ENGLAND'S FACE IN ISRAEL'S GLASS: OR, 

The Sins of both Nations;  
The Mercies of both Nations;  
The Judgements of both Nations;   Delivered in eight Sermons upon PSALM 106.19,20, etc. ALSO, GOSPEL-SACRIFICE. In two Sermons on HEBR. 13.  
BY THAT Late reverend Divine, THOMAS WESTFIELD, Dr in Divinity, and sometimes Preacher at Bartholomew-Great in London.  1 CORINTH. 10.11. 
Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.  PSAL. 41.1. 
Blessed is he that considereth the poor: The LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.  
LONDON, Printed by J. Young, and are to be sold by Charles Green at the sign of the Gun in Ivy-lane. 1646.   

I have perused these Sermons upon PSALM 106.19,20, etc. and judging them to be pious and profitable, I allow them to be printed and published.  
John Downame.   

To the READERS.  
Friends,  
MAn is very prone to evil, having a spring of natural corruption in him; which being (as it were) pumped out by example, the stream runs more violently. All the Kings of Israel (for aught I read) were bad enough: but many of them are notoriously branded for this especially, their imitation of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.  
It hath been said, that this our Nation is very prone to imitate others; and it is to be feared, that, together with their exotic fooleries, we are guilty of many of their gross enormities. However, it will certainly hold between Israel and England, (as will appear, in the ensuing Discourse.) Our mercies have not been inferior to theirs: Our sins have, if not out-vied, yet, at the least, run parallel with theirs. And for our miseries, sad experience is more than a silent testimony.  
The former subject of this Book, though it be, for the most part, sad; treating of Sins, and Judgements; yet the wisdom, and sweetness of the reverend Author hath brought honey out of the Lion.  
For the latter part, Concerning communicating to the necessity of the Saints, the practice of this worthy man was a pattern, even to admiration.  
The most of these Sermons were preached at Highgate; which, indeed, was highly exalted by the painful preaching of this Minister of Christ. And I wish that our Saviour's prediction of Capernaum, and David's wish to the Mountains of Gilboa, may be ever spiritually, and literally far from it.  
And thou, WEST-smith-FIELD, that wert watered so long a space with the heavenly drops of this worthy WEST FIELD, as formerly, by the blood of so many courageous Martyrs, who weekly suffered in thee, having been thus honoured, become not like the beasts (in thee) that perish.  
And, if there be any that had relation to him, who, like wanton children, trifled out the time, while this resplendent taper was burning and shining; let them, at least, make use of this inch of light: which, with God's blessing, may purchase them commodities for eternity.  
In honour of his memorial, and for the furtherance of all that will make use of this help, I have erected this his own pillar upon his grave: By which, and the like advantages, that both you and I may be edified, is the desire of  
T. S.   
PSAL. 106.19,20. etc. 
They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten Image.  
Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an Ox, etc.  
YOu have in this Psalm many sins of this people set down. In the three former verses there is the mutiny of Corah and Abiram against Moses, and of two hundred and fifty men with Corah; they envied Aaron the saint of God.  
In these verses you have another sin of this people, a fearful one, the sin of Idolatry.  
There be some sins of an high nature, such we reckon the sins that be directly against God; as, Atheism, Profaneness, Idolatry, etc.  
There be some sins directly against nature; as, Sodomy, bestiality, incestuous pollution, etc.  
Some are directly against humane society; as, rapes, murder, oppression, effusion of innocent blood, etc. Now, Idolatry is of the first kind, and of the worst. Tertullian, excellently, me thinks, saith, that Idolatry contains under it omnes species peccati, all kinds of sin. There is treason in Idolatry; the Idolater sets up a new God, as the Traitor sets up a new King. There is falsehood, and lying in Idolatry: for an Idol is the doctor and teacher of lies, Habak. 2.18. There is theft in it: for what greater robbery then to rob God of his glory? There is whoredom in it, it is oft in Scripture called by that name; it is spiritual whoredom. How oft have I read that phrase of men going a whoring after another God? Well, mark the Text; observe three things here:  
First, the Idol after which they went a whoring: It is called in the first verse of my Text, a Calf. In the second verse, an Ox. A young Ox, a young bullock, a young heifer of three years old, I have observed in the Scripture to be called by the name of a calf. And, it was not a living young calf, or, a living young bullock: but, in the former verse, it is called, the molten Image of a calf. In the second verse, the similitude of an ox. That was their Idol.  
Secondly, consider the work of this people about that Idol; their sin, in three things:  
First, they made it, They made a calf in Horeb.  
Secondly, they worshipped it, They worshipped the molten Image.  
Thirdly, They changed their glory into the similitude of it.  
Then mark further, the cause of this sin, the root from whence it did spring. It sprung from a forgetfulness of God, that God that was their Saviour. They forgot God their Saviour. And then from a forgetfulness of those works of God; and those were, 

First magna, great works.  
Then mirabilia, wondrous works.  
And then terribilia, terrible works.    
They forgot God their Saviour, that had done great works for them in the land of Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Ham, terrible works by the red sea. This is the sum of the whole Text; I may not think to go over all these at one time, it is a point that would not easily be passed over. There are a generation of men that will compass sea and land to win us to Idolatry, it were good our hearts were established against it. I will go as fare as the time will give leave.  
I begin first with the Idol, it was a calf, or, a young bullock.  
God forbids any Image to be made to the use of Religion, of any thing in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth. God specifieth all those places, because there is none of those places, neither heaven above, nor the earth beneath, nor the waters under the earth, but this foolish vain heart of man hath found out something to deify, to make a god of.  
Some have worshipped the Sun, Moon, and Stars, the Host of heaven; glorious creatures, but yet such creatures as God made to serve man, and not man to serve them. Some of the Gentiles did worship men like themselves. Some fourfooted beasts. Some creeping things of the earth. That same Dagon, that you read of in the Scripture, had the head of a man, but the lower parts of it were like a fish. Not to tyre you with reckoning up particular vanities in this kind, hear what the Apostle saith of the Gentiles, Because when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, but were unthankful, their foolish heart being filled with darkness; when they professed themselves wise men, they became fools. Fools! how? They turned (and mark that phrase, it is the same that is here) the glory of the incorruptible God, to the Image, and similitude of corruptible man, and of birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things, and changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator (saith the Apostle) who is blessed for ever, Rom. 1.21.  
A Question may be made here, why this people, since they will needs worship God under a form, would choose this form? why a calf? why a young bullock?  
It is agreed upon by all hands, old, and new Writers, that they all learned this kind of service in Egypt: Egypt was the mother of Idolatry, so Jeremy calls it; Though all people under heaven had corrupted their ways, yet no people had more corrupted their ways in this kind than Egypt: quis nescit qualia demens Aegyptus? who knows not what base abominations, what dunghill gods the Egyptians worship? They worshipped a deity under the form of a Crocodile. Another deity under the form of Ichneumon, a rat of Nilus. Another under the form of Ibis: and they had more dunghill gods than these, their onions, and leeks in their gardens. O sanctus, etc. The heathen could scoff at this foolery, that they should have deities growing in their gardens. But, of all the gods they worshipped, the greatest, their great god, was Apis, or Serapis; they worshipped him under the similitude or form of a young Bullock, pied Bull, a pied Ox; black, with such and such white spots upon him.  
Would you know from whence? Let me trouble you a while. Apis, a King or another country, in a famine relieved Egypt, Alexandria especially: when he was dead, they made him a god, and decreed divine honour to be given him: then they must worship him under a form. They think of the benefit they had by Apis; they had their corn by the tillage of the ground, by the labour of the Ox, and they will worship this great god of theirs under the form of a pied Ox, a young pied Bullock.  
This people had seen this Idolatrous service in Egypt; and now they did not more long after Egyptian food, then after this Egyptian god.  
I pray mark what Saint Stephen saith of this people, Acts 7.39. In their hearts (quoth he) they turned again into Egypt: Saying, Make us a calf, make us gods to go before us. In their hearts they turned into Egypt, when they required of Aaron such a worship as this. The thing I observe from it, is this;  

Observe.  It is an easy matter for men to be drawn to the practice of that Idolatry, that they have been accustomed to see practised in those places that they have a long time lived in.  
He that would take heed of Idolatry, let him take heed of Egypt: the very air of Egypt (as I may so say) is infectious in this kind. See here, they had seen the worship of a young bullock in Egypt, and they must have a bullock. I pray remember Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that made Israel to sin: How did he make them sin? He set up two calves, they set up one; he set up two, one at Dan, another at Bethel. Where did he learn that? had he been in Egypt too? yes, he lived in Egypt some space, he fled thither for fear of Solomon: For when he perceived that Solomon sought his life, he went and dwelled with Shishak King of Egypt, and was with him (saith the Text) till the death of Solomon, 1 Kings 11.40. I say, he that would take heed of Idolatry, let him take heed how he lives in Egypt.  
The local seat of Antichrist (and what seat can that be but Rome?) is called in the Revelations by three names: It is called Egypt, Rev. 11.8. It is called Sodom in the same verse. It is called Babylon, in many places of the Revelations. It is called Babylon in regard of her cruelty. It is called Sodom, in regard of her filthiness: and Egypt in regard of her Idolatry.  
It is a hard matter for a man to live in Egypt, and not to taste, and savour somewhat of the Idolatry of Egypt. We had sometime, in England, a proverb about going to Rome: They said, A man that went the first time to Rome, he went to see a wicked man there; He that went the second time to Rome, went to be acquainted with that wicked man there; He that went the third time, brought him home with him. How many have we seen (and it is pity to see so many) of our Nobility and Gentry to go to those Egyptian parts, and return home again: but few of them bring home the same manners, the same Religion, nor the same souls they carried out with them.  
Isaac had bestowed the blessing upon Jacob, his younger son; you know the story, Gen. 27. But, when Isaac sent his son Jacob to Padan-Aram, though he had blessed him before, the Scripture saith, he blessed him again, Gen. 28. If ever Parents had need to bless their children, they had need to bless them, and bless them again, when they send them to travel to those foreign parts. Can a man be in a mill where much corn is ground, and have no badge of it upon his clothes? Can liquor be tunned up in a musty vessel, and not taste of the cask? Can a man live in Ethiopia, and his face not be discoloured? Mark, in verse 35. of this Psalm I have now in hand; It is said there, The people were mingled among the heathen; and what came of it? They learned their works. It is a hard matter for a man to be much conversant with Idolaters, and not learn Idolatry. It is a hard matter for a man to be much conversant with common drunkards, and not learn to drink. It is a hard matter for a man to be a common companion with them that sit in the seat of the scornful, and not to learn to scoff. It is a hard matter for a man to live among blasphemers and swearers, and not learn to swear. O, Woe is me (saith David) that I am constrained to dwell at Meshek. Brethren, if by any means, by prayer, or all holy endeavours, you can keep yourselves from the woe of living at Meshek among Idolaters, labour to do it: it is a miserable condition to live among idolatrous or wicked persons.  
But, if divine providence shall necessarily cast you upon Meshek, and Egypt; if it stand with the good will and pleasure of God, and there be no remedy, but the cords of your tabernacles must be fastened among the tents of Kedar, among Idolaters; then learn, and remember how Noah lived in the old world: he walked with God, when all the world walked from him. Remember how Lot lived in Sodom; how Joseph lived in the Court of Pharaoh, and Obadiah in the Court of Ahab, and Daniel in the Court of Babylon. Remember how the Saints lived in Nero's household, Phil. 4.22. Remember a Church that held the Name of God, and denied not the Faith, that lived in such a place where Satan's throne was. The fish keeps the fresh taste, though it live in salt-water. A Myrtle loseth not the nature; it is a Myrtle still, though it grow in the midst of nettles.  
It is a foul shame to live among good men, in good places, & not be good: but it is an high commendation to live among evil men, in evil places, and not be ill. Thus much shall suffice concerning the Idol: It was a calf, and they learned to make it in Egypt.  
I come now to their work, the making of it. They made a calf in Horeb. There are three circumstances in that making of it.  
First, who were they that made it? They made it.  
Secondly, where did they make it? In Horeb.  
Thirdly, of what did they make it? That my Text speaks not of here, but we must take it out of the story. It was of the golden earrings that Aaron took out of the ears of the men and women, of their sons, and daughters; and of that they made a calf. They made a calf in Horeb.  
For the first, the persons that made it: They made it. The Hebrews, the Jews, would very feign put this from themselves; they say that there were some Egyptians that were mingled among them; and indeed, we read that there came out a great multitude, a mixed confused company came out of Egypt: but they were not these only that made the calf, the Israelites themselves made it too; They made it. Yet, I do not think that all of them had a hand in making of it: I make no question, but some of them hated this calf with a perfect hatred, and them that made it, & them that worshipped it: they were but some of the people that made it. Hark what the Apostle saith, Let us not be Idolaters, as some of them were Idolaters, 1 Corinth. 10.7. But some of them were Idolaters; yea, a great company of them were Idolaters. They made the calf.  
But how can it be said they made it? for, if you look in the story, we shall find that Aaron made it? Aaron threw their gold into the furnace. Aaron polished the calf. Aaron set up an Altar. Aaron proclaimed an holy day: To morrow shall be an holy day unto the Lord. It was Aaron that made it; why is it not said, that Aaron made the calf in Horeb, but, They made the calf?  
Mark those words, where this story is set down, Exod. 32. verse ult. It is said there, that God plagued the people for their sin, in making the calf that Aaron made. Mark, God plagued the people for their sin in making the calf that Aaron made. So the people, and Aaron both made it: the people first; They made it. Take these rules:  
A man may have a hand, he may have fellowship in the unfruitful works of darkness, many ways: four especially.  
It is the usual phrase of Scripture: 1. A man is said to do that that he doth not himself, but another man, if he command it; that is one. So David slew Uriah the Hittite with the sword, because he commanded him to be set in the Army where he might be slain with the sword of the Children of Ammon.  
Secondly, a man may be said to do that that another man doth, if he do counsel, and persuade to it, and entice, and solicit to it. Thus the High-Priests, and the Scribes, and Pharisees, are said with their wicked hands to take Christ, and to crucify him, and to hang him on a tree. They with their wicked hands did not do it, but they persuaded Pilate to do it with much importunity: therefore they did it.  
Thirdly, a man may be said to do that that another man doth, if he occasion the doing of it. It is said of Judas, that he purchased a field, Acts 1. ver. 18. This man purchased a field. Judas did not purchase it; but Judas, by returning the money to the treasury again for which he sold Christ, gave them occasion to purchase it: therefore this man purchased the field.  
Fourthly, a man may be said to do that that another man doth, if he do not hinder the doing of it, if he ought, and might hinder it. The men of Tyrus came upon the Sabbath day, and sold wares in Jerusalem: Nehemiah, that good governor, he goes to the Rulers of the people, and saith; What is this that you do, and break the Sabbath? Nehem 13. They broke it, because they should have hindered the breaking of it, and did it not.  
We have sins enough, and too many of our own to answer for; we need not answer for the sins of others: yet, we shall answer for the sins of others too, for all those sins that other men have committed, if either we 

Command them.  
Counsel them.  
Occasion them.  
Or not hinder them.    
Aaron made the calf: but yet they made it, because they would have him make it.  
Aaron made it. It is a thing to be considered a little. Whether did Aaron sin in making this calf, or no? Did Aaron well in yielding to the people in making this calf? Tantum Sacerdotem condemnare non audemus, etc. saith S. Ambrose, We dare not condemn so great an Highpriest; and we cannot tell how to justify, and excuse him: yet some, in former time, and one of late days, in our time (but a Papist) hath written a book, Munsius, de AARONE purgato, of Aaron purged: He will free Aaron from all manner of sin in making of this calf; but it will not be: Should he purge him with Nitre, and with Fuller's soap seven times over, he could not do it. I see the Fathers are wondrous careful in extenuating this sin; and we may do that, excuse it we cannot: we must needs acknowledge it a very great sin in this Highpriest.  
First of all, say they, the people would have him do it, he would not have done it else.  
Well, be it so: he was now a Governor left under Moses; he should have been more vigilant and have looked better to his government. The permission of an evil, is as great an evil as the commission of it. Woe to that people that are humoured in their sins, either by the Ministers, or by the Magistrates; the one should check them, the other should punish them: but, woe to the people that are humoured in them.  
But than you will say, This people was set upon a mischief, they would have it, there would be no remedy: Indeed Aaron told Moses so.  
It is true, they were so: Be they so; Aaron should have been more vigilant, more courageous, more resolute in his government to withstand them.  
But they were importunate, and clamorous; they would never give Aaron over till he had done it.  
Be it so: yet, this importunity of theirs, though it may extenuate the fault, cannot excuse it. Or, if you will say, it may excuse it: it may excuse it à tanto, but not à toto; it may qualify it somewhat, but it cannot justify it.  
But, say they, it is likely the people would have stoned him if he had not done it.  
It is like enough so; they were ready enough to take up stones; they did it to Moses: but grant it, Aaron should have chosen rather to have died a thousand deaths, then to suffer God almighty to be so dishonoured. We know what some said afterwards in the like case; Know, O King, that our God is able to deliver us from the fiery furnace; if not, we will not worship thine Image.  
There is no question, Aaron cannot be excused in this sin. You may truly say thus fare for Aaron, that that he did, he did it out of fear, and out of weakness, and out of Pusillanimity; he durst not displease the people; he did it out of fear, and frailty. But take the sin in itself, O it is a fearful sin in its own nature. Look in Deut. 9.20. and you shall find what Moses saith concerning it, that GOD was angry with Aaron for this sin: nay, he was very angry with him for this sin; yea, so angry, and very angry, that he would have destroyed him: had not Moses made intercession for him, he had destroyed him. Now the anger of God is not wont to come like fire, to flame out against his servants, but upon mighty provocations. Surely God was provoked mightily against Aaron, that he would have destroyed him, had not Moses made intercession. There is no excuse of it.  
But then (This is a point of some use, let me not pass from it thus) Why did not God so establish this servant of his, that he might not fall into such a sin as this? The Apostle saith, God is faithful, and he is able to establish you, and to deliver you from all evil, 2 Thess. 3.3. The Apostle assures himself, God will deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me to his heavenly kingdom: and many such like places. God was able to establish Aaron, so that he should not have condescended out of weakness to this request of theirs.  
It is true: but it pleased God to leave Aaron to himself, he would suffer him to fall; and you may think that God hath some good ends in it. God, being a good God, would not suffer evil to be in the world, but that he knows how to order that evil to some superior event that is good. Surely, there was some special end why God suffered Aaron to fall into such a fearful sin as this. I will tell you what I conceive.  
The first was this, to show that the levitical Priesthood of the old Law was imperfect. How could the Priest of the old Law perfectly reconcile a poor sinner to God, since he was a sinner himself? Look in Heb. 7. and you shall see there, the Apostle shows the difference between our Lord Jesus Christ, the Highpriest of the New Testament, and the Priests of the Old Testament. Verse 27. The Priest of the Old Testament stood in need to offer for his own sins first, and then for the sins of the people. The Priest of the old Law was not only to offer for the sins of the people, but for his own sins; yea, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. Now, how shall one sinner reconcile another sinner to God? It cannot be: therefore, saith our Apostle there, verse 26. It became our Highpriest to be another manner of Highpriest, to be holy, and harmless, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. That is one reason, to show that the Priesthood of the old Law could not perfectly reconcile men to God.  
A second reason why God permitted him to fall, was, that in so great dignity as Aaron was now assigned to, in so great a place as the highpriesthood, Aaron might learn to walk humbly with his God. There is nothing that will beat down a child of God more in the sight of his own eyes, than the sight of his own corruptions, and the conscience of his own unworthiness, Solomon tells us, that All the afflictions that God sends a man under the sun are to humble him: And all that is too little. God is feign sometimes to let corruptions lose in his children, to suffer his own children many times to have many a fearful conflict, and combat, and Messenger of Satan to buffet them, a prick in the flesh to molest them; he suffers them to have many fearful trials in the flesh, to the intent that, there being such a Jebusite in the land, such an enemy in our own bowels, such a thorn in our eyes, such pricks in our sides, the proud heart may never find time to sit, and bless itself in any gift or grace, wherewith God hath honoured it.  
Nay, here is not all, God doth not only suffer corruptions to grow and to rule in his children, that he may humble them: But, God sometime permitts his children to fall into some great sin, that they may not fall into Pride, saith Saint Austin. I am bold to speak it: I think it profitable for the children of God sometimes to sin, to keep them from falling into Pride. As a Physician, when he would cure a Convulsion, he doth what he can to procure an Ague: so God, to cure Pride (that dangerous sin in his children) many times suffers them to fall into other sins, though they be fearful in themselves, that they may not fall into Pride.  
When men grow proud of any gift or grace that God hath honoured them with, A man (as Gregory speaks) makes a sore of a salve: Therefore God suffers them to fall into other sins, that so he may make a salve of a sore; that, when a man hath been wounded by his own virtues, he may be healed by his own vices: That is the second reason.  
Thirdly, God suffered him to fall, I conceive for this; to teach Aaron to look compassionately, being a Priest, upon poor sinners, considering himself. Remember the Apostles precept, Galat. 6. Brethren, if any of you be overtaken with a fault, you that are spiritual (yea, they especially, whose Function and Ministry is spiritual) you that are spiritual, restore such a man with the spirit of meekness, restore him again; the Greek word is, set him in joint again: Do you see him out of joint? handle him gently, as you do a bone that is out, set him in joint again with the spirit of meekness: Why? Considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. That good Father, that heard tell of the fall of his brother, he cried out, Alas! he fell to day, and I may fall to morrow. O Consider thyself, either thou art tempted, or hast been tempted, or mayest be tempted, as that man was. The Lord would have Aaron to fall, that he might look with an eye of compassion upon sinners.  
Then, lastly, It pleased God to suffer him to fall thus, that he might be a warning to us: Quomodò tener Agnus, etc. Alas! how shall the tender Lamb do, when the Bell-wether of the flock is thus endangered? If Aaron the saint of the Lord (as he is called in this Psalm) a man so familiarly acquainted with God, and divine visions, and a man that had been so powerful with Moses in working miracles; a man that approached so near to God, a man so long conversant with God, a man that had gone of so many errands of God, as he did with Moses to Pharaoh: If so holy, and so great a man as he, fell into so great a sin as this; then let us learn to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Howle Firr-tree (saith the Prophet) when the Cedar falls. Be not highminded, but fear. It is the use we are to make of it. So much for the first circumstance.  
The second circumstance is, Where they made this calf. In Horeb. There ran all along in Arabia, a ridge of mountains; it was but one mountain, but there were two great tops of it; Sinai was one, and Horeb was the other; and you shall find them sometime called by the one name, and sometimes by the other: sometimes the whole mountain is called by the name of Sinai, sometimes all the mountain is called by the name of Horeb; sometime by the one top, sometime by the other. Now, this is a thing to be observed; they were not gone yet from Horeb, the law was given in Sinai but a little before, where the Lord charged them out of the fire, Thou shalt not make an Image to me; they were but at the foot of the hill, and had not tarried there much above a month after the law was given: they saw mount Sinai before them, that was the higher top, and they could not but remember how mount Sinai was all on a smoking fire and flame, and with what earnestness God had charged them, Thou shalt not make any similitude of me: they were not yet gone altogether from the mountain, they were yet in Horeb; and yet, you see, as it is ver. 13. They made haste, and forgot God, and fell to this sin: so saith God to Moses, Go, get the down; this people are quickly gone out of the way, Exod 32.7. You may see it in this. I stand not upon that point.  
The third circumstance is, Whereof did they make this calf? They made it of their golden earrings, Pull off the golden earrings (saith he) from your wives, and your sons, and your Daughters, and give them to me. No doubt of it, but the servant of God, Aaron, would feign by this have diverted them from making them a calf: He would feign have turned them from it, if he could: He knew that all those people in those Eastern parts were much delighted in ornaments, in earrings: they say, they wear them usually there to this day. And suppose he could persuade the men to be content to part with their ornaments out of their ears; yet he thought it impossible to get the women to part with theirs. What? for a woman to part with her jewels, and ornaments! This seems a thing impossible: You see they are so desirous of them, they will, many of them, pinch their bellies, that they may lay somewhat more upon their backs: We know there are many that had rather their bellies should want sufficient sustenance, than their backs a superfluous ornament. You see what a hard matter it is to get women to leave an idle instrument, or a bag of vanity that they carry about with them; but, to leave their jewels, to part with their ornaments, he never thought they would do it, though the men might part from theirs: yet they all do, both men and women. We may observe how easily men and women will part with any thing to maintain Idolatry.  
I cannot tell, whether it be (as that Father imagined) the pride of our hearts, that we are in love with the works of our own hands, with the devices of our own brain, with the invention of our own spirits; that because they are our own, we like them: Or, whether it be the vigilancy of the devil, that roaring lion, that goes about seeking whom he may devour; or what else is the cause, I know not: but this I know, men are more willing to part with any thing to an Idol, to a superstitious worship, then to the true worship and service of God.  
And for this cause, Idolatry may fitly be compared to whoredom: You see, a whoremonger will be pinching and sparing enough to his wife and children at home, but he cares not how expensive, and excessive, and lavish he be upon his whores abroad: Thus it is in spiritual whoredom; men are never so niggardly as in the worship of God, but they are content to part with any thing for the maintaining of Idolatry. This forwardness of this people, even to pull their very earrings out of their ears, to bestow upon an Idol, it will rise up and condemn us, that are not willing to pull any thing out of our purses, to the worship and service of God.  
Many men, in this liberal age we live in, are content, with the Wise men, to take a great journey to see Christ: peradventure they are content to fall down and worship him; but they are not willing, with those Wisemen, to open their treasures. Speak to them of opening their treasures, whether for works of piety to God, or of charity to men, than they stand at it, as Naaman the Assyrian, Nay the Lord be merciful to me for that. Brethren, I could speak a great deal more to this purpose, but I am loath to trouble you.  
Then, besides, I know how unnecessary this is in this place. I have had many a time here, twice especially, a plentiful experience of your forwardness. I have seen how your hearts have been enlarged in bounty towards the enlarging of this place; towards the maintenance of the Ministry, and service of God in this place. I need not speak of that now.  
But yet I will exhort you now to a work of charity. Do you remember the Brief that was read even now, for that poor town of Cambridge? Me thought your hearts did even yearn within you with pity and compassion, to hear of almost 3000. poor distressed souls, brought into this extreme misery, through the hand of 
* The great plague in Cambridge. Aug. 1630.  God. Brethren, I need say no more; I beseech you give us, that are your servants in ordinary, (here in the work of the Ministry, both of the one side, and of the other; we are all brought up in the Universities) I pray give us leave to repair to your houses, and, If there be any consolation of Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit; any communion of Saints, any bowels, any mercy, fulfil our joy in this. I beseech you bestow such a blessing upon that poor Town, and the poor Inhabitants, that they may be occasioned, and we for them, to bless you again, and pray to God, to restore that which you shall give, in the riches of grace here, and of glory hereafter.  
FINIS.   
PSAL. 106.19,20. 
They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten Image, etc.  
I Began to handle these words the last Lord's day. There are three things in them.  
First, the Idol, a calf, or young Ox, or Bullock.  
Secondly, their sin in this calf, in three things:  
First, in making of it.  
Then, in worshipping of it.  
And then, in changing their glory into the similitude of it.  
They made a calf in Horeb,  
They worshipped the molten Image.  
They changed their glory, etc.  
The third thing is the root of this sin, the cause of it, whence it grew; it grew from forgetfulness of God and his works.  
The God they forgot was their Saviour.  
The works they forgot were, 

First, great works.  
Secondly, wonderful works.  
Thirdly, terrible works.    
They forgot God their Saviour, that had done great things for them in Egypt, wondrous things in the land of Ham, terrible things by the Red sea.  
Of the Idol I have spoken; and of their first work in making of it; wherein I considered three circumstances,  
First, who made it.  
Secondly, where they made it.  
Thirdly, of what they made it.  
I now go on to the second thing.  
They worshipped the molten Image.  
This was the end for which they would have it made, and so consequently, they turned the glory of God into this similitude: Here was their sin; which was not so much in making of it, they might have made it without sin; but to make it, to that end, to worship it, this was abominable.  
Now, because these are dangerous days wherein we live, and there are a generation of men, that will compass Sea and Land to make a proselyte. Out of my desire to establish your hearts in the true and sincere worship of God, I shall, besides my custom, fall upon a matter of Controversy, and discuss the question, between the Church of Rome and us, about worshipping of Images. There is a great dispute between them and us, about this people's Idolatry in worshipping this calf. We do believe the sin was sinful above measure: but yet they would make it somewhat worse than it was; because they would not be thought to be Idolaters, as these were.  
The thing will ask a little time to discuss it, more than I have to day; I shall but make an entrance into it. I shall tell you what order I will take in the handling of it.  
First, I will show you, That the making of an Image is not simply forbidden, except it be, in way of Religion, to worship, and to serve God by it. That is the first. They made it, and, they worshipped it.  
A second thing I will show is this, That all application of divine honour to any Image whatsoever, is Idolatry.  
I will show you thirdly, That all Idolaters do change their God; they change their glory into the similitude of that they worship.  
I will show you fourthly, That the Church of Rome doth commit as grievous Idolatry in worshipping their Images, as this people did in worshipping of this Calf.  
Lastly, I will show what use we are to make of the whole. I say, I cannot do all to day, I shall but begin it; but have patience till I can end it: And if, in the handling of these things, I allege either Fathers, or Counsels, or Traditions of the Church, or History, more than I use, or more than I think is fit in popular Sermons; I pray bear with me, and consider whom I deal with, with unreasonable men, such as will not be satisfied with the mere authority of holy Scripture.  
For the first point; The making of an Image is no act of Idolatry, except it be, by way of Religion, to worship God by it: that is my first proposition. God doth never in the Scripture simply forbid the making of an Image. He saith in the second Commandment, Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven Image: It is true, but you must know, that that is a Commandment of the first Table: Now the first Table concerns the worship of God; so you must understand it by way of relation to the worship of God; Thou shalt not make an Image. If you will hear God expounding his own Law that it is thus, look in Levit. 26.1. Ye shall make you no Idols, nor graven Image, neither shall ye set up any Image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it. So, it is not the making of the Image that is forbidden, but the bowing down to the Image we have made; or the making it to that end to bow down, that is Idolatry.  
If the making of an Image were simply and absolutely evil, then surely the same Art, and skill, and cunning that some men have in carving and graving of Images, should never be attributed to the Spirit of God as the author of it. Now you shall find what God saith, I have filled Bezaleel and Aholiab with the spirit of wisdom, and understanding, and knowledge, to work all such rare curious inventions, whereof some were Images, as you shall hear anon.  
God allows the making of Images to four uses, which I shall name unto you.  
First, he allows us to make an Image for the distinction of coins. The first coins almost that I can find in all the Scriptures mentioned, they were stamped with a Lamb upon them, and were called for that cause Lambs. You read in Gen. 33.19. that Jacob did purchase a field, a parcel of ground, of Hamor the son of Shechem; and he purchased it for an hundred pieces of silver, a hundred pieces of money; so it is called there: but the Hebrew phrase is, with an hundred Lambs. He bought it with money, so Stephen saith. But why doth he say with an hundred Lambs? It was money stamped with a Lamb. So in Job ult. every one of Jobs friends brought to him a piece of money, our Translation reads it so; but the Hebrew phrase is a Lamb; a piece of money so stamped. As we call that piece of gold that is stamped with an Angel, an Angel; so the Scripture called that piece of money that was stamped with a Lamb, a Lamb. This was the ancient coin I find.  
Then that same shekel that we read oft of in Scripture, it had two figures upon it; it had the likeness of the pot of Manna on the one side, and the likeness of Aaron's Rod on the other side. Our Lord said to the Herodians, Show me a penny: Whose Image hath it? Caesar's. Our Lord disliked not to have Caesar's Image upon a penny; but, saith he, Give to Caesar that which belongeth to Caesar, and to God that which is Gods. God allows us Images for distinction of coins, that is one.  
Secondly, God allows Images for ornament. Solomon made a throne of Ivory that had six steps to it, and on both sides of the steps, on the right hand, and on the left, were Lions made; there were 12. Lions: It was for ornament, an ornament of Glory; There was not such a throne in any Kingdom, saith the Scripture. Nay, farther: here you see the people made a similitude of an Ox that eateth grass; Solomon he made twelve such similitudes of Oxen. Look in 2 Chron. 4.3,4. you shall find, that the molten Sea stood on 12. Oxen that Solomon had made. This people made the similitude of an Ox that eateth grass; Solomon made twelve similitudes, or likenesses of Oxen that eat grass: Solomon was never reproved for this; this people was plagued for theirs. There is the difference then; they made it for one end, and Solomon for another: they made it for worship, and Solomon for ornament. God allows us Images for ornament.  
Nay, of what shape the Cherubims were that you read of oft in Scripture, that were made in the Temple, it is hard to say: Josephus saith, it cannot be affirmed, or conjectured. We usually think the face of a Cherubin was like the face of a man; but you shall find there is a difference between them, Ezek. 10.4. Every beast had four faces; one face like the face of a Cherubin, another like the face of a Man; the third like the face of a Lion, and the fourth like the face of an Eagle. These were all different faces; the face of a Cherubin, and the face of a Man then are different faces: But, of what shape soever they are, God commanded Cherubims to be made in his Tabernacle: yea, and Solomon made Cherubims; not only those two Cherubims in the Sanctum Sanctorum, the most holy place; but he made Cherubims all along the walls of the Temple, and all upon the veils of the Temple, and upon the brims of the vessels, and upon divers utensils in the house and service of God Solomon made Cherubims.  
And, together with them, he made the Images of Lions, and Bulls, and Flowers, and Palmtrees, and of Pomegranates: All these were for ornament.  
I conclude then, It is lawful for us to adorn and beautify our houses: yea, it is lawful to adorn and beautify the house of God, the walls, the windows with such Images, as  
First, may not hinder the people in their devotion.  
Secondly, such as are in no danger to be abused to Idolatry or superstition. That is my second.  
Thirdly, it is lawful to make Images for monument. You know how the Brazen Serpent was made at God's command in the wilderness, and that though it were the similitude of a Serpent; yet, notwithstanding, this was preserved afterward as a monument for the space of 700. years, no fewer; for, as long as it was a monument, it was preserved: but when it came to be abused to Idolatry, as you shall hear anon, than it was broken in pieces. Those same Statues, those Images of our Kings, and Queens, and Nobles, and great personages, in Westminster or Paul's, that are set on their Tombs, to what end serve they, but to be monuments? The Father may set up a monument, a statue, upon the grave of his deceased child, or the child upon the grave of his Father. This God hath allowed us; Christian Religion never forbade it, and the Christian Church hath always practised it; for Monument.  
Fourthly, it is lawful to have an Image for History; there is an historical use of Images. The Natural History of beasts, birds, and plants may be set down by Imagery: they cannot well be made known without the figures of these beasts, and these birds. How profitable the figures of plants and herbs are in Herbals, I think there is no man but he doth know, that knows the use of an Herbal, or Natural Histories.  
Then secondly, the Ecclesiastical histories of the Church, the martyrdoms of the Saints, the sacred histories of the Bible, the history of Adam and Eve, seduced by the Serpent, or the history of Abel slain by Cain, or the history of Abraham sacrificing Isaac, or of David killing Goliath, or of Solomon judging and giving the Child to the right mother; yea, and the history of the Passion of Christ, the history of it, I say; this hath been approved of in the Church of God. We read anciently in Gregory Nyssen, of the history of the Passion of Christ: The historical use of Images we condemn not, God and the Church never disallowed it. So then, now I go over all; God allows us to make an Image for the distinction of coin, he allows it for ornament, he allows it for monument: he allows the historical use of Images, in Natural history, in Sacred history, and in Ecclesiastical history.  
But yet, let me give some cautions and provisoes about these Images.  
First, no Image is to be made of the Trinity, to any use whatsoever, though it be not to a Religious use. God forbids this Deut. 4. Thou heardest a voice, but thou sawest no likeness; therefore thou shalt make no likeness of me. So in Esay 40.18. To what will ye liken me? To make a visible Image of an invisible God, it is no less unlawful, then impossible to make an Image of the Trinity, saith Damascene; who, though he was but an Image-monger, a worshipper of Images; yet, he abhorred this, to make an Image of the Deity: there is no less folly than impiety in it.  
Yet, notwithstanding, you shall find some such Images in the books of Papists: in some of their Service-books, you shall find the Trinity with three faces; in some of their books, you shall find God the Father as an old man, and Christ his Son between his legs, and the Dove between them both: These are abominable, such as Christian eyes should not look on without horror and detestation. No Image of the Trinity whatsoever is to be made.  
Secondly, no false Image, no false representation: I could name many in Popery. To paint the Virgin Mary now in glory in heaven, with Christ a little Babe in her arms, is a false, lying, blasphemous representation; no way answering the person and quality of them that are represented. The like I might say of Saint Dunstan and the Devil; and of Garnets' face in the straw, as it is public at Madrill in Spain. Such like false representations God condemns, and we abhor.  
Thirdly, take heed of wanton lascivious pictures, obscene filthy pictures; those are to be abhorred too. If evil words corrupt good manners; surely, lewd and obscene pictures will do it more. Those provocations to lust that get into the heart at the eye, do a great deal more move the heart to uncleanness, than those provocations that get in at the ear; Segniùs irritant animos, etc. He that would have an eye to his heart, must have an eye to his eye.  
Fourthly, take heed of all wanton excess in a love of pictures. There are many men among us, that have spent even their estates in a dotage about these rarities, and excellent workmanship. These rules observed, it is lawful for us to make an Image; not in the way of Religion, to worship God by it.  
Enough of that first point; let me come to a second. I will but touch it. The second is this:  
All Religious worship, given or bestowed on an Image, is Idolatry.  
The application of Divine, Religious worship to an Image, is Idolatry.  
First, Brethren, know the difference between Images, and Idols; for this they charge us with: when we tell them of the second Commandment, Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven Image; Say they, you do us wrong to call it so: It should be thus, Thou shalt not make a graven Idol. There is a great deal of difference, say they, between an Image, and an Idol. There is a difference indeed in Ecclesiastical custom of speech, (and custom must prevail in that kind.) And know how this difference is; Imago in the Latin, Image, and Idolon in the Greek; they are all one originally: But we must speak with common people. I say, Ecclesiastical custom of speech makes a difference between an Idol, and an Image. And what is that? I will tell you: Every representation of any creature in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth, that is an Image: but if this be to the use of Religion, than it is an Idol, or else it is not. Omnis consecratio Idololatria, etc. The consecration of an Image maketh it an Idol, saith Tertullian. An Image is an Image, and no more; but if it be set up by way of Religion, to serve God by it, than it is an Idol.  
Let me give it in an example I shown even now: The brazen Serpent was set up at first, at God's appointment: Then there were miracles done by the sight of the brazen Serpent; as many as were stung, and looked on that, were cured: Then the brazen Serpent was a type of Christ; As it was lifted up, so should the Son of man be lifted up upon the Cross: and it was preserved, as you heard before, 700. years. As long as it was a monument, there was no hurt in it; but when once the people began to burn Incense to it, which belonged to the worship and service of God; then Hezekiah, that good King, out of his zeal to God's glory, could not endure it longer, but broke it in pieces. Though it were set up by God's appointment, and miracles had been done by it: though it were a type of Christ, and had been reserved 700. years; yet he would not spare it, but breaks it in pieces, and calls it Nehushtan, a piece of brass: it was no more, when Divine Religious worship was given to it.  
Divine Religious worship is twofold: 

Inward.  
Outward.    
Divine inward Religious worship is the worship of the heart and affections. God requires the whole heart; My son, give me thy heart. He requires all the affections of the heart; our love, our fear, our joy, our confidence, our obedience, and subjection. Now, whatsoever thing it is that withdraws these affections from God to itself, that is an Idol: There is the inward worship. For this cause (not to give you other examples) the Apostle calls a covetous man, an Idolater, Ephes. 5.3. He calls covetousness Idolatry, Colos. 3.5. The covetous man is an Idolater: Why? Because gold and silver withdraw the heart and affections from God. You shall see how. Look upon his affections; What is his love? He loves more the picture of his Prince upon his coin, than the Image of God in his brother. Then go to his fear: he fears more the loss of his estate, than he fears hell; he fears more to be damnified, then to be damned. Go to his joy; he joys more at the assurance of his money, than he joys in the assurance of God's favour to him in Christ. Go to his confidence; if any danger arise, what flies he to? To God? No; Solomon saith, The rich man's riches are his strong City; and whither should a man flee, but to his strong City? He flees to his riches, he hopes that they will bear him out. He trusts more in uncertain riches, then in the living God. He saith to his gold, Thou art my hope; and to the wedge of gold, Thou art my confidence.  
Then look to his obedience, you shall see all goes that way. God bids him give; Mammon bids him take, and he takes. God bids him scatter and disperse abroad, and give to the poor; Mammon bids him gather, and he gathers. God bids him relieve; Mammon bids him extort, and he extorts. God bids him lend freely, looking for nothing again; Mammon bids him let his money for thus much in the hundred, and he lets it. See now, Mammon is the god; Mammon hath withdrawn the heart and affections, and withdrawn the obedience from God to itself. That which the Psalmist saith of the Heathen men, Their Idols are silver and gold: turn but the words, and you may say of covetous men, Their silver and gold are their Idols: He is an Idolater. This is the inward worship. To outward worship pertain prayer and thanksgiving, vows and oaths, erection of Churches and Oratories, bowing of the body, all outward observances, the dedication of ourselves, or whatsoever we have, to the honour of that that we worship. This is outward worship. Look, to what prayers are made, thanksgiving is rendered, vows are nuncupated, Oratories are built, Altars are dedicated, holidays are instituted: Look whatsoever is honoured, with any part of this Religious worship, that is made an Idol.  
I shall show, when I come to that point, that the Papists, in all these things, bestow God's glory on an Image.  
Now, Religious worship appertains to God, and to God alone: Ipfius est, etc. It is his, and none but his: God will not suffer any part of that to be given to any creature in heaven, or earth; if we do, it is Idolatry.  
What say you to the Sun, Moon, and Stars, glorious creatures, may we not worship them?  
O, no; they are glorious creatures indeed; but yet they are such as God hath made to serve us, he made not us to serve them.  
But, what say you to Angels? we are lower somewhat then Angels; may we not worship them?  
Mark what the Angel saith to John, Rev. 19 See thou do it not, I am thy fellow servant, worship God. We are not servants to them, they and we are fellow-servants to one and the same God, See thou do it not, worship God.  
O, but what say you to the Virgin Mary? Is it not lawful to worship her?  
I will answer in the words of the old Church, Mariam, etc. Let no man worship the Virgin Mary: Let the Virgin Mary be had in honour, say they, and let her be called blessed in all generatious; but let God the Father, Son, and holy Ghost be worshipped. Let no man worship the Virgin Mary.  
Nay, I go further yet, The very humane nature of Christ, the manhood of Christ, is not to be worshipped and otherwise then as it is united to the person of the Son of God. I will tell you the confession of the primitive Fathers; Confitemur, etc. We confess, that our Lord Jesus Christ is to be worshipped in the flesh, in the manhood, but not according to the manhood.  
Nestorius, that blasphemous Heretic, divided the person of Christ, (we believe there is but one person, God, and Man) and made two persons in Christ: He made one the son of God, that was not the son of Mary; and another the son of Mary, that was not the son of God; and yet he believed that that same son of Mary was to be adored, that was not the son of God. The Fathers in the Church of God have abhorred this, and condemned this doctrine of Nestorius for Idolatry: Danmamus idololatriam, etc. We condemn the Idolatry of Nestorius. Where mark, I pray: If the very manhood of Christ may not be adored and worshipped with Religious worship, but as it is united to the person of the Son of God; if the manhood of Christ when it is worshipped, be an Idol (for the word Idolatry implies so much:) if it be an Idol, not being united to the person of the Son of God: then surely the Images of Christ must needs be Idols, seeing they are no way united, neither to the Godhead of Christ, nor yet to his manhood. I should have said more of this point if I had had time: I shall go on, by God's grace, the next Sabbath.  
FINIS.   
PSAL. 106.19,20. 
They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten Image, etc.  
OUt of my desire to establish your hearts in the true, sincere worship of God, I thought good to discuss the question between the Church of Rome and us, about the worshipping of Images. This order I have propounded to myself.  
First to show that the making of all kind of Images is not forbidden.  
Secondly, that the worshipping of Images is Idolatry.  
Thirdly, that the Idolater in worshipping an Image, turns his glory to the likeness of that Image.  
Fourthly, that the worshipping of Images, as it is taught and practised in the Church of Rome, is flat Idolatry.  
Fiftly, I promised to show you the use of all these.  
The two first points I have handled. Now I come to my third proposition, and that is this; that  
The Idolater, in worshipping an Image, changeth his glory into that Image.  
Mark the words of the Text; They worshipped the molten Image; and, in doing that, they changed their glory. But I must tell you, I find the words read two ways; sometimes, his glory, and sometimes, their glory: They changed their glory. The Greek Septuagint reads it the first way, his glory. If you take it so, his glory, that is, the glory of God, than we must distinguish of the glory of God: Now, the glory of God is twofold; 

There is an Absolute glory of God.  
There is an Relative glory of God.    
The absolute glory of God, is that same incomprehensible, ineffable majesty of the Deity dwelling in light, that no man can attain to. This glory it pleased God, in some measure, to communicate to the Creatures, to Angels, and to Men, in such a wise omnipotent manner, as is convenient and possible for them to be made partakers of: This is the absolute glory of God; this cannot be changed, no more than God himself can.  
But now there is a relative glory of God; that is, that glory that men give to God in worshipping of him, that glory may be changed: and thus the Gentiles changed it, as the Apostle saith; They changed the glory of the incorruptible God, to the sunilitude of corruptible man, Rom. 1.23. And thus the Israelites here changed his glory. If you read the words so as the Septuagint doth; They changed his glory: But I like not that reading, the other is better.  
They changed their glory; their own glory: What was that? By their glory, is meant God himself: They changed their glory; that is, they changed their God. You shall have a place of Scripture, that will make this plain to you, Jerem. 2.11. Will any Nation change their God? (saith God by his Prophet) yet my people have changed their glory (that is, they have changed me that am their glory) for that that will not profit. Let me observe somewhat out of the very words: me thinks it is observable; God may be called the glory of his people two ways:  
First, as he is the Author of their glory.  
And then, as he is the Matter of their glory.  
Thus old Simeon, when he had Christ in his arms, he called him, the glory of the people Israel, Luke 2.32. The Lord is my glory (saith David) and the lifter up of my head, Psal. 3.4. Among many Prerogatives that belonged to the people of the Jews, the Apostle names one, and that was this; To them pertained the glory, Rom. 9.4. What glory was that?  
We may take it, as some do, for the glory of the Covenant; God was their glory by Covenant.  
Or else you may take it for the glory of Miracles, by which God brought them out of the land of Egypt.  
Or else you may take it for the glory of Divine vision and revelation, that God vouchsafed to them.  
Or (which I take especially,) by the glory you may mean the Ark, which was the sign of God's presence. And therefore (by the way) Phineas his Daughter in-law, when she heard that the Ark of God was taken, Now (quoth she) the glory is departed from Israel: and she named her son, that was borne at that time, Icabod; that is, Where is glory? For she said it again, The glory is departed from Israel: for the Ark of the Lord is taken.  
We may talk what we will of other glories; but the glory of any Nation consists in this, to have God to be their God. The gracious, and glorious presence of God, in all his holy, and blessed Ordinances, according to his Word; that is the glory of any Nation under heaven.  
It is our happiness, we have this glory yet among us. The Prophet Ezekiel, in his 9th, 10th, and 11th. Chapters, shows how the glory of God departed from Jerusalem. It did not departed all at once, but by degrees it went away.  
First the glory of the Lord (in that vision of his) removed from between the Cherubims where it was, and removed to the door of the house; and there it stayed a while, to see if the people would turn unto him by true repentance: It stayed a while upon the door of the house, and then the glory of the Lord removed thence: Afterward it removed to the East-gate of the entrance to God's house; the East-gate was the furthest gate of the house, it removed thither, and there it stayed a while: Then it removed again to the midst of the City: and then from the midst of the City, it removed to the mountain upon the East side of the City; that was Mount Olivet: clean out of the City it was now departed.  
We have the glory of God yet in our Land; and may it be the good pleasure of God to continue this glory among us, till Jesus Christ come in glory with all his Saints. But, brethren, doth not this glory of God seem to remove? doth it not seem to fleet a little? O, should God withdraw his word from us, and the profession of it: Should God remove the candlestick out of his place, should God withdraw this gracious presence of his in all his Ordinances; then I tell you, Mothers, what you should name your children that are borne next, Icabod, Where is glory? when God is gone from you.  
I read of some foolish Nations that were wont to fetter, and chain their gods, that they might not departed from them: Surely, our God cannot be chained, nor fettered; but yet there is a way to hold him still, when he seems to be departing: I got hold on him (saith the Church) and would not let him go, Cant. 3.4. I will not let thee go till thou bless me (saith Jacob, Genes. 32. v. 26. When our blessed Lord seemed to the two men that were travelling to Emaus, that he would leave them, the Scripture saith, They constrained him to stay with them. We may constrain our God; there is a holy violence we may offer to our God, by repentant tears, and importunate prayers, by which we may stay our God with us still: and this is, as Tertullian calls it, A holy violence, pleasing and acceptable to God. But I stand no more upon the words: now I come to the thing.  
They changed their glory; that is, their God. How may a people change their God? They may change their God two ways:  
First, when they forsake him, and set up, and worship some other God in his stead; as the people forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth, Judges 2.13. This is the grossest kind of Idolatry: This is a breach of the first Commandment.  
Or secondly, a people may change their God, when they change the truth of God into a lie, when they represent and worship God in an Image, when they represent God in a corporeal, a visible, a finite, a circumscribed Majesty; this is to change a God: this is against the second Commandment. And you must know, that thus the people changed their God here at this time; for, we do not think, that they made this calf to be their god. Their sin was bad enough, let not us make it worse than it was. They had cast off now all Religion, and the fear of God, let not us think they had cast off sense and reason with it. Can we imagine, that this people were such calves, as to think, that the calf that they themselves had made yesterday, was the very God that brought them out of Egyt three months before the calf was made? Never imagine that; they took not this calf to be their god. What then? They took it to be a figurative sign of their god. I know they call it their god; These are the gods that brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Or, as it is in Nehemiah, chap. 9 verse 18. This is thy God, O Israel, that brought thee out of the land of Egypt. But, as this Image is called a calf in my Text, They made a calf in Horeb; though it was no calf, but the Image of a calf: So they called it their god; but they did not think it to be their god; they took it as an Image of their god, as a figurative sign of their god: therefore Aaron proclaims, To morrow is an holy day to Jehovah; not to the calf, but to Jehovah, whom they worshipped in the calf.  
I pray mark this rule that I shall give you: The truth of God is turned to a lie, and God is changed to the Image that is worshipped; though God himself, and none but he, be worshipped in that Image, I say, God is changed into that Image that is worshipped for him, though the true God, and none but he, be worshipped in that Image.  
Here is the reason of it: The rule of Divine worship is not the will of the worshipper, but it is the will of him that is worshipped: Now, it was never Gods will to be worshipped in an Image. Take a similitude: Suppose a subject, a vassal, should devise an honour of his own brain to his Sovereign, to his King; and he should set up a toad, and he will have it in a glass, and come every morning, and bow to that toad; and being asked why he did so, he should say; O, I do it not to the toad, but to the honour of my Sovereign and Prince: do you think this Prince will like well to be resembled by a toad?  
I tell you, brethren, there is a thousand times a greater disproportion between Almighty God, and an Image set up for him, than there is between a Prince, and a toad. Not to speak of that infinite inequality and distance that is between God, and a mortal man; there is a great distance even between a toad, and an Idol, a great difference: For,  
The toad is the workmanship of God; an Idol, as is an Idol, it is the workmanship of man.  
A toad, it is a living creature, it hath sense and motion; the Image is a senseless block, it hath neither life nor motion.  
Therefore hear how it pleaseth the Spirit of God, in Scripture, to call consecrated Images; he calls them sometimes lies, sometimes vanities, sometimes (nay oft) abominations, sometime Dung-hill-gods, sometimes Devils; You worshipped devils: What devils? Idols, the work of their own hands, Revel. 9.20. I pray, hear, how the Spirit of God in Scripture shows his detestation of all Images in his service. Harken how he thunders in the second Commandment; Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven Image; thou shalt not bow down and worship it. Harken what the Prophet Esay saith: Confounded be all they that worship Images. Harken what the Apostle saith in the New Testament; Babes, take heed of Idols, 1 John c. ult. v. ult.  
I pray look over the Bible, and see if ever you find any of God's children (except at such times as they had corrupted their ways) worshipping of Images. Enough out of Scripture against Images.  
Now, because we are in this controversy to deal with such men whom the authority of Scripture doth not satisfy, such unreasonable men as are not content with the authority of Scripture; and because they say this stands upon tradition, the worshipping of Images in the Church: I pray give me leave a little, besides my custom, to show you the testimony of the Fathers, the determination of Counsels, and the long tradition of the Church against Images. Of every one a word, and some few of many. There is no point that a man may be so copious in as in this.  
First, for Fathers: Fieri non potest, etc. so Origen. It is not possible that a man should know God, and be a suppliant to an Image. There is no doubt (saith Lactantius) but there is no Religion, where there is a worshipping of Images. It is a most indigne thing (saith Tertullian) that the Image of a dead man should be worshipped by man, that is the Image of the living God. We make no figure, or representation of the Saints (saith Anthelopius Bishop of Hiponium. We have no need of them (saith Ambrose:) God will not be worshipped by a stone. We worship no Image (saith Austin) but that Image that is the same that God himself is; he means Christ, the substantial Image of the Father. I could go on: but this is enough.  
Come then to Counsels: The Council of Illeberos in Spain; for, at that time, by the negligence of the Bishops, Images were crept into the Church: then that Council decreed, there should be no pictures in the Church. The Constantinople Council condemned all Images in the Church of God: and so did the Council at Frankfort under Charles the Great.  
For the Tradition of the Church: For three hundred years after Christ, it is confessed by some of our Adversaries themselves, that there were no Images in the Churches of God. Three hundred years after that, six hundred years after Christ, then began Images in the Churches; then the people began to yield some worship to them. Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, condemned the worshipping of them: He allowed them, and he did ill to allow them to be in the Church, to be provocations to Idolatry; yet, he condemned the worshipping of them. Thus it continued six hundred years after Christ. Between six and eight hundred years, there came a marvellous stir in the Church of God, between the Eastern and the Western Churches, about the worshipping of Images. The Bishops of the West, under Rome, were all for Images: The good Emperor of the East was against it; a bloody war there was about it, and thus it continued for above an hundred years: Then Minera, the Empress, in the minority of her Son, a cruel Idolatrous woman (and mark when you will, Idolatry is cruel) she caused the second Nycene Council to be called; and there was first decreed the worshipping of Images in the Church of God, in the year of our Lord 788. Till then, Images were never appointed publicly to be worshipped in the Church: yea, after that time, the worshipping of Images got not a peaceable quiet profession in the Church of God. Charles the Great, Emperor in the West, mightily opposed it: he called his Bishops together at Frankford; they mightily opposed the worshipping of Images.  
Yea, I pray mark, that duty that concerns us in our Kingdom: Charles the Great, he sent that Act of that second idolatrous Nycene Council to our Bishops in England, to know how they liked it: They said, Alas for woe! we find in those Acts many things against Christian Religion, especially this, that the worshipping of Images is decreed, which the Church of God curseth. Mark, our Bishop's Forefathers in England, about eight hundred years since, held that a doctrine, which the Church of God curseth; yea, and that, against all the Tables of God's Law, against the preaching of the Prophets, against the institution of the Apostles, against the custom of the old Church, against the practice of the primitive Church, against the clear testimonies of the Fathers, against the determination of Counsels, against a continued Tradition for almost eight hundred years together. The beauty of the Church (as one complains) in defiance of God and Man, is now polluted with the very filth of Paganism; and Christian Churches are pestered, as much as ever the heathen Temples were, with Idols.  
I come now to the proof of that; that is the fourth point: viz. That,  
The worshipping of Images, as it is taught, and practised in the Church of Rome, is plain Paganism and Idolatry.  
The Paganish and Popish Idolatry is all one. I say, the worshipping of Images, as it is taught and practised in the Church of Rome, is plain heathenish Idolatry.  
How is it taught? and how is it practised? For the doctrine of their Church it is hard for a man to set it down. The determination of the Council of Trent about it, is a very nose of wax; you may turn it any way. They tell us of our divisions among ourselves: It is a wonder to see how they interferre, and strike one on another in the point of worshipping of Images: It is hard to say what they teach. But I will tell you thus much; Isolius the Jesuit saith, This is the constant opinion of the Divines of our Church, that Images are to be worshipped with the same worship that is due to him whose Image it is. This was the doctrine of Thomas of Aquine, whom they make a Saint. This was the doctrine of all his followers. This was the doctrine of Nauclantus, a Bishop in Italy, upon Romans 1. We do not (saith he) worship before an Image, as some men are wont casually to speak: but we worship the Image itself, and that with the same worship that is due to him whose Image it is. Peter Precavaria, a great professor of Divinity in Spain, saith, This doctrine is the only true, and pious doctrine, agreeable to the decrees of the Christian faith. He allegeth nineteen of the special Schoolmen that all were of this opinion besides himself. We take this then to be the doctrine of the Church of Rome, that Images are to be worshipped with the same worship that is due to him whose Image it is.  
They that have traveled into foreign parts have found, that the practice of that Church is as bad as these Theorems. Confessed by some of the modest sort of them, that their people were grown to a kind of piety, that did not differ much from impiety: You will say it, if you consider,  
First, the Image itself.  
Then the worship that is given to that Image.  
And then the rites and ceremonies, in the performance of that worship.  
Consider first the Images themselves: What difference can you find in the Images, between the Popish Images, and the Images of the Gentiles?  
Look to the matter of them; they are the very same. The matter of the Gentiles Images was, silver, and gold, and brass, and wood, and stone; this is the matter of Popish Images.  
Look to the outward form of their Images; they are the very same. The Gentiles Images were the work of men's hands, they had eyes, and could not see; they had ears, and could not hear; they had mouths, and could not speak; they had hands, and could not work; they had feet, and could not walk. Popish Images, they see no more, they hear no more, they speak no more, they do no more, they walk no further than the heathens Images. Thus much for the Image itself.  
Then come secondly to the acts of devotion performed to these Images. The Gentiles were wont to bow to them, so do the Papists. The Gentiles were wont to pray to them, so do the Papists. The Gentiles were wont to render thanks to them, so do the Papists. The Gentiles were wont to dedicate themselves, and all that they had to their Idols, so do the Papists. The Gentiles nuncupated vows to them so do the Papists. The Gentiles were wont to swear by them, so do the Papists. The Gentiles were wont to set up Candles to them, so do the Papists. The Gentiles were wont to burn incense to them, so do the Papists. They yield the same acts of devotion to their Images, that the Gentiles did to theirs.  
Then come to their rites and ceremonies in yielding these acts. I pray read at your leisure the sixth Chapter of Baruch; you will say it is an Apocryphal book, and I confess it is so; but yet with them it is Canonical, and so is good Scripture against them. The author of that Chapter, shows what the people shall see when they come to Babylon; saith he, there you shall see an Image of gold, or of silver, or of wood, or brass, or stone: you shall see it clad in purple, with a sceptre in its hand; or, peradventure, trimmed up garishly, as a virgin that loves to go gay. You shall see such an Image carried upon men's shoulders in a solemn procession, and a number of people before, and behind it, adoring and worshipping it: You shall see the Priests with their shaved heads and beards taking off those offerings that are offered to those Images, and bestowing them upon common harlots. You shall see (saith he) candles lighted to them, you shall see perfume burned to them, you shall hear vows nuncupated to them, you shall see oblations and offerings given to them: and all this to such an Image as is no better (saith he) than a scare crow in a garden of Cucumbers.  
Now those that have ever seen the processions that are in Paris, or the Lady of H●ige at Iquiers in Flanders, or have ever seen the worship in Italy, or Spain; they can bear witness that they have seen all these things done, and a number of fooleries more besides these.  
We may think they have somewhat to say for themselves; and, in a word or two, you shall hear it.  
First, they say, they worship not the Image, but they worship him in that Image whose Image it is.  
Mark, first they have no excuse for the worshipping of Images, but the same that the heathens had; their worship is heathenish, and so is their excuse: For, when the Fathers, in the first years of the Church, challenged the heathen for the worshipping of Images: What (say they) do you think us such blocks, as to worship these blocks? They have the same.  
Again, it is not true that they say; for, as I said before, they conclude they worship the Image. Bellarmine proves, that the worship properly belongs to the Image.  
Again, suppose they intended not to worship the Image, but God in it: Know, that the rule of divine worship is not man's intention, but Gods will. Mark it in the example I gave before, of a man honouring his Prince in a toad. We inquire not of the will of the worshipper, but of him that is worshipped. Let them show that it is Gods will to be worshipped in an Image, and we will not charge them with Idolatry.  
But, say they, do not we do reverence to the chair of state, in honour to the King, when the King is not there?  
We do indeed a civil reverence to it; but who appointed an Image to be the chair of state to the King of heaven? The reverence we do to the chair of state, is according to the will of the Prince; it is his will it should be done: But where can they tell us it is the will of God that we should reverence and worship him in a base inglorious abomination?  
Yea, but say they, Images in the Church of God, have bcene accounted laymen's books.  
It is true, they have called them so; but I say that again, they are books prohibited, they are not books that come forth Cum Privilegio: God doth not allow such books as these. When the Bishops in their Churches were painful in their places, and taught the people out of the Word; the people needed not these books: but when Teachers came to be Idols, than Idols came to be Teachers.  
Yea, but say they, the worship that we give to Images, we give it not properly; it is improperly, it is analogicè, repraesentatiuè, reductiuè: these are Bellarmine's words, and many more such distinctions.  
O, Brethren, these are the men that know how to rob God of his glory, and yet they know how to deceive, and delude the world with distinctions; there is no place so plain, but they can elude it with distinctions. But in the mean time, what wrong is it to God's people to bring them to horrible gross Idolatry, and then to seek to work and wind them out with such new distinctions, as the poor people understand not, nor, peradventure, they themselves?  
If any man desire to be better satisfied about the point of worshipping of Images, I desire him to read the third Homily in our Church, set forth by the Church against the peril of Idolatry, and he shall find abundant satisfaction.  
There is yet one point to be handled, it is the use that we are to make of this, and of the whole history: but the time is past, I must leave it for the next day.  
FINIS.   
PSAL. 106.19,20,21,22. 
They made a calf in Horeb: and worshipped the molten Image.  
Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.  
They forgot God their Saviour, which had done great things in Egypt:  
Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red-sea.  
THere remains now but one thing more concerning this worshipping of Images, that is, the use that you are to make of all this that you have heard concerning it. It is this, by way of exhortation: Let me exhort you to hate, and abhor, and detest all Idolatry if it be Image-worship, whether heathenish, or popish.  
Holy David, in Psalm 119. brings many arguments to prove his love to God, and to his Word; and one argument above all other (for he repeats it often) is this, his hatred of false ways; he means false doctrine, all falsehood in doctrine, and falsehood in life: In verse 113. I hate all inventions, but thy Law do I love. Ver. 163. I hate and abhor all falsehood, but thy Law do I love. And thus he goes on in many places more. Now then, if our hatred of falsehood, be an argument of our love to the truth; if such as is our hatred to error, is our love to true Religion; then surely, brethren, we are fallen from our first love, because we are fallen from our first hatred of Popery and Superstition. We are grown now to have a better opinion of Image-worship than we had before. We are grown almost to a very neutrality in Religion.  
The desire of my soul is, to preserve your hearts upright in the holy, sincere worship of God: therefore, I pray, let me commend four caveats to you, with which I will conclude this point.  
The first is this, it is that of Saint John, 1 John Chap. ult. Ver. ult. Babes, (saith the Apostle) keep yourselves from Idols. Mark, he saith not yourselves from Idolatry, but from Idols; not ab officio, as Tertullian speaks, but- ab effigy: not from the service of Idols, but from Idols; from such Images as may be abused to Idolatry.  
God in the old Law forbade his people to desire the gold of an Image: they may not desire so much as the gold of an Image; For it will be as a snare to thee, saith God, Deut. 7.25. David, he met with the Philistines Images; it is likely they were of gold, or silver, or the like: and what doth he with them? He burns them every one, 2 Sam. 5.20.  
The brazen serpent, though it were set up at the first (as you heard) by Gods own command; though there were miracles wrought by the sight of it; though it were kept seven hundred years, as an excellent monument of God's mercy; though it were a type and figure of Christ; Even as the brazen serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so shall the Son of man be lifted up: yet good Hezekiah, when he saw incense burned to it, would not forbid the burning of incense, but he takes the serpent, and breaks it, and stamps it in pieces, and calls it Nehushtan, it was a piece of brass, and no more.  
What did Moses in this history, when he saw the calf? Though it were made of gold, and there might have been some use of gold among the poor people, it might have done good to a number of them; yet he would not keep the gold, he burns it in the fire, he stamps it to powder, he beats it as small as dust, Deuter. 9 ver. 21. And he is not yet revenged enough of this Image; he casts the dust into the brook that ran out of Horeb, and made the people drink of that water: he would not have the  memorial of this Image left.  
Let me tell you but one history more out of the Church history: Epiphanius, that good Bishop, he came to a Church, and found a veil in the Church, wherein there was an Image of Christ, or of some Saint: For, quoth he, I remember not whose it was, but I took it, and tore it, and wrote to John, Bishop of Jerusalem, under whose charge that Church was, that he should not suffer such veils in the Church, against Christian Religion.  
These are good patterns for Magistrates in Church, or Commonwealth; but these are no precedents for private men in public places, out of a pretence of zeal, in a tumultuous manner, to enterprise any such public Reformation. Men may do, as Jacob, at home; every man reform his own household, bury his own Images, at home: but private men must learn that golden rule of Saint Austin, To correct what they can within the compass of their own calling, and what they cannot, to mourn for; to mourn and to cry to God, that he would please to send his Son, to take whatsoever offends out of his Kingdom. This is the first caveat, Take heed of Images: To take heed of sin, is to Take heed of the occasions of sin.  
My second caveat is, take heed of familiar conversation with these Image-worshippers. All society with them is not unlawful; there may be a lawful society even with Idolaters, quoad publicam conversationem, in regard of a public conversation: but take heed of society with them in regard of inward acquaintance with them; it is dangerous. Let a good man be joined with an evil man, you seldom see the evil bettered by the good; but the good is easily corrupted, and spoilt by the evil. A whole lump of dough will not sweeten a little leaven, but a little leaven will sour a whole lump of dough. If any man that is called a brother be an Idolater (saith Paul,) with such a man eat not, 1 Cor. 5.11.  
The Pharasees in old time were so careful of their carriage among the Gentiles and Samaritans, that they would not so much as, eat of a Samaritans bread, nor drink of a Samaritans cup, nor warm themselves at a Samaritans fire; they would not wear a Samaritans garment, nor read a Samaritans book. It is said of John the Evangelist, that he refused to wash himself in that bath wherein Cerinthus the heretic had washed. Polycarpus could not be gotten to salute Martion the heretic. Eusebius Versalensis would not receive meat in prison from the hands of the Arrians. You know what Saint John saith; Whosoever saith, God speed to them, is partaker with them in their sin, 2 John 10.  
It is a childish thing I shall tell you of, but you may perceive by that how children were trained up in the detestation of heresy. Theodoret tells of it: At Samosatum, the children playing with a ball, refused to play with it after the ball by chance had touched Lucius the heretical Bishop, or the ass that he road on; they cast the ball into the fire, and would play no more with it. We have a story of Thosmos, that being about to be thrown, when he was dead, into the grave of an heretical Bishop, a voice was heard in the grave, Touch me not heretic. I avouch not this for truth, but I told you what the Apostle saith; If any man be called a brother, and be an Idolater, with such an one eat not.  
Surely, brethren, we are grown a little too familiar with them, we are too bold a little with these Image-mongers; we match with them, we consult with them, we confer with them, we converse with them; nay, peradventure, we find such delight in their company, as that we cannot be merry, except they be in our company; we cannot eat our meat, except they carve it; we cannot sleep, except they rock the cradle: no wonder, brethren, if we be drawn away.  
But let me give you a third caveat: Take heed of beholding idol-service out of the curiosity of the eye. Many men will go to mass, or idol-service; they say they mean not to adore, they will not worship, they go but to see; and, may they not go see it?  
I tell you, that sight is very dangerous, that curiosity of the eye is a branch of the concupiscence of the eye, which, if it be not mortified, may be the occasion of many sins. Idolatry is called in Scripture by the name of whoredom. Lust gets into the heart by the eye. It is a hard matter for the body to be kept clean, if the eye be full of adultery. Job made a covenant with his eyes to abridge them of liberty in matters of indifferency.  
Let me tell you a story that Saint Austin hath in the sixth book of his Confessions, c. 8. He tells us of Allipius his dear friend, who went to Rome to study the Law. At Rome there were usually those gladiatory sports, bloody, sword-killing sports; they killed men in sport: He could not be persuaded by his companions to see those sports; they desired him, but by no means he would go: at last (saith Saint Austin) by a familiar violence they drew him once to go, and see those bloody sports. Well, saith he, I will go, but I will be absent while I am there, I will not look on it. He went, and when he came, he sat there among the rest, but he shut his eyes, and would not see any of those sports, till at length there was a man wounded, and then the people shouted: He had shut his eyes, but he had not stopped his ears; he heard the shout, and would see what was the matter; he looked about, and, seeing the wounded man, he then desired to see a little more. Thus (saith Saint Austin) he grew at the last not to be the same man he was when he came thither, but to be as one of the company to which he came; and, after that time, he desired to see it a second, and a third time; and, at last, he came to be, not only a companion of those that went thither, but would be a guide to them; yet he would go, not tanquam unus ex illis, he would be one of the forwardest. And thus he continued a while, till it pleased God, by a mighty hand, to deliver him from this vanity.  
The eyes are the windows of the body, and if we shut them not up against allurements, we may happily be forced to cry out, as they did Jerem. 9.21. Death is entered in at the windows. Lord (saith David) turn away mine eyes, that they behold not vanity. Idols are called vanities oft in Scripture. Surely, we should make a covenant with our eyes, that they be not the occasion of our falling. I said it the other day; I conclude with it now, He that would have an eye to his heart, must have an heart to his eye.  
My fourth caveat that I give, is this, Take heed how you do allow yourselves to live in any known sin without repentance; for, this is the way for which God gives men over to this sin of Idolatry. Unrepented of errors in life, breed errors in judgement. 
2 Thes. 2. v. 10, 11.  Those that will not embrace the love of the truth, that they may be saved (saith the Apostle,) those men shall have strong delusions to believe lies. I conclude all with what the Apostle (speaking of the heathen) saith, Rom. 1.25. They knew God. The heathen had some knowledge of God, but, they were not careful to glorify him as God, but were unthankful. What punishment came upon them for it? This, their foolish heart grew full of darkness, and when they professed themselves wise men, they became fools. Fools! Why? How did they play the fools? Saith the Apostle (which is the very phrase that is here) Because, when they knew God, they did not care to glorify him as God, but were unthankful; therefore God gave them over to this blindness, to turn the glory of the incorruptible God, to the Image of corruptible man, and of fourfooted beasts, and they served and worshipped the creature, more than the Creator, that is God over all, who is blessed for ever. Thus, beloved, I have now done with that great point, concerning the worshipping of Images.  
Now I come to the last thing in my Text, that is the root of this sin, whence this sin of theirs did spring; it was from forgetfulness of God, and of his works.  
They forgot God their Saviour, etc.  
The words are many, and many things may be observed out of them. I will run them first over with a brief paraphrase, and then speak of that sin that was the cause of this Idolatry; the forgetfulness of God.  
[They forgot God.] There was one of the Tribes that was called the Tribe of Manasses; Manasses had this name, of forgetfulness. When I look over this Psalm, me thinks this people should be all of that Tribe, they were so forgetful. In ver. 7. They remembered not the multitude of his mercies. There the Spirit of God speaks of their forgetfulness. Then, in ver. 13. they soon forgot his works. They made haste, and forgot them, as the words are. And now here again, They forgot God their Saviour. Three times the Spirit of God in this Scripture speaks of their forgetfulness of God.  
It was but three months ago, since God brought them out of the land of Egypt: It was little more than one month ' ago, since God appeared to them in a fearful manner upon Mount Sinai, with thunder, and lightning, and earth quakes; and yet see, they have already forgot God.  
[God their Saviour.] Saviour: The word is sometime taken strictly in the Scripture, in a narrow sense; and sometime it is taken in a larger sense.  
Take it in the narrow sense, and then a Saviour is such an one as saveth from sin, from the punishment of sin, from God's wrath, from hell, and eternal damnation: Thus our Lord is called a Saviour. You know what the Angel said to the Shepherds; This day is borne to you in the City of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And his very name shows him to be thus; Jesus, it signifies a Saviour: and the reason is given by the Angel; because he shall save the people from their sins. He saves them,  
First, from the guilt of sin.  
Then he saves them from the punishment of sin.  
Then he saves them from the power of sin: Thus the word Saviour is taken, when you take it strictly.  
But you may take it more largely, and then a Saviour is such an one as is a deliverer, a preserver, either from wrong, from afflictions, from oppressions, from dangers, from temporal death. A Saviour, that is, as if he should say, a Preserver. In this sense the Apostle saith, 1 Tim. 1.10. that God is the Saviour of all men; that is, the preserver of all men: but, especially, of them that believe. In this sense take the word here: God was their Saviour, that is, their Preserver; And do but consider,  
First the evils from which he preserved them, and those were many.  
Then consider the means whereby he preserved them, and those were mighty.  
Then consider the end to which he preserved them, and that was glorious, that they should be a holy people, a peculiar treasure to himself. Consider, I say, the means by which, the ill from which, and the end to which they were saved; and then no people may more appropriate God to be their Saviour, than this people could: Yet, behold, They forgot God their Saviour.  
Yea, and they forgot his works. The works of God are set down here to be of three sorts: 

Great works.  
Wonderful works.  
Terrible works.    
Great works in Egypt: Wondrous works in the land of Ham (the land of Ham, and Egypt are all one.) Then, Terrible works by the Red-sea.  
[Great works.] The works of God, are either, 

works of Nature.  
works of Grace.    
The works of Nature, are either works of Creation; or they are works of Actual providence, in the preserving that that is created.  
The works of Grace those are many. The principal work whereupon all others depend, is the Incarnation of the Son of God, that great mystery of godliness, God manifest in our flesh; that was the great work of grace.  
Then redemption of mankind by his blood. The electing of some to salvation, before the foundations of the world were laid. The vocation of them in God's good time. The justification of them in the blood of our crucified Jesus. The sanctification of them by God's blessed Spirit, the resurrection of their bodies, and the glorification of them. All these are works of grace.  
Now all the works of God; whether they be works of nature, or of grace, they are all great works. There is not a work of Creation, but it is a great work. The Pis-mire is a little creature, yet it is a great work: the making of a Pis-mire is as great a work, as the creation of an Elephant. It is all one with God; he can as easily make an Elephant, as a Pis-mire; nay, Deus maximus in minimis, a man may truly say it; God is greatest in the least creatures. If you mark it, you may see how great God is in every little creature.  
The less the Watch is that you carry about you, to know the time of the day, the greater is the skill of the workman: And, surely, in every little work, it appears how great God is. There is never a work so little, but it is a great work, if it be well considered. Works of Creation are great works.  
But there are some works greater than other: Those works wherein the Divine attributes are most manifested; such works wherein appears the great wisdom of God, or the great goodness of God, or the great power of God, or the great truth of God, or the great mercy of God, or the great justice of God. Those works wherein these attributes of Divine majesty are most apparent, those are called great works: Therefore the works of redemption, are greater works than the works of creation: The works of grace, are greater works than the works of nature. But now this people had seen great works in both kinds; 

Great works of Nature.  
Great works of Grace.    
There were works of nature; let me name but one or two of them: The multiplication of them in Egypt. When they came to Egypt at first, there were but seventy souls of them, seventy souls that came out of the loins of Jacob, no more. They were in Egypt but two hundred and fifteen years, no longer: A great part of this time they lived under oppression, loaden with burdens, loaden with blows, loaden with injuries; yet see how they multiplied: this same bleeding vine bare abundance of fruit, this Camomile that was thus trodden down, it prospered exceedingly. They grew in two hundred and fifteen years to be so many, that, at their coming out of Egypt, there were numbered six hundred thousand men, from twenty years old and upward, besides women and children. This multiplication was a great work of God; a work of Nature.  
Then consider their preservation there, how wonderfully they were preserved in the despite of their enemies; and how all things were preserved that were theirs: As the land of Goshen preserved from those same swarms of flies, with which all the rest of Egypt was pestered. Their cattles in the land of Goshen preserved from that murrain, of which the cattles, through the land of Egypt, died. The land of Goshen was light, when all Egypt besides was darkness. This wonderful preservation of that that they had, and the preservation of their firstborn, when all the firstborn died in the land of Egypt. This preservation of them was a great work.  
There is another work, which I know not whether it be the greater; their eduction and bringing out of Egypt. Their preservation was great, their bringing out was as great; they came out in despite of Pharaoh and his servants; and they came out with vigour of body, their veins full of blood, and their bones full of marrow; There was not one feeble person among their Tribes. Here were great Works; but all these were works of nature, either of multiplication, or preservation.  
Then will you hear the great works of Grace? The adoption of this people to be Gods firstborn: the separation of this people from all the people of the earth, to be to God a holy Nation, a Royal Priest hood, his peculiar treasure. The revealing of his promises, especially that great promise, that out of their loins should come that blessed seed, that blessed Lord, in whom all the Nations of the earth were to be blessed. The promulgation of the Law; no Nation had it but they: God had not dealt so with other Nations; the heathens had not the knowledge of his Laws.  
Here were great works of Nature, great works of Grace; yet this was the unthankfulness of this people, they forgot God their Saviour that had done these great things for them in Egypt.  
Then Wonderful things too, Mirabilia. There be four sorts of Mirabilia, of wonderful things: There be mirabilia naturae, wondrous works of nature: secret wondrous works of nature; That the loadstone should draw Iron to it; That this power of the loadstone should be restrained, if the Adamant be near it. That the Adamant cannot be broken upon an anvil with an hammer, that is easily broken if it be anointed with goat's blood. That the flesh of a dead Peacock should not putrefy: Saint Austin saith, he observed it himself, he took an experiment of it in an whole twelvemonth, he tried it, that it putrefied not. That a fountain in Lybia should send forth water so cold in the day, that none could drink it; and so hot in the night, that none can touch it: These, and a thousand more, are mirabilia naturae, wonderful things in nature; no man is able to give the reason of it: yet it is God that did these wonderful things in nature.  
Then again, there be mirabilia artis, wonderful things in art. There were seven buildings that were wont to be called the Wonders of the world: one of them was in Egypt, the Pyramids: another of them, above all other was a wonder, me thinks, above all wonders: a wonder of Art. It were too long to tell you what a wonder it was. It was nothing but a prodigal monument of prodigality and vainglory; prodigality and vainglory, that was the sin of them that built it; but the skill in making it, that came from God.  
Thirdly, there be mirabilia Satanae, there be wonderful things of Satan, wondrous works that Satan and his instruments, Magicians and Sorcerers, can do. God did not punish the apostate Angels at the first (as the Schoolmen say) in their natural skill and power; that is as great now to do a mischief, as the skill and power of good Angels is to do that that is good. The Devil, he can do wonderful things; he can compass the whole earth in a little time; you find, in the book of Job, that he can raise tempests, he can bring down fire, he can hurry a body, and remove it; as he did the body of our Lord from the wilderness to the pinnacle of the Temple, and thence to the mountain. He can speak in Images; it was the devil that spoke in some Images of the Gentiles. And if popish Images have now and then spoken too, as they say they have, (Bene de me scripsisti, said he of Thomas Aquinas, Thou hast written well of me Thomas) I make no question, but the devil spoke in them.  
The devil can do more than that; the devil knows the secret and hidden virtues in things; their sympathies and antipathies, their qualities and properties. The devils can do wonderful things: Though they cannot do miraculous things, they can do wonderful things. Thus the sorcerers in Egypt, they did many wonderful things; mira, but not true miracles.  
Now fourthly, there are mirabilia Dei, the wonderful things of God. Indeed, there is never a work of God but it is wonderful, what work soever it be. The very Heathen man could say, in every natural thing, there is something in it that is wonderful. But there are some works of God above all other that are truly miracles; not mira, but miracula. What works are those?  
Such as exceed the faculty and possibility of nature, they are properly and theologically miracles. The devil can do many things by the concurrence of natural causes, but he cannot work a miracle: that which is properly and theologically called a miracle, the devil cannot work it.  
Now God had wrought many miracles for this people. The turning of the dust of the earth into louse, this was a miracle: the Magicians, by the help of the devil, attempted to do this; but they could not do it: the art of the Magicians failed them in such a thing as this, they could not turn the dust into louse. Then he turned the water of the river into blood; he turned the red-sea into dry land; he turned three days into three dark nights; he turned light into palpable darkness, that no man saw one another, nor stirred from the place where he was for three days. These are wonderful things, truly miracles; yet, this people forgot God their Saviour, that had done such great things for them in Egypt, and wondrous things in the land of Ham.  
Yea, and lastly, Terrible things in the Red-sea; yea, God did terrible things for them before they came to the red-sea: He did terrible things for them in Egypt, if you mark them; he plagued the Egyptians in all things.  
First in their souls, with hardness of heart; he plagued them in their bodies with botches, and blains; he plagued them in their corn with hail; he plagued them in their beasts with murrain; he plagued them in their houses with frogs; he plagued them in their families with the death of their firstborn: Here were terrible things when they were in Egypt; but, the most terrible thing of all was that at the red-sea, when he drowned Pharaoh, and all his host, that there was not one of them left. In the ninth verse of this Psalm, you may observe a work of power; in the tenth verse, a work of mercy; and, in the eleventh verse, a work of judgement. The work of mercy was a great work, the work of power was a wonderful work, and the work of judgement was a terrible work.  
Yet, for all this, see the unthankfulness of this people. They forgot all these.  
But, is it possible (you will say) that they forgar, in so little a time, all these works; that they did not remember them?  
There is a twofold forgetfulness; there is a forgetfulness of the mind, and a forgetfulness in affection, and action. A man may have God in his mind, yea, in his words, in his mouth, and yet forget him while he thinks of him, while he speaks of him.  
I will show it you in examples: Ask the Idoll-monger, Why dost thou make this Idol? He will say, To remember God by it. It is the usual word of the Papists; Why have you these Images? Why? To remember God by them. But this is no way to remember God, this is to forget him: because, when his Commandment is forgotten, he is forgotten; his Commandment is, that thou shalt not make an Image. They made this calf to have a visible representation of God before their eyes, to remember him. O, they forgot him now.  
A blasphemer, a swearer, will have the Name of God in his mouth: there are not three periods, but he will have the Name of God in his mouth. Will you say, that this man remembers God that talks and speaks of him, and swears by him at every word? Doth he remember him, think you? This is to forget God: For, if he remembered the Name of God, that it is a good name, he would love it: If he remembered that it were a great name, he would fear it: If he remembered it were a glorious name, he would reverence it. But he neither knows it to be a good name, he forgets that it is a good name, and a great name, and a glorious name, and that makes him to forget God, even when he remembers him, and speaks of him.  
To conclude, let me only make a little application. I think, if any Nation may call God their Saviour next this people; surely, I think, we may do it. Consider how God saved us in 88 Was not that a great work? Remember how God saved us in the Gunpowder treason: Was not that a wonderful work? Remember how God saved our lives from death five years since, in that same great and heavy plague: Was not that plague a terrible work?  
Yet surely, brethren, have not we forgotten God? have not we forgotten these works of his? Our falling from our first love, our sliding back again to Egypt, our neutrality in Religion, our little hatred of Idolatry, and Superstition: such is our pride, such is our wanton excess, such is our oppression, such our false weights, and such our false oaths, and such our false faces: Our ways that we walk in are so unworthy of the Gospel of Christ, that, I am afraid, God may charge us as truly as he charged this people, We have forgot God our Saviour, that hath done so great things, so wondrous things, and so terrible things for us.  
FINIS.   
PSAL. 106.23. 
Wherefore he said, that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, etc.  
I Have done with that same fearful sin of this people. I am now, in the verse that I have read, to show you the fearful punishment of God upon them for this sin. He said, he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them. In these words you have two things:  
The sentence that God pronounceth against this people for this sin; He said, he would destroy them.  
You have secondly, the revocation of this sentence; the means whereby God was kept from the execution of this judgement: you shall see how God's hand was held from destroying of them; Moses his chosen stood in the breach, and turned away the wrath of God, that he should not destroy them.  
First, he said he would destroy them. The judgement that God threatens for this sin, is not famine, nor captivity, nor bondage, nor pestilence, nor the sword of an enemy; but it is a total subversion, a total destruction of the whole Nation. The words of God used to Moses, Deut. 9.14. Moses, let me alone, let me destroy this people, that I may blot out their name from under heaven. Here was the sentence, he would blot out their name from under heaven. I will never be troubled again with such an unthankful people as this; I will blot out their name; there shall not be such a people upon the earth as this, that have used me thus unthankfully for such mercies as I have showed them. He doth not now threaten to lop off a bough or two from the tree, but to stub up the whole tree; he will not leave root or branch, head nor tail of this people; he will have them all buried and entombed together in one grave of destruction; I will destroy them all.  
He said he would destroy them.  
I will set down one general Proposition: Great sins, such as are sins of an high nature, when they come once to be committed with an high hand, that is, with delight, with outrage, with impudence, and impenitency; they are able to bring the judgements of God to the utter destruction of a whole people, of a whole country.  
Sins of an high nature. I told you, when I began to handle this Scripture, what sins are sins of an high nature; that is, such sins as are directly against God: 

As, Atheism.  
As, Blasphemy.  
As, Idolatry.    
Or, such as are directly against nature: 

As, Sodomy.  
As, Bestiality.  
As, All incestuous, and unnatural pollution.    
Or, thirdly, such sins as are directly against humane society: 

As, Murder.  
As, Robbery.  
As, Rapine.  
As, The effusion, and shedding of innocent blood.    
Such sins as these, that are directly against God, against nature, against humane society, when they are thus committed with an high hand, they are able to bring destruction, utter destruction, not only upon whole houses, as they did upon the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, upon the house of Bassa, upon the house of Ahab (which houses God swept with the besom of destruction, as the Prophet speaks) but they are able to bring the judgement of God, to utter destruction, upon a whole people, upon a whole country: they are able to lay the honour of the greatest Kingdom, of the greatest Monarch in the dust, in a little space, in a little time. I need not stand long to prove this; only two or three examples.  
Some of these sins of this nature brought an utter destruction upon the whole world; there were but eight persons left in it: when it was overflown with these sins, it came then to be overflown with water.  
For some of these sins God brought such a fearful destruction upon Sodom, and Gomorrah, that he made all that country a proverb of reproach: When God is pleased to threaten utter destruction, he saith, he will destroy it as he did Sodom and Gomorrah.  
For this sin of Idolatry, 2 King. 21.3. God threatens that he will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, and turneth it upside down, when he hath wiped it. In Ezek. 21.27. he threatneth Jerusalem, that he will overturn it, and overturn it, and overturn it; three times: and three times you may say that Jerusalem was overturned.  
It was overturned once by the Babylonian army, under Nebuchadnezar.  
It was overturned a second time by the Roman army, under Titus Vespasian.  
And then the very ruins of it afterward were so overturned by Elius Adrian the Emperor, the very carcase of that City; for Titus left it but like a carcase, it was so torn and tortured. The carcase of Jezabell was eaten so with dogs, that men could not say, This is Jezabell; so the carcase of this City was so torn, that, had it not been for a turret or two, and a piece of a wall that they would have stand, a man could not have said, This was Jerusalem.  
Idolatry was first established in the Eastern parts of the world: I pray look what miserable destruction God brought upon those Eastern parts. Where are now those golden Churches of Asia? Where are those learned Churches of Greece? As Pius Secundus once said, A man may look for Greece in Greece now, and not find it: they are all drowned in Turkism and infidelity, for this sin of Idolatry. I will go no further in examples.  
In Levit. 18. God reckons up the sins of the people that lived in the land of Canaan before he brought his people to it; and he reckons all those sins that I named to you now: some directly against God, some directly against nature, some directly against humane society. Then he warns his people v. 25. & 28. to take heed; Take heed that you defile not yourselves, and the land, with those sins wherewith the Gentiles did defile it: mark the reason, lest (quoth he) the land spew you out, as it did the inhabitants before you. A homely phrase, you will say: It is so; yet, it is a phrase observable. As it is with a man that hath his stomach overcharged with some meat that he hath eaten, he never is at rest and quiet till he have cast up that meat that offends his stomach: so is it with a land that is overcharged with sins of this nature, it is never at rest; it is still working, and working; as a man's stomach is never at rest, till it have eased itself by vomiting, and have cast out those inhabitants that have defiled it.  
It pleaseth the Spirit of God to use the same phrase in Rev. 3.16. saith God to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus; Thou art neither hot nor cold, but luke warm, I will spew thee out of my mouth. I will cast thee out with loathing and indignation.  
God is a merciful God, and his mercy is over all his works; but when sin once grows to be horrible, God can no more forget that he is just, than he can forget that he is merciful: he must needs pay it, and pay it home in the end with vengeance. God may be provoked too fare, and patience, when it is too fare abused, will turn to fury.  
When I consider the manifold sins, under the burden where of this Land groans, and I name that first which I named last; our luke warmness, our neutrality in Religion, our halting between God and Baal, together with our unmerciful oppressions, and our over-mercifull connivance at the vile dishonour to the Name of God: I do not wonder, brethren, that God hath denied to us, this year, his accustomed plentiful blessing in our corne-fields. I do not wonder that he hath sent to us divers times such unseasonable seasons. I wonder not at the murrain of cattles in many places of this Kingdom. I wonder not that the arrows of pestilence flee abroad to so many corners of the Kingdom, that the venom of them drinks up the spirits of so many hundreds in several places. I wonder not at our mutual Jealousies and discontents (peradventure, forerunners of heavier judgements) I wonder at the mercy of God, considering what a sinful Nation we be, a Nation laden with sins; a Nation that walk, most unworthy of those high favours that God hath vouchsafed us; I wonder, I say, at God's mercy, that hath spared us thus long: It is his mercy, that we are not all consumed. It is his mercy, that God blots not out our names from under heaven. Pradventure, there be some Moseses in the land, some chosen servants of God, some that have stood in the gap to keep this judgement from us. That is the first point.  
I come now to the second; He said, he would destroy them (saith the text;) then Moses his chosen stood in the breach, and kept away his fierce wrath, that he should not destroy them.  
Here are three things observable:  
First, that a sentence of extirpation, pronounced against a people, is revoked; God said that he would destroy them, yet he doth it not.  
A second thing that one man, Moses, (indeed a chosen man) Moses whom he had chosen, procures this revocation of this sentence against this whole people.  
A third thing is, the means by which Moses came to get this sentence revoked, and that was this, he stood in the breach. God, like an enemy, had made a breach in the wall, and Moses he runs to that breach, and there stays God, that he should not destroy them.  
I am afraid time will not give me leave to go through all these, I will go as fare as I can, and leave the rest till the next day; they are not things that are to be hastily passed over.  
The first is, that the sentence is revoked;  
He said that he would destroy them.  
[He said it.] If a man had said it, I should not then have wondered, that it should have been revoked. A man may say a thing and never mean it; Man is deceitful upon the weight, lighter than vanity itself.  
Or, secondly, a man may say a thing, and mean it, and yet not be able to make it good: as Senacherib used great and big words against Jerusalem, what he would do; and he meant it, surely, for he came with a mighty army against it: but God put a hook in his nostrils, and a bridle into his lips, and brought him back again that same way that he came; he was not able to shoot an arrow against it.  
Thirdly, a man may say a thing, and mean it, and have power in his hand to do it; but his mind may be altere, he may repent of what he hath said: as you see of David, he said he would not leave a man alive in Nabals' house, to make water against the wall: surely, he meant it too, and had power in his hand to do it; but, by the wisdom of Abigail, he was persuaded to turn, and alter his mind; he did not do it. If a man had said this, I say, I should not have wondered: But that God, that is the prime truth, the prime essential truth, upon whom all truth depends; He that is light, in whom is no darkness at all; he that is truth, in whom there is no falsehood at all: none actually, he cannot deceive us; none passively, he cannot be deceived himself, that he should say, and should not do it when he hath said it: for, as that Wizard Balaam, said truly, God is not as man, that he should lie; or as the son of man, that he should repent. Hath God said it, and shall he not do it, saith he? Hath the word come out of God's mouth, and shall he not make it good? I will urge the objection no further.  
But I answer it, and with the words of Gregory; Deus mutare sententiam, etc. God knows how to change a sentence pronounced against a people, but God knows not how to change his counsel. The counsel of God; that is, what God in his secret counsel hath decreed and determined from all eternity, that shall be fulfilled in the season, in the substance, yea, in every circumstance. God knows not how to change his counsel; the counsel of God is as immutable as God himself: There is no variableness, with God, (saith S. James) nor shadow of change c. 1.18. Mutability, is a kind of mortality: It is as possible for God to be mortal, as to be mutable. The counsel of God is immutable, God knows not how to change that, but God knows how to change a sentence pronounced. You shall see it in many examples: God tells. Abimelech in a dream; Surely thou art a dead man, for this woman that thou hast in thine house; yet, no sooner had Abimelech restored the woman, but God's sentence was changed, his life spared. In Judg. 10. the people were oppressed by the Philistines, and by the Ammonites; they come to God for help: God tells them, No (saith he) I have delivered you heretofore; when you cried to me I delivered you, but you have gone and served other gods: go, get you to those gods, let them deliver you; as for me, I will deliver you no more. A fearful sentence; yet, presently upon their repentance, God delivered them, and many times afterward.  
Ezechiah was sick to death, and God sends him a message by Isaiah, Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die. Ezechiah turns his face to the wall, and weeps; God revokes his sentence, and he adds fifteen years more to his days. God sends a fearful message by the mouth of Jonah to the Ninevites, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed; yet, for all that forty, and forty, and almost forty more, not days, but years, passed over the heads of the Ninevites, before that City of theirs was lodged in blood.  
Why, but will some say, how can this stand, though with the constancy and unchangeableness of God's nature, yet with his truth, thus to change, and revoke his sentence?  
Not to trouble you with the opinions of some men: let me only hold to this, That these same comminations, and threaten of God, are not absolute, but they are conditional; they are upon a condition: Now a condition (as the Schoolmen say) a conditional threatening, a conditional commination, it doth turn itself upon the condition this way, or that way, as the door doth upon the hinges.  
Let me make it a little plainer if I can; When God doth threaten that he will root out a people, as he did here now; or to bring such and such judgements upon a people, he doth it usually upon a twofold condition. When God doth so threaten a people, he requires two things from that people:  
The first is at the hands of wicked men, that is, that they shall all turn away from their sins, repent of their sins; and then the sentence is changed. Look Jerem. 18. ver. 6, 7, 8. If I shall speak to a Nation, to pluck it up, and to root it out, to destroy it; if that Kingdom, and that Nation shall turn from their evil ways, and repent; then (saith God) I will repent of that evil that I threatened to do against them. The sentence is absolute, to the end it may strike a further fear and terror. The sentence is propounded absolutely, but intended conditionally. Though God doth not change his will, yet God doth will a change. If we know how to change our lives, God knows how to change his sentence. That is the first thing that he requires.  
The second thing that God looks for at the hands of his children, is, an earnest, and vehement intercession to God by prayer for pardon. That was the condition he looked for here at this time: He said, he would destroy this people; but it was with this condition, he would not destroy them, if Moses made intercession for them.  
Yea, and he would encourage Moses; he did as much as tell Moses, that this was the means whereby he might be stayed. And he would encourage Moses to make intercession, by his words; Moses (saith he) let me alone, and let me destroy this people. Why doth he say, let me alone? What is that, but because he would have him be bold? O Moses, you see what power you have with me, I cannot strike this people if you make intercession (he knew Moses his love to this people) therefore, let me alone, that I may destroy them.  
I must conclude with the time, and with an application.  
There is a fatal period set to all the Kingdoms of the earth, sooner or later, according as the sins of that Kingdom and people come to their full ripeness and maturity. Both Philosophers, and Divines have observed, by long experience, divers prognostic signs of the approach of the ruin of a people: If God should seem, by any of these prognostic signs, to threaten our ruin and destruction at this time; if God doth seem to any to do this, let them know, it may be that this threatening of God now is but conditional. There are two ways by which we may get God to revoke, and call back his word. One is, by true repentance from wicked men; and, the other is an earnest intercession made by God's children. O, brethren, that we did but know, in this our day, what belongs now to our peace. O, that we could do, as the Ninevites did, every one humble himself before God, and turn from the wickedness of his ways! And, O, that Moses would run to the breach, and now with strong cries and tears, beg pardon! for who doth know whether the Lord will not yet be merciful to us, and turn his fierce wrath from us, that we perish not? I have gone thorough the first thing, the revocation of the sentence: Who caused it? Moses; And by what means? By standing in the breach. I must leave till next time.  
FINIS.   
PSAL. 106.23. 
Wherefore he said, he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood in the breach, etc.  
I Spoke the last day of the revocation of this sentence. I come now to the next thing, Who caused the revocation of this sentence: but one man, Moses; but he was a chosen man.  
[Moses whom he had chosen.]  
Mark, I pray, among Gods elect in every generation, in every age, there have been some men that have been select. Such a man I name Enoch in the old world, that God took away hence, that he should not see death: And such a man I reckon Noah to be, a man gracious in the eyes of God, when all the world perished. And such a man I reckon Abraham to be, whom God is pleased to honour with the name of his Friend, Abraham my Friend: And such a man was Moses, whom God was wont to talk with, as familiarly as one man talks with another, as the Scripture saith: And such men I reck on Eliah, and Elisha to be, the very Chariots and Horsemen of Israel in their days: And such a man was Daniel, a man of God's affection, a man that God did wondrously love, and set by; and many more. These are as dear to God, as the apple of his own eye, as the signet upon his right hand: these I call the Favourites of heaven.  
Kings upon earth have their Favourites; the King of Kings hath his. These are the Favourites of heaven; these are those principal men: Micah 5. v. 5. The Princes of men. The hebrew bears it, Principal men. These are those Excellent ones upon earth, that David speaks of, Psal. 16. My delight is upon the Excellent ones that are upon the earth. There is not one of these but are worth a thousand others, and have more power with God, than many thousands of others: And, as the people said of David, when he would go to battle against Absolom; No, thou shalt not go, lest the light of Israel be quenched: for thou art worth ten thousand of us. I may say the same of such as these: One Moses in the day of God's hot wrath and vengeance; one such a man as Phineas was in the time of a plague; One such a man as Eliah was in the time of a drought; One such a man as Paul in the company when men are in a shipwreck, is able to do more good than a thousand others.  
God's children, they are not always mighty men according to the flesh; Not many mighty, saith the Apostle, not many mighty ones according to the flesh, 1 Cor. 1.6. But, though they be not always mighty according to the flesh; yet, in regard of their spirit and grace, and their state with God, they may be mighty men. Saint John Baptist, a contemptible man according to the flesh; but the Angel foretell of him, that he should be great in the sight of the Lord.  
You have some men that have prided themselves in the surname of Great; Antiochus the Great, and Alexander the Great, and Herod the Great, and Pompey the Great, and divers others. There be many of God's children poor, contemptible things, Ignobilia mundi, the contemptible things of the world; that are greater men with God, and have done greater acts, than the greatest of these great ones.  
Which of all those great ones was able to command the sun to stand still? Josuah did it; Sun, stand thou still in Gibeon, and thou Moon in the valley of Ajalon. Which of all those great ones was able to command the thunder? Samuel did it in the time of wheat-harvest. Which of all those great ones was able to command the rain? Eliah did it: As the Lord God of Israel liveth, there shall be no rain, but according to my word, 1 King. 17. verse 1. Which of all those great ones was able to stand in the breach against the great God of heaven and earth, when he came to execute his fierce wrath upon his people? you see Moses did it. If one Moses may cause a revocation of a fearful sentence against a whole Nation, what may a multitude of Gods chosen one's do, uniting their forces, and soliciting heaven for mercy?  
I know, beloved brethren, what opinion the world hath of God's children, of Gods chosen one's: they do not only think them to be contemptible things, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the Apostle speaks, the very filth of the world, and the offscouring of all things unto this day: Men of no name, as Job saith; Nay, men of no being: Those things that are not, saith the Apostle. They may have a being in nature; but they have no being in the esteem and account of men, those things that are not.  
And they not only think them thus, but (besides) the only troublesome, dangerous men in a state. Ahab took Eliah to be the man that troubled all Israel. The men of Thessalonica took Jason, and the brethren in his house, to be the men that turned the world upside down, as they speak Acts 17. ver. 5. Tertullus accuseth Paul to be a pestilent fellow; nay, it is somewhat worse in the Greek, it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the abstract, the pestilence itself, a plague, one that moved sedition thorough the world where he came, Acts 24.  
In the first ages of the Church, if either Tiber at any time did flow above the accustomed height, or Nilus did not flow to the accustomed height; if either there were famine, or pestilence in the land, or any calamity, they laid all the fault upon the Christians: the Christians were in the fault, away with the Christians, to the lions with them; as though they were men not worthy to live in the world. Yet harken, I pray, what the Apostle saith for all that, in Hebrew. 11. ver. 38. The world was not worthy of them. He speaks of some men that wandered up and down in sheepskins, and goatskins, destitute, afflicted, tormented; yet the world was not worthy of them. Why not worthy? These men bring blessings to the places where they come, they bring blessings to the world; the world is not worthy of these blessings, therefore not worthy of the men that procured them.  
And what blessings (will you say) do Gods children bring to a place?  
I tell you, they bring a blessing with their very presence, their very presence is a blessing. The presence of Jacob was a blessing in the house of Laban. The very presence of Joseph was a blessing in the house of Potiphar. And what a blessing was in the widow of Zarephath's house, when Eliah was there?  
Then they procure a blessing with their prayers where they come: 
Jam. 5.16.  The prayer of a faithful man prevails much with God. God promised this to Abimelech as a great favour; 
Gen. 20.5.  My servant Abraham shall pray for thee. And the like favour is promised to the three friends of Job; Go, (saith God, to those three men, Job's friends,) go every one of you offer a  offering, seven bullocks, and seven lambs for a  offering, and my servant Job shall pray for you, Job ult. 8.  
Thirdly, they procure blessings by their good example of life, because they shine as stars among a wicked and froward generation.  
Yea, and they procure this blessing, not only to private houses, as Jacob did to the house of Laban, and Joseph to the house of Potiphar; but to the whole society, to all that are in the company. There were in the ship with Paul two hundred seventy and six souls in a mighty shipwreck: not one of those men perished, not a hair fell from the head of any one of them; and all for Paul's sake. They bring a blessing to the whole company that is with them.  
Nay, further, they bring a blessing to a whole City where they be: Run to and fro (saith the Lord to the Prophet) in the streets of Jerusalem, and see if you can find a man that will execute judgement, and speak the truth, and I will spare the City for his sake, Jer. 5.1. If there had been but ten men in Sodom righteous, it had not been destroyed: there was but one righteous man found there, and God could do nothing to Sodom till he was out of it; Get thee gone (saith the Angel to Lot) I can do nothing till thou be gone.  
Nay, further, they do good to the whole country wherein they live. We are not in a continent here, we live in an Island: And harken what Eliphaz the Temanite saith, according to our former translation (our new somewhat varies, but the words will bear as well the one as the other) The righteous shall deliver the Island, and it shall be delivered through the uprightness of his hands, Job 22. ult.  
Nay, I will go further, The children of God are not the men that turn the world upside down, they are the men that keep it upright. Were it not for the Elect in the world, God would soon turn it upside down. It is for the Elects sake that he keeps it up: as soon as the Elect are gathered together, the world will be at an end.  
Let me make use of it, and I have done. Doth God for the righteous sake show favour to the wicked; me thinks, the wicked for their own sakes should show favour to the righteous. If Moses were gone, and the wrath of God begin to burn like fire against us, who should run to the gap, and to the breach?  
If Aaron were gone, and the plague should wax hot among us, who should run with his censer, and stand between the living and the dead, and make atonement for us?  
If war should be in the land, and if the Chariots and Horsemen of Israel were gone, who should fight for us?  
A fearful presage of an utter destruction, (and was ever held so) is the untimely end of many eminent persons in the Church or Commonwealth; a fearful presage. Methuselah, if you mark the story, did live to the very six hundredth year of Noah's life, and in the second month of that six hundredth year the Flood came: Methuselah was but new dead, and, as soon as Methuselah was dead, God sent the Flood. As soon as Josiah, that good King, was slain, then came that miserable captivity. Esay chap. 57 ver. 1. The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart, and good men are taken away. Why? from the evil that is to come. Mark that, from the evil that is to come. God takes those away, those would hinder him, those would run to the breach, those would stay divine justice from proceeding further; he takes them away. Let me conclude this point: You have had here one work of Moses; let me tell you of another in another history. In the 17th. of Exodus, there was war between Israel and Amalek; Moses he gate up on the hill, and held his hands to God in prayer: As long as Moses his hands were held up, Israel prevailed; when Moses his hands grew faint, come Aaron and Hur, one on the one hand, and the other on the other, and hold up his hands, and prop them up, that they might not be weary. Brethren, we should all be holding up our hands to God for mercy. If thou, out of conscience of thine own unworthiness, thinkest surely that God will not regard the holding up of thine hands; he will never have an eye to thine hands when thou holdest them up; yet do as Aaron and Hur, hold up the hands of them, whose hands thou thinkest God will respect. If thou canst not act Moses his part, act Aaron's and Hurs'.  
Alas! the hands of God's children are faint, they are discouraged, their knees are feeble with prayer: O, encourage them, lift up their hands, it may be God will yet hear their prayers, and show mercy to them. Thus much shall serve for the first point: It was Moses that got the sentence revoked.  
I come to the other, the means by which he got it revoked, he stands in the breach; had not Moses his chosen stood in the breach.  
A military phrase, a phrase taken from the wars. If a City be besieged, and if the enemy without, by a ram, or any other warlike Engine, hath made a breach in the wall; all that are men of courage and valour run to the wall, run to the breach, and strive by all means possible to keep the enemy from entering in at that breach chat he hath made.  
This fearful sin of the people had made a breach, by which divine justice might have entered, and have brought an utter destruction upon them all: Moses runs to the breach, and sets himself between God and the people, that God should not proceed further to their destruction.  
Now, you must note, he stood in the breach two ways:  
First, by a due execution of justice.  
And then by an earnest, importunate intercession for mercy.  
First, I say, by the execution of justice. Doth the wrath of God at any time burn like fire against a sinful people? There are two things whereby it may be quenched; A man may quench the wrath of God in regard of any temporal calamity, the fire of God's wrath, with two things, two liquors:  
The one is blood.  
The other is tears.  
The blood I mean, is the blood of malefactors, principal malefactors, that shall be shed with the sword of justice.  
The tears I speak of, are such tears as are shed by principal men, by the Favourites of heaven in their prayers for mercy. Moses doth both; he pleads God's cause here against the people, and he pleads the people's again with God.  
First, Causam Dei apud populum gladio, he pleads God's cause against the people with a sword of justice; he pleads the people's cause against God with tears, and prayers: in both he shows himself a zealous Magistrate; and I cannot tell whether he show himself more zealous to the glory of God in the one, or more zealous of the people's good in the other.  
For the first, his execution of justice. There is a way to stand in the breach. Moses is said to be the mildest man that was upon the earth; but, I pray, mark what this mild man did, when he saw the glory of God bestowed upon a base, filthy, inglorious abomination. First he comes from the Mount, and brings the Tables of God in his hand, and casts down the Tables, and breaks them; I do not think he did it through impotency of passion: Mark his words, Deuteronom. 9 ver. 17. me thinks, he did it advisedly; but with some secret warrant from God. He saw the people had broken the Covenant, and he, before their eyes, breaks the Tables of the Covenant, the most precious monument that ever the world had. This was the first thing he did.  
He stays not here, he goes to the Calf, the sin that they had made (as he calls it) he takes it, and breaks it to pieces, stamps it to powder, he beats it as small as dust and casts it into the brook, and makes them drink the water of it; these are the Gods that shall go before them. Let them look their god in their urine.  
He is not yet content, but cries, Who is on the Lord's side? And the Tribe of Levi come, and gird their swords on their sides, and run from one side of the camp to the other, and slay every man his brother, and every man his Father, and every man his companion. They slew at that time three thousand, and with the blood of these three thousand he slacked the wrath of God. The sons of Levi never offered a sacrifice of the flesh of beasts, that was a sacrifice of so sweet a smelling favour in the nostrils of God, as this sacrifice of their brethren.  
When a sin is committed, wherewith earth is annoyed, and heaven provoked, the justice of God sets out presently against that sin; but goes on slowly, very slowly: he will see whether man's justice will follow after it, or no; if man's justice overtake it, God's justice pursues it no further, there is an end.  
There may be easily an unmerciful cruelty in the shedding of blood, and there may be an over-cruell mercy in the sparing of it. Jonah was no sooner cast out of the ship, but the sea was quiet. Achan, and his family were no sooner stoned to death, and burned with fire, but Israel prevailed. The sons of Saul were no sooner hanged, but the famine ceased. Phineas stood up, and executed judgement, and the plague was stayed, in verse 30. of this Psalm. As soon as this blood of three thousand men, that were principal offenders in this Idolatry, as soon as that was shed, as soon as that blood was thrown upon the fire of God's wrath, the fire slacked presently.  
But yet it was not quenched till his prayer came. There is the second way, his prayer; 
Jam. 5.16.  The prayer of a righteous man prevaileth much, if it be fervent. Can you find a more fervent prayer than this that Moses made for this people? Mark the prayer, you shall find it Exodus 32. where this story is set down.  
First he puts God in mind of his propriety in this people, It was thy people, O God, etc. God before called them Moses his people, as you may perceive, when God bids him go down; Go down, for thy people that thou hast brought out of Egypt, etc. Moses disclaims them, as if he should say, Lord, they are none of my people, they are thy people: Wilt thou lose any thing that is thine? There is his first argument.  
His second argument is from God's great works; Lord, thou hast brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand. We love not to lose our former benefits; our former benefits are lost, if they be not seconded with new: Lord, wilt thou lose thy former favours done to this people?  
The third argument is, he puts God in mind of his glory; Lord, what will the Egyptians say? Thou hast brought them forth with a mighty hand, and an outstretched arm. Why is it? To kill them in the mountains? To consume them from the earth? Lord, how will thy glory be eclipsed?  
Then, fourthly, he puts him in mind of their progenitors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: Lord, these be the children of those Fathers; Didst thou love the tree, and wilt thou cast away the fruit? Didst thou love the Fathers, and wilt thou cast away the children?  
Then another is from the promise of God, confirmed with oaths: thou swarest to them that thou wouldst give them the Land; shall not thy promise hold? Not thy promise confirmed with oaths? Here is his pleading for the people: as before you heard how he pleaded God's cause with the sword, yea, how earnestly he pleaded God's cause, in that very day that he broke the Calf. Yet, notwithstanding all this, the good man feared: though God might repent of the evil; yet, it may be, he will not be thoroughly reconciled to the people, there will not be a thorough reconciliation; therefore he goes to God again, Lord (quoth he) If thou wilt pardon this people! It was a vehement pathos; If thou wilt pardon it! he saith no more: but, if thou wilt not, put me out of the book of life. So desirous was he of God's glory, together with the salvation of the people, that he was careless of the salvation of his own soul; Lord, either forgive them, or blot me out of the book of life. Here is a vehement prayer, and with this he slacks the wrath of God, & quencheth it. It was slacked with the blood that he cast on it, it was quenched with the tears.  
We read of many more in Scripture that stood in the breach; Samuel; God is wont by Jeremy to join him and Moses together, If Moses and Samuel stood before me. Then Ezekiel stood in the breach another time: Josiah, another time. And, not to heap other examples, God complains, Ezek. 13.5. that the Prophets would not stand in the breach, the false Prophets. But there is an excellent place, worth your observation, in Ezek. 22. ver. 30. God had spoken of the sins of the people thorough that Chapter, and shown how those sins had made way for Divine justice to break in among them: Then, in verse 30. mark what he saith; I sought for a man among them that would make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that it should not be destroyed: I found none: see, I sought for a man.  
When our sins have opened such a gap, whereby divine justice may come in to the destruction of a whole land; then God looks for a man, he looks about to see if he can find a man that will come and stand in the gap, to keep him that he might not destroy them. Brethren, he that doth not see what a wide gap, what a wide breach the manifold sins of this land have made, whereby divine justice may break in, and hath begun to break in already; he that sees not this gap, this breach, sees nothing. I pray you, brethren, do but remembet, Did not God, a few years ago, make us turn our backs twice or thrice upon our enemies? Did he not make us a very derision, and scorn to them that are round about us? Doth not God come in now among us, as the Prophet Habakuk shows his manner of coming, when he comes to judgement; to wit, with the pestilence before him, and burning coals going forth at his feet? Hab. 3. verse 5. Do you not see, beloved brethren, what a number of new upstart heresies there be in the world? It bodes no good, surely; new heresies broached every day, and old heresies renewed. Do you not see what miserable rents and schisms there be in the Church, while some hold of Paul, some of Apollo, some of Cephas, some of all of them, and some of none of them? Do you not see the aspect one upon another, is like the aspect of malignant planets? Is not Christ divided? Then do you not see what jealousies and discontents there are in the secular state? Brethren, surely God is looking for a man to come to the breach.  
Help, men, fathers, and brethren, come to this breach; help, Magistrates: it is not enough for you to look upon our miseries, though with tears in your eyes, unless your hands be put to the redress of it. Are there no houses of correction for these vagrant persons that live under no Magistracy, under no Ministry? Have you no carts for bawds? No whips for harlots? No pecuniary mulcts for others? No punishments for transgressors?  
It is for us too, that are Ministers, to run to this breach. If ever we did preach with power, and evidence, and demonstration, not of nature, or art, but of grace, and of the spirit, it is time for us now to preach, and to preach again, in season, and out of season. O, that we could be Boanerges, sons of thunder, and cry down those sins that cry for vengeance. And harken, Masters, Fathers, and Governors of families, run to the breach. In cleansing of the City, if every man sweep before his own door, the streets will be kept clean. Why do you suffer revelling, and swearing, and quarrelling, and drinking in your families? Your houses should be Churches for God. Where be your old exercises of Religion in your households? Where be your prayers, and your reading of Scriptures, and your singing of Psalms? Where is your catechising? I say no more, but, high and low, rich and poor, let us all run to the breach, by earnest intercession to God privately, by continual tears of repentance. I conclude now as I did the last day, Who knows yet whether the Lord will have mercy on us, and turn from his fierce wrath, that we perish not?  
FINIS.   
PSAL. 106.24,25, etc. 
Yea, they despised the pleasant land; they believed not his Word:  
But murmured in their tents, and harkened not unto the voice of the LORD, etc.  
WE have two things in the Text:  
The sins of the people.  
And their punishment.  
The sins of the people are set down in the two former verses.  
And the punishment in the two later.  
Their sins are four:  
The first is, their unthankfulness, in despising the pleasant land; They despised the pleasant land.  
The second is, their infidelity, that was the cause of that same unthankful despising of the land; They did not believe his Word.  
The third sin was their accustomed sin of murmuring; They murmured in their tents.  
The fourth sin was their rebellion and disobedience; They harkened not to the voice of the Lord. They despised the pleasant land; they believed not his Word; they murmured in their tents; they harkened not to the voice of the Lord.  
You see their sin, see their punishment. The Lord threatens that he will punish them for this; you heard before my Text, The Lord said, he would destroy them: Now, he swears it, He lift up his hand against them. The lifting up of the hand was a ceremony among them, used in swearing; and God is said to do it, to lift up his hand when he swears. He swore against them now.  
And what did he swear? He swore he would punish them. Punish them in their own persons; he would punish them thus, He would overthrow them in the wilderness: And he would punish them in their seed; He would overthrow their seed among the Nations, and scatter them in the land: Therefore he lift up his hand against them. There was his swearing, that he would overthrow them in the wilderness, and overthrow their seed also among the Nations, and scatter them in the land. Now you see the whole Text what it contains.  
But I cannot give you a perfect understanding of this, nor gather such doctrines out of it, as the words will naturally afford to us, except I first make known to you the history at large that is here epitomised. This is the Epitome of an history; the history is set out at large, and I must declare that to you. I pray hear an historical narration first, to make way to the Text. This history, here epitomised, is set down at large in Numbers 13. and 14. I pray, at home, read over those two Chapters, and compare with them, when you read them, the first Chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, beginning at ver. 19 and so to the end of that Chapter; you shall find many observable circumstances of this history, that you shall not find out of the book of Numbers. Give me leave to tell you all the whole history, how it is out of all these places together: It was thus; Let me show you first, that, three months after the people of Israel came out of Egypt, they came to Mount Horeb, or Mount Sinai; for it was called sometime by the one name, and sometime by the other: It was the same mountain in the root, it had two tops, as I shown you. They came there the third month after their coming out of the land of Egypt; there they continued for the space almost of one whole year, for they went away from thence again upon the twentieth day of the second month of the second year. Almost a whole twelvemonth they were at Mount Horeb: at Mount Sinai, as soon as they came there, God called Moses to him, Moses goes up to the Mount, there God gives the Law in fearful manner. Moses abode with God in the Mount forty days: In that time the children of Israel committed that Idolatry which you heard of; they made a golden calf, and worshipped the Image. For that, God said he would destroy them: Moses stood in the breach, in the gap, and turns away God's wrath, that he should not destroy them. Then Moses goes up again to the Mount, and tarries forty days, and forty nights longer; he comes down again, and gives them the Ceremonial Law, and the Judicial; framed the Tabernacle, and all the vessels appertaining to it; sets the people in their march, shows them how they should march in the wilderness towards the land of Promise. This was all done in that year. And let me observe this to you: In every place where they came, you shall find some extraordinary example of God's judgements on them. Before they came to Mount Horeb, before the Law was given, God bore with them much; but after he had given them the Law, he would not bear with them. They removed from Horeb, and came to Taberah: there some of them fall a murmuring; they were burned. Then they removed to another place, to Kebroth-Hattana, the grave of lust, that was the place where they fell a lusting for quails, for flesh: there God destroyed the wealthiest, the best of them, with the very meat in their mouths. Then they removed to Hazeron, there Miriam was smitten with leprosy for her ill tongue against Moses. Thence they removed to Cadesh-Barnea; now Cadesh-Barnea was upon the very borders of the land of Promise that God would give them; they were now upon the very entrance of the land, inasmuch as Moses tells the people, that now you are come to the land that God hath sworn to give to your Fathers, now go your ways in, and possess the land.  
The people would seem to be a little wiser, and more circumspect than Moses was; they would have Moses go send spies, first to the land, to see the goodness thereof. The thing pleased Moses well; Moses saith so, Deut. 1. The thing pleased me well to do this. He goes and acquaints God with it, and he permits it. Well, he sends the spies into the land; the spies were twelve chosen (commonly when we choose spies to send to a country, we choose men of mean condition) Moses did not so, he would have them choice men, that the eminency of their place, might give credit to their testimony of the land. Out of the twelve Tribes he chose twelve men; a principal man out of every Tribe, to view the land. Of these twelve, Caleb, the son of Jephunneh was one; he was forty years old then, he went for the Tribe of Judah: and Josuah the son of Nun, Moses his servant, was another; and went as a principal man of the house of Ephraim: you shall find the names of all the rest; these two I name, the cause you shall hear anon. These twelve spies were sent to go and see what the land was, and what the people of the land were; they were to give them these instructions:  
First, from the land, they must see whether it were good or bad, whether it were a wholesome or an unwholesome land.  
Then they must see again whether it were a fat or a lean land, a fertile or a barren land.  
And then whether it bore trees or no: there were no trees in the desert where they were, and this was near it; they must see if it bore trees. This for the land.  
Then for the people of the land, they were to give them these instructions; they must see whether they were many or few, whether they were strong or weak: then, whether they dwelled in tents, or in cities, and towns. And then, if they dwelled in cities, whether their cities were walled or no, what fortifications they had: these things pleased Moses well. And, in very deed, prudent policy is allowed us in the execution of that that God gives us in charge, so as it be not mixed with unbelief. I believe, that this policy of theirs was mixed with a great deal of cowardice and unbelief.  
Thus the men go, they view the land, they were forty days in viewing it, they return again, they bring with them such a branch of a vine as hath not been heard of, such a cluster of grapes, that two men were feign to bring it upon a staff, upon a bar between them; such a mighty cluster of grapes this was. They bring with them also pomegranates and figs, that they might see the fruit of the land. Well, they come, they make an account of this journey of theirs. They all agree in this, the land was a wondrous good land, a marvellous pleasant land, as my text calls it here, a wondrous pleasant land; they all agree in that. And Caleb and Josua, those two, they encourage them, and say it is no more, but, arise, come, let us possess it. They were full of faith; Caleb, his name signifies hearty, a hearty man full of courage: Come (quoth he) let us go up, and possess it the land is worth our labour. The other ten spies (white liver'd men) they tell another tale: they begin with a commendation of the land; It could not be denied, it was a good land, a land that flowed with milk and honey, as God told them; that was very true. But commonly when a man will deprave, when he will calumniate, he gins his calumniation with a commendation, and he comes in with a But: As when we commend a man, O, he is a good man, a very good man, a good neighbour; but— and then he goes on: Like as we read of Naaman the Assyrian, a great man, an honourable man, a mighty man at arms, one. that had done great acts; but, he was a leper. Even as the Papists, they commend the Scripture, O, it is an excellent book, the book of Scripture; It was written by the Spirit of God, holy Penmen, of holy matters, in a holy stile, to an holy end; O, it is a good book; but, it is a hard book, it is difficult, there are great mysteries in it, it is impossible for Laymen to attain to it, it is good to keep them from it; Ignorance is the mother of devotion. Even thus do the spies: It is a good land, O, a very good land, it flows with milk and honey, there wants nothing you can desire, you see the fruit of it; but, it is hard coming to it, there is great difficulty, I tell you, it is impossible to come to it. Why, what was the matter? First of all, the men we found in the land were the sons of Anak, Giants, men of mighty stature; their height was as the height of Cedars, and their strength as the strength of Oaks, as the Prophet speaks of the Amorites; A mighty people, they are Giants, we are but like grasshoppers in their sight; they took us as grasshoppers, they may tread us down at their pleasure.  
And then again, these men dwell in cities, and these cities are walled; yea, and to make it the more terrible, they are walled up to heaven: thus they say in Deuteronomy, chap. 1. Their Cities are walled up to heaven: there is no scaling of them.  
Then besides, say they, it is such a land as devours the Inhabitants of it; it eats out the Inhabitants. How is that? It is hard to say their meaning; Some think thus, there were pestilential vapours there, that caused the pestilence among them, that they died upon heaps.  
Some think they were at civil wars one among another.  
Or, peradventure, it will eat out the heart of the husband man in the tillage of it: with strong labour they must toil, and work hard if they will have their living. Somewhat it was; but they bring an ill name, an ill report upon the land, as the Scripture saith. Never seek to get this land, it is impossible, the men are so great, and the walls are so high, and it is such a land as eats out the Inhabitants.  
The people they hear this, and first they fall to their old weeping, as they did before, for meat, for flesh: they fell a weeping all that night; there was nothing but weeping to hear this. Well, the next day they fall to murmuring in their tents. If they had wept for their sin of infidelity, it had been well; but, in their mourning, they fall a murmuring:  
First, against God; for, when God promised to give them this land out of his love: Because I loved your Fathers, therefore I gave you the land; the people turn it the other way; No, God did it out of his hatred: thus they say in Deut. God hated us, therefore he brought us out of Egypt, to kill us here.  
Then they fall a murmuring against Moses; What, were it not better to have died in Egypt? Were there no graves in Egypt? Were it not better to die in the wilderness, then to go in and die there? They wish to die for fear of death, they wish themselves dead for fear they should die.  
Then they go a little further, they will (forsooth) choose a new Captain, and go back into Egypt; they will not go into the pleasant land; they will choose an Elect one, and back they will go, and they will not go in there. Mases and Aaron fall upon their faces and entreat them, and Caleb and Josua encourage them; this land may be gotten, the Lord delivered us from the Amalekites, and he will deliver us from the Amorites; the Lord hath slain the Egyptians, and cannot he slay the Anakims? No, by no means; they took up stones, and would have stoned Caleb and Josua: had not the glory of God appeared upon the Tabernacle, God knows what they would have done. Upon that they stayed, than they knew God's displeasure; then God swears, of all these people that came out of the land of Egypt (and there were six hundred thousand men, that were twenty years old and upward) not one man of them should enter into the land of Promise; they shall all of them, since they wish they might die in the wilderness, they shall die every one of them; and he commands them to go back again, he carries them to the red-sea, he makes them wander thirty eight years and an half more in the wilderness: and, in that time, all that generation was worn out. He gave it to their seed, but not one man of them did come into the land of Promise, but those two, Caleb and Josua. Now you may see what the meaning of my Text is; They despised the pleasant land. When they heard they could not have it without some bloodshed, they will none of it: They despised the pleasant land, and would not believe his Word. The spies told them one thing, that they could not get it; and God said they should have it: they took man's word rather than Gods: They would not believe his word. Then mark how my Text goes on, than they murmured in their tents. First they murmured against God; It is out of his hatred that he doth it. Then against Moses; Why have you brought us to die here?  
Then, last of all, they utterly refuse to go to this land. But, as it is in the story, when they saw that God had sworn, that not a man of them should come in, than all in haste they would go: God bids them go, and then they say, No. Then he saith, See you go not: for, if you do, surely, you shall be made a spoil to them; yet, for all that, they would go; and they were made a spoil to their enemies, a number of them fell by the sword.  
Now, I have told you this whole history, you shall the better observe out of these words such points as they shall naturally afford to us.  
I begin first with the first sin, their despising of the pleasant land.  
They contemptuously despised, so the word signifies; they contemptuously despised the pleasant land. This same sin of theirs, in despising of the land, will appear yet to be more grievous, a more great and fearful sin, if you shall but consider two things with me:  
First, that the land was a pleasant land; that is the thing that I shall especially stand upon to day. To despise any land that God was pleased in mercy to bring them to, out of such an house of bondage as he brought them, it should not have been; but, to despise a pleasant land, that is a sin, sinful above measure. The Hebrew phrase is, a land of desire: It was such a land, as, if a man would desire a land, he could not desire a more delightful land, than that land of Promise.  
We hear much of this land in Scripture; you see how it is called here a land of desire. I pray, let me trouble you now a little further, to show you the pleasantness of this land; and then make some use of it, as the time will permit.  
First, the situation of the land was pleasant: It is said usually in Scripture to stand in the midst of the land. It had Asia upon the East, it had Europe upon the West, it had Africa and Lybia upon the South, it had Scythia and Armenia and Persia upon the North. That same that you read of in Psal. 74.12. The Lord is my King of old, he hath wrought salvation in the midst of the earth; It is Allegorically, I confess, mystically, but sweetly, by the Fathers applied to that great work of salvation, that our crucified Jesus wrought for us at Jerusalem in the midst of the earth, in medio terrae. This is Jerusalem (saith God) that I have set in the midst of all Lands and Nations about it, Ezek. c. 5. God saith of the people of this land, that they dwell in the very navel of the earth: It is God's word in Ezek. 38. A people that dwell in the navel, in the very midst of the earth.  
Indeed, look in our maps, and if it do not fall out exactly, that India is in the midst of the then known habitable world; yet, our Cosmographers agree in this, that there is no Country from which there is such an expedite convenient passage to all the parts of the world, as from India; the situation was pleasant.  
Then secondly, the air was pleasant. The climate, I know, was more hot than ours is by far; being distant some thirty two, or thirty three degrees from the line; a hotter climate than ours: yet, a sweet, temperate climate, free, (as it is confessed by all) from ill vapours: they were not infested with any pestilential, epidemical diseases.  
Yea, but for the water of it; What water was in it? I confess, I find not any great navigable rivers in it; but it so abounded with water-brooks, and springs, and fountains, both in hills and valleys, that it is called by God, in Deuter. 8. ver. 8. a land of brooks, and springs, and fountains.  
Yea, but what corn bore it? That was one of their questions; they would know whether it was a fat land, or no. You shall find in that place again, Deuter. 8. It was a land of wheat, a land of barley. What abundance of corn grew in that Country, you may imagine by this: It was in the whole length of it, from Dan to Beer-sheba, but one hundred and fifty miles; the length of it: the breadth of that land, between fifty and sixty miles at the broadest: What a number of people could this land nourish? Mark but in the days of David, he numbered the people, and yet he numbered not all; for he numbered not Benjamin, nor the Tribe of Levi: yet, in the other Tribes, he numbered thirteen, hundred thousand fight men. What a number were there then, besides these, in proportion of women and children, old and young? Where should they have bread to sustain such a multitude? Surely, it was, as it is called in Scripture; a very fat land, Nahum chap. 3. ver. 5.  
O, but what trees grow there in it? That is another question they would know. Excellent Vines. The wine of Zarephath was famous, even among the Gentiles. Besides their Vines, they had Figtrees, Pomegranates, Almonds, and Dates, and Olives in abundance: therefore God calls it, a land of oil-olive: Yea, and, which is a remarkable thing; whereas there are some fruits that will not grow but in cold countries, and some fruits that will not grow but in hot countries, and some that will not grow but in temperate countries; about the lake of Genesareth, the soil was of such an admirable nature, that all kind of fruits would prosper there with the like felicity.  
I might go on, and tell you what Mines they had; God told them the stones of that land were Iron, and out of their mountains they might dig Brass. I might tell you of the Medicines of Herbs about Engedi: the best Balsam in the world was there. I might tell you of their Fishes in their lakes, and many commodities more. Let me tell you this, that God saith, Deut. 8. It was a land that lacked nothing in it. There was one City in the land, that was Laish, it was afterward called Dan, after that, Cesarea-Philippi; you read of it in the Gospel: the Scripture saith, that that lacked nothing that was upon the earth, Judges 18.10. Not to trouble you more with the commendation of this land, harken what Ezekiel saith of it; It was the glory of all lands, Ezek. 20.6.  
But, let me ask now, What is become of the glory of this land? If there be any land upon the earth that ever was anathemated, smitten with a curse from God, it is this land. It is now under the Turks: It is inhabited, where it is inhabited (but that is but in a few places of it; but, where it is, it is inhabited) by barbarous Turks in the valleys, and by wild Arabs in the mountains. The most part of the land, at this day, lies unpeopled, and unhusbanded, and uninhabited. It is reported by a Gentleman of good worth, that did lately see it, that in that same goodly valley, (the eye of man hath seldom seen a goodlier) he found grass growing to the waste, waste-high, that so perished unmowen and uneaten; it came to no better end, than the grass upon the housetop. All those same goodly places, that you find mentioned in the Scripture, as fruitful as any places under heaven, are now made nothing but habitations for lions, and wolves, and wild bores, and leopards. Here is that that the Psalmist tells us, that God brings a fruitful land to barrenness, for the wickedness of the people that dwell in it.  
Brethren, we live in a pleasant land too: it were too long to reckon up the commodities of this land; you know it yourselves, Your lot is fallen in a good ground, and you have a goodly heritage.  
Let us first be thankful to this good God, for this good land that he hath given us: And, let us take heed, that the pleasures of this land make us not forget him. I pray, mark; When ever God shows to his people the commodities of this pleasant land of Canaan that he would give them, as in Deuter. c. 8. he gives them this charge; When thou art come into that good land, and findest it a land of springs and fountains, of wheat and barley, of pomegranates and vines and figtrees; a land, the stones whereof are Iron, and out of whose mountains thou mayest dig brass. When thou hast eaten, and art full, then take heed, that thou forgettest not the Lord thy God that gave thee that good land.  
It is an easy matter to forget God in abundance; Nimia bonorum copia, ingens malorum occasio, too too great plenty of good, is too too great an occasion of ill. That same abundance of good things, that should make us remember our good God, makes us forget him.  
Then take another lesson with you, and I have done with it; that is, Take heed that we defile not this good land. Were a land never so pleasant; were it a more pleasant land then this land of Judea; were it the very Eden, the garden of God: if it once come to be defiled with sins of an high nature, God's soul can take no pleasure in it. I conclude this point with that exhortation that David, a little before his death, gave to the Overseers of the people assembled together: And now (quoth he) here, before the Congregation of Israel, and in the Audience of your God, I give you this charge; That you seek the Commandments of God, and keep them, that you may enjoy the good things of this land, and continue them to inherit to your children, and to your children's children for ever, 1 Chron. 28.8. This is the first thing, the sin of theirs in despising this land: it was a fearful sin, in regard the land was a pleasant land.  
The sin was yet a little more fearful, (I can but touch this point) if you consider how they despised this land, in regard of the house of bondage whence they came. They knew their usage in Egypt well enough; they knew how they were loaden there with burdens, and blows, and injuries: so loaden, that their very lives were bitter to them, as the Scripture saith, all the while they were in Egypt; yet, forsooth, they will forsake this pleasant land, to go back again to the house of bondage.  
If they had despised this pleasant land, in regard of something that had been better, it had been well done. If a man despise the fair beautiful wife that lies in his bosom, out of love to Christ and the Gospel, from the which that wife would seek to draw him; he should do well to despise her. Harken what our Lord saith: He that forsakes not father and mother, and wife and children, and all for my sake and the Gospels, he is not worthy of me; he cannot be my disciple, Luke 14.26. But, if a man despise this fair beautiful wife, out of love to a foul baggagely strumpet; this is a sin, an untolerable abominable sin.  
If this people had despised this good land, this pleasant land, in regard of heaven, of an heavenly country, O, they had done well in that; their fathers are commended for doing that, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: the Apostle saith of them, They regarded not that good land of Canaan: they took themselves there to be like pilgrims and strangers; they regarded not that, They sought for a better country, the heavenly one, Hebrews 11. ver. 16. If I say they had despised this pleasant land, in regard of heaven, they had done well in it; but to despise it, in regard of Egypt, though it was a fruitful land (we deny it not) though it was a plentiful land; yet, in regard it was the land of their servitude and bondage, wherein they had been so ill used, and out of which God brought them with such a mighty hand and outstretched arm; to despise this pleasant land, in regard of this: O, that we had died in Egypt! this was a thing that made God lift up his hand, that for this they should never come to the land of Promise. This was the sin of them.  
And, brethren, is it not our sin too? You heard how the people despised the good land God promised them, and you think this was a great sin of them to do it; and you will say more when you hear the words following. But are not we guilty of the same sin too? Hath not God promised us a country, a better country than this? That same better country that the Apostle speaks of, when he saith, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sought a better country. Hath not God promised us a Canaan; not a terrestrial, but a celestial Canaan, a Kingdom of heaven? And we say of the fruits of the land; O, they are glorious fruits! O, what a blessed country is that! O, how happy are they that are in heaven! We all say, it is a goodly country. If some of these countries upon earth are such Paradises, O, what a Paradise is that in heaven! What a country is that! Yet, though God hath promised us that country, when we are told it is hard coming by it, and we must fight for this country before we come to it; and that not with flesh and blood, those sons of Anak, those mighty men; but with Principalities and powers, with the devil, with the world, with the flesh; that we must forsake ourselves, and forsake all that stands in the way, father and mother, and wife and children, and through many afflictions come to it: O, than we despise this good land; nay, we despise it in regard of the earth. Shall I (saith the worldling) look after an uncertainty in heaven, and lose my certainty here upon earth? Must I forsake such a sin that brings me in profit? Must I forsake such sins as bring me pleasure upon earth? No, let others seek heaven, if they will; let me have earth. Thus they cry for earth, and thus they prefer the spiritual Egypt of this world, before the celestial Canaan, the Kingdom of heaven. Thus we prefer a mess of pottage before our birthright; and our swine, with the Gergasens, before Christ; and these vain transitory joys, before the joys of the Kingdom of heaven, that cannot be conceived, and shall never be ended. To which eternal joys, the Lord, for his mercy's sake, and for his Christ's sake, bring us.  
FINIS.   
PSAL. 106.24,25. 
Yea, they despised the pleasant land; they believed not his Word:  
But murmured in their tents, and harkened not unto the voice of the LORD, etc.  
YOU have in these verses four sins of this people. We have done with the first of them, which was this; They despised the pleasant land.  
I now go on to the next sin, which is, their Unbelief; They believed not his Word.  
That word was a word of promise; that promise was a particular promise of the land; they did not believe that. God told them that he would give them the land; he had sworn he would give it them. The spies come and tell them it was impossible that they should possess the land; they believe the spies, but they would not believe God: Here was their sin.  
I will first show the heinousness of this sin in this people.  
And then show what use we are to make of it: both, as briefly as I can.  
The heinousness of this people's sin appears in this; They would not believe God: It was infidelity. There is a question, among Divines, what was the first sin that was in the world, (we do not speak of the sin of apostate Angels, but among men.) Some say it was disobedience, some say it was pride, some make it an inordinate desire of superfluous knowledge, some one thing, some another; but, if you mark the story well, you will find that the first sin was Unbelief: God had told them, that, in the day that they eat of that tree, they should die. Moriendo moriemini; Dying, ye shall die; that is, As sure as you live, you shall die, if you eat. The devil comes and tells them, they shall not die, but live in a better condition than they did before. Our first Parents believed Satan, but not God; Infidelity than was the first sin: that ushered in Pride, Pride brought in an inordinate desire of superfluous knowledge, that brought in disobedience, and that brought in the judgement of God upon them and all their posterity. As unbelief was the first sin, so unbelief is a sin that is exceeding odious to God: God cannot endure to be disinherited, that he may not be believed. Man is deceitful upon the weights, and lighter than vanity itself; yet man loves not to be disinherited, but sibi quisque credi vult, etc. as he saith; Every man willingly would be credited. If man, I say, love not to be disinherited; surely, God loves it not, who is not only true, but truth itself; that same Prime, Original Truth, whereupon all truth hath its dependence. He is light, in him is no darkness at all: He is truth, in him there is no falsehood at all: There is none actively, he cannot deceive; God is not as man, that he should lie, saith Balaam, Numbers 23.17. God cannot lie, saith the Apostle, Titus 1.2. It is not possible that God should lie, Heb. 6. ver. 8. Now, if that man, that is a liar, (every man is so, for, every man is a liar,) If, I say, that man, being a liar, doth not love to be accounted a liar: if that man think it a great dishonour to put up a lie; if a man will present death upon the point of a sword to that man that shall give him the lie: if a lying man cannot endure to be accounted a liar; what, can God endure it? Will God brook it? Harken what the Apostle saith, 1 John 5.10. He that believeth not God, maketh him a liar.  
The sin of the people was yet greater, because God had not only promised to give them the land, and had given his word for it, though that had been enough, but he had given his oath for it; he had sworn that they should have the land. This Moses tells them in Deut. 1. that God had lift up his hand, and had sworn that he would give them the land.  
An oath among men, is, as the Heathen man calls it, the greatest bond of assurance that can be between man and man; there is reason for it. There are certain principles, as these: That there is a God, that this God is present in every place, that he is acquainted with every secret, that he is a Patron of truth, that he is a revenger of falsehood, that he is a just God, and therefore will; and an omnipotent God, and therefore is able to plague every one that sweareth falsely. There are these principles in the heart of every child of man: Though the conclusions that may be drawn from thence, may be, and sometimes are, in some men obliterated and blotted out; yet the principles remain in man: therefore it is presumed, because there are these principles in our hearts, that no man dares take that God to be his witness, and call upon him to be a witness and a Judge in that that he knows is false. Hence it comes, that an oath (as the Apostle saith) is set for the confirmation of all truth. An oath among men is the greatest bond of assurance that can be given: Abimelech required no other assurance of Abraham for his covenant, but his oath; Swear to me, saith he, Genes. 21.23. Jacob, when he had purchased the birthright of Esau, requires no other assurance for the birthright, but his oath; though Esau were a profane man: Swear to me that I shall have it, Genes. 25. ver. 33. Rahab required no other assurance of the spies for her safety, and her father's house; Swear to me, to confirm it.  
Now, if there be such a bond of assurance in an oath, between man and man; if an oath be the greatest bond of assurance, that can be between man and man; and we dare believe upon an oath: may we not believe God upon his oath? God (saith the Apostle) to show the immutability of his counsel to them that should be heirs of promise, bound himself by an oath; that by two immutable things (by those two immutable things, he means his word and his oath) wherein it is impossible that God should lie, we might have strong comfort, Hebrews 6. ver. 18. Now here was the sin of that people, they would not believe God upon his oath. Happy people! happy they might have been, for whose sake God was content to bind himself by an oath for the performance of his promise: But, O wretched men, that will not believe God, no not upon his oath! They believed not his word.  
Nay, yet further, their sin is yet greater than thus; they did not believe God upon experience. For what was it they were afraid of? The Anakims, great men, men that might tread them down, as we do Grasshoppers under our feet. But they had experience of God's mercy: there was never people that had better experience of God's power and mercy; it was never magnified as it was towards this people: therefore God, you well perceive, is never so offended when he is disinherited, as when he is disinherited upon experience.  
You may see, in Psalm 78.20. The people there were in want of bread; Indeed, say they, He struck the rock, and the water gushed out, and the streams over-flowed: But, can he give bread? Can he furnish a Table in the wilderness? See, they had great and wonderful experience of God's power. They wanted water, God sent them water miraculously out of the rock, and easily; he did but smite the rock, and abundance of water gushed out, and the streams over-flowed: yet, they come and ask out of unbelief; yea, But can he give bread? He that gave us water, can he give us bread too? How did God take this question? Look in the next verse, The Lord heard it, and his wrath was kindled against Jacob, and the fire burned against Israel, because they believed not the word of the Lord.  
What, will not men believe upon experience? Experience breedeth hope. Among men, if I had experience of a man's goodness, if I have bought and sold with him, and have ever found him a just, and an honest man, that never broke his day with me; Dare not I trust this man upon experience? May a man be trusted upon experience? a good man? and shall not God take it ill that he cannot be trusted upon experience? You see the sin of this people.  
Let me now come and make use of it. Let me tell you, It was not only their sin, it is our sin too, It is the sin of us all. The best of God's children have need to mourn every day over their unbelief. They that do not find this unbelief in themselves, surely, are strangers to themselves. If a man were not a stranger to himself, he would find such a deal of unbelief, as would make him mourn continually under it, and strive against it.  
It is a wondrous hard thing (brethren) to believe God's word, to believe a promise. Let me give you but an instance in one promise, Hebrews 13.5. Let your conversation (saith the Apostle) be without covetousness: Be content with those things that you have. Why? For he hath said it, (this is the promise) he hath said, I will not fail thee, I will not forsake thee. He hath said it. Who is that hath said it? Pythagoras' his scholars were wont to attribute so much to their Master, that when in their Disputes it came to Ipse dixit, He said it, there was no more talking of it, all was well, they believed it. Behold, a greater than Pythagoras is here; Ipse dixit, He hath said it: and, I think, he never said a thing more earnestly, than he said that. There are in the Greek five negatives in that sentence: I do not remember the like in all the Scripture besides. The Grecians, when they are wont to deny a thing earnestly, double the negative: The Spirit of God here is pleased, not only to double it, but also to triple it; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing cannot be spoken with more earnestness. We know not how to express it in our English, but we translate it thus; I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. It is well so: It is, as if he should say, Believe me upon my word, I will never leave thee; no, no, no, I will not leave thee. It is so earnest, God never promised a thing with more earnestness than that.  
And, besides, we have found in experience the truth of this promise many a time. We are here some of us twenty years old, and some of us forty, and some sixty, and some above; and, in all this time, we have found how true this was: upon twenty, or forty, or sixty year's experience, we may say, God never left us yet, he never forsook us. We have been sometimes in sickness, and sometimes in danger, and sometimes in want; God never left us yet, he never forsook us: yet, notwithstanding all this, we dare not believe that same word, we dare not believe it.  
Do not tell me that thou dost, certainly thou dost not believe it. Even as Saul would needs justify himself to Samuel, when he reserved the best of the cattle, contrary to God's command; I have kept God's commandment (quoth he) O thou blessed of the Lord. Hast thou so, saith Samuel? Then what means the bleating of these sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of these oxen? Me thinks, I might say so: thou sayest thou believest the promise of God, that he will not leave thee, nor forsake thee; Dost thou so? Dost thou believe it? Then what mean those false weights, those false measures, and those false oaths? And what means that cunning overreaching of thy neighbour in bargaining, and that secret undermining of him in his estate? And what means thine inordinate carking, and caring? That same losing of many a sweet sleep, and losing many a sweet Sermon for the things of this life? Surely, if thou didst believe that God would not leave thee, nor forsake thee, thou wouldst, indeed, use those means whereby the providence of God might be served; thou wouldst never be thus worldly, thou wouldst never be thus covetous, thou wouldst never use this sharking, nor these dishonest tricks if thou didst believe: As sure as the Lord liveth, thou believest not that promise, I will not leave thee, nor forsake thee.  
I could show the like in many other promises. Good Lord, how slow of heart are we to believe any promise that God hath made to us, either concerning this life, or concerning a better, considering with me these things that I tell you!  
First, considering how much seed of unbelief there is in the nature of every man upon the earth, even in the best of God's children; and considering what a deep root this seed takes in all our hearts. Then considering that the time that God hath set for the performance of promises; is,  
First, uncertain.  
And many times long before a promise be performed.  
Then consider again, that same wonderful working of God, when his works go against his promise, as many times it seems. God promiseth many times a blessing, and he seems to go against his word.  
Then considering how busy and subtle the devil is, labouring still, as he did with Eve, to discredit the truth of God's promise.  
Then considering how ready we are to listen, as Eve, to the whisper, and suggestions of that subtle serpent. Certainly, brethren, we should never please ourselves in any measure of faith: but labour still for a greater measure thereof, and never think we can lay hold fast enough upon the promises of God. O, that is a safe course that Mr Luther gave; In all temptations, and conflicts, and combats, and agonies, still urge the promise: whatsoever the devil can object against it, still hold the promise. That that we would hisse at in schools, in disputes among men, is a good course in disputing with Satan: When we cannot answer the Premises, deny the Conclusion; hold to the promise. The Covenant of day and night may be altered, that there may be neither day nor night any more in their season: but there is never a promise in the Covenant of grace but it shall stand for ever: Lord, I believe it, help mine unbelief. So much shall suffice concerning the second sin, They believed not his word. I come to the third, They murmured in their tents.  
There is a threefold murmuring;  
There is murmur displicentiae, a murmur of displeasure, of dislike and discontent that is against God, when things go with us otherwise then we would have them.  
Then there is murmur inobedientiae, a murmur of disobedience against our Superiors, when we think that they command us something that we conceive to be unreasonable.  
Then there is murmur invidentiae, a murmur of envy against our neighbours; when we think they are in a better condition than we are, we dislike it. The Grecians murmured against the Jews, because their women were neglected, Acts 6.1. Cain murmured, because Abel's sacrifice was accepted, and his was not. Judas murmured at the box of Spicknard that was bestowed upon our Lord. The elder brother of the prodigal child murmured that the fat calf should be killed for his riotous brother, that had spent his father's goods among harlots. This people murmured thus against Moses, and Aaron; They envied Aaron the Saint of the Lord, and murmured against Moses in their tents. This we speak not of now; this was not the murmuring of envy.  
What murmur was it then?  
The other two:  
First, a murmuring of displeasure, and discontent against God.  
And then a murmur of disobedience, both against God, and against the Magistrate.  
First, I say, it was a murmur of discontent against God, and a fearful murmur; you shall seldom hear of the like. I pray, mark this; When God promised them the land at any time, he usually promiseth it to them out of his love; Because God loved the fathers, therefore he chose the seed, Deuter. c. 4. ver. 37. In another place, Deuter. 7. ver. 8. The Lord set his love upon you, not because you were many; for you were the fewest of all people; but because he loved you, therefore he brought you out of the land of Egypt. I think, there was never Nation had so many sensible demonstrations of God's love, as this people had: Do you think that God would have brought them out of the land of bondage, with such a mighty outstretched arm, if he had not loved them? Do you think he would have made a way for them in the sea, and afterward have fed them with bread from heaven, and given them water out of the rock, and have guided them with a pillar of fire in the night, and a pillar of a cloud in the day, if he had not loved them? Do you think he would have appeared to them in fire, and have spoken to them in an audible voice out of Mount Sinai, and have chosen them there to be a peculiar people to him of all the people in the earth, if he had not loved them?  
You will say, Who doubted of this love? O, I pray you, hear this people, harken to this people; out of their impatience (and impatiency is ever full of misconstructions) they impute all this that God had done, to the very hatred of them. Would you think it? Look in Deut. c. 1. ver. 27. Because God hated us, therefore he brought us out of Egypt to destroy us with the Amorires. O sinful Nation, worthy to be hated indeed, not worthy to be loved, that takes God's love thus for hatred. This was the murmur of impatiency.  
The murmur of disobedience against God and the Magistrate was in these words; O, that we had died in the wilderness! O, that we were dead! They were but afraid of death, and they might have lived, if they had believed; they were but afraid of death, and, for fear they should die, they wish, O, that we were dead! I he like murmuring you shall find oft times of this people: Forty years long was God grieved, and vexed with their continual murmuring. One while they murmured for want of water; after they had water, than they murmur at the bitterness of the water. One while they murmur for want of bread; another time they had bread, and the bread of Angels, the bread of heaven; then they murmur because they had nothing but bread. One while they murmur at the government of Moses and Aaron; God punished them for that murmuring: then they murmur again because God punished them. They murmur at the tediousness of the way from Egypt to Cadesh-Barnea; now they murmur, because they may not go from Cadesh Barnea to Egypt again. Thus they were like swine: For, as the swine, whether full or empty, waking or sleeping, is ever grunting: so this people were still murmuring.  
The Apostle, 1 Corinth. chap. 10. ver. 10. saith, that this is written for our example, that we should not murmur as they murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Brethren, beware of this sin of murmuring. I will not speak of the murmuring of envy; you have in this Psalm v. 16. They murmured one against another. I do not speak of that; but I begin,  
First, beware of that murmuring of disobedience. Children, take heed how you murmur against your Parents. Servants, take heed how you murmur against your Masters. Subjects, take heed how you murmur against your Sovereign. Let nothing (saith the Apostle) be done with murmuring, and reasoning. Do all things without murmur, and dispute, Phil. chap. 2. ver. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as chrysostom on that place excellently: It is a grievous sin that same murmuring. It is better (saith he there) for a man not to have his work done, then done with murmuring. The voice of murmuring is but a low voice, it is not loud; it is rather muttered, then uttered; it is but a low voice: It may be the man hears thee not against whom thou murmurest: But it is said, The Lord heard the voice of this people's murmuring, Deuteronomy chap. 1. And the Author of the book of Wisdom, excellently; There is (quoth he) auris zeli, an ear of jealousy (he speaks of divine jealousy; and that is a jealousy as hot as fire) and there is an ear of a Jealous God, and the voice of murmuring (saith he) shall not be hid: therefore, (saith he) in the next verse, Beware of murmuring. There is not such a secret thought, that shall go for nought. If we must give an account to God for every idle word, surely, we shall give an account to God for words of desperate murmuring. That is for the one, Beware of that murmuring of disobedience.  
Then of the other, Beware, above all, of that murmuring of impatience. There are a generation of men that cannot be troubled with any thing that they would not be troubled with, nor can they want any thing that they would have; they must not be crossed with wet nor dry, with wind nor rain, with foul nor fair weather; but their mouths are presently set against heaven, and they will not stick to charge God foolishly, (as the people did) that God hates them.  
I pray, let me only give you a few remedies against this impatient murmuring.  
The first is this; Consider, that that same Discipline of God, at which we murmur, is from God; Affliction comes not out of the dust, as Eliphaz speaks. There is nothing befalls thee in thine estate, but it comes from a Divine power, and is guided by a most wise providence; and wilt thou murmur at it?  
The very savage beast, that is ready to flee at the throat of a stranger, will endure itself to be stricken and beaten by his keeper. Surely, thou art worse than a beast, if thou wilt not suffer God thy Father, and thy Maker, and thy Keeper to strike thee.  
Then, secondly, again consider, God is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. Discat non murmurare qui malum patitur, Let not a man that suffers ill murmur; though he know not for what ill he suffers, he can but suffer justly. There is nothing but it comes with due desert, because God is just, and it shall have a due profit. The judgements of God, some of them are secret, some of them open, they are all righteous; never murmur. We desire that God would not enter into judgement with us: Shall we enter into judgement with God? we do so, if we murmur.  
Thirdly, consider, that this same Discipline that thou murmurest at, it may be it is not so much penal, as medicinal. Thou murmurest, peradventure that thou art poor; if thou wert rich, peradventure, thou wouldst be proud of it. Thou murmurest because thou art kept low, Thou art a hewer of wood, and a drawer of water to the host; peradventure, if thou wert higher, thou wouldst be more licentious. Thou murmurest, peradventure, because thou hast a weak sickly body; if thou wert more healthy, it may be, thou wouldst be more intemperate: God knows what is better for thee, than thou dost for thyself: Therefore, as there was a law among the Persians, that if any man had been beaten at the King's command, he should have been so fare from murmuring against the King, that he was bound by that law to come and give the King thanks, as though it was a favour from the King; he must come and give the King thanks, that he was pleased to remember him. Surely, when God beats us with any affliction, with poverty, or abasement, or whatsoever, we should be so fare from murmuring, that we should come and give God thanks that he is pleased to remember us, and to make us again to remember him, that otherwise might have forgotten him days without number.  
Fourthly, and lastly, consider the fearful judgement of God that falls upon murmurers. I could have showed many examples, but remember this heavy judgement of God that at last fell upon this people for murmuring: the Lord bore with it a while: they murmured at Marah, he bore with it; and at Rephidim, and he bore with it; and at Taberah, and he punished them a little; and at Kebroth-Hattanah, and then he punished them a little: But at length he would bear no more, but swore; he lift up his hand, that they should never enter into the land of Promise; they entered not into that land. And, let me conclude with that speech of Gregory; Nullus qui murmurat, etc. there are none that murmur that enter into the Kingdom of heaven; nor shall any but the sons of peace, ever participate of that peace and tranquillity the Saints shall there enjoy. Let us therefore take heed of murmuring.  
FINIS.   
Heb. 13.16. 
To do good, and to communicate, forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.  
OF this Sickness, this grievous Sickness that now rageth and reigneth, and spreads itself more and more among us, as we are not busy to seek a reason of it in natural causes; so we are not especially to seek the remedy of it by natural means. It is no hand but that of God that smiteth us; and there is no hand but that of God can heal us. It is no hand but that of God that gave the wound; and it is no hand but Gods that must bind up again. Therefore it was an usual custom, both among the jews and among the Gentiles, when as the Plague began to break out at any time among them, the first thing they did, was, they did seek to appease the wrath of God by sacrifice: The jews did it by the light of grace, and the Gentiles by the light of nature. The Sickness being now broken out, and that a long time, our course must be still to appease God's wrath by sacrifice.  
Sacrifices in the old Law were many; in the new Testament there is but one true, real, external, propitiatory sacrifice, that our blessed Lord offered on the Altar of the Cross; a sacrifice of a sweet savour to God.  
But though there be none of that kind, yet there be sacrifices of other kind a great number, by which we must seek to appease God's wrath. There be spiritual sacrifices, saith St, Peter, 2 Pet. 2.5. And what are those?  
There be these five especially:  
First Prayer, that is a sacrifice; Let my prayer ascend as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice, Psal. 141.2.  
The second sacrifice whereby we should appease God's wrath, is a contrite heart, that David speaks of, The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Psal. 51.17. That is the second.  
A third is a mortified body; I beseech you brethren (saith the Apostle) by the mercies of God, offer up your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God Rom. 12.1.  
A fourth sacrifice is in the Verse before my Text, a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving: The Apostle calls it there, The fruit of the lips; but Hosea, from whom the Apostle hath it, calls it, The calves of the lips. Calves were wont to be offered in sacrifice; and these calves of the lips ought to be offered to God, the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.  
That God may be pleased in mercy to give us occasion to offer this sacrifice, for our deliverance from this infectious and venomous disease, when his good will and pleasure is, I have in the mean time now thought good to speak of a fifth sacrifice, of Almes-giving; To do good, and to communicate, forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.  
I need not to divide the Text, it breaks itself into two parts; 

1. An Exhortation; And  
2. The Reason of it.    
To do good, and to communicate, forget not; there is the Exhortation.  
With such sacrifices God is well pleased; there is the Reason of it.  
Concerning the Exhortation, I shall handle none but that to day, by God's grace; consider there,  
The matter, the thing we are exhorted to;  
And the manner, how the Exhortation is framed.  
The thing we are exhorted to is double, two fold, 

Welldoing, and  
Communicating;   To do good, and communicate.  
These are the things we are exhorted to.  
For the manner how the Exhortation is framed, it is not thus, Do good and communicate; but, Do not forget to do good; it is a thing of great necessity:  thing you forget beside, forget not this; it is a thing you may easily forget: to do good, and to communicate, forget not. And of these, with God's assistance, with all brevity and plainness I can. I have many matters to go through, and I would be brief.  
Mark, I beseech you, first, the two things we are exhorted to; they are Substantives in the Greek; how they differ, or whether there be difference between them, Writers do differ. Some think they are both one and the same thing, in two words. Others do think the latter word is of somewhat larger extent than the former. The first word doth signify an almsdeed, or such relief as we give the poor; that is, Welldoing. The second word [Communicate] contains under it all mutual offices of love and kindness, that pass between man and man.  
For the better knowing of that communicating, what it is to communicate, let me first tell you, that as several Countries have their several commodities, as you know, one Country abounds with good corn, another Country hath good wine, another hath good fruit, another Country hath good breed of cattles: Solomon had his oaks from Bashan, but his cedars from Lebanon, his fir from Shebar, his Almug-trees and gold from Ophir, his spices and sweet odours from Arabia, his fine linen and horses were brought out of Egypt; his ivory, apes, and peacocks, were brought out of Selvesia by his navy and fleet of Tharshish. As several Countries have their several commodities, so several men have several gifts or blessings, which they are to communicate to others; as every Country by Merchants communicate the commodities that abound in them to other Countries, and they from other Countries receive in other commodities they want.  
God would have one Country to stand in need of another, for some commodity or other: So it is among men, God hath so disposed of his blessings, as that there is no man but stands in need one of another. There is a necessity of receiving and communicating. Solomon (Eccles. 5.9.) tells us, The King is served by the tillage of the field; the very King stands in need of husbandry. The Citizens sometime stand in need of the Country man, and the Country man another time hath as much need of the Citizen. The poor man cannot stand in so much need of the rich man at one time, but the rich man at another time stands in as much need of the poor. There is never a member of the body can say to another, I have no need of thee, as the Apostle tells us, The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee; nor the head cannot say to the foot, I have no need of you. Nay, quoth the Apostle, those members that are feeble, are necessary. Those poor men that peradventure are contemptible in the sight of the world, are necessary. God hath so disposed of his gifts, and dispensed them with such wisdom, as that he would still have an intercourse of kindness between man and man. There is a necessity of receiving, a necessity of communicating of gifts.  
Some men can tell how to receive, but they know not how to communicate: Nabal and his servants received a great deal of kindness at the hands of David and his servants, they confessed it; David's servants was a wall about them by day and by night, they protected and defended them from all dangers, all the while they were in the wilderness; but when David sent to Nabal for some relief, in the day of Nabals' sheep-shearing, What? quoth the Churl, Shall I take my bread; see how he appropriates things still, My bread, and my water, and my flesh, that I have prepared for my shearers, and give them to men that I know not whence they come? 2 Sam. 25.11. He knew how to receive kindnesses, but he knew not how to communicate.  
As God hath established a distinction of proprieties among men, while every man governs his own house, and rules his own servants, and tills his own land, and feeds his own cattles, and mannageth his own affairs; I say, while God doth thus, every man finds sweet experience of God's particular providence. As God hath established thus a distinction of propriety, of house, and goods, and land among men; so God on the other side hath established a Communion of Saints, and Communion of Saints doth not abolish the distinction of Propriety, nor the distinction of Propriety doth not abolish the Communion of Saints; they may both stand together, a distinction of the Propriety and the Communion of Saints. God will have us, in regard of possession, to have things private and several that are our own; but God would have us make these things common, in regard of use, upon several occasions: and then a man doth good, when he communicates that good that God hath given him, to the good of others.  
Every man must consider with himself, wherein hath God enabled me to do the greatest good? (as Samson knew wherein his strength lay) and then to his uttermost power to do good, and communicate to others of that which God hath given him: Forget not to do this, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.  
This same doing of good and communicating, may be done many ways, and mark them, because there is no body may be exempted from this precept of the Apostle, it concerns every man, and every man may do good and communicate some way or other. We are forbid to call our brother, Racha; which in the Syriack signifies empty, vacuous: A man empty! saith St. Jerome upon that word, how can a man be said to be bare and empty, whom the Spirit of God hath filled and replenished with some gift or other, that he may communicate, and in so doing do good?  
There are many ways of doing good: First, a man may do good to the Public, or he may do good to the Private; he may do good to the Church and Commonwealth in general, or a man may do good to some special persons in the Church or Commonwealth in particular. And to distribute and do good, both to the one and to the other, forget not.  
For the first, to the Public, a man may do good many ways; These ways especially come to my mind.  
First, a man may do good to the Public, by the building, or enlarging, or adorning Churches and Chapels, and Oratories for the service of God. A man may do good to the Public, by erecting and endowing of Schools and Colleges for the education of youth. A man may do good to the Public, by making Highways, and Causies, and Bridges for the Travellers. A man may do good to the Public, by the conveyance of water, that may be useful either to City or Country, and many other things. There are many ways more that a man may do good to the Public in, and to do good to the Public, forget not; for with such sacrifice God is pleased. For some such works as I have named, the memory of some good men is blessed to this day, and will be hereafter, from generation to generation, for such public works.  
Then secondly, a man may do good to some special person in Church and Common wealth; and that two ways: 

1. A man may do good to the body; or,  
2. To the soul:    
The good that a man communicates, may be either a Corporal, or Spiritual good.  
Then doth a man good to the body, to the outward estate I mean, when he communicates such a thing as is a means of his comfortable being in the state of Nature. But a man doth good to the soul, when he doth communicate such a thing as may be a means of a well-being here in the state of grace, and of his eternal well-being hereafter in the state of glory. Now, to do good both to the soul and body of thy brother, forget not; for with such sacrifice, etc.  
I begin with the soul first, that is the principal part. Dost thou see thy brother ignorant of some truth that he should know, that is necessary to salvation? Thou canst not do him a greater good then to instruct him. Dost thou see him doubtful what to do? Why then do him good to direct him Dost thou see them over-taken with some infirmity? Why then testore them again, as the Apostle saith, Brethren, if any of you be over-taken with infirmity, you that are spiritual, restore such a man. The Greek word is, put him in joint again; he is out of joint, set him right, put him in joint with the spirit of meekness and gentleness. Dost thou see thy brother unruly, and rush into sin, as the horse into the battle? Thou mayest do a great deal of good, to admonish and reprove him, to pluck him (as jude saith in his Epistle) out of the fire, that he perish not. Dost thou see thy poor brother feeble and weakhearted? Thou shalt do a great deal of good then to encourage him. Dost thou see him dejected and cast down, and almost swallowed up of despair? Thou canst not do a greater good than comfort him. These things you may do. And if thou see thy brother past all help from men, than thou canst not do a greater good then to pray and beg help for him at God's hand. And in very deed, that sweet Communion of Saints that we believe in the Creed, I believe the Communion of Saints, that Communion of Saints, appears in nothing more than the doing of good thus to the soul one man of another; to edify and build up one another in our holy faith, to exhort one another to holiness of life, to provoke one another to love and good works, to comfort one another in sickness, to mourn one over another for your corruptions: This they may do when they are together. And then, pray one for another: and that they may do when they are a thousand miles asunder. This is the Communion of Saints. Thus we may do good to the souls of our brethren; and to do this good to the souls of your brethren, forget not; with this sacrifice God is well pleased.  
To the body we may do good, in the outward estate, many ways; I will think of these three especially.  
First, we may do them good, defendendo, by defending of our brother; by defending his person from violence, by defending his goods from ruin; by defending his name from reproach and dishonour. Pro. 24.11. Deliver him that is appointed to die, if it be in thy power. Deliverance it is a thing that holy job, among other works of his, he speaks of this, I delivered the poor when he cried, and helped him that was fatherless; I broke the jaws of the wicked in pieces, and took the prey out of his teeth. If thou canst do it by thy calling, if thy calling will allow thee to do it, thou art bound to do it, to do that good; to right them when they suffer wrong, either in their person, or goods, or good name; if it be in thy power to right thy brother, do good that way, defend him. That is one way.  
Secondly, thou mayest do good, accommodando, by lending; and indeed, sometimes a man may do as much good by lending, as by giving. And this is a work of mercy that God requires of his people; mark that place, Deut. 15.7,8. Thou shalt not harden thy heart, nor shut thy hand from thy poor brother; But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth. Thou shalt help and help him wide, so the word is, Thou shalt open wide to thy brethren; and shalt surely lend to them: The Original word doubles it, in lending thou shalt lend; that is, thou shalt surely lend, and lend sufficiently, according to his need. So the Old Testament. And Christ in the New Testament saith, Lend, looking for nothing again, Luke 6.35. And it is the commendation given to the righteous man, A righteous man is merciful and dareth, Psal. 112.5. but then mark the words that follow after too, he guides his affairs with discretion. That is the second way.  
Thirdly, a man may do good, donando, by free giving: Of what? That which is according to the necessity of our brother. If he be hungry, than we shall do good to feed him, to give him bread; if he be thirsty, we must give him drink; if he be naked, we must give him clothes; if he be sick, if it be in our power, we are to give him remedy; if he be dead, then to give him burial, decent burial; and among the works of charity, and works of mercy, you shall ever find reckoned in Scripture, the burial of the dead. When the Traitor judas grudged at the box of Spikenard that was bestowed upon our blessed Saviour, saith he, Let her alone, she hath done a good work towards my burial. And, The Lord show mercy, saith David, to the men of jabesh-gilead, because they shown mercy to his Master Saul. What mercy? Marry They buried his bones: It is a work of mercy. Thus you see how many ways there be of doing good and communicating: A man may do good you see to the Public many ways. And then to the Private, a man may do good to the soul, to the body: To the soul by instructing, by directing, by admonishing, by reproving, by encouraging, by comforting, by praying for them. A man may do good to the body, by defending them from wrong, by lending that which is necessary, by giving according to their necessity that ask. And thus to do good to the Public, to Private, to the souls and bodies of our brethren, when it is in our power, forget not, it is a sacrifice with which God is pleased.  
Seeing there are so many ways of doing good thus, I will set down two Correllaries and Consectaries; two things follow on it.  
The first is this, Since there are so many ways of doing good, certainly as long as we live here in this life, we can never want opportunity of doing good, some way or other. That is the first. We cannot want opportunities of doing good, there be so many ways to do it; either a man shall find some ignorant poor body that he may instruct, as David did, Come ye children, harken unto me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Or a man may find some person wronged, whom he may help and succour, as job did. Or a man may sit in his tent door, and find some stranger pass by that he may entertain, as Abraham did. Or a man may find some fatherless children that he may bring up, as Pharaohs daughter brought up Moses. Or a man may find some naked person that he may cloth, as Dorcas did. Or a man may find some wounded person, which if he have the gift and skill of healing, he may heal, as the good Samaritane did. I might go further: It is impossible while thou art here but thou shalt meet with opportunities of good doing; we cannot want them.  
Let none excuse themselves with this, that they have no opportunity of doing good, they may have daily, either to do good to the souls, or the bodies of some; or perhaps both to soul and body. I must work, saith our Lord, while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work. The day is the time of life, we must follow our Lord in this work while it is day; while you have now time, here is the time to work good: The night comes, when death comes there is no more time then to do good. Eccles. 9.10, whatsoever thine hand shall find to do, saith Solomon there, that is, whatsoever God hath enabled thee to do, whatsoever good, do it with all thy power; Why? there is neither working, nor judgement, nor knowledge, nor invention in the grave, whither thou goest.  
Think of that; you are going now to your grave, you know not how long or how short a time it may be before you come there; therefore whatsoever thy hand shall find to do, whatever good God hath enabled thee to do, do it with thy power; for there is no doing of good in the grave, whither thou art going.  
Titus the Roman Emperor is commended by St. Jerome, and he deserved commendations indeed, and Jerome propounds his example and saying to others, as commendable; Titus the Roman Emperor would every night call himself to account what good he had done that day; and if he found that all the day long there had been no good done, he would cry out to his friend, Friend, I have lost a day. A great loss it seemed to him; but to us Christians a greater loss, that know we must make account to God for every day of our life, what good we have done in it.  
And surely, considering in ourselves how much good God requires at our hands, first in our general calling, as we are Christians; and then in our particular calling, according to the places we hold in Church and Commonwealth, and in our private families, it were not good to lose a day, every day to do somewhat, as that Painter that would never have a day pass over his head without some line drawing; we should not suffer one day to pass over our heads without some good work done, some good work every day. Since there are so many opportunities of doing good every day, never suffer a day to go over our heads without some good.  
The Scripture saith of the devil, he bestirs himself, and the reason is, because he knoweth that his time is short. How much more should we bestir ourselves then to do good, knowing that our time is shorter than his. While we have time, saith the Apostle, let us do good to all. The word is not in the Greek; but while we have opportunity, so we read it in the new Translation, While we have opportunity to do good, Gal. 6.10. Now as long as we live here, a charitable heart will never want opportunity of doing good, we shall still have opportunity to do good; but when we are gone there is no opportunity of doing good, there is no doing good after; but then we are to receive for that we have done already, whether good or evil.  
Excellently Origen, (with which I will conclude this point) saith he, The six ages of our life are as the six days of the week, they are days to gather Manna in; but the day of death, that is our Sabbath, there is no Manna then to be gathered, it is no day to gather Manna when we are dead; but then we shall eat that we have gathered before. There is no doing good when we are dead, but we then come to receive for the good we have done before, if we have done it; therefore, To do good, and to communicate, forget not. That is the first corllary.  
The second is this, that, Since there are so many ways of doing good, there is no man exempted from doing good, there is no man but may do good some way or other. Indeed, rich men must be rich in good works; they that have a great deal of goods, must do a great deal of good. But there is no man so poor that may challenge freedom from this doing good, because he is poor; Hark what the Apostle saith, Ephes. 4.28. Let him that stole, steal no more; but let him labour with his hands, working that which is good, that he may communicate to thence that need. See, the poor labouring man, that labours with his hands, he must not be free from doing good. john Baptist, when he was asked of the people, What shall we do? Marry, saith he, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise, Luke 3.11. Let him that hath two coats, he saith not, Let him that hath ten coats, a number of coats; but him that hath two coats, let him part to him that hath none.  
Our blessed Lord did live upon that which good women gave him; that you shall see if you look Luke 8.3. there it is said, that Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils, and joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and other women ministered unto him of their substance. Christ lived upon that that good persons gave unto him, yet out of that that was given him, he was wont to give alms; you may perceive that by that speech of the Apostles, when our Lord had bidden judas, That he did, do quickly, they did not know what he meant, but did think that he would have them provide somewhat, or to give somewhat to the poor, joh. 13.29. To give somewhat to the poor. Our Lord himself lived upon that which was given him, yet he himself, out of that which was given him, gave to the poor.  
The Macedonians are commended by St. Paul for their great liberality, that whereas they were poor, I, deeply poor, it was deep poverty, so the word is, profound poverty, deep poverty, as the Apostle speaks, 2 Cor. 8.2. it was poverty, deeply poverty; yet they abounded in liberality for all that. You know the woman in the Gospel cast in but two mites into the Treasury, but it was all that ever she had; it was but a little money, but it was great charity, a great work of charity, all that ever she had.  
When the cripple asked an alms of Peter and john coming to the Temple, say they, Silver and gold we have none; but such as we have, give we thee. If thou have no silver and gold to give, that thou canst not give that, yet give such things as thou hast.  
The widow of Sarepta had no gold nor silver to give the Prophet, she gave him a cake; she lost nothing by it; you know the story. Our blessed Lord saith, Whosoever shall give a cup of cold water to a Prophet, in the name of a Prophet, shall not lose a Prophet's reward. If thou canst not do good with thy aera, thy money, that thou hast none to give, do it ora, thou mayst do good that way. Thou shalt find some ignorant persons, instruct them. Thou shalt find some doubtful, that know not what to do, direct them. Thou shalt find some poor comfortless creatures, speak comfort to them, speak kindly to them, speak to their heart. Solomon tells us, Pro. 24.16. Fair words are an honeycomb, sweetness to the soul, health to the bones. If thou canst not do what good thou wouldst, why yet be willing to do what good thou canst; do that thou art able to perform, and God will accept thy willing heart, man, as he did the willing heart of Abraham to offer his son, though he did not offer him; and the willing heart of David to build him an house and Temple, though he built it not.  
In a word, (to draw to a conclusion) every man must give according to his ability, as God hath enabled him; and God looks not for small things from rich men. In the sacrifices of the old Law, in the voluntary freewill offerings, the jews had this Canon, that if a poor man brought a rich man's offering, God accepted of it: As, a pair of turtle doves and two young pigeons was a poor man's offering, and another offering for rich men. If the poor man brought a rich man's offering it was accepted; but if the rich man brought in a poor man's offering, if a rich man came with a pair of turtles or two young pigeons, this was not accepted; every man must give according to his ability.  
We are not lords of that we possess, but stewards and bailiffs; and the greater bailiwick, the greater account: To whom God hath given but one talon, he shall make account but for one; but to whom God hath given two, he shall make account for two; and to whom five, he shall make account for five. Thus as our gifts increase, so our account increaseth; according to the cost that God bestoweth on the ground, he looketh for fruit: of some ground it is enough if it bring forth thirty-fold; but of some ground God looks for sixty, and of some an hundred-fold. And they that have a great deal of goods, if they do not a great deal of good with it, they must look for a great deal of punishment. And how little goods soever we have, we must do good with it.  
You shall hear many say, If I had so much as such a man hath, I would do a great deal of good.  
I marry, a great deal of good: But first, Why should God trust thee with a greater estate, when thou wilt not do good with that thou hast? Why should thy father put into thy hands a greater stock, when thou wilt not employ that little? Be faithful in little, and then God will increase that, as the widow's oil, and thou shalt have the blessing. To do good, forget not. You have heard the thing exhorted unto; Now the manner:  
Forget not to do it.  
In a word, I will not stand upon it, It seems that we are easily apt to forget to do good, if we be not called upon. Therefore our Apostle (for I take St. Paul to be the Author of this Epistle) when he writes to Titus the Minister of the Church, saith he, Put them in remembrance, put them in mind to do good: It is one of his charges he gives, Tit. 3.1. Put them in mind to do good. It is a part of our duty to God, to put you in mind to do good, that you may not forget it. In Gal. 2.8,9. you shall find there, that the Apostles Peter, and james, and john, the pillars among the Apostles, those three gave the hand of fellowship to Paul and Barnabas, that they should preach to the Gentiles, and the other to the jews; and there was nothing agreed upon but only this among them, that they should remember the poor wheresoever they came: whether it were Peter, james, and john, that preached to the jews, or Paul and Barnabas to the Gentiles, this was covenanted and agreed on among them, to remember the poor, still to mind them.  
Therefore people must not take it ill at the Ministers hands, if that Ministers be still calling upon them for doing good and communicating; it is part of our duty to call on you, that you forget not to do good. And I could use many Arguments to perswade you still to remember to do good; but thus much only, you must know this, (I will speak of this one thing, and then I have done;)  
That, That God that forbids to do ill, hath commanded us also to do good: It is not enough for a man not to do ill, but he must do good too. Innocency is a good thing, to do no hurt, but innocency is not enough to salvation: It is not enough for us that we do no hurt, we must do good too. That God that forbids us to vex the stranger, commands us in another place, to entertain strangers: That God that in one place forbids us to grieve the widow and fatherless children, he commands us in another place to relieve them: That God that forbids us to take the clothing of a poor man for a pledge, commands us in another place, to clothe poor naked men: That God that forbids us to do ill to any man, commands us to do good to any man. That fearful sentence, Go ye cursed into everlasting fire, it shall not be only for doing ill, but it shall be for not doing good; I was hungry, and ye fed me not; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink, etc. and because you did not to one of these little ones, you did it not to me.  
All the trees planted in the house of God, are called trees of righteousness, Isai. 61. they must bring forth fruit; their leaves must be for medicine, and their fruit for food; there must be good, God cannot endure that we should grow unprofitable; let every man take heed how he grows unprofitable, that there come no good of that he doth: Take heed of unprofitableness, the unprofitable servant is bound hand and foot; the unprofitable chaff is scattered with the wind; the unprofitable figtree is hewn down; the unprofitable salt is cast on the dunghill; God cannot endure unprofitableness. I will conclude with that place, Ezek. 15.2. The Lord asks Ezekiel, Son of man, what is the vine tree good for? The vine brings fruit, it is good and comfortable for God and man, in jothams' parable. But God means the unprofitable vine tree, if it bear no grapes, what is it then good for? can you make a hook or nail of it, to hang a vessel on? You may do it with other trees, if they grow unprofitable: the figtree, or the appletree, or others, when they are unprofitable and bear no fruit, you may make a pin of them to hang a vessel on; but the vine, what is it good for? surely it is good for nothing but the fire; from one end to the other of it, you cannot make a pin to hang a vessel on: So either there must be grapes, there must be fruit, or woe and eternal perdition. To distribute, and to do good, forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.   
Heb. 13.16. 
To do good, and to communicate, forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.  
HEre is an Exhortation, and the Reason to enforce it: The Exhortation is, To do good, and to communicate. And then do we do good, when we do communicate that good that God hath given us, to the good of others.  
We have done with the Exhortation; We come to the Reason that the Apostle useth to enforce the Exhortation withal;  
For with such sacrifices God is well pleased.  
He saith not, With such works God is well pleased; but with such sacrifices. There are spiritual sacrifices; Prayer is one, and Thanksgiving another, and Repentance another, and Beneficence another. But the thing that is offered to God in all these spiritual sacrifices, is the heart: A devout heart in Prayer, a broken heart in Repentance, a grateful heart in Thanksgiving, and a tender compassionate heart in Beneficence. And it is the tenderness, and compassionateness, and the charitableness of the heart that makes it a sacrifice to God, and wellpleasing to him, and accepted of him.  
Again, he doth not say, This is such a sacrifice as God requires, (though he do require it too) but, This is such a sacrifice as God is well pleased with. It is motive enough to persuade a good child to do this or that, if it be a thing that will please his father: It is motive enough to persuade a faithful honest-hearted servant to do a thing, to tell him, This will please your Master: It is enough to persuade any good subject to do this or that, to assure him the thing will please his Sovereign: It is motive enough to a Christian heart, to persuade him to do good and communicate, to assure him, that this is a thing that God is well pleased with.  
But yet it is not every work done, not every thing that is in it of the substance of a good work, that is pleasing to God; there is more required then so, to make a sacrifice acceptable to God.  
There is something required in the doer; and, There is somewhat required in the thing done.  
There is somewhat required in the doer: First, he must be in Christ, that will offer a sacrifice acceptable to God. Take these Rules:  
First, If the person of a man please not God, his works can never please him. God accepted Abel, and his sacrifice: Abel first, and then his sacrifice. God never accepts a man's offering, till first he accept of his person. Now God accepts of no man's person, but in Christ; this is he, in whom I am well pleased. The Apostle calls Christ, the Son of God's love; and there are none that ever God loves, but he loves them in his Son, the Son of his love, Col. 1.13. That is one ground.  
Another is, Though a work be good as it comes from the Spirit of God, the Author of all goodness, yet it cannot come thorough our fingers, but we soil it: All our righteousnesses are as menstruous . If God should be extreme to mark what is done amiss, in our best works, who were able to obide it? Even as the offering of the children of Israel, it was called a holy offering; yet as holy as it was, there was some iniquity in that holy offering; but that was laid on Aaron; and when he bore the iniquity of all the other, the men and their works were accepted. So it is here, the works of a Christian man may be good works, good in substance, because they are works that God requires at his hands. Then they may be good in the fountain, when they spring from the Author of all goodness. And good in the end, because they are done to the glory of God, and the good of our brethren. But yet as there was some iniquity did cleave to the holy offering of the children of Israel, (as holy as it was) so there is some iniquity cleaves to our good work, how good soever it be: when that iniquity that cleaves to our works is laid upon Christ, who in his own body on the tree, bore the iniquity of us all, than our persons and works are graciously accepted, and all the iniquity that cleaves to our works mercifully pardoned. This is the first thing; What is required in the doer, to make his beneficence acceptable to God.  
But here is not all, there is something required in the thing done; and that I shall show you in the remainder of the time, by God's grace: And I shall lay it down in four Rules.  
The first is about the end. And you must not wonder that I begin at the end; for howsoever the end is the thing last attained, yet it is the thing first intended; it is the first thing in a man's intention. And besides, God regards not so much quid, as propter quid; not so much what we do, as for what we do. A man may do good works for ill ends, and then he must not look that God should accept them. It is the end that commends the action. Now there are three ill ends of doing good works.  
One end that some propound to themselves in doing good works, is, to make satisfaction to divine justice, for the sins they have committed. The Apostle would have us do good works for necessary uses; but God never appointed this use of good works. Our good works may be tokens of our secret predestination, they may be foretokens of our future happiness; but to think that by doing good we can make recompense and satisfaction to divine justice, and appease the infinite wrath of God for sin, before the which the very Angels themselves are not able to stand, it is a senseless and graceless fancy; tending much to the dishonour of Christ, and that all-sufficient satisfaction that he hath made for the sins of the world, when he offered up his flesh a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour to God. That is one ill end.  
Secondly, some propound another end, that is, to merit eternal bliss by it: And our English men, Rhemists, Romish, English men by birth, and Rhemists by education, and Romish by profession, oft times stand to it, to prove that good works are truly and properly meritorious, ex condigno, even of very condignity: In so much, say they, in their Comment upon Heb. 6. Good works are so fare meritorious, that God were unjust if he should not give heaven to our good works; he were unjust, if he should not yield heaven to our good works. This is the only place wherein they can find the name of merit; only because the vulgar Latin hath it; and they do in this place stand to prove the Doctrine of Merit, upon that word merit.  
Give me leave a little to show you, that good works cannot be meritorious: I will give you these reasons.  
One principal condition in a meritorious work is this, I must be done by a man's self: How can a man be said to merit any thing by a work that himself doth not, but another doth it by him, or in him? Now, you know, there is no good work that we do of ourselves, God works all our good works in us. Hark how the faithful pray in the Prophet, Lord, thou hast wrought all our works in us, Isai. 26.12. Our new translation reads, in us, our old, for us: The word in the Original will bear either the one or the other; take it as you will, in us, or for us, God hath wrought the work; Lord, thou hast wrought all our works in us, and for us.  
First of all, it is from God's grace that we are enabled to do good works, what works soever they be, it is grace that enableth us to do them. And then, when we are enabled, it is from grace that we are willing to do them; both our ability, and our willingness to do good, are from God. Look how the Apostle speaks, 2 Cor. 8. saith he there, I would have you know the grace that is bestowed on the Church of Macedonia. The grace that was bestowed on them, what grace was that? You may see in the two next Verses; nothing else but their willing bounty, even above their power, to do good; For, saith the Apostle, Vers. 3. to their power, I bear them record, yea (quoth he) above their power: There was the grace that was bestowed on them, they were willing to do good.  
So then, have we ability to do good, it is of grace: have we willing hearts to do good, it is of grace. Do we then any good, we must shout as the people, Zech. 4.2. and cry, Grace, grace, unto it. Double the word, Grace, Grace. Grace in enabling us, and grace in making us willing too: All is of God. So if a man do a good work, he is more indebted to God for it; God is not indebted to him, but he to God in making him able; and he is indebted to grace, for making him willing; he can merit nothing.  
Then mark a second Reason, how good works cannot be meritorious; Merit is Opus indebitum, it is above a man's desert; it is a work that is not due, that a man is not bound to do; for a man can merit nothing by doing that that he is bound to do already: he should transgress, if he did not do it; but he merits nothing by doing that that he stands bound in many bonds to do already. Doth the Master thank his servant for doing that that is commanded, Luke 17.9. Even so, (saith he) When you have done all you can, say, We are unprofitable servants. If we will merit any thing at God's hands, we must do somewhat that we are not bound to do. I, but how fare short come we in the things we do, of that that we are bound to do? we are so fare from doing more, that when we have done all we can, we are unprofitable servants. How much more unprofitable, saith Jerome, when we come short of that which God hath commanded?  
Thirdly, good works cannot be meritorious; I prove it thus: There must be some proportion between the work that is done, and the reward that is given of condignity. Now, I pray, consider but what that reward is that God hath promised; not according to the worthiness of our works, you must not think so; but of faith, of free mercy he hath promised a reward: And what is it? Look in 2 Cor. 4.17. see what it is, the Apostle calls it there, a fare more exceeding, eternal weight of glory. These light, momentany afflictions, saith he, procure to us a fare more exceeding, eternal weight of glory. Mark; First, it is glory that God hath promised for a reward. Secondly, it is more than so, it is a weight of glory. Nay yet more than so, it is an eternal weight of glory. Nay yet further, an exceeding, eternal weight of glory. So fare our English can carry it; but our English cannot carry it so fare as the Greek, for there it is, an exceeding exceeding. The Apostle could not tell what to make of it, it was so much: He made as much as he could, A glory, a weight of glory, an eternal, an exceeding eternal weight of glory, an exceeding exceeding weight of glory. Now I would ask, I pray, what proportion can be between a little poor temporal service that we do, and such an eternal, exceeding, exceeding eternal weight of glory? I will say no more concerning this point of merit.  
Let us never talk of merits, they were all lost in the first Adam, we lost all merit in him: Let grace alone reign in Christ. Let us say with Bernard, My merit is the Lords mercy. Let me have no merit, that will exclude grace: and, saith he, there is no place for grace to enter in, when merit hath taken up all the room before it comes. Therefore that is no right end.  
Thirdly, there is a third end that some propound of doing good; that is, glory from men. Vain men seek vainglory. Thus did the Pharisees, they would do a great deal of good, but they would do it so that they might be seen of men to do it. And indeed, it is lawful for men to be seen to do good, and our Lord would have us so to do good, that we may be seen of men to do it, to let our light so shine before men, that they may see our good works, and glorify our Father which is in heaven. If you be afraid of Spectators, you shall have no Imitators. If there be none to see you, there will be none to follow you. It is lawful for a man to be seen to do good, but men must not do good to be seen; for than they shall have their reward of men, they shall have none of their Father, God.  
There belong two things to every good work: 

There is the Glory of the work.  
There is the Reward of the work.    
The reward, God is pleased out of his free mercy to us in Christ to allow us that; he allows us the reward, but not the glory of the work; that must be his own, and he will not give that to another, as he saith. If we deprive God of the one, we must look that God should keep us from the other: If we keep from him the glory of the work, God will keep us from the reward of it. These are ill ends of good works. We must not do them to satisfy the justice of God for sin, or with opinion of meriting eternal bliss, or to be seen of men to do them.  
What is the end then of good works?  
Briefly, in one word, The end of all good works is the glory of God, in the good of our brethren.  
And God's glory is such a thing, as we are born to that end, to set forth the glory of God. As the Grace of God is our Alpha, so the Glory of God must be our Omega. As the Grace of God is the beginning from whence all things come, so the Glory of God must be the end, to which all things must be referred: Of him, and through him, are all things; to him be glory for ever and ever. And we cannot bring greater glory to God, and his holy Truth and Religion that we profess, then by doing good works. When men see our good works, and see how pitiful and tenderhearted we be, what bowels of compassion we have to our poor afflicted brethren, they cannot choose but glorify God, and acknowledge and say, Surely this is the seed that God hath blessed, Isai. 61.9. So much concerning the first Rule that I give you. Would you make your beneficence and good works that you do toward your poor visited brethren, pleasing and acceptable to God? do them to a right end, to God's glory, and your brethren's good.  
I come to a second Rule; the former was about the End, the second is about the Fountain, from whence our good works must flow. And what is that? Compassion. If we will make our good works pleasing and acceptable to God, they must flow out of a pitiful heart. If you instruct an ignorant man, which is a good work, it must be out of pity of his ignorance; if you feeda hungry man, it must be out of pity of his misery. The distribution of our goods to the poor, is accounted a work of charity, and so it is a great work of charit; if a man should do as Zacheus made an offer, give half his goods to the poor, and if I have wronged any man, I will restore it fourfold, you would account that a great work of charity; but suppose a man should give all his goods to the poor, you would say that were a transcendent work of charity; and it is true indeed: Yet see, a man may do even this transcendent work of charity, and have no charity. For, mark the Apostles speech, 1 Cor. 13.3. If (saith the Apostle) I should give all my goods to the poor, and have no charity: See, a man may give all that ever he hath to the poor, and yet have no charity; because that which he gives comes not from a charitable, compassionate heart. Holy job doth not only tell of his works of charity, but he tells out of what ground he did those works of charity, out of what fountain those works of charity flowed; and what was that? His compassion: Did not I weep for them that were in misery? was not my soul grieved for the poor? job 30.25. The works that a man doth, if he will make them a pleasing and acceptable sacrifice to God, they must come out of a fellow-feeling of his brethren's necessities.  
It is said of our blessed Saviour in the Scriptures, He went about doing good. It is true, he did; his whole life was nothing else but a going about, doing good. And be pleased to mark what you read again in the Gospel, you shall find that some of our Lords works that he did, were works of charity; and that he did, he did it out of compassion; and the Scripture notes it to us, that it was out of compassion he did it. Let me show some for example.  
Our blessed Lord cleansed Lepers, and it was out of very compassion to them that he cleansed them, the Scripture observes it so, jesus had compassion on them, and said, I will, be thou clean, Mark. 1.41. In another place we find, they brought many sick to Christ, and our Lord laid his hands on them, and healed them all; and it was out of compassion that he healed them, He had compassion on them, and healed their sick, Mat. 14.14. In another place, you know the miracle that our Lord wrought, he fed four thousand men, besides women and children, and with a few barley loaves and fishes; yet it was out of compassion, so he tells his Disciples, I have compassion on the multitude, they have been with me three days fasting, Mat. 15.32. Again, in another place, our blessed Saviour touched the eyes of the two blind men, and they received their sight, and followed him: and it was out of very compassion that he touched them, himself was touched with compassion, before he touched their eyes; So jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes, Mat. 20. ult. I will allege no more places but one: You find that our blessed Saviour raised a young man at Naim, but was dead, and carrying to burial; he touched the coffin, and raised him again to life; and it was out of compassion; not to the young man, for it may be his estate was happy; but to his mother: the Scripture gives the reason, she was a widow; and the name Widow, is a name of compassion; therefore out of compassion he saith, Weep not: and he touched the coffin, and restored her son to life, Luke 7.13. I could allege many places more, but these shall suffice. Mark, I pray, only a phrase of Scripture you shall find Isai. 58.10. If (saith the Prophet there) thou shalt draw out thy soul to the hungry; he saith not, If thou shalt draw out thy purse, though that be somewhat, or draw thy meat out of thy cupboard, or thy garments out of thy press, and give to a poor wretch; but, If thou shalt draw out thy soul. The soul must be drawn out first; and if a man can once draw out his soul to a poor wretch, it will make him draw out his purse, if he have it; he cannot but draw out his purse, if he have drawn out his soul. Therefore saith john, 1 joh. 3.17. If a man (saith he) hath this world's goods, and shall shut up the bowels of compassion upon men; he doth not say, If he shut his purse; but, if he shut up the bowels of compassion upon them, how dwelleth the love of God in him?  
And while I name the bowels of compassion, let me tell you, that word where it is said that Christ was moved with compassion, the Greek is, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, we cannot express it in English; it is a name from bowels, he was moved in his bowels: That compassion in Christ, and that that he would have us to show to our brethren, it is from the bowels. Therefore Mr. Beza translates the word, (he knows not how to express it in one word, it must be an inward motion) I think we call it, the yerning of the bowels; the bowels must yearn in us. When we see poor miserable wretches, we must not only relieve them, but this relief must be done out of pity and compassion, and tenderness of heart to their misery. If we would have our sacrifice of beneficence acceptable and pleasing to God, there are two things in beneficence, in doing good, the inward affection of the heart, and the outward act of the hand; they should not be parted, they should go together: Not only the inward affection of the heart, but the outward act of the hand; nor only the outward act of the hand, but it must proceed from the inward affection of the heart.  
But thus much, I can tell you one case, wherein God accepts the inward affection, without the outward act of the hand: Sometimes God enables not a man to give a gift, than he accepts of the good affection, and a pitiful heart to our brethren. Where God doth not find an ability to perform, there he accepts of a willing, loving, tender, charitable heart to our brethren; he accepts of the inward affection to our brethren. I can tell you, I say, this case, wherein God accepts of the inward affection, without the outward action; but I cannot tell you any case, wherein God ever accepts of the outward action, without the inward affection. The outward act of the hand, it may be, may be more acceptable to the man that stands in need, and receives; but the inward affection is that that makes it a sacrifice pleasing and acceptable to God. That is my second Rule.  
I come to the third and fourth; I will but touch them briefly. The third Rule is about the matter and substance of good works; Good works must be done with that which is our own: It is a sacrifice we find here, and we must not offer in sacrifice to God, that which is not ours. In 1 Chron. 21.24. David comes to Araunah the jebusite, to buy the threshing-floore, to make an Altar there to God, and Araunah bountifully offers him, Nay, my lord, you shall not buy it of me, I will give my lord this, and my bullocks for a burnt-offering, and I will give my threshing instruments to burn the offering with, and I will give wheat for a meat-offering; I will give all, I will give saith he. No, saith David, I will take nothing of gift, I will not offer to God any thing that cost me nothing; nay, if it cost me nothing, I will not offer it to God; but I will buy it at a price, and then I will offer it to God. We may not offer to God that that cost us nothing, but that that cost us labour, and industry, and the sweat of our brows; that that we have gotten by hard labour and pains in our calling, let that come, and it is welcome to God, God cannot be pleased with a mocking sacrifice. I pray, who would be contented to be mocked? The son of Syrach, Ecclus. 34.18. he tells us, that he that offers an unrighteous sacrifice, of unrighteous goods, he offers a mocking sacrifice to God: It is a mocking sacrifice, and will God be pleased to be mocked? why, ourselves would not, saith Gregory. Whatsoever in our sacrifice that we offer to God is ill gotten, it is so fare from appeasing the wrath of God, that it provokes him much more.  
It is a thing somewhat observable, that in the Scripture our almsdeeds are called righteousness, our beneficence is called righteousness in many places in Scripture; The good man is merciful and dareth, etc. He scattereth abroad, and gives to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever: that is, his almsdeeds. Psal. 112.9. And the Apostle prays for the Corinthians, that God would please to increase the fruits of their righteousness, 2 Cor. 9.10. that is, their beneficence; beneficence is called righteousness, And that which we read in Mat. 6.1. Take heed that you do not your alms before men, the vulgar Latin reads it, Take heed that you do not do your righteousness before men. Master Beza reads it so too; and he saith withal, that in two of the ancientest Greek copies that he hath, it is so. The Syriack Interpreter reads it so too, Take heed that you do not your righteousness before men. Nay, I shall tell you more, that Christ he looked in on them that put or cast money in the Treasury: Now what was that? It was a chest at the door, (as your poor men's box) in which they were wont to cast money, as they passed by out of the Temple: And this the Hebrews called, The chest of righteousness; not the chest of mercy, or of charity, but of righteousness.  
Why should our almos-deeds be called righteousness?  
I could give you many reasons, but let this suffice now at this time, Because God would have that to be righteously brought in, that is charitably laid out: we must lay nothing charitably out, but that which is first righteously brought in: that must be laid out to good uses, that is gotten by good means; let it be righteously gotten, and then it will be a sacrifice pleasing and acceptable to God. That is my third Rule: It must be our own that we give.  
The fourth and last Rule, that I will but name to you, is this, about the manner, that it must be done cheerfully. The first Rule was about the End, It must be done to a good end. The second Rule was about the Fountain whence it must flow, A pitiful heart. The third Rule was about the Matter or Substance, It must be our own. The last Rule is about the Manner, It must be done with alacrity and cheerfulness.  
And this cheerfulness must appear, first, in the countenance: A man must not give with an angry, unwilling countenance.  
Then it must appear in the words of a man; for a man may peradventure undo a good work, with ill words; he may bring a blemish on a good work, with ill words. Fair words are as an honeycomb, sweetness to the soul, and health to the bones. As there must be compassion and bowels, so there must be grace and favour in the lips. A good word sometimes may do more good than a good deed, to cheer and comfort a poor soul, and revive it.  
Thirdly our cheerfulness must be shown by our speedy giving; he gives twice, that gives quickly; and a man blemisheth his good work, that delays it. There is so much taken from the worth of every work, by how much it sticks longer in the fingers of him that doth it.  
Now you see, brethren, how you may make good works pleasing and acceptable to God: Your persons must be first in Christ. Then, you must have a good End; you must not propound to yourselves, to make satisfaction to divine justice, or to merit eternal bliss, or to think thereby to be seen of men, for vainglory and popularity; but your end must be God's glory, and your brethren's good. And then, this must flow out of a pitiful heart, Pro. 14.21. He that hath pity on the poor, blessed is he. He saith not, He that gives to the poor; yet he would not have it a barren, fruitless pity; but the meaning is this, He that pities the poor, and gives out of pity, blessed is he. Then again, it must be your own that you give; it must not be a burnt-offering of goods gotten by rapine, and by ill means.  
Then lastly, it must be done with cheerfulness; cheerfulness shown in the countenance, in words, in speediness and readiness to give. If it be thus, than it is a sacrifice acceptable to God.  
Nay, I will go further, God will reward such a sacrifice as this; you shall be sure of a reward at the hand of God: Though not for the merit of the work, (away with merit, talk not of that) yet you shall have a reward, through the free mercy of God in Christ.  
That is lost, you say, that is bestowed on an unthankful person; but, as Luther saith, if a man will not do good unless he can find a thankful man, let him look another world to do it in, this is not a world for him; if one of ten give thanks, it is enough: it was so with Christ, one Leper comes of ten; but yet though men prove unthankful, they will not seem to requite; though men forget, yet our good God will not forget. Hark what saith the Prophet, Mal. 3.10. Bring ye all the tithes into the store-house, that there may be meat in mine house; meat for the relief of the Levites, and so for the poor; for there went part that way too; that there may be meat in mine house, and try me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing from thence. Try me: Beloved brethren, you have tried many men, and you have made ventures, some perhaps to the furthest parts of the world; some have made ventures in this Kingdom; and you dare trust this man and that man with your estates and goods, and it may be some have cozened you of a great deal; this may be lost, Man is deceitful on the weights, lighter than vanity itself; but trust God with somewhat, venture somewhat to heaven: you venture in giving to the poor, you make it a hazard; but you never make so safe a return of any commodity in the world, as that that you give to your brethren.  
Riches we call the muck of the world, I would we did account it so as we call it, the muck of the world. May I give you a simile from yourselves; A heap of muck as it lies in the yard it doth no good, but carry it abroad into your pasture fields, and spread it, and you find the benefit of it: Thus it is, as long as your money and your goods lie heaped with you, it doth no good; carry it abroad and disperse it, as the Scripture saith, He hath dispersed and given to the poor, Psal. 112. it is taken from dung spread in the field; lay it out upon your poor brethren, and look for an increase; if you have it not in this life, assure yourselves you shall have it in the life to come; if you have it not in outward blessings, you shall be enriched in grace here, and in glory hereafter. To which the Lord bring you, for his sake that hath dearly purchased it for you, jesus Christ the righteous. Amen.  
FINIS.   

A SERMON PREACHED at Paul's, Novem. 14th. Anno Dom. 1641.  2 CORINTH. 6.8. 
By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true.  
THe words do refer to the 4th. verse, wherein the blessed Vessel of election, St. Paul, beginneth to show, how he and Timothy, and other faithful Ministers of Jesus Christ, did approve themselves to be so, by exercise of patience, by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the Word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness, on the right hand, and on the left; and all this, when (as it is in the Text) they passed thorough honour and dishonour, evil report and good report, accounted to be deceivers when they were true.  
In the handling of the words (wherein are three Antitheta's) I propound this course; I will first handle the Antitheta's themselves severally.  
In the second place, I will show how it is the lot of the best of God's children to pass thorough every one of them.  
And, in the third place, I shall show that we shall then approve ourselves to be true Ministers of Jesus Christ (as Saint Paul doth here) when, as passing through honour and dishonour, evil report and good report, held to be deceivers when we are yet true, we do notwithstanding keep the faith, hold our own, fulfil our Ministry.  

Honour, and Dishonour.  HOnour, in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is nothing else but a good opinion and estimation, which a man findeth among such as are wise, and virtuous, and religious; upon the acknowledgement either of some good graces, wherewith God hath honoured him, or of some good virtuous actions, wherewith he hath honoured God: 
Honour, in Scriptures non tantum in salutationibus & officiis deferendis, quantum in eleemosynis ac munerum oblatione sentitur. Hieron. in caput 15. Matthaei.  And this honour is made known abroad, not only by salutations and greetings in the Marketplace, which was a piece of Honour wherewith the Pharisee was well pleased; nor only in Titles to be called Rabbi, Rabbi, which they also affected, but in the performance of God offices, and all due observances, together with rewards and presents, which are therefore called Honoraria, as given by way of honour. Thus the Queen of Sheba honoured Solomon with a present of an hundred and twenty talents of gold, beside precious stones, and spices in great abundance, 1 King. 10.10. Thus the men of Judah honoured Jehosophat with so many presents, that he had riches and honour in abundance, 2 Chro. 17.5. So the Wisemen, that came from the East, did their honour to Christ, not only by falling down and worshipping him, but by opening their treasures, and presenting their gifts, Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh, Matt. 2.11. Our Saint Paul had honour, and much honour, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so saith Saint Luke, Acts 28. ver. 10. They honoured us with many honours, and laded us with such things as were necessary for our journey.  
And, to say no more, What is that double honour which the Elders are worthy of that rule well, 1 Timoth. 5.17. but Reverence and Maintenance? If maintenance be taken away, reverence is soon lost; who will give honour to the Minister, what ever worth be in his person, if ability and outward means be wanting? Solomon telleth us, that the wisdom of a poor man is despised, and his words are not heard, Ecclesiast. c. 9 ver. 16.  
This honour, in what thing soever it is shown, must be acknowledged a blessing of God bestowed upon his children, as a reward of former good services, and an encouragement to future. Thus was Abraham, though a stranger, honoured among the Hittites, as a Prince of God; and had a choice given him of a Sepulchre, amongst the choicest of their Sepulchers, Genesis 23. Jehoida, that reverend Highpriest, lived in honour, and died as full of honour as of days, having been matched in Marriage with the Sister of the King, and buried in the City of David among the Kings: and this was because he had done good in Israel towards God, and towards his house, 2 Chron. 24. ver. 16. But what do I speak of such eminent Persons? Saint John Baptist in his Eremitical retired course of life, wanted not his honour, not only among the people, who held a common constant opinion of him, that he was a Prophet, but even with Herod the King, who both feared him, and observed him, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, because he was a just, and an holy man. Goodness may command honour, when greatness must beg it. It is this honour which nourisheth Arts: Learning would soon decay, if this honour were taken from it: This encourageth to virtuous actions, 
Valerius Maximus.  Virtutis uberrimum nutrimentum honos. It is this that putteth a man upon the greatest services: David durst adventure to fight with the Philistine, after he had heard how the man should be honoured that slew him. There is no noble or generous spirit, but doth value honour at the highest rate: Interest honoris est majus omni alio Interest. We read of many, in Gentile Stories, as Ajax, Brutus, Antony, Cato Uticensis, and others, which have willingly rid themselves of life, to rid themselves of some dishonour: Did not Saul the like in holy Scripture, when he fell upon his own sword? Did not Samson the like, when he pulled the house upon his own head, and upon the heads of the Philistines, that had so dishonoured him? It troubled not Abimelech to think that he should die, it troubled him (when, wretched man! he should have thought of something else) to think that he should die so dishonourably, by the hand of a woman, Judg. 9 ver. 54. What hath caused so many duels, and mortal quarrels between noble and generous spirits, as that same too quick and sensible apprehension of some wrong done unto them in honour? Do but look upon examples of God's children in Scriptures. You shall find Elisha never so provoked, or so unable to dissemble his provocation, as when he was dishonoured, though it were by wanton and waggish children. Holy Job complaineth of nothing more than of that derision and scorn which he suffered from them, whose fathers he would have disdained to have set with the dogs of his flock; they were men of no Name, viler than the earth, and yet these men abhorred him, and spared not to spit in his face, Job 30. Miserrimum est fuisse foelicem: he telleth in the former Chapter, in what honour he had lived; it went nearer therefore his heart, to be thus dishonoured. We never read that good Nehemiah did use any imprecation against those sworn enernies of his, Sanballat and Tobijah the Ammonite, but only upon their contumelious reproaches: Hear us, saith he, for we are despised, O our God: Turn their reproaches upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the Land of captivity, Nehem. 4. ver. 4. Have mercy upon us, O Lord, cry the people. And again, Have mercy upon us: Why? what ail they? We are exceedingly, say they, filled with contempt; our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorn of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud, Psal. 123.3,4. What need I, by more examples, show you how God's children do complain of dishonours? One of the bitterest ingredients in that Cup, which our crucified Lord did drink for us, was shame and dishonour; which did wring from him that complaint in the midst of his sufferings; Vermis ego & non homo, I am a worm and no man, a scorn of men, and the outcast of the people, Psal. 22. ver. 6. And, indeed, in that kind of death on the Cross, it is a question whether the pain or shame is greater: but that glo●… is Author and finisher of our Faith, both endured the pain of the Cross, and despised the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the throne of God, Hebr. 12.4. and, if we desire to reign with him, we must be content to suffer with him, and learn to contemn that contempt that the world shall cast upon us in his cause: he was thus vile for us, and how vile soever we are for him, we are still to resolve with David, that we will be yet more vile than so.  

Good report and Evil report.  THe two next Antitheta are, good report, and evil report, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bona fama, & Infamia. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is first: but how irksome and odious that is to us, will best appear, when I have first showed unto you how precious and comfortable a good report is. But let me tell you first three things: First, we must not look for it from all men; Woe unto you, saith our Lord, when all men speak well of you, Luke 6. ver. 26 It is enough if we be well-reported of by the most; yea, it is enough, if, though we be not of the most, it be by the best. Secondly, we must not look for it always from the mouths of men. We commend ourselves, saith S. Paul, to every man's conscience, in the sight of God, 2 Corinth. 4.2. Our persons and actions may, peradventure, receive a good approbation from the consciences of men, when we cannot get a good word from their lips. Thirdly, we must not look for it at all times: it is not always a blessing, it may sometimes do us hurt; an ill use sometimes may be made of a good report, if the proud heart of the man sit and bless itself in that, for which he is well reported; and a good use may be made of an ill report, when a man by it is made either cautior, or humilior; either more humble for what is past, or more wary for afterward: but a good report from the mouth of good men, and from the conscience of evil men, at such time as it may bring honour to God, or good to us, is to be reckoned amongst one of the greatest blessings of this life; though it be no virtue, yet it hath the original from virtue: therefore, saith the Apostle, Si qua Virtus, si qua Laus; Virtus first, and then Laus, Phil. 1.8. 
Honesta fama alterum patrimonium.  First, it is bonum utile, accounted a second Patrimony, rather to be chosen then great riches, saith Solomon, Proverb. 22. ver. 1. then a thousand great treasures of Gold, saith the son of Syrach, Ecclus. 41.12. 
Plautus, in Mostellaria.  Ast ego si bonam famam servasso, sat ero dives, saith one in the Comedy, if I shall keep my credit, I am rich enough. Secondly, bonum jucundum: A good Name is better than a precious ointment, Eccles. 7.1. There is mentioned by Saint Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a certain Art of drawing of pigeons to their dove-houses, in those Countries, by anointing the wings of one of them with a sweet ointment, and, it being sent abroad, doth, by the fragrancy of that ointment, invite and allure others to that house, where itself is a domestic. Thy Name (saith the Church to Christ) is an ointment poured forth, Cantic. 1. ver. 3. Because of the savour of thy good ointments, therefore the Virgins love thee: And then, in the next verse, Draw me, saith she, and we will run after thee. A Preacher, well reported of, shall not want hearers. A Physician of a good report, wanteth not patients. The Lawyer that hath a good report, wanteth not clients, nor the Schoolmaster scholars, nor the Tradesman customers, nor the Poor man friends. Thirdly, and especially, bonum honestum. Amongst those things that are honest, and just, and pure, which are to be thought on, there are reckoned also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, those things that are of good report, in that fourth of the Philip. ver. 8. A good man if he be not so good as he is reported, he cannot but strive to be so good, because he is so reported: on the other side, he is a dissolute man that careth not what is reported of him. The child of God must not only look to his conscience, whereby he provideth for himself in the sight of God; but also to his good name, providing things honest in the sight of all men, Rom. 12.17. There are two things commended in the Lily, whiteness, and sweetness; there are these two in a child of God, saith Saint Bernard, 
Ber. Serm. 71. in Cant.  Candor conscientiae, & odor bonae famae; the candour of a good conscience, and the fragrancy of a good name: Nec candor sine odour, nec odor sine candore, saith he: My conscience is for myself, my good name for others. God would have none near to him, but such as are well reported of. The Widow that is to be maintained at the charge of the Church, not to be received in, unless well reported of for good, 1 Tim. 5.10. The first Deacons that were chosen, were to be men of an honest report, Acts 6.3. The Bishop (take the word in the largest sense) must be a man that hath a good report of them that are without, 1 Timoth. 3.7. The nearer we are to God, the more careful aught we to be of our credit; an evil report of one in that sacred Function, bringeth up an evil report upon the Function itself; an evil name of a Professor, bringeth a discredit upon the profession: and it were better that a millstone were hanged about our necks, and we thrown into the sea, than we should live, and, by our evil life, bring an evil name upon the Gospel, and so make the glorious Name of our God to be evil spoken of. I need add no more; only, because these days are days of evil report, wherein we do nothing else, but, as those Philosophers in Lucian, cast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, whole cartload of evil speakings, even in the faces of one another; let me, in a word, show what good uses may be made of those evil reports.  
First, Let us examine our consciences, whether they be true or no: if they be false, altogether false, than we may comfort ourselves in the testimony of a good conscience; and if our adversaries should write a book against us (and there be books enough written of that Argument, and cried every day up and down our streets) we might, with holy Job, take it upon our shoulders, and bind it as a crown to our heads, Job 31. v. 35, 36. But if the reports be in any part true, than it is fit that we should lie down in our shame, give God the glory of his justice, beg mercy, bear the punishment with patience, and give God thanks for it. Iram Domini portabo, quoniam peccavi ei: I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, Micha 7.9. If the reports be not altogether true, then let us search the wound a little deeper, and see whether we have not given a just occasion to such a report: It was said of that Vestal Virgin, that she was 
— 
* Ovid, Fast. lib. 4.  Casta quidem, sed non est credita,—  that she was chaste indeed, but not thought to be so; because she was more wantonly attired than became such a Virgin. It may be, though we are not so ill as we are reported, yet, upon examination, we may find that we are not so good as we ought to be, in shunning the occasions and appearances of evil, which ought to be unto us a sufficient matter of humiliation. If we be free from giving occasions, yet we should do well to search yet a little deeper, and try whether we have not entertained some morose cogitations, and thoughts of that sin wherewith we stand charged upon report. It may be that that wickedness hath been sweet in our mouth, and we have rolled it under our 
* Job 20. ver. 12.  tongue; though we have not swallowed it down, 〈◊〉 peradventure, we have not spit it out; and then, though 
* Digest. li. 48. Tit. 19 de Poenis.  cogitationis poenam nemo patitur, by the law of man; yet, it is a righteous thing with God, the Searcher of hearts, by false reports to punish that sin which hath found so kind an entertainment, or some other sin wherein we have lain without repentance.  
But, Lastly, it may, peradventure, please God in mercy, that such a false report should be charged upon us at this time unjustly, that we may be the more careful of our ways, and watchful over our hearts, with an holy jealousy against that sin, lest we be justly charged with it another day: Good God, Teach us to make this good use of evil reports. And so I have done with evil reports in general, and come now to one evil report in particular, which cannot but much trouble a true servant of God, to be counted a Deceiver, when he is True.  

Ut Seductores, & tamen Veraces.  As Deceivers, saith the Apostle, and yet True. There is no liar that would willingly be accounted a liar; we see how ready some are, while they are lying, to present death upon the point of a sword to the man that shall give them the lie: There are no false Prophets, not Zedekiah whilst he opposed Michaiah, nor Hananiah whilst he opposed Jeremiah, or any other of them, who would be accounted a false Prophet: they would be accounted as true, and yet were deceivers; as Paul and Timothy here were accounted deceivers, and yet were true. One especial reason given by good Authors, why Jonah should be so angry, and so very angry, that Nineveh was spared, was his own credit, that he might not be thought a false Prophet, as a deceiver, being true. Jeremiah also, when the Princes would have put him to death, as a false Prophet, regarded not his life, but stood in defence of that truth, which he had spoken: I am in your hand, saith he, do with me as seemeth good and meet unto you. But know ye for certain, that if you put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this City, and upon the inhabitants thereof; For, of a truth, the Lord hath sent me unto you, to speak all these words in your ears, Jer. 26.14,15. So our Saint Paul oftentimes vindicates his credit, and standeth upon his sincerity in preaching the Gospel; We are not, quoth he, as many men are, which corrupt the Word of God, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, seeking to vent their adulterate deceitful wares, or, as Vintners do mix their wines; But as of sincerity, as of God, in the sigh● 〈◊〉 God, speak we in Christ, 2 Cor. 2.17. And so in another place of this Epistle, Not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God, 2 Cor. 4.2. And this is it which every faithful Minister of Jesus Christ should especially stand upon, (For cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully, Jerem. 48.10.) that his words be the words of truth and soberness. Let the world judge as it will of the manner of our preaching; sometimes, they say, we are too hot, sometimes too cold; sometimes too learned for them, sometimes too unlearned; sometimes too high, sometimes too plain; sometimes too sharp, sometimes too pleasing: Let the world say what it will, if we speak the truth in Christ, our consciences bearing us witness in the holy Ghost, the Guide of our consciences, that we lie not, keeping back nothing that is profitable to the people, but declaring unto them the whole Counsel of God; we may then find joy and comfort to our souls, when all the comforts shall fail us that the world can yield us. And thus have I shown you what a Minister of Jesus Christ may pass thorough; I shall now come to the second point, and show you that it is the lot of many a dear servant of God to pass thorough them all.  

2. Point.  ANd where should I rather begin to give an Instance, then in our Crucified Lord? one day honoured, when he road into Jerusalem, bough's and garments spread in the way, with a joyful shout of Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest: and, the fifth day after, most shamefully dishonoured, with a continuing cry of Crucify him, Crucify him. In which kind of death, there may be doubted, as I said before, whether there were more pain, or shame; but pain enough to satisfy for our pleasure, and shame enough to satisfy for our pride. There's for honour and dishonour. Now for his good report and evil report: Let me tell you how sometimes he was reported to be a Prophet, a great Prophet, a Teacher come from God; that he was true, and taught the way of God in truth, and cared for no man, and regarded not the person of men, and lastly, that he did all things 
* Mark 7. ver. 37.  well. At other times, you shall find him reported to be a Blasphemer, an Enemy to Cesar, a Seducer of the people, a Gluttonous person, and a Wine-bibber, a Friend of Publicans and sinners, a Samaritane, and One that had a devil, and One that wrought by Beelzebub the Prince of devils: It were a wonder if they should not call him a Deceiver too: Yes, they did so; For whilst they murmured against him, some saying, He was a good man, others said, Nay, but he deceiveth the people, Joh. 7. ver. 12. And the chief Priests and Pharisees, in plain words to Pilate, call him a Deceiver, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Mat. 27.63. We remember this Deceiver said; and yet, though he was held as a Deceiver, he shown himself true in that; for praedixit & revixit, he foresaid it, and did it in his due time.  
Let me give you another instance in our St. Paul: You have heard how, at Malta, he was honoured with much honour, and laden with necessaries: You shall read, at Philippi, Acts 16.23. how much he was dishonoured, and laden with many stripes; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in the place before, now here, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But, you will say, these were at two several places; Look Act. 14. and you shall find him honoured at Lystra, more than was fit for a man to be honoured. He and Barnabas had much ado to keep the people from sacrificing to him, as to a god, &, presently after, (it is generally believed the same day) they stoned him with stones, even to death, as they supposed, (for they supposed him to be dead) and dragged him, like a dead dog, out of the gates of the City. Oh the inconstancy of humane favour! I cannot but think how the Athenians, in Plutarch, used Demetrius Phalereus: they set up two hundred statues to his honour, and took them every one down again, while Demetrius was yet living, to his dishonour; and that before either 
* Cum nullam earum aut aerugo attigerat, aut pulvis sordidaverat, Plut. Apophth.  rust had spoiled them, or dust had soiled them. But what do I allege out of these Histories? Examples of the vulgars' inconstancy, dishonouring where they have honoured one day, and honouring where they have dishonoured another? Nothing formerly hath been more honourable at home, or admirable abroad, than the English Clergy: nothing grown now more despicable. 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost. in 2 Tim. c. 1. hom. 2.  S. chrysostom complained of the like in his time, that all things were turned upsidedown, and brought to confusion; that the Church Governors were not honoured, no reverence, no fear yielded to them, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But, good God, how much worth, how much learning, zeal, piety, religion, in some Governors of the Church, have we seen shamefully trampled on, under the dirty feet of some Sectaries in their scurrilous libels and pamphlets? I know none, I speak it in the presence of God, that have done better services to the Reformed Churches against Popery, by their Writings and Preach, than some Reverend Fathers in our Church have done 
* I mean (beside those Martyr-Bishops, Cranmer, Ridley, etc. in Q. Mary's days) such Bishops as have been in the Church of England & Ireland, since the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign: as, namely, Archbish. Parker, to whose care we are beholding for most of our ancient Histories. Bishop Bale, Ossoriensis Episcopus, for his many Volumes. Bishop Jewel, for his Works. Archb. Saundys, for his Sermons. B. Bilson, for his Book, entitled, The Difference between Christian Subjection, and Unchristian Rebellion, etc. B. Andr. for his Polem. B. Buckridge, for his Book, De potestate Papae in rebus Temporalibus, etc. B. Abbot, of Sarisbury, for his Book in Defence of Master Perkins. B. Babington, for his Works. Bishop Lake, for his learned Sermons. Bishop Davenant, for his Praelectiones de duobus in Theologia controversis Capitibus, etc. and other Tracts. Bishop White, for his Book against Fisher. Bishop Carleton, for his Book against Arminianism. The Lord Primate of Armagh, never to be mentioned without honour, for his unparallelled Works: and many others. ; whereof some are fallen asleep, and some remain to this day, and long may they live, to the performances of the like services. Who hath so plainly discovered unto us 
a See Bishop Morton his Book of that Argument.  THE GRAND IMPOSTURE OF THE (now) CHURCH OF ROME? Who hath so openly laid before us 
b See his Institution of the Sacrament.  the superstitious, sacrilegious, and idolatrous abominations of the Romish Mass? Who hath so fully manifested 
c See his Catholic Appeal, with many other of his accurate and learned Treatises against the Romanists.  the Antiquity of our Religion, and satisfied all scrupulous Objections, which have been urged against us? Who hath so evidently demonstrated 
d See Bish. Downham his Diatribe de Antichristo, & Bish. Abbot of the same Argument.  the Pope to be The Antichrist? Who hath so fully cleared that high point of 
e See Bish. Downham his Treatises of Justification.  Justification, and overthrown the Popish Doctrine of Merits? Who hath so clearly set down 
f See Bish. Usher his Historica Explicatio of that subject.  the beginning, progress, and increase of the mystery of Iniquity, from the birth of Antichrist, to his full age, out of manifold Records of Antiquity? Who hath given us so wholesome a 
g See Bish. Hall of the old Religion.  Preservative against all Popish Insinuations? In a word, who have more approved themselves the worthiest Champions, most willing, most ready, most able, to oppose all Popish, Antichristian, Arminian, Pelagian, Doctrine, than some of These, who have been styled in the late pamphlets Popish, Antichristian, Arminian, Pelagian Bishops? It is no open enemy that hath done this wrong, but the men of this Land, and children, as they would be thought to be, of this Church, that have dishonoured these Worthies, that have been an Honour to this Church and Land. As for us Ministers of the Gospel, of inferior rank, who have always preached the same divine Truth (some of us, in the days of Queen Elizabeth) and have received that mercy from God, to be faithful 〈◊〉 holding the same profession, without wavering or warping, unto this day; how are we at this time (only because we walk in the way of the Church, and study the peace of it, desirous to yield obedience to God and our Superiors) how are we, I say, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, brought upon the Stage? Heb. 10.33. traduced as Baal's Priests, derided, contumeliously used, reproached in our streets, our Churches, our Pulpits, accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all things, a spectacle to Angels and men?  
But, holy Brethren, to come to my third point, wherein I shall make the use of all this: We may approve ourselves to be the true Ministers of Jesus Christ, if that neither honour puffeth us up, nor dishonour disheartneth us; if neither a good report doth make us proud, nor an evil report faint-hearted, but can pass through all these, honour and dishonour, evil report and good report, counting nothing in life, nor life itself dear to us, so as we may finish our course with joy, and the Ministration which we have received of the Lord Jesus Christ.  
To that end let me tender these things briefly to our consideration:  
First, that this vicissitude of honour and dishonour, evil report and good report, is from the Lord, who must be allowed to do what seemeth good in his eyes. The time was, we do confess with thankfulness, that the people did esteem us as the Ministers of Jesus Christ; that they knew us, and did acknowledge us worthy, and accordingly had us in exceeding great love, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for our works sake, that they might show that they could have pulled their eyes out of their head to have done us good, that they honoured us with much honour, and laded us with necessaries, and plentiful provision for our encouragement to the work of the Ministry. Have we received so much good at the hand of God, and may we not now with patience receive some evil? There is no evil done in the City in this kind, but the Lord hath done it, Amos 3.6. God hath bidden them to curse us, and revile us, and traduce us, and load us with all these contumelies and reproaches; and it may be these things being sanctified to us, God may do us good for all our reproaches this day: we should consider that as it cometh not without due desert, seeing God is just; 〈◊〉 shall not pass away without due profit, seeing God is good.  
Consider again, That there is nothing can come from the hand of this God to his servants, but it cometh in the nature of a mercy: while we were honoured, it was in mercy to encourage us; and now we are dishonoured, and our souls filled with contempt, it is done in mercy to admonish us to walk both more humbly with God, and more warily with men.  
Again, It is but the pride of our hearts that makes us so impatient of every light dishonour; for if we were as we should be, vile in our own eyes, it were nothing, nothing to be vile in the eyes of others. Besides, hear what our Lord says to his Disciples, Blessed are you when men shall say all manner of evil of you, falsely for my sake: Rejoice and be glad,— For so persecuted they the Prophets that were before you, Matt. 5.11,12. The Prophets, before the Apostles, were thus persecuted; the Apostles, and all the Worthies, since the Apostles days, have been so persecuted in their several Generations; and our blessed Lord, the Head both of Prophets and Apostles, hath been, as you heard before, persecuted in like manner.  
Now, the disciple must not look to be above his Master, nor the servant above his lord It is enough for the Disciple, that he be as his Master, and the servant as his lord If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? Mat. 10.24,25.  
Lastly, Behold there is a crown in the right hand of Christ, and the word upon it is, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to him that overcometh. Brethren, let us hold fast that which we have, and let no man take away our crown; let us hold on still, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to divide the Word of God aright, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to walk with a right foot in the profession of it: Et innocenter agere, & scienter praedicare; not studying so much to have our gifts commended, as to have God glorified, the consciences of people edified, their lives reform, and their souls saved: And then, if we find favour in God's sight, God may bring us again into favour with men; but, if he thus say, I have no delight in you, nor in your services; behold, here are we, let him do to us as he pleaseth.  
He that, passing through honour and dishonour, as St. Paul did, can say, as St. Paul 〈◊〉 I have fought the good fight, I have finished my coarse, I have kept the faith; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I have kept it, may assure himself of a crown of Righteousness laid up for him; which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give him that day, and to all them that love the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: To whom, with the Father, and the blessed Spirit, Three Persons, one True, Immortal, Invisible, only Wise God, be given all Honour, Glory, Dominion and Power, now and for ever. Amen.  
FINIS.