliverance of others at the pleasure of our curiosity, as we use to say at our idle time, yet to see St. Paul preserved, it is as Socrates spoke of Lysias his Oration, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, somewhat more than business. For that you may know him to be set up as a spectacle to look upon, how many petty deaths were round about our Apostle in the former Chapter? As if he should have gone out of the world, like Hermaphroditus, many ways at once: In a mighty Tempest, in a Famine of fourteen days, in the hands of violent Soldiers, surely his life had ended here but that God had determined he should die honourably by Caesar's Sword. Having satisfied the Sea, a little beast assaileth him on the shore: But excussit, all is well both here and there, and he is delivered.  
And besides this, we may very well make it not St. Paul's case alone, it is like pure Gold which may be malleated, and drawn out a great deal larger, even to the entire profession of the whole Gospel. 1. Vipera, that there is a danger; and then 2. Excussit, both an easy and a joyful deliverance. Ecclesia in illo patiebatur, quando pro Ecclesiâ patiebatur, 
Ep. 120. c 6.  as St. Augustin said of our Saviour; The Church was wounded in him when he was wounded for the Church. So St. Paul was an Ambassador to Caesar for the whole Church of God, and therefore the ignominy and comfort redounded to the whole Church both of his great perplexity, and likewise of his preservation.  
To knit all this together, a Serpent was a very fit instrument if you will regard the nature of man in these four degrees: First, Adam was set upon by a Serpent in the Garden of Eden, and was stung to the quick, and corrupt nature afforded him no deliverance. Secondly, The Israelites under Moses Law were assaulted and stung, but found a remedy. 3. St. Paul in the New Testament is assaulted but felt no harm. Lastly, The Saints in glory shall not so much as be assaulted. To be vanquished in our conflicts is the misery of our poor nature, to be chastised by punishment is the rigour of the Law, to be threatened by affliction is the life of the Gospel, to be out of suspicion and fear of harm is the state of heaven. The times of Nature and Law are past, the days of Glory are not yet revealed, my Text therefore not unfitly is a representation only of the third, that is of the season of the Gospel. This is the sum of all. If neither life nor death, height nor depth, Viper nor any other creature can separate us from the love of Christ, than we boldly say without an error, Ego sum Paulus, thus was Paul, and thus am I delivered. Beloved, from this one venomous Serpent take notice of the whole brood of the Viper. Every torment is de crinibus anguis in the Poet, a kind of Serpent greater or less. If we complain, like Ionas, far more of a little worm that offends us, than of a great Whale that devours us, than affliction is Venenum patientiae, it festers and leaves a wound behind it: But if we be shod with the preparation of the Gospel, Super aspidem & basiliscum ambulare; Not to fly from harm as fast as our feet can carry us, but to walk at leisure upon the Lion and the Asp, than we bring the Text home to ourselves, than we shake beasts into the fire and feel no harm.  
In which words may it please you to attend to these four parts: 1. Here is a perilous Adversary, known in this verse to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, savage and hurtful, but better known in the former to be a Viper fastened on St. Paul's hand. 2. His safe deliverance in excussit, he shook off the worm. 3. Vengeance is shown upon this fatal creature, Excussit in ignem, he cast it off for destruction into the fire. Lastly, The barbarous people who beheld all this, they put us in mind of a fourth part, they thought that God was in the work, but mistook Paul for Paul's Creator; therefore for a conclusion, here is mirabile salutare, a plain Miracle from heaven. More likelihood for Paul to be killed there could not be, and yet he felt no harm.  
So danger is the first thing in order in my Text, but scarce in time, deliverance the next part was not one whit behind it, in which there is Digitus Pauli, the singer of Paul to requite the Viper with the flames of fire; and Digitus Dei, strange help from God alone. I say the Barbarians did confess it. The corpse of the Text it is a deliverance, now on the left hand behold peril and hazard of life, on the right hand justice and vengeance, and above head he that walked on the tops of the Mulberry trees, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, God a mechanic and workman of our salvation. The first part of the Text the Beast is like a place profaned, but excussit, he shook it off is like a Sanctuary. And as the Rooms of the Temple were one within another, and the inmost was the best, so I may proceed in the degrees of this preservation. Bare deliverance is but Atrium misericordiae, the outward Porch of Solomon the Prince of peace, but then we go on to the confusion of our enemies, to excussit, as unto the Altar whereon the beasts were slain, but the holy of holies, and the very Oracle of mercy, is to escape the breaking of a bone with our Saviour, not to lose the lap of our Garment with Saul, or with our Apostle to feel no harm, Upon these three let us divide St. Ambrose his Hymn, Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabbath, and meditate with St. Austin, Quid non misericorditer à Deo hominibus praestatur a quo etiam tribulatio est beneficium? 
Ep. 87.  Wherein is not our God a merciful Father if our chastisement be our glory, if with St. Paul we shake beasts into the fire and feel no harm?  
I must not separate the bark from the tree, the bark is the danger of the Apostle, and the first part of my Text; and there want not causes to wonder at the strangeness of the enemy. For though Adam gave names unto the Creatures, and Noah lent them a place of rest to be saved from the waters, yet the beasts are at enmity with Paul. Alas our Warfare is not honourable, but bellum servile, Zimri riseth up against his Master. We no longer Gods Servants, the Creatures no longer ours. And what Creature is it but a Serpent? Hast thou found me out O mine enemy? Yes, from the Garden of trees wherein Eve was tempted to a handful of sticks which St. Paul gathered, here and every where upon an old quarrel we are sure to find the Serpent an adversary. While we live Wisdom is our glory, and so the Serpent is wise. When we die Resurrection is our glory, and you know the Serpent renews his youth. When we are buried our Tomb is our glory, and even there, say Philosophers, Serpents are begotten of the marrow of our bones. But if any venom be more hateful than other it is the Vipers; it was company fit for none in the Roman Laws but murderers of Fathers and Mothers, because, says Aristotle, when the brood is great, 
Hist. An. li. 5. cap. ult.  and the Viper every day brings forth but one at once, the latter of the brood eat through the womb of the Dam to be born the sooner. Well, to suffer these things it was no news to Paul, and why should it seem strange to us? All his Pilgrimage in this world was either fight with men at Ephesus after the manner of beasts, or with beasts in my Text after the manner of men. As Cato being vanquished by Caesar, and flying into Africa was troubled with noisome Vermin. Pro Caesare pugnant dipsades, & peragunt civilia bella Cerastae; That the Snakes fought out the Civil Wars on Caesar's side: So the Vipers take part with the Pharisees against St. Paul, those Pharisees whom our Saviour called in his Gospel, Generations of Vipers.  
Pythagoras' compared our life to the combats of the Olympic Games, and so did our Apostle, both met in the Comparison, but not in the Application; to the Olympic Games, says Pythagoras, some men come to wrestle, some to make merry with their friends, but for his part he was among those who did but gaze upon the Wrestlers. O no, says St. Paul, only God and Angels are the lookers on, that do not sweat and fight to win the mastery. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Plato in Phaedon; which is all one with that of St. Paul, Nos spectaculum facti sumus; we are all combatants, and made a spectacle for the eyes of heaven. As Pelopidas said in Plutarch, Tantum deuces in bello laudantur qui sunt since cicatrice non milites; A scar was a comely sight in an ordinary Soldier, but not in a General: So it agrees well with the blessed souls to be in peace, but for us to be in warfare. And happy are they, thrice happy who make the bitterness of this life but a gain of Wrestling, and though a severe sport, yet but a sport and recreation. A most reverend Bishop of our own Church, the first who saw some reformation of Religion, altered the ancient Arms of his Family from three Cranes to three Pelicans, his righteous soul divining before his Martyrdom, that he should feed the Church with his blood as a loving Pelican, and so contentedly he died, making his Coat of honour an Emblem of persecution.  
If we will be any thing, if we will be born at all it must be, in tears, and to be honestly born is to be a Son and not a bastard, that is to be chastened and not neglected. And to be nobly born is to give Arms such as Constantine and Theodosius did in their Military Ensigns the mourning Cross of Christ. Quis enarrabit generationem? Will you know how a Christian is begotten? St. Matthew makes a Pedigree, and fourteen Generations reach to King David, David is zeal and devotion. The next fourteen Generations reach to Captivity, and the waters of Babylon, and after Captivity the next fourteen Generations reach to Christ our Lord. It was a dastard mind not befitting Augustus of all things else to desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might steal out of the world, and not feel the least gripe of a disease; it did rather become the beastly Epicurus, who when he felt his sickness desperate, drowned his stomach with immoderate Wine, and so knew not what it was to die, but went drunk to Hell. If we Christians were only anointed with oil, Oleo laetitiae supra socios, with the oil of gladness above our fellows, Satan might speak home to our shame, Doth Job serve God for nought? But we are first anointed with the Baptism of water unto the death of Christ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Nazianzen. We are dipped like Iron into the water that our edge may be settled against all injuries. And we are ready to be anointed with blood, every day is the eighth day with us to be wounded and circumcised. Nay, if it be our destiny to be anointed with Pitch and Tar, In morem nocturni luminis, to waste away like a Taper, welcome glory. Or if it be our danger to be licked with the poisonous tongue of the Viper, Son of man, says Ezekiel, be not afraid though thorns and briers be with thee, nay, though thou live among Scorpions. For who would not venture with such a Charm as this is against any Serpent? Excussit, ho shook off the beast into the fire, it is the second part of my Text, and St. Paul's deliverance.  
The Apostle indeed did shake his hand when so malicious a burden hung upon it, yet I do not see how he shook off the Viper, but I believe and know that it was the voice of the Lord which shaketh the wilderness, yea, the Lord that shaketh the wilderness of Cades. Excussit. What, no more words concerning this great deliverance? So great a work contracted into so small an Epitome? If the Children of men work deliverances, and strange ones too, the relation will ask a Book, perchance a Volume or a Legend to record it, but it is a blessing so frequent with God, that the world would not hold the Books of his preservations if it were not for excussit, and tetigit he touched the sore, and dixit he said the word as short as may be.  
And yet to shake off a beast is such a sudden rescue, in the turning of an hand, that it is a most complete and more comfortable salvation. Monstra superavit prius quam nosse possit, 
Hercul. fu.  as Seneca said of Hercules; that he slew a Serpent before he knew what a Serpent was. What a gentle cure it is? As easy as a slumber. For the most part it is sickness enough to be diseased with remedies. Like as a Philosopher said, being made whole after much Physic, that it was with him as with a pestilent air cleansed by a clap of thunder. And I make a doubt whose fortune was the worse, whether the poor women that took Physic but twelve years together for an issue of blood, or the sick man's that in thirty eight years sought after no help but from the Pool of Bethesda. Wherefore this is the sweetest mercy, not to cast off the Viper by loathsome Potions, but with no more hurt than Aaron cast forth his rod before Pharaoh from his hand which became a Serpent. Gen. seven. 10.  
This deliverance from a Viper makes good the Promise of the Lord, Mar. xuj. If you take up Serpents they shall not hurt you. But as God was the chief Author, so Paul had the glory of the execution. What, Paul himself and no other? Indeed there was scarce a friend by to do it for him. Hasty Soldiers that even now would have killed him, and pitiless Barbarians, and Malefactors his fellow Prisoners, none of these were likely to relieve him, the honour was his own to shake off the beast; and yet inquire among all the other Apostles, and you shall not find that any one was made an instrument to preserve himself. St. Peter could not enter into the High Priests Hall but by a Damosel, nor get out of Prison but by an Angel. The ignominy was cast upon our Saviour's self, He saved others, himself he cannot save. He saved others, bear with him in that I pray you, though he did not save himself, and perchance could not St. Peter. As it was said of Mucianus the Roman, 
Tac. hist. li. 4.  Facilius erat ei dare imperium quam accipere; it was easier for him to advance another man to the Empire than to exalt himself; so God hath ordained, to the end that Charity might abound in all things, even in the gift of Miracles, to give the Apostles the power of healing, not to cure themselves, but to cure their Brethren. No man must buy long life at so base a rate as Herodicus did, of whom Aristotle reports, that he rended nothing all his days but his own health. Of many examples we have but this one in holy Scripture where the Physician did cure himself.  
Paul then did heal himself. But advise we well with every circumstance about the Text, and then I ask, did he not heal the infirmities of many more? Yes, and there were more Vipers than one in Melita, so many Barbarians as thought in their heart, but they were cruel thoughts, that Paul was a murderer; so many Vipers, every evil censure against our neighbour, it is Venenum charitatis, the poison of our charity, shake it off a God's name before it fasten. Qui istoc credis de homine potes & facere; even for this hard opinion of Paul I doubt Melita had many murderers. Yea, I am persuaded that this their uncharicableness did more afflict St. Paul than any evil Serpent could; as a more tender affection touched the heart of Romanus the Martyr, to see the cruelty of Heathen Tyrants than to feel his own pain. Quod lancinamur non dolet, dolet quod error pectori insedit suo. Thus the sin of the Barbarians hung upon the heart of the Apostle, the Viper only upon his hand, but one excussit did serve for both, the beast was cast into the fire, and then the uncharitable thoughts did vanish.  
Well, I see there was some divinity in those hands which were so often lifted up to God in Prayer, those hands which wrote such divine Epistles to so many Churches: those hands which consecrated the two famous Bishops Titus and Timothy: those hands which gathered Alms for the poor Saints at Jerusalem, O those hands were blessed, no Serpent could envenom them. The first office that the courteous fire did afford to Fructuosus the Martyr, was to burn the cords which bound up his zealous arms, which fain he would lift up to heaven. Non ausa est cohibere paena palmas, in morem crucis ad patrem levandas, solvit brachia q●a Deum precentur, so sung Prudentius. And St. Hierom writes that Julian the wicked took up the body of John the Baptist, and burned it to ashes, but his Head, wherein the voice of a Crier spoke, and the Finger wherewith he pointed out, Ecce agnus Dei, Behold the Lamb of God, those could not be consumed. And I dare report it after so many Writers, that the heart of our most reverend Cranmer was preserved by God's Providence from the fire, in honour of his integrity, like the three Children in the Furnace. O why should we doubt, when God doth thus miraculously save the particular member of our body from harm, but that the whole man, in the whole entire body, our corruptible shall put on incorruption.  
If some should answer to these examples as Diagoras in Tully said to one that presented many Pictures before him of those who had escaped Sea-danger by calling upon Neptune, Nusquam esse pictos qui in mari perierant & naufragium fecerant; There were more examples of them if they could be seen who were drowned in the Sea and yet called upon Neptune: So perhaps many faithful men may be named who were not always fortunate in their deliverance. Beloved, what deliverance do you mean? All this while you do not reckon how many miseries they prevent who are dispatched by one; is it no excussit? Do we shake off no small store of mischief when the soul doth uncase itself of this body of sin, that, with good King Josiah, we may not see the evil to come? Death is like the Angel set before the Garden of Eden, which with one blow lets him that passeth by into Paradise. When sinners and uncircumcised feel the wrath of God, their punishment, says Nazianzen, is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Pillar of Salt erected up like a Trophy of his vengeance and their impiety. Not so the righteous, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it is enough to chastise them to be wise and wary. St. Austin compares a regenerate man with Adam in innocency by an excellent parallel. 
10. Civ. Dei. c. 5.  Adam was privileged to be secure in all present delights and comfort while he was in Paradise, and so the faithful are not; but every regenerate man is sure of heaven in his greatest Agony, and so Adam in his pleasant Garden was not. O could an heathen man preach so much Gospel as this? Vere magnum habere fragilitatem hominis securitatem Dei. O what a royal thing it was to be corruptible as man, and yet to be secure as God Expect not then from the Lord, that he should always turn aside his hand, as Ulysses did from his Son Telemachus. What if he make his furrow upon the back of his own Children if they lie in the way? Is there no time but the instant to be saved? Yes, St. Paul hath declined deliverance through all Tenses, 2 Cor. i Who hath delivered us. Have you forgotten it? And doth deliver us. Perhaps you do not feel it. And will deliver us. I speak not I hope to such as do distrust it. Wherefore let this suffice for excussit, the deliverance of Paul. The third thing follows, which makes it mel in cuspide, honey on the point of Jonathans' Spear, and pleasant to be in jeopardy, his eye saw his desire upon his enemy, excussit in ig nem, he shook the beast into the fire, etc.  
If there be Songs of deliverance, as David says there are, and that he was compassed about with songs of deliverance, than this is Canticum salutis; The Viper did not only lose her sting like the angry Bee that loseth her weapon when she pricks her Adversary, and lives a Drone ever after; but Paul warms his hands at the fire whose fuel was the Viper, which even now would have slain him. Fire indeed by the judgement of our own Laws is a death appointed for Poisoners: and it is but one fire for another, only dry for moist. Paul was ready to be inflamed, so we read in the next verse, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it was that the Islanders looked for, and therefore good reason the beast should fall into the fire. Who doth not count it a monument worth the seeing to read his jacet, an Epitaph upon his Enemy's Tomb? The subtle Grecians would not live in fear to see the Infants of Troy survive their Father, they would see every thing in ashes, Et nunquam satis Trojam jacentem; it is safety to escape, but security to want an adversary. Break their teeth, O Lord, in their mouths, saith the Psalmist, but lest new ones come up in their room, smite the jaw bones of the Lions, and when they shoot out their arrows let them be rooted out. If Shemei had lived, happily he might have cursed Solomon as well as David, and if Judas had not come quickly to his end, he might have betrayed St. Peter as well as Jesus.  

Pri. secund. q. 87. ar. 3.  Iniquity of itself is infinite, says Job xxii. 5. Wherefore says Aquinas, Homo peccat in suo aeterno quia voluntatem habet in infinitum peccandi; Every sinner hath a good will to sin for ever. In circuitu ambulat, says David; and the way of him that goes in a circle is as new to begin to morrow as it was to day, Qui vitio modum ponit, idem facit ac qui è Leucade se praecipitans velit sistere, says the Stoic. A sinner falls down headlong, and Hell hath no bottom. Then God puts in his Sickle, and cuts down the Tares, that they may not overgrow the Wheat. Be of courage then O little Flock that flies away into the Wilderness, and think that the voice of the Angel unto Joseph is still in your ears, Return for they are dead that sought the life of Jesus.  
And reason good that inquisitors after the blood of Christ, wilful sinners should be cut off, or else the dumb beasts were hardly dealt with; the Viper knew not Paul, nor the mark of God upon him, she did but her kind, and yet she is consumed. The Lion knew not Samson, nor the Judge of Israel, hunger made him roar after his prey, and yet he died for it. Why should David wish revenge upon the pleasant grass for his beloved Jonathan? How could a Figtree trespass when it bore not plenty of fruit for Christ and his disciples, that it withered and deflourished utterly? All these died to make up one lesson for us that nothing can offend the Saints of God without an evil recompense.  
Some revengeful Spirit perchance would ask here, whether this be an Emblem for every man to endeavour to be as fortunate as Paul was, and to make away his enemy with his own hand? No, Beloved, there is no such moral in this Text, and it were unchristian to attempt it. Wrath is as a Serpent, revenge is like a Viper, shake them off a God's name, and then if Paul's hand were not moved, the finger of God will deliver us from our enemies. There is great difference in this point between heathen moral men, and praiseworthy Christians. Junius Brutus, the darling of the Romans, feigned himself mad before, but then he was mad indeed, Quando expiravit super Tarquinii filium quasi ad inseros sequeretur; when he bore malice unto death against his enemy, and died upon him, as if he would follow him to Hell. Like the young Son of Thyestes, wounded by his unnatural Uncle, cast the trunk of his body upon the murderer, as if he would have pressed him down like a Mountain. Cumque dubitasset dia, hâc parte, an illâ caderet in patruum cadit, says the Tragedian. So did not Zacharias the Son of Barachias, that fell between the Temple and the Altar. It may seem there rather than in another place for a Peace-offering to be reconciled to his adversary. So did not Stephen, who kneeled among the stones which were cast at his head like a Statue in a Monument, and prayed with more devotion for his enemies than for his own spirit. We must feed them that hate us, I keep open hospitality for such according to our Saviour's construction. Si inimicus, if thou have an enemy feed him whosoever he be if he hunger, then wretched are they who feed themselves rather with the hunger of their enemy. As Vitellius boasted in Tacitus, Inimici morte spectatâ se pavisse oculos; 
Hist. lib. 5.  that it glutted his eyes with delight to see his enemy tormented. They that feed so shall digest God's anger, till it come like water into our bowels, and like oil into our bones. We must not call for fire from heaven if we love not the Samaritans, but forgive them, and thou shalt heap coals of fire upon their head.  
Chiefly let my speech drop as the soft dew upon the head of Aaron, and the Bishops of the Church that succeed St. Paul. Let them know that it is not in their hand to be avenged of the life of their Adversaries. The secular Sword in the Priest's arm did never turn to the benefit of justice, but to scandal. 
Civ. Dei. li. 4.  And as St. Austin speaks of Sylla revenging the tyranny of Marius with greater cruelty, Vindicta, perniciosior fuit quam si scelera impunita relinquerentur; that it had been better the faults had been unchastised than so revenged; so say I to them, better vindicative justice should sleep than be awaked by the Clergy. Let the Priests of Baal be armed with Knives and Lancers to fill the ditches with blood as Elias did with water, let the Sacrificers of Bacchus give wounds to every one that passeth by instead of blessing. But Christ's Disciples are sent about even without the protection of a little staff in their hand. If David would have a Sword in the Church, Ahimelech must answer, Non est hic, here is none save the Sword of Goliath, which was kept there, not for any use of it, but for the memory. Our weapons are Prayers and Tears, and if we strike it is but vulnus calami, the stroke of our Pen, and that should always be Penna columbina; I would it were so, taken from the Doves wing, not unsavoury reproaches, and Satyrical tants, as if our Writings were stuck with the quills of Porcupines. Angels were wont to fight against Jerusalem, and against Senacharib, but did you ever hear in our days of a fight Angel? The Shepherds when they saw an heavenly Host, Luk. two. and pitched in the field, and coming suddenly upon them looked for no other but a battle, but quite beside the old manner they sung Praises to the Lord. Beloved, the Ministry of our Gospel it succeeds the Ministry of Angels. It is to be marked that St. Paul salutes the Corinthians, Ephesians, and the rest, with grace and peace only, but to Timothy and Titus, his two Bishops, he sends grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.  
The Pope's Parasites never lin putting of him in mind, Girt thy Sword upon thy thigh O thou most mighty, good luck have thou with thy battles and renown, and shake the Vipers into the fire. And who shall determine who be Vipers? Who but the Pope? Who then kindle the fire to burn them? Who but the Jesuits? Gladiatores potius quam clerici, Fencers rather than Priests of God. Rome while the Gentiles lived in it had for the Ensigns of their honour duos pugiones & pileum, two Daggers and a Cap, Junius Brutus was the Author. But see what time can do, and to what increase it brings every thing, the two Daggers are become two Swords, and the Cap is turned into a Triple Diadem. Well, Ahimelech gave up his Sword to David the King. Peter and the Apostles are the salt of the earth, and have nothing to do with such instruments. Me thinks the Pope in this point had a very good answer from the Emperor, when expostulating why one of his Sons the Cardinals was slain in battle, the Emperor returned unto him the Cardinal's Harness, and this word, Haec est tunica filii tui? Is this your Son joseph's Coat?  
But I warrant you the Church is in a strange case if she may not sighed her own battles. Truly no. St. Bernard thought it safe enough in the protection of the King. Vterque gladius, he speaks it to the Pope, non tuâ manu, sed tuo nutu est evaginandus. And tuo natu was too much, and smelled of the Age he lived in. But the intercession of the Church may obtain the Sword from the Defender of the Faith to maintain the Gospel. It cannot be so in julian's Reign, and in the time of wicked Princes, I grant it, why then let us forbish up our own Armoury, Faith, and Prayers, and Tears. So did Nazianzen in the Church's distress, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, we entreat thy flaming sword O Lord to cut down thine enemies, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, we demand thy Plagues to light upon them, and is not this good security, God and the King?  
Only one thing must be interposed for satisfaction in this point. Why should Nazianzen, or why should the Church curse her enemies with such a bitter curse? Is not that breach of charity? The Schoolmen very well, have collected their answers into five heads: 1. When you think the Prophets and holy Fathers cursed they did not curse but prophecy. It was St. Augustine's Collection long ago, Solent figurâ imprecantis futura praedicere. So David prayed that another might take the Bishopric of Judas, which needs must be a Prophecy. 2. Their end is good and holy, that the heathen may know themselves to be but men, and in the bitterness of affliction seek the Lord. 3. Ad conformitatem divini judicii, in all things to say the will of the Lord be done. God hath spoken it in his holiness that he will cut off the wicked, and we must say Amen in obedience. 4. Ad regnum peccati destruendum, not so much to destroy sinners as to destroy the kingdom of sin. Curse your Meros', curse it bitterly, that the power of sin may fall with the fall of Kingdoms. Lastly, Ad consolationem infirmorum, for the comfort of weak ones, that they may know how the Church is the true Paradise by the flaming Sword which did defend it. 
Tacit Annal. 13.  As Nero spoke excellently when he entered into the Empire, Nec odium, nec injurias, nec cupidinem ultion is ad regnum ferebat; There was no hatred in his mind, no revenge in his soul, no injury in his memory; so must we take the Kingdom of Heaven with the violence of love and not of hatred. Better might Moths, and Rust, and Canker be suffered to be in Heaven than Malice, and Revenge, and Envy.  
Then hear you godly to discern God's finger from the hand of Paul. He did not cast the Viper into the fire, to show us a way to be avenged of our enemies. And harken you ungodly, for in this Text is the very similitude of your condemnation, which shall appear by these circumstances: 1. St. Paul gathered the sticks for fuel, and so the good Angels shall gather the Tares in bundles for the fire. 2. The barbarous people kindled the fire, so shall the Devil and his Angels be your executioners. 3. The Viper drops into the flame, but we do not read it was consumed, I say it is not expressed in the Text, so tedious and everlasting is your misery.  
In this world we mourn at every burial of our friends, because death hath entered in by sin into the world, 
Civ. Dei. li. 22.  Vbi mors nolentem animam pellit è corpore; where death cashiers the soul unwillingly out of the body, but in Hell-fire sinners shall bewail that there is no death; Vbi mors nolentem animam tenet in corpore; where death shall imprison the soul unwillingly in the body, says St. Austin. Did you think to burn like chaff and thorns, to be out with a blaze? The Scripture never meant it. Your torments shall belike a fiery Oven, Psal. xxi. where heat is furious without the blessing of light. You shall be like the burning of Lime, Isa. xii. where the fire increaseth when you think to extinguish it. Nay, you shall be as Wax before the fire, Mic. i. melted and heated, but not consumed. Aetna was never cold, yet as if it were the stomach of the world, Montes uruntur & durant quid improbi & hosts Domini, says Tertullian. Yea, says the Atheist, Hills are but dirt and dross without life, they may last and burn. Then say we, the Salamander hath life, and yet is not consumed in the fire: So shall it be with the wicked. True, says the Atheist, such Creatures may play in the flames because it is their nature and delight, but can the wicked abide in pains unsufferable and not be consumed? St. Austin in this point hath outgone their Logic; says he, Mirabile est dolere in ignibus, & tamen vivere, sed mirabilius vivere in ignibus nec dolere. That is the miracle above the other, for the little beast to live unscorched without any pain among the burning coals, rather than as the damned to continue so in torment. Do you believe a vain story for the one, then believe the Scriptures for the other. But I leave those and many more the like Problems for the Schoolmen whose subtle heads have extracted such questions by distillation from Hell Furnace, as if they did not dispute but conjure. And I pass from this Song of deliverance how mischief lighted upon the Viper to Canticum Canticorum, the Song of Songs, even Deborahs' song in this happy preservation, He shook the beast into the fire and felt no harm.  
This was not a brand snatched out of the fire half saved half consumed. Not like your bloody Victories wherein the Conquerors may sit down and count their losses as well as the Conquered. As Pyrrhus said very well when twice he vanquished the Romans, but lost the flower of his own Army in the Victories, Si tertio vicerimus, if we overcome the third time we are undone for ever. But it is Dalmaticus triumphus sine sudore & sanguine. The Viper left not so much smart behind it as the prick of a thorn or thistle.  
He felt no harm! How would a Stoic interpret this now? Forsooth to be an obstinate contempt of grief, I will not call it patience: as if Paul were touched to the quick but would not feel it. So Taurus, the Philosopher in Gellius excused a sick person of his Sect that seemed to groan in his disease, Non est gemitus alicujus victi à dolore, sed anhelitus viri enitentis vincere; That is, pain and disease did not make him groan, as if it troubled him, but he fetched his wind short to overmaster his sickness; this is robusta stultitia, madness, not manhood and Philosophy, to affect such stubborness. Nature cannot but love itself, and retire from pain, and Reason will follow Nature. And this is enough to satisfy the most curious that trouble their heads why our Saviour cast out those strong ejaculations of grief against the bitter cup, Mat. xxvi. Cum natura cogit etiam ratio data à naturâ cogitur. As I said before, Reason will follow Nature.  
Wherefore to say that Paul felt no harm is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he did not suffer any. He had been in the third heavens, and in this one act God gave his body incorruption upon earth. For so says Aquinas, that many worthy Saints have had a taste of heaven upon earth, not only by grace in their soul, but by some other excellent quality shining in these vile bodies. The properties of a glorified body are thus reckoned up by the same Author, first, that the Just shall shine like the Sun in the Firmament, that is Claritas in corpore. So the face of Stephen standing before the Council was bright as the face of an Angel. The second ornament is agilitas in motu, to be able to fly upon the wings of the wind, thus Philip was carried by the Spirit from Gaza in the Desert to Azotus suddenly, Thirdly, our corruption shall put on incorruption, as in this one act Paul suffered on his hand and felt no harm, for the last attribute of a glorified body which is called spiritualitas I do not recknon it, for according to the Schoolmens interpretation it doth quite destroy the nature of a body. But let us remember to keep our bodies pure and undefiled, since God hath given us a taste in this life, that hereafter they shall be refined in greater glory.  
O we doubt it not but we should all prove as holy as Paul himself, if we were so dear to God as to feel no harm. Our luxurious Courtiers would sing Songs unto the Lord with Shadrach, Mesech, and Abednego if the Son of God would walk with them in the fiery Furnace, and in the shadow of death that they might fear none ill. Our wanton Ladies, yea, and their Handmaids also would play upon Timbrels unto God as well as Miriam, if they might tread as safe upon the ground as she did and all Israel to fear none evil in the midst of the Sea. No, but if our danger did not come to be felt, to tangit & angit, I fear we would be impudent, and say there was no danger. Like ignorant people who presume when beasts are tamed by discipline that they have no teeth because they by't not. Jonah must be wakened to see the Tempest lest he sleep it out and deny it. And if Saul miss nothing else, yet he must lose his pot of water, that he might acknowledge his own preservation, and David's fidelity. As the Shepherd in Virgil was bitten by a Gnat to espy the hissing of a Serpent; and we ourselves try the edge of a Razor upon the nail of our finger, and so come to know that if it should miscarry it would cut our throat. And this is one cause why Paul did feel no harm, because we are chastened with some feeling, for they that be evil and feel no harm, would be too too evil and feel no benefit.  
But let my second reason be the answer, and with your patience the conclusion for this time. Such Miracles and such deliverances were required in the days of St. Paul the Apostle which are not now to be expected in these our days. I call it a Miracle, and so it is, and in the nature of the greatest Miracles. Small ones are but such as either seldom be seen, and so come by their name, so our Saviour wondered at the Centurion's faith: Or those which it is no news to see, nor very hard to bring about, but only it is above our reason perchance to know the cause, as the turning of the point of the Loadstone to the North. But this is a more noble work, and therefore to be sought out in a higher rank. Great astonishments are quite above our nature, Aquinas hath contrived them into three sorts: First, The wonder lies in substantiâ facti, in the very thing done, as when the Sun went backward. Secondly, The thing may be natural in itself, but admirable and past our power if we consider the subject upon which it is wrought, as for the blind to see, for the dead to be raised up to life. Thirdly and lastly, Both the thing performed is ordinary, and done with ease upon the subject, but the manner of doing it makes the wonder, as for a Fever to be cured in a moment. Of all these three the first in order is the greatest in substantiâ facti, such was this in my Text, and no meaner, that it should not kill and empoison. Aesculapius among the heathen the very deity of Physic his Emblem was a Serpent, as the glory of his Cures, and the very utmost of his Art.  
Now when Miracles have but two ends, say the Schoolmen, to do honour to the Word of God, and to confirm it, that is the first; or to honour the life of him that works in the Ministry; in the justice of both causes never was there more need than at this time of a Miracle. Here was the poor Island of Melita which Publius and the Roman Army had found out long ago to destroy it, but the Gospel was not heard of before this day to save it. St. Paul that should plant the faith was cast ashore by shipwreck as one neglected of God, bound over a close Prisoner as one hated of his Countrymen, suspected by the Barbarians to be a Murderer, than his cause was tried by the word of the Lord, it was time to shake Vipers into the fire and feel no harm.  
Thus Christianity began by a Miracle in the Island of Melita, and perchance long ago so it began with us, but now we do not so learn Christ when the boughs of the Church are grown and spread like the goodly Cedar trees. Nehemiah and all the People shouted for joy when the Foundation of the Temple was laid, but from thenceforth they built with silence, no exclamations were heard. When faith had scarce made entrance into Jerusalem our Saviour came in strangely when the doors were shut, but being once in, he went plainly to work with Thomas, Put thy finger into my side, and be not faitless, but faithful.  
This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fit wedge to drive out the juggling Divinity of the Papists, What do you tell us of your Legend of wonders in Compostella? Thousand Miracles and more thousand Murders in India? Images that turn their eyes about, and Statues that weep and sweat? Saints limbed out in bloody straws? Strange Exorcisms of Devils? When the worst was but the Toothache or a Fever? As Apelles said to another Painter, none of the best workmen, but one of the quickest, that bragged he made twenty Pictures every day, and showed the Patterns. I wonder, says Apelles, you do not make twice twenty of this sort. So the Miracle that I take hold of is this, why the learned Fatherhood invent no louder or more unlikely miracles. But take it to you, work Signs and Wonders, perchance by the secret operation of Satan, Et eorum spirituum operatione videbantur admirandi à quibus sunt damnandi, says their own Master Lombard. And they looked for admiration by the power of those Spirits by whom they shall receive damnation.  
As the Rivers of Paradise are without Paradise, and run into divers parts of the world, so the gifts of Miracles, and the gifts of Tongues are like those Rivers which run both within and without the Church; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. chrysostom. Signs and Wonders are not so near to God's House, as the Porch is unto the Temple, except there be holiness to the Lord in Aaron's Breast, as well as Buds of Almonds in his Rod. Remember Jannes and Jambres, remember Simon the Sorcerer, yea, the very Devils do Miracles, says Lombard, Ne tale aliquid facere fideles pro magno desiderent; lest the Faithful should seem to desire to do the like, as if it were some great matter. If not Magnum, then surely not Maximum, the greatest note of a Church. Especially if it be true which St. Austin says, Omni miraculo quod fit per hominem majus miraculum est homo; If man be a greater wonder than can pass through the hands of man, then certainly a regenerate man is the greatest power of God, his Prayers, and Charity, and Faith are more excellent than to shake a Viper into the fire and feel no harm. Grant O Lord such Wonders unto thy Church whereby thy name may be glorified in true holiness, and clothe thy Priests with health as thou didst thy Servant Paul; and because we look for a greater deliverance, Quis me liberabit? Who shall deliver me from the body of this death▪ Let us say assuredly as he did, even Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.   

THE FIRST SERMON UPON ENOCH.  GEN. V. 24. 
And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.  
day appointed for Repentance and Humiliation (you know these to be of that institution) but those are times to do, and not to say; therefore I have read a Text unto you rather of Deeds than Sayings; an active Example, and not a verbal Exhortation. And it is an Example of no mean pitch, you will like it the better for that, one Star differs from another in glory, and one Saint differs from another in sanctity and perfection. There were Pillars in Solomon's Temple, and golden Chapiters' on the top of the Pillars; so the Patriarches of old, the Apostles in the Christian Ages were Pillars of the Church, all of them Pillars: but such as bore the chief praise, for using the gifts of grace with all advantage to God's glory, these are the golden Chapiters' upon the tops of the Pillars. I will promise you to make it good by that which I shall say anon, that I have propounded unto you one of the golden Crowns upon the top of the Pillars, as heavenly and as happy a precedent as can be found out of a mere man; as complete a Pattern as can be chosen out of all the Sons of Adam; and who would not write by the best Copy?  
In the most ancient Epistle of Clemens the Roman, written to the Corinthians, lately made public to the world out of the Princely store-house of this Kingdom, that holy Father moves the Corinthians with this extimulation, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Page 12.  Let us look steadfastly towards them who have perfectly ministered in holy service to the excellent glory of God. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not to the Catalogue of Saints in the middle Region, but to them that walked highest above this world. And in the very next words following, Ecce homo! behold the man of his choice to whom he gives precedency above all others, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, let us take out Enoch for our Lesson, that is his Text Letter upon which he flourisheth; Enoch is his Antesignanus, his Standard-bearer, that leads Noah, and Abraham, and many others after him; and the same that he offers to the Corinthians I commend to you. Such a Patriarch that the Holy Ghost hath made a great difference between him and other men: For it is the method of the Scripture to record the lives and deaths of the Saints, but upon this Person the stile altars; he was a privileged man from death, which is the common condition of all that are born of woman; and Moses speaks of his double life, he could not speak of his death, his life of grace, and his life of glory. Ambulavit cum Deo, or coram Deo, he walked with God, that is the Summary Collection, how he lived the life of grace: And Non apparuit coram hominibus; He was not, for God took him; there is the Miracle how he was wrapped up into glory. In the dividing of the parts I will put no more upon my text than it was made to bear, and two Points I am sure, upon which only I will insist, are the very bowels of it; First, the Integrity of Enoch; Secondly, his Immortality. First, how uncorrupt he was in his ways, and Enoch walked with God; Secondly, that he suffered no corruption in the body, He was not, for God took him. In the one member is how he used this world; the other how he enjoyed a better: The one of faith, the other of fruition: The one for our imitation, the other for our consolation. And first, your patient attention how uncorrupt he was in his ways, And Enoch walked with God.  
In a good Picture every Limb, nay, every shadow of it is worthy to be looked upon, and, in the story of such a Patriarch as Enoch was, every word that breathes upon his name is sweet and memorable. Now in holy Scripture, or in those books which are contiguous to holy Scripture, four things are remembered of him, which will make him better understood in both parts of this Verse. St. Judas in the fourteenth verse of his Epistle sets two marks upon him, first, in his Genealogy, he was the seventh from Adam; Secondly, in his divine knowledge, he Prophesied. The Son of Syrach also in his rehearsal of famous men hath given him two additions more, the one, that his virtue was most communicable, He was an example of repentance to all Generations, Eccl. xliv. 16. The other, that his virtue was most unparallelled, or inimitable, Upon the earth was no man created like Enoch, Chap. xlix. 14. I will dispatch these with a running hand. First, to be the seventh from Adam, what if that was no more than to be the fourth, or fifth, or any other number? For it is a general Rule, there is no prerogative to be born after the flesh; But God rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had made, and God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work; therefore some Writers must needs fall upon this observation, as indeed divers have noted it▪ that Enoch the man of the seventh Generation was taken away to rest with God, which bids us labour in the works of mercy and repentance all the six days of this life, and after those days, like Enoch the seventh from Adam, we shall be translated into peace and tranquillity for ever. Some others go farther, a little more curiously than certainly, 
Chytreus.  the Patriarches for six descents all died, and were turned into earth again; Enoch the seventh from Adam was carried away from the world, and saw not death: So death shall reign through six Ages of the world, Septimâ immortalitas vigebit, in the seventh Age corruption shall be done away, and immortality shall take place for ever. Such mysteries as these are but Speculations that tangle us, but plainly and directly this privilege came to Enoch, because he was the seventh from Adam, that he lived most happily in a brave society of wise men; it was no rude or barbarous Age, as if he alone had pleased God, for five of his Forefathers in a right line were then living, five the brightest Lamps of the Church, when the Lord translated him. A happy thing it is to be well taught by any single wisdom, but there is more affiance in a number of Counsellors; Enoch the seventh from Adam had no less than six renowned Patriarches to go in and out before him in the fear of the Lord.  
2. To be born in such a descent is an accidental thing, a contingency. But the next note upon him is that he had a Prophetical illumination, Enoch the seventh from Adam Prophesied. All the Sons of Adam in the good Race of Seth, whose names are filled in this Chapter, were Heads of the People, Lawgivers, Priests of the most high God. Noah more eminently than the rest a Preacher of righteousness in St. Peter's phrase, yet Enoch stands by himself alone for a Prophet. And no marvel if we hear no tidings of his Prophecy till St. Judas divulged it in the last Epistle but one of all the Scripture; it seems to me that it stands there in the fittest place, because it is a Prophecy that concerns neither the first, nor the middle Age, but the very end of the world, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints, to execute judgement upon all and to convince all that were ungodly. The heavens and earth were but in their first beginnings, men and women did but begin to multiply, yet that divinity was preached in those early days, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of Saints to judge the world; the expectation of that coming draws nearer to us than it did to them; how much more should we prepare to see that with our eyes, which they did but hear with their ears? And to double our watchfulness and attention, as much as the Ages of the world since enoch's time have passed on and multiplied. Enoch prophesied that which Judas hath made Canonical Scripture; This hath troubled some to dispute it, whether ever he wrote such books as were once in the Canon of the Scripture? I hold the Negative, for though he were a Prophet, and had inspirations, yet Scripture is not only given by inspiration of God, but such inspiration as is profitable for doctrine, 
2 Tim. 3.16.  for reproof, for correction, for instruction of righteousness. Such Oracles were deposited by God with his Church, and never suffered to perish. How will it appear but St. Judas received those words by tradition? Or quoted them as he found them cited in some other Author? It were shame such antiquity should scape both Josephus and Philo, who never mention it. But at last some falsary, no man can guests him, authored a most vain Book upon Enoch; Origen, who perused it, gives us a taste of it in his last Homily upon Numbers, that it was stuffed with secrets of Philosophy about the motions of the Heavens, and the names of the Stars and Constellations, and with flat Romances about the good Angels falling in love with mortal Creatures, things most unworthy to be fathered upon Enoch, that walked with God. Therefore St. Jerom moderates the variance, Non probavit librum totum Judas, sed illud duntaxat testimonium. St. Judas did patronise no more of that Book, but that Prophecy which he copied out into his Epistle. As St. Paul gave no divine authority to certain heathen Poets, but only to those particular Verses which he borrowed. To come to a point; It sounds nearest to truth, that Enoch was no such Prophet as left Canonical Records, because Christ was wont to argue against the Jews from Moses and the Prophets, allowing Moses for the most ancient Prophet that delivered Scripture to the Church by inspiration. A late Capuchin Friar hath laboured to prove (as he thinks solidly, as I think very superficially) that Monkish Fraternities and Covents were the first invention in the Church, and in his sense to be a Prophet is all one as if Enoch had been of some College or religious Order separated from the ordinary Sons of God. 
Bolduc. lib. 1. de Eccles. ante legem.  Out of his own conjectures he doth erect two strict sodalities of Religion in those ancient days: From Enos the Enoscaei, such as professed silence from all talk, and sequestration from all men; And from Cainan the Cinaei, or Kenites, such as lived in a regular, but an active Vocation. More of this in due time, but we read of no vow, or affected institution of life into which the Patriarches entered, we read of some illuminated Prophets, or Prophet among them, and that was Enoch. As he spoke by the mouth of his holy Prophets, which have been since the world began, Luk. i. 70.  
3. His next mark of glory follows, That he was an example of repentance to all Generations. They that are careful to expound these words in Ecclesiasticus accurately are divided in the sense. Some have searched among the Rabbins for their opinions of this, and one of them says, that wickedness did abound in the Age of Enoch, the foul crimes of Sorceries and Witchcrafts had begun to show their blade, and Lamech was the seventh from Adam in the Race of Cain a Bigamist, and a Murderer. His sins in all likelihood were scandalous and contagious at that time over a great part of the earth, and for these iniquities the Lord drowned the third part of the habitable world in enoch's time; and Enoch threatened an universal Deluge to all flesh, if they did not repent, which indeed came to pass; so his Doctrine and Prophecies gave notice of Repentance to all Generations. But Procopius says upon this Text, and he had it from some Jewish Scribes, that this holy man had been very incontinent and vicious before he begat Methusalah,, but after that he proved so relenting a Convert, laid hold so fast on God, because he knew what a misery it was to lose him; that his few years of repentance did God more faithful service than almost a thousand years of innocence in the best of the Patriarches. Which aspersion upon this holy Saint, since it hath no ground to build upon, it is answered well enough by Cajetan; Enoch is twice commended in this Chapter, that he walked with God, in this Text, and within two Verses before it, the ingemination of that puts it into more probability that he was a constant follower of good works from his youth up, till the time that God translated him. Leaving these far-fetched conjectures, this is the most suitable exposition to the words, as I apprehend repentance is often taken for all that sanctification and righteousness which is in man that is born and conceived in sin, Acts v. 31. God hath exalted Christ to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins; but God gives a new heart, and a new spirit to Israel, and new obedience, when he gives them forgiveness of sins. To repent is properly reverti à peccato, to return from a sinful life, but sometimes it is avertere à peccato, to turn a side from the broad way which leadeth to perdition, though the Child of God never went astray in it. So Enoch having a corruptible body which pressed down the pious alacrity of the soul, and doing those things by frailty sometimes which he ought not to have done, his innocency and holiness is called repentance, whereupon the Son of Syrach calls him an example of repentance to all Generations.  
4. To be a Prophet, to be an example of repentance; both of these gives us an introduction to understand this Phrase, that he walked with God; but the true key that opens it is the fourth thing, Upon the earth was no man created like Enoch, says the Son of Syrach. A Cedar among other fair trees, a great Star among other lesser lights, a most sanctified man among many just ones, like the man in the Parable that was the truest servant to his Master, exceeded him that gained but two Talents, exceeded him that gained five Talents, he made return of ten Talents to his Lord, and bore the praise away from them all that had done very well before him, upon the earth was no man created like Enoch. We commend those from our lips that are inter non pessimè malos, not so bad as the worst: But God commends them from his mouth that are inter optimos praecipui, the most excellent of them that are the best. Reuben was kinder towards Joseph than the rest of his Brethren, (so Reuben tells them of it, Gen. xlii. 22.) yet he was but unnatural. Jehu was a truer worshipper of God than the Priests of Baal, yet wanted much of sincerity. Gamaliel was more favourable to the Apostles than the rest of the Judges, yet he did them unjustice, and was an unbelieving Pharisee. The Kingdom of heaven is not to be looked for, upon assurance that there are greater sinners than you: but hereby you shall try if the love of God be in you, when you pant and strive with all your soul, and with all your might that none may be better. It is a pitiful, and indeed a dishonourable praise to point out a man, and say he is religious, devout, or conscionable as the world goes. Hath God ever promised to take measure from that form as a bad world goes, how he will give a man an heritage with the Angels in the world to come? To be an Hercules among the Argonauts, I mean the first Champion in the Lord's cause in the first file, a Peter among the Disciples, Lovest thou me more than these? An Elias among Prophets, a Moses an Aaron among his Priests, and Samuel among such as called upon his name, an Enoch among the Patriarches, upon the earth was no man created like him; this is the pitch we must desire to grow unto, and not to say with the Proverb, Occupet extremum scabies; All is well if you be not the worst of a wicked company. Whatsoever you know or hear of, that any Martyr or Confessor departed hath done for Christ's sake, it is a shame for you if you do not covet to do as much, or more than that, at least accuse yourself if you be not sorry that your frailties make you come short of the best. Lay your hand every one upon his own conscience, and you may well say after me, sweet Jesus, should any of thy Creatures love thee better than I? Should any servant be more obedient than I? Any Martyr be willing to suffer more than I? Should Enoch that walked with God desire to please thee more than I? Never will I give over to try if I can run before them, for none of thine Elect is so much indebted to thy bloody Passion as I am, because none of them had so many sins to be forgiven. Press on to be the nearest of them that shall stand before the presence of the Lord, and account it among thy great sins if thy heart do not pant and yearn to be equal with the principal of the Saints. And make not your estimation of a good man by this rule, that his virtues are more than his vices. Or as Guicciardine says, who had cause to know what he wrote, that Popes are praised for their goodness, when they do not exceed the wickedness of other men? and trust not to that fleshly sloth, that a moderate competency of honesty is well enough; Non omnes possunt esse Scipiones & Maximi; All men cannot be anointed with the oil of gladness above their fellows. If Noah, and Abraham, and Moses, had roused up their spirit no better, what should the Church have done for exquisite Semplars of Zeal and Faith, but if it had wanted all these, an absolute pattern of holiness had remained in Enoch, upon the earth was no man created like him, we must therefore carry some transcendent sanctity in our notions, to know what it is to walk with God.  
First, It commends him that he had much conversation, or, as it were, a familiar friendship with God. Can two walk together unless they be agreed? Amos iii 3. Agreement is not all, it imports as much as an endearing, and a sociable benevolence. We took sweet counsel together, and walked in the house of God as friends, Psal. lv. 14. Let this embolden none to walk and strut it in the body of the Church while others are at their Prayers in the Choir; they are more bold and familiar with God than welcome. I know not what greater contempt could be shown by a civil man if he were present at the time of sacred hours in one of the Mosques of Mahomet. But I will not digress; To walk with God is to go hand in hand like a loving Associate, and I need not mince it to say, like the friend of God. We are all servants properly naturâ & debito, in our Nature, and in our debt to the Law. Neither do we ever cease to be servants by the gift of grace, but it is an Evangelical privilege, that some of those that are servants, and obey his will in all things, should be called the friends of God. So our Saviour says to his Disciples, after he had given them a taste of all saving knowledge, 
Joh. 15.15.  Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth, but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Now although the condition that all men lived in before Christ came into the world was the state of servants, yet such Prophets and Patriarches as were greatly illuminated with Evangelical faith, praeter rationem status, notwithstanding the bondage of Nature, and of the Law, were vouchsafed this Title the friends of God. A thrice blessed name, which vindicates us from Captivity, it breaks our bonds asunder, it makes us partakers of divine acquaintance, it consigns us an interest in the love of Christ, more than we dare boast of it. And is this the way to procure it, to walk with God? What say you to walking through Fire and Sword? What think you of walking through the Valley of the shadow of death? Break not hands with such a God, though it should come to a most bitter exigent. But in that ease and safety that we live now, few or none are put to any hardness for Christ's sake. No League in the world more sought for, more willingly accepted; 
Lib. 8. c. 6.  no Amity less burdensome, or more beneficial. St. Austin in his Confessions brings in a couple that served the Roman Emperor, thus debating the matter: What can we look for in this Palace more than to be called the friends of the Emperor? This is no sure unmovable favour when we have it: and how long must we wait and attend before we get it? Amicus Dei si esse voluero, ecce nunc fio; Let me turn to God to day, and desire to be his friend, it shall be done instantly and never delayed. So they resolved, though their courses were eccentric to the way of honour and preferment, they would walk in righteousness to be called the friends of Christ, and so Enoch walked with God.  
Vera amicitia est idem velle, & idem nolle, says the Orator; A friendship will hold fast between them, that choose the same things, and refuse the same things, and agree in all things. So that to walk with God so far till it grow to the tide of a friendship is no more nor no less than Fiat voluntas tua, The will of the Lord be done. The forecited Clemens in his lately revived Epistle, instead of saying that Enoch walked with God, phraseth it thus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, God found him to be a just man through all obedience, and so translated him; and the Chaldee Paraphrase, He walked in the fear of the Lord, turning neither to the right hand, nor to the left. I know the word being metaphorical may be varied, and followed in many senses, and all according to a godly Canou. Gregory the Great deviseth this distinction of the word out of his own ingenuity. Some walk from God as Apostates, and Demas that turned to the world. Some walk against God, or set their face against him, as the proud and rebellious; so the stiffnecked Israelites, Ye walk contrary to me, Leu. xuj. 21. But some on the laudable part may be said to walk before God, as the Prophets; so John the Baptist was a forerunner of Christ, He went before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways. Some walk after God, as humble Penitents, and those that take up their Cross and follow him. Finally, A religious Magistrate, that is solo Deo minor, whose power is from God, and useth that power as he ought, he walks with God, and he that despiseth him despiseth the Lord. Every whit of this may be maintained with good construction, but lest the phrase should be dissected too much to the loss of the sense, I will rather be rude in expression than subtle, to walk with God is to let him draw us after him, as far as his Commandments reach, and no further.  
It is not material that there were neither Scriptures extant, nor the Tables of the Law divulged in the days of Enoch, certainly the Children of God in that Age were not left to themselves to woship in a wild undistinct way, without some divine prescription. Some Canon of Faith and good Works they had delivered them; it concerns the Providence of God, and that order which must necessarily be among them to say so, and by the extent of that revealed rule Enoch walked with God. Let all things be done according to the pattern which thou sawest in the Mount, so the Lawgiver himself to Moses. Nothing must be changed, though you think for the better, but keep you close to the Pattern in every part and proportion. Honorato jucundissimus honor est quem ipse vult, it is St. Chrysostome's; The Majesty of God takes it for an honour to do him honour by his own Commandment. Peter thought he had showed himself a most obsequious Disciple, and reverenced his Master more than all the rest, when he would not let him wash his feet, but Christ showed him it must be so, and that particular recusancy of his was to dishonour him above his fellows. If you think that God will bate you one inch of that he hath commanded, you walk by yourself without him. Alas for that poor soul that is so deceived! whither will his feet carry him? Heaven and earth shall pass away before one tittle of the Law doth perish. Repent and turn to the Lord, and he will run forth to meet you; forgive one another, and Christ will forgive you, there he concurs with you; defraud no man and the righteous Lord will give you an inheritance, there he joins with you. Hold him fast to you in continual Prayer, and let him not go away till he give you a blessing, there he dwells with you. In all things bear in mind the will of the Lord be done, for no man walks with God, unless he be a complete obedient.  
Above all other aberrations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or will-worship is that which strides quite over the way, and walks solitary by itself, and not with God. All holy service is fitly called new obedience. But can Will-worship, which is a start of a man's own invention be called obedience in any latitude? I think not. For how can a man be said to obey in that which was never enjoined him? Obedience, and somewhat bidden, and imposed to be done are relatives. His servants ye are to whom you obey, says St, Paul. Wherefore if you frame a Religion, or a part of Religion after your own fancy, you are your own servants and not God's, and you have no reason to look for wages from our heavenly Master. In vain do they worship me, teaching for Doctrines the Traditions of men. Vanum est quod fine suo destituitur; They that serve, serve for a reward, therefore a rewardless service, which is threatened against Will-worship, is a vanity. But who are comprised in this crime of Will-worship not to walk with God? Such as profess a proper, immediate, essential Worship of God of their own coining; but they want a great measure of understanding, or charity, that inveigh against arbitrary Ceremonies in that name, which are imposed as mere accidental and circumstantial parts of Religion, wherein not the proper Worship of God, but the manner of using the same is intended. Proper Worship of God is an action done immediately to the honour of God in the act itself, as Prayer and Preaching: Improper Worship is an act done with God's Service, not directly and by itself, but in conjunction with some proper act of Worship, as kneeling, holding up the hands and eyes, sever these by themselves, and they are no service of God at all. David danced before the Ark in a Linen Ephod. To dance, to wear a Linen Garment are things of a mixed use, and therefore can be no parts of God's proper immediate Worship, neither did David mean them so, but they are decencies, and laudable adjuncts of the very true Worship, and for their sakes, far be it from us to think that enoch's example is violated, who walked with God.  
You have heard now that there is a familiar heavenly friendship, and a complete obedience, without all admixtion of Will-worship, in the holy life of this Patriarch, that kept even with God in all his ways. Now thirdly, it makes this sense, that Enoch was a principal upholder of that side that did sincerely profess the true faith, he opposed himself stiffly to the Cainites, that is, to the Synagogue of Satan; and he that condemns the evil world, and defies the faction of it, deserves this praise, that he walks with God. In vitia alter alterum trudimus, says the heathen; 
Sen. Ep 41.  Every wicked man draws his next fellow after him, and the most live rather by custom than by rule and reason, running like those Swine in the Gospel, into which the Devil had entered, by whole herds into the Sea. But a man that esteems his soul by that price which his dear Redeemer paid for it, will dare to set his face in a good cause against plurality, and multitudes, and fears not to stand up alone against an host of the Priests of Baal, like Elias that walked solitary in the wilderness with the Lord, when Ahab and Jezabel had won the whole Land of Israel to Idolatry. Singularity, when it proceeds from self opinion and pertinacy, it deserves to be hooted at; but to divorce from men of erroneous minds, of malicious and filthy conversation, to be cast off from such, like a Pelican in the Wilderness, and like an Owl that is in the Desert, is a singularity to be admired. As soon as ever the Devil left our Saviour at the end of the three Tentations, the words following are, Behold Angels came and ministered unto him. Whereupon one doth thus meditate, Qui expelllit à se Satanam allicit ad se Angelos; Sort not yourself with those that have not the fear of God before their eyes, abandon impious Society, and you shall find heavenly comforters in your soul: Bid Satan get him hence, and the Angels take it for an invitation to come and walk with you. Lot lived like a stranger in his own City, he shut himself up, and barred his doors against those filthy people. What could he do more to keep the ungodly from his vexy sight? As David said. Thus estranging himself from the evil doings of those that were round about him, he was thought fit to give hospitality to Angels, and walked out of Sodom with those Angels, and when he lingered in that place, they laid hold of his hand, and pulled him away with some violence of love. Thus Enoch could not endure the Cainites, perhaps persecuted them, perhaps was persecuted by them, he would not partake of their fellowship, but shook off their dust from his feet, and so it came to be said that he walked with God.  
After this that hath been spoken, I ought not to conceal from you any longer how the Septuagint have translated these words, upon which I insist, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, And Enoch pleased God. This must not be shuffled over without observation upon it, not only because St. chrysostom, and such other Greek Fathers as I have perused, do so read the Text, nor only for the Son of Syraches sake, Ecclus. xliv. 16. who consents with the lxxii. But for St. Paul's sake, in whom we find the same character of him, Heb. xi. 5. Before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. The wisdom of God alone best knows why there should be such a diversity of terms, a diversity I say, without any real difference, for it is but a Consequent put for an Antecedent; he that walks in new obedience, eschewing the company of the ungodly, and setting God always before him, consequently he shall please the Lord. If we had such a Master as Nabal was, so crooked and unpropitious that none could speak to him, or please him: If we served under the Lord as Jacob did under Laban, who had nothing but murmuring and persecution for all his fidelity, than we might cross our arms and say we had lost our oil and our labour. But our service is full of benevolence and encouragement, Euge bone serve, Well done good and faithful servant, every title chimes Alacrity. And yet it follows, that servant was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, faithful, what, In all words and works? No, faithful in a little. Enoch pleased, because God would be pleased with his imperfect righteousness, it is his indulgence to call things that are not, as things that are, he will give a days wages for an hours work in the Parable. If there be a willing mind it shall be commended according to that which a man hath, not according to that which he hath not; he that affects the right way, and would not swerve from it, shall carry this badge upon his name, that he pleased, and walked with God, Quamvis claudicet & labatur; though sometimes he limps, sometimes he stumbles through the infirmity of the flesh. Our renowned Patriarch in my Text was a sinner from his mother's womb, for Adam begat a Son in his own likeness, after his image, but that likeness was the similitude, yea, and the very essence, I may say, of sinful flesh. Yet such a Son of Adam doth please, being made by adoption and grace the Son of God.  
But I have not said all, nay, not a moiety what it is to please our holy Father. For his love and complacency is not a bare affection like Man's, Amor Dei in effctu, non in affectu situs est. Where he is pleased he doth not affect a thing only Theorically, but will effect some good for it, as Aeneas said of his followers, Nemo ex hôc numero mihi non donatus abibit; All that did attend his very games should have some reward for their labour. God is not unrighteous to forget your love and your labour which you have showed toward his name, Heb. vi. 10. Please not yourself, even as Christ also pleased not himself, says St. Paul, Rom. xv. 3. And you shall walk before the Lord in the Land of the living, Psal. cxvi. 9 Placebo Domino, I shall please the Lord in the Land of the living, so the Vulgar Latin readeth it. More precisely to the cause. In some sense all the Creatures, and their natural operations do please the Lord, but in a supernatural order nothing doth please him, but that into which he hath put a supernatural bonity, and those good effects which are wrought in man by his own grace. He doth not only love and delight in them, but will remunerate them, with this sober restriction, which might pacify many hot contentions if the Devil were not too strong, Bona opera non habent condignitatem ad praemium coeleste, sed quandam ordinabilitatem; that is, good works have no intrinsecal worth or value to claim eternal life, 
Heb. 11.5.  but through the gracious promise of God they are ordained unto it. By Faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death. Faith indeed is an ambulatory thing, it hath no rest till it see God, and walks from one degree to another, from righteousness to righteousness, and never stands still, but in the clear Vision of the Beatifical Essence it walks no more, but stands before the face of the Lord for ever.  
From those notions which I have passed over grounded upon Text and Reason, I proceed last of all to give them a little room in my discourse, that have made either probable or unprobable divinations upon the word. The Jerusalem Targum instead of Enoch walked, reads it more at large, he served or laboured in the truth before the Lord. Whether he were Ruler or Priest that Gloss decides it not, or both Ruler and Priest, as they were coincident in the person of Melchisedech, and I believe long before him, truth is a Prince's care as well as a Prophets; he is Custos utrinsque tabulae, and shall answer to the King of Kings, how his people discharged their duty to God, as well as to their Neighbour. But by whomsoever that good work is wrought, that truth shall flourish upon the earth, by the power and authority of the Sceptre, or by the diligence and painfulness of the Mitre, such a one shall have a blessed name that he walks with God, that he is legatus à làtere, he stirs not from his side, he is set upon his right hand, and shall remain among the blessed at that right hand for ever. But howsoever I may be persuaded that Enoch was a Ruler, and some great Government lay upon his shoulders, yet his interest was more than so in labouring for the truth, he was a diligent instructor of the people by word and communication, St. Judas hath rehearsed a piece of a Sermon that he made, wherein he preached of a better life to come. Here again I must have recourse to the Idiom of the Scripture, wherein I will show, that the very phrase to walk with God doth imply a pleasing or acceptable ministration of office before the Lord; as 1 Sam. two. 30 I said indeed, it is a message to old Eli, that thy house, and the house of thy father should walk before me for ever; that is, that thou and the house of thy Father should execute the office of a Priest, and offer sacrifice before me. And let it imprint this in your mind, what veneration is due to the divine Oracles of truth when they are delivered unto you. 
Eph. 6.20.  We are Ambassadors for Christ, says St. Paul, but you must abstract that word from any earthly similitude; we come indeed in the name of the King of heaven, not as from him that is absent, but invisible: We do not only come from him to speak to men (privilege enough to our person) but, in the very hour that we deliver the sacred will unto you with fear and reverence, we walk with God. This will not let me pretermit what Origen says, and Irenaeus likewise, was contained in the Apocryphal Book of Enoch, Legatione functus est ad Angelos, that he was sent an Ambassador from the Sages and Patriarches of the world unto the Angels. I will not go further in the Fiction. The Hebrews had more leisure to tell strange stories than you have to hear them; I believe the meaning is, he walked to several places of the world to settle things in order in divers Kingdoms; as when Samuel judged Israel, he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places. 
1 Sam. 7.16.  A wearisome labour for Governors to make a journey of so many days and months, but safety and the blessing of God certainly is upon it, because they give no rest to their body till they see with their eyes how Religion and Justice are managed in the remotest places of their dominions, this is to walk with God.  
I am now making to the Conclusion for this time, with the improbable, and indeed impossible supposition of those Expositors that would make Enoch a Prior or Abbot, or at least a member of such a Society, some regular Canon that vowed stricter orders in obligation of inter-mutual obedience than all others that were called by the name of the Lord. It seems the Monks do greatly want good men of their livery that they would hedge in those into their body that never dreamt of their profession. And I wonder they would accept of Enoch for a Votary, who begat Sons and Daughters (and I hope they will acknowledge in lawful Matrimony) after he walked with God. St. chrysostom draws no other Doctrine from my Text, and this very vehemently, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: For enoch's sake let no man think that a married life is any impediment to please the Lord, Cornelius à Lapide the Jesuit could not let this observation alone, but tells us that Enoch shall live upon the earth again, before the day of judgement, for three years and half, and fight with Antichrist, and be slain, and then he shall be unmarried. I think so too, for if he should come into the world at this time (as all that tradition is a most sickly dream) but it he should, he must bear the age of four thousand years, and that were too old in conscience to marry. But put case upon his return he would marry again, how would the Jesuit forbid the Banes? Why he drives it to this case: Enoch was the Great-grand-father of Noah; Noah since the Flood, the common Progenitor of all flesh, therefore when Enoch appears again upon earth he shall be the Father of all women descending from him in a right line, and between such persons no Matrimony can be contracted. This is a subtlety as wisely laid, as the Sadduces question about the woman that had married seven husbands, Whose wise shall she be in the Resurrection? But because the Jesuits do so much commend Virginity above all things, I would their fathers in the flesh could have been persuaded to have kept it, than the Church had wanted them, who are the only impediment on that part, that probably no peace can be made among our Christian unchristian divisions.  
Now they that do invent certain forms of Monastical Institutions from the beginning of the world, divide them into two Sects, the one from Cainan in an active life, such as sung sweet hymns, or ministered in sacrifices, and conversed with the world, Certainly these went the truer way, the active life is most charitable, and furthest from tentation. For as Daws and Bats will breed about an house where there is no inhabitant; so many sins will creep into a soul that is not operative. But they of the other order instituted by Enos, says a late Parisian Capuchin, lived not with men, but affected solitude; spoke not to men, but affected silence. By this Description, it seems to me, he makes them abhor the two best properties of a man, who is animal sociabile, sermocinativum, the only creature on earth fit to unite himself in an orderly society, and the only creature on earth to whom God hath given speech to utter the conceptions of his mind. Their purpose is, I think, to commend a man dead unto the delights of the world, not taken with the baits of pleasure like a beast, and they make a beast of him by renouncing the best parts of humanity. To enjoy a man's days with some sweetness of delight is far from reprehension; pleasures indeed are to be mitigated, for a little pleasure is enough to season a man's life, as a little salt is enough with ones meat, therefore the excess is to be reproved as the origin of much iniquity; but this I will say in favour of a life that is lead with much alacrity, the most horrible sins that are do usually come to pass through sullen melancholy. Man was first put into Paradise to spend his days in content and joy. Why should he live so opposite to the state of Paradise as to spend all his Age in sourness, and sad contemplations? Adam was appointed to dress the Garden of God, to keep the trees, and herbs, and grass well pruned, and shorn, and even. Is not the whole world now the Garden of God? And shall every elegancy, mirth, and pleasurable recreation in it be checked for wanton and abominable? Such censorious sowre-looking Pharisees, of all the rest of the Jews, 
Ainsworth. Num. 12 8.  did least please our Saviour. The great Rabbi Ben Maimon says, that Prophecy comes not upon men either when they are sorrowful, or when they are slothful, but when they are joyful. Therefore the Sons of the Prophets had before them Psalteries, and Timbrels, and Harps when they came down the Mountains, 1 Sam. x. 5. A good Christian therefore may walk with God with a cheerful merry heart, yea, and dance before God as Miriam and David did. Happy are they that can suffer tribulations for God's name without repining; and no less happy are they that drink of the brook in the way of comforts and pleasures without surfeiting. The Lord sanctify them both unto us through his holy Spirit and grace. AMEN.   

THE SECOND SERMON UPON ENOCH.  GEN. V. 24. 
And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.  
WHen I lately commended before you what a rich example of piety and perfection Enoch was, perhaps you thought this was wanting to make up the full sum, how he shut up his days in the love and favour of God. To make a blessed end is the Crown of all other praise that goes before it. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Lib. 1. Eth. c. 11.  says Aristotle; Let us look towards the conclusion of a man's days, as Solon's rule was, and so pronounce him happy. But I can follow no such order in this subject which I have to handle. What passage Enoch had out of this world I can relate, but that he finished this life I cannot say it. His years are numbered before my Text like other men's, three hundred sixty five, just as many years as there be days in an usual year after the motion of the Sun; not that this reckoning is the term of his life, but the term of that time that he conversed with men; As Tertullian glosseth upon St. Paul's words, I am crucified with Christ; How crucified, and yet live? Per emendationem vitae, non per interitum substantia; by the reformation of his life, not by the loss of his life: So Enoch had a period when he left to be with men, Per emendationem vitae, non per interitum substantia; By an exaltation to a better life, not by the corruption of his body.  
As the men of Israel would not let Jonathan suffer death, though Saul had given Sentence against him. What (say they) shall Jonathan die that hath wrought such great salvation in Israel? So when the Spirit of the Lord had testified what a Prophet Enoch was, a perfect obedient that abhorred Will-worship, a stiff maintainer of God's part against the Devil, and all his Instruments, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a friend, a familiar acquaintance, a walker with God. Upon this testimony Mercy opposeth Justice, and though the Lord had said to Adam, and to all that were in his loins, Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return: What says Mercy, shall Enoch die an example of repentance to all Generations? So the stroke of death was diverted that he saw not the Grave, and Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. The partition which I framed upon the whole Verse was on this wise, first, how uncorrupt Enoch was in his ways, he walked with God; and secondly, that he did not see corruption. And this second Point, which is reserved for this hours labour, is to be handled in two several heads; the former I will call Enoch's passage out of this world, He was not; The latter his reposure in another world, For God took him. His place was left empty among the Patriarches below, and he filled a room among the Thrones and Angels above. Upon these two I shall handle many particular Doctrines before you.  
And he was not; a concise phrase, you see, and brevity will breed obscurity, especially put this unto it, that it is a form of speech which is not used again in this sense, to my remembrance, in all the Scripture. But the sense is made plain by St. Paul, Heb. xi. 5. By Faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death; He had a passage out of this world without any dissolution of the soul from the body. In the same body that he pleased God, says Irenaeus, he was translated, being never unclothed of the flesh that he might put on immortality. That this truth may be carried the clearer I will debate it a little with them that oppose it, and with them that qualify it. Some of the Hebrew Rabbins as I find them quoted, because they consult not with the authority of the New Testament think they are not convicted by the Old Testament, but that they may conclude, how Enoch died, and was taken away in an early Age, (as those times went) much sooner than his Forefathers: As if this Verse did rather bemoan him for his untimely departure, than renown him for some glorious favour which did befall him. The phrase indeed, if we look no farther, will bear it, both in sacred and in heathen Writings, to say of one departed, fuit, he was, but is not; this was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a fair way of language to avoid an unpleasing word. Yet the phrase doth not always stand in that sense, but hath a double acception, and both in one verse, that you may the better carry it away, Gen. xlii. 36. Jacob there bemoans himself for the waat of two Children, Joseph is not, and Simeon is not; the one he took to be dead indeed, the other to be in fast hold, and taken from his eyes: removed where he could not come at him, as Enoch was, but no more. So the Chaldee Paraphrase explains the meaning of Jacob, Joseph non superest, & Simeon non est hic. Joseph is quite lost, and Simeon is not here. The phrase than accords very well with that place of the Hebrews, by faith Enoch was translanted, that he saw not death: And my Text must incline to that exposition for two reasons: First, that the Lord took him, stands for a consequent that he was pleased in him; it is the reward as you would say, that he walked with God, not that there is a necessary and perpetual coherency in it, that whosoever walks with God should be exalted into Paradise, and not see corruption, but enoch's righteousness by a privilege of favour was so requited; a favour then being understood in those words, it cannot be the sentence of death upon him, it is impossible. Secondly, in this Chapter the last word that the Holy Ghost gives of Adam is, Et mortuus est, and he died, so of Seth, so of Enos, so of Cainan, so of all the Antecessors of Enoch; wherefore unless Enoch had some other issue out of this world divers from the rest (which was by translation without death) why should it be said of him so differently from all others, he was not, for the Lord took him?  
So I have corrected the great error of those Hebrew Doctors, who would lay enoch's honour in the dust. But I suppose the general Exposition of the Jews was right, and according to St. Paul's doctrine. For Paul wrote to the Hebrews that he saw not death, knowing the tradition was commonly so received among them, and the Chaldee Paraphrast, who lived strait after Christ, was of the same judgement: beside one of great note among them says he was disarrayed of the foundation corporal, and clothed with the foundation spiritual: which words, I conceive, do jump with those, who oppose not the Scripture, that he saw not death, far be it from them, but they have a qualification for the meaning of it, that death is taken two ways, most properly for the separation of one essential part of man from the other, the body from the soul; a loath to depart it is, a most unwelcome dissolution, a punishment upon the sin of our first Father, which was remitted to Enoch; improperly it is no more but the separation or extinction of corruptible qualities from the soul and body; one whom I named even now called it the disarraying of a man from the foundation corporal; and so Enoch was purified, altered, made quite another man in the very moment that he was wrapped up to heaven. This evacuation of corruptible qualities from the flesh is called death by some very good Authors in our own Church; and so Procopius much more ancient than they, Mirabili modo mortis defunctus est & ad vitam coelestem translatus; it was a rare and admirable kind of death he suffered, being caught up into the clouds to live with God for ever. Their judgement is right, that he was disarrayed of all malignant qualities, sin and mortality which belong to the soul or body. But I wonder they should call these by the name of death; for it was no otherwise with Enoch than it shall be with all men and women whom Christ shall find upon earth at his second coming. St. Paul says they shall not die, but they shall be changed; that changing is no death, for change and death are membra dividentia in the Apostle, and cannot be confounded.  
Now I have brought you out of all encumbrances of wrong opinions to the clear truth. Enoch was not. How? He ceased not absolutely to live, but he ceased to live any longer in a corruptible Tabernacle; he prevailed above the sentence which was pronounced against Adam by the Judge of quick and dead, Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Mortality came from disobedience against the Commandment, neither is it possible for any mere man to attain to such a measure of obedience as to deserve immortality; do not imagine this holy Saint was without sin so that death could claim no dominion over him. St. chrysostom, who speaks much for Enoch, how the Lord rewarded his integrity with incorruption, says no more, but that he received God's Law, not that he kept it inviolably, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, God kept him alive that received the Commandment, that received it willingly, and with an earnest heart to keep it. But how was that Statute dispensed with, you will say, it is appointed to men once to die, and after that comes judgement? Heb. ix. 27. An easy dispensation will serve for that, for it was no otherwise with this man than it shall be with all the earth at the last day, when the Inhabitants of the world shall not be unclothed of skin and bone, but be changed into an incorruptible perfection in the twinkling of an eye. But that you may not wonder at enoch's case, as if justice had connived and forgot itself, remember this rule in St. James, There is one Lawgiver who is able to save, and to destroy, Jam. iv. 12. Mark that, there are Judges constituted under the Law, and it is not in them to save life where the Letter of the Law condemns, for the Law governs them, and not they the Law; but there is a regent and principal authority, whose clemency is above the Law. That speech of Senecaes' is as trivial as any Proverb, Occidere contra legem nemo non potest, servare nemo praeter te; Every Varlet can kill a Citizen against the Law, none but the Supreme Magistrate can save a Citizen against the Law. You see then by what rectitude of justice Enoch might be exempted from death, albeit we were all sentenced to become dust and clay out of which we were made, because God is the most supreme independent Judge of all the world, and may mitigate the severity of his own decrees. Why should not his mercy preserve where it will? And if he will preserve who can destroy? Is there any curse but he can turn it into a blessing? Where the Lord pleaseth to sweeten a bitter cup, Poverty shall not be grievous, nor ignominy dishonourable, nor sickness painful, nor life mortal. A thousand fell before this Patriarch, and ten thousand at his right hand, but he was impassable, and did not die, He was not, for the Lord took him.  
Because the Septuagint Translators concur with St. Paul in one reading, it is due to my Text to let it be known how they have enlarged this concise phrase, And he was not in their words is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, He was not found. And Clemens the Scholar of St. Peter and Paul, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it was not found that he ever died. He appeared not, and yet the Lord killed him not; so the Chaldee Paraphrase. For as St. Jerom said figuratively of the sweet end that Nepotian made, that he did Migrare non mori. And St. Bernard as much of Hubertus, that he did Abire non obire. Those pious men might rather be said to have gone a journey out of the way than have died; so very properly, and without a Metaphor, it was true of Enoch, that he did not die, but was retired out of the way, where he could not be found. It seems he was much sought for, as certainly good men will quickly be miss. Antigonum refodio, as the honest man's saying was, he would have scraped the just King Antigonus out of his Grave when he was departed. Though Elias was manifestly taken away into heaven, yet the Sons of the Prophets besought Elisha that fifty strong men might go seek him, lest the Spirit of the Lord had cast him upon some Mountain, or into some Valley. I could not blame them to wish they might find him again. So says one upon that inquisition was made for Elias, Enochus cum raperetur fortasse diu inquisitus fuit; It may be Enoch was much inquired for in many places after God had took him. Selneccerus says, that the Lord exalted him up into the clouds, Coram totâ Ecclesiâ & praecipuis Patriarchis; a great Congregation of men, and the chief Patriarches looking upon it. Bolducus the Capuchin more particularly (yet both altogether uncertainly using their own divinations) Tulit eum Deus in nube in quâ apparebat ministranti; God took him away in a cloud wherein he appeared as Enoch ministered unto him in the time of Sacrifice. If this were done before a throng of Witnesses, they might think it no more than a rapture for a little time, as Paul was taken up into the third heavens for a small space, and afterward restored to the Church. They might search, and hope to enjoy him again, but he was not found; the more was their loss that they wanted him, the more was his happiness, that he was quite gone, and wanted nothing. But Luther is of opinion, that he was retired alone to walk with God in Prayer, and sweet Meditations, and then the Lord lifted him away to the habitations of the blessed, when none were privy to it. Seth and all the other Fathers of the Church knew not what was become of him, his Son Methasalem and his Family looked for him with sad hearts, as Joseph and Mary sought for Jesus sorrowing; no doubt they suspected the malice of the Cai●ites, they thought he was slain, like innocent Abel, and privily buried. Perhaps it was not revealed in a long time after what was become of him. But as the Romans were highly discontented with the loss of Romulus their Founder, and would not be satisfied till Proculus swore he saw him carried away into Heaven: So when the Patriarches had sat down sorrowing because they found not the very Gem of the Church, the righteous man Enoch, it made their gladness the greater when they knew the Lord had translated him alive into Paradise.  
Now I proceed. The benefit of it, that he passed into heaven without death, is tw●fold, Quoad alios, quoad ipsum, partly in regard of others, partly in regard of himself. In regard of others, what greater consolation upon the proof did befall the Church in that Age than from hence, that there was an apparent instance that after this life God had prepared another for his Saints. These are the very words of life, Non solùm in verbo sed in facto; God did not only give a promise, but took this man away as a real pawn of his favour, that Death should be swallowed up in victory. Two things had happened which shook the world with much fear: First, that Abel, who had offered a good and a pleasing Sacrifice, should be slain by Cain: Is this the reward of the Righteous? Shall Sinners always have the upper hand? Hold ye contented says God, do not ye see that Enoch is accounted worthy to decline Fate and Mortality, because he was found obedient and just in the sight of God? Put Abel's persecution in one scale, enoch's glorification in another, and you will find how equally the lives of the Saints are mixed with afflictions and consolations. The other discomfort was, that Adam the Father of all fl●sh was dead before their eyes, and this struck wonderful terror into their hearts, till their fears were mitigated in the Assumption of Enoch. For he that assumed body and soul together into heaven, for power he was able, and for mercy very willing, though he marred the bodies of his Children with corruption, to repair them again. There was Seth the fifth Patriarch above Enoch then living, far stricken in years, and every day looking for his dissolution, within fifty years after he was carried to the grave like a timely fruit dropping from the tree. What a comfort it was unto him to see a Son of his own loins caught up alive into the Mansions of Beatitude? As who should say, at last such honour have all his Saints. Such as love to put forth curious questions demand why Adam's eyes were shut, that he never saw this blessing (for it fell out 150. years after his death) why he alone of all the good Patriarches was excluded from this common consolation? It is ingenuiously answered, that he had as much comfort as that came to proper to himself, for he received the very words of the Covenant out of God's mouth, The Seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpent's head; No man else was so happy to have the living Oracle of the Lords voice sound in his ears, that Christ should prevail against the enmity of the Devil. Therefore to see or hear of the rapture of Enoch was not necessary for him, but for all others it was that had not heard the primitive consolation. Can you imagine but it kindled great desires in all them that believed, to fly away like a bird unto the hills, and to possess that requium which Enoch enjoyed? Did not their hearts burn within them to see that glory which one of their Brethren and Kindred enjoyed? How much more should the same mind be in us to be with Christ? Who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the way-maker unto life, who is gone before to prepare a place for us. No Enoch, no Abel is our pattern, but Christ himself hath shown us by his own Ascension, how our thoughts should ascend upward, to sit at the right hand of God for evermore.  
Hitherto I have declared that enoch's rapture was a comfort to all true believers against the terrors of death; but I do not say, as some do, that the Resurrection of the body was any way exemplified in this man's translation. The Scripture hath left it out among the Arguments of the Resurrection, and the best instances are those which are applied by the Holy Ghost. As our Saviour propounds the Prophet Ionas, who was three days and three nights in the belly of the Whale, and came forth alive. St. Paul proves it to the Romans by this Argument, If you have the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, he will also quicken your mortal bodies. As if he had said, being it is the same Spirit it will produce the same effects. And he persuades it to the Corinthians with many strong demonstrations, this is the principal, if Christ be risen from the dead, then are we also assured of our Resurrection; for it is not possible that the head should live, and we that are his members remain in death. These are Apostolical reasons, and we are not sent to learn this Lesson from the rapture of Enoch or Elias. For indeed those ensampies belong to another purpose, to that refining of the mortal body, and not putting off of the flesh, which shall befall them that shall be found alive at the great day of the Lord. The Mystery which was opened to the Thessalonians, The dead in Christ shall rise first, than we which are alive, and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds; So says Tertullian, Enoch and Elias never slept with their Fathers, 
Lib. de Resur.  Quare documenta sunt futurae integritatis; therefore they show that body and soul shall be indissoluble (which he calls integrity) in them that shall be the last Generation of the world. And Irenaeus, 
Lib. 5.  The translation of Enoch makes it manifest that these gross bodies of ours shall be no impediment to meet the Lord in the clouds: For as the hand of God which made man of the dust of the earth put him into Paradise, so the same hand (though he be still but dust and earth) can exalt him to a better Paradise. And that exaltation, though it prove not the Resurrection so absolutely, yet directly it proves that the body is fit and capable to be carried away with the soul into the Kingdom of God.  
Thus far upon the benefit quoad alios, which redounded unto others from meditating upon this story, that Enoch was not, and the Lord took him. I must join a little to this of the benefit quoad ipsum, how commodious and good it was to himself, for two respects. I told you in my last Sermon that instead of walking with God, the Jerusalem Targum reads it, and Enoch laboured in the truth before the Lord; he was an assiduous Teacher of the wicked world to reclaim them from their vices, a Prophet that spent himself and his strength like a candle to give light to others; all the impediment was, that it is an hard matter to gain credit to good Doctrine from them that are hardened in their sins, and it is a great honour from God to the Labourer in his harvest when scornful men do not despise his Message. Therefore to win authority to enoch's Prophecies, the Lord did as it were stretch out his arm from heaven, and take him away in the Palm of his hand, this was a sure seal indeed to all people that his Doctrine was given by divine inspiration. Many false Prophets have commended their vain impostures to the world, giving out that they would ascend to Heaven, and talk familiarly about those things which they had delivered; so Simon Magus made ostentation of himself to the Romans; Mahumet promised as much unto the Thracians: that which they forged, but never came to pass, was fulfilled in the true Prophet Enoch, his doctrine was glorified with this miracle, that he was caught up into heaven.  
Now this was a mixed benefit, equally shared between him, and those that were his Disciples, the other use and conveniency is wholly his own, that God took him away long before he came to the age of his Forefathers, that he might suffer no more under the afflictions of those wicked times. For as St. Austin says of Lot, 
In Praefat. Psal 69.  that he lived in peace, and he lived in persecution among the Sodomites, in external peace, but their abominable sins were the persecution of Lot; so Enoch might live in dignity and renown, yet his righteous soul was vexed from day to day with the unlawful deeds of the Sons of Cain. Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because men keep not thy Law, says David. 
Psal. 119.136.  What life can be sweet to a good man where the Lord of life is blasphemed, and those that are dearest to him suffer reproach, and are disesteemed? What an irksome thing is the world to a good man where most things he sees are thorns to his eyes, and the third part at least of that he hears is a grating and scandal to his ears? Iniquorum vita justi aures & oculos non delectando, 
Lib 1. Mor. c. 7.  sed feriendo tangit, says Gregory; the life and actions of Reprobates must fall upon the senses of conscionable men, nor to delight them, but to excruciate them. And is not a quiet egress out of this world a most desirable thing, to be a Saint joyfully received among Saints, rather than be a Saint maligned among Devils? As Priam said of his Son Hector, that he seemed to be descended of some God, rather than of a man, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, so Enoch was fit to be joined to God and Angels, rather than to converse with rebellious children. He was one of that list of whom St. Paul says the world was not worthy, Heb. xi. 38. Which words Theophylact puts into this sense, make a price and estimation of all things in this world beneath, collect them into one sum, and such a devout soul as Enoch is more worth than all of it. The sins of the earth are most vexatious, the momentary things which we enjoy most vile and unprecious, what should detain a good man here with any delight or complacency? The sooner Enoch was snatched away from those things, the more dear he was to the Lord his good deliverer.  
I have yet another benefit of this translation to communicate unto you, not as a certain conclusion, but as a conjecture of some good Authors out of Wisd. iv. 10, 11. He pleased God, and was beloved of him, so that living among sinners he was translated, yea, speedily was he taken away, lest wickedness should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul. If this place aim at Enoch, as very learned ones modern and ancient will have it, and our last Translation doth so direct us in the Margin; then one special favour done to him to be speedily snatched away was that he might not slide back from that perfection to which he had attained. So St. Ambrose comforts himself for the loss of his brother Satyrus, that the Lord did abbreviate his days, to stop him from incurring those sins which he might have committed. I will not go far in this Doctrine, because a man that launcheth into it may quickly be tossed upon the waves of endless opinions. Conditional possible events are known of God, not only conjecturally, but certainly; and it is laid up in the store-house of God's infinite wisdom (which man shall never know) whether a faithful man chopped off in the middle of his Age, was prevented of more good deeds, 
August. Ep. 107. conclus. 7. & 9  or more bad, if he had finished his course. Among twelve Conclusions, which St. Austin heaped together to confute Vitalis of Carthage, two of them are most fit to keep our knowledge within the bounds of Sobriety: The one is, that we shall all stand before the Tribunal of God, and every man shall receive according to that which he hath done in his own body, Non secundum ea quae gesturus fuerit, si diutius viveret, sive bonum, sive malum; Not according to those things which they might have done in the body, whether good or evil. Secondly, We know blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, Nec ad eos pertinere quicquid acturi fuerant, si tempore diuturniore vixissent; neither shall it prejudice their blessedness, whatsoever foul acts they might have committed upon longer space of life. I draw it up to this conclusion; It is beyond our intelligence to conceive how many iniquities Enoch escaped by his sudden rapture: but it is easy to conceive, that he was not present at many public miseries and calamities which he must have beheld with a grieved heart. As King Josias out of God's great favour was prevented by an untimely death never to see the Captivity of Judah. 
Epist. 16.  St. Jerom says, that Anastasius, a good Bishop of Rome, was newly dead before Rome was sacked by the Goths, Ne orbis caput sub tali Episcopo truncaretur, that the Imperial Seat of the world might not be dishonoured before his eyes. Merciful men are taken away, says the Prophet Isaiah, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come, Isa. lvii. 2.  
One part of my Text was enoch's passage out of this world, I have done with that: The other part is his reposure in a better world, in these words, For the Lord took him. The Poets have their obscene Fables de raptu Ganimedis & Proserpinae, the ravishing of Ganymedes and Proserpina, rather than the raptures by their God Jupiter. Somewhat they imitate now and then out of holy Scripture, but they quite abuse it. To give their Fictions no longer the looking on, I come to those two questions that are much searched into, perhaps too much; The former demands to what place Enoch was taken, the latter debates whether ever he shall return again. If it were profitable to know these things exactly the Scriptures had revealed it, therefore to inquire into them pressingly is curiosity, to determine them resolutely is presumption, 
Homil. 29.  but to take a little say of them will be profitable for instruction. For the first question, Whither God took him? St. Cyprian, St. chrysostom, and Gregory the Great lay their hand upon their mouth, and will say nothing to it. The Scholastical Doctors began to define it first without all reservation of modesty, proceeding to an Affirmative Sentence, that he was sequestered to Limbus Patrum, or Paradise, and to a Negative Sentence, that the Heavens did not receive him. When some of them tell us that he was reposed in Paradise, it is not worth the examination, for they will not tell us what they mean. It cannot be that Terrestrial Paradise out of which Adam was banished, it cannot be that, for the Flood prevailed above all the earth to waste and spoil it. And for figurative significations of the word they are endless, who can interpret them? But will you know the truth upon Eccles. xliv. 16. The Vulgar Latin, of such authentic credit with them, hath cogged in the word Paradise, Enoch pleased the Lord, and was translated into Paradise. The Arabic Version, I hear, upon the eleventh of the Hebrews hath used St. Paul's Text so, and inserted the word Paradise into it. Yet there is no such syllable in the 72, or in the Greek Text of the Son of Syrach, that is all one to them; where it serves their turn they make use of the Greek Copies before the Hebrew, and of the Latin before the Greek; the Roman Church can dignify what Language it pleaseth. But enough of this, it is a mere Latin error, which first seduced the Schoolmen to write, that Enoch was translated into Paradise.  
Touching Limbus Patrum their Doctrine is more clear and explicit, that it is a place below the earth, called in large sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Hell, a receptacle of the souls of those holy ones and good believers, that died before Christ ascended into heaven where they were at rest and peace, but enjoyed not the presence of God. And this they expound to be that bosom of Abraham, whither the Angels carried the soul of Lazarus. The latter instance, I suppose, is enough to confute the former, for the rich man looked up, and saw Abraham and Lazarus in the high places above him, a great gulf of exceeding distance being between them, therefore it could be no such Limbus, as they dream of, in the Confines or Suburbs of hell. And St. Austin dashed this opinion long since with an Argument not to be answered, 
Epist. 57  I have searched the Scriptures, says he, and could never find that Hades or Hell was taken in good part; therefore to make a place of rest, and joyful habitation to be the fourth and best degree of hell, as all their Authors take it, is beyond his understanding.  
But why not Enoch assumed into some part of heaven? Their reason for that? The Scripture says plainly, that Elias was carried up to heaven, 
2 King 2.12  not because any quiet Habitation may be called Heaven in respect of this world of misery, but forasmuch as verily he did change Earth for Heaven, and therein is made a Type of Christ's Ascension, as Ionas the Prophet was a Type of his Resurrection. So St. Ambrose (I should have remembered it before) upon the Funerals of Valentinian, allows Abraham's bosom to be the house of God above the Firmament. Certainly St. Paul would never have used that distinction, Whether in the body, or out of the body he knew not, if it had been impossible for the body of man to be exalted into the third Heavens. As Core and Dathan were swallowed quick into Hell, body and soul, for their great Rebellion, so Enoch and Elias were carried quick into heaven, body and soul, for their great obedience. The Greek Church keeps the Feast of Elias upon the twentieth of July, says Metaphrastes in his Catalogue. All that Lapide the Jesuit says unto it is, that Elias his name is honoured upon that day by the Greek Church, but he is not worshipped or invocated on that day, because he is not in Heaven. I know not whether the Jesuit say truth in that, because I never saw the work of Metaphrastes, but if the Greek Church neither make Prayers unto him, nor give him religious honour, I am sure they are the wiser, and the farther from the Roman Superstition. They have one question among the Schoolmen maintained pro and con with bitter contentions (so God afflicts their wits that resist the truth) upon their supposition that Enoch and Elias are not yet in Patriâ & termino, not yet come to the consummation of their days, not yet in the receptacles of heaven, but in some other place, whither they be still in proficiency of holiness, waxing better and better, as when they lived upon earth; for then, say those Doctors, this absurdity would follow, they should exceed the Merits of the Blessed Virgin and all the Saints, their stock of good Works should run on in infinitum; I think they are afraid they might prove such excellent servants that God should scarce be able to requite them.  
Thus they entangle themselves in endless strifes to keep Enoch out of Heaven, and with him all those souls that died in the Faith before our Saviour gave up the Ghost, and upon affected misconstruction of those Texts, that Christ was the first fruits of them that sleep, that no man hath ascended into heaven, but he that first descended, the Son of man that is in heaven. To explain myself, and satisfy them, remember our Saviour's words, that there are divers mansions in his Father's house, that is, divers Stories of glory in his Father's house built one above another; there are outward Courts of glory, and inward Chambers. Now it is not to be denied, but that Enoch, and all the souls of all the just men of the Old Testament were in some quarterings of Heaven, as in their proper place, and in a state of happiness and salvation, which is figuratively called heaven, yet I do not say but Christ did open a door unto them to bring them nearer to the Vision of God in the highest heavens, when himself did enter into glory. The souls of good men deceased were ever in the hand of God, but not ever in like distance to the joys of God. They were in Heaven before Christ ascended, but not in such an Heaven as they possess now after he ascended. Their Lot was Heaven from the beginning, but their inheritance is augmented, that Verse in our Morning Hymn looks this way, I take it, when thou hadst overcome, etc. But of St. Paul's meaning to jump with this Doctrine I am very confident, Heb. ix. 8. The way into the holiest of all was not yet mode manifest, while as the first Tabernacle was yet standing. That I may leave no objections behind me to stumble you, the main scruple is, that the Scripture speaks as if Christ had made the first passage into Heaven in his own person, which must be interpreted of the highest heavens, where the blessed shall remain for ever; no man was admitted there, not the body nor the soul of man, till he that was God and man in one person went in first, and by his own merits and intercession gave access unto his brethren. I settle in my own belief upon this answer, not for want of two other answers, and both of them probable. The one, that before ever Christ took flesh, virtually, and meritoriously he opened the Kingdom of heaven to all Believers. Ab origine mundi operata est Christi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Ministry of Christ had all effects and operations of grace and goodness from the beginning of the world. The other answer is, no man hath ascended into heaven but Christ, but Enoch, Elias, and those that rose out of their graves, and appeared in the holy City, these were translated into heaven; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 negatur, non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as one distinguisheth. To ascend is to exalt himself by his own power, to be translated is to be carried away by the power of God. 
Homil. 29.  So Gregory says upon Elias his triumphant departure out of this world, Ligitur in curru ascendisse, quia homo purus adiutorio indiget alieno; He is described to be mounted in a Chariot, for it is not in man to reach up to heaven without divine assistance. Wherefore I conclude this Point, that nothing is repugnant to the dignity and priority of Christ, but that Enoch was carried away to heaven in the hand of God.  
And surely, as the Apostle says, the gifts of God are without repentance; he took him not away from the state of corruption here to kill him hereafter. As he saved him from death once, and translated him, so he will keep him from death for ever. I confess it is strange to me that the greatest part of the Fathers should be of another mind, but I confess the most ancient, and the best part of them are of another mind. Justin Martyr, 
August. de 〈◊〉 ad lit lib. 9 c. 6.  Tertullian, and so downward to St. Austin, Vivunt Enoch & Elias, sed reddituri ut morti debitum solverent; Enoch and Elias are alive, but the time is to come that they will return, and pay the debt of nature, and die. Such learned judgements had carried me clear along with them but that the foundation upon which they built was evidently rotten. The obstreperous Jews, I dare avouch it, laid the first stone of that error to oppose the true Messias that came to save them; for whereas Malachi concludes the Old Testament with a Prediction that the next Prophet after him should be John the Baptist, 
Mal. 4.5.  who should prepare the way unto Christ the Lord, behold I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. The Jewish Septuagint would make the world believe that the very Elias should personally appear against the Apparition of Messias, and have cogged in a word to that purpose, Behold I will send Elijah the Thisbite before the great day of the Lord. Upon this Tryphon the Jew, being put to it learnedly by Justin Martyr, falls at last into this cavil, for his part he knew not whether the Messias were come, or no, but he knew he should have no power or authority till Elias anointed him. What doth Justin Martyr reply to this? We have not wanted one Elias already, meaning John the Baptist, and we shall see the true Elias himself going before the second coming of Christ. Thus the good Fathers of the Christian Church were mistaken by the fraud of that addition Elias the Thisbite. And since they looked for Elias to come again, they thought it as expedient that Enoch his pewfellow and associate should join with him in the same fortune.  
Well, this comes not yet home to our Point, for the Jews did not meddle or make with that question whether Elias, and by consequent Enoch, should die when he came again? No, that was brought in by Christian Disciples, who were much stunned with an hard place in the Revelation, in Chap. xi. The two Witnesses that should fight with the Beast, 
Ver. 7.  and be slain by the Beast, the two Olive trees, the two Candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. Some ancient Writers have distorted this place to Enoch and Elias, that they should preach against Antichrist three years and an half, clothed in Sackcloth, be slain in Jerusalem, and rise again in the face of all people before the general Resurrection. Venerable Bede was the first, whom I light upon, that expounds it of the two Testaments of the Scripture, which openly convince all false Prophets by the evidence of truth. In this latter Age divers adhere to that exposition, among the rest the Learned and Princely Pen of King James of blessed memory. I believe many of those excellent Fathers if they had lived in these times would have approved the ingenuous collection of a late Writer, how nothing is proved, but that certain men in the last days shall preach against Antichrist and his Idolatries. Now two Witnesses are spoken of, that is very few, if they be compared with the great numbers of their enemies; but Witnesses must be two at least, according to the Law, therefore by the two Olive trees and two Candlesticks are meant Zorubabel and Joshua in the Prophet Zachary: By them that have power to shut heaven in the days of their Prophecy that it rain not, Elias and Elisha; by them that have power to turn waters into blood, and to smite them with Plagues when they will, Moses and Aaron. But none of those are meant definitively, and personally, but that the Lord shall have powerful Witnesses to preach against false Prophets, such as these, and not any colour of intimation to bring in Enoch, who is not glanced at in any description of the Text Many Writers, opposite unto us, are confident that if any Witnesses come from Heaven to fight against Antichrist, they shall be Moses, and Elias, and Enoch shall continue where he is, for aught they know. Nay, their judgements are so various herein, that some follow St. Hilary, and say, the Witnesses shall be Moses and Elias. One Hippolytus thrusts in St. John the Evangelist, because it is said of him, Thou must prophesy again. Some say as much for the Prophet Jeremy, because the time of his death is unrecorded, locus est & pluribus umbris, it may be we shall hear of more hereafter. For they have a wild and large field to run in that will interpret Prophecies unfulfilled. Now if our Adversaries will be so resolute in their curiosities to define who these Witnesses are, and be angry with them that descent from them, they for their part have less cause to blame them, who will be so confident in their Expositions about the Beast, his number, the City on seven hills, etc. For their part they are well requited, though I commend neither, the secret things belong to thee O God, the revealed unto us. And it is revealed to us that God took Enoch to himself, not that he will return him to us again. But as David said after the departure of his Child, We shall go to him, he shall not come again to us. And the Lord grant us all an happy passage out of this life to live with him for ever. AMEN.  O Lord help thy Servants whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood, and make us to be numbered with thy Saints in glory everlasting, through Jesus Christ, etc.  

THE FIRST SERMON UPON NOAH.  GEN. viij. 20, 21. 
And Noah builded an Altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the Altar.  
And the Lord smelled a sweet savour.  
IT is impossible to choose a better method than Elihu did to find out wisdom: Repetam scientiam meam à principio, Job xxxvi. 3. I will fetch my knowledge from far, or from the very beginning. But why do I call it Elihu's method? When behold a greater than Elihu, impugning the frivolous divorcements of marriages among the Jews, which then had common passage, doth thus overthrow them, Ab initio non fuit sic; It was not so from the beginning. From which words I am bold to pronounce, that this must be the leading rule of Divine Learning, that all Religion must be tried and allowed from the first, and most ancient Ordinations. Now we have four Ages to run through upon that examination. First for the Age before the Flood, whereof Almighty God hath left us a very short and confused memorial; I will not say, as some do, that the Church began when Enos was born to Seth, although we find it written, Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord, Gen. iv. ult. Nor from the Sacrifices of Cain and Abel, for the tradition of the Hebrews hath reason in it, that Adam himself had often sacrificed before, but the first hint of Religion in that Age is at this mark, where the Lord made woman, and brought her unto man, which was a mystery of Christ and his Church, Eph. v. 12. Secondly, if you will know how the fear of God was first professed after the Flood, it is written in my Text. Thirdly, If you will be acquainted with the first institution of the Mosaical Law, inquire for it at that time when God appeared in glory at Mount Sinai. And fourthly, If you will search to the bottom, when the Law was quite abrogated, and the Gospel was purely in force, reckon from the coming down of the Holy Ghost, at the Feast of Whitsuntide.  
Among these four I have wittingly light upon the second, that I may entreat before you, how Religion was first managed presently after the Deluge under the Law of Nature. For this seems to me to borrow somewhat of all the rest; so that speaking of this one they will all be remembered. The Mystery of Christ and his Church knit together is not here forgotten, where the clean Beasts and the clean Fowls are laid upon the Altar. The Sacrifices of Moses Law certainly were patterned by this example; and the inspiration of the holy Spirit must needs be in the Sacrifices work, from whence the Lord smelled a sweet savour. If your attention be now ready to receive the distribution of these words into their several parts, they may thus be divided into two principal branches; here is the material part, and the formal part, the body and the soul of that Divine Worship which Noah performed unto the Lord. He builded an Altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the Altar; that is the matter, the visible body of his good work: And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, there is the invisible part, or the Soul. The material outward work contains these three things: 1. That he offered burnt offerings. 2. Of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl. 3. Upon an Altar which he built. And Noah builded an Altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings on the Altar. In the formal part there are two things to be spoken of, sensibile, and sensus. The sensibile, that this Sacrifice had a sweet savour. 2. There was a quick sense that took it, and that is the Lords, the Lord smelled a sweet savour. And Noah builded an Altar, etc.  
I take the material part first in hand, and this is the principal composition in the matter, that Noah offered burnt-offerings to the Lord. This was it, I perceive, why Noah thought it long till the Flood were assuaged, and sent one bird after another to learn if the waters were fallen, that he might come forth, and worship him with an holy Worship that made both the Floods and the dry Land. As a conscionable man recovering from a perilous sickness, which brought him even to death's door, thinks every hour seven till he present himself in the Church before the Lord, that he may praise his name in the Congregation: So the heart of this Patriarch had been so long full of meditations, all those days that he was shut up in the Ark, how he and his Posterity alone were preserved from the common Deluge, that his desires grew restless, and he sent forth the Dove three several times and no less, to bring him better news, if he might come forth, and do his homage for the possession of the Earth upon an Altar of earth, and that the Incense of his devotion might smoke up to heaven in Sacrifice. Now I lift up this example before you, to let you behold why we are born, and for what use we have our Station in this Globe of Creatures. The Lord hath opened our Mother's Womb, to bring us forth into the light, as he opened the door of the Ark to set Noah's feet in a large room: We were shut up in a place which God had appointed for us, till our passage was made into the world, almost as long as he; now we have our egress, and the liberty of the Earth and Air. To what end all this? What is appointed for man? Which way should his business tend? To enjoy the pleasures of the Age? To extend our appetite over the abundance of all things which the earth affords? To build and plant? To be renowned, and leave a Posterity behind us? No, that account is ill cast up: for you may see in this condition of Noah, that he, and all that were with him, were let forth of the Ark as a people then born again into a new world, and the end was to offer up spiritual Sacrifices with a clean heart, and while we have any being to praise the Lord. When the Angel had delivered the Apostles out of the common-Prison into which they were cast, says he, Go, stand, and speak to the people in the Temple all the words of this life: So we are set at liberty from our Mother's Womb, 
Acts v. 20.  from that Ark to which we were committed for a time, that we may go to the Courts of the house of our God, even as Noah came abroad, and took seisin of the earth immediately to make an Altar thereof, and thereon to offer Sacrifice to the strength of his deliverance.  
The question will be, what direction the holy man had to worship the Lord with this kind of Service? Lay it down for that which must be granted. He that makes his own brain the model of his Religion, shall have little thanks for his forwardness. Ascribe unto the Lord the honour due unto his name; honour of Duty and Precept is best, that which is redundant, and of man's excogitation is frivolous. Indeed, Ceremonies, for the most part, are unprescribed, that particular Churches may be their own carvers in them; only let them beware that they use their liberty discreetly: But the offering of burnt Sacrifices is a matter of substance, how came this into Noah's heart to do it? By divine information certainly. At some time, about the beginning of time, God did appoint a form of Religion to Adam and his Posterity, which in the Breviary of the Book of Genesis is omitted, which Lesson was read to Cain and Abel, from whom they undertook the solemnity of Sacrifice; and the Candle was lighted from hand to hand till the Tradition came safe to Noah: Or thus very briefly, Which God did deliver to Adam, which Adam did commit ro Jared, he to Methusalem, which Methusalem did commend to Noah. Never imagine that they were appointed precisely about the food of their body, that is in the Letter of the Book, and no instruction delivered for the food of their Soul. That were such an omission that the worst Lawgiver would prevent, much more the wisest. The Lord did set his holy Patriarches in order, from succession to succession (till the Law was written) to communicate true Religion. And it is St. Hieroms rule, Omne verum à quocunque dicitur à spiritu sancto est; Every mouth that speaks truth, 
Heb. 11.4.  speaks it from the Holy Ghost. From Abel downward all those, whose Oblations had a sweet savour, offered by Faith; if by Faith, then by Precept and Instruction; for Faith comes by hearing, Rom. x. 17. Sacrifice than was that Divine Worship which God revealed did please him: that was the general approbation. I do not say, that every time they kept that duty they had need of a new and a special Commission. St. Ambrose says, that Noah did this good work of his own genius, 
Lib. de Noa, & areâ c. 12.  and not by any new particular Commandment: Qui debitum gratiae ut à se exigatur expectat ingratus est; A man must not stay after he hath received a benefit, till God say unto him, thank me now: for such thankfulness were ingratitude. Yet St. Ambrose hath far more voices against him than of his part, that this holy Father had special directions for the solemnising this Sacrifice, and that expressly it was revealed unto him, upon the taking in of seven of the clean beasts into the Ark, Gen. seven. 2. Of clean beasts by sevens, that three Pairs were for propagation, and the single odd one, the seventh of clean Beasts and clean Fowls, the celebs animal, the pure Creature which mixed with no female, was to be dedicated in an whole burnt-offering to the Lord. And then this example will so little favour Will-worship, that it utterly beats it down, the invention of man had so little hand in it, that it was Scientia à Deo indita, an inspiration immediately put into the Prophet by the will of God.  
The reason why the blood of Beasts was poured out to the Lord, and well accepted of him, will be ripe to be rendered by and by, when I have first shown in a word, that Religion did never discord from itself by mutation of times. The Saints in all Ages had the same Faith, the same Worship, the same Hope and expectation. Pietas ante legem, in lege, post legem piissime sibi concordat; Piety in the Law, before the Law, and since the Law is constantly the same, and did never vary. Mark therefore from this Text, that the Levitical Ordinances of Moses in many things are but a renovation and amplification of Ceremonial Customs before the Law. I said in many things, that I might not fall into the same error with them, who have overlasht, that all the Ceremonial Law was in use and practice with the Patriarches, and that Moses did but compile and gather it up into a body. If these men had been asked, where they did read of the Levites, and all the ritual Orders of the Priesthood before Moses, where concerning the trial of Leprosy, of Jealousy, and an hundred things more, I know they must be graveled, and could not answer: Nay, in the next Chapter, and the third verse, says the Lord to Noah, Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; but many living things were prohibited to the Jews in the Law of Ordinances, that they should not eat them. But this ground, I know, cannot be shaken, that many parts of the Ceremonial Law had clear passage in the Church presently after the Flood, long before they came forth in Moses name. And the whole Moral Law was acknowledged to be just and righteous even from the beginning of the world. Sacrifices, Altars, distinction of clean from unclean, abstaining from blood and things strangled, Vows, the Brother to raise up seed unto the Brother that died without Issue, these are all purely Ceremonial, and yet in practice before ever Jacob went down into Egypt, and that was 210 years, before ever the Levitical Institutions were enacted: And that all the Ten Commandments were engrafted in the good seeds of nature, there are such evident examples for them in all the book of Genesis, that it will be less tedious for you to ruminate upon them, than for me to remember them. But as a Book which is ill set forth, or rare to be had, is sometimes reprinted again in a good Edition, by them that are careful to propagate Learning: So those things Moral and Ceremonial which were in use before, were revived again when the Law was committed to Writing, and called the Scripture; partly because the Age of man grew short, and the Tradition of Religion through the more hands it went was the more corrupted, and because the Devil did superseminare in cord, scatter so many Tares among the Wheat, that the pure Law was scarce to be found in man's heart; and partly men were grown so guilty of the Law, that they would not look into their own hearts, where they found thoughts accusing them; Facti sunt fugitivi à cordibus suis, says St. Austin, they shunned to look into their own knowledge and conscience, which did condemn them, therefore it was necessary to have the Law written, that it might come unto men, since men did run from it. But the effects and grounds both of Ceremonial Sacrifices, and Moral Precepts were in force from the beginning. And we may say with Solomon, There is no new thing under the Sun, that which is called new hath been already of old time, which was before us, Eccles. i. 10.  
And because all things which are written are written for our instruction, I will spare some time to show, that it concerns us, even after the cessation of all Sacrifice, to learn, why the Lord would be honoured with the blood of beasts, and with the fat of Sacrifices. 
Chrysost.  One of the best and choicest of the Fathers thought it such a gross kind of serving of God, to kill Oxen and Sheep, and throw their flesh into the fire, such a tyrannising over the Creature rather than a worshipping of the Creator, that he esteemed it was granted the Ceremonial Church, because it could not be shifted. For since it was to be feared that the Israelites had cast their eye upon those fond customs of the Gentiles, and did affect to imitate them, rather than they should sacrifice to false Gods, God did permit they should sacrifice to his name to prevent Idolatry. But I answer, The most ancient and primitive use of sacrificing, such as Noah's was in my Text, is not so to be slighted. For a bad thing by a toleration is not made half a virtue, nay, after toleration it still remains more than half a Vice. Moses did allow a Bill of divorce for the hardness of men's hearts, but that which is allowed for the hardness of the heart is yet a sin after the allowance: the connivance of the Law cannot make any fashions of pride excusable: and the farming out of Stews for Pensions cannot make Fornication venial. But I pray you what Idolatry was suspicious in Abel's time, or at this time when Noah came new out of the Ark? And yet even then Sacrifice was, and was a sweet savour. And the ground of the objection is mistaken; for who can ever prove, that the Children of Israel had learned the forms of sacrificing in the Land of Egypt? It is impossible. For the Egyptians hated sacrificing, and killing of cattle; wherefore Moses would not consent to Pharaoh to sacrifice to God in that Land: Says he, 
Exod. 8 26.  Shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us? And the Egyptians continued such long after Christ, when the Satirist fell thus upon them, Nefas illic foetum jugulare capellae, carnibus humanis vesci licet, etc. This hath declared that the Ordinance of Sacrificing from the beginning was not a bare toleration, to divert men from laying their Offering upon the Altars of their Idols.  
But to make all perspicuous, we are to hearken to the judgement of Irenaeus; 
Iren. lib. 4. Heres. Hieron. in 7. cap. Hier.  and St. Hierom, that Sacrificing was an holy Worship which God did like and allow from the beginning of the world; and for many Ages there was no prescription for the manner, all holy men had their freedom for quantùm and quomodo, for how much, for when it should be done; but when the seed of Abraham proved recreants, and fell in love with the superstition, and worse than superstition, then, and not before, was the Levitical Law drawn out at large, to command all the true Worshippers of God to follow that written prescription in all their Sacrifices; That is, when the Molten Calf was set up by Aaron and the People to provoke God, when they offered burnt-offerings and Peace-offerings unto it, the Lord saw it was time no more to leave them to themselves to offer indefinitely, and indeterminately how they list; but after that he bound them to those Levitical rules, whereof Moses made an entire book. Says God, ye shall break down the Altars and Groves of the Gods of the heathen, but the Lord will choose a place for you, and thither ye shall bring your burnt-offerings, ye shall not do after all things that we do here this day, 
Deut. 12.8.  every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes. That is their ancient liberty in sacrificing after what manner they pleased was restrained, after the adoration of the Calf, for fear of further Idolatry.  
Sacrifice therefore was not barely a toleration for avoidance of Idolatry in the first institution, but properly had many parts of Religious Worship in it, which are these: First, the mind of him that brought the offering was bend to honour God, that he was the giver of all things, and the end to which all things were to be referred. Which reason the Schoolmen very well put into this Proposition, Emanant ex fide sacrificia, quae amplissimè de Deo sentit; The Religion of Sacrificing proceeds out of Faith, which esteems most devotionately of God's excellent greatness, and in the act of Sacrificing it is carried up to worship God in his invisible glory. And surely some Litany or Collects of Prayers were said at the same time, with such like Ejaculations in them as these: We lay this gift on thy Altar, O Lord, to acknowledge that every living thing is thine; this is a Testimony that thine is the Power and the Dominion over all things; let every thing do thee service, for thou art the Saviour both of Man and Beast; 
Psal. 36 7.  the life of every thing upon earth is in thy hand, but thou alone art immortal, thou art the same and endurest for ever: or such a form of supplication as came from David's mouth, when he offered for the building of the Temple, 
1 Chron. 29.14.  Who am I, and what is my people, that we shall be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own hand have we given thee.  
Now the rudeness of the old World, I may say, did require these lessons to be taught and repeated often in visible figures, in lessons that might be felt as well as heard, which were fit to be written not in ink alone, but even in the blood of Sheep, and of Goats. A visible sign is a fair mark of remembrance for them that are slow to learn. They that distrust their memory will wear a gimmal ring, nay a thread or a rush about the finger to bring business into mind, which might have been forgotten. And God distrusting man's memory put him into the way of sacrificing, a good shore or support for such a use; so by that object which did incur into all the senses the Divine honour was kept in an everlasting remembrance. Well then in this very service wherein they brought somewhat unto the Altar, yet it was the Lords purpose to give, and not to take. Nothing is left to him in an whole Burnt-offering, no more than a Prince gets when his Subjects make Bonfires at, or upon the memory of his Inauguration. Julian the Emperor scoffing at all the Royal Caesar's that had been before him, giveth Antoninus Pius the praise before them all, for this saying. He being asked by Silenus what was the end of his life, and of all his actions, he answered to imitate the Gods. And wherein consists that imitation, says Silenus. Antoninus rejoins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to stand in need of little, and to be beneficial to many; that's the true blazon indeed of the Divine dignity, to want nothing, and to do good to all. God's honour was recognized in sacrifice, that was the end of it; but our Goods and Oblations were nothing to him, and therefore the elementary part of their gratitude was consumed to nothing: It was a Law not to be broken for the blood of every Sacrifice to be spilt before the Altar, and the fat to be burnt in the fire; the blood stood for the life which we breathe, the fat for the abundance of all increase which we enjoy; now we ought to confess that we owe both our life and our substance to the Eternal Majesty, yet our thankfulness could return nothing to him, but it is spilt and consumed to nothing. Unto these two blessings which the Jews did enjoy by his mercy long life, and rich means to maintain it, sanguis & adeps, we have received two blessings ten thousand times richer; first that the Most High did offer up his Son on the Cross for our sakes, and then he did as it were sacrifice the Holy Ghost unto Man, sending him down in cloven tongues as it had been of fire; these are sanguis and adeps, the best blood and the best fat or unction in the world. O let us not forget his honour and goodness to make continual mention of it, and since the Father hath sacrificed as it were the Son and the Holy Ghost to us, let us sacrifice ourselves to the holy and individed Trinity both blood and fat, both life and fortunes, both soul and substance.  
Secondly by slaying a Beast in Sacrifice the humble Penitent did confess his unworthiness, and the guiltiness of his sins, which made him deserve to be quite consumed by the anger of the Lord, even as the flesh of a Sheep or Goat was burnt in the fire. As the Ninevites in their humiliation cast ashes upon their heads, that such a spectacle of desolation might speak their mind, that they and their City did justly deserve to become ashes and desolation. Such a Ceremony in the Injunctions of Penance hath often been imposed upon infamous Delinquents, to hold a wax Candle lighted in their hand before the people, which was a silent confessing, that as the Taper wasted away with the flame, so their iniquities made them fit to be burnt in Hell fire, but that they hoped the Lord would be merciful. The old Manichaeans therefore, and the modern Anabaptists had small reason to reject the Books of Moses, because he delivered a form of Religion, which consisted much in the slaughter of Birds and Cattle: I am sure Christ allowed that old way, while it was a way, to be very laudable, both by his Precept, Luke v. 14. He bade the Leper whom he had cured, Go thyself to the Priest, and offer for thy cleansing according as Moses commanded: and by partaking no doubt every year as well as at his last Supper of the Paschal Lamb, a Rememorative according to the present point in hand, that the Children of Israel should confess how their firstborn deserved to have been slain as well as the first of the Egyptians were, and as well as that Lamb was whereof they eat, if justice had been strictly executed upon them, as it was upon the Egyptians. Certainly this was no small profit arising out of Sacrifice, which made a contrite man discern his own sins and unworthiness, wherein he compared himself with the Beast that perished; And this was wont to be done in the Law by one annual Ceremony more solemn than ordinary, wherefore St. Paul says, in those Sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year, Heb. x. 3. and in the usual Sin-offering, which came often to the Altar, according as such as were laden with sins did unburden their conscience. And I will interpose one thing in a touch and a way, to convince their obstinacy, that hold it no way material for the peace of their mind, to have the absolution of their sins pronounced unto them by the lips of the Priest; such a one for aught I can see in this opinion, thinks himself to make a Church alone, without the Communion of Saints, yet as he is convinced by the power of the Keys committed to the Apostles and their Successors under the Gospel, so the Lord did refute him by the Ceremony of the Sin-offering under the Law; for one part of the Sin-offering was burnt to God, an the Priest had the other part, ad significandum quod expiatio peccatorum sit à Deo per ministerium Sacerdotum, 
Aquin. prius. 2. qu. 102. ar. 3.  to prove symbolically, that God did remit sins by the ministry of his Priests, and therefore God had the main share, and the Priest the remaining portion of the Offering.  
But alas, though this second reason were very useful to the Jews while they were like Elementary Children fed with Signs and Figures, yet now we Christians have other principles, stronger meat; for what need we confess our unworthiness, and what punishment we deserve, over the Carcase of a Beast, when we see much better what penalty remains unto us, if God would be extreme to mark what is done amiss, who spared not the life of his only Son when he bore the person of our transgressions. And there's the third reason, which is the full and complete use of all the ancient Sacrifices, it was to prefigure the immolation, the bloodshedding, the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ: those were the Parables of the Old Testament, as I may call them, and Christ's Death was the interpretation of them all: Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world, says John the Baptist, Agnus qui redemit oves, the Lamb that redeemed all the Sheep which hear his voice: Behold the Lamb of God slain from the beginning of the world (Revel. xiii. 8.) says John the Divine, slain personally under Pontius Pilate, but slain representatively from the beginning of the world, in the immolation of all those beasts, whose blood by faith did imbrue the Altar: The blood of Bulls and of Rams, the slaughter of the Morning and Evening Sacrifice did all belong to the acknowledgement of the same reckoning, which at last was fully discharged by the blood of Christ: those were but like petty sums to pay the Interest in the mean time, at last the Principal, the whole Debt was discharged by that most Royal ransom of our Saviour. In a word, all those bloody Oblations were like John Baptist forerunners of Christ, Indentures sealed with blood, that the Redeemer would come and die for his People. Not the least Sparrow which was offered for cleansing, but might move our Saviour to say unto the Jews, If yes believed in Moses, ye would believe also in me. Now for as much as the Holy Ghost hath made us able to interpret obscure things since the coming of Christ, how fluent and facile are these meditations to us, to discern our Lord in every clean offering which was offered up by Noah? in every Lamb which came to the office of the Sons of Aaron? with great difficulty did the Patriarches pick out that construction. When we read of a Sacrifice, we see as much in it as if Christ's Passion were represented on a Stage. Bernard made a pious and an eloquent gradation, how faith gathered strength by degrees, being a little spark with those that were ordinary Believers before the Law, than a candle under the Law, lumen in laterna, no more, as David said in his days, thy word is a Lantern unto my feet, and a light unto my paths; then like a flaming Beacon in the time of the Gospel, lumen super montem, nay super coelum, more than a candle upon a hill, even as the Sun itself in the firmament, Christus fuit in spicâ in fide patrum, in similâ in doctrinâ legis, post humanitatem assumptum panis formatus. Christ was in the faith of the Patriarches like corn in the ear, in the faith of the Law like corn ground into flower, but since the word took flesh, and dwelled among us, He is in our faith completely, as when corn is made into bread. The Patriarches in their Burnt-offerings did hope for him, the Levites in their Sacrifices did look for him more near at hand, but we have him really exhibited in our Sacrifice, and if we have a Sacrifice left unto us likewise, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, according to St. Chrysostom, we do commemorate the Sacrifice of the Cross, where we do not profess that then Christ's Body is slain, or then his Blood is shed, but we remember all his sufferings past, we look for his grace at that present, and we hope for his coming hereafter in glory. And so much upon those three reasons, why God did institute Religion of old to be discharged in sacrifice.  
Noah had all these things in his heart, as I will show, when I come to speak of the sweet savour. Now although the value of a gift consists not in the plenitude of the thing given, but in the good affection of the giver, yet the Sacrifice of Noah wanted not fullness and weight, it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the Septuagint expressed, all that he brought to the Altar was burnt, and nothing reserved, as God bade Abraham offer up Isaac for an whole burnt-offering. Under the Law of Moses those kind of Sacrifices were the principal in three regards. 1. It was an Offering completely burnt, and nothing must remain of it. 2. It burned all night upon the Altar until the morning, 
In Psal. 75.  Levit. vi. 8. 3. As St. Austin truly adds, holocaustum est totum incensum sed igne divino, at first of all that Sacrifice was lighted from heaven with fire that did consume them, there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the Altar the Burnt-offering. Levit. ix. 24. and when Nadab and Abihu brought other fire in their Censers to add it unto the fire of that Altar which came from heaven, a fire went out from the Lord and devoured them. Literally you see what an whole Burnt-offering was; mystically it imported such an exact yielding up of the Soul and Body to the Lord, wherein we dedicate all our faculties unto his service from the bottom of our heart, reserving nothing unto ourselves with Ananias and Saphira, but with the commendable Widow, casting our two mites, even all we have into the Corban, and whatsoever we do to please the Lord, it must be kindled in our breast by celestial motions, as it were with fire from heaven. A man may give all he hath unto the poor: is that an whole Burnt-offering simply by itself? no a man may give his body to be burnt: is not that enough? is not that all he can do? no, St. Paul says neither this nor that shall profit you, if you have not charity. Be perfect in the study of all good virtues, but have the fire of divine love with them, do all to the honour of God. The whole Burnt-offering which is first mentioned in Noah's piety, is then acceptable, when God doth inflame it with the fire of his holy Spirit from heaven.  
I will hold you no longer upon the first point, the second consists herein, of what kind and species Noah did offer unto the Lord of every clean Beast, and of every clean Foul. God saw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good: it is no variation of sense to say, God saw every thing that He had made, and behold it was very clean. All creatures are clean to him. Peter learned it in a trance, that we might not doubt it waking, What God hath cleansed let no man call it common. Nothing is properly impure in his eyes but sin, and the works of the Devil. How comes this distinction then of clean and unclean Beasts in the Holy Scripture? two ways, ex Traditione, ex Lege: by Tradition before Moses, and then more amply and particularly by the Law of Moses. I will begin a notioribus, from the information of the Law, which will direct us far better than the dark steps of Tradition. Twelve chapters, and no less, are spent in the Book of Leviticus to discriminate clean things from unclean, wherein some things are called unclean for two uses, quoad esum, quoad sacrificium: some things were impure, and not to be eaten; some things impure and not to be sacrificed; the 11. chapter of Leviticus doth enumerate both fouls and Fishes, and creeping things which were unhallowed meat: and for the Beasts which are permitted for food, they are summed up in two rules, if they divided the hoof and chewed the cud they might be eaten, and all the rest to be forborn. But God was far more strict in appointing himself sacrifice, than in appointing of us food: for first many sort of Fishes were clean food, yet none of them were clean Sacrifice, they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they have no blood, or at least abound not with blood, and so not fit for the Altar. 2. Many sort of Fouls might be served up to the Table, yet none but Turtles and Pigeons were fit to be offered in the Temple, and Sparrows in the expiation of leprosy. 3. Among all Beasts that divided the hoof and chewed the cud none but Beefs, and Sheep, and Goats were to be slain in that religious service unto the Lord: the Hart and the Roebuck might be eaten, Levit. iv. so you see here is a great difference between clean meat in the Law, and clean sacrifice.  
As the wits of men will expatiate upon all things, so from hence they take leave to ask, why the Lord did call one thing clean, and another unclean? But first I shall tell you, all God's words are undisputable, and to argue why He did it, is rather to dishonour than to understand his commandment. Humility will sit down contented with this answer: but I will go further to satisfy the itching inquisitions of our heart: And first I will join another question to elucidate this. Why was Adam restrained eating of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil; for the same reason some living things were made unclean, and unlawful unto the Jews, to make them know the Earth is the Lords and the store thereof; and He gave Man Dominion over the Creatures, but with exception, that man was subject to Authority of touch not, taste not, where he laid his prohibition. 2. As Images are called by some, Laymens' Books, so the mark of cleanness and uncleanness set upon some Creatures made them visible Sermons, what cleanness did become the Saints; a clean hand, that hath not taken reward against the innocent, a clean eye, that doth not look so far till it make the Soul commit fornication; undefiled lips, which have not defiled the holy name of the Most High; and above all an heart, that hath no savage inhuman malice in it. Make clean the inside of the Platter, or the best meat that you eat will be so unclean unto you, that you will make the Table of the Lord become the Table of Devils. Therefore as great persons in their Galleries keep the patterns of virtues in colours or in sculpture, so these Creatures were forbidden to the Jews, as the patterns and representments of inward uncleanness, and ghostly pollution. 3. If God can find uncleanness in these dumb things, which follow their natural inclination, and do not violate it, what filthiness is in us, in whom the rebellion of concupiscence is always burning? 
Isa. 64 6.  We are all as an unclean thing says the Prophet, an original leprosy hath overspread us, but we must wash in the Bethesda of Christ's blood, and we shall be purified from our sins.  
So I have tried the Law briefly what is clean and unclean both for Meats and Sacrifice. How stood it with Tradition before the Law? Now I come close to that. First as for Meats, when flesh began to be meat, all things were clean before the Law was given without restriction. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, even as the green herb have I given you all things, Gen. ix. 3. And for sacrifice Theodoret and Beda think that all things promiscuously might be sacrificed before the Law, there was nothing then disallowed as unclean, and that Moses wrote the Book of Genesis since the Law, and that some things were called unclean, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by anticipation. But all ancient Expositors beside make a part against them, that the Patriarches received an institution from the beginning, by Divine revelation delivered to Adam of what kind only, and with exclusion of all things else they should sacrifice unto him. And the Lord God caused Noah to receive clean Beasts and clean Fowls by sevens, that the odd one might be allotted in due time for a Burnt-offering. Therefore Rabbi Eleezar paraphraseth my Text, that Noah brought out an Heifer, a Sheep and a Goat, a Turtle Dove and a Pigeon, and offered these five creatures, of every clean Beast, and of every clean foul upon the Altar. And to confirm it the more, those are the very particulars, and none other, which God caused Abraham to present unto him, Gen. xv. 9  
This Exposition yet, some man will say, had been much the clearer, if it had been written that Abel had brought an Offering of clean things unto the lord 
Gen. 4.4.  But require it not (beloved) because it needed not. Abel was a Keeper of sheep, and Abel brought of the firstlings de grege suo, says the Text, therefore it is all one to say, he presented a clean Sacrifice. As Noah, by due estimation of circumstances, cannot be said to come short of Abel, in that his Offering is not said to be de primitiis, of the first birth of the Flock, for he had no firstlings perhaps in the Ark: but since he had not primitias pecorum, yet he had primitias temporis, he consecrated the first minutes of time unto the Lord, as soon as ever he came out of the Ark, and the choicest things that were in the Ark, of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl. For this is a common Law in every thing, if it be for the name of the Good God, let it be of the goodliest and best. If one build an House of Prayer, let it be fairer than his own Dwelling: if he feed the hungry let it be of the wholsomest of the Table: if he sanctify any thing for the ornament of God's House, let it be of the costliest: if he preach God's Word, let it come from his studied and best industry, and not with extemporary sauciness, which some do, they say, for conscience, I say for laziness, and therein imitate Gonzaga the Jesuit, of whom one of his own Fatherhood says, he would preach ridiculously on purpose that he might be scorned and laughed at. Levit. iii 16. all the fat is the Lords, that is, bring him none but the best, the purest, and choicest Oblations; of clean Beasts and of clean Fowls; to which I make but this short Appendix, that as there were unclean cattle, as well as clean in the Ark, so the ungodly are mixed in the Church with the righteous, but the faithful only are the sacrifice of good acceptation, and of sweet savour. Good and bad are in the Ark, but the pure and undefiled are received upon the Altar. Many of the coarsest sort belong to the outward Society of the Church, hypocrites, seducers, men empoisoned and empoisoning with malice, but they are not of that principal and high degree, that the blessings of the Church are made effectual in them, and their souls offered up to the Lord on the Golden Altar before the Throne, which is an Allegory of Christ, 
De baptis. lib. 7. c. 51.  Revel. viij. 3. So St. Austin differenceth the two divers Tribes of the Church, alii sunt in domo Dei, ut ipsi etiam sint domus Dei, etc. Some are in such sort in the House of God, that they also are the House of God: and some are so in the House of God, that they pertain not to the Frame and Fabric of it. But here the similitude concurs not between the unclean Beasts in the Ark, and Hypocrites in the Church, between the clean ones and the elect; for once a clean beast and ever clean, once an unclean, and ever so accounted by the Law; but How many are there that now wallow in all impurity and filthiness, that hereafter, we hope, may be converted, prove chaste and undefiled? How many, that either blaspheme, or know not Christ; who, we trust and expect, shall be illuminated and believe? These are sheep in God's preordination, yet for the present are unclean, and follow the voice of a stranger. On the other side, How many have we known that have been chaste for a while, and afterward plunged themselves in sensuality? How many that have vowed to bear the Cross of Christ, and yet denied him? How many that have eaten of the Lords Table, and yet have resolved in their heart to betray their fellow Disciples, as Judas did to betray Christ. These had the seeds of righteousness, and yet proved unclean, which says, let him that standeth take heed lest he fall; and take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart to depart from the Living God.  
To be brief in the remainder. There is no separation now between clean and unclean things. Rabbi Moses is quoted by Lyra for this saying, nulla animalia erunt immunda tempore Messia, when the Messias comes no living things shall be accounted unclean by any legal imputation. So it is come to pass indeed, and we have witness out of the mouth of an Adversary. But why should the Messias do all the Creatures that honour to be esteemed clean? Hath God care of Oxen? The Jewish Rabbi ventured not upon that question: 
Lib. 7. Heres. c. 12.  but Irenaeus answers it, omnia purificata sunt per sanguinem Christi. Christ hath set the Church at liberty to be debarred from nothing which God hath made, and the uncleanness of the beasts is now accounted cleanness, because our filthiness is washed away, and made clean in his most precious blood. That which was commonly usurped among the Gentiles throughout all the world was branded for unclean; and therefore Peter said, Lord I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean: but now the stile is changed, and that which is most common is most clean. Our riches are made clean by being scattered abroad, and communicated in charity, the Word of God is most clean and undefiled, whose sound is gone forth into all Worlds. Prayer and Preaching are best when they are performed in the Congregation, and are most public. The holy Eucharist is cibus communis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Communion of the body of Christ, and yet it is so pure a food, that being eaten by faith it purifieth the heart and conscience above all things. To the clean all things are clean, but because we live in the contagion of the evil World, and he that toucheth pitch shall be defiled; and because our own heart is an impure fountain from which the streams of bitterness do continually flow, Cleanse the thoughts of our heart O Lord by the inspiration of thy holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name by Christ our Lord. AMEN.   

THE SECOND SERMON UPON NOAH.  GEN. viij. 20, 21. 
And Noah builded an Altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the Altar.  
And the Lord smelled a sweet savour.  
THis is our Sacrifice which we offer unto God at this time to preach of Sacrifice, and Preaching hath a great similitude with the Law of the Peace-offering, Deut. xxvii. 7. Thou shalt offer Peace-offerings, and shalt eat thereof, and rejoice before the Lord thy God: So we are come together to speak unto the honour of God, and to make ourselves perfect in his ways and Testimonies to do them. We offer unto the honour of our Saviour, and eat of our own Offering, which is the very condition of a Pacificatory Sacrifice. Now that I may bring nothing unto the Altar but that which is pure and clean, the Lord grant that he will circumcise my lips, and put a right Spirit into my Meditations. Among the Beasts such a one was clean that parted the Hoof, and chewed the Cud: upon which St. chrysostom deviseth this interpretation; to divide the Hoof is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ to divide the Word of God aright, in St. Paul's Phrase: To chew the Cud is to ruminate upon sacred things, to roll them in our understanding, and to examine them maturely, not to admit, or swallow down Divine Mysteries rashly with slight and undiscoursed credulity. That we may chew the Cud in this Father's sense I take these words, upon which I have lately spoken, again into my mouth, to make further proof what is contained in them.  
And lest confusion should make all that is to be said unprofitable I will divide the Hoof after the condition required in a clean Sacrifice. I have declared before that there are two principal branches to be noted in the Text, the material part, and the formal, the body and the soul of that Divine Worship which Noah offered unto the Lord. In the material part again are two contents, the Gift, and the place which sanctified the Gift. The Gift was an whole burnt-offering of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl; the place was the Altar which he made, and Noah built an Altar to the Lord. These are the visible body of the work; The invisible part, or the soul consists herein, that the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and that hath two members in it sensum, and sensibile, first, the sweet Odour which did exhale from the Sacrifice what it was; secondly, a quick sense that took it, the Lord smelled a sweet savour. I did not dispatch all the material part when I first handled these words, for accounting it a less fault to be abrupt than tedious, I proceeded upon no more than the consideration of the bare Gift, a Burnt-offering of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl. At this time I have measured to go a little further without prolixity. I shall speak, God willing upon the place that sanctified the Gift, and Noah builded an Altar unto the Lord; and upon the quick sense, which did apprehend the sweet Odour, it was even he who is present at every part of clean devotion, and delighteth in it, the Lord smelled a sweet savour. From whence I will meditate, 1. That the time was but new over that God destroyed almost the whole World, see how soon he is pleased after his great wrath, and with what small seeking. 2. When we do any thing well there is joy in heaven. 3. Many pious offices which stink in the World's opinion are sweet before God. 4. There is no greater encouragement to do well, than that we are sure it finds grace in the eyes of our heavenly Master, it is sweet in his nostrils, and he will reward it. Of these as I have divided them. And Noah builded an Altar, etc.  
The whole Earth had been overwhelmed for a long space with the waters of the Deluge, in plain terms it was all under malediction, but Noah builded an Altar of the tu●f and mould of the earth, and so brought it again into good use and service, and sanctified the whole Element to the Lord. Truly, God that revealed unto Noah that he should make an Ark, and be saved in the common Calamity, deserved to have an Altar erected at his hands, that thereon he might adore his Saviour. The Jewish Rabbins are so punctual in their curiosities, that they go about to tell us the very Plot of ground on which this Altar was raised, and many things more of great fame to happen in the same place, I am sure you will say the report is very strange, if it be credible. But this Ben-Maimon adventures to say, that it is a Tradition by the hand of all, where David built an Altar on the Threshing Flore of Araunah, Solomon built a Temple, and Abraham made ready there to offer up Isaac, and Noah built this Altar in the same standing when he came out of the Ark, that there was the Altar where Cain and Abel did first offer before Noah; nay, that the first man did offer an Offering there soon after he was created; and yet he goes further, our Wisemen say, Adam was created out of the very earth of the same place. There is no mediocrity in these men's conjectures, and therefore I give them over without commending them.  
Wheresoever this Altar did fortune to stand (why not most likely upon the Mountains of Ararat, or Armenia, upon which the Ark rested?) But certain it is, this is the first time that we read of an Altar. And though the substance were like other earth, yet being once erected for that use it became a very holy place, the Altar sanctifieth the Gift says our Saviour, Mat. xxiii. 19 And therein it was a Figure of Christ, by whom we offer up to God praise and thanksgiving, and all the desires of our heart; he is understood by all Expositors, whom I have seen, to be the Golden Altar before the Throne, upon which the Prayers of all the Saints were offered up, Rev. viij. 3. And there is not an Altar of any fashion or stuff in Moses, but the Fathers have found out somewhat in it to agree with Christ in their pious Meditations. First, Propter unicam aram, in the Tabernacle, in the Temple there was but one Altar, so there is but one Christ that reconciles us to his Father, but one Mediater between God and Man. Secondly, Because some special occasions were now and then dispensed with to set up another Altar, the materials of those Altars were either to be rude earth, 
Exod. 20.  or else rough and unpolished stones. 1. Undigested earth with much simplicity, and devoid of all ornament, Vt nihil in eyes admiraremur praeter salutis pretium; 
Masius in Josh. 8.31.  Nothing was made beautiful, or to be admired in the outward form of things, that the mind of the devotionary might be transported with no outward thing, but inwardly conceive the excellency of that ransom which was paid for the sins of the world. And then Gregory will carry you with him to this fancy; 
Lib. 3. Mor. c 20.  Why were religious Altars to be made of earth? Questionless, to betoken the Incarnation of our Lord. Quicquid offerimus Deo in altari terreo, i● in fide dominicae incarnationis solidamus; Whatsoever we bring unto the Lord to please him, deliver upon the Earthen Altar, upon this ground and foundation, that the Word was made flesh, the Son of God was made the Son of Man, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have life everlasting. Literally these earthen Altars made of sods of grass, Temeraria de cespite altaria, as Tertullian calls them, did best like the Lord before the Temple was established, that they might crumble away, and not stand long, lest their permanency should breed diversity of Worship, and confusion in Religion: And it is very likely considering how readily a few clods of earth may be piled up, and Noah as yet wanted stuff and means for any other Architecture, his Altar was but a bank of earth; not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a structure in a Temple, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; 
De vitâ Mos. lib. 3.  a place to receive Sacrifices set up in the open-fields; so Philo gives me the distinction, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the word which is accurately kept in this place by the Septuagint.  
If the Altar were a little more costly and elaborate, that is made of stone, the order was, it should be rough and unpolished, no iron tool must be lifted up upon it, and in these materials likewise we shall meet with Christ. First, Christ is Lapis vivus & insectus, called in the Gospel a living stone, called by Daniel the stone which is cut out of the Mountain without hands. He was not polished by Art, by Education, or by any thing that man could put into him, as he came from the very Quarry, from the Womb of his Mother, he was full of grace and truth. Secondly, Those rough ragged stones did best become the work of the Altar, partly to imply in what poor and despicable manner Christ came into the world, without form or comeliness in him, says Isaiah; partly it did figure those rough and dolorous sufferings which he sustained upon the Cross, which was an Altar truly taken, and his body the Sacrifice which was slain upon it. Thirdly: No Iron Instrument must grate itself upon the stones of the Altar; for he who is the Altar on which we eat was the Prince of Peace; he came not to redeem us by Sword, or by Conquest, or taking earthly Kingdoms into his hand by force and victory (which was the weak imagination of some that were his best Disciples) but by Patience, and Sufferance, and putting up the Sword into the Sheath. Cicero testifies for the Heathen, 
Lib. de ●●.  that they used no Brass or Iron about their Altars, nor knit the stones together with such Metals, Aes & ferrum arcenda sunt à delubris, & duelli instrumenta non fani; says he, those warlike Metals are for the Martial Field, not for Divine Sanctuaries. And thus you see what semblance those Altars of Earth and of stone had with our blessed Saviour.  
But by this the good Patriarch Noah hath showed, that an Altar was a necessary part of Religion, that he began with that work before any other, it was the first fruits of his piety. But now the Church hath outgrown that name properly taken; we have no real and external Sacrifice of Christ's body and blood; by himself he did once offer a full, perfect, and sufficient Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world; therefore to erect a real Altar without a figurative construction is to overthrow the Cross of Christ. But many both have been delighted, and are delighted to keep the name figuratively without offence. And Bellarmine doth but fight with words, 
Lib. 1. de mis. cap. 2.  that there can be no Altar without Sacrifice, that Antiquity useth the name of an Altar when Christ's body and blood are proposed to the Receivers, therefore the Priest doth properly sacrifice our Saviour. Thus many words which passed to and fro in antiquity with great eloquence have been distorted to make dissension. In origen's and Arnobius time the case stood thus, 
Orig. lib. 4. cont. Celsum. cap. 8. Arnob. con. gen. lib. 4. Lib. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Objiciunt nobis quod non habemus imagines aut arras; The Heathen quipt them that they had no Images nor Altars. And Clemens of Alexandria says, we have no other Altars but these earthly bodies of ours, which we bring to the Congregation of Prayer. Afterward the holy Communion began to be celebrated with many elegant and sumptuous Ceremonies, and that upon which the Elements of Bread and Wine were set, properly by St. Paul called a Table, improperly and figuratively was called an Altar. The Writers of Sacred things delighted in many names of Mosaical use for the similitude of the Law and Gospel. hence it is frequent to call Prayer by the name of Incense, to call the Christian Priesthood Levites, the Thanksgiving of women after their safe deliverance from Childbirth their Purification; Finally to call the holy Communion a Sacrifice, and the Table of the Lord an Altar. But how far they were from allowing the new Philosophy of Transubstantiation from hence the diligent Reader may mark it. Even our own Church, since it renounced the opinion of an External propitiatory Sacrifice in the Mass, yet in the first Liturgies, set forth by Public Authority in the Reign of Edward the Sixth, the name of Altar is throughout retained, to comply with the Figurative phrase of good Antiquity; and the next Edition of Liturgies, to keep an wholesome form of words as St. Paul says, and to give no place to misconstruction, doth every where throughout call it the Lords Table. And in the Injunctions of another blessed Prince, (whereas by order of Law Altars were to be removed, and Tables placed for the ministration of the holy Communion) it is said, saving for Uniformity sake there was no matter of great moment, so the Sacrament was duly and reverently celebrated, and that the holy Table in every Church should be set in the place where the Altar stood. We dare therefore, and will speak according to Antiquity, in the Figurative meaning of Antiquity, calling it an Altar; but lest the Supper of the Lord should be called the external and real crucifying of our Lord again, we neither dare nor will speak after the sense of the Roman novelty, to call it an Altar, but we come to that holy Supper to be partakers of the Table of the Lord. These are not times to offer Sacrifice as Noah did, and therefore not to build an Altar, but only to commemorate that Sacrifice, after which all true Sacrifices ceased, and all properly called Altars fell to the ground. And so much for the place which Noah sanctified, he builded an Altar to the Lord.  
I am passed the visible part of this good work, I come now to the invisible part, the life, the soul of it: And the Lord smelled a sweet savour. What this delicate Odour and fragrancy was which the Sacrifice did exhale up to heaven I will not defraud you of it hereafter, but I will defer it now, and make myself room enough to speak of that quick sense which did apprehend this sweet Odour, the Lord smelled a sweet savour. A remnant or portion of living things had entered into the Ark to escape, those were given unto the new World to multiply, but Noah would be more severe against the sins of the World than the Lord was, he would not spare so much as the merciful God had spared. Nay, the Lord thought it enough to overwhelm the iniquities of men with water, but Noah presented Burnt-offerings on the Altar to confess, that the wicked works of the World deserved likewise to be consumed with Fire. A most depressing humility in the good Patriarch, a most mortified Confession. This won far upon the Lord's compassion, and changed the rugged brow of Justice into the smiles of mercy and benevolence. It grieved him before that he had made man, now he rejoiceth for the Remnant alive, that he had preserved them. As a Kingly Expositor said upon the Lord's Prayer, the most generous are the most gentle, and a magnanimous courage is never vindicative of a wrong, never retentive. The time was but even now over that God had destroyed the whole World, and see how placable he is, from what a little pittance of true devotion he smelled a sweet savour. Before the King of Ninivey had worn out his Sackcloth, nay, almost before he had put it on; God saw their works, and repent of the evil which he said he would do unto them, and did it not. Zachaeus did but profess to make restitution of all things ill-gotten, and before he had made restitution of one penny, says Christ, this day, (yea Lord, what if thou hadst said this minute?) is salvation come into thy house. Nathan charged David with most bitter offences, (Lord keep us from the like) David begins to reply, I have sinned against the Lord; it was but a beginning, surely he would have said more, but Nathan takes him off at a few words, the Lord also hath taken away thy sin, thou shalt not die. It is accounted so great a matter to follow, and solicit Christ thrice together, like she of Canaan, that she had her Garland for it. O woman great is thy faith! Our loving Father will wait long for our Repentance, but we shall not wait long for his Forgiveness. As the Historian noted in Romulus, that inveagled the Sabines with such courteous usage, Quod eodem die hosts & cives habuit; in the Morning they came against him with hostility, before Evening he had incorporated them all into his City. So the Lord, (upon good tokens of their humiliation) looked upon some in the Morning as excluses from the upper Jerusalem; and presently he enroles their names in the Book of life. Upon that mournful cry of David, Have mercy upon me, O Lord, according to thy great goodness; Thus Cassiodor, Vox est quae nunquam discutitur, sed tranquille semper auditur; It is a voice which is never examined, never suspended or delayed, never deliberated upon, it penetrates far, it will be heard, and it shall be answered. It meets with God's mercy as quick as a strong Perfume comes to the Nostril, and therefore his complacency so ready to forgive, is called smelling a sweet savour; nay, let me not forget that the Hebrew read it Odorem quietis, the Lord smelled a savour of rest. All sensible smells, be it the Rose among the Flowers, or Cassia among the Spices, must be often put to the sense, and often taken away to please it; hold them long to the Nostril, and they will prove faint and tedious, Nullus odor sensibilis est odor quietis; bodily scents are not scents of rest and quietness; but to show that our gracious Father is suddenly reconciled, and long pleased, very tenacious of his mercy, our Sacrifice, our Prayers, our Alms, all our Christian Offices are odores quietis, their smell stays long with God, they are an odour of rest, he never loathes or disdains them. O Lord, thy placable compassions are exceeding sweet, ten thousand times sweeter than the Sacrifice of Noah.  
It should be thus with all that will follow Christ, like Lord, like Servants, but it seems it is not. David had no heart to stand to any body's courtesy but the good God's, O let me not fall into the hands of men. We smother rancour in our breast like fire in touchwood, or like fire in iron, touch and you shall feel it burn, though you cannot see it. We are the Children of Eve, and our great Mother, you know, was made of a stiff and a crooked rib, we take after it too much. We must be courted rather like Mistresses than Christians, be wooed, be presented, be supplicated, and after all this may be scarce obtain so much kindness as a merciful man would show to his Beast. Like the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa his humiliation, he stood at doors three days barefoot for an apparition of his Holiness, and the favour which all this patience and expectation procured was to stoop to the earth, and to have his neck trod upon by Pope Alexander the Third, a disdain which the Royal spirit of Alexander the Great did never put upon Darius. Some do keep such long distance from this Doctrine, that I may justly say as Abraham did to the rich Glutton, there is a great gulf between you and I. I mean those that turn away their face from pity and reconciliation never to look upon it. I say lay down your enmities upon the first motion of peace, they say no, not upon the last summons of death. I conclude from my Text, that all displeasure must quickly be scattered, they consult with the black book of their own Satanical malice, and say it shall never be mitigated. How many wedges must be driven in before this knotty heart will cleave. Cleave and yield without delay, or the use of that log shall be to be cast into eternal fire.  
You are all in haste, will some object, and stubborn hearts are as slow to lay down their enmities; would not a moderation do well? What's that? Why, this is called discretion and moderation, not to embrace too soon after a falling out, to press our adversary down, and drive him to affliction, that he may be the more beholding to reconciliation. Is this the wisdom of the world? I am sure it is enmity with God, and this is such a Paradox to foster malice for a while, I know not for what pretenced ends, to wind up all with chariry at the last, as if a wound would be the better for rankling. All that time which the Devil gains of you to stand out and exclude charity, is to harden your heart, that you may never relent: and he that is not mollified to disgorge all malice at the preaching of one Sermon, if I mistake not the manifold threatenings in Holy Scripture (as I am sure I do not) he will be worse and worse after the preaching of an hundred. Esau indeed had spent all his spite at last, and fell upon jacob's neck and kissed him, but did not that curse remain both upon him, and upon his House? Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated. In Ecclesiastical Stories, that which befell Saprisius is a Sermon alone to put you on speedily to be at perfect peace with all men, unless you have resolved not to break your Covenant with Hell. Sapricius was a Churchman of great note and name, but an errand Boanerges; a Son of thunder, he had a quarrel against one Nicephorus a Lay person; 
Lorin. in Act. 7.60.  Nicephorus desired his friendship, Sapricius would not: It fortuned that Sapricius preaching the Doctrine of Christ with much diligence, was attached by Pagan Officers to suffer Martyrdom. As he was led to Execution, Nicephorus then took his time to pacify him. This venomous Priest even at that hour refused him, and turned away his face. God above was angry, took away his good spirit from him, and even at the point of death Sapricius revolted, denied his Saviour for hope of life, and Nicephorus that stood by weeping, and had besought reconciliation with tears, took his Garland from him and suffered Martyrdom in his place. I know Sapricius could have said as much for himself as any witty rancorous person whatsoever, he loathed not Nicephorus upon revenge, but he had justice on his side, to detest him for divers injuries he had received. Avoid Satan, and all such Apologies. Justice is the Garland of all Virtues, Revenge is the most stinking weed of all Vices. What a wide mistake is here? He that should call black white must needs have a great fault in his eyes, and he that will call revenge justice must needs have a foul blot in his conscience. I will not rob the other points of the Text of that time that is due unto them, otherwise much more might be said, and very profitably; for look for this doom and sentence from God, no charity no Christianity, no mercy no salvation. So much malice so much devil. Therefore depart from me ye malicious into everlasting fire, etc.  
The Lord smelled a sweet savour; mark then in the next place what welcome entertainment this is for all the fruits of a godly life, when we do any thing well there is joy in Heaven, the delight of the Lord is in his Saints, and in them that fear him. Because the old world was full of wickedness, and in every part but like a corrupt Dunghill, therefore it was every whit drowned, and made a loathsome Kennel of waters. All these wicked Generations had left a stink behind them fulsome as mortified carrion; therefore the perfume of Noah's piety was very expedient to air the new world, that the Lord might be delighted with a better savour. But in this phrase there are many figures to be unfolded, many shells to be broken before I come to the kernel. 1. Here is one Figure to translate bodily senses to the Divine Essence, which is incorporeal. 2. Though it were spoken of a man, yet there must needs be another Figure to say He smelled sweetness from that wherein you mean he took delight and complacency, wherein he rejoiced. 3. Here is another Figure, to speak of God's immutable Essence as of things created, to which somewhat happens in time that was not in them before. Angels and Men may be partakers of some good news to day, which were not in being before, from whence they feel a new branch of comfort and exhilaration: but do you ween that any savour was sweet unto God at this time, and kindled a new act, or a new affection in him, which he had not before? O no, he knows our infirmity, that we are Children, and cannot speak of him as we ought, therefore He lets us talk of him as a man, that we may learn to honour him as God. 
Cornel. a lap. in 62. cap. Isa.  But the true notion how God is pleased with the sweet odour of that which Noah did then, or that we do now is in this Maxim of the School: Ab aeterno laetatus est Deus simul & semel unico actu de toto ordine punitionis & praemiorum. There is one immutable joy and delight in God, which never changed, never did fall or rise by addition, or diminution of parts and degrees, with this one eternal act he delights himself in his own justice, and in his own mercy, and in the shadow of his glory, which is his Church; and this must last and persevere in the same constancy for ever.  
But because the speculation of this truth is far more abstruse than the forms of ordinary speech with which we are familiar, the Lord leaves it unto us, to make use of that joy which he takes in our faith and zeal, as if at that instant, when Noah offered a good Sacrifice, He smelled a sweet savour. So Luke xv. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece of silver which I lost; and in the same chapter, when the lost Child came home again, the Father tells his elder Son, It was meet that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy Brother was dead, and is alive again. Now I bring my motive to you, and lay it down at the door of your conscience. Contend and strive for that perfection of virtue, that the Lord may say this my Son is like Joseph, the comfort of old Israel, a Plant which I set in a lucky hour, it brings forth fragrant flowers of obedience, of alms, of charity to delight me, and as old Isaac said, I smell the savour of my Son like the savour of a Field which is newly mown, from which all dispreading weeds and luxury are quite cut down. You flow with vain delights, but that is God's contristation. You please yourselves with filthy communication, but St. Paul says you grieve the Holy spirit, Ephes. iv. You are sportful and merry even till calamity comes upon you, but the security of Jerusalem causeth Christ to weep. Properly grief and vexation are not incident to God, or to the Eternal Spirit, you shall know to your cost, that when our voluptuous life is changed to howling and gnashing of teeth, Angels shall sing about his Throne without ceasing; but wicked men do what lies in them to put Christ to sorrow and sadness, as earthly Parents eat their own heart, and macerate themselves, when their Children will not be ruled by their authority. Comment thus I beseech you upon all your unlawful pleasures. Can there be any relish in that joy wherewith you grieve your Redeemer? any sweetness in that sacrilege wherein God is impoverished? Will you sing placebo to any man to grate the ear of the Most High? Will you perfume yourself for the Chamber of a Courtesan, and stink in the nostrils of the Lord? no I will abandon all my delights, that He may be pleased in my mortification: I will mourn continually in repentance, that He may smile at it; the zeal of his House shall eat me up, I will burn with devotion, that He may smell a sweet savour. The dolour and smart of any present calamity doth not trouble a righteous man so much, as that he feels the wrath of God upon him, so prosperity, peace, health, nay Heaven itself make him not so happy, as to collect from the sense of his benefits, that the Lord is delighted with him. This is the Nuptial Song which we look for, when we are married to the Lamb; as the Bridegroom rejoiceth over the Bride, so shall the Lord rejoice over thee, Isa. 62.5.  
Here it is to be admonished, that nothing is so savoury and delightful which we do, as what the Lord doth himself, non tam delectatur ut aliquid accipiat, quam ut aliquid det; his love is very bountiful, and better pleased to give than to take. Therefore in no place of Scripture did his joy break forth so gaudily as in the Parable, where he bade his Servants kill the fatted Calf, to bid his penitent Child welcome home: whereupon says Chrysologus, immolabat vitulum, i. filium & gaudebat! he rejoiced in the death of his own Son for our sakes, because his mercy was free to have mercy on whom He pleased in that propitiatory Sacrifice. The Jews would bring thousands of Rams to the Altar at this day; the Lord will have none of them, because they will not bring them in the faith of that Sacrifice, wherein alone He is well pleased. If abundance of Oblations would have made a grateful steam to mount up to Heaven, they had done it long ago. Josephus says against Appio, that 5000 of their Levites took their turn every week to attend at the Altar; I am sure much Sacrifice must be brought to employ so many hands, but non est mihi voluntas in vobis, says Malachi, I have no pleasure in you, nor in your gifts; surely because they offered not up unto him the savour of his Son. All manners of Religions do not please God, that were in effect to say, that all kind of smells had an odoriferous fragrancy. You must plow with God's Heifer, present him with faith in the death of his own dearly beloved Son, and your imperfect righteousness being perfumed with that incense, the Lord will take it for a sweet savour, and call it perfect obedience.  
Let me now make you partakers of the third Proviso, that a rank stink steams from Beasts and Fowl burnt in the fire, yet the piety of Noah did ascend up in a sweet smell to Heaven: therefore let not such good things stink in the nostrils of men, that did delight the Lord. It is God's direction to gather tares in bundles, so I will muster together the corrupt examples of those that were as senseless as David's Idols, They had noses and smelled not, or at least they were so full of the putrefaction of their own sins, that they complained there was an ill sent, where indeed there was the fragrancy of most excellent virtue. Pharaoh called Religion an idle man's Exercise; says he, ye are idle, ye are idle, and therefore ye would go into the Wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord. Michol scoffed at David for being in an ecstasy of joy that the Ark was brought into Jerusalem. The Pharisees disliked every good thing that Christ did; and observe it I beseech you, from thence they provoked the most dreadful words that ever came from Christ's mouth, He that sinneth against the Holy Ghost, it shall neither be remitted to him in this world, nor in the world to come. Judas smelled no sweet savour in the ointment which a most pious woman poured upon our Saviour's head, but complained, quorsum perditio haec? to what purpose is this waste? The scoffers of Jerusalem said the Disciples were full of new wine, when they preached the Name of Christ in all tongues and languages. New wine at Whitsuntide was never heard of, for there are scarce new leaves upon the Vine at that season. I wept and chustned myself with fasting, and it was turned to my reproof, says the holy Penitent. It is altogether a fault that we will not commend, nay that we will gibe and deride at that which is very good and devout in them that are of a contrary faction. Sectaries, whose courses I abhor, yet somethings should not be scoffed at, that they are diligent to come to Church, that they read the Scriptures, that they are not accustomed to rash and odious swearing; let not these things be reckoned with their justly condemned hypocrisy. Pontificians, whose errors I decry, yet their observing Canonical hours of Prayer, their obedience to obey Ecclesiastical Laws, their desire to kindle zeal by visiting those places where our Lord and Saviour frequented, let these things be separated from their Superstitions. As Seneca said of Learning, quicquid bene scriptum est meum est, whatsoever was well written by any man, he took for his own, as freely as if he had invented it; so I say of Religion, quicquid bene gestum est meum est, whatsoever is praiseworthy in any Sect, I will not scoff at it, but imitate it.  
When the Pharisees boasted of some of their good deeds, haec oportuit fieri, says our Saviour, this is well, this aught to have been done, and not other things left undone. Holofernes could not dislike that Judith and her Maid should pray together every night; make a conscience therefore what you condemn, and reprove it out of judgement; flout not at tolerable things out of levity. There shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts, 2 Pet. three 3. These say the ancient Expositors were the Gnostics, that traduced the faithful for living chastely and austerely, to avoid the judgement to come, and to inherit a Crown of life. But what are these scoffers in the very word of the Apostle, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as play the child, and no better. Such were the Massalians, that condemned Fasting, I, and Baptism, 
Theodoret. lib. 4. c. 10.  because they said all good things might be brought to pass by Prayer. And the Arrians, that were ill affected to singing of Psalms, because the Orthodox used it much: and they that can find no just fault with the decent Habit that our Churchmen wear, and yet bespatter it with ill words, because some of our Opposites do wear the like Livery. Vestitum non nuditatem patris rident, I'm laughed at the nakedness of Noah, but these not at the nakedness, but at the Garments of their spiritual Fathers; judge between them and Cham then, who was the greater scoffer. Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are lovely or of good report, the Lord applauds them, and says they have a sweet savour: if the detestation and scorn of evil men shall light upon such things, their smell will be more aromatical to the Lord like those Allies of herbs that give a better sent when the foot doth trample upon them.  
Anciently the wages of virtue was praise at least, but the saying was, it might be praised, and in the mean time starve for cold; now it may starve and be quite obscured it is so coldly praised; but in the last annotation of my Text I will raise up the righteousness of the just to some comfort and expectation; for we are sure our good works find grace in the eyes of our heavenly Father, and He is present at them all, as the sense is near at hand to that it smells; both his presence, and his liking, and his remuneration are all in this Allegory, that when Noah offered a clean Sacrifice, the Lord smelled a sweet savour. Nehemiah's eye was almost never off from the building of the Temple, and the work was therefore rid out of the way with incredible expedition. So the Lord having a present sense of every thing that man doth well, it will make man (if he have sense of God's presence) instant, devout, patient, sow plentifully that he may reap abundantly. It is a great motive to be watchful to say, Dominus venit, the Lord is coming: what will you say then to Dominus videt, Dominus audit, Dominus odoratur? the Lord sees you, the Lord hears you, the Lord smells your savour? nihil illustre nisi coram, & in oculis Caesaris, says Tacitus, the mirth of the Roman theatres was flat, and their pomp nothing illustrious, unless Cesar were a spectator; so the spirit of a Christian would be obtuse, and nothing so well excited to be dutiful, but that we know all the thoughts, words, and works of piety are within the look of God: and that He is such a looker on as St. Austin speaks of, qui spectat certantes, & adjuvat invocantes, whose aspect doth fortify and animate our strength, like Plants that open themselves to the Sun, and revive when his light is cast upon them. Nay if you be in perfect charity, ye dwell in God, and God in you; there can be no closer conjunction, that's nearer than the object to the eye, or the sent unto the nose. Yet this is more measure superadded, that the great King of Heaven both knows our works and tribulation, which is to smell our savour; and He loves and likes it also, He calls it a sweet savour. If we had such a Master as Nabal was, so crooked and unpropitious, that none could speak to him, or please him; if we served under the Lord, as Jacob did under Laban, who had nothing but murmuring and persecution for all his fidelity, than we might cross our arms and say, we had lost our oil and our labour; but our service is full of benevolence and encouragement, Euge bone serve, well done good and faithful servant, every title chimes alacrity. Duo cum faeciunt idem non est idem: the same work being done by two several hands, so much only shall take as comes from God's chosen Ministers, and so much as came from an unacceptable person shall be clean discountenanced. 
Orat. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Nazianzen tells a story that Gallus and Julianus, the two Nephews of Constantius, built a Temple, where Mamantis the good Martyr had suffered; so much as Gallus was the Founder of stood, all that Julian was at charge for fell to the ground: the wisest of men of that age concluded, God accepted the dedication of Gallus, but not of Julian. Saul sacrificed at Gilgal, and came under the ban of Samuel for doing it; Samuel sacrificed at Bethlem, and the savour was so sweet that it run down from Samuel unto the skirt of Jesse: the Lord accepted of the offering, and David was then anointed King in token of a sweet savour.  
Finally, the love and complacency of God is not a bare affection like man's, amor Dei non in affectu, sed in effectu situs est. Where God is said to love, or to smell some sweetness in a thing, this is not to affect it theorically, but to effect some good for it. As Aeneas said of his followers, Nemo ex hoc numero mihi non donatus abibit, all that pleased him in his Games should have a reward for their labour: so every one whose works exhale a sweet odour to God, the dew of his liberality shall drop down upon them. God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which you have showed toward his name, Heb. vi, 10. The best scent that is (though it have that in it which is truly sweet) hath some vapour that is faint and fulsome in it; so the best actions of men, which are good verily and properly called, have yet some ill adjunction in them, or somewhat that is imperfect: but that which St. Paul speaks of the works of charity, may be referred to all the works of the light, if there be a willing mind, it is accepted according to that which a man hath, and not according to that he hath not, 2 Cor. viij. 12. More pressely to the cause. In some sense all the creatures and their natural operations do please God, but in a supernatural order nothing doth please him, but that into which he hath put supernatural bonity: and those effects He doth not only love and like, but will remunerate them, with this sober restriction, bona opera non habent condignitatem ad proemium coeleste, sed quandam ordinabilitatem. 
Daun. de just. hab. cap. 34.  That is, good works have no intrinsecal worth or value to claim eternal life, but through the gracious promise of God they are ordained unto it.  
From hence Valentia, and some others of that part do paralogize, that they may truly say, that a condignity doth amount to the works of pious men, upon the obligation of God's promise. I answer, that the promise of God doth make our good endeavours remunerable with the Kingdom of Heaven; not that the Promise changeth the work into a better quality than it hath of itself, as to make charity of two degrees become charity of two hundred: no, for the Promise is but an extrinsical acceptation, but it must be some intrinsical perfection infused into a good work, that shall make it commensurable and worth the reward. How then doth the Promise knit our works and the reward together? why thus. God casts his eyes upon his beloved Son, in whom, and for whose sake all those Promises are ratified. Now this must altogether imply a great indignity, and not any condignity in our righteousness. All the favour which we obtain at God's hands above the inherent bonity which is in our works, it is merely for Christ's sake, and for his obedience imputed to us. Examine in the weight of a reason, what I give to a man above the value of his labour for a friends sake, doth it make the reward meritoriously due. The terms cannot consist together. If God should promise the same reward of glory to him that died for Christ, and to him that gave a cup of cold water for his sake, the reward upon this supposition is equally due to both, and then these two agreeing in uno tertio, that is in the same promise, should be equal in goodness between themselves, which none will admit, whose judgement is not quite perished. To conclude then, that Noah brought so sweet a gift to the Lord, it came from a supernatural infusion that so directed him. That which is inspired from a supernatural virtue doth please the Lord, though it be much attainted with humane infirmity: that which He is pleased so to accept in mercy, He hath promised to remunerate it with eternal glory for Christ Jesus sake, who is a Sacrifice of the sweetest favour, and to whom be all honour, etc.   

THE THIRD SERMON UPON NOAH.  GEN. viij. 21. 
And the Lord smelled a sweet savour.  
THe former Verse brings in this Text, Noah builded an Altar to the Lord, and took of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl, and offered Burnt-offerings on the Altar, And the Lord smelled a sweet savour. A work well managed, and the end was happy. We compose ourselves, in this devout time of Lent especially, to be very conversant in the service of the Lord: Prayer, Preaching, Fasting, Alms come into practice, or should do, more than at other times. It were pity so much labour should be spent to little profit, so much business be driven to God's glory, and to his small content, so much doing, rather to our undoing than to our salvation. I have chosen this Text therefore for a seasonable subject to be insisted upon, how this frequent Worship, and all the fruits of our Religion may be an odour of a sweet smell, a Sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God. Whom if we do not serve, the omission will make him punish us: and if he be ill served, the neglect will make him punish us. All the works of Piety which the Church of Israel brought forth, were quarrelled by the Prophets as much as the worst Profanations. They fasted, but for strife and debate: They repented, but with sullenness, hanging down their heads like a Bulrush: They gave Alms, sounding them abroad to be popular: They Prayed, but honoured God with their lips, and their heart was far from him: They chanted sweet Music, but with no devotion, Amos v. 23. Take away from me the noise of thy Songs, for I will not hear the melody of thy Viols: And they sacrificed, but with so much ill relish, as he that killed an Ox was as if he had killed a man, he that burned Incense, as if he had blessed an Idol. The course of godly Service is easily mistaken. It is possible for a man to do good, and to mar it in the doing: it is possible for a man to wander in the right way: It is possible for a man to bring a Sacrifice to God, and to give high offence, because it hath not a sweet savour.  
I regard your spiritual profit, that you may have a reward for your work in the Lord, for which I refer you to the record of old Father Noah, when he began a new World (and how far are we from that? Not four years) in whose Piety the Lord delighted, and therefore called it a sweet savour. And what sweetness was this, that exhaled up to heaven? The resolution of that question shall make up my whole Sermon, and divide the parts. And I answer to the Question Negatively, and Affirmatively. Negatively in two Points: First, That the integrity, or well-meaning of Noah is not said to give a sweet savour till he added a Sacrifice. Secondly, That a bare Sacrifice cannot be commended for a sweet savour. Affirmatively, The composition of the sweetness consists in five particulars: First, In the devotion of Noah. Secondly, In the instauration of true Religion. Thirdly, In his thankfulness for his preservation. Fourthly, In his endeavour to procure God to be gracious to all succeeding Generations. Fifthly, In his faith, that had an eye unto a better Sacrifice. Here are many grains of Incense in this sweet savour, which shall not trouble you with length, though they do with multitude.  
What the sweet savour in my Text doth mean, I like the method best to assign what it is not, before I resolve what it is. First, It will be allowed, that there were Faith, Piety, Sincerity in Noah's heart, all the while he was shut up in the Ark, yet they are not commended for sending up a delightful fragrancy to God till he brought his gift unto the Altar. The reason is, that God useth to prove the integrity of the heart by some outward sign before he commends it. Abraham sought the Lord with all his soul, since he came out of Vr of the Chaldaeans; yet his faith was not extolled till he was ready to offer up his only Son: then he received the Promise, that the blessing should abide upon him, and upon his Seed for ever. The life of a Slip is in the root, but the sweetness is in the Flower, when it opens: So the Just doth live by faith, but he shall be loved for the fruits of holiness. Adam was created after God's Image, yet he required clothes to cover him, that he might not be ashamed of his nakedness: So a good Conscience is an heavenly thing, the likeness of the Holy Ghost, yet unless it be clothed with outward effects of obedience it may be ashamed of its nakedness. Faith should say to God, as Achsah did to her Father Caleb, Judg. i 15. Thou hast given me a South Land, give me also springs of water. Let me not lie concealed, lest I be out of remembrance, and thou forget me: Let me do good and communicate, lest I prove but an imaginary Notion: Let me offer some dutiful Sacrifice, lest I lose my Saviour. Noah's internal Sanctity was not honoured with this praise, that it exhaled sweetness, before it proved itself by a most religious action. For aught we know, Hell may be full of them, who had many good purposes, but did never execute them.  
Yet again, put a bare Sacrifice into the Balance, and it weighs as little. I think none will conceive my Text in a literal sense, that the flesh of a Beast burnt upon the coals did send a sweet savour, but an offensive smell. Some are at a wonder, when many cattle were burnt together, how the nostrils of the Priests and People could endure it. And yet there was no miracle in it, as Abulensis supposeth, as if God did always by omnipotent power draw a sweet steam from the Altar, and the flesh that was burnt upon it. What, every day Miracles, and yet this never revealed to us by any Prophet in all the Scriptures? The resolution is easy: The Altar of Burnt-offerings was in the open Court, the air carried away the stench that would offend under a covered Seiling: Some excellent Perfumes were cast into the fire at the same time. I have Plutarch's testimony touching the noisome vapour of heathen Sacrifices, that all manner of sweet Gums were thrown together into the flame to overcome the strong Odour: especially the Priest was clad in perfumed Robes, which made the worst smell tolerable to him. But none can be deceived with the bare Letter of the Text, as if God did smell any savour. It is a Figure translating the affections of a man to the divine Essence: And a second Figure upon that, calling delight and complacency by the name of smelling a sweet Odour. And the words lying so naked to be understood, I say the Lord took no pleasure in a bare Sacrifice. For what is it to him to have the beasts slain, and their substance consumed? Or, how is a wicked man made more innocent by executing vengeance upon an harmless Sheep? Gifts and Sacrifices could not make him that did the Service perfect as pertaining to the Conscience, Heb. ix. 9 When the Magis came to Bethlem, and found the Babe, whom they had sought, they fell down and offered up their body: they worshipped and offered up their Soul, they were liberal of their Substance, and presented their gifts. But what? Not Sheep and Oxen, not work to employ the Levites, the Sons of Aaron, Lo, says St. chrysostom, in the beginning of the Gospel we find the turn of those ancient Rites, whose place was supplied with Gold, Myrrh, and Frankincense, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they were not fat and fulsome, like the Jewish Ordinances, but pure and Intellectual, Adoration, Faith, Obedience, Charity. We learn out of it that the virtue of the mind consecrates the Gift. There is not any thing which St. Paul hath omitted, 1 Cor. xiii. but says, that without the love of God all will come to nothing. The opus operatum, the material substance of any good work, no more considered with it, is a vapour that vanisheth. Prayers, Preaching, the Sacraments in the more transitory work, issuing not out of our Spirit, are Consonants without Vowels, it is passed all skill to utter them. And who would compare the best Statue with a living man? Works of beneficence must be done, and liberally: He that hath much owes much; he that hath but little ought not altogether to shut his hand. Yet the richest endowment that ever was made in a pious way, is a Sacrifice but of a dull smoke, unless it be spiced with those good Odours, of which I will now speak in the Affirmative, how the Lord smelled a sweet savour.  
First, His devotion was very fragrant; I begin with it, because I would revive it, I say revive it: For it is much laid aside, and takes as little with some as Jewish Sacrifice. You shall not be much edified in it by our Sister Churches beyond Seas, and their imitators: and little will you learn of it without a Liturgy of Prayer, comprised in a solemn order. The Seraphical acclamations of such a pious model may carry up an Elias in its Chariot far above the clouds. Humility is a great ingredient in it: A devout soul the more it presseth to come near to God, it keeps the greater distance from the glory of his Majesty: Like a flame of a great Candle, it mounts with heat, but the more it ascends, the more it trembles. Holy Vows are inseparable from it, a Vow is in the name of Devotion, to bind us the faster to God: Therefore it is a Bow that is strongly bend, when the string is slack it is an useless Instrument. Also, without any force, this is in the Word, that a Devotee devoves his life, and all he hath, to maintain the honour of God, after that excess of St. Paul's courage, Acts xxi. 13. I am ready, not to be bound only, but to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. This is devotion, which counts not its life dear, but doth devove itself for the Gospel of Christ. St. Austin describes it with much plainness. Devotio est pius & humilis affectus ad Deum; It is a compound of the best internal Piety, and the most lowly and prostrate humility of the body: More loftily in another place, Carbo ignitus flammâ divini amoris accensus; A fiery coal wasting away all earthy dull affections with the flame of divine love. I cannot mend it. In brief, it is the excess of a religious fear in the heart, which doth all things outwardly with most becoming reverence. Apply this to the example of Noah. As soon as ever he came out of the Ark he made ready some solemn Worship: and none so solemn in those days as Sacrifice; and none could be more bountiful at that time than one of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl. Seven of all clean Creatures were taken into the Ark, three Couples to multiply, and the odd one to be offered up, it was Caelebs animal, it lived single, not coupled with any Female, to be the purer Oblation: And these were not offered on the ground, but to show the elevation of his heart, he built an Altar for it, which you never read of before. Lastly, It was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an whole burnt offering. Holocausta sunt perfecta studia virtutum. Origen began the Allegory, and all have followed him, they are whole Burnt-offerings that consume the old man, and all the members of their concupiscence, as much as they are able.  
I score not out this Line to move you to the like in fleshly Sacrifices, which are long since superannuated. I will put the issue, for your instruction, upon that which the brevity of the Book of Genesis hath omitted, but is necessarily understood, that Noah sent up clean Prayers to God with the Oblation of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl. For while Zachary burned Incense in the Temple, the whole multitude were Praying without at the time of Incense, Luk. i. 8. And Solomon gives us light what was done at Sacrifice, he spread out his hands to heaven in Prayer, and dedicated the fat of the Peace-offerings to the Lord. Nay more, the Evening Sacrifice burnt all night upon the Altar, and the Priests continued in the Temple till morning at Prayer. You that by night stand in the house of the Lord, lift up your hands in the Sanctuary, and bless the Lord, Psal. cxxxiv. 2. I know not what company they had at the Prayers of the Sacrifice by night or day; very little, if their devotion were no greater than ours. I read in the Ages upward, what a thrust there was in their Churches at the daily service of Prayer; which concourse is quite disused in our days: and unless the office of Prayer be pieced out with a Sermon, in all places you shall find a most contemptible paucity; and yet we should know that in a Sermon God sacrificeth to us, not we to him. Let me be bolder with you, they are scarce worthy to be called Prayers, as they are most negligently handled. The Priest reads, I will not say how dreamingly sometimes; the People gape about, and have other business in their heads: Some chop in at the latter end, cannot spare leisure to all: Some answer to one line, and hold their peace at ten: Some stand more upon their ease, than to stand up, or bow down when they should with reverend gesture. What can there be in such Prayers as these to call them a sweet savour? Our sins stink in the nostrils of God, and are odious: you confess that; and miserable man have you no better than such careless shuffling Supplications to sweeten them? They were Wisemen that took out Myrrh and Frankincense when they came to Christ, Ad faetorem stabuli excludendum, to correct the ill savour of the Stable where he lay: but contrary to all reason, when our heart is dung, and our ways more filthy than Augias' Stable, we yawn out heedless, heartless, undevotioned Prayers to mend the matter. O is it not to us that he speaks by the Prophet? Amos v. 21. I despise your Feasts, I will not smell in your holy Assemblies. I will borrow a piece of a Sermon from St. Bernard to make up this Point, Stand before the Lord cheerfully, reverently, devoutly, Non pigri, non oscitantes, non parcentes vocibus, non praecidentes verba dimidia; Be not drowsy, let not your attention slip from you when God is praised, leave not all the Prayers to the Priests care, but every one make up his part; do not mangle and chop God's Service, let your Spirits go with every word; when you hear an Hymn or Psalmody, think of nothing else but that which is sung. You are not allowed a good thought at that time, if it be extravagant, much less a worldly, a malicious, a wanton cogitation. Pair away these superfluities, that you may say, My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed, I will sing and give praise. Thus far that the devotion of Noah was very Aromatical in the sweet savour of his Sacrifice.  
Secondly, the care that this Patriarch had for the instauration of Religion above all things, is like Mary's sweet Ointment, which she poured upon our Saviour, it shall be spoken of so far as the Word is preace in all the world. Bethink you, as well you may, when Noah put forth his head out of the Ark to tread upon the earth, which could afford him nothing but room to walk upon, with how many thoughts he was distracted. What house to put his head in, where to be provided of Food and Raiment; where were all the necessaries and comforts of life to be had? How should he rake up a New World out of the Ruins of the Old? All these instances, and more than these, were thoughts to take up a wise man, and yet he laid all these under his feet, and built an Altar upon them, to institute a true form of Divine Worship in the first place, that all the World might follow it, Why, it is evident that his heart gave him in charge to look to Religion above all the necessaries of life, and to forget all things, even himself, till he had remembered God. Abraham was a Pilgrim, and it is ever observed in this Book of Genesis, or with little exception, that he never removed to any new place, but first he built an Altar to the Lord. At the first quiet Station, which the Children of Israel had when they came out of Egypt, Moses sanctified the firstborn to God. David was no sooner confirmed a King, but he brought the Ark into its resting place. We stand before a great God, that will not be served with the second or third part of our care. The Jews were rebuked that built houses for themselves, when they were returned from Captivity, and let the House of the Lord lie waste. Christ did reprove it, that the young man that was called to follow him should put in another thing between, First let me go and bury my Father. Can you find out any first before God, that is the first and the Last? Piety and Sacred Offices are sweetly managed when you give them the flower of your care, and the pre-eminence before all things. The day will shine prosperously on you if you give the first hour after you rise from your bed to Prayer. The whole Week is blessed, because the first day is the Lordsday to call holy Assemblies together. The Heathen Romans began the Laws of the twelve Tables with a sanction of Religion, Deos castè adeunto. In all Commerce, Confederacies, Treaties, let the honour of God be the prime and Master respect. And all other fine devices will prove but counterfeits of wit to such sacred Policy.  
Another thing makes this repair and settlement of Religion precious and highly valued, for the unity and conformity of all parties present at it. It was the first solemnity performed to God after the Flood, that the Company, before they dispersed, might agree in one outward form of Divine Worship. I do not know whether such a complete consent of all persons in the Earth was ever seen before, or since the days of Noah. Therefore it must needs afford an excellent savour. There was no Idolatry in the world, no different ways, no divisions, I am for this, and I am for that: This little Flock was at unity in itself: the old Patriarch, his Sons and Daughters agreeing in one Prayer, and in one Sacrifice. O rare and heavenly! One Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts in the tongues of all the Angels, is the most Angelical part of the Angel's Ministry. That is in heaven, but the sacred Concord that I preach of was on earth: An obedience running all one way, no separations, no Conventicles, which are the obstructions of Unity, and the decay of Allegiance and Loyalty. They that live far from Court may perhaps see their danger sooner than the wisest that hear it, and scarce hear all reports which threaten danger. It is easy to spit out a spark, but not a flame. When Pliny in his Proconsulate in Asia wrote to Trajan, that he found the Christians meeting in secret corners before day, (than they had no Churches) and to be a harmless people, that sung Psalms to Christ, that confederated not to kill, not to commit Adultery, and the like. Budaeus upon the Pandects is my Author, that Trajan wrote to Pliny that he did not like to have them gather together in that privy sort, for it might tend to conspiracy. That thereupon the Christians certified of the Emperor's jealousy, refrained their meetings, though as yet they had no public places to assemble in for the Worship of Christ. But try our Christians that meet in hugger mugger in household Congregations, I doubt you will not find that inoffensiveness and modesty among them, which was in our Primitive Brethren, who would sooner observe the Edict of a Pagan Prince than these will the Defenders of the Faith.  
Look upon this Point once more. Noah called all that were about him together to the solemn Worship of God. A good Spring sets all the Wheels a going with a true and an equal motion; and it was fit this good work should be carried on in his person. The Father of the Family, the Master of the Household, the chief Priest of the Church in Sacred causes, the Supreme Magistrate in Civil causes, in any of these respects, but much more in all together, he was to give a good example to his Relatives. A good example, let us look to it to whom it most belongs, is a sweet savour to many, far and wide, to the whole World in the Twelve Apostles. Upon which Gregory runs out in this exuberant eloquence: The Apostles were flowers of all sweet smells, as the flower of the Grape, Doctrina praedicatorum inebriat mentes audientium; their Doctrine did inebriate their Auditors with the Cup of Salvation: there was in them the flower of the Olive in the sweet works of mercy, the flower of the Rose in the crimson blood of their Martyrdom, the flower of the white Lily, in some by Virginity, in all by pureness and chastity, and the flower of the Violet in lowly growth or humility. Holy conspicuous men are flowers of Paradise, whose odours and colours are delectable: an orient colour in their own conscience within, a fragrant odour in their good name to those that are without. Justus lilium est in se candidum, sed proximo odoratum; A just man is a Lily, that hath inherent whiteness to himself, but sweet as a Rose to his neighbour by the edifying of his example, that others may see his good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. It is happy to live well, thrice happy to lead well; like Caesar's Soldiers, that were called an Army of Commanders. St. Basil says, that some in his time did sprinkle sweet Ointment upon the Wings of tame Pigeons, and sent them abroad, like our coy Ducks, to fetch in the wild Flocks that they might take delight in them, and follow them home: So, as he applies it, the good Odour, which may be scented from them that are exemplarily virtuous, attracts the wild and dissolute to the Dove Coats, or the Collections of the Saints of God. All that have done eminently to abandon Profaneness, suppress Superstition, revoke Sacrilege, discourage the Factious, suppress Heretics and Contentious, Kings, Potentates, Prelates shall be renowned, as Josias was, that famous restorer of Religion, there remembrance shall be sweet as honey in all mouths, and as Music at a banquet of wine, Ecclus. xlix. 1. Enough now of this Point, that Noah before all necessaries of life and nature took care for the instauration of true Religion, begun in a most divine unity, and settled it by his great example, Therefore the Lord smelled a sweet savour.  
The third thing which in the Affirmative interprets the phrase of my Text is, That God is mightily delighted with Oblations of thankfulness. Noah had a very small stock of Creatures with him to begin a new Generation, and when they came forth of the Ark, none were appointed to be slain, but had their Exeatis with this blessing, Be fruitful and multiply on the earth. Yet the Patriarch knew by faith, how he that had preserved them so miraculously could multiply their paucity, and the sooner if somewhat were gratefully repaid to God. Let Elias have a little of a little, and the Widow shall have the more. These few Beasts and Fowls I speak of were the Relics of the Old World, and the Seminary of the New. Now how well did a Sacrifice come in to divide between these two Points of Religion? To give thanks for the remainder preserved, and to bespeak their increase for the time to come. So God is justly acknowledged in both his titles, Servator reliquiarum, & multiplicator seminarii; the conserver of the little remainder, the multiplier of the total Seminary. O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is gracious. The most material exception that a good man can make against the shortness of life is, that we want space to run over all the benefits we have received. Woe be to them that have time, and spare little for such Meditations.  
Some man, who is not very practical in this duty, will say, question me not whether I praise the Lord for his great mercies, for my Redemption, for my Salvation: How can I forget it? Or had I been in Noah's case, escaped a common Deluge, I would have offered a Sacrifice. I see God must buy our gratitude dear if he will have it; and many times when he pays well for it he goes without it. For some do premeditately except against the Public Thanksgiving of women delivered from the peril of Childbirth, as if it savoured of Jewish Purification. The time is to come when such shall know, that it is better to be a thankful Jew than an unthankful Christian. This was St. Augustine's Divinity, Liberata est uxor tua à periculo partus, benedicis Dominum; When thy Wife is delivered, and well recovered, thou wilt say, The name of the Lord be praised. The like will any man almost do that is come off from a bloody Battle, a raging Tempest, a burning Fever, a malicious Conspiracy, that he may not appear a rank Atheist. But the Lord, as I said, buys such thanks at a great rate. Do you think he gives common blessings like a vantage above the dozen, which you shall not pay for? Is it nothing that the Sun doth shine upon us, and not burn us? That the Seas flow, and ebb again, and not overwhelm us? That the cattle of the field feed us, and not devour us? Nothing should befall us without a retribution of praise, In every thing give thanks, for this is the will of the Lord, 1 Thes. v. 18. If the Scripture had not said it, natural ingenuity would lead you to the duty. St. Ambrose says, that Noah's Sacrifice was a freewill offering, it was not commanded. Qui debitum gratiae ut à se exigatur expectat ingratus est. If you expect a Process to be served upon you to be thankful, it is a kind of ingratitude, for it wants the sweet savour.  
But I will degree it to the highest, to make my Doctrine useful. As one Wave of the Sea drives on another, and the latter puts on the next in a continual flux, so the souls yearnings to thanksgiving take hand in hand, and that which goes before plucks on that which follows after it. A consultation must be called about it, as David did, What shall I render to the Lord? The Soul asks itself the question, and needs no Monitor, as Elisha made it his own motion to the Shunamite, in requital of her hospitality, Behold thou hast been careful for us, what shall be done for thee? Proceed now; What doth consultation produce? Why, the voice of joy and melody, I will sing and give praise. O but lip labour may be fruitless, a Pharisee can say, Lord I thank thee. Prove it more than by some bountiful retribution, bring presents unto the Lord, that aught to be feared: Let them be many and liberal, such as God doth expect, who gave us all, and looks for no niggardly proportion in return. O but again, a Pharisee will give as well as pray. Yes, but he will boast, and pride himself in it: then wrap your thankful present in lowly confession, O my God my goods are nothing to thee. For what is the light beholding to them that look upon it? Or what doth a Fountain get of a thirsty man that drinks of it? Then that which brings up the rear, and puts on the rest before it, is a heart big with holy thoughts, thankful for the grace of the holy Spirit above all things, that stirs it up to be thankful, and is ashamed of its own impotency, that it is able to make no better retribution. Therefore David changeth giving into taking: What shall I give? I will take the Cup of salvation. As who should say, fain I would render unto the Lord, fain I would be thankful: but that's impossible on even terms, all the cattle are his upon a thousand hills. If I can give nothing, I will take somewhat for his sake, I will take any thing in good part, I will suffer any thing that the Lord doth lay upon me so you may compound these many things into a redolency to make a sweet savour to the Lord.  
This generous and well bred quality of gratitude is ever in good men, where those few are to be found. Few alas; for God knows, and benefactors find it, that mercy and bounty are Pearls cast before Swine, and that they are requited with malice, revile, treachery from those, whom they have bribed enough, and estated in all they have. No Rogues mark, burnt upon the shoulder or face, are so infamous as this character upon some, that no benefits will win them, no good turns will purchase them. The Parable of the ten Lepers bids you expect nine bad for one good, so it was among them that Christ healed. Mundita cute, leprosi cord, healed of their Leprosy, still sick of unthankfulness, cured in the outward skin, corrupted in their heart. Where are the other nine, says our Saviour? Are they lost that they returned not to give thanks? Yes, certainly, quite lost. De ingratis quasi ignotis loquitur; Christ makes as if he did not know them. That is the fatal doom to have it pronounced by him, Depart from me I know you not. The next thing that follows is to be cast into the stinking Dungeon because the Lord did smell an ill savour from an unthankful Generation.  
Hear now the fourth principal answer, what the sweetness of this savour was, it was Noah's charity, that he desired to appease God's wrath toward all flesh then living, and to beseech his mercy to all Generations that should succeed. Josephus, the best reporter of the Jewish Traditions, says, it was the end of this Sacrifice to be a solemn Litany for the reparation of the drowned world, and that it might no more be destroyed with an universal deluge. My Text doth much concur, if you read it word for word after the original, that God did smell an odour of rest, Quia fecit Deum quietum ab indignatione, says the Gloss, by this propitiatory offering he made the divine justice quiet, or cease from indignation. And mark what mercy in this Verse immediately follows the sweet savour, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake: and in the next Chapter the Rainbow is instituted for a promise and Sacrament of future safety. I will confirm it with apt words out of Luther, Delectatus est Deus perdendo genus humanum, & nunc iterum delectatus est augendo. God was delighted in his justice before to destroy all people, and now his mercy will be delighted to increase mankind again.  
It is fairly seen now as the light, that Noah entreated God by Sacrifice to be favourable to his Sons and Daughters, to their offspring, to the whole increase of the New World, and this was part of the sweet savour. For God commends this zelum protensum, zealous love that extends itself to all its neighbours round about, to the whole body of Christ's Church, to all men living, to all Generations to come, as Tully in his Lelius writes like an honest man, Non minoris mihi curae est, etc. I have as much care that this Commonwealth should flourish when I am dead, as while I am alive. Hezekiah's affections were too much contracted to himself, when he said, Is it not good if peace and truth be in my days? 2 Kings xx. 20. Moses is called Gods Elect, his chosen Servant for standing in the gap to save all the people. Nehemiah is very famous, for he raised up the ruins of his Nation, Ecclus. xlix. 13. If foreign wits do not mistake us English, they defame us sharply, that we want public spirits, and are commonly careless of the common good. But I doubt we are worse than they make us. For it is not as they have heard, that we intent our private wealths before the general wealth of the Kingdom: no, it is our private pleasure, our private luxury, that we project at, rather than the honour of our Nation and Country. This is a strong Garlic smell, fit to be looked to, and to be turned into a better savour with a great deal of redress and reformation. It is an unnatural baseness, to prefer ourselves before the prosperity of the Land that bore us. The seat of our Ancestors, the receptacle of our Children and Progeny to come, where we breathed the first breath of life, whose dust, which the wind blows about, is the Carcases of our Forefathers rotten long ago in their Graves. But Noah's charity was wider than one Country, saving that the whole world was but one Country at that time: and he included all Ages to come in the intention of his Burnt-offering and Prayers. So Patrial, so public, so universal are the endeavours and supplications of all good men. I will cite you a piece of a Prayer out of St. Ambrose, Vouchsafe to hear me, O Lord, for the tribulations of all people, for the groan of them that are in Captivity, the miseries of Widows and Orphans, the relief of Strangers, the languor of the Sick, the impotency of the Aged, for the distractions of every troubled Conscience, for the Woes of all that are desolate, and that the whole World may be in peace and safety; the very Cream of our own Litany. This is a full song of all parts, whose loud volley must needs pierce the Heavens. He that prays for the thousand thousands of all that are in distress, will be heard as if he prayed with ten thousand voices. Noah's Sacrifice was an intercession for all mankind, and it was sweet, as Christ died for the sins of the whole World, to whose example St. Paul bids us frame our charity, Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and given himself for an Offering, and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour, Eph. v. 2.  
Which brings in the last grain of Incense in this sweet savour, God looked on his own Son, appointed to be slain on the Cross, it was Noah's Faith in that Sacrifice which found such gracious favour, more precious than all the Powders of Arabia. God will be pleased with righteous men, such as this Patriarch was, though in many things they sin: he could not but be well pleased in Christ, because in all things he was obedient. Which wellpleasing in him redounds to all that are his true members: Who are an holy Priesthood, to offer up spiritual Sacrifice, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, 1 Pet. two. 5. Let us put our Prayers, our Thanksgiving, our Repentance, our Alms, our Sufferings in his hand, or they will never be well taken. The Intercession of Christ should be continually in our remembrance. He is the Angel, Rev. viij. 3. with the golden Censor, to whom much Incense was given, that he should offer it with the Prayers of all the Saints upon the Golden Altar, which was before the Throne. For take us in ourselves, without him, and we are noisome, ulcerous, Swine wallowing in the mire: but we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, 2 Cor. two. 15. They that verse continually with, or near to carrion smells, lose their scent, and never stop their nose at them: So the fetor of our sins is not so well discerned as it should be, because we carry their contagion always about us. The implacable Spirit thinks that revenge is sweet: he that lives by wrong and robbery says, Stolen waters are sweet: It was the ancient word of the covetous, Dulcis odor lucri ex re quâlibet, any thing is sweet that brings in gain: the Wanton dotes of his unlawful pleasure, and is so far from perceiving it to be obscene, that he is catcht with the Harlot's enticement, Prov. seven. 17. I have perfumed my bed with Myrrh, Aloes, and Cinnamon. Alas, these are the savour of death unto death, and in St. Paul's Phrase they offer up the Sacrifice of Devils. But put the trial upon our good actions, good according to the perfection of parts, though not of degrees, all is unprofitable, all short of Legal exactness, and of Evangelical too, unless our Father will say to us for Christ's sake, Well done good servant, thou hast been faithful in a little. The comfort which old Isaac took in the fragrancy of his Son's Raiment, may be better applied to the sweet savour which is never separable from our gracious Redeemer, The smell of my Son is as the smell of a field, which the Lord hath blessed, Gen. xxvii. 27.  
The great zeal of some, and no mean ones, to prove that every thing without Faith is fulsome, and odious, and that nothing is sweet but that which is washed in the blood of Christ, hath made them raise a report, upon the incredulous Jews (how true I know not, but not easily laid) that a corrupt rankness steams from their bodies, ever since they crucified our Saviour. Marcus the Emperor, and Ammianus Marcell. and other Heathen called them of old faetentes Judaeos, nasty smelling Jews. The Christian reporters add, when any of them are converted and baptised, that loathsome smell is never more perceived in them. This record likewise is of good antiquity in Baronius, That under Lucas Bishop of Constantinople a Synod was held in Trullo, to which the Hagarens were summoned, and warned to receive Baptism, they, and their Children. They answered, their Children were baptised. What, says the Bishop, in the name of Christ? No. Why then are they baptised? The Hagarens reply, that their children, till they received that Sacrament, were vexed with Devils, and stunk worse than Dogs. For my part I lend no ear to these relations, because they of the Roman Profession, that make them, report no better of us Protestants than they do of the Jews. One of them thought to discredit the Reformed Religion with this tale, That the next day after Luther was laid in his Grave, some came near to it, and his body not to be found, but such a pestilent evaporation of stink as offended all that were present. All this while Luther was alive, received this lying Pamphlet, and read it, and gave it such an answer as a slanderous Libel deserved. I doubt not but the Lord smelled a sweet savour in that zealous Servant of his, because he put his trust in Christ, and believed that in the mercy of the most highest he should not miscarry: And a better savour was in him, I may resolutely say, than in those his Adversaries, who think they find much Nard and Cassia in the Condignity of their own merits. By Faith Abel offered up a more excellent Sacrifice than Cain. By Faith Noah being warned, Heb. xi. 7. prepared the Ark, and became heir of the righteousness, which is by Faith. By Faith we must offer up ourselves holy, unblameable, living Sacrifices, that we which know Christ now by Faith may see him hereafter in perfect Glory. AMEN.   

THE FIRST SERMON UPON LOT'S WIFE.  GEN. nineteen. 26. 
But his Wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.  
SInce the least sin that ever was committed deserves eternal punishment, I am sure any sin that ever was done deserves an hours reprehension; especially one of so great magnitude as this of Lot's Wife. He that will judge himself, and take a strict account of his faults, let him look this way to my Text, and observe with me how many ways this woman transgressed, through so small a motion as to turn about. He that will examine his repentance and his vivification as well as his sins, let him look upon this Pillar, and mark that it is a Monument erected against a relapsing convert, against one that was turning from the vain pomp of the World and did not persevere. For she that fled from Sodom, and looked back, perished as well as they that never came out. And he that will consider what an heinous crime it is to be invited unto mercy, and abuse it, let him taste of this salt, and feel what a strange judgement remains in this example to cast away that which God would have saved. All this is tacitly included in the words which I have read unto you: and as the Prophets of old uttered their Prophetical spirit many times by deeds and gestures, as well as by word and speech. So God doth teach his Church as well by fact as by precept. Those Exhortations I premised were not doctrinally delivered at the castigation of Lot's Wife, but miraculously exhibited in a visible work, objectiuè, non praeceptiuè, they are not passed over in a line or two by the Pen of a ready Writer, but built up for all posterity to look upon in a durable Monument.  
And when judgement advanceth itself in a Trophy, in a standing Pillar, every man will conceive that it is meant it should be a monitory to all succession, rather than if it were a fluxive a transitory penalty that left no print behind it. The Idol Calf which the Israelites worshipped was beaten to powder, the dust of it blown away before the wind, and drunk up in the River. The Sea which had given back on either side for the passage of God's Host, met together and overwhelmed Pharaoh and his Army in the bottom, that they were no more seen. The Earth clavae and opened itself to swallow up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and it closed again, so that no appearance of them remained. Nothing was found of Jezebel, eaten up of dogs, but her skull, her feet, and the palms of her hands. So it pleased him who sits on high that all visible memorial of these sinners should be rid out of the way. But He made brine of Lot's Wife, and congealed it into a Statue, where it stood longafter, nay I cannot convince those reporters who have written, that the relics of it are to be seen to this day, that passengers might shake their heads at it, and say, Ah thou that wert plucked out of Sodom, like a brand out of the fire, and yet didst loiter by the way, and couldst not refrain to cast back a wishing and a voluptuous eye upon those filthy habitations.  
Ingenious fancies have taken scope to riddle upon this judgement, Cadaver nec habet suum sepulchrum, sepulchrum nec habet suum cadaver, sepulchrum tamen & cadaver intus; that she was a dead corpse that had no sepulchre, and that she was a sepulchre that had no dead corpse, and yet it was both corpse and sepulchre. This gives me the hint to divide my Text into an Epitaph and a Tomb: the Epitaph, His wife looked back from behind him; the Tomb which that Epitaph respects is, that she became a pillar of salt. If you will have it in Logical terms, which come all to one pass, thus, here are two principal heads to which all the matter is to be referred, qua fecit, quae passa est, first what she did, and that's the summary indictment of her sin, secondly what she suffered, and that's the sentence of her punishment. I bind myself to the first part only at this time, in which there is cumulus salis, as many corns of salt as will lie upon a knifs point, so in these few words, she looked back from behind him, many Commandments are broken. 1. She was inobsequens, she looked back, being expressly forbidden, there's disobedience. 2. Excors, here's blindness of heart, she might have saved herself by going straight on, and looking forward, yet she violated those easy conditions. 3. I●docilis, she looked back from behind him. Lot was a good example that went before her, and she would go her own ways. 4. Incredula, she doubted whether those Cities should be destroyed as God had sent word, or she thought it would not be the worse for her though she stood still and gazed upon Sodom. 5. Recidiva, she fainted in well doing, and had a desire growing upon her to live again among those filthy sinners whom she had escaped. 6. Misericordiae contemtrix, she was slow to save herself, and did not fly away upon the wings of mercy. 7. Beneficii pertaesa, she rather valued what she had lost, than what she had saved, her Habitation, her Estate and Riches were consumed, for her life's preservation she set little by that, and so loathed the benefit.  
The Angel speaks in the 17. verse of this Chapter, Escape for thy life, look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the Plain, yet she would not hearken, no not to such a Monitor as an Angel, but she looked back from behind him, and so stands guilty of disobedience. For disobedience is a sin by itself alone, Cum crimen potius contra prohibitionem quam contra rem ipsam fiat, says the School, when the fact itself were innocent, but that the prohibition of the Lawgiver makes it nocent. There are some Commandments of Gods which lean not so much upon apparent reason, as upon absolute authority. For though there be weighty causes which moved the most wise God to appoint it so, yet when those reasons are not emergent out of the seeds of nature, nor any way expressed and revealed, as the Angel expresseth none in this place, than the Command is said to come from absolute and uncontradicted dominion to try obedience. There is a natural Law which lighteth every man that cometh into the World to choose the good in sundry cases of honesty, and to refuse the evil; this light is not a pure elementary fire, but ignis culinaris as we say in Philosophy an impure smoky flame, which makes it apparent to the understanding what's filthy to the soul, as well as what's noxious to the body. And in those things where God is little known, or at least little thought of, humanity itself doth suggest the performance. But because we rest not in the good of nature only, as beasts do, but aspire to a supernatural end and felicity; therefore there is a supernatural Law to bring us to it, Repent and believe, and thou shalt be saved; this is the Covenant of mercy and forgiveness which is made in Christ, and the grace of God doth work in us a good will to those Divine duties, that we do not frustrate our salvation. Then thirdly the Sacraments of the New Testament are the Seals of the righteousness of faith: as Sacraments they are Ceremonial Ordinances, and are solemnly kept upon submission to the absolute Command of the Divine Authority; but as faith is necessarily now knit unto them, so they are a limb of the supernatural Law, and are carefully observed, not as Canons of obedience, but as the way to eternal life. As a sick man takes the potions that are prescribed him, not out of duty to the Physician, but out of due regard to his own recovery. 
In Psal 70.  The similitude sorts with our infirmity, Obtemperet medico ut surgat, qui noluit credere ne aegrotaret, says St. Austin, Man would not obey the Physician to prevent his sickness, therefore let him use his afterwit, and take those Sacramental means that are appointed to make him whole. But fourthly there is lex privata, a Law imposed upon some particular person, in whose transgression neither were justice infringed, nor Gods glory violated, if his Command were not laid upon it; and there is no scope in this but to make the passive humility of our soul, that is our obedience more illustrious.  

1 Ki. 13.8.  What was there in it else that the Man of God that came from Judah unto Bethel was charged neither to eat nor drink water in that place, nor to return by the same way that he came, there is no colour of Religious Worship in these observations, but God would have him submit to his unquestionable Authority, and you know his misery ensued, when he was unperswaded to obey it. Dominus cur jusserit viderit, what profit there is to keep such private Laws, as seem to carry no great substance in them, let God look to that says the Father, but be you obsequious. That peremptory denunciation upon pain of death not to eat of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil, called the forbidden fruit, no Theological wits could ever pass a ripe mature judgement upon it why it was so laid, but that they, and all we in them, are to stoop under that sweet yoke of the Divine Will with absolute, indefinite, undiscoursed obedience. It was no robbery to eat of it, wherein God was defrauded of any thing that He stood in need of, than it had been hurtful to him; the fruit was not diseaseful or poisonous, than it had been hurtful to them: it was a pure Edict of Authority, to let the best of all bodily Creatures know to what service and homage they were born; as the vulgar Latin reads that verse, Psal. ix. ult. Constitue legislatorem super eos, not as we translate it, put them in fear, O Lord, but set a Lawgiver over them, that they may know themselves to be but men. Quomodo eris sub Domino, nisi fueris sub praecepto? so St. Austin upon that very instance of the forbidden fruit. How are you under the Lord, unless you be under the Law? and not that Law which leans upon apparent reason, for that Law is within you, and therein you obey yourself; but that Law which flows from absolute Authority, that's without you, and therein you stoop lowest under the power of God. And this is the very condition of that word which the Angel spoke to Lot and those that were with him, Look not behind thee, neither stay in all the plain. Wherein could it tend to the honour of God that they should set their face one way more than another? perhaps you will say it was meant to the greater detestation of the Sodomites, whom the Lord would not permit to have commiseration, or any respect from good men: or to urge them to make haste away with a kind of hyperbolical celerity. As our Saviour sent his Disciples to preach in every City of Judaea with this speedy or prefestinating Command, Salute no man by the way, Luke x. 4. And Elisha imposed that post haste upon Gehazi his servant, 
2 Ki. 4.29.  Gird up thy loins and go thy way, if thou meet any man salute him not, and if any man salute thee answer him not again. Suppose this or that were the secret drift of this Interdiction look not behind thee, yet a little casting of the head on one side had not made their expedition the slower. What need we seek a knot in a rush? what need we prove her faulty for reasons that are not alleged? this convinceth obliquity enough in her sin, that she did not observe the precise command of God in every gesture of her body.  
In a word, the thing itself commanded did not in itself bind the conscience, but with the Command it did. The eye is free to view all the works of the Lord, unless something upon which it glanceth doth scandalise it with concupiscence. Who suspects the contrary, but that the crackling of the fire, and the out-cries of them that perished in those Cities that were consumed, did rouse many in the neighbour Villages to look upon those places, and lament them? Did not Abraham rise up early in the morning and look toward the Land of the Plain, and see the smoke of the Country go up as the smoke of a Furnace? 'tis soon answered, Where there was no restraint, there was no transgression. But above all other Laws, those which we may rather call Canons and Constitutions, that impose the prestation of adiaphorous duties, and prohibit other things that have no moral obliquity in them, are most generous ways to heap reward upon the willing, and to discover the stiff stomach of rebellion. In all Injunctions Ecclesiastical and Political, set aside charity, edification, unity, peace of the Church, or any other moral respect. Put it only upon this, that mere authority enforceth them, which is just authority derived from God's Ordinance, God forbid we should need any haling or towing to them, for he that sees the finger of Authority held up, sees reason enough to obey; and to recoil as Lot's Wife did, because the Commandment seemed not to be weighty and ponderous, is blind disobedience. O 'tis a blessed thing not to have a licentious itch upon a man, not to desire scope and random, but to submit cheerfully to a punctual Discipline in all our actions, and every circumstance of them. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as it is the praise of an Holy Father, as if his soul had been created without a will. Alas into what precipices would our fancy carry us if we were left to ourselves, to be libertines in any thing, there would be nothing but confusion? Deus servitute nostrâ non eget, 
Lib. 8. de Gen ad. lit. cap. 11.  nos autem sine ejus dominatione esse non possumus, nothing truer, it is St. Augustine's. God stands in no need of our service, but we could not live without his command and governance. 'Tis hard to confine this point to brevity, but I must break off: only let me put you in mind, that whereas the Jesuits set forth themselves to be the only Obedientiaries in the World, so that to neglect the Precept of their Superior in a trifle, they brand it for a flagitious crime; yet the Jesuit a Lapide says upon my Text that he would not discord with them, that hold the trespass of Lot's Wife to be no more than venial error; for either some sudden clap of thunder might make her start and look back unawares: or else she thought not that the Angel gave her that direction not to retort her eyes under the guilt of a mortal sin, or she thought the Commandment held her no longer, when she came out of the Plain, and was even entering into Zoar. Here's a Jesuitical subtlety for you, to aggravate the offence to the bigness of a Mountain, if a Novice violate the private Law of his Superior; but to extenuate the sin almost to nothing, if a Servant disobey the private Law of his heavenly Master. But it is not the wit of man that can set a size upon sins which are mortal and which are venial, for it is the Lord that judgeth the Earth.  
The next place to which I refer the heinousness of this woman's sin, is great folly and blindness of heart, for she refused the will of God, and the preservation of her own life, upon such easy conditions as to hold still her head. When Elisha's Messenger bad Naaman wash seven times in Jordan, and he turned away in a rage, his Servants spoke reason to him, if the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing, 
2 Ki. 5 13.  wouldst thou not have done it? how much rather than when he saith to thee, wash and be clean? If he would not use such gentle means, so near at hand, means of no expense, no pain, no lingering molestation, he deserved to continue a Leper. In like sort if Lot's Wife had been set a task of many observations, put to a strict and a tedious penance would she not have done it, to have escaped a storm of fire and brimstone? how much more when this was all that was required from her, Go on straight to the Mountain that is before thee, turn neither to the right hand nor to the left. Quanta erat iniquitas in peccando ubi tanta erat non peccandi facilitas? says the Father, 
August. Civ. Dei. lib. 14. cap. 15.  What a shame it was to offend when there was so much facility to decline the offence? Were not all the Regions of the World free for her to look upon, excepting that one City behind her which could not be seen for the smoke? Ex omnibus unum elige Myrrha virum, modo ne sit in omnibus unus: A single exception is the smallest exception that can be made, and let them feel the smart that cannot conform themselves to those things which are of such easy observation. For wherein did the transgression of Adam and Eve especially consist. God knows best, but the trivial and best grounded conjecture is, quod levis fuisset in tantâ copiâ unius arboris continentia, all the Trees of the Garden else were frankly theirs both for food and pleasure, both for delight and necessity; What an easy imposition was this, let this only Graft be untouched, the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and all beside is yours? Who could forget it, or neglect it? But they stumbled when there was nothing to make them fall, that is, they violated a Law which was neither burdensome in strictness, nor in multitude of circumstances.  
Therefore in those good hours which we set apart for repentance and bewailing of our sins, let it strike us deep to the heart, when we remember how much evil we have done upon very small provocation, how many branches of the Law we have broken, when we cannot justly say that we were strongly beset with any tentation, and how far we have given way to our frailties when 'twas prompt and easy to repress them. The negative Commands of the Law are more obvious to us, more ready in our power to obey them than the affirmative. So St. Chrysostom spends his judgement upon it with a tacit reason, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 'tis far easier to hold off our hand from sin than to put to our hand to virtue: and we can sooner show the evil that we have not done, than the good that we have done. Nay the Father makes that such a slight thing that he says, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the very Beasts might allege that, or it might be alleged for them that they had done no iniquity: yet what a strong charge it will be against us all in the day of judgement, that we have not girt ourselves close, no not to this negative obedience, touch not, taste not; What facile Ordinances are these to a temperate man? and nothing but custom and a sluggish spirit hath made them difficult to the intemperate. Defraud no man, extort from no man; God is no austere God in those Statutes, they are quickly learned, and quickly kept; yet the wealthiest many times will do the contrary: when they could not pretend, as the necessitous may, the least impulsion of poverty. How soon may any one abstain from the Lords Table that finds himself unprepared and uncomposed for those sacred Mysteries? yet God shall have their company at that holy Feast when he lest desires it. How easy a thing it is for a man not to fall down before Stocks and Stones, and to worship them? yet a smack of Idolatry abounds even in the Church of Christ. We dream of difficulties, we cry out against invincible tentations, when there is no such matter. I know there are Royal Laws in Scripture fit for heroic virtue, to bless them that persecute you, to pull down every high imagination, to quench all the sparks of concupiscence, to lay down our life for Christ's sake. God doth justly weigh both the duress and the weight of these Commands, and our infirmity to fulfil them, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ he sees us strive for mastery in those Combats, and admires the fortitude of his Saints; but in other things it is as strange how quickly our faintness and easiness is subdued. Could you not watch one hour, says our Lord to his Disciples? What a poor request is this? to wake one hour for his comfort and service: Therefore the objurgation was the sharper, because they failed him. You will pollute my name for handfuls of barley and pieces of bread, Ez. xiii. 19 The Devil's haec omnia is a strong allurement, All these things will I give thee; he may bate a great deal of that offer to them that are ready to run into sin, let it be hoc aliquid, a little preferment, a little countenance and they are taken with the Snare. O insensati, O slow of heart, like this sinner in my Text, will you reject God and forsake his Word even in things wherein you may so easily perform obedience?  
Thirdly it is another brand upon her sin, that she was indocilis, most unattentive to learn. Lot went before her constantly and steadfastly without any reciprocation or backsliding, the Example was in her eye all the way from Sodom to Zoar, every step he trod was a Sermon to bid her do the like, if she would be saved, yet she made no benefit of the Pattern, though he were her own Mate, her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, with whom she was bound in a more particular bond than all others, to draw the same yoke. What was this but to shut her eyes unto the light that was before, and to turn to the smoke that was behind? This is no distorted amplification, but an evident spot in her crime: yet not in her alone, but in all those that cannot show the use of good examples in the fruits of their lives. A good Example is the fairest transcript of God's will, texted in capital letters, so that he that runs may read; and as a Picture expresseth the life more when colours are laid upon it, than when 'tis drawn out only in the rude figure: so where piety lives and moves in the actions of virtuous men, 'tis more illustrious so by far than in empty Precepts, and God expects it at our hands, that where we are deaf to plain instruction, yet we would easily be won with imitation. We will run after thee in odour unguentorum, says the Spouse, in the smell of those fragrancies which the Worthies of the Church have left behind them. Our Church, which hath omitted no opportune occasion to put sound devotion in our mouths, hath taught us often to pray in several Collects, in that admirable piece of piety the Common-Prayer Book, for grace of conformity with the best of God's Children, that we may learn to love our enemies by the example of his Martyr St. Stephen, that after the example of John the Baptist we may constantly speak the truth, and patiently suffer for the truth's sake; that we may follow all the Saints that are knit together in one communion and fellowship in virtuous and godly living; this is the true celebration of their holidays, to tread their footsteps as they have gone before us unto everlasting life.  
But Novelists had rather be talked of that they began a fashion, and set a Copy for others, than that they contained themselves within a strict imitation of the most excellent Precedents. Be ye followers of me, says Paul to the Church of Corinth; and is it not better says Nazianzen to one Nichobalus upon the mention of those words, to come after the Apostles heels, than be a ringleader, or the foremost among Sectaries? Praestat infra aquilas paululum, quam supra alaudas volitare, it is a fairer pitch to fly a little under an Eagle, than to soar somewhat above a Lark. The Age is blessed, the days are blessed, when conspicuous facts of holy men are like Beacons on a hill, which cannot choose but be gazed upon. And if our sluggishness obscure such rare Examples for want of emulation, and make them vanish like prints in snow that are soon forgotten, the Lord will set up others of a contrary kind that shall last longer to our terror. For since the memory of the just is no more regarded which is eternised for our imitation, he will powder and make brine of the wicked for our confusion. Here's an instance in my Text of one that observed not a faithful Leader that conducted her: She would not be tied to example, and in that place where she refused to learn she was left for an example to all posterity. But why do I stick at this only, that she would not be a Scholar to Lot? he was a frail man, and had need of a Guide himself: herein rather it appears that she was most averse from discipline, nothing would make her wise, for there was an Angel or twain in the Troop, they were the Leaders of this little Flock out of Sodom, yet she ordered her steps disobediently even in the sight of an Angel. No earthly means or persuasions, no nor heavenly patterns can reduce some headstrong sinners to repentance, they have hardened their hearts like the nether millstone. The rich Glutton in Hell thought that by some new device his Brethren might be converted, if one would come from the dead and admonish them. And do not most of you imagine, if an Angel were sent from Heaven to preach, there would be great reformation among us, we would mend apace: yes perhaps as much as Lot's Wife did, who would tread her own path, though the Angel were at her elbow. They that will not hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and be converted for that, they would be at the same stay though Angels walked daily among them.  
The express words of my Text have afforded me hitherto all that I have objected against this sinner, and what I shall say more shall be deducted out of it both by facile and easy consequence, and by fair authority; especially in the imputations of incredulity and recidivation. And to come to them with the more perspicuity and order, I observe the same rottenness in the sin of Lot's Wife which Cajetan discovered in the transgression of Eve. Eve cavilled upon that which God had commanded, two ways; first she turned that absolute sentence, in the day thou eatest that fruit thou shalt die, into ye shall not eat of it lest you die, or as the Vulgar Latin, ne forte, lest perhaps ye die. Then she cloyed the Commandment with more austerity than was in it, to show she was weary of it, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it; concerning the not touching her own loathing of the Law did put in that addition. So the poison of the Devil had crept into her understanding, and into her affections says Cajetan, In intellectum per haesi●ationem poenae, in affectum per displicentiam praecepti: in her understanding she doubted no such punishment would follow as was threatened, in her affections she distasted the Commandment, and these are just so in the Subject we handle.  
In the 10. of Wisdom ver. 7. (I name an Author of all that are in the Apocryphal List next to Canonical credit) Lot's Wife is called a standing Pillar of salt, as a Monument of an unbelieving soul. An unbeliever is one that gives not faith to that which God hath said and revealed. Now she fell into unbelief in one of these two points, or in both, either she believed not that the place from whence she came should be destroyed as the Angels had denounced, or else she believed not it would conduce to her safety whether she looked back or no: the former she would try out of curiosity, and the latter she would put to hazard upon peevish presumption. The Sun rose clear that morning, ver. 23. there was no thunder nor darkness in the Heavens; she began to suspect she was drawn from home to no purpose, and they were wiser that stayed behind. So she stood in motu trepidationis, she knew not whether she should believe or not believe, at last she resolved to trust God's Messenger no further than she saw cause, and would make her own eyes her sureties, though she were strictly forbidden. You cannot provoke God to anger sooner than by reserving power and licence to yourself to judge whether all his sayings are certain and infallible. He that believeth not is condemned already. Faith is the eye of all Religion, if you wink with that eye you shall never see the Lord: Especially to think you can discern more with these bodily senses than with the inerrable light of Divine Truth, is an extreme indignity. A grave Patrician would be grieved that the deposition of a noted Varlet should be heard against his innocency. And will you hear the objections of sense and reason against that sacred evidence, Thus saith the Lord? that were to trust to darkness before light, the Flesh before the Spirit, to lying vanities before unalterable and eternal truth. But to her senses this Infidel would appeal, and they would instruct her sufficiently, whether it had gone with Sodom so ill as it was foretold. And was she sure to be satisfied by looking back? I greatly doubt it, a mist might rise up like the smoke of a Furnace, and she conceive it to come from fire, when it did not: Or the Sun might shine upon the waters in the Plain, and she misdoubt that the waters were become blood, as the Moabites were so mistaken. Doth not a late Historian tell us of the whole Watch of a City, that misdoubted a Field of thistles a far off was a Troop of Pikemen that encamped there to besiege them? Was ever man more cautious according to humane rules than St. Thomas the Apostle? He would trust no man's reports that his Master was risen from the dead, he would see somewhat; neither would he trust his own eyes, he would feel too, nay he would not trust his fingers ends in small wounds, but he would wallow his whole hand in the rent of his side. For all this wariness he might have been deluded. The Syrians saw Elisha, and yet wist not it was he. The Sodomites felt all night at Lot's door, and were still to seek. Old Isaac held Jacob fast and was deluded, the hands are Esau's hands says he, and yet they were not. And will this woman trust her eyesight, and at a distance, rather than God's peremptory assertion? O trust not in man, trust not in these fallible humane means. Our senses are brutish, Nature is corrupt, Philosophy is vain, but Faith leans upon that strong pillar, the revelation of the Spirit from above, which cannot falter, and to lie it is impossible.  
And as this woman was called an incredulous Soul, because she looked back to see whether vengeance had passed upon the Cities of the Plain, as the Angel of the Lord had foretold, so for want of faith, touching the caution which was given to her own person, she fell into presumption, and by presumption into death; it would not sink into her thoughts that God was in earnest, that as many of their Troop as looked behind them should be consumed; she thought they were big words to scare timorous persons, such as Prophetical men in their zeal did every day denounce against sinners, yet they lived and rubbed on that took their own liberty to disobey, for God was gracious and would not suffer his whole displeasure to arise against miserable sinners. Feel, feel the pulse of your own conscience I beseech you, tell me if it do not beat disorderly? Doth it not confuse you to call to mind, that this infidelity, this in ipso genere, hath betrayed you to the tentations of Satan more than all his snares beside? that desperate courage which you assume to yourselves upon some hope of impunity is it not the spur to all transgression? God is gentle and of long suffering, his minacies are terrible, but his dearly beloved Son and our only Saviour is merciful, said & exorabile numen fortasse experiar, says the Heathen, his loving kindness is soon entreated. This is a bastard faith of our own, to subvert the true faith which is begotten by the Spirit. A Diabolical infusion that God doth menace out of policy that which He never meant, to make us obsequious by the shadow of his scourge: but remember that non moriemini was a lie. 'Tis the Serpent's Masterpiece to expel all faith and fear out of our mind, for they go hand in hand together, and to break our necks with confidence. A barbarous beastly kind of life says Aristotle hardened the Scythians, that they neither feared Thunder nor Earthquakes: but it is infernal witchcraft that makes obdurate hearts believe that all the woes and curses in the Gospel are but a strong noise, terrible while it is heard, but comes to nothing. Quotidie Diabolus quae Deus minatur levigat, 
Moral. lib. 24. cap. 7.  says Gregory. God affirms, the Woman doubts, the Devil denies. O unhappy they that think Truth itself may be deceived, and give ear to a deceitful spirit. If all the maledictions against Impenitents were not indubitably to be expected, Christianity were but faint-hearted superstition, Religion nothing but panic fear, Faith not the Evidence of things to come, but a devised Fable, and the sacred Scriptures in all penalties and threatenings a vizard of mockery. But as sin brought punishment upon us, so let the certain expectation of punishment bring us out of sin. Remember Lot's Wife, the only memento that Christ fixeth upon any Story of the Old Testament. The less she believed the less she feared, but the less she feared the more she smarted. What God hath threatened will not be declined by our contrary opinion. Though Christ shed his blood to save a sinner, God will not lie to save a sinner. No title of his Word shall fail, no not to save an hundred thousand souls out of the infernal pit.  
I am come to the utmost portion of the hour, and not to the utmost of the first part of my Text by three points. She fainted in well-doing, she neglected mercy, and was slow to save herself, she contemned the benefit of preservation in respect of that which was taken from her. But as Logic convinceth more than Rhetoric, as the fist knit together is stronger than the hand spread abroad; so all this will be most doctrinal in one point, that she relapsed, and sunk after she was in fair speed to obtain mercy, because she fell in love with wicked Sodom again from whence God had withdrawn her? This is her crime which Philo exaggerates more than once, aestu refluo retrosum absorpta, she was like a Ship sailing with full sails from the sinful delights of the World, but the contrary winds and tides of concupiscence carried her clean back again. Josephus accuseth her worse upon the same charge, that though her feet came from that impious City, yet her heart stayed behind, Et saepius tardavit vertendo se ad civitatem, she stood still more than once to take her full view of that loss which she so much bemoaned, nor was it at the first turning about, as he says, that she was turned into a pillar of salt. The very Apples of Sodom remain as a token against her to this day, which put forth at first as if they would grow to be very delicious in the taste, and in conclusion they pulverize, and become sooty ashes. So Lot's Wife ran well at first, but in the midst of her course, nay almost at the end she fainted, and stuck fast in the mire of recoiling desires. These are the Apples of Sodom, Plants bearing fruit that never come to ripeness, Wisd. x. 7. This was not her native Country from whence the Angel brought her, I confess that would have moved a stony heart to have pitied it, if they had seen it desolate: No, Lot and she were strangers in Sodom, and but coarsely used by the lawless luxurious multitude: but wealth came in apace, Lot chose it for that end: there were other reasons I believe that took her more, there was the conflux of the Gallantry, there were the Fashions, there was the Bravery, there were the Sports that filled up idle hours, there were the Servants and the Visitants, and some things else which we much mistrust did follow all this. O 'tis an harsh thing for feminine pride and wantonness to be sent from such a City into little Zoar, or into a Mountain. No marvel if good counsel do not altogether work that good effect in this kind among our Ladies that might be expected, for the Angels of God could neither persuade nor affright Lot's Wife from such a place, but that being a mile or so out of the Gates she longs to return.  
He that puts his hand to the plough and looks back, says our Saviour, 
Luke 9.62. Homil. 3. in Ezek.  is not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven. Post aratrum respicit qui ad mala revertitur quae reliquit, says Gregory. If you call back any sin to which you had bid adieu, than you mar that furrow which is before your eyes, wherein you were casting good seed, and make it crooked. This is a cleanly Comparison, but because relapsing is an odious sin, 
2 Pet. 2.22.  St. Peter hath strained for a loathsome Similitude, and calls it returning with the dog unto his vomit. Si canis hoc faciens horret oculis tuis, tu quid eris oculis Dei, says St. Austin, 
In Psal 80.  if a dog is not to be endured in our sight that will lap in his own digustments, how shall God cast thee out of the sight of his eyes which dost wallow in those sins which thou hadst abjured? 'Tis a subtle question which Clemens propounds in the 2. of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: and the resolution of it will cost them dear, I think, that resume those sins for which they had asked pardon, whether it be worse to sin in one kind once with a man's full knowledge and obstinacy, or out of negligence and weakness to return again to those faults whereof he had repent? certainly the determination will be, that relapsing begets extreme obstinacy, and obstinacy begets obdurateness: Facit obrigescere in peccato, as one says, the Metaphor is taken from her in my Text, that after recidivation became senseless as a Pillar, and did not feel what it was to sin. They marry those sins again from whence their Soul was once divorced: they are reinamoured of iniquity which once they confessed was to be loathed: they do as it were say unto God, take thy restraining grace again, we will have none of it: they were drawn out of the snare of the Hunter, and put in their foot again, improbè Neptunum accusat, qui iterum naufragium facit, said the Heathen; therefore as their first illumination was an illustrious example of mercy, so their sliding back and ingratitude shall be punished with a memorable instance of justice. The Canonists say bis recidivus non debet commutare. A simple offender, in whom unfeigned sorrow appears, if the Magistrate please may be punished in his Purse for once to excuse him from his corporal shame; but if he fall into the same offence again he must undergo his own penance without all indulgence of commutation.  
Consider therefore, and the Lord put it into all our thoughts, that all Vows, Promises, and Protestations of amendment of any fault that are retrograde, cease, and become nothing, will be the most terrible witnesses against us in the day of judgement. 
Leu. 16.26. De leg. lib. 9  The Scape-goat that was sent out into the Wilderness with the sins of the people was dismissed never to return again. The Philosopher Plato could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; which is as one would say, go out of Sodom, and never turn back to look upon it. Christ bade us not only come unto him, Matth. xi. 28. but also abide with him, and stay with him, Jo. 15.4. There is no labour to lost labour, to begin in the spirit, and to end in the flesh. Root up vanity that it may grow no more; if you do but clip off the top it will grow the thicker afterward, The Philistines let the hair of Samson grow again to their own destruction. Take heed that your repentance be not the worst sin that ever you committed; be as constant in well doing as the worst are in evil, be constant unto the end, and the Lord will give you a Crown of Life. AMEN.   

THE SECOND SERMON UPON LOT'S WIFE.  GEN. nineteen. 26. 
And she became a pillar of salt.  
HEre is a relation of a great sin, and of the destruction of the sinner, and both in the compass of one short verse. And yet as brief as the Story is, I believe it is longer in telling than the deed was a doing. Though it might give us not an hours but an Age's time to consider how such a transmutation should come to pass; for every alteration in nature requires time, and previous dispositions to work it, yet a thousand years to the Lord are but as one day, and a moment of one day as sufficient to bring his will to pass as a thousand years. If you regard the gripes of pain which customarily are antecedent to death, I think never any died with less sense of pain than this woman did, for a numbness took her all over in the twinkling of an eye, and left her as it had been a stone. And you know long lingering punishments are most cruel, and most exquisite to flesh and blood; Ita moriatur ut se mori sentiat, was a most tyrannical sentence. But of that the example in my Text was most free, and yet never the happier. Julius Caesar's quick answer to his friends demand, what death is most eligible, and he said, the quickest is much cited, but little commended. For though his opinion seem specious in one similitude, that no Seafaring man will complain that he was brought too soon to the Haven: Yet there is another similitude to counterpoise that, how an unprovided Steward may be shent, because he was brought too soon to his reckoning. A little warning time at the latest of all may be worth much time. Moses had this bestowed upon him for the fullness of all favours that went before, to have his passing-bell toll in his ears, in those words which God spoke unto him. Get thee up into Mount Nebo, 
Deut. 32 50.  and die in the Mountain whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people. From hence I collect, that this Judgement in my Text will be most sensible to our apprehension, because we shall hear of one that was snatched away unpreparedly, without all sense of death. It is true, she had no Will to make, she had no Legacies to bequeath, for all was lost. She had no house to set in order with Hezekiah, for her Habitation was consumed with fire and brimstone; yet she had a Soul to set in order, which was ten thousand times more than all beside. And although I will define nothing rashly against her for this judgement sake, for I have learned that modesty to let God only judge his own servants, yet this momentary destruction of Lot's Wife, I am sure, is worth both this, and many hours meditations. Quod cuivis cuiquam; that which happened but once since the world began to this one person, may happen in some kind every day to any man. Saul was desperately driven to seek to raise Samuel from the dead, and appear before him; this instance in my Text is one that never went down to the grave among the dead, that she might always be in the remembrance of the living, how she looked back to Sodom, and became a Pillar of Salt.  
Which words I divided formerly into such terms as might both respect the Contents of the Text, and be expedient places for your memory: Therefore I called the two principal branches, an Epitaph, and a Tomb. The Epitaph thus, But his Wife looked back from behind him: The Tomb which this Epitaph respects in that which follows, And she became a Pillar of Salt. If God made Epitaphs, the stones of the Church should not be guilty of such flattery as they are, for none of the offences of Lot's Wife are left out in these few words: but she is accused, and very justly, of these particulars, as I showed before: 1. Of disobedience, that she would not observe the precise Commandment of God in every motion of her body. 2. Of great folly and blindness of heart, that she would reject God and the preservation of her own life upon such easy conditions as to hold still her head. 3. Of a Spirit most unattentive to learn, for Lot went before her constantly and steadfastly, the example was in her eye every step from Sodom to Zoar, yet she would go her own ways. 4. Of incredulity, an incredulous soul, Wisd. x. 7. Either she did not believe that Sodom should be consumed as God had sent word, or else she thought it would not be the worse for her though she turned about, and looked upon it. 5. She relapsed and fainted in well-doing, and desired to live again among those wicked sinners from whom God had withdrawn her. This was opened in the first part. The second is as strange for a Tomb as this was for an Epitaph. A Christian Poet wrote thus Enigmatically upon it, Cadaver nec habet suum sepulchrum▪ sepulchrum nec habet suum cadaver, sepulchrum tamen & cadaver intus; That she was made a Carcase that had no Sepulchre, nay, that she was made a Sepulchre that had no Carcase or rather that she was both Carcase and Sepulchre. And to conform myself to the resolution of this Riddle, I will consider this punishment inflicted from God two ways, in reference to herself as to the Carcase, and in reference to that into which she was turned as to the Sepulchre. She that was punished, 1. Was one of those very few that professed the name of God among thousands that were unrighteous. 2. She was one of four that were brought out of Sodom, and yet there wanted one of those four before they got into Zoar. 3. She was well nigh passed all danger, and suffered shipwreck in the very Haven. 4. She did wilfully cast herself away at the last cast, therefore we read she was lost, but not that she was ever bemoaned. After this, in reference to the Pillar of Salt, 1. I consider it as a new punishment, the like was never heard. 2. As a sudden or momentaneous punishment. 3. As a miraculous and most supernatural punishment. 4. As a mortal punishment, but not as a final destruction. Of these in order.  

Ver. 21.  The Lord told Abraham in the former Chap. that the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah was very great, and therefore He was come down to see how grievous their sin was. That which called him down to execute vengeance was not the iniquity of Lot's house, (that little Family was all the remnant He had there to call upon his name) but the filthy sins of the other Canaanites that abounded with rank and unnatural pollutions. And the Angel tells Lot in this Chapter they were come to spare him and his, 
Vers. 13.  but the Lord had sent them to destroy that City, because the cry of it was waxen great before the Lord. They confess their Commission was given them to punish none but those Children of perdition, that were aliens from all fear of God. And yet behold one that was in the Catalogue of them that professed the Worship of God she offended, and the hand of God's fury is stretched out upon her, She became a pillar of Salt. Says one upon it, Par est ut judex prius suam domum examinet quam alienam. A Magistrate that will reform abuses, let him make his own house the first example of reformation, and then his Justice may more confidently call any to account that are not so near unto him. St. Paul, grounding upon that equitable case, deciphers a good Bishop to be one that ruleth his own house well, for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God? 1 Tim. three 5. This brings it to our apprehension directly, why this person in my Text was chastised with no less than death, because God would show his justice upon his own Family where they sinned, that unconverted Reprobates might expect nothing but the utmost of severity. For if these things be done in a green tree, what shall be done in a dry? Luk. xxiii. 31.  
There is no sort of anguish, no calamity of any name or magnitude, Captivities Famines, Diseases, that doth not show itself as soon within the bowels of the Church, as in any part of the World beside. For a small trespass is taken more unkindly at their hands where grace abounds, than a great profanation from the Heathen, who were left as forsaken as the Mountains of Gilboa in David's curse, upon whom no dew of heaven did fall. A small sin in Judah is as bad as an Idol in Samaria. A lukewarmness, or faintness of Religion in Laodicaea as bad as Paganism in those Regions that sat in darkness, and in the shadow of death. Therefore the first stroke of indignation shall light upon their sins, from whom the Lord did expect the least offence, and the most obedience. Slay utterly both young and old, both Maids and Children, and begin at my Sanctuary, says God, Ezek. ix. 6. You hear that the sword of vengeance shall be drawn forth first against the Sanctuary, that is, the pollutions of the Sanctuary. Christ will sooner take his scourge in hand to drive the money changers out of the Temple than to correct the Publicans and Tole-gatherers at the Custom-house, who were the greater Extortioners. A tree that was made to bear fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire, if it continue barren; but wild Plants, from which neither Figs nor Olives were expected, God never threatens them with the Axe, but lets them stand till they decay with age and rottenness.  
This is the reason of it, that although God had no more in Sodom for his share but a very little household, yet one of his own Domestics that looked back upon Sodom perished as well as those his Enemies that never came out. But if God spared not his own, what remains for them that were never folded up in his flock, never called by his name? Si flagellantur filii, quid debent sperare servi nequissimi, says S. Austin? 
In Psal. 93.  If the Sons of the Family be scourged, what can Runagates hope for? If King Josias, a Saint worth all the men of Judah beside, was brought to an untimely end, that stroke was but a forerunner that all the stubborn Nation beside should soon after be cast out into a most woeful captivity. Quando justis non parcitur propter perficiendam purgationem, non parcetur impiis tanquam sarmentis praecisis ad combustionem, so St. Austin goes on in a sweet similitude, If God do not forbear the Righteous, but prune them off sometimes to trim the tree, certainly the unrighteous shall not be endured, who are dead sear boughs, and most combustible for the fire. Upon the Land of my people, shall come up thorns and briers, how much more upon all the houses of the joyous City? Isa. xxxii. 13. As waters are still and shallow near the Springhead, but run with the swifter Current as they are further off, so the indignation of Divine Justice which begins calmly in the Church, which is near to God, will increase more violently among the outcasts of Satan, among whom at last it will end. Says St. Peter, 1 Epist. iv. 17. The time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end of them be that obey not the Gospel of God? The House of God shall be punished, and severity begins at them; but it is not finis eorum, that is not their final doom; nay, it is no more but a twitch by the way; but punishment, in St. Peter's own words, is the end, the last cast of impenitent sinners; What shall be the end of them that obey not the Gospel? Inchoatur ira judicii divini à correptione justorum, 
Moral. 26. c. 17.  ut in reproborum damnatione conquiescat, so Gregory in reference to St. Peter. The Rod of God's Power begins with the chastisement of the Just, that it may give over in the damnation of Reprobates. And as Gregory expounds St. Peter, so our Vulgar English Margin makes St. Peter to expound Solomon, Prov. xi. 31. Behold the Righteous shall be recompensed in the earth, much more the wicked and the sinner. Finally, as God spares not the nearest to him, so let us take up the same justice, my meaning is, let no man spare himself, Proximus egomet mihi. If thy right eye offend thee, thine own eye, thy right eye, pull it out, and cast it from thee. Beati qui cum omnium misereantur, sibi nunquam penitus ignoscant, says Salvianus; Happy are they that are pitiful to all men, only they will not pity themselves, but avenge themselves of themselves, that God may show them mercy.  
Secondly, She became a Pillar of Salt, even she that was one of four that were brought out of Sodom to be delivered, and yet there wanted one of those four before they got into Zoar. I will not move that question hereupon, that one did to our Saviour in the Gospel, Luk. xiii. 23. Lord are there few that be saved? No answer can be given to this directly but either curious or uncomfortable. Our Saviour replies unto it in that same place thus, Strive to enter in at the strait gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. But because St. Matthew says of that strait gate that leadeth unto life, few there be that find it. Therefore Cajetan says, that in effect our Saviour rejoined to that man's question, few should be saved, Ex angustiâ portae significans paucos esse qui salvantur; the narrowness of the way did signify how few should hit upon that path that conducteth to eternal life. But I had rather take in light at another window, and receive St. Augustine's Exposition, 
De verb. Dom.  that Christ did purposely decline to give punctual and affirmative satisfaction to that question, deriving his words to this scope, rather to make us study which way every man may be saved than to know how many, or how few shall be saved. Ad questionis vaniloquium nihil dicit sed transfert suum sermonem ad rem magis necessariam. He would not reply to such an impertinent interrogatory, but raised doctrine out of it more necessary to edification.  
Let not that curious investigation then lie in our way, what a small number of souls four were, in respect of so many thousands that were burnt to ashes in the destruction of four Cities, and yet how much that portion decreased, because one of them four was cut short by the way; rather I will turn the Point into this consideration, that the Devil is always detracting and abating from that small portion and remnant which God hath set apart for himself. Could our Saviour have chosen fewer than Twelve Apostles to testify over all the world what they had heard and seen? And yet the Devil entered into one of these, to make him the guide unto those that betrayed Jesus. God cantonized out for himself but Twelve Families or Tribes out of all the Kingdoms of the Earth, with whom he made a Covenant by Sacrifice, and Ten portions of those Twelve revolted both from God and the King, and fell into Idolatry and Treason. I might be infinite both in Sacred and Humane Histories, but our own experience is as sure a touch unto us; The Christian Faith you know is received but into few Regions of the habitable world; I may say according to nathan's Parable, that Europe was unto God as that only Ewe Lamb, all that the poor man had, but the Devil is like that rich one, that had many Flocks and Herds besides in all places under the Sun, yet you see what a great stride Mahomet hath stepped into Europe, though the Church complains of her small number, as Micah did, 
Mic. 7.1.  Woe is me, I am as when they have gathered the Summer fruits, as the grape-gleaning of the Vintage, there is no cluster to eat; yet the envious one would abate the Lord of that small Remnant; among all the Inhabitants of Sodom he thought four too great a number to escape, and one of them relapsed, and became a Pillar of Salt. But let us come from persons to things that concern God's Worship and Honour, and note how we defalk, and rob God in them. Of two Testaments of holy Scriptures, the Manichaeans, Heretics in ancient times, and now our modern Anabaptists do reject the Old. Of two parts of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper, Bread and Wine, to signify the body of Christ crucified, and his blood spilt, the Laity, you know where, have lost the use of the Cup. Of four Commandments in the First Table of the Law the Second among some is either snapped off for brevity sake, or crowded into the First, to make it lose its force and vigour. Instead of Faith and good Works, which are both necessary to salvation, we are much too slow with our good Works, and think to come off well enough with a dry barren Faith. Instead of our Prayers early and late as a Morning and Evening Sacrifice, dissolute men and women think a short good-night will serve the turn as they go to bed. Instead of glorifying God in our bodies, and in our spirits, many do subtract their humility of bodily worship, and suppose it is abundantly well done to serve him in Spirit. Finally, instead of devoting our whole Age to repentance and newness of life, many will not abandon their sins till their sins are forsaking them in their last years; nay, perhaps in the last hour; nay, God help them, perhaps but in the last gasp or two of that latest hour; thus the Devil hath envenomed the World with a Sacrilegious Poison, and persuades us that all is well gotten which is lost to God. But in deed and in truth God loseth nothing; He will be honoured either in our Conversion, or in our Confusion. As his mercy was content to be glolified in the deliverance of Lot's Wife, so his justice was exalted in her punishment.  
Thirdly, This woman was come out of Sodom, come out of the Plain, hard by the Gates of Zoar, at the very last Furlong of the way, as Adrichomius describes it, and cast herself wilfully away, when she was almost past all danger, as the Proverb is, In portu naufragium, she had passed the Waves of a perilous Journey, but shipwrackt and lost all when she was come home to the Haven. Quod quisque vitet nunquam homini satis cautum est in horas; None perish so soon as they that think they cannot perish now, they are passed the worst, and so become less wary of their safety. When Caesar had it divined unto him, that the Ides of March should be fatal to him, he should never outlive that day; he was jocund and secure about afternoon, and frumpingly told his Wizzards, the day was far-spent and he felt no sign of death; O but says one that Prophesied evil to him, the day is come, but it is not passed yet, and the event of the day was the slaughter of Caesar. So, many are wound up to the last minute of confidence and security, and there began their ruin where they thought to consummate their felicity. Abimelech marched against the City of Thebes, he took it, he besieged the Tower, close to the Gates of the Tower, and was about to set fire to the Gates; thus he stood in limine victoriae; as his Victory was come to the just compliment, a woman cast down a piece of a Mill stone, and broke his skull that he died, Judg. ix. 22. Thus as a Gamesters whole Stake and win may be lost at the last cast, so many men have had a long progress in prosperity, and for want of due thankfulness of that they had received, their conclusion and shutting up of their eyes hath been bitterness. Relapsing in sickness, a thing as frequent as the water that runs by us, it is not unskilfully imputed to the heedlessness of him that was too adventurous upon recovery, and some other indisposition of natural causes: but when we see a man brought down to the Grave with infirmity, and brought back again by Art and skill, and yet in the midst of his joy to be strangely cast back into the former languishment; Let not the sound judge another's servant, but let the sick party judge himself, that either he returned to the vomit of his former sins, which he did abandon upon fear of death, or promised restitution of something got by fraud, which afterwards he would not perform; or forgave his enemies at the point of extremity, and being restored renewed his old grudge: or forgot his Vows which he had made: or flubbered over the benefit which God had done for him with careless ingratitude. Certainly some offence did intervene, that when the bitterness of death did seem to be past, the Lord should cause his very recovery to be his ruin. For there is nothing more dangerous than deliverance out of danger, if we do not use our fortune reverently, and stand in awe of God even in the midst of his mercies.  
And this is more conspicuous in the soul than in the body. God's grace leads a penitent man along by the hand in the narrow way of righteousness, but if he begin to think that he can go alone without a supporter, when he thinks he hath one foot in heaven, he shall be thrown down to hell, or, as our Saviour speaks, the latter end of that man shall be worse than the first. How many have revolted from the true Faith, through the deceivable wit of seducers, even upon the last bed of their sickness? How many have repulsed Satan's tentations oftentimes, and have yielded, as you would say, at the last time of ask? As Samson denied Delilah sundry times, but betrayed his life into her hands at the last onset and importunity. What a courage had Peter against the whole band of the Priests servants? And how much discouraged at the voice of a silly Damosel, and made to forswear his Master? This was in extremo actu deficere, to be far from Sodom, and almost at Zoar, and yet to fall back from God when we are within sight, and almost within touch of the Crown of life, this is that turpitude which is most ignominious to our Christian Warfare. With shame enough shall backsliders hear that reproach from God, You did run well, who did hinder you? You were almost at the top of my holy hill, why did your feet slip? Why did you look back to Sodom? Wherefore, my Beloved, when your conscience tells you, that hitherto your heart hath been right with the Lord, you have played your part well to the last act, why then be most solicitous that you be not defective in the end, and lose your reward, and the fruit of all your labour that went before. But pray with David, Forsake me not, O Lord, in mine old age when I am gray-headed. Let me not forget thee, as Lot's Wife did, when I am almost at Zoar, and then the Lord will say, Even to your old age, even to your hoary hairs will I carry you, Isa. xlvi. 4.  
So much be spoken of the punishment of Lot's Wife, as in reference to a Carcase, now I proceed to speak of it in reference to that into which she was turned, as to the Sepulchre. She became a Pillar of Salt. Exemplum sine exemplo, that is the first thing I collect out of it, it is new and singular, without any thing to match it. The justice of the Lord may say upon this in the words of the Prophet Isaiah, Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old, behold I will do a new thing, Isa. xliii. 19 To kill a Transgressor with such a death as never any died before must needs be remarkable. Moses bid the Israelites mark it in Core, Dathan, and the rest of that Rebellion, that they had incurred a great displeasure, Num. xuj. 29. If these men die the common death of all men, if they be visited after the visitation of all men, than the Lord hath not sent me; but if the Lord make a new thing, etc. then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord. Sceleratius commissum est quod est gravius vindicatum, says St. Austin. Great impiety went before when it was revenged with such great severity: But that is not all; for surely there is a kind of singularity in the sin, where there is such a singularity in the judgement, as to slay the Delinquent in that manner as was unheard of to all former Generations. You will say, there was nothing new and singular in this woman's sin; disobedience, unthankfulness infidelity, relapsing, these are common cases, vulgar faults committed a thousand times over. I grant it, but do you ever read, that God was so soon forgotten by any one, while the memory of so great a deliverance was fresh and warm, and while an Angel of the Lord was present, and before her eyes to awe her and instruct her? Never did any sinner so wilfully cast their life away, and therefore never was any humane creature so strangely congealed into a lump of Salt. Core and his band of Rebels were swallowed quick into the lowest Pit; Ne terram contaminarent sepulchro, says St. Ambrose, that the interring of such odious corpses might not defile the earth; and since that time many others have been so devoured by the open jaws of the ground in an Earthquake. But the Grave did never admit the dead body of the sinner, there it was left between heaven and earth, never the like done before or since, because she wavoured and doubted whether she should still look up to heaven, or look back to that portion of earth from whence she was escaped. It was a Statute of grace and mercy, that the body of a Malefactor put to death should be buried soon after his execution. The Gibeonites indeed when the Sons of Saul were delivered up to them, did use them after their heathenish manner, and let them remain for a public spectacle many months after they were hanged on a tree; but God was more pitiful, as it is Deut. xxi. 23. If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and be put to death, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, thou shalt in any wise bury him that day, that the Land be not defiled. The monument of God's curse was not to remain visibly in that place, but burial was to abolish the curse from appearing in the Lords Land. This is the particular instance in all the Scripture, this of Lot's Wife, where God did leave the Malefactor slain, to be seen above ground for many Ages after.  
I think I have proved it a new and unheard of punishment. For the righteous Judge hath new kind of blessings for some holy ones that were never known before; and he hath new kind of revengeful Arrows in his Quiver for his rebellious enemies, such as were never felt before. A new kind of sustenance shall be found out for Elias in the Wilderness: a new kind of remedy to cure Hezekiahs' sickness: a new way to save Ionas in the belly of a Whale: a new form of Gaol-delivery for Peter out of Herod's Prison. And as men are full of new inventions, and excogitate unheard-of Pride and Luxury, fresh ways to serve the Devil, which were never known before, so God doth fill the earth with new Plagues to correct them. Novae febrium terris incubuit cohors; strange symptoms of Fevers rage oftentimes, which put Physicians to a new study. That murrion, or Morbus vervecinus, Anno 1580. of which thousands died in Germany and Italy, was a new infliction of mortality, never wrote of by any Artist in former Ages. The Sweeting sickness, called the English sweat over all the world, was first inflicted upon England, in the Reign of Henry the Seventh. Our Histories are silent if there were any such Malady among us in former Ages. And I need not to remember you, that Columbus his return out of West India brought the first contagion of deserved loathsomeness upon Fornicators, which for reverence to your ears I will not mention. It is the singularity of our sins which is justly requited with such singularities of chastisement. It is too vulgar that every little Cross will make us fall into a bitter expostulation, An quisquam hominum est aequè miser? Was there ever the like that happened to any man? None so wrongfully defeated for want of justice, none so perfidiously betrayed by false friends, none so continually afflicted with recurrent sickness. These discontents are nought and peevish, there is none but the Son of God can justly complain, Was ever any sorrow like my sorrow? But if you be truly persuaded, that your calamities are new and unheard-of, lay it to your conscience, and examine yourself upon it, that you are made an example like Lot's Wife, because of some unparallelled and matchless disobedience.  
Yet some kind of new punishments rise out of natural causes, so did not this, for it is miraculous and supernatural to be turned into a Pillar of Salt. The Heathen have many devices in their elaborate Fictions of Men and Women metamorphosed into Plants and Stones, indeed into all kind of Creatures Celestial and Terrestrial, and surely that which provoked their busy wits was to tell some things as strange in fiction as this story in my Text is infallible truth. Nay, this narration of Lot's Wife, how she looked back to Sodom and so perished, set their inventions so much on work, that the heathen grounded a particular Fable upon it, how Orpheus had Pluto's licence to bring his Wife Eurydice out of hell, if he kept this condition, not once to look back upon her, till he had brought her safe to earth out of those shades of darkness: but he could not refrain out of fondness to cast back his eyes upon her, and so lost his longing. Blessed are they that have the spirit of understanding, for you see that the best use that the heathen made of sacred Scripture was to turn it to the worst.  
And as these Poetical heads roved at random, so I would not put it upon Philosophical Inquisition, how she became a Pillar of Salt. He that wrote of the marvellous works of God that occur in Scripture, and calls himself St. Austin, 
Lib. 3. c. 11.  bids it be observed, that there is an hidden vein of salt in every man's body, as appears by the tears in our eyes, and the rheum in our mouth; and that this salt Spring did overflow all the body in an instant, as God commanded, and turned the whole substance into its own malignity. Aben Ezra the rabbin says, that she felt part of the punishment of Sodom, for as it is Deut. xxix. 23. The whole Land is brimstone, and salt, and burning. So that the fire that came down from God upon those Cities had salt and sulphur in it, and she was scorched with those salt sulphurous flames, and made a Pillar of salt. Not incinerated, as the word is, as if a sudden flash of fire had wasted her into small corns of salt, as into ashes, for then the translation should have been not statue, but cumulus, not a Pillar, but an heap of salt: and so indeed it was translated before St. Hieroms time, but when he visited the Holy Land, and saw this Figure with his own eyes, he mended the errors of all former Copies, and translated it a Pillar of salt. Nor was it of the nature of that salt which we make by Art, and sometimes compact it into Pyramidal shapes, and other Figures, that, you know, fall away into dirt, if wet take it; but this lump, into which Lot's Wife was congealed, endured all injuries of Rain and Snow. Therefore it was that which we call Sal metallicum, the Metal of salt, which is a durable stubborn stone which kept the shape of an humane body as the Reporters say, continually licked upon by the Herds of cattle that grazed in those places to provoke their appetite by the saltish sapour, yet not at all diminished. Nunquam pluviis nec diruta ventis, says Tertullian; but that Poem of his hath such prodigious additions that I shame to rehearse them. Burchardus says, that this fatal Monument was to be seen in his days, not three hundred years past, between Engadi and the Red Sea. The Jerusalem Targum undertaken to Prophesy almost 1600 years ago, that there it was to stand until the Resurrection: And therefore I conjecture that Luther had met with none of these reports, for he says, that the Pillar of Salt, into which she was turned, was presently destroyed with the City of Sodom, and pashed to pieces with thunder. But all Geographers who have wrote upon it testify there was the very taste of salt in it, literally, it was a Pillar of salt.  
Others, that love to find more in the Scripture than there is in the Letter, say it is not so called because it was of a saltish Element, but for another respect; 1. Because it was to stand for long continuance, and a Pillar of Salt is as much as an incorruptible Pillar; so Numb. xviii. God's eternal Covenant with his people is called a Covenant of Salt, for Salt is a preservative from Corruption. 2. As Salt makes Viands taste well upon the palate, so the sight of this dreadful Monument was to put the savour of God's judgements in the thoughts of them that called it to mind, Humilibus fidelibus quoddam praestitit condimentum ut sapiant aliquid, says St. Austin. Every notable punishment that a sinner incurs in the eyes of all the world, it is salt unto the wise to make them cautious. In me quis intuens pius esto, as it was engraven upon the Monument of an Egyptian King, who went down with much sorrow to his grave, because of his Sacrilege, so look upon this pair that came out of Sodom, upon Lot and his Wife, Hic perfectè mundum deserit; illa tepide; he renounced the vain world perfectly and devoutly, and it went well with his life: She said she would renounce it, and did not persevere, and she died relapsing. Though she was foolish she may make us wise; though she were evil, yet her salt is good. Let her unsavouriness be our seasoning.  
There are yet two Points to be dispatched: The one of terror, that this was a momentaneous and a sudden death: The other of some alloy, that though it were a mortal, yet we cannot say it was a final destruction. She, that is, her body was concrete into salt in an instant; the soul, you know, could admit of no such transmutation, but it was violenced out of the flesh in the twinkling of an eye. O if she had suspected her eyes should have been closed for ever, at that turning herself about, she would not have looked back for all the world. If Ananias had imagined he should have breathed his last, while he was forging a lie to deceive the Holy Ghost, he would not have retained a denier of his possessions, but cast it all at the Apostles feet. No man would be an unrepentant sinner to day, but that he hopes for to morrow. No man can be so desperate to sin so fast, but that he thinks his Age runs away but slowly. The Devil knows there is no way to advance his Kingdom, but to set a false glass before us that we have long to live. Persuade yourselves that your days are numbered, and the strength of sin is evacuated. I never heard of more constancy in any man of this kind than Thuanus records to have been in a Landgrave of Hessen within these forty two years, 
Gulielmus obit. 1593.  for the space of ten years and more before he departed, he composed himself to die every night with all the solemnity of taking of leave of Children, Friends, and Family, confessing where he had offended that day, and ask pardon of his worst inferiors; and so he left very little room for any sin to enter, because he prepared himself to give place unto death, and to admit it every moment. Beloved, against death we cannot fortify ourselves, against the suddenness of death we may: and yet our labour is to put off death, and to live always, which is impossible; and nothing is less studied than to mitigate the mischief which may come by sudden death, and that is possible and necessary.  
But I will not close my Text in a disconsolate key. She became a Pillar of salt, that is, her body became a hard rock, and her breath was stopped before she could cry Ah Lord God, or ah be merciful. Surely death in the very act of sin is most terrible, especially put this unto it, that it was no common Visitation. But from hence shall we leave her among those that went down into the nethermost pit? God's gentleness and mercy will not let me say so; Christ prevented such censures, when he gave us some comfort of their salvation on whom the Tower of Siloam fell suddenly. How the soul may commend itself to the compassion of God, in the very moment of egress and out passage, it is within the hope of our charity, though above the definition of our judgement. And thus I would rise up into pious credulity of their salvation, for our Church hath a pious credulity at their burial: As the longer proportion of afflictions usually falls upon them that can more patiently suffer them; and God lays his burden upon them that can best bear it; so let our charity infer, that he makes the bed of their sickness be long and tedious that had need of large repentance, and takes them away suddenly that are best prepared.  

Levit. 10.2.  St. Austin fills up this very doctrine with the instance of Lot's Wife, Magis est hoc exemplum eruditio nobis, quam condemnatio ipsius; this Pillar of salt stood there rather for our instruction than for our condemnation. And God doth often chastise his own in the flesh, as well with sudden as with lingering correction, to save the soul from the wrath to come. Filii Aaronis castigati sunt non damnati, says Gregory; Nadab and Abihu were chastised, and suddenly slain for offering strange fire, but not damned. So the old Prophet, that was rend by the Lion for his disobedience, lived and died an holy man in all the reputation of Israel. Luther pleads thus for Lot's Wife, that in the general course of her life she was faithful and holy, left Vr of the Chaldaeans to come away with Abraham from that sink of Idolatry, and with Lot her Husband, Gen. xii. 5. and she stuck close to her Husband in this Exile out of Sodom. Therefore it is to be credited that her former faith did not leave her, though her soul had but a short moment to call for mercy. I wonder the Jesuits should extenuate her sin to be but venial, 
1 Ki. 13.24.  and yet make her a castaway. For Lorinus says he would grant she was saved, but that all their Authors were against him, Lenior placet sententia quamvis Patronum non reperiam. Nay, I think the best of her in charity, not by lessening her sin, but by extolling God's mercy. Some of the Rabbis make a toy of it, that she became a Pillar of Salt, because she would not set Salt before the Angels, whom she had received the night before in hospitality. The Hebrews will write sometimes as if they were wiser than men, sometimes scribble as if they were foolisher than children. The fault was a vast one, she cast away that which the Lord would have saved, in regard of herself desperately, of the Angel contumeliously, of her Husband and Daughters scandalously, of God and his favours unthankfully, yet her last gasp might be illuminated by the Spirit to commend her soul into the hands of her gracious Father. To which Father, and the Holy Spirit, together with Jesus Christ be all glory and honour. AMEN.   

A SERMON Preached at WHITEHALL.  NUMB. xxi. 7. 
Pray unto the Lord that he take away the Serpents from us.  
I Preach of a People that traveled forty years in a Wilderness, wherein there was neither pleasure nor plenty, that came in the end to the Land of rest. I preach to a People that are willing, according to the boundaries of our Church, to number forty days of Abstinence to be spent without plenty or pleasure, to keep them in breath for true repentance, that they may find rest for their Souls. The People of whom I preach, when they were in one of their last journeys at Salmonah, I am sure in the last year of their travail, were stopped by fiery Serpents, before they got into the Land of Promise. And you, to whom I preach, are brought into the Land of the Living, by the conduct of Joshuah, the Servant of the Lord. And though we are come out of a Wilderness, and are within the borders of our Canaan, God be praised, yet we cannot be quiet for Serpents. Which puts this word into my mouth to day; to avert the malice of the ungodly, Pray, etc.  
The way wherein I mean to handle the Text is in two parts, a Punishment for sin, and a Repentance for sin. The sin of the Nation must be considered in both, and before both. And that was murmuring, as you may read it in two verses before. Indeed it hath that name and another, 1 Cor. x. 9, 1●. Let us not tempt Christ as some of them tempted, and were destroyed of Serpents; neither murmur as some of them murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Yet the stubbornness, and the very backbone of their sin is murmuring. That was their guilt, and the same is ours: and the worse in us, because we offend under the grace of a better Covenant.  
The punishment of the sin of the murmuring Israelites was annoyance by true and real Serpents; strictly, and in the letter they were no other. On our part nothing toucheth us of that nature, but we are plagued with Serpents that are far worse, as will appear in their ranks and conditions hereafter to be unfolded.  
The repentance for their sin is seen two ways: First that they fly to the remedy of Prayer. For the Soul which God did breath into Man cannot shake off this principle, that all succour comes from above, for which it must breathe out itself too God. Secondly, that they fly to that Prayer which comes out of the mouth of Moses. That Moses with whom their whole Host was just before offended, he is so generally in their good opinion (thank the Serpents for it) that he must now be their rescue and Advocate, and none but he make their peace with God. Thou Moses pray unto the Lord, that he take away the Serpents from us.  
Now you see what you are to look for out of the Text, and in what order: and that before I come to the Punishment I must look out a sin: for affliction riseth not out of the dust, neither doth trouble come out of the ground, Job. vi. 5. God's hand sends them, and Man's sin brings them. And this was brought on by repining at God's mercy, and quarrelling at Moses his Minister. Their tongues run as if they had drunk deep of Viper wine: so the Lord sent Serpents among them. They that serve God for temporal things, and are too eager to get them, cannot choose but fall into the tentation of murmuring. Such was this People, not one Tribe better than another, that grumbled upon the lightest thing that crossed them, that it was not God that brought them out of Egypt, but a trick of Moses to be a King over them. But being now more impatient than ever, they insist upon two things, as ver. 4. that the soul of the People was much discouraged because of the way. And why so? they were not turned aside from the Land of Promise: the Journey had been long, but the fourtieth year was even spent, the worst was passed, and six months would give them possession. They could not complain of weariness; their feet never swelled, Deut. viij. 4. Only they were foundered in their patience, and would not stay a little while till the time was come which God had appointed. Which is the fountain of all discontent not to stay God's leisure, and to complain of his Providence, as if he had broke his day. Such will fall into a passion as if they wanted ease, and that the ground was not soft enough under their feet, though the way should lead them to the Kingdom of Heaven. But a true faith expects God's leisure from day to day, will neither faint nor fret that his suit hangs long in the Court of Requests. Many sores will never be well healed unless they be long dressing; and many deliverances will never be throughly perfect, unless they be long settling; and many mercies are like seed in the ground, and will be long growing.  
A second Instance of grudging is in the 5. verse. Our soul loatheth this light bread. Is that a fault in bread to be light? see how they commend it in dispraising it. I am sure they came lightly by it: It fell like a hoar frost about their Tents: they neither ploughed nor sowed, nor reaped; they did but stoop and gather it: they lived as easily as young birds in the nest, when the Dam puts meat into their mouths. They did not see how God did take away the curse of Adam from them, to eat bread in the sweat of their brows. Let them look to this and make use of it, that are of the best rank, that God do not lay this sin to their charge on this wise, you labour not at all, yet you want not: you have store enough, and ease enough into the bargain, yet never content. They that work hard for one day's food depend upon God, and call upon him more than they that have before hand for a year, nay sufficient for an age. Now put both the exceptions of the Israelites together, for their bones and their belly, for their journey and their bread, and you see a little painfulness was repined at as a great deal of misery, and a great benefit slighted for but a little favour.  
But was there so much evil in this sin to cause a flight of Serpents to fall upon the Camp? I believe so, and I will prove it. First there are two sins so scandalous to the Jewish Nation that Philo conceals them; nay Josephus, out of more love to his Country then fidelity in History, never remembers them; those be the worshipping of the Golden Calf, and this serpentine sin of murmuring at Salmonah. Therefore this artifice of Josephus tells you, that murmuring was one of the two sins of the first magnitude.  
Secondly it is a filthy crime to obscure great benefits under a black cloud of unthankfulness. They murmured at Moses, whom no praises could sufficiently extol for his rare deservings. He brought them out of Egypt, and made them all free men that were slaves. What recompense could they make him for their liberty? They were beholding to him for one thing more, which was greater than all the rest, to uphold them in true Religion, and the right Worship of God: so that it was said of them, and of no other Nation in the Earth, Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, Deut. xii. 2. In all things he ruled them with a faithful hand; yet they were ever at this key, O that it were otherwise, that it were better thus and thus: which were no better than Nebuchadonosor's Dreams, he knew not himself what he had dreamt of when he was awake. The use of it from their error is, that we should sit down, and count how many blessings we have received, and be thankful, rather than fret at a few imaginary inconveniences, which I can puff away with a little breath as easily as a downy blow-ball. O all ye works of the Lord which he hath wrought in England in less than two years, praise him and magnify him for ever. We have cause to frame a ditty balsamed all over with a perfume of thanksgiving for all things that God hath done for us from the centre of the Earth to the top of Heaven.  
Thirdly, God hath laid a great burden upon the shoulders of the Ruler, to provide for the safety of so many millions: and what reward hath he in this World but acceptance and encouragement from his Liege's? This was the comfort of David, 2 Sam. three 36. Whatsoever the King did pleased the People. But if so much merit meet with frowardness, then says Moses, I cannot bear your cumbrance, burden, and strife, Deut. i 12. And if they weary the good spirit of Moses, doubtless they shall receive the recompense of their own bitter spirit. Nay if the Ruler be not the better for your good word, let him not be the worse for your undutiful language. A reasonable thing as can be asked. If you will not honour him, do not murmur at him; that's the least that can be required, and too little in conscience. But we must get what we can from bad debtors. To be short in this point: if you speak evil of that which you are bound to praise: if you fall foul on the ways of God, because you will not wait his leisure, if you pick quarrels at good things, for which you are bound to give thanks, I appeal not, as I might, to man's judgement, to dry up the filth that runs from faction with the sponge of the Laws. I refer them to God, and to the Host of his venomous creatures, which he will send to correct their poisonous tongues. The sin is like to nothing more than an Asp or Viper: no serpent so much a serpent as a murmuring spirit; therefore such a punishment was a fit cover to clap upon such a sin. The Lord sent serpents among them.  
A Judgement 1. vile; 2. painful; 3. strong; 4. incurable. First a vile one; to die serpent-bitten was inglorious to the warlike stomach of that People: their sword could not help them: and if they kept not in their Tents like Prisoners, one of these Sergeants of God would shoot through the air and clap upon them. Let no man say a woman slew me, says Abimelech, Judge ix. 54. Let not the uncircumcised thrust me through, says Saul, 1 Sam. xxxi. 4. But this was far below them both, and most opprobrious to humane nature. For as the Devil could not choose a viler creature wherein to tempt us, so there is not a meaner on earth to chastise us. They might be, for aught we know, created on purpose for this office of wrath, as the Frogs and Locusts in Egypt; or gathered from all quarters to fall thick upon their Camp, as Quails were brought from all places to feed them: there might be store of them in the Wilderness before now, but never stirred up till now to do execution. I define it not; but which way soever they came they were never a whit the better. It is a reproach upon man, who had the dominion of the Creatures, and saw them all put under his feet, that every paltry worm is able to turn against him, and bring him to the dust. Marvel not that Wolves and other stout Beasts of the Forest have beaten men quite out of their Country in some Stories. A Town in Greece is well known upon record, where Bats resorted in such number, that young and old fled away, and left their Habitation desolate. God can go lower, and do as much by Flies as by Lions. The Canker-worm and the Caterpillar, my great Army, will I send among them, Joel two. 25. This is the very threatening of Isa. xlvii. 3. Thy shame shall be seen, and I will take vengeance, and not meet thee as a man. But how then? even in the form of mean and despicable creatures to plague thee.  
But the meanness of the instrument was no lessening of the pain, their sting inflamed the Israelites as if they had been in a furnace; Calidâque incendit viscera tabe, while their flesh roasted, and fell away by piece-meal from their bones. Naturalists and Poets fill it up with much more horror, which I leave to the Sons of Art to consider, and will not amplify it. One Epithet includes it all, Deut. viij. 15. God led thee through the Wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents. Praejudicium ante diem judicii, a representment of the fire of Hell, wherein the worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched. I like them that observe that the brazen Serpent, that was erected for their cure in the next verse is called a fiery Serpent, because there was a fire of coals burning in it continually, to strike a terror into all that saw it, before it healed them, as if the fire of Hell were annexed to the grace of healing that came from Heaven. The Sword of justice was put into the Scabbard of mercy, and they were never asunder, They had need have had bodies of brass that did endure it. Extreme diseases must have extreme remedies. Some pains were no more than as a pricking Briar to the House of Israel, and a grieving Thorn, Ezek. xxviii. 24. but the biting of the Dipsas or Causon is so violent, that it makes the illaffected some with madness; a judgement correspondent to the sin, to make coals of vengeance scald the tongue of the murmurer. Pigeons may be applied to the languishing of a common Fever, but I have known hot Brickbats laid to the feet of a sore Calenture. So this People suffered outrageously, that they might pray more penitently, for in the way of thy Judgements have we waited for thee. 
Isa. 26.8.   
Thirdly, it was exemplum sine exemplo: no Age before or since did ever know the like, as the Prophet says Isa. xliii. 19 Remember not the former things, neither consider the things of old: behold I will do a new thing; to kill a transgressor with such a death, as never any before, Moses bade it be noted in Core and the Rebels, Numb. xuj. 19 If these men be visited with the common visitation of all men, the Lord hath not sent me; but if the Lord make a new thing, than ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord. So here must be a singularity of sin, because of the singularity of the judgement. The lesson upon it is, that God hath new blessings in store for some holy ones, that were never known before; and new judgements for his enemies that were never felt before. A new way of nourishment found out for Elias in the Wilderness; a new remedy to cure Hezekiah; a new way to save Daniel in the Den of Lions; a new way of Gaol-delivery to fetch Peter out of Herod's Prison. And as we are full of inventions, and hit of fresh ways to serve the Devil, such as were never heard before; so God will fill the earth with new Plagues to correct them. Nova febrium terris incubuit cohors. Strange symptoms of diseases break out, to put Physicians to a new study. That Murrain or Morbus vervecinus, of which thousands died in Germany and Italy anno 1580. was a mortality never heard of in the works of any Artist to that year. The Sweeting sickness, called the English Sweat over all the World, broke out no sooner than the Reign of Henry the Seventh. Chronicles are silent of such a grief in nature before. I need not remember you that Columbus his return out of America brought the first contagion of deserved loathsomeness upon fornicators, which for reverence to this place I will not name. What say our Leeches to the rotting of horses three years together in Stables and Pastures? nothing? but observant Christians note, that it began upon the jades that were stabled in the goodly Cathedral Church of St. Paul (I hope it will be goodly again.) That barbarous profaneness, whose like was not seen before, was avenged upon no other cattle in the field, but only on that species that was kept at rack and manger in the House of the Lord. The end is this, when a Plague is new, unheard of, like this of the Serpents, lay it to conscience, that it falls upon some new and matchless disobedience.  
The fourth Plague, and the worst of all is yet behind, that it was incurable, which I do not press from Dioscorides, an old Writer upon the poison of serpents, or Aldrovandus one of the latter, that the teeth of the Prester and Causon, the venomous brood of hot Countries, make an irrecoverable wound (yet they deserve credit as skilful men.) The Constat is from holy Scripture, that the Patients saw the malady was helpless, unless help came by the Prayer of Moses. Else such a rugged natured People would not have been brought to that humility and submission, as St. Chrysostom said they were, that the People fell down on their faces before Moses, and Moses fell on his face before God. And then God referred it to nothing but a miracle, to lift up a brazen Serpent, most likely on the top of the Tabernacle, then look upon it and be healed. Which was Christ in a figure, Joh. iii 14. The Son of man was lifted up on the Cross, and we poor sinners by faith are lifted up in that Machine, and craned up as it were in the Cross of Christ to Heaven. This is proved home, that the wound of the murmurers was incurable: not a salve for it in all the cunning of man. O Israel thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help, saith the Lord, Hos. xiii. 9 If God had never touched them with a Serpent, should he have got any thanks for his protection? I trow none; for affliction unfelt is unregarded. When we miss the Disease, we miss not the Physician. By the sense of the wound they came to know the benefit of a cure. Had it been but the prick of a wasp, skin deep at the most, why lightly felt had been lightly regarded. Or if Moses had dressed them by some Art and Chirurgery, which he had learned in Egypt, the work of nature, not the God of nature had been magnified. It was otherwise in part, and in all. A bitter misery was among them, and invincible, all the comfort of art and man were frustrate, than God riseth up in his greatness, goodness, and Majesty, expels the wonder of a vengeance by a wonder of healing, removes the punishment of the body by a blessing of salvation, and drives away the Serpents by Christ.  
I have now spoken enough to the Sin of Israel, which was Murmuring; and to the Punishment of their Sin by Serpents. That was their grief, and not ours. Now by way of application, I must tell you of those Serpents, which we must pray unto the Lord to take away from ourselves. And those are three, the Serpent Satan, the Serpent Sin, and the Serpent Man, when he changeth himself from manhood into such a beast. The first that may justly be called a Serpent is Satan. For it is all one to say the Serpent beguiled Eve, and Satan beguiled her. 'Tis frequent to involve the principal cause in the name of the instrument. The Devil indeed is not so much as named Gen. iii but necessarily to be understood. Though his name lie in silence, his effects bewray him; for none else is left to father the wickedness. God can tempt none to sin: the good Angels wish us good and no harm: there were none of humane generation on earth but Adam and Eve themselves; brutish creatures could not contrive it. None is left to own it but the Serpent called the Devil and Satan, who deceiveth the World, Revel. xii. 9 Therefore God did not say to the creeping worm, why hast thou done this? as he charged our first Parents, for that Creature did not do it. As the words which a man says that is possessed are not his own, but the spirits that is entered into him: so the evil that is attributed to the Snake was not his doing, but the Devil's that managed it.  
Take warning therefore of the malice of that evil Fiend, who never forgave himself that injury, but seeks continually whom he may devour. Be watchful of him; for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the Rulers of the darkness of this World, Eph. vi. 11. He makes out matter of tentation by the words that often fall from our mouth, notes our usances, searcheth into all our inclinations: there is no passion, nor frailty wherein we lie open to assault, but he knows it. As David was more afraid of the counsel of Ahitophel, than of all the Host of Rebels that followed Absolom: so all that the wicked world can muster together is not so dangerous as the methods of Satan. Fast, as you are able; pray that God would bruise him under your feet. So did Paul three times, when the Messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him. Paul had much grace, grace that was sufficient for prayer. Holiness becometh the House of Prayer, and holiness becometh the mouth of Prayer. What have they to do with Prayer that have no fellowship with holy Practice? To come before God with a lapful of sins, and a mouthful of prayers is a motley Sacrifice. And in Fasting and Prayer watch your wand'ring heart, that the Devil steal it not away with idle fancies (when you pray against him) which will flutter in your mind, like motes in the Sun. But challenge him of Sacrilege, that he hath robbed you of your devotion: follow him with hue and cry, and he will fly away from you. Let there be any thing that we are more eagerly set upon to obtain than all the rest, we will never start aside, never run out of the circle, when we come to that Petition. And this Petition is as useful as any, That the Lord would take away the old Serpent from us.  
If Satan be a Serpent, so is sin. Partus sequitur ventrem; such as the Dam is, such is the Issue. Then secondly pray unto God against Serpent sin. The mortifying of it is called crushing a Cockatrice in the egg, and Solomon says of drunkenness, it bites like a Serpent, and stings like an Adder, Prov. xxiii. 32. To begin with original sin, 'tis fitly called by Tertullian, Plaga antiqui serpentis, the biting of the old Serpent. And many good Author's delight themselves for good cause, to note it on the accident that I preach of, that the people in the Wilderness did pray, that the Lord would take away the Serpents from them; yet he did not; and for all that their Prayer sped well: For God gave means to as many as were stung, to be healed by looking on a Serpent that was lifted up. So we are all wounded with a loathsome disease from our Mother's womb, and remain wounded. Baptism and Prayer make the wound less, howsoever still it is a wound: but God hath provided how to cure the guilt of it by intuition of faith, looking on Christ, who bore our sins upon his Cross. And as the living Serpents were charmed by the dead one, that they had no power to kill; so sin that lives in us is weakened that it shall not condemn, by the Son of God that died to save us. And as this sin is one by likeness in us all, so one Saviour crucified for the sins of the World, is sufficient to help us all. The Israelites had not distinct Serpents erected after the number of their Tribes, much less many more according to the number of their Families; but one Serpent lifted up, and but one Mediator between God and Man. Aim by that level, and you hit the mark. The hope of remedy is founded in unity. Our Gods are not plural: our Redeemers are not many: they that have divers Saviour's have never a Saviour. They that have tutelary Saints for every day, for every disease; Patron Martyrs for every Kingdom, almost for every Parish, have a serpentine swarm of superstition. But as our wound is one in all, so one Jesus is rich in mercy unto all.  
Likewise a serpentine corruption is notorious in all our actual and wilful sins. For the biting of a poisonous worm is not only perilous to that part of the flesh in which it fixeth its tooth, but every drop of blood draws in the malignity of that which was next unto it, till there be no sound part remaining. So one member of the body being tainted with the venom of sin traduceth corruption to another. If the ear be tickled with filthy talk, the loins will be unchaste; if the eye be wanton it will run into the heart. Observe it by another propagation; when you commit one sin you are at the brink of another: the second offence makes the way smooth and slippery for a third. Any transgression not presently physicked with the antidote of repentance, will fetch in so many, that they will sink you into the bottomless pit. Yet there is another serpentine dispreading in the works of the flesh. One sinner is an hundred sinners in the catching infection of his leprosy; one Absolom is an Host of Rebels; one Ringleader a shoal of Schismatics; one Jeroboam a Kingdom full of Idolaters; one incestuous Corinthian a leaven that will leaven the whole lump. Therefore stand far off as you can from profaneness, it hath a multiplying mischief in it: there's an infectious exhalation transpassant from man to man, because sin is the biting of a Serpent.  
O look up often to Christ, and pray unto him to take away these Serpents from us, our sins of daily incursion. When your spirit is heavy, and cast down with despair, prayer will make it rebound from earth to heaven. It is the energetical expression of faith, the Ambassador which hope sends up to God, the fellowship of love, the comfort of the Holy Ghost. This may soon be done if we have a mind to it: It is as easy to say Our Father which art in heaven, as to see heaven, which is always in our sight. If your Place and Calling take up much of your time, let your Prayer be compendious, well filled with matter, an holy breathing; speak home, and be strong in sense. 
Psal. 10.17.  But beware of high looks, and high words: Lord thou dost hear the desire of the humble, and dost prepare their heart. And beware of stiff joints. Put yourself back in great distance from the Lord, that you may the better behold him in his excellent greatness. Then the Serpent sin shall be taken from us.  
The last point to be dispatched is about Serpent men. There are such, for our Saviour says of the Pharisees, Ye Serpents, ye generation of Vipers! how can ye escape the damnation of Hell? Matth. xxiii. 33. The Heathen are mere men; men of this World, says the Psalm. Good Christians are more than men, Saints of God: Bad Christians are not so good as men, and have no wrong done them to be compared to beasts. Of such as I shall speak of in reference to the feeling of our own condition, I will tell you of their number that they are many; of their continuance for length of time; and of their qualities, that they are crooked, hissing, subtle, and venomous vermin. Of these in as many strictures.  
Take away the Serpents, a multitude, a plurality of them, so my Text imports. And so are ours: though more to be endured, yet not so many, I hope, as to be feared, since great wisdom watcheth them. I need not tell you, you know it, that they contrived themselves into seven interests. If we were as confident Revelationers as they, we should find the Beast with seven heads among them, Revel. xiii. But those heads grew all upon one neck; so do not these. For not one of them hath an interest in the same Principles of Religion with the other. The grave Precedent of sedition, that would not be seen among the rest, can concur for mischiefs sake with those fanatics that will never be subject to his Classical Consistories. O when shall we see a Bed of Roses grow so close together, as Briars and Brambles, black and white Thorn will twine into one Hedge? The Spawn of seven Serpents, all of different species, can coagulate into one Roe. Satan can melt his Heterogeneal Metals, and make them all run into one Furnace. Every language that understands not the rest can help to build an internal Babel. But our help is in him, who sends us health from the seven Spirits that are before the Throne of the Lamb.  
Secondly, a Serpent is slender, but long. And a long Council of Serpents held us many years in oppression. Many fetches the old Dragon had to keep it together. When it was cut in pieces, some of the pieces, according to the vulgar error, came together again, and brought the Servants of God and the King to scrape for Pearls of patience out of so great a Dunghill of misery. Perhaps I had passed by this note of the length, but that Pliny speaks of a great Serpent taken at the River Bagrada, near to Old Carthage of 120 foot long, whose body being consumed the skin was sent to Rome: and what became of it there? why, it was hung up in the Capitol, in their House of Parliament; and hung up there so long as stuff could endure. Note here a Serpent, the longest that ever was heard of; the skin remaining when the body was mortified, and hung up in the Senate-house. Any body may expound this Riddle without an application.  
Thirdly, we speak of a crooked creature, Leviathan the crooked Serpent, Isa. xxvii. 1. So are they that are devilish, crooked and perverse, Phil. two. 15. How hard is it to find their tract, when they wriggle this way and that way, in no direct line? A right line is the shortest passage from point to point: there you shall find sound Doctrine, oblique deflections, whether it be in Confession of Faith, Form of Prayers, or Discipline, have as many shapes as the Moon. One while a few Ceremonies shall be allowed, and anon none at all: sometimes they are stuck at but for inconvenient, the next news that comes they are unlawful: with the next tide we hear they are only unexpedient for the scandal sake of weak people. At one hearing, the Old Liturgy castigated will give content: shortly nothing will serve but a new lump of Prayer, which hath no congruity with any that ever was before: in a while they will brook no set Form at all. How many degrees hath the shadow run back upon their Dial? 'Tis like a motion in the Chessboard, sometimes into a black chequer, sometimes into a white; but it is all one, so they may check the King, or move the Bishop. How crooked are these Serpents and untraceable in their paths? they can take any figure upon them; be as square as a tile of the Pavement, be as round as a hoop; play at all weapons after the variety of the times. As the Friar abused that of the Psalm, Thy truth most mighty God is on every side. 
Psal. 89.9.  This is able to pose the most prudent to make a clear observation upon it. It was beyond Solomon's wisdom, Prov. xxx. 19 four things are too hard for me to know: the one is, the way of a Serpent upon a rock: for it is his own rule, 
Eccle. 1.15.  that which is crooked cannot be made right: or after the Proverb, a crooked cucumber will never become straight. It is only Prayer that can bring such things to be even, and perpendicular. But Lord take away the crooked Serpents from us.  
And fourthly, the hissing also; the Rattle-snakes of one of our new Plantations, their rail and invectives, under the tone of whinings and lamentations. This kind are Pulpit Serpents. O impious! for none but the Brazen Serpent should be set up in that place, the Prince of peace and healing. The Doctrine of the whole Clan is for anger and commotion. Peragunt civilia bella cerastae, as I may fitly say with Cato in the Poet; When the Civil Wars were done, the Asps and Adders begun a new Battle. The hissing and the consequence are as pernicious as that of the false Prophets, Mich. iii 5. They make my people to err, and bite with their teeth. But it is a people bred in dark informations, else such palpably needless exceptions as they hear would hiss at themselves. But what charge can be worse? (and yet a true one) that their very Prayers not seldom are Serpents, and of the hissing Dialect, exposing those they pray for to the ill opinion of their Auditors: And when they speak to God, they traduce man. Is this to lift up holy hands without wrath? 1 Tim. two. 8. Would not such hissing throats be silenced? Not so, will their well-willers say; for they are diligent, and profitable in their Ministry. But what is the Church the better? nay, is it not the worse, if Satan stamps his figure upon the finest metal? and to say a man hath all the Ornaments of a Preacher, but a peaceable spirit is like the praise that Tacitus gives to Poppaea Sabina, That she had all the Ornaments of a brave Lady, but an honest mind, Praeter honestum animum. Perhaps my Doctrine will not scape hissing for this point, but this is plain dealing, and the Serpent is subtle.  
That's the fifth note, The Devil is a beguiler, and the Master of the School, he hath entailed a cunning craftiness to the mystery of iniquity. Then why should not mischievous plotting be as hateful to us as a Basilisk, as odious as Satan? Woe be to those who have their sharpness of wit from no better Prompter, that have no measure in their dissimulation, no trust in their word, no fidelity in their oath, no distinction of causes or persons whom they ruin. I do not altogether blame the Turks if it be true, that they repute natural fools to be Saints; I am sure they are Saints in comparison of such cunning Gipsies. But a good Christian is a compound out of the better part of two qualities, Rom. xuj. 19 Wise to that which is good, and simple concerning evil. This is right, inoffensiveness tempered with intelligence, the simplicity of the Dove mitigating the wiliness of the Serpent. To say all in a little: Foul actions are supported by forgery and stratagems, virtue by sage knowledge: the City of Satan is for malevolence, the City of God for providence: the one is a Machiavelli, the other a Solomon.  
Subtlety is the web and snare of the Spider, but his substance is poison, so is the Serpents. Take it either with David, Adder's poison is under their lips, Psal. clx. 3. Or with St. Paul, That their word eats as doth a canker. The venom of pernicious Doctrine is the most fatal cup of death. The worst fraud is to poison the conscience with a deadly drink. For of all pestilent contagions the worst is that which infects the spirits. The greatest trust between man and man is the trust of giving counsel: then what can be more scandalous than to be unfaithful in a trust of the greatest concernment. It is not making over a cracked title in the sale of Lands, nor turning over light and adulterate money in payment, nor thrusting bad wares into the hand of a Chapman. Those are shuffling dishonest tricks. But in the other, the ignorant committed his soul unto thee, and thou didst betray it. He gave thee the custody of his strongest Fort to keep for him, and thou betrayd'st it to the power of the enemy. Christ came into the World to seek and to save that which was lost, and the empoisoner hath done his part to lose that Soul which Christ would have saved. He laid a stumbling block before a Disciple, who should have been eyes to the blind. And cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way, Deut. xxvii. 18.  
Now the conclusion of all is, to pray that the Serpent Man may be taken away from us; thereby the Canker-worm that spoileth flieth away, Nahum. iii 15. We are assured that Moses prays for all his Israel. And it is the office of him or them that have great interest in God to bless others with their prayers. All must do their part, all are concerned. The greater Saints may prevail with God one by one; others had need to meet by hundreds and thousands in great Congregations; that every single man's prayer may be a drop in a shower. Keep set and appointed times for that purpose, for to pray only when you are at leisure is to give God the worst of the day, your spare and idle time. Pray with the Church, which will teach you words that will meet with all your necessities. Be not in love with your own conceits. Make not a Form for Moses, and as if without that you would leave the Communion of Saints. And let the People join together with the Priest in sweet returns and answers, to fill up the work with a Choir of voices. If any one would refer all to the lip of one single mouth, and says there is no benefit to interpose the suffrages of the Congregation, he is he, and I am I, shall he persuade me that his is best, when I feel the contrary in my own heart? Do not others know better than he what they are sensible of in the motions of their own spirit? But the season of Lent calls for Fasting to be joined with Prayer. And St. Ambrose says lib. 6. Hexam. c. 4. that if a Serpent suck up the fasting spittle of a man, it is mortal to it. Finally pray, and look up to Christ the brazen Serpent. Lift up your Prayer on high, higher than Satan the Prince of the Air. Get the upper ground of him; it is a good advantage against an Enemy. Maxim. Taurin. says of Simon Magus (let the Story be of what credit you please) that having made himself as it were sails to hover in the air, St. Peter ascended higher with his Prayers, and threw him headlong down. Ante pervenit justa petitio quam iniqua praesumptio. So dart your Prayers out of strong zeal to enter into Heaven, and say, From all the Serpents of this evil Age, from all Sedition and privy Conspiracy, from all false Doctrine and Heresy, good Lord deliver us. AMEN.   

A SERMON UPON JOSHUAH xxii. 26. 
And that man perished not alone in his iniquity.   
AND that man was Achan the Son of Zera that did commit a Trespass in stealing the accursed Spoils of Jericho. I hope you make not dainty of the Story, it is famous in the seventh of Joshuah. How easily we have found him out! All Israel on a time were quite to seek, and seriously enquired for such a man, Joshuah. rend his clothes and lamented to know his name, and now if we read the first line of this verse he is discovered. Though his iniquity was as close as Hell, though he durst trust nothing but the dull earth with the secret of his sin, yet Babes and Children learn it now in their Pedagogy, that (iste) the man pointed at, no less unhappy in his punishment, than unjust in his crime, was Achan the Son of Zerah that perished, etc.  
Let us enter into these words not without our demurest thoughts, and holy reverence; for what place of the Church is more beautiful than the Altar? And what service of the King is so honourable as an Embassy? And which attribute of God is more noble than his justice? Now an Altar, and an Embassage appertain to the occasion of this Text, and the justice of God to the Exposition.  
There was an Altar set up by Gad, and Reuben, and half Manasseh, a great one to see to, in the tenth verse, a pattern of the Lords own Altar in the 28. which was as strange in those days when all the light of the Church moved but in one Sphere, as to see a Parelius or a second Sun in the Firmament. This new devotion of theirs kindled a jealousy in the Ten Tribes that possessed the Land of Canaan beyond the River Jordan: and after some advice to reform the Church they stumble upon these two ways: First, to pluck down the Altar; was the like done no where? Never in our Land? First, pluck down the Churches, and then reform the Religion. Next that there might be hands enough to pluck it down, all Israel meet at Shiloh to fight it out. Another strange course (I pray observe it) to try the truth, not in Moses chair, but in the field, and He should carry the day whose Sword was sharpest; and brethren would sacrifice brethren upon their own Altar for Idolatry. Yet this hath a fair show, and seems to be like the renowned justice of Timoleon, that redeemed his Brother taken captive in his Country quarrel, whom he slew soon after with his own hands for usurping tyranny.  
But to be slow to wrath is to make haste to heaven; and sometimes a soft word breaks not down Altars, but the very bones, says Solomon. St. Peter cut off but one silly servants ear with (Ecce duo gladii) but when Jesus spoke, it overturned them to the ground every man and Miscreant. So this holy Nation send Phinehas the Son of Eleazar, and Ten Princes more, the flower of the Nobility, to play the Orators before it come to bloodshed, and make this the close of the Message to leave the most moving affection behind it; that the Idolatry of two Tribes and more would envenom all the children of Israel round about, since the trespass of one man was the ruin of God knows how many. Did not Achan the Son of Zerah trespass, and wrath fell on all the Congregation of Israel, and that man perished, etc.  
Beloved, now we know the man that bears the burden of the Text: and that Altar which was blameless and innocent, one poor distinction broke up all the Army, it was an Altar of Witness, and not of Sacrifice. 
Ver. 28.  And you have seen the Embassy presenting and prevailing for Peace and true Religion. A word or two to show what is meant by (non solus) he perished not alone. There are divers stories of God's vengeance in that word built one above another, as may easily be discerned if I resolve all the Text into Achans Funerals. First, here is a grave digged, and that is iniquity. So speaks the Kingly Prophet, effodit puteum, he digged a Pit, that is, says another Prophet, he ploughed iniquity. Secondly, see the corpse of Achan, first oppressed with stones, and then consumed to ashes (for he was both stoned and burnt) the one representing a Sepulchre, and the other the dismal fire of Hell, this is that man perishing. But not alone; his Children were the sad mourners that followed their Father, and died with him both root and branches. Nor these only, but thirty six Israelites slain and offered up to the vengeance of God, inferiae Achanis, as I may term them after the heathen phrase. And give me leave to go on to make a miserable pomp, his cattle went along to be sacrificed, & bellator equus, even all he had; as if his Oxen had jogged the Ark of God, they are consumed in fire. Lastly, you are here beloved, to look on, and judge of such a spectacle, to decline the trespass, that for your part (and God grant it be so) He may perish alone in his iniquity. Lego historiam ne fiam historia.  
Where could I allege Scripture so wonderful to show the mystery of God's justice, lest we speak unadvisedly with our lips, why art thou so wrath with the sheep of thy Pasture? Non nostrum onus; our shoulders were not made to bear our Father's sins. As Lipsius embraced the reproof of Scaliger, saying, Te judice placebit paenè ipsum damnari; so we must not only kiss the Son lest he be angry, but even kiss the very anger of the Son. He was figured to be the Serpent that stung the Israelites, but it was a brazen Serpent; Serpens sine veneno, no poison, no rancour of malice in him. Judicia Dei occulta esse possunt, injusta esse non possunt, says St. Austin.  
Strike once upon this rock of justice, and I dare promise a fountain will issue out from thence of fear and reverence not to provoke the Lord by sins and trespasses; for if He threaten, shall He seem as one that mocks? Shall the Infant put his finger upon the hole of the Cockatrice? Wherefore to make this our use and fruit of hearing at this time: First, to adore the flaming Sword of justice; Secondly, to shun the stroke, the wages of ungodliness. First, that the Tombs of sinners may be Altars of God's righteousness, and then that the zeal of God may be dreadful unto man; let these be the parts of this discourse.  
First, We must put the cause foremost, the cause of all the wrath that follows, and that both general, it is iniquity, and with an instance his iniquity. Then follows the subject, not only answering to each part of the cause, man and that man, but a subject it is ex abundanti, you would think as if mischief had been kindled like piles of wildfire, for it spreads about to strangers and home-born, to the reasonable and to the dumb, nay, to the quick and dead, that man, not alone is a troop of them which were consumed. Thirdly, here is an affection brought in by the cause you wot of before into this plentiful subject, alas let us not call it an Affection, let us use no Art, it is perishing.  
The Cause, Iniquity; the Subject, Achan, but not alone; the Affection, that he perished; you see I have made a demonstration of the Text. Now let not any man make it a fallacy to deceive his own soul; doth not the cause deserve severe arraignment? Then blaspheme not as the wicked do: 
Job 33 10.  He seeketh an occasion to punish. Cruda est cicatrix criminum oletque ut antrum Tartari, says the Divine Prudentius in the subject; Did one hair of an innocent person fall to the ground? Then murmur not against God, turn thy wrath upon the sinners and the heathen which have not known his name. But is it too much to perish for all this? Was the chastisement beyond measure? Then let us say we are vexed and sore smitten, than indignation lieth hard upon us like Rehoboams Scorpions. Remember how the Heathen described justice in their Idol Jupiter, it was Aquila cum fulmine; an Eagles eye to discern a fault, a Thunderbolt to strike a Malefactor, and the way thereof is as the way of an Eagle in the air, when at the highest pitch we cannot see him: Wherefore address we attentions to hear the cause, how that man perished, etc.  
I have seen malum sub sole, says Solomon, evil under the Sun. He might well tell it for a wonder that such a difference should light together. The Sun builds up nature like a Giant, Psal. nineteen. and evil pulls it down as fast like a Monster. It was the vision of Moses at Mount Horeb, Exod. iii a flame of fire in a bramble bush; and he that will look like a Prophet, shall see there is nothing among us but Flamma splendoris divini, or spina peccati. I renounce the Manichees, I make not two main causes, good and evil: but I say, every thing shows the brightness of God's glory shining in his works, or the thorns and briers of sin in the defacing thereof; such thorns were the sinful Jebusites. 
1 Sam. 23.26.  I would the world were as free from it as the Song of Solomon, wherein the name is not once to be read lest it should breed a discord in the tunes of love.  
There must be sin, there must be heresies, but sin what art thou? Alas that every man can sooner sin than tell what it is. When we talk of it, than it grows upon us; when we forget it, it increaseth more; when we hate it, than we sin because we do not hate it as we ought; but call it in one word as St. John doth, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the breach of God's Law, and you have said enough. Me thinks Moses made the definition, when spying the trespass, the Calf they worshipped in Horeb, He cast the Tables from him, as who should say, the Law is broken.  
Only here is the difference, the Tables were cracked in few pieces perhaps, but the Law hath been ground like the Idol into powder, so that a remnant is not kept whole in man. St. Paul, Rom. iii reduceth sin into every part of us, both soul and body, as unto certain common places, or you may call it the Geography of wickedness, There is none that understandeth, thus our reason is ignorant; none that seeketh after God, our will is disobedient. If the Leaven be so bad, what hope remains in the lump? Our tongues have used deceit, and the kisses of our lips envenom like the Asp. Our feet are not lazy, but swift to shed blood. Our eyes not dim, but wanting before them the vail of reverence, There is no fear of God before our eyes. Our throat not crammed up or strangled, but wide as an open Sepulchre. Was Goliath more furnished to do evil with that tomb of brass upon his body? Was Esau more rough and hairy from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot? Or that Hermogenes, whom the Wits of Greece played upon, that the Razor knew not where to begin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for all his body was but one lock. As we bring bloody bodies into the world, Tabe polluti, & occisis magis quam natis similes, says Plutarch, so we bring a most wretched soul. That as Marius could show no honourable Pedigree for a Consulship to the Senate but thirty six wounds in his Breast, so we cannot show the glory of our immortal and heavenly created soul, her Pedigree from God by reason of the wounds which stick fast upon it. Aristotle said our soul was like a fair skin of Parchment wherein nothing was written. O that it had been so; they are rather like Ezekiel's book within and without, written with woes and lamentations; or as Plato speaks of Dionysius his soul, that it was scribbled all over with evil Characters. What an indictment may be made of this cause then when iniquity is a blemish all over, as the whole bird was dipped in blood, Leu. xiv. which was an Emblem of our pollution. No words can sufficiently describe it, but as one speaks of the Spanish Tyranny over the Indies, the best Rhetoric was to besmear a bloody leaf to express it.  
Sin in its Essence is confederate with death and punishment. It is the obedience of dumb creatures to chastise it. The Earth waxed evil in bringing forth Plants and fruits, when the choicest mould of it did fail in Adam, it would not be so fruitful for a Sinner as for an Innocent. The Prophetess Deborah knew so much Astrology that the Stars in their course fought against the Tyrant Sifera. Et navicula Petri in quâ erat Judas turbabatur (says St. Ambrose;) the Sea stormed at Peter's Ship when Judas was in it; but these are senseless scourges, and God applies them. What need I speak of Phinehas his righteous passion that killed the Princely Adulterer? If the Angels might have their will no Tares should stand in the field, they would root up every thing that had not the blade of Wheat. But these are all heavenly Soldiers, and holiness provokes them. Well, let the Devil be the judge and he delights both to accuse and punish. Put it to evil men, and they think Naboth should die for cursing God and the King. The vilest persons for the most part are the Satyrs of the time, and tax all the world like Angustus. Nay, put it to the sinner himself, put it to Cain and Judas, they find no favour, no mitigation I dare say in the Court of their own conscience, Prima est haec ultio quod se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur.  
Let me lead you on with this distinction betwixt in, and propter, to perish in iniquity, and for iniquity. Sin is not always the propter, the moving cause of God's chastisements, but sometimes the trial of an heroic faith, so it was in Job. Sometimes the confirmation of grace, so it was in St. Paul, the Messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him, that God's grace might be sufficient for him. But (in iniquitate) is certain truth, the wrath of God lights not but where transgressions have gone before. Thus the Disciples were at a loss, Joh. ix. Did this man sin that he was born blind? How was that possible in his Mother's Womb? But was the sin of his Father, or the guilt of his Mother imputed to him? The imperfect fruit of the Womb could do no evil, the offence of his Parents must not be thought his evil. Rabbi quis peccavit? Nec ille nec parents, says our Saviour; neither for his, nor his Parents sins was he born blind, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him. That was the cause; and yet a mote had not troubled the eye of this blind man but that a beam of sin had possessed it before, in his Mother's Womb, I mean by original corruption. Alas that we should be grown big enough for punishment before we are born to nature? Sabores being but a breeding at the death of his Father Vasarenes (as Agathias reports) the Soothsayers foretold that his Mother should bring forth a Male child, and he was crowned in her Womb, his honour began the soon I ever read of any; and his guiltiness of sin, and obligement to God's wrath began as soon as the soul did inform the body.  
If ever there were a Paradox in the world, which Turks and Infidels hitherto have shamed to maintain, it is the contrary to this doctrine that some iniquity is not the cause of perishing before the wrath of God. Peribit in iniquitate, it was ever good Divinity before Mariana, and some Jesuits have persuaded desperate castaways to be saved by iniquity. Saved did they say? And for working abomination? O are not the tender mercies of the wicked cruel? St. Paul comforted our Mothers in their travel, that the woman should be saved by bearing Children into the world, they teach Reprobates to purchase a Saintship, by murdering such whom the world is not worthy of? Slaughter and bloodshed says our Philosopher, Rhet. 1. lib. are not fit to make a question for discourse, because it was never disputed by some either to be lawful or tolerable. Nay in the second Eth. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, nothing can make Murder a good action, much less Treason. But this was the pity of a Philosopher, and Alexander's Courtier, not the stomach of a Jesuit, and a grand Inquisitor. If all the Saints should appear before God with the Instruments of their Piety, Moses with the two Tables, Aaron with his Rod, David with his Psaltery, Dorcas with the Garments of her Charity, would you look for a Priest among them girded with a bloody knife? Or a Villain provided with fire and Gunpowder? Who would look for it? Except as when the Sons of God stood before the Lord, Job i and Satan also was among them. Nay, heaven and earth shall pass away before Peribit in iniquitate become Apocryphal, before the Wormwood of sin become the Palm of immortality.  
Thus much for the cause in general, but what offence his iniquity did give, the sin of Achan will ask a peculiar and a larger trial. You are deceived if you think it was but Larceny, or greedy pilfering, if a Thief steal he shall restore fourfold, says the Law, or seven fold, says Solomon, when stealing grew worse and worse; that was the most of it. But God saw more pernicious faults in Achan; for his justice is not fidelis in minimo, sharpest against small offences, like the Pope's Decretals, which enjoin a Priest forty days penance if he spill one drop of the Cup of the Lords Table, and but seven days penance for Fornication. But heinous was the fact of Achan, first in scandal, that an Israelite, preserved so long in the Wilderness, one that fought the Lords Battles, and came always home with victory, that he should be the first that trespassed among the Canaanites, the heathen that would blaspheme the living God.  
Secondly, In disobedience that Joshuah his noble General made the head of all the Tribes by God's appointment, and Moses good liking, and Eleazar's Unction could not command to be obeyed.  
Thirdly, In faithless covetousness. That since Manna did fall no more from heaven about their Tents, the Lord did heed his people no longer, every man must catch what come to his hands, so Achan took the accursed, etc. Here is scandal to them that were without; within themselves contempt of the Lord and his servant Joshuah, in his own heart an inordinate desire to grow rich and sumptuous. I do not make Achans fault the greater, that God's vengeance may be more plausible, as St Austin spoke of disgrace Cacus to honour Hercules the more, Nisi nimis accusaretur Cacus parum Hercules laudaretur; but remember my scope is all one with S. Paul's Interrogatories, With whom was he grieved? And to whom did he swear in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest?  
If there be any delight in comparing sins as the Prophets use to dash the Idols of Jerusalem with the Idols of Samaria, me thinks the first transgression of the Garden of Eden, and the pleasant Land of Canaan, almost another Eden, are very semblable. Eve walking in Paradise saw the fruits, and her eye enticed her to take that which was forbidden, and then she hid herself out of God's sight. So Achan treading upon the soil of Canaan saw a Babylonish Garment, and his eye enticed him, and he took it when it was forbidden and accursed, and hid both the Garment and his sin from the sight of Joshuah.  
But those are impudent crimes like the forehead of an Harlot that leave their memory to the evil world to be the first examples of transgressions, cursed be that sin, for it festers into scandal, and unhappy shall be their end that fly from the Lord till they be left as a Beacon on the top of a Mountain, and as an Ensign on a Hill, 
Isa. 30.17.  says the Prophet Isaiah. Many offences had never been committed, or else brought forth by a worse Generation long after, unless an evil Author had made the way known and easy for our corrupt nature; therefore the first that gathered sticks, and broke the Sabbath, the Shilonites Son the first that cursed, impious Gehazi, the first that took sinful wages for the gift of God; Ananias and Saphira the first dissemblers in the Primitive Church, Achan the first Malefactor in the Land of Canaan, these had their portion suddenly, and drunk the Cup of God's fury unto the dregs thereof. I know not how fatal it is, but since the small trenches of Rome were filled with too much blood of Rhemus, anon after they were digged, massacres, and persecutions have never departed from that unlucky building.  
As the heavens are spread above us, and seem to speak like the Statue of the King of Egypt, In me quis intuens pius esto: So the ground whereon we tread sometimes quakes and seems to be too holy to be defiled. But if ever there were an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or incongruity of place to say unto sin, exiforas, this is no ground for sinners, was it not the Land of Promise? A small sin in Canaan was greater than a fornication in Egypt, a trespass in Jerusalem is worse than an Idol in Samaria. Had this deed been done in the Wilderness, or in the paths of the Red Sea, it had been more tolerable, as one speaks of Pompey's obscure death in Egypt, a thousand Leagues from Rome, Procul hoc ut in orbe remoto abscondat fortuna nefas, the offence had not been so notorious. But the Angels themselves do wonder in a field of choice Wheat, Vnde zizania? Lord whence come Tares? Will you resolve the Prophet Jeremy the same question? He makes very strange, fidelis civitas? How is the faithful City become an Harlot? To use the Lords own Sacrifice, with the Sons of Eli, for Riot and Extortion; his own Supper for drunkenness, with the bad Corinthians; to employ the soil of his own blessing as the High Priests did Aceldema to bury the accursed treasure, this is scandalous to the weak consciences which are without. What will the Heathen say? Are these the peculiar Nation whom the Lord hath chosen?  
And woe unto the World because of scandals. Mark how many Ages, how much ground our Saviour compasseth in (vaè mundo) one Age is but an hourglass of time, these will lie in our memory for ever, like the pain in the Shunamites head, caput dolet, it may be our death. Vae mundo, the pale horse wounded but the fourth part of the earth, Apoc. iv. but scandals may cover all the four Quarters like the flies of Egypt.  
O you that live in Canaan upon holy ground, on Fairy Land as we call it, whose vices the weakness of some would be proud to imitate; why will the Lord reckon not only with the Goats on his left hand, but with the Sheep of his right hand in one mighty day, since in particular the last minute of every man's life is the first minute of his trial? Why is there one day of judgement since there have been a thousand long ago both for glory and condemnation? Because though corruption have seized upon thee in the Grave, and so much of thy dust remain not as may offend a tender eye; yet thy sins may live, and he that looks upon them may conceive spots like the Flocks of Jacob. I do not excuse those tender ones that turn a sore eye more carefully from the Sun which would make it smart, than from an ill example that will cast a dark shadow upon the soul. The man in the Comedy that made Jupiter his leader to commit Fornication (says St. Austin, 
Ep. 202. ) Nullo modo peccasset si Catonem imitari maluisset quam Jovem. But yet it was a fault in you that removed not the stone as the Angel did, but cast it in the way against which he stumbled.  
It is a good Meditation that the soul of that man (let it consult with itself) will never attain to a perfect peace that made another sin. I am reconciled unto God in Jesus Christ. Could I wish any more? Yes, I shall ever be unresolved whether he be reconciled unto God by repentance whom I entangled by my occasion. David in his one sin polluted Bathsheba with his bed, Vriah with drunkenness, Joab with cruelty. David asked forgiveness, I find it in his Penitential Psalms, I never read that Vriah did so, or that Bathsheba did the like, I hope the best. I never find it where Joab did repent, I fear the worst. And could David be at peace if Joab perished. The Tyrants of Thrace think themselves never secure in their Thrones but by the destruction of their kindred and brethren: but unhappy are the Saints of God if they rob his Kingdom of any that should reign for company. And how is that done? Never worse than by that scandal which christens sin with a name, as the Sodomites, Simon Magus, the Nicolaitans, all Masters of Heresies; woe unto such as are the Parents of transgressions. Like Achan, that perished not alone in his iniquity.  
The second part of his iniquity is disobedience, the Canker-worm that eats into the heart of Sovereignty. Thine eyes shall not spare the City, all shall be accursed, put not your hand unto the spoils lest you trouble Israel; this was a Proclamation From Joshuah their Prince, but Laws could not be heard in the noise of the Battle. Should I ask these unnecessary burdens of a Commonwealth, whether the most riotous Malefactor expects not the protection of the Law to belong unto him? I know he would claim it; And why not the obedience of the Laws? The Earth and Water of our Country do no longer pertain unto us than our duty and allegiance doth deserve them. And to say truth, obedience is no less necessary for the happiness of the Subject, than for the prosperity of the Prince. It is true that Epaminondas said when the Thebans praised his Government, and said, they were happy that he ruled so well: Not so, says Epaminondas, the Commonwealth is happy because you obey so well. And as fit to this purpose is that pretty Emblem of a Graft flourishing when it was bound about to the stock (Per vincula cresco) as if the bonds of Government made the Kingdom flourish. The World was never so unruly, and therefore never more unlucky than under the Emperor Maximilian, whom his Subjects called by a nickname (Rex Regum) a King of Kings, because the People lived Lawless, rather like Emperors than Subjects. Nazianzen says, that the two sins of Julian (did you ever hear of worse? 
1 Orat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Apostasy of faith against God, and a mutiny of Rebellion against Constance the Emperor. I do not wonder at it if He, that fell out first with God, then transgressed against the King, the Lieutenant of God. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, God and the King are knit together by an invisible copulation.  
Plutarch called the Discipline of Sparta a most flourishing Commonwealth, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Exercitation of obedience. And our Saviour, who was made obedient unto death, prefers (factus obediens) before (factus ad mortem;) his word was, Obedience is better than Sacrifice, that is, more honourable than death; Because (says Aquinas) in Sacrifice we give up but the flesh of beasts, but in Obedience we offer up our own will. The love of the Centurion to his Servant was wonderful, to make such means to Christ by all the Elders of the Jews for his recovery, but he deserved it by that description of his Soldiers, I say unto one go and he goeth, to another come and he cometh, and to my Servant do this and he doth it.  
Yet you know not the rebellion of Achan until we examine it by the fifth Commandment of the Law. There God blesseth the true Spartan Discipline, which stands demurely before Government like the Sacrifice bound with cords to the horns of the Altar. Honour thy Father and Mother, etc. Indeed it is a blessing most emphatical, that thy days may be long in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Why, Canaan was that Land; and cursed Cham (the worst thing that escaped the Flood) the Father of Canaan, this ungracious Son made himself sport with his Father's nakedness which he should have covered. Would he not do the duty of a Son? He shall do the duty of a Servant, nay, of a Servants Servant, a Servant of Servants shall he be, 
Gen. 9.25.  Noah did speak it in Prophecy. And indeed Israel won him, and wearied him out of Canaan the fruitful habitation. And could Achan think to enter upon this Inheritance fulfilling the same sin (ipso facto) which dispossessed the Canaanite? Shall God and Heaven change for the worse? Shall the Lord cast out the disobedient, and plant in the rebellious? No, if Adam be turned away, an Angel must come into Paradise.  
I will not say the Orator said wrong, Generosus est animus hominis magisque ducitur quam trahitur. Our mind is free and noble, and would rather go alone than be forced to duty, yet I have often wished that Canonical Obedience lay more strictly upon the Clergy above all other Professions than it is exercised; it is the sweet lenity of our Pilots, that gives us Sea-room to sail at random. Mistake me not, as if I favoured blind subjection; when every man in a College of Jesuits makes his own will a beast, than he makes his Prelate a God. Solvite Asinum, unbind the Ass for the Lord hath need of him. These Fathers are hoodwinked, that they may hear as old Tobit did of a stolen Calf, I, and worse matters too, but their eyes are put out that they cannot see it. No, I commend to our profession that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Plato, rather to live by another man's will than our own. As Nicolaus the Monk of Crect did so obey Theodorus as if he had no will at all, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Now Lord help us, says St. Austin, when our will is grown so corrupt in Adam, Nunc nihil nos aliud quam voluntates esse, that we should now be nothing but will and wilfulness. Constantine the Great was so dutiful a Son to the Church that he was called Pupillus in scorn, as if he had been under age. I had rather be called any thing than Pope Gregory the Seventh, that spurned against his Lord Henry the Emperor, that all were ashamed of it, (Et ipsam Cathedram crepuisse mediam) says Brenno their own and a Cardinal, the Chair flew in pieces wherein he broke his Allegiance to his Lord and Master. I conclude this part of Achans sin with samuel's speech, Rebellion is as foul as the sin of Witchcraft.  
I am now come to the last part of his sin, the desire of filthy lucre is the visible mischief, the gross crime which may be felt like the darkness of Egypt; this is so notorious in him, as if he had no more faults, as if Aaron's Serpent had devoured the other Serpents, and been left alone. Will you hear the whole Inventary of the accursed goods which he stole? A goodly Babylonish Garment, two hundred shekels of silver wrapped up together. You would think he had his hands full, he could hold no more; (Et lingulam auream) as it is verbatim from the Original, a tongue of Gold. So that some allegorical Rabbins expound the tongue of Gold to be the eloquence which he learned in Jericho. And so would I have thought too, if he had studied the rich Eloquence of some Lawyers, that is a golden tongue, that can dash Law against Law, and break all as easily as a Cupboard of Glasses. But indeed it was nothing else but a massy Wedge of Bullion: Unhappy was that man that strove to grow rich by God's Battles, lest it proved he fought for his own share, not for the Lord and for Gideon.  
One question I will move here, and so proceed. Why might not the precious things of Jericho be taken for their own use, as well as the Gold, Earring and Ornaments of Egypt? Nay, 
Exod. 12.  had they not more right to that they won with the sword than that they borrowed? Or would Jericho and her riches defile their hands more than Egypt and her riches? Beloved, there was a providence beyond the reach of the Israelites (as St. Basil made it manifest) in that grace and favour which God gave them to rob the Egyptians, for without those Ornaments how could they embellish and beautify his Tabernacle? In the Wilderness there were no stones to set in the Breastplate and Ephod but such as were cut out of the Rock at Massah, no Silk or Scarlet spun in the Desert. But Pharaoh and Egypt never dreaming of such a thing, did lend the precious things of their wealth to build up the Ark of God. The material Temple indeed was made up very sumptuous by the spoils of sinners, but God foresaw that his spiritual Temples would fall to ruin by the wealth of Canaan; and hence it came to pass that Egypt was for a prey, and Jericho for an utter destruction.  
So then there is no excuse for Achan to steal the Gold and Silver of Jericho and conceal it, and yet he was not so cunning as we are now adays to put out his wealth to interest. The richest of the Land can answer now adays as St. Peter did, if a poor man beg their Alms, Silver and Gold have I none, I have bestowed it abroad to thrive and multiply. Achan was not so frugal, but when others sowed salt in the fields of Jericho, he ploughed up the earth to hide a Treasure. A strange Tillage where Salt was good seed, such as God would have, but Gold and Silver were as bad as the Devil's Darnel. And it may move a question which of the two was the better husbandry, with Joshuah, to sow Salt in the ground, or, with Achan, to bury Money? St. Basil is chiefly against the latter, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ etc. That is an outrageous madness, while the Oar of the rich Metals was in the earth, to cross the Seas to dig it out, and when you have it, to lay it up again to the same unprofitable mould which first afforded it; as unnatural as for Zarah to draw his hand back again into his Mother's Womb. The Earth, I confess, was the fittest Altar to offer up such a Sacrifice to the Prince of darkness, but I would not, says St. Paul, that you should have fellowship with Devils.  
See what it is to be covetous, what it is to be an Idolater, as St. Paul says. Or if you think St. Paul was a poor Apostle and spoke too much, the Devil is wealthy, and you may trust him, Mat. iv. All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me, the Tentation is to begin in covetousness, and end in Idolatry. But tremble at the fall of Achan. What might not he say for himself that any Parchment Usurer can say for himself. I hear what you can think. Achan stole his goods, and I think he won them as fairly as ten in the hundred. Quicquid malè partum est; whosoever gets his Riches sinfully. Do you know any such? Quicquid inopi detinetur rapina est, & furtum est. Who steals now? But you have Children to provide for; it is the fairest excuse of Mammon, and so had he. And if he laid up all this booty for their inheritance, (as by the event of the judgement it is likely he did) their Legacy was their death. Hector's Sword, and Ajax Girdle, as the Proverb goes, they perished in his iniquity. But was not the Gospel (says St. Basil) written for the Married as well as for Virgins? Give on, give all unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. Or did you ask Children of God to neglect his Commandments? I put you too much into your Element to think of Riches, and know you love to hear the noise of it, and, which is more, to hear them taxed. And here is the difference between the Usurer and the Preacher: Every Usurer would have no more such sinners as himself, and the Preacher would have none at all. But if Riches be your blessing, O turn not your blessing to a curse.  
And what greater curse than to build a house and not possess it? to plant a Vineyard and not eat of the fruit of it? To provide Clothing for the body and never wear it? Thus Haman cast about to put the King's Robes on his shoulders, but the Gallows prevented him. Gehazi was furnished with two change of Raiments, but his body was made unfit to wear one by Leprosy. And Achan had provided a Babylonish Garment, but it proved as fatal as his winding sheet. Faithless sinner, could not God provide for him except he stole a Raiment? Why, the Gibeonites came to him in pieced clothes rend and threadbare from the next Villages, and his Apparel decayed not; but he came to the Gibeonites in new furniture from beyond the Red Sea, and the vast Wilderness. Why should he covet more change of Raiment if one Attire were so constant that no use could consume it, no Moth could fret it? What glory were it to be like a Peacock, says Tertullian, (Toties mutando, quoties movendo, 
De Pallio. ) as often as she moves herself her feathers cast a new beauty and apparition? The Fowls of the Air renew but certain feathers, the Trees do not cast their bark, only the accursed Serpent changeth his skin at appointed revolutions. Jam positis novus exuviis nitidâque juventâ, etc. And this holy people the Children of Israel wore their Garments forty years like their skin and bone, and Achan loathed it for continuance, which some devotion would have kept as a Relic for the strangeness.  
Is there any of the Israel of God among us that hath enticed strange fashions and Babylonish Garments to be brought into our Land? What a question is that? They do not hide it in their Tent like Achan, they dare profess their names, it is their boasting to have brought comeliness into the Kingdom; the Court admires it, and yet I could adjudge, with King Artaxerxes, his Gardener to be the better Commonwealth's man, that had the Art to make Pomegranates fairer. What Suetonius spoke of Caligula in high disdain is become a decency in our Land, Neque civili habitu, neque patrio, neque virili, neque humano vestitus est. First, not modest apparel, that is worn out of use, nor according to his own Country fashion. Who knows what that is in England? Nor in the Attire of his own Sex, we are come to that, one Sex changes into the fashion of another. Nay, he went not like a reasonable man, but like a beast. This only remains from God's judgement that, like King Nebuchadonosor, at last we should be clothed like beasts and Eagles. Anacharses' a Scythian reproved for his blunt language, despised the Elegancies of Athens with that Elegy, Anacharses speaks Solaecisms in Athens, and the Athenians speak Solaecisms in Scythia. Such a Critic as he was in the Tongues, such an esteem ought we to have of Raiment. Every Fashion is an ornament in its own soil, achan's Babylonish Garment had been unseemly and exotic in the Land of Jury. And since clothing is but the covering of our shame, to be so curious and divers to hide our shame is silken hypocrisy. Our Saviour put forth a Parable, that Solomon in all his Royalty was not clothed like a Lily of the field. The comparison will not enter into the eye of man, that the wild Flower, to day sprouting, and to morrow in the Furnace, was of such Orient colours as the King's Robes. But do you mark it? Modest Nature had arrayed the one, and Luxury the other; it is Solomon, not on worky days, but in all his Royalty; not Elias, or John Baptist in their rough skins; no, our very bodies are comelier than the souls of beasts, but the King of Israel sumptuous Cap-a-pe, that was not clothed like a Lily of the field.  
Give me leave to step aside into one question and I will return again. Though Achan should have burnt his golden fleece in the flames of Jericho, may nothing be preserved for the use of God out of the dens of pollution? May not a comely Garment be put on at our Liturgy, yea though it were worn in Babylon? Quomodo scriptum est? Shall we put it to that, and so make a Canon? Saul disgraced himself as basely as if he had sought Asses again because he preserved Agag and the fattest of the sheep of Amalech for a sacrifice; and Achan was a common mischief that gathered up the goods of Canaan; all this is true, but it was done by an especial word, of God, and that will make no rule as the School confesseth. Again, Moses employed the Censors of Core and Dathan to make golden Plates for the Ark, the Instruments of the rebellious for the use of Sanctity. This also is too slender to make a rule, for it was done by the appointment of the Lord. But when no particular revelation, dream, or vision is sent from God, must we needs do as the Roman Army did when it won Tarentum, Infaelice's Divos populo Tarentino relinquamus, touch none of the Gods that kept their Enemy's City? Or may not the Church be judge? May it not spare or destroy? Yes, I will prove it by the Book. In the first of Ezra Cyrus brought forth the Vessels of the Lord which Nebuchadonosor had put in the house of his Gods, even those did he restore to Shezbazzar, and Shezbazzar brought them for the service of the Lord to Jerusalem. The wearing of our Surpless, and other holy Robes, is the thing I aim at, for the comeliness I call heaven to witness. Such white Robes the Saints wear, Apoc. xv. Such our Saviour seemed to wear at his Transfiguration, Mat. xvii. And such alone (and not the Bells and Ephod) the High Priest put on to go into the Sanctum Sanctorum, Leu. xuj. 4. And all this the Fathers approved in the Primitive Church, some of whom came so near our Saviour, that almost they touched the hem of his Garment. None of this is gainsaid by the Learned, but the blame is that they have been polluted in a strange Land, like sweet roots steeped in Wormwood, pleasant enough of themselves, but they have lost their relish. Well, I told you the Church of God entertained their holy Vessels again when the Heathen had quaffed in them to their Idols, and such a Church it was that depended nicely upon Ceremonies and bodily defilings. The Devil used the Scripture, is the Scripture the worse for that? Parrots and chattering birds are taught sometime to speak our Language; shall I like speaking the worse, and turn silenced Minister? What shall become of all the rich endowments which the Church received in Popery? Shall Superstition be bountiful, and Reformation Sacrilegious? It is unadvised Martinism, and nothing else, that frowns against the sumptuousness of the Church, Build up an Ark a God's name out of the spoils of Egypt; we are not warned to destroy with Achan: O let him perish alone in his iniquity.  
This shall serve to be spoken for the first part of my Text, the iniquity which betrayed Achan unto the vengeance of God; which iniquity consisted of scandal against all the Host of Israel, disobedience against Joshuah, covetousness against his own foul, the subject of the punishment follows. And first, if we dare look upon our own death, and are not afraid to see our own blood spilt, homo periit, I must tell you, man perished in iniquity. Do you call to mind what Mordecai said to Esther? Think not that thou shalt escape in the King's house, there is no sanctuary in earth, but that all must die, or all men must be changed, says St. Paul. For as it was written upon Hector's Tomb, Non Hector illic, Troja sed tumulo jacet; so we may indite upon the Grave of Adam, homo periit, here lies Man and his Posterity. Surely, if the Jews, returning from Captivity, could not choose but shed tears to see the building of the Second Temple, having remembered the glory of the First: So, who can look upon mankind in the state of misery without pity and compassion that can remember him in the days of peace and innocency?  
Should we consider what variety and new delights Adam and Eve had before them to meditate upon, the beauty of their own original righteousness, the Tree of the Garden wherein all the beasts of the Forest do move, Heaven and Earth spick and span new to look upon, and we may say as Epaminondas did concerning a worthy Captain that died in the Camp at Leuctra, Quomodo vacavit huic in tantis negotiis mori? How could this man spare any leisure to sin and die? A strange misfortune▪ Adam was set to dress the Garden of Eden, and proved the first weed thereof in his own person; wherefore Joseph of Arimathea built his Tomb like a birds nest in his Garden, in remembrance that a trespass committed in a Garden was the first occasion of Tombs and Epitaphs; and is it not usual to this day to cast up our Graves after the similitude of beds in Gardens? In the state of innocency our meditation should have been only concerning the immortality of the Soul and Body, but now we are constrained to study this Lesson as much as any for our health's sake, homo periit, how Man comes to die, and read learned Lectures upon our own Carcases and Anatomies. And it is not in vain that we place the heavy remembrance of an Anatomy before our Almanacs, as if we were to prefix that Memorandum for a Diary, before every day of the year, homo periit, that our flesh is come unto corruption, and that our days are consumed in vanity.  
Yet the fear of common calamity is most often forgot in every man's private security. To tell you that man is come to destruction, it is but a name, and a sound, and a second notion, and seems to be nothing to us in particular. We sit in our glory among Gods threatenings like King Solomon in his Throne among dead Lions which could not bite us. But point out at Achan, or Saul, or any sinner set apart for the view of the World, and it will work upon us. Mark it if it be not true: for who ever put on sackcloth, or cast ashes upon his head for St. Peter's Prophecy, that all the World and the works thereof should be burnt with fire, and the Elements melt away with heat? But if Ionas denounce fire against one City, and say Nineveh shall be destroyed, than Nineveh will prevent those ashes which her Enemies would bring upon her, and fulfil Jonah's Prophecy in the ashes of repentance. O come not to view God's Judgements as vain people do to the execution of some Malefactor, that know who it is must suffer, and that they shall stand by, and fare no worse but to behold it: but look upon God's threatenings as upon some curious Picture which in thy fancy seems to look upon thee only, and have such a touch of conscience at iste periit, that man perished, as King Belshazzar had in his Feast of wine: when God's hand wrote upon the Wall, he persuaded himself that index digitus, the finger pointed at no other, but himself alone.  
Now let us go one step lower, to pilate's Ecce homo, behold the man. Behold Achan the Son of Zerah, that man perished not alone in his iniquity. Achan that had outlived the corruption of his young years, and was grown in age able to go to warfare, to have many Children, to know how to steal from God, and dissemble with Joshua, doth his hoary head go down with peace into the Grave? King David reprieved Shemei his bitter Enemy unto the Reign of King Solomon, Solomon reprieved him till his fault was almost out of mind. Quem saepe casus transit aliquando invenit, did his head go down with peace into the Grave? Like the Web of Penelope all that hath been wrought in the year may be ravelled out in a night. Crescant says God to the Tares, Matt. xiii. nay let them grow and sprout up, and then cut them down, and cast them dry into the fire.  
Secondly, He that was spared among all the dangers of the Wilderness is consumed in the City: He that could escape the Pilgrimage of forty years is doomed to die in Canaan: He that was not devoured in the fire of Taberah is burnt in the Valley of Anchor. As Aristotle speaks of Homer's Poetry, when he set up Walls for Troy in one Book, and plucked them down in another, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, murum Peoeta quem finxit delevit. So God can deal with us, set us up, or pluck us down; but we are less than Walls. They that walk in the night preserve the flame of their Torch or Candle from winds and Casualties abroad, which notwithstanding they put out when they return to their home. So Achan that walked over the Sea, when the Bridge was under water, and lived among Scorpions, and was not consumed in the Sedition of Dathan, nor slain in the Battles of Moab, yet in portu naufragium the Vessel is not cast away in the Ocean Sea, but in the Haven, and his light is put out at home in the long expected Canaan. Thus Judgement follows Judgement, as Antigonus said when he spoiled Asia, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Alexander cut down the rich ears of Corn, and he plucked up the Stubble after him, so the Armies of rebellious Sinners had been mown down in the Wilderness, Achan and some few more were plucked up like Stubble, when Judgement seemed to pass them over.  
Note this thirdly in Achans person, mischief did light upon him, not in the hunger and thirst of the Wilderness, not in his poverty, but having compiled much riches together, enough to purchase a good Fee-simple in Canaan if the Lord had not given him his Portion. Men think themselves now adays past the Law and penalties of death, when they have sinned so much that they are grown wealthy in iniquity; because, if need be, they can buy the favour of the Judge, and he that has Achan's wealth, a Wedg of gold, and two hundred Shekels of silver, legit ut Clericus, I warrant him, he is a learned Clerk, and deserves his pardon. But this man, when he began to say deliciare anima, when he was furnished to live sumptuously, than he is cut off, that as Solomon says, the remembrance of death may be bitter to that man, who thought it pleasant to live. This was St. Augustine's rule when he was old, and had learned the World. Mundus ille periculosior est cum se illicit diligi, 
Epist. 144.  quam cum se cogit contemni. I fear no hurt from the World, when it goes against me, and casts a froward look upon my fortunes, but my danger is near at hand, when it smiles and flatters me, as if all were happy. When St. Basil observed how carefully Kings and Princes gathered up Pearls into their Treasury 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which the wise God to show the contempt of them had put into Oyster-shells, and scattered about the Seashore as vile and unprofitable. You do not well, says he, to make a Treasury of that which is so mutable in the Generation, and will ebb and flow from you like the Sea which begot them. Fortune never stood long upon a Pinnacle, summo stare loeo nescia. The Sponges that swell with liquors are most likely to be pressed and emptied. You do all remember how Cesar gloried in his Victory among the cowardly Asiatiques, veni, vidi, vici, he did but set his feet upon their Soil, and looked them in the face, and so dismayed and vanquished them. 'Tis no more than King David tells of himself, Psal. xxxvii. Vidi, veni, non inveni; vidi, I saw the ungodly flourish like a green Bay-tree; veni, I passed by and sought him; non inveni, he was quite gone in the twinkling of an eye, I could not find him.  
Now recollect these three qualities of Achan, who was more likely to prosper than a Soldier in the flower of his age, a joyful man at his journey's end in the Land of his peace; a wealthy man, in the plenty of his riches? Take it to thought all you that have the World tied unto you with a threefold Cord of health and peace and prosperity, which men dream as if it could not be broken; for it broke like Tow among the sparks, and iste periit, etc. But as Demades said when news was brought that King Philip was dead, and there was no other talk among the people; Peace says Demades, if he be dead to day, he will be dead to morrow, and the next day following; so I will end my discourse how Achan perished, it is the way of all sinners, and not much to be lamented: But for an innocent to be cast away it deserves pity: wherefore St. Hierom reads my Text thus, utinam solus periisset, it makes not much for Achans death, but I would he had perished alone in his iniquity.  
There is no word of wonder beside this in the Text: and here we must stay a while, as all the Host of Israel did when they found the dead Corpse of Amasa bleeding, what the Spirit of God means by this vengeance, non solus, that he perished not alone in his iniquity. It is St. Augustine's rule; Relevatio mali non fit per communionem cladis, sed solatium charitatis. To perish together with more than ourselves is no comfort at all, but more anxiety. So it made the Scene of Achan's Tragedy full, and very bitter, to see 36 Israelites that drew swords for the same Victory to be slain about him. On the right hand there is more misery, nati cruentâ caede confecti jacent, the Sons ask for bread, and their Father gives them stones to stone them. Two things stand before us to be observed, as the Angel did in Balaams' way, first what Companions Achan had in his punishment, and secondly how it will stand with God's justice, that every man should not perish single by himself for his own iniquity.  
First his fellow Soldiers turn their backs, and are cut down at the Siege of Ai; a sort of men that I presume are prepared always to die, but seldom provided to die well; men that engender great love together, as I think David and Jonathan did at first, by entering their bodies into the same dangers. Wherefore St. Paul did express his love to Epaphroditus in that name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, my fellow Soldier, and so to Archippus, my fellow Soldier. In the Roman Discipline it was held so honourable to save another of the same company that he carried for his reward civicam coronam, a Crown upon his head made of the grass of that earth, whereupon he saved another's life. The infamy of Achan was as notorious on the other side, that caused six and thirty to be slain of the Camp of Israel. To see that bad things are sure to do us hurt, and the best things are not sure to help us. The Ark of God was sent into the Camp at Shilob, Arca fortitudinis Domini, the Ark of God's strength, Psal. 132. and yet the Philistines prevailed and the Ark was taken; but if one Achan come down into the Battle there is plain treachery in that man's conscience, and his Wedg of gold shall fight more against Israel, than all the swords of the men of Ai. Good qualities stick close to them which have them, as Virtue and Learning, and we cannot part or bequeath them to any man: Gifts of fortune, as Honours and Riches, may be removed to others as you like it. But, it is a hard case, our vices are sure to fall down upon the head of such only as are dearest to us.  
Beloved, is it so? Was the hand of the Lord in the battle of Israel, and doth God direct the Sword of Simeon as well as the books of Levi? Those that spend their bodies so courageously for our peace deserve to have their souls well instructed. Nulla fides pietasque viris qui castra frequentant? I trust it is but a slander that Soldiers have small Religion, where the Angel of God did draw his Sword at the threshing flore of Araunah the Jebusite David built an Altar. So in every just quarrel it is the Lord himself and his anointed King that draws the Sword. Wherefore do not defile the Camp with oaths, and lust, and drunkenness, for the ground is fit for David's Altar, and the place is holy.  
I have told you what it was to Achan to lose his fellow Soldiers, yet the loss was not achan's so much as Joshuahs', and he like a loving Prince did fall upon the ground, and showed much bitterness for the death of his people. You shall rather find Achan distracted in sorrow, between the heaviness of his sins, and the death of his children. It was much that a Mother in the Maccabees could exhort seven Sons one after another to despise King Antiochus, and to suffer death for the name of the Lord. It is much that Prudentius reports of a woman that carried her infant in her own arms to Martyrdom, Nec tantum osculum impressit unum, vale inquit, o dulcissime. Nature can hardly stoop to part with those children unto God in a good cause: but to lose a Son in the anger of God, in the guiltiness of a trespass, O my son Absalon, etc. then we are afraid lest they be lost for ever. Give me Children, says Rachel, or else I die, and alas she was but a dead woman in the birth of Benjamin. Elisha strove to be thankful to his good Hostess the Shunamite, he would do any courtesy for her. O, says Gehazi, give her children before any thing, and then you please her. The greatest cruelty (that moved St. Ambrose against the Emperor Theodosius) for the Massacre committed at Thessalonica was on this wise: A Father came to redeem two Sons taken captive, and appointed to be slain. He was allowed but the life of one for his money, take which he would. His kind heart equally earning after both, could not say, this rather than him, the elder before the younger, and for want of speedy resolution both were made away before his face. This, says Sozomen, cost the poor Father his wits for ever, to think he might have saved one Son and did not. No colours could paint the face of Agamemnon where his Daughter was to be offered for a Sacrifice, Par nulla figura dolori. As it was said to Tully when Antony persuaded him to burn his invective Orations, Commentus est Antonius eripere quemadmodum vixeras. Fie, said his friends unto him, die rather, for Antony would strip you of that glory which will give you life for ever. So all the Pedigree of Achan being erased out; Eripuit Dominus quemadmodum viveret, God took that from him wherein he might hope to survive; this was not only to put out the right eye of the men of Jabesh Gilead, but for a Jew to die without succession, Christ being theirs after the flesh, is to go down with sorrow to the grave where all things are forgotten.  
Whatsoever else is tumbled into the fire before Achans face, it was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it moved not his eyes to pity, nor his ears to the cries of lamentation. As his body was burnt wherein a soul so covetous did inhabit, so his Tent was consumed with fire the habitation of so vile a body, that Tent under which he was wont to sleep, is cast over him the last time at his death, where he must sleep for ever. And as if every man were afraid to inherit, Aurum Tolosanum, his unlucky Gold, it is made away for company, Et pallium quod debuit cremari crematum est; the Babylonish Garment which was appointed to be burnt in Jericho is now fired about his ears in the Valley of Anchor.  
Lastly, The cattle that should have laid down their lives honourably before the Altar, under the Priest's hand for a trespass offering, even those innocent beasts are not suffered to live; how many yell were about his ears, to resemble the very horrors of hell where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth? A good man, says Solomon, is merciful to his beast, as if the beasts fared the better for a good man's sake. And jure Dominii, the Lordship of man doth extend so far upon the Creatures, that they are consortes paenae, partakers of the punishment of evil men. The Cattle of Egypt were slain with hail stones for the Egyptians Idolatry; the beasts of Nineveh fasted for the Ninevites Luxury; nay, says the Prophet Jeremy, the Herbs of the field wither, and the Birds of the Air are consumed for the wickedness of them that dwell in the Land. Dear beloved, the beasts are but Figures of God, fierce indignation, they are our brutish sins, our cruelties more unnatural than the rage of beasts which God aims at; it was not worth the praise to Achan that the beasts perished in his iniquity, they will and must die with us. Quicquid antea debebam nolle nunc non possum. The only Sacrifice which God requires is to have them die before us. And so I have done with every thing that partaked in the punishment of Achan, I must now commit myself to a Problem of great perplexity, how it stands with the righteousness of God, that every man should not perish alone, in proprio peccato, in his own iniquity.  
I am no Advocate against God's Justice, but against the ignorance of man. Phaedon speaks thus to Socrates in Plato. I pray you are you not displeased with these, unrighteous Judges that have condemned you? O not I, says Socrates, and if I were, I would refer the case until I were dead, and then meet Ajax and Palamedes, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and would ask them how they could endure a wrongful judgement, and so put up my injury. A reverend opinion of a Heathen concerning the judgement of sinners, how contented would this man have stood before any sentence of God's Tribunal? But to the purpose, this shall be my method to follow the cause in hand. First, That it is self love to our own person which persuades us other men sin and we pay the ransom. Secondly, Heathen men and not Christians did first fill the world with that opinion. Thirdly, That the melancholy distinctions of some School Divines have abused the truth. But lastly, our Conclusion shall be, that the hair of an innocent never fell to the earth, but that every man dies propter peccatum suum, for his own iniquity.  
For the first: Nature as it is good and perfect taught us to love ourselves, fond and corrupt nature taught us to love ourselves too much. Out of this vanity those excuses spring up which make us absolve ourselves, and bind others. Let us tell our own tale, and we will say our Fathers eat the sour grape, when we may be discovered with the bunches in our own hands. Rather than confess our own complexion we will belly the Heavens, and say the Sun hath scorched us. Delicta majorum immeritus lues Roman. To pluck in immeritus, no desert of ours, we will lay the Child at their door that never begot it. The very Pharisees thought themselves so holy, and our Saviour so bad, that for no fault of theirs, but for his blasphemies, the Romans would come and carry away their Nation. Wherefore says Socrates, it were well with some men, instead of travelling, Si a seipsis aberrarent, if they could wander from themselves. No man, says Plutarch, doth know his own blemishes, because he doth always carry himself about. A Painter brings his work to good perfection when he leaves it for a time, and comes a fresh to view and mend with a second, or third fancy, what the first did mistake. So if we could lay aside ourselves, and then resume our substance again, we might spy out faults which now we discern not, nor acknowledge. As who should say, lay down your body in the dust, take it up again in the Resurrection like a Picture cast aside, than I know we shall learn where the fault lies. But self love must not be the judge whether God doth punish one man for another's iniquity.  
Secondly, The superstition of the Heathen increased this error. There was a bloody opinion among them, called Succidaneum sacrificium, if you have heard of it, wherein one may lay down his life unto the Gods to redeem the danger of another. Antinous, the great Minion to Hadrian the Emperor, cut off the remaining days of his own youth to recover Adrian from a desperate fever. And Philumena, passing the love of women, spent her heart blood as a Cordial Julap to recover her husband Aristides. Now upon what presumption did they stand? A Principle they had for it, but manifestly against God and the Gospel, that every man was Lord of his own life to employ where he would, for himself, or for another. 
Sen. Ep. 70.  Vitam approbare aliis quisque debet, sed mortem sibi; Let us live to have the good liking of other men, but let us die as we like it ourselves. And this made them esteem what a conscionable thing God had given man when he gave him life. Hoc est unum quare de vitâ queri non possum, neminem tenet; No man need keep it longer than he would, quite contrary not only to God's Law, but the good Philosophy of Plato. It is better to die than to live, says he, but love not thy cell so well to do thyself that benefit; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, stay till some other do so good a turn for you. But O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken, ought not Christ alone to suffer for the sins of others? The just for the unjust? The plowers ploughed upon my back, and made long furrows. Here is ploughing, and making furrows, as if there were seeds sown in the wounds of Christ, of which we may reap thirty, sixty, and an hundred fold, according to the measure of our faith. So then the Doctrine of the heathen is both against Nature, and against the Sacrifice of Christ. Wherefore these must not be our judges, whether God doth punish one man's person for another's iniquity.  
But Ventum est ad Triarios, the third rank of Adversaries are the School Divines, lefthanded Benjamites, able to cast a distinction at an hairs breadth. Whose Doctrine, when it is good, is like the Moon at the Full, light and entire, but perchance spotted: But when their Doctrine is false, it is like the Moon in the Wain, full of horns and distinctions. Give me leave to make proof of it in this cause which I have in hand.  
First, Say they, iniquity is visited upon those Generations which did not commit the fault. Si communitas favet unius delicto, minimè verò si ignorat; If many concur to favour the sin of one man, that man shall not perish alone in his iniquity. It is true, and God hath spoken, Leu. xx. If the people do not punish the man that giveth his seed to Molech, etc. But what was this to Achan? Did he reveal h●s fault to thirty six Soldiers, or to his Children? Very unlikely that a close sin should be known to so many. Very likely that among his Children some were Infants that knew not what it was to sin, and yet he perished not alone, etc.  
Durandus divides the case thus: One is liable to judgement for the trespass of another in divino judicio non in humano. Man must not adjudge man to condemnation for the trespass of another, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to God's good will it may be done. Doth Durandus say so? But so doth not Ezekiel. The soul of the Son is mine as the soul of the Father, that soul which sinneth shall die, Ezek. xviii. 4. Mark what the Prophet says, Before his judgement every soul shall escape that is innocent, before his judgement that made the soul, meaning God, and not the Magistrate. In Verse 25. Are not my ways equal? Nay, are not your ways unequal? My ways, you hear the Text. God is defended from this injustice and not the Magistrate.  
Thirdly, Some deliver their opinion in this distinction, In temporali paenâ non in aeternâ. A modern affliction, which lasts but for a time, may chastise the Son for the Father's iniquity, but not an eternal condemnation. For although our bodies may answer for our Parents, being the fruit of their Loins, yet my soul is not engaged to any but to God alone. Besides, the wounds of the body in this life are like the cutting of the bark of the tree to inoculate a Bud which may bring forth fruit: But In inferno nemo te Laudat Domine, there is no repentance, no remorse in Hell. So that the Christian use of God's chastisements is lost in eternal torments, but not in temporal. O take heed of this opinion, to put a draught of gall and vinegar to our Saviour's mouth when his lips upon the Cross were full of mercy: My meaning is, do not impeach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gentleness of Christ, to say he doth exact a momentary punishment upon a guiltless person: For this were to say, that Adam was not only the Root and public person of all mankind, but that all other Parents have the same state of prerogative. That which Pelagius did impudently deny in original sin is true in actual sins. Qui remisit Tibi peccata tua non imputabit aliena. Fear not to bear the burden of thy Father's sin, when if thou come unto Christ, he will refresh thee of thine own.  
A fourth refuge is on this wise: Affliction doth befall a man sometimes Ex antecedenti pro alieno peccato, formaliter pro suo. Take an instance to understand it by, a Minister neglects his Flock, a Father the education of his Children. Now the mischief of this neglect may redound to the hurt of God knows whom. So that though the Minister's fault went before their destruction, yet ignorance and blindness in their own neart is the proper cause of the curse which lies upon them, which is all that I labour for in this present controversy.  
The last assault made by the Schoolmen deserves your observation for the Author's sake, 
1.2. q. 87. ar. 8.  it is Aquinas. And his opinion is like fluctus decumanus the tenth wave, and more troublesome than all the rest. Vnus punitur pro altero, modo medicinali non paenali. As who should say, the Arrows of God are shot from heaven as out of a well-drawn bow against the capital sinner. Some that stand in the way are wounded with the Arrows head, yet not out of purpose to wound them, but to heal them. I have learned a distinction in another place from the same man sufficient to refute him. It is this: Every affliction that gainsays the pleasure and content of nature is first a punishment, than it is a medicine or salve to cure you as you use it. Do you not see the error that Aquinas draws upon himself? If to punish one man for another's trespass is unjust and wrongful, except it be like the Acrimony of some preventing Physic than God doth evil that good may be gained from it. O says Abraham, God forbid that the Judge of all the world should do unjustly.  
Now do you understand how these cunning Benjamites the Schoolmen have cast their distinctions at the truth; just like Mnestheus in Virgil, who shot at the Dove and mist it, but cut the string in twain by which it was tied fast before, 
Ast ipsam miserandus avem contingere ferro  
Non valuit, nodos & vincula linea rupit.  Now the harvest is ripe, and it is time to give in the right Verdict upon the Controversy. And as the Alabaster Box of Ointment which was broken in the Gospel, was burst for the honour of our Saviour, but the sweet smell did refresh all the Disciples which were about it: So my conclusion shall be dedicated to God's honour, and to your instruction. I have many Theorems to propound unto you, but all shall end in this Doctrine, That excepting the first Adam, the root of our corrupt nature; and excepting the second Adam, who being without spot or sin gave himself to the death of the Cross for the sins of all the world, these two excepted, every man dies propter peccatum suum, for his own iniquity.  
First, I do presume that you will consent unto me that the heart of man is only evil continually. And that we may call it as Theodorus did revile Tiberius, Lutum saenguine maceratum, mud tempered with pollution. As one said of the High Court of Judges in Athens, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, you could not miss of a righteous man among them though you picked in the dark. But I say we cannot find out a good man though we sought him carefully at noonday. For the Lord himself hath looked down from heaven, and we are all become abominable usque ad unum, and that one is Jesus Christ.  
Then it is confessed, that the wages of sin is death. Seriùs ocyùs, sometimes before we were born, but as suddenly as God shall call upon us to pay the common debt of nature. Nemo nisi suo die moritur, says Seneca; My day to die was every day since I had an hour to live. Silly soul, do you think it an injury to die a babe? To die an Ignorant of misery? Did you ever hear an Infant complain of short life? Nay, rather did not Moses weep because he was preserved in the Ark of Bulrushes, and had his misery prolonged? We have heard many old men that would cry rather than sing at Nunc Dimittis, when they put from shore for ever. But come death quickly, come heaven the sooner, let all the world change in the twinkling of an eye, and then come Resurrection, come Lord Jesus. Are the shortest Livers unkindly dealt with? Non magis queri debes de repentinâ morte quam qui citò navigavit. Do, complain that wind and tide have brought you too quickly to your haven. Give me your credit but to one thing more. You are bound to answer to as painful and severe death as God's vengeance shall inflict upon you. I think I might have seen in the days of Herod, when Rachel mourned for her Children, one little Saints soul pinched out of the body as a cherry stone spirted between the fingers, a most calm deliverance; and another babe Lacerum crudeliter ora, ora manusque ambas, cut in pieces with a wound bigger than the body. How comes this to pass, for both were Infants? Not because the one smarted for his Father's Usury and Sacrilege more than the other, but because God said no more, Gen. iii then man shall die. But whether by fire or water, peaceable or tyrannous, it is free in the Lord's appointment from the sixth day of the Creation to the world's end.  
Now let us see if we can find any thing in that which we have caught to pay Tribute unto God. You cannot deny but Death, and Diseases, and Poverty, Laethumque labosque are due to every sinner; and all these in such a time as God likes best, whether it be at Noontide, or at Evening, or in the Dawning of the day and with such measure and quantity as God hath prepared the Viols of his wrath. Then why art thou disquieted O my soul, and why should I fear to pay the price of those sins which are not mine? The poor Subjects have lost their lives in the King's iniquity, witness David and Israel. The Children for the Fathers, witness Sodom and Gomorrah. The Family with the Master, as it was with Core and his accomplices. Lastly, some of all sorts did drink the same cup with Achan in his iniquity; ay dearly beloved at this time God called upon them all to die, who were bound to die for their own sins at any time.  
Now let me raise you up from the long consideration of this Point, as the Angel did Elias under the Juniper tree, and you shall find a Cake upon the coals, some few Meditations from hence, that God makes the sin of one man an occasion to destroy a multitude. First, If the disobedience of one sinner is enough to consume many persons, Lord whither will a multitude of iniquity send one man headlong? Sufficient are our evil days wherein we have walked too much before after the vanity of our mind. Secondly, As the greatest unity of the Triumphant Church above doth consist in the glory which they enjoy together in the sight of God: So our unity of the militant Church below is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to suffer and die together. Poterant nec morte r●velli. It is that which must combine the souls of Christians. Thirdly, Shall not this make me as careful to prevent every man's sins as mine own? Shall I not offer myself to be my brother's keeper? Like watchmen that compass the C●ty in the night, not only for the safety of their own house, but lest any Mansion take fire about them. But especially who is a Father of Children that will not consider his sins may be as ready to destroy as his Loins have been fruitful to bring Sons into the world? Can you revile the King of Moab that sacrificed his Son? Do you detest their abominations that made their Children pass through the fire to Molech? Is it good in you to declaim against the severity of Brutus, and Torquatus, and such cruel Fathers? But spare them O child of pollution, or accuse thyself. Are not your sins murderers as well as theirs? You gave life by nature, and you destroy it by iniquity. When God gave you Sons and Daughters, you give Obsides Domino, Hostages unto God, and if you rebel, as Nathan said to David, because thou hast made the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the Child that is born unto thee shall surely die. The Father's sins are visited unto the third and fourth Generation, while the Grandsire full of fourscore years of sin, stays awhile behind like the rotten root of evil, and sees the tender branches cut away because the root was bad and corrupted.  
Thus is the brief sum of the second part of my Text, man perished in iniquity. Corporeorum & incorporeorum horizon, says Synesius, the noble Image of God. Secondly, That man, Achan, a branch of the Olive tree, even Israel which God had planted. But an evil branch is evil though the stock were a Cedar of Libanus. Non debent gloriari sarmenta quia non sunt spinarum ligna sed vitis, 
Ep. 223.  says St. Austin. Is it any glory for the dead branches to boast they were Vine branches, and not Heythorn, since they are cut off, and cast away? Lastly, Non solus periit, he fell down like the Tower of Siloam, and brained all that were about him. I have but one short part to dispatch, Periit, his execution, how that man Perished, etc.  
To search much into Achans punishment were not the way to be more learned, but more tormented. And he that is Ingeniosus in suppliciis, exquisite in describing the ruin of any man, his invention smells of tyranny. Briefly thus, Every man in the rank of a Subject lives under the authority of three Commanders: 1. Under the Conscience of his own heart. 2. Under the Laws of his King. 3. Under the Commandments of God. Triplici nodo triplex cuneus, every knot hath a wedge to drive into it. And if we displease either God, or the King, or our own Conscience, vengeance meets us on every side. Conscientia parit vermem, Magistratus mortem, Deus Gehennam; Conscience hath a worm in store, nay, a Cockatrice to sting us, the Magistrate bears a Sword to divide us, but especially it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. In an evil conscience we die unto all joy and comfort: In our trespass against the Laws of man we die unto men: In breaking the Statutes of God we die unto heaven, surely he deserved not to die but one death that offended three.  
All sin is mortal, yet among sins some are stillborn, and make no noise in the world. Some are crying sins that have a voice; and a voice like the Edomites that cried against Jerusalem, Down with it, down with it unto the ground; Like the Jews that cried, Crucify him, crucify him, and doubled the files of their iniquities. Like the men of Ephesus, that for two hours' space made a noise, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. When sinners do double thus, God finds out more deaths than one to punish them, as if judgement had ransacked the body to find two or three souls, and would not leave to destroy all the brood of the Viper. Abimelech a cruel murderer of seventy brethren was crushed under a Millstone, and slain with his own Servants Sword, it is pity he died not seventy times. It was Saul's destiny first to die by the Arrows of the Bow, and then to fall upon his own Sword. It was Absalon's destiny to be hanged by the head in the Oak tree, and be thrust through the heart with the Darts of Joab. It was Judas his destiny to cast himself from the Gallows, and to be broken in pieces upon the ground. And lastly, it was Achans destiny to be stoned with stones, and then burnt with fire. Thus that man perished, etc.  
It is very likely, if this notorious rich sinner had lived his Tomb should have been as costly to lie over his dead corpse as his Babylonish Garment was sumptuous to cover his living body. But now there is not so much honour left him for his burial as earth to earth, all is turned to ashes that the winds may blow him back again out of Canaan into Egypt from whence he brought his iniquity.  
A fair Tomb, I confess, cannot prove that I died a good man, but that I died a wealthy. Yet some honour is to be showed to our dead corpse, because a dead body is nearer to the Resurrection than a living. The Egyptians embalming the dead, and the Odours and Spices which the Jews were wont to bestow do condemn those uncivil Funerals which some report of Geneva and Amsterdam that bury their dead in ditches and dunghills. It makes Jesuits scoff at our Religion. Scis ut haeretici colant parents, sulcant coemiteria sic colunt parents. Michael the Archangel fought about the body of Moses; and Prudentius played the Poet very well touching Eulalia, a Virgin Martyr's body cast abroad in a frosty night, to the injury of the air, and before morning it was overspread with icicles like a crystal Tomb. Pallioli vice linteoli, ipsa elementa jubente Deo, exequias Tibi virgo ferunt. And certainly there was some such thing, or St. Austin would not report it, that divers Miracles, as healing the sick, and converting unbelievers have been wrought by God's providence at the Tombs of the Martyrs to honour their death and memory. But Achan was denied this happiness, and though he had two deaths, yet he had not one Tomb to be buried in. Only an heap of stones were cast upon him for an infamy, that as Varro said, Monumentum quasi monimentum, a Monument for admonition that we fear God, and rebel not like Achan that perished fearfully, etc.  
The Papists will not leave Achan thus, and remove him from Joshuahs' hands, and the Valley of Anchor, where he suffered into Purgatory. But by what proof, or warrant, or indictment? Expect an Exposition fit for the nimble brains of the College of Jesuits. Achan was stoned with stones, and then he died. Afterward he and all he had were burnt with fire, viz. Opera ejus accensa sunt in Purgatorio; he and his works were burnt in Purgatory. A likely matter since Joshuah was commanded to burn him and not the Devil. Do you think Columbus that found out the fourth part of the world could have found out this third place to receive souls in, which is neither Heaven nor Hell? The Devil is much beholding to his Advocates, that have made him not only Prince of darkness, but that which God never made him, Prince of Purgatory.  
Some perchance will go a thought further, and pronounce a fearful sentence that this man was wiped for ever out of the book of the living. That is periit at the height, the Lord bless us from it. But St. Chrysostom was more mild and charitable: As the digging of the earth, says the Father, and the ploughing of it may seem but churlish usage, yet that is the way to make it fruitful, Ita magis erat Achani salutare supplicium quam aliis impunitas; So Achan might go sooner to heaven out of the fire than some out of their featherbed. The soul is in the body, as the Lamps were in gideon's Pitchers, break the Pitchers, and the Lamps will shine, and then begins the Victory. What Seneca said of the state of Rome under Caesar the Dictator. Respub. sub eo stare non potuit, sed cecidit in sinum boni principis; the same is competent to the state of man. We cannot hold out long, we shall sink under the burden of sin, Sed cecidit homo in sinum boni principis; repent and we may fall into Abraham's bosom. When Scipio led his Army against Carthage, and his Scabbard fell off from his Sword, his Soldiers were dismayed at it, as a sign of ill fortune; This is nothing, says Scipio, for I have my Sword still in my hand, and that I must fight with: So let the body fall into the dust or ashes, keep the Soul clean, make it white in the blood of the Lamb by Faith, and then all is safe. It is the soul that first must taste of glory. St. Austin asks why the Devil made so much of his darling Sylla, that in all his life he was scarce perplexed with any misfortune. The Father replies, Timuit magis Diabolus nè corrigeretur Sylla quam nè vinceretur. The Devil cared not if he had burst his neck, but he was afraid his virtue would be greater if his felicity were less. Wherefore if Achan did give God the glory as Joshuah did instruct him, all might go well with his soul though iste periit, his body were consumed. The Romans were wont to Deify their Emperors on this sort: Their bodies were placed in a pile of wood, and at the top of the Hearse an Eagle was kept close until the flame had taken hold of the body, and then the Eagle was suffered to fly away to heaven: So leave we the body of Achan in the Pile of wood, yet in the mercies of Jesus Christ his Soul might take the wings of the Morning, as David says, and after all his tedious Pilgrimage live in rest for ever.  
Nothing should make me mistrustful and doubt of his salvation but his too late repentance. Is this a time to leave off sin when we must leave off life and can sin no more? Poenitentiam dare possumus, securitatem non possumus. Do you then come to play the Huxters for mercy, as if the Market were cheapest at the latter end of the day? The Son of man will come to judgement suddenly as swift as the lightning. The Resurrection shall be suddenly at one blast of the Archangels Trumpet. Corruptio fit in momento, the soul will not creep, but fly out of the body suddenly. Shall all things be sudden but man's repentance? If you love your Country, and wish it victory against all her enemies: if you tender your Children and Allies, and desire their safety: nay, if you love your Gold and Silver, and cast about to leave a good inheritance, beware to draw the anger of God, Vnius ob noxam & furias, upon so many innocent souls, have peace in Jesus Christ, and let Achan perish alone in his aniquity. AMEN.   

A SERMON Preached before the KING at WHITEHALL, the 5. of April 1665. UPON THE SOLEMN FAST, To crave a Blessing of GOD for his MAJESTY'S NAVAL FORCES.  NEHEM. i. 4. 
And it came to pass when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted and prayed before the God of Heaven.  
WE have many Solemn days in the year to remember the noble Works of our Saviour. But the Church hath set forth no proper day, to mind us how He will come to judgement in the end of the World. Is not that an oversight, will some say, that there is no red letter in the Calendar, to bring the Object of that mighty Judgement before us, that it may not be forgotten? Hear the reason, and I know you will excuse it. All the beneficial Works of our Saviour came to pass upon certain days of the year, whose revolution is known, or easily guessed at: and those days are exactly kept with holy diligence. But for the Day of Judgement it is kept secret, so that the Angels of Heaven are ignorant of it. Therefore to keep one solemn day recurrent every year, for an admonition that such a dreadful hour is to come, were in a sort to prescribe God to an appointed time, who must not be prescribed.  
If any press it further, and say, Shall we then have no solemn opportunity to learn that capital Lesson, that Christ will come in the clouds with power and great glory to call the Earth before him? Far be that omission from us. For to what end servs a public Fast, but to prepare us all to hear that voice, Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet him? This is the day wherein every tender conscience should feel the Axe laid to the root of the Tree. Now the whole Kingdom stands as it were at the Bar to be arraigned before the Majesty of God. We come to call our selus to judgement before Christ calls us, to prevent him. Here we are met, not to justify ourselves (O God forbid!) but to confess the evil we have done, that we may not suffer the evil we have deserved. They are mighty sins which we come to deplore; not only the iniquities of this place, though great and exemplary: not the sins of the great City alone, though it abound in people and wickedness, but the innumerous contagious crying sins of this Nation, of this England, for which, and whose pardon, we come to make our mournful supplication.  
Now to teach you to steer your course by a Godly instance, I lay my matter among the Servants of God in the Land of Judah, of whom I could have told you, that when they were in fear of bad Neighbours round about them, kept a general Humiliation for all the People, Nehem. ix. 1. The People fasted in sackcloth, and cast ashes upon their heads. But I know where I am: and I will rather instruct you from the Pattern of Nehemiah, called the Tirshata, a mighty Prince among the People, who was so zealous for the prosperity of his Country, that you can scarce match him, with all that went before him. Moses was the Grandfather of Israel, that brought them out of the Captivity of Egypt: Nehemiah was their Co founder or Foster father, who repaired the ruins of the Captivity of Babylon. The Text shows what he did in the beginning of his zeal, to appease the anger of the Lord. In two general parts I will discover his piety, which I call the wound of his heart, and the cure of that wound: the occasion of his humiliation, and the humiliation itself. The wound of his heart was given by evil tidings, It came to pass when I heard these words; which afflicted him two ways; first for the ruins which the Land had suffered; secondly for the impediments of its reparation. The care of the Wound consists in five degrees of humiliation. 1. He sat down; 2. He wept; 3. He mourned certain days; 4. He fasted; 5. He played before the God of Heaven. That God that gives many Medicines to heal the sickness of the Body, hath provided these sacred Remedies to heal the troubles of the Soul. I rise up now from the first step, Nehemiah was sore perplexed to hear what the Land had suffered.  
Upon which I begin with this Observation, that he was in great anguish, not for any evil which he saw, but with bad tidings, and grievous reports, as it is just before my Text, The Remnant of Israel were in great affliction and reproach, the Wall of Jerusalem was broken down, and the Gates burnt with fire. This is short and sour, yet far short of the total of their tribulation. Howsoever Nehemiah saw none of this; he was at Babylon when these Tragedies were acted at Jerusalem; he heard of their distress, but was not upon the place to behold it: yet the noise that came to his ears did strike his heart, that he sat down and wept.  
So open your bowels, and condole like Christians, when you hear of one another's miseries, though they be far from you, else God will draw them nearer. I will name the remotest to you, the mournful condition of the Servants of Christ in Hungary, Dalmatia, Greece, and Candia under the Mahometan cruelty, though these are a thousand leagues from you, yet join them close to you in your Prayers and Compassion. Let me come home; we are not upon the Seas to day with our illustrious Duke and valiant Countrymen, we are not in peril of Wracks and Storms, and roaring Canons as they are: but let our Prayers walk upon the Seas unto them, as Peter assayed to go to Christ, that as they hazard their lives for us, we offer up our Souls to God for them. To descend to lower Objects; you do not see the hard food of the Poor, his sorry Table, his dry Morsels: you do not see the comfortless Lodging and Dungeon of the Captive. These are the Blessings of Wealth and Liberty. Yea, but do you not consider it sometimes, and bewail, and extend your hand to relieve it? if not some of us may know what hunger and captivity mean, if the report of those things in others do not cause you to melt in charity. Nehemiah did not see much evil, yet the report touched him near, and he sat down and wept.  
My next Observation is, that as he did not see the evil of the Land of Judah, so he could not feel it. If all Jerusalem had been burnt to ashes it had not broke him in his fortune, nor eclipsed him in his honour. He was a Courtier in the Palace of Artaxerxes, his Cupbearer, a dignified Officer: no weeping news could diminish his greatness. Had he been a self-lover, like too many of these days, a cunning Courtier, that had no end but to provide for himself, than he would have measured all fortune by his own Last, and unless his own person had been touched, the shoe should not have wrung him. But here was one retaining to the holy Court indeed, to the Court of Heaven: his own prosperity did disrelish with him, because God's anger was upon the Land, to which he owed his life. He did like a good man, to involve himself in the public fortune. And what joy could he take in his Honours with Artaxerxes when reproach had spread upon the Country that bred him, and upon the Church of God, in which he looked for salvation? He that makes light of common danger, with tush, they are on the Seas, I am on the Land, I shall shift for one, that man is the fairest mark, at whom God will suddenly shoot with a swift arrow, because he is in love with his own security. Nehemiah could have shifted for one, but that did not content him. When it is best with ourselves, than it is safest to fear, then to seek the Lord, and to beseech him for the welfare of ourselves and others. Health, and plenty, and ease have not yet forsaken us: yet the blasts of bad rumours and presages are about us. When you hear such words it is time to mourn, and fast, and pray before the God of Heaven.  
Hitherto I have treated that Nehemiah bewailed the sufferings past, my next observation is upon another matter, that when by God's hand the repair was very hopeful, it grieved him that the mischievous attempts of envious unlucky Neighbours did all that they could to stop the remedy; which is just our case. God sent this Tirshata, this mighty man, to build up the holy City again out of the ruins under which it was covered: but it grieved their Neighbours over the next River, Chap. two. 9 (as ours are over the next Seas,) that there came a man to seek the welfare of Israel, Ver. 10. Mark their conditions who they were: Sanballat of Samaria, and Samaria had long been the nest of Rebellion. Tobiah the servant, an Ammonite, a man servile, low born, of base extraction. Geshem the Arabian: and the Arabians were great Thiefs by Land, as our Foes are Arabians upon the waters. These Samaritans, Ammonites, Arabians, (Rebels and Thiefs basely descended) maligned the prosperity of Jerusalem, when it began to flourish again under Nehemiah.  
And note their shifts, and half witted devices to oppose him: First, They fell to mocking and scoffing, Chap. iv. 1. Scurrility is to be expected from such as are bred up in the rudeness of a populacy. Secondly, At the eighth verse of the fourth Chapter they made ready to fight him: but hearing his preparations showed their teeth, and never proceeded. Thirdly, Chap. vi. 8. they raised scandalous reports against the Ruler, and the People: and how our Maligners would desame us with broaching lies, Europe, and all the world are witness. Fourthly, At the thirteenth verse of that Chapter they hired Prophets to Prophesy against Nehemiah, to put him in fear: and if we would be discouraged by such fictions, they have not been wanting. These were troubles which fell upon the noble heart of Nehemiah, to see that blessing, which God had begun by his industry, crossed and checked by an ignoble and servile Generation: So may our renowned Prince and General say, in disdain at this upstart bog of men, whose Noble Person is of more value than all their Provinces estimated at a racked value, Et mecum certasse ferentur? Unless England had given them being and a power to resist, they had not been able this day to have resisted the meanest of the Captains of my Lord the King. To dispatch this Point, though our Kingdom hath no resemblance to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, God be praised, yet our Plagues and those of Egypt have some parallel in their order. Their first Plague was the Plague of blood: so was ours; but God hath delivered us from the continual slaughters of a most impious and rebellious War. Pass from the end of the seventh Chapter of Exodus to the beginning of the eighth, the next immediately is the Plague of Frogs: So is ours croaking in the dirty ditches of the Netherlands, which by the Rod of Moses, and the Prayer of Aaron, will be sent away to remain only in their own River, Ver. 9 And when they are remanded to their own sinks and Marshes, God deliver us from the Plague of Locusts, in the Apocalypse, that overspread this Land.  
Before I shut up the sorrows of Nehemiah, I consider what will be said by some, that we are in no distress as Jerusalem was, no foreign Foe hath brought us under, the malice of an unthankful stock of men hath not so much as shaken our welfare. Our Walls are the same, which the Oracle commended to the Athenians, Walls of wood, well-built Ships, maintained and multiplied for the honour and safeguard of the Island. The Gates of Jerusalem, before they were burnt down, were their Courts of Justice: for their Elders sat in the Gate when they did right between party and party: And such Gates we have standing inviolate in their ancient dignity and privilege, that the poor may not be oppressed by him that is too mighty for him. O happy if we knew it, and were thankful, that our Walls of defence and fortitude, and our Courts of Justice are unimpaired and flourish.  
Yet for all this, as Nehemiah heard words that astonished him, so foul blasts and tempests beat sore upon our ears, which (if God help not) may drive us upon the Rocks. Where can you converse abroad and not hear such talk as may provoke a Godly man to fast, and mourn, and pray before the God of Heaven? My ears are grated with our modern Sceptics, disputants against the Creation of the world out of nothing, against the sacred authority of the Scriptures, against the immortality of the soul of man. While such dispute it sharply the Devil sits in the Chair to moderate. Such saucy, petulant, peddling wits dishonour God, and these triumphing days, wherein we live. Besides, what filthy obscene language is in the tongues of our Gallants? What customary swearing? What little reverence to that holy Name which should not be profaned in a syllable? What harmony is so sweet as to have incorrupt Religion and nothing else maintained in this Nation, so wonderfully cleansed now for the space of about one hundred and twenty years from absolute superstition? If Popery then be slicked over with cunning words: if such jet about in every corner, as will extol that Babylonish trumpery, and reproach our Reformation to our face, will it not stir us up to a public bewailment, and mourning in the sight of God? Put to these base detractions of right worthy Patriots, who deserve all honour for the present, and a glorious memory hereafter, and heap up all with malignant whisper, ungrateful murmurings, and the whole riff-raff of vain talk, are not these fore runners of a likely woe if we do not seek our heavenly Father betimes? If we do not keep in our evil tongues, God will ring his judgements into our deaf ears. And though our enemies have not a spark of goodness in them, whereby they should deserve to be Lords over us: yet there may be so much wickedness among us, that it may be our punishment to be kept under by them. I am not afraid of the puissance of other Kingdoms, for any store of virtue that I can hear is among them: the whole World is out of frame, and set upon mischief. But we may expect the heavy hand of the Lord among us where he hath sown so much pure Gospel, and reaped so little obedience. So I have passed over the first part of my Text, the cause of Nehemiahs' humiliation applied to ourselves, And it came to pass when I heard these words, etc.  
His humiliation shall now be offered to your instruction in five passes or degrees, beginning with his posture of sorrow, that he sat down. I call it a posture of sorrow: for so it is in this place. In cases of great heaviness it doth not signify to repose the body in a seat of ease, but to sink down to the ground, and to sit upon the earth. His legs could not bear the weight of his sorrows, and he cast himself upon the ground. You shall have some Texts of Scripture to confirm it. Job overladen with misery sat down among the ashes, Chap. two. 8. The King of Ninivey in dread of God's anger, rose up from his Throne, covered himself with Sackcloth, and sat in ashes, Jon. iii 6. And when the evil day of Captivity was coming, the Daughter of Zion sat upon the ground, Lam. two. 10. So that in the first place you see Nehemiah began at the right end, abasing himself to this vile Element, upon which we tread, and expounding the Lords word in his own practice, Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.  
In the seasons of joy and prosperity it is hard to bring a man into a right meditation what he is. Then his imaginations are upon a Pinnacle, or he is flying in the air. I hope therefore you will take out this Lesson better a great deal upon this day of common affliction. Now I trust you will perceive that this Tabernacle of flesh in all the spangles and trappings of pride is but a muckhill, or such rubbish as we stop our nose at in the dung cart: or at the best, that which the cleanly will not endure in their Chambers, dust. Therefore affliction is most natural to us, which brings us to our proper Centre, and makes us sit upon the earth. As who should say, we are but Worms creeping upon the ground, enter not into judgement with thy servants, who are nothing in thy sight. O where can we find so fit a place to receive us, considering the abundance of iniquity which is in us, as the bare ground? Is there any pure metal in us? Are we not all dross? And whither should that be cast but into the high ways? Do we not dishonour the name of Christian, and turn the grace of God to wantonness? And if the salt have lost his savour, is it good for any thing but to be cast out and trodden under foot?  
But alas, we are ill prepared for this godly exercise of affliction: There is no thought in this Age of sitting down upon the ground. Our ears are deaf to our Saviour's Lesson, Luk. xiv. 10. Go and sit down in the lowest room. That is a Parable, and we lust not to know the meaning. David says, Psal. xl. 2. Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, that I am not able to look up: but our iniquities do take such hold upon us, ●hat we do nothing but look up. Was ever ambition so forward as in these times? What striving, what streining to come aloft? Yet if aspiring after Promotion brought no other mischief but this one to the soul, it were enough to condemn it, that it carries a man into a strange Land, quite into another Region, far distant from humility, or from godly sorrow and repentance: It knows not the way to sit down and to be dejected to the earth; and yet to none else but such will our Saviour say, Friend go up higher.  
Another observation on this Point is, that when sorrows came huddling upon Nehemiah, and fell as thick as hail, he sat down, which is an evidence of patience, that he submitted himself under the hand of the Lord. It is our modern phrase to express the humour of a man, who struggles to repel an injury, that he will not sit down by it. But this servant of the Lord in my Text had no quarrel against the providence of his Maker, let the cup of judgement be never so bitter, which he was to drink; he was quiet and sat down. He knew we are all as clay in the hand of the Potter, and shall the Vessel say to him that framed it, what makest thou? God's judgements are wonderful and unsearchable sometimes, they are never unjust. And what fruit can the stubborn reap by endeavouring to break their chains? What hath it ever profited them to challenge the Lord in the bitterness of their discontent? What have they got by cursing, murmuring, and repining▪ no other, than to make the furnace of tribulation seven times hotter. As it is best for the Child, and for the Mother, when the birth stays the due time before it be born: So let us not struggle and toss about to ease ourselves in a time of infelicity: our redress will be most facile, and fair, when the Lord bringeth it to pass at his good pleasure. If you think to be delivered sooner by quarrelling, violence, commotion, it will prove an abortive remedy. If you long to have things better, when they are ill, tarry for the Lord, sit down, and mourn: be humble, obedient, keep a good conscience, girt Nehemiahs' patience unto you, sit down and be still.  
A third instruction upon this Point is, that to sit down is to muse, and to consider sadly of that which is brought before us. So Nehemiah sat down to call his soul to counsel, he intermitted all worldly business, and composed himself to think of the Judgements of God. It is well that the Royal Piety hath called us together to day upon so good an occasion. Here is a Senate of God's Servants gathered together in this holy place, and in all other houses of God throughout this Realm. Now we are set to it, to call our ways to remembrance, to revolve in our mind, both every one a part, how far we have corrupted our ways: And likewise have taken this pause of time, and sequestered ourselves from all secular affairs to take a considerate view upon the sins of the Kingdom, how near we are in all likelihood to relapse into some great troubles, because the fear of the Lord is not much conspicuous among any sorts of men.  
Are our Peers and Nobles renowned for their advancement and protection of true honour and virtue, as their great Ancestors have been? Sat down, and think upon it. The Reverend Sages of the Law, are their minds set upon righteousness? And do they judge the thing that is right with courage and integrity? Sat down and think upon it. The portion and Tribe of God, the holy Clergy, do they remember, or can they forget, how they were lately trodden down, reviled, and cast out of all they had for twenty years? And doth it stir us up to be burning and shining lights more than ever? And to double our diligence now in Prayer, in Preaching, and administering the holy Sacraments? Sat down and think upon it. For the Gentry, are they not addicted to waste and riot; Do they not crowd themselves into our enlarged Suburbs, where they have no Calling, but to emulate one another in excess of feminine Pride, and rude debauchery? Sat down and think upon it. As for what concerns the great City, not to rub it with salt and Satyrs, is it not as palpable as God's light, that it did poison the whole Land with Rebellion, and still infects it with Gaudiness, Gluttony, Whoredoms, and Falsehoods? Sat down and think upon it. Do the Country Villages deserve the old commendations of simplicity and innocency? But how ignorant are they in the knowledge of Salvation? How unthankful to God in all seasons? How hath Satan bewitched them of late years into dissolute lives, and drunkenness? Sat down and think upon it. I pass over many things in silence, as not fit for publication.  
Now though I have shown you an Ocean of ungodliness breaking in upon us, who almost, unless such an extraordinary day as this doth spur them on, who doth consider it and muse upon it with a leisurable sorrow? The most will shake their heads at it, and give it a shrug, and then they are at their furthest. There is all the regard they have, when the sins of an whole Nation look as if they were white for harvest. It is too tedious for them to sit down, to cast up a solicitous account, to survey the parcels of our crimes, to cast them up into a total sum, as much as is possible. This is too long labour for them, who are very busy a doing nothing. They will sit down, as the Israelites did, to eat, and to drink, and rise up to play. Whereas the beginning of true repentance is to allot some time day by day, for considering our own works seriously, and the criminal faults of the whole Land. Grant some good hours for the serious understanding of those things, and run not away lightly from such holy thoughts, but possess Nehemiahs' room, sit down, and ponder the Judgements of the Lord.  
It follows in the second branch of his penitential carriage, that the sins, and desolation of Jerusalem wrought upon him so far that he wept. Perhaps some sturdy spirit will say, Mulier quid ploras? Woman, what ailest thou to weep? A manly courage thinks shame of it. Nay, Infans quid ploras? It is childish, as some conceive, to put the finger into the eye. Indeed, Quid potest infans nisi plorare? How can a Child help itself when it is offended but by crying? But when our heavenly Father is offended, it is a sweet sign of grace to demean ourselves like Children, and cry. Except you become as little children you cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven. Mat. xviii. 3. Nay, says David, I have brought my soul low like a weaned Child, Psal. cxxxi. 2. and yet he no coward. He became as a Child, and not such a one as hath the breast, and is still, but a weaned Child, taken from the comforts (and lullabies) of the Nurse, and then you know it will burst into tears.  
True repentance, you see, abhors all stubbornness, and obstinate resolutions; it abates its fortitude, it melts in the sight of God. Is not this much more religious than to have Nerves of Adamant, and an heart of brass? A stomach that is insensible of the divine wrath is a symptom of madness, and not of courage. There is one in the Gospel so strong that none could hold him, no not the Chains wherewith he was tied, but he broke them asunder. Now this unhappy person of whom I speak was possessed with a Devil, Mar. v. 4. The same evil spirit is entered into those robustious men, who esteem them dastards who quake at the threatenings of the Law, and faint at the terrors of death and judgement to come. No fetters of Religious fear will hold them. Are not these Sons of Anack mighty Giants? And we that tremble and weep at the guilt of our sins, are we not as Grasshoppers in their sight?  
You cannot be of that mind if you consider, that it is not strength in the wicked, but madness, to carry themselves stubbornly before an infinite and omnipotent Majesty. Gregory the Great is copious in a whole Sermon upon this subject, that there is no such weakness as the fortitude of Reprobates. Says he, out of the Prophet Isaiah, they are strong to drink Wine, and mighty to pour in strong drink: Is not that a weakness? Ad inanem gloriam cum discrimine vitae perveniunt; They will uphold their reputation in frivolous quarrels with the hazard of their lives, nay, with the hazard of their salvation, and is not that a weakness? They will endure attendants, scorns, base Offices for favour: They will travel by Sea and Land, in perils of Thiefs, in perils of Wa●ers for the hope of Riches. That is more than I can do, says Gregory, for this world's good, Profectò ego non sum tam fortis in ejus desiderio. I am not so hardy to suffer so much for these transitory things. Lastly, Says he, Contra flagella conditoris insensibiliter perdurant, God threatens them, and they do not weep; he corrects them, and they do not feel it. There is a numb Palsy in their conscience. I may truly say they are dust, Nullus pulvis est tam pulvis: There is no moisture in them, no living sap in their root; if there were any thing of the life of grace in them they could not be so stupid. Gregory concludes this Doctrine with a good distinction, Reprobi sunt debiliter fortes, boni sunt valenter infirmi; Reprobates have great infirmity in their fortitude, the Children of God have great fortitude in their infirmity. Therefore it is more than manly, it is Saintlike, Apostolical, Prophetical to weep, because we have grieved the holy Spirit of God with our iniquities.  
It is Apostolical by the instance of St. Paul, Phil. iii 18. There are many that walk, of whom I have told you before, and now I tell you weeping, they are enemies to the Cross of Christ. Even those superstitious ones that fall down before the sign of the Cross, they are enemies to the Cross. Many of them walk among us, too many God help it: their Idols and Images, I fear, will bring a curse upon the Land. If St. Paul were alive, he would tell us weeping, that they are enemies to the Redemption obtained by Christ. And weeping for sin is Prophetical. Jeremy was never satisfied with weeping for the deplorable state of the Jews: O that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, Chap. ix. 1. Et quid nisi vota supersunt? The most that we can do is to wish for such a tender and compassionate soul. It is to be wished, I say, but few there be that can overcome themselves to perform it. As Leo said of his days, men are little touched with any thing that God doth to us in his Justice or his Mercy. Nec de correctione compungimur, nec de remissione laetamur. We have neither spiritual joy, when God forgives us our sins: nor penitent compunction, when he corrects us for our sins.  
Whence comes this hardness of heart? Hath Mary Magdalen left none of her generation behind her? Says the Son of Syrach, 
Ecclus. 31.13.  What is created more wicked than the eye? Therefore it weeps upon every occasion. Upon every occasion it is ready to shed moisture, but not upon the best occasion: for when will it weep for its own transgressions, because it hath been wanton and full of lust? As a Widow that did not love her Husband will follow his Coarse with dry eyes to his burial: So Christ is the Husband of every soul, which he hath espoused to him in Baptism: If your sins grieve him, and provoke him to depart from you, either lament it with many tears, or the case is plain that you never loved him. But the Devil hath turned the River of our tears the wrong way. A vain Interlude, a Fable upon the Stage represented in due action will make the soft Spectator to wet his handkerchief. So the River is diverted from its natural channel: for when we are put in mind of the damnableness of our sins, our cheeks are as sear as the Mountains of Gilboa, upon which no drop of dew did fall.  
Do you wonder at yourselves, and ask the reason of this? Philosophy will tell you, that love is stronger than hatred, and hath more command of our passions. We have tears in readiness to bewail the death of our dear friends, love hath such power over our tender affections: but when we are upon mortification to deplore and hate our sins, the drops of our eyes are not so easily commanded. And this is marvellous in Nature, that you shall sooner see fire spark out of our eyes in hot desire of revenge, than tears which are most proper to the eye for our grievous sins.  
But will Philosophy assist us with no better reason? Then hear Divinity, which will tell you the truth. It is presumption, rank presumption, that will not let our shallow repentance go on unto tears. We are not altogether persuaded that God is in earnest, when he threatens what manifold woes he will bring upon us for our rebellions. That desperate courage which we assume to ourselves upon great likelihood of impunity is that which mitigates our sorrow, and suffers it not to break forth into any great measure of lamentation: We dream that the blood of Christ is medicinal even for impenitent sinners. Thus Satan kills us with that Balm which is distilled out of his wounds to cure us. But keep your faith from these impostures, and fawn of the evil one: who would make you laugh yourselves to death, like those that are bitten with the Tarantula. The Stag, when he is at the bay, and knows there is no way but death for him, falls a weeping. And are we not surer that no tittle of God's minacies shall fail, than if we were at bay, with the Stag, and ready to be plucked down? Believe that God is a severe Judge, and that all his threatenings are true, that there is a day to come, when there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And when you fear this indeed, than you will practise my Doctrine without teaching. If any great sickness hold you, that you think death is at hand, than your eyes will pay the tribute of sorrow to the Lord; then Hezekiah chatters like a Swallow: the day of trial begins to be nearly discerned. But how much better is it to do this in your health, and before your strength faileth? There is nothing more sorrowful to the Devil than the godly sorrow of the Saints: When his tentations come upon you, open the floodgates, let in the sluices, and drown them. The Ark was made to float upon the Waters when the wicked world was drowned: So the true Church of Christ shall be carried in safety upon the streams of devout tears. Weep and lament the evil days that are past, and be comforted that there is an Age, an Eternity to come, when God will wipe away all tears from our eyes.  
Onward now to the next Point, the third part of that remedy which Nehemiah used to cure the wound of a troubled soul; says he, I mourned certain days. The heavenly water which fell from his eyes brought forth no weeds, but sad and serious Repentance which ejected all light joy. The Israelites in their days of distress had some outward badges of mourning, as covering the head and lip, not washing the face, not combing the hair, putting on Sackcloth, or other sad raiment, or such like. Which whether they were to be seen in Nehemiah, as I cannot affirm, so I will not deny: for I incline to persuade myself, that he wanted not those outward marks and habilements of sorrow, that the habit, and grizly uncomposedness of his body might utter the affections of his mind.  
But that which pleased God was the sorrow of the Heart, and not of the Garment: It is the distress of the soul with inward anguish, that knocks at heaven for mercy: and comfort will sooner shine upon them that cover themselves with darkness, and will not be comforted. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted, Mat. v. 4. It is not a punishment, but a gift of God, to be endued with godly sorrow. And all his gifts put together make a treasure of felicity. Cum te video in conspectu Domini suspirantem, spiritum sanctum non dubito aspirantem, Cyprian de caenâ Domini. When I see thee breath out sighs upon earth, I discern that God hath breathed into thee his holy Spirit from heaven. Now the same Spirit took on him the shape of a Dove, when he came down from heaven to sit upon our Saeviour at his Baptism. It is impossible to teach a Dove to sing a cheerful note: for Nature hath ingraffed in her a solemn mourning, Gemitum pro cantu: it doth not sing like other birds, but groan; and it is the Spirit that puts afflictive thoughts into our Spirit with groans unutterable.  
O hang up the Harps of mirth for a while, and let them remain untuned: Lament the days wherein we have provoked the Lord to give us nothing but lamentation. You never read that God will honour your joy to keep it in his everlasting remembrance, but you are sure he will not forget your mourning, says David, Psal. lvi. 8. Thou tellest my flitting, put my tears into thy Bottle, are not these things noted in thy Book? Nor doth he merely bear them in mind, and keep them in his Register, but Figuratively, as some interpret it, he wears them upon his head, for says Christ, Cant. v. 2. My head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night: as if he wore the tears of our mourning like drops of Pearl upon his head. Dry eyes, and unrelenting hearts are the curse of God, as it is Ezek. xxiv. 23. You shall not mourn, nor weep, but ye shall pine away for your iniquities. Do you love to be heightened in your pleasures? To be always conversant in joy and voluptuousness? Would you never be wrinced with any sorrow for your sins? O what a mischief is this which you long for? If you do not mourn at some seasons, if you do not fall into pious contristation, you shall pine away in your iniquities.  
I may not forget the continuance of Nehemiahs' mourning, it lasted certain days. As a watery Moon breeds foul weather for an whole month after: So when he began to be a mourner for the sins and scourges of his people, he persevered till it came to some magnitude of afflictive compunction. Nothing will come to any large increase in an hour, therefore he produced his sorrow longer and longer, and mourned certain days. Not first a sigh, and suddenly a flux of laughter upon it; not humbled in fasting to day, and pampering the body in all excess and riot to morrow. Are there none here that will be so fickle and change so soon? God grant it. For a short acquaintance with godliness is soon forgotten. He that catcheth at Repentance by sudden fits will never lay hold of it. Insist upon good motions, protract them to day, and to morrow, and continue many such days together, that Piety may have its perfect course. When you will scarce hold out the length of an hour, nay, hardly the length of the Lords Prayer, but your mind is drawn off from the survey of Repentance, you have done as good as nothing. They that first did distribute apt times and seasons in the Church for the Service of God, contrived forty days together in Lent for religious sorrow and humiliation; a long time of perseverance indeed, that we might be perfect in the Lesson. As Moses continued forty days together in the Mount, that he might be perfect in the Law of the Lord. All that I bend towards in my instruction is this: That forasmuch as we have but this one day allotted for our exercise of extraordinary Prayer and Mortification, the benefit may dispread unto to morrow, and the morrow after, and so spin it out, that we may keep time with Nehemiah, and say we have mourned certain days.  
But why hath he not expressed how long he continued in this sad habit of repentance; I mourned certain days: and wherefore are his certain days so uncertain? Because he did not keep reckoning with God, and take a precise account how much service he did him: as the Pharisee had it at his finger's ends, I fast twice a week: and as the most are perfect to number their few good deeds, I give so much yearly to the poor, I frequent the holy Communion so often: I go now and then on working days to morning Prayer. And perhaps before night some will break out into boasting, how many hours they have spent at Church upon this solemn Fast. This is to serve God by weight and measure, and to score up every good minute we have spent, lest the Lord should forget it. But Nehemiah doth not make ostentation of the just length of time, which he spent in devotion and sorrow, but closeth it up indefinitely in this manner, I mourned certain days.  
And this mourning drew on another exercise of religious affliction, which denominates the Piety of this day, He fasted. It is very proper that this partner should go hand in hand with mourning. I wept and chastened myself with fasting, says David. A pensive mind will seldom have a hungry stomach: True sorrow will make a man forget to eat his bread. Some will not deny that there is an harmony between Fasting and Mourning not to be broken, but they cannot abide to come under the penance of Fasting, and then they shut mourning out of doors because it wants its Mate. But the Libertine maunders, Fasting, what is that to the advantage of Repentance? The Kingdom of Heaven is not meat and drink. If we eat, we are not the worse: and if we eat not, we are not the better. And what God hath given us freely, why is our liberty abridged, that we may not use it when we will?  
I answer, None is more firmly enfeoffed of any thing than the Husband is of the Wife, and the Wife of the Husband: And yet they may keep asunder with consent for a time, that they may give themselves to Fasting and Prayer, 1 Cor. seven. 5. So the Lord hath given us the earth, and the fullness of it: but it is expedient sometimes, as on this day, to abstain from meats, that the Spirit may be the stronger to work by the subjection of the body. It is a means, both upon the extraordinariness of it, to make us look exactly into the bottom of our conscience, as also to elevate the mind, and to make it more capable of heavenly thoughts. As we see it in St. Peter, he fasted, and fell into a trance, and saw that Vision, happy for us, the calling of the Gentiles, Act. x. So Daniel eat no pleasant bread, nor drank Wine for three weeks, and he was the better composed for those Prophetical Revelations which were imparted to him, Dan. x. 2. It is not the bare abstinence from meats, take it alone by itself, that pleaseth God: but as it is in conjunction with other holy duties: as to dispose the body to Chastity, and to heighten up the mind to the contemplation of heavenly things. That you may know the right Fast from the wrong, there are three to one in whom there is no profit at all. Jejunat justus, mendicus, hypocritá, parcus, says the old verse. 1. The Hypocrite abstains from meats, and looks sadly, not that he may cast himself down before God, but that he may exalt his name among men. 2. The Niggard fasts, and torments his body to spare his Purse. 3. The poor man fasts, because he hath not wherewithal to relieve his hunger. These are not within the compass of Religion. But fourthly the devour man fasts, to give his soul the true bias of penance and mourning, and to testify before heaven and earth, that nothing shall comfort him but the mercy of God, whom he hath offended.  
I will come to particularise in the Sphere of our Nation. First, if there were no other sin among us (but woe and alas we abound with a great deal more) but if we had no other fault, yet the strange intolerable luxury brought in in these consuming days, the great mystery of Cookery, utterly unknown to the laudable hospitality of our forefathers; this wanton, aromatical Ambergriece-diet (what should I call it?) Doth it not deserve to be expiated by a Public Fast? Doth it not require that we should set aside all manner of food for one day till Even? As good men and temperate were ashamed to eat for necessity, because costly Palates are so profusely lavish in superfluity. Let us confess, and declare in act, that we deserve not that which God hath given us: let us subscribe by this humiliation, that we have forfeited that right and dominion which we had in the Creatures, and that we are not worthy so much as to gather up the Crumbs under our Master's Table.  
Secondly, We dwell in a Land, upon which the heaven doth cast its most propitious influence: it is the true Ganaan of the Western world, flowing with so much plenty, that I have oftener heard it grumbled at, that it brought forth too much, than that it brought forth too little. Either it brings forth all manner of store, or all manner of store by commodious Navigation is brought into it. Ex te provenient, vel aliunde tibi. And how unthankful have we been for this most bounteous sustenance? How slack in our acknowledgement, that God hath opened the windows of heaven to rain down plenty upon us? Is it not fit therefore that we should do justice upon ourselves, forbear, and touch no more food, until we have sanctified a Fast, and made an atonement for our ingratitude, and pressed it upon ourselves to be more thankful?  
Thirdly, The poor and needy have been neglected by us: They have been almost famished when we have surfeited: and they have wanted that which the rich men's Dogs have devoured. O therefore chastise your bodies with hunger at this once, that you may avenge the injuries which you have done to the poor upon your own flesh. Cornelius the Centurton fasted and gave Alms: whereupon, says St. Austin, Cornelius, when himself fasted, fed others who had no meat, that their replenishing might make his Fast the more acceptable to God. So this day you must feed the poor out of your own bellies, and whatsoever you spare from your meal, spend it on them, and you shall feed your Saviour in them.  
And as ●asting is a pious occasion, thereby to ask pardon of God for our Gluttony, our unthankfulness to God, our hard heartedness to the poor, so fourthly I would it might work some good amendment upon our most scandalous drunkenness. I pro●e●s I have little hope that that sin is corrigible among us. For I believe verily I make my account right, that we spend three hundred Cups of Wine in these days in this Kingdom for one that, was spent when I was a Child. Therefore ●o dehort from this debauchery, I shall but put new wine into old bottles, religious instruction before old unreclaimable Drunkards. These bottles are stopped, and will never receive my Doctrine. They had rather be Swine than Men, Horseleeches that are always sucking at corruption. He that cares not by over quaffing himself to lose his reason, the most precious thing that is in the soul of man, he is so drowned in intemperance, that till he hates that Vice, and casts it off, he deceives himself if he thinks he can set any true valuation upon the grace of God. But O that this holy Fast might reclaim those in this most conspicuous place or the whole Kingdom, who are prone to be overwhelmed in the dead Sea of drink! That you would fear lest God should take you away when you are so pitifully overtaken! That you would remember how they who inflame themselves with Wine now shall hereafter want a drop of water to cool their tongues in hell fire.  
Yet for all those who forget themselves in that, or in any other manner, we keep this Public Fast to remember God in their behalf. Publicum jejunium est solemnis professio reatus, they are the words of Calvin; To call a Public Fast is to draw a solemn profession from the tongues of all men, in the behalf of all men. So do we for those who out of stubbornness, and frivolous exceptions against our Liturgy, will not join with us in this Church duty: So we do for those, who out of blindness in a superstitious breeding, had rather mutter they know not what in an unknown Tongue, than pray with us in that Language wherein they may be comforted and edified: So we do for those, who out of profaneness, and Atheism, think not of these things, and have no affection to bear a part in common Supplications. We fast for all these to day as for ourselves, desiring God, as it is in our Litany, that he will have mercy upon all men. The sick that desire to join with us in Prayer, and cannot come: Infants and Sucklings, whose tongues are not yet framed to magnify the Lord, we represent all these, and include them in our faithful and charitable Supplications; for ourselves, and for all these, we pray to our heavenly Father, that as we spread not our Table this Noon, so he will fit us against Night to eat our meal with a good conscience, with confidence and comfort that he hath restored us to all his blessings again: And though we have been Prodigal Children, yet we shall be brought into our Father's house to eat the bread of life, and the fatted Calf, even Jesus Christ. A Fast is commonly the Eve before some Holiday: and I pray to God that this Public Fast may be such, the Eve, or forerunning day to joyful times to come: and so it will be if, as sure as this is a Fast, the time to come be observed with all diligence as holy to the Lord.  
And now in the conclusion of all, that you may know that Nebemiah fulfilled all righteousness for Jerusalem's sake, when so many exercises of humiliation had gone before, in the upshot he prayed before the God of heaven. Weeping, and Mourning, and Fasting are about Prayer like prickles about a Rose. But as no sweet Rose is without prickles, so no powerful Prayer is without these, or some of these. But this is the Rose, this is the flower of Religion, this is the Odour of sweet Incense, that ascends up before the Lord. Ibi nuntius noster oratio mandatum per agit, quò caro pervenire non potest, says St. Austin; It delivers our Message like an Ambassador in the Sanctuary of God, whither corruptible flesh and blood cannot enter. For as the Winds and Air have free access unto those places which are immured and watched that no foot of man can approach unto them: So though a Cherubin brandish a flaming Sword before Paradise, that the Seed of mortal man cannot come to it without destruction; yet our Prayers are Spirits and Angels that fly upon the wings of the wind, and come boldly to that place where God is wonderful in light inaccessible. A poor whelp hath found out a way by nature to lick itself whole with its tongue when it is bitten, or wounded: So when we are oppressed with any evil of sin, or of punishment, our tongue is our instrument to lick the sore. Call upon the Lord in the time of trouble, and he will hear thee and help thee.  
Yet very much goes to it to make Prayer speeding and effectual. Go unto the House of the Lord as often as you can, and join in humble Petition with the Spirit of the whole Church, with the Congregation of Saints: and bring your mind with you as well as your body, your zeal as well as your voice. Observe your constant times of private Prayer, at least every Morning and every Evening (if oftener the better.) Cast yourself upon your knees with a resolved preparation to be a faithful, a penitent, an earnest Supplicant: Intermit not this practice for any worldly avocation, either to serve yourself, or to serve your friends, and I can tell you this will bring such admirable effects to pass, when you have got the habit and perseverance of that virtue, as I durst not name, but that the Spirit of God hath got assurance of it. It will give you knowledge of divine things, when you will wonder how you learned them: It will pick the thorns of Concupiscence out of your flesh, when you will marvel how you were rid of them: It will give you courage in dangers, when there is small hope to escape: And content, when desire is not obtained: And cheerfulness, when every thing that should procure joy is far from you. It is grace and peace, health and wealth, and every good thing that concerns this life and a better. Only ask, seek, and knock: ask with confidence, seek with diligence, knocb with perseverance. No Father if his Child ask him bread will give him a stone, or if he ask a fish will give him a Scorpion. If they that are evil give good things, how much more will your heavenly Father? If we ask him Victory, he will not give us a Defeat: If we ask him Peace, he will not give us continuance of War: If we ask him for Justice, he will not give us Oppression: If we ask him for the continuance of true Religion, he will not give us Idolatry and Superstition. But ask zealously, faithfully, devoutly, with love unfeigned, with a clean heart, as becometh Saints. For if you ask amiss, you shall go without.  
Look towards the pattern of Nehemiah: he was one of great integrity, and uprightness, and therefore fit to carry the Petitions of all the people in his lips to God. He prayed before God, not like an Hypocrite to be seen of men. He set God always before him, assured that he was present to hear his words, and to see his ways. But they that have the itch of the Pharisees, to draw the eyes of men upon them, the Lord will turn away his face, and reject their Prayers. He prayed before the God of heaven, he did not pray to the Saints in heaven. No, says Friar Walden, we confess that none of the just men in the Old Testament did ever pray to any Saint departed, partly because the souls of the righteous were not admitted unto the Vision of God in heaven before Christ by his Ascension did open the Kingdom of heaven to all believers. Even as much then as now, for aught he knows, and how much or how little either then or now, it is hard for him or us to know. But his second reason is, that the Jews were kept from the custom of praying to Saints, lest they should run into Idolatry. I thank him for that caution, for that mis led practice of praying to Saints is a symptom of Idolatry. Let us direct our Petitions to the Lord alone, in whom we have assurance that he doth hear us, and will help us. I have said unto the Lord thou art my God, hear the voice of my Prayer O Lord, Psal. xl. 6. Is there any Precept in Scripture that gives the least perfunctory admonition to pray to Saints? None. Is there any example in the Book of God of any of his Servants that did it? None. The rich Glutton was a Reprobate that called out of hell upon Abraham. Is there any Promise annexed to invocation of Saints that God will bless it? None. Then happy are they that keep close to the Religion of Nehemiah, who prayed before the God of heaven.  
I have held you long, and will dispatch now with a few auspicious words. Auspicious, I say, because they come from the heart, the hope, the comfortable persuasion of one, though a mean one, that hath sought the Lord. We are met to day like Nehemiah before the God of heaven, before the God of the Waters above the heaven, before the God of the Seas, and of the Earth, and of all dry places. God will bless us, and go out with our most magnanimous Prince, with our Fleet and Host, for the justness of our Cause, helped with strong Faith, fervent Prayer, reformed lives, united minds, and religious ends.  
First, The ground of confidence is the justness of the Cause. Unless any would think it fit to have the Lion sleep while Water-rats pull him by the Mane. Every private Subject may appeal to Law for redress of his injuries: there is a Magistrate set over him to do him right. A King, being immediately Supreme under God, cannot plead before an earthly Tribunal. Surely if he receive wrong by Foreign ill-willers his case is not more remediless than the meanest Subjects. A Treaty is a formal course of Arbitration; it hath no absolute power to command that to be straight which was crooked before. Therefore it is left to a King to do himself right by his Sword against the provocation of his enemies. To wage War is a felicity to ill Princes, and sometimes a necessity to the good.  
Secondly, The courage of a Warrior is a strong Faith. Let me apply unto it, Ephes. vi. 16. Take ye the shield of Faith, and it will quench the fiery Darts; and why not the fiery shot of the wicked? And cover you with the Helmet of Salvation. If you would not have the Seas make a noise and roar, believe that Christ is in the same Ship with you, and that he is awake, and not asleep in the hinder part: But if ye distrust, he will rebuke you, and say, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Every steadfast faith is charged like a Canon, and will do as great execution upon our Aggressors. The Heathen themselves are Witnesses to us, that a Legion of Christians, marching in the Army with Marcus Aurelius, by their Faith in Christ, and Prayer, obtained great Thunder and Lightning, which utterly routed the Host that came against them, and that Legion was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the thundering Legion for an whole Age after. And I am confident we have many such thundering Faiths among the Regiments of the Royal Fleet.  
Thirdly, Be fervent and uncessant in Prayer. As Moses held up his hands to the going down of the Sun, when Joshuah fought, and vanquished Amalek, Exod. xvii. 12. My heart rejoiceth within me, when I consider how many Congregations are in Prayer this day to crave victorious success, about ten thousand. Why it is as if so many Ships were equipped to be added to the gallant Argosies of his Majesties upon the Seas, who cry aloud to God for the long felicity of the King in this, and in all his enterprises, for the welfare of the Realm, the prosperity of the Army, and particularly, that God will be the Anchor to keep our Anchor firm and sure.  
Fourthly, O that the reformation of our lives may go together with our Prayers. They are the works of Justice, Temperance, Mortification, that will make us strong, and our Enemies feeble. Then our Fasts shall famish them, our tears shall drown them, and our Repentance shall condemn them. As for Lust, Riot, Swearing, Libertinism, let them not be named among the Chieftains, nor among the meanest Boat-swains. Let our enemies be such flashy ill-framed Christians. It is a pious, undefiled, chaste conversation that will be an invincible Bulwark about this fortunate Island. If riotous sins rise out of evil manners, they are worse than Capers, and Skippers, than the Devil and all his Instruments.  
Fifthly, Minds and hearts united are a brave advantage to the present Service. And that is apparent, that both Houses of Parliament have made this the Cause of the whole Nation, and provided liberally for the Pay and Reward of the Enterprise. It is the felicity of our King David, the man after Gods own heart, and the man after the People's own heart, that he bowed the heart of Israel as the heart of one man, 2 Sam. nineteen. 14. Yet I cannot dissemble it with you, that many of the Nobles of Judah, when Nehemiah was so careful for them, turned recreants, sent Letters to Tobiah, and kept intelligence with him, Chap. vi. 17. Those that be like him are Vultures, who, when two Armies are to encounter, flutter about the place, to watch upon what side most will be slain, that they may pray upon the reaking Carcases. If there be any such Vultures among us I will read them their doom. The story is in Socrates, lib. 6. c. There was War between Theodosius and the strong Rebel Maximus. Theophilus, a cunning Gipsy, (for he was an Alexandrian born) writes two fawning Letters, one to Theodosius, the other to Maximus, and sent them by his Servant Isidore, with a great Sum of Gold, to present that to him that got the Victory. A Soldier, looking for a booty in Isidores Knapsack, while he slept, happened to find both the Letters, and gave them both to Theodosius, who defeated Maximus. You may imagine what became of Isidore, whose Carcase was made a prey to Vultures on a Gibbet, because he was a Spy to halt on both sides. So God detect them to their confusion, who are as double-minded as that Egyptian.  
Lastly, A laudable and virtuous end crowns all. Now what end do we propound to ourselves in our common Supplications to day? No doubt it is, that, violence and injustice being suppressed by War we may live in peace. For if Peace be not the end of War it is barbarous immanity, as in the Turkish Crescent. But the next question is the more principal, what end do we propound to ourselves upon the settlement of Peace? Why, to enjoy the fruits of it thankfully to God's glory. Blessed are the People whose hearts are so affected. I will promise them the Palm of Victory in this life, and Eternal mercy hereafter. But if you desire Trade may flourish and be opulent, that you may fill your Cups fuller, throw away heaps of Gold in Gaming, shine in Jewels, swim in Luxury, you may pray till the Sun go down, and rise again, and God will never hear you. Or if you mean, when your Foes are subdued abroad, to oppress those whom you hate and malign at home, you shall neither thrive abroad nor at home. Pyrrho haec & Samnitibus. I can wish our Enemies no greater harm than such corrupted minds. That Pyrrhus (it is in Plutarch) was a rambling Warrior, and cared not whom he oppressed. Says Cyneas to him, his best Counsellor, Shall we live thus always? No, says Pyrrhus, when we have vanquished the Romans, Compotabimus, & in otio vivemus; We will drink stoutly, and live merrily. His Horse would have said as much, if he could have spoken, that when his service was done he would stand in the Stable, and eat his Provender. But the end of War is Peace, and the end of Peace is to die unto Sin, and to live unto Righteousness.  
These are the last words I have to say now: In the justness of our Cause, confidence of Faith, fervour of Prayer, amendment of our Lives, United Hearts, and in our Religious and Noble ends, we commend our most serene and excellent Admiral, the whole Royal and gallant Expedition, which he manageth, to God. In whom alone is our help: For there is none that fights for us powerfully and irresistably but only thou O God. To which God, etc.   

A SERMON UPON PROV. iii 3. 
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee.   
THE Children of Israel were exhorted from their Prophet Moses to write the Law upon the Posts of their doors, and to have Copies of it in the Fringes of their Garments; as if the whole Land of Jury had been bound into one Sacred Volume to make a Bible for them. This was Mandatum latissimum, as David said, a Commandment exceeding broad; but a Proverb being by the very interpretation of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as St. Basil says, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a acquaint speech used in every street of the City, and every high way of the field, it is more vulgar and common than the Law itself, that thou mayst be unexcusable O man when his words are gone forth into the ends of the world. Now in this brief essay which I have read unto you as the Heathen were wont to set up the Image of Mercury, in the turnings of highways to direct Passengers their journey, which was called Mercurialis acervus, so King Solomon in these words hath reared up a Pillar in the broad way to instruct our ignorance, which is ready to turn aside, and wander like the lost sheep, that whithersoever we set our face we keep this Via Regia, the King's high way. Let not, etc.  
Mercy and truth, so excellent a workmanship that I reverse what I said before, it is not like a Pillar set up for an heathen Idol, but rather Solomon hath made a new Cherubin for a new Temple, a Cherubin with two wings stretched out upon our soul. The wings are Mercy and Truth, which either bear up the body to heaven, as David says, My soul flieth unto the Lord before the morning watch, I say before the morning watch: Or if it grow laden with sin, that so great a burden cannot be supported, these wings can fly away alone, these virtues will be gone like Elias in his fiery Chariot, for a wounded Conscience who can bear it? But if it be true that Tertullian says, Omnis spiritus ales est; Every Spirit is winged to fly, much more let the Spirit of every regenerate man be this Avis Paradisi, that our soul may say as David, the Sparrow hath found her a nest, and the Swallow a place to lay her young ones, even thine Altar O Lord of Hosts, and being thus fledged Mercy and Truth shall not forsake us.  
Out of which words I collect these parts in order. The first wing of a Christian soul is Mercy. He shall protect me under his wings, and I shall be safe under his feathers, so God was merciful unto David, and mercy is a Wing. Secondly, The next that answers unto it is Truth. For the word of the Lord is that flying roll which Ezekiel saw, and the Word of the Lord is the truth it self, so that Truth is a wing. Thirdly, Note their conjunction, Mercy and Truth, they are coupled together: Mercy and Truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other; they met long ago in Christ the head, and we must not part them in his members. Fourthly, You must know that we may be so careless in our holy Profession that we may be stripped of all the good endowments which we had, Mercy and Truth may forsake us, and then say we had them. Lastly, If we look to our part, the gifts of God are without repentance, ne deserant, let them not depart, there is a careful way whereby we may imp these wings from flying, that they shall not forsake us, else ne deserant, were sounding brass, and no true doctrine; these are the five Lamps, it remains I put oil into them.  
I begin at Mercy the fairest Omen that ever the World had in it. 
Gen. 37.33.  The unmerciful brethren of Joseph consulted to put the blame of their cruelty upon the beasts, we will say a cruel beast hath devoured him. It is very well that they durst not profess themselves to be men who were so barbarous. But neither is ●t in every beast of the field to be stony hearted. The fouls of the air are gentle in their kind, witness the Ravens that fed Elias; and for the cattle upon the hills, the Ass forsook not his old Master the Prophet that was rend by the Lion. The meanest of Creatures than have mercy by instinct of nature; yea, and the most glorious also; dread not the Angels though they be called flaming spirits, but rather consider what pity they have shown in their Function towards the Sons of men. To execute God's wrath few do always come down as loath to be Ministers of indignation. 
2 Sam. 24.  One destroying Angel appeared to punish Jerusalem, one alone brought weeping news to Bochim, Jud. two. Three appeared unto Abraham to bring him the joyful Message of a Son, but their company grew less by one, and but two of them brought tidings to Lot of the vengeance of Sodom. But Elishas' Servant saw Chariots, and Horsemen, 
2 Ki. 6.17.  and thousands in the Mountain to protect them. To publish peace and joy heaven itself, as I may so speak it, was empty, and there appeared a multitude of the heavenly Host to the Shepherds and sang praises unto God: surely then one of their wings is Mercy.  
But we must fetch our example further than the Angels, let us go boldly to the throne of grace and fetch it from the third heavens. Be you merciful with a sicut, says our Saviour as your heavenly Father is merciful. 
Luke 6 36.  And if we cast our eye upon that pattern, it blossoms like the rod of Aaron into these two buds, condonationem and donationem. First, To forgive and remit sins. Secondly, To give liberally as God hath enabled us. In the first I will thus proceed: First that it is God's nature and property to forgive; secondly, that man should rather forgive than God.  
It did well deserve record in holy Scripture both how the Devil tempted Christ to see if He were God, and how the Pharisees brought a case before him to try if He were Messias. Cast thyself down from the Pinnacle of the Temple, says Satan, if thou be the Son of God: No, that were cruelty against his own person, and charity begins at home. Then the Pharisees brought a sinner before him taken in adultery, Joh. viij. Their fingers itched to be casting stones at her, but he would not suffer them. And this mercy proved him both to be Messias, and the Son of God. If men and Angels had kept good, we had only known the friendship of God what it was, and not his anger, that was natural unto him. We provoked justice violently, and wrung it out of his hands. And as the King of Israel said to Elisha when his enemies were enclosed within his power, Shall I smite them my Father, shall I smite them; No, 
2 Ki. 6.21, 22.  says the Prophet, but set bread and water before them. So Justice said to God when we had transgressed, Shall I smite them? Shall I consume them at once? O no, says our Saviour, but set bread and wine before them, the Sacrament of his body and blood, which being eaten by faith will save our souls.  
Christ wept but twice in all; once over his friend Lazarus, that was a natural grief; and once over Jerusalem that sought his blood, that was a celestial passion. Nay, though he went but a foot pace from one City to another to preach the Gospel, yet he would needs ride to Jerusalem, so to make haste to suffer, longing till the work of our Redemption was finished. St. Ambrose says he groaned as well to have the bitter Cup come quickly, as to have it pass away, and grew weary of delay till He had paid the Handwriting which was against us. There passed but a little time from midnight to midday, betwixt his Attachment, his Arraignment, and his Execution, as if his feet had stood upon thorns until his head was crowned with them. Now tell me how you will look upon this Christ, O ye malicious hearted, whose feet are swift to shed blood, in Duels and fierce Encounters; your hatred, and his pity; your desire to destroy your enemies, and his good will to recover them and bless them, they savour undoubtedly of two sort of Serpents. Christ is the Brazen Serpent lifted up, who cured the infirmities of the People, 
Num. 21.6.  they are like the fiery Vermin which stung God's Travellers in the Wilderness.  
And when God was put to it to punish, see how Mercy wrestled with Indignation. Ah I will be avenged of mine enemies, says the Prophet Isaiah; 
Isai. 1.24.  he sighed because he must be wrathful, as it was said of the mild Emperor Vespasian, Indoluit quoties debuit esse ferox. When he destroyed Sodom with an heayy wrath, his justice came down but in slow drops of fire; but his mercy is a full torrent, like Jordan in a time of Harvest, it brought Israel to a Land flowing with milk and honey, for his mercy endureth for ever. His goodness is swifter than Eagles; for in six days he framed the World and all that is therein. But he took forty days to destroy one City of Nineveh, and then he spared it. When he was first angry with man he did but walk in the cool, 
Gen. 3.4.  says the Text, to chide Adam; but the Father of the Prodigal, you know who I mean, ran in haste to meet his Son and pardon him, when he was yet far from him. Finally, it is written in Mat. xxv. that benediction is from God; Come ye blessed of my Father: But malediction and cursing are not from him, Go ye cursed, but not cursed of my Father, no such word in the Text, he has no hand in that.  

Jon. 4.10.  It was God's Dialogue with Ionas, Shouldst thou grieve that the Gourd of herbs is decayed, and should not compassion touch me much more for this mighty People? true Lord; but if thou pardonest man for sin, who in thy sight is but as a flower of the field, less than the Gourd of Ionas; should not man much more remit the offence of his Brother which is done against him? I say much more it behoveth man, and I will hold myself to that.  
For first there is somewhat in our eyes that blinds them, it is pulvis humanitatis, the dust of our humane nature, that makes us when we are the most sharp censurers of other men's faults, not to discern truly the filth of their sin: but the eyes of the Lord are bright as a couple of flaming Torches in the Revelation, 
Revel. 1.14.  and offences appear before them more ghastly and tragical than our dim Candle half put out can enlighten us to perceive. For instance hereof: To morrow there is a Feast unto Jehovah, 
Exod. 32.  says Aaron, but the Lord could see that the Feast was luxury they rose up to play, and the Sport was flat Idolatry. So Saul could discern no harm in himself but a little foolish pity when he spared Agag, 
1 Sam. 15.  but the flaming eye saw it was Rebellion, as foul as the sin of Witchcraft. And is the Lord merciful to our transgressions when they cry unto him like the sound of many waters, and should not Man much more acquit the World of every offence done against him, for as much as we conceive not what is evil, because ourselves are evil? Secondly, among men a gift pleaseth the eyes, and a recompense is a safe correcting of an injury, but that were peccatum bis tinctum, a sin died in scarlet, to think to blot out sins before the Lord with the Fruit of our Body, or with Rivers of Oil: And can this God be reconciled then, and should not man much more be merciful? Beloved in the third place: We are all full of our own infirmities: Who knows whose turn it may be next to fly unto the Altar for a pardon? Two that grind in the same Mill, and two that walk in the same Field; nay Barnabas and Paul fellow Labourers in the same Gospel may daily stumble one at another. Our communication together cannot choose but be offensive, as the earth licks up the water, and the water devours the earth: but who is the churlish Labourer to whom God cannot say, Friend I do thee no wrong. O can the just one have mercy upon us? and should not offenders between themselves, sinners unto sinners much more be charitable?  
But there is one thing more in mercy than forgiveness; alms and bounty: to do good and distribute: to be Oil and Physic to the wounded like the good Samaritan, this is also a full Plume in the Wing of Charity, like that other Mat. xxiii. how often would I have gathered thee under my wings, as a Hen doth her Chickens, but thou wouldst not.  
Beloved, God hath suffered his fire to be unmerciful to sweep away the Habitation of the fatherless and innocent, that our hands might build it up again. And we shall not only build up houses of clay, the reward of the Israelitish Midwives, but good deeds also, which like the Alms of Cornelius, shall reach up to Heaven. The Sea hath raged horribly and swallowed the Innocent, the Stream hath gone even over his Soul, that we might restore it again as mercifully as the Whale did Ionas, with the increase of our substance, that we might cast our bread, as Solomon preached, upon the waters. God hath suffered an heavy sickness to waste away the afflicted, and to consume his bones; not that the Dogs should be more merciful than Dives, and like the poor man's sores, but that our liberality might make him whole. Canaan, and the Patriarches were well nigh famished with hunger, what? because God had forgotten to be gracious, and had shut up his loving kindness in displeasure. Not so; but that Egypt might relieve them with their Granaries. The Husbandman soweth seed in the ground, and the increase comes up thereafter; God giveth it a body, and to every seed his own body: but the merciful man soweth a Loaf of bread in the belly of the hungry, and it shall rise up again unto a plentiful Harvest. Christ was made poor, 
2 Cor 8.9.  says Paul, that we might be made rich, and for the good use of our riches he hath made many poor.  
There are few so hardhearted, but will protest with an oath, if our Saviour had been incarnate in these our days, how they would have strived to make him welcome, their choicest Palace should have received him, and his Diet should have been whatsoever the Earth and Sea afforded. ay, says Tertullian, Porrigat manum Jupiter & accipiat; if Jupiter himself would ask alms he should have it; every man can say so. Alas to promise this excess to him who needs it not, is a kind of spiritual bribery. Keep your costly Mansions to yourselves, and afford him some sustenance in an Hospital: Take the plenty of the Earth to your own Table in sobriety and temperance, and feed him with your Alms Basket. If he say lo here is Christ, or lo there he is, and that every distressed Christian is nourished for his sake you may believe him. Haec est tunica quam dedisti mihi Martin, it is an old Story in Sulpitius; the good Bishop Martinus clothed a Cripple with his Coat in the day time, and in the Dreams upon his Bed he saw Christ himself wear it, and thank him for it.  
Such there are, whom otherwise we may call good men, but spoil their good parts, as Crassus did, with the love of money, and having closed their Ark, will not suffer so much as a Crow to fly out of it; they will not believe this Divinity, that to spend well upon Earth is to lay up treasure in Heaven. Such a man's eyes are made of spital and Clay, but not by Christ, and they love to behold nothing but Gold, which is indeed a refined Clay burned well like a Brick by the heat of the Sun, and the influence of the other stars.  
Now there are but two common pretendments to make us spare our Purse, and keep our hand withered in our bosom. Semper aliquid curtae deest rei, we have nothing to spare, we have but five loaves and two fishes, and what are they among so many? O can you forget those mighty Mites which the poor Widow cast into the Treasury? Three things, says St. Gregory are incruenta sacrificia, Sacrifices well pleasing unto God, without drop of blood shed, Castitas in juventute, sobrietas in ubertate, liberalitas in paupertate; a chaste Youth unspotted touching the Flesh, Sobriety in Plenty, and Liberality in Poverty. And this is the Devils Topics to persuade us, we must repay nothing back again unto God, unless He would give us as much as we could wish for. Plato thought he made a charitable Common Wealth when by his evil Law to permit promiscuous lust no man knew another, whether he were Stranger or Brother, or of nearer Consanguinity. So hath God knitted his Church together, that we are all Christ's, and Christ is ours, and yet we feel not the afflictions of Joseph, they are nothing to us.  
Nay it were well if we were not readier to give Stones than Bread, and for a Fish a Scorpion. This was Nabals' Largess to David, he told him he was a Runagate from Saul his Master. The next excuse against Charity is, the great abuse of all good deeds and the wrong employment. But though men be evil, and the days are evil, and the bounty of holy men is oft times wrong employed, yet the Churches of God are no Transgressor's; why do the Rich men of the World nothing for them? Do you expect that the Holy Ghost should come down again like a mighty rushing wind and enter in, that every Wall and Window is left naked and decayed, especially in famous Cathedral Churches to the injuries of the weather? Good God what was the zeal of our Forefathers, that they should build more unto Religion than we can keep in reparation? When St. Paul pleaded for a Collection for the poor Saints of Jerusalem, feed them says he with your plenty, who are enriched with their abundance. With what abundance did the Apostle mean? O say the Friars with the abundance of their good works and zeal, as a bought or borrowed sanctity: No such matter, but for the abundance of the Words sake, which first came out of the bosom of Jerusalem. But all the Gospel which is preached in our Cathedral Churches cannot procure them so much benevolence as to preserve them from the curse of desolation, that one stone be not left upon another. And I would the innocent stones could fall down from their high Pinnacles into the bowels of the earth from whence they were digged, then were they safe and would be at rest again, but now great men take them up, and we must say in charity, that which made God a Chancel serves to build them up a Kitchen or a Stable. O if you will not be so merciful as your Father which is in Heaven, be but as merciful as your Forefathers upon Earth, who were zealous for the House of the Lord. But these things should rather be done then spoken: Therefore let this suffice for mercy, which is the first part of my Text.  
Now a complete Christian is not like a small Vessel which recovers his Haven with one Sail alone, with Mercy only. If you will have Religion to be ponderibus librata suis, full poised on every side, magna est veritas & praevalet, truth also is a prevailing part; 
Jo. 18.38.  let not mercy and truth forsake thee. And what is truth? says Pilate, but he would not stay to take his answer. Why the Spirit is truth, says St. John 1. Ep. v. I am the truth, says Christ, John xiiii. God is Truth, and in him is no error. In a word, your holy Faith is the Truth: that which is armatura lucis, the Armour of Light with St. Paul, Rom. xiii. that which is stronger than all things, says Zorobabel in his Parable.  
But you must know that there is a threefold evidence of truth to be distinguished: First there is the evidence of our outward senses, Matt. xuj. when it is Evening you say it will be fair weather, 
Luk. 12.56.  for the Sky is red. O ye hypocrites, can you discern the face of heaven, says our Saviour? as who should say then, there is more to be understood. 2. There is the evidence of knowledge, which will condemn the Heathen that know not God; for the invisible things may be understood by the things which are made, even his eternal Godhead, Rom. i. both these truths, you see, are fruitless without a third; and what is that, but the evidence of faith, Heb. xi. As for other Truths every man is in the high way to get them, capiat qui capere potest: but as for this Truth, it hath looked down from Heaven, says David, looked upon whom it listeth, and all men have not faith.  
Whether Faith be the evident Truth or not, all the World almost upon a time stuck at that point but only Abraham, either because their eyes were dim, or because it shined like the face of Moses that they could not behold it. Yea we have sundry Traditions that some Philosophers cast an eye upon the first verse of the Scripture, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, but they started at it like the Host of Israel at the dead Corpse of Amasa, and went no further. Alas poor Philosophy, who knows not how to confound the wisdom of her Principles? The fire hath been as temperate as the morning air, Dan. 3. the waters have stood upon an heap like the strong ribs of a Mountain, Exod. xiv. the Sun hath hid his face at noon day, when Astronomy could find no reason for it, their Art was as blind as the Heaven in the Eclipse. But every part of nature should be out of frame, Heaven and Earth should pass away before one title of God's book should perish, 
Luk. 16.17.  that with the dissolution of the Heavens no Angels might remain, and with the ruin of the Earth no men might be left to testify against it. The holy Martyrs have forsaken their lives that this truth might not forsake them. And as it is reported of our Philosopher, that the ashes spread upon the high Mountains of Tenariffa retain for ever any letters drawn out upon them, by reason of the tranquillity of the place: So no wind or storm can scatter away those holy words of God's Book since they have been written in the ashes of the Martyrs; the Law cannot endure better in the Tables of Stone, than the Gospel in that sacred dust.  
If Faith be not a Truth, how did Abraham see Christmas day and rejoice, and keep it a solemn Festival more than a thousand years before the name was entered into our Calendar. He knew the faithfulness of God's Promise, that made Jesus our Redemption so undoubtedly, that he swore him a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech. 
Luke 1.34.  The Mother of our Lord might ask reverently quomodo? How should these things be? The best in the World have their doubts of infirmity: but Domine non erit tibi, this thing shall not be so, when Christ had spoken it, that was a mistake in St. Peter, and yet behold the Evidence of Truth showed itself more abundantly anon after in the faith of that Apostle, than in all the skill of Greece and Egypt. Tell me, what Physician could promise recovery to the Cripple lying at the Beautiful Gate? 
Act. 3.6.  Durst all the College of Galen say unto him confidently stand up and walk? but the Apostle saw that one grain of faith could give him the use of his feet and ankle bones that he might leap and praise the Lord.  
Whatsoever is confirmed by the mouth of two or three Witnesses it passeth for truth by the Law of God and Man, and good reason for it. Now the Old Testament was confirmed under the name of three Patriarches, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. In the New Covenant, whether it were at the Transfiguration of Christ, Peter, James and John, three Attendants did bear him company to Mount Tabor, in like manner at the raising up of Jairus Daughter, and in the Mount of Olives, when he sweat and prayed, so many were with him as before, and the self same three Disciples, all was confirmed under the mouth of three Witnesses. But I will take no more pains in this point, to prove Faith to be a Truth, as I remember the great Orator reports of a good man, Q. Metellus he was excused, or rather forbidden to show his proof unto the Senate, in a Controversy to be debated, lest the Bench should seem to distrust so reverend a Citizen.  
None but Julian the Apostate, and such accursed as he hath left behind him, would scoff at Faith, whose cavil it was, as Nazianzen reports, that we had a starting hole for all objections in one silly word Believe. These men knew not that Faith in a little Pearl was worth all the substance of a Merchant, and he sold all he had to buy the Pearl, Matt. xiii. Surely if the Womb of Mary deserved a Blessing from all Generations that bore the Infant from everlasting, if the Arms of Simeon deserved a Church Anthem every Evensong that enclasped him; if the Tomb of Joseph was attended by Angels where his body lay; then cut down Palms, and spread your Garments in the way, for Christ is rode in triumph into that heart into which faith is entered.  
Now Truth is fruitful and brings forth Truth, a Daughter not unlike herself; Divine Truth is the cause of Human Truth, of a true Conversation, of a right Balance, and a just Fphah. Her Merchandise is such as Abraham's was with the Hittites, Gen. 23. which I will ever commend, when he bought a Tomb for Sarah, such as the ancient Romans was, aedes pestilentes vendo, the Seller was not ashamed to confess that his House had the Pestilence: Not as St. Hierom told the Trades of his time, tanti vitrium quanti margaritam, to chop away Glass for Rubies: or as St. Basil says of Gordias the Martyr, that his Soul was vexed with the City, and he retired into the Wilderness, leaving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he could not endure the Buyers and Sellers, the forswearers and liars. And what doth all come to when they cast up their Audit, Prov. xxi. 6. The getting of riches by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death. Let our Merchants beware that they carry not that report which the Wits of St. Paul's time put upon the Cretians, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, always liars, evil beasts, and slow-bellies: 
Tit. 1.12.  or as Plutarch spoke of Demades the Pleader, then grown past the best, that there was nothing left in him but his Tongue and his Paunch, his Tongue to tell lies, and his Belly to surfeit, the mere Relics of an Ox sacrificed. Nay, I beseech you Brethren, let your word be pure, able to endure the fiery trial, even for his sake who in the beginning was the Word, and that Word was God: As for such double tongues whose Heart is a Jew and their Tongue a Christian; and for those aequivocating Jesuits, who teach you to adulterate Truth in mental reservation, let them have their portion with Sisera, that told a lie, and so spoke his last; 
Judg. 4.20.  for he warned Jael to deny him if any did inquire for him, and then says the Text he slept and then he perished.  
So much hath been spoken for these Celestial Graces, Truth and Mercy considered in disjunction; but as the Wings of the Cherubins touched one another in the midst of the House, so there must be a copulation of these spiritual Blessings; for Mercy and Truth are such a Pair as will either lodge together or leave together. There was such a similitude of nature between the Twins of Love, Eros & Anteros, that at once they wept, and at once they smiled; they fell sick together, and they recovered jointly. Such are the Twins of Grace Truth and Mercy; she that would have them cut in twain and parted is an Harlot; she that cries spare and preserve them whole, she is the Mother and must enjoy them.  
Look upon them in a state of policy; Mercy without Truth is a sweet shower dropping on the barren sands, quite spilt, and no blessing follows it: Truth without Mercy is extreme right, and extreme injury: Mercy without Truth is a dangerous pity: Truth without Mercy is not verity but severity. Consider them towards God and Heaven, and then most unfit it is that either should be alone. A Faith of mere Protestation without Good Works, such is Truth without Mercy; it might have been in the Gergasens Swine, for such a Faith is in the Devil, says St. James, and therefore might have been in the Gergasens Swine to bear him company; and all the integrity of the Heathen, all the goodness that Socrates could teach, because it is not in Christ, such is Mercy without Truth, it comes tardy like Esau's Venison, and the Blessing is removed upon the head of Jacob. St. Austin compares them thus. A Pagan living without blame before men is a man with his eyes open in the dark midnight, and he that professeth Christ and not mercy, but is sold to commit iniquity, is one with his eyes shut in the clear day, and he sees as little. Such an unadorned Faith is like a fair Shield which the Tyroes among the Romans carried to the battle, it is a piece of Harness indeed, as Faith is called by St. Paul, but it makes no show, it hath not the imprese of any Stratagem upon it. Our holy Life, and conscionable Conversation must be engraven upon our Faith, like the Posy of the Lover upon the Tree, Crescetis amores, as the bark grew so the letters waxed bigger, if the one prospered the other thrived as well. For the whole Jury of our Creed, the twelve Articles will not save us, unless the Law be on our side. Though not altogether that is impossible, yet by endeavour and pious industry to acquit ourselves of many trespasses. The sum of all is, Two are better than one.  
I know that some rely too much upon the Example of the Penitent Thief, the eyes of whose Faith were not opened until his hands and feet were pierced with the nails of death: but look a little better into his Practice, and you shall see that he proved himself so good a Christian in the last hour, as if he had been reprieved from the Cross for another Assizes. First he reproved the scorner. Secondly he preached Moses, Dost thou not fear God? Thirdly, he confessed his guiltiness, But we suffer justly. Fourthly he justified the innocent, This man hath done nothing amiss. Fifthly he consented to the power of the Magistrate, We receive the reward of our deeds. Sixthly, he acknowledged Christ's Divinity, as he did his Humanity before, saying that Heaven was his Kingdom. Lastly, he prayed and believed, Lord remember me in thy Kingdom. See what a Swarm of Bees hang upon his lips in a few words, lest in this one Example the mercies of Christ might be made an occasion to excuse the mercy of man. But Faith and Truth are our Wedding Garment, Good Works and Mercy are the Broidering upon it. Haec est tunica filii mei, this is my Son's Coat, says the Lord, and the Spouses Clothing is of wrought needlework, Psal. xlv.  
Let them hear of this especially, who by their Profession are the Pillars of Truth in the Church, and should be the Censors of sweet Perfume also; let them look to it, that these Wings of Truth and Mercy be equally poised, that their knowledge preach continually in their holy life, lest it prove with us, as St. Austin spoke of Antony the Eremite, that grew exceeding devout when all the Cloisters were idle and lascivious, and the Eremite being so ignorant that he knew not letters, rapiunt indocti regnum coelorum, & literati excluduntur; the great Clerks studied for Heaven, but the simple People took it by violence and possessed it. What should I speak more? If Man be a little World, and his Soul a great Heaven in it, than these are duo magna luminaria. Truth is the Orient Star of the Understanding, and Mercy is the brightness of the Will, like the Sun and Moon in the Firmament, like the faithful Witness in Heaven. But take heed that the Stars themselves be not swept away from the Sky with the Tail of the Dragon: take heed lest like the dastard Ephramites, being harnessed and carrying Bows, we turn our backs in the day of battle; for so it follows in the fourth part of my Text, there is a deserant, God's Gifts may forsake us; and let him that standeth take heed lest he fall. Mercy and Truth they may forsake us.  
What, will some man say, our Justification, our Righteousness in Christ, may that forsake us? Superbia quo ascendis? Why doth the presumption of man move such angry questions? But Beloved, I have no such uncomfortable Doctrine at this time to deliver. I wish it prosperously that the head of the Serpent may be bruised, that there be no leading the freeborn into Captivity, and no complaining in our streets. But Sanctification shakes her leaves sometimes like the accursed Figtree. Mercy in King David spilt the blood of an innocent; truth forsaken truth with a curse in the mouth of St. Peter. Now every quality may cease to be, and grow to nothing three ways as it is distinguished in Philosopny: 1. Defectu firmae inhaesionis seu radicationis. 2. Admotione contrarii. 3. Desitione subjeoti. I will explain them in order.  
First, I say defectu firmae inhaesionis: When Truth and Mercy want root, and have no hold to stay long. As a lukewarm heat quickly evaporates out of the water, if the fire be not maintained. An Inceptor that proceeded not was a fool among the Galatians; and with King Agrippa's leave, almost a Christian, was three parts an Atheist. Such a glimmering light of zeal is like a Morning mist, which quickly vanisheth away, and it is Christus suffuratus, as the Soldiers said, Christ stolen away, and pilfered out of our heart I know not how. He that never saw the Sea is as near his journey's end to pass it over, as he that wades but to the ankles. The hands of Zorobabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands shall finish it, Zach. iv. 9 that was a blessing from the Lord. To be of Caesar's mind, Nil actum credens cum quid superesset agendum; to think nothing done when any thing was undone that was a Spirit to make a Conqueror. My love is a bundle of Myrrh, Cant. xiii. As if she were like Seleucus shafts which could not be broken in the cluster. Such a bundle of Myrrh is in St. Peter, 2 Epist i 5. Give all diligence, and add to your faith virtue, to your virtue knowledge, to knowledge temperance, to temperance patience, to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to all these charity. What, will all these serve the turn when they stand as thick as corn in harvest? Yes, says the Apostle, Si abundaverint; if they abound in you, they will make you, you shall not be barren and fruitless. Thus then Truth and Mercy will forsake us if we do not further the gift of God, take away the single Talon, and give it to him that hath ten more.  
The next way to make our heart cast this happy brood, and to miscarry when it travels with Truth and Mercy, is admotione contrarii, by taking part both with God and Belial. Asahal was not more nimble than St. John to fly away, when he spied Cerinthus the eldest Son of Satan in the same Bath with him, and therefore do not think to make your soul an Ark for the clean and unclean beasts to lie together. A little frosty air is so forcible that it bursts the clouds, and forceth out the hot exhalation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it is spirted out between the fingers, and gone before you can think of it. Beloved, that field in Israel was hated like Aceldama, which was sown with divers seeds, and Nehemiah cursed the children that spoke one half in the Hebrew Tongue, and another part in the Language of Ashdod. Covetousness is so wealthy, and it thrives so fast that it easily purchaseth the whole heart of man, and whom at first you entertained like a foreiner to have one moiety in your heart, it buys the whole possession over Mercies head, Veios migrate coloni, and so casts it forth. And likewise so incompatible is truth with the least falsehood, that the haters of the Lord were found liars at our Saviour's arraignment, when he spoke nothing. Is it not strange? Very strange? That Christ should come before unrighteous Judges, be impeached by malicious Adversaries, all this while hold his peace, and yet the Witness not agree. Will you know the reason? There came two false Witnesses, Mat. xxvi. Averring, that this fellow said, I am able to destroy the Temple of God, and to build it again in three days. There is another tale told, Mar. xiv. We heard him say, I will destroy this Temple made with hands, and will build another without hands. But what said our Saviour in very deed? You shall find his saying, Joh. two. 19 Neither I can destroy, with the former, nor I will destroy, with the latter. But vos solvite, do you destroy, and solvite templum hoc, the Temple of his body, and in three days I will raise it up. You cannot clap good and bad together but with waxen pins, if you move them a little they fly asunder, the wax melteth, and it confounds the Chariot and his Rider. For what agreement hath light with darkness, or the Temple of the Lord with Idols?  
Touching the third manner and the last, how a quality may cease to be, desitione subjecti, when that faileth wherein it is, it hath no place only in Truth and Mercy. Other things indeed we can expect to remain no longer than the house of our body lasteth; beauty ceaseth with the blood, and strength faileth with the sinews, nay, tongues shall cease, and knowledge shall vanish away, but mercy and charity abideth for ever. Yea, and truth also, but veritas in visione, not in fide; Truth in the clear vision of God, and not darkly in faith. In a word, as Joseph furnished his Brethren both with food for their travel, and Corn to keep house with in the Land of Canaan: So there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. James, gifts for our Pilgrimage in this life, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, gifts to abide with us in our Country above, perfect gifts descending from the Father of lights. So some endowments drop away with this house of flesh, but after glorification this voice shall no more be heard in our ears, let not Mercy and Truth forsake thee.  
But this uncomfortable deserant, that God's gifts may forsake us, is to view Jacob but as a Cripple, halting and failing in his combat: but nè deserant, let them not forsake thee, shows Israel wrestling with the Angel, and keeping God, as I may speak it with reverence, fast unto him with a chain of Faith. To begin therefore with Mercy, there are two ways to keep a firm possession of it, by Meditation, and by Petition. The Meditations also shall be twain, and very short ones for the time sake. First, Consider that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Fathers call it, the deep engagement of our Charity in the Lord's Prayer, Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive our brethren, and no otherwise. Lord what a deep curse do we bring upon our soul if this be not said in earnest.  
Secondly, Consider the compassion of all the Members in that mystical body whereof Christ is the head. He that is hard hearted against a Christian is cruel against a part of himself. Nero might fill the streets with the slaughtered bodies of the Saints, For why, he was none of ours, but a Lion in the Sheepfold: but a little bitterness, a disdaining contempt, a reviling malediction, the neglect of the misery of a Christian at the hands of a Christian is more unnatural. It was St. Basils' counsel, and most elegant, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that as he that looks upon the sore eye of another man, may chance to provoke the rheum in his own eyes, so our eyes should grow feeble and conceive tears when we see the tears of our brother.  
If we chance to offend against Mercy, and to forget one of these Meditations, it is very likely that it will stop at the other, but if both fail than we must fly unto uncessant Prayer and Petition. That is Anchora sacra, for the last refuge let us fall down before his footstool, and confirm God's grace to our soul, as Elias made the heavens of brass. I do not mean so, as if our charity could be altogether inoffensive. No, the Spirit helpeth our infirmities, Rom. viij. but it doth not quite take away all infirmity: we are not made of the substance of Angels while we travel in this mortal flesh. Sanctification will leak out at certain crannies, but all is made sure with cupio dissolvi, take in sunder the soul and body by death, and in the state of our Exaltation Mercy can never get away. There is a molting time for these two Wings, and the best Christian displumes certain feathers through tentation, but O that I had wings like a Dove, says David, for than would I fly away and be at rest.  
Now the last Point is that which troubles all the world, especially our Western world, which is in continual combat with our Romish Adversaries, wherein the Art lies to preserve Truth that it may not forsake us. But some there are, clouds without water, men unstable in their minds, halting between God and Baal, that think the whole Church is at a loss, for truth and we can steadfastly trust to nothing. For it will easily break prison out of the Syllogism of the old Philosophers, witness so many busy disputations of late, and the success so unprofitable it cannot be bound up in the laborious Tomes of Controversies, no Age more industrious to write than ours hath been, and none further from Peace. To think that the limits of Truth are bound to St. Peter's Chair so called is most childish and frivolous. The two Testaments indeed are the touchstone of Truth, but they are stained with presumptuous glosses, and we do not ask now adays, Quomodo scriptum est? How is it written? But Qomodo expositum est? What is the interpretation of Expositors? Lastly, If we say that Truth is the Daughter of Time, and that the reverend Antiquity of the Fathers must be her Register. What if one say one thing, and some another? What if they be equally divided? What if index expurgatorius sponge out all that should be justly alleged? And hear what Cyprian says, Non dixit Christus ego sum consuetudo, sed ego sum veritas. Surely yet among these many conflicts there is a way to bind truth as a Crown unto us, give me leave to unfold it without ornament of Language in a particular declaration.  
In the midst of a froward Generation whose Wits sweat on both sides to win the day, who would not take a sure course which cannot be reproved? Now all the Law and the Prophets are comprised in these three things: 1. In Prayer and Thanksgiving to God. 2. In a sincere belief. 3. In obedience to his Commandments. The absolute form of Prayer is the same which Christ taught us, Mat. vi. The sum of our Belief is the Apostles Creed. And the two Tables of the Law want nothing which should teach Religion and Justice towards God and men. What Christianity can be more secure than this? How can Truth forsake him that rules himself to the Letter of these holy Institutions and goes no further? But whatsoever is more than this is tossed about with every blast of disputation, it may be erroneous, it may be Will-worship, it cannot be the substance of things not seen, it impeacheth God's wisdom, as if he would not reveal unto man the explicit way of his salvation.  
When I come into the Temple, and see a devout Monk running over the Hierarchy of heaven upon his Beads, and filling the Saints with the noise of his complaints, and when I see another Christian piercing the highest heavens with zeal, and coming boldly to the Throne of Grace to God alone, to which part shall he that is unlearned say Amen? Beloved, if Our Father would not serve the turn, it may seem John Baptist did teach his Disciples to pray better than Christ. Sweet Jesus they are thine own words, therefore I cannot do amiss to turn me from the Angels when I have Christ for my Master, but they that make the Elders about the Throne Partners with God in Invocation, they cannot be so confident that truth doth not forsake them.  
Again, one Church entertains the craft of Demetrius, and the Silversmiths even upon Gods own Shrine, their eyes are filled with their molten Images when they look unto the hills from whence cometh their salvation. But they distinguish, that they keep their body to a lesser Religious Worship, and not to the highest Adoration, and they exalt the Image of the true God, not the Idols of the heathen. Our Church refuseth no Ornaments of Decency, no Histories of Piety, no remembrance of eternal Glory: But the Law is not in our eye, but in our heart, and we pray as if it were our Saviour at midnight in the Garden, when no resemblance could be before him. What should a soul say here disquieted with the rents of Zion? Why thus. Lord thou hast forbidden all graven Similitudes, thy Commandment did not comment upon a petty duty to the Saints, a nice Hyperdulia to our Lady, and an admirable Latria to thyself; thou hast not made me so good a Lapidary to discern in stocks and stones between an Image and an Idol. I may be an Idolater with the Inventions of the former, I cannot err in the spiritual Worship of the latter, Confounded then be all they that worship carved Images, I will not let thy Truth forsake me.  
Thirdly, Concerning that inquinatissima purgatio, that loathsome cleansing of sins after this life in torments, which is a kind of Spanish Inquisition; Why art thou so vexed O my soul? And why do thoughts arise within thee? So trust in God, not as fearing the scorching Kitchen of Purgatory, or the freezing of St. Patrick's Lake for a season, but as dreading an eternal death for ever: not as if my punishment must be mitigated after my death, by the Beads, and Orisons, and Bribery of my forgetful Executors, but as if in my life they must be redeemed by the lukewarm blood of Jesus Christ. Then for the thing propounded. I know my Saviour descended into Hell to triumph over Satan, and bruise his head; I know He ascended up into Heaven to make Intercession for us to God the Father, this is my Creed I am sure, and the third place is Apocrypha, my belief is as broad as the holy Apostles made the pattern, and if I stop mine ears at the rest I will not let thy truth forsake me.  
Fourthly, Concerning the material part of the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper, I take my Saviour's words into the explication of my Faith, This is my body, this is my blood. But what have I to do to let men interpret Christ's meaning, when themselves confess it is such a mystery that cannot be comprehended? Is it not enough for me to receive these precious gifts with thanksgiving, but that I must argue how, and after what manner Christ is present at that participation? I am sure the outward Elements of Bread and Wine are there, for as God gave me an heart to believe, so he gave me not my outward senses to delude me. I am sure that Christ is there, and I partake the meritorious Passion of his Body crucified, and his Blood shed upon the Cross; all that men controvert more than this is to beget sorrow to the Church, and laughter to the Devil. My soul dwelleth among them that are enemies unto peace, but I am content to say this is my Saviour, who offered himself up for me, therefore I will not let thy truth forsake me.  
Lastly, In that great Controversy of Justification, there is a way in which the mists of error cannot arise, and there is a way in which the substantial food is lost by striving to comprehend the shadow with it. By virtue of the Law I know my duty that I must be a Doer, and thereby I discern my infirmity that I must be a Debtor. By virtue of the Lords Prayer I find myself arreraged in iniquities that are past, my flesh trembling at tentations to come, my soul and body gasping for deliverance from evil round about me. I find not one line wherein I may obtest unto God by any part of my own Sanctification. Thirdly, By virtue of my Creed I find that my Saviour was incarnate, suffered, and rose again to purchase Redemption unto us, and Remission of our sins. The Angels are not more sure of their incorruptible glory than we may be to say, As many as walk in this rule peace be to them, and mercy, and on the Israel of our God. Cogita de Deo quicquid meliùs potes, & de teipso quod deterius vales, says St. Bernard; and then thy truth is like Mount Zion which cannot be removed. But to go a little further, and to creep into the Mediatorship of Jesus Christ, there is no likelihood but it should prove an unthankful blasphemy.  
Being rooted in this most holy Faith, and in our active Mercy toward the whole body of Christ's Church, there remains for us a passive mercy which will not forsake us, the sure mercies of David in our blessed Redeemer, who is called Amen, and in whom are all the Promises. And there is a truth which will stick to us as fast, and answer for us against the slanders of Satan, who is the Reviler of the Brethren. For he that confesseth me before men, (there is truth on our part) I will confess him before my Father which is in heaven, (there is truth on God's part) to which God, Father, etc.   

A SERMON UPON THE RECHABITES.  JEREM. xxxv. 6. 
But they said we will drink no Wine.  
AT the first hearing of these words I may conjecture that some men thought of no such Scripture, and that most men look for a strange construction: and you shall have a construction to mollify the Paradox, since it was ever safe to decline extremes in all opinions: for they are like Jehu in his furious march, what have they to do with peace? Indeed if you will recount among many who they were that have professed so much austerity, as those that say in my Text, We will drink no wine, you will neither commend them for wisdom, nor for piety. Lycurgus' in the Luxury of his Country cut up every Vine by the roots, and destroyed the Vineyards; like those inconsiderate men in our days, superexcessive Reformers of Religion, who think there is no way to amend that which is abused, but with Hezekias' Justice against the Brazen Serpent, utterly to consume it. The Manichees would not endure to taste the Cup at the holy Communion, as if Christ had been too prodigal to bestow Wine at his last Supper upon his Disciples: And you know who they are that want not much to be Manichees. Tertullian mentions a most harsh Discipline among the Romans, that no Woman might know the taste of Wine, sed sub Romulo quae vinum tetigerat impunè à marito trucidata est; that it was lawful for the Husband to shed his own Wife's blood, if she tasted of the blood of the Grape. So likewise there were certain Christians, called Severiani by a nick name, that grudged the whole World St. Paul's allowance, that Modicum which he granted unto Timothy; and Pharaohs Butler with these men had been kept for ever in prison, had he pressed a few Grapes into the Kings own Cup. But for all these men, who grudge Cato his draught of wine, when he is wearied with the affairs of the Commonwealth, I say their abstemious life is perverseness, and such were not the Rechabites, that say in my Text, We will drink no wine.  
In which Text, barren as it may seem, there are many things very Religious and profitable, to make up my Treatise at this time. And as boldly as Prudentius said by a Catachresis, that there were jejuniorum victimae, many Sacrifices offered up to God by fasting, and abstaining from meats; so say I, that this Text is abstemiorum racematio, there is a fruitful Vintage to be gathered out of non bibemus, We will drink no wine.  
This whole Chapter is but of one entire piece, like the silver Trumpets of Moses, Numb. 10. so is the discourse thereof without interruption, or almost without full point from the beginning to the end. First God is provoked to wrath by the rebellions of Judah: False Prophets were crept in that had taught strange Doctrine, and the People had itching ears, and were worse Disciples. Now what instrument should the Lord choose to lay open his indignation? whom but Jeremy the Prophet, and him God knew to be fit for the Errand, not as he knew Nathaniel under the shade of his Fig-leaves, sed sub carnis umbraculo, in his Mother's Womb. Jeremy sets himself to the Task, and lays open their sins; not by revile, by menacies, by zeal as hot as fire (and who could do less? they made Moses, the meekest Soul alive, throw stones at them, and break the Tables) but setting before them the Example of the Rechabites, promising their obedience should be had in an everlasting remembrance, and Judah his stubborn Son should see their happiness and want it. Et spectet nostros jam plebs Romana triumphos: Will it not grieve them to see Strangers and Aliens bear the Bell away, and themselves look on, and be quite neglected? Lastly, what was the Obligation that kept the Rechabites under such awe and duty? for Jeremy spread a Table, entreated them courteously, and set Flagons of wine before them: Why nothing but this, their Father Jonadab had made them protest to take this austere life upon them, that they would drink no wine.  
A hard case between God and Israel, if you mark it. What was Jonadab? or who was it that gave him wisdom? no steadfast faith could be put in his Laws, nor certainty in his Statutes: nay upon this Text it is calvin's opinion, laudatur obsequium filiorum, non legi approbatum fuisse consilium paternum: 'tis true that Jeremy commends the Sons of Jonadab for their obedience, but the Holy Ghost did no where commend Jonadab for making such an Ordinance: but the Laws of the Lord are pure and just, like Silver purged seven times in the fire without dross or corruption; yet Jonadab is obeyed, and God despised. 2. Where was Jonadab now? composed in the Grave of silence, dust to dust, the end of all men. The Lord liveth for ever, and there is no end of his days. Yet Jonadab preacheth being buried, and the words of the Lord are like a Dream, which he that waketh hath forgotten. 3. Jonadab was austere, and his yoke exceeding heavy, to dwell in no Houses but Shades and Tents, not to till the ground, the happiness of Cain above his younger Brother. To live in poverty in Canaan, where it was easy for all to be rich: but Israel, that I may not run into many particulars, had but ten Commandments to keep, and ten thousand Blessings for their Guerdon. Et merces ab eo, qui jubere potest, vim necessitatis affert, says Tacitus: the days work may be well done, when the Bondman is made an hired Servant. Yet Jonadab finds duty in his Children, and God finds rebellion in Israel. Lastly, was there any thing to give advantage to the Rechabites in the way of godliness more than Israel had? did they want the snare of a delicious Table to make them wanton? read what a Banquet Jeremy spread before them in the former verses, But they said, etc.  
St. Austin says of the Syrophaenecian Woman, who was both hardly spoken of by out Saviour at first, and anon commended highly before her face; quae contumeliam maximam sine dolore pertulit, etiam & laudationem perferret sine superbiâ; she that took not her reproach in scorn, would not wax arrogant upon her commendation; so these Rechabites who lived with good content in a life full of neglect, may the better endure to have their good deeds scanned, without fear of begetting ostentation. And therefore I will branch out my Text into these four parts, in every of which they will justly deserve our praise, and in some our imitation. First, when the Prophet Jeremy did try them with this tentation, whether they would feast it and drink wine, they make him a resolute denial, a Prophet could draw them to no inconvenient act, nolumus we will not. 2. Very dutiful and religious was their obedience to the Orders of their Father Jonadab; ask them if they will rebel and transgress: no, for obedience sake, nolumus, we will not do it. 3. Junquets and banqueting were provided for them, but they had weaned their Bodies from the Paps of luxury; and thus says Temperance, nolumus, we will drink no wine. 4. Here is steadfastness in their Vow made unto God: For this is more than a frugal Diet, it is the Vow of Sobriety, nolumus in aeternum, say the last words of this verse, We have said for ever, etc.  
Some are good men of themselves, but easily drawn aside by allurements, such are not the Rechabites. Some will lead well, but they cannot follow: good Masters but bad Servants; all for freedom, and nothing for obedience: So are not the Rechabites. Some are sober in their Diet, but will not endure the Laws to interdict meats for a season, and enjoin Fasts and Abstinence; such were not the Rechabites. Some will protest unto God, and oblige themselves to many performances, which are instantly dissolved into wind and air, such were not the Rechabites. Resist Enticements, love Obedience, follow Temperance, promise unto God, and perform your Vows. These are the praises of the Rechabites, these are the four Distributions of my Text, and of these in order.  
I begin with Nolumus. Jeremy hath no answer but they will not. It is a hard case in earnest, and the World will never run otherwise, a Prophet must be acquainted with nolumus, and look to be denied. Do you speak for God and for his Altar? Practise patience with that old Philosopher, that solemnly begged alms among the Statues and Images in Athens; and thus he tried how to bear with hard fortune, when living men should refuse him. Nolumus, we will not. Is this all the account, may some man say, of a Prophet's words? Our Saviour might excuse the Woman of Samaria, a weak Vessel, like the Pitcher wherewith she drew her water. Hadst thou known who it is that asked of thee, than thou wouldst have granted it: but the Rechabites could not plead ignorance, that they knew not Jeremy, who was set up for a Sign against Judah and Benjamin. Again our Saviour did commend St. Peter's judgement, that there might be many worse men than the churlish Son, that said He would not to his Father, yet he turned his mind, and did as he would have him. But with these men none is as much as nunquam, they will never do it, repentance is hid from their eyes.  
Resolve we therefore, that this is such a request, where the Petitioner sued for nolumus, and to be said nay is the fairest courtesy. For that which Jeremy propounded, it was not petitio beneficii, but probatio fidei. So Christ asked Philip for bread to feed the Multitude; in Philippo non desideravit panem, sed fidem; he did it to prove his faith. This is the Doctrine. Let not thy Soul consent to be enticed unto folly, When Sirens and Allurers come with honey in their mouths, be you as wise as they were, that had wax in their ears. Like a sure Musician, maintain your part, and though some be out of tune, be not carried away with their discords, to offend against good harmony; Vt rupes immota, etc. says the Poet; let a wave dash against you, and a billow break itself in twain and foam, but for thy part give no ground unto the Tempter.  
Jeremy nor any man alive must look to obtain more than the Servants of Naaman thought fit to be granted; si magnum, if the Prophet ask a great thing it must be done for the Prophet's sake; si malum, if it be an unlawful thing, si per amicitiam patris atque suam, the highest Power upon earth hath not power to command it. O what an excellent Court did King Saul keep? not one of his Servants, no not one about him would slay the Priests of God for the King's Command. Turn and slay the Priests of God, says Saul unto his Guard, 1 Sam. xxii. they durst not do it, those mighty men of valour durst not draw a sword in a bad Cause, because they feared the Lord. Then Doeg is called for from among the Beasts, a Herdsman more brutish than the Flocks he kept; and he slew that day 85 persons that did wear a Linen Ephod. Such another was that Tribune of the Roman Army, that had rather worship Idols with Gallienus the Emperor, than serve the true God with Fructuosus the Martyr; Jussum est Caesaris ore Gallieni, quod princeps colit haec colamus omnes. But Amram the Father of Moses is recounted among St. Paul's Saints, Heb. 11. because he hid the Child three months, and would not consent to Pharaoh's tyranny.  
He that will sin to please another, makes his Friend either to be a God that shall rule him, or a Devil that shall tempt him. Three things, says Aristotle, 
Eth. 8. c. 10.  do preserve the life of friendship. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to answer love with like affection. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, some similitude and likeness of condition. 3. But above either, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, neither to sin ourselves, nor for our sakes to lay the charge of sin upon our familiars. No he is too prodigal of his kindness, that giveth his Friend both his heart and his conscience. I may not forget how Agesilaus his Son behaved himself in this point toward his own Father: the cause was corrupt wherein his Father did solicit; the Son answers him with this modesty, Your Education taught me from a Child to keep the Laws, and my youth is so enured to your former Discipline, that I cannot skill the latter. Here let Rhetoricians declaim whether this were duty, or disobedience. But let us examine the case by Philosophy. I am sure that no man's reason is so nearly conjoined to my soul, as my own appetite, although my appetite be merely sensitive. And must I oftentimes resist my own appetite, and enthral it as a civil Rebel? and have I not power much more to oppose any man's reason that persuades me unto evil, his reason being but a stranger unto me, and not of the secret Council of my Soul? Yes out of question. Remember what Herodias asked, when the King's oath was passed to deny her nothing. St. Paul put in a caution that his Galatians should beware of them that came to pervert their faith in the shape of Angels. Licet Angelus. What could he say more? for it is not the Angel of Smirna and Thiatira, they had their faults: not the Angel of Milan and Hippona, the noble Army of the Church, they might have their faults. But if an Angel from Heaven preach another Gospel unto you than we have preached; what then? dare we say nolumus? nay, but anathema, let him be accursed.  
How it pities me to hear some men say, that they could live as soberly, as chastely, as Saintlike as the best, if it were not for Company? Fie upon such weakness: what Simeon and Levy Brethren in iniquity? let such a one be a Proverb and a Byword, like Milo the Wrestler, whose strength was so great, that no Champion in Greece could wring a Pomegranet out of his hand, but some lascivious Mistress, some painted Harlot, could make him let go his hold with a kiss. Quid refert utrum in matre an in uxore dummodo Eva in omni muliere caveatur, says St. Austin; If thy Mother speak thee fair, if the Wife of thy Bosom tempt thy heart, beware of Eve, and think of Adam. The Serpent was a wise creature, Gen. iii and Eve could not but take his word in good manners. Fond Mother of Mankind, so ready to believe the Devil, that her posterity ever since have been slow to believe God. This is the weakness of our Times; and to use holy Nazianzens words, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to overwhelm sobriety with Wine in sweet courtesy and Healths, as if every tipsy Friend were a Physician. I doubt not but the men of Sodom, that perished with fullness of bread, even they, how uncivil soever, would have shown enough of this kindness unto Lot and the Angels. But is not this against nature, says St. Basil, to invite Acquaintants to a Feast for the sustenance of their lives, and to endeavour to carry them out of doors like dead men. Do you not pity the old Prophet, that threatened Jeroboams Altar, and made the ashes to tremble by the mighty power of his Message, but yet was alured foolishly to turn in and eat when God forbade him. He could not say non bibam, and stand to it; but a Lion out of the Forest did rend the morsels out of his belly before they were digested. Beloved, never can there be a better season for nolumus, for every Christian to be a Rechabite, then when any man reacheth out a Cup of intemperance unto us, to say boldly, we will not drink it.  
And what if I should put you in mind of a more pernicious Cup, than that which begets the surfeit of drunkenness? it is called the Golden Cup of abominations, and the Jesuits are the Cupbearers. God give you grace to refuse it when it is reached out unto you: and these are the days of trial, when swarms of Romanists buzz about to pervert the innocent. What can they say unto you, Beloved? are they so meek and humble as we are, who built their Popedom above Kings, and made their Cardinals the Princes of the Earth? Is their life more holy than ours? tell me why Stews are maintained; why they do sell Indulgences for sins: Are they so merciful? Who knows not Duke d'Alva's bloody days? Queen Mary's Bonfires? and the torments of Inquisitions? Are they so loyal-hearted? alas, woe for the loss of so many Princes by their Treasons and Conspiracies. But is Christ more magnified by them? Why do they interfere upon his Intercession by praying to Saints, upon his Mediation by their own Merits? Is their Worship of God more spiritual? wherefore do I see their Images? Are God's Ordinances so strictly observed in Rome? why do some marry incestuously? why are some forbidden Marriage? Can they prove their Doctrine by so good a foundation as we do? wherefore do they urge Traditions? Finally, Is their Religion more ancient? no more than Abraham's Idolatry at Vr in Chaldaea was ancienter than the Worship of the living God. Wherefore, as our Saviour said to Peter, Thou art Simon Bar Jona, but thou shalt be called Peter. Jonah signifies a Pigeon, and Peter an hard Stone; as who should say, quem inveni timidum ut columbam, efficiam lapidem. So God confirm the feeble, such as tremble on both sides, and are fearful as Doves, that they may be as the Rock, against which the Gates of Hell cannot prevail, that you may hold fast your Profession, and say against that Cup as the Rechabites did to this, non bibemus, we will drink no poison.  
Now I proceed to the second part of my Text, which hath a strong connexion with the former; for why did they resist these enticements, and disavow the Prophet Jeremy? because says the eighth verse of this Chapter, They will obey the voice of Jonadab the Son of Rechab in all things that he hath charged them all the days of their life. Their obedience is the second part of their Encomium, They will obey the voice of Jonadab their Father. The name of Father was that wherewith God was pleased to mollify our stony hearts, and bring them into the subjection of the fifth Commandment. Illa enim superioritas maximé amabilis est, & minimè invidiosa, says Calvin: we cannot envy the superiority of a Father, every man being likely to succeed in the same dignity. Festus reports it of the Gaulish Priests among the Romans, that at first they were made Eunuches only to punish their stubbornness against their Parents, that they being a generation of disobedient Children, might never beget Children that should obey them. And therefore it is pity, that the same justice was not executed upon Pope Gregory the VII. to cast him out for ever being called a Father of the Church, who made the Emperor Henry the Fourth take arms against his own Father, and depose him. And that proud title of Rabbi should never have been given to the Pharisees, rather to the vilest Beggar in the Street, because it was their Tradition to swear by the Gift upon the Altar, never to relieve the wants of their distressed Parents. Surely as a Parricide, that killed his Father, was to have no burial upon the Earth, but sewed in an Ox Hide and cast headlong into the Sea; so he that despiseth his Father deserves not to hold any place of dignity above others, but to be a Slave to all men. For what are we but Coin that hath our Father's Image stamped upon it? and we receive our current value from them to be called Sons of Men.  
And yet the more commendable was the obedience of the Rechabites, that their Father Jonadab being dead, his Law was in as good force as if he had been living. It was a great mourning which Joseph and his Brethren did celebrate for their Father Jacob, Gen. the last. But that was the least honour done unto him. When his Sons did carry his Body, as he commanded them, to be buried in Canaan, in the Field of Mamre, which Abraham bought for a Possession, that was the best Solemnity in the Funerals of Jacob. It is an effeminate tenderness of heart, says Tacitus, prosequi defunctum ignavo fletu, to weep and lament over the dead; obsequi verò in iis quae jusserit, to execute the will of the Dead, that is the truest honour we can do them, and a faithful expression that we reverence their memory. Lycurgus knew right well, what great benefit Lacedaemon received by his Laws; yet doubting the people's inconstancy, and foreseeing that when he was dead, good Laws might be canceled, and bad Manners survive: He took a long Journey, and swore the Citizens to the observation of his Laws, until he returned in safety: but that was never: And some short time they remembered their own Oath, who on a sudden would have forgot his Laws and his Memory. Very often is it seen in this dissolute Age of ours, that which old Mitio said, Dum id rescitum iri credunt, tantisper cavent; young Heirs forget their godly Education, as soon as their Parents have breathed their last: then they run riot, and mortgage their Temperance to Taverns, their Chastity to Dens of uncleanness, and their Lands to the Usurer. What a rare example now is this of the Rechabites, custode remoto, being now in their own power and government, to remember the Life and Doctrine of their Father Jonadab, and to profess his austerity, Non bibemus, etc.  
Concerning this Virtue of Obedience, let us extend our discourse a little further, and yet tread upon our own ground. Obedience is used in a large sense, for a Condition, or Modus, as the School calls it, annexed unto all Virtues. As the Magistrate may execute justice dutifully under his Prince, the Soldier may perform a valiant exploit dutifully under his Captain; but strictly, and according to the pattern of the Rechabites: Obedientia est sola virtus per se, cum res jubentur adiaphorae ad praestandum, says Aquinas; It is one peculiar and entire virtue, whereby we oblige ourselves, for Authorities sake, to do things indifferent to be done, or omitted: for sometimes that which is evil may be hurtful prohibito to the party forbidden: as the Laws forbid a man to murder himself: sometimes a thing is evil prohiben●i, so Treasons, Adulteries, and Thefts are interdicted: but sometimes the thing is no way in itself pernicious to any, but only propounded to make trial of our duty and allegiance, as when Adam was forbid to eat the Apple, and this is true obedience, not to obey for the necessity of the thing commanded, but out of conscience and subjection to just Authority.  
Such obedience, and nothing else is that which hath made the little Commonwealth of Bees so famous: for are they not at appointment who should dispose the work at home, and who should gather honey in the fields? they flinch not from their Task, and no Creature under the Sun hath so brave an instinct of sagacity. Wherefore Epiphanius was wont to compare the godly Monks, that undertook their Office by the appointment of their Superior, some to labour with their hands, some to pray and meditate; I say he likened them to Bees, that hum about and make honey together. So some of these toil for the use of men, some sing Psalms unto God, thymum & hymnum proferunt. You shall hear an hundred boast of their great stomach, and of a spirit that could not be kept under. Brethren, as St. Paul said, your boasting is not good. But almost I never heard of any that professed themselves of a spirit which was subject to all obedience. One indeed I have read of, Nicolaus of Crete, how well it did become him, who was subject to Theodorus his Prelate, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as if he had no will of his own; full of reason and understanding, but utterly void of will and wilfulness. What a pleasure was this, both to him and his Disciple? what a sight was this worth the seeing? as the Angels, says Aristotle, are never weary of moving the Heavens, and the Heavens are never weary of turning round. Such is the harmony between the Prelate and the demure Obedient: where Wisdom is the Sun, and Duty is the Dial upon which it shines. How near came this man's Soul to adam's in the state of Innocency? whose original purity the Shoolmen call by an elegant Title aureum froenum, a golden Bridle. For the Appetite had a Bridle to be checked under Reason; Reason had a Bridle to make it follow the supreme Will of the Creator: the very Beasts had a Bridle cast into their jaws to make them Homagers unto Man, which now would raven upon our Carcases. Now there is nothing abroad or at home but bellum servile, Zimri riseth up against his Master.  
Nothing hath more carried the World aside than those glorious words of Liberty, Power, and Prerogative. Among the Romans oppression and cruelty did not make a Tyrant, but the very name of Sovereignty. Nec clementes Dominos ferre poterant, says Tacitus, Masters, though they were meek, did offend as long as they were called Masters. Angustum annulum ne gesta, says Pythagoras, as if all subjection unto Discipline were like a straight Ring that pinched the finger. Plutarch coins a Fable, that the Tail of the Serpent grudged at the Head, because it went always foremost: The Head indeed had the right to go first, and the Tail to come after; but Officers were changed upon importunity, the Body was scratched, the Head was bruised, every thing was out of order, and by consent of all parts the Head was restored to that dignity for ever after, to lead the Body: And when disobedience hath disjointed the frame of any Polity, it is obedience must set all together, and unite the Fabric.  
Observation of Ceremonies, and petty duties may seem perhaps to be maintained too severely, and the peremptory keeping of Circumstances, to be rather Rigour than Discipline. But it was the answer of a wise Magistrate to this complaint, that assault would quickly be made against greater matters, if the lesser were despised. For observe it in a Wine-vessel, the small twigs bind about the hoops, the hoops bind about the planchers, the planchers alone seem to contain the liquor, you would think; yet cut the small twigs, and the hoops fly asunder, the planchers start, and the wine is spilt. So is it with Ceremonies; to despise our Garments, our Gestures, our Canonical Ordinances may seem no damage to Religion, but the very substance of our Christianity would lie open to the wild Boar out of the Wood to root it up, if the Hedge were broken. In some cases I will grant it to be very true, that the Orator says, generosus est animus hominis magisque ducitur quam trahitur; our mind is free and noble, and would rather go alone than be forced to duty; but what duty can be expected from them in greater cases, who are headstrong against Ecclesiastical Government in the smallest Ceremonies?  
They that zealously wish abundance of happiness in the Church, will be so far from complaining that Ceremonies are a burden to their Liberty, that they would wish, I think, that Canonical obedience did lie more strictly upon the Clergy, in the whole course of their Profession: Which if it did, I am persuaded that the studies of the Learned, and the painful industry of Scholars had been more renowned in this Island, than over all the World. It is the sweet lenity of our Pilots to give us sea room to sail at random, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, if we were compelled to knit our strength in clusters, our prowess would be better tried in God's Cause, than when we come single and scattered one from another to write a Controversy. For when every man follows the genius of his own disposition, licence cannot choose but bring in confusion: for though every one should do well for his own part, yet the work must be out of order.  
Some Monk will say perchance, this is our Religion, and just as we would have it. Immane quantum, etc. great is the difference between my Doctrine and theirs, and, I fear, we shall not part friends thus. First, I commend obedience, where the thing commanded is feizable, and may be done; as to build no houses, to drink no wine: they call for obedience in things impossible, as to water a dead stick and make it grow, to pour water into a Siev, and the like: This is not obedience, but pertinax inertia, loss of good hours, wasting of time, and fruitless negotiation. I commend obedience which turned the heart of the Children toward their Fathers, and gives this praise to the Rechabites, that they would not be enticed by Priest or Prophet, but in all things harkened to the voice of Jonadab: they commend those unnatural Monks, that take a Cloister over their heads to sleep and fatten, though their Parents be most unwilling, and curse them for it. I commend the Rechabites obedience which is grounded upon the Scripture, approved by the Spirit of God, and his Prophet Jeremy: they have no ground for their Canonical Orders, but man's institution. Votum obedientiae non directè colligitur è scripturâ, says Gregory of Valentia: nay, temporibus Apostolicis non institutae sunt religiones, says Aquinas, our Religious Orders are later than the times of the Apostles. Lastly the obedience which I praise is such, where the things commanded are lawful and just. Wine in those hot Countries might well be forborn, and temperance the better maintained: in Tents they might dwell, and shades of Tabernacles, to acknowledge themselves but Strangers and Pilgrims in this World, and Heaven to be their Country: some say it was to forewarn the Israelites, that the Captivity of Babylon was hard at hand, and it was in vain to build Cities for a long habitation. Finally, having neither Barns nor Storehouses, their Herds and their Flocks were their riches, and they forbore to sow the ground, and to gather in the fruits of the Harvest; these things are lawful and honest, and in them it was expedient to hearken to the voice of Jonadab. But the Romanists commend obedience wherein fas and nefas are alike: to complot Treasons and Massacres, to dissemble and lie; for Priests to leave off their Weed, and ruffle it in other Countries like Gentlemen, all this is obedience: yea Maffaeus commends a Novice of the Jesuits Order, who was consecrating the Host at the Communion, his Superior Liola called him away for no other end but to try his duty, he left his God Almighty half made, and half unmade in the midst of Consecration, and hasted to his Superior. This is sweet obedience.  
Men that have reason and will, subject themselves to the power and dominion of their Rulers by the inclination of their own will: natural agents are compelled to yield to forcible agents, because the weaker qualities cannot resist the stronger. Now the Underling that obeys his Praelate is exempted two ways from his Authority, as natural things two ways do control the virtue of a superior agent. 1. Propter impedimentum ex virtute superioris moventis, if a greater force oppose a lesser, the greater must carry the sway. Green wood resists the flame of a little fuel, because the mixture of the wood is too hard for so small a fire: so the supreme dominion and power belongeth unto God, and that obedience which is performed to Man against God, it is sacrificium de rapinâ, not Obedience but Atheism, not Obedience but Sacrilege, not Obedience but Flattery. The second resistance is when a natural body is subject in some qualities, and in some free from subjection; as wax subject to the fire to soften, to the Seal to set a stamp upon it. So an Handmaid is to yield all bodily service of labour to her Lord, but quoad prolis generationem aut corporis sustentationem non ligatur: To surfeit her body by excess of meats, or to pine it away with fasting; to commit uncleanness, or to enthral herself to Virginity, this is beyond the Sphere of Authority, and she is not bound unto it.  
Let us gather up this second part of my Text into one closure; we commend the Rechabites for their Obedience, and by their example we owe duty to our Parents, natural and civil, those that begot us, those that govern us. We owe duty to the dead, after our Rulers have left us in the way of a good life, and changed their own for a better: We owe duty to our Rulers in all things honest and lawful; in obeying Rites and Ceremonies indifferent, in Laws Civil and Ecclesiastical. Illis imperii jus concessum est, nobis relicta est obsequii gloria. But where God controls, or wherein our liberty cannot be enthralled, we are bound ad patiendum, and happy if we suffer for righteousness sake. Now that the obedience of the Rechabites was lawful and religious, and a thing wherein they might profitably dispense with freedom and liberty, the third part of my Text, that is their Temperance, will make it manifest, for in this they obeyed Jonadab, non bibemus, etc.  
To spare somewhat which God hath given us for our sustenance, is to restore a part of the plenty back again; if we lay hands upon all that is set before us, it is suspicious that we expected more, and accused nature of frugality. And though the Vine did boast in Jothams' Parable, that it cheered up the heart of God and Man, though it be so useful a Creature for our preservation, that no Carthusian or Celestine Monk of the strictest Order did put this into their Vow to drink no Wine, yet the Rechabites are contented to be more sober than any, and lap the water of the Brook, like gideon's Soldiers. Which moderation of diet (though, as I said in the beginning, as it is an extreme, and as it is a Vow for ever to drink no Wine, I do not urge it to your imitation) yet it did enable them to avoid Luxury, and swinish drunkenness, into which sin whosoever falls makes himself subject to a fourfold punishment.  
First, The heat of too liberal a proportion kindles the lust of the flesh; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the Poet calls it elegantly, Wine is the milk of Venus. Lot who was not consumed in Sodom with the fire of Brimstone, drunkenness set him on fire with incestuous lust in Zoar. The Brimstone trickled down like rain, but Luxury broke in upon him like a breach of the Sea. And as Epaminondas said, Modicum prandium non capit proditionem; Treasons were never plotted at a frugal Table, so Fornications and Adulteries were never hatched in Cups of water, but then they steal upon us where our Bowls are crowned with superfluity. In jejuniis, in castitate, 2 Cor. vi. What St. Paul hath coupled, let us not divide, fastings go first, then follows pureness and chastity.  
Secondly, How many brawls and unmanly combats have we seen? Nay, how much blood spilt under the Ensign of a Tavern Ivy bush? Memento te sanguinem terrae bibere, says Androcides in Pliny; Wine is but the blood of the earth, and blood toucheth blood, says the Prophet Hosea. Antonius vino gravis sitiebat sanguinem, says Seneca; When Antonius his head turned round with drink, he thirsted for the blood of his enemies. After Riot follows strife, says St. Paul, Rom. xiii. I will fill them with wine, and dash them one against another, says the Prophet Jeremy, Chap. xiii. It is a sweet thing that men must fall at odds, and stand nicely upon their terms of Honour in their drink, when no man can disgrace them so much as their own intemperance, which hath made them beasts: Is that a time to strive for Mastery when they are the vilest servants upon earth to their own brutish appetite?  
Thirdly, Superfluity of drink it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the draught of foolishness. Such a misery, in my opinion, that I would think men had rather lose their right arm than the government of their reason, if they knew the Royalty thereof. Wine and the foolishness of Idolatry were in the Feasts of Belshazzar. And let St. Austin in his Epist. 64. be well discussed, and it will be found, that quaffing, which was used to be celebrated every year at the Tombs of the Martyrs, was the first thing that brought in Offerings and Prayers for the dead, a most erroneous Doctrine. St. Basil calls Winebibbers, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Idols of the Gentiles; for as David describes Idols in the Psalms, so they have eyes and see not, ears and hear not, hearts and understand not.  
Lastly, Whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, sobriety is the sustentation of that which decays in man, drunkenness is the utter decay of the body. It was all the excuse that calisthenes had for himself, when he refused Alexander's drinking Feast, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I had rather want your Feast than stand in need of Aesculapius. And when I see new Taverns multiply, the next thing I look to see, is to have more Apothecaries set up, and more Physicians practise among us. That than which bereaves our bodies of health, and our minds of reason: that which puts fury into our hands, and fire into our breasts; is that it which is grown the mean man's Recreation, and the great man's Solemnity? O ye Galatians, who hath bewitched you? Satisfy me in one question, and I will ask no more: To rob a man of his Garment, or his Purse, would you not think it dishonourable for you to do? And Theft to be punished by the King's Laws? But, I pray you, which is the greater robbery, to force or flatter your Friend to kindness, whereby he loseth his reason, which is the Vessel of God's grace, or to bereave him of a little money, which is the instrument of fortune? Whosoever hath been guilty of this crime, to seduce another into weakness, if his heart do not burn within him for shame, know that Foelix, the corrupt Governor, was more conscionable, for Foelix trembled when Paul did preach of temperance.  
Of all other sins surfeiting of meats and drinks is a transgression of private flattery: for every costly junquet is to content nature, to perfect nature, to strengthen nature; and poor nature is as innocent of these things as the Idol Bel, that had the name indeed, but tasted not the King's Provision. Cum corpus impinguo, hostem adversus meipsum nutrio, says St. Bernard; To cram up our body too much, is to maintain a civil Rebel within our own skin and bone. Si contenti erimus naturâ, tam supervacuus est coquus quam miles, says Seneca. In Peace what use have we of Soldiers? God forbid but their service should be rewarded nobly; but then we have no employment for their service: So if we go no further than the sustenance of mere Nature we shall have no use of Cookery. Beasts, and Fishes, and the Fowls of the Air find that at hand which is fit for their sustenance, Non fuit noverca natura, ut homo sine tot artibus non possit vivere; was Nature a Stepdame to man only, that no less than two hundred Arts and Trades may be reckoned before his Table can be furnished?  
Adam went out of Paradise with a full stomach, he sunk like a Ship over-laden with Traffic, but Lazarus went fasting to heaven, scarce fraught with the crumbs of Dives Table. Moses did fast upon Mount Sinai when he talked with God, but in the Valley beneath the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. Elias did not drink for forty days, at length he did pray for rain, and had drink from heaven. But Luxury corrupts the Air, and breeds sterility. Tot curiis & decuriis ructantibus acescit coelum, says Tertullian by an excellent Hyperbole. Daniel by his slender food of pulse and water, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. Basil, taught the Lions to hunger and want their prey all night when he was cast into their Den. Therefore foul shame it was for the Pharisees, says the same Father, to look sourly and sickly when they wanted their repast, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Why did they not rejoice rather for the healthfulness of their soul? Wherefore when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face, says our Saviour. You would think by this, that a Fast were the celebration of some Bridal. He was no Benefactor in Greece that did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, mend their diet. No Emperor for the people of Rome that did not enter into his Kingdom with a Congiary, or Banquet. But the Saints of God will not let us know when, or what day they went to heaven without a Fast before it.  
Let not this Doctrine give occasion to the Wealthy of this Kingdom to lessen their Magnificence, and pinch their Table: Charitable house-keeping hath been always the honour of this Realm, and a blessing destined for the poor. But whatsoever your eye beholds when you set before you plenteous provision, will you think, as the Epicure of Rome did, that the Table is furnished for your own throat, and boast that Lucullus sups with Lucullus? No Beloved, look upon it as the Father of a Family, whose eyes wait upon your benevolence; look upon it as the Steward of the poor, whose mouths shall bless God that hath enlarged your heart to do good unto them. And be not like the larded Epicure that eateth like Behemoth, Job xl. 16. whose force is in the navel of his belly. What unfitness is in such a corpse for speculation of knowledge? What dulness to Prayer and Devotion? Had we not need of a long Lent between our Shroving and our Easter?  
And besides the sin of the gurmundizing Glutton, I must not spare to tell you, that there is luxuria in modico, a riotous diet which longs after nothing but dainties and delicates. As to be wanton stomacht after Mandrakes with Rachel; to long after the fruits of Pontus and Asia, with Lucullus. To affect strange Cookery of France and Italy. Why should you make more of your corruptible bodies than our Saviour did of his glorified body? Ecquid habetis filioli? Children, have you any thing to eat? Do but observe the prohibition of meats in the old Law; neither herbs, nor roots, nor any homely food were forbidden, but the curiosity of some delicious flesh was denied to the children of Israel. They had their Quails indeed in the Wilderness, when they lusted; and they that fasted three days in the Desert with our Saviour, had nothing but two fishes and five barley loaves among two thousand. Choose you with whether of these you would make your Table: They with the Quails had the curse of God, and these had the blessing of our Saviour. It is a mystery, methinks, that Father Jacob sent away his Honey and Spices, Nuts and Almonds for a Present unto Joseph, to buy him coarser food, I mean, the Corn of Egypt. Nos oleris coma, nos siliqua foeta legumine paverit innocuis Epulis, says the sweet Prudentius. In Ethnic Rome a Senator was charged to keep so mean a Table, by the Law called Centussis, that a Mess of Friars now adays would rise an hungry from it. Ignorance it is, wilful ignorance that hath made the world so riotous both in Gluttony and Drunkenness, because forsooth these are such sins as are not forbidden in the Ten Commandments. Not to trouble you with many conjectures why God did so, I will give you this answer for your utmost satisfaction. Nothing is forbidden in the Ten Commandments, Nisi directè deordinet hominem ad Deum aut ad proximum, says Hales; except it be a transgression directly against God or our Neighbour: Gluttony and drunkenness are principally inordinate passions, not against God and our Neighbour, but against our own body. But doth this diminish the guilt of these sins? No Beloved, but rather they do many ways dispose a man to disorder himself both to God and his Neighbour. God is often blasphemed, blood spilt, lust provoked, the Lords day violated, the Magistrate disobeyed, and next to the pronity of original sin, intemperance of meats and drinks is the fuel of all sins: Wherefore be a Rechabite, or the next to a Rechabite, in surfeit and immoderation to drink no Wine.  
There is but one thing remains to dispatch our exercise for this time. I have made a large discourse how Fasting and Temperance are the third Encomium or praise of the Rechabites. Indeed David doth wish it above all curses to the enemies of the Lord, that their Table may be made a snare. But for mensa laqueus, that a prodigal Table is a snare to a good conscience, it is no strange thing; What say you to inedia laqueus? To fast and subdue the body is made a greater snare, as the Devil hath contrived it among our Romish Adversaries. I knew the Devil could tempt an innocent to offend with eating, but would you think he could take advantage upon an empty stomach? Would you think that Lent, and a few Ember Weeks should be called Lutrum peccatorum; A satisfaction for sin? To cross this error, that it was not abstinence from meats and drinks simply taken which did commend us unto God, therefore as we lost the knowledge of God by Gluttony and eating, Gen. iii So the Second Adam was known to his Disciples and Cleophas thrice after his Resurrection as they were at meat, to show that the Table of sobriety was sanctified in the Lord. Wherefore let the boast of the proud Pharisee, I fast twice a week, be made a Collect in the Roman Prayer-book: We are tied to say grace unto God when we receive our meat, but these men expect most impiously that God should say grace, and give them thanks for fasting, especially if it were a Vow, as this was of the Rechabites, Nunquam bibemus, for ever we will drink no wine.  
It is a blessed conspiracy when sundry souls confederate themselves together to serve the Lord. Glad was David's heart to have company to go to the Altar; I was glad when they said unto me we will go into the house of the Lord. Indeed, the Spouse of Christ is not one stick of Juniper, or a single lump of Frankincense though never so sweet, but Fasciculus Myrrhae, a bundle of Myrrh, Cant. i. Faith in unity it is the glory of Christianity. I know not what delight Owls may take to separate themselves and sit alone, but Vbi cadaver, ibi aquilae, where the body is, there will the Eagles be gathered. This is the fourth Pillar upon which the praise of the Rechabites is erected, they were Votaries in one Vow, they were joined in an order and confederacy to serve the Lord, When all other Relations will be out of date in heaven, perchance quite forgotten, the Title of Brotherhood among the Saints shall continue for ever. Thus the Rechabites are combined; Et illi dixerunt, and they all said with one acclamation, We will drink no Wine.  
But since I have spoken to the allowance and good liking of such as put themselves into one link and brotherhood of Religion, a thing unusual in our ears, a word will not be unfitting, before I proceed any farther, to explain myself, and let you know both whom I cast off, and whom I would entertain and justify in this Doctrine. First, God forbid I should allow any factious conjuration, like the desperate Camp of Absalon, like Theudas and his Banditi, like Judas of Galilee and his Swordmen; no, nor every foolish Rabble that meets at Tavern must be called an Order. We had of late times such as bound themselves in a League as if they had been Rechabites, and they chose a name for themselves as if they had been Sheperds, I will not say they did drink no wine: But this I dare say, if they had run riot as they began, they would have left themselves as little Land to plow as the Rechabites had, neither field nor vineyard.  
The Friars and Monks of Rome, they are Orders that seem devoted to the Church, and so were the Pharisees. Verily some were anciently allowed in the Church to profess such austerity as needed not to counterpoise the Philosophical strict life of many Heathen. And as their original was not allowed from God, but man's institution, so in a little space they grew so bad that almost no zealous Spirit in any Age but did defy the Monasteries. In our time their profession of poverty is but lazy beggary, their obedience is to gain liberty against them who were made to command them, and to profess thraldom to one who usurps authority; their Vow of Chastity is to despise the Ordinance of Marriage, and to enjoy fleshly liberty; their practice is so profane that Boccace an Italian thought they spent all their study to find out this one conclusion, that there was no God.  
But the Rechabites fixed themselves so curiously upon the true Worship of God, as the Star pointed in a right line to the Manger where Christ was reposed. For there is but this double error in enjoying the world: First, To think through infidelity Deum defuturum ubi promisit, that God will fail to provide for us notwithstanding his Promises. So runs the Devil's Tentation against our Saviour, Mat. iv. He must command stones to be made bread, or he must starve for ever. Secondly, To run into presumption, Deum adfuturum ubi non promisit, that God would succour us in those cases where he never passed his word to do it. Behold it again in the Sophistry of Satan, Cast thyself down, for he will give his Angels charge over thee; to decline Infidelity the Rechabites commit their bodies to Tabernacles instead of houses. They live among strangers instead of their own people. Their Substance is the poor increase of their Flocks, instead of Lands and Revenues; their Diet is Parsimonious, they will drink no Wine. Yet to decline presumption, they exercise a Calling, they fill up a good employment in the Commonwealth, they have Children and Families to instruct in the Lord.  
These are the Confederates and Votaries in whose holy life I found but three things before for your imitation: 1. Their constancy against enticements. 2. Their obedience and awful respects to the Laws of Jonadab. 3. Their temperance, and religious weaning of their bodies from the surfeited breasts of Drunkenness and Luxury; now your patience may expect, as it is my duty to perform the last task concerning the Vow of the Rechabites. The Fountain is but one, but the Head is parted into these four streams: 1. What inducements they had to make this Vow. 2. That their Vow being made stood upon just and lawful conditions. 3. That the greater defenders of Vows the Roman Monks do not imitate the Rechabites. 4. That Vows being justly made, they are solemnly to be performed, and then the Lord is pleased. Every part shall be offered again to your remembrance as it is handled.  
In the first place, they had encouragement to take this Vow upon them for three reasons: 1. As being but strangers to the true Commonwealth of Israel. 2. To make the better preparation for the Captivity of Babylon. 3. To draw their affections to the content of a little, and the contempt of the world. We love for the most part to gaze at strangers, and curiosity will ask, as if it were in Office, about their birth and condition. Their Genealogy briefly (and under correction of better skill) is on this wise. Midian was born unto Abraham of Ketura, Gen. xxv. Jethro the Father of Zipporah the Wife of Moses came of that stock, being Priest and Son of Midian, Exod. two. Hemath is the next in knowledge of that Race, and of Hemath came the Kenites, 1 Chron. two. 55. Now the Kenites were the Children of Moses' Father-in-Law, this is the very Text. Judg. i 16. They went up out of the City of Palm trees with the Israelites, and dwelled among them in the Wilderness, and feared the Lord. But the Kenites were voluntary adjoyners, not of the Covenant, and Inheritance they had none in Canaan, no not a foot of ground. God having mightily blessed them with a little, only by keeping Sheep, as their Father Jethro and his Daughters did. Rechab and Jonadab provided assurance for their Children among the Israelites for ever. And whereas strangers should cast about for two things especially, that is, neither to be burdensome to the place they live in, and eat out the Inhabitants, nor to be unprofitable as superfluous parts of the Kingdom. So did these men, they were bound to plant no Vineyards, to till no ground, or build houses; and who could say they robbed the Country of any Commodity. But they fed Flocks, and attended their charge in the field, lest Israel should say, we have no need of you.  
Happy men, who left the pleasant Country where they were born, and followed the Tabernacle into a strange Land, where they might be born again by the grace of God. As Tully said when he fled from Rome to Pompey, Exilium in Pompeii causâ est tanquam patria; he that was banished for so good a man was better than at home: So resolve we every one to follow the true Church wheresoever it is tossed about in the World; there is no banishment to a Christian but to be far from God, Earth is our Pilgrimage, and Heaven our Country. Christus non in domo sed in viâ nascitur. Our Saviour himself was born but in an Inn, as if he took up his lodging for a night in this world, and were but a Passenger. They that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, sine aris focisque, without an hearth to kindle a fire, says Aristotle, of all men they were the most poor and wretched. That is no good Divinity, says St. Austin, writing concerning the tears of Judah by the waters of Babylon, Mirum hoc esset si aliquò duci poterant ubi Deus eorum non esset; If they that were hurried into Babylon could be carried away where God was not with them, then, and not till then, their translation were a misery. But as the Israelites removed from one journey to another, according as the Pillar of smoke did remove by day, and the Pillar of fire by night, so I tell you of such men in my Text that turned their station every where as God's Glory and his Worship did direct them. Whether it be affliction, or whether it be fear to give offence when we are in a strange Land, sure I am somewhat is in it, that makes such men most careful of their Religious Conversation. Deborah found the Kenites those sojourners most ready to pursue that Tyrant Sisera. Jehu could find no man to cleave unto him against the Idolatry of Baal but even this Jonadab, the Founder of this order of the Rechabites, who renounce all Mansion dwelling, and vow for ever to live in Tents.  
And as Abigail said to David, Let thine Handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the Servants of my Lord the King. So Jonadab puts his Children in a way to think themselves not worthy of Cities and Possessions among the Royal Nation whom God had chosen, but Shepherds they must be, and underlings to tend the Flocks of the Servants of the Lord. Foelix illud saeculum fuit ante architectonas, says one. Fair buildings and curious houses had they been unreared, the Kitchens had not been plied so much to provide Banqueting and Luxury. It was a scoff cast upon the Rhodians, that they built as if they would live three Ages, and they fed as if they would die in three days: As if their fair Palaces moved them to make Feasts, and their Feasts were occasions to make them surfeit, and to sleep out their days in a Lethargy. You shall not wag your heads another day at these men's Tenements, and cry woe unto the houses that were built by Extortion. The stone out of the Wall, and the Beam of the Roof cannot condemn the Master. You shall not censure them as Seneca did his own Countrymen the Romans, Vnicuique suum si restituerent ad casas reducerentur; If every Nation whom they have robbed and spoiled had their own, they would have nothing left them, but, that which they began with, their Shepherd's Cottages: And when you have erected such a place, that you may set your name upon it, says the Psalmist; yet what have you done, but paid Tribute where ye needed not, says Plutarch? Quare homines in auratis lectis dormiant, etc. Why should men put themselves to such cost to pay for their sleep, when if they will choose the open fields with Vriah, or choose a Tent with the Rechabites, it will cost them little or nothing. Nay, some are so curious, that they will not only have their houses for their lives, but set up Tombs for their dead Carcases before they die. Nay, they dare indite Hic jacet upon their Monument when they are yet alive, when God knows whether their dust shall be scattered into all the quarters of the earth.  
This that hath been spoken may serve to let you know how plausible it did seem to Jonadab to institute such a Vow, because his Brethren were strangers in the Land of Jury. And secondly, it was well considered, because their fortune might turn worse and worse; they might be greater strangers. For who is he that had not heard the threatening of the Babylonish Captivity? Nay, There are Psalms of Thanksgiving for their joyful return in the Prophet David. Did not Solomon's heart misgive him in this matter? Observe but one passage in his heavenly Prayer at the Dedication of the Temple, 1 Kings ix. 46. If they carry us away captive into the Land of the enemies far or near, and thy people repent, then hear our supplication in heaven, and maintain our cause. The time drew so near, that Jeremy and many Prophets spoke of it, as if the Calamity were already begun in the borders of the Country. Now when Captivity did ring in their ears, who would only live as if one day would be every day, and never provide for the Evening sorrow which might fall upon them? Who would not exercise his mind to know what it was to lose? Who would not cast away his burden against the flight of persecution? So did the Rechabites. For when the Chaldaeans should sweep away the people, as an Ox licketh the grass, they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, one Wain could carry them, their Tent, and their Family, Tectumque, laremque, armaque, it was but a progress to pass over Euphrates; but great was the sorrow of all the Tribes leaving their Houses and Vineyards; it made Jeremy indite a book of Lamentation. Noah left all he had unto the world seven days before the Flood began; and what got they who thought him foolish, and themselves happy to divide the spoils. Lot forsook his house, and the Sodomites did not enjoy it an hour who succeeded him.  
A good Christian is indifferent to be cast into any mould by the hand of God. He that is prepared to die but one kind of death, is not yet fit to be a Martyr: And he that is prepared to live but one kind of life, is not yet fit to be a Confessor for the name of Christ. A good Actor, says Synesius, can represent either Creon or Telephus, and all is one in his skill to play the Prince, or the Bondslave. Hence ariseth all the misery of mankind, says Athenagoras in Plutarch, Quod quippiam nobis inexpectato accidit; That something befalls us which we did not expect, nor were provided for it. Foolish men, who love nothing but their present life, are like bad roots that grow sullen if you remove them from the earth that feeds them. There is no life to Shemei if he may not run at random, and rail, and backbite in every corner. As good it were to hang him out of the way as to confine him to one City, though it were Jerusalem. Such as can look no further into the world, than that they may retire to their own home if need be, are comprised under the Emblem of the Snail, that goes a very little space from her Shell with this word, Si pluit ingrediar, a dash of rain drives them back again. Your constant settled man is made for every fortune that is cast upon him, his Emblem is, Corpus quadratum, a square body; throw it as you will it lies flat and firm, every way it keeps the same decent posture. And so much for the second inducement which Jonadab had to ordain this Vow of Tabernacles and abstemiousness, it was for the better preparation against Captivity. In communi fame atque obsidione quam utilis fuit frugalitas, etc. When Famine and Wars were in the City, great advantage had the Rechabites above other men, by their temperance, and hard lodging in Tents, says Calvin upon this place.  
Lastly, Jonadabs' counsel was as an Oracle of God to frame such a Vow at this season: Because the riches of the Land did exceedingly multiply above all Nations from the Reign of Solomon, and to profess so much contempt of the world when all Jury was like a rich Exchequer full of Silver and Gold, what an honour was this to the Rechabites that they durst be poor when all the Kingdom surfeited of plenty? Quid habere nobis turpe sit, quaeris? Nihil, says the Poet. Nothing was shame-worthy in that place but to be poor and have nothing: Yet nothing they possess but such a quantity of substance as might best serve them to praise the Lord. cattle they had, and Lambs they had wherewith the Priests might make atonement for their sins, and the sins of Judah: Goods and substance which was not useful to the Temple of God, to them such Riches were Apocryphal. Some bring Censors of Gold, some sweet Odours to the Altar. They have no such Offerings. But as it was said of Epictetus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. None so poor in the riches of this world, none so rich in the expectation of the next world.  
The children of the true Church are compared to sheep coming from the shearer, Cant. i. Whereupon says one, Christianus est ovis detonsa, hoc est, omnibus mundanis spoliata; A Christian is a sheep that stands dumb, and is willing to part with all his Fleece, and to lay it at the feet of the Shearer. The Lord is merciful calcantibus terram, says the Prophet Isaiah, to them that spurn the earth. From whence St. Austin raised this Meditation, Est iis misericors qui amore coelestium terrena contemnunt, He is merciful to men who trample the riches of the earth under feet, and meditate upon the Kingdom of Heaven. For as the Fathers observe upon St. Peter's words, Depart from me for I am a sinful man, that such a depart was a Fisher's hook to draw Christ nearer unto him: So for these men to plant neither Vine, nor Olive, nor to so Seed in the Canaan beneath, was to purchase the holy Paradise of happiness which remains for ever. O let me oppose the life of these men to the covetous death of many in our Age, that put out money upon Usury after they are buried, like him in the Poet having his death's wound, Terram ore momordit, he would carry his mouth full of earth away with him, as if he should not have enough in his grave.  
Had not the Israelites been too richly furnished with golden Earrings, they had never had stuff to make an Idol, there had been no Calf in Horeb. Had not Hezekiah been exalted with the pomp of so great a Treasury, the Messengers of the King of Babylon had not known the riches of the King's Palace, an Army had not been brought against the Kingdom. Methinks, says Seneca, the Romans should tremble at nothing more than to see Plate in their Streets, and Jewels in their Chains, and Gold upon the Posts of their doors. Cogitet Romanus has apud victos se reperisse; When they were first conquerors they had none of these, but they found them among their vanquished Captives. So let Judah remember that they found their Gold and Silver among the Canaanites who were slain and rooted out. And are they not fair baits to fall again into the hands of conquerors? Now alas, says Synesius, no man can think he is enthralled in the Fetters of Captivity as long as his Fetters be of Gold, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, we are not wary of mischief being in a glorious misfortune. Had they been all as wise as the Rechabites, their abundance had not dazzled the eyes of their enemies: but now like Fowls which shed their feathers about their Nest, they betray themselves by their own superfluity. I have read of an Advocate of Rome, that professed himself to be able to teach any man the Law to save his Lands from all question, that he might be disquieted by no impleadment. I do not value that cunning, says Seneca, but teach me to lose all I have, and not to be moved with the misfortune, and then I will pay you for my learning. In like manner had Jonadab left a great volume of Precepts behind him how to teach his Kindred thrift and husbandry, had he bequeathed to them the magisterium of the Philosopher's Stone, why all this labour had only made them worldly and avaricious. But to institute a course, and to put them in practise how to want and suffer scarcity, as many as walk in that rule may have bodies that can live without this world, as they have souls that can live without these bodies.  
And so much for the three laudable inducements unto which Jonadab did respect, when he made his Children vow a Vow unto the Lord. 1. It was expedient for strangers. 2 It was a Cordial to comfort them in the Captivity of Babylon. 3. It was an occasion both to withdraw the fuel which kindled the love of the world in their souls, and it extinguished the envy of their Adversaries who were about to subdue their Country. Now I follow my own method to handle the second consideration of this Vow, that these circumstances were not only well foreseen, but that the conditions of the thing vowed are just and lawful.  
Not to tumble over all the distinctions of the Schoolmen, which are as multiplicious in this cause as in any; of Vows, some are singular in uno individuo, which concern one man and no more, as when David vowed to build an house unto the Lord, this was not a Vow of many associated in that pious work, but of David only. Some are public when there is an unity of consent in divers persons to obtest the same thing before the presence of God. And such was this Vow in my Text, it concerned the whole Family of the Rechabites. Again, some Vows are private, not in regard of the persons which may be numerous, but in respect of the place; some Vows are solemn when the protestation is made unto the Church. So was not this Vow, it was not solemn, it was no Church matter. To say that the Rechabites lived about the Temple, and were a kind of Monks, I know not what could be spoken more ignorantly by our Adversaries, and yet it hath been written in defiance of our Religion. None lived about the Temple but Priests and Levites, except some great Prophetical Spirit was discerned in them. That the Nazarites had any dwelling in the Temple Maldonat is mistaken, no more had these Shepherds who lived in Tabernacles. Again, some constrain themselves to the observation of a Vow but for a time; for never any but Samson, that we read of, was a perpetual Nazarite; some oblige the Votary for ever, such was this which I treat of, in Tabernacles they must live for ever. Fourthly, Some stand upon conditions, like that of Anna, if she had a Son she would give him to the Lord. Some are absolute, like the Vow of Baptism, wherein there is no capitulation. But were it a Vow in any rank of these which I have named, yet the complexion of the matter must have these four conditions according to the Schoolmen. We will take that which is sound, and refuse that which is corrupt. Esto, say they, res adiaphora, possibilis, licita, faciens ad cultum Dei. 1. The thing vowed must be indifferent and free from necessity. 2. An atchieument possible, and not out of the reach of humane frailty. 3. Unless it be lawful we offer our service unto Devils. 4. That which we vow unto God must not be every idle fancy of our own brain, it must bear weight and moment if we promise it unto the Lord.  
To begin with the first: A thing not commanded, but indifferent to be done or not done is the first condition of a Vow, says Aquinas. Stay there a while. Shall I believe Aquinas or the Patriarch Jacob? For I learn that the first ground of making a Vow is in jacob's example, Gen. xxviii. by the light of nature before the Law: and he vows both res praeceptas, that God should be his God, and res adiaphoras, where the Stone was set to build up an house to God. Beloved, be not deceived with the leaven of the Jesuits, this is Diana of the Ephesians, and their credit lies upon it. Indeed such Commandments as literally forbid sin are negative, and obligant ad semper, the yoke of them is never off from our conscience, and so it is easy to acknowledge that they are Commandments; But whereas inclusively there are duties to be done quae non obligant ad semper, which bind us but at times and seasons, therein we may meet with many parts of Divine Worship which seem superfluous, and as it were, given into the bargain: Especially we want a good inspection to make a difference between these three things. 1. There is the end of a Christian life. 2. The next and immediate means to that end. 3. The remoter means, and further off. The end is God's glory, and we cannot oversee that point, but that it is the first injunction which lies upon our Soul. The next and the proper end to that means are the strict words of the Commandments, and those, we cannot gainsay it, are a necessary part of Christianity: But as for the remote means, which are further of, there we boast that we do pay that which we did never owe, but supererogate with God.  
O deluded Conscience! hearken and consider; purity of body and soul is the scope of the seventh Commandment. The next means to avoid Adultery is in some men Marriage, in some the shunning of lascivious talk and lewd Company: there are means more distant to subdue the wantonness of the body, by strict Fast, by Canonical hours of Prayer, to shun the very Country where bewitching Beauties tempt our affections. Should you tell me in this case that your Prayers, your Fast, your Pilgrimages were more than measure, and above the Commandment I would tell you, you did lie against God and your Conscience; against God who hath commanded all that you can perform by might and strength; and against Conscience; for whatsoever my heart tells me will give me advantage to serve the Lord, conscientia in iis est regula faciendorum, and it is sin to omit it.  
I appeal to a Jury of the Schoolmen: Why did Christ and his Angels vow no vow? because they are the most perfect Creatures of reasonable essence, full of the noblest speculation: yet they keep the Law of God and observe it. Down then with that blasphemy, that the observation of the Law is but Milk for Babes, and Vows are left to try the virtues of an excellent and heroic spirits, greater Tasks for the Champions of the Militant Church. The Law is like the Passover which must be eaten; Devotions of indifferency, when conscience doth prescribe them, are like the sour herbs to be eaten with it. If you think the Sauce better than the Meat, the Herbs more costly than the Lamb, they are fermentum in Paschate, and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. You will say, was not this res adiaphora? was it not in the power of the Rechabites to drink wine or refrain? yes; but when conscience had set it down before them as an excellent disposition to serve the Lord, conscience hath made that which was indifferent in itself necessary unto them, and their Task in this very thing to please the Lord. If this Chapter be not strong enough to convince our Adversaries, though they glory in the Example of the Rechabites, let them take the Cause. For although they restrained themselves to the poorest life of keeping sheep, and dwelled in Pavilions and drank no wine, yet it came not from these observations that they were acceptable to God; no, God himself reduceth their good service to the fifth Commandment in the last verses of this Chapter; because they have obeyed their Father Jonadab in all things, therefore there shall not want a man of that Race to stand before him for ever. And so much for the first condition of this Vow; the observations in themselves are of indifferency and liberty, but yet media remota ad praeceptum, they are reducible to the fifth Commandment.  
In the second condition I concur with the Schoolmen, that a Vow must be possible to accompass, lest they that pass by shake their heads and say, this man laid a foundation and was not able to build it up: non est votum sed ostentatio, it is no Vow, but plain boasting and ostentation. They deal as certain of the Sect called Druids among the Gauls, that took much upon trust in this life, to pay their Creditors in the Resurrection. When St. Peter would trust his feet to walk upon the Seas to Christ, the waves surged, and had well nigh drowned an Apostle. A good Emblem for those who finding their affections calm and even, say to morrow will be as yesterday, and vow for the years to come; but in time our heart loatheth this Manna, and what are we but Bankrupts unto God, and Peter sinketh. A true Votary, says Anselm, gives unto God the whole tree with the fruit, root, and branches; the works of the will, and the power of the will for ever. But if the Thistle should vow, and threaten to bring forth grapes, would it not be trodden down by the Beasts of the field? as it is in the Parable? But this Vow of the Rechabites may be discharged with facility. Of their Pastoral life they had many examples in other Countries of men living in Woods, as if they had been born of Trees: and of their temperate life they had an instance in the Nazarites.  
But nothing is more feizable in the World than evil; therefore in the third place it concerns a Vow to be lawful. To resolve upon evil is a defiance against God; 
C. 28. v. 15.  omnis promissio mali est comminatio: Isaiah calls it an agreement with Hell, and a Covenant with Death. Lamech that swore in his wrath to kill a man: the Mother of Michah who did solemnly dedicate her Silver for a molten Image; the Swordmen that vowed the death of Paul, these gave their faith in hostage to the Devil to work iniquity. Put to these the revengeful Romanist, that is sent to sea by his Ghostly Father, with a worse Devil in him than was in the Gergasens Swine, to set Kingdoms in combustion, and to destroy the Lords Anointed. There are also unlawful Votaries, but not so bad as the former, whose heart was right with the Lord in their Vow, but being rash and sudden, never considered that the issue might be dangerous. Thus Jepthab returning from the slaughter of the Ammonites brought a deliberate curse upon his own Daughter. And what justice was in the Oath of Saul, that swore every man should die that tasted food that day, as well he that heard the Law as Jonathan that did not. These are Vows like sharp arrows shot up into Heaven, soft enough while they are in the air, but the danger is whose head they light upon when they return again.  
Well, I acquit the Vow of the Rechabites from any harm; to drink or spare is lawful; it is our freedom making no conscience. Not one Expositor of many but conceive that Jonadab and his Children took this penance upon them, because it grieved them to hear that Zion should be desolate, and Jerusalem an heap of stones. Let others feast it while destruction comes upon them unawares. There are such lovers of themselves, qui mallent stellam de coelo perire quam vaccam de armento, who had rather Heaven should lose a Star than himself be endamaged a Sheep, the Vine will not leave his sweetness, nor the Olive his fatness, neither would put away private content for the public good: but a zealous Rechabite is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and leaves both the sweetness of the Wine, and all power for ever to plant Vineyards, the better to be prepared to pray for Jerusalem.  
Lastly, multa licent quae non expediunt: May it be done safely? that is some content: but is it fit to be done? faciens ad cultum Dei? is it profitable for holiness? that is the fourth Condition. Every act of Divine Worship well placed raiseth up our melody unto God in a higher note: the noise of every idle superstition drowns the Music. When David vowed an Habitation for the mighty God of Jacob, Arise O Lord into thy resting place, thou and the ark of thy strength, than he filled Heaven and Earth with his Melody: We heard of the same at Ephrata, and found it in the woods. But that rude noise, Templum Domini, Templum Domini, to vow Pilgrimages, and gadding about to I know not what, it breeds no incensement of devotion: a mere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, like an Artist more busy than well occupied, that made a Chariot for a Fly to draw it.  
But that this Vow was of some moment in the practice of piety, it appears by God's benediction upon them in the last verse of this Chapter. For as it was said of Socrates his goodness, that it stood the Commonwealth of Athens in more stead than all their warlike Prowess by Sea and Land, so that Religious life of the Rechabites was the best Wall and Fortress to keep Judah in peace and safety. Those that like Thomas the Apostle would put their finger into the world, and thrust their hand into riches, and see the print of their nails, or else they will not believe; these would make you think that they were Disciples of Christ, and yet indent to receive Tribute from him, as if he were their Servant: And almost who doth not follow Christ rather to be a gainer by him than a loser. Ecce nos reliquimus omnia, Behold we have left all and followed thee; that was the perfection of the Apostles, that was the state of the Rechabites; not simply all, every thing that belonged to the maintenance of a man, and so to live upon beggary, sed quid velle debeant didicerunt, they have learned to ask nothing but a Gourd to cover their head, a few Flocks of Sheep to employ their hands, the Spring water to quench their thirst. They that must have no more, have cut off superfluous desires, that they can never ask more. And so I have declared that piety and a godly life were chiefly aimed at in the Vow of the Rechabites.  
But admit it had all in one Vow which could be good in any; will it avail to licence a Profession of Votaries in our Reformed Church; my Text casts this Question in the way, and I will remove it in a word. If any man would make a single Vow for his own person by this Example, let him go on and prosper. Advice is necessary in so great a business, and in the multitude of Counsellors there is safety. A Vow of Private Devotion hath always been allowed in these cases following. First, when the heart of any humble Supplicant did earn to obtain some great mercy from God. 2. When a terror of some imminent judgement did hang over the head of sinners, and threaten destruction not to be forty day's distance off, as in the case of the Ninevites. 3. It may be a caveat to check concupiscence, lest we sin over our enormous sins, not once, but often. Lastly, it kindles a frozen and benumbed zeal, and puts a flame into it as if it had been set afire by a Seraphin with a Coal from the Altar.  
Now for public Confederacy of many persons in one Order, it is as lawful, being well managed, as it is full of exceptions before the institution. Why may there not be holy Combinations to praise the Lord, as there are Orders for Chivalry and Honour in divers Countries? as the most noble Order of the Garter in our own Kingdom, the Knights of the Golden Fleece, and the like. I know not any well advised man that can take exceptions at the Knights of the Sepulchre instituted in a strict Collegiate life, covenanting to fight against Pagans for the Christian Faith upon their own charges, and bearing Crosses about their neck in remembrance of our Saviour's five wounds: but if any other condition shall intervene to the affronting of Religion, quae dederam supra repeto funemque reduco, I will no more approve such knots of superstition, than I would allow of Sheba the Son of Bichri, and his Conspiracy against King David. And so much hath been spoken for the four just Conditions of the Vow of the Rechabites. 1. It was a thing indifferent, but reducible to the fulfilling of the Law. 2. Let it be possible in the Sphere of our own ability. 3. Let it be just and lawful. 4. Let it be full of weight and moment, to draw us to the fear of the Lord.  
The third part of my Text I have destined out to show unto you, that the Romish Monks whose strictness and devotion is so famous among our Adversaries, that their Canons are not built upon the imitation of the Rechabites. That any particular Church may have Religious Orders and Votaries. I grant it, That point shall break no peace between us. In points not fundamental our Saviour's rule must hold, He that is not against us is with us: But Vows undertaken, wherein they do neither consult with the strength of man if they can be done, nor with conscience if they may be profitably done, nor with the Text of Scripture if they may be lawfully done; this cannot but break out into a quarrel. And in Essential points it is also a Maxim from our Saviour's mouth; He that is not with us is against us. Whatsoever is in the world, says St. John, it is either the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eye, or the pride of life. For the correcting of these three Tentations the Friars have propounded three Vows: The Concupiscence of the Eye is remedied by Monastical Poverty, say they; and why not as well by a contented mind? The Concupiscence of the Flesh is remedied by the Vow of Chastity, says the Romanist; I am sure experience doth tell us that God's Remedy is the surest, the Bed of Marriage. The Pride of Life is remedied by Blind Obedience, says the Papist; and why not as well by humility and acknowledgement of our own unworthiness?  
Wonder you so much that so many should retire themselves into Voluntary Poverty? is this such news abroad? when you cannot walk the Streets at home but swarms of Canters meet you, who will not live by the hope of their labour, but by alms and charity. The poor Artisan, the painful Ploughman who cannot make his long days labour feed him and refresh him at night, doth this man I pray you look like one who deserves relief, or an obstinate Mendicant? a Rechabite that watcheth night and day to feed his Flock? or a Capuchin that trudgeth night and noon about the City to feed his belly? Did Christ descend of the seed of Jonadab and Lazarus? no but of Abraham, a mighty Prince. Crates and Antisthenes may cast their Silver from them, and retain their vices, true Christians give up themselves to God, and with themselves they give up all things. Cosmus and Damianus who grudged a Monk his Christian Burial, because he had laid up a little Silver in his Study, were too prodigal of their zeal, and missed our Saviour's meaning. To leave Lands and Houses for his Names same, was to beget an exercised mind for patience; to prepare Worldlings to be ready to cast away their Burdens for the flight of persecution. It is good for a man in some sort to depend upon God's temporal blessings, lest we grow careless of Prayer. In Egypt where the River Nilus waters the earth, and fat's the ground without rain, nemo oratorum coelos aspicit. Pray who will, they trust in Nilus. Then I may contest against the Sectaries of St. Francis and the like, that Voluntary Poverty is not built upon the foundation of the Rechabites, and those idle swarms of the Cloisters have not left the World but civility.  
But for the Covenant of perpetual Virginity, there they think to bear the Bell away, and that they only shall be the men who carry Palm Branches before the Lamb among the Virgins, Rev. 7. It is in weak man to afford God as much chastity as he pleaseth? Can our frail will cast anchor in the depth of concupiscence? and say unto the surging waves of lust as Christ did to the Sea, Peace, be still. So Xerxes threw chains into the Ocean to bind it; but trow you the Tide was the calmer? St. Paul durst not do so. He would admit no Widows into the strict Orders of the Primitive Church under sixty years of age. Yea, says Leo, the first of that name, rather than want a College full I will entertain them at forty: nay, says Pius the first, what if they profess Virginity at five and twenty? And now the Canons have opened the Market a little more, every Girl may enter into a Cloister at fifteen if she like them. As Elias set the Sacrifice on fire when the Trenches were filled with cold water round about; so unchaste acts may get predominance of the will, notwithstanding all the spiritual Scleragogie, and exercise to tame the body. Fasting humbleth; Prayer is powerful; honest Communication apparelleth the mind with good thoughts; Watching tameth the flesh. All this is spiritual, but I am carnal. Quoque magis premitur tanto magis aestuat ignis.  
Is it not usual in the Court of Rome to grant Dispensations to supply the decay of Noble Families: but they are never granted to entangle an ensnared conscience. 
Can. 16.  And do they love Virginity? In the Council of Chalcedon it was decreed, that there should be reserved for the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. the absolute authority of Indulgence to pardon a distressed Maid, who disaccording to her Vow had married. But such a Marriage by the Romish Doctrine now adays is esteemed worse than Adultery, and do they love Chastity? Finally, it was the Discipline of Numa against a Vestal Virgin, who had committed folly, to bury her alive. Such a fault in the Roman Monasteries is passed by, either with a full connivance, or with the smallest penance. For wot you why? it may be every man's case: and do they love Virginity? I am sure the Rechabites did honour Marriage, and propagated a good Generation to the World: They knew that the gift of perpetual continence is not a Grace of common course: and extraordinary Dispensations are not presumptuously to be arrogated to the use of every regenerate Christian, no nor for the command of any Prophet. Why should St. Paul leave Trophimus sick at Miletum? Why was Bishop Timothy his stomach weak? Paul could not help it. Grace allotted for extraordinary operations is not every man's portion; nor always at hand for them who at some seasons have a taste of it: and such is the Rose of the Garland, the gift of Chastity.  
Finally, Obedience, which in our Voyage in this World, is like a sweet gale that fills the sails, and makes our Vessel fly swift upon the wings of the wind, yet as it is blind and Monastical, it is like a Serena, such a calm whereby the Bark can go neither backward nor forward, and it is not built upon the foundation of the Rechabites: not upon obedience to their own Father, but upon the sands of bondage and slavery. Vbi desinit Pharisaeus ibi incipit Monachus; the Pharisees if they took an oath upon the Altar not to relieve their Parents, thought it enough to say I know you not, to the Grey head which gave them education, and to the paps which gave them suck. Philo the Jew had it from hence when he concluded doctrinally, that a man was bound to provide sustenance for his Parents unless he had vowed the contrary. Not one jot more charitable are those shaved Crowns who afford their Parents no remembrance of their Birth, but to repent that they bore Children. Moreover what obligements did lie upon the Rechabites, but such as were calculated for common frailty. A Shepherd's life, the drink of an abstemious man, the Estate of a Foreiner, to have neither Lands nor Possession, this doth neither press nor overload Obedience. But Sulpitius tells another tale for Monastical duty, nullum unquam recusaturus quamvis indignum toleratu imperium; to be commanded to sow the wind, and to reap folly, this is to abuse our Creation, which gave us bodies to do something; not to be set on work to lose good hours, and do nothing, to please a Superior. Besides, thus the Rechabites continued their life to follow the Statutes of Jonadab, that they might be accepted for their harmlesness and innocency as Strangers and Pilgrims in Israel. Are the Jesuits so? those undertakers of State affairs, who endenison themselves in every Kingdom, whose eyes, as one said very well, are like Burning-glasses, which fire all things upon which they look.  
But this is their practice, to entitle the Worthies of the Scripture by the name of their own Orders, to whose conversation their life was nothing agreeable. Baronius makes the Mother of our Lord to live a cloistered Virgin in the Sanctum Sanctorum until she was betrothed to Joseph, and there was fed familiarly with Angels: Do you not believe it? when she trembled to hear one bring that good salutation, Ave Maria. In Nyssens time this was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a report that knew not the Author, and out of doubt a Fable. John the Baptist is tossed about in the Schools for the example of a contemplative Anchorite, because he lived in the Wilderness: But to be abroad in the Desert did no more make him an Hermit, than it made Nebuchadonosor who was mad seven years among the wild beasts. They presume also that Philip the Evangelists Daughters were Nuns, and had entered into some Covenant of Virginity, whereas in the third Book of Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, and the thirtieth chapter, the story is upon record that they were all happily married.  
St. Chrysostom conjoins an Eremite and Elias in some similitude, but to what purpose? I would our Adversaries would heed it better: that although an Eremite were as devout as Elias in the Wilderness, yet he would prefer a Bishop before him, who in the Cities of God taught the Word, and dispensed the Sacraments, St. Hierom I find calls the Rechabites Monks in the 13. Epist. ad Paulinum; not as if the causes or institution of both their lives were alike, but because they concurred in some points of austerity. If there be such sutableness between our Predecessors in the Law, and the Religious Orders of Rome now adays, methinks Balaam should carry these marks of a Jesuit. First Balaam died in Arms, Jos. 13. and Loiola was a Soldier in the Field. Balaam was a great complotter with the King of Moab, they are busy and factious in all Kingdoms of Europe. Balaam was ready to curse God's Inheritance for a reward; this pernicious Fatherhood have laid their heads together to root out our reformed Israel. Balaam had the good gifts of Prophecy, but wanted grace; and so confer the Writings of the Jesuits and their practice, and you will say as Isaac did to his Father, Here's a pile of wood, but where is the Sacrifice? In like manner we may say here's a Volume of Divinity in our works, learned Fathers, but in your lives not an ABC of Religion. To conclude this point; Howsoever they bear the World in hand, that Vows of Monastical perfection are expressed in the Word of God; yet the alleged Examples are either such as never did vow, I mean the Virgin Mary, John Baptist, Elias, and Ananias says Cardinal Cajetan: or such as vowed rashly out of precipitant zeal like Saul and Jephta: or such as made no such Vow as they contrive by the Pattern, I mean the Nazarites, the Rechabites, and St. Paul's Widows. Who kept a College to entertain Disciples, and to tend the Funeral of Christians, like those Widows who washed the Body of Tabatha, Acts 9 If you will needs know from what Quiver they draw their Shafts, sift the Pythagoraeans, and their captive obedience; sift the Vestal Maids and their Devoted Virginity; sift the Pagan Philosophers and their Obstinate Poverty: is not the very Name to be found, that Cloister Lubbers were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Heathen appellations. Search the Scriptures, and search Pagan Education, and the case will appear on our side, that the Romish Votaries enter into Orders, not by the Door of the good Shepherd, but by the dark Entry of Philosophers. And so much I have spoken to show that the Patrons of Monastical Perfection are much mistaken, though we praise the Rechabites.  
The end and last part of all is this; That forasmuch as God was well pleased with these abstemious People that would drink no Wine, therefore promise unto the Lord, and do the deed; for that is my final conclusion, that a Vow justly conceived is to be solemnly performed. When we have breathed out nunquam bibemus, a resolved Protestation before God, it is like the hour we spoke it in, past and gone, and can never be recalled. Effudi animam, says David, I have poured out my soul in prayer, as if upon his supplication it were no longer his, but Gods for ever. Surely if our Soul be gone from us in our Prayers, then much more in our Vows they are flown up to Heaven, like Lazarus to the Bosom of Abraham, they cannot, they should not return to earth again. He that changed his Sex in the Fable is not so great a wonder, as he that changeth any Covenant which is drawn between God and his Conscience: He that hath consecrated himself to God, doth, as it were, carry Heaven upon his shoulders. Support your burdens in God's name, lest if you shrink the wrath of God press you down to the nethermost pit.  
I admonish the Friars of Italy to look to this, they cast a colour upon their Vow of Lenten fasting, but they lie unto the Holy Ghost; whereas their Vow is not to eat bread till toward the Evening, as if God knew not how the day went but by the Church Saints-Bell, they read Evensong before twelve a clock at Noon, that the Clergy may go to Supper. Right Judas; quicquid facis fac citò; he had his sop before his fellows, and so was sent of his Errand. An old Wife in Greece was as crafty in this forgery as any Monk of them all: She vowed to drink nothing but water until she saw an hundred Suns; Centum soles de puro non nisi fonte bibam. Well the reservation was that she looked through the holes of a Sieve, and therein saw a thousand representations of the body of the Sun. Per crebra foramina cribrum inspicit, & soles callida mille videt. But will cozenage and equivocation serve to excuse a Votary, absit, God is not mocked.  
I will spend no more of your leisure but to give a brief answer to one question. Is Christ so austere that he doth reclaim against all dispensation? no, says Aquinas, you are loose again, if the thing in vow be either simpliciter malum, inutile, aut majoris boni impeditivum; if it be sinful, nay if it be unuseful, nay if it cross the accomplishment of a greater good. This is good allowance, and well spoken. Hear then what another says. There is no dispensation for any Vow as it is a Vow, says Scotus: but take him right, and he means well. For as it stands not with civil peace, that any Law, as it is a Law, should be broken; but it stands with wisdom to disannul pernicious Laws; now, no man ever after breaks the Law because it is a Law no longer when it is disannulled. So the matter of an unlawful Vow being scanned, it is held fit by prudent Governors and Teachers that it should be a Vow no longer: then that which remains a Vow is always obligatory, that which is pronounced no Vow is not violated, but quite extinguished. Whatsoever Covenant Bondmen or Idiots, Children or Madmen cast themselves into, it skills not what they say, both for want of liberty to do what they would, and for want of reason to know what they should. But in a person both of liberty and reason, if that which was undertaken to give advantage to Devotion turn to be a snare rather than an help, magis est corrigenda temeritas quam solvenda promissio, says St. Austin.  
For herein the things vary, and not the will of the Votary; and so ipso facto he is free before God. The careful Pilot sets his Adventure to a certain Haven, and would turn neither to the right hand, nor to the left, if the winds were as constant as the Loadstone, but they blow contrary to his expectation. Suppose ye how a Rechabite protesting non bibam è fructu geniminis, to drink no wine, had lived after the Institution of our Saviour's Supper when He consecrated the fruit of the Grape, and said, drink ye all of this, would it pass for an answer at the Holy Communion to say we will drink no wine? No more than if he had sworn before not to eat a Paschal Lamb, or any sour Herbs, quite against the Institution of the Passover. A most learned Bishop of our own Church resolves this Controversy thus, potentius est Christi sacramentum quam votum hominis. There is enough in this Chapter to stride over this doubt if you mark it. Jonadab indented with God, that He and his Seed should live in Tabernacles for ever; and in Tabernacles they did live for three hundred years. Then comes the King of Babylon with an Army into the Country to invade the Land. It was dangerous now to live in Tabernacles; there was no Highpriest, I assure you, to absolve them; no money given to the Publicans of the Church for a Dispensation: but we said, Come and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the Army of the Chaldaeans and Syrians, and let us dwell at Jerusalem. The Vow was unprofitable, Tabernacles dangerous, and so the Bond is canceled.  
Yet, Beloved, do not take all the liberty due unto you, if I may advise you: there are two things which you may choose to untie the knot of a Vow, dispensationem aut voti commutationem. The peremptory rejecting of a bad Vow, and that is lawful, and the changing thereof into some other Vow, and that is more expedient, that God may have some service done unto him in eodem genere, by way of a vow. It is a satisfaction which is used in Civil Commerce between man and man. Praeceptum non habeo, consilium autem do: I think it is the fittest to do so unto God. And so much for the Obligation of Vows, and the Dispensation, both proved by the example of the Rechabites, which by method propounded is the conclusion of this Text.   

THE FIRST SERMON UPON JOHN iv. 13, 14. 
Whosoever drinketh of this water, shall thirst again.  
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst.   
THere is not a more superficial part of Science than an Emblem, when a moral Lesson is delivered in the Riddle of a Picture, yet in those shadows of invention if rules of wisdom be not better understood, I am sure they are better remembered. My Text well conceived is but an Emblem, for your fancy must apprehend as if it saw two fountains, the one a deep Lake, salt, and unsavoury, which carries the transitory joys and riches of this world upon it, and they that lap at it are never content: The other a crystal stream, running with heavenly blessings, and those that taste of it their soul is satisfied. Satan showed our Saviour all this world, and the glory of it in the twinkling of an eye, our Saviour hath shown the woman of Samaria all the vaninity, that is, the glory of this world, and the happiness of a better as it were in two Pitchers of water. The whole Scripture is a living fountain, and this Text is fons in fonte, a sweet spring running by itself out of that great fountain of life. It is impossible to match it with a better similitude, and I think, as the case stands, it would be hard to fit ourselves with a more convenient. For the Similitude itself, it lays two contraries so fairly together, that it makes the good part shine much the better; and by setting the grace of God, which is the immortal seed in our soul, against the meat which perisheth, it invites the appetite, which is not altogether unrelishable, to the better banquet. To ourselves it is thus proper, for several exhortations belong to the miserable times of persecution, and to the plentiful days of peace. When dreadful calamities are rife, men must be taught to be contented with their losses; when peace brings in abundance, take heed ye thirst not after too much, than men must be taught to be contented with their gains. I learn this difference from my Saviour's mouth, Mat. xuj. 24. against the days of sorrow thus he prepares his Disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. In the next verse against the days of peace and riches, What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul? 
In Evang. Serm. 32.  Gregory frames this clear Meditation upon it, Persecutionis tempore ponenda est anima, pacis tempore frangenda▪ sunt desideria; In the time of persecution lose your life that you may gain Christ, (that Lesson, God be praised, is out of date with us) in the time of peace lose your vast concupiscence that you may gain content. Here comes in our part, who have leisure to gather great store, and peaceable security to enjoy and increase it; for that we may lay our desires levelly with a moderate fortune, it is fit above all things to know, that you shall never measure these earthly things to the bottom, and you cannot measure the joys of heaven to the top, so said our Saviour to the Samaritan as I have read it unto you, etc.  
Now to bring on the division of the Text I lay this ground: Man is a most desiring, and a wishing creature; his heart doth reach itself forth so much to get and gain, that it resembles nothing better than an house with a deep Mote round about it: but for the most part the mote is full of puddle water, if that were cast out, which is the first part to be handled, a water which makes us always thirst, there is a sluice to let in better, which is contained in the second. For these two shall be the general heads to which I will refer all that I shall speak, the lading out of bad waters from our soul, and the letting in of better. I will not venture beyond the former of these two at this time; Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. And St. Austin preaching upon those words did thus divide them, Et verum est secundum hanc aquam, & verum est secundum quod significat haec aqua. It is true being spoken upon those waters drawn out of jacob's well, and upon any other water; and it is true being spoken upon that unto which the Element of water did allude, that is, the riches and glory of this world; according to the very waters which our Saviour looked upon when he preached. I will speak to these three points: 1. That all the refection of our body is commended in the phrase of drinking waters. 2. Heat consumes our moisture and makes us thirst, which is the punishment of our nature. 3. We thirst, and thirst again, which is the punishment of our sensual appetite. According to the water unto which our Saviour alluded, I have three things more to observe. 1. That all these worldly things are compared to waters which slide away. 2. Here is the greediness of our heart to be filled with them, we would pour them in, and drink them down. 3. Here's their emptiness, they will never fill us; for drink both much and often, yet whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.  
And first a few words literally of that outward Element, which the Woman of Samaria came to draw in her Pitcher; upon which this is the former observation, that all the refection of our body, especially that which cools our thirst, is delivered in the phrase of drinking waters. Indeed before temperance was perverted this phrase was well understood of all men to drink waters From the Creation to the Flood, above sixteen hundred years, it is affirmed by divers, scarce denied by any, that the World knew not what belonged to Wine, or to any artificial liquor, the great Rivers of the Earth were all their Sellarage, and they filled their Cup from thence without cost or labour. Therefore in the first of Genesis God stinted our first Parents and their Posterity what they should eat, namely the fruits of several Trees, all but one, and the Herbs of the Field; but they were not stinted what they should drink, because their nature was inclined to nothing but to the Fountain Element. And Noah having never perceived the malignity and headiness of too much Wine, neither in himself, nor any other person, surely not out of intemperance, we may well excuse him that, but out of ignorance he became drunken. It is too much perhaps to look back so far as before the Deluge, now we are sure that every Creature of God is sanctified by Prayer and Thanksgiving to them that use it well; it is the Lord that makes the Vine to swell with comfortable juice, that men may take it for infirmity of health, and upon occasions of cheerfulness: yet the good Patriarches would never lay down the primitive sobriety of the World. I will go no further to show it than the verse before my Text. Says the Woman, Art thou greater than our Father Jacob, who drank himself of this Well, and his Children, and his Cattle? The Flocks and Herds quenched their thirst with no worse than their Master did: according to which simplicity of diet, God in the beginning allotted the same food for the Beasts that he made for Man, Gen. i. 30. I have given you, says He to Adam, every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, etc. and to every beast of the earth, and to every foul of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life: I have given every green herb for meat; and it was so. We and the Cattle you see had once the same allowance, or there was very little to choose between our Pasture and theirs.  
I will wind about no longer, the scope is to let you see the difference between the frugal institutions of nature, and the monstrous inventions of that luxury which at this time prevails among us. Why doth the Scripture express all manner of Beverage in forty places by the name of water, but to insinuate sobriety? Why doth God's word in an hundred places call the whole repast of the belly by the name of bread, but to insinuate frugality? The Scripture makes but two words of that, whereof affected gluttony hath made twenty thousand. The Apostles did break bread from house to house, and eat their meat with gladness, Acts 2.46. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, alimentum non delicias, says St. Chrysostom, plain necessary nourishment is meant, which nature earns for, and cannot want; not piled dishes one upon another, to the intolerable scorn of God Almighty's first Laws, as if you did not set, but build a Banquet. Our Saviour will condemn you out of your own mouth if you pray his Prayer as you ought, Give us this day our daily bread; if the word be a Synecdoche one part of sustenance for all God's gifts, I know it is so, yet it circumscribes our desires to ask a little, and no excess: and if you pray with Christ's words, and not with Christ's meaning, God will not bless, but curse your supplications. As the Fable goes of Dido, that she asked no more Land than an Ox Hide would compass; but she cut that Hide into small thongs, and took in as much ground as to build a City: so it is a cheat to ask God for bread and water, and to mean all manner of superfluity. The moralists and Poets of the Heathen were wise men, and when they character the best and happiest times of the World, I am not presumptuous, but confident of my knowledge, that they all insist upon this, that the men of that Age studied not for their Diet, but took the voluntary Offerings of the Springs and Mountains. Now we have left that praise and happiness to the Beasts and Fowls of the air, who take the next thing they light upon to satisfy their thirst and hunger. Non fuit noverca nobis natura, ut homo sine tot artibus non possit vivere. 
Seneca.  It is our own fault that we consume our Revenues, and spend all our labour, as the Wiseman says, for the belly; Nature is not so much a Stepdame to us alone, that no less than two hundred Arts and Trades may be reckoned before his Table can be magnificently furnished.  
This is the only conveniency of great sins, which are very expenceful, though not for the sin, yet for the charge sake they use to vanish away by little and little, I have the more hope my labour shall not be fruitless, to exhort you to fall back to some laudable measure of ancient frugality. Though it be a thing grown quite out of the constitution of your bodies to thirst for water, as my Text says, yet I would you would thirst less for wine: and as one said, though once our Saviour was so gracious to turn water into wine, yet it were happy now on our part, if he would infuse such temperance into us, as to turn our wine into water. See into what luxury we have sopped our Souls in the revolution of time: see how we are metamorphosed in our appetite; those Wines which were wont to be sold by the Apothecaries, for a Drug, are now become every Meals liquor at our Tables; and Water which was the ordinary drink of man, now it is never used but as a Potion, and for some Medicinal operation: So that which was our Physic is become our ordinary Drink, and that which was our daily Drink is become our Physic. 
Lucan. lib. 4. Phars.  Satis est populo fluviusque Ceresque; though bread for hunger, and water for thirst are but a bare enough, yet such expressions from our Saviour, who knows what is fittest for us; will make the most of us I hope ashamed, when we compare it with an Epicures too much.  
But whether temperate or intemperate, whether the poor Beggar that drinks of the running Brook, or the rich Glutton that quaffs the blood of the Grape, at sundry times they feel a scarcity, and want of moisture, it is an affliction upon our nature that all men have their thirst. The Schoolmen ask, and which is more, they contend among themselves, whether hunger and thirst had befallen Mankind, if they had never sinned against the Lord? The Controversy comes to this issue. This heavenly part of us which God breathed into the body it is both Anima and Spiritus; a Soul and a Spirit: and therefore it causeth both an animal life, which consists in the faculties of nourishment, augmentation of every part, generation, etc. and it causeth by God's gracious gift a spiritual life, making this corruptible flesh of ours incorruptible, and transfusing many more of its own excellencies into this gross substance, and then it is a glorified Body. These by the Divine ordination were appointed after a large space to be one after another, so says St. Paul, 
1 Cor. 15.46.  That was not first which was spiritual, but that which was natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. It was necessary therefore while it was a natural body, that sustenance must be taken; and at such a time when man knew right well by his own constitution, that it was fit to repair nature (he could not err, and be deceived in that in the state of innocency) and at that time his appetite would call for it as a pleasant and wholesome thing to be taken; for you know what a loathing thing it is to take meat and drink into the mouth without an appetite. Here's the scruple plainly laid down before you, whether hunger and thirst did provoke such an appetite in man before he fell into disobedience? I answer that this Controversy is but a bare mistaking of a word. 
Pererius in Genes. p. 147.  If hunger and thirst be largely taken for that sense which a man hath, how the stomach must be replenished for the maintenance of life: so Adam before he fell had sensum indigentiae, a far more exacting feeling than we have, when nature was in indigency, and must be supplied: but strictly and properly hunger and thirst habent adjunctam molestiam & cruciatum, they come upon us with some molestiousness and torment, and so they are only incident to wicked man, where punishment is manifold ways inflicted upon transgression. Where heat doth dry up moisture, and parch the juice of the veins, there our thirsty soul doth gape like a barren and dry Land, that is, when one elementary quality doth feed upon another, and consume it. But before sin entered into the World: there was such an orderly mixture of all parts in us, that the Elements were at peace in our Body, no quality did seek to overmaster another, and corrupt it: but the pangs and girds of thirst did ensue upon just revenge; Reason proved rebellious to the Law of God; the sensual appetite grew rebellious to reason, and the distemperature of the body grew rebellious to appetite. Shall I need to tell you how the Israelites in a sore thirst were ready to renounce God in the Wilderness? or how the strength of Samson fainted, till the Jaw bone besmeared with the blood of his Enemies did run with water? or how Darius in extremity of drought was glad to drink of a most putrified puddle? Every man hath felt such anguish in himself at some time or other; every little scarceness threatens death, or is worse than death to them that want the friendship of God.  
And as our appetite is never but sick of longing, so the body troubles it with a perpetual craving; that which it takes to day is forgot to morrow, as if it never had been, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. That which nourisheth the Soul of man must be immortal like the Soul; but that which nourisheth a corruptible Body, itself is corruptible. One lean Harvest in Egypt made seven rich ones be quite forgotten: A short Fast will gnaw the bowels, though Ahasuerus his long Feast had gone before it. Whatsoever you taste the pleasure of it is not remembered in a minute, the strength and virtue of it is gone in a few hours. A man that is grown to the end of a full age, if he would reckon by measure and proportion, how much waste in threescore and ten years one Belly hath made, it would make him wonder, and say to himself, am I run on the score so far for my daily sustenance? is it not due that my Carcase should rot in the Earth, or in the Sea, since my flesh hath been the consumption both of Sea and Land? And again, since we are born to that care and distress, that every day must have his several necessity of hunger and thirst, be not luxurious upon one entertainment, as if at once you would spend all the brood of nature, and leave nothing for to morrow. To morrow must be cared for. You cannot say to your appetite, this is thy stint, and hereafter thou shalt have no more. It was but poor provision to send Hagar and her Child away with one Bottle of water into the desert Wilderness: when the Bottle was spent her desire did come again upon her like an armed man, for whosoever, etc.  
Yet this is not meant altogether to throw us into affliction, that we must cater for the stomach every day: It makes us often cast down our eyes upon the necessities of the Poor; it makes us often lift up our eyes to the providence of our Heavenly Father; it compels the Societies of men to seek out many industrious Vocations, and to disrelish idleness. In these regards it was an extravagant Prayer which the Woman of Samaria made in the next verse, Sir, give me such water to drink as I may not thirst, neither come hither to draw. But in some particular persons Gods vengeance is bend sore to vex their appetite, where water nor wine, nor any liquor hath virtue to satiate their thirst, when that which they drink doth them no good, but it is as if they had taken nothing. As God gave bread to the Israelites, but sent leanness withal into their souls. So Haggai brought news of the Lords wrath unto the people, c. i. v. 6. Ye eat, but ye have not enough, ye drink, but ye are not filled. Some Heathen Lawgivers attempted to rate every private Family in their Cities what they should spend at their Board, and at last one of the wisest of them concluded, there could be no rule given in that case, because an heavenly hunger sometimes lights upon some men which devours in excess, and is not satisfied. It is the grace of God which gives meat in due season, so that health and comfort go together with it. I will borrow this Similitude to give it light. Sometimes when we go to Physic for any Disease, we are bidden to seethe such and such herbs in running water, and then to drink the water. We know it is not the water helpeth the sick man, but the decoction of the infusion. So it is not bread or drink considered barely in itself which doth nourish the body, but the blessing of God infused into it. When the Lord is pleased not to bless your victuals with his goodness, soak what you can into your skin, you shall thirst as if you never drank: and again, if He will let his power be showed in our weakness, you shall have the gift to abstain from all manner of liquors, as if you never thirsted.  
Spiritus sanctus aliquando supplet locum cibi & potus in corpore, says St. Hierom; the Holy Ghost is called our Food, not only in a mystical sense, but sometimes God makes his Spirit supply the place of bodily refection, that we shall not need to ask for it. He that corroborated Elias to eat nothing for forty days, could have continued that Miracle upon his Servant for ever. I will not reach for an instance beyond that Story which was the occasion of my Text. Our Saviour came hungry and thirsty to Jacob's Well, sent his Disciples into the Town to buy provision, in the interim demands drink of a strange Woman; yet falling into a Divine discourse with this Woman, forgets his hunger and thirst, and when food was come he did not regard it. And I am not incredulous of such Stories, which report of long continued Fasts in devout men, who spent their time so earnestly in Prayer, that they put their body to an agony, if not to an ecstasy: in these the Spirit did support the Fabric of Nature, instead of corruptible things. It is a good thing, says St. Paul, that the heart be established with grace, and not with meats, Heb. xiii. 9 To conclude this Argument, God showed in his Prophet Elias, that he can find out sundry ways to uphold the state of our flesh. One way Elias was fed by a miraculous multiplication of Oil and Meal with the Widow of Sarephath. 2. By the Ministry of the Ravens in the Wilderness. 3. By putting strength into his bones, and marrow, forty days to need no reparation. And fourthly, by using the Creature with temperance and sobriety at his daily repast: so he did feel the continual urging of the appetite, as all men do upon the face of the earth, For whosoever drinketh, etc.  
So far upon the Text literally, and upon no other waters, but such as the Woman of Samaria drew out of jacob's Well. In the Allusion Interpreters make it extend to all kind of worldly pleasure, wherein our heart rejoiceth. This one piece of nature's store, which gives but imperfect content, stands for all the rest, qui unam noverit omnes noverit: It is in every thing else under the Sun as it is in this one Creature, our thoughts are not quiet when they have enjoyed them, no not a day; you cannot gulp so much down of these earthly delights but ye shall thirst again. The first thing which must be noted hereupon is the ground of the Similitude, that all these vanities which we affect are justly compared to waters that slide away. Whatsoever those fancies be that ensweeten your affections towards them, they come unto you like that young Prophet, whom Elisha sent to Jehu to Ramoth Gilead: says Elisha, Thou shalt anoint him King over Israel, then open the door, and fly, 
2 Ki. 9.3.  and tarry not. Salute him with good luck, and be gone. Good fortune, as we call it, sends no body of her errand, but they dispatch as suddenly, and fly away. If any man that loves this World expostulate with himself that his pleasures dodg him, as thus, When will my delights continue for a time? when shall I have rest from thirsting after more, and enjoy that which is past? O says the Tempter it will come anon, you shall see it by and by. Alas what a sickness is expectation, which is no better than a doting delusion. As the Mother of Sisera looked out at a Window to see her Son come home in triumph, and she speaks to her wise Ladies in Debora's Song, Why are his Chariot wheels so long a coming? Look not after transitory delights, as if a thing which is always in fluxu could be made permanent, the Devil and all his Alchymistry cannot fix this Mercury. A River may be shut up by a Frost, and when the Sun thaws the ice, the stream runs his current again: So if you can attain to mortify your heart, as I think old Barzillai did, whose affections to all worldly alacrity were Ice and Marble, he cared not, he said to David, for the pomp of Jerusalem, nor for the taste of Meats, nor for the noise of Music; then your inward delights are a River shut up, the waters of comfort flit not out of the channel. But if you desire to have a Portion in this life, if you desire to taste a little of this honey, as Jonathan did, which hangs in the Trees round about you, plenus rimarum effluis, than the River opens, your earnings, and your desires will break out in a thousand Sluices.  
If a Crystal Glass were durable, and not obnoxious to breaking with a fall, it would be as estimable perhaps as a Silver Plate, though the substance be not so precious. So the vanities of this World, which are but water, or rather froth that passeth away, had they been stable, and of long endurance, which God forbid (for than who almost could have withstood their temptation, as base as they are in themselves, I say, if they had not been so transitory, they had deceived many instead of that which our Saviour commends so highly, the water of Eternal Life. But there is not such a terminus diminuens in nature, not any word of more rejectment, than to say, they consume as fast as they are born, they perish in their making, and come to a perpetual end. If I see a Meteor make a fair show in a bright Evening I may take it for a Star, but if it once glide in a flake of fire like a swift arrow, I contemn it for a putrid exhalation; so Honours and Riches make a gay sight, but because they are as transitory as dreams and shadows, I despise them. Shall I moil myself like the Grecian Champions at Olympus for no more than a Garland of leaves that will wither before I go to bed, for a corruptible Crown as St. Paul calls it? How little did the recompense answer the danger? These men, you will say were fit to be laughed at: As they lived in a silly Age, so they sped accordingly. But now the World's grown wiser, they do not aim at a few flowers, but at the whole Garden, as Ahab did; not at leaves, but at fruit I warrant you, and the trees that bear the fruit, and the Lands and Lordships that the trees grow upon, both to them and to their Posterity. This will come to some value, and not to be slighted like the labour of the Heathen for a Garland, or for a corruptible Crown. Yet for all this I will and must maintain, that worldlings deserve the application both of this, and of a worse Similitude. I confess that the Heathen in their emulatory Sports aimed at trifles, scarce fit to hang on the Posts of their Doors, and no way comely for their head: yet trifles, as they were, they engaged but a trifle against them, their limbs and body: but you venture your soul, the Divine part of Man, for things that may stick as little by you as a flower of the Garden: Aut habebunt finem sui, aut finem tui, either your pleasure, or your life, or the whole World may pass away in a moment. What a rotten pillar we lean upon, which is subject to the hazard of three imminent casualties? where lies the wit now? they hazard Grass for Grass, their Body against a Garland; you hazard Heaven against Earth, your Soul for Honours and increase of Substance: you stake the hope of Salvation, to drink in a few pleasing relishes of this World, which fall away like water that runneth apace.  
Because time is as transitory as these fickle things of fortune which I speak of, therefore my discourse shall pass from this point without any longer trouble to you. Now St. Austin observes how the pleasures of our natural life are not simply resembled here to River waters, which you may take up with your hand, and are in every man's fight that passeth by. Our Saviour was now at jacob's Well, and he that will drink of it, must draw it out from a deep bottom: Et voluptas seculi est aqua in puteo, seu profunditate tenebrosâ: so our terrestrial pleasures are waters in a deep pit, with which if you desire to fill your Pitcher, (this Body I mean, which is an earthen Vessel) you must bestow your labour to fetch it up from a low Abyssus, from a dark profundity. They that plunge themselves into delights of all fashions and conditions, are not able to tell you how deep their own concupiscence is, nor how far it would descend into vanities. Tiberius' the Emperor, I confess no common example, the worst not of men, but even of fourfooted beasts. When he had run over all kind of pleasure that was known and common, than he puts down the Bucket into the Well to fetch up rarities of sensuality, and was so witty in nothing as to find out new studied pleasures, unheard of to all former impiety. Novum instituit officium à voluptatibus, says Suetonius, he created an Officer to reward such as brought forth new invented stratagems. Are you not afraid when you go so low into these vile earthly things, from one sensuality to another, deeper and deeper, I say are you not afraid that the next step should be into the bottomless pit? A fugitive Servant in Plutarch being well nigh overtaken, ran out of the way to hide himself in a Mill, and the Mill was in those days instead of an House of Correction to torment Runagate Servants. O says the Master, ubi te occuparem nisi in pistrino? This is the very place where I wished to find you. So shall the Lord speak to those Epicures that make a mystery of their pleasures, you are in the right way for my vengeance to find you out, when you run into the dark and secret corners of voluptuousness, as if you digged into Hell.  
The deeper we reach into the Well, Satan knows we must stoop down the more. David complains what a snare it is, when a man is enticed to dive as it were into a large bottom for his vanity, incurvaverunt animam meam, they have pressed down my soul, Psal. lvii. 7. like Corn that's beaten flat to the earth with a violent storm, and when it is laid the Fowls of the air devour it. As the eye of Cain which looked down dejectedly upon the earth was a sign of desperation; is it not worse when the will and desire of the Soul tends downward to this base Element, and to these transitory joys. So it was with Israel, when the Lord had forsaken them, and left them to the dregs of their own carnal mind, Es. li. 23. I will put thee into the hand of them that have said unto thy soul, bow down that we may go over thee. A certain Parable and a Story go together on this wise, Luke xiii. A woman had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And a Figtree was planted in a good soil, which for three years together bore no fruit. Here's the double condition of our sinful nature, homo nec fructum servat operationis, nec statum rectitudinis, the rectitude of innocency is turned crooked in us; and than it is impossible we should bring forth the fruit of good works. The Soul stands upright when it desires to be with Christ, but it is bowed down with a spirit of infirmity when our treasure is upon earth. 
Jud. 7.5.  You know how Gedeon's choice Soldiers did drink of the Brook, putting water in their hands, and lapping like a Dog; but the rest bowed down to the River to drink upon their knees, ver. 6. Whereupon Gregory took occasion to show symbolically, what different postures our spiritual and our carnal appetite have in partaking those things they love? mundi aqua bibitur facie pronâ in terram, fons aquae viventis facie supinâ; we drink the waters beneath with our face bowed down to the earth, we drink the waters of life with our face and eyes turned up to Heaven. To him that walks in a Valley every Shrub is tall that grows upon the top of a Mountain; so perhaps our pleasures seem aloft to us, and not to lie so low as the bottom of a Well, because we ourselves do walk in the shadow of death, and in the valley of corruption. An ambitious man will scarce believe his soul is bowed down, when he seeks for honour, but rather that aspiring to a grand Title doth lift up his thoughts: O that you did stand upon a Pinnacle of faith, and from thence look up to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, and you would then acknowledge that all these empty clouds did fly below you. Why do you not expect the grace of God, and pray often unto him, when wilt thou make good thy promise to me, O Lord, which thou hast spoken to me, O Lord, 
Gregor. Moral. lib. 31. c. 34.  Es. lviii. 14. Thou shalt delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth: Sustollam te super altitudines terrae. O that I could be exalted above the earth, then would I not bow down my soul to draw forth vanity from this deep Well, and nothing but the waters of bitterness.  
You see what these waters are; there is no permanency in them, they flit away; and yet we draw them from the very depth of Hell, with much toil and carefulness, and it is disputable with St. Austin, which of the two be more commodious to man, labour in hau●iendo affligens, aut sitis crucians, but after the labour of our body to draw them forth follows the greediness of our heart to be filled with them, we drink them down. All things were made for man, the pleasures of art and wit, the abundance of the whole World, the Myrrh and Frankincense of one India, the Gold and Silver of the other: Divinity must not deny you that which is your own. The great God is as liberal to us as He was to his own People, but he gave them the labours of the Heathen in possession, that they might keep his Laws. Carnalis populus si parva non acciperet, magna non credoret, says Gregorianus: As Caleb and Joshua brought a bunch or two of Grapes, to let the people see what a rich Land it was, which the Lord had promised; so a Modicum is allotted to us for our present use, that we may look for a real and more substantial treasure in Heaven. And indeed this is the purpose of my Text, to commend the Grace of God above all things, but not altogether to contemn his Creatures.  
The Crime reproved is to swallow them down, like drink that runs in all our veins and is presently incorporated into our blood and spirits: as a learned Author says, that a greedy heart hath animam triticeam, not an heavenly spirit, but a wheaten soul, altogether projecting for outward means, it must have bread, it must have store, the Barn must be thwacked full, the provision must be able to serve many years; such wheaten cogitations make a wheaten soul. By such another Catechresis I may say out of my Text, that a greedy tippling desire makes a drunken soul: an unsatiated mind is as brutish a Monster as Job's Behemoth, He drinketh up a river, 
Job 4●. 23.  he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth. David would not drink of that water which was brought from the Well of Bethel with the jeopardy of his Servants blood, therefore he poured it out to the Lord; but our desires fetch such things unto us which are brought with the hazard of that which is better than life. David hath showed us the way what is to be done, pour them forth unto the Lord; if they be sinful pleasures, by repentance; if they be riches, by alms and charity: By all means pour them forth, lest they consume us like those waters in the Levitical Law, which the Priest gave to the Woman suspected for Adultery; if she were defiled the waters turned bitter, and did rot her thigh, and she became a curse among all the people. It is a prefiguration, I do verily think, of that diseaseful rottenness which doth oftentimes in these days befall Adultery. And as the rottenness goes before, so be sure the curse will come behind it.  
I might be copious from this Allegory in my Text, that a wanton appetite is a drunken disease; but I will contract it by showing one dissimilitude, he that pours any liquor into his body it is to cherish himself; but the most men drink greedily of worldly things, to make others swell, and heap up riches, that their children may gather them: So the Son often times vomits up that wealth whereof the Father surseited: for you shall never purchase so much as your Posterity would sell away in the third or fourth Generation. The good Father thought he said enough to discipline an avaricious fool, when he bade him number his days which were very short, and therefore cut shorter his covetous desires, which were very long, Longa nostra desideria increpat vita brevis. Alas, says Nabal, I measure not my necessities by the span of my own life, but according to the breadth and length of all my Posterity, who must enjoy these things after me. I shall answer it with a Paradox, yet it is such a rule as I never saw many exceptions against it. If your children love gains as well as you have done, they will thrive though you leave them but a little: If they regard not Parsimony as you have done, they will break and decay though you bequeath them a great treasure. Lighten yourself therefore of these superfluous burdens which you carry like a Camel for their sakes that will never bear them after you: And if God have given you a large Issue, be you more bountiful in Alms-deeds and Charity, as St. Cyprian reasons, Pro pluribus placandus est eleemosynis; as Job offered Sacrifices to God according to the number of his Sons and Daughters: So must you offer up gifts unto the Lord to bless your Olive branches according to the number of your Posterity. Therefore to end this Point, drink your waters for your own thirst, and not for others, for he that deviseth to leave an huge mass behind him is sure he shall take nothing at all away. Aeneas Silvius celebrates this Story among the actions of Saladine the Great, he knew his end was at hand, and therefore bad a Soldier carry a winding-sheet upon the top of a Spear through all his Army, and proclaim with a loud voice, Ex tantis opibus nihil aliud Saladinus secum tulit; Saladine carried nothing away with him but that of all his magnificent fortune. O bewitching vanity therefore to devour the Fatherless, and the Widow, to swallow down ill-gotten wealth to drink so greedily of these stolen waters, and out of so many Lordships it is well at last if your Heirs will allow you an handful of herbs and flowers to carry you sweet to your grave.  
I have showed what a vanity it is in man to have a greedy desire to be filled with the vanities of this world: If you will be mocked, like Tantalus, you may dap at these waters, and always miss: you may suck like an horseleech and never be satisfied; this I deduce from the last part of my Text, terra inanis, as I believe Moses means mystically, Gen. i. 2. The earth is void and empty, and all the joys upon earth have such an emptiness that they cannot fill, for whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. Man disquieteth himself in vain, so David begins; and St. Chrysostom descants thus upon the complaint, the Seas are rolled about with a storm, and grow calm again within an hour: the Air is driven violently by the winds, and at last it is hush: the earth sometimes quakes and moves, and by and by it stands fast upon his Pillars: only the heart of man is never at peace, never but hunting for some new-nothing which it had not before. So St. Chrysostom runs over three of the Elements, showing that their disquietness and troubles are composed again; now I had rather instance in the Element of the fire, which he omitted, than in any of the rest; a devouring fire, though it be as great as Nebuchadnezars Furnace, goes out by little and little; and every man knows how, not by throwing wood upon the Pile, but by drawing away the combustible stuff, so that it shall have no matter to spend: so the appetite of man hath an hot fume, and a scalding fire within; will you go about to extinguish it as fools do, by throwing heaps upon it? Or rather by substraction of all superfluities; and than it will go out of itself.  
Will you attend to those reasons which the heathen hammered out, why you shall never take the heart of man without a new and a changeable Wish? One speaks Astronomically that the Planet of the Moon being the lowest doth most predominate over the composition of man, and therefore her continual increasings and decreasings do lead our heart, Luna rursus nascitur, & impletur, sed impleta non permanet, sed rursus minuitur. If this cause hit the nail right we should ebb sometimes as well as flow in our wishes, which is not incident to our continual thirstiness. Rather, says a second, such things as we desire, their substance doth not enter into our heart, but simulacra & umbra earum, their colours, and shadows, and a shadow or a fancy takes no room, the place is as empty for all them as ever it was before. A third makes this ingenuous observation, Nemo nostrûm se esse unum cogitat; Every man reckons of himself to be more than one, rather to be a great Troop than a single Creature: And because he may be a Sire of many Generations, he wearies himself with wishing much, as if he would provide for a multitude that could not be numbered. But take these two Reasons in a Theological way, the greater part of men glut themselves with pleasures that stink in God's nostrils; they creep into the advancements of honour by undeserving means; they grow rich by deceit and oppression, wherefore the Lord sends a disturbance upon their Spirit, that they take as little pleasure in that they have, as in that they have not: They drink the waters of bitterness, therefore they shall thirst the more and be tormented. But where there are moderate and lawful pleasures, well merited honours, just and godly gain, I dare say no such vertiginous vexation shall fall upon them. When God gives riches he gives quietness withal unto the heart; The blessing of the Lord maketh rich, and he doth add no sorrows with it, Prov. x. 22. Besides, since we refuse the Lord for the chief and principal content, his curse comes down upon all things else that they shall never content us. When Julian did attempt to build up the Temple of Jerusalem again, as many stones as were laid in the day were thrown down by God's vengeance in the night. In the day time every man is building a Babel in his own heart, and laying stone upon stone; after he hath slept, and is awake again, his heart begins to meditate upon new crotchets and devices, he vilifies all that he did intend before, unless he can frame it better, and thus every day brings new sorrows and imaginations to the Appetite.  
The Prophet Hosea doth insinuate this similitude, that the heart doth itch after this delight, and the other, but never resolve itself where it will stay: As some Youngsters love to court and woo their Mistress many years, but never to consummate a Marriage. So the Prophet, Chap. two. 7. She shall follow after her Lovers, but she shall not overtake them. Alas, how can we overtake what we would have, when we set ourselves no bounds, but run after every thing that is before us? It is like the Fable of the Hare and the Hedgehog; the Hedgehog challenged the Hare to run: And because the Hare was far the swifter, a thousand Hedgehogs laid themselves in several distances in the way, and when the Hare had outrun an hundred, there were nine hundred still before it. So if our covetous affections do prick us on to overtake every Hedgehog that runs before, we shall put ourselves to an endless labour, and weary our souls with vanity. Set yourself this short Stage which I shall tell you, and it is quickly run. Whatsoever the Lord gives me in this life my heart shall be contented if he will give me himself. I shall be satisfied with his goodness as out of a River; and he that drinketh of those waters which Christ shall give him, He shall never thirst. AMEN.   

THE SECOND SERMON UPON JOHN iv. 14. 
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst.   
IN my former Text Christ told the Woman of Samaria no more than she and every body knew, whosoever drinketh of this Elementary water shall thirst again; but here's a Lesson which neither she, nor any Unbeliever can know, till they have tasted the good gift of God; Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst. Go now, and ask our Saviour, Art thou greater than our Father Jacob, that gave us this Well? The Well was jacob's perhaps, but not the water; he digged the Cystern, but God gave the Spring that flowed into it: this might have been alleged. But what profit had come to the winning of a Soul, if Christ had made comparisons between himself and his Servant? It was his purpose at this time, not to wrestle with Jacob, but with the Woman of Samaria: he came not to diminish the honour of his Saints, but to magnify the power of the Holy Ghost. Petit potum ut det potum. He met with one that was backward in courtesy, and would not draw a Pitcher of water to cool his thirst; yet he is forward in mercy, and proffers living water to quench the flame of her sins: He drops by little and little upon her stony heart, until he opened that hard rock, that waters of salvation might flow out. And first his Doctrine bred admiration in this Woman, than a desire to learn, than a sudden spark of faith, which confessed that Jesus was the Messias; then confusion for her sins, than repentance, and surely then godly sorrow, and then tears: and so she drew those waters before she was aware, after which our Saviour thirsts above all others, the tears of unfeigned repentance. She denied him to take the pains to draw a draught out of jacob's Well, but he enforced her to draw out more precious liquors than those were, from the bottom of her heart.  
These are the words, now read unto you, which wrought that great effect, and did pierce into her soul. And let me say of that weak Instrument, by whose tongue the Lord at this time doth make an offer unto you of that immortal Fountain, as sometimes Gregory did, when he exhorted many great persons to the contempt of the World, and invited them to eat and drink with Christ in his Kingdom, Etsi ego ad invitandum indignus appareo, sed tamen magnae sunt deliciae quas promitto; I am most unworthy to bid you come unto these waters, and drink; but the delicious Fountain which I promise to them that thirst after righteousness, is worthy to invite you. To handle it succinctly, and to your edification, there are four Branches of the Text to be propounded. 1. The Subject to which all is to be referred, is a water of a most different condition from that which is mentioned in the former verse. 2. Who is able to draw it? none but Christ, it is a water that he gives, and none beside him. 3. How it is to be taken, even as a sovereign and a delightful Receipt for the health of the Soul, and the very soul of health, it must be drunk. 4. The exceeding benefit and virtue, which amounts to that value, that the whole World hath not riches enough to purchase it, if it were to be bought; for whosoever drinketh of it he shall never thirst.  
To begin with these, and the Touchstone upon which all other parts of the Text shall be tried is this. What this mystical water is, which our Saviour prefers so much before jacob's Well? Christ calls it living water, at the tenth verse of this Chapter; that's a sweet Epithet indeed; and yet it hath a more amiable description in the words that follow my Text, a Well of water springing up unto everlasting life. These are names of much elegancy, and much obscurity, but that we find a clear explanation of them in the seventh Chapter of this Gospel, ver. 38. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. So the Scripture hath written upon this water what it is, that you may know it from any other, it is the gift of Grace that cometh from above, that sanctifieth our hearts, and cleanseth us from all our sins, it is the working of the Spirit which knits us unto Jesus Christ, and makes us Heirs of Salvation. God the Holy Ghost doth abase himself to be resembled to many of these inferior things for our understanding. No man can miss to remember how the Spirit did appear in cloven tongues as it were of fire, Acts two. 2. In another place, Jo. 3.8. he is likened to the air, The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou knowest not whence it comes, nor whither it goes; so is every one that is born of the spirit. And here his name passeth down a descension beneath that, and is termed water: only the earth is too base an Element, whereunto the Holy Spirit should be compared; leave that to man, and to his corruptible constitution. The Fire, the Air, and Water have some infinitude in them after a sort, quod suis terminis non continentur, says the Philosopher, they are diffusive bodies, which are not properly bounded, or circumscribed in any Figure, as the Earth is, therefore all their names are borrowed to signify some disposition of the Divine Spirit toward us, whose Virtue is most diffusive, and whose Majesty incomprehensible.  
But in each of the Testaments Old and New, the first time that we read of the Holy Ghost, he was joined unto the Waters, in the first day of the Creation the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, Gen. i. 2. and upon the first manifestation of Christ, that he showed himself abroad to be the Messias of the World, the Spirit sat upon his head when he was baptised at Jordan in the shape of a Dove. And it is not vain to consider, that when the Holy Ghost came down in fire at the Feast of Whitsuntide, yet St. Peter applies the place of the Prophet Joel to that occasion, which speaks as if it had been water, effundam spiritum, In the last days I will pour out of my spirit to all flesh. By that which is said already I have brought it to this, the Scripture doth very much aim at this Comparison to be considered, why the virtues and operations of the Holy Ghost are called Water; and the choice of the Comparison, I think, are these particulars.  
First, as waters poured upon Hills will not stay upon their tops, but runs down to the lowest places, and fills the Valleys beneath, so the Graces of God descend to the lowly, and humble in heart, and abide not with the proud. Nay David says it will be the better for it if it be but a little Valley, a diminutive: thou makest fruitful the little Valleys thereof with the drops of rain. Centurio quantò humilior tantò capacior, says Bernard; the Centurion lay very flat and low at our Saviour's feet, and where was there a man that had a larger portion of the heavenly benediction? for Christ said of him, I have not found so great faith no not in Israel. Nor is this a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the Heathen called it, an embasement of a good courage, for the humble man hath the loftiest mind of all others if it be well observed; for he reckons not by the magnificent pomp and praise of the World, though he have no little part in it, but esteems God, and nothing else to be his glory, and because he doth give God the glory in all things that are excellent, therefore he doth invite the Spirit of Grace unto himself by a religious policy; as thus, Grace is no longer Grace, than you confess it is conferred by mere gift, and frank benevolence. The proud is so arrogant in all his thoughts, that he would not yield to that; he thinks it was his due, which could not justly, or at least congruously be denied him. Needs must the rain fall down from such a steepy Mountain; and where will it find a place to rest? but in a little Valley, in a lowly heart which magnifies the love and favour of Christ for the gift of the Spirit above all things; but we had no right to ask it, because we were sinful; we had no understanding to desire it, because we were foolish; it is omni modo gratuita, a good turn freely bestowed in all respects; why do you not see, says Bernard, gratia nullibi nomen suum tuetur, nisi in humili? the Grace of God should quite lose its nature unless it dropped upon the humble man; sink down therefore like a valley to receive this water, for the Lord resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble, 1 Pet. v. 5.  
Secondly, The Spirit holds this Analogy with water, it washeth away all filth from the soul, and maketh the heart clean which was defiled. No superstition hath lasted longer, or spread further than one I shall name unto you: that an external sousing of the body in water did quite take away the guilt of all those sins which had been committed by the body. So Euripides as wise an Heathen as any in the pack, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Dive but into the Sea and it would rinse away all their iniquities: then the Jews encurred this error by that corruption which the Romans brought among them, especially the Pharisees; who if they had walked in the streets, or been in the Market, presently washed as soon as they came home, lest they had touched, or been touched by somewhat unawares which was defiled by the Gentiles. And if they washed all was well. No marvel therefore if the savage Moriscoes have a strong fancy to this day, how their filthiness is purged away if they bathe in some river water every morning: It is more strange, that the Russian Christians in these times should attribute secret power to such an idle Ceremony: but most foppish of all, that the Priests of Rome would lead their whole Church into this delusion, that venial sins are done away if a few drops of an hallowed casting bottle light upon the gaping people: and many a shrewd knavery passeth under the name of a venial sin, as it is to be seen in their Cases of Conscience. Against all their errors, which I have recited, I lay my conclusion again, nothing but the grace of God, that water indeed which is above the heavens doth wash away all filth from the soul, and make the heart clean which was defiled.  
The which will appear the better by noting this preeminence in their difference. Elementary water well applied takes away all impure soil that cleaves to a vessel: But can it add a brightness to the Vessel better than it had in the first making? No, you will say, that is not to be expected. ay, but such is the operation of inward grace when it maketh clean; an earthen vessel is still no better than earth when it is rensed in a River: but if the Spirit from above abide within us, if it wash and sanctify this Vessel of clay, it overlays it with Gold, and makes it more precious by far than ever. Then but a word spoken with grace, and in due season, is like apples of gold with pictures of silver, says Solomon. O how much have we need of it? We are all black before God like the Children of an Ethiopian, 
Chap. 9.9.  says the Prophet Amos. We have Vultus adustos, faces as if they were scorched with flames, Jer. xiii. 8. And of others whom God did begin to loathe, their visage is blacker than a coal, Lam. iv. 8. Black will take no colour we use to say, there is no help for it, either by Art or Nature: 
Jer. 13.23.  but if the supernatural hand be stretched out upon us, than the Blackmore shall change his skin, and the Leopard his spots. As the blood of the Mother after the birth of her Child keeps not the colour of blood, but becomes milk in her breasts, so after we are begotten again by the Spirit, and bring forth the fruits thereof, our bloody sins shall become milk, and though they be read as Scarlet, they shall be white as snow, Isa. i. 18. Yea, the Prophet says of Jerusalem while it served the Lord, her Nazarites were whiter than snow, purer than milk, Lam. iv. 7. Doth not David promise as much unto himself, if the Lord would renew a right spirit within him? Lavabis me, & dealbabor super nivem; Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than the snow. As if by the Sacred Unction from heaven his soul should have a new beauty, which it never had before; a plain Transfiguration, such as our Saviour's was in the Mount, so that no Fuller upon earth could make a thing so white. Solomon in all his Royalty was not clothed like a Lily of the field: But take Solomon in his repentance, (whereof I persuade myself) and his soul was much whiter than any Lily in the field. This is a superlative virtue, wherewith the water in my Text is endowed, to cleanse that which was foul from every spot, and to make it surpass the whiteness which it had by nature.  
Thirdly, Happy is the tree that grows by the Rivers of waters. No Plant can prosper unless sap and moisture nourish it: So Grace is that celestial water which supplies the root within us, it makes the conscience abundant in good works, and without it it is impossible to bring forth the fruits of righteousness. Mark the rain which falls from heaven, and the same shower which dropped out of one cloud increaseth sundry Plants in the same Garden according to the nature of the Plant. In one stalk it makes a Rose, in another a Violet, divers in a third, but sweet in all: So the Spirit is a moistening dew which works rare effects in several dispositions, and all most acceptable to God. Is your Complexion Choleric? Try thine own heart if it be apt to be zealous in a good cause. If it be so, it is the fruit of the Spirit that works upon your constitution. Is Melancholy predominant? The grace of God turns that sad humour into devotion, and Prayer. Is your Temperature Sanguine and cheerful? I can tell what that will do, if this living water feed it: the mind will be bountiful, easy to remit injuries, glad of reconciliation, comfortable to the distressed, always rejoicing in the Lord. If a man be Phlegmatic and fearful, there is a trial likewise what God can bring forth from such a nature. How wary will the Conscience be to give no offence? How pitiful? How penitent? How ready to weep over its own transgressions? Finally, in every Age of the life, old or young, in every condition of fortune, regal, honourable, or servile, this living water, where God pleaseth, incorporates itself into it, and makes it grow and fructify, according to that use and purpose for which it was planted.  
It is water then which doth increase and vegetate every Plant which our heavenly Father hath planted, but with much disparity from our common waters, as you may apprehend by divers instances. For first, pour all that you can draw from your fountain upon a tree that is quite dead, and your labour is lost, it will never spring again: but most wretched were the state of man if the water which Christ gives did not bring us to live again when we were quite dead in corruption. And you being dead in your sins hath he quickened, etc. having forgiven you all your trespasses, Col two. 13. All the Sons of Adam beside our earthly mortality are under the infliction of a double death by nature, it is a spiritual death to be bereft of grace: It is an eternal death to be guilty of hell fire. We are St. Judes' fruitless trees, bis mortuae, 
Ver. 12.  once were enough, but we are twice dead, plucked up from the root, yet if the light of God's countenance shine upon us, we shall sprout again, and wax green like a Cedar in Libanus. What a sapless tree was Zachaeus before the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, as we do well call him in the Nicene Creed, did bring salvation to his house? You might as soon have squeezed water from a Pummy stone as charity from a Publican before his conversion; yet though he were dead in covetousness, as soon as He began to live in him, he scattered abroad, and gave unto the poor. As the Father said of his Prodigal Child being now come home into his bosom, 
Luk. 15.24.  This thy brother was dead, and is alive again: So let every penitent soul confess, my root was dried up, how should it come to spring again but by some influence from heaven? I was a withered tree that cumbered the ground, how am I exalted like Aaron's Rod to bring forth Buds and Almonds? I was a senseless stone, and God hath raised me from thence to be a Child of Abraham.  
Take another instance of diversity, in every Plant that lives water is the means to make it bear; but in every Plant it makes it bear such fruit, and no other, as was first grafted upon it; it causeth a Figtree to bring forth Figs, and a Vine to be laden with Grapes: But if the fruit were sour and unpleasant by nature, water it while your arms ache it will never help it. But this water in my Text, which is so worthy of our Saviour's praise, it will make you gather Grapes of Thorns, and Figs of Thistles. Indeed, it should do so, but our Preaching is no better with many than River water gushing upon a Crabtree, the more we teach, the more you are laden with your own natural fruit. Pride, Luxury, Intemperance, Faction, Malice, and Incontinency are as rife as ever they were; nothing grows upon the stock for all the labour that is spent, but sour Wildings that set the teeth on edge; it seems the chief ingredient is wanting, the blessing from above: you mind other things, and then the chief pipe of all will be stopped, by which the Spirit should enter into our soul. There are some, and I would they were but few, that put in Bill and Answer, as it were against God's plea, they urge their personal infirmities, and natural inclinations, and think that God can ask no more. I am dull of understanding, says one, and what I am taught I cannot bear it away: I am suddenly transported with indignation, and I cannot suffer; I am retentive of a wrong, and cannot easily be reconciled. All these are in the same tune with those ill mannered Guests in the Gospel, we cannot come, I pray you have us excused. Humilitas sonat in ore, superbia in actione; To plead excuse is a form of humility, but in effect it is an open arrogancy. Spend this breath of excuse in Prayer and Supplication, and cry out often, and affectionately, drop down upon this heart O Lord, drop down upon it, and it shall bring forth fruit quite against the grain of your custom, quite against the bias of nature. The highminded shall be humble as a Lamb: The implacable shall forgive his brother seventy times seven times: The Impostor shall make restitution: the Bravaries of the time shall confess, and amend their vanity. Lo this is an alteration which nothing can produce but living water, from natural sterility of good to supernatural fruitfulness. Origen confounds Celsus with this Argument, that the Christian Religion must needs be the power of God, and not of man. For in all Kingdoms where it had success, it did civilize the most barbarous Nations: It did mollify and intenerate the most stony hearts: It brought in Justice and good Laws among them that lived by Rapine and Robbery. A strange fruit to be found upon such wild Plants. Could it otherwise come to pass than because they were watered from above? I think you will like this Doctrine best in the Prophet Isaiahs' expression, Chap. xi. 6. under the Kingdom of Christ, so it goes before, The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb, and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid. The Calf, and the young L●on, and the Fatling shall feed together, and a young Child shall lead them. All that place is noted by Eusebius for a Prophecy, to be meant of the conversion of the Gentiles, whose brutishness and savage life was changed into good nurture, and sweet conversation. Ye were darkness▪ but now ye are light in the Lord. O blessed are ye, when that which is natural and inbred to our disposition drops off, and grows no more: Then if ye be planted by the River of God, ye shall bring forth your fruit in due season; and look whatsoever you do it shall prosper.  
Take a third instance of diversity. Our Elementary water helps a Plant to bring forth one kind fruit at one season of the year, and this is a blessing of God's left hand to fill us with the plenty of the earth: but the water, which is the blessing of his right hand, hath this excellency, to make the same tree bear all manner of spiritual fruit, and at all times and seasons, never unfurnished, never empty. A moral temperate man may be unjust: A moral just man may be carnal: A moral chaste man may be covetous: But if it be spiritual temperance, or spiritual chastity coming from the grace of God, it will be justice, and peace, and mercy, and all the whole swarm of virtues that can be recited. There is a difficult point in one of the Parables about a man that had not on a Wedding Garment. What is this Wedding Garment? One, will have it to be Faith; another, to be Good Works; a third, to be spiritual Joy; a fourth, to be repentance. Why Origen prevented all these controversies before they were moved, if he had been marked: Says he, Vestis nuptialis est textura omnium virtutum; The Wedding Garment is all these, and more than these, for it signifies that all virtue in the several threads should be woven into our heart. Faith, Hope, and Charity are fruits that hang all upon a stalk, three several divine graces, yet they have but one soul. Faith says there is a Kingdom prepared for the righteous, Hope catcheth hold, and says, it is prepared for me: Then Charity comes in for her part, and says, I will run to obtain it. They are like the three principal vital parts in man's body, the Heart, the Brain, and Liver. One is as necessary as all three together, for the decay of either is death without redemption. No straggling, single, solitary virtue which hath no fellows comes from this celestial watering. The spiritual service of God, says a learned Author, may be measured three ways: 1. Whether it come ex toto cord, from all the heart, from all the strength, and from all the soul. 2. Whether it be Cum totâ plenitudine, with all the confluence of good works as it were in one fortunate conjunction. 3. Whether it be in toto tempore, continually, and at all times alike. Spiritus vivificat, Joh. vi. It is the Spirit that quickeneth, which makes a good man live, and fructify at one time as much as another. It is no dead moisture which can do no good upon a Plant, unless the Sun likewise be in a fit ascension to cherish it, and make it spring. This is living water, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. chrysostom; It impels the Conscience to be never out of motion in some spiritual exercise. The Son of God is called a living stone, and the Spirit living water, and man a living Sacrifice. Righteousness is the savour of life unto life; dead works are the savour of death unto death. A tree that always bears is a Plant of Paradise. Not a little Repentance, or a little Charity, once or twice a year at a Communion, and then shake hands with Mortification till the next Christmas, or Easter. Among other reasons why the Holy Ghost assumed the shape of a Dove this is reckoned for one, that it is a bird of a most teeming fecundity; whether any bird that flies lay oftener I am not certain, I believe not many; such fecundity there is in a lively Faith, it is never without some good Work, either the Tongue is Praying, or the Ear is Hearing, or the Heart is Meditating, or the Eye is Weeping, or the Hand is Giving, or the Soul is Thirsting for Remission of sins. And this is enough to show what fruitfulness is brought to pass by this heavenly moisture, and for the first part of the Text.  
Yet it were an undervaluing, and a diminution to so great a blessing, to be called water, unless the second part of my text did hold up the dignity; let us come therefore to consider the rare virtue which is in it; for it takes away the molestation of thirst for ever: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. Yet I will take in no more than the Text doth directly prove, and leave that which some would draw in ex abundanti, by the strength of their conjectures. There are those that make this verse a convincing argument, how a man that hath tasted the grace of God is never empty more, but assuredly full and satisfied to the end of his life. Which way soever the truth of that Controversy stands I wave it off, but I think this Text is not to be charged with that meaning, as if it proved it. 'Tis true, he that drinks of this water shall never thirst; but quousque bibendum? how long must he drink? let him drink all his days, while his breath lasts, and then he shall be satisfied with the goodness of the Lord as out of a River. Again, call to remembrance what is meant by this water; every good and perfect gift which enricheth the Soul descending from the Father of lights: but among all that heavenly Offspring perseverance is the fairest; Nymphas supereminet omnes, Perseverance must not be excluded from the Text. Then I have done with this rub in a word, he that drinks of this water, and putteth perseverance into the Cup, he shall never thirst.  
He shall never thirst? Why then says the Son of Syrach concerning the wisdom which sanctifieth all things, They that eat me shall yet be hungry, and they that drink me shall yet be thirsty, Ecclus. xxiv. 21. and very certain none so greedy to have more grace, as he that hath some already; none so instant to get ten Talents, as he that hath received five. Let Elisha be inspired with a competent measure for one of the Children of the Prophets, and he will presume to ask that a double portion of Elias his spirit may rest upon him, if it be possible. Concerning all the fruits of the Spirit, this judgement of gregory's is undoubted, cum non habentur in falstidio sunt, cum habentur in desiderio; 
Homil. 36.  they that have them not think vilely of them, they that have them do insatiably desire them. Please you for the true explanation of the words to mark, the Proposition must not be taken alone by itself, but respectively to the Comparison that went before. The water which the Woman of Samaria came for, it consumes, after you have tasted it, and it is miss as if it never had been. Therefore we call for Elementary drink every day, for as much as drought is a torment to nature: now when we are once made partakers of living waters we call for more and more, not because want and dryness doth afflict us, but because desire doth please us. So that distinction used by many will be clear to be understood, sitis ariditati, non desiderio opponitur, he that drinks these waters of the Holy Spirit shall never after have a dry and a parched Soul, but he shall ever have a thirsty affection to drink his fill. The virtue therefore of the Spirit may be well drawn to these three heads. First it moistens the Soul that it feels no dryness, like a barren Land which hath no natural humour in it, there is no such thirst in him that hath a lively faith; but it cannot choose but beget a thirsty affection, and a longing to add more and more unto it. 2. It makes us leave to thirst after vain delights by little and little. 3. He that satiates his spirit with it in this life, shall be discharged from all manner of thirst hereafter, when he changeth this life to live with God for ever.  
The first of these Propositions begets this lesson, where sanctification hath moistened the inward man to the bottom, and to the root, there the heart is restless till it obtain a larger abundance of the spirit. After this manner a good Proficient gains upon God's blessing step by step. Thou hast given me to know thee, O Lord, but confirm my faith also to believe in thee; nay, give me not only to believe, but to suffer for thy Names sake, so shalt thou try and examine if there be any way of wickedness in me: or if thou hast not reserved me for the Cup of afflictions, yet prove me throughly by obedience, grant that my works may please thee: that I may do thy will on earth as it is in heaven. Make thy Laws sweet unto my mouth, sweeter than the honey and the honeycomb. Such a one is Marcianus the Anchorite chronicled by Theodoret: One of his ancient acquaintance being in chase after his Game, found him alone in a Desert. What make you so far from your friends, says the Huntsman; and what make you so far in the Woods, says Marcianus, I am hunting for a Beast, says he, and I will not leave till I have taken it: and I am hunting for my God, says Marcianus, and I will not leave till I have found him. Such a one by Procopius his description was Justinian the Emperor, (and such an Example was worth a thousand) nulla honorandi Dei satietas cum cepit, 
Lib. 1. p. 424  he was never cloyed to do God honour, he never thought his duty was enough in Religious service. The more we bend our affection to heavenly things, we shall be inflamed with more devotion: as devotion increaseth the more help shall be added, the more help the more diligence, and the more diligence the more glory.  
Nemo primo statim die ad satietatem potatur, says one of the Moderns; No man is made Christian enough in a day to go to the Kingdom of Heaven: unless it be in such a rare example as that was of the penitent Thief. It is a false spirit that says unto any mortal man, it is well if you can keep at this stay, and prove no worse. Yet I know the greatest part of indifferent Christians are so affected to the love of the World, that if it were possible to measure out to a dram, what quantity of righteousness would serve them to attain to salvation, they would reach so far, if the Grace of God would assist them, but they would seek no further. I say, if they knew the trick how to make just a Saint, and no more, they would spare a labour for seeking beyond that point, and for the rest sacrifice to carnal security. Certainly there can be no living water already, where there is no thirsting for more. Whatsoever you know or hear of, that any Saint living or departed hath done for God's sake, it is a shame for you, if you do not covet to do as much or more than that; at least if you be not sorry that your frailties make you come short of the best. Speak thus to your own heart, Should any of thy Servants love thee better than I? should any of thy Disciples be more obedient than I? for none of thine Elect is so much indebted to thy Passion as I am, because none had so many sins to be forgiven? Thus your Soul must thirst to be the nearest that shall stand before the presence of the Lord; and count yourself extreme lag in perfection until you desire to come equal with the principal Saints. Lord let me love thee as Peter did, Lord let me love thee more than these. Some cried Hosanna, and shouted for joy, when our Saviour went to Jerusalem; some cut down branches of Palms, that was a more real expression of his welcome; some spared their Garments from their back and laid them in his way: These were the foremost in affection; and what a becoming thing it was to be the best of all those that ran forth to meet our Saviour? but as if one should wish always to be a Child, and never come to manly growth, so is a lumpish Christian, who persuades himself that a moderate competency of righteousness is best: let others, if they will, strive to be those green Olive trees that flourish in the House of the Lord. The learned among the Heathen love to talk of strange Creatures, and Plutarch tells of a Fish, of which to eat a little is hurtful, to eat it up all is medicinal. True or false be the Story, it comes fit to be applied. Christ promiseth no blessing to him that doth but wet his lips with this living water: a little spattering holiness will turn to hypocrisy; the virtue of it abides with those that drink deep for the preserving and cherishing of a spiritual life: and the thirsty Soul, the more it drinks up, the more it will cry out, give me ever of this water to drink.  
The second Experiment is this; the water which Christ gives turns the edge of the appetite quite from this world, and makes us leave to thirst after all other delights: he that drinketh of this water, though concupiscence cannot quite be rooted out, yet he shall never long greedily after carnal lusts. He that doth not hate his own Soul cannot be my Disciple: 
Luk. 14.26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  is not this a Paradox? for, what shall it profit me to love all things else, if I hate it? well, love it as it is Christ's Soul, altogether ravished with the love of him: hate it as it was thine own Soul altogether ravished with the love of the world. Tunc animam nostram benè odimus, 
Greg. hom. 37.  cum ejus carnalibus desideriis non acquiescimus, says Gregory; as a man seems to be ill affected to another, if he deny him that he sues for: so such heavenly resolutions by a Catachresis are called the hate of the Soul, when we deny it satisfaction in foolish and earthly inclinations. He that hath called promotion to honour, or the fatness of riches, or luxury, or any such thing, the darling of his heart, it was for want of this water in my Text, to cool the inflammation of his fever: but if ever he receive a dose of it, the new Wine is put in a new Bottle, and both shall be preserved. The grace of God doth supply the place of a Cherubin that stood with a flaming sword to keep Adam out of Paradise; so the Holy Spirit will give the watchword and cry out in the time of tentation, turn aside, and enter not into the paths of these pleasures, these are not the Paradise into which you should come; if you do, there is a Sword that will cut you in twain, and give you your portion with Hypocrites. St. Austin observs upon the sixth verse of this Chapter, that Jesus being weary sat upon the Well, quasi non alius fons esset quam ipse Christus; as who should say, O ye Samaritans, what Well do ye come forth to draw at; that Pit from which ye drew of old is vanished, but here's a better sitting in the place, a Saviour which is Christ the Lord.  
How ugly those things will appear to a regenerate man, which in the days of unhappiness, when sin did reign in his mortal body, were the pride of his eyes? how contemptibly he looks upon himself, remembering how he was ambitious? how high he thinks himself above the reach of fortune, when he thinks not of high places? The World would teach him wisdom, how he may save his own: the Gospel will teach him better wisdom, to lose all for Christ: before he could not see another glister, and shine like a bigger Planet, but he felt a gripe of emulation, and his heart said, oh that I were him or him: but when he can truly say. Unto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul, my conversation is in heaven, than he can see no man abroad with whom he would change conditions: and why all this? O but because the new Wine hath filled the Bottle, the Ram is offered up for a Burnt-offering, and Abraham hath his Isaac untouched. Isaac is spiritual joy, which Abraham cannot lose, if the Ram, which is carnal concupiscence, be consumed instead of it, and burnt to ashes. Then Matthew leaves all his wealth, with more delight than ever he got it; then Paul esteems all the dignity he had in the Synagogue to be but dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. And you cannot hear too often what the holy Father St. Austin says of his own conversion, that his fancy was in a good dream, as if it heard a voice saying, take up the Book and read; and he pitched upon these words, Rom. xiii. 13. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in chambering and wantonness, not in rioting in drunkenness. At that instant he felt a refrigeration within himself to cool the fire of lust, which is kindled from Hell: at that instant he laid his mouth to the Well of water, nectareum bibit ore fontem, 
Lib. 83. Qu. & qu. 64  and found it tempered with that ingredient of the Holy Ghost, that he did never thirst. It is a parabolical, but a pious application which St. Austin makes upon the 28. of this Chapter. The Woman of Samaria came forth with her Pitcher to draw water; by which are moralised the unstable vanities, that are as common as an open River. Well, upon some conference our Saviour reveals unto her, that he was the Christ. What's next after that in the story? the Woman left her water pot, and went away into the City. Now comes in Justins' Parable, the Water pot is this Appetite of ours made of clay and dirt; with it we pluck up pernicious things from the hidden and dark pits of pleasure; but she that knows Christ must abhor this Appetite, and cast away her Pitcher: quae credit in Christo renunciabit seculo: leave your filthy desires behind you, take them up no more, and then Christ will take you up into his glory.  
The third Experiment, and the principal which extols this sovereign water, comes now to be handled, and it will serve fitly to conclude all: 'tis thus; he that drinks of it liberally, and thirstily unto the end of his life, shall not only assuage the malignity of evil concupiscence now, but shall be discharged of all manner of thirst hereafter, when he changeth this life to live with God for ever. Burdens heat the spirits, and waste the moisture of the body, and parch the throat with dryness more than any thing: Help a man that is so overladen, with a comfortable draught of wine, and you fortify and enable his strength to make him bear his carriage easily, that he shall not sink under it; but yet the burden remains upon his shoulders. So in this time of our Pilgrimage sin will ever be a sore burden upon us, and unless the spirit did comfort us it could not be supported; but we have a draught of wine mingled with myrrh given us now, to undergo the cross with fortitude and patience. And in the day of God's last visitation, when He shall take thy soul into his rest, thy burden shall be quite cast off, and the tediousness shall be no more remembered.  
Among the manifold mercies of God, for which we are to bless his holy Name, the pleasantest of them all is this Psal. ciii. Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the Eagles. Surely there is much in joining those two things together in that verse, thy mouth shall be satisfied with good things, when thy youth is renewed like the Eagles; which is a Paraphrase of the resurrection of the life to come. He that opens the door of his heart when Christ knocks to come in, he shall sup with Christ, Revel. iii 20. And Gregory notes, that the grace which he will minister to us in the Kingdom of Glory is called a Supper, quia post prandium coena restat, post coenam nullum convivium: for after Dinner the stomach may look for another Meal, but having supped, it looks for no more repast that day, but is satisfied. So in this life we dine with God's grace, and look for an other Banquet; in the next life we sup with God's grace, that's the hidden manna which is food for ever; qui credit in me non sitiet in aeternum, he that believeth in me shall not thirst for ever.  
Then to drink of this water is to believe, the reason is because faith swallows the hidden mysteries of salvation, without chewing or biting upon them with the unsanctified tooth of humane reason; fides sine difficultate intrat in animam, it goes down like drink into our bowels with great facility: Believe therefore that this water will suffer no thirst to possess your soul when you shall enjoy the presence of God, and be it unto you according to your faith. We ought not to trust so much to that which we see, or feel, as to be confident of the fulfilling of God's Promises. Lazarus shall no more thirst at the Rich man's Gate, but the rich unmerciful man shall thirst for a drop of water to cool his tongue. Therefore let him that is in misery say, I take my turn to want for a little while, I shall be full hereafter, the hungry shall be fed with good things, and the rich shall be sent empty away. Fret not therefore at the prosperity of an unjust man: Would you take his gains, his honours, his pleasures told ten times over with his losses and afflictions to boot, which he shall sustain hereafter? I am sure you like not the bargain. The Silkworm begins to live in silk at this time, and continues but for two or three months: the Ground-worm will not change conditions with the Silkworm, who may live longer in the dust of the earth. Why, he that is sanctified in Christ shall bequeath his body for a time to the dust, but his spirit shall return to unspeakable glory. Therefore envy not these Silkworms, which shall flourish for a short time, perhaps for less than a month, perhaps for less than an hour, and then they shall howl, and thirst for ever. Say thou with Philip, ostend nobis patrem & sufficit, let these things pass away, show us thy Father, and it sufficeth.  
And as faith is sure of Promise, so it is hot in Prayer: tantò instantior in prece quantò certior in promissione: because God is sure to give, I will be sure to ask. If thou wouldst ask of me, says our Saviour to the Woman, I would give thee living water. The Holy Ghost is donum ex dono, given to us not at the first hand, but because Christ is given, the gift of another gift, because God gave his only Son unto the World. As it is the natural condition of water to ascend as much as it descends; so Christ descended with this grace of living water unto the earth, therefore it will ascend again from the earth, with us, where Christ is gone into Heaven. Behold I have set before you in the former verse, and my Text, vile waters and precious; a terrestrial Globe upon which you might study the vanity of things beneath, and a celestial Globe to study heaven, and the things that are above. The former verse begins like Solomon's Ecclesiastes, Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity: This I end as the same Book doth, The end of all is fear God, and keep his Commandments. Will you mind earthly things, or is your conversation in Heaven? Philip. iii 19 Lo the Fountain of righteousness is open, all that thirst by faith come and drink, especially in the Supper of the Lord with humbleness: and because we have not a Pitcher to draw, and none can help us but Jesus Christ, let us turn unto him in Prayer, that he would open our mouth wide, and fill it with his hidden grace, that we may never thirst after the delightfulness of our former sins. AMEN.   

THE FIRST SERMON UPON JOHN vi. 11. 
And Jesus took the Loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the Disciples, and the Disciples to them that were set down, and likewise of the Fishes as much as they would.   
YOU can turn almost to no part of the whole Gospel but you shall light upon a Miracle. They are well called the bright Constellations, which shine in the Orbs of the New Testament. Yet all Stars are not of the same Magnitude, have not the same influence; so the Miracles of our Saviour have not all the same remarkable lustre, work not all alike upon the understanding and the conscience. My Text is the main share of one that hath no little excellency in it. Perhaps I may prefer it before the most, or equal it with the best. But I revere the Word of God, I dare make no such comparisons. This I may affirm, preserving modesty, and observing safety, that it is of great conteinment. It made the Divinity of Christ most conspicuous, his power above Moses and the Prophet's notorious, and his tender compassion most gracious. The Disciples were much edified by it, the People greatly satisfied, and, which is the aim of all, God was highly glorified. It is not usual with our Saviour to upbraid his Apostles with his mighty works: yet he did with this. Do ye not understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Mat. xuj. 9 It is not usual for all the Four Evangelists to enter the same Story into their sacred Writings: yet their Pens have all concurred to recite this miracle. Commonly that which is recorded by one or two is omitted by the rest. Or if three have indicted the same thing, the fourth leaves it out, (saving about the Passion, and the Resurrection, which are the Pole-stars of our faith) and this wonderful multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes the Spirit of God hath inspired them all to make it most famous, being so unanimously represented in all the Gospels. Thirdly, It is not usual to have the wonderful works of Christ anticipated in heathen Prophecies: But the Sibyls have prenuntiated in express terms all the circumstances of this miracle, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etc. that the Son of God with five Loaves and two Fishes should feed five thousand in the Wilderness, and twelve baskets should remain of the Fragments. You will say perhaps this is a little too explicit in all points for a Prophecy: It hath been doubted of, I confess, in all Ages. And he was a learned man that thus censured these Sibylline Oracles, Quo apertiora sunt eò mihi suspectiora; The more clear they be, the more to be suspected. Yet Lactantius had no such jealousy of them, but admires them that they so exactly foretold all the occurrencies of my Text. Yet in case those Verses were not the Sibyls, but an interlineation of some Christian Poets, it argues strongly that the Interliner thought this Miracle to be a glorious note of the Kingdom of our Saviour. Finally, It is not usual with the Jews to bear a Testimony to our Lord that his works did show him to be the promised Messias. Some things that he did, made them say that he was Elias, or John the Baptist, or to defend him that he was a good man. Other actions forced them to a demur, When Christ cometh will he do more miracles? But their judgements were quite captivated with this deed, for they determine upon it in the fourteenth verse of this Chapter, This is of a truth that Prophet which should come into the world. This Scripture therefore made so notable by the finger of Christ, by the Pen of all the Evangelists, by the Oracles of the Gentiles, by the Confession of the Jews, this is it which I propound unto you, and out of these particulars I shall draw forth my doctrine upon it. Here are two things chiefly to be attended, a preparation to a Miracle, and the Miracle itself. The preparation is Bodily and Ghostly: Bodily, in accepit, Jesus took the Loaves, and likewise the Fishes. Ghostly, in gratias egit, or benedixit, he gave thanks. The Miracle consists, 1. In the distribution, that was Christ's Act, He distributed to the Disciples. 2. In the subdistribution, that was the Disciples Office, The Disciples distributed to them that were set down. 3. In the reception, that was the People's part, They did eat and were all filled, they had as much as they would.  
A better preparation to a Miracle cannot be imagined than this accepit. If Jesus take the work in hand, look for a round dispatch: For the Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand, Joh. iii 35. Had he laid his hand upon it, or but touched the bread, virtue would have gone out of him, if he had pleased; but to grasp the Loaves, or to hold them in his Palm, it was a full signification that his power and liberality were eminently met together: for it is that hand which openeth and filleth all things. The Apostles knew where these Loaves were forthcoming, but they set not their mind upon them, they would not meddle with them. The People were an hungry, and far from home, in a desert place, where there was nothing but grass. Two hundred pennyworth of bread perchance would have stayed their stomaches, and Philip thought that would be too little. Howsoever they had not the money to buy it. Five barley Loaves and two Fishes were all they had in store, and who durst take them forth and show them openly, lest they should scramble and quarrel for them? The People were ready to stone Moses and Aaron in the Wilderness when they were pinched with scarcity of food. Therefore some gave counsel to send them away betimes, certainly suspecting a mutiny. But here is an accepit which runs cross to all their imaginations. Christ betakes himself to those means which they contemned; instead of dismissing the Congregation, he calls them closer together: instead of referring them to the Villages round about, he contents them amply in that barren place. Instead of the Tumult which was dreaded the issue came to great applause and admiration. In all their days they had never seen such a Feast as this Table in the Wilderness, where every Crum became an Handful: Great things became vile, and vile things became great by the dispensation of Christ. In his own Person the stone which the builders refused became the head of the corner: and in his own hand the Loaves which the Disciples refused became such a Banquet as never was prepared. Lord take it first into thine own hand, whatsoever we receive, and then it will increase and prosper. Give us our daily bread, and if it be thy gift for no more than one day, the virtue of it will last a year. Labour not then so much to have good things, as to have them of God. As David did quickly cast up a cheerful account of all his estate, O Lord my God all the store that we have it cometh of thine hand, 1 Chron. xxix. 16. whatsoever drops from his fingers is sweet smelling Myrrh, Cant. v. 5. but all false ways he utterly abhors, and whatsoever comes in by fraud, by extortion, by cavillation, it will consume away as fast as ever the Loaves and Fishes increased.  
But surely the whole quaternion of Evangelists have set down this Preamble to the Miracle with such joint consent, He took the Loaves, that it cannot choose but have some depth of observation in it. St. chrysostom hath reached it so far that great numbers follow him, namely, that our Saviour did impatronize himself thereby to the work which followed, and published himself from thence to be the Author of the Miracle. It was alike easy to his Omnipotency to say the word, and to make bread of nothing: Or to take a little into his hand, and to amplify it into a great quantity. Depend upon this, what we have he can increase, and what we have not he can create, it is all one to him. But by handling the lump, and so giving virtue to the augmentation, the People might behold him as the Fountain of all Power and Majesty, and say with the Lycaonians, God is come down unto us in the likeness of man. Hear what that Father says more unto it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. It was very expedient that the People should be taught these two Articles of their belief, that Christ came from the Father, and that he was equal with the Father. The one must be proved by power, the other by holiness: The one by taking the Loaves, the other by giving thanks: The one by doing all, the other by calling upon God, when he did all. Put the case he had looked up to Heaven, and furnished them with satiety of victuals out of nothing, what would the multitude have said? why, this comes from above, this is God's doing, and this Jesus is a Prophet that's come from God. O but can humane reason be brought to no better opinion of him? 'tis true, whatsoever can be done, they that are unbelievers may gainsay it, yet to subdue all contradiction in them that are willing to obey the truth, he took the bread; and took the glory to himself to make every loaf content a thousand, that they might cry out with the Centurion, this is of a Truth the Son of God, and it is no robbery to say he is equal with the Father. So at Cana in Galilee he did not create wine when they wanted, and supplied them out of nothing, but he turned water into wine, water of their own fetching, as this was bread of their own bringing, a pre-existent matter, whose substance they knew to be vulgar and natural: he wrought upon these sensible things before their eyes, that they might impute the transmutation to his own Divinity. Unto which of the Prophets therefore can you liken him in this Miracle? Moses obtained Manna from Heaven by prayer and supplication: Christ did this by his own hand. The Widow's Barrel of Meal did not waste, nor her Cruise of Oil fail, it was Elias his prediction, not his immediate operation. Elisha bad his Servant set twenty barley loaves before an hundred men, they did eat, and left thereof, yet for his own part he did not meddle with it, because he would have the children of the Prophets ascribe all to the Word of the Lord: they did according to that spirit upon them, 
2 Kin. 4.44.  which was circumscribed and limited. God had lent them a tongue to declare his noble acts, but the hand which did all was far above, the hand of power was radical in Heaven: therefore this is a distinctive note to know the Master from his Servants, he took the loaves.  
He took them indeed; but for justice sake it is fit to ask, unde habuit? from whence he had them. A mean question many times hath found a grave resolution: it may prove so in this. Whence he had them? Why, some say the Disciples did own them: for they answer him, Matt. xiv. 17. We have here but five loaves and two fishes. The words bear it as if they were theirs, because their Master was wont to carry them into desolate places, and to detain them there all night, it was their wont providence to carry some small refection with them in their journey; as it appears Matth. xuj. 7. When our Saviour bade them beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the Saducees, they reasoned among themselves, saying, it is because we have taken no bread: Then they had not, yet usually they do not forget it: and it may be this was their provision for the present season. But the votes of them are more that conceive they did belong to some other. In the nineth verse Andrew says, there is a Lad here which hath five barley loaves and two fishes, that he did belong to him and his fellow Disciples, 'tis neither in the Book, nor in the nearest likelihood. Baronius says that it is descended by Tradition that this Lad was St. Martialis, who became an holy Martyr, and was Bishop of Lymoges in France. Whosoever the party was, if it be yielded, as no man can refuse it, that these Viands were his own: how came they into Christ's hands without bargain and sale, for aught we read? When Offertories were frequent in the Church, every Sunday a voluntary oblation presented to the Lord by all that could give, than the answer to this scruple was quickly understood. If this were St. Martialis, piety revealed itself in him in his tender years, for I may safely say, he surrendered these things up unto Christ as a willing Offertory, as soon as he knew that our Lord did ask for them. No offices of Religion will vanish away insensibly so soon as those that be chargeable. For can any man tell how free Oblations are quite laid down, and disused among us, unless it be at some Solemn Festivities, and Magnificent Funerals? no reason, but that two much thrift hath marred our thankfulness. Abel, and Noah, and Abraham did not forget it in those Sacrifices which they offered up unto the Lord, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Lib. 6. c. 20.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The Law of nature egged them on, gratitude provoked them, say the Clementine Constitutions, to which I can give no less than the antiquity of the fourth Century. The Israelites, beside their Tithes and First-fruits, and other Ceremonies to which they were tasked, were left to their own discretion for the Choice Vow, and the Freewill Offering; and they performed it sumptuously, knowing that it was a glory due to the name of the Lord to bring an offering into his House of their own accord, Psal. xcvi. 8. The lights that shined in this piety under the Gospel was the poor Widow, that cast her two Mites freely into the Corb●n; Marry Magdalen that poured a Box of Spicknard upon Christ's head of great estimation: beside the Wise men of the East, that cast their Gold and Myrrh before his Cradle; and Nichodemus that dedicated his hundred pound weight of Aloes and Spices to his dead Body in the Sepulchre. It were ostentation of reading to point to free Oblations out of Antiquity, for there was no Age or Church without them. Happy was he whose life was accounted so unreprovable, that the Bishop would suffer him to bring a Gift to the Altar. 
Ibid l. 4. c. 5  Sycophants, Drunkards, Whoremongers, unjust Judges, all scandalous persons were turned back disgracefully with their Oblation in their hand, and it would not be taken: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but such as possessed any substance by lawful increase, they did voluntarily bring a Portion to the Lord, to acknowledge their Tenure, that they held all from him, and their debt, that they owed all unto him. And this is pressed unto you by putting the case, if Jesus took the loaves by free donation.  
But what shall we say if he commanded them before they were offered to him? Bring them hither to me, so he speaks in St. Matthew. By what Title did he require them be brought unto him? or by what authority did he take them, if another had the right possession? even by that authority wherein he was invested in the dominion of all earthly things, by that Prerogative whereby he sent for the Ass and the Colt when he rid into Jerusalem: Bring them unto me, and if any man say aught unto you, ye shall say the Lord hath need of them, and strait way he will send them. By that propriety which he had in the Gadarens Swine, by that right which he had in the Figtree which he cursed: manifest signs that he did dispose of all things as he pleased, without ask leave of the owners. Belike, say some Papalines, there was a temporal Sovereignty in our Saviour over all things here beneath, and this did rest upon St. Peter after him, and is now immanent in St. Peter's Successors, all the Kingdoms of this World are theirs, nec Constantinus dedit quickquam Sylvestro, in strict justice Constantine gave nothing to Pope Sylvester, for he was Lord of all before: a poor plea for so proud a purchase. And surely Pilate was more just in this point than those flattering Canonists. The Jews exclaimed against our Saviour that he made himself a King; Pilate could find no such fault in him, but pronounced him innocent. And well he might, for all things were given unto him by the Father, yet not by ruling all things like a King in his Kingdom, but by uniting the humane nature to the Godhead; and that ye doubt it not but that he had power over all Creatures as he was Man by the influence of that hypostatical union, he had a name written on his thigh King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, Revel. nineteen. 16. super femur, mark that, upon his thigh, that is upon his humane nature. Now what should I call this Dominion of Christ's, whereby he was made Heir of all things, Heb. i 2. Surely it surpasseth all description, and it hath no name. But I am sure he held it not after a Regal way, as David and Solomon were Kings in Israel. It was transcendent above humane Majesty, commanding Men and Angels, Heaven and Earth, Quick and Dead, things sensible and insensible; yet withal he was most subject to Rulers, paying Tribute to Cesar, and refusing to divide a small Inheritance between them that were contentious. A mystical Kingdom, and not to be expressed: ruling over all, and yet most obedient to Magistrates, commanding every thing under Heaven, and yet ministering to his Servants; seized of no Inheritance, yet having right in every Inheritance, quod de suo non habuit, sumpsit de alieno, says St. Austin of these Loaus, he had not bread of his own, but that which another had became his own; there was a justice paramount, wherein no mortal Creature succeeds him, which gave him interest in all things: Therefore without offence or injury to the owner he took the Loaves.  
But if he had them from his Disciples, amicorum omnia communia, than he might usurp them without any litigious brabble moved against his power; and that the possession was theirs may be as true as the contrary: the truth inclines rather to that side, as I conceive, because our Saviour said unto them, date vos illis, give ye them to eat; and they, and none else, took away the twelve Baskets of that which remained. And was this the purveyance which they had made against hunger, five barley loaves and two fishes? little enough, and coarse enough, God knows: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. Chrysostom, this was the Philosophy and austere temperance of the Disciples, they abhorred luxury and superfluity: Yet do you miss nothing to make up the Meal? where was their drink? the fish is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by our Evangelist, it had been dried before the fire; now that and bread made of Barley had need to be washed down. But what said the Roman Captain to his Army, Nilum habetis & vinum quaeritis? they that had the whole River of Nile before them need not complain of thirst: so they that were near to the Sea of Tiberias took no thought for any other Beverage: it was a Lake of wholesome and fresh water, which after the custom of the Jews is called a Sea, if it be large and spacious; and with that they were contented to quench their thirst. Our Saviour furnished them once with wine at the joyful Solemnity of Marriage; they looked not for the like at every occasion: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it is a pleasant liquor says the Poet, but it is the Milk of Venus. They declined all incentives of lust, and lived almost after daniel's rate with pulse and water. When Christians lived among the Heathen, they were detected by their parsimony and moderation of diet: though it were to save their lives they could not gourmandize like Epicures, Nos oleris comas nos siliqua faeta legumine paverit innocuis epulis, says Prudentius; by temperance and fasting they got the mastery of the concupiscence of the flesh. But above all Christians especially sobriety descended from the Apostles upon ecclesiastics; it deserved a censure in them to exceed in delicious fare: the Canons are extant, and the proofs are authentic, that the great and solemn Fasts of the Church, well known to us, were observed by them a good while before they were admitted by the People. None know better than we, says St. Austin, that when temperance directs us to deny ourselves those things that are lawful, we are the better instructed to shun the sinful works of the Devil, which are altogether unlawful. The Apostles are our Forerunners in this frugality, 
Matt. 9  or rather austerity of food: and yet to see, that for all this they were scandalised for riotous libertines. The imputation against them according to St. Matthew is this, 
Ch. 5.33.  that they did not fast when the Disciples of John did. In St. Luke more palpably spiteful, they tell our Saviour, that his Disciples did eat and drink: why not? would they have them macerate themselves with wilful famishment? but could envy itself lay excess or intemperance to their charge? I would we were as clear from the fault as they? we that abuse the fertilness of our Land to rankness of gluttony; we that pay more to the belly than we owe to the whole body: who almost is not an Apicius that can maintain it? what sin did ever grow up in any State to a more prodigious extremity? but if the droughts of three years successively threatening dearth and scarcity will not affrighten this sin from our Table, it is not a piece of a Sermon that will beat it down. Yet I pray you remember that sharp Epiphonema of the Parable; These three years have I come and found no fruit, cut it down. Nay God defend. Why then expiate your surfeitings with Apostolical abstinence, and forget not what a thrifty pittance they had in store, even five barley loaves and two fishes.  
And was this all? and were they pleased that Christ should take that little from them, and give it away to strangers? yes it appears by Andrews answer they did not grudge it. We have no more, it is as good as nothing to feed such a multitude. This implies as if he spoke the rest, they shall have it all, and much good do them, if that will content them. And was he so willing to part with that which was necessary for his own sustenance, he had no more? And will not we bestow our superfluities upon them that want? Every luxuriant Vine must be largely pruned; and he that hath much must scatter bountifully. The Vine doth not miss the redundant branch, and a rich man's Purse is like a River, that doth not fall for a spoonful of contribution. But when a poor man conjects heartily to any pious use, his faith is proved, as well as his charity is exercised; for it is a sign that he believes that God will sustain him, though he have emptied himself of all his substance in a small Oblation. There are three things says Gregory that are most holy Sacrifices, castitas in juventute, sobrietas in ubertate, liberalitas in paupertate, liberality in poverty, chastity in youth, moderation in plenty. And St. Chrysostom infers it from the readiness of the Disciples to part with all their homely Viands, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, maunder not that you are scanted, and have but little, he that hath any thing hath somewhat to spare to lend to the needy. When the poor Widow had conferred two Mites, no less than all her living, unto the godly uses of the Temple, Christ avouched it in her praise, it was more than all the rich ones had bestowed: That is, not by absolute, but by proportionable quantity, as Aquinas states it: not measuring the magnitude of the Gift, but the sincereness of the Charity. Non perpendit quantum, sed ex quanto proferatur, says Bede. God doth not estimate how much was given, but out of how much it was taken. It was more for her to give two mites, than for Zacheus to give a talon: So it was more for these Disciples to surrender up their five loaves and two fishes, than for another to keep open house for all the poor in Jerusalem. And these shall be the limits of the first point, our Saviour's bodily preparation to the ensuing Miracle, accepit, he took the loaves.  
And what more beside accepit? For the Miracle came not off without another preparation, and that is Ghostly, Postquam gratias egisset, after he had given thanks. Best take it with the full allowance as the other Evangelists have enlarged it, that beside giving thanks he looked up to heaven and blessed. So then before he brought the sign to pass he glorified his Father three ways; with his Eye, he looked up to heaven: with his Tongue, he gave thanks: and with his Spirit, he blessed. If you will scan the value of an action by the rarity of it in holy Scripture, and by the incidency upon none but great occasions, then both these do concur in this, that Christ looked up to heaven. I call it to mind that it happened three times, (that is not often) now at this instant, when he was about the miracle of the Loaves: Once again when he raised Lazarus to life, Joh. xi. 41. And once more when he began his Prayer to his Father, but a few minutes before he was apprehended to be crucified, Joh. xvii. 1. And the Tradition is of long continuance, that he lifted up his eyes to heaven the fourth time, when he consecrated the Elements at his Last Supper. The Liturgies ascribed to St. James, and St. Mark do remember it, and upon the credulity of the example the Canon of the Mass in the Church of Rome commands it. At all times, you may observe, they were high attempts when the Son of God did use this Ceremony to look up to heaven. It came from a good principle, it tended to a good end, and very good use is to be made of it. The first good principle or impulsive cause is mercy: He saw a great Multitude in want, and destitute of sustenance, and that was the provocation to make him fix his eyes upon the heavens to call down relief. Our Evangelist in the fifth verse of this Chapter notes that he lift up his eyes, meaning that he did affectionately behold a multitude of People all bescanted of food, and that was the preparative to make him look higher, to look up to heaven. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is his own word in St. Mark, My bowels yearn to provide for this people in their extremity of hunger. These entrails of compassion make us bold to look up to God, compassion is that Optic Nerve that draws up the eye lid, and encourageth us to seek for grace, because our eyes send forth the visual rays of Charity. Better it is to want Eyes, and Legs, and Arms, than to lack these entrails of Pity. You may carve the proportion of a man in Stone, or cast it in Brass, a fair Figure it shall be, but it hath no Bowels: So he is no better than a Lump of Brass or Stone that hath not the Affections of Clemency, an Idol that hath Ears and hears not, that hath Eyes and sees not: but he that hath the tender heartstrings of mercy in his bosom, he may have confidence to look up to heaven. Secondly, It is Devotion which draws up our looks to God. It is a sign that the interior contemplation is directed thither, when the exterior glances fly aloft. The Eye cannot refrain to fix itself upon that object which the mind doth passionately desire. Therefore it is become an act of Latria, or religious veneration to advance the eyes to heaven in the fervour of Prayer, Unto thee lift I up mine eyes O thou that dwellest in the heavens, Psal. cxxiii. And to look up to Idols is all one as to worship Idols in the Phrase of Ezekiel. Cast your eyes therefore to the Throne of God, when you address yourself to Prayer, that Love and Zeal may be struck out of the fire of the Eye. I do not press it as inseparable Ceremony, for the humble Publican did well, when he thought so abjectly of himself, that he durst not lift up his eyes to heaven, says St. Chrysostom like an Orator, lest he should find the Catalogue of his sins written in the Firmament to accuse him. Yet a perpetual affectation of winking, or covering the face in Prayer seems not to me so laudable; for why should we debar ourselves to praise God with our most heavenly sense?  
Next of all it carries us along with it to know what end Christ had in working this Miracle. The root of all was above, and he worked downward, he set his Father's glory before his eyes, and he directed this, and all his actions to the propagation of it. To feed such a scattered Rout so liberally, so unexpectedly, you may be sure it would spread his renown far and wide, they would cry him up for a bountiful Lord in all places. This was the fashion of the rising men in Rome, about the time that Christ lived, to fill the People with congiaries, and Feasts, and win their applause by cramming their belly: But our Saviour's conceit was above this earth, he had none but celestial intentions. And therefore when the People out of admiration would have prosecuted it to a most honourable issue, and have made him a King, he shifted away into a Mountain, that he might not be found, at the fifteenth verse of this Chapter. He neither began this work for temporal glory, nor would let it end in temporal glory, for he looked up to heaven. Whether it be in sustaining the poor, or in any other Christian work that flows from charity, do it that ye may have honour of God, and beware of the leaven of Ambition, that you have no flat sinister thoughts in it, or humane policies. Popularity is like a thief in a Candle, it makes it blaze much, but it quickly wastes it. He that doth good, and looks up steadfastly to heaven makes God his Debtor: he that looks asquint to the praise of men shall be paid with ignominy.  
You know now out of what Principles Christ did this, you are sure for what end he did it. From both we have this Lesson, Let our eyes look unto the eyes of our Master. When he looks upward, let not us look downward, but let us mind heavenly things. The frame of our bodies heaves us thither, Erectos ad sidera tollere vultus, it bids us look to God; and that way should our soul turn, it came from thence, and thither it should draw again. The composition of Nature therefore would not have us to be Moales rooting into the earth, but grace goes further, and would have us to be Eagles flying above the Clouds. Aquila nidum sibi in arduis construit; Job xxxix. 27. The Eagle builds his nest on high. It is the Emblem of a Christian, whose Spirit is so transported with the meditation of a better life, that he walks as it were among the Stars. The soul is not where it lives, but where it loves. Therefore St. Paul said, that his whole Negotiation was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a conversation which was in heaven. Here is hunger and thirst, there is indeficient satiety: Here are Envyings and Seditions, there are sweet Hymns and Halelujahs: Here are Worms and Corruption, there are Angels and Immortality. And what a joyous thing is it to have a pledge of this happiness by looking towards it before the time be come about that we should possess it? Most willingly therefore will I send up mine eyes as Harbingers before me, to make room for the whole man, both soul and body. Laertius says of Empedocles, that he answered one that asked him what was the end of his life, Vt coelum aspiciam, to view the heavens. What could be the meaning of this Philosopher? To poor upon it like a Stargazer? I cannot but imagine more acuteness in him, that he discerned the felicity of man was laid up in those supernal places. God is every where; We circumscribe him not in heaven when we look up thither. It is not the Throne of his Presence, but of his Glory: But because we should have narrow and gross cogitations, if we sought him only in these fading things: Therefore for our Hope sake, for our Consolation sake, especially for the elevation of our mind, we turn our eyes towards him in that place where there is no mixture of mutability. Exalt your Spirit, that you live as fellow Citizens with the Saints, and of the household of God, Eph. two. 19 Ascend up on high as belonging to that Church, which hath the Moon under her feet, Rev. xii. 1. Fix your nest in the top of the Rocks with the Eagle; if you make your nest on the ground, the foot of man and beast will tread on it. If you contrive it within the reach of the arm it is easily plucked down: If within the boughs of a large tree it will be pelted. Build high enough, as the Eagle doth, and then you are safe from wracks and injuries. In all the whirl and revolutions of fortune this is our magnetical reduction, look up to heaven.  
And give thanks together, as it follows to be handled. From hence we have all that belongs to the being, and to the well-being of Nature. Whatsoever we want, whatsoever we dread and fear it comes from above. Frost and Snow, Rain and fruitful seasons; food for the body, grace for the soul, heaven supplies us with all these, with more than we can ask or think. How properly therefore doth this holy Office as it were take up the train of the former, and come after it? First, he looked up to heaven, and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. he gave thanks. In one of us I confess they piece well together, in the person of a mortal man that lives by pension and allowance from the Lord, in the person of David, as it is Psal. viij. When I consider the heavens, etc. What is man that thou art mindful of him? Or the Son of man that thou visitest him? But it is a strange word in the mouth of Christ. He give thanks? Who hath obliged him by any favour? Or to whose benignity is he beholding? All his works praise him, and his Saints give thanks unto him: but he is engaged to none, there must be one first cause that communicates itself to all things, and receives of nothing, and that is God of God, very God of very God, the King of glory, Jesus Christ. To take off this Objection with reason, first, Beneficium accepit in humanâ naturâ; He took the form of a servant upon him, and in that exinanition he was capable of a benefit to be done unto him. Therefore he thanked his Father that he would bring that to pass by his Omnipotency, which he was purposed to effect by his Humane Nature. Nay, he did not divide himself from his Father in this giving of thanks: But the Son of Mary, that was flesh of our flesh, gave thanks unto himself, as he was God Eternal. It is so through an ineffable Dispensation. An Eternal Decree was ratified that Christ being made man should be glorified in working this Miracle, for which Decree he gives thanks unto the Godhead, for so it was decreed that Thanksgiving should precede before the Decree was executed. And yet note it further, because the fullness of the Godhead dwelled in the Manhood bodily, Christ did not go about his work precario, he did not pray that power might be given him to multiply the five Loaves into five thousand portions; that was not to be craved now which was inherent in him from the beginning, but being certain to effect that which he undertook, he gave thanks before the effect was produced.  
Secondly, Beneficium accepit in membris. It was a gracious Donative which was now about to be bestowed upon the People that were gathered together, and out of a fellow-feeling to those that were his own, our Saviour gave thanks for the kindness shown to his Members. And well I may say he made this grateful acknowledgement to his Father for their sakes that pertained to his body: for there is not that tenderhearted man that comforts a poor Christian in his necessities but he will say as much to him; 
Mat. 25.40.  In as much as ye have done it to one of the least of my brethren, ye have done it unto me. The Prophet David hath spoken of his love after the same manner, whereby he united himself unto us, Psal. lxviii. 18. Thou hast led captivity captive; Dona accepisti in hominibus, so the Vulgar Latin; and it is so verbatim in the Original, thou hast received gifts in men. He gives all, and he takes all; for he takes that to himself which is distributed unto all. As it was the foundation of the Spartan Commonwealth, Ne scirent privatim vivere; To live rather for the advancement of the public than of the private Weal: So it is a corner stone of Christian Brotherhood, Ne scirent homines privatim gratias agere; Not to pinch up their gratitude into that narrowness, as to bless the name of God for no mercies but such as are conferred upon themselves. Quomodo idiota dicet amen? Let me apply that of St. Paul in a Parody, he that is all for himself is that Idiot, that when public Thanksgiving is made knows not how to say Amen. But as Christ gave thanks for the Members, so must the Members one for another: For in the Union of Faith, and in the Bond of Charity all blessings diffused far and wide upon our brethren are our proper benefits.  
Thirdly, All Writers that handle my Text strike upon this Key, that we are taught from hence to make some holy Preface, to say Grace, as we call it, before we feed our body. When we sit down to meat, Quasi ad beneficentiae Dei concionem accedimus; we are presented as it were with a Sermon of God's benignity, not in word, but in deed, and therefore it is Decorum that we should begin with a Prayer. So did the Jews yery anciently, the young Maidens, whom Saul met told him so much, that the People would not eat till Samuel came, because he doth bless the Sacrifice, and afterward they that be bidden eat. 
1 Sam. 9.13.  We Christians have sufficient from St. Paul to make us diligent observers of this Ceremony. Says he, Every Creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the Word of God, and Prayer, 1 Tim. iv. 4, 5. It is not sufficient, says Theodoret upon it, that the Creature of God is good, but it must be sanctified also before we eat it. That which was good by nature the name of God invoked upon it makes it wholesome and holy. Either our body may fall into some distemper, or our soul into some fearful sin, unless we begin and end our refection in the name of the Lord. But the Apostle chargeth us ex abundanti, that the Word of God and Prayer be conjoined to it, that is, says Vatablus, to attend to the reading of sacred Scripture beside the ordinary Benediction. So it is in use to this day with them that lead a Regular and a Scholastical strictness: and was not omitted of the very Heathen, that had a grain of Philosophy in their disposition; So Cornelius Nepos commends Pomponius Atticus, Nunquam sine aliquâ lectione apud eum coenatum est; He never supped but somewhat was read out of a learned Author before him. His mind did ruminate upon Knowledge, while his teeth did chew his bread, lest like an horse his head should be only in the Manger. And those natural men began from Religion whensoever they feasted, for before they tasted any thing they did offer or sequester a first fruits to their Gods, 
Apol. c. 39  as Plutarch says in his Symposiacks. But as for Christians, though it were no Feast, though their Fare were most course and slender, yet says Tertullian, Non prius discumbitur quam oratio ad Deum praegustetur, aequè oratio convivium dirimit. And Gregory tells us, (it is in his Dialogues indeed) that a man that eat but a few herbs, and blest not God before the eating, was possessed with a Devil. I will not say upon so poor a Repast, but where there is a full Table, I will say it with Origen, 
Lib. 3. in Job 2.  that there is a kind of bewitching in meats and drinks, a kind of luxurious devil that dances in the Dish: Which made holy Job offer Sacrifice for his Sons and Daughters, when they had spent some days in liberal entertainments. For though I may charitably suppose that the Children of so Venerable a man were educated in Sobriety, yet it is an hard thing to be confined within an unblameable temperance. 
Lib. 10. c. 13  Quis est qui non aliquantulùm rapitur extrametas necessitatis? Says St. Austin in his Confessions, and yet a man of admirable abstinence. Who is it that doth not pamper himself with more than that which is barely necessary? And therefore all men had need to protect themselves with Prayer against excess and superfluity. If Christ thought it meet when five thousand were to be fed with five Loaves and two Fishes, what need have we to be munitioned against Luxury? Where Quails and Manna are but homely fare in respect of our condited delicates; Seria, ludicra, 
Prudentius.  verba, jocos trina superna regat pietas, says a sacred Poet. You may be serious, you may be frolic at Table, and mirth is more beseeming than sadness at that season, yet begin all in the name of God, that seriousness may not turn into melancholy, nor mirth into scurrility. Fie on their corrupt ears, that love to be tickled with lascivious Ballads while they are pampering their belly. Penelope's Suitors were great Gluttons, and Minstrels they had meal by meal, but blind Homer says any new Song would please them, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, yet these were nebulones Alcinoique. Now a days it must be obscene, or it is nothing. O these that abuse both the sustenance of the Body, and the sweet delight of the Spirit, they are neither worthy of Meat nor Music, but are reserved for howling and gnashing of teeth.  
Now I shall come to an end for this time. For I have done with that word of sacred and ghostly preparation which St. John useth, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he gave thanks, the other Evangelists use the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, be blessed. That you may learn that to bless and to give thanks are words convertible, says St. Cyril, that signify the same thing, he makes no more of it. And it is true that at some times they are Synonyma, as 1 Cor. xiv. 16. When thou shalt bless with the Spirit, how shall he that supplies the place of the unlearned say Amen at the giving of thanks? There they must be the same, but here they must be divers, for Christ gave thanks unto his Father, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. Luke, he blessed the bread. To give thanks was the Piety of his Humane Nature, but this blessing came from the virtue of his Divine Nature. He did infuse a new miraculous quality into the Loaves, and imparted a seminal power unto them of increase and multiplication. I know not what ails some Interpreters, I think they are afraid of Magic, that they do so avoid this word, and turn it from the right signification when our Saviour is said to bless any outward matter that was before him. But saving their Criticisms, wherein they are most laboriously impertinent to confound it with Prayer and giving of thanks, I find a threefold blessing of the Creature in the Gospel, Communis, Miraculosa, Sacramentalis. First, at a common Supper, (for so I conceive it) Luk. xxiv. 30. Our Saviour blessed bread. Not as if there were any impurity in the Creature, especially there could be none to him. Deo artifici tam mundus est porcus quam agnus, 
In Psal. 41.  says St. Austin. But it teacheth us to invocate God's goodness, that those things which we use may be salutiferous unto us. And herein I cannot deride them, that have a Ceremony to bless their Honey and Eggs on Easter day, their Pastures on St. Stephen's day, their Wine on St. John's day, their Orchards and Gardens on the Assumption, as they style it, of the blessed Virgin. There is no vanity in these common Benedictions. Secondly, There is a blessing of the Creature with a mighty hand when a Miracle is wrought. So these Barley Loaves were blessed, exalted to an enlargement above their nature, and this is to be adored, and not to be imitated. If you would have it inquired into, whether this blessing was executed with any outward Ceremony, I have no resolute answer for it: Whether Christ did use some set form of Prayers or words, or used the imposition of his hands, or the gesture of his body in some remarkable Figure I cannot tell. One of these are not unlikely, because the Passengers that went to Emaus knew him by his blessing and breaking of bread. It may be they had been at the spending of these five Loaves in the Wilderness, and knew the form of his customary Benediction. Cajetan puts it off with a trifling conjecture, that he was used to break bread with that evenness, as if it had been cut with a Knife, and that discovered him. It is more likely, I take it, that he was known by a decent and outward Ceremony of Benediction. Lastly, There is a Sacrament all Benediction of the outward Elements: So the water of Baptism is sanctified to be the Pool of Regeneration. So our Saviour did not only give thanks, but he blessed and consecrated both the Bread and the Cup which he divided among his Disciples. No doubt in the beginning of the Supper, before they fed of the Lamb, he had blessed the Table. That he did as the Son of man: But afterward he began an eximious and singular Benediction for a new work as the Son of God, he exalted them thereby to be the lively Sacrament of his body and blood, Et non sunt quod natura formavit, sed quod benedictio consecravit, says St. Ambrose; They are no more that which Nature hath made them, but that for which then Christ, and since we in our Priestly Benediction do consecrate them. The hand of Jesus is with us in our work, and the blessing, etc.   

THE SECOND SERMON UPON JOHN vi. 11. 
He distributed to the Disciples, and the Disciples to them that were set down, and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.   
THis is the second time; I take leave to remember you of it, that I have propounded this Text before you. To treat upon a Text of multiplying and increase, it may be it hath some influence upon the words of the speaker. Or if not so, yet it being a branch of a famous Story out of which our Church hath compiled three several Gospels (observe your Common-prayer Book, and you will find no less) I say that which hath supplied us with three Gospels, may easily afford us occasion of two Sermons. It is so circumstanced with mysteries, that as twelve Baskets did no more than contain that which was left of five loaus and two fishes, so when I have spoken once and again upon this Theme, the remainder which I must omit, will be manifold more than I shall be able to deliver. It came to pass at such an opportunity, as in reason you may be confirmed that our Saviour meditated some great matter: for setting all occurences in right order, John the Baptist was newly beheaded, and his blood yet warm, Matth. xiv. It was as the Devil would have it, the burning Light was put out, the Forerunner cut off, the mouth of the great Witness was stopped, he that divulged Christ's glory over all Judea. Now his fame will be less bruited abroad than it was before: not a whit; for immediately as it were on purpose to supply the place of that mighty Prophet, Christ amazeth the people with this Table that he spread in the Wilderness; the rumour of it filled Jerusalem and all Judea: so that Satan might say with Herod, this is John the Baptist that is risen from the dead.  
And it happened to the greater glory of the Son of God, that all parties were never so generally pleased with any wonder that he did. In this Gospel of St. John he healed a man that had been infirm eight and thirty years: It liked them not, 
Ch. 5.  because it was done on the Sabbath day. He told the Pharisees their secret sins, they told him he was a Samaritan and had a Devil. 
Changed 8.  He gave eyes to one that was born blind: but who durst confess it? for he that did was sure to be excommunicated. He raised Lazarus to life after he had been dead four days. 
Ch. 9  This made the High-Priests broil with anger, that they concluded in their Council it was expedient to put him to death. Only this Miracle was taken with the right hand, 
Ch. 11.  and for aught appears, escaped all malignancy and sinister interpretation. If it sped so well with them, that observed no more from it, but that they did eat and were filled. (I speak it upon good authority, the Lord rebukes them for it in this Chapter, ver. 27. That they laboured for the meat that perished, and not for meat that endured to everlasting life.) If these had such liking to it, how much more considerable is it to us, who may collect the highest mysteries of Religion out of these lowly figures. First you may discern in this the communicableness of charity, which passeth the good things of fortune from hand to hand to those that need, as these barley loaves were derived from the Fountain to the River, and from the River to the smaller Brooks. Secondly you may see no less than Christ and his Church knit together by fit junctures and sinews, his influence moves in his Apostles, the Apostles dispense his gifts unto the people, which is the harmony that keeps all in tune in the house of God. Nay thirdly here is the very Sacrament of the Sacrament: As the bread in this Miracle was blessed from Christ's lips, and drew virtue from thence above its nature; so in the Lord's Supper the Word infuseth itself into the Element, and it becomes a Sacrament. These things without peradventure the Jews did not wots of, but we have light enough to descry them from this Story, He distributed to the Disciples, etc. I am constant to that partition of the whole verse which I delivered heretofore, a preparation to a Miracle, and the Miracle itself. The preparation as I noted I dispatched it, was bodily and ghostly, bodily in assumpsit, Jesus took the loaves; ghostly in gratias egit, or benedixit, he gave thanks. The Miracle consists plainly of these three Members. Here is the distribution, which is Christ's act, He distributed to the Disciples. 2. The subdistribution, that was the Disciples Office, They distributed to them that were set down. 3. Here is the reception, that did belong to the People, They did all eat and were filled, they had as much as they would. Distinctly upon these three in their order.  
There is but one giver in the Text, the rest that are mentioned are all borrowers; to him therefore as to the Patron of the Miracle give we the precedency in this Narration, He distributed. That Pronoun and Verb together make a rich conjunction, and yield such an ample Revenue as the whole earth cannot receive: For all the wealth of this World, and our Portion of glory in the Text is lodged in the room of these few syllables, He distributed. But to lay hold of it with the right hand, and as it belongs to the matter which is before me, I consider it as it conducts us to the two regent Attributes of the Divine nature, Power and goodness, or in terms as easy to be remembered, as a Miracle, or as a Benefit. First as a Miracle: If the Son of God had communicated all that was before him, and no more, as far as it would reach, the Company that was with him had barely seen his courtesy; but since it pleased him to increase the loaves more than a thousand fold above their natural quantity, it was an argument of his Majesty and Omnipotency. Mighty things are those which thou hast done O Lord, and who is like unto thee? What a memorable Feast was here set forth out of an handful of meat? Was ever hunger conquered with such small provision? Were ever five thousand persons tabled at so cheap a rate? nothing was made ready, and yet nothing wanted, no Ovens were heated, yet they had their fill of bread without scarcity; no nets were cast to drag the Seas, yet fish abounded with them to their utmost satiety. In brief, a Child did keep and carry all the food that was among them, and yet here was an open House for all comers.  
Julian that great Apostate studied Magic, and all secret unlawful Arts under that great Sorcerer Jamblichus the Philosopher. His desires were to make the Scriptures, and in them the Miracles of our Saviour suspected or despicable. Well, when he and his infernal Partners had tried all their cunning, what could they produce correspondent to this unquestionable increase of five loaves and two fishes? why it was too manifest to be impeached, and too great to be imitated. Cast seeds of corn into the ground, and we look for an augmentation, but with many conditions, and after much leisure. First the bosom of the earth, after it is well manured, must take it, the dews and rain must liquour it, the Sun must cherish it, the seasons of the Spring and Harvest must give it blade and mature it: but Christ had all these in the palm of his hand eminenter, he took a fragment of a barley loaf into his hand, and to teach his Church that his grasp had in it the fecundity of the earth, the moisture of the showers, the influence of the Sun, the comprehension of all times and seasons, and the excellency of all power, as he broke it, it enlarged itself far beyond those goodly ears of Wheat which Pharaoh saw in his Dream, and every crumb became an handful, 
Homil. 24. in Joh.  quinque panes erant quinque semina, non terrae mandata sed ab illo qui terram fecit multiplicata, says St. Austin; the five loaves were after the manner of five seeds of corn, not fructifying in the earth, but multiplying in his hand that made the earth. But because all kind of pulse and grain, yea though it were Manna, itself that came from Heaven, is of that condition, that it must run through much art before it be made bread: but that which Christ broke and gave to his Disciples was bread in the first existence and production: therefore St. Hilary had rather compare the loaves that swollen thus by Christ's blessing to a River, whose fountain supplies one wave to run after another with an indifferent succession, and whatsoever the Cattle drink riseth again out of the Spring, and the channel is always filled: so the loaves received no diminution by the portions which were broken off, sed quicquid aufertur usurario quodam meatu reparatur; nay the principal was not only repaired, but it was requited with interest.  
Having stood at gaze a while to behold that which was done, shall we walk round about it as it were, to observe, if we can, after what manner it was done: he that takes upon him to search into the modus, how a Miracle was effected, must beware of two rocks in his way, that he do not distrust and say in his mind how is it possible to be? and that he do not circumscribe the Divine power and say, necessarily thus it must be. Steering myself by these advisoes, I say, first, Christ could amplify that little portion of bread into those great exceed, by creating some new substance, to eek out that which was in his hand before, qui sine seminibus operatur semina, he spoke the word, and the first seeds that ever grew came out of nothing: nothing is not removed at such vast distance from his power, but that it may be made something, because he is infinite in doing all things. Secondly, He that turned water into wine, with the same virtue could turn the adjacent air into the substance of Bread and Fish. Which sudden alteration in a thin and a fluid body unprepared to take such an impression, was an action proper to God, and no less transcendent than the principal Creation. Thirdly, Though growth be the affection only of a living thing, yet he could make every fragment of those victuals to grow in an instant of time, as the dry stick in Aaron's hand did shoot out Leaves and Almonds. Fourthly, If he pleased it was not difficult to him, but that he could distend and widen that small matter into a far broader substance; as when a little water is rarified, and boiles over a Cauldron when it is vehemently heated, or as the Rib which was taken out of Adam's side was extended to make a Woman, which surpassed itself an hundred fold in magnitude. Finally, I may miss in all these, for the ways of the Lord are past finding out, and some other means may be used, upon which the eye of Philosophy did never open. You may as soon tell the number of the Stars, as reckon in what divers fashions such an unwonted augmentation should come to pass; and my Text is read in some old Copies very consonant hereunto, that our Saviour distributed of both species, Bread and Fish, not quantum volebant, as much as the five thousand desired, but quantum volebat, as much as he would. Whatsoever his will affects his strength effects, or else there were not only impotency, but contristation in the Divine Nature; but his goodness is not bounded by our imperfect desires, nor his truth by our weak understanding. In which title the Apostle had reason to glorify him, Eph. iii 20. Unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, unto him be glory throughout all age's world without end.  
The report which Pliny makes of the Lioness, that she whelps but once in all her life perhaps is mistaken, yet the principle toward which he looked in that report is a good one, that great births and great effects fall out but seldom. Christ did not make many such distributions as this was, and yet it was not like Pliny's Lioness, once more he brought forth the like. First, He showed what strange things his Divinity could command among the Jews (for first he was sent to them.) Soon after, and in the very next Chapter, after the order of St. Matthew, he fed four thousand with seven Loaves and a few Fishes near to Decapolis among those of Tyre and Sidon, and they were Gentiles. If Miracles would prove infallible means to convert sinners (commonly we think so, but it is our ignorance) if they were natural nourishment to beget sound and wholesome Faith, they had seen them oftener. But to lay it open to you that this Miracle, upon which I preach, did not take with them as it deserved; the very same persons that had eat of his Banquet expostulate with Christ in the thirtieth verse of this Chapter, What sign showest thou that we may see and believe thee? What dost thou work? See what it is come to. That which was done but the other day was forgotten; and a Sign they ask for, as if they had never seen any before. Nay, before the end of this Chapter, Ver. 66. Many of these whom he had engaged unto him by his miraculous benefits they dropped off like withered Leaves, from that time many of his Disciples went back, and walked no more with him. No better came of his great work done upon the Loaves and Fishes; no better came of Manna in the days of Moses, which was every morning spread about their Tents. And yet we are persuaded if God would show such tokens among us, it would make us such earnest, such thankful Christians that the kindness would not be lost upon us. And doth that conceit hold you, that to see five thousand fed with a few fragments would do your Faith and Conscience such a pleasure? Why then I tell you, you see a greater Argument of God's infinite power every day in the year. Millions of People being in the world, as many as there be drops in the Sea, yet all these have their daily bread, and the celestial benignity is never exhausted. This is customary indeed, but much more than the other, Et insolita stupendo vident quibus quotidiana viluerunt; Lesser things are admired which happen rarely, the greater works of God, because they are frequent are heeded carelessly. Say not now but ye see cause enough why Christ did actuate this Miracle of the loaves no oftener than twice, he would not stretch his Creatures beyond their natural size to please their idle curiosity. And yet I will tell you of a miraculous multiplication, but I do not wish you to believe, that is done toties quoties as they think fit that have the Relic in their custody. It is the Cross on which our Saviour was crucified, (you must not question the Story but that Helen found it in an heap of rubbish at Jerusalem) many did desire Chips of it out of their devotion, and though innumerous slices of it were cut away, yet it kept its just magnitude, and never varied. The thing was divulged by some, but none of the famous Doctors, 
Vel duo vel nemo.  one thousand three hundred years ago. One of them that is said to write extemporary Catechisms when he was a young man, compares the Cross which wasted not for all the shivers that were borrowed from it to these Loaves and Fishes. Another says out of his credulous good meaning, that it got this solidity because the blood of him was spilt upon it who saw no corruption. And to this hour, say such as get their living by this craft, this holy wood is not consumed, though it be abundantly imparted. Is this credible that Christ did dispense this power unto any to work a Miracle when they would, as if there were an Office erected to do signs and wonders? Qui Bautum non odit, he that hath so strong a stomach to digest this, let him swallow such an other; that out of three or four nails that pierced our Saviour's hands and feet, the Friars can direct you to Churches and Religious Houses where an hundred instead of four are exposed to adoration. What though the Beam of the Cross did not diminish for the portions cut away, yet which way did the Nails increase? Did one Nail spawn another as big as itself? None is so frontless to defend it. But to cut off further process upon the matter: It is best to bind the Legend how the Cross and the Nails have multiplied into volumes, and believe them together. But the sure way is not to parallel the glorious works of our Master with such Apocryphal fictions. There is a great difference between Juggling and Miracles.  
Hitherto touching the Act of his power in producing this admired work, go onward to the next Point, and we shall encounter his goodness. Our Saviour did not use to do tricks to show his skill, but that some might be the better for him, therefore his power was joined with Beneficence, Vt potestas non terreat, sed amorem excitet, says St. Austin; That he might not astonish them with his greatness, but endear them with his liberality. Leaf gold is drawn out a great way, and then it is fit for nothing but Ostentation: So the multiplying of the Loaves and Fishes had served barely for the pomp of the eye, but that the wonderful increase thereof concluded in a benefit. And first I note, though the love of Christ to mankind was excessive, strong unto death, yet going in the Tract of reason, they had little cause to look for this at his hands. Alas, he had no home to entertain them, no Revenues wherewith to feast them, no Olive yards or Vineyards to bestow upon them. 
2 Cor. 8.9.  Could five thousand look for a Supper of his bestowing? For our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich, that is, says Nazianzen, he put on the poverty of my wretched flesh, that I might gain the riches of his glorious Divinity. They that followed him had not their wages in Meats and Drinks, in Silver and Gold, but in Sanctity, and Justification, in peace of Conscience, and in the earnest of the Spirit to be heirs of Salvation. And he whose Profession it was to open the Treasures of Heaven to his Disciples, and to possess naught of Earth, no not so much as to set his foot upon, doth he strain himself to give entertainment to so many in the Wilderness? What was this, but to yield as it were to the time, to be beneficial to the Jews in a temporal way, that by all means he might win their love. He had fed their Spirit with the Word of life, and satiated them, one would think, with the promise of eternal Joy and Immortality, if they believed in his name; but he knoweth whereof we are made, he considereth the Worm in our corruptible appetite which is always craving. He remembered that a little in hand goes a great way with them that cannot abide to have all their state in reversion, therefore he distributed unto the necessity of their body, though his Errand for which he came into the world was to be the Saviour of Souls, as you would say, he stepped a little out of his own way to bring them into the right way. I cannot but revolve it in my fancy that the Jews were more transported with this courtesy of our Saviour's than with all that had preceded. Hereupon they cry out, This is the Messias, this is he that should come into the world, Let us take him up and make him a King. How ignorantly and unequally doth flesh and blood set a price upon the works of God? I durst almost say, that this was one of the least good turns that ever he did them. When a Miracle came off graciously indeed, it had such a tang at the end of it, as Son thy sins be forgiven thee, or This day is Salvation come to thine house. This had no such heavenly adjunct, but was a frank Feast among a promiscuous company, as his rain falls upon the just and unjust. Well, though the grudge of this disease are become natural to us all, to like the heavenly offices of the Gospel the better if Christ befriend us a little with these corruptible things, yet carnal Companions are most odious to apprice things momentary before celestial. How much better doth Solomon distinguish? Length of days, meaning endless days, are in his right hand, and in his left hand riches and honour. Wherefore David describes evil affected men, that value earth before heaven, that their right hand is a right hand of iniquity, because they grasp transitory things in their right hand, fixing their chiefest complacency in them, which are favours of much later digress, and to be received in the left. And the same Metaphor is prosecuted in another sacred Song, Cant. two. 6. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me. Sinistra capiti non praeponitur, sed supponitur, says Bernard. The left hand which bestows Loaves and Fishes must be under our head, not above it, as if it were the top of our desires: but the right hand should compass us about at the very heart. To this Point but a word more. Christ produced this Amplitude of sustenance even out of his penury, when he had nothing, and possessed nothing. Quid facturae sunt ejus divitiae cujus paupertas nos divites fecit? says St. Austin. What great thing will he confer upon us out of the riches of his glory, who made such generons welcome to so many thousands with his poverty?  
May this suffice to unfold our Lord's goodness in this distribution with respect to himself, and his own humiliation. Lay the present condition of the people in another balance, to whom he opened his hand of liberality, and you shall find him that faithful Steward, that gives the portion of meat in due season to the Family, Luk. xii. The people were many, thousands of men, beside women and children. These had given diligent attention to Christ's Doctrine from morning to night. It was in the Spring time, much about the Passeover, when the body is most lusty, and the appetite most sharp, and yet in all that space none of these, no not so much as they or the weaker Sex, and the tenderer Age, had taken any refection. As the Poet made a fancy of it, that while Orpheus touched his Lute the Deer listened, and had no leisure to drink or graze, Neque amnem libavit quadrupes, nec graminis attig it herbam. So the throng that pressed about Jesus hung at his lips, and hungerd so much for grace, that they forgot the refreshing of nature. The Disciples being not ill advised that faintness and infirmity must ensue upon it, out of instancy and passion command their Lord, send the multitude away, and their Allegations indeed are pitiful, this is a desert place, it affords nothing, these good men and women are unfurnished, and have brought nothing to eat. Dismiss them to seek their Supper in the adjacent Villages, there is no other way, and ten to one such poor Hosteries had nothing in store to entertain them. With their leave, this was counsel, but no charity. If a brother be destitute of food, and one of you say be filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit? Jam. two. 16. Yet to purge the Disciples from such lukewarm love, I profess in their behalf, 
Ipsa si cupiat salus.  they did to their utmost what they were able. All the commiseration on earth, set God aside, could not just at the nick afford what they wanted; the distress was such, that it did as it were make an outcry to all the world, Is there any one that can relieve you? I may say it truly without lightness, this was Christ's qu to come in, and no opportunity like it, it is his manner to be most propitious in an extreme plunge, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says Philo, this is proper to God to be strong in weakness, to abound in scarcity, and to be most comfortable in a desperate necessity.  
If things feasible or facile were only brought to pass, Infidels would say, Who could not do this? Therefore God doth reserve his power and his rescue for hopeless miseries. And David calls it articulately the time wherein he may be found, Psal. xxxii. 7. As he called out to Abraham to stay his hand in the latest minim of the moment, when there was not an hairs breadth between Isaac and death. As the Israelites were disappointed of Manna till they were weary of their life, and made that dismal moan, Would to God we had died in Egypt. And as Elias had no answer from heaven, nor Ravens to feed him, till he was at the pitch of discontent, It is enough Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my Fathers. When these immediate natural causes, which work strongest upon our senses, when these fail, and can cast no influence of succour upon our afflictions, than God acts his part alone, and arrests our Faith, and challengeth it to give thanks to nothing but to his Omnipotency. So he preached to Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me, Judg. seven. 2. Let them be reduced to three hundred, and their paucity will confess that it is the Sword of the Lord that got the victory. But nothing more proper to illustrate this, than my Theme in hand. Christ could have led this people forth far from a Desert, into a wealthy place where the fields were laden with fruits. This is his usual way, as he made man of the dust of the earth, so to feed him with the fruits of the earth, that she which was our Mother might be our Nurse likewise. But so long as Nature is free and peremptory in this course, we sacrifice to our own seed, and our own labour. Again, he could have stayed their appetite, and prevented all hunger and faintness though they had gone away empty from the Wilderness. I would not say it of this people, I know some that would have grown insolent in such a case, upon the merit of their fasting: But best of all that they wanted, and had not till Christ provided them a Table. For lest we should forget God, if we had not special use of him, he hath laid extremities upon us, such as these, to make us remember him. And as his glory doth triumph in helping his Creatures at special need, so it captivates the Soul of man to very moderate contentation, and brings it low like a weaned child. When we wallow in abundance, and have all manner of store at our command, we are so wanton in our choice that the best will not please us; but thrust us into the Desert, where we are begirt with hard necessity, than we grow supple, and indifferent to any thing if the Lord will help us. Our Saviour need not study to satisfy any man's liquorish longing in this extremity of hunger, he found five barley Loaves to break among them, and he made them no better, he did not turn them into sugar-plates, or Marchpane. Wherefore if any man find himself voluptuously transported, let him pray to God that his prosperity may go a little backward, like the Sun upon the Dial of Ahaz; let him wish that he were come to the exigence of some extremity, like the Prodigal, that he were fallen from the honeycomb, to the husk which the Swine eat. The Syrian Paraphrast intended this, I believe, in the Lord's Prayer, when it framed our tongue to supplicate on this wise, Give us this day the bread of our necessity. Now this Point for an upshot shall thus expire. Our soul is in the same plight as their bodies were, that had come a far journey, and continued with our Saviour, and had not one fragment of food to content their stomach. So our Soul is straightened, and wants blessedness, it passionately longs to obtain it. This world is a barren Wilderness, there is nothing but grass in the place, and that which fadeth like the flower of grass. We are far from him, as this people was, and we seek a Country in the heavens. What are five Loaves and two Fishes, the poor pittances of Nature, to procure us felicity? Some say, send them to the next Village for succour, to the intercession of Saints and Angels. No sweet Saviour, but as the eyes of a servant look unto the hands of his Master, so our soul waits upon thee until thou have mercy upon us.  
Nor did our Saviour distribute his Largess only to stop the gap of necessity. For had they been runagates David doth award them to be unpitied, Let them continue in scarceness: but flagrante ptetate, when their hearts were set upon zeal, and their ears attentive by the space of an whole day to hear the Doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven, than this Miracle falls out as a reward of their Piety. For even as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or Feasts of Charity were wont to be celebrated among the Christians in the Primitive Church, immediately after the divine Mysteries had been solemnised: So when these Jews had lent their patience to a good Sermon, I am sure (for never man spoke like him, by his enemy's confession) the close of it was, that they eat bread together joyfully with singleness of heart. And I do not amiss to say, that this diligence to hear and learn, did attract his love to do this for them; for did they importune him by Prayer? Did any one, among so many, beseech him to show his power, and pity them? no, but they had done enough to open his bowels, though they held their peace: for first seek the Kingdom of Heaven, and the righteousness thereof, and all these things shall be added unto you. Hollow his name, advance his Kingdom, and do his will, and that which follows comes in by course, you cannot fail of your daily bread. In this Assembly that sanctified the whole day in the Desert to wait on Christ, you may imagine there were sundry of them that lived by their sweat and labour from hand to mouth: Will not these be much damnified by their godliness? The night was come, they had earned nothing by their labour; they may go home and starve: yea, nothing less: they that had committed themselves to his providence like the fowls of the air, shall fair as well as the fowls of the air. For the Lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that fear the Lord do want no good thing, Psal. xxxiv. 10. The Apostles, not long before this accident in my Text, were sent abroad without Scrip, without provision, without change of raiment. Lacked you any thing, says our Saviour? the Heathen could not say that the Christians were the poorer for not working the seventh day: your Trade is increasing while your shop is shut up on Holidays, if you serve the lord Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come, 1 Tim. iv. 8. We had Brethren in diebus illis, in those noble times, that came near to the Apostles, who durst urge the Lord upon his word, in the face of Infidels, that the soul of the righteous should not famish. In the year 176 Marcus Aurelius was ready to give battle to the Marcomans, but the day was so hot, and the drought so sore, that his Army fainted, and could not strike a stroke. The Christians that served under him, to show the glory of their great Master Jesus, the Son of God, joined their Prayers together, and instantly obtained so much rain as refreshed all the Roman Legions, and so much thunder as consumed the Marcomans with fire and lightning. I make not the Doctors of the Church my Authors for it, but Dion Cassius, an Heathen, confesseth the accident, and Xiphiline, another of the same, ascribes it to the Christians: and that Legion which consisted of Christians was called from hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the thundering Legion, long after. The blessings of the Lord they are not viscata beneficia, they do not hang in his fingers like birdlime, when his Children need them, but they drop like an Honeycomb, without straining.  
But men are so apt to object against this, as if they stretched their wits to make God a liar: they will tell you that they have known and heard of righteous men that have been forsaken and destitute. Digito terebrare Salinum contentus perages, si cum Jove vivere tentas; Poverty ever was and will be the obloquy of honesty: Neither is bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favour to men of skill, Eccles. ix. 11. Well the knot is soon untied, if you do not over-reckon with God, and extend his word to a greater proportion of temporal blessings than he hath promised. There is a Son that grudged at his Father, Luke xv. quia nusquam haedum dedisset, he had never given him a Kid to make merry with his friends. Must every one that is a Son look for a Kid, and for enough wherewith he may be merry and voluptuous? no, no, if you have pabulum & latibulum, any thing to stay hunger, and a Cave to put your head in, God is not in your debt, and you may do as well as they that have the Kid; for life is oftener lost by surfeiting than by starving. Every Levite that serves faithfully at the Altar must not think to wear a Mitre like Aaron, as St. Hierom speaks of Praetextatus that would be baptised, and become a Christian, if he might be Bishop of Rome. All men must not look to be requited like Valentinian; that refused the Tribune-ship of Julian upon condition of Idolatry, and became an Emperor: They that gape for so much, tenter God's promise to the stretch of their own greediness. First, They seek dominion, and wealth, and think the Kingdom of Heaven will come into the vantage. Miserable souls, that do not fear lest their dignity should be their total recompense, and all that ever they shall have for their service. They that put themselves upon God's providence, as these men did in the Desert, they shall not want: but remember then that they must accept of barley loaves for current payment. Peter and John had neither silver nor gold, yet they had food and raiment, and for the most part the most fortunate are they that be no such Camels, but they may pass through the eye of the needle.  
I will work out of the point but this little more; these five hundred men that waited upon Christ had kept their Fast to the full Canonical time, they had eat nothing, until night, therefore he distributes the loaves, dissolves their fast, and would not suffer them to continue it any longer than might do them good. A man in the fervour of his desire will pursue that he desires so hard, as he will quite forget his meat: so Esau felt no hunger when he was in the chase a hunting; but as soon as that was over he longed for meat upon any terms: so during the whole day that our Saviour preached, the time was so well taken up, that they minded not the emptiness of their body, so their ears were filled: but when these raptures were over, the tortures of hunger must needs ensue; then our Lord supplies them with a moderate refreshment, to teach us, that religious Fasting should be used as the friend of Grace, and not as the foe of Nature. Many have put themselves to the pain of long abstinence to subdue their carnal desires. Palladius and some legendary Authors will give you the report of some that took no sustenance for three whole months, and forty days: I had rather believe such an Author as Hippocrites in this subject, he says, Where natural heat is weak, and phlegm abounds, upon which the heat may spend its force, a sick man may continue long and eat nothing; but such as are of sound health cannot preserve life above seven days without meat: therefore St. Austin keeping himself to the modesty of truth, tells it with admiration, that some mortified Christians would taste neither meats nor drinks for three days. Yea, this is credible: but the Church, which would not over-lay man's weakness with severity, did never in her Canons prorogue a Fast longer than the Evening of one day, adding, that the Supper should be frugal and without all delicacy: so in my Text, here was an abstinence kept for an whole day, then followed after St. Hieroms Phrase, Cibus vilis & vespertinus, a crust of a barley loaf, and a little fish. Whether the worship of God may consist in Fasting, taken single by itself, I dispute it not: all will agree that it is medium cultus, a good disposition to God's service, because it removes the impediments. Now mark how our Saviour limited this Fast, and take heed of excessive macerations: Make not that which is ordained for the Handmaid, to be the hinderer of devotion: fasting doth as it were bring the Bow to ejaculate prayer with the greater force; now, that Fast is frustrate of the due end, which brings such infirmity upon the body, that it is unfit for prayer. The Church therefore hath always provided, like a tender Mother, so to circumscribe the strictest Fast, that no man should put his life to hazard, nor his health to prejudice: and he that shortens his days by such immoderate penance, is as much to be blamed, as if he would offer a Sacrifice, and play the thief to compass it. It is St. Hieroms similitude, and this to boot, in an Epistle to Laeta, whom he chid for that fault; Experientia didici assellum cum in via fessus fuerit diverticula quaerere; the body over-pined with fasting, is the Ass that being tired too much will never keep the highway, but turn aside into every Lane and Corner. To dispatch this, for I think we need not a Bridie in this kind, I would we did, Mayor, the School-man, could say, that we were never such scrupulous fasters in this Island, as in the neighbour Kingdoms; but for the truth's sake, the sum is, Fasting is not to be preferred before Charity, and it must be proportioned, that it may not stiffen our devotion, but make it more limber for Prayer and Piety.  
And so far, that this distribution of our Lord came from his manifold goodness with respect to the convenience of time. The same goodness takes us along into a fresh consideration, respecting his Instruments by whom he wrought, he distributed to his Disciples. A Feast, where there were five thousand Guests, could not be served without many waiters, and lo the Twelve were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, those diligent Ministers that did the office for them all; or you may say it doth very much resemble a Maundy, and the Apostles were the Maundy-men. And because the time will not suffer me to insist long upon it, I will give you the substance of it in short particulars.  
First, The latest motion that came from the Disciples was an hearty good wishing to this poor people: Sir, send them away, and let them go to the Villages; as who should say, I would they were in some courteous place where they might rest, and be refreshed. There was brotherly affection in this charitable wish of theirs, and behold Christ promotes it to bring forth fruits, and turns their Optative Mood into a Potential; as who should say, do you moan their necessity, and long to see them better provided for? It is well done, go your ways, and with your own hands deliver them as much as shall suffice them. There was none of the holy Race that did so much bewail the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt as Moses did, 
Exod. 3 9  many time his mind did run upon it when he kept the Flocks of Jethro, instantly God made his vows and wishes grow up into a solid substance; Come, says the Lord, I will send thee unto Pharaoh, and thou shalt bring forth my people out of Egypt. If you see any thing that wants the blessing of the Lord to help it, or reform it, at the least send forth the desires of your soul for a gracious time to mend it, and you know not whether God will give your own arm ability to effect it.  
Secondly, See what Christ hath done, miraculi gloriam quasi à se in Apostolos transtulit, he made his Disciples sharers with him in this Miracle; which was more than the most ambitious among them did ever ask; for it was not so much to sit at his right hand and at his left in an earthly Kingdom, as to be partners with him in such a grand exploit, which was wrought by the puissant finger of his Deity: But, which is most of all, Christ did as it were convey the glory of this Miracle from himself to his Disciples; what he did himself was not before the eyes of the Company, the Twelve received all, and gave all to the People. Why, what if they had got all the honour by it? be it so, if it happened so, he had lost that which he never sought for, the praise of men. They that love to have their memory feathered with applause and fame, will rather entitle themselves to other men's beneficence, and rather encroach upon the glory of other men's deserts, than part with their own: as the gibe went upon a Roman, Vide quam liberalis fit qui non sua solum, sed etiam aliena largiatur. But when the Holy Spirit is in that plenty as to work a Miracle, nothing that the Actor doth will ever smell of boasting or popularity. Elisha would neither receive from Naaman's Purse, nor from his Praise; would not come before him to be known by face, but sent him word by a Deputy, what he should do to be healed. But still take Christ for an Example rather than any Prophet, he restored a sick man to health, and he that was healed wist not who it was, for Jesus had conveyed himself away, Joh. v. 13. He did not this work in the light to be seen, because he would not be haunted with the shadow of glory.  
Thirdly, He distributed to the Disciples, and assumed them into the same works which himself did, save only in the work of our Redemption: but when he was acting that part, either they fell asleep, or run away, as when he was laid hold upon to be crucified: it was an exploit above a mortal man to assist it, and would admit of no associate, I have trodden the Wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with me, Isa. lxiii. 3. But the power of doing Miracles was communicated unto them for the edifying of the body of the Saints, and that before a great Congregation, where there were many witnesses, that there was such virtue given to men; as if Christ had said before them all, these are they that shall work signs and wonders in my Name, when I am gone to Heaven. These are they indeed, but to do such mighty things was an Heritage which they could bequeath again to their Sons, and to their Sons Sons in all descending Generations. As a Conqueror enters, it may be, in triumph into a City which he hath taken, but when the Solemnity of the triumph is over, a plain working-day fashion serves for after: so the Gospel entered with triumph into the World by the power and pomp of Miracles, overtopping all false Religions, and captivating all imaginations; but would you have Christianity to hold on its triumph when it hath vanquished both Judaisme and Idolatry 1600 years ago? Not so, but as there is a time to every purpose under Heaven, so there was a time to glorify God by Signs and Wonders, and a time to believe though Signs are ceased. But now was the season to communicate some share of that mighty virtue to the Apostles, as well to prepare them to know their office, as to prepare the People to know that those were the Dispenser's of the Mysteries of God.  
Lastly, the Disciples received the Blessing immediately from Christ, and they went between Him and the People to feed them with bread, to teach us, that it is for his Saint's sake that the earth hath plenty of all things. It was not unto them which murmured that God gave water of the rock, but unto Moses that cried unto him. It was to Elias that God gave rain after three years' drought, and not unto Ahab. Forget not therefore which way all temporal Blessings come about. There are holy and mortified men among us that spend the greatest part of their life in penance and devotion, these make intercession for you that your Table may be furnished, and though they do not give it you with their hand, as the Disciples did in our present business, they give it you with their Prayers: when others revel it, and waste their stock in vanity, these grovel upon the earth with their bended knees, that the Lord would not be angry. 
In Psal. 43.  As St. Austin said to such a purpose, Quando ipsi laetantur nos pro illis gemimus; when others pamper their genius with marrow and fatness, these do macerate themselves with abstinence to avert famine from the Land. A devout man whose zeal is free from faction, and his heart clear from malice, that drives not his private prosperity, but every day spends some Canonical hours most strictly for public blessings, it may be hath nothing himself, and yet procures all; as the Apostles took bread from Christ not for themselves, but to give away to the multitude, or if some little came to their share they enjoyed it not without the envy of those that were the better for their benefit. For when they had distributed their Masters Maundy once and again to so many folk, yet they grudged them that which a Nest of Sparrows would make bold with, when they plucked a few ears of corn, and rubbed them in their hands. Well, the World will never reform this ingratitude, and yet the Lord doth not repent him that his Saints are so precious in his sight, that they obtain riches, health, 
Luk. 2.37.  and peace for those that hate them and persecute them. Such a poor Widow as Anna that continued in Prayers and Fast day and night in the Temple, in part Cesar did owe the prosperity of his Crown unto her, the People were beholding to her that they had their Traffic, the Priests that they had the exercise of their Religion, they of the City that they had their health, they of the Country that they had their Harvest. May be there were Blasphemers, Extortioners, Adulterers that were filled with this Feast which Christ made: so it shall be while good and bad are intermingled every where. But do you mark it, Christ committed the bread at the first breaking to the hands of the Disciples, for faithful and good men are the Conduit-pipes of all the Blessings which the earth receiveth from the Father of mercies: to whom be glory for evermore. AMEN.   

THE THIRD SERMON UPON JOHN vi. 11. 
He distributed to the Disciples, and the Disciples to them that were set down, and likewise of the Fishes as much as they would.   
IT will not be denied, but, if I share this Miracle between those that had their finger in it, two parts, to speak with the least, must be given to Christ. If therefore there be double as much in Christ's act, that be distributed to the Disciples, as there is in their act, who distributed to them that were set down, it was as due required to put the Bucket twice into the Well to draw waters from the former, and with half that labour, uno pede stans, that is, at this once and no more, to dispatch the latter. And now I shall put it unto you, that this Miracle is come down as low as it could descend. The divine incomprehensible nature was the Origen of it, and therefore Christ used that Ceremony when he took the Loaves into his hand to look up to heaven. Our Saviour's Humane Nature was the next Vessel into which the grace of the Almighty was poured, for the Father had given all things into his hand, Joh. xiii. 3. The next, and underneath his feet were the Apostles, they had their Power and Commission from him, As the Father sent me, so send I you, Joh. xx. The last of all to whom the Apostles communicate their gift are the People, and there the gift abides. The Dove, that is, the Holy Spirit, doth use to fetch this compass about before he lights. O glorious Hierarchy! O most beautiful degrees of strength and Majesty! O golden Chain, whose uppermost Link is fastened to the highest heaven, and the nethermost part toucheth the lowest earth! Thus doth our blessedness descend step by step, from the Father to the Son, from the Son to the Disciples, and from the Disciples to all those that are nourished with the words of Truth, and of good Doctrine, 1 Tim. iv. 6. So then we hold of God as the Author of all Grace, of Christ as the head of the Body, which is his Church, of the Apostles and their Successors as his subordinate Ministers. And aptly do the Fathers make that of David comprehend this whole mystery, Psal. civ. 13. He watereth the hills from above, and the earth is filled with the fruit of thy works.  
Having declared with much facility by what degrees this Miracle descended, it was to let you know, that I am come to the last stair, and draw out now from the lowest vent, and that in these two parts, the subdistribution, and the reception. Or if you will take the Points rather in the concrete, they are those of the last order of givers, the Disciples, and their correlative the receivers, the discumbentes, they that sat down. The former, namely, the Disciples, shall be considered two ways; Either according to the extraordinary power of God upon them, whereby the bread and fish did multiply in their hands likewise, as it had done in our Saviour's: Or according the ordinary dispensation of grace, wherein you may look upon them two ways: As boni viri, and boni pastors; first, as good men that gave liberally of what they had; Secondly, as good Pastors that fed the Flock over which they were appointed. Then the Receivers for whom this Table was provided, the Discumbentes, the Miracle gains honour out of them in two respects, in multi, and multum: 1. How many did partake, five thousands, beside women and children. 2. How much they had, even as much as they would. And though that be wonderful, yet that is a Meiosis, and modestly set down, if we scan the truth, for they had more than they could spend.  
Now I make my entrance to the Points of Doctrine, and at this I begin, that as Christ had distributed to the Disciples, so they did the same office to them that were set down. A main consideration, and perhaps the very first thing in Christ's intention; for when a motion was made that he would conclude his Sermon, and send the People home; no, says he, Give ye them to eat. Therefore his purpose was that their hands should expedite the Miracle, and they should distribute. And yet the Vulgar Latin, which is held by the Romanists to be the Paragon of Translations, makes no mention at all of the Disciples in my Text, that either Christ gave to them, or that they did give to others. It is not in their Copy, and it is never like to be: For once ill with them, and you may be sure it shall never be better. See what a misery it is to challenge unto any thing, wherein man's labours or passions have an interest, that it is absolute and inculpable, for though it be never so much depraved, it shall never be mended. They fly at us for leaving Apocryphal Scripture out of the Canon, we have more cause to jerk at them for leaving Canonical Scripture more than once out of the Gospel. But not to lose myself in their negligence, we have the warrant of all ancient Greek Copies that the Loaves and Fishes were in the Disciples hands after they had been in Christ's. Nay, we have good authority to countenance it, that they multiplied in the Disciples hands after they had multiplied in Christ's. It would have been a double labour, and a wearisome delay to the People, if the Apostles had awaited till Christ had made it out into five thousand parts, and then the Apostles to have fetched those portions, and have served them one by one to the multitude, this would have took up the better part of an whole day to dispatch it. But there was a nearer cut than so, that the time might not be tedious, and the Miracle more illustrious, after Christ had blessed the bread it began to grow in his hands, and as the Disciples plucked away from it to give to them that were set down it grew the faster: Subrepunt in frangentium manibus quaedam fragmentorum procreationes. The Disciples were not only eye-witnesses, but they did also feel the virtue of the Lord. As a Sponge being crushed up in the fist will dilate itself when the hand is open, so the Bread which they held did rise up to a prodigious quantity, they felt it wax and grow greater, that which could be held between two fingers at first, was so big in two moments that they could not hold it in their Palm. Euthymius says, it did not only multiply in their hands, but it retained that virtue when they put up the remainder in their baskets, Vt sicut manus itae humeros testes haberent hujus miraculi, that as their eyes had seen, and their hands had handled, so their very shoulders might feel the weight of the power of God. I am sure that which came to their share in the process of this work was so notorious and palpable, that the place where it was brought to pass carries their name to this day, for that spot of the ground where the Feast was kept, being in the Tribe of Nepthali, over against Bethsaida, is called by the Inhabitants of the Holy Land at this time Apostolorum Mensa, not Christ's, but the Apostles Table, says Adricomius.  
I must go further, and fall into a comparison, which I will qualify by and by; the Loaves and Fishes increased more in the Disciples hands than they had done in Christ's, because it lay upon their Function and service to deal them unto more. St. Chrysostom had such an intentive eye to the success which their labour had, that he writes as if he thought there was no increase of the bread till they broke it before the people. I will not take his part in that opinion, but that it shall up to the increase of thirty fold in Christ's hand, and to an hundred fold in theirs, or to some such proportion, I submit my suffrage to that conjecture; But is not this a Paradox? Was it ever seen that the borrowed light was clearer than the natural? That the Pitcher held more than the Well? That the Disciple was above his Master? This Objection is soon pressed under, if we keep the rule of faith which St. Peter preached to the Jews, Acts three 12. Ye men of Israel why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on us, as if we by our own power and holiness had brought this to pass? They did it not of themselves, but in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the other great Apostle says, in the person of Christ, 2 Cor. two. An honourable man may array his Page in richer clothing than he wears himself. The Lord loseth no reverence by this from them that are wise. Though the Servant exceed in bravery, yet it is at the Master's cost, and he exceeds in authority: So Christ put his blessing upon the bread, and his Spirit upon the Apostles, with his assistance he let them superabound, and as it were go beyond himself, but the glory returns to the Fountain, for they that cannot add one Cubit to their stature cannot add one crumb to a Loaf, but that they ploughed with his Heifer. Nay, but what if perverse men should mistake hereupon, and not discern the Apostle from him that sent him? What if the Lycaonians are so ravished with the actions of such Instruments, that they acknowledge no God but Barnabas, and bring forth Sacrifice to offer unto Paul, and not to Christ? Why▪ there is no remedy against wilful blindness. There is a beam as big as the whole ●arth in their eye, that will look about them, and not above them. Choose you whether you will be dazzled with that virtue which our Saviour hath given to his holy Servants, but this is the tenure of their Commission. Joh. xiv. 12. He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do. That is multiply Loaves and Fishes as I have done, and multiply them more than I have done. Are you scandalised at this? Truly, I confess it is a word of no easy digestion, that any Saint or friend of God should do greater works. Majora? If Christ had not said it, who could have heard it with patient ears? He doth not mean the works of the Law: for no man ever did the like, because none but the unspotted Son of God fulfilled the Law. He doth not mean the works of Redemption and Salvation, they were so proper to his own person, as the Angels were not good enough to have any fellowship in them. He means his Miracles most certain, they were called works and none but they by the popular estimation. For without them all that had been done beside to their palates, had been impertinency or idleness. But how shall we measure one by another, that greater Miracles were brought forth, than those which he effected? Well enough, says St. Austin. For was it not more for the sick to be cured by the shadow of Peter passing by, than by touching the hem of our Saviour's Garment? And again, our Lord did cure diseases by speaking the word, and laying on his hand, yet the world was more amazed that evil Spirits were cast out of the Possessed, if but an handkerchief was applied, 
Acts 19.12.  which was brought from the body of Paul. And another Father, it is St. Hierom, puts it home, that mightier things should be brought to pass at this day than ever were seen since the Creation, if there were any just cause to declare the glory of God by such wonders. If you say, where is the promise that a Figtree should wither away, and a Mountain be removed into the Sea when a strong Believer should say the word? Did any Apostle or Martyr make trial and accomplish it? Nevertheless, says the Author, the Promise is in force, and if there were just occasion to pray unto the Father it should be executed. Such things are not unproduced, as it were upon emulation, because the story of Christ, you may think, hath nothing to parallel such vast Miracles. When the hour shall come to glorify the Gospel, such works shall be brought to pass which are apted for that end, perhaps less, perhaps greater than in former Ages. Finally, if it should be brought to pass at this day, that twenty thousands were fed with one Loaf, you should not say true if you affirmed it were a greater Miracle than Christ did, for Jesus Christ yesterday and to day is the Author of that very Miracle. So Theophylact hath a subtle note upon that Text of St. John, that Christ did not say, He that believes shall do greater things than I; How was that? Not of themselves possible, when they did nothing of themselves but by him and his Spirit; but thus, they shall do greater things than these, viz. when I assist them, and they pray unto the Father.  
So let us honour God in his Saints as that we rob not the Lord of his honour. When he that is mighty hath magnified his Servants to do great things, give unto the external cause all moral veneration, but give unto the supernal cause all religious adoration. None did distinguish upon this with a more singular dexterity, and unanimity than these five thousand that were fed so marvellously in the Wilderness. What they received was from the Disciples, and from none beside; and that which they received if it swollen miraculously in Christ's hand, it exceeded much more in the hands of the Disciples, and yet the People were so prudent in taking the right way, that they baulked the Disciples, and glorified Jesus, they found out the Founder, and discerned him from his Instruments. As it is a Proverb in Nazianzen, Vestem consuit Istiaeus, caeterum induit Aristagoras; Istiaeus made the Coat, Aristagoras did but wear the Coat: So Christ made the Miracle, the Apostles were no more than the representers, or the publishers of the Miracle. This was espied not by one or two, but by the whole Assembly that had met in the Desert, and they pick out Christ from the herd of the Disciples, him they proclaim to be the Prophet that should come into the world; they worship him; they design him to be their King, and nothing that appears was devised to gratify the Disciples, for they were not the primary Agents in whom supernatural power was immanent and habitual, but Balislae Spiritus Sancti, the Engines of the Holy Ghost, that uttered forth such virtue as they received by his infusion. As the gift of Prophecy is not born with the soul, but comes by inspiration; Or as the Peripatetics say, that the Intelligences assist the Orbs of heaven, and move them about, but they do not move by a soul that informs them: So it was not a native and ingenite quality which the Worthies of the Primitive Church had to speak with Tongues, and to effect Wonders, but an adventicious virtue, according to the pleasure of him that distributes where he pleaseth. In Christ the power is absolute, home-born, independent, in his Ministers it was but borrowed, derivative, dependent; in him that was the brightness of his Father's glory it is original and essential, in his Servants it is gratuitous and accidental: in him it is without measure and infinite, in theirs it is limited and finite. Far be it from us then to think that it gave the Disciples any precedency, no nor equality, no nor the least degree of comparison with their Master, because when they distributed to them that sat down the Loaves increased in their hands more abundantly than they did in Christ's.  
I am now past the first Point, the extraordinary grace that descended upon the Disciples, but we that would walk in their steps according to the ordinary grace of God, shall make more use to look upon them as boni viri, and boni pastors: First, As good men that gave liberally as God enabled them. And the former grace would bear no price at all if it wanted this. 
1 Cor. 13.2.  Though I have all faith, so that I could remove Mountains, and have no charity, I am nothing; but with this it makes a propitious conjunction. As fast as Christ gave unto them, they gave unto those that were in need. Tu vade & fac similiter. There is a semplar how such as have great heaps should disperse them. It had been a churlish and an envious act in the Disciples, if when lump upon lump succeeded in their clutch they had piled it all up in their own baskets, and reserved it for their own belly, most ridiculous you will say, they could never consume it. Believe it, their Parsimony is no less odious that gather, and purchase, and fill their Treasures without all Christian communication; nay, without remorse of humanity to them that are oppressed. If the poor are hungry and naked it is not God's fault, the Rich have enough for all, and if it stick in the Miser's hands, as the Stone stops the passage of the Urine in the bladder, let him take heed of the torments to come by that similitude. It is worthy to be attentively heeded, that it being our Saviour's purpose to give his Apostles exact breeding in all works of Piety, he did steal into them this wholesome Lesson, while their minds were exalted in doing Miracles, to do good and to impart out of all the substance that was poured upon them. It hath all the conditions of a good Alms so absolute, as it were in a figure, as it may well sway with the conscience as much as any Precept. It was performed cheerfully, without excuse, without grudging, Judas was not so bad at this time to oppose it with Quorsum perditio haec? To what end is this waste? 2. It was distributed with a frank and a generous hand till every one had as much as they would. 3. It came before it was asked, Non expectat petentem, sed praeoccupat. 4. They were not such as did distrust that their store did spend too fast, for it was verified in them, that their left hand knew not what their right hand did. 5. It came to pass that they had a gracious reward in eodem genere, for when they had dispatched their Dole, and had left to give, they had more remaining than when they began to give, that is the use that our Church hath collected out of this Miracle in the Collect before the Gospel, That we plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may be plenteously rewarded. Gaudeat indigens de dato tuo, ut gaudias de dato Dei, it is St. Austin. Let the needy be comforted with that which you give, and you shall be more comforted with that which God gives. The Lord did bless all the store of his people Israel, and put much into their hands that they might send to the poor, Deut. xv. 9 The abundance of Corinth is indebted to help the want of Macedonia, 2 Cor. viij. The Christians of Antioch no sooner heard that there would be a great famine in the days of Claudius but presently they sent aid to the Brethren in Judea, among whom, says Orosius, most memorable was the bounty of Helena, Queen of the Adiabeni. Nay, the very Ravens, what God did put into their mouths they brought it to Elias: if the Prophet had lived among the Rooks and Ravens of these days, they would rather have taken all away than have brought him any thing. But the Instruments which obey God, not only rational, but sensible, insensible are all for distribution, as for the proper use of their creation: He made the Sun to give light, the Fire to give heat, the Water to quench thirst, the Sea to give fish, the Earth to give fodder, the cattle to give milk and wool; and surely think you that he hath made any man so un-uniform to all his Creatures, that he should take and gather, and give nothing? 
Plut. in Apoph.  Artaxerxes Longimanus played upon his own infirmity, that he was born with the right hand longer than the left, that his right hand, which was fair and large, might give magnificently, and that his left hand, which was short and shrunk up, might receive but sparingly. What he inferred out of the infirmity of his natural birth, may better be applied to every of us out of the sanctity of our regeneration. But Artaxerxes, though an Heathen, yet he had moral justice in him: What say you to Julian, 
Sozom. lib. 5. c. 15.  the most profligate of Idolators, yet you shall hear as good a passage from him: he was desirous to transplant-some of the best and most plausible Virtues of the Christians into the stock of the Pagans, and he wrote a Letter to one Arsacius the chief Pontif of the Superstition of the Gentiles, to borrow three things from the practice of the Christians. 1. To sing sweet Hymns and Psalms when they assembled together as we did. 2. To appoint some Canonical Penances for Delinquents, as we had. 3. To provide for the sick, the decayed, and such as were in misery, in Hospitals, and Mansions of charity; for, says he, I blush that they should provide for their own Poor and for ours, and we are not compassionate to help our own.  
Well might Julian smell the sweet odour of the Christians charity, but he and his could never imitate it. It is not Philosophy on which he doted, but Faith, which he had renounced, that teacheth us to love God and our Neighbour with our own detriment, which instructs us to wash away our sins with tears, to wipe them with alms, and to dry them up with fasting. Julian and his Sectaries had the Vein seared up which should open to give alms, because they did not believe in the reward to come. The reversion of an hundred fold for that which is given in this life, is that which visits Prisoners, redeems Captives. For if the Heathen, as Pliny says, canonised Tyrants that were bountiful, and made them Gods, will not the Lord do glorious things for his Servants in that Title, and make them Denizens with the Angels? But would you drink of the Brook in the way, and not await so long for the futurition of a recompense? Why, look into the business we have in hand, Quantò plura dederis, tantò plura largius confluent; the more the Disciples distributed to them that were set down, the more they had to distribute; they spent so well, that they fared the better, and abounded. Avaro semper aliquid deest, a pinching sordid wretch is always whining, and somewhat he wants that he would have; for the Soul is of that capaciousness, that it is made to receive God, 
Flor. lib 6. c. 7.  and not this World, capacem Dei quicquid Deo minus est non implebit, says Bernard very well, nothing which is infinitely less than God, can fill that which is capable of God. Therefore a griping Chremes must needs be indigent, whereas he that is merciful and free-handed shall have sufficient to content him for the present, and a portion to spare for the time to come. Some Monks that are good at telling Tales have jobbed in an odd Story upon the occasion of my Text, that Pope Hadrian the Second brought out forty pieces of silver to give to so many poor that were at his Gate, and when he had dealt to every one to a penny, there were more remaining in his hand than he had taken out of his Coffers. Yes, if the old man were not purblind, and knew not what he took out, I accept their good will that relate it: somewhat they have imagined like to this success, of eternal memory, touching the five Loaves and two Fishes; while the owners possessed it to themselves it was but a handful, when they fed the hungry with it, they found themselves Masters of God's plenty. Says Solomon, There is that scattereth, and that increaseth; that's consonant to my Text: and there is that holdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty, Prov. xi. 26. This is a riddle to Unbelievers, that bounty should make them rich; and yet an Heathen confessed it in that saying, Haec habeo quaecunque dedi, and that Parsimony should make them poor, and yet a thousand examples confirm this, where the blessing of the Lord hath subducted itself from the niggard. One instance is as much as a Volume, which Eusebius hath in the life of Constantine. 
Lib. 4. c. 29.  Ablaevius was a principal Officer both in the Palace, and in the Army, every where much esteemed by the Emperor, his main fault was, he had amassed up an infinite treasure, craved perpetually; and lived most sparingly; upon a time as he pressed his Master the Emperor to obtain a suit that would bring in no small sum, Constantine with a Spear in his hand drew the proportion of Ablavius his body upon the ground, and, says he, When I have given thee all I can, this is all that thou shalt have at last, if thou gettest so much. 
Prov. 16.10.  That if was a Prophetical word, and there was a Divine sentence in the lips of the King, as Solomon says, for at last Ablavius was torn in pieces by the rude multitude, and not an handful of his body was left to be buried in a Sepulchre. The sum is, the state of him that is gripple and cruel will be improsperous to himself, much more to his Posterity. But as alms and charity thrived extremely with the Disciples, so it shall be with all those that remember the afflictions of Joseph, and the Sun of comfort will shine upon those clouds above, that drop their fatness upon the earth beneath.  
And I am yet within the compass of the first part of my Text, till I have delivered unto you, not only what the Disciples did as good men, but also as good Pastors, they distributed unto them that were set down, that is, they fed the Flock which was committed unto them, to feed the hungry, to see that the fatherless and Widow have sustenance is an Ecclesiastical care; I, an Episcopal duty in no small degree. The Apostles, though they gave themselves wholly to prayer, and to the Ministry of the Word, yet they took order how the poor should be relieved, Act. vi. But it is a greater matter that this Miracle points unto, not so much how the hunger of the body should be refreshed with charity, as how the soul should be fed with the Word of Life. So the ancient Doctors do commonly allude to those words which were the Introduction to this great work, Give ye them to eat, that our Saviour appointed the Twelve to sow the seeds of wholesome Doctrine among the people, that there might not be a famine of the Word, but to give them meat that endureth to everlasting life. And in all likelihood this is the true cause why Christ, when he had blessed the bread, gave it over unto them to part it to the Assembly, to show that a Disciple is magnus animarum oeconomus, as Nazianzen said of Athanasius, his Lord's Steward, to provide for souls; nay, that one man should be as it were a God unto another, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a terrestrial God to bring him salvation. To the conveyance of divers benefits God hath called to himself divers Instruments, and joined them by a great condescension of his glory as Partners to himself, as our Parents in the work of our bringing forth, our Teachers in our training up, Kings and Magistrates in the preservation of our lives and peace, but the Ministers of his Word and Sacraments for the erudition of our souls. The Omnipotent needs no such assistants as we are: What is Man who could not keep the possession of a pleasant Garden upon earth, that he should procure a celestial Paradise for the remnant that shall be saved? And yet that we may be disciplined in the way of eternal life by such means as are familiar and connatural to our own infirmities, we are labourers together with God, 1 Cor. three 9 Reason is a strong adversary against this, and will say that it is too excellent a function for one that consists both of clay and sin, to preach the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. What! would you have the Lord to speak out of the clouds with his own voice? O you know not what you ask; you that shrink at the roaring of thunder, would run into the dust for fear of his Majesty, if he should speak. The Cherubins and Seraphins can scarce endure it, but they hide their faces when they hear the Trumpet of his glory. An Army of five hundred thousand men interceded with Moses; Speak thou with us, and we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die. 
Exod. 20.19.  Well, if his Majesty make him too awful to be the Prolocutor of his Word and Testimonies, yet would not the Angels be far better Ambassadors than Men to deliver the things pertaining to faith and godliness? no, nor they so fit: For first Satan cannot now revile God's justice, that he is not repulsed upon equal terms; as he overcame, so is he vanquished again: Us he tempted to disobedience, and we are the mouth of the Lord to teach repentance and obedience. Secondly, better to have a Priest taken out among men, than among Angels; for men are compassed with infirmity, and can have compassion of the ignorant, and of them that are out of the way. Thirdly, since Christ took our flesh to make our Atonement with God in this nature, this nature is the fittest to continue the working of that grace unto the end of the World. This is ratified by an instance not to be controlled, Act. x. An Angel comforts Cornelius, that his Prayers and Alms were remembered before God, medles no further, but transmits' him to the holy Priesthood of the Church. Send to Joppa for one Simon, he shall speak words whereby thou and thy household shall be saved. The upshot is, our Saviour could have finished this Miracle without Coadjutors, and have given the portions of bread to the hungry with his own hands, but to teach us, that such as he delivers his Commission unto (at no hand any others) that they shall intercur in sacred Offices between him and his People; The Disciples distributed to them that were set down.  
And these were faithful Stewards that kept nothing back, freely they received, and freely they gave. They were taught in this Negotiation what manner of Teachers they should be: First, To be diligent in their Apostleship, that all that were commended to their cure should be sufficiently provided for, and have enough. Nay, though immoderate replenishing be naught for the Spirit as well as for the body, yet let them abound rather than want: and though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is unseasonable is unreasonable, yet he shall make a better account before God that hath dropped somewhat out of season by affected supererogation, than he that hath done too little in season, and hath neglected the gift which was given him by imposition of hands. Alexander, the Predecessor of St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, returning to Alexandria after the Nicene Council was dissolved, was so much a Pulpit man, that for a long space he would suffer no man to preach in that great City but himself, lest the Faith concluded lately at Nice should be mistaken by any other Doctor. I think I may say he took too much upon him, yet certainly it was a fault on the better hand. It pleased our Saviour that his Disciples should feed their Guests rather with superfluity than scarcity. Another Parable gives them a character that they were nummularii, those that put Gods Talents to the money-changers, that he might receive his own with Usury, not as if Usurers were countenanced by the similitude, but because as that gain is boundless, so we should drive God's trade extensively, indefinitely, without pause, without measure, and increase upon increase will require labour upon labour. Says Gregory, the old Law required of a brother that survived to marry his Relict, and to raise up seed unto the Brother that died without issue. The Apostles, and such as have taken the like Office upon them by their Ordination, are the Brethren of our Lord, he calls them so himself; our Lord departed as it were without issue, because they were very few that believed in him when he ascended into heaven. The Law therefore calls upon his Brethren to raise up Sons and Daughters unto him. And though his heavenly Offspring be grown innumerous at this day, yet his Brethren are tied in as great conscience as ever before to tend the increase, because the Church is not yet called, at least the number of the Elect is not yet accomplished; and if you would eat bread yourselves in the kingdom of heaven, distribute what ye have received, that the people may eat.  
I say what ye have received, for beside diligence there must be sincerity. The Disciples set of no other before the multitude but that which Christ broke, Sic ea tantùm proponamus Ecclesiis que Christus praecepit. So propound nothing but that which Christ taught, and speak with no other tongue but as the Spirit gives you utterance, and thou shalt save thyself and others: But if you shall shred the wild Gourds of your own gathering, with that which grows in God's Garden, the Children of the Prophets will cry out, O thou man of God there is death in the pot. Men that obtrude their own Traditions upon the Church, are they aware of their high presumption? The Prince of the evil Angels went no further, Then I will be like the most high, and he that says my truth is no less Orthodox than that which is written in the Prophets and Evangelists, what difference is there between him and Lucifer? Are they aware of the consequent of their new Doctrine that it creeps like a Gangrene, and hath such a contagious quality to infect that which was sound, that the truth which once they professed will be quite stained with innovation? Or are they sensible of the threatenings of God? Rev. xxii. 18. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the Plagues that are written in this book. It is unspeakable to say what a storm a man raiseth to toss the whole world in, that invents a new Article of faith, or enforceth the consent of Christians to that which is not indubiously the Word of God. Be very choice to examine what it is with which you feed Christ's Lambs, and see that you take it out of Christ's own hand, I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you, says St. Paul, 1 Cor. xi. 23. And so Lyrinensis, a judicious exploder of all novelties, id est proprium Christianae modestiae, non sua posteris tradere, sed à majoribus accepta servare. It is a token of Christian modesty, not to vent what we broach out of our own brain, but to keep that which was committed of old.  
One thing will cast me back a little before I conclude this Point. Shall we look upon the Twelve feeding the multitude with the Loaves and Fishes in the capacity of good Pastors? Then belike we must take Judas into the number. Yes, says Chrisostom, Et ille habuit suum cophinum inter reliquos; he took up a basket full of that which remained as well as his fellows. And as long as he fed the People with the same which he had from Christ, it was not to be despised because it came from him. Let men be as they will be, the sin of man shall not make the power of God to be of none effect. It troubles not us therefore that Judas was one that distributed, as well as Peter, let it trouble them who think their sacred things are all marred or disappointed if the Priest be in a mortal sin. An Hypocrite may play his part notably upon such an occasion, as if he suspected the validity of the outward work, where there is not inward sanctity. Thus the Donatists in their first quarrel made head against Caecilius Bishop of Carthage, because they pretended that he was ordained by Traditores, by such as had delivered the Scriptures to Dioclesian's bloodhounds, that they might burn them: So the Luciferians fell off from the unity of the Church, in opposition to Heretics, who returned again into the right way, but those censorious Pharisees would allow of nothing they did in their Priestly Function. And this was maintained sundry times by rugged irreconcilable natures; and revived again, if some say true, in the days of Wickliff. The stone of offence at which they stumbled was, that the Church, as we observe it well, pronounceth after Christ, that Bishops and Priests receive the Holy Ghost in their ordination, but such as are spotted with grievous sins & heresies have quenched the Holy Ghost. Yea, but not that Holy Ghost which they received in their holy Orders. That is a grace conferred for the dispensation of divine mysteries, and no other. It is a grace whereby they are become Conduit-pipes of grace to others. It is not a grace whereby they save themselves, but whereby they save those whom they baptise, & comfort, and teach, and absolve; in a word, not the grace of an holy Life, but of an holy Calling. Be not therefore shaken with scruples and suspicions, what operation the Offices of the Church have, when Judas, and such alas as are very scandalous dispense them. The Carpenters may make an Ark for Noah, though themselves were drowned in the Flood: An Iron Seal can imprint a stamp as well as one of Gold. The Seed may come up, and do well, though the hand were leprous that sowed it. Be comforted therefore, that although such as Hophni and Phinehas are unworthy of their Ephod, that make the Offerings of the Lord to be abhorred, yet the High Priest Jesus is present, not for the workman's sake, but for the works sake, at those Ordinances which himself hath constituted.  
I have now dispatched the two great Limbs of this Miracle, the distribution, and the subdistribution, the Givers principal and less principal: I will touch upon the Receivers, and then no more. And first, Their posture, they sat down, is not put for a Cipher into this business, to portend nothing; neither did Christ use to command any thing in vain, but in the verse before my Text he bids the Disciples make the men sit down, and they did so. And that did intimate a great branch of their Pastoral dignity, I think. To break the Loaves and Fishes among them, was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. to feed the Lambs, an act issuing from their power of order, but to make them sit down was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and betokened their power of jurisdiction. And happy were they that being appointed by their Lord to look to good order, to make the men sit down, did light upon those that were so willing and ready to do as they were bidden, no replications, or nonconformity I warrant you among them all, but instantly they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties, Mar. vi. 40. And they that sat down with so much obedience to eat this bread, would have kneeled with no less obedience, if they had been appointed, to eat the bread of life. But wherefore did they take their places in ranks thus upon the grass? You cannot impute the Spirit of Prophecy unto them, that they could guests what would follow. Me thinks some Jesuit should say, that this is even the same, which they call by that inauspicious term, blind obedience. When a Novice surrenders up his judgement to the will of his Superior, and examines not the quality of the thing which is enjoined, but with undiscoursed allegiance stoops to the Authority of him that commands. If he be bidden to water a dead stake in a hedge, or set his shoulders to remove a Castle, or tell the number of the Stars, he undertakes it, obsequiousness hath devoured his judgement, and he controverts nothing that is commanded, though he sees no reason for it. The more Idiot he to extinguish the light which God hath given to his soul, and to follow frail men in their dark paths, who may lead him into precipices of confusion. For to pierce no farther into this mystery of iniquity, than into the instances I named even now. Shall any man be excused before God that spends his time in trifles, to no use? He that will require an account of idle words, will he not require it of idle and vain actions? Doubtless, he that allows a mortal man an absolute sovereignty over his understanding, to stoop to any thing he bids him do without examination of the fact, puts him into that privilege which is due to God alone. Therefore these that sat down in my Text are not of that Livery with those blind obedients. They received a Precept in Christ's name, to whom they owed the Abnegation of their own Judgement, and they put themselves into that order which he appointed. They had seen the proof of his Power so often, that they durst not disbelieve, but it they waited patiently they should see the glory of God in his mighty works. Their eyes were fastened upon him, and though they saw nothing to feed so many ranks of men, yet now they were confident they should not be dismissed without a taste of his liberality. We furnish our Tables usually, and then sit down, but these did first sit down with nothing before them, and afterward Christ did furnish the Table.  
O how the unbelieving Pharisees would have jeered them if they had sat down and got no sustenance as they expected. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says Homer; it is an ignominious thing to wait long, and be sent away with nothing, 
Rom. 5.5.  but the hope of a good man is never fruitless, it never makes ashamed, for since these sat down with such patience and obsequiousness, they had as much as they would. As David says, The meek shall eat and be satisfied, they shall praise the Lord, Psal. xxii. 26. It is St. Hilaries conjecture, that this food which enlarged strangely first in Christ's hand, and then in the Disciples, multiplied the third time in the hands of all that received it. It is true which that Father says, that then as many as were present might discern the Miracle the better; and it holds with reason, that the bread should stretch out bigger, according as one man's appetite was sharper than another. I will not contend for this, that every one in the ordinary throng should be so happy as to promote a miracle, For Jesus I know, and the Disciples I know, but who are ye? This I shall obtain without contention, that they had as much as they would. Look upon the number of the men, about five thousand, the Women and Children mentioned indefinitely as if they were numberless, and all these had refection to content them with that which one glutton would easily have devoured. O stupendious! the old scoff was that there were no Friars among them, there were of all Ages, Vigours, and Complexions, and yet no lack. Nay, says St. Austin, Panes sufficiunt, homines deficiunt; They gave over to eat before the bread gave over to increase; and as Pliny said of them that got much by Trajan, their own modesty circumscribed their desires, not his benignity, so these that sat down did leave to feed, before God did leave to give. The Wine which Christ supplied at Cana in Galilee it was not modicum, but enough to feast a Prince, Who giveth us richly all things to enjoy says the Apostle, 1 Tim. vi. 17. And though the quantity of his gift be ample, yet the quality is more than it, for it makes the appetite acquiesce and lie still that it asks no more. All that have store in abundance are not content with their share; all that are filled to the brim do not think it sufficient. But the condition of this meat which Christ blessed was, That they were all filled, and they had as much as they would. Therefore when you meet with such as are well pleased to have their honours stay at a growth, and to wax no higher; to have their riches hooped within a moderate size, and to swell no bigger, you may say they have eat some of God Almighty's Loaf, they have as much as they would: But when you light upon such, (and they are not hard to find) whose ambition is pained like a woman in travel, till it bring forth a bigger fortune; who covet forty that it may beget an hundred, and drive on an hundred till it make a thousand, and so forth, you may say that these have licked of the Devil's honey, and if they might have their own will they would burst their belly.  
Now to conclude all. To say that this Wilderness-ful of people had as much as they could eat out of two or three Omers of corn, out of a little that a poor Lad perhaps had gleaned, it is marvellous in our ears. Yet take all, and it goes much beyond this, for the Fragments which remained did fill twelve Baskets. Yea, says the common Gloss, there are Speculations of Divinity, with secret Traditions which the rude unlearned people cannot digest, these the Apostles and their Successors keep close in their own baskets, it may be this note is of that kind, therefore I pass it over and let them reserve it to themselves. The plain truth is, that was done, 1. Ad miraculi evidentiam; it could not have been evident that all were filled, unless somewhat had been left. 2. It was done ad miraculi claritatem, to make it exceed above any thing that could be compared. It was beyond Manna, that would not keep if any of it were laid up, this did. It was beyond the meat which the Ravens brought to Elias, he had but a morsel at once to serve necessity. It was beyond the Widow's meal, and her oil, they increased no more after the rain fell, but here was an increase after an universal saturity. 3. When this miraculous Feast was done a great deal superabounded, to admonish them they must not think to live always upon Miracles 4. As the beginning of this noble work was a lesson against covetousness, and thrust us on to distribute, so the end of it is a lesson against Prodigality, and bids us lay up that which remains. 5. Let them to whom it belongs do the due work of Evangelists, and though they earn but little here, the remainder will be great which comes hereafter, God will give to each Apostle a Basket full, nay, a Barnful in the Kingdom of Heaven. Both Cedrenus and Nicephorus, take them as they be, 
Niceph. lib. 7. c. 49.  relate what precious Monuments these baskets were in after Ages, it is thus. Constantine, intending the splendour of his own City, brought from Rome the largest Pillar of Porphyrite stone. Upon the top he set an Image of Brass, praised for the best Piece in the world, it was the Statue of Apollo in old Troy; In a Vault under the Base he laid up as his choicest Relics an Axe with which Noah made the Ark, and these twelve Baskets in which the Fragments were carried away of the Loaves and Fishes. Why these more than any other Relics? Nicephorus says nothing to it; you shall have my conjecture, He chose the Relic belonging to the Ark rather than any other to preserve the City, standing upon the Sea, from Inundation: He chose these twelve Baskets as a deprecation against Famine. I will dispatch. Other mysteries I could enumerate upon this which was over and above all that was eaten. One thing I must not omit, which hath busied divers to no great purpose, that when five thousand eat of five Loaves and two Fishes twelve Baskets remained, when four thousand eat of seven Loaves and a few Fishes but seven Baskets remained. What is this to us, if Christ would show the riches of his Liberality unequally where he pleased? But what if it cannot be decided for all this at which Feast most was remaining? The twelve Baskets are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they were such as you might dandle in your hand, the Jews carried them under their arm in the days of Juvenal the Poet. The seven Baskets are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as big as Paniers. There is a large difference between Amos his little basket of Summer fruit and the basket wherein St. Paul escaped out of a Window at Damascus, that is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Acts. Now you see that seven Dossars may come to more than twelve Hand-baskets. But I determine nothing, mighty was the power of our Lord Jesus in both, and his Liberality never to be forgotten. Nay, the increase which he gives us year by year is so plentiful (as our latest harvest can testify) that no memory so short but will remember it, no heart so ingrate but accepts it with all thankfulness, no tongue so slow but will praise him. AMEN.   

A SERMON Preached at WHITEHALL UPON St LUKE'S DAY.  ACTS xi. 26. 
And the Disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.  
SAint Luke, the Penman of this Book of Scripture, hath a threefold interest in this Text, in every principal word of it an interest. He was a Disciple by calling, whether one of the 70, is a disputable question: an Antiochian by birth, and a Christian by his Title. Then who could better put these three together than himself? that the Disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. It is not expedient, doubtless, to glory; but if we should glory we should speak the truth, that the Congregation of the Church hath reaped more honour by this Record, than all the Grandees of the Earth can show for themselves in their best Charters and Monuments. Civil Histories will confess, that earthly things of what pomp and splendour soever, they receive little grace from their first original: for either the evidences of their beginning are obscure, consisting upon such weak proofs as cannot command us to believe them. The Inscription of an old piece of money coined, who knows why? And the Characters of a broken Stone digged up, who knows where? These are the Models that Cities and Kingdoms do greedily embrace, and thrust upon you for your best Memorials. If the Evidences be more authentical, then ten to one but their novelty will disparage them: for what is it to reckon upon one or two Ages past? a thing may be quickly famous, but it must ask longer time to be venerable. Finally, if Antiquity and clear Evidence do both concur, quando haec rara avis est, which lights but seldom, what mean and contemptible beginnings shall you find of those Nations and Republics, upon whose glory the Heavens have shined with most propitious influence. The Persian dynasty, once so rich and puissant, look back to the Founder, and it was a Child exposed in the Woods, taken up by the charity of a Shepherd, and fostered a while by his poverty. They that laid the foundation of Rome's greatness, and had the heart afterward to think how to conquer the whole Earth, were at first but a Crew of Thiefs. I will not displease to call to mind upon what slight, and almost ridiculous occasions, Titles of brave estimation did first grow into credit: it holds in them all, that Almighty God willing to advance Religious honour above Secular, hath blurred the Secular honour with one of these three diminutions, vel novitate, vel obscuritate, vel parvitate, either it hath no glorious beginning, for it is new; or it cannot show it, for it is obscure; or it dare not show it, for it is course and mean. Now the glory which we have by Christ is amplified through these Comparisons. For first, Our Society began not obscurely, but at Antioch the Metropolis of Syria, one of the most populous and fairest Seats of the World in those days. 2. The Records of it are without all exception, in this indubitable sacred History. 3. Neither is it a Mushroom of the field lately sprung up, but it began in that Age when the Apostles of our Lord were living. 4. Neither did we purchase our appellation from base and unworthy offices, as by adoring the fortunes of men, or by worshipping vain Gods, but from the unanimity and accord which both Gentiles and Jews that believed did profess in serving the true only God, and his Son, by whom he made the World, Jesus Christ. No more than can be said then to these three Points. Here are our Progenitors of worthy memory, the Disciples; their Title of honour and distinction, they were called Christians, and the place where they received it, Antioch, to make more of that which is so full in three parts, were to make it less. But of these in their order.  
To begin with the Disciples, and a little searching into them and their condition, will make them known to be a noble and a numerous Society. I must premise, that two things had gone before, which filled the Church with infinite increase of Believers. First, the Martyrdom of St. Stephen, whereupon all that addicted themselves that way fled from Jerusalem, and were strangely scattered abroad in most remoted places. St. James from thenceforth calls them the twelve Tribes of the Dispersion, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, St. Peter comes to some particularities, and greets them by the name of Strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bythinia: yet these were but a few of them in one Walk (as I may say) for such as write of the Conversion of Nations give a probable demonstrance, that some of those dispersed Jews had crept into evety Kingdom that was habitable under the Sun. And I instance in one thing especially, because Baronius quotes an old English Manuscript, contained in the Vatican Library, for his Author, that the chief adherents to Christ, namely Joseph of Arimathaea, Lazarus with his Sisters, Mary and Martha, were despitefully committed to the Seas in a Bark which had neither Oar nor Sail, but God's providence and the winds brought it safe to Marseils in France, where they all landed, and Joseph, the Apostle of this Kingdom, made a further journey into our Island. And do not marvel that there should be enough to replenish all the World upon this dispersion: for before our Saviour's Ascension he was seen of five hundred Brethren; St. Peter's first Sermon after the coming of the Holy Ghost gained three thousand souls more. The number of five thousand more were added to them by the power of his next Sermon preached in Solomon's Porch, Acts iv. And after this St. Luke never counts how many were converted, they were past his reckoning: he relates the Blessing thus in the gross, The number of the Disciples multiplied greatly, and a great company of the Priests were obedient to the Truth, Acts vi. 7. You see what store of laborers here were, which were all cast out of Jerusalem, upon the Persecution which was raised at the death of Stephen: Non dispersi, sed seminati, non imbecillitate disjecti, sed fidei gratiâ divisi, says St. Athanasius, they were not turned abroad at random, but sown like seed in every quarter of the earth; it was not fear and infirmity, but the Grace of God which divided them. Well, the next thing that made the Spirit of God blow like the wind, in all places where it listeth, was the Conversion and Baptising of Cornelius, the Italian Captain, about the seventh year after the Ascension of our Saviour. The baptising of the Eunuch by Philip, though he were a more honourable person than Cornelius, the great Treasurer to Queen Candace, yet it made no noise at all, for the Eunuch, though an Aethiopian, and so a Gentile, yet he was a Proselyte of the Jewish Religion, and so no Gentile. Cornelius and his Household were the first of mere Gentiles that received the Holy Ghost, and were baptised in the Name of the Lord. The tidings hereof did quickly arrive among the Brethren in all places, and the Disciples knew by that token, that they might spend their labours not upon the Jews only, but upon the Gentiles also.  
You see the means by which the Evangelical Truth was advanced: so did Antioch grow to be a famous Church, partly by their labours who fled from Jerusalem when St. Stephen was stoned ver. 19 partly by attracting great numbers of Grecians to the faith of the Lord Jesus. ver. 20. and these now compounded together in one Body, the faithful of the Circumcision, and the faithful of the Uncircumcision, these are Disciples recorded in my Text. This will put it likewise from your conceit, that the twelve Apostles are not meant here by the attribute of Disciples; they come far short of that exceeding number of Saints that were so, entitled; nor yet those seventy sent by two and two to preach, and to cure diseases, Luk. x. for distinction sake they began to be called old Disciples in these days, as Mnason of Cyprus is called an old Disciple, Act. xxi. 16. But according to the largest courtesy of the word, those that embraced the Doctrine of eternal life, and this is done with our Saviour's good leave, as it is Joh. viij. 31. If you continue in my word, then are you my Disciples indeed. Sectaries and profane Heretics spread their errors abroad: woe unto those that give ear unto them. The great Dictator's of natural Sciences ground their conclusions upon Principles of reason, and would attain felicity, not by faith, but by arguments. Miserable were all those that affected to be so wise that they could not be saved, they are not these Disciples. But, leaving these pudled fountains, blessed were the true Scholars of Grace that drew their waters from the Cisterns of Christ. Truth went before them as a light, and Sanctity did guide them by the hand, these are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, taught of God, as the word is in St. Paul. 
1 Thes. 4.9.  And this is consolation enough to sweeten all other misery: so the Prophet cherisheth the distressed Church, that it was her glory, that her Children should be the Disciples of that Truth which came down from Heaven, O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, I will lay thy foundations with Saphires, etc. and all thy children shall be taught of the Lord, Isa. liv. 13. How much did the Pharisees honour the poor man that was born blind, when they meant to spit defiance in his face, saying, Thou art his Disciple. Was that the worst they could say? slander us so and spare not, says St. Austin upon it, maledictio sit super nos, & super nostros liberos, let that reproach fall upon us, and our Children for ever.  
But if any Age were more in jeopardy than another, to wrest the word Disciple to an ill sense, I am persuaded 'tis ours. For if a Disciple be a learner of the Divine Testimonies, there are many that affect to be Discipulissimi, by their good will there is no day of the week, but they would sit at the feet of their own Gamaliels; the pretence of learning is so great in these our days, that I am sure all former times come short of this double diligence. And were they such Disciples that were first called Christians? Certainly the word of God was very precious unto them; and as St. James bids it be so, they were swift to hear. Seek the Lord while he may be found, seek his face evermore; quaeramus inveniendum, quaeramus inventum, 
August. Tract 63. in Joh.  seek him for He is glorious, seek him evermore, for He is infinite. And that Heathen saying was to good purpose, when we have one foot in the Grave be still willing to learn. But these Disciples gathered their heavenly Manna by moderate measure, in a fit proportion to digest it; not like our open-eared people, in a numberless quantity to make them loathe it: Always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, says the great Doctor, 1 Thes. iv. always walking, and never going home; not desiring to have instruction fall down in sweet drops, to make the seed of the Word fructify, but with an Inundation to make it putrify, and continually gaping for somewhat that tends to the curiosity of knowledge, rarher than the conscience of practice. And where have they got this use, but from outlandish fashions? where there is no decent face of a Church, no air of Devotion, no solemn Liturgy to employ the time in, whereby they must needs make up that which is wanting with continual preaching. But you will say, if this ravening after Sermons, as I may call it, be a fault, it flows from the zeal of them that mean well, and charity may construe it to the best. There's more in it than so, as I conceive. First, it is too manifest to conceal it, or deny it, that superfluity of hearing is a cloak of dissimulation, and hath bred a consumption of practising; and scire est propter ire, say the old Friars, we know the way that we may go the way. 2. Let any one descend skilfully into the nature of man, and he shall see, that it is our humour to grow too familiar with that which is told too often: a decent distance and intermission would breed more reverence and attention. 3. Whom doth it not afflict that hath a right sense of piety, to see so much havoc and loss of that which is so precious? A Carpenter may hew off large chips from a Block, but a Lapidary will make no waste of a Diamond when he pares it. It was not the itching ear then, which thinks it can never hear enough, that made a Disciple in the Primitive Church: they did not heap to themselves vain Teachers, that every one of the common sort might prove a Doctor rather than a Learner, and control the best, as if they were Masters rather than Disciples: 
Jam. 1.21.  yet their heart was bend with meekness to receive the Word, as St. James says, they discharged their duty in good sort to hear and learn, 
Luk. 11.52.  for hearing is the Key of knowledge; but they did not turn the Key continually in the Lock, and never open the door; they were wise builders that heard the truth and did if, and their desire was set to incarnate the written Word in their Souls by doing it, as the blessed Virgin gave flesh to the Eternal Word by bearing it. In a word, they were such Disciples as gave the tongue of praise just occasion to call them Christians; I will recite but a little of that which antiquity hath witnessed for their sakes. Their Vessel was kept so chaste and clean that every day, if persecutions dispersed them not, they partaked of the body and blood of their Saviour; their temperance so great, their fasting so constant, that one says, The Constitution of Lent began not till such time as their perpetual sobriety began to be unimitated. Their Charity drew this admiration out of their forest enemies, See how they love one another. Even their Tormentors, while their bodies lay bleeding under their hands, were converted to believe, and suffer with them by their Patience and Fortitude. Finally, Their contempt of the world was testified in this, That no man said that aught which he had was his own, but they had all their possessions in common. Angelica respublica nihil dicere proprium, says St. Chrysostom; That made it no less than a Society of Angels to renounce their part in any proper possession. It was not therefore hearing upon hearing that denominated them Disciples, these were the Elements of which their Piety consisted, and then they proceeded to be called Christians.  
Yet before I come to the birth of this new title, which is the chief cornerstone of my Text, it will suit well to speak a little of the privation or cessation of their old names, by which in former times they were known. And they are of two sorts: Such as the Church claimed to herself, and delighted in; or such wherewith flanderous tongues did think to wound her. And they may be equally divided into three of the one sort, and of the other. First, you meet it every where in the Epistles of the New Testament, that such as professed to obey the Gospel were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the brethren. One is the Mother of us all in our natural being, the earth: One Mother of our spiritual Connexion the Church; one common Father of our flesh, the first man Adam; one Father of our Regeneration, the Holy Ghost. But certainly Charity was the special scope in this appellation; for no relation of love is so complete in all points as between Brother and Brother. The love between Husband and Wife is not born with them. The love between Father and Son is not level and reciprocal, because it is not between persons that are equal; the love between Friend and Friend is of our own choice, nor of necessary duty; only the love of Brothers is from the Womb, from instinct of nature, stands upon equal conditions, and is underpropt with all circumstances that engender affection. And to give Charity the pre-eminence, this was the first precious ointment that was poured upon our head, we were called brethren. And secondly, Saints, to the Saints that are at Ephesus, to the Saints at Colossi. And many of the Saints did I shut up in prison, says St. Paul before King Agrippa, Acts xxvi. 10. And this Attribute was given to our famous Predecessors from the Sacramental Seal of Baptism, as it is, 1 Cor. vi. 11. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified. In that sacred Laver we are sprinkled with the blood of Christ, and so made Saints, Sancti quasi sanguine tincti, it is a blood which purifieth from uncleanness, for of old they that desired to be purified did dip some part of their body in the blood of the Sacrifice; Baptism is Pactum vitae purioris cum Deo; a Covenant with God to lead a pure and unspotted life, a sequestration of that which is holy from all profane abuses, it is jus gentium, says Tully, a national and received Law throughout all the world, Vt ne mortales, quod Deorum immortalium cultui consecratum est usu capere possint; that no man usurp that for common uses, which was consecrated to the service of the immortal Gods, so that a Saint is as much as one that is washed and made clean in Christ, and engaged unto holiness all the days of his life. 3. For the confession of the true doctrines sake, which flesh and blood could not reveal unto us but our Father which is in heaven, our reward was to be called the faithful, the faithful of the circumcision, Acts x. 45. and in many places beside. This continued our note of distinction more than any other in ancient Liturgies, and so remains in some of our own Collects, as grant we beseech thee merciful Lord to thy faithful people pardon and peace. 
Sund. 2 after Trin.  And it stuck more close to the Church than any title in St. Cyprians days as appears by these words, Quid Christiana plebs faceret, cui de fide nomen est? What should Christian people do in this case, whose name is given them from the Faith? So I have represented to you that in the earliest days of the Gospel the Disciples were called Brethrens from their sincerity of love; Saints from the purification of Baptism; Faithful from that Orrhodox truth which they professed, and hope in Christ, which St. Paul hath put all together in one verse, To the Saints and faithful Brethren in Christ which are at Colosse, chap. i ver. 2.  
But as St. Paul says, By honour and dishonour, 
2 Cor. 6.8.  by evil report and by good report, we approve ourselves the Ministers of Chrisft. And they that scoffed at the way of salvation did load us with contumelious taunts, that they might soil our Profession. The first bitter arrow that our Enemies shot forth was to call us Nazarens. Tertullus the spruce Orator was aware of that, and charged St. Paul, that he was a ring leader of the Sect of the nazarenes, Act. xxiv. 5. Surely they delighted the more in this Nickname, because of that opprobrious by word, can there any good come out of Nazareth. St. Hierom says that the spiteful Jews had no other term for the Christians in his days, and how in that term they cursed us thrice every day in their Synagogues. Now when they thought to gall us both with their curse, and their venomous scorn, 
Haeres. 39  Epiphanius says that the Apostles liked it well enough to be called nazarenes, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, their intention was to put the name of Nazareth upon him, where the Angel Gabriel saluted the Blessed Virgin, and where she conceived Christ, and they were contented. It seems so, for because they held it no disgrace, Julian the Emperor would not call them nazarenes, but Galilaeans, and proclaimed it, 
Orat. 1. cont. Julian.  says Nazianzen, that they should plead, or be empleaded by no other name throughout all his Dominions: the name of Christian, says the same Father, it grated his ear; some Divine Majesty was in the syllables, that it put horror into his conscience; but for his own quiet, and their wrongs, he thought it better to call them Galilaeans: his slanderous intention was all that was ill in it, for the appellation itself was not slanderous; an Angel of God directed his Message to them in that form; Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? Act. i. 11. But here was the secret gibe, one Judas of Galilee, a Firebrand of sedition, had lodged an ill opinion in many of the Jews who were born in that Region, that such as paid Tithes to God were not to pay Tribute to Cesar, neither ought they to call any one their Lord, but him that created Heaven and Earth. In plain meaning he and his Consorts of Galilee were errand Rebels; and though none were so far from faction and disobedience as these modest Disciples, yet to persuade the World that they had an Anti-monarchichal grudge in their bosom, this Apostate called them Galilaeans. Lastly, because the Orthodox Champions of the Church confounded the obstinate Gentiles with certain verses cited out of the Books of the Sibyls; 
Orig. lib. 5. Cont. Celsum Baron. Ap. Sect. 19  therefore in despite they invented the name Sibyllistae, and pointed at us for the Disciples of those Prophetesses the Sibyls, whereas it was their own doing to make us urge them with those proofs, since they would not believe the Old Testament and the Prophets of the Lord. I cannot forget how Albertus' Pighius played such a wise part or rather a far worse, being the first that called our Reformed Divines Scripturarios, Scripture-men, because they grounded all their Doctrine upon the written word of the holy Scriptures: yet in my judgement Sibyllist was not so ill a scoff as Scripturarian. Now you know from that which hath been spoken what good Titles adorned the Primitive Saints, and how their Enemies drew their name with a black coal in terms of scurrility; the bad appellations vanished away by the brightness of their virtue, the good ones were like a scanty Robe too short to cover all their excellency; they bore the Cross of Christ gladly and triumphantly; wherefore this eximious Inscription was given them which is here in my Text, all other names were but as a trail of golden beams to beautify this which includes them all, Christian.  
'Tis very much that no Author is mentioned here, who was so lucky to impose this name, which will be glorious, no doubt, in all the World, as long as the Sun and Moon endure. Carthusian hath his opinion, that Infidels were the Inventors, in disdain at Christ, whom that pious Generation worshipped; Comestor imputes it to the converted Greeks and Gentiles, to the end that they and the believing Jews might have one common cognizance. There are more than enough that think it may proceed from St. Peter, whose first Episcopal See was at Antioch, and then they think they have engrossed all Christians to be under the Pastoral charge of him and his Successors, his Successors at Rome they mean, and not at Antioch. Turrian the Jesuit is far more reasonable, saying that the Nomenclator is not known, but that the name was ratified by a Synod of Apostles, for he mentions a Synod held at Antioch, in which these three Canons passed. 1. That none should be circumcised, for Baptism was the true Circumcision made without hands. 2. That all Nations that believed might be collected into the Catholic Church. 3. That such as were baptised in the Name of the Lord Jesus should be called Christians. I could acquiesce in this conjecture, if it ascended higher, that the Synod Apostolical confirmed it because it came from God. I confess I have neither read nor heard, that either Christ did leave the Tradition, that it should be so with some of his Disciples, or that an Angel proclaimed out of the clouds from Heaven, or that it was imparted either by dream or revelation sent to any of the Prophets; but since no man can challenge that he was the Founder of it, I think it surp●sseth mortal Authority, and therefore I leave the original of it to God. It was only in the right of the Father in those times to give a name to his Child. Zachary the Priest, when he could not speak, called for Writing-tables to give the name to John the Baptist, and Christ himself having no Father on earth, his Father gave him a name from Heaven: Then why should not the Father of all that is called Father give that universal Name which belongs to his Children, whom he hath regenerated by the Holy Ghost? Put the Prophet Isaiah's authority to this reason, and who can gainsay it? Isa. lxii. 2. his scope is to extol Zion, or the Church Evangelical, says he, The Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all Kings thy glory, and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. It were endless to rehearse how many Authors apply this to the Nomenclature of Christian. And again, Isa. xliii. 1. I have redeemed thee, (certainly that's the voice of Christ) I have called thee by my name, thou art mine. Who will doubt now but that I have reduced our Title to the true original? Our Godfather is the Lord above.  
Let me reduce it likewise to the exact time when it began; it will be no lost labour. This is granted at all hands: it did not happen so soon as ever Christ ascended up, we were not crowned in our Cradle. Pamelius takes advantage at a place in Tertullian, to hold that the word Christian began to spread abroad in the fifth year after our Saviour's Ascension, that is in the very latter end of the Reign of Tiberius: but I had rather say that his Author Tertullian mentions it too early, for this will quite confound the History of the Scripture. The Centurion Cornelius was not converted till two years of that, there must be a competent space of time for those tidings to come to Antioch, and for the work of the Ministry after that to gain a great number of the Gentiles, for Barnabas to be sent for to undertake for a better increase; it follows after all this the most successful St. Paul was brought thither, and he and Barnabas assembled themselves a whole year with the Church: this is plain in the Context before, and then the Disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. I like not Pamelius his supputation then, he is too forward. Genebrard in his Chronology runs as much backward, and allows sixteen years to be run out since the death of our Lord before the faithful had the honour to get this memorable Title: he takes his aim at the Synod which Turrian speaks of, that the Apostles could be assembled no sooner in a sacred Council at Antioch; whereas Turrian claims no more for his Synod, but that the Apostles established that which was illustrious long before, during the pains that Paul and Barnabas did spend at Antioch. Therefore I suppose that the most judicious Baronius is but a little under or over, that it fell out in the tenth year after the Ascension, the Believers at Antioch being Decimae Domini, the Tithe of the Lord, those that were gained to the Faith in the tenth year, being a selected Portion, and a peculiar Benediction fell upon them. Yet I am content to let that pass, rather than you should think that there is some necessary efficacy in the number; I look more stead fastly upon another great occurrency in those days, which made this tenth year the fullness of time, and the Disciples so ripe to receive this name, that it could not well be deferred any longer. For when the Gentiles were made partakers of the common salvation as well as the Jews, who had been strangers together so many Ages before, there was still a distance between them, or at least no perfect conjunction: and it grew an hard Task to piece them, because the Jews either out of weakness did still affect the Ceremonies of Moses, or having been so long familiar with them, did desire to dismiss them reverently at their parting, but the Gentiles loved all inoffensive liberty, which was not contrary to nature, and chiefly could not endure to refrain from meats which in themselves were lawful. This quarrel was not decided, till the Apostles at a full Council took a course with it, in the fifteenth chapter of this Book: Nay Clemens in the 7. lib. Const. c. 48. says, That they of the Circumcision had one Bishop over them, to wit Evodius in this very City of Antioch, they of the Uncircumcision in the same place, at the same time, another Bishop over them, Ignatius; this is his report, though Ignatius himself say no such matter, but gives the preeminence to Evodius alone, next after the Apostles: some variance and unkindness there was, that's certain; and the first means to unite both sides in a perfect peace, was that the one should not have this name, and the other that name, but to denominate them all from our Saviour, and to call them Christians.  
Quis nominum reatus? quae accusatio vocabulorum? says Tertullian, names are guilty of no crime, you cannot accuse them of any harm. With the pardon of that Holy Father, it is far otherwise; for it is never seen but that men are stiff in opposition, and almost irreconcilable, when they please themselves to be distinguished from others by the names of those Doctors, whose opinions they cleave unto: If it once grow to a difference of Titles, that which was but friendly disquisition of argument at first, it turns to Emulation, Emulations improve to be Factions, and Factions that would soon have broke up like a mist, many Ages cannot dissolve them. If you know any that have men's persons in admiration, and love to be denominated from them as the Captains of the Lords Host, they are no better than Felons in Divinity, that have set fire on the beacons to put all in tumult and combustion, whereas, except themselves, there are no Enemies in arms within the Church of God. That impartiality and indifferency to truth which this happy Church of England hath maintained, not turning the Scale either this way or that way, for Luther or Calvin's sake, or whomsoever else, it hath given us the advantage to be most comely in Discipline, most retentive of good antiquity, most certain of fundamental truth, and of all Churches in the World to have least disagreement with all Christian Churches throughout the World. We write ourselves Christians, 
Sleidan. 1.6.  and nothing else. The name of Protestant, as it was ever harmless, so properly it concerned but the pleading of some grievances upon one day, when a Diet of the Princes was held at Spire: and when Sects were sprung up among Christians, to be a Protestant was no more than to be a good Christian: If our ill-willers call us by any other byword the sin is theirs, we have not the tongues of wicked men in a string, that they shall give us no attributes, but such as are worthy of us: Non sumus Pauliani, non sumus Petriani, sumus Christiani. Pastor's must beget Children to Christ, and not unto themselves; therefore we are neither of Paul or Cephas, 
Sup. Deuter. 25.10.  but the Offspring of Christ, say the Divines of Douai, and I would their deeds were suitable to their Annotation. More smartly St. Hierom, if you take the name of Marcionite or Valentinian, you cease to be a Christian. Not so, will some say, I can take the name of some excellent man upon me, as a subordinate Servant to Christ. But Ignatius goes on, if you do take the name of man upon you, you do lose the name of the Lord. A whole hour is not enough for all that can be said upon this point, but this is enough for them that will learn, how the faithful of the Circumcision and the Uncircumcision were in danger to be divided, therefore they were both enclosed in the identity of one blessed name: And, etc.  
So I have shown what my Text speaks of fell out in a ripe season, and a profitable opportunity; now all times are capable of that which follows, what this name imports, and what it imposeth. Our dear Redeemer having wedded the Church unto himself, and having given it an interest in his precious blood here, and a lively hope to possess his glory hereafter, it was meet that his Spouse should be called by his name, and then either from Jesus, or from Christ. Jesus He was called for his Divinity, for He that is Man could not save us from our sins, unless He were the offended Party as well as the Ransom, God and Man. Christ he was called from being Man, for he was anointed to execute the Offices of his Mediatorship in his humane nature: Now judge in yourselves, whether we that are partakers of flesh and blood should have our nomination from his Godhead, or from his Manhood rather? only the Jesuit, some Divine creature, I warrant you, is not contented with the common name of Christian, but after much opposition of Courts of Parliament in France, or Consistories in Rome, he calls himself by the dear remembrance of the Epithet, in which our salvation is sealed unto us: But save us good Lord from such Saviour's. What will suffice them whom the Royalty to be called a Christian will not suffice? In quo omnium sublimium nominum communionem adipiscimur, says Nyssen, 
De profess. No. Christi.  whereby we have our share in all Titles that have sublimity in them, as he that holds the fastening links of a Chain in his finger draws on all the rest, to use the same Father's Similitude. The Heathen that looked for the signification of the word in their own learning, and not in the Scriptures, surnamed us Chrestiani, à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Apolog. c. 3.  as you would say benign and gentle. So Tertullian: Cum perperam Chrestianus a vobis pronunciatur, de suavitate, vel benignitate compositum est, when you miss our right name, and pronounce us Chrestians, it imports sweetness and benignity. It seems there was a placidness and facility of nature in the Disciples, which was far from giving just offence, and won itself the affections of others. And is not much better than a jarring harshness, which is prone to discords and contentions? The spirit of wisdom it courteous and humane, Wisd. seven. 23. Yet this fell short of the true notation, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, who knows it not? is unctus The Anointed; not every Anointed, but The Anointed, as if it were written in capital letters, whom the old Testament in the same sense calls the Messiah, 
〈…〉. 49.  and the Hellenists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; but Caninius says that the wrathful Jews, who will not own him for their Messias, call him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not unctum, but delibutum, as you would say, not anointed, but stained and besmeared: To whom I rejoin videbunt quem transfixerunt, they shall see him whom they have pierced with their blasphemies.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Anointed of the Lord, He is our Chief, from whom we derive our nomination; He was a King, as the Psalms style him, Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion, and so anointed. He was a Priest, a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech, and so anointed. He was a Prophet, that Prophet whom God promised to raise up to Israel among their Brethren, Deutr. xviii. and so anointed. Ter Christus, 
J●h. 3.34.  a triple anointed, a triple Christ, that sacred one to whom God giveth not the Spirit by measure, but he is anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows, and so is an infinite Christ: from his superabundant unction we are replenished, of his fullness we have all received, some drops have trickled down from the head to the skirts, nay to the feet and ankles, to the lowest parts of the body: and by the power of his Christhood we are transformed to be Christian. Aptly hath St. Bernard ratified all this from that of Solomon, Cant. two. 3. Oleum effusum nomen tuum, Thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the Virgins love thee. Christianus then, to put good Greek into bad Latin, is all one with Vunctianus, anointed with the sprinkling of water in Baptism for the remission of sins, and therefore Crism or Oil hath been applied as a significant Ceremony to the Infant baptised, not only abroad, but in our own Church, I mean since it was reform. After this of Baptism follows the Unction of true Doctrine: Ye have an unction from the holy one, and ye know all things, 1 Joh. two. 20. To these is added the Unction of Grace, that we may be a sweet savour of life unto life: and above all these, the blood of Christ is anointed upon the posts of our doors, that the Destroyer may pass by and spare us: and all these Lines meet in this one Centre, to call us Christian. Is it not a grievous case, that this Name, so musical to the ear, so melodious to the heart, should be almost obscured to bring in another? Catholic, a word to be very well approved of, it finds more acceptance with some than Christian. These words of St. Luke in my Text are not more authentic with them, hardly so much, as those of Pacianus, Christianus mihi nomen est, Catholicus cognomen; illud me nuncupat, istud ostendit; Christian is my name, Catholic my surname; the indignity is to distort this saying, as if Christian were general to every Schismatic and Sectary, and Catholic were appropriated to the Orthodox, abiding in the bosom of the true Church: Nay, some are so senseless to make the Apostles the Authors of such childish counsel, that because good and bad would invade the name of Christian, therefore the Disciples should call themselves Catholics for distinction sake: Why, list I pray you, he that can falsely say Christian is my name, can he not with as much impudence and falsehood say, that Catholic is my surname? the word becomes the Creed most divinely, the holy Catholic Church? for what Church shall I adhere to? That which is for Time universal, from the preaching of Christ unto these days; that which is for Place universal, dispersed wheresoever the Faith of the Elect is received; that which is for Truth universal, believing all that the Prophets and Apostles have delivered, and whatsoever the Church hath ratified by its continual interpretation. But our fine Italian Wits have spun out another notion, that particular Church is Catholic which hath retained the pure Truth in all Ages since Christ, and never failed, from whence hath resulted that proud enclosure of Roman Catholic, an error not to be argued me thinks, but to be whooped at. I am sure Catholic, in their sense, is neither name nor surname of them that seek for peace. They pour it on as Vinegar, to make the wounds of the Church smart: The Name of Christian is the Sanctuary of Unity, and Oil to heal the wound; let that be our Badge then, which was the good Disciples, etc.  
But if you wear this Livery of Christ, what service will you do him? do you consider it unto what holiness you are engaged, if your Title be derived from so pure a Fountain? Now I am at the top of the spire, at that point of my Text which is nearer to Heaven than any other. It is well that we were Infants when we were first enrolled to be Christians; in those sucking days we did not feel the weight that was laid upon our shoulders: if we came with ripe years to Baptism, and with premeditated understanding, it would make us sink down when we put our foot into the waters, and tremble all over to bethink us, what heavenly part a Christian is to act upon the Earth, as if he were an Angel incarnate. Alexander Severus the Emperor, whose Mother Mammaea was a Christian, 
L●mprid. in vit. Severi.  was saluted in the name of Antoninus by the Romans, a name which had been most auspicious in that Republic, By no means, says the Emperor, do not engage me to the necessity of that expectation, Nomina insignia onerosa sunt, illustrious names are burdensome, and I cannot satisfy that which is looked for from them: Alas but a trifle was looked for from an Antoninus, in comparison of that is looked for from a Christian: A few sins were esteemed no blemish in one of them; one sin, and unrepented of, shall be an everlasting woe to one of us: The similitude of a few Virtues made up a gallant Heathen, the defect of one Virtue degrades a Christian. In whom there is not meekness and mercies there's no print of Christ; in whom there is not humility there's no colour of Christ; in whom there is not perfect charity there is no agreement with Christ, non potest esse concors cum Christo qui est discors cum Christiano; he that doth not abrenuntiate, and deny himself, he hath no part in Christ; for he that thinks his good works are estimable with Heaven, and looks to be saved by his own merits, 
De verb. Apost. ser 18.  est latro insultans cruci Domini, says St. Austin, he is the wicked Thief that insults over the Cross of Christ. He that hath Christ always in his eye to follow him, in his heart to love him, in his faith to trust in him, in his works to glorify him, he is co Christus, he shall communicate of his name here, and he shall be cohaeres, Co-heir with him in his Father's Kingdom hereafter. St. Austin calls us Heirs in this World, by the usurpation of this Name, sicut sunt haeredes nominis, ita sunt imitatores sanctitatis, Christian thou art Heir of his Name, thou shalt do well therefore to be Executor of his Sanctity.  
There are three things, as the same Father hath filled them together, with which our Christendom holds a secret antipathy, in his short book of true Religion, 
De ver. relig. c. 15.  Neque in confusione Paganorum, neque in caecitate Judaeorum, neque in purgamentis Hae●eticorum quaerenda est; it is neither to be found in the confusion of Pagans, nor in the blindness of the Jews, nor in the filthiness of Heretics. 
Baron. Ap. sect. 2.  Justin Martyr is well rejected by the great Annalist, for condescending to call all the Heathen Christians, qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vixerunt, who from the beginning of the World had instituted themselves by well guided reason. This can never be concocted with truth; for Christianity in the very essence is an explicit knowledge of the Son of God, that died for our sins, and rose again for our justification. Beside, Gentilism doth incorporate in it the worshipping of vain Gods, and how abhorrent is that to this Name? When the Roman Deputy urged Polycarpus to swear by the Genius of Cesar, his answer was no more but I am a Christian, a Negative to all Idolatry in that Affirmative. Secondly, Where there is Judaisme there is no Christianism. 
Serm. 91. de Temp.  He that hath relished the honey of the Gospel, says St. Austin, cannot endure the bitter waters of the Law; Circumcision hath a bitter acrimony in it to offend his taste, nec hostiarum ferre cruorem valet, nec Sabbati observantiam custodire; he will not offer the blood of Sacrifices, he will not keep the observation of the Sabbath. Let them note that who strive to have the entire fourth Commandment to be moral and perpetual. A strange refractariness in some men, that cannot endure to be Christians in Ceremonies, and yet are content to fall back to those beggarly Elements of Moses, and to be Jews in Ceremonies. Thirdly, The filthiness of Heretics, either in Doctrine, or Life, it draws a dash through the Name of Christian, and blots it out. No lie is of the truth, 
1 Joh. 2.21.  and he that denies that Jesus is the Christ, he is a liar, and an Antichrist. Jesus is the name of the Person of our Lord, Christ is the name of his Office; how every Heresy clasheth either against his Person or his Office; and such a one doth so little merit to pass for a Christian, that he is published for an Antichrist. Or be it that you are undepraved in the truth, but most depraved in manners, there again you forfeit your interest in this spotless Name: For why call ye me Lord, Lord, 
Aug. Serm. 12. de verb. Apost.  and do not the things which I say, Luk. vi. 46. Cum impiis homines sumus, sed non cum impiis Christiani samuel I do not yield clearly to that, but rather thus. If we live as wicked men do, we are scarce men, but rather beasts; and they that are scarce men by reason of their sins, they are utterly lost, I am sure, for being Christians. O if you have not Christ within you, let your forehead blush that was sealed w●th his Cross without you.  
How much better would it be for Hypocrites, that they had been Pagans that never abused this Name, than to have been outside Disciples, no further than the name, 
Lib. 1. cont. Ep. Parm. c. 7.  dealbati nomine Christiano, says St. Austin, not anointed with the oil of Christ, the unction of the Spirit, but parjeted over with the name of Christian, like whited walls. The Athenians forbade that any Bondman should be called by the name of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, men that had jeoparded their lives to free their Country from servitude; they held it dishonourable that those names that were devoted to the public liberty should be polluted with servile contagion. 
Sueton. in Dom. sect. 10.  Domitian, who was tyrannical in all his actions, put one Metius, a man of good condition, to death, for calling an inferior Vassal of his by the victorious name of Hannibal. The Title of Philosopher, O how the true Philosophers would storm when Caterpillars usurped it, that had no affinity with true Philosophy? it is a sickness, and a very fever to me, says one of them, quod istiusmodi spurca animalia nomen usurpent sanctissimum, that these unclean animals should steal such a sacred appellation. 
Gel. lib. 9 c. 9  If these men were so tender to preserve Civil and Academical honours from defamation, will not God be much more incensed at pseudo-Christians, and say why dost thou take the name of my wellbeloved Son upon thee to pollute it? 
Lib. 4. de prov.  Quid est dignitas in indigno nisi ornamentum in luctu? says Salvian; this glory with which you invest yourselves shall be your utter shame: you blot this Name with whoredoms and oppressions here, therefore shall your names be blotted out of the book of life. My invention will not serve me to conclude this point better than St. Austin hath done, 
De Temp. ser. 215.  Vt nomen Christianum non ad judicium sed ad remedium habeamus, convertamus nos ad bona opera, that we may assume this name as a sovereign remedy against the Devil, and not unto condemnation, let us bring forth works worthy of our Lord Jesus Christ, for whose sake we are called Christians.  
And thou Antioch in the Land of Syria, art not the least among those places that were holy ground; thou wert like a new Jerusalem to us that are called Gentiles, for in thee the sound was first heard which filled the earth with thy Majesty; And the Disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. A place, not long after the first foundation of it, bruited abroad for much infelicity, so frequently was it shattered with strong Earthquakes; a place polluted with no small Idolatry, for Apollo had his Shrine, and Diana had hers within the Circuit of it. Of a sudden, when she was scandalous and forlorn, those evils and calamities were redressed, because God had a delight in a new Offspring which was grown up within her walls, and all the Inhabitants of the Earth did look upon her, as a Star that was shot from Heaven. Now began all the honours, that the times would permit, to be heaped upon it. Some say, that this being the best City wherein the Gospel had got ground, St. Peter the chief Apostle was made the Bishop of it. To make no brabble of it, lest I go beyond the allowance of my time, this is all I will say; if St. Peter were the Bishop of it, than Ignatius was but a bad remembrancer, that wrote so many Epistles, and never spoke of it; then St. Chrysostom likewise, who was a famous Pulpit-man in that City, and made the best Sermons in Antioch that ever he made, he were much overseen that he should never call it to mind, in so many commemorations which he made concerning their dignity. This is surely upon Record, St. Peter afforded it his blessed presence, and so did St. Paul his likewise, a brave building of faith was erected there, when the Covering was laid upon two such Pillars. And a Bishopric was founded there by those two great Apostles, whose succession was happy in painful Prelates, and constant Martyrs; all Syria was subject to it as the Metropolis; the Arabic Canons, which Turrian hath set forth as constituted by the great Council of Nice, 
Evagr. lib. 4. c. 6.  say, that all the Churches in Persia obeyed it as a Patriarchical See. Justinian the Emperor, because we had our best name imposed there, gave it a better name, and called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which is, being interpreted, the City of God. You may be sure their brave Presbyter St. Chrysostom hath often run over this string, 
Homil. 7. in Matth.  and made music upon it. In one place thus, If any contention for priority ariseth, you Antiochians may claim it before all the World, illo scilicet privilegio vobis blandientes, bearing up yourselves upon that privilege, that you were the first fruits of them that are called Christians, this is your victory over your enemies, this is your Diadem above your friends.  
What a pother some would have made of it if they could have boasted of this Prerogative! O how the chief Pontif of Rome would have been hoist up for an Oecumeniacal Bishop! And out of the word Christian what a flourish Cardinal Bellarmin would have made for an Antichristian Supremacy! God hath provided better things for us, than that we should not be pelted with such a paper Bullet. The Antiochians behaved themselves reverently and modestly, and did not abuse the Grace of God unto wantonness. They were not called Christianissimi, more Christian than their Brethren for this verbal priority. They did not arrogate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the chief Patriarchical Primacy before all other Prelates, but were contented with the third rank to follow room and Alexandria. 
Annal. tom. 1. an. 39 sect. 10.  And in my slender opinion Baronius is never more to be commended in any thing, than for rendering the true reason 〈◊〉. Says he in giving honourable place to the Bishops of Alexandria and Antioch, regard was had to follow the steps of the Roman Magistrate, and to settle Ecclesiastical Precedency just as he did distribute his principal Civil Dignities. Now among all the Oriental Praefectures the Proconsul of Antioch was the most chief and honourable; hence Antioch was established to be the Oriental Metropolis. But because the temporal glory of Alexandria was greater, and the chief Roman Praefecture of all others, called Augustalis praefectura, therefore though it was the younger Church in order of time, yet her Patriarch preceded Antioch in order of dignity. And if he had not wilfully shut his eyes against the light, would he not have subscribed, that this was the very cause that the Praelacy of Rome was preposed before them both; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. Chrysostom, we yield it priority, because it is the chief Imperial City, or in Baronius his own language, Vt ex politica dignitate auctior illustrior que fieret Ecclesiastica, that the Ecclesiastical Dignity may become more ample and illustrious in the right of the Political. Well, to end all, Antioch had once the day, renowned for Orthodox Believers, for constant Martyrs, for innumerous Disciples; she contained 366 Parish Churches, says Volateranus; now her material buildings are for the most part eraced down, her spirwal building quite vanished, and her streets are possessed with Mahumetans. You see that the Church is a removing Tabernacle, rolling about from Sea to Sea, from Land to Land. That Truth which shall never fail upon Earth, may fail in any particular Kingdom. The Antiochians, that were the first Christians, are become the last; God knows how the mystery of his vocation will work, that the last shall be first. Be not highminded but fear, that fearing we may work with diligence, and believe with steadfastness, and suffer with patience, that we may be partakers of the first Resurrection in newness of life, and of the second Resurrection in the glorification of Soul and Body. AMEN.   

A Commencement Sermon AT CAMBRIDGE.  ACTS xii. 23. 
And immediately the Angel of the Lord smote him; because he gave not God the glory, and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the Ghost.  
IF the Caesarea was so attentive to hear King Herod's Eloquence, and how he did exalt himself above God: What is your alacrity, may I presume (Dear Beloved) to give ear to this story and to God's vengeance how he did exalt himself above Herod? It might be suspected that Caesarea the Region which was called by the name of Caesar, would be chiefly for the honour of the King, but now we are in the house of the Lord, and in his Temple doth every man speak of his honour, says the Prophet David. St. Luke hath occasioned the mention of two Angels in this Chapter, and they are both strikers. The first Angel is in the seventh verse, that smote St. Peter on the side, and roused him up from sleep; I wish that a good Spirit sent from God may now stir up your attentions. The second Angel is in my Text, that smote King Herod in the inward bowels: and believe it, such as was the sin of Herod, a presumptuous speaker, such is the sin of every careless and unprofitable hearer, that serves the vanity of his own imaginations in this holy place, and gives not God the glory. Is the Lord asleep think you because ye are drowsy? Are not his Angels heedful of their charge because your thoughts are wand'ring? Are you sure to come often to Church hereafter if you leave your affections at home to day? Nay, but though the present business be confined to an hour, so is not the vengeance of the Lord; for immediately the Angel smote him, because he gave not God the glory.  
Every religious exercise should be too long by a Preface, I come therefore to set the Text in order, that I may proceed to the explication of the parts, and they are two: First, That Herod would not glorify God, indeed that is the bitter root out of which grew all these worms, he gave not God the glory. Secondly, That God was glorified in Herod, he was smitten of an Angel, eaten of Vermine, and gave up the Ghost. 
in Acta.  Herod, says St. Chrysostom, gave not God the glory two ways: 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. his mouth spoke proud things before the people. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he suffered the people to speak proud things as if he were equal with God, and did not rebuke them. Wherefore God was glorified in Herod four ways: 1. That tantus periit, the Ruler, the Prince of the people, he was smitten. 2. A tanto periit, no less than a mighty Angel smote him. 3. Tantus tam repentè, immediately he was smitten. 4. Tantus tam luctuosè, he was eaten of worms, and gave up the Ghost. Did not the Lord show great glory in plucking down the mighty? He was smitten. Is not his arm exalted, when the Angels are his Ministers? An Angel smote him. Shall not his wrath be terrible when it consumes in the twinkling of an eye? Immediately he was smitten. Lastly, How weak is man in his sight, even as a bulrush in the field? All the beasts are his Army, and the vilest creatures, if he send them forth, are strong as Lions; the Worms did eat up this Galilaean, and he gave up the Ghost. As the man said in the Gospel, Mat. xvii. That his child fell often into the water, and often into the fire, two merciless Elements, and very dangerous. So Herod in the first part of the Text fell in aquas tumoris, into the swelling waters of pride; and in the second part in ignem terroris, into the fire of vengeance and castigation.  
The offence is to be offered to the first consideration, he gave not God the glory. There is a satiety of all things, and to exceed a just proportion, even in that which is good, it is blameful and vicious, too much justice is rigour, too much temperance is diseaseful, too much love is troublesome: But to give God the glory, it is a duty unto which we are bound with an infinite devotion, if it were possible, even as He is infinite, so that we cannot fill up the measure, much less are we able to exceed it. Wherefore if God gave Children by seventies, as he did to Ahab, he asked but the first born, who was consecrated to his service: every hour of time that we live is his benevolence, yet the Law is our remembrancer only to keep the Sabbath day; the Earth is the Lords, and all that therein is, and yet his portion is but the tenth of the field: but of his glory he hath parted no stakes to the Sons of men; it is his own entirely, non dabo, never ask him for a share, he will not part with it. As his Ark did never thrive at Ashdod, nor at Ekron, 
1 Sam. 5.  but only when it was returned to Israel; so let not the strength of the mighty, nor the wisdom of the prudent be magnified; glory will never thrive but when it is returned to the God of Israel, and Dagon shall fall down before the Ark of his Majesty. Themistocles, 
Plut. in vitâ Them.  demanding Tribute of the men of Andria, told them that he had brought two powerful Advocates to plead his cause, Suadam & Vim; Persuasion if they pleased, Violence if they refused. The selfsame two Apparitors go before the glory of the most high, Exhortation, and Confusion. Doth it like you to bless his name? 
Isa. 14.  So God is glorified by the devotion of his Creature; Doth it like you to exalt yourself with Ero similis altissimo? Then you shall be brought down, and he will be honoured in your confusion. He that swells to the greatest in this world shall be called the least in the Kingdom of heaven, Et fortasse ideo non erit in regno coelorum ubi nisi magni esse non possunt, 
1. Ser. Dom. in monte.  says St, Austin. And to be threatened to be little in God's Kingdom is to lose it for ever, whereas every one must be great who shall be rewarded with that immortality.  
When the Heathen traduced the Christians, that they debased their Emperor, and made him less than the God of heaven. Know you not, says Tertullian, 
In Apolog. etc.  that this is the eminency of your Emperor to be less than God? Imperator ideo magnus est, quia coelo minor est. And as the Orator persuaded Caesar, Dum Pompeii statuas ornat, suas erigit; 
Plut. in vit. Caesar.  While he took care to adorn Pompey's Statues he did advance his own; so we build ourselves a Throne by falling down low before the forth stool of the Lord, and the hands which are lifted up to praise him shall one day stand at the right hand of his Majestly. Somewhat was in it, but the Heathen knew not what it was, they called it abusively, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that every thing which grew too tall was thunder-blasted, and that great fortunes when they came to excess, did end in some shameful ruin. Wherefore the wise Historian said of Poppaeus Sabinus, that when divers Senators were cut short, he lived secure in the reign of three Tyrants, 
Tacitus.  Quòd par negotiis neque supra habebatur, he was fit for the business he undertook, and not too great for it. St. Chrysostom observes it among St. Paul's Salutations to the Romans, 
Hom. penult. in Rom.  that no man was saluted by the name of honour, as Lord and Master, and the like, but Andronicus his fellow-prisoner, Amplias his beloved, Epaenetus his well beloved, these were Titles in which the Saints delighted, expressing their glory to be the union of charity in the holy Spirit.  
As Virgil says of his Bees, that they are full of stomach and revenge, 
4 Libro Georg.  and that one Hive will fight cruelly against another, Atque haec certamina tanta pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescunt; Cast a little dust into the air and the fray is parted: So when the pride of man hath set up sails, and swells with vain opinion, Pulveris exigui jactu, methinks the casting of a little dust should pluck down our stomach, 
Civ. Dei. l. 5. c. 16.  the base mould of which our flesh is made. Tolle jactantiam, & quid sunt homines nisi homines? says St. Austin; Set aside this corrupt leaven of ostentation, and all men are but men, as naked in their pomp as when they were born, or when they shall be buried. It was pride that dethroned the bad Angels, and it is that makes man stubborn against the Law, and refractory against faith: hence it passeth currently to be the root of evil: Yet Covetousness also, as if there were emulation among Vices, is taxed by St. Paul for the root of all evil, setting the soul to be a Vassal to the love of the world and deceitful riches. This Controversy coming before the Schoolmen to be decided, this is the judgement of Aquinas. These two parts are in the nature of sin, Aversio à bono incommutabili, a departure from the love of the Creator, and Conversio ad bonum commutabile, an inclination to the love of the Creature. In the inclination to the transitory good, Covetousness is the root of all evil, in the departure from the chief good, Pride is the root and matter of all evil; that as the Egyptians at the burial of the dead were wont to tear out the dead man's belly, and to cry over it, Thou wert it that killed'st this man: so if we would dissect out Pride from the rest of our vices, we might more justly make that invective over it, Thou wert the fall of Man, and the ruin of evil Angels. The Devil would lead our Saviour into the Wilderness; little manners to go before his Maker. Sequitur superbos ulton, 
Horat.  says the Poet, but it is with punishment. The Adulterer is a sinner in secret, the Covetous commits Idolatry in his Cabinet, the Slanderer is like Pestilence that flieth by night; 
Alice. p. 2. q. 136. in 5.  alia vitia fugiunt à Deo, sola superbia se opponit, other vices are afraid and keep out of the way, only Pride spurs on like Balaam upon his Ass when God and his angry Angel stand before him.  
Now there are four ways, as the Schoolmen make the account, whereby this daring vice of Pride doth diminish from that which should be given to God's glory. 1. Cum homo existimat à se habere bonum quod habet: A sin no less ungrateful than presumptuous, 
●iel. p. 2. q. 6.  to enjoy wit, and art, and memory, and the blessings of the best Portion, but the founder's name to he quite lost, and God forgotten: when the Romans began to insult over the world, well, says one, if every Country had their own, which they have seized upon by violence and robbery, ad casas reducerentur, they would have nothing left them but their Shepherd's Cottages. But should God have all his own restored unto him which we have received, what should I faith? Ad casas reduceremur? our strength, our honour, wisdom and eloquence, all must be returned; nay, we should not have so much left as the Cottage of our Body: for we had it from the Lord: every thing that renowns us, that feeds us, that preserves us, is but mica sub mensa, a crumb that falls from our Master's Table. Did not the Egyptians make themselves fools in their Phitosophy, that thought their Country was not the clearer for the Sun and Stars, but that the Sun and the Stars sucked up sweet vapours from their Rivers, and were the clearer for their Country; so abominable are they in the pride of their hearts, who think they did not receive the spirit of Prayer, and the gift of Faith, and the peace of a good conscience from Heaven, but that they do pay Prayers, and Alms, and Charity to Heaven which they never received.  
Secondly, Violence is done to God's glory, cum desuper datum credunt, sed pro suis se accepisse meritis; when conscience will acknowledge that God doth give all, but arrogancy will infer that man deserves all. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the free Gift of God the Father, the Unction of the Holy Spirit are turned quite aside like a river from his own true channel, when it falls into such a Soil that thinks it deserves it. As the Jews said unto our Saviour on the other side of Gehezareth, Rabbi, quà huc venisti? Master, how camest thou hither; so let us say Sanctification, quà huc venisti? We did not show the way with Palms, neither did we lift up the Gates, there was no entrance which our merits could prepare for sactification, not by our ears which are profane, not by our mouths which are blasphemous; and as our Saviour said, If thy right eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee, so in another sense I may say, if thy right eye do not offend thee, if any part of thy body usurps that it is not sinful, cut it off, and cast it from thee. When good works sue to be called merits, they are like the ambitious men of the World, that spend their whole Revenue to buy some gaudy Title of Honour, and when they have it, they want substance to maintain it. 
Ep. 56.  Vitia Caetera in peccatis, superbia etiam in rectè factis estimanda est, says St. Austin; Compute your vices amongst sins which do transgress the Law; compute Pride to be the mischief which doth transgress against your virtue. As Eleazar in the Macchabees slew the Elephant, and was renowned for his valour; but the Carcase of the beast fell upon him, and oppressed him to death; so the very virtues which proud men commit crush themselves into ruin, like the corpse of the Elephant: and be assured, that he who subscribes merit to the Gifts of God, is not the man that gives God the glory.  
The third Transgression is, cum despectis caeteris singulariter appetunt videri quod habent, a lofty stomach that will seem to be no less than inter utburna cupressus, to be conspicuous and have no equals, and like Saul higher by the head than any other Israelite. Upon the Prayer of the Prophet David, Deliver me from the horns of the unicorns, in Vnicornibus superbi intelliguntur, says St. Austin, qui soli cupiunt eminere. 
Ep. 200.  The proud man is deciphered by that single horn of the Unicorn, who would be solitary in all God's Graces, and without a Companion: Whereas the Congregation of the Militant Church is compared to a Field of Wheat, where all the ears of the Field are of an equal growth, and if any stalk over-top the rest it is lank and without fructification. Brethren, they that are not contented to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, equal with the common condition of men, shall never be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal with the glorious condition of Angels, and he that despiseth the Gifts of God in his fellow Servants, be assured he is not the man that gives God the glory.  
Fourthly, There is one feather more in the tail of pride, and full as long as the rest, cum jactant se habere quod non habent, when they arrogate to themselves that which indeed they have not. Christ hath said we cannot add one cubit to our stature, no nor make one hair of our head black or white: Why do ye practise it then, O ye gaudy Beauties, to bring that about which Christ told you was impossible? Why did God say we are but dust, if we attempt to outface his judgement, and make ourselves as beautiful as the Pearls of the Sea, or the Gold of the Mountains can set us out? Why did the Prophet say we do all speak vanity to our neighbour, if it be death unto our neighbour to call us liars? I have seen books of Meditations whose subject was to let all men know that they are vain, and sinful, and ignorant, and yet the very Title should confute all the Doctrine of the Book, a flattering Preface to some great man of most virtuous, and most religious. Presume not to take false Titles upon you, as Herod encroached upon the name of God himself, you are puffed up, you are canonised, yet we give not God the glory.  
But that we may strike upon him a little, whom the Angel hath smote before us, upon the pride of Herod, it is a Monster that riseth up into two heads by St. Chrysostom's observation; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in the tongue actively, in the ear passively, 1. a tongue full of vain and insolent speech. 2. an ear obnoxious to the flattery of the people. Of both them in their order, and for your edification.  
It was Epaminondas his praise, that he seldom met with a man that knew more than himself, or spoke less: and so the least doers inch out their poor works with much talk, and publication. We have stories, and we have conjectures, that Herod's Oration did chiefly tend to put the terror of his Majesty upon the popr fearful men of Caesarea, and to amplify his own clemency, when he had received them into favour. Did this deserve to be blown with a trumpet in a public Solemnity? As the artificial prospective to the eye, so is the tongue unto the ear, an hollow instrument to make every thing seem bigger and fairer than it is. The Beasts, the Birds, the Serpents may be sooner tamed, says St. James, than the tongue of man. Some are said in Scripture to whet their tongues like a sword, 
Jam. 3.  they are the Apostles Beasts: some have exalted their tongues above heaven, they are unclean birds: some have the poison of Asps under their lips, and they are Serpents. 
Lirae glossa.  Yea but worse than these headstrong creatures is the tongue of man; bestiis ferocitate, volucribus levitate, serpentibus virulentiâ praecellit; fiercer than the Beasts, more flitting than the Birds, more poisonous than the Serpents: It is a member of the body that can taste every thing but itself, and knows how all things relish, but it's own pride and bitterness. How often trips it in swearing? in boasting above measure, in pride most lofty, in anger furious, in perjuries blasphemous, in curses bitter, in vain talking never quiet, as glib as honey in hypocrisy, subtle in lying, smooth in deceiving, impudent in flattery. How will you excuse all this, Beloved, before the judgement of God? Can you say that these things come from the wickedness of your flesh? Or from the Law of our Members that cannot be resisted? God will never be answered with this excuse: Heaven knows that all these iniquities of a slippery tongue come from nothing but evil custom. Nothing was so scorched in Hell as the proud tongue of Dives, which had insulted over Lazarus, and like an uncharitable member it spoke only for itself to be cooled with water.  
And as we are taught from hence to set a watch before our lips, not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Homerus.  the hedge of our teeth; but to impale it about with lowliness and humility: so in the second place let us learn from Herod's example to circumcise our ears, to renounce the flatteries of evil men, for he suffered them to beatify his eloquence, to cry out it was the voice of God, and he perished miserably that gave not God the glory. The Tyrians and Sidonians had done a trespass against Herod before, and all this Solemnity was kept that they might be reconciled to his mercy: but what offence could they commit before so great as this open flattery? And shall Herod be pacified with them for adding a greater evil to their former injury? It is a policy of evil Magistrates, 
Plinius in Paneg.  says Pliny, that they take delight to make evil Subjects, patientiores servitutis arbitrantur, quos non deceret esse nisi servos, for such men will submit themselves to all baseness, who deserve no better life by their condition than slavery: here were such exclamations, such outcries in the praise of Herod, that we had never known his insolences and his faults, unless St. Luke by the motion of the Holy Ghost, 
Chrys. homil. in Acta.  had made a true relation of the story: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but though all men dissembled with their double tongue, here's one Michaiah left, one Evangelist that will defame him, and deal plainly, that he gave not God the glory.  
The French Proverb says, that the boiling pot doth discover the little pea which is in the bottom of it, and the applause of a little vain glory doth discover the disposition of the mind of man, 
Sen. Ep. 52.  more than any other passion; tum qualis quisque sit scies si quemadmodum laudetur aspexeris, the gravity or fickleness of man's spirit may easily be guest at, as you shall see him digest some public praise and acclamation: as you may see in Herod, he came into Caesarea with the Majesty of a King, the People gave him the Divinity of a God, 
Ibid.  but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the itch of praise made him lower than a Servant: Nocet laus si non rerum cupiditatem facit sed sui, says Seneca, glory is the fire that kindles virtue, when it provokes virtue to good achievements, but when glory begets nothing but the desire of glory, it is but childish popularity: Therefore of tame Beasts none rends so much, or makes such a waste in a well-affected mind as a Flatterer. 
Tertullian de spectac.  Si gulam & ventrem ab inquinamentis liberamus quantò magis augustiora nostra, oculos & aures, says Tertullian: a pretty absurdity indeed, not to suffer a crumb in our drink, or a mite in our meat to go down our throat, and so into the very droff, as Christ calls it: but if an immodest spectacle, if a dangerous flattery be presented, our more curious senses are never watched, but our eyes wink not, and our ears are opened.  

Plutar. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  All flattery is the corruption of true glory, but to flatter any man in his vices is a sacrilege against virtue. Plato spent but few words in the praise of any man while he was living; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for by nature we are prone to change from better to worse; there was more reason in his Philosophy than in their Christianity that lick the deformities of other men's actions, and feature their unshapen whelps as if they were beautiful. It is a note of a Reprobate, that he speaketh good of the covetous whom God abhorreth. 
Plut. in vit. Lycur.  How can this man be good, says Lycurgus of Charilaus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, who is not rough and sharp with those that are vicious? Such glozing tongues, says St. Austin, that commend other men's faults, are like the dogs that leapt in Lazarus his sores. 
Qu. Evang. lib. 2. c. 38.  But if flattery tickle the tongue of the Sycophant that it cannot keep in, have the young Courtiers none to infect but Rehoboam? If Vriah the Priest have a fancy to Idolatry, is there none to be corrupted but Ahaz the King of Judah? If men have such levity that praise and glory will transport them, was there none to be abused but Herod? A Democrcay is not a greater enemy to the honour, nor a Jesuit to the life of a King, than is a Flatterer to his prosperity; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Plutarch, as we use to say, that the Gout is the rich man's disease, so Flattery is the corruption of the Great and Honourable. As by the Ordinance of our Church we give one day to the Honour of a Saints Name, and no more; so the Romans to claw their Governors, styled a whole Month by the name of an Emperor, as if one proud Pagan had been worth thirty humble Christians: 
2 Sam. 2.20.  Like Asahel, it pursues none but Abner the Captain of the Host, Volscentem petit, in solo Volscente moratur, turn to the right hand, or to the left, says Abner, & apprehend unum de adolescentibus, fasten upon any of my Servants, and take his spoils. 
Plutar. de discrim. am. & adulat.  But that would not serve, Abner is the mark he shot at. Qui fontem corrumpunt, non ab acervo sed à sement furantur, ungracious practisers, while they corrupt the fountain, the Prince of the People, they do not filch from our Stack, or from our Barns, but from our Seed Corn itself, which is double thievery.  
Flattery, you see, is the adulterating of virtue itself, to flatter vice is to promote Satan's Kingdom, to flatter Princes is to destroy their Kingdoms, to flatter Princes, as the Sidonians did Herod, Voces Dei non hominis, the voice of God and not of man, is to pluck down God's Kingdom: 
Psa. 1●7. 26.  as David said of the raging of the Sea, that it lifted up the Ship to heaven, to bring it down again unto the deep; so such blasphemous flattery lifts you up like the top of Corazin unto heaven, to cast you headlong into hell. The Athenians who were but Gentiles at the wisest, could not endure such injury to be offered Deo ignoto, to the God whom they knew not, but put Timagoras their Ambassador to death, quod regem Persarum tanquam Deum sa●utasset, because he adored the King of Persia like a God. I pray you what mark of a God was in Herod, that he was thus exalted? He was nothing less than a God for speaking eloquently; the holy Scripture is written stylo piscatorio, in the humble stile of Fishermen: nothing less than a God for suffering Blastus of his Chamber, to be corrupted and bribed by the Sidonians to win his favour: nothing less than a God for being so gracious with the multitude: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, alas, put it to the hare-brained multitude to make a God, and the first that ever they made was a Calf in Horeb: and I cannot perceive that they made any better of Herod. Finally, nothing less than a God, that could not discern how unworthy they were to be reconciled to man, who were sacrilegious against God.  
Constantius the Emperor pretending that he would lessen the Train that followed him, offered this condition; they that would stay with him should forsake Christianity, and worship Idols, and let the rest depart. But upon the trial what did the Emperor? discard all those that sacrificed to Idols, and retained those that did not shrink from the true Religion, supposing that they would prove most disloyal to him, who had abandoned their faith to God. And as Constantius punished his Servants, so Canutus, one of our own Princes, punished himself, to expiate the flattery of his followers. Upon some good success, no voice was heard among his People, but that he was a God; and that shall be tried presently, says Canutus, and sitting by the Seashore commanded that the waves should not touch him; but the water coming to the soles of his feet, Fie, says the King, how you have abused me, the man whom yond call a God cannot keep his feet dry upon the Seashore: so turning to the Palace of Winchester, took off his Crown of Gold, and putting it upon our Saviour's Image, never wore it more upon his own head. I have said ye are Gods. Mark, Beloved, I have said it to honour you, 
Psal. 82.  but you must not say so to honour yourselves, no nor suffer your hangers-on to say so for you.  
I will shut up this point with Rupertus his Meditation; what an easy thing it is to dazzle the eyes of men with outward appearances: If there were, says he, such a shout given to Herod being clad in a Royal Robe, what applause will be given to Antichrist being clad in Gold and Silver, and shining with Miracles? We know the applause too well: we hear what Titles the Romanists have given to their mighty Prelate, whose height is sixty cubits above the Church, and his breadth six cubits broader than the Kings that are under him. Our ears tingle at the Acclamations. What is it to say the Pope cannot err? Is not that the voice of God, and not of Man? What is it to say his power to forgive sins is more than instrumental? Is not that the voice of God, and not of Man? What is it to say that his Excommunication can dethrone the Lords Anointed? Is not that the voice of God, and not of Man? who said Eritis sicut Dii, you shall be like unto Gods! the Devil do ye think? Gen. iii Well guest, but it is a Canonist that saluteth John the XXII. as the Devil did Adam and Eve, Our Lord God the Pope, as you may find in the Extravagancies: I will not name him, the man is known, whose Essay in the Pope's defence is very famous, that he desired to be at Rome to see him, who is said to exalt himself above God, cast down in confession at the feet of a poor Penitentiary: very good. I have seen Wrestlers crouch to the ground, that they might throw their adversaries beneath them, and get the glory; so this great Colossus coucheth himself at the feet of his Confessor, that he may trip up all the World, and make them Vassals to Confession. So much may be said of their Pride, which the whole World begins to hiss at, that, without violence done to charity, we may rightly suspect their humility. Awake for shame, and remember how lowly he was▪ that St. Peter, whom you glory to be the top of your Succession. Brethren, he that will be more than a Man, may not we suspect him to be St. John's Beast? He that will be more than a sinful Man, may we not justly tax him to be the Man of Sin? And so I pass from the first general part, how Herod gave not God the glory, and come to show you how God did get himself glory out of Herod. Immediately the Angel, etc.  
He was smitten, I told you that was the first Emphasis of the four. 
August de Agone Christiano.  For since Herod would be as great as God, I will give him precedency so far that his Destruction shall be handled first, and then the Vengeance of the Angel. He was smitten. Aliud est facere quod lex jubet, aliud pati quod lex jubet, says St. Austin: The obedience of the Law was violated, but the castigation of the Law cannot be avoided. Matchiavel among his irreligious Principles, says that all the credit of great Enterprises depends upon success, for if Caesar had miscarried in his Civil Wars, his infamy had been more odious than Catiline's: Potentes potenter cadunt, mighty sinners run into mighty destructions: and such conspicuous offenders as Herod was, leave themselves as an Ensign on a Hill, and as a Beacon upon the top of a Mountain, says the Prophet Isaiah. Where is his Eloquence now? Where is his costly Garment to make him gorgeous to be gazed upon in his public Oration? Where is the outcry of the Sidonians that Canonised his Tongue for the Voice of a God? The Jealousy of the Lord was kindled like a pile of Brimstone which would not suffer a petty God to stand before him. 
Lib. de Spectac.  As Tertullian said of the Idolatrous Tragedians in his time who dedicated their sports to the Gods of the Heathen, Do not now flock unto them, Christian Brethren, says the Father, you shall hear them hereafter tear their voice in Hell, when you shall sit in the joys of Paradise. Tunc magis tragaedi audiendi, magis scilicet vocales in suâ propriâ calamitate. So we shall hear this rare speaker hereafter, whether he can persuade Father Abraham to give him a drop of water to cool hid tongue.  
One thought he had given good counsel to the Athenians when Alexander the Great, stomached at their City for denying him the title of a God, Cavete ne dum coelos custodiatis terram amittatis; Take heed lest you forfeit your own possession of the earth for denying him the possession of heaven. But the Sidonians gave Herod so much of heaven, that they lost him all the earth, but a Grave, little more than a span long, 
Joseph. l. 19 Euseb lib. 2. c. 10. Eccles. histor.  for his burial. St. chrysostom his question is very material upon this place, why the people giving the first offence, yet Herod is punished, and the principal Malefactors, to see to, acquitted. The reasons are so many, that I must lay them down without much enlargement.  
First, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Josephus gives the reason, He should have reproved and abhorred, he should have stopped his ears at their flatteries. He should have thrown off his Crown, and cast dust upon his head; he should have rend his spangled Garment, as St. Paul did at Lystra, when they provided Garlands, and Sacrifices, and Godlike entertainment. Woe will be to thousands in our Church, especially to Magistrates and Prelates, that suffer so many unsavoury words to fly about their ears and not reprove them. Why should your silken perfumed sinner talk ribaldry fit for brothels and I forbear to chide him? Why should I suffer pestilent men to profane the Scripture, and I a Minister of Christ stand by as if I were chop-faln? A Swearer, if his greatness be not in the reach of my tongue, shall see in my face that he hath no place in my heart. Be wise then O ye Rulers of the earth. You must either be nursing Fathers to God's Church, or else Enemies, there is no mean. Out of the strong came sweetness, as it is in Samsons Riddle, Honey out of the belly of the Lion; that is, the happiness of the Church issued from the protection of godly Princes. The Jesuits that say their charge is only to look to the Second Table, and not to exceed negotiation of temporal affairs, wish them no better death than Herod had, who reproved not the People, and immediately the Angel, etc.  
Secondly, God will take a more exact account of great men's actions than of the Vulgar multitude, because their lives are conspicuous and exemplary, and as it was said of his Anointed Christ, So we may say of his Anointed Kings, He that is lifted up draws all men after him. Woe be to the Governors who misled the people that are under them. As the Flood of waters in the time of Noah was fifteen Cubits higher than the tallest Mountains, so the wrath of the Lord doth especially overtop the Mountains, 
In Sympos.  and his voice delighteth to shake the Cedars of Libanus. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. says Plutarch. Among Mariners not one that dies a quiet death among ten, but among evil Kings not one among ten thousand. As their life is infectious unto many, so is their doom dreadful unto many, and that is the second reason why he was smitten.  
Thirdly, The people were not altogether free from chastisement, I am sure not free from terror in Herod's castigation. Look now upon him that was your Idol, look ye Sidonians upon the empty cloud which you did blow into the air, nay, above the heavens with the breath of your mouth. How is it vanished, and come to nothing? Imagine Beloved with what astonishment the whole Assembly was dissolved, if their Consciences were not as full of Worms as Herod's body.  
Fourthly, Says St. Chrysostom, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. To enlarge the Father's meaning, Clemency and Justice when they meet together attend how they may punish few, and save many, Vt poena ad paucos, metus ad omnes perveniret. Wherefore judge in your own reason, if Herod had been spared, and a great Assembly punished, they all were sure to perish, he perchance might be amended; but if Herod suffer the Malediction, one man feels the smart, and the whole Assembly may repent and be saved.  
Fifthly and lastly, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ says the same Father. Let the Rabble go home in peace for this time, they were not all white for harvest upon that day, but behold the end. Where is Caesarea now? Or who almost knows the Sidonian? They have learned to know by dear experience that Thunder and Judgement is the Voice of God, and not an Eloquent Oration.  
The Sum and Doctrine of this Point is thus much. First, It is dangerous for a Magistrate; it is certain Judgement for men whom God hath blessed with honourable and plentiful fortunes to defile themselves with scandalous vices. You have Plenty in your Houses: What need you to be unjust? Your State is able to subsist by itself: What need you to flatter? You may have Families, and Wives, and Children: Why should you be Adulterers? Your Provision is not scanty: Why do you eat and drink in excess, as if they were things which you had not daily? It is not for Princes to drink Wine, that is, not unto Drunkenness, says the Prophecy of Lemuel which his Mother taught him. 
Plin. Paneg.  A nullo periculo fortuna principum longiùs abest quam ab humilitate. The worst thing which happens to a magnificent life is that it is not obnoxious unto humility. Secondly, It is no less dangerous when a whole Kingdom, and City, or any collected multitude set their face against heaven; Judgement may seem to have forgot them, as these Sidonians departed safely in my Text, but in time the Lord will root out such a Nation. Well then, when the flattering Assembly had deserved a vengeance, Herod only carries it to his grave. What shall I say? As the Child that threw a stick at the dog, which barked at him, and hit his Mother-in-law who had long afflicted him, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I meant the Dog, but it is well as it is, says the Child; so that Princes may see they have no privilege to be flattered, whatsoever the People deserved, God's judgement fell not amiss upon Herod, and he was smitten, Tantus periit, the second thing follows, Tantus à tanto, he was smitten by an Angel of the Lord.  
If these men says Moses concerning Core, Dathan, and Abiram, If these men die the common death of all men, if they be visited after the visitation of all men, than the Lord hath not sent me. Strange Wickednesses procure strange kinds of Death. If the Earth will not avenge them, the Angel of the Lord will come down and fight. Do the Trees of Paradise deserve to have a Cherubin set before them with a flaming Sword? And shall not all the Host of heaven stand about the Majesty of the Most High, and see the honour of his name preserved? But there is a controversy, whether this Angel were not one of the evil Spirits now commanded to inflict a disease upon Herod's bowels: For say they, it were as great a torture for the Devil to punish Herod for Pride, as for Herod to suffer it, because it calls their own sin to remembrance, for which they are fettered in chains of darkness▪ And Josephus gave the occasion to this opinion, augmenting the story of Herod's death with this circumstance, that an Owl at this very moment perched upon the silken strings of his Canopy, which the King took to be a Presage of his death, and was no doubt a tenor substituted by Satan. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, As Homer says, 
Iliad. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  a Bird of fatal Predication; and such a one is said to have affronted Innocent the Third as he was declaring his own Title in the Council of Lateran. For my part I am not averse to believe Josephus in this part of the Story, because in all other points he doth follow the Evangelist. And the sight of some uncouth Creature is able to put an evil Conscience into a perplexity worse than death. Every thing is dismal to a guilty mind, like Archimedes his Engines, dreadful to the Romans, if a Timber-log, 
Plut. in vit. Marcel.  or Cable-rope did but show itself upon the Walls of Syracuse. But though the relation of the Owl be true, the Spirit of God would not mention it in holy Scripture, lest it should increase our ignorance, who are superstitions, to be afraid of the cross and apparitions of beasts, and such other casualties.  
Let it be then that this evil Vision affrighted Herod, yet it is more likely that the Angel was one of the blessed which smote him that he died. For although the good Angels are sometimes called evil ones ab effectu, as the Psalmist says of the Israelites, that God sent evil Angels among them, yet the unclean Spirits are never styled by this honourable compellation, to be called the Angels of the Lord. And give me leave to please myself a little in this conjecture, God would not permit vengeance of death to be executed against a King by any power inferior to an Angel of light. It is the privilege of their Unction, their immediate subjection to God alone, which exempts them from the hand of all other authority, yea, from the fury of infernal Spirits. Wherefore the Jesuits own tender conscience, which is as soft as Flint, dare not say that a King is obnoxious to death, till some unnatural Sentence of deposition go before. Which resembles methinks the very first passage in Aristophanes, You dare not strike me, says Charion the Servant, having a Crown upon my head; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says his Master, I will first take your Crown from you; so first the Jesuits lay down rules of Arts to depose Princes, and then their Devil ships say that you may use them as you will. Well, though Herod deserved the worst of all the Royal Order, yet neither the hand of man, nor the fury of Satan could do him hurt, but immediately the Angel, etc.  
Brethren, you see my Text speaks of a smiting Angel. An Angel smote the firstborn of Pharaoh; an Angel made an exceeding slaughter in the Host of Sennacharib. An Angel brandished a Sword before David when seventy thousand died of the Pestilence. Conceive not of these things as if an Angel had a Sword of Steel, or offered any visible violence per contactum, 
Come in 2. lib. Sam. cap. ult  but as Abulensis says, the Angel did apply some pestilent noisomness to the air, which in a moment entered into their bowels, and destroyed their Vitals. Beloved, the holy Angels seem as it were desirous, and ambitious to avenge God's glory against the pride of Herod. Indeed, there is so little zeal in his cause now adays, so few do stir in it, as if to this hour we left all to them, and expected Angels. Nay, rather as if we thought of neither God nor Angel. Where is the Courage of Phinehas? Where is the Zeal of Elias? Where is the Voice of John the Baptist? Where is the Sword that is not lent in vain unto the Magistrate? The lean cattle it may be shall go to the Shambles, but Amalek and the fat ones are your prey, and your Sacrifice. Ecquid tinnit Dolabella? Then no man cuts him off though he give not God the glory. The world is grown as unconscionable as that heathen man, who said, He had rather heaven should lose a Star from the Firmament than himself to lose an heifer from his flocks of cattle: So we are more tender of our own reputation, than to maintain his glory by whom King's reign, and by whom we hope to reign as Kings in glory. The Noble Descent of our Ancestors, the Antiquity of our House, the Dignity of our Place, the Gravity of our Years, Praecedere quatuor annis, these are things that our blood will rise at if they be called in question; but the profanation of the name of Jesus, the alienation of holy things, the demolishment of Churches, irreverent carriage at Divine Prayers, and the holy Communions, are as little our care as matters of Religion did pertain to Gallio.  
I must again recall you to the practice of the Angels. For when the Sadducees did so much dishonour them, that they said there were no Angels at all, yet we do not read in all the Scripture that these Angels did avenge themselves of the saducees in their own behalf; but in another quarrel, in God's cause they are as quick and hot as a flaming fire. Nay, for fear lest some body should step in before them to do the deed, as soon as ever the word was out of Herod's mouth, that he was magnified as a God, immediately he is apprehended. And that is the third part, Tantus tam repentè, without pause, without time of revocation, immediately, etc.  
The Judgements of the Lord are so sudden, so accustomed to tread upon the heels of sin, that all the comparisons of nimble motion are borrowed to express it. The Flying Arrow, Psal. xci. The noisome Pestilence that cleaves to the flesh in a moment, in the same place. The coming of a Bridegroom whose longing desires use not to be tardy, Mat. xxv. The Thief in the night that gives no warning; The gliding of the Lightning from the East unto the West; The blast of a Trumpet; The crowing of a Cock that breaks our sleep; What can be said more, that God's Angel doth immediately strike the insolent? Nazianzen, speaking of those Scoffers that abused S. Basil, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, It is marvel that Thunderbolts are not stirring upon such a trespass. St. Hierom, in his Commentary upon the Prophet Habakkuk, relates, That Julian the Apostate, reading this story of Herod's downfall, cavilled against the Christians for saying their God was patient and of long suffering, Nihil iracundius, nihil hoc furore praesentius, says he, ne modico spatio indignationem distulit; Nothing more angry, nothing more sudden, he did not defer his indignation no not for an hour. It is true indeed, sin and death are Acus & filum; iniquity draws on judgement, as the Needle draws the thread, immediately after it: For such as are vessels of dishonour, when they first jussel against God's Commandments they begin to crack in the very moment, although they break not in pieces till the fullness of time, when the Millstone shall fall upon them and grind them to powder. In the day that thou eatest thou shalt die, says God to Adam, that is, thou shalt grow mortal, and decline every minute more and more to the grave.  
But there is a chosen Generation (yet let them not presume upon grace) that shall be pardoned seventy seven times. Whereupon, says St. Austin, 
De Agon. Christ.  Commemoratione hujus numeri omnia peccata sunt dimissa, quando ipse per quem omnia peccata remissa sunt, septuagessimâ septimâ generatione secundum Lucam natus est; That is, if sins be remitted seventy seven times to the Elect, than all their sins shall be remitted; for he, in whom all sins are remitted, Christ Jesus, was born by a mystery in the seventy seventh Generation from God the Eternal Father according to St. Luke. Immediately he was smitten, in such Splendour of Attire, in such Celebrity of Attendants, before the face of Strangers, among those who in their hearts were no better than his enemies; never did he come out of that Chair of the Scorner, from that Throne wherein he was Canonised, till he was stripped of all Dignity, and deprived of that Title by the Angel of the Lord. Had he been struck with sickness in any other place, I know how it would have been excused, the fault would have been laid upon his long journey from Galilee to Caesarea, perchance the Sidonians had been charged to poison him, such suspicions are very rife, as if it were impossible for Princes to come to their end by natural infirmities; but now no such rumour could be broached, Immediately, etc.  
Beloved, It is the most dreadful thing upon earth to be suddenly apprehended by judgement. What will not our strict Reformers cavil at, who demand to have the Prayer against sudden death to be put out of the Litany? It is well if they themselves be so well prepared for the hour of Judgement, come it never so unexpected. Indeed, it should be so. But let the Christian, whom I would instruct, pray every Morning as if he should see the Sun rise no more: Pray every Evening as if he should see the Sun set no more; be ready to meet the Bridegroom at Midnight, and yet despise not that Supplication, From sudden death good Lord deliver us. He that promiseth God repentance hereafter, pays him in the mean time with iniquity. Ab hôc loco, hoc ipso tempore Deo servire statui, it is St. Augustine's Meditation. If your heart be touched at any Sermon, do not consult with your Almanac what day will be most convenient to begin your Reformation: from the moment wherein you heard the Word taught, in that place that then you stand, slip off the old Serpent's skin and renew your youth, become a new Creature. No man would sin so fast, but he that thinks his Age runs away but slowly; no man would be an unrepentant sinner to day, but that he hopes for to morrow. And why to morrow? 
Seneca.  Nemo non suo die moritur; My day to die was every day since I had an hour to live. And I was a sinner before the first minute of that hour expired, therefore why should not my heart smite me, and contrition humble me, lest Judgement should begin as soon as this word is spoken. It is the Devils muttering, and not a Christians, to say, Art thou come to torment us before thy time? 
Plut in vit. Cato.  Of three things Cato did repent of more than the rest this is one, Quod unum diem mansisset intestatus; A day passed over his head wherein his Will was not made, he might have died intestate. If a Heathen were so solicitous that upon every day the things of this life might be duly ordered, what care ought to be taken, that we suffer not our eyes to flumber until all things be accorded for the peace of our conscience, for our reconciliation in Christ Jesus against the world to come? Sickness, and Death, and Judgement, who knows whether they be not as near to us as the avenging Angel was unto Herod, who did immediately smite him, that he was eaten, etc.  
Now I am fallen in the last place upon the true castigation of Herod's pride, Tantus tam luctuosè, that such a Potentate should die so miserably, eaten up of Worms for five days, says Josephus, after he was smitten, and then gave up the Ghost. Lest he should glory that he was smitten by no less than an Angel, Aeneae magni dextrâ, behold the meanest of all Creatures, the Worms are made his Executioners. And lest he should domineer, as Eusebius said he did, that he died not sordidly, in the rank of a mean man, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, with the dignity of a King, which is the much admired happiness, therefore the loathsomeness of his Disease, the ignobleness of the Scourge, the irrecoverableness of the Mischief, all are conjoined to debase his Spirit. O torture little dreamt of at this time! Had he not the Physicians of Arabia about him? How could he feel mortality? Was he not in perfect strength to make Orations to the People? What could be doubted of his health? Was not his body kept sweet and clean like the body of a King? Who would have suspected the putrefaction of Worms?  
But remember that Manna bred Worms and stank though it came from heaven, when it was too long preserved against God's Commandment. So though the Sovereignty of a King do come from heaven, yet if it offend the Lord it will consume and putrify. He that humbled himself to be vermis non homo, a worm and no man, he is exalted above men to the right hand of God: He that would have been Deus non homo, a God and not a man, is dejected below a man, and made a worm. See what contrariety of Instruments God did use to make his death the stranger, an Angel, and a Worm. An Angel, that he might say, with the Philistines, Who is able to endure these mighty Gods? A Worm, that he might say, Et tu Brute, the meanest of Creatures can conquer a King by God's ordination. An Angel, for his sake who was the Judge, to show his mightiness: A Worm, for his sake that was judged, to show his baseness. An Angel, to show how a sinner cannot look upon heaven, for it is full of wrath: A Worm, to show he cannot tread safely upon the earth, for it is full of vengeance. An Angel is an immortal Creature, to threaten such pain unto the soul: A Worm is a most corruptible creature, to show the fading of the body.  
As St. Paul said of his Widows which were busybodies, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 She that is wanton is dead while she is alive, because she is dead to Faith and good Works: So I may say of Herod, that he died while he was alive, for Worms which feed sweetly upon the dead, as Job says, fed upon him in his life-time, as if he had been buried, 
Job 24.20.  after he had solemnly made his own Funeral Oration. As the Poet spoke of a poisonous death, which wasted the body first, and separated the soul afterward, Eripiunt omnes animam, tu sola cadaver: So I may say of this Phthiriasis, First, 
Lucan. l 9  it did eat up the body, and so left no room for the soul to inhabit in the members. 
Lucret. l. 5.  Expertes opes ignaros quid vulnera vellent, says Lucretius; When anguish doth tear their heart, skill cannot afford recovery, when their whole body is but one sore, they know not where they are wounded.  
This disease is more observed in Histories to be the Arrow of the Lord against sinners of high presumption than any other. Thus Sylla died; thus Antiochus Epiphanes; thus Herod the Great; 
Plut. in vit. Syllae. 1. lib. Mac. Euseb. l 8. c. 18.  thus Arnulphus, that spoilt the Churches of the Christians; thus Phericides, that gloried he never offered Sacrifice, and yet lived as prosperously, quam qui heccatombas immolant. What do we talk of Blazing-stars, that they are only fatal and ominous to the life of Noble Personages, a few Worms have often bereft them of their soul as easily as the little Worm smote the Gourd of Ionas. But will some man say, Do you make this disease an infallible sign of God's especial indignation? Brethren, God forbid. For Judgements fall promiscuously in this life upon the good and bad: Seest thou a man rend with as many torments of infirmities, as there be members in his body, to receive them, let your first Meditation be, Acerrimum est praelium in viâ, magnus erit triumphus in patriâ; He suffers much in this life, his triumph will be the greater in the world to come. And let your second consideration be the dreadfulness of God's anger. 
Tertul. de Patien.  Says Tertullian to the Roman Lords, the tortures of your Bondslaves are Fetters, your reward is a Cap of Liberty; but we are servants of the most high, Cujus judicium in suos, non in compede aut pileo vertitur, sed in aeternitate poenae aut salutis. Whose judgement gives sentence either of Hell, or Everlasting salvation.  
To answer you more copiously. One circumstance alone had bred no ill opinion of Herod's death: Many circumstances raise a suspicion that his Life was Criminal, and his Death Exemplary. 1. To be smitten in a sin immediately upon the fact, to be smitten by an Angel, to be gnawn to death with Worms, the divine hand was over this Sentence, and no natural cause. Unless, as Tertullian said of their lascivious theatres, 
Lib. de spect.  that resounded with scurrility, Ipse aer qui desuper incubat scelestis vocibus constupratur; So, that Sacrilegious shout which the people gave against the honour of God did infect the air, and provoke this immediate putrefaction in Herod's bowels.  
Beloved, We do all hold up our hands, and bless ourselves from such a vengeance as fallen upon him, that the very flesh should putrefy in his body, and breed stink and loathsomeness, yet our lustful Gallants will take no warning, but incur a more odious disease, a more putrefying corruption of the body by their uncleanness and fornication than ever Herod had. It is very strange to see how one Country will shift off the name of that disease to another (which for reverence to your ears I will not mention.) The Indian will not own it: The Naopolitan shuns the disgrace to have it pinned upon him; the French translates it upon another People, whole Kingdoms were ever ashamed of the infamy, and yet this man, and that man, and the other that haunts Stews, incurs it, knows of it, professeth it. Beloved, is such a putrefied Carcase fit to make a Temple for the Holy Ghost to dwell in, or rather fit to make a Hog for Satan to enter in, and run him headlong to his ruin. O you are sure all shall be cured by Baths, and Surgeons, when the Angel of the Lord may strike you immediately that you give up the Ghost.  
So indeed our Saviour himself is said to give up the Ghost, but with much difference from Herod in the very original phrase. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. John. 
Joh. 19 Luk. 23.46. Mar. 15.39. Mat. 27.50.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. Luke and St. Mark. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says St. Matthew, still there is mention of the Spirit in all the four Evangelists, because Christ was full of the Holy Ghost. But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says my Text of Herod, he breathed out his soul, no mention of the Spirit, for he was homo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. as St. Paul says, Efflavit animam, he disgusted out his soul, which no doubt did loath the body.  
To conclude all: If you ask me what became of Herod after these words, He gave up the Ghost, I have no Commission from the Scripture to search into it, he had much cause to give God thanks if he were saved, who gave him five days repentance, after he was struck, to be sorry for his sin. If he were condemned, we have cause to give God thanks, who hath made Herod an example unto us, and might have made us, had we been created sooner, an example unto Herod. Like David's Arrows about Jonathan, so are Gods Judgements about us, on this side, and beyond, round about our eyes, his name be blessed for evermore that we are not the mark of his indignation. Which mercy that he may continue towards us, we beg for the merits of Jesus Christ, To whom, with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, etc.   

THE FIRST SERMON UPON GAL. iv. 26. 
But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the Mother of us all.   
AN odd conceit that came into the head of the Cosmographer, who said, that if two Eagles equally strong in flight should be chosen out, the one being set at the furthest part of the East in Asia, the other at the furthest part of the West in Europe; if these two should take the wing just in the same moment, and not rest till they came together, they would meet both at Jerusalem, as if it were the Navel of the habitable World. I rehearse it as a Dream, and I give it this Interpretation. The Synagogue under the Law of Moses was the Occidental Eagle; the Gospel of Grace the Oriental Eagle, which did rise with Salvation in its wings; why these two holy Professions which soared aloft, when all other Religions crept upon the ground, I say these two, when St. Paul wrote this Epistle to the Churches of Galatia, did conspicuously meet in Jerusalem, as in that Theatre whereon they did act their most principal part. There was the Chair of the Scribes and Pharisees advanced, that taught the exactest way of the Law: there was the Temple, wherein the Rites and Ceremonies were performed daily, which Moses commanded. And likewise from thence began the Gospel to go forth into all the Earth, and had gained more ground there than in any other place. You have filled Jerusalem with your Doctrine, say the High Priests. Lo this is the Rendezvouz of the Cosmographers two Eagles, and this is the Explication of his Fable. You know they continued there a short while, for about the space of forty years, like Twins struggling in one Womb. And though at first the Propugners of the Law would in no wise consent that the College of the Apostles, the Preachers of the new Covenant of Grace, should have any room in their Principality; yet in a short time the Devil saw it best for his purpose to let them share together: Nec meum, nec tuum, sed dividatur, let it neither be Moses alone, nor Christ alone, but let them mix together. This was the bane of sincere truth: for every Metal that is mixed with gold embaseth it. And yet it was entertained as a motion sent from Heaven to make peace and amity, in all the Churches of Galatia, till the Lord stirred up the spirit of St. Paul to dissolve this Combination, which he performs with most approved success in this Chapter. And because Similitudes and Figures will hold faster in the memory of the unlearned, who are the greater number, than powerful Arguments; after weighty Reasons premised, the Apostle concludes, with an Allegory at the end of his Disputation, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Banquet after a Meal of solid meat. And thus it runs, that they who sought righteousness by the Law were no better than Ishmael the Son of Hagar, they that sought righteousness by Faith were as Isaac, the Heir of his Father. That the Law came from Sinah, which was seated in Arabia, a Mountain quite out of the Confines of the Land of Promise; the Gospel began at Zion, or Jerusalem, which was the heart of the Holy Land. Or let Jerusalem be compared with itself, and it was under servitude and malection by the Profession of the Law, but it gained honour and a beautiful Portion by the Profession of the Gospel. Jerusalem which now is in bondage with her Children, but Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the Mother of us all.  
Out of this contention between St. Paul and the Galatians, those suspensive men, those neutrals, that would be half Jew, half Christian, and so were rightly neither Jews nor Christians, I say from hence the legitimate Church, which is the undefiled Spouse of Christ, hath purchased this description, which I have read unto you, wherein divers of her Privileges are collected together: I do not say all; for under the Title of the King's Daughter, she is described circumamicta varietate, Psal. xlv. clothed with as much embroidering and varieties as could be rehearsed in a long Psalm. In this little Abstract of the excellency thereof, six Portions of its glory are contained in six words. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 1. She is a Jerusalem, a visible fair City, that's her external Communion. 2. A Jerusalem above, that's her internal Sanctity. 3. A Jerusalem that is free, which is her supernal Redemption. 4. A Mother, that's her Fruitfulness. 5. The Mother of us, which comprehends her Unity. 6. The Mother of us all, which expresseth the Universality. Somewhat upon each of these, as God shall assist me, that the hour may be profitable to the hearers.  
Jerusalem is the Substantive or fundamental word that bears up the whole Text, and it is as musical a word as most that run upon syllables; but it offers more pleasantness to the understanding than to the ear; full of happy signification; a name given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the Philosopher Plato was wont to say, to accommodate to the Church Apostolical, that unless God had foreseen that his saving truth should first grow up within the walls thereof, it had never been called Jerusalem. The first mention of it is to be required from Josh. x. i. where we read that Adoni-zedek, King of Jerusalem, was afraid of Joshua, when he had taken the strong City of Ai: Yet I will not say that it was called Jerusalem in those days when Adoni-zedek lived. It had two names before; and the best Antiquaries of the Jews confess, it is not spoken of by their Wisemen which name preceded. The Rulers thereof, whose mention is of the oldest time, are Melchizedek, and Adoni-zedek, that is the King of Justice, and the Lord of Justice: so that the City was formerly called Zedek, or Justice, that without controversy: but because, through the corruption of our manners, Justice may set men's teeth on edge, when it is too severe and inflexible; therefore it was also called Salem, or the Border of Peace: Melchisedech kept his chief Court there, and he was King of Salem, and Priest of the most high God. And thus in the times foregone augusto augurio, for a more fortunate Auspice, it was known by the names of Zedek and Salem, Justice and Peace, both which were fulfilled in Christ our Lord, who suffered there to satisfy his Father's Justice, and made our peace by the Propitiation in his blood. Things bypast so long ago, for the most part are all uncertain, and it is not known whether it were David, the renowned Conqueror of that City, or some other holy Prophet, that enlarged the short word Salem, and made it Jerusalem: Whosoever it was, if our Doctors hit him right, he had an excellent reason for it. In this place the mighty Hill was called Mount Moriah in the days of Abraham. 
Gen. 22.14.  Thither he brought his only Son Isaac to sacrifice him as the Lord commanded; but when the Ram caught by the horns did excuse his Son, he called that high place Jehovah Jireth, the Lord will be seen in the Mount. This Jireth prefixed before Salem makes it Jerusalem, as who should say this City, the Church, will bring you to the vision of peace: Or thus, let her be comforted in her persecutions. Deus providebit pacem, God will provide peace. So that Justice, Peace, and Providence are the flowers that spring out of her names, a sign that some great Blessing was hatching within her Circuit, which was brought forth, when the first Flock of Christ the great Shepherd, was folded there, who were sent from thence to baptise all Nations.  
Neither have we of the New Testament encroached upon this Name without leave: the Psalms the Prophets, all that went before have given us authority for it. To cite one for all, those words of Jeremy come next to my mind; 
Ch. 3. v. 17.  At that time they shall call Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord, and all the Nations shall be gathered unto it. We are the Parties spoken of, and we are that Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord. Not to rob them of it, that first possessed the Name, but that both of us might be marked with one stamp, as with a Seal of Unity. It was Jerusalem before unto them of the Circumcision, and still it is Jerusalem unto us of the Uncircumcision. The Law and the Gospel are at no discord, unless they be perversely mistaken: the one was Christ veiled, the other is Christ reveiled; they make not two Churches, no more than an Infant, and one of full age make two divers men: it is the same bough that bears the flower and the fruit, they are both Jerusalem. No conjunction in the World was intended by God to be more amicable, than between us two, that we should be one People, one Body, one Sheepfold, one City, one Jerusalem, any thing what you will which was of multitude, and will hold fast together, and become the same. How often is our Peacemaker called a Cornerstone, that he might grow with us both into one frame of building, he stretched him to both Walls, that both might rest in him? 
In Psal. 44.  Yet for all this none under Heaven are worse agreed than we, through the envy of the Devil. Socrus Synagoga divisa est contra nurum Ecclesiam, says St. Austin. It is as our Saviour foretold, the Mother-in-law the Synagogue is divided against the Daughter-in-law the Church, and the Daughter-in-law the Church is divided against the Mother-in-law the Synagogue. But the scandal of the rupture is theirs, and the curse of it is upon them, which will never escape them that affect schismatical separations, and to be holy after their own cut. It were lamentable to tell you what the Polity of the Jews is at this time, a spiritual Sodom is an harsh word, but we that march after the Standard of Christ are an holy Jerusalem.  
Which word must needs gather up our mind into many notions, wherein Jerusalem of old, and the Catholic Church do symbolise; both of them the Seats of the Oracles of God, both of them the Thrones of the Priesthood, both of them sown with the blood of Martyrs, both of them illuminated by Prophets immediately sent from God: there the Lepers that were cleansed, after due Rites performed, were received into the Congregation; here contrite sinners, after due penance performed, receive their absolution: to that Kings brought Presents, and Proselytes came from far; to this the most glorious Monarches have afforded their bounty and protection. In the one Christ was sacrificed for the sins of the World, but the new Jerusalem, and none but it, doth partake the merit of his Sacrifice. If fancy will take scope these Analogies are without number, therefore I pass them by. And I refer myself to two things especially, how the Name descended upon the Church. First, While the old Tabernacle stood, Jerusalem was the chief place wherein men called upon the Name of the Lord. Secondly, Out of the same Zion went forth the New Law, and Jerusalem was the Mother of the first born in Christ. For the first, as you would call a School of good letters Athens, a place of good Military Education Lacedaemon, and a Country of intemperance and luxury Babylon; so because the Worship of God was performed after the best form and exactness within the Precincts of this City; therefore those that emulate the Jews in an holy way, to magnify the Lord Jesus, and to advance his Name in their reasonable service, they carry this good report to be called the Jerusalem of God. Obadiah's Cave contained most Orthodox Prophets, Capernaum had a Synagogue to preach in, perhaps as good Sermons delivered there as in all Judea; Joppa had many devout people in it; Bethany afforded a Family which exceeded all others in love to our Saviour; but if you will shape unto yourselves the beautiful Churches of Christ, you must pass by these, reserving much praise unto them all for that wherein they did very well, and you must extend your thoughts to the flourishing Profession of God's Name at Jerusalem. Thither the Tribes went up, that they might worship together in their most populous Assemblies: not like some in our days, that keep at home when the Convocations of the Lord require their presence, and flatter themselves with their own sufficiency, as if they needed no Prayers to commend them to Heaven but their own. But one Simon Stylita, mounted up in his Pillar by himself, is not an whole Jerusalem. To keep Religion in life there is nothing more needful, than that such as are of the Visible Church have communion and society one with another. Beside, in this Metropolis of the Land of Canaan the degrees of the holy Priesthood were conspicuous from the chief Pontif to the meanest Levite: Not all fellows, as Core would have it: And why not every one as good as Aaron? This would make Babel and not Salem; Demetrius his concourse for all the World, Act. xxix. no man was tied to say by your leave to his Companion; for every man was a Master of the Mutiny. Let not the pride of them that cannot get preeminence cry down the Authority of them, who have commanded from the Apostles to this Age: And remember that St. Judas hath pointed out some who were Spots in the Church, 
ver. 11.  not in the Synagogue, that perished in the gainsaying of Core? Now Core's gainsaying, if you will expound it to the Letter, can be nothing else but a seditious attempt against Ecclesiastical Dignity. Beside, the sound of Jerusalem brings to our remembrance all Divine Offices that were done in the Temple, to celebrate his glory, who is wonderful above all, wherein we succeed them either in the same, or by clothing their Figures with a Substance. 
Acts 3.1.  They had appointed hours of Prayer day by day in the Public Congregation, for their sakes that will find out a little time between Morning and Evening to step out of the affairs of the World into the Courts of Heaven; they had the Law preached and expounded with uncessant diligence: there were no less than 460 Synagogues within the Circuit of that City in the days of Josephus: so many Pulpits to inculcate Doctrine into the People. It seems they had a form of Catechising by that Conference which was held between our Saviour and the Doctors; they had Psalmody according to the most skilful Music of David and Asaph; they had Incense to learn us devotion; they had Sacrifices to teach us mortification. The exercise of all which indeed was much kept down under captivity, and during Antiochus his Persecution: But in the days of peace and liberty it had this external face of holiness. And that our solemn and outward Profession of God's worship should be suitable to this decency and splendour, and not shuffled up as if we took our Platform from such an obscure Village as Bethphage or Emmaus, it is incited to do all things after a sacred comeliness and magnificence by the name of Jerusalem.  
So it is: and yet these Mosaical fashions are passed away. But it is an indelible Character belonging to that place, from whence the Church rejoiceth to take its name, that the first foundations of Christianity were laid in Jerusalem: for as Seneca said of the Heavens, dignum & idoneum spectaculum si tantum praeteriret, it was a gay and a goodly sight, though it did no more but move above our head and pass away; how much better was it to us by the virtue of its light and influence! So Jerusalem is famous for that Levitical Worship of God which is passed away and vanished, but much more glorious for the influence dispersed from thence over all the World by the Apostolical preaching; for out of Zion went the Law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem, Isa. two. 3. Let us do it all favour, says the Emperor Justin the Elder, to Pope Hormisda, for it is Mater Christiani nominis, the Mother, the Foundress of our Christian Profession. We may take leave I think, to discourse a little upon the wisdom of God's good pleasure, why this was the Brood-nest wherein the first Assembly was hatched that taught the Gospel. First, says Leo, Vt ubi passus est Christus ignominiam, ibi subiret gloriam, Christ chose Bethlem for his Nativity, but populous Jerusalem for his Passion, where many might behold his opprobrious Death. Lo in that soil where he became a scorn and derision to them that were round about him, he ascended into Heaven (for Mount Olivet browed upon Jerusalem) there he sent down the Holy Ghost, there Faith and Repentance began to be preached in his Name, there St. Peter made his first Sermon among devout men that were gathered together of every Nation under Heaven. As there had been the Golgotha of his Humility, so there he advanced the Standard of his Glory. 2. Since our Saviour began to take his Kingdom upon him, where should he proclaim himself first but in his Royal City? there was the Court of David and of Solomon, and meet it was that His Court should be there who was to sit upon the Seat of his Father David. And it jumps well, that he did not take possession of Jerusalem presently after he was baptised, no not till he was crucified: He did not actually reign in full Majesty till he triumphed over Death in his Resurrection. From thenceforth the Royal Robe of Immortality was upon him, and his Sceptre in his hand to crush his Enemies, and this was made known in the chief place of God's Worship, in the Gates of Jerusalem. 3. Had the Gospel been preached in the beginning near about us in Europe, or in Africa, or elsewhere far from that Country where Christ preached, and suffered, and rose again, the news would have been strange, and Unbelievers would have replied, who are your Witnesses of these things? But, in the first utterance of Christian Faith, to preach of his Passion within sight of Calvary, of his Doctrine within the Temple, of his Resurrection hard by Joseph of Arimathaea's Garden. This was a demonstration of truth, that it vented itself where it was best known. Much unlike unto them who tell us in these parts what Miracles their Disciples do in India, and tell them in India what Miracles they produce in Europe. When their Wonders are done so far from home, it is a sign they would be trusted, but not hazard examination. 4. Where the Holy Ghost came down from Heaven, it was fit that the Soil just under that Zenith should be the Cradle of the Church to receive its infancy. Christ commanded his Disciples to tarry at Jerusalem till they were endued with power from above, Act. i. 4. He would not send his Soldiers abroad unarmed to fight his Battles, the Spirit of Grace is medulla Ecclesiae, the Pith the Marrow of it: Our strength without it is but like that of dead bones, where it descends plentifully there riseth up a Church to Christ. And here the Apostles had it not inchoatiuè, but cumulatiuè, they were abundantly filled with it because they were to empty it out to all Nations.  
Out of these Premises I proceed to the Conclusion. Jerusalem was Ecclesia Primitivorum, The Church of the Firstborn, the Apostles, the eldest Sons of their Mother, did teach the first Alphabet of Christianity there, and therefore by way of gratitude to so great a Benefactress the Catholic Church by way of Metonymy, Causa pro causato will never be ashamed to be called Jerusalem. Every Kingdom upon due right must bear a reverend respect to them from whom they received their happy conversion. Some had the first knowledge of Salvation from Rome, some from Constantinople, some from Antioch, some from France, some from England, but all from Jerusalem. And yet none of these are to domineer over the faith of their Brethren. They that have begotten us in Christ may teach another Gospel in the revolution of Ages than the Gospel of Christ, and then are we bound, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to labour to reduce them into the right way above all others, who were the Parents of Religion. It is a blessing sorted out to some whereof David speaks, Thou hast made me wiser than my Teachers, Jerusalem that drank the lukewarm blood from Christ's side, and had the Prerogative of pure Doctrine without all mixture of insincerity, it had a Bishop in the whirl of times, John the Predecessor of Prailius, who was an Origenist, and a suspected Pelagian; another of its Pastors was Gerontius, a confessed Eutychian, and divers others it had, that were leavened with heretical contagion. None would concur with these unless they would put out their eyes to wander for company, because they were the chief Fathers of the City of God. Imagine therefore that Alcazar the Jesuit had all t●at he could ask, 
Rev. 21.  that the new Jerusalem that came from heaven prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband was the Church of Rome (yet his Reader must be very courteous that will admit that Exposition) give them this moreover that Isaiah meant it, Chap. lx. 3. The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and Kings to the brightness of thy rising. No proper name is specified there. But what if it were Rome? Although the seventy two, and their own Vulgar Latin have added the word Jerusalem unto it. Above all, suppose it were possible to consist with my Text, that it were the Roman Church which was opposed to Hagar the Bondwoman, that these were her Epithets, to be above, and free, and the Mother of us all, (which had it been, Tu es Petrus had never been planted in the forefront of their argument, nor had it been their Dromedary ridden and jaded upon all Controversies) this had been their Achilles, in which they had boasted themselves invincible. But if all this garnish had been the true beauty of that Church, it would afford us no more than to meditate upon the Prophet's question with wonder and commiseration, 
Isa. 1.21.  How is the faithful City become an harlot? The true Church upon earth is a Tabernacle, portable hither and thither, easily devolved from place to place. When Abraham looked for a City that had foundations, he expected it in heaven and not in earth, Heb. xi.  
I know what is ready to be caught hold of from hence by some, and much good do them with it, that the Church is compared here to no ignoble handful of people, which a man must grope for in the dark, but to an illustrious Commonweal, famously known, and conspicuous in a glorious manner to all the world. Yet, with their leave, this Jerusalem which St. Paul prefers, was in those days like a Pearl in the shell, orient in itself, but hidden from the world, overspread with a multitude of gainsayers, ten thousand Adversaries, and ten thousand more to one Orthodox believer. As the Historian says of C. Marius, brought so low in his fortune, that he hid himself from pursuers of Sylla in the flags of a fenny ditch, Quis eum fuisse tum consulem aut futurum credere? Who would have thought he had been Consul, or should ever live to be Consul again? So when the Apostles, and a few persons more, met in an upper Chamber at the feast of Pentecost, who would have took them to be the Kingdom of God upon earth, and none but they? Or who would have divined, that such as they begot in the truth should spread into all quarters as the Stars for multitude? It is the Lords doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. The Mountain of the Lord hath been notorious, and a clear object unto innumerous eyes upon the top of the Mountains. But is there any such promise, that her outward splendour should be constant, and her felicity perpetual? Nay, rather are we not threatened with such times, when it shall be rare to find faith upon the earth, with large Apostasies, with flying away into the Wilderness, with the Saints dispersed into private Corners? Grant that this should be for one hard brunt and no more (Dato non concesso,)) yet if the small number of right Believers may be compelled at any time to exercise their Religion in private, the reason falls which some do pertinaciously allege, that the Church must be always well known over the greatest part of the Earth, because her Doctrines and Traditions must be fair and open to all them that will come unto her to seek salvation, or else such as continue in ignorance are excusable: if sometimes it may be obscured by misery, their mouth is stopped for making that objection; and we are assured that the conversion of Unbelievers is not so plentifully brought to pass, by the populous association of men professing faith and godliness, as by the inward impulsion of the spirit, where the Labourers pains do hit successfully by the hidden will of God. But if the quarrel went no further, than that the Church is a Jerusalem always well known and visible in some measure of manifestation, it might quickly be compounded; a Congregation there hath been ever since the Apostles, whose report might come to the ears of natural men, though their profession of supernatural verities was known only to spiritual men; in this latitude we may believe upon historical faith, that the City upon an hill was never hid, but showed its manifest lustre, I say was never hid, yet nothing repugns to the nature of a true Church, but it might disappear and be enclouded from the sight of most men in mists and storms of Heresies and Persecutions. Let not the Antagonists dissemble, and they know the discord is at another point, namely, whether the main Principles of saving truth, being retained and taught famously in a Church, which is otherwise very corrupt in divers Doctrines, whether those that distaste, and in heart renounce such over-added Superstitions, are always distinct and culled out from the rest, so that nominately they may be discerned from the more potent Faction? We affirm, and are sure of what we affirm by uncontroleable experience, that the Israel of God do not always profess their Faith and Religion in Congregations apart, but many times they continue in the external Fellowship and common Society of corrupt Believers: and these have been so suppressed by the tyranny and subtlety of great ones, who have laboured to obscure them, that as for the present they have been little set by, so they have had small or no reputation in History, to commend their name to after Ages. Much might be said, and invincibly form for this out of Ecclesiastical Annals. I appeal to one Instance above their Monuments (which beget nothing but humane faith.) The Master Builders of Jerusalem, about the time of our Saviour's Incarnation, retained the sum of the Law, but admixed with it most impure Divinity, and partly by their cunning, and partly by their supercilious Authority, there was no open distinct Assembly of the People, which concurred not with them. Joseph, and Simeon, and Zachary, men not carried away with their fraud, were but here a berry and there a berry upon the top of a bough: and if it happened thus to Jerusalem below; where lies the odds? who can tell, that it may not sometimes be the condition of the Christian Church, which is Jerusalem from above?  
Now, far be it from this Remonstrance of the paucity and obscurity of the sincere Church, as if it inclined to a schismatical disjunction: Nay Simeon and Zachary had rather hold communion with the Synagogue of their times, which was much departed from the Truth: but then they were not compelled to subscribe to the prevailing errors of the Scribes and Pharisees. Jerusalem is not Jerusalem if it be not a building well compacted together of them that hold society, as much as in them lies, with all those that have received the Mark of Christ in their forehead. We are called a spiritual Building, and living Stones, 1 Pet. two. 5. Stones that lie scattered are troublesome to the Passenger, and dangerous to stumble at; join them to others for the erection of a Building, and then you have employed them to their most physical property: As in a Wall one stone supports another, so when we cleave fast together, and bear one another's burdens, God will dwell within us. Where two or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst of them. Says Ignatius in his Epistle to the Ephesians, we are Stones squared by the Line of the Holy Ghost, and raised up by Charity from Earth to Heaven: And when the Holy Ghost doth dispose us to supply our fit place in the Structure, than we are living stones; Lapides mortui nihil possunt per se nisi cadere, says Hierom to that of St. Peter, a dead stone hath no motion of itself but to drop out of the Wall of the House, and to fall down, as who should say, there is nothing but decay and death in division; as on the contrary, there is prosperity and life in unity. But as Pliny tells of Theophrastus, that he taught in his Philosophy, that there were some stones, that by nature brought forth other stones, as it is in Plants and Trees; so the stones that build the Walls of this Jerusalem must bring forth that which is fit for the ornament of the Building, but if they do very wicked things, fitter for the Tower of Babel than for the Temple of Christ, they they shall be plucked out of the Building like accursed stones upon which the spot of leprosy appeared, and the Priest shall cast them into an unclean place without the City, Levit. xiv. 40. Jerusalem consists in external communion, but they are not worthy of it. And so ends the first point.  
It was not enough in St. Paul's Judgement to denominate the Spouse of Christ from the best Habitation (for earth is but earth be it never so much a selected portion) therefore he carries her aloft in his praise, and adds, that it is Jerusalem which is above, an heavenly City, Heb. xii. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as if it had not its original here, but fell down from the starry Firmament. A notion fit for the most oratorious style of the Prophet Isaiah; 
Isa. 2.2.  says he, It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lords House shall be established on the top of the Mountains. To which the Rabbins give a childish interpretation, that toward the time when God shall finish all things Mountains shall be piled upon Mountains, Thabor upon Sinah, Sinah upon Carmel, and Zion upon them all: as the Poets feign that the Giants threw Pindus and Pelion on the top of Ossa: how low they creep in their understanding, that do not stretch that description to Heaven! Let such Blind-worms lick the dust, as the Psalmist says: but we must find out certain Raptures rather than Expositions, how the Seat of Christ's Kingdom, where his Servants do him homage in praise and holiness, is not beneath, but above. First, because Christ our Head is ascended into Heaven, and governs all things beneath from thence, sitting at the right hand of his Father. As a King, upon whose safety the weal of the Kingdom depends, is said to carry the lives of his people with him, when he adventures his person into danger; so our Souls do hang upon Christ our Redeemer, in him we live and move, wheresoever he goes he draws us after him; if he be lifted up on high, so are we also by virtue of concommitancy, it is his will, and we have his word for it, that where he is, there should we be also. When we pray unto him, if our spirit do not issue out from us, and prostrate itself before him in Heaven, that Petition solicits faintly, and is not like to speed, because it comes not nearer to him who is our Advocate with the Father. When we come to his holy Supper, unless we carry up our heart unto him by strong devotion, and presume that we see that very Body which was crucified for us before our eyes, we pollute the Sacrament for want of faith. There are such joints and bands which knit the body unto the head, as mortal reason cannot express: but through faith and love we are often with him by invisible ascensions: but most assured be we that there he intercedes for us, from thence he assists his Sacraments, 
Heb. 12.25.  sanctifieth his Ministry, gives grace unto his Word: And if they did not escape, who refused him that spoke on Earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn from him that speaketh from Heaven.  
Secondly, Our Jerusalem is above not only in the Head, but in the Members. I do not say in all the Members: for the Church is that great House in which are Vessels of honour and dishonour. Terms of Excellency though indistinctly attributed to the whole, are agreeing oftentimes only to the chiefer or more refined part. Some there are in this Body, whom though we salute not by the proud word of their Sublimity, yet in true possession, which shall never be taken from them, they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, those that are above. Witness that the Angels make up one Church with us, being the chief Citizens that are reckoned in the triumphant part: fellow Servants with us under one Lord; adopted Sons under one Father; Elect under one Christ. This is the language of the Scripture, and surely Members of one Mystical Body, for the same Jesus is the Head of all Principality and Power, Colos. two. 10. Of this Family also are the Saints departed, even all those holy Spirits that obey God in heavenly places, and do not imitate the Devil and his Angels. This is that Church which hath neither spot nor wrinkle; for when I speak of such a Church, says St. Austin in his retractations, I mean none but those in Heaven. After these that make the front and first File of our March, there are many among us, I trust, who have their part in this description, Jerusalem which is above, the Elect of God, the Church invisible; invisible, I say, not for their persons, but for their qualites; for who can see who hath an internal union with Christ the Head? Who can tell whether this or that may be filled with his Grace, and quickened with his Spirit? Cusanus says very well, that there is no certain judgement to be made by the outward fruits, who are living Members of the Church, but in Infants that are newly baptised. With the mouth we confess the truth, but with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and only God can see the heart. But these, whose integrity their Master knows and loves, no matter in what base condition they wander here, they are greater by far than the ungodly that overpeer them in promotion, they are above indeed, for they are as high as the pinnacle of blessedness, and their names are written in the Book of Life: for their sakes God hath dropped down the beautiful style of Jerusalem upon the Household of Christ; but without these no name were so fit for it as Sodom or Samaria. Such as will wrangle where no occasion is offered, have carped at this, as if we removed all from the Church, but such as are Israel in occulto, and have their sins forgiven in Christ: It was never our meaning, neither can we help it, but that we must keep communion with all those that profess the common Faith. But if the Church had known Hypocrites it had not admitted them into the Portion of the Lord, or else it had excluded them. Et quid prodest non ejici coetu piorum si mereris ejici, 
De Dup. Martyr.  says St. Cyprian; What the better is it for an Hypocrite that he is not cast out of the Congregation, since he deserves to be cast out? he may abide with us in the outward Society of them that call upon Christ, praesumptiuè non veraciter, as Spalatensis says, because we presume he is faithful, though indeed he is the Child of the Devil: numero, non merito, he makes up one of the Multitude that go in the broad way, he is none of the few that strive to enter in at the state gate; he keeps the formality of a Christian with others beneath, he perteins not to Jerusalem which is above.  
Thirdly, We have obtained this dignity, to be ranked as them that are above, because our calling is very holy: He hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, 2 Tim. i 9 called to Doctrine which is above, which flesh and blood did not reveal, but the Father that giveth wisdom plentifully: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says Theophilact upon my Text, God did preach the Gospel from on high with his own voice; for take a Breviary of it, and it is no more but that which he said from Heaven, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. We are called to obey the truth by illumination from above, from thence is sent the spirit of them that are baptised, the spirit of the Apostles and Martyrs, the spirit of Bishops and Doctors, the spirit of all those that have lived in the Truth, and shed their blood for the Truth's sake. We are called to that Religion which consists in celestial Functions; in Faith and Hope, in Prayer and Charity; not in a Religion which presseth them down that observe it with an insupportable weight of Shadows and Ceremonies; 
Jo. 4.23.  but the hour is come when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth. Beware of those of the Concision, says St. Paul, and among bad marks which they carry, 
Philip. 3.19.  this is the conclusion, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they mind earthly things, that is, they are pleased with carnal Ordinances, with these low and beggarly Observations of the Levitical Priesthood, but immediately turning himself to the Fundamentals of the Gospel, and the practice thereof, says he nostra politeia, our way of serving God, our manner of worship is in Heaven. So Bernard says, that the Synagogue moved in a low Orb. But Solomon, speaking of the New Testament, says, Quae est ista quae ascendit? Cant. iii 3. Who is she that cometh up from the Wilderness, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all the powders of the Merchant? Above all, we are called to holy actions, which savour not of man's passions and purposes, but are qualified from above. Our fortitude is heavenly fortitude, our temperance heavenly temperance, our liberality to the poor heavenly liberality; but the moral deeds of the Heathen, living out of the Church, that had the best gloss upon them, were smutcht with some bad vapour below, and every grain of virtue that grew out of their stalks did abound with the chaff of vanity. And what exceeds all that I have said, beside to make our calling heavenly and holy, God is so gracious to those things which are done in the Church in the name of his Son, that where an unfit instrument may seem to mar all by his extravagant profaneness, by his impenitent conscience, nay by his heretical pravity, yet Christ's presence and assistance are not wanting to his Word and Sacraments, but their efficacy is free and current to the people, though they be performed by a crooked and an adulterous Generation. As the Posterity of jacob's Handmaid had a Princedom among their Brethren in the Land of Canaan, though they came of Bondwomen, Bildah and Zilpah, Non illis obfuerunt natales ancillarum, sed praevaluit semen paternum, says St. Austin, it did predominate in the advancement of their fortune, that such a Father did beget them, though their Mothers were Servants. So it prevails in the holy things of the Gospel, that the Father of Grace is above that blesseth them, though they be delivered to you immediately by him that is a bondman to iniquity: the impediments that are under foot here be no impediments, because our Jerusalem is from above.  
Fourthly, This holy City of God is above, because it pursues not the things beneath, but it seeks those things above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God, it is above in its affections. The delights of the Synagogue were victory over their Enemies, length of days, a Land of Wine and Olives, and flowing with Milk and Honey, poor accessories of a transitory happiness. This was tolerated unto them, when the first Rudiments of the fear of God were taught; but grandescenti puerilia excutiuntur, these are too childish for us to look after. In as much as long continuance of time hath taught us to choose the better part. Jerusalem facit amor Dei, Babyloniam facit amor seculi, says St. Austin, he refers all the World to belong to two Cities, which he calls Jerusalem for the sound part, Babylon for the wicked. The whorish Babylon is built up with the love of transitory things, the Virgin the Daughter of Zion is built upon the love of God. Our Predecessors that lived near to the Apostles days, did give such reputation to the Christian Name in the holiness of their conversation, that all that they did or desired, savoured, even in the nostrils of their Enemies, of that which was above: ask them what they would have? The Kingdom of Glory; And why they spent the day and night in fasting and weeping? For the Kingdom of Glory; And why they exposed their lives to ovethrow the Idols of the Heathen? To get the Kingdom of Glory. What need we more witnesses said the Judges that examined them, their heads are forfeit, for by their own confession they seek the Kingdom. Alas poor souls trained up by Fishermen, who had learned that one lesson from the mouth of their Teacher, Behold we have left all. No delights under the sky which they forsook not, that they might not be forsaken of God; took no more but bare necessaries for life out of all the store which the Earth afforded, but filled up the wide chinks of their heart with the contemplation of that which is above. In the ancientest Irish Synod, held under St. Petricius, there is a polite passage for those Times and that Climate: Use these outward things moderately, non sumit lucerna nisi quo alitur, all is superfluous in a candle but that which the snuff sucks up to maintain the light. Some came after these that were renowned for the contempt of transitory things, and the sweet elevation of their spirit, among whom was Gregory the Great, says our Bede, praising him for our sakes, animo illius labentia cuncta subter esse, as water runs under a Bridge, so all the fluxive things of fortune flowed beneath his mind. But all latter Ages have justly deplored the decay of sanctity of manners; as the virtues of Miracles were withdrawn, so that admirable sanctity in the Church which bred both envy and amazement in the Heathen, came to a much meaner perfection. I know not how the baits of honours and voluptuousness are grown to be stronger tentations now than in those days, when our Progenitors were squeezed between persecution and poverty; for where is he that doth his duty nowadays, and looks not for some part of his payment in hand, and to reap a crop out of these transitory possessions? As Manna desisted to fall when the people eat of the fruits of the land, so the sweetness of heavenly joy is not perceived any longer, when our appetite rageth for these vile things, for a dividend of dust and clay. Recall your Soul, and lure it higher, when it stoops to this bait below; when it extends its desires to things that are worse than its own substance (so is every thing that we behold with our bodily eye) it must needs return home less unto itself, and be justly despised of God, whom we talk to in our Prayer, as if we were persuaded he was in Heaven, and yet so busy we are in action beneath, as if we sought our God upon Earth. In a word, by penetrating so far into these corruptible objects you have excommunicated your own Soul from the Church of Saints, for that Jerusalem is above.  
Fifthly, The Church Evangelical is Jerusalem above in respect of the Jewish Hagar, propter sublime pactum, the Covenant that is made with us is sublime and magnificent; not the dreadful Law of Works, but the mild and gentle Covenant of Faith in the blood of Christ. Now this is nothing else but the very next point in effect, the freedom or eternal redemption of Jerusalem, which requiring a more spacious part of time to handle it, I conclude all that hath been spoken for the present in the name of the Lord. AMEN.   

THE SECOND SERMON UPON GAL. iv. 26. 
Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the Mother of us all.   
ST. Paul in his Apology, which he made against those that did detract from him at Corinth, confessed that he was rude in speech. And St. Hierom says, Paulum nequaquam de humilitate, 
Ep. 151. ad Algasiam.  sed de conscientiae veritate dixisse; That is, he wrote it in the earnestness of truth, and not in the submission of humility. St. Austin says, 
Lib. 4. Doct. Christianae. c. 7.  he did but grant his obtrectators their own false opinion in that saying, for he had the genius of a most persuasive Orator, and spoke with the tongue of an Angel. These passages may be reconciled. For verily he did for the most part go the beaten way of the Spirit of God, and handled heavenly things in a plain stile. For the Gentiles sought after wisdom, but since by wisdom they knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe. Yet St. Austin had his eyes open, that he did espy very elegant and most graceful amplifications here and there in his Epistles, as occasion did demand that he should dip his Quill in Eloquence. We are at home for an instance in this Text. An Allegory (of all other Tropes in Rhetoric) is no little Bud, but the fairest flower, and most blown in their Garden. This Figure the Apostle makes use of, as he professeth, vers. 24. and runs upon it very copiously to set the Synagogue and the Christian Church, the Old and New Testament in comparison one against another. He carries it before him from the situation of two Mountains, Sinah in the Desert of Arabia, Zion in the Holy Land, which two Hills became very famous by accident, Sinah for the Law, Zion for the Gospel. He prosecutes the Trope from Ishmael the Son of the Bondwoman, who was aliened from his Father's house, and from Isaac the Son of Sarah, who was the Heir of the Promise. And all this is curious and inlaced like Mosaic work, with most artificial correspondencies. Thus Solomon delivered the Institutions of an honest life in plain and concise Proverbs, but when he wrote upon the beauty of the Church he altered his stile into a polite and mystical Song. And our Apostle doth frequently utter the things belonging to Justice and Temperance in lowly and vulgar forms of speech, but when he goes about to describe the rights and graces of the Church, then Paulò majora, he is quite another man, and handles that subject with many gradations of eloquence.  
Witness my Text, as in part I have unfolded it already, which is a flower growing upon the stalk of this Allegory, which I discuss the oftener to keep the Precept which David gives, Psal. xlviii. Walk about Zion, and go round about her, tell the Towers thereof, mark well her Bulwarks, and consider her Palaces. The Zion in that Psalm is the Jerusalem in my Text, which consists of no ordinary Bays of building, but all of sumptuous Architecture. There is never a word in this Text but is either a Tower, a Bulwark, or a Palace of Jerusalem. Mark them well, go round about them, says the Psalmist. Her Towers rise up in state, for Jerusalem is above, she hath Bulwarks of safety, for we are made free therein by the blood of Christ. Her Palaces are of large containment, for she is the Mother of us all. Out of six words in the verse, I formerly considered six attributes of honour that belong to that Church which Christ hath purchased with his blood, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 1. She is a Jerusalem, a visible fair City, there is her external Communion. 2. A Jerusalem above, that is its internal Sanctity. 3. A Jerusalem that is free, which is her most proper Christian Badge, and supernal Redemption. 4. A Mother, that is her fruitfulness. 5. The Mother of us, which imports a Brotherly Unity. 6. The Mother of us all, which expresseth the universality. I have told and numbered the Towers of it, and in a former day I proceeded to Jerusalem above; Now I will mark her Bulwarks, and consider her Palaces, that she is free, and the mother of us all.  
Jerusalem which is above is free. The precedent praise of the Church adheres unto this word for the consummation thereof. If there be any that take upon them to belong to the New Jerusalem, and to the City which is above, let them show the Copy of their Freedom, that they are not led by the Spirit of Bondage, but by the Spirit of Adoption. There may be a plausible conversation of life in them that are out of the Pale of Jerusalem. For Moral Virtues do not belong to Christian men as Christians; but they pertain to them as men, says Hooker. There may be fair manifests of sanctity and the contempt of the world in their outward carriage, whose heart is not above. The sour morosity of the Pharisees would make you believe they renounced all vanities. Pestilent Heretics have exceeded (that I may not say excelled) in works of mortification. Pelagius was of a demure honesty, Vir ut audio non parvo profectu Christianus, says St. Austin. Severus Sulpitius says of Priscillian, he was noted for many laudable parts of mind and body, in fasting, in humility, in contentation. So Anthimus, and others. Doth not this show as if it were all for the world above? And yet they had neither part nor lot in that matter. The Reason, because they had some bondage in them, they were under a Captivity which they had not shaken off. They had not liberale ingenium, so that the last enquiry, who belong to that Jerusalem above, is upon this question, Whether the truth hath made them free? Joh. viij. 52. For Jerusalem that is above is free. It is a word that comprehends in it much favour, and much duty. And it shall pass under my hand with this examination: 1. What this freedom is? 2. How we got it. 3. How we must use it.  
Our freedom consists in a manumission from a four fold servitude: 1. We are delivered from the Yoke of Ceremonies, called the bondage of the Elements of this World, in this Chapter, verse 4. 2. We are most free for the New Covenants sake, which is made with us. For salvation is not offered us through the Works of the Law, but through the Promise of grace. We Brethren, as Isaac was, are Children of promise, verse 28. 3. We have not received the Spirit of Bondage to fear, but the Spirit of Adoption, whereby we cry Abba Father, Rom. viij. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says Theophylact upon my Text, the Gospel exhorts us gently, it doth not affright us tyrannously. 4. The rewards of the New Testament are not momentary things, such as the Law propounded, but heavenly. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the same Author, we are not servants that do our duty for visible wages. And all these together make the copy of a perfect freedom. He that is under rudiments, is under age: he that is bound to the works of the Law, is under condemnation: He that is kerbed by threatenings, is under thraldom: He that looks for momentary things from God, is under base afflictions: From all these Christ hath exempted us by the Gospel, 
Vers. 25.  which is called the perfect Law of liberty, Jam. i. in this complete sort our Jerusalem which is above is free.  
First, To be exempted from the encumbrance of well nigh a Million of Levitical Ceremonies will not appear so gracious a benefit as it is, unless we take a great deal of leisure to mark it. Never was any people so Paedagogically handled as the Jews were. The observation of the greatest part of their days was calculated, their meats were stinted, their bread was prescribed. They had Ordinances upon their Garments, precise rules for the fruits that grew in the field, directions for their building, appointment for their Apparel: Not so much but the very cutting of their hair was subject to a Commandment. What strict Orders against Pollution? What nice receipts to cleanse pollution? What tedious Traditions in their Oblations and Sacrifices? What Punctilios to be nicely kept in all the discharges of their Religion? In Secular affairs they could do nothing wherein their soul delighted: In Sacred affairs it was impossible for them to perform every thing which Moses enjoined. God knew how much addicted they were to their own inventions, therefore he leaves them nothing either holy or profane to be managed by their own discretion, but are quite rejected as unworthy to judge of the smallest matters; and they had their hands full of these petty duties, to leave no room to extraneous Superstitions. Tertulliam adds, Et Deus operosis officiis dedolaret; God did plain and smooth the ruggedness of their nature with many trials of obedience. Yet though their number was so great and cumbersome, their weight had been more easy, if they had been plain and perspicuous; but the people underwent much gear, and I think not one among an hundred did know the signification. The substance of Religion was so darkly involved in the Types, that happy was that Prophet, or Prophet's Son that could crack the shell to eat the kernel. Who of the Vulgar rank could penetrate into the moral signification of those vices which were forbidden in the unclean Creatures? Vt homines mundarentur pecora culpatu sunt, says Tertullian; The Law did seem to loathe some beasts, that we might know what God did love. Was not the Salvation in Christ propounded to them in Signs? And his death resembled in a Bullock slain at the Altar? And what small comfort was there in that Pardon which was not intelligible to the poor Offender? Luther says well upon my Text, that man's knowledge is unshackled, it is at liberty, when he discerns the naked truth in itself. Cognitio est ancilla quando subjecta est velaminibus figurarum; Our Wisdom is made a bondwoman, subject to the captivity of Ignorance, when it sees nothing but in the dark Glass of typical Obumbrations. Thanks be to God that we are Scholars of the New Testament. We are called to the manifestation of faith and love in Christ, that we do not grope in darkness, but walk in light, for the Gospel is like a Glade which is cut through the grove of ancient Ceremonies. Let me speak to this point once more: Beside their excess in number, and their cloudy obscurity, there were unpleasing remembrances in them, some that seemed to be mysteries of grace, were likewise mystical Exprobrations, and therefore referred by good Expositors to the hand-writing of Ordinances which is against us, Col. two. 14. For Ceremonies, take them not as Sacraments, or Circumstances of Evangelical Service, but as Yokes of the Law, Nihil aliud erant quam miseriae humanae publica professio; They were imprints of humane misery, not Expiations, 
Beza.  but Confessions of our iniquity. Circumcision it accused the Israelites that they were born in sin: Their frequent washings did testify that there was filthiness in the Object: The life of the Sacrifice spilt upon the ground pronounced him guilty of death that brought it to the Lord. I go no further, because I would be compendious; and I have said enough for this discovery, that the Law of Ordinances was our Adversary. But thanks be to that Saviour who blotted out the hand-writing, paid the grand debt which we did owe, and discharged the interest likewise, when he evacuated the Levitical Ceremonies, which is the first mark of the freedom of Jerusalem.  
Yet be advised that we do not claim more immunity by this Chatter than is granted, (for that is ordinary to stretch out the name of liberty, like cheveril Leather, to what length we please) some have assumed that they have good ground to blow up all our Modern Ceremonies with this Mine, because Jerusalem is free from the yoke of Ordinances. It is true, our Jerusalem is free, and therefore we are free, (for partus sequitur ventrem) the Church appoints her own Orders of decency now, and is not appointed, nothing is imposed upon it with bond of necessary and perpetual observation, the principality is upon her shoulders to make her Children submit to her prudent Constitutions. But if particular men might challenge interest in this freedom, as if they had scope to serve God with what order and comeliness they pleased, this were an uproar and not a freedom, and a looseness like that of mad men when they have broke their Chains. Certainly, the liberty which God hath granted in setting our feet at large from these things with which the Priesthood of Aaron was charged, it was to accommodate us with great grace and favour, but if this should repel the bringing in of those Ceremonies, which are means to beget the greater veneration of Religion, the bounty of God, which cannot be, would turn to a prejudice, his blessing to a cross, and such as love the welfare of Zion might cry out, O Lord we are oppressed with liberty. Touching the substance of divine Worship it is written with Gods own finger in holy Scripture, we must not add unto it. Only God is pleased to try our judgement, how we will administer it in the particular fashion. His Worship is the Bread of Life sent down from heaven, and not invented upon earth, but for the manner of his Worship, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens says of humane Philosophy, it is like the sauce in which the bread is dipped to make it savoury, to this conditement Jerusalem is allowed to put her skill, providing for comeliness and honesty as a wise dispenser of the mysteries of God. Was ever any thing of moment transacted without some graceful solemnity? Or is man so governed by the Spirit, that he can lift himself up to Heaven sufficiently by interior Meditation? I forget not that some will say, yea the Body also serveth God by the tongue. And I allow it for an excellent way to warm our zeal with the loud voice of prayer. But this warmth will quickly cool, unless some devout actions concur together: and deeds are far more durable in the fancy than the memory of speech; either to teach the understanding somewhat which it ought to consider, or to move the heart to due reverence and regard, which it ought to have in the performance of sacred matters. Here let the new Jerusalem act her part, this is her liberty, to enjoin such Ceremonies for the eye, as may prepare the heart the better to feel the power of the grace of God, and to prescribe such visible signs, as will leave a deeper print behind them than bare exhortation. I will add that by this power bequeathed to the Church, some Jewish Ceremonies may be retained, as far as the state of the things will bear, if they be followed only for outward order, and not returning to that obstinately which must be disannulled, because Christ is come in the flesh. I confess that Spiritual Worship is best, 
Joh. 4.4.  for it is most correspondent to his nature whom we worship, God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit. This is the reason that he says he hates Incense, and effusion of blood at his Altar, such kind of service hath no assimilation with him who is incorporeal, give him the Sacrifices of righteousness, of prayers and mercy, and thanksgiving, qui corpus non est umbram non habet. Approach not to him with shadows, for he is a Spirit, and not a Body; yet in respect of us, though not of himself, he entertains the lowliness of bodily Worship, as it hath a conveniency and conjunction with our nature. The Lord is a Spirit, and he even he alone gives law how he will be worshipped in spirit; but we that worship him are bodily creatures, and Jerusalem our Mother hath indulgence to appoint all external administrations of holiness.  
It is no small ease, as I have showed it, to be disengaged from the encumbrance of the old Ceremonies, but that which comes next in order is so essential to our happiness, that from thence we may say truly, and from nothing else, the Lord turned the captivity of Zion. The time is passed when salvation was offered to them turned the captivity of Zion. The time is passed when salvation was offered to them that did the works of the Law (O those were days of bitterness and desperation!) the Covenant is renewed unto us in another form through the promise of mercy to them that believe in Jesus Christ. Now Sin, that great Tyrant, shall have no dominion over us, for we are not under the Law, but under Grace, Rom. vi 14. Mark the two Covenants, and the severe exaction in the one, and the mild temperature of the other: the one comes blustering like the whirlwind, and breaks down Mountains before it; the other is the still voice which beats sweetly upon the ear of Elias; the one hath nothing but days of trouble and reproach, the other is a continual Jubilee of rest and peace. The Law may be compared to those wretched men that work at the Oar in a Galley, they strain their sinews and their strength to plow the waves, and yet they meet with such strong tempests, that they cannot recover the Haven: but the Gospel is a Ship whose sails are spread with faith and hope and the winds of mercy blow them fairly on, that the Passengers are carried as in a dream to the Port with speed and tranquillity. Hear them both speak Rom. x. 5. for that's the clearest Scripture, I take it, for their distinction. The righteousness of the Law saith, the man that doth these things shall live by them, but the righteousness which is by faith speaketh on this wise, if thou shalt confess the Lord Jesus thou shalt be saved. The man that doth these things shall live; but the Lord looked down from Heaven, and found no such man upon all the earth. Be the imperfections in our manners that are not scandalously culpable, yet the law hath not pardon for them: that which must be weighed in Gods Balance it must not want a scruple. Correct the wand'ring of your eye, bridle your tongue, watch your heart, ●r servant in prayer, be vigilant against tentations, yet there is that repugnancy to the Law, that unruliness in this body of death, that the evil which you would not you shall do, and then the Law turns to be that Adversary in St. Matthew which delivers you over to the Tormentor, till you have paid the utmost farthing. This was not only a bondage under a churlish Nabal, that would not be satisfied with such diligence as a Servant could perform, but the condition of a beast, whose qualities cannot excuse him totally, but that sometimes he shall be spurred and beaten: Yet none were ever born that can impeach the Law of rigour, no not in the equity of humane reason, if you will examine them from first to last; it will come but into the Margin of our indictment, that our actions have not been so pure, and holy, and fervent, as the bounty of the Divine goodness towards us requires; turpitudes of life, abominable desires of the heart, brutish intemperance, scalding malice, unclean passions will fill up our accusations. O what a perturbation, what unquietness of consciences, what a hell of fear it is, to know that our Arraignment is just, and to have nothing but the Law, that inexorable letter of condemnation to comfort us? Imus, imus praecipites, we should feel ourselves tumbling down, and see no bottom. Sin is so ponderous, that if the Ship had not been lightened of Ionas it had sunk: the Heaven could not hold the Devil and his Angels from falling; the Earth could not support Core and Dathan: but it is more massy and leaden upon the conscience than in all the Elements. What need I to tell you that God did give the Law in an angry form upon Mount Horeb, or that he delivered it to Moses a Servant to bring to note the bondage of the Letter. I have looked back enough to this, let me bring you from this Ergastulum, this Prison of Works, into the Courts of God's House, into Jerusalem above which is free.  
Jerusalem at the time when this Epistle was written to the Galatians was in bondage two ways, in Civil servitude under the Romans, in Legal servitude under Moses. a miserable case that they should not feel the oppression they were in under Moses, cared not for a Deliverer; nay did as much as in them lay to curse their Deliverer: Christ that came to set them free they used him as a Servant, in crucem servus, they crucified him, which was a most servile punishment. Thus their stupidness in their bondage did make for our freedom, and thereby was consummated the Covenant of Faith, that we might believe in him who died to be a propitiation for our sins. O what a pleasant condition it is, what a free, what a Princely state of life, to wait upon God's mercy, and to be subject to the Ordinance of Faith. Upon it depend Pardon, Forgiveness, Reconciliation, Grace, Adoption of Saints, the Inheritance, the Kingdom, the Promise of everlasting life. With how much diffidence did the Lawgiver intercede in the behalf of Israel, Forgive the sin of the people, if not, blot me out of the book of life. To supplicate forgiveness is a message sent from Faith, but the Law plucks it back with this distrustful Omen, if not, if there be no hope, then is my confusion before me for ever. This is noted in the Generation of Ishmael the Son of the Bondwoman. Says Sarah to Abraham, Go in to Hagar, it may be I may obtain children by her. This is the Law which despairs and doubts, whether God will be gracious: but Faith never speaks so faintly, looks for no denial how unworthy soever to obtain its Petitions; Publicans invite Christ home, Adulteresses wash his feet, Thiefs recommend themselves to be received into his Kingdom, and all this not because they are free from the Law, but from the Covenant of it, which is the bondage of the Law. Had their conscience misdeemed that they must be saved by Works, they had run away like Bondmen from an austere Lord, their tongue had been tied that it durst not wag: but light shining in their hearts revealed unto them that Jerusalem was free, that the Inheritance came by the Promise of Grace; they flock unto him who is the Mediator of a better Covenant, who vindicates his Portion from the bands of Sin, and Death, and Hell, and hath given power to his Ministers to bring those that seek for mercy out of the prison and servitude of Satan; for whatsoever they lose upon Earth shall be loosened in Heaven. Hold here, and stir not from this rock; put not the point to disputation, but to inward examination, how you look to be freed from the fire of Hell when you shall stand before the Judgement Seat of God. Will you trust to inherent righteousness, and say it will be well for me, this good I have done? Or to the imputed justice of Christ, which is true and perfect justice, and pleaseth the eyes of God? O there is no ground can be laid for peace and salvation, but in his righteousness that justifieth a sinner. They that carp at this, take them from their sentences and quodlibets, and search what they say in their Books of Devotions, Manuals of Prayer, Graduals of love and repentance, Meditations of Death, than nothing comes from them but O Lord deliver us, O Saviour redeem us, O Son of God remember not that which is past; then they never fly to the bloody Altar of the Law, but to the Sanctuary of the Gospel. In a word, whosoever refers his justification in any part to a legal righteousness is yet in bondage, but Jerusalem which is above is free.  
It is this Covenant of Faith that turneth away the captivity of Jacob. Now under the Discipline of Faith the Spirit attracts us by love and meek persuasions, it doth not threaten and bend the fist at us as the Law did; and that's the third part of bondage which our Jerusalem hath escaped, it is not awed with compulsion and fear, but it follows the direction of the Spirit with gladness, which is the next step to the state of Angels. It is not good for a Child to be too much scared by Preceptors and Governors; such nipping weather is an enemy to a flourishing Spring. Then imagine what a shivering Ague it was to the Israelites (Sons of God, but not yet come to age, as St. Paul describes them) to struggle with so many austere Statutes as Moses gave them. Scourge, loss of eyes, loss of limbs, burning, stoning, forfeiting the life of a man for the trespass of a beast, losing the right hand for a casualty, a moral man, that knew not the strictness of God's Judgements would say for a trifle. Add unto these so many pollutions circumstantial, natural that could not be helped, to be expiated with continual cost and labour; add above all these that noise of Malediction, louder than thunder, Cursed is he that doth not continue in all the words of this Law to do them; amidst these terrors that came so thick, as they were good to bridle stubbornness, so, many generous resolutions of the mind, that would have put forth, must needs be suffocated. The Angel of God, when he came with a message from heaven, and would have it intelligently received, likely he began with this Preface, Fear not. Nay, God did deliver this People from the fear of Pharaoh and his Host, before ever he would give them a Law to serve him. Men that are held to their Task by minacies, Magis aguntur, quam agunt. He that doth a thing out of love is carried to it by an internal complacency, he is a self mover, and the action is his own: he that goes forward to his Task, because the scourge is behind him, the action is not his own, raptatur ad obsequium, his will rows against the stream, but the Tide is so strong that it carries him with it by Coaction. And that harvest of obedience which is reaped with the Sickle of stern dominion and threatening, when all is done it is not worth the bringing into the barn. For it keeps a man that he dares not break out into a scandalous transgression of the Law. Is not that all? The External Act is smooth and conformable to justice. But what reformation is there all that while in the heart? It is not fear but love which takes upon it to cure the concupiscence which is in the mind. If there be no better Schoolmaster than fear, the body may worship God alone, and the mind remain an Idolater. A longer declaration of this there needs not. We all know that a Palsy of fear will shake Judgement out of the wit. The Orator that pleaded upon peril of his life, Lugdunensem rhetor dicturus ad aram; he would pronounce but badly, and surely much of the imperfections of the Jews may be imputed to this, that the Law did subject them to the Spirit of Bondage.  
It is the Spirit of the New Testament which turns us about, and sets us free from the superciliousness of the Law, and it would have us please the Lord for his mercy's sake, and out of the sense of his goodness it exhorts us that our service should grow out of his favours, and our duty out of his bounty and benefits, so shall there be alacrity and readiness in the soul to all manner of virtue, as well as passive obsequiousness in the body. The Schoolmen observe it rightly, that filial fear, which is the freedom and ingenuity of obedience riseth out of the love of God; but servile fear, which is a plain captivity of Spirit, riseth out of the love of ourselves. The Servant who goes through his Task that he may not suffer correction, would do as much as may keep his skin whole, that is for love of himself: A Son that honoureth his Father, and rejoiceth to hear his voice, seeks his Father's glory that he may receive of his glory, and this is purely out of the love of God. No wonder therefore if this hath redounded to far more fruits than ever the tree of the Law did bear, which was pelted and beaten. For, as one hath noted it well, God's Church hath increased more by the love of God than by the terror which he sent in the old time; but when persecutions were rife, it increased more by the terrors of men than by their love. The use of it is, that we serve God, as those that are past the Spirit of bondage, reverently with fear, and cheerfully without fear. Faith is the great promoter of reverential fear, and breeds in us an awe of God's Majesty, and a dread of his glory, as the Cherubins do cover their faces with their wings before him. This is clean and pure, refined in the flame of love, caused neither by sin nor punishment, but it reflects upon the baseness of our own substance, the Creature compares its own vileness with the infinite excellency of the Creator, and so approacheth with all due distance of humility. But Faith again cools the inflammation of servile fear with the water of Baptism, wherein we were sprinkled with the blood of Christ. It teacheth us to decline offences with all care and study, not to escape punishment, but out of gratitude to him who hath done so great things for us. It engenders an ardent solicitousness to be unblameable, not because the wrath of the Lord is terrible when he is displeased, but because his Mercy and Redemption deserve to be recompensed with all manner of obedience. Labour for that integrity which is expected from one that is free from sin, but a servant to righteousness. Such a one would do no unjust thing though he saw his Pardon sealed with his fleshly eyes, and were as surely confirmed in state of Salvation as an Angel of light. Justus non est sub lege, sed voluntas ejus est in lege, says St. Austin; He alludes to the Latin reading of the first Psalm, a just man is not under the Law, that is a strain of servitude: but his will is in the Law, there he finds equity and sincerity, he loves them for themselves: The minacles and castigations of it are without Law, of which he takes no notice, because his will is within. Vopiscus says, that after the death of Aurelian for six months there was an Interregnum, no new Elect was agreed upon, the People had no Prince to curb them, no Tribune of whom they stood in awe, yet there was no outrage committed, Nam quod est in vit â optimum se quisque timebat; Every man was afraid to offend himself, and his own conscience. These are voces libero homine dignae, these are the Praises of more ingenuous men than ever Heathens could be: It may be an Impreza for a perfect Christian, he doth no evil out of this generous resolution, for that he loves God within him, not because he fears the world without him. Out of Evangelical assurance, though the second coming of Christ shall be with such a strange concussion that Heaven and Earth will stagger and burn for it, yet a wellarmed Christian hath digested the dread, and wisheth for that day when the whole Creature shall be delivered from bondage; it is his Exclamation, Come Lord Jesus, come quickly. Consider in what an agony the whole Camp of the Israelites was when the Law was proclaimed with Thunder and Tempests upon Mount Sinah; it will be strange to one of those to hear a good Disciple call earnestly for that day which will be so full of darkness and gloominess. This is indeed the principal Crisis that we have shaken off the Spirit of bondage. Non probatur perfecta caritas, nisi cum ceperit ille dies desiderari; There is no perfect love, and by consequent no plenary excussion of servitude till we are earnest in that wish, that the day of Christ were near at hand. If not that terror, no, not that doth pinch us, than Jerusalem above is free.  
Yet stay for one qualification more, which will make the Angels to congratulate us our freedom if we observe that Proviso in our Charter; nay, which will please God so well, that he will not only make us Citizens, who were Bondmen before, but Rulers over ten Cities, as it is in the Parable, that is, account not of the good of this world as the Jew did, but commit your Heart and your Treasure to the Inheritance which is above: They that run far into the thought to prosper in the increment of this earth, they cannot decline from being servants to the times, to occasions, to ignobleness, to the manners of iniquity. Lift up your hearts unto the Lord with an evangelical abrenunciation of the world, and fling these fetters away, for there is no such thraldom as that of base affections. To serve a sin is worse than to serve a man, by how much a man is better than a sin. There are some of our Interpreters who have stated this Point not without injury to the Synagogue, and the modern Jews have cause to disavow the imputation of mere carnal men, as if God did set before them no more than the recompense of this life's prosperity. The Anabaptists teach that the Faithful before Christ did only taste of the sweetness of temporal blessings, without any hope of eternal happiness; a Censure fitter for beasts that are well pastured, than for a man, whose soul doth naturally heave him up to immortality; chiefly it is an opinion most derogatory to such men whose Fathers did talk with God face to face. Besides these, Aquinas and his Scholars methinks lay out our difference but rudely, Temporalia promittuntur in Veteri Testamento, spiritualia in Novo; The Old Testament proffers Temporal blessings, and the New Testament Spiritual. That were, I confess, the right livery at which a Bondman did stand, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says the heathen Proverb; Give the Servant that grinds at the Mill an allowance of food to sustain him, and you owe him no more. But if the Text of the Old Testament do move only in the circumference of this world, and of this life, it would scarce make good Philosophy, how much less would it never pass for the Touchstone of pure Divinity? Therefore without scandal to the old Jerusalem, or partiality to the New, the odds between us are these. The Commonwealth of Israel had the sure promise made unto them of heavenly joy, together with a pleasant portion upon earth, if they served the Lord. The same Kingdom of heaven is more clearly promised to us, but with afflictions and persecutions upon earth. Their Jerusalem was in bondage, because it kept the Law upon carnal Articles, that it might flourish, and be free. Our Jerusalem is free because it will confess Christ, though the more it confess him the more it should be in danger of bondage and imprisonment. They were for present delight, and heaven hereafter: we are for present misery, and heaven for ever.  
The Apostles found it an hard matter to send the Church of Christ from Jewish Ceremonies, they could not make a bank in their days, but that some broke over, as in the Church of Galatia. No marvel, since the dregs thereof are not purged out to this day. Circumcision is still retained among the Abyssines, says Damianus Goez. Aaron's supreme Pontifical Authority is but transmigrated into the Papacy: Some have been scrupulous in choice of meats but lately, as if Moses did yet predominate. Many are more strict than wise in numbering and keeping the hours of Sabbatical rest. We that are here I hope are all very ready to condemn this Judaisme; and yet God knows the most of us are Jews in a greater concernment than we are aware of. If we serve for heaven it is well, but I am sure we are the more servile that it may be well with us upon earth. We ask for the dew of heaven, but we make earnest postulations for the fatness of the earth; we are content to be shod with the preparation of the Gospel, but not so well contented as if it be our fortune to wear the spurs of dignity. These are the tricks of a Jew, of an uncircumcised Jew, his heart is not circumcised from ambition and vanity. This is Gehazi's Leprosy which cleaves to base minds, my Master is in heavenly raptures, and contemns riches, As the Lord lives I will run after him, and take somewhat. Run, and let the Devil scorn you for your pains. Doth Job serve God for nought? To be Sanctified, to be Justified, to have the gifts of the Holy Ghost, to receive spiritual Consolation, to be the friends of God, this is the portion which comes unto us, and for which our Covenant is called the Gospel of glory. For tribulations (which did not accord with the Jewish Oeconomy) if they be not above our strength, we must not only expect them, but rather invite them, then avoid them. Vre, seca, hic ne parcas Domine, ut in aeternum parcas. Prove me, chastise me, bruise me like sweet Gum, till thou be'st pleased with my savour, pity me not in these momentary afflictions, that thou mayest spare me for ever. As the soul is free from the prison of the body when it is dissolved in death, so it is most free from the faeces and earthiness of the body, when it is not wedded to the desire of transitory things, Mushrooms that have no savour, when we have enjoyed them but a day. Briefly, Jewish servility is an unbeliever like St. Thomas, Nisi mittam digitum; Let me touch, let me feel, let me grasp my handful or it is in vain to obey the Lord; Christian liberty is ingenuous, and heroical, it hath swum out of this dead Sea, in whose mud the unregenerate do stick, and if the Lord will give us himself, let Ziba take all. The greater is our freedom because we know we need not the aids of fortune. I have heard that a Cardinal being elected to be Pope, his former State is rifled, because his new dignity will supply him in abundance: Just so when the Spirit comforts us that we are called to a Crown of glory, (pardon the similitude, it is no worse than as Christ hath compared himself to a Thief that comes in the night) but our confidence of our new Election to that Inheritance, makes us easy to part with that, which others keep for a while, and leave it in a moment. And thus when freedom hath struck inward to our affections, pardon us if we speak despicably of the Jews, for our Jerusalem alone is free.  
The whole Charter of Jerusalem's freedom is dispatched. Though the hour were to begin again, I would not stick at the next question, how we came by it? We all know the procurer, and what he did to gain it for us, it is a flower that grew out of the blood of Christ. We were not protected, as Joshuahs' Spies were, by a common woman, nor set at large, as Samaria was, by the tidings of Lepers, our Deliverer is more honourable to us than our freedom, the Son of God was made a Servant, that we Servants might become Sons. As God made nothing in nature but by his Son, by him he made the Worlds, so he did nothing for the restauration of the World without him. He is all in all. He hath freed us from the bondage of shadows by taking a body: From the Covenant of Works by satisfying his Father's Justice: From the dread of fear by the sweetness of his Mercy: From the sordid desire of earthly things by the operation of his holy Spirit. The purchase of our Freedom was carried in this sort, so that the Jesuit à Lapide borrowed a fit name to call it by, you know from whom, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. the gift of a King, of David our King. Imagine by a Prosopopaea that you saw the Devil, and Sin, and death defying us in the same words that Goliath did the Camp of Israel, If you be able to fight with us, and to kill us, we will be your Servants, 
1 Sam. 17.9.  but if we prevail against you, than you shall be our servants, and serve us. Then David our Champion slew these Giants of Gath in our quarrel, and from thenceforth we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, his purchased people, as St. Peter says. St. Austin says, 
1 Pet. 2.9.  that by nature we were Pharaohs bondmen, that is, Satan's, and when we forsook him, and fled away to serve God in the Wilderness, he followed after us, but no further than the Red Sea. Quid est mare rubrum? Vsque ad fontem Christi cruse & sanguine consecratum. What is the Red Sea that divided us from him? The Fountain of Baptism consecrated to save us by the Cross and Blood of Christ. Bernard alludes to the words of Jacob, and says that the Church is that portion which Christ won from the Amorite with his Sword, and with his Bow, Gladio praedicationis, arcu incarnationis; With the Sword of his Doctrine, with the Bow of his incarnation, where the shaft and the string make but one Instrument, as his Godhead and Manhood make but one Person. Thus he hath snatched us from our Enemies that were made Lords over us, and from the hard bondage wherein we were made to serve Isa. xiv. 3.  
Having seen the Copy of our Freedom, and knowing how we got it, it is a Lesson fit to conclude with, that every man's memory may carry that away at the least how we should use it. No blessing hath been more abused than this. Under colour hereof the Galileans would be free from Tribute, the Nicolaitans from the bond of Marriage, the Gnostics from all Justice and Temperance, the Clerks of the Roman Church from the Courts of the Civil Magistrate, and the Anabaptists from all Moral Duties. No, says St. Peter to all these, As free, 
1 Pet. 2.16.  but not using your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. It was St. Augustine's byword, Dilige Deum, & fac quod vis; You are free, therefore love God, and do what you will. If ye love him keep his Commandments: We are not so soon loosed but we are tied again, both freed and bound at once. Liberando servos nos facit, says the same Father in Joh. viij. We must recompense his goodness with our imperfect obedience, it is the Law of Gratitude, it is the Bond of Nature. As we commonly say, that nothing is more dearly bought, than that which comes by gift, so we owe the greater service to him of whom we got our freedom. Nay, we are bound to endure all for his sake, Neque hoc facit stupor sed amor; nec deest dolour, sed contemnitur, says Bernard. We feel the pain as much as they that curse and rage in their sufferings, but our love unto Christ doth overcome it. A Freeman, that will thrive, follows his Trade as close as any Apprentice, though not by austere compulsion: So our Freedom will not make our hands slack from working, if we mean to lay up a treasure in heaven. Every piece of Land, they say, holds of some Lord, so every man retains to some Lord, either we serve God, or sin and Satan. If we count it Freedom to take our swing in all voluptuousness, pity their frenzy, that can stir no where but as their intemperate appetite commands them, and yet mistake themselves to live without control, who are the Vassals of the Devil. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption, 2 Pet. i 19 Tully objects to Clodius that he set up the Picture of Liberty in his house in the habit of a Strumpet. Says that approved Senator against him, Qui meretricibus & voluptatibus inservit non liber est, sed servus; To be under pleasure is to be under tyranny, and therefore the Statue of a Strumpet did better resemble servitude. But happy are thy servants O Lord that stand before thee. Deo parere libertas est, 
De beat. v●t. c. 15.  you may think that Seneca had conferred with St. Paul when he learned that Lesson that the service of God is perfect freedom; who hath made us a Royal Priesthood, and holy Nation. Says Leo in the second Anniversary Sermon upon his own Assumption to the Papacy, nothing so Kingly as a mind subject to God, and Ruler of his own passions, nothing so Priestly as to offer up the sacrifice of a pure conscience, and the oblation of a broken heart. There were ancient Ceremonies in Baptism, as if the party to be baptised came to be inaugurated to a Kingdom, when he professed himself a Disciple of the Gospel. For it appears in some Rituals that they put a Crown of flowers upon the head of the Neophyte, to which the Collect then used doth testify, We beseech thee O King of heaven for this dissoluble Crown, to give him a Crown of justice and good works. The same was figured by these Ceremonies in confirmation, that is by the unction of their forehead, and by the fascia, which bound about their temples as a Diadem. All these customs do border upon this phrase, that our Jerusalem is every where in the Gospel called the Kingdom of heaven. God is such a King whom none but Kings do serve, none but Melchisedeches, who are free from sin, and at once both Servants of righteousness and Kings of righteousness. Dignitate Domini honorata sit conditio servi. He is so great a Lord that it is a Lordship, nay a Kingdom to serve him. In a word, remember that our freedom is a strict obligation to all excellent virtue, that being delivered from the hands of our enemies we may serve him without fear in righteousness and holiness all the days of our life. Lord keep thy Jerusalem free from the bondage of sin, that we may not be cast into the prison of utter darkness. AMEN.   

THE THIRD SERMON UPON GAL. iv. 26. 
Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the Mother of us all.   
HAving drawn out the description of the Church in sundry lines of beauty, that it is a Jerusalem, a visible and glorious City for the external Communion, a Jerusalem from above, for her internal Graces, a Jerusalem that is free, for her Redemption through the blood of Christ: every man I suppose will attest thus unto it, nihil addi potest huic bono nisi ut sit perpetuum; O that it would last thus unto the world's end by continual propagation, for nothing can be added unto that which is so completely good, but that it should be perpetual. Lo I shall land you now upon that Shore, and represent the Church unto you as a Mother that brings forth, and is never barren, whose fruitfulness continues her praise and happiness for ever: she is the Mother of us all, and of all those Generations after us, that live by the faith of the Son of God, as long as the World endures. We are not in the condition of Xerxes, who had as goodly a Train of Soldiers as ever marched into the Field, but it drew tears from his eyes, to think that in less than the space of an hundred years not one of all those thousands should remain alive: They had not a Mother which brought forth uncessantly to repair their mortality. That good which will not continue breeds great discomfort upon certain expectation of mutability. But our Jerusalem shall never wain nor consume, it is sown with the seeds of immortality. If we were all included in one Isaac, and he were slain upon the Altar for a Sacrifice, yet Abraham were sure that God would restore him again being dead. Jacob might faint and fear lest his Sons should miscarry one after another, and he remain childless; his despair was grounded upon the sadness of humane events, if I be bereft of my Children I am bereft, Gen. xliii. 14. But the Church shall see her children's Children grow up by succession without end of days. Christ should be put to death again, and rise no more (which is most impossible) if she should quite disappear. The root of the Tree of Life should die (which cannot be imagined) if her branches should all wither. But this is a Lamp which is nourished with fresh oil from Heaven, and shall never be put out; it is the chiefest of all that is called good upon Earth, and a constant perpetual good. Therefore let the Children rise up and call this Mother blessed.  
And as the Church hath taken upon it the proper name of Jerusalem, yet without any Contract to the local and material building of Jerusalem, so she hath taken up the appellation of a Mother, yet without any respect to nature, no way bending to natural causes, or natural affections. For not only our Parents in the flesh, but the whole World hath quite lost us in this word. As Moses remembered the great devotion of Levi, that he said of his Father and Mother, I have not seen them, or I respect them not, and of his Brethren, I do not acknowledge them, Deut. xxxiii. 9 So by deriving ourselves from this Mother, we cast our fleshly Parentage aside, and we say to her, who did give us to suck from her Breasts, as our Saviour did to the Blessed Virgin; Mulier, quid mihi tecum? Woman, what have I to do with thee? Jerusalem is ours, and we are hers. Jerusalem which is above is free, etc. This remainder of the verse, which is the dispatch of the whole Text, requires our inspection into three particulars. First, To know our Mother, that we may not be ignorant either of her fruitfulness, or our own obedience. He is a wise Son, says Telemachus in Homer that knows his Father, but he is a foolish Son that doth not know his Mother. Secondly, Note the unity and indivision of the Children of this Mother, They are a cluster of Grapes hanging upon one Stalk, a Brood of Chickens clockt under the wings of one Hen, there is but one Ste● and one Progeny, one Nostrum in relation to this Parent, Mater nostrum the Mother of us. The third and last part puts us to observe, that the note of Universality was large in Paul's days, but now much more amplified than in those times, mater nostrum omnium, the Mother of us all.  
First, A Mother gives a being to those whom she brings forth, and that which is brought forth owes a great duty to the Mother, upon these two hinges this main part of the Text is turned: the one is the Fruitfulness of the Mother, the other is the Obedience of the Children. And what being is that which Jerusalem above doth contribute unto us, that she is called our Mother? It challengeth no part in our specifical essence, or the being of our nature▪ and yet I will tell you, a vicious filthy sinner doth so ill become the name of a man, that there is far more congruity between him and a Beast; he is more Swine, or Tiger, or Fox, or locust than man: he is not fourfooted, but he is brutish hearted: in his inward parts he hath put off humanity. But if repentance shall restore him out of this bestial conversation, if God shall set good men at his right hand, that by strength of reason, force of persuasion, timeliness of admonition, yea or by sharpness of correction, shall make him feel and know the beauty of an honest life, he is redintegrated in the powers and faculties of a man, which he had quite lost: So that our being in the austerity of Philosophy is connexed with our well-being. No good man, and by consequent no not a man, till he be governed by the Principality of reason, civil Education, and the conditement of Virtue is such a Parent as reposeth a vile person, a transformed Monster into the proper line of his own Predicament, it makes him Man.  
Not to flutter in the air, as it were, any longer with Paradoxes, impious Caitiffs I confess, shall stand for men, for they shall suffer the curses and punishment of men in Hell-fire. What is it therefore which Jerusalem adds unto us, that she is called our Mother? why, the renovation of the mind, or the new man, created after God in righteousness and true holiness. And as the Birthright which Jacob obtained from Esau was instead of another birth unto Jacob, so when such as were vessels of wrath became Heirs of the Promise by Baptism and the Ministry of the Church, is not this a Mother that gives them a better life than they had before? The Love of God is our life, Faith conceives us, Hope brings us forth, Charity feeds us with her breasts, Obedience wraps us in swaddling bands, and knowledge brings us up. God doth inhabit our mind and understanding as the Soul doth inspire the Body. As Abram was turned into Abraham, and Simon into Peter, when they pleased the Lord; so take any one that is regenerate and changed from his vain conversation, though his shape and substance continue as it was before, yet the Angels that rejoice at the conversion of a sinner, behold him with their celestial eyes not as the same, but as another Creature. And no wonder if he become another object in the sight of Heaven: the reasonable Soul is that which constitutes the natural man, but Faith being superadded a better spirit possesseth him, and Christ is the form of a Christian. It is St. Paul's Phrase, ver. 19 of this Chapter, My little children of whom I travel in birth again till Christ be form in you. As Ananias travelled, and earned for a Child, till Christ was form in Paul, so Paul travelled, and had the sorrows of a Mother when ●he brings forth in the anxiousness of his heart till Christ was form in the Galatians. First the Church brought him forth, than he laboured abundantly, and assisted the Church to bring forth others. The true solution of the old Riddle, Mater me genuit, eadem mox gignitur ex me, the Son of Grace is begotten of this Mother, and afterward filling up a place in the Communion of Saints, he is reckoned into the collective Body, which is called Jerusalem our Mother.  
But a late Writer puts in his judgement very well, I think, how far the Motherhood of the Church intends to make us Children of Adoption, it travels in birth, that by her work Christ may be form in us. 
Justinianus.  The Members of our fleshly body are form in our Mother's Womb by her natural faculties, she can go further for the absolution of the work, that is, the inhabitation of the Soul is the act of God: so the Church doth the part of a Mother, it propounds repentance, discloseth the mysteries of faith, persuades us with the expectation of a great reward in Heaven, offers us the use of both the salutiferous Sacraments; thus a new fashion, a new Creature, even the form of Christ doth creep upon us, but the life by which we live it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it comes from without, from above, from the inspiration of the spirit of Christ. But without that efformation, or effigeation in the Womb of the Mother, never expect the vivification or information of the Holy Ghost: a Doctrine best known in those trivial words of St. Austin, he cannot have God for his Father, that will not have the Church for his Mother. Ascribe the top of the blessing to him, from whom every good gift, especially those which are supernatural, descends. Of his own good will He begat us with the word of truth, Jam. 1.18. His good will moved him to pity us: his virtue and power went out from him to beget us; and his truth, which shined in our hearts, was the instrumental cause to convert us. Carry it along with you therefore, that the invisible Father that is in Heaven works by the visible Mother the Church that is on Earth. As Eve was the Mother of all living, so she is the Mother of all believing; Crescite & multiplicamini is spoken to one as well as to the other, both were ordained in their several sorts for that blessing increase and multiply. Therefore St. James hath conjoined the Word of Truth to the Will of God, both are mixed together to regenerate a pious people. And although some have been too nice in expounding the Phrase, Of his own will he begat us with the word of truth, not with the words of truth in the plural, as if our salvation were effected by pronouncing one word, as when first we were made Members of Christ by saying I baptise thee, and when we have sinned and return again to the Lord by saying I absolve thee; yet be it briefly or largely, it is the word spoken and preached by the Church, which gives us this heavenly feature to be the holy ones of God: Briefly, the Mother that doth beget us is the Church Militant, but the Mother to whose filiation and inheritance we aspire is the Church Triumphant.  
It is true, that in relation to Christ the Church is his Body, and all we are his Members; and in that reference it doth not make the Elect Servants of God, but rather it is compounded of those Servants: for properly the Body is not the Mother of the Members, the Members are not the effect of the Body, but they constitute the Body as integral parts. And so Solomon hath more aptly given it honour in those delicious Metaphors of a Bundle of Myrrh, a Cluster of Grapes, and a Pomegranate, which I think is the best resemblance: a Pomegranate contains many kernels under one Coat, so, many thousands of Disciples are under the covering of Christ. 2. As many kernels are in the small Pomegranate as in the great; so the Graces of Christ are in the little Churches as in the more spacious. 3. As the old Greek Proverb goes, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as in every Pomegranate there are some corrupt kernels, so there are some wicked ones in every Church. 4. As the seeds of the Pomegranate are of a bloody colour, so the Robes of the Apostles and others, the best kernels of the Church, were red in the blood of Martyrdom, but made white in the blood of the Lamb. The sum is in the whole Pomegranate, in the lump we are the Body of Christ; but take us one by one, and consider us as sometimes we were darkness, and now light in the Lord: and that this fire was kindled in us all from the Altar of Christ Jesus, and by them that minister at it; so Jerusalem which is above is the Mother of us all. For the most proper work of a Mother is to bring forth Children, and the most proper work of a good Mother is to bring them up. And because of these two Solomon in the same Canticle hath used this appellation which my Text doth, I will bring thee into the House of my Mother, that is the Church. 
Cant. 3.4.   
And though he were the greatest King one of them that ever the Earth saw, yet it is no disparagement to him to call that his Mother, which God calls his Spouse. I will betrothe thee unto me for ever, yea I will betrothe thee unto me in righteousness and faithfulness, Hos. two. 19 The Bridegroom hath taken this Bride unto him, and their Offspring are multiplied; and happy are those, and none but they, who are the legitimate Children of this sacred Marriage. The Font of Baptism is the Womb of the Church, the Spirit that moves upon the waters to sanctify them is the Father, and from these two are brought forth the Sons of the Most High, that shall dwell in glory for evermore. And because of this indissoluble connexion between the Holy Ghost and this Spouse▪ who is always present with it▪ St. Austin notes that she must not only be a fruitful Mother in abundance of issue, but also a pure Virgin, because she knows none other Husband. Ecclesia virgo est, & parit, 
De Temp. Serm. 119.  Mariam imitatur quae Dominum peperit; the Church is both a Virgin and a Mother, like the Mother of our Lord, although a Mother, yet of unquestioned virginity. St. Ambrose runs more division upon the same string on this sort, Sancta Ecclesia immaculata coit●, foecunda part●, virgo est castitate, mater prole; the holy Catholic Church keeps her Bed immaculate, and yet her Offspring is innumerous: a Mother by perpetual propagation, and yet a Virgin by perpetual chastity: Parit nos non dolore membrorum, sed gaudio Angelorum: nutrit nos non corporis lacte sed Apostolorum; she is delivered of us with no pain or sorrow, but with the joy of the Angels in Heaven: she feeds us not with the breasts of a woman, but the Milk of the Apostles, which is better than Nectar to the Soul, and the Manna that comes down from Heaven. It is yet more admirable, what God hath wrought upon this Jerusalem by demonstration of the Spirit and of power. We are the dispersions of the Gentiles that are now the People of the Lord, we were as a Strumpet that went a whoring after Idols, and God hath betrothed this Church unto him, and made it an unpolluted Virgin; I deny not, but lament it, that there are some Christian stations affected towards Idolatry, which renews the infamy of our ancient whoredoms. But whatsoever our Mother is now, our Grandmother was chaste and pure in Hegesippus days. Take it in that sincerity of practice and Doctrine, and then you may see the mighty works of Christ to turn an Harlot into a Virgin, and a Virgin into a Mother. Magna est sponsae, & singularis dignitas, meretricem invenit, 
De Temp. Ser. 119.  virginem fecit, says St. Austin, this is the great and singular dignity of the Bride, which hath prepared herself to meet the Bridegroom that comes from Heaven, he hath changed her whoredom into virginity, and multiplied her virginity into foecundity, that she is the Mother of us all.  
You see the Mother through whose Ministry every Christian is born again of water, and of the Holy Spirit; neque parcit unigenito pro sic genito? the Father did not spare his only begotten Son, that we might be thus begotten. But is there no more that belongs to a Mother than to bring forth? 
Lib. 1. Pedag. c. 6.  yes, says Clemens Alexandrinus, and I quote him because he speaks of the Church, every thing that brings forth is obliged by nature to supply nourishment unto that which it brings forth. I am not so rigid, but I will grant that in cases of weakness, and divers accidental indispositions, that which nature doth ordinarily urge and provide for may be dispensed; but this rule is born with every Female, that which is so fruitful as to be a Mother should be so careful as to be a Nurse. And so is the Church. Not only Moses the Lawgiver carried the People of Promise as a nursing Father carrieth his Child, Num. xi. 12. by tenderness, by ordering their steps, by breeding them in good Precepts and Laws: but the Apostles were much more laborious to feed the Christian Proselytes with the Word of life, that they might grow up from grace to grace unto the stature of perfect righteousness. I have fed you with Milk says St. Paul to the newly converted Corinthians, 1 Cor. three 2. and he suppeditated stronger meat to them that could digest it. And for all manner of sweetness and forbearance, he behaved himself gently among the Thessalonians, as a Nurse cherisheth her Children, 1 Thes. two. 7. Every Rule and Doctrine which is delivered sincerely and in truth is Milk to those that thirst to drink of the Well of salvation. Honey and Milk are under thy tongue, says Solomon, speaking of this Mother and Nurse. Cant. iv. xi. Milk is a pleasant food so is the Gospel to them that have a spiritual taste: there is no Aloes or bitterness in it, 
Lacon. Apoph.  but to them that have a carnal palate. It is Antalcidas his answer in Plutarch, to one that asked, how he might speak that which might be accepted, says he, Si loquaris jucundissima, praestes utilissima, if you will deliver that which is most pleasant, and season it with that which is most profitable: so that which is sucked from the Breasts of this Parent arrides the taste with sweetness, and it is as profitable as sweet, and called Milk, because it is a most growing nourishment; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Naturalists, as they were accounted plain and innocent above all other People, so they did excel for health and magnitude of body. Be admonished therefore, that such Christians as wax not better and better, take some other thing for their nourishment than the Milk of the Church, which doth not prosper in them. If you do not grow, and add virtue to virtue, you have chosen a Nurse with dry breasts, and whose complexion is divers from your holy Mothers. Lacte gypsum miscet, as the old Proverb is, the World is a Stepmother whose Milk is infected with poison: no redress for such, but as it was said of the Shunamites Child, when he complained of his head, 
1 Pet. 2.2.  Take the Child unto his Mother; as St. Peter exhorts, desire the sincere Milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby: the end of it is to grow and increase, not to stand at a stay: true Piety never thinks so well of itself as if it needed no augmentation; that's Pharisaical hypocrisy. He that gets nothing loseth much, 
Eph. 253.  he that doth not add to his talon will forfeit it and lose it. Says Bernard, did not all the Angels which Jacob saw upon the Ladder that reached up to Heaven either ascend or descend? Inter ascensum & descensum, inter profectum & defectum nullum est medium; There is no medium between proficiency & deficiency, between going backward or forward. Either you are continually mending in all parts of Religion by the fatness of this milk: or you will consume away like a shrivelled Changeling. But the Nurse will not be wanting in suppeditating milk, if you are not wanting to yourself in the wholesome concoction. And now to end this Point, I pronounce unto you, that you can expect no greater miricle from God than to have such a Mother, and such a Nurse. First, Were you not dead in Adam, and then this Mother took you into her womb, and brought you forth alive most stupendious? Nay, must you not die unto sin, and be crucified to the world, before you could be born again? Quid difficilius cognitione quam ut homo nascatur moriendo, says St. Austin. 
In Psal 97.  And what is the effect of her nourishment but continually to draw you from death to life? Et amplius est suscitare semper victurum, quam suscitare iterum moriturum, says he; Was it miraculous in Elias, or in the Apostles to raise the dead unto life that should die again? How much greater is it to raise them unto life that shall never? This benefit begins with the Church as our Mother, and continueth with us through her Ministry as our Nurse. This is that Jerusalem whis is the Mother of us all.  
Thus far I have drawn out before you the blessing of the Mother upon those whom she brings forth; now while this benefit is fresh in our memory, it is good time to show what obedience the Children do owe to this Mother: That is, to her Laws, to her Censures, to her Determinations. To her Laws of outward Order, to her Censures of Discipline, to her Determinations of Faith. For the first, to tread lightly in their steps that have gone before me, Prudence and Reason find out what is fit for the well reigling and comely demeanour of them that are knit together in any body. And when authority is joined unto it, and imposeth it, it is a Law. There must be an Order agreed upon touching our manner of union and living together in Commonwealths. And grave and well-governed men are most nice to see those fashions of order inviolably observed. And is not this equally to be heeded, nay, much more in our Ecclesiastical Oeconomy? For the persons to whom we associate ourselves in the Church are not only holy men, but God and Angels. Shall we not have Laws of agreement to go all one way, and to do the same thing in Rites and Ceremonies? Can there be such that would not be ashamed to see distraction and confusion in the holy Sanctuary? Is there any possibility of drawing a Congregation together without Rules and Advertisements to proceed thus and thus in the administration of the Lords Service? And for those Rites which are in force among us, hath not this Church proceeded with most sanctified moderation, to ease Christian people of that superfluity, whereof they complained at the extirpation of Popery, and to retain such only as were most expedient, and carry no shadow of scandal, but to them that are hot and contentious. Since we must have Orders of Decency, (his wits are broken that thinks otherwise) why not these which are established, and to which your consent is included by reason of them that were Agents in your behalf, and present at their confirmation, for we were alive in our Predecessors, and our Successors shall live in us. It skills not what Utopia some have framed in their own heads. In positive Laws men's private fancies must give way to the higher judgement of the Church, which is in authority a Mother over them. And do not say you are an obedient Child, since you do that which your heavenly Father requires, why not also what your spiritual Mother requires? Since the one bids nothing repugnant to the other. I hope there is none in this Climate but explodes the Anabaptists opinion, that all Christian Liberty is lost, if any Laws be imposed upon the people, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Beside, what is required for order and good carriage in the Church, God hath given the power to settle it. What is done is done by his leave, and by that light of Nature and Reason given to frame such Constitutions, and therefore do not prevaricate, as if God were not disobeyed in that obstinacy which conforms not. It is commendable and necessary for every man single to profess the substance of true Religion contained in the Scriptures: But it is also required at their hands to observe the Circumstances and Decencies of it comprehended in positive Laws, when they are in society with others. It was in a Circumstance and a Ceremony that St. Paul checks the Corinthians; What, despise ye the Church of God? 1 Cor. xi. 22. You cannot call Jerusalem your Mother with a sober reverence if you decline her Piety and Authority in Constitutions indifferent.  
Secondly, The power and the wisdom of the Church meeting together must use the rod, though unwillingly, towards them that must be made examples to others by shame and punishment: For such as will not be softened with love, and the Spirit of meekness, 
1 Cor. 4.  Shall I come to you with a rod, says the Apostle? Dread the anger of your Mother, provoke not her displeasure to smite you with Abstentions, Anathemaes, Excommunications. Remember how the incestuous person was swallowed up with desperation when her Censure was upon him. If Esau lift up his voice and wept when he had not the blessing of his Father, what sorrow will it beget in a Child, that is not past feeling or leadenly stupid to have the curse of his Mother? The ancient forms of humble Penants used by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are so disused, that their custom will seem strange to be repeated. When they were sequestered from the Prayers and Sacraments of the holy Church, for scandalous and flagitious actions, they cast themselves down before the entrance of the Church, groveled upon the ground full of tears and lamentations, and besought every Christian that passed by upon their bare knees, to procure them that happiness to be readmitted into the union of the body of Christ. Rowl those words in your conscience which Christ spoke to the Apostles, Whatsoever ye bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven, and it would gripe you, as if the knot were tied about your Heart, to be shut out of the Fold of Christ's Flock by the Sentence Ecclesiastical. They that are set over your soul have not the use of the material Sword, but the words of Discipline that proceed out of their mouth are sharper than any two-edged Sword. Having in readiness to revenge all disobedience, says St. Paul, 2 Cor. x. 13. In promptu habentes. What so ready upon all occasions as the Tongue? If this Mother be offended by the impenitency and contumacy of her degenerous Sons, she will suddenly smite them with such a wound as nothing can heal but her own forgiveness and the grace of God. But a Mother is soon entreated, if the Child seek her with tears and lowliness. It is a gentle caution which Bernard gives to them that sway the authority in spiritual censures, 
Serm. 25. in Cant.  Discite subditorum matres vos esse non Dominos, studete magis amari quam metui, & si interdum severitate opus sit, materna sit non tyrannica; Let not your severity be tyrannical, but with the compassion of a Mother.  
Thirdly, Forasmuch as the Church is our Mother, we must carry that venerable duty towards her, that great heed must be had to her determinations of Faith, not as if it were the rule of truth, that is the prerogative of Sacred Scripture, but because it holds out the rule of truth, and the Ministry thereof is the condition subordinate under God to find out truth. My Son forsake not the teaching of thy Mother, says Solomon, Prov. vi. 10. Means he our natural Parent only? Nay, says Mercer, Potes ad Ecclesiam si velis refer; You may refer it to the Church if you will. And a good reason why, that not only it may be, but most aptly it should be applied to our mystical or spiritual Mother; for the blessings reckoned up in that place, to those that will be taught by the wisdom of their Mother, are so many, as they are not like to be the fruits of obedience to a natural mother only. To make myself way the sooner out of this vast Point by distinctive conclusions.  
First, If we call that Jerusalem, that Church our Mother which St. Paul doth here, the most Primitive Church which includes the Apostles, Evangelists, it is bootless to dispute in a thing so evident, that it is to explain the sense, and decide the meaning of all Articles of Faith, for the Apostles spoke as God did give them utterance, who is the Author of all hidden and heavenly truths, and we are to rest in him as the fountain of all illumination. Secondly, Excluding the Apostles, Evangelists, and others conversant with them who were immediately inspired to know all truth, which makes a perfect Christian, in their own person, take the Universal Church from their days unto this time, and I conceive that the uniform practice and general judgement of all God's servants that went before us, is a certain and undoubted explication of all those Points contained in Scripture, that concern our salvation. We are taught in the Articles of our Creed, that this Church is a witness which we ought to listen unto, I believe the holy Catholic Church. It hath the promise, that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. Also Isa. lix. 21. This is my Covenant with them, saith the Lord, my Spirit which is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy Seed, nor out of the mouth of thy Seeds Seed, from henceforth and for ever. This is a Promise that the Church dispersed in all places, and continued in all times shall keep the trust of saving truth inviolably. So Tertullian, so Vincentius Lir. upon this subject, Quod apud multos unum est, non est erratum sed traditum, says the former. That which is uniformly taught by many, (much more by all) is no lie, but a truth delivered by that Church, to which God hath entailed his blessing, that it shall not forsake it. I do not say yet that this Universal Church is absolutely free from error, but from such error only as would shake the stability of faith. Some things that may be unknown without prejudice were ever concealed. But the whole Church, that is, and was, is so free from error and ignorance, that it knows and possesseth all the truth which Christ hath revealed. The Churches are the Golden Candlesticks in the midst whereof the Son of God did walk, Rev. i 12.  
Thirdly, take the Church for all those Christians that are now presently living in the world, and among those there will ever be some whom God will preserve from pernicious Error, yet those some are not necessarily and always such as are in place of Authority, or palpably notorious that we may have recourse unto them. In a populous Congregation I have heard a Psalm sung quite out of tune by the greater part, and those few that sung tunably could not be heard for a long time, till at last their good harmony gained a considerable number to listen unto them, and to imitate them. So false Doctrine may spread far, and the soundest judgements be silenced in the Plurality of opposition. If their tuneable Notes beget good Music in others, it is the working of God which is stronger than the violence of men. But from hence I collect, that there is no man living, nor any Society of men living which hath such indubitable authority from God, that they may pronounce a judicial definitive Sentence to oblige and convince the Consciences of others in Controversies of Religion. To rely upon one man's Oracle, it were a ready way indeed if it were a certain. But that man whom we mean, is of such little credit with those that cry him up, that he cannot make his Partisans submit unanimously to him in his own cause. And for general Councils, the great Army of Jesus Christ, his pitched battle, since the former may be corrected by the later, and have been corrected, their judgement is so awful as may quell the resistance of private men, but not so irrefragable upon their decision as to tie their Conscience. You will say then, hath God provided no certain and external judicial authority to Umpire differences of Religion in this or that present Age? I answer, First, he hath given the complete and perfect Rule of Faith in holy Scripture, which hath spoken so plainly in things necessary to be believed, that it needs no Gloss to make it plainer. As Aristotle says, 
1 Rhet. c. 3.  That Laws which are penned with the best wisdom do leave but little to the will of the Expounder. Secondly, We are not Brutes that know not our right hand from our left, but God hath given the judgement of discretion to all Christians of mature age, let them mark what the Scriptures say in clear and literal Positions. Thirdly, The judgement of direction is committed to Pastors and Teachers that are set over your souls, And judge ye what we say, says the Apostle, and the Lord give you understanding. Fourthly, There is the judgement of Jurisdiction proper to them who are in places of pre-eminency, and these may determine Controversies of Faith according to plain and evident Scripture; but because they may exceed the bounds of truth, it is pernicious to say, that men are bound to obey those determinations with as great affections of Piety as the inerrable Word of God. That place so much debated, that the Church is the House of God, 
1 Tim. 3. ult.  the ground and Pillar of Truth, will bear no more, but that it is so by Office and Calling, as every King is the Minister of Justice, though some have failed in the execution of it. And the Note of Cameron upon it is very witty and learned, that the Jews were wont to prefix these words, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he proves it out of Maimonides, before the grand Points of Religion, and so may make a Preface to the succeeding Verse, The pillar and ground of truth, great is the mystery of Godliness, etc. It is an Interpretation to better Analogy of Faith, than that which his Adversaries press out of the words. The sum is, our Faith is not built upon the Authority and Infallibility of the present Church, if it control an higher authority than itself, the holy Scripture, what remains but declines her judgement, as our Saviour did his Parents, Witted you not that I must go about my Father's business. And as Asa did depose his Mother Maacha, 
2 Chro. 15.16.  though she were his Mother for erecting an Idol: So we may reject the Mother which should command a relative adoration of Images, of Stocks and Stones, and appeal to our Grandmother which was free from such scandals. Judicate matrem vestram, says Hoseah to the Jews, 
Cham 3.2.  when the Synagogue was corrupt, Plead against your Mother. Yet so says Waldensis most prudently, that the humble and obedient Children of the Church may not insolently insult upon them, from whom they are forced to descent but with a reverend, childlike, and respectful shamefacedness. Especially, it is a naughty inference to argue, the Church may err, and doth trip in some errors, therefore it is not to be obeyed. You will not deal so I hope with your fleshly Parents, avoid their errors, but conserve the bond of obedience entire in all things; the name of Mother charms us not to deride her nakedness, and to conform to her prudent opinions with all submissive willingness. I draw up the Point to this Brief. Harken to the Laws of the Church in things indifferent, wherein she must not be burdensome. Submit unto her Censures, wherein she must not be tyrannous. Harken to her determinations of faith, wherein she must not be peremptory, Non dominantes fidei. It hath no dominion over our faith. This is the reciprocal League between the Mother and the Children: between that Jerusalem and us, which is the Mother of us all.  
And as this obedience may challenge a blessing, as confidently as Nazianzen is said to claim it of his Father, Habes obedientem, benedictionem repende; I have been obedient, I claim a benediction from you: so the next thing to be considered, our unity shall bring us blessing upon blessing. Our Mother is one, and though we are many, yet in a spiritual Connexion we all make but one. All the faithful in the world are drawn up into one Pronoun, the Mother of Us. As Jacob did divide his company and substance when he came from Padan Aram into Canaan: One Band of men, and one Flock of cattle was with Leah, another with the Handmaids, a third with Rachel, but all were jacob's. So God hath scattered his Churches, some in Europe, some in Asia, some in Africa, etc. but all are Christ's. And these are all united to him in his Spirit, in his Word, and in his Sacraments, as Wax that is melted incorporates itself with Wax. My Dove, my undefiled is but one, Cant. vi. 9 Therefore let us preserve one bond of Peace, and one Charity, even as hereafter we look for one glory, and one felicity. Says St. Chrysostom, The Ceremony of old was to eat the Paschal Lamb in one house, and to carry nothing out, Significans unam esse domum quae in Christo salutem consequitur; Portending that they shall have no part in the Sacrifice of Christ, who are divided by contentious separation from that one Family of Christ, wherein only the Lamb of Salvation is made ready to be eaten. There is nothing that our Saviour did sooner suppress than the least emergent division that did arise among the Apostles: The Apostles themselves did condescend in many things, which might bear an harsh construction with a rash Judge, to prevent a rupture, as if, when they were put to that Dilemma, better that Truth should suffer a little than Unity. O it is the ground of all other mysteries, the Son of God, who is one with his Father, is made one with us, that we might be one as he is one, both with him, and among ourselves. As Christ hath but one truth, so he can have but one Society, one Communion of Saints to profess it; as there is but one Shepherd, so there can be but one Sheepfold, Joh. x. 16. Nay, to straiten it yet more, in the phrase of the Holy Ghost, the whole body of the Faithful is, as it were, no more than one man. So we read, Ephes. two. 15. He abolished in himself the enmity, meaning that which was between the Jews and Gentiles, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace. As who should say, They of the old Leaven make a great number in their discords and diversities, but they that spring from one root of Faith, from Hope, from one Baptism in Christ Jesus they make but one new man. But what if Heretics and Schismatics will not suffer this unity entire and unviolated? The issue is quickly cast up, the unity of Jerusalem is the greater for their departure. The scandal, I confess, is contagious to those that are without, but the sounder part is the more sound for the evacuation of those bad humours. Avolet quantùm volet palea levis fidei, eò purior massa frumenti in horreum Domini reponetur. Yet let her that calls herself the Mother take heed that she put not her Children from her for every jar and error, nay, nor for a Capital error, unless it be joined with an irrecoverable pertinacy. Who were worse than the Galatians at the time when St. Paul wrote this Epistle? What a venomous corruption was in their Churches, mingling the Ceremonies of the Old Law and faith in Christ Jesus together, which could never be compounded, and yet the Apostle accounts these Galatians in the common Brotherhood, mater nostrum, the Mother of us? Bad Christians, and weak Christians, and Christians misled into Errors are still Christians retaining to the common Mother, till they lose their legitimation by damnable Heresies accompanied with obstinacy. But there must be a forbearing one another in love, if we endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, Eph. iv. 3.  
Now here I might end, having no further to go in the Text, if I did follow the Vulgar Latin Translation, whose reading is, Jerusalem quae sursum, est libera, quae est mater nostra; Being content to say that Jerusalem is our Mother, and not annexing that it is the Mother of us all. But the Universality of the Church must not so slip from us. It is the reading of the Greek Copies, of the Syriack, of St. Hierom, and therefore to be preferred before the Vulgar Latin, which hath curtailed the verse. Nay, in reference to this omnium, that Jerusalem is the Mother of such a multitude, of us all, it follows in the next words, Rejoice thou barren that bearest not, the desolate hath many more Children than she that hath an husband. A most remarkable thing in the power of God, to fill the world with such an omnium in a short space out of Twelve Apostles. It is all one to Christ to be glorified in many, or in few; 
Edit Crab.  and truth must not be carried by the number, but by the dignity and weight of witnesses. It is no ill passage in Pope Nicholas I. his Epistle to Michael the Emperor, Numerus pusillus nec obest ubi abundat pietas, nec multiplex prodest ubi regnat impietas. But let the World choose whether they like a cause which is countenanced by many, or by few, we can refer ourselves to either, I mean to the greater, or to the lesser number. Says St. Austin, we are a little flock, as Lambs in the midst of Wolves, and yet again it is true, many shall come from the East and West, and sit down with Abraham and Isaac in the Kingdom of God. Multi & pauci: pauci in comparatione perditorum, multi in societate Angelorum. We are few, and we are many. We are few in proportion to them that are rejected, and yet we shall make a mighty train to follow the Lamb, being joined to innumerous Societies of Angels. 
Aug. de Cat. rud. cap. 20.  The Citizens of this Jerusalem are all the Saints that have been, and are now, and shall be hereafter, and surely these surpass the Stars of heaven for multitude. We admire nothing more for multiplicity than the drops of rain, or the drops of dew, and therefore David prophesied that the Children of the Church should exceed by Millions and Thousands like the dew that overspreads the earth. From the womb of the morning is the dew of thy youth, Psal. cx. That is the sense of the Learned, take Cajetan for all the rest, the Generation of the faithful shall not be as a Mother brings forth two or three children, but as the Morning that yields innumerous drops of dew. Bucanan turned his most elegant verse to this strain, Non roris imber ante lucem argenteis tot vestit arva gemmulis; And he is imitated and emulated in our English by a Poet of our own, he says, the Servants of Christ shall be arrayed in Ephods, not so few as the pearls of morning dew hanging on the herbs and flowers. And if the family of Christ hath not many names added daily unto it, the sin lies at our own doors. Jerusalem is the Mother of all, and it is her part to invite all to take their share in the celestial inheritance, and to apply the Promise to every man, as far as the sound of the Gospel can reach, Christ died to redeem thy soul if thou wilt repent and believe. I end with Solomon's Prayer, 
Cant. 8.1.  O that thou wert my brother that sucked the breast of my Mother! O that ye were all such as I am, says St. Paul, except these bonds! O that all and every person on earth would learn the way of eternal life! Jerusalem hath amplitude to receive them, she is the Mother of us all. And heaven hath amplitude to receive them, which is the City to which we tend, for ever. AMEN.   

A SERMON UPON REVEL. vi. 9 
I saw under the Altar the Souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the Testimony which they held.   
INtending to speak somewhat, according to the subject of the Day, about the Church Triumphant in Heaven, this Book is the most proper place to seek a Text out for that occasion; surely it is so. For that is the reason that the Epistle for the Day is selected out of St. John's Revelation rather than any other Scripture. A door was opened in Heaven, and he was carried thither in Spirit to peep into the Cabinet Counsels of the Most High: Concerning therefore the things above, and that little which is revealed to this World beneath, how can we satisfy ourselves better than out of his illumination? As in the Parabolical Story of Lazarus and the Rich man, Christ hath, as it were, unlocked Hell to let us see what the damned Spirits do; so in this Book, and in this Text above all other Sections of this Book, he hath opened the Curtains of Heaven, to let us see what the blessed Saints do. But to go on soft and fair to the matter which I am to handle, I confess it is no season yet to make haste, because I am stopped with two objections: First, the Contents of this Prophecy have such an abstruse and mystical sense, that the best Clerks in all Ages, that have known most, are commended for their moderation, that they have said least unto it. Whom would it not deter to meddle with it? If he consider that the parcels of this Prophecy are all belonging to that Book with the seven Seals in the fifth Chapter, And no man in heaven or in earth was able to open the Book; no man able to read in it, or to look into it. There is but one thing that can help me out of the tanglings of this difficulty, and that one thing will do it: Namely, that the whole Loom is not spun with one thread. Among the hard and inexplicable passages, there are some interlinings to refresh the Reader with facility. In which sort my Text hath been ranked by the most Writers. And reason good: For at the opening of the first Seal in this Chapter, (will you mark it?) one of the Beasts invited St. John to the attention of some profound matter, saying, Come and see: At the opening of the Second Seal, because mystery upon mystery succeeded, another Beast gave him warning to be very considerative, saying, come and see. So at the opening of the third and fourth Seal, all alike. But when the Lamb doth open the fifth Seal, in the exordium to my Text, the voice did bid him no longer come and see, there needed no such Prologue; for both the Vision which he saw, and the words which he heard, though they deserve an Interpreter, yet they are much more obvious to the capacity than the Antecedent Predictions. If I had put it into my task, to speak of the opening of the fifth Seal, which begins the verse, than I must have embarked myself in a great controversy, about the precise Age when such things fell out, and what distance of Ages the several Seals do include. But I undertake not to foretell events, that were to Prophesy out of my own brain, I apply nothing which St. John saw either to the Empire, or to the Church, below, I deal no further than the prospective of these words doth carry me, that is the Theatre of the Church Triumphant.  
The Church Triumphant? That puts another objection upon me: For who is sufficient to handle that Subject, Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man what God hath done for his Saints in those glorious places. I submit unto it, and will not touch their inscrutable glory with my unwashen hands. Upon two things we may taste, without surfeiting of curiosity, and I will set no more before you. They are these: Let us neither think that the Saints are extinguished in death, for St. John saw the Souls under the Altar, of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the Testimony which they held. Nor let us think that their enemies are forgotten, for those Souls cry night and day, saying, etc. To contract it into short terms, for the more apt division, here are two parts, what the Apostle saw in the Church Triumphant, and what he heard. But of no more than the first of these at one time: Wherein first I must speak a little de modo videndi, after what manner he saw this Theory, I saw. 2. Quid vidit, what he saw, he saw Souls. 3. Quales vidit, what kind of Souls they were, Souls of them which were slain for the Word of God, and for the Testimony which they held. 4. Vbi vidit, where and in what place he saw them, Under the Altar.  
When St. John relates how he did comprehend this wonderful object, he says he saw it. With what eye doth he mean? No bodily Instrument, you may be sure; not such an eye as every birds dung can put forth, not these foggy lights in our head, that wax dim with Age, and at last will spend themselves quite out in their Sockets. these cannot attain to behold the Spirits of Saints. 
Lib. de An. c. 7.  Tertullian mistook a Parabolical passage for a real branch of a story, where the Rich man in hell is said to see Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, from whence he ascribed effigiation and colour to a soul, and would not endure Critolaus and the Peripatetics, that said it was a quintessence and no body; no error more visible than this, that the Souls in heaven are visible, and have corporality. The eye of man shall be endued with virtue to see the Angels, nay, to see the very Essence of God, when this flesh shall be clarified, and refined in the Resurrection. 
Ep 111.  In virtutem ipsius mentis quodammodò convertentur oculi, says St. Austin; This bodily eye shall then be transformed into an intellectual Faculty: But as yet it can discern nothing but that which is earthy like itself. Search we out therefore for some other way how John saw the souls under the Altar.  
It lies in those words which we meet twice before in this Book, 
c. 1.10. c. 2.2.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it was in the Spirit: That is, as I take it, a Prophetical Revelation was infused into him through imaginary forms, joined with an abstraction from the senses. Blame me not if this desription be somewhat difficult; for who can tell what a divine Rapture is, unless himself had been in a rapture? I call it a Revelation (it is the title of the Book) for this reas●n; Pharaoh and Nebuchadonosor had Visions, and understood not what they meant, but when the intelligence of the thing is opened, as it was to Joseph and Daniel, it became a Revelation. So St. Austin observes, Maximè propheta est qui in utroque excellit, 
De Con. ad lit. lib. 12.  ut videat in spiritu corporalium rerum similitudines, & eas vivacitate mentis intelligat; He is an eminent Prophet both ways, who sees in the Spirit certain Figures and Similitudes of things to come, and knows them by illumination. So did this Apostle no question, for all Scripture was opened to the Apostles, much more was this Scripture opened to the Apostle who wrote it from the mouth of God. 2. I blazoned it for a Prophetical Revelation; for the Angels have all things revealed unto them in the Vision of the Divine Essence, but that is no Prophecy to them, because, as the Schoolmen speak, it is Sine omnibus creatis adminiculis, they have it put into them neither by word, nor by deed, nor by dream, nor by figurative presentation, but this being communicated to St. John by imaginary species; it was no Angelical way of seeing, but a Prophetical Revelation. 3. I add, infused by the holy Spirit. For when Moses saw the bush burn, and not consume, it was a Prophetical Revelatio, yet without inward infusion, because he beheld it with his eyes. This was not so, but he saw it through abundant inspiration. He was in the Spirit, which is in effect to say that he became very Scriptural. As Camerarius fits the phrase out of the Poet Euripides, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, are very learned men most intimate with the Muses; so this phrase denotes, that the Holy Ghost had the dominion in John, for the Spirit was not in him, but he was in the Spirit. 4. This must go with the rest, that the Spirit infused this Revelation into him through imaginary forms, supplying his fancy with the fashion of an Altar, of a Throne, a Lamb newly slain, a Sea of Crystal, and a thousand things more. Many times new species and forms are created in the fancy of him that is illuminated; many times that light which God gives doth shine upon those notions and conceptions which were in the mind before. So we see that Isaiah and Amos, this Apostle, and other Prophets do utter their Prophecies through the similitudes known unto them in their former conversation. 5. The utmost of all is, that this Revelation was accompanied in him with a Rapture, or abstraction from the senses. So Beza interprets that phrase, he was in the Spirit, Correptus spiritu, he was swallowed up of the Majesty of God, so that his mind was taken away from the body. Ezekiel says in one place, that the Spirit entered into him, Chap. two. 2. In another place, that he was carried away in the Spirit, Chap. xxxvii. 1. There is great odds between these two, the one was by ordinary inspiration, the other by ecstasy, and so was this of our Prophet, when he saw the souls under the Altar, he was so enwrapped in Celestial Visions, that he could take no notice for the present that he lived, or had a body, but his Spirit was quite abstracted from the senses, and lifted up to converse with supernatural speculations. Now to sum up this Point, touching the modus how John saw the souls of the blessed, 
Ep. 101.  you shall hear how St. Austin made no scruple of the like case. The Angel appeared to Joseph in a dream. How did Joseph see an Angel, when his eyes were shut? Nay, rather, says the Father, how could he have seen an Angel if his eyes had been open? So the more the senses of this Prophet were bound up, the less communication he had with his mortal nature, the more capable he was to see the secrets of God.  
It were no digression at all to tell you at large in this place, that St. John was not every body when he saw the Mysteries of the Ages to come in an holy trance. Examine him from the time that he was the beloved Disciple, while his Master Jesus Christ was upon the earth; behold him in his other cognisances, that he was an unspotted Virgin, a patient Confessor, An Evangelist that sored higher than his fellows, an Eagle in his Gospel, but a Dove in his Epistles, where every line is enchased with Jewels of love, the aged Patriarch who had long survived all the Apostles, the Oracle that resolved all the Churches in their Controversies. Finally, that supereminent man that left not his like behind him, and since his days his equal did never rise up after him: Put all this together, and mark what a sanctified Vessel this was to see the souls under the Altar, and all those things which the Angel told him should come to pass in the days to come. What wretch can think himself so prepared as he was to receive these Prophetical graces of God? With how many favours of God is a Vision qualified to make it a perfect illumination? Let it deter any one that is not possessed with the spirit of Arrogance, to think that he is possessed with the spirit of Divination. 
Ep. 112.  Quia videre non possumus audiamus, says St. Austin. There is no hope that we vile sinners should see such Visions, it is our blessedness that we hear of them. What laughter doth it give our Adversaries, that this caution is not observed among us? we had proof of it lately, and almost year by year, every hare-brained Schismatic, that out of pride thinks himself more holy than others, fancies that he is a Prophet. These filthy dreamers presume they have learned all that the Scriptures can teach them, and therefore like apt Scholars they must be promoted to an higher Form to learn supernal Revelations. As the Romanists are excessive in forging lies for their Saints sakes, so these are excessive in forging lies for their own sakes, both are liars, both are Legendaries. It was a gift which St. Austin says his Mother Monica had, 
Lib. 6. Conf. c. 13.  that she could distinguish inter Deum revelantem, & animam somniantem; she knew when God gave her a supernatural inspiration in her sleep, and when it was but a common dream; By what mark or token could she do this? Nay, none at all, Nescio quo sapore, quem verbis explicare non poterat; she could not express by what relish of the soul she made a difference between them. Of whom have our modern Wizzards, (it is too good a name if I do not put frentique to it) I say, of whom have these phrentique persons learned the trick of Divination? Since they that were Prophets upon earth could not teach another how to be a Prophet; If St. John knew how he saw this Theory in heaven, it was his privilege alone, or with some very few more. But God doth not carve a Prophet out of every Christian. And so much de modo videndi, which is the first Point.  
Take the object now to your attention which he saw; an object too subtle to be discerned by a bodily creature, but disclosed to this Apostle in his Rapture, in the excellency of Revelation, he saw the souls of the blessed in heaven. It could not out of Tertullia's mind, as I told you before, but that he thought the soul, when it was separated from the body, had some bodily figure and dimension in it. Those polite heathen men indeed, whom he had perused, did speak grossly in the point, as if the Soul after it left this world did flit about the Elysian fields in the form of a thin cloud, witness that fancy of the best Poets, Infelix simulacrum, atque ipsius umbra Creüsae. And it is no injustice to excuse such Authors, for though the substance of the Soul be incorporeal, yet it is impossible for one of us to conceive a Spirit, or an Angel but by the help of some corporeal Idea; it is a true Metaphysical rule, Nihil intelligimus in hôc statu sine verbo materiali in intellectu; we understand every thing in this life by some material expression within ourselves; yet we are able by the undeniable proofs of Art, to transcend the narrowness of our own fancy, and to affirm, that the soul cannot choose but be immaterial, that it is not circumscriptive in any place, though it have a determined and defined subsistence. But this is no time to Philosophise; and our Saviour's words will carry it clear without the help of Humane Arguments: Handle me and see, a Spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me have, Luk. xxiv. 39; which is thus in effect, there is no corporeity in a Spirit. And the Sixth general Council held against the Monothelites hath these weighty words, Nascitur Deus humano corpore animam rationalem & incorpoream habens; The Son of God had an humane body, with a reasonable and incorporeal soul.  
I dismiss that Point, it shall not hold you longer. There are those that doubt it in their heart, or at least they live as if they doubted it, whether their soul hath a second state in reversion after this life. Can there be any exception against such a Witness as St. John, that was taken up into heaven, to relate the truth to all Generations upon earth? Why, he saw the souls of the Saints in a triumphant and immortal condition after they were unclothed of the body. There cannot be an Apparition of that which had ceased to be, that were a delusion. Not one natural Writer that had a sound brain, but maintained that the soul did survive the body, and that it was at best liberty when it was released from the prison of the flesh. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says Aristotle; that the Mind or Spirit can subsist by itself, not mixed with any composition, not affected with passions. They could not search far enough why it should be so, they never discovered that the dissolution of the soul from the body was brought into the world after Adam was created for the punishment of sin, but their dim Candle gave them light to see, that the soul was apt to be separated. I suppose an Epicure may lose his conscience in a mist for a little while and dispute it like a Galenist that the soul is nothing else but the temperature of the first qualities, and so in death extinguished; but can you imagine that the Spirit itself doth not often give him the lie, and say within his breast, you do me wrong. I am immortal. Verily I believe, that they that put it off doubtingly, and would be uncontrolled in their voluptuousness, it may be it is not so, are often tormented with the other part of the opinion, it may be it is so. If you will hear this truth upheld out of holy Scripture there is no resistance, or cavillation against it. Because I will not tie myself to every Text which chimes that way, I will choose compendiously, where others have made choice before me. The Sadduces being stiff opposers against the separated existence of the Spirit, and yet commending themselves in the Holy Patriarches from whose Loins they descended, our Saviour selected that Scripture above all other to convict them which would catch them in their own net, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, God is not the God of the dead but of the living. How was God the God of Abraham unless he lived? And in what did Abraham live but in his soul which was divorced from the body? Irenaeus admires that any one should doubt of the souls perseverance after death, since the enarration is so ●lear, 
Lib. 2. ad. haer. c. 62.  that the rich man saw Lazarus in joys when himself was tormented. St. Hierom sets his rest upon those words, Mat. x. 22. Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. 
Ep. 57  St. Austin recommends the words of Stephen to neck the Point without all contradiction, Lord Jesus receive my Spirit. Si animus moriturus esset, causae nihil foret cur animum potius quam corpus commendaret. Aquinas against the Gentiles lays his strength upon that place of St. Paul, 2 Cor. v. 8. We are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with God. One quotation were enough, then how forcible are all these together? He must be a beast in understanding, that knows not that the souls of good men are Angels in reversion.  
There are others that profess so much faith, that the soul hath a state of happiness in reversion, to those that die in the favour of God. But that it comes not to any gust of this happiness till the end of the World: For the soul, say they, falls asleep when the body perisheth, that is, it dies together with the body, and when the flesh shall be quickened again, and gathered out of the dust, than the soul shall live again, when both it and the body shall be exalted in the Resurrection. I do not create Monsters to fight with all: 
Heres. 83.  St. Austin found such Heretics in his days, he calls them Arabians, who taught it every where, that the Soul had no being after death, till in the consummation of the World they both obtained together a joyful Resurrection. Nay, these Tares were sown long before St. Austin lived. Irenaeus took the pains to root them up in his Age, and he confutes them out of my Text, 
Loco praed.  says he, how did St. John see the souls of the Martyrs, who had been slain for the Testimony of Christ, if the Soul should cease to be till the final Resurrection? And if a Caviller shall say, it doth not cease to be, but it lies quiet and senseless in a trance; Irenaeus blunts the point of that objection, because in the next verse, they desire vengeance for their blood that was shed; but principally because in the eleventh verse they are clad in white garments, which are cognisances of their joy and glory, and doubtless they wear them not sleeping but waking. And do not think that I rake in the ashes of ancient Heresies, that are quite forgotten: For the Anabaptists in their Theses Printed at Cracovia, Anno 1568, have this position; We deny that any Soul hath a separated being after death, that was a devise invented by the Papists to maintain Invocation of Saints and Purgatory; this is Popery trimly reform, and according to that Proverb of the Jews, they cast out Devils through Beelzebub the Prince of Devils. And even at this day, a new Generation of Vipers, risen up at Racovia in Polonia, do pledge the Anabaptists in the same cup, namely, that there is a futurition of glory for the soul, when the whole Fabric of man shall be redintegrated again in the Resurrection, but they profess they cannot tell whether in the mean time there be any such thing extant as a separated soul, yet St. Paul says, he desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ: And yet Christ told the good Thief, that day he should be with him in Paradise. And yet the Souls of just men departed do follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes, Rev. xiv. 4. These instances are more persuasive, I am sure, than that which they pretend, that the Just do rest from their labours. What rest in God's name do they dream of? They are not in a profound trance without motion or action, as Adam was cast into a deep sleep, when Eve was taken out of his side, but it is a rest when the Spirit doth acquiesce in the Vision of God, as David said, Turn again unto thy rest O my soul, for the Lord hath rewarded thee. There are some, that I must afford a little Patronage, who are accused to lean to the Anabaptists in their opinion, that do nothing less. It was allowed for 1400 years as a Problem, wherein Christians without breach of charity might have Latitude to descent, granting that the soul after the dissolution from the body was received into the joys of heaven, whether it be not sequestered in some distance from the highest heaven, where the invisible God doth chiefly reign in Power and Majesty, till the whole Body of the Saints be accomplished. It is well known what way St. Bernard took, 
Serm. 4. in fest. Om. sanc.  Nec sancti sine plebe, nec spiritus sine carne; That such as die before us shall not see the Beatifical Vision of the holy Trinity without us, nor without their own body, and that an integral Beatitude is not given but to an integral person. And Calvin hath taken his freedom to be of the same mind, says he, 
Lib. 3. Iust. c. 20. par. 20.  Christ himself only is entered into the supreme Sanctuary of Heaven, Et solus populi eminus in atrio residentis vota ad Deum defert; and he alone commends the Petitions of the Saints to his Father, whose Spirits attend in the outward Courts. Those over-awing Fathers of the Florentine and Tridentine Councils have defined it indeed as an irrefragable Article of Faith, that the Saints enjoy the most perfect Vision of God immediately after death. What is that to us, who will not lose our moderation in indifferent points for their sakes? But Cornelius à Lapide, the Jesuit, puts the infamy of an Anabaptist upon Calvin, as if he had taught that the soul departed had no sense or taste at all of the glory of God. Why did he not censure Ambrose and Bernard? Why did he not spit his venom upon Pope John the XXII. There was good reason for that, if we may believe Gerson, a most grave Author of their own part. But Calvin was the first that ever I met withal, who writ a voluminous Treatise, to prove that the souls of good men after this life have their quartering and Mansion in Heaven, that they are not insensible of their state, or benumbed in sleep, or fettered with darkness, but that they praise the Lord continually, and Christ that redeemed them, which is consonant to this Point of my Text, that John saw the souls under the Altar.  
Yet I like not their way, who are so careful to teach the people that the souls deceased do not sleep, that they keep themselves waking with a thousand Fictions and Impostures; there is scarce one leaf written of any Saint in the Church of Rome, especially of the modern ones, but you shall meet with two or three sprinklings in it, how his soul appeared in this or that manner to his friends upon earth; their posthumous miracles after their death, exceed the number of those which they did when they were living. And if any thing be out of order, it is straightway rectified with an apparition. And from whence think you the Elf or Goblin comes that appears? From a place where I am sure this good Apostle saw no souls; from the correction house of Purgatory. Their Larvae, or nightwalking souls are their best Doctors for the confirmation of that opinion. Ask Gregory the Great else, who could urge little beside to gain credit to his opinion for the temporary chastisements of the faithful after this life, but as the dead came and made relation to their surviving acquaintance. Some silly men were first affrighted out of their wits with a ghastly Vision, and then guess you who it was that taught them points of Religion. 
Baron. in Martyrol.  But four ages ran out after Gregory's time before this cozenage grew trivial and common. Gregory the Fourth, in the year 835. decreed that a Solemn Feast should be held over all the Church to the memory of all the Saints in heaven, that whatsoever was not fully performed in the Feasts and Vigils of particular Saints, might be consummated on that day; this was nothing to the puling souls detained in the prison of temporary castigation. But almost two hundred years after, Odilo the Abot of Cluni, in commiseration to them that were departed in his own Monastery, dedicated a day for the relief of their souls not yet admitted into heaven. And Pope Jo. XVIII. anno 1007, taking light from Odilo commanded the Feast of all Souls to be general in all places. The Devil wanted nothing but the opening of this door, to beat down all opposites with apparitions. And let the Readers mark it, that from that Age not a Book was written, not a Chapter of a Book, but it relates what Nocturnal Mercuries appeared to bring tidings from Purgatory. Some Jangler will catch at this, and say, Belike you reject all Apparitions of the dead for lies, or Demoniacal Impostures. If I should, I had Tertullian to abet me, 
Lib. de An. c. 57  Omnem mortuorum exhibitionem incorporalem praestigias judices; All incorporeal Phantosms of the dead are juggle and delusions. And if any point of doctrine depend upon the sleeveless Errands that the souls departed bring, I do renounce them for delusions. We have Moses and the Prophets, and we are certain their Spirits are ever to be preferred before any Spirit that comes from the dead. For the living to go to the dead, says the Prophet Isaiah, none of that, but to the Law and to the Testimony, Isa. viij. 19 Rabbi Maimon says, that some superstitious Jews would burn Incense among the graves, that the dead might come and talk with them. And therefore God said, that man should be cut off from among the people, that sought the truth among the dead, Deut. xviii. 11. Yet I deny it not, but that the divine power hath sometimes presented the Saints departed, to communicate with the living, as they that appeared in the holy City to testify our Saviour's Resurrection, Mat. xxvii. Likewise in the 2. of Mach. Chap. ult. Onius, who once had been High Priest, he was exhibited being dead to Judas Machabaeus, that is another instance, if you have any stomach to that Historian. But the upshot is, that Souls have been seen in heaven, that was the Vision of St. John; so Souls may be sent from Heaven, but not from Purgatory. Through fire, I confess, these souls had passed which the Apostle saw, yet not through that subterraneous fire which they imagine, but through the fire of Martyrdom and persecution, He saw the Souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the Testimony which they held.  
And if it be true, as none of the worst Expositors conjecture, that the computation of the fifth Seal opened immediately before the words of my Text, is rightly calculated at what time Dioclesian did cease to make havoc in the Church, it was a very fit time to see souls in heaven slain for the Word of God, it was thwacked with Martyrs like an hive with Bees. For burning of Churches, for massacring of Christians, for Proscription of Innocents', no Persecution was ever like it. It lasted ten whole years without ceasing, and in the first year of his Reign in Egypt only, an hundred forty and four thousand Christians were put to death, beside seventy thousand that were banished, insomuch, says Scaliger, that the Epocha of Dioclesian is called the Epocha of the Martyrs in Chronology. Who would have thought that the Posterity of Cham, a Generation branded with dark and unlovely visages, should have afforded so many sacrifices to be offered up unto the glory of Jesus Christ? Well might the Church of Aethiopia sing the Canticle of Solomon, I am black, but comely, 
Cant. 1.5.  O ye Daughters of Jerusalem. And not only these, but exceeding great numbers of Bishops, Priests, and People in all quarters of the habitable world: a long bedroll of faithful men and women in this Island, did taste of the bitter Cup under the same Tyrant. Fathers lost their Children, Children lacked their Parents, the Wife miss her Husband, and one friend another, whom St. John hath found altogether, making up one Chorus of blessed Spirits; and while Rachel, the Church below, mourneth for her Children, Jerusalem which is above, the Mother of us all, rejoiceth for them. Martyrdom is the way to sublimate death into a Cordial, which was a poison, the means to make that a blessing which was a curse upon our nature. A Traffic proper to none but to the Citizens of the supernal City, to secure our whole adventure, not by assuring, but by losing their life. It is not only the greatest probation of faith, but it changeth faith into another species of Religion than it was before. 
In Evang. Mat. Ser. 6.  St. Austin speaks to some holy people that were ready to die for the testimony which they held, Mox aurei eritis, nunc argentei estis. Now you are Silver, that is, you are clean and sanctified, but if you be tried in the Furnace of Martyrdom, ye shall become Gold: And as Gold is deposited in the best place of a man's Treasury, so those golden Saints, I mean those that are slain for the Word, they are received into the most precious and costly Cabinets of the Kingdom of God. Upon those words of the Psalm xxvii. 5. He shall hide me in the secret of his Tabernacle, says Bernard, Christ is a Tabernacle of protection for all his servants, but he reserves the Altar for the Martyrs, which is the principal part of the Tabernacle. In acknowledgement that they had won the chief Garland which was propounded to them that run the race, the bones of the Martyrs anciently were wont to be buried in no common place of the Church, 
Ep 54 add Marcel.  but under the Altar. So St. Ambrose of the bones of Protasius and Gervasius buried in his Church of Milan under the Altar, says he, Let these triumphal Sacrifices be brought to that place where Christ is sacrificed. I had destined that plot of ground for mine own burial. It is meet that the Priest should sleep in peace, where he was wont to offer up the Peace-offering, Sed cedo sacris victimis dexteram portionem, locus ille martyribus debebatur; but I resign the right hand of the Altar to them, it is due to the Martyrs. How their names were read at solemn times out of the Diptyches to renown their passions, how their requests which they made to the Church before they died were granted for the pardon of any delinquent, how their relics were held precious, though not exposed superstitiously to veneration, these and much to that effect were too long to recite, it is measure heaped and running over; that Stephen the Captain of the bloody Army saw the Heavens opened to immortalize his sufferings, and that in the first File of all that are blessed St. John saw those that were slain for the Word of God.  
Yet this service is so rough unto our tender nature, to part with life for the custody of the truth, that all men had rather owe it to God, than pay it him. O but it is a good thing to put yourself to the question secretly between God and yourself, and do it not easily or hypocritically, admit I had supplied the room of Stephen, of James, of Justin, Laurence, Cyprian, quanta nomina? Should I have stood it out to the shedding of my blood? Or should I have fainted? If you stick at it, and cannot make a constant resolution, go to a new scrutiny; and that the flesh may not say that you deceive it with a superficial examination, make the most that you can of the pains which you shall be put to under the hand of the torturer, yet put all things in a right Scale, that the pains to be endured are over in a pair of hours at longest, for the most part in a pair of minutes, that the truth which you defend is ten thousand times dearer than a corruptible body; that the passions of this life are not worthy of the glory which shall be revealed; solicit yourself often with these meditations, till you have concluded with a mature judgement, 
Act 20.24.  as St. Paul did, I count not my life dear unto myself, so I may finish my course with joy. And then I will pronounce you a Martyr in extraordinary, for God accepteth the will for the deed. But howsoever the preconsiderations of many be stout, I fear they would grow effeminate upon the trial. You cannot discharge a strict Lenten Fast, how would your delicate bodies digest the hunger of an Inquisition? The ground is too hard for your knees to pray upon, what hope is there that you would hold out to lie upon the bare ground of a prison? A throng in hot weather stifles you, that you cannot endure the Church, how would your flesh endure a flaming fire? I believe you think this deaths-head hath been set too long before you. And is there no smother way to be a Martyr than by being slain? 
Serm. 45 de Temp.  Yes St. Paul says there is a living Sacrifice as well as a dead. And St. Austin, Pervenitur non solùm occasu, sed contemptu carnis ad coronam. You may receive the Crown prepared for them that fight lawfully, not only by extinguishing, but by mortifying the flesh. Mine eyes do persecute my chastity, ambition doth persecute my humility, revengeful malice doth persecute my charity, concupiscence is always persecuting my soul, which way can I turn myself but that every thing is a Martyrdom to a Religious Christian? But if I mortify the deeds of the flesh, if I abandon covetousness, if I repress lust, if I bridle malice, if I trample upon the world, whereas I was a Martyr in affliction before, and sin did reign over me, I have expulsed it by another Martyrdom, by renovation, and by crucifying the old man.  
But alas for pity how many Martyrs have we, if they may be believed upon their own testimony? How many whining passages in by-corners, and Satirical Sermons, touching the persecution of the Saints? God shield, that Saints should suffer in so Orthodox, and so mild a Church. Sure they are mistaken. Nay, but they exclaim over and over that they suffer for their conscience. For their conscience? That is another thing. Do they suffer for the Word of God, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the Complutensian Bibles read my Text? I love not to insult over misery with many words, let them sift their own case, and it will prove they are suppressed for contemning Authority. But there are others far more obstreperous against our state. If Pictures, and Almanacs, and Martyrologies, and Beatifications of Traitors will condemn us, we are up to the ears in these Certificates, for savage cruelty in killing the Saints. Do they not mean Jesuits and Seminaries, that were forbidden upon forfeiture of their head not to enter into his Majesty's Dominions? It is as clear as the light of the Sun then, that they were executed for breaking the Statute-Law, and not for the Word of God, or for the Testimony which they held. Every Malefactor will pretend that he dies in a good cause, to make his judgement odious in men's nostrils. Such as serve in the Galleys, will never be known what crimes they are in for, but complain that they wear their Chain for Faith and Religion. Alas say their Abettors that canonize them, that Statute is violated but by accident, they come to instruct their own Proselytes, and to execute the Function of their Priesthood, therefore by consequent they are slain for the Word of God. I will match their case with a full place of St. Cyprian, and so answer them. The Proconsul, that served under Decius the Emperor in Africa, banished hundreds of Christians out of Africa, threatening death unto them if they returned. Divers of them did creep in secretly, giving reason that they came to comfort their Brethren, and to strengthen them in the faith. St. Cyprian writes to them out of Prison, 
Ep. 7.  to exile themselves again, and to return no more, else if they suffered, they should be reputed not for Martyrs, but for Malefactors. I will not load them with envy, though it be true, that many of their Tenebrioes' crept into England with damnable intentions, make the best they can of their own actions. St. Cyprian says, if banished men will enter into a Realm against the Law, they shall die as Malefactors. It is the Cause and not the Punishment that makes a Martyr. What more trivial? If a Virgin choose to die rather than to be ravished, she is slain for the Word of. If a good man be ruined rather than give his assistance to the ruin of an innocent, it is for the Word of God, etc. But if he be brought to the Stake for confessing there are no Gods made with hands, and that Jesus Christ God and man is the Saviour of all that believe, if he stand to it, and will not flinch for any terror, that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to hold his Testimony, than he is slain for the Word of God, 
Rev. 12. ult.  and for the Testimony of the Lamb, as the Dragon fought with them that kept the Commandments of God, and had the Testimony of Jesus Christ; meaning such as were holy and faithful, very godly in their works, very Orthodox in their belief. This is that mixture of sweet Spices, in whose exhalation, a Martyr becomes an odour of a sweet savour unto the Lord. They were victimae altaris, and thymiamata altaris, Sacrifices slain upon the Altar of burnt-offerings, and therefore became sweet Spices offered up upon the Altar of Incense, which shall be the conclusion of this Point, and the beginning of the next, where the Apostle did behold those Saints that had exchanged their lives to glorify God under the Altar.  
And where doth St. John mean? Where about is that? Every curious itching ear will be more attentive to it, than to any instruction that can be raised out of the Text: A Traveller that asks his way, if many of the Country Folk be present at his question, it is ten to one but they will diversify in their opinions, and set him in so many ways, that he shall never be wiser for their direction. So I have consulted with more than a few Expositors, to learn where I may find this Altar, and not miss of it; one points this way, another that way, Et incertior sum multò quam dudum. Among their variety of directions I know not which way to move. Cosmography is a very easy part of learning to design the confines or distances of City from City, Kingdom from Kingdom. But it is one of the most difficult tasks in Divinity to understand the several quarterings, and Mansion-places of heaven. I confess I have no skill in Ouranography. But to cut off all Proem, I will be brief in my relation what is said to it, and more brief in my determination. The discordious opinions may be drawn to three heads, some mean by the Altar an allotted place, some relate it to the condition of their body, some refer it to the state and condition of their Spirit. Whosoever give the words a local meaning, that the Souls were under the Altar, they all agree in this, that it imports that the Saints are kept back awhile from the uppermost part of Heaven, where the Angels do offer up Praises continually upon the Altar of Incense, which is next to the Holy of Holies, and they that have not the nearest access to the Vision of God, in form of Prophetical speech may be said to be under the Altar. Some who pitched upon this Interpretation had such fumes in their heads, 
De An. cap. ult. Lib. 2. Periarchon.  that they did not see the light. Tertullian conceived that their Mansion was an earthly Paradise, whither Enoch and Elias are translated. Origen you may be sure hath some roving excursion, it is thus, that the souls of the Faithful are put to School in some secret places, before they go to heaven, where they are purified from ignorance by degrees, and then exalted. Victorinus Afer, a better Rhetorician than a Divine, thinks that to be under the Altar, is as if the souls were under the earth in some ample and pleasant regions like the Elysian Fields. All these are humane Fantasies, and I slip them aside. But the most beaten road to this purpose is, that the souls of the Martyrs have a remuneration for their labours and sufferings past, but not a consummation of that glory which shall be revealed unto them, a share in Heaven, but not a possession in the highest Heaven. In atriis non in domo. They are kept a loof off from the perfect Vision of God, in the fullness of time they shall see him face to face. Which is Bernard's meaning, when he says, the blessed that are under the Altar, because they are admitted to see the Humane Nature of Christ, and not the Divine. Not so as if totally they did see nothing of the Divine Nature, but because they see it with less perspicacity than they shall hereafter, so St. Ambrose and St. Hilary close with him. And St. Chrysostom upon the Eleventh to the Hebrews, Praeveniunt nos in certaminibus, non praevenient in coronis; they have fought a good fight before us, but they shall not be crowned before us; not because our Resurrection shall be at once, the words will not bear it; and the body is but the Robe which we shall put on, the glory with which we shall be filled brim full, that is the Crown which we shall wear in our Father's Kingdom. I know this is much distasteful to the Prelates of the Florentine and Tridentine Councils, who have defined, that the pure Souls in heaven enjoy the clearest Vision of God before the day of Judgement, and want nothing to their integral happiness but the resuscitation of their bodies. It may be so as they will have it. But I am contented to say, their state is Heaven, and will go no further. Neither can I see cause, why the Churches of Christ should descent, if one say without pervicacious obstinacy the Spirits of righteous men are in the highest Heaven, and another will say nothing peremptorily, but that they are in Heaven indeed, and do live with the Lord. Malo timidus esse quam temerarius. The Conclusion now is thus much, That if this be granted for a Local Posture that the Souls are under the Altar, there is nothing against Analogy of Faith to say, they are in the outward Rooms of Heaven, and stay there in expectation of more abundant glory.  
Secondly, Some relate this to the condition of their bodies. And the Jesuits Ribera and à Lapide will have no denial, but that they have brought the Point to the true Touchstone. I quoated somewhat out of St. Ambrose before, that the bodies of some, who gave up their life for the Faith, were interred in the Church under the Lord's Table, which with reference to the representation of the Sacrifice of Christ Crucified, 
Serm. 11. de sanctis.  is figuratively called an Altar. St. Austin confirms it, There let their dead corpses be interred, where the death of our Lord is continually celebrated. And in later years, when they studied for increase of Ceremonies, every principal Church under the Pontifician command, hath a Vault under the Altar, where the supposed Relics of the Martyrs, or the Relics of supposed Martyrs are reserved. Out of these Ritual Forms the Jesuits interpret St. John, that he saw the Souls of them that were slain for the word, whose bodies lay encombed under the Altar, and whose Relics were kept there in custody. They had need of a long Figure to bring these ends together. Neither shall they ever persuade me, that St. John bends his aim at a Custom of Sepulture, which began above two hundred years after he wrote his Prophecy. No toleration can be found for the burial of the Martyrs in those holy places, till the Pacificous Reign of Constantine the Great. And how did the Church understand this Scripture in the mean time? A Modern Writer of our own handles it much more learnedly to the same relation. He notes it very acutely, that the Theatre, wherein St. John saw all his Visions, hath a resemblance in every part to the Camp of Israel, and to the Tabernacle of Moses in the Wilderness; it is enough to have named it. Now the Apostle being acquainted by the Spirit what innumerous Troops of Martyrs should be slaughtered, he saw as it were the Altar of burnt-offerings belonging to the Tabernacle, and the Saints, that were sacrificed to God, were under it not as ashes are underneath, that fall through a grate, but they lay like beasts newly slain at the foot of the Altar, that is, sprawling upon the ground before the Altar. The Soul than is taken by Synecdoche here for the whole man, or according to the usual style of Scripture for the body of the man. The conjecture, I think, may pass for probable and judicious. There is but one thing to disparage it, it is but one man's conjecture.  
But if you will hear that which hath judgement to commend it, and multitude of Authors, it is likely to be found among them that in the third place refer this figuratively to the condition of their Spirits. Yet I mean not him that says, the Ark and the Covering thereof did represent God's Mercy Seat, but the Altar did represent his Justice, for it was the place of fire and bloodshed, and that these souls were under the Altar, that is, under the Justice of God to be avenged of their Adversaries. It is nothing so, for as it appears by them that fled unto it for refuge, the Altar was a place of Propitiation. The Altar here, by the greatest number of votes, is He that mitigates the stern Justice of his Father, Jesus Christus Agnus propter mactationem, Altar propter propitiationem. He is all by whatsoever we are reconciled to God, the Altar, the Priest, and the Sacrifice. St. Gregory proves it, 
Lib. 3. Mor. c. 20.24.  that the Altars of the Levitical Service were express Types of him, for either they were to be made of rude earth, Temeraria de sespite altaria, in Tertullia's words, or of rough and unpolisht stones, Exod. xx. Wherefore of earth, but to betoken the Incarnation of our Lord? Quicquid offerimus Deo in altari terreo, i. e. in fide Dominicae incarnationis solidamus; Whatsoever we bring unto God, lay it upon the earthen Altar, upon this faith, that Christ was incarnate, to save his people from their sins. When the Altar was made of stone, it was rough and unpolisht, and in those materials likewise we shall meet with Christ. For he was the Living Stone in Daniel, cut out of the Mountain without hands, neither was he polished by Art, by Education, or by any thing that man can put into him, as he came from the Quarry, from the Womb of his Mother, he was full of Grace and Truth. This standing is firm, that the term of Altar agrees well with our Saviour, many reasons may be easily rendered, why the souls of the Blessed were under the Altar: 1. Says Estius, a little too slightly, They have not yet attained to be like the glorious body of Christ, they have not resumed their Carcases, as He is risen from the dead; they are yet below His dignity, and so under the Altar. 2. The Just that died in the Lord in the Old Law, are said to be in Abraham's bosom, because they professed the Faith of Abraham; so they that died in the Faith of the Gospel, that Christ is the Altar, upon whom all our works that please God are to be offered up, their Souls are under that Altar. 3. As Lazarus the poor man full of Piety is said to be in Abraham's bosom; as if he were placed in heaven next to Abraham, so the godly Martyrs are next to the Altar, for dignity of glorification next to Christ himself, and wheresoever the Carcase is thither will the Eagles be gathered together, Luk. xvii. Lastly, Which takes me most, the persecuted Saints had no shelter on earth to defend them, now their souls are at rest, disquieted with no fear, under the protection and custody of Christ. Under him we are in safety upon earth, and no man can take his sheep out of his hand, and under his Wings we shall be safe in Heaven for ever; yea, and though we have the faith of Martyrs, to spend our life for the love of God, yet our hope is not in ourselves, but to be covered with the Altar, to run to Christ as to our Shield and Buckler, without his Merits to assoil us from our sins, Martyrs cannot appear before the face of God. O prepare your selves to come unto this holy Sanctuary: He that comes with an hypocritical Conscience to partake of the Altar of the Lords Table, he shall find no place for his Soul under that Altar which is above. And take heed of high imaginations and exalted thoughts. Our state in Heaven is subter, and not super: And all subters in this World are not worth a good man's thought to reflect upon them. Let me be an underling, let me be abased, let me go down to the lowest Room, let my Spirit aim at nothing but to be Templum sub altari, the Temple of God here, that hereafter I may rest under the Altar in life everlasting. AMEN.   

A SERMON UPON REVEL. vi. 10. 
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth?   
NOthing may seem more out of order than these words are at the first reading, but their true scope is, to put that in frame, which the wise men of the world did think most out of order. Some will say in their first cogitations upon my Text, Are these the Souls of the Firstborn in Heaven, that make such a clamour against their Persecutors? Can they indeed be so eager of revenge? Tantae ne animis coelestibus irae? Besides, Are they so passionately addicted to their own desires, that they will not stay the prefixed time which God hath set, but challenge him for slackness? Vsque quo? How long dost thou put us off? Again, What imperfection is this which they pretend, as if they knew not how long it were, till Christ would take the Kingdom into his hand, and judge the proud after their deserving? How do they know as they are known, if they be kept so short of divine revelation? But to stifle these Cavillations, take special notice, that you lose the whole Chain of this Prophecy, if you hold not fast by this Link, that St. John was in a rapture, and taken up to the Heaven in the Spirit, where the passages which he met withal were not really transacted, but he seemed to see the souls which were slain, and he seemed to hear the moans which they made, which is nothing else but a Prosopopaea, where the Spirits of the Martyrs are imaginarily brought in, as if they demanded the suppression of violent men, that had spilt their blood, which doth not evince that any infirmities, or disorderly affections are in them, which may rashly be supposed, but to set two things straight in our opinion, which many Philosophising heads did champ upon, as if they were crooked in the Divine Providence.  
First, The righteous are taken away, and no man regardeth it, as the Prophet says. 
Isa. 57.1.  Their days are cut short by violence and cruelty, and yet their Persecutors live and are mighty. What did the Heathen say to this, who had good report for their Moral Conversation? Is there no Justice in heaven? Or doth it set no price upon the blood of Just men? Yes, here is the best assurance that can be demanded, a Scene as it were acted in heaven, wherein is represented that the wrongs of the Saints are fresh in memory, and shall never be forgotten. Yet this is not all. As this Scale is hoist up, so there is another that must down as fast, and that is principally aimed at in this Text. An Oppressor, whose hand hath been very heavy upon another, he is always jealous that in the turn of the Wheel his malice may be requited: For none so miserable, but in the Revolutions of Fortune may call his injuries to an account, if he live. What is the Method therefore of them that are profound Graduates in Malice? Why mortui non mordent. Let not thine Adversary live, if you love to be secure, dispatch him. As Bassianus insulted over his Brother Geta, when he had killed him. Sat Divus frater meus, modò ne sit vivus, as long as my Brother lives not, I care not though he be among the Gods. Or as Jezebel cheered up Ahab, that the worst was passed, Arise, eat, and take possession, Naboth is not alive, but dead. This is a Maxim then in the Devil's Politics, if you hunt for the destruction of any man, your safety is in his utter extirpation. This is as false as God is holy and true. It is palpable that my Text labours especially with this Doctrine, That the poor oppressed is more likely to obtain redress against his enemy when he is dead, than when he was alive. His Soul is then most precious to the Lord, his Prayer most flagrant, he is so near to Christ that he is next to the Altar; his understanding is so enlightened, that he knows what to ask and never fail. Do their Oppressors think that these can do no harm, because their bones lie scattered before the pit? I would not be in ahab's case, though Naboth be dead and not alive, for no worldly good would I provoke the clamours of such as these, for they cry with a loud voice, etc.  
Here you have a Petition then put up to a mighty King by some persons that had sustained injury, and after that garb I will divide it. First, As it useth to be in such petitory Writs, consider we to whom the Supplication is preferred, to one from whom there lies no appeal, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. And the words are so laid together that the Souls under the Altar do beseech him by his three mighty Attributes, Per potentiam, per bonitatem, per trigam gloriae. He is the Lord, therefore they implore him by that power which can do all things. He is Holy, therefore they solicit him by that goodness which detests Oppressions. He is Truth, and therefore they urge him by those Promises made, which he cannot but accomplish. It is the Lord, holy, and true, into his hands they commend their Petition. Secondly, The manner of Petitioning is with vehemency, and importunity. With vehemency, for they cried with a loud voice. With importunity, for they expostulate that it is not yet done, How long Lord, etc. Thirdly, Their ask and request, is for no petty injury, but for their blood, to judge and avenge their blood. Lastly, The parties against whom they complain are expressed by contempt of their condition, They dwell upon earth. And now tell me if the Eagle hath not cause to fear, though he hath torn these innocent Doves to pieces in his talons? In what peril do those Grantortoes live that have slain the poor Servants of Christ heaps upon heaps? When such a God is besought by the souls of such dear servants, with such zeal and vehemency, upon so great an injury, and against such worldlings whose best project is to live upon the earth, what will this come to in the end? But the restauration of the afflicted, the destruction of their Persecutors; unto these tears for their joy in the nethermost Hell, unto the others joy for their tears in the Kingdom everlasting.  
Having thus distributed the Text into portions, I go back to that which I put in the first rank, the Petition is preferred to the Lord, to the Lord that is holy and true. And those words are both an invocation of praise, and an obtestation by those sacred properties of the Divine Nature, that their desire might be effected. He that makes his address to God, let him begin with his praise, let him commemorate his excellent greatness, let him delight to rehearse his Titles of Majesty, without these your Petition is headless, it hath no Exordium to induct it into the Court of grace; extol him in his noble Attributes, before you begin to exhibit your desires, and the everlasting doors will be lifted up to let you in, for the Lord cannot refuse his own glory. As David bears you up to it in the last Psalm, the Trumpet, the Harp, the Cymbal, the Organ, all Instruments of Music are in the Tongue of him that doth praise the Lord. They were no babies therefore, whatsoever the refractory think, that filled our Liturgy with Te Deums, with Magnificats, with Doxologies; Methinks Prayer were but a drowsy thing without them. When we ask any thing that we need, we speak in the Dialect of men; but when we send forth acclamations to the honour of Jesus Christ, we speak with the tongues of Seraphims. In our Petitions we may exceed, and ask too much, in our Doxologies we cannot exceed. It agrees well to the true only God, which Plato ascribed to his Idols, heap what Epithets you will upon the Gods, you cannot flatter them. Perhaps some are of the mind of that Heathen, that asked a Rhetorician, to what purpose he penned an Oration in praise of Hercules, for who did ever discommend Hercules? Or if Blasphemers should detract from God his excellency, it is not made less: So all the invocations and Halleluja's of the Saints cannot add on Cubit, not one Inch to the stature of his Majesty, it is uncapable of increase, and can never grow greater. But will you be content to open your lips unto the praise of the Celestial goodness, if it bring yourself to honour, though it be no amplification to the glory of God? Agreed then; no man can ascribe much praise to God, but out of a large capacity of faith, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. No man can say, that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. No man can speak of the King of Heaven according to his due honour, but it will procreate devotion and reverence; no man doth advance the name of God in the preface of his Prayer, but it is a tacit Confession, that he prefers the glory of his Maker before his own Necessity. Behold now, though God's honour be in the state that it was before, yet your soul is in a better state by Prayer, and Invocation; for a spiritual gift in this life is a degree to a reward in the life to come.  
Let me not defer it any longer to speak of the ditty of that praise which the Souls under the Altar did give unto the most High: And the words when they are laid together, are Triga divinae gloriae, as it is called, a Chariot drawn by the three transcendent Attributes of the Divine Nature. Who doth excel in Power, but the Lord? Who doth excel in goodness, but the Holy of Holies? And He that brings to pass whatsoever he hath spoken, he must excel in truth. Power belongs unto the Father, for all things are by him: Truth belongs unto the Son, for all the shadows of the Old Law are fulfilled in him: Goodness belongs to the Holy Ghost, for he is the Sanctification that is diffused in our hearts. Therefore more praise cannot be couched in three words than in these, Lord, Holy, and True. We wretched and ignorant sinners, that utter these words with polluted lips, we cannot apprehend, as the Martyrs in Heaven do, what an eternal weight of glory is in every one of these Syllables. Yet we know that he is Lord whose authority admits no equal, the Idea of all goodness, whose sanctity admits no question: A Truth which is the measure of all truth, whose words and statutes admit no contradiction. His Dominion is so strong that it cannot be resisted, his Holiness is so sincere that it cannot sin, and his Truth is so firmly coupled to his Holiness, that he cannot lie. There is no Power but in Him, for all the Foundations of the Earth are weak. There is no Holiness but in him, for there is none that doth good, no not one: There is no verity but in him, for God is true, and every man a liar. As for all the Gods of the Heathen, there was infirmity in their protection, for they had no strength. Viciousness in their Sanctions, for they had no sanctity; Delusions in their Oracles, for they were nothing but vanity. To contract a world of variety, which may be morallized out of this Triple Crown of God, it is not to be over-passed, that these are the Titles upon which the Church depends for all its blessings, the Hills unto which we lift up our eyes for help, Solium gubernandi, altar sanctificandi, cathedra docendi; The Throne of his Kingdom, the Altar of his Priesthood, the Chair of his Prophetical Wisdom; which afford unto the Church Might to protect it, Grace to purify it, and Truth to direct it in all things. Or observe it how the Enemies of the Church are overmatcht and trodden down by these Attributes. We all know they are in three Ranks Tyrants, Hypocrites, and Heretics: To suppress Tyrants, he is the mighty Lord; for the detestation of Hypocrites, he is the Holy One of Israel; for the conviction of Heretics, Truth hath flourished out of the Earth, and Righteousness hath looked down from Heaven. But if these be the Flowers of Christ's honour, if the Martyrs, as some Expositors say, meant of him only, they are Lines, which will easily, I am sure, meet in that Centre: Though once he was compassed with our infirmities, yet now what Power so great as his, to whom the Father hath committed all judgement? What Holiness so perfect as his, which challenged the censure of his Enemies, Which of you can reprove me of sin? Or what Truth so praepotent as out of his mouth, which made his Adversaries confess, Never man spoke like him? Not to leave this Subject without some utility to our life; Are these Titles of our Father no way hereditary to us by Adoption of Sons? Yes surely, after the model of our earthen Vessel, the compellation of Lord, which is so awful and to be adored in the Supreme Majesty, it claims veneration, and submissive obedience to those Powers upon earth, to whom God hath committed the execution of his governance: The other two Attributes are not so restrictive, but are the Vrim and Thummim of every Christian, or like the two eyes in our head, we know not which is dearest, Holiness and Truth. Truth is the illumination of our understanding in all points to be believed: Holiness is the reformation of our will in all cases of practice. Which of these can you spare and live, your brains, or your heart? If Holiness be true, there will be no Hypocrisy: If Truth be holy, there will be no contention. If Holiness be true, Zeal shall be joined to Knowledge: If Truth be holy, Knowledge shall be joined to action. Where Truth is not holy, Herod, for the engagement of his Oath, will cut off the head of John Baptist: Where holiness is not true, the Pharisees in defence of the Law will Crucify our Saviour. Wherefore put on the new man which is created after God, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in the holiness of truth, or in true holiness, Eph. iv. 24.  
Forget not, I pray, that I said, these Epithets were not only an Invocation, but an obtestation also, as if the Martyrs had said, As thou art the Lord, as thou art holy, as thou art true, avenge our blood of them that dwell on the earth. Haec commemoratio est quaedam necessitas exaudiendi. How can this great King, to whom they supplicate, choose but grant them their ask, when his own Attributes intercede in their behalf? How can their Enemies choose but fall before them, when they sound out these awful names of God as with the blast of a Trumpet? As a Christian Poet says of Satan, who was cast out of the Possessed in the name of Jesus, Nec fulmina verbi ferre potest; that blessed word was like Thunder in his ears, he could not endure the noise of it: So when the men of the earth have exalted themselves. To run over the Attributes of God against them, is as it were to give fire to a peal of Ordnance, and their Pride will totter before them. Religion hath its name à religando, it binds man to God, and it binds God to man. The Martyrs were bound by their Vow in Baptism to stand to their Faith to the death, and the Lord hath bound himself by his Truth and Holiness to avenge his Saints that cry day and night unto him. With much confidence may we appeal unto him in the name of the Lord. Magnum nomen sub quo nemini desperandum, says St. Austin. Who can be discouraged that can recite that word with a true feeling in the Preface of his Prayer? It is in effect to say, Rise up thou arm of the most High, Isa. li. 9 Stir up thy strength, and come and help us, Psal. lxxx. 2. Let all the Kingdoms of the earth know that thou art the Lord, Isa. xxxvii. 20. It is to challenge protection from the relation which can never be dissolved; as who should say, Thou art our King, and we are thy Subjects; therefore we claim our Copy, that thou shouldst guard and defend us, at least that thou shouldst pluck down the arrogance of those that have offended us. But what passionate Advocates are the other two sacred terms that go together with it? Holy and True. Which is in effect to plead, Thou hast made us holy as thou art holy, thou hast kept us in the truth, even as thou art truth, thou hast given us such gifts as are in thine own Titles, therefore we are sure thou dost love us with an everlasting love, thou that art holy and true, wilt pluck thine arm out of thy bosom, to avenge them that are holy and true against their oppressors. The Holiness of God calls upon him to hate the ungodly, that have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place. His Truth calls upon him to put them to confusion, because he hath promised to recompense them for the evil which they have done unto his Servants. He that is holy cannot favour their part that are ambitious, bloodsuckers, invaders of the Possessions of the Innocent. He that is truth itself cannot support them that are dissemblers, truce-breakers, full of fraud and equivocation. The Holy One will be sanctified, the True One will be justified, the Lord will be glorified.  
I will hold you no longer in the Porch of the Text, for the Invocation is no more: I come to the Prayer itself, the Souls under the Altar cry out unto the Lord to judge and avenge their blood. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Verb to judge, may belong to the sifting of the Cause; the other Verb to avenge, may import the dispatch of the sentence against the Delinquents, but I take them both to be an amplification of one thing urged, that vengeance may fall upon the head of them that have spilt the blood of the Saints, a Prayer that a mild man perhaps will stand amazed at. His Lesson is, Bless them that curse you, 
Mat. 5.44.  pray for them that despitefully use you. Whence comes it that the Saints in Heaven take the liberty to perform Christ's will not so charitably as the poor Disciples on earth? But good words; and all grace and piety be ascribed to the Spirits which are in the bosom of God. We cannot say to them as our Saviour did to the Sons of Zebedee, You know not what ye ask. This is a voice which came not from Earth, but from Heaven, and therefore we must maintain it. And it is as easy a task as a man can put his Pen to, because it will admit such variety of Apology.  
First of all, Vengeance being not usurped by the hand of a private man, but prosecuted under the shelter of lawful authority, like Vsque quo Domine? In this place it is not unlawful. It is pars justitiae punitivae, a stirring up of that part of justice which distributes punishments to them that deserve them, and to demand it in a regular way, 
Alice. tom. 2. q. 139. m. 4.  is in no wise rugged to the Law of charity. The Schoolmen comprise the right use and the abuse of it in one short distinction, Velle vindictam ad odium saturandum pessimum est, ex amore justitiae bonum; It is honest sometimes to claim revenge for wrongs out of the love of Justice, it is abominable when we aim at nothing, but to glut our spleen and hatred with the ruin of our enemy. St. Austin puts it better home with two exceptions. Revenge is strictly repressed in the Gospel, Non ut correctionem hominum negligamus, sed ne alieno malo animum pasceres; 
Ep. 154.  not quite repressed, so that offenders must not be called to account to be corrected, but when a rancorous mind would be fed and fatted with the penalty of another. Again, says he, Non ut praeterita vindicemus, sed in futurum consulamus; 
Ep. 202.  The injuries that are past and done might be friendly put up, but recompense must be required sometimes, that the times to come may be more peaceably ordered. Many stumbled at this Doctrine, because they made not a clear difference between the affections of malice and justice. Origen against Celsus disputes, that if is not lawful for Christians to go to war, yet David praiseth God for teaching his hands to war, and his fingers to fight. The Manichaeans brooked not Moses for those words, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; yet he saith, Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, Leu. nineteen. Julian charged the Christians that they were enemies to Civil Courts, and all Political Orders, for they held that no wrong was to be called in question. And they that replied unto him, defended it coldly, that it was a thing adiaphorous, and better let alone. 
Contra. Faust. lib. 22.  St. Austin in one place says, that the Old Law did licence the Jews to commence suits against their Enemies, but it was a permission to the hardness of their hearts; this mistake came upon a slip of memory, for he thought there had been such words in the Text of the Old Law, Thou shalt hate thine enemy. Hugo taught that the Precepts of strict charity, which Christ taught, agreed to the suffering times of the Primitive Church, but were now expired. Some of the School Divines would have the Prayer for our Persecutors to be a Counsel, and not a Precept. Some would have all going to Law to be a repining against the will of God, and impatiency against his scourge, when he takes any thing from us; by the same tenure, a sickness being a scourge, from God, we must not seek to the Physician to cure it. Finally, The Anabaptists think that the Gospel hath so quite cut the Nerves of revenge, that they abhor the Magistrate who is the conservator of peace and justice, and repute him to be God's instrument no otherwise than as Nebuchadonozor or the Devil. This is a large field of Tares to be cut down, and all with one Sickle, revenge may be prosecuted for the correction of sin, for the peace of the Church, for the demonstration of God's justice. So doth our Church in the Collect used in the time of War, Assuage the malice of our Enemies, abate their pride, confound their devices: So do the Souls of the Martyrs in heaven, Avenge our blood, etc.  
I confess it is an hard matter to hit of this way which I speak of, and among those that pray for revenge, not one among a thousand, I am persuaded, but tread awry. Howsoever the pure love to Justice may stir us up to those devotions, yet our frailty can scarcely perform it without some vindicative passions. It is a common error to miscall our Spleen by the name of Zeal, and to take that hot affection to be a Coal from the Altar, which is a firebrand from the infernal Pit.  
But it is a second Conclusion, that the Spirits of good men departed may cry out, to have judgement pass upon Tyrants, for the effusion of their blood, because they can ask nothing inordinately, they that are confirmed in grace, and cannot sin, they cannot make a Petition that is overbalanced with the least grain of rancour or partiality. Beside, as Rabshekah said to the men of Judah, how untruly let him answer it, 
Isa. 36.10.  Am I now come up without the Lord against this Land to destroy it? Yea, the Lord said unto me, Go up against this Land and destroy it: So may the Saints say without prevarication, Do we pray for vengeance against our Persecutors without the Lord? Yea, the Lord hath said unto us, Pray unto me for vengeance against your Enemies; their Will moves by his inspiration, and they can wish for nothing without it. Ab ipso bibunt quodcunque sitiunt, 
Serm. 3. de Sanct.  St. Austin speaks it upon my Text; when they thirst for any thing, they drink it first from the Fountain of his pleasure. Wherefore there is this disparity in our case and theirs. We are ignorant what may become of our Persecutors: Stubborn sinners are often called to repentance. Paul was converted in that minute, when he imagined most mischief against the Faith. O then let us overcome evil with good, praying that they may turn unto the Lord and be saved. This is a fair Christian revenge indeed, to pray against their sins, Hoc ipsum in illis vindicatur, 
August.  quod periit iniquitas. Now the Saints in glory, as many of the best Divines hold, are not at such uncertainty as we are, but it is revealed unto them that their Persecutors are in a lost condition, that they will die in their impenitency, therefore in conformity to that judgement, 
Estius.  which God hath reserved for them, they pour out their Imprecations, that destruction may take them unawares. They that know how unalterable the Decrees of the Lord are, and by special impartment, are acquainted with the execution of his Decrees; it is impossible that the Saints in Heaven should solicit him for the salvation of Reprobates, they pray for nothing, but for that which they obtain; they pray for none, but for whom they may be heard. Some of us ask and have not, St. James tells us why, Because we ask amiss. The drift of this Conclusion is, we ask good things of God for our Enemies, because for aught we know they may become his friends. The Martyrs cry aloud against their Enemies, because they know they shall be Fiends of Hell. We are restrained from cursing our ill-willers, because malice will inject itself into such Prayers; the Citizens which dwell above are liable to no such prohibition, because there can be no defect in their charity.  
The third Conclusion is so cautious to give no scandal, so circumspect not to open the least window to malice and hatred, that it resents the word Revenge in this place to be of an improper signification; and that which the Souls departed sue for is not revenge, but deliverance. Deliverance? Of what? Not of themselves, who are out of harms-way, in Abraham's bosom: But of their Brethren afflicted and tormented here beneath. As who should say, How long, O Lord, wilt thou not deliver the blood of our Brethren, the poor Members of the Militant Church, from them that rage upon the Earth? They that are dead in the Lord have not only an existence after this life, but a memory to call to mind what garboils were in this world when they breathed in it, as the Parabolical History of the Rich man and Lazarus may confirm it. This being presupposed as the opinion of others (I press it not as irrefragable) it must go along with it, that they have a most compassionate desire, that the poor Sheep, whom they left in the midst of Wolves, may have an end of their misery. And no marvel if their Communion which they had, and shall have again, make them clamour, as if they petition for themselves. How long O Lord, etc. For as young Scholars talk Proverbially of the breaking of Priscian's head, when a Solacism is committed, though he be rotten in his grave; so unmerciful proceedings against them that suffer under the Cross of Christ, seem to fetch blood from the Saints in Heaven. You will think, I suppose, that this Interpretation sticks at a knot: To deliver is a softer, and a more innocent word than to revenge; how will that stubborn word to revenge bear so mild a signification? The Critics will readily help us in that. David pleading his integrity before Saul, yet mistrusting that his displeasure was unreasonable and implacable, 
1 Sam. 24.12.  says he, Vlciscatur me de te Jehova; The Lord avenge me of thee. As the Letter sounds, this had been most disloyal, and most dangerous to have cursed Saul to his face, therefore the Phrase must be understood in this manner, The Lord deliver me from thy vengeance. Again, 1 Mach. xiii. 6. I will avenge my Nation, and the Sanctuary, and our Wives, and Children, for the heathen are gathered to destroy us. What is meant then by avenging the Sanctuary, but delivering it from profanation? To uphold it with another Authority, the Widow invokes the unjust Judge to avenge her of her adversary, Luk. xviii. 3. Camerarius says, it is jus exequere, do me right against him: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Juris consulti vocant defensores; that is, they that defend and maintain the cause of the poor, are called their avengers. It cannot utterly be gainsaid therefore, but that the Grammatical words will bear this sense, that the Souls under the Altar pray for deliverance, rather than revenge. For the deliverance of their Brethren that suffer, not for the confusion of those Malefactors that spill their blood. I confess, if you take Revenge in the usual way, for a cankered desire to see the hurt of another, this construction were the safer. And for Analogy of Faith it agrees well with that, that the holy Ones in the sight of God pray, that their Brethren may be plucked out of the jaws of their Tormentors, 
Serm. de Immort.  and fill up their Society in Heaven. So St. Cyprian, Illic copiosa turba nos desiderat, de suâ immortalitate secura, adhuc de nostra solicita; An innumerous company of holy ones in Heaven desire our coming, resting secure in their own peace and glory, 
Serm. 3. in fest. Sanct.  but solicitous for ours. And Bernard very vehemently, Vnde tibi hoc ô caro foetida! How comes this to pass, O filthy and sinful flesh of man, that they in whom God's Image is repaired, should long for thy fellowship, in whom it is defaced? That they who are made white with the blood of the Lamb, should wish for thee that art polluted? So I leave this Point with a probable assent, but no more, that the Saints desire not the vengeance of the ungodly, but the deliverance of the righteous.  
It is drawn up more solidly in the fourth Conclusion, That vengeance indeed is no part of their Petition in Heaven, it was their love and forgiveness of their Enemies which God accepted, when he exalted them thither; and surely their Charity is increased, and not diminished. But how then will St. John's Vision and their Charity hold together? Well enough; directly they pray for that which is fit for the voice of Saints, but because no good thing is good to them that hate the Church, obliquely it brings vengeance upon them. Cajetan is the great abettor of this Interpretation. I shall find another Author for it, they are our Saviour's words, Luk. xviii. 7. Shall not God avenge his own Elect, that cry day and night unto him? Says he, The assiduous cry of the Elect tends formally to this, that the Kingdom of God would come, and that he would accomplish all things; but forasmuch as when this Kingdom is come, and the Elect are gathered together from the four Winds, the wicked shall be turned into Hell, and all the people that imagined evil against his Sanctuary, therefore virtually and indirectly they invocate God that his Foes may be swept away with the Besom of destruction. Affectu orant pro persecutoribus, effectu pro vindictâ; Their affections are sweet and tender, that all Infidels, who defy the Gospel of Christ, may be converted, but the effect which follows their Prayers shall not be their Salvation, but their Subversion for ever. The Casuists express this after a pretty manner, that the Will of any man is Mother to some effects, and Grandmother to other some. Such things as it wisheth for expressly, it is the Mother of those desires; when many things fall out consequently upon these desires, and quite beside the intention of the wish, they are not the Children of our own Will, but our Daughter's Daughters as it were, and our Will is but Grandmother unto them. I desire fair weather merely for mine own delight, my fancy covets nothing else; but this may hinder the Seedsman in the Field, or burn up his Flowers that hath planted a Garden, those effects are not begot by my Will, their relation is that they came to pass out of that which I desired, they are my children's Children, and so remotely they are mine. Or as a Ward wisheth that he were come to Age, and had sued out his Livery, his aim is to be seized of his own Inheritance, yet that desire cannot be accomplished in some instances, without wring his Estate out of the hand of his Guardian, and leaving him poor and succourless. 
Moral. lib. 2. c. 6.  So says Gregory the Great to this case in my Text, Sancti petunt mundi consummationem, atque indui corporibus; These blessed Souls call for the consummation of the World, for a joyful Resurrection, and to be clothed with their bodies. But woe unto violent men, that have insulted upon the Righteous, when that shall come to pass, then shall their cruelty begin to be requited. The Saints do praise God day and night, and the Incense of their Prayers is lifted up unto him for a greater amplification of their triumph, yet since their honour must be the ruin of many, this must necessarily be derived out of their Petitions, that the Lord would judge and avenge their blood on them that dwell on the Earth. But you will say, I have not yet made it to appear, that the primary and direct Petition of the Saints is, that God will reveal his utmost glory in the end of all things, and in the Resurrection of their bodies. I refer you for that to the verse which follows my Text; for why had each of them his white Robe given? Or why is it said, That they should rest for a little season, and till all were fulfilled? This is no answer to the words of my Text, but an answer to their uncessant Prayer for the future Resurrection, that the pittance of glory which they had must satisfy them, and in due time, when the whole body was gathered together, there should be an accomplishment of their blessedness. I do not say, That the time deferred is irksome to them, for their heart is so devoted to every thing that God pleaseth to have done, that it is sweeter to them, since the Lord will have it so, to have the time adjourned, when they shall be clothed with their house which is from Heaven, than if it were now at hand. Yet the Spirit hath such a thirst to resume the Flesh again, that it spends their affections in part upon the object, which otherwise would freely and entirely, without deducting any share, be consecrated to the praise of the Eternal Majesty. To dispatch this Conclusion now, if I look right upon it, it is sound, and hath no flaw; namely, that the proper ingredients of the prayer of the Saints departed, are for the hastening of Christ's Kingdom, and for a speedy Resurrection, but to the terror of them that are destructive and unmerciful, that heavenly supplication devoves them by consequent to the nethermost Hell.  
There is but one Conclusion more behind, the fifth and last, which stands upon this firm Basis, that if any man will be contentious, that revenge is every way to be exploded out of the Prayers of holy Martyrs, though his conscience receive scandal unjustly, where none is given: yet there is one interpretation left, which is obnoxious to no exception, namely, that these words are not Oratio personae, sed rei; the Martyrs themselves do not utter such a Prayer in the ears of God, but the wrongs and injuries which they sustained make interpellations before the face of God, that their hoary head may go down to the Grave in sorrow which afflicted his Servants. The Saints are so ravished with the splendour of the Beatifical Vision, that they have no leisure to think of the passions which they endured in this life, much less can they spare a minute to cast away a thought upon their Persecutors. As Plato replied stoutly to Dionysius of Syracuse, the Tyrant had entertained him in his Court, and was loath to let him return home, when Plato much desired it: After much importunity I would dismiss you, says the Tyrant, were it not that you would talk of me too much in your own Country. Nay, Sir, says Plato, I have somewhat else to do, when I am in Athens among the Academics, than to talk of Dionysius. So Stephen, and Peter, and James, stoop not so low as once to mention the Pharisees, or Herod, or Nero, but their Ashes in their Graves exclaim against them Parrisides that murdered those holy Fathers. Even as Abel being dead doth yet speak by faith, Heb. xi. 4. which is in the words of God himself, Thy Brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground, Gen. x. 4. Not thy Brother, but thy Brother's blood, that direful Act which thou hast committed in the effusion of it, that is it which pierceth mine ear, though his soul utter not a word to that effect, because it is never abstracted from Celestial Contemplations. It is a corrective manner of speaking, when we glance at the secret sins of another, to say, If such a Room, or such a Bed could speak, if the Doors or the Hangings could speak, they would tell foul Tales. Spare your suppositions, I beseech you, and go roundly to work; for every inanimate thing wherein we have committed any crime or injury, it hath a voice to impeach us, and we cannot escape the Accusation. Job says of an Oppressor, That his Land will cry against him, and the furrows of the field will complain of him, Job xxxi. 38. Habakkuk says of him that hath built his house by cutting off many people, I suppose he means Depopulators, that the Stone shall cry out of the Wall, and the Beam of the Timber shall answer it, Chap. two. 9 So Judas Machabaeus implores God, that he would remember the wicked slaughter of harmless Infants, and hear the blood that cried unto him, 2 Mach. viij. 3. Take heed of wrong and rapine, take heed of cruelty, of murdering the Innocent, of beating your fellow-servants, Luk. xii. Every violence which you offer hath a tongue to accuse you, and the ear of the Lord is in every place. It is an easy thing by terrors to awe a poor simple man, that he shall suck in his spittle, and say nothing when he is ruined: It is no unlikely thing that he shall be brought to Mortification, to pray to the power above to forgive his Oppressors, but he is not able to muzzle the wrongs that have been done him, or to pluck out their tongue; when he is asleep in his Bed, when he is stiff in his Grave, they never sleep, they never die, they never end their clamour, and there is no such distance, but that the cry of the Innocent will knock against it. This is not meant to weaken the hand of Justice, which rewards the wicked after their deserving. Impenitent Caytives shall never come near the Altar in Heaven to moan themselves, never fear their outcry, but beware to push at an innocent soul. No private man's Oppressions shall be unrepayed, how much more when whole Kingdoms and Principalities are devoured by the Invader? When whole Nations are wasted out of their Inheritance, when whole Rivers of blood lift up their voice, when the Sceptres of Princes do plead for justice before his Throne that gave them their Throne and Dignity. The Sun will shine upon that day when they shall be filled with slaughter that have delighted in it. Forget not what Abner said to Joab, Shall the Sword devour for ever? Know'st thou not that it will be bitterness in the End? And let this be the close of this second part of my Text, the Souls themselves under the Altar make no unquiet interpellations to be revenged, but the wounds, and stripes, and marks which they bore in their bodies for the Lord Jesus, they cry out day and night, how long Lord holy and good, etc.  
The next Point is almost of the same piece, and very conjunct with the Petition itself, it is the manner of preferring it, which, to the greater terror of them that live by wrong hostility, is done with all vehemency and importunity, with a loud voice, and a solicitous iteration. The Heathen Poets fancied that the Souls in the Elysian Fields did utter their mind with audible and vocal sounds, but with a low whispering, as if Reeds were shaken with the wind. Sometimes they would strive to speak out, but all in vain, Inceptus clamor frustratur hiantes. This is Fiction, and not Philosophy: For separated souls speak not with corporeal Organs, but with their Wills and Affections. Animarum verba sunt ipsa desideria; Their words which they utter are their desires, which they send forth; and therefore David says. Thine ear hath heard the desire of their heart. There is no such thing therefore as a loud voice proceeding from the souls in Heaven; but flesh and blood must be spoken to as it may understand, and because the miseries are great which the Saints have suffered under the impotent rage of Tyrants, and the Martyrs while they lived were wont to roar out for disquietness of heart in those extremities, therefore by Prosopopea they are still said to call upon Heaven to judge their cause. So Theophilus Antiochanus, a most ancient Author, Secundum eos affectus quos anima aliquando pro necessitate corporis generat; such as were their affections in this life, by a figurative translation, such they are said to be in heaven. Then they cried aloud for help, and now they, or rather their blood and Martyrdom is said to cry aloud for vengeance. Not they indeed, but their injuries do so strongly plead against their Oppressors; but they and their injuries are confounded as if they were but one Plaintiff in Law. Therefore it is in Esdras, 
2 Esd. 15.8.  Behold the righteous and innocent blood crieth unto me, and the souls of the Just complain continually.  
Having cleared the Doctrine, that this was no vocal clamour, but an imaginary, such as St. John encountered in a Vision, note these few things in it: First, That all those Expositors that dare make an exact calculation of those times, when the Seals in this mystical Book were opened, say, that the opening of the Fifth Seal, when the Souls cried out so strongly, was the instant deliverance from the Tenth, and the greatest Persecution. Observe from hence rather by experience than by rule, that when God is about to give any thing unto us, he stirs up our hearts unto Prayer more than ordinary. Qui timide rogat negare docet; A saint Petitioner addresseth himself as if he meant to be denied: But when you find a robustiousness in your Spirit, that you are set to wrestle with God, to cry out, and not to give over, it is an enlightening that you shall prevail; but all the while that you are sluggish in ask, it is an ill Presage that the time of mercy is not come. Yet secondly, Though the Lord be but modestly, or rather remissly called upon for pardons and blessins', out of his indulgence he will meet with our desires, and crown them. Two of John's Disciples said unto our Saviour no more but this, Rabbi, where dwellest thou? They did scarce knock at door, 
Joh. 1.39.  and yet Christ invited them into his Train, he bade them come and see. But his sufferance and patience is so great, that yell and clamours must awake him, before He be stirred up to vengeance. He forgives one injury, connives at another, bears with a third and fourth, it may be a year runs on, perhaps seven, perhaps an Age: and Oppressors slide away without a check, at last when their insolences make a noise over all the Earth, and roar like Bulls of Basan, than the Avenger awakes out of sleep like a Giant that is refreshed with Wine. Thirdly, Oppression, and tyrannising over the poor and helpless make the loudest clamours of any sins in the ears of God, they will follow the unjust Rulers of the world like an heard of Wolves howling and yelling, and tear up their Carcases out of their very Graves. There are but four sins that are said to cry in all the Scripture, the blood of Abel, Gen. iv. and that was for Oppression. The bondage of the Israelites in Egypt, and that was for Oppression. The hire of the Labourer kept back by fraud, Jam. v. 4. And that was for Oppression. And the licentiousness of the Sodomites, Gen. xviii. who, among their other crimes, did most injuriously insult over Lot, because he was a stranger, and so you see that even their exorbitancy was not without Oppression. Do not the tears run down the Widow's cheeks? And is not her cry against him that causeth them to fall? Eccl. xxxv. 15. You see that pious Author ascribes a crying and a clamour to the tears of the Widow, and that also is for Oppression: therefore I am sure it will be the Oppressors own turn to cry at the last, in the place where there is nothing but weeping and gnashing of teeth.  
Cast your eye back now to the two former Points which I have handled, to bring on the next; the Souls of the righteous that have shed their blood for the Testimony of Christ, make Prayers that their slaughter may be revenged. Fatal tidings to their Murderers; the Martyrs cry out vehemently to have their Petition signed with a Fiat ut petitur, a dismal exclamation to their Persecutors. Nor is it one shriek and away, but cry upon cry, followed with instance and importunity. They will never give over till vengeance light at last on their Enemies. Witness this Vsque quo? How long Lord? The Author of the Second Book of Esdras, Chap. iv. 35. alludes to these words on this manner: Did not the Souls of the righteous ask questions of these things in their Chambers? Saying, How long shall I hope in this fashion? When cometh the fruit of out reward? Surely he meant, that the Saints begged continually for the augmentation of their triumph, by the Resurrection of the body. Others suppose it to be a vehement efflagitation, that God would collect his Church into one body in Heaven, and reveal his glory; and that nothing doth hinder this but the destroying the man of sin, 
Serm 11. de Sanct.  and his adherents, who have crushed the Servants of God with a rod of Iron, therefore they press it passionately, that those that let the second appearance of Christ in glory, may be taken out of the way. St. Austin in one place exhorts his Auditors to holiness of life with this persuasion, that the Saints in Heaven are hindered of their desires by our remissness in Piety. We must accomplish the number of our good works, before the end of all things come, Et dum nos retardamus sanguis martyrum inultus est. While we dispatch not apace to do our task, the wicked flourish in their pomp and power, and the blood of the Martyrs is unrevenged. All that draw this Line, you may note it, they apprehend that the words of my Text are the personal complaint of the Souls under the Altar, and not the interpellation of their injuries. I quarrel not the opinion, for it is modest and rational: But I will help it out of the briers of one scruple. No man is so censorious to impute it to the Society of the Blessed, as if they contended with God's Justice that he delayed them, they are cleared from all such impatiency, or expostulation, because they call him holy and true. But we may ask what they mean to solicit him with Vsque quo's? For they know that his Decrees are fixed, and that one minute of that time which he hath set shall not be broken, though all the Angels made intercession. The answer is to this and such case, Preces fidelium antecedenter se habent ad Dei decretum, none consequenter. The Servants of God pray for Mercies or Judgements to be hastened, abstracting from the Divine Decrees, for though the Decrees cannot be refixed, yet we are encouraged to beg for that which is conducible to our own necessities. But the readiest way to put off all objections is to hold to my Fifth Conclusion, that not the Martyrs themselves, but the wrongs which they endured exclaim against their Enemies, the atrocity of them doth seem to plead, that the Lord should send his swift thunderbolts against cruel men, they seem to cry out, a day is too much to let them breathe any longer, they deserve not to be reprieved a minute till they go down to Hell. O well is it for them that have been nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers of the Church. They are secure among these vociferations for vengeance. O how happy will it be for Moses, and Samuel, 
Gregor.  and Daniel that they have hurt no man, that they have oppressed no man! O what quiet of conscience have they that are clear from the blood of all men! for it is but a little season, and the pride of Tyrants shall have a fall. God tells the Martyrs so in the next verse. Quod petendo esuriunt, praesciendo satiantur; They spoke thirstingly to see the doom of their Enemies, and here they are satiated with this Prediction, that it will be after a little season; but a little season indeed in respect of Eternity, for Christ shall reign for ever. Neither is God slack as men count slackness, for that which is done in a fit ordination, at the right minute, that is fruit taken in its season, and there is no tardiness at all. Let Zion rejoice, let the desolate be comforted; the Heavens move continually, the hours run apace, there is a swift Arrow in God's Bow, and if the Lord prolong the time a little, it is to bring on a greater revenge upon his foes, and to make the restauration of the Church more glorious.  
A very little remains to conclude all; the parties that are delated to God in this complaint are those that dwell on the earth. Take it thus if you will, The earth is full of violence and oppression, where Justice playeth her part best, some humane vices and affections will creep in, no man knows how, and put it out of order; in every Region, in every quarter of the World, whether it be misfortune or malice that is the cause, some that have integrity on their side come by the worst. But thy Power, O mighty God, stretcheth over all, from the rising of the Sun to the setting thereof, dissolve therefore the Pillars of this Universe, and shake it in pieces, avenge thy Saints at once of them that dwell on the Earth. Not amiss likewise in this Key. The very earth upon which they walk groans under the Arrogancy of Tyrants, they are fruitless Trees that cumber the ground, they are not worthy to breathe in the same air with the Servants of Christ, therefore cut them off from the Land of the Living, and lay their honour in the dust. But best of all in this strain; Here is no Catalogue or recitation of them, that have bandied against the true in heart, for their number is infinite, but they are described by that wherein all their affections agree, that they dwell on the earth. It is no reviling Accusation, they are not called Vipers, or Wolves, or Sons of Belial, though these names had been no slanders, but Per mucterismum, they are quipt for their base affections, that they are terrae silii, clods of dirt, Sons of the Earth, whose belly, like the Serpent's, cleaveth to the ground; and when they tread the Saints under their feet, it is some earthy Concupiscence that rageth in them. A petty Coney-catcher strips the Fatherless of his right to join House to House, and Land to Land. A Nimrod, a mighty Robber, he would spread his Kingdom by usurpation, he knows not whither himself. An Ecumenical Bishop, that would be, struggles for indirect dominion in Temporals, In ordine ad spiritualia, all their insolences jump in this, just as it likes their own ambition, they would dwell upon the earth. Indeed, who would reckon it among the flowers of his fortune that he can crush and break all those in pieces that resist him, but such a one as thinks of nothing but his short time upon earth, and never accounts of a world to come? These is nothing that can stop rancorous men in their malice, if they take their possession here, Tanquam mercedem, non tanquam arrham, as their full reward, and quit claim to all other demand. A miserable recompense, not so much as the value of two Sparrows, will follow the Owner to his Grave, Disdain these movable things bestowed upon the Sons of Keturah, and labour for the immovable inheritance, which fell to Isaac's share. The Reubenites, that chose their Lot in Gilead, on this side Jordan, and seated themselves there, they could challenge no part in the Land of Promise. What a good title did Peter pretend to a great share in Heaven, when he said, Behold we have left all and followed thee? Rather will I follow him for one drop of his blood, than retain to the greatest Potentate, for all that he can give upon earth. It is a blood that speaks better things than the blood of the Martyrs, or the blood of Abel, for it pleads for no revenge, unless it be trod under foot. It is a blood that intercedes for the pardon of our sins, for grace to be given us in this life, for a Kingdom of happiness hereafter, etc. AMEN.   
FINIS.  

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In the Book.  Page line  3 1 world r. word 6 10 effugeamus r. effugiamus ib. 34 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 36 Anak r. Anah 10 36 r. that circumstance 11 3 for heaven r. from heaven ib. 8 r. where Jacob 12 33 bow r. bough 20 16 to place r. to a place 21 45 r. the commonly 36 45 That it is r. That is 37 37 paená r. culpâ 41 59 Rubanus r. Rabanus 56 35 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 66 10 a Captain r. as Captain 68 2 our, deal the comma after our 76 60 demoni r. Daemoni 79 33 r. finished it 81 11 Olimpia r. Olympias 83 2, 3 r. out of Adam ib. 17 reati r. damnati 84 16 r. those immoderate 91 25 propararet r. praepararet ib. 41 set r. sed 93 19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 103 15 numbers r. number 106 17 r. we well deserved 113 36 r. almost all the ib. 43 r. Kingdom of our Father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord 117 26 Ruth 18. r. Ruth 1.11. ib. 27 Gomaras r. Gomarus 120 61 an man r. any man 122 23 r. judgements thought ib. 46 Hasamonei r. Hasmonei 126 26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 128 26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 137 28 r. promised him 139 49 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 140 23 low r. lo. 143 3 r. the Temple of the new Jerusalem 154 35 Act. 15. r. 1.5. 160 16 r. was ignorant 161 3 incition r. insition 167 45 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 169 57 r. which were 176 35 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 188 61 mere r. a mere 194 59 Quo ad r. Quoad 201 17 influens r. influxus 207 40 r. ought not to be 211 6 r. Naboth was first ib. 9 here r. hear 213 9 stimulas r. stimulus 214 6, 7 into r. unto 216 34 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 55 well I r. will I 222 37 Curtius r. cursus 234 11 foot r. food ib. 30 ostentione r. ostensione ib. 33 feebless r. feeblness 241 19 non r. nos 249 61 Monacha r. Monica 264 11 of a God r. of God 266 3, 4 panem r. famem. famem r. panem ib. 18 inemandibili r. inemendibili 268 36 this is r. there is 271 39 every may r. every man 272 19 mistruct r. mistrust 273 35 grounds r. grinds 279 33 Goatish r. Gothish 283 3 Dimittit r. Demittit ib. 46 possunt r. possint 285 20 mallens r. malens ib. 46 dicitur r. discitur 288 18 should judge r. shall judge 290 6 Abnah r. Admah 294 8 no abide r. not abide 304 5 Aaron r. Moses ib. 51 Sopores r. Sapores 307 5 Petileus r. Petilius ib. 42 let it out 317 34 the High-priests r. Nathanael 323 21 remove r. removeth 326 1 this way r. this was 329 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 333 26 higher r. hills 340 28 veri r. viri 341 9 r. I will, I give it. So l. 20 ib. 61 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etc. 345 58 greater r. great 346 9 Nabol r. Nabal 349 9 r. will, I give it ib. 34 Daneos r. Danaos 353 58 need r. needs 359 12 r. yourselves 362 1 r. only is 363 51 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. So l. 53. 366 27 him up r. him off 372 6 r. grounded either in 373 17 r. Treasurer 375 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 18 r. negative and by ib. 25 deligere r. diligere 376 43 commends r. commands 377 17 in Solomon r. in David 378 43 Shoals r. Scholes 281 8 r. Day's proper ib. 15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 383 36 Marry r. Marry 385 44 bread r. bred 389 2 is only r. are only 391 10 powerful r. powerfully 394 15 Eutropeus r. Eutropius 396 32 r. Marseilles was offended 400 34 r. thou walkedst 402 17 ging r. gang 403 20 r. Parricides 413 31 r. putaret 415 47 traherit r. traxerit ib. 58 coram r. Quorum 419 57 r. sue out our blessing 423 56 Sun r. Son 424 19 Zalumna r. Zalmunna 429 8 r. taken out of 431 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 432 37 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 438 8 Infesto r. In festo 440 23 r. Macherunta 446 58 r. Martyrium 447 52 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 452 39 r. Si tu vis, faciamus 455 1 thinks r. think 456 29 'tis is r. this is ib. 42 r. Temples to the Martyrs as unto Gods 457 2 r. Belteshazzar from the Idol Bel 461 10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 36 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 62 sensavity r. sensuality 462 43 quaesirit r. quaesierit 464 11 will r. will't 465 20 were r. was ib. 46 calligat r. caligat 467 46 sit r. est 471 59 set r. sit 475 46 He is r. here is 477 38 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 483 15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 484 39 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 487 36 r. they that cannot 488 10 Malchal r. Malchiah 492 37 oft r. ought 500 55 r. just persons 501 7 r. metoposcopy 502 23 groats r. grots 503 47 r. Hinnom 504 1 Barcosdau r. Bar-cosba 508 13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 37 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 509 35 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 510 16 Paphnusius r. Paphnutius 517 42 r. not to stand ib. 31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 518 33 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 520 30 r. innocentiam 523 15 r. sheep's 524 51 r. liberalitate 525 6 r. humanae naturae 526 4 r. Dares ib. 28 r. contumacia, Domino ib. 40 r. are mistaken 529 21 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 531 2 r. Dioscorides 535 4 r. labarum ib. 54 r. Ilias 537 32 r. he looks 542 36 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 550 49 stained r. strained 553 30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 556 4 r. Testimony 559  Horat. r. Ovid. in the Margin ib. 34 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 52 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 560 4 na r an ib. 5 leave out in ib. 5 r. (of too much contempt) 561 38 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 562 43 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 54 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 563 6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 568 18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 38 Marries r. Mary's 569 45 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 582 40 r. interpolatâ 595 4 r. unclosed 605 35 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 608 2 this is r. thus is 609 33 r. Antelucanos 610 62 r. at the first 612 13 r. unto it 615 39 as divers r. divers 616 40 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 629 1 Symbal r. Cymbal 631 37 Tiberias r. Tiberius 640 55 Paleusiot r. Pelusiot ib. 45 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 643 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 644 45 unam r. unum. 647 41 r. The Serpent is called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 651 11 tetigeret r. tetigerat 652 46 r. ad classica 656 6 ous r. our ib. 13 Saleucus r. Seleucus ib. 56 r. is not made 657 24 cymbolum r. cymbalum 665 36 suba r. substantia 668 27 minimum r. nimium 676 50 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 686 22 r. I will, I give it 688 55 gold and silver r. brass and iron ib. 62 he was r. was he 689 3 r. Augustious ib. 4 his r. is 692 5 people r. Queen of Sheba ib. 7 1 Chron. r. 2 Chron. 697 10 r. praises 701 35 r. larger discourse 712 2 r. safety of this City 713 38 r. Fideles 715 25 r. at the Supper. 716 48 putant r. mutant 725 23 r. which are precious 726 12 primos r. primus 730 6 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 732 36 An r. And 733 19 r. but it is ib. 25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. ●2 r. h● mad● it 734 59 r. errasse 735 42 num r. nam. ib. 50 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 738 45 up r. us 739 12 r. Paul's ib. 39 p. 55. r. Psalm 55 743 39 puts men to r. puts men 748 62 r. illaesus 752 14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 753 32 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 754 12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 755 9 Gen. 7.10. r. Exod. 7.10. 757 18 I r. ay 758 7 natu r. nutu ib. 26 r. curse you 760 54 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 56 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 774 49 r. requiem ib. 51 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 778 32 r. redituri 785 13 an r. and ib. 53 r. assumtam 786 49 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 790 31 r. yet certain 797 23 a reason r. reason 800 16 r. any forcing 803 62 r. mundati 809 54 to obey them r. to obey. ib. 55 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 56 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 818 18 r. as sure as touch 822 37 r. her condemnation 830 30 and as if r. as if 837 5 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 838 34 r. nitidusque ib. 49 r. Anacharsis. So line 51. 839 10 r. Censers ib. 53 r. Trees 840 50 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 841 8 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 842 33 where r. when 850 2 r. they kept ib. 15 care r. cure 860 28 Argosies r. Argoes 863 29 r. the Messias. So line 33. 867 9 r. who was God from everlast. 876 17 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 878 25 r. but when offices ib. 51 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 879 26 Liola r. Loyola 880 8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 881 19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 882 5 thepards r. Shepherds 888 24 himself r. themselves 890 3 It is r. Is it ib. 19 emangle r untangle 891 27 our works r. your works 892 29 how r. that 895 59 exacting r. exact 899 33 commodious r. incommodious ib. 39 Gregorianus r. Gregory and 904 8 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 906 21 r. kind of fruit 909 24 r. and drunkenness 911 34 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 912 59 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 913 8 content r. contain ib. 10 supplied r. supply ib. 44 r. was presented 914 12 r. them to be brought ib. 54 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 56 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 915 5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 916 43 r. as an inseparable 917 17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 919 21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 924  in the margin put out vel duo vel nemo 925 1 Saviour r. Saviour ib. 57 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 927 10 fair r. fare 928 10 Hippocrites r. Hypocrates ib. 35 assellum r. asellum 929 34 r. which they could not. 931 36 r. according to the 932 58 leave out Christ 934 52 gaudias r. gaudeas ib. 62 r. sensible and insensible 935 43 r. one a penny 937 35 que r. quae 938 4●5 should be in a parenthesis 944  in the margin r. Sunday at after Trin. 946 28 of that r. after that 948 2 r. is it not ib. 8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 25 Vunctianus r. V●ctianus 951 1 we should not r. we should 953 61 saith r. faith 954  in the margin Horat r. Seneca ib. 44 r. strew the way ib. 56 estimanda r. aestimanda 956 42 Democray r. Democracy ib. 44 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 962 26 opes r. opis ib. 33 Heccatombas r. Hecatomb 964 48 r. now is, is in bondage 965 19 r. so accommodate ib. 43 Jireth r. Jireh. So line 41. ib. 59 reveiled r. revealed 968 49 r. from the pursue● ib. 51 credere r. ●ed● 971 37 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 972 11 Babyloniam r. Babyl●m ib. 27 Petriciu● r. Patrici●s 974 43 afflictions r. affections 975 8 culpa●u r. c●lpata ib. 37 r. shaved leather 980 34 St. Thomas, leave out St. ib. 46 leave out but 982  r. honorata sit 985 14 She in great letter 989 53 r. decline 990 43 r. from one hope 991 26 r. Mother, who brings 993 34 It was r. I was ib. 53 revelatio r. revelati● 995 2 r. best of Poets 997 40 Onius r. Onias 999 42 r. the word of God 1000 29 r. He terms them blessed 1001 34 Sespite r. Cespite 1004 16 per bonitatem add per veritatem ib. 57 on cubit r. one cubit. 1006 12 themselves add a comma 1010 22 r. their parricides 1011 37 Bessings r. blessings 1012 31 case r. cases