SERMONS PREACHED BY THAT REVEREND AND LEARNED DIVINE RICHARD clerk, Dr. in divinity; Sometimes Fellow of Christ college in Cambridge. One of the most Learned Translators of our English Bible; Preacher in the Famous Metropolitan Church of Christ, Canterbury. Since his death, published for the Common good, By CHARLES WHITE, Mr. in Arts, and one of the Six Preachers of Christ Church, Canterbury.  {αβγδ} {αβγδ} Sola virtus expers sepulchris. {αβγδ}. Clem. Alex. 
LONDON, Printed by T. coats, for Thomas Alchorn, and are to be sold at his shop at the sign of the green Dragon in S. Pauls Church yard. 1637.   

Perlegi has Conciones Doctissimi viri Dni. Dris. clerk, in quibus nihil reperio sanae doctrinae, aut bonis moribus contrarium.  
Tho. Weekes R. P. Episc: land. Totius Ang. Archithes. Capellanus domest.   

TO The Reverend and Right worshipful, Isaac Bargrave, D. D. and dean of the Metropolitan Church of Christ Canterbury. John Warner D. D. and dean of Lichfield and Coventrie. Also to the Reverend, 

Tho. jackson.  
Will. Kingsley.  
Ar. Fruen.  
Tho. Paske.  
Mer. Casaubon.  
joh. jeffery.  
Tho. Westly.  
Hum. peak.  
Tho. Blechenden.   Doctors in divinity and Prebendaries of Christ Church Canterbury, Grace and Peace be multiplied, with increase of all honour and happiness for ever.  
Reverend and worshipful,  
FOr myself, I am neither worthy of note, nor noted▪ but th●● book of Sermons which 〈…〉 dedicate to your worthy names, merits both. The Author Doctor clerk, {αβγδ}, high 
Naz. orat. 21.  in worth, {αβγδ}, but humble in mind. In Aarons brest-p●●e was urim and Thummim, knowledge, and virtue; in this ●●ctors breast was combined, scientia▪& conscientia, learning ●nd integrity; of whom that may be said, which is written of S. Steven, that 
Act. 7. 21.  he was {αβγδ}, both {αβγδ}, and {αβγδ}, able but 〈…〉 is learning, and his life to confounded the Adversary. 〈◇〉, learning, and modesty in one man to meet, {αβγδ}, hard and rare saith Nazianzen. These met in him. Pi 〈…〉 s he was; his 
Ep. 187.  care of God his true worship, and zeal unto 〈◇〉 house, cannot be forgotten: He delighted in the Lords ●welling, in Beth-el, Gods house was his joy; Divine Sermons had his presence, so had divine Service. Man may pray as Quandocunque, 
1 Tim. 2. 8.  so also vbicunque, as well wheresoever, as whensoever. {αβγδ}▪ saith Theophylact; Men may lift up pure hands in every place, as {αβγδ} so {αβγδ}. He not content with private prayer in his own house, daily frequented Gods house, esteeming it his happiness to offer up▪ both sacrificium laudis, his thanksgiving, and vitulos labiorum, his prayers to God, in the great Congregation. And that which adds unto the honour of his name, he was constant in the true worship of God, and faithful unto death, {αβγδ}, as Clemen. 
Clem. Alex. in Protrep. 1 Cor. 16. 13.  Alex. to the last gasp. Faith requires stability, {αβγδ}, stand fast in it. A soldier must not onely not be a Transfuga, fly over to the adverse part, but he must not so much as stationem deserere, shrink one whit from his standing. This Christians 
2 Tim. 4. 7.  ground was faith, and surely he might say with S. Paul at his departure, {αβγδ}, I have kept it. Nazianzen complains of some, that did {αβγδ}, fit their faith to the times, 
Orat. 25. ad Const. Aug  and so made it, fides temporum potius, quàm Evangeliorum, as hilary speaks. But this worthy, was no time pleaser. Omnia pro veritate, Nihil pro tempore. A wise man saith S. Ambrose, Non 
Hexam. l. 4. Hil. p. 308. V. Lyrin. c. 7.  cum Luna mutatur, said permanebit cum Sole. He was truly wise, his faith, was not like that of the Arrians, annua,& menstrua. Nought could drive him from the truth, Non homines, Non daemons.  
works of charity are signs of piety, he was Pious this 
500 pound. ad Pios usus.  way too; witness his large Legacies to the poor, the souls of many blessed him for this. He gave not to all, alms belong not, {αβγδ}, to them that make a 
Socrat. l. 7.  trade, or living of begging. His pitty was to the weak poor, {αβγδ} whose hands fail and tremble, to such as live in Hospitals, {αβγδ} as the Hebrewes term them, houses of mercy, to his own poor.  
alms willed by dying men, {αβγδ}, as Athanasius calls 
Tom. 2. q. ●●. ad Anti.  them, are but dead sacrifices, yet acceptable at death, if there be mercy in time of life: His mercy was great to many poor at his death, great to his own poor in his life, when 
100 pound to Minster. 20 to S. Mary Mount. in London.  he made his own hands his Executors; and his own eyes his Overseers.  
Modest he was, Caret ambitione religiosa devotio, said S. Ambrose, free from ambition, {αβγδ}, Naz. term; Never active to preferment. Indeed the Lay-world had then learned, {αβγδ}▪ and that was Greek to him, he abhorred to defile himself, to corrupt others. This I can truly relate, and from his own mouth too, the preferment that he had was conferred on him unaskt, unlooked for. Naz. would not seek honour, nor 
●rat. 1.  refuse it, {αβγδ}. This Dr. did not onely not seek it, but refused it. One onely place in all his time he affencted, and made suit for, the Custos-ship of Christs college in Cambridge, not to better his estate, but to better it; It was his Ithaca, and he did zeal the good of it.  
Learned he was. Knowledge caused Galen to be called Naturae miraculum, this Doctor was Ecclesiae miraculum. No man ever knew him, but must needs say, that one of the brightest stars in our East is set. They which knew him well, knew him learned, in all kind of learning. All Arts are knit, inter se, hence Tertullian, Nulla non alterius aut matter, aut 
De Idol. c. 8.  propinqua. This divine had joined all in himself so well, that it is hard to say in which he was {αβγδ}. Q Ennius called himself Tri-Cor; A. Gellius speaks the reason, he perfectly knew three tongues, Graecam, Oscam, Latinam. Tri-Cor a fit title for Doctor clerk, he thoroughly understood three languages, latin, greek, and Hebrew; the reason as I conceive, that moved Doctor Willet in his dedicatory Epistle to Christs college, to style him, Trium linguarum peritissimus. That college had a testimony of his learning in his Hebrew Lectures, so had the university in his Disputations, and Clerums; so had the Church; when his Majesty of blessed memory, called many to the great work of the last Translation of the Engglish 
Dr. Andrewes Overall. Saravia. clerk. From the Pentateuch to Paralip. committed to him and Dr. Saravia. He sate judge in the Eccles. Court.  Bible, he was in that Number, like one of the chief of Davids worthies, not amongst the thirty, but amongst the first three. And as he was {αβγδ} of great learning, so also {αβγδ} of great pains. His life a continual labour, either reading, or preaching, or judging; or in that which was his felicity, in instructing young Gentlemen, young Schollers. Many may truly say of this book as Cyprian of Tertullian, Da Magistrum. But wise men die, said the Psalmist as well as the foolish; There is Nomen Indeclinabile, and such a noun is Death; This learned clerk, this great Grammarian could not decline it. He is worthy to be remembered of us though dead, for he loved us, and our Church, witness this pledge of his love to both, his works. These works but Sermons, and those not many, yet such as the world hath few better. What Augustine spake of a short Text, is true of these Sermons, Pauca verba, said magnarum rerum gravida, theres more sound lightly in mens words than substance; in these sermons, theres more substance, than sound in words. The words are but few, but full, as Philo said of love, so I of these {αβγδ}. He that reads them, shall have no just cause to complain with him in the comedy, Pol ego& oleum,& operam perdidi.  
If my testimony be too slight and slender,( as indeed who can worthily praise him) let it be remembered what Pliny 
Plin. Sec. l. 5. Ep. 10.  sometime said to Antoninus, Pictores pulchram, absolutamque faciem raro nisi in pejus effingunt, an exact face is very seldom drawn but with much disadvantage; much more when a bungler hath it in hand. I may say of him and his works, 
Naz. in Bas. orat. 20.  as Nazianzen of Basil, {αβγδ}, here wants his own tongue to speak the worth of himself and works, {αβγδ}, in both there is excellent matter of praise, {αβγδ}, but himself alone worthy, because alone able to commend that matter. But the sea saith Nazi. {αβγδ}, need not the rivers, that yet run into it; nor he mine or any others praise. Learned he was among the living, my desire is he may bee living among the learned. How shall he now live, but by preserving alive this posthume issue of his exquisite brain?  
These Sermons when uttered with his voice, were heard by your worships with admiration; Printing is a kind of preaching. Clem. Alex. notes it, {αβγδ} both preach 
Clem. Alex. storm. l. 1.  the word, {αβγδ}: which when the world shall red, they will marvel, that such excellency could lye so close. But qualia, qualia, presuming of your worships favourable acceptance; not for his sake that dedicates them, for what am I, or my deservings? but for the Authors, whose memory remaines yet with you, and you desire( I hope) should do so with others, I recommend them to your Patronage, and yourselves to Gods protection, beseeching him, to vouchsafe you his love, while you live on earth, and to crown you after death▪ with eternal life in heaven. This is his prayer, who shall remain,  
Devoted to Your Worships in▪ all thankfulness and service, CHARLES WHITE.   

A Catalogue of the several Sermons contained in this book.  

Of the Nativity, Preached upon Christmas day.  
The first Sermon. joh. 1. 29. BEhold the lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. page.. 1  
Sermon, II. Esay 9. 6. For unto us a Child is born. p. 12  
Sermon, III. Heb. 1. 3. Hath by himself purged our sins, &c. p. 18  
Sermon, IV. Heb. 1. 5. For unto which of the Angels said he at any time, &c. p. 25  
Sermon, V. Heb. 1. 8. O God thy seat is for ever and ever; the sceptre, &c. p. 35  
Sermon, VI. Luk. 2. 11. For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, &c. p. 45  
Sermon, VII. Luk. 2. 14. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men. p. 56  
Sermon, VIII. 1 Tim. 3. 16. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness, &c. p. 65  
Sermon, IX. 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Iesus Christ, &c. p. 73   

I. Sermon Preached upon S. Stevens day.  
Act. 7. 59. Lord Iesus receive my spirit, &c. p. 73   

I. Sermon preached upon Innocents day.  
Math. 2. 16. And slay all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, &c. p. 80   

I. Sermon Preached upon twelve day.  
Titus 2. 11. For the grace of God, that bringeth Salvation hath; &c. p. 87   

Sermons Preached upon the Purification of Saint Mary.  
Sermon, I. Luk. 2. 30. For mine eyes have seen thy Salvation. p. 94  
Sermon, II. Luk. 2. 32. A Light to be revealed to the Gentiles, and the glory of thy People Israel. p. 103  
Sermon, III. Luk. 2. 34. And for a sign that shall be spoken against. p. 112   

I. Sermon Preached upon Quadragesima Sunday.  
Mat. 4. 9. All these will I give thee; if thou wilt fall down, and worship me p. 118   

I. Sermon Preached upon Maunday Thursday.  
Luk. 23. 43, To day thou shalt be with me in Paradise. p. 126   

Sermons of the Passion of our Saviour, preached upon Good-fryday.  
Sermon, I. Mat. 27. 50. Then Iesus cried again with a loud voice, and gave up the Ghost. p. 134  
Sermon, II Luk. 23. 46. Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit. p. 142  
Sermon, III. Phil. 2. 8. He humbled himself, and became obedient unto the death, even the death of the cross. p. 151  
Sermon, IV. 1 Pet. 2. 24. By whose stripes ye were healed. p. 160  
Sermon, V. Mat. 27. 4. Saying, I have sinned in betraying innocent Blood. p. 170   

Sermons Preached in Rogation week.  
Sermon, I. Psal. 78. 49. He sent evil Angels among them. p. 179  
Sermon, II. joh. 16. 23. Amen, Amen, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. p. 186   

I. Sermon preached upon the fifth Sunday after Trinity.  
Luk. 5. 8. Lord go from me, for I am a sinful man. p. 193   

I. Sermon Preached upon the Feast of All Saints.  
Apoc. 7. 10. Salvation to our God, that sitteth on the throne, and to the lamb. p. 201   

I. Sermon preached upon S. Thomas day.  
joh. 20. 29. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet, &c. p. 210   

I. Sermon Preached upon the Kings day.  
1 Pet. 2. 17. fear God, Honour the King. p. 219   

Vpon the 5. of November.  
The first Sermon. Apoc. 17. 6. And I saw the woman drunken, &c, p. 226  
Sermon, II. Apoc. 17. 6. And with the blood of the Martyrs of Iesus. p. 234   

At the Visitation.  
The first Sermon: Num. 16. 3. And they gathered themselves together, &c. p. 239  
Sermon, II. 1 Tim. 5. 17. Let the Elders that rule well, &c. p. 249  
Sermon, II. Zach. 11. ult. Woe be to the idol Shepherd. p. 249  
Sermon, III. 1 Cor. 14. 40. Let all things be done Decently, and in Order. p. 257   

At the Sessions.  
The first Sermon. Deut. 16. 20. That which is altogether just shalt thou follow. p. 266  
Sermon, II. 2 Chron. 19. 6. And he said unto the Iudges, &c. p. 274   

Sermons Preached upon several Occasions.  
Sermon, I. Gen. 3. 15. It shall bruise thy head, and &c. p. 281  
Sermon, II. Gen. 3. 22. Behold the man is become like one of Vs. p. 289  
Sermon, III. job 2. 9. Curse God, and die. p. 297  
Sermon, IV. job 13. 15. lo, though he kill me, yet will I; &c. p. 305  
Sermon, V. job 19. 26. Yet in my flesh shall I see God. p. 312  
Sermon, VI. Psal. 14. 1. The fool said in his heart there is no God. p. 319  
Sermon, VII. Psal. 51. 3. And my sin is ever before me. p. 327.  
Sermon, VIII. Psal. 51. 3, My sin is ever before me. p. 335  
Sermon, IX. Psal. 122. 6. Pray for the Peace of jerusalem. p. 342  
Sermon, X. Prov. 23. 26. My son give me thy heart. p. 349  
Sermon, XI. Eccle. 5. 1●. keep thy foot, when thou goest, &c. p. 357  
Sermon, XII. Cant. 1. 5. I am black, but comely, O ye Daughters, &c. 365  
Sermon, XIII. jer. 4. 2. And thou shalt swear, the Lord liveth, &c. 373  
Sermon, XIV. Ezek. 18. 1 What mean ye, &c. The Fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the Childrens teeth are set on edge. p. 389  
Sermon, XV. Amos 7. 13. prophesy no more at Bethel, &c. p. 397  
Sermon, XVI. Mat. 16. 26. What is a man advantaged, &c. p. 405  
Sermon, XVII. Luk. 3 14. What shall we do. p. 413  
Sermon, XVIII. joh. 1. 47. Behold a true Israelite, in whom, &c. 421  
Sermon, XIX. Act. 7. 60. And he kneeled down, and cried, &c. p. 429  
Sermon, XX. Act. 17. 19. May we not know, what this new doct. &c. 437  
Sermon, XXI. Col. 3. 1. seek those things which are above. p. 444  
Sermon, XXII. Col. 3. 9. lie not one to another. p. 450  
Sermon, XXIII. 2 Tim. 2. 19. And let every one that calleth on, or, nameth Christs name, depart, &c. 458  
Sermon, XXIV. Iam. 2. 18. show me thy Faith by thy works. p 468  
Sermon, XXV. 1 Pet. 4. 3. I● sufficeth us to have spent the time past of our Life, &c. p. 479  
Sermon, XXVI. The Holy catholic Church. p. 487  
Sermon, XXVII. Exod. 20. 14. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 494  
Sermon, XXVIII. Vpon the last question of the Church catechism. What is required of them that come to the Lords Supper. p. 500   

Wedding Sermons.  
The first Sermon. Gen. 2. 24. For this cause shall a man leave Father and Mother, &c. p. 508  
Sermon, II. Heb. 13. 4. Marriage is honourable among all men, &c. p. 517   

funeral Sermons.  
The first Sermon. 1. King. 19. 4. It is enough, now, O Lord, take away my soul. p. 524  
Sermon, II. Ecclesiast. 12. 7. And Dust return to the Earth as it was, &c. p. 532  
Sermon, III. Esay. 40. 6. All Flesh is grass. p. 539  
Sermon, IV. Matth. 25. 46. And these shall go into everlasting pain. p. 545  
Sermon, V. Heb. 9. 27. But after this, the Iudgement. p. 551  
Sermon, VI. Apoc. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead, that die in the Lord. p. 559  
Sermon, VII. Apoc. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead, that die in the Lord, &c. p. 565   

The Authors farewell Sermon.  
2 Cor. 13. ult. The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ, and the love of God, and the Communion, &c. p. 571   
FINIS.   

OF THE nativity. The first Sermon. PREACHED VPON CHRISTMAS-DAY.  joan. 1. 29. Ecce Agnus Dei, qui tollit peccatum mundi. John 1. 29. Behold the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. 
THE Argument of my Text is the voice of a Crier, proclaiming the messiah; the oiez fits John well. For the Fathers call Ecce, Praeconem Dei, Gods crier, and this is John the Baptist, whom the Prophet calls a crier. Onely where the use of criers among men, is to make a triple oiez, John makes his but twice. It is again, ver. 36. For the eye is quicker, then the ear; one iteration may suffice that sense. And indeed this is not an oiez, but a voiez, the Cry is to the eye, Ecce, Behold.  
The Prophets cried Ecce as well as John. So did Esai, Behold a Virgin shall conceive. So did Zacharia, Ecce Rex tuus venit, Behold thy King cometh. But their Cry was but {αβγδ}, their cry was to the eye, but to the eye of Faith. But John the Baptist, whom our Saviour calleth more then a Prophet, his Ecce is {αβγδ}, not to the eye of Faith, but to the eye of flesh. John that was Christs harbinger, is his herald now, not to run before him, as his {αβγδ}, but to cry before him; to proclaim him to the people. That he doth here, but not in Proclamation style; few words, but of force; but five in all; but like Christs five Barley loves, able to feed thousands; like Davids five smooth stones, able to fell Giants, even satan, the great goliath of Hell.  
Doth the Oiez of a crier excite the ears of men; and the Ecce of a Prophet stirs it not the eyes of men? do we not harken, when the one cries hear; and will we not look, when the other cries, lo. As therefore Esay, when God bad him Cry, asked, what shall I cry; so the Baptist in my Text crying Ecce, Behold, let us answer, what shall we behold? The cry contains five words; let us( if you please) behold five things, for every word one. The first, the Object, it is a lamb; Behold the lamb. The next the Owner, it is Gods lamb; Behold the lamb of God. The third, his act or office, it is to bear, for so Saint Peter consters it. The fourth, the burden, it is sin. The last, the bulk of the burden, it is a world of sin. Behold the lamb of God, that bears the sin of the world. These are the things contained in my Text; I will speak of them severally.  
Doth not Saint John the Evangelist call Christ a Lion? Apoc. 5. 5. Why doth Saint John the Baptist call him then a lamb? The Lion and the lamb, the Prophet Esay tells us, both shall dwell together in the daies of Christ: but may they both be together in the person of Christ? not onely in one place together, but also in one case together? Different respects may tie discordant titles unto one Subject. His courage against satan, whom he conquered, his patience among men, whom he suffered, declared there was met in one messiah, the stoutness of a Lion, and the meekness of a lamb. Saint Bernards distinction so determines it, Agnus in passione, lo in resurrectione, he rose like a Lion, but he suffered like a lamb.  
Christ asks in the gospel, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? I may much rather ask, whereunto shall I liken the son of God? John Baptist doth liken him here unto a lamb; the fairest of all men, so David calleth Christ, to the best of all beasts: so Philo cales the lamb, {αβγδ}, the best of the brute Creatures. A name, not newly founded, nor onely used by the Baptist. Both Esay before him, the Evangelicall Prophet, and Saint John after him, the prophetical Evangelist, almost in every Chapter of his Revelation, hath called Christ, the lamb. All three of them do grace it with a note of demonstration, the Prophet and Evangelist with an article alone, but the Baptist in my Text, with a particle besides, Behold the lamb; both of them demonstrative; yea which is not easy to parallel in Scripture, article upon article; every word hath one; {αβγδ}. Surely we must think, where the spirit hath been pleased to make so many marks, that the matter is remarkable; worthy both the preachers careful pains, and the peoples heedful ears, {αβγδ}, the lamb. Christ was Agnus singulariter. Aug. tract. 7. in joan. col. 62.  
You that are learned, I would not with your leave, lose the article. Christ saith, that one iota shall not fail of his word: shall not an I, and shall not an O? It is indeed a little one; but it waits on him, that calls himself a great one. I am Alpha and Omega, saith this lamb in the Apocalypse.  
Behold the lamb; What lamb? As the name is {αβγδ} so the note is {αβγδ}, it hath relation to the lamb in the law; the famous paschal lamb, the type of the messiah. look at that lamb, and see our Saviour. The blood of that lamb stricken with hyssop on the doorepostes of their houses, preserved the people from the plague of the destroyer. The bunch of hyssop is the type of faith, which dipped in Christs death, and strike on our hearts, the houses of our souls, preserves the same from satan, and all the powers of Hell. And therefore as that lamb was called the Passeover; so is also Christ. 1 Cor. 5. 7. Saint Paul calls him our Passeover. The Article in this place alludes to this lamb, {αβγδ} the lamb.  
Yet the aim of the Article is not at that lamb alone. The Law hath other lambs, some for the daily sacrifice, some for trespasses, and some for peace: but all for one main purpose, to be reconciliations, and propitiations, and ransoms for sin; but all in type. The truth, and substance, and body of them all, is he, whom saint John here pointeth at. Christ is {αβγδ}, he is the lamb. And therefore all those terms, reconciliation, propitiation, ransom, and peace, are all by the Apostles conferred upon Christ. Those lambs were but signifiers, shadows, and resemblances of Christ to come; whom now being come, the Baptist points at in my Text; and his finger is the article, {αβγδ}, Behold the lamb.  
And why a lamb? Was not the goat and bullock among the beasts, and the dove and turtle among the fowls, used in the Law to be offered to the Lord, as well as the lamb? Surely this holy man of God spake as he was guided by the Holy Ghost. That Holy Ghost, which doth all things numero, mensura, pondere, that numbereth, and measureth, and pondereth all things, words as well as works, hath in precise proportion made choice of the lamb before the other beasts, as the fittest of them all. he that was to yield a double obedience, both active to the Law, and passive to the Curse, both by his holiness to merit life for us, and in his lowliness to suffer death for us, it behoved him to be both innocentissimus, and patientissimus; and so of all brute creatures, likest to the lamb, the meekest and most harmless of the beasts. Christ for these two causes, here is called a lamb; a lamb, both for his Innocency, and his meekness: so harmless, that he never hurt others; so meek that he resisted not any that hurt him.  
First for his Innocency, let his judge judge that, John 18. Behold I find no fault at all in him. Surely Pilate was not partial. Or say he was, satan himself, Christs dea●liest enemy, who seeks to sift men, Luk. 22. He sought, but could not find. John 14. Non habet in me quicquam, he could find no fault in him.[ And therefore saint Peter calleth him a lamb, {αβγδ}, sine macula, sine momo; not onely without sin, but without any darer to charge him with sin. All men have their Momos, their Censurers, be they never so upright; that rather then fail, if they find no 'vice, will carp at virtue. But Christ was without chalenger. Yea the council to condemn him, were fain to seek false witnesses, but could find none: and though many came, yet found they none, saith the Evangelist. {αβγδ}, Momus himself could find no fault in him.] Not in his hands, Peccatum non fecit, he did no sin, saith Peter. Not in his mouth; there was no guile in it. Not in his heart: though sathans siffe could not come there, yet the Apostle clears that too, {αβγδ}, our Saviour knew no sin. And therefore whereas others are called holy, saint Augustine calls Christ Sanctum Sanctorum, the holiest of the holy; for he was wholly holy. So he sings unto his spouse, who better might have sung it unto him, Thou art all faire, my Love, and there is no spot in thee. Saint John hath the general, 1 Epist. 3. 6. In him was no sin. Not actual sin; Peccatorum dimissor, non commissor, Aug. a bearer of sin, in my Text, a forbearer of sin, saith that Father, but no doer of sin. Not original sin; saint Augustine was but a young Divine, when he feared to believe in Christ, in carne natum, for fear he should be forced to believe also in him, ex carne inquinatum. For Christs conception was by the holy Ghost, and his seed was sanctified, though in a sinners womb.  
Secondly, for meekness, he might be called a lamb, which Philo calls {αβγδ}, the meekest, and mildest, and gentlest of the beasts. That whereas every creature hath some curstnesse in his kind, even the smallest fly his spleen, and the little ant his gull, the Baptist hath singled out the lamb, to resemble our Saviour unto it, which Philo calls {αβγδ}, the meekest, the mildest, the gentlest of the Creatures.  
The sheep is lead unto the slaughter without strife, and the lamb( saith the Prophet) is dumb before the shearer. Christ was lead to Gabbatha, to Golgotha, to the one to be shorne; to the other to be slain, without resistance, without clamour. To be shorne? nay to be torn. It sufficed not his persecutors to fleece him only, but they would flay him too. His coat sufficed them not; but they rent his skin. The sheep shearer cares not to clip the wool, but he will not cut the skin. They had pitty on his coat, but no pitty on his body. His coat they would not cut, but cast lots for it whole. But they tore his skin with scourges, and the whips, like ploughs made furrows on his back. Nay neither did his skin content their cruelty; but as thinking that torture to be but superficial, they digged deep into his flesh; and as the psalm saith of joseph, the iron entered into his very soul.  
Thus tortured, thus martyred, as never any shearer, never any slaughter-man handled any lamb, yet like that lamb in Esay, he bore all their Butchery with silent patience, without clamour, without strife. St. Peter shows the one, {αβγδ}, when he was reviled, he reviled not again. And for the other, a sword was drawn, and a man maimed at Christs reprehension; but it was not with Christs will, who cured the maim, and rebuked the Disciple. An extraordinary patience, to suffer wrong, indignity, extremity, to suffer it with silence; without mone, without groan. It is more then mans patience; flesh and blood are not able to do it. Tell me not of Moses: I know the Scripture calls him the meekest man on Earth. But did he not murmur at the waters of Meribah? Tell me not of job. You have heard( saith saint james) of Iobs patience. Nay let us rather harken to Christs patience, far beyond Iobs, job suffered much, but not in silence: he cursed, and he complained. But our Saviour Christ in the admirable strength of his incomparable patience, Like a lamb( saith the Prophet) dumb before his shearer, not once opened his mouth.  
Say not I hyperbolise; it is Gods spirits speech, and it is not hyperbolical. Surely our Saviour opened his mouth; yea he spake seven sundry times upon the cross. But he spake not one word against his persecutors. Nay he prayed for them expressly, Father forgive them, they know not what they do. That as we use to say of one, that yields up his Ghost quietly, without struggling with death, that he dyed like a lamb; so we may say of Christ above all the sons of men, for his matchless meekness in all his martyrdom, yea and his peerless patience in the pangs of death, that he departed like a lamb. I am too long in this point; I come unto the next; I will be very short in it.  
Behold the lamb: what lamb? the lamb of God. he, who is called by Saint Paul, Christus Dei, the Christ of God, is here called by the Baptist, Agnus Dei, the lamb of God, The phrase is unusual, found onely in this Chapter. Both Prophets and Evangelists call Christ a lamb; but never was he called Gods lamb, but by John Baptist. And why Gods lamb? are not all lambs the Lords? So says the Psalmist, that all the beasts of the foreste are his, and so are the cattle upon a thousand hills.  
The different senses guessed by Divines, it shall not skill to city, save onely one; that as offerings and sacrifices are called theirs in Scripture, who presented them; so Christ is called Gods lamb, because he offered him. The lamb, which Abel offered, is called {αβγδ} his sacrifice. Gen. 4. The bullock; which the people were to offer for their sin, Levit. 4. is called there by Moses {αβγδ} the peoples sin offering. Christ being Gods sacrifice, offered by Gods self, is justly called Gods lamb. For God gave Christ, John 3. 16. that {αβγδ}, the Fathers say, dedit, idest, tradidit, God delivered him, more to the word, God did {αβγδ}, God did offer him; I say, God delivered him, God offered him, God sacrificed him for sin. A work of wonder, and worthy of an Ecce. God to whom belongs all offering, now to be himself an offerer. And say, he would be so; had he nought to offer but his son? O Altitudo! Oh the depth of the riches of the love of God! was there no ransom for the sin of man, but onely the offering of the son of God? Sufficed it not for sin to sacrifice a lamb; but must it also be the lamb of God? Must the Altar be a cross? and must Christ be the crucifix? and was there no other to offer him, but God? the Father so far to forget all affection, to sacrifice his son?  
Such was Gods love, such was mans sin, as imposed an oportet upon both persons: O portuit Christum pati, saith himself; it behoved both Christ to be the sufferer, and God to be the offerer. The lambs in the Law were but onely for the Iewes; and that but for a time; and that not of any worth, or virtue in themselves: but that God so accepted them. They served in that sort, being but the lambs of men. But he, that should bear the sin of a world, both a world of people, and a world of time, must be the lamb of God. The load of that sin was too heavy to be laid on the lambs in the Law, which were to be taken out of the flocks of men. That burden could onely be born by this lamb, that was taken out of the bosom of God.  
The next point is the Act; that Beareth. The original term hath two translations, to bear, or to take away. Saint Peter parallels the former 
α  sense, himself bore our sins( saith the Apostle) in his body A frequent phrase in the old Testament, signifying commonly the imputation, or the punishment of sin. Christ bore it both ways; both the name of it, He was reckoned with the wicked: and the pain of it, Gods curse, and death. Esay hath them both together, cap. 53. He bore our infirmities, there is the guilt, and carried our sorrows, there is the pain.  
First for the imputation: the Prophet hath expressed it, Cum sceleratis reputatus est, there is the very term. The Gospel translates it, {αβγδ}. He whom S. Peter calls {αβγδ}, i. spotless, was accounted {αβγδ}, with the lawless. Christ is the scape-goate in the law, upon which were laid all the sins of the people. They did them, but the goat bore them. So the Prophet saith of Christ, All our iniquities the Lord hath laid on him, Esa. 53. 6. Wee acted them, but Christ carried them. God hath removed them from us to Christ. The bond of our handwriting, the record of our sins, Christ nailed it to his cross. Wee are freed from the debt: our Saviours Assumpsit hath discharged us. We stand before God, but in the lambs livery, our rob of righteousness is woven of his wool, and we may say to Christ, as Christ said to his Father, {αβγδ}, all thy things are mine, and all my things are thine. Christs merits are made ours, and our sins are made his. John 17. 10.  
Now for the execution; the beasts in the Law, that were slain to be sacrificed, dyed not for themselves. The death was due to them, in whose names they were offered. Christ, whom they signified, suffered for sin, both torture, and slaughter, both in our stead. The Apostle therefore saith, Christ was made sin, id est. a sin offering; the Fathers so construe it. I say not, Christ suffered all that we should: but all that Christ suffered, he suffered for us: the wrath of God, the curse of God, ignominy and death. His wrath; Christ cried in the sense of it, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? But that cry should have been ours, and every sinner deserves to cry with David, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Gods curse: Christ( saith the Apostle) was made a curse, Gal. 3. 13. but it follows there, for us. shane; the rebukes( saith Christ) of them that rebuk thee, fell upon me. Rom. 15. the rebukes were ours, but they lighted upon him. And for Death, messiah( saith Daniel) shall be slain, {αβγδ}, but not for himself. Death was our debt: but it pleased him to pay it, that did not owe it. Mortem, quam non debebat, exolvit, saith Saint Augustine.  
But this is not all; there was a further debt was due to us; Hell and Damnation; Did he bear that too? I say it not, the Fathers say it not, the Scriptures say it not. Some late Divines have said it, whom I censure not, that Christ suffered Hell in his soul. But let me tell you what Saint Augustine saith, Quis audeat dicere, who dareth be so bold( saith that Father) as to say, that Christ suffered Hell in his soul? I once before referred you, so do I now again, to Bishop Bilsons book, written of this point largely and learnedly.  
Or haply do you like the other Translation, that taketh away, 
β  &c. ● a simplo sinner, hearing Christ fell thrice under the burden of the cross, may fear, lest he fall under the burden of my sin; and so God may take it up, and lay it on me again; and therefore call rather for the other translation, that takes away my sin. Say then the far is Auferre, he hath taken it away.  
Sundry other phrases equipollent unto this, are found in holy Scripture; the covering of sin, the purging it, the healing it, the washing it, Gods not remembering it, Gods hiding his face from it, his casting it behind his back, his throwing it into the bottom of the Sea; all of them comfortable, but none of them sounding so sweetly, as this here. sin to be covered, will not serve; for God may uncover it, for saith not our Saviour, Nihil est occultum, quod non revelabitur? Nothing is so covered, but shall be revealed. Nor will it serve to purge it; in purging any humour, some still remaines behind. Else why is the Popes purgatory, if Christ had purged sin clean? Washing will not serve; there are some stains, that will not out with washing. Healing will not serve; relapse may work worse danger then before. Will not God remember it? how can that be? for God can not forget, or though he could; yet our sins are recorded; and when the books shall be opened, his rolls will remember him. Say God do hid his face from it; God hath ears as well as eyes. sin is a crier; it will up unto his ear. Or though itself be silent, yet satan is {αβγδ}, i. e. a promoter; he will inform. But God will cast it behind his back, neither will that serve: For he is totus oculus, saith the Father, and hath eyes behind as well as before, Rev. 4. 6. Lastly, God will throw it into the bottom of the Sea: All will not serve. For at the resurrection, when the Sea shall be burnt up, sin will then be seen. Yea at the last day, when the Sea is summoned to give up her dead; sin haply will up with all. Or if it do not, yet rather then fail, the devil himself will dive to fetch it up to judgement. Thus may foolish flesh little skilled in Scripture, object against those phrases. But this term in my Text, to take away sin, it takes away all argument, and the sinners soul is satisfied with it. Psal. 10. 15. Take away mine ungodliness, and thou shalt find none.  
Christ hath not then born onely, but he hath taken away our sin. Yea least the term original might scrupulise the sinner by the double sense; Saint Paul to the Colossians, 2. 14. Hath put a gloss unto it, to do away all doubt. Our Chirographum, i.e. the Bill of our hand, Our Bill of debt, that is, of sin, Christ hath not onely canceled it, that is, razed it with a few cross lines, and so left it in the Creditours hands; but to make all sure, he hath taken it out. So it is there, not onely {αβγδ}, he hath blotted it forth, but sustulit de medio, there is Iohns term, and Pauls gloss together, sustulit de medio, he hath rent it from ever endangering us, he hath stricken a nail through it, and affixed it to his cross. {αβγδ}, Nyssen in Hypapanten, he hath slain it, saith that Father; nay he restend not in that, for so the corpse of sin should still remain; but {αβγδ}, he hath utterly abolished it.  
What? will you say, doth not the Preacher press the term too far? hath the lamb of God quiter taken sin away? What say you to Concupiscence? either you must say, it is no sin, and that were Popery: or you must relent from the strictness of the term, that Christ doth not utterly take away sin. For Concupiscence remaines in us, in us all, all our life. It is the devils indelible Character, which is never wholly done out till death.  
I answer; there are two things considerable in sin, the strength of it, and the sting of it. The sting is twofold, for sin, like a Serpent, hath a biforked tail, reatus& supplicium, the guilt, and the pain. The guilt I call the incurring of the sentence, the desert of death. The pain is damnation. Both these the lamb hath taken quiter away. The believer on that lamb, is not so much as Reus, i. e. liable to the pain. The Obligatio ad poenam, i.e. the Imputation, God hath laid it on the lamb And if the Imputation, then by consequent the pain.  
Now for the other, the strength of sin, the activity of that in-bred corruption, which both itself is sin originally, and the source also of all actual sin, Gods lamb hath taken that away too: Not the whole vigour of it, but the main rigour of it. He hath not removed Concupiscence itself; but her power he hath abated, {αβγδ}, Epiph. he hath not slaughterd her, but he hath fetterd her: Shee works still in us, but more weakly. To end this, this sin, {αβγδ}, as Paul terms it, that hangs so fast on us, that clings so close to us, not onely {αβγδ} born with us, but {αβγδ} bread in us; so incorporated in our substance, that it is called our Flesh, the lamb of God hath taken it away. Not, ut non sit, but ut non praesit, ut non obsit; not from being in us, but from ruling in us, and from hurting us. The site of it Christ hath not stirred: but the might and spite of it, he hath taken them away; the might that it shall not regnare; the spite that it shall not damnare. sin dwells in all, but it doth not reign in the regenerate. sin cleaves to all; but it condemns not those, that are in Christ.  
Behold the lamb, that bears, saith the Baptist; the tense of the verb hath matter in it too, both profitable, and comfortable. Not {αβγδ}, that hath born, not {αβγδ}, that will bear, but {αβγδ}, that doth bear, the sin of the world. Grammarians have a rule, {αβγδ} be Maximè {αβγδ}, present tenses are most active; the tense here doth argue the Act to bee perpetual, that doth bear it, i.e. that is always bearing it; the act but once, but the effect for ever. Christ is heri, hody,& semper idem, saith the Apostle, Yesterday, to day, and ever the same. Yesterday, i.e. to Adam and David, to day, i.e. to Peter and John; and ever, i.e. to us and our posterity. Christ sits beside his Father; and the sufferings of his son are ever in his sight, and the psalms are excellent, though censured by some, both the Sinners Lamentation, and his humble suit, in which he sings of Christ, his bloody wounds are yet to see, and that his blood is not yet dry. And I will prescribe to none, but I verily believe, that the scars of Christs wounds are yet still in his body; and what is Cicatrix, but vulneris refricatrix, scars the present prints, and fresh remembrancers of old wounds? Christ dyed but once, but the virtue of his death is such to man, that he may say with Paul, I die daily. I say, Christs suffering, his offering was not often, it was but once: but by that one oblation; my Sire, myself, my seed, id est, time past, time present, and time to come, are freed from their sins.  
To end this third point, Behold the lamb of God, that bears, &c. How doth he bear? Saint Peter tells us how, he bore them on his body. burdens are born on the neck and shoulders: he bore the load of sin in his whole body: every part had a part of it; from head to foot; yea from the crown of his head, to the sole of his foot. For the thorns were plaited on the top of his head, and the nail went through the bottom of his feet: His body bore it every way, summum, imum, medium; the crown above, the nail beneath, the spear in the midst. Before, behind: his back scourged, his breast gauged; On the right hand, on the le●t, his arms expanded, and nailed to the cross. Nay his burden was not confined with his body; neither head, nor feet, nor hands did determine them. Though he were wretched and stretched to the uttermost strain, as it were upon a rack, that as the Psalmist speaketh, they might tell all his bones; yet his load went beyond the dimension of his limbs, was longer, and deeper, and broader then his body. For a title was over his head, that upbraided him; the people were under his feet; they derided him; and the thieves aloof on each side disparaged him. For he hanging in the midst, and that( as some writ) upon a higher three, then they, appeared to the people, a mainer malefactor, and offender worse then they. Nay Saint Peter saith not all, when he saith, that he bore our sin on his body: his soul also felt the weight of it. The burden not onely pressed his body, but it sadded his soul; My soul( saith our Saviour) is sad unto the death. The sense of the unsupportable weight of it, sinking to his soul, both forced from his face drops of blood in the garden, and wrested from his mouth that strong cry upon the cross; Eli, Eli, Lammah sabachthani, My God, my God, Why hast thou forsaken me?  
The fourth point is the burden. sin is the heaviest thing in the world. What creature so ever it is in, it sinks him down to hell. The earth by Philosophy is the Center of all weight; there is no heavy body, but it resteth there. But sin is so weighty that the earth can not bear it; it seeks a lower Center, and it sinks the Creature down unto hell. The sin of schism in Dathan and Abiram could not rest on earth; the ground was fain to open, and let them down to hell. Nay Angels themselves, the lightest of Gods creatures, yet sin weighed them down, as the Prophet speaketh, from the sides of the North, to the sides of the pit: to the sides? Nay to the bottom of that bottomless pit, to the nethermost hell. What needs David say, psalm 18. funes inferni, the ropes of hell. sin needs no haling; it is so heavy, that it fals down headlong into hell.  
sin is a heavy burden; Cain complained of it: My sin is heavier, then I can bear. David complained of it, psalm 38 {αβγδ} they were too sad for him. What city I men and Angels; God himself incarnate, Christ complained of it. It made him sweat under it, and the sweat was blood. Yea it made him groan under it, as a waggon groaneth, that is full of sheaves. Nay it made him cry out under it, cum clamore valido, Heb. 5. with a strong cry, My God, my God, &c. What should I labour to amplify the weight of it? It is like the weight of glory, 2 Cor, 4. 17. {αβγδ}, words cannot utter it, for wit cannot imagine it. This load, this lamb, this day, hath born for us; marvel not at Samson, that bore the gates of Azzah; here is a lamb, that bore the gates of hell.  
The burden of sin, you have heard the weight of it, may it please you now to see the bulk of it. It is the sin of the world. When sin is singlest, it is heavy then. One breach of one law weighs down to hell. If sin shall grow in number, the load must grow in weight. But when numbers do sin, what is the burden▪ then? The load which the lamb hath adventured to bear; it is not of one sin, it is not of many sins, nay not the many sins of many, but all the sins of all, the sins of the whole world. A term of large extent; take it {αβγδ}, for all nations, or {αβγδ}, for all times, or {αβγδ}, for all states, all people, whensoever living, wheresoever breathing, whatsoever being, the load of all their sins is laid upon the lamb, the word is very excellent which the Prophet Esay hath, 53. 6. all our iniquities {αβγδ} God hath made them meet in Christ. God hath made Christ the center of all sins.  
For altogether, Christ joins with John in the generality, Christs cry with Iohns cry, Venite ad me omnes, Come unto me all; all now, all hereafter: all here, all every where; all of all conditions, omnes laborantes, all that are heavy laden, and I will refresh you; your sins are your burdens, I will bear them for you all. His arms argued as much at his passion. He displayed them wide upon the cross, as it were to embrace, whosoever would come to him. For shall the power of the first Adam be stronger unto death, then the second unto life? Nay, but as Augustine saith, Omnes, sicut Adam tabificavit, ita Christus justificavit, as by one man, the man Adam, sin entred into the world, and caught hold of all; so also by one man, the man Christ, the grace of God, by the lamb of God, hath abounded unto all.  
Shall we see it in the severals? I will be short in them. First for times: Saith not Christs self, that he was before Abraham? His Disciple saith more, that the slaughter of this lamb was from the worlds beginning. Even Adam and his wife, the first sinners upon earth, had their sin born by Christ. God said, Their seed shall break the Serpents head. Yet bore he not theirs onely, and all the times before him, as the nature of satisfaction is for trespass past; but for ages also after him, for us, and our posterity, his passio was propassio, he suffered before hand for our sins.  
Secondly for places; came not Siloh from Iuda, and Iacobs children were they not Gods choice? The ark, the Covenant, the Pr●esthood, and the Promises, {αβγδ}, the Law, and the Adoption, these Princely prerogatives belonged they not to Israel? The Gentiles were strangers, the Apostle calls them so. Nay the Gentiles were dogges, our Saviour calls them so, Math. ●5. 26. It was Pauls question, hath the Lord care of Oxen? I may better ask, hath the Lord care of dogges? Surely the preferment of the jew above the gentle, Paul truly saith was much, much every manner of way. But yet in this particular, in the point of salvation, the saving of our souls, by the bearing of our sins, all their prerogatives prejudice not us. Christs propitiation is no impropriation. Iude calls salvation {αβγδ}, the common salvation. Gods saving health, Simeon retcheth it to all people: yea Esay stretcheth it to the ends of the earth.  
Nor will I grant the Iewes. Christ onely came of them. For I find Gentiles also in Christs line Ruth was a Moabite, and Rahab was of jericho, neither of them Iewes. Let them not insult; for Partus sequitur ventrem. But give Christ born onely of the Iewes; yet he was not born onely for the Iewes. As the angel saith, Natus est vobis, he was born to them, Luke 2. 11. so the Prophet saith, natus est nobis, A Child is born to us. Esay 9. 6. That Child was called Iesus, because he should save his people from their sins. His people? they were Iewes. But so are Gentiles too. The Prophet O see tells us, Loammi was made Ammi, God said to Heathens, Populus meus tu, all nations are my people. Gentiles( saith the Apostle) are lieutenants with the Iewes, {αβγδ}, coheirs and partners in the promise; yea brethren to the Iewes, O se. 2. Doth the Prophet say, Salvation is in Sion? Esay. 46. Why, the egyptian, the Aethiopian, the Babylonian, and the Philistine are born in Sion. I am too long in this. They were the Lambs Apostles, that preached the gospel to all nations. John calls them so. Apoc. 21. and the Church is the lambs bride, so also termed there; and it is called out of all Countries. That lamb, when he bore mans sin upon the cross, he suffered in the East: but whether did he look, whether did he point? His face was to the Sea., and his fingers pointed North and South: And the blood of his body, in which he bare our sin, flowing every way, was an emblem of salvation showing every way, His back behind, his face and feet before, his hands on either side,  shed forth a ransom for nations round about, and washed away the sins of all quarters under Heaven. Vide Theophilact. in Mat. 27. 33. So saith saint Augustine, Passio Domini, pretium est Orbis, the passion of the lamb was the ransom of the Earth, and Saint John in his Epistle, Christ is the reconciler of the sins of the whole world. Lastly, for all states.   

OF THE nativity. The second Sermon. PREACHED VPON CHRISTMAS-DAY.  ESAY 9. 6. For unto us a Child is born. 
THE argument of my Text is according to the Day, the Nativity of Christ, three words in the original, a Person, Who? a Child; an Action, What? is born; the Purpose, Why? for us. These three Questions my theme, Who? What? and Why? Who the Child? God. What the Birth? his taking Flesh. Why for us? for our Salvation. God was Incarnate, to save Man. Thats the Paraphrase of my Text, and the sum of all that I shal say.  
For the first, a Child. The English word is ambiguous, makes no distinction between sex or Age. Whom we bear or beget, wee call our Children, whether sons, or Daughters, young or old. In the learned tongues it is not so; they difference both. The Child here is for Age, an Infant; and for sex a son.  
For the one, When Christ would take our Flesh; he would not be a Woman, but a Man. To bee true Man, it skilled not, whether sex he should assume. Women are mankind, as well as Men; each of equal perfection, and in Gods love alike, and each made in Gods Image. But some pre-eminence God gave the Man above the Woman; the rather for her tempting him to fall. Paul says, he is her head,& she the weaker vessel. That knew the Serpent, and therefore tempted her, not him. It pleased God therefore to take Flesh, though of the Woman, yet in the Mans sex. Not that the Womans sex disparaged his Deity; but that his wisdom found it fit: Why; I inquire not.  
For the other, God might have made a body, have created it of earth, as he did Adams, a mans body of full growth; and have breathed a living soul in it; and so have assumed it to his Godhead. He rather choose to be Parvulus, a Child. Paul and Luke have two words, both of C●rist, {αβγδ} Pauls word of God is but exinanivit he emptied himself. But he did more, Annihilavit, made himself almost nothing. God would not onely be Man, though a state far under God. For a man may be great; the Sons of Anack were, the Amorite was, tall as the Cedar, sturdy as the oak. But he would bee also the weakest of men. So is the Child, the new born babe.  
The weakest of men? the weakest of all Creatures; Vermis Ego, I am a worm, says David. The worm is not so weak, as the new born Child is: The son of David would be weaker, then the worm. The worm creeps, the Child cannot. Every beasts young ones find the dams teats: the Child does not, the n●ple must be put into the mouth. Such a man would God be, a Child. Christ is called thus in the Prophets but once onely; but in the gospel almost twenty times. An angel calls him an Infant; St. Luke, the Child Iesus. His food, a Childs, Butter and honey, Esay 7. His understanding too, want of wit to discern between good and evil.  
This hath seemed to some so unbeseeming God, that Nestorius said flatly, he never would aclowledge bimestrem aut trimestrem Deum, call an Infant God, of two or three moneths old. But he that scorned not to be Man, disdained not to be like to Man, in all things, saving sin, Groweth in the womb, Birth out of it, to suck the breast, be laid in cradle, swathed in clothes, born in arms, suffer and do all things, this heavenly son of Man, like all earthly Sons of Women. In some of these particulars, Papists do oppose; which I pass by, as not much pertinent. All worthy the wonderment, the amazement of all men. Of which, more; when I shall have treated of the next word, which doth necessitate this. Esay adds, Natus est, Is born: that cannot be, except a Child. I come therefore to that. A Child is born. For never did Womans womb deliver a Man grown. A camel goes not through a needles eye. Bee that the first scruple in the second word, Natus est, is born.  
Bearing presumes the opening of the womb. That Christ did not, Papists say, some Fathers too. But more say, that he did, Papists rejoin, that they said it Pio sensu.  
If the thing seem absurd, that a Child should so be born: they maintain, Christs birth was so by especial dispensation, and Gods omnipotent power. By which, Christs body rising, passed through the graves ston, risen( the doors being shut) yet went in to his Disciples; and now is in the Sacrament at once in many places. All alike true. Better, leave this scruple, then discourse it. hear an other.  
near kin to it, is Mari●s Virginity; a Virgin bear a Child? That Nature denies, Heathens deride: but needs no proof, all Christians believing it. They have reason. Scripture avouches it. That one should, the Prophet says, Esay 7. 14. That one did, the gospel says, Luk. 2. 7. I will say with St. Austin, Tu disputa; ego credam, Dispute it, who so lists; I will believe it.  
But why Natus, born? Sufficed not Incarnatus, Christs taking flesh? John says, the Word took flesh, Verbum Caro factum est. Thats his Incarnation; he says nothing of his Birth. Must he needs be Natus because Incarnatus, born, because Incarnate? Pauls Ma●●festatus in Carne, God manifested in the flesh, could it not be, but by Generation onely? G●d by power could have w●ought it otherwise: but he had decreed, it should be thus. Adam and Eve, both were Incarnate; neither born. But Christ was promised to come of Womans seed, Gen. 3. Her womb must Breed and bear him. He would honour our Condition, and hold it no disparaged to his Divine Person, to be called the son of Man. Every son in prime and proper sense is born. There are sons by Adoption, and some otherways: but the term so is but Metaphor.  
But why Natus est, Is born? How is that true? Christ was not yet Incarnate; not born in Esaies daies, not 700. yeares after. An unlearned Atheist would say, either he lied; or meant his Natus est, of some other, not of Christ▪ If you red the first of Matthew, you shall find almost twenty generations between Esaies age, and Christs birth. But Esay lies not, but speaks here from Gods Spirit: who by the Prophets often delivers things to come, as if already past. But especially in Esay, whom the Fathers therefore call, not so much a Prophet as rather an Evangelist, an Evangelicall Prophet. As here of Christs Nativity, so else where of his death, of all our Saviours sufferings, he writes, as of things past already. As here Natus est, so there vulneratus est, attritus est, abscissus est, and many more in the same manner. David long before Esay did the like. This phrase therefore of Esaies the gospel often iterates. The wise men in St. Matthew, ubi est, qui natus est? Where is he, that is born King of the Iewes? The angel in Saint Luke, Natus est vobis, there is born to you a Saviour. The Prophet Esay here is not Testis singularis: Prophets and Evangelists, Angels and Apostles are Contests unto Esay. Enough of each word thus apart: weigh we them now jointly, but with wonderment: they are well worthy.  
A Child is born. Child-birth is ordinary; there is no wonder in it, and yet there is. Though it seem merely natural; God hath in every birth his admirable work. Though the babes body bee but small; yet the way of birth is so unpassable; that every Child would cost the mothers life, and die itself too in the delivery; nay there would be no delivery at all; did not Gods though usual, yet admirable grace assist the Act by special providence. But God to bee the Child, and the Word Incarnate, to be born, {αβγδ}, God in a Womans womb, that is Miraculum miraculorum, a wonderable to amaze a world. {αβγδ}, Basil, the great God( saith Saint Basil,) to be a little Babe. The Ancient of daies, Coinfantiari, it is Irenaeus term, to become an Infant. {αβγδ}, the King of eternity, to be Bimestris, trimestris, as Nestorius said, a Child of two or three moneths old. The Mighty, {αβγδ}, it is here one of Gods attributes, the Almighty jehovah, to be a weak man, yea the weakest of men; so Infants are. God Immensè magnus, unmeasurably great, that says of himself, Caelum& terram impleo, Heaven and Earth cannot contain him, to be Palmaris, as David calls his daies, a Babe an handful, a span long. He that doth Rugire, his voice, a Lions roar, to vouchsafe to Vagire, to cry like a poor Infant. He that guides( as job speaks) Arcturus, with his sons,( i.) the stars, to suck a Womans neple, like our sons; or as Saint Austin hath it, he that is Regens Sidera, to bee Sugens Vbera, the Sterner of the stars, to suck a womans breasts. The founder of the Heavens, to be rocked in a Cradle: the swayer of the world, swathed in Infant clowtes; it is {αβγδ}, a greek Father says, a most incredible thing. The Word, who is God, to become flesh; God who is a Spirit, to assume a body; Majesty to put on Mortality, Power to turn infirmity; God to become Man; this is( as the Poet speaks) {αβγδ}, to bring heaven down to earth. The earth wondered at Christs Nativity, to see a new star in Heaven. But Heaven might rather wonder to see a new sun on earth.  
The first Word, raises all this wonder: the second adds more to it. You hear, Quis Puer, who the Child is: ask Vnde Natus, who bore this Child? The Nicen Creed says, Deus de Deo, God must be born of God. So was God the Word, of God the Father. But the Child here is God, and is born of a Woman. Nestorius denied it; but the true Church maintains it; and the Synod to that end, decreed Christs Mother to be styled {αβγδ}, the bearer of God. Indeed Christ took but his Man-hood from her Seed. But that Manhood being joined to his God-head, in her womb personally, we truly believe her to have born God. The Word took flesh of her, and God lay in her womb, and was born of her body. A grand wonder, if but thus. But there is more. That woman was a Virgin. A Virgin bear a child? Nature abhors to hear it. Put both words together, the Bearer a Virgin, and the Child God. Paul might well call it {αβγδ}, a great mystery, {αβγδ}, says Chysostome, great indeed, {αβγδ}, full of wonderment and astonishment. Paul says but factum ex Muliere, God sent his son made of a Woman; that terms true, but too general; and the Word might mean a Wife. But Esay is more explicate; Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear. That indeed required an Ecce. jeremy calls it a new thing, Foemina circundabit virum, that a Woman should compass a Man. Surely this is a thing more new, more strange, a Virgin to compass a God. A Virgin to bear, Mirandum; to bear God, Stupendum. At the wonder of the one, the Virgins self cried out, Quomodo fiet istud? How was it possible, shee should conceive, not knowing man? But take both at once; they are worthy the wonder even of Angels also. I think Gabriel that  told her it, was amazed at it, yea were it not, that God saith, Gen. 18. nothing can be wonderful to him, worthy the wonderment even of Gods self. Very fitly therefore it follows in this verse, the Childs name shall be wonderful.  
To end this,[ Christs Incarnation a greek Father calls {αβγδ} the most incredible thing, that ever was. he means, to mans conceit.] Surely that God should thus far disparaged his Divinity by the union of our flesh: and how his sacred Deity could close into one person with the human nature: that is {αβγδ}, Cyril. Speech cannot express it, wit cannot conceive it. Every sober Christian must( as Saint Basil wisheth) {αβγδ}, rather seriously adore the Doer, then curiously inquire the manner. For as saith the same Father, {αβγδ}, the manner is above enquiry, Luther was wont to say, God will not have us Quoerists. I may better say, God will not have us Quomodists. For why God was Incarnate, the Scripture hath revealed, but how, it hath not. Saint Paul calls it a Mystery, Saint Chrysostome says, it is wonderful. Then must wee not ask how it is; For( as Athanasius says) {αβγδ} a mystery revealed, is no longer wondered at. Thus then the Lord of Glory took unto himself the shape of a Servant. Man was first made after Gods Image; but now God was made after Mans Image. God said of Man in irony, behold, Man is become like one of us? But now we may say of God in earnest, behold, God is become like one of us.  
Now Actions all have their Intentions, aim at some end. here I may, I must be a Quaerist, ask, Why is this child born? Esay answers, For us, the last word in my Text. Tis in the book, unto us; thats all one in the original. Nobis, but one word, but pregnant, a word with a womb, It bears a Child too; means both quibus,& ad quid: both the Persons, who have benefit by this Birth; and what the Benefit is. The later but latenter, tis but couched. The Angel that speaks it out, is Esaies Interpreter, Luk. 2. To you is born a Saviour. The Nicen Creed more plainly, For us men, and for our Salvation. First for ad quid, but a word, because tis but couched onely.  
Such a Child, and such a Birth, both of such wonder, must not be for nought. Tis not parturiunt montes. The end is as admirable; the Child is born for our Salvation. The Act, you heard Chrysostome call it {αβγδ}, strange. The end, Clemens calls it {αβγδ}, great, very great, {αβγδ}, the greatest and the royalest of all the Acts of God. A Virgin to bear, and the Child to be God, all wits wonder at that: and the name Iesus, which signifies a Saviour, every knee bows at it. Tis {αβγδ},( Epiphanius his term) every man honours it. Nihil tam dignum Deo, nothing so worthy of God, as mans salvation. tart. Indeed it was not worthy, the saving of 10000. worlds was too mean a thing for so rich a price, as Gods sons birth. But it pleased him to esteem one world, half of one world, nay not half( for to how small a handful is man compared with the Elect onely, the benefit of it with other Creatures) worthy that price. For then Natus est, he was born, nay, he was more, much more, it follows here, for them Datus est, he was given, a Son is given to us, i. for us. Gods Son, Datus est, i. traditus est, so the Fathers construe it, was given to death for us. This theme were sweet, should I prosecute it. But the term is not expressed. I leave ad quid, and come to quibus i. Nobis, to us.  
First, Nobis peccatoribus, to us Sinners, that seems without controversy. For if he came to save, it must be such, who need saving, but sinners? yet even this too is opposed. Pighius a Romanist, and Osiander a fond Dogmatist held, that though man had not sinned, Christ had come nevertheless. But neither could tell, why. Paul says expressly, Iesus Christ came into the world, to save sinners. The child here saith himself, the son of man came to save that was l●st. Proptereà veni, John 12. 27. he came of purpose to that end. Osiander was so impudent, as to contradict the Prophet, saith, wee were born for Christ, Christ was not born for us. Thats cross to the Creed, For us men, Christ was made man. Zachar●as saith it too, God hath raised up an horn of salvation unto us.  
That men are meant, I need not often iterate; men only. Yet have the Angels benefit too by Christs birth. They also are by it, though not redeemed, yet confirmed. Not redeemed, because they fell not, the good Angels I mean; but confirmed; i. put out of fear of fall. But devils have no good at all by it: They cry to Christ, Quid nobis? What have we to do with thee Iesus, son of God? To men onely and to all, at least if we mean, genera singulorum, if not singulos generum, every several man, yet some of every sort.  
To all, that is, ad minimum, to men of all nations, times and states. For nobis doth not distinguish between sex or age. For the first, Is God( saith Paul) God of the Iewes onely, and not also of the Gentiles? job though an Edomite calls Christ his Redeemer. Christ was born in Bethleem, a town of the Iewes, but bread and brought up in Galilee of the Gentiles, and his title on the cross had as well Iesus of Nazareth, as King of the Iewes; not onely Israels glory, in old Simeons song, but the light too of the Gentiles. For times, the ancient Patriarks, both before the flood and after it, Prophets and other holy men under the law, many believers in Christs dayes, and Saints sans nombre in all ages since, are within this little word, the child is born for them. For estates, whats thy profession, or thy place, office, trade, occupation? Art thou Priest, or Prophet, captain, or counsellor, publican, physician, Tent-maker, Purple-seller, Fisherman, Carpenter, what need I reckon more? The gospel hath example of some saved of all these. Art thou a mere beggar, or a man of wealth? poor Lazarus was laid in the bosom of rich Abraham. Bond and free, male and female are all one( S. Paul saith) in Christ Iesus. For he was born in mans sex, but made of womans seed: and of two bond servants grinding at the mill, the one shall be received. The young and aged alike too. John sprung for joy in his mothers womb, at the presence of his Saviour in the Virgins womb: and old Simeons arms embraced Gods salvation. Lastly, Anna a widow, and Elizabeth a wife acknowledged Christ their Lord, and Mary a virgin calls her son her Saviour.  
To conclude, all grant this Nobis, Christ was born for us: but some say, sibi too, he was born too for himself. Nemo sibi nascitur; Plato saith, no man is born for himself. Surely Christ was not. Some schoolmen say, he was; Christus sibi meruit, they all hold. But Daniel saith, Non sibi, 9. 26. It will little edify to argue it; I end. This child, this holy child, born( as on this day) to us, the child Iesus interceede for us unto his Father, and by his holy Spirit seal unto our souls his grant of our salvation. unto which three sacred persons of, &c.  
Christs Church, S. Mary Bredin.   

OF THE nativity. The third Sermon. PREACHED VPON CHRISTMAS-DAY.  HEB. 1. 3. Hath by himself purged our sins. 
THE Preachers theme on this day should be of Christs birth: and Christ hath purged our sins by his death, not by his birth. My Text then sorts not with the time. But I have here spok before, often of Christs nativity. And why was Christ incarnate, but to fit himself to suffer, and so to purge our sins. And have we not this morning, though it be Christmas day, celebrated the Sacrament of our Saviours death? And is not this Scripture a part of the Epistle appointed for this day? Yea and the Prophet Esay in the first morning lesson, hath he not conjoined Christs birth and death together? Puer natus est nobis, filius datus est nobis, a child is born for us, a son is given for us; Datus, i. Traditus, as the Fathers construe it, given to death for us, so to purge our sins? This Theme and Scripture then is seasonable enough; consisting of four terms; an Act, Purging, the Object, sin, the Subject, Ours, the Instrument, himself. Hath by himself purged our sins. The person is not mentioned; that Point would be extravagant; pertinent enough unto the purpose; but my Text shall confine me. Of the four forenamed Points, God assisting, with your patience, severally and briefly. Christmas dayes afternoon is not the best time for long attention.  
First for the Act, tis purging, a necessary act. For sin( saith Saint Augustine) aut sanabitur, aut damnabitur, must be if not purged, then damned. The term whether a physic Metaphor, so made by some; or alluding to the law of purging sin by sacrifice, which rather seems; I shall pray leave to take it either way promiscuously. sin is {αβγδ}, the dung and filth, and sullage of the soul; and Christ is {αβγδ} the expiation of that sin. It Purgamentum, he Piamentum. The Passion of the son of God, the purgation of the sin of man. For what is purgation, but an expiation i. a propitiation, an appeasing of Gods wrath on a sinner by sacrifice? Who knows Pauls meaning better than himself? That which here is called a purging, Col. 1. 20. is called a pacifying.( He did therefore {αβγδ}, offer up himself, that he might {αβγδ}, take away our sin, Heb. 9. ult.) I say, the end of Christs passion was to purge sin, called therefore by Saint Augustine, the sacrifice of our purgation. Christ is dead, God is pleased, and sin is pardonned.  
But the term hath yet more in it, to purge is to purify, as well as to pacify; to pacify God, and to purify sin in man. There is more in purging, than to pardon sin( saith Saint Ambrose, Tegitur per charitatem, deletur per sanguinem, it is covered by the Fathers love, but quiter done out by the sons blood. he did therefore {αβγδ}, offer up his son, that he might {αβγδ}, do away our sins, Heb. 9. ult. Saint Iohns Epistle calls it cleansing, his Revelation washing; Christ hath purged, i. hath purified, hath washed, and cleansed our sins with his blood. blood should seem rather to pollute, than purge; to defile, than to make clean. A thing bespraid with blood, rather needs purging, than is purged by it. But that is the prerogative of Christs precious blood; because( as Saint Paul speaks of it in the 20. of the Acts) it is Gods own blood.  
he hath purged our sins, {αβγδ}, is {αβγδ} as Saint james termeth it, wickedness is filthiness. The vulgar latin shunning the ears offence, hath a more civill term, Immundities, uncleanness. But a man may be too mannerly in this. No term too odious to bestow on sin: Even in the Hebrew, which is called the holy tongue, and by Gods holy Spirit, sin is not spared. sin in the civilest phrase is yet uncleanness and impurity. For so it pleaseth these daintie-eared dayes, though they act positive sins, yet to crave privative terms; fine in naming them, though gross in doing them. Be sin no more then so; yet needs it purging. For God endures not, heaven receives not any unclean, any impure thing. Out of Christs side came water and blood. sin is uncleanness; that water washed it: it is impurity; that blood hath purged it. Christ is the right physician, Epiphanius calls him so. Never could physician, never would physician offer to cure sin; it is the souls sickness. But medico omnipotenti nihil insanabile, Aug. Christs blood is the right woundwort, that sovereign Panacea, which heals all diseases. God heals( saith David) all thine infirmities; not heals them, that is covers them; but he cures them, he removes them. Tollit( saith John the Baptist) he takes sin quiter away.  
sin is {αβγδ}, a Poison; Christs blood {αβγδ}, a Conterpoison. The poison( saith Saint Cyprian) which the Serpent shot into the heels of all Eves sons, is drawn out by a plaster spread of Christs blood. Physitians writ of palma Christi, that it purgeth the body infected with a fever. But here is sanguis Christi purgeth the soul, being sick of sin. It is the hyssop, which David in the psalm prayed to be purged with, and then he should be clean: clean, not in superficie; he saith not only, wash me, and I shall be white; but purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; not in cute, faire of skin, but in cord, clear of sin. Purging pierceth deeper than bare washing: and yet in the 5. verse of the Apoca. Christ is but said to wash. But purging by Christ, and washing is all one. For the water of his side was Aqua fortis, a piercer and searcher even into the soul; and so a purger too, as well as his blood; even a purger of sin.[ Indeed, some say, sin is not purged but pouled, onely topped, the stump abides, or at least but shaved, the roots remain; Peccatum rasum, a peeld conceit of shavelings. Christs washing was not superficial. he did Eluere, Eruere; not lightly wet it, but wash it out; not slightly cut it, but grub it up.] Enough of the Act; now to the Object.  
sin, a right peccant humour, as Physitians speak: It is it, that Christ hath purged. The devil is a purger. he purged Eve and Adam, but it was of grace. he desires to purge us too; but it is of faith, and of the fear of God. There are outlandish purgers too, from rheims and Rome( for some like physic from Italian and French Doctors, rather than from English) purgers of heresy in pretence, but indeed of Truth. Grace, Faith, Gods fear and truth, need no purgation: that physic is for things impure. sin is corrupt, polluted, and unclean: it needs the purging; and Christ hath purged it.  
Sin both original and actual, both which wee draw from Adam, and which we do ourselves, Christs blood hath purged. All sin, for so it is, 1 John 1. 7. that place a gloss to this.  
All sin? Will some man say: Concupiscence is sin; hath Christ purged that? Is it not in us still? In all of us? Till death? Or shall wee with the Papists deny it to be sin? It is sin; and Christ hath purged it; but as Physitians use to purge bad humours. They rid not the whole humour quiter out of the body: that were to kill the body not to cure it. The humours are our Radicals, the materials of mans body. But they purge out their excess, and their malignity. So hath Christ purged concupiscence, not ut non sit, but it non ●bsit, not from being in us, but from hurting us. The malice of it he hath purged. His blood once purged, and his Spirit still checketh the enormity of lust, but the infirmity remaines. The might and spite of it he hath removed: the might, that it shall not regnare; the spite, that it shall not damnare. But the site of it he hath not stirred: it still dwells in our flesh, ad agonem, Aug. for our exercise.  
I am naturally inclined to some disease; even from the womb; it was in my conception. physic may ease the effects of it; but it can not roote out the originals. The actual operation it may ease; but it can not cure the original inclination. For the disposition is in my composition, Man is born with concupiscence, begot with it. I would not say, Christ could not;( there the comparison failes between Christ and the physician; he can do all things) but he did not purge out the proneness of the flesh to sin, lusts inclination. He could; for he will at the resurrection free us quiter from the infirmity. But he would not in this life. His blood but purged the malice of concupiscence. The guilt and pain of it, desert of death and condemnation, both these are done away. But it is active still: the activity is but purged in part; the power abated onely, {αβγδ}, Epiph. Christ hath but kerbed concupiscence: he hath fettered her, but not slaughtered her. For all the purging, she works still in us; but more weakly.  
Papists here take advantage. They say, Paul saith no more, then Christ hath purged our sins. That is nothing to the pain. But sin, stain, and pain are comites individui; Christ hath purged both, or neither:[ Hippocrates twines, born together, dead together] in the 18. of Saint matthew, saith not Christ, Omne debitum, the whole debt is discharged? Either then the pain is no debt, or it is pardonned. Say Papist, is it debt or no? If it be not; then it is to be paid. If it be; then it is pardonned. And if pardonned by the Father; then purged by the son. For the one pardons not, what the other purges not; and so much onely for the second point.  
Two terms are yet behind, the subject and the instrument. Christ purged sin: but whose? and how? Whose sins? and by what sacrifice? The Remists text might ease me of this labour: for it hath neither. First, Whose? Our sins, be it spoken to our shane; but it also to our comfort. Man made in Gods own Image, {αβγδ}, Gods conterfaict, saith the tragic; lower indeed, David saith; but little lower than the Angels; Lord of all the creatures. Let him rule, saith God; made with the deliberate consultation of the trinity, not Fiat, but faciamus, let us make man: {αβγδ}, a little heaven, Philo, nay {αβγδ}, a little world. Said I lower than the Angels? greater than the Angels. God gave to them but Ministerium, ministering spirits: but he gave man, Magisterium, dominus universitatis, tart. Lordship over all, {αβγδ}, amortall God; not in Sathans mouth onely, Eritis sicut Dij, you shall be as Gods; but by Gods own nuncupation, Dixi, Dij estis, I said, yea are Gods. Shall so high a thing, Res sacra, so Seneca calls a man, a thing so high, so holy, defile himself with sin, a thing so base, so unholy? He whom the Poet terms Magnum jovis incrementum, the divine seed of God, soil himself with sin, Sathanae excrementum, even very devils dung? Yet man so graced, so blessed, he owns these sins, Our sins. The more our shane.  
Now for our comfort; sin, it hath seized as well on Angels, as on man. The devil, and all the cursed fiends in hell, were once blessed Angels in heaven, stood before the trinity, and beholded the face of God. But when Lucifer in his pride, envying Gods glory, said in his heart, I will ascend up into heaven, and advance my throne above the stars; I will sit on the sides of the North, and be equal to the most highest. Then the Lord cast him down from heaven unto hell, from the sides of the North, unto the sides of the pit. And all the rest of that rebellious Rout, partners of his conspiracy, God threw them also down into the place of darkness, where they are reserved in everlasting chains unto the judgement of the great Day. Man for his sin was thrown out of Paradise, the creatures for his sake accursed, and himself sentenced to death and hell. Christ pitied man, but not the Angels. Their case alike for sin, but not for grace. Their damnation is eternal. Origen hath some hope of them, themselves have none. For the fire is everlasting, which Christ says is prepared for the devil and his angels. But a Redeemer was ordained for Man. Gods son would be Incarnate, to recover him. His sins had wrought Gods wrath: and Christ by his blood vouchsafed to purge those sins, not the Angels, but our sins.  
What if one should say to Christ,( tis Christs own supposition) Medice, cura teipsum, physician heal thyself? He purged our sins: why purged he not his own? Aaron purged sins; but his own, as well as others: For he was a sinner, like to them; and therefore his sinneofferings were not for others onely, but also for himself. But Christ knew no sin: himself needed no sacrifice. Gabriel  told Daniel messiah should be slain, {αβγδ}, but not for himself. Christ hath purged our sins not his own, he needed not; not the Angels, it pleased him not. Gods lamb must take away the sins of World. The blood of Iesus cleanseth us. He is the {αβγδ}, the Reconciliation, he is the Propitiation for our sins.  
To end this; Christ might have saved the Angels, and not us; purged their sins, and not ours. But it pleased him to purge ours. The more his Mercy. The Angels his Souldiers, Luk. 2. The Persians had a Band, termed the immortal Band, Socrates. Angels are so indeed, Gods immortal Band. His Souldiers: His sons. Scripture calls often, Angels the sons of God. Gods sons? Gods self. Are they not called Elohim, that is, Gods? Powers, Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, their Orders. We the sons of Adam; whose Father is Corruption, and the worms our sisters and kinswomen; job 17. 14. worms our sisters? worms ourselves. Both job and David call us so, {αβγδ}, frames of day, the Poets term. Poets need not, the Apostles term, vessels of Earth. This is nothing: all this makes us but vile. But( which may make us odius to God) his Enemies. Rom. 5. 10. We own the sins, which Christ hath purged; he purged our sins.  
Yet rests the Instrument, wherewith Christ hath wrought this Act upon this Object. Per Semetipsum; tis himself. The actor, and the Instrument are not lightly one; here they are, {αβγδ}, Epiph. both Priest and Sacrifice: or( as Saint Augustine speaks to the physic Metaphor) Ipse medicus, ipse medicina, both physician and physic too. The priests of Aarons order purged sin. They wrought the same Act, but by other Instrument. By blood, like Christ; but by the blood of Beasts. Hostia was Bestia, Beasts were Sinne-offrings. But Christ is the purger, and purgation both; both Sacrifice and Priest. David says in the psalms, that a Horse is accounted but a vain thing to save a man. What then is a goat, a bullock, or a lamb? Surely all as vain as it: but that God had appointed them to be the types of Christ. All Beasts are peers, in that respect; all unable to purge sin; the greatest as the least: but that God was pleased to accept of his own Ordinance, until the body came, whose shadows they were. When that Body came; he became the sacrifice; and Christ per Semetipsum, purged our sins by himself. Silver would not serve, nor Gold for our purgation; which serve sometimes with Men. A World of Treasure is not worth a soul. Angels would not serve, the divinest of the Creatures. The purge of sin transcends the power of Angels: Gods blood must purge mans sin, but in mans nature. Christ therefore to this Act would use no other Instrument, but his own blood. himself hath purged our sins, by himself. Why then it seems, that purgatory is but an imposture, Indeed a purger; but of purses, not of sins. One of the Popes mainest means, mainest demeans; sin to be purged after death, let heathens hold it, who first devised it. Tis a conceit, becomes not Christians: whose sole purgation is Christs self, That after death, is profane paganism. Then is the time {αβγδ}, of pain, not of purgation, saith Gregory Naz.  
Another plea there is, in the case of indulgences, the Popes prerogative, a very special plea. It is Christs Vicarship. Doth Christ purge sins? Why then the Pope does too: he is his Vicar. Surely he is, as other Bishops are Which of them is not Christs Vicar? Substitutes to Christ, and his deputies Ministers for many Ghostly offices. But in this business he deputeth none. God the Father hath delegated him; he hath subdelegated none. Should his Vicar do that, which himself hath done in person? For so is the phrase in the Communion book, that Christ purged sin in his own Person. The Ministers in many things are his Commissioners, in the Word in the Sacraments, in Ordination. But the purging of sins, that work he performed personally. To bind and loose sin, that the Priest may do; but not to purge it. He might in the Law, but he may not in the gospel. Christs blood was the onely sacrifice for sin: and that he offered up himself for it, himself alone. Others  shed it, but for other purpose; not to offer it to God for sin. The Priests, and People, the judge, and executioners, whosoever had a hand, any hand in Christs Passion, they all were shedders of his blood, Iudas and all, satan and all. But the offering of it up for a ransom for mans sin; nay not {αβγδ} onely, to be a ransom, but to speak to the physic sense, {αβγδ}, for a Lotion, to wash our soul: a Lotion? nay a potion, a purgative potion, to purge our sin; that was Christs Act, his personal Act.  
The roman catholic sacrificing Priest says, he does it too, at every mass, at every Eucharist, he offers up Christs blood and body for our sins. But it is but {αβγδ}, saith Saint Chysostome, a Remembrance, not a Sacrifice. An Act, that could be done, but once: and it Christ did in his own person. Paul says it often, and Saint Peter too, that Christ suffered not, Christ offered not himself more then once; and by his blood  shed but that once, purged sin for ever.  
Yet lest the Papist think me too refract, I will not deny utterly all power of purging to the Sacraments. Surely they purge, both baptism and Eucharist. Our liturgy confesseth it. But the purge is mystical; it is the books term: because the Elements in them both are the mysteries of Christs Death. Yea and Repentance too, is said to purge sin, said in Scripture: but merely meant, as it hath Reference unto Christs blood. No man receives either Sacrament, or repents aright; but Faith, like the bunch of hyssop in the Passeover, dips itself in Christs blood, and besprinkles the soul with it; and so purges sin.  
To conclude, as God says of saving, so Christ may say of purging, Non est preter me, there is no purgation of sin, but Christs blood. Of this Act, he is sole Agent, sole Instrument. He had Simon of Cyrene to help him bear the cross; but he had not any to help him purge our sins. He bore the cross partly by another: but he bore our sins wholly by himself. And therefore solely unto him, and to his Father, and the Holy Ghost, be worthily rendered all glory and thanksgiving, Nunc,& in secula.  
This point hath yet one Adversary more; but he was not in his wits. One Barnardine O chinus: Who because Paul saith in the 20. of the Acts that God hath purchased the Church with his blood, would have therefore God the Father, the Purger of our sins, as if his blood were  shed. And Petrus Gnapheus a madder man then he, who would join all the Persons compurgatours with Christ. For he held all three were crucified. God the Father of Heaven, who as on this Day sent his son to purge our sins, by his holy Spirit assure our souls of our purgation. unto which sacred Persons of the Blessed Trinity, be, &c.   

OF THE nativity. The fourth Sermon. PREACHED VPON CHRISTMAS-DAY.  HEB. 1. 5. For unto which of the Angels said he at any time, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. 
THE fittest argument for Christmas day is Christs nativity; but I have already twice preached of that theme. I will therefore now entreat by Gods assistance, &c. Not of his carnal propagation, which is from man, but of his eternal generation, which was from God. The aim of the whole Chapter is the excellency of Christ, compared with the Angels, but preferred far before them for many high prerogatives. I have made choice of one, the fittest for this festival, the honourable and incomparable title of Gods son, not communicated by God unto any of his creatures. For unto which of the Angels said he at any time, Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee. A Text of Gods own testimony, of Christs nearness unto God; not his servant, as was David, Psal. 89. Iuravi David servo meo. Not his friend, as was Abraham, james 2. 23. he was called the friend of God, but his son, Thou art my son. His son, not by creation, as was Adam, Luke 3. ult. Adam, who was the son of God; Not by adoption, as are the Saints, Rom. 8. 16. filii dei sumus, we are the sons of God: but by generation, This day have I begotten thee.[ he said it not to men, though they be dear unto him; nay he said it not to Angels, though they be near unto him. For to which of the Angels said God at any time, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.]  
The Text consisteth of three distinct members; the general matter of them all is the attribute of Gods son. The first removes it from the Angels[ To which of the Angels said he at any time.] The next confers it upon Christ,[ Thou art my son] The third is added, either {αβγδ}, for illustration, their being sundry sorts of sons; or {αβγδ} for demonstration; no proof so pregnant for the sons assurance of his sire, as that he hath begotten him. This day have I begotten thee. These are the general heads of this Scripture, I will speak of them, &c.  
For the first; No angel? at no time? Surely it should seem that Saint Paul is too peremptory. The angel in the furnace. Dan. 3. 25. Is not he called the son of God? Then there is one. They in the first of job ver. 6. that are called the sons of God, were they not Angells? All Expositors say they were. There then are many called so. Haply you will say, that the angel in Daniel, is not called the son of God, but onely said to be like the son of God; and nullum simile est idem. So may I say of Christ, John 1. 14. he is called not unigenitus, but quasi unigenitus, not the only son of God, but as the onely son of God, and yet he is indeed, and God saith it in my text, that he is the Son of God. Comparative terms, both in the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures are not always Similitudinis, but sometimes Certitudinis; and it is no question, but a point confessed by all, that Angels in the Scriptures are called the sons of God.  
How then? Is our Apostle, as the Athenians termed him, a {αβγδ}, an Idle speaker? Saint Paul, qui soloecismos facit in loquendo, Hier. he that in his Grammar, and his greek, hath many incongruities; shall I say that he doth soloecise also in divinity, in denying the Angells to be called the sons of God, when the Scriptures say, they are? Surely the Angels are enstiled Gods sons; though sometimes Saint Chrys. said they are not( See Sist. Sen. lib. 5. p. 353. annot. 72.) so are they called, and so they are; but not in that acception, that Christ is called Gods son. There are many sorts of sons. The aged person calls the young his son; so did old Eli, young Samuel. The master calls his disciples his son; {αβγδ}, pupils are called sons. lib. Si●hti. So were the young students in Gilgal and Ramah called the sons of the Prophets. Naamans servant calls his Lord, Father, 2 King. 5. The Preacher is the spiritual Father of his people; the name of sons doth not disparaged them, for the King himself did call the Prophet so, 2 King. 6. And Kings are called the fathers of their country; their subjects are their sons. There is a son in law, the husband of my daughter: and there are sons by marriage, the children of my wife; beside sundry other sorts, which I cannot stand to city, by Creation, by Generation, by Adoption, by Affection. sons may be all these ways. And by divers of these ways the Angels may be justly called the sons of God: Either as his creatures, he is their maker, or as his servants, he is their Lord; or as his subjects, he is their King, or s●cundum dictoaudientiam, as iron. termeth it, for their obedience, or for his love, he is their gracious God; or for his age, for he is called the ancient of dayes, and they Cherubims, that is, as children, or young men. But a son in that sense, in which Christ is called Gods son, God never gave that title to any of the Angels. Saint Paul saith not, that the Angels are not any way Gods sons; but asketh, unto which of them God said at any time, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee? He onely denies them to be Gods begotten sons. Christ in this acception is son to God: God hath no more but him; either before him, for he is Alpha, or after him, for he is Omega. We confess it in our Creed, his onely son our Lord. And the Scriptures express it often in that term, {αβγδ}, his onely begotten son.  
His onely begotten son? Doth not our Apostle in the very next verse call him {αβγδ}, Gods first begotten son? Can unigenitus, and primogenitus be compatible to one? Si solus, qui primus: si primus, qui solus? If Christ be the first, then are there some besides, and if there be some more, then is not he the sole. A scruple of such force, that it put Epiphanius to a hard shift, on the first of Matthew, ver. ult. to say, Saint Matthew said not, filium primogenitum suum, but filium suum primogenitum; referring filium unto Mary, and primogenitum unto God. I call it a hard shift. For while he would not grant Mary had more sons, to save her Virginity, he maketh unwarily God to have more sons, a greater absurdity. For the advantage of the word apprehended by some heretics to prove plurality of sons, is as pleadable against God, as against the Virgin. But though in common speech a first is lightly relative to a second: yet in the use of Scripture it is often otherwise; the first doth not imply other to come after, but it doth deny that any went before. And so is the term to be taken in that place, and also in this Chapter. Christ is there Maries first begotten son, because she had none before him; and here he is also Gods first begotten son, because he had none before him. unigenitus& primogenitus are {αβγδ} in Scripture, they are of one signification. Gods first begotten son, is the very same with his onely begotten son.  
Yet is not this enough. For is not Christ called Rom. 8. the first begotten among many brethren? lo there Saint Paul saith plainly, that God hath more sons beside our Saviour; and Christ is therefore called primogenitus, because he hath more brethren. That Scripture hath many, and much different expositions; I will rest in this one, that Christ in his flesh is the first born of them, whom God hath adopted through him to be his sons. Not that the adoption belonged not to them, that lived before Christs birth; but that as in the Revelations, he is called the lamb slain, so I may also say, he was a son born before the beginning of the world. As his condemnation, so likewise his incarnation was from everlasting in Gods decree. justly might he so be called Gods first begotten son among many brethren. That Primogenitus of his manhood, is no prejudice to this unigenitus of his Godhead.  
There is yet one scruple more: Saith not the Psalmist that man is little lower then the Angels? Men often in the gospel are called the sons of God, not in a large acception, as the Angels were, but( as it should seem) in the same sense with Christ, and so, when the Psalmist calls lower then the Angels, I might say, that indeed they are higher then the Angels. The Angels are Gods sons, but not like Christ, not his sons by generation. But it is said of men, Act. 17. Wee are his generation. It was a Poets speech, but Saint Paul hath made it Scripture, and how often doth Saint John both in his gospel, and in his first Epistle affirm of the faithful, that they are born of God. born, you will say, but not begot of God; for that term is in my Text, This day have I begotten thee. But there being no distinction of sex in the Deity, it is all one with God, to bear, and to beget. And yet let me tell you this withall, that though in your books, in your English Translations, and in the latin too, you red it,( born of God) yet in the original, it is,( begot of God.) And if all this will not serve, look 1 John. 5. 18. there shall you find the very term in my Text, the righteous man said to be begot of God.  
Now to remove this scruple; first for the Poets speech, it is not to this purpose, that we are Gods generation, that is, his sons by generation; but is meant of our souls, that they come immediately from the Lord. They are not like our bodies, either made of earth, as Adams was, or bread of man, as all ours are; but they are the immediate workmanship of God, and( as the latin Poet said) Divinae particula aurae, breathed into our bodies by the Spirit of God. They are Gods generation; but( as Saint Augustine saith) non natura, said munere, not of his begetting, but of his bestowing: the generation is onely inspiration, the breath of man is from the breath of God.  
And for those terms of the Evangelists, born and begot of God, which seem more nearly to touch Christs title, they are not meant univoce; our birth and begetting is not like that of Christs; his from the substance of his Father, ours from the Spirit of his Father: the generation is but his operation. Gods seed is in us, 1 John 3. 9. another pregnant place to prove us sons, sons like to Christ. But that seed is not Gods substance, but his word. The Holy Ghost is the Father, out of the womb of the Church, by the seed of the gospel, he begetteth us unto God, and by the midwifery of his Ministers bringeth us forth his sons, not by generation, but by regeneration. So that we are his sons, not {αβγδ} nati, but {αβγδ} facti, not by begetting us, but by adopting us. The sonship is termed Gal. 4. 5. but {αβγδ}, it is {αβγδ}, as Peter Lumb. termeth it, factura, non natura, not by nature, but by grace, and therefore is no prejudice to Christs prerogative.  
To conclude this first point; very honourable attributes are given to the Angels often in the Scriptures. They are in such place and grace with their creator, that he hath imparted his own title unto them, and called them Gods. But Christs prerogative to be his son, Christ hath reserved that title to himself. The Angels are Gods nuntios, their name betokens it; and you may proportion that honour by the Popes. They are Gods Servants, psalm 103. ult, they are Gods Souldiers, Luke 2. 15. his Servants and his Souldiers, but not his sons. Christs mere peculiar, to be his son, to be Gods begotten son, gloriam meam, faith the Prophet, let me turn it, gloriam ●am non dabo alteri; he will not give that glory unto any. Not to any Creature; no not to any angel hath God said at any time, but onely unto Christ, Thou art my son; and that is the next point in my Text.  
The second member hath three terms, one of the Relation, it is a son, and secondly of the Correlatives, under the pronominall notes, meus, and tu; Thou, i. Christ, Mine, i. Gods. For the first, will Christ rob his Father? These words are said to David in the second psalm Christ was the son of David: will Christ bereave his Father of his right, and a title appropriated by God unto his Sire, will the son impropriate it unto himself? But Saint Paul in his Sermon ad populum Antiochenum, Acts 13. sheweth that this text is meant of the messiah; in type pretended unto David, but in truth intended unto Christ. For the words in the original are {αβγδ}, and it is the observation of an Hebrew Rabbin, that Attah is one of the names of God; but a personal name, not common to the Trinity, but proper unto Christ; for it signifieth( saith he) {αβγδ} the wisdom of God; and the Apostle telleth us, 1 Cor. 1. 24. that Christ is Gods wisdom.  
The person then is Christ; but what Christ? for there is Christus homo, 1 Tim. 2. the man Christ, and there is Christus Dominus, Luke 2. 11. The Lord Christ. Both indeed are but one Christ. But we must distinguish between the natures. All this that hath been said in the first point, is meant of Christ not as man, but as God. For as he was man, he had no father. Wee have fathers of our flesh, Heb. 12. 9. but Christ had none. The Apostle saith it plainly, Cap. 7. ver. 3. he was {αβγδ}, i. without a father. And it is but a harsh speech, which Saint Augustine hath, Ipse homo, ex quo esse coepit, filius Dei unicus esse coepit, that Christs humanity so soon as it had being, was presently Gods Son. Whence Servetus the Spaniard took the hint of his heresy, that Christ but then began to be Gods son when he took flesh. I know the angel said unto the Virgin, Luke 1. 35, that the holy thing which she should bear, should be called the son of God. But what did shee bear? not {αβγδ}, but {αβγδ}, not a man onely, but God incarnate; in so much that the Ephesine council decreed, that she should be called the mother of God. As then Christ though being God, yet was called the son of mary, in respect of his humanity; so Christ though being man, yet was called the son of God, in respect of his deity; which he had from him.  
To end this, Gods son is a title truly said of many, both of men and Angels, but so {αβγδ}, concerning Christ, that in Saint Peters confession, Mat. 16. 16. to press it the more powerfully, the Evangelist hath mustered four articles together, you shall find not lightly but once the like in Scripture, {αβγδ} Sic John 6. 69. David thought it a great honour to be son to Saul, Is it a light thing, saith he, to be son in law unto a King? What glory is it then to be the son of God, 1 Sam. 18. 18. And it is Zanchies observation, that whereas {αβγδ} is a common appellation {αβγδ} is onely said of Christ.  
The next term in this member is the other correlative, Thou art my Son. A Pagan fathers it upon Salomon, that God hath no son. Aug. Ep. 49. quest▪ 5. Christ was the Son, God is the Father; a Father fit for such a son; for who should father God, but God. I will not ask, which God, because there is but one. But yet there are three persons of that one God. The second is not he; for so he should be son unto himself, as Hermes called him {αβγδ}. The third is not he, for the holy Ghost proceeds from him. But God the first person, and the fountain of the deity, Christ is his son. We are Gods sons; but not the Fathers onely; all the persons in the Trinity have their right in that fatherhood. But the first person onely is father unto Christ. he may say unto us also, that wee are his sons; but the holy Ghost and the Word may say it as well as he. But unto Christ neither third, nor second person, but the first alone can say, thou art my son. I say the whole fraternity of Gods Elect are sons to God. Yea the whole society of all mankind are sons to him. Nay, the university of all the creatures do call him Father. Vnus pater omnium, there is one father of all, Eph. 4. 6. i. of all the faithful. Thou art our Father, and wee thy handy work, Esay 68. 8. it is meant of all mankind, and job 38. 28 He is the Father of the rain, and the due drops are his sons. Yea that which is more, the term in my text appropriated to Christ, is there alienated to them, they are his begotten sons. But this paternity is a community; the Godhead hath three persons, and it is liable alike unto them all. But the first alone hath propriety in Christ, and none but he can say; Thou art my son. Saint Paul hath it expressly, Rom. 8. 22. he calls him {αβγδ}, his own proper son. The son is Father, and so is the Spirit, but onely of men. But the first person, as the Poet said of jupiter, is {αβγδ}, the Father not onely of men, but of God. It is ex altissimo patre genitura. iron. lib. 3. cap. 21.  
But saith not the Scripture, that Christ was Davids son? do not the Evangelists call Mary his mother? and the people ask, Nonne hic est filius fabri, Is not this fellow the Carpenters son? Nay doth not Christ himself call himself the son of man? The answer is easy. The rule of the Divines, distingue tempora,& concordabunt scripture, will serve with little change, distinguantur naturae, concordabunt scripture. Mary was his mother according to the flesh, and joseph was her husband, and she of Davids line. The man Christ I say was descended of man, but the word Christ merely is the son of God.  
To end this; Many with blind bartholomew called him son of David, but few with Saint Peter called him son of God. But Christ hath built his Church upon this rock, that he is Gods son, Manichaei& Marcionitae diaboli filium dicunt. Aug. tract. 43, in joan.  
The last term in this member, is the Title of relation, Thou art my son, Christ is Gods son. Saint Paul to the Corinthians, 1. 3. ult. telleth us in general that Christ is Gods. But what is he of Gods? To be Gods servant, to be Gods friend are two glorious references, thought worthy of the two grand Worthies of the world, David and Abraham. But this relation is far more honourable, to be Gods son. Sundry eminent titles are conferred on Christ; but they are common also unto us. justin Martyr calls him {αβγδ}, the Apostle of God, so were many beside him. He is the holy one of God, mark 1. 14. So are we. Psallite Domino sancti ejus, Psa. 30. He is the anointed of God, Luke 2. 26. So are we; Touch not mine anointed, Psal. 105. He is the Image of God, Col. 1. 14. So are we: In the Image of God Created he him. Gen. 1. 27. But to be the son of God, is a title so peculiar to our Saviour in this sense, that not onely no creature, either man or angel, but not the Holy Ghost himself may claim it; he is the spirit of God, but not the son of God. The truth of it testified by a cloud of witnesses, God spake once and twice, as David saith, both at Christs baptism, and when he was transfigured, This is my beloved son. Christ often confesseth it, and calls him Abba Father. Mar. 14. 36. You heard before how Saint Peter called him so; so doth the angel before Mary. All Creeds in christendom have received it: Nay heathens have proclaimed it: Sibyll in her Oracle calls him {αβγδ}, the son of the highest; and the roman Centurion cried it at the cross, doubtless this was the son of God. Yea the devils themselves aclowledge it. What have we to do with thee, thou Iesus son of God. Heaven, Earth, and Hell, you see do witness it: What should I press it further?  
The third member of my Text is the explication of the second. Because among men there are sundry sorts of sons; yea all creatures are called Gods sons in some acception; as Christ is there generally said to be his son, so here it is more specially expounded in what sense. This day have I begotten thee. Christ is Gods begotten Son. Arius granted him to be his son, but by Creation; and all his followers granted him his son, but by adoption. But Saint Hilary disputeth it against the heretics, and proveth Christ Gods son, origine, non adoptione, nativitate, non creatione; not created, but begotten, not adopted, but his son born.  
For the former, Arius stumbling at the greek Text, proverbs 8. 22. {αβγδ}, the Lord created me, on that corrupt translation grounded his heresy, that Christ was a Creature. But the Hebrew is not so; and though it were, yet the Fathers do avoid that absurdity many ways; I cannot stand to city them. And had he looked a little lower, ver. 25. he might have found there the very term in my Text, before the hills, was I begotten. Christ was Gods son, saith Arius, but {αβγδ}, not born so, but made so. But we learn by the Evangelist, that all things that were made, were made by Christ. Who then made him? He cannot say, his Father; for then he made not all. But the Evangelist doubles it, that without him was made nothing, that was made; and I hope he will not say, he made himself. And therefore Peter Lomb. determines against Arius, that Christ was Gods son, non factura, but natura, not by being made, but by being born. Yea many ages before him, Athanasius in his Creed had said the same, begotten, not made. He was made the son of Man, but he was born the son of God.  
For the other, Christ( saith S. Hilary) is the son of God, Veritate, non nuncupatione, not in title but in truth. Had God but onely adopted Christ his son, then were he onely titular, not {αβγδ}, but {αβγδ}, and the Relation were but an Appellation. But both the Centurion at the cross, and the People in the ship, Matthew 14. 33. say of our Saviour, that he was {αβγδ}, the son of God in truth: not {αβγδ}, but {αβγδ}. Cyril. Hierosol. Cateches. 10. not {αβγδ}, Athanasius, not adopted by grace, like us, but by generation, God is his Father, not dignatione, but prognatione, not by adopting him, but by begetting him.  
By begetting him? then Saint Basils rule belike is false, {αβγδ}, where is no beginning, there is no begetting. But Damascen teacheth to distinguish, {αβγδ}, to beget, in God, is not meant of essence, but of subsistence, not of nature, but of person. The Godhead of the Word, as he is God is of himself, but the person of the son is of the Father.  
Hence naturally ariseth a controversed point between Bellarmine and Calvine, whether Christ be {αβγδ}, God of himself. Calvine affirmeth it, the Iesuite denieth it. The Creeds of the great councils, and the best of the Fathers do seem to make for him. For they say that Christ is Deus de Deo, God of God; and that the son hath nought but of the Father. God saith in my Text, that he hath begotten him; and therefore Quicquid habet, Hilar. quicquid est, August. Whatsoever he is, or hath, it is of him. But all such sayings are to be understood, not {αβγδ}, not of the substance, but of the person. The essence of God is {αβγδ}. Damasc. neither doth beget, nor is begotten. For we learn in Philosophy, that Actiones be Suppositorum. Not the Deity of the Father begot the Deity of the son, but the Person of the Father begot the Person of the Son. The Creed doth not say, deit as de deitate, but Deus de Deo, that God the son is of God the Father, not his Godhead, but his Person. But say it did, for indeed some Fathers do seem to say as much, that even the substance of the son is from the Father; yet they mean no more, then that the Father is the spring head of the Godhead, and that the sons deity, doth come from him, but not Nascendo, but communicando; The Father did communicate his substance to his son, but he did not beget it in his son: for it is eadem Numero with the Fathers, and therefore could not be begotten. Else should the third person be sonnne also to the first; for his Godhead is from him, as well as Christs. For he is Fons totius Deitatis, say the Fathers, all Deity is derived from him.  
To end this question, Christ is {αβγδ}, God of himself, as he is the Word, but Deus de Deo, God of his Father, as he is the son. My Text doth determine it in an equal ear, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. The aim of the argument is at the person, not at the Godhead. Ego hody genuit●, this day have I the Father, begotten thee the son.  
The Law defines a son, qui ex viro& uxore nascitur. A child must have two parents, a man to beget him, a woman to conceive and bear him. This is the manner of the sons of men; but the son of God had onely a Father; and the term in my Text is suiting accordingly, I have begotten thee. I have begotten thee? May it not then be said, that Christ was born of God? and doth Divinity tie us to that term, the begotten son of God? Indeed some superstitious censurers of late, fearing belike lest as Orpheus sometime said, that God was mas& foemina, so we should make him an Hermaphrodite, to be of both sexes, have utterly refused that phrase, and condemned it for strange divinity. A strange presumption to teach Gods Spirit how to speak. For not the Fathers onely, but the Scriptures also authorize us to say, that Christ was born of God. For as hilary saith, Non est filius, qui non est natus, he is no son, that is not born.  
The spirit in the Scriptures was not so precise; who in describing Christs issue from his Father, hath drawn his Metaphors from the womans sex, Prov. 8. 25. The Geneva Translators were too slight, Before the hills, was I begotten. The word hath neither the full life, nor the true sense of that in the Hebrew; it signifieth to bring forth, and that with pains, after the use of women. Shall I cause to travel, Et ipse non pariam, and myself not bear? saith the Lord. Nay, God disdaineth not to mention his womb, Psal. 110. ex utero ante luciferum genui te. Birth, travel, and womb, all taken from women. Yea this very verse, which seemeth here to favour them, if they look it in the Hebrew in the second psalm, they shall find it confuteth them. For howsoever the seventy pleased to translate it, and Paul takes it from them; yet it is in the original, {αβγδ} This day have I begotten thee. The Fathers are full of the like phrases, for indeed as Saint hilary hath wisely determined it, Generatio& Nativitas, bearing and begetting is all one with God. And in the creed of Constantinople, there is Natus ex patre, as well as Genitus. I am too long in this point; a word of the manner; and so I will leave it.  
Generation is either {αβγδ}, naturally, as it is in men; or {αβγδ} spiritually, as it is in God. In the former, but a part of the substance of the fire doth pass into the substance of the son. But divine generation communicateth the whole nature; for it beareth no partition. 2. The first, being a transfusion, the substance ceaseth to be the sires; but the latter being a communication, that which the Father impartes unto the son, departs not from himself. 3. The former is acted out of the subject; the male begetteth out of the womb of the female. But in the deity, the father begot the son within himself, and therefore Christ is said, Heb. 7. to be {αβγδ}, i. without a mother. 4 In human generation there is alteration, there is motion, and passion, and diminution. But Gods begetting hath none of these; neither motion, for there is no time; neither passion, for there is no sex, neither diminution, for he hath no parts; neither alteration, for he cannot change. 5. In a word, in humane generation, the sires substance, and the sons, it is the same in a sort, but yet it differs numcro. But in the Godhead, there is the very same and individual substance in both persons.  
There yet remaines one point in the adverbiall particle, to day. It is a term of time, but here betokens the eternity of Christs birth. {αβγδ}, Philo. To day is a term of eternity. Rides Ariane; the Arian laughs at it, S. Aug. saith, and catcheth at the word to prove Christ to be a creature. But the term in this text, saith the same Father, divinius accipitur, it is taken more divinely, and imports Christs generation to be from everlasting {αβγδ}, Damas. l. 4. ca. 7. {αβγδ}, ibid. You can not say, saith Aug. you cannot say of it, either erat, or erit, either yesterday it was, or to morrow it shall be, but that it is to day. For that which was, is not now: and that which shall be, is not yet; eternity is a perpetual nunc, an everlasting hody; and therefore in Christs eternal generation, the act of Gods begetting is said to be, to day. For with God( saith Orig.) it is always hody; his day hath neither morning nor evening. Nunquam crastinus nunquam hesternus est dies, with God, saith Saint Aug. there is no yesterday, there is no morrow. For quod aeternum est, semper est, saith the same Father, eternal things are ever present.  
Arius denied Christs eternity, {αβγδ}, there was a time, when he was not. Servetus a Spaniard, burnt at Geneva in Calvins time, granted him eternal, but denied he was Gods son till Mary bore him. This one word quelleth both these heretics, and coupleth in Christ, nativity and eternity. verbs and Adverbes of the present time are best expressers of eternity. Christs phrase hath shewed it, John 8. 58. Before Abraham was, I am. And the Lord bad Moses say, Exod. 3. I am hath sent me to you.  
briefly and plainly, the generation of Gods son, is as ancient as Gods self. It is {αβγδ}. Nazian. transcendent to all time. The son( saith Amphiloch.) is {αβγδ}, with the father, without beginning, as well as he. For( as Athenasius teacheth in his Creed) there is no {αβγδ} in the Trinity; one person is not after nor before an other. The son( saith cyril) is {αβγδ} before all ages. Not onely before John, {αβγδ}, He was before me, John 1. 15. not onely before Abraham, Before Abraham was, I am: but ante omnes, before all men, Col. 1. 17. Nay it is better in the Greek, {αβγδ} before all things. Before the mountaines, Prov. 8. 25. I was conceived before the hills. Before the stars; Psal. 110. ante luciferum genui te. Nay, {αβγδ}, before all ages. So saith the Prophet, Mic. 5. Egressus ejus à diebus aeternitatis, his going forth, that is, his birth is from everlasting. To conclude, Christ is Gods eternal son: Saint Ambroses Creed calls him, the everlasting son of the Father: for filius antequàm natus erat, non erat. Hil. God is Christs eternal Father; for Sicut nunquàm erat non Deus, ita nunquàm erat non pater, Aug. as God was always God, so was he always Father. He alone, and no other, is both called, and is indeed the onely begotten son of God, Euseb. li. 1. contra Marcellum, teste Socrate, lib. 2. cap. 21. To this eternal Father, and to his Son, and to the holy Ghost, &c.   

OF THE nativity. The fifth Sermon. PREACHED VPON CHRISTMASDAY.  HEB▪ 1. 8. O God, thy Seat is for ever and ever; the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. 
THE kindest argument for Christmas day, is Christs Nativity; but I have already twice preached of that project. By your learned leaves, and reverend patience, I will now forbear to touch his Incarnation, and turn my theme unto his Domination. That is the present purpose of the Apostle to press Christs prerogative above the Angels, by a double pre-eminence, his Godhead, and his kingdom. His kingdom commended by a twofold title, the firmenes of his seat, and the straightness of his sceptre. These are the points contained in this Scripture; Christs Deity, his Royalty, his Eternity, and his Integrity. By Gods gracious assistance, and your favourable patience, I will speak of them severally, and briefly, and as they lie in order. A love principium, I will begin with his Divinity.  
Iesus the son of Mary, a King, and a God? treason and blasphemy both at once in one Text? A dangerous Scripture to have been preached unto the Priests; for they were the two pretences produced a● Christs arraignment, and pressed before Pilate, to bring him to his end. He had said, he was a King, Luke 23. and had made himself the son of God. John 19. 7. Yea the people also upbraided him with both, as he hung upon the cross. Let him come down, if he be the son of God, let him come down, if he be the King of Israel. His kingdom is my second point. But for his Godhead, ist not strange, that the Iewes should deny, that the Gentiles did confess? that men should doubt of that, which the devils had acknowledged? Both the roman Centurion proclaimed it at the cross; doubtless this was the son of God; and the fiends in the possessed cried it in the way, What have we to do with thee, thou Iesus son of God? Publicans and Harlots will go before you, said our Saviour: Nay I will speak like an Origenist, the devils themselves will go before the Iewes into the kingdom of Heaven.  
Why then doth our Saviour commonly and openly call himself the son of Man? It was partly of his lowliness, and partly of his love. He that scorned not our nature, disdained not our name. But Qui dix●t hominem, non negavit Deum; Christ when he called himself the son of Man, did not deny himself the son of God. And justly might he challenge God to be his Father; for God had challenged him to be his son; both at his baptism, and when he was transfigured. This is my beloved son. The seed of David but the son of God. Rom. 1. 3. Now Gods son is Gods self: for that which is born of God is God. It is true, which Calvin said, though in an other sense, that Christ is {αβγδ}, i. e. Christ is very God. His Incarnation will not disproove him; it will rather be a proof. For it was the Word, that was incarnate, and that Word was God. The form of a servant will not disparaged him. In formam, servi transijsse, non est naturam Dei perdidisse, Hilar. The Word by taking flesh became the son of Man; but he did not therefore cease to be the son of God. Forma servi accessit, non forma Dei recessit, August. he took unto him the substance of man, but he put not from him the essence of God. Even at the same time, when his entertaining of the manhood made him lower then the Angels, by retaining of the Godhead made him equal to his Father, both {αβγδ}, both in substance and power.  
So he was, and so it behoved. For the greatness of Gods wrath, which was to be appeased, the sharpness of the curse, which was to be endured, and the hardness of the law, which was to be observed, required the messiah to be more then a man. That God might be satisfied, and man might be justified, the mediator that must go between them both, must be both God and Man. Our Ghostly enemies, the devil, death, and hell, could not be conquered by a creature. As he must be man, that should encounter them; so he must be God, that could discomfit them. So he must, and so he was, God as well as Man, and therefore called Immanuel, i.e. God with us, God and man, both together in one Person.  
Sundry sorts of heretics thought him {αβγδ}, a mere and bare man: They turned {αβγδ}, they yielded him Divinity, but denied him Deity. But the Apostle, &c. not only, Deus eratcum illo, Act. 10. 28, God was with Christ, but Deus erat in illo, there was a God in Christ. A God in Christ? So there is in us, who are not gods, est Deus in nobis, there is a God in us. But God in men is onely Spiritualiter, but he was in Christ essentialiter, in us {αβγδ}, but in him {αβγδ}, Col. 2. 9. that is substantially and personally, but the Apostle telleth us, 2 Cor. 5. Deus erat in Christo, there was a God in Christ. That Godhead appeared, though covert in the flesh, yet overt in his actions; he declared his Divinity both {αβγδ}, saith the Evangelist, both Miraculis and Oraculis, tart. both by his doctrine and his miracles. Never man spake as he spake, John 7. 46. Never man did, as he did. Matth. 9. 33.  
There is much matter in the points behind, and indeed Christs kingdom is the main mark of my Text; and therefore to end this: sons and their sires are of the same substance. Christ was determined in the Nicen council to be {αβγδ}; being Gods son, to be also of Gods substance. Now Gods substance is God. It is an axiom in school Divinity. Quicquid est in Deo est Deus. Whatsoever is in God, is God. His Father and he were one, not onely unanimitate, as Auxentius said the Arian, but also deiformitate, saith hilary, not onely in the identity of will, but also in the verity of Godhead. And so much briefly of the first point of my Text the Godhead of Christ; I come unto his kingdom.  
do stables chamber Kings? do mangers cradle Kings? a Bethlehemite, a Nazarite, a Carpenter, a King? stables are stalls for beasts, and mangers cribs for Oxen. Bethleem the least of the thousands of judah, too base to bear a King. Nazareth so ignoble, that Nathanael said of it, Can any good thing come from Nazareth? And for Carpenters, it is a proverb, tractant fabrilia fabri: more fit is for their handling a wooden rule, then a golden sceptre. Yet Christ thus born, thus brought up, thus professed, is here by the Apostle avoucht to be a King. Avoucht? will some say: What meaneth then the author to conceal his name, as if his heart misgave him of treason against Caesar? That is not the cause. For Christ to be a King, as my author doth avouch it, so the Scripture doth aver it. David calls him so, psalm 45. I speak of the things, which I have made unto the King. The son of David calls him so, Cant. 1. ● The King hath brought me into his privy Chambers. The Prophet calls him so, Zachar. 9. 9. Behold thy King cometh. The Apostle calls him so, 1 Tim. 1. The everlasting King. Yea not the tongues of men onely, but of Angels also, do aclowledge it, Luk. 1. 33. He shall reign over the house of jacob. Yea God himself confirmeth it, psalm 2. 6. I have set my King upon my holy hill, and Christ himself confesseth it; for so before you heard him charged by his accusers, Luke 23. that he had said, he was Christ a King. I will not say he said it; but if that silence seem to be consent, both the people applauding him with the title; he refused it not, Luke ●9. and the judge opposing him of the title, he renounst it not. And when he was examined by the roman Deputy, he disclaimed not the title but answered, thou sayest it. Nay when the high Priest asked him, whether he were so; he plainly answered, that he was, Mar. 14. 62. Herod was afraid of it, and therefore made a massacre of all the Infants about Bethleem; Pilate an infidel wrote it on the cross, and the seal of a Caesar upon his grave ston might argue that a King lay butted underneath. What do I press a point approved by us all? For in calling him our Lord, wee confess he is our King; and what Christian ever praies, but he endeth his devotion, through Iesus Christ our Lord.  
If Christ be a King, where then are his compliments? Kings have their Crownes, their Thrones, and their anointing; Globes in their left hand, and sceptres in their right; the rob royal, their arms, and their Stiles; their Courts, and their Nobles, their Guard, and their Champion; swords are born before them, and the people cry, God save the King. A goodly King, will some blasphemer say, some Lucian, some porphyry, some julian, some jew. He wore a crown, but made of thorns, and he bore a sceptre, but it was a reede; he was mounted on a throne, but it was the cross; and a title over it, but for a malefactor; his Court some ship or mountain, and his Nobles, Publicans and Fishermen; Peter his champion, but a silly maiden made him to forswear him; a Purple garment was put upon him, and the souldiers knees were bent before him, and they cried unto him, but all in scorn, All hail King of the Iewes. Thou impious Atheist, knowest thou not that those compliments are of Kings of this world? And readest thou not, Christs kingdom was not of this world. And yet because thou urgest them, to prove Christ was no King, I say Christ hath them all, and therefore is a King. For Throne and sceptre, my text affordeth them; Thou Atheist understandest them not; but when Christ shall come to judgement, then shalt thou tremble before his throne, and be smitten into hell with the stroke of his sceptre. He bears his unction in his name, he was termed the messiah, i. the anointed, and wee call him Christ, because( saith the Psalmist) The Lord hath anointed him with the oil of gladness above his fellowes. His crown, Apoc. 14. 14. not of thorns, but of gold. The world is his globe, and he meats it with his fist, Esay 40. 12. Heaven is his Court, and the Angells his nobility; and his Guard thousand thousands of Saints, and ten thousand thousands of Cherubims, Dan. 7. 10. His arms are the cross; so the Fathers construe that Matth. 24. which himself calls the sign of the son of man. Daniel saw his rob, a garment white as snow; his style is on his thigh, Apoc. 19. 16. Rex regum dominus dominantium. His Word is his Sword, Heb. 4. 12. and his Martyrs are his Champions; and the people saluted him, as he road into jerusalem, with a solemn Hosanna, Luke 19. Benedictus Rex, Blessed be the King.  
If Christ be a King, then what is his kingdom? It it not like to kingdoms upon earth. As he said of his peace, joh. 14. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you; so may he say of his power, not as the world reigneth, reign I over you; his kingdom is spiritual. The Iewes confessing that their messiah was to be a king, thought Christ was not he, because his carriage was not like a king. They thought he should dissesin Herod of his diadem,& throw caesar out of his throne. But his dominion is supra, not contra, above Kings, not against Kings. It is the Churches hymn, non eripit mortalia, qui regna dat coelestia, the kings of all lands are his pheasants by him, and under him they rule their realms; his people he subjecteth unto their sceptres; only the supremacy reserves unto himself.  
Nor was the end of Christs coming in the flesh presently to profess his princely jurisdiction. The drift of his descending was not ad judicandum, but ad salvandum, not to be a judge, but to be a Saviour. The nature of his office was engraven in his name, expounded by the angel, Matth. 1. he should be called Iesus, for he should save his people. And yet it pleased him to show sometimes some signs of his authority. As his sending for the ass, without first asking leave of him that owned it; and his answer if the owner stick at it, Dominus opus habet; as if he should say, the King must use it. And his driving of the Merchants out of the Temple; a notorious presumption for a private man▪ besides some other particulars in the gospel. But after his resurrection he plainly professed his imperial power, by sending his disciples out into all realms, into the kingdoms of all Princes without their licence, as being a higher power than they. And now he governs the world invisibly; even as a King being resident but in one place, yet is President in all; his palace but in one city, but his power in all; so though his person abide among the Angels, and his seat be with the Saints, yet his power reacheth over all the world. Though his majesty be in heaven, yet his authority is on earth. His destruction of the wicked, and protection of his Church, do prove his princely power.  
Christs kingdom, I say, is not carnal, but spiritual; and yet not merely spiritual. For as he hath his word, so he hath his sword. As he that his spirit, which is the holy Ghost to confirm the faithful: so he hath his spirits which are the holy Angels to confounded the wilful. The Pope saith he hath, but Christ indeed hath utrunque gladium, both the temporal, and the spiritual sword; the one for the conversion of his children, the other for the subversion of his enemies. The sword of his mouth, i. his word beateth down sin, the mouth of his sword, i. his vengeance eateth up sinners. His spiritual sword is forspirituall wickednesses, which are the devil and the flesh; it is his mouth sword-by his Preachers; you have it, Apoc 1. 16. this temporal sword, is for temporal enemies, which are the vexers of his Church; It is his hand-sword by his Angels; even his sword of two mouths( my author calls it {αβγδ}( Cha. 4. v. 12. of two mouths; i. edges, that is his two-hand sword; with the one side to defeat their purposes, with the other to revenge the practices of the perturbers of his people.  
This kingdom of Christs is more perfect and excellent, then ever was the kingdom of any earthly Prince in five respects; the first, the right of his Title; the second, the fullness of his power; the third, the number of his subjects; the fourth, the soveraignitie of his Rule; and the fifth, the continuance of his reign. I will speak of them severally.  
For the first, his titles to his crown are both more, and more honourable; his claim is fivefold; first for his hypostatical, his personal union. In that the man Christ is also God; he is Lord of all creatures, whatsoever, wheresoever; that as when an earthly King is name, every subject doth his reverence; so at the name of Iesus every knee must bow, of things in heaven, in earth, and under earth. His second claim is by right of redemption. For the Civilians have a rule, Emptum cedit in jus emptoris. Surely if sin subjected us to satan, and the devil pled his Conquest, to prove himself our King, by winning us from God; Christ that hath rescued us by his power, and recovered us by his price, hath more right to be our Lord. His third title is by inheritance. Is not the son of man, also the son of God? And is not the Father Lord of all the creatures? If then he be his son, he also is his heir. It is Saint Pauls argument: and you heard it also in the Epistle, that the Father hath made his son heir of all things. The onely rub that might be in this reason is, if God had more sons, and Christ were not the eldest. But he is both unigenitus, Gods onely begotten son, he hath no more; and if he had, yet is he also primogenitus, his first begotten son, vers. 6. hujus cap. His fourth plea, is of Merit, In that he satisfied his Fathers wrath, and recompenst the wrong, which we had done Gods honour by his own death; he deserved all the honour, which his father might do him. Yea both his active merit, his obedience of the Law, and his passive merit, his patience on the cross; his absolute obeying of the Law, and his resolute abiding of the cross have duly deserved it. His last right is by Donation. The gift is promised, Psal. 2. Tibi dabo, I will give; and it is performed, Matth. 28. Mihi data est, All power is given me. Christ took possession, when he took flesh; that was his induction, my Author calls it so, vers. 6. and though the Priests disclaimed him, John 19. Wee have no King; yet the people proclaimed him, Luke 19. Benedictus Rex, blessed be the King. The devil proffered him all the kingdoms of the earth, an other Tibi dabo, Matth. 4. 9. but that gift was nought; for they were none of his. But here the owner is the donor. Gods is the kingdom, and he gives it to his son; and if mens Patents be of force, Gods Magna Charta is much more. The people would have made Christ King, John 6. 15. but he would not take it of them, but of God. And therefore his Father calls him his King, Psa. 2. I have set my King, and the Evangelist seconds it, Luke 2. 26. he calls him the Lords Christ. That as Princes and Prelates have their places divina dignatione, so Christ hath also his, divina donatione. That as Charles our earthly King writeth in his style, Charles by the Grace of God King of three lands: So Christ our heavenly King may writ in his style, Iesus by the gift of God King of all lands.  
The second excellency in Christs kingdom, is the fullness of his power. The power of earthly Kings hath limitation. Their subjects are not bound to obey them in all things. Their lusts are listed by their laws. But Christs power is peremptory; quod volumus, sanctum est: what he bids, must be: what he forbids, his subjects must not do. The commands of Kings have many exceptions; but Christs authority is absolute and infinite.  
The third consideration, is the number of subjects. It is the Wise mans word, Prov. 14. that the multitude of people is the honour of a King. Mens kingdoms have their bounds, and their rule doth reach no further then their realms. But Christs kingdom is in all countries, and all people subject to his power. Sesostris King of Egypt called himself {αβγδ}, the monarch of the world. But Christ indeed is {αβγδ}, an ecumenical King. So saith the Psalmist, the whole world is his inheritance, and his possession, the ends of the earth. For though his kingdom be not of the world, joh. 18. yet the kingdom of the world is his, Apo. 11 Nay more than that, Kings are commanders but of those that live, the dead are out of their dominion. But Christ, as at the last day he shall be judge both of quick and dead; so in the mean time he is King both over quick and dead. For the souls of the Saints are subject to his sceptre. Nay more than that, the mightiest monarch is but ruler over men; but Christ is Lord also over the Angels. Both Michael and his Angels, and the Dragon and his Angels owe allegiance unto him The one do worship him, Heb. 1. 6. the other do fear him, james 2 19. both do serve him, Heb. 1. 7. And therfore as the Pope doth wear a triple crown, to signify his threefold power, in earth, in heaven, and in purgatory: so Christ, who indeed hath regal authority, both in earth, heaven, and hell, is seen in the Apocal●pse, 19. 12. to have many crownes upon his head.  
The fourth prerogative in Christs kingdom, is his suremacie. Some Kings have controllers upon earth. The spartans had officers that might call their King to count, that might summon him, and censure him. The roman Tribune might arrest the Consuls, who were in Rome as Kings. But Christs kingdom is uncontroleable; what he will, he works, and none may say unto him, quid agis, What dost thou? In earth on King is vassal to another. So was Herod unto Caesar, and so are many Kings unto the Turkish Emperour. But Christs sceptre hath no superior; he is no homager unto any; for his diadem hath no dependence. Nay all Kings do homage unto him; the Kings of Tharsis, and the ●sles do● bring him presents, the Kings of Arabia and Saba do bring him gifts. Nay, all thrones are but his footstooles, and all crownes do crouch to Christ, both in earth Kings fall before him, Psal. 72. 11. and in heaven the elders throw down their crownets before his throne, Apoc. 4. he is {αβγδ}, saith Damascene, all might and domination, all power and principality is under him, Ephe. 1. 21. his sceptre is superlative, and his supremacy is above all sovereignty. In a word, his style is embroidered on his rob, and his title on his thigh, Rex regum,& dominus dominantium, Lord of Lords, and King of Kings. Indeed the Turkish Sultan hath the one in his style, Dominus dominantium, and Syrus the Persian had the other on his tomb, Rex regum. But these did but usurp; as the haughty hearts of man will leave the Lord no title. Nay the Emperour of Constantinople was wont to bear four Bees in his Scocheon, in every quarter one, to signify his supremacy {αβγδ}, that is, a King of Kings reigning over all that reign. But Christ onely indeed is the supreme sovereign, and the Arch-Emperour over all Kings. Heathens conceive it not; but Christian Kings confess it; and therefore as servants do wear their Lords cognisance, so do they set the cross, which is Christs cognisance, on the crest of their crownes.  
The fifth and last perfection, is the continuance of Christs kingdom, and is the next point in my text. Thy seat O God endureth for ever. Thy throne? Heaven is his throne; it endureth not for ever. himself hath said it, that heaven and earth shall pass, But heaven is not meant here; the term is metonymical and meaneth his regiment; it endu●eth for ever. There are two causes of Kings non-continuance, Death, and Disturbance Death unheads the crown, or force uncrownes the head. I name not Resignation, because it is voluntary.  
For the first, the reign of a King determines at his death; his rule ceaseth, when himself deceaseth, and the expiring of his Ghost is the period of his power. Christ dyed indeed, but yet he kept his kingdom, because he dyed not. What( will you say) did not Christ die? saith not the Creed, he did: say not the Scriptures also, that he did? this is palpable heresy. I say again, Christ dyed not; and yet I cross not either Creed or Scripture. They say he dyed, and so say I; but I say he lived too, and so say they. For death and life are not contradictory in Christ. Moriebatur,& non moriebatur. Ambro. Emisit spiritum, non amisit. i. e. Had he been {αβγδ}, but a mere man, he had lost his kingdom with his life. But Saint Paul telleth us as you heard before, Deus erat in Christo, there was a God in Christ. There was Christus homo, The man Christ, 1 Tim. 2. and there was Christus Dominus, the Lord Christ, Luke 2. 11. Christ was both quick and dead at once, because he was both God and man at once. The man Christ dyed, but the Lord Christ lived. He dyed but in part, the living part kept still the kingdom. Though the parts of his manhood, his body and his soul were severed by death; yet his Godhead continued united still unto them both. His kingdom was tied to neither of his natures, but to his Person. That Person remaining still whole for all his death, he could not lose his kingdom.  
kingdoms remove from man to man by death. But Christs kingdom is like unto his Priesthood, its {αβγδ}, Heb. 7. 24. not conveighable to others by succession. As his mitre, so his sceptre, the one slippeth not from head to head, the other slideth not from hand to hand. The reason is there rendered, His reign is for ever, because his life is for ever. As he wear the one, so he bears the other for everlasting.  
For the second cause of non-continuance, which was disturbance. Kings are sometimes un-kingd. Either intruders at home despoil them of their diadems, or invaders from abroad thrust them from their Thrones. There is a law entitles every man to a crown, yea though it be already upon an others head. Polybius calls it {αβγδ}, the law of hands. If the aspirers sword be sharper, and his arm be stronger, he relies upon that law, Qui potest capere, capiat, catch it, who can; if he can win it, he will wear it. But Christ who is Almighty, Apoc. 1 8. hath none mightier then himself. The strong man in Christs Parable, Luke 11. keepeth his palace, till a stronger then he cometh, and overcometh. But there is no {αβγδ}, none stronger then Christ, 1 Cor. 10. 22. His palace is impregnable, no strength on earth can stir his crown, nor wrest his sceptre out of his hand. Daniel avoucheth it before a King, even the mightiest then on earth, that Christs kingdom should never be destroyed, nor his Dominion be given to an other. What ground Tertullian had to say the roman Empire should stare in seculum, should stand for ever, I do not know. All Empires have had their ends. But the continuance of Christs kingdom is grounded on Gods Word, and that repeated often, that his Throne is for ever.  
Is Christs Throne for ever, and as Gabriel said to Mary, of his kingdom shall there be no end? How then saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. that there shall be an end? and Christ shall at length deliver up his kingdom? It is indeed a Scripture apprehended by the Arians to disproove Christs Div●nity; but answered with ease. That which is there said of Christ, is meant onely of his manhood. Our late writers answer so. But be it that Saint Paul meant it of Christs Godhead. Christ shall not so give up the kingdom to his Father, that himself shall cease to reign. The Fathers answer so: All Power( saith our Saviour) both in Heaven and Earth, is given me of my Father. Shall I therefore say, the Father was quiter stripped of it himself? Nay, but as the kingdom, which the Father gave the son, is called the Fathers kingdom nevertheless, Math. 26. Non ita tradet,& ipse, amittat, August. So Christ shall return it, and yet retain it too; and as Saint Ambrose speaketh, ipsius datio, is not suiipsius fraudatio. It was a communication it was not an abdication. It is a tradition, it is not a perdition.  
Haply this doctrine may seem absurd to some, and it may be you will ask me, as Mary did the angel, quomodo fiet istud, how may this be? I say with Saint Ambrose, that regni traditio is not regnandi defectio, our Saviour shall resign his reign, and yet himself not cease to reign. For two things are contained in the term of reign, unctio& Functio, that is, Dominion, and Execution; Regem esse,& Regem agere, to have the place and dignity of a King; and to do the part and duty of a King. To wear the crown, to bear the sceptre, to sit upon the Throne, and to have the peoples knees bended before him, this is to be a King. Christ in this sense shall reign for ever, he shall not resign this honour to his Father, but shall reign for ever with his Father. For his Fathers Throne disturbs not his, Apoc. 7. 21. there are both their Thrones at once. But the functions of a King, to sit in judgement, to reward deservers, to punish evil doers, to rescue the oppressed, to fight with the enemy, Christ in this sense shall cease to reign after the day of judgement, which is the last act of his kingdom, and shall deliver up the kingdom to his Father.  
The Elect are Gods kingdom, their souls and bodies both are his 1 Cor. 6. satan plays Rex with the one, and so doth sin; Death doth domineer, and the World doth tyramnize over the other. God hath committed this kingdom unto Christ, the Father to the son, to the son incarnate, by his merits, by his sufferings, by his Word, and by his Spirit to recover his people, and to subdue those usurpers. This work will not be fully wrought until the resurrection, when Death the last enemy shall be discomfited. Then Christ shall present the Elect unto his Father, which the Apostle calleth the delivery of his kingdom. For when the Church Militant, shall become triumphant, the Father then shall reign in the Saints by himself. He reigned before, but by his son; he was his Delegate, and Vice-roy in his stead. But then his sceptre shall be surrendered, and the Father immediately shall reign by himself.  
Desire to be conceived makes me long in this; to end it; Christs endless kingdom, never to determine, as the Iewes confess of the messiah, either {αβγδ} or {αβγδ}, endless in this World, and endless in the next, made the Apostle call him, 1 Tim. 1. 17. Regem seculorum, the King of Worlds. The Scripture is rich in this position: the continuance of Christs kingdom. But I doubt I have sat too long upon his seat, I will now proceed unto his sceptre.  
Are not all sceptres right? Though some Kings are not, yet all sceptres are. But as the Throne before was put for regiment, so by the sceptre now is meant the government; and Kings sceptres are too often crooked in that sense. The Tragedian said truth ad recta flecti regius non vult tumour, a crooked sceptre is of too hard a mettall to be beaten strait {αβγδ}, Soph. it is not easy for a Ruler to be just. Beside his own affections, which are strong in Kings, he shall have tempters too, who will egg him on, and urge him with Iesabels argument, Art thou a King! But Christs sceptre is right and strait. He is the righteous branch, that God would raise from Davids root, the rod that should rise out of the stock of jesse; that should execute judgement and justice upon earth. His reins should be gird with truth, and righteousness should be the cincture of his loins.  
Blasphemous Israel charged him with injustice, Ezech. 18. and said in their mutiny, his ways were unequal. But the Psalmist saith, his paths are strait, and the Lord is righteous in all his ways. Yea Christs sceptre is so exceeding strait, and his judgements so exactly just, that psalm 67. the report of his righteousness is applauded with a Selah, a note of acclamation; nay his justice psalm 9. 16. hath two acclamatory notes, Higgaion Selah, the like is not found in all the Scripture; as worthy both of present admiration, and perpetual meditation. In a Word, his justice is so general, that it filles the Earth; Yea the Heavens saith the Psalmist, ●ing of his righteousness. The Harpers sing it, Apoc. 15. 3. and the Angels say it, ibid. 16. 5.  
The time will not let me prosecute this poin●; I must break it off abruptly. Christ is the true Melchizedech, i.e. the King of righteousness. To him, our God, our King, everlasting, and righteous, together with God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, be duly ascribed, Divinity, Roialty, Eternity, Equity, in Secula.  
Blessed be God, whose seat is for ever, and the sceptre of his kingdom, a sceptre of righteousness.   

OF THE nativity. The sixth Sermon. PREACHED VPON CHRISTMAS-DAY.  luke. 2. 11. 
Quia natus est vobis hody Salvator, qui est Christus Dominus, in civitate David.  
For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.  
THIS Verse which I have red, and the other next before contain the joyful embassy of the birth of Christ, brought by an angel to the shepherds of Bethleem. The former I handled the last year on this day; the news of Christs nativity. Gods heavenly Herald began his Oiez there; that verse hath the Proeme of his Proclamation. every word in it maketh him way unto attention. In manner of a cry, he beginneth with an Ecce, that is the Oiez. He bringeth tidings; the name of news commands the audience of the ear. The quality of the Crier, being an angel, much increaseth it; Behold I bring. The tidings are of joy, which are ever welcome; and the greater, the more. The Ioy not impertinent, but concerneth them; Behold I bring to you. And as every good King, quo communius est, eo melius est, the more common it is, the more it is welcome too; it is unto all people. Now this verse which I have red, hath the narration of those tidings; there they were propounded, there they are expounded. Every word tending to the proof of the theme there generally premised. For what are those tidings of such joy, and to so many?[ The conjunctionall particle brings them on in their order, to be taken in this place, not causative, but narrativè {αβγδ}, namely, and to wit; that is, saith the angel: What is?] First, Natus est, there is born. We hold it just occasion for to joy a Parent, when a child is born. Abraham and his wife, but at the promise of a child, were ravished with such joy, that they burst out into laughter. In so much that God set the sign of their passion in the name of their son, and called him Isaac, which signifieth laughter. Yea the word hath yet more, for the enlarging of this joy, the sex of the child, natus est, a male child is born; a matter of such moment to the mother of the infant, that her joy, that a man is born into the world, makes her presently forget the grievous pains and anguish of her travel. Secondly, to you; lest the shepherds might reply, cvi bono, to whose good is it? the angel preventeth them: the joy did reach to them, for the birth concerned them,[ There is born to you.] Thirdly, this day; the very name of news is pleasing to the ear; and the newer they be, the welcomer they be: the tidings of the angel are of a fresh occurrent; and the news, as we use to speak in common phrase, they are as new, as day: there is born to you this day. Fourthly, a Saviour. To men in dolour, in danger, in distress: what news so delightful, as the noise of a Deliverer? Fifthly, which is Christ the Lord. That a child was born, born to their good, that very day, that should be their Saviour; all these strong motives of conceit of joy. But that that new born Babe, was the messiah; whom they had long looked for, long longed for; and that messiah was also a God; the Scripture is silent; but methinks I should conceive, that as old jacob at the news of joseph, whom he had thought had been long before devoured, when his sons assured him, not onely of his life, but also of his honour and authority in Egypt, his spirits failed him, and he fainted for joy; so these silly shepherds at the birth of him, whom they so much desired, with the sudden flow of superabundant joy at once, their hearts could not hold, but they fell into an ecstasy. Sixthly and lastly, In the city of David. It skills not smally to the increase of joy, to lay the object of it near. The wise men of the East were fain to come from far to visit Christ. The shepherds needed but to go into the town, he was born in Bethleem, hard by the fields, where their flocks were now pasturing·. This is the context and coherence of this Scripture with the verse before.  
Now the points which I propound to entreat of at this time, not in the order of your English books, but as they be ranked in the original, are these; Christs Incarnation, there is born. Our benefit; it is for us. The Instance of Time; it is this day. The end of Christs coming; to be a Saviour. His Messias-ship; he is Christ. His divinity, Christ the Lord, And the place of his nativity, it is the city of David. Much matter couched in a few syllables, and as was sometimes said of Thucydides style, {αβγδ}, the least word hath meaning of great moment. Of these seven particulars, or of so many of them, as the shortness of the hour, and the weakness of my voice will let, by Gods gracious assistance, &c. I will speak of at this time severally and briefly.  
For the first; it is a point profounder, then mans shallow reason may presume to reach Gods descending unto Incarnation, is transcending mans imagination. Man that is blind in many works of nature, shall he presume to prie into the God of nature. The point here propounded is the Lords birth; how shal I dare speak of it, it beseeming not the servant, as Saint Cyprian saith, de Natalibus Domini disputare, to be so bold as to reason of the birth of his Lord. But there is, saith Saint Bernard. Laudabilis Curiositas, a commendable Curiosity in the sober search of Mysteries. Christs incarnation, though it cannot demonstrari, yet it may illustrari, though it cannot be expressed how it is, yet it may be expounded what it is. It is the coming down of the glorious son of God, into the base womb of a poor simplo Virgin: there forming of her seed, first sanctified by his Spirit, and so free from sin, a human substance, and uniting that nature unto his blessed Godhead into one individual and personal subsistence; bread of her flesh, without the help of man; fed of her substance until the day of birth, and now born of her body, by the way of all Infants. The Scripture is rich in the proof of these particulars, were it that I preached unto heretical hearers, such as in times past have impugned Christs humanity.  
Now that God should vouchsafe to debase himself thus far, to disparaged his Divinity by the union of our flesh; and how his sacred Deity could close into one person with the human nature, that is {αβγδ} and {αβγδ}, saith St. cyril, speech cannot express it, thought cannot conceive it. Secretum meum mihi, Secretum meum mihi, saith the Lord, God hath reserved those secrets to himself. Every sober Christian must( as St. Basil wisheth) {αβγδ}, rather seriously adore the doer, then curiously inquire the manner. For as saith the same Father, {αβγδ}, the manner is above enquiry; our Saviours Incarnation is beyond examination. The secret of our Saviours sacred Nativity, nec Apostolus didicit, neither Apostle learned it, neither Prophet sounded it, neither angel understood it, saith Tertul. Luther was wont to say, God will not haue us Quaerists; I may better say in this, God will not have us quomodists. For why Christ was Incarnate, the Scripture hath revealed that, but how he was incarnate, the Scripture hath concealed that. Indeed the Virgin Mary was bold to ask the question, Luke 1. 34. Quomodo fiet hoc? how may this be? But her question respected not Christs Divinity, but her Virginity; solicitous not of the copulation of his Godhead, but of the violation of her Maydenhead.  
Thus then the Lord of Glory took unto himself the shape of a Servant, the Word who was God, homini coinfantiatum est, saith Irenaeus, became an Infant to be made Man. Man was first made after Gods Image; but now God was made after mans Image. God said of man in Irony, behold man is become like one of us; but we may say of God in earnest, behold, God is become like one of us. The saying of the Poet cited by Saint Paul, was, {αβγδ}, we are Gods generation; but we may turn it now into {αβγδ}; God is our generation, God and man have interchanged titles; Man is called the son of God, Luke 3. 38. and God is called the son of Man. The ancient of dayes is now become an Infant, made of a woman, whom himself had made; born in those arms, which he had framed, and sucketh those breasts which he had filled.  
We wonder now no more at the Creatures, the earths hanging in the air, the bounding of the sea, the bottles of Heaven, and the wheel of nature; by which as Hilary speaketh, quaedam arent, quaedam virent, all things do duly keep their course. But now we wonder at the Creator; {αβγδ}, Basil. the great God became a little child, the Lord of glory in a Virgins womb; the founder of the world rocked in a Cradle, the Almighty swathed in Infants clouts, and he that is Regens sydera, the sterner of the stars, to be Sugens vbera, August. to suck a womans breasts, it is {αβγδ}, Nemes. a most incredible thing. The Word, who is God, to become Flesh; God who is a Spirit, to assume a body, Majesty to put on mortality, God to become man, this is indeed, as the Poet speaketh, {αβγδ}, to turn up side down, this is I say indeed, as we speak in proverb, heaven and earth to go together.  
In the works of nature, there is yet some reason, in which the curious searcher resteth in some measure. But in this mystery of Gods Incarnation, there is nothing but wonderment. The wit not able to conceive it, the tongue may cry out, O Altitudo, Oh the depth of the wisdom, and the power of God. A Virgin to compass a man, ieremy calleth it a new thing in earth; nay a Virgin to compass a God, it may be termed a new thing in Heaven; worthy the wonder of the Angels; yea were it not, God saith, Gen. 18. that nothing can be wonderful to him, worthy the wonderment of God himself. It is his work, his strange work, his act, his strange act.  
To shut up this point, God manifested in the flesh, the Apostle calls it a great mystery. If any shall move questions, how it could bee, {αβγδ}, saith justine Martyr, faith must dissolve them. And yet, saith Saint August. Christs Incarnation, though it be not dicibilis, yet it was visibilis. Though we know not, how it was; yet we doubt not, that it was. Saint John tells us plainly in the beginning of his first Epistle, that the eye saw it, and the hand felt it. And his sleep, his tears, his hunger, his thirst, his agony and his death, all pregnantly proved it. If any be yet curious, and desire to know the manner of the Incarnation; as the angel answered Manoah, inquiring of his name, Why askest thou my name, seeing it is wonderful, so say I unto him, Why enquirest thou the manner, seeing it is a mystery? For as Athanasius speaketh, {αβγδ}; a Mystery revealed, is no more admired; might the manner be made known, it were not then a wonder. Tu ratiocinare, ego mirabor, tu disputa, ego credam, August. in an other case; it is a mystery; do thou dispute it, if thou wilt; I will believe it, I will admire it, I will adore it. And so much for, &c.  
The next thing I propounded, was the benefit of Christs Birth; for it followeth in my Text, There is born to you, natus est vobis. As sometimes the Priests said unto Iudas, so might the shepherds have said unto the angel, {αβγδ}, you tell us of a birth; but what is that to us? The pronominall term is indifferently here meant either to the shepherds personally, or to the Iewes nationally, or to all mankind generally. For if, as the Christians say, Favores be ampliandi, the favours of the Law must be expounded with the largest, the grace of the Gospel must much more be consterd so. Christs birth it was for them; behold( saith God) to Sion, thy King cometh unto thee, Zach. 9. 9. but it also was for us; Puer natus est nobis, A child is born to us, Esay 9. 6. unto whom God promised him, to them he performed him. The promises pertained to the Iewes, Rom. 9. 4. but they also pertained unto us. For as we are inserted into their stock, so are we nourished from their root; and Abrams seed, which is this babe now born, hath brought a blessing to all nations upon earth.  
And as to all Nations, so to all conditions. Both to male and female; he was born in mans sex, but made of womans seed, that he might save both; that not man onely might say with the Prophet, I will wait on God my Saviour, Mic. 7. 7. but the woman also might sing with the virgin, my spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour. Both to young and old; as he lived to perfect age, so to entitle the elder unto Paradise; so was he born a little infant, that of such might be the kingdom of heaven. Both the poor and rich; the stable was his chamber, the litter his bed, and the crib his cradle, that the poor may not despair to be in Abrahams bosom; and the wise men of the East presented him with gold, that the rich may understand, that this day salvation is come unto their house. The Lord is no respecter of persons; as well the bondservant, that grindeth at the mill, as the King that sits upon the throne, is benefited by Christs birth.  
The reverend Fathers of the Nicene council, thought this little pronoun worthy of their Creed; that for us men, and for our salvation Christ was incarnate, and was made man.  
Christs birth was for us; Socrates Apophthegme was, Quae supra nos, nihil ad nos. But Christs birth, though it be supra nos, yet it is ad nos, though it surpasseth our conceit, yet it maketh for our benefit. Platoes proverb, Nemo sibi nascitur, no man is born onely for himself, but for his country, his parents and his friends, can not be said so truly of any, as of Christ. he was not born at all for himself, but merely for others. All his doings, all his sufferings, they were for us. For us he did the Law, for us he had the Law. Both his active obedience, his fulfilling of the Law, was in our names; and his passive obedience, his sustaining of the cross, was in our stead. Both his Incarnation at the first, Puer natus est nohis; a child was born for us; and his condemnation at the last, filius datus est nobis, Gods son was given for us, Esay 9. 6. And so much also for the second Point.  
The third thing in my text, is the time of Christs birth: Natus est hody, there is born to you this day. The appearance of the angel to the shepherds at this time, it is to bring them news of Christs birth. news have their name, à novitate; they are not news, if they be stale. Christ being born in the night, as the story seems to signify, God differres not the tidings till the next day, but presently dispatcheth his ministering Spirit, and the angel at the instant bears the news unto the shepherds. Many dayes, many yeares, many ages had the Iewes waited long for the coming of the messiah. His Father often promised him, to Adam, to Abraham, to David. Balaam and Moses, and many later Prophets had foretold he should come. The length of the delay might have forced the Iewes in regard of the former, to have said with the mockers, 2 Pet. 3. Where is the promise of his coming? and for the later, that in the fifth of ieremy; Prophetae prophetant mendacium, the Prophets prophesy lies. himself had said in Davids time, Psal. 40. 8. Ecce vemo, Behold I come; and yet there had passed above twenty generations, and he not come. When now faith was enfeebled by long looking after him, and hope began to faint even among those, who waited and watched for the redemption of Israel; then came the joyful embassy of the blessed angel, and brought unto the shepherds the news of Christs nativity.  
The coming of Christ, the Patriarkes desired it, Prophets and Kings desired it, yea Angells desired it, 1 Pet. 1. But times and seasons are not at mans election, but at Gods prescription; the time of Christs Incarnation, fore set by Gods predestination, and the Lord performeth, as the Iewes speak in their proverb, {αβγδ} every thing in his just time. Christs coming was not in the first age of the world; God onely promised him unto the Patriarkes; nor in the middle age, David and the Prophets onely foretold of him. But God sent his son in the fullness of time, Gal. 4. 4. in the last dayes, Heb. 1. 2. When as now neither God himself appeared, nor angel descended, nor Prophet remained, then the Word incarnate thought it time for him, to say that in the Psalm, Ecce venio, lo I come. The expectation of the Gentiles, and the longing of the Iewes, long was he looked for, now at length he is come.  
There is born to you this day: there are two births of Christ {αβγδ}, saith Theophylact, Christ hath two goings forth; one of his Godhead, Egressus ejus à diebus aeternitatis, Mic. 5. the birth of his deity is from everlasting. The other of his manhood, and that is at this time. Now is sempiternus become hodiernus, Aug. he that from everlasting is the son of God, began this day to be the son of man. The Poets have a god, whom they call Bis genitum, for so they feign Bacchus to be twice born. It were a wonder, if it were a truth. But the Poets stories, Cato tells us, are miranda non credenda, wonderments, but figments. But Christ is so indeed, Gods unigenitus is bis genitus; he that first was Gods onely begotten son, is now the Virgins first begotten son: both a wonder, Can a man, saith Nicodemus, be born the second tine? and a truth, for it is gospel.  
This he that was ancient to the whole world, became a puny unto all his creatures; {αβγδ} was made {αβγδ}, Methodius. Abraham hath seed elder than himself, and as John Baptist speaketh in an other sense, he cometh after me, that was before me. Man is become ancient to his own maker. For job hath said of us, hesterni sumus, job 8. 9. we are born yesterday: but the angel saith of Christ, natus est hody, he was but born to day. He that ordereth all ages from the bosom of his Father, is issued this day from the womb of his mother.  
To end this; that of the Arians, recorded by Theodoret, is true of Christ, though not in their sense, {αβγδ}, erat, quando non erat, there was a time when Christ was not. For his human nature was a creature, and therefore not eternal. Of that human nature the angel here speaketh, natus est vobis hody, it is born to us this day. And so much for the third point.  
The fourth thing propounded, is the purpose of Christs coming; it is to be a Saviour. Natus est vobis hodiè salvator. For that ancient term found in the vulgar Translation, and ever used by all the latin Fathers, I hold it fittest to retain. They are too fine that translate it servator, a word short of the Emphasis of the original, confessed by Tullies self, who could judge of latin better than they. Saint gregory observeth, that the Iewes bestow this title upon God the Father; but here the angel confers it upon Christ. Yea God himself proclaims it, Esay 62. Tell the daughter Sion, Ecce salvator tuus venit, behold thy Saviour cometh. Yea often in the Scriptures Christ is commended to the Iewes under the name of a Saviour. The act indeed of saving belongs in common to the whole trinity; the Father and the Spirit may be enstiled Saviours, as well as Christ; but they authoritativè, onely Christ executivè, Bern. and therefore the name of Iesus is appropriate to him, and he called {αβγδ}, Gods salvation, Luke 2. 30.  
The rescuers of Israel from the yoke of Tyrants are called Saviours in the phrase of Scripture. Iosua, Samsom, Gideon, and many others, the Worthies of the world are titled by that term. But it is bestowed on this infant here in a far diviner sense. Othniel is called a Saviour, judge. 3. 9. because he saved Israel from Cusan of Neharaim, that is, by interpretation, from the Blacke-more of Syria. But Christ hath better right to the claim of that title; for he hath saved us from satan, the Blacke-more of hell. Nay joseph is called by Pharaoh, Salvator mundi, the Saviour of the world, Gen. 41. because by his providence in the dayes of famine, Egypt was fed with bread. But Christ is indeed the Saviour of the world, John 4. 42. for he is himself the bread of life, joh. 6. 45. They all were Saviours, but {αβγδ} not {αβγδ}, in title rather than in birth. But Christ is {αβγδ}, as the Samaritans there aclowledge him; the Saviour indeed, the mighty deliverer of all that cleave to him: not from the temporal molestations of worldly oppressors, but from the spiritual machinations of ghostly oppugners; a term so true, nay so proper unto him, that it was given him from his name; he was called Iesus, that is to say a Saviour.  
The act excellent, the salvation of man, {αβγδ}, Clem. Alex. the greatest and royalest of all the acts of God; and the name eminent, a name above all names, Phil. 2. 9. that at the name of Iesus all things shall bow the knee, both homines& daemons, Basil. not onely men and Angels, but the devills also; if their knees would not bend in honour of his name, yet they should beate one against the other at the terror of his name.  
Is there born to us a Saviour? What is it then, that he should save us from? Not Egypt, or Amaleke, not Madian, or Moab, not the philistines or Assyrians. The mightiest of all these could but kill the body onely. But our Saviour hath delivered us from the assaulters of our souls; the guilt of sin the curse of God, the treachery of the flesh, the sorcery of the world, the sentence of death, the claws of Satan, and the chaws of hell. All these, not the spillers of our blood, but the killers of our souls, this Iesus, this Saviour, hath saved us from them all.  
The world had enveigled our flesh, the flesh had enthralled us to sin, sin had enwrapped us in the curse, the curse had adjudged us to death, death had delivered us to satan, satan had enjayled us in hell. But as old zachary singeth in his hymn, God hath raised up a Saviour in the house of David, that should deliver us from all these enemies.  
The world is a Witch, but not to be feared, our Saviours self hath said it, Ego vici mundum, I have overcome the world. The prick of the flesh, his grace hath blunted it. The wound of sin, his blood hath salved it. The vigour of the curse, his cross hath voided it. The doom of death, his death diverted it. The claws of satan, his bonds have chained them, and the chaws of hell, his thorns have choked them. The world, the great enchanter of the sons of men, the son of a woman hath undone his spells. The flesh the false betraier of them that foster it, the Lord was made flesh, for to chasten it. Whom sin like a fiery Serpent did perimere, them Christ like the brazen Serpent did redimere. Gods curse had adjudged us to condemnation, but wee have escaped it by Christs Incarnation. Death was entombed, when the Lord was enwombed. satan the roarer, is tied up from hurting, with Christs navel sting. And hell the devourer is choked with his swaddling clouts.  
To shut up this point, which I should further prosecute, because it is the principalest point of all my text, but that I have handled it here at other times; there is born this day a Saviour. The Apostle telleth us, that the coming of Christ was of purpose for to save, 1. Tim. 1. Yea our Saviours self tells us so, that the son of man came to save that was lost. Cain, the mans first born son was the slayer of his brother, but Christ the womans first born son was the Saviour of his brethren; both the true Saviour, joh. 4. 42. and the onely Saviour, Esay 43. 11. and Saint Peter saith the same, Acts 4. 12. non est nomen aliud, there is no other name under heaven by which we may be saved.  
The next point in my Text, is the Messias-ship, which is Christ; the other was his Christen name, a Saviour, that is Iesus, and this is his surname. If you ask, what it doth signify; Saint Augustine doth answer you; Quis nescit Christum ab unctione appellari? Who knoweth not that Christ hath his name of anointing? As Kings in times past were anointed by the Priests, by the powring on of the holy oil; so was our Saviour Christ anointed by God, by the spiritual infusion of the holy Ghost. The former name was of his person; this is of his Office; for the function whereof his Father hath anointed him. That Office is 
α. β. γ.  three fold; three honourable callings haue surnamed Christ, kingdom, Priesthood, and prophesy; all three accustomend by record of Scriptures to be consecrated with holy unction: Saul, David, and Solomon were anointed Kings; Aaron and his sons were anointed Priests, and Elias was commanded to anoint Elisha to be Prophet in his room. And therefore Iesus, in whom those callings did concur all three, might well be called Christ, i. the anointed. In regard of which three Offices, that Epithere of Trismegistus conferred upon Mercury, may be transferred unto Christ, for the very same reasons, for which they termed him so; a great King, a great Priest, and a great Prophet.  
For the first, the assertion of his kingdom, the Scriptures do compass it with a cloud of witnesses; I will not press them in particular, because it is a point also, which I have handled heretofore. Both Prophets and People; both Iewes and Gentiles,( for the wise men of the East did him homage in that name) both men and Angells,( for it is in Gabriels message unto Mary) Yea Christ himself confessed it, mark 14. 62. and his Father confirmed it, Psal. 2. 6. Herod was afraid of it, and therefore made a massacre of all the infants about Bethleem. Pilate an infidel wrote it on the cross; and the seal of a Caesar upon his grave-stone might argue that a King lay butted under it. If Christ be a King; then what is his kingdom? It is not like to kingdoms upon earth; As he said of his peace, joh. 14. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you; so may he say of his crown, not as the world ruleth, rule I over you. His kingdom is spiritual. Mens bodies and their goods, the Kings of the Nations have dominion over them; but non sic erit inter vos, it was not so with him; Christ onely craveth the subjection of our souls. His entire regiment is in our hearts, by the rule of his Word, and the sceptre of his Spirit. The one contains his Will, and biddeth us to do it; the other conveys his grace, and aideth us to do it.  
For the second, Christs Priesthood; the Apostle avoucheth it, Heb. 10. Nay God himself averteth it, and that with an oath, Heb. 7. 21. Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek. A little contemptible unto us, but acceptable unto Christ, a little despicable in the mouths of irreligious and profane men, but honourable in the judgement of the onely wise God. The function of this Priesthood consisteth in that sacrifice, which our Saviour was to offer once for all unto his Father on the altar of the cross in the shedding of his blood for the redemption of the world.  
For the third, Christ was a Prophet; the two Disciples call him so, Luke 24. 19. Yea all the people call him so, Matth. 21. 11. neither barely a Prophet, but a great Prophet, Luke 7. 16. so great, that John the Baptist, who was more than a Prophet, who was the greatest among all the sons of women, thought himself unworthy,( not as we speak in proverb) to bear his books, but to bear his shoes, Matth. 3. 11. The Office of his prophesy himself expoundeth wherein it say, Esay 61. 1. The Lord, saith he, anointed me, and his Spirit is upon me to preach good tidings unto the poor, to bind up the broken hearted, and to proclaim liberty to the captives, and enlargement to the prisoners.  
Which is Christ the Lord] As there be many Antichrists, but one is the Antichrist; so are there many Christs, but Iesus is the Christ. Here is indeed no article, for some grammatical reason; but throughout all the Gospells he is called {αβγδ}. All Kings are Christs; for they have their kind of unction; Cyrus himself albeit a heathen King, yet is called Christ, for his anointing royal, Esay 45. 1. All Gods people are Christs, Psal. 105. 15. Touch not mine anointed. But Iesus {αβγδ} is called Christ, because God hath anointed him far above his fellowes, Psal. 45. not onely abundanter, but also redundanter; not onely above his fellowes, but also for his fellowes. For as the Apostle speaketh, wee all have received of his fullness. As Aarons ointment dropped down unto his skirts, Psal. 133. so hath the oil of Christs anointing distilled down to all his members, over whom, as Boaz did on Ruth, so he hath spread the skirt of his garment.  
This sacred surname of the son of God, is all one with messiah, but that the one is Hebrew, and the other greek. The Evangelist so expoundeth it John 1. 41. We have found the messiah, that is by interpretation, the Christ. The particular proofs that this was the messiah, by Prophesies, by Witnesses, by his Miracles, his Sufferings, and Foretellings; I am forced to pretermit, and to proceed unto the next point.  
The sixth point in this Scripture, is the Divinity of this Infant; which is Christ the Lord. It is the argument which our Saviour used himself, Math. 22. 44. to force from the Pharisees the confession of his Godhead. They thought the messiah should be a mere man. But Christ did urge this term, to prove he should be God; because David called him Lord. And therefore Thomas conjoyneth them John 20. 28. My Lord, and my God.  
The Word by taking flesh became the son of Man; but he did not therefore cease to be the son of God. In formam servi transijsse, non est naturam Dei perdidisse, Hilar. His Incarnation nihil contulit, nihil abstulit, saith lo, as it put nothing to, so it took nothing from the nature of his Godhead. Though he did {αβγδ}, though he did fill his mothers womb; yet he did not {αβγδ}, empty his Fathers bosom, Basil. Forma servi accessit, non forma Dei recessit, August. he took unto him the substance of man; but he put not from him the Essence of God.  
The greatness of Gods wrath, which was to be appeased, the sharpness of the curse, which was to be endured, and the hardness of the Law, which was to be observed, required the messiah to be more then a man. That God might be satisfied, and man might be justified, the mediator that must go between them both, must bee both God and man. Our Ghostly enemies, the devil, death, and hell, could not be conquered, by a Creature. As he must be man, that should encounter them; so he must be God, that could discomfit them? So he must, and so he was; God as well as man; and therefore called Immanuel, that is, God with us, God and man both together in one Person.  
Sundry sorts of heretics thought him {αβγδ}, a mere and bare man; but the Apostle telleth us, 2 Cor. 5. Deus erat in Christo, there was a God in Christ. That Godhead appeared, though covert in the flesh, yet overt in his actions; he declared his Divinity both {αβγδ}, saith the Evangelist, both miraculis& oraculis, Tertul. both by his Doctrine, and Miracles. Never man spake as he spake, John 7. 46. Never man d●d as he did, Math. 9. 33.  
The time doth cut me off; there have been many Christs; as our Saviour speaketh in an other sense, behold here is Christ, behold there is Christ; but this Infant onely was the Lord Christ. He is called a little after, ver. 26. The Lords Christ; but here Christ the Lord. Every King is the Lords Christ, that is, the Lords anointed. David calls Saul so, 1 Sam. 24. Abishai calls David so, 2 Sam. 19. But here is, not Christus Domini, but Christus Dominus, not the Lords Christ, but Christ himself the Lord.  
The last thing in my Text, is the place of Christs Nativity, the City of David. The first of Sion was called Davids City, because by him the jebusites were ejected thence. And Bethleem also is called Davids city, because he was born there. The angel means not Sion; it was the city of the great King, Psal. 48. but he meaneth Bethleem; it is the city of this little King. He might have said expressly, In the town of Bethleem; but it pleased him rather to use this circuition; In the city of David; because Christ came from David; because the child now born was not onely of his city, but also of his seed. It was perverseness in the people, joh. 7. 27. and they spake against their conscience, when they said Nemo scit, unde sit, no man should know, whence the messiah was. For the Prophets had foretold it, that there he should be born; and the Pharisees confessed it, when Herod made enquiry of the place of Christs birth.  
May I not say of Bethleem, that which Lot said of Zoar, an non modica est? Is it not a little one? Yet now is little Bethleem made peer to great jerusalem, it is the city of God. Bethleem lately called the city of David, is now become the city of the son of David. In Bethleem the least among the thousands of Iuda, is born this day the greatest among the Princes of Iuda. For out of it is sprung Dominator in Israel; a Lord in Israel; nay the King of Israel, as Nathanael called him; whose goings forth are from everlasting. unto this little Bethleemite, a little Infant, but a great God, the Saviour of Israel, which is Christ the Lord, together with God the Father, &c.  Blessed are they, to whom this day is born a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.  

OF THE nativity. The seventh Sermon. PREACHED VPON CHRISTMAS-DAY.  luke. 2. 14. 
Gloria in excelsis Deo,& in terra pax, hominibus bonae voluntatis.  
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men.  
THE Copies differ in the reading, and the Fathers differ in the Sense; and the difference is such, as would take up too much time. think( I pray you) I make choice both of that sense and reading, which I judge most sound. I read it thus, Glory be on high to God, and in earth peace, to men of good will. It is an holy anthem, sung by a choir of Angels, at Christs Nativity: a song of three parts, one of Glory, one of Peace, and one of Grace. Glory on high to God, Peace on earth to Men; but to men of Grace: for so good will here signifieth, either actively, that bear good will to Christ, that receive him, that believe on him; or passively, that are vouchsafed grace of Gods good will. Christs birth brings both God Glory, and Man Peace; but peace by Gods frank favour; remission of sin, and reconciliation, but not ex debito, but ex beneplacito. Peace is Gods {αβγδ}, Gods mere good will to men. These are the parts, and subject of this Song. By Gods assistance, &c.  
The first part of my Text contains three terms, the Object, Place, and Person: the Object, Glory; the Place, Heaven; the Person, God. I will briefly speak of them, as the Angels here have Marshald them. Men end their psalms with Glory; the Angels begin theirs with it. Christs birth hath exhibited matter to the Angels of glorifying God.  
God p●rposed all things for his glory; even Christ himself, who is the Lord of glory. God aimed his actions merely at that mark. All the Creatures were ordained for it. Heaven and Earth( saith David) 
α.  both are full of it. The roof of the Creation, which is Heaven, and the Worlds foundation, which is Earth, both {αβγδ}, there is {αβγδ} in both, light in them both to led us to Gods glory. But Christ, the Word, by which he made them both, to whom he gave them both, by whom he reconciled them both, his Incarnation in Gods Predestination, was the mainest means, intended to that end. Gods justice gains him glory; his mercy then much more. If God have glory in sinners condemnation, how much more hath he it in Christs Incarnation, the mediator of all mercy? Saint Paul in his comparison gives greater glory to the gospel, then the Law: and as to Kings on earth, so even to God in Heaven, it is more glorious to be merciful, then just. God gets more Glory Condonando, then Condemnando, by saving sinners, then by damning them: and Christs coming in the flesh was of purpose to save sinners.  
Had God but saved man onely, and not sent Christ; for that he could have done, had he so pleased, had he so cast it in his eternal counsel, he had gained Glory so. But to sand his son from his own side, his son, God like himself; to take our nature, so to be fitted to suffer for our sins, it is {αβγδ}, as Saint Paul termeth it; this mercy merits glory above mans conceit. God, that he might save man, to be made man, to disparaged his high Deity by assuming our base substance, to lie nine moneths in a womans womb, to be bread of her, to be fed of her, born of her body, and nourished at her breasts; this glory unto God is more then {αβγδ}; it is as Paul else where saith in an other sense, {αβγδ}, a far most excellent eternal weight of Glory.  
Gods works are all {αβγδ}, all worthy praise; but this is {αβγδ}, worthy of glory. As David exhorts psalm 66. 2. {αβγδ} make his praise glory; so do the Angels here for the excellency of this act, Christs Incarnation, they turn praise into glory. Christs Birth worthily glorious to God, both for the grace and for the wonder. For the one, Gods end of grace, is glory, Eph. 1. 6. God expects it, and grace works it. Yea {αβγδ} makes {αβγδ}, exceeding grace 
1 Cor. 4. 15.  works God excelling glory. Gods smallest graces, and his meanest gifts are worthy praise. He hath given us Christ; the dearest thing he had: he is his son; the rarest thing he had, his onely son. For the other, Gods commonest works and most ordinary acts are worthy praise. Christ is his work, his strange work; his act, his strange act; the Word, who is God, to become Flesh; God, who is a Spirit, to assume a body; Majesty to put on Mortality, God to become man; the ancient of daies, to be coinfantiatus, as Ir●n. to be born a little Infant, the great God, a small Child, he that guideth Arcturus with his sons as job speaks, to suck a Womans niple like our sons, to be born like unto man, but of a Virgin, as never was any man; this wondrous work well worthy is of glory; do I say, of glory? alas the poorness of the speech of man, yea and of the speech of Angels; had the tongues of either any higher word, then it, this work were worthy it. David bids give God the honour due unto his name: but there is none worthy it. do as the Psalmist bad; date gloriam laudi, put glory unto praise, Worship unto it, honour unto it, add them all together, God is worthy all, all unworthy God, for this worthy and wonderful work of Christs Nativity.[ Saith David in the psalm, God hath crwoned Christ with glory? Why may not I say, Christ hath crwoned God with glory] I am too long in this, and yet in Gods glory, who can be too long. I come unto the next.  
Gloria in excelsis; Christ is himself Excelsus, old Zachary calls him so; for he enstiles John Baptist the Prophet of the highest; and he is Filius excelsi, the son of the most high, Gabriel and Legeon, Angels and devils, both do call him so. And where is it fitter, glory should be sung, to the Father for the son, then in excelsis, there where the Father is, and whence he sent his son, that is, on high: Where should be sung Hosannah to the son of David, but in excelsis, Hosannah in the highest? It is meet and right, that glory be to God on high, whose son, as sings old Zachary, visits us from on high. The hight of his mercy merits hight of praise; praise, as in the hundreth eight and fortieth psalm, first in the general, from the Heavens: then praise in the particular, from the holy Angels, and the whole army of the blessed Spirits; praise from the sun and moon, and all the Sarres of light, praise from the Heaven of Heavens, and the waters above the Heavens. But especially from all the holy orders of the Angels, Cherubs and Archangels, Seraphims and Thrones, Powers, and Principalities, all to sing jointly, as in the Revelation. Power and Salvation, glory and honour to the Lord our God.  
There are many songs of men recorded in the Scriptures; Deborahs and Moses, Davids and others in the old Testament; Zacharies and Maries; and old Simeons in the New. But of any Song of Angels, from the first Adam to the second, I remember no record. My Text is the first, that is found in all the Scripture, and it is not in excelsis neither. But now Christs Birth makes the Angels also to sing Hallelujah, that is, glory unto God. Haply they sung before; Saint Ambrose holds their hymns were earlier then the World; And whereas Saint Paul calls them {αβγδ}; ministering Spirits; Theodoret saith their {αβγδ} was onely {αβγδ}, their ministration was merely celebration of Gods glory. They might have matter plenty, to praise the Lord before; but never had they argument, that so concerned them, as they have now. They sung before( Saint Ambrose saith) Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Holy, Holy, Holy, and what concerns Gods holinesse the Angels? But now for Sanctus, they sing Bonus; they turn Holy into Gracious; And they say with David, our song shall be of mercy and truth; and his mercy is over all his works. The Angels also have a share in it. Christs birth yields benefit even unto the Angels. As Christ is our Saviour, they reap some fruit by that. For the Saints fill up that gap, which was made among the Angels by Lucifers fall. The ruins of the Angels are repaired by mans redemption, it is Saint Augustines saying. Quod in angels lapsum est, ex hominibus redditum est, it is Saint Augustines to, who is plentiful in that point. They think that so concerneth them, that Christ saith they rejoice at the repentance of a sinner: because a repentant sinner on earth, becomes a triumphant Saint in Heaven; and so is made {αβγδ}, Luk. 20. 36. equal to the Angels. And Origen saith expressly, Christ & terrestria salvavit& coelestia. Hom. 1. in Levit. Saint jerome saith as much.  
And therefore if jupiter were called Panomphaeus, as whom all voices praised; Gods glory much more merits, that all voices do advance it, both of men and Angels. All knees must bow to him, even of things in Heaven. David ends the Psalter with it, Omnis spiritus laudet Deum, even the Spirits of the Angels, whose seats are in excelsis, sing glory unto God. And that is the next term in my Text, the glory is to God.  
The profit of Christs Birth abounds unto the creature; but the glory of it, rebounds back to God. Both what God doth unto him; and what he worketh by him, gains praise to God. Christs grace, take it subjectivè, take it effectivè, is all Gods glory. For the one his grace inherent saith David in the psalms▪ God hath crwoned Christ with glory. Why may not I say, Christ hath crwoned God with glory? The crown of glory, which God hath set on Christ, returns glory to Gods self. He made him powerful both {αβγδ}, both in word and dead: the glory of them both reflected upon God. Both his oraculous doctrine, and his miraculous works procured God praise. The hearers and beholders both {αβγδ}, Matth. 9. 8, they admired them, but they adored God. All the graces the Father conferred upon the son, redounded to the praise and honour of the Father. Much more the gracious work, for which he mainly sent him, which is Salvation: Mans mighty redemption, his rescue from death, from satan, and from hell, the conquest of all ghostly enemies, our justification, and that peace in my Text, proclaimed to men on earth, our reconciliation; all these by Christ, not only advance our hands and hearts toward heaven, whence cometh this Salvation; but excite the Spirits on high, to sing that heavenly anthem in the Revelation, Dignus es Domine Deus, worthy art thou O God, to receive glory and honour and power.  
The world may usurp upon some other things, and claim the glory to be due to him for them, Honour, Wealth, Authority, and such other temporalities. For he will say( though falsely) that they are his. But Saint Pauls position, 1 Corinthians 3. Every man will grant, that Christ is Gods. And who should have the glory of the things of God, but God? Christ is Gods Saving-health: mine eyes have seen( saith Simeon) Salutare tuum, thy Salvation. And who should have the glory? Who saving God, for Gods Saving-health?  
The whole Oeconomie of salvation was plotted by Gods self, when as yet there was nothing existent, but Gods self; {αβγδ}, saith the Apostle before the world was founded. Man was not then, Angells were not then, to consult with him, to resolve with him. And therefore men and Angells, both must sing with David, Non nobis domine, non nobis, Not unto us O Lord, not unto us, but give the glory to thy name. The action solely and merely was by God; and therefore the glory must also wholly and sheerely be to God. Peace impious Papist, that pressest thy proud merits, to pull some part of glory sacrilegiously to thee. The Angells, who knew better whose it is, then thou, do give it unto God. It is indeed Gods due in all things whatsoever. But in Christs Incarnation, and the consequents thereof, all Christians will confess, it is Gods mere propriety. For Christ is Gods; and it is Christs own rule, Quae Caesaris, da Caesari, quae Dei, Deo; that which is Caesars, must be given to him; so what is Gods, give it unto him. Glory be to God.  
The second part is like unto the first, both for the number and nature of the terms, to which they have exact correspondence. There was glory, here is peace; that on high, this on earth; that to God, this to men. The Babe that at this time was born both God and man, his birth was behoveful both to God and man: to the one it brought glory, to the other Peace.  
The Authors of this anthem in the verse before my Text, are called heavenly Souldiers. A song of peace, how may it suit with souldiers? The shepherds might have asked them, as jehu did jehoram, quid vobis& paci; what have you to do with peace? The physician he arkens after the sick: his wealth comes not by health. So the souldiers wish is war. But the phrase looks not at the matter of the message, but by circumlocution onely means the Angels: who otherwhere are sent for Sword, for Fire, for Pestilence; but here for peace. As a King for joy at the birth of a son, sends forth his proclamations of enlargement to the prisoners, and pardon to the delinquents: so here at Christs▪ nativity, Gods heavenly heralds proclaim peace to men. For puer natus est nobis, saith the Prophet Esay, A child is born, who is the Prince of peace; and his coming in the flesh, is of purpose to bring peace.  
But how then saith our Saviour, think not, that I am come to sand peace into the world? Yea, and saith not job also militia est vita hoins, mans life on earth is a perpetual warfare? Christ forbids us to think, he sent peace into the world; but by it he meant peace towards the world. For the profession of Christ hath made the world our enemy. But this peace is not the worlds peace, but Gods. The Apostle so calls it in the fourth to the Philippians, The peace of God. And so mans life indeed is a continual warfare. But that war is with the World, with the devil, and the Flesh. Wee war with them, but wee are at peace with God. Christs Church on earth is called the militant Church, i. the warfaring Church. Those three are Christs enemies; they are the Dragon and his Angells. Michael, i. Christ, and his Angels, i. Christians must fight continually against those enemies. That war is no bar to this peace in my Text, which is of conscience towards God. Nay, rather this peace is preserved by that war, and cannot be, where it is not.  
God was mans enemy; sin had made him so. He had incurred the curse, and was thrall to Death, to satan, and to Hell. Christs Incarnation wrought reconciliation. God was displeased with man; but he is appeased in Christ. sin had so incensed him, that he swore in his wrath, that wee should not enter into his rest. But God was made man, to mediate between both; and his intercession hath procured us peace. The curse, the Hearault of Gods defiance, Christ hath canceled it. sin, the cause of Gods displeasure Christ hath purged it. Death, the first wound, that God had given us, Christ hath cured it. Hell, the jail, to which God had adjudged us, Christ hath broken it; and satan, the Executioner, whom God had set to torture us, Christ hath chained him. God looking on us in his son, is well pleased with us for his sake; His flesh hath restored us unto his favour, and that is this peace. Peace hath many species; but this is Gods pardon and reconciliation.  
God and man, sin had disjoined them; but Christ hath atoned them: and the atonement is this peace. Christs righteousness recovered what mans wickedness had lost, to wit, Gods love, the companion of this peace. righteousness and Peace, saith the Psalmist, kiss each other. Christ is them both; our righteousness, 1 Cor. 1. 30. our peace, Eph. 2. 14. and is therefore paralleled by S. Paul unto Melchisedech, i. the King of righteousness, who was the King of Salem, that is the King of peace. To end this, Christ said the Peacemakers, Mat. 5. shall be called the sons of God; but here the Peacemaker is the Son of God. Christ saith himself, that we have peace in him. And Saint Paul seconds him, that our peace with God, is through Christ our Lord. This peace( I said) means reconciliation; and Saint John saith of Christ, that he is {αβγδ} the reconciliation; he is the propitiation for our sins. Christs coming down to earth, is for bringing peace on earth; the next term in my Text.  
There was peace before in heaven: for how should there be enmity? Was it between the persons of the Godhead? As Paul said of Christ, Is Christ divided? So I may say of God, is God divided? Could schism be in the deity, enmity in the trinity? Christ saith of two of them, Ego& Pater unum sumus; the Father and the son, were one. And Saint John saith of all three; the Father, the Word, and the holy Ghost, they all are one. Was it between God and the Angels? Those of them that rebelled, God cast them down; and grace preserved the rest from like presumption. They all continually wait on God: they all continually have peace with God. Was it between themselves? Saint John indeed in the Apocalyps writes of a battle fought in heaven, between Michael and his Angells, and the Dragon and his Angells. But that is but an allegory. Was it between the Saints? First, it is a question, whether the Saints were there before Christs time. The current of the Fathers runs to the negative part, that none came there before Christs resurrection; that Sanguis Christi was clavis paradisi; that heaven was shut, till Christs blood opened it. I will not determine it; I will onely say; wheresoever they were, they were in bliss. But say, the Saints were there: they were at peace, both between themselves, and with Angels, and with God. Heaven hath no hostility: where should be peace, if not in Paradise? The peace then here proclaimed by the Angels, it is on earth.  
There is no peace in Hell; neither to the ghosts of men between themselves; nor to the spirits of fiends between themselves; nor between the ghosts and fiends; and least of all between them and God. The damned ghosts do curse, every one his fellow, for suffering, for enticing, for assisting him in sin. The cursed fiends do rage every one with other, for being his ringleader in rebelling against God. The Ghosts do gnash at the devils, for tormenting them; and both blaspheme God for condemning them. Said Christ he came not to bring peace unto the earth; surely he was not sent to bring peace to Hell. The Peace is there, whether now Christs self was come. The descending of Gods Son to us, is for the sending of Gods peace to us; and that is the next term in my Text Hominibus to men; Peace on earth to Men.  
Man was Gods enemy, the Apostle calls him so, Rom. 5. 10. Not as he is man; but sin had made him so. Gods self made man, who hateth nothing that he made. But sin, the devils creature, who is enemy unto God, made man his enemy too. Man had transgressed, and Iustice had sentenced him; and for the execution, there was ordained death, and hell, and satan, and the evil day. But Mercy had methoded a means of reconcilement; and Christ would be incarnate, to procure him peace. Man was so precious in the eyes of God, that his son should suffer, rather then he starve. God would rather die, then man not live.  
The Angels that apostated from their first state, Creatures more glorious far then man, God instantly damned them. They have endured his doom many thousand yeares: he makes no peace with them, he takes no truce with them. The Origenists, and Mahomet, and some Anabaptists hold, that Lucifer at last shall be loosed from his bands, and restored to his light, he and all the damned fiends. But Saint Iude assureth them, that their darkness is eternal, and their chains are everlasting. But man of Gods great mercy hath found a mediator; and Gods own Son own self hath purchased him peace. Lord, what is man, that thou regardest him? what is the son of man, that thou the son of God vouchsafest to visit him? Thou hast made him, not little lower, but much higher, then the Angels, and proclamest peace, not in hell to them; but in earth to him; peace in earth to men.  
And why to Men? why not to devils too? Respects God persons? Is he not rich to all? and said you not before, that his mercies are over all his works? First, for the Objections; had God sent peace to them, and not to us; God should have seemed so rather to have respected persons, in receiving to his grace the more excellent creature; and refusing the inferior. And the Text is true, that God is rich to all. But you take not all the Text; God is rich( saith the Apostle) to all that call on him; which the devils can not do. And for Gods mercies, they are over all his works; misconstrue not the terms. The preposition supper is not extensive, but comparative. His mercies are not upon all his works, but above all his works; they excel his other works. Or say it have your sense; Gods mercies so are over all his works, even over the Angels, as I showed before. For that the good Angels fall not as the bad, that is Gods mercy. Stretch not the Text unto the devils too: Mercy, Gods mercy is over all his works; All generally, not personally; all in Specie; not in Individuo; not over every several creature, but over every kind of work: as peace is in my Text to Men; but not to all, but to men of good will. Nay; I will not care to yield it, in what sense you will. Let all mean individuals. I say, Gods mercy is on the devils too, and on all the damned Spirits. For they all are punished short of their deserts. God hath mixed mercy with justice even in hell.  
Now for the point, why peace is not to fiends, as well as men; the question is curious; and it might suffice to answer you, as the Pharisees did Iudas, {αβγδ}, What is that to us? Yet some writers yield these reasons. First, the guilt of Angels was greater then of Man. For they sinned of themselves, but Man by their temptation. Secondly, they fell not all: but all mankind fell. All were in Adams loins, when he transgressed. And falling all, they needed a redeemer: it seeming pity in Gods gracious eye, that so noble a Creature should totally be lost. Thirdly, Adam slipped of ignorance, and Eve of weakness; which are but trespasses against God the Father, and the son: But the Angels fell of malice. and so they sinning against God the Holy Ghost, could not be pardonned. To end this point, I will praise God, for sending peace to me; I will not pose God, why he sent not unto them. Even so Lord, because it pleased thee: thou wilt have mercy, on whom thou wilt have mercy, not on Angels, but on men; and not on all them neither, but {αβγδ}, upon men of good will; which is the last point in my Text; I will be short in it.  
{αβγδ}, I said before, this term might be taken in two senses; active, to be meant of men, embracing Christ; passive, to be meant of God affecting men. For the first; the peace is unto men, but to men of good will, that willingly and cheerfully receive him for their Saviour. Herod was troubled, and all jerusalem; there was no peace to them. Their will was ill, not good to Christ; with a good will they would have murdered him.  
Hence would the Papists strengthen their free will. Their good will to that, you may see in the rheims Testament. But they are confuted by the learnedst of themselves, Bellarmine and Maldonat; who both appropriate {αβγδ} unto God, and deny it ever to be said of men.  
Tak● it then passively; the Scripture phrase is usual, sons of grace, sons o● wrath, of election; of perdition; so here Hominibus bonae voluntatis, to men of Gods good will, that is, to men, who God of his good will, or as Saint Paul phraseth it, in the good pleasure of his will, hath purposed to his Salvation; to them is this peace; sent not of mans deserving, but of Gods vouchsafing. This peace( Saint Ambrose tells thee) is not meriti; it is not debiti; but it is placiti. God is pleased to sand it them, with whom in Christ he is well pleased; hominibus beneplaciti, not to men of merit, but to men of grace; and therefore this peace pertains to them alone, with whom he is well pleased: to men of good will,( an exoticke phrase, and therefore harsh,) to men vouchsafed grace of Gods free favour, and the good pleasure of his holy will. Our Saviour, who was {αβγδ} himself, hath sent this peace to all {αβγδ}, to them onely, to them all; to all whom God hath loved in his beloved son. Whose blessed Birth this day, as the Angels here solemnize, and welcome his coming with a carol of great joy: so let us to whom this peace is here proclaimed, sing joyfully Hosannah to the son of David: and say with these Angels, Glory be to God; the Father, and the son, and to the Holy Ghost, this day, and evermore.   

OF THE nativity. The eight Sermon. PREACHED VPON CHRISTMAS-DAY.  1 TIM. 3. 16. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. 
THE words are all perspicuous, saving one. What is meant by godliness, there is question. Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. But what is meant by godliness, is not without controversy. Expositors construe it, some of Christ, some of the Gospel. One falls fowle with Erasmus, for leaning to the latter; and the former will fit this season well, according to the words immediately following, God manifested in the flesh. Be then( if you please) the secret of our Saviours coming in the flesh, the Argument of my Text, Christs Incarnation. It is a mystery, a great mystery, and that confessed; four several terms, set out, each by itself by two of the greek Fathers: Saint Chrysostome, and Oecumenius, for distinct consideration. {αβγδ}, Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness, that is, of God Incarnate; or if that sound harshly, of the gospel: The odds is small. For what is the gospel, but {αβγδ}, The book of the Genesis of Iesus Christ; the narration of Christs generation, the story of the messiah coming in the flesh, the history of this mystery?  
It is a modall proposition: first therefore of the mood, {αβγδ} Without controversy. What saith the Apostle? Is Christs Incarnation without controversy. Surely God was made flesh; it is true. But it hath the lot of other truths, to be opposed. It is a certain truth, but yet oppugnant. There is a greek Father seconds Saint Paul, {αβγδ} no man doubts of it; it hath not in it {αβγδ}, any doubt at all. More peremptory than Paul. Of Christs Incarnation, no man doubting, no thing doubted. Simon Magus opposed Christ; there is a {αβγδ}, and that a {αβγδ}, as Saint Luke writes of him, a great man against this great mystery. The mystery is, that God should be made flesh. satan himself doubted, whether Christ were God; there's a {αβγδ}, one thing doubted. And his body was thought to be but Phantasticum, to be man but putativè; not to be true flesh. There's an other: both his natures questioned.  
Paulus Samosatenus, more fitly Semisathanas, held, Christ was {αβγδ}, but a mere man: {αβγδ}, but not {αβγδ}, a man of God, but not both man and God. So did Ebion; so did Arius, and such multitudes after him, that Hierom saith, the whole world in a manner was turned Arian. And to the truth and perfection of his human flesh, what should I city the sundry heretics, that opposed it? It is not then {αβγδ}, but {αβγδ}, who not almost impugned this mystery? I oppose not these to Saint Paul; they were his punies, born most of them long after him. He might say of this mystery, {αβγδ}, that it was without controversy, for all this. Examine his own age.  
What thought the Iewes, when they cried, Crucifige? Caiphas, when he rent his clothes? Pilat would not have sentenced him, nor the Elders have delivered him, had they thought, that as( Saint Paul saith) Deus erat in Christo. Christ had been a person compound of man and God. Saint Paul saith it, Had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But their conceit of him was but as of a man. Come see a man, saith the samaritan woman. Ecce homo, saith Pilat, Behold the man. Have not to do with that just man, saith Pilats wife: a just man, but a man. Nay, it was Saint Peters term too, though his disciple, Non novi hominem, I know not the man. Yea Saint Pauls self by Pauls leave, whatsoever he saith now, kept he not their clothes, that stoned Steven, that furiously ran on him, at his saying, he saw Christ at the right hand of God? Kept their clothes? Thats little. Did he not himself persecute Christ? Charged with it by Christs self, Saul, Saul, &c. and confessed by him five times. Were not Saducees and Pharisees, Priests, Elders, and Herodians, all against Christ? Were not the Apostles derided, imprisoned, and scourged for preaching him? Pauls self( himself saith) {αβγδ} more than they all? Was not the Gospel oppugned by Libertines, by Epicures, disgraced by them; and Saint Paul the Preacher called {αβγδ}, a base fellow? Said not Simeon, Christ should be {αβγδ}, a mark of contradiction? Nay a mark of malediction? Many blasphemed both his Person and his Doctrine, called him a Deceiver, a samaritan, a Conjurer? And saith the Apostle here, that the mystery, the great mystery of Christs coming in the flesh, is {αβγδ}, a position without controversy? He might have said in Saint Peters phrase {αβγδ}, of a truth. Or in his own elsewhere, {αβγδ}, It is a faithful saying. He might have protested it, have sworn it for the truth. But to say, without controversy, of a thing so controverted, to call it {αβγδ}, which is so {αβγδ}▪ so contradicted, {αβγδ}, every where contradicted, Acts 28. 22. Saint Paul should seem to hyperbolise.  
But distingue tempora, consider Person, Time, and Place; Tis no Hyperbole. It was harsh to Heathens, and to Iewes sometimes, and out of Israel. But to Christians now in the Church, this sacred secret was without controversy. Nor must Saint Paul, praestare culpam, make good all translations. The Hyperbole is not Saint Pauls; it is the Translators, if it be one. S. Paul saith but ex confesso, the greek word means no more. That's no peremptory term. I said, it was a mood: and it is a modest mood and moderate. Say, the great mystery of Christs Incarnation were contradicted by all without, were controverted by some within the Church: Yet those, that were converted, did confess it all. Whence sprung that horrible Title of confessors, frequent in the Church.  
A check to after ages, to the degenerate generations of Atheising, Heathenising, Sathanising Christians. Wee pardon Lucian, a professed Atheist. What should Christ look for of him, but scoffs. It was he, called Christ {αβγδ}, the crucified Sophister. And so we do Libanius; It was he that asked, what that Carpenters son was doing then in heaven. Be Christ a Galilean, and the gospel {αβγδ} to julian, idle and ridiculous. He was an Apostata. And Felix his Treasurer may make up the the mess; See, what plate Maries son is served with, it was his Apophthegme. But that Christians should question, should quarrel this mystery; thats to me a mystery. Some his Godhead, some his flesh, as did sundry sorts of heretics. Nay, that Popes Christs own Vicars, should deny their Lord, like Peter; Peters successors in nothing but in that; should mock at this mystery, this mystery of godliness, it were strange, were not Babylon a mystery herself. Her brazed brow is branded with that mark, Apoc 17. Mysterium, a mystery, the mystery of ungodliness. Nay some Papists have confessed, they have seen the word Mysterium, engraven closely in the Popes diadem. See james bastardy of Fathers in his Epistle dedicatory. Saith not Socrates, that Felix the second was an Arian? Then thought he not Christ God. Christ to be God incarnate, it seems lo▪ the tenth thought it not Magnum Mysterium, but magnum mendacium, not a mystery, but a sophistry; Illa fabula de Christo, he terms the gospel but a mere fable. The like blasphemy was that of gregory the ninth, that reckoned three famous Impostors of the world, Moses, Mahomet, and Christ. A title fit to be put into the style of the Bishops of Rome. They are indeed Impostors; and so Machiavel calls one of them, Alexander the sixth, the Impostor of the world. He that inscribed his book to the now Pope, Paulo V. Vicedeo; either meant some mystery, or he must mend the title. For how can his Holinesse be justly called Vice-God, if Christ, whose Vicar he is, be not God? Enough of the mood; come to the mystery.  
It is fit quid go before quantum. Rhemists red this Scripture, great is the Sacrament. Wee must pardon their superstition. The vulgar latin hath Sacramentum, and the council of Trent ties them to that Translation. Christs Incarnation is a mystery. It is not Arcanum onely: that's too low a word for so high a thing. Holy secrets are called mysteries. The gospel in general is a mystery. Saint Paul calls it so, Col. 1. 26. The Church long governed by God under Ceremonies, under dark types and shadows. The project of it too, a mystery; that the whole world estranged from God, should be called by it to the hope of salvation, and eternal life offered unto all. God was before known onely in Israel. Nay all our Preaching is mostly mystery. Gods Minister, loquitur mysteria, saith Saint Paul, most of his speech is of mystical matter, cross to the common conceit of men, mere paradox to carnal ears. Even moral divinity is harsh to flesh, absurd sense; to shun pleasure, love our enemies, renounce the world. But the things of Faith, they are mystery indeed. And so S. Paul calls them in the 9. verse of this Chapter, mysterium fidei. The mystery of faith, of Christ, of the Gospel, of Gods beneplacitum, the Apostles terms too. Of heaven, of Gods kingdom, the terms of the Evangelists; these are right mysteries.  
The things of Christ are secrets all; his whole history is mystery; his Life, his Passion, not his Incarnation onely. But yet his Incarnation most, and meant here specially. A secret {αβγδ}, Saint Paul saith, and {αβγδ}, hushed and hide to ages past, {αβγδ} to all ages past; till the fullness of time came: then {αβγδ}, made known and manifest. utterly hide from Heathens; very darkly shewed to Gods own people. Abraham desired to see it, Christ saith, Angells desired to see it, Saint Peter saith, Abraham the friend of God, Angells the sons of God: but neither could. Christ saith, Abraham did: but it was but with the eyes of faith. Angells themselves could not see it otherwise. Tis said here, it was seen of Angells. But that was after Christ was born. See him they did not, see him they could not, in the flesh, till he had assumed the flesh. The Prophets foresaw him, praeviderunt, Cassianus saith, foresaw him in the Spirit. But they saw him not, non viderunt, saith Christ, Matth. 13. Onely Daniel saw him more plainly; he was vir desideriorum, beloved of God more specially. And yet he saw him but in vision neither, Dan. 7. Nay not Abraham onely, but many other holy men, many Prophets and just men( saith Christ) desired to see him. Esay did; Oh that thou wouldst break the heavens, and come down. David did; Bow the heavens, O Lord, and come down. Moses did, Lord show me thy glory. But non viderunt, saith our Saviour, they have all desired to see, but have not seen him. And yet deny I will not, I may not, that Abraham saw Christ in body, in the flesh. For of the three strangers, whom he entertained under the oak at Mamre, the Fathers say, that one was Christ, that Christ assumed a body to appear to him. Yet was not Christ truly man then. he united not that body to his Godhead hypostatic●s, personally. Christ was but transfigured( tis Tertullians term,) transfigured for a time into mans flesh, that Abraham might see him, with whom he was to speak. It was but a praeludium of his Incarnation. Enough of the quid; hear now the quantum; a great mystery.  
As all secrets were not mysteries; so all mysteries are not peers. The Sacraments are mysteries, but in other sense. For the term hath three acceptions. Religious Ceremonies are called mysteries, both by the Fathers, and Heathen Writers too. Who hath not met with Cereris mysteria? Thats one. An outward sign of inward secret, thats an other. baptism and the Lords Supper are mysteries so. Lastly, an holy secret, and so tis taken here, and else where both by S. Paul, and by our Saviours self. The obstinacy of the Iewes, a mystery in this sense, Rom. 11. The calling of the Gentiles, a mystery, Eph. 3. The Resurrection, a mystery, 1 Cor. 15. All these are mysteries too: but this is the grand mystery.  
Nay there are some other called great too. The changes of the moon, sometimes full, sometimes horned, sometimes half, Saint Ambrose calls Grande Mysterium. So is Marriage by our Apostle, Ephes. 5. called a great mystery. But the mystery there meant, is the very same with this, Christs match with the Church, which is his Incarnation, the next words to my Text. Saint Paul so expounds himself, lest any might mistake him: I speak( saith he) concerning Christ, and the Church. Yea the Resurrection, even great Philosophers have thought a great Mystery, a flat impossibility. It was for preaching of it, that Saint Paul was called a Prattler, Acts 17. Christs body to be in many places at once, surely that is either Magnum Mysterium, or Magnum mendacium, a great mystery, or a grand lie. But the Trinity is a mystery, a great mystery, {αβγδ} without controversy. How Father, son, and Spirit should be three Persons, and every Person God, and yet God to be but one. But even that too must yield to this. It is a great mystery, but not so great, as this.  
This is {αβγδ}, great indeed, Chrysostomes term. Great, first for Depth, and then for Worth. For Depth, {αβγδ}, a secret unexplicable, the tongues of men and Angels cannot utter it: a secret unconceivable, the wits of men and Angels not imagine it. Cedit adhaec Sensus& Sermo. Hilar. Both Words and Wit are too weak here. Cer●s Secrets, Heathens called {αβγδ}, infanda too: but in other sense. Those might not be uttered, this can not be uttered. utter them the Priest could, but durst not. This, if we would, we can not. Infanda both, but differently; neither to be uttered. But that {αβγδ}, not lawfully, this {αβγδ}, not possibly. All mysteries, {αβγδ}, dark and abstruse; this {αβγδ}, Saint Chrysostomes term, more abstruse. Heaven to come down to Earth, Eternity, to put on Mortality, the Word to take Flesh, {αβγδ}, Bas. the great jehovah to become a little Babe, conceived by God, born of a Virgin, made of our seed, but not spraid with our sin; heres a mass of mystery, worthy Saint Pauls exclamation, O Altitudo! Oh the Depth! Gods self calls it Novum, jer. 31. 22. The Preacher saith, There is no new thing under the sun. here is one thing {αβγδ}, Damasc. {αβγδ}. Aratus, Gods Paternity a grand mystery, Maries maternity, grand too, {αβγδ}.  
The worth, both of the Subject, tis God, that was incarnate. Not an angel, but Gods self. Not Gods Servant, but his son. Angels Gods sons too, but Created; Christ his begotten son; his {αβγδ}, his onely begotten. And of the Benefit, Salvation, {αβγδ}, Clem. Alex. the greatest and royalest of all the works of God. A work worthy of God, Nihil tam dignum Deo, tart. no thing so worthy God as mans Salvation. Magnos magna decent. Gods self is great; and so is his mystery. All his mysteries great; all his works great, Magnalia Dei, the Fathers term. But his most work mystical, the {αβγδ}, Athanasius his word, the prime and chief mystery, is the mystery of godliness, the last term in my Text. I come to it; great is the mystery of godliness.  
What is this mystery? may I tell it you? Can I? All mysteries crave fidem silentii, Tertullian saith, may not be revealed; called therefore {αβγδ} in Aristophanes, secrets not to be divulged. Heathens would not theirs. The very name of mystery subsignifies S●crefie. Christians must not open this to all. pearls may not be thrown, nor holy things be given {αβγδ} to dogges, and hogs: So mysteries, this mystery to men profane, Iewes, Heathens, heretics, and Atheists. Some of them will rail on it; the best will but scoff at it. It is {αβγδ}, not lawful to lay open this mystery to these, the mystery of godliness to the ungodly. But our assemblies are Christian and religious. Christs self saith, Datum est, it is given unto us, to know the mysteries, the secrets of his kingdom.  
But can I tell you this? Is it not {αβγδ}, impossible too, a secret unsearchable? It is. Quis ennarrabit, says the Prophet Esay, who can declare Christs generation? S. Basil bids {αβγδ}, not {αβγδ}, adore it, not examine it. Tis {αβγδ}( twas S. Pauls term) an hidden mystery. But what? Not the Quid, but the Quomodo. I cannot tell you how it is, but I may tell you what it is. It is {αβγδ}; question not the manner, ask not how. But for the Quid, the mystery of godliness, is Christs coming in the flesh. Called the Mystery of godliness, because godliness is the scope of the doctrine of the gospel; consisting in two things, Faith to believe, what God hath promised; and Obedience, to do, what he hath bid.  
The mysteries in the heathens Religion were ungodly. They had reason to hid them; they were so abominable, so unclean, that the ear of a Christian would abhor them. Well do Clemens and Eusebius denominate their Mysteria from either {αβγδ}; they were filthy or false all; fabulous or scurrilous. But this of our Saviours is the mystery of godliness. It is righteousness in the syriac. Tis all one. For Iustitia is one of Christs attributes in ieremy, {αβγδ}, the Lord is our righteousness.  
There is mysterium impietatis, 2 Thess. 2. It is Bezaes Word; or( as we red it) the mystery of iniquity. You heard Babylons forehead marked with that mystery, the mystery of Belial, of Antichrist, of Hell. Nay nere go we so far for it, to mystical Babylon. Tis nearer home, among ourselves. If trades and occupations be rightly called my steries, tis like the ston of Christs Sepulchre, magnus valdè, exceeding great is the mystery of iniquity. Nay, examine the mystical hypocrisies of men, the deep dissimulations of the most, of all almost Fidelem quis inveniet? Where shall you find a sound and single heart? a right Nathaniel, in whom there is no guile? Tis like Iudahs wickedness, Eze. 9. Magna nimis valdè, too too exceeding great is the mystery of iniquity. I stray now from my Text: tis holy mystery is meant here; the mystery of godliness, i.e. Christs Incarnation. I say, the mystery of godliness▪ is the history of Christ, his Birth, his baptism, his Passion, and his death, his Resurrection, and Ascension; every one a mystery, Athanasius saith, and so do other Fathers style them severally. And the syriac word signifies multum as well as magnum: tis not a single secret, but a manifold mystery. Gods love to man is infinite, infinite in all dimensions, infinitely broad, infinitely long, infinitely deep. This mystery contains both the breadth, and the length, and the depth of that love. Christs Incarnation, what curse hath God menaced, but it hath averted it? What blessing hath God promised, but it hath procured it?  
When I say Gods Incarnation, I mean all the concomitants mentioned before. First his Birth, thats a mystery. Not that Ante Luciferum, Psal. 110. before the world. That secret transcends this. Christ is {αβγδ}, who shall declare that generation? Not that Aeternitatis( as Saint Augustine terms it) from his Father. But this Infirmitatis, from his mother, a great mystery. Worthy of two Ecces, as a pair of heralds to proclaim it. One of the Prophet, Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear. An other of the angel, Behold thou shalt conceive and bear. Birth and conception by a Virgin? Let all the books on earth, Bible and all, match me that mystery. His baptism another; Saint Austin calls it so. baptism, {αβγδ}, the Bath of sin, what skilled it Christ, who knew no sin? But many mysteries were meant in it. Christs own Initiation into his Office. His fulfilling of all righteousness. His publishing to the people, who he was, both by the audible voice of his Father, and the visible descending of the holy Ghost. His sanctifying of the water for our baptism. His opening of heaven to the Baptized, and his making of us members of his body. His Death an other. {αβγδ}, Saint Chrysostome saith, there were five wonders in Christs Death. Wonders differ from mysteries. But there were two mysteries. One, that Christ should die. That he should; that he would; that he could. That he would; a lion for a dog, pro vernaculo, pro vermiculo, Saint Bernards words: the Lord of glory for vile man; for his vassals; for his enemies. That he should; When man had sinned, that God should suffer: God love man so, to give his son for him. That he could; Saint Paul saith, for God to lie, I may, for God to die, is {αβγδ} impossible. Ego sum via, veritas, vita; Christ is life, as well as truth. The Lord of life to suffer death; God to give up the Ghost. The other mystery exceeds this, that Christ should but die. For a double death is due to sin. The parting of the soul from the body is the first. But the lake of fire, saith Saint John in the Apocalypse, it is the second death. deep then is the mystery that Christ taking on him the discharge of our debt; should but onely die the death of the body. But Christ humbled himself, quo inferius non decuit, no further, then was fit for God. His blood onely and death wrought our Redemption. Scripture rests there. Simpla duplae profuit, Augustine. One death in him, quit two in us. His Resurrection is another: I mean not, that his body went through the grave ston and chamber door, where the disciples were. That( if true) is a wonder, but no mystery. But as his death was the mystery of his payment of our pain: so his rising is the mystery of his raising us to life; and his conquest of the grave, and his triumph over hell. Take his Ascension too; and the mystery is his Arrabo, our earnest of heaven, and seasin of salvation. In a word, Christs Incarnation, what curse hath God menaced, but it hath averted it? what blessing hath God promised, but it hath procured it?  
To draw unto an end; Saint Paul calls the gospel( for thats here meant by godliness, the history of Christ) he calls it a great mystery. Credat judaeus Apella! Nay the jew believes it not. The world will not, though he do. Both the book that recordeth it, and the Preacher, that proclameth it, and the hearer that believeth it, vilified all. For the first, the Scriptures burnt in Dioclesians time; Thats not much; he was an Heathen. Burnt and cut too in Iehejakins dayes; he was an Israelite. Nay Christians have burnt it: Arians have, and Donatists; heretics, but Christians. Nay catholics have, Romane-Catholickes, the English Testament, yea the latin too: Bishop Boners chaplain called it his little pretty Gods Book, and Gifford and Rainolds said, it contains some things, profane and apocryphal. Tis not mystery, but foolery, {αβγδ}, the worlds word, 1 Cor. 1. Not mystery, but clownerie, {αβγδ}, Iulians term. The Bible but a fable, Illa fabula de Christo; you heard a Pope say so. Yea the blasphemous Iewes play with the word paronomastically, call Evangelium {αβγδ}, thats not a mystery of piety, but a revelation of iniquity. For the Preacher, art thou Peter? {αβγδ}, thou art drunk. Art thou Paul? Insanis, thou art mad? Art thou Christ? thou hast a devil. For the Hearer, the professor; Tu adoras Crucisixum. So would Infidels mock Christians; you worship one, was hanged. Saint Paul calls the gospel, Gods wisdom in a mystery, 1 Cor. 2. They flout us with that. The height of your wisdom, is but {αβγδ}, believe, say they. creed tantùm, believe onely, Christ required no more. The {αβγδ}, and the {αβγδ},( Saint Pauls words) the ground and substance, the whole evidence of your hope, is but Faith onely. Oh the wonderful wisdom of the Christians: the irony of infidels! What say I of infidels? Even Christians selves disgrace Christianity. The profane Italian, when he saith, un Christiano; he commonly means a Blockehead and a fool. But as the Psalmist saith, The Lord reigns, be the earth never so impatient; so the gospel is a mystery, though julian jest at it; The mystery of godliness, though wickedness disparaged it: Let not either Preacher, or professor be discouraged. For if it be foolishness, tis the foolishness of God, and the foolishness of God is wiser than men.   

OF THE nativity. The ninth Sermon. PREACHED VPON CHRISTMAS-DAY.  1 TIM. 1. 15. 
{αβγδ}, &c.  
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.  
THe Argument of my Text, is the end of Christs coming, the comfortable end of his coming in the flesh, namely to save sinners. Saint Paul cries else where, vae mihi nisi evangelizavero, it would be woe with him, if he preached not the Gospel. Surely here he preaches it. Within the sept of one period he abbridges the whole Gospel; couched closely in one clause, consisting of four terms; the Person, Christ, Iesus Christ: the Act, his Incarnation, he came into the world: the end, to save: the object, sinners. Iesus Christ came into the world, to save sinners. This evangelicall theme he both prefaces and instances. The preface praises it for soundness, a faithful speech; and for sweetness, worthy all embracing. The instance samples it by the Apostles self, Of whom I am chief. Of these particulars in their order.  
First for the preface, I must be brief in it. Tis but a Porch to the proposition. A Porch must not be greater then the house. Fidelis sermo, it is a faithful speech. There is {αβγδ}, 1 Cor. 2. a speech likely, but not sure. This is {αβγδ}, a sure and certain truth: not probabile, but credibile, not that wants proof, but craves belief. Not {αβγδ}, believed of all; infidels receive it not; but {αβγδ}, worthy to bee believed of all. As true, as Gospel; for it is the very Gospel. It is perhaps a Paradox, but yet true. The resurrection of the dead, Heathens held but a fable; but tis true. Paul hath this preface for that too, chap. 4. v. 9. The life to come a point too seeming so absurd, that he was fain to say, {αβγδ}, tis a true saying too.  
Surely to the Sadducee, the Philosopher, the Atheist, Saint Pauls proposition is a grand Paradox; that he may well term it {αβγδ}, a great mystery. Nay indeed a proposition farced full with Paradoxes, almost every word one. That God should bee incarnate; that sinners should be saved; that a man, a despicable, a miserable man should save a world, tis {αβγδ}, saith Nemelius, a thing utterly incredible. Miranda, non credenda, things to bee admired, but not believed. Tis {αβγδ}; his speech is strange, but true. Tis {αβγδ}, not {αβγδ}, not a fable, either heathenish, or jewish, or any of those other kinds, which of late you were warned of, learnedly and sweetly; but tis {αβγδ}, a true speech; {αβγδ} is not in all Homer, but {αβγδ} still. Not as some Popish doctrines are, true, but not de Fide, not to be believed as Articles of our Faith. But this is true de Fide. {αβγδ}, a position worthy not of slight assent, but of firmest, of fastest, of most assured faith. And therefore put conjunctim or divisim into all Christian Creeds almost: that for our salvation Christ came down from heaven: that when he took upon him to deliver man, he did not abhor the Virgins womb.  
Christs self, {αβγδ} too, the word; {αβγδ} faithful above all words, he avouches it. The whole Scripture, {αβγδ} too, Gods word, {αβγδ}, Gods faithful word( for his word( Christ saith) is truth) confirms, what Saint Paul affirms. Both the Law prefigurd it, and the Prophets foretold it, the evangelists storied it, and the Apostles published it. That howsoever some old Copies, as old as Saint Ambrose have it, Humanus sermo, as if it were but the saying of a man( because some greek originals have {αβγδ}) yet it is indeed divinus, the saying of Gods self, as the people said of Herod, the voice of God and not of man. Enough of this part of the preface; now to the other, {αβγδ}, &c.  
Truth oft hath approbation, without Amplexation; believed, but not embraced of many. As her sister virtue, laudatur,& alget, is commended, but yet starves; so is shee, better believed, then loved. God is so of the devills, trusted, but hated. So is Christ, they cry, Iesus thou son of God; but they cry withall, what have we to do with thee! Both verity and piety, many will aclowledge both, but will have nought to do with either.  
indeed some truth is but harsh and unpleasant. We must enter into heaven thorough many tribulations, {αβγδ}, this is a hard saying, verus but durus, very true, but very tart. But a truth, that is comfortable, how can it but bee acceptable? and such an one is this. That Christ descended to deliver us, to purge our sins, and save our souls; whose heart leaps not for joy to hear it? Whose arms will not spread to embrace him, that proclaims it? Even their very feet are lovely( the Prophet saith) that bring tidings of salvation. Is it not {αβγδ}, a message of joy? To whom was ever joy unwelcome?  
Truth that is sure, but sour withall, no marvel, if it bee, though acknowledged, yet abhorred. The devils believe that which little pleaseth them, their remediless damnation. But the truth in my Text is both certain, and sweet too; and therefore worthy all embracing. All kinds of embracing. Worthy to be the object of our eyes, written on our gates and on our walls; and the subject of our speech, sitting or walking; at our rising up, and at our lying down. worthy to bee worn as a frontlet on our face, as a bracelet on our hand. The Iewes did thus embrace the Law: how much more is this worthy, which is the Golspel? But especially to bee received into the heart, to bee applied unto the soul. That is the kindliest embracing of all other; and without which indeed all the other are but vain. And I will not say, Saint Paul meant not so; though I will not say, he did. The true Amplexation, is the due Application of the saying to ourselves, as Saint Paul doth in the last part; to make ourselves the sinners, and Christs coming to save us. Enough of the preface; now to the proposition.  
In it the first point is the person; tis Iesus Christ; two names, the one of his Person, the other of his Office. I will not discourse of them; tis not so pertinent; and I have done it heretofore.[ Onely observe this, that Saint Paul parallels the angel. he not names him onely, but yields a reason too; the name Iesus, thats a Saviour: the reason, he should save his people from their sins. So Saint Paul here, not onely names him, but originates his name. Iesus his name; his office to save sinners. Two names, but one man: seldom so put together by the Evangelists; by Saint mark but once, never by Saint Luke; but in the Acts and Epistles infinite times; and that indifferently, sometimes Christ first, sometimes Iesus. So though the names bee excellent, the former especially, {αβγδ}, Epiphanius terms, that is( as S. Paul saith) above all names, at which every knee must bow, a name, of happy, holy, heavenly signification: yet] I look rather at the man, then at the name; not what he is called; but who he is. For his names are both communicable to others besides him, Christ to many, Iesus to some. But the act to save sinners is proper to him onely.  
Who is it then to whom Saint Paul ascribes this wonderful work, to save the world? Fit, wee ask after him. The people did, the whole City, all jerusalem, when they heard the children crying to Christ, Hosannah, that is, save us; cried Quis est iste, who is this? When he but stilled the winds, and calmed the seas, they asked Quis est iste, then. Herod at the hearth of his ordinary acts, asked quis est iste, who is this? But to save sinners, as tis here; to stand between Gods wrath and man, cancel his curse, conquer death, satan and hell; for this, all this, that man must do, that will save sinners; tis worthy the question, worth the wonder too, quis est iste, who is this?  
All works are not for all strengths. David too slight to fit Sauls harness, too weak to combat with the vast Philistine, thought so by Saul. The dumb spirit would not out at the Disciples bidding. As a man is, so is his strength, saith Zeba to Gideon. To wrestle with Gods wrath, which will make a man sweat blood; to sustain sorrows unsufferable, uncomparable;( see if any sorrows were ever like to mine, Christ cries in the Prophet) to undergo Gods curse, so great, so grievous, as will make one cry aloud, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? to dwell with death, with the devil, and with hell; to save a soul doomed to die for sin, a world of souls; {αβγδ}, who is sufficient for these things? Is a man, a mere man, though( as Christ said of John Baptist) the greatest man, that ere was born of women? David saith no; no man can rescue, can redeem his brother. Can the greatest man for wealth? Saint Peter saith, {αβγδ}, tis not Gold, nor Silver hath redeemed us. Greatest for holinesse; {αβγδ} saith Saint Chrysostome, tis not any of the Prophets. Noah, job, Daniel, Prophet or patriarch, or any holy men, God would not let save Israel from temporal calamity, sword, famine, or pestilence; much less from death and hell. This Iesus Christ then was not man, not mere man: was man, but somewhat else, more then man. Is an angel? no nor he, saith Theophilact, {αβγδ}, not angel, not archangel; not Throne, not Dominion, not Power, not principality, were worthy of this work. Then was not Iesus Christ an angel neither, a mere Angel. And yet an angel too; the angel of the great counsel, Esa. 9. 6. I read so in the Septuagints, but called so {αβγδ}, Athen. i. improperly, & officio, non natura, saith tart. de Carne Christi, c. 14. Is not Christ Iesus, man or angel? Then let me cry with Saint Paul, Quis es Domine, who art thou Lord? Even that; he is Christus Dominus, Christ the Lord. Not Christus Domini, the Lords Christ, Gods anointed; Kings are so, all Kings: but Christus Dominus, Christ the Lord. No creature able to save sinners, no mere creature. Christ was a creature too, the man Christ was: but God was in Christ, saith the Apostle; he was {αβγδ}, God and man. God sent his son from his own side; not a servant, men are so, and Angels, ministering spirits: but his son, of his own substance, peer to himself, equal to God. None could save sinners, but Gods son, Gods self. This Iesus Christ was God. There are many points behind; leave the person; hear the act.  
Iesus Christ came into the world. Theres no remission of sins, Saint Paul saith, {αβγδ}, without shedding of blood. Christ to save sinners, must fit himself to bee a sacrifice, a bloody sacrifice, to bee offered up to God. Tis oportet, he must: It behoved him to suffer, to suffer so, himself saith. Suffer as God, he could not: {αβγδ}, Damasc. he must be man. Then must he be innocent; which Saint Paul calls here, coming into the world. For as to die, is to depart the world, to go out of it; so to be born, is to come into it. A phrase used onely by Saint John, and Paul; by Saint Paul but here onely, by Saint John often. But why oportet? what necessity? First, man had sinned, and man must satisfy. The same nature that broken the Law, must bear the pain. It must be the Womans seed, must bruise the Serpents head. Not that God could not save man otherwise. Twas not simply so necessary. Other means of saving us, non defuit, saith Saint Augustine, God wanted not. But his wisdom would have this; which so set down; then follows oportet, it must be so necessary. Vide Aquinat. part. 3. q. 1. art. 2. Secondly Gods love would appear too. What surer sign of his love to man, then that his son should be made man? Si Deus homines non diligeret, de coelo ad terram non descenderet, August. Had not God dearly loved us; he would not have come down to us, down to us in this manner. God came down often, Descend ●mus, go we down( saith God) to see this Babel. But that was with a Confundamus to confounded their language,& to scatter them. So he did to Sodom, to destroy it. He came down in Fire, in a Cloud, in a Dove, in cloven tongues. But God here came down into the womb of a woman, took flesh of a Virgin, and was born a man. Christ came into the world, that is, he was incarnate; thats the meaning here.  
Saint Paul calls it a great mystery, and it is; and a wonder able to amaze a world. Bethleem to become {αβγδ}, heaven upon earth, Methodius, hom. in hypanten. Verbum carni coinfantiatum, Irenaeus term, the word( who was God) to be born an Infant; the ancient of dayes to be rocked in a Cradle; {αβγδ} to be {αβγδ}, Basil The great jehovah to become a little Babe; he that is Regens sidera, should be sugens ubera, August. who( as job speaks) guides Arcturus with his Sons, to suck a womans Neple, like our sons; majesty to put on mortality; the word to be made flesh; God to become man; O Altitudo, O the height, O the depth, O the infinite Abyssus of the love of God! The maker of the world, that he might save sinners, would come into the world, that is, would be Incarnate; not assume the nature of the glorious Angels, but the seed of Abraham. In respect whereof, he is not ashamed to call us his Brethren. called therefore Adam too, 1 Cor. 15. Commercium nominis, de consortio seminis, saith tart▪ took, as our nature, so our name. God first made us after his likeness; now he made himself after our likeness. God saith once in scorn, Behold, man is become like one of us. We may say now in earnest, Behold, God is become like one of us.  
There are two generations or births of Christ, the one Aeternitatis, the other Infirmitatis, Saint Austins terms: by his Father, begotten before the world; by his mother, born into the world. He that from everlasting was the son of God, took flesh, to style himself the son of man. Angels took flesh too, often; appeared as men, but were not men; took it but not into their person, were not flesh {αβγδ}, were not incarnate. But Christ was; the human nature assumed to the divine, united personally unto his deity. How: thats parergon. My Theme is Quod, not Quomodo; that it was, and why; not how. {αβγδ}, search not into the union, but adore it, Bas. His gracious project of redeeming man, required that union. He must be Immanuel, i. God with us, God and man in one person. That precious project was to save sinners, the next point in my Text.  
The project hath two terms an Act, to save; the Object, sinners. For the first; there are many Comers in Scriptures, to bad purposes. The thief to steal and kill, joh. 10. 10. Amice ad quid venisti. Friend( saith Christ to Iudas) wherefore art thou came? Twas to betray. One comer into the world too, though not in the sense here, sin, Rom. 5. 12. It came into the world, to damn. Say I, one? there are two, {αβγδ}, death came with him, to kill too. Yea as Christ came down to us, so did satan: the devil is come down, saith the voice in the Apocalypse, to deceive, and to devour. Is he not called Abaddon, and Apollyon, that is, a destroyer. But this comer in my Text, as he styles himself, Apoc. 1. {αβγδ}, his end of coming is to save, there is another end of it, joh. 18. 13. to bear witness of the truth. Tis the notation of his name, so expounded by an angel, Iesus, thats a Saviour. Christs own saying too, The son of man came to save, that was lost.  
The act excellent, the salvation of man, {αβγδ}, Clement, the greatest and royalest of all the Acts of God. Nay the greatest and divinest of all the works of God: no work so worthy, so beseeming God, as to save man. Nihil tam dignum Deo, quam salus hoins. tertul. Here is, Homo homini Deus. And the name eminent, a name( Saint Paul saith) above all names, {αβγδ}, saith Epiphanius, that at the name of Iesus every knee should bow. I must be short; what is it, he should save us from? Not Egypt, or Amalek, not Madian or Moab, Philistines, or Assyrians. The mightiest of all these could but kill the body onely. But Christ hath saved us from the assaulters of our souls, from the assassinates of our souls; the guilt of sin, the curse of God, the treachery of the flesh, the sorcery of the world, the sentence of death, the claws of satan, and the jaws of hell; and the Fire, the everlasting unquenchable Fire, which is prepared for the devil and his Angels. All these, not the spillers of our blood, but the killers of our souls, this Iesus, this Saviour hath saved us from them all.  
The world had enveigled our flesh, the flesh had enthralled us to sin; sin had enwrapped us in the curse; the curse had adjudged us to death; death had delivered us to satan; satan had enjayled us in hell; hell had tormented us in Fire. But as old zachary, singeth in his hymn, God hath raised us up a Saviour, that should deliver us from all these enemies. The world is a witch; but not to be feared: Ego vici mundum, I( saith Christs self) have overcome the world. Here this comer is become an overcomer. The prick of the flesh, his grace hath blunted it. The wound of sin, his wounds have healed it. The vigour of the curse, his cross hath voided it. The doom of death his death diverted it. The claws of satan his bonds have chained them; and the jaws of hell, his thorns have choked them; and the unquenchable flames his blood hath extinguished them. Enough of the Act; come to the object.  
To save sinners. The object fits the act; who needs saving but sinners? The just are safe without a Saviour, safe of themselves. sin first brought in death and all danger. For it mans soul was forfeited to hell soul and body both; and Christs coming in the flesh was of purpose to save them. Theres one Osiander a German, lived about Luthers time, wrote, though man had not sinned, Christ had come nevertheless. For man was made for Christ; Christ was not born for man. he saith, one Papist saith so too, Pighius, P. Martyr, come. loc. class 3. cap. 1. So doth Salmeron, Comment. in Evangel. tom. 2. p. 167. A. in fine, that Christs death was indeed ordained, because man would sin. But his incarnation had been, though sin had not been: this, to bring us to heaven, that to redeem us from hell. Thats cross to the creed which wee must credit before him, the Nicene Creed, that for us men, and for our salvation, Christ was incarnate. Si Homo non per●isset filius hoins non venisset, Aug. If man should not have perished, Christ should not have come. Tolle morbum, tolle medicum. Were no sickness, no sore; what need physic or Surgery? Christs coming merely was for man, for sinful man.  
Theres a man in the Gospel saith, he is just. Non sum, saith the Pharisee, he's no sinner, he's a Saint. For him, Christ saith, he came not to save him. Tis there to call him; tis all one. If not to call; much less to save. For Vocavit goes before, Iustificavit, he must be called, that will be saved. Now Christ came not to call the just. The whole have no need of the physician, but the sick. sin is {αβγδ}, saith Saint Basil the souls sickness. The Pharisee that feels no pain of it, cares not for Christs physic. The sinner is Christs patient.  
But how then saith our Saviour, venite ad me omnes, come unto me All? All are called; but those All, sinners: tis Omnes, but Laborantes, All that are weary, and loaded with their sins. Christ calls himself a shepherd; and all men are his sheep; But he that strays not, him Christ seeks not. He saith, he was not sent, but to the lost sheep. Christs coming was to save that onely, which was lost. And as them onely, so them All. All, but take this withall; Omnes utique poenitentes, saith Saint August. All that repent. Else David saith, Disperdet, God will destroy sinners, Psal. 145. that is, saith Saint Augustine, persisters in sin, contemners of God, despairers of grace.  
Shall I end this part with an Apostrophe? Is there any sinner here, in all this Congregation, his soul sinne-sicke( as Christ said in another sense) heavy even unto the death? Apply this faithful saying to thyself, that Iesus Christ came into the world to save thee. Are thy sins great? are they many? are they both? yet art thou but a sinner. Onely I hope, thou art sorry, thou art so. Then are they not so great, but Christs merits exceeds them; neither are they so many, but Gods mercies are more. If Christ will have man to forgive his brother 77. times: surely God will pardon the penitent sinner 77000. times. Thats for the number. And for the greatness▪ Davids sin great, murder and adultery. Peters greater; he denied Christ. Pauls greater yet; he persecuted Christ. Yet none of these despaired. Si Paulus sanatus; cur ego desperem? Hier. If Paul, if Peter, if David were saved; why not thou as well as they? Nolo mortem Peccatoris, God will not the death, no not of any sinner. A word of the instance; and I end.  
Two things in it observable, the person, Ego; and the degree, Primus. Great is Gods grace in Paul in both. First for the person; Paul samples sinners in himself. When sin is questioned, whose tongue makes not his master innocent? lays it not on any but himself? Adam on the woman; Eve on the Serpent. sin needs must have some subject: One of the three persons, I, thou, or he, must father it. But of the three, the first is most unwilling, the hardliest haled, to say the sin is his. Nonne tu es, saith Ahab to Elias, is it not thou that troublest Israel? This Publican, saith the Pharisee. But where find you the first person? especially in the number singular. You shall read sometimes, Peccavimus, Wee have sinned; that shane is less when born by many. But Peccavi, singular, where find wee that, but forced? Tis rare. Tis often negative; Non sum, I am not, saith the Pharisee; and I am Innocent, Pilate cried. It must bee David, Peter, Paul, mortified men, must charge themselves. Ecce ego, saith David, tis I have sinned. Lord go from me, saith Peter, I am a sinner. Yea theres one Publican cries, Mihi peccatori, O God be merciful to me a sinner.  
Tis mans fashion, to hid sin, Iobs term: at least to slide the blame on others. S. Paul will not follow it; the fashion's nought: confesseth ingenuously his own guiltiness; to exemplify sinners, he singles out himself.  
For the last term, the degree; the other showed S. Pauls great humility. But as David once said, Etiam vilescam adhuc, he will be humbler yet. The cardinal number might have served, Quorum ego unus sum, whereof I am one. But he saith, Primus, first of sinners; not Tempore, in order, but Pondere, in measure, worst of sinners. Paul was not first; Peter was his ancient: he was Homo peccator, a sinner( you heard) too. David before him. Many before him. Nay the first man was not the first sinner; Adam was not: Eve sinned before him. But Primus, i. Summus, greatest, chiefest of sinners. Man, if he must confess; yet he will mince his sin, lessen it at least. Levicula vitiola lapsuum, as a Popish Bishop speaks, all terms diminutive. Tis a fault, not a sin; if a sin, a petty one; if great, yet of infirmity; if wilful, yet but once, if often, yet in youth. He will thin his sin, if he cannot cover it. S. Paul doth not; chief of sinners. The sins of others S. Paul felt not; their load lay not on him; he felt his own, thought them heavier then any. A pattern for the precise hypocrite; who straynes other mens faults, though Gnats, swallows his own, though Camels: Others are beams, his but moats. Man should judge of his sin, as he doth of his cross, Quod quisque patitur, id putat gravissimum, hold his own sins most heinous; pardon others, judge himself. S. Paul doth, censures himself, a blasphemer, a persecutor; here the chief of sinners, that is, a sinner paramount, the grand, the heinous, the superlative sinner. Not of course by Hyperbole in idle elocution; but in that hearty meaning, in which he cries else where, Infelix ego homo, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death? For the profitable applying of this comfortable Scripture, the Sacrament now serves. Wherein Christ tenders you his blessed blood and body, which he offered on the cross for a Sacrifice for sin. Come unto it chreerefully: but come to it with Faith. Come with Repentance, and in love. And then every one of us, at the taking of the Bread and Wine into his body, even the greatest and hainousest sinner of us all, may say unto his soul, Iesus Christ came into the world to save me. The Lord of his mercy, by his holy spirit, lift up your hearts to him, confirm your faith, comfort your spirits, forgive your sins, and save your souls, for our Saviours sake, Christ Iesus, cvi, &c.   

A SERMON PREACHED VPON SAINT STEVENS-DAY.  ACT. 7. 59. Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit. 
SAint Stevens Prayer, at his giving up the ghost. A Saints prayer; all are not so; many pray in Scripture; not Saints. Balaam did, the Priests of Baal did. Many that are in hell, have prayed; many that shall be, pray now, Lord, Lord, Christ saith. Steven here prays, a Saint; more; a Martyr. The Church history calls him {αβγδ} the first Martyr. This day this holy man obtained the crown of martyrdom. He hath his name of it; it signifies a crown. His Person I press not, tis Parergon, My Text is but his Prayer onely, shall be my whole Theme. Not Quis, but Quid; not Who he is, but What he saith. He praies to Christ, Lord Iesus; commends his soul to him, Receive my Spirit. But two particulars, the Person prayed too, Christ; the thing prayed for, Salvation.  
For the first, Prayer is ever prefac't with the Person prayed unto. O God be merciful. O Christ, hear us. Lord, have mercy upon us. Be we never so short in prayer; yet we do that. Peruse all the prayers in all Christian Liturgies, all the Collects( as we call them) in our book of Divine Service, the prayers of the Patriarkes, of the Prophets, the Apostles, all other holy men throughout the book of God; you shall find it, to be so. Yea and of unholy too. O Baal, hear us. O God, I thank thee. Christ himself did so, Father, forgive them; Father, if it be possible: and Pray thus, saith he, Our Father. It is fit: our Reverence to the Person so requires. Make but Petition to a Man; to speak to him abruptly, were rude, and unmannerly. O man of God, saith the captain to Elias. Not in petition onely, but in all things almost, compellation is discreet, nay necessary compliment: How shall it else be known, to whom I speak? O King, live for ever. Friend, how camest thou in hither? Woman, great is thy Faith.  
The appellation not tied precisely to be ever the first word. It is sometimes in the mids, sometimes in the end; but chiefly first. In sense first, and by nature howsoever. Onely omit it not; have it somewhere. A prayer without it, is the speech of a mad man.[ If I will pray; it must be to some person, to some supposed person at the least. The heathens prayed to their gods. Their gods were not; the Scriptures calls them, not Elohim, but Elihin; things not existing. Yet they thought them gods, gave them names: nothing hath no name. They were nothing indeed, but in imagination; and what they thought them, that they called them.]  
The Compellation here hath two terms, the one common to the whole Trinity, the other proper to Christ; both conjoined in the new Testament, almost 100. times. For the former, the Athanasian Creed bids us believe, That the Father is Lord, the son also is Lord, and so is the Holy Ghost. It is called in the book of Wised. 14. 21. {αβγδ}, a name incommunicable, he means to any Creature; but every Person in the Godhead is called Lord.  
Tis all one with jehovah in the old Testament, a name Propriissimum, Zanchies word, most proper to God. But Cognomen Dei, Tertullian, Gods surname. None but God is Lord; but whosoever is God, is Lord and therefore Christ. Thomas called Didymus, that is a twin, couples them as twins, my Lord, and my God.  
The Arians say, Christ was not called Lord, before his Resurrection. What brow but brazen would say so? Not once, not thrice onely, not ten times, thrice ten times is Christ called so before. Indeed an. angel on the ston of the Sepulchre calls him Lord, Come see the place, saith he, where the Lord was laid. That was after he was risen. But it was his usual title in every mouth almost before. Christs self approved it, You call me Lord, and you say well, for so I am. But I must confess, that was not in the sense meant by this Martyr. The word hath many senses. The people called Christ so in their reverend conceit of him, for his doctrine, and his miracles. So Obadiah, a great person called Elias Lord, a poor Prophet. Very mean men were called so in Civility, A gardener was by Mary, as she thought. Abrahams servant was by Rebecca. It is therefore in your English books, save of the last translation, not Lord, but Master oftentimes. Nor Master neither, sometime Sir. But Christ is called Lord here in a higher sense. And haply the Arians meant so, that Christ was not called Lord in the sense here, before the Resurrection. But that is false too. He was called so even that morning, he was born, Luke 2. 11. and that by an angel, Christ the Lord. Yea in his mothers womb, Elizabeth, calls him Lord. So did an other angel at his Conception, Dominus tecum. Nay David called him so many hundred yeares before his Incarnation, Dixit Dominus, Domino meo.  
It is a high title here due to Christ, either as the Word, peer to his Father, God as well as he. Or as the messiah, our anointed King, heir of all things, Heb. 1. 2. all things put under him. Or as our Saviour; he bought us with a price, redeemed us with his blood.[ Three Hebrew words, jehovah, Adonai, Bagnal, all signify Lord, and all belong to Christ. He is jehovah, as he is God; Adonai, as he is King; and Bagnal, as the Spouse or Husband of the Church. Saint Steven in my Text may mean any of all these.] I should choose the first, the prayer to be prefac't with two words, the one Potestatis, of his power, the other Pietatis, of his love. Able as the son of God, ready as the son of man, to hear and help us, our Lord to own us; Iesus to save us. Who so fit, to commend a Christian soul unto, as he that made it, when it was not, the Lord; as he that saved it when it was lost, Iesus? Thats the next term, Lord Iesus.  
There are many Lords saith Paul, there is but one Iesus. Doth Saint Steven, because the first word is so common, restrain it with the second? he doth not. For thers but one Lord neither in Stevens sense. There are many Lords; but there is but one Lord God, Dominus Deus noster unus, Deut. 6. 4. But the Persons of the Godhead being three, and this title being common to them all; if Steven will pray to one apart, he must add another word to Lord; and so he doth here, Iesus. But why it? I answer, why not it? Why might he not pray, as well to God the son, as to the Father, or the holy Ghost? I may direct my prayer to any one of them; tis no wrong to the rest. All three are so entwind, the Father in the son, the son in him, the Spirit in both, both in the Spirit, that when one is worshipped, all three are glorified.  
But yet why Iesus? First, why that Person? Then why that Name? For the one, who fitter to be the Receiver of our souls, then who was pleased to be the Redeemer of our souls? All three were cooperants in mans Redemption; but Christ was the main; he was made man for us, he  shed his blood for us. Salvation is of them all, yet by him onely; he is our mediator, they are not. For the other, the person here prayed unto is {αβγδ}, hath many names; the Word, the son of God, the son of man, son of David, Christ or messiah, they two are one, Siloh, Amen, Immanuel; and here Iesus. All save the last are his Appellations rather than his Name. This is his right Name, and( if I may so speak) his Christen name, given him at his Circumcision, as ours are at our baptism. Lord is but Christs Cognomen, you heard Tertullians term, but Iesus his proper name: Imposed by an angel, by two Angells, to mary by one, to joseph by another. A name( the Cabalists say) full of mysteries, but many idle, all impertinent. I omit them.  
The Etymon of this name, whether Hebrew, as an angel in the gospel hath expounded it, or greek, as some Fathers have elegantly fitted it, sheweth the reason why Steven useth it. It signifies a Saviour. The stones battered his body, the pains bittered his soul: but the Name of Iesus sweetened them. Oleum effusum, nomen tuum, that name like precious ointment, sovereign oil. The stones bruised his body, but the Name suppled his soul. mell in ore, saith Bernard; It is honey to the mouth: What is it to the soul? Salvation, {αβγδ}, the greatest of Gods acts, Basil. and Iesus {αβγδ}, the sweetest of Christs names; {αβγδ} the mighty God: Esay calls him so, but {αβγδ}, the sweet Redeemer, the faithful find him so. The Martyr couples them, calls him Lord, that is strong; but Iesus too, that is, sweet. Iudahs lion like Samsons, out of the strong comes sweetness. Stevens corpse is bruised and broken, theres no saving it. But his Spirit hath a Saviour, he commends it unto him, Lord Iesus receive my spirit. He hath another prayer for the pardon of his persecutors; he cries there but Lord onely. But to cheer and comfort his own deceasing soul, he adds a second title in assurance of salvation, not onely Lord, but Iesus too. mary saith, her spirit rejoiced in him, and Steven prays his spirit to be received by him. Thats the petition; come to it.  
The Petition, like the preface hath two terms too, an Act, and an Object. Steven prays the Lord Iesus: What to do? to receive. To receive what? his Spirit. Both a Prayer, and a Will. As Christ did to his Father, so doth he to Christ, commends his spirit to him, as a Bequest. But it is {αβγδ}, in Prayer-wise, Receive it, a Request; a Testamentary Prayer. Suite is made seldom to receive, I mean on his part that is prayed to. All men sue to receive; but from him, they sue unto, not he from them. Petitioners cry, ever Da, never Accipe, give, not receive. speaks Steven advisedly? He doth. It is sometimes benefit to the petitioner, that the party, whom he petitions, do receive. jacob prayed Esau to receive his present. It won his love. Princes are prayed in Parliament to receive Subsidies. It is not their private profit, but the peoples; they protect them. Steven here prays Christ to receive his soul, not to profit him, but to save it. he saith not Accipe, but Suscipe, not take it as a gift, but receive it as a charge, as a precious Depositum. For so are Saints souls, committe dtoh is trust, to keep, until his coming, and then to redeliver them.[ Christs soul more precious far than ours▪ Christ durst commit unto Gods hands] The graves receive our bodies, they keep them badly, suffer them to rot. But Christ is the faithful Feoffee of our souls; If he receive them, they are safe. Steven hath reason, all men have, to petition God to receive so.  
Said I, it was a legacy? It is. Steven is seized on suddenly by the mad multitude, must die, die instantly. Make a Will he cannot, save by word, and that in a word too. Dispose of his temporal state he can not, does what he can; onely bequeathes his spirit to Christ; had been a disciple, and learned that of his Master, commends his soul to God, breaths it out into Christs bosom. No man needs die Intestate, no Christian, either for lack of time, or want of state. The barest beggar hath a soul; and the suddenest dier can say with Steven, or if not say in word, yet pray in heart, Lord Iesus receive me.  
Gods craves the Spirt, Da mihi, Prov. 23. But so doth Satan too, as the King of Sodom said to Abraham, Da mihi animas, give me the souls. Give it thou him, that gave it thee. souls are not ex traduce, from our Parents, but from heaven. Tis God, that gives them, saith the Preacher, Eccles. 12. 7. give it to God; but in the Martyrs Word, Receive it; he prayed in faith; not in the Prophets mood, Take it, jonas said so, prayed so, but in anger, Elias too, but in grief. Not, Tolle, take my soul; the fiends do that, Luke 12. 20. but Suscipe, receive it. Atheists in desperate imprecation bid the devil take their souls. But Christians in humble supplication, pray God, receive their souls. God thinks not scorn to be mans Legatary, a giver to him in his life, a receiver from him, at his death. A Legatary not of his lands, or his goods; let him will them to others; but of his soul. Thats the last thing in my Text, Lord Iesus, receive my Spirit.  
Yet first hear the conceit, the base conceit of some Christians in Arabia, in Origens dayes, and quelled by him: but revived lately by Anabaptists, that the soul dies with the body, sleeps with it, till judgement. Then it needs no receiver. Calvin confuted it, because it spread in his time; I need not, it is dead now. Mens souls are kept, not in Communi Custodia, as Lactantius writes; thats an error too: to sequester all souls( Tertullians term) into one place, till the Resurrection, good and bad all together. But yet in Custodia; that word may have good meaning. Yea in Communi too, if construed well; the Saints souls all in safety, the reprobates all in jail. Papists press Promptuaria, out of apocryphal Esdras, certain cells for souls. Nor will we stick at that. Esdraes word is not bad, if not abused, abused to build their buttries of their two Limbi, and Purgatory. The Fathers have the like, it is Receptacula, good too in right sense, and suiting with my Text, places of receipt. God receives our souls, holy mens souls. His house hath many mansions, Christ saith; there he bestows them. But they sleep not there, as those fond Arabians and Anabaptists held, meaning by sleep, death; but live and sing Hallelujah unto God, to the Lord Iesus, that receiveth them. I pray you mark Christs word there, his Fathers house. Heaven is Gods house; just mens souls are there, theres no suspense, but present fruition, not full indeed, because they want their bodies, but happy; fruition of Gods self, contemplation of the Trinity, saith Nazianzen: are with the King, saith Chrysostome, not by faith, as on earth, but {αβγδ}, face to face; not in atrio, as Saint Bernard saith, but in summo coelo, hard by Gods throne, saith the same Father. Say not, Christ promised the thief upon the cross, Paradise, not Heaven. For both are one, Idem( saith Theophylact.) est Paradisus& Regnum coelorum. Tis but Euthymius distinguished Heaven from Paradise, of lightest credit, because the latest Father. If need be, vide fusius, Bellarm. lib. de Sanctorum Beatitud. cap. 2. 3. 4. &c.  
To end this Act; God gives man, every man a soul, lends it him for his life: at his death he must render it. So we do, all men do, the man Christ did, John 19. 30. Tradidit Spiritum, we give up the Ghost▪[ that some think the breath, I think the soul] Tis received instantly. God receives it, or satan; God by his Angels, satan by himself. He watches duly at every hour of death, waits for the soul, would be the Receiver general: But the just mans soul God sends for, receives it. Enough for the Act; come to the Object, my Spirit.  
The Spirit and soul are one. souls are called so, and are so. called so often in Scripture; Are so, immaterial substances, like unto the Angels. soul is the base word, common to beasts, and is but an accident. That indeed dies with the body, ends with it. Spirit is meant of mans soul, never of beasts, save once, Eccles. 3. 21. theres Spiritus Iumentorum. The souls of beasts perish; but mens spirits are immortal. This doth this Martyr pray Christ to receive. If as a Legacy; it is acceptable to Christ. If as a Depositum; it is profitable to Steven. For the one, why should I not trust my Spirit unto God, the Father of Spirits? For the other, What should I give unto thee, but my soul, Oh thou Lover of souls. The wise man calls God so.  
Take it in the first sense, I have a Husband, or I am under age; I die by the Law, or I have no estate. I cannot make a Will. Yet die I will not utterly intestate. I have a soul, I will give it, give it to God. Say I have an estate, may make a Will; Yet my goods( David saith) are nothing unto God. I will give him my soul. That excels all my temporals. Tis unworthy of God; but the worthiest thing I have. Not Melius nostrum, as Fulgentius terms it, our better part; but Nostrum Optimum, the best thing we have. Solomon calls it precious; thats but in the positive. But the Poet makes comparison, {αβγδ}, nothing more precious, saith one; {αβγδ}, nothing so precious, saith another; that is superlative. Christ saith as much, there is no {αβγδ}, nothing of like worth to it. Gods light, Prov. 20. Gods delight, his love, you heard before, Oh thou Lover of souls. Gods breath, Moses saith. The souls first generation is Gods immediate inspiration, Gen. 2. 7. sweet needs must unto God be the reflection of his own breath. Par angels, the Angels peer, saith Saint Aug. {αβγδ} Gods Image, saith Saint Nazianzen.  
Take it in the second sense, not a Bequest, but a Depositum. It is not thy substance, satan seeks, tis not thy life. But he huntes, like the harlot in the proverbs, for thy soul. Pretiosam Animam, the precious soul, saith Solomon: so precious, that nothing could buy it but Christs blood. Pretiosus Sanguis, precious blood, saith Saint Peter; Gods precious blood, the onely ransom of mans precious soul. A jewel of that price requires a faithful keeper. I will trust my executor with my state; none but God with my soul. I will cry to Christ onely to receive it, to God onely.  
For the term in my Text, Steven saith, his Spirit, not his soul. Surely he was no Sadducee; they denied all spirits. What could heathens do more? Nay heathen do not; Atheists do. Plinie saith, tis Commentum, Deliramentum, Vanitas, Mendacium, foolery and gullery, to say, our souls are spirits. Manes, the mad heretic, as profane as he, said the souls of men and swine are both alike.  
This spirit, most liable to Iudgement, as prime Agent in all sin,( for the body is but accessary, as but the souls instrument, the soul, Domina Corporis, S. Augustines term, the spirit Imperator, his word too, the soul, Lady and mistress, yea Empresse to the body) man hath reason to pray God, in his life to forgive, at his death to receive. Tis not the bodies pains, he fears so much, though they will be unsufferable. But the spirits torments will exceed them far, the souls intolerable torture in hell. What the fear but of Purgatory fire hath wrought, you are not ignorant. But that saying of Saint Augustines is true of all Christians, not of Papists onely, that ainae causa omnis religio est: All religion always is for the souls sake. So near, so dear to every man, that not he onely, that departs in peace, in his bed, oftentimes with little sense of pain; but he also that is tortured at the gibbet, at the stake, in the midst of his pains, yet is mindful of his soul, and cries unto his Saviour, to receive his spirit.  
The Lord sanctify our Spirits in our life, glorify them at our death; even for his sake, to whom this Martyr prays, the Lord Iesus; cvi, &c.   

A SERMON PREACHED VPON INNOCENTS DAY.  MATTH. 2. 16. 
Et occidit omnes pueros in Bethleem,& in omnibus finibus ejus, a bimatu,& infra.  
And slay all the children that were in Bethleem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two yeares old and under.  
THE Argument of my Text is a bloody massacre, Occidit, he slay; the slayer, Herod; the slain, Children; their sex, Male {αβγδ}; their number, All; their age, Infants, of two yeares old and under; and the place, Bethleem, and all the coasts about. And he slay all the male children in Bethleem, and in all the coasts thereof from two yeares old and under; seven distinct severals.  
The Agent is first, And he slay. The he is Herod; not the Tetrarch, but the King. Not Agrippa neither, a King too, but the great Herod, his Grandfather. Slayers all. This slay the Infants; his son, Saint John the Baptist; his Grandsonne, james the Apostle. A King a Killer[ of his subjects sons?] Tis not for Kings to drink wine, Salomon saith; much less to suck blood. If not the blood of grapes, much less the blood of men. What moves him? he is wrath. Wrath is bloody; especially a Kings. A King saith it, Salomon, a Kings anger is a messenger of death. Why wrath? because the Wisemen had deluded him. Kings will not be mocked. If the lions case will not serve, take the Foxes, saith the proverb. Tis contrary here. The fox,( Christ calls one Herod so)  told the Wisemen, he would worship Christ, would they but bring him word where he was: but meant to kill him. They disappoint him: He turns lion. He meant to kill but Christ: now he makes a massacre; murders every mothers son. Not Rachel weeps alone▪ all Ramah rings of him, magna jugulatio, magna ejulatio. A lion? A Dragon, a fiery Dragon: so sounds his name in the syriac tongue.  
Herods all, men of blood. Nullus lanienae finis, saith carrion in hi● Chronicle. Their butchery infinite. This first the worst; who slay all the Sanhedrin, all the Senate of judaea; slay three of his own sons: his other murders monstrous, storied by Iosephus. His end worthy his Acts. His Grandsonnes death fearful, eaten of worms: his, far more horrible. A sorrel; his mother an Arabian, his Father an Edomite. marvel not if a Son of Esau be bloody. Edom sounds blood too. Wrath and the Sword, the arms of an Edomite, Amos 1. 11. Both are here. Wrath in the clause before; the sword, in my Text. Herod should degenerate, if he should not slay. Thats the first word, the first main word of my Text, & occidit, and he slay.[ And] is a note copulative, argues some act before: he sent and slay. Tis not {αβγδ}, slay them himself with his own hands. he could not; the Babes were many, and dispersed. haply he would, had all their heads stood on one neck. Wrath is {αβγδ}, will not use others in what itself can execute. This he could not; Misit,& occidit, he sent, and slay. Beza is bold to put in( Carnificibus,) and doth well. Missis carnificibus, he sent Butchers, Executioners: he sent, and slay. Officers are but instruments; Herod is the slaier: and he slay.  
The Act follows. Poets call Kings {αβγδ}, shepherds, feeders of their people. Poets? Prophets do; God doth, by Esay, Cyrus Pastor meus, Cyrus is Gods shepherd. They may Tondere, not Deglubere, fleece them, but not flaw them; clip their wool, not  shed their blood. Calls Christ Herod a fox? It was this mans son. This is a wolf here; worries his sheep. And yet a fox will serve to kill a lamb: this slaughter is of lambs. What are infants, but lambs? spotless lambs? We call this Innocents day. The syriac term is indifferent, signifies either lambs or Children. Peter charged with 
{αβγδ}  Christs lambs, as well as sheep. So is Prince, as well as Priest. But lambs or sheep, young or old, Kings ought to foster, not to kill. Subjects are their sovereigns charge, to tutor, not to slaughter them. Princes are Patres patriae, their peoples Fathers. Will a father slay his child? Will he not rather cry, if he die, Surely I will go down unto the grave unto my son mourning. Yea though he be a son of Belial, yet cry with David, O Absalon, my son Absalon; would God I had died for thee; O Absalon my son, my son! And hath Herod here the heart to slay? Swords are indeed born before Kings, to show, that sometimes slay they may. They may; but onely malefactours. Then how great is the guilt of the private subject, gentleman or other, to denounce duell for private revenge, and  shed the blood of war in peace? To affect magnanimity, but forget christianity: to hold it generous, which indeed is base: to wreak a little wrong, the least indignity, but a disgraceful term, with shedding blood. It argue● spirit. It doth, but an evil one; such an one, as Sauls was, the spirit of satan, to despise laws and Religion. Gods Spirit bids thee bear. Flesh and blood can not. Nor shall flesh and blood enter into heaven. Tis base to suffer. He must in hell, that will not here. Slay, and despair: Cain did. Save thine honour: loose thy soul. mayst thou do, that Kings may not? A servant be above his Lord? joab Davids general slay Abner and Amasa. He might pretend some reason. The one had slain his brother; the other was a rebel. Yet David cursed joab, and Salomon put him to death. Slaughter is murder, but in war. The Kings self sins, if he slay. Thats Herod act, he slay, leave it; come to the Object, All the male children.  
Qualis and Quot, must wait on Quis. See first the Subject; sex, and Age, and number after. Herod slay; Whom? Whom no man will, out of war, and in his wits; Children, little children. war is no distinguisher; and a mad mans actions who examines? For the one; the Sword is merciless, spares no sex, pities no age; man, woman, and child. But jerusalem is at peace. Why should Herod here  shed childrens blood? For the other; Herod is not Antiochus: Him they surnamed Epimanes, the mad. Herod is angry; that's said here, he was wrath: angry, but not mad, and yet that mood is madness too. {αβγδ}, saith the comic, a man is frantic, when he is in mood. Said I, Herod was not Antiochus? haply he was. His son was of conceit, that the souls of men departing enter into new bodies, the Pythagorean Metempsychosis, that John might be Elias, and Christ might be John Baptist, mark 6. 16. Then might his Father here be that mad King, Herod might be Antiochus. Nay he exceeds him. he carried the children of jerusalem captive; he killed them not. Pharaohs soul rather is in Herod: he bad slay the Hebrew infants. Nay, he exceeds Pharaoh too. he corrected his commandement, would not be so barbarous, to butcher them; bad but cast them in the River. Fire and Water( they say) have no mercy. Surely they have more, then a bloody King. For the three children scap't the Fire, and Moses scap't the Water. His name sounds so, and I doubt not, but many besides Moses, though the story says it not. Fire and Water are furious; but a Tyrant exceeds them. Surely Herod is mad. The Fathers title him, {αβγδ}, not Herod the Great, but Herod the Mad. Furor est in Rege, saith Sedulius, the King is mad. The text saith little less, {αβγδ}, he was wrath, {αβγδ}, angry onely, but wrath: {αβγδ} quasi {αβγδ}, his blood boiles in his heart, {αβγδ}, is exceeding wrath, and exceeding wrath, what is it but frenzy?  
A child will move pity even in an Alien. Pharaohs daughter an Egyptian pitied Moses in the flags; though she knew, and said it too, this is one of the Hebrewes children. So did the Egyptian Midwives too; not one had the heart to kill an Hebrew child, though Pharaoh commanded them. Infants have been pitied even by the brute creatures, have been nursed by them, Romulus and Remus of a wolf, Cyrus of a Bitch, Telephus of a hind, Paris of a bear. Say some are fables; all are not. It must be a Nation {αβγδ} of a hard face, Deut. 28. 50. that will not have compassion on a child. Of a hard face? Of a hard heart, of ston, of ●lint, of Adamant. reuben, though lewd otherwise, yet pitied joseph a young child; cried when his brethren would have slain him, Oh  shed not his blood: and when he missed him in the pit, where they cast him alive, he rent his clothes, and cried again, Oh, whether shall I go? the child is not yonder! jonas when he grieved, that Nineveh was spared, he thought not on the children. But God said, Shall I not spare Nineveh, in which are sixscore thousand, that know not the right hand from the left?  
The sword in peace smites but malefactours. When the Iewes cried to Pilat to crucify Christ, he asked them, Quid mali, What evil hath he done? Infants are Innocents, without sin, saving original; and baptism washes that. They are Saints, Sancti sunt, 1 Cor. 7. Saint John wonders at the Woman in the Revelation, that was drunken with Saints blood. These are more, Martyrs too; they die for Christ. Herod is a persecutor. For there are three kinds of Martyrs, voluntate& opere, in Will and Act: so was Saint Stephen the other day; Voluntate, non opere, in Will, not in Act: so was Saint John yesterday; Opere, non voluntate, in Act, not in Will, so are the children to day. Saint Stephen is stilled Protomartyr, he died indeed first after Christ. But these are Protomartyrs, Saint Cyprian calls them so, the first Martyrs in their kind. Say, not Martyrs, nor Saints; yet at least Innocents. Children all are so. It is Aetas innoxia, Saint Austins term. These have hurt no man; much less trespassed against Herod; and God bids in the Law, thou shalt not slay the innocent. Saul slay Ahimeleke, and all his fathers house. But an evil spirit hanted him: and he had a faire pretence; he had relieved David his enemy; that was treason with Saul. What have these Innocents done, that they should die? I think, not one ill spirit, but a legion was in Herod. Be the sex next, {αβγδ}, the male children. Tis but couched in the original; and our last Bibles have it not. But the Geneva have. I note it also, to satisfy all Hearers. The sex shows Herod yet more savage. Childrens death grieves Parents, sons or daughters, grieve them much: but the sons most, Rachels especially. Their Birth joys them more, were there travel never so sharp, to hear it said, thou hast born a son: and their death grieves them most, especially unkind and violent. And the country is robbed too by loss of sons more than of daughters; the males more useful far than females, for many services to their country. Twas well, he slay not females too. There was no Salicke law, that forbade women to reign. Deborah had judged Israel, Athaliah reigned six or seven yeares, Alexandra 9. Some daughter haply might be born to the crown. But the Wisemen had asked, Where is he that is born King of the Iewes? Herod feared not female sex. This term I but touch onely, because it is not in all books. Leave the sex; come to the number.  
Tyrants killing in rage, care not whom, nor how many. Nero his wife and mother; Abimeleck his Brethren; some their own sons. Saul would; Herod did. Better be Herods swine, then his son, Augustus said. For number, tis said, All. Tria sunt omnia, All may be said of three. Twere well, the All were here no more: seven, ten, any small number may be said All. But my Text means a multitude. But the sum uncertain. Tis an All without a number. jehu slay two and forty, Abimeleck 70. Saul 85. Athaliah All the Kings seed; theres an other All without a sum. The amplitude of this All, you shall hear afterward. hark in the mean time, that as Zeba said to Gideon, As the man is, so is his strength; so also as the man is, so is his mood. Magnos magna decent. This was Herod the great: little blood will not become him. If he slay; it must be multitudes. he must massacre, not kill onely. Grande martyrium Augustine stiles this act. He slays thousands, while he seeks but one; Millia pueritia, Sedulius his phrase too, thousands of Children. The Horseleech hath two daughters, Solomon saith, wrath is one of them: It cries, Give, give; sucks blood, till it burst, fals not of, till it be full; ends not at one house, at own street, at one town; cries still Plus ultrà; make a {αβγδ}. The sword sweeps clean, returns not to the scabbard, till it have slain All. Tis a Devourer. It hath a mouth, In ore gladii; Yea for quicker dispatch, it hath two mouths, Heb. 4. 12. {αβγδ}. Innumerum nefas, sedulius his term too. As a wolf, if he break into a fold, kills not one sheep alone, though one be more then he can eat, yet he slays many, if he can, All. Herod can, and does; can, as a King; does, as a wolf; a Lion, a Tiger, a Panther; he kills All.  
All is an universal, but is oft straightened, means but few; but many here. Tis All in Bethleem, and in all the coasts thereof. In Bethleem, for there the Scribes had said, Christ should be born; said, and showed it too out of the Prophets. Not in Nazareth, as some heretics say in Athanasius. The slaughter thereof is in Bethleem. Bethleem becomes Acheldama, the house of bread turned to the field of blood. Herod fills Bethleem, as Manasses did jerusalem with innocent blood. And in all the coasts thereof. A city will not satisfy a sucker of blood. Tis as the Prophet saith, Parvula es, Bethleem is but little. Saint Luke calls it a city, Davids city; Davids self doth. Say, it was not; for Saint John calls it but {αβγδ}, a small village. That were enough for such an act, too much for a murderer. haply the child, whom he sought, might be removed( as it was indeed out of his reach) might be somewhere in the country. Herods sword will after, into all the coasts, that border about Bethleem. The slaughter must reach far, that Ramah shall ring of it, a city far from Bethleem. Which made Saint jerom make Ramah an Appellative, In excelso vox audita est. The voice of the dying children, and the crying parents was heard on high, reached round about, throughout all Ephrata. Like the cry▪ of the Egyptians, when there was not an house, wherein one was not dead. So Origen saith of this, In singulis domibus bini aut terni; Bethleem exceeds Egypt, two or three in every house. Shimei called David a man of blood; onely for the death of Abner and Ishboshesh; and yet he had not slain them neither. Heres a man of blood, that butchers a whole country.  
Nay, this All, is not all yet. The Age of the slain makes the Act yet more execrable. Tis from two yeares old and under. First they must be many, in a town, and country round about, a populous country, as Palestina was; the number must be great of all the males born in two whole yeares. That theme I have already prest. But they are Infants too. Rage spares no age, spares not the child scarce a span long; slays in the cradle, rents from the breast; bespraies the sword with the mothers milk, embrewes her breasts with the childs blood. Cruor lacteus, heres milk and blood, saith Cyprian, mixed together. Yea haply some woman that had two sons, the one at the dug, the other in the lap, while her love is cleft between them both, striving to save one, hath both cleft asunder with the sword. Parent not suffered to kiss or see the child alive. Embrace them dead they might, and bury them; well they might do that.  
Esay saith of Christ, Puer natus est nobis, a child is born to us, a son is given to us. They cry here, Puer raptus est nobis, our sons are pulled from us, our children rent from us. haply the butcher is at the midwives heels, watches the birth, as the Dragon doth in the Apocalypse. The babe snatched from her hands into his, slain betwixt both. Dominus dedit, Tyrannus abstulit, the child no sooner delivered but destroyed. The midwife shall not need to cut the navell-string; the butcher will; both it, and navel too. I think, Herod would do more, were he there himself; would not wait the birth; as the Dragon did; would be more devilish than the devills self, would rip the womans womb, rend the child out of it, and murder it: haply sheathe his sword in the mothers belly, murder both at once▪ red( who please) the Homilies of the Fathers on this theme; he can not red them with dry eyes. Saint Basil makes even the Executioners themselves to have wept for mere compassion: they durst not but do, what the King had commanded: But their hearts abhorred what their hands wrought, and their bowels.  
If war do this, tis no wonder. If the soldier dash the sucking child against the stones, murder it unborn; I will pardon him, if Herod will do such an act in peace; make a slaughter, such a slaughter; of children, such children, Infants; such Infants, Males; so many, a whole City, and all the coasts about. No marvel if mourning and weeping and great lamentation were heard in every house; if Rachel wept and would not be comforted. The figure is pathetical. Rachel was dead many hundred yeares before. But as at Christs Passion the stones cleft, and the graves opened, and the dead rose: so at the bloody murder, the merciless massacre of these little babes, even Rachel rises and bewails them, weeps for them, though dead and rotten in her grave. No marvel, if the mother newly brought to bed, seeing her Infant but now born, presently slain, do( as Saint Paul speaks) {αβγδ}, fall in travail again, feel fresh pains and anguish sharper then her travail. unhappy mothers, happy Babes: the Church hath canonized them for Saints. Why not? What should we doubt, but Christ hath died pro interfectis, that prayed pro interfectoribus, saith Saint Augustine; that the Diers for Christ should not be saved, when the Slayers of Christ were prayed for by the Saviour.  
Rursum insanit Herodias, Saint Chrysostome so begins one Sermon, I will end mine with Quorsum insanit Herodes. Why is Herod thus mad? Cause and Occasion you have heard. The Wisemen mocked him, as he thought, did not indeed. That they return'd not, as he bad them, twas because Gods self forbade them. God claims obedience before Kings; yet that incensed him. But what then? Irascimini,& nolite peccare, at lest, nolite necare; Be angry, but sin not. Kings can not, Tyrant Kings. Of them Saint Basils speech is true, {αβγδ}, wrath is murders forerunner: exceeding anger blossoms blood. But whats the project of this blood? Be it, Herod was both mocked and wrath. Let him be wrath with them, that mocked him; and if wrath will needs slay, let him slay them. Quid meruere mori? saith the Christian Poet before cited, what have these Innocent Infants done? No man sheds blood for the blood sake: the shedder looks at some further end. Theres a passion stronger far than wrath, jealousy. Wrath but boiled, but jealousy burns: thats a fury, this a fiend.[ This Act, this odious execrable Act, is Regni gratia, tis for a crown Tis pitty Innocents should be slain, children, infants, and thousands. But Nescit pietatis jura, saith the tragic, theres no pity in this passion.] Herod hears of a new King. Theres a babe lately born, styled King of the Iewes. Tis Christ. he fears Christ shall uncrowne him, thrust him from the throne: His project is to prevent that. Many a holier man than he, will make no scruple Regni gratia, to  shed blood for a crownes sake; to get a crown, much more to keep it. Greater grief to lose, then not to find. Grander disgrace to be unking'd, then never to have reigned.  
Tis happy, that the Scribes said, Christ should be born in Bethleem. That confined Herods fury. Had they said, he should be born in jury, it had cost the childrens lives of the whole land. The Wise mens words,( Where is he, that is born King of the Iewes?) troubled Herod, the Text saith. Peremptoria est quaesita altitudo, Saint Cyprians speech. Herod had sought the sceptre, bought it too, it is likely, and that dearly, we may think, when that a burgeship cost the captain a great sum, Acts 22. So mounted, he will slay, rather than light. Imperia pretio quolibet constant benè, saith Polynices in Seneca, crownes are not dear at any price though it be blood, much blood, innocent blood. The crownes that we shall wear one day in heaven, Christ bought so. They cost him blood, innocent blood, much blood, even all he had. As Neroes mother said in another sense, Occidat modò imperet. What cares Herod to kill, so he may reign? Of Othoes mind the Emperour, stare se non posse, nisi principem, He can not live, but a King, die who shall, so he may live so. Herods fear needed not. Christ came to suffer, not to reign; to wear a crown, but twas of thorns; to bear a sceptre, but of reed. Christ was a King, and of the Iewes: Nathanael styled him King of Israel. The Wise men expressly, King of Jews, both of Jews and Gentiles. But his kingdom was not of this world. The Popes is, his Vicar: but not his. Yet Herod feared; and fear is a murderer. If I tell Mauritius, that Phocas is fearful, he will answer, Homicid● est, then he will  shed blood. But a tragical argument should not be long. Be it here ended, but ended with prayer and thanksgiving for our happy dayes wherein we have no bloody Herod, but a gracious King, under whom we may go to heaven without martyrdom, unless it be that holy martyrdom of our vices, which in the Collect for this Day, we desire God to mortify and kill in us, that in our conversations our life may express that faith, which with our tongues we do confess, &c.   

A SERMON PREACHED VPON TWELFE-DAY.  Tit. 2. 11. 
{αβγδ}.  
For the grace of God, that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men.  
THE first word of my Text( I mean in the original) doth denominate this day, called the Epiphany, of the Appearance of a star. I have made choice of it, both for the cognation of the name, and for the parallel argument. For it hath also an Epiphany, the Appearance of Grace. That star was Gods grace, to guide the wise men unto Christ; this grace is Gods star to led all men to Salvation. For what is the gospel, but Gods Loadstone unto Life? By it Gods gracious purpose of saving all mankind, couched by the Prophets, as under a cloud, broke forth by the Apostles, and gave shine to all the world. As then the Title of this Day, so is the matter of this Text, a glorious Epiphany, that is, a Shine, and an Appearance. The subject of the shine, Gods Grace. The project of that Grace, it is Salvation, the object of Salvation, it is, All men. There is appeared the Grace of God, which bringeth Salvation to all men. Of these four points, &c.  
Say we not of nature, Nihil agit frustra, it doth nought in vain? Is it true of nature, and is it false of God? Gods purpose of Salvation were merely to no purpose, should it not in time be both published and effected. Both which honourable offices are performed by the gospel. The letter of it bears the news; the spirit of it works the Grace. vain is the meaning that never doth appear. Gods grace is but his meaning, known only to himself. It must have an appearance to make it known to man. And that not a dark, an obscure appearance onely( for that were but {αβγδ}) but it must {αβγδ}, as a cunning picture craves a choice light, it must be an Epiphany, a bright shining forth; not apparuit, but illuxit, Saint Hierom, and Saint Ambrose have it; illuxit gratia Dei, Gods grace hath appeared.  
The Prophets gave some glimpse, by which Gods purposed grace was seen by some. But the clear light of the gospel made it visible to all. Their light was but a Candle, which gives them onely light, that are in the house. It shone unto the Iewes, who then alone were of Gods Family. But the Gospels light is as the sun, which giveth shine to the whole world. Ambulabunt gentes in lumine tuo; that light( saith the Prophet) shall give lustre to all lands. As once in Goshen, so then in jury. the Hebrewes onely had the light; and the Nations, like the Egyptians, sat all in darkness: But the gospel, as Simeon singeth in his hymn, was to be a light to lighten the Gentiles; and as Zachary in his, the beams gave light to them that sate in darkness, Luke 1. 79. there is our word again; and the shine shot forth unto the shadow of death. I say Gods grace from all eternity had foreordained all men to this Salvation. But that gracious purpose he kept many ages secret to himself. Only now and than to the Patriarcks and Prophets it pleased him to impart it, but closely and obscurely. But when the time was full, and that Christ was now incarnate {αβγδ}, as Saint Paul calls him to the Hebrewes, the Prince of this Salvation; it pleased him to reveal that long concealed counsel, by the pens and Preaching of the Apostles and Evangelists to all nations under Heaven. And that is the Appearance of the Grace of God, the glorious Epiphany of the Grace of God, here meant by our Apostle: far paramount to that of the wise men of the East, which lead them onely but to Christ a King: but this conducts all nations unto Christ a Saviour.  
We learn of the Philosopher, that {αβγδ}: that somethings are, but yet appear not; that have existence, but not appearance. Such a thing was this Salvation: it had the being onely in Gods hidden will, it appeared not unto men. I mean the common salvation, as Saint Iude termeth it, ver. 3. I know the Psalmist saith, that God was known in judah, and his Grace was great in Israel. But the name of a Saviour was not heard among the heathen. Gods grace meant to communicate salvation to all souls. But his meaning was a mystery, Ephes. 3. 9. As Gods self was unknown, even to the learnedst of the Gentiles, even at Athens the Altar was found by Saint Paul, engraven, {αβγδ}, to the unknown God: as Gods self was unknown, so was his Grace much more; But the gospel proclaiming redemption to all people, made grace appear to men. Not barely to appear, like the dawning of the morning; so it did before: but {αβγδ}, to break forth in brightness, and to shine clearly like the noon sun.  
For it is fit, that the Appearance bear some proportion with the grace. The grace great, the Salvation of man: and therefore the light great. Math. 4. 17. {αβγδ}, a great light. Yea the grace exceeding great, the Salvation of men, {αβγδ}, 2 Cor. 9. and therefore the light exceeding great, 1 Pet. 2. 9. {αβγδ}, an admirable light. So was it fit for the Authors sake; for the light was sent from the father of lights, and so was it also for the spectators sake: the light must be great, admirable great, that all shall see, and the Prophet Esay telleth us, that all the ends of the earth shall see the Salvation of God. As by Gods grace it was purposed to all men: so by the gospel it should be published to all men.  
Hence is it, that the Apostles and all Preachers of the gospel are called stars and lights. Saint Paul calls them one, Christ calls them both. John Baptist the first preacher is called a shining light. Saint Augustine calls the Apostles magna Ecclesiae luminaria, the great lights of the Church. One calls Saint John the Evangelist {αβγδ}, the Sun of the gospel. It is Dionys. Areop. the praises impropriated from the Gospels self, to which merely they belong, and conferred upon the Preachers for the Gospels sake, whereof they are publishers. For the Preachers are Christs Trumpettours, the gospel is the Trumpet, {αβγδ}, Clemens calleth it; the Apostles were Gods heralds to sound Salvation unto all lands. The gospel in the original tells his nature in his name. For what is {αβγδ}, but an annunciation, a declaration of good things. The good, Gods grace intended men, the Gospel hath declared to men.  
Nay Saint Paul resteth not in calling the gospel an {αβγδ}, Ephes. 2. 7. a declaring of Gods grace, but cap. 3. ver. 9. he terms it a {αβγδ}, a bright illustration: a parallel to this Epiphany. Not {αβγδ}, a demonstration, but {αβγδ}, an illustration; to make grace appear both solidè& lucidè, saith Saint Augustine, not soundly alone, but clearly also; {αβγδ}, to make clear( saith the Apostle) the mystery to all men. A mystery, at first so secret, so hidden in God, Ephes. 3. 9. that the Angels could not see it: for Saint Peter telleth us, that they longed for the sight, 1 Pet. 1. 12. now by the gospel, men might behold it, weake-sighted men might clearly behold it. The Apostle in that Chapter is plentiful in phrases serving to this sense.  
To end this point; the Scripture,( saith Saint Gregory) is Epistola Creatoris, Gods Epistle to his Creature. The Scriptures are Gods Letters, we call them Sacras literas, they are Gods holy Letters, sent unto his Church, to signify Salvation meant to all mankind. What the grace of God decreed, that the Word of God declared. Gods grace a mystery, a hidden mystery, hidden from the ear, {αβγδ}, Rom. 16. 25. hidden from the eye, {αβγδ}, Ephes. 3. 9. the Gospel is the Apocalypse, the Revelation of that mystery.  
The next point is the subject of this Revelation, it is the Grace of God. What grace means Saint Paul? Not Emanantem, which are the gifts of God, and are in men, but immanentem, which is the love of God, and is in God; not Gods out-flowing grace, but his in-biding grace. The Gospel is the Appearance, the Epiphany of that grace; and is therefore called, Act. 20. 24. The gospel of the Grace of God. The Grace of God, is the free good will of God, by which he loveth us in Iesus Christ, giveth us his Spirit, forgiveth us our sins, justifieth us, and saveth us. I say in Iesus Christ; because all grace hath handsel first in him.  
Salvation is not of man, but of God; not of mans merit, but of Gods grace, not itself onely, Salvati estis gratia, Eph. 2. 5. You are saved by grace; but, the decree of it, and the means of it, and the end of it. The decree, {αβγδ}, the Election of Grace, Rom. 1. 5. the means, both Vocation, We are called {αβγδ}, according to his Grace, 1 Tim. 1. and justification, Rom. 3. 24. it also is {αβγδ}, freely by his Grace, and the end of it, eternal life, it is {αβγδ}, it is the gift of God. Rom. 6. 23. Both beginning and progress, and execution of Salvation, is all from Grace. This is the Riches of Gods grace, Ephes. 1. 7. Yea {αβγδ}, the exceeding, the hyperbolical riches of his grace. Ephe. 2. 7. And therefore this attribute is put into Gods style, proclaimed by Gods self, Exo. 34. 6. {αβγδ} the gracious God: so rich, so exceeding rich in grace; that the Apostles entitle him the God of grace, and his spirit, the spirit of grace, and his throne, the throne of grace.  
I say, by Gods grace is not meant any thing created, or infused in us; but Gods voluntary favour, his frank and free affection, and mere mercy in Christ Iesus. Not onely works are weak, but faith also though the chiefest of his outflowing graces, is too feeble to effect the Salvation of mans soul. Mans merits, saith Saint Hierom drive to desperation; so far are they from saving us. do thorns yield grapes, or pluck we figs of thistles? If grace could possibly grow, out of God, that thing in the Creature, which should move it, must be good, as grace itself is. But we know with Saint Paul, that there is no good in man. Rom. 7. 18. Surely some is sometimes, as it springeth from Gods Spirit; but the Flesh marreth it. What good soever is by God infused in us, it is instantly infected by our in-bred corruption: and so no fit mover of the good grace of God. And therefore that paradox of the Pelagians, that the ground of Gods grace, was the foresight of mans merit, is a frantic heresy. Not Gods Prescience of goodness in man, but his conscience of goodness in himself, moved him to be gracious.  
Gods grace hath no dependence out of Gods self,( as once Pelagius held, and laid a part of it on man) but solely and wholly relieth on Gods pleasure. For how shall the effect father his own cause? All grace in man doth issue from grace in God, which therefore cannot rise from ought in man. Gods Will is the womb that first conceived it, his beneplacitum begot it first, and as the prima matrix; so it is the prima motrix: the first mover of Gods mercy.  
Grace then is free: for else it were not grace. It is Saint Augustins speech, Gratia si non est gratis, non est gratia. Grace is no debt, God owes it not. Wrath is a debt, {αβγδ} but grace is no debt, {αβγδ}, saith Saint Basil; and it seems Saint Augustine hath translated it. For he calls poenam debitam, but gratiam indebitam. Death is a pain, God owes us that; but life is a favour, and God owes not it. Exercet debitam severitatem, exhibet indebitam pietatem, saith the same Father. Salvation is like the rain; God sends it freely; It costs no price, nor pains; man buies it not, man earnes it not. We have it {αβγδ}, saith the Apostle, Rom. 3. 24. that is, of gift; and what is freer then gift?  
To end this second point, Damnation is of right, but salvation is of Grace. The wicked man may challenge hell; or if he will not challenge it, it will challenge him. But the righteous man can not claim heaven; the tenor of the Saints is but frank almoigne. Death is {αβγδ}, a debt to sin, but life is {αβγδ}, a frank and free favour. Not merces ●pperantis, but munus largientis, Ambr. not a wages, but a largess. In a word, it is not a duty, but it is a bounty, it is not of merit, but it is of Grace, and so much for the second point.  
The next point in the Scripture is the project of this grace; and that is salvation: that is, propositum gratiae, as the Apostle termeth it, Rom. 4. 5. the greek copies have it not, but the latin have; and Saint Ambrose doth warrant it.  
A project worthy of the grace of God; it is so rich and infinite in sweetness. For it contains both tuition from all evil, and fruition of all good. Man can not have more, God can not give more. Tuition from all evil, from sin, from death, from satan, and from hell. Fruition of all good, of life, of heaven, of glory, and of joy: of the blessed presence of Saints, of Angells, and of God himself. I say, tuition from all evil; from sin, I mean the sting of it. Grace hath pulled it out: from death, I mean the curse of it, grace hath cancelled it. From the claws of satan, Grace hath chipped them; and from the chaws of hell, Grace hath choked them. And fruition of all good; of life, it is eternal: of heaven, it is a kingdom, a weight of glory, and a world of joy. Of the Saints and Angells presence; always praising God: yea, the vision of Gods self, unexpressible of words, unconceivable by wit. This is the Salvation, which the Grace of God doth bring; and that unto all men. It is the last point of my Text.  
The Object of Salvation, is the whole world: Grace bringeth it to all men. First men; then all. He saith not Beasts, nor Angells, but all men. That man were brutish, that should believe salvation belonged to brute creatures. And yet there is a psalm, that seems to save them to. See( I pray you) the 7. verse of the 36. psalm: Thou O Lord( saith David) dost save both man and beast. But the Psalmist meaneth there, preservation, not salvation. Gods feeds them, and provides for them: but he saves them not. he expounds himself else where, God giveth food to all flesh, and feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him. Beasts, fowls and fishes, and some creeping things Astronomers have put in heaven; but grace admits no such. And for the Angells; surely salvation doth belong to them. But it was beside Pauls purpose; and therefore he names them not, but onely men; and that with a note of universality it is, to all men.  
Not Origens all; who extended this grace not onely to all men, but to the devills to, tantò errans perversiùs, quantò sentiens clementius, Aug. of perverse pity would have no man damned. The term is to be taken not individually, but generally, but to all men, that is, all Ages, all Nations, all conditions; the grace of God bringeth salvation to them all.  
Will you see it in the first? Gods goodness is a fountain; it is never dry. As grace is {αβγδ} from the worlds beginning, Psa. 25. so it is {αβγδ} to the worlds end, Psal. 136. à seculo in seculum, from one generation to another. Salvation is no termer; grace ties it not to times. Noah as well as Abel, Moses as well as jacob, jeremy as well as David, Paul as well as Simeon hath part in this Salvation. Gods gracious purpose the Flood drowned not, the smoke of Sinai smothered not, the Captivity ended not, the ends of the world( Saint Paul calls them so) determined not. For Christ by whom it is, was slain from the beginning, Saint John saith so. He was before Abraham, himself saith so. And Clem. Alex. tomo quinto. 5. pag. 233. doth martion wrong, though otherwise an heretic, in blaming him for holding, that Christ saved those also that believed in him, before his incarnation. The blood of the beasts under the law was type of his. And the scars of his wounds appear yet still, and will for ever, till he come to judgement. The Apostle shall end this; he is heri, and hody, and semper idem, Christ is the same, yesterday, to day, and for ever.  
Will you see it in the second? Grace is a grand Ocean, it compasseth the earth. Gods goodness is a fountain, streaming forth Salvation into all lands. The Church indeed( as Solomon calls it in his song) is an enclosed garden, and a park impaled. But the pale and the enclosure are not for the pinfolding of the Church, but for the propriety and safety of the Church. The Church, it is scattered over the face of the earth; not impounded in Palestine, as it was sometime; but the Heathen also are Christs inheritance, and his possession, the ends of the world. The Gentiles saith the Apostle, Ephes. 3. 6. are {αβγδ}, and {αβγδ}, lieutenants of the gospel, and coheirs of Salvation. God gathereth heires of his kingdom from the four winds; he hath called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the West. The Holy Ghost breathed into all quarters under Heaven, and conveid Gods saving health from Tabor to Hermon, and from the Sea, unto the worlds end. Christ hath bought all nations for a price; and all flesh saith John Baptist shall see Gods Salvation. The infinite virtue and efficacy of Christs satisfaction reacheth to the saving of all Adams sons, wheresoever seated. For it were absurd to think, that the power of the second Adam the Lord Christ were less unto life, then the first was unto death. But as Adam tabificavit, sic Christus justificavit omnes, August. as by one man Adam, the wrath of God, and the curse, which came by it, caught hold of all: so by one man Christ, so much as in him lay, the grace of God, and the gift which is by grace, that is, Salvation hath abounded unto all. The greek word is elegant Rom. 5. 15. the grace of God {αβγδ}, saith Paul. Grace doth not onely {αβγδ}, burst forth with power to save; but also {αβγδ}, it breaks forth round about, to save all men. All men, that is, all nations? How then( as saith our Saviour) is Salvation of the Iewes, John 4. 22? It is not {αβγδ}, but {αβγδ}, not of them as their propriety, but either from them; because the gospel that preacheth it, came forth of Iewry; or else out of them; because Christ, that procureth it, was born of them. {αβγδ}, the wheel of the gospel, which is the chariot of Salvation, is rolled( saith Gregory Nyssen.) through the whole earth. Gods grace by that drawght conveies it to all people; and is therefore justly called by Saint Iude, the common Salvation, ver. 3. as common to all ages, so also to all lands. Grace will not be confined. For Gods goodness cannot be exhausted; he is Dives in omnes, saith the Apostle, rich enough for all.  
Will you see it in the third? Grace brings Salvation to all sorts of men. God is no {αβγδ}, he hath no respect of Persons. Doth the poor man doubt? Let him look at Lazarus; he lies in Abrahams bosom. Doth the rich man doubt? Christ said to rich Zaccheus, this day is Salvation come unto thy house. No age excepted; children and infants, yea the babe that dies unborn, are in the covenant, which God hath made unto their parents. No sex excepted: though woman sinned before man, yet shee is saved as well as man. Mary in her song calleth God her Saviour. Nay sin itself excepteth not, so there be repentance; to day( saith Christ to the thief upon the cross) thou shalt be with me in Paradise. Yea Paul the chief of sinners( for so he calls himself) a persecutor of the Saints, yet obtained his Salvation. The coming of Christ was of purpose to save sinners.  
To conclude; God is no niggard of his grace; grace is no grudger of Salvation. With him( saith the psalm) is copiosa redemptio. It is an excellent attribute, which is given him by Saint james 5. 11. {αβγδ}. In Gods mercy there is both {αβγδ} and {αβγδ}, it is both free and rich; both gratiosa& copiosa, both bountiful and plentiful. Not onely {αβγδ}, as we showed before, bursting forth round about, round about all ages, round about all nations, round about all sorts; but {αβγδ}, Rom. 5. 20. surrounding all those rounds, and with surplus and advantage overflowing all. I say, not onely {αβγδ}, an abounding grace, abounding unto all, to the whole world; but {αβγδ}, 1 Tim. 1. a grace superabounding: that if there were more worlds, grace would bring Salvation even unto them all. Saint Pauls own parallel shall end this point, 1 Tim. 2. 4. It is Gods will, that all men should be saved. That gracious will be done on us, through Iesus Christ, cvi, &c.   

THE PVRIFICATION OF SAINT mary. The first Sermon. PREACHED VPON CANDLEMAS-DAY.  luke 2. 30. 
Viderunt enim Oculi mei Salutare tuum.  
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation.  
IT is a part of that anthem, which was song by old Simeon at the Virgins Purification. The Particle, the first word of it bids us see the verse before, as containing a Reason of the matter in that verse. In that, he humbly resigned his life to God. This yields a reason of that resignation, Because his eyes had now beholded the Lords Christ. So the Argument of my text, is his thankful acknowledgement of Gods performed promise; who had graciously vouchsafed him, though a very aged Father; yet before he should die, the sight of the messiah. That messiah, Simeon here calls Salvation. Salutare tuum, Gods salvation. Expected hitherto, but now seen. seen, not {αβγδ}, but {αβγδ}, Chrysost. not in spirit, but by Eye. Not an others eye, but Simeons own, Mine eyes. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Of these five points, my purpose is to speak, God assisting, in that order, in which the Vulgar latin, and original have marshaled them.  
Viderunt is the first, in which I note two points, one of the sense, an other of the tense. For the former: The Ages both before Christ, and since his coming, have believed on Christ: but Simeon beholded him. He was prophesied of to them, and he is preached of to us; but he is seen by Simeon. Faith apprehends the Object more certainly, then sense: for sense may be deceived; Faith can not. The eye may be deluded many ways. The sight may be feeble. The Object may have art in it. God may hold the eyes. Faith the immediate and mere work of God, given of purpose to assure, cannot be beguiled. Faith apprehends the Object more certainly then sense: but Sense apprehendeth it more presently then Faith: and in that respect Sight far excelleth Faith. The dead do see themselves in heaven now: the alive believe to be there one day. hody mihi, cras tibi: Give me to day; take who will to morrow.  
Christ saith, they are blessed, qui non viderunt, said crediderunt, that have not seen Christ, but believed: Then are they terque quaterque, much more blessed, that have believed, and seen too, and so Greg. Nyssen calls Simeon {αβγδ}. But faith without sense, hath great reward: but occulata fides, faith seconded by sight, is great happiness. Beati oculi is Christs saying too, blessed are the eyes, that see the things you see. I say not, that have seen and believed, seen first, and then believed. Faith bread of sense is not thankeworthy; but that have believed and seen: and so doth Simeon. His soul is so satisfied, now his eyes have seen his Saviour, that he is well content to die: Lord now lettest thou thy servant go in peace. Nay he desires to be dissolved; some Fathers red Dimitie, and the syriac hath it so to, Lord now let thy servant. Like jacob, willing with all his hart to die, when he saw that joseph lived.  
Abraham desired to see him. jacob waited for him, expecto( saith the Patriarch even on his death bed) Salutare tuum, I wait for thy salvation. David begged it, Psal. 85. Da salutare tuum. He prayed for him; yea his heart longed after him, Ps. 119. 81. Defecit any ma mea in salutare tuum, his soul even sowned in desire of him. For that the Psalmist means of the messiah. S. Austin is my Author, Quid est salutare tuum, nisi Christus tuus? he saith, it was Christ, who was meant hy that salvation. Abraham the Father of believers, and the Friend of God; jacob a wrestler with Angells, and David a man after Gods own heart; what all these three desired, and obtained not, God here vouchsafeth Simeon.  
Herod a King desired to see him, and was glad, gavisus valde, exceeding glad, when he saw him. The Wise men of the East, Kings too, say some, came a great journey to see him, and were glad, gavisi gaudio magno valdè, with an exceeding great gladness. This Object so desired by such, Kings, Prophets, Patriarkes, desired by so many; as Haggei speaks, the desire of all Nations, it pleased God to show to this aged holy Father.  
This is the mead of faith, Gods rich reward of mans belief. Simeon believed, before he saw; and therefore now he saw, what he believed. The story saith, he waited for the consolation of Israel; that is, expected the messiah. And( as a Father saith) the reward of believing without sight, is to see, what thou believest. Expectator is made Spectator: the Object of his faith is now subject to his sight. A sight so joyful, that the people, albeit he were daily in their streets, yet thronged to behold him. Not Ship, not Mount, not Desert could keep him from the multitude. They were so glad of him, so eager, so importunate; that he scarce had time to eat for them. he could not be so private, but they would find him out; and when they had him, they would hold him, and would not let him go, Luke 4. 42. Nay his sight so joyful, that one longing to behold him, but not able for the press, and lowness of his stature; Zaccheus a rich man, and principal of the Publicans, stuck not at the scruple of his reputation, but ran before, and got up into a three, glad to see him so: but when Christ said to him, he would be his guest, his soul was so ravished with extraordinary joy; that besides his quick descending, and most cheerful entertainment, he frankly vowed the half of his goods unto the poor, and a fourfold restitution of all he had got wrongfully.  
Now for the tense, viderunt, Simeon was promised, he should see Christ: he sees him now indeed. Balaam said, videbo, I shall see him, but not now. The difference between the New Testament and the Old is but in tense onely. It was then Suscitabit, the Lord shall raise, saith Moses, shall raise to you a Prophet like to me. Orietur, saith Balaam, a star shall rise. The gospel turns the tense; Suscitavit, saith zachary, God hath raised up a mighty salvation; Orta est, saith the Evangelist, the light is risen, and that light was Christ. God said to Ahaz, virgo pariet, a Virgin shall bear; That is turned into Peperit, Luke 2. 7. Shee brought forth her first begotten son. jacob said, veniet, Shilo shall come. himself saith, venit, the son of man is come. Christ called before, {αβγδ}, futurus, venturus, he that was to come. Now John Baptist saith of him, joh. 1. 26. He is among you; yea he can point at him, and say, Ecce, see the man. This is the Act, viderunt: come wee to the Instrument, viderunt oculi, Mine eyes have seen.  
There is a sight of Faith, the Patriarkes saw Christ so. Abraham did, Christ saith it, joh. 8. 56. And there is a sight of fancy; the imagination sees in sleep: dreams are called Visions. There is visio mentis, a sight of understanding, {αβγδ}, saith Epichar. the mind sees. It is( saith Saint Augustine) quidam tanquam oculus ainae. The understanding is the souls eye. But it is but quidam, a kind of eye, and but tanquàm, as it were an eye, but none indeed. And there is visio spiritus, a sight in trance. So S. John saw Christ, Rev. 1. {αβγδ}. So S. Steven saw him ecstatically; even as Peter, james, and John saw Moses and Elias at Christs Transfiguration. But Simeon sees Christ {αβγδ}, not in spirit, but in body: he sees him {αβγδ}, with his eye. For though Saint Luke say, vers. 27. he came in the Spirit, Saint Iohns very phrase, {αβγδ}: yet that was no ecstasy: but Saint Luke means moved by the Spirit, i. by the holy Ghost. He came {αβγδ}, in body to the Temple; and with his bodies eyes saw Christ. Simeons seeing is not like Saint Pauls hearing, 2 Cor. 1●. whether in the body, or out of it, he knows not; but he saith, he saw him with his eyes.  
There is yet another sight in Scripture, Auricularis, a sight by ear. Videbat voces, Exod. 20. the people saw the sound of the thunder. Saint John sees the like, Apoc. 1. ut videret vocem, he sees a voice. Sight so excels among the senses, that they all usurp it. The ear, the Nose, the Palate, all would fain be eyes. Every sense would see. The ear you have seen already. Voice is not visible; yet Saint John would see it. So would the tongue. psalm 34. Gustate& videte. So would the hand, Luke 24. Palpate& videte, feel and see. Wee see( saith Saint Augustine) not quid luceat onely, but quid oleat, quid caleat. These sorts of seeing are all {αβγδ}. unproper, and unnatural. Tongue, hands, ears, members God made them not to see. But the eyes he did; theirs is the right sight; and simeon sees with them: it is Ocularis Visio, not Auricularis, mine eyes have seen, saith simeon.  
There is an other eare-sight, which is hearsay. Herod saw Christ so, I mean Herod the Babe slayer. The blind saw him so. Yea and John Baptists words must be construed so too, All flesh shall see Gods Salvation, i.e. see him with their ears: his gospel should be preached unto all nations. A joyful seeing too, but not so certain. Sight is the surer sense. The ear is {αβγδ}, Philo saith, subject to deceit. The eye is {αβγδ}, Saint Chrys. much more true and trusty; and simeon sees Christ so. That he may say to Christ, as job said to God, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee, job 42. 5.[ Not saw him onely, but embraced him also: his arms held, what his eyes beholded. His hands( saith the Apostle) handled the word of life. He took the blessed Infant in his arms, an honour, a prerogative vouchsafed none but him; besides his Parents, who is thence called of the Fathers {αβγδ}, the holder, the handler, the embracer of God. Irenaeus adds more, then I will urge; that he blessed the Infant too. The Text saith, God, ver. 28. he consters it of Christ.]  
The next term notes the owner of this instrument; the eyes are his. My eyes have seen. As I may see, and yet haply not by eye; so may I see by eye, and yet haply it not mine. My neighbours eye, or my friends may see for me. Oculus usurarius. He can lend me his eye, as well as his hand. simeon sees Christ, not per alium, but himself. There is Oculus Vicarius: All sight is not in person. Bishops by name are seers, Episcopi, Overseers, but not everseers by themselves. There is a Church officer, whom the Canon Law calls Oculum Episcopi, the Bishops eye, to see for him. Kings see with eyes, but not their own. Magistrates and Iudges in the common wealth are Princes eyes, they see by them. But simeon sees Christ, as job hoped he should see him; My eyes, saith job, not others for me. Viderunt Oculi mei, My Eyes, saith simeon, have seen thy Salvation. The phrase is often, but it is not here an idle Pleonasmus, but an earnest Emphasis; as if a man would say, hisce occulis vidi, I have seen him with these eyes. Symeons self, own self, with his eyes, his own eyes personally beholds his Saviour.  
The eyes of the aged have lightly but bad sight, if they have any▪ simeon had small cause to hope to see his Saviour; he was so old a man; but that divine Revelation had encouraged him; and as Nicephorus writes, his age was prorogued of purpose for that spectacle. But being blind besides, as Celsus writes in Cypriam, to have his sight restored him at his embracing of the Babe, was more miraculous. And the term is not redundant, but fit it should be added, and his voice advanced with accent beseeming it, My eyes have seen thy Salvation. As if David meant of him, that saying in the psalms▪ Longitudine dierum, with length of dayes will I satisfy him, and I will show him my Salvation.  
The eyes of Simeons ancestors had seen spectabilia, mirabilia, glorious things and ●●nderfull: the read sea partend, jordan driven back, the cloud and pillar of fire, the high Priest in his Robes, the standing of the sun and moon, the bread of Angels, the ark, the Temple. But Simeons eyes see here the Lord of Glory, and him, whose name is wonderful. Never saw eye, any eye, not mans, not Angels, such a spectacle, the Word Incarnate, God incorporated in man.  
But may we trust the Evangelist? Some have questioned his gospel: Marcio● a part of it, Cerinthus All. some writ he was a Painter; was he not a Poet too? writes he not miranda, but non credenda; things wonderful, but doubtful? What if all this false, and Simeon saw not Christ, but his eyes deceived him, and he us? There are three unhappy heretics, though happy all in name, Faustus and Felix, and Fortunatus, three Manichees, and some more, who deny that Christ was man, but onely God. And God, {αβγδ}, saith the Evangelist, not this man onely, but not any ever saw. Christs body was phantasticum, his flesh but putativa, his birth and death and all things concerning his humanity, were but imaginaria, all but mere apparencies. If so; ther. Simeon saw him not indeed; but thought he saw him onely. He saith he saw him; but it was deceptio visus, deceit of sight. He saith, his eyes had seen him; but Oculi( saith the orator) sape mentiuntur, the eyes do often leaze, This frantic heresy, so gross, so cross to all Scripture, to all sense, is not worth the answering. Christ, though he was not more homo, as Arius held blasphemously, yet that he was vere homo, man truly, though not onely, what point in all Divinity hath proof more plain, more plentiful? and I have already handled this question here before.  
The Object is now next; what Simeon saw; tis Gods Salvation. Twas no such great privilege, such an honour to see Christ. What is Christus more then unctus? it signifies but one anointed. Kings are so, men may see them daily; Wee may: God grant that long we may. But Simeon sees Salutare tuum, not Christ, but Iesus, that is, Salvation. Christ, i e. unction, I confess, is sweet; the Spouse cries in the Canticles, Oleum effusum nomen tuum, his name like precious ointment. But Iesus, i.e. Salvation is more sweet by much, mell in ore, saith Saint Bernard, that but oil, this Hony: and what saith samson, is sweeter then Hony? Salvation sweet every way, sweet to the taste, in ore mell, to the ear, in aure melos, to the heart, in cord jubilus, saith that Father. This Father therefore chooseth this term rather, his eyes see Gods Salvation. Christ is the same with Iesus; but unto every seer, Christ is not the same. Simeon sees him a Saviour. Many saw him, but not their Saviour. The Scribes and Pharisees saw him their Censurer. The devils saw him their destroyer. His Crucifiers shall see him at the Resurrection, Omnes Oculus, saith Saint John, Revel. 1. Every eye shall see him; even they shall see him, that pierced him; but not their Saviour, but their judge. But Simeon sees him, that shall save him.  
Christ rather is {αβγδ}, then {αβγδ}, in proper speech a Saviour, not salvation: the Author of salvation, not the salvation self. But the Trope rife in Scripture. Christ called our Redemption, our Reconciliation, i. our Reconciler, our Redeemer. So our salvation here, that is, as Saint Paul stiles him {αβγδ}, the Prince and author of our salvation; {αβγδ}( saith Saint Basil) it is the use of Scripture to call Christ Gods salvation, jacob called him so, you heard before. So did David. So doth John Baptist, Luke 3. 6. So that by Salutare tuum, he means, Christum tuum {αβγδ}. zachary means Christ too, by salvation, in his song. In a word, as if Christ, and salvation were all one; Christ dining with Zaccheus,  told him, that salvation was come unto his house. Christ hath his name of it. He therefore was called Iesus, {αβγδ}, saith Saint cyril, worthily and fitly {αβγδ}, elegantly conjoining both Hebrew etymology and greek together; of his sovereign salving, that is, as the angel derives it in Saint Matthew, of saving us from sin. The Act so excellent, the salvation of man; that Clemens calls it {αβγδ}, the greatest and royalest of all the Acts of God. The Act so individually, so personally true, so proper unto Christ; that the name of a Saviour is given him transcendently. His proper name is Iesus, it signifies a Saviour. Yet that contents not Christians, but they put to the Appellative, and surname him Saviour too, Iesus Christ our Saviour. And lest you may object, that that is done in zeal, in ignorant zeal: Gods Spirit doth it too, often in the Scripture. Yea and because many are called Saviours in the Scripture; it is besides most commonly ushered with an Article, when it is meant of Christ, {αβγδ}, the Saviour, that is, the Saviour paramaunt the right, the high Arch-Saviour. Nay Gods Spirit rests not there; but for yet the greater emphasis, puts it in the Abstract here, and else where often, not Saviour, but savation. a close insinuation of the childs deity. Tis Dionysius his Rule, that names are given God most properly in Abstracto, God not Wise, but wisdom; not Righteous, but righteousness; not a Saviour, but Salvation.  
Now to come to Saint Cyrills {αβγδ}, the merit of the Title. A Saviour, and salvation; why? One of the Syrian Kings was called salvator, and that too with an Article, Antiochus {αβγδ}, Antiochus the Saviour. But like the rest of that rank, Philopators, Philadelphus, Epiphaues, and Theos, all {αβγδ}, of the quiter contrary. Names often fail, imposed by men, never by God. Absalom, a father of peace, so means his name, proved a son of murder and rebellion. God named Christ, Iesus. Simeon here expounds it, to be salvation. And( as the Samaritans say in John 4. 42. he was {αβγδ}, a right Saviour indeed. How? For he hath saved his people, all people, from all enemies: not worldly, thats a light salvation; yet he does that too; but Ghostly, thats the right salvation. Not from Egypt, or Amaleke, not Madian or Moab, not the philistines or Assyrians, as Moses did Israel, and samson and Iosua, called Saviours too in Scripture: and yet this Saviour wrought those salvations too; they were but his instruments, but vice-saviours. Had this Arch-Saviour not assisted them, the fellest of those enemies could but kill the body. But our saviour hath saved us from the assaulters of our souls: the guilt of sin, the curse of God, the treachery of the flesh, the sorcery of the world, the sentence of death, the claws of satan, and the chaws of hell. All these, not the spillers of our blood, but the killers of our souls, this Iesus, this Saviour hath saved us from them all.  
The world had enveigled our flesh, the flesh had enthralled us to sin, sin had enwrapped us in the curse, the curse had adjudged us to death, Death had delivered us to satan, and satan had enjayled us in hell. But as old zachary singeth in his hymn, God hath raised us a Saviour in the house of David, that should deliver us from all these enemies. The world is a Witch, but not to be feared: our Saviours self hath said it, Ego vici mundum, I have overcome the world. The prick of the flesh, his grace hath blunted it. The wound of sin his blood hath salved it. The vigour of the Curse his cross hath voided it. The doom of Death his death diverted it. The paws of satan his bands have chained them, and the jaws of hell his thorns have choked them.  
To shut up this point, the Apostle telleth us, that the coming of Christ was of purpose for to save, 1 Tim. 1. Yea our Saviours self tells us so, that the son of man came to save that was lost; both the true Saviour, as you heard of the samaritans, and the onely Saviour, so proclaimed by Saint Peter, Non est nomen aliud, there is none other name under heaven, by which we may be saved. Not that the Father and the holy Ghost are excluded from this act. They both as well as Christ, may be said to be our Saviours. For the works of the trinity, which the schoolmen term ad extra belong to all the Persons. But the Father and the Spirit authoritativè, the son executivè. The power and commission is common to all three, the execution proper to Christ onely. And Barnardine Ochinus was not in his wits, who because Saint Paul saith in the Acts, that God hath purchased his Church with his blood, would have therefore God the Father to take this name on him, as if his blood were  shed. And Peter Gnapheus a madder man than he, who would join all the persons coexecutours with Christ; all three to have been crucified, and so Saviours all three. Surely all are Saviours in a general sense. But he that died for us, more kindly saved us; and on him the Scripture confers {αβγδ} the title of a Saviour. He is {αβγδ}, the Saviour is Christ: else should the name of Iesus be put upon the Father, and the holy Ghost, as well as upon Christ. I come to the last word, Salutare tuum, thy salvation.  
This salvation is called Gods, whether as the owner, Christus autem dei, S. Paul saith, Christ is Gods, 1 Cor. 3. 23. or the donor; for he gave him, John 3. I will not argue. Gods, whether Possessivè, the Saviour is his son; or Processivè, salvation is his act. An Act worthy such an Agent: Nihil tam dignum Deo, quàm salus hominum, tertul. No work so worthy God, as mans salvation. Gods; for he sent him, saith the Apostle. I cannot sand him, who is an others. Gods; for he gave him, saith Christs self. I can not give, that is not mine. Though he be Christus Dominus; yet he is Christus Domini too, as verse 26, though Christ the Lord, yet the Lords Christ.  
Gods, and yet mans too. Mans Passively; mary turns the pronoun, My soul rejoiceth, in salutare meo, in God my savation. So doth the Prophet Habacuk, in Deo Iesu meo, in God my Saviour. But Gods actively▪ Domini est salus, salvation, true salvation is all Gods. The Church militant sings it in the psalm, Psal. 3. ult. The Church triumphant sings it in the Revelations, Salus à Domino, Salvation is of God. So truly Gods, that the relation is reciprocal; as it Salus Domini, the Lords salvation; so he Salutis Dominus, often in the psalms, the Lord of salvation; meant not of actions onely of salvation, literally; but of the Perso also of the Saviour mystically. Thy salvation, that is, Gods: God the Fathers, as begot by him, as he was God, God the holy Ghosts, as conceived by him, as he was man.  
There are many Christs, and many Saviours, this is Gods. Christs self foretold of many Christs; Christus hîc, Christus illîc. These were all the divills Christs. But this, the holy Ghost in Simeons Revelation calls Christus Domini, the Lords Christ. There are many Saviours and salvations, but not Gods. There is Salus hoins, Psal. 60. Mans salvation. Men have their Saviours. The Mammonist hath his; the Romanist hath his. Mammon works great salvations, too great, too often, to too many. The malefactor hath an enemy, a sworn enemy, that threatens him shane, public shane; Death, shameful death. It is the law. Mammon can save him from this enemy. It can be but some-where. and but sometimes. An uncertain saviour. Nay Mammons self oft needs a saviour; subject to thief, wreck, fire, and other casualties. A sorry saviour: he saveth others, as they said of Christ, himself he cannot save.  
The Romanist hath better, the Saints. Mammon saves but from some evils; Saints from all. Saint Laurence from fire; yea though it be ignis sacer. Saint Anthony even from that. Saint Margaret from the pains of childbirth. Saint Leonard from bands; but that Mammon can do too. Saint Valentine from the falling-sickness. Saint Roch, and Sebastian from the plague. What city I bodily distresses? Saints are Saviours also to their souls. They save them from Gods anger, from satan, sin, and hell. For you must think they hear their prayers, and they see their wants. John could hear a voice from heaven: can not they as well from earth? Is not Athens as near Thebes, as Thebes to Athens? Earth to Heaven, as Heaven to it? Nay, somewhat nearer: for sound ascends more easily, than comes down. mary then you must look you speak out when you pray; for they confess, they know not the secrets of mens hearts: And I crow, they see. Else why set they lights, great Tapers before them? Or if they serve not; do they not videre videntem omnia, see him who sees all things; Gods face is their looking glass, they see all things in it.  
There is yet an other Saviour: not Gods, but mans, the Papists too. No need to seek so far, to heaven for Saviours: theres one much nearer home: It is Merit. go no further than ourselves. Our works, our own works are Saviours sufficient. alms, Fastings, orisons, Pilgrimages, vows, and such like holy works of supererogation suffice to the saving both of our own souls, and others. What need we Saints? What need we Christ? Bellarmine blusheth not to make ourselves our Saviours. And he cites Saint Paul for it, Salutem vestram operemini, work ye your own salvation. But Saint Peter saith,( whom I thought, he would have rather heard) non est nomen aliud; there is none other name under heaven, by which we may be saved.  
To conclude, both for Saints and Merits, but especially for Saints, they will say they make them Saviours; for the Fathers, even the ancient Fathers say they are. But first, they slander them. Secondly, say they did; here is one {αβγδ}, Nyss. a right ancient, a father of the Church indeed, appropriates the office of salvation unto Christ, of Gods salvation. he onely was Gods means to rescue man; the instrument Gods wisdom decreed to use, to save mankind. works and Saints Rome hath raised up them. But Moses and Z●charie make Christ raised up by God. Let the worldling, let the Romanist, the one say of his Money, the other of his Merits, they are his Saviours; Christ cries in Esay, Ego sum, ego sum; non est servator praeter me, there is no salvation of Gods, but onely Christ. unto him our onely Saviour, to God the Father, and the holy Ghost, be duly ascribed all honour, majesty, power, and salvation, &c.   

THE PVRIFICATION OF SAINT mary. The second Sermon. PREACHED VPON CANDLEMAS-DAY.  luke 2. 32. A Light to be revealed to the Gentiles, and the Glory of thy People Israel. 
THis Scripture is a part of the prophetical anthem, sung by old Simeon at the Purification of the Virgin Mary. The aged Father with his young Saviour in his arms, openeth his mouth in thanksgiving unto him, who had given him a revelation by the holy Ghost, that he should not see death, until he saw the Lords Christ. The song standeth on three parts, a thankful resignation of his life, a joyful confession of the Saviour, and a wonderful commendation of the messiah. The last of the three, is the tenor of my Text, consisting of two titles, pertaining to Christs style; {αβγδ}, the light of the Gentiles; and {αβγδ}, the Glory of the Iewes; To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the Glory of thy People Israel.  
Should I not be censured for Curiosity, I would observe one thing in the order of the Titles. Why the Light of the Gentiles should be placed before the Glory of the Iewes. It is not my conceit, but noted by the learned; that the sweet singer of this song guided by Gods Spirit, doth put the Gentiles before the Iewes; because the second calling, the conversion of the Iewes to Christ, shall not be, until the fullness of the Gentiles come; Saint Paul avoucheth it, Rom. 11. 25. that their obstinacy shall continue till then: and then Totus Israel Salvabitur, all Israel shall be saved. But he termeth this a mystery: and therefore I will not meddle with it.  
The first title in my Text of the messiah honour, is, the Light of the Gentiles. The Lord in former ages shut up all nations in the shadow of death. The shine of his especial mercies was seen onely of the Israelites. As all the land of Egypt was covered with black darkness; onely the Hebrewes had light, where they dwelled, Exod. 10. so spiritual blackness had covered the face of all heathen lands, onely upon Israel did the Lord let shine the bright lustre of his Grace.  
The darkness of the Gentiles, was the ignorance of God, the slavery of sin, the tyranny of satan, and subjection to death and hell. Ignorance is the blindness and the darkness of the mind. sin is the work of darkness, Ephes. 5. satan is the prince of darkness. Death is the power of darkness, and hell is the pit of darkness. As godliness is called the armor of light, Rom. 13. so wickedness is called the kingdom of darkness. And the Gentiles before Christ were subjects in this kingdom; atheism, Idolatry; nay their very virtues, considered in themselves, out of Christ, were all but darkness. Themselves were darkness, for both their souls were clouded with error, and their bodies instruments of sin. Their works were darkness, all manner of licentiousness. Their King was darkness, for they served satan; and their end was darkness; for they went to hell. But as when the day breaketh, the night vanisheth, and the Sun rising chaseth away darkness; so at Christs coming, whom Zachary calleth the day break. Luke 1. 78. light appeared: and at the rising of the messiah, whom the Prophet malachi calleth the sun, Mal. 4. 2. all lands were enlightened. error and ignorance were chased out of heathen mindes. For the Preaching of the gospel is the opening of the eyes, Act. 26. 18. The eyes of the understanding. The pu●ifying of their souls to be the seats of God, and the sanctifying of their bodies to be the temples of the Holy Ghost, the remission of their sins, the amendment of their life, their rescue from satan, and their ransom from hell, these were the gracious beams of that glorious sun, the son of God.  
Simeon foretelleth this, Christ being newly born: that he should be a Light to lighten the Gentiles. Yea Zachary foretelleth it, before he was born, Luke 1. 79. that he should give light to them that sat in darkness. Nay Esay foretelleth it, before Zachary was born. Esay 60. 3. that the nations should walk in his light, and Kings in the brightness of his rising. Nay David foretelleth it, before Esay was born, in lumine tuo videbimus lumen, In thy light wee shall see light, that is, in Christo tuo, videbimus gratiam, in Gods anointed we shall see grace. Nay Balaam foretelleth it, before David was born, Num. 24. 17. that there should come a star from jacob.  
The great largeness of this goodly light shooteth forth his shine unto all people, and is therefore called John 8. 12. lux mundi, the worlds light. Balaam calleth him a star, and the stars give light unto the world; but that light is small; but Christ is {αβγδ}, a great light, Math. 4. 16. God made two of them, Gen. 1. 16. Luminarta magna, two great Lights, the sun and the moon, a bigger and a less; and Christ is the greater of the two; so the Prophet Malachy calleth him, 4. 2. The sun of righteousness; non Sol, ut stulte& impie Manichaei, Augustin. tract. 34 in johan. Balaam calleth him a star, and were he no more then so, yet as the stars give shine unto the night, so doth Christ give light to them that sit in darkness. But he is more then so, he is {αβγδ} the sun of righteousness; the stars give shine unto the night; but the sun turneth the night into day. Now if the sun be able to dart out his beams, to the hemisphere of the earth, which is but the half; how much more shall Christ shoot forth his grace unto the whole earth? For the sun howsoever it appear not so big as a wagon wheel, yet it is far greater then the whole earth. But Christ, howsoever he seemed in body no bigger than a man, yet in his Godhead he is far greater then the whole world. For the heavens which are the enclosure of the whole world, are but his span, Esay 40. 12. And therefore that which Synesius said of the sun, is truer of Christ, {αβγδ}; nihil divinius, nihil communius. If the sun shooteth forth his light unto all lands, Christ much more sheddeth forth his grace into all nations.  
The brightness of his light not any angel of the earth can say, it hath not seen it. He that is Pater luminum, the Father of lights, Iam. 1. 17. and that dwelleth in lumine inaccessibili, in the light that none can attain unto, 1 Tim. 6. yea that is himself light, 1 John 1. the beams of his brightness cannot be so weak, as not to suffice to enlighten the whole world. If any see it not, they are such, whose ears the god of this world hath blinded. And yet his light is so piercing, that even they also see him. They see, but will not see; as the Prophet speaketh videndo non vident, seeing they see not. They hear the gospel, but entertain it not; the word is preached, but they obey it not, grace is offered, but they accept it not, Gods promises are tendered, they apprehended them not. Christs light unto such, is as the sun is to some Countries, it shines upon them, but it warms them not. They that dwell in the uttermost climates of the earth, they see some light, but they feel no heat. So do these, they see Christs light perforce; but the comfortable warmth of his gracious Spirit they feel it not.  
[ That which the Metaphysicke Philosopher saith of bonum, to be diffusivum sui, it is as true of light; it is diffusivum sui, the nature of light is like to water  shed, it runneth out every way, and speadeth itself on every side.] The sun no sooner riseth, but the light of his beams shooteth forth into the air, and overspreadeth the face of the earth; The rising of this glorious light, the. son of God presently enlightened the whole world. The lightning saith Christ cometh out of the East, and shineth into the West, so also shall the coming of the Son of man be, Math. 24. 27. Christ said it of his second coming, his coming in the Clouds; it is as true of his first coming, his coming in the flesh; for like unto the lightning, he came out of the East, but he shone into the West. His Incarnation was in judaea, but his Salvation shone into the western world. For as the lightning glideth from the one side of Heaven unto the other; so the gospel glanceth from one side of the earth unto the other. And it is Christs lantern to bear his light before his people; it is his torch, lighted at the beams of the sun shine of his grace, to direct the footsteps of the Gentiles toward heaven.  
As King Assuerus sent out his posts into all provinces, so Christ hath sent forth his Apostles into all realms. His reign was from Ethiopia, unto the East Indies. His item, predicate, go and Preach, is unto all people, Math. 28. 19. Not onely Greekeland, and Italy, the Dutch, the French, the English, and the Spanish, have long enjoyed the brightness of his light; but the goodly lamp of his glorious gospel was both long ago, and is now again of late born over the West Ocean into the new world.  
The light I say is diffusivum sui. In ages past God put his candle under a bushel; or at the most, he set it but upon a table, and it gave light onely to them of his house. The Iewes alone were of his house; the Gentiles aliens and strangers, Ephes. 2. 12. But after Christs coming the light broke forth, and suddenly shined into all Countries.  
What then, you will say unto me, had the Gentiles indeed no light before? surely they had some, such as it was, but a very dim light; onely the light of nature. He revealed to the Heathen, his power, his wisdom, his goodness, and the rest of his Divinity, non per Scripturam, said per naturam, not by the Scriptures, but by the Creatures. The wonderful workmanship of Heaven and earth, though both of them dumb, Preached unto them, what God was. But this light was but twilight. It was but as star light. I say, the light of the Gentiles was as a star; as the day-star in the morning; which rising a little before the sun, bringeth some light with him, but a weak light; because it comes ab imo, from below. But Christs rising is ab alto. Luke 1. 78. from above, and therefore a full light. The light of nature, take it at the best; is but as the light when the day dawneth: but Christs light of Grace, meant here by old simeon, is as the sunshine at mid-day. The morning light, before the sun is up, is nothing but shade; yea when it is in rising, every low shrub maketh a great shadow; but when the sun is mounted, then the light is perfect; and the higher the sun, the lesser the shadow. Yea when it cometh to the Meridian, it hath little or no shadow, no shadow at all, where it is vertical.  
To shut up this first part; the Gentiles were once darkness, Eph. 5. 8. The promises were made unto the Patriarkes, not unto the Gentiles, the Gentiles were but dogges, the Iewes onely Gods children, Math. 15. 26. Gods grace was confined; his mercies were imprisoned, and as it were impounded in Iewry. At Salem was his tabernacle, and his dwelling in Sion, psalm 76. saith David; he tied himself unto the Temple, there was his mercy seat. The Iewes themselves might not be heard, praying out of their land, unless they looked at the least toward jerusalem. You may see it, both in Solomons prayer, 1 King. 8▪ 48. and in Daniels practise, Dan 6. 10. His favour was fastened to the seed of Sem, and his love was knit to Iacobs posterity. Israel was his son, his prim●genitus, his first born son, Exod. 2. 44. his chief and his charge, {αβγδ} his especial jewel, Psal. 16. 2. that is, both {αβγδ} his darling, and {αβγδ} his unicus, his onely son. His heart was tedder'd to that onely Nation, and his whole affection wedded to their Land.  
But Christ hath broken down the partition wall between the Iewes and us; the Gentiles, once darkness, are now light, Ephe. 5. 8. The Heathen, once dogges, Matth. 15. 26. foreigners, Ephe. 2. nay enemies to God, Ephe. 5. he hath bought us with a price, to make us of dogges his children, of foreigners his brethren, of enemies his friends; the members of his body, the spouse of his bosom, sons to his father, and heires to his kingdom. His Father at the first had given him the Iewes onely; but now the Heathen also are his inheritance, and his possession the ends of the earth, Ps. 2. 8. God put a letter into Abrams name called him Abraham, that letter beginneth the Hebrew word {αβγδ} which signifies a multitude; the Lord himself expoundeth it, quia multarum gentium posui te, for thou shalt be the father of many Nations. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, the Ethiopian, and the Philistim, are born in Sion, Psal. 87. All Nations are made lieutenants of the gospel, {αβγδ}, Ephe. 3. 6. copartners of the promise, and coheirs of salvation. We sometimes Lo-ammi and Lo-ruhamah, neither of Gods people, nor in his mercy, are now become brethren and sisters unto the Iewes, Os● 2. The door of faith is opened to us Gentiles, Act● 14. and that door openeth the wombs of Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel, to bear even out of this land, out of this town, out of his assembly, children unto Abraham, Isaac, and jacob.  
Sem was the Father of the Iewes, and Iapheth of the Gentiles; and God hath seated Iapheth in the tents of Sem, Gen. 9. 27. i. hath joined both their seeds into one Church, and made them {αβγδ}, Ephe. 3. 6. joint members of one body, the body of Christ. God gathereth heires of his kingdom from the four winds, Esay 43. the holy Ghost hath breathed into all quarters under heaven, and conveyed Gods saving health from Tabor unto Hermon, and from the sea unto the worlds end. Christs light hath shone on all the sons of Adam, and all the kindreds of the earth do see the salvation of God. Christs back upon the cross was turned towards jerusalem, as forsaking the Iewes; and his face towards the West, as then coming to the Gentiles. Nay the Iewes are cast off, and the Gentiles are made Israel; like profane Esau, that did vendere jus, propter jus, sell his birth-right for a mess of broth; so have they passed over their right to us; and wee onely are Israelites. It was before {αβγδ}, the dispersion of the Gentiles, Joh. 7. 35. but after it became {αβγδ}, the dispersion of the Tribes, the dispersion of the Iewes, james 1. 1. The Gentiles once dogges, and the Iewes Gods children, and the Gentiles glad to lick up their crumbs; but now wee are the children, and they the dogges; wee sit at Christs Table, and they glad to glean that which falleth from us, judas 6. The due was first onely on the fleece, and not on the ground; but after on the ground, and not on the fleece. The Jews are the fleece, the Gentiles are the ground, and the due is grace, saith Theodoret. {αβγδ}, the wheel of the world, Iam. 3. 6. is turned quiter contrary. The sun long since is set in the East, and is risen in the West. I do forget myself, and dwell to long in this point. I leave it, and come unto the second.  
The other honourable title given by simeon unto Christ, is, the glory of the Iewes; To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of his people Israel. There were four things wherein the Iewes did glory, the ark, the Law, the Temple, and the Covenant.  
For the first, the ark was the token of Gods presence, and the protection of Israel. Their safe conduct over jordan; it stood still, while the people went thorough the channel of the river on dry foot. David calleth it Gods strength, Psal. 105. 4. Dagon the philistines god could not stand beside it, but fell twice from his place, and broken both his hands and his head. The men of Ashdod were smitten with Emorroides, and the Eckronites plagued for holding it from Israel. ob Edoms house was blessed for giving it house-roome. David, though he were a King, yet disdained not to dance before it, and received it into his city with great triumph and solemnity. When it was taken of the philistines, the grief was so great both of Ely the Priest, and his daughter in in Law big with child, that at the sudden news, the old man fell backward from his stool, and broke his neck; and the young woman traveled before her time; and though she was delivered of a man child, which commonly is a comfort to a woman in her pains, and the women about her, bad her not fear, for she had born a son, yet she would not be comforted, but cried out, the glory is departed from Israel. Yea, she set her sorrow in her childs name, she called him Icabod, that is, non est gloria, and cried out again, the glory is departed from Israel, 1 Sam. 4. ult.  
For the second, the Temple; the great Temple of Diana at Ephesus, reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world, that was two hundred yeares in building, and had sixscore pillars, founded by as many Kings: The Temple of Constantinople which was called for the excellency {αβγδ}, the beauty of the world; but the Prophet calleth the Temple of jerusalem the Lords beauty, Psal. 78. 61. as the ark was his strength, so the Temple was his beauty, the perfection, the compliment of beauty, Psal. 50. 2. were not so famous as the Temple of jerusalem, a work so sumptuous and glorious, that men of all Nations came from the uttermost parts of the earth to see it. The doors, the tables, and the Altars, picked with gold; the ground paved, the walls lined, and the roof seeled with gold: yea all the Vtensills, the lamps, the Snuffers, and the candlesticks, the spoons, the basins, and the Ashpannes, and the instruments of music, all of pure gold; the Cherubims, the pomegranates, and all the carved work, overlaid with Gold, yea the work of the pavement in the inward sanctuary, inlaid with precious ston; beside all the vessels of silver and brass, the iron work, the wood and the ston of inestimable worth. And to make it yet more honourable, the Lord vouchsafed to call it his house, Esa. 56. 7. his residence psalm 13. there set he his ark, his Oracle, and his Mercy seat.  
For the third, the Law; the Athenians brag of Solon, and the Lacodaemonians of Lycurgus, that they devised their laws. Much better might the Iewes glory in their Law; for it came from Heaven. A reason which the Turkes think very sufficient to authorize their Alcoran; for so their lying Mahomet made them believe. But Israel indeed had their law from Heaven; it is the ordinance of Angels, Act. 7. 53. and Gods own handwriting. Deut. 10. and therefore very worthily preferred by Moses, before the laws of all other nations Deuteronomy 4. 8.  
For these three things, the Israelites lifted themselves above the Gentiles; as indeed they might. And they accounted them their glory. But the fourth excels them all, and that is the Covenant, a mutual stipulation between the Lord and them, that he would be their God, and they should be his people, he Israels God, and they Gods Israel. simeon hath put them both into my Text, and both are their glory; both the name of Israel, and that they are Gods people. For the one, it is an honourable name, given jacob by the angel, and▪ signifieth one that had prevailed with God. And to this day, if you speak to a jew; though the name of a jew be taken from judah, the noblest tribe of all the twelve, yet you please him much better, and grace him much more if you call him an Israelite. For the other, what glory can be greater, then to be Gods people? and therefore the Lord, when he would disgrace Israel for their demerits, bad the Prophet Hosea to call his sons name, Lo-ammi, id est, ye are not my People, Hosea 1. 9.  
For this Covenant sake, because God made it first with Abraham, they brag of their descent from him, joh. 8. 33. We be Abrahams seed, and 39. We have Abraham to our Father. Yea that gracious Covenant gave them infinite matter to glory in their God; who had chosen them above all nations to be his people, {αβγδ}, 1 Pet. 2. 9. A people whom he challenged for his; and who had honoured them before all nations, whom he plagued for their sakes. He rid them from Phara●hs yoke, and made Egypt afraid of them. He made the Sea to give them way, and the rock to give them drink. When they hungered, Heaven reigned fowls, and the Lord fed them with the bread of Angels. To do them right, Kings were reproved, and to make them room, nations were expelled. He fought their battailes, and discomfitted the heathen; yea the stars from heaven fought for his people, and the sun stood still, while they were avenged on their enemies. When they cried, his bowels earned, and their distress was a wound unto his soul. As the hen doth her young, so he brooded them, and bore them on his wings, as the young Eagles.  
jerusalem was his park, impaled with hills, psalm 125. and the people his dear, 2 Sam. 1. his Garden enclosed, Can. 4. a garden for their sweetness, and enclosed, for their safety. The seal of his heart, and the signet of his arm, Cant. 8. and the tender apple of his eye, Zach. 2. 8. The dearly beloved of his soul. jer. 12. 7. But simeon in my Text, meaneth yet a greater glory. Paul hath it Rom. 9. 4. he maketh there a general muster of all the Iewes prerogatives, but the first is it, the Adoption, not {αβγδ}, the law, but {αβγδ} the gospel, the ambassage of Adoption. Surely as David saith of jerusalem, Very excellent things are spoken of thee, Oh thou City of God: so I will say of Israel, very excellent things are spoken of thee, Oh thou people of God. But all their excellencies are excelled of this, to be adopted of God through Christ. All their other glories were but earthly and temporal; this is heavenly and spiritual. The ark and the Temple, and the Law, the land of Canaan, and the Lords protection in all their distresses, they were indeed the honour and the glory of Israel. But their main glory, the glory of their glory, was the messiah. To have Christ their kinsman, descended from David, from Israel, from Abraham, after the flesh; that glory was so great, as could not be paralleled by all the nations upon earth; but to have him their brother by the adoption of God, the redeemer of their souls, is a glory far more excellent. And in respect of that David might well say, non sic fecitulli nationi, psalm 20. The blessed Virgin Mary, at the message of the angel, that shee should bear Christ, set aside all other argument of glorying and joy, and her spirit exulted, her soul rejoiced in God her Saviour.  
The light of the sun, the breath of life, the fruits of the earth, and such other common benefits, the Gentiles ever enjoyed as well as the Iewes: but the blessing which was to be hoped for in Christ was always resiant in the house of Abraham. It is Christs own speech, John. 4. 22. Salvation is of the Iewes. The Iewes have good cause to glory in Abraham, as I shewed before, they did; for he was the Father of the faithful, Rom. 4. the friend of God, james 2. and his bosom the blessed receptacle of the Saints deceased. But better may they glory, if they consider Christ; who was promised to Abraham, when God assured him, That in his seed all nations should be blessed.  
The Prophet Haggai, meant this glory, cap. 2. 10. when he said, That the glory of the last house should be greater then the first. For else the second temple was less glorious then the first by many degrees; and nothing in comparison of it, ver. 4. But the Lord by one second house meaneth the messiah, whose manhood, was the temple of his Godhead, as our bodies are called the temples of the Holy Ghost; and in that place he promiseth to give peace; for Christ is our peace.  
To shut up this second title; God sent his son unto the Iewes for his Covenants sake, but to the Gentiles for his Compassions sake. His promise enforced him to keep his truth with them, but mere mercy induced him to reach his grace to us. His mercy and his truth are united in my Text; and as David singeth psalm 85. 10. Misericordia& veritas obviaverunt sibi, Mercy and truth are here met together, this Evangelicall Prophet, for so I may term simeon, for the form of his speech is prophesy, but the matter is gospel; proclaimeth the messiah, that he should be, as a light unto the Gentiles, so a glory to the Iewes; not a glory of admiration, as was their ark an amazement to the philistines, and their Temple a wonderment to the world, and the Covenant of Gods Protection, an astonishment to all people. I say, not a glory of admiration, but a glory of Salvation: for so it is in the verse before. Their transgression of Gods law, their heathenish idolatry, their many murmurings against God, their distrust of his providence, their abuse of his benefits, their unthankefullnesse, and all their wickedness, had put them out of Gods protection, enwrapped them in the wreaths of sin, enfolded them in the curse of God, and enthralled them to death, to satan, and to hell. Neither ark, nor Law, nor Temple, nor any thing, in which they trusted, in which they gloried, could set them free. But Christ was come for that purpose. They were lost, and he came to save that which was lost; Christ was now come and with him Salvation. His mighty conquest of their spiritual enemies should give them ample matter of Glory: and so it did, both to them, and us, who now are Israel as well as they, not successione carnis, but haereditate fidei, Hilar. and sons to Abraham, as well as they, who is the Father omnium credentium, of all believers.  
Christ hath vanquished sin; the lamb of God hath taken away the sins of the world? He hath born them in his body upon the three; so that they shall not be imputed unto us; and instead of them hath given us his righteousness, by which we stand accepted before God. And he hath conquered death by his resurrection; that though we die still, yet now death is no curse, but a passage into Heaven. And he hath broken the gates of hell. And he hath subdued satan; the womans seed hath bruised the Serpents head, peremit Serpens, redemit Christus. {αβγδ}. justin Martyr, death put to death. The read Dragon is chained up from hurting the faithful; and the accuser of the brethren is put to everlasting silence. Mors non ultrà dominabitur, nay non ultrà nominabitur, August. And thus is Christ our glory. Let us return glory to God on high, glory to the Father that hath given his son to us, and glory to the son, that hath given himself to death, and glory to the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life. unto that blessed Trinity of the everliving God head be given all glory. The grace of the glory of Israel, and the Salvation of God the Father, and the comfortable light of the Holy Ghost, shine upon you this day and for ever. hody& in secula.   

THE PVRIFICATION OF SAINT mary. The third Sermon. PREACHED VPON CANDLEMAS-DAY.  luke 2. 34. And for a sign, that shall be spoken against. 
IT is questioned, whether simeon were either Priest, or Prophet. Some say, neither; some say both. Saint Cyril, a Priest; Saint Chrysostome, a Prophet. Saint Luke detetmines it. My Text is a mere prophesy: so is his Nunc dimitt is; and the verse that follows this. I will not pass the bounds of the words, which I have red: but few; I cannot say, Tria sunt omnia; heres but two, in the original, but two significant: but few; but full; multarum rerum gravida. Theres more sound lightly in mens words, then substance. But Gods Spirit speaks pressè; and yet is not obscure, by being brief. Both pressè& expressè, Compendious, but yet perspicuous: easy enough( saith Maldonat) did not some interpreters make it harder, then it is. The Child, whose mother was this day to be Purified, and himself to be presented in the Temple, shall( saith holy simeon) be a sign to be spoken against: that is, a mark of contradiction; a Man, whom all men should oppose; gainsaied▪ withstood by all. Nay not onely Signum contradictionis, but maledictionis too. reviled, blasphemed by all. Not his Person onely, but his Doctrine too, {αβγδ}, Act. 28. 22. Every where contradicted {αβγδ} Ieremies term, a man of contradiction. Not in Ieremies sense, Actively, one that gainesayes all men; but Passively, whom every man gainsaies.  
My text needs not Analysis, bears none well, in so few words. The former term is a Metaphor; how diversely glossed by Expositors, twere idle to recite. Of six sundry senses I select two: Signum, to mean here either Scopum, or Vexillum, the Archers mark, or the Banner in war. As Archers at a mark, so Infidels at Christ, do shoot their blasphemies. And as a Standard in the field; so the gospel in the world is oppugn'd by heretics. Christ is a sign, an ensign, for every soldier of Sathans to fight against. Christ is a sign, a mark, for every blasphemer to aim his arrows at. This latter Metaphor Tolet rejects, saith the word bears it not. I think because Calvin and Beza so expound it. A learned Iesuite, yet another as learned as he, Maldonat approves it; and both Calvin and Beza understood the force of the word in the original, as well as Tolet did. I think, twas not his greek made him a cardinal. Tis not worth the contending: Either Metaphor is good; and they both have the same meaning The Child( saith old simeon) shall be for a sign; that is, either as ieremy speaks in his Lamentations, {αβγδ} as a mark for the Arrow; or as a Banner in a battle, which every enemy strives to win, or to throw down. Manasses against Ephraim, and Ephraim against him; but both against judah. Gog against Magog, Magog against him; but both against the lion of the tribe of judah, both against Christ. The jeering-stocke of Iewes, the railing stock of Gentiles, the common Object of all contradiction. No more of the Metaphor, of the first word by itself. Take we now the second too, and speak of both together. For a sing to be, &c.  
God made the lights in heaven, the stars, In signa, to be signs; but Distinctionis to distinguish Night and Day, Seasons and Yeares. God set the rainbow in a cloud, In signum, for a sign, but Pactionis a sign of Covenant between God and man; that he never would drown the earth again. Circumcision a sign too, of Covenant too; but a better Covenant: Abraham and his seed to be Gods people; He to be their God. The blood of the lamb at the feast of Passeover, and the Serpent in the wilderness, and some more, were all for signs, Signifying signs. simeon means not such; signs, that is Tokens. God wrought signs in Egypt, the Prophets in Israel, Christ and his disciples in many places. Nor means he them; signs, that is, Wonders, Admirationis. But Christ shall be In signum contradictionis, {αβγδ}, for a sign of Contradiction, of Derision, Exprobration, of all kindes of Opposition. Christs Person specially, his Birth, his Life, his Death, and Doctrine, all Objects to the cavils, to the lewd calumniations of infidels and heretics. An endless Argument; endless, but needless to be followed far. A word of each.  
First for his Person, {αβγδ}, of two natures, Sophocles term of the Centures fits Christ too. Saint Ambrose saith as much of Christ, biformis, geminaeque naturae. cap. 5. de Incarnat. dominicae sacrament. {αβγδ}, not a man of God, Prophets were called so; but a man, and God. Homo Christus, the man Christ, Saint Pauls term; & Christus Dominus, the Lord Christ, the Angells term: Gods son, Gods self. Said by Many; but gainsaid by more. God said once and twice, Thou art my son. An angel calls him Gods son, Luke 1. 35. mary her Saviour; Elizabeth her Lord. Her Babe said it too; sprung in her womb: spake it out afterward, joh. 1. 34. Old zachary, the Angels, the shepherds, the Wise men, the star, Lingua Coeli. simeon here, Anna the prophetess, Martha, Peter, Nathanael. The captain at the cross, Sibyl, {αβγδ}; satan himself, Iesus thou son of God.  
Thus all these said; the Prophets foresaid too, the mighty God, Esay 9. 6. But the Iewes gainsaid it. The Prophets Prediction could not let their Contradiction. The Pharisees denied it; said, he spake blasphemy, when he forgave sins, an act proper to God. All the Elders did, Ecquis ex Principibus, joh. 7. 48. Caiphas called it blasphemy, rent his clothes at Christs acknowledgement to be Gods son; and to any that confessed it, it was excommunication. The people would have killed him, would have stoned him in that quarrel; jeered him for it on the cross; bade him, Come down, if he were the son of God. Let Iewes go. Saint Paul calls them even from Gods own phrase {αβγδ}, a gainsaying people, Rom. 10. 21. God hath found them so to him, at the waters of Meribah, i. of contradiction. And Paul found him so to him, Acts 13. 45. {αβγδ}, contradicting and reviling. Not Iewes onely, Christians too. Christ to be Gods son, julian made a jest at it, would swear in scorn of him, {αβγδ}, by that Son, that called God, Father, Nay( which was more impious) Gods bastard son. Saint cyril saith. Yea the black blasphemous mouths of Manes and martion blushed not to call him( as Saint Austin writes) the devills son.  
Others granted him that, to be Gods son, but denied him to be God. Suidas, saith Theodorus, and Paulus Bishop of Antioch; the one called him {αβγδ}, the other {αβγδ}, a common and mere man. I pardon Porphyrius, and Lucian; they were Atheists. porphyry said sadly, he was no God. Lucian called him God, but in irony, {αβγδ}, the crucified God. Be Turkes pardonned too; they grant him a great Prophet, but not God. But a world of Christians have gainsaied his Godhead; ingemuit orbis, Saint Hierom saith, the whole world was turned Arrian. Arius denied him to be God; and the multitude of his followers made his heresy to be styled immanis Bellua, Athanasius term, {αβγδ}, a hugh beast. Ten Councells confirmed it. The Nestorian heresy denied Christs deity too. Ego bimestrem aut trimestrem Deum non credo, said Nestorius, would not call mary {αβγδ}, Gods mother.  
His Manhood had gainsayers too: which is more marvel; It was subject to slight. Saturninus Basilides, and all the Gnosticke heretics held his body putativum, imaginary only; {αβγδ}, saith Epiphanius, a mere Phantasma, no true body, martion said, so writes Tertullian, and Irenaeus. Some granted a true body, but no soul; the Eunomians did. Others a soul also, but {αβγδ}, without sense and season, a beasts soul; Apollinarius did; and others, called thereon Dimoeritae, as confessing two parts of his manhood, soul and body; but not the third, the understanding. This made Athanasius put into his creed, Perfect God, and perfect man; and Saint hilary to say, there was in Christ Totus homo, the whole humanity. The other particulars cry sufficit in this.  
His Birth is next; It too had gainsayers {αβγδ}, gainsayers. But the gainsaying here was but disgrace onely: their contradiction but an exprobration of the baseness of his Parentage: an idle Arrow to shoot at any man. The mightiest Prince may have had mean Progenitors. Nemo Rex non à servis, saith Seneca, theres no King that comes not from some base ancestors. Great Caesars father a poor potter. They call Christ in contempt, the Carpenters son. Yea himself for his fathers sake, a Carpenter, mark 6. 3. Yet in Christs genealogy are sixteen Kings, besides Princes and Patriarks. They check him with his mother▪ Is not Mary his mother too? Libanius a little before Iulians death, asked in derision, what that Carpenters son was doing then: and was answered fitly, he was making a Coffin for the Emperour. An other seeing the silver and gilded Vessells at the Sacrament, said in disdain, Ecce in qualibus vasis, see in what Vessells Maries son is served. Herod despised him, Saint Luke saith. So because though born at Bethleem in judah, yet he was bread and brought up at Nazareth in Galilee, many called him in derision, Galilaean. julian did, Vicisti Galilaee. There was malice in the term, and a mere contradiction of his Messias-ship. For the messiah must have been born at Bethleem; as indeed he was.  
Come to his Life; they load him with opprobrious terms. It is as true of Christ, the son of David, which is said of Davids self, they whetted their tongues like swords; and as at a mark, shot at him with arrows, i. bitter words {αβγδ}, a glutton, a devourer, {αβγδ}, a wine-bibber, a keeper of base company, Publicans and Sinners; a samaritan, thats an odious and detestable fellow: for the Iewes hated the Samaritans. A worse term, an Impostor, Matth. 27. Worse than that, far worse, Daemonium habes, he had a devil, yea the worst of all the devills, beelzeebub prince of devills. add to this Pilates sentence, a counterfeit messiah, and traitor to the Emperour. The Iewes at this day call him a wicked man; and holding the Pythagorean {αβγδ}, say, the soul of Esau was in the body of Christ,& is now in hell tormented. It were well such blasphemies were but in Iewes mouths. A Christian, a Pope, the Vicar of Christ hath matched him with Mahomet. Pope gregory IX. called Moses, Christ, and Mahomet, trees Barritatores, Matthew Paris writes, the three famous Barrettours and troublers of the world. They yet were not so impudent, though impious enough, that for {αβγδ} called {αβγδ}, a good honest simplo man, for every man to use.  
His Death next; It some Fathers think meant chiefly here. Quale signum? saith Chrysostom; What sign means simeon here? Answers his own question, Signum cruc●s, even the sign of the cross. Surely it in baptism hath many contradictors more than needs, a Ceremony indifferent, and free from Superstition. Were it considered well; no learned man, if wise withall, will stand in opposition. But the Fathers meant not it. By sign they mean the cross, but metonymice, Christs Passion on the cross. {αβγδ}, Amphilochius saith; so doth Saint Basil, Christs death upon the cross. Saint Cyril saith the Apostata called him the dead jew. Lucian the scoffing Atheist, {αβγδ}, the Crucified Sophister. It was usual with the Pagans( as Saint Chrysost. writes) to ubraid Christians with, Tu adoras Crucifixum, ye worship one that was hanged.  
add to Christs Death, his Resurrection. In it Christ was a sign of contradiction in the proper sense; not of exprobration onely, as in his Death. Both Iewes and Gentiles denied it, as a most grand absurdity. Hell, whether the Heathens thought all souls descended, is Invius retrò lacus, Seneca saith, {αβγδ}, Anacreons words, once gone down to it, to get up again, impossible, {αβγδ} is {αβγδ}, a greek comic saith. The dead must( saith the tragic) far perpetuam stygem, stay there eternally. Death is( tis Senecaes too) Regni tenacis Dominus, holds fast, whom he once hath. Saith Saint Peter in the Acts, {αβγδ}, it was impossible, Christ should be held by death? It was impossible, he should be loosed from it. The Priests therefore and Elders bad the souldiers say, Christs corpse was stolen by night out of the grave. And Saint Matthew saith, the Iewes said so to that day. I marvel not; they say so to this day. Neither marvel I at that. Some of Christs own disciples doubted of that point, Christs Resurrection. What say I some? All did. So seem Saint mark and Saint Luke, both to say. indeed to doubt, is not to contradict. But one of them said flatly, Non credam, Thomas did. Thats a contradiction; as much as Non resurrexit, Christ is not risen. The Albigenses onely I find in the Church history to be opposites in this point.  
The last, his Doctrine; as many darts cast at it, as at his deity. The Cardinals conceit upon the former word, to mean a Banner, will fit here. Christs Doctrine is his gospel. Thats vexillum Christi, Christs Standard indeed. The Fathers call it so. The Apostles were Ensignebearers; and wee all fight under it. It at the first advancing found a world of {αβγδ}, fighters against Christ, hath contradictors at this day: Offendiculum, a ston of offence to the Iewes; Ridiculum, {αβγδ}, folly to the Gentiles. Saint Paul saith. The modern Iewes call Evangelium, the gospel {αβγδ} a Volume of lies; as Libanius saith, julian did {αβγδ}, idle and ridiculous. Pardon them: Popes say as much, Quantas nobis op●s peperit illa fabula de Christo. lo the X. speech to cardinal Bembus, he calls the gospel a flat Fable▪ Sleidan writes, a French Papist said as much of the Epistles, that he believed them no more than Esops Fables. Beza writes, it is a blasphemy of the Popish school, that the Church had fared far better; had Pauls Epistles never been. Both gospel and Epistles, we red in the Church history, that Donatists burnt them both; not they onely, Arrians too.  
How have their Persons scaped, that penned or preached either? Paul called by the Athenians {αβγδ}, a vain prattler; worse by Festus, a Mad man, Act. 26. by tart. the Orator, a pestilent fellow. A Monk at Berlin in Germany said he lied. A Platonist swore Per Iovem, that S. John was a Barbarian. So Calvin writes, the libertines called him a foolish yongling, S. Matthew a mony-monger, S. Peter a Renegado. The People all the Apostles drunken with Wine. Montanus said, he knew both more and Better things, then Christ and his Apostles. The Familists call our Preachers, Scripture-learned men. Yea Lutherans call us All, Evangelicos, gospelers. The Profession of Christ was termed heresy in Pauls time, once or twice in the Acts: and the Professors themselves by the modern Iewes called Iorde-bor, i. men damned to hell. Pardon them again, for the Italians when they speak of a silly witted man, call him Vn Christiano; thats Italian for a Blockhead.  
I may not descend unto particulars, instance would be infinite of oppugners of the Doctrine grounded on Christs gospel. What Article of Religion hath not had some Gainesayer? What point of Christian Faith is free from Contradiction? Take one out of them all, if you please, and but one. But it is Instar Omnium, and toucheth Christ more nearly; and might have been inserted in the first point of his Person; the body and blood of Christ in the holy Eucharist. What a world of opposition hath, Hoc Est Corpus▪ Meum wrought in the Church, by Papists, and ubiquitaries, and all lutherans? Oportet( Saint Peter saith) the Heavens must hold our Saviour( he means his human body) until he come to judgement. Peters successor saith no, Non oportet, they must not. This is {αβγδ}, flat contradiction. It is in every Eucharist by Transubstantiation. The Lutheran saith so too, but by other prepositions; not by Trans, but In, Con, Sub. The ubiquitist saith more; not in Christs Supper onely, but even in every place, by Gods Almighty power. I know all three deny, this to be contradiction. It will crave long speech to prove. And my Province is to report, not to dispute. To draw to a Conclusion.  
Christ is made a mark for every shooters shaft, the Atheist, the heretic, the Mahometan, the jew. Al have been Christomastiges; by checks, by scorn, by Calumnies, by all sorts of gainsaying, Christ is {αβγδ}, for a sign( saith simeon) {αβγδ}, that should be spoken against. The English words too weak; the greek hath some more emphasis. Translations seldom express the full Originals. Haply the greek too is not so significant, as Symeons own words were in his syriac mother tongue. For the Theme, let that lewd Spaniards speech be the upshot at this mark; who when God had frustrated their intended Invasion, in the year 88, cried, Christ was turned a Lutheran. Blasphemy more beseems a Mores mouth, then a Christians. Now the God of Christians, and Father of Christs self, stop the mouths of all Gainasayers of his gospel, in whatsoever kind, to their shane, to his Glory, to our Comfort, for his sake, who is the mark of their gainsaying, Iesus Christ our Lord; cvi cum Patre, &c.   

A SERMON PREACHED VPON QVADRAGESIMA SVNDAY.  MAT. 4. 9. All these will I give thee; if thou wilt fall down, and worship me. 
THey are the devils words spoken to Christ, in that famous Act of his Temptation. That act contains three onsets; this is the last. Said Christ of his Disciples, satan sought to winnow them? Surely it seems here, he seeks to winnow him: tempts him, first to Distrust, speeds not in that: then to Presumption, nor will that do neither: now to Avarice and Ambition; hopes that will take. My Text contains two parts, Promise, and Condition. The Promise, I Will: the Franknesse of the Promise, he will Give: the richness of the Gift, These, i.e. kingdoms: and the largeness of the same, All these. Even All the kingdoms of the world will satan give to Christ. The Condition hath two terms, Prostration, if thou wilt Fall down; and Adoration, and Worship me. Of these Particulars, not in the order, they are here, but as the sense requires.  
The Promise first; a verbal Promise, not a real gift. Gifts should precede the duty, not follow it; should be with an Vt, not with a Si. So Men do; so God does. Do, ut facias; not Dabo, si feceris. Where the service goes before, and the gift comes after; tis a Reward, not a gift. Not Donum Largientis, but Merces Operantis, Saint Ambroses phrase, not a largess, but a Wages; not {αβγδ}, Saint Pauls terms not a Bounty, but a Debt. Duty may be the final cause of Bounty, but it must not be the efficient: because grace must be free, God hath given us {αβγδ}, as Saint Paul saith, Life and Breath, and all things: that we may serve him; not that we have served him. We could not serve, before we were. satan will be sure to be beforehand, will be served first. The Pope learned that trick of him. Fredericke shall first fall down, and worship him; ere he will crown him. King james must first h●ve been reconciled to Rome, ere he might have come to England, if Pope Clement could have hindered him.  
But how comes satan to be a promiser? Promise is properly of good things, Saint Augustine saith. The devil soloeciseth, when he promiseth: for from him can come no good. satan may say, he will: but what? He will entice. I will be a false Spirit in the Prophets mouths. Of such things he may say, he will. But to give, to give kingdoms, or ought else, that good is, he can not: tis not in his power. Nay indeed it is not in his will; though he say it. I will ascend up into Heaven, and raise my throne above the stars, I will sit on the sides of the North, and be equal to the most Highest. satan may say of this, he will; say so of any sin. But to will good, any good, any good to any man, satan will not say it. Say it, he may: but he will not do it. Well may he say, Dabo, he will give; thats de future. But where red we ever, Do, I do give? satan is all in Assumpsits, he assumes, he presumes to will do many things; but he does them not: {αβγδ}, saith the devil, I will give.  
Antigonus( Plutarch saith) was surnamed {αβγδ}, i. e. Daturus; because he would still promise, never perform. God performs, what he promises; more then he promises. His Promisisse is Dedisse, saith Ravennas▪ his Dixisse is Fecisse, saith Saint jerome. Thats because {αβγδ}, saith the Apostle, he is faithful, that hath promised. David plies God with that Plea, Secundùm verbum tuum, craves mercy, craves all grace, according to his word. But the devil is Gods opposite in all things, in this specially, in his Word. God never breaks it, satan never keeps it. Christ calls him {αβγδ}, a liar. Tis a worn proverb in every mans mouth, in every childes mouth, as false as the devil. If he give, he gives the wrong, for bread a ston; for a fish, a scorpion. Eve found it. He promised life; but it proved death. Then he deceived the Woman: now he would fain deceive the seed of the Woman. Saint Augustine saith, the World, semper falli●, ever deceives. Surely satan does, the god of the World. Devils are but Dabones, Erasmus term. His gift here but a Promise: and Quilibet, every man can be rich in promises.  
To end this, I will give, saith the devil, Christ must belike trust satan on his Word. A liar on his Word? What is a promise in a leasers lips? Promises are vain, verba dum sunt, where the persons credit is cracked, that promises. Promisit, qui non mentitur, Saint Paul saith of God, he promises, that lies not. The devils daboes are but weak, unless he were more try of truth. satan had said something, had the tense been present, had he said, I give. I do, is actual; I will do, is uncertain. Dabo is but lank, in a rank liars mouth; and tis but a bare Dabo too, without either Oath, or any Protestation. The devil in this, honester than man, than many men: who will bind with oaths those promises, which they never mean to keep. satan will lye, but he will not swear too. See how the subtle Sophister takes advantage of the tense:( the Will hath a wile in it) suspends the gift, till the service be performed; craves the condition first; cares not for Christs complaint of breach of promise. Let him sue him, if he will, upon Assumpsit. Christ having worshipped him, he hath that he would. Christ hath done an Act, can not be undone. He would up to God presently, and say, heres he, they call thy son; he hath worshipped me. By it he should see, he was not the son of God, the onely drift of his temtation; as you may see by the two first Acts of it. Let Christ then expostulate for his beguiling him; he would say, Tu videris, look to that himself: Enough of this.  
satan will: What will he? he will give. All these will I give thee. Tis not locatio, a demising them, aletting them to farm; tis Datio, a gift. Not venundatio, a sale for money; as Iudas gave Christ: Quid dabitis, what will you give me, and I will deliver him; {αβγδ}, to give and take, satan will be frank, he will give freely. For the condition, to fall down, and worship him, thats no price; tis but an homage. That we do to God, for the things we have from him: and yet we aclowledge, he gives them freely. Wicked impostor! calls he this a gift? Tis a sale: tis Nundinatio, not Donatio, plain merchandise. A dear sale, and hard bargain on mans part. Christ calls satan {αβγδ}, the enemy, and {αβγδ}, enemies gifts are no gifts; he dearly buys them, that receives them. The cheapest of his gifts, costs the dearest thing man hath: he must give his soul for it; soul and body both. Vix Priamus tanti, his kingdoms, all his kingdoms are not worth a soul. Christ saith it, who well knew the price of souls: for he bought many. he saith, that he that wins the world, losing his soul, gains not by the bargain. To worship satan, soon said, soon done. But the sequel of it, the sale, the whole sale of myself: I become Sathans slave. That which he calls a gift, costs me all I have, all I am, body, and soul. Imitantur hamos dona, gifts are but hooks, saith marshal; the devills gifts, deadly hooks; Christ in sibyls Achrosticha is called {αβγδ}, a Fish. satan comes here angling; baits his hook with kingdoms, hoping, if he would but bite, to have him his.  
Mens gifts, many are dangerous, merely insiduous; the Receiver is enthralled, libertatem vendidit, Much more, Sathans. They are viscata beneficia, Seneca saith, like lime-twigges. he that takes them, invenit compedes, the devils gifts are shackels to our souls. satan knew the proverb was a Probatum est, Daei, cvi vis esse Dominus, he will look for your largess, that shall call you Lord.  
satan will give? What will he give? satan is not sordid, proffers no base things: he will give kingdoms. Gifts should beseem( Isocrates saith) {αβγδ}, both the giver and the receiver. satan is a Prince, {αβγδ}, the great monarch of the world. He therefore promises Basilicè like a King. Nay Kings can not give, what satan here promises. They may bestow great honours, earldoms, dukedoms; but not kingdoms. If they give them away; they are no Kings. Assuerus promised Hester, and Herod his step-daughter, the half of their kingdoms, if they asked it. But whole kingdoms, Kings can not give, and keep them too. It must be a power paramount to Kings, transcending regal power; some Dominus Dominantium, Lord of Lords, as the Turkish Sultan stiles himself; some Rex Regum, King of Kings, as the Emperour of Canstantinople was wont to bear four B's in his Scocheon, four greek B's, in every quarter one: meaning that he was {αβγδ}, a King of Kings, reigning over all that reign. Such a one is satan. himself saith it, Luke 4. 6. {αβγδ}, that those kingdoms are all his, and he can give them at his pleasure; What need wee doubt it of the devil, when wee see it in the Pope? Even he assumes the power of giving kingdoms. Will you hear himself speak, just in the devills Dialect? Imperium nostrum est, saith Pope Adrian IV. Damus, cvi volumus, the Empire is ours, to give to whom we please.  
Crownes are in his hands, nay in his feet; his basest limb can make an Emperour. His foot can crown them, and uncrowne them too, kick it off again if he list. ask not, Quo warranto, by what authority? satan saith, {αβγδ}▪ So doth the Pope; tis a {αβγδ}, a Tradition. Thats enough: Scripture skills not; Traditio est. He hath it from Constantine: his Donation registered in the Canon law. heretics call it a counterfeit. But look on the inscription; there is Palaea, i. ancient, {αβγδ}. unlearned Calvinists red it Palea; as though the Law had censured it for chaff. The kingdom of Sicily, Naples, and all Italy, France, spain,& germany, great britain too, the whole western world is by that ancient dead of gift conveyed unto the Pope. A large gift. Lu. calls it a large lye, Ingens mendacium. But he was an Apostata. Some Papists too censure it, of good rank and learning: but belike false brethren. This point, I should digress too far, to dispute it with the Pope.  
To return then, satan give kingdoms? he hath none to give. Surely one he hath; but not to give. Nazianzen calls him {αβγδ}. So doth Saint Paul. Christ calls him a prince too. But his kingdom is spiritual, in the hearts of unbelievers. It is stated in his person onely, can not be made over unto any. These worldly kingdoms, which he promised Christ, are none of his, either to give to others or to hold himself. Tis a double lye, in that place of Saint Luke; both that he can give them; and that they are given him. he hath neither Ditionem, nor Dationem, neither right to reign, nor power to give. Tis indeed( as he terms it) a {αβγδ}, a tradition: but like to those of the Popes. Their traditions lies; so his a mere coggerie.  
Tis God gives kingdoms; gives indeed all things. {αβγδ}, Every gift is from above; kingdoms especially. Per me Reges regnant, Kings reign by God. Tis God( saith Daniel) sets up Kings. A watchman cries from heaven, that it is the most highest, that hath power over kingdoms, and gives them unto whom he will. God therefore calls Kings, His. I have set my King, saith God, meaning of David. Twas a proud phrase of the Cardinals, Ego& Rex meus, I and my King: the Pope could say no more. There is no Power( Saint Paul saith) but tis of God; regal power specially. All Kings are Christi Dei, Gods anointed. Saul a wicked man, Cyrus an Heathen, David calls the one, Gods self the other, his anointed. David saith it of himself, Dominus elegit me, tells Michal, God had chosen him: Solomon of himself, Tu regnare fecisti, saith God had made him King: All Kings confess it, put it in their style; Iacobus Dei gratia, that they owe their kingdoms to the grace of God.  
satan is yet more frank. Tis much to give a kingdom, one kingdom: he will give multitudes. satan knew by himself, ambition hath no bounds. At Rome three Crownes are upon one Head. Christ might have haply an aspiring spirit; satan will fit him. Nor was the devil ignorant, that Christ was a King born, King of the Iewes. The wise men knew it by the star, satan much more, knew Herod but usurped; the right was Christs. He would not therefore offer it, it onely: thought it would not move him; showed him therefore many, proffered them All. God once made Abraham the like promise, bad him look North and South, East and West; and all the land he saw, he would give unto his seed. Dixit& factum est, he said it, and he did it. For he is verax in promissione,& potens in exhibitione, Bern. as able to perform, as frank to promise. But in Man, and more in satan, the largeness of his promise prejudicates his truth, is a presumption he means falsely. Largissimi Promissores be parcissimi exhibitores, saith the same Father, they perform least, that promise largeliest.  
kingdoms are no common gifts, whole kingdoms. Theres one in the gospel, gives Cities to his servants, ten to one, five to another. Or because thats but a Parable, Solomon gave certain Cities to King Hiram. Say some great Emperour, Lord of many realms, resign some one unto his son. heres one so bountiful, that he gives a World of kingdoms, promises to give. One that himself hath not, not a kingdom onely, but not a Province, not a town, not a House, {αβγδ}, not a poor smoke hole in the World, in the {αβγδ}, the habitable world, Saint Lukes term in this story; he shows Christ all the kingdoms {αβγδ} of the habitable World. A banished Apostata, though unworthy for his wickedness of any ubi in the World, confined unto the air; that once had his dwelling among the sons of God, not suffered now to dwell among the sons of men; the right off▪ scouring of the World, here to promise the gift of all the kingdoms in the world, it is the impudence of a Creature, that is too black to blushy, a presumption proper to the devil, a prince over all the children of pride.  
All the kingdoms of the World? an unreasonable promise, saith Saint Chrysostome. All to one? Then must he take them from the owners, unthrone them, to enthronise him; spoil many, to grace one. So while he sought to be worshipped of one, he would be despised of multitudes. Nor is man on earth, like the sun in Heaven, one enough for the whole world.  
The devil is called {αβγδ}, the deceiver: fraud is his trade; and he is a master in that mystery, There is {αβγδ} Saint Paul saith, a Method in deceit. satan hath it, Saint Paul saith too. First he assays Christ with distrust: that Temptation takes not. Then with presumption; that failes too. Two darts, two fiery darts of the devil, one of them lightly wont to speed. Christ with the shield of Scripture quenched them both. Avarice is his Achilleum, that never misseth; that he uses last. Theres none whom that Temptation takes not, tickles not at least. Quid dabis, what will you give me, every mans question, not Iudas onely. Peter asked it of Christ, What shall wee have? Abraham asked it of God, What wilt thou give me? kingdoms, and their Concomitants are a bait, which satan doubted not, but Christ being Flesh and blood, could not but bite. I call it Avarice from many Authors. That lust is not of money onely, as the etymon implies, Avarus, i. Avidus aeris; but tis also Altitudinis, saith Gregory, desire of honour. Saint Augustine too, tis( he saith) in all things coveted inordinately.  
To end this; tis All, but all these, all the kingdoms of the Earth. He presumes not to proffer him the kingdom of Heaven. The devil more moderate then the Pope. He would promise unto one, that would blow up a Parliament house, or that would but kill a King, the kingdom of Heaven.  
Come we now to the Condition. This profuse Promiser, Quid referet, what looks he for? We have heard, what he will give; let us hear what he will have. He proffers largely: but upon what terms? Christ must fall down and worship him. The devil knew, Ambition was a strong lust, would stoop low, to rise high. None more base minded, then the proud. Quid iniquitatis, saith the orator, what wrong, what indignity will not a man bear, in the hope of an inheritance. Haply but of a little land, or sum of money, and but the hope of them? How then will the gift, the present possession of a kingdom move a man? of many, of all the kingdoms in the world? What will he not do, what will he not suffer, to receive it? Imperia pretio quolibet constant benè, saith Polynices in the Tragedy. A crown is not dear, at any price. Occidat, modò imperet, let my son kill me, so he may be Emperour, saith Neroes Mother.  shed blood, any blood; kneel to Baal, Regnandi, gratia, saith Caesar, neither Ius, nor Fas, will be regarded. Lust of sovereignty dispenseth with all laws, of Man, of God, of Nature, Omnibus flagrantior, saith Tacitus, the most fierce, most fiery, most furious of all lusts.  
Surely satan thought Christ, though not the son of God, yet a very holy man: yet doubted not but Dignity, sovereignty, such sovereignty would be lure sufficient to draw his lust: yea though the Son of God, himself sometimes, a son of Gods too, while he was a good angel, yet had felt the force of that Temptation. To raise his throne above the stars, and to be equal to the most highest, he would venture a fall even into hell. Abimeleck to be King, will slay all his Brethren. Athaliah to be queen, all of the Blood-royall. Herod in fear to loose his crown, made a massacre of all the male infants in Bethleem. Absalon to reign, will rebel against his Father. That a Spanish head may wear the English crown, the Iesuites will blow up the Parliament House with Gunpowder. Christ for so many Crownes, satan hopes would be won to fall down, and worship him.  
First to Fall down. Prostration is a gesture used in Adoration in the eastern Countries, in the worship either of God or Kings; to humble the whole body, to fall flat on the face unto the ground. David did it to jonathan, though but the Kings son. The devil before was not so prodigal, but now he is as proud. Great men are gracious, but they are as fastuous: they will show great favours; but they will look for as large service. Bounty expects duty. satan will {αβγδ}; but Christ must first {αβγδ}, satan will raise him up, but first he must fall down.  
An impudent demand, consider Quis, cvi, compare the Persons. satan, who( saith Ignatius) is {αβγδ}, a Creature to be trampled under Christs feet, here to crave, Christ to fall down at his feet. Whom God sentenced in the serpent to creep on his belly on the ground, have Christ prostrate to him with his face unto the ground. Say satan be a Lion, Saint Peter calls him so: Christ is a Lion too, the Revelation calls him so. Must satan be a Lion saliant before Christ, and Christ be but a Lion couchant before him, crouchant before him. You may here see, from what spirit he spake, that setting his foot on the neck of the Emperour, cried Ambulabo supper Aspidem, he would tread the Lion under his feet. Sathans pride here is greater, then at his first fall. There he said but Ero similis, I will be equal to the Highest: here he will be superior. Christ, who is God, must fall down before him. As proud here as Antichrist, who exalts himself( saith Paul) above him, that is called God. Haman is called proud, Superbissimus, the most proud; yet would he have been content to have had but Mordecaies knee. satan is not satisfied, that Christ should onely bow to him; he must fall down to him, prostrate his whole body.  
Nay that will not serve neither; he must adore him too. The angel forbade Saint John in the Revelation, forbade him twice, to worship him. Divine adoration the blessed Spirit denies it, the damned fiend desires it.  
The devil is Gods Aemulus in every thing. In his name; the spirit raised by the Witch of Endor, is called Elohim, i. God. In his wonders God turned a rod into a serpent, waters into blood, and smote the land with frogs. satan did the same by Pharaohs Sorcerers. In his prerogative; God gives( saith Daniel) kingdoms at his pleasure. So does satan; saith, h● does. In his worship; Come, saith the Psalmist, let us worship, fall down, and kneel before the Lord. So satan will have Christ to fall down, and worship him; Latro divinae gloriae, an interceptor of Gods glory. God saith, he will not give his glory to another. satan will take it, though he give it not. The homage proper to the blessed God of Heaven, impudently claimed by a cursed fiend of hell.[ unto whom, and to his Angels belongs shane and confusion: but unto God, and to his Christ, and to the Holy Ghost be worthily ascribed, &c.] So presumptuous, so impious, so blasphemous a demand, that Christ bears him now no longer.  
The first time, and the second Christ answered gentlely, onely opposed Scripture. he then but wronged him onely. But now he comes to touch his Father, to rob God of his right, to arrogate divine Honour; he endures him not, but cries, Vade Sathana, Avoidsathan; For it is written; Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him onely shalt thou serve. Which that we may all do; Thou Lord which for our sakes didst fast forty dayes and forty nights: give us grace to use such abstinence, that our flesh being subdued to the spirit, we may ever obey thy godly motions inrighteousnesse and true holiness, to thy honour and glory, which livest, and reignest, &c.   

A SERMON PREACHED VPON THVRSDAY BEFORE EASTER; Otherwise called Maunday Thursday.  luke 23. 43. To day thou shalt be with me in Paradise. 
CHRISTS comfortable answer to the thief upon the cross. He had rebuked his fellow for his blasphemy, acknowledged himself worthy of death, confessed Christ innocent, and prayed to him for mercy, done all things that a Christian should do, to be saved, both for Faith and works, a Christian in his case; Christ graciously answers him, To day thou shalt be with me in Paradise. A rich reward for so short a service, as God said to Abraham, an exceeding great reward.  
Fellowship with Christ, and that in heaven, even that very day. four points observable, remarkable; Who? A sinful man. To be with whom? With Christ, the son of God. Where? In Paradise, in heaven. When? Immediately, To day. O altitudo, Oh the hight, oh the depth, oh the infinite Abyssus of the bowels of Christ Jesus! The disparity of the persons, the hight and hast of the advancement, is not to be paralleled in all the holy Scripture. God bless it, to the raising of the poor despairing soul, if here be any such, to the hope of his salvation. I humbly pray Gods assistance and your patience.  
The first of the four Questions is Quis, Who? For his Name. I pray pardon. I find it in some Writers, but not classical, and his fellowes, and the souldiers too, that pierced Christs side, and the three Wise men, that came to worship Christ. Idle curiosity. The Scripture hath suppressed them all. But I ask Quis, of his quality. Christs speech might presume some Prophet, some Apostle, some especial holy man, no ordinary person. What could Christ have said more to Moses, to David, to Abraham, to simeon, to his own mother? This man is a sinner; not that onely, so were they, but a great sinner. All sins are not equal, as lying Papists say, we say. There are {αβγδ}, Ignorances, negligences, trippes, and slips, {αβγδ}, Saint james his term. Some but Ore tenus, in Word onely, some but cord tenus, onely in thought; his was in Act, {αβγδ}, an evil Doer, a Malefactor, Saint Lukes term. Saint Matthew is more plain, and Saint mark too, a thief. Worse indeed; the English word is too easy: a Robber; so is the original. Worse haply yet, a murderer too. So the Fathers gloss the place, and his execution makes it probable; a lawless man, Esays word {αβγδ}; a man of Belial; Cruentus, S. Austins word, a man of blood. S. Greg. aggravates it worse yet, brothers blood, a Parricide. And is Paradise a place for such an one? Such a fellow fit to be with Christ? Saith not Saint Paul, theres no communion between Christ and Belial? Yea for his particular sin; say, it was but Theft; saith not Saint Paul too, thieves shall not enter into heaven. We may therefore wonder, when he prayed Christ, remember him, that his answer was not, Quid mihi& tibi? Fellow, what have I to do with thee? He once answered his own mother so. Christ in the Revelation appoints another place for Murtherers; not Paradise, but hell; the lake of fire and brimstone.  
But Grace is Gods, to give, where he thinks good; and the Spirit breaths into what breast he pleaseth. To this thief, this Robber, God is pleased to be gracious. His Spirit breaths saving faith into his breast. It lays hold on Christ, on Christ crucified. Never came sinner to Christ in better season. That faith wrought instantly repentance; and mercy pardonned his sins. Saint Paul lied not, when he said, thieves shall not come in heaven. This man now is no thief before God. Christ takes his sin on him; gives him his righteousness. On that rob God looking, reposeth his deceased soul among the Saints. Christ hath discharged his debt; Gods Iustice is satisfied, can not grudge him that mercy, which grace hath granted him. Else as men arrest the dead bodies of their debtors, nor will let them to be butted: so satan, prince of the air, would not suffer a thieves soul to pass by him into Paradise. Idolaters, Adulterers, thieves, Murtherers, Extortioners shall not come into Gods kingdom Saint Paul saith, said truly. But many, that have been sinners in those kindes, or others, but have repented, have come thither. Else David, whom Saint Paul reckons among the Saints; Heb. 11. 32. should be among the damned; and Saint Paul, and Peter, the one a persecuter, the other a forswearer; and who not?  
Not great crimes onely, but the lightest sins suffice to damn, if God forgive not. Hell should have all; heaven none but Angells. Christ here on the cross suffered for all sinners. Not light offenders onely, as Moses, who spake but onely unadvisedly; jonas, that was angry at Gods mercy; zachary, that believed not the angel: but Salomon an Idolater, the woman that washed Christs feet, thought an adulteress, Manasses the most wicked of all the Kings of judah; God first hath given them grace, and then forgiven their sins, and at last saved their souls. Heaven hath many Saints, who on earth have been great sinners.  
The use of this, is mans comfort, and Gods praise. Be thy sin never so great; do not despair. Christ here saves a thief, a Robber, haply too a murderer. And as in sickness; so in sin. As the more dangerous the disease, the more famous the physician, that hath cured it: so the greatness of the sin makes Gods mercy the more admirable. Gods goodness far exceeds mans sin. Cain lied, in saying, his sin could not be pardonned. It had been, had he but asked mercy. This mans sins deserved death, not that on the cross onely, but eternal to. But God cries by the Prophet, Nolo mortem peccatoris, God will not the death, no not of any sinner.  
You see here a great sinner; yet Christ saves him. Here a late Repenter too. sin works mans soul hazard of hell: he hath cause to hasten his repentance. The rabbins advice is, {αβγδ}, repent one day before thy death. Thers no man loves sin so, but will think that reasonable. Grant it;& I must add; then repent to day. haply thou shalt not live until to morrow. Stulte, hoc nocte, thou mayst lose thy soul this night. Qui promisit poenitenti veniam, non promisit differenti crastinum. August. God, who hath promised pardon to the Repenter, hath not promised a morrow to the Delayer. It was this mans happiness, though he had put off repentance to his last hour, yet to have Christ say to him, To day thou shalt be with me. do not thou adventure that. It may be thine unhappiness, if thou to day repent not, to hear satan say to thee, as he said to Saul, Cras mecum eritis, to morrow thou shalt be with me. Gods grace is not at mans whistle, at his call; be thou at Gods.  
He calls thee often, by the Preachers Exhortation, by thy friends monition, by the Spirits inward motion, by the sudden death of many. Open but this Bible; in every leaf thou shalt light on some lesson of repentance. It is the common cry of Christ, of Saint John, of all the Prophets, Repent, repent. Thou grants it is; but they do not add, to day. They do not, for they need not. Instant obedience is meant in all commands, where respite is not added, I made hast, said David, and delayed not, to keep thy Commandement. The Hebrew word is elegant, {αβγδ}, he asked no Quids, nor Quandoes, obeied presently. And yet hody is expressed too sometimes. The Wise man bids, Ne tardes, delay not, put not off, to turn to God. Delay is dangerous in sickness, more in sin. Christs knocks and calls to his Spouse in the Canticles. She lingers so long, that when she opens, he is gone. No reason God should wait on man. seek God( saith Esay) while he will be found. If God shall cry, and man will not hear him; then man shall cry, and God will not hear him.  
This I preach to presumers on Gods mercy, secure sinners. Let not this mans example hearten them: theres no more such in Scripture. Theres but one; and one will serve a submiss soul, sorry for sin. Such a souls repentance is not late; Haud serum est, quod verum est, quod verum est, Cypr. It is not late if it be hearty. Not at all, is indeed desperate: So it was with this mans fellow. But it is lightly true, {αβγδ}, better late than never. Were I to deal with man, with moody man, had I much trespassed him, I had need to high me, to appease him, watch my first opportunity, run, ride, fly to entreat him. Well if sped so. Saw he me slack and slow, I should find him inexorable, irreconcilable. But this man deals with God. For so he believed Christ to be, though hanging on the cross. Else what should he mean here by Christs kingdom? At the loss of his life, he repents him, and is pardonned. despair no man of grace. Inter Pontem& Fontem, there is mercy. Satan at the hour of thy departure, be he by thy bed, watch he at thy mouth, to catch thy Ghost at the last gasp: If but then( oh that thou shouldst not before) if but then thou canst say, say with thy heart, O God, be merciful to me a sinner; by Gods mercy that will serve. O God, there is thy faith. Be merciful, there is prayer. To me a sinner, there is confession, i. Repentance. If thou canst but say it? That haply thou canst not, thy speech is gone. If thou canst but groan it, sigh it, think it; that will serve; such is Gods mercy.  
The Rabbin bade repent one day before thy death. I will ask less. Abraham said, fifty, forty five, forty, thirty, twenty, ten; so will I, one whole day, on half, half that; one hour, half that, one minute, ere thou die; even that( as Esay speaks) is the accepted time; God will hear thee; the hour of salvation, God will save thee. At what time so ever, the Church saith in our liturgy. God scorns not even the tail to be offered up in sacrifice, Levit. 7. 3. Extrema cauda in hostiam; that is, Extrema vita in poenitentiam, saith Isidore. They that were hired at the eleventh hour, received as much as those, that had laboured all the day. My desire to win the sinner, that long hath lived in sin, to leave it yet at last; and to comfort the disconsolate and surcharged soul, hath made me long in this.  
To end it; Young man remember thy maker in thy youth; the Preacher bids thee. Thou shalt not haply live, till thou be old. Spend not the flower of thy yeares in idleness, in drunkenness, in wantonness. Old men, redeem the time lost, with repentance. God should have had your morning sacrifice; give him the evening at least. do not you delay; you have one foot in grave already. think every day the last. What know I whether ever I shall speak here again? Whether I shall now go hence alive again? O God be merciful to me a sinner. O Lord, remember once, thou that now art in thy kingdom.  
The second Question I propounded, was, with whom? It is with Christ. Thou shalt be with me, saith Christ. he is with Christ already, crucified with him, all the four Gospells say. A happy man, that he was with Christ so. The cross a cursed death; but a blessed means to him, his suffering then and there, to save his soul. The Atheist will ask, what profit is it to be with Christ. Many were with Christ in the dayes of his flesh; but cvi bono? The publicans were; they sat, and ate with him. The Disciples were; they lodged, and lived with him. The ones being with him, mended not their reputation; the others being with him cast on them an imputation; they were called Galileans. Yea Peter being charged to have been with him, was glad to deny him with an oath. Nay all the Disciples saw it so unsafe, to be with him, that they forsook him All. Idle objector!  
Take the third question to this, put them together; then what spell they? To be with Christ in Paradise. And yet their being with him here on earth was profit too. cvi bono? cvi non? The publicans and sinners, that heard him preach, and saw his wonders, were converted. The Disciples though weak at his attach, yet proved afterwards the Preachers of the gospel to all people, and the heralds of Salvation to all souls. We are with Christ here too on earth; he with us; for in us, Saint Paul saith. Wee sup together, Apoc. 3. We dwell together, John 14. But this being indeed is but by Deputation, by the gifts and graces of his holy Spirit. But put to, Paradise; to be there with him, is to have the immediate fruition of his presence, presence of his Person, his whole Person. Our souls shall see his substance; We shall see him face to face, 1 Cor. 13. This man shall reign with him in glory; was here on the cross with him, shall there wear a crown with him. When Christ was but transfigured, and his face shone like the sun; Saint Peter said, Bonum est, esse hic, It was good to be there with him. But to be with him in Heaven, is to shine ourselves like to the sun. Daniel saith but like the stars; that were glory enough. But Christ saith like the sun, in the kingdom of his Father.  
We are with Christ on earth, if we be his, and his spirit be in us. But our bodies are but jayles. Our souls through the infirmity of the flesh, lie in them ●ettered, as it were, and manacled; that we cannot have full happiness by our conjunction with him here. We enjoy him but imperfectly. We are with him even here. For the kingdom of God is within us, himself saith. But this compared with that being with him there, is Peregrinari à Domino, to be absent from the Lord, absence in comparison. What is it then, to be with him? ask me not; I cannot tell. Who can? Saint Paul saith, Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, Heart cannot think, what is Heavens happiness. Onely I can say, that the being with him, is the seeing of him, the beholding the incomparable, the incomprehensible beauty of Gods face. The sight called Beatifica; it makes the seers blessed; is blessedness itself. The cross a cursed death. But this man may call it blessed; bless the day, he hung on it; Gods sweet opportunity, to bring him unto Christ: here to believe, on him; then to be with him in Paradise; the next thing in my Text.  
The third question asks Where? The Disciples asked it once, ubi Domine, Where Lord? Christ saith, in Paradise. For where else, but where Christs self should be? Father, I will( saith Christ) that those whom thou hast given me, be with me, even where I am. This one question would breed many, if time would let, and all Obiters were pertinent. Some, because of the article in the greek Text, will have Adams Paradise meant. The some not many, and the reason light. And this man must be with Christ: is Christ in Adams Paradise? Some, a great sum say, it is Sinus Abraha; but agree not, What, or Where that is. All agree, tis the place, or the state of the Saints happiness, be that where, or whatsoever. Quicunque tandem is est, saith Nazianzen. Consent of most and best, modern and ancient, choice Papists too, say, tis Gods Mansion; Gods kingdom, justine and Saint Augustine, plainly, Heaven. Saint Paul is Instar omnium, he can speak of experience, for he was taken up into the place, 2 Cor. 12. 2. he makes the third heaven, and Paradise all one. As there is as well an heavenly jerusalem, as there was an earthly one: so there also is a celestial Paradise, as well as a terrestrial. Paradise in the literal sense, Adams Paradise was a place of delight; so pleasant, that the Prophet calls it, the Lords Garden. But in the anagogical it is far more excellent. The Alchoran, the Turkes Bible hath many large descriptions of all possible delights in Mahomets paradise, but earthly all, and sensual. But this is a place {αβγδ} of spiritual refreshing, saith Theophylact, hath Delicias( saith Saint Hilary) consummatae Beatitudinis, the Heavenly delicacy of full and perfect blessedness.  
To end this, Nectarius an ancient greek Father calls the beauty of Adams Paradise {αβγδ}, unutterable and unconceivable. terms of such Hyperbole, that for Christs Paradise, a thousand times surpassing that, he hath left me no words, but Saint Pauls phrase, 2 Cor. 4. 17. {αβγδ}; theres no English can express it, a far most excellent eternal weight of glory. Thats all, our tongue can say: It reacheth not by much unto the original. Saint Chrysostom gives it a most excellent term, {αβγδ}, a thousand, a ten thousand blessednesses. This point would take up an entire Sermon; and craves a Saint Chrysostom to handle it. Come we to the last question, but the first word, hody, to day.  
Promises are ever de Futuro; it is Performance, if it be present. heres a Promise de Presenti, Thou shalt be with me Today. Though a daies expectance be but short; yet theres twelve houres in a Day. That in a business of hast is a long time. Stulte, hac nocte: was very quick to the Rich man, Thou fool, this night shall they take thy soul from thee. Christ is quicker here. God might speak to the rich man, haply in the morning; and he might die haply late in the night following. But Christ saith here; Today; and that, when day was now half done: When the day( as Plautus speaks) was Dimidiatus adumbilicum mortuus, twas now mid-day; six houres were spent of it, the next words to my Text. here was Dixit,& factum est, the thing done almost as soon as said. The man was to die, to be taken down, and butted, all before night; sooner, before the sun should set. For at sun set the Sabbath began, and all must be done before the Sabbath. He needs not to cry with David, Lord, hast thee to help me; make no long tarrying, Oh my God. Tis but a little while, a little little while, that Christ defers him. Christ hastes to die himself; calls of purpose for the vinegar, cried Sitio, I thirst, thirst to die more then to drink. For the vinegar was reached to all that were crucified that they might die {αβγδ}, saith Theophylact, to dispatch them speedily, and he was dead at the ninth hour. The Souldiers too made hast to rid the thieves out of their pain. The sun hastened too, to go down, set( in a sort) before his hour. The man dies, and according to Christs promise is immediately with Christ, even hody, this very day.  
This very day? How can that be? Christs self was not so soon in Paradise. His body was not; the grave possessed it, till the third day. His soul was not. He descended in his soul to hell, both the hell of the damned, that they might see, what salvation they had scorned; and the Limbus Patrum, Papists say, to fetch the Fathers thence unto this Paradise. So much work could not be dispatched so soon. For he went down not in virtute, but localitèr, not in the power of his Godhead, but in soul. This hath made some, as some late Fathers writ, to put a point at Hodiè, and red it with the clause before, Dico tibi hody, verily I say to thee to day. But all greek Copies point it, as I red it. Yea Beza saith, he found in one, {αβγδ}, that to day thou shalt be with me. They can not mispoint that. Wee believe, Christ descended, the Creed binds us. And why not locally? Christs soul, united to his Godhead, might do all that, and yet be that day in Paradise. God works not lazily, like man. satan could show Christ all the kingdoms of the world in the twinkling of an eye. Gods expedition exceeds his. he made the world in six dayes, could in six houres, in one. Say, Christs soul could not expedite so much so soon; Yea say, as Papists say, was as long in Limbo, as his body was in grave; yet might this man be that day with him in Paradise. For Christs soul and body was not the whole Christ. His Godhead was in heaven that day; though with his soul in hell, yet with his Father too. ubique semper est, Aug. ever every where at o●e. He might be with him, as God. And so Saint Augustine consters it. Epist. 57.  
Papists, that hold purgatory, are hinted by this hody, to observe Christs great graciousness, Gods great bounty, that grants votis majora, more than he is asked. The man but prays to be remembered, when Christ came into his kingdom, which some expound to mean the day of Iudgement. How grievous and long pains must he endure in purgatory, till that time? Well, if not in hell, where pains are worse, and thither Robbers go. Christ in the riches of his grace, pardons all those pains, and promises him Paradise, even that very day. Let us, who hold not purgatory, yet note Christs goodness too; that( as Saint Ambrose saith) uberior gratia, quàm precatio, Gods grace exceeds mans prayer. He had seen( it is likely) the title over the cross, Iesus King of the Iewes. Gods Spirit had revealed to him, that his kingdom was in heaven, into which he should enter after his Resurrection some short abode first made one earth. He prays to be remembered then. Christ will not suspend him so long, forty dayes and more. But he shall hody, that day, that hour almost, from that place, from that cross, pass into Paradise. Salut is compendium, saith Saint Bernard, a quick salvation, a short bridge, the cross, to transport him to heaven.  
he was Raptor in vita, he is now, Raptor in Cruce, a Robber in his life, now a kind of Robber at his death, saith Athanasius, Robbers seize on men suddenly, will be served instantly. The kingdom of heaven ( saith Christ) suffers violence. He is Raptor Paradisi, seases on his salvation, hath heaven at a snatch. Thats that Fathers conceit. But he saith that of the thief, which belongs rather to Christ. Christ is Raptor latronis, seases on the thief. The man is well content to stay Christs leisure. Christ will not let him; but will have him instantly. We say of Saint Paul, Raptus est, he was caught up into Paradise. Heres on is. Christ will not stay him, till he go himself to it. Yet forty dayes, and Christs self will ascend. Praemissus est, Ambrose, he will sand him before him into Paradise.  
To conclude; the man was quick in believing; Christ is as quick in saving. His faith had many lets, his own torture, Christs ignominy, his fellows upbraiding him, the peoples reproaching him,[ one greater than all these, Christs lamentable cry, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me.] Yet he believes on him. Where the Disciples lost their faith, he found his; and by it, it onely Saint Chrysostome saith, sola fide, obtained Paradise. Surely by it onely he laid hold on Christ, was Raptor Christi, seized on his Saviour. But that faith had works, you heard before. Happy man! God makes Supplicij damnationem, Salutis occasionem, saith Saint Ambrose, as we see, God does to many malefactors, the execution of their bodies, the occasion of the salvation of their souls. The Lord, that made his Disciples, of catchers of Fishes, Fishers of men, and this man here, of a Robber of men, a catcher of Paradise, remember us all at the day of our departure, say unto me, unto you, to the soul of every repentant sinner, To day thou shalt be with me in Paradise. cvi, &c.   

THE PASSION OF our BLESSED saviour▪ The first Sermon. PREACHED VPON GOOD-FRYDAY.  MAT. 27. 50. Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice, and gave up the Ghost. 
I Have here often preached the Funerals of Men; I preach to day the funeral of God. The Day requires it, dedicate to the remembrance of Christs death. An office worthy an Angel, to preach at Christs funeral. One did at his Nativity; and a choir of heavenly voices sung a solemn anthem at the end of the Sermon. My Text is the Catastrophe, the period of Christs Passion. Two acts, a Cry with a loud voice, and a giving up the Ghost. The Subject to both, Iesus. Iesus cries, and dies; thats my Theme. Lord Iesus assist me. Then, is but a note connexive onely, to knit this verse to the precedent; not vain, but yet not much material; I omit it.  
Iesus; What Iesus? A question, which to ask I should be idle, if not urged by the nature of the Acts here ascribed to him, in seeming unbeseeming Christ. Damascenus a Greek Father saith, {αβγδ}, there are many Iesuses. Not Iesus mirach here, nor Iesus Iosedecke is meant, but Iesus Christ. To control winds and Seas, to raise the dead, dispossess devils, forgive sins, rise from grave, ascend to heaven; such Acts become this Iesus; God incarnate, Immanuel, the Lord. Death and vociferation do not; they disparaged him. To shriek for pain, and to die, beseem the sons of Men. Jesus Gods son, peer to his Father, should do neither. Say, God may Cry: He cried, and they would not hear, saith Zachary. God cries in mercy; but Iesus for pain. But die, God cannot, is {αβγδ}, immortal. Iesus does, because {αβγδ}; the son of God, but yet too the son of Man. More of this in the acts.  
One or two sorts of heretics cross this. Basilides said, twas not Christ, but Simon of Cyren, that suffered in his likeness. That Christ stood by invisible, and derided the Iewes madness. Was not this man( think you) rather mad? I should be, to confute him. Then woe were to the world: It is then indeed( as Saint John saith) totus in maligno positus, all in the devils power. If Christ have not suffered, we are not redeemed, and this monster( for so Nicephorus calls him) though he held there were 365. Heavens, yet in all likelihood is he in none of them, but a damned wretch in Hell. Long after him, Mahomet was of this opinion too. Others held, that not Iesus, but God the Father suffered, called thereon Patropassiani; an unlearned heresy, sprung of Scriptures misconstrued; Christs speech especially, I, and my Father are one. And, I am in the Father, and the Father in me. They confounded the Persons, thought them all one. The heresy more foolish, then malicious. Noëtus first held it; his name presumes Wit; but Anoëtus, a fool in that opinion. Other Scriptures might have taught him, that it was the son that suffered. This very story would. Christ twice upon the cross prays unto his Father. Father, forgive them. And Father, into thy hands, &c. The Father therefore suffered not. Constat de Persona; hear the Act.  
Well may we; tis a Cry. A Cry may be inward; David cried in his heart. psalm 119. And God asked Moses, Why he cried, Quid clamas? When we red not, he said any thing. But this is a vocal cry; and it is voice magna, Christ cries with a loud voice.  
First for the cry. Saith not the Prophet Esay, he should not Cry? He spake that of Christs coming, not of his suffering. He should come in humility, not with noise and pomp, as Princes do, with shout of people, and sound of trumpet. At Christs Nativity was Altum silentium, No man was ware of it. When the Wise men asked, Where is he, that is born King of the Iewes? No man could answer them. But the Prophet saith again, he should be as a sheep, dumb before his Shearer, should not open his mouth. That he spake of his suffering. He did, and truly. Christ was silent in that too. He was hurried to and fro; from the Garden to Annas his house, from thence to Caiphas, from him to Pilate, from thence to Golgotha; up and down the streets of the City to mount Calvary. His voice was not heard in all these streets; he spake not all the way, save once, to the women that wept for him. And yet he had suffered by that time much iudignity, much extremity; his head wounded with thorns, and his body tortured with scourges, furrowed with stripes, David saith. Why then cries he now? Wee shall hear that anon. Saint Matthew rests not here, saith not barely, he cried; adds, with a loud voice. Christ cries not, as Moses did, groan inwardly; as David did, in his heart. Its but Clamavit here, he cried; but in Saint mark, Exclamavit, he cried out: Saint Paul calls it {αβγδ}, a strong cry. David makes it more, Psal. 22. 1. calls it Rugitum, a Roaring, a lions cry. It is there meant of Christ, of Christs cry upon the cross, his former cry, my God, my God, &c. But why is the cry? And why the voice so loud? Expositors yield reasons many, few of weight. hear but two of the best. One, that Christ was not Merus homo, a mere man, but God to. The other, that he was Verus homo, very man as we are.  
For the first; The strength of his cry showed he was more then man. Mens spirits are spent in tormenting diseases, are not able to cry out, can scarce speak to be heard, hardly draw their breath, speak not haply at all. For all the Organs of the speech fail, Et vox faucibus haeret. Christs cry was in ipso mortis articulo, at the very instant of death. This latter cry was. His strength then to cry so, made the Centurion cry, doubtless, this was the son of God. Saint matthew saith, the Earthquake, but Saint mark saith, Christ cry made the Centurion say so. Christ will show his might above the devills malice; that he dies, because he will, not forced by satan. Not of infirmity, not of necessity, but as the Prophet saith, Quia volvit, because it pleased him.  
Death fled from Christ; he was fain to offer himself, put himself into deaths hands. When the officers came to take him, were showd him by Iudas; they had no power to touch him. When  told, twas he, they sought, they fell before him;  told again, twas he. Twelve legions of Angels were ready to have rescued him: he would not: would not pled so much before Pilat, as not guilty. here he cries out aloud, to call death, who fled from him, to compel him to come: calls him once, he comes not; calls again to press him: Death is deaf, will not hear, though he do, will not come, at one cry. Christ would have cried seven times, rather then not die. Death is used ever to ride; sin is his horse, Apoc. 6. 8. The devil cannot bring him to any man, but on his back. The sinners self lends death a horse; else he could not come to him, Christ being without sin, death must come a foot to him; will not; but Christ importunes him, by force fetcheth with his cries. When he comes, he smites him, so forced; and in his mood, commits him to the grave, as to a jail, a strong prison, twas a rock; and covered with a great and weighty ston, and watched with armed men. Now he hath him, would fain hold him; cannot, but fals into pains, womens pains, {αβγδ}, Acts 2. 24. can not have ease, till the grave have delivered him. Saint Peters phrase there is remarkable; the rising of the Corpse of Christ, must be the losing of the pains of death. Nay, Christ with his cry would catch the devil too, who doubting he was God, began to fly, thought it but lost labour to plot his death. Athanasius saith, Christ cried, cried in this manner, to make him think him but mere man.  
Be this granted one cause of the greatness of Christs cry, to show him more than man: yet may this be one too, to show, he was true man; though not mere man, yet man. Torment will force a man to cry, great torment the strongest man, to cry aloud. Man is not Iron or oak, like Bhemoth in job, his bones like brass. Hercules himself will shrink, will shriek at pain. The rack will force false confession of crime, Etiam innocents cogit mentiri dolor, Sen. Epicurus saith in tully, were he put in Phalaris Bull, he would cry, Quàm suave hoc! quam non curo! vain man, and too delicate to endure any thing. {αβγδ}, Naz. he is no man, whom pain will not make cry, tormenting pain. Such was Christs.  
There is a counter-crie among some Christians, very unchristian, and yet Saint hilary a learned and good Bishop hath abetted it, that our Saviours Passion was without pain. He was scourged, wounded, pierced with nailes. he can not deny that; both Esay saith it, and all the Evangelists. But all this did infer but passionnis impetum, not Dolorem; all this he suffered, but sine sensu, he felt no pain. No more than flamme, or air, or water doth, smitten with a weapon. he had Corpus doloris, but not Naturam dolendi, a body subject to offence, but without any sense of it. Nay( which is very harsh) did not so much as thirst, though he cried Sitio; said onely, he thirsted, to fulfil the Prophets saying. Celsus in Origen holds it too; but a heathen Philosopher. Him I heed not. Saint hilary I reverence, but I abhor the rest, as heretics, who( as Irenaeus writes) held that Christ suffered but only Putativè, in mens imagination. Then sin, Death, and satan are yet unvanquisht, and we subject still to hell, if our Saviour suffered but onely Apparenter, but Athanasius bids us believe Christs whole Passion, {αβγδ}, really and verily.  
But must Christ cry, for sense of pain? Where shall we seek for patience, if not in Gods own son?[ An ordinary man will endure much. But a strong spirit, ure, seca, will not cry out; will cry, Nihil agis dolor. The boyes of Sparta, though whipped almost to death, would not once groan.] Shall we think, Christ was weaker than the Martyrs? Many of them have sung in the mids of their tortures. The seven sons of Eleazar flayed alive and fried, the three young men in the fiery furnace, not any of them used any vociferation. I answer; first, to such as suffer in Gods cause, God gives strength, and approportions it unto their pains, extraordinary strength to extraordinary torments. God here suffers his son to feel the full extremity of the Iewes merciless cruelty, without the least support from him, withholds all comfort, all alloy of anguish. Secondly, Christ cried not, opened not his mouth for all the tortures of the jews. Scourged twice by the judge in most merciless manner, in hope, that might have moved the people to compassion. crwoned with sharp thorns, nailed hands and feet unto the cross, and hanging on it in extreme pains of body half a dozen houres; and this in the {αβγδ} of his age, when mans strength is greatest, and in a body of the choicest constitution, and most sensible of pain. All this he suffered Silente patientia, not with patience onely, but in silence too, a double virtue. What one complaining word find you in the story for all this? But( as the Prophet saith) As a lamb dumb before the shearer, so opened he not his mouth.  
I will not wrong thee, my sweet Saviour, so, to prefer any Martyrs patience before thine. It was a sharper, a far sharper pain, then all these ten times doubled, that made Christ cry, cry out so loud. Mans sin lay on his soul; and Gods wrath lay on that sin. Men in a manner had now done with him. God takes him in hand, scourges him with his wrath, a rod of Iron. That Iron indeed( as the psalm saith of joseph) entred into his soul; wounded not his head, hands and feet onely, made him cry, in the Prophet, Behold all that pass by, see if any sorrows were ever like to mine; adds, the Lord hath afflicted me; not men, but God; God in his wrath, his fierce wrath. It begun in the Garden, made him sweat blood: but was worse upon the cross, forced him to cry there, Eli, Eli, lamma sabactani, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Saint Paul calls it a strong cry. There is reason; is not the pain so? Strong cries( for there are two of them) for strong pains. The pains much stronger than the cries. For the cry hath a parallel: David cried so before. But the pains have none. So saith the Prophet, Never any like pains, incomparable, unutterable, unconceivable.  
To end this, Christs cry, S. Paul calls it strong, and the Evangelists call it loud. judge you, if it were not. Needs it must be strong, that rent the stones, the rocks, {αβγδ}: and needs it must be loud, that raised the dead. The rocks felt the strength of it, and cleft; the dead heard the sound of it, and rose. Yea the earth trembled, and the graves opened at the hearing of it, and it split the veil of the Temple in two parts. The cry shewed Christ a man; for his pains forced it: but it showed him also God, by the working of such wonders. Magna vox, magna operata est, Origen, a mighty voice, that wrought so mighty things. His voice single, without magna, had wrought great things before, had styled the winds, and calmed the seas, and driven the fiends out of the possessed. His submiss voice had done thus, and many other miracles. That( Magna) put to it, his loud voice, his strong cry should do these wonders, its no wonder.  
One word more is here added, of the Iteration of Christs cry, he cried again. Once he had cried before, with loud voice too; the mournfullest cry, that ever came from man, My God, my God, &c. Here he cries again. The cry, whether a shriek onely, or a speech too; Saint Matthew saith not; nor will I now examine. I have been long enough already in this Act.  
The second is Christs giving up the ghost, and gave up the Ghost; an Act in phrase, but a passion indeed; for it means death, and Mori, is Pati, termed therefore by Bernard, Passio activa, or Actio passiva. The phrase hath two terms; the one shows his voluntary death; the other proves him perfect man. See them first severally, Emisit, non Amisit, saith Saint Ambrose; Christ gave up his Ghost, it was not forced from him. It is said of every dying man, he gives up the Ghost, but {αβγδ}. Mens souls are taken from them, they do not give them up, Sponte, saith one Father; Sola charitate, not necessitate, saith an other, of love, not of constraint. Indeed Pilat condemned him, and the Iewes cried, away with him, and the souldiers crucified him. These did but whatsoever himself had preordained. Saint Peter charged the Iewes, that they had killed him, and Saint Steven called them Murtherers. They were executive. The malice of man acts, what the grace of God decrees. It was Gods will, Christ should die, Christs own will. When, and how, his decree too. The Acts reality his, but the malignity theirs. They were authors Sceleris, but he was Operis. Mortuus est, quia volvit, he died because he would. Quid fecit Iudas, nisi peccatum, Aug. Ser. de verbo Domini. 63. ante med. No man did Tollere, but himself did Depone●●, Christs self saith; none took his life from him, he laid it down himself. It is said, Pilat delivered him, and Iudas is called Traditor, his deliverer too; and so he was in the worse sense, Traditor, a traitor. But in better acception, both God the Father Tradidit, delivered his son, Rom. 8. 32. and God the son, Tradidit, delivered himself, Gal. 2. 20. This his free will to die, see by his hast to die. Iudas longed to betray him; yet he hastened him, Quod facis, fac citò, bad him, do it quichly: cried on the cross, I thirst; but to die more than to drink. For the vinegar was, not to quench thirst, but to speed death, to die {αβγδ}, Theophyl. He therefore took our nature, that he might die: and how am I pained( saith he) till it be done? Luke 12. 50.[ The greek word here is pregnant, affords another note of the souls bondage in our bodies; death does Dimittere, dismiss, release the soul. I pass by it]  
What gave Christ up? the Ghost, i. the Spirit, the soul. Christ to have a soul, some have doubted, flat denied. Corpus aptasti, thou hast given me a Body, Saint Paul saith of Christ out of the psalms, Psa. 40. 7. That place hath other meaning, and it is so but in the Septuagints, not in the Hebrew Text. But the( Word Saint John saith) was made Flesh. Lucian stumbled at this; but needed not. By Flesh, to mean mans entire person, is usual in Scripture. Verbum Caro factum est, i.e. Verbum homo factum est, the Word was made flesh, i.e. man, saith Saint Augustine; not body onely, but soul too. He took( saith Damas●en) {αβγδ}; that Flesh had a soul in it, Totus homo in Christo, the whole manhood was assumd( saith Saint Augustine) to the Godhead, not one part onely. Omnia hoins, he took all that man hath, saving sin. Saint cyril saith so too, Nostra omnia. For would he be made man, and take but body onely? Thats but the moiety of a man. The Athanasian Creed saith, He was perfect man. Yea and would he take the base half too.  
Yet have some brainsick heads held this lewd heresy. Eunomius did, and his followers. They thought Christ needed not an human spirit; because he was a Spirit as he was God. For God is a Spirit, Christs own saying. Nay some more lewd, granted him a soul, but a Beasts soul, voided of reason; Apollinaris did. A dangerous heresy, Christ to have no soul, and of desperate consequent. For how are our souls saved, if Christ had none? Christ hath then saved but the one half of us, and that the worse half, but the brute flesh. Melius n●strum, Saint Augustines term, our better half is unredeemed. For {αβγδ}, what Christ assumd not, he redeemd not, saith Nazianzen. S. Ambrose says as much, Si aliquid ei defuit▪ non t●tum redemit, If he wanted a part of man, then he saved not the whole man. Then will this follow, this gross absurdity, that one and the same man shall be both saved and damned. After the Resurrection my body shall be in joys, my soul in torments. Yea more absurd yet, the body, that hath neither {αβγδ}, as Saint Paul speaks, neither breath, nor motion, life, nor sense, without, the soul, nay no subsistence without it, yet shall be in heaven in Ioy, whereof it is not capable without the soul. Then let every man at the hour of death commend his soul to satan, not to God. For what Christ saves not, God receives not. Then may satan say at the day of Iudgement as the King of Sodom said to Abraham, so he to Christ, Da mihi Animas, give me the souls. And David belike meant so, psalm 65. 2. unto thee, i.e. unto God, shall all flesh come, i. all bodies, all Spirits to the devil. Yea and then poor Saint Steven was grossly mistaken, to cry, Lord Iesus, receive my Spirit.  
But to Christs soul Gods word bears witness more then once, Christs self does both to day on the cross, Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit, and yesternight in the garden, My soul( saith he) is heavy to the death. Dares Apollinaris say, Christ dallies with his Father, deludes God, commends a thing to him, which he had not? Though he was no spirit, as he  told his Disciples, yet he had a spirit, an human soul. In which he groaneth for Lazarus death, was troubled in it for Iudas treachery, sighed in it deeply, for the Pharisees infidelity, and rejoiced in it at the return of his disciples, and it is the Ghost, which he gives up in my Text.  
Now take both terms together, He gave up the Ghost, i. he dyed. The act now is turned passion. Theres cause, we all turned Passion too. Wonder we all at least. Saint Chrysostom noted five wonders in Christs death, {αβγδ}. Three I have noted here sometime; One, that he would die for his enemies, Rom. 5, 10. Who will for his friend? an other, that he should, {αβγδ}, without sin; Mors peccati stipendium, death is the mead of sin; a third, that he could, being the son of God. A thing unheard, absurd to natural reason, seeming impossible. That the everlasting God should die, like man; that the Lord of life should suffer death; that he, that gives( as you heard the Apostle say) both {αβγδ} life and breath to others, should lose them both himself; that the ancient of daies, so Daniel calls God, and he whose yeares( David saith) cannot fail, should give up the Ghost.  
Is death a Passion, and dies God? {αβγδ}, the greek Fathers say, the Godhead cannot suffer. A truth which some opposing( the Theopaschita did) were censured for heretics. It is true, the Godhead cannot; but God can. My Text saith, Iesus dyed; but his deity dyed not. He was Mista persona, Immanuel, God and Man. His Manhood dyed in him, his Godhead lived. Iesus here though God, dyed. Thats not impossible, nor absurd: unheard indeed. Never dyed God before. For never was God Man before. This once onely he was, and that onely for us. Messiah shall be slain,& non sibi, saith Daniel, not for himself. For us men, and for our Salvation, saith the Creed at the Communion. born in a stable, cradled in a cratch, revild, bound, scorned, scourged, crwoned with thorns, nailed to a cross between two thieves. All this sufficed him not to suffer; wrestled too with Gods wrath, so fierce, as forced him to sweat blood, so much as trickled to the ground, forced him yet further in sense of pains, unsufferable pains, to Cry, and Die. Iesus, the worlds Creator, mans redeemer, almighty God, to cry and die. This ends Christs Passion, and begins mine, and therefore bids me end. Better end, then not endure; and yet worthy to end, not Text, but Life, if I endure.  
hear Oh Heaven, harken Oh Earth. I need not call to them; they both heard, and did their duty. The Heavens grieved, the Earth groaned, both put on {αβγδ}, saith a greek Father, darkness, as black robes, to be mourners at Christs death. The Sun a shamed to see his Maker suffer, hide his face, was eclipsed unnaturally, miraculously: that a great Astronomer cried at the sight of it, Either the God of nature suffers violence, or the world will end instantly. And the darkness such, that the stars were seen at noon. And the Earthquake so great, that Saint Augustine writes, sundry Cities were overthrown by it. The rocks rent at Christs cry, and the graves opened, and the dead corpses arose, to make room for his body. Every grave striven to be graced by his burial. And have we hearts of Adamant, eyes of oak, that have not a tear, not a sigh at Christs death? Had these senseless Creatures compassion of his pains, we men not moved at them? Solus homo non compatitur, pro quo solo Deus patitur? You my Christian Brethren, not weep for him, who bled for you. I, more stony then you, preach and press his pains, and feel no Passion? I rehearse, you here Christs lamentable end, for your sins, and mine, in your stead, and mine, and shrink not at his shrieks, endure his death without least sign of sorrow? Christ Cry and die, and our bowels not earn at it? Oh let us then sympathise with our Saviour, sand forth strong cries, if not for his bitter death and passion, yet at least for our sins which were the cause of it, and let us not onely bewail but crucify those sins which Crucified our Saviour, that so when we cry unto God in the needful time of trouble, he may hear, and have mercy, and in the end of our dayes when wee give up the Ghost, and with our blessed Saviour commend our spirits into Gods hands; they may be received into everlasting happiness. Which the Lord of his infinite mercy grant even for the merits of his dear Son Jesus Christ. To whom, &c.   

THE PASSION OF our BLESSED saviour. The second Sermon. PREACHED VPON GOOD-FRYDAY.  luke 23. 46: Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit. 
IT is Christs cry upon the cross, at his giving up the Ghost. After consummatum est, having finished all things, that concerned us, his last care now is of himself. Not of his Godhead; that needed not. No nor of his manhood neither, the one half of it: his corpse he leaves to Pilate; is here solicitous onely of his soul. As one, that hath some precious jewel, being to take a far journey finds out some trusty friend to leave it with: so doth Christ here. His jewel is his soul; his journey is his Death; his friend is his Father; he commits it unto him. Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit. Of the words in order, as they lye.  
Father? Who is that? Christ( Saint Paul saith) had no father, calls him {αβγδ}, i. fatherless. That the People, that the Pharisees, that the Evangelist himself, yea that an angel too call him the soon of David: thats a Father a far off. David was dead more than a thousand yeares, ere Christ was born. A mother he had; but her a Virgin: Father he had none. called indeed Iosephs son; but that {αβγδ} Saint Lukes term, onely thought so, but was not. Iosph reputed his Father but was not. Twas a very idle Argument, which justin Martyr saith, the Gentiles used, to prove, he had a Father, because he is called {αβγδ}, the son of man masculine. This hath been a stumbling block to many in times past, but is none now. Tis so open to every eye, that no foot can antitype at it. Christ though, as man, fath●rlesse, hath a Father yet, as God: and he tis he means here.  
God is Christs Father; a point needs not proof. All Christians aclowledge it. Though julian made jest at it, would swear in scorn of him, {αβγδ}, by that son, that was of the Father, because Paul calls him too {αβγδ}, motherless, as God. Yea though Caiphas called it blasphemy, rent his clothes at his acknowledgement, that he was Gods son; and to any, that confessed it, it was excommunication. Yea the black blasphemous mouths of Manes and martion blushed not to call him( as Saint Austin writes) the devills son: yet now that Christ hath been preached of to all Nations, and is believed on in the world; tis become a Creed Article. Every man, every child calls Christ Gods onely son. Christ is Gods son. The Father avoucheth it at his baptism; This is my beloved son. The son confesseth it here, and else where often. John Baptist proclaimeth it. The Centurion cried it at the cross. The Psalmist, the Prophets, the Apostles do all witness it: yea the devills themselves do aclowledge it. Quid nobis,& tibi? What have we to do with thee, Iesus thou son of God.?  
This point then( as Saint Paul speaks {αβγδ}, a thing confessed, out of both denial and doubt too, God to be Christs Father; no more of Quòd sit, that he is: a word of Quî sit, how he is. For of that hath been some controversy, not onely by old heretics, but even of later times. I mean not of the manner of his generation: thats( as Saint Basil saith) {αβγδ}, theres no asking, how that was; Sine sacrilegio, saith Saint Ambrose, {αβγδ}, saith Athanasius. The man were mad, and the question impious. Who shall declare his generation? But I mean in what acception, in what sense Christ is Gods Son; a Christian should know that. There are sundry sorts of sons, not among men onely, but of Gods sons too. All creatures are his sons in some acception. In what is Christ? Arius granted him to be his son; but by creation: and all his followers granted him Gods son, but by Adoption. But hilary disputeth it against the heretics; and proveth Christ Gods son; Origine, non Adoptione; Nativitate, non Creatione; not created, but begotten, not adopted, but his son, born.  
For the former; Arius stumbling at the greek Text, Prov. 8. 22. {αβγδ}, the Lord created me; on that corrupt Translation grounded his heresy, that Christ was a creature. But the Hebrew is not so: and though it were; yet the Fathers do avoid that absurdity many ways. I cannot stand to city them. And had he looked a little lower, verse 25. he might have found there, Before the hills, was I brought forth. David is more express; Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee. Christ was Gods Son, saith Arius, but {αβγδ}, not {αβγδ}, not born so, but made so. But we learn by the Evangelist, that all things that were made, were made by Christ. Who then made him? He can not say his Father: for then Christ made not all. But Saint John doubles it, that without him was made nothing, that was made; and I hope he will not say, he made himself. And therefore Peter Lombard determines against Arius, that Christ was Gods son, not Factura, but Natura, not by being made, but by being born. Yea many ages before him, the Nicen Creed had said the same, Begotten not made. he was made the son of man, but he was born the son of God.  
For the other; Christ( saith Saint hilary) is the son of God, Veritate, non nuncupatione, not in title but in truth. Had God but onely adopted Christ his son: then were he onely Titular, not {αβγδ}; and the Relation were but an Appellation. But both the Centurion at the cross, and the people in the ship, Mat. 14. 33. say of our Saviour, that he was {αβγδ}, truly the son of God. Not {αβγδ} but {αβγδ} Saint Cyrils terms; not {αβγδ}, but {αβγδ}, saith Athanasius, not adopted by grace like us, but by generation.  
Now to apply this Title to the Act. The Act is Christs committing of his human spirit to the trust of a depositarie, who should safely keep it, and truly redeliver it. Who fitter for that office, than his Father? Whom shall I rather trust with any thing of price, then my natural parent? Will you say, my brother, my neighbour, or my friend? The Prophet bids trust them not. Every brother will supplant, and every friend will deal deceitfully. The daughter will rob the father; Rachel did, stolen his gods. The son, the mother; Micha did, stolen her silver. The wife will beguile the husband; Rebecca did. Laban cozend jacob; and jacob made a younger brother of Esau. But when hath ever parent cheated the child? The whole book of Scriptures afford not one example. God hath put in parents the Image of God: Father and Mother are as gods unto their children; careful of them, faithful to them. It is( saith Paul) impossible that God should lye. Not impossible, but improbable a Father should deceive his son. Were a soul commendable to mans custody, that he could keep it: I would not doubt my parents fidelity. The dearest thing wee have next to the soul, is life. What son will not trust his life unto his father? What sire hath ever betrayed his son? betrayed to death? What fitter then; what kinder compellation, than Christ, to whom he would commend his soul, to call him Father? Into his hands he commends it; the next thing in my text, In manus tuas.  
Mans soul hath many suitors, who fain would have it in their hands: God craves it, cries Da mihi, My son give me thy heart. But the world, and the flesh, and the devil crave it too. All these have their hands; satan especially. God committed job to them, permitted rather, Ecce in manu tua, both body and goods. His fingers itched for his soul also, It God excepted, Serva animam, would not give him that. God would not, but man will; many a lewd man, even conceptis verbis, wickedly in his life, desperately at his death, gives his soul unto the devil. The witch doth, and the Conjurer. To the world, or to the flesh most men do in their life. For where wee love, there we lay our souls. The soul is ubi amat, more than ubi animat, where it loves, not where it lives. They two expectorate the sensual man. he can not keep his heart at home, for them. How canst thou say, saith Delilah to samson, thou lovest me, when thy heart is not with me? saith Solomon, the Harlot hunts Pretiosam Animam, a mans precious soul? Shee needs not: the soul of the wanton will hunt her. Paul saith but, that the Lecher is one body with the Harlot. He might have said they are one spirit, Not as God saith of the married, that two shall be one Flesh; but they two shall be one soul.  
Wine is as strong a witch as Women; strong drink as bad a charmer of the soul, as Harlots. A man seeks it, tarries by it, Solomons terms, Prov. 23. 30. seeks it early, rises betimes to it, tarries till night at it, Esaies terms, 5. 11. rests not so; but cries Cras sicut hody, Esay 56. To morrow shall be as to day, nay multo amplius, worse, much worse then to day: uses meats to stir up thirst. Doth not this man commit his soul unto this Saint?  
Mammon is an other, to whom too many men commend their souls. David doubted the danger of it in the psalms. If Riches increase, saith he, set not your hearts on them. Whats that, but commend not your souls to them. He did it in the gospel, that said, soul, thou hast much goods.  
Trust not thy soul to these, not in thy life; Dying much less. Tis a Depositum then, a thing committed of trust for a time, to be received again. But these Depositarii, the world, the flesh, and satan, are bad keepers of souls. What is trusted to them, is lost, especially to satan, desperately lost. As the fox said to the Lion in the Fable, Nullaretrorsum, theres the Print of many souls going towards hell, of none returning. satan pictured with claws, not hands: they clasp fast, what is put in them. What is trusted to him, never returns. His hand is a right Mortmain, a dead hand: what it hath once hold of, is unrecoverable. Thy soul trusted to him, never redemande; it boots not. Nay though thou wouldst redeem it, thou canst not. Christ saith, theres no {αβγδ}, no ransom for a soul. None that man can give; Christ can; his Blood. It was Anima pretiosa, Solomons term, a precious soul. But so is Christs blood, Sanguis pretiosus, Saint Peters term, precious blood too; more precious then thy soul: that will indeed ransom it. But do not trust to that. Put not thy soul in sathans hands, in hope to have it home again by Christ. Maledictus( saith Saint Augustine) qui peccat in spe. Christ would not tempt God so, would not cast himself down headlong from the pinnacle, upon presumption that Gods Angels should preserve him. Christ here shows Christians into whose hands souls may be, must be trusted, in manus tuas, into Gods hands.  
But saith not the Apostle, tis a fearful thing to fall into Gods hands? David tried it, would rather fall into Gods hands, then Mans▪ tried it, but found no ease in it; ease in comparison, but smart enough. But this was Gods hand in his Anger? tis heavy so. Gods hand means not the same always in Scripture. There is Manus Creans, his Creating hand; Thy hands have made me, saith David, and fashioned me. There is Manus Perdens, the Destroying hand: David notes it too, and divers more, needless to city. And there is Manus▪ Servans, a Sa●ing hand, often in Scripture. Such are these here, preserving hands, reserving hands; preserving the soul commended to them from all hurt, and reserving it to be safely rendered to the owner. Commit thy soul to them; tis sure in their keeping. A keeper must have strength and trust: God hath both, is both powerful and faithful, {αβγδ}, God is able, saith our Saviour: {αβγδ}, God is faithful, saith the Apostle. Tis Saint Peters argument to this very purpose; he bids {αβγδ}, commend our souls to God, as to a faithful creator. And tis Davids reason too, in the 31, Psal. He commends his spirit into the hands of God; because he is {αβγδ}, i. the God of truth.  
To end this; Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit. Into God the Fathers hands? Why then doth Saint Steven commend his into Christs? Lord Iesus, saith the Martyr, receive my Spirit. Prayer is Gods right, Gods onely. Gods onely; but not the Fathers onely. Christ, and the Holy Ghost do claim it also: for they are God too. Prayer is made mostly to God in general: the Persons being three, it is meant to all at once. But the Christian hath his liberty, to pray to one apart, to any one of them alone. It is no wrong unto the rest. For all three are so one, that when one is honoured, they are glorified All. Thou speakest to one apart; but thou honorest All together. The Father is in the son, the son in him, the Spirit in both, both in the Spirit. What is done to one, is done to all.  
Men on their death-beds dispose of all things, give what they have unto their Legataries, their blessings to their Children, their bodies to the earth, from whence they were, and their souls to God, that gave them. So doth Christ here; his {αβγδ}, a kind of Will. State he had none to bestow on his Disciples. His Purse and Girdle, which are first in mens inventaries, Iudas had kept that. We red he restored the thirty pieces to the Priests: but Christs bag wee red not, where he bestowed that. It is likely, that little, or nothing was left in it, that he made such hast to hang himself. Had there been never so much, neither durst he look Christ in the face, whom he had betrayed: and had he brought it him; yet Christ must have said, as he did in an other case, Non est meum dare, it was not his to give, it was forfeit to Caesar. So was his body at Pilates pleasure too. His clothes, the Officers fees; he could not give them neither. But as Peter said to the cripple, such as he had he gave. He died not altogether i●testate; he made a parol will, a lovely Legacy to all his Followers. Peace I leave with you, my Peace I give unto you. Nazianzen, so terms it, Orat. de place, pag. 223. {αβγδ}. His Mother he commits unto Iohns charge, spreads his hands on the cross, to bless all Believers, and commends here his soul into the hands of his Father.  
He yields it not, as we do, not to have again till the Resurrection, till the Heavens be no more: but he resigns it, to resume it: or leaves it rather for a little time, to receive again after a few houres; tis no resignation. Christ saith, John 10. He doth Ponere, lay it down, that he may Sumere, take it up again. The term in the psalm, whence this Text is taken, the rabbis say, signifies {αβγδ}, resting and reposing. Christ here, and all Christians, every righteous man lays up his soul with God, resteth and reposeth it in his holy hands; Christ but for a day or two; we till the day of Iudgement. Our souls and bodies death sunders them but for a season; they shall one day mee●e again. We renounce neither, to forsake them finally: We but commit them, to be kept for us; not the soul onely, but the body too. In our burial of the dead, we say, We commit the body to the ground. There we declare the meaning of this term, to be but a reposing of the body for a time. For we profess, we do it in sure and certain hope of a Resurrection. Tis so too with the soul; we commit it unto God, in sure and certain hope, not of a Resurrection, for thats onely of the Flesh, but of a Restitution. We put it in the hands of a faithful Creator, who will deliver it.  
This precious privilege have Christians above Heathens, an assurance of a second life. Neither perisheth the body, neither vanisheth the soul, as heathens thought, called therefore by the Apostle, Men without hope. Our souls and bodies both are but Deposita; committed of trust, the one to God, the other to the grave. We expect them both again. God will, and the grave must restore the Depositum. Tertullian calls the grave but Sequestratorium, de resur. cap. 52. a Sequestrator: It must yield account of what it received. Paul saith; tis {αβγδ}, incredible to the Gentiles; but we believe the Scriptures. The Sea shall yield the dead in it, Revel. 20. The earth the dead in it Esay 26. Mors& Infernus, death and the grave the dead in them: thats for the Corpse. And for the Spirit; Ego introducam, I( saith the Lord) will put it in the body: God will render it. Death is but {αβγδ}, not {αβγδ}, no Consumption, but a Dissolution; I desire( saith Paul) to be dissolved. Man compound of two natures. soul and Body by death is but dissolved, taken asunder onely: neither ceaseth to exist; both have still their being: the soul a happy one; to be dissolved, saith Paul, and to be with Christ. Nunc▪ dimittis, saith old Simeon, God doth {αβγδ}, it is not {αβγδ}, the soul is loosed, tis not lost. The vulgar latin Translation is not good, that terms the grave, Domum aeternitatis, the bodies everlasting home: as if the soul were divorc't from it for ever. The last English is discreeter, calls it our long home, not our everlasting. Death is but Carnis Occasus, saith Saint Augustine; It but sets, like the sun, it shall rise again. The places of burial Grecians called Coemeteria, i. but Dormitoria, our bodies bed-chambers, the dead are but a sleep; they they shall one day awake again. Death is Domus Seculi, the Preachers term; tis Somnus Seculi, the Prophets term. But Seculum signifies not always eternity, but a set time. Twas no eternal home, and tis no perpetual sleep. God at the time determined shall return to every body the own soul. Then it shall awake: and our souls are commended to his hands, but till that time.  
Shall I hence draw uses to curb the sinner, or to comfort the dejected, because the spirit dies not; but if a godly mans, it goes to God; if a wicked mans, to satan; the one to heaven to joys, the other to hell to torments? I may not without too far straying from my Text. Yet have some Christians been so impious, as to say, mans soul is mortal. Say I, some Christians; yea some Popes; if stories be true: Paul the third did. Heathens to their shane have held the contrary. Socrates, that said, he knew nothing, save that he knew nothing onely, yet saith in Plato, he knew this that the soul is immortal, in Axiocho. Christs term here, and all Christians( for tis fit, wee learn to speak of him) is {αβγδ}, he commends his soul to God, not {αβγδ}, he casts it not away. He commits it to his trust, doth not surrender it, give it over utterly. That the spirit is quiter extinct by death, shall I say, tis Heathenish? tis worse. Heathens themselves hold, many of them, Superesse post mortem animas,( saith Lactantius, that mens souls cease not to exist even after death.  
But why is this cry? Why should Christ thus commend his spirit to God? Or how is it a Depositum, a thing committed to an others trust, which the owner of it still retains in his own keeping? Though Christ here die; yet the soul is still with Christ. The personal union of God and man in Christ, his death dissolved it not. God had conjoined the manhood with the deity. Quae Deus junxit, homo ne separet; what God knits, man cannot loose. The Iewes might kill Christ, but they could not sever them. In Christs humanity, there was indeed a loose: body and soul were sundered; that was all; the Iewes could go no further. Sathans self could not. Christ was whole still. Somewhat partend in the person; but nought departed from the person. Though soul were severed from the body; yet both remained fast to the deity. The Godhead was both with the Spirit in Paradise, and with the corpse in the sepulchre at once. The knot of the words Incarnation is undissoluble; far above▪ the Gordian knot; not to be loosed by Art, not by Alexanders sword.  
If then Christs Spirit, even when he was dead, abode still fast united to the Godhead: what means he to commend it to his Father? I wish some better speaker to express this mystery: my tongue and wit are both to weak for it. Shall I say, he did it to teach us? thats one answer. Omnis Christi Actio, nostra Instructio, to teach us at our deaths to commend our Spirits to God. But this answers not the question, how he could commend, that he stil retained? He commended his soul, as he was man; but he retained it still as he was God. He retained it not as he was man: for the manhood was dissolved; the body instantly gave up the Ghost. The Manhood being now not to hold it any longer, commends it to the Godhead. But why then unto the Father? That I desire to learn, rather than teach. What I guess, you shall hear afterward.  
Christ to have a spirit, some have doubted, have denied it. John saith but, Verbum caro factum est, the Word was made flesh. Lucian stumbled at this place, but needed not. By Flesh, to mean mans entire person, is usual in Scripture. Verbum caro factum est, that is, Verbum homo factum est; the Word was made flesh, that is, man, saith Saint Austin; not body onely, but soul too. He took saith Damascen, {αβγδ}, but {αβγδ}: Totus homo in Christo, the whole manhood was assumed( saith he) to the divinity, not one part onely. Omnia hoins, nostra omnium; Cyril. lib. Thesauri 10. cap. 7. in med. Si aliquid ei defuit, non totum redemit. Ambr. Epi. 20. Christ took all, that man hath, saving sin. Would he be made man, and take but body onely? Thats but the moiety of a man. The Athanasian Creed, saith, he was perfect man. Yea, and would he take the base half too, and leave the better? Yet have some brainsick heads held this lewd heresy, Eunomius did. They thought Christ needed not an human spirit, because he was a spirit, as he was God. For God is a Spirit, Christs own saying. Nay some more lewd granted him a soul, but a beasts soul, voided of Reason. Apollinaris did.  
A dangerous heresy. Christ to have no soul, and of desperate consequent. For how are our souls saved, if Christ had none. Christ hath then saved but the one half of us, and that the viler half; the brute flesh. Melius nostrum, Saint Austins term▪ our better half is unredeemed. For {αβγδ}▪ what Christ assumed not, he redeemed not, saith Nazianzen, and Damascen. lib. 3. cap. 6. Then will this follow, this gross absurdity, one and the same man shall be both saved and damned. After the Resurrection, my body in heaven shall be in joys, and my soul in hell in torments. Yea more absurd yet, the body that hath neither {αβγδ} as Paul speaks, neither breath, nor motion, life, nor sense, without the soul; nay no subsistence without it, yet shall be there in joy, whereof it is not capable without the soul. Then let every man at the hour of death, commend his soul to satan, not to God. For what Christ saves not, God receives not. Then may satan say indeed at the day of judgement, as the King of Sodom said to Abraham, so he to Christ, Da mihi animas, give me the souls. he may say to God in Davids phrase; unto thee shall all flesh come; but all spirits come to me.  
But to Christs soul Gods word bears witness more than once; Christs self doth. He commends his Spirit, and in his agony; My soul( saith he) is heavy to the death; and as he  told Nicodemus, he spake what he knew: so both here, and in his agony, he knew what he spake. Nor was he idle, to dally with his Father, to delude God, to commit into his hands a thing, which he had not. Though he was no spirit, as he  told his Disciples; yet he had a spirit, an human soul. In which he groaned for Lazarus death; was troubled in it for Iudas treachery; sighed in it deeply for the Pharisees infidelity; rejoiced in it, at the return of his Disciples: and it is the Ghost, which he gave up at his departure.  
Saint Austin in one place expounds this spirit of Christs to be his divinity. unsound divinity, and some bastard book fathered on that Father. But( the best is) the same Author within a few lines following, saith the quiter contrary; that it is his human soul. Tis fit, he say it. For that first Assertion was flat arianism: and is so censured elsewhere by Austins self, by true Austin. Surely the deity can be no Depositum. Christ would not commend it to any trust. The Godhead needs no custody, it keeps itself. No nor needs Christ neither to commend his human spirit to God, to God the Father. Christs self being God too, could keep his soul himself. But as the voice in the twelfth of Saint Iohns gospel, Christ saith it was not for him, but for the people: so it is here. He would have the people see, how he honoured his Father. And that is mine answer which I respited even now. A soul commended to God at the sons hands, or to the Fathers, is all one. Steven said, Lord Iesus receive my soul. All the Persons in the trinity are peers in all things touching man; in creating us, in preserving us, in keeping the souls of the living, or the dead, in all Opera ad extra, in all things of the creature. To us it is indifferent to commend our spirits to any of the three. But the case here being Christs, it beseems the son to honour his Father. What if I should add, that the Father is Christs God; and therefore fit, he commend his Spirit to him? Saint Paul warrants me, Ephe. 1. 17. he calls him the God of our Lord Iesus Christ. And Christs self warrants him, My God, my God, why h●st thou forsaken me? He commends his Spirit into his Fathers hands; for he is his God; his God, as he is man. As God is Christs Father, as he is the son of God: so he is his God, as he is the son of man. And tis the manhood, in which Christ cries here, Father into thy hands. he calls him Father, as he is God; but commends his Spirit to him, as he is man. To conclude, Christ is Gods, saith Saint Paul, and his Father is his head: it beseemed him, it behoved him to commend his soul into his hands. unto this our gracious Saviour, both God and Man, and to his Father, and the holy Spirit, be, &c.   

THE PASSION OF our BLESSED saviour. The third Sermon. PREACHED VPON GOOD-FRYDAY.  PHILIP. 2. 8. He humbled himself, and became obedient unto the death, even the death of the cross. 
THe Argument of my Text, is Christs Humiliation, his selfe-humiliation; for who could humble God? Humiliavit Seipsum. Expressed by his submission, He became obedient. Not Active obedience, though he yielded to that too; but his Passive is meant here. In a double endurance, both of extremity, to the death; and of indignity, to the cross. He humbled himself, and became obedient unto the death, &c. To speak of every word apart, will ask more time, then fits a Sermon. Take the three first, if you please, together; He Humbled himself; a Subject, Act, and Object. If you ask, Quis Quem, who humbled, and Whom: look at the last words of the fifth verse, tis Christ Iesus. Not God the Father; some heretics held that; the Patri-passians. Not God the Holy Ghost; but the son, the second Person. Why He rather then They, is a question for the schools, rather then the Pulpit. I say, tis Christ Iesus: He on this day dyed on the cross. He is both Agent and Patient in this Act. He humbled himself.  
Men humble others; load them, till they fall; and being down, plough on their backs. Tis honour to the poor, to sit on the footstool of the Rich. On it? nay under it, Iam. 2. 3. Nay theres a Man somewhere, that make some men his footstool. Some men? Yea Princes, even {αβγδ}, Princes of men. Kings to kiss his feet, thats little. But his foot must sit on the Emperours neck; Conculcabo Leonem& Draconem, this lofty Leviathan, King over all the children of pride, tread on Emperours, humble Caesars self. All mighty men thus humble others; Christ the almighty God humbles himself.  
And for the Agent in this Act; as Christ humbled not others; so did not others him; but he himself. To the former point I used no proof: It needed none; this doth. Saint Paul saith else where, {αβγδ}, I lye not. Can he here? Surely, it seems, some others humbled Christ, seems by the gospel; that his humiliation was not of his own accord, but forced. Against our Apostle are all the Evangelists, four against one. They all afford us instances. Herod is one; he humbled him, made him fly into Egypt. Thats none. Christ was then but in cradle; twas not his flight, but his Parents. Or be that one: Who else? An other Herod humbled him, mocked him clothed; him in white. The high Priests bound him; their Officers smote him, blindfolded him, spat in his face. Pilat arraigned him, scourged him, crwoned him with thorns, clad him in purple, nailed him to the cross. The people waged their heads at him, and mocked him. Tetrarke and President; Scribes, Priests, and Elders; Sergeants, Souldiers and People, all holp to humble him. And saith the Apostle here, he humbled himself? Saint Paul may yet say, {αβγδ}; he lies not for all this. All these did all these things, but as Christs instruments. All Agents in this Act of Christs humiliation; but Agents adjuvant, subalternall all. Christs self the main and prime; all their activity from and under him. Christs answer to Pilat will serve to all; that he had no power, but what was given him, given him from above. From above, not in secular sense, from Rome, from Caesar; but in theological, {αβγδ}, from heaven, from God. And if from God; then from Christs self: for Christ was God. And if God; then must it follow, Man could not humble him: it must be selfe-humiliation. Be humbled for man God might; but by man he could not. The kingdom of heaven might suffer violence: Christ said it did. But the King of heaven can not. I say, Christ the son of God, can not be humbled by the sons of men. Pilat and Herod, Gentiles and Iewes conspired( S. Luke saith) against Christ: but to do what? That onely which Gods hand and counsel had determined. Twas Gods {αβγδ}, Act. 4. 28. Christs own Decree, that Christ should suffer, what he did. I say, Christs whole humiliation was his own preordination.  
Though Christ himself, for to be humbled, assumed our nature, for that end: yet was he God still. His Godhead freed his humanity from force. Whatsoever he suffered, was voluntary all. Tis said expressly of his death, Mortuus est, quia volvit, He died because he would. Tis so of all his sufferings; All his humiliations were Quia volvit, because he would. The Officers; that came with Iudas, to take him, fell they not before him? they were many, and well weaponed: yet had they not the power so much, as to touch him; till he cried, {αβγδ}, Let them alone, Luk 23. 51. He was fain to put himself into their hands. Had not he been pleased to humble himself, whole Legions of Angells, many Legions were ready at his call, to rescue him.  
But red wee not in Scripture, and that from Christs own mouth, An non oportuit, ought not Christ to suffer? Ought, argues a necessity. It doth; but not Coactionis, a necessity of force. Prophecies had foretold all his Humiliations: they must be fulfilled; and Gods eternal counsel had decreed them: neither must that fail, But both the Prophet hath Quia volvit, Esay 53. 7. And in that counsel, would and should are one. For the three Persons are peers in Power; one could not force an other: both in Power and Will; Vnum sunt, saith Saint John, all three are one. The sacred trinity graciously agreed, to humble God, so to save man. The son offered himself voluntarily, Ecce me, mitte me. His humiliation was Necessaria but yet Voluntaria, saith Saint Ambrose. Sponte, saith Origen, of his own accord, not of constraint. Christ presented himself an offering to his Father: but it was a Free-will Offering. And Saint Ambrose observes the Evangelists phrase, joh. 19. 30. Tradidit spiritum, he gave up the Ghost. Yea Christ himself saith plainly, Nemo tollit eam, said ego pono eam, joh. 10. 18. No man takes it from me, but I lay it down myself. I do some wrong to such judicious hearers to press so plain a point so much.  
One word of the Act; it needs not many; for the next clause dot● expound it; He humbled. The He was Christ, and Christ was God. Surely Humiliation is a strange predicate to such a subject, passive humiliation. Tis exaltation better beseems God. His name is high. The Iewes gave him seven names; {αβγδ} is one; thats excelsus {αβγδ}, the most high. His seat high, heaven; earth is but his footstool. His Acts high, David saith, Psal. 149. Would, could so high a he humble himself? He would and could; could in his Power, would in his Love, his love to man. God would be humbled, to save man.  
But what means Saint Paul? How humbles God himself? God abaseth himself, if he but behold the earth, David saith, Psal. 113. 6. The earth? Nay heaven; it abaseth God to behold it, tis said there too. But Christ came down to earth, not looked down onely. Nay to come down, was little; He had done that often, to Abraham, to jacob, to Moses. But Christ was made earth, i. man; man is earth. God said to Adam, Terraes, thou art earth. Here is a right humiliation, Homo ab humo. So Christ humbled himself; disdained not, abhorred not( tis S. Ambrose word) the Virgins womb; took mans base nature; and in basest sort, born in a stable, cradled in a cratch. His mother not a queen; that yet had been some glory. Papists salute her so, but superstitiously, Regina Coeli, queen of heaven. Not a Lady, so they style her too. They wrest that from her name. Maria sounds so in the syriac. A simplo lady, that was fain to offer at her Churching in stead of a lamb, a poor pair of Pigeons.  
God to be man was great humiliation. But he would be humbler yet, abject himself to the lowness of a servant. Thats in the verse before my Text. There are honourable men, Princes and counsellors; so high, that David calls them gods; Gods self doth, Ego dixi, I said ye are Gods. Such a one Christ might have been. But he would be( Saint Paul saith here) of no reputation, the meanest of men. Herod despised him: thats no marvel; he was a King. The very abjects and dregs of the people, called him {αβγδ}, this fellow; and nodded their heads at him. prized by the Priests but at thirty silver pieces: Slaves are sold for more. Christ notes it in an irony, in the Prophet zachary, a goodly price, at which ye valued me. {αβγδ}, this fellow, fellow to Fishermen, Publicans and sinners; not onely reputed a Carpenters son, but himself too a Carpenter, mark 6. 3. I pray you pardon; I spend in this too many words. I promised but one. Some farther degrees of Christs humiliation are intended in my Text, much greater than all these. You shall hear them in their place.  
{αβγδ}, he became obedient. It became him to be so, that would humble himself. Obedience becomes humility. The jailer in the Acts fell down at Paul and Silas feet. There he humbled himself. straightways( saith the story) He was baptized, and all his house. Saint Pauls self God humbled; not himself; a rebel against Christ. Christ feld him to the ground; theres an humiliation, in Grammatticall sense, not in metaphor. As the jailor cried to him, so cried he to Christ, Domine, quid vis faciam? Lord what wilt thou, that I do? So the people at the preaching of Saint Peter and John Baptist, humbled first by their Doctrine, cry all, Quid faciemus? What shall wee do? Still after humiliation follows a Quid faciam. No man is truly humbled but obeys.  
As it is with men, so it was with Christ. Thrice he humbled himself, prayed prostrate on mount Olivet before his Passion. Indeed his human will desired to live, prayed against that cup and hour. But he checked that will instantly; and in all obedience submitted it to Gods: Fiat voluntas tua. Twas fit he should▪ for was he not Gods son? He called God Father in that prayer. sons obey earthly parents; Christ would much more his. Yea Saint Paul saith to the Hebrewes, Chap. 5. ver. 8. that Christ by his sufferings learned to obey; {αβγδ}, his humiliation taught him to obey. To end this, Divines observe in Christ a twofold obedience; Active, his perfect performing of the Law; and Passive, his patient endurance of the curse. The former I omit,( tis parergon) fits not either Text or time. The latter is my Theme; tis it Saint Paul means; and this Day requires it; Christs Passive obedience. There are many kindes of it: you have heard of some already; Christs usage, his course usage before Herod and Pilat, and by the Priests and people. The chief remain, and follow here; the utmost extremity, Death; and the basest indignity, the cross.  
Now craves this Argument a Chrysostome, a Nazianzen, an eloquent Apollos, mighty in the Scriptures, and fervent in the Spirit, to press Christs Passion, to express his pains, to preach Christs funeral Sermon. weep not you that can choose, wonder not you that conceive not your Saviours sufferings on this Day, for your sins, and in your stead. In mans redemption Saint Chrysostome found five wonders, {αβγδ} they are his words. Twas wonder-worthy, God would be pleased to he reconciled to man, who had displeased, despised so mighty a creator: Base clay-clod man, a despicable worm, the King of heavens inexplicable deity. Great persons are irreconcilable. The wonder greater, Quod per filium, would, to save man, humble his own son; for a servant, for a slave, Sathanae mancipium. A slave? An enemy. Will a man part from his son, to gratify his Friend? The basest beggar will not, will bear it rather at his back. Wonder more yet, quod per sanguinem. Christ must not onely become man, but miserable man. Many men are high and honourable. Termed I a man a slave? Surely Christ was used like one, made bleed, whipped with scurges, crwoned with thorns. Oh my hard, stony, flinty heart! Christ bled; I weep not. tears are but water: can I not spare them? My God sweat blood.  
Saint Chrysostome hath two wonders yet, greater than all these, these in my Text, Christs Death, and cross. Of the cross anon; first of his Death. Sufficed not blood, four bloods? From the Circumcisers knife, in his agony, from the Scourges, and thorns. Saint Paul saith, There is no Remission {αβγδ}, without shedding of blood But bloodshed serves not. God will humble his Son &c. Will God humble his son, his Son himself yet further, even to Death? Men and brethren, I will now no more bid you to wonder. I will cry with jeremy, wonder ye Heavens for this. And so they did, heaven and earth both, both in their kind. The earth shooke, and the stones rent at Christs yielding up the Ghost. And Chrysostomes five wonders, heaven quitted with five more. The Sun fell in Eclipse, and {αβγδ}, behold five wonders in the Eclipse. The Sun is never eclipsed, but at new moon. It was then full moon. The Suns Eclipse can be but partial▪ twas total then. The suins darkness lasts not long: It did then three houres. And the Eclipse began at the wrong side of the Sun: and so it ended too. So many wonders at one time, that a great Astronomer then in Egypt, beholding the Eclipse, and little knowing of Christs Death, cried out in admiration, Aut Deus naturae patitur, either the god of the world is now suffering some violence; or the frame of the world will fall instantly a sunder.  
Nor will I now bid you weep any more: But I will say, weep ye heavens for this. And so they did, Heaven and Earth both, both in their kind. The eclipsed sun hooded his face, put on {αβγδ}, saith Amphilochius, clad his whole body with darkness, as with a sable rob, to be a mourner at Christs Death. The earth trembled with grief, and rent her heart, i. the stones with sorrow. Nay she would not be comforted, but opened her graves, as it were her bowels. Oh the senseless and graceless stupidity of men, of me, of many, of most men, that have no compassion on Christs Passion! when, our sins be the cause, the sole cause of his sufferings, yet  shed not a tear on the day of his Death![ Christ cried alloud, and strongly. His cries Saint Paul calls Strong, Saint matthew Loud, and needs they must be so: both strong, that rent the stones, and loud, that raised the Dead.] Nay that in singularity feast upon this Day, for fear of superstition; or else in sensuality, hawk, hunt, and dice, and dance away this Day.  
His death, yet( if you please) worthy more wonderment. Let us wonder again, we never can enough at this admirable Act of Christs Humiliation. You heard before of Chrysostomes five wonders. Christs Death was but one of them. Let me add to them three more, all in Christs Death. I say, for Christ to die, there are three wonders more. First, that he would, we being his enemies. sin had made us so. Will one friend die for an other?[ One happily will. Nisus would for Euryalus, Me, me, adsum qui feci. And yet Poets will feign, writ Mira●da, not Cred enda. A father will for a son, David for Absalon, Would God I had died for thee. Never any for an enemy.] The second, that he should. Death is sins wages; Christ had none, knew none. Adam had not died, had he not sinned, had lived till this day. Lastly, that he could, being the son of God. That the everliving God should die, like man; that the Lord of Life should suffer Death; that the ancient of dayes, as Daniel titles God, and he whose yeares can not fail, as David speaks of him, should yet give up the Ghost.  
Is this the immortal King, Saint Pauls term? That dwells in immortality? Esayes {αβγδ} Father of eternity? Everlasting God, that lasted a few yeares, and died; lived not half a mans age. A mans age David defines it threescore yeares and ten. Many live many more. Christ not half so many, not thirty five. Theres one saith, fifty, Irenaeus doth; An error. Say Christ did; yet thats scarce half of some mens yeares, some of our mens. Men have lived since the flood four or five hundred yeares; before it twice as long. jacob more than one hundred, many more: and yet he said, his yeares were few. Christ saw not the fourth part of them. Daniels ancient of dayes, dies a young man. Such speed made God to die for man; hastened to death, to work us life; would shorten his life, to sweeten his grace, {αβγδ}. He spurred Iudas to dispatch, Quod facis, fac cito, that thou dost, do quickly. he needs no spur, whom satan drives; yet he pricks him on; thought the Priests Officers very slack too, quickened them also;  told them, twas he, they sought. They went backward and fell;  told them again twas he; put himself into their hands. satan hastened his end; himself hastened it more. So hungered Christ after our health, thought it long, till he delivered us. himself saith it, Luke 12. 50. that he was pained till it was done.  
But Ad quid tanta profusio? Why would our Saviour humble himself thus? His least humiliation was Meriti infiniti, the lightest of Gods sufferings sufficed to ransom man. Etiam non moriendo, even though he had not died. Tis a Popes saying, Saint Gregories, but the first Pope of that name and the best; and the saying sound▪ well construed. God could have saved us many ways. Tis not my speech, but Saint Austins. Late learned Writers say the same; Peter Martyr doth. Potuit said noluit, tis Saint Austins too. He could, but would not, choose this way, by Christs humiliation. Yea by Christs humbling of himself thus far, even unto death. Weigh Christs least suffering by the worth; it would have served to save ten worlds. But God in counsel decreed this, Christs Death and cross: and therefore Christ must suffer both. Other, the least, had merit too, Meritum infinitum. But his Death and cross had Meritum definitum. What God in his Will, and his Spirit in his word had once set down, that must be done: and therefore Christs self saith, Luke 24. Ought not Christ suffer these things? And thus it behoved him to suffer, tis there too. Theres H●c,& Sic, Thus, and these things, i. Death and the cross;& Oportuit, of them both. he must be humbled so.  
Thus low the Lord humbled himself: lower he could not. Death called by the Civilians, ultimum Supplicium, the farthest pain. Theres no Plus Vltra, nothing after death. The cross is here: but thats for the indignity. Else tis before it; before it in the Creed, Crucifixus& Mortuus; death is last. Death hath a follower, Apoc. 6. 8. tis hell; and some do humble Christ to it, even to infernal torments. I dare not. Christ( it seems) did not himself. If he did, Saint Paul is to blame, to omit it here; a worse degree of Selfe-humiliation, then all the rest. Death and cross are short of it. Scripture puts mans Redemption on Christs Blood onely, and these two, his Death and cross. And In Rebus Fidei, matters of Faith, Scripture phrase shall confine me.  
To end this, Death of all dreadful things, the Philosopher calls, {αβγδ}, most terrible, called by job, King of terrors. Nature shuns it, flies it, will suffer torture, to scape it. satan though a liar, said that true, A man will give all that he hath for his Life: but not his life, for all that the World hath. God had no greater terror, to fray Adam from the forbidden fruit, then Morieris, thou shalt die. I will not die, saith David. David would not; but Christ would, Davids son. Man will not, when he must; yields, but of force. Christ would, and needed not; needed not, but that he would; dyed, quia volvit, you heard before, because he would. Why say I, needed not? himself saith Oportuit, he ought, and must. Must, because Man. All men must die. Christ must come under statute, if he will be Man, Saint Paul saith, statutum est, Heb. 9. 27. Death to man is a Statute, Omnibus, to All men. Tanti constitit nasci Deum, if God will be Incarnate, and be born a Man, then he must die. But still Must, Quia volvit. Death came by sin, had not been, but for it; is but where it is. Christ having none, needed not die. Say, Death had been, though sin had not, as once Pelagius said: yet was Christ free. Kings privilege their sons from many laws, Satutum est, reached not to him. Yet even to Death, fearful to All flesh, the Word, made flesh, humbled himself. His Flesh, though Gods, feared it, like ours; sweat for fear of it, his sweat blood; prayed to escape it, thrice, and earnestly. At that instant it did; but instantly yielded, Non quod ego volo, humbled itself even unto Death. I must break off this Argument, though loathe. The cross craves audience too; a Word of it.  
Was Death an horror? Whats the cross? its far more horrible. The kind of Death is oft more fearful, then Deaths self. The cross is▪ a shameful, a painful, an Accursed death. For shane, foedum Supplicium, a filthy death, Alexander ab Alexandro so termeth it. Tis Superlative in Saint Bernard, Mors turpissima, a most filthy death. The like in greek in Nonnos, {αβγδ}, a most opprobrious death. And that use julian the Apostata makes of it, calls Christ in despite, {αβγδ}, the Crucified, the Staked God. For pain, Saint Bernard had Turpissima, but Durissima withall, a hard, a grievous, tis Superlative too, a most grievous death. Some other may seem worse, the wheel, Fire, Lentus Ignis, Gideons thorns, many in the times of the ten Persecutors. The tormenting pains of any Death, who can tell, save the Sufferer? That Christs was exquisite, his cries, {αβγδ} Saint Pauls phrase, his strong cries argue, strong cries for strong pains; like the cries of Women in their pains. His pains like theirs, called so by Saint Peter Act. 2. 24. indeed greater, but he had no greater word for them. Tantus angor, saith Luther, such anguish never man endured. How can he tell? hear Christs self, that felt it, Lam. 2. 24. See( there saith our Saviour) see, if any Sorrow were ever like to mine. That it was a strange slip in Saint Hilary, a learned and godly Bishop, to deny Omnem sensum doloris, that our Saviour felt not any pain at all. For the Curse, Scripture is plain, {αβγδ}, accursed be every one, that hangs upon the three. And its Superlative too, accursed above all kindes of Death, Nihil execrabilius, saith Saint Augustine, none more accursed then it. And this doth Saint Paul mean, when he saith, that Christ was made a curse for us, Gal. 3. 13. that is, yielded himself to a cursed death for us. Tis not my gloss, but the Fathers.  
Say, Christ would di●▪ He might have chosen yet some fairer death. But as he dyed, Quia volvit, because he would; so dyed he also, Quomodo volvit, as he would Not to death onely, but to this shameful, painful, cursed death, death of the cross, humbled he himself. Charos habuit, quos tam charè emerat, He loved us dearly, that bought us so dearly. Death was sins debt; and Christ would pay it. But must he pay it so? sin necessitated death; but not the kind of death. Would not some other serve? Sufficed it not {αβγδ} to be slain? Christ foretold that. But must it needs be {αβγδ} Crucified too? Would not( Tolle) suffice, two Tolles, away, away with him; but it must be Tolle in Crucem, two of them too, crucify, crucify him. Would Christ be a sin-offering? and must the cross be the Altar?  
Christ would {αβγδ}, be put to death. Die naturally he could not, as we do. Adam should not, had he not fallen. God made Man immortal. Christ, but that he would, needed not die. Age could not wear him. sickness is from distemper: Christ could not be sick. He must be put to death, if he will die. Nor could he that neither, but that he would. As God; nay as man, Man in Gods image, without sin, is not subject to death, to any death, natural or violent. Yet Christ willing to die, why would he die thus? The Iewes offered to ston him, offered twice. Christ would not die so. They would have thrown him down from the edge of an hill. Neither would he die so. He would die thus. A shameful death, painful, and accursed; to free all sinners, from all three, shane, pain, and curse, all due to sin.  
Blessed be this day; tis surnamed good; tis well worthy: on which such good, so much good was done for us. Twas an accursed death; but the day is blessed, is, and will be, for ever. God be blessed on it and for it, by all Christians. I dare not bless the cross; twill be misconstrued. Worship it I will not; but honour it I will. The Church hath ever. Ist for nought? to Christ Mortifera, but to us Salutifera, saith Saint Augustine, brought death to him, wrought Life to us. The cross of Christ, a crown to Christians. And Christian Kings all crest their Crownes with it. Blessed be the Father, whose son dyed on it. Blessed be the son, who humbled himself to it. unto both which blessed Persons, with the Spirit of them both, be worthily ascribed all Blessing, all Thanksgiving, this blessed Day, and evermore.   

THE PASSION OF our BLESSED saviour. The fourth Sermon. PREACHED VPON GOOD-FRYDAY.  1 PET. 2. 24● 
{αβγδ}  
By whose stripes ye were healed.  
THE Argument o● my Text is the Epitome of the gospel:[ Esay is an Evangelist:] reduced to two Heads, Christs Passion, and mans Redemption. But four significant words. Of which, because the last is put in physic Metaphor, wee are healed. I will fit the rest to that; And observe in this short Scripture these four particulars, a physician, a medicine, a Patient, and a Cure.  
For the first, the physician is not named, but noted onely. But the Note note-worthy; the whole Testament hath not the like, two Relatives at once, in the original; as if I should say, Cujus liv●re ejus santi sumus, by whose stripes of his we are healed. Let us turn the first into an Interrogative, and ask, Cujus livore, by whose stripes are we healed? look back( for the Notes bid us) to verse 21. there he is named, tis Christ. He is the physician, an honourable one. Wise Nestor saith in Homer, {αβγδ} a physician is {αβγδ}, a man more worth than many, {αβγδ} a man, a physician. The physician here is God. The Patient here could not be cured by man, by mere man. It must be Christ, Gods son, Gods self: By his stripes we are healed.  
Is there no balm in Gilead? None in Ashur to heal Ephraim? Can neither jew, nor gentle, can not the whole earth afford us a physician, but our health must come from heaven? Nay, not any in heaven neither, either Saint or angel; not Raphael himself, that hath his name of Healing, able to relieve us, but onely Gods own son? O the dangerous, desperate, deadly disease of sin, that none can heal but God? That is not purged but by blood onely, {αβγδ} saith the Apostle, without bloodshed no remission, and that the blood of God. Must wee bring water out of a rock for you? saith Moses. Here is more. Must God fetch blood out of a rock for us? Petra erat Christus, The rock is Christ. Must God bleed to medicine man? For so Paul calls it, Act. 20. 28. th● blood of God. Sin is not Homicida only, but Deicida too saith Ber. slays not man only, but God too: slays that, saith Basil, that can not be slain: the immortal soul. He makes that strange. What is this? The immortal God? Say, it were no more then the term here in my Text; not Death, but Stripes. Must the purging of man, be by the scourging of God? To tame a lion, they use to beat a dog. But here the lion is beaten for the Dog; the generous lion of the tribe of judah, beaten for the sinner, a dog, a dead dog.  
sin is a sore, which none but God can salue. There is an evil, which Kings cure; called therefore the Kings evil. sin is Gods evil; Gods self cures it in person. Such was his love, he would; such was our need, he must. he must, or wee must: he must suffer, or wee must perish. Christ saith, Oportet, the son of man must suffer. But that son of man, is the son of God. Tis God heals all infirmities, Psal. 103. both heals them, that is, covers them; go not to the Pope for pardon, tis Gods prerogative: and heals them, that is, cures them. Trust not the Mediation and merits of dead Saints, nor the alms and orisons of living men. Multitudo medicorum perdidit Caesa rem. One ●ole physician serves the soul: Christ is that one. If it call for more, it will perish under them. Let the Papist pray, Tu per Thomae sanguinem, crave health by Thomas Beckets blood, God teach me to say, Tu per Christi sanguinem, to beg it by Christ Iesus blood. He is that three in the Revelation, 2. 22. That heals the nations. Sing with David, Sana me Domine. Say with jeremy; Lord, heal me, and I shall be healed. Peter said to Aeneas, Iesus Christ maketh thee whole: he meant of the body. But tis as true of the soul, and Peters speech too, Non est in alio, there is no health, but in him onely. Tis engraven in his name, Iesus, a Saviour; not onely in the Hebrew, but in the Greek too; even the term in my Text alludes to it. And Epiphanius confirms it, {αβγδ}, a healer, {αβγδ} a physician. Cyril joins both etymologies together, saith Iesus is called worthily, {αβγδ}, there is both a Saviour and physician too. Tis Christs own cry, Esay 43. Ego sum, Ego sum, it is I, I alone; there is no Saviour besides me.  
Theres one excepts one, he that made the Mariale, is bold to join the Mother to the son, makes mary help her son to heal. Nay, makes the Mother to thrust out the son, bids fly to her name onely; that alone will serve to heal. Then Saint Peter wrote false greek, and Esay but bad He brew, By his stripes we are healed; they should have said, by Hers. Let them either leave Saint Peters chair, or hold them unto Saint Peters Faith, Non est nomen aliud, there is none other name under heaven; no nor in it neither, by which we must be saved.  
But besides the Oportet, or need of him to heal us, that he must, or none; there is a Complacuit too. God of his Love to us, would by his stripes work health to us. A Love-worthy double wonderment, both in the Father, that would not spare his son, and in his son, that would not spare himself. For the first, will a Father part from the fruit of his body, to gratify his friend? Or will a Mother give away the child of her own womb? The basest beggar will not, but will rather bear it at her back. But God hath, Dedit, saith our Saviour, he hath given us his onely begotten son, and that( Dedit) is a( Tradidit,) the Fathers so construe it, hath delivered him to death for us. God spared Abrahams son, and sent a ram to ransom him. When Abrahams knife was even at Isaacks throat; an angel cried to him to hold his hand. He did not so unto his own; but committed him to the mood and malice of the Iewes to be tormented, to be slaughtered. Say, there was an Oportet, Mans sin must have a sacrifice; must the Father be the Priest? For so he was authoritativè though not executivè. Say, the son must be the sufferer: must the Sire needs be the Offerer? Could there be found none other to give him up but God? The Father so far to forget all affection, to sacrifice his son? And for the son, say, he would appease his Father with an offering, would he find nothing to offer, but himself? O altitudo! Oh the depth of the riches of the love of God! Was there no ransom for the sin of man, but onely the offering of the son of God? The Altar was the cross; and must Christ be the crucifix? Peters advice is plausible, Propitius tibi esto, every man will favour, who will not? Spare himself? Christ would not. he might have said with Moses, Mitte per quem mittes, Father, sand some other. But he said with Esay, Ecce ego, mitte me, Here am I, sand none but me.  
sin( saith Saint Augustine) Aut sanabitur, aut damnabitur, must be either healed, or damned. Gods son would heal it by his own blood. Per semet ipsum( saith the Apostle) himself hath purged it by himself. Twas he, was stripped, {αβγδ}, saith Matthew, was whipped, Pilat scourged Iesus, the Text saith; was crucified, The Lord of glory, saith the Apostle. Basilides that gross heretic, said it was he: Irenaeus so writes of him. Twas not Christs self was crucified, but Simon of Cyren in his shape, and Christ stood by invisible. The Centurion shall judge him; certainly( saith he) this was the son of God. Nay Atheists shall judge him: Lucian that profane deride of Religion calls him {αβγδ}, the Crucified Sophister; a Sophister, but crucified. Though he believed not in Christ crucified, yet he confessed Christ was crucified.  
Physitians sometimes heal by blood, but their Patients blood, or some Fowles or Beasts blood, not by their own. he bore our sins, saith Saint Peter in his body. Which to force us to note( tis in the very verse) he doubles here the Relative, {αβγδ}, by whose stripes of his, wee, saith Esay, ye saith Peter, that is, all men are healed. A note ( I said before) note-worthy. The Actor, and the Instrument are not lightly one. here they are, {αβγδ}, Epiph. Christ is both Priest, and Sacrifice. Or( as Saint Augustine speaks to the physic metaphor) Ipse Medicus, ipse Medicina, both physic, and physician. The Priests of Aarons order cured sin too in their kind. They wrought the same Act, but by other instrument: by blood, like Christ, but by the blood of beasts. Hostia was Bestia, beasts were sin-offrings. Both they and He  shed blood, but they {αβγδ}, saith Chrysost. they the blood of others, he his own; both {αβγδ}, Cyril. both {αβγδ}, Naz. both Sacrifice and Priest. Thus much for the physician.  
The physic follows, it is Stripes. Stripes should seem rather to make sore, then sound; to wound, then heal. A strange medicine to cure a sickness. I find in Scripture a Shaft, and Shield of Health, a Helmet, and a horn of Health; but not a Stripe of Health. I red of sin to be punished by Stripes, psalm 89. chastened with rods, there too. But of disease cured by Stripe, but onely once: Iasons imposthume, which Physitians could not cure, was cured in fight by the stroke of a Sword. tully reports it. here is mans sin healed by Gods Stripe, one stripe healed by another; sin the Serpents sting, Sathans stripe, healed by Christs stripe. As the young Pelicanes hurt by the Serpent, the damme cures with her blood. Christ healed many by his Words; Verbis, and that was miraculous. But to heal any by his Stripes, Verberibus, especially passive stripes, vapulabat& curabat, saith Augustine that exceeds all Wonders. Mirabile& Incomparabile, tis Augustines too, not strange alone, but incomparably strange, that the physician must be sick, that the Patient may be whole.  
Christ to heal sin, must suffer, must suffer( multa) many things, Math. 16. Hunger, thirst, temptation, scorn, contumely, bands; all far unfit for God to suffer: and yet these were the least and lightest. But his sacred Body to be beat with scourges, Foedum Supplicium, as a schoolman calls it, a pain so base, as might not be inflicted on a burgess of Rome, to lay it on the Lord of Heaven, Oh the bowels of his love, that suffered it! Oh the prodigiousnesse of sin, that caused it! Why healed he not our sin by some Apothecaries drugs? Solomon disables them, neither herb, saith he, nor plaster; but Christs Stripe. Not the stripe of a reed, though they smote him with that too, that was not {αβγδ}, that haply drew no blood. Not the stripe of a rod; they thought that pain too mildred for him. But they did {αβγδ}, whip him with sharp scourges. Nor were his stripes but few; though the number here be singular, tis an ordinary Trope, one put for a multitude. Being scourged for us, who know our masters will, but do it not, his stripes were many. He that had not( as Saint Augustine saith) peccati vestigium, the print of any sin, had the print of many stripes. There was indeed in the scourgings of the Iewes, plagarum modus, a stint of stripes, Deut. 25. they might not exceed forty. But Christ here sentenced by the roman judge, was scourged( tis likely) after the roman use. Twife it is thought; and that of purpose in most cruel manner, to move the people( if it might be) to compassion. One Officer sufficient to chasten many: four set to torture one, as is gathered by the parting of his robes into four parts, and those four all souldiers, men lightly neither of the lightest hands, nor softest hearts. Nay there is a Spanish Postiller, writes I know not on what ground, that the Iewes fearing Pilate would discharge him after stripes, gave money to the Officers, to scourge him to death. And for the instruments, it was but quasi flagellum, Saint Iohns term, but( as it were) a whip, and but of small cords, with which Christ drove the buyers and sellers out of the temple. This was {αβγδ}, not {αβγδ}, a scourge, a scorpion, that Christ was beaten with. Saint mark indeed hath but {αβγδ}, he would but set forth the indignity: but Saint John to express the extremity too, hath {αβγδ}, the more cruel term, yet all this was but stripes.  
But Stripes though sore, though many, would not serve. Etiam vilescam adhuc, as David said to Michal, ●hrist would be yet more vile, suffer yet more shane, more pain to h●ale our sins, wounds, death, the cross, durissimam& turpissimam, Bernards terms, the most grievous and most odious execution, that they had. The term in my Text hath a double Synecdoche, one stripe for many, and stripes for his whole passion. Christ would approportion his sufferings to our sins. As our sins are from the crown of our head to the sole of our foot, Esay; so were Christs wounds; his head crowned with thorns, his feet nailed to the cross, t●tum est pro corporae vulnus. Not touched onely, as the Hebrew word signifies ver. 4. and yet God bids, touch not his anointed; not touched alone, but smitten: not that onely, but blood drawn, yea wounded and broken, ver. 5. One may touch without stroke; Thomas touched him, handled him. One may be smitten and not bleed; they smote him with their hands, and with a reed. Nor is every bloodshed called a wound. His head bled, pricked with the thorns, his back lashed with the scourges, his whole body in his agony: and yet his wounds are counted but five onely, two in his hands, as many in his feet, and the fifth in his side. Call them what you please, here is blood store. Christs blood Peter calls precious. Surely it seemed not so to Pilate, and the Iewes, they made no spare of it, totus pro corpore sanguis, Christ nothing but blood; not Grumi, drops onely, as in his agony, but unda sanguinis, saith Bernard, a flood of blood. That that which Zipporah, Moses wife said unto her husband, Sponsus sanguinum es mihi, thou art a bloody spouse to me; and yet that blood was her Infants, not her own, and that  shed but once, Christ may justly say to the Church, which is his Spouse, Sponsa sanguinum es mihi, thou art a bloody Spouse to me. I pray you note the number, Sponsus sanguinum, Grammar hardly bears it, but the original is so. We are not born ex sanguinibus, joh. 1. 13. but we are healed ex sanguinibus, not by one blood, but by many, that is, by blood  shed often.  
Ad quid perditio haec? What needs all this profuse effusion of blood? The Oportet did not necessitate so much. One drop would have sufficed to have healed the whole world. Nay what needed blood at al? Not only not his death, but not his stripes, nay not the least indignity, that he suffered all his life, was of absolute necessity. The least ache of his least finger had been Meriti insiniti, meritorious enough to have medecind all the world. But his Blood, his Death, his cross was Meriti definiti; God had determined it: and thence came the Oportet; both that he should suffer, and he should suffer so. Christs Passion, both the Matter and the Manner too, both have the Oportet. look Luke 24. 26. theres Oportet haec, and ver. 46. theres Oportet sic. Else God might have healed us sine hoc holocausto, without sacrificing him, faith Cypr. Quis negat,( saith Saint Bernard,) that Almighty God might have found out other means for Mans Redemption. Etiam non moriendo, Greg. Christ could have relieved us, and not have dyed for us. His onely Incarnation could have cured us. As the Centurion said to Christ, Lord, say but the word; and my Servant shall be whole: So might the Sinner say to God, Lord, sand but the word; and thy Servant shall be whole. Nay in the Centurions very terms, Lord say but the word. The curse of sin God could have canceld, etiam sine Adventu, even without 
Ser. 19. de Sanctis, Ep. p. 499. B.  Christs Incarnation. Athan. God could have cured us otherwise, Sapienter& Fortiter, Augustine, in his Power and wisdom: but he would do it Suaviter: and therefore took our flesh, to bear our pain in his own person. He would suffer stripes, he would suffer death for us.  
Why God would work by blood, what he could have wrought by 
Ep. 190.  word, ask him, saith Bernard, I know, Quod ita, but not Cur ita, That he did so, but not Why he did so. And yet one Why Christ yields himself: Sic Deus dilexit, a great cause, and a sweet, the Love of God. Christi viscera patent per vulnera, Bernard. Christs Passion came of his Compassion. That Love bread the Decree, that Christ should die. That Decree brought the Oportet, that he must die. And that death brought our health.  
Tis but Stripes in my Text; but thats by figure, a {αβγδ}, more meant, then said; his Stripes put for his death. Not that Saint Peter; meant to extenuate Christs Passion by a terminus diminuens: for in the beginning of the verse, the cross is mentioned too, and his death implied under it; by which death we are healed. Not as judah said of jacob and Benjamin, the life of the father hung on the life of the son: 
Lib. 22. c. 22. de civit. dei de Trin. 10.  but our life hangeth on Christs death, our health, on his stripes. Medicamenta be tormenta, Saint Augustine saith, tis true here, our Medicine is Christs Torment. I will not hear Saint Hilary, that faith, Christs 
storm. 6. p. 276.  Passion had no pain. He wrongs Christ much. It was Clements error too, that Christ did not suffer, could not suffer pain. I will not argue it; tis but a parergon. Onely but hear the Prophet crying in Christs person, Si est dolor, sicut meus, See if any sorrow, any grief be peer to his.  
To end this second term; it seems some hang not their health on Christs stripes; no nor on his death. They will have Christ to have suffered for our sins, the pain due unto our sins; the whole pain due unto our sins: which is not death onely, but hell too. But the Scripture determines Christs Passion in his death. That they will grant too. But they will have Christ to have suffered hell alive, hell in his soul. Mens conceits are free: but Gods word warrants but his death onely to redeem us. His blood was a full satisfaction for our sins. the dignity of his Person supplied the rest of Gods sentence on our si●ne. His blood alone was of merit infinite; because, as you have heard, it was the blood of God. For how was Adams sin infinite, that it should be punished with Hell, a pain infinite? But because it was committed against God, who is infinite. Even so was Christs Death infinite, because it was suffered by Gods son, who is infinite. That Christ should suffer the pains of hell in soul, let heretics hold it,( twas first their paradox) it is not worthy of Calvin and Danaeus, or any learned Protestant. A drop of Christs blood, being the son of God, is equipollent to all the pains of hell. I have once or twice before lighted on this point. Saint Austin shall conclude it, Quis audeat dicere▪ Who dareth be so bold, saith Saint Augustine, as to say that Christ 
Epist. 99.  suffered death in his soul.  
The next point is the Patient; Gods son himself hath suffered, suffered much; but cvi bon●, to whose benefit? The physician hath ministered physic to himself, but not for himself. For he ailed nothing. The stripes were his; but the health is ours. The change of Person is worthy much wonderment; the medicine applied to one, the cure wrought on another. He scourged, we healed. Christ took the physic, but to medicine us. Is he not our Head? As to cure the body being sick, the Head is fain to drink a bitter potion: so we, that are Christs members, being sick of sin, Christ, who is our Head, is fain to take the physic, a loathsome and irksome purgation, to heal us. Not a dose of oxymel, Vinegar and honey, sour and sweet together; but Vinegar and gull, whatsoever; to heal us.  
The Project of Christs Passion was to ransom man. charity( they say) à semetipsa incipit, begins at home. Christs charity did not; it began, proceeded, and ended, all in us. Whatsoever our Saviour either ferebat or gerebat, either did, or abidde, it was for us. Both Natus nobis,& datus nobis, Esay 9. 6. he was delivered out of the womb for us, and he was delivered up to death for us. For us men Incarnatus, saith the Nicene creed, and for us men condemnatus, bread for us, and dead for us. Tis ten times in this Chapter, that his suffering was for us.  
We are healed? Who we? Wee, whose father is corruption, and the worms our sisters, and kindswomen, Iobes terms. worms our sisters? worms ourselves: both job and David call us so. Gods self in Esay calls us so. Wee, whose strength is as the leaf, the faded leaf, and our substance as the dry stubble; loathsomeness our beginning, and rottenness our end. Gods honourable and blessed son was scourged for miserable and wretched man: the son beat for the servant; Vt redimatur servus, mactatur filius, Aug. The sun slain for the servant. again, who we? We that are ficke of sin, spiritually sick. Christs cure is not meant of corporal diseases, because Christs cure which he wrought on their bodies was an earnest of the health: And therefore in Saint Peter, it follows on this Text, That we all are gone astroy, all of us lost sheep. Christ came not to save, but that which was lost. The whole have no need of the physician, but the sick. The finner is Christs Patient. The Pharisee is a Saint; his own inherent righteousness serves to secure him; he is safe without a Saviour: he is no Nominative case to this verb. Christ is a shepherd; all men are his sheep. But he that straies not, him Christ seeks not. For he was not sent, but to the lost sheep. It is a sweet saying, and worthy all embracing, that Iesus Christ came into the world, to save sinners.  
An other thing remarkable; the number is changed too, not the Person onely. He scourged, we healed. Ad unum poena, salus redundat ad plurimos, by ones mans stripes comes all mens health. he healed hundreds in his life, but thousands in his death; he healed all. S. John saith, the whole world. The Tense being Aorist insinuates all times, our Ancestors, ourselves, our posterity, have been, are, shall be healed by him. All ages have their health from him. Siraks son saith, iniquity is as a twoedged sword; the wounds of it can not be healed. He means, it can not by the Art of man; but by the smart of God it can. All sinners have interest in Christs cure, that will; that will embrace it. We would have healed Babylon, saith God, but she would not. Onely infidelity doth Ponere obicem, shuts the door on the physician, bolts and bars him out. He died for all, {αβγδ}, as much as lay in him, saith Chrysost. His Passion was {αβγδ}, a counterpoise, saith Chrysost. to the sins of all the world. That all have not health, is because all have not faith. Saint Ambrose shall end this, Christ was solutor aeris, alieni, the debt was ours, but Christ hath paid it: he paid what we ought. God can not ask it us. He hath satisfied the creditor, and wee have Gods acquittance. So much for the Patient.  
The Cure is last; tis Health. Strange that such physic should work such effect; that stripes should heal. But Medico omnipotenti, saith Saint Augustine; When God almighty will be the physician, every thing will be a medicine. Strange the touch of one corpse should revive an other, 2 King. 13. But it was a Prophets corpse. Strange, Salt should help either bitterness of water, or barrenness of land; more likely to hurt both. But a Prophet did it too. Strange, day and spittle, should make a blind mansee, Sputum& lutum, an ointment likelier to make one blind. But twas Christ, Gods anointed, that anointed him. He whose spittle anneald him, by his stripes hath healed us. God can bring light out of darkness, life out of death. Said Austine, Medicamenta, were Tormenta, medicines are torments? We may turn the terms, Tormenta be Medicamenta, Christs torments are our ease. The cross, which( saith Saint Augustine) was Mortifera unto Christ, brought death to him, was salutifera to Christians, wrought health to us.  
The Preacher saith, there is a time to kill, and a time to heal. Both met here together; the killing of Christ was the healing of Christians. Virtus mea Domini infirmitas, the Lords weakness is our strength, saith Ambrose. do men gather grapes on thorns? Christian men do. The blood of Christs thorns, is the blood of our grapes, our wine in the Sacrament: His blood called therefore by the Fathers {αβγδ}, sovereign blood; and the wine in the Eucharist, the type of Christs blood, the figure of salvation, Nazianzens term, {αβγδ}, Chrysostome hath Saint Peters term, Christs gull was our honey, His vinegar our health. Crux, Mors, Inferi, his cross, his Death, his Hell, our Life, saith hilary. 
Lib. 2. de Tri.  Yea his cross( saith Damascen) our {αβγδ} the health both of our soul and body. His Death, {αβγδ} our {αβγδ} Amphiloch. His Death our immortality: Sanguis Christi, clavis Paradisi, Hier. not our health onely, but our heaven to, the blood of Christ, the key of Paradise. The Fathers are rich in these resemblances.[ For is he not Life? Ego sum vita. Is he not health? Salutare tuum, saith simeon, Gods saving health] Cure presupposeth sickness. For why should there be {αβγδ}, where there are not {αβγδ}, what needs Remedy, where is no Malady? Cure( I say) presumes sickness, or disease, some wound or maim, or some unsoundness. What is sin, but a sickness? {αβγδ}, the souls sickness, saith Saint Balsil. Bernard calls Malos mores, malos humores, sin a right peccant humour, as Physitians speak. Esay calls sins Languores, 53. 4. that is sicknesses. The palsy, the apoplexy, the fever of the soul, the Fathers terms all. Adams sin a leprosy; like that of Gehezi, it cleft to himself and to his seed for ever. Nay, the sinner is not onely sick, head sick, heart sick, Esay 1. 5. but wounded too; all so●es and swellings: Running sores; My sore ran, saith David, His pain not in one part, as the Shunamites sons, My head, my head; as Ieremies, My belly, my belly: but sick and sore all over. Non est sanitas, there is no whole part in him; and the pain so great, that David roard in the sense of it. And this, not for a fit, dolor, si gravis, brevis, the sick mans comfort, sharp pain, but short. But sin lies ledger in the soul; the sinner sick to day, to morrow, this month, the next, whole yeares, many yeares; not 12. like the woman with the flux of blood; not thirty eight, like the sick man at Bethesda; but all his life; and that without any Lucida intervalla. Yea life is Punee unto sin: Man is sick of it from the womb, born in sin, saith David; from the seed, conceived in sin: sins before he breaths. Prius incipit macula quam vita. Amb. in Apologia David, Cap. 11. That is for the length of it; and for the strength, sick dangerously, desperately; even unto the death, death both of soul and body everlastingly in Hell.  
Of this fearful sickness, by Christs stripes wee are healed. His blood hath cleansed us, hath washed us, Saint Iohns terms, hath purged our sin, saith Paul, all our sin. It is the right woundwort, that sovereign Panacea, which c●res all diseases. he heals( saith David) all our infirmities; not heals them onely, that is, covers them; but he cures them, he removes them: Tollit( saith John the Baptist) he takes them quiter away. His healing us, consists in wholly quitting us both à culpa,& à poena, both in abolishing of sin, and in vanquishing of death, both first and second death. Wee die still indeed: but to the just, death is no punishment. Mortem( saith Bernard) quam pertulit, sustulit, Christ by dying hath slain death; {αβγδ}, justin Martyr; Death is put to death: I say, Christs stripes have healed both stain and pain. sins whole debt, Christ hath discharged; nothing for us to pay; no not in Purgatory. No relicke of sin uncured; no arrearage of pain unpaied. Bellarmine faith there is some; but Canus as great a Bishop, and as learned as he, saith there is none. Christs satispassion ( Luthers term) is our satisfaction, his sole satispassion our whole satisfaction. It hath made us 〈◇〉 whole. By Christ Crucified, we are justified. I must end; Christ is 〈◇〉 〈◇〉 〈◇〉 physician indeed; verè medicus. Epip 〈…〉 a right 〈◇〉 〈◇〉 〈◇〉 purged our sin, and made 〈◇〉 〈◇〉 〈◇〉 〈◇〉 〈◇〉 {αβγδ}; and he hath given us his Spirit, to 〈◇〉 and 〈◇〉 〈◇〉 not sin hereafter, the other part of 〈◇〉 〈◇〉 〈◇〉 vative.   

THE PASSION OF our BLESSED saviour The fifth Sermon. PREACHED VPON GOOD-FRYDAY.  MAT. 27. 4. Saying, I have sinned in betraying Innocent Blood. 
THey are the words of that graceless and desperate Disciple, that betrayed our Lord Iesus; his confession of his Fact. An Office, fits his name; Iudas signifies confession: but of better Object; Confession of Gods glory, not of Mans shane. For Confession is twofold, Dei& Rei, of Gods glory, or Mans guilt. here you have Confirentem Reum, the confessor a transgressor. A Fact confessed, Saying: confessed first Generally, tis sin, Peccavi, I have sinned. Then specified, tis Treason, I have sinned in Betraying. The Object, a just Person; and the end, to Death; in betraying Innocent Blood. Saying, I have sinned, in betraying innocent Blood. Of these Particulars in their Order.  
Saying. Tis a chance, but some Popish Postiller observes in Iudas story the three parts of Penance;( twas not worth the while to search) Contrition, Confession, and Satisfaction. And that, just marshald in that rank, which is required, Contrition first, in the verse before, He Repented himself. For there is Dolere in {αβγδ}, that term implies sorrow. Then Confession, heerē, Peccavi, I have sinned. And Satisfaction in the next; he cast down their money; full Restitution, all he had received, thirty pieces of silver. Three materials indeed, very requisite in Repentance: In show, all here; but in show onely. His Contrition but {αβγδ}; a word of sinister sense, observed so by the learned. Surely, it was no godly sorrow, that ended so ungodlily in selfe-murther. His Satisfaction perverse, made to the Priests and Elders, whom he had not wronged. he had wrought the Feat, and was worthy of the Fee. It was Christ, whom he had trespassed; he should have recompensed him. And so is his Confession here, perverse too; made onely to the Priests. he should have made it unto God also. But the Priests serve him accordingly; sand him away with a Tu videris; his sin concerns not them; let him look to that himself. Haply had he gone to Christ, confessed to him, he had been pardonned, Saint Ambrose saith. Haply? nay certainly, had he gone to him. Why should he doubt? To how many had he heard him say, Thy sins are forgiven thee.  
Saying. See how works of darkness, needs will come to light. sin is so lightly done in the dark. This was: fain to work his feat by Torchlight and lanterns. Nor must the People know When, or Where, for fear they stoned them. Albeit this Act needed no great reveiling in this respect: It had Witnesses enough. His oral Confession was rather wrested from him, partly to justify Gods instant Iudgement on him; partly to testify his Innocency, whom he had betrayed, and to terrify the Priests, who had persecuted the just. Howsoever; God will have sinners to be {αβγδ}, their own Detectors. The inward Evidence of guilty Conscience shall not suffice, their Tongue shall tell it out; and ex ore tuo, their own mouths shall sentence them. Non Praeses, non Populus, Pilate arraignes him not, the People accuse him not, saith Saint Ambrose; he is {αβγδ}, Saint Pauls term, his own Condemner. That Mouth, which served before to betray Christ, must serve now to bewray Iudas; must cry, Peccavi, I have sinned; the next thing in my Text.  
Iudas speaks: what ist, he saith? Peccavi, I have sinned. Durus Sermo, tis a hard saying: hardly will one Accuse himself, especially in Publico, in open Audience, as it is likely he does here, at a Session of Priests and Elders. What one malefactor almost of an hundred, but pleads, Not Guilty. But an heinous sin God will have uttered, even by the sinners self; his own Mouth shall say, Peccavi. Sermo durus, but verus, a hard saying, but a true in Iudas mouth, {αβγδ}, but not {αβγδ}, not a liar, though a thief. he had sinned indeed, Horribile Crimen, Saint Cyrils term, a fearful sin excellens malignitas, Nicephorus censure, a superlative wickedness, opus damnabile, a damnable act, Augustine, a sin out of measure sinful. Latomus saith, a Lovanist, light sins need not Confession; thats for mortal sins onely. Wicked divinity. But yet even by his Rule, Iudas must cry, Peccavi. If ever was any mortal sin, his was. The more, for that he was forewarnd of it by Christ, forewarnd often. Peter was forewarnd too, but once onely, Christ had said many times in Iudas hearing, the son of Man shall be betrayed; and again, the son of Man shall be betrayed: and again, he that dippes with me in the dish, shall betray me; Yet Iudas is not touched, is rather impudent, and asks, Master is it I? Well may one so wicked, cry Peccavi, I have sinned.  job cried Peccavi, a just man, David did, an holy Prophet, cried it often. What city I Saints? Balaam did, Achan did, Saul did thrice; yea Pharaoh did, an Heathen. Tis the cry of all Penitents, of them All, but not of them onely. Desperates cry it too. Agnosci oportet, cvi vis ignosci, saith Saint Austin, what thou wouldest God should pardon, thou must first confess. Thats the cause of the true Penitents cry, one cause. But the {αβγδ} S. Chrysostomes term, the prick of conscience, the sharp sting of a bad conscience forceth confession from the wicked. No rack, no torture like to it. Conscience the souls stomach: commit the secret of thy sin to it; it will regest it. Well doth one liken sin to choler, and confession to casting; 'tis Clemens Romanus. sin like the book, which S. John ate in the Revelation, is sweet in the mouth, but bitter in the belly: so bitter to the conscience, the souls belly, that it needs must up again. And indeed S. Peter calls Simons sin, Act. 8. {αβγδ}, Choler or gull; It will crave either regestion, or egestion, out it must. 'tis Gods potion to the faithful; but the Devils vomit to the desperate: in the one, to the recovery of their health, in the other to the discovery of their shane. 
Confession common, both to the righteous and ungodly; both meet in Peccavi; but differ in the cause; their Act alike, but not their Agent. Gods grace peaceably moveth the one, his wrath forcibly driveth the other. The wicked man, even when he sins, knows he does wickedly: his conscience plays judex then, condemns his sin even in the Act: but yet he says softly▪ Quis videbit, who shall see it? But being done, his conscience travails; shee must die, or be delivered. The judex will play Index then. sin is the Devils shaft: tis in the conscience, as an arrow in the thigh; there is no ease, till it be out. The devills fiery dart, it burns, till it bewray it. Conscience, a good counselor, but a bad counsel keeper.  
To end this; Peccavi, I have sinned? said I sermo verus, a true saying? Why? Iudas treason was Gods own work, Act. 2. 23. It is true, God as well as Iudas did tradere, deliver Christ, Rom. 8. 32. the act of both alike in general. But Gods traditio was not talis in specie; 'tis a school distinction too, and to my seeming sound. Gods traditio was but datio, So God loved the world, says Christ, that he gave his son. But Iudas Traditio was Proditio, a betraying him. God to give his Son, who will say, that is sin? But Judas to betray his Lord, who will doubt, but that was sin? For in Re una, quam fecerunt, non est causa una qua fecerunt, saith S. Augustin. That God would give him, was his admirable love; that Iudas would betray him, was his execrable lewdness. 'twas Gods {αβγδ}, his love of Man, made him to give him: 'twas Iudas {αβγδ}, his love of Money moov'd him to betray him. That is the next point in my Text, Peccavi tradens, I have sinned in betraying him.  
Iudas hath sinned; what hath he done? His sin is Traditio, a Betraying. This sin is the subject of Iudas confession; I have sinned in betraying. A sin, that fits his second name, as confession did his first; Iudas a Confessor, Iscarioth a Betrayer. Tis so Etymoligis'd, a man of Bribes, of Rewards: For his traditio was venditio, he sold Christ for money. He would undertake to deliver him to the Priests, but not for nought. Quid mihi dabitis? First, what will they give him?  
'tis not infidelity: that was one sin in him; non prodidisset, si credidisset, says Bellarmine, had he believed in Christ, he would not have betrayed Christ. Not Theft: S. John calls him a thief. Not dissimulation; Clemens calls him an Hyppocrite. Not envy; he grudged, such precious ointment should be spent on Christ. Tis treachery, a sin you heard before how censured: held even by Heathens {αβγδ}, the grandest of all crimes, says Dionys. Halicarn. peerd by Plato even to sacrilege: the devils sin; Iudas for it called a devil, by Christs self. guess the crime by the pain; a Roman in Dionysius story drawn for it in pieces by wild Horses. Iudas in the guilt of it hangs himself: in this verse his own Accuser, in the next his own Executioner. Nay, vengeance would not leave him so. That death he merited as a thief. Like Corah, and his Complices, the Treacher must not die the death of other sinners; God will make a new thing: Iudas shall burst, and his bowels shall gush out. His mouth, sceleratum as, S. Cyprians term, his wicked mouth had kist Christs face, that face, which Angels had long longd to look on, twas not fit his impious soul should pass that way. He let in satan by his sop; and his guest burst forth with his soul through his belly.  
This was Iudasses sin, treachery. His surname, ever called before Iudas Iscariot, changed for it, and he called ever after, Iudas the Traitor. Such a sin, as better he never had been born, better a millstone had been hanged about his neck, and he thrown into the Sea, then have committed it. The Church though very chary in censuring the dead, hath made no dainty to define of him, as of a reprobate& damned man. Hath it not Christs warrant? himself had stilled him the child of perdition. A fearful name, and given to none, but to Antichrist; and him. Both are Iscariots, men of Treachery: and God hath sentenced both; that Iscariot, that is, Homo traditionis should be Filius perditionis, the wicked treacher should have reward in Hell. That is his {αβγδ}, the treachers proper place, Act. 1. 25. Peters sin great, to deny Christ, a sin worthy of bitter tears: but a moat to this beam, to betray Christ: but a little Gnat to this camel sin. For that of Peters was but of weakness; this of Iudas of most malicious wickedness.  
A strange sin of such a subject; a Disciple a Betrayer? that had both baptizd and preached, Saint Austin says; a worker of Miracles, even a caster out of devils. A Disciple? an Apostle; yea some have made him an Evangelist, some heretics in Irenaeus. This man commit this sin! Such a sin, that the Gospel says, the devil entred into him for the doing of this act. In his envy, in his theft, and what other sins Iudas was subject to, was not satan in him then? surely he was, as well as in this. But because this sin was so egregious, so prodigious; the Evangelist says it of this onely. Nor so alone; but Christ( you heard) called him a devil. He that cast Devils out of others, hath one in himself: nay is one himself.  
Nay the Agent makes makes the Act more odious yet. Not a Pharisee, not a Scribe, not an Herodian, but unus vestrum, one of you, saith Christ. Necessarius Adversarius, {αβγδ}, his fellow at board his adversary. David notes it in the spirit of prophesy, as the Fathers construe it; Christs friend, his familiar, that ate of his bread, heard his Sermons, saw his wonders: thats not so much, multitudes did so: of his Table, sat with him; of his mess, dipped in the same dish with him, against him to lift his heel! To whom Christ had been so kind; I will not say healed his mother of a palsy, his father of a leprosy, thats apocryphal: but bore with many sins in him, theft, envy, incest too; S. Austin says, he lay with his own mother; but that too is apocryphal; made him his treasurer, graced him next to S. Peter, S. Austins note too, kissed him, washed his feet, gave him his own body, even that very evening; Quid facis Iuda? says that Father; what meant this graceless shameless man, this Man? this monster to betray his Lord? his Saviour? to sell his body, that came to buy his soul.  
add to this ingratitude, his hypocrisy, to this impious ingratitude his impudent hypocrisy. Although he had proffered his service to the Priests, and had received his pay for it, attended but opportunity to do the deed, yet like the Harlot in the Proverbs, shee eats and wipes her mouth, and says, shee hath done nothing, so can he braze his brow, and ask with the rest, Master is it I? At the very act he comes with compliment, as joab did to Amasa, art thou in health my brother? and thrusts him into the belly. So he salutes Christ with a kiss, {αβγδ}, Clemens term, a false kiss. His words( saith David) soft as Butter, smooth as oil; Pax tibi, Magister: master, a word of reverence, thats the Butter; Peace a term of love, thats the oil. Yea doubles his term of reverence, Rabbi Rabbi, two Magisters, as Saint Mark reports i●; and seals his peace with a kiss, Osculum pacis. Christs self notes it, whether in admiration or detestation, I know not; but he notes it, Iudas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss? and in the Syriack dialect, the tongue which Iudas spoke, in my Text is, I have sinned in giving the peace to innocent blood; because Pax tibi was their form of salutation. Homo Pacis( as David calls him) to be Homo facis, peace in his mouth, and a Torch in his hand! Doth the Evangelist call this wicked treacher, Simons son: Caines son rather; and Epiphanius calls him so.  
Nay will you see his treachery greater yet? The wretch is solicitous on the Pharisees side, fears least Christ may scape; gives the Souldiers counsel, when they had him, to look well to him: {αβγδ}, lay sure hold on him, lest he might slip from them. For he had observd, how he had escaped twice before: once when the people would have stoned him; another time, when they would have thrown him down headlong from a mountain; he conveyed himself away, they wist not how. Hold him fast, and carry him away {αβγδ}, warily. Ate this man of Christs bread? certainly God Incarnate had at his board a devil Incarnate.  
To end this. treachery is a sin, hateful even to Heathens. Odi proditorem whether Philips apothegm, or Antigonus, or Augustus, Grammatici certant. Though treachery in war profit sometime the enemy; yet the treacher is abhorred. Rahab would not betray the spies, nor the captain S. Paul, Act. 23. He was his prisoner; neither he would himself, nor would he suffer others, make him away unlawfully. Say Iudas hated Christ; haply he had censured him sometime for some sin: some think so. He might have done, as others did, they Disciples too, being offended at Christs words, they went back, and walked no more with him. Say, in his hate, he wisheth he were dead, Quem quisque edit, perusse expetit: must he be his betrayer? Saul gave just cause to David to hate him; and he had him in his hands; yet would not hurt him, would not let Abishai touch him. Let the Lord smite him, when and how he pleased; but his hand should not hurt him.  
Say, Christ must die, to save mankind; some excuse him so: must it needs be by treachery? he knew the whole Sanhedrim, Priests, Scribes and Elders, High Priests and all, had consulted how to take him, and to put him to death. Quid opus est te? there were heads and hands enough without him. But they durst not take him in the day, they feared the people. And they might mistake him in the night: being with the 12. they could not discern between Master and Disciple. They could not come by him, but by treachery. Iudas a Disciple, his own domestical Disciple will betray him. An act so odious, and infamous, that the Iewes that had patiently heard S. Stevens long apology, born many tart Titles, stiffe-neckt, uncircumcised rebells against God, sons to bloody persecutors; when once he came to call them betrayers of Christ; then their hearts brast for anger, and they gnashed at him with their teeth; yea they ran on him, and stoned him. Enough of the Act; come to the Object.  
Let one that will sin, weigh well against whom: the Object often aggravates the Act. Betray not any man; but especially the Innocent. Iudas did: Majus peccatum habet, his sin is the more sinful. God gives in Scripture many caveats for the Innocent: that they bee not slain, that none lye in wait for them, none take rewards against them. Nay, Christ checks the Pharisees for but censuring them, Matth. 12. Have not to do with that just man, saith Pilates wife. treachery is all odious; but against the Innocent, the Act is execrable. God is their special Guardian: he that trepasses them, sins against Heaven, and against him. Iudas said to the Scribes, Quid mihi dabitis, What will you give me, and I will deliver him? He rather should have thought of God, Quid mihi dabit is, what will he give me, if I deliver him?  
Iudas knew Christ Innocent; for you hear him here aclowledge it. Had he not been,( for so some heretics say in Epiphanius, that Iudas betrayed him {αβγδ}, as a malefactor, a perverter of the Law; and you know, how opprobriously the Pharisees reported him, opprobriously, but calumniously,) But say he had been so, a Glutton, an unmeasurable drinker of wine, a Sabbath-breaker, a samaritan: yet ought not Iudas have betrayed him for all that: no, not have complained him; he had played the Sycophant so. joseph Maries husband, seeing his wife big, before they came together would not {αβγδ} make her a public example, by accusing her, because( saith the Evangelist) he was a just man. Had Iudas been just too, he would not have detected Christ, not bewrayed him, wickedness betrai'd him, had he been nere so {αβγδ}, nere so bad a man. David calls him his Friend: tis the part not of a Friend, but of a Fiend, to be perfidious. jonathan would not betray David his friend, no not to his Father. But being innocent too, not {αβγδ} not {αβγδ}, as the Towne-Clarke said of Saint Pauls companions, no Blasphemer, no Churchrobber, no Denier of Caesars tribute, not guilty of any thing, for which the Scribes might justly lay hold on him;[ that the judge himself could say, what evil hath he done] What an iniquity, what an impiety was this of Iudas, to betray a guiltless, an innocent man!  
An Innocent man? Thats little. A thief, a lecher, a traitor, may be innocent. A lecher arraigned for a robbery, which he wrought not; and suffering death for it, thers innocent blood. A fellow indited of Treason not done by him, and dying for it, theres innocent blood too. Christ is not onely innocent, quitlesse of crime, worthy death, or bands: the Prophets, and other holy men of God were innocent so. All his Disciples were. Iudas himself haply innocent so too. He is in their number, whom Christ called innocent, Matth. 12. 7. Christ is more; he is just, Pilats wives term, Pilats own term: that title too strait too. You heard joseph called just, so was Zachary, so was job, and many other. Christ was utterly without sin; not guiltless, but faultless: I find no fault in him, Pilats speech too, no fault at all in him; and surely Pilat would not be partial; and tis with an Ecce too before it, John 19. 4. Herod clothed him in a white vesture; and it was not otiosum, Saint Ambrose saith, it was not idle, but significant, that Iudas a thief before, plays the thief here again, Latro divinae gloriae, robs Christ of his right, calls him but onely innocent. The envious fellow grudged him before the ointment, here is due commendation. He knew him more, saw him more, than onely innocent, harmless alone; saw him fulfil all righteousness. He was {αβγδ}, justin Martyrs term, voided of all sin: Gods lamb without spot, {αβγδ}, Saint Peters words, sine macula, sine momo, not onely without sin, but without any darer to charge him with sin. All men have their Momos, their Censurers, be they never so upright, that rather than fail, if they find no 'vice, will carp at virtue. But Christ was without challenger. Yea the council to condemn him, were fain to seek false witnesses, but could find none: and though many came, yet found they none, saith the Evangelist. {αβγδ} Momos himself could find no fault in him. This was the Object of this odious Act of Iudas treachery: he betrayed, not a Trespasser, a transgressor of the Law, but a just man, the innocent; and him, not to bonds, not to banishment, but to death; the last point in my Text, Betraying innocent blood.  
This Act of Iudas treachery how odious hath it been in the Subject, and the Object? The Project now remaines; that aggravates it more. The end of this Act is the blood of this Innocent. Malice ends not but with blood, Death must determine it. Twas the devils end. Christ came to dissolve the works of the devil; the devil sought to dissolve him. The Scribes and Elders end; they consulted how to take, and kill him: not to take him onely, but to slay him too; {αβγδ}, Saint Lukes term, to take him away, to make him away; and tis Iudas end here; he saith, he hath sinned, in betraying Innocent blood. Not in betraying, onely the innocent, he rests not there. His guilty conscience makes him put in all, innocent blood. Christ foretold it hard before, The son of man, Tradetur, shall be betrayed, theres the Act; Vt crucifigatur, to be Crucified, theres the end. They might have imprisoned him, as they did the Apostles: that sufficed not. They might have added stripes; the judge proffered it, Shall I chasten him, saith Pilat, and let him go? Nor would that serve neither, he must die: {αβγδ}, away with him, two tolle's; nothing will content him, but his blood. Iudas his sin here is not bare treachery, but murder too. His Surname suits this also, as some interpret it, Iscarioth, a man of Death. David pairs in the psalm, the bloody and deceitful man. Both meet in this Monster, a false Treacher, and a man of blood. His money therefore called, the Price of blood; the Field it purchased, Aceldama, the field of blood.  There is a Betraying, not to death; They shall betray you, saith our Saviour, and some of you {αβγδ}, they shall put to death. Iudas is a Iesuite, he scorns single treachery; Nefásque nullum per nefas nati putant, saith Oedipus in Seneca, being( as some writ) begotten wickedly, he makes conscience of no wickedness; betrays his Master, his innocent Master unto Murtherers, betrays Innocent blood. See what the lust of lucre doth! allures to betray, to betray the Innocent, even to death. 
To conclude; be both these terms( if you please, and some make them so) Object of his Act. Then must his innocency be considered last; it aggravates the blood. Will a murderer needs shed blood, will a Treacher needs betray blood? Let it yet be guilty blood, some Malefactours blood. Say Absalon slay Ammon, a Ravisher of his sister; joab stab Absalon, a rebel, and a murderer? justus autem quid fecit? But what( saith David) hath the righteous done? Nay Christ( Pilat could say) What evil hath he done? Mans blood, all precious: his blood, that sheds it, shall be  shed. But specially guiltless bl●ud; Vriahs blood, Naboths blood. More than that, Saints blood, Abels, Stevens, John Baptists: Right dear( saith David) is their death in Gods sight. But Christs blood▪ the Lords blood, it is {αβγδ}( as Saint Peter terms it) precious blood indeed. All the other was the blood but of the sons of men, this of the son of God. The best of the other but Gods Saints blood; this Gods sons blood, Gods own blood, Acts 20. 28. Iudas betrays to Death, the Lord of Life. called I him Cains son? Iudas justifies his Sire; Cain was but Homicida, Iudas is Deicida, Saint Bernards term. Cain murdered but a man, Iudas betrays to death Gods son, Gods self. Is not this a sweet Saint to be adored? Yet he was. Cerinthus honoured him. Yea, both him, and Cain, a desperate wretch too, the first bloudsheader and treacher in the world, these, a pair of Parricides, yet a sort of heretics shamed not to be saint him. That innocent blood, which he betrayed be a satisfaction for all our sins, his Father pardon us, his Spirit govern us: To which three blessed Persons of the Sacred deity, &c.   

SERMONS PREACHED IN ROGATION week. The first Sermon.  PSAL. 78. 49. he sent evil Angels among them. 
THE six weekes fast in Lent is charged with superstition, Popish superstition. This week as well as it. unjustly both. Neither popish; both were 1200. yeares ago; Popery was not then. Neither superstitious; but founded both on holy grounds. Lent as bypassed, I pass by; this present praies apology. ask you, why they devised these three dayes fast? my Text fits you an answer; He sent ●vill Angels among them. In the reign of Clodoveus, Earthquakes affrighted France, wolves and other wild beasts worried much people, and fire from heaven fell on the Kings Palace. The then Bishop of Vienna caused on these three dayes, for the appeasing of Gods wrath, a general Fast, and litany; and a provincial Synod made it an annual ordinance. This pious constitution begun first in France, 100. yeares after was seconded at Rome by Pelagius Bishop there, upon the like occasion of Gods evil angels, sent also among them, Inundations of waters, and great Pestilence, and time spread that observance of the three Rogation dayes through out all▪ the western Churches. So entitled of the liturgy used at that time; because in the litany the people cry, Te Rogamus Domine, at the end of every petition, Wee beseech thee to hear us, good Lord. This for the time; now for the Text.  
I read it, as you have it in the ordinary psalms, He sent, &c. The words are few, but have three terms, an Agent, he; the Act, sent evil angels; the Object, among them. All three dark, without gloss: he, i. God; sent evil angels, i. Plagues; among them, i. the egyptians. Gods vengeance on both King and People, for detaining Israel. The 10. plagues of egypt are famous in the world. A plague signifieth a stroke. The smiter is name Vers. 21. the holy one of Israel. The smitten, Vers. 43. egypt and Zoan; the stroke are expressed in their particulars from Vers. 44. to 51.  
he, in the holy tongue is( as rabbis say) one of Gods names. That little skills; tis not here in the original. But that God here is meant the Author of this Act, the sender of these Angels, that skills much. Thrice in the Gospel it is asked of Christ, Quis est iste, who is this? His wonders caused that question. Here are signs and wonders, Ver. 43. wrought by some person, he sent; why may we not ask of him▪ quis est Ille, who is he? Tis God. Sobriety may ask that; for it tends to Gods glory. The Agent is the Lord. But rest wee there; go not on to Pharaohs question; he asked▪ Who is the Lord? he is an Atheist that asks that. This then here is the first lesson, A Domino factum est istud, the sending of evil angels is Gods act.  
It is his act, for tis is his office, to do justice. Is he not the judge of all the world? Abram called him so once, David often. One act of justice is vengeance, and God claims it, Mihi vindicta, vengeance is mine. His Prophet proclaims it, ultio Domini est, vengeance is the Lords. profane Heathens knew not this, turned God into Goddesse, he into Shee. do not some Papists so too, for, he shall bruise thy head, he, i. Christ that red, Shee shall bruise thy head, Shee, i. a woman. Heathens held Nemesis the goddes of revenge, the punisher of wicked men. Thats shee, whom the Barbarians, when the Viper hung upon Pauls hand, cried, vengeance would not let him live, thinking he was some murderer. Many Christians, not so gross, to make she▪ Gods, feminine Deities, will yet ascribe all kinds of unkind accidents, befalling either particular persons, or whole states, to dismal and disastrous dayes, to the malevolent aspects of Planets, and the evil influences of other stars, mistake the host of heaven for the God of heaven▪ yea( which is worse) to wicked spirits, will impute these evil angels to the devil and his angels. Haply these secondary causes are employed; but they all are but mere instruments, the prime author is Gods self.  
Others haply of simplicity will not dare make God the sender of these angels. For can that which is evil come from him that is good? These have not learned, that there is Malum poenae, as well as malum culpae, that all evil is not sin; but the punishment of sin is called evil too. That men shall not fear to make God author of that evil, Gods self is his warrant, who takes it on himself. Is there any evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? Saith the Prophet, Amos 3. 6. God says it ten times in one Prophet, Ego adferam, I will bring evil on the people. Nor is God therefore not good, because he sends such evil. For is he not just too? Gods attributes non se tollunt invicem, they supplant not one another. Evils come on men, from men, from beasts, from satan, from all creatures; but they all are but Gods instruments. All evils of punishment whether lighting on the wicked for revenge, or on the godly for their trial, upon whomsoever, for what cause, or to what end soever, are from God, all.  
Shall I instance here in some particulars? It skills for the check of most mens readiness, to run upon the means, to curse, and seek revenge on them, not considering that God sends them. David did not so, when Shemei raild and threw stones at him. The Lord( saith he) hath bidden him. The Sabees and Chaldeans had robbed job, fire from heaven burnt his sheep and servants, and a tempest slain his children; yet job cried, Dominus abstulit, the Lord had taken them. An evil spirit vexed Saul; but {αβγδ}, sent from God. Fire from heaven, and brimstone burnt Sodom and Gomorrah; the Lord rained it, the text saith. The philistines were plagued with hemorroids; it was {αβγδ}, the Lords hand. Mose● turned the waters in Egypt into blood: Pharaoh thought that but magic; because his enchanters could do that. But when lice came upon both men and beasts, the Enchanters themselves cried, Digitus Dei est, it was the finger of God. The three dayes pestilence, which slay in Israel 70000. men, God sent it, the Text saith, and David called it Gods hand. To end this, see in this psalm how frequent the phrase is, from v. 43. to 51. he wrought, he turned, he gave, he destroyed, he cast, he smote, he sent( saith the Psalmist) evil angels among them.  
Indeed the Prophet Esay calls wrath and vengeance alienum Opus, a strange Act, Esa. 28. 21. as if it were not Gods. But thats to show, how merciful, how long-suffering the Lord is, how slowly, how unwilling he is drawn unto such acts, quick to save, but slack to punish. But mark his words, his strange work, and his strange act, Alienum, but yet Suum, strange, but his. God joyeth more to sit upon his Mercy seat, then upon his Iudgement seat. But both the seats are his; Mihi Vindicta, I will revenge, saith God. I leave this Lesson, make but this use of it; Not to be impatient in any adverse accident; thats to mutiny against God: Not to avenge ourselves unduly upon the means thats to fight against God: against whom none ever fought vel Pie vel feliciter, either with religion or success. learn Iobs Benedictus, to cry even in Gods Abstulit, blessed be the Lord. Say at least, as old Heli said to young Samuel, Dominus est, it is the Lord. Strive to say in all accidents, be it welcome, what God sends; and thats the next term in my Text▪ he sent.  
Evils come uncald, but not unsent. Are they not here called Angels? then are they sent; the word angel means a messenger. Not things onely without life, but not living creatures neither, brute, nor men, not sathans self can hurt, unless God bid. The three daies darkness in Egypt how came it? He sent darkness, saith David, psalm 105. So the hail, thunder, and lightning, the Lord sent them, saith Moses. The frogs, flies, lice, grasshoppers, and caterpillars, that infected Egypt, and the lions that slay the Idolaters in Samaria, 2 King. 17. the Text saith of them all, Dominus immisit, the Lord sent them. And for Men, am I come( said Rabsakeh) without the Lord? he bad me go. Yea the devil, the arch▪ evil angel, who seeks to devour, yet must be sent, ere he can do ought. The lying Spirit in the mouths of the false prophets, longd to seduce Ahab, God must first bid, Egredere, go forth, and do so. The use of this is easy, without my help; Not to fear, doing well; Not man, fiend, any creature can hurt you, God not sending them. But sinning, to fear every thing. The weakest creature can quell the mightiest man, if God bid, go. {αβγδ}, a mouse( saith the Poet) will bite a wicked man. Be it proud Herod, great Antiochus; if God but ask the creatures, Quem mittam, which of you shall I sand? the worm will answer, Ecce me, sand me; I will devour him. And such poor silie despicable creatures are some of these evil angels in my Text. He sent: what sent he? evil angels, the next thing in this Scripture.  
evil angels? Par dispar, a pair of words, which seem not well matched, the latter may say to the former, Quid mihi& tibi, what have I to do with thee? Angels were the best and holiest of Gods creatures. They all were good, very good, Moses saith; but Angels {αβγδ}, excellently good. Then is evil here, an evil epithet for Angels. And is never red but here, and here( some think) not well translated. But the phrase of evil angels hath other meaning here: evil angels, i. the Angels, i. the messengers of evil. So is it in the Hebrew, not {αβγδ}, but {αβγδ}. Insomuch that some expositors think the Psalmist means the words of Moses and Aaron; that they were sent from God, to be messengers of evil, i. of all the plagues that God would bring on Egypt. That sense I censure not, but follow not. The greek Fathers have an other, that by the evil angels are meant the evil Spirits; Christ calls them angels too, the devils angels. Saint Augustine likes not that sense. The most current exposition is as a jewish writer speaks, {αβγδ}, the evil angels are the ten several plagues. Shall I muster them?  
First all their waters turned to blood, so noxious, that the fish dyed, and no man could endure to drink it. The next, frogs, in their shepherds, houses, kneading troughs, ovens, chambers, beds. Then all the dust of the land turned into lice, infesting man and beast. Next, swarms of flies, innumerable, in all rooms of all houses, as well the Kings as Subjects; that it infected the land. Then the murreine of beasts, such as all the cattle perished. Next, blains and boiles on man and beast, throughout the land. Then the tempest of hail, such as smote every herb, and broke every three, with thunder and lightning, that the fire ran along the ground. Next, a multitude of Locusts, so many that they darkened the air, and ate up the remainder of the herbs, which the hail spared; that there was not left a green leaf on herb or three throughout all Egypt. Next to that, a thick darkness, that no one man saw another, nor stirred from the places where they stood for the space of three daies. The last and worst, the first born dyed in every house, from the fitter on the throne, to the grinder at the mill, and the first born of beasts also.  
These were the evil Angels; they were not evil Spirits. Tis true, that God smits men by Angells, not by evil Spirits onely, but by good Angells too, by their favour, that think otherwise. And it is an other wrong conceit, that evil Angells never touch good men. But that good Angells execute Gods wrath, and that both good and evil Spirits punish both the wicked, and the godly too some times, wee find in Scripture examples in all kinds. Lest, some may not believe me; what angel smote in Israell 70000. with Pestilence? Angelus Domini, the Lords angel. Reply not, that an evil Spirit might be called so. None ever are so called. The Spirit that vexed Saul, was Spiritus à Domino, a Spirit sent by God, but not Gods Spirit. And for the other scruple; a good angel made jacob, lame, and zachary dumb, righteous men both: and the like smote wicked Herod. And an evil Spirit both vexed Saul, and afflicted job.  
From the two words, learn two Lessons; the first, Gods Iustice, his {αβγδ}, the second, his severity, his {αβγδ}, Pauls terms both. God rewards sin with pain. pain wee account an evil; so is it called here: and if the sin be great, he aggravates the pain, either in the weight, or in the number. evil is here plural, God sent Angelos malorum, messengers of evils, one plague after another. For the former, God being just, must( as S. Matthewes phrase is in the gospel) Malos malè perdere, sand evil upon evil men. He is not like to Virgils jupiter, Omnibus idem, the same to all: but as Apollo is pictured with the graces in one hand, and arrows in the other; so God hath gifts for reward to good men, but shafts for revenge on thy wicked. Sinnest thou, and tremblest not? Sequitur à tergo ultio, vengeance is at the heels. evil will hunt the evil doer. To doubt God to be just, Dementis est, August.  
Sinners( it seems) doubt, would not else adventure. Nay, doth not Scripture warrant them? Saith not Gods self, Esay 27. 4. Iranon est mihi, I have no wrath? he doth▪ But whom speaks he to? To the afflicted Israelites; he hath none against them. he hath against the Egyptians, go no further then this verse, theres wrath, anger, indignation. And if a Kings anger be a messenger of death; no m●rvell, if Gods wrath here sand messengers of evils, {αβγδ}, saith the tragic, look for it, if thou do evil, to hear of it; if thou sin to suffer. evil shall come, saith Esay, {αβγδ} saith Paul, two negatives for the more certainty, thou shalt not escape. Know not God, saith Saint Basil: {αβγδ}, by halves, by his mercy onely; he is just too. He that rains water, rains fire sometimes saith he. Coelum habet, said& Tartarum, hath an heaven, saith Saint Cyprian▪ but an hell too. For the latter lesson, Gods severity; One being asked, what God doth? answered {αβγδ} that is, not( as he meant) practiseth geometry, but useth in his justice geometrical Proportion; plays not Virgils jupiter here neither, is not Omnibus idem, smites not all sinners alike, but approportions his censure to the sin. he is wrath with all; but this Verse saith, Pharaoh felt the fierceness of his wrath. He deserved it. His sin was out of measure sinful, incorrigible contumacy. Many were his plagues; for many were his contempts. Be pleased to hear them; they are worthy. Thus saith the Lord, let my People go. Who is the Lord? saith he, I will not let them go. He would not, but used them far worse then before Must they serve God? he would make them to serve him. God then began to smite, all the waters became blood. Pharaoh then was content, they should serve God; but it should be there; go forth they should not. God smote again: then they should go, but not far. A third plague came: let them then go, but the Men onely; their Wives and children should stay, be pledges for their return. A fourth: let Wives go too, but not Children. A fifth: let Children go too, but not their cattle. A sixth: let them go All, so he might be rid of that. But that done, he repents him, they shall not go. Thus Pharaoh dallied with God; but God did not with him. The King hardened his heart, the Lord strengthened his hand. sin grew in weight, and the plagues grew in number, ti●l the Lord made an end of him.  
To end this, God corrects his childrens faults with the rods of men, and the wicked haply too in their lighter sins with Solomons whips: but for their Rebellions he hath a rod of iron, and Rehoboams scorpions for the backs of Atheists. And for Number, if they shall dare go on {αβγδ} from one evil to another; God will also pluralize, add one plague unto another, God will vary judgements, if men shall vary sins. You have heard Egypts ten plagues, God could have sent ten times as many more. For there is not any Creature, which God cannot use to punish sinners. Plurality of plagues is often in the Prophets; fear, pit, and snare, in Esay, elegant in the Hebrew, {αβγδ}. A Serpent, a lion, and a bear, in Amos; Sword, Pestilence, and Famine, in ieremy. You will think, I am too long in a matter so delightlesse. I leave it.  
There yet remain two words, but written in small letters, as not found in the original. Translators have added them, to make the sense more plain. Had they not, it had skilled little; for they are before in the beginning of the verse; He cast upon them, is all one to say, He sent among them. Yea, He sent among them, sounds closer to the Hebrew. I will onely make use of them, for Application. Among them, i. the egyptians. Why did the French first institute these Rogation daies? because God sent evil angels among them, wild beasts, and earthquakes, and strange fire from heaven. Why did Rome confirm them, because God sent evil angels among them, Inundation and Pestilence. And hath he not sent evil angels among us? Why should our zealous Brethren censure our yearly observing of these daies, and the Liturgy assigned to them? Have not wee as urgent reasons to observe both?  
To pass by the dayes of our forefathers, our Chronicles may be credited, what befell them. Hath not God often in our dayes, in our land sent sundry evil angels, earthquakes, and fire from Heaven, as he did in France, Inundations and Pestilence, as he did in Rome, besides murrain of cattle and extreme dearth? dyed there not of the Pestilence not many yeares since above 5000. persons in one City in one week? Did not the destroyer the very last year run through the whole land, so waste some populous towns, that the living scarce sufficed to bury the dead? Twas for our sins, God sent him ask you me for which? Some say, because Idolatry is committed in the land. But there are many other sins, for which God sends evil angels among us. Thats no pleasing theme neither, and this dayes Sermon here is haply my last, I desire to part in peace.  
God hear our Te rogamus in our Rogation dayes, in all our daies of Fasts and Supplications, withhold his evil angels all, give true and speedy repentance to us all, bless, preserve, and save us all, for his son our Saviours sake, the good angel of his Covenant, Iesus Christ, cvi cum Patre, &c.   

SERMONS PREACHED IN ROGATION week. The second Sermon.  John 16. 23. Amen, Amen, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 
THis time requires a Text of Prayer. Tis the Rogation week, the Procession week some call it, of the litany used to be red on these three dayes, which wee call the Procession; but the latin Writers of Church-Ceremonies, Rogationes. For you have there twenty times, Te rogamus Domine, Wee beseech thee to hear us, good Lord. Be therefore pleased to hear the holy Word of God, recorded by the blessed Evangelist Saint John 16. 23. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Christs comfortable promise made to his Disciples, that God will graciously grant all their prayers. This promise he presseth with powerful protestation; pawns his Word, I say to you: adds his Oath, swears it too, Verily I say; doubles that Oath, Amen, Amen, I say it. But to that double Oath in the Preface, answers a double proviso in the Promise: the prayers must be made unto the Father in the sons name. Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Of these things, &c.  
First, for the Preface. A Promise affirmed onely is but weak, needs confirming too. Truth, though nere so sound, yet is oft doubted, and craves proof. Christ to assure us, that wee shall receive, whatsoever we shall ask, engages his own Word, Dico vobis, I say to you. A word from some mans mouth is a weak warrant. As the man is, so is his word. If a King protest in verbo Regis, he will look to be believed; a Noble man will in verbo Honoris; a clergy man will in verbo Sacerdotis. What then will Christ? Not as a Noble man, though he were so, of the lineage of David. Not as a King, though he were so too, King of the Iewes. Not as a Priest, though he were so too, and that of the best Order, of the Order of Melchisedech. But as a Prophet. Prophets use not to leaze; they speak from God. Nay, as the son of God, and so Gods self. Say, a Prophet may leaze; One did, 1 King. 13. 18. God doth not, Tit. 1. 2. Can not, Heb. 6. 18. Surely the Centurion, thought not Christ was God, held him some man of God, some extraordinary Prophet of God; and yet cried, Dic verbum, prayed him but say the Word, that was enough. But as Christ said of John Baptist, I may better say of Christ, he was more than a Prophet. The Word here saith the Word, the Word which was God, Dico vobis, I say to you. So the Word is Gods, and therefore sure. Heaven an dearth shall fail; Gods Word shall not. Christs Dico vobis, shall not fail, I say to you.  
But Christ rests not in this; prefac't his Promise with his Word; prefaceth his Word too with an Oath. Christ knew mans incredulity, had tried his Disciples to be {αβγδ}, men of little faith, he will secure them. Worthy was his Word, his bare Word of belief; twas band enough. But he will bind it too. His Word bound his Promise; Oath shall bind his word, Amen I say to you. Iuratio est, tis an Oath, saith Saint Augustine. Many learned Divines think it is not. I contend not. Tis at least a vehement protestation; that will serve. It might them; let it us. Onely note; Oath or Protestation, Christ is earnest, doubles it, ever doubles it, in this gospel, in none else; Amen, Amen, I say, to you. Leave the Preface; come to the Promise.  
Two Acts in it, Prayer on mans part, he must ask; Granting on Gods part, He will give. The Object common to both, Quodcunque, whatsoever. First of the Object. Once I noted before an excellent attribute, which Saint james gives to God, james 5. 11. he calls him {αβγδ}. There is in Gods goodness both {αβγδ}& {αβγδ}, It is both Gratiosa& Copiosa, both free and frank. Free, for God sells not, but gives. frank, tis not sparing, but liberal. liberal? I wrong God; thats a term too base for Him. Saint Paul calls it {αβγδ} the exceeding riches of his Grace. bounty, not liberality; not Bou●tie neither, but Munificence; that becomes majesty.  
Kings, gods on earth will grant Quaecunque, whatsoever is craved of them. Salomon did to the queen of Saba, whatsoever shee would ask. God will much more, can much better; Will, of his goodness, he is {αβγδ} the gracious God, Exod. 34. 6. Can, of his Power; he is {αβγδ} the almighty God, God Omnisufficient. Men can, and will give many things, but not Quaecunque, promise that too. But their Quaecunque hath many Excipees, is not like Gods, Infinite. Give all things, as God doth, absolutely all, Man will not, though he could, can not, though he would. Tis Gods Prerogative. Men, most men deny things when they be asked. The most Munificent, even Princes, called for their largess, {αβγδ}, gracious Lords, Nedibim in the psalms, i. bountiful, sand away their suppliants many times unsatisfied. It is indeed recorded, that Gallienus the Emperour, nunquam quicquam cuiquam, never denied any man any suite. Thats but said in Hyperbole, because he did it seldom. But Solomon denied his own mother her request.[ So did Christ the mother of Zebedees children. Christ could not grant the one, Salomon would not the other.] Twas but a wife, his mother asked, and that for his own brother. But he answered her angrily, you are best to ask the kingdom too. But ask God any thing, quodcunque; whatsoever, a kingdom, if you will,[ not half a one, as Herod offered his stepdaughter, and Assuerus to his queen; but a whole kingdom] God will give it. Christ hath said it, It is your Fathers pleasure to give you a kingdom. Earth hath nothing, Heaven hath not, which God will not grant, if man will but ask. Not quaecunque onely, but quotcunque too, how many things soever. The greek word is pregnant, may mean both, doth mean both. Bee thou strict in thy suite, in thy humility; God will be large in his grace, in his benignity; will give thee more then thou askest. He gives {αβγδ}, richly, saith the Apostle. Salomon asked wisdom, God gave him it; and wealth and honour too. jacob asked bread onely, and clothes. God gave him that, and much substance besides. Men do Iniquum petere, ut aequum ferant, looking for less, ask more in policy. But God in his bounty will give more, then man in his modesty may ask. Leave the Object, hear the Act.  
Theres another Act follows, tis Gods to give: but tis fit Man go first to ask. Christ still so marshals them. {αβγδ} goes before {αβγδ}, Matth. 7. 7. Theres an old heresy in Clemens Ales, {αβγδ}, that prayer is unnecessary; God gives blessings unaskt; prayer is {αβγδ}, merely superfluous. he does; thats his great graciousness, travels so with goodness, that he will not stay the asking, prevents prayer: Like the prodigal sons father, runs forth to meet him, kisses,& embraces him, before he can speak to him. David prevented God, he says, Psal. 88. means, he rose early to pray. He must rise early, that will prevent God. But by Davids leave, God prevented him, moved his spirit to pray; else he had not. Noveris te quaesitum antè, quàm quaerentem, Bern. God bids thee seek; but seeks thee first; yea is found of thee unsought. Rom 10. 20. David confesses it, cries Praevenisti, Psal 21. Gods blessings had prevented him. God gives men many things Nescientibus, Chrysost. they not ware of it. David prayed, the plague might cease, 2 Sam. ult. 17. God before had cried sufficit, had bid the angel hold his hand, vers. 16.  
But Gods prevention is no dispensation, quits not our duty. We must look at his commandment, not his grace; do what he bids; he bids us pray. God will open his hand; but man must open his mouth. Prayer must be mans orator, his interpreter to God, to show him our requests, Saint Paul says, Phil. 4. 6. Now God needs none, you will say; he knows our hearts. he does: yet he will have it so: and though he often gives unaskt; yet he lets us often want, because wee ask not. Saint ●amess says expressly, You have not, because you ask not. Wee need but ask; but ask we must. Orate, petite, both Christ and his Apostles have it often.  
An honourable exercise, used even by the Angels, {αβγδ}, Chrysost. their Act, as well as ours. Yea by Christs self; he prayed often. Clavis coeli, Aug. the key of heaven. he ment haply Aerial heaven, the Clouds, which by prayer Elias opened and shut, fetched what weather it pleased him, drought or rain. I will say under correction, Clavis paradisi, the key of the Etheriall heaven too. The thief upon the cross by prayer opened it. Yea the God of heaven hath nothing, which he denies it; Ascendit oratio, descendit Miseratio, God hath no grace, which he grants not unto prayer.  
It climbs the clouds, Penetrat.[ The Fathes give it honourable Attributes. The Churches Bulwark, Chrysostome, {αβγδ}, not to bee broken, not to be shaken. The Christians Shield, Ambrose, {αβγδ}, a strong weapon, Chrysost. Flagellum sathanae, August. a scourge, a Scorpion to the devil. Nothing withstandeth it.] It pierceth the Clouds, saith Iesus sirach, resteth not, till it get to God, and will not leave him neither, till he granteth it. Makes him cry, Sine me, so he did to Moses, let me alone, says God; as if he were unable to withstand his importunity. Wilt thou have Quodcunque, Gods any thing, Gods self? ask it onely; thou shalt. God will not deny thee, no not the holy Ghost, luke. 11. 13. Prayer will prevail, will wrestle even with God, dimit, Let me go, saith the angel unto jacob, that angel was God. Non dimittam, saith jacob, I will not let thee go, until thou blessest me. It will press him, it will argue, expostulate with God, with quare's and quousque's. How long wilt thou not listen? saith David in the psalms. Why hast thou forsaken me? Christ cries upon the cross. To end this Act, the Act on our part, God will be asked, before he give. he will not give his son his own son, the heathen for his inheritance, but he must first ask it; Pete a me, Psal. 2. ask of me. Come we now to the Provisoes. It is the Father, must be prayed to; and in the sons name. What is asked of any other, or in any other name, is out of this promise.  
For the former, who is this Father? It is Almighty God, Nemo tam pater, Tetrtul. the name is not so natural to any, as to God. All Invocation doth belong to God. Prayer is his propriety. I will not be so idle to prove this. I catechize not boyes, but preach to Men, many able to teach me. One Scripture shall serve this, Invoca me, call upon Me, saith God. But it is here, the Father. Is prayer proper to the first person onely? It is not. The son doth claim it too; so doth the holy Ghost. It is common to all three. It is a point would not be past by, worthy our understanding.  
Some have thought, Origen did, some do still, many Divines in Hungary, Bellarmine saith, the Sabbatarii, Binius saith, tom. 4. p. 878. A. that we may not pray to Christ. One Legate of late yeares did, in Saint Pauls consistory. Servetus a Sp●●iard, a black mouthd blasphemour, said as much of the third person, that wee must not pray neither to the holy Ghost. Their reasons. Not to Christ, because he is Supplicator, no giver of grace, but an Intercessor onely, and prayers all are in his name. Not to the holy Ghost; because he is not God. The latter wee spit at; it deserves a stake, and Servetus had it, 〈◇〉 for it at Geneva. To the former I answer, Christs intercession puts him not by his right; does not un-god him. We may pray, though in his name, yet to himself. For Christ is mediator, not to the Father onely, but also to himself, and to the third Person. All three are God; and he is mediator between Man and God.  
The first point positively; Reason and Scripture, and the Churches general practise, yield invocation equally to all; to Christ, and to the Spirit, as well as to the Father. Reason; for they all are God; thats enough to claim prayer. Davids Invoca me, was from the mouth of all three Persons. For mostly in Scripture, when God is name, all three are signified. And by Saint Pauls conjoining of Faith and Invocation, Rom, 10. 14. How shall they call on him, on whom they believe not; wee learn to pray to all the persons in the Trinity. For we believe on all. There are three Gods in our Service book; and wee profess in all of them, our belief on all the three. For Scripture; was not Saint Stephens prayer, Lord Iesus, receive my spirit? Saint Pauls too, the Lord Iesus comfort your hearts, 2 Thess. 2. Saint Iohns too, Come, Lord Iesus. Yea Christs self saith here, whatsoever ye ask the Father, saith, Chap. 14. v. 14. Si petieritis me, If you shall ask me. Your books have it not so; but the vulgar Latin hath, and some greek Copies too. Where note again Origens reason,& the Hungarians, that Christs mediation debars not invocation. If you ask me any thing in my name, saith Christ there. For the holy Ghost, Scripture is not so evident. But Esaies {αβγδ}, Holy, holy, holy, Esay 6. 3. sung by the Seraphims coucheth it covertly.  
For practise; the Christian Church ancient& modern hath used ever, still doth, prayer both to Christ, and to the holy Ghost. look in our liturgy, the Nicene creed( as we call it) says, that the holy Ghost is Coadorandus, together with the Father, and the son is to be worshipped. More express in the litany, we cry not onely, O God the Father of heaven; but O son of God, also, redeemer of the world; and O holy Ghost proceeding from them both, have mercy upon us. Both there, and elsewhere often, Domine miserere, christ miserere, Domine miserere. In the Te Deum, we pray to Christ too, pray him, help his servants, whom he hath redeemed with his precious blood. And in the singing psalms, the first is an hymn unto the holy Ghost.  
Why then doth our Saviour here in my Text confine us to the Father? Haply he does not. he doth not say, My Father, but the Father. That term implies rather Affection unto us, then relation unto Him; Affection of love, not distinction of persons. The appellation is equally common to all three. Say he do; he means his Father but principally; but himself too, and the Spirit collaterally. He was pleased and it was fit, he should do his Father all the honour that he could; as not his father onely but the fountain als● of the deity.[ Honour is the Fathers not Most, for Trinitas non habet gradum, tart. no more his, then the others; nor his Most, but his First.] In a word, say Christ here said, his Father. yet that were but {αβγδ}, in his reverence unto him. But he must mean by Synecdoche, himself too, and the Spirit. To end this, prayer is here confined to the Father, that is, God. Not to servile any person of the Trinity; but to provide in his foreseing Spirit, against Popish idolatry, prayer unto Saints. A point which I may not pass by so opportuned. I will but touch it.  
Shall I pray to them, that hear me not? Or shall I make Saints gods, to hear in heaven, what is asked on earth? Say they can hear, though I muse how. The Papists say, Gods face is their Looking-glasse, they see all things done here, in it. Can they hear too, by a Looking-glasse? Good Saint Augustine never knew that glass; saith, Nec vident, nec audiunt; Saints neither hear nor see, whats done in earth. But say they can hear; can they help too? Have they, what I want? If not, whence is the Dabitur, how shall it be given me, what I ask? Will they do it by the Angells? They indeed are ministering Spirits; but not at their command It must be by mediation unto God; and the next words in my Text debar that, bid me ask in Christs name. Then hear they, help they, yea or nay, I will not pray to them. do I must not; what God bids not. Prayer to Saints, Iesuites themselves deny to be in Scripture. Not in the old Testament, saith Snares; not in the New, saith Salmeron. Tis then Will-worship, and so mere Superstition.  
Come to the next proviso, all prayer must be in Christs name. Thats to Christs glory, some gloss it so, thats somewhat lank. Christ by his name means, for his sake; the best expound it so; and the Church doth practise it, ends all her prayers with, Through Iesus Christ our Lord. Christ saith it, not here onely, hath it often.  
Prayer must be in Christs name; ask whatsoever, but through Him. Man is unworthy of access to God: he must have means. They are not many, one onely, it is Christ. Christ saith it, No man comes to the Father, but by Him. Christ is Gods onely favourite; his son alone prefers all suits. The Fathers self saith it, This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. he is our onely Patron, Saint Paul saith expressly, theres but one mediator, and that is, Iesus Christ, 1 Tim. 2. Saint John too makes him our Advocate. Saint Peter shall conclude it; he hath his Masters term. Christ saith here, In my name; He, Non est nomen aliud, thers no other name but his. My length in the former point, makes me short in this. I would go through all.  
Theres yet one term, another Act, the Act on Gods part; tis to give. Christ adds it to mans Act, It was to ask; needs to add it. For who will pray, but to be heard, ask, but with hope to speed? Heres more then, Hope, Assurance, Christs Word and Oath. Hope to speed, is a spur to suite, an ear easy to hear, will have askers enough. he will give it you. The donor, and his bounty. He; who He? The Father, i. God. It must be he; none else can give, give whatsoever. And if God; it must be gift; for God sells nothing. God is gracious, and grace is free; goodness will give. Posse& velle, Power and Will meeting, man cannot miss, ask he Quodcunque, whatsoever. Instance would be infinite of Gods gracious granting the humble petitions of Patriarkes Prophets, all men that have prayed to him.  
All men, but not all-wayes. Not Saint Paul sometimes, not David, nay not Christ. Saint Paul prayed, God would remove a prick in his flesh, prayed thrice God would not. David prayed, God would spare the life of his sick child, God would not. Christ prayed, the cup might pass from him, the bitter potion of his Passion, asked it thrice too. God would not grant it, not the suite of his own son. For Saint Paul, God gave him not the thing, he asked; but he gave him as good a thing, a better thing, his Grace. The prick in the flesh, was the devills poison; but Gods grace was an Antidote. For David, God would not spare the child, for the chastening of the Father. For Christ, we can not say; Ood denied, what he asked: for he prayed but with condition, If it▪ were possible; and with submission of his Will to Gods; asked life; but instantly correcting his request, unaskt it again, revokt his petition. Christs prayer, happy be we he prest it not, and blessed be God, he granted not. Had not Christ suffered, we had; if not he on the cross, we had in hell.  
To conclude; Papists, pled not Merit, press not price; buy nothing of God. All things come from him {αβγδ}, of gift. Say not, Scripture itself calls it Reward. Thats but in Metaphor, tis free gift. God is pleased in his sweetness to term his gifts Rewards. But in man tis no good manners to catch at Gods phrases captiously. He calls things, that are not, as if they were, Rom. 4. 17. Theres Reward for the wicked, wrath and Iudgement; thats without Trope. To the righteous, all is gift. They earn nothing. All {αβγδ}, free grace; nothing {αβγδ}, due debt, Rom. 6. If not earn, much-lesse purchase: man hath nought to give. What God receives, is all De suo, Gods own before. Bona be Dei Dona, Augustine, the good things of man, are the free gifts of God. God rewards not, pays not, sells not; but gives onely.  
Man deserves nought, is unworthy of grace. Indignus sum, saith jacob, Gen. 32. Indignus sum, saith John Baptist, Matth. 3. Saint Paul too, Indignus sum, 1 Cor. 15. A schoolman can say so, God deals not Iuxta dignitatem humanam, but secundùm dignationem divinam. What we ask, we have; not of our deserving, but of Gods vouchsafing; of merit nothing, all of free gift. All things man hath, are Dei donativa, Tertullians term, merely Gods Donatives. Merita donat, praemia redonat, peccata condonat, all is Donation. Epicharmus a greek Poet saith, {αβγδ}, Dij nobis vendunt omnia laboribus, the gods sell us all things for our pains. Theres little heed to a Poets phrase. The same verse doth avouch plurality of gods. But Gods self saith, Esay 55. Come and buy of me. red on, and it is answered, Buy without money. Have all things freely for the asking. Grace is Gratuita; {αβγδ}, give to receive, is mans fashion, not Gods. Nothing before, but Prayer; nothing after but Thankes. To this most Munificent, and gracious God, the Father, son, and holy Spirit, be made all Prayer, rendered all thankes, yielded all Honour, majesty, and Dominion, from this day to the end of dayes, and for ever.   

A SERMON PREACHED VPON THE FIFT SVNDAY AFTER trinity.  luke 5. 8. Lord, go from me, for I am a sinful man. 
IT is S. Peters speech to Christ. he had fished in vain all night: Christ bad cast out the Net again. Such a multitude of Fish is caught, that the Net holds them not, but breaks. Nay, the Ship holds them not; they fill both it and another of their partners. Both hold them not▪ they fill them both, till they almost sink again. He amazed at the Miracle, cries out in his astonishment; Lord, go from me, for I am a sinful man. Two distinct parts; his request, Christs departure; his reason, he is a sinner, a strange request, man to pray God, to go from him. A stranger reason, because he is a sinner. But though strange, yet not rude; but prefac't with a term of honour, of religious reverence, Lord, go from me, of these three in their order: first of the Compellation.  
Domine, Lord. This term in the three learned tongues is very ambiguous, as in comom use, so also in Scripture; that it craves good discretion in the Preacher, or translator to English it aright. It hath both a religious, and a civill sense. There is Dominus Deus, the Lord God, and there is Dominus Rex, my Lord the King. Yea and not God onely, and his pheasants, Kings, are called Domini; but the term descends even from the sceptre to the Spade; Domine, said Mary Magdalen to the gardener, as shee thought. S. Pauls speech fits here, there are many Domini, many Lords, both God and Men: and of Men, all sorts, even the meanest of Men in common compellation are called Domini: and therefore englished diversely according to the different condition of the persons; sometimes Lord, sometimes Master, sometimes Sir. Sarah called Abraham, Lord. Rebecca gives the same title to his servant, calls him Lord too. Art not thou my Lord Elias, saith Obadiah to the Prophet. Paul and Silas, poor Prisoners are called Domini, by the jailor. So is Philip by the Greekes, joan. 12. 21. The places are infinite, in which this term is given to Christ in the New Testament: not in the same sense ever; but according to the speakers present conceit of Christ. Master five times in the eight of S. Matth. in the Geneva Bible. Sir, thrice in the fourth and fift of John, in the last Translation too. For the woman of Samaria, and the Lazar of Bethesda, not knowing who he was, gave him but the title of an ordinary man.  
But S. Peter a Disciple means it with more reverence. Yea espieing his divinity by the present Miracle, gives it him at least in the most honourable acception that may be, to a man. And indeed howsoever in the greek and latin tongues it be used unto men, even but of mean condition, in civility of speech: yet naturally it is a term of highest honour; thought once too proud a title for the Emperour himself. Augustus refused it, forbade it, by public edict. So did Tiberius after him, refused it too. Nero admitted it: you may see it in the Acts. Festus there gives it him. Domitian had Deus added to it too, Edictum Domini, deique nostri; as proud as the Pope; our Lord God the Pope. It is indeed( Tertullian saith) Gognomen Dei, Gods own appellation. That great name of Gods, his unutterable name, as the rabbis call it, which the Iewes durst not, could not pronounce, the name jehovah, the Septuagints ever interpret by this term: proper to God onely; and not given( saith S. hilary) no not to Christs self, but Per id, quod Dei Filius est, as he is the son of God.  
Saint Peter being here to speak unto our Saviour, must use some compellation. All men do. The King said so to his guest, Friend, how camest thou in hither? joab to Amasa, Art thou in health, my brother? It had been unmeet, unmannerly to have called Christ by his Name, the Disciple the Master. satan himself in the possessed, though he called him Iesus; yet it was with an adjection of honourable terms, Iesus, thou son of God. Blind Bartimaeus, that could not say so much, called him Iesus too, but with addition also of honourable words, Iesus, thou son of David. Shall he call him, Master? The Scribe calls him no more, {αβγδ}, Master. So do the Pharisees and Herodians, Master wee know that thou art true. So did Judas, hail Master. Yea, Mary called him Master too, joh. 20. 16. for Rabboni means no more. His Disciples do. One does, Mark. 13. See, what goodly stones are here. That one, not Iudas, Master, is it I▪ He might haply be loathe, as in the ointment, so also in his Titles, loathe too much cost should bee bestowed on him. But even S. John Christs beloved, Luk. 9. 49. Both he and James his brother, Mark. 10. All his Disciples do, Mark. 4. Master carest thou not that wee perish? But that term contents not Peter; the sight of the Miracle, and the conscience of his sins, put an higher title in his mouth: he calls him, Lord. That other was too lank and languid at this time. Publicans called John Baptist so. S. Peter himself once called him Master too; but he was but Iohns disciple then; Master where dwellest thou. And Christs self allows the title; you call me Master, saith he, and you say well, for so I am. And indeed it is a name of special reverence. Rabbi was the glory of the proud Pharisees.  
But Christs act here wrought in the Disciple a higher conceit of him then this title means: he calls him, Lord. A title too given him by many. The Leper called him, Lord. So did the Centurion; the two blind men, the Chanaanite woman, the adulteress, and others. All these called him so in honourable conceit of him, as of some worthy Prophet, some special man of God. But Saint Peters conceit of him transcends all theirs; calls him here, Lord, in a Diviner sense. witness both the Phrase and Gesture of a Suppliant. He fell down at Iesus knees, and in the syriac Paraphrase {αβγδ}, Lord( saith he) I beseech thee. Saint Peter makes more of him, then a mere man. For besides the works of wonder, which he had seen him do; many and mighty, he had heard the devils call him the son of God. Though satan be a liar; yet the witness of an enemy to the honour of his adversary, is ever authentical. Yea and himself elsewhere confesseth him so too, calls him the son of God; saith, he knew all things; which none doth, but God. And it is Calvins note upon another Scripture, that we cannot rightly conceive Christ to be Lord, without instant conceit also of his Divinity.  
Nor is Peter herein, singular: Christ is called Lord by more in the same meaning. By Mary Magdalene, shee said, she had seen the Lord. Shee must needs think him more then a mere man, whom by his own power she saw risen from the dead. Elizabeth calls Mary the mother of her Lord. The Lord( saith David) said unto my Lord. Christs self is his expositor. Yea, an angel calls him so; Math. 28. Come see the place, where the Lord was laid. Whom an angel calls Lord, he must be God. Men are Lords, many; but onely over men: But Christ is Lord of Angels also. construe one Angels meaning by another; Gabriel said, Christ should be called the son of God. Saint Peter here calls our Saviour, Lord; not More communi, as Tertullian speaks, in ordinary notion, as we call many men; and as many used to call our Saviour: but as Calvin said, in a conceit of his Divinity. And in this conceit, the Apostles in their writings call him every where Dominum, the Lord. Yea we all, all Christians call him so▪ It is the close of all our Prayers, Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Through Iesus Christ our Lord.  
Thus Saint Peters word of Preface, you see the sense of it: now hear the Right of it; and so end it▪ Saint Peter flatters not, nor mistakes not. His successor cannot err, in any thing: surely himself does not err in this thing. Christ is Lord indeed: not by his Mother, because shee is called our Lady, & Partus sequitur ventrem, tis not that. Lord, first as God, and so his Fathers Pee●e. Then as mediator, by a threefold Right, of Inheritance, of Redemption, and of wedlock. David saith of the first, God hath given him the Heathen for his Heritage, and the ends of the earth for his Possession; and Possessio is Dominium. For the second, Saint Paul saith too, he hath bought us for a Price; and the Law saith, Emptum cedit in Dominium. And for the third, the Church is Christs Spouse; and the Wife calls the Husband, her Head, and her Lord. I say, Christ is Dominus, both Natus& Factus, Lord both born so, and made so; born so, as God; Made so, as Man; Saint Peter saith it, Act. 2. God hath made him both Lord and Christ. Kings, all Kings are Christi Domini, the Lords anointed: here is Christus Dominus, the anointed Lord. styled so by the angel Luke 2. Who is Christ, the Lord. Enough of the Compellation: come to the Request.  
Strange words for a Disciple to speak unto his Master, Peter to Christ; more then a Master, his Lord; the messiah, the son of God. Thats more( you will say) then Saint Peter knew yet. Tis not. John had taught it him, John the Baptist, whose Disciple he was first, as it is thought. Say, he was not: yet his Brother had instructed him. We have found the messiah, saith Andrew, and brought him unto Christ. And himself saw his Divinity: at his first coming to him, a mere Stranger, Christ called him by his name, and by his Fathers name. And he had seen his Miracles, lepers cleansed, all diseases cured, devils expelled, Peter to say to him, Lord, depart from me. That had called him from the ship, to the Discipleship, from catching of Fish, to be a Fisher of Men; had graced him with his presence at his house; a favour, which a better man then he thought himself unworthy of, the Centurion; had healed his Wives Mother of her fever; had honoured him with the name of Cephas, marshald him next to his Kinsmen, james and John; loved him above them too, it seems; for John is called but the Disciple, whom Christ loved; but Saint Peter was his Charissimus, Tertullians term, his best beloved. This man to say to Christ, Depart from me; should Festus judge him, as he did Saint Paul, he would say, Insanis Petre, certainly Peter thou art beside thyself. And indeed Saint Peter sometimes spake he knew not what. At Christs Transfiguration, Bonum est esse hic, let us make three tabernacles, Saint mark saith plainly, he knew not what he said. When Christ foretold them of his Passion, Lord pitty thyself, saith Peter. Had Christ pitied himself; how should man have been redeemed? how should Peter have been saved? Christ might here have answered him, as he did Zebedees Children, Ye know not what ye ask.  
Say to satan, say to sin, Depart from me. David does to sin, a froward heart shall depart from me. The son of David does to satan, Vade, avoid satan. But to Christ, say every soul, with the Spirit, and the Spouse in the Revelation, Veni Domine, Come Lord Iesus.  
David prays in the psalm, Domine, ne discedas, Lord go not from me; expostulates with God for leaving him, My God, my God, why hast thou for saken me? But that you will say, toucheth not Christ. It doth, as he is God. But even the man Christ also, jairus bids him, Come. Levi bad him to his house. So did they at the marriage in Cana. Zaccheus was so glad of his coming to his house, that for joy he gave half of his goods unto the poor: and yet he is called, Homo peccator too. joseph of Arimathea desired even his dead corpse, that he might lay it, where he meant to lye himself. The people pressed to hear and see him; sought him, when they missed him, and held him( Saint Luke saith) when they had him. So far fram this Discede, from saying, Lord, go from us, that when he would go, they permitted not; were so importunate, that they would not give him leave to take his meales. Yea Peter himself in an other passion, Matth. 14. 28. prays Christ to bid him, Come to him, though walking on the water. Nay John 21. he would not stay his bidding him: but Christ being on the shore, Peter in the ship, casts himself into the sea, to get to him. For Christs presence is a preservative; from danger, the Disciples had perished in the tempest, had not Christ been in the ship. Martha thought from death too: Lord, if thou hadst been here, saith she, my brother had not died.  
The Church in the Canticles,( and they say Saint Peter is the Churches head) she longs for Christs presence, to see his face, to hear his voice, to have his left hand under her head, and his right hand to embrace her: her delight under his shadow. What means Saint Peter to pray him to go from him? A speech beseeming his successor, rather the Pope, I would not wonder at him if he spake it. If Christ should come again to live a while on earth, to rule his Church in person: the Pope would haply say, Domine discede, Lord depart from me. For being his Vicar, Christs personal presence would discharge him both of Office and authority.  
Saint Paul desired to be with Christ, desired to be dissolved, for to be with Christ. Christs grant to the thieves prayer was but hody mecum eris, that he should be with him. For to be with Christ, is to be in happiness. In his presence( saith David) is the fullness of joy. Thats( you will say) not to the point, to be with Christ in heaven. Surely tis not precisely. Yet Deus erat in Christo, as Saint Paul saith, God being in Christ, he is in heaven, that is with him, with him wheresoever. As it is said of satan, Circumfert secum inferos, he carries hell about him: so where Christ is, heaven is, though it be on earth. Did the queen of Saba hold them happy, that stood before Salomon, to hear his wisdom? Behold one greater than Salomon is here. They are happy, thrice happy, that stand before Christ, to hear the gracious words, that proceed out of his mouth.  
What an unkind requital is this request of Peters for his Masters love? Christs presence was precious: he loved them specially, with whom he choose to live, his domestical Disciples. And of them S. Peter and Boanerges most, he kept them ever nearest him; they three were often with him, when the rest were not. For james and John there was some reason; they were his Cozen-germans. But for S. Peter there was none, but only love. He both loved him more than the rest, you heard Tertullians term, Charissimus; and also desired his love more than the rests, Simon( saith Christ to him) Lovest thou me more than these? And is Peter glutted with Christs love, quatred with his company? That he praies him to go from him? saith John, Peter was of Bethsaida? It should seem rather he was a Gergesen. The Maid, that challenged him in the high Priests hall, had she heard him here speak in the Gadaren Dialect, Depart from me, would have said, Peter, thy speech bewrays thee. Never any but the Gergesens, the profane Gergesens bad Christ, Depart. They preferred their hogs before their souls health. Nay Peters scepticism seems worse then theirs. They had sustained some loss by Christ; Peter had gained by him. Their loss two thousand of Swine; his gain two shipfulls of fish. Surely except Peter can show the better reason, the request is strange; let us hear it, Lord, depart from me: for I am a sinful man.  
Why must Christ go from Peter? Because he is a sinner. The request harsh, the reason worse. Should he not speak absurdly, that should say to the physician, Domine discede, Sir, depart from me, for I am a sick man? sin( saith Saint Basil) is {αβγδ}, the souls sickness; and Christ is the physician? The name Iesus so signifies, Epiphanius saith. And saith Peter here, Domine discede, Lord, go from me; for I am a sinful man? Surely tis a sick argument: the Reason rather concludes the quiter contrary, for the physician; Domine accede, Sir come to me; for I am sick: Lord, come to me; for I am a sinner. Twas Christs own answer to the captious Pharisees, carping at his keeping with Publicans and Sinners, The whole have no need of the physician, but the sick.  
Saint Peters Argument is like his Net that broke; this as brittle. Where should the physician be but with the sick? Where our Saviour, but with sinners? Who were they, Christ said, he came to call, Matth. 9. 13. was it not sinners? he cries indeed else-where, Venite ad me omnes, Come unto me all. But those all are sinners. Tis Omnes, but Laborantes, All that are laden, over-loden with their sins. Art thou a sinner? Neither fly thou from God, as Adam did; neither bid Christ go from thee, as Peter did. The Patient is safest, when the physician is beside him, Luke 7. 39. A woman, a sinner, Peccatrix, shee comes to Christ, stands at his feet, washes them, wipes them, kisses and anoints them. Zaccheus a sinner, homo peccator, Saint Peters term here, Luke 19. 7. You heard, how he joyed, that Christ would be with him, would but take one meal with him. David a sinner, a great sinner;( be merciful to my sin, for it is great) yet cries, Domine, ne discedas, Lord go not from me; Expostulates with God, for being so far from him, Psal. 10. 1. Christ was not sent, but to the stray sheep; and he came to save that onely, which was lost. The sinner is both the stray sheep, and the lost child.  
Were Peters reason good; then Christ must be with no man, no man with him. For all are sinful men. Christ then must not cry, Venite ad me omnes, but Abite à me omnes, come unto me all, but depart from me all. But why, Because I am a sinner? May not Christ, and a sinner be together without danger? To whether of the twain accrewes it? Is the sinners company contagious to Christ? Or occasions Christs presence any pain unto the sinner? First for Christs peril, there is none. The leper was to cry, I am unclean, I am unclean; lest any coming near him might be hurt by his uncleanness. But mans uncleanness cannot defile Christ. The sun shining on a slough, is not fil'd by the slough; the slough is dried by it. Much less Christ, Sol justitiae, the sun of righteousness( so termed by malachi) can be polluted by mans wickedness. Our wickedness corrupts not him; but his righteousness justifies us. The woman with the issue longed to touch Christ. Her touch hurt not him, but healed her. And for mans peril. It was an opinion among the Hebrewes, that if but an angel appeared to any, he died for it. Wee shall surely die, saith Samsons father, and Gideon cried, Alas, for I have seen an angel. If the sight but of Gods servant were so dangerous: what was the presence of Gods son? Indeed the devills cried to Christ, What have we to do with thee? art thou come to torment us? But Christs coming unto man( himself saith in the gospel) is that sinners may have life, Saint Paul seconds him, Iesus Christ came into the world, to save sinners.  
Saint Peter should have said rather, Lord keep with me, for I am a sinner. Christs presence might be a protection against sin. Peter and Christ were partend, when Peter denied him. They were both in Caiphas Hall: but Peter was below among the servants. And Christ no sooner looked at him, but he presently repented. Had Iudas kept with Christ, he had not betrayed him. Exivit( saith the Evangelist) he went out, and sold him to the Priests. A Patient will be temperate, while the physician is in presence. Surely sin severs between God and man. Adam had no sooner sinned, but fled Gods presence. sin is a work of darkness; and God is Father of lights. The sinner will not( with his will) come where he is. What Malefactor joys in his Iudges company? God is the sinners censurer; he declines him. Now Christ to be God, Saint Peters self confesseth, Matth. 16. 16. and wonder we, he prays him to depart from him? Christ is indeed God, but God incarnate: he came not to judge, but to save sinners. The Nicene Creed saith, he took flesh for our salvation. The angel enclosed his nature in his name. He was God; but he was Iesus. What though Peter was a sinner? His Master was a Saviour. he therefore was called Iesus, because he would save his people from their sins.  
Why do I all this while wrong the Apostle? Wrest his words unto the worst? Say both request and reason seem to be absurd: it seems, but is not. Saint Ambrose bids, Dic& tu, bids every Christian say it. And Christs answer consters it; bids him not fear. The meeke-hearted man amazed at the miracle, setting the Cogitation of Christs divine majesty, to the conscience of his sins, finds himself unworthy of his sacred presence; and cries out in that conceit, Lord go from me, for I am a sinful man. For should Christs Godhead, masked under his humanity, have appeared in kind; Peter must have perished. The justest man on earth, even Adam in his innocency, must have instantly been consumed. Gods hand must cover Moses, to see but his backe-parts: no man can see Gods face and live. How then shall Peter, a poor sinful man, not tremble before him; not fall down at his knees, and cry in his humility, Lord go from me, for I am a sinner.  
Surely the speech is from Gods holy Spirit, acknowledging Gods might, and his own means▪ unworthy the company of so great a person, to stand beside him, to bee in ship with him. Saint Peter is not singular in this neither. Domine, non sum dignus, the Centurions cry, he was unworthy, Christ should come under his roof. Vnde mihi hoc, Elizabeths speech too; shee thought herself unworthy, Christs mother should come to her. Nay Saint John her son, a Prophet, more then a Prophet, as great as any that ere was born of woman, yet held himself unworthy to untie Christs shoes. Neither John, nor Elizabeth, neither the Centurion uses Saint Peters reason, because they are sinners; but onely in conceit of the excellency of his person. Peter considering his sinfulness withall, hath the greatest reason to think himself unworthy of the presence of Christ.  
I think Saint Peters spirit be in some sort lighted on the Pope, on all Papists; They think themselves not onely unworthy of Christs presence, but they hold it impudency even to pray to him, to him immediately, they may not dare to go to Christ directly; but must make the Saints their intercessors. Mary must mediate for them to her son, Saint Peter to his master. And I wonder too, that among all their arguments for mediation of Saints, they city not Saint Peters Action here, to prove men unworthy to pray to Christ directly.  
Wee Protestants err in the certain extreme. They are not so timorous, but we are as audacious: peers to Peter for his sin, but not for his conceit, who presseth not presumptuously into Gods presence, into his Courts, unto his Altars, though nere so soild with unrepented sins? The Publican stood aloof, would not look up to heaven; but beat his breast, and prayed for mercy. I will not say, the sinful man( wee all are so) but the wicked man, the libertine, the drunkard, the adulterer, the blasphemer, the extortioner, the wilful wicked man, not onely e●ters rudely into Gods house, but also goes on boldly even to his holy Table. That which the Fathers call tremendum mysterium, the blessed Sacrament of Christs blood and body, to which sinful man should not dare approach but with fear and trembling, he never makes scruple of his unworthiness, but confidently receives it. Saint Ambrose said, Dic& tu, bids me say too with Saint Peter, Lord, go from me for I am a sinful man. Not that I should forbear the places of Gods presence, his special presence, the Church, the house of prayer; many a lewd man would bee glad of that immunity: n● nor his presence neither in the holy Sacrament: but that when I enter them, weighing my sinfulness and his greatness, I hold myself unworthy to come into his presence. Wee publicly confess it, when wee communicate, that wee are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under his Table.  
Thou that wearest out all the week in strong drink, or with strange women, in swearing and cursing, and all manner of lewd speaking, in beguiling thy brethren with false weights, and false measures, and which is worse, false protestations too, and presumest on the Lords day to press into Gods house, into Christs presence, Dic& tu, Saint Ambrose bids, Say thou( for well thou mayst) Lord go from me for I am a sinful man. Either say thou so to Christ; or Christ will say to thee, Amice, quomodo intrasti, Friend, how camest thou in hither? To conclude S. Peters speech is godly, if spoken with his spirit, in humble acknowledgement of thine unworthiness. Dic et tu, thou mayst speak it too. But in some sinister sense, in the spirit of despair, as if Christ were not thy Saviour, but thy judge; say it not so. Bid not Christ go from thee, because thou art a sinner. For therefore he comes to thee, because thou art a sinner. That which is thy argument for shunning him, is Christs argument for saving thee. Embrace thy physician; put him not away. Bee thy sickness whatsoever, he will make thee whole. Thou art homo peccator, a sinful man, but he is homo non peccator, a man without sin. His righteousness will cover thee, cvi, &c.   

A SERMON PREACHED VPON ALL-SAINTS DAY.  APOC. 7. 10. Salvation to our God, that sitteth on the Throne, and to the lamb. 
WHat fitter Text for All-Saints day, than the song of all Saints? hear it, I pray you, out of the Revelation, 7. 10. and it is a part of the Epistle for this day, Salvation to our God, &c. The holy hymn of all the holy Spirits. Said I, of All Saints? All Angells too. All Saints sing it, both Iewes, verse 4. 144000. of Israel, and Christians of all nations, without number, verse 9. And the Angels say, Amen to it, verse 12. The solemnest song, that ever was sung in heaven. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty, was but the song of the four Beasts, Chap. 4. ver. 8. Dignus es Domine Deus, an other of the twenty four Elders, ver. 10. A third in the fifth Chapter, ver. 9. of the Beasts and them together. Theres a fourth of a multitude, 1000000. ver. 11. But they were Angells onely. Here both Saints and Angells; All of both, join in one anthem, Salvation unto God. {αβγδ} behold saith Arethas, one Church of Saints and Angells. A thankful acknowledgement; whereof; of Salvation. To whom? To God, the Father, and to the lamb, Christ Iesus. The Father is described by his majesty, Sits on a Throne; the son by his humility; called the lamb. These things are my Theme, God assisting, with your patience.  
Songs, spiritual songs, some are prayers; many of Davids are; most are praise and thanksgiving. This is. God doth {αβγδ}, Man must {αβγδ}; Here sends health to us; we sing hymns to him: Tis Fit. Man owes it, God expects it. It becomes the just( saith David) to be thankful; theres the debt. Thou shalt glorify me, saith God; theres the claim. Saints sing Hosanna in earth, Hallelujah in heaven; here, save us Lord; there, praise the Lord. Wee si●g both in earth; but the latter onely in heaven. If not onely; mostly, they pray in general, the Church Triumphant there, for the Church Militant here: and for the hastening of the resurrection, for their entire fruition of full joy.  
The subject matter of this Song is Salvation. This word in the Latin Text, Salus Deo, and the Ellipsis, the want of the verb in the greek and Latin both, might move some scoffing Atheist to flout both Saints and God, and say, the Saints wish health to God. An impious, absurd, and irreligious sense. Wee wish health and salvation, bodies health, souls salvation one to another; not to God; he needs neither, is himself salvation. The people of jerusalem to the Iewes in Egypt, salutem, greeting and health, 2 Macch. 1. 10. the phrase is frequent there. It were gross compliment to greet God. To provide for this scruple, Beza puts in a particle, Salus à Deo, and Expositors gloss it, Salus Deo nostro, to be the voice not Optantium, but Laetantium, of joy, and not of wish. The Saints ascribe their salvation unto God. It is here an hebraism, this book hath many▪ The very same in the third psalm v. ult {αβγδ} Salus Domino, salvation to the Lord, that is, belongs unto the Lord. Of that afterwards; it is the predicate of the proposition; first of the subject.  
All mans good is from God; temporal, riches, health; spiritual, grace and peace, {αβγδ}, all things, Saint Paul saith, saith it thrice. But above all things, salvation. It is but Salus, in Latin, too weak a word, to signify so much. It means but health and wealth, incommon speech, worldly prosperity, as does in Scripture the word Peace, in ordinary salutation. Salvation is a heavenlier, a diviner thing, {αβγδ}, saith a greek father, the greatest and the royalest of all the gifts of God. Nihil tam dignum Deo, nothing( saith Tertullian) so worthy God, as mans salvation. Mans creation a great work; salvation a far greater, cost God more pains. His breath suffis'd to make the soul, but his death required to save it. Two notes here needful, {αβγδ}, first, that it is; then what it is.  
For the one, that the soul shall be saved, all confess not. That it is immortal, some make doubt, some quiter deny. That it dies with the body, heathens have held many, Atheists all, Christians some, in Arabia. One or two Bishops of Rome, Pope Paul 3. and John 23. This is so gross an heresy, and the souls immortality so generally now believed, that to spend speech in proof, were to misspend time. Scriptures are rich in it; yea reason would evict it, were they silent. But souls though all immortal, are not all saved. Christs self, that saves them, saith, hell receives more souls, then heaven. That some shall bee, who doubts? a great sum; Iewes here 144000, Christians without number, vers. 4. and 9. God to show the world, that he was merciful, as well as just, though all men sinned, yet would not have all death, but some Salvation. Why was Christ else Incarnate? for us Men, saith the Creed, and for our Salvation. Natus est,& Datus est, Esay 9. 6. that he was born in the womb, torn on the cross, why was it but to save us? He was name Iesus, for that act and end. An angel tells us, that signifies salvation.  
For the other, what is Salvation? It needs no definition, a known term, in the usual acception. The English word is strait, means lightly but deliverance from Hell, and eternal life in Heaven. But the greek and latin are more large; they mean deliverance too; but not spiritual onely, from sin and death, but temporal also, from any kind of cross, present or imminent. And so is the sense of salvation in my Text; the Saints ascribe to God all sorts of deliverance. The souls escape from death, and happiness in Heaven, is the main salvation, and is so termed {αβγδ}. But the other are salvations too, and called so, though not commonly. Preservations are salvations. Iacobs escape from Esaus sword, the Hebrewes from Amaleks, Davids from Sauls, and Absalons, Peters from Herods, Pauls from many perils, were all salvations. Such temporal deliverance, in the book of psalms is often englished salvation. Even such salvations the Saints ascribe to God. David doth often. Ionahs deliverance out of the Whales belly, he calls it his salvation. The Saints are said to sing cap. 15. 3. the song of Moses. That song is of salvation, Exod. 15. 2. of salvation in this sense. God had saved Israel out of the hands of the Egyptians.  
Come we now to the Saviour; it is God. The blessed Virgin calls him so, saith her Spirit rejoiceth in God her Saviour, Saints on Earth, as well as Heaven, sing salvation-songs to God. job calls God his Saviour. So doth David, and Esay, and ieremy, and other Prophets. Saul does, though no Saint. Darius too, though a gentle. God calls himself so, Esa. 43. 3. I am thy Saviour. If he be; then salvation is his. His, not Possessive, but Effective, Gods Act. To this bear all the Prophets witness, and other Holy men, joseph, samson, jonathan, Solomon, Peter, Paul, that salvation is Gods Act. Davids phrase indeed, Psal. 3. 9. is Salus Domini, which some will say, sounds passively. But who knows Davids sense, better then Davids self? he is his own scholiast, Psal. 37. 39. Salus a Domino. That saith plainly, tis his Act.  
This theme should seem to need no proof. Who but a professed atheist, will once doubt of it? that salvation is of God, that believes, there is a God? Onely the Epicure grants, God is, but is idle, busies not himself with the affairs of mortal men, leaves them to themselves. But of this foolish sect, Plena sunt Omnia; Who is not an Epicure? even the most religious man is one sometimes. The whole world ascribes salvation, I mean, Preservation, merely to means. Every man robs God of his Prerogative, makes himself his own Saviour. The greatest Persons most. They think policy protects them, not Religion; put their confidence in 〈◇〉 〈◇〉, walls and weapons, horse and ships; men and munition; distrust God. Even David, the godliest of all Kings, trespassed in this, thought not God sufficient to preserve him; would needs number his people; see, if need should be, how many thousand strong he was.  
But all these things, all other, are( as Saint Augustine saith) Adjutoria deceptoria, deceitful saviours. Salvation is all Gods. Surely they save sometimes, oft times; but as God means. One man may be Gods instrument, to save another, any Creature may. But the author of salvation is Gods self. If he move not the instrument, bless not the means; theres no salvation. Nay the supposed means of our safety sometimes become our bane. Did never King think Iesuites would secure his crown, and at last was slain by them? No man, no Creature saves, but as Gods Instrument. It pleaseth him, to make them his means of our salvation, still I mean preservation. joseph was name by Pharaoh, Saphnath happaneath, thats, saith Saint Hierom, Salvator mundi, because he saved, i. preserved the land. he did, both it, and others from the seven yeares famine. But joseph ascribes that Salvation to Gods self, Gen. 45. 5. From sword, from pestilence, from famine, from all hurt, it is God, that saves man, God onely. Even sometimes without means, by miracle. How many were delivered from sundry infirmities by Christs onely Word? Who, or What saved the Hebrews at the read Sea, from the Egyptians? Who, or What, Ezechias and his people from the Assyrians? Who, or What, England from the Spanish Invasion, from the Iesuites Powder plot.  
For spiritual Salvation, theres less Question. All men give that to God. They do; but not God onely. Papists in that too do rob God, make the Saints Saviours too; cry saint Petre, salva nos, Saint Peter, save us, Mother of God, save us. Bellarmine maintains it. Say not, they mean them interceding Saviours onely, to procure Salvation to us by their Prayers. They cannot mumme under that mask. They make them Mediators, not Intercessionis, but Redemptionis too. They would fain use that distinction. But they are so brazen browed, that they father on Saint Ambrose this sacrilegious blasphemy, that the Saints have wrought our Salvation by their blood; that the Saints were Sacra hostia, a propitiatory sacrifice. Why should they not? The Saints in this song, say not, Soli Deo, unto God alone, but barely to our God.  
First, for that forged saying of Saint Ambrose, the Pope himself shall confute that popery. Pope lo the first, Nullius Sancti Occisio, propitiatio est. Ipse solus est hostia. No Saints blood is propitiatory, Christ alone is the Sacrifice. And for the Why-not, the Popes speech answers that too. For Saint John saith no more, then Ipse est propitiatio. Christ is the propitiation for our sins. he saith not, Ipse solus. Yet lo puts that to. He knew, he meant it so. So might the Papists here( were they as ingenuous, as Pope lo was) supply the word suppressed, and understand, Soli Deo, Salvation to God onely. Moses said no more, then Thou shalt serve the Lord thy God, Deut. 6. But Christ cites it to satan, and puts, Soli, to it, Him onely shalt thou serve. Matth. 4. 10. satan might have replied, that( onely) was not there. But he knew, Moses meant it. Gods own words warrant it, I will not give my Glory to another. What is ascribed to God, is meant to him alone, and is proper to him onely. Every good gift( and is there any better then Salvation?) Saint james saith, comes from above. Thats not enough: it may come from the Saints so. he therefore adds, A Patre luminum, saith not from whence onely, from heaven; Saints are in heaven; but from whom there? from the Father of lights; Saints are but the sons of light, Sain● 〈…〉 de saith expressly, Saint Paul too, saith it twice, Soli Deo honor& gloria, to God, to God onely be all glory.  
To God, but to what God? For there are many, Saint Paul saith, 1 Cor. 8. 5. There are, but called so onely, he adds that, no gods indeed. Theres but one true God, John ●7. 3. Moses proclaims it, Deut. 6. 4. with an Oyez, hear Israel, The Lord, our God, is but one. Sibyll an heathen prophetess could say {αβγδ}, theres but one God. Si non unus est, non est, Tertul. either but one, or not one. False gods there are many, the god of Eckron, of Hamath, of Arphad. Every Nation had one; every City one, Jer. 11. 13. Gods self saith, he is Alone, Esa. 45. The Saints here therefore call him Their God; Salvation to our God. Thats one reason for the word added here, namely Distinction. An other is of Covenant. God Covenanted with Abraham, to be, his God, and the God of his Seed: which seed are these Saints, All Saints. Not Isaac onely and jacob, and his seed; but all the faithful, born whensoever, wheresoever, are the sons of Abraham, Saint Paul saith, and may call Abrahams God, their God. But yet this God, though one, Vnissimus, Saint Bernards word, is( I may not say) divided, but distinguished into Persons, three Persons; and all three lightly meant, when God is name. But here the first, the Father, described by a mark of Majesty, sits on a Throne. For hes a King, thats frequent in Scripture, a great King, Mal. 1. a King of Kings, Apoc. 19. and hath therefore there many Crownes. Other sundry Regalia Scripture hath, I omit them. My Text cites but a Throne. and why that?  
Is the Throne proper to the Father onely? Hath not Christ a Throne too? He hath; and in this book, the Throne is oftener said of the son, then of the Father. Or haply are they differenced thus, the Father to sit, the son to stand? For so tis said, chap. 5. 6. the lamb stood. So Saint Steven saw Christ standing. But here the Father sits. The Question is not idle. It is a ston, some heretics have stumbled at. The Father to have a Throne, and not the son. Or if both have; yet the One to sit, the other to stand, argues Inequality. Thats it, Arius would have, and other heretics, the son to be the Fathers inferior. But regal Majesty meant by the Throne, is the same in both, Vnus Thronus, vna Majestas, theres one Throne of the whole Trinity. The ver. penult. of the last Chapter, and the first of the last, are plain for two of them, that Christ and his Father sit on the same Throne; hath a Throne as well as he, and sits as well as he. All Christian Creeds have it, that Iesus Christ sits at the right hand of his Father; have it from the Scriptures, many Scriptures. I speak to many here, that are not learned. I must explain myself, lest I led them into error. Scriptures for our capacities speak many things of God unproperly, express the things of God, by the phrases of men, make God like one of us. Give him our parts, hands, eyes, ears, feet; our actions too, to stand, walk, sit; passions too, grief, anger, jealousy. This occasiond some heretics to hold, God hath a Body. God hath no Throne indeed, nor sits. Such terms are metaphores or metonymies all, used for our understanding. Gods Throne means his Majesty, and his sitting, his Authority; {αβγδ}, it signifies his Dignity, saith Athan. he sits not Corporaliter, not Carnaliter, Saint Augustines words. His Sedere, is Praesidere, his Sitting notes his Power, and his Throne, his Glory. And Christs sitting by his Father, shows his parity of power, equality of Majesty; or, as saith Athanasius, {αβγδ}, Identity of nature, {αβγδ}, Consubstantiality.  
To end this, what meant the Saints to describe the Father here by his session, and his Throne? Why do they not distinguish him from the son, and holy Ghost, by some propriety? For Throne and session, i. majesty and power are common to all three. You shall oft-times observe, even where the Persons are distinguished, some Acts, or Attributes, common to them all, to be given unto one. In the beginning of the litany we petition every Person apart, style the first, Father of Heaven. Are they not so all three? Some, that like not our liturgy, will easily yield, it is a fault. The Apostles Creed calls God the Father Almighty, and Maker of Heaven and Earth. Both son and Holy Ghost are so: Is the Creed faulty too? hear therefore Christ, Luke 10. 21. He calls his Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth. So it is here. A Title common to the whole Trinity is affixed unto the Father. The son to sit on Throne, you heard before, and of the Holy Ghost, Saint Augustine, saith, Considet, He also sits with them. I have been long in this; the Saints proceed, sing salvation to Christ too.  
Saint Gregory saith, the Iewes, by the name of Saviour, ever meant God the Father, Here 144000. Iewes sing salvation to the son. But by what Name? Among Christs many titles and names, which it skills not to mention, they make choice of the lamb. That name John Baptist like an herald proclaimed openly two dayes together, and that with an Ecce, Behold the lamb of God. It best fits the Saints song; because he being sacrificed to his Father, as a lamb, wrought their salvation. The lamb, both in the Passeover, and in the daily sacrifice, prefigured Christ. That Reason is not all; for the goat and bullock did that too. But the lamb of all the beasts is the meekest, and most harmless. Christ would be called the lamb, for his innocency, and humility. The Prophet notes the one, Luke a lamb dumb before the shearer, so opened he not his mouth, and Saint Peter for the other, calls him {αβγδ}, a lamb undefiled, and without Spot; that is, free from all sin, either actual, i. undefiled, or original, i. spotless, saith Aquinas, Agnus, i. {αβγδ}, pure and clean, ●it to be Christs Hieroglyphicke. Not a lamb, but the lamb. The word in this book no less then thirty times; but save twice onely, ever with an Article. For some other are called lambs, wee are, feed my lambs, saith Christ to Peter. But Christ is called so Singulariter, saith Saint Augustine. To this lamb Saints have cause, all Saints have special cause to sing Salvation, souls Salvation. temporal Salvation, i. Preservation comes equally from every person in the trinity. But for spiritual salvation, Christ thinks it no robbery, to claim the chiefest thankes. For the Father and the Spirit, did but Decree, and Order it. The son besides, took flesh; Exinanivit, emptied himself, Saint Paul was bold to say so. Not that taking our nature, he resigned his own, relinquished his divinity. But he humbled himself, suppressed his Godhead, made himself man; would be born of a woman, brought forth in a Stable, cradled in a Manger, suffered persecution in his infancy, poverty all his life, and toward his end contempt, contradiction, reviling, all indignity, all extremity, even death, death of the cross; bare all this, as a lamb, Agnus mansuetus, a meek lamb always, but then Agnus occisus, a lamb slain for a sacrifice, to be offered up to God, for the sins of the world. So he wrought our salvation. I will not press comparison too much between the Persons, touching our salvation. I may not with sobriety. I will rest in Saint Pauls word, for it is a weighty one; Heb. 2. 10. he calls Christ {αβγδ}, the Prince of our salvation.  
A corrosive to the devil, great disparagement, a lion to be vanquished by a lamb. For it was his hands, his paws, his jaws, that Christ hath saved us from. A live dog( Salomon saith) is better than a dead lion. But here a living lion is quelled by a dead lamb. A lamb, but yet lion too. This book, in which he is called a lamb so often, calls him a lion once, Chap. 5. 5. The lion of the Tribe of judah. If any muse at it, how Christ should be both, Saint Augustine answers it, Agnus in passione, lo in resurrectione, he died a lamb, rose a lion. His Resurrection was his Triumph over Death, satan, and Hell.  
To end this, the Saints ascribing Salvation unto God, and to the lamb, exclude all other Saviours. The Saints themselves are none, you heard before. Salvation( Saint james said) was {αβγδ}, from above, but {αβγδ}, from God. Not from the Spirits, who are men; but from the Father of Spirits, who is God. Much less are Merits, which Papists reckon too; Thats worse than the other. For then salvation is {αβγδ}, from below. Saint Peter is too plain for that, Theres no Name under heaven, by which we may be saved. In a word, theres no name under heaven, nor in heaven neither, to which wee may ascribe salvation, but God onely; but God that sits on the Throne, and the lamb, theres no more. judge then how sacrilegious Pope lo the tenth was, who in the lateran council let one title him his Saviour. Gods self shall determine( by the Popes leave) this Question, Esay 43. Non est salvator praeter me, theres no salvation in no sense, but from God.  
To end all. To God, thats sits upon the Throne, and to the lamb? Where is the holy Ghost? do the Saints exclude him too? God forbid. Non-expression is not exclusion. Gods Spirit, whom we may not teach to speak, taught these Saints this song. I may not say of them, as it is said of Peter at Christs Transfiguration, that he spake, he knew not what. The blessed Spirits wot well that the persons are peers in mans salvation. They knew that of the school, though they never went to it, Opera Trinitatis ad extra be Indivisa. The Actions ad intra, to Beget, to be Begotten, to Proceed, distinguish Father from son, son from the holy Ghost, each Person from other. But Creation, Preservation, Redemption, Salvation, all works Emanantia, that go out unto the creature, are common to all three. Had the song been but thus, Salvation to the lamb: that had been no excluding of the Father. So neither this ascribing of salvation to two Persons, God and the lamb, shuts out the holy Ghost. It pleaseth the Spirit to name sometime God onely, then all three are implied. Sometime two of the Persons; then the third is understood; and sometimes to express all three. It is all one. For the son is in the Father, he in him, the Spirit in both, both in the Spirit. What is therefore done to one, is meant to all. The like place to this here( lest you think it hath no parallels) is joh. 17. 3. and it is Christs own speech to God, This is life eternal, to know thee, the onely true God, and whom thou hast sent, Iesus Christ. Say, the Saints might neglect or forget the holy Ghost, which to say, were absurd: yet Christ did not, could not. To say that, were impious. Now then unto our God, that sits upon the Throne, and to the lamb, and also to the Spirit, be jointly and justly ascribed all salvation, Power, majesty, and thanksgiving, nunc& in secula.   

A SERMON PREACHED VPON SAINT THOMAS DAY.  joh. 20. 29. 
Beati, qui non viderunt,& tamen crediderunt.  
Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.  
CHRIST lived on earth visible but at one certain time: Et fides non est omnium, saith the Apostle, God hath not given faith to every man. Christs sight here, and faith, divide men in two pairs. Some have seen him; some have not; some have believed, some have not. Seeing and believing are the two substantial terms of my Text; mix them together, with, and without the negative particle; and thence will arise four sundry sorts of people, which the world hath had at times, Some that have not seen Christ, and yet believed; some that have seen him, and yet not believed; some that have done neither; some that have done both. My purpose( with your patience, and Gods grace) is to speak of these four sorts; which first, which last, it skilleth not; but severally of each, and briefly of them all.  
The first,( if you please) shall be those, that have done neither; neither seen him, nor believed. The Gentiles in all ages, and the faithless Iewes before and since Christs dayes, are of this first Order. Mistake me not( I pray you) as though I cast ourselves in this first forlorn rank. For though in Scripture phrase, which opposeth Iewes to Gentiles, we be Gentiles to, as sprung from Iapheth, the father of the Gentiles; yet in the Churches phrase, Christians are freed from that unlovely name. The Gentiles were aliens to the common wealth of Israel, and strangers from the Covenant. Gods promise was appropriated to the seed of Sem, and the types of the messiah were onely among Iewes; the Nations had no part in Christ. They saw him not: for he was not yet incarnate. They believed not; for they had not heard of him. Me thinks Saint Paul, Eph. 2. 12. seems to have them both. He saith, They had no hope, and were without God. If they were without Christ, then they saw him not. If they had no hope; then they believed not: for {αβγδ}( saith the Apostle) is {αβγδ}, Faith is of things hoped for. Nor yet when Christ was come, were the Gentiles ere the near. He came not, where they were▪ and therefore they saw him not; save only some few that bordered upon jury. Neither did they believe. For it is Saint Pauls question, How should they believe on him, of whom they had not heard? His famed indeed went forth; but to the neighbour-regions onely. And how should they hear without a Preacher? When he sent forth his Apostles to Preach of him abroad, he forbade them to go into the way of the Gentiles. As for those, that lived since, as they have had no sight of him; so have they had no faith on him; I mean the most. The word which breedeth it, hath been preached abroad; the sound of the gospel hath been heard into all lands. But though hearing necessary go before faith; yet faith doth not necessary follow after hearing. Multi vocati, pauci electi. As the Fowler catcheth not every bide he calleth; so the Preacher winneth not every soul that heareth. All Heathens have heard of him; but few have believed on him. For the wind bloweth where it listeth; and Gods Spirit breatheth, where it pleaseth; and Faith is Gods breath. The report of our Saviour hath rung into all realms. But( as the Prophet Esay speaketh) Quis credidit auditui? Who hath believed the report? Though many Lands be Christians, yet many more be Infidels.  
And what I say of Gentiles, I may also say of Iewes. They were not all believers, that lived before Christ came; and almost all have been unbelievers, that have lived since he came. What shall I now say concerning this first sort, both of Iewes and Gentiles? Shall I call them all accursed? I had much rather stand on mount Garizim, than mount Gebal. But by proportion from my Text, I can not call them blessed. Christ holds them blessed, onely that believe. I know some ancient Fathers, and divers later Writers, hold many Heathens saved not by Faith, but by philosophy: such of them, as have lived religiously and justly, and have excelled us Christians in exactness of a good life. Quis me constituit judicem? I will neither curse nor bless them. It is a fitter point to be discussed in schools, than decided in a Sermon. But for the rest( for there were but few of these) deniers of God, and defiers of Religion, by rule of contrariety, Christ holds them cursed.  
To end this first part; Thomas the Apostle, though he saw our Saviour and believed to; yet in some sort may be rank't in this first order. Christs resurrection he had not seen, nor did believe it. Nay he resolved peremptorily, that except he saw Christ, he would not believe. Nay except he felt him; the print of the wounds in his hands and in his side, except he felt them with his fingers, he would not believe. But I reserve him rather for an other rank; because a little after he both saw him, and believed. So much for the first sort.  
The second shall be those▪ that have seen, but not believed. The Scribes and the Pharisees, the Lawyers and the Sadduces, the Elders, and Herodians, Herod, and Pilat, Annas, and Caiphas, Iudas Iscariot, and the railing thief, and all the rout of those, that cried Crucifige, and that mocked him on the cross, are of this rank. What shall I say of these? Not, as Balaam said of Israel, How shall I curse, where God hath not cursed? But how shal I not curse, where Christ hath cursed before me? Woe unto you Scribes, woe unto you Pharisees, woe unto Lawyers, woe unto the man, by whom the Son of man is betrayed. Woe on earth, Gods indignation; woe in hell, his condemnation. For the lake which burns with brimstone is the lot of unbelievers, Apoc. 21. As the Hebrews could not enter into earthly Canaan, {αβγδ}, for their unbelief: so they should not enter into heavenly Canaan, for their unbelief.  
They that heard of Christ, but saw him not, and therefore believed not were somewhat to be pardonned. famed hath so little conscience in forging lies, that the ear is not believed. It must be the eye, that must persuade the heart. job terms the ear the taster of speech; but we hold the eye the trier of truth. But not to trust that neither is great incredulity. Nay the ear also deserves to be credited, when the report is seconded with reason. Had the Scribes& Pharisees but only heard of Christ; yet the famed confirmed by the writing of the Prophets,& observing all circumstances suiting with the same, there was cause they should believe. But seeing him themselves, daily in the midst of them; not to believe, that which they did behold, was desperate diffidence, was unpardonabe, unreasonable, unconscionable, infidelity? Worthy to be wondered at even by God himself. So saith the Evangelist, Mar. 6. 6. our Saviour wondered at their unbelief. Christ, whose name is wonderful, whose works are wonderful; to whom( as saith himself, Gen. 18.) {αβγδ}, Nothing can be wonderful, yet he wondered at their unbelief. Their unbelief worthy to be wondered at, especially the Elders, the Scribes, and the Pharisees, {αβγδ}, Masters in Israel, and Doctors of the Law, to be so witless, so senseless, not to conceive, what they saw; nay not to see, what they beholded; and consequently not to believe, what they conceived.  
How many means did God vouchsafe that people, what infinite hints to help their unbelief! The Wise men of the East had  told them Christ was born, and added for persuasion, that they had seen his star. The Shepherds published the message of the Angells of the birth of the messiah. At twelve yeares of age he sat among the Doctors, hearing them and posing them. The holy Ghost in a bodily shape descending on him at his baptism, and a voice was heard from heaven, This is my beloved son. Many hearers and beholders openly acknowledged, the one of his Words, that they never heard the like; the other of his works, that they never saw the like. Such works, such great works, that if Sidon had seen them, it would have believed; nay if Sodom had seen them, it would have believed. The heathen Centurion, yea the fiends themselves confessed him. Yet their wits were so bewitched, that they could not understand; nay their hearts were so malicious, that they would not believe. he was daily in their eye, and yet they would not see: and who is so blind, as he that will not see? who having such helps, such furtherances of Faith, in wilful perverseness would see, and not believe?  
This wilful infidelity bread their contempt of him; that they disgraced his person, depraved his actions, loaded him with contumelies, and pursued him unto death, the cursed and shameful death of the cross. They vilified his person by the baseness of his parents, his kindred and profession. Is not this Iosephs son? is not Mary his mother, and his brethren james and joses, Simon and Iude, and is he not a Carpenter? They depraved his actions, both his doctrine, and his miracles. His doctrine heretical, as crossing Moses Law, and treasonous, he forbade to pay tribute unto Caesar. His miracles magical; he cast out Devils by the Prince of the Devils. Their tongues raild on him, a glutton, a wine bibber, a Samaritan, a demoniac, and their hands delivered him to the secular power, to be handled of the Heathens with all indignity, with all extremity: They mocked him, they scourged him, they crucified him.  
Forbids not our Saviour to cast pearls before swine, and to give holy things to dogges? Christs self is the pearl figured in the parable; God sent him to the Iewes; but they like swine betroad and betrampled him. Christ is the holy thing; the Angel calls him so, Luk. 1. 35. God gave him to the Iewes; but they like dogges turned on him, and rent him. Gods sending him, and giving him, was their seeing him. Their betrampling him, and rending him, was their not believing him. Such is the averseness of many sullen heart, that though God give him helps to further him to Faith; yet he will not use them. Nay such is the perverseness of mans malicious spirit, that though both the eye perceive without, and the wit conceive within; yet the heart shall ponere obicem; as God saith to the sea, job 28. hitherto thou shalt come, but go no further, so the heart shall say to Christ, stand, thou comest no nearer me: that as the adder will not hear the charmer, charm he never so wisely; so let sense and understanding perform their function never so faithfully, yet the heart will cry, non credo, I believe not.  
To end this; they saw he was the Christ, but yet believed not. They saw it at his birth, and they saw it at his baptism; they saw it in his life, and they saw it at his death. The miraculous eclipse, the splitting of the vail, the trembling of the earth, the rending of the stones, the opening of the graves, and the rising of the dead, all these these their eyes did see; and yet they believed not. Yea his own resurrection avouched even by those, whom themselves had set to watch about his sepulchre, their eyes did see that too: not onely a few women, who might haply bee deluded, not onely his Disciples, who might haply bee partial, but hundreds of the people, five hundred at one time, had seen him with their eyes, and yet they believed not. Their eyes did their office, sense suggested to the heart; but heart, like a stiff Recusant, would not harken. Thomas is famous for his incredulity, and is put into a proverb, because he would see, before he would believe. What shall wee think of these for their infidelity, that though they saw, yet would not believe? The devills shall rise in judgement and condemn them; for they saw, and believed. For even the devills also have their faith, they confessed Christ, what have wee to do with thee, Iesus thou son of God? Credunt& contremiscunt, they believe though it be with trembling. Blame not the gentle, who though he hear of Christ, will not believe. lo here the jew, though he do look on Christ, yet will not believe.  
The third sort( if you please) shall be videntes& credentes both seeers and believers of the same age: with the second, but of more grace. Sight and Faith divor'cd in them, are met in these; sensus& assensus, embreac't each other: what the eye beholded, the heart believed, vidit& arsit, the eye no sooner saw, but the heart was set on fire. The wise men of the East, Simeon, and zachary, John Baptist and Nathaniel, jairus and Zacchaeus, the two Iosephs, the Carpenter and the counsellor. Nicodemus and Lazarus, and the thief upon the cross, the 11. Apostles, and the 70. Disciples. Of women, Mary the Virgin, and three other of her name, the woman with the Issue, Martha and Elizabeth, and Anna the prophetess; Numbers of the Aliens, the two Roman Centurions, and many Samaritans, the woman at the well, and shee of Syrophoenicia: All these, and all other, whom his signs and Sermons converted to the Faith, viderunt& crediderunt, both saw Christ, and believed.  
What shall I say of these? Christs blessing in my Text shall I deny it to this third sort, because it is there conferred upon the fourth? shall they say unto our Saviour, as Esau said to Isaac, hast thou but one blessing, O my Father? Surely they are blessed, that see not, and believe: but they are nor blessed alone. Those that believed and saw, were blessed as well as these, though not so much as these. Christs meaning is comparative. Christ approportions the blessing to the Faith. They saw and did believe; these see not and yet believe. Both sorts are blessed, but these more then they, because their faith is greater, then the others; of greater meed, because of greater merit: of greater merit, because by lesser means. I mean not merit in the Papists sense. I say then of this sort, that Christ hath blessed them too. Saint Peter is an instance; Blessed art thou Bar-Ionah. he confessed Christ, but he had seen him first, Yea our Saviour saith in general to all his Disciples, Matth. 13. blessed are your eyes, for you see me. Blessed, not because they saw; for then Iudas had been blessed; but because they believed whom they saw. It was a greater blessing to bear Christ, then to see Christ. And yet Mary was blessed( as Saint Augustine saith) non tam concipiendo carnem Christi, quàm percipiendo fidem Christi; not so much for conceiving him within her womb, as for receiving him within her heart.  
God in his wisdom, and his mercy both, had appointed this time for the coming of the messiah. 4000. yeares almost were past, since God first promised him. Christ said again in Davids time, ecce venio, lo I come; and yet there passed 28. generations after that, before he came. Faith now through long differing begun to faint; and many, like the mockers in Saint Peters last Epistle, might haply ask, where is the promise of his coming? In tender compassion, both of that age, and all the ages since, which might have murmured more, God was then pleased for to sand his son; that whom their fathers had believed unseen, him now that age might see and believe: the sight of him, to confirm belief on him, both in them, and after ages; to feed faith in them, and to breed faith in us. Their faith enfeebled with long expectation, tired now with types, which were but shadows; God saw it time to sand them now the substance; that faith, like Moses hands, becoming heavy, sense, like Hur and Aaron might help to hold them up. For sight is faiths supporter. Which now so needed it, that even Nathaneel, whom Christ himself called a true Israelite, yet would see Christ, ere he confessed him. yea one of his Disciples, that had lived some yeares with him, was yet so incredulous of his resurrection, that sight would not suffice him: but as Isaac said to jacob, sine tepalpem, so he must feel and handle him; ere he will believe. Nay all his Disciples, though they saw him daily, yet were but shallow faithed. Else why calls he them faithless? and why says he to them all, O vos modicae fidei, O ye of little faith? Thus then was it needful to confirm weak faith, not by sense onely, but the surest sense, the sense of sight. Multitudes believed, joan. 2. 23. but it was {αβγδ}, they beholded, and saw. The men of Samaria in the fourth of S. John said, they believed on Christ, not for the womans saying, but because they heard and saw him their own selves. John Baptist, Christs harbinger, was fain to run before him, and to point the people to him, ere they would believe. They had heard him preach of him; that was a good preparative, but that was not enough; he was fain with his finger to point them to his person, that they might see him too, Ecce agnus dei, Behold, &c.  
Gods wisdom is worthily called by Saint Paul {αβγδ}, Eph. 3. 10. What wonderful variety hath God devised to beget and foster faith? by promise, by types, by prophesy, by sense, by history. To Adam, to Abram, and so to all the Patriarkes he onely promised Christ; that sufficed them. To strengthen the promise, to after generations he added types. again to strengthen them, to their posterity he sent the Prophets. And now to this age, whereof wee are now speaking, he sends his son in person. He presents him to the Iewes not {αβγδ}, but {αβγδ}, in body, not in type; before onely object unto faith; but now also subject unto sense. And lest they might doubt of him, because his godhead was masked with his humanity, the Deity lay hidden under his flesh; God gave them evidence also of it, eare-evidence, eyeevidence.  
They heard and saw him powerful both {αβγδ}, both in word and works; both oracula& miracula, both his doctrine and his miracles begot belief; both argued Christ to bee more then a man. Of the one they said, never man spake like this man; of the other, nunquàm sic vidimus, wee never saw such things. They made the samaritan woman at the well, to ask in admiration, is not this the messiah! and the Roman Centurion at the cross, to cry, certainly this was the son of God. These two were Christs Apparitours to summon outward sense; oracula quasi auracula, to city the ear, and {αβγδ} quasi {αβγδ}, miracula be spectacula, to call the eye; so by hearing and beholding to learn to believe. Not that Faith is built on sense; a ground unsound for such a building; but that sense might work the subject the fitter unto faith. Sense is not faiths founder, but it is faiths furtherer; it is the spirits usher to guide the heart to God. It is the Spirits messenger, to say unto the soul, as Philip to Nathaneel, veni& vide; come and see thyself, and so much also, &c.  
The fourth and last sort, see not, and yet believe.[ These our Saviour calls here blessed. Those marks which Saint Thomas would see, ere he believed, they believed, though they saw not.] So did the Patriarkes, and so do now all Christians. Adam and Abel and all those early Patriarkes, Abram and jacob, and all those after fathers, and their generations even unto Christ, are of this rank; but nos specialiter, Greg. Christians especially. For the Iewes though they saw not Christs self, they saw his types; and so they saw him in some sort. Christ says it in the Gospel; Abram rejoiced to see my day, and saw it: But Christians have not seen either {αβγδ}, either in person, or in type; and yet they have believed. These therefore our Saviour calls blessed in my Text.  
That faith is kindliest, that hath least helps, that is wholly and soly grounded on the word. To fly unto the eye, Christ calls it {αβγδ}, mere unbelief. Thomas is called faithless, because he will see, before he will believe. Sight is loves sense, not faiths sense. Faith comes by hearing, saith the Apostle, not by seeing, Aures be fores, the ears, the doors of faith. As preaching is {αβγδ}, the door of the word, Col. 4. 3. so hearing is {αβγδ}, the door of faith, Act. 14. 27. The mystery of godliness, i. our Saviour Christ, transcends the reach of reason: and shall sense seek after it? His incarnation is beyond imagination: and will the eye perceive, what the wit cannot conceive? Neither {αβγδ} nor {αβγδ} can attain to it. Faith disdains conference with reason; much less endures it to consult with sense. Vides? non est Fides, saith Hugo de victore; and so saith the Apostle. Faith is of things non apparentium, of things that are not seen. I know Saint Pauls aims it at another end; but the words suit well, and the sense is found here too.  
The eye of Faith excels the eye of Flesh. Heaven is not hide from it. Yea Gods most secret mysteries, {αβγδ}, the most hidden things of God, faith discovers them. The sun which the Philosophers call the heavens eye, sees not so far, nor pierceth so sharply, as the eye of Faith. No creature can exclude it, no horizon can determine it. Steven saw the son of man at the right hand of his Father. Mans eye to descry Gods seat, it is impossible. But the Martyr being filled with the holy Ghost, Gods Spirit made Christ visible to his spirit.  
Sound faith is neither suspicious, nor curious: it believes what God says, without sight, without examining. For since it is impossible for God to lie( for how should truth lie?) it is fit his word be credited for itself sake. It must not be examined with howes, and whies. That which the Psalmist says of observing of the Law, that must the Christian say of receiving of the Gospel, Psal. 119. {αβγδ} I disputed not saith David; I argued not with God. The word is very elegant in the original tongue, derived in the Hebrew from the pronoun {αβγδ} which signifieth, quid. Faith reasons not with God, it asketh no quids, no quarees, no quomodoes, no whats, no howes, no wherefores, it moveth no questions. It meekly yields assent, and humbly says Amen to every word of God.  
This is the faith, at which our Saviour wondered, in the Centurious story. Wee seldom or never red of any thing, Christ wondered at, but faith. At it he did; both at the smallness of it in the Iewes, Mark. 6. 6. at the greatness of it in the captain. Christ said of it, and that with protestation, he had not found such faith, no not in Israel. The Christians faith is not inferior. Christs word sufficed him, Dic verbum,& sanabitur, say but the word, and my servant shall be whole. So doth it us. Gods onely word is warrant to our Faith. That word bears witness unto Christ, the written word to the begotten word; and in it wee hear of him; and hearing wee believe. And if Christ said to the woman, mulier magna est fides tua, woman great is thy Faith? I may better say to the Christian, homo, magna est fides tua, man, great is thy Faith. Shee saw him in person, on whom shee believed; wee onely hear of him, and yet have faith on him.  
I will not call it infidelity; but surely tis great incredulity, to assent to nothing but what eye beholds. If thou wilt believe nought, but what thou seest; cur non vis sepeliri, saith Saint Augustine, why goest thou not quick into thy Grave? for how knowest thou that thou livest? thou dost not see thy soul.  
To draw unto an end, Papists press this Scripture to force on us their Transubstantiation. If wee will be blessed, wee must believe Christ present under the form of Bread. Shall wee say he is not there, because wee see him not? Beati, saith our Saviour, qui non viderunt,& tamen crediderunt, that have not seen, and yet believe. Idle impostors! will they make Christ mean all objects? Must I believe, whatsoever I see not, and therefore believe it, because I see it not? Saint Paul indeed teacheth us, Faith is of things unseen: not that all things must be believed, that are unseen; but that they are unseen, that are believed. Christ when he said to Thomas, because thou seest me, thou believest; meant not, that he saw that which he believed: but as Saint Gregory saith, aliud vidit, aliud credidit, sense saw but his humanity; but Faith confessed his God-head, Dominus meus,& Deus meus, my Lord, and my God. Christ means this Scripture merely of himself: he calls them blessed, that have not seen him, and yet have believed. That is plain, out of the former clause, Thomas, because thou hast seen me. These Eagle eyes, that can see Christ in Bread, where he is not, cannot see him in the Scripture, where he is. Nor yet is faith groundless, because it is not founded on reason, and on sense. Faith hath a firmer foundation, then them both; and that is Gods word. Which ground when they bring for Transubstantiation, wee will believe Christ bodily present in the Sacrament, though wee see him not. That ground is the bound that must confine our Faith. {αβγδ}, Clem. Alex. knowledge relies on reason and on sense; but Faith is grounded onely on Gods word.  
To conclude, Christ, faiths blessed object hath here blessed faith; but sightlesse faith. It hath not seen Christ, but it shall. The reward( saith Augustine) credendi, quod non vides, est videre, quod credis: the reward of believing him, whom thou seest not, shall be to see him, whom thou believest: In whose fight, saith the Psalmist, is the fullness of joy. All faith is blessed, but this most, which hath least helps. It hath eo plus meriti, quo minus argumenti;( a Papists saying, but wee may have a sober meaning) the less regard faith hath of earthly reason, the more reward it hath of heavenly glory. unto which he bring us, who here blesseth us; cvi, cum patre, &c.   

A SERMON PREACHED VPON THE KINGS DAY.  1 PET. 2. 17. fear God, Honour the King. 
MY Text is Deus& Rex, God and the King, our duty unto each; fear to God, Honour to Kings, four terms, disposed discreetly all; both the Persons, God before the King; and the duties, fear to whom fear, as Paul bids, tis laid to God; and Honour to whom Honour belongs, Its given the King: Peter follows Pauls rule, {αβγδ}, keeps exact order in all. If there be any doubt, tis in the duties. For Solomon bids, fear the King as well was God. My son, fear God and the King, and for Honour he bids too, Honora Dominum, Honour God. Indeed both duties are common to both Persons, both fear and Honour due both to God and King; but not Ejusdem generis, the same Honour and fear. fear and Honour, Religious, both are Gods onely. Civill Honour Kings claim; meaner persons, then Kings, Parents do, the Priest does, aged persons do, the Scripture bids it: All men do; Saint Peter bids it in the beginning of this verse, Honour All Men.  
For the Persons, God to be the first, the King after, I think, no man will quarrel. Never was King so proud, as to grudge God the precedence. Solomon a King, marshals them so too, fear God and the King. But heres something amiss; some in the Popes behalf, are not well pleased. Peter did well, to put God before the King: but did he well, to set the King next after God? was there not another Person, to have been put between? Ancient Ignatius put the Bishop next to God, and the King {αβγδ}, after him. Tertuallian calls the King, Hominem Deo secundum, a man, but next to God. But Ignatius was so bold, as to crowd in one between, as if Bishops were Kings betters, mitres above Crownes. The Bishop of Romes chaplains for the Popes pre-eminence, make Ignatius to say so. They foist into the Fathers, what they please. Father Ignatius Loiola would have been a fitter Father for such a bastard Child. Enough of the disposition of the words, hear the Exposition of the sense.  
This dayes Festivity is in honour of the King. Thats in my Text the latter Lesson. The former is Gods fear, a fit introduction to Kings honour: the fearers of God honour the King most. But the latter Theme is large; and Opus Diei, would be done In Die suo, I shall treat but of it onely. All Honour is Gods right Primarily. But as Bonum is Sui Communicativum, so God of his goodness imparts it unto men. But maxim,& Proxime, next to himself, and most to Kings. For they are next to God, Homines Deo secundi, you heard out of Tertullian. Kings must be honoured; but how? The Apostle tells but Quod; the Preacher must show Quomodo. four kinds of honour do pertain to Kings, Reverence, Obedience, Fidelity, and aid.  
Their Reverence is threefold, Mentis, Oris, Corporis, Saint Bernard( I think) saith. I am sure, he saith, Subjects must Sentire Sublimiter, have an high esteem of Princes states; hold them Solo Deo minores, None above them, but God. Christians held Caesar so, Tertullian saith, Moses calls them gods, Exod. 22. Diis non detrahes. Gods self does, Ego dixi, I said ye are gods. God and Moses both, for their supereminent power, supreme next under God. Iesuites say, no; they claim supremacy for the Pope, Kings are their Vassals, Emperours are, must hold their stirrup, led their horse. Not Kings now, Popes are gods. Dominus Deus noster Papa, Our Lord God the Pope, saith the gloss in the Canon law.  
six hundred yeares after Christ it was not so. Pope Gregory called the Emperour his Lord. Ahimelecke the high Priest called himself Sauls servant. David called Zadoc his servant. Yea Aaron the most honourable of all high Priests calls Moses his Lord. The Pope is not, nor( I think) will say, he is, a higher Person in the Church, then Aaron was. He was Pontifex maximus. The Pope cannot be more. Nothing is Majus Maximo. I must here pray the Popes pardon; haply I trespass him. He is Aarons superior; Romes high Priest above Israels. For he is Christs Vicar. That title ancient Fathers made common to all chief Bishops, proper to the Pope none did before Saint Bernard. But are not Kings Vacarii Dei, Gods Vicars, his leivetenants too? Their angelical Doctor, Aquinas calls them so. Bernard did before him; Saint Augustine before him. A Bishop of Rome before him. Eleutherius wrote to Lucius a britain King, Vos estis Dei Vicarius, You are Gods Vicegerent in your kingdom. And not he onely; two other Popes have called two Emperours so. The laws call Kings Lords paramount; no power peer to the Kings.  
Doth God, Scriptures, and Fathers, some Romanists too, no great friends to kings, give such titles unto Princes? How unreverently then do some esteem of them, that envy them the ordinary terms of regality, Grace, Highnesse, and majesty? Called by a disloyal Scot, Court-Soloecismes and barbarisms; and that writing to a King. What would he say to sacred majesty, which was used to queen Elizabeth? What to the style of ancient Emperours, Numen nostrum, nostra Perennitas, Aeternitas? Supreme Head under Christ, in the King of Englands style, is censured by some novelists. Be Papists pardonned for the Popes sake: they think, tis wrong to him. But for Protestants to find fault with honour done to Kings, what is it but to disclaim their Religion. Enough of mental Reverence. Let every sober spirit think of the King at least, as of the Lords anointed. Scriptures warrant that.  
The tongues reverence is next. The heart may haply vilipend the King; thought is free, fears no informer. But let the mouth beware, the walls have ears. Salomon curbes even the thought too, bids, not venture so far, lest that which have wings bewray it. The mouth to dishonour the King, God forbids, Thou shalt not revile the Ruler of the people. Paul did but the high Priest, Caesars far inferior: but he was soon checked, and pleaded, Non putâram. Elihu asks in job, will one say to a King, thou art wicked? Yet Shemei did to David, Come forth, come forth, thou wicked man: restend not so in the general, said more, thou art a murderer, said it twice; did more yet, cursed him too, cursed him( David saith) with an horrible curse, {αβγδ}, the rabbis note a reproach in every letter. A subject to rail on his sovereign is unchristian. Yet Romanists and Separatists do it both. French Kings by the one, King james and queen Elizabeth, by both, what base reproaches they have born, becomes me not to speak out. It is a Canon apostolical, that the reproacher of a King be, if a clergy man, deprived, if a lay-man, excommunicate. speak evil of no man, Paul bids; then much less of Kings. But be sure thou curse them not. Pray for them, though they be impious; even for Nebuchodonoser and Balthasar his son, Baruch bids: thats Apocrypha: Paul bad, pray for Kings, when as yet all Kings were Heathen; yea when Nero reigned, both a gentle and a persecutor.  
The bodies reverence remaines. It bows to every better, bends the knee to a mean Magistrate. It falls down to regal majesty, on the knee at least on the face to Kings in Scripture. Ahimaaz did to David, David did to Saul, even the Kings son did to his father, 2 Sam. 14.  
The second kind of honour was obedience: thats real honour[ meant by {αβγδ}, ver. 13. Subject yourselves: Subjection is obedience. Paul therefore couples them, Tit. 3. 1.] and in the greek tongue, Subjects are called {αβγδ}, Obeyers, the very name of Subject means Obedience. Masters and Parents will crave this, every Magistrate will; much more Kings.[ Disobeyers of them, some Councils excommunicate] Is not their power from God? Paul saith it; and that them to disobey, is to resist him. Peter here therefore puts Princes honour next to Gods fear. They being Gods Vicegerents, the Despisers of them will not greatly dread him. He that will say with the sons of Belial, Who is Saul that we should serve him? Will ask also with the Atheists, job 26. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? Donatists did sometime, Libertines do now pled Christian liberty. It frees them from this bondage of obeying Kings. It was sin, that brought in servitude. Idle men▪ Kings crave not bondage, but ingenuous subjection; not servitude, but obedience. It stands with Christian liberty. Christs self was {αβγδ}, subject to his Parents, and obeied them.  
laws( I think no man will doubt) must be obeied: they are the bonds of civill life, the life of common wealths. What is the King lightly, but a living law? And therefore one couples them, Regi& Legi, obey Princes and laws. Some disobeying both in the cause of Religion, gave occasion unto porphyry and julian the Apostata, to slander christianity, as an enemy to government, and the public weal of kingdoms. The Centurion  told Christ, if he bad his soldier, come, he came; if go, he went: if he bad his servant, do this, or that, he did it, and shall a Kings Command private or public be slighted by his subject? His wrath( saith Solomon) is like a lions roar, a messenger of death. fear is a forcing argument; I had rather use a fairer. Obey for conscience sake, Et propter Dominum, for Gods cause, Peter bids ver. 13. and obey cheerfully. justin writes, Christians did, Inservire laeti, obeied Antoninus gladly, though a bad Emperour.  
Two scruples here do pray a little leave. This Office of obedience, first lies it on all persons? Then, is it in all things? The first I must affirm; Paul warrants me. Though Peters precept have no note; yet it is universal. Paul is his Paraphrast, Omnis anima, Let every soul be subject; all men must obey. The Pope saith, nay; Priests must not, Church-men are exempt. For they are not the Kings, but the Bishop of Romes subjects: so saith Emanuel Sa, a Iesuite, No clergy mans cause belongs to the cognition of a secular judge. Theres indeed such a caveat in the Canon law, Nullus praesumat, &c. Let no man dare convent any of the clergy before a civill Magistrate. But that Chapter is branded with a Palea, tis but chaff. Cried not Paul, {αβγδ}, that he ought to be tried ●n banco regio, at Caesars judgement seat. Bellarmin● grants him bound to the Kings political laws. But the obligation is directive, not Coactive; except the Church have first approved of them. As for Pauls Omnis anima, every soul, thats( say they) every lay soul. But Saint Chrysostome crosses that, extends it unto Churchmen too {αβγδ}, whether thou be a Prophet, an Apostle, or Evangelist. Bellarmine confesses it, Includit etiam Clericos, it includes the clergy too. If he did not, Bernard doth, a Father, but a Romanist, saith, writing to an Archbishop, If every soul be subject, then is thine, Quis vos excepit ex universitate, who hath exempted thee out of the generality? I say then, Persons ecclesiastical, not Civill onely, owe obedience unto Kings, supreme governours over both.  
The other scruple was, Whether in all things. I may not affirm that; else should a King be, not next to God, but peer to him. Nay Gods superior. For Princes sometimes bid, what God forbids. In that case, our Apostle bids, obey God rather; All the Apostles do, Act. 5. 29. Princes must be obeied, but, Intra limits disciplinae, Tertullian, within the bounds of Religion. If their precept shall pass that; then Peters rule, must overrule, Deo magis, quàm Hominibus. Paul enjoined obedience to Omnis Anima, but not In Rebus Omnibus, to every soul, but not in every thing. Tis in our Kings just style, not onely over all persons, but in all causes too. Thats in the kind of causes, not in the quality, i. in spiritual as well as temporal, not in bad, as well as good. King Henry the eighth, when he made Sir Thomas Moore, Lord chancellor, bad him look first at God, and then at Him. Theophylacts distinction is unsound, a Father, but not ancient, Obey Kings {αβγδ}, God {αβγδ}; Kings commanding in both, must be obeied; so they countermand not God.  
To end this; theres a Quatenus in both, as not in spiritual causes, so not in temporal too, must Princes be obeied, opposing God. As if commanding in the one, impiety, I must refuse: so, if they charge me in the other, to act any iniquity, I must not Obey. Neither would Sidrac and his fellows commit idolatry, nor the Egyptian Midwives murder, though the King commanded. And both their disobediences God approved; for he rewarded them. Saul bad jonathan kill David; he would not. Else obey readily and willingly. It is one Character of a naughty nature, to be refractory. Facile est imperium in bonos. Plaut. We call our Kings, liege Lords: and what is Allegiance, but the bond of Obedience. Which where Subjects deny; theres confusion, worse, destruction, Pessum Omnia, all goes to wrack.  
The third kind of honour is Fidelity, I will not say, it is above Obedience; but the breach of it is above Disobedience? Rebellion the grandest dishonour to a King. There is Laesa maiestas, the King is wronged, if but vilipended in thy thought; more if vilified too in speech; more yet, if disobeyed. But if forcibly opposed, oppugnd by arms; that sin is superlative, out of measure sinful. Kings bind the heart sometimes, the Oath does of Supremacy, ties even the Conscience in that case. The King will not be wronged, no not in thought. The Trespassour is a traitor, even in that. What a Treason is it then, to take arms against the King, or any way to plot, to touch his crown, or Person? I will not city the psalm, Touch not mine anointed; that speaks not to this point. But Davids Absit shows how heinous that Act is, God forbid, I should lay mine hand on Gods anointed. Yea, his heart smote him, that he had cut off but the lap of Sauls garment. Gods judgement on such sinners see in Scripture. Achitophel hung himself; Absalon perished too. Augustus hated the betrayer of his enemy, Amo Proditionem, odi Proditorem. Treason {αβγδ}, the greatest crime among the romans, saith a greek historian. In punishing it, tully saith, no judge can be too cruel. The traitor, a devil; Christ called Iudas so.  
How abominable then is not the practise onely, but the doctrine too of some Romanists, to Act, and maintain Treason? Sanders is somewhat moderate, saith an heretical King is not to be obeied. He may be so without Rebellion, Recusants disobey, but take not arms. An other, hotter then he, bids, depose him. Others exceed that too,[ and those not onely of the old learning, Papists, but of the new Discipline, schismatics] bid, kill the King; kill him, if a Tyrant. Quacunque arte, it is lawful any way, saith Mariana. The Piamitive Church was not taught this divinity; they rose not against Caesars, though nere so bloody persecutors. Must masters, notwithstanding their curstnesse, be obeied, ver. prox. And must Princes be oppugned, if too sharp? lewd Loyolite lay not thy hand on Gods anointed, though he be a Tyrant, yet he is thy King. Even when Peter wrote this precept, a most wicked Tyrant reigned, a ravisher of his sisters, and a slayer of his Senators. Thou must obey as well Nero, as Augustus; as well Domitian, as Vespatian, julian, as Constantine. Their tyranny loosens not the bond of thine Allegiance. The takers of the Oath of it, swear they hearty abhor the Iesuites, authorizing the killing of a King. That they call a wicked oath. But the Kings of spain, the Liege Lord of all Iesuites devised the very like in their Councils of Toledo, many hundreds of yeares since.  
Papists say, we slander them, they teach not to kill Kings. Doth not Bellarmine maintain Rebellion to be lawful, In crimine gravissimo; if a King commit some grievous crime? Why rose not Israel against David in the cause of Vrias? Why not against Salomon in a worse cause, idolatry? Why not against Saul, not a murdering onely, but a massacring King. An heretical King( Sanders saith) is no King. He ipso facto is Excommunicatus; and excommunication dissolves all civill bonds, allegiance and all, they say, the Canonists hold. Did they, it skilled not, Popes parasites most of them: but they do not. They except divers bonds, utile, lex, humile, &c. And this rule is in their Law, Excommunicatio Domini non liber at vasallum a Sacramento; No vassal is freed from his service, though his Lord be excommunicate. Henry bourbon of France, King John of England, the one was crwoned, the other obeied, though both under the Popes curse. But seeing there are Romanists hold this, why offer we the oath of Allegiance to such kind of Papists? It is Ipso facto voided: the King is not a whit the securer by his taking it.  
To end this; Religion and Rebellion do not suit. Nunquàm Cassiani inventi sunt Christiani, Never was true Christian, traitor to his King. It is a proverb in Guicciardin, that it is the Churches property to hate their Caesars. It must mean the Romish Church. A clergy man, a roman catholic, rebelling, is no traitor, Emmanuel Saes Essay. Iesuites are contrivers of treason in all lands. Popish Churchmen are King-quellours;[ Who killed King John?] But as an honourable Knight saith in his Observations, Never any Protestant of the clergy in this land, had hand in any treason.  
The last honour is Tribute, a queasy theme, but yet most necessary in these times to be prest. Tribute no gracious word in the prime sense, an involuntarie tax, laid on a foreign people, conquered by the sword. Subjects so are not wont to be tributaries. But by tributes, I mean peaceable Imposts, and free Sesses, be it custom, or subsidy, or whatsoever else due even to gracious Kings, either to sustain their States, or support the public charges of the Common-wealth. Good subjects need not be tributaries; but they are contributaries; and the taxes, not forced exactions, but ingenuous grants. Bids Salomon honour God, De substantia tua, with a part of thy estate? God needs it not; yet he craves it, to exercise thy obedience. Honour the King with it, besides thy obedience he needs it. Gods Word awardes it him. If not that in Samuel, Hoc erit, jus Regis: Yet that in Paul, Rom. 13. 7. If not Samuels Tollet, he shall take, yet Pauls Redite, you shall give: Give, what? Tribute and custom, both there expressly. Give, how? Not constrained, but of conscience, ver. 5. To Pauls precept, and Christs Precedent; he paid Poll money, both for Peter and himself. Yea Pauls self to his Rule adds Reason too; give it, for tis a debt; the original word sounds so; their Due, saith the Translation. Nay not give, as the Geneva Bibles have it, but Render, that original means so too, and that term {αβγδ}, it implies their right to it.  
Moneys are the sinews, Appian saith of warres, ulpian of commonwealths, Machiavell said true too, that the sinews of warres, are the sinews of mens arms. But those men must be maintained with moneys. armor costs money too, shot, powder, horse, and ships. This point is not plausible; to end it. Christ, Paul, and Peter together make a syllogism. Paul the mayor, Give Tribute, to whom tribute, custom, to whom custom belongs. Peter the Minor too, But they belong to Caesar, they are the Princes debt. Christ the Conclusion, Give it therefore unto Caesar. Now therefore unto Caesar, that is, to Charles our King, be given all Honour, civill Honour, Reverence, Obedience, Tribute, and Fid●litie; and unto God King of Kings, all honour, religious honour, majesty, power, and dominion, this day and for ever Amen.   

SERMONS PREACHED VPON THE FIFT OF NOVEMBER. The first Sermon.  APOC. 17. 6. 
Et vidi mulierem ebriam de sanguine Sanctorum.  
And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the Saints.  
THe Argument of my Text, is a sight, a strange sight, spectaculum, miraculum, a sight of wonder, as it followeth in this verse, I wondered when I saw her. To see a woman, is no wonder. And yet if the Pope be meant by this spectacle; it is a wonder to see a woman Pope: a thing never seen but once; the Papists say, not once. But to see a woman drunk: that is a strange sight; a bloody woman, a strange sight. A drunken man is no rare sight; we see them daily[ in our streets; Video& taceo, we see them daily, and say nothing. The Boyes perchance will wonder at them; but Sapiens nihil admiratur; magistrates, that are, or should be wise, rather wink, then wonder at them.] A bloody man is no rare thing neither, oftener seen, then sentenced;[ at least wise, as the law requires.] Gods law, and the Kings? But a drunken woman is a strange sight. You find not in all the Scripture, a woman taken drunk; one is mistaken, 1 Sam. Heli thought Hannah drunk, but she was not.[ More shane for men, to be so common in that 'vice; and yet the woman the weaker vessel too.] And a bloody woman is a strange sight. Vir sanguinum, a man of blood, we red it often: but a woman of blood never. But a woman to drink blood, to drink mans blood, sanguinem innocuum, i. guiltless blood; to drink much blood, even till she be drunken; that sight strange indeed, worthy to be wondered at. Such a sight is here, id est, such a sight of such a woman; John saw a woman drunken with the blood of Saints.  
The Text contains an Object, and an Act: the Act, seeing, the seer, Saint John, I saw. The Object, a Woman; her case, drunken; with what? with blood; whose blood? of Saints. I saw a woman drunken with the blood of Saints. These are the points; they many, the time short; and I would speak of all. By Gods grace, and your patience, briefly of each in order.  
The Copulative note would not be neglected neither: for is there the least particle idle in the Scripture? Saint John saw a woman mounted, and yet the woman drunk. They sit unsafely, that are drunk, on horse back, But this woman is mounted on the devils back; he never casts his rider, but in hell. Shee cannot fall; she were happy, if she did. Saint John saw a woman, which made others drunk; and now he sees her drunk herself. They lightly that egg others to drink more then is fit, know their own bodies better able to bear drink, and yet the fox is caught sometimes. So is this woman, shee hath begun so long to others, that shee is gone herself. By sipping often she hath supped so much; that now shee is drunk also. Saint John saw a woman made others drunk with wine; and now he sees herself drunk with blood.[ They too were drunk with blood, the blood of grapes; but shee is drunk with blood, the blood of men.]  
Now to come to the Seer; I saw. I should not press the person, because it is suppressed: the greek hath it not. It hath it not, because it needs it not: for it was before. But to you, it is new, and therefore needs. For prophesy stands much on the authority of the Person. Historians often hid their names; for they skill not. look on the four Evangelists, and almost all the books of story in the Bible; it is rare to find in them, who wrote them. But survey the Prophets all of them; not one of them conceals his name. The Author of this book wrote a gospel too; you shall not find his name in that; but in this it is five times. The same man, when he writes as an Evangelist, suppresses it; but when as a Prophet, he expresses it. Now then though the original express not the person, nor the English the name; but the words be onely, And I saw: yet just occasion offers here the Question, who is that I?  
The Author himself answers it in the beginning of the book, Ego johannes, the ●, is John. But now the question is more busy, then before; who is that John? For beside John Baptist, and John mark, of which two there is no question, we find of this name, an Apostle, an Evangelist, and John the elder, and John the Divine. Hence have some doubted who should writ this book; and hence might we doubt too, who should see this vision. But it is a doubt in seeming, not in dead; not worth dispute: For all the four are one. divers causes, cast on him divers titles; but the man is the same: one of the twelve, that kept with Christ, and so called an Apostle: one of the four, that wrote of Christ, and so also an Evangelist: the Elder for his age, or his dignity in the Church: and the Divine, for the high beginning of his gospel with the Deity of Christ. John, an Apostle, a chief Apostle: more; {αβγδ} as Saint Paul phraseth it, more then a chief Apostle; Christs cousin german: dear unto him, the Disciple whom the Lord loved: near unto him, for he learned on his breast. Nay an Apostle, an Evangelist, and a Prophet too; and so was never any, Luke an Evangelist, but no Apostle. Saint Paul an Apostle, but no Evangelist. Saint Matthew both, but no Prophet. Saint John all three. To him the Lord vouchsafed this vision, Peter and james, Christ called as well as John, to see his Transfiguration: but he held John onely worthy to hear his Revelation. I hast from the Person to the Act, He saw.  
The Prophets anciently were called Seers. Not of the Eye; all men see so; but they saw in the Spirit. So did Saint John chap. 1. ver. 10. Visio in Philosophy is the Act of sense; but in Theology it is taken more Divinely. The Eye sees naturally: but in Divinity, as Plato said, Mens videt, it is the mind. The body sees by sense, waking, by the Eye; sleeping, by the phantasy. But Visions in Divinity are in the spirit, and by the spirit; in the spirit of man, by the Spirit of God. The bodies sight is of things present onely, present in time, present in place. But the spirits is of things far off: far off for place; Saint John sees in Patmos things done in Rome: and far off for time; he saw before, what should be done long after. Visions are previsions. Seer, what seest thou?  
No warrant for the brainsick visions of schismatics, papists, and familists, which all brag of Revelations: all of them either ecstaticall passions, or sathanicall illusions: ecstaticall, and so not prophecies, but phantacies, {αβγδ}, Basil. sathanicall, and so not Revelations, but delusions. I may not stay here neither. Not the seer, but the sight; not that he saw, but what he saw: the subject of the Vision, is the project of my speech principally: I come to it. John saw a woman.  
To see a Woman is not strange; except the woman herself be strange. The Scripture calls a harlot a strange woman. This Woman my Text calls her not a harlot; but it means her one, by saying shee was drunken. Whom Bacchus baths, washes, Venus lightly warms, dries. A drunken man, I will doubt, he is not honest; but a drunken woman without doubt is nought. And so is this. In the first verse of this chapter shee is called the Great Whore. A woman no strange sight; but Saint John saith, he saw the woman, that is, a whore, a great whore. I pray you pardon me this odious term, as harsh to my tongue, as to your ears. I wonder not, Saint John wondered at the sight: you know, such women are the peoples wonderment: the maidens gaze at them, the young men point, and hiss, and whoope at them. But the Woman here more worthy of wonderment. I will not press her clothing, purple and scarlet, gold, pearl, and precious stones. Surely, Saint John would not have wondered at that, had he seen the pomp of women now. But a woman mounted on a Beast of wonder, scarled coloured, with seven heads, and ten horns; A name of wonder in her forehead, Great Babylon; A Cup of wonder in her hand: the metal of such worth, but the liquour of such filth, that the holy Evangelist, as one sick at the sight, could not say, what he saw, without scepticism of speech. The greek hath such grammar, as you shall not often find.  
The woman is described by three unlovely qualities, unsatiable, unmerciful, unjust. She drinks, till she be drunken: her drink is blood, the blood is the Saints. Of the second first; order craves it; Quid before Quantum, Her drink is blood. John sees a woman drunken, not flumine, but sanguine, not with water, but with blood: not the blood of grapes, as wine is called in Scripture, but the blood of men: as God saith of the Iewes in Esay, They are drunk, but not with wine. Belike she remembered that she was a Roman; and therefore durst not venture to drink wine; which for a woman to do in Rome, was death. She is a thirst, and there is no heart in water; and therefore she drinks blood.  
If she may not be Vinolenta; she will be Sanguinolenta; if she may not drink the blood of grapes, she will drink the blood of men. A drink beseeming better the Beast on which she road. Wild beasts delight in it; but the heart of man abhors it. {αβγδ}, saith Saint Chrysostome, the savage Scythian will not do it. he will prick his horse, and drink his blood: but mans blood to be mans drink, I never red save among Cannibals. Certainly this woman, like unto the centaurs, rides not on this Beast, but is one body with the Beast. The Beast drinks blood; It is satan, say the Fathers; Christ saith, he is a murderer from the beginning. Her diet is like his, as her colour is like his; her garment scarlet like his skin. Both betoken blood. It betokens blood, as it is but onely read; but that it is scarlet; the depth of the die argues delight in blood, her glory in it. A woman bloudy-coted, and bloudie-hearted, like to Herods wife; of whom Saint Basil saith {αβγδ}, her meat was slaughter, and her drink was blood.  
The papacy the Antitype of this drunken woman, as it was first bread of blood, so it ever fed of blood. It breathed first by murder; and it breaths murders still. Where ever set the Pope his foot, but the ground forthwith grew thirsty of blood? Let no man wrangle at the Metaphor; it is here an Angels, and a frequent phrase in Scripture. Popes drink not blood in proper meaning; but their drinking it, is their shedding it, and their thirsting after blood, is their lusting after it. look, who would not submit to that Sea, his pain must be, not fasces, but secures, not stripes, not fine, not banishment, but death. he will cry against him, as the people did at Saint Paul, {αβγδ}, Away with him from the earth. Say he were an heretic, yet the Pope should cry not {αβγδ}, but {αβγδ} purge the man, not kill the man; purge him by reason, not by prison; purge away his heresy, not purge away his life. But the Pope is all peremptory, his cry is Crucifige. A staff will not serve Balaam; Vtinam mihi gladius esset, he wishes he had a sword to kill. The Popes episcopal staff, i. his curse contents him not; it must be a sword, a weapon of blood.  
Christ gave Saint Peter keys; but they are blunt: what should the Pope do with them? Were he not very patient, he would throw them into Tiber. Saint Peter had a sword; and the Pope thinks he should too. Nay he thinks his finger stronger than Saint Peters joins; he had but one sword, he hath two. He smote off but an ear with his; he smites off heads with his.  
But to end this point, I would the Pope had but this one fault, cruelty to spill blood: but shee hath an another worse than this, that follows this, it is iniquity; shee spills guiltless blood. It is the blood of Saints, the next point in my Text.  
There are sundry sorts of bloods, as there are of wines. The woman is wanton; common blood contents her not; the unholy harlot must have holy blood.  
David said, Right precious in the sight of the Lord, is the death of his Saints. But I may say, delicious in the taste of the beast, is the blood of the Saints. The holier the blood, the freel●er the draft. Tis not the blood of Innocents, but the blood of Saints. It is great injustice to slaughter the guiltless, though he be an infidel. Death is for delinquents; and not for all them neither. Peccata be not paria; offences are not all of equal hainousnesnesse. Death is for dangerous and desperate malefactors. Except the crime be, why should the pain capital? But to afflict the just, to inflict the pain of death upon the guiltless, is grand wickedness. But it is here not onely servorum, but Sanctorum, the blood not of the righteous, but of Saints, of holy men. One may be just, and yet not holy; no breaker of the Law, and yet no truster in the gospel; a Sadducee, and yet no Saint. Saint jerome saith the Sadducees, and so saith Epiphanius to, that they had their name of righteousness; but they were but sorry Saints; for they denied the Resurrection.[ And many a man is put away through the error of the judge, that is clear of the crime, he suffers for, a just man touching it.] But a Saint, a holy man, a worshipper of God, to  shed his blood, is heinous homicide, horrible parricide. Such blood sheds this woman, this whorish drunken woman sucks and suppes such blood, the blood of Saints; and that in such abundance, that she is drunk with it, the last point in my Text.  
Not wine drunk, but blood drunk: not de fruge, but de strage, not of barley, but of blood. That more pardonable, as of weakness, this abominable, of set wickedness. The Church, the child of Peace to thirst for blood; no blood to serve her, but the Saints; to drink so long of it, so much of it, that shee is drunken? It is not a finger onely dipped in blood, to touch her tongue, will serve:( Dives in hell desired but that, and that of water;) but shee must have her full draft of it, many draughts.  
Not of wine, much less of blood, will one draft make one drunk. The Vine( saith Pythag.) hath three grapes, the first of Thirst, the next of Pleasure, the third of drunkenness. But her draughts of blood are many; not dozens, as our Drunkards use, but hundreds, many hundreds, thousands, many thousands; it is no marvel, if shee be drunk with them: like Syllaes in plutarch, {αβγδ}, no tale of them, no end of them. Solomon saith, the Horse-leech hath two daughters, which are ever crying, give, give. Surely I think this woman is one of them. Why do I wrong her? Shee is not Sanguisuga, but Sanguibiba, shee sucks not blood, but she drinks it. Nor doth she, like the Horse-leech, fall off when she is full; but like the drunken, drink she never so much, yet she is dry still, and thirsty for more. The dogges of Nilus lambunt, non bibunt, for fear of the Crocodiles, they lap a little, and away. But his bloud-bibber, she sippes not lightly, but shee suppes it up, shee embrues her hands with it, she baths herself in it.  
The Romanists would fain divert our eyes from the Pope to the bloud-shead by Emperours; which indeed was much; but they were infidels. The Pope, Christs Vicar; and yet his bloodshed more. Platina writes of 17000. martyred by Dioclesian: but Metarane writes of 50000. slaughtered by the Pope, onely in the low countries, onely in Charles time the fifth. Natalis Comes of 60000. in France onely in one year. Iulius the second, in seven yeares  shed the blood of above 200000. Christians. Let not the Popes object Emperours; never was any more immane than they. Nero and Caligula were the grandest tyrants of them all, monsters of men: and think you, we shall not find Popes to parallel them? Nero slay his mother and his sister: so did Paul the third. Wee wonder at Caligulaes wish, that all the romans heads were standing on one neck, that at one blow he might behead them all. Pope Martins is more monstrous, that all germany were but one lake; that all the germans might be drowned in it at once. Was not this Pope adrie, that thirsted for such a sea of blood? And is not Rome worthy to be called the sea of blood? The sea is not the fuller, though all the rivers run into it. Rome is not the less thirsty, though she have drunk the blood of all those thousands. Yea many thousands more have not quenched her slakelesse thirst: but Popes are still like Parthians; Quo plius bibunt plus sitiunt, saith Plinie, the more they drink, the more they are adrie. dryth after drink, a symptom of drunkenness. The drunkard in the Prov. saith, {αβγδ} I will have more of it. The man will have cup after cup, and call for the second, ere the first be drunk: the woman will have blood to touch blood, one murder to overtake an other. The Drunkards in Esay cry, cras sicut hody; they will drink on the morrow, as they did the day before; nay multò ampliùs, to morrow shall exceed to day. The womans unquenchable appetite of blood, grows greater by drinking it.  
To draw unto an end: the drunkard though in one house he have drunk too much, yet will thence unto an other, from it unto a third: and though he reel already, yet he will to more, till he be dead drunken. Italy sufficeth not this drunken womans thirst: there is Saints blood in France, in germany, in brittany, she must have some of that.  
What the drunkard drinks, he will have it strong; and there must be store of it. The Pope is grown of late dainty and greedy too. Saints blood is all good; but his holinesse must have both the best of it, for the kind, and abundance for the quantity. For the one, subjects blood serves him not; he must have Kings, not Sanctorum onely, but unctorum too, not the blood of Gods Saints alone, but the blood of Gods anointed. Yea sometimes he hath longed for the Emperours own blood; he hath longed for it, and had it. The French Kings blood he will shortly claim by custom. Our last queens blood of ever blessed memory, how often attempted he to taste of it? Our gracious sovereigns blood hath he not assayed to have a say of it?  
For the other, the Pope is the angry man in Ecclesiasticus, blood is as nothing in his sight. Like the great Behemoth, he thinks to draw up jordan into his mouth, whole floods of blood into his belly. Not one mans blood alone, but multitudes at once; he loves Massacres. witness the Sicilian Evensong by Pope Nicholas 3. witness the bloody wedding at Paris, by Gregory 13. Nay witness the most wonderful intended Massacre, that ever man on earth, or fiend in hell devised, that desperate, that devilish, and most damned conspiracy of the gunpowder treason, on this day now six yeares. What ear hears it, but it tingles? What tongue tells it, but it trembles? Whose hair stands not at the hearth of it? Whose heart quakes not at the thought of it? The Pope had cursed us often with a horrible curse, as David termed Shimeis curse with anathema maranatha, with anathema Sathanatha. His Priests had prayed against us: they had called on all the Saints and Angels to confounded us. When they saw all would not serve, but we prospered the more; they thought with themselves, as juno doth in Virgil Flectere si ne queo Superos, Acheronta movebo; if Michael and his Angels would not help them, the devil and his angels should. If heaven had no fire for them, they would have it out of hell. If they could not throw us down, they would blow us up. A type of Tophet( as a learned Bishop termeth it) a petty Synopsis of Sodom and Gomorrha, and of the fiery deluge at the day of doom, the fearful conflagration of the world at Christs coming. Well doth Baronius parallel the now Pope Paul to Gregory the seventh, whose name was Heldebrand. For whence could such a furious such a sulphureous flamme take fire, but from a brand of hell? It was not done; it was designed. Quid non Ebrietas designat? what will not a drunken man design?  
The Kings own sacred person, his queen, and all their children, all the reverend Patriarkes and prelates of the Church, all the honourable Lords of the council and Nobility, all the grave and learned Iudges, all the flower of the commonalty, these cursed plotters would have devoured at once. They would( they said) have sent us like unto Elias up to heaven in fire.  
Saint John saw a woman drunken? that term should have been turned. They would have clipped Gods greek, and have made {αβγδ}, a woman sacrificing with the blood of Saints. Rome glories in her unbloody sacrifices: but now shee would have sacrificed blood; a living, holy, and reasonable sacrifice; not beasts, but men; not dead, but quick; not the guilty blood of malefactours, but the holy blood of Saints; a living, holy, and reasonable sacrifice: and therefore also acceptable unto God. For Christ foretold of her, that the bloody persecutor should think he did God service; and the Pope hath professed it, professed it publicly, and to murder such is meritorious. Hath he not Scripture for it? Talibus enim hostiis promeretur Deus, God is merited, heaven is purchased by such sacrifices.  
I will not say with ieremy, go to the Isles of Chittim, and sand to Kedar; see if such things bee there: but look if Turkes, if Tartars, if all heathen lands can pattern such a plot. I will say with Esay, Quis vidit? quis audivit? what eye hath ere beholded, what ear hath ever heard so egregious, so prodigious a project, as was this? Hyppolytus saith in Seneca, Nullam caruit exemplo nefas, never was so vile a villainy, but it had example. ask all antiquity ab orb condito, the rolls and Records of all countries, of all times, Caruit exemplo nefas, the world can not sample it. So malicious, so mischievous, so monstrous a machination, never once entred into imagination. Iupiters sacrifice, were called Hecatombae because they offered up 100. beasts at once. Those Popish miscreants thought they would do more, have many Hecatombaes, the blood of many hundreds of men at one sacrifice.  
Saint John wondered at the woman with great marvel; well worthy to be wondered at by the whole world: that as( Saint Bernard saith) Praelatus should be Pilatus, a shepherd a wolf; that Pontifex should be Carnifex; the Bishop of souls, a Butcher of Saints; the Churches Head, to maim the Churches body: to make Sion a Golgotha, a place of skulls, and jerusalem, an Akeldama, a field of blood: When but a Popish Duke, the Duke of Guise was slain by Poltrot, Duraeus a Papist could say of it, that the Christian world had not seen a fact, funestius luctuosius, more doleful, more direful, what shall we say of this; of a slaughter, such a slaughter for time, for place, for manner, of such persons, of such a multitude? Saint John wondered at the woman: let us wonder at the man, the man of sin, the man of satan, the man of blood, the man of Rome. But let us wonder most of all at his wonderful Salvation, who at the very point of our going down, this greedy throat, to have been swallowed up unrecoverably, pulled us by his power even from between his jaws. Let us magnify his mercy, let us glorify his name, we and our posterity. Let us ascribe to him, the watchful, the powerful, the merciful, the wonderful preserver of the ●aints, All Honour, majesty, Salvation, and Thanksgiving, &c.   

SERMONS PREACHED VPON THE FIFT OF NOVEMBER. The second Sermon.  APOC. 17. 6. And with the Blood of the Martyrs of Jesus. 
THE remaines of a Scripture, which haply you remember I have handled heretofore, in the beginning of the verse. The sense of this clause hangs on that; maim of itself; must be perfitted by it. I saw a woman drunken with the Blood of Saints, and with the Blood of the Martyrs of Iesus. This woman is described here to bee drunken; that 'vice( say no more) is odious. But heres more, drunk with Blood; thats brutish and Barbarous. Tis worse yet, Impious; drunken with Saints blood. Thus far I have already gone, in the first clause. My Text now leads me further; cries Plus ultra; the woman yet more wicked; drunken again; thats in the Particle( And) the first word of my Text; with Blood again, the second word; a stronger blood, then Saints, the Blood of Martyrs; even the Martyrs of Iesus. This woman( you shall afterward hear) was a Christian. But shee wants but one degree of the Iewes wickedness. They  shed Iesus own blood; shee his Martyrs; And with the Blood of the Martyrs of Iesus.  
All the difference of the matter of my Sermon now, from my former of the first branch, is in the materials onely of the drunkenness. The same Seer, Saint John; the same object, the woman; in the same case, drunken, with the same liquour, Blood. But not the same Blood. That was but Saints Blood; this is Martyrs. I noted in this woman the last time, three unlovely qualities; unsatiable, because drunken; unmerciful, twas with Blood; and ungodly, twas Saints blood. I note two now; {αβγδ} more drunkenness, and worse. More, in the Quid, And with the Blood: worse in the Quorum, of the Martyrs of Iesus. Of the several words in order.  
The first, though but a Particle, would not bee slighted; tis but a thin word, but weighty. It both couches one word under it, and also couples another. And, that is, and drunken: twas expressed before; must bee here understood. What man almost is drunken but once onely? Ebrius proves lightly Ebriosus; love of drink turns act into habit. Noah indeed was but once, Lot but twice; both righteous men. Other sins haply are but once done. A man steals, or kills once in all his life, but once onely. But the lusts of the flesh rest not in one act, itch all for Iteration. Love either of strong drink, or strange women, beware all men of both; yield but once to either; without Gods special grace, thy heart is caught, and thou wilt, if thou mayst, bee assidious in the sin. Not to instance in whoredom, lest I stray too far, hear the wise man, Prov. 23. ult. the drunkard cries {αβγδ}, he will to the Wine again: hear the Prophet, Esay 56. ult. they cry, cras, sicut hody, they are drunk to day, will bee to morrow. So doth the woman here, shee is drunken, and drunken. I will press the word no further, because tis not expressed. What need I, when the next word is of the same argument?  
All drunkenness is not by wine, or strong drink, though by the one lightly. The Thracians and Scythians used to burn certain herbs, to be drunken with the smoke. That barbarism our English nation useth too much, in a base Indian weed. It is pity, men of good parts should be drunk so. They should leave it to idle and empty heads, witless and worthless. But the woman in my Text is drunk with Blood. Thats cannibals drink. Of that savage beverage I spake largely the last time out of the former clause. It was there, and tis here. The woman to her drunkenness addeth thirst; hath supped up already so much Blood, that shee is drunken. Yet shee will have more. Blood in the clause before, and Blood in this. The particle couples them; that as the Prophet speaks, Hosea Chap. 4. vers. 2. Blood may touch Blood.  
called I this quality Brutish and Barbarous? It is worse. Savages are drunk, but not with Blood; and beasts will drink Blood, but not be drunk with it. The woman exceeds both; for shee doth both. At this the Apostle wonders, {αβγδ}, with great wonderment. He may: that a woman by nature of better temper, and less thirsty, then man, should be {αβγδ}, Aelians term, should love drink; tis absurd: should bee {αβγδ}, a great drinker, more absurd, should drink drunk. But the drink to be Blood too, strangely unnatural: As S. Basil saith of Herods wife, {αβγδ}, her meate was slaughter, and her drink blood.  
And yet why should Saint John wonder so much? sweet things best please the palate, and nourish most. Blood is sweet. Then wonder not, if she love Blood. And the sweetest drinks quench the thirst least, make one more dry. Then marvel neither if shee drink much, if with Solomons drunkard shee cries {αβγδ}, more, more; if with Esaies drinkers shee cry, Cras, drunken to night, appoint to meet to morrow; if with the Horse▪ leeches daughters shee cry still, Give, Give: as unsatiable, as the ground, as the grave, nay as fire, that never cries, enough. And what, if there be odds besides too in the Blood? if as in Wines, so in Bloods also one be sweeter then an other? Surely there is; and thats the next word in my Text, the blood of Martyrs. Thats Vinum Cos, Sanguis Cos to her, the neatest of all bloods.  
All Blood is good; none comes amiss to this woman in her thirst. But a full belly kickes a hony comb. Sometimes she is wanton: then common blood contents her not. It must be holy blood; the blood of Saints. Thats in the clause before. Shee is more dainty in this. Saints blood was sweet; but shee will have sweeter yet, the blood of Martyrs, the sweetest of all bloods, save Christs onely, the blood of Iesus Martyrs, sweeter then all bloods, saving Iesus own. Right precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints, David saith. I will say, right precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Martyrs. Martyrs excel Saints. Both are not one. Martyrs are all Saints; but not all Saints Martyrs. Saints mean no more, then Holy men, believers in the gospel, and obeyers of the Law; Men of Faith, and holy life. But a Martyr is a Sealer of the gospel with his blood. Not a patient endurer of persecution onely; that makes but a confessor; but a Dier too for Christ; a willing, nay a joyful expender of his blood, though in never so shameful or fearful kind of death, in the Cause of Christ. Such here the Apostle means by the Martyrs of Iesus. The greek word is much wider, means any witness. Saints in that sense are all {αβγδ}: All Saints Adulti, are Christs witnesses, testifiers of his Truth. Simeon and Anna were Christs Martyrs so. Yea the roman Centurion, though a heathen was; he bore witness at the cross, that Christ was Gods son. Nay, Iudas the traitor was, witness of Christs Innocency. A reprobate, a witness. Nay, the very devils were, cried unto Christ, Iesus, thou son of God. Much more are Saints in that large sense. But in all Tongues, saving greek, a Martyr is a loser of his life for the gospel: and often in greek too, in ecclesiastical writers. They have their warrant hence: Saint John calls them here, the Martyrs of Iesus. Thats the last word in my Text. One word of it; and then to Application.  
There is a Pseudomartyr,( Papists call Peter Martyr so) a false Martyr. All good things have their counterfeits. falsehood steals truths titles. The devil is Gods ape; puts all his appellations on his Ministers. Angels, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, and all, satan hath too. There are the Dragons angels, Apoc. 12. 7. Pseudoprophetae, Pseudapostoli, Pseudomartyres; sathans angels, sathans prophets, his apostles, martyrs too. heresy hath her martyrs, {αβγδ}, multitudes of martyrs, saith Eusebius. There are in the Church history the martyrs of Montanus, of Arius, of Donatus. Rome too boasts of her martyrs. Shee might 13, 14, 15. hundred yeares ago. Many of her Bishops suffered in those times. Shee may not now. Shee does. Not of Saint Thomas onely, slain long since; but of Saint Campian, Saint Garnet, and some more, but of late yeares. These are the Martyrs of Iesuites, not of Jesus. They dyed not in Christs cause: and tis Causa, not Poena, makes a Martyr, Saint Augustine saith. martyrdom is in Causae bonitate, non in Poenae acerbitate, in the goodness of the cause, not in the sharpness of the pain. It is {αβγδ}, as the greek tragic terms it, a foolish death, when the cause is nought. They were traitors, not martyrs; suffered not for their Faith, but for their wickedness. Campian, Father Campian, a son of treason too. He had reconciled to Rome 10000 in one year, boasted of it. But Father Garnet, a Father of a brood of Vipers, the most miscreant hell-hounds, that ever britain bread, the contrivers of a plot, yea almost( but for Gods Almighty preserving us) performers of the dismallest and most damned design, that hell had ever hammerd. These are Romes martyrs not Martyrs of Iesus.  
These are teachers and believers of heresies and lies. Et ubi non est veritas Christi, ibi non est veritas Martyrii, saith Apollinaris, where true faith is not, theres no true martyrdom. All their sufferings will not serve. A read colour is not beautiful, if it be not grounded on a faire white. The pain hath no grace, if the sufferer have no truth. Death for crime is no martyrdom. I will not give the title of a Martyr to John Baptist, though Saint Cyprian term him so. John dyed for checking Herod, not for Christ. Yea Saint Cyprian was bold to call the Bethleem Infants, Martyrs. So was Ireneus too: both in their zeal, and hyperbolice. For both of them else where call Saint Stephen, the first Martyr. Nay Saint Cyprians zeal went further, called the crucified thief a Martyr too: imitating belike his Master Tertullian, who calls the three Children in the furnace, Martyrs. he had better ground, then Saint Cyprian; and yet I hold, he spake too in Hyperbole.  
But why saith Saint John here, Martyrs of Iesus? are not all Martyrs so? All are, if meant vnivoce. If the term be put on any else, it is {αβγδ}, usurpedly and improperly. All Martyrs are Christs witnesses. So are Confessors too: but Martyrs are {αβγδ}. Christ so calls Antipas, cap. 2. My witness, Rhemists translate it so; but we, My Martyr. Their stripes or wounds, Christi stigmata, Gal. 6. The marks of Christ. Their bonds, bonds of the gospel Saint Pauls term to Philemon. Pauls self {αβγδ}, Christs Prisoner. Tis for his sake they suffer. Yea Christ suffers in them, himself saith so to Paul, why persecutest thou me? Yet heretics have their Martyrs, Apollinarius saith, many Martyrs. There were Martyrs of Arius. schismatics have too: there were martyrs of Donatus. Saint Augustine calls them, Martyres stultae philosophiae, false and foolish martyrs, witnesses to schism, and desperate bestowers of their blood on heresy. When hear wee one of these suffer among Romanists? When did they burn an Arian, or an Antitrinitarian, enemies of Iesus? Why suffered they Servetus, gentiles, and Blnadrata, blasphemers of Christ? but a lutheran, an Hugonote, or a Calvinist, Tolle, Crucifige, to the gibbet, to the stake with him. The blood of the martyrs of Iesus is the Popes Nectar. I end.  
Wonders Saint John at this woman? the whole world may wonder too, at Romes cruelty which intended this day to have sucked the choicest blood of this kingdom. It was not done; twas but designed. That it was designed, may justly provoke the loathing of so bloody a religion: that it was not effected, the magnifying of Gods infinite mercy. To him therefore let us ascribe all Praise, Power, Might, Majesty, and Thanksgiving, from this time forth, and for evermore. Amen.   

SERMONS PREACHED AT THE VISITATION. The first Sermon.  NUM. 16. 3. And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, ye take too much upon you, seeing all the Congregation is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then lift ye up yourselves above the Congregation of the Lord? 
THe Vulgar Latin begins the Chapter with an Ecce, to premonish the Reader of some remarkable story; bids us, Behold. Behold what? that which Athaliah sometimes cried, {αβγδ} a conspiracy, a conspiracy. Behold here a conspiracy of a rout of malcontents against the Governors. And they gathered together. What is the gathering? for the term is {αβγδ}, as Grammarians term it, an indifferent word, means any assembly. But the verse before glosses it, Surrexerunt, they Rose, tis an Insurrection, thats the act. But whose? They gathered, named in the first verse, Corah, Dathan, Abiram, and On the son of Peleth, they are the Risers. Against whom? thats here expressly, Moses and Aaron, the chief magistrate, and the High-Priest. Whats the grievance? their usurping of rule over the people, you take too much upon you. Whats the ground of that Gravamen? Because the Congregation is holy, every one of them; they need noe Priest, thats for Aaron; and the Lord is among them; God is their guide; they need no governor, thats for Moses. Whats the conclusion? they must down. Thats not explicate, but plain enough, they lift themselves up; he that exalts himself, must be humbled, and tis the Lords Congregation; they must not suffer men to bee Lords over them. Of these particulars, by Gods assistance, and your reverend patience, briefly in their order.  
The persons first, observe two things in it. 〈◇〉 have heard some of their names; hear of what Note, and Number. ●f is not Scheba& Sche●●e●, 
α. β.  the so●●es of ●emini, base Benjamites, which rose against David, 
α.  dead dogges, as Abishai termed one of them. Not {αβγδ} empty fellowes, such as rose against Roboam. Not faex populi, a sort of abjects, contemptible men. But the son of Levi, one of the chief Tribes in Israel, and the sons of Reuben, Israels first born. Coraha Cohathite, not Levies son onely, some beggarly born vagrant, such( as God said to Heli) as should pray to serve the Priest, should {αβγδ} crouch to him for a piece of silver, and a shive of bread: but a chief Levite, Aarons Cosen-germaine, for birth, for wealth, {αβγδ},( saith Iosephus) an eminent man, and Dathan, On, and Abiram, famous men all, yea the whole rout of them, Captaines of the people, and men of renown. Thats for their quality.  
Now for their Number Gathering, argues plurality; but plurality is 
β.  not always multitude. Christ( whom wee must not teach to speak) calls it a gathering together, even of two or three, Matth. 18. 20. Here are many. But two arose against King joash, Iozachar and Iozabad, 2 Reg. 12. two score against Paul, Act. 23. Two hundred here, and more against Moses, vers. 2. Tis there but against Moses; but here against his brother too. Davids case, and theirs, peers; Multi adversum me, the Risers against them are a multitude.  
Note yet another thing; the head of this conspiracy is a son of 
γ.  Levi. Not Issach ar, an ass, but learned Levi, that deserves an Ecce! Levi, whom God had scattered among all the Tribes; of purpose to instruct them all, to teach them to fear God, and the King, he to mutiny against Moses! Nay Levi, set apart for the service of the Sanctuary, here to go apart, as it is vers. 1. to rise against the Priest, to faction against Aaron!  
One thing more yet. Corah stirs not alone, keeps not his conspiracy 
δ.  within his own coat; but runs out to Reuben, joins with another Tribe, as evill-eyed as he against both Prince and Priest. It would be honour to them too, to humble both: yea great profit to them too, to pull Aaron down. Might they prevail, the avails of the Sanctuary a share of them at least might light among them. If every man that would, as in Ieraboams dayes, might consecrate himself; the Emoluments of the Altar, first-fruits, tenths, offerings, all the fees of Levi had fallen to them alike, who so listed to bee Priest. Who listed not, though he gained not, save he should, would he be but at the cost of an Ephod and a Teraphim; he might have a Priest, as well as Micah, a household Priest, for his board, a suit of raiment, and a ten pieces of silver: a little money, were Micah ner●so great a man.[ But indeed their hearty meaning was to aspire to their places; the one to the sceptre, the other to the Micre; the one would be the Prince, the other the high-Priest.] And they had very good opportunity to conspire; because the Tents of Raben were near unto the Cohatbites, both on the same side of the Tabernacle. Neighbours might soon consort together. This be noted in the persons of this Insurrection; apply it, if you please, ere we go on unto the Act.  
look Moses to his throne, and Aaron to his chair; heres a mess of malcontents, that look with evil eye at both; Corah, Dathan, On, and Abiram. A mass of malcontents in Church and Commonwealth, that wish both states were altered;[ bettered they say.] Moses names his; I may not ours. If I must, let it be Legeon, quia multi sumus, for they are many. First, for their quality; tis not Wat Tiler, and jack Straw; though the Trowell and the Thatching comb will not blushy too, to check the Sceptre, and the Mitre both. Tis not Demetrius, or Alexander, a Silver-smith or Copper smith, not he that holds the Plough, nor that tarrieth by the anvil, the tradesman, or the husbandman, for the laity. Tis not the poor Curate( let that term offend none, for we are but Curates under Aaron all) tis not the mean Minister, mean either in his means or knowledge, for the clergy. But for the Lay, the Gentleman, the Knight,( I may go no higher) men of great states, and commanders in their Countries have doted upon Discipline, the diminisher of regal, but the demolisher of all episcopal authority. Their mutiny is not so direct against Moses, as against Aaron; though Moses must fall too, if that I doll rise. prelacy hath potent adversaries, Lay. Levi hath many things, would do Reuben great pleasure, and for the Church, the choice and chief of it, men of special gifts, and graced with degrees in schools, yea and preferred to by Moses to rooms of great revenue; not deans, and Archdeacons,( they are in their account but Popish dignities) but masters of hospitals, and Preachers in gainfullest and most conspicuous Churches, have risen against Aaron, preached and printed both against the prelacy. Thats for their Note, And  
For their Number, not like Iacobs yeares, evil and few; evil, but 
β.  not few. Discipline is the Helena of Genevating spirits, or innovating heads. All Greece will rise for it. Thousands do sigh for it, ten thousands seek it, themselves say: they say more, ten times ten thousand, an hundred thousand hands would join for it. called I them Legion, because they are many? they are many Legions. Not 250. the number here, but 50. times 250. all against Moses. They say no: but let him not trust them. A Prince cannot prosper under a Presbytery. But against Aaron all; professed. Cartwright says, he shooke at the name of a Bishop: he must down. And though I rather think, it( then) was the Bishops book at which he shooke, let Moses remember his own aphorism, no Bishop, no King.  
The next thing noted was the chief Risers Tribe; Corah a Levite. 
γ.  In this Note, and the next, I will not greatly charge our clergy, touching Moses. Levi hath been lightly loyal to the King; saving the Popish Levi, some Priests of Baal. Tis Aaron is their eye-sore: tis against the Bishop, that they bend their forces, band themselves. An unkind conspiracy. Corah against Aaron, of one tribe, one family, brothers children. Tis just, as Christ said, Necessarii adversarii, Aaron is e●countred by his own kin. The sons of my mother were angry against me, saith the Church in the Canticles. Let Gens in Gentem, Nation rise against Nation, realm against realm. But let not in one Nation, filii regni, the children of one kingdom fall out between themselves. Let bee Manasses against Ephraim, and Ephraim against him,[ and both against judah:] Let not one state oppugn another, the temporalty the Spiritualtie, the Spiritualtie it; much less the Church oppose to itself. But let not Levi rise within themselves. Pax vobis à vobis, have peace( saith Bernard) agree among yourselves. Let not Vterini, children of one womb, fall out in the womb, jacob take his elder brother by the heel. His brother? Nay, his father. Christ foretold it, but tis foul, children should rise against their fathers. The Bishops the Fathers of the Church: the inferior Priests but Aarons sons. Etiam tu Fili, said Caesar to Brutus, what, thou my son too?  
Nay, Corah is more wicked,[ etiam vilescam adhuc, he is a vilder fellow 
δ.  yet;] he conspires, thats the last note in the persons: rests not in rising himself onely, calls the Rubenite to rout with him. Our factious Pharisees join with the Herodians against Christ, Iudas-like betray him into the hands of sinners. The pragmatical presbyterian preacheth against prelacy unto Lay ears. A pleasing Argument to some seculars, either schismatical or sacrilegious. Both men of zeal, passive in the one, the zeal of Gods house cate up them: active in the other, they have a zeal to eat up Gods house; cry with Zebah and Zalmannah, Let us take the houses of God in possession. Twas once Simeon& Levi, brethren in evil; tis now Reuben and Levi: Levi must bee one. Pharisees and Elders, Caiphas and Herod against Christ. Felix and Ananias against Paul. Corah and Dathan against Moses and Aaron: Priests and Lay against Prince and prelacy.  
Tis time wee leave the persons; come wee to the act; a wicked one. Tis a gathering together; too good a name for it. Moses is called the meekest man on earth. he shows it here, to give so mild a name to so vilde an act. Tis a schism, vers. 1. Corah went apart with Dathan: a Faction; not onely went aside, but made aside: so one of the rabbis glosseth it. Tis a mutinous commotion; tis a factious, a seditious, a rebellious insurrection.[ The verb is passive, they were gathered together. Authority called them not. When the gathering together is against God, & Christum ejus, and his anointed, against God, or his Ministers, Priests and Magistrates, the verb is passive ever, or reciprocal, Psal. 2. The Princes {αβγδ} were assembled; the Kings sistunt se, set up themselves. disordered meetings, which the laws warrant not, can have no assembler, save some Demetrius, Corah, and his complices.] Our Corahs and Dathans have not risen yet, not come forth in publicum: the wisdom of our senators hath prevented that they should not swarm. But they have lain out often; they have gathered together sometimes three score at once, in corners. Their Classes, Synods, Conferences have been at least in Moses moderate term, gatherings together. Their petitions, supplications, admonitions, demonstrations, what were they but gatherings together? works but of some one head haply, but of many hands. Their very Motions, Commotions; penned but by some one, but maintained by multitudes. go we on from the Act unto the Object.  
The Commotion is against Moses and Aaron. miriae might have warned them; she had mutind against Moses but a while before, and that much after their manner; what? hath God spoken but by him onely? God smote her with leprosy. Yea the whole Congregation might have warned them: they all had murmurd against Moses hard before, and against Aaron too. They had cried Lapidate, ston them with stones. God had smitten them with pestilence, had destroyed them all; but that Moses prayed for them. But ambition is oblivious; the aspirer is impudent, brazeth his brow even against God.  
Our English Cohathites, and Reubenites too, the presumptuous Presbyterian, aims not at Aaron onely, but at Moses too; requires as well equality in Common-wealth, as in the Church. monarchy in the one, Aristocracy in the other, they hearty abhor. In state ecclesiastical and Civill both, they pled and they plot for a popular parity. To cry down Kings, they think is odious, those of them especially, that be subjects to a King, dare not be so bold. But they will dare limit him. He shall be called King; but he shall not reign, but by their Rules. Like a Lacedaemon King, he shall have an Ephorus to censure him: tis Fenners Divinity. Nay he shall be worse. The spartan Kings had but five Ephori to curb them: but he shall have fifty; hundreds to check him. Power he shall have; but their Consistories shall confine it, shall control it. he must submit his sceptre to their Synods, and his diadem must duck unto their Discipline. I would serve you with their phrase, but that tis so unmannerly, he must lick the dust of the Presbyteries feet.  
First for Corah, ill became it him, a Levite against the Magistrate. priests should pray for Princes. But yet be it noted to the honour of the Clergy, the Iewes Clergy, here is but one Levite to above two hundred Reubenites, one son of Levi to above two hundred Lay. I would twere so with ours. That it may be so, Aaron must look to Levi in due time; see that he subscribe at his Ordination, at his Institution, at his licence to Lecture in Cities and great towns, where mostly these mutineers are bread and fed. keep them strictly to Church Canons: who should keep them, if not Levi? Censure in time their irregularities. Moses shall have more sober subjects both in Levi and in Reuben too, far more then he hath.  
And for Aaron, makes O see such a matter, one should rebuk the Priest, c. 4. v. 4. the ordinary Priest? Here are fellowes fear not to rebuk the High Priest. Will you hear them? thats the next point; & dixerunt, and they said.  
The Person is plural; but the Speaker is but one. They come all, but they cannot speak all; Corah is their mouth. he belike was learned; he was a Levite. This was {αβγδ} a matter of lips, let him alone with it; he was {αβγδ}, Iosephus saith excellent of speech. he is their orator, and they said. Say they may, Omnes omnia bona dicere, both Priest and People may say to the Bishop, to the King, all good sayings. Dictio, while tis simplo, is no Soloescisme. But here is Contradictio( so Iude calls it) {αβγδ}, Corahs Contradiction, a Meribah, a chiding, a checking of their Governours. Nay tis a worse Composition, tis Maledictio; a thing the Law forbids, Principem Populi, thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of the People; if not of him, much less to him. Neither Principem Populi, nor Principem Cleri; for so Paul consters it of the High Priest too. They charge and challenge them for no light matter: hear the words, You take too much upon you, {αβγδ}.  
The charge here is Presumption: tis more, that term is too general, and too slight; tis usurpation. Tis worse yet, Intrusion; why lift ye up yourselves? A false charge, tis Calumnia, thats worse then Maledictio. That we must respite to his place. See first how they usurp. Moses was of Levi: what right had he to civill Rule? His Charge was in the Church; God had tedderd him unto the Tabernacle. Say that he were Lay: Yet Levi was but Israels third son. Dathans Father was the first: it was Reubens right to rule, Iacobs first born. What? will they make a custom of mayor minori serviet? Isaac said it of his sons: did jacob of his too? mayor minori serviet? should the eldest sons seed bow to the younger Brothers brats? Thus Reubens sons thought haply. But they should have considered, that their Father lost his birth right by abusing Iacobs bed.  
And for Aaron, if the High Priesthood belonged to Levi, detur digniori: what was Aaron more then others? Corah was a Cohathite as well as he. Twas his right rather, of more worth, more wealth, more yeares, then he, Iosephus saith. He took great scorn to serve under Aaron; and that his cousin Elizaphan should be set over the Cohathites, but yet under Eleezer Aarons son too. That all the sons of Cohath must have their several services assigned by Aarons sons, men as well bread, as they, the sons of Levi all; yet they to be as Deacons and Subdeacons under them. Twas great indignity: he would raise the People rather then endure it. And yet by his leave, both his cousin, and himself came of younger brothers both. In this conceit of usurpation, Abiram and Dathan being gently called by Moses to come up to treat with him calmly of this question, answered him stubbornly, and that twice, non ascendemus, we will not come up.  
Are not the modern chieftains of Church and Common wealth, checked both by Lay and Levi to take too much on them? Surely Bishops be. Nay Princes escape them not. Else would not some censure the Titles of Majesty, Lordship, and Highnesse; call them Soloecismos& Barbarismos Aulicos, the incongruous compliments and barbarisms of the Court? and title them, that use them, Sericatos Nebulones. Nor would they call a King, a temporal Pope. And what have Princes to do, to prescribe Ceremonies? to set laws to the Church? 〈◇〉 summon Synods? to delegate Iudges for Causes ecclesiastical? to assume the style of Supreme head of the Church? Dares the Disciplinarian, take the oath of Supremacy in this conceit of Kings? Surely the rankest Papist may as well: As a reverend Bishop of our Church censures them, uter queen in reges aequè injuriosi, papists and puritans, both of them equally evil eyed to Kings.[ But what meant Knox then to writ to the queen Regent, that shee was Supreme Head, Head of the Church? But that was but a wile, to win her to suppress the prelacy.]  
But the Bishop is a body composed of usurpation, wholly composed of it. All he doth, all he hath, is merely usurpation. His Consecrations, Ordinations, Collations, Institutions, Dispensations, Licences, Suspensions, Excommunications, all his Censures, his whole jurisdiction, he takes them all upon him wrongfully, bugbeares in all; so far in some, as that he is run into a flat Praemunire. That whole authority is indeed the elderships. In a word, prelacy is a petty papacy, a devilish oligarchy, a mere tyranny. These the terms haply but of the maddest of mutiny. But even the modest too, the most moderate of them all think Bishops take too much on them. Too much title; Bishops they could bear: but why should they be Lords? Especially gracious Lords; a style forbid by Christ expressly, Vos autem non sic. Too much power; let them be allowed jurisdiction in the Church: but why should they meddle in the Common-wealth? Regular men deal with secular things? In the mean time, some of the titles, which they envy them, they can be content to assume unto themselves; right reverend Fathers, yea Cart-wright most reverend. The best is, Calvin and Beza differ here. Bezaes wrong to Bishops, Calvin rights, and calls even Archbishops, a moderate honour. Enough of the Gravamen, hear the grounds.  
The Congregation is all holy, every one of them; and the Lord is among them. This is the Quia. Corah is a Cohathite, a grave Levite, Dathan and his colleagues men of state, Sanhedrim men, as the Vulgar latin makes them. These must not rout rashly, or challenge their Rulers for usurpers, without reason. Their {αβγδ} must have an {αβγδ}, their Contradiction, due consideration. Moses and Aaron take too much upon them, Quia, seeing that. Whats that, they see? The holinesse of the people, Gods Presence in the host: add from the verses end, they are the Lords Congregation.  
See how this subtle cunning Sophister supparasites the people; thats Ambitions fashion too ever to be popular. If Absolom will reign, he must put forth his hand, yea kiss every man he meets. Yea besides compliment, he must praise them too. Every mans cause is good: tis pity, theres no judge to hear them. Then he shall steal the hearts of all the men of Israel. The people here are holy, all holy every one of them; the Lord is among them; they are the Lords Congregation. The people all holy; and therefore they need no Bishop to be over them. God is among the people; and therefore they need no captain to conduct them, no Magistrate to govern them. They are the Congregation of the Lord; and therefore need not men to be Lords of the Congregation, neither my Lord Bishop, nor my Lord the King. Arguments as sottish, as they be seditious. Is this the {αβγδ}, the man so powerful to persuade? They must be poor fools whom such pild reasons will persuade.  
First for their holinesse. Indeed Moses before had sanctified the people at the mount Sinai. They are called an holy Nation, Exod. 19. {αβγδ} holy men. God seems to dub them Saints, in the very phrase of Kings, when they give Honours, Estote sancti, be ye holy, Levit. 19. What then? Must one that is holy, have none to be over him? May there be no Magistrate, where the people are all Saints? Saint Paul saith, Omnis anima, let every soul be subject; not all Saints onely, but all souls too, must be subject to the higher Powers. And yet by their leaves, that sanctifying of Moses, was but a preparing them to receive the Law. Moses did nought to them; that sanctifying was no more, than the washing of their clothes, and abstaining from their wives against the giving of the Law. Nor did Estote Sancti make them holy ipso facto. It was not dictum factum: God  told them, what they should be, not what they were.  
But say they were. Doth not holinesse receive magis& minus? Are there not degrees of it. Else that proud Puritan was wrong in the Prophet, Sanctior sum, quàm tu; Stand away, touch me not, I am holier than thou. Be the people holy: Moses was more, Aaron was more. God spake to Moses mouth to mouth, and shewed him his similitude: and Aaron was anointed with the holy oil. Corah, to compare with them, to match himself, or his mutinous mates with them, Moses might well answer them in their own Dialect, you take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi. And they might consider too, that the peoples holinesse was by Moses ministry. The Law, and the Oracles, Gods special holy things, the ark and the Tabernacle, they were Per manum Mosis, they had them by his hand, both his and Aarons. He lead them( David saith,) both lead, and fed them too; nor that alone, but all the holy things they had, all the holy things they did, were all by the hands of Moses and Aaron.  
Besides, Corah here equivocates, either beguiles the people, or begulls himself. The people are all holy: that is, God had chosen them above all Nations, for his peculiar people, holy unto him. But to serve in the Sanctuary, to offer on his Altars, to be the Lords Ministers in holy things, they were not holy so: not all of them, nay none of them, saying the sons of Levi. Moses denies it not directly; he lists not to altercate; nor will he exasperate the seditious multitude; but yet is plain enough. Tomorrow God will show you, who is holy, saith meek Moses. And how holy they were, Gods own censure shows, and their murmurings against God.  
But yet God was among them: Corah was right in that. For in the mids of their Tents, in the Center of their host was the holy Tabernacle, and the ark of Gods presence: There was Gods Mercyseate; and he dwelled between the Cherubims. But what then? The Quia failes there too. needs not man, where God is? May not God, and man govern together? God supreme, man under him? God needs no help in ruling men. As he made the world, so he can manage it without means. But it is his pleasure to use means. What needeth the Lord the ministery of Angels? Yet he made them ministering Spirits. God would divide the sea for the passage of his people; but by Moses Rod. God is among the people; and therefore no need of Prince or Priest over them, it might be good oratory, but the logic is bad.  
Theres an arrearage yet, piece of their grievance yet behind; twas name before, but respited. You have heard one charge, twas usurpation: Ecce autem alterum, hears a worse; tis Intrusion, Cur elevamini, Why lift you up yourselves? The Quia ws nought, it was seditious, the Cur is worse, tis Presumptuous and Calumnious. inferior Levites to rise against High Priests, and people against Princes, both against both? O tempora! Subjects to come to Magistrates, with Curs and Quares? O mores! Say, they could charge Moses and Aaron with Intrusion; must the form be Interrogative, Cur elevamini? It might have been done meekly. What a malapart and insolent language have we here? And why should you lift yourselves above the people? Not an ordinary Quare, tis not {αβγδ} why; but an imperious term, {αβγδ} whats the reason? Wee would know: so much is in the word. A right Ephorus, he must have account; they come Tribune-like, and expostulate with authority. But let the form go, come to the matter.  
Moses& Aaron are intruders; Cur elevamini, Why lift you up yourselves? A spiteful aspersion, but a false. God had advanced them both. David clears Moses, Psal. 106. Electus ejus, he saith, God choose him. And for Aaron, Paul, is his Compurgatour, Heb. 5. 4. Vocatur a Deo, he was called of God. But thats all one. spite will never say right. envy hath a tooth, two teeth, gag-teeth both. The one grows inward to gnaw itself; the other outward to gnash at others. Emulation is ill tongued, a Sycophant: tis worse, Sycophants, but accuse, they slander not; envy is a slanderer; not mordax onely, but mendax too, a false accuser, a {αβγδ}, a devil. Moses bugbeares not, intrudes not; nor doth Aaron: à Domino factum est istud, it was the Lords doing. Moses was the meekest and modestest man on earth. Conscious to his own defects, he fain would have declined the office; humbly prayed pardon once, twice, thrice of God, even till God was angry: God laid it on him, he usurped it not. And for the Priesthood, Aaron sought it not; his Consecration was Gods own command. But thats all one; Corah will take no knowledge of it: Yea, and they might remember, how great and many miracles the Lord had wrought by them, by Moses specially; and how God had graced Aaron before all the people, and honoured his offerings with his own fire from heaven. But themselves aspired to their rooms; and self-love binds the eyes, blinds the eyes of the Ambitious. Or say, they saw it, and well remembered it: yet should Ambition make conscience of a lye? Twas God lifted them both up, above their brethren. But pride is no Precision; and it is but a little he; but were it as big as a camel, it would swallow it. Cur elevamini, they are Intruders, Why lift you up yourselves?  
See how pride dares charge humility with Arrogance; 'vice challenge virtue for dishonesty. Ahab will call Elias a Troubler of Israel, when twas his Fathers house, and he that troubled it. A rout here of aspring Spirits charge Moses and Aaron with Ambition, with Intrusion. Wherefore are they come, but to rush into those rooms, which they would have them resign. Corah would be Pontifex, and Dathan would be governor. At least wise He and Abiram, and On the son of Peleth would set up a Triumvirate. Agree they as they could, Corah would be Priest alone. He joins no Levite with him in the conspiracy, for fear of a competitor. Not onely {αβγδ}, a good rhetorician, but as good a politician.  
And you the Corahs and Dathans of our Church, Vos autem non sic? Are there no {αβγδ} among Disciplinarians? Cry none of them, Cur elevamini? Surely for Moses I will not challenge them. To charge him with Intrusion, is proper to the Papists. But Bishops are Intruders. Time serves not, nor is't fit, to recite the odious Calumnies, which these Corahs casts on that holy hierarchy; Plaustra convitiorum, but mendaciorum, whole Iliads, whole Chiliads of false accusations. That worthy Archbishop Whitgift, of reverend memory, the glory of the prelacy, and Honour of this Sea, by those shameless Schemeis was in this kind abused above all others. Their terms beseem not my mouth, nor your ears.  
Now whats the Catastrophe, the Conclusion of all this? Not that which these conspirators either pretended, change of state, or intended shift of persons; buta Catastrophe indeed, a subversion of themselves, both persons and States too. All this rebellious rout, that had cried in their contumacy, Non ascendemus, we will not go up, God judged, severely judged. They that that day would not go up, God made the next day to go down, down quick, ad infernum, English that as you please. b. 32. 33.   

A SERMON PREACHED AT THE VISITATION. The second Sermon.  1 TIM. 5. 17. 
{αβγδ}.  
Let the Elders that rule well, be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine.  
IT is a necessary duty in a discreet Preacher of the Word, to have consideration of the capacity of his hearers. But being now to speak, not unto the daughter towns, to a rude and unlettered Congregation, but in the mother city, to a reverend, a wise, and a learned auditory; I hope, I shall not offend, if I shall so speak, as the regard both of you that are to hear, and of the place, from whence I come, requireth.  
The rule of the rabbis for the expounding of a Text to look {αβγδ} and 〈◇〉 〈◇〉, forward and backward, though it be behoveful often, yet it is not needful here. The Argument of my Text is so absolute within itself, that to stand upon any dependence, any reference of it to the rest of the Chapter, were but idle curiosity. The name of an Elder, and the mention of honour in my Text, might occasion me by the way to deal with the Domonstratour and Martin, with the rest of that faction: but many reasons move me to spare that labour. And indeed, the people in such places as this, being of themselves too wise and too ready in argument and questions, it behoveth the Preacher, to teach you rather duty than controversy. Now therefore, both for my better proceeding, and your more easy understanding, I divide both this Text, and my Sermon into these two general parts, the duty of Elders, and their reward, Officium& praemium, their due and their duty.  
The duty is two fold, Government and Doctrine, to be performed on the part of the elder; the reward also double, reverence& maintenance, to be performed on the part of the people. By Elders, I mean the Pastours of the Church, the Exposition not mine, but of the most and best Writers so called, not for their years; for timothy was the chief of the Elders, and the Archbishop of Ephesus, and yet he was young, c. praeced. ver. 12. but for their elderly virtues; who, as the ancient and gray-headed by their sagenesse and experience do rule and teach families and societies; so they for their gravity and knowledge, the two commendations of the aged, are set over the Church, which is Gods household, and his common wealth: partly {αβγδ}, to govern it, and partly {αβγδ}, To labour in it by Word and Doctrine, i. to teach and instruct it: even as the Magistrates of this city, are called Aldermen, i. Eldermen; not for their age, which sometimes is not so great, but because for their gravity and wisdom, they are meet to govern their several wards.  
I come now unto the several parts of my Text, and first, unto the first duty of the former part, which is government,[ The Elders which govern well] For this; being to speak in an assembly, a great part whereof is like to the noble men of Berroea in Act. Apost. able and ready to search, whether those things that are delivered, are so indeed, I may not forge any interpretation of mine own brain; but I will follow the exposition of the greater, and the sounder part, both of the ancient Fathers, and of the latter Writers; who expound this Government of the pastor, to be his guiding of the people by example of life. The Travellour ignorant of his way, useth either a director or a guide. Our life is likened in the Scripture to a way; wherein that the Christian may walk without straying, God hath ordained his Ministers, not onely to tell the way, which is the Preaching of the Word, but also to be lodesmen themselves unto the people, which is the governing of them by the integrity of their own conversation. And this Exposition is confirmed both by conference of Scripture, 1 Tim. 3. 8. and 14. Where the same word, that is here in the original, is translated to show forth good works. {αβγδ}, and also by the syriac Paraphrast; who readeth my Text thus, {αβγδ} The Elders that walk decently: so that the first point that I am to treat of, is the life of the Minister. And this may be amplified by four regards, the first is, of God: the second, of their ministry; the third, of the people; the fourth, of themselves. For the first: No Levite, that had any kind of blemish, might come near the Lords Altar, Levi. 21. pen. The shadow in a Type hath a proportionable truth in the body. The blemishes in the bodies of the Priests under the Law, were figures of the sins in the souls of the Ministers under the gospel: and as God removed them from ministering at his Altar; so he repelleth these from preaching his Word. Psal. 50. 16. What hast thou to do to preach mine Ordinances, &c. And therefore as the Levite must be {αβγδ}, without blemish, as being Gods servitor, so the Preacher must be {αβγδ} without reproof, as being Gods steward, Tit. 1. 7.  
The Ministers, are the Lords servants, and like unto the servants of Solomon, are always to stand before the face of their Lord. Now the Lords eyes cannot behold ungodliness; but as their is none unrighteousness in himself; so is his charge to all that serve about him, Estote sancti, quia ego sum sanctus. Nothing polluted may come in his sight: All things about him must be holy, Exod. 3. 5. The ground is holy. The place where he is worshipped, is Sanctuarium, and the chamber of his presence, Sanctum Sanctorum, holy of holiest. The day of his worship, it is an holy day. The persons of his worship, his Levites, they are holy, 
Exod. 31. 14.  3 Esdr. 1. 3. his Priests {αβγδ}, that is, holy, his singing men, holy, ver. 15. his vessels, holy ver. 41. and his offerings, {αβγδ}, i. holy. Every thing and person that belongeth unto him, must have that inscription, which is, Sanctus Iehovaae, holinesse to the Lord. The Ministers, they are the Lords 
Exod. 28. 36.  vessels, {αβγδ} his vessels of choice; and if they will be {αβγδ}, meet 
Act. 19. 15.  for the Lords use, 2 Tim. 2. 21. they must be {αβγδ} they must be sanctified. Their ministry is in Bethel, i. Gods House. The Heathen were wont to writ over the doors of their Temples, Phanum est, nihil ingrediatur prophaenum. To rear up spiritual idols in Bethel, to make( as Christ speaks) his Fathers house a den of thieves, to turn Bethel, the house of God, into Bethaven, the house of wickedness, it is a Ieroboams sin, Gilead a city of the Prophets, to be a city, of wickedness, O sea 6. and jerusalem the valley of Vision, to become the valley of Benhinnom, the Valley of loathsomeness, it cannot scape the burden of the Lord, Esay 22. and it will grow into a scorn and a by word, Etiam Saul inter Prophetas, if a wicked Saul shall be among Gods Prophets.  
For the second; The Ministers are the bearers of the Lords Vessells, and must therefore be clean. For the Pharisees, whose righteousness, 
Esay 52. 11.  our righteousness must exceed, if you will enter into the kingdom of heaven, had this regard, not to touch their meats and drinks which are Gods gifts, with common and unwasht hands. The Lords material Vessels, the vessels of the Sanctuary, they were holy, ut suprà, his spiritual Vessels, his Word and Sacraments are much more holy, and those that bear them before the people must be sanctified. Otherwise though man hath called them, yet the Spirit hath not called them; they are intruders and usurpers for all the Bishops orders, because Christ, the Bishop of our souls hath not ordained them: neither is it lawfuller for them, to meddle with Gods Vessells; then it was for King uzziah to burn incense on the Altar, and was smitten with leprosy for his presumption; they may not come near the Lords ark with their hand, for fear of Perets uzzah, 2 Sam. 6. no not with their eye, lest they perish, with the Bethshemites, 1 Sam. 6. It was proclaimed in the sacrifices of Ceres, {αβγδ}, Shall then in the Lords sacrifices the priest himself be {αβγδ}? The Egyptian Priests might not taste any wine, nor flamme ● Dialis among the romans might so much as touch a bean, drunkenness signified by the one, and unchaste lust by the other. Nay I shall not need to search after heathen story. Samuel that is to be the Lords Priest, and John Baptist, that is to be Gods Prophet, nay all the Lords Nazarites are interdicted the fruit of the Vine, and the touch of any unclean thing. Priesthood and prophecy, though in former ages, distinct functions, do now both concur in the ministry; and therefore he must be a double Nazarite, abstaining from all spiritual drunkenness of sin, and restraining all the whorish lusts of the flesh. And seeing his heart must be the storehouse of the Word, and his lips the deliverers of the Law, neither may the one, or the other be uncircumcised, but wickedness and corruption, as an unclean foreskin, must be cut from them both, least by their filthiness he pollute those things which God hath purified. For the Lord will not suffer pearls and holy things to be given {αβγδ}, to hogs and dogges, i. his sacred mysteries committed unto wicked men. What should a precious ston do in a wooden ring, or a ring of gold in a swines snout? What should the Scriptures, which the Psamist resembleth to gems and gold sound out of the mouth of an ungodly Minister? Saul himself, though a wicked man; yet when he prophesyeth, he is changed into another man, 1 Sam. 10. 6.  
For the third; the Pastors of Gods Church ought to be ensamples unto Christs flock, 1 Pet. 5. 3. And though it be truly said, Vivimus legibus non exemplis, and Christ biddeth the people to do as the Pharisees say, not as they do, yet the common people are of the Civilians opinion, Quod exemplo fit, jure fieri videtur. Example is a kind of warrant. Suadet loquentis vita, non oratio: Poeta▪ {αβγδ}, Menand. it is the life, not the learning of the Preacher, that persuadeth the people. sin simplo in the people, is double in the Preacher, for he offendeth both peccato and exemplo; it is both scandalum populi,& odium ministerii: even scandalum in both his senses; an offence unto the people, and a scandal to his calling.  
For the one: The Minister, as he is Christs Disciple, so he should be his follower, proving those things in his life, which he preacheth in his doctrine, that he may say unto the people, as Christ doth, not onely Praeceptum do vobis, John 13. 34 but also, Exemplum dedi vobis, ver. 15. and as Saint Paul saith to the Philippians, 3. 17. Be ye followers of me. For vitae Clericorum should be Libri laicorum, the lives of the clergy, the books of the laity, saith one of the Fathers, the conversation of the Priest, the Looking-glasse of the people. The preachers are the Lords builders, and the people are the building, 1 Cor. 3. 9. unless the life of the Minister do edify, as well as his doctrine; if he build up heaven with his voice, and hell with his life. Nazianz. he is an evil builder, and plucketh down as much with one hand, as he setteth up with the other. It is the dishonour of the wicked man, Prov. 6. 13. but it will be his honour, to speak with his feet, and to teach with his fingers, i. to walk and to do according to his own doctrine. The Preacher is a voice; so malachi calleth John Baptist, the first Preacher of the gospel: a voice, not a sound, not a dead sound, but a living voice, Viva vox, saith Bernard, i. both vita& vox; least it be said to him, that the Lacedemouian said to the Nightingale, vox es; praetereà nihil. To be short, if when the doctrine is mell, the life shall be venenum. Bern. he envenometh the people with his example; and that is another Ieroboams sin, to make Israel to sin.  
For the other, the evil life of the Minister, is the dishonour of God, and the disgrace of his ministery. For as at the sight of good works in the Preachers, the people do glorify their father, which is in heaven; so contrariwise at the view of their wicked lives, they will speak evil of the gospel, and suspect Religion to be but policy to keep men in awe; as being persuaded, that if their Doctrine were true, they would not themselves control it by their own practise; and therefore Saint Paul is earnest in the point, Rom. 2. 21. Thou that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself, &c, 1 Sam. 2. 17. There is an example. The Israelites abhor the offerings of the Lord, through the sins of the Priests, the sons of ely, and such a Minister may look for at the mouths of the people the check in the proverb, Loripedem rectus, &c. and that which is John 9. 34. Thou art altogether a sinner, teachest thou us? Quid verba audiam, cum facta videam? What should wee heed what thou preachest, when we see how thou livest?  
The fourth and last respect of themselves. The proverb is common, O di sapientem, &c. He is a bad physician that cannot cure himself. The Minister, whom neither the regard of God, whose messenger he is, neither the holinesse of his function, neither the offence of the people, will move to godliness of life, may haply be moved by that argument, by which all men are moved, the consideration of his own private good. For commonly among men, when no place either of logic or rhetoric can persuade, yet the reason drawn from Lucrum and damnum will not fail. Now the loss is of the two greatest things that man hath, the loss of his name, and the loss of his soul. For the one, {αβγδ} saith the wise Ecclesiastes, a good name, &c. for the other, the soul is valued at the worth of the whole world, Matth. 16. 26. and the praiser is he, who having ransomed so many, can best tell the value. For the first loss, the Preacher, that inveigheth against sins, whereof himself is guilty, foameth out his own shane, Iude vers. 13. and the shane is both unexcusable, Rom. 2. 1. and unavoidable, mat. 5. 14. for he is as a city set on a hill, and cannot be hide, and the eyes and ears of his people are both duly and daily observers of his life. And though the Poet say of the contrary, of private life, Benè qui latuit, benè vixit, close keeping covereth a multitude of sins; yet the Minister, as his life cannot be secret, so his shane cannot be hide. Nay, that which Plutarch said of the Prince, I may say of the Priest, {αβγδ}, ad principem ineruditum, in fine, a sin in another man, as the scar in the body, not to be seen for the garments cover it, but in the Priest, as a mole in the face, apparent to all men. For the second loss: shall he( saith Saint Bernard) that taketh the charge of other mens souls, neglect the charge of his own? For what is the box the better for the sweet ointment, or the loose liver, for the prerogative of his ministery? It doth not vantage Balaam to be a Prophet, if he will love the wages of unrighteousness. It will not boot Iudas to be Christs disciple, if he betray him. In the day of the general assize of the world, the prophesying in Christs name will not serve for an answer. Matth. 7. 22. but there shall bee a reply, and sentence together, I know you not; depart from me, &c. For God shall judge not after the Doctrine, but after the life of the Minister, and every man shall receive according to his works. That which the Iewes spake falsely of Christ, is verified of such Prophets, that though they save others, yet themselves they cannot save. For he that denounceth Gods judgements on those sins, which himself committeth, is {αβγδ}, his own condemner, Rom. 2. 1. and Christ in the last day shall say unto him, ut Luk. 19. 22. {αβγδ}. And therefore to shut up this first duty, the Elders of the Church, the Pastours of Gods flock, let them by Pauls example, 1 Cor. 9. ult. beat down their own flesh, and bring their own souls into subjection, lest when they have preached salvation unto others, themselves become reprobates.  {αβγδ}. 
The other duty is diligence in preaching, amplified by the parts, exhortation and doctrine, and enforced by the Emphasis of the trope, the word in the original signifying not ordinary labour, but such as is with great strife and earnestness, and strain of all the strength, a metaphor borrowed from the toil of rowers in Gallies. The duty containeth two points, {αβγδ}, knowledge and pains; the former without the latter is unprofitable; the latter without the former is dangerous, {αβγδ}, both must go together, the Minister must be both skilful and painful, and happy is that people, whose Elder is both {αβγδ} a Seer and {αβγδ} a Feeder: but the thrice unhappy is that Congregation, where like People, like Priest, where the Watchmen are both blind and sleepy, Esa. 56. 10. where the {αβγδ} i. the Seers, are {αβγδ} i. Dreamers; where the Preachers are both {αβγδ} and {αβγδ} i. Dumb, for ought they can say; and asleep, for ought they die. For the first of these. I will pass it over, because it is onely couched in consequence, and rather insinuated then expressed. For the other, which is pains: The people are dull, in hearing, in conceiving, in obeying; and therefore requisite the minister should be painful, even to add, Esay 28. 10. {αβγδ} line to line, &c. The attributes of the ministery in the Scriptures in this behalf are many. The office of a Bishop, it is a worthy work, 1 Tim. 3. 1. {αβγδ} 〈◇〉 Gods Apostles are labourers, 1 Cor. 3. 9. and cursed is he that doth the Lords work negligently, jer. 48. 10. it is a warfare, Num. 8. 24. it is a yoke, Phil. 4. 3. it is a watching by night, Heb. 13. and a wandring by day, Ezech. 33. it is a charge and a care, Philip. 2. and to comprise all in two titles, he is the Steward of the Lords house, and the Shepherd of his flock.  
For the first, first for the truth, it is, 1 Cor. 4. 1. secondly for the consequence, it is, 1 Pet. 4. 10. The Preachers are the Stewards of Gods graces, and therefore as they have received, so they must minister. For every Steward is Promus-Condus; Promus to lay out, as well as Condus to lay up. His chiefest quality, {αβγδ} Luk. 12. 42. to be faithful, both {αβγδ} and {αβγδ} saith an ancient Rabbin, in accepto& expenso, to give to every of his fellow servants their {αβγδ}, their demensum in due season. For if he cut them short of their portion, the Lord will cut him off, and give him his portion with unbelievers, {αβγδ}, ver. 46.  
For the other title: he is a Shepherd: the truth is plain in the correlative; for the people are called his flock: the consequence is, Ezech. 34. 2. Pastor non pasceret? Should not the Shepherd feed the flocks? The neglect of this you shall see, 1. in the heinousness of the fault, 2. in the grievousnes of the punishment. For the fault, it is the contempt of the Lord; for he that feedeth not the flock, loveth not the Lord of the flock, John ult. and it is the breach of Christs charge, who straightly enjoineth the duty, Pasce oves meas. For the punishment, the sword of the Lord shall be upon his arm, and his eye; his arm shall whither, and his eye shall be darkened in this life, Zach. 11. ult. and in the other, he shall be cast into utter darkness.  
The charge of Christ given unto Saint Peter to feed his sheep, it is tripled, first lest he should not feed then at all; secondly, lest he should do it negligently. For Gods flock must not be either starved or lean fed, they must have their {αβγδ}, luke. 12. 42. i. both {αβγδ} their meat, and {αβγδ}, their measure. The word of God is the spiritual food of the people, it is their Wheat, jer. 23. 28. it is their milk in their infancy of knowledge, and it is their meat in their greater growth in Christianity, 
Heb. 5:  so that the utter neglect of preaching the word, it is the starving of Gods flock, and a spiritual famine, Amos 8. 11. and slack and slothful preaching, it is the lean feeding. For the one, it is accursed, Prov. 11. he that hoardeth up his corn from the hungry, shall be cursed of the people, and there is a Vae, for the dumb Minister, 1 Cor. 9. 16. Woe bee to me, saith Saint Paul, if I preach not the Gospel. The bells in Aarons garment, betokened the voice of the Minister; if the sound thereof be not heard in the holy place, it is the price of the Priests life. For the other, the Minister, the Lords servant, if he be {αβγδ}, he is {αβγδ}, an evil seruant, Matth. 25. 26. and his punishment is as evil. For he is Gods messenger; and his sloth is an abomination to the Lord, Prov. 10. 26. Even as vinegar unto the teeth, and as smoke unto the eyes. For dear in the sight of the Lord, are the lives of his Saints, saith the Psalmist, jonas is careful for the Gourd,& should not God be careful for the salvation of his people? And this resemblance is exemplified in the Scriptures by two notable patterns of diligent Shepherds: The one in jacob, who regarded not either the heat of the day, or the could of the night, or the want of his sleep, Gen. 31. The other is Christ, Exemplum exemplorum, the great Shepherd of his sheep, who spent on his sheep both his time, and his life; And the like was the saying of that reverend Father and jewel of Salisbury, Oportet Episcopum mori praedicantem. A Bishop or a Minister should die preaching. To conclude this duty, an idle pastor, is an idol pastor; for whereas he should be as a Seer, so a crier; he is like the idols in the psalm, that have eyes and see not, and that have mouths, but speak not. Nay he is( as the Epigrammist speaketh) {αβγδ}, but an idol of an idol; for idols have sometimes spoken in the oracles, but the idol pastor, is like the dog, that cannot bark, saith the Prophet, he will never speak: A Iudas, i. a confessor in name, but an Iscariot, a betrayer of Christ indeed.  
To shut up this first part of my Sermon, with both the Elders duties jointly together. The {αβγδ} Col. 4. 17. the fulfilling of the ministry, the full discharge of the function, is not performed, without the coupling of {αβγδ}, 1 Tim. 4. 12. The Preacher must take heed both to himself, and to his doctrine, ibid. vers. 16. If he will be great in the kingdom of heaven, he must both {αβγδ} Matth. 5. 19. the severing of {αβγδ} and {αβγδ} is pharisaism, Matth. 23. 3. Christ will have his Disciples to be salt and to be lights; the former to season the people with their doctrine, the latter to shine unto them in their example. It is not my gloss, but Christs own comment, Matth. 5. John joineth together Olives and candlesticks, Apoc. 11. 4. both meant of Gods Prophets, the one to bear fruit, the other to bear light, and those things that God hath joined together, let no man separate.  
{αβγδ}. We have seen the first part, i. Officium, the duty. The regard whereof, as it may stay their hast, that change on the sudden their occupations into this spiritual vocation, presuming to skip even out of their shops into the sanctuary; so it ought also to stop their course, who after the unthriftie and ungodly misspending of their first yeares, do make the Bishops orders their last refuge, and presume( as we say) to leap at length into the ministry: it being a charge so hard to discharge, that job calleth such a Minister, as wee speak of, one of a thousand, job 33. 23. The second part now followeth, de praemio, of the reward of the Elder. That as we have hithertoo shown, what belongeth unto him to do, so now wee show, what belongeth unto him to have. In regard of the one, wee may say with S. Paul, {αβγδ}? what man is sufficient for those things? but of the other, {αβγδ}, what reward is sufficient for those things? The reward is( as I said in the beginning) double, countenance and maintenance. Double( you will say) is my Text, but where is maintenance? it is not expressive, but it is inclusive. For it is both couched in the original word {αβγδ}, which in the use of sundry Greek Authors, and of the scriptures too, signifieth as well recompense as reverence, and reward of stipend as well as honour. And it is also consequent of the reason in the next verse, both out of the Law, the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn must not be muzzelled, and out of the Gospel, the labourer is worthy of his wages; the places are quoted in your Margins. For the one, the word of God is the Plow of the Lord, the people the Husbandry, 1 Cor. 3. 9. The Ministers are the oxen to work both at his plow, to break up the fallow of mens hearts, and in the threshing floor, by the trampling of their feet, to tread out the corn, which was the Iewes manner of threshing; And therefore as their mouths are open for the feeding of the people, so they must not be muzzelled from feeding themselves; and by feeding under a trope, is meant all kind of maintenance. For the other, the Ministers are Gods labourers, and by due desert may claim their reward. So doth the son of sirach join both these together, 7. 31. Honour the Priests, and give them their portion.  
To speak of these two points severally and briefly; the first is reverence. The calling of the clergy, is an honourable calling. The arguments are manifold, but I will comprise the most of them under three regards, the first of God unto whom it belongeth, the second, of the office itself; the third, of the commodity redounding by it unto men.  
For the first; It is no small honour, that often groweth to the servant by the dignity of his Lord. Rabsakeh, 2 Reg. 18. 24. will have Ezekiah the king to stand in awe of the least of the servants of his master, the great King of Assyria. Now the Minister is the servant of the great God of heaven and earth; whose service kings themselves may not scorn. David is but his servant. Nay the Angels, whose glory far exceedeth the glory of kings, are but his servants. I say, the Prophets and Ministers, they are Gods servants, jer. 7. 25. they are the Lords men, 2 Reg. 1. 11. and may be called Grabriels, as well as the angel: for what is Gabriel, but {αβγδ} i. Gods man? The calling of a servant, though it be base in itself, as requiring subjection, yet it is high in regard of the Lord. The mightiest subject in a kingdom is but servant to his Prince; the Kings son may not think scorn of the name, 1 Reg. 1. 19. Salomon thy servant, i. Davids. And Deo servire, is Regia servitus, {αβγδ}( saith Numa in Plutarch) is {αβγδ}, and not onely Kings and Angels do glory in this title, as I said before, but Christ himself, whom the Apostle calleth Lord over all, as he was man, he was also Gods servant. Neither are the Ministers the lower sort of his servants to serve in inferior places: for so doth Moab serve the Lord as well as Levi, Psal. 60. 8. but it is for base uses; but they are in his service preferred to offices, offices of trust, and offices of honour. They are the stewards of his house: they are his counsellors, Amos 3. 7. They are his privy counsellors and Secretaries, 1 Cor. 4. 1. They are his ambassadors, 2 Cor. 5. 10. For what is an Apostleship, but the Lords ambassage? a title of such honour, as Christ himself disdained not to be called an Apostle, Heb. 3. 7. Nay, say but the most glorious creature that ever the Lord made, it is the angel; and the Preachers, they are the Angels of God, Malachy 2. 7.  
The second regard, is of the office of the Minister: it is to bear the Lords vessells, Esa. 52. to be Gods mouth, jer. 15. 19. Christs mouth, 2 Cor. 13. 3. {αβγδ}, the lips of Christ. The Preachers are the Ministers of the spirit, 2 Cor. 3. 6.& therefore glorious. Yea Moses whose countenance the Israelits might not behold for his glory, they are more glorious then he, ver. 8. They are masters, and therefore to bee reverenced, and they are fathers, and therefore to bee honoured, Mal. 1. 6. for they are the fathers of our faith, and the masters of the assemblies, Eccles. 12. 11. To be short, their office is to labour in the word, an honourable office. For the word is more excellent, then either gold or precious stones, job 28. then the gold of Ophir, and the precious Onyx, the sapphire, and the Topaz, yea then much fine gold, Psal. 19. and it is that precious ston, which the Merchant in the gospel bought with the sale of his whole substance.  
The last regard, but the greatest, is the profit of the ministry. Among the greatest woldlings {αβγδ} is {αβγδ}, that that is of price, is of estimation; that that is profitable is honourable. The commodities are infinite, both temporal and spiritual. For the one; the Prophets and Preachers of the Word, they are the wealth, and the strength of the Land; the wealth, as we shall show in the last part; and the strength, they are the sinews of the realm, they are as Eliseus saith of Elias, and King joash of him, the charets and the horsemen of the common wealth. For the other, the spiritual commodity, it is the greatest that can befall man, the salvation of the souls of men; valued by themselves, Mic. 6. 7. by thousands of Rams, and ten thousands of rivers of oil, nay by the fruit, nay by the first born of their own bodies: but prized by Christ( as was said in the first part) by the worth of the whole world. Hence it is, that the onely author of our salvation being Christ Iesus; the Ministers themselves in this respect, are called Christs, Psal. 105. 15. and they are called Iesus, i. Saviours, Obad. ver. ult. the saviours of their hearers, 1 Tim. 4. ult. the saviours of mens souls, james ult. ult. Nay they have Gods own name given them; they are Gods, Exod. 4. 16. Moses is Aarons God, and 7. 1. Moses is Pharaohs God. If then the Physitians of the body be honourable, Eccles. 38. 1. and as the Poet speaketh, {αβγδ}, excellent above many others; how much more are Gods Ministers to be honoured, the Physitians of the soul; of whom the Saints of the earth, entred into Christs kingdom, and become Saints in heaven, may say( as Carneades said of Chrysippus, {αβγδ}) if Gods Ministers had not been, wee had not been saved.  
To be short, to be Gods Priests, to be Gods Prophets, it is not a calling, as the world supposeth, either to be followed or to be reverenced only of the base sort, but worthy of the best,& to be honoured of the highest estates. For the one, though jeroboam, in policy, to bring religion into contempt, made Priests of the skirts, i. of the lowest of the people, 1 King. 12. 31. yet Daniel and Esay, both descended of Kings and Princes, thought not scorn to be the Lords Prophets. Melchisedech is both a King and a Priest; nay, Christ himself, in whom dwelled the Godhead bodily, was both a Prophet and Priest. The Hebrew name {αβγδ} is a name of estate, signifying a Prince, as well as a Priest; that the Translators have doubted how to call Potiphar, the Prince or the Priest of On, and jethro, the Prince or the Priest of Madian. Though it be now a dayes observed, that the sons of the noble, think the ministry a disparagement unto their birth, nay the sons of men of much lower condition, disdain the calling, as a disgrace unto their house, unless they be such as God disabled in the time of the Law, the blind, the halt and the lame. Yet to speak as Christ doth in another case, it was not so from the beginning, as you see in the forecited examples, Daniel and Esay, both of royal blood, Sem Noahs son, his best beloved son, his eldest son, at the least after the disinheriting of Cham, disdained not the Priesthood, for so the learned do take him to be Melchizedech; nay Christ, the son of God, Gods onely beloved son, Gods onely begotten son, God had no more, and yet he is a Priest.  
For the other: as the calling is high, so it is to be honoured, not onely of the common sort, but of the honourable themselves. Obadiah, the governor of the Kings house, 1 King. 18. 7. calleth Elias Lord, or if any take exception at that word; Naaman of high place in the court of the King of Aram, waiteth with his chariot and his horses, at the door of the Prophet Eliseus, 2 Reg. 5. 9. Nay Kings themselves have honoured Prophets. Herod reverenceth John the Baptist, mark 6. 20. Benhadad and Ioram, two Kings, the one of Syria, the other of Israel, call Eliseus their father. Saul accounteth Samuels company to be his countenance and his honour, 1 Sam. 15. 30. nay more than that, Nabuchodonosor the monarch of the world, falleth on his face, and boweth himself before Daniel. Chap. 2. 46. As these personages are not ordinary, so neither is the reverence due to the ministry, ordinary, the Galathians receive Saint Paul as an angel of God, yea as Iesus Christ himself, Gal. 4. 14.  
The contrary unto this, to wit, the dishonouring of the ministery; the peoples opinion of them so base, that they think them unworthy to sit at their tables; but place them among their hinds. Yea, haply they will in time, like unto Christ, thrust them to their manger to feed with their Oxen. I cannot stand upon, as being in matter as large and ample, as the other. Onely this I say of it in a word; that the disgrace of Gods Prophets, be it in word, or in deed, is always rewarded with Gods judgements. For the one; the Boyes of Bethel that scoffed at Eliseus were rent in pieces with bears, 2 King. 2. The mockers of his Messengers do hale down on their own heads, the wrath, even the remediless wrath of the Lord, 2 Chron. 36. For the disgraces done to them, the Lord accounteth them done to himself, Exod. 16. 8. For the other, Pashur smiteth and stocketh ieremy, Ierem. 20. 2. but God changeth his name, v. 3. Pashur into mogul, i. authority into fear; that is fear active into fear passive. jeroboam stretcheth out his hand against the Prophet, but his hand presently drieth up, and he cannot pull it in again, 1 King. 13. for the Lord will not have his anointed to be touched, neither his Prophets to have any harm. Psal. 105. 15. Thus much of the first reward of honour and reverence; a duty, though envied and grudged to the ministry in this age, yet due unto it, by the right both juris and aequi, both of Law, I mean, Gods Law; and of equity, as hath been declared. humility( you will haply say) beseemeth the Divine; so doth it a Prince, as well as a Prophet; but both Prince and Prophet must humble themselves; they must not be humbled of the people. For howsoever man debaseth the calling, God exalteth it; and though the Minister be in the opinion of the world, as Saint Paul saith of himself, {αβγδ}, Ephe. 3. 8 less than the lowest, yet in Christs judgement, he is {αβγδ}, greater than the greatest, Matth. 11. 11. greater than John the Baptist, who was the greatest among the sons of women.  
I come now unto the second reward, the last point of my Text, which is Maintenance; the proofs whereof for more easy order may be drawn into three heads, Gods own Commandement, the Ministers own desert, the Peoples own profit.  
For the first; for the care of the Levites, the Lord gave unto his people both Mandate and Caveate, Num. 35. 2. Command Israel, &c. Deut. 12. 19. Beware thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest. And for obedience of this commandement; the Scriptures have store of examples, I will city but onely one, and that of him, who saith of himself, exemplum dedi vobis, the example of Christ himself, who as he payed tribute unto Caesar, so he offered also his duties unto the Temple, Luk. 2. 24. This commandement of the Lord is controlled two ways by the enviers of the state of the clergy; the one by Countermaund, and other by distinction. For the first, Numb. 18. 20. Gods own charge is thus unto Aaron; thou shalt have no inheritance in the land, neither any part among the people. But the answer is easy, and the doubt onely de modo habendi. The Levits might have no part, namely hereditary, and as the other sons of jacob had in the division of Canaan; but as it there followeth, the Lord was their portion, i. those things that were to be given to the Lord, were the portion of the Levites, as being his Priests. And therefore Bernards sentence is too severe; qui partem habet in terra, non habebit in coelo. And that God is their portion, is but a silly objection, and a weak reason to show they must have nothing else. For the Lord was also Davids portion, Psal. 119. 57. and yet he had besides in great abundance the temporal commodities of this life, meet for the state of a King.  
Another charge is in the gospel, given by Christ unto the Twelve, Matth. 10. 9. forbidding them to have either gold, silver, money, shoes, change of garments, or any provision. But to whom is this charge given? not to the Apostles, but to the Disciples: and it is but for a time, and for one journey; that while he abode among them, they might have some taste of the providence of God. And what skilleth it the Disciples to have ought of their own, when God had ordained that all things should abundantly be ministered unto them of the people, Luk. 22. 35. But against the time wherein of Disciples they should become Apostles, to go abroad and preach the gospel to all Nations; and when as Christ was now to leave them; he giveth a quiter contrary charge, vers. 36. to provide themselves to have all things necessary of their own; and so they did, ut patet, Act. 4. and 5. and 6. As for the objection of the ruder sort, out of Matth. 10. 24. The Disciple is not greater then his master; and so Christ himself being poor upon earth, and having not so much as a house to put his head into; the ministers, who are but Christs servants and Disciples, should also be content with the like; it is not worth the answering; Christs speech in that place being meant not of the maintenance, but of the persecution of the Church; unto which as Christ their master, so the Apostles also in their time, and in all ages all his ministers are and have been subject.  
The second controlment of Gods commandement, concerning the maintenance of the ministry, in distinction. The enviers of the Church maintenance yield to the commandement, because they must needs; but they yield to the Minister no more then they must needs, and they themselves will be the moderators of their maintenance. The non-plus and stint shall be for food, the keeping of the life and soul together, and for clothing, the defence of the body from the injury of weather, and arraying themselves in rich and fine purple, and faring deliciously every day, 〈…〉 hair, and for his belly, Locusts and wild hony. If the Minister shall pass this, if it be in apparel, this will cry shane on his pride; if in his diet, fie on his excess, their own wardrobes and kitchens passing all fie and shane. In a word, if but a Box of ointment shall be poured on the head, though it be of Christ himself, they will cry out with Iudas, the thief and traitor, ad quid profusio haec, what needed such wast? Their own tables shall abound with the blood of the grape( as the holy Ghost speaketh, Deut. 32. 14.) and with the kidneys of the wheat, the fat of the kidneys of the wheat; i. the finest wheat flower; but the Ministers diet, for quality, must be the bread of affliction, i. course and unsavoury, and the meate of mourning, as Osea speaketh, and for quantity, his bread by weight, and his water by measure, ut Ezeck. 4. 16. If Christ will needs have wine, it shall be {αβγδ} mingled with Myrrh, Mark. 15. 23. and if the Prophets will have pottage, death shall bee in the pot, 2 King. 4. 40. But it is the Lords pleasure, that not onely it should be Bethleem, the house of bread, where Christ should be born; but that his hill shall be as the hill of Basan, i. the hill of fatness, Psal. 68. for quality, he alloweth unto Aaron, Num. 18. 12. the fat of the oil, the fat of the wine, and the fat of the wheat: and for quantity, the mansion of the Prophets shall be in Carmel, i. a field of plenty, that is, to speak without allegory, that the maintenance of the ministry should be liberal, and their allowance not to bee like to the allowance of the 100. Prophets, whom Hobadiah fed with bread and water, but that oil also be granted to their heads, and their cups overflow.  
The adversaries of this doctrine in the day of the general doom of the world, shall have the Gentiles themselves, and the heathenising Israelites stand up in judgement against them. For the poor widow of Sarepta even in the time of a great famine, gave bread and water to Elias. The Shunammite builded a chamber for the Prophet, and furnished him with all other necessaries. In the time of the anarchy and disordered state of Israel, Micah, Iud. 17. bestowed on a Levite, beside his board, and his houseroome, wages and apparel: and idolatrous jesabel feedeth 400. Prophets at her own table. In the time of the Law and levitical Priesthood, when the Levits were few, and their service but seldom, namely in their courses, their being but onely one place, when they ministered in the Temple of jerusalem; yet their maintenance was great. For which God claimed for his own tribute, all the tenths of the increase of the land, beside all the offerings and 48. cities with their suburbs; all these the Lord bestowed on the Levits his servants: so that albeit they had no portion in the division of the lands, yet their parts by reason of this was greater, then the part of any one of the 12. Tribs of Israel. And therefore now in the time of the gospel both the places of Gods service, and also the pains,& the number of Gods Ministers being increased, it is reason their maintenance should be far greater.  
Those that deny the Minister any more then will serve for his bare necessity, would haply have him both sole and single; sole to live to himself onely; and single both in his life and learning. For the one, how can he be harbourous to strangers, liberal to the poor, and bountiful to others, as they require; if he have no more then will barely serve his own uses? And how can he sustain a family; that his wife be not left a comfortless widow, and his children helpless Orphans, both she and they compelled to crave their food at the doors of the merciless, if he have no more than will serve his own person? And how shall he be able to teach, able to resist the adversary by his skill in the Scriptures, and knowledge in all manner of learning, who scarce having sufficient to feed and cloath himself, will hardly find wherewith to furnish his studies?  
The second proof, is the desert of the Minister. Which though to call into question is( as Aug. Epist. 118.) insolentissima insania, a most malapert and presumptuous madness, yet it is made a question in these repining dayes. This reason of desert is both in my Text, and also more plainly in the verse following; the labourer is worthy of his wages; and the ox that treadeth out the corn deserveth to have his mouth unmuzzled. The Minister is Gods workman, labouring in the salvation of his peoples souls, his work calleth for wages from the people, or a woe to the people, jer. 22. 13. The people( saith the Apostle) are Gods husbandry; the Ministers are both the sowers in the seedetime, and the shearers in the harvest; the cry of their hire, if it be detained will enter into the ears of the Lord, james 5. 4. The Ministers are lamps; shall the people that sit in darkness look to have them burn, and not find them oil? Shall there be Oxen where the crib is empty, Prov. 14. or will the Eagles fly thither, where there is no carcase? Matth. 24. {αβγδ} saith a Rabbin; where there is no flower, i. where there is no bread, then there is no law, i. as I said before, Christ will not be born but in Bethlehem, i. in the house of bread, i. the place of maintenance. The Ministers are Christs souldiers, and therefore to be maintained of those for whom they fight. For no man( saith the Apostle) goeth on warfare on his own charges. They are the Lords Vinedressers, and therefore to eat of the grapes, and to drink of the wine of the vineyard: they are the Lords shepherds, and therefore to be fed of the milk of the flock, 1 Cor. 9. The Ministers are Christs feet, to carry the glad tidings of the gospel, and therefore by the example of Mary in the gospel, to be washed, to be dried, yea to be anointed, and to be kissed, i. to be maintained, and that liberally, and to be honoured.  
The Pleader and counsellor are counted worthy of their fee;& the physician shall receive gifts of the King, Eccles. 38. The Ministers are our counsellors in spiritual things, the solicitors and the pleaders of the causes of their people before the Lord: they are the Physitians of our souls; so much more worthy than the other of fee and reward, by how much the possessing of our spirits in peace is more excellent than of our lands& goods,& the health of the souls of men more precious, than of their bodies. To shut up this; there is an excellent place for this, 1 Cor. 9. Those that sow spiritual things, are richly worthy to reap carnal things. Know ye not, that they which minister about the holy things, do eat of the things of the Temple: and those that wait at the Altar, are partakers with the Altar? So hath also the Lord ordained, that they which preach the gospel, should also live of the gospel. For is it a reasonable thing, that he which feedeth the Congregation with the spiritual diet of the soul, shall in the mean time himself be starved for the natural food of the body? That he which clotheth the people with the garment of Christs righteousness, shall want wherewith to cloath himself? that he shall lack the commodities of this life, by whose means, the people have an assurance of the joys of the other life? I will end this second proof with that of S. Paul, Rom. 4. 4. to him that worketh, the wages is accounted debt and duty.  
The last proof, is the peoples own profit, and it is two fold, both in spiritual and in temporal things. simony and usury, two abominations of the Lord, are notwithstanding very lawful here. For the people maintaining him with their temporal things, of whom they receive spiritual things, do( as it were) buy the holy Ghost for their worldly Mammon, and exchange not( as Glaucus and Diomedes did) {αβγδ}, brass for gold, but earth for heaven And for usury, whereas among the most gripping money-mongers, the loan is always less than the principal; here the interest is sevenfold, Eccles. 35. 11. First for spiritual things, the maintenance of the ministry, returneth by the preaching of the Word, and the administration of the Sacraments, commodities both in number, more, than may easily be reckoned, and in value greater, than that all the temporal goods of man may countervail the least. For the kingdom of heaven, i. the gospel preached is that precious pearl, which a rich Merchant, before he could buy it, was fain to sell all that he had. The illumination of our mindes, to know God, to see our own wickedness; the grace of the holy Ghost, to behold, to bewail, to loathe, to leave our sins, the renewing of the Image of God, our second birth unto righteousness and true holinesse, the comfort of our souls, and peace of our consciences, by assurance of forgiveness of sins, and reconcilement with God, faith in a Saviour, hope and expectation to be citizens with the Saints, and of the household of God, love of our fellow members in Christ, and a thousand more like unto these, are the spiritual profits which redound unto the people. The second profit is in temporal things, the eye-marke of the world. Peace and prosperity are the handmaids of the gospel, length of dayes are in her right hand, Prov. 3. and in her left hand riches and honour. The foolish worldling is of Iudas opinion; that that which is given to Christ, it is {αβγδ}, it is loss. Whereas indeed that which is allowed to the Minister, is lent unto the Lord, and returneth unto the lender his own with advantage: and to bestow liberally on the Levite, is not profundere, but serere, it is not to spend, but to sow, and the seedsman shalbe sure to reap a plentiful harvest, Mal. 1. 13. the gift of the people is with grudging and murmuring, they take themselves to be undone by their contribution to God and his Priests, and therefore their offerings they are little and nought; but they are accursed, ver. prox. In the time of Hagga●e the Prophet, Chap. 1. the people sow much, but reap little; they eat, but are not satisfied, they drink, but are not filled, they cloath themselves, but are not warm, they earn wages, but they put it into a bottomless and a broken bag, they expect much, but receive little, and whatsoever they bring home, the Lord bloweth upon it, and it perisheth; the reason is there rendered by God himself, because every man regardeth his own house, and leaveth the house of the Lord wast and unprovided. But what saith Micah, judge. 17. 13. Now I know the Lord will bless me, because I have entertained a Levite; and his opinion is true; for he that receiveth an Apostle, receiveth him that sent him, who is Christ himself, and if he that giveth unto Christs messenger but a cup of water, shall not lose his reward; the liberal entertainment of Gods Minister how bountifully shall the Lord recompense it. The widow of Sarepta and the Shunammite for sustaining Gods Prophets, the one being barren obtained a son of the Lord, and both of them have their dead children raised to life. The Lord blessed ob Edom, 2 Sam. 6. and all his family for the houseroome of his ark. Be it little, or be it much, that the Lord hath given thee; grudge not Gods Minister his portion. Behold the Macedonians, 2 Cor. 8. 3. whose liberality was not onely {αβγδ}, but also {αβγδ}, beyond their ability. Nay see thou serve him before thyself, and before thy household. The poor widow of Sarepta, hath but one handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse, no more than will serve for once to dress for her son and for herself, and then to die; and yet Elias must be served first; and the Lord blesseth her meal and her oil, and it is not a whit lessened for the Prophet, but increased until the time of a new supply. For the Lord blesseth the store and the basket of the maintainers of his Ministers, and their liberality will turn into their own bosom. To conclude this, the Ministers maintenance is so far from impoverishing his people, that he is unto them, as jacob was unto Laban, and joseph unto Potiphar and all Egypt.  
The contrary to this, is the robbing of the Church, a sin to common in this age; in which( as it was said in Neroes dayes) parks are made of Parishes: and not sparrows and swallows( as in Davids time, Psal. 84. but owls, Beasts, and cattle are in Gods house, and men of wealth and of power, instead of being Church pillars, i. upholders of Churches and Church-men, are Church-peelers, i. robbers of Churches and Churchmen, and whereas the zeal of Gods house should eat them up, Psal. 69. their zeal eateth up Gods house; who account it vain superfluity for the house of God to be seeled with Cedar, or Christs head to be anointed with spikenard. To such I say but this; first for hypocrisy; abhorrest thou Idols, and yet committest sacrilege? Rom. 2. 22. i. hatest thou papistry, and yet robbest the Church? Doth the Images offend thee, painted in the glass, and yet pullest thou the head from the roof, and the stones from the walls? Art thou a reformer of Religion, and yet both holdest and maintainest Impropirations? In a word, art thou a disputer for a presbytery, and yet yieldest not the double honour unto the Elder? Secondly, for wrong, it was one of Solons laws, that which thou hast not laid down, take not up: the Ministers bread, it is panis {αβγδ} the show bread, or bread of appearance, because it stood before the Lord; no man may eat it, but the Priest, Matth. 12. Lastly for vengeance, the goods of the Church are called of the grecians {αβγδ}, beware of meddling with {αβγδ} for fear of {αβγδ}. Balthasar drunk but once in the Vessels of the Temple; but it cost him both his kingdom and his life. For they that take the Lords possessions, to their possessions, shal perish like Oreb and Zeb, like Zebah and Zalmunnah, Psal. ●3. yea they shall be like the dung of the earth, ver. 10. For to devour the thing sanctified it is a snare, Pro. 20. 25. thou hast swallowed a hook with the bait, spit it out again; least satan strike the angle and thou be strangled. To conclude, ager ecclesiae must not be touched; Aceldama est, it is the field of blood.  
For both together; doth any man, observing either the reverence of the Minister, cry out, it is {αβγδ}, it is too much; or his maintenance, it is {αβγδ}, it is too much? Let him hear what Saint Paul requireth of the Thessalonians, 1 Thes. 5. 13. The love of the people toward their preacher, it must be {αβγδ}, more than too much.   

SERMONS PREACHED AT THE VISITATION. The second Sermon.  ZACH. 11. ult. 
Vae Pastori Idolo.  
Woe be to the idol Shepherd.  
I Take it needless to stand upon the context, the words being absolute within themselves. They are three in number; the first, Gods curse denounced; the second, the person against whom: the third, the reason why, Woe be to the Shepherd that is an idol. What woe? The sword of God upon his arm and upon his eye. What shepherd? The priest, prophet, the pastor of Gods people: whom as Christ made his Disciples of Fishermen, Men-fishers, Mark. 1. 17. so the Lord made them shepherds, not of cattle, but of men. The woe is first in place: but because God doth not execute it, till man doth deserve it, it must bee last in treatise. The person is next, the shepherd, i. the minister; the metaphor is known, and therefore I pass over it. The reason is last; the trope not so usual, and the argument fitting our times; and this assembly: and therefore I will stand upon it. Woe be unto the idol Pastor. The consideration of the judgement in the same verse, the withering of the arm, and the dimness of the eye, expoundeth the double default in the minister, couched in the trope; the one in life, the other in knowledge. For the arm with the hand is the chief instrument of action;& the eye the light of the whole body. The shepherd of Gods flock, if his eye be dim, that he want knowledge to instruct his sheep; and if his arm be lame, that his own practise shall not direct his flock in the ways of God: then what doth he differ from the Idols in the psalm, that have eyes, but see not, hands and arms, but use them not? and therefore such a pastor worthily termed, an idol shepherd. The Prophet and Preacher as he is {αβγδ} a shepherd, so he must be {αβγδ} a seer, 1 Sam. 9. 9. and so needeth an eye; and that eye is knowledge: and his staff a sheepe-hook must rule the flock, and so needeth an arm; and that arm is the sway of his own life. As Timothy so every minister must be a pattern to his people, {αβγδ} both in doctrine and in conversation, 1 Tim. 4. 12. that as Gedeons Souldiers, Iud. 7. were armed with lamps in their left hands, and trumpets in their right; so Christs souldiers be furnished, being as Theodoret in Aporis in Iude applieth it, both {αβγδ}, and {αβγδ}, the lamps of their lives, and the trumpets of their voices. Saint Paul that biddeth the Preacher {αβγδ}, 2 Tim. to cut the word aright, biddeth also {αβγδ}, Gal. 2. to square his life aright: to look both to his doctrine, and to himself, 1 Tim. 4. If his eye be dim, he is {αβγδ}, a blind leader of the blind, and both sheep and shepherd do fall together, Matth. 15. If his arm be withered, like Ieroboams arm; he will use his people, as jeroboam did his: he will not set up, but himself will be an idol in Bethel, i. in Gods house, and will make Gods Israel to sin. You see the Trope affordeth two common places, one of the learning, another of the life of the minister, as in Davids time, the blind and the lame, i. the Idols might not enter into Gods house then; so the blind and lame shepherd, i. the Idoll-shepherd is not to enter into Gods house now; for as Anaxiphus said of Philosophers, Nihil Philosophis {αβγδ}, so I may say of such, nihil Theologis {αβγδ}. I will speak of them severally and briefly.  
First for the eye; the theme is ample, but I must be short; I will therefore reduce it unto three respects; the quality of the calling; the weakness of the people: and the strength of the adversary.  
For the first: Plato writeth that the Egyptians choose always their Priests out of the colleges of Philosophers. The high Priest in the old Law, wore urim on his breast, and bells on his skirts; light signified by the one, and sound by the other. The light of the body is the eye; and if the eye be dark( saith Christ) how great is that darkness? The light of the soul is the understanding, the light of the understanding is knowledge; and where it is wanting, what is there else, but a foggy and palpable mist, nay a total eclipse of all reason and judgement? The sound of the bells is the preaching voice of the minister; who if he be empty, the sound is hollow, and himself no better then sounding brass, or a trinkling Cimball; and as the Lacedaemonian said of the Nightingale, {αβγδ}, nothing but a voice. The Minister is the interpreter of the Law, Luk. 11. 52. how shall he interpret that he understandeth not? and himself wanting the key of knowledge, how shall he open to others the kingdom of Christ? The Prophet is both {αβγδ} a seer and {αβγδ} a crier, Esa. 40. 3. but a seer first, as good he want his tongue to cry▪ as his eye to see. God hath set him as a watchman in the tower of his Church, Ez●●. 3. and it is no office for a blind man. Nay though he have an eye, if it be dim; he will not serve for such a place. For he standeth on high to look a far off, and therefore must not bee like the seer in the Gospel, that could not discern between a man and a three, mark. 8. 24. A great part of the ministry in this land, is either ston▪ blind, or sand-blind; either beetles and moles, quiter without sight, or tender-eyed owls, seeing onely in the dark; either utterly void of all manner of learning, or having onely a little twilight of knowledge. The two universities, the very eyes of the realm, as sometime Demosthenes called Athens, {αβγδ} the eye of Greece, being so well able to furnish Gods flock with seeing shepherds▪ our Church is little beholding to her patrons for preferring to the regiment of her flock so many unlettered and unsufficient Priests, either idols or idols fellowes; whose eyes have either a film grown over them, that they see nothing, or a pin and web in them that they see but little. And these are the men, whose tongues fiery indeed, like the Apostles Act. 2. but not cloven; that is, zealous but not learned, preach against learning, pull down the prelacy to rear up a presbytery, bray forth intemperate censures against the lawful ceremonies of our Church, as being superstitious, and the dregs and relics of popery; the kneeling at the Sacrament, the repetition of certain prayers in our liturgy, the singing of Service and the sound of the organ in colleges and Collegiat Churches, the square Cap and surplice, the painted windows, marrying with the Ring, and christenings with the cross and such like; in some of which, were our Prelates as courageous, as our puritans are presumptuous; they would be either enforced to order, or turned out of orders. The office of the minister, it is to teach; Saint Paul will have him {αβγδ}: and can he teach others, who himself is untaught? Shall he bee prius imperitorum magister, quàm doctorum discipulus, Hieron. a master to the ignorant, before he be scholar to the learned. Preaching is the chiefest practise of Gods prophet; but {αβγδ}, Clem. learning is the signior, and practise is the puny; wee must bee learners, before wee bee teachers. Though ●sis Image was carried on an Asses back to bee worshipped, Isidis effigiem tardus gestabat asellus; yet Gods name and his vessells must not be born by unlettered men. The ark indeed was drawn by Oxen▪ 2 Sam. 6. 6. but not without both danger to itself, by the stumbling of the beasts, and death unto Huzzah in staying the cart. And let not the Patrons of Church livings think Oxen and Asses fit to bee employed about Gods ark his Church. To shut up this first respect; the Preachers are called the Angels of the Churches, Apoc. 1. ult. and Angels are called {αβγδ}, of their manifold knowledge. Their duty is to minister a word in time, and must therefore have the tongues of the learned, Esay 50. they are physitians, and must therefore have skill, jer. 8. ult. they are the oracles of the people, Mal. 2. 7. and must therefore be able to answer all questions. And therefore as Herodotus writeth, that Croesus son speaking, and being but an infant, was divined to signify the fall of his Fathers house and kingdom: so the people to have infant-preachers to speak among them, pulleth down Gods house and Christs kingdom.  
For the other two, I will speak but a word of each. The one is the weakness of the people. Christianity peregrinatio est, militia est, it is a waifaring, it is a warfaring: the Minister {αβγδ} a guide and {αβγδ} a captain. The people are as straying sheep▪ their home is Heaven; they knowing not the way; if the shepherd be an idol, and cannot guide them; satan as a wolf and a Lion, cometh roaring between them and home, and carrieth both pastor and People for a prey together unto his den. The People are as new pressed souldiers; ignorant of all the feats of spiritual war. If the Preacher, as their captain, cannot train them, and teach them the use of their weapons, both defensive, the helmet of Salvation, and the shield of Faith, Ephes. 6. 16. and offensive, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; and acquaint them with the stratagems of the enemy; I cannot stand to follow the allegory; the fiery darts of the adversary being not quenched, the Dragon and his Angels will prevail over them. The people are blind, they must have a leader, Rom. 2. they are in darkness, the Preacher must be their light: they want discretion, they must have {αβγδ} an instructor: they are unlearned, and must have {αβγδ} a teacher. The Church is a field, the Ministers are clouds, the preaching of the word, is the watering of the ground with the due, with the rain. If the clouds shall be {αβγδ}, Iude 12. the soil must needs be barren. To end this, if the shepherd shall be an idol, then the heathen saying shall be true, {αβγδ}, and Christs saying shall be false, the Disciple is not above his Master.  
The third and last respect is the strength of the adversary. The people is Gods building, 1 Cor. 3. 9. the adversary both spiritual and carnal is as ready to pull down, as the minister to set up: and so the Preacher must be like the builders in the fourth of Nehemiah 17. their work in one hand, and a sword in the other. The spiritual enemy, satan, is an ancient and subtle sophister, and will prevail in his temptations, if the preacher be not able to find out his Elenches. The carnal enemy the Papist, he careth not for Calvin and Beza; he hath made himself strong with the arts, with the tongues, with the fathers, with the schoolmen, with all sorts of learning; and the Minister that is to stand against all assaults, must be able to entertain every enemy in his own kind; least while the invader be stronger in assault, then the defender in resistance, the people be forced to yield themselves, and to turn from truth unto heresy.  
Thus much shall suffice for the shepherds eye. I come now unto his arm. It behoveth the Preacher to be, as Achilles Father would have his son, {αβγδ}, he that will be, as the people esteemed John Baptist, Mar. 11. 32. {αβγδ}, a Prophet indeed, must be {αβγδ} as well {αβγδ}, as was Christ himself the chief shepherd of the sheep. Our sense is soon deceived. Thomas would not believe that he heard, till he saw that he doubted of. Let the life of the Minister so jump with his learning that the people may say, as the Psalmist doth, psalm 48. {αβγδ} as we have heard, so we have seen. His conversation must so exemplify his doctrine, that according to the phrase of the Spirit, Exo. 20. 18. {αβγδ}, and Apoc. 1. 12. {αβγδ}, the people may see the preachers voice. This argument also is long, and I must be short, and therefore I will draw it into four heads or regards; the first of God, the second of their ministry; the third of the people, and the fourth of themselves.  
For the first. No Levite that had any kind of blemish might come near the Lords Altar Levit. 21.[ The shadow in a type hath a proportionable truth in the body,] The blemishes in the bodies of the Priests under the law, were figures of the sins in the souls of the Ministers under the gospel; and as God removed them from ministering at his Altar, so he repelleth these from preaching his word, Psal. 50. 16. What hast thou to do to Preach mine ordinance, &c. And therefore as the Levite must be {αβγδ} without blemish, as being Gods servitor; so the Preacher must be {αβγδ} without reproof, as being Gods Steward. Titus 1. 7. The Ministers are the Lords Servants; and like unto the servants of Solomon in the queen of Sabaes speech, are always to stand before the face of their Lord. Now the Lords eyes cannot behold ungodliness; but as there is no unrighteousness in himself; so is his charge to all that serve about him, ●stote sancti, qua ego sum sanctus. Nothing polluted may come in his sight. All things about him must be holy. Exod. 3. 5. The ground is holy; the place where he is worshipped, is sanctuarium, and his chamber of presence, Sanctum sanctorum, the holy of holiest. The day of his worship, it is an holy day. Exod. 31. The Persons of his worship, his Levites, they are holy, 3 Esd. 1. his priests, {αβγδ}, i. holy, his singing men holy, ibid. ver. 15. his vessels holy, ver. 41. and his offerings {αβγδ}, i. holy. Every thing and person belonging unto him, must have that inscription, which is Ex. 28. 36. Sanctitas Iehovoe, Holynes to the Lord. The Ministers are the Lords vessels, Act. 19. 15. {αβγδ} his vessels of choice, and if they will be {αβγδ} meet for the Lords use, 2 Tim. 2. 21. they must be {αβγδ}, they must be sanctified. Their ministry is in Bethel. i. in Gods house. The heathen were wont to writ over the doors of their temples, Phanum est, nihil ingrediatur prophanum. To rear up spiritual idols in Bethel; to make( as Christ speaketh) his Fathers house a den of thieves; to turn Bethel, the house of God, into Bethaven, the house of wickedness, it is a Ieroboams sin: Gilead a City of the Prophets, to be a city of wickedness, Hosea 6. and jerusalem the valley of vision, to become the valley of Benhinnom, the valley of loathsomeness, it cannot scape the burden of the Lord. And it will grow into a scorn and a byword, Etiam Saul inter prophetas; if a wicked man shall be among Gods Prophets.  
For the second. The Ministers are the bearers of the Lords vessels, and must therefore be clean, Esa. 52. For the Pharisees, whose righteousness we must exceed, if we will enter into the kingdom of Heaven, had this regard, not to touch their meats and drink, which are Gods gifts, with common and unwasht hands. The Lords material vessels, the vessels of the sanctuary, they were holy, ut supra: his spiritual vessels, his word and sacraments, are much more holy: and those that bear them before the people, must be sanctified. Otherwise though man hath called them, yet the spirit hath not called them: they are intruders and usurpers for all the Bishops orders: because Christ the Bishop of our souls hath not ordained them: neither is it lawfuller for them to meddle with Gods vessels, then it was for King uzziah to burn incense on the Altar, and was smitten with leprosy for his presumption. They may not come near the Lords ark with their hands, for fear of Perets Huzzah, 2 Sam. 6. no not with their eye, lest they perish with the Bethshemites, 1 Sam. 6. It was proclaimed in the sacrifices of Ceres {αβγδ}. Shall then in the Lords sacrifices the Priest himself be {αβγδ}? The Egyptian priests might not taste any wine, nor the Flamen Dialis among the romans might so much as touch a bean; drunkenness signified by the one, and unchaste lust by the other. Nay I shall not need to search after heathen story. Samuel that was to be the Lords Priest, and John Baptist, that was to be Gods prophet, nay all the Lords Nazarites, were interdicted the fruit of the vine, and the touch of any unclean thing. priesthood and prophesy, though in former ages distinct functions, do now both concur in the Minister, and therefore he must be a double Nazarite, abstaining from all spiritual drunkenness of sin, and restraining all the whorish lusts of the flesh. And seeing his heart must be the storehouse of the word, and his lips the deliverers of the law; neither may the one, nor the other be uncircumcised; but wickedness and corruption, as an unclean foreskin, must be cut from them both, lest by their filthiness he pollute those things which God hath purified. For the Lord will not suffer pearls and holy things to be given {αβγδ} to hogs and dogs, i. his sacred mysteries committed unto wicked men. What should a precious ston do in a wooden ring, or a ring of Gold in a swines snout? What should the Scriptures, which the Psalmist resembleth to gems and Gold, sound out of the mouth of an ungodly Minister. Saul himself though a wicked man, yet when he prophesyeth; he is changed into an other man, 1 Sam. 10 6.  
For the third; the Pastors of Gods Church ought to be ensamples unto Christs flock, 1 Pet. 5. And though it be truly said, vivimus legibus non exemplis, and Christ biddeth the people to do as the pharisees say, not as they do; yet the most part of men are of the Civilians opinion, Quod exemplo fit, jure fieri videtur, example is a kind of warrant. Suadet loguentis vita non oratio, saith the poet, {αβγδ}, Menand. it is the life, not the learning of the preacher, that persuadeth the people. sin, single in the people, is double in the preacher; for he offendeth both peccato& exemplo, it is both scandalum populi,& odium ministerii, even scandalum in both his senses, an offence to the people, and a slander to his calling. For the one, the minister, as he is Christs Disciple, so he should be his follower; proving those things by his life, which he preacheth by his doctrine; that he may say unto the people, as Christ doth, not onely, Praeceptum do vobis, John, 13. 34. but also exemplum dedi vobis, ibid. ver. 15. And as Saint Paul saith to the Philippians, be ye followers of me. For vitae Clericorum should be Libri laicorum; the lives of the clergy, the books of the laity, the conversation of the Priest, the looking-glasse of the People. The Preachers are the Lords builders, and the people are the building, 1 Cor. 3. 9. unless the life of the minister, do edify as well as his doctrine, if he build up heaven with his voice, and hell with his life, saith Nazianzen; he is an evil builder, and plucketh down as much with the one hand, as he setteth up with the other. Nay he shall not convict so many with an hundred of his Sermons, as he shall pervert with one of his wicked actions. It is the dishonour of the wicked man, Prov. 6. 13. but it will be his honour to speak with his feet, and to teach with his fingers. i. to walk and to do according to his own doctrine, Secerdotis as, mens, manusque concordent. Hier. ad Nepotianum. To be short, if when the doctrine is mell, the life shall be venenum, Bern. He envenometh the people with his example; and that is an other Ieroboams sin, To make Israel to sin. For the other; the evil life of the Minister is the dishonour of God, and the disgrace of his ministery. For as at the sight of good works in the Preachers, the people do glorify their Father which is in heaven: so contrariwise at the view of their wicked lives, they will speak evil of the gospel, and suspect Religion to be but policy to keep men in awe; as being persuaded, that if their doctrine were true, they would not themselves control it by their own practise, and therefore Saint Paul is earnest in this point, Rom. 2. 21. Thou that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself, &c. 1 Sam. 2. There is an example; the Israelites abhor the offerings of the Lord, through the sins of the Priests, the sons of Ely. And such a Minister may look for at the mouths of the people the check in the proverb, Loripedem rectus, and that which is, joh. 9. 34. Thou that art altogether a sinner, teachest thou us. As it was objected unto Plato, Aliter loqueris, aliter vivis, so it will be unto him. Quid verba audiam, cum facta videam, what should wee heed what thou preachest, when we see how thou livest?  
The fourth and last respect is of themselves. The Minister, whom neither the regard of God, whose messenger he is, neither the holinesse of his function, neither the offence of the people will move to godliness of life, may haply be moved by that argument, by which all men are moved, the consideration of his own private good. For commonly among men, when no place either of logic or rhetoric will persuade; yet the reason drawn from Lucrum& damnum will not fail. Now the loss is of the two greatest things that man hath, the loss of his name, and the loss of his soul. For the one, {αβγδ} saith the wise Ecclesiastes, A good name, &c. For the other the soul is valued at the worth of the whole world, Math. 16. 26. and the priser is he, who having ransomed so many, can best tell the value. For the first loss; the Preacher that inveigheth against sins, whereof himself is guilty, foameth out his own shane, Iude ver. 13. and the shane is both unexcusable, Rom. 2. 1. and unavoidable, Matth. 5. For he is as a city set on a hill, and can not be hid; the eyes and ears of his people are both duly and daily observers of his life; and though the Poet say of the contrary, of private life, Benè qui latuit, benè vixit, close keeping covereth a multitude of sins; yet the Minister, as his life can not be secret, so his shane can not be hide. For the second loss. Shall he, saith Bernard, that taketh the charge of other mens souls, neglect the charge of his own? For what is the box the better for the sweet ointment, or the loose liver for the prerogative of his ministery? It doth not vantage Balaam to be a Prophet, if he will love the wages of unrighteousness. It will not boot Iudas to be Christs disciple? if he betray him. In the day of the general assize of the world; the prophesying in Christs name will not serve for an answer, Matth. 7. but there shall be a reply and a sentence together; Depart from me, &c. For God shall not judge after the doctrine, but after the life of the Minister; and every man shall receive according to his works. That which the Iewes spake falsely of Christ, is verified of these men, that though they save others, yet themselves they can not save. For he● that denounceth Gods judgements on those sins, which himself committeth, is {αβγδ}, his own condemner, Rom. 2. And Christ in the last day shall say unto him, Luke 19. 22. Ex ore tuo judicabo te, Out of thy own mouth will I judge thee. And therefore to shut up this point also; the Shepherds of Gods flock, let them by Saint Pauls example, 1 Cor. 9. ult. Beat down their own flesh, and bring their own souls in subjection, lest when they have preached salvation unto others, themselves be found reprobates.   

SERMONS PREACHED AT THE VISITATION. The third Sermon.  1 COR. 14. 40. Let all things be done Decently and in Order. 
IT is a brief Canon touching the whole sum of all that went before in three ample Chapters, the 11. the 12. and this. There are three general rules to direct all our actions, especially in the Church, contained all in this Epistle: Two concern their end; that God be glorified, Chap. 10. 31. that men be edified, ver. 26. of this Chapter. This third prescribes the form, they must be Comely, and in Order. {αβγδ} is in all. But the extent of the term not equal in them all. The second toucheth spiritual gifts onely, prophecy and Tongues. The first all actions of our life. This third all in the Church. decency indeed, and Order too, have their object infinite; they are the beauty of all Creatures, of all Actions, of all Things. But here Church-actions are meant onely: and not all they neither; but Tria sunt omnia, three are the all here specified; the habit of Christians of both sexes in the Assemblies; the Celebration of Christs Supper; and the use of spiritual gifts. My Theme then at this time, as this instant occasioneth, is Decorum Ecclesiasticum, the comeliness, and order of Church-actions. What is the Fiat, that Paul craves, wee should do; and consequently the Fieri facias, that the Bishop must see done? It is Ordo& Ho●estum, comeliness and Order, thats the( Quid) Wherein? In all things, Omnia, Let all things; thats the( In Quo.) Of these two, Gods holy Spirit enable me to speak, decently, and in order.  
Shall I not break Order and Decorum both, to speak of decency and Order first, being the last words of my Text? I hope, I shall not. Tis fit, Quid go before In quo: fit, we first consider, What Paul craves; and then Wherein. The Requisites are two. Shall I take them both together? thats against order too. Distinct subjects would be handled severally. But shall I sever sisters? They are Individuae, not Comites, but Charites, inseparable graces, both bread from above. Species& ordo à Deo, saith Saint Augustine, Gods daughters both. What say I sisters? They are twins. They are {αβγδ}, not Iupiters geminy, but Iehovahs twins. Shall I sever twins?  
comeliness and Order, aimed at in all things both by God, and man. In them, them both God made the world; in them, them both he governs it. They Christend the world {αβγδ}, i. beauty. But for them it had been {αβγδ}, voided of all ornament; Tohu& Bohu, confuse and vast; Moles rudis indigestáque, neither composed into form, nor disposed into parts; a Chaos, an uncomely, and disordered lump. look both on heaven and earth: see comeliness in their fabric, and Order in their site. Yea both in every creature. How glorious are the Angells? And there are Orders of them too. stars have their lustre, and their several spheres. Nay Gods self, the creator is heautifull in both. Decorem induit, David saith, Psal. 92. he is clad with comeliness, for his substance; and there is Order in the Persons. Though none be after, or afore an other, greater or less than other; yet is the Second, son unto the First, and the Third proceeds from both. Nor are these graces, heavens Prerogative: the smallest and vilest creature hath them both. And for man; Kings in the Common-wealth, Bishops in the Church, require them both. Their selves consist, both sceptre and mitre are preserved by them. Statutes and Constitutions, both clergy laws, and Lay, look all at them, look at them both. Nor look at them alone, bid onely with Paul here, Fiat, let it be: but also, that it be. Iudges and Iustices by Inquests, Bishops and Archdeacons by inquiries are continually solicitous, that all things be done every where Decently, and in Order.  
Must I yet needs sever them for Order sake? First then for comeliness by itself, lay the Fiat to it first. The Church is the Sanctuary, that is, the holy place. There ought indeed be comeliness in all places. But in the house of Prayer, hallowed for sacred uses, it ought to be especially.[ Moses, an holy person, must not stand shodd on holy ground] Let all things be decent in the Church, if but for the place sake; it is the Sanctuary. It should be Schola Decori Clem. Rom. lib. 8. c. 31. The Priests deportment decent there; the same gesture becomes not the Pulpit, and the Stage: and the peoples demeanour decent too; {αβγδ}, Chrysost. They are not so to come to the Church, as to a Play-house. The business there is holy: and as Moses bad in civill things, Exequere justum justè, Execute Iustice justly; so in holy business, Quod sanctum est, sanctè peragatur, saith Saint Ambrose, Let holy things be done holily. Christ expelled the profane people out of the holy place. His ground was, that the Temple was called the House of Prayer.  
Nor the House of Prayer onely; so were many among the Heathens. Their idols had their Oratories. But our Temples are Gods House. Phanum est; was written over the porches of their Temples, Much more it should be over ours, Phanum est; nihil ingrediatur Prophanum; this is an hallowed place; come no profane thing here. Theres a peculiar {αβγδ}, a special behaviour that beseems Gods House.  
Nor is it Gods House onely. Many have houses which they dwell not in; but onely retire to them sometimes for ease. But the Church is Gods Mansion, the place of his Residence, his personal Presence. But in the Presence▪ Chamber of a King, what care is there, all things be comely. No subject must be covered there. The Church is more, more than the presence: God is there in Person. A right Bethel, as jacob called the place of his Vision. As he was, so must wee be; {αβγδ} he was afraid. Surely, saith jacob, the Lord is in this place. His eyes can not behold any uncomely thing. Decor in domo ejus, saith David in the psalm, beauty and comeliness are in his S●●ctuarie.  
Were it but for the Angells onely, twere argument enough. They are present there. And tis Saint Pauls own Reason, that womens heads be covered, Propter▪ Angelos, because of the Angells. They are pure spirits; do no impure thing before them. Nay were it but for our brethren sakes, Saints on earth. Let every man reverence his brother, as Gods Saint. He ought in charity to hold him so. Let him not do ought, that is unseemly, no not in his sight. Nor for our brethren onely, but even for them, that are without, Aliens yet from God: to win them also to the Faith, if no believers; to the truth, if wrong believers. For comeliness is lovely; {αβγδ} hath the name of alluring the beholder.  
I should say somewhat severally for Order too; {αβγδ}( saith Xenophon) {αβγδ}, a thing excelling all things both for use and grace: Natures beauty, Arts Ornament; Ordinatum omne pulchrum, Aug. de vera relic. cap. 41. the worlds harmony {αβγδ}, the life and soul of all common life; which where it is, there is Discipline and Peace; tis Saint Ambrose gloss upon my Text. Which where it is not, there is that {αβγδ}. ver. 33. trouble and disorder. Which where it is, there goes withall( saith james) {αβγδ}, every evil work. Heaven and earth honour it; it is in all things in them both. Onely in hell, where is Sempiternus horror, there is Nullus Ordo, job 10. Where darkness and death are, and everlasting horror, there no Order is. Tis fit Pauls Fiat be observed for it every where; but mostly in the Church. For it is {αβγδ}, the school of Order. Clemens saith out of the Apostles Constitutions. There would be no tumult, no confusion there.  
To end this first part; that both Priest and people follow Saint Pauls Fiat in both these Requisites; the Church hath invested the Bishop with authority, to see to the performance. Not the Bishop onely, but the Archdeacon too; Seers both, eyes both; Archdeacon the Bishops eye, so called in Canon Law, and the Bishop Gods eye. An argument of the great necessity of the duties, which needed so many eyes to see them done. The Priest himself, every private Minister a Seer too. Seer, what seest thou? saith God to the Prophet. But because he is a party, lest he should oversee; the Church hath charged others to oversee the Priest; especially the Bishop; who hath his name of it, {αβγδ}, a Bishop, that is, an Overseer. Tis time wee leave the Quid, what duty Paul craves of us; and come to the In quo, wherein he requireth it.  
The object is Omnia, Let all things, saith the Apostle. An object infinite, if left loose to itself. For what thing is not in all things? Yea confined to the Requisites, tis too ample still. The rule runs out, and reaches to all actions in the world. But the Apostle meant it but a Church-Canon here; and tis large enough so too. By your reverend leaves, I will bind it to those bounds, Church-actions onely, and but some few of those.  
Gods Church in this Land( Gods name be blessed for it) is {αβγδ}, well ordered and settled. The reverend memories of our two last deceased Archbishops be honour●● for it too. Long may their worthy successor our present visitor maintain it so. Much {αβγδ}, faction and schism disturbed it in their times; which both their pens painfully, and their censures powerfully repressed and stilled. The English Church by Gods providence, and the godly and wise government of our last queen of blessed memory, and our now gracious and pious sovereign, not onely much purer and fairer, then it was in the dayes of our ancestors; but {αβγδ} all things in it done in such orderly and comely sort, as our Enemies envy us, our neighbours honour us, and all christendom admire us.  
nevertheless as Christ said to the Churches of Asia in the Revelation, Habeo contra te, I have somewhat against thee: so must I say to ours in Christs terms too, {αβγδ}, ye are not clean all; at least {αβγδ}, not altogether clean. I am black but comely, the Church says in the Canticles; let me turn her terms, she is comely, but yet black. Nay, let me not wrong her; shee is not black: let black-mouthed Separists and Papists call her so; it is but {αβγδ} comely, but brown. Be brown beshrewed for that colour too, for much of her Morphew, I am loathe to say so much. Even this is undecent and disordered too, the child to check the Mother with the least disgraceful term. But you hear me honour her: and a child, if a spot chance in the mothers face, may tell it her in modesty; or reach a glass, to see it herself. Or if a mother shall be sick; the child may tell the physician what shee ails, when he comes to visit her. Come we to some particular.  
What greater disorder, then without orders to usurp the priestly function? One to intrude himself into the Lords vineyard, and not called? to thrust his Sickle into Gods harvest and not hired? Socrates censures it {αβγδ}, a deed worthy many deaths. He is severe. God made a King a Leper for attempting it, but one act of it, and but once: a sharp censure too. Saul would play the sacrificer, Adferte ad me. But his seed for his sin was thrown from his Throne: a heavier pain. Yea Gods self hath punished it in some with death too, in Huzzah, in the Bethshemites; not {αβγδ}, with many deaths, but with the deaths of many, many thousands at one time. {αβγδ}, a Lay man to preach, {αβγδ}, twas never heard of, says a Bishop in Eusebius: and yet he spake it against Origen, an extraordinary man for learning. Yea and some judge his many errors to have been Gods judgement on him for that his presumption. The Church is {αβγδ}, tis {αβγδ}, Pauls terms, Gods building, and his husbandry. But who called thee to be a Carpenter? who hired thee to be a husbandman? How shall they preach, saith Paul, except they be sent? item, predicate; to preach is lawful; but Christs item goes before.  
The Swenkfeldians and the Anabaptists, some Brownists, all Enthusiasts pretend an inward calling by the spirit. But they know not, by what spirit. The spirit of pride some; the spirit of giddiness more; the spirit of satan all. Calvin saith, Nemo sobrius, to Gods ministry none well in his wits, but will be called by mans ministry, Instit. 4. 3.§. 14. Twas Pauls prerogative, not to be called by man, Gal. 1. 1. and yet twas not his neither. For Act. 13. Paul too is instituted, is ordered, and admitted by men into the ministry: and that, at the command of that very spirit, of whose inward calling, those Enthusiasts do boast. For me to rush rashly into Moses chair, from the shuttle, from the Last upon conceit, I understand the word, is profane presumption, but usual with Anabaptists.  
What had Micahs son to do with an Ephod, and a Teraphim, an Ephraimites son? In diebus illis, saith the Scripture there, there was no King in Israel in those dayes. In Ieroboams dayes too, whosoever would might consecrate himself; there was a King then, but a bad King in Israel. Paul saith, no man assumed the honour of priesthood, levitical priesthood except he were called. The Evangelicall is more honourable: tis great boldness without calling, to presume to assume it; to be( as Basil terms it) {αβγδ}, his own ordainer. Beware bold Bethshemite▪ look not in Gods ark: nor let Huzzah handle it, if he love his life.  
Nay, though Aaron lay his hand on thee, though the Bishop bid thee, go; be not hasty yet. Thats another scepticism, a trespass against order too, to speak before the spirit give thee {αβγδ}, utterance of speech. As man must call thee besides God: so God must call thee besides man. He should have called thee first. Hast thou the gift of prophesy? then go, and prosper; God is with thee. Hast thou not? Thou art Gods husbandman: be content a while to hold the plough, or goad the Oxen: forbear the Seed-cod yet: tis not every ploughmans skill to sow, attend to reading, learn before thou teach; least thou take Tares for wheat. Christ said to his Disciples, item, go. But yet he said too, Sedete tarry; stay till the holy Ghost should furnish them with gifts fit. The first gave them authority: but the latter bids them expect ability. go they should; but stay they must, they did: Though they were ordained before, and commission given them: yet they attempted not to speak, till the spirit gave them {αβγδ}. They would not Loqui, till they could Eloqui, the vulgar Latin terms, they began not to speak, till the spirit gave them utterance, Act. 2. 4. Doth the womb bring forth, before it have conceived? Preaching is no tennis play. In that, men do( as Plutarch speaks) {αβγδ}, take, and return the ball at once. But doctrine would first be taken in, ere it be spoken out; least it prove( as Plutarch likens it) {αβγδ}, like a windy addle egg; and the Preachers self, as he said of the Nightingale, vox, praetereà nihil; nothing but a voice. These are two freckles in the Churches face, intrusion, and presumption; I leave them to the search of the overseers eye.  
Opposition is another; By comeliness and order, Saint Ambrose( as you heard) meant discipline and peace. In peace was first the Temple built; not by David; he would fain. But he was {αβγδ} a man of war. Salomon must build it, who had his name of peace, and in all whose dayes was peace. Not in peace onely, but in silence too. Not a Hammer, not an Axe, not any tool of Iron heard in all the house all the time of building it. Twas broken down with Axes and Hammers, Psal. 74. but twas set up without them. The enemies shouted, {αβγδ} they roard, saith the Psalmist, like bears, like Lions in destroying it; but there was no noise in erecting it. So for the building up of our brethren into the body of Christ, peace must bee in all Churches; between all men, {αβγδ}, so much as lies in them, saith Paul; but especially between the builders. The whole Church should bee, as the whole world was in Noahs time, unius labii, of one lip, of one language. The building else will prove but Babel. The workmen must all speak the language of Canaan, teach one doctrine, preach one truth. No Israelite indeed, but especially a teacher, a master in Israel must not speak Ashdod. Nay, a right Gileadite must not say entituleth, must not so much as lisp, like a false Ephraimite. The Church is in danger, if wee differ but in Dialect. Paul would have all, if it were possible, {αβγδ}, to think the same. But that will not be; men will vary in opinion. But {αβγδ}, to speak the same, that he beseecheth them, earnestly importuneth them, I beseech you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Cor. 1. 10.  
Concent in doctrine is the cement of Religion. atheists take advantage at Christians schisms they breed many, feed all. Turkes had ere now turned Christians, had wee all agreed; many Papists Protestants, but for crosse-Puritans. schism is Sathans engine to demolish truth. vainglory in some, Phil. 2. 3. in some the belly, Rom. 16. 18. but filthy lucre above both, Paul notes that too to Titus 1. 11. Sathans three solicitors, breeding itch of opposition to draw disciples after them, deceiving the hearts, Paul saith but of the simplo, but we see, of wise men too, have prejudiced many Preachers, profiting their people, scandalizd the weak, and obdurated the adversary. between one mans Licet, anothers Non licet, saith optatus, while one man cries, we may, another, wee may not, the peoples souls waver, uncertain of the truth. Propè jam nemo Christi est, Hillar. almost all have left Religion, and revolted to the world. Are wee not all {αβγδ}, yoke fellowes, Pauls term? Wee must draw the Lords plough, humero uno, saith the Prophet, as with one shoulder all. We ear one field, dress one vineyard, watch one City, build one house. We are {αβγδ}, Pauls term too, fellow-workmen all. Tis not fit, that fellow labourers fall out in their work. And there are without enemies enough, the Romanist, the Separatist, the Atheist: Pax vobis à vobis, tis S. Bernards counsel, let us howsoever be at peace among ourselves.  
If the sheep will straggle from his own fold; be it his simplicity; he is a sheep: and yet the {αβγδ}, the Arch-shepherd of the flock, by dog or hook, should fetch him in. It is {αβγδ}, an indecency, a fault, to feed in others pastures, and forsake his own. But Abraham and Lot, the shepherds themselves, I pray thee, saith meek Abraham; let there be no strife betwixt us two: Fratres enim sumus; for they are brethren. Such to side, to separate, to oppose one another, to oppugn one another; thats more than an indecency, tis {αβγδ} disorder, great disorder. Let the Lay say, I am Pauls, I am Cephas, or Apollos: people will bee humorous. But let not the Clergy fall to faction too. Let Paul grace Cephas, Apollos honour Paul. That is, {αβγδ}, decency indeed: Let none traduce his brother, or make his doctrine odious, haply more sober, and sounder then his own. Wee are all Regulares, tied by the Churches rule to unity and peace. This is Seculare, saith Saint Bernard, the worlds fashion. Paul saith, the Church hath no such custom. Wee are the Commissurae& Compages Ecclesiae, P. Martyrs metaphors, the Clergy the joints and couplings of the Church. If they start and loosen, the fabric will all fall.  
Let me not teach heresy, let me not teach schism; but let me be admonished by those whom it concerns. If my doctrine savour of▪ Amsterdam or Rome, tis fit I be censured. But if Paul speak the words of truth and sobriety, Festus must not cry, Insanis paul, much less his fellowes factiously confute him. If I say of my Saviour, that one drop of his blood was worthy the worlds ransom, that the least of his sufferings was Infiniti, though not definiti meriti, might( had God so determined it) have redeemed us all, as Divines both learned and sound have often said before me. If I will not say, my Saviour suffered for my sins, all that I should have suffered, Hell, as well as death, diros cruciatus, the utter torments of a damned man, the essential pains of Hell, which two famous papists adventured first to say: shall itch of opposition, make town and country ring of it? this is not {αβγδ}, a decent thing: tis( as Paul speaks, vers. 33.) {αβγδ}, tumult and disorder. Christ suffered, what was fit for him, fit for Gods son, Gods self: torments in his body, sorrows in his soul, bitter pains in both. What they were in body, Gods book expresseth them; but what in soul, who dares determine? I dare not. In matters of such nature I will not fetch my phrase from men. Neither Austin, or Calvin, new nor old must bid me speak what Scripture warrants not. I will take my terms from it; from the Prophets, from the Apostles, they spake by the spirit; from Christs self; he best knew, what he payed for us.  
Here I humbly pray the pardon of mine honourable ordinary; Even this may seem unseemly, to have instanced in this, in a case concerns myself. Let Saint jerom bee mine advocate; in suspicione Haereseos, in the charge of heresy, in the challenge of false doctrine, publicly and often, noe man ought bee patient, nor do I break( I hope) the Canon, which forbiddeth opposition. I oppose not others doctrine, I but maintain mine own. Which( if popish) myself will curse it unto hell; if sound, why should I betray it by my silence? while I do not second contradicted truth, I seem to town and country to confess I have taught error? Precatio& Praedicatio, Prayer and Preaching, holy actions both, and sisters in Gods service, are in some assemblies fallen into emulation: strive not for precedence; Preaching is content to let prayer go before; shee is her elder. But shee shoves, and shoulders her, gives her little room; would make her( if shee might) {αβγδ}, thrust her quiter out of the Church. Might some Preachers have their wills; there would be no praying, but onely in the Pulpit; as if the Ministers pew were a piece of popery. They will preach ad Clepsydram, two or three houres together: but divine service they will clip and dismember. And that little which they read, they will huddle and post too, as if prayer were profane, and devotion superstition. Surely this unseemelinesse is profaneness in the Priest, and deads devotion in the people.  
What if I list not to Christen with the cross? I will then use the words, but I will not make the sign. And yet I will say, if I be examined, that I signed the Infant with the cross. But Iesuite-like, I will equivocate. I signed it with the cross, that is, I gave it baptism, which is the sign and figure of the cross; for Baptisma Crux est, saith Chrysostome, Aug. tom. 7. col. 952. D. Or, if needs I must deal plainly; I will bid a psalm bee sung, to draw away the ears and the eyes of the assembly. So far, as I can possibly, they shall neither see me do the thing, nor hear me say the words. To sing psalms, is religious. But when the people should attend the instant action, to pray for the child baptized, and to give thankes for it; it is {αβγδ}, a psalm is unseemly and unseasonable then.  
To sit at the Communion, two or three wilful Refractaries to sit alone, when others, when all others kneel, is unseemly, because singular: for that; but not for that alone. To sit at the receiving of those holy mysteries, verenda mysteria, those awful mysteries, the greek term more significant, {αβγδ}, as the Fathers term them; which taken unworthily, let satan instantly into the soul, and bring both it, and the body to destruction: not rather( if it might be with conveniency) to fall with thy face prostrate on the earth, to be vouchsafed to bee admitted to the receipt of the Blood and Body of thy Saviour, with all possible humility; unmannerly and unreverently to sit at the Lords Supper, at the Lords sacred Supper, as thou wouldst do at thine own;( pearls and holy things men do not throw {αβγδ}& {αβγδ}, to dogges and swine) like a dog or swine, to come profanely to Gods Table, tis, I will not say, a sin out of measure sinful, but tis a rusticitie out of measure rude, a superlative uncomeliness. Gods majesty, from whom by the hands of the Minister he receives the mysteries, impiously contemned, the mysteries themselves vilipended, authority resisted, and the brethren offended, upon a foolish fear of worshipping the Elements. Which neither( I dare say) they think their brethren do, albeit they kneel; nor would others think they did, if they kneeled too. They may not kneel, because the Papists do. weak men! how many things do they, which Papists do? They might kneel as they do; and yet not worship as they do. Tis partly too in fond conceit, it is a Supper: men sit at supper, they kneel not. poor reasons! It is marvel they will take it in the morning, men use not to sup then; and Christ ministered it at night. It is marvel they will take it in the Church; Christ did it in the house: and not sitting neither, by their leaves, because they bee so strict; the Iewes position of body at meales was not like ours. But I dispute not the question: onely I except against the action for uncomeliness.  
To conclude, Quod Histrio in Scena, what the Player observeth on the Stage, tis absurd, a wise man should not in his life, the orator saith: More absurd a Christian should not in the Church, Decorum, decency and order all actions. Tis not with these two qualitities, as Dion said of Homers verses, {αβγδ}, they were indeed good, but not always, nor for all. These are meet, nay more, necessary, at all seasons, in all actions, to all men.   

SERMONS PREACHED AT THE SESSIONS. The first Sermon.  deut. 16. 20. 
Exequere justum Iustè.  
That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, &c.  
THE Argument of my Text, is the Office of 
α. β.  the Magistrate, couched closely in three words: 
γ.  the first, the Act; it is to Execute: the next, the Object; it is Iustice: the third, the Manner; it must be done uprightly. Execute Iustice, justly. You give a charge to the Inquest; this is Gods charge to you. By his assistance, with your reverend patience, briefly of each in order.  
The Act is excellent: Execution in Policy, 
α.  like Elocution in Oratory, primum, secundum, tertium, the prime, and the main, and the All in All of it. Not Dilige justitiam, as the wise man bids, to Love Iudgement: not Scire, to know it, as the Prophet bids. They are but Contemplation and Affection; to Love and Study it, belongs to all. But the judge and Magistrate must do more: God bids them Exequi; Action is craved of them; they must Execute Iustice: that is, must see the laws obeied; must censure those, who either do not, what Iustice bids, or do, what it forbids.[ God bids in Esay, keep Iudgement, and Execute it: not keep it as a Prisoner, and Execute it, as a malefactor: But to keep Iudgement, is to perform it; and to Execute it, is to administer it.] It is not Quaerere, to seek it, as Esay bids; and yet there is action in that too: but that is the Iurours office, as well as the Iudges to inquire after it. But you the Iudges are they that must Execute Iustice. For what bootes their or your inquisition without your Execution? The rabbins have a saying, {αβγδ}, transgressors need a Session house. The laws suffice them not; there must be Iudges to execute the laws.  
Bad manners occasion the making of good laws; but good laws occasion the increasing of bad manners. Nitimur in Vetitum. The lists of Law increase the lusts of men: that unless Iustice do inflict the pain, as well as wisdom did enact the Law, 'vice grows the greater by prohibition: and( as( Paul speaks in another sense) sin by the Law grows out of measure sinful. Where there wants execution, there wants not transgression, impunity encourages to al licentiousness; not to light slips onely, but to gross enormities. Indulgence breeds not onely negligence; but is( as Bernard stiles it) the mother of insolency, the nurse of impudence. Onely execution is the laws life; so severe among the spartans, that neither their chests had locks, nor their doors bolts. The Law without the judge is but a dead letter. It takes the life from him; who is therefore called by the greek Philosopher {αβγδ}, as by Greg. Nazianzen, {αβγδ}, the living Law. Rape, Robbery, Idolatry, were rife sometimes in Israel: but when, Non erat Rex, there was no King in Israel, no judge for execution. The awe of the Law is small, where is no Magistrate. And where one is, it is not great, if he censure not offenders. Paul saith, he carries not the sword for nought. Surely he does, if he execute not Iustice. The Libertine will say, either tis a sheathe without a sword; or the sword is rusted in the sheathe. He will break the Law boldly; for he never sees it drawn. There was a Law in Rhodes, that none should shave their beards; and yet scarce in all the island should you meet a man unshaven. As there is a Law with us, that no man should be drunk; yet who almost amongst us, but is sometimes scarce sober? Why? but because the Magistrates, both theirs and ours execute not the Law.  
God hath wild equity and Iustice to his people. For his Word is his Will: call we it not his Testament? The Law is Gods Legacy; and he hath made the Magistrate his executor. And as the order is in Probates of wills, he hath sworn him also to performance. And is he not titled by his office too, judge, or Iustice, or the like? Nomen inane, crimen immane, a vain name, is a main shane. But an Oath is an argument, should urge more strongly.[ The other an inducement; but it an enforcement to execution.] The growth of all ungraciousnesse occasioned by impunity, a stronger reason yet. For the sins of the people, caused by his connivance, God will punish on his soul.  
He that hath an Office, the Apostle bids him wait on it. It is a shane, that Gallio, an officer of Peace, Lord chief Iustice of it, shall see breach of Peace, a man beaten in the streets, even before his face, and care not. The Woman said boldly to Philip, King of Macedon, when she beseeching him to right her wrong, he answered, he would not, Noli ergo regnare, why, then be not a King. So did another to Hadrian the Emperour, Noli igitur imperare. Spartian. Wilt thou not do justice? why then be not a judge.  
There are three Obstacles to execution. fear, Favour, Bribes. The judge hath an eye, to see a sin, and a hand to smite the sinner. But he is sometimes Excors, he wants a heart. The offender, either is great himself, or hath some great maintainer. He dares not execute. As sometimes the Sergeant dares not arrest, for fear of blood; so even the judge also dares not arraign for fear of anger. Is Ab●er a dogges head, that Ishbosheth dares challenge him, for lying with Sauls Concubine? David though a King, durst not censure joab, though a murderer; because he was his general, and he feared the mutiny of his Souldiers. He cried onely, Deus judicet, the Lord judge him. A private Subject might say so. It became a King, himself to judge. God therefore will have Magistrates be men of Courage, Exod. ●8. {αβγδ} strenuous and undaunted; not to be afraid of frowns, not from the strongest foreheads. {αβγδ}, cowardice in a Magistrate is an absurd infirmity. he is Gods Officer; whom should he fear? The wise son of sirach will not, that a judge shall be faint-hearted. Nay Gods self forbids a judge to fear, to fear the face of man; because the Throne is Gods. Fiat Iustitia,& ruat Mundus, do justice, do it with a sound heart; let the world fall on thee, it will not bruise thee.  
Favour is worse then fear, Affection a slow hastener of Execution. The Delinquent is my servant, my friend, my kinsman; shall I censure him? Muse not at the slack execution of the laws; for who is not almost one of these to some Commissioner. There is a 'vice, a weed runs over all the world, Mother to many sins, Saint Chrysostome saith to all: Non-execution of the Law is the cause it is so common. But the cause of this cause, is this evill-favoured favour. he, upon whose knees the devil bears this brat, hath been my servant. After he hath haply served me many yeares, I reward him with a licence to set up a sign, a sign of drunkenness, of unthriftinesse, of want onnesse, of profaneness, of all lewdness. Which seeing I shall see, but I will not perceive, and hearing I shall hear, but I will not understand; because he is my Servant. Nay say, he be anothers, and not mine; yet I will hear and see, but will say nothing. My Fellow in Commission hath authorized him. judge not, and you shall not be judged: I must show his servant favour, that mine may find the like. I instance but in this; I wish I might not in some more. How will I wink at the trespass of the laws in my dear friend, or my near kinsman, if I will not see my servant? How will I be stark blind, if my son shall be a trespasser?  
Heathens have not stumbled at greater stones, then these. Torquatus a roman, and Zaleucus, a graecian spared not to sentence even their own sons. Amicus Plato, magis amica veritas. My dearest friend, my nearest kinsman, are not so dear, or near to me, as justice, as my country, as my King. I owe my kinsman, and my friend my love: but I owe Love and loyalty, and allegiance unto these. Let the Christian Magistrate hear the Hethven orator, Exuat personam judicis qui induit amici; the affection of a friend, fits not the function of a judge; He must say with Levi, to his brethren, to his parents, yea even unto his children, Nescio vos, I know him not, Deut. 33.  
Favour was worse than fear; but bribes are worse than both. They work the Occoecation of the judge, not the execution of the Law. Love bleares his eyes, but gifts quiter blind them. Be the offender nere so visible; he sees him not. He must be very gross, his fault must be felt, be palpable, ere he will know it. Nay the more palpable, the less culpable. God hath given him a sword; but a bribe hath turned the edge. The Law bids him strike; but a gift, like a Gout, is in his hand. Or lest he say haply, he is a Commissioner, not an Executioner; Iustice bids him, but speak, but sentence sin. But Bos in lingua, the palsy too is in his tongue. Sirackes son saith, bribes strike dumb, as well as blind, 20. 28.  
fear and favour, were charms both, but the charms of flesh 〈◇〉 blood. But a bribe is a spell, a spell from hell; it binds faster than they both. Resolution haply conquers fear, and Religion often masters Love. But filthy lucre, not Right, not Reason, not Reputation, not Religion can loosen it. Prosopoleptes, an accepter of persons will sometimes do justice. Affection will be checked. But Doroleptes, an accepter of gifts, will nere do Iustice. Corruption will not yield. The gift is taken: shall he censure the Delinquent notwithstanding? Then he will challenge him, and shane him at the bar. Shall he return it? There is shane in that too; and it will be blazed he had it once. And hardly will one part from a thing, he once possesseth. satan in his heart is seized of it; his claws hold fast. And where he is, hell is; for it is his Court, Et ab inferis nulla redemptio, and nothing comes ever back from hell. Take heed of gifts all Iudges. They are called blessings in the Scripture phrase; but the Scripture nurseth them unto the judge. The gifts a curse unto the judge, and the judge a curse unto his country. Iudgement maintains it, but {αβγδ} a man of gifts, saith Solomon, destroys it.  
To end this first point of my Text; mildness in a Magistrate, gentleness in a judge, as he is a judge, are faults, not commendations. Who should be more indulgent, then parents? Tis their Attribute. Yet Cyprian saith, children at the day of Iudgement shall cry out of them, Parentes sensimus parricidas, our cockerers have been our Murderers; their winking at our sins, was the damning of our souls. The remiss Magistrate, Parcendo saevit, as Saint Augustine saith of God; his clemency is cruelty. Whose sins he spares, their souls he spilles; his humanity is immanity. I mention not the mischief which comes by this remissness to the common wealth. Where transgressors are not censured, who can be secure, in name, in goods, or life. It is a true sentence which is written in the Guild Hall of this city, even in the Iudges eye, Qui parcit malis laedit bonos, he that spares the evil wrongs the good.  
The next point is the Object of this Execution, it is Justice, or Right. God, as he hath defined the Iudges act; it was to execute: so he hath confined him to his Object, it must be Right. Not Legitimum, but justum, not Law, but Iustice. A law may be unjust: that the judge may not execute. Ius Fori,& Ius Poli do not always jump. Caesar( saith Saint Hierom) speaks sometimes cross to Christ, and Papinian to Paul. Our Caesar hath religiously advised in such case, utterly to abdicate the office of a judge, rather than desperately to damn the soul. It is not Ius; but justum, which the judge must execute, not Law, but Right, Exequere justum justè. A Law may be unjust and irreligious. Our Fathers have seen such. God bids the judge to execute, not persecute. For so is the sentence, when the Law is wicked, mere Persecution.  
again it is {αβγδ}, but {αβγδ}, justice, not extremity, Quod jure fit, profectò just fit, Saint Augustine saith. That which is done by Law, is justly done. That failes sometimes. For Extremum jus, Rigour is injustice; and {αβγδ}, too strict severity hurts, as Paphnutius said, the Church; so also the Common-wealth. Noli esse justus nimis; execute justice, but be not too just.  
Right reacheth far, an ample Object, according to the cause and person. The widow, Stranger, or Orphan is oppressed: their right is rescue from the Oppressor. The malefactor breaks the Law; his right is censure according to the fact. False accusation appeacheth the innocent. The judge to do them right, must acquit him of the calumny. In all things, to all men, look what is just, that he must execute. Now as the Act had enemies; so hath the Object too, the same enemies, all the same: but more pernicious here, than there. Wee say, Prestat male agere, quâm nihil agere; better be doing somewhat, though but simply, than do nought; but Praestat nihil agere, quàm malum agere; better be idle, than do evil, a great deal. Better the judge not execute at all, than execute injustice. fear, Favour, Lucre, did but there avert the judge; here they pervert judgement. All three, and add a fourth, Malice, all four are wresters of Right, changers of judgement, as Solomon terms it. They turn {αβγδ} into {αβγδ} justice into iniquity; tis Salomons too; into cry, into Oppression, into wormwood, into gull; the Prophets terms.  
Be Malice first. spite will nere do no Right. Will I acquit him, whom my heart hateth? His cause is just; but he is my enemy: I will now be avenged on him. Micaiah must to prison, though he prophesy the truth, for I hate him, saith King Ahab: and Pauls mouth be smitten, though he preach gospel. A judge ought not be moved either Odio, or study; either condemn his foe, if he be innocent, or quit his friend, if he be guilty. He ought to execute justice to both indifferently. But Malice is revengeful. justice will Object, What evil hath he done? But Malice for all that will cry, Let him be crucified.  
fear is a wreaster too. pusillanimity, a bad Advocate, a worse judge: not hasty to plead against the mighty, though for a Fee; but loathe to determine, to give sentence against him, peremptory sentence: whether the party litigant, himself be mighty, or he have some potent Patron. First, he will take no Cognition of the Cause, if he can decline it;[ and he hath many Declentions.] If not; yet he will use all dilatory courses, to weary the complainer. fear( you heard before) was a bar to execution. If needs he must give sentence; you shall find the Saw soothe, Might overcomes Right. Naboth shall be stoned, rather than jesabel be displeased. Christ shall rather die, than Pilate offend Caesar. widows and Orphans, the booty of the Mighty, must hold the judge excused: he will not incur displeasure for their sakes. Welfare those catholic Bishops, who charged by the Arian Emperour to condemn Athanasius, both without witness, and unheard, onely Propter me, on the Emperours word, would rather hazard their states, then do injustice. No Propter me, though nere so mighty, must scar the judge from executing right. For it is the will, and warrant too of the Almighty.  
Favour is next, a wrester too; else why is the proverb, Plus valet favour in judice, quàm lex in codice? An ounce of favour is worth a pound of law. pusillanimity, a foe to Iustice; but not so bad as partiality; that doth not trespass it so oft as this. Prosopolatra is an Idololatra, an accepter of persons, a kind of Idolater. The Respect and Reverence, he owes to Right, he gives to the Rich, the mighty, and the Honourable. Dat veniam corvis; their sentences Cobwebs, called by Solon, small flies are caught, but the great break through. petty thieves wear chains of iron; but the grand robbers chains of gold. Kindred and friendship incline him too. All accepting of persons, is perverting of justice. God forbids it all. The judge may show no favour, no not to the poor. pity him thou mayst, thou must; but not {αβγδ} in his cause; thou must not pity him, Exod. 23. 3. Iudges must show pity in no cause, whatsoever, whose soever. For Malacausa est, quae requirit misericordium; the Cause is nought, that hath need of mercy. How much less then in the Causes of the mighty? Iustice must be equal unto all. Parvum ut magnum, God will have the judge hear small as well as great; rich and poor alike; and not respecting any person, to judge justly between all.  
Painters and Poets taught Heathens this, who had not Scripture. Plato writes Rhadamanthus, the judge of hell, when a Ghost appears before him, to receive his sentence; whose Ghost it is, he knows not, nor he asks not. He looks upon the soul, and according as he sees it, fowle or clean, so he gives his doom. So should the judge on earth, look on the Cause, not on the Person. The ear and the Tongue are onely in Commission, the one to hear the Cause, the other to give the sentence, thats Oyer and Terminer. The eye hath nought to do. A righteous judge is pictured without eyes. And the exactest Iudges, that human story hath, were those in Athens, who always judged by night.  
To justify the wicked for his person sake, is grand Injustice. For not a just mans person ought to be respected. Love thy friend, and favour him; but {αβγδ}, onely to the Altar. So the Magistrate {αβγδ}, to the judgement seat: that confines affection. There, be the same to friend and foe; upright to both. Neither use him the more hardly, whom haply you hate; nor afford more favour, there where you affect. add to this, popularity, a foolish favour, but a wrester of right too. Twas not for fear merely, but for favour too, that Pilate, though he found no cause in Christ, no cause at all in him, yet he condemned him to please the people. Pauls cause was good, and his bonds unjust: but Felix would not loose him; to do the Iewes a pleasure.  
The last and worst is Bribery, the bane, main bane of justice, the devills special wrinch above the rest, to wrest all right. A man of Offerings, as you heard before, that comes to the tribunal, as Dromoclidas and Stratocles did in Plutarch, Tanquam ad messem auream, as to a golden harvest. {αβγδ} as it is in Hosea, a Ruler that loves gifts, that will say, Bring ye, that speaks all Doricè, like the Horse-leech in the Proverbs, Give, give, {αβγδ}, a bribe-eater; nay, {αβγδ}, a ravenous devourer of gifts, that chewes them not, but swallows them, a judge, a wolf, as Sophonie calls him, a thievish fellow, Esay 1. 23. What justice will he do? Can he do? Hostis justi, as Amos calls him, a lust mans enemy? Will I look for justice of my enemy? What Iustice will he do? What Injustice will he not. A bad Examiner; Malè verum examinat omnis— Corruptus judex. A worse Determiner: Ahab to Naboths Vineyard; Thamar to the fire; barrabas to liberty; Iesus to the cross. Ibi fas, ubi maxima merces; his Cause must needs be good, that is franke-handed. Come there accusations never so many, never so great; silver( saith Solomon,) Money answers all.  
A judge should not be moved either minis or donis, with threats or gifts: and many a Magistrate condemns the one, in magnanimity. But Imitantur hamos dona, gifts are Sathans hooks, Dura ut infernus, they hold like hell. No marvel, if they catch a judge. Prophets have been caught by them,( Balaam was) have been brought by them to curse Gods people. Christs disciples have been caught by them( Iudas was) have been wrought by them to sell Gods son. Tully said, nile injustius quàm justitiae praemium quaerere; nothing was more unjust, than to crave reward for justice. Heres one thing is. Tis more unjust, far more; to take reward for injustice, reward for wrong. Such a judge( saith Salomon) is Gods abomination, the peoples execration; both accursed of God and man. Fire shall devour the house of bribes, Gods fire. And woe to them, that justify the wicked for reward. Vae vocantibus, Woe to them that call good evil, and evil good, for any cause; for spite, for fear, for Favour. But a special woe to them, that do it for reward. To their Curse, all the people are bid to say, Amen. venal as, a man to sell his mouth, venalis sententia, as Saint Ambrose calls it, a sale-sentence, a strange merchandise. I have heard of some strange sales. Sale-windes by Witches: Sale-Churches, by some Patrons. Venalesque manus— Lucan. l. 10. sale-hands, meaning mercenary souldiers. But sale-justice, a sale-sentence, a thing more strange than all; stranger than sale-pardons, the Popes merchandise. They make a sinner just. But a sale-sentence maker a just man a sinner; takes away the righteousness of a righteous man from him, saith the Prophet.  
Time will not let me handle the last term; therefore to end this: The judge must be like the Law, whose Mouth and Hand he is. The Law the greek Philosopher calls {αβγδ}; so should be the Magistrate, a mind without affections. Plutarch writes, that in Thebes, the Statues of judges wanted hands, and their eye-lids were closed: against those two foul solecisms, {αβγδ}, and {αβγδ}, receiving of gifts, and respecting of persons. The judges Oath in Athens protested against both, with imprecation, wish of destruction to himself, and his house, if he trespassed in either.[ That was Solons law. Plato was preciser. The judge might never ●it, till he had sworn: that the Religion of his Oath to God, might free him from all sinister respect to men]  
Iustice is Gods rule: it must not be made crooked. A Virgin, Plato calls her so. The judge that wrongs her, commits Rape. Her wrong by him the greater, because he is her Guardian. He that should keep her, to betray her. Nay to betray his Prince, his country, and his soul. An unjust judge is a traitor to all three. To his Prince: for Iustice is the pillar of the Kings throne; A King said it, Salomon. The failing of it, is the falling of the King. For the transgressions of the people, not punished by the Magistrate, the Prince is often changed. Iustice and mercy are the Kings keepers; Salomon saith that too. To pervert them, is to corrupt his keepers, to betray him. To his country. For because of unrighteousness, kingdoms are translated, De gente in gentem. Israel was into Ashur, and judah into Babylon. What a plague was in Israel, for the whoredom of the men with the daughters of Moab, till Phincas stood up, and executed? To his soul; Bribes are the devills baits; and his hook is hide under them. The judge seizeth on the gift; satan seizeth on his soul. The Iewes, the rabbis give a Caveat to the judge that there is a sword between his thighs, and hell is open under him. Your business bids me end. God the righteous judge, guide your Spirits with his; that when the judge shall come, that must judge all, you that now judge men, may then judge Angells. unto him, God almighty, Father, son, and holy Ghost. &c.  
Beati, qui ex equuntur justum justè.   

SERMONS PREACHED AT THE SESSIONS. The second Sermon.  2 CHRON. 19. 6. And he said unto the Judges, See what ye do: for ye execute not the judgements of Man, but of God. 
IT is a Kings caveat, he said, twas King jehosaphat. A Kings caveat to his Commissioners, he said unto the Iudges. To be awful, to bee eyefull in their office, See what ye do. Because they are Gods delegates, for ye execute not the judgements of Man, but of God. A speech worthy a King, worthy a righteous and religious King: for so Iosephus stiles him {αβγδ}, both a just and godly King. the one is in the watch word, his care, that his Iudges should do justice; the other in the reasons, his acknowledgement of himself to bee but Gods Surrogate.  
The first clause, though but circumstance, would not yet be balked. he said unto the Iudges. All Kings wish not alike the peoples wealth. To see wrong righted, innocency protected, 'vice punished, is not every Princes study. That probity and piety flourish in the land, id populus curet scilicet, let the people look to that. Caesar like Gallio in the Acts, cares for no such things. Let Princes ply their pleasures. Wherefore should sovereignty be dis-easd for the commonalty? Worthy jehosaphat is a precedent for Princes, zealous of the peace and prosperity of his subjects. he rides throughout his realm, sets Iudges in each City, and gives a charge to every judge. My Text mentions no more. But he did more. he provides for the promoting not of Iustice onely, but Religion too. To the Priests and Levites he also gives a charge, vers. 9. stilled therefore by Iosephus very deservedly, a just and godly King, careful both of Church and Common-wealth. A point worthy prosecution in some other audience; tis unseasonable here; come to the next, the Caveat.  
Kings spend not lightly speech in vain. When Caesar saith ought, what subject listens not? especially he to whom he speaks; and more, beginning with a monitory term. he said unto the Iudges, which are you. And his first word is Cavete, look and beware, vestra res agitur: This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. King james comes not behind jehosaphat. he hath given his charge, both to his Iudges and his Priests. For care of Iustice and Religion judah was not more happy then our Land. hear O ye Iudges: the King speaks to you. Videte quid faciatis, See what ye do.[ See, to a judge? A judge, a just judge is pictured without eyes. How should he see? Or say he have eyes; yet the Athenian Iudges, the justest upon earth, judged ever in the night; thats not the fittest time for sight. But to see, is to be circumspectly, See, that is, consider.] Authority is a tempter, judicature a function, subject to many falls. The charge needs a videte, See what ye do.  
You give long charges to the inquest; tis fit. This to you is short. Few words, tria sunt omnia. Kings know to whom they speak, verbum sapienti: See what ye do. Which lest the brevity breed obscurity, that all may understand, let one Scripture gloss another. What better interpreter of Gods meaning, then Gods self? Moses charge in deuteronomy to the Iudges there, is a just commentary to the Kings here, Deut. 16. 18, 19. first in the affirmative. They shall judge the people with righteous judgement. But thats but a vide ut feceris, See, that you do it. The phrase here implies more, even a vide ne feceris, as the Angel said to John, see you do it not. Moses charge hath that too, the negative too, wrest not the Law; respect not persons; take no gifts. This charge is charged with these particulars; they are all summed up in this brief. I will discharge it with your patience; but in brief too; I will but touth the severals.  
First for the affirmative, that bids you judge the people with just judgement. Two things enjoined in it, execution and integrity. The first, an act so necessary, that without it civill societies could not subsist. What say I civill? the savages themselves would perish, but for it. Men would be metamorphisd into wild beasts; and every one would worry, and devour another. The laws have a videte quid faciatis too. They charge the people; the King charges the Iudges. They bid the people see to virtuous conversation; he bids the judge see to righteous execution. Yea the judge has his videte quid faciatis too. he charges the Inquest. But judgement must succeed inquiry. Tis vain to search out sin, and not to censure it. Nature has given the body hands as well as eyes, and as many hands as eyes. They of the inquest are the Kings eyes, to spy out malefactours. The Iudges are his hands to draw forth his sword at them. What bootes their inquisition without your execution? 'vice will not fear the eye, if it do not feel the hand. It is not sight, but sentence, that awes sin. The rabbis have a proverb {αβγδ} transgressors need a Session house. The laws suffice them not; there must be Magistrates to execute the laws. Nay the lists of Law increase the lusts of men. Nitimur in vetitum. Bad manners occasion the making of good laws: but good laws occasion the increasing of bad manners. That unless justice do inflict the pain, as well as wisdom did exact the law; 'vice grows the grosser by prohibition; and( as S. Paul speaketh in another sense) sin by the law grows out of measure sinful.  
Where there wants execution, there wants not transgression. impunity encourages to all licentiousness; not to light slips onely, but to grand enormities. Indulgence begets not onely negligence, but is( as Bernard titles it) matrix insolentiae, nutrix impudentiae, both breeder and feeder of brasen-browed wickedness. Onely execution is the laws life. The law without the judge is but a dead letter. The Law, the Anima, the soul of Common-wealths; the magistrate and judge, Anima ainae the soul of that soul, he animates the Law; who is therefore called by Nazianzen, {αβγδ}, the living Law. Rape, robbery, idolatry, were rife sometimes in Israel; But when, non erat Rex, there was no King in Israel, no judge for execution. The awe of the Law is small, where is no Magistrate. And where one is, it is not great, if he punish not offenders. Saint Paul saith, he carries not the Sword in vain. Surely he does, if he execute not justice.  
Shall I with your favours, ye grave and reverend Iustices, ask you but one question? Why murder and robbery are more rare; drunkenness and whoredom, and profanation of the Lords day, every town full of them; nay not a house not tainted at least with one of them? The cause is evident, due execution in the former, non-execution in the latter. The points behind stint me in this; the womans speech to Philip of Macedon shall end it; when shee beseeching him to right her wrong, he answered, Nolo, he would not: Noli ergò regnare, why( saith shee) then be not a King. Wilt thou not do justice? why, then be not a judge. So the wise man bids, seek not to be made a judge; but if thou be one, execute thy office.  
The next point is integrity: Moses charge, gloss to this, bids judicare justè, you must execute the laws, but righteously. There is a judge that will pardon Ravens, and censure Doves, loose barrabas, and bind Christ. This is not execution, but persecution. That will give the widows house to the oppressor, the orphans field to the incroacher. This is not {αβγδ} which Moses craves, two terms, judgement and righteousness. This is neither. Tis( as Esay playeth with the words) not {αβγδ} but {αβγδ} not judgement, but oppression: not {αβγδ} but {αβγδ} not righteousness, but a cry; a cry will pierce the heavens, and God will judge that judge. he shall hear a Maledictus, not from the Priest onely, and all the people say Amen to it; but from Christs self also at the resurrection, item maledicti, Depart from me ye cursed. Salomon asks, cvi vae, to whom belongs a woe? Esay answers him, vae vocantibus, to them that call good evil, evil good. Woes and anathemas waiting on Thrones and Consistories, that judge unjustly, the charge needs a videte, videte quid faciatis, Take heed what ye do.  
The Negatives are next, as natural to the charge, as the affirmatives, and as needful to be noted in these times. Wrest not the Law. Respect not Persons. Take no gifts. He that with the Ruler in the gospel can say, can truly say, hec omnia custodivi, he hath observed all these; when the son of Man shall sit in his Throne of Majesty, he shall also sit upon a Throne, and judge the twelve tribes of Israel.  
For the first, Wrest not the Law; judices be juris indices they must Ius dicere, thence is their name, they must say the just Law, both say it, and do it. Ius wrested it not Ius, but vis; the letters transposed, and justice perverted. There are two Treachers against Truth, Tertullian saith, Corruptor Stylus,& Adulter Sensus, to forge the Text, or to force the Sense. heretics do both. A judge cannot well do the one. The words of the Law are hardly altered, but soon misconstered. And this, Tertullian terms adultery, adulter sensus. The judge, which should be aequus, is moechus by that act. Tertullian is too mild, tis Rape. Iustice is a Virgin; to force the Law, is to ravish her. Tis more, tis incest too, incestuous rape. Iudges are the Fathers of the Law; they force their Daughter, when they wrest the Law. Saint Paul saith, they sit to judge {αβγδ}, juxta legem, according to the Law. The wrester of it doth not so. He judges not juxta, but either citra or ultra, or contra, which is worse. He ties the witness titely to the truth: he must say it, all it, nought but it. But himself will haply deal loosely with the Law, leave something out, put something in; nay haply quiter cross it, wrest the words even to a contrary sense: Statuimus, i. Abrogamus, saith the Canonist. Romano, i. Constantinopolitano: white, i. black; London, i. york.  
He is the laws interpreter; he must not make it speak, but what it means. The Law is the heart, the judge is the Mouth. If he speak one thing, when it means another; he makes the Law a Iesuite, to have a mental Reservation. traitors are racked, to force them to confess truth. The Law should not be racked, to force it to speak falsehood. sceptres born by Kings, and the mazes of all Magistrates, are all strait, emblems of Iustice. The judge, that wrists the Law, crooks the Kings sceptre. He makes the Kings laws, like the Popes Canons, Plumbeos& Cereos, as Budaeus termeth them, waxed and leaden laws, to bend and bow, and be pliable every way. The judge condemns the forger: but this is forgery in the judge. Tis not my Censure; tis a Kings, psalm 94. 20. The throne of iniquity forgeth wrong for a Law, that is, worketh wrong upon the Law; that is, forceth the Sense of it, to warrant injustice.[ To end this, John Baptist said, in the Gospels dayes, Crooked things should be made strait. But the perverse judge makes a strait thing Crooked. Enough of this.]  
The second Prohibitive couched in this Caveat is, Thou shalt respect no persons. There is a due respect of persons, in Offices of honour, and in overtures of love. To the Person of the aged, my Parent, or the Magistrate, I must do reverence: more then to others. To the person of the poor, my Kinsman, or my Friend, I must show kindness, rather then to others. This respect Nature craves, Nurture too, Scripture too. But Moses means in judgement. The Court and Consistory must know no person. Elsewhere thou mayst; but thou must not in the Gate.  
Tis spite, or fear, or favour works this injustice. For the first, spite will nere do right. Will I acquit him whom I hate? His cause is just; but he is mine enemy; I will now be avenged on him. Iustice will object, what evil hath he done? But malice for all that, will cry, Let him be crucified.  
For the second: pusillanimity an absurd infirmity in a judge. jethro will have Magistrates to be men of courage, Exod. 18. {αβγδ}, strenuous and undaunted, not to be afraid of frowns, not from the strongest foreheads. Gods self forbids a judge to fear, to fear the face of man, because the throne is Gods. Hath a great man a bad matter before a timorous judge? First he will take no cognition of the cause, if he can decline it. If not, yet he will use all dilatory courses, to weary the Complainer. If needs he must give sentence; widows and Orphans, the booty of the mighty, must hold the judge excused; he will not incur displeasure for their sakes. Nay Naboth shall be stoned, rather then jesabel shall be displeased. Christ shall rather die, then Pilate offend Caesar. Well fare those catholic Bishops, who charged by the Arian Emperour to condemn Athanasius, both without witness, and unheard onely propter me, upon the Emperours word, would rather hazard their states, then do injustice. No propter me, though nere so mighty; must scar the judge from executing right. For it is the will and warrant too of the Almighty. Fiat Iustitia,& ruat Mundus; do Iustice, do it with a sound heart: let the world fall on thee, it will not bruise thee.  
For the third. A judge ought not be moved either Odio or study, as not to cast his Foe, if he be innocent, so not to quit his friend, if he be guilty. Amicus Plato, magis amica veritas. My dearest friend, my nearest kinsmen, are not so dear, or near to me, as Iustice, as my Country, as my King. I owe my kinsman and my friend, my love: but I owe love, and Loyalty, and allegiance unto these. Let the Christian Magistrate hear the heathen orator, exuat personam judicis, qui induit Amici, the Affection of a Friend, fits not the function of a judge. He must say with Levi to his Brethren, to his Parents, yea even unto his Children, Nescio vos, I know you not, Deut. 33. All partiality is flat iniquity. The judge may show no favour, no not to the poor. Pity him thou mayst, thou must, but not {αβγδ}: in his cause, thou must not pitty him. Exod. 23. 3. For Mala causa est, queen requirit misericordiam, the matter is nought that hath need of mercy.  
The last Prohibitive forbids bribery, the bane, main bane of Iustice. Malice, partiality, pusillanimity, all biassers of Iudgement. But this the devils special wrinch above the rest, to wrest all right. fear and Favour were charms both, but the charms of flesh and blood. But a bribe is a spell, a spell from hell; it binds faster then they both. Resolution haply may conquer fear, and Religion often masters Love: But filthy lucre, not Right, not Reason, not Reputation, not Religion can loosen it. Prosopoleptes, an accepter of Persons will sometimes do Iustice; Affection will be checked. But Doroleptes an accepter of gifts; will nere do Iustice, Corruption will not yield.  
A judge should not be moved either Minis or Donis, with threats or Gifts; and many a Magistrate contemns the one in magnanimity. But imitantur hamos Dona— Gifts are Sathans hooks, dura ut Infernus, they hold like Hell. Beware of bribes all Iudges. Gifts are called blessings in the Scripture phrase. But the Scripture nurseth them unto the judge. He is( saith Solomon) Gods abomination, the peoples execration; both accursed of God and Man. Fire( saith Eliphaz shall devour the house of bribes, Gods fire, job 15. 34. To close up this second Clause; the Wise man bids, seek not to be made a Magistrate. But if thou be one: execute thine office. Nor execute it onely, but use Iustice too. Moses bad judge righteously. Else art thou but a mere usurper. For Quod just non tractas, jure non tenes, Augustine, thou holdest thy place unjustly, if thou perform it not uprightly. So much for the Caveat.  
The Reason yet remaines, For you execute the Iudgments of God, not of Man. Kings Causes ask good care, great consideration. he that will manage them, must videre quid faciat, look well, what he does. But Iudgement is Gods business, not the Kings; not Mans, but Gods. called I this Clause, a Reason? or Treason rather? to deny judicature to be the Kings, Princes to be Iudges. Tis well a King he saith it. But negatives are taken sometimes comparatively. God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice, i. rather then Sacrifice. He refuseth not Sacrifice; but he prefers Mercy before it. The judgements which you execute, are not mans, but Gods, i. not mans so much as Gods. They are both Gods and mans; Gods and the Kings too; but principally Gods: the Kings, but under God.  
The Prince is Gods lieutenant. Popes say, they are Christs Vicars. Surely Kings are, Vicarii Dei, Gods Vicegerents, and Popes have sometimes called them so, Eleutherius did a King of our Land. God calls the Throne his Throne. It is the Kings, but under him. Tis Per me Reges regnant; but Pro me is true too. Not by God onely, but for God also do Kings reign, they govern in his stead. Their People are Gods People; Gods self calls them His. Astraea, i. Iustice, feignd by Poets to be fellows daughter. Revenge, one part of execution, it is Gods. Vengeance is mine, saith God. All Caesars, Gods Substitutes. Government Gods Ordinance; the Magistrate Gods Minister. Princes therefore, and all Iudges, called in Scripture Gods, even by Gods self, Ego dixi, Dii estis, I said, ye are Gods.  
Good cause then have all Magistrates to see unto their Charge, to eye their actions well. To see, first, ut faciant, that they Execute judgement, the first thing in the gloss, and expressed in the next verse, ut faciatis, as Iunius turns it, that they do it: that they do it diligently, the vulgar latin Text. It is Gods work; and the Prophet accurseth him, that doth the work of the Lord negligently. Next that they do it righteously. For Gods judgement is {αβγδ}, just judgement. Saint Pauls term. And so the King saith here, that with God is none iniquity. Then to see, ne faciant, that they do not. Namely not, Wrest the Law. For it is Gods Text. Poets can say, {αβγδ}, the laws come from God. Not Scriptures onely, but the laws also are the Lords. Men make them, but God guides them. They are Gods: he wrongs God, that wrists them.  
Neither Respect Persons, nor Receive Gifts. For the next verse tells you, God doth neither. fears an inferior Magistrate, any mans offence, the displeasure of the mighty? Iudgement is the Almighties. He can ward him from their wrath: at least he will reward him for his uprightness. Gods self bids, fear not Deut. 1. 17. And adds this very argument, Quia Domini judicium est. fear not the face of Man; because the Cause is Gods.  
Take not Gifts. Iudgement is Gods; sell not the things of God. For the whole execution of the Office of the Magistrate, remember still that the business is Gods:[ himself sits among you, David saith, in your assemblies. The King bids in the next verse, let Gods fear be upon you; not Pavor dominorum, but Pavor Domini, the fear, not of Lords, who are men, but of the Lord, who is God. See you therefore, what ye do: for he seeth all your doings. Tis not the Kings wrong onely, but Gods dishonour too, if either you do not justice, or do it unsincerely.] The Lord bless you in his business, direct you by his Spirit, rule you with his fear, and reward you with his crown, in the day of the great Session of that righteous judge Christ Iesus. cvi cum Patre, &c.   

SERMONS PREACHED VPON several OCCASIONS. The first Sermon.  GEN. 3. 15. It shall bruise thy Head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 
MY Text hath two members; and each member hath three terms; and the terms alike in both, persons act, and object. Persons, the Serpent, and the womans seed. Act, to bruise. Object, Head and heel. The same persons in both; but active in the one, and passive in the other: disposd( as Schollers speak) {αβγδ}, ex diametro, by cross opposition. The womans seed, and the Serpent, Bruisers both; They of his Head, he of their heel. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Tis a part of the curse, which God cast upon the Serpent, for tempting our first parents. The curse threefold, he shall go upon his belly; Dust shall be his meate; and man shall bruise his head. My Text is the last, containing the mutual hostility between them; Man shall bruise his head, and he shall bruise mans heel. Some Scriptures have two senses, literal and mystical: this hath. The literal is the natural antipathy between them. Each hates the other; & quem quisque odit, periisse expetit, each works his utmost to destroy the other. The Serpent being Reptile, a creeping creature, can but hurt the heel. But man, observing, that though he cut the Serpent in the mids, yet the parts will meet again, and he will live, strikes at the head. That literal sense little skills us. Tis the mystery is my Theme, the duell between the devil and mankind.  
The Serpent is the type, the figure of the devil: tis satan is here meant. satan, of all the creatures choose to enter into it, to tempt the man: and therefore of all the creatures he is called a Serpent most, throughout the Scriptures. Esay calls him so, Paul does, John does in the Apocalypse, and what is Sathanas, but Serpens apostata, justin Martyr saith, and wicked men, termd here his seed, called Serpents too. The Pharisees are, even by Christs self, Matth. 23. 33. Tis fit the Sire surname the son, like in nature, and therefore in name too; subtle and poisonous, to deceive, and to destroy. satan their father, vos ex patre Diabolo, joh. 8. 44. They his sons, Fili diaboli, Paul calls Elymas so, Act. 13. His sons, and therefore Serpents.  
Before I descend to the particular terms, because the Text is dark, I paraphrase it thus: It, i. Christ, and man his members; shall bruise, i. shall vanquish and keep under; thy head, i. the power of satan, i. sin and death. And thou, i. satan, and men his members; shalt bruise, i. shall tempt and vex; his heel, i. partly Christs weaker part, his manhood; partly mans weaker part, the Flesh. This is the secret sense of this mystical Allegory. It is the {αβγδ}, the implacable enmity, the deadly feud betwixt Christ and satan; Sathans seed, and the Saints; yea in a mans own self, the Spirit, and the old Adam. Now of the words in order.  
It, is a relative note, looks back at somewhat went before, the womans seed. Not all. Cain was the womans Seed, her first Seed: he is not It. For he was not her seed onely, but the Serpents too. All wicked men are so. Christ calls satan, their father. They are womens sons carnally, but spiritually his. God saith, the womans seed; but means such as are Gods seed too. All righteous men are so. They are born of God, Saint John saith. Christ is meant mainly; then those that are Christs. he shall do it himself, {αβγδ}, Peter saith; and wee in him, {αβγδ}, in him, and by him, {αβγδ}, Paul hath both.  
First for Christ; this very term here, {αβγδ} Esay 53. the Prophet five times applies to Christ. It must be Schiloh, old Iacobs word, qui mittendus est, one whom God should sand of purpose. It must bee the messiah, qui ungendus est, Gods Christ, his anointed, King over Gods Israel; to put down all power, whatsoever the usurping Prince of this world should arm against his people. It must be he, that( as Paul speaks) should led captivity captive. It must be Michael, must fight against the Dragon; Michael, that is, who is as God; that is Christ, and therefore the term here {αβγδ} is reckoned by the rabbis amongst the names of God, Esay 43. 8. {αβγδ} Gods self saith, tis his name. It must be God, must bruise the Serpents head. Man cannot, mere man. Man can, and does; but tis {αβγδ}, in him and by him. Sathans power being sin and death, he that will bruise them, must bee free from both, subject to neither. Christ was so onely. he dyed indeed; but not for sin: for sin, but our sin, not his own. For he had none. Paul saith, he knew none; Peter saith, {αβγδ}, he did none. Christ is the {αβγδ} in the Gospel. satan is the strong and armed man. But Christ is stronger then he, and disarms him. he is the {αβγδ} the onely It, can quell the Serpent. Nature is powerful; but tis not It. The Law strong too; but tis not It. Nothing is It, but Christ. Non est, nomen aliud, Peter saith, theres none other name under heaven, by which we may be saved; none other name, i. none other thing.  
Secondly for ourselves, many men are meant too, righteous men, all believers, true believers, the whole Church. For it is a body mystical; Christ the head of it; all believers the members. Abraham and David, hands in that body, Paul and Peter other parts. God make me a heel in it; I shall be happy. David would not scorn to bee a Dore-keeper in Gods house: nor must I, thou, any man, to be a heel in that body, whereof Christ is the head. Comfortable to bee any officer in Gods house; honourable to bee any member in Christs body. Of this body every member hath an Interest in this It. Not onely Michaels self, but his Angels also fought against the Dragon. Those Angels are not onely Princes and Preachers, the zealous Magistrate and Minister, the one by the sword, the other by the word, to beat and batter sin, the great Sultan of satan: but even every Christian, every faithful Christian, by the assistance of Christs spirit, to fight against the Flesh, to crucify the lusts, which are the power of darkness, and called by the Apostle, Angelus Sathanae, even the devills angels, and the Serpents seed.  
Here will some Romanists wrangle, and say, I wring the Text, I read not right. Tis not Ipsum, It: Tis Ipsa, Shee. The vulgar latin hath it so, which the council of Trent makes onely authentical. Both greek and Hebrew, Septuagints, and original read it Masculine, and all Translations saving that. That skills not. Its their Oracle. Tis( shee) must bruise the Serpents head. All expositors say, he, as meaning Christ. But they turn easily he into Shee. But what shee? Christs Mother; Mary, not Christ. Saint Bernard more devout, then learned, fathers that absurdity. That blessed woman tis not fit wee disgrace. But Peter must not be robd, to enrich Paul: much less Christ doshonourd, to honour Mary. Tis Partus Mariae, not Maries self, but Maries seed, old Irenaeus saith. Themselves say, Gregory doth de Valentia, that it is the catholic Churches doctrine, that it was the Virgins son should break the Serpents head. As for the Translation, as authentical as the Tridentine council hath decreed it, some of themselves doubt not to call it false here. Francis george the Minorite doth in his problems.  
Tis meant no more of Mary, then of other holy women, of Lois, of Lydia, of Hannah, of Elizabeth. Nay tis meant no more of women, then of men. If sex have any privilege, it is the Male: for the pronoun is Masculine. But all men, all women, too weak for this work. Surely man shall do it; but not mere man; but {αβγδ}, one both God and man; the son of man, but yet the son of God; who should call Mary mother, but God Father. Christ onely of himself; and then man through Christ. Man and woman all good men and women, not our Lady only,( though she principally in regard of her happy birth) but all through Christ. S. Paul faith, the victory is through our Lord Iesus Christ. Leave the Agent; hear the Act.  
The Serpents head, i. the strength of satan in sin and death, the womans seed( God saith) shall bruise. So is the last Translation. The Geneva hath, shall break. The term in both members is one in the original. Why should Man varie words, where God doth not? Haply they thought bruising, too lank a word, too shrank to express Christs peremptory power. Breaking, would do it more fully, more powerfully. But weigh the Object with the Act. It is the Head; thats worse hurt, bruisd, then broken. And tis a Serpents head. To break it, is improper phrase: far more kind and natural, to bruise. This Act, because the Agent was twofold, Christ, and his members; first lay it to Christ.  
sin, if you please, the Sinciput of Sathans head, see that bruisd first. Shall I say with Paul, Christ hath washed it, he hath cleansd it? That sounds absurdly, Christ to wash Sathans head. Thats worse then Peters feet. But Metaphors will not ever match. think sin a {αβγδ}, a filth, Saint james his term; an {αβγδ}, uncleanness, Pauls term often. Mans soul was soild with it. Christs blood hath cleansd it, washed it out. sin a spot, a foul one; a stain, a deep one; delevit, Peters term, Christ hath spungd it, scourd it out. An humour, a right peccant humour; Christ hath purged it, Pauls term too. The Devills work in us; Christ hath dissolvd it. The Devills work? the Devills wound, a deadly wound; Christ hath healed it. Sathans obligation, our hand and seal to it, Paul calls it our Chirographum; he meant to show it, and to sue it at the day of judgement: Christ hath crost and canceld it {αβγδ}, defaced it. he hath done more, took it up with him at his passion, and nailed it to the cross, Col. 2. 14. Nay sustulit de medio, Pauls phrase there, utterly abolished it. What can I say more? John saith it too; both the Baptist, and Evangelist, the sins of the world, sustulit, Gods lamb hath taken them away.  
Now for the Occipitium, the hinder part of the Serpents Head, thats death, Christ bruised that too, {αβγδ}, justin Martyrs term, death done to death. Christ cries in the Prophet, Ero mors tua O mors, O death, I will be thy death, Ose. 13. Christ there but threatens it. he performed it at his Passion. By his death he loosed the sorrows of death, Saint Peter saith; or rather by his Rising. Death is indeed still; thats but dissolution; thats but a leap to life. But damnation, the right death, and right sorrows of death. Christ hath loosed them. The first foot Christ set on ground, rising from Grave, trode on the Serpents Head so hard, that it bruised it, broke it, chrusht it in pieces. Leave we Christ; come to his members.  
Christ well might bee too hard for satan; he was God. For him to bruise his head, an easy Act. But how shall man, weak man do it? This was answered before, man as Christs member, assisted by Christs Spirit, shall do it too. First for sin; the regenerate man crucifies the flesh, Paul saith, mortifies the lusts of it; doth with Paul, {αβγδ}, beate it black and blew, batter the face of it; doth {αβγδ}, keep it down, and under like a Servant, in subjection; doth {αβγδ}, Saint james his term, put a bit into the mouth of it, bridle and curble it; pi●son and fetter, and hamper the lusts of it. For death; the righteous man dreads it not, but tramples on it too; and in assured hope of happy resurrection, bears a part with the Apostle in that song of triumph, O death where is thy sting, O hell where is thy victory? Leave the Act, hear the Object.  
It is the Head: of which to speak a part, is but actum agere. Wee have seen it sufficiently in the second term. The devil hath no head: for he is a spirit. The Serpent hath, into which satan here entred. And because the poison is in it, and all his power is in his poison: God by the Serpents Head, means here the devills power. sin is of the devil, 1 joh. 3. Death is too. Paul saith, it came by man. 1 Cor. 15. but caused by the devil. sin and death, the devills twins, both born at once, Sathans brattes both. All Sathans power is Apoc. 6. 8. a Horse, a Rider, and a Follower. The horse is sin, the rider Death, the follower Hell. Th●se are the Dragons Head, both Head and horns. So some paint satan: and tis no bad Hieroglyphicke, to signify his strength in sin and Death. By which two he hath gored and wounded all the world. Even Christs self with the one; sin would not enter, but Death did. But both these horns you have heard, how Christ hath broken. sin, Death, and Hell, all three the Serpents Head; Christ hath crushed them all. sin, thats {αβγδ}, Paul saith, abolished. Death, thats {αβγδ}, justin saith, done to death. And Hell called Abaddon, thats destruction, he hath destroyed that too. Death, sin, Hell, three Captivities Christ hath lead them all captive. They are the strong mans weapons in the eleventh of Luke; and Christ hath disarmed him. They are Sathans power, Acts 26. 18. and Christ hath disabled him. The Malleus, the Hammer of the whole earth( ieremy means it of Babylon; Saint Austin turns it to satan) satan the bruiser of the whole earth, Contritus est, is bruised himself by Christ. The womans seed hath bruised the Serpents Head. Its the first branch of my Text: See now the second.  
The terms are turned; satan suffered before, here he is the Agent, Thou, that is, the devil: he is the Bruiser now. He and his shall bruise the heel of Christ and His: He, that is, Sathans self, and his, the Serpents seed, Vipers brood, John Baptist calls them. He is the {αβγδ}, Christs term in the Parable, the envious man, the enemy, the malicer of man; the old enemy. Man no sooner made, but he maligned him; some say the first day. He is {αβγδ}, Saint Peters term, the Adversary, {αβγδ}, Basils term, Mans hater: called therefore satan, that signifies so: {αβγδ}, Origens term, mans professed opposite, {αβγδ}, all the Apostles term, a slanderer, a sycophant, {αβγδ}, Philoes term, a Darter at the Saints.  
His seed Saint-haters too, wicked men, homo homini Lupus, wolves, worriers of when, worse than wolves,— Saevis inter se convenit versis. Beasts of one kind devour not one another. These do, {αβγδ}, Men, eaters of men. Cain Abels killer, Esau Iacobs hater, ishmael Isaacs mocker, Schimei Davids curser, Herod Iohns beheader, Iudas Christs betraier. As God hath his Church; so satan hath his Synagogue; it is twice in the Apocalypse, ever opposing, and oppugning, and oppressing Gods God children. You have the Persons; here the Act.  
Tis bruising too. Christs self was bruised by satan, attritus est, saith Esay 53. not touched onely, one term there, {αβγδ} but smitten; not that softly, but wounded, the Prophet goes gradatim. I should but trouble you with the Hebrew terms. The bruise seen by the blueness; thats there too, Cujus vibice sanati sumus. guessed by the pain, the matchless pain. As unctus prae consortibus, Psa. 45. so punctus too, pricked and stung by the Serpent, more than ere was any man. See, if any sorrow were ever like to mine, Christ cries in the Prophet. So extreme, that it strained from his face, drops of blood in the garden, and wrested from his mouth that strong cry upon the cross, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken men? Quid nobis,& tibi, What have wee to do with thee? Cried the fiends in the possessed? Indeed one would think, the devil should not dare to have to do with Christ. But he durst; not by his Agents onely, as in his Passion; but personally once, hand to hand. The Serpent assaulted him, bit at his heel thrice. But his teeth entred not. Christ was shod with the preparation, not of the gospel, as Paul bids, but of the Law, which is all one, too tough a leather for the devills teeth.  
Christs Church, Gods children, satan bruises too. God saith here, but the womans seed. But the womans self satan bruised too; Eve, the first woman, Adam the first man: Such a bruise, as all their children have halted on't ever since. sin is the Serpents tooth; it bites us. Our own lust, the devills fist; it buffets us. Tis Pauls term, who calls it Sathans messenger. David felt his fist in the matter of Vrias, and in numbering his people. Tis said expressly, satan incited him, 1 Chro. 21. Peter felt the stroke so strong, that it fetched water out of his eyes. Paul felt it so strong too, that it made him cry Infelix ego. The cross the devills flail; is it not called tribulation, i. threshing? With it he beateth and bruiseth Gods people. It is the devills fan; he winnowes us tis Christs term, i. shakes and tosses us. In a word, he is the Presser, the Crusher, the Galler, the Grinder, the wonder of the godly. Like the womans daughter in the gospel, they are vexed, they are miserable vexed of the devil. Thats for Sathans self.  
Now for his seed, wicked men, Serpentine brood, their tongue full of poison, Saint james saith; Adders poison, David saith. They hiss like them; they sting like them. Priests and Elders called Christ a Glutton, a Deceiver, a samaritan, and said, he had a devil. Theres their hiss. They and Pilat, take, bind, scourge, and crucify him. Theres their sting. So they do Christs members. To end this, the sun is not safe, nor the moon, but are eclipsed, if they come but near the Dragons tail. His tail so strong, that it drew down the third part of the stars, Apoc. 12. His power not in his mouth onely, to bite; but in his tail too, to sting; retrò timencus, as one saith of the Scorpion.  
Yet rests the Object of this Act, the heel: its the heel of my Text. Christs Act, and Sathans was the same, twas bruising both. But theres great odds in the Object. A capite ad calcem. Twas Sathans Head; tis but Christs heel. A bruise may be painful in the heel; but haply mortal in the head. Christ and his followers bruised by satan and his instruments, but in the heel. Great is the devills might, and malice both, both his might, and his spite. But God hath him in a tie, and his fury is confined. Paul stiles him Prince of the air; he fights aloft, threatens our heads: but they are healed with the Helmet of salvation. If he will hurt; he must stoop, turn Serpent, and be content to bruise the heel. Thats Sathans worst and most, his utmost. His power is but as God permits: who saith to satan, as he did unto the sea, Hitherto thou shalt come; but go no further, not ultra crepidam. He put job in his hands, but with a but. Have power over his goods, servants, and children; but touch not his person. And again, have power over his body; but touch not his life. Bruise the womans seed; but the heel onely.  
First, for Christs self, how satan bruised him, you have heard, stung him even to death. I said before, Christ crucified sin, sustulit, took it up to the cross with him. But so did satan crucify Christ too. Not his heel onely. There were three nailes, as you may see in every crucifix. But one was bestowed upon his feet, driven through them both. His hands were nailed too. Foderunt, saith David, they pierced my hands, and my feet. They did more; they pierced his side too. But Christs whole humanity was but as his heel, the lower part of Christ.  
Secondly for Christs members; the Serpents bruising of our heel, is partly his external infesting of our bodies by the malice of the world, and partly his internal assaulting of our souls by the lusts of our flesh. Our heel is the old Adam, our unregenerate part; to which much foulness grows; it is so near the ground. Paul bids, look to our feet, when we come into Gods house. And Christ tells Peter, his feet onely need washing. His hands and head needed not; they were clean. Christ was his Head, and his hands the holy Ghost. In calcaneo quisque labitur, Aug. Tis at the heel, that a man slips, tis the foot that trippes, and stumbles. David is afraid of the iniquity of his heels, Psal. 49. The Spirit is the head in the regenerate man; the flesh the tail and heel, dagled with the dirt of every sin: the law of the members kicking against the law of the mind, treading under foot the pearls of Gods Word.  
The devil would devour; S. Peter saith, he seeks that, Quaerit, quem devoret; and he doth many. But Christs members he doth not, cannot; bruises them onely. He winnowes them, Christs term, shakes and tosses them. Saint John saith, Non tangit, he toucheth them not. Surely he doth, both tangit& angit, both touch and tease them. He did job, he doth all men, both outwardly by affliction, and inwardly by tentation. But Saint John means, and the note is in the Margin, out of Calvin, Lethali vulnere, he doth not touch them with a mortal wound. The hurt is onely in the heel; thats far from the heart; where the life lies. Nay, Iahns self saith in the Apoc. Chap. 13. he shall conquer them, {αβγδ}, vers. 7. he shall Kill them, ver. 15. But the note is good there too; their bodies, not their souls. The body compared with the soul is but the heel.  
I say, the devil bruiseth us, both by sin, but not totally; and by affliction, but not mortally. Not totally by sin; for tempt the flesh he may; but the Spirit is {αβγδ}. will not, can not be tempted; if God abide with it who is not tempted, Saint james saith. No nor finally; for we stumble, but recover; we fall, but rise again: we fall and that fearfully; satan may foully foil the best. look on David and Peter. But grace lets them not lye long, reaches her hand to them, to lift them up again. Not totally by affliction. For though he kills us, wee live still. Tis but the first death that Gods children die; no death indeed to them, tis but a dissolution. The second death, i. damnation, the right death, the righteous die not that.  
To conclude, beware how thou walkest; David saith the devil Observat calcaneum, watches thy heels. go not barefooted, as some Popish Friers do; but be shod( as Paul bids) with the preparation of the gospel. So the Serpent shall not bite thee. Let the devil the {αβγδ}, as Philo before called him, the Darter, let him shoot his darts, his fiery darts at thee; thy shield of faith shall quench them.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON GENESIS. The second Sermon.  GEN. 3. 22. Behold, the Man is become like one of Vs. 
tis Gods disdain of man, of mans presumption, his aspiring spirit, to be Gods equal, peer to God. Tis by way of irony: tis not Asseveranter, meant in sad soothe, but mockingly. Man double mocked,( pride well deserves it) first deluded by satan, now derided by God. The Serpents mockage malicious, you shall be as Gods, tempts and lies: Gods but scorn onely, Man is become like us. Sathans meaning, Delusion; Gods Irrision, Saint Ambroses term. Others expound this Scripture otherwise: but I follow the sense thats most receivd. This irony of Gods, to propine mans pride the more to Gods contempt, is prefac't with an Ecce, Behold, saith God.  
There are sundry sorts of Ecce's in Scripture. There is Ecce Annuntiantis, the Angels Ecce to Mary, Behold thou shalt conceive. And there is Ecce Indicantis, John Baptists Ecce, pointing at Christ, Behold the Lamb of God, and there is Ecce Admirantis, and some more, many more, not skilling now. This is Irridentis, Behold the man. Pilat parallels it, Ecce Homo too, Irridens utique dixit, saith Saint Ambrose, meant merely to scorn him. Tis but a particle; yet not idle, specially in Gods mouth. Tis fit wee weigh the lightest word God speaks; though but one bare syllable: this is no more in the original. A word, that well accommodates the case here. Pride well deserves to be usherd with an Ecce. For it affects gazing and wonderment.  
The proud man thinks, he is Homo spectabilis; greeves, if he be not looked at: doth all things( Christ saith) {αβγδ}, to be seen of men. Pride will be conspicuous, will— digito monstrari,& dicier, Hic est, loves to be pointed at, to hear Ecce Homo, behold, yonder is the man. God therefore justly here makes proud man a {αβγδ}, a spectacle, not to man, and Angels onely, as Saint Paul speaks in another case; but even to Gods self too: calls( as it were) to all the persons of the trinity, to look on him: but with scorn, as the people do at every proud man, man or woman. They are {αβγδ}, Saint Pauls term too, made a gazing-stocke: but Opprobriis, as it is there, with scoffs and scorns; a gazing-stocke, but a laughing-stock. Behold saith God, behold the man.  
Behold? Who must behold? God speaks the Ecce to himself, one Person of the Trinity to another; Behold, man is become like one of us. Yet Moses recording it, meant man should behold too. Two things the Text bids us Behold; Gods scorn at mans pride, and Mans lust to be like God. The one in the form of the speech, the other in the matter.  
For the first, the malicious Manichee consters the speech in earnest. But Saint Austin answers him, that tis no affirmation, but a mere exprobration, if the Reader be doctus pronuntiator, not indoctus calumniator, tom. 6. col. 5 95. The Accent of the speech shows it to be an irony, a speech of scorn. For else it were not true, were it not ironical. Man to be like God, as one of the Persons of the deity, were impious blasphemy in a mans mouth. Meant simply without Figure, it is false, and tis impossible, that God should lie, Saint Paul saith. But tis an irony. A figure which I marvel, that the jesuits never marked. It would palliate their perjuries far better then Equivocation. fain would they defend their false equivocations by precedents in Scripture, by examples of Patriarks, Prophets, Apostles, Angels, Christs self. But their instances are straind and idle. But Ironies in Scripture are frequent and plain, and used by Gods own self, not by man onely, and Angels. By Salomon to the licentious young man, rejoice, walk on in the ways of thy Heart, and the lusts of thine eyes. And to the sluggard, yet a little sleep. By Micaiah to Ahab, go up and prosper. By Elias to Baals Priests, Cry aloud; for he is a God. By an Angel, he that is filthy, let him be filthy still. By Saint Paul, Condonate mihi hanc injuriam. By Christ to the Pharisees, fulfil you also the measure of your Fathers; and in the eleventh of zachary, a goodly price, Christs too. By Gods self, go and cry to the Gods, Iud. 10. 14. and so here, Behold, &c.  
God loves the humble, scorns the proud, {αβγδ}, james 4. 6. englished there, resists the proud. It means more, far more, sets his armies against them, all his hosts, Angels, men, brute creatures, all, scorners of pride. himself, {αβγδ} the Lord( saith David) will have them in derision. he scorns the scornful, Salomon saith. Ridebo, subsannabo, Salomons terms too. God will laugh at their distress, mock at their destruction. Thou O Lord( saith David) shalt laugh at them, Psal. 59. Let the fathers folly teach the sons wit, Adams pride derided, humble us. For this Ecce is not onely Insultantis, saith Saint Austin, of God insulting over him, but also Deterrentis, of God fraying us, from the like pride. Enough of the fashion of the speech; see now the subject.  
Man is become like one of us; that was Gods irony. Let go the Trope; see what the sentence sounds in earnest. turn the tense( if you please) {αβγδ} into {αβγδ} read not, Man is become, but would become like one of us; thats the sense in sad soothe. Man would bee like God. Three distinct particulars, considerable severally. Two persons compared, man and God; the comparison, equality. Man would be Gods Sicut; he would be Gods peer. Of these in order.  
For the first, God proclaims by the Prophet Quis sicut ego? who is like me? saith God, Esay 44. bruit creatures are all dumb. Angels can speak: can, but dare not; all are still at that question. Proud man steps forth, and answers, Ecce me, he will be as God. Quis sicut, in Gods question means, Nemo sicut indeed. Gods self expounds it so, Chap. 46. 9. {αβγδ} not no Person onely, but no thing like God. O Homo, tu quis es, how shall man dare compare with God? Angels, that far excel us men, whom if a man but sees, he dies, dare not do that. One once did, Lucifer; cried in his pride, Ero similis Altissimo, would sit on Gods own seat, and bee equal to the most Highest. That cost him dear. Michael, Prince of Angels, to fray all creatures from that pride, bears Gods question in his name, Michael, that is, who is as God. Great odds between Angels and Vs. David saith, small, thou hast made him little lower then the Angels. But thats not meant of mans mere self, but of man by grace incorporate into Christ. Man of himself so mean, that David asks, What is man, that he should be visited of God, Psal. 8. What is he then, that he should be likened to God?[ Pindar hath the like question, {αβγδ}, whats any man? Question and Answer both, {αβγδ}; whats man? whats no man? whats no thing: Not {αβγδ} onely, as Vlysses called himself, but {αβγδ}. Nos numerus sumus, saith Horace, wee are a number? wee are not. Wee are cyphers. {αβγδ}, man is nothing, Basil.] {αβγδ} as nought, Esaies term; nay {αβγδ} less then nought, tis Esaies too, Esa. 40. 17. Man but a mere shadow, saith job; nay not so much, but {αβγδ}, saith Pindarus, but the dream onely of a shadow.  
The greek name makes man proud, calls him {αβγδ}, bids him aspire, look up. But the Hebrew and Latin humble him, bids him stoop, look down, Adam is earth, and Homo ab Humo. Will he be as God, that is but his footstool? For the earth is no more; Heaven Gods seat, earth his footstool. Nay Greekes make man yet prouder, call him {αβγδ}, a little world. A world indeed, but as Saint james calls the Tongue, a world of wickedness. The Scripture does him more right, calls him a Beast, Salomons term; a worm, Davids; a grasshopper, Esaies; a faded leaf, dry stubble, job. The poorest of all the creatures; fain to borrow his bread from the earth; his meat and raiment from the brute creatures. To borrow his bread? nay to earn it, earn it hardly, with the sweat of his brows, God said, said truly, fain to plough, to sow, to reap, to thrash, to grind for it, ere he get it.  
God puts an article before his name; means here Adam, and Eve: but to make it a Terminus Diminuens, prefixeth an Article, {αβγδ} to make it an Appellative. Dedignation, and indignation, scorn and anger will not name a man, give him his own name. This son of jemini, saith David of Shimei. David himself, but the son Ishai, in Nabals mouth. A better man then he, but Maries son, and the Carpenter, in the peoples mouth. This fellow with others. Yea Peter can afford him no more, then God doth Adam here, I know not the man. justly doth God disgrace them, that dishonour him. He that despiseth me, saith God to Heli, shall be despised. God but serves Adam, as Eve had served him with satan. In her conference shee had forgot Gods name, calls him but God only; thats an Appellative. jehovah was his name; she might have put that to. Moses throughout the Chapter calls him the Lord God. Elohim is a name imparted unto creatures, to Angels, and Magistrates. jehovah is Gods proper name, Gods self saith, Esay 42. Articles honour sometimes, are put {αβγδ}, as the Poet, the Philosopher: not so here; tis for disgrace; as if he said, Behold this earthen thing, this clod of day, is become like one of us.  
Man Dust and Ashes, Abrams term; Salomons word too good for him, Brutum, a beast, Lutum dung and dirt; was but the other day a lump of earth, is so still; put but the letter after, which God puts here before his name, make haadam, adamah, but base earth, senseless, breathless, lifelesse, till God had fashioned him, made him flesh, given him soul. Shall the Axe compare with him that works with it, saith Esay, the staff exalt itself, as if it were not wood? Man, {αβγδ}, Epictetus term, poor silly man; {αβγδ}, Antoninus term, poor silly soul; whose father is Carruption, saith job, and the worms his sisters and kinswomen; loathsomeness his beginning, rottenness his end; this weak thing, base thing, no thing, contemptible man, to affect to bee as God, well may God scorn his pride, all the persons of the trinity laugh at his ambition, cry in scornful irony, Behold, man is become like one of us.  
Come wee from man to God. Man, what he is, you see; hear what he would be. smoke, bubbles, sparkles, things waightlesse, worthless, yet mount aloft: man likened to all these. Earth itself, mans material, though the lowest Element, yet hath Hills higher then Clouds. sin should verecundari, blushy at the first, grow by degrees. Pride is impatient, will mount from Earth to Heaven at one skip. Adam will be as one of us, aut Caesar, aut Nullus, a God, or nothing. Angells glorious creatures, called Gods sons; Gods own name given them, called Elohim oft in Scripture. Man will not bee like them, like Angels, any Angels: ranked into nine orders by some, Saint Paul seems to city four of them, Powers, Principalities, Thrones, Dominions. Man will transcend them all, will be like God.  
What's Gods propriety, that man claims not? Prayer is Gods onely, invoca me. King Darius in Daniel will have all petitions made to him. works God wonders? So will Pharaohs magicians. Makes he worlds? The Serpent here bids Eve but eat the Apple, and she shall make a world, the rabbis gloss. What a sort of men would be styled Gods? Alexander would; Antiochus after him, Augustus after him, {αβγδ} in Strabo. Edictum domini dei queen nostri, saith marshal of Domitian. Meaner men than Emperours. Simon Magus was; romans wrote on his Image, Simoni sancto Deo. He was therefore very moderate, that wrote to the Pope, but Paulo quinto 'vice deo.[ Caligula would have Gods whole style, be Deus Opt. Max. Sesostris of Egypt called {αβγδ}, Gods title. He would Sathanize too. For that satan affects that name, Saint Paul shows, calls him {αβγδ}. Christ shows, calls him the Prince of this world. Antiochus thought he could sail over mountaines, Senacharib dry up rivers with the soles of his feet. Quod jovi, hoc Regi licet, saith Licus in Seneca, what can God do, that Kings can not?  
There is, Gods like unto Men, Act. 14. 11. God may take mans shape, any creatures shape; may do, hath done often; appeared like a Man, like an angel, like Fire, like cloven Tongues. All the Persons have at times. Why should we doubt of God, when we hear the devil hath? Nay the second Person in trinity, not became as man only, but was man too; took not mans shape, but his substance, mans body, soul and body both. But man, Gods creature, to become like God, to be as his creator; thats such absurdity, such stupidity, that the beasts might have said of Adam, Behold, the man is become like one of us. Yea and withall, such Ambition, such Luciferian pride, that the devills might cry, Ecce, Behold, man is become like one of us. For the Dragon and his Angells were the first, that fell into that folly. Nay one once indeed by pride turned beast. Proud Nebuchodonosor was driven from men, ate grass as the Oxen; his hairs grew like feathers, and his nailes like birds claws. Both Birds and Beasts might say of him, Behold this man is become like one of us; and Iudas by malice turned devil; Christ calls him so. The fiends might cry of him, Behold, this man is become like one of us. But man to be as God, deserves the scorn of God; and is odious to man too. Reason loathes it, ear abhors it.  
But how saith God, Like one of us? Why not rather like us in general? Man haply bugbeares upon Gods general Offices, common to all the Persons. But hath any son of Adam ever singled out any one Person apart, and sought to be like him? Some have, Epiphanius saith, Simon Magus made himself God the Father, Haer. 21. in Princ. And Montanus would be the holy Ghost: for his followers( as Eusebius writes) called him the Paraclete, i. the Comforter. Twas Manicheus his madness too, jewels Defence, Pag. 593. Nay, many have said, they have been Christ, Christus hic, Christus illic: Christs self foretells it, there should arise false Christs.  
To end this; shall I find you a man, that turns my Text, inverts the terms of it, makes God mans mockage? Vorstius, that denies, that God is infinite, confines him to place, saith he hath a body, with many more like blasphemies, cries in effect, Ecce, Behold, God is become like one of us. indeed Tertullian gives God a body. He is no warrant to Vorstius. For he was not Homo Ecclaesiae, Saint jerome saith, a Doctor, but not Orthodox: and yet he meant not neither so grossly, as the Vorstian. Leave wee the Persons compared: come to the Comparison.  
The Comparative Note is small, As one of us; but one syllable, scarce so much in the original; small in sound, great in sense; as one of us, makes man Gods equal. Comparisons are odious, we say: this is. There is lawful comparison; compare with God, man may: some way, so we remember Iosuahs lesson, Da gloriam Deo, Give God the excellency. Are we stronger than he? saith Saint Paul▪ Man and God there compared; but God preferred. Put man under and after God, compare and spare not. But Sicut is absurd between them two. Caesarve priorem, Pompeiusve parem.— God suffers neither superior, nor peer; vouchsafes man many lovely names, his Ioy, his jewel, his sons, his Saints; but not his peers. Yet find I Abraham called Gods Friend, Saint james so stiles him, Gods self doth, Esay 41. and Friends are peers. They are meant properly. But Abraham is called so, Ob charitatem, not ob Paritatem, for the quality of his love, not for the equality of estate. The Kings friend, Scripture hath oft; that is, his Companion, not his equal. Kings have no peers. Their Nobles are called Pares, but thats inter se, peers one to another, not to the King▪ they are all his subjects. To be {αβγδ} as one of us, as one of the three Persons, no man can but Christ, who was one of the three Persons.  
Nay, why not Sicut too, in sober sense? What needs this irony? Man is indeed like God. Moses saith it in sad soothe, In the Image of God created he them. Gods self saith it too, saith it seriously, not {αβγδ} one of them alone, all the Persons do in deliberate consultation, Let us make man {αβγδ} in our own likeness. Man is Gods Image: Et omnis Imago similis est ei, cujus est imago, saith Saint Austin, Every image like him, whose image tis. Moses conjoins Image and likeness, Let us make man( saith God) in our Image, after our likeness. Imago, quisi Imitago, tis not an Image, if it be not like.  
Indeed Man is not Gods Image, as Christ was Gods lively Image, Heb. 1. 3. The express Image of his Person. Christ was so, as his son; not as Man, but as the Word. But yet man is Gods Image too, Saint Paul shows how, In righteousness and true holinesse: by which two {αβγδ}& {αβγδ}, audendum est dieere, saith Trismeg. one may say boldly, that Man is as God, earthly Man a mortal God. virtues are Gods Characters, a greek Fathers term. Even a Heathen could say, Pythagoras, that Gods Image was {αβγδ}, doing that is good. Man may be thus compared with God, God with Man, with any thing; may be, is oft in Scripture, in simili, not in Pari, as logicians speak, may be like in something, but not peers. Lucifers( ero similis) would not have been censured, had he meant but so. Man may be, must be like to God. Saint Paul bids be Imitatores Dei, followers of God; Holy, as he is: God commands that Sicut. merciful as he is; Christ bids that Sicut too. In omni Imitabili, in truth, in goodness, in all Grace. Such Sicuts Gods censures not, scorn not man for them; but craves them, crownes them.  
But man will be {αβγδ}, Homers term, equal to God: Know, as much as He; do the same as he; Be as great as he. For knowledge, Moses saith, Secret things belong to God, revealed things to us. But man will search into Gods secrets, set down the day of Iudgement, define the just number of the Elect. Twas Adams itch here, to know both good and evil. For Act; Christ bids, judge not. God is judge, David saith. But man is bold to usurp that Office. Man like to satan will ascend up to heaven: will do more; satan would but sit on the sides of the North: but man will mount up into Gods Throne, sit ons Gods judgement seat. God saith, Mihi vindicta, vengeance is Gods. But wee will be our own avengers, take that office on us too. Pardon of sin proper to God: Who can forgive sins, but God onely? Said the Pharisee. Pardons as rife at Rome, as blanks at Lotteries. For the third, Gods greatness; God is immortal, onely God, Saint Paul saith, {αβγδ}. So hath man made a league with death, and a covenant with hell. Let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die? Peace foolish Epicure, hear the Serpent; he saith, and Eve believes him, Non utique moriemini, you shall not die at all. But by me Kings reign. saith God. Theres a man, that saith, by me. Popes put crownes on Kings heads, and kick them off again. The earth is the Lords, saith David. Canonists say, the Popes. spain hath both Indies of him. Heaven is Gods at least, those Doctors doubt that too. The Pope commands Angells, opens heaven, opens and shuts it, heaven and hell. he doth not wear a triple crown for nought. God to be adored, God onely, Christ  told satan, Matth. 4. 10. The Venetian ambassadors cried prostrate to the Pope, Tu qui tollis, thou that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. None of their worn distinstions of {αβγδ}& {αβγδ}, of human worship and divine, will serve his turn. Well may God say of him, Ecce homo, Behold, this man is become like one of us.  
Nay theres a man, transcends this sicut, is not content to be as God, willbe not {αβγδ} but {αβγδ}, not as God, but above God. Is there any Soloeciasme, that he samples not. The man would be but Tanquam Deus; this man, Plusquam Deus. Tis Francis Zabarels term, jewels Defence, p: 584. If God command; he will countermand; forbid, what God bids; bid, what we forbids.  
I know Papists deny( shane forceth them) that the Pope dispenseth with Gods Law. And Molinaeus avouching it, Index expurgatorius bids to blot it out. But thats all one: they may not writ it; but he will do it. With the laws of the Decalogue Gods self can not dispense, Aquinas saith. The Pope can; doth at least. Tapperus Dean of Saint Peter in louvain saith, the court of Rome licenceth some things, many things that Christ can not.  
schoolmen teach, Gods Law, especially the ten Commandements are indispensible. But Canonists hold the contrary,( and the Court's above the school) neither New Testament nor Old, neither Law of Nature, nor of God, can stand against the Pope. he dispenseth with them all. Nor doth onely, but may not De facto, but De jure; Potest, saith Gratian, he may do it. Such is the plenitude of the Popes power, that makes even God controllable by man. Theres appeal from God to him; none from him to God: that Canonists say too. So he is Gods better, God must be fain to change the note, the comparative note a little, {αβγδ} Behold, man is become more than one of us. The Lord humble him, humble us all, our hearts are all too high, repress the pride of our spirit by the power of his Spirit; subdue us to his will, to serve him in righteousness, in holinesse, in lowliness, all our life, for his son our Saviours sake, cvi cum patre, &c.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON job. The third Sermon.  job 2. 9. Curse God, and die. 
BE pleased to hear(..) words indeed not fit for religious ears to hear. Yet God having recorded them, hear them, though with detestation; a foolish Womans words, job 2. 9. Curse God, and die, Iobs Wives words to her Husband; words wicked and blasphemous: at which job must have rent his clothes; but that he had none on. Curse God, saith shee, and die. There is {αβγδ}, and {αβγδ}, corrupt and rottenwords, Pauls terms, but too good for them. This is Portentiloquium, a monsters speech; Serpentiloquium, the Serpents self, the devil, could not have spoken a speech more devilish. And indeed Iobs Wife is but the devils mouth. He had said before, job would curse God, ver. 5. Shee bids him here, Maledic, Curse God. Shee is but the devils ●ccho; the phrase his, before hers; Curse God, the devilles Dialect.  
Saith God, Let us make Man, an Helper fit for him? The Serpent finds the woman an helper fit for him. Adjutorium Diaboli, non Mariti, Augustine Sathans helper, not Iobs. The Woman, Sathans solicitor, his Agent to tempt Man. job is a tower, strong and high: satan would fain scale it, makes his wife his ladder; would fain batter it, makes her his engine, The devil had done all he could, to foil Iobs faith; could not do it: the Woman helps him. The subtle Serpent had of purpose reserved her for this feat, preserved her for the nonce. God had put Her also in his power, all that job had, in Sathans hand. The ravening lion had raged on all the rest, cattle, servants, and children; he had dispatched them all. Would he have let his wife live think you, but for some wicked end. Yea the furious fiend( God enlarging his commission) had seasd upon Iobs self, smitten his whole body with an evil boil. He might have devoured the woman too. Tis strange, he did not. Fire and water( wee say) have no mercy. think you the devil hath? Will he save any, whom he may destroy▪ especially the wife; who when all comforts failed, yet he might think shee would be a help unto her husband, to counsel and cherish him, to do him all the ease shee might. But he had tried the frailty of that brittle Sex in a stronger woman, then Iobs wife, in Eve. This was Eves daughter: Iacobs daughter indeed, the rabbis say; that would serve. Dinah, a wanton maiden in her youth; shee had been the bane of one husband before, of one that would have been her husband, Sichem, Emors son. He will spare her of purpose: none so fit as she to spoil job too. Maledic Deo, bids him curse God. Nor is satan deceived. Dinah plays the Eve; had she found job an Adam, Morere, would have followed indeed. Eve gave Adam an Apple; Dinah gives job a pear, a choke pear; offers him at least; but he repels it; she tempts him; but he yields not. Leave we the woman; hear the words. Words like Iacobs yeares, few and evil. Few, tria sunt omnia, but three. evil, one good onely, God: as Christ between two thieves, so it between two odious things, cursing and death. Iobs wife hath conjoynd them, curse God and die. Let me sunder them. An Act, to curse; the Object, God; the end, to die. Curse God, that thou mayst die. Of each severally in order.  
First for the act, tis odious, but assiduous. Curses are common in mens mouths, mens, and womans; childrens too. Of them, and oaths, streets, all places ring. What fearful execrations, direful imprecations may every care hear every where? should not God shorten those dayes, saith Christ, no flesh should be saved. Surely, should not God shut his cares against curses, no souls would be saved. The whole earth had long since been carried headlong into hell. So frequent is the act, and so general the agent; the evil so infinite, that is wished, and the object so ample, that is cursed.  
For the act, men curse not onely in extremities, extremity of wrong, or pain. That impatiency were more pardonable. Orphans or widows oppressed, if they curse, tis no marvel; or any one unjustly vexed: tis in the bitterness of their soul. That the damned ghosts in hell blaspheme God in their torture, as Saint John writes in the Apocalypse, tis not strange neither. pain will force passion, especially from a godless mouth. Not onely in the dicing house, or drinking house, where satan fits on irreligious tongues. But in honest recreations, and on every slight occasion, yea of course, nay in jest, cursing is common with profane▪ mouthed men.  
For the Agent, some man acts not some sin. Caius is no swearer, Semproni●us is no liar. Titiu● is no thief. The Pharisee no adulterer, no extortioner, he saith. But they all will curse upon occasion. Non est homo, qui non peccet, saith Salomon, theres no man but sins thus sometimes. From the tallest Cedar to the lowest shrubs. Theres not one can plead Not-guilty. The poor curse the rich; the rich requited them. Masters their servants, servants them. Every man his neighbour. No bond can bind from this; not law, not love, not allegiance, not religion. laws least of all; men set them light. Love does not. Fathers have cursed their sons, Oedipus doth in the tragedy. Mothers have, Michahs mother, Iud. 17. Nor allegiance; Curse not the King, saith Salomon. But Shimei did, cursed David with an horrible curse. Religion doth not, which hath the name of binding, à religando. Not a man of Belial, but a man of God will curse under the cross. pain will wrest a curse from a Saints mouth. satan, that great travailour that( as he tells God here) had walked throughout the world, had well observed it, bids God try if job would not curse him to his face, if he afflicted him. he lied a little. job cursed not God. But yet job cursed. job a just man, that feared God, God even boasts of him, for his holinesse, yet extreme anguish made him curse his day, job 3. 1. seven dayes and seven nights he possessed his soul in patience. But at last extremity opened his mouth, forc'st it open, and he cursed. Peter, Christs Disciple,( lest you may say, thats little, Iudas was so) Peter an Apostle, an holy Apostle, not in pain, but in passion, in his fear did {αβγδ}, Saint mark saith, did curse, {αβγδ}, Saint Matthew saith, curse himself.  
For the matter of the curse; what plague, what mischief do not men in mood wish one another? Instance would be infinite. Yet hear one of an Emperours, another of a Popes, both Barbarous. Nero wished the world on fire, {αβγδ}. Martin 2. that all germany were a lake, and all the people drowned in it.  
Lastly for the object, thats as ample, as the agent. Who lives, whom no man wisheth evil? No man does; nay God does not. Heres, curse God. The objects amplitude exceeds the Agent: For man onely nurseth; but he nurseth not man onely, but all creatures. Malice wisheth evil, not to his neighbour onely; his wife, man or maidservant, but also to his house, to his ox, to his ass, to any thing that is his. mainly to his person; but yet also to his goods, which( as the schoolmen speak) are ordine ad proximum, their evil is his hurt.  
Cursing a wicked act, done 1. how soever, and 2. by whomsoever. For 
α.  the former; haply in my curse I wish but little hurt, or it is of course, or in merriment, or light passion. I sin the less; but yet I sin, some say, venially. God keep me even from venial sin. But there is a man, David saith, loves cursing, whose mouth is full of it, who clothes himself with it, the son of cursing, Peters term. sin, any sin is evil in one Act; assiduous, it is odious. custom makes it damnable. schoolmen make cursing mortal so. But as Christ saith of swearing, sister to this sin, swear not at all: so would the Apostle bee constered in this too, Noli maledicere, Curse not, saith Paul, curse not at all. Not habit onely is forbidden, but Act too. Nay Paul bids in some like sins, lighter sins, then this, {αβγδ}, let it not bee so much, as named. The term hateful, not the thing onely. Maledictio, mala dictio, a religious ear abhors the very word. The holy tongue so hates it, that it hides and heals the malice of it under a term of quiter contrary sense; shuns the proper word, uses the opposite, bless for curse. As Greekes call the Furies, Eumenides, i. gentle, and latins the Destinies, Parcas, i. favourable, by the figure Euphemismus. As good manners let us not, to Persons of respect, to call some homely thing by the own proper term: so satan in this Chapter, and the first, spea. king to God, dares not name this thing, but by the contrary; the 11. verse of the first Chapter, and the 5. of this, See if he will not bless thee to thy face. Tis not so in your books, because the English bears it not: but tis so in the original. Cursing, a term so course, that the cursed Spirit names it not. Thats for howsoever.  
Now for, By Whomsoever. Curse, All men do; none should. 
β,  Iobs self the pattern paramount of all patience, you heard, he did. ieremy did, a Prophet, 20. 15. No Man should, Man nor angel. Michael would not, an archangel, would not curse satan; said, but the Lord rebuk thee. Cursing is one kind of private revenge. The Law forbids that, Gods Law, and Mans too. Be my wrong nere so great; I may not curse. I usurp upon Gods Office. Mihi vindicta, Vengeance( saith God) is mine. God and the Magistrate, Gods lieutenant must revenge my wrong; myself must not. Nay, if I curse, I do worse. I usurp not onely, I am more absurd, then so. I make myself a judge, and God my Executioner. To end this, Dirae, be Dei irae, the evil which I wish must come from God. he onely may curse, who can execute the Curse. That can God onely. Solus dominator, solus comminator, Tertullian. God hath made our mouths to bless, not to curse with them. And God hath made us Men, not Serpents, to spit poison.  
Now lest I be too peremptory, I must admit some cases, in which men may curse. schoolmen make three kindes of curses, Indicative, Imperative, Optative. The first concerns us not, tis Obtrectation, railing, and Reviling. Thats Maledictum, rather then Maledictio. The second, the Churches censure, excommunication; I may not condemn it. Theres an old Curser at Rome uses it much, abuses it much. Tis lawful, used aright. For it is not Mans, but Gods. Thats Parergon here too. My theme is the curse Optative, one mans wishing mischief, any evil to another. This hitherto we have censured, and made no exception: now we must. Else should the lawful actions of Gods Prophets, and his Priests, of the Patriarks, and Apostles, and other godly men be condemned promiscuously. Yea and a great part of the holy book of psalms be put out of the Bible, as ungodly and uncharitable.  
For what say we to righteous Noah, who cursed his grand son, maledictus puer Chanaan? What to Isaacks speech to jacob, Cursed be they that curse thee? and what to Jacobs curse on Simeon and Levi? The Priests Curse on the woman suspected of adultery, that her thigh should rot, and her belly burst? What to Ioshua, and jonathan; but to David above all? Saint Augustine shall answer it; he speaks of David onely, but it will serve for all, Non optando dicit, said prophetando praedicit, they prophesy, they curse not, they wish no evil, but foretell it. But what to Elias and Elisha; the one cursed the two Captaines with their fifties; the other the boys of Bethel, The Text answers for the one; twill serve for both, it was In the name of the Lord. So did Peter Simon Magus, thy money perish with thee; and others more in holy Scripture. And so is the Curse of excommunication, In nomine Domini, ever in Gods name.  
These Execrations warrantable all. hear another, lawful too. By which in the cause of my Country, or Religion, I wish misfortune to the Enemy. To any that shall attempt to hurt either, I will make no scruple to wish a Bridle in his lips, and a hook in his nostrils. I will not say with Paul, Vtinam exscindantur; but I will say with David, utinam confundantur, Let them be confounded that bear evil will to Sion. Out of these, and like cases, cursing is unchristian, and accursed of God. He that loves it, it shall light on him, saith the psalm. It shall come like water into his bowels, and like oil into his bones. Tis time I leave the Act.  
hear now the Object. Twere well yet, if wickedness would be bounded here; if malice would but curse his peers, one man another, and stay there. But sin will be superlative, out of measure sinful: Man will curse God. pain may move passion, and misery haply cast forth a curse. Dinah might yet have counseld her husband to curse satan. Twas he, wrought all the mischief, burnt his sheep, slay his Children, plagued himself. Or he might have cursed the Chaldees and Sabeans, that had carried away his cattle. Many will do so; curse their oppressors: and no more. Dinah thought that simplicity, with the dog, to bite the ston, and leave the caster. Shee knew, satan and men were but Gods instruments. She had heard her husband make God author of all, Dominus dedit, dominus abstulit. He shall not be so silly, to curse satan: he shall set his mouth even against Heaven, and curse Gods self.  
The Law forbids expressly, Exod. 22. {αβγδ} thou shalt not curse the Gods. Theres {αβγδ} too, as tis here; but meant of men, Iudges and Magistrates. Earth-gods we may not curse. Tis the Lord God, Iobs wife means, bids him, curse Him. The curser of Father or Mother, dies the death, Exod. 21. Solomon saith, Ravens shall peck out his e●es, and Eagles shall eat them. Curse no man, not thine enemy, not thy persecutor, Paul bids. Nay thou mayst not curse the devil, without danger to thy soul, Iesus Siracke saith. What a cursed counsel gives this woman then to job, to curse Gods self? curse God. Heres a throat, an open sepulchre, steames forth stench and rottenness. job saith( tis afterward) his Wife abhorred his breath: Better might he hers, belching out such blasphemy.  
God to curse man, thats just. For to sin belongs a curse. Christs self, Gods son, taking our sins on him, became a curse, Paul saith. For he was crucified for our sins: and God saith, Cursed be every one, that hangeth on the three. But Man to curse God, the Creature the Creator, thats impudent impiety. Iobs wife puts( Morere) last, Curse God and die. Shee should have put it first, Die, rather then curse God, and so job does, will suffer any thing rather then blaspheme. God had sore smitten him: yet still he praises God, cries Benedictus, not Maledictus. Yea so great is his patience, and his faith so strong that he cries out afterward, Though God shall slay me, yet will I trust in him. Peace Eve, cease satan; you have not Adam here. Say, do, what you both can, job will not curse God.  
The last term is the project, & morere, and die. There are teeth, spears and arrows, Psal. 57. 4. Here's a tongue is so. A sword, a razor, Davids terms too; cursing, and death. Her counsel is to curse, and her end, that he may die. And indeed a man in misery will gladly die. Life is sweet, but not in pain. Death is welcome in affliction. jonas and Elias, Prophets both, prayed they might die. But must desire of death induce me to curse God? God may restore me: he did job. Say he will not; yet must I do no act against my life. job calls his friends, miserable comforters: well may he call his wife a miserable counsellor. Men give sometimes a medicine worse then the disease. Shee does here. To ease pain, shee prescribes sin. Shee deems his fittest physic, death. The readiest way to it, is to curse God. That sin shee thought God would judge instantly; would strike him, if he cursed with present death. As if she should have said, pray never so much; God will not take thy life, and so ease thee for thy piety. Curse God, and force him to kill thee for thy blasphemy.  
Tis marvel shee moves him not to slay himself: thats no less sin of the two. Discontent is oft desperate, is tempted easily to self murder. The devil in distress tempts many so; Ecce funem, ecce aquam: will himself offer them, a cord, a knife; bid strangle, drown, or stab themselves. Iobs wife doth worse; bids him curse God. So he shall stab God, Levit. 24. 11. {αβγδ} spoken there of a blasphemer; he thrust God through▪ Yea job should be like julian, julian the Apostata, smitten by God, throw up his blood into the air; breath out his ghoast blaspheming, vicisti Galilaee. This point craves larger speech; but I forbear.  
Look we back now if you please, and see, if we be right. Am I not mistaken? Have I not mis-read my Text? Tis in your English books, Curse God; in all. But what if translators have all erred? Tis in the original Hebrew {αβγδ} bless God. Then have I slandered satan, and Iobs wife. Good woman, shee saith well. Doth shee not? bidding her husband to bless God? Nor would the devil neither be belied. It was his term too. Fit, wee recant it, and make satisfaction both to him, and her. Nay not the Hebrew onely, but the vulgar Latin too, hath it, bless God, both in the womans speech, and Sathans. The vulgar Latin of such authority; that did it varie from the original, wee must think, the Hebrew rather erred, then it, saith Gretser a Dutch I●suit. Yea and Arias Montanus, that great Rabbin too, in the Interlinier volume of the King of Spaines great Bible, hath Benedic too. Wee must not say, for names sake, because his name was Benedict, but of his deep judgement. Yea and some others also both of Iewes and translators construe, and translate it so. So let me too a little by your learned leaves; though I doubt, twill do the devil nor the woman no great good. Let me relent a little to that reading; let it be bless God. For it is very true, that naturally and properly the Hebrew word sounds so. But what then? Iobs wife is where shee was; nere the better woman for this word. The word good in itself; but not in her mouth. Though the word be to bee warranted; yet her sense is to be censured. For it is but a mere irony; shee speaks but {αβγδ}, derides Iobs piety: that he should bless God, still bless God, in so many miseries, in a world of woes. Her hearty meaning to divert him from devotion, to mutiny against God. After the news of the loss of his Oxen, of his Asses, of his sheep, of his Camels, of his Servants, of his sons and Daughters, by messenger after messenger, Iobs answer to them all, was {αβγδ} blessed bee God. His wife in her profaneness alluding to his term, cries {αβγδ} bless on, bless on, and die. Or as Tremellius discreetly hath it too, a jew, and as learned as Arias Montanus, standest thou still in thine integrity, blessing God, and dying? Tis all one. Shee means, his religious acknowledging of God, his blessing of his name, all his humility and piety was in vain. As the Atheists say afterward, what good get wee by serving God? and what profit ist to pray to him? Shee bids him in scorn, hold on in his holinesse, Benedic& morere, bless God, and perish.  
Mical thought David but a fool for his devotion, when he danced before the ark: thought him so? called him so. Iobs courage in his cross, his constant patience and piety, his wife holds mere simplicity, senseless stupidity. There's one Rabbin indeed, Moses Gerundensis, to save her credit, would fain make the best of it; takes advantage of the term, and makes her mean more holinesse, then shee had. Benedic Deo,& morere, give God thankes even unto death. A very charitable jew. I would I could excuse her too, for the honour, wee all owe to womens sex. I can not. Iobs self, who knew her best, and heard her speak, shows her meaning by his answer, saith plainly, shee spake like a foolish woman.  
The word is {αβγδ}, as Grammarians term it, indifferent to two senses, to Curse, or bless. The former is more odious, to bid him Curse God. But the latter bad enough, to bid him, bless him, in an irony. Nay the latter worse indeed, posterius deterius. For it both means the first in earnest; and the figure makes it more malicious. In the first verse of the Psalter, there's {αβγδ} and {αβγδ} and {αβγδ} three degrees, ungodly, sinners, and scorners. The last the lewdest. Iobs wife had been but impious, had shee said, Curse God, had said so plainly. But the trope hath further tainted her, added scorn to her impiety. Ludus stulto facere scelus, Solomon saith, a fool makes a game of doing that is wicked. job calls her a foolish woman, not for that shee speaks a wicked word onely; but for that shee plays with it, speaks blasphemy with a jest. Bid a man bless Baal, bid with scorn. Elias did; Cry aloud, saith he; for he is a God. Baal is but a profane idol. But the holy God of heaven, let no man bid, either curse him in earnest, or bless him in scorn. {αβγδ}, God( saith the Apostle) will not be mocked.  
God give all Christians Iobs spirit, not his wives, even to bless him in affliction, to humble themselves under his holy hand, till he shall please to ease them, and to cry under their cross, as job did under his, Blessed be the name of the Lord.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON job. The fourth Sermon.  job 13. 15. lo, though he kill me, yet will I trust in him. 
IOBS constant resolution of confidence on God, do God what he please to him. Two propositions knit together with a connexive particle, or a discretive, all is one, If he do, or Though he do kill me, I will trust on him. First( if you please) untie wee them, and consider them asunder, then unite we them again, and treat of them together. The he is God, the I is job. God kills sometimes. Tis not Gods Act, Gods work, tis Opus peregrinum, Esaies term, his strange work, unkind to God, to kill. In him we live, Paul saith. he gives {αβγδ}, breath and life to all. The Prince of life, Saint Peters term; The Lord and giver of life, called so in our liturgy. Moses calls Eve, the mother of all living: surely God is the Father of all living; breathed life first into man. Death came by the devil; is his tooth, Mors( saith Saint Aug.) a mordendo, is himself, Mors diabolus Death is the devil, saith the same Father; plays the devil at least, is that Abaddon in the Apocalypse, destroys all men. Yet God sends death, first threatened it to sin, then inflicted it for sin. God sent( saith the Psalmist) evil Angels among them: Death was one of them. He is therefore said to kill. Though he will not death; Nolo mortem, saith God, that is he takes no joy in it; yet he sends it for sin. Though he delight in life, quickens all things, Saint Paul saith; Life his kindest and most proper Act; yet he kills too, both Vivificat& mortificat, Hannah saith in her song. Gods self saith, I give life, and I kill, Deut. 32. God slay Iudahs two sons, Onan and Er, would have killed Moses, Exod. 4. Moses saith, he slay all the first born in Egypt; killed mighty Kings, David saith, Og King of Basan, and Sehon. Thou hast slain, saith ieremy. Tis out of question, that God kills.  
Come to Iobs confidence; thats more questionable. job a gentle trust on God? An Edomite, one of wicked Esaus posterity? Why not? His country is no prejudice to his confidence on God. The wind bloweth where it listeth; and Gods Spirit breatheth, where he pleaseth. There are Fearers of his name( Saint Peter saith) in every Nation. Even in the land of Hus, God hath a job to trust on him. Gentiles are {αβγδ}, lawless, Saint Peters term, {αβγδ}, Saint Pauls. But grace had made job a truster in God. Even Christ was bread in Galilee, Galilee of the Gentiles; the blessed Virgin both bread and born there too. Enough of the single sentences apart: now unite we them again, and consider, how they hang the one upon the other: Though he shall kill me, yet will I trust on him.  
You have heard( saith S. james) of the patience of job: you shall see it here and his trust on God together. It pleases God for our exercise and trial, exercise of our patience, and trial of our trust on him, oftentimes to cross and afflict his dearest children. He is pleased most times to censure them for sin. Why say I pleased? It is no joy to him: he is forced to punish them. Yet not to punish neither; theres no punishment to the righteous. It is Monitio, not Punitio, chastisement, not punishment; he but chastens his children. But his crosses often are merely meant to try them. The trial oft so sharp that a godly man for it shall be reckond for a sinner; to have done some grievous, heinous, extraordinary sin. Tis Iobs case; his friends observing the strangeness of his cross, thought him a wicked man, not thought onely, but flatly pronounced him a transgressor. Let a Viper leap on Pauls hand, he is a murderer. This trial● God puts often home, tries a man in his fire, like gold, seven times, adds cross to cross, one affliction to an other. Sept●es in die; saith Solomon, the just man falls, not trippes onely. God fells him to ground, doth it Septies, often, to day, to morrow, every day, seven times in one day; fells him not onely; bruises him, wounds him, maims him; more, hazards his life; hazards it? haply kills him right out. Thou hast thrust sore at me, saith David; Gods arrows stuck in him; David an other job. But Davids afflictions were but some of them for trial, most were for his sins. Gods crosses are my theme, such as Sathans own wit could not invent worse, the devills device all, his head and hand in all. En, quicquid ejus est, in tua manu est; all that job had, God permitted to his mercy; merciless destroyer. job indeed saith, God did it all, cries Dominus abstulit, Thats true too; God did, but by the devil.  
job was the greatest man in all the East countries, the greek translators say, for Birth, the Paraphrast, for Wealth; had 7000. sheep, 3000 Camels. 500. yoke of Oxen, and 500. she Asses, and a great family. God had blessed him too with children, seven sons and three daughters, all grown up, and stated; every one had his house: and, which must be a great joy, and comfort to their Father, all loving one another. This mans faith God will prove, will try his trust on him. God knew it well enough; for he  told it satan,  told it him twice, Seest thou not my servant job? But he will have both him, and all men know it in all ages. Christians did in Saint james time, Audisti●▪ ye have heard of it; and you( beloved) here Auditis, hear it now. Twas known to God before( Saint jerom saith) Intrinsecus, known privately, Soli Deo, sibique, Greg. to God, and himself onely. But God will have the world to take notice of it too.  
First, his Oxen and Asses the Sabeans took by violence, and slay his servants, all save him onely that brings word of it. Before he could tell this, comes news, that fire from heaven had burnt his sheep. While that was telling, other news, that the Chaldeans had driven away his Camels. In the mids of it, that a tempest had overthrown the house, where his sons and daughters were, and slain them all. Oxen, sheep, Camels, Servants, all he had, his dear children too; lost at once, in one day, in one hour. His beasts by Robbery, that skilled less; twas but mans malice; and his sheep by lightning, more tolerable too, the devills work; we use to say, theres a fiend in such foul weather. But his children unkindly by Gods hand; God is against him too. Fire from Heaven, wind from the Earth, thieves from the Borders, satan from Hell; Heaven, Earth, and Hell; Men, Devills, and Gods self, had in a sort conspired against him.  
poor job, distressed, miserable man, what saith he to all this? Even what the meekest man on earth, Moses self, could not have mended, Dominus dedit, Dominus abstulit, The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away. Cries Paul, O Altitudo! Let me, O mansuetudo! O admirable meekness! Nay, not meekly onely; sweetly too, divinely; the voice of an angel, rather than a man, cries Halleluja, thankes God for afflicting him, Blessed be the name of the Lord. Wee cry Benedictus Deus in donis suis, bless God when he blesseth us. But who cries Benedictus Deus in poenis suis, blesses God when he nurseth us? Benedictus is in every mouth for receipt; look if for loss there be one in all the Scripture.  
job here hath dueld with the devil, Impar congressus, but is conqueror; is more. His first speech, Dominus dedit, makes him that, his humble acknowledgement, that he had all from God. But his Benedictus, to thank and praise God for taking all away, this is {αβγδ}, Pauls term, makes him more than a conqueror. It would have done the devil good, if he would but have said, The Lord hath given, and the devil hath taken away. That had been a confession of some power in him. job would not honour satan so, knew, he does nought, but what God lets him; ascribes that to God too, Dominus abstulit. That conceit vexed satan. But if job in that conceit would therefore have cursed God; that would have made amends. But to praise God for it too, that was Diaboli Gorgon, it astonied him; a Vade Satan, he endures it not, gets him gone, gone for that time.  
But the devil hath not done; he hath spent his spite in vain; will move God, if he may, to try job further. So God does; but to Sathans further foil, and Iobs rich reward at the trials end. satan had said, let God touch all, job had; he would blaspheme, would curse God to his face. job hath proved him a liar, & adhuc, saith God, thou hast moved me to destroy him; yet he stands fast, and trusts in me still. That trial therefore satan sleights, though his own motion, skin for skin. The malicious spirit extenuates Iobs patience; saith, to escape a greater mischief, a man will bear a less; will part with all he hath, to save himself. The merchant in a tempest, will cast out all his freight, rather then drown. Who to save his life, will not lose his goods? Children, and all; shift they for themselves; he will save one.  
Must I dispute( I would not) with the devil? His Argument is neither true, nor pertinent. skin for skin? tis false, I will redeem my sons death with mine own. The brute creature will. job would have dyed( I doubt not) to have saved his Childrens lives. David had a dozen, would for one, a bad one too, yet he cried out, Oh Absalon, my son, my son Absalon, would God I had dyed for thee, Oh Absalon, my son, my son. The Midwife haply in hard birth, lets the Child die, to save the Mother. But I count it not a Child, till it be born: nor will haply the mother thank her for her pains. It is true( quadam— tenus, skin for skin. One will hold out his arm, to guard his head; cut off one rotting member, to save all. But a Parent will lose all for a son, a mother specially. Secondly, skin for skin, satan argues idly, speaks not to the point. A man will give all that he hath for his life? Iobs life was not in question, life nor limb. God had forbidden he should touch his Person. But that satan( they say) is black, he should blushy to reason so, nothing to purpose.  
Leave his Reason, hear his motion, a second motion, more malicious then the first, Touch his bones, and his flesh: prays God, enlarge his licence. They before were excepted. Now God grants that too, is pleased to try Iobs patience so. Sathans second Onset, hath leave( saving his life) to do his worst. Fire and Water( we say) have no mercy; we may swear, satan hath not. Christ  told his Disciples, satan sought to winnow them. Here he will job, and try him thoroughly. poor man; he must to the fan, to the Furnace again. God by satan smites him with boiles and sores, not ordinary, ulcere p●ssimo, of the fellest, the worst kind, most tormenting; and that, not in Head, Hand, or Hippe onely, but all over, à planta ad verticem, from crown of head to sole of foot: so as not his fingers ends were free so much, as to scrape the scab, be my phrase, I pray you, not offensive, or to wipe away the purulent matter, but with some shell or shared. And that on a base couch; in ashes, thats the best: the vulgar latin saith, In ster quilinio, on a dunghill.  
Oh the cruelty of satan! Oh the patience of job! Nay, shall I dare cry out, Oh the patience of God! that would suffer his Servant, a just man, that feared God, and shunned all evil, to be thrown down so indignly, from such height of honour, to such depth of shane; ●o sit, which the most miserable Lazar never did, upon a dunghill!  
Hath the devil yet done with him? he hath not. That which is worse, then all this, might vex Iobs soul yet more, his Wife, who should be his comfort in such case, turns devil too; tempts him to despair, bids in the devils dialect, Curse God, and die. Never( I think) before, had man to any woman, woman to any man spoken so wickedly. What saith job to all this? Nothing a great while; Curae leves loquuntur, is not patient onely, Silent too; till his wives wickedness forced him to speak, to speak, to rebuk blasphemy; Silent else. Strange strength; pain will make Hercules cry. But in his speech to her, he shows his Faith, that for all his torment, yet he trusts in God. Shall we receive good, saith he, and not evil at Gods hand?  
Well might his wife say to him, he continued in his righteousness, he does more, proceeds in it; justus ante, saith Gregory, post flagella justior; he was just before his trial, is more just now, holds it equity, God should sand us sour things, as well as sweet. Gregory bids note two things for our comfort in afflictions, quails& Quantae, their number, and their weight. If they be grievous, they be lightly few, if many, they be light. Iobs are both great and many; and yet is not discouraged, trusts still in God. The tenth part of his misery would have made a man despair, another man; job does not. satan his Combatant hath once met with his match, with more, is overmatcht. job hath foiled him again. In wealth, in loss, in health, in sores, is semper idem, changes not, still a truster in God.  
Let me not yet lie, to honour job; I must not quit him quiter from all impatiency. He was( as God saith) a just man, but a man. As Eve was in his wife, she tempted him: so Adam was in him, flesh and blood, some infirmity. extreme pains, and long sorrow, provoked besides by his upbraiding friends, miserable comforters, made him sometimes forget himself a little, and speak( as Moses did once too) unadvisedly. The holiest Saint on earth hath trespassed so; well, if not worse. But hitherto I am warranted to justify job; in all this, job sinned not, saith God. 2. 10. Nec loquens, nec tacens, Augustine, neither silent, nor in speech; neither in word, nor dead, saith Gregory. In the first trial, poor in state, but cord ditissimus, rich in heart, August. in the latter, foris putrescens, sanus intus, though sore in body, sound in soul. He stood like a tower, one writer terms him so; not all the devils battery could shake his faith. God to seeming forsook him, used him,( he saith) as an enemy. Yet in his trust he cries, Post tenebras spero lucem, after all those overcasts, he looked to see again the light of Gods countenance. God thrusts sore at job; but job trusts still on God.  
God will try job no further; satan dares move him no more. He sees, it bootes not. The oftener the gold comes to the fire, it is the finer. satan but refines job. Two motions he had made; the wicked tempter called them but touches both. Touch all he hath; and, touch his bones and flesh. Man may cry to satan, Noli me tangere, touch me not, needs pray to God he may not. The devils touch is destruction. Iobs substance, servants, and children perished by his touch; his bones and flesh consumed by it. His life had too, had not God excepted it, bidden him save it. satan bidden to save? Thats no Act for him: he is Abaddon, the destroyer. Had not Gods self preserved Iobs life; satan would have touched it too. What if God had let satan kill him too? Yet even that too notwithstanding, holy job would Trust on him.  
I presume, you look to have that proved; Is it not my Text? Else( you will haply say) I have done nothing. I pray, you will trust job; you may, a just man. Yet tis the Preachers part to prove his Text. The proof hard, because God tried not job so far; he killed him not. But Iobs constancy in the trials, you have heard, thats proof enough. They were more bitter than death. Had God killed ●ob outright, he had done less to him, than he did to him. But( by your learned leaves) I should but Actum agere, to prove this point: It is done already. job means the term in Metaphor. Gods heavy hand on him, in his loss of state and children, and his tormenting pains, he calls Gods killing him.  
A mans state is called his life. The poor widow in the gospel cast into the treasury {αβγδ}, Her whole life. A mans substance is called {αβγδ} often there. Poets and Philosophers call it {αβγδ}, a mans soul. job had lost it; God killed him so. Wee count our children, our life too; Give me children, saith Rachel, else I die: {αβγδ}, sweeter to the Parents, than their life. jacob would die for the loss of one of twelve.[ I will go down to the grave unto my son. That was joseph. He said as much of Benjamin; and judah  told joseph, that the fathers life hung on the childs.] job had seven sons, three daughters, lost them all, God killed him so. The anguish of his sores, they innumerable, it unsufferable, was a death worse than the former. It made him( like Saint Paul) to Die daily. In pains( saith the tragic) {αβγδ}, life is not life, tis death; tis worse than death, God killed job so. Yet he despairs not, remaines still in his righteousness. Here was Gladius, gladius, the Prophet doubles it, Duplicetur, saith Ezechiel, his goods, his children, his own person, Triplicetur, saith the Prophet, God kills him thrice. Yet he despairs not, trusts on God for all this, Though he kill me; I will trust on him. A generous, magnanimous, heroical resolution, worthy of an Ecce, a Behold, to go before it: and so there doth in some Translations. The Genevah hath it, and our last had had it too,( for it is in the original) but that it was thought fit to turn it otherwise, to be made a particle, not demonstrative, but discretive. It deserves and needs an Ecce, deserves for job, needs one for us. For we are Iobs, all of us; whether rich or poor; for he was both at times. But we do, as Job, few of us. He both in wealth and want trusted on God; most of us in neither. The man of wealth saith to the wedge of gold, Thou art my confidence. The poor man saith, I will steal rather than starve. Am I between both? Yet I trust not in God. Be my Condition, magistracy, judicature, traffic, or Trade, Office, or handicraft: I will lye and swear falsely, bribe actively and passively, cheat and extort, use Covin and ravine, and unrighteously corrade much Mammon of iniquity, to leave my sons Lands, and raise my Daughters Portions. Will the Preacher press me with Deus providebit, God will provide for them? I will not trust to that. Will he say, God will curse my evil gotten goods? My children shall waste them, and they shall corrupt my children? I will adventure that. I will get, what I can, how I can: what shall become of it, Viderit posteritas. I must end. Hast thou Honour, Health, Riches, or Children? Say, Dominus dedit, God hath given them. Art thou bereft of any of these four? cry, Dominus abstulit, God hath taken them. join both in Benedictus, have thou them, or loose thou them, cry, Blessed be the name of the Lord. Say in thy prosperity with David in the psalm, Praise the Lord, oh my soul. In thy whatsoever cross, say, soul, why art thou so disquieted within me? Trust on God; he is my Saviour, and my God.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON job. The fifth Sermon.  job 19. 26. Yet in my Flesh shall I see God. 
I Have here once before treated of Iobs faith, his confidence, his admirable confidence on God, that though he killed him, he would trust on him. Here I find his faith again; but on another object. And as the former hath, so hath this, a Tamen too, another Nihilominus: there, though the Lord slay me, yet will I trust on him: here, though the worms consume me: yet shall I see God in my flesh. My theme is one main Article of the Christian Creed, the resurrection of the dead. It is my Text but in Hypothesi, job speaks but of himself. But ex uno disce omnes, it is the case of all mankind. job saith but I; but Saint Paul saith All; saith it twice, to the Corinth. All must; to the Romans, All shall. Here are four several terms; an act, to See; the Seer, job; the object, God; I shall see God; the instrument the Eye: not the souls Eye: the understanding; but the bodies In my flesh. In my flesh shall I see God. Of each briefly in order.  
But first the terms must give a little leave to the note of connexion, Yet. A little word, but one syllable, but one letter in the Hebrew, but as material as the terms. Shall Iobs skin, his whole body, rot, haply alive, certainly in grave, the worms eat all? and yet he see God in his flesh? Flesh, skin, bones too, all turned to dust, to nought, yet shall job behold God? So he saith ver. prox. With his eyes, he having none? What ails job to speak thus? satan by Gods licence had twice touched him, in his body and in his goods. Hath he touched him in brain too? that he speaks Non-sense? For so he seems in the original. The Hebrew will pose any learned man, to construe it; the words are so unperfit. The vulgar Latin makes one sense, the Seventy another; but both such, as the words will not bear.  
Or say Iobs meaning be, as our Service book hath englished it out of the vulgar Latin, I shall rise out of the earth at the last day, and shall bee covered again with my skin, and shall see God in my flesh. Though the Hebrew mean not so; yet say, it doth: say that sounds to sense; but sounds it well to reason? Not the Atheist alone, but all gentiles will cry, Credat judaeus appella. The Corpse consumd to rise again; believe who list; they will not. Nay, nor will the jew neither, every jew; the Saducee will not. The resurrection a grand Paradox. The wisest of the world( Saint Ambrose saith) call it Stultum, a foolery Saint Paul saith, {αβγδ}, not to bee believed. No point of Religion is gain said Tam pertinaciter( Saint Augustines term) so stiffly, so stubbornly, as it. Wee shall find the Philosophers yield the souls Immortality, though that too Haesitanter. But the resurrection they deny Peremptoriè, cry, {αβγδ}, it is not. Post mortem nihil est, saith Seneca, all's done when a man's dead. {αβγδ}( saith the greek Comedian) death is immortal; the dead never revive. The Athenians called Paul, a babbler, for avouching it, and the judge in open Session  told him, he was mad.  
Wonder not at heathens, strangers to holy Scriptures; Christians have stumbled at this ston. Christs own Disciples have; much ado to make them believe, Christs self was risen; though they believed him to be God. Nay, Christs own Vicar hath, Pope John 23. Pope Paul 3. too. But heretics infinite, even from the Churches infancy, unto our age, have discreeded this Article, the Marcionite, the Manichee, 12. several sorts I could rehearse to you. The Libertines and Anabaptists do now. But though it be {αβγδ}, it is not {αβγδ}, though harsh philosophy, yet sound Divinity. Reason must not rule Religion. It was Abailardus his error in Saint Bernards time, to prove even profoundest points of Faith, by meare philosophy. Tertullian shall end this; he calls Philosophers, the Patriarkes of heretics. Enough of the Note; Is it not a little one?  
Of the four terms, the person is the first, I shall see; job shall. A 
α.  second absurdity. Grant a Resurrection, at which man shall see God. Yet job shall not, a gentle. Shall one see God in heaven, that ne're knew God on earth? Gentiles knew not God: they were {αβγδ}, Saint Paul saith, i without God. But said he well? he saith else where, {αβγδ}, I lie not; lied he not here? Gentiles had many gods: that was their heresy. But therefore they were {αβγδ}. For {αβγδ}, is {αβγδ}, saith justin Martyr, multitude of gods is irreligion; God( saith Moses) is one. Nay job is of wicked Esaies race; and David saith in the psalm, the wicked shall not rise. he doth not; tis Non stabunt, shall not stand. He doth; tis Non resurgent, shall not rise. The vulgar Latin Bible hath it so: and the council of Trent will have it to over-rule. Were not this but an Obiter, I would hope to accord the controversy. But be it so translated; yet that the wicked shall not therefore rise again at the last day, no papist will say, David meant. The Fathers expound it diversly; but none so, save Lactantius. Saint Paul shall determine it; he said plainly before Felix, that the Resurrection should be both of just and Vnjust.  
It is a mere jewish conceit, held by their rabbins, that the wicked shall not rise. {αβγδ} their souls shall perish with their bodies. But grant that too; yet Iobs shall not; he shall rise and see God. For though job came of Esau, which yet Broughton a great Hebrician denies, must he be therefore wicked, because his Father, his Grandfather was? No man will reason so. Then might job be lust, though sprung from Esau. Why say I, might? he was. See his testimonial in the first verse of his history, an upright and just man, that feared God, and eschewed evil, Gods self subscribes it, saith it twice. The devil himself, called devil of accusing, could not gainsay it. Why then should not job cry in his holy faith, I shall see God? Gods own son saith in the gospel, Beati mundi-cordes, the pure in heart shall see God, But that sight job means not, the Visio beatifica, proper to the Saints; Summum praemium; Augustine, Gods richest reward, and the height of all felicity in Heaven. The Privation whereof exceeds( Saint Bernard saith) the pains of hell. Yea Chrysostom saith more, mill Gehennas, a pain more heavy, then a thousand hels. But job means haply here, but the general sight of God, common to all the dead. All that rise shall see God, God the son, the judge. The Prophet saith it, They shall see him, whom they pierced. Saint John saith, Apoc. Every eye shall see him. job( I think) means no more, then his Resurrection, not his Glorification. More of this( if I may) afterward.  
I should not greatly press the Person here, my Text suppressing it, couching it onely in the verb, but that the next verse expresses it, presses it too with great Emphasis, unexpressible in the English. Not barely, I, but I myself. Theres more in the original: yea and the Translation hath more too I myself,& non Alius, not another, but my very self. Ego, ipse ego, non alius. Shall I now pray your more special attention, to some matter offered here, not ordinarily obvious? Saving the worlds Creation, never was work of God so full of wonder, as the Resurrection that I muse not, that so many, rather marvel, that no more made question of this Article. I will note but such as fit this term, I myself, not another.  
A Corpse quiter perished, not corrupted onely, Corruptio is in aliquid, but quiter consumed to nought, to rise again the same body, the very self same corpse, it was. Bury it; twill turn to dust: burn it, there will be ashes. Thus there are yet some {αβγδ}, some relics, some remaines, toward a Renovation; All is not gone. Though regress in Privation, return to former state be cross to reason: yet Faith will hold it facile to God, to build anew the body out of those poor remaines, to restore it again to that it was. But ex nihilo nihil fit, to make a body again out of mere nothing, Faith will stagger at that. God did not so at the Creation, had some matireals, Homo ab humo, made him( Moses saith) of dust. Say, I believe this too, that God can of nothing make a body. For he did more once, made Adams soul of nought, does still, makes ours, all ours so too. Yet to make it the same body, the self same, it was before, an {αβγδ}, a man of little saith, will cry, as Thomas did, Non credam, he believes it not. Great is Iobs faith, that does. God can make new of old; thats but to repair: or Magnum ex modico, much of a little, thats but to add: Eves whole body of Adams single rib, God can renew, and multiply. But a thing utterly ended, altogether spent, perished quiter, clea●e consumed, to make it idem ens, that very indi viduum, it was before; great is Iobs faith, to believe that.  
But Faith need not go so far. Mans body is not quiter consumed, utterly perished, turned into nothing. Tis but resolved into his first materials. Though we know not what, nor where; yet God doth. Be it devoured by beast, by fish, by fowls; consumed by fire, or water: All is one. Vbicun queen est, in deposito est, tart. tis at Gods command; who keeps it, and will render Suum cvique, to every man his own flesh at the Resurrection.  
Heathens here have put cases. One man in famine eats another: his flesh, that is eaten, turns into his flesh, that eats him. When both shall rise; whether shall have that flesh, the eater, or he, that was eaten? If the eater: then the other rises not the same man, he was, is not ipse, but Alius. I answer, the man devoured shall have his flesh restored; the eater, his repaired; enough to make them again the same individuals. A Child is born abortive; he shall rise a perfect man: what was wanting to full growth, God will supply. he is the same person for all that. Such a scruple to Saint Augustine, that he suspended his judgement, whether Abortives rose or not. A decrepit person, crooked with age, shall rise in the state of the body at the best. And so both Fathers, schoolmen, all Divines, hold, All men shall; shall rise, the old man in that state of body, which he had in his best age; the Child in that state, which he should have had, had he lived to it. They ground it on that place of Paul, Ephes. 4. 13. that wee all shall have the measure of the full age of Christ. Late Divines( I know) expound that otherwise: I will not argue it. Christs age was three and thirty yeares. Thats Aetas consistens, the Physitians term, the time of most strength and vigour of mans body.  
They add, integrity, and sanity; no mame▪ or malady then; but release from all both deformity and infirmity. For Christ( saith tart.) is not onely Carnis Resuscitator, but Redintegrator too, will make our bodies glorious, like his own. I say not, all shall have this honour, but the Elect onely. Nor doth this hinder identity, all this: we shall be the same persons notwithstanding. The old man is the same man, which he was, when he was young. Men sick, or whole, maimd or sound, are the same persons.  
To end this, there shall be change in job, great change in his externals, in his internalls too, his souls endowments; but it shall be the same job; not Alius, but idem; Alius in gloria, but idem in persona; altered in many accidents, but idem suppositum, substantially the same. The same soul; that no man questions: the same body too, {αβγδ}, Damasc. Ipsum ●orpus, ipsummet, the same, selfsame, very same body shall rise.  
Iewes have from Heathens one gross heresy, that oppugnes this; the Cabalists call it {αβγδ} a Metempsychosis, Transanimation one soul to pass into, and possess many bodies. Pythagoras said, his soul had been in three men before him. julian the Apostata said, his soul was once great Alexanders. Phineas, Elias, and John Baptist had( the Iewes say) the same soul. So had Moses, Abel, and Seth. Herod had slain John Baptist: after, hearing of Christ, though the lived again in him. Then job here is deceived; his faith is false, if this be true. he shall see God, but Per alium, an other for him, not himself. Some other body shall haply have his soul, and job must see God in that body. Then doth not job see God indeed. For if it be but Iobs soul, and not his body, then it is not job. My person consists of my body, and my soul, my own soul, and my own body. If my soul see God in an others body, then it is not ●, that see him. Nay Iobs error is worse yet; neither shall Iobs self see God, nor an other; neither ipse ego, nor Alius. No godly man shall; the wicked onely shall. For all the souls of the godly shift their bodies, the Iewes say. No just man shall see God. Abel( for example) dies. Seth( they say) hath his soul. At the Resurrection Abel rises, but with a body onely; for his soul went to Seth. He is but one half of Abel; and so Abel sees not God. Or if his soul return again to him; then Seth will want a soul; and so not he neither shall see God. For the body can not see, without the soul; Mens videt, saith the Philosopher, tis the soul that sees, that hears, that does all things: the body without it, is merely brute. Thus is the Article discreeded quiter of the Resurrection. Theres none, none at all, if neither the godly rise, nor the ungodly. I am too tedious in this term; hear the next. I take two together, an Act, to See, the Object, God.  
Sentire est pati, Aristotle saith, Sense is Passion, not Act. Sight is 
β. γ.  one. The bodies of the dead, of the righteous specially, shall have spiritual endowments; one among others, Impassibilitie. How then shall they see? But that Impassibilitie excludes not Sense. Else the life of the Saints should not differ much from sleep. They shall not thirst, nor hunger, nor feel pain: from such passion they are freed, from all passio corruptiva, which may hurt or offend. Nor is Sense mere Passion, but Active Passivity, Sight especially. Besides, the flesh shall rise, both Omnis, ipsa& integra, saith tart. All, the same, and entire. Not onely any limb, but not the least artery, vein, or sinew shall be wanting. Much less the eye, {αβγδ}, the noblest and most beautiful member, that man hath. Some parts and faculties, wee shall have for the bodies perfection. The woman shall want neither breast, to give suck, nor womb to breed, or conceive. Neither man or woman need nostril to smell, Tooth to grinned, or stomach to digest. Yet because without them it is not Corpus integrum, it shall have them all. But above all other, the Eye, to see God. So job saith, he shall see God. See God? God is invisible. No man( Saint John saith) hath seen God, seen him with Eye, the bodies Eye: with Faith, the souls Eye, many have. That the Fathers mean, that say, the Invisible God is seen Invisibly. Saint John saith, None hath; but job saith, he shall: Shall see God, face to face in heaven. But that is Visio beatifica, proper to the Saints. But Paul saith more than John, None either hath, or can see God, 1 Tim. 6. How then saith jacob, I have seen God? How saith Moses, that He, and Aaron, with his sons, and seventy Elders did see God? Theodoret answers, jacob saw God {αβγδ}, in mans shape. The other saw Gods glory, not Gods self. Not the Angells can see God, though Spirits as well as God. Christ saith, they do, Matth. 18. 10. do see his Fathers face. That means but Gods presence; for God hath no face, as man hath. Gods divine nature is Object to no eye. That job, that all men sha●l see Christ, at his coming; it is because he is man; They shall see him whom they have pierced, saith the Prophet. They could not pierce him as God. job shall see God in the man Christ. Christs self so consters it, Matth. 26. job means here but that sight which all shall see, that shall arise. By that sight of God, is meant but their appearance before the son of God. How shall that be? job saith, In carne, in his flesh. That term onely remaines.  
Theres {αβγδ}, a Philosopher saith, Iamblicus, an eye in the soul: {αβγδ}, you heard before, the soul hath sight. Iobs bodily Eye shall behold God. job, to declare, he believes the Resurrection, rests not in saying, he shall see God, but adds, In carne, in his flesh. Though bodies perish't utterly, never should rise; yet the soul having( as you have hear) an Eye, should see God at Christs coming. Had he said but barely, I shall seee God, he had born no witness to the Resurrection: he therefore adds here, In my flesh.  
Two old Arch heretics early opposed this, held that souls onely 
δ  shall rise, bodies shall not, Manes and martion. The one mad, as his name sounds; the other called for it by Polycarpus, Satanae Primogenitus, the devills eldest son. This odious heresy ancient Fathers oppugn'd, and almost all Christian Creeds evidently cross it, confess expressly the bodies resurrection. Both greek and latin Fathers have writ large tracts of it; and the Apostle Paul is ample in this argument. You hear him red at every burial. That Chapter is a Sermon sufficient on this point. Tertullian terms the grave, Sequestratorium, a place of Sequestration onely for the body. Places of Sepulture the Greekes call Coemeteria, the Dorters of the dead; the bodies there but couch and sleep till the last day. The souls then shall resume them; they shall rise at the sound of the last trump. For the Resurrection is the rising of the dead. souls are immortal, can not be said to rise; the bodies only die. Christ will raise them, all mens bodies. The just he must; for of those whom God hath given him, he saith, he hath lost none. he hath in part, if their bodies rise not. He saith, Non quenquam, but Tertullian reads Non quicquam, not onely any person, but not any part. he will redeliver them both all, and whole. Their souls were but their half; should but they rise onely, there were loss. Christ should save but Dimidium hominem, the half of man; which were Indignum Deo saith that Father, unbeseeming a Saviour. Soter, the most honourable of all Christs Epithets, implies both Salvum& integrum, safe and sound.  
But besides Honour, Iustice craves it too, the flesh to rise, all flesh, be the dead, that owned it, righteous, or ungodly. For shall the souls of Saints and sinners, the one be crowned in heaven, the other damned in hell, without their bodies? The bodies having wrought, whether righteousness, or wickedness, as well as the souls? the flesh, being particeps, In causa, not be so too In sententia? saith Tertullian.  
Theres a cloud in Saint Paul, would be cleared, ere I end, a seeming contradiction. I shall see God( saith job) in my flesh. Flesh( saith Paul) and blood shall not come into Gods kingdom. The speeches seem opposite, but are not. They differ somewhat in their terms, more in their sense. For terms, job saith, but flesh, Saint Paul, flesh and blood: job, hath but sight of God, Saint Paul, inheritance of Gods kingdom. For sense, job means the substance of flesh, Saint Paul, the quality. And job by seeing God, means but appearance before him, common to all men, Saint Paul, eternal life and glory, proper to the Saints, Saint Paul as well as job is for the Resurrection, spends almost a whole Chapter, the longest in all his Epistles upon it. job shall see God, Saint Paul denies it not. Though he were a Reprobate, not onely Esaues seed, but Esaues self; yet he should see God. But a Reprobate shall not come in heaven. And job shall see God in his flesh, that is, in his true body▪ but not in flesh and blood, that is, in mortal corruptible flesh, but changed and made incorruptible. That it shall be in his flesh, in his own, not in an others, that point was prest before. This place of Saint Paul I would not have held worthy the objecting; but that it stumbled even Origen one of the most learned of all the Fathers.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON THE psalms. The sixth Sermon.  PSAL. 14. 1. The fool said in his heart, there is no God. 
THe Argument of my Text is the Atheists Divinity, the brief of his belief couched all in one Article, and that negative too, clean contrary to the fashion of all Creeds, there is no God. The Article but one; but so many absurdities tied to the train of it, and itself so irreligious, so prodigiously profane, that he dares not speak it out, but saith it softly to himself, it secret in his heart. So the Text yields these three points. Who he is? a fool. What he saith, no God. How he speaks it? In his heart. A fool, his boult, and his draft. I will speak of them severally.  
The Psalmist hath suited the speaker to the speech. Saint hilary calls it stultissimum eloquium, a most foolish speech; who then should he be that speaks it but a fool? For the speech, wee say in Proverb, is {αβγδ}, a mans trial, and his show. Loquere, ut te videam; the Philosopher, to give judgemnnt what one was, did but crave to hear him speak. Clemens Alexander saith, a man is known, not {αβγδ} onely, but {αβγδ} too; as well by speech, as actions. David in this psalm hath both? But this onely in my Text is enough to try his title, the title of a fool.  
fools are rather faulty in superstition, then impiety. Hardly is one found that acknowledges not God, that doth not pray to him, and stand in awe of him, after his capacity. wisdom is more likely to make doubt of God: for it consulteth with reason, and with sense: and( as the Apostle saith) the things of God seem foolishness to them. The old man in Aristophanes cries, {αβγδ}, O notable folly, to think there is a God. Primus in orb Deos fecit timor, saith the Poet; it was fear, the fools passion, superstitious fear, that first brought God into the world. Of those whom God calls, there are not many wise; it is the Apostles too. Nay, he hath a stranger Paradox, then all this, that he that will be wise, wise to God, he must bee a fool, 2 Cor. 3. How is it then that, atheism is here laid upon the fool?  
There is a child in yeares, and there is a child in manners, aetate& moribus, saith Aristotle. So there is a fool: for fools and children, both are called {αβγδ}; there is a fool in wit, and there is a fool in life; stultus in scientia,& stultus in conscientia, a witless and a graceless fool. The latter is worthy of the title as the first: both void of reason; not of the faculty, but of the use. Yea the latter fool indeed the more kindly of the twain. For the Sot would use his reason, if he could; the sinner will not though he may. It is not the natural, but the moral fool, that David means, the wicked and ungracious person. For so is the sense of the original term. The ravishing of Dinah, and of the Levites wife, Amnons incestuous rape, Achans sacrilege, outrageous and flagitious acts, are termed {αβγδ} not follies, but villainies. David himself, who best knew his own meaning, expounds himself, Psal. 10. which is parallel to this: for whom he calls here {αβγδ} he calls {αβγδ} there, that is, a wicked man. Nabal, that was christened a fool, is called a man of Belial, that is, a wicked man.[ Dixit imprudens in cord suo: the imprudens is impudens, not witless, but shameless.] So hath it pleased Gods spirit in Scripture phrase, to call sin, folly: and the wicked, fools: especially in the wisest book that ever was writ, and by the wisest man that ever lived, the book of Proverbs, where almost in every verse, the graceless sinner is instiled a fool. And indeed Theophilact saith very wisely, {αβγδ}, wickedness is right folly; to sell ourselves for slaves to a most imperious mistress, and a most malicious lord, the Flesh and satan: to enjoy a short pleasure in this world by sin, to endure eternal torment in the next world in Hell. Nay the Sot( saith Salomon) trahitur ad vincula, is drawn unto the stocks; but the sinner needs no haling; he runs voluntary into bondage.  
Doth not the greek Text call repentance {αβγδ}, i. an after▪ wit? Surely then sin may be justly called {αβγδ}, i. want of wit. The fear of God, is the beginning of wisdom: and a good understanding have they that do thereafter. Be wise now, saith the Psalmist, {αβγδ} understand now; man then begins to be intelligent, when he begins to bee obedient. {αβγδ}, it is {αβγδ}; Religion, it is wisdom: Insipientis est dicere, non est deus; it is the speech of a fool, to say there is no God. Nay David deals here mildly, in calling him a fool: in the 75. psalm, he calls the wicked mad. Dixi insanis, I said unto the mad men. The reckless sinner is out of his wits. The prodigal child, the type of a loose libertine, is said, when he repented, to come unto himself, as if he were beside himself before. Nay I will say, the Atheist is worse then mad. Wee pitty, and wee pardon the mad man; because reason hath lost all rule of him. But this man doth insanire cum ratione, is mad, and yet hath reason. For he knows God is, and yet thinketh he is not. he doth credere contra fidem, saith S. hilary; his heart believes even against his faith. he cannot but confess, there is a God; and yet saith in his heart, there is no God.  
This fool exceeds the Atheist. The Atheist saith simply, there is no God at all. Horrible impiety; but the fools is worse. Better to deny God, then to blasphe●e God. The Atheist is odious: he hath not so much Religion, as the devil: for the devil believes; yea he doth more, he believes not onely, but he confesses too. The two things, which Saint Paul saith suffice unto salvation, to believe with the heart, and to confess with the mouth, the devil doth them both, and should be saved by them, but that his faith i● equivocal, and his confession forced. Credit Deum, but not in Deum; he believes God is, but he believes not on him. And his confessing Christ is not of love, but of constraint. But the Atheist hath no faith, no not historical faith. But the fool exceeds the Atheist: he grants God is, but an ignorant, an improvident, an unjust, an idle God. If God be reproached, it must be {αβγδ} it must be from the fool. Remember thy reproach, saith David unto God, from the foolish man, Psal. 74. me thinks I should take the negative particle from God, with whom it suits not, and transfer it to the fool; and say, non est insipiens, there is no such fool. Surely Saint Augustine saith upon this place, they were rarum genus hominum, it was hard to meet wit●●●ch. Belike that age, was honester then ours. I would I might not say, they are frequens genus hominum, to be met with every where. I will but take his trial to detect them. Prodeant, qui male vivunt: let them come before you that live licentiously, lewd and lawless libertines; and you will say, as Leah said when shee bare Gad, venit exercitus, here comes a multitude, a ship, a shoal of fools. Of such fools the world is full: if folly may bee argued by ungodliness, as both Saint Augustine, and the Scriptures warrant us. I say, if wicked living may define a fool, then surely stultorum plena sunt omnia; city, Court, Country, Church and Common-wealth, all are full of them. The counterfeit Hypocrite, the professed libertine, the Machiavellian statist are three of them.  
The Hypocrite makes Religion but his stalking horse, his heart denies God. As he saith of man, Psal. 64. quis videbit, who shall see? so he saith of God, Psal. 94. non videbit, he shall not see. And it is all one to say, God sees not, and God is not.  
The Libertine, that desperately plunges into sin, into all sorts of it, into all degrees of it, that impudently maintains it, being done, and holds it sin, to make conscience of sin; though his tongue do confess God, Yet his heart saith, non Credo, I do not believe.  
States-men hold it policy, for the peoples sake, to say, God is: they rule them the more easily. But their mixta prudentia, their motleypolicy, half Gods, and half Mans, shows their heart saith, God is not.  
It is time we leave the Person, and come unto the Act. What hath this fool done? Surely nothing; he hath onely said. What hath he said? Nay nothing neither; he hath onely thought: for to say in heart, is but to think. There are two sorts of saying in the Scripture; one meant indeed so properly, the other but in trope; one by word of mouth, the other by thought of heart. You see the Psalmist means here the second sort. The boult the fool here shoots, is atheism: he makes no noise at the loss of it, as bowmen use; he draws and delivers closely, and stilly, out of sight, and without sound; he saith, God is not, but in heart. The heart hath a mouth; intus est as cordis, saith Saint Augustine, God, saith Saint Cyprian, is Cordis auditor, he hears the heart; then belike it hath some speech. When God said to Moses, quare clamas, why criest thou? We find no words he uttered: Silens auditor, saith Saint Gregory, he is heard, though saying nothing. There is a silent speech. Psal. 4. 4. Loquimeni,& tacete, commune with your hearts, saith David, and be still. Speech is not the hearts action, no more then meditation is the mouths. But sometime the heart and mouth exchange offices, Lingua mea meditabitur, saith David, psalm 35. ult. there is Lingua meditans, a musing tongue; here is Cor loquens, a speaking heart. And to say the truth, the Philosopher saith well, it is the heart doth all things, mens videt, mens audit, mens loquitur. It is the heart, that speaks; the tongue is but the instrument, to give the sound. It is but the hearts Echo, to repeat the words after it. Except where the tongue doth run before the wit, the heart doth dictate to the mouth; it suggests, what it shall say. The heart is the souls herald; look what shee will have proclaimd, the heart reads it, and the mouth cries it. The tongue saith nought, but what the heart saith first. Nay in very dead, the truest and kindliest speech is the hearts. The tongue and lips are jesuits, they lease, and lye, and use equivocation:[ flattery or fear, or other by-respect, other wry-respect adulterate their words.] But the heart speaks, as it means, worth twenty mouths, if it could speak audibly.  
Now the fool must speak; he hath his name of it, fatuus à fando. Though he be {αβγδ}, one that cannot speak, i. speak wisely; yet speak he will, and because a rod is ready for his back, if he speak foolishly; his speech shall be secret. speak he will; if not with mouth, yet in his heart. The fool indeed lightly is( as the Preacher calls him) {αβγδ}, a man of tongue. But the fool in my Text, is not so very a fool, to cry out atheism at the market cross. There is mouth-atheisme, and there is heart-atheisme. The world hath had some Atheists, and still hath, steele-mouthed men, that have not stuck to say with tongue, there is no God:[ Yea as the Prophet Esay observed in some of them, to jest at God, to blare out the tongue, and to make mouths at God.] This fool is not so frantic; he saith, God is not, but how saith he it? his speech is not {αβγδ}, a matter of lips, he saith it in his heart.  
All Atheists are not of one brow; so brazd, as not to blushy to deny God with mouth. Secretum meum mihi, thought is free. He saith there is no God. but it is {αβγδ}, it is his heart that speaks. Non est vox, neque auditio, as Gehezi said of the Shunammites dead son, there is no voice, that you may hear; the speech is {αβγδ}, it is within himself: it is clandestine, for it is intestine. His credit, and his safety tie up his tongue. Men will abhor him, and the Law will lay hold of him, if he speak out. The King should not, much less God, be cursed {αβγδ} in scientiatua, saith the Preacher, i. in Conscientia, not in thy secret conscience. But Conscience in Atheists lightly is no blabbe; they dare commit any counsel unto it. Christ saith, the mouth speaks out of the hearts abundance; and so it doth, especially the fools; for Solomon saith, his heart is in his mouth. But when the speech is dangerous, Capitally dangerous; the fool is too wise, to speak to spoil himself. There is gull in his heart; but he will see it shall not overflow. He will keep the bag of it close in pericardio, that Saint Paul shall not say, that his mouth is full of bitterness.  
No man makes nice of uttering safe conceits. Nay, if it be verbum bonum, the heart will eructare, a homely term, but Davids, eructat cor meum verbum bonum, it will strain good manners to vent good matters. But to say, there is no God, is so odious, so dangerous, that the very fatuus, that hath his name a fando, will not mutire, not speak it never so softly. He is a fool, but yet wise in this; he can stultitiam simulare loco, refrain his folly in some cases. In the hand of the tongue is life and death, saith Solomon; and he will not put his life into his tongues hands. The tongue indeed it hath a double hedge, as Homer terms it, the lips, and teeth. But the heart hath a wall, as the Prophet termeth it: and one wall is surer, then two hedges. He will keep his counsel within that. The mouth is but Atrium, the heart is Adytum, the heart is Sanctum Sanctorum, whether the Priest onely came. Nay the Priest himself shall not come there. Shrift is for sins of act, not of thought. He may think safely, what he will; the heart is hide from all men: God onely sees it; but there is no God. He will say it in the language of the heart, which no man understands: he will writ it in the tables of his heart, which no man ever red. Doth Solomon call him fool, that trusteth to his heart? Kings may call men at their pleasure; he were a fool indeed, should he trust his secret any further. Let him with all his wisdom tell, whom he may trust better. Will he bid him trust the Lord? for so he doth: that is petitio principii, he denies, that there is any. The heart is Sathans Cellar, where he being but a foreigner,( for he forfeited his freedom at his fall) worketh closely out of sight. There is the devils forge, where he hammers all impiety; like the Iesuites in the vault, the prince of darkness, as in a den, or dungeon, there plots all irreligion. The heart is Sathans harlot, all heresies his bastards he begets of her. The Sire is so shameless; for being black he cannot blushy, that he avoucheth them. But atheism is so ugly, so monstrous, so hideous, that the damme dares not let it come abroad.  
Hath the fool said in his heart. fools have no hearts: are they not called excordes? Solomon calls his {αβγδ} void of heart. But by heart is meant in Scripture, understanding and discretion: fools have not that, but they have hearts. Yea this fool, that David means hath two hearts for a need, one more then ever wise man had, psalm 12. 2. he hath {αβγδ}, a heart, and a heart: Many fools double chested, stronger then the wise; this fool double hearted, more subtle then the wise.  
To end this second point, there are two sorts of atheism, mental, and vocal. The first will haply seem to be the less, because a sin in thought, is lighter then in word: it is less offensive; and the attainder too is less; for the heart alone is guilty, the tongue hath no hand in it. And so it is indeed, if the thought determined it; I mean, if the atheism exp●d within the breast, if it dyed in the birth. For though a Father saith, that prava cogitatio, is Sathanae seminatio, even evil thoughts, they are the devils seeds: yet Saint Augustine hath said sweetly, peccatum, quod non placet, non nocet, the sin hurts not, that delights not. But this atheism is not so. The fool here in my Text, though his speaking be but thinking, and his soul so circumspectly, that he say with David, dixi, custodiam as meum, I said I will take heed unto my tongue; yet what his lip conceals, his life reveiles. His atheism, though said but in secret in his heart, though his tongue betray it not, yet his Actions do bewray it.  
Much rather will I pardon the mouth-atheist, then him. For he that shall openly say, There is no God, will ipso facto, be thought beside himself. Or if he seem to have his wits, yet they that hear him, will all abhor him; they will stop their ears against his blasphemy, they will hiss at him, they will spit at him: his impious assertion shall not stumble any man. But the heart-Atheist, that saith God is, but thinks it not, and lives accordingly, ungodlily, unrighteously, unsoberly; first his sin is greater for his hypocrisy: for Simulata Sanctitas is duplex iniquitas.[ holiness dissembled is wickedness redoubled: his mouth indeed spake holily, but hollowly, it was not from the heart.] Secondly, for offence; for all his actions are as stones before mens feet, to antitype, and to stumble at. His hearts Creed, they see not that; but his mouths confession they hear that; and that makes them confident to follow his precedent. The man confesses God, and therefore would not do such and such things, if they were unlawful. And if he may do them, why may not we? speak out false Atheist, if thou thinkest there is no God. Thou shalt be less guilty, and thou shalt do less hurt.  
The fool hath shot; now let us see his boult. Children and fools delight to shoot right up. So doth this fool; he shoots his boult, boult up to Heaven. Whom to hit there? not Saints, not Angels. His aim is at the fairest, his Arrow is atheism, and his mark is God. The Sadduces yet were more religious; they denied Angels, and all sorts of spirits, but acknowledged God. The Iewes confess him, and so do the Mahometans. Yea all the heathen, though they knew not who he was, yet acknowledged, that he was. In the Altar at Athens, he was called the unknown God; and Dion saith in pompey, {αβγδ}, whosoever that God be.[ It is no marvel, that they knew him not: for Saint Hilary saith truly, Deum nisi per Deum non intelligi, there is no knowledge of God, but by God.] But this fool, born in the Church; the house of God, a professor of the gospel, the Word of God; every sunday at his Service, every Easter at his Sacrament, that he should, not doubt, whether there be a God, but deny flatly, that there is a God, this is a marvel. Man hath by nature a notion of God. And though Scriptures were not, the creatures would preach God. Est Coelum,& tellus; Superos quid quaerimus ultrà? a heathen could say so. I see heaven, I see the earth; what need I further look for God? Said the old man in the Comedy, {αβγδ}, O notable folly. to think there is a God? I may better say, {αβγδ}, O admirable madness, to say there is no God!  
God, in whom we live, and move, and have our being, shall he be denied himself to have a being? He hath his name of it, and is called jehovah, because he is. God saith himself, he is, Ego sum jehovah, I am he, that is. He is {αβγδ} in the Revelation, which is also he that is; and he calls his name Ehjeh, that is, I am. And yet the fool saith here, that he is not. hear you not the hissing of the old Serpent? God saith, he is; the fool saith, he is not. diabolical impudence, to oppose to God. So did the devil; when God said to Adam, thou shalt die; he said to Eve, you shall not die. The fool here like his father, dares contradict God. And yet least we wrong him; let us weigh his words well. He saith, there is no Elohim. That word is indeed one of Gods names; but it is lent sometimes to Angels and to Men, to Iudges, and to all Magistrates. weigh withall who speaks the words. It is the fool; but not the simplo Innocent, but the subtle sinner. The sinner, that he may the more freely follow sin, without check of Conscience, and without fear of hell, footheth up his soul with this secure conceit, there is no God. Not that his meaning is peremptorily, that God is not; but( as the rabbis writ upon this Text) {αβγδ} Gods name here means a judge. He grants God is, but not a judge: just like Epicurus, to have nihil negotii, nec sui, nec alieni: the blessedness of his state, he will not disturb, with the actions of men; he rewards them not, he regards them not. They say it plainly in the Psal. Tush the Lord seeth not, and God regardeth not ungodliness and wrong. He may confess God is, and yet deny him judge. The Sadducees aclowledge God; and yet their proverb in the Talmud is, {αβγδ} there is no judgement, nor there is no judge. That being true, the fool is in his Paradise, and may feed freely. This is not my conceit, the Iewes, better judges of Hebrew words, then we, expound it so; and divers Fathers second the sense too.  
Gods taste, saith Saint Bernard, is according to mans relish. The wise man, that doth sapere, that hath a perfect taste, he both loves God, and fears him. God to his relish, as he loves him, he tastes gracious, as he fears him, he tastes just. But this Insipiens, that hath no taste, not in his heart, howsoever in his palate, neither amorem, nor timorem, cannot relish God, neither his mercy, nor his justice, the two virtues of a judge; and therefore he saith flatly there is no judge.  
Surely the observing of the Crosses of the godly, as the thriving of the wicked, solicits the ignorant, as it did the Poet, nullos esse put are deos, to think there is no God. But this Nabal is no idiot; he hath wit at will; tis grace he wants. His intellectuals will not let him say, there is no God. But he observing too, both in others, that Malis been est, bonis male, that the wicked prosper, and the godly starve; and in himself, that working all wickedness, with all greediness, yet not the least cross ever lights on him, he will say, there is no judge. Thus profane fools abuse divine patience to contempt of God. Gods sweet longsufferance, whiles God doth {αβγδ}, bear with mens lewd manners, expecting still repentance, is turned to the prejudice of his own justice. The Saeducees paradox is this fools paralogism, {αβγδ}, he sees, there is no judgement, and he saith, there is no judge.  
To confute this impious atheism, time will not let, nor shall I need: my Text hath done it for me. The two first points confute this third abundantly. First, David dubbes him fool: that very title discredits his divinity. Secondly, his saying of it onely in his heart, shows plainly his conceit is not avouchable. Else he would speak it out. So that this fool, that saith there is no judge, hath found two Iudges here; the one is the Psalmist, the other is himself. He is {αβγδ}, his own judge, and Condemner. This is the fool, with the two hearts, we spake of. The one heart knows, that the other heart lies, as Saint Hil. saith of those that were seduc●t by the Arians, Credunt, quod non credunt, the one heart believes, that the other believes not. That knows there is a judge, though this say, there is none. And therefore the fool speaks frowardly, but inwardly; he dares not voice it, but saith it to himself.  
To Conclude; this gloss of the rabbins, to construe judge for God, is haply more nice, then needs. Tis in effect all one, to say, God is not; as to say, he is not judge. If God be God, he must be just. For all Gods attributes are all God self. His truth, his mercy, his wisdom, and what else, they all are God. Iustice is one of them. He that denies it, denies his deity. And therefore tis all one to say, there is no judge, and to say, there is no God. And therefore I will fairly return my Text to the usual Translation, that the fool saith in his heart, there is no God. To that God, whom he denies, but we confess, searcher of all hearts, and judge of all men, let us duly give, maugre all fools, all honour, &c.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON THE psalms. The seventh Sermon.  PSAL. 51. 3. And my sin is ever before me. 
THE Argument of my Text is the check of Davids conscience in the matter of uriah, consisting of four terms; the Object, sin, the Subject, David, my sin; the Act, the check, it is before him; the check continual, it is ever before him. My sin( saith the Psalmist) is ever before me. I will take the terms in order, as my text hath marshald them.  
sin needs must have some Subject. [ It is not like the accidents of Bread and Wine in the Popish Eucharist, an Accident without a Subject. sin must subsist in some Suppositum.] One of the three Persons, I, Thou, or He, must father it. But of the three, the first is most unwilling, the hardliest haled to say, the sin is His: especially in the number Singular. Nostrum will come but heavily to Peccatum. Our sin, the Scripture hath not often, of voluntary Confession. But that Saint John hath  told us, that we should make God a liar, we would cry, Non peccavimus, we have not sinned; wee would not with our wills yield a subject to Peccatum, of the first Person, no not in the number plural. But though there follow sin both shane and pain, yet because many shoulders make the load more light, wee will not haply stick to say, Peccavimus; for so the shane hath many sharers.[ But even so too, we will fetch into the number, into the society of our sin, as many as we may. It shall be Nos cum Patribus, jer. 3. 25. We and our Fathers. The( Wee) a great multitude, all the Iewes. But taking their Fathers in withall, the number infinite. You shall not find any where, Nos soli peccavimus, wee have sinned alone. Even Nostrum will not admit Peccatum, but with company, Nostrum,& nostrorum, jer. 14. 20. our sins, and our Fathers.] But Peccavi singular, where find you that, but forced? Onely except the Publican, he cried of his own free accord, Lord be merciful to me a sinner.  
I know King Pharaoh said at once, Peccavi, I have sinned. Whom will not pain make cry, peccavi? So did Balaam, so did Saul, and divers more on like compulsion. Even David himself, of himself saith it not. But the Prophet Nathan is fain to use art first, to fetch it from him by a Parable. Nay, God is fain to threaten him, blood for blood, and the abuse of his wives for the abuse of Bathsheba, before he cries peccavi, I have sinned. And the possessive is as loathe to couple with the noun, as the Primitive was with the verb. Peccatum tuum, thy sin, or his sin, that runs glibbe in every mouth. But meum peccatum, my sin, Vox faucibus haeret, the tongue ails something, the words stick in the throat and will not out. I know Cain spoken them, a wicked Reprobate, but with an ill will. Did he not first shamefully deny it, Nescio, he knew not, where his brother was; and after gracelesly argue it with God, What? am I my brothers keeper? David here; a ●aint, a Prophet, spake he the words, think you, freely and ingenuously? He saith indeed, my sin; but look at the Inscription of the psalm, tis after the Prophet Nathan had convicted him.  
We are all by nature concealers of sin; we were not else our Fathers sons. We drew that humour even from Adams loins, and sucked it at Eves breasts. justly doth job call it mans fashion, to hid sin, job 31. 35. No fashion ever followed so generally, as this. To hid it, not haply by flat denying it, as Cain did; but by transferring the blame of it upon some other. The sin is mine, peccatum meum, but not merely. I did the Act; but He, or Shee, incited me. I cannot hid the sin, but I will slide the blame upon some other. Adams Art too. When God examined him, why he ate the Apple, he said, The woman tempted him. When he examined Eve, shee said the Serpent tempted her. Am I found {αβγδ}, deprehended in the Act, taken with the manner? I must say, I have sinned, and I must say, Tis my sin. But the( I,) and the( My) will appeach an accessary; with their wills, a principal, but an accessary at least. The sin is meum, tis my sin; but the My, but a demi, but a moiety of the sin is mine; a half is His, or Hers, tis a third persons. When Moses expostulated with Aaron for the melted calf, he put the fault upon the people; they bad him make it, and they brought him the materials. Saul charged by Samuel with disobedience, in sparing the King and cattle of the Amalekites, excused him also by the people, they brought, and they spared; and all in the third person. David doth not so; he takes the sin singlely and solely to himself, My sin.  
My sin is ever in my sight. Our eyes are like the old womans in the comedy, Oculi emissitti, rolling eyes, spying and prying into others actions: pur-blind, stone-blind at home, sharpe-eyed abroad, {αβγδ}, saith Chrysost. censurers of others, but {αβγδ}, flatterers of ourselves. Cain said he was not his brothers keeper, but belike we are, our brothers keepers, wee should be in the right sense, but we are in a wrong, our brothers keepers, severe observers of our neighbours sin. They are adulterers, unjust, extortioners. Even David could say( but it was done in his passion) Omnis homo mendax, all men are liars. My brothers sin is soon before me. But what have I to do to judge anothers servant? He stands, or falls to his own master. I am my brothers keeper, not my brothers judge. A just man( saith Solomon) should be Accusator sui, an appeacher of himself; and Solomons Father here cries, peccatum meum, my sin is before me.  
My sin, &c. We call all things ours, many things that are not so, that are not truly so. But sin is truly ours, ours properly. That which is aliunde, is not truly mine: that which is of myself, thats mine indeed, and so is sin. All good things are from God, Tua bona Dei dona, August. Man may term all things his, his to use. But the first, donor, is the right Owner, they are Gods indeed. But sin is mans. God hath no part in it, can lay no claim to it; tis merely mans. All things which we call ours; they are so ours, that wee owe both their beginnings and increase to God. But sin simply ours, both birth and growth of it is from ourselves. Say not, tis from the world; tis from our flesh. I will not charge the devil with my sin. satan but tempts me, he compels me not; his power is but {αβγδ}, not {αβγδ}, persuasive onely, not compulsive. Mine own lust leads me to sin. The lust is mine, and therefore the sin is mine. Heaven and earth are Gods; the one is his footstool, the other is his Throne. The sea is his, the psalm saith too. All in them all is his, & plenitudo ejus, saith the Psalmist; whatsoever is in them, is the Lords. But sin is not, thats none of Gods. sin hath no owner, but the devil and man onely. God cannot say, my sin. All men may, saving he, who was both man and God.  
To end this; My sin? What sin? Davids sin was not ordinary. Ordinary sins are soon forgot; they are not ever, they are scarce at all before us. David had fallen grievously, bereaved Vrias both of wife and life. Such a sin would not suffer his conscience to have peace; but like a thorn in ones side, so would it in his soul be ever galling and wounding him. Peters sin, and Pauls were heinous both; the one denied Christ, the other persecuted him. But Peter did it in his fear, Paul did it in his zeal. And infirmity and ignorance obtaining mercy more easily with God, the conscience is the sooner stilled. But Davids sin not great onely,( theirs was so) but malicious too, a double sin, two of the greatest commandements of the second Table broken at one clap, his heart must still upbraid him, Injuriae ut furiae Cic. This sin like a fury, like a fiend ever before him. The wise man bids bind not two sins together. David did, {αβγδ} as himself speaks in the psalms, iniquity upon iniquity, two crying sins, peccatum cum voice, as Gregory calls it; the first too bad, but the second worse, posterius, deterius, murder added to adultery. Adultery a great sin, one man to climb an others bed; murder a greater, one man to spill anothers blood. Adultery a greater sin,( Thales said) than perjury, nay Chrysostome saith, than idolatry. But murder a bloody sin, a scarlet sin. Well might he say, his sin was great, Psa. 25. nec modicum nic unicum, neither little, nor one onely. he plays the King in his sin, he goes a progress in it, {αβγδ} from one wickedness to another.  
[ No sin( saith Seneca) Manet intra se, no sin lightly keeps within itself▪ but winds, and enwreathes itself within an other, enchaines itself within another, one draws another. Davids did so. Lust drew murder. In sins chain, as lust is next link to drunkenness, or sloth, so bloodshed often is next link to it.]  
murder and Adultery reckoned by schoolmen, both deadly sins. What say I both? As if there were but two? There are indeed but two main sins onely; but they have many concomitants. sloth and lust their dams. David sleeps in the day time. Nestor saith in Homer, {αβγδ}, Kings should not sleep all night. David sleeps in the day; and that in time of war, when men should be most wakeful. Dissimulation; he pretends kindness to Vrias, he sends a present after him. treachery, wicked treachery; he sets him in the front of the battle, and causes his fellows to recoil, and so betrays him to the enemy. Yea and( Bellerophon like) he makes him bearer of the letters written to that purpose. What should I speak of his making of him drunk? Thats no sin now adays. Ludus stulto facere scelus, Solomon saith, fools; but wise men now adays make a sport of that wickedness, one to make another drunk. Nay, and( which may not be omitted) he betrays a multitude of his people to the sword at the same time with him. Tis not Vrias blood alone, but the blood of many, that David sheds at once. Lastly( to pretermit sundry other sins) his senseless security, and long impenitency. He lay ten moneths at least without sense of his sin, it is plain by the story. What a sort of sins here wait on one? This is the sin, which David here calls his sin, My sin, &c.  
The next term is the Object, My sin is ever before me. In the other I was long, I will be short in this. My sin. Men will brag of their well-doings; they are ever in their mind, ever in their mouth. The Pharisee will say, he is a sober man, an honest man, a just man; he fasts, and he pays tithes. Nay his mouth will not serve, he will hire a Trumpettour, to sound in the streets, to assemble the people to the sight of his alms. he will have his largess be not before himself alone, but before others also. Obadiah will bring his piety before Elias; Hast thou not heard, how I hide an hundred Prophets. The good things which we either have or do, they ever are before us. If God have given us any thing above our brethren, we vaunt of that. The rich man in the gospel of his wealth, soul, thou hast much goods. The proud King in the Prophet, of his building, Is not this the great babel, which I have built, &c. thats for the one, good fortunes: and for grace, come see my zeal, saith jehu to Iehonadab.  
Though the wise mans lesson be, let another mans mouth commend thee, not thine own; yet the tongue travels with her masters phrase, and hath no ease till it deliver it. The Hen will not lay an egg, but shee will cackle. Praise should bee pronound with the third person, with he and his. But the first, which before was backward and unwilling, is forward enough here: yea and that even in the number singular. Both in the primitive, you heard Ahabs Steward, ego pavi, I hide, and I fed an hundred prophets, and in the possessive you heard jehu too, come see my zeal. So well content to vent the own virtues, that it will own sometimes some actions done by others. Praise doth Sordescere, the proverb saith in mans own mouth. Modesty blusheth, not to challenge onely, but to aclowledge even her right. The Iewes mediating to Christ for the Centurion, said, dignus est; but himself would say, Indignus sum, Lord I am not worthy. Let them tell if they would, himself would not, that he loved their nation, and had built them a Synagogue. Christ said, John was Elias; himself said, I am not.  
My sin, &c. Not good things onely, but some evil too, malum poenae, are ever before us, ready to complain of the least cross, and to put Meum before it. I said, Cain cried, my sin, or mine iniquity, because the word properly sounds so in the original. But some translate it, and perhaps he meant it so, and the context bears it better, my pain, or my punishment, that he confessed not his sin, but mutind at Gods sentence. Any good thing, any evil thing, so it be not malum culpae, endures this person,( I) and( mine) endures it? nay affects it. I should say rather, the person affects them; my fruits, my barns, saith the rich man in Christs parable. My might, my majesty, saith the King of Babel, my zeal, saith jehu, my punishment, saith Cain. But Peccatum is a bear, Meum is afraid of it. Or rather tis a stake, and Meum like a bear is loathe to be drawn to it, and so much in brief onely of the second term.  
The third is next. In it translators differ. Some turn the term before me, some against me. Tis true too, that sin is against him, that committeth it. sin is the greatest enemy man hath. But the context leans not to that sense. Tis therefore translated by Tremellius, not Adversatur, but Obversatur mihi, it is ever in my sight. And this sense too hath two constructions; some thinking David meant it of confession; because the first part of the verse sounded to that sense. And it is usual in the proverbs and the psalms to second the same sense, as the rabbis speak, {αβγδ} in different phrase. I rather follow those, they are the most and best, who rather think it the control of Davids conscience, continually rubbing him with the remembrance of his sin. My sin is before me. sin flies mans eyes, is loathe to come before him. Or rather man flies sin, flies the face of it. Tis Comes individuus: having once admitted it, once committed it, he can not fly it, it clings close to him. All he can do, is to turn his back on it, to say to sin as Christ said unto satan, Vade post me, sin, get thee behind me. That is the position which the sinner seeks both for himself, and for his sin. The first man hath taught all men that. When God said to him, Adam, where art thou? was he not behind the Trees? And as the Adulterer loathes lightly to look on his base child: so sin, the brood of satan, the base brat of satan begotten by the devil on concupiscence, man cannot suffer in his sight, but cries, Vade post me, bids it, Avoid, and get behind him.  
Where is a man almost will be a known of sin? will not hid it {αβγδ} saith job, as Adam did, close it in the closet of his heart, and keep that closet too, as Salomon bids but to better purpose, omni custodia, with all diligence; that it come not coram, that it break not forth to affront and encounter him. The Harlot in the proverbs looks demurely; shee hath eaten, saith Salomon, but shee wipes her mouth, and cries, non sum operata, shee has done no evil. Saul will brag to Samuel of fulfilling Gods commandement, coming fresh from the breach of it. Cain asked where Abel was, can answer God, he knows not; and Gehezi Elizeus, Thy servant went no whether: What city I Harlots, Saul and Cain? even the plainest man, and openest, that hates all dissimulation, yet will dissemble sin. Nor is this indeed the point. Davids sin here is before himself, not others; my sin is before me: Let Saul, let Gehezi, let the Harlot too, conceal their sins from others sight. There is some reason: some? great reason I should hid my sin from others. For my sin is my shane; shall I not be shie of it? sin indeed is dangerous if it come coram nobis. But why should I hid it from myself? why should not my sin come like Davids, coram me? be ever before me? Surely it may, and should. But when all things be as they should, the world will end. I show not what men should, but what they do. Wee do, that wee shall not, cast them behind us. Wee have a wallet, which we hang half before, and half behind us. In the half before wee put our virtues, our vices in the half behind. That part wherein our better Actions are is still in sight. But that wherein our sins are, non videmus id manticae, wee have no eyes in Occipitio. Surely they are blessed, whose sins are covered, David saith: But whose sins are covered by Christ, not by themselves; themselves must open them. God will not heal them, that is, cure them, except we unheale them, that is, uncover them. God will not cast our sins behind his back, except we bring them first before our face.  
There are, that are not so supine, to cast their sins behind them; and yet they shall not bee before them neither, not ever before them. Is there not a third position between both? They will lay by their sin; lay them not behind them, but beside them, lay them by for the present. think of them they will, but at some other time. I have some business; they will distracted me. I am merry with my friends; they will disturb me. I will say unto my conscience as Felix said to Paul, hearing him dispute of the judgement to come, go thy ways for this time when I have more leisure, then I will call for thee.  
Man will not, not onely not do it himself, but not suffer others neither to set his sin before him: Not Kings onely; theres some reason, subjects should not censure sovereigns. Wilt thou say( saith job) unto a King thou art wicked? But in this every subject almost will bee a King. No man so mean, that will endure another to dare censure him; no not his superior. Abner will not be charged with lying with Sauls Concubine, no not by Sauls son. Ishbosheth shall dearly buy his challenge. Every man will say unto him, that shall offer but brotherly to admonish him, that which the Hebrewes said to Moses, who made thee a judge? Gods Prophet may not dare to set a mans sin before him. If John shall check Herod with his brothers wife, it will cost him his head. This office so dangerous, that no man dare adventure it, there's one yet that dares execute. God hath one hardy officer, that dares arrest the sinner, though he be Caesars self. It is the conscience. It will not supparasite the stoutest sinner. But as Paul did to Peter, it will {αβγδ}, affront and encounter him, {αβγδ}, withstand him to his face, and cry, as God saith in the psalms, haec fecisti, these things thou hast done. Thou canst not either fugere or fugare; flight either active or p●ssive is in vain: It will not fly from thee, thou canst not fly from it; twill bee before thee, maugre thee. shun it in one place, it will meet thee in another, as the angel did Balaam. Be in the way, it will be before thee there. turn toward the Vineyards, it will stand against thee there. seek yet a narrower place, it will meet thee also there. Thou playest but Balams ass in shifting and shunning it; shut thine eyes: yet shee will speak. Stop thine ears, that will not serve, her words are stripes, shee smites surdo verbere, saith the Poet, her stroke sound not, they are within the heart. Thither shee will summon all thy sins, show thee the true shape of them. Even as the samaritan woman said of Christ, she will tell thee all things, that thou didst in all thy life.  
Art thou secure, and yet hast sinned? It is because thou fearest no executioner. Thou fearest not him, because theres none to judge thee. There's none to judge, because there's none accuser. There's none to accuse, because theres none to witness. There is no witness, because thy sin is secret. Thou fool, thou hast all these within thyself. Thy conscience is them all, accuser, witness, jury, judge, executioner. Thou hast a Court within thy heart, the Court indeed of conscience. For conscience there acts all these offices, indites, convicts, condemns, and executes.  
Conscience God put of purpose in mans heart, to bee his keeper, to watch him in his ways, in all his ways. See thou observe Gods law; for thy conscience observes thee. And it will not take a bribe, as some observers do, to see, and to be silent. look what it sees, it saith. Set thou thy sins behind thee, or beside thee: it will set them all before thee. It is the souls Looking-glasse; shee shall not have a spot, but it will show it her. Commit not sin to thy conscience to conceal. It is a bad counsell-keeper. sin not in her sight; thou shalt be sure to hear of it. Shee will not eliminate, tell it out of doors to others; but shee will twit thee with it, check, and chide, and challenge thee. Stand, sit, lie down, turn thee which way thou wilt; still shee will bee before thee, and set thy sin full in thy sight.  
sin is a Serpent, like unto her Sire, and this is her sting, the continual control and upbraiding of the conscience. {αβγδ}, a bitter sting, Chrysostome, bitter above wormwood, above gull, the gull of asps, of Dragons. Not the bare upbraiding, thats not all, to set the sin before us onely; but the pressing of the pain of it, wrath, judgement, and damnation. This to a graceless man is as the gates of Hell: a horror to the godliest. Twill make Paul cry, Infelix ego, but Cain to despair, Iudas to hang himself.  
The prick of this sting had pierced to Davids heart, himself saith in this psalm, it had broken even his bones. His conscience had presented both his sins before him, both lust and blood. he saw the face, the ugly face of both; yea and the face of Gods displeasure too; the 3. verse hath them both of 38. psalm, and there was neither rest in his bones, nor soundness in his flesh, à fancy peccatorum, through the grisly countenance of his grievous sins.  
I must omit here many things▪ which I purposd in this point. To end it, the conscience is the Character both of Gods grace and justice. he hath given it unto man, both to admonish him, lest he sin, and to punish him if he sin. And tis haply that Genius, which Heathens imagined every man to have, a good angel, and a bad: the one to advice him unto virtue, the other to chasten him for 'vice. For the conscience acts both offices. Tis both Fraenum& Flagrum, both a bit and a whip; a bit before the sin, quomodo hoc faciam? saith joseph to his mistress, how may I do this thing? and a whip after it, jer. 8. Quid feci? What have I done? A curb before the sin, Oh do not so wickedly, as Thamar said to Amnon; and a scourge after it, Did not I tell you? said Reuben to his brethren. hear it, when it checks thee like a bit; and thou shalt not feel it chasten thee like a whip. Kick not against it, tis a prick. Surely, if thou wilt not let it bridle thee, it will saddle thee. If thy mouth refuse the bit; thy back will bear a burden that will break it, without grace; yea and thy belly too; bee Iudas an example; he burst asunder, and his bowels gushed out. Salomon saith, wine is; surely sin is, tumultuator, a turbulent raiser of tumults in the soul. The soul of a sinner is like a raging sea; the Prophet saith. sin, like mud, and mire, the waves cast up before it continually, and that is the last point of my Text; my sin, saith the Psalmist, is ever before me. That, and some more omissions, which time permits not now, I may happily add hereafter.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON THE psalms. The eight Sermon.  PSAL. 51. 3. My sin is▪ ever before me▪ 
IT is not long since I entreated of this Text. Time forced me then to omit many things, and to leave the last term quiter untouched. My mind now is not to reiterate any thing delivered then. One Scripture may be glossed diversely. My project is the same; that I may not alter, the continual control of a guilty conscience; but set down by the Psalmist in hypothesi, in his own particular and personal experience.  
The Text contains four terms; an Object, sin; the Subject, David; My sin. The Act, it Affronts him, it is before me, saith the Psalmist, That Act continual, it is ever before him. Peccatum meum coram me jugiter, My sin( saith David) is ever before me.  
For the first; Could David sin, a King? Kings cannot sin: are they not Gods? They are so; but by Nuncupation; by Participation, saith Saint Augustine. Angels are Gods so; and yet have sinned. But sin is Law-breach; {αβγδ}, Saint Iohns definition, sin the transgression of the Law. How should Kings sin? They are above the Law; above mans Law, not Gods. It seems above Gods too. For when Ahab made conscience of Naboths Vineyard; What? saith his wife to him, Art thou a King? Vtinam liceret! Nero in his lust crying, Oh that it were lawful; his mother answered him, Si libet, licet; if he pleased he might. The Lists of laws bind not the lusts of Emperours; no not of Gods Law. Licere, an Placere, quis in Rege? If a Kings lust lye to any thing; nere ask the question, if it be lawful. So Flatterers are wont to pander Princes, to supparasite Kings. But yet if Kings did sin, they might be censured. Kings are uncontroleable. Who will say( saith job) to a King, thou art wicked? That shows that tis not safe at all to censure them; or, if you will, not lawful in a compulsory way, but in a consultory, if with due respect or discretion. Prophets have done it so. Samuel did, Elias and John Baptist did. What need I seek for instance further than this psalm? The title tells us Nathan did.[ Kings all are sinners, one excepted, the King of Kings. Why have Kings Confessors, if they could not sin? Popes( I trow) Kings superiors, yet can sin. Their Parasites say, they cannot err; they deny not, they can sin. David here, though a King, yet saith, My sin.  
My sin, Saints have their sins; thats more than Kings. The Patriarkes, the Prophets, the Apostles had their sins. Never any son of man, saving the son of man, was quit of sin. One daughter is excepted, but never any son. Novatus first, and Pelagius after him, held that schismatical heresy, that a man may live without all sin. Would you believe that Papists hold it too? The council of Trent doth; Bellarmine doth. Nay Bellarmine saith, all catholics, that is, all Papists do; without all mortal sin; but not without all venial; they dare not venture that. And yet one doth; Bonaventure dares adventure that, A man may lead his whole life without all sin. What should we heed, what Solomon saith, Non est homo, qui non peccet, there is no man, that sins not? The Papists, some of them said; that a man once justified may ever after live without any kind of sin. These are the right Puritans.  
My sin, saith David. Davids sin, but which? Or sinned he but once onely? The Scripture seems to say so: That he walked in all the ways of the Lord, all the dayes of his life, save onely in the matter of Vrias: But thats but an Hyperbole. No doubt but Davids sins were many. proof needs not; he confesseth it: his sins were more than the hairs of his head. But he means here his adultery with Bathshabe, and murder of Vrias. Said I before, Saints had their sins? Such sins are ill beseeming Saints. What shall the son of belial do, if Saints do this? What is the Libertines sin, the philistines sin, if this be Davids? Saints sin not onely; but their sins sometimes are( as Paul phraseth it) out of measure sinful. Noahs drunkenness, Lots incest, Iudahs fornication, heinous sins all; Davids lust linked with blood exceeds them all. Gods Spirit not assisting with Grace, the godliest man may act the deadliest sin. Peter, a Pillar, as Paul calls him, {αβγδ}, OEcum. a pillar of faith, yet denied Christ. Solomon, jedidiah, i. Gods beloved, worshipped strange gods. David a man according to Gods heart, a lecher, and a murderer.  
Now put together these two severals, a Kings sin, and a Saints, and see how great a sin they spell. The sin is great per se, Spouse breach, and blood shed both great sins per se, whose sins soever. But to be His sins, Davids sins, Gods anointeds sins, anointed both with oil by his Prophet, and with Grace by his Spirit; both unctus Dei,& Sanctus Dei, Gods King, and his holy one, surely that makes the sin far more transcendent. A Kings sin, a great scandal. Regis ad exemplum, saith the Poet, Princes acts are all precedents. What will Subjects care to sin, when they see their Caesars sample? Tutum est peccare authoribus illis. But a Saints sin is far mo●e scandalous: Not a ston onely of offence for the weak to stumble at; but as Nathan  told David in this very cause, an occasion to the wicked to blaspheme God. This sin, such a sin of such a sinners, it is no marvel, if the Actor say, it is ever before him: My sin( saith David) is ever before me.  
David doth not {αβγδ} follow mans fashion, as job speaks, to hid his sin; but confesseth it. Nor doth he hood it neither, mans fashion too, by some Terminus diminuens, to lessen it at least. If sin must needs be seen, needs come before us; she will come as cleanly habited, as she can. Her Blackeamore skin she can not change; but shee will shrowded it with a little lawn. Her face, if shee may, shall have a mask, to cover it; if not, yet a wimple at least, to shadow it. Am I deprehended, or detected, that I needs must cry Peccavi? Will my conscience, as Gods commissary, force me to confess? I will pray that yet the form may be with favour; that my shane may be shadowed with either the civility, or the generality of the term. Should I say my drunkenness? Let it be my intemperancy. Should I say my whoredom? Let it be my incontinency. Should it be my wickedness? Let it be my sin.  
Nay, I may not say my sin; that term is too broad. David did; I will not. For I see in the gospel what base esteem was made of sinners. I will seek some milder word. Erravi, temere feci, I have done amiss or unadvisedly. I know Saint Austin saith, that sin is nothing. But he shall pardon me: haply hath some other meaning. It is an odious and an heinous term. David said once, it was his infirmity. I will say so too. There are {αβγδ}, negligences, ignorances, defaults, mistakings, trippes and slips. I will aclowledge any one of these, and call it mine. But I will not say my sin. I will use his term, that turned this psalm into metre, ver. 7. my blot, or my spot. But as Luther said of the word {αβγδ}, that his soul hated it; so my heart hateth this word( sin,) my tongue can not pronounce it, Pronound with this Person, I cannot say, my sin. If a man must smite himself; it shall be softly; if censure his own sin; it shall be gently. What mouth will not lye lightly, but at least will not tell a faire tale for his master? Every tongue will extenuate his masters trespass. If a beam be in his eye; tis but a moat; if an Elephant in his throat; tis but a gnat.  
The sin here meant by David, though Saint Augustine say of it, Noluit sileri quod volvit scribi, what Scripture hath recorded, God would not have concealed: yet loathe I am to aggravate such a persons sin, a Saints, a Prophets, a Patriarkes sin. And I touched that point in part the last time. Let Davids self censure it, Psal. 19. he calls it there the great offence. Yet such offences sinners extenuate. murder and whoredom, the greatest sins, the second Table hath; yet wit hath words to qualify, to alloy the odiousness even of them to. No sin so rightly called Peccatum, as Adultery. For Civilians say, Peccatum is quasi Pellicatum, sin properly is harlottrie. That had David been a catholic, and had prayed here in Latin, he could not more perspicuouslly have specified his sin. Yet the Harlots wickedness will be but termed a scape. David meaning haply this sin by that phrase in the 25. psalm, delicta juventutis meae, the escapes of his youth; for he was of no great age, when he fell into such sin; profaneness haply hath fetch the phrase from thence, to term whoredom but a trick of youth. Tis but Delictum not Peccatum, an escape, but not a sin. The devills figure of diminution. Though I shall slay a man: I will confess my choler; but I will not say, my sin.  
Secondly say, conscience tie me to Davids term, force me to say, my sin: yet will I do it in diminutives. As Lot said of Zoar, so I will of my sin, an non modica est? Is it not a little one? I will thin my my sin, in the Adjective at least, if I can not in the Substantive. Tis in my mind remarkable, that of all words, sin hath no Diminutive, not in any tongue, known to us commonly. Onely the Spaniard hath his Peccadillo, i. a petty sin. Caesar was  told, Hominibus, non verbis, he might endenise men, but not words. But some catholic mint is above Caesars, they can coin words too.  
To end this, there is a quaint divinity among the Libertines, that sin is but a mere conceit; that right repentance is denial of sin. That Peter was pardonned, because he believed, he had not sinned in denying Christ; Iudas not pardonned, because he confessed, he had sinned in betraying him. To press them, bootes not with the Scriptures; they go not by the Word, but by the Spirit, But what a fool is satan, that he can not pled not guilty, and so come out of hell!  
Now come wee to the conscience checking and controlling David for his sin. For that is the sense of the subsequent phrase, that his sin is before him. His conscience presents the image of his sin ever to his sight, charging him with it, and chastening him for it. That Project I prosecuted at large the last time; but was forced to break it off abruptly. Any thing than uttered I will not now reiterate. I mean this Sermon but a supplement to that. sin, like the book in the Revelation, which Saint John was bid to eat, It was sweet in the mouth, but bitter in the belly: So it goes glibly down, as smooth as oil. But the conscience, which is the stomach of the soul, disdains and loathes it; and fain would cast it up again; but that factum can not be infectum, yet it yeoxeth and exhales many loathsome savours; it upbraids the sinner. Solomon saith, Wine is; surely sin is Tumultuator, a mutineer, a stirrer of turbulent risings and tumults in the soul. But of the( Pro) I spake last time sufficiently; now onely of the( Contra.)  
There is a conscience keeps all close, never checks, never upbraids the sinner, never once troubles him. He may do what he will. he is( as Paul terms it, Ephes. 4. 19. {αβγδ}, benumbed in his conscience, stupefied, and senseless. do he never so much, never so great wickedness, he hath no remorse of it, no {αβγδ}, no spirit of compunction. His worm is dead, or charmed; it bites not, it gnaws not. A cauterized conscience, Pauls term too, seard with the Devills iron, and utterly without feeling. Or say the conscience do her duty; yet Paul notes some that can repel, can put away the conscience, 1 Tim. 1. That if it be querilous, will stop the ear; if it bee clamorous, will cry as Christ did to the wind, {αβγδ}, peace and be quiet. Their sins either never before them at all, or before them in vain: they sin securely, and contemn all control.  
God put in man the conscience purposely for sin; if it might, to keep him from it; or if not, to whip him for it. It is both fraenum& flagrum. It is the souls lantern, a greek Father calls it so, by it to see her sins. But as spirits( as some say) first make the light burn blew, and at the last to go quiter out: so the devil with his blast will blow the Candle out; the soul shall see nought by it. It is the souls book, Saint Bernard calls it so. The records of all our actions are enrolled in it. But satan will be sure, either so to clasp it, that the soul shall not open it; or so to race it, that shee shall not read in it. Mans soul and body are full of sin throughout. The conscience is the Index, joh. 8. 9. {αβγδ}, the table which will teach to turn to every one. But the devil comes& rents it out. It is the souls glass, the same Father terms it so. The soul hath not a spot, but shee may see it. But the devil with his breath will dull and dim it so, that the soul shall see nought in it. Though the sinner shall have wrought never so much wickedness; yet he will say with Paul, Nihil mihi conscius sum, I know nothing by myself. Of his conscience, he is innocent.  
Surely there is a quiet and still conscience, which is good: that hath Sensum, but not Consensum, it feels sin, but approves it not. The righteous man hath it. It sets his sin before him, and no more. It importunes him not, disturbs him not; because he repents presently, and Gods spirits ministers comfort to his Spirit. But the quiet conscience, wee mean here, has Consensum, but not Sensum; the distinction is Saint Bernards: It gives assent to sin, but has no sense of sin. Many wicked men have it; and some righteous too sometimes. David had it for a time. he lay a whole year lazing in his sin, without any sense of it. A conscience cross to her creation. Shee was made by God to withstand sin, but to feel it, shee quiter contrary feels it not, and consents to it; conspires with concupiscence to betray the soul with silence: as a dog should take bread of a thief, and not bark at him; so the conscience to be flattered by sin, and not stir at it. A desperate case, when that which should be Sacra anchora, as S. Chrysostome calls the conscience, the last refuge in extremity, when that shall fail too. When witness and accuser and judge too( for you heard the last time, that the conscience is all three) and all shall bee corrupted. God hath appointed it to be mans keeper: when the keeper shall consent to the escape of his prisoner.  
To this end: happy is the sinner, whose conscience rouses him, lets him not lye drowzing in the lethargy of sin; but presents it to his sight. For how shall he sorrow for the sin, he sees not? so that his sorrow bee not without hope. But his condition miserable, who sins to day, to morrow, every day, without the least control of conscience. It sees but saith nothing. Tis seated in our souls to set our sins before us. Will it not: then will Gods self. I will, saith God, Psal. 50. 21. He will set our sins before us, in order before us; tis a military metaphor; God will muster them before us. For he writes them in a Roll; they are recorded all, that he remits not. At the day of death satan will recite them to dismay thee: at least at the day of judgement, thy conscience will bewray them to confounded thee. Though now it be mute; it will speak then. The conscience of the wicked, though it have haply no remorse; yet it hath remembrance. That will suffice our Saviour at the last day, to indite the sinner to damnation. Nay lightly be it never so benumbed by satan; shee will show a cast of her office in this life, upon the death bed. For as they say of witches, that their familiar spirit leaves them at the layle, and will serve them then no longer: so the devil, that had charmd the conscience all the life, that it could not perform the function, remooves his spell at the approach of death, to drive the sinner to despair.  
One term remaines, not touched as yet, the restless importunity of the sinners conscience, checking him uncessantly, My sin( saith David) is ever before me. As a good conscience is a continual Feast; so a guilty is a perpetual plague. O semper timidum scelus! The shadow doth not duelier attend the body, then horror haunts the sinner. The worm of the conscience never dies. Tis an internal Hell, an eternal Hell. sin is in the soul, as a boil is in the body, {αβγδ}, Plut. pricking and shooting and aching continually. There is no rest( saith David) in my body, by reason of my sins. No rest with sin; none in the day, none in the night. The sinner, like a sick man, turn him on his right side, or turn him on his left, let him toss and tumble; all is one, Semper in poena est. Isid. he finds no ease no way; wishes in the morning it were night; cries in the night, Oh that it were morning! Dens mandibulae, the teeth in our chaws stand often still, the Preacher saith, the grinders stand still. But Dens conscientiae, as Gregory termeth it, the tooth of conscience is biting continually.  
What grief doth not time ease, doth not time end? This it doth neither. The pleasure of sin is but for a season, Saint Paul saith, and tis but light. But the remorse of sin, the gnawing of the conscience, is both grievous and long lasting. The delight of it is but( as he saith of affliction) it is but {αβγδ} light, but {αβγδ} momentany light. But it hath an eternal weight of sorrow. Wrong done to joseph by his brethren above 20. yeares before, their conscience brings it afresh unto remembrance. It cries( saith Chrysostome) {αβγδ}, without pause or intermission. The frantic have their lucida intervalla, their rests and respites. The conscience gives the sinner none: but is ever playing Zipporah with Moses, once bloody husband will not serve, shee must repeat it, and cast her Infants foreskin at his feet. So doth it him, rate and rebuk him jugiter continually, and cast his trespass ever in his teeth. Paul bids, grieve not the spirit: he means the holy Spirit. grieve not this spirit neither: else it will grieve thee. grieve it not once; twill grieve thee often. Not in Cains proportion seven times for once; but in Lamecks scutcheon seven times for once. David sinned but once, or say twas twice: but his sin was ever before him. It will sue thee every day, pursue thee every where, interrupt all thy business, disturb all thy delights. Even when thou sittest feasting with thy friends▪ thou shalt see, or seem to see the fingers of a hand on the wall before thee, writing the sentence of thy sin. Etiam( saith Seneca) in solitudine; bee the sinner where he will, he carries his controller with him, Peccatraci conscientiae nullus locus tectus, Ambros. Serm. 46. he is {αβγδ}, so Philo calls a wicked man; he hath no place of rest: but like Cain shifts from place to place, but finds no ease where. The light he loathes; he thinks his sins in it, not before him onely, but others too. Every eye looks at him; every mouth speaks of him. The darkness he endures not: that infests him more. Ipsas nequitia tenebras timet, darkness is an horror to a sinner. Is he to go forth? a lion is without. Is he to come home: sin lieth as the door. Especially the man of blood, at bed and board, and every where seems to see his sin. In sleep he sees his Ghost whom he murdered: and at meat a Fishes head shows him his countenance. If Herod hear of Christ, he will cry certainly tis John the Baptist, whom I beheaded.  
To conclude, to purge sin, thats an act was done but once, done by Christ. But to urge sin, to upbraid the soul with it, thats an act done daily, done by the conscience. A wise mans heart( saith Seneca) I will but change one word, a righteous mans heart is like that part of the world above the moon, semper illic serenum est, there is perpetual lustre and calm. But the guilty conscience ever lours, there is continual bluster and unquietness. It rates and bates the sinner, jugiter continually. Once to rebuk him will not serve; but it sets his sin ever before him. But this term, and the other next before are couched in that one title, which the Grecians give the conscience; they call it Alastora. It neither let sin lurk, but sets it forth before us: neither let it be forgotten; it checks it with its jugiter; it sets our sin ever before us. The Lord of his mercy give us ever grace to make conscience of all sin: set it before us when we do it: but grant us faith to pray for pardon, and to hope for salvation by the sufferings of Christ Iesus, cvi, &c.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON THE psalms. The ninth Sermon.  PSAL. 122. 6. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem. 
DAVID enstyles this psalm( as Tremellius translates it) excellentissimum, a most excelling psalm. Two before it, and twelve after it are so entitled too, psalms of excellency, All. The sweet Singer in this, having lately received the ark into jerusalem, and established both Iustice and Religion in his realm, as the verses before show, joys himself, and his People; and excites them in my Text to the wishing of all happiness, and blessing to Gods Church: annexeth a prophetical promise of prosperity to All, that shall love it. Three observable terms, an Act, to Pray; the Object, Peace; the Subject to jerusalem. Of each briefly, and in order. God assist me in them all; for all of them are his. Prayer is his right, Peace his Gift, and jerusalem his Church.  
First for the Act, its easy; David craves a small matter. Prayer is no pains, especially to a profane person. He but opens his mouth; his brows sweat not, moves but his lips onely; haply not so much. Even a godly man sometimes spares his speech too, does but inwardly desire, wishes in heart onely. Etiam optio, precatio est, a sigh will serve, if from the soul. That of Aquinas is but an idle Etymology, Oratio, quasi Oris ratio, as if Prayer were all vocal. Popish prayer is, many times, as the man said of the Nightingale, vox est, praeterea nihil. For their orisons are latin lightly, they know not, what they pray. The heart can pray in silence; theres a cry without noise. God said to Moses, Why dost thou cry to me? when he said nothing, that we red. And it is little more, that David demands here, as some do weigh the Hebrew word. It is but onely to wish well unto jerusalem. God looks not at the length, but at the strength of Prayer; nor weighs he the words, but the devotion of him that prays, not the lungs, but the heart.  
But the word here yet is weighty, not so weak as some make it, to mean but to wish onely; signifies sometimes to pray earnestly. You will think Hannah vexed, sore vexed by Peninnah, upbraiding her with barrenness, prayed for a son hearty, not wished onely, begged it too, instantly, fervently; fasted and wept, and powred out her soul to God. Yet the Priest there expressed all the power of her prayer but by this word. Surely sometimes Oratio is Aratio, No act of ease, done( as is said in proverb) {αβγδ}, costs no sweat, nor draws no blood. Prayer does both sometimes, did when Christ prayed, he sweat blood, Supplicatio is sometimes Sulcatio, makes furrows in the soul; the eyes burst into tears, and the hands beat on the breast; that the heart shall pant, shall saint with the fervency. Should David have craved such a prayer for jerusalem, his zeal would have excused him. But he bids onely pray; but bids that, bids pray, not wish onely; wish too, but pray also. Its in latin but Rogate. That word may seem but lank. The greek is lanker, {αβγδ}, thats but Interrogate, ask how jerusalem does. So is it in the Septuagint. But the latin is sufficient, the English too. And I will not censure the zeal of the Author of the old English psalms; who put in an Interjection, to make it more pathetical, Oh pray for the peace, &c.  
What David here bids others do, he does himself, does it often. Be favourable O God to Sion. Deliver Israel, O God; wisheth numbness, to his hands, dumbenesse to his tongue, if he forget jerusalem; prays her Saints may rejoice, and her Priests be clad with righteousness. ieremy laments her hurt, that his eyes fail, and his bowels swell, and his liver melts in him. Moses expostulates with God for Israel, Lord, why hast thou afflicted them? Intercedes for them to God; prays to be razed out of Gods book, rather then they perish; labours so for them in prayer against Amaleke, that Aaron and Hur were fain to support his weary arms. I omit more examples.  
Did the Iewes thus onely to Gods Church among them? Christians have done the like to his Church too among them, Christians in all ages. Saint Paul wished peace to the Israel of God, Gal. 6. ends all his Epistles with wish of grace to them, begins them all with grace and peace both; prays not himself onely, but exhorts others too, to supplication for all Saints. Yea and he was not short of Moses his zeal too, wished himself Anathema for the Churches sake. Saint Cyprian saith, they used such prayer in his time, Saint Basil and Chrysostom have it in their Liturgies; we in ours often, in the litany, at the Communion, and in many of the Collects, all Preachers in all Sermons, every man, every religious man at every meal.  
It is a very pious office, that David here demands, and of great worth, if well performed, Prayer for Gods Israel. But we owe unto the Church greater service then so. Prayers are but wishes and words onely. We owe our whole Posse, our whole Esse to the Church, if cause require: not onely our states, but not our lives excepted. I owe my natural parent both; then it much more. It is pitty, I was born, if I will not die for her, that bore me. My Country craves of me more then my Parent. Gods Church craves more then it. You heard Moses and Saint Paul proffer a far greater thing for it then Life is, their Salvation. Davids demand here is too moderate; and yet yields reasons for it too in this psalm; which I respite to the last term, to which they belong rather.  
There is a Spirit, that hates the Church, satan does; a Lucian, that scoffs at it; a Rabsakeh, that rails on it; a Balaam, that curses it. Sathans name bewrays him, signifies an Hater: maliciously he works it all the mischief, he can. The Atheist laughs at it, Ridemur, saith Tertullian, Decachinnamur, laughs aloud at it. The heretic reproaches it, reviles and slanders it. The schismatic rents it; thats worse. The jew wisheth it all evil, nurseth it hearty. The Pope too, does our Church. The Heathens have persecuted and oppressed it. Romes Emperours have; Romes Bishops have our Church. The jew though engendered from the literal jerusalem, and prayeth peace on it, hopes to return to it, yet nurseth the whole Christian Church, the mystical jerusalem. We pitty them, and pardon much to their mistaking. The gentle too, that knows not what Church means, we bear with him. But the Pope we cannot pardon, though he sell pardons to others; God will not pardon him: the Vicar of Christ, the Churches head to curse the Church, the Body of Christ. The enemies of her peace so potent, so numerous, and so near, give the Churches children good cause to pray zealously for their Mothers peace, the next thing in my Text.  
Peace is a little word, and speld but with few letters: but within the few letters of this little word, are comprised all the blessings, which God bestows on man, worldly blessings. Peace in proper acception is opposed to public hostility, and all private enmity. But the word reaches to all worldly welfare, all earthly prosperity; and David means so here. Yet Saint Paul rests not in it, for all ●●e large extent; adds to it another word, more excellent then it, G●●ce; conjoins them; but gives grace precedence, Grace and Peace. Grace a diviner gift; it means the inward mercies of God, that concern the souls happiness; wishes them both jointly to all Churches. But my Text must confine me, my theme is but peace onely. It so pleased God to show his Love to Israel in worldly blessings most. But they were his handsels of heavenly things, pledges and types of Grace.  
David had heard of Israels many troubles, had seen some. God had chastised them sundry ways. He praies their future Peace in all prosperity. Solomon his son, who had his name of peace, expounds in his prayer at the Temples dedication, the general term of peace, by sundry particulars; Deliverance from the sword, from famine, and from pestilence, victory in battle, and some more. Moses more amply, Deut. 28. Blessing in the field, and in the City, in the fruit of the womb, of the ground, and of the cattle; Blessing in the barn, in the doughty, and in the Basket, Wealth, Honour, Victory, all felicity. Bellarmine is bold to make this peace, this temporal prosperity, one Note of the Church. Those notes are now grown to a great number, were once but two onely or three, are now fifteen. This is the idlest of all. Wee must ever pray, it may have Peace; but it must not ever look for Peace. The Church here must not, that in Heaven may.  
Gods Church on earth must be ever militant, ever hath her enemies; if not foreign abroad, yet Intestine at home. Israel had the Egyptian, and Assyrian from afar, Moab and Ammon nearer them, the Philistim their next Neighbour. Yea the Church hath sometimes a Serpent in her bosom; nearer, in her Belly; a viper that will fret, that will eat her womb asunder. Christ foresees it, foresaith it, Inimicos domesticos, foes of her own family, Necessarios, Adversarios, her Brethren, her Children, disturbers of her Peace. Many stabbed Caesar in the Senate house; he said nothing. But when Brutus smote him; Etiam tu, Fili, what thou my son, saith he? The Churches Children oft martyr their own Mother. Perditio tua ex te, Israel, Ierusalems sorrow is from her own sons. Christs Spouse, i. the Church, complains in the Canticles, that her watchmen had wounded her; nay, that the sons of her Mother had molested her. Was the year 88 Mirabilis annus, a year of wonder? They were Spaniards, that invaded then, offered to invade▪ 605. was more wonderful then it, the Gun-powder plot 605. times more wonderful then it. They were English all, that would have acted that.  
But such indeed are not the Churches sons. They are born on her knees, but not bread in her womb, sons of the strange woman, the Romish Church. But the Church hath some of her own seed, troublers of her Peace, pragmatical schismatics, murmurers at Moses, like Dathan and Abiram, grudgers at Aaron too, disgracers, disobeyers, and despisers both of Magistracy and Prelacy, shunners of our assemblies; censured by a reverend Bishop of this See, and yet the mildest man that ever sat in it, to be hinderers and slanderers of the Gospel in this realm more then the Papists. judge then whether Prayer for the Churches Peace, be not needful in our Age.  
Pray for the Peace. jehu once asked, What Peace? so long as the whoredoms of jezebel remained. But Israel was yet a chased and a pure Virgin. It was wicked jeroboam, that first set them a whoring after strange gods. There was yet no Rent in Israel: It, and judah were one realm. The Tyranny of Roboam first occasioned the revoult. David saith in the psalm, that all the Tribes together went up unto the ark, to worship the Lord there. There was yet no idolatry. Where God is served, God onely; there is Peace. God was served in Israel in Ahabs time: then lived jesabel. But Baal was worshipped too. Elias saith the People halted between both. But God forbids to have any other gods, but Him▪ They had; and therefore had no Peace. But Davids heart was sincere, his, and his Peoples, clavae unto God onely. All Israel did then. he therefore prays their Peace. Wee will wish peace to Rome, though jezebel be there, and her spiritual adulteries. For what else is Idolatry, worship of Images, Angells and Saints? They wish not peace to us; we will to them, to all men, to the whole world. The perfect Christian wisheth hurt to none. But to the household of Faith, the true children of our Mother, the Church of Christ, we wish it especially. Wee will pray, ever pray▪ for the peace of jerusalem. Its the last thing in my Text.  
Pray( saith this Princely Prophet) for the peace of jerusalem. I wish; I could express the incomparable sweetness of this little Hemestichium. I guess, the holy Ghost was pleased to let the Psalmist play the Poet here: the psalms are holy poetry. The original words have such elegancy here, as( I think) all the Scripture▪ can not parallel this verse. The words do so excellently answer one another in matchless Paronomasie. It is in English unexpressible. For the point in hand onely, he bids us to pray for the peace of jerusalem. Peace denominates jerusalem, tis the Etymon of the word, means the vision of Peace. David by that term most sweetly alludes to the name of the city. Yet conceals his Art, could have been more open, have said, {αβγδ} Pray for the peace of Salem. For so it was called too, called first so, called still so, Psal. 76. At Salem is his Tabernacle. That word merely sounds peace. God would have his Church the House of peace: and his Temple there, David might not build; he was a man of war: but Solomon his son, who had his name of peace. Christ, whose the Church is, she his Spouse, would not be born in Iulius Caesars reign; he was a warrior too: but in Augustus dayes, who reigned in peace. And this may be a Reason too, if you please, why David bids pray but for peace onely, an earthly blessing. That word most fitted his Art here, sounded best. But under that word by poetical Synecdoche, couched heavenly blessings too. Come we now to jerusalem.  
Very excellent things are spoken of thee, Oh thou city of our God. Even that title is excellent, to be Gods city, the city of the great King, David calls it so, Christ doth too; The holy city, Israels glory, the joy of the whole earth. This psalm commends it for three excellent things, unity, Iustice, and Religion. The Temple the most beautiful fabric upon earth, the worlds wonder was there, called therefore( as Eusebius saith) Hierosolyma, i. {αβγδ}, of Salomons Temple. A slip in that learned feather, not skilled in the Hebrew tongue. No wonder, when Iosephus a jew slipped so before him. But not to mingle Grammar with divinity, I omit the etymology; It skills little. My Theme is not to praise it, but to pray for it. It is here meant in Allegory for the Church of God, as in many other places, called therefore by Saint Paul, jerusalem on high, and the heavenly jerusalem.  
satan hath a Synagogue; thats not jerusalem: It loves not peace. The Dragon and his Angels fight with Michael, and his Angels, Apoc. 12. The Dragon, the devil; his Angells, heretics, all persecutors. These are not jerusalem; its the vision of peace. jerusalem had sundry names at sundry times; sometime called jebus, the jebusite dwelled there. Salem afterward: whence Christs Spouse in the Canticles is called Sullamite. Rome may be jebus; there is the jebusite, the bloody jesuit. But the true Church is Salem: her sons all are Sullamites, lovers of peace.  
It is not the city, David means. As it was his chief seat, the mother city of the land; he might wish it all peace so. But here he considers it in a Diviner sense, as the Seat and city of the great King. There was the Throne of David; tis not for that. But there was the Throne of God; he therefore prays peace to it. Bishops Sees are in Cathedrall Churches: Gods was in jerusalem. The Temple was his sanctuary; Gods self calls it his House. You will say, the Temple was not yet, when David wrote this psalm. Tis true, the Temple was not; but the Tabernacle was▪ At Salem was his Tabernacle, saith the psalm. God vouchsafed to dwell there: tis in the same psalm, and his dwelling in Sion. Gods Inthronization was on the mercy seat, upon the ark. But Temples and Tabernacles made with hands are not the onely houses, that God dwells in. Saint Steven tells us that. Mens hearts are Gods house; The bodies of holy men( Saint Paul saith) are the Temples of the holy Ghost. Davids self, and all the true worshippers of God, which then( I doubt not) were infinite in Israel, are meant here by jerusalem. The city( saith the orator) are not the walls, streets, and houses, but the people. The Church of God is the university of Saints, the whole body of believers. Great was the number of such in that city. But all Israel besides them, all the males throughout the land, came thrice a year to worship at jerusalem: that David might justly by usual trope of speech, partly by metonymy, and partly by Synecdoche, call Gods whole Church jerusalem. And it is not Davids Dialect alone; other Prophets after him title the Church so.[ Yea Saint Paul too, and Saint John in the Revelation.]  
But how so? Will some say. Gods Church meant by jerusalem? Said you not, the Church is Christs Spouse, and a Sullamite? The one craves purity, and the other Peace. Neither suite with jerusalem. Esay calls it in one verse, both an Harlot, and a murderer. Nay, both these sins are aggravated; the one by Ezechiel, Shee was common to all comers, Opened her feet to every stranger.[ Nay worse, Harlots take hire; she gave.] The second by Christ, a Killer of Gods Prophets; O jerusalem jerusalem▪ But Distingue tempora. I did before. jerusalem was not such in Davids time: God was served there sincerely all his dayes. In after ages she forgot God, and served idols: that was her Harlotrie; and spared not then to murder Gods Prophets. The seven Churches of Asia were the Churches once of Christ: now they serve Mahomet. Rome had in it in Saint Pauls time, and long after many good Christians; but not so many now. Now un Christiano is Italian for a fool. jerusalem in my Text is Societas Sanctorum, Saint Austins term, the company of holy men: and Saint John in the Apocalypse takes it ever in that sense, and means it of Gods Church. It is Saint Austins observation, when Babylon is name there, ever understand( saith he) wicked and bloody men; when jerusalem, holy men: Babel, the devills Synagogue, jerusalem Gods Church. Saint Paul calls it Heavenly, and Saint John calls it New. New, to distinguish it from that in judea. Heavenly, not because it is in heaven, the Church of Saints Triumphant; but because her graces come from heaven. For the sons of God are not born of flesh and blood, but of the Spirit. Their generation, i. Regeneration is from heaven.  
And now one word of Application; David bids pray for Ierusalems Peace, but whether jerusalem? That surely, which he here describes, where is unity, vers. 2. Religion, vers. 4. and Iustice, vers. 5. jerusalem is a city that is at unity within itself. Thither go up the Tribes, to praise the Lord: and there are the seats for judgement.  
Is our jerusalem such? Our sins show there is no unity among us; and may we pray for peace on this jerusalem? We may, we must. Moses did for Israel, though fallen grievously, Samuel for Saul, though a grand sinner. Wee may, and must; though haply in vain. For God saith, Non est pax, Theres no peace to the wicked. sin at length captived Israel, sacked the city, razed the Temple; Nunc sedges est, grass now grows in jerusalem.  
Yet despair not daughter Sion, return O Sullamite. There is no peace to the wicked, saith my God; that is, so long as they be wicked. Cease we to do evil, sorrow we for our sins hearty; weep we; pray wee God for peace; we shall have peace. The prodigious pride of women, their wanton vanities, censured often by Preachers, but in vain; they will come with them to Church in spite of us, I think in spite of Angells too, who are ever present in our Churches; and the drunkenness of men, their whoredoms and blasphemies, draw down divine Revenge on our jerusalem. I shall therefore end with a short prayer for our jerusalem, The God of Peace, the Father; the Prince of Peace, the son; the Spirit of peace grant it us. To which three sacred Persons of the blessed Trinity, &c.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON THE PROVERBS. The tenth Sermon.  PROV. 23. 26. 
Fili mi, da mihi cor tuum.  
My son, give me thy heart.  
wisdom, i. God, Gods wisdom, i. Christ, here sues to man, craves a gift of him, da mihi, give me; asks him his heart, da mihi cor tuum, give me thy heart; prefaces his suite to speed the better, calls him his son, My son, give me thy heart. A short Scripture; but multarum rerum gravida, much matter in few words. But six in all; but four in the original; and therefore there( as Marcellinus saith of Thucydides) {αβγδ}, more sentences then words. But six words? but six syllables. Quot syllabae, tot sensus, a several lesson in every one of them.  
First for the compellation; tis a little Canaan, it flows with milk and hony. God to call man, his son, O Altitudo, O the height, O the depth, height of honour, depth of love, couched in one poor pair of words! Not serve mi, my servant: and yet that an honour too, to be Gods servant. To be of Gods family, in any office under him, though it were but a door keeper in Gods house, David thought it honourable. Happy are thy men, saith the queen of Shebah unto Salomon. Behold a greater then Salomon is here: Happy are his men. Gods Priest, Gods Prophet, Gods anointed, all these honourable. A man of God. To retain to God in any title, a great glory. God to own us any way, great grace to us.  
Not Amici mi, my friend, a glorious title too. Christ could not give his followers a more graceful term, then that; {αβγδ}, you have I called friends. Abrahams prerogative to be called the friend of God. A lovely title: but a son excels it. Great is the love of one friend unto another: jonathan loved David, as his own soul. God, that here calls us sons, hath loved us more, more then his own soul. For he gave his soul to ransom ours. Saint Paul calls it {αβγδ} a name of excellency. The Scriptures could not give an higher to the Angels; they are stilled the sons of God. Not an higher to Christs self. Christ, Gods self, is but Gods son. Filius meu● es tu, our Saviour was no more; in a higher sense, but not a higher name. He that is the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ, hath called us sons. Salomon saith it here. One greater then Salomon saith it in the gospel, I will go to my Father, and to your Father. God is not onely his Father, but ours too. The spirit saith it too, cries to God in our hearts, A●ba Father, Saint Paul saith.  
To end this, Christ and David both Gods sons; but not both in one acception: the one but {αβγδ}, his adopted son; the other {αβγδ}, his begotten son; Christ by nature, David but by grace. Adam his son too, luke. 3. ult. a third way by creation. None of all these are haply meant here. But as a grave and learned professor of some skill, calls his schollers sons: so Christ throughout this book, under the name of wisdom( for so indeed Saint Paul titles him, 1 Cor. 1. the wisdom of God) reading man a Lecture of divine philosophy, calls him his son. The Prophet saith of Christians, they should be {αβγδ}, all of us taught of God. God is our Gamaliel: sitting at his feet, as Mary did at Christs, as Saint Paul called Titus and Timothy his sons, so God doth us.  
My son. Tis but a little pronoun, but of great Price; but of two letters in the Latin and our tongue; but one in the original. A great treasure in a small word, Chrysost. Gods son? Gods any thing is honourable. David held it a great honour to be son to Saul; and yet he was but son in law to him.  
There is a son, whose father is his stain; Nadab the son of jeroboam, that made Israel to sin; the Hittite, and the jebusite, and the other sons of cursed Canaan. A son that is disparagd by his parents. Is not this Iosephs son, the Carpenter: is not Mary his mother? There is a filius terrae; the sons of Nabal, as job terms them, whose fathers he would not set with the dogges of his flocks. But the sons of Nobles, Salomon blesseth them▪ and the Iewes were proud of Abraham to father them. Yea David was a glory and a grace to Christ.[ jesabel though an adulteress, an idolatress, and Inchantresse, yet jehu bad bury her, as being a Kings daughter.] For us to bee Gods sons, the Disciple whom Christ loved, with accent even of admiration, bids Behold, {αβγδ} what exceeding love the Father bore us, that wee should be called the sons of God. Tertullian notes it of the prodigal child; but tis true of every man; non sum dignus vocari tuus, tart. de Poeniten. cap. 8.  
Had this Pronominall note not been expressed, as it is not sometimes; though the name of a son alone be lovely; yet had it lacked much life, been nothing so significant. To the rich man in hell, a damned ghost, Abraham cries Fili, but not Fili mi, son( saith he) Remember; not my son. Friend too, a lovely name; but lank and lame without the pronoun. To the Guest in the Parable without the wedding garment, the King said but Amice, not Amice mi, Friend how camest thou in hither? Christ said so much to Iudas, that betrayed him, Amice, ad quid venisti, Friend wherefore art thou come. This note is in neither. Solomon in his wisdom weighing the force of it, repeating this title 23. times, hath it ever in this form, Fili mi, my son. This being but a proeme is not to be prosecuted: tis but premised to work attention and obedience. The Child owes both to the Parents voice; the terms implying Love, as well as authority: the Fathers counsel ever presumd to be for the sons profit. Or be it here meant by a son, but a Disciple: yet the same in proportion is insinuated so too. Leave we the Compellation; come we to the suit; Give me thy Heart.  
Da mihi, Give me, saith God here▪ A Father cry( Give) unto his son? Children receive from Parents; Parents take nought from them. Saint Paul saith {αβγδ}, Children lay not up for Parents; Parents must for them. And saith the Father here, Da mihi, Fili, bids the son, give him. And the Father here, God too, that gives man all things, ask a gift of man? Fathers do, earthly Fathers do give all good things,( Christ saith) to their Children. God much more, {αβγδ}, gives us( Saint Paul saith) Life, and Breath, and all things. But Fathers crave Honour and Obedience of their Children; they do, they may. Tis Gods Argument, If I be a Father, where is my Honour? God may more. He that gives All things to us, may ask one thing of us; may justly, and does here.  
Give me, saith God? What, is God needy, that he craves? God is {αβγδ}, Plato could say, an Heathen: his name is Schaddai; All-sufficient. Tis one of Gods proprieties( saint Chrysostom saith) {αβγδ}, to want nothing. He cannot ask; what is not his already. We all are; all men, all creatures. All things we have, we have of him. We call them ours; but they are his: ours but to use; but his the propriety. And ours to use, but durant beneplacito, no longer, then likes him. Dominus dedit, Dominus abstulit, gives to us, and takes from us at his mere pleasure.  
Arnobius writes, that Phidias engravd on Iupiters finger, {αβγδ} all-sufficient. Why craves he then? and that the heart? craves, what he wants not. God is not excors, without heart. Is not David called a man after Gods own heart? Nor is God like the covetous, who want tam quod habent, quàm quod non habent, as well what they have, as what they miss. Saint Paul tells the Athenians, Act. 17. God needs nothing. Were he in want; mans heart could not relieve him. Say Love be meant by it; one cannot live by Love. The wanting of it will not make him poor; the having of it will not make him rich. Say, Truth be meant by it, Spirit and Truth. Truth with men is a jewel: but they say, they beg, that use it. Truth is no treasure neither unto God. Be meant, what can by it: nothing of mans can benefit his Maker. Davids goodness is nothing unto God. psalm 16. 2. That God bids give it; it is but for acknowledgement; he asks our heart, but for his homage.  
But bids not God else where, Serva Cor, keep thy heart, chap. 4. 23. Can a man do both, keep it, and give it too? and he prefaces it too with the same terms, My son, there as well as here. speaks God Pugnantia? what here he craves, doth he there cross? He doth not. This Text is but a gloss to that. There he bids, keep the heart; here he shows thee how. The way to keep it, is to give it him. satan craves it too; so doth the world; so doth the flesh. They crave it; but to ruin it. And they all lye in wait for it: give it God; and it is safe. God is the Hearts guardian; he will secure it from them all. Or keep it, that is, from them, for him. God bidding two things, to keep, and to give, is thus obeied in both.  
To end this; Lay the Act to the Object, Give me thy heart; and man may say to God, as Elias said to Elisha, thou hast asked an hard thing. Give away ourselves. Mens cu●usque est quisque, a mans soul is a mans self. Heart and soul, here are all one. Give away that, by which( as the Apostle saith of God) {αβγδ}, We live, and move, and have our being? Thats not Gods meaning neither. He would not, we should give to want ourselves: much less to expectorate, to exenterate ourselves, to give our hearts out of our bodies.  
He bids us give them to his service; to love, to fear, to serve him with our hearts, to believe on him, and to rely on him. Our hearts given to him so, cease not to be ours. Nay so they are ours the more, more truly ours: more ours, when given to God, then when ours onely. Nay, they are not ours at all, unless God have them: they are onely ours, when given to him. For if God have them not; satan hath them, or the World, or the Flesh. Whose heart they have, any of those three, he is indeed heartless, not( as they say) civiliter, but spiritualiter mortuus, spiritually dead. What is a Sinner, but a living Corpse? quick in body, but quiter dead in soul. Give it to God; thou hast it still: and thou livest then indeed. he is Anima ainae, saith Saint Augustine, the Life of the heart, the soul of the soul. To give it him, is but( as Iosh●a said to Israel) to let it cleave to him, and serve him. Twill serve thee nere the less, and cleave to thee the faster.  
Gifts are begged oft for others. The Mother of Zebedees children craved for her sons. Christ bids the rich young man, Da pauperibus, give to the poor. Gods suit is for himself, cries to Man, da mihi, bids give his heart to him. Did none crave it but he; the suit were easy. But others ask it too. satan saith, give it me, Mammon cries, give it me, Belial cries, give it me. The World, the Flesh, the devil, all three belabour Man, as the three goddesses did Paris for the golden apple; every one flattered him, to give it her; So do they the heart of man, every one cries, Da mihi, give it unto me. Hard for a thing so soft,( Plato likens it to wax) not to wind every way, to listen to them All.  
One of them, the Flesh, Solomon doth instance, an hungry Horseleech, with her two daughters; crying ever, Give, give. Love of strong drink, at the thirtieth verse. Lust to strange women, at the next verse. Salomon insists in them. I may not. satan will knock too, knock hard and often at the doors of thy heart. It hath two doors, Saint Augustine saith, Amorem& Timorem, Love and fear. Shut them both against him. Lovest thou any worldly thing? Intrat hàc; he will enter at that door. Fearest thou any worldly thing? Intrat hâc; he will enter at that door. boult them, bar them both, Omni custodia, Solomon bids, keep them, keep thy heart with diligence against him. Da mihi cor tuum, open onely unto God.  
The nerves of the eye, and the muscles of most of the members of the body are made to move every way, as well downward toward earth, as upward toward heaven. But Surfum corda, we must heave our hearts onely towards heaven. The Church professeth it at the Sacrament of Christs supper, that they lift them up unto the Lord. I lift my heart to thee, saith David often in the psalms. The heart to heaven, saith Saint Austin? How may that be? Quae scalae, quae machinae, where are the ladders, the engines, and the ropes, to mount a thing so low, so high? Amando, ascendis, love is the ladder, the affections are the staves. fear God, trust on him, joy and delight in him: thou art in heaven already; he hath thy heart. Take thou no thought, how thou shalt get up, God will come down to thee. God saith but Da, bids onely, give it him. How he will have it, Viderit Divinitas, Say but with David, My heart is ready, O Lord, my heart is ready: Tis enough. Thou hast tendered it, and God is seasd of it. God bids thee, give it him. Say thou but Etiam Domine, Even so Lord: thats all he asks of thee. Christ and his Father, and his Spirit, all three will come to thee. They will knock at thy heart, as at their house: do thou but open; they will enter, and sup with thee. It is not my conceit; tis Christs own speech. A heart dejected towards earthly things, fits a beasts breast rather than a mans. The beasts heart, like his head, looks to the ground: there is his food; thence is his beginning. Mans affection, like his face, should be Sublimis, lifted ever up toward the heavens: thence comes the soul; God gave it, saith the Preacher. God gave it thee; give it thou to God. God craves but his own. We are his; for he hath made us; wholly his, heart and all. S. Paul saith of body and soul too, that both are Gods, 1 Cor. 6. His, by many rights, of Creation, of Redemption, of Obligation: jure voti, wee vowed ourselves wholly to him at our baptism. There wee renounced all his competitors, the World with his pomp, the Flesh with her Lusts, the devil with his works. If any of them all shall counterclaime our heart, cri● Da mihi, Give it me: We may pray them cease their svit; we have given it God already.  
Say we had not: be thy heart yet thine own: yet bestow it nor on Belial, or if Mammon cry Da mihi, give it not to him. They will but metamorphose it, turn it into ston. Give to to God. If it be transformed by them, he will reform it, make it a fleshy heart again. Much less to satan: he craves it, but to tread it down, to trample and insult on thee. Incurvare ut transeamus, lye down; and as the Pope did on Fredericks the Emperour, he will set his foot upon thy neck. Give thy heart to him, that can satisfy thy heart. The World can not, nor the Flesh. The treasures of the one, the more thou hast of them, the more thou hungrest. The pleasures of the other, do but edge thy appetite; they can not quench it. Give God thy heart: look what thou lustest for, he will give thee thy fill of it. Is it wealth? godliness,( Saint Paul tells thee is great gain, and the Law of the Lord above thousands of gold. Is it pleasure? In his presence( saith David) is fullness of joy. Is it honour? His reward( saith the Apostle) is a weight of glory, as much as thou canst bear, a far most excellent eternal weight of glory.  
Who lightly gives, but to receive?( Do, ut des) gives, but in hope to gain? Give thy heart to any of the three competitors, tis merely lost: not it alone, but lightly what thou lookest for besides. Tis not so with God, {αβγδ}. Thou losest not thy gift: he will take nought of thee but will requited it. Thou lendst it him, thou givest it not: thou shalt receive thine own with interest. The other three will promise too, the Flesh, Pleasure, Mammon, Wealth, satan what thou wilt. But they lye lightly; Say they keep touch; tis but the more to tempt and entangle thee, and to sink thy soul into deeper condemnation.  
God asks thy heart; but so, as thyself shall have it nevertheless. Give it the other three, to any one of them, thou losest it. As Christ saith of the life, That he that loseth it for his sake, findeth it: but he that fears to hazard it for him, loseth it, in thought to save it. Tis so with the heart, give it to God, and so thou hast it too: tis the more surely thine, the more tis his. Give it any of the other, tis lost utterly, unrecoverably. The prodigal in Christs Parable gave his to the flesh, his heart to harlots; is therefore titled the lost child. Tis so with satan too, and with the world; Sponde, praestò noxa est, give, lend, let any thing to either; tis all lost.  
Man becomes heartless, when he sins. ieremy calls Judah {αβγδ} without heart, jer. 5. 21. Onely the righteous can say with David, Cor meum, my heart, saith David in the psalm, Dixit Nabal in cord suo, Nabal? See 1 Sam. 25. 37. tis said there Nabals heart was dead in him, he had no heart. I know David saith too, the wicked have two hearts, psalm 12. but neither of them both their own. They speak( he saith) cord& cord; but he adds not( Suo,) With a heart and a heart, a pair of hearts; but neither theirs. The one is Sathans, the other is the Worlds. Or say the sinner have his heart still, though he give it unto sin. He hath it Apud se, but not Penes se, he hath it in his body, but not in his power. Doth the orator call the body the souls jail, Carcerem ainae? Tis true of wicked men. Their heart is in their breast, Tanquam in Pistrino, saith Salomon, as in the devills Bridwell. Tis there, but as a slave, to toil and be tormented. Be it, the sinner hath a heart, as well as the just man: but a Captive-heart, slave to that tyrant, whom he gave it to. Be that then the odds. Give thy heart to Belial; thou hast it still, but tis bond. Give it to God, thou still hast it, and that free.  
To end this, Is the sinner yet solicitous to satisfy all suitors? He finds he hath two hearts, the Psalmist  told him that. He may not deny God. Cum rogat, jubet: he but demands his heart, he may command it. he shall have one. But here in the Lord be merciful unto his servant, if he give the other to one of the competitors. Or if he have but one in all; yet what if he divide it, Neque meum, neque tuum, said dividatur? Give God alone one moiety; and part the other among the other three. And hath it not three ventricles, as the Anatomists say, a several cell for every one of them?  
For the first conceit, let it be even so. Let him give one heart to God: and if he find a second, let it give it them. I presume no one man ever had two hearts. I red Bifrontes and Bilingues; but Bicordes I red not. Say one had two, God craves them both. Though here the word be singular, Give me( but) thy heart; because one hath but one: yet had he two or more, all must be Gods. The Law bids love him, omni cordi tuo. If thou have many; then with every one. For the second shift of parting it; God scorns, the devil should be halves with him. He will give no part of his glory unto others, Esay saith, God loves indeed a broken heart, the Psalmist saith, but not broken into parts. but a wounded heart he means sorry for sin. The commandement fits here too, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, Omni cord, with all thy heart. Hast thou many? Then with them all. Hast thou but one? Then with all that. Howsoever, yet with all.  
Shall I ask thee that question, which Saint Paul asked King Agrippa? believest thou the Scriptures? I know thou dost. They teach, theres but one onely God? Why makest thou more? For to whom thou givest thy heart; he is thy God. Not a God indeed( for God creates man; man can not create God) but a God in thy conceit. Gold is thy God, if thou covet it. Pleasure and Honour if thou dote on them. Thy belly thy god, if thou pamper it. Giving thy heart to any, but to him, that here cries, Cedo mihi, give thy heart to me: against thy conscience thou makest many gods, who knowest, there is but one. Halt not between two contrary Religions. Either be an idolator, and give thy heart to whom thou wilt, and deny God, or if thou aclowledge him: repel all his competitors, and give thy heart to him.  
God craves a gift, cries Da; and for himself, Da mihi, Give me, saith God. What is the gift? Cor tuum; my son, give me thy heart. God, himself a Spirit, bids man give him his heart, that is, his spirit. Not {αβγδ}, but {αβγδ}; not his body, but his spirit. Not that he cares not for his body: he claims that to; for he owns that too, Saint Paul bids us glorify him both in our Spirit and body, for both are Gods, 1 Cor. 6. ult. But here by the heart, are meant our Meditations, the Mindes Cogitations, the thoughts, the desires, all the powers of the soul. God hath seated them in it; and therefore here puts it for them. Though( as Saint Austin saith) Totum te exigit, qui totum te fecit, God who made us whole, craves us wholly; yet the Father of Spirits, calls for our spirits specially; and besides the body being but the souls instrument, in having the heart, he hath the body too.  
God craves not the Hand, though an excellent member; not the Head, a more excellent; not the Tongue, which David calls the best member that he had. But the Heart, the Presence chamber of the Spirit; the closet of the soul. The heart is Gods House; Tricameratum, Avicenna saith, it hath three Cells for all the persons of the Trinity to dwell in. {αβγδ}, not the Church onely, but man too, saith Clemens Alex. Mans heart is Gods Temple. Gods Altar, saith Gregory, what is sacrificed to God, must be offered upon it. The fire, namely of love, burns indesinenter, never goes out there. Ager Domini, Saint Austins ●erme, Gods field; in it he will walk. The body is but Mancipium ainae, the souls Slave, Asina ainae, the souls ass, Saint Bernard terms it. The heart, the souls self.  
satan will accept( rather then fail) of the body onely. He also hungers for the heart, cries( as the King of Sodom did to Abraham) Da mihi Animas, give me the souls. But he will take any thing rather than repulse. God the heart, or nothing. The body without it is base: the soul is precious, so called by Salomon, Prov. 6. 26. David calls it his darling, Psal. 22. But tis Gods jewel too. The heart is Gods Havilah, there is his Bdellium and his Onyx ston. For there is love; the Lodstone both of God and man. Not onely one man craves anothers love: but God doth too. magnets amoris amor, Love draws love to it, like a Lodstone. He that said it, meant it of mens mutual love. But it fits here too. magnets amoris amor, love draws love to it, like a loadstone. For God is love, saith the Disciple, whom Christ loved. And Gods self here craves mans love. For thats meant by the heart. Yea heart in the holy tongue, is the same almost in letters, as love is in ours. God therefore asks it. For there is Fons amoris, saith Saint Augustine, the fountain of all love: both Cupiditatis, love of worldly things, which made the devil crave it too; and also Charitatis, of heavenly things, which makes God demand it here. That affection specially God requires of man, principally; but withall; his fear, his affiance, and his joy, convertantur( saith Saint Bernard) cast them all on him. They are the heart: Ibi spera, ibi ama( saith Saint Augustine) totum cor, the whole heart, Bernard saith. By Da mihi cor, God craves of us all these.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON ECCLESIASTES. The eleventh Sermon.  ECCLES. keep thy foot, when thou goest into the House of God. 
MY Text is a Caveat, to inhibit our Affections( for thats meant by the foot) to look to our lusts, when wee assemble to serve God. See to them always, but then specially. four several terms in it; Act and Object, Time, and Place. The Act, to keep; Object, thy foot; when, at thy going; whether? to Gods House. Of each briefly, and in order. First, for the Act, keep.  
All Latin translations have, Custodi, keep. So hath the last English, and the term well agrees both with Septuagints, and original. Keeping, hath many kindes. To keep, is to observe, to preserve, to watch, and otherwise. Christ calls them blessed, that hear Gods Word, and keep it; i. observe, and do it. This keeping is obedience: Salomon means not it. The foot, meaning our lusts; wee may not obey them. O thou keeper of men, saith job to God. That keeping is preserving. Nor means this Scripture that. Lusts need not cherishing. Pamper them not; hamper them rather. They grow too fast, prosper too well. carnal men keep them both these ways: both obey them, slaves to their lusts; and feed them, panders to their flesh. Saint james saith, concupiscence tempts and intises us. It needs not: many of us tempt and entice It. lusts are a Fire, and would be quenched. Wee rather cast oil on them, to make them flamme. To watch, is to keep too. Thats near Salomons sense. He bids here look to them. That word( me thinks) is too weak too. Lock them up; they are Beasts, {αβγδ}, Plato saith, wild Beasts. Nay, bind them, make them sure. Seneca bids Indulgere, bee not too strait, but favour the affections. But thats honestis affectibus. Some lusts are lawful, cherish them: they are not meant here. Salomon means the wild and unregenerate lusts. They are Portae mortis, Saint Austins term, the gates of death. They would be watched. Portae inferi; his term too, hell gates; look to them, that they open not. Nay hells self, ainae inferi, the souls hell, Macrobius makes them. If they break prison, hell is broken loose. Lactantius calls them Furies. The Devills plants, saith August. Pull them up thou canst not, their roote is so deep; Custodi, keep them low. The Devils self. What are sins, but young Sathans? Mary Magdalens seven Devils were but so many sins, the Fathers say, tis good keeping Devils down.  
I said this Scripture is a Caveat. Chilo, one of the seven greek Sages, makes two Cavees, cave tibi,& cave te; both take heed to thyself, and beware of thyself. All danger is not from without, Hannibal ad portas, an enemy at the gates; theres an enemy too within thee. Salomon means it. Theres an Adder in thy bosom. Mine own affections fight against my soul, Saint Peter saith. Eve must egg Adam; satan will not. he will raise him a tempter from his own rib. Lust is more inward then Eve. My rib is but in my side: but my lusts are in my heart. satan hath feed them to betway me. I have need to look to them; need to keep my heart( as Salomon bids) prae omni custodia, look to it above all things; look to my lusts, both abstine& sustine: prohibit them if I can, that they stir not; sustine at least, inhibit them, that they rage not, adjoin and curb them: do with Paul {αβγδ}, beat them on the face, {αβγδ}, force them subjection▪ Either cave te, master thou them; or cave tibi, they will master thee.  
Paul is more severe, bids crucify the lusts, {αβγδ}; nay mortify them, {αβγδ}, Col. 3. 5. thats more. The two crucified thieves dyed not till their legs were broken. That metaphor is hyperbolical. Kill not the affections, quench them not quiter. They may live; they must: must and will, while ourselves live. But keep them under. Kill their malice; mortify them; but as you do Quick-silver. Paul meant no more. Kill them: but how? Not ut non sint, but ut non obsint. Lust in spite of thee will dwell in thee: but let it not reign in thee. Let the lust live: but purge the leaven out of it. Let the Serpent live, so the sting be out.  
To end this; the foot needs keeping. For( as Saint james saith) In multis offendimus, wee trip often. Nay we fall often, not trip onely, fall( Salomon saith) seven times a day. Tis fit the foot have a Custos, a keeper. But why doth the Preacher lay that office upon me? Egone custos? some may say in Cains dialect. Must I look to my feet? satan  told Christ, Gods Angels should look to him, their hands should keep his feet. he lied not; for tis Scripture. But he meant the bodies feet. The souls feet, the affections, ●ods Angels keep not them; cannot: Gods self must. The souls eye by his Grace must look to them. Come to the Object; keep thy foot.  
There is Oris Custodia, Prov. 13. 3. The mouth wants keeping. David prays God, psalm 141. to set a watch before it. Nature hath set one, hath set two, as Peter had in the jail, Act, 12. 10. both lip and teeth to keep the tongue. Both a door, for getting out, Davids term; and a hedge for leaping over, {αβγδ}, Homers word. All too little: tis {αβγδ}, Saint james saith, an unruly evil.  
There is Cordis Custodia, Prov. 4. 23. The heart needs keeping too. Not like the tongue, for doing hurt, but for taking hurt. Nature hath fenced it too; a double fence too. Both a Wall, the ribs; and a Watchman, a Keeper. So Solomon calls the arm. Ecclesiast. 12.  
There is Manuum Custodia, Esay 56. 2. The hands do often, what they should not; take bribes,  shed blood. There is Capitis Custodia, 1 Sam. 28. 2. The Serpent the subtlest of all the brute Creatures, keeps the head carefully.  
Solomon here bids keep, not mouth, heart, hands, nor head; but feet, what needs so base a part such care? and whats the foot to the whole body? Why bids not Solomon, Custodi Corpus, look to the whole body? But as Christ said to Peter, He that is washed needs but to wash the feet; wash them, and all is clean: So tis here. Take but heed to thy feet: hands, head, heart, the whole body, soul and Body both, are safe. For as the feet bear the whole body, called therefore {αβγδ} Strong men, cap. 12. 5. So all the parts of the Body, yea the powers of the soul too, are in the Phrase of Scripture meant by the feet. Yea all our actions. David saith, Gods Law is a lantern to our feet, that is, a light to all our actions. Our works are called our ways; living is called walking, living well, {αβγδ}, treading well, Saint Pauls metaphor.  
Here the foot means the affections. The feet in those hot Countries were most subject to soil. The Iewes first office to guests and strangers, especially if they came far, was {αβγδ}, to wash their feet. Christ twits the Pharisee for omitting it, commends the woman for doing it. widows appointed of purpose for that office, to wash the Saints feet. Mans affections are frail, obnoxious to offence, foul, very foul, if Reason and Religion wash them not. Tis not the Hands onely, that Saint james bids, {αβγδ}, to cleanse; but the Heart too, {αβγδ}, must be purged. I said before, it needed keeping, for taking hurt. That was in other Sense. But the Heart indeed, does more hurt, then it takes. Theres the spring of sin. Thence come( Christ saith) defiling things, {αβγδ}, all filthiness, Matth. 23. 27. keep hand, and tongue: Scripture bids, keep both. But keep the heart {αβγδ} prae omni custodia, above all things, that need keeping. See to it specially. In time and place, the hand and tongue need keeping. We fall foully in both, in word, and act. But in Gods house, theres no handy work, nor no {αβγδ} any great lip labour for the People. Levi praies and preaches; Israel saith but Amen; little else. The ear indeed is needful, of great use. But Solomon implies it in the foot. For so it follows in the verse, be more near to hear. To hear, is the principal end of the assemblies; and a man of foul feet, i. of impure passions, of unholy affections, is a bad hearer. Christ expounds Solomon, Luke 8. 18. Take heed, how ye hear.  
means the foot the affections? How saith Saint Augustine then, Pedes tui, Charitas tua est, Our feet, are our Love? How are they then our Lusts? The foot is both in Scripture metaphor. And Saint August. clears himself elsewhere by distinction. The foot, cum rectus est, amor est; cum pravus, libido; when tis strait, tis love; when crooked, then tis lust. And yet love is a lust too, a lawful lust; many lusts are so. The same Father saith too, Pedes nostri, affectus nostri, in Psal. 94. The feet mean the affections, whether good or bad. The soul by them walks as it were, as the body doth by the feet. They are the souls feet.  
I condemn not all affections. stoics did. The soul hath them from God; they are good from him. Christ had his Passions, of all kindes, Love, Anger, Sorrow, Ioy: some of them vehement too sometimes: Longd to eat the Passeover, desiderando desideravi. Grieved, that he wept again. And his soul was heavy even unto the death: Christ had these feet too. But his feet were ever washed, and his affections without sin. These feet, clean by Creation, faire at the first, Sathans foot hath trod on, and defiled. Lust once subject to Law, rebells now against Reason; and if grace overrule it not, runs headlong unto hell. The strongest of men are not able to master it. Kings are their vassals, {αβγδ}, is {αβγδ}, saith Saint Basil. They metamorphize a man into a beast; makes Solomons self cry, as David had before him, Brutum ego, non homo, I am a beast, saith he, a brute creature, not a man. What more base, more beastly, then a drunken man? One calls the Passion, {αβγδ}, a dry drunkenness. {αβγδ}, the healths enemies, Pythagoras said. He meant the Bodies health: but tis true of the souls also, {αβγδ}, enemies to our Salvation. Paul saith it plainly, speaks more home, then Pythagoras; wrath, envy, malice, and the rest, the non-custodients shall not come in Gods kingdom. Gal. 5. Well may they come into Gods house; but they shall not come into his kingdom.  
But what means the Preacher to use the number singular? look to thy foot. Is there but one lust? Man is Bipes at lest, Plato defines him so, Animal implume bipes, he hath two feet. So hast lust at least too, 1 John 2. 16. The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes. Nay man by lust is Quadrupes, a Beast, the Preacher said; he hath four feet. So are there four affections, by philosophy. But the Number hath Synecdochen, one foot for both. Man hath no more. But lust is Polypodium, it hath many feet. {αβγδ}, 2 Tim. 3. theres variety. They may say of themselves, Nos numerus sumus,— they are a multitude. The fiends name fits them in the gospel; for they are fiends too, they may be called legion, {αβγδ}, for they are many. Libidinous Lust, malicious lust, covetous lust, a nbitious lust, wrath, sloth, envy, and pride. These are but the dams, there are more Daughters. Enough of the Object:  
The time and place follow, when and where the Preacher bids us, keep our feet. look to them always; let not thy lusts loose in any place. But in Gods house look to them specially. Where is that? The whole earth is Gods house; the heavens are more. Thats not meant here: But the Temple, the place of the peoples assembly, to the service of God. Domus mea, domus orationis, the house of Prayer is the house of God. The very English name of Church, derived( schollers say) from the greek, and the Scotish term more plainly, signifies the place to belong unto the Lord. The Church is Peniel, Gen. 32. the place of Gods presence, Shagnar el, the gate of God, Gen. 28. Beth el, the house of God; jacob called it so. look to thy feet there, to thine unclean affections; lest thou make it Bethaven, the house of wickedness, as judah did, Ose. 4. 15.  
look to thy lusts ever, every where: but in the Church, Gods chamber, Presence chamber, look to them there specially. The greatest subject bares his head in the Kings Presence-chamber. Bare thou thy Feet in Gods; put off thy shoes there, tis holy ground. Gods Word and Prayer sanctify all things; but his presence more then both. His eyes cannot behold any unclean thing. appear before him empty thou mayst not, filthy much less. The Heathens wrote over the gate of their Temples, Phanum est, nihil ingrediatur prophanum. All things belonging to Gods service must bee holy. Time; his Sabbath, an holy day. Place, his Temple, Sanctuarium. Persons; his Levites holy, Ezr. 3. the singers, holy there too. His Priests, {αβγδ}, holy men. The very ground where God is, Gods self saith, is holy ground, Exod. 3. Art thou despenc't with onely, that comest to worship him? Tis not to Levi alone, but to all Israel, that God saith, estoti sancti, be ye holy, because I am holy. If thou be not: how fearful is that question which God will haply ask thee, Amice, quomodo intrasti, Friend, how camest thou in hither? Twas written over Plat●es school door, {αβγδ}. It should be over the doors of our Temples, {αβγδ}, enter not here any profane person. Holinesse becomes Gods house, saith the Psalmist.  
For wherefore comest thou? Ist to hear? then thine ear must be circumcisd. A fowle foot, i. a wicked lust, is the Devils earewax; twill keep the word from entering there. Or ist to pray? Thou must lift up pure hands, Paul saith, call on God with a pure heart. Else thy prayer God abhors. Impium precari, imprecari est, tart. God will turn the prayers of the wicked into sin, Psal. 109. Or ist to receive the Sacrament? Christ immediately before his institution of the Sacrament, washed his Disciples feet. So do thou thine, thy fowle affections. Iudas washed not his, his fowle foot, love of filthy lucre; he received the Sop into his body: but satan withall took possession of his soul. It appears by Paul, that some of the Corinthians washed not their feet, washed their throats too much, came drunken to the Sacrament, 1 Cor. 11. 21. I wish that foul foot be not found sometimes in our congregations.  
The rabbis writ, that the Priests did all things barefooted in the Temple. Not Priests onely, people too in most eastern Churches, put off their sandals at the porch: no shoe may come upon the holy pavement. Turkes may teach Christians holy duty; not to dare enter into Gods house, tread in his Courts, but with awe and reverence of his sacred presence: to put off every shoe, every foul affection, when they come to worship God. Levit. 26. 2. Templum meum revereberis. Will Paul have womens heads covered in the Churches, because of the Angels? and shall I not cover my feet, my loathsome lusts, because of Gods self? Or doubt I of Gods presence, because I hear God is in Heaven? He is; but in the Temple too. Saint Steven saith, he is not, dwells not in Temples made with hands. The Martyr means, God is not tied to it. Nor is God tied to heaven. Salomon expounds Steven; the heaven of heavens contain him not. So the Temple confines him not. Yet is he in it, tis his house. hospitals, houses built but for the poor, are called Maison-dieus, i. Gods houses. The Temple is much more. What book almost in the whole Bible, but calls it so? All Temples are not, the Turkes Melchites, the Iewes Synagogues▪ and Heathens Temples; Sathans house rather. But Christian Churches are Gods house, and God is in them. Gods self saith, Where but two or three are assembled in Christs name, God is there: much more in the places of frequent Congregations. David calls it Gods dwelling, Psal. 132. the place of his rest, and the seat of his Residence. Here will I dwell, saith God.  
Is God there? then must be there, none unclean person: {αβγδ}, let no ungodly man come where God is. The greek is more significant, and was writ over the gate of the Temple in Epidaurus, Let no profane thing come where God is. I will not be so strict; and yet I may: not hawk or Dog should come into the Sanctuary. Into the Iewes Temple none did, rabbis say. That they do into our Churches, to the great disturbance both of Preacher and people; tis no honour to Church discipline. Might our feet, that is our lusts bee left at home so easily as they: wee should not bring them with us neither. Salomon bids therefore, not leave them, but look to them. Have them wee may; but inhibit them wee must, when wee come into Gods house. I shall haply please less; but I shall profit more, If I shall be more particular.  
David gives instance of one foot, Psal. 36. Pes superbiae, the foot of pride. Thats a foot too frequent in Gods house. Many come thither Spectatum,& ut spectentur, to see, and to be seen; to learn vanity, and to teach it. Thy seemeliest garment well beseems that place, especially on Gods holy day. Honour Gods house and day, even with thy best ornaments. But pride not thyself in the cover of thy shane: wear what thou wilt, that is fit. But look to thy heart, that pride have no foot in it. Thou canst not either pray with devotion, or hear with attention; if thou come with it. Thy heart is on thy habit, not on God. look I pray you at your leisure on the first psalm at morning Service. The Church in wisdom hath chosen it of purpose. comest thou to Gods house? O come, saith David. But ad quid? Ad quid venisti,( twas Christs question to one once) Wherefore art thou c●me? Tis there  told thee. To sing unto the Lord, to rejoice in his salvation, with psalms and thanksgiving. Thou hast put on of purpose a rich suite, and a new fashion. It doth thy heart good to have people gaze on it, to make others follow it. Thou wouldst not come to Church haply but for it. Thou profane man or woman, makest thou Gods house, the school of vanity? must the Church bee a shop for pride to show her pictu●es? Those eyes, which in prayer should bee lifted up to heaven, or in Preaching, be fixed on the Prophet, dost thou draw them from holy office to unholy use? Thou robst God, wrongst thy Neighbour, art Sathans lure, to tempt the lusts of others, who shouldst look unto thine own. I will not bee too long in this: because others late follies have fairly been reformed.  
Theres Pes libidinis; a foul foot indeed, to tread on holy ground, unchaste lust. Women most trespass in the other, Men in this. Theres a sinew in Mans eye, in no creatures else,( Anatomists say) called Nervus precatorius, a Nerve for the nonce, to use in Prayer▪ to lift the eye to Heaven. But theres in many an eye, even in Gods house, Nervus Fornicatorius, a wanton sinew, an Adulterous eye, Saint Peters term. This foot I would not now have name; had there not lately in this Temple, not an eye, but a hand, in Gods holy house, an unholy hand, lewdly trespassed in this kind. If such a Zimri scape uncensur'd Phinees is to blame. Twas once a wonderment in Athens, Bos in civitate, an ox in the city? This is worse, Sus in sanctuario, a goat in Gods house? Clemens notes some hearers, {αβγδ}, Swinish hearers, unchaste ears, that what the Preacher speaks in holy phrase, in Scripture terms, they understand in scurrile sense, in obscene sense.  
Pes Avaritiae is a foot too, that founders often in the Temple. The lust of lucre distracts many a hearer. His mind is on his Mammon, his bargains, and his bonds, in the most of his devotion. His thoughts are thorns, Christ saith: Gods Word is choked with them.  
The foot of ambition hath the same fault. Theres a thorn in that foot too. Prayer craves, sursum corda, bids me lift up my heart. I do; but to honour, not to heaven.  
Theres a fouler foot then this, the foot of malice, the foulest of all lusts, and the unfittest for Gods house. Prayer, Sermon, or Sacrament, this foot defiles all: does more, defeats them, makes them useless: does worse, works them all to our hurt. Pray I God to pardon me, as I do others? and do I malice them? Then crave I vengeance on myself. Come I to hear? Haply I hate the Preacher. His censure of my sin, will harden my heart more. Come I to the Sacrament? and am I not in charity? I take Christs body to my bane; his blood to my damnation. Malice and envy( saith Clemens Alexand.) come not within Gods choir, storm. 5. p. 239. 40.  
Pes sanguinis, the foot of blood, swift to  shed blood, Gods house abhors it. In this case Saint Ambrose would not let the Emperour come into the Temple. he forced him first to fit repentance. And then he came; and prayed, not standing, no nor kneeling neither, but prostrate on the earth, with Davids words, Adhaesit pavimento anima mea, My soul cleaveth to the dust, the soul is not too good to stoop to the Pavement of Gods house.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON THE CANTICLES. The twelfth Sermon.  CANT. 1. 4. I am black, but Comely, O ye Daughters of Jerusalem▪ 
THey are the Churches words, Christs Spouses speech to the Virgins her Companions. A Prolepticall answer to their supposed exception, at her unworthiness, that the Swarthest of women should find favour in the eyes of the fairest of men. Shee sets against that censure,( disgrace will open the mouth of the most modest) shee opposeth to the swarthnesse of her skin, the sweetness of her Countenance. black shee is; and yet that term too hard one way; shee is brown, vers. seq. {αβγδ} but say, she is black; yet is she Comely. Like the herb Nigella, the seed black, but very sweet. A diminutive term, not Nigra, but Nigella; Fusca sum, shee is brown, not black. Her face somewhat dark coloured, but her look lovely: Nigra, said formosa, black, but yet beautiful. So was that glorious queen in the five and fortieth psalm. King Pharaohs daughter, the type of Christs Spouse here. You may presume her black; for shee was an Egyptian: and you must believe her beautiful; for the psalm saith there, shee was. The Churches blackness comes two ways; casually, or naturally; either by the Tanne of Affliction, or by the Morphew of sin.  
For the first; herself to that sense is her own interpreter, in the very next verse, shee saith, she is brown; for the sun hath looked on her. The cross continually atrends the Christian. Not the shadow more duly haunts the body, then the cross the Church. Bids Christ take up the cross and follow him? That needs not. Do thou follow Christ; and the cross will follow thee. Persecution and Religion, Saint Paul hath put together. Live godlily, {αβγδ}, thou shalt suffer persecution. And he hath put an universal note to it, Omnes, All that will live godly. He that saith All excepts none. Paul must, all must. Nulla vita, the comic saith, no mans life sua cruce caret, surely no Christians life, but has his cross. Solomon calls it the sun, ver. seq. The Sun shines as well on the evil, as on the good. The sun doth Illustrare, enlightens all. But this sun doth Lustrare, looks mostly on the Church: and that so wishly, that it turns her skin, burns her skin; looks so long on it, till it looks black. justly said here to have looked on her: for it never hath looked off. looked on her, etiam in Cunis; Christs own lot; Herod sought to slay him, even in his swaddling clouts.  
The Church even in her Infancy, the Christian Church, under the cross. Stephanus lapidatus, Iacobus trucidatus. Augustine, Steven stoned, Saint james beheaded. Which of the Apostles were not persecuted to death? Stripes, bonds, rebukes, would not suffice; they must pay their lives, their hearts blood for their profession, Christianos ad Leonem, Tertullian. Away with them to the Lion, to the Stake; non est fas, it is not fit such fellowes should live upon the earth. The first born under the Law might be either offered, or redeemed, they might choose whether. But Christs Apostles, the first born of the gospel, might have no choice. They must die. Said not Christ, he sent them as sheep among wolves? The wolf, if he light upon a sheep, will take no ransom; but he dies for it. All Christians are sheep, Christ calls them so. Say they scape the wolf; the Butcher catcheth them. Nay their lives sufficed not neither; but as the tragic saith, Rudis est Tyrannus, morte qui poenam exigit, he is but a young Tyrant, that punisheth by death. It was a work of wit to device ways to torture them.  
What say I, Christs Church? the Church was ancient, before twas called Christs; hesterni sumus, the Apostles were but Punees. The cross began long before the gospel. Israel felt it under the Law. David, Elias, both forced to fly, both their lives sought. Daniel in the den, ieremy in the dungeon. Syria threshed Israel with iron flailes. Yea before the Law also, even in Adams daies, long before Israel, when there scarce was any to persecute, but four persons in the world, yet this sun looked on one of them. Abel, Noah, Abraham, whosoever was a zealous worshipper of God, found some son of Belial to beblacke him in some kind or other. Gods Church in all ages hath had Pharaoes and Neroes: facies ejus, sicut nigredo Ollae, as the Prophet speaks, her face has been as the blackness of a pot.  
Mizraim, and Ashur, the servitude of Egypt, the captivity of Babylon, set a deep die of cole-blacke on the jewish Church. And Christs Church, all Christian Churches the sun has looked on them. Not one hath been hide from the heat of it. And how black that heat, that fiery heat hath burnt them, you may both hear and see. In this Temple, as you pass to and fro this place in most Churches remain the monuments of the Churches blackness. Not by the hands of heathens only, the goths, the huns, the Vandals, the Mahometans, not by Gog onely, but by Magog too: Ephraim by Manasses. The Churches own brethren, the sons of her Mother were angry against her, ver. seq. Christs Church in our land, in the dayes of our grandfathers, how grievously hath it groaned under the cross? God hath given it a long rest; the sun hath long been set, not looked on us a whole half hundred yeares. Never may it rise again. And yet it bears a kind of cross even now. The black mouths of our Adversaries, how do they denigrate the name of our Church? and the tongues persecution Saint Augustine reckons worse then the sword. black they will have it, though it be but with ink. The devil the black prince, ever hath, ever will, black the Churches face one way or other. Shee is Naomi, that is, faire, but the cross hath made her Marah, that is, bitter, Lilium, but inter Spinas.  
To end this, affliction is the Churches portion, her portion on earth. Christ hath promised her a crown; but the cross must go before. He that will wear the one, must bear the other. Princes Crownes have a cross over them; but Christs hath one under it. Christs self ascended by mount Olivet to Heaven: but he first ascended mount Calvary to the cross. So must all his Members. Paul saith, their way to Heaven is through many tribulations. No man exempted; Patriarkes, Priests, Prophets, Apostles, Christs own self, all have felt the beams, the black burning beams of persecution. Every member of the Church, Head, and all, hath had his part, Vnus sine peccato, nullus sine flagello; One once found quit of sin, never any of affliction. Qui non est Crucianus, non est Christianus, Luther. The Church is brown: how can shee choose, the sun having looked on her. Affliction is a Fire. Luk. 12. 49. Persecution is a Furnace, Esa. 48. 10. It must needs burn them black, stocke-blacke, cole-blacke, that light in it. Enough of the Tanne; now to the Morphew. I am black, saith Christs Spouse.  
The other cause of the swarthnesse of the Church, is sin. That first was no wonder, that shee should be parched, that she should be scorched by the cross. Gods self put enmity between the Serpents seed, and Eves. The Church is from her; Persecutors from him. satan is their Sire; Christ saith it. You are of your father the devil. His sons have that power to bruise her heel, that the venom of their teeth do discolour all her skin. But that sin should bemorphew her, sin black that body, whereof Christ is head, may seem to some a marvel. Not to be Sunne-burnd onely, ut ver. seq. but sinne-burnd too; her skin be blacked by sin, the Ioy of Christs eyes, and the Spouse of his bosom, his Dove, his Love, his Faire-one, sounds somewhat improbable. Is not holiness one of the Notes of the Church? not of Bellarmines fifteen, but of the four principal in the Constantinople Creeds? nay, one of the two, the first of the two, even in the Apostles Creed; or because some have questioned the credite of the Creed, is it not Pauls term, Ephes. 5. 27. And what fellowship can there be between Belial and Christ, Holinesse and sin? But in this first term of my Text, we are to consider the Church within herself, not what shee is in Christ. Not that complexion which shee hath by Grace, but the constitution, which she hath by nature.  
The Church is the company of Gods Elect indeed. But they are all Adams sons, Eves daughters all. himself was black, when he begot them; and shee, when shee conceived them. thorns bare no grapes; the seed of sinners, and so they sinners too, sinners all. Not any son of man, saving the son of Man, but is a sinner. Papists except Christs Mother; his Grandmother some too; some S. Francis too▪ But you heard Saint Austins Vnus sine peccato; he exempts but one. Was not that one Saint Francis? And his term too is masculine, unus not una. Christs Mother, and his Grandmother, Saint mary and Saint Anne might be no sinners for all that. But Salomon( as it chanceth) clears that doubt. 1 King. 8. Non est homo, qui non peccet; that term takes women too. unless they will haply cavil at the Relative, Non est homo qui, and so to mean men onely. But( as hap is) Christs Mother hath appeacht herself; she calls her son her Saviour; My Spirit( saith shee) rejoiceth in God my Saviour. ask the angel what that is, Matth. 1. 21. Christ should be called Iesus, that is to say, a Saviour; because he should save his people from their sins. Christ was not Maries Saviour, if Mary had no sin. Saint Paul saith, {αβγδ}, All men. Saint james term more emphatical, {αβγδ}, all men together. Theres a Poet exceeds that, {αβγδ}, saith Plutus in Aristoph. all men at once, every one of them, have sinned. If the Romanist again will cavil at these terms too, because they are all Masculine: theres one Text will silence the veriest wrangler of them all, Gal. 3. 22. The Scripture hath concluded all under sin. Not {αβγδ}, all men, lest they might exempt some women. Not {αβγδ}, all women, lest they might except some man. But {αβγδ}, All, that is, both men and women: as if Saint Paul of purpose would provide against all scruple, prevent all cavillation.  
Wee bless that sacred vessel of grace above all women, for her sons sake; we honour her memory, and we Saint her name▪ But we dare not rob the son, to enrich the Mother. That happy prerogative, to be quit of sin, wee appropriate to Christ. Christs self is white and ruddy, both the colours of Beauty, Chap. 5. 10. But his Spouse is black. The Churches shepherd; and his Lambs, like Iacobs, party coloured. Christs self, a lamb immaculate, without spot; but they rinstraked, and full of spots. It was true before the flood, and tis so still, All flesh corrupt their ways. Not the sons of men onely, Cains seed, but the sons of God also, Christs Church. There is not a Saint, but hath been a sinner. It is but some friar, that excepts Saint Francis.  
Noah and Lot, the Scripture calls just men; but it notes some spots in them, So doth it in Abraham, and in his son, and sons son; very foul ones in Iacobs sons; in David, in Peter. Paul calls himself the chief of sinners. Saints have been sinners? Nay Saints are sinners. Saints in heaven have been; Saints in earth are. The best is but a Briar▪ the justest but a thorn, the Prophet saith. Their spots both foul and many. Mary Magdalens seven devills, what were they but seven sins? Devills, that is, foul; and seven, that is, many. Davids foul too, he calls it great, Psal. 25. and many, he saith, they were more than the hairs of his head. Nay not their imperfections, their infirmities alone, cast a morphew on the Church: but their perfections too, make her, if not black, yet brown. Imperfecta est perfectissima perfectio, saith Saint Bernard. Our very righteousness is as a stained clout. This is the Churches natural constitution: Come we now to her Complexion; Nigra sum, said decora, a Negro by nature, but an angel by Grace.  
I am black, but comely. This blackness in Christs Spouse is graced here yet with comeliness. beauty consists not all in colour. sweetness of countenance, and apt feature of the parts make the person beautiful. Her Eyes, her Temples, her neck, her Hands, her breasts, all her other members, Christ here describes their excellent proportion;& in approbation, in admiration of them all, cries, Ch. 4. v. 7. Tota pulcraes, thou art all faire, my love, and there is no spot in thee. brown she is, but amiable, black, but of such beauty, that he surnames her Shullamite, that is, a woman of perfection, and peers her to the stars, the goodliest of them all, fire as the moon; pure as the sun, Chap. 6. vers. 9. and as ravished with the rareness of her beauty, calls her the fairest among women, 5. 9.  
But this fairness, this pureness, this excellent perfection is not of herself. The Churches comeliness comes all from Christ; tis dative, not native. Bodily beauty, Nulla nisi abs te, Saint Austine saith, tis all from God. Tis spiritual much more. She is faire as the moon. But the moons beauty is from the sun. Christ is the sun, Sol justitiae, saith the Prophet; her beauty is his bounty. Twas from the sun she had her blackness too; shee said, shee was brown, for the sun had looked on her, Sol nequitiae, the sun of wickedness. But her beauty is from Christ, Sol justitiae, the Prophet Malachies term, the glorious son of righteousness. The Virgins, that were to go in to King Assuerus, must first be purified with oils and odours. Christ bears affection to the Church, means to espouse her; but she must be fitted first, {αβγδ}, Saint Paul saith. 2 Cor. 11. 2. fitted, and then presented: but prepared first, {αβγδ}, Saint John saith, Apoc. 21. 2. as a Bride trimmed for her husband.  
herself is black; nay to say the truth, hard favoured too, yea illfeatured too. Saith shee, shee is Decora,( or as some books have) formosa, beautiful and comely? Surely there is not either Forma or Decor, the Prophet Esay saith, neither beauty nor shape in her. He spake it of her Spouse in his humiliation; but tis true too, more true of her. Nothing in her lovely of her own. Nor hath shee friends to set her forth. Her Father an Amorite, and her Mother an Hittite. Nothing to commend her, country, Parts, Dowry, Birth, nor Beauty. Christ is fain to furnish her with all. And in some countries Husbands give dowries to the Wives, the old germans did, and some parts of spain▪ so Christ doth to his Church. All his Spirits graces he endows her with, and all his own merits he adorns her with. he doth not, as the man saith in marriage, to the woman, With my body I thee worship. Christ doth worship to the Church, he honours her with his Spirit. He finds her not black onely, but foul too: he purgeth her with hyssop, and so she is made clean; he washeth her, and so shee is whiter than snow, As God did Iehosuah in Zacharies vision, so doth Christ the Church, strippes her of her filthy garments, and puts new robes on her, even his own rob of righteousness. clothed with it though brown, yet shee is faire, without all imputation, but by imputation.  
As in Paul, so in All, there dwelleth no good thing. But tua Bona, Dei Dona, August. all goodness is from God. Christs Spouse is comely, full of grace. But mans grace is from Gods Grace. Love, Peace, Long-suffering, gentleness, Ioy, goodness, Faith, meekness, Temperance, all the Sisterhood of virtues, they are( Saint Paul saith) the fruits of the Spirit. Christ gives his Spouse, his Spirit, and so withall these graces. They are all Gods {αβγδ}, his frank and free bestowings. She is glorious, Saint Paul saith; all glorious, the Psalmist saith: but shee is glorious, because he is gracious. The beauty, glory, comeliness, whatsoever grace shee hath, shee hath of him. They are Donata, not Innata, not natural perfections, but the largess of Christs love.  
To end this; the Churches comeliness comes by two things, justification and Sanctification. God hath conferred on her all the graces of his Spirit; and faith hath conveyed to her all the righteousness of Christ. he the son of righteousness you heard called by the Prophet; and this the woman in the Apocalypse, clothed with this sun. These two contain the perfection of all beauty. Let it seem no wonder, that God so loves the Church. righteousness and holinesse are they not Gods own Image? He sees his son in her; he sees himself in her. It were a wonder, if God should not affect her, so qualified, so beautified. His affection so strong to her, that he vouchsafes to mary her to his own son, own and onely. His sons affection such to her: that he praises her, but in a style passing all the Art of man: Is in love with her, in deep love with her, his heart wounded with her eyes, Chap. 4. 9. but with the one of her eyes; but so ravished with both, that Chap. 6. vers. 4. he entreats her to turn her eyes aside, for he is overcome with love, and in the strength of this love, embraceth her; kisseth her; calls her by all lovely names, and repeats them often; his well beloved, his undefiled, his sister, Spouse, his Dove, his Love his Faire one; yea the fairest of all women. Well may she, and with modesty, especially provoked, call herself Comely, whom the fairest among men calls the fairest among women. Comely is but a Terminus diminuens; she might have assumed somewhat more unto herself, being disgraced by others. But as Christ saith in the gospel, he that humbles himself shall be exalted; so he doth here with her. He turns( Comely) into( Faire,) formosa mea, his Faire, and that not as her fellowes, but most Faire, fairest among women. Yea and yet more than that, not black and Comely, as shee said in her modesty, brown in face, but comely else in body; but tota pulcra, all faire. black in her own eyes, and in her humility, and haply in some others, in disdain; but faire in Gods eye, all faire in Christs. For God will see no blackness in his Saints; he reputes them all faire. In Heathens haply, and some easy Christians, there is some beauty; many of their actions, though sins, because not done in Faith, yet Splendida peccata, beautiful sins. But the Church, the true Church is Lilium inter spinas, as a lily among thorns to them; the fairest among women. Not black and beautiful, but wholly beautiful; without spot, saith Paul, without wrinkle; Tota pulcra es, thou art all faire, my love, and there is no spot in thee.  
Now then come we to you, ye Daughters of jerusalem, lookers on all this love between the Church and Christ, but with an emulous eye. What God calls holy, let no man call profane. Twit not the Church your sister with her blackness. herself confesses it. For all her blackness, she is faire. Hold yourselves a glass; see what your colour is, Albus an after, whether better than Christs Spouses. Amsterdam and Rome, daughters of jerusalem, for I will not envy you that style, though you do us. Nor grudge wee you the title of Gods Church; Israel hath been in Egypt, and the daughter of jerusalem, in the daughter of Babylon. Nor doubt I, but that many of you have inheritance in heaven, though you hold not any of us. Separists and Romanists, Recusants both, shunners of our Communion, and chargers of our Church, with no zeal, and much wickedness. We are indeed black, both by the cross; thankes to you for that, your sun hath looked on us; and by sin, too black. But not so cole-blacke, not so hell-blacke, as you make us. You belike as jehu said to the men of jezreel, you are righteous. For Loripidem rectus, he should be wise, that will call his fellow fool.  
You both are white. First for them of Amsterdam, they are all pure; new Separists, old Chatharists. And yet whence should they be white? Pride is black faced, schisms mother; and I am sure their Sire was brown. But be they, as job said to his friends soli homines, the onely men: like Pupianus in Cyprian, Solus Sanctus, solus integer, they the sole Saints on earth. That schismatical Arch-hereticke Basilides would boast so, Nos sumus homines, cateri, canes& sues. No Saints, but his Disciples, nay no men, but they, all others dogges and swine. Totus mundus apostatavit, the old Donatists saying, not a faithful Christian in all the world, saving at Amsterdam. What we hear of them, I will not publish. I will not say so much, as black is their eye. I pass by them in pitty.  
But Rome to challenge England, to check our Church with blackness, being such a Blouze herself, Quis tulerit gracchoes?— a gipsy should not mock a jew. Yours is the holy Mother Church, yours is the holy Father Pope. Nay a single Sancta, will not serve your Church; you style it Sacrosanctam, the holy holy Church. Nor( holy) in the positive satisfy your Bishop, you title him Sanctissimum, a superlative Saint. What then meant Mantuan? Roma est jam tota Lupanar; the whole city a stews? twenty eight thousand Courtisanes at once in Rome. And how have some of your holy Popes, been Murtherers and Conjurers? For Adulterers, thats a small matter: how have too many of the sacred Pontifices been monsters of men. Etiam Saul inter Prophetas? What Hildebrand become a Saint? Once it was a proverb, A young Saint an old devil. But then, an old devil, a young Saint, Garnet a traitor too, a complotter of the ruin of his King and country, let him go in and be canonized a Saint. Is this your whiteness, ye daughters of jerusalem. White you are indeed, and ruddy, like the Churches Spouse: but white with leprosy, read with blood. God keep our Church, Christ keep his Spouse from such complexion: and purge us of our blackness, that so we may be comely in his fight, that so loved us, as that he gave his onely begotten son for us, to whom with his holy Spirit be all honour, &c.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON jeremiah. The thirteenth Sermon.  jer. 4. 2. And thou shalt swear, the Lord liveth, in truth, in judgement, and in righteousness. 
SO saith the Prophet jeremiah to judah and jerusalem, requiring among other of the fruits of their repentance, to swear by Gods Name. Saint james bids, swear not, Gods servant; nay Christ bids, swear not, Gods son: And saith the Prophet here, jurabis, thou shalt swear? Tis a word had need be prefac't with a Dixit Dominus, in the verse before, the Lord saith, thou shalt swear. And yet tis harsh so too. For doth God command what Christ prohibits? Nolite jurare, I say, swear not, saith Christ. Bids God, what Christ forbids? the son contradict the Father? Here a Dicit Dominus, for the affirmative, thou shalt swear; and Matth. 5. 34. a Dicit Dominus too, for the negative, thou shalt not swear? Christ said, his Father and himself were one, one as in substance, so in sentence. It seems they are two here. What greater variance, then contradiction? Well yet, God bids it, thou shalt swear; thou mayst, thou must. But because swearing is subject to much scepticism, there are many falls in it, saith Iesus mirach. I say much scepticism, both in the form of oath, and in the swearers disposition; first he defines the form, it shall bee, The Lord liveth; and then confines the affection: swear thou shalt, but not falsely, but in truth; not idly, but in judgement; not wickedly, but in righteousness. Thou shalt swear, the Lord liveth, in truth, in judgement, and in righteousness. Five distinct particulars by Gods assistance, and your patience, to bee severally considered. For the first,  
swear, God saith oft of himself, Audite me, hear me; and he said once of his son, Audite ipsum, hear him. Tis fit wee hear them both: for wee are Boths, both Gods, and Christs. But when one bids, what the other forbids; the Father bids in the Law, what the son forbids in the Gospel; whether shall wee hear? for we cannot hear them both. To hear God say, thou shalt; but Christ say thou shalt not; this would make a man a Manichee. For this very cause the Manichees rejected the old Testament, both the Law and Prophets; because they warrant oaths. Let us therefore first accord thus contradiction. The son hath reconciled the Father unto us▪ let us reconcile the son unto the Father. Saint John saith, he saw a war in heaven. But it was not between the persons of the Godhead: there is no war, no jar between them; all the trinity is at unity. Shall wee fly for this accord to that rule of the Divines; Distingue tempora,& concordabunt Scripturae, distinguish but of times, and repugnant Scriptures will agree. Theophylact doth so. He saith, twas lawful to swear then under the Law; but it is not now under the gospel. Moses commanded it, but Christ countermanded it. In so much that many Martyrs have refused to swear before the Magistrates. They would say a Christian might not swear. Or shall wee say God speaks not Praeceptivè here, but Permissive onely; not thou shalt swear; but thou mayst? So is Saint Hieroms judgement, that oaths and sacrifice were but mere Indulgences, permitted to the Iewes of policy. They heard the Gentiles swear by their Gods, and saw them sacrifice to all the hosts of heaven. God was content, they should do both, so they did it unto him. Not that either pleased him, but to preserve them from Idolatry.  
The one saith, tis no precept; the other saith, it is, but for a time. Reverend Fathers both; but I may not rest on either. For if( as Saint jerome thought) oaths are permitted onely, not injoynd: then may I swear, but I may choose. Then will I be an Anabaptist; the Magistrate shall not force me to an oath. And if God injoynd oaths, but for a time, Theophylacts opinion; then swearing is judaism: a Christian to swear, is as absurd, as to bee circumcisd: for he makes them parallels. An excellent protection for a jesuited Papist to refuse the offer of the oath of Allegiance: what? will the judge make him a jew?  
Surely to swear is not a bare permission, but a Law; a Commandment, not an indulgence. Though some Scriptures be ambiguous, and may as well be construed Permissivè as Pr●ceptivè: yet my Text here is peremptory, jurabis, thou shalt swear, even by Saint Hieroms own Translation. Or if haply some greek and Hebrew learned man shall cavil this Text too; and say, that both the Septuagints, and the Chaldee Paraphrast translate it otherwise: yet those places in deuteronomy, 6. 13. and 10. 20. are beyond all exception. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. It cannot there bee permissorie; it must be mandatorie. Though the tense in the original do often but permit, not bind: as, six dayes thou shalt labour, i. thou mayst: thou shalt eat of every three, i. thou mayst: it flatly commands there. To read, thou mayst fear, or thou mayst serve the Lord thy God, it were absurd. Then may not the third member be translated permissivè, jurabis, thou mayst swear, but thou must. Tis not Libertas, but Imperium; to swear, is not by Licence, but by Law; {αβγδ}, a commandment, saith Oecumenius.  
Wee are then yet nere the nearer. Gods jurabis, thou shalt swear, is not yet reconciled to Christs non jurabis, thou shalt not swear. Surely to command and to prohibit, are opposita. If, what God doth {αβγδ}, Christ do {αβγδ},( it is Theophylacts term) forbid what he commands; Christ should cross God indeed. But he doth not. Tis not a prohibition: tis a cohibition rather: not a simplo forbidding, not to swear; but a restraint of false and idle oaths. swear: God bids thee; and Christ forbids thee not, so thine oath bee not, truthless or needless. The Iewes, so taught by the gloss of the Pharisees, thought it no perjury, though their oath were false; so they swore not by Gods self directly. By Heaven, Earth, or the Temple, they thought they might swear freely, though falsely; and if falsely, much more idly. Christ but corrects that error. he will not have them swear, not onely not by God, but not by any thing, frivolously or falsely. Christ but forbade those oaths which the Law forbade before; vain oaths: thou shalt not take Gods name in vain, i. lyingly, or idly; in a false cause, or a frivolous. In a just, and in a true, thou mayst swear, thou shalt. The Law commands it: and Christ came not, nor meant not to abrogate the Law, save onely that of ceremonies. Tis consultum ad cautelam onely, not praeceptum, Bern. Serm. 65. in Cant. Fol. 327. E.  
What? will some Separists or Anabaptists say, forbids not Christ oaths simplely? all oaths, false or true, light or serious? he bids, swear not at all. What can be said more plainly, more peremptorily? Nejuretis omnino, I say, swear not at all; that is, as they expound it, by no oath whatsoever, in no cause whatsoever. These men wrest Christs Omnino, temere, Beza saith unadvisedly, morosè, Calvin saith, perversely; strain the universal particle, to the matter of the oath, which Christ meant of the form, as the context shows plainly to the considerate reader. I say Christs Omnino means not the act of swearing, but the form of oath. As if our Saviour said, thou shalt not swear falsely or rashly, at all; that is, neither by God, nor by his creatures. For to swear by Heaven, by Earth, or by the Temple, to protest the thing avoucht to bee as verily true, as the Temple is Gods house, Heaven his Throne, the Earth his footstool. Which is as much though indeed indirectly, as to swear, vivit Dominus, the Lord liveth.  
If the thing thou swearest be false; think not, the form of thine oath will excuse thee. Thou swearst by God implicitè, though thou name a creature. swear not at all so, by any thing. If the thing bee light, and in thy usual speech; swear not at all too: Yea will serve, and Nay. Christ will have Christians tongues so true, that they shall not need to swear. Their bare asseveration shall suffice. {αβγδ}, Athan. Holy mens words, as oaths. What they shall but simply say, Iuratum puta; it shall be as sure, as if they swore. Thus is there no repugnancy between Christ and his Father. God saith in the Law, thou shalt swear. But my Text tells with what cautions, in truth, in judgement, in righteousness. Christ saith in the gospel, swear not: that is, idly; it is profaneness; or falsely, tis impiety. Now tis true, that Christ said, Ego& Pater unum sumus, Christ and his Father are all one.  
This grand scruple thus removed, the defence of oaths will be without offence; which else would have been odious. I know the Fathers are severe, Saint Chrysostome too violent: he bids a man, if he hear one swear, rebuk him; thats but moderate. But he bids, beat him too; beat him in the street, etiam in foro, even in the open marketstreete: smite him, though he be injayl'd for it, though he suffer death for it: let him sanctify his hand, with bruising his blasphemous mouth. See that good Bishops zeal in Gods cause. But their rigorous censures rose of the enormous licentiousness of men, their outrage in oaths; not of the simplo unlawfulness of the thing. That appears by their own practise. Some of the most peremptory would swear themselves, when cause required. The abuse of swearing God abominates, Man abhors. It is a cause, I will not advocate. Saint Chrysostomes zeal I wish in all of us, so far as to rebuk the idle swearer, what wee may do discreetly. For one disgraceful word, that shall concern ourselves, wee point the field, hazard our lives. But wee suffer God to be pulled out of heaven, Christ anew crucified, yea rent in pieces with execrable oaths, and it moves us not. But not every thing, that is abused by wicked men, must therefore not bee used by sober men.  
To swear simply is lawful: not lawful of indulgence, that we may; but of commandment, that wee must. Tis a precept here, else where; tis often, Thou shalt swear. Thou, not jew onely, but Christian too; every tongue, Esa. 45. Twas not well said of S. jerome, Evangelica veritas non recipit soldan, the Gospel doth not admit oaths. The gospel doth. The Christian swears sometimes, swears lawfully, even by the Gospels. Christians not onely not forbid to swear, to swear at all; but they do, and may swear, even by Christ. he is not worthy the name of a Christian, that refuseth to swear by the name of Christ, saith Bullinger. They were always schismatics, that shunned oaths, Anabaptists among Christians, Essens among Iewes, a sect of jewish Separatists.  
All Divines almost ancient and modern, hold that swearing is a part even of Gods service tis no mervell, twas commanded, not permitted, as Saint jerome said. Gods service is not Leave, but Law. What say I, all Divines? Philosophers say, in an oath is Divina veneratio, Aristot. oaths not {αβγδ}, honourable things onely, as Aristotle terms them, but {αβγδ}, holy things. Iuramenta be Sacramenta, I say, oaths are holy things. And therefore according to the inscription upon Aarons Mitre, Sanctitas jehovae, Holinesse to the Lord, claimed by Gods self, to be made all by his name. An oath is one sort of sanctifying Gods name; and so implicitè prescribed by Christs own self, who seemed to forbid swearing: couched under even one of the petitions of his Prayer, the very first of them. Is not invocation divine worship? And what Oath is without it? What oath of Mans? Every one hath in it( would God every one considered it) both imprecation and invocation. What do I, when I swear, but call on God, to be either witness to my Truth, or revenger of my Falsehood. An Oath, an Act, though in respect of Subject, civill and human; yet in regard of God, whom we call to witness, religious and divine. So far from impiety, that I should either with the Essen, or the Anabaptist, refuse it in just cause; that when I swear, I give God glory; the Scriptures own phrase. Ioshua adjuring Achan, bad him, Give God Glory, i. swear. So did the Pharisees the blind man in the gospel, Da Gloriam Deo. For what do I, when I swear, but confess the Lord to be my God. I aclowledge his Truth, his Iustice, his Omniscience.  
Haply I persuade not yet: will you see example? Law sometimes sway less then instance, You have the Precedents of many Prophets. Moses swore once; Ioshua 14. 5. David often, to Saul, to jonathan. Lest you challenge them with Theophilacts exception, they lived under the Law: which of the Patriarkes did not swear? joseph did. Or because his Oath is censured, jacob did, his Father; Isaac did, his Grandfather; Abraham did, the Father of all the faithful. But you look at the gospel. All these were Iewes; you expect Christians. Saint Paul did, an Apostle, and not once. Patriarkes, Prophets, Apostles, all sorts of Saints have sworn. Will you say, but Saints may sin? Angels have, who cannot. Not Daniels angel onely; least you say again, the Law was then; but Saint Iohns angel too, Apoc. 10. Christ did, exemplum exemplorum. oaths are not abrogated by the gospel. The Lord of the gospel swore himself, swore often. Amen, Amen, Iuratio ejus est, saith Augustine, tis his oath. Christ did? God did: Gods self swore often by himself. His Precept here he confirmed by his own Precedent. What he did, he did.  
How else shall men commerce, nay how at all converse one with an other, if we may not swear? oaths are the seals and sinews of all common life: without which no man may dare trust another. The witness will lye, the Promiser will fail, the Prince will break his league, the Private man his covenant; the Magistrate will be unjust, and every Officer unfaithful, Omnis homo mendax, many a man though sworn, but every man unsworne will lease and lye. Policy is Gods Ordinance. Can it administer Iustice without oaths? oaths necessary, not lawful onely, between all men. Not public oaths alone, as between Princes, or imposed by Magistrates; but private also between man and man, voluntary oaths: so the Swearer take them with religious heart, and in cause important. The Scripture forbids them not; and we have the Precedents of many holy men, jacob to Laban, Booz to Ruth, Obadiah to Elias.  
Of public, no man( I think) of judgement doubts: but Private Communication you will haply confine to yea, and nay. look, what exceeds that, à malo est, saith Christ, it is of evil. Nay, tis Condemnation, Saint james saith tis true: but the Apostle means in speech of course, of idle oaths; Christ of false, and idle too. he takes Gods name in vain indeed, that swears; when he needs not. God will not hold him guiltless, but condemn him: both phrases of one force; S. james but expounds Moses, And for Christs censure, what exceeds yea, and nay, à malo est, it is of evil; tis true too: but whose evil? not Iurantis, but non Credentis, saith Saint Augustine, not thine, that swearest; but his, that forceth thee to swear, that will not else believe. Or will you red it, à Maligno est, tis from the evil one, that is, the devil: and then it taxeth him that swears. For it is the devils guise, to swear, saith Epiph. Indeed Theophylact expounds it so; and Maldonat abbets him; because it is not {αβγδ}, but {αβγδ}, and that also with an Article, {αβγδ}. But first, that is but a quirk. And Epiphanius is wrong too. I think, no man hath found satan to swear in all the Scripture. Thats an Item by the way to the idle swearer, that he commits a sin, which satan himself does not. But red it as you please, A malo, or a maligno, Let swearing be of satan, and the censure touch the swearer, not the urger onely: so you stretch not the reason beyond Christs intended strain, of false and idle oaths.  
There is a time to swear. The Magistrate calls me; I must then. When want of other proof, end of quarrel, my neighbours safety, mine own famed, or Gods glory craves it: I must then. Mine oath then is not idle: I must look, it be not false; and I trespass not either Christs, or the Apostles prohibition. I obey both law, and gospel. press not the Commandement, Thou shalt not take Gods name in vain. I do not. My cause is weighty. and mine Oath is true: I trespass not; I should, if I swore not. Not those places onely cited out of deuteronomy, and my present Text, bid me swear expressly; but even the Decalogue too, implicitè, more covertly. Divines teach in the Decalogue, that every Negative precept includes an affirmative. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God, in vanum. Leave out that last word; and the affirmative is true: Thou shalt assume the name of God. Let his Name be, ever be in thy mouth, in Oath, out of Oath; so it be not in vain. Clinias in Saint Basil was too superstitious; who would rather bear the fine of three talents, then he would swear though in a just cause.  
One Scruple more, ere I end this. There is a phrase or two frequent in speech, in faith, in troth, on my faith, on my troth, offensive to many, as profane, chalengd by some, as oaths. I submit me to your censures, that can judge; I pray your Patience, that can not. I will condemn all oaths, as well as you, not taken in true cause, or in due time. But these terms I take not to be forms of swearing. Saint Basil notes some speeches, that have the form of swearing, but are not indeed oaths. He instances in joseph, by the life of Pharaoh; in Saint Paul, by our rejoicing, both( he saith) simplo speeches, though in shape of oaths. One may bee so precise, as the Waldenses sometimes were, that verily, and truly, he will hold for oaths. These phrases in question are indeed more harsh then they: but I will not say, he swears whom I hear use them. Haply he may; if he think them to bee oaths, they are to him; as Saint Augustine saith, linguam ream non facit nisi mens rea; else they are not. Phrases more sounding like an oath then they, are thought no oaths by men of judgement. As sure as God liveth, and such like, I find in Eusebius, a Bishop put in his subscription. In faith, in truth, and such like are not oaths, but protestations. You will say, they both are one. But they are not. Protestation is but a vehement asseveration. It may bee joined with oath; but itself is none. indeed a Canonist saith, that to say, per Deum, and per Fidem, is all one. But he means by Faith, Religion. But the protestation means credit and fidelity, honesty, integrity. When I say, on or by my Troth, on or by my Faith: I swear not by my Faith on Christ, or my confidence on God: but I protest onely the cause in question to be so, or not, as I am, and would bee thought honest and upright. The honourable man in some affairs, in which meaner men are sworn, gives his word onely, verbum hoins, protests but by his honour. Shall I call this an oath? That phrase and these are peers.  
Now to conclude this part, a thing, the beginning good, Gods ordinance, and the end good, the stinting of quarrel, the strengthening of truth, the preserving of thyself, and neighbour from slander or damage, the promoting of Gods glory, think not Christ hath forbid thee. He inhibits onely, he prohibits not: he inhibits the rash swearer, he prohibits not all oaths. But think that swear thou mayst; God lets thee: Nay swear thou must; God bids thee, jurabis, thou shalt swear.  
The form follows; you have heard the act. God bad us swear; now he tells us how. The form is, the Lord liveth. Thou shalt swear saith the Lord; but thou shalt swear by the Lord. The act enjoined often; but the manner ever joined withall: it must bee by his name. David swore so by the Lord. So did joab, so did Saul; all Israel did, till Ieroboams time: then they began to swear by Baal. Till then, even before the Law, and all, all swore by God. Even Heathens when they urged any Israelite, any Hebrew to swear, required it in that form. swear to me by the Lord, saith Rahab to the spies. So did the Egyptian to David, bad him swear by God. So did Abimelec to Abram, swear by God thou wilt not hurt-me. For to swear by Gods name, and the Lord liveth, is all one. Gods self, who best knows what himself means, expounds it so, jer. 12. 16. Yea even this very phrase was frequent too, none more, none so much in Scripture; sanctified by Gods self. God often swore; but mostly in this manner, vivo ego, as I live, saith God. The form is diversified in terms; but the same sense in all: every oath both exacted and taken in Gods name. Tis Gods will, Esa. 65. Whosoever swears, shall swear by God. Omnis lingua, every tongue, Esa. 45. not of men onely, but of Angels too: both Daniels Angels, and Saint Iohns in the Apocalypse, both swore per viventem in secula, by him that lives for ever.  
said wee not, that to swear by God, was a part of serving God? and observe we not the ceremony of lifting up the hand, to be a phrase in Scripture to signify an oath; I have lifted up my hand, saith Abram to the King of Sodom, that is, I have sworn? the hand lift up to heaven, that is, to God, whom wee call to witness. Iuramenta bee Sacramenta, an oath an office of Religion. By whom I swear, on him I call, as my {αβγδ}, the knower of my heart, and so the witness of my truth. Solus or andus, solus jurandus. All invocation belongs alone to God; and therefore oaths are his peculiar. Summi deorum hic honor proprius, said Apuleius; it is an honour due unto his name, his onely: and therefore called by Moses, Exod. 22. soldan Domini, the Lords oath. Not because God swears; and yet he doth sometimes, oft-times: but because, as Esay said, he that swears, shall swear by God.  
Tis then impiety to swear by creatures, grand sacrilege to swear by any thing but God. Heathens may teach us that Religion: they swore by those things, which they adord for Gods. Terram, mere, sidera juro, Latinus oath in Virgil, by earth, sea, and stars. Vesta the earth, and Amphitrite the sea, Goddesses with them. And the stars they called all {αβγδ}, the sun and moon, and all the host of heaven, were Heathens gods. Their ignorance condemnable, but their zeal pardonable. They would not, had they not held them Gods, have sworn by them. Christians oaths then by creatures, what atheism is that? Christians worse then Iewes, worse then Gentiles: Iewes swore by Baal; they thought him God. Did not the Priests pray to him, O Baal exaudinos? The Gentiles by jupiter, did they not sacrifice to him? jupiter was but a man; Baal but a beast, but the image of a beast; yet they thought them Gods. But Christians swear by things which themselves confess but creatures. Bread, Salt, the Essens both in Epiphanius. By the light, the Manichees oath. Papists by some things more excellent, but yet not Gods, by Saints and Angels. This is indeed, not irreligion, but tis superstition: not impious atheism, but gross idolatry.  
God bids swear, the Lord liveth, not the Angels. Moses bids swear by God, not Saints; by Gods self, not by Gods Mother. The mass too is an oath, used even by Protestants. Is there not a God is Israel, but we must go to beelzeebub the God of Ekron? Must jerusalem needs swear by the sin of Samaria? Let Gods people swear by God. But by God, mean the Lord. For there are many Gods, the Apostle saith. Angels are called Elohim, i. Gods. Papists swearing by them, may say they sin not, they are Gods too. They are indeed, but {αβγδ}, vouchsafed the name by favour; but are not Gods indeed. But as the people cried to Elias, Dominus Deus est, the Lord he is God, the Lord he is God. God prevents here that evasion, bids swear not, God lives, but the Lord. Israel would swear vivit Deus, and yet mean Baal, Amos 8. vivit Deus tuus, O Dan. But thou shalt swear, vivit jehovah, the Lord lives. Thats Gods proper name; {αβγδ} saith David, Psal. 83. ult. jehovah, Gods name onely; never was creature called by it. Thou shalt swear, vivit jehovah, the Lord liveth.  
What? will some men say, is every oath tied strictly to these terms, to these two words, vivit jehovah, the Lord lives? Tis not my meaning, nor the Prophets. God here defines the form of oath; but confines us not to the precise syllables. swear in what terms thou wilt; but swear by him. jacob swore by the fear of Isaac: who was that but God? Gods self swore by the excellency of jacob, Amos 8. which was Gods self: By his hand, by his holinesse, thats Gods self too. By his soul; mens cujusque est quisque; what is my soul, but myself? And Christs Amen, if it be Sacramentum, an oath, as Saint Ambrose makes it, what means it, but Gods truth, which is Gods self? Gods attributes are Gods self. Abraham swore his servant by the God of heaven and earth. Paul protests by Christ, and by the holy Ghost. Yea holy men of God have sworn sometimes in other forms, but equipollent all to this. The Lord is my witness, Saint Pauls oath often. I speak before God, the Apostles too. The Lord do so, and more to me, often in Scripture. Nay Saint Paul swears to the Corinthians, by their rejoicing; Iuratio est, tis an oath, saith Saint Augustine; but it means Christ. Our magistrates adjure us, so God us help by Iesus Christ, a godly form too. All these, and other like, sound to one sense, and are all authorized under this form.  
There is an ancient oath, used yet in the universities, and otherwhere; tis by the holy Gospels. This some have censured as savouring of Rome. But both Saint Chrysostome and Saint Austin show it ancienter then popery. Nor swear wee by the leaves and letters of the book; but either by his spirit, that indited it, or by his son, that is taught in it, Christ the subject of the Gospels.  
Nay, an oath is not impious by creatures neither, with reference to God. Christ simply forbids not to swear by heaven and earth. The reasons which he adds, incline to the quiter contrary. But with the Iewes conceit, that they might break their oath, or swear a lie, if they swore but by them onely, because they are but creatures; he forbids us to swear so. He swears by God, that swears by them. For the one is his footstool, the other is his throne, Gods name is in his creatures. If naming them ● look at God, I swear by him in them, they are the mirrors, the glasses of his glory. Moses called twice to witness, heaven and earth.  
Object not, tis then lawful to swear by Saints and Angels; they are creatures too. They are. But superstition worships them as Gods; and therefore to swear by them gives suspicion of Idolatry. Else he that swears by creatures; though indeed indirectly, yet swears by God; though not expressly, yet by implication. As wrong, or mercy done a Prophet or Disciple, Christ reckons done to him: so an oath by a creature, with reference to God, is intended as taken even by Gods own name. Else what shall wee judge of their oaths in the Scripture, who swore by mens souls; not vivit Dominus, the Lord lives, but vivit Pharaoh, by the life of Pharaoh, Iosephs oath. Him haply you censure; the court had corrupted him. But not he onely; but Hannah did by Helies soul: Vrias did, Abigail did, swear by King Davids soul. Nay David did by Ionathans soul; the Shunamite by Elishas soul; nay Elisha by Elias soul, one Prophet swore by another Prophets soul. To say, they all sinned in it, were an hasty sentence. Nor have I lighted yet on any, that censured them. I will construe joseph candide. By Pharaohs life? whats that, but by Gods self? All men indeed, but Kings especially live by God. But for the rest, tis plainer; let the Hebrew phrase bee weighed; and it is not, as thy soul liveth; but by the life of thy soul. And is not God the life of souls, anima ainae, the soul of souls? So that though not in term, yet in trope they swore by God. In which sense some have sworn by baptism, by the Sacraments. Some germans do so now.  
To end this part, Christ bad, pray thus, {αβγδ}; not say this, but Pray thus, ties us not always to the words, but sets a rule for Prayer. We may pray in those words; but we must pray in that wise. God bids, swear thus, the Lord liveth; ties us not to the terms: onely our oaths must keep that form. The words too, if wee will, as many do in Scripture; but the sense of force. Thou shalt swear, the Lord liveth, that is, by the living God. idols are Gods; God calls them so in irony, but dead Gods. Wee must swear with the angel, by him that lives for ever. The turk though an infidel, swears by the immortal God. idols are Gods, but false Gods: Israel swore by such, by Baal, by Malcham. But he that swears, saith Esay, shall swear by the true God, 65. 16. God bids swear by his name. The name of a strange God shall not be heard out of thy mouth, Exod. 23. swear not by such either Actively or passively: neither the private man swear himself, nor the Magistrate swear others by any strange God, Iesu. 23. Wee are as Darius titled Daniel, the servants of the living God: let us when we swear, swear by the living God.  
he that swears by other, I will doubt he forswears. The oath is awelesse, that is made by creatures. {αβγδ}, saith the old man in Aristoph. he but jests, that swears by jupiter. To swear by any thing but God, lessons the Religion of an oath. An oath( saith Philo) is {αβγδ}, a calling God to witness. People to flatter Princes, would often swear by them, by their healths, and by their childrens: per genium Caesaris. But Polycarpus a religious Bishop, choose rather to be burned, then to swear by Caesars Fortune.  
One scruple rests, which for the unlearneds sake would be removed, lest one Text seem to cross another. God, that bids Israel here, to swear, the Lord liveth, in Osee 4. 15. forbids judah there to swear, the Lord liveth. May not one oath serve both, both living under one Law, both serving under one Lord? Surely God would that judah should swear, as Israel should, but not as Israel did. They should swear so, but not with them. For when they swore so, they swore falsely; and when they would swear truly, they would swear by Baal. So the rabbis say of thē upon that place, and the Chaldee Paraphrast constens it so too, swear not the Lord lives {αβγδ} in a lie. swear God lives▪ but swear in truth, the next point in my Text, Thou shalt swear, the Lord liveth in truth, &c.  
There remain yet three Particulars. This last taught how to swear: these teach How too: but this in what form, those with what affection. swear; but not falsely, lightly, lewdly; but in Truth, Iudgement, and righteousness. Or they confine the cause in which we swear, the object of our oath; it must be true, of weight, and honest; briefly of each.  
For the first; trespass not Truth in Oath: tis Perjury. A lie is base; the charge of it, costs blood sometimes. Perjury is impious. Him that will leaze, I will not hold for honest: but not a Christian neither, that will forswear himself. Will a man( saith Saint August.) vel quacunque fide praeditus, of what religion, of what faith soever, jew, turk, or Indian, break his Oath? An Act onely fitting him, that will say with Davids fool, there is no God. Theodorus the Atheist made it his main argument, to persuade men to perjure. Well may he say, God is: but surely he fears him not, that will swear by him, and lie. Thou wilt not dare call a man to witness a lye, for thee: and darest thou call God? That is( saith Philo) {αβγδ}, a most unholy, irreligious act. swear truly for his sake, by whom thou swearest. Tis God, whom thou dost swear by, whom thou must swear by. Thou makest God a liar, if thou swear untruth. Regulus an heathen swore, not per Christi Sacramenta, but per Daemonum inquinameata, saith Saint August. not by God, but by devils; and yet would keep his Oath.  
An Oath is an honour due unto Gods name: you heard an heathen say. But he defiles it, that swears falsely, Lev. 19. Either to confirm falsehood, or to infirm truth, swear not, tis, when tis not; or it is not, when it is. Whether thy Oath be Assertorium, or Promissorium, the laws distinction; be it;( I say) Assertory, swear, as the thing is; or Promissory, swear, as thy heart means. Herod would not forswear: he would rather do that, which went much against his heart, even behead an holy Prophet. His act was wicked; but yet it showed his awe in oaths.  
Perjury, a sin, some have presumed, that a man will not commit; Aristotle doth. That which( as Philo terms it) is {αβγδ}, the sign, the ensign, the seal of Truth, to make it the cloak of falsehood, man hates it. God hates it Zachary saith. guess the sin by the pain. The forsworn person somewhere branded, somewhere whipped. It was death with the Egyptians, Saint Augustine would have it so with Christians too. He peers the perjured person with the parricide; and saith the magistrate ought not let him live. A sin, which Gods self, as he hates it, Zach. 8. so he plagues it. Our age hath afforded us many fearful instances. Gods curse( saith the Prophet) shall consume both stick and ston of the house of the false swearer. For the breach of an Oath, and it both onely promissory, and that made by others too, unto the Gibeonites; though not made by Saul, yet because broken by Saul, seven of his sons were hung up against the sun, seven Kings sons and grandsonnes. They were but Kings sons: but Zedekiah a Kings self, his eyes put out, and he bound in chains, for his breach of oath to the King of Babylon. For shall he scape that broken the covenant? shall he prosper, that set light the oath? saith the Lord. God will destroy( saith David) all that speaks lies. What will he do to them, that swear lies?  
What then is Romes Religion, that countenanceth perjury? does both practise it, and proctor it? The Pope a Christian, more a catholic, yet more, Christs Vicar, who was truth itself, to pander perjury, O tempora! Yet pardon him for Country too. Italy is Greece too, nay tis magna Graecia, so Plinie calls part of it. Grecians but petty liars to the Pope; he a grand graecian, i. a great liar, a gross forswearer. Iura, Perjura; swear promissorily fealty to thy sovereign, the Pope will assoil thee: forswear assertorily any thing to the Magistrate; the Pope will pardon thee.  
Nay, pardon needs not; tis no sin. A Papists Oath made to a Protestant, though nere so false, yet is not Perjury: thats salved many ways. For if the Oath be assertory, the scape is easy by Equivocation: which who so useth, Saint Augustine calls him Detestandam Belluam, a detestable beast. If it be promissory, the party is a Calvinist, or a Lutheran at least; Faith is not to be kept with heretics. A Position so profane, that they deny they hold it: but they do. ask Simancha else, Nullo nullo modo fides servanda▪ Hereticis, etiam juramento firmata. One Nullo will not serve the Iesuites zeal, he doubles it; nullo nullo modo, by no means, in no case, faith plight to heretics, though bound with Oath, is to be kept. Theres a detestanda bellua, a detestable beast indeed. And for Equivocation, this term taxes all sophistry. Fraus( saith the Heathen orator) distinguit, non dissolvit, fraud binds thee faster; it easeth not thine Oath, it aggravates thy sin. And how darest thou dally with God, by whom thou swearest, {αβγδ}, he is not mocked. God understands the swearer, to his sense, that gives the oath, not to his, that takes it, saith one of their grandmasters. Pet. Lomb. Equivocation is flat perjury; Latomus their doctor too so reckons it; tis not Saint Augustine onely.  
To end this; {αβγδ} is quasi {αβγδ}, soldan Sepimentum, an oath is an hedge to fence thy Faith. break it not; thou betrayest thy Truth. leap not over it: there is a pit behind it, without bottom; it is hell. It is no bad conceit of Bonaventures, that the three fingers laid upon the book in swearing, signify the devoting of state, soul, and body, unto the power of satan, if wee swear falsely. Take heed of swearing, the Lord lives, and lye. Tis a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. as quod mentitur, The mouth that lies, saith Solomon, slays the soul. What condemnation incurs he, that swears falsely? ●weare: swear by Gods name: but swear in truth. Tis Gods charge in the Law, Thou shalt not swear by my name falsely.  
Christ said to Martha, vnum necessarium, one thing was needful. Tis not so here. God craves in oaths, not truth alone, but Iudgement too. Thats the next; that no man swear, but on good ground, and in just cause, not rashly, nor idly. For the first, the thing thou swearest, must be certain, not true onely. The oath is nought, not onely if the thing be false; but if thou doubt of it. swear, but deliberately. affirm not, what thou knowest not; that were folly. But be sure thou know it, ere thou swear. oaths are unlawful even in truth, unknown. swear not upon thought, upon guess only: oaths must not be adventured. Thou swearest with bad conscience, and profanest Gods name, when thou calst him to be witness, that the thing is true, which thou knowest not, whether it be true or false. It is not perjury; but tis next door to it. Thats for the ground. And not onely in assertory oaths, but in promissory too. swear not there neither on uncertainty, unless thou know, know assuredly, that both thou canst perform it by thy power, and mayst by the Law, both Gods and the Kings. Now for the cause, tis true that Saint Austin saith, non peccat, qui verum jurat, he sins not that swears truth. But there must be cause. To swear of use, no cause requiring it, that is not In judicio, tis Ad judicium, twill bring judgement, Gods judgements on thee. The Iewes in Asaes time swore to the Lord, that they would serve him. Well might they swear that, as they did, aloud, joyfully and hearty. Abraham swore to Abimelech, and so did Isaac, both to make a league. David to Saul, that he would not slay his seed. A man to his neighbour in suspicion of fraud; a woman to the Magistrate in suspetion of adultery. oaths of Gods own authorizing. Thou mayst not swear in truth, in trifles. Want of proof, end of strife, my famed in question, my neighbours great hurt hazarded, and Gods glory above all; these are just causes, why a man should swear; you heard before.  
Some swear( great is that sum) where no cause is, where no gain is, where no gain-sayer is, onely of bad use, to make their speech more full, more sounding. Better speak abruptly, better not speak at all. Tis somewhat which some say; they are urged to it; else they are not trusted. But why swearest thou, when thou needst not, idly at home, to thy friends, to thy servants, Cum tibi creditur, cum nemo exigit, nay horrentibus hominibus, though thou see the hearers turn the head at it, stop their ears at it, bend their brows at it, yea check thee for it? Ne assuescas, saith Ecclesiasticus, make not a custom of naming the holy one. The Prophet said, the false swearer, but the wise man, saith the idle swearer too, Gods plague shall never go from his house, not one alone, or two; his house shall be full of plagues, Eccles. 23. 11. The world hath many evil customs; but this of swearing is mala, mala, valdè mala, saint Saint August. bad above all bads.  
First, Gods name which I ought to honour, I make vile. The voice said to Peter, what God makes holy, let not man profane. Gods name, Gods self calls holy; thou profanest it. Gods fearful name, as David calls it, Verendum to the devills, they quake at it; reverendum to the Angells, they bow at it, thou makest contemptible. God charges Israel, Levit. 22. Not to pollute his name, in things hallowed to his name: thou dost. God hath hallowed oaths unto his honour; and by them thou makest him base.  
Secondly, assiduous swearing, daily, hourly use of oaths endangers perjury. Of {αβγδ}, comes {αβγδ}, saith Nazianzen. As in Multiloquio non dost peccatum, in much talk there is some folly: so he that swears oft-times, forswears sometimes. Whereas therefore the Pharisees taught in their catechism, Non pejerabis, thou shalt not swear falsely: Christ taught in his, Non jurabis, thou shalt not swear at all. Still except just cause. Wise and religious was the rabbis counsel▪ {αβγδ} set a hedge before the Law. The Law prohibits perjury. Christ adds a fence. To be sure not to swear falsely, he bids swear not at all. Perjurium praecipitium, perjury( saith Saint August.) is a pit, a deep one, the bottom bounds on hell. he that swears lightly, though truly, yet juxta est, he is near it. He that swears not at all, long est, he is far enough from it. Falsa juratio, exitiosa; etiam vera periculosa, nulla secura, saith the same Father; false swearing is damnable; true is dangerous; none at all is sure. Still exceptis praeexceptis.  
Nay, there are that hurl oath upon oath, swear {αβγδ}; saith Philo, heap oath upon oath, as the giants did hill upon hill, to pull jupiter, God out of heaven, that swear {αβγδ}, O Ecumenius term, liberally; {αβγδ}, every word an oath, Philoes terms too. oaths so bitter and thick, that( as the wise man saith) would make ones ears to tingle, and his hairs to stand. Tis Theophrastus Character of a desperate man. They think belike, as they in the gospel, to be heard for their many words, so these to be believed for their many oaths. Philo calls them fools; seeing that {αβγδ}, multitude of oaths is a sign( saith he) of falsehood, not of truth. I will believe him least, that shall swear most. His many oaths come not from the truth of his heart, but from the use of his tongue: oaths are his ordinary. Nay there is a Generation yet more wicked, that swears( saith Theodoret) {αβγδ}, make a sport of oaths. These are the right desperates. What should I say to these? Hippocrates forbids to physic the desperate. Such would have sentence from the Iudgement seat, not from the Pulpit.  
To end this, {αβγδ}, saith Philo, oaths are no toys, no tenise balls to toss upon the tongue. Haud ludus, juratio, Aug. swearing is no game. An obscene word, an unchaste term, is a great abomination in a womans mouth, saith an ancient Father. What then is a blasphemous word in a mans mouth? The blasphemous Israelite, Levi. 24. is said to have stabbed the name of God. So the word there signifies. The swearer in a manner stabs Almighty God; and so is not Homicida a man-slaier a great crime, but Deicida, a murderer of God, Bernard.  
Beware of oaths, idle oaths: make not a use of them, much less a sport of them. There is a word, the wise man saith, is clothed with death, this is it. oaths are deaths clothes. Darest thou put them on? The profane man dares; clothes himself with blasphemy, as with a rob, saith David. But what follows? It shall run like water into his bowels, and like oil into his bones. swear the Lord lives, in Truth; but swear in Iudgement, never but in need, in just cause of oath. Hercules an Heathen( Plutarch saith) swore but once in all his life. swear not thou so oft, not once, unless in case of necessity. do as Christ bids us; here his rule is kindly, swear not at all. Whatsoever is more than yea and nay, a malo est, it is of evil. Or if you will needs swear; do as a Spanish Postiller bids mothers teach their children, swear by Adverbes onely, certè, sanè, profecto, certainly, and truly.  
The last thing here required is righteousness, last, but not lightest, and belongs alone to promissory oaths. God will not have thee swear to sin. To any Act, contra Ius, contra Fas, against Right, or Religion, bind not thyself; let not any bind thee. The mightiest Magistrate cannot command that. For Religion; Say that the Parent shall swear the child to Popery, the Prince the subject to idolatry. Wilt thou swear by God, against God? Et me mihi perfide prodis? as mercury said to Battus. Iuramenta be Sacrementa. oaths are holy things. Wilt thou abuse holy things to unholy ends▪ Tis not then( saith Saint Augustine) Sacramentum, but Execramentum, not a grateful, but a hateful thing to God. For Right; take not an oath against thy neighbour, to do him damage in body, goods, or name. An oath is Iusjurandum; either Ius, or not Iurandum. swear not the performance of any wicked thing. For what is ill to act, is worse to swear: because thou call'st God to be witness unto wickedness. It was a lewd oath, though Davids;( Saints slip sometimes) that he would destroy Nabal, and all his family. So was Iorams and Iezebels; his to behead Elisha, hers to slay Elias: not to persecute, but to execute Gods Prophets. The Iewes more lewd, not swearing onely, but cursing themselves too, to murder Saint Paul. swear not to do evil. oaths must not cross either piety towards God, or charity towards men. Gods bids thee swear, but in Iustitia; be sure it be in righteousness.  
But what if in infirmity or incogitancy, in weakness or vnwarinesse my oath be past, I have sworn already? God that bids swear in righteousness, bids swear in Truth too. Then must I say with jephthe, I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, {αβγδ} and I can not go back. Surely to break an oath, is a great sin: but to keep it, to do evil is a greater. Of two evils ever choose the less. Nay to break a wicked oath, is not sin neither. Tis sin to make it, not to break. Impia est promissio, quae scelere adimpletur, Isidor. tis a wicked oath, which mischief must perform. Must Herod kill a Prophet, to fulfil his oath? But Injusta vincula solvat Iustitia, August. righteousness must losen, must cancel unjust bonds. Thou art sworn; and thou art bound. Tis true of oaths, which Moses said of vows, they are the souls bands. hear the Wise mans counsel, let not thy mouth cause thee to sin. Nulla pactio, saith the Civilian; no Promise, Protestation, Vow, nor Oath, which projects villainy is of validity. An oath contra bonos mores, is not obligatorium, a rule in Law too. No oaths unhonest bind the conscience. Let the Pope practise here his dispensative power. Here he hath authority: every Bishop hath; every Priest hath, to assoil a penitent swearer from a wicked oath.  
I must end; oaths are Gods homage, ordained to honour him. turn them not against him, by swearing to serve Baal. Nor against his anointed, to  shed his blood, or alien his subjects. swear not any evil against any soul. Let not Sacramentum pietatis be vinculum iniquitatis, the badge of Religion, be the bond of wickedness. Or haply hast thou sworn already? look at the Law, not at thy oath. Pray God to pardon thee for taking it: Double not thy sin, by fulfilling it. Bind not two sins together; and the latter error too worse than the first. To double thy load, when thou mayst ease thee of the half of it, were great madness. Such an oath was Herods. Much better might he have broken his oath, then slain a Prophet. Fidei putavit esse quod erat amentiae, saith Saint Ambrose: while he would prove himself a true man, he showed himself a mad man, a lewd man. Saint Hieroms saying shall end all, unlawful oaths laudabiliter solvantur damnabiliter, observantur; tis commendation, if thou break them; tis damnation, if thou keep them. And thus have I shewed unto you how you must swear; you must swear by God in Truth, in righteousness and in Iudgement, not by the Creature, Saint, or Angels for that which is false, idle, or frivolous; so shall God have the honour due unto him, and yourselves the comfort of it: and that we may all so do, Thou that commandest us to swear, give us wisdom to follow these thy directions, and that for thy dear sons sake Iesus Christ our Lord, cvi, &c.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON EZEKIEL. The fourteenth Sermon.  EZEK. 18. 1. 
Quid vobis, &c. Patres comederunt Omphacen;& Filiorum dentes ostupuerunt.  
What mean ye, &c. The Fathers have eaten sowregrapes, and the Childrens teeth are set on edge.  
IT is a proverb, a lewd proverb, used by the wicked Iewes, upon Gods threatening them captivity, charging him with injustice; as punishing the children for the parents sin. The proverb is allegorical: their Fathers eating sour grapes, is their ancestors acting unkind sins: and the setting the Childrens teeth on edge, is Gods inflicting the pain on their posterity. Our Fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the Childrens teeth are set on edge; that is, our ancestors have sinned, and were all punished. Thus blackmouthed blasphemy barks against heaven, lays iniquity to Gods charge.  
Strange that man should mutiny so grossly against God. Not one man onely;( thats seen often, some impious Atheist to play the railing Rabsakeh, and revile God) but a people; It is Popularis, not Singularis sermo, not one mans speech, but a multitudes; a proverb, God calls it so. One among many to be taken in a sin, in any sin, is no wonder. One Zimri, a lecher; one Achan a thief, in all the host of Israel, is not strange. Two defrauders of the Church, Ananias and Sapphira, among thousands of believers, not strange neither. But a proverb is a speech, in ore omnium. God calling this so, means, it was Vox populi, the mutiny of the whole people, and what people? Israel: thats in this verse too. A whole people, and that Israel, Gods people, Israel Dei( tis Pauls phrase) to put a proverb upon God, a proverb of impious and odious accusation: God hath reason to expostulate, to ask what they mean by it: thats also in this verse. Not what the proverb means; he asks not that; he knew the sense. The words, though allegorical, are plain enough. But what they mean to mutiny, to cast such a wicked imputation upon God.  
The Lord is tender of his attributes, will not have his Titles touched. Earthly Kings will not. Philip of spain will bee styled catholic; Henry of France, most Christian; King james most justly defemder of the Faith. Their coin may not be clipped, much less their style. Gods style is ample, hath many high and honourable attributes. Iustice is one of them. There is in Scripture, not a cloud, but a world of witnesses, to show that. Men on earth, Prophets, Apostles; Saints in heaven, Angels in the Apocalypse, Christ in the gospel. I will not city Gods self, who may say, teste meipso, better then Kings may. But he is a party here. Heathens aclowledge it; Pharaoh did. The Poets goddesse of justice, was loves daughter; and the Iewes astronomy calls Iupiters star, {αβγδ} that is, justice.  
The judge of all the world, shall he be unjust? God forbid, saith old Abraham: Paul saith, Absit, too. Theres no Absit in the Scripture, no Absit in any of Gods attributes, save in this. Dementis est, to doubt of it, is madness, saith Saint Austin. Yet because here Israel questions the point; nay they question it not, they flatly say, God is unjust, flatly, though closely; they cover their atheism under an Allegory: to say it, will not serve, that God is just; tis fit we show it too. The proverb is Israels; they were then in palestine. But all lands have some Israelites: England hath Iewes not onely had in ages past, hath still, many Iewes. The same spirit that spake in Israelites then, speaks in many Christians now; murmurs at Gods judgements. They say, not in their hearts( that were less lewdness) think it onely, speak it out, Patres comederunt, charge God with injustice, for afflicting them. hear thou jewish Atheist, not said onely, but shewed thee too, that God is just. For what is justice? Is it not to give to every one his own, {αβγδ}, Ari●●otles word? God doth that; praise and reward to the well doer, s●ame and punishment to the evil. Who ever served God for nought? satan could say so of job. Who ever trespassed him, and was guiltless? Gods blessings are on all the righteous, his curse upon all sinners. Give( who can) instance but in one that ever scaped. The throne of iniquity condemns( saith David innocent blood; Dat veniam Corvis, justifies the wicked, at least, censures them not. God abhors both, saith Salomon, hath no fellowship with that Throne, Psal. 94. The unjust judge is both {αβγδ}, both respects persons, and receives gifts. The Lord doth neither. A King saith it, jehosaphat, 2 Chron. ●. 19. an Apostle saith it, Saint Paul, often. Saint Peter more than saith it, protests it, Of a truth, ●aith he, God is no respecter of persons. Let an angel sin; God will not spare him, 2 Pet. 2. Bribes and partiality God forbids both, curses both.  
These Proverbers( so the Prophet terms them here) will reply haply. God may forbid Injustice, and yet be unjust, curse wrong, and yet do it. Men indeed do, Princes often, make good laws, but break them. Saul had forbade Sorcerers, yet consulted with a Witch. Meaner Magistrates sometimes, execute laws on others, themselves trespass them. judah bad burn Thamar for whoredom: himself had lain with her. Fathers will censure their own sins in their sons, I would Priests did not in their People. But shall I foolishly match God with man? Foolishly and wickedly? almighty God with sinful man? God is absolutely good, {αβγδ}, goodness itself; cannot be evil, can not do evil, any evil. {αβγδ}, saith the tragic, God, unless good, is not God. {αβγδ}, saith Philo, proper to God, and therefore ever true of him, {αβγδ}, to do no sin. Injustice( saith Plato) is {αβγδ}, the grandest 'vice, High is Israels impiety, to be Censores divinitatis, Tertullians phrase, to accuse God. Plato clears him with double negative, and in the very point in question, {αβγδ}, God is in no case, by no means, unjust. It is an impious question in tully, Quid ad Deos, what hath God to do with Iustice? God were not God, were he not just.  
Called I Israels sin, atheism? It is. How? They confess God. They do not, can not; thus charging him. They deny God, in accusing him. Aut Deum negare oportet, quemmalum existimant, aut bonum dicere, quem Deum pronunciant, saith Tertullian; they must either deny him to be God, whom they charge to be unjust; or confess him to be just, whom they aclowledge to be God. This theme is infinite. God is a righteous judge, saith Paul; righteous in all his ways, saith David. His Iudgement {αβγδ}, Pauls term too. For it is {αβγδ}, Rom. 2. 6. A rendering to every man according to his works, {αβγδ}, 1 Cor. 3. the wages ever approportioned to the work. What can be more just? Yea the exactest {αβγδ}, Retaliation. Luit quae fecit, saith Saint Hierom out of job, stripe for stripe, blood for blood. What measure a man meats, {αβγδ}, it shall be met to him again. Scriptures swarm with examples; but we need them not. The world is full of instances.  
I wrong God all this while, while I dispute for him. God is the Defendant: twas not my part to argue. Actori incumbit probatio. Israel is the plaintiff; he must prove. Lets hear his Arguments. What do these Proverbers object against Gods Iustice? They cry with those mutineers in the Prophet malachi, where is the God of Iudgement? But whats their proof of Gods injustice? See first their Art, to speak in allegory. It is odious to say bluntly, God is unjust. The Hearer haply would rend his clothes, at such a blasphemy. wickedness is wily, will guild a bitter pill, cover foul meaning with faire words; mutiny, but under Metaphors. Malice besides Art; they desire to have it, not the speech of a jew, but a common saying, a proverb. proverbs run more roundly, if allegorical, then in plain terms, will be both more affencted, and more used. They would have Gods dishonour spread. Well leave the form, hear the Matter.  
The Fathers had sinned, but the sons were censured. That( you heard before) was the proverbs meaning; God punisheth one man for anothers sin. This is their Argument. Ergo God is unjust. The Conclusion is suppressed; it is so odious. The Reason concludes reasonably well, were the Antecedent true. But it is false, a calumnious aspersion, as false as Sathans self, who suggested it. False, first, in Thesi. God doth not censure any, that sins not; inflicts pain onely on Delinquents, punisheth no Innocent. They closely instance in themselves. But thats the Hypothesis; of it afterward.  
Abraham cried Absit, God forbid, that God should slay the righteous with the wicked. That were unjust. It is more, far more, to slay the righteous for the wicked. far be the first from God, farther be this; to strike the godly son for the godless Sire, to punish innocency for iniquity. Homers god jupiter, witness his own daughter, {αβγδ}, guilty, not guilty, smites them both, one with the other. That was Abrahams Absit. Israels God doth not. And indeed common calamity God cast sometimes on both together, godly, and ungodly; and yet is not unjust, wee shall also see that afterward. But to strike the godly for the ungodly; neither doth God that: the righteous for the sinner never; save once onely. Neither yet was then unjust. I respite that also. God, where he sees the sin, there lays the pain. Moses in his zeal and love to Israel, cried deal me, prayed God to rase him out of his book. Would he? Nay, but( saith God) he that hath sinned, him will I rase out of it. Man is so just, Amazias slay the men, that killed his Father: but their children he slay not, 2 Chron. 14. and mans law provides for it, that factum unius do not nocere alteri, one mans fact hurt another, saith old ulpian. Maleficia tenant authores suos, non alios, saith another. All Civilians will say, Delictum cum capite semper ambulat, every man must answer for his own act. Heaven must not learn of earth, Iustice, God of man. Those Rules are let for men, but come from God. From him man hath his Iustice. It is one part of Gods Image, Ephe. 4. 14. If man have it; God must have more; Quod effacit telae, magis est tale; It is more exact and excellent in him; justitiae, Iustitia Moses his phrase. Gods Iustice is Gods self. It beseems not him( himself thinks it, Chap. 12. 15.) to condemn him, that deserves not. The soul that sins, ipsa morietur, it shall die; every man shall bear his own burden.  
But what if Israel make good their Argument, instance in some act, particular act of Gods? In the young children of jericho, in Achans sons, and daughters, in Davids Infant, and others, many others? Nay, what if they shall bring Gods own Confession, his Profession, thats more? Thats an Objection answerlesse, above all Arguments. Saith not Gods self, Exod. 20. he will visit the sins of the Fathers on the children to the fourth generation? Behold, may Israel say; martion, and Carpocrates did say, here we have Confitentem reum. Moses saith as much, Num. 34. and ieremy, Prophets both. But they have it here from his own mouth.  
Theodoret answers them; God who in mercy covets to save all, frays men by menaces; but threatens more then he inflicts: menaceth the parents in that manner, that being {αβγδ}, they shun sin, lest the pain light upon their children. But his threatenings are {αβγδ}, exceed his executions; and to construe God there literally, he saith, is {αβγδ}, irreligious. Why? because God commands the contrary, Deut. 24. 16. The children shall not die for the fathers. I doubt you do not like this answer; hear another, a better, himself saith, {αβγδ}. But I rather think( saith he) that God by that threatening would show his love to men, by adding the words following, odientium me, of them that hate me. As if he said, if a father sin, {αβγδ}, I will forbear. If his child also after him; yet I will spare him too. But if the Grandchild and great Grandchild shall sin too, shall go on still in the ways of their forefathers; I will forbear no longer, but will punish them. just so say the jewish writers too, {αβγδ} God will expect no longer. Moses Gerundensis saith, {αβγδ} all the rabbis mean it so. God will visit the sins of the Fathers on the Children. But it is, if the children do Patrissare, commit the sins of their fathers; not else. Moses and jeremy have not that clause; but the Chaldee paraphrast hath it in both. Not the very word there, but the same sense. The best expositors all construe Gods speech so. Israels own rabbis do, {αβγδ} if the son walk in the ways of his Father. All Scriptures of this kind must bee so construed, 1 Reg. 14. 16. God foretells Israel, of this captivity, for the sins of jeroboam; not for his personal sins, but for the like, done by them after him.  
Yea but Israel replies, the fathers sins are punished in the children, though innocent; their teeth are edged, that have not eaten grapes. Achan trespassed in the excommunicate thing. His sons and daughters were stoned as well as he. Some rabbis writ, they were conscious to his sacrilege, accessary to his sin. No marvel then, their teeth were edged, if they ate grapes too. Others of them say, they were brought with Achan to the place of execution, not ad supplicium, but ad spectaculum, onely in terrorem. For it is ver. 24. Lapidabant illum, not illos, they stoned him, not them. But there is also Illos, in the same verse, they stoned them. Yea but saith Levi ben Gerson, that means his cattle and his stuff. In this uncertainty I answer with Saint Austin, that God might justly slay them with their Father; but not for his sin, but for their own. Had they been Innocent, God would have spared them, as he did in Nineveh six score thousand Infants, that knew not the right hand from the left; rather spared the fathers for their sakes, then destroyed them for their fathers. Yea God would have saved Sodom for ten righteous mens sakes. That he would not punish the just with the ungodly, you may see by Lot: though he burnt Sodom, yet he saved him: The angel would not, could not( tis said there) destroy the city, till Lot was out of it.  
How then did God in jericho destroy all, young as well as old? I will not take advantage at the Hebrew word; I might. It is {αβγδ} thats not an Infant, or a Child. It is one young, but of yeares of understanding, old enough to shake off the yoke of obedience, the word sounds so. But the Text there saith All, excepts none. And that word there by Synecdoche must reach to Infants too, though properly it mean them not. Rahab is excepted, and her kinsfolks, and family; All else were slain. This indeed made martion, and some more heretics, to charge God with injustice; but unjustly. For what if there were Infants as many as in Niniveh? Infants are not All Innocents. For act, they are: but God looks further. {αβγδ}, there is a serpent even in the Cockatrices egg. God here saw malice in the seed. The children were young here, but young Canaanites.[ God saw what they would be Atas parentum pejor av●s tulit— Nos nequiores, more wicked then their Fathers.]  
But Davids Infant, begotten in adultery, why did God punish it? Because( saith the Prophet) thou hast caused by this deed, Gods enemies to blaspheme; the child shall die. Say this was no young Canaanite. I answer. God punished David in the child; and yet punished him not;( for he had pardonned him the verse before) but chastened David in the child. The childs death afflicts the Parent; but the childs self is happy. Death to it was no punishment; God took it unto him. Lord when thou pleasest, punish me so.  
But the poor Infant, before God takes it, suffers sometimes very grievous pains. Be death no punishment, torment is. The answer is easy, if not baptized. sin, though but original, deserves Gods wrath. If christened: God sends ●t not those pains to punish it; but that he may give it the more glory in his kingdom. This haply sounds hashly, that God should pain it here, to crown there. Pardon me, I say it not in Popish sense, as if the pain merited the crown. But the young Babe hath taken the Sacrament of baptism, as Gods press money, and the sign of the cross, as the Colours of Christ. he must fight, though nere so young. Not with the world, or satan; he wants yeares: but with the Flesh, as he is able. With the Flesh, not tempting him,( tis too early) but tormenting him. Who is crwoned, that strives not first? Saint Paul saith. This little soldier does, as he is able; and his captain crownes him for his pains, I mean, after his pains. Israels instances are answered.  
Theres one excels all these, all other. I said God never stroke the just for the ungodly, save once onely. Who was that? Was it Moses? For the psalm saith, Israel so angered God, that he punished Moses for their sakes. Tis not he. God punished him by Israels occasion, but for his own sin; his incredulity. Tis said there, he spake unadvisedly with his lips. But tis Christ: Him onely God punished, justum pro Injustis, saith Saint Peter, the just for the Vnjust: and yet was not unjust. Because though the sins were ours, for which he suffered, yet he took them upon him Nor did his father put him to death for them: Mortuus est, quia volvit, saith the Prophet, his sufferings were all volunary.  
Apply the proverb now to Israels self. You see tis false in Thesi: prove it in Hypothesi. Their teeth are edged, they say; but their Fathers atethe grapes. Their Fathers sinned, and they are punished. See first their hastiness; they are not punished yet. The Prophets had  told the●, they should go into Babylon. They are yet in Israel, every man under his Fig three, and his Vine. What if God did but threaten them, as he did Niniveh? Ezechiel had cried at the 12. Chapter, ye shall go into captivity. So jonas cried, Niniveh shall be destroyed; did more, added the time, yet forty dayes. Yet it was not destroyed Who could tell whether God upon their repentance, would have spared them too, and have adjournd his judgements to the next generation? Say, God would punish Israel, as he did; yet not in their dayes haply. God had said as much, had threatened the captivity 200. yeares before, in Ieroboams reign. Why complain they without hurt? their teeth are not edged yet, they bely God.  
Secondly see their hypocrisy; their Fathers have eaten the sour grapes; they have not, they are innocent. Like the Harlot in the Proverbs, who eats and wipes her mouth, and saith, shee hath done nothing. So have these Proverbers eaten some grapes ●oo. Theres one ver. 30. idolatry; as sour a grape, as ever their Fathers ate. Nay sowrer then their Fathers. They were Idolaters; but worshipped Baal onely. These worshipped all the host of heaven, the Gods of all the nations, Moloch, and Ashtaroth, Succoth benoth and Ashimah, Nergal and Adrammelech, grapes which their fathers never tasted. One sowrer yet, ver. 31. they made their sons and daughters pass through the fire. No marvel if their teeth were edged. God, if he punish them, is not therefore unjust. For the holy Ghost saith, 1 Reg. 17. they had hardened their necks, like unto their Fathers.  
Say these complainers had been all righteous men: must God needs be unjust, Because he brings them into Babylon? Are temporal evils all for sin? They art not, God oft intends them for some other ends. That the man in the Gospel was born blind, Christ saith, twas not for sin, his parents, or his own; but for Gods glory; that a work of wonder might be wrought on him, to show Christ to be God. The Martyr dies, not for his sin, though sin be worthy death; but to seal the truth of the Gospel with his blood. job was a just man, the none-such of the world, by Gods own testimony, job 1. 8. God stroke him strangely; made him a none-such too for misery. Not for trial onely of his Faith, and Patience; but to give the world a proof, what man can suffer, supported with Gods grace. God let joseph be sold, a bond-slave into Egypt, a harmless child. Twas not for sin: but to feed his Father in the yeares of famine. This Prophet, and ieremy, both went into captivity, not for their sins, but for Gods service; to be Gods Preachers to Gods people there. So was Daniel, and his fellowes carried away too, bound into Babylon; nay worse, cast unto lions, and the hot fiery furnace; but to do God special service there.  
One scruple more, and I end. The Iewes complaint here hath many lies; but one truth. The Fathers had eaten sour grapes. So they had. Why were not their teeth set on edge? Is not God unjust in that? First I may say truly, their teeth were edged too. Say they were not. That was Gods patience; Paul saith, {αβγδ}, he bore with their ill manners. But their teeth were edged too. Will their children say they were not, because they went not( as they did) into Babylon? Is there no pain but captivity? Surely God censured their sins many ways. Sword, famine, tribute to heathen Princes, are these no punishments? They felt these. Say they did not. Theres a Gehenna, a Hell after this life. The sinner, that scapes here, suffers there. Thats worse then captivity, then lions, or hottest furnace in Babylon. Their rabbis say, no man scapes both {αβγδ} in this world, and {αβγδ} in the world to come too.  
Secondly I say, Gods justice, as it is perfect, so it is free. That if he please, he may either punish a sinner under his desert, or absolutely pardon him. Kings do that by prerogative, and are not therefore called unjust. For God is not an obliged judge. Such a one is bound to the letter of the Law. God is Agens liberrimum, free in all things. We are not to measure Gods justice by mans rules. unto him, perfitly just, perfitly good, just in his greatest mercy, good in his hottest wrath, &c.   

A SERMON PREACHED ONAMOS. The fifteenth Sermon.  AMOS. 7. 13. prophesy no more at Bethel: for it is the Kings chapel, and it is the Kings Court. 
IT is Amafiahs speech to Amos, Baals Archpriest to Gods Prophet forbidding him the further function of that calling, especially in that place. Come to Bethel to prophesy? come to Bethel, and transgress, cap. 4. v. 4. Or if his Conscience were too queasy to bow the knee to Baal, yet favete linguis, let him hear, and see, but say nothing; prophesy not. He had said too much already, he had preached six Sermons all against the state. The King was pleased to pardon him for them, so he preached no more, prophesy no more. Or if his belly were as new wine, that hath no vent, and silence were a pain unto a Prophet; yet let him forbear Bethel. What had he a man of judah to do to preach in Israel? prophesy not in Bethel. It was {αβγδ} the Kings Sanctuary; Amos was a herdman, Amos 1. 1. And a follower of the flocks. Thought he to find in the Kings chapel, as Christ did in Gods temple, Oxen and sheep? It is the Kings chapel. It was the Kings palace; John Baptist a feeder on wild hony, Christ held it absurd to seek him in Kings Courts. Amos a gatherer of wild figs, Amos 7. 14. What should he seek for in the Kings house? It is the Kings Court.  
he was no Prophet, nor any Prophets son; why then should he prophesy? prophesy not. Or say, the Lord had called him extraordinarily, yet he had raild on the Governours, he had called them Bulls of Basan; and therefore Amasias, thought it meet to silence him; prophesy no more. Or if that were over odious to stop the Preachers mouth; yet why should he be vagrant? It was fit he should confine him; Preach not at Bethel. It was the Kings chapel; Kings have chaplains of their own. Gad is called the Kings Seer, 2 Chro. 29. Amos was a stranger, and that cure belonged unto the Kings Seers; it is the Kings chapel. Or lastly say strangers might be allowed sometimes, yet he a Country Prophet was unfit to Preach at Court. Aarons, and Iehojadahs, Daniels and Esaies, the prelates of the priests, and the Princes of the Prophets, men of singular gifts, were to speak in such assemblies. He was a hedge prophet; wild figs, a hedge fruit, he was a gatherer of them; this was no place for him; for it is the Kings Court.  
Prophecies are lightly censures of sin, predictions of judgement, predictions of maledictions, both unwelcome unto men. Had Amos ought to say in way of exhortation or doctrine to the people, any explication of the Law without application to the times, haply the Highpriest would have permitted him. But Prophecies are burdens, you have it often in the Prophets, the burden of the Lord, the burden of the Lord. He might {αβγδ}, but not {αβγδ}, Preach, but not prophesy: prophesy not. He had denounced already many grievous plagues, invasion, desolation, famine, and sword. Every day he prophesied, he added to the burden, which now was grown so great, that the Priest had  told the King, ver. 10. that the land could not bear it: and therefore it was now high time to inhibit him; prophesy no more. Or if all Gods judgements were not yet proclaimd, but there remained more; yet Prophets are called droppers, v. 16. And Gods word in Scripture resembled to the rain. And therefore this dropper must not power out his prophesy all in one place, but as Esay speaketh in an other case, here a little, and there a little. Bethel had her burden; prophesy no more at Bethel. And why not at Bethel? for it is the Kings chapel, they will not believe him; and it is the Kings Court, they will not attend him. Shall truth not be credited? not in the land of lies. Is it not a worn proverb, mayor pars vincit meliorem. Bethel was Baals Sanctuary; the Kings had consecrated that chapel to idolatry: and were not Baals prophets four hundred and fifty? how should one Amos be heard against so many? prophesy he might, but profit he could not; for it was the Kings chapel. Nay, prophesy he might not; neither credence, nor audience was to be had there; for it was the Kings house. The Princes palace is no preaching place. It was Iulians speech, the Emperour. Quis ferat Caesarem in templa ventitantem? Should Kings come to Church, and Caesar be seen at Sermons? press not to preach at Bethel, for it is the Kings Court. This is the brief paraphrase of the parts of my Text, and the points contained therein. For the ampler prosecution of every one apart, as the time shall let, that it will please the Lord to join to your honourable patience, his favourable assistance, I shall entreat your prayers to be conjoynd with mine. Wherein, &c.  
The two main members of the little body of my Text, are, the one an Inhibition of Gods prophet; the other, an exhibition of mans reason. The inhibition contains the Action, and the Place; prophesy the Action, Bethel the Place; I will dispatch them first.  
prophesy no more. prophesy is Gods embassy: shall not he have audience? That which was falsely said of Herod, I may truly say of it, the voice of God and not of man. And is Gods voice so vile, that man 
α.  shall not vouchsafe it audience. The Prophet is Gods trumpet. Clem. 
β.  Alex. Shall man forbid his sound? Gods mouth Saint Augustine calls him; Shall man presume to silence God? Christs lips Saint Basil calls him; and shall the sons of men cope the son of God? His speech the Spirits breathing; and shall mans breath stop Gods breath? God bids him cry, Clama ne cesses: shall man bid him peace, whom God biddeth, cry.  
What though Gods judgements be the matter of the prophesy? and the Prophets words be all in Woes? Haply Gods drift is but to drive thee to repentance, and his threatenings are conditional. You know what jonas cried to Nineveh. prohibit not the Prophet, but do as they did. The project of Gods prophesy is haply thy health; and thy conversion may prevent thy subversion. Yea what though his will be not onely to chide, but also to chasten thee? Yet double not thy sin, by silencing his servants. It is his mercy to premonish thee. Thy meek prostration of thy soul will at the least alloy the fury of his wrath. The herald of defiance sent from King to King, is there ever offer to restrain his speech? What is the Prophet, but Gods herald? He hath his message of Commission. Let him speak, and spare not: tie not his tongue, so long as he speaks, but what the Spirit warrants him. Else be it Amasias or Ieroboams self, I a poor follower of a Country flock, as Amos was, am too mean to censure such. But Gamaliel a great Rabbi, and a counsellor of State, he tells their fault, Acts 5. 39. it is {αβγδ}, fighting against God. And Acolastus author foretells their success, Never any fought with God, vel pie, vel feliciter.  
I know I please in this, some whom I humour not; who for some Prophets prohibited of late, complain of persecution, and cry in their zeal, Surely Herod is merciless, and Annas and Chaiphas bloudthirsty men.  
What? will some man say, are you Saint james his {αβγδ}, Davids double heart, psalm 12. 2. two meanings in one month? ais, negas, with one breath? Said you not even now, that neither Prince, nor Prelate might prohibit prophesy? I say so still. Nay, I will say more, because this loose-lipt nation mutter in their mutinies, that all the Preachers here are conspired to smooth the King, to fawn, and to flatter, and to supparasite the King; a King is supreme in his realms, but under God. And if the Prophet that shall come from God, and utter nothing but the Word of God, shall be prohibited by the Prince; this is a Sauls sin, censured by Samuel, 1 Sam. 15. Nay the sin is worse then Sauls. For Sauls trespass was but disobedience; but this is flat resistance, What God commands, he countermands. It is the Angels sin; nay worse then theirs. For Lucifer said onely, I will be like the highest, Esay. 14. 14. but he advanceth his throne above the highest. John Baptists imprisonment by King Herod, is said by the Evangelist, to be paramount to all the evils, that ever he had wrought, Luk. 3. 20.  
But there is prophesy, improperly so called. For without wit, without art, without reading, without judgement, boldly and blindly, many false prophets, blunder out at all adventures, not the sound wisdom of Gods Word, but the fond follies of their brains, things they understand not; sometime schism, sometimes error, rather divination, then divinity; non considerantes, said sortientes, quid loquantur, as the orator speaks, not of knowledge, but by guess, not {αβγδ}, but {αβγδ}, not the truth of Scripture, but their own conjecture. Haply they hit some truth sometimes; for who( saith the orator) that darts all day, doth not sometime hit the white, but as blind men catch Hares, not by cunning, but by chance. Docent antequam discunt, Hier. They will press up into Pauls chair, that never sat at Gamaliels feet. Such spenders upon no stock, teachers of others, having never learned themselves, blind leaders of the blind, the Bishop in restraining them, prohibits not prophesy; it is fantasy, not prophesy, and {αβγδ}, Basil. every dream is not divinity.  
An other kind of prophesy, called also so improperly, is that of Baals Priests, 1 King. 18. 28. Prophetaverunt, i. insaniverunt, saith the Chaldee Paraphrast, not prophesy, but frenzy. Would God our Church could say, it had none such, who transported with a spirit of fanatical fury, like the ancient heathen prophets, in the dyscrasy of their brains, break forth into outrage. Their tongues enflamed as by the fire of zeal, not kindled at Gods Altar, but as Saint james saith, from hell, set all the realm on fire. And as the nature of flamme is to fly upward, so this furious fiery prophesy, this sulfurious fiery prophesy comes up even to the crown, by combustion to consume both sceptre and Mitre, both the Princes of the Priests, the Fathers of the Church, and the Princes of the People, the peers of the land, yea Caesars self, and all. You will confess, tis fit, such Prophets be prohibited. Say not that I slander them; for as they writ, they speak, and they print, but what they preach; their books are mill testes, and their letters are to show of their desperate designs for the planting of their Discipline. The Bishop that inhibites such, prohibits not prophesy; it is not {αβγδ}, not prophesy, but frenzy. Saint Paul could answer Festus, when he charged him with madness, that he spake the words of truth and sobriety. But the doctrine of these Prophets was neither true nor sober, but factious and false; which they forcing with such fury. Festus might truly tell them, Insanis paul, certainly sirs, ye are besides yourselves. The prohibiting of such hath warrant by Gods precedent, 2 Pet. 2. He opened Balaams asses mouth, to forbid the prophets madness. All the things are here together; a prophet, but a mad Prophet: is forbid, that is, prohibited. This shall suffice to have spoken of the action, prophesy no more; I come unto the place.  
prophesy no more at Bethel. Amasias doth not offer to silence Amos utterly, but his prohibition is provincial. He will not have him Preach within his jurisdiction; Preach not at Bethel. In judah, which was out of his Precinct, he might prophesy his fill; in the verse before my Text, Videns, vade in Iuda,& propheta ibi, go get thee unto judah, and play the Prophet there. Videns vade; thou Seer, go thy ways; had his Dialect been latin, his words had been strange; as if videns were derived not á videndo, but a vadendo. Shall jonas fly to Tharsis, when God bids him go to Niniveh? Shall Amos fly to judah, when God sends him into Israel? It is the Prophets duty not onely to take his Theme from God, and when God bids him cry, to ask with Esay, What shall we cry? but to take his quo, as well as his quid, and to say to God, as the people did to Ioshua, quocunque miseris, ibimus, whether soever thou sendest us, thither will we go.  
The Lord had bidden Amos to prophesy to Israel, vers. 15. Samaria was the Center-city of that realm, and might seem the fittest for the Prophets purpose, to Israel in the midst of Israel. But Bethel was Baals brothelhouse, whether all the people went a whoring after him. There God was most dishonoured; and therefore it was fittest to denounce Gods judgements there. Say Bethel were Beth-el, that is, the house of God; for so jacob first, christened it. Yet Iudgement must begin at the house of God. But Bethel was Bethaven so Hoseah calleth it, the house of wickedness, a city of sin; and therefore it was meet, the Prophet should Preach there.  
To whom should the physician go, but to the sick? Bethel was now become of Gods house, Baals house, a schismatical synagogue of superstition, and idolatry; where Kine were killed to be offered to a calf; where men did bow to Baalim, the Image of God, to the image of a beast. Is sin the souls sickness, and Bethel so pained with it? Are the Prophets Gods Physitians? And yet shall Amasias say unto Amos, prophesy not at Bethel? Bethel an apprehender of Prophets, lay hold on him, saith jeroboam; a seducer of Prophets; for there was he beguilde, that cried against the Altar; Bethel a mocker of Prophets, the boyes cried Baldhead to Eliseus; a prohibitor of Prophets, the Priest saith here to Amos, Preach no more at Bethel. And why not at Bethel? The reason is rendered in the remnant of my Text; For it is the Kings chapel, and it is the Kings Court. I will speak of each severally.  
Baal had two Temples, one at Dan, the other here. But Bethel was the holier; hither came the King. This was a right Basilica, the Kings 
{αβγδ}  own oratory, and the place where he presented his personal worship and devotion unto Baal. Now then it was not either safe or seemly for Amos to prophesy against the King, before the King. Not seemly; the censuring of the Prince in the hearing of the people, would be thought to be unseasonable, Saul thought he acknowledged he was worthy of reproof, yet entreated Samuel to honour him before them. Not safe: Scribere in eum, qui potest proscribere, to presume to censure him, who can take thy head from thee?  
Kings must not be used boisterously; but as Cyrus mother said, Verbis byssinis, with words of silk, meekly and mildly. Prophets are rough tongued, and respect no persons: their rude iusticitie regards no roialtie. Either with baseness they must hear them, or with danger they must silence them. They may not with their honour be censured for their sin, and they may not with their safety be avenged on their boldness, because they come from God. Amazias had complained of Amos to the King, accused him of high treason, and used all his Oratory to persuade him unto punishment. But jeroboam knew, he was a man of God, who chargeth even Kings not to touch his anointed, nor to do his Prophets harm. An other jeroboam had stretched forth his hand to lay hold on a Prophet, but could not draw it back again. he had heard of him. Ahab had imprisoned Michaiah; but the Lord revenged his wrong. His son jehoram would have beheaded Elisha; he was wounded by the Aramites, and slain by jehu. Never any thrived, that dealt hardly with Gods Prophets. predecessors precedents made jeroboam wise. Not all the Priests persuasions could prevail with him, once to touch Amos. And therefore he is fain fairly to entreat him to depart Bethel, and to prophesy no more. he threatens not, he rates him not, but gently requests him to forbear that place, as if he were solicitous of the Prophets safety, endangered by preaching in the Presence of a King, that would not be controlled. It is the Kings chapel.  
What? Is it dangerous to Preach in Palaces, to prophecy to Kings? May not ieremy preach judgement, but he must kiss the stocks? May not John Baptist chide the King, but the queen will have his head? All Kings are not Iehojakims; all Princes are not Herods. But what became of them? Was not the one smitten by Gods angel, and the other butted with the burial of an ass? Pharaoh that threatened Moses, Ahab that hated Michaih, joas that stoned zachary, and jehojakim that slay Vrias with the sword, was not God avenged on them? Did ever any prosper that did disgrace a Prophet? But Christian Kings wear crosses in their Crownes, the Cognisance of Christ; in sign of subjection unto his sceptre. His sceptre is his Word, and the Prophets are his mouth. Qui vos audit, me audit.  
Bethel is indeed Gods chapel, not the Kings: for Bethel is Gods house; Gods self so calls it by his Prophet, My house. And prophecy is Gods voice. Shall God be tongue-tied in his own House. But say, it were the Kings capel; thats no prejudice to Gods prerogative. In phrase it is the Kings, either as founding it, or frequenting it; but in use it is the Lords; and the house is hallowed unto his service. Some have translated it, it is the Kings sanctuary; not a sanctuary of refuge, to secure him from Gods censure, but the holy place, where he must hear Gods Prophets. Now the Prophet is Gods man, the Scripture terms him so; and his masters message, be it what it will, he must deliver it. The counsellor for the State, and the physician for the body, shall the King hear them, and not the Prophet for the soul? I maintain not the sour spirits of some wayward Prophets, who like the cynics are all in censure, and all their prophecy is onely reproof. Their too much morositie is a scandal unto many.  
Much less allow I those, who wound the head to tickle the tail; who vainly, but dangerously affect applause of multitude by censuring the Magistrate, and seek to please the people by perstringing of the Prince. I am not acquainted with the manners of the Court. But I know that in the country, if one pragmatical Prophet shall use presumptuously to preach against the prelacy, who are the Princes of the Priests, the people round about will flock unto him, and those not the dregs of them, but even they also, that ride on horses, and are drawn with wheels. And I have heard say, I hope it is not so, that upon the hear say of some audacious Preacher appointed to this place, many of the city, but I hope the lees alone, do press into this presence, if haply some censure may pass upon the sovereign, the Prince of the people. The humourers of such hearers it is meet they be prohibited. For this is indeed, as Amazias said to Amos, not prophecy, but conspiracy.  
What? Will you say unto me, play you praevaricator? Betray you the authority, which God doth give the Prophets? God forbid. Plato is my friend, and so is Socrates, but the truth is more. I will not( as Saint Bernard saith) favere majestati magis quàm veritati, be a servant unto Caesar, and a traitor to the truth. Caesars be sinners as well as meaner men, yea many times greater without Gods special grace. Courts have few monitours to remember them. The Lord hath therefore laid this province on the Prophet. Kings souls are precious unto God, far above their subjects. God hath therefore given the Prophets special charge of them. Where prophecy failes, there the people perish, saith Salomon? Nay, where prophecy failes, there Kings do perish. I come unto the other Reason, It is the Kings Court.  
He held it but lost labour to prophecy to Courtiers; there were none 
{αβγδ}.  that would hear, at least, that would be the better for the hearing. The council are employed in business of State. The Gallants love their ease, their pleasures, and their sports. The one think policy fitter than divinity to support the crown. The other doubt Religion will bring the King to melancholy; that the Prince by prophecy will grow to be precise. Courtiers are curious, and Amos was unlearned; their delicate ears would not endure his Dialect. And preaching judgement too, they would abhor him more. Their use is to applaud( Vt Aug. lib. 2. cap. 28. de civit. Dei) not consultoribus, utilitatum, but largitoribus voluptatum; not the teachers of the conscience, but the ticklers of the sense. That in the Prophet, Esay 30. 10. is ever in their mouths, loquimini nobis placentia. Preach not onely us aloes and gull, but both in style and matter please us, or be silent. Thus haply he hoped to discourage Amos from prophesying there.  
But the Preachers voice is not Vox ad placitum. {αβγδ}, Chrysost. the Pulpit is no stage. Prophets project is to profit, not to please; not to gratify the ear, but to edify the heart. If any can placere and docere too, I honour his felicity; and men shall kiss his lips, qui miscuit utile dulci; whose speech is like the lion in Sampsons riddle, both strong and sweet: whose words like Oxymel are so wisely tempered the sour with sweet, nay so cunningly covered the bitter under sweet for the easier ingredience; that as the book in the Apocal. was sweet in Saint Iohns mouth, but bitter in his belly, so are they unto the hearers, though music to the ear, yet physic to the conscience.  
These are the addle arguments of this subtle Arch-priest, pretending a care of the prophets safety, but indeed tendering his own particular. For if Baal were put down by Amos prophesying; then he, and all his Chemarims were instantly to lose haply their lives, but certainly their livings. The precedents of Elias slaughter, and Iehues massacre of Baals Priests, and now Ieroboams coldness in the cause, gave him just cause to doubt. Thus much for explication, one word for application.  
Blessed be our times in which Amos hath no cause to prophesy against Bethel. britain is Bethel, but Iacobs Bethel, not Ieroboams; merely Gods house. Baal hath no temple here. The catholics hope he should. Nay his majesty said he should, if Tortus, and some others of that lewd lying race may be trusted on their word. But for the first, as Abigal said of Nabal {αβγδ} he was a fool by name, and folly was with him; so I may say of Tortus, no marvel, he wrote not right, that hath his name of wrong. And for the rest, the liars tongues have  told themselves they lied. again blessed be our times, in with Gods meanest Prophet, even in the Kings chapel, and in the Kings Court, may teach, instruct, improve, or reprove, freely, if soundly, and safely, if soberly. Yea Caesars self in person countenanceth the Prophets, and puts spirit to their speech by his gracious aspect, and untired atten. ion. In confidence whereof I the simplest of Gods Seers might humbly crave patience to proceed further, but that I love not to cloy my auditors, nor make my discourse seem more tedious than profitable. To God the Father, &c.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON S. MATTHEW. The sixteenth Sermon.  MATTH. 16. 26. What is a man advantaged, to win the whole world, if he lose his own soul? 
CHRIST in arming his Disciples to the bearing of his cross, useth in it a cross argument, that he that with loss of his life shall have born it, shall gain by his loss but he, that in love of his life, shall avoid it, shall lose by his gain. Art thou content to lose thy life for Christ? thou losest it not; thou dost but exchange it: Christ will give thee a better, an eternal for a temporal. Thats just as Saint Paul saith, Mori mihi lucrum, thy death is thine advantage. But art thou loathe to lose it? Choosest rather to enjoy the good things of this life, wealth, honour, or what else, wherewith the world will wooe thee, to win thee from the cross? Thou fool, this night perchance, one night, one day, at length, they shall take thy soul from thee. Who they? the evil Angels, and shall carry it to hell. Now cast thy count in time; weigh thy gain and loss together, gain of the world, loss of thy soul: tell me, {αβγδ}; What is a man advantaged, to win the whole world, and to lose his own soul? This is the context. I pray you, mark the metaphors in the verse before, and this; saving, gaining, winning, losing: all gamesters terms, three of them in this, {αβγδ}, gain, winning, and loss. These three distinguish the members of my Text, and be the bounders of my Sermon. Art would, I should begin at the mids of my Text, speak first of winning, then of losing, and last of the advantage. But If will take them as they lie.  
Mans life is a Play. I mean not an interlude, though it be that too. {αβγδ}, a Play, Saint Chrysostomes term; the world the stage; man the actor; the spectator God. But our life is a game; vita nostra lusus, sapient. 15. 12. The gamesters, man and satan; impar congressus: the Players so mismatcht, that the game is as good, as lost at the beginning. Man stakes his soul, satan the world Or rather satan draws the world; tis his stock, not his stake; he is not so rash, to hazard all at once: some little part of it. Man is desperate, he ventures his whole stock at once; I mean his soul. satan cares little to lose many games. If he win one in a thousand, twill suffice. If man lose but one; his soul is Sathans. For the devil will be sure, that the soul be still at stake: he will not let him draw that back, and set some of that he won from him: but ever cries, as the King of Sodom did to Abram, da mihi Animas, set me the soul: he will onely cast at it. Man though nere so fortunate, must lose at length: who ever played, that never lost? If he do; Actum est; the devil hath that he would: he will play no more. Ilicet, peristi; thou mayst be gone too; for thy soul is gone. Then let man weigh his winnings with his loss. They are but the things of the world, which he hath won; say he hath won a world of them. Tis his soul which he hath lost. {αβγδ}; what hath he gained by it. Observes the Apostle coggerie in men, {αβγδ}, Ephes. 4. 14. Tis satan is the cogger; he is the right cheater, {αβγδ}, tis he that is the cozener. He will set thee a fumme: but the gold shall be but uppermost, the rest, all Counters, or counterfeits. Say it be gold all, it will not countervail they soul. Tis but a ●ite against a Talent.]  
Christs speech is question-wise, what is a man advantaged? His affirmative question, categorically turned, means negatively. Quid proficit? thats, nile proficit, what profits it a man? thats, It profiteth him nought. sin is called Belial, i. unprofitable: the works of it {αβγδ}, fruitless, Saint Pauls term. The sinner {αβγδ}, i. useless, Christs term: nay worse then so: twere well though he gained not, so he lost not. But he is {αβγδ}, the son of loss, Christs term too. Pindarus asks of man, asks and answers both, {αβγδ}; what is any man? what is no man? So may I of the world, of any thing in it, set against the soul, {αβγδ}; what is any thing? what is nothing? That which Adrian the Emperour called but Animulam, Animula, vagula, blandula, a little soul; one poor little soul excels the greatest, greatest and richest thing, the whole world hath. The most precious thing earth hath, is but( as that Poet said of mans life) {αβγδ}, but the dream of a shadow. And what 'gainst thou by that, to lose a substance, such a substance as mans soul, for a shadow? Nay for less, for the dream onely of a shadow? I will say with Saint Augustine, Pereat mundi lucrum, ne fiat ainae damnum, I will not win the world, to lose my soul.  
Will a man exchange life for any thing? One haply will hazard it, the thief will; will adventure for advantage; he hopes to scape, else he would not; will not lose it desperately for any gain. satan though a liar, said that truly, A man will give all that he hath for his life; But he will not give his life, for all that that the world hath. {αβγδ}, &c. Achilles prized his life above all the wealth of Troy. The soul excels the life. I will lose my life, to save my soul. One soul worth many lives: so precious, that being lost could not be redeemed, but by Christs death, mans soul by Gods death. Compare the world but with thy body; let satan touch but it, as he did Iobs. Be sick of some disease both incurable and unsufferable. Let then bee brought to thee, millions of gold, gorgeous apparel, choice of dainty meats, all sorts of delights, that art can show, or heart can wish. Let Haman mount thee on the Kings own horse, put his Ring on thy hand, and his crown on thy head. Nay, bee thou crwoned a King; sit on a Throne; be the knees of Princes bended before thee. What good will all this do thee? the physician gives thee over, and thy pains are tormenting. The soul excels the body, as the Gold doth led, as heaven doth earth. Thy soul to sicken; to sicken? nay to die; the world with all his glory what will it profit thee?  
Many things called precious in Scripture, wine, gems, vessels, apparel, gold ointment, and some more. The soul called so above them all. Solomon calls it so, the harlot hunts( saith he) pretiosam animam, a mans precious soul. Say it mean there the life onely, not the soul. Say it be not called so; yet it is so; is so, above all things called so, saving Christs blood onely, {αβγδ}, Peter calls it precious; it excels the soul: all souls set to it, are vile: for they are mans; but it was Gods. But saving it onely, the soul transcends all things in worth, all worldly things. Lose it who will, wilfully; he shall find Christs saying true, next to my Text, that theres no {αβγδ}, no ransom to redeem it. Thousands of rams, ten thousands of rivers of oil will not ransom a soul. My first born will not satisfy for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul.  
Scriptures and Fathers, how do they honour it? The bodies glory, Davids term, Psal. 16. 9. So the Hebrew gloss expounds it, {αβγδ} Melius nostrum, Fulg. our better part. Domina Corporis Saint Austins term, vita corporis, his term too, the bodies lady, the bodies life. All these little and lank. Gods light, saith Salomon, Gods delight, his love, Wisd. 11. ult. O thou lover of souls. consubstantial with the Angells, justin Martyr. Not Gods self saith S. Austin, but Gods Image, and the nearest thing to God; {αβγδ}, Gods own resemblance, Nazianzen calls it too. Gods seat, and his house, August. peer to the Angells; nothing above it, but God, Saint Austins too. For this so incomparable so invaluable a treasure, say thou have won the world, the whole world, which never yet man did; say thou hast: tis but mundus immundus, a thing neat in name, but dirt indeed. Saint Paul makes no more of it; calls the best of it but {αβγδ}. Not {αβγδ} onely, my Texts term, Saint Paul hath it there too, not loss onely, but dross; worse, dung, filthy excrement. asked Iudas of the ointment, ad quid perditio haec? what needed that wast? I may better, much better ask of the soul, ut quid perditio haec, what needeth this wast for the winning of the world so worthless, so bootless, a man to lose his soul, what doth it advantage him? Enough of this term. hear the next, to win the whole world, winning is next.  
Who would not play to win? to win a world? might he be sure of it? But heres an If; tis but supposed, If a man win the world. Well yet suppose it, that one wins the world. The world is Gods; he made it: and all the good things of it, are Gods too. Riches and honour are in his hand, saith Solomon. All useful and delightful things are in Gods gift, Bona be Dei Dona, August. Many just men have them of him, all gratis, frankly of his love, without hazard of their souls. Tis but for honour, wealth, or power, that men make all these stirs on earth, would( could they) pull God out of heaven. All these, good men, fearers of God, have fairly come by, by Gods blessing. Abraham, joseph, David, job, infinite more had them, and yet their souls safe too. But satan bugbeares on Gods prerogative, makes himself {αβγδ}, the Prince of the world, gives all the things in it, pretends to give them; and God suffers him. And the worldling is his homager, sues to him for them, rather then to God. But he must compound with him. satan is the grand Simoniack of the world: it must cost you your soul, if you will have ought of him. he sells all; but for souls onely. But we are swerved from our first allegory. return wee unto it; If he win saith our Saviour, the metaphor is from play.  
satan thirsts for a soul, shows things, will lure any mans lusts. You heard them name, riches, honour, authority. do but play with him, and draw thy soul; he will set thee what thou wilt: any of the three, all three rather then fail. And he will haply let thee win a while, win many games. Else none would play with him.[ And yet sometimes he will have a mans soul at the very first stake: one shall lose it, and have won nothing. Many a fellow is taken at his first attempt, takes a purse onely, holds it not, breaks a house onely, robs it not, mans law lays hold on his life, Gods on his soul.] But tis for Sathans gain to lose: and he does lightly, loses of purpose, long together, both to 'allure more gamesters, and to lay surer hold on them. he stakes all gold, and his gold is good, like the gold of Havilah, both speciosum& pretiosum, faire and fine. For wealth, honour, and power are Gods creatures, and so good; well worth the winning were not the loss at length so desperate. Weigh we them apart.  
All men crave not all three: be wealth the first, most men crave it. All spirits aspire not; nor doth every man covet Authority. But riches are witches, that enchant all men. Grace and good manners make a man, twas said of old. Thats but in writing schools, for copies onely. {αβγδ}, the lyric saith, tis money makes the man. A little hath his worth: the smallest penny bears Caesars superscription, hath the Kings face on it. Iudas for 30. will sell Christ. Twenty will pay poll money for Christ and Peter too. thirteen will, hang a man; fewer will cost stripes. poor one will work Curses and oaths,[ and other outrage, heard and seen daily, even within this Churches walls, seen and suffered; whether by prentices, I am not sure, or Schollers, or who else, by profane boys, I am sure. I wonder not. Haply their Masters or Parents in their shops will do as much for as little, protest, lie, and forswear, for the gain of a poor penny.] Pounds have more poise, many pounds, will purchase Lands, Houses, Offices, benefice too, Dignities, honours, mitres, Crownes.[ stars, Fire, Earth, Water, Wind, and sun, men( saith Me●ander) call them Gods. But Gold and Silver, I call Gods.] Tis wealth, not wisdom, that prefers. {αβγδ}, Aristotle saith, he that hath most, not that knoweth most, carries the most voices. The leaden headed will be golden heeled. Wealth gives not worship onely, but wit too: he wants nothing, that hath Wealth. What doth not it? makes lechers honest, felons just. Come there accusations, come there proofs never so pregnant. Silver( saith Solomon) Money answers All. Eccles. 10. 19. Gold such a God, Mammon so Almighty, that {αβγδ}, saith Diodorus, all things give way to it, nothing impossible to Mammon. Nothing in Peace. Thou shalt sit with Princes, counsel Kings. Nothing in war. Is the enemy too strong for thee? Fight but( the Oracle bids) {αβγδ}, with silver lances: thou shalt beate him. Beseigest thou a city? Never batter the walls. Load but an ass with Gold, sand him to the Gates, and thou shalt enter. Regina Pecun●●, Money the Poet calls a queen, she is more: magna est diani Ephesioram, great is the queen, the goddesse of the worldling.  
This satan sets against the soul; largely to some, sparing to some, as the persons are that play with him. Iudas won of him but a little Silver, thirty pieces, called commonly but pence; but thought to be sickles, thats some three or four pound. That it was not much, appears by Christs irony in Zachary, a goodly price, at which they valued me. Achan got gold of him, a wedge of gold, and a precious garment, and silver too. The man in the gospel, whom God calls fool, had {αβγδ}, much goods. Another there, that refused to follow Christ, was marvelous rich. It seems Iason had drawn well, that offered four hundred talents for the high priesthood; 2 Maccab. Men●laus had a better hand, then he, that outbad him, gave three hundred talents more. Haman far exceeded both, proffered ten thousand talents to the King, to massacre the Iewes. Dis by the latin Poets, Pluto by the greek, feigned god of hell, hath his names both of riches. Hazard thy soul to him, thou shalt have wealth, a world of it.  
To end this, have wealth I will. God will not give it me. Acheronta movebo, satan shall: gain is sweet ex re qualibet. Tis Venison; ask not whence it comes: tis good, whencesoever. Tis the worldlings word, Sap. 15. 12. Vndecunque, whencesoever; jumpes with that of Horace, quocunque modo, howsoever Achan will have it, though he steal. Balaam, though he curse his Country. Iudas though he sell his Saviour. Ananias by fraud, Gehezi by simony, I will make mine Epphah less, to make my sickle more. Be my measure nere so short, my weight nere so light; tis no matter, so I gain. I will wrong Orphan, Widow, every man, fraudulently, violently, rob, bribe, forge, extort, forswear, betray; I will be wealthy. Per fas, or nefas; never ask me, how? Leave that question for Christ, at the day of Iudgement. I will blushy for nothing, dum ob rem, saith the comic. Make me Pope, I will sell Palls, mitres, Altars, Orders, Churches, God and All, to have Wealth, Honour, Authority, devil and all. Quis metus, aut pudor est unquam properant is avari? What fears he, what shames he, that posts after Pluto, gallops after Wealth?  
Honour is next; some humour rather lusts for it. Ambition cries to satan, as Esau did to Isaac, hast thou but one blessing, Oh my Father? Give money to base minded men. Honour is for heroical spirits. Da mihi Titulos, give me honour, or else I die. satan sets this too; less of it, or more according to his edge, that plays. Both it, and power,( Authority) shall come to stake at once; such the man may be. They are near of kin; we will couple them, for shortness. Say there any an Alexander; craves the whole world. Thats a stake indeed worth great adventure, fits Philips son onely. A little part of it, worth a great price; a kingdom is, one kingdom. Imperia pretio quolibet constant been, Crownes are not dear at any price, one crown. What a deal of blood costs one sometimes? For three, what stirs oft times at Rome? A Cardinals hat is worth the buying too; tis a Crownes fellow. Rome was ever dear. The captain in the Acts paid a great sum for but a burgess ship.  
You please a Pharisee, call him but Rabbi onely. Diotrephes sought primacy, but in one private Church. Such satan satisfies with meaner sets. Some spirits are prouder, will be in Altissim●. Shall King Assuerus honour any above Haman? Caesar will no superior, Pompey no peer. Adonijah will have Abishag, Absalom will reign. Nero will be Emperour, though it cost his Mothers life; Occidat, modo Imperet, Let my son kill me, so he may be King. Priesthood is honourable, catholics are proud of it; many. Yet Blackwell will compound it, be Arch-presbyter, be titled Archpriest. Garnet will be higher, a provincial. All these are but Masterd: I had rather be called, Lord. There's yet a Plus vltra; why should I be stinted? Etiam vilescam adhuc, I will be base yet, King David said; was he not called fool for it? Etiam insolescam adhuc. I will be higher yet. Shall my Cap be black, if my Hat may be read? Shall I be content to be cardinal, if I may be Pope? Shall I pled at the bar, when I may sit upon the Bench? creep, when I may fly? cry de profundis, when I may command in Excelsis? Wealth, Honour, Authority, the World, the whole worlds glory, haply I may have it, will I but play with satan. You see the Winnings, hear the loss.  
Winning was a pleasing word, and the world had many goodly things. But Losing is unlovely, especially of the soul, the richest thing, man hath. Surely a man may, must sometimes Sumptum facere, ut quaerat lucrum, spend to gain, lose to win: though it be with an if too, as tis here, on mere adventure. The Husbandman, the Tradesman, the Merchant man does, every man does. But here the loss exceeds the gain. I venture to lose more then I can win. I win the World, but lose my soul. satan plays with me as with a Child; sets me a Counter to a piece of Gold. he wins at one game more, then I at twenty; sets a penny to a pe●●e. The odds is more, far more, betwixt a soul, and the whole World. I lose my soul.  
A man may lose, and yet may save himself, 1 Cor. 3. 15. {αβγδ}, and yet {αβγδ}; as many a gamester having lost, will say, he hath saved himself. And tis well, if he can say it; if having lost his money, by swearing and cursing, he have not lost himself too. But he that plays with satan, because he stakes his soul, if at all he lose, his loss is even of his own self; because Anima cujusque est quisque, a mans soul is a mans self. Saint Matthew and mark have {αβγδ}, here his soul; but Saint Luke {αβγδ}, his own self. His {αβγδ}, Saint Luke hath both: his loss is his undoing; tis {αβγδ}, utter undoing, loss, of all. As Origen saith, some sins are ad Damnum, but not ad Mortem, are loss, but not of life( how soundly, that I examine not) but here the loss is death. Play with the devil; lose, and thou diest for it. Thou livest to the world, but art dead to God. For his grace is gone, which is thy souls life, anima ainae, August. thy souls soul, and many( saith that Father) in vivis corporibus animas portant mortuas, have dead souls in living bodies.  
Tis the soul, satan seeks the souls blood, he thirsts, Bernard. David calls him a hunter; Saint Chrysostom a fouler; Saint Peter a devourer, all of souls. The devil worse then death: death preys but on the Body, satan on the soul. Is not his Name Abaddon, thats destruction? alias Apollyon, thats destruction too: the one is Hebrew, the other greek, to warn jew, graecian, all men to shun to play with him. For his Occupation is like his Nuncupation. Operatio Daemonum, Eversio Hominum, mans destruction, Sathans work, Tertul. The Lusts, Sathans Leivetenants, they sight against the soul, Saint Peter saith; called therefore {αβγδ}, destroyers of mens souls. The rich Glutton in the gospel, satan let him win of him, win that, that clothed him with purple and fine linen, and fed him daintily every day, but it brought him to Hell torments. Say not, thats but a Parable; tis a story too.  
This is the end of Sathans play; like Abners play, 2 Sam. 2, bitterness in the end. While thou hast got the good of the world, the God of the world, i. satan hath got thee. Observes the Apostle, Ephes. 4. 14. {αβγδ}, coggery in men? Tis satan is the cogger; he is the right cheater: {αβγδ}, saith Saint John, tis he, that is the cozener: a right jacob, a Supplantur. Gives thee broth, but gets thy birthright. Thou hast a little pottage, but mors in olla, death is in the pot. He gives thee wine, but {αβγδ}, mingled with myrrh. Riches and honour, full of pleasure both: but pleasure is an harlot, her lips sweet, as hony, her mouth soft, as oil; but her end, wormwood, saith Solomon. For her feet go down to death, and her steps lay hold on Hell. plays jael with Sisera; her milk, shall be sweet, but thy sleep shall be deadly. She will serve thee butter in a Lordly dish; but shee hath a nail to smite into thy temples. plays the dog, saith Sophoc. {αβγδ}, wagges the tail, and bites: blanditur, ut fallat, saith Saint Cyprian, she fawnes, but ●o beguile, kisses, to betray; embraces ( saith Senec.) but to strangle. The world, which thou winnest of him, is Marah, not Naomi; seems to thee Naomi, faire at the meeting, but thou findest it Marah, bitter at the parting.— {αβγδ}, Hesiod saith, wicked gain, as bad, as loss: this is worse. Lucrum in arca, damnum in Conscientia, August. thou hast won wealth, or honour, but hast lost thy soul. {αβγδ}.— Iliad. 9. Achilles prized his soul above all the wealth of Troy. Adams Apple pleased his eye; but cost him Paradise: he had played with satan. Our Fathers warning let it make us wise; play we not with satan; the winning of the world, will lose us heaven.  
look now back once again to the first Branch, to the Pes Computi, the foot of the Account. You have seen apart, Winnings and loss. Lay them together, and look, whats gained. The worlds goods are but earthly, the soul Divine. Of all worldly things, theres but {αβγδ}, Saint Pauls term, enjoyed but for a while, a little while; Heavens joys eternal. What an exchange is this? not {αβγδ}, Gold for brass, as Glaucus his was with Diomedes; far base; gold for glass; more vile, for dross, {αβγδ}, dreams, and shadows; less {αβγδ}; you heard Pindarus, but a dream, of but a shadow. Nay worse yet, far worse. Twere well, if but only nothing were gained. But theres loss, loss unestimable, unrecoverable. Christ saith, theres no {αβγδ}, no ransom for a soul. None that man can give; Christ can one, his Blood. But trust not thou to that. Put not thy soul in Sathans hands, in hope to have it home again by Christ. Faith onely finds that favour, with Repentance. But both these God onely gives; and Gods gifts are not at mans call.  
despair not for all this, thou whosoever hast either wealth, or honour. Both are had by God without playing with satan, or souls loss. Many have both by Gods blessing, use both to Gods glory. So had and used, they hazard not thy souls Salvation. Thou that either hast either, or usest either otherwise; yet despair not neither: thy case is dangerous, but not desperate. Pray for Repentance hearty, speedily: to day. Stulte hac nocte, thou mayst die ere to morrow. Restore, what thou hast wronged, and sin no more: thy soul is safe. Both these good blessings, and all others, the Lord grant those, whom he makes fit for them; give us all, all needful grace; bless our bodies, save our souls, for his sake that hath bought both, cvi Cum Patre, &c.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON luke. The seventeenth Sermon.  luke. 3. 14. 
Quid nos faciemus.  
What shall wee do.  
IT is the Souldiers Question at Saint John Baptists Sermon. he had terrified the people with the danger of damnation, unless they brought forth works worthy of Repentance. Affrighted with his doctrine they cry, Quid faciemus, What shall we do? He sets them certain works of mercy, common to all men. The Publicans rest not so; but come unto him severally, and ask, what they shauld do. he answers them. That see the souldiers, and come too, asking the same question, Et quid nos faciemus, and what shall we do? This is the Context; the Text needs no Division.  
[ And] is but a Particle, a little word; we seldom deign to writ it full. But— Inest sua gratia parvis; tis one of the least of the thousands of mans speech: yet out of it doth come matter worthy our marking. Bonum[ is] diffusivum sui, goodness doth not grudge that many should take part of it, joys many should enjoy it. Andrew coming to Christ, calls Simon after him. Philip being called, bids Nathaneel come, and see. So doth the woman of Samaria; herself seeing Christ a Prophet, calls multitudes of men to see him too. The Publicans here hearing John give a lesson to the people, they desire the like. The Souldiers hearing them, they request one too. virtue provokes to Imitation, all virtue; Religion specially. See I my brethren go up to seek the Lord? I will say, as they do in the Prophet, Vadam ego quoque, I will go also. Abel saw Cain offer; Ipse quoque obtulit. He would offer too. To the wise men, that came to worship Christ, Herod would seem as religious, as they. Bring me word, saith he, that I also may worship him.  
look at the good examples of thy brethren; and remember, what Christ said to the Lawyer, Vade,& fac tu similiter, go, and do thou likewise. When God speaks to thee by the Preacher; say not as the Elders said to Iudas, {αβγδ}, What is that to us? he speaks to all at once. himself saith it, Quod dico vobis, dico omnibus; the Spirit speaks indifferently to all. Especially in the Doctrine of Faith and Repentance, without which is no salvation, thou that hast a soul to save, as well as others, must have an ear too, to hear as well as others; and a tongue, as well as they, to ask, Et quid faciemus, and what shall I do? Else wherefore art thou come? Is it onely to hear others taught? Or to learn thyself too? Gods fear, and to keep his Commandements, the Preacher saith, Hoc est, omnis homo, it concerns every man. Hath Isaac but one Blessing? And hath jacob gotten that? Esau will not rest so; but will cry, Mihi quoque, bless me also, O my Father. Hath the Preacher but one lesson? And hath he taught my brother that? I will not leave him so; but will cry, Mihi quoque; I also am a hearer; Say somewhat unto me. My brother hath his lesson: Et quid ego faciam? And what, &c.  
Thou wilt follow others in vanity and sin; and thinkest thyself safe, if thou canst but city example. Wilt thou fall with them? And wilt thou not rise with them? Let me say to thee, as Saint Ambrose said to Theodosius, excusing his sin by Davids example, Qui secutus es errantem, sequere poenitentem, as thou hast sinned with them, so also repent with them. You will haply think, I stay too long on so light a particle: go we one. What shall wee do?  
It is well, when the guilty heart of the hearer despairs not for his sin but inquires after remedy. When feeling his sin at the voice of the Preacher to be unsupportable, sinks not in his soul under the burden; but seeks to be eased of it.  
It is well, when sinners will endure the censure, meekly submit to the Preachers admonition. Hinder not as well the Spirit of God from speaking to the heart, as the voice of man speaks to the ear: the sinner will {αβγδ} mock even the Apostles; they are full of new wine. mock them? Thats little; {αβγδ}, rail on the Preacher, Insanis paul, Paul is mad; Christ hath a devil. More than that, clap him up, {αβγδ}, lock him up: twas John Baptists lot, ver. 20. Well if he scape so, be but onely under lock and key; have not Irons on him too: Saint Peter had, haply scourged too; Saint Paul was. Worse yet; thats but loss of blood: lose his head too; John Baptist did. Call not the Scribes, Hypocrites; check not Herod with his wife. Call the Iewes betraiers and murtherers of Christ? Saint Stephen dies for it. Great is Gods grace in the Hearers here, to bear the boisterous terms of this rough Prophet. What an odious appellation is the blood of Vipers! What a fearful commination is hewing down and burning! And that in the Publicans, professed Extortioners, and Souldiers commonly hardhearted men! It was marvel, the one haled him not( Obtort● Coll●) into Pilates Hall: and the other hewed him not in pieces in their fury. That they both, and all the people gnasht not at him with their teeth, threw not dust into the air, cried not out, away with such a fellow from the earth, it is not fit that he should live.  
Gods Word works diversly. As the sun melts the wax, hardens the day; so doth it the Hearers hearts, obdurates some, but softens others. Where God is pleased to give it edge; it cuts. Saint Paul calls it a Sword: where God gives it a point, it pierces. Solomon calls it a nail: the words of the wise masters of the Assemblies, like goads, Salomons term too: they prick the hearts. As Saint Peters Sermon, Acts 2. so at Saint Iohns here {αβγδ}, the people were pricked in their hearts, and cry; Quid faciemus, what shall we do?  
David saith in the psalm 119. 60. {αβγδ} I ask no Quids, no whats, to keep Gods commandements. Tis englished, I delayed not: but the Hebrew term means so. But for all that, Quid is a fit question to be asked of those, that will be saved. The Iailour asked it of Saint Paul and Silas. So did the rich young man of Christ. The Lawyer asked it too, but temptingly. The people asked it of the Apostles, Saint Pauls self did of Gods self, Domine quid vis faciam? Lord, what shall I do? A question uttered sometimes {αβγδ}, in some anxiety. The perplexed steward asks it in the Parable. But here {αβγδ}, onely to learn. A hopeful token of proficiency( Plato notes it among other more) to be {αβγδ}, to be inquisitive. Yea David himself doth: he that said, he asked no Quids, asks it in effect. What doth he else, when he prays God to teach him, Psal. 143. To show him the way, wherein he should walk? What doth Doce me facere, differ from quid faciam? Quid nos faciemus, what shall we do? {αβγδ}, &c.  
It is {αβγδ}, not {αβγδ}, not Cur, but Quid; not Why, but What. He were not {αβγδ}, a learner, but {αβγδ}, a disputer, that should ask, Why? The Law, men must Obey it, not Dispute it; Mans law: Gods much more. Who art thou, saith Saint Paul, that arguest with God? One may ask[ Why] of God, some why: David does; the son of David, Christ doth, Why hast thou forsaken me? David under the cross, Christ upon it, reasons with God. Humble expostulations are the Spirits ejaculations: God dislikes them not. But of his Law he loves no whyes. Quare is no Quaere, where God bids, Fac hoc. Man will not bear it in his servant. Let the Centurion but bid his servant, do this, and he doth it. Saint Paul condemns Cur secisti, why madest thou me? Much more would he Cur jussisti? Why bids thou me? John Baptist bidding here, Repent; a matter of the Law; the People, the Publicans, the Souldiers question is, Quid, not Quare; they cry, What shall we do?  
A Question fit for every man to ask, to know, what offices the Law lays on them. Luther was wrong, when he said, the main skill and wisdom of a Christian, was Nescire Legem, not to know the Law. Quid is no question of things not to be known. John Baptist would have checked these Souldiers: and Davids( Doce me) were sin, folly at least, to pray to learn, what is wisdom, not to know. Tis wisdom,( with his favour) to ask Quid, for fear of error. Art thou strayed in thy journey? go not on: But yet cross not thy way too rashly. Haply thou mistookst the left hand way: yet turn not to the right; that may be wrong too. Ere thou change thy way, first ask, which is it? The ease of a sick man in the fit of a hot fever, is not to run into the River. He must sand a Quid faciam, to the physician.  
The Libertine to turn Papist, and the swearer to change oaths, from wounds to blood, and the mass, heres a kind of Repentance, 〈◇〉 conversion; but a simplo one: onely for want of the souldiers 〈◇〉 Both ought to have asked, What shall I do? I have been Irreligious. Is the present remedy, to pray to Images, or to go on Pilgrimage? To shun 〈◇〉 sin, is to run into an other, si caret arte; if the sinner have not the grace 〈◇〉 ask his Quid. John bids Repent. i turn from sin. This kind of Repentance; of profaneness to popery, of ●rreligion to Superstition, 〈◇〉 〈◇〉 turning of sin, not a turning from sin. Repentance means amendment: Amend your lives, tis so in some Translations. sin thus is 〈◇〉 amended, but made worse. For though it be better, Claudicare in 〈◇〉 quàm currere, extraviam, to halt in the right way, then to run in the wrong: yet Sodom shall scappe better at Christs coming, then Corazim; and Publicans and Harlots go to heaven before Pharisees. Man being so subject, every man, to mistaking; if he have done evil formerly, and would now repent, lest he do evil still, let him with the souldiers here, consult the man of God, or if he will, the book of God, Quid faciemus, What shall I do? error being on the right hand, as well as on the left; it is fit, he ask the way, ere he walk in it: lest while he thinks to right the wrong, the latter error be worse than the first.  
To end this, the Quid here is not general: tis not asked in gross, What shall we do? For Saint John had  told them that before; had bid them bring forth fruits worthy of amendment of life. But the {αβγδ} here is {αβγδ}, the Quid is hoc aliquid. Repent, and bring forth fruits, are precepts, but confuse. The Prophet must express himself. Both Publicans and Souldiers, and the people too, by their Quid faciemus, mean that the Baptist should speak more particularly.  
Most tongues but ours suppress the first and second Person, saving for Emphasis, and for Distinction. When they are in the English onely, and not in the original, then the learned Preacher will not lightly press them. Here tis expressed. The self same question was verse 10, What shall wee do? The person is not there. Tis but, Quid faciemus, there is no( Nos) there: because the people ask there in general; it is the Question of the confuse multitude. But when the Publicans ask it by themselves, ver. 12. and the souldiers by themselves, here in my Text: tis then expressed, expressed in both: and what is expressed by the Evangelist, would be prest also by the Preacher. And tis well worthy, Repent saith the Baptist? for the kingdom of God is at hand? Souldiers be solicitous of Gods kingdom? whose whole work is to fight to maintain mens kingdoms? Martiall men harken to a Prophet? Tempora mutantur: twas not so in Iehues time. His fellow-Captaines said of the Prophet, wherefore came that mad fellow? Men merely used to feats of the war, here to inquire after duties of the Law! Silent leges inter arma, Caesars law is not heard there: tis marvel Gods Law should be listened to by them. Nulla fides, pietasque, Lucan saith; theres neither Faith, nor Religion among Souldiers. I need not go so far, as to Poets to paint them. Our Prophet here sets forth their fashions, in this very verse. For showing here what they should not do, he tells us, what they use to do. They do {αβγδ}, offer violence to their friends, pill and rob them of their goods, and they do {αβγδ}, of whom they can get nought by force, they complain them to the Magistrate, as privy aiders of the enemy, and under pretence of short pay, extort to feed their lusts. Souldiers have more faults: but my Text implies no more, and therefore I name them not. These to pray the Prophet to teach them, what to do, is worthy observation.  
Tis much that Publicans, a greedy gripping sort of men, would ask the question. would not ask rather, what shall we Have? then what shall we do? That they asked him not for Poll-mony, as they did Christ. But more, much more that Souldiers, military men, lawless lightly, and licentious, desperate men, would hear a Prophet preach of vengeance; and not say to him, as the Danites did to Micah, Peace, let not thy voice be heard amongst us, lest some angry fellowes run upon thee, and thou die: but humbly ask him, Et quid nos faciemus, and what shall we do?  
Surely a soldier, as he is a soldier, is no great professor of Religion. Saint Austin calls him Impium militem, an impious, irreligious man, yet is not war a bar to grace. David is called a man of war; and yet a man after Gods heart. As there are Bella Domini, some warres called the Lords: so are there Souldiers some, that are his too. There is Act. 10. 7. {αβγδ}, a soldier that feared God. Cornelius a a captain at the second verse, a devout man, and a fearer of God too. A man may fear God; and yet build no Churches. But in the seventh of this gospel verse 5. thers a Centurion built a Synagogue; a man of such faith, that Christ protests, he had not found the like in Israel. What these Souldiers were before Saint Iohns Sermon, it skills not. Having here heard him, they repent. Grace working in their hearts purpose of amendment, opens their mouth to ask the Prophet, Quid faciemus, what shall we do? The Gospel is Gods summons of All men to repentance. Yea the law, and it both: the one cries convertimini, the other resipiscite to all that will be saved. return ye every one, saith the Prophet, jer. 18. 11. God warns to repent( saith the Apostle) in the Acts 17. 30. {αβγδ} every man, every where.  
It is not safe, it is not seemly, the Preachertaxe the sinner personally. Yet tis the hearers duty, what the Preacher speaks in general, to apply unto himself particularly. The Preacher is no Nathan, to tell David, Tu fecisti; in censuring sinners to single out some one. Thats the hearers office, every one to lay the censure to himself: every one to say, I am the man; what shall I do? Peter asked Christ of John; hic autem quid, what shall this man do? Master, bid my brother, luke. 12. 13. Martha prays Christ, to bid her Sister, Chap. 10. Saint Paul bids, attend tibi, see unto thyself. What thy brothers duty, what his faciendum is, what is that to thee? ask thou, Et quid ego? What shall I do?  
Every man hath a quid, an aliquid faciendum, something which he ought to do; an aliquid fugiendum too, which he ought not to do Here are of both kindes. Concussio,& sycophantia, violence, and sycophancie, that they must shun. Contentment with their wages, that they must do. If they will fly the vengeance to come, vers. 7. and care to see Salutare Dei, ver. 6. Gods saving health; If the fearful and woeful end of the wicked, hewing down, and burning, the Axe on earth, and the Fire in hell, be not in their ears and legendarie tale: they must {αβγδ}, every man repent. Their works, and their ways, look what is crooked, they must straighten, a what is rugged they must smooth. Thats the generality. But what I, what thou, what every several man must do in particular; that I, that thou, that every several man must ask of the Prophet. Resipiscere, to repent, thats too general a charge: all sorts must call for their severals by themselves out of that lump. It is bread, but in the loaf, a great unweldie loaf. The people must call, and the Preacher must cut every man his piece of it. Tis Saint Pauls own metaphor, to divide the word of God; {αβγδ}, to divide it aright, to give to every one his own {αβγδ}, that measure of bread that is befiting him. My Text tells covertly, & quid nos faciemus, what wee, that are the Ministers, ought to do also.  
This is no place to apply this Scripture to. I would not, saw I not Saint Ambrose do it first. Beloved brethren, say not you with the elders, whats this to us? wee are no Souldiers. he saith you are; Omnis homo, even every man, wee all do Militare, though not seculo, yet Domino, we are not secular, but spiritual Souldiers All. Militia est vita hoins, job saith, Mans life is here a warfare. Christs Church on earth is called the Militant Church, i. the warfaring Church. Paul calls us Souldiers too, not Saint Ambrose onely. Where then is your & quid nos? No one promiscuous general cry, but each sort by themselves, & quid nos faciemus,& what shall we do? The Magistrates, what shall wee? the Ministers, what shall wee? Gentlemen, & quid nos? Artificers, Women, Servants, what shall wee? Your tongues are silent, but your eyes ask the question, fixed on the Preachers face. Then must I ask, & quid ego? what shall I do? or rather, what shall I say? I must not answer you in Ieremies generality, return you every one from your evil ways: thats not enough. I must exhort you severally. Magistrates in Moses words, exequere justum just, execute justice, respect no persons, take no gifts. Ministers, disgrace not your brethren, and give no scandal by your lives Gentlemen Alia, Vina, Venus; take oaths in too, leave them: they fit not Christians. tradesman use no deceit. Women, paint not your faces, powder not your hairs. Neither beseem the wise, the chast, nor the religious. Servants, you may I speak to, just in Saint Iohns words; be contented with your wages, I rather say shun drunkenness, corrupt not others, nor bee corrupted by them.  
Come we now to Faciemus, the last word, what shall wee do? The doctrine of Faith calls for Credere, bids believe: but repentance craves a Facere; it stands on works. The Law cries, Fac hoc; but not the Law alone: the Gospel cries it too. Christ as well as Moses exhorts unto obedience. The fierce menaces of the Law, and the sweet promises of the gospel, both call for righteousness and holinesse of life. Cursed is he that abids not in all the things of the Law, ut faciat ea, to do them, saith Moses, and beati eritis, si feceritis, Christ calls you blessed, if you do them.  
Saith Christ, the way to heaven is narrow; few do find it? the gate strait, few do enter it? Surely if Faith be it, faith onely: the way is broad enough, the gate wide enough. Nere let his Disciples say, who shall then be saved? If that suffice, which Christ said to the Ruler, creed modò, do but believe onely: who shall then not be saved? Then Origen was right, that not the damned onely, but the Devils too shall all be saved. For Saint james saith, etiam daemons, the Devills believe also. indeed he adds, they tremble too, credunt& contremiscunt, they believe, but quake withall. They do so; but belike they need not. Christ saith, saith often, {αβγδ}, thy faith hath saved thee.  
Heaven is not had so easily, so lazily. Papists should then supererogate indeed. Their Pater Nosters, and Ave Maries all, are merely superfluous: fewer beads will serve them. But it must be Facere, to do, must bee both the Peoples Quid, to inquire of, of the Preacher, and the Preachers Quod, to require it of the people; their {αβγδ}. The Souldiers {αβγδ} in my Text, is but the Echo of the Prophets {αβγδ} vers. 8.  
Now that faith hath her right, let us not by magnifying faith wrong works. Some do; shunning Romes Charibdis, run upon the rocks, the Scylla of the libertines; hold them pernitiosa, pernicious to salvation; deny the decalogue to concern Christians. Even Luther in his heat, and Melanthon though somewhat more temperate then he, yet both in their zeal have spoken offensively: that the doctrine of works is the doctrine of Devills; that even the moral Law is not the word of God: speeches that have hardened the hearts of the adversary. Hosmaister a Papist saith they had not stood so stiffly against justification by faith onely, but for some mens too much disgracing of works, in judicio supper articulo 4. Confess. Augustanae. Our Church hath determined them the fruits of faith, pleasing unto God, and necessary springing from a true faith. What writer, but honours them? What Preacher but presseth them unto the people?  
Tis then an idle cavil, nay a false calumniation, our doctrine of sole Faith, Papists to call licentious. Surely twere so indeed, if wee excluded works out of our conversation. But wee do not. What wee writ, and preach of them, our Books and Churches testify. How in our lives wee practise them, wee will not glory, like our adversaries. far short indeed of that we ought: we are Adams sons all; eat too much of the three in the mids of the Garden. But Loriidem Rectus, twill not beseem them to censure us. Will they needs? then put out the mid-letter of our verb, turn but the tense, let it be Quid facimus? what do wee?  
We persecute. Surely we do many things wee should not: but yet we do not that. Do not they? What do we else? Rossaeus saith, England is the school of perjuries, sacrilege and rebellions. Thats true. The jesuits teach our catholics to equivocate in their Oaths; thats perjury: and to bear arms against their sovereign; thats rebellion. And that, not at rheims or at Rome, but at home: he saith, England is the school. Noe man needs sand his son over the sea: the Pope will sand schoolmasters over unto us. Did we well, we would make them keep their school somewhere else.  
What more? we are Incontinent. A Calvinist chast, is Monstrum inauditum saith Maldonate, a jesuit, rarer then any Monster. Papists are all honest. Though in Mantuans time 100. yeares ago, urbs tota lupanar, all the city was a stews: that fault is now reformed. There are not nowadays not past 28000. Curtisans found in all Rome, and that Franciscan friar should have forfeited his cowl, that said Romanizare was Sodomizare, to be a right Romanist, was to be a Sodomite.  
Let us return the tense, make it Faciemus, as it was, and so end: the words be few; we may not lose one of them. What shall wee do? The people had been merciless, had let the poor want both coat, and meate, vers. 11. The Publicans had extorted: and the Souldiers here had usd violence, accused falsely, and played the malcontents. Now they ask de Futuro, what they shall do hereafter? A happy question, if they obey the answer, reform all faults thenceforth. God is gracious, pardons all sin past, craves but amendment. Repentance rests not in bewailing {αβγδ}, a sin already done; but resolves also upon {αβγδ}, what is to be done? You heard Christs Beati eritis, Christs blessing promised you; Si feceritis( tis the future tense) if you shall do these things. Peccavi, I have sinned, thats every mans case: but what shall I do, thats not every mans question. Beware of persevering, of the drunkards posy in the Prophet, cras sicut hody, of dwelling in sin. You must say with the Iewes, Iniquè egimus, we have done wickedly: 
job 34. 32.  but say too, with Elihu, If I have done wickedly, I will do no more. It sufficeth( saith Saint Peter) to have spent, to have misspent the time past of our life in the will of the Gentiles: wee must live henceforward after the will of God. God doth {αβγδ}, Saint Pauls term, bear with all ill manners past: tis fit, wee learn Christs lesson, Noli peccare amplius, sin not any more. So as I have  told you, what you shall do, I will tell you also, what you shall have; even everlasting life. Every man shall have according to his doings: not for his doings sake; but for Christs doings, and his sufferings both; cvi, cum patre, &c.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON S. John. The eighteen Sermon.  John 1. 47. Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile. 
THE Argument of my Text is Christs testimony of Nathanael, containing the Description of a true Israelite. Say not, what is that to us? For a true Israelite is also a true Christian. What Christ commends in him, ought to be in us. The Definition is our Admonition: needful, if ever, in these times; in which every man shows, and many a man saith, Qui nescit dissimulare, nescit vivere.[ It was all the latin, that a French King taught his son.] Man cannot live, but by Dissimulation. The Text contains three things; the thing Defined, an Israelite, but a true Israelite; the Definition, in whom no guile is; and the note of Instance, exemplifying the Definition, Ecce, Behold, pointing at Nathanael. Of these three, &c. in their order.  
The matter so excellent, and the man so rare, that Christ▪ here holds them worthy of his mark. Nathanael, a true Israelite, one voided of guile, all guile, is grac'st here with Christs Ecce. Christs Ecce is often; but he hansells it in him. It is the first, that Saint John records of Christ. Christ here disdains not to be himself his herald, to proclaim his praise. Not far before, John Baptist cried of Christ, Ecce, behold, Behold the lamb of God. Christ is the Crier here, Ecce, behold, Behold a true Israelite. An Ecce to the Eye, not to the ear. There is an ear Ecce, and an Eye Ecce too. It is mostly in Scripture to the ear, to hark: but it is sometime to the Eye, to look. Behold I bring him forth to you. Behold the place where they have laid him. So it is here, Behold a true Israelite, i. See an Israelite indeed. A sight worthy of an Ecce; a Particle commonly presuming some strange spectacle.  
Not Pilats Ecce homo, behold a man; what Object more ordinary? Not Zacharies Ecce Rex, behold a King; some see them daily too. Not Saint Matthewes Ecce Angelus, behold an angel; Angels have appeared to many. Nay not John Baptists Ecce Agnus Dei; tis a chance, but any catholic can show you one. But Behold a true Israelite: a sight so rare, that( I will not say, as Saint Paul saith of heavens joys, Oculus non vidit, no eye hath ever seen one) but a man may look in a whole city, nay God may look in a whole country, and he shall not find fifty, forty, thirty, twenty, no not ten, in all Sodom and Gomorrha. Nay in Noahs time, not eight in a whole world. he saved eight indeed in the ark; but Cham was one of them, a Reprobate.  
Tis none of Saint Lukes Ecces: Ecce Discipulus, behold a Disciple. Christ had a whole dozen, a dozen domesticalls; six dozen at large, all of his own calling and ordination: besides voluntaries infinite; for so the Pharisees said, Totus mundus sequitur eum, a world of men followed him, some ad discendum, some ad vescendum. Not his Ecce Leprosus, Behold a Leper; Christ said, There were many Lepers in Israel. Not Ecce defunctus, behold a Corpse, Luke 7. Corpses are ordinary. What needs an Ecce in ordinary things? Not Ecce potator, behold a drinker, as the Iewes cried of Christ. That needs no Ecce neither; every town, every street is full of such. The signs before the doors, what are they else but Ecces? Ecce hîc, ecce illic; the Magistrate there may see them every day. But it is, Behold an Israelite, behold a true Israelite. An Israelite, a bare Israelite, and say no more, is no rare sight. God said they should be multiplied as the stars of heaven. But a true Israelite is as the shaking of an Olive three, and as the grapes, when the vintage is ended, as saith the Prophet, that is, but here and there one.  
To shut up this, Esayes Ecce Iniquitas, behold iniquity, that is every where; All men are of that mystery, the mystery of iniquity, Omnis homo mendax. But a just man without guile, an Israelite indeed, I will not say, Vix sunt totidem, quot Thebarum portae, vel divitis ostia Nili, but haply some hundred, or but haply some seven in a city, in a land; but rather with the Psalmist, Non est usque ad unum, there is hardly one in all the earth. A Liar, a Deceiver, never seek for him, Quaeris aquas in aqu●s, the Psalmist hath  told us; every man is one. But a Nathanael, one in whom there is no guile, fidelem quis inveniet? Who can find him, saith Solomon. Solomon a great Searcher, lustravi universa, Eccl. 7. sought here and there, and every where; unum reperi, and could find but one in a whole thousand. One here greater than Solomon, but one Nathanael in all Israel, worthy his mark; rare things are remarkable; dignus monstrari, worthy of an Ecce, behold a true Israelite. Christs property, his quality. For of whom in all the Scripture; save of Christ alone, may it be found written, Non est inventus d●lus, there was no guile found in his mouth. Such an one deserves an {αβγδ}. And Solomon gives it him, Eccles. 7. 29. Vnum reperi, I have found one, saith the Preacher. Enough of the Note.  
The thing defined is next; it is an Israelite. Ecce vere Israelita. not more, a bare Israelite, but vere, a true Israelite. An Israelite is but a jew; and there is a jew, that is but called so onely. Tu qui cognominaris, saith the Apostle. Or that saith, he is one, but is not. Christ notes some such in the Revelation. But Christ here means a jew, not {αβγδ}, but {αβγδ}, an Israclite, not that is called so but that is so. Nay, not that is so neither, thats not enough. All Iacobs posterity were Israelites indeed, but meri, not veri, merely so, not truly so; of Israels flesh, but not of Israels spirit. It is a question, whether Anima be ex traduce, whether the soul come from the Seed, spring fro● the Parents. But out of question, virtus non traducitur, Faith, Piety, Integrity, are not from mans seed. All Israels issue have Israels blood in them, and so are all Israelites; but they have not all his grace in them; and tis it, makes a right Israelite. jacob was Homo planus,( Moses calls him so) a plain dealing man, without Covin, without guile. look who was of his line, and endowed with this virtue, he is a true Israelite. Tis such an one, Christ bear defines; where shall we find such an one?  
If I ask Saint Chrysostoms question( Orat. in hypanten) where is an Israelite? you may answer me, as he doth {αβγδ}, you have Peter, Paul, and John. You have 3000. Act. 2. You have 5000. Act. 4. But if I say, Cedo verum, give me a true Israelite: tell me not of thousands, John, Paul, and Peter I admit. But for those thousands, Peter is said to have converted them, and they to have believed. But that they all persisted, the Scripture saith not that. Hyminaeus and Phyletus, Demas, and Alexander, Phigellus, and Hermogenes, we red of their belief and their conversion. But we also red, that they revolted. Haply they were Israelites; but there was guile in them.  
If you seek a bare Israelite, every nation hath an Ecce. Italy, spain, Germany, can show you shoals of them. France could sometimes, and so could we; but a false and subtle people. The Scribes and Pharisees were Israelites all, but guileful all; Israelites but Hypocrites. It is the style which Christ bestows on them, seven times in one Chapter, Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites. Ananias and Sapphira were Israelites both, but conspirers in guile, beguilers of God. joab an Israelite, but a false dissembler, Art thou in health, my Brother? So he said to Amasa, While with the one hand he took him by the chin, with the other he thrust him into the belly. Elymas the Sorcerer was an Israelite, a jew; but full of all subtlety. Lopez the Spaniard, that would have poisoned queen Elizabeth, was he not a jew? Nay Iacobs own sons( and who can be righter Israelites, then they, then ●sraels own sons) there was guile even in them, Gen. 34. they talked with Emor and Sichem, his son, in Dolo, saith the Text, they talked to them deceitfully, Not Israels sons, true israelites.  
To the Iewes, that boasted, they were Abrahams sons, Christ answered that they were, and yet that they were not. They were of his lineage, but not of his belief. Saint Paul saith the same, that faith makes men the sons of Abraham. His Creed, not his seed makes the right sons of Abraham. Saint Peter saith as much, women are Sarahs daughters, while they do well. So it is here. They are not all Israel, that are of Israel. He is not a jew, that is one outward, but that is one within. He is a gentle, though he be a jew, that breaks the Law; and he is a jew, though he be a gentle, that obeys the Law. Christ means an Israelite, not Gente, but Mente, Augustine, not by propagation, but by imitation; not Israels sons, but rather his Disciples. Or say, his sons; for the syriac hath it so: yet his sons, as his Disciples. For Disciples are one sort of sons. Not ex Sanguinibus, ut ver. 13. but ex Moribus, not by being of his blood, but by following of his virtues.  
But why a true Israelite? why should not a man, in whom there is no guile, be rather name from Noah, from Abraham, from Lot, from Moses, David, Ioshua, all just and holy men? jacob, a supplanter from his Mothers womb, a secret fugitive, a leaser, a defrauder, a catcher of advantages, cited by our Saviour for a sample of sincerity? Deceived he not his uncle, his Brother, his own Father? Say not, I censure him too severely. Even his own Father censured him, venit in dolo, he came fraudulently. Is this the plain man, Moses meant? who twice lied to Isaac, twice beguiled Esau,[ yea striven for precedency, even at the wombs mouth?] a Supplanter by name, and so upbraided by his brother, that he justly was called jacob▪ charged with theft by Labans sons; nay challenged by Labans self. One may think, our Saviour should have rather said, behold a right Israelite, in whom there is no truth. It seems, that definition would have much more fitly, though not sorted with the Sample, yet suited with the Subject.  
Most of these Imputations are but mere Calumniations. But his disguising with his Father, to get his Brothers blessing, by a lye, I will not justify, qualify I may. Some writers maintain it, but by Equivocation; a sorry fig▪ leaf to defend a lye; and a shift fitter for a false jesuit. His Mothers importunity, and his right to the blessing by his Brothers sale, may quit him of malice, but not clear him of untruth. But how is jacob then a pattern of Integrity, a precise Precedent of honest simplicity? All lies are guile. If jacob were a leaser, how is an Israelite, a man voided of guile.  
Surely the Fathers were jealous of the honour of the holy Patriarkes; some of them immoderately. For were they not men? might they not sin? Did not Saint Peters self, whom Saint Chrysostome instanced for a true Israelite, deny his Master, and that with oath and imprecation? Or say, that was not of guile, but of infirmity. Doth not Saint Paul charge him with dissimulation? I trow▪ that was guile. But neither was jacob a patriarch then, when he trespassed in that kind: It was in his minority. Nor was he Israel yet: twas twenty yeares before he had that name. And Christ here in my Text takes the Subject of his rule, surnames his guilelesse man, not of jacob, but of Israel. Say, there was guile in jacob: in Israel there was none. With change of Name, God changed his heart. As the Scripture saith of Saul, mutatus est in virum alium, he was then turned into an other man. Search all his Story, see if in all his life he used guile, after he was Israel.  
Not to be long in this, our Saviour in saying, Behold a true Israelite, implies, there are some false. All good things have their counterfeits, false Prophets, false Apostles, false Christs, false Gods. There are false Israelites: more false then true. That it sufficed not Christ to say, Behold an Israelite; but he is fain to add a term of difference, behold a true Israelite. That is the thing defined, now to the Definition. You saw the Instance; hear the Rule. In whom there is no guile. Tis short& plain.  
It was a rare testimony, Christ gave Nathanael, to be a true Israelite, rare but dark. Here he explains it, One in whom there is no guile: Twas well, Christ spake among plain men. Had the Scribes heard him, and the Pharisees, had some heads heard him of these times; they would have said, Christ purposed to define a fool. Who is not now a fool, that is not false? Of little understanding and small wit, that is not of great subtlety, and much wiliness? plainness is weakness, and solid sincerity, stolide simplicity. No man is honest, but for want of wit. Conscience comes onely from a crazed brain. Not to be a wily fox, is to be a silly ass. He hath no reach, that doth not overreach. Onely to disguise is to be wise; and he is the profoundest, that is the grandest counterfeit. Christ will have coupled a Serpent and a Dove together, wisdom and simplicity. And he bids, what God hath joined, man should not sever. But the world dares uncouple them. Vncouple them? Thats little, dares divorce them. Doves may not sort with Serpents, singleness and sapience harbour in one heart. certainly plain dealing is a jewel: but the world will dub him a sot, that useth it.  
Hence it is, that now adays men dare not deal uprightly, lest their wit be called in question; are afraid of honest plainness, lest they be held for Idiots. The secular Priest though a false teacher too, yet is gibed at by the Iesuite, as a semi-sot; because he is not full so false as he. term one an honest man; you do discredit him. The name of fool is so disgraceful; one will rather be a villain, than be called a fool. But here Gods Word, Gods wisdom, defines a true Israelite, that is, a right honest and religious man, by truth and plainness, he is one, that hath no guile. David calls liars and deceivers, fools, Psal. 5. 5. The upright walker, the just worker, and the true speaker, he lodges in Gods house, Psal 15. The deceitful person may not dwell in Davids Court, the teller of lies may not come in his sight, Psal, 101. And all Kings are of Davids mind. Though the tragic say, Haud intrat unquam regium, limen fides( he is a true Courtier, in whom there is no truth) Truth seldom treads over the Kings threshold: yet Kings would wish their Courts were quit of guile. Yea the whole kingdoms, and the heads of the wisest( when they make their laws) strain their utmost wits to prevent all guile among their people. Yea coven and deceit, though practised by all men, yet is hateful to all men: though they studious of it; yet it odious to them. Summon an assembly of all the falsest wretches in a realm, to speak even from their conscience their conceit of guile; they will confess, just as Christ saith here, that he is a true Israelite, a right righteous man, that hath no guile. Tis not the voice of God, and not of man: but Vox Populi, vox Dei, all the world saith it in heart, as well as Christ.  
Pilat asked Christ, What thing is truth? Here would be asked, what thing is Guile? And yet what should I ask, that which every man knows, knows experimentally. Yet because some men maintain, that which God condemns, let us ask, what is guile? Cum aliud agitur, aliud fingitur, Aug. When to do hurt I pretend one thing, and intend an other. When I do ridere& mordere, with a cringe and congee stab a man to death; so joab did. When I kiss, whom I betray; so Iudas did. When my tongue speaks, what my heart means not. When I show that without, which I know is not within. ask again for example, what thing is guile? Not to define it, but to instance it. Fraud, Leasing, treachery, Calumniation, Prevarication, Sophistication, Equivocation, all Falsification; these things are guile. None of these beseem, none of these are in a true Israelite. Platoes laws censure guile {αβγδ}, whether in Act, or Word; Heathens honestum goes so far. Gods Law craves truth even in the inward parts, David saith. There is a guile in spirit, he saith that too. Neither must that be in a true Israelite. Hand guile, lip guile, Heart guile( and what guile is not one of these?) Of all these he must be clear. These are the Heads of guile; and every Head hath many members. he must avoid, he must be voided of all of them. Hand guile, by forgery, false measure, or false weight, theft, cheating, and all cozenage. lip guile, by lying, false swearing, false accusing. Heart guile, by hypocrisy, and all Dissimulation.  
There is a Do lus bonus, the Civilian saith, some guile is good. The Nurse, and the physician, both beguile, the one her Infant, the other his Patient: shee to please it, he to ease him, neither to hurt either. Christ means not this. Warres have their w●les; Dolus an virtus, no man asks in an enemy. Neither means he that. Womens paint, I would I could excuse that too. Many a good Israelite( I doubt not) uses it. But it is a folly fits not a good Israelite.  
But there is Pia fraus, a godly guile, a guile of piety, practised by Papists, and avoucht by them; as Pardons, and Purgatory. They know, they are false both. But it is good the people should believe them, good for them, good for the Pope. Two points, the one comfortable to the soul, the other profitable against sin, good policy to preach them. Thou art a Preacher, so am I. Thou wilt preach them for their good. do, if thou be a catholic; I will not for their guile. Thou art pious toward men, whose souls thou commiseratest; but impious towards God, whose truth thou adulteratest. Christ saith to God, his word is truth. Thou pretendest, thou preachest it. What an ungodly guile is it, to turn Gods truth into a lye! Let me be called a Calvinist for teaching truth in simplicity, rather then be a Romanist, in teaching lies in policy.  
Equivocation, an other Popish guile, defended too. But he that uses it, called by Saint Austin, detestanda bellua, a perjured, impious, detestable Beast. Breach of faith plight to heretics, maintained too. I trow a Dolus pus too, a godly guile. So grand, and gross that they deny the avouching it, and so line one lye with another. ask Simancha else, Nullo, nullo modo, fides servanda haereticis etiam joramento firmata. One nullo will not serve the jesuits zeal; he doubles it, Nullo, nullo modo, by no means, in no case, faith plight to heretics, though bound with Oath, is to be kept. Theres a Detestanda Bellua, a detestable beast indeed. But of all men a Iesuite, no Iesuite( let me double Nullus too) not one Iesuite, a true Israelite. Iesuites, Edomites, not Israelites; not Iacobs, but Esaues generation. And therefore nicknamed not unjustly Esauvites; men made of guile, their very composture, imposture. Guile in their names, in their weeds, in their words, yea in their oaths. Double in them all; Guile shuns simplicity. Double name, double habited, double tongued, double hearted, two senses to one speech, even when they swear. Sathans self is guilelesse, if Iesuites have no guile. So far from being free from it, that they avouch the defence of it. Iesus himself, from whom they take their title, they city for an example of dissimulation.  
To conclude, Christ calls his Spouse a Dove, his Followers sheep; both the most guilelesse and harmless of all creatures. he will have his to be as little children; Saint John expressly calls them Babes; Babes use no guile. Saint Peter forbids them all guile, and all hypocrisy. Christs self a true Israelite, far beyond Nathaneel, sampled his own Rule; in his mouth was found no guile: the lamb of God; and if the sheep be guilelesse, the lamb is so much more. As the Iewes were of jacob, so are wee of Christ. If Israels name like us not; let us follow Christ: though indeed a true Israelite, and a true Christian, are both one. To be truly called either, wee must shun all guile.  
singleness becomes righteousness, Pagan righteousness; much more becomes it holinesse, Christian holinesse. Doubling intends, attends deceit. Pondus& Pondus, a weight and a weight, a measure and a measure, as Salomon Phrases it, double weights and measures, that Tradseman means not truth, that useth them. Cor& cor, a heart and a heart, as David terms it, a double heart, is onely in Dissemblers. Many Heathens abhorred the one: all Christians should loathe the other. All should? All do. The rankest hypocrite hates hypocrisy, detests all guile in others, though he practise it himself. And if he thought his hypocrisy were spied, he would forsake it too. But Sathans charm, the God of guile, holds his heart, and hardens it; that he soothes up his soul, with the conceit, he is not seen. In deed he is. No man dissembles with that dexterity, but he is spied, and noted too. Noted with an Ecce, as Nathaneel was; but not with his, Behold a true Israelite; bu● behold a false hypocrite.  
Are we not all of u●●alled by Christs name? Christians all? Both called by his name, and callers on his name. Guile is iniquity. Let every man, that calleth on the name of Christ, depart from iniquity. Thats Saint Pauls Admonition. And for Christs Definition, in my Text, he is a true Christian, or in Christs term, a true Israelite in whom there is no guile. In whom there is, while it is; he is no true Israelite; and so no true Christian; and so not Christs; and so not Gods. Whose, he that is not, satan claims for his. Whose, he that is, Hell takes to it, the final rendezvous of all guileful hypocrites. Whence Christ, who is the Truth, save all that fly from guile; unto whom, with God the Father, and the Spirit of Truth, be duly ascribed, &c.  Blessed are they, in whom there is no guile; for they are true Israelites.  

A SERMON PREACHED ON THE ACTS. The nineteenth Sermon.  ACTS 7. 60. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice; Lord, lay not this sin unto their charge. 
SAint Stevens Prayer at his martyrdom. Humble; he kneeled down; Fervent; he cried out. Charitable; for his enemies. What craves he? Pardon; Lay not to their charge. Pardon for what? For their sin. What sin? A great, a very great sin, a multitude of sins in one. But love covers a multitude of sins. The Martyr in his charity will not aggravate the sin: that were to pray for vengeance, not for mercy on the sinners. he calls it but This sin. Saying, Lord, lay not this sin unto their charge. Of these particulars.  
The first part of the verse contains but onely circumstance; a word will serve for it. For Steven to kneel in prayer, thats not much remarkable. Heathens do that; fall down before their gods. For Steven to cry, cry with a loud voice, is no great matter neither. Idolaters do that, Baals Priests did. What needs Saint Luke express either of these, being used of all men? The one, {αβγδ}, the sign of lowliness, saith S. Basil. The other, clamour cordis, flagrantia charitatis, the hearts cry is from the zeal of love, saith S. Augustine. The contention of the voice, sign of the intention of the Spirit. Both of these are ordinary. But for Saint Steven to kneel, and to cry, praying for his enemies; to do that for others, which he did not for himself; and those others, the Iewes, which now were murdering him, even stoning him to death, is worthy the observing.  
He had prayed before to his Saviour for himself, Lord Iesus receive my spirit, vers. 59. he neither kneeled, nor cried in that; Prayed( it seems) standing, and with low voice, begging the greatest thing that God could give him, his souls salvation. I love my neighbour, I must, but as myself: and charity may, must too, begin at home. Saint Steven here doth more for others, for his persecutors, for his murtherers, then for his own self, then for his own soul. Show me who can, a parallel in all the book of God, in Patriarch, or Prophet, or any holy man. None ever did it, but S. Steven. Had not their hearts that stoned him, been harder then the stones, they cast at him, they had earned at their act, and had burst not for anger, as vers. 54. but for sorrow for their sin. His martyrdom, according to his name, wrought him a crown. Christ Crownes his martyrs above other Saints. This act deserves( pardon the word, I mean not merit in the Papists sense) this peerless act deserves one pearl, one precious pearl of glory in his crown, above all Martyrs.  
No more of the circumstance; very worthy of large speech; and though used by Heathens, yet beseeming Christians too, to kneel and cry in Prayer. Yea if Heathens used them, Christians should more. Christs self did both, kneeled in his agony, cried on the cross; cried aloud as Saint Steven doth, {αβγδ}, the same phrase there and here. And though all prayer be not on the knees; all supplication is; tis not else supplication. Leave wee this, and listen what the Martyr saith; Lord,( saith he) lay not this sin unto their charge.  
Ab jove principium, the first word is Gods title, Lord. So twas in his prayer for himself, the verse before, Lord Iesus. Prayer, all prayer begins with Invocation, either his name or title, to whom wee pray, or both. Discretion and good manners teach our suits to men, to begin with compellation. My Lord, saith Bathsabee to King David. O man of God, saith the captain to Elias. My Father, saith jacob to old Isaac. All speech almost is prefaced so. What man speaks to another, but first names, or titles him. Prayer especially craves preface; all prayer, whether petition, O God be merciful, saith the Publican, or thanksgiving, O God, I thank thee, saith the Pharisee. Christs self samples both; Father, glorify thy son and Luk. 11. Father, I thank thee: bids us do the like; say, when wee pray, Our Father which, &c.  
Lord, lay not this sin. There are many Lords Saint Paul saith. The verse before tells us, what Lord the Martyr means; tis there, Lord Iesus. I note it, because the Valentinian heretics denied to call him Lord. The term in the New Testament is almost proper to Christ. And Saint Paul saith, Every tongue must confess him to be Lord, Phil. 2. 11. Yet the Father is Lord too, and so is the holy Ghost. But all three are but one Lord, saith the Athanasian creed. Why Christ is titled so, many have taught you, I need not. Saint Steven here means him. I will note but that, and leave the preface. The Martyr directs his prayer unto Christ.  
God claims all invocation, God onely. God onely, but not God the Father onely. Both the son and holy Ghost claim that honour too. God seems to check this by the Prophet, Esa 42. I am the Lord, this is my name; and I will not give my glory to another. Saint Steven( I doubt not) had red this; and yet here prays to Christ, and stiles, him Lord. either those words in Esay are the speech of the whole trinity: for the name of God in Scripture, mostly means all the persons. Or say, tis God the Father that speaks there: yet thereby others, he means idols: to them he will not give his glory. Man shall not worship them, but him.  
God will not give his glory unto others. Gods son and his Spirit, are not others, but Gods self. he will communicate his honour unto them; for they are God. God is but one though three persons. What honour is done unto any of the three, is done to all. The creed at our Communions, called commonly the Nicene creed, but is not so, but the creed of Constantinople, saith of the holy Ghost, that with the Father and the son, he together is glorified. I may say the same of either of the other, that the son with the Father and the Spirit, or the Father with the Spirit and the son together is glorified. Saint Steven here robs not the Father in praying to the son. It is no robbery for Christ to be equal with God. Saint Paul saith, Christ thought it none. To pray to all the persons junctim or divisim, either to all jointly, or to any one apart, Christs Church hath ever used. Veni Creator Spiritus, is an ancient hymn in the beginning of your psalm. books, a prayer to the holy Ghost. Saint Steven is the first after Christs death, that prays to Christ; first, but not alone. I pray your patience; tis no ordinary theme.  
One ancient Father, Origen; some modern Divines, Ministers in hungary, tie prayer to God the Father onely. This indeed is robbery to son and holy Ghost. All the persons are peers. This makes the second and third less then the first. Nay it makes them no Gods, with Arius and Macedonius. To control both which heresies, the Church devised that religious doxology, Glory be to the Father, to the son and holy Ghost. Thats a form of thanksgiving, which is one kind of prayer, due alike to all the persons, because every one is God. Origens Iudgement his many other errors lighten: and yet haply the Opinion is but fatherd on him by some heretics. For I find this speech in Origen, Veneratur Patrem, qui admiratur Filium, He honours the Father, that worships the son. Nay, he calls Christ {αβγδ}, consubstantial to his Father. He cannot deny him Invocation, that holds that. For the Ministers of Hungary; the Spirit of Servetus, that blasphemous Spanish heretic, that termed the Trinity, Tricipitem Cerberum, the three headed dog of hell, I think possessed them. They acknowledged God imparted Divinity to Christ, granted him God, but how? Not by eternal generation, but by Grace; Factum, non Natum, a God, but made, not born. Vpon that unsound ground they founded this gross error, that Invocation is not due to Christ.  
There is another scruple, that makes some think so too. It is Christs mediatorship; that because he is our Advocate, he is to sue for us, not we to him. That Christians must pray Per Dominum, not Ad Dominum, through Iesus Christ, not unto him. For if I pray to Christ, who is then the mediator? Indeed his Intercession most properly and kindly, and his whole Mediation is meant unto his Father. But the second and third Person are not therefore excluded. But that honour is given by name unto the Father, as the fountain of the Deity. I say, most kindly to his Father, but yet also truly to himself: Saint cyril saith it plainly, saith it twice, Patri,& Sibiipsi. he Intercedes not to his Father onely, but to himself, and to the Spirit; and the same prayer may be both in Christs name, and yet unto Christ too. And as praying to the Father, I cry, Lord hear me for thy sons sake: so also praying to the son, I may say, Lord Iesus hear me for thine own sake. All honour was equally due to all the Persons before Christs Incarnation. And show me Scripture, who can, that the Word lost any thing by taking flesh. Lord, give me strength, when I yield up my Ghost, to cry with blessed Steven, Lord Iesus, receive my Spirit.  
believe we not in Christ, as well as in the Father? Christ bids, jo●. 14. ye believe in God; believe also in Me. We all do, and profess it in our Creed. Now Saint Paul( Rom. 10.) couples Faith and Invocation. In whom I must believe, on him I ought to call. Christ owns them either both, or neither. Doth any yet doubt of it, rests not in my Reasons, looks for Scripture? There are brought for it( Bellarmine saith) above half an hundred Texts. hear but one. The Prayers of the Saints, Apoc. 5. 8. are offered to the lamb. That lamb is Christ. Old jacob prayed to him long before Saint Steven, Gen. 48. Christ himself Prayed on earth, is prayed to in Heaven; prayed as mediator, is prayed unto, as God. The Prophet Ioels words, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, Saint Paul applies unto Christ. Rom. 10. 13. The Churches perpetual practise hath proved this point to be no Paradox. All Liturgies are full of Prayers unto Christ. Wee pray thee help thy Servants, whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood. Both Priest and People cry, Christ have mercy upon us. O God the son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy upon us, miserable sinners. O Christ hear us. O son of David, have mercy upon us. Graciously hear us, O Christ; And many more. Thats for Petition. And for thanksgiving, the last Prayer at the Communion is plentiful in that; O Lord God, lamb of God, son of the Father, and so forth; tis too long to rehearse.  
Lay not this sin( saith the Martyr) to their charge, Saint Stevens prayer for his enemies. A Prayer worthy Christs Disciple. he was One; not of the Twelve; Christ had many beside them, and Saint Steven a better scholar in this lesson of Charity, then some of them. certainly he was a true Disciple, had marked his master, and here follows him: had learned, what Christ taught either by Life or Lesson. Christ had bid, Pray for your Persecutors; both Bid, and Did; prayed for his Crucifiers, Father forgive them. So doth Steven. Christs own domestics had not learned that. james and John would have prayed for fire from Heaven on the samaritans. Most men use imprecations, curse them, that hurt them. One Brother did another, Iud. 9. Iotham Abimelech. A Mother did her son, Iud. 17. Micahs Mother. Many good men do in their Infirmity. Even Paul did, an Apostle; cursed not onely the Coppersmith, The Lord reward him, &c. That haply was( as Saint August. speaks,) not Votum Optantis, but Spiritus Prophetantis, rather the spirit of prophesy, then the wish of Revenge. But Paul in his impatiency cursed the High Priest, God smite thee, thou whited wall. Not onely not to curse, but to pray for them, that wrong us, is a great degree of grace.  
The degree of Grace the greater, the grander the wrong was. poor is his patience, and he a weak Christian, that will not put up a light injury; that, give him but the lye, will stab. But he that seeks my Blood, that sheds my blood, to pray for him; I do not say, to pardon him; many will do that, but will put over the revenge to God: but to pray to God for him, not slightly neither, as I haply may, say, God forgive him: but with bended knees, and strained voice, to cry, Lord, lay not this sin unto his charge; His heart to earn for pity towards them, whose hearts burst for anger toward him; to cry with a loud voice in Gods ears for them, who shouted with loud voice, and stopped their ears at him: this craves a Steven, a Christian full of Grace, full of Fortitude, full of Faith, full of the holy Ghost. They are the Attributes, Saint Luke gives Saint Steven in the beginning of this story. This Patience satan thought surpassed Mans power; prayed God to try job better. He had lost his Goods and Children; he bore that, blessed God for all that loss. He prayed God to touch his Person; and yet not his life neither, but his body: he doubted not, but job would curse God to his face. Yea and his Wife wished him so, Curse God, and die. job did not; and the world admires his patience. Saint james cites it for example, Audistis, you have heard of Iobs patience. Saint Stevens is greater. satan smote job but with an evil boil, the phrase is so. But the Iewes put Steven here to an evil death. Yet he praies for them; and that even while the stones are battering of his body. Saint Luke saith, he wrought wonders, great wonders and miracles among the people. Surely this prayer for his enemies is one; and not his face onely, as Saint Luke saith here too, but his grace was also, as the grace of an angel. Christ did the same before him, but who else? Not one in the whole Bible, among all the sons of men, saving the son of Man.  
This be said in general of Saint Stevens Prayer. There are in it three particulars, the Pardon, the Sinners, and the sin. They are so in order in the original, {αβγδ}. For the first, many a good man hath zeal, but without knowledge. Great is Saint Stevens zeal here, to pray for enemies, on his knees, and with strong cry. But knows he, what he asks? Christ said to Zebedees sons, ye know not, what ye ask. Doth Steven? Lord, lay not, &c. Shall man fin, and God not censure? the just judge justify an unjust man. An earthly judge must not, but the judge of Heaven may. God looks not upon sinners as man does. God looks on them through Christ, if they have Faith. Their sins Christ on the cross took to himself, satisfied God for them. God will not lay them to their charge. But the faithless mans sin, God will impute to him: Christ hath not born it, himself must. I but paraphrase this point; tis plain. Lay Stevens Prayer to Christs; it hath the same sense; Father, forgive them. Father, forgive them, saith Christ: Lord, lay not this sin to their charge, saith Saint Steven.  
To their charge? Whose charge? thats the next Question, who they are, for whom he praies. Men of divers Provinces, but Iewes All, Synagogue men, chap. 6. ver. 9. Libertines, i. romans, Cyrenians, Cilicians, and some of Asia, and Alexandria; All belike then in jerusalem, besides the common people, vers. 12. First they Dispute with him, ver. 9. then Convent him, ver. 12. then execute him, begin with Arguments, end with Stones. So is truth wont to suffer of schism, and heresy. Our Fathers have seen it both in King Henries, and queen Maries dayes. Whom they could not turn with words, they would burn with fire. Yet skills it much, when wrong is offered, who offers it. All these were, if not of Stevens Country, of his kin; his Brethren, All Israelites, though not born in judea, yet Iewes All. Necessarii, Adversarii; twas Christs case before him: he came unto his own, and his own received him not. Not that onely; but betrayed him, murdered him. Whose pens are so impudent, whose tongues so virulent against us, as the English Romanists? Garnet, Faux, and the rest of that pestilent Pouder-plot, were not French, nor Spanish, but English men All. A Prophet cannot die, but at jerusalem; Steven not be stoned, but by his own Countrymen. Etiam Saul inter Prophetas? Even Saul himself is one of them. Pauls self confesseth it, chap. 22. He cast not a ston at him; but he kept their clothes that did. For these this Martyr prays, Lord,( saith he) lay not this sin unto their charge.  
You see the sinners, hear the sin, Lord, lay not this sin. What sin? sins are not equal, as some say, as some lying Papists say, we say. There is a sin, a mote, a gnat; and there is a sin, a beam, a Camel, an Elephant sin. Such an one is this. Saint Steven calls it not so; lessons it rather in his love; covers it at least, saith but in general, This sin. He does not aggravate it, call it great; thinks it no good argument, to move Gods mercy, to call it great. David did, O God be merciful to my sin, for it is great. Steven does not, prays God to pardon it, saith but this sin. Nor does David haply, examine his words well. I rather would red it, and the Hebrew word bears it, Lord be merciful to my sin, though it be great. But though the Martyr hid their sin; the Preacher may not. What is then the sin? Tis fit, we search it, lest haply it be such, as bears no pardon. Some sins are such, unpardonable: God must lay them to mens charge. Cain said, his sin was greater, then could be forgiven. It was not; twas but his despair: had he had faith, he had found grace. But there is indeed a sin, God pardons not; the sin against the holy Ghost. Theres no praying for that. Saint John saith, Christs self saith, thats unpardonable. Mat. 12. 31. This sin is not. There is one here at the least, one of these persecutors, whom God pardonned. Haply there were many; we are sure one was. Tis Saul. God laid not this sin, this great sin to his charge; heard Stevens prayer for him.  
The sin is great. David titles his sin by a pregnant term, {αβγδ} the Hebrew word sounds both Magnum& Multum; such as was his sin in the matter of Vrias, many sins in one, Adultery, murder, and treachery. So is this here a compound sin; persecution blood, innocent blood,  shed not by legal sentence of judge, but in popular rage, subornation of false witnesses. Persecution is great sin, though without blood. he that but binds onely, or banisheth, is a persecutor. julian was a great one, though no blood-shedder. Here is Blood.  
Blood may be but by stripes, Saint Paul was scourged often. Blood  shed unjustly any way, is sin, great sin. But here is murder, the greatest sin of the six in the second table. God bids, thou shalt not kill. Kill I may mine enemy in war. And the judge justly executes the malefactor in peace. But to kill else, is murder, if in malice; a grand sin. Philo saith, it is sacrilege. For man is Gods Image, a divine Creature; it steals him. {αβγδ} is {αβγδ}, Philoes words, It robs God of his Creature. A crying sin, Scripture calls it. Saint Steven must make for it a crying Prayer. Blood so  shed God abhors, psalm 5. 6. Revenges ever. Not in joab onely, and Absalon, wicked men; but in his dearest children. Qui gladio ferit, gladio perit, saith Christ, he that sheds mans blood, by man shall his blood be  shed. David escaped not. Vriahs blood  shed by him, made his be  shed: not indeed in himself, but in his sons. Saint Paul scaped not. He  shed Stevens blood, kept their clothes, that  shed it. Nero  shed his.  
This sin yet greater, innocent blood; Naboths guiltless blood cost much blood, Ahabs, Iezabels,& Iehorams, Steven had not trespassed. Greater yet, Saints blood. It in Gods sight is precious, David saith. All blood cries for revenge: Saints blood cries strongly. Steven must cry with loud voice, praying for it. Abels blood cost Cain dear. Saints blood, God bids, Nolite tangere, touch not Prophets blood. S. Steven was none. Apostles blood. Steven was one, one saith. S. Austine calls him Apostolum. Why not a Prophet too, if to Preach, be to prophesy? Preach he did; this Chapter is his Sermon. Thats not all in this sin, heres no command of Magistrate, no Iudges warrant for Saint Stevens death; execution without writ, or sentence. It might be murder, though by command of Magistrate. Even the Magistrate, if he execute unjustly, is a murderer. Christ was condemned by Pilate, and yet Steven calls the Iewes murtherers, v. 52. Saint Steven here was not sentenced, was brought before the council, and accused: but not condemned. But the frantic people ran upon him furiously; violently drew him from the bar, cast him out of the City, and stoned him.  
The kind of death, they put the Martyr to, adds to the sin. Herod killed james, but with the Sword. So dyed John Baptist too, beheaded both. Of deaths, that kind is the least odious, held least dishonour for highest Persons to die so. Stoning is the death, which Moses Law ordained for blasphemers. This death these bloodshedders will have Saint Steven die, as holding his Preaching of Christ to be blasphemy. Thus here not Saint Steven onely, but Christ is also persecuted.  
Yet one thing more in this sin, and I will end it. It is a sin great enough already. But these Synagogue men, to make it greater yet, suborn false witnesses. They had done so against Christ. Thats an high wickedness. Themselves to have accused him wrongfully, had been bad enough: but to suborn others, is grand impudence. As much Penance enjoined by old Canons to false witnesses, as to adulterers, felons, or murtherers. Yea the laws of the twelve Tables adjudged them to death. I want the Spirit and Power of some Preachers here sometimes, to aggravate this sin, as it deserves. This sin, this great, this grievous, this outrageous sin, superlatively great, this sin( as Saint Paul speaks) out of measure sinful; this Martyr, this first Martyr, full of Faith, and Power, and of the holy Ghost; this Prayer, this passionate, and powerful Prayer; humble, on the knee, earnest, with a cry, this sin, this Martyr, makes this Prayer for. God would not let his Prayer to be lost. On how many God had mercy, wee know not. On Saul he had, who was one of this mad multitude. Him the Lord pardonned, turned Saul to Paul. And sweet Saint Augustine doubted not to say, Si Stephanus non orasset, Ecclesia Paulum non habuisset, Christs Church had lacked Saint Paul, but for Saint Stevens Prayer. For this blessed Martyr, and All other holy Saints; but especially for the sacred incarnation of Christ Iesus, be given unto God, Father, son, and Holy Ghost, all Honour, and thanksgiving, this Day, and evermore.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON THE ACTS. The twentieth Sermon.  ACTS 7. 19. May wee not know, what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? 
THE desire of the Athenians to be further yet informed of the Doctrine taught by Saint Paul: not, that they liked of it( for they censure it for New) but of mere curiosity. The next verse notes their nature, they were {αβγδ}, they loved to hear new things. I note but two things in it, their Desire to hear it, May wee not know: and their Censure of it, tis new Doctrine. more things note-worthy; but I note no more.  
For the first; tis here but Possumus, May we know? Tis Volumus in the next verse, we will know. Where there is {αβγδ}, love of news, there must be {αβγδ}, lust to hear. The Athenian ears itched after news: they gave themselves to little else; to nothing else, Saint Luke saith. Paul preached strange things, {αβγδ}, not heard before: hear them they must, they will. They had brought him into their Mars street, a spacious place, that all might hear.  
Athens more equal to the gospel than jerusalem. Iewes will not hear: they stopped their ears at Saint Stevens apology. More equal than Ephesus; they shouted against Alexander, to smother his voice. More equal than Rome; they will smother him with smoke, burn him with faggot, that shall preach Christ to them, as he should be preached. The Priests and Elders clapped up the Apostles, that durst preach him. Let them preach in prison to the walls; the people should not hear them, nor would they. These here hear willingly, eagerly, importune the Apostle; indeed opportune him: tis his desire too, to preach the gospel.  
This passion in this people springs from the subject of Saint Pauls Doctrine. He preached of Iesus, and the Resurrection. They took them to be gods both. Why else charge they Saint Paul in the verse before to set forth new gods? Heathens have female gods, as well as male: Such an one they thought the Resurrection. Tis not my conceit; it is Theophylacts. For why not Anastasis, as well as Nemesis? Many strange gods have balsams worshipped. Some Christians have. What a sort of idle gods did the Valentinian heretics device. Thinking these to be gods too, they give him open audience. They are {αβγδ}, somewhat superstitious. They were loathe there should be any gods, whom they worshipped not, and therefore they urge Saint Paul to second his Doctrine more openly and amply.  
Though Mars street indeed were the public Sessions house; yet Saint Paul is not brought thither, as convented by the Magistrate. My Text is not the speech of the Iudges to examine him, but of the people fairly entreating him, to speak freely and at large. Some calamities had lesson'd them to neglect no gods: they worshipped all implicitè, known or unknown. They had inscribed one Altar purposedly, Ignoto Deo, to the unknown God. But thats but part of the Inscription, there was more, To the Gods of Asia, Europe, and Lybia. There should not be a God in all the world, but they would worship him. In this superstitious suspicion of Saint Pauls doctrine, though they censure it for new; yet they will hear it better. Iesus& Resurrectio might haply be Gods: Saint Paul must preach again; {αβγδ}, they will know,( they say) what he means.  
Their {αβγδ}, their desire to hear the Apostle I can not condemn simply: rose it not of superstition, tis commendable to hear. Omnia probate, Prove all things, approve truth onely. Should not the Gentiles have given the Apostles, Saint Paul and the rest the hearing; how should the gospel have been preached throughout the world? The seeds of salvation have been sown in all lands? Their {αβγδ} is absolutely nought; but their {αβγδ}, is in part commendable. {αβγδ} is {αβγδ} justin Martyr saith, the worship of many gods is sister to atheism, he fears not any, that hath many. But their zeal to hear must not be censured too severely. Onely two things I tax in it, {αβγδ}, love of novelty, and Superstition.  
The former, Love of news is curiosity, idle vanity: but a vanity the more venial, because tis harmless, voided of malice, and tis natural. Most men, if not all, Avidi nimis auricularum, saith Lucretius, too attentive to reports, every ear arrected at the noise of news.[ Mitte quod scio, dic quod nescio, what we know, is stale; things unheard and fresh please us.] Pardon the Athenians this infirmity, Heathen Athenians. S. Paul saith, it should be found in Christians, they should have itching ears. I would wee had not humorous Hearers, admiring or adoring rather the new conceits of every novelist. An attic homour, an appetite to hear, Caninus appetitus, an unsatiable hunger and desire to hear. But the ground of the desire, not veritas, but novitas; tickled with the love, not of truth, as the honourable Berrhaeans were, that would search, whether the things were true which they had heard; but of novelty. It is some weakness in civill things, but in religion a great infirmity.  
The other superstition, thats a sin worthy censure. Saint Paul checks them with it, but very gently. He hoped for a greater Harvest, then he found, and therefore touched them, but very tenderly. He lays the term on them; but alleys it withall, loathe to exasperate them, whom he would convert. I pray you see his Art, his godly Art. he will not betray God by concealing their Idolatry; but yet he will tell it them in mildest phrase: he will not soothe their sin, but yet will soothe his terms. I see you( saith the Apostle) O ye men of Athens, quasi superstitiosiores, as it were, somewhat superstitious. The comparative degree( Grammarians know) signifies sometimes {αβγδ}, though mostly it increase, yet it is sometimes a Terminus diminuens; not {αβγδ}, somewhat superstitious. Nay he thinks it yet too tart, puts a Quasi to it too, to make it yet more mild, I see you( men of Athens) as it were somewhat superstitious. Tis a Pill, and therefore he gives it gilded. He speaks to Athenians: they have Teretes aures, as dainty in their sense as in their dialect. Yea and the word itself hath an Euphemismus too: for {αβγδ} is one that fears the Gods. They worshipped indeed devills. Moses called them so, so doth the Psalmist, {αβγδ} i. devills. The heathens Gods( saith David) {αβγδ}, devills all: idols at the best. S. Paul will not call, {αβγδ}, a fig, a fig, will not term them Idolaters( that might nettle them indeed, endanger him, and harden them) but onely superstitious, as it were somewhat superstitious. The best is bad: superstition is impiety.  
This Athenian appetite, to hear of God, purged of these two ill humours, curiosity and superstition, I would it were in every English heart. Romans sent their sons to Athens to learn there. I would our Romanists would learn this Atticisme. Till the Bull of pus quintus about the eleventh year of queen Elisabeth● reign, all Papists came to Church, prayed with us, heard the word with us. Now multitudes refuse. Our doctrine now the same as then. That Bull-master Pope Impius, and his successors since, now Saul the fifth and all, have charged the children of their holy mother Church, to avoid our assemblies. Some haply come for fear of fine: but as it was said of one, their ears are stopped with cotton, stuffed lest they should hear. This unhappy generation, that can Romanise so much, I hearty wish they would Athenise a little; ask their devout fathers, or rather their own hearts, may wee not know what this new doctrine is? unhappy Recusants, miserable thralls, suffer not this servitude. Though your tyrannising Bishop bind you hand and foot, and say of our Sacraments, touch not, taste not, handle not: yet be not eare-bound too. The Pope is but Christs Vicar. hear what Christ saith himself; he that hath ears to hear, let him hear.  
Say, the Popish doctrine be the undoubted truth: I trow, it is not truer then the gospel. The men of Berrhaea would not trust it, till they had tried it, examined it by Scriptures. They thought the doctrine preached by Paul and Sylas might haply bee false: they knew not from what spirit they spake. And is it Piaculum, Papists should think it possible, error to be in popery? that they may not dare, not so much as read, not so much as hear any thing printed, any thing preached by a Protestant? A presumption rather( would they weigh things wisely) that their doctrine is unsound, against which they will not let them either read or hear any thing objected. Surely wee shall not need either in our books or Sermons oppose against them any argument of ours. What one point hold, they cross to us, which some even of themselves doth not control? and Bellarmine will tell them, that, that is not to be held as a point of faith, which some catholics have crost, whom the Church hath not condemned. This Atticisme then is not absurd, to hear at least, what our doctrine is; except their own were more undoubted. May they not hear, what this new doctrine is? They may, though it be new. That is the second member of my Text, the censure of Saint Pauls doctrine, it is new.  
newness oft-times is no disgrace, but commendation: many things new more precious then old. temporal things infinite: house, raiment, food, all things that wast and wear with age. spiritual things some. Gods new Testament better than the old, {αβγδ}, Heb. 7. 22. the gospel more excellent then the law. The Old man, Saint Paul bids put off, put on the New. New heaven, new earth, new jerusalem. Some things again better old then new, {αβγδ} saith Ecclesiast. Wine is so, a friend is so. But doctrine lightly gets no grace by novelty; the ancienter it is, it is the more authentical. Not more honourable onely, thats Aristotles rule, {αβγδ} things most ancient are most honourable: but that which is the soul of doctrine, truth is presumed ever to attend antiquity. Verum quod primum; adulterum, quod posterius, saith Tertullian; the doctrine which first ages delivered pure, the latter will sophisticate. Tis an impeachment then weighty, if just, S. Pauls doctrine to be new.  
But tis unjust. The doctrine of the Gospel as ancient as the world, to be charged for a novelty? But consider who these Chargers be; and tis no marvel. Athenians to say Saint Paul set forth strange Gods, is no strange thing. The doctrine of Christ, and of the resurrection is new to Grecians: All Christianity strange to all Pagans; Nova superstition, Suetonius term. To them false Gods are ancient; and the true is new. Things sometimes are called new, not of their own nature; but because new persons come to know them. To the man born blind, when Christ had given him sight, all things seemed new to him. Children take forth new lessons out of old books. The report of an Act done nere so long ago, is new to him, that heard it not before. So is the Gospel to these Greekes {αβγδ}, strange and new.  
Tis indeed ancient, taught by the Prophets, all the Prophets, even from Samuel, Saint Peter saith. Yea Moses himself, Samuels ancient far, foretold of Christ, wrote of him, Philip saith, joh. 1. Christs self saith, joh. 5. A Prophet shall the Lord raise up of your brethren, like unto me, him shall ye hear. Nay elder yet, Saint Paul saith, twas preached to Abraham Moses ancient too, Gal. 3. what say I Abraham? ere Abraham was, it was: twenty hundred yeares before he was born, God taught it even to Adam, the first man in the world, the seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents head. Christians were ever, Saint August. saith our faith delivered from Seth to Enoch, from him to Noah, and so to Abraham and his seed. It was not called the Christian Faith, till Christ was come. But Res ipsa, saith Saint Augustine though the name be new, yet the thing is ancient. christianity is {αβγδ}, a new name, but the t●ing {αβγδ}, Eusebius saith, from mans first creation.  
The jew will object Iesus was born but in Augustus reign, and a sect of Galileans began to preach the gospel but in Tiberius dayes. Tis true, Christ was incarnate really, actually but then; and the tidings but then published, that Christ was come. But his incarnation, and all other things concerning him were both foretold, and prefigured long before: foretold by the Prophets, and prefigured in the Law. Both it, and they taught Christ should come. We reckon two Testaments, an old and a new: but there is but one, {αβγδ}, saith Clemens Alex. but one Testament indeed. Saint Paul doth but distinguish them, Heb. 8. 6. {αβγδ}, onely in their ministery; but their substance is the same. What is the old, but novi occultatio, the mystery of the new? what is the new but veteris revelatio, the history of the old? saith S. Augustine. The gospel shows but what the Law did shadow. And for the Prophets, Christs birth, life, death, sicut cernuntur impleta, ita leguntur Praedicta, as well Prophets foretold them, as Evangelists storied them▪ though Faustus the Manichee deny it in S. Austin, and the Marcionite in Tertullian. And therefore Christ choose at his transfiguration, out of all the Saints departed, Moses and Elias; to figure the concent of the doctrine of the Gospel with the Prophets and the Law. So in Ezechiels vision of the beasts and the wheels S. Gregory expounds one wheel within another, to be the new Testament within the old. This made Gregory Nazian. to call the Christian faith, {αβγδ}, orat. 3. pag. 101. B.  
Tis now no new doctrine which Saint Paul preached tot the Athenians, though it sounded so to them; new to their ears, but indeed ancient. That censure served their own Religion, and fitted their gods. They rather were new. Even Moses was elder then the Gentiles gods, Eusebius saith. The ancientest of them all, even Saturne himself was Puinee unto him, Tertullian saith. Athenagoras makes Orpheus propè coaetaneum, almost as old as they, and Moses was his ancient.  
Hath this age no Athenians? Plinie calls part of italy, Magnam Graeciam, great Greece. Then Athens must be Rome; it is the eye of italy, as Athens was of Greece. Surely Romanists serve us, as Athenians served Saint Paul. The Papist saith the Protestants Religion is new doctrine. First, say it were: what if it be new, so that it be true? Quasi antiquitas( saith Saint Augustine) praejudicet veritati, as though antiquity must needs out countenance truth. Well said Arnobius, quod verum est, serum non est, truth comes never tardè. But tis not; the English Religion is not new.  
Surely if it be; tis very New. For he reigned but in our Fathers dayes, whom the Pope first styled Defender of the Faith. I trow that was the ancient Faith, the old Religion. Tis so, they mean; they say, our modern Faith was not heard of in the world till King Edward the sixths reign. By their leaves, it peered a little in his Fathers dayes. Be like the Faiths Defender played false too. So it is a little elder than King Edward. Themselves say, Luther first founded it in King Henries time. Till then tis most manifest that all in England were Papists without exception. One Hill, a Popish Doctor saith it. Our learned Archbishop observes his Hyperbolees, makes mole-hills both of them and him. He saith not onely manifest, but most manifest; not that many but even all; to make it yet more sure, All without exception, were Papists until then. It was Luther and Zwinglius were the unfortunate Fathers of the English Faith, another of them saith. liars need better memories.  
Not heard of in the world till Edward the sixth? All Papists, none excepted till Henry the eighth? Was there not in the world one wickliff before them? long before them? Him they must except. Or wherefore else burnt they his bones? Though King Henry 8. were Defender of the Faith, and the Pope that so titled him, meant the Romish faith: yet both in his reign, and before it, there were Defenders of the true Faith, I mean this new Faith, that defended it with their blood, as King henry did the old with his Pen. His majesty now doth, not the new, but the true, hath already with his pen too; is ready with his sword;& had with his blood too, had their bloody Project prospered. King Henries Father and Grandfather before him, Henry the 6. and his father before him, and others many before them, many Martyrs, more Confessers, multitudes of professers of this new doctrine. Some Homilies, yet remaining in the Saxon tongue show our Church of this Faith even before the Conquest. I must Grandire gradum, fetch greater strides to the antiquity of our Faith, lest the hour silence me. It began not at Wittinberg, as Stapleton objects, at prague, at lions: It were then true, which they say of us, Hesterni sumus twere but a yesterday faith. But it is the Doctrine of the ancient Fathers. Yea ancienter than they; the Doctrine of the Apostles; of Saint Paul, whom justin calls {αβγδ}, the Father of the Fathers. Not one point of our faith; which many learned Writers of our English Church have not rescued from this false imputation of novelty; avoucht and averred it to be ancient and apostolic against the stoutest adversary.  
Our Doctrine new; but like Saint Iohns new Commandement, 1 John 2. the same( saith he) which wee heard from the beginning. It was to love one another. Christ called it new too, John 13. 34. but it was in Moses Law, Lev. 19. Christ saith it is, oftener than once. Haman  told Assuerus there was a people in his land, he meant the Iewes; who used Novis legibus, new laws. But those laws Moses gave them too. Are not the Scriptures too new doctrine in our tongue, and in every tongue, save in the Latin? For no man may have them in the mother tongue. Even the Lords Prayer, which our Saviour made himself, and the Apostles Creed, the very Christian Faith in English is new Doctrine. Men must pray in Latin too. What an Egyptian darkness doth Rome hold all men in, to hid the lewdness of their old learning?  
But I trow, their faith is ancient, that challenge ours for new. Their Doctrine, All is apostolical. Our Faith began at Wittinberg, theirs at jerusalem. Zwinglius and Calvin, Martin Luther, and John Hus first Authors of ours: the Apostles and Christs self first founders of theirs. Worshipping of Images is apostolical: Saint John bids Custodite, keep yourselves from Images; that is, be not so unreverent as to touch or handle them; but worship them a far off. The Communion in one kind, thats Christs Doctrine Implicitè. drink ye all of this; Christ meant exclusivè, All ye, i. ye onely; none must drink, but the Priest. Transubstantiation, who but an Innocent would father that upon Pope Innocent? Christ said expressly, Hoc est corpus meum, the Bread and Wine, are his body and his blood. Invocation of Saints, hath warrant from Christ also; he cried upon the cross, Eli, Eli, &c. he called upon Elias. Breerly the Priest collects it, apology, pag. 148. med. The Popes power above the Kings is it not as ancient as Christ too? Was not Christ convented before Annas and Caiphas, the King of the Iewes before the high Priest?  
Their Dignities and Orders ancient too, not their Doctrine onely. The Popes Prerogatives both before all Bishops, and above them; the one is palpably apostolical, the first( saith Saint Matth.) is Simon; theres his primacy, for he is Peters Successor: the other is from Christ, thou art Cephas; that signifies in greek a Head; theres his supremacy. The cardinals more ancient, Elias in his Thisbi, saith the Italian Iewes find them in the psalms. The Iesui●es elder yet. Why father they their Order on Ignatius Loiola? Tis yet but fourscore yeares, since Loiola lived. Tis their great modesty. They are far more ancient, ancienter than the Fathers, than the Apostles, than Christ Iesus himself from whom they have their name, was after them. Ancienter than the Prophets, look Num. 26. 44. there shall you find the Ingendrer of the Iesuites, jebusites and Esauites( for so some call them) are names that show them ancient too: but nick-names given them by us of the new Religion. But in that place of Numbers, theres the Iesuite indeed. In your Geneva Bible it is but Issuites; thats but a new Translation too: but the vulgar Latin, and the old English books have it plainly Iesuites.  
How hath Rome brased her brow, to call our Doctrine new, which her conscience tells her came from Christ, her own Ancient, which is new indeed? Twas ancient once, till she played the spiritual harlot, and corrupted it. Tis old now; but none otherwise, than the bread and bottles and shoes of the Giebonites, patched shows and moldy bread.  
To conclude, tis not our Doctrine onely, the Protestants Religion, but the whole Christian Faith is novelty to Rome, both {αβγδ}, strange and new to them. The Lord open our eyes, and grant that all they that do confess his holy name, may agree in the truth of his holy Word, and live in unity and godly love, through Iesus Christ, cvi cum Patre, &c.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON THE COLOSSIANS. The one and twentieth Sermon.  COLOS. 3. 1. 
{αβγδ}.  
seek those things which are above.  
A Text but of few words, tria sunt omnia; but three in the original; of fewer terms, but two; Act, and Object. The Object arduous, things above; the Act laborious, they must be sought. precious things are not obvious. Things above? what are they? That must bee sought first. First seek to Know them; and then to Have them. Tis one good step to find, to know what we should seek. The Object therefore is before the Act: So hath Paul placed it, and so shall I.  
All Adams sons are Seekers, Generatio quaerentium, Davids phrase, a brood of seekers, even from the womb, even the Babe {αβγδ}, Saint Peters word, no sooner born but seeks the breast. Brute creatures too, not man onely. Even the young Raven, though the old feed it not, yet cries, saith David, seeks to God. The brute creature is soon satisfied, seeks but for one thing, but food onely. Man needs not neither; Christ hath said, unum necessarium, theres but one thing indeed necessary. Yet is he troubled, as Martha was, {αβγδ}, about many things: even such sometimes, as being found confounded the seeker. Man inconsiderate to seek them, and unfortunate to find them. As Christ therefore bids, seek, Matth. 7. 7. So Paul teacheth us, what, {αβγδ}, things above. Christs precept needed not: Man will seek without bidding. Needed in Christs sense; he bids nothing that is needless. Else nature seeks unbid; corrupt nature, though forbid. Theres a nolite quaerere, seek not, Amos 5. 5. Christ forbids too, Luk. 12. 29. he that bad, {αβγδ}, seek; bids, {αβγδ}, seek not. The Act is {αβγδ}, a thing indifferent; lies all upon the object; as it is good or evil, so is that. {αβγδ}, what it is, must be sought, that is {αβγδ}, the thing in question here which wee must seek. That great seeker out of natures secrets, Aristotle in all his discourses, seeks first, quid non, what a thing is not: then what it is. A method as meet for divinity as philosophy: and Gods self useth it; his negative laws go before the affirmative. Paul bids, as Christ did, seek; and shows us what. But if you please, let me show first, what not.  
Theres a wrong seeking, Saint james saith, {αβγδ}, 4. 3. when either what I seek is nought; or if good, yet I seek it either in ill manner or to bad end. End and manner are Parerga; Object is my theme. {αβγδ}, the worlds things, Scripture means by them, Honour and wealth, most men seek these. David saith but many, Psal. 4. 6. But Paul all, Phil. 2. 21. thats his holy Hyperbole. All do not; but most. What shall the worlds children seek, but the worlds things? pardon them; they seek but {αβγδ} their own things. Man is earth,( God said it) Terraes. He is {αβγδ}, Paul saith, from the earth. How can he choose but seek earthly things? What creature delights not in the element, where it bread?— Honos,& opes,& foeda voluptas, pleasure, honour, wealth, are the worlds trinity, bid we men seek holy things? They will answer, they do. Is there not {αβγδ}, Heb. 9. 1. worldly holy things? these are so. They are men of the world, Psal. 17. 14. and they seek the holy things of the world. They are not indeed ●oly: but to them they are. They make Gods of them; sacrifice to them, to their nets, and to their yarn, saith the Prophet. {αβγδ}. Luk. 8. 14. theres two of them, avarice and pleasure, carry away( Christ said) one quarter of the world. he might have said, one half, the greater half. Honour, the third, carries many too, too many. If but Simeon onely, it were less matter; but Levi too. And Levi too by Simeon: by Simon, tis all one; both the same name. A fowle boil in so faire a body. I will not touch it, it is teachie.  
do I not wrong ambition? The aspirer haply will plead my Text, say, he seeks {αβγδ}, things above. A mitre to a Priest, is {αβγδ}, a thing above him. So is a read hat to a Bishop; a triple crown to a cardinal, {αβγδ}, things above them; they may seek them. Thats Christs ambition. Secular is so too. All men are not {αβγδ}, made of earth; some of finer Element, air or fire, mounters above others: O that I were a judge, saith Absolom. Shall King Assuerus honour any above Haman? Caesar will no superior, pompey no peer. Adoniah will have Abishag, Absal●m will reign. Theres yet Plus ultrà, Kings will bee gods, {αβγδ}. So will Popes, our Lord God the Pope. Twas Eves Itch first, to be as God. The Devills before her ascendam, saith Lucifer, he will sit above the stars, bee equal to the most highest. Paul means not this. Honour is {αβγδ}, a thing above, but not in Pauls sense.  
Another person in the worlds trinity, was pleasure. Many seek it also; but not so many. I mean not wanton pleasure, lust. more seek it, then honour. Thats rather {αβγδ}, a thing of the flesh, then of the world. I mean idleness, not wantonness. Strong drink, lawful in time and measure, inter utenda, but not inter quaerenda, I may use it, but not seek it. I grieve to hear Lay men censure Church men for this. I would it were irregularity. Wine, Paul bids, utere, but modico,& propter stomachum, little, and for physic. But he in the Proverbs 23. 30. seeks it, hunts it, the word signifies: and having found it, abids all day at it: rests not so, but cries at night, quaeram amplius, I will seek it again. Cras sicut hody, to morrow, every day.  
game an other idle pleasure. They seek it most, that are reputed Gentlemen. So may they be by their first birth. But by the second they are not. True generosity, which is Regeneration by Gods holy Spirit, will abhor so base an exercise, so unfitting a good Christian, so full of falsehood and impiety. Surely Paul means not this. Tis not {αβγδ}, any of the things above. Tis {αβγδ} a thing of the worlds. Tis worse. Tis {αβγδ}, a thing of Sathans. Some writ, dice were devised first by the devil, I throw them; but the devil turns them; now for me, that thou maiest swear and curse; anon for thee, that I may do as much, both of us blaspheme God.  
The third thing in that Trinity was Wealth. Thats the {αβγδ}, the thing, that( All I may not say, I denied that before, but that) All almost do seek; do hunt, as he in the proverbs, did strong drink. Wise Solomon found no seeking, like that of Silver, Prov. 2. 4. Quaestus, gain hath the name of seeking, Aquaerendo. Strong drink is a strong Witch: and play( they say) bewitcheth too. Yet are many found free from their spells. But Riches are Witches, that enchant almost All. The worlds life, Saint John saith, 1 John 3. his soul, the Poet saith, {αβγδ}. Saint Paul calls the devil {αβγδ}, Prince of the world. Wealth rather is. He calls satan, God of this world. Riches are rather. Mammon is almighty; tis no marvel, if many, if most, if all almost do seek it. For why not?  
Is not Paul here a Precisian? He was once, Act. 26. 5. {αβγδ}, of the strictest Sect of them. Is he not so here? more strait haply, then God. God is not so severe. Where forbids he to seek riches? Or am not I more strict, then Paul? make him mean more, then he does? Is to bid seek the things above, to forbid to seek the things below? May we not seek both? Be Christ judge. He bids, seek Gods kingdom first, Quaerite primum. That implies, Mammon may be sought too; so it be afterward. Christ forbids indeed to serve Mammon; but not to seek it. Man faults onely, in that he is preposterous, cries, Quaerenda Pecunia primum, Virtus post nummos.— seek Wealth first, Religion after. Gold and Silver are metals. {αβγδ}, thats {αβγδ}, they must be sought after other things. They are {αβγδ}, from below, bread in the earth. seek {αβγδ}, things above before them, heavenly things: but them afterward. Or take Christs word from Saint Lukes pen, 12. 31. {αβγδ} seek Gods kingdom rather. That prohibits not; prefers only heavenly things before earthly. They must be sought more, these less. So Christ consters Paul; seek the things above {αβγδ} and {αβγδ}, first, and more. But things below may be sought too, in their Measure and Order, after and under things above.  
Thus will worldlings object; and their speech is very specious. Maldonat allows it, on that place of Matthew, 6. 33. And rejects all other glosses. A man judicious; but a Iesuite. under the censure of more learned judgements, I think Saint Paul speaks peremptorily; forbids all other seeking, save of things above. Honour should not be sought. It should seek men, not men it. Saul was seeking Asses David sheep, when Samuel sought to anoint them Kings. twice sought the people to crown Christ; He declind it. Siracks son bids, seek not, to be a judge. Absalom did, a bad example. And for Church dignity, how many worthy men in ages past, have fled from bishoprics, hide themselves, some maimed themselves, to be uncapable? A monument of their Sobriety, remaines yet among us in the Election of a Bishop. Vis Episcopari? the Person answers, no. No? Why then saith Paul, 1 Tim. 3. He that desires a bishopric, desires a good work? That place hath many answers; every word gives one. First, Cupere is not Quaerere. I I may desire, what I may not seek. Then, what if {αβγδ} mean not a bishopric, but the function of a Minister? But be it a bishopric. Yet tis the {αβγδ} in that bishopric, that must be desired; not the Title, but the task. Tis Nomen Operis, non Honoris, Saint August. desire the Duty, not the dignity. Desire I may; but prodesse, not praesse, tis Saint Augustines too, as a Bishop is a labourer, not as he is a Lord. Else indecenter petitur, saith that Father; it is not decent to desire a bishopric. I may Sumere, but not Petere,( tis not my distinction) Accept of Honour, but not seek it. Tis from God, if sent: if sought, tis from below.  
Much less may Mammon be sought, not onely not {αβγδ}, before, or more then things above; but not at all. Nay, Food and Raiment, necessary things, Christ bids three or four times, Nolite esse Sol●cit●, take no thought for them, seek not them anxiously neither. Prudent provision he prohibits not, as the Rhemists there well note: but {αβγδ}, to be troubled, as Martha was, that Christ censures. Much more for wealth, which is unnecessary, and without which, one may be happy, rather then with it, {αβγδ}, divide not thy thoughts. Anxious care for it, fits not a Christian. Solicitudo, is Aegritudo, Tully saith. Christs self in that place saith it is heathenism, {αβγδ}, the Gentiles seek such things. Wealth is a blessing if God sand it: a temptation, if man ask it. Tis Pauls term, {αβγδ}, a temptation, and a snare. Saint Basil hath worse words, {αβγδ}, the bait of sin, the hook of death, the strangler of the soul. And yet not worse; Paul hath as bad, {αβγδ}, perdition and destruction, 1 Tim. 6. That many holy men have had it, Scripture shows: that any have sought it, I red not. If haply some have; tis no warrant to us. Christians live Legibus, non exemplis, by Gods laws, not by mens precedents. Saints have their infirmities. God once bad Solomon ask of him, what he would. He might have asked him riches; but did not. And it pleased God well, that he did not: gave them him notwithstanding; but unsought. As he does most bountifully to many of us, without seeking them. The Wise man in the Proverbs praies, Give me not riches, does not onely not {αβγδ}, seek them, not onely not {αβγδ}, ask them, which is less: but he praies against them, in the holy fear of his infirmity: lest riches might occasion him to forget God. I forget there are many other things behind, must be remembered.  
These are the main things, that men seek. There are more, many more; but not sought by so many. There is a seeker of revenge, Lev. 19. 18. Thats {αβγδ}, a thing below, one of Sathans things. Malice, Poets make one of his proprieties. Theres a seeker of divinations, Num. 24. Many profane men seek after them. If from satan, as the Witch of Endor did; thats plainly {αβγδ}, a thing below. If from the stars: thats indeed from above, {αβγδ}, and from heaven too, {αβγδ}, but not that Sursum, where Christ is, which Paul means. Christ is ascended above Heaven. God hath not only exalted him, but {αβγδ}, lifted him up above all heavens. All these things, and more, Men seek; but should not. Let us see, what they should. {αβγδ}, Things Above.  
Things Above? Said not Socrates, Quae supra nos, nihil ad nos, things above us, do not skill us. And bids not Siracks son too, Altiora te ne Quaesieris, seek not things above thee. Paul bids in the next verse {αβγδ}, mind the things above, But that seems to be {αβγδ}, which he forbade before, Rom. 12. 3. Noli altum sapere, climb not too high, tis Pauls counsel too. These Rules are against Pride, and Curiosity▪ they speak not to our Argument. Saint Paul means by things above, that which Christ calls elsewhere, Gods kingdom, and his righteousness; spiritual things; such as concern our souls Salvation, and Gods Service: called elsewhere {αβγδ}, the things of God, {αβγδ}, Christs things, and Heavenly things Gods fear, Faith on Christ, Ioy in the Holy Ghost, Love of our Neighbour, peace of Conscience, and holinesse of Life.  
One here may ask me, are these {αβγδ}, things Above? they are things excellent: but they are in us, on earth; and so {αβγδ}, things below. They are. But Scripture phrase calls them {αβγδ}, things above; because they are {αβγδ} from above; used on earth, but infused from heaven. He is above, that works them in mans heart. They are all Gods gifts. Wee do them; ye● not we, but the Spirit of God, that is in us. He dwells in us, Paul saith: and yet he is above. And therefore these things, not ours, but his, are {αβγδ}, things above. The things of God, God will have honoured. Wee are worms on earth: but Gods heavenly graces must not be disparaged by us. But though in us, yet because from him, they are called {αβγδ}, things above. See them single. Gods fear, is Gods Spirit, Esay 11. 2. Faith, Gods gift, Ephes. 2. 8. Ioy in the Holy Ghost, Gods kingdom. Rom. 14. 17. Love, Gods self, Saint John saith, Deus est Charitas. Peace of conscience is Christs, John 14. My peace I give to you. And holinesse, Gods Image, Ephe. 4. 24. These things Saint Paul means, bids us here, feeke them. In a word, seek wisdom: Solomon did. Not human wisdom; Saint Paul saith, the Grecians sought that; but Divine. human oft proves folly: but Divine is Gods Law, both Law and Gospel. Which though Saint Paul calls Gods foolishness; yet thats in irony, and as the world reckons it. Tis indeed Gods wisdom, 1. Cor. 2.  
I have dwelled long upon the Object. To end it, the sensual man will think Saint Paul much too rigorous, to tie us that are below, to seek things, that are above. Man is indeed earthly, as Saint Paul said, {αβγδ}: but not wholly so; not made all of one Element. There is fire in man too, not earth onely. God breathed a soul into him. Thats Nomen frigidum, Tertullians term. The soul( he means in greek) is called by name, {αβγδ}. But theres a fire in it; especially in a soul regenerate. For theres Gods Spirit, which in Scripture is called fire. Saint Paul saith out of the Poet {αβγδ}, we are Gods Generation. The soul is Divinae particula aurae, the God of heavens own breath. Saint Paul requires then but reason, that, our souls being heavenly, we seek heavenly things. They sort with them. And though we live on earth, yet may our {αβγδ} be in heaven. We are Citizens of Sion: but theres a jerusalem, sursum, above, Saint Paul saith, Gal. 4. And there are Riches there, Prov. 8. both riches and honour, Solomon saith. God make us covetous and ambitious there. The riches durable; Solomon adds that too. But that Riches is righteousness; seek that. seek that: and then Christ promiseth, the other riches, Adijcientur, shall be cast in over and above, for an advantage. seek but things necessary, they are the things above; and the other shall be accessary, God will give thee them besides.  
The Act remaines; tis fit, something be said of it. But the hour shall moderate me. The Act here is to seek. A word, though weak in sound, powerful in sense, very significant; fits the Object. That Arduous, this Laborious; hard work craves strength; {αβγδ}. precious things are not proffered; {αβγδ}, All good things( saith the Heathen) the gods sell us, but for pains. The Poet saith, {αβγδ}, virtue will cost sweat. Surely divine things will ask labour. The worlds wealth comes not with a wish; Gods treasures require seeking. ask and have, is easy purchase; heaven is not had so. indeed Christ saith, {αβγδ}, ask, and it shall be given you. But theres not a full point. Theres seek and knock, as well as ask. Bare asking serves not. Petitis& non recipit is, james 4. 3. There be Askers that receive not. Tis not {αβγδ} onely, but {αβγδ} too, Matth. 7. 7. Things above must be sought. {αβγδ}, contains in it {αβγδ}, and more too; both {αβγδ}, seeking is with fervency, Tis not to ask alone; thats nomen frigidum, but to pursue zealously. Qui timidè docet negare.—— He deserves not to find that seeks sligtly.  
Saint Paul in the next verse hath the same Object, but a less Act, {αβγδ}, mind the things above. Thats less than to seek. Cogitare is less than Cupere, Cupere less than Quaerere. Or say, Saint Paul means by that term, to affect things above. Thats less too, than this; but tends to this. For the Spouse cries in the Canticles, Quaesivi, quem diligit anima mea. I sought him whom my soul loveth. As ubi dolor, ibi digitus; so ubi amor, ibi oculus, a man will look on what he loves; look for it, seek for it; separate himself, to seek, saith Solomon; that is, will put off all lets and encumbrances, for the more exact search. wisdom which is the Epitome of Pauls {αβγδ}, of all the things above, will be sought for, saith Solomon, as if one sought for silver; yea as if one sought for gold. The woman in Christs Parable, having lost but a groat, lighted a candle, swept the house for it, and sought diligently. mary missing her son, went back a dayes journey to inquire for him: not so finding him, spent three dayes more in seeking him. Twas Christ, shee sought: but shee sought him, but as a son. Things above are above sons. The hearing and obeying of Gods Word, Christs self prefers before all kindred.  
judah sought God tota voluntate, with their whole will, 2 Chron. 15. Moses bids, seek him, toto cord, with the whole heart, There is a seeking without wish to find, to seek unwillingly, and there is a willing seeking, without joy in finding; to seek, but not hearty. The one would not find at all; the other cares not much to find. Thats when the Object is base, or not pleasing. But the worth of things above, craves both will and heart, the whole will, and the whole heart of all that seek them.  
Vade ad Formicam Piger, Golazie Christian to the worldling. learn of him: see how he seeks {αβγδ}, things below. So seek thou things above. What adventures not the Merchant for his gain? seeks it per saxa, per ignes, by perils, like to Paul, on land, on sea, of Robbers, of wreck, in watching and weariness, could, hunger, and thirst. Theres one in Christs Parable, that sought pearls. Lighting upon one of price, went and sold all he had, to purchase it. A man for Mammon, will do, that is homely, wear that is course, rise up early, lye down late, eat the bread of sorrow, holds himself happy, if he may find it, seeking so. The itch of Honour, scratch till the blood come, twill abide. Twill fawn and flatter, promise and bribe, dissemble injury, bear indignity, hazard limb and life. Absolom, to reign, will kiss and congee every man, he meets. The wanton, how watcheth he his opportunities, sends presents to his Dalilah, hazards Reputation, state, and life, to serve his lust? How are the children of this world, not onely wiser, as Christ said, but more industrious too, then the children of Light: and that for vile things, for {αβγδ}, but dung, Saint Pauls term, compared with things above. How much more seriously ought wee to seek the things above!  
Prayer is one kind of seeking. {αβγδ}, you heard was a piece of {αβγδ}. Pray we may, we must for all things: But for things above, both {αβγδ}, first and more. learn that by the Lords Prayer. The Hallowing of Gods Name, coming of his kingdom, and Doing of his Will, sets before Daily Bread; and but of six petitions, five for spiritual things; but one for temporal. The Prayer earnest; {αβγδ}, was in {αβγδ} too; it must be fervent. Not like that of Saint Austins; who confesseth he prayed once for Grace, but softly and faintly, fearing least God might hear him. Reading and hearing Gods Word, thats another kind, and must be with zeal too. The people heard Ezra from morn to noon, Saint Paul till midnight. shun profane fellowship, save in necessity; walk with them onely, that talk of things above. Thats a third kind. Meditate with David day and night of Gods Law, and imitate the laudable actions of the righteous; these are kindes also of seeking things above.  
To conclude.[ ask things above of God; but ask not onely. Thats but a piece of seeking. {αβγδ} is in {αβγδ} too; be fervent in following after heavenly things. As David bids, in Peace, so in all the things above, seek them, and pursue them.] The Preachers Rule is too general, Whatsoever thou dost, do it omni valde tuo, with all thy power. But in this Act it is requisite, this Act upon this Object, Seeking, and Things above, do it omni valde tuo, seek them with all thy power. As Bernard saith of loving God, Tantum dilige, quantum potes, I will say of seeking God, Tantum quaere, quantum potes, seek things above, so much as thou art able. Mensura tua sit potestas tua, the measure of thy seeking, must be thy whole might.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON THE COLOSSIANS. The two and twentieth Sermon.  COL. 3. 9. lye not one to another. 
A Scripture( I presume) little pleasing unto you, less to myself, sorry that the times should call for such a Text. They do. Did David live in them, he would say, not in his hast, but in good deliberation Omnis homo mendax, All men are liars. satan the Father of lies( Christ calls him so) hath( I think) possessed the whole world with his Spirit. He said in Ahabs dayes, he would be a lying Spirit in the mouths of the Prophets. He is now so in all mouths. Rari quip boni, Verity is a rarity; not a man almost, but is a Leazer. I may better say of our age, than David could of his, that faithful men are failed from among the sons of men. Every man speaks deceitfully to his neighbour; there is not one, that speaks truth, no not one. Christ once lighting on a man, in whom there was no guile, thought him worthy of an Ecce; cried, Behold a true Israelite. Whether may I go, to cry, Ecce homo, here is one? How long shall I seek, ere I may cry, {αβγδ}, I have found a Nathanael? Of all the sins against the second Table, the first Table too, the whole Law, theres none so rife, as this. That the Apostle had good reason to exhort the Colossians to avoid this 'vice, lye not one to another. Saint Paul here musters a multitude of sins together. One hath summed them to a dozen. I find eleven: this is the last, as the basest of them all, the most servile of all sins: no Act so abject as to lye. Into that Act, the doe● and the sufferer my Text sunders itself, three terms, and yet the words but two, but two significant in the greek. But the latter coucheth two terms, the Person lying, and the Person lied unto; lie not one to another. The two latter terms because couched together, I will handle together when I have treated of the first, which is the Act, lie not.  
A Precept, but prohibitive, because the Act is nought: lie not. Pilat asked, Quid est veritas, what is truth? He might, for he used none, an unjust judge. Shall I ask what is a lie? I can, every man can, define it too well; we all use it too much. A thing so known needs no defining. To lie, is to speak that is false, witting, and with purpose to deceive. Some fetch so much almost out of the word, Mentiri, est contra mentem ire, to contradict our own conscience. But my Text bids, Decline it, not Define it, lie not.  
The Law forbade to lie. Quid Paulo, cum Mose? What hath the gospel to do with the Law? Christians are freed from it. They are from the Curse of it. But they are bound to obey the Law, the mor●all Law. The Prophet Moses, and the Apostle Paul differ not in the Decalogue. Both have the lesson alike, word for word, differ but in Dialect. He, Lev. 19. 11. Saint Paul here, lie not one to another. Onely Saint Paul wrote to Gentiles, Moses spake to Iewes. But remember Christs Rule, Quod dico vobis, dico omnibus; both Moses and Saint Paul meant their lesson to all people. No lesson more needful, but no lesson less learned. For the one, Truth is the Cement of all human society. One once said wickedly, Qui nescit dissimulare, nescit vivere. There were no living, were it not for lies. Thats a most lewd lye. Theres no society without fidelity, I do not think, the devills do lie one to another. Yet no lesson less learned. Truth keeps a free school, but very scant of Schollers. Lying is the trade, to which all men bind their sons. For to what should they else? It is their Fathers occupation.[ handy crafts are painful, strain the strength. Tongue-craft is easy, costs no sweat.] There is no virtue, but is professed by some, save truth onely. A Patient, a liberal, a just, a Sober man, Ecce hîc, ecce illic, you shall light on here and there. Fidelem autem quis inveniet? But who( saith Solomon) shall find a faithful man? No man speaks truth unto his neighbour, every man lies.  
There is no 'vice, but some avoid it. Caius is no lecher, Titius, no drunkard, Sempronius no thief; but haply liars all. Pharisee no Adulterer, no Extortioner, he saith; but an errand liar; for an Hypocrite. Wee pardon the Gentiles; their Religion was all lies. Their gods liars too. mercury both a liar, and a thief. We excuse Iewes too in part. The Law bound them from lies, but the Law alone. But a lie in the mouth of a Christian is a sin out of measure sinful. The gospel binds us too. Yea I will pardon the Papist in part too, though a Christian, as we are. Wee have more light than he. The Bible is forbidden him: and the Priest preaches seldom. We have the Scriptures free. Not a house almost, but hath, if not a Bible, a Testament at least. We hear divine Service every Sunday, besides the Feasts of Saints, in our own tongue, not in Latin, as they do. And in many Churches Sermons too, two Sermons haply in one day, some three in one week. Many of our lay people presume to reason too of deep points of Religion.  
Yet to the shane of our procession, to the disgrace of the gospel, wee all, for all this lie one unto another, with the same tongue sing praysings unto God, and speak leazings to our neighbours. Let no man be offended at my saying, all, say the Peacher lies in that. he that shall, I doubt will not deserve to bee excepted. His conscience will tell him, I belie not him: If I do hyperbolise, I but do as David did, Omnis homo mendax. Say not, twas in hast: for S. Paul cites it to the Romans, as said by him advisedly. What he then said, wee now see. My calling occasions me a retired life; I cannot observe much. But besides mine own observing, I hear all men complain, that not a man almost makes conscience of a lie.  
Some haply will not doubt to give David the lie too, for calling all men liars. Shall I show the generality by Induction? 1. Be beggars first and poor people. Their precedence in this case is no disparagement to better persons. Tis a base part, ad best beseems base persons. They profess lying, all lying; their hands also lie. They must lie and steal; else they shall starve. 2. The Tradesman and Artificer, I will not say professes it; and yet his tongue useth that very term, when he speaks falsely, saith I profess; Falsehood, he might add; double falsehood, as the beggar did before; hath a lying hand too, not a mouth oely, gives false measure and false weight. 3. The country people, heretofore more just, are now turned liars too. 4. Patients complain of imposture in Physitians; Clients in men of Law. 5. In Courts of judicature, every false answer is ally, ad every wrong sentence is a lie. There are many of the one, too many of the other. 6. The gentleman will not endure the word, but he will do the thing; speak a lie, swear it often. Higher it becomes me not to go. But Machiavell and the devil have taught Princes to disguise, not to their people onely, but one unto another. To end my induction, I must say of our Land, as the Prophet doth of Niniveh, It is full, universa, it is all full of lies.  
You see the act, Mentiri, to lie, wee do it, and it is a precept here, but prophibitive. Heres withall, a vide ne feceris, see thou do it not; Nolite saith the Apostle, do not lie. Why Nolite, do it not? One bids, do worse, Iura perjura; bids swear, forswear: as if a lie were too single a sin, bids line it with an oath. The reasons for the Nolite are many, hear a few.  
1. You have heard already, that is base, servile, {αβγδ}, Plutarchs word, a quality fitter for a bondslave, then an ingenuous man; and thats the cause a Gentleman forsooth though he lie indeed, yet will stab him, that shall challenge him. Though he does it, you may not say he does it. Nay, if I misremember not, it was a Parasite in the comedy, i. a servile fellow, that cried, Mentiri non est meum, said, it beseemed not him to lie. Insomuch that the Persians, a proud people, of the two things they most disdained, made this the one, Debere& Mentiri, to be in debt, and to lie. They taught their sons from five yeares old to 20, {αβγδ}, to ride, and shoot, and to speak exact truth: and one of their Kings, Artaxerxes commanded three nails to bee driven through the tongue of a man, that had lied to him.  
2. Whence note, as an obitèr, another argument against it, that lying is a 'vice hateful even to the Heathens. A man that speaks one thing, means another, Achilles saith in Homer, {αβγδ}, he hated a liar, as he hated hell.  
3. Another touched before too, tis from the devil. he made the first lie in the world; and a reprobate made the second, Cain; and sO became his son. For so Christ saith, the devil is a liar, & Pater ejus, and his father, i. the liars father, that is, Cains. The liar, Sathans son, and Cains brother. It is not my conceit, but Saint Austins. God make me son to him; he is the God of truth. God make me Christs Disciple; he is Amen. God lies not, Saint Paul saith; saith more, {αβγδ}, tis impossible for God to lie. he can do all things, but not lie.  
4. Another, tis a wound unto my credit, a mortal wound. He that hears me lie once, will never trust me more. Ne vera quidem dicenti, saith the orator, no not when I speak the truth. he will think I lie then also. Nay, Ne jurato quidem, one will not trust a liar, though he swear. Stab not another for giving thee the lie; thou stab'st thyself by making it. As good to die, as lie. Heard wee it said before, Qui nescit dissimulare, nescit vivere, I cannot live, if I may not lie? Nay rather but a liar is a living corpse, a dead man, though he live. Civiliter mortuus. To what end do I live, if no man will believe me? Nay nor wilt thou believe another, if thou lie thyself: thou wilt doubt, he doth so too. Tis time thy grave bee made when thou wilt not trust thy neighbour, nor thy neighbour may trust thee.  
5. Another worse then this, It makes thee a mere abject, despicable vile creature: not onely none will trust thee, but all will shun thee, loathe thee. David will not let a liar dwell with him, no, not come in his sight.  
6. But one more, but a worse, far worse then that. God hates the liar, his soul abhors him, Solomon saith; curses him too, thats worse. The liar haply cares not for his love: let him hate him, so he hurt him not. But God will destroy him, David saith. he shall perish, his son saith, Solomon. Worse yet, far worse. By perishing was meant but temporal woe; he shall have eternal too. He were happy, might he perish, and no more. But the wise man adds, the mouth that lies,( occidit animam) slays the soul. Thats but Apocrypha. But Christ saith( thats canonical) that without shall be dogges, without, i. shut out, shut out of heaven, thrown into hell, whosoever is a lover, or a maker of lies. hear me, Oh hear me, miserable man, whosoever art a liar, miserere ainae tuae. Though thou care not for thy stage, for thy credit, for thy life; yet pity thy poor soul. Lose not so rich a jewel for a base lie. Nay tis not lost onely; thou wert happy then, if mans soul perishing were but vanishing, like the beasts. But tis doomed to pains eternal, to everlasting fire. Men make lies light sins; see what God makes them, by the pain.  
The rest of my Text will bee wound up in few words: I have therefore been, and shall be yet the longer in this term, Nolite, do not lie. The Apostles prohibition so abundantly proved, the liar will not dare deny. But he will distinguish; logic gives him that leave. lies are not all alike: some are but Iocosa, other Officosa, the worst Pernitiosa. The last sort all men grant unlawful, malicious lies. The Pope, who dispenseth with all sins, cannot with them, Bellarmine saith. But haply Saint Pauls precept means not the other too. Saint Paul doth not in lies, as Christ did in oaths, put Omnino in his precept. He said, swear not at all. Tis not here, lie not at all. Nay though Christ added Omnino, forbade to swear at all: yet I may swear sometimes; as when the Magistrate bids. Much more may I lye, since Omnino is not here. I answer; first, Christs prohibition was but of swearing privately; and Omnino meant not the times of swearing, but the kinds of oaths. swear not at all, i. not by any thing; by heaven or earth, by thy head, or by jerusalem. Secondly, precepts negative do Obligare ad semper, the schools phrase; their tie is straighter then affirmatives. This of Saint Pauls being such needs no Omnino, means without it all sorts of lies: lie not any lie at any time. For Omne mendacium as Saint Augustine saith often) all lies are sins. And though Paul do not, the son of Sirak doth, adds Omnino this precept, 7. 14. forbids {αβγδ}, lie not any lie at all.  
The lie, thats called Iocosum, is not a lie indeed. The speaker utters it, but the hearer knows, he means not, as he speaks. he speaks not to deceive, but to delight in hyperbole, in allegory, or irony. It is Fictio, nor Mendacium. Who will call Esops Fables lies? It is a Parable, not a lie, that Iotham spake to Gedeons sons, The trees went forth to anoint a King. Nathans tale to David of the poor mans little lamb taken from him by the rich man, is no lie, but a similitude. There are some idle fictions of jesters and parasites made for disport. Their conceits are Iocosa, but they are not Mandacia; the hearers laugh at them, but they believe them not. But though I say, they are no lies, I will not say, that they are altogether lawful. Men do delight in them; I doubt God doth not.  
The third sort of lie we call Officiosum, made neither idly to please, nor maliciously to hurt, but merely for the good nad safety of my brother. Whether Saint Paul prohibit this, many make question: a question Saint Augustine calls Latebrocissimam, full of unkind cases, odious to answer. If I will not give leave to such a lie, I shall be charged with inhumanity. I will put some cases briefly. A womans chastity is assaulted, I can save it by a lie. My neighbours money is in danger of a thief, haply all he hath is in hazard by a Robber; nay his life sought by an enemy. I can save this by a lie. Shall I be so inofficious, so precise, so hard hearted, to leave her to the ravisher, him to the murderer, on so poor a scruple of conscience, as a lie? It is haply no sin in such a case. Say it is; an non modica est, is it not a little one? May I not lie thus? I answer, I may not. Nor do I thereby leave them inhumanly to the perils. I shall intrude else boldly into Gods office: Salus à Domino, deliverance is the Lords. I will pray and hope Gods providence will save them. If not, yet I will not sin against my soul, prefer my neighbours honour, goods, or life, before my soul. The sin( thou sayest) is little, yet a sin. The least sin slays a soul. Yet haply not this sin, a lie. Even this, you heard before, as quod mentitur, the mouth that lies, it slays the soul. Nay Saint Austine is austerer yet, puts a case harder. What if my lie may save my neighbours soul? I may not lie for that neither. Nor is the case hard, though it seem so. For shall I lose my soul, to save my neighbours? That case rather were hard. God bids me love him, but not lose my soul for him. This is Saint Austins judgement, the soundest of the Fathers, and all judicious Divines subscribe to it. The school maintains it too.  
The ●esuits sin the greater, and the Seminarie Priests, who to escape the pain of laws, lie and forswear too. Their doctrine condemns lying, as ours doth; yet they use it all. As for Saint Pauls prohibition, they presume, they have provided not to trespass it, by their new invented art of equivocation and mental reservation; by which they may maintain the most monstrous lie, that the wit of ma can make.  
Tis time I end this term. The officious lie is lighter then some other sin: avoid it for all that. It hath weight enough in it, to sink a soul down unto hell. Art hath given a faire epithet to a foul thing. It is Officiosum; but it is Mendacium. Thou mayst do an office to thy neighbour by a lie: but it is not the office of a Christian for to lie. Nay theres a Padde too in the word, comes not haply from Officium, but from Officere: that word means mischief. Let it mean, as it is taken, my neighbours good: yet I must not lie. I learn of Saint Paul that lesson, that I may not do evil, that good may come of it. Will I rob, to give alms? will I kill my keeper to free myself from jail? A chast woman, if shee can, will let a lustful man rather murder her, then ravish her. Be as precise in veritate, as thou wouldst be in castitate, Saint Austin bids. For verity is the souls virginity. lies( saith Saint Basil) are the Devills brats. Let not satan beget his bastards on thy body. The name of a Precisian is no praise. But God make me worthy to be called one in this point; not to lie, Omnino, any lie, a any time. I have done with it.  
I would not say nothing, though not much of the rest, one to another, Invicem. Two persons in one word, the maker of the lie, and he to whom ts made. Of both jointly. All lies are not made Invicem, by man to man; some lies are made to God. Cains was, his Nescio. he answered God, he knew not where his brother Abel was, coming newly from killing him. Ananias and Sapphiraes was, unto the holy Ghost. So are all falsE answers, and falsE oaths before a Magistrate; he is Gods substitute. My text means lies made but to men, to private men, lie not one to another. The subject here, being cought, is without note of quantity, gives the liar advantage to plead privilege: he is haply excepted. Saint Paul means not all: he does not say, lie no man to another. The physician may, for fear of discomforting his patient; the Lawyer may, for fearie of discouraging his Client. The Magistrate may in policy, Plato said, divine Plato, but a bad divine in that. No man at all may. The subject is general, though there be no note. All logicians know that an Indefinite proposition, in materia necessaria, is as an universal. But if the liar will have needs a note: let him compare this place with the parallel, Ephes. 4. 25. Theres unusquisque expressly. speak truth,( saith Saint Paul there) {αβγδ}, every ma to his neighbour.  
Surely the physician, and the Magistrage much more, especially a King may sometimes suppress his meaning, any man may. I am not ever bound to tell all truth: but I am ever bound, that all be truth I tell. I may dissimulare, dissemble in one sense, i. conceal that, which revealed would hurt me, or my friend. But I may not dissemble, i. say that is false, either for myself or him. It is not a lie, cum silendo absconditur verum, said cum loquendo promitur falsum, when silence conceals something that is true, but thwen speech utters something that is false. And say( if you please) wee may construe candidè that speech of the French King, Qui nescit dissimulare, nescit regnare, he that cannot keep counsel is not fit to be a King. But what shall wee do now for the Seminarie Priest, and the lying Iesuite? I would relieve them too. hear Loiolite and thy fellow. Wantest thou a Text to licence thee to lie? That would bee better then Popes brief. look in the Latin Bible, Ephes. 4. 25. Tis no matter for the English, thats heretical: nor for the greek, thats corrupt too. The council of Trent htah authorised the Latin, the vulgar Latin so decide all doubts. Saint Paul bids thee there deponere mendacium, when thou comest to be examined, he bids thee depose lies. Why did not the Rhemists translation turn it so?  
As lies may not bee made by any man; so may they neither bee made to any man: but not to some especially. Not to a Father. Scelus est parenti proloqui mendacium, one saith in the comedy, he is a very wicked son, that will lie unto his Father. NOt to a simplo man: God will punish thee the more for abusing his credulity, and the greater hurt he suffers by believing thee, the heavier thy judgement will bee for beguiling him. Cretisa cum Cretensi, lie to the liar, if thou wilt needs lie.  
To conclude, beware to be a liar, lest thou also prove a thief. The one is so near of kin unto the other, that once Erasmus said, da mihi mendacem,& ego ostendam tibi furem; do thou show me a a liar, and Ile show thee a thief. Beloved brethren, I beseech you by Christ Iesus, who calls himself the Truth, avoid this base, this soule-slaying sin. You that yet have not used it, pray God you never may. You that have, ask mercy, and never lie again. The speech was meek and pious of one of Iobs three friends, If I have done wickedly, I will do no more. Will many a mean Christian rather starve then steal? Then will a true Israelite, a right Nathanael say, I will beg, I will starve, I will rather die then lie. lie no man to his neighbour: you have heard the pain of liars. Speak every man the truth; they shall prosper that love it. It is his promise that is immutable, the God that cannot lie: who will neither fail nor forsake such as depend on him, but watches to accomplish and make good every iota of his word and will, in his good time. And that wee may all do what the Apostle here enjoins; The God of truth expel the spirit of lies out of all hearts; and guide us by his Spirit of truth for truths sake, i. Christ Iesus, to which three sacred persons of the blesed Deity be all honour, &c.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON timothy. The three and twentieth Sermon.  2 TIM. 2. 19. And, let every one that calleth on, or, nameth Christs name, depart from iniquity. 
paul saith, and Peter too, and the Prophet Ioel too, Quisquis invocaverit, Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord, he shall be saved: they add no such Article, as the avoiding of iniquity. A lesson, which a Libertine will like well. Heaven so is had easily. The Law is idle; tis Faith saves, faith onely, Absque operibus, Saint Paul excluded works. It onely puts us into Christ; and there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ. Tis all true; for tis all Scripture. But tis true too, and Scripture too, said by Christs self. Non quisquis, not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, shall enter into heaven. Mistake not Saint Paul nor Saint Peter, nor the Prophet. Tis true they say, but in Christs sense. Tis not {αβγδ}, but {αβγδ}, mat. 7. 21. Not the Namer of Christs Name, but the Doer of Gods Will, that shall be saved: and Gods Will is in his Law. Sure is my salvation, if God have elected me: Tis sealed: he knows all his. But how shall I assure that election to myself? Haply I am his. I hope it. But I would be sure. Saint Peter bids me; Make your election sure. How shall? He that bids me, tells me; by virtue, temperance, patience, piety kindness, and love. Peter is but Pauls Paraphast; they specially expound this general, departure from iniquity.  
This is a second seal. Theres one before, but Quoad Deum; tis Gods knowledge. Thats a secret hide from me. This is Quoad nos: It assures me, that I am Gods Elect to life. But the word seal is singular, shall I multiple? My text warrants me, the first word( And) one word, but weighty. Mens Ifs and Ands often are idle. Gods smallest particle hath his poise, couples this clause to the precedent. It was a seal, God knows who are his, and so is this, Let every man, &c. The fall of others from their faith, whom I once thought Gods elect, Sathans affronting me with mine infirmities, and affrighting me with Gods Iustice, affliction sharp and frequent, may shake and stagger me, make me question mine own faith. But if my conscience shall not check me with sin, wilful and presumptuous, if my hearts delight hath been ever in Gods Law, and my study to my strength to abandon all iniquity, soundly without guile, and humbly without pride: tis a seal unto my soul to make it sure, it shall be saved. Enough of this Particle, an non modica est, is it not a little one? Come we to the main Text; a Text worthy attention, and a lesson worth their learning, that wish to have their Salvation under seal; Let every one, &c.  
It is an Inhibition to all Christians against sin. Delivered in the lump it will be tedious; taken in sunder it hath these severals; the Persons, and their Amplitude, in the Subject; the Act, and his Object, in the Predicate. The Persons, Christians, {αβγδ}, the namer of Christs Name. The Amplitude, all Christians, {αβγδ}, Every one that nameth it. The Act, Forsaking, Let such an one Deapart. The Object, sin, Depart from iniquity Let every one, that nameth, or that calleth on Christs name, depart from iniquity. To speak of these particulars, I humbly pray Gods assistance, and your Patience. First for the Persons.  
The Persons here Inhibited, are the Names of Christs Name; a Phrase not frequent; translated therefore diversely; In the Geneva Bibles, the Callers on Christs name; that is, by an Hypallage, as sundry late learned Expositors do construe it, those that are name by Christs name, or on whom Christs name is called, surnamed by Christ, i. Christians, Professors of Christ and his gospel. I will not curiously examine the Phrase. The Pulpit professeth not Grammar, but divinity. Take it whether way you please, Actively, or Passively, Christs name is enemy to iniquity.  
Be it but Active; though that Acception have less argument, an less life; yet it will serve so. First, hath Christ any name? Is he not God? God is {αβγδ}, Trismegistus saith, an Heathen. So do Chrysostome, and Damascene. For tis plurality, that needs names. God is but one, and so {αβγδ}, nameless, saith Nazianzen. Not God the Father onely, but Christ too. What is his name? Or his sons name? Canst thou tell? saith Solomon. But Christ was man too, not God onely. {αβγδ}, say those Fathers; his divine nature needs no name, But he had two as he was man, Iesus and Christ. he that names either, let him shun sin. For his name is holy. For tis Gods, though as man; {αβγδ}, Epiphanius term, Christs name is holy. The mouth of an unholy man should not dare speak it. Solomon saith, a proverb fits not a fools mouth. less doth Gods name the lips of a Libertine. The seven sons of Sceva in the Acts, wicked exorcists, when to cast out a devil, they presumed to name Christs name, to adjure him by Iesus; the possessedperson ran on them, and wounded them. The fiend in the gospel, that cried, Iesus of Nazareth, Christ rebuked him, bad him, Peace.  
Tis {αβγδ}, the Fathers word. Gods name is fearful, David saith. It should be to the Speaker, to the blasphemous speaker, that oaths it out at every word. Surely tis to the hearer, {αβγδ}, not verendum onely as Chrysostom calls the Sacraments, {αβγδ}, to which wee must not come, but with an holy fear; but Horrendum, frightful, at which the hearers hair shall stand. How dares the wicked Swearer name it? not vainly onely,( God will punish that) but falsely often. How fears he not, lest as in the Law, the harlot drinking of the cursed water, her thigh rotted, and her belly burst, so his profane tongue, at the pronouncing of that name, should swell, and cleave to the roof of his mouth? Thou profane man, if thou fear not God, then name not God. If thou fear him not, as a son his Father; fear him, as a fellow does his judge. Name not his wounds; lest the fiend wound thee, as he did the sons of Sceva. Nor his heart; lest a dart from heaven pierce thy heart, as it did Iulians. Nor his soul; lest satan enter thy soul, as he did Iudas his, and fill thee full of iniquity, and bring thee to destruction both o body and soul. Thy unclean mouth defiles his holy name.  
Theres a naming of Christ, lawful and holy. Tis in Prayer; calling on Christs name, as some of your books have it. For Prayer must be in Christs name.[ Some prayers have it in the entrance, many in the mids, all in the end.] Christians conclude their Petitions with this close, through Iesus Christ our Lord. Some are directly made to Christ. But Christ may not be name so neither by lewd men. God bids us pray, call on his name, Invocame, saith God. Tis an act, a special act, an office of religion, {αβγδ}, a service highly pleasing him, {αβγδ} above all offerings. But from the mouth of a bad man, tis an Abomination; Gods ear abhors it. Prayer avails much, Saint james saith; but tis Oratio justi, the prayer of a righteous man. Sinners prayers God hears not, John 9. Why should he? hear him {αβγδ}, in his prayers, that will not hear him {αβγδ}, in his laws? saith Chrysostome. How can he? His sin outcries his prayer. Rectos decet Laudatio, the psalm saith, Prayer beseems Saints. His ears open to them, Saint Peter saith. Paul bids in Prayer, lift up pure hands; call on him with pure heart, here ver. 22. Pray, de Carne pudica,& anima innocenti, saith tart. with a body chast, and a soul harmless. To end this, impium precari, imprecari est, a Fathers words, the wicked mans prayer proves a curse to him. God will turn it into sin, psalm 109.  
Now take it passively, {αβγδ}: He that is name by Christs name, the Christian.[ Tis not every man, that names the name of God: every man doth that. The natural man doth, without Scripture, without grace. You will say Atheists do not. They are monsters, not men. But tis every man, that names the name of Christ. The namers of God, i. They on whom Gods name is called, tis fit, they also shun iniquity. And many heathens, who never heard of Christ, have been just men. But Christianity craves it far more. Am I but {αβγδ}, as Ignatius was surnamed, bear I Gods name? that were enough. But I am {αβγδ}.] I bear Christs name; my forehead was signed with his cross at my baptism. I am bound eo nomine, faster bound to good behavious. The Law binds me from evil, Non occides, non moechaberis, It forbids murder, whoredom, theft. I he gospel does much more, loosens not the Law, but makes it straighter. Call but Racha, thou killest: look but on a woman, and lust; tis Adultery. The gospel hampers not the hands onely; binds the heart too: {αβγδ}, cleanse your hands, {αβγδ}, purge your hearts, james 4. 8.  
Arthou {αβγδ}, name of Christ? We all are, many ways. Every one binds from iniquity. We are Christs, Paul saith. Christs what? Christs Servants: Paul, Peter, james, and Iude title themselves so. Tis not proper to them: We are too. All that are called, are so. 1 Cor. 7. Christ will be served in righteousness, saith old Zachary in his song. Christs Disciples. Tis fit they learn; how else Disciples? fit, they learn of him; how else Christs Disciples? Discite ex me. he full filled all righteousness. In him was not, nor in us must be any iniquity. Christs Friends, John 15. Abraham was Gods: so Esay calls him. We his Seed by Faith, are Christs. A friend is Alter Idem, another self. Then as Christ was, we must be, void of all guile, righteous like him. Christs Members, Pauls term too. He is our head. All sin is spiritual fornication; iniquity is an harlot; we call Peccatum, quasi pellicatum; and shall we make the member of Christ, the member of an harlot? Iniquity, all sin, will rend us off from Christ, concorporate us with satan. The members of a body must be homogeneal, all of one kind. Else it is a Monster. Christs Brethren. For Christs Father is ours too; Christs self saith. Fraternity craves conformity; God craves it, {αβγδ}, Rom. 8. 29. There are Brethren in evil, Simeon and Levi. That Brotherhood will not fit Christ. He will not accommodate himself to us; we must to him. Iniquity is not sister unto Truth: We must abandon it, to be Christs Brethren. The {αβγδ}, the conformity, God that craves it, consters it; it must be {αβγδ}, to his image; and it( Paul tells us) is in righteousness and holinesse; {αβγδ}, saith Gregory Nyssen, in alienation from all evil. Lastly, Christs coheirs, Rom. 8. His inheritance is Gods kingdom. But {αβγδ}, the violent and the fraudulent, Paul saith, shall not inherit the kingdom of God. All on whom Christs name is called any way must depart from iniquity.  
Let the Atheist be a Libertine, set light Gods laws, make conscience of no sin, no sort of sin, no degree of sin, proceed, exceed in sin, be a graduate in ungratiousnesse. Let the publican be a sinner, {αβγδ}, Luke 18. 13. branded with an article, a grand, an heinous, a superlative sinner. His Profession is {αβγδ}, Saint Basils word, {αβγδ}, rapine and robbery, all manner of iniquity. Thou art a Christian, bearest Christs name. He that hath called thee by his name, hath also called thee to his work. His work is righteousness; both his work, and his name, jehovah Tsidkenu, Ier. 23. 6.[ Then cast off {αβγδ}, unrighteousness, called here iniquity. Christ calls not unto that, but unto HOlinessse, Paul saith, unto Truth, 2 Thes. 2 Paul saith, toliberty too, Gal. 5. 13. But not to carnal liberty; he so expounds himself: to liberty, not to licentiousness. The world hath many Callings, some but bad. But Christs( Paul saith) is {αβγδ}, an holy calling, 2 Tim. 1. Paul prays the Ephesians to walk worthy their vocation. Tis our lesson too. christianity is our Calling; and iniquity is unworthy the calling of a Christian.  
iniquity disparages christianity. Christians Gods progeny, {αβγδ} saith Paul out of the Poet. Sin Satans Brat, {αβγδ}, he is her Father, Christ saith; Satans bastard, begotten on concupiscence, an Harlot, james 1. 15. This is {αβγδ}, Pauls term, an unequal and base match. Not onely disparages; it discred its too. Theres a Lutheran calls Calvinists, for some absurdities, he saw in some, baptized Iewes. It doth more, dishonours God. His name {αβγδ}, is raild on through you, saith the Apostle to the Romans. Nathan saith, Davids sin caused Gods enemies to blaspheme. Worse it yet; tis {αβγδ}, a scandal to the gentle, frays them from the gospel, gentle and jew both. The turk is confirmed in his Mahometrie, the jew in infidelity, through the wicked lives of Christians[ The latter blasphemously calls Evangelium {αβγδ} a religion of iniquity.] Nay it offends not onely those that are without the Church, Gentiles and Iewes, but some within it too, Papists, Christians, though heretics, disallow our Doctrine, for our lives. They have small reason; Loripedem rectus derideat,— let them amend theirs. If Doctrine be disabled for mens manners; Popery must not glory. sin cannot be more sinful, than at Rome. Protestants sin too much, too many, But Papists will not rise in judgement against Protestants. God reform both, and make us give better example unto infidels.  
One Temple may not hold Gods ark and Dagon. Mans heart, Gods Temple, if it take in Christ, must put out Satan. What are sins, but young Satans? Mary Magdalens seven devills were but so many sins, the Fathers say. Devills endure not, where Christ is. The fiends cry to Christ, Quid nobis,& tibi, what have we to do with thee? Christ may better say to Belial, Quid mihi,& tibi, what have I to do with thee? Paul saith it for him, Quae conventio? Theres no fellowship between Christ, and Belial. They that are Christs, have crucified the flesh, with all the lusts of it, Pauls speech too. Bethel must not be made Bethaven, Gods house, sins house. To end this; If thy licentious friend, who is but SatansPandar, if Sathans self incite thee unto sin; if thine own lusts egg thee to evil: show them this seal; twill silence them. Thou mayst do no iniquity, for thou art {αβγδ}, thou art called by Christs name?  
Heathens gods, wicked themselves, might haply, licence their Adorers to be lewd. Clemens calls jupiter {αβγδ}, both unholy and unjust, the Father of the gods.[ His sons and daughters like their Sire; witness Baccus and Venus, and the great Hercules, who ravished 50. Virgins in one night.] {αβγδ}, Socrates in his story calls them all, impure and wicked. But the God of Christians being himself righteous, Psal. 145. both himself and his son, will have their worshippers righteous too. himself is holy, {αβγδ} saith josuah. All three persons are Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, the Cherubs cry in Esay. In God is no iniquity, saith David. Plato an Heathen doubles the Negative, {αβγδ}. The Angels tripled the affirmative, Holy, holy, holy. So must they be, that bear his name, imitatores Dei, Paul bids, followers of God. Gods self bids estote sancti Gods own cry, in the 11. of Leviticus, Bee ye holy, because I am holy. All things belonging to his service must be so. Time, his Sabbath an holy day, Exod. 31. Place, his Temple, Sanctuarium. Persons, his Levites holy, Ezra 3. 1. His singers holy, there too. His vessels holy, there all. His Offerings holy, {αβγδ}, his Priests holy, {αβγδ}. The very ground where God is present, holy ground, Exod. 3. I am too long in this; I leave it.  
The note is next, tis universal, {αβγδ}, it must bee every Christian. Princes are not priviledgd, Caesars self is not exempt. imperial Crownes are crested with the cross; which is Christs cognisance. So are their Mounds& sceptres. That cognisance is there recognisance though sovereigns, yet of service unto God, and you heard old zachary sing, God must be served in righteousness and holinesse. Kings are Custodes utriusque Tabulae, keepers of both Tables of the Law: not to see them kept by their subjects onely, but themselves to keep them too. This theme fits not this place; Caesar is not here.  
Theres one order too of catholics under this universal, that bears Christs name above the rest, his sovereign name, at which every knee doth bow, Iesus. S. Bennet, Francis, Dominic, and other monks, surname other societies. These will be called Iesuites. Tis well, were they {αβγδ} right bearers of his name, would express it in their lives, save by their preaching, his people from their sins. Stocks call names, Fontes officiorō. They should be monitors, virtues remebrancers. Ex bono nomine bona praesumptio, saith Panormitane, theres presumption, good hope from a good name. But tis but presumption. Absalom signifies, a Father of peace, was a son of rebellion. jesuits are {αβγδ}, nothing less, then their name sounds. Not Saviours, but destroyers; thats Abaddon and Apollyon, Hells name in the Apocalypse. Two famous neapolitan murtherers had their names, the one, Pater noster, the other, have Maria. jesuits name of him, in whom was none iniquity, Paul saith. They the Popes Enginer's of all iniquity: fit their Founders name better, Ignatians, men of fire, of combustion, boutifeu's of rebellion. Like Elymas in the Acts, full of all mischief, enemies of all righteousness, the impostors of the world. And yet is this Iesuite a puritan too, a Popish puritan. An holy Father; but like holy Father Pope, Lambe-skind, but Dragon-tayld. Like the Locusts in the Apocalypse, faced like men, but toothed like Lions. sanctity in weed, in word, in look▪ but in act nought but iniquity. This theme may haply fit this place. Some Iesuite may bee here, or some jesuited catholic.  
Let me not be partial, Papists are not the sole Irregulars: some of ourselves need reducing to this rule. There is a generation pure in their own eyes;( Salomon saith it, not I) that name Christ daily, hourly, serve God in seeming more then any; cry Templum Domini, the Temple of the Lord still in their mouth, their feet still in the Temple of the Lord; preach and hear Scripture, as the Pharisee fasted, bis in Sabbatho, twice in the week, twice or thrice too on the Sabbath. But they are not washed from their filthiness; Salomon adds that too, not I. Servers of God, but deceivers of men. All holinesse in their words, all unrighteousness in their acts. Keepers of the Law, but of one table onely; have but one God, abhor Idols, swear not, sanctify the Lords day. But if theft, murder, adultery, parents dishonour, and false witness bee to bee consterd either by Christs commentary, or their own catechisms, so loose in all these laws, that their dissembled sanctity doth but double their iniquity, and their naming of Christ, is but the shaming of the gospel. Christ, whom they name, or in the passive sense, by whom they are name( as they brag) above their brethren, he had no guile( Saint Peter saith) found in his mouth: no truth in theirs.  
In this I know I please not many. Thats all one. I must bee zealous in Gods cause. They often are in idle things; let me be once in serious argument. Let me not mock God, and cousin men, seem precise, but be profane. If I will call on the name of Christ, let me leave iniquity.[ Art thou a Tradesman? and yet why am I so particular? All sorts fault in this folly; let me speak to all at once.] Thou namest Christ, hearest his word, weekly, daily if thou canst, readest the Scriptures, instructest thy children, and thy servants, prayest with them privately, assiduously. Thou dost well; who but ishmael will mock Isaac for these things? But thou that dost these things, wilt thou have in thy shop false weights, false measures, in thy mouth false words, say and lie, protest and leaze; in thy mind false meaning, in thy breast a double heart? Wilt thou defraud, oppress; promise, but deceive; flatter, but betray; slander thy brother; be a wolf, a goat, a Lion; a goat in thy lust, a wolf in thy ravage, a lion in thy wrath? make conscience of no sin, so it may bee done in secret? I know what some will say; that I slander holy men. But let such a sayer examine his own heart, if he be not such; a Pharisee in face, but a Publican in heart, a namer of Christ, but a doer of iniquity.  
Beloved Brethren, be no man advocate to hypocrisy. Say not, there are none such. Thou that are one, cry God mercy, noli peccare ampliùs, sin not so no more. think not, thou art unseen. The Lions case could not shrowded Esops ass; his ears bewrayed him. Men that use thee, spy thee, see thy dissimulation. Thy ravine and covin cannot bee masked; either bee what thou seemest, or seem what thou art; either name not Christ, or depart from iniquity. God gets more discredit by thee, then by the Atheist. For thy counterfeit purity is a drawer of Disciples; whom( as Christ saith of the Pharisees) the Fathers of thy sect) thou makest twofold the children of Hell, more then thyself. Are my words smart? pardon them: kicking argues a gull. I will be milder, and beseech you in his bowels, whom you name, name him still, hear his word, duly, daily, if you will. But hear not onely, keep it too. His Father is the God of truth, his gospel is the word of truth. use truth then in your words, in your actions, in all things. Fie, that a caller on Gods name should be a leazer, a dissembling deceiver. I will never hold a man a sincere Christian, a right Nathanael, in whom is any guile.  
You will think me partial yet; physician heal thyself. Is the Preacher onely privileged? he is not. My Text binds all, the Preacher above all.[ Paul saith, Let every man. He is Gods man, Vir Dei, Prophets were called so. If every man, then Gods man most.] he names Christ more then any, bears Christs name more then any. We are Gods stewards, Christs Souldiers, Christs Ministers, Christs ambassadors, Pauls terms all. More then his Disciples; lay men are so too, all Christians. Preachers are his Apostles, called and could out more specially for his service. Pauls admonition means us most. God will be sanctified of them, that come near him, Moses  told Aaron, Bee clean, ye that be the bearers of Gods vessells, Esay bids; that attend his Tabernacle, bear his ark, wait at his Altar. Shall I be so shameless to commit, what I condemn, do that myself, which I censure in another? Shall I be {αβγδ}, utterly unexcusable, Pauls term? Thou that preachest against theft, dost thou steal? saith he. Shall I so braze my brow, to love strong drink, and reprove drunkenness, haunt strange women, and tax harlottrie? exhort to temperance, and be a belly-god? Shall I preach against oppression, against pride, against hypocrisy, and myself be a griper, an aspirer, adissembler? What if God should say to me, Quid tibi? what hast thou to do, to preach my Law, who hatest to be reformed? God bee merciful to Levi; to all Israels sons; but to Levi specially, to all Levi, wee sin all; to me, chief of sinners; beate down our lusts, bring them into subjection, that while wee preach to others, ourselves become not reprobate. I use to end in time; and my Text is but half handled. I will rather cancel the rest, then be wearisome.  
The act is {αβγδ}, a pregnant word; it signifies apostasy. apostasy is odious in the ordinary sense, defection from Religion, falling from Faith. Who abhors not the name of julian the Apostata? Odious in the English and the Latin. But the original is {αβγδ}, as Grammarians speak, a word indifferent, good or bad, according to the object. apostasy from the Temple, Luk. 2. 37. From God, from the Faith, Pauls phrases both, are wicked all. From God, as is the Atheists; from Faith, as is the heretics, from the Temple, as is the Recusant Papists. But to apostatise from sin, and the entisers unto it, is a lawful apostasy, Paul exhorts to it, 1 Tim. 6. 5. From 'vice to virtue, is a good revolt, and my Text exhorts to it.  
The devil is {αβγδ}, the Prince of this world, Ephes. 6. The natural man is his vassal, owes obedience to his laws. His Law is sin, Paul saith it often, Rom. 7. he that turns Christian, and forsakes sin, what doth he but Apostatate. He that swears falsely, and breaks it, is perfidious. The converted Christian does, does and sins not; did in taking oath, does not in breaking it. For Iurans illicitum, obligatur ad contrarium, the Law saith. His oath was wicked, and he was bound to break it. Paul warrants him, bids {αβγδ}, let him be an Apostata, scuh an Apostata.[ Will the devil press the metaphor, and loathe to lose his subject, say tis a wicked word, an odious appellation, a discredit to a Christian? then let the devil know, Paul here speaks but {αβγδ}, in the worlds phrase. It counts a Christian a revolter: he is none. He was while he served satan. Man is Gods subject; for he made him. His service under satan, that was a revolt, subjection unto sin, that was indeed apostasy.]  
You heard before, peccatum called quasi pellicatum. sin is spiritual harlottrie; Lust, fleshly lust, an adulteress. To the adulteress belongs an {αβγδ}, a Bill of divorce. Paul bids here {αβγδ}; and the vulgar Latin hath it in the psalm, Diverte à malo, be divorst from evil. Salomon saith, is said to say, Qui tenet adulteram, he is a fool, that holds a harlot; put her away.  
But how doth Paul here cross the angel in the Apocalypse? He that is unjust, let him be so still. The one bids discedere, depart, the other, procedere, go on. Whether shall we hear? Angells are called Elohim, i. Gods, and we ought( Peter saith) obey God rather then men. Nay, and men say it too, holy men, a Preacher doth, Eccles. 11. bids young men walk in the lusts of their eyes. Whats that, but licentiousness, all iniquity? Heres the voice of men and Angels, both against Paul. But for the Preacher; his words are but ironical, speaks in jest. His earnest follows there, But know, that for this God will bring thee to judgement. And for the other, Angels are called Gods, but are not: Men are called so too. But that Angel speaks Praedictivé, as foretelling sin, not Praeceptivè, as advising it. Say he did. Paul hath put in Caveat against that also before, Gal. 1. 8. Though an angel from heaven should teach otherwise, sit anathema, we must not hear him. Paul is but a man; but his mouth is Gods, as Dei, jer. 15. speaks {αβγδ}, inspird from him, moved by the holy Ghost. Nor saith Paul it onely; David does too, bids {αβγδ} depart from evil: Esay too, Saint Peter too. Who doth not? even evil men, doers of iniquity, will yet censure it. Yea Sathans self being asked which was the best verse in all virgil, said, Discite justitiam moniti, nec temnite Divos, to do righteousness, and fear God.  
To end this, S. Paul bids not, not to sin; that were too much. As good to bid us, not to be. Except but Christ, no man is, but is a sinner. And yet Saint John bids that. Babes saith he, I writ to you, Ne peccatis, that you sin not. So may Paul in Iohns sense. sin not, that is, not wilfully: {αβγδ}, tis his phrase else where, sin, not, so much as in you lieth. So may Paul? So does Paul; he means so here. Let every man depart, i. let him do his best endeavour, to abstain from all unrighteousness: and thats the last thing in my Text.  
The greek term {αβγδ}, is indeed but injustice; thats but one sin. Needs the namer of Christs name depart from but it onely? Christ saith, his yoke is easy. It were indeed; if but to shun one sin would serve. But the term here is in Trope, tis a Synecdoche, one special sin put for all. Tis in philosophy so. Aristotle could say out of the Poet, that justice {αβγδ}, comprehends all virtue. So here injustice means all 'vice. englished therefore discreetly, sometimes unrighteousness, sometimes iniquity, terms more ample then the greek. Iustice is but one virtue, injustice but one 'vice. But Scripture useth both more largely. {αβγδ}, sin and injustice, Saint John makes them Synonymaes, 1 joh. 1. 9. Paul, Rom. 1. 29. makes {αβγδ}, englished there, unrighteousness, the Genus of many special sins. Fornication, covetousness, murder, deceit, maliciousness, and about a dozen more. All which, and all other, Christians must understand, to be forbidden them by my Text. For Christs whole image, was( you heard before) but righteousness and holinesse, Gods whole law is no more. Tis not Decalogus, ten words, tis but two; piety towards God, justice towards men. Nay tis but {αβγδ}, one word, Gal. 5. 14. and that is righteousness. Even Tullic teacheth that, Pietas is but justitia erga Deum, piety is but Iustice towards God. All the sins not onely of the second Table, but of the first too, are couched in my Text, under the term of iniquity. So that not onely as Saint John saith, 1 Epist. 5. 17. {αβγδ}, all iniquity is sin; but also {αβγδ}, in Pauls sense, all sin is iniquity. I may not instance; that were infinite. I therefore end.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON SAINT james. The four and twentieth Sermon.  james 2. 18. show me thy Faith by thy works. 
THE whole Verse contains a rhetorical Dialogisme, a supposed Communication between two Persons, touching Faith and works. Which Figure hath two Parts, Objectio, and Subjectio: the former pretends Faith, by way of Concession, Thou hast Faith: the latter exacts the proof of it, to be showed him by his work. The subjection, i. the Answer is my Text, consisting of four terms, the Act, to Show; to whom? To me; the Object, Faith; by what? By works. Thou saist thou hast Faith; Say it not, but show it. show it not in secret, but openly to me. Show me, not a fancy, but a Faith: no by verbal protestation, but by real evidence, Show it by thy works. These then are the Points contained in my Text, in number four: the proof, the judge, the thing questioned, and the Argument. By Gods assistance, and your patience, my purpose is to speak of them, first jointly of them all, and then severally of each.  
There is an unkind controversy between the Mother and the Child. Faith is the mother, and charity is the child. God hath past a Patent of an honourable office, mans justification, and conferred it upon Faith. The false Petifoggers of the Court of Rome have foisted in the daughters name, to challenge halves with her. The daughter would disclaim it. For love, who is so kind, as to part even from her right, for so saith the Apostle, that love seeketh not her own, cannot be so unnatural, to encroach upon her Mothers. But her Proctors for their profit do press and force it on her. To that purpose they have maliciously set james at jar with Paul: that whereas Saint Paul teacheth, that the office of justifying belongs to Faith alone; Saint james joins love with Faith; that of works a man is justified, and not by faith alone. For so he saith expressly at the 24. verse. divers of my reverend and very learned brethren have attempted to take up this jar: but all hath not been well construed, which I hope hath been well meant. This theme my text occasions me to speak unto it too. For it craves a show of Faith, of justifying Faith, a show by works, the Show to me, i. to men. I think, a better Commentary of Saint james his meaning, that not Faith alone, but works do justify, cannot be found, than this my Text. Saint Paul saith, Faith doth justify; but he means before God; it doth it apprehensivè. Saint james saith, works do justify; he means before man; they do it ostensivè, as the term is in my Text; they show, that we are justified. I would not disgrace works. I took my Text, of purpose to honour them. But I must not wrong the Mother, to do right unto the child. Faith and works I seek not to sever them: for Christ hath coupled them; But the Question is Quatenus.  
Surely Faith justifies alone, without works; but the Faith that justifies, is not alone, nor without works. Love ever is with Faith, but it doth not work with Faith. Love is haply with Faith, even then when it justifies, but she lets her do that work alone; she hath neither part nor fellowship in that business. Christs Manhood at his Passion was not alone; it was united to his deity; but yet his Manhood suffered alone, his Godhead suffered not. Faith is as fire, and love is as the light. Fire never is alone without his light; but yet it burns not by his light. The part of Light is to illuminate, to warm, or to burn, Light hath no skill, nor power. Fire doth them both, but not by it. Fire, as it is Calidus, not as it is Lucidus, it warms and burns by his heat, not by his light. When a gift is offered thee, thou hast not hands alone, but eyes and ears: but yet thou takest, thou receivest the gift, not with thine ears, not with thine eyes, but with thine hands. Pardon of thy sins, which is justification, it is Gods gift; it pleaseth him to proffer and to reach it thee. Faith and Love are both together, either as mother and daughter, or if Papists like not that, as friends and fellowes. Cannot the one bow herself to take it, but the other must stoop to; like Naaman, and the King of Syria, the one cannot worship, but the other must bow too.  
And yet I would the Papists knew, we grant them more than they can prove: it would pose the learnedst of them, to prove love present, when Faith doth justify. Though Love lets Faith seldom be alone; yet she is not at that Act. Love is but in Faiths womb, when shee is doing that. Shee is yet unborn, when wee are justified. Fisher saith, Non inficior; he confesses that Faith justifies, before she bring forth works; Cum nondum peperit. Faith is indeed big with them, parturiit, saith that Bishop, she was as twere in travel, and ready to bring forth; Operibus gravida, very big with them; but yet shee justifies us, shee doth that business before their birth. Nay they all confess, and if they did not, Saint Augustine would force them, that works do follow justification. And lest you should reply, that they may do so, and yet go before it; that is denied expressly by that Father, non praecedunt, works do not go before. I say, they confess, that works do follow justification. But then being asked, what they mean to hold a man justified by works? They answer, justification is not all at once, but that there is Actio& Auctio perpetua, a continual Act and growth of it in man: and to that( they will stand to it) that works are requisite.  
Well, because they are so resolute, we will yield them that: for they think, they have Scripture for it: Qui justus est, justificetur adhuc; he that is just, let him be justified yet. But this is sophistry; for that justification means Sanctification. They dispute not adidem. They catch at a Scripture, where they find the word, but in another sense. To which purpose they have cunningly devised a Distinction, of first and second justification; by which when wee reprove their righteousness by works, that they soloecise in saying that works do justify; they labour to delude us by that bald distinction of second justification. A jesuitical trick; for that justification is a mere equivocation; an answer of Onions to a question of leeks. The question between us and them, is whether Faith alone do justify; and we mean by justifying, the acquitting us of sin. We say, Faith doth it only; they will have works too. But when we join issue, they run to boyes play at Primus, secundus, to a second Act of justification, quiter of another meaning; a progress in holinesse, which is nothing to the point. For so themselves define it, even the fiercest of them all, that the first Act of justification, is by which a man of wicked is made just, and that is just our sense; the second by which, of being just already, he is made more just; which is( as they say truly) profiting in righteousness. They know our meaning is in the first sense. What a trifling is this, to seem to oppose to us, and to press us with the second?  
I see nothing for my part, but a mere {αβγδ}, a wrangling about words; and a folly to follow them, who so cowardly fly off. Nay what need we further strife? When wee have( to my seeming) Confitentem reum, even their Atlas, their goliath grants what we can ask: that Paul means, and means it well, that a man is justified by Faith without Works; and that that justification, which is in S. james, which is by works, is of another sort, and in another sense. Let mine, my learned brethren, if you think it right, be the last lost labour in this idle controversy.  
Yet am I( as little as I love the Papists) a Papist in this; I think it good discretion, and great need, in these profane and irreligious times, to preach for works, rather then for faith. For saith not the physician, {αβγδ}, contraries are cured by contraries? and do not their practitioners according to that rule, fit the remedy ever to the malady? Very excellent things are spoken of thee, O thou rich grace of God, the securer from sin, the deliverer from death, the chaser of satan, the pleaser of God. Her hands lay hold on Christ, and her eyes behold Gods face. Let his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth that disgraceth that disparageth, that prefers not faith. But Gods faithful Steward must also be wise, to distribute to all that are of his house; their {αβγδ}, their portion in their time: to the servant, to the son, to the young, to the old, to the slow, to the active, to the sick, to the whole, to every one, demensum suum in tempore suo, their due portion in their due season. There is a time to plant, and a time to pluck up; a time to build, and a time to break down. Faith is Gods plant: my meaning is not, it should be pulled up. But satan the supplanter hath set in many souls a false semblant of true faith; that would be pulled up. Faith is Gods building; my meaning is not, it should be broken down. But the devil by art magic hath reared in many hearts a fantastic fabric of a feigned faith; a fancy, not a faith, and that would be demolished.  
Saint Paul saith, Faith justifies; and it onely does it, faith without works; and he saith true. And Saint james saith, works justify, faith onely does it not, and he saith true too. This haply seems strange to you, two propositions contradictory true. No marvel, if Luther( if Papists belie him not) called this Epistle stramineam Epistolam, that hath in it such strawne, such stubble divinity. Mervell not beloved; there is no contradiction. For in a contradiction, the opposition is ad idem: the terms must hold one sense, both in the positive, and the negative. So they do not here. Saint Paul means a true faith; Saint James means a counterfeit. With Paul to justify, is to acquit of sin; with james, to show to men, that one is just. Whether Luther, or no, called it a strawne epistle, I wonder learned Papists should so stumble at a straw. For that Saint james means so, my Text gives a testimony, {αβγδ}, show me thy faith, saith he, show it by thy works. works justify {αβγδ}, declaratively, they show a man is just.  
This righteousness of works, Saint james justification, if it be popery, I must crave pardon to teach it at this time. These times do call for it: these times, in which not onely love is waxed could, but frozen quiter to death. And certainly Faith lives not after Love. Faith is Loves Mother; and as judah said to jacob and Benjamin so may I of these, the soul of the Mother, hangeth on the soul of the Child. Our Apostle saith that too, at the last verse of this Chapter, that Faith is dead. Where there are not works, which are the acts of Love, and ever come from it, while it hath life; there faith is dead. Where works are not, Faith lives not. Faith is but a pretence, to protect profaneness and hypocrisy. Faith is a shield: the Apostle calls it so, the shield of faith. It is a shield; and sin looks for shelter under that shield: a cloak to shrowded iniquity.  
The Sect of Libertines began but lately, but in our fathers daies. But as your Lecturer hath  told you lately, that vipers soon multiply into generations; so is their spawn disparcled over all lands. Islebs positions are not so known perchance, as Islebs tomb, not known by reading. But the devil hath infused them by secret instinct into the hearts of multitudes, almost of all. They bear themselves upon the gospel; it makes man just; & Lex non est justo posita, the just man hath not to do with the Law. He hath learned of Luther, that which Luther never meant, doctrina operum, doctrina daemonum, the doctrine of works is the doctrine of devils. The seed of that lewd schism was sown first in Germany; but belike it is blown over the Sea, and flown into this land. Shall I city you some of their impious positions? The Law is not worthy to be called Gods word. Meddle not with Moses: he leads thee strait unto the devil. Make sure your vocation( saith Saint Peter) by good works? Alas poor man, say they, he conceived not Christian liberty. The Law belongs to the Courts, not to the Pulpit. Christians must so live, that Iewes and Heathens, and all wicked men, may be the more offended at our evil actions. The teacher of good works to bee needful to Salvation, is a double Papist, a Pelagian, and Apostata; Nay Nicolaus Amsdorfius said they were pernicious unto Salvation. Take these but for a taste: there is no raking long in such a stinking puddle. God forbid our people should be so impudent, to proclaim such lewd positions openly. But look into our lives; and our Actions will accuse us, that what they writ, wee think. We say, as much as they; but wee say it in our hearts; more bashful then they, but not less sinful then they. I detain you too long in the generality; it is time to come now to each point in particular.  
The first, I propounded was the proof, show me, saith the Apostle. Faith is no felon, that she should fly sight; not deformed, or evill-favoured, to shun the eye. Love should not be her daughter, dared shee not be seen. Love itself likes not to lye unknown; and her mother loves not to lurk unseen. Faith lurks not, nor shee lazes not. Her own hands work; and she suffers not her daughters to be idle. Like the thrifty housewife in the proverbs, her hands are on the wherne, and her fingers on the distaff. Christs sufferings are the wherne, and his righteousness the distaff. Shee rubs the spindle on her thigh, and shee draws the thread out toward her. Christs sufferings and obedience, Faith holds and handles, and applies them unto us. Shee twists and shee spins us a rob out of his righteousness. And Charity her daughter works as hard as shee. Shee embroiders with the needle; her tent is holinesse, and her work is all on that; shee onely tends that task, and with her mothers work shee meddles not. The mothers eye is still upon the daughter, that shee do not play. Like a strict {αβγδ}, shee holds her to her work, all the day, every day; shee rests not on the Sabbath. The idle, according to the proverb in Theocritus, {αβγδ}, like loitering scholars in some schools, they play every day, and whole daies, Rem magnam prestas, it is a wonder if ever such prove learned. But Faith keeps no holidays, but labours all her life, Sabbath dayes and all.  
Faith( I confess indeed) appears not in her person: virtue is invisible. But as God was seen to Moses, so is shee to men, per posteriora, onely by her back parts, which are works. They fail not where shee is; but follow faith inseparably. As where there is no light, you may safely say, there is no sun: so where works are not, you may conclude peremptorily, there is no faith. Eliseus servant said of the Shunammites son, when he saw, there was neither vox nor auditio, neither speech, nor sense, that the child was not awake. The fellow was too fine, he might have said, the child lived not. works are the breath of Faith, our Apostle makes them so, ver. ult. they are the pulse of Faith; the two {αβγδ}, the proofs, by which we may judge, whether it live. If you feel them not; the Faith is ghostlesse. Say not, that Faith sleepeth, for fineness of phrase; say plainly, shee is dead: for Saint james saith so. I would not now unwarily reason for the Papist; thats one thing he would have, that there is a dead faith; he holds a true faith may be dead. But by a dead faith, we mean a feigned faith, which is no faith at all. Where there are no works, there is no faith; not a dead faith onely, but no faith at all. Let them not instance in historical faith, or the faith of miracles; they both are equivocal, and nothing to this purpose. Those faiths may be shown without good works: for the devils have one of them, and Iudas had them both. But the Faith we mean, is not shown, but by works.  
I do not say, Love is the life of Faith, or it is the soul of Faith. Such hyperbolical tropes I dare not venture on. But I do say, love is the pulse of Faith, it argues Faith to have both life and soul. The last verse of this Chapter hath stumbled the Papists, that because Saint james saith there, as the body without the Spirit, is dead; so Faith without works is dead; therefore works are the Spirit of Faith, and so the soul of Faith. Why may I not translate it, as the body without breath is dead; so is Faith without works. And let them then in Gods name make works the breath of Faith. Breathing is an argument of life in the body; and so are works of faith in the soul. I will not be peremptory; some may be my teachers, that are my hearers. But I have good authors, that the word will bear that Sense. Whether it do there or no, I leave it to the learned. works are not {αβγδ}, not the life, but the breath of Faith. Faith hath not esse& vivere, but it hath movere, it lives not by Love, but it moves by it; it moves and breaths by it. Thou choakest and smotherest him, whose breath thou stoppest. Faith needs must breath, and her breath are works. If thou stop them; thou stiflest and thou stranglest Faith.  
To end this, the Scriptures, the Fathers, the Philosophers resemble Love to fire. So may I Faith, as fitly. The heat of fire will not be hide; and the zeal of Faith will not be smothered: but fire will burst forth in flames, and Faith will sparkle forth in works. It is but equal therefore, that the Apostle asks; if any man say, he hath Faith; let him show it.  
The next point is the Person, that must judge. Hast thou Faith? thou sayest it. Who shall judge? Not thyself, thou wilt be partial; Show it me. It is a Synecdoche; to me, that is, to men, show thy faith to others, show it to the world. Sciretuum nihil est. Thou art sure, thou hast faith; but it is good to have a witness. Thou wilt say thy Conscience knoweth it; and it is a thousand witnesses. But Saint Paul requires the testimony of those that are without: not only with out thee, to show thy faith to thy brethren in the faith; but without the Church also, to infidels too, if thou be occasioned. As for the proverb, it means an evil Conscience, not a good; and the witness of it, not for thee, but against thee. The Conscience so, is indeed a thousand witnesses. And haply thy Conscience belieth thee: for it is sometimes erroneous, not Conscientia but Inscientia. Then may it tell thee, thou hast Faith, when thou hast none. Suspect thy Conscience, when it sootheth thee. But haply thou belyest thy Conscience: thou sayest, it knows that thou hast faith; when it saith secretly, tongue thou liest. If thou have faith indeed; have it teste coelo, as he saith in the tragedy; show it openly, that the world may witness it; make me believe, that thou believest.  
But thou wilt say, that men are liars too. David saith it, Omnis homo mendax, all men are liars. Let God be judge, I will show my Faith to him. First, Davids speech was in his passion: I said in my hast, All men are liars. Secondly, thy lothnesse to be judged by men, is a shrewd presumption, that thou hast not faith. For if thou hadst, thou hast Love too; which if thou hast, thou wouldst not be suspicious; for Love is not. Wouldst thou be judged by God? Vox Populi, Vox Dei, the peoples verdict is the voice of God. I, and another, and a third may err: but what all men judge of thee, that live with thee, is lightly true. Lastly, because thou wilt needs be judged by God. I will say to thee, as Festus said to Paul, hast thou appeald to Caesar? unto Caesar shalt thou go: hast thou appeald to God? to God therefore shalt thou go; and thou shalt not go far neither. remove but two verses from my Text; there shalt thou hear Gods Iudgement, both of thyself, vain man; and of thy faith, that it is dead. And vain thou art indeed, who when the Apostle craves a trial of thy faith by thy conversation, thinkest to avoid it by vain tergiversation, by appealing unto God. Saint james, nay, God, for from his spirit he speaks, will have thy faith be shown, ostend fidem tuam, not known to God, but shown to men. God being {αβγδ} the knower of the heart, needeth not our showing him our faith. Spare to spend thy pains, where it is superfluous, and bestow it where thou shouldst, where Saint james biddeth, Show thy faith to me.  
To me? why so? As the Hebrewes said to Moses, thou wilt haply say to me, Quis te constituit judicem, who made you my judge, that you should examine me? Indeed no man hath to do to judge anothers servant: he stands or falls to his own master. But why vantest thou of thy faith to me? Haply thou hast faith. But if thou wouldst, that I should think, thou hast, thou must show it me. Besides doth not the Apostle bid us to be ready to give a reason of our faith, every man to every man. No reason is so kind, as works, for it is real; and if to every man, then also unto me.  
Yet why to me? there are men enough besides to see my faith. Quid mihi et tibi, as Christ said to his mother, what have you to do with me? surely I have. Thy works should show me light to glorify God. Thy works should also show me what thou art, albus an after, a sheep, or a wolf: that if thou be a sheep, I may feed with thee; but if a wolf, I may beware of thee. It skills God, it skills me, that thou show thyself by works. God for his glory, me for my safety. To end this, every one whom Christ hath called, must do his best to bring his brother to Christ too, as Andrew did Peter, and as Philip did Nathanael. The fruits of thy faith must draw others to the faith; and therefore thou must show it me. Nascitur indignè, per quem &c.  
The third point is the object, the thing in question, it is Faith; what Faith? for faith is manifold. There is {αβγδ}, a faith of miracles; it is not that. For it( Saint Paul saith) hath not love, and Iudas had it, a damned reprobate, and there is {αβγδ}, an historical faith; neither is it that. For King Agrippa believed the Prophets, and Herod believed John; and all Christians, Libertines& all believe the scriptures. Even the Devills have this Faith. But it is the Faith that justifies, that engrafts thee into Christ, that reconciles thee unto God, that quits thy sin, and saves thy soul.  
I doubt the Papists do mean the faith of Miracles. What mean they else to make such account of them, to make such ado with them? Yet surely they do not: they are learned and judicious, and cannot construe the Apostle so. And yet surely they do: for else why do they make the working of wonders one note of the Church? mean what faith they will, they mean amiss; they cannot mean Saint james his justifying faith. For Iudas wrought miracles; so doth Antichrist; so doth the devil. But of all faiths, I would wish them to beware of the faith of wonders; wonders in these dayes are the note of Antichrist. Their age is out; they fitted the infancy of the Church; faith is adulta now, and needs them not. Gods Oracles suffice us; we expect not Miracles. The Papists insult over us, because they have them, and wee not. Our Faith being the ancient and apostolic Faith, had miracles long since, it needs none now. Miracles are for the first founding, not the continual feeding of the faith. If they will bethink them, they cannot worse disgrace, they cannot more foully disable their faith, then by working of miracles; for they show, that their Religion is a new Faith. Boast not proud Papist, that thy Church is a wonder-worker: for that glory is thy shane.  
It is not then the faith of Miracles, not historical faith, that must be shown, but a justifying faith: All the aim of the Apostle is directly at that mark. For that is the faith that thou vauntest and boastest of. Not that thou confessest Christ, or workest wonders in his name; but that thou believest on him: that thy sin and thy pain are pardonned through him, and that thou shalt bee saved by him. Not thy bare assent to the story of the gospel, that it is true; but they hearty embracing of the grace of the gospel, to apply it to thyself; thy apprehension of Christ and his cross, and his whole obedience, the application of his righteousness to thee, and the undoubted expectation of eternal life.  
There yet remaines the mainest point, the Argument; by which the faith is proved; and that is works. Works are the tokens and trial of Faith. Probatio Amoris, exhibitio Operis, saith Saint Gregory. The showing of love, is the doing of works; and love is but faiths instrument. Thou pretendest to have Faith; and they say, love is faiths soul. It must therefore be in Faith, or it is dead. If love be there, why works it not? It is not faith, tis but Cadaver, saith S. Bernard, Faiths corpes: too fine a name for so course a thing: faiths carcase; too good yet. He saith not Corpus, but Cadaver; a barren faith, it is a carren faith. Love is faiths life Saint Bernard saith, and love loves to labour, not to laze.  
What? saith some Papist, say me that again, love is faiths life, saith Ber. condemned you not that phrase before? lo you now, as God would have it, yourself do city it out of a Father. Soft rash insulter. I city it, and he saith it; and I say more, he saith it well, because he means it well. For he explains his meaning, where he saith it, Fidei vitam opera at testantur. He saith, love is faiths life; that is, the works of love do witness that faith lives. It shows faiths life, it doth not give faith life. And yet S. Bernard was a man of your Church too.  
Faith must be shown by works, that men may judicare, judge of faith; works must be indicare, show the faith. Love is Index fidei, the touchstone of faith. Lay faith to love; if it will not hold the touch, it is a counterfeit. A distasteful doctrine to licentious men: the libertine likes it not. His catechism has the belief, but not the Decalogue. He objects out of S. Paul, that we are not sub lege, but sub gratia, not under the Law, but under Grace. But S. August. answers him; we are not sub lege, but yet we are In lege; we are within the Law, like subjects, though not under it, like slaves. And the right Christian catechism joins the ten Commandements close unto the creed. We live now in a talking, not in a walking age: men are speakers, not workers. And indeed there is a showing of a thing by words, and the false faith-faigner fain would have that: as if in my Text, ostendere, were as tendere, to stretch the jaws, that faith should be showed by straining of the mouth; by strong protestations. But S. james saith not {αβγδ} show me thy faith, by speech but {αβγδ}, not by words, but by works. It is not {αβγδ} as Rabsakeh said, a matter of lips; the show must be not Oris, but Operis. If any man question thee of thy faith; spare thy lips and let thy life make answer.  
If words might be credited, no man would want faith. Abraham enstiled the Father of the faithful, should need to have his name changed once again; he would have so many sons. Every man would take up the blind mans cry to Christ, Lord I believe. What mouth would not make one lie for his master. But it is Ostensio, not Ostentatio, not a show of words, but a real proof. sayest thou, that thou hast faith? Quid verba audiam? facta vidiam. Let me not hear my faith, but see it. Sight is the surer sense: a sly dissembler may deceive that too; but yet not so soon, not so easily as the hearing. The eye doth best describe deceit; the best spier of falsehood, the best trier of truth. Nisi videro,& misero, saith Thomas of Christs rising; so unless I see and feel thy faith, I will not believe. Works make faith visible, they make it palpable; except where the hypocrite is very artificial. There may be works, where there is no faith: there may haply be works, where faith is not; but there is certainly no faith, where works are not. works are but a {αβγδ} a probable Declaration, not an {αβγδ}, an infallible Demonstration. But it is the best man hath; and the Apostle craves but it.  
Live well, do the works of piety, of charity, of peace, of justice, of holinesse, of lowliness, of soberness and truth; and tell me, thou hast faith; though thou lie; I will believe thee. Deceive me so; I will not censure thee. But if thou rob Gods self by idolatry, abuse Gods name by blasphemy, profane Gods holy day, defraud Gods Ministers; his house, by sacrilege, by fraud; make no conscience of blood, of whoredom, of drunkenness, of usury, of bribery, of oppression, of extortion, of doing any wrong, either violently of fraudulently: I will say, thou hast no faith: for the faithful flee these things. Malè credit, quicunque peccat, saith Origen, it is a sorry faith, that serveth sin. Love( thou wilt say) is not suspicious, nor thinketh evil; but neither is it simplo, to be persuaded against sense.  
Nay say thou sin not in this sort, at leastwise not in sight; yet if thou do not good, all the good thou canst, in every work of mercy, of godliness, and right; and say that thou hast faith: I will say, I see it not. Love hopeth the best, and believeth all things; and so will I. I will hope thou mayst have faith haply hereafter; I will believe, thou mayst believe in time; but thy faith as yet is dead.[ Dead faith, thou wilt reply on me? thats something yet: dead faith is faith: nay dead faith is true faith. Hoc aliquid nihil est, the something is just nothing. That dead faith is true faith, who saith it, but the Papist? he may say as well, a dead man is a true man. One Father is of worth to weigh down a world of them: Didymus is he; Fides mortua, fides nulla, a dead faith( saith he) is no faith.]  
The Romanists would show us their faith by miracles: a show( with their favours) fabulous and frivolous. Fabulous, for they are lies, either figmenta mendacium hominum, or portenta fallacium daemonum, as Saint Augustine saith. A right show indeed, without any substance or semblance of truth. I cannot speak of them more basely, then some of themselves. And frivolous; for first, the consequent is nought, wonders may bee wrought, and have been by the faithless. The grace of Miracles is gratis data, not gratum faciens, it is given even to Reprobates. Secondly beside the point. Faith must bee showed, not by wonders, but by works. As though( they will reply) that wonders were not works. indeed they are, and Christ often calls them so. But the works meant in my Text, are not Potestatis, but Sanctitatis, the works of righteousness and holinesse. look what kind of faith is meant, that kind of works is meant. Saint james his theme is of the faith of righteousness: the works to show it must therefore bee of righteousness. justifying faith to bee showed by wonders, that were a wonder. Then no man should be justified, but he that could work miracles. No wonder, no faith: no faith, no righteousness; no righteousness no life. God forbid.  
To conclude, faire is Faiths face; but love is her looking glass: works the onely mirror which man may see her in. Had God made man, a Momus would in Lucian, with a breast of glass: men might have seen our faith without good works. The breast being transparent, the heart had been open to the eye. But Faith being invisible, and hidden in the heart, needs outward evidence to prove her there. That evidence is works: works Faiths witnesses, her touchstone and her glass; the flowers and fruits of Faith; the sparkles and the beams of it; the breath and pulse, and if you please, the life of Faith. Which the Lord of life vouchsafe to breath into us by his Spirit; unto both which blessed persons of the sacred Godhead, together with the Father, bee duly ascribed all honour, majesty, power and thanksgiving in secula.   

A SERMON PREACHED ON SAINT PETER. The five and twentieth Sermon.  1 PET. 4. 3. It sufficeth us, to have spent the time past of our life, after the lust of the Gentiles. 
IT is Saint Peters epoch, his Inhibition to the Iewes, from progress in sin. The first verse titles my Text, It is {αβγδ}, a Call on them to stay their course, a cry to them, to cease from sin; urged with two Arguments, They had spent much time, misspent much time on it already: and it was mere gentilism, unmeet for them. sin, the lust of the Gentiles; fit, they forsake it, they were Iewes. Of these Particulars in their order.  
First for the Sufficit. sin is a Race, the goal is Hell. Man runs in it, with might and main. Tis the Preachers office to inhibit him: Every mans indeed, but his especially. The Iewes, the Apostles charge, were in this Race; had run far in it. Saint Peter cries, Sufficit. Surely man should moderate his lust himself: but self-love lets him not. God hath made the Minister his moderator: he must cry, Satis; tell him, he hath sinned enough: It is sufficient saith the Apostle. Solomon notes but four things, that never cry Sufficit, the Grave, the barren womb, the thirsty Earth, and Fire. sin might have made the fifth; it deserves it more than they. They are indeed all four, unsatiable things: but sin exceeds them. The sea is an unruly creature; yet God hath shut it up with doors, job saith: hath said to it, Hitherto thou shalt come, but no further. Lust will not be confined, still presseth on, and cries Plus ultrà. sin is the Horse in the Revel. 6. 8. free enough of itself, too free. Yet he hath a Rider too, and a Follower besides; one upon him to spur him, it is Death; an other behind him, to goad him, it is Hell. On he will, on he must: he must needs go, whom the devil drives. Not Drives onely, but draws too. sin hath cords, to hall men towards hell, Funes peccati, Prov. 5. 22. not Funiculos, little cords, such as were on Christs scourge, John 2. 15. but {αβγδ} thick ropes, Cart-ropes, the Prophet terms them, Esay 5. 18. Yea stronger yet, far stronger, Rudentes inferni, our Apostles term, 2 Pet. 2. 4. the Gable ropes of hell.  
sin hath no Sufficit, no sin: Instance in Avarice. The Covetous mans wealth, corraded by Corruption, Extortion, Oppression, this year, and the last, gives it him content? It rather gives him appetite to raven more the next year, than the last. As famed, Crescit eundo, as it goes, still it grows: so is this Lust, the longer the stronger: That as Saint Bernard notes of it, when a man doth Senescere, wax old, it doth then Iuvenescere, wax young: It is most Active, when we are in age. Instance in wanton lust. Though David had store of wives of his own, besides Concubines: yet they suffice not; he sees Vriahs wife, and must have her. Time lays not lust, alleys it not: but it grows greater rather to morrow than to day. Indeed to morrow should be to dayes disciple, the Gnomicall Poet saith; our sin this day, should teach us to be shie of it the next. But it is so sweet; it increaseth the lust rather. Many are often weary of well doing; who ere of ill? The baits of sin are dear to sinners; dearly bought, but dearly loved. One will part with his soul, as soon as with his sin: nay from his soul the sooner of the two. How else hath hell come by so many souls, had not sin seemed to man more precious, than they? Man will rather burn in hell, than cool in lust. What a desperate speech is that of the drunkards in the Prophet, Cras sicut hodic, to morrow shall be as to day, yea worse, far worse than it. Nay indeed every sin once grown to habit, inebriates the lust, makes it thirst more and more, and cry with another of that trade too in the Proverbs, Pergam, requiram ampliùs, so soon, as I am up, I will do, as I did yesterday.  
Besotted sinner, be not too precipitate; the Race thou runnest in, ends in hell. Make not Profession to proceed, Profession of progression in iniquity, Thou art far enough already. go not too far thitherward, whence there is no return. Invius retrò lacus never came any back from hell. Some say, one did, Trajan the Emperour: but at the great importunity of the Pope; and he shent for it too. Some have returned from heaven: Moses did, and Elias at Christs Transfiguration. Yea many of the Saints did at Christs Passion: but not any out of hell. It is the Harlots house, Prov. 2. 19. they never come out, that once go in: and the Note there too is universal, {αβγδ} none that go in, return. Say to thyself; thou shouldst: or hear thy Preacher say, Sufficit, tis enough.  
There was a Preacher once gave a young man counsel to walk on in his lusts, Eccles. 11. 9. Nay there was an angel once, that said unto the sinner, Qui sordescit, sordescat adhuc; he that is filthy, let him be so still, Apoc. 22. But neither Men nor Angells must be heard in this: hear Saint Peter before both; he cries Sufficit to the Iewes, let it suffice them to have lived loosely hithertoo. Neither yet mistake the Preacher; he spake not in sad soothe. Nor misconstrue not the angel; his meaning was prophetical: not to show men, what they should do, but to fore-show them, what they would do. What both of them thought seriously of living still in sin, is plain by that which follows: But know( saith the Preacher) that the Lord for this will bring thee unto judgement: and, Behold( saith the angel) Christ shortly comes with his reward.  
The voice of all the Prophets and Apostles at all times hath been the same with Saint Peters here, to cease from sin. John Baptist before Christ, all the Prophets before him, every one cried to the people of his time, Convertimini,& Resipiscite, Turneye and repent. Moses hath his Non ampliùs, see that your necks be not hardened any more. Micha hath his Non ultrà, See you commit adultery no more. And Saint Paul hath it too, Ne serviamus ultrà, let us serve sin no more. Nay Christ himself saith the very same, both to the Lazar of Bethesda, and to the adulteress woman, Noli peccare ampliùs; sin not any more. Iesus Gods son said it twice: Iesus Sirachs son said it once too, My son, hast thou sinned? do thou so no more. To continuance in sin, Saint Paul gives an absit, a God-forbid to that. An heathen could say, that to err, was Humanum, but to persevere, Belluinum, to sin, human weakness; but to persist, wilful wickedness.  
To end this epoch, lust is full loathe to lose her liberty, to be restrained. Yea where the spirit is willing; yet even there the Flesh is weak. Da mihi Castitatem, give me the grace of continency, twas Saint Austins prayer; said noli modò, but give it me not yet. He was loathe to leave his sin too soon. He prayed; but could have wished, God would not hear him; prayed in fear. fain would he wean his lust from sin: but his resolution was Lenta,& somnolenta, his own terms, lazy and drowsy, Modò, ecce modò sine paululùm. Like the Levites Father in law, Iud. 19. I pray thee stay a little: first eat a morsel, and go then. Yet stay to night, and to morrow thou shalt go. To morrow being come; yet one day more. That past too; yet tarry, and dine. That done; yet tis now Sunne-goe-to: stay but this night, and to morrow thou shalt go. So hath lust twenty delays, still procrastinates, makes many pickaxes, loathe to depart. Shee hath loved sin long, lived long with it; fain would love it still: tis death to hear of Sufficit. But a Sufficit of this: go we on from the Inhibition to the Arguments.  
{αβγδ}, Saint Peter moderates here the Iewes. It sufficeth to have spent the time past of our life. And indeed thats one office of moderators in the schools to stint the Disputants by the time past. Tis his first Reason. These Iewes, to whom he writes; had lived in all licentiousness. As their Fathers had served Baal, so had they Belial heretofore. S. Paul said, and S. Peter might too, reckoning a rabble of lewd livers, Idolaters, Adulterers, thieves, Drunkards, Extortioners, and such like, have said to them, and some of you were such. Saint Paul in his mildness said but some: Boanerges or John Baptist would have said, All; might have said, All. Who hath not gone astray sometimes? Insanivimus omnes. It was an arrogant speech of the Ruler, All these things have I kept even from my youth. Saint Pauls self had been a Persecutor, a Blasphemer, a prime sinner.  
But Saint Peter had now preached to them: they had heard the Gospel, and believed. Conversion unto Christ must be {αβγδ}, Saint Basils term, a stint of sin, to stop and stay them, to serve the World and Flesh no longer. John Baptist bad Repent; for Gods kingdom was at hand: It was not come, twas but at hand. Here it was come. Christ was preached to them, and they converted; twas high time they repented. The time of their ignorance God forgave; Detur aliquid Adolescentiae. God did {αβγδ}, Saint Pauls term, bear with their bad manners in their minority, before Christs coming. Now they are Adulti in the gospel: that age alios mores postulat, craves another course of life. They had been bad trees before, and born like fruits; wild vines, and brought sour grapes. But now they are Gods Plants: they must be Trees of righteousness, Esayes Metaphor; and bring forth fruit worthy amendment of life. The appearance of grace teacheth us( Saint Paul saith) to deny ungodliness.  
Their former conversation was the Old Man. Him they had put off in baptism, and put on the New. They must therefore walk thenceforth in righteousness, and true holinesse. When once Old Adam is crucified with Christ; let sin be served no longer, Saint Pauls counsel: {αβγδ} Clemens cites out of Euripides, shall Grecians serve Barbarians, Christians serve sin? Yea it seems to him absurd: How shall wee( saith the Apostle) that are dead to sin, live in it any longer? The Project of baptism is Repentance: and a Christians life should be Baptismo consona, saith Saint Austin, answerable to his baptism. There he bound himself from sin: he may not now persist in it. Sine illum, let him alone yet, till he be baptized; so they would say in Saint Austins time. But being once baptized, he had received Christs press-money: he must now defy the Flesh, and fight ever after under Christs ensign. else if Christ shall have his name, but sin his service; he is( as Saint Bernard terms him) Christianus Antichristianus.  
Surely Saint Peter is very moderate. Saith he, but tis Enough? It is too much to have served sin hitherto. What hath the devil done for us? Wee do not owe him one dayes service: why have we served him so long? Well yet leave him at last, and let us serve the Lord hereafter. God craves our service all our lives. Hath he not cause? Exigit te, qui fecit te, Well may he claim us that hath made us. To Cujus sum, Saint Paul joins cvi servio; tis fit, we serve him, whose we are; serve him ever, from the cradle, from the breasts. We have been Fugitives all this while: let us henceforth at least serve him. Saint Peters request is very reasonable. We have served satan all the day: let us offer our Evening Sacrifice to God. We have lodged with him, broken our fast, and dined with him; Apud superos Caenabimus, let us sup yet with our Saviour. To be short in this; a child may speak, understand, think, as a child, but when he becomes a man, it becomes him to leave childishness. David prayed pardon for the sins of his youth; desired not Indulgence to retain them in his Age; asked forgiveness for Old, not liberty for New.  
Now be this our lesson: tis no shane for Christians to learn with Iewes. The pronoun opportunes us. Some Copies have vobis; but the most and best, have Nobis, the first person; Saint Peter speaks to us. hear we first his epoch, Cease we from sin; Sufficit, we have served it long enough. Reply no Ecce modoes; but repent to day. Crave no sine paululums; delay may haply endanger grace. Thales said once of Marriage, {αβγδ}, twas yet too soon. Being urgd again long after, {αβγδ}, said, it was then too late. Stand at the Preachers Sufficit; sin no more, but repent. Repent this day, this hour. This is the day which the Lord hath made, made haply for that purpose. This is the acceptable hour of the Lord. Beware of {αβγδ}, for fear of {αβγδ}. Open, when Christ knocks; lest with the Spouse in the Canticles, when thou openest, thou find him gone. hody, to day, saith David in the psalm. Repentance is no to pickaxes business; do it hody, to day.  
hear also his Argument. The time past of our lives hath been past in sensuality. Saint Paul saith, Adulterers, thieves, Drunkards, Extortioners, shall not come in Heaven. I will not add with him, that some of you were such. That were dangerous for me to say, but more for you to be. Surely, I may say truly and safely, that Saint james saith, In multis omnes offendimus, not Some of us, but All, not in some things, but in Many, In many things we offend All. Answer Saint Peter, every one, as Elihu saith in job. tis a godly resolution, If I have done wickedly, I will do no more. A shane for these Iewes, more shane for us Christians to persist in sin. For it is Voluntas gentium, the Lust of the Gentiles: sin is but heathenism; that is the other Argument, and the last thing in my Text.  
After the lust of the Gentiles: First it is their Lust; not their Law, but their Lust, {αβγδ}, their Will. There were good laws even among Heathens, moral laws. Had the Iewes lived after them, they had had some apology against the Apostle. Though God gave Israel laws, and they were to look at them, not at the Gentiles: yet even the heathens laws, had they looked but at them, would have excused them at least de tanto. Many very excellent. One would almost think them Transcripts of Scripture. And what is Plato but Moses Atticissans, a mere Moses in another dialect? But the Iewes listed not to line their lives by any laws; to live Legibus, but Exemplis, not after the laws, but the lusts of the Gentiles. The Heathens but bad authors for them to imitate, but specially in their lusts.  
Secondly, Saint Peter to set upon their sin greater disgrace yet, calls it the Will, or the Lust of the Gentiles. A base thing for a jew to imitate a gentle. It was a glory to the Iewes, to be stilled the Circumcision. They would call the philistines in disdain, uncircumcised. They were {αβγδ}, the Circumcision. But sin uncircumcised them, turned them( Saint S. Paul saith) into Praeputium, Rom. 2. 25. Israel for their Idolatry are called Gentiles, 2 King. 17. 33. ex translatione criminum fit translatio nominum, saith tart. they would take the Gentiles sin to them: God gave them their name too. Yea the most odious of the Gentiles, even their names hath the Prophet transferred unto the Iewes: ye Princes of Sodom, ye People of Gomorrah, saith Esay to the Israelites.  
Iewes name not Gentiles, but with scorn, Sinners, Dogges, Slaves, Idolaters, shunned their company, would not so much as bid, good morrow; or good even to them, curse them in their Prayers. Will they in their lives follow such base Precedents? One will not be his enemies Ape. An Israelite to Heathenize? A jew to live Gentiliter? Tis Saint Pauls phrase, God had warned them of their ways; Nolite discere, learn them not, saith the Prophet. whoredom is one of them: God would not have an Harlot in Israel. They walk( Saint Paul saith) {αβγδ}, in the perpetual passion of their lusts; give themselves to wantonness, uncleanness, all uncleanness, their {αβγδ}, their very Occupation, Saint Pauls term too. These had the Iewes set for their examples. Israel saith desperately, Ezech. 20. Erimus, sicut Gentes, they would be like the Gentiles. Moab and Seir check them with it, Ezech. 25. judah is like the Heathens. Say they might slander them; they were their enemies. The Prophet checks them with it, checks and charges Israel with all kind of wickedness, more than the Gentiles, Ezec. 5. yet his charge is but general. Osea names particulars, whoredom, Theft, blasphemy, murders outrageous, blood touching blood.  
But haply they will say, this was old Israel, long before their times: {αβγδ}, what was that to them? Because the Fathers eat sour grapes, must the childrens teeth be edged? What hath Saint Peter against them? What hath any man? Saint Steven hath, As your Fathers did, so do you. That( they will say too) is but general. Saint Peter hath in particular, the very next words to my Text, drunkenness, a damme-sinne; yea and one also of her daughters, wantonness: {αβγδ}, but one word, as Saint Chrysostome saith, In re alia, but big too, great with many young, a generation of Vipers in her belly, all uncleanness; in speech, ribaldry, in Act, Fornication, adultery, Incest, Rape, and some more not to be name. These were the Gentiles lusts; and the Iewes had lived in them. Nay, he hath a greater yet; idolatry: that was gentilism indeed. Epiphanius calls it but Hellenisme; as if but Greekes onely were Idolaters. But it was the {αβγδ}, the lust of all the Heathens, called therefore paganism. A whoredom too, a spiritual whoredom. And in this lust Iewes followed stripped them. Every Nanot, but exceeded Gentiles; followed them, but so fast, that they outtion had his God, one Baal, another Ashtaroth, a third Moloch, a fourth Nergal, others Adrammelech, and Rimmon, and Chemosh, and Thammuz, Israel had them all. But this( they will say) was old Israel too. Surely the extent of these Iewes idolatry, I can not readily tell. But Saint Peter gives it an odious Epithet, abominable Idolatry. The Paraphrast mends it not, calls it the worship of devills. Say then, if twere not time, they left these lusts, that were now turned to God.  
Shall I press the pronoun here again, and so end? Would God I could not; that we though Christians, Christians born, not( like these Iewes) converted onely, lived not Gentiliter, in all the lusts of the unholiest of the Heathens. Instance in the Damme, drunkenness; so rise with us; that as Saint Cyprian said in Africke, so in England, Propemodum non habetur pro crimine, tis hardly held a fault: aut parvum, aut nullum, Saint Austins said of Africke too, either none, or a very little one. Nay tis a fault now to be sober. He is no man that will not drink, an argument came from Africke too. Drinking of Healths, thats a fashion came from Italy. Saint Ambrose notes it, Bibamus pro salute Imperatoris, they must drink a health of Caesar. I censure it not simply, but for some unsober Ceremonies, that become not Christians. I will do my sovereign better service, if I kneel and pray for him, than if I kneel and drink for him. Nor yet do these Wine-wantons kneel in honour to the King: they will do as much to the meanest of their Mistresses. Nay that which Heathens would not offer, sobriety suffers violence. As King Assuerus feast no man might force another. Wee do; and that not as the Grecians, {αβγδ}, either drink, or depart; but aut bibas, aut morieris, an Italian fashion too, tis in Saint Ambrose, drink, or thou diest for it. But better( saith that Father) that my body die sober, than my soul die drunk. Leave this lust every Christian. You are Gods servants. No man will like a drunken servant.  
Come to the Daughter, wantonness, a lust too common too. Of Sathans six daughters, Pride, usury, hypocrisy, ravine, simony, and Lust, he bestowed five of them on several sorts of men, but Lust, the last, on All. As Saint Hierom said of arianism, I may say of Lust, that the whole world is turned wanton. Belike we hold, as Heathens did, Fornication, {αβγδ}, an indifferent thing. At least we seem to say with Mitio in the comedy, Non est flagitium, creed mihi, I wis, tis no such heinous crime. Nay do not some boast of it, an Africke fashion too? mock others, less lewd than themselves, thats a Romish trick; call them Spadones, and such other scurrile terms; {αβγδ}, praisers of whoredom, Nazian. nay {αβγδ}, adorers of their lusts, Nazianzen too. Nay more, bely themselves, rather than seem chased, as Saint Austine saith, he did, before he was converted, ne vilior haberer, quo essem castior, lest his lewd acquaintance should despise him for his honesty. Leave this lust too every Christian. Thou art a member of Christs body: make not thyself the member of an Harlot.  
To conclude; as if our Land had not lusts enough at home, we seek {αβγδ}, Philoes term, sail over the Ocean, fetch in beyond-sea-sinnes, as we do fashions. Not Damme and Daughter onely, strong drink, and strange women, Dutch and French lusts: but some Italian too. Prince shall not trust Subject, Patient his apothecary, one friend another, for fear of Mors in olla, lest his lust lye to poison him. This is not {αβγδ}, but {αβγδ}, not Saint Basils stop, but Sathans top of wickedness. We proceed not onely, but exceed in sin, proceed Graduates in sin; as if we thought with clytaemnestra in the tragedy, Res est profecto stulta, ne quitiae modus, his wit is mean, that will use a mean in wickedness. As should all the Gentiles have lost all their gods, let them have come to Israel, they should have found them there: So should all Nations lose their proper sins; they shall find them all in England. So Apish are the English, not Fashion-followers onely, but Lust-followers too, even the lusts of all Lands. It is fit I now reflect the Sufficit on myself. Be this sufficient; for the time is past. Gods holy Spirit speedily inhibit us: and let every Christian say this Sufficit to himself, that God may say his Sufficit to his soul, Sufficit tibi Gratia mea, my Grace is sufficient for thee. unto him the Father, and to Christ the son, and to the holy Spirit, be duly ascribed, &c.   

A SERMON PREACHED VPON PART OF THE NINTH ARTICLE OF THE creed. The six and twentieth Sermon.  The holy catholic Church. 
A Speech defective; wants a word. We need not fetch it far: the former Article will serve to perfect it, Credo, I believe. But the same sense will not serve both. I believe in the holy Ghost; but I believe not in the Church. Not in the Pope, who is above the Church, he saith. Not in Saint nor angel; not in Christs mother, higher then they both; Papists say that too: but in God onely. This kind of belief God alone claims; no creature. Its a beaten distinction, yet the schools, Credo Deo, Deum,& in Deum, Faith Civill, natural, and Divine. The school hath it from S. Austin, Credo Paulo, I believe Paul, saith he, and Peter, but not in Paulum, I believe on neither. And satan( saith he) Credit Christum, believes Christ, that is, confesseth him: but not in Christum, believes not in him. He were happy, if he did; he should be saved then. So there are three Faiths; pardon my phrase, theres but one Faith, Saint Paul saith. Thats true; one Faith onely in Christ. But the word Faith hath three senses, Credence, Confession, and Affiance. belief, here means but acknowledgement. I believe the holy Church, the holy Catholic Church, i. I aclowledge it.  
The Rhemists add more in 1 Tim. 3. 15. say, we say safely, that Credo, means but only, to believe the Church to be. It signifies also, to trust the same in all things. They city the Nicene creed for it; they mean the creed of Constantinople; the Nicene creed hath not that Article. Stapelton saith so too, I believe the catholic Church, i. I believe, whatsoever the Church holdeth. The grossness of this gloss, see by the other Articles; Credo in them all to have but one sense onely, two in this. Credo hath two senses, one in the former, touching the three persons, there Credere is Confidere. Another in these latter; in which it is but Agnoscere. I say, it hath two senses; but not in one Article. Here Credo Ecclesiam, not Credo Ecclesiae, I believe the Holy Church, the holy catholic Church, that is, I aclowledge it. I humbly aclowledge it; I doubt not, we All do. All have not always; Fides non est omnium, is Saint Pauls aphorism. he means hominum, All men have not faith; I mean Articulorum too; even of believers, all admit not all the Articles. Some not onely not all; but none at all. The Atheist denies all; saith( as Davids fool does) Non est Deus, theres no God. One would think, the whole world had no such infidel; Egypt had, Pharaoh, he asked, who is God? Babylon had, East Babylon, Nebuchadonosor. West Babylon hath had some. He that matched Moses with Mahomet, called them both, and Christ too, trees Barritatores the three famous brables or troublers of the world,( twas Pope Gregory the ninth) had no God in his creed.  
But in the second Article of Christs divinity, Infidels are infinite. All Iewes, all Mahometanes. I pass by the Apostata, and some more, who sometimes Christians, yet denied Christ. By the Pope I cannot pass, lo the tenth Christs vicar, yet believed not Christ, called the Gospel a Fable, said to cardinal Bembus, Quantas nobis opes peperit illa Fabula de Christo! And for the holy Ghost, had all men acknowledged him; there had been no need of the council of Constantinople, the first council.  
Now for the other Articles, do all aclowledge them? why then says Saint Paul to them of Corinth, How say some among you, that there is no resurrection? Rome can sample this too: what heresy is there, but the Pope hath a part in it? Three or four of them have doubted of the souls immortality. For this in question, my theme now, doth every Christian give his Credo to it? I hope so; for I read of no opponent. indeed this Article is not in every creed, found but in few[ The Nicene hath it not, the right Nicene; the reputed hath; and one more in Epiphanius. None else, that I have seen, none public and ancient.] Not the catholic Church onely, but the Communion of Saints too, is omitted in most Creeds. The latter( I think) in all, save the Apostles. But neither of them both is the less to be believed; but the more rather, in my poor opinion, which I humbly submit to your more learned judgements. They synods of the Church were mostly summoned for the censuring of heretics, who had opposed the Faith, oppugned some Article of the Apostles creed. The religious Bishops by their after-Creeds did but confirm this. All Articles in them were in this first, expressly, or implyed. What Articles of this the heretics at times presumed to question, those Fathers determined, and reestablisht them in theirs. As especially the points which concern Christ, or the holy Ghost. Other points of faith, as the day of judgement and of resurrection, save in the Apostles dayes, were never controverted. The councells therefore after them did not( for they needed not) put them in their Creeds: very few did. Much less they of the Church to be catholic and holy, the Communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, and everlasting life, none ever denied them. That the not finding them in any Creed, but in the Apostles, argues they require the more undoubted Faith, as being never contradicted. They are onely in the creed of the council of Constantinople, but ex superabundanti. And therefore with your learned leaves, I doubt not to insert this one word into this Article, to read it {αβγδ}, I believe the holy catholic Church. Both it and the three following make no sentence without it. Without Credo understood, they have no understanding. I borrow but the verb; not the preposition too.  
And yet why not? the Pope will warrant me to borrow both; will dispense with me at least. Is not the Pope the Church? They say, he is, the holy Father Pope is the holy mother Church. Not the head alone of it. That though too much, yet is little; that he was long ago, the Churches head. Is he not Peters successor, whom Christ called Cephas, thats a head; a Pope said so. Hebrew is greek at Rome. I mean syriac. Nor was it lapsus linguae, as once Fiatur was. It is maintained by Turrian the Iesuite, and the notes in the Canon law. A head so long ago, must now be grown to a whole body. The Pope is the whole Church. When we say, the Church; we mean the roman Bishop, saith Gregory de valentia. Gerson makes him more. Great is the Popes growth. The Church was once the body, he the head; and yet that but usurped too. Now Dimidium plus toto, the Church is but a part, the Pope the whole, saith that good chancellor of Paris. I hope the Sorbon thought not so. Hervaeus saith too, he is the Church virtualiter. If the Pope be the Church; then put in preposition too, Credo in sanctam ecclesiam, I believe in the Church. For in the Pope I may believe, for he is Christ; not Christs Vicar onely, but Christs self. One in the Lateran council called lo the tenth his Saviour. I may believe in God, I must. The Pope is God, Felinus saith, a French Lawyer. The gloss in the extravagant calls him, Our Lord God the Pope. He was thought but a Parasite that styled Pope Paul the fift, Vice-God. The Canonists flatter worse, that make him Gods self. I am too long in this, if a man may bee too long in inveighing against such absurdities. To deal ingenuously, the creed of Constantinople hath the preposition, {αβγδ}, and Drusius a great critic, maintains the phrase. So may wee in his sense. For he makes it mean no more, then Credere Ecclesiam.  
The object of this Credo is the Church. The other Creeds gives it three titles, it is one, it is catholic, and it is apostolic. This but two, Holy and catholic. It is fit, we first speak of herself, then of her Attributes. Very excellent things are spoken of thee, O thou daughter of God, thou Apple of Gods eye, and signet of his hand; Christs spouse and sister, his dove, and his beloved; the beauty of the earth, and inheritrix of heaven. But mine office now is not to preach her praises, but to teach her children. Beloved brethren, Gods children by the Church, bread in her womb, fed from her breasts, know, what your mother is. He is a wise son( they say) that knows his father. learn you to know your mother, you that are learners. Many of you can teach me.  
The Church is the university of all Gods chosen people, from Adam to Christs second coming; of them all. First for them all. The Church means not the visible confessors of Christ onely, apparent to the world. Many believe on Christ in the lands of unbelievers; many serve him secretly under persecuting Kings. Christ hath his lilies among thorns; God a job, a just man, in the land of Hus. The Saints in heaven unseen, are a part of the Church too, the Church triumphant. Not viatores onely, comprehensores too, belong unto Christs body, and are members of the Church. What if I shall say, Angells are too? Aquinas doth, and Saint Bernard: Papists say more; some in hell too; all that are in Purgatory. Theres good cause to call it catholic, that spreads so far. Militans, and Triumphans contain not all the Church; theres a part, peccata expians, saith Gregory de valentia.  
Come we to the attributes: first, it is holy. Gods Elect, Saint Paul calls holy, Col. 3. 12. Christ gave himself for the Church, dyed for it, Saint Paul says, to sanctify it, to make it spotless, blameless, holy to himself. How can it but be holy, washed by Christs blood? The Churches holinesse stands in two things, Purity of Doctrine, and sanctity of life. urim and Thummim must be on her breast. What Saint Paul craves in timothy, one of her sons must bee much more in the mother, {αβγδ}, sound Faith, and holy life. For the first, though holinesse look rather at our life, then at our faith; yet there is an holy faith, Saint Iudes epithet, a most holy faith.  
Not onely this impurity defiles the faith; but all heretical pravity is a bar to holinesse. heresy is hell-bred, saith Ignatius, {αβγδ}. It is {αβγδ}, Sathans seed, saith the same father. The Church abhors it. heretics( I say) are not of the Church. Bellarmine saith, they are: but Canus saith, they are not, lib. 4. cap. 2. In it they are, as onely Dealbati( Saint Austins word) white: For the Church ought to be, as ●olicrates said she was in the time of the Apostles, an undefiled and chast virgin. When shee teacheth heresy, shee turns adulteress.  
For the other, holy life. Tota Pulchraes, thou art all faire, my love, may receive two constructions, orthodoxal both. Either that the whole Church is holy, no part of her impure; or that shee is so wholly, in life as well as faith; in manners, as in doctrine. Heathens charged the first Christians, when they assembled to serve God, and to celebrate Christs supper with murder of Infants, eating their flesh, and drinking their blood; with carnal copulation in the dark, promiscuous and incestuous. Who can let satan from lies? But Tertullian quits them. So do Papists serve us, cast false aspersions on our Church. I would they were not true of theirs. Worse, far worse things true of them, then they falsely lay on us. What we shall be, God knows: out landish leaven may sour some of us. But since our parting from the Pope, and the sound Preaching of the gospel, much impurity is purged out of our Land. Yea the Churches sound members have also their infirmities. herself saith, shee is black, Cant. 1. 4. Nigra, but formosa, shee adds that, she is holy notwithstanding them. We wrestle to our power against all the power of darkness. We crave Gods grace; and he gives it, to walk in all obedience to his holy will and word. Ego dormio, said Cor meum vigilat, the Churches words too, her eyes may wink, but her heart waketh. Her holinesse is not absolute, not perfect in this life; as Donatists and Catharists require. But yet tis Inchoata, she labours and endeavours so much as God enables her.  
The Church is holy, but whence? Her holinesse is not her own; tis given her. Native shee hath none; tis Dative all. Shee may say to God, Bona mea, Dona tua; That shee is Holy, it is wholly from him. he hath made her so two ways. Partly by his son, clothing her with his righteousness; thats but Imputative. And partly by his Spirit, who enableth her to every good work; and that holinesse is inherent. Inherent holinesse every man hath, must have, that shall be saved. The word( inherent) may offend some of little knowledge. But the judicious will admit it without scruple. But that holinesse too stands on Gods sweet acceptance. It is full of weakness; but it pleaseth him in Christ. I say, the Church is holy, not in Christ onely, by his righteousness reckoned unto her; but also in herself. Not of herself; but in herself, by the works of Regeneration; the fruits of her Faith, wrought by the grace of the sanctifying Spirit. For where the Church is, Gods Spirit is, saith iron. and where the Spirit is, all grace is, he saith too.  
There are some more respects, why the Church is titled holy. It is consecrate to God; Sanctitas jehovae, all things God craves to be dedicate to him, are called Sancta, holy things. It is Holy, for the mystical union with her head. Christ honours her with his style. Holy is that Body, the Head whereof is God. Not by Synecdoche; every member is holy, Dicat unusquisque, saith Saint August. Sanctus sum. It is Holy, for that faith, which knits together all the members of the Church which Saint Iude calls Sanctissimam, the most holy faith. I meet with more; but I omit them.  
The Churches second Attribute is catholic. A dark term, needs an interpreter. It means, universal; tied to no one Condition of men onely, no one Country, no one Age; but is Omnium Temporum, Lecorum, Hominum, of all Times, all Places, and all Sorts of men. Will you hear a fourth from the Tridentine catechism? The Church called universal; because all that will be saved, must hold and embrace it. Patianus had another, but strained; called the Church catholic, for Obedience to all the Commandements of God. For Place, David bounds it at the ends of the Earth, psalm 2. For Time, it is yesterday, to day, and for ever. For Persons, Greekes and Iewes, Bond and Free, Male and Female, All are one in Christ Iesus, Gal. 3. 28. So ample is the Word, that it contains( saith Lirinensis) Omnes semper ubique, All, ever, every where. The Synagogue was not so; that contained but Israel, and lasted but till Christ. The Church takes in all, and never ends. I mean Generice, not Individualiter. Some have been of it, of all sorts, in all lands, one time or other. All Lands have not at once had some believers. Satis est, si successive, saith Bellarmine, it sufficeth, if at times.  
How then doth Solomon call it a Garden, a Garden enclosed? As I may not strain it, so I may not straighten it. A Garden; but not for the straightness of her ground, but for the sweetness of her graces. And the enclosure is not for the confining of the Church; but for the safety, and Gods propriety in the Church. It is {αβγδ}, Irenaeus his term, {αβγδ}, Athanasius his word, diffused and dispersed, dispersed far and wide. Theres no Quando, or ubi, but acknowledgeth the Church. Before the Law, the Patriarkes; under the Law, the Prophets; the Apostles, the Christs time. All believers since. All that either waited for Christ before his coming, or have confessed him since; that do now of shall hereafter, unto the worlds end, of all nations under heaven.  
The Church is Christs Body, but his Body mystical. It is not with it, as with a Body natural. A natural body hath the members all at once. But Christs mystical members grow into his Body, some yesterday, to day some, some to morrow. God choose them all together, even before they were, before the Heavens were: but he calls them in their course, and incorporates them in Christ, one after another. Adam, Abel, and Soth first; Noah and Shem afterward. Abraham and his seed in their succeeding ages. The Gentiles in their time, our ancestors, ourselves, our Children till Christs coming; the whole world of believers in their several generations. All the faithful of both Testaments, Law and gospel, make but one church. Thats for time and for place; Christ is the Corner ston, that conjoins Iewes and Gentiles. Shem and his sons onely, were sometimes; Iaphets seed were all Aliens. The Iewes, Gods Children; Gentiles but Dogges, Christs term; strangers to the Covenant; without Hope, without Christ, without God, all Saint Pauls words, Christs cross( Pauls term too) hath now endenized them, made them of Gods household. They are {αβγδ}, of the same Corporation; coheirs and Partners of Gods promise in Christ. The Preaching of the gospel hath made the Church catholic, Saint Paul published it to Rome, and much of Greece. Saint Peter( Papists say) to France and Germany, Coster. Controv. pag. 90. Saint james to spain. Thomas to the Indians, Parthians, Medes, Bactrians, and others. joseph of Arimathea to Vs. Others to all nations known in those ages.  
Donatus once confined the Church to Africa. The Pope doth now to Rome. That now the catholic Church, which obeys the Pope. So saith de Valentia, and other Romanists. How shall it do, when there are two Popes at once, three Popes together? Nay, how shall it do, when the Pope dyes. Then belike there is no Church. No Pope three yeares together. jesuits( I doubt) shortly will impropriate the Church, appropriate it to their Society. They may show Patent from Saint Paul, 1. Cor. 9. 1. Hce calls it there the society of Iesus. I wonder, how that Scripture scapes them.  
To conclude, the members of the Church are sundered in person by far distance haply both of time and place. Yet are they knit together, all into one Communion, by one baptism, and one faith, by the bond of the holy Spirit. And that is it, the Apostles mean in this Creed, by the catholic Church. Tis a Church; for tis a Company electa& evocata, culled and called out of the wicked world. Tis Holy; for tis Gods; Sanctitas jehovae. Tis catholic; for all Ages, all Lands, all sorts of People, some of them All, have been, are, and shall be members of the Church. unto him, that first elected it, in his love, God the Father; and unto him, that espoused it, Iesus Christ, his son; and unto him, that sanctifies all that belong to it, God the holy Ghost, all of them joint-founders at the first and perpetual Patrons of the Church unto the end, be jointly ascribed, All Honour, and Glory, &c.   

A SERMON PREACHED VPON THE SEVENTH COMMANDEMENT. The seven and twentieth Sermon.  EXOD. 20. 14. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 
THE seventh Commandement in the Law; the times call for it; an idle Age, and Wantons multiply. hear the words, and hate the sinnne, all ye, that do fear God. Thou shalt not( Gods self bids) commit adultery And why not Thou? Samson did, a man reckoned among the Righteous. Heb. 11. Salomon did, whom God called jedidiah, his Beloved. David did, a man according to Gods heart. What then? virtue goes not by precedents. God therefore gave the Law; because all men are sinners, Saints and all, Saints on earth. To warrant sin, city not examples, Quid facta videam, cum verba audiam? What should I heed, what men do, Let me hear, what God saith. he saith here, Non moechaberis, Thou shalt not commit, &c.  
First why Thou; then why Not. For the former, Why that Person? Why that Number? For Person; why the Second? The laws of Men run in the third mostly, both Civill, Nequis, and Canon, Siquis. But the second seems to speak more personally, more closely to every man. When I red, or hear, Non facies, Thou shalt not do this; me thinks, God speaks to me, particularly; more, than if he said, Ne quis facito, Let no man do it. The third Person yields more tergiversation, more evasion than the second.  
For the Number; it is not plural, but Singular. Non moechabimini, forbids not with that power, as Non moechaberis. Thou comes much nearer me, than ye; speaketh to me Individually. Eve was with Adam, when God forbade him the eating of one three. Yet God said but Non comedes, Thou shalt not eat; held his Prohibition to be more powerful so, then Non comedetis, ye shall not. Eve indeed tells the Serpent, God had said, ye shall not; and Saint Ambrose saith so too, and presses it. But I will credit Moses more than Eve, or Saint Ambros. he red the 70. not the original. Nay Gods self saith, he said so, Gen. 3. 11. Hast thou eaten of the three, whereof I said, Thou shalt not eat.  
But yet again for the Person, what Thou? As particular, as it seems, it seems not to mean me. For whom speaks God to? To All? Thou may mean so: but haply doth not here; seems not. God saith but, hear o Israel, Deut. 5. 1. speaks but to Iewes onely, not me. I will ask with Pilat, Egone judaeus, am I a jew? The other two I but touched; I must tarry more on this.  
Saint Paul saith, Lex non est posita, The Law speaks not to all; not to the just. Legis ex moribus, Bad manners bread good laws. {αβγδ} and Lex is á Ligando. laws are Hedges and Bands. Hedges are for Strayers, bands for the unruly. Mostly they are; and a Righteous man {αβγδ}, saith Chrysostome, needs no Law; tis a Law to himself. But Saint Paul saith too, No man is Righteous. Say some be; he needs no Law, mens laws. Yet is not lawless. Gods Law is in his heart, and {αβγδ}, Gods Law, thats {αβγδ}, a band stronger, than all laws. Noah, Enoch, and Abraham, just men, had that Law graved in their hearts, long before Moses. Adam had in his innocency. But we are fallen far, even the holiest of us all, from the perfection of the Patriarkes. Besides Gods Law engraven in our souls, wee need this too; the written Law: A double hedge, yet hardly holds us; two bands; we break both. The best needs binding; no man hath immunity. God saith to every man, Thou shalt not.  
But yet to Iewes alone; prefaceth the Law with their bondage under Pharaoh; speaks to them expressly, whom he had newly brought out of the land of Egypt. They were Hebrewes, Sems seed; What is that to us, Iephets posterity? Saint Paul appropriates the Law to them, Rom. 9. 4. theirs is the {αβγδ}, the Law belongs to them. Origen answers {αβγδ}, not to them onely; Ad te, to us also, multo magis ad te, more to us, than them, much more. God hath brought us out of Egypt. sin is Egypt, a House of ba●er bondage, then it. satan is Pharaoh, a feller Tyrant, than he. From sin, and satan Christ hath rescued us. There is a spiritual Israel; the hearts Circumcision makes the right Iewe; and Faith the sons of Abraham. Gods Audi Israel is to us; and every Thou shalt not, pertains to every man. All believers are Gods Israel.  
But the gospel quits the Law, gives me Christian liberty. The band of the Law is not loosened by it. It is a faster tie to it. It breaks not the band, but the bondage of the Law, makes my obedience not Servile, but Ingenuous. It is Libertas, not Licentia. To live, as I list, were not Christian liberty, but Heathenish licentiousness. Christ hath freed me from the Law, that is, from the Curse of it, and from the slavish yoke of it. God I must serve still; but Servitute libera, not as a slave servilely, but freely as a son. Christ, who is Redemptor, is Legistator too. he that hath freed me, is he that bound me; and that will judge me at the last day, according to my works, that is, my disobedience or obedience to his Law. There were indeed some heretics in Luthers dayes, disgraced the Law; held, it concerned not Christians; cursed Moses {αβγδ}, in malam rem, ad Diabolum. Whom Luther opposed both by pen, and Disputation; called them Antinomos, and Nomomachos. And yet( not to dissemble) Luther had let fall some solecisms himself. In a word, Moses judicial and ceremonial laws were indeed proper to Israel, {αβγδ} and {αβγδ}. But {αβγδ} the moral Law, i. the ten Commandements are common to all Nations. Thou shalt not, commands All.  
Yet haply not All. The womans sex may seem exempt; and young men challenge Dispensation. For the former; the Thou is masculine in the original; as if God meant it onely to the male. The Iewes tongue seems to sound so to a Iewes ear. But saving in things proper to one sex, what is said to the one is meant to both. The one implies the other. God spake to Eve as well as Adam, when he said, Thou shalt not eat. Yet his terms were onely masculine. Yea, let women think the Law speaks more specially to them. For murder, Theft, drunkenness, adultery, every sin is more, far more odious in a woman, than a man. Crave they express Scripture? Deut. 23. 17. There shall not be a whore among the daughters of Israel.  
For the other; old Mitio saith in the comedy, Non est flagitium( mihi creed) adole scentulum scortarier. It is no such huge offence for a young man to haunt Harlots; swear by his troth, Mihi creed, experto creed; belike he had done it in his youth. Detur aliquid adolescentiae, young men must have leave, a little leave to play the wantons. Thus do panders corrupt youth. But David will have young men cleanse their ways, Psal. 119. His sons Memento is unto them too, Eccles. 12. Remember thy creator in the dayes of thy youth. The rabbis rule bids, {αβγδ} Thy son at thirteen yeares old, set him to the Law. Not to learn it; that he must at five, Puer quinque annorum ad Biblia, but to obey it. He is called at that age {αβγδ} filius legis, i. subject to the Law. tully saith, It is wisdom to let youth have all liberty, quoad deferbuerit; He spake that as an orator, pleading for a lewd young man. But he saith otherwise in his Offices, when he speaks as a Philosopher; Ea aetas arcenda est a voluptatibus, youth must be weaned from wantonness. Scripture rich in is examples.  
Leave wee the Person, come to the negative Note, Prohibitive here. Thou shalt not. Why Not? Why runs the Law almost all upon Nons? Non habebis, Non facies, Non sums, &c. laws are lightly negative, affirmative but few. First, vices are far more then virtues, two to one at least. laws occasioned commonly by bad manners, do Prohibere more then ●ubere; say, Thou shalt not, much oftener then thou shalt. Secondly, because so a Law is more brief, and yet more ample. Negatives reach further then Affirmatives. Prohibitorium imperatur pluribus, Ambr. And thirdly logic learns us, they are stronger then they too. Precepts of both kindes Gods Law hath; Negatives as many, as the year hath dayes, as the rabbis reckon them: far fewer Affirmatives. This Decalogue Negatives all save two: as it were, to bind us the faster to obedience. Thats generally for all? For this particular; the Negative note is more peremptory here; not so strong in some other, in the most. An Image I may make, so it bee not to fall down to it. swear I may, before a Magistrate. Neglect the Sabbath, on necessity. Forsake my Parent, in some cases. Kill mine enemy in lawful fight. Covet my neighbours house, his servant, or his beast; with his will, and on conditions. But commit adultery I may not, in any case on any condition.  
In those things, some circumstance may authorize, or excuse me; none in this. Romes almighty Bishop cannot dispense here. he does de facto. Not indeed with adultery: but with other sins couched under it, some worse then it. He licenceth the stews, permits Concubines: that but single Fornication. Grants incestuous marriages; thats worse then adultery, somewhat worse. Yea sodomy too; thats far worse. Ferdinand King of Naples by his leave married his Aunt. Emmanuel of Fortugall, his wives Sister. One his own sister, by Pope Martins Bull. Sixtus the fourth gave cardinal lucy leave, him and all his, to be Sodomites. But by his holinesse leave, this law bears no indulgence. The simplest fornication cannot be dispenc't with by the triple-Crowned Pope. It is, but not de jure. What God binds, man may not loose. Canonists say, Popes may. They are the Popes Parasites. schoolmen wiser then they, say they cannot. Aquinas the best of them saith, the ten Commandements are Indispensabilia, admit no dispensation. Bellarmine himself saith, the Popes Champion, the Pope cannot dispense in ●ure divino.  
Theres one case in which private men will be Popes, will give themselves indulgence for single fornication. In some weakness of body, for recovery of health, and some lewd physician will give that counsel too. But both patient and physician may so go to hell together. Let no man slay his soul to ease his body. I have been long in the person and the particle: I come to the main term; of two words, Act, to commit; Object, adultery; both but one in the original.  
Both greek and Hebrew, and other eastern tongues have but one word. Yet least some wanton may stumble at the phrase; one word of it. Thou shalt not commit. May I just and not be guilty? think it, so I act it not? Thats not the meaning. Theres an adulterous eye, Saint Peter saith; an adulterer Aspectu, as well as Actu, saith Saint Ambrose, Quoties concupiscimus, toties fornicamur, saith Saint Hierom. Sirachs son saith, concupiscentia spadonis devirginavit juvenculam, even the eunuchs Lust deflowres a Virgin. The body is not fold but by the act; but the soul is by the thought. It is not my gloss on it, but Christs; who but looking on a woman lusts withall, hath committed adultery, Matth. 5. 28. Every precept forbids sin in word, and thought, as well as act. So doth this, and in this term. Not the doing the act onely, is to commit it. But the ribald in his tongue, and the lustre in his heart, commits it too. As well the verbal, and mental adultery is meant here by committing, as the real and actual, and the Law is spiritual, Saint Paul saith.  
But why adultery? why not some wider word of more extent, to forbid all uncleanness? Adultery is but one. The Law is presumed to permit, what it forbids not. Belike then Fornication is no sin. The Gentiles thought so; as appears by Saint james, Act. 15. 20. It is inter adiophora, forbidden by him there among other things indifferent. Or if it be a sin; why is not put here rather then adultery? Had the Law forbidden that; it had implyed this too. If I may not Scortari; less may I moechari. But who shall teach Gods spirit to speak? laws should bee short. Gods are. These specially. His moral Law, but Decalogus, his ten Commandements, but ten words. No more the most of them in some greek Fathers; four in Moses Text, five in Pauls, Rom. 13. 9. This in both, {αβγδ}. But one word, but a pregnant one, Multarum rerum gravida, contains many under it. A great Synecdoche, as in the other precepts; one limb of wicked lust for all.  
Lust is Hydra of many heads; justin Martyr calls it {αβγδ}: adultery, if either of the parties be married; Fornication, if both single; whoredom, when with many; Stuprum, if with a Virgin; Incest, if with a kinswoman; Rape, if there bee force. There bee more, which I name not for their abominable filthiness. They are here prohibited all. All kinds of incontinency; yea intemperancy too: It is pander to incontinency. drunkenness, idleness, luxury, ribaldry, whatsoever 'vice is enemy to chastity, this commandment means them all. Time will not let me tax them in particular. I will take them all in gross. Haply hereafter of them severally.  
Brutum ego, saith Salomon; David saith so too: both said they were beasts. We are all. Not as they meant, in ignorance; but in sin. Every sin is a brute beast. Anger a lion, drunkenness a Swine, and so the rest. But yet but one sin, but one beast. But filthy lust is every beast; lusts promiscuously. So doth the Lecher, Omnium mulierum vir, as Curio called Caesar, lusts after every woman. Let me not be partial; women do so too, wicked women, lassata viris, nondum satiata, saith the satirist of Messalina; I will not english it, for chast womens sakes. A sin so odious, that the Lecher to bee quit of it, will make no scruple to forswear himself. Solon seeing an adulterer offer to take oath, cried, non est perjurium pejus adulterio, the crime of perjury was less then of adultery. he meant in the lewd opinion of the Lecher.  
Indeed the devil saith to a Lechers soul, non sunt magna carnis peccata, it is Saint Austins note; the sins of the flesh are not so great. Mitio was of his mind, Non est flagitium, tis no such heinous crime; but {αβγδ}, a small fault in the epigram. Papists say, wee say so; worse then so; tis no sin; lust is lawful. Lying persons say so: and Salmeron the Iesuite saith, lutherans say so too, venery is no sin. saith not the Papist so? the Popes self so? One of them but reckons it, inter minora crimina, among petty faults. His cardinals say so too; Tolet doth, saith tis no sin, when tis ob sanitatem. Yea their Law saith, Canon Law, there's Honesta fornicatio.  
But Gods Law censures all lust, not prohibits onely. You hear the prohibition, thou shalt not. Not here onely; it is often. There shall not be a whore among the daughters, nor a whore keeper among the sons of Israel, Deut. 23. Not the Law onely; some except against it, gospel too. You heard Saint james in the Acts; he bids {αβγδ}, abstain. So doth Saint Peter, abstain from fleshly lusts. This is one, a main one, the principal, Gal. 5. 19. Saint Paul, fly fornication. Both nequis, Heb. 12. Let there bee no whoremonger: & siquis, if there bee any; shun him, 1 Cor. 5. Not whoredom onely, but all filthiness, not onely not bee done, but not bee name, 2 Cor. 12. Christs self to the adulteress, noli peccare amplius, bids her sin no more.  
But the Law here hath no pain. hear the censure; the Lay-censure; in some cases, but stripes, but death mostly. ecclesiastical, the Lev●●● shall curse the incontinent person; and all the people shall say, Amen to it. Even the adulterer, punished in many lands with death: scapes easily in ours. The ancient Canons enjoined him a long penance: a white rod, and a sheet for an hour or two serves us; too light a pain for so lewd a crime. But there is a heavier censure then all this, eternal death, damnation. The fire of lust shall feel the fire of hell.  
Lust hath many pains on earth, beside the laws. Sometimes beggary; a harlot will bring thee to a morsel of bread, saith Salomon. sometimes loathsome disease, loathsome and infectious. always shane, shane indelible. It shall outlast thy life, light on thy son after thee, the son of fornications. Every mouth shall call him base. Yea a curse beside the shane; the base-borne child lightly proving lewd. All these pains are but temporal. But the Apostle saith, Gods kingdom shall be shut against the Lecher. Without shall be dogges, saith Saint John, i. whoremongers. Where without? In the Lake, that burns with fire and brimstone; which is the second death, the everlasting death. hear and fear all lustres after strange women. Tremble ye all here, that you may not tremble there: where the torments shall force you to gnaw your tongues for pain, and blaspheme God himself through the unsufferable anguish.   

A SERMON PREACHED VPON THE LAST question IN THE catechism. The eight and twentieth Sermon.  What is required of them, that come to the Lords Supper To examine themselves, &c. 
THE Christian. catechism is a large Field. The King hath not imprisoned the afternoon Preacher, in confining him to it. It is spacious enough. A Field? A Garden rather, the Garden of Eden, fruitful and delightful. Yea for some privileges, to be preferred before it. Theres no Serpent in it; theres no forbidden fruit in it: you may eat of every three: God excepts none. As out of Eden into Paradise went a great River: so doth there out of Gods book, into the catechism. Which breaks itself into four Heads, Pishon, Gihon, Hiddekel, and Perat; the Creed, the Commandements, the Lords Prayer, and the Sacraments. These far excelling those. The first onely of them had ●old, and Bdellium, and the onyx ston. These all are in all these; and their streams, like Davids River in the psalms, Make glad the city of God, water Gods Garden.  
The fourth fits best this Season, and this Day. This Day called Passion Sunday: and the Sacrament was ordained for a remembrance of Christs Passion. This Season; the dayes approach, which call us all to the Lords Table. To his holy Table none may rashly rush, none come unto his Supper, without due Preparation. Be that mine Office now, with your Patience, God assisting me, to prepare you to that Supper. Tis the last Question in the catechism; What is required of them that come to the Lords Supper? Tis there answered thus, To examine themselves, whether they repent them truly of their former sins, steadfastly purposing to led a new life; have a lively Faith in Gods mercy through Christ, with a thankful remembrance of his Death; and be in charity with all men.  
The words contain two terms an Act, and an Object: but one Act, to Examine; but five Objects, Repentance, Reformation, F 〈…〉 thankfulness, and Love. Sorrow for sins past; Purpose of new life; Faith on Christ Iesus; Thanksg●●ing unto God; Charity towards men. Not Faith only,( as some say, as some lying Papists say, wee say) sufficeth to prepare a man to the Lords Table. To him that shall say so, their council of Trent saith, and wee gainsay it not, Anathema sit, let him be excommu●●cate.  
First for the Act, It is to Examine. Thats the preparative against the Sacrament. Our bodies before purging use Preparatives: should not our souls? Our sins are purged by Christs Passion. Craves not the Potion of his blood, a Preparative? The Iewes Sabbath had a {αβγδ}; the Evangelists call it Parasce●en; a Preparative, the Even of every Sabbath. The day of Christs Passion, the Even of the great Sabbath, John 19. is titled so {αβγδ}, titled so to this day, Good Friday, is Parasceve, a Preparative. Wee need against that day, that blessed Day of Mans Redemption, above all Sabbaths, a Prosabbathon, a {αβγδ}; that Parasceve, a Proparasceve, many dayes preparatory. The whole Lent is of purpose ordained to this end; to prepare us to the Sacrament, against the feast of Easter. All Christians 〈◇〉 that time, of fit age and understanding, are invited to Christs Supper, to partake the holy mysteries of Gods own blood and 〈◇〉, E●quis ad haec idoneus, who is sufficient for these things? They requi●● g●●● Preparation. Every man may cry to Christ with the meek Centurion, Domine non sum dignus, Lord I am unworthy.  
Be pleased the 〈◇〉 attend to the Cetechists Preparative. Great is the danger of the unprepared. It is {αβγδ}, the Fathers call Christs Supper so, {αβγδ}, thats verendum, to be received with reverence. But Gods Iudgement on Iudas, for coming unprepared, is {αβγδ}, thats ●●rrendum. The profane Communicant ●●ceives the Bread and Wine, as Iudas did. But the devil with all enters into his heart, Fills him full of all iniquity, and brings him to destruction both of body and soul. Quisquis ad●●●ncta, saith God to Moses, Whosoever shall come near the holy thing 〈◇〉 Immunditia, in any uncleanness, ext●●●abitur, that soul shall b●●ut off from Israel, from Gods Church. For he holds Christs blood unholy: Which who doth, what pain,( saith the Apostle) is he worthy of▪  
This danger is prevented by this Preparative Act of Examining ourselves, Non ego, said Dominus, It is not the Catechist requires this Act; tis God▪ Wee red not Scripture Text always in catechism. But it is grounded all on Scripture. This Act of examining, is express Scripture. 1 Cor. 11. 28. {αβγδ}, Let every man( saith S. Paul) examine himself; and so let him eat; both eat and drink too, by the papists leave: but first examine. Examination is that to the Sacrament, that John Baptist was to Christ, his {αβγδ}, Christs harbinger. he cried before Christ; Parate, Prepare. down with mountaines, fill up valleys, make strait, what is crooked, plain, what is rough. The Lords way must be smooth, and his paths strait. So cries Saint Paul, {αβγδ}, examine every man the ground of his heart, against Christ, shall enter it. Impenitency, Infidelity, want of Charity, and the rest, are hills, and valleys, rough and crooked ways; Parate, prepare them: Dominus prope, the Lord is at hamd. Wee go to a Communion: and Saint Paul saith, theres no Communion between Christ and Belial. satan could say to Christ, Quid mihi,& tibi, what have I to do with thee? Saint Iohns {αβγδ} is Saint Pauls {αβγδ}, to prepare Christs path, is to examine these things contained in this answer. Whats the first? Whether they truly Repent them of their sins? The repentance of sins past. Of the fifthfold object, that comes first to be examined. I will follow the books order.  
No man may come to Christs board without Repentance. Before Christ, went John Baptist to prepare his way. How? By Sermons of Repentance. It is the first word of his Sermon {αβγδ}, repent. Repent, for the kingdom of God is, &c. Meate put into the stomach, forecharged with evil humours, nourisheth little, but hurts rather, and works pain. The Sinners soul not repenting, takes in the Lords bread, Panem Domini, not Panem Dominum, his bread, but not his body. {αβγδ}, saith Origen, no wicked person can eat it. He cannot eat Corpus Christi, qui non est de corpore Christi. saith Saint August. eat Christs body, that is not of Christs body. He eats but Bread: and yet that to his bane too. The Elementum should be Alimentum: but it is to him Medicamentum; It should be food, but it is poison. It is worse, it is {αβγδ}, Saint Paul saith, tis Damnation. Say, that word means not so much; signify but Iudgement. Thats bad enough. Gods judgements are fearful.  
Why come I to the Sacrament? Is it not, to confirm to me the pardon of my sins? Christs blood was therefore  shed, Christ saith. Without Repentance there is no Pardon. What Man repents not, God remits not. An Heathen man could say, Aristotle could, {αβγδ}, {αβγδ}, Christs blood heals sinners; but theres no cure for the impenitent. pearls and Holy things are not cast( Christ saith) {αβγδ}, to Dogges and hogs, Christ is Holy, an angel called him so, Sathans self calls him so, Luk. 4. 34. His Blood precious, {αβγδ}, Saint Peter calls it so. And what Salomon said in one sense, the sinner may in many, Brutum ego, non homo, he is no man, but a brute beast. The lustful man, a dog, the Drunken man a Swine, no guest for the Lords table. Foris Canes,( saith Saint John in the Apoc.) Dogges shall be without. The Deacon was wont to cry at the end of divine service, when they went to the Communion, {αβγδ}, Holy things are for holy persons; All that are unfit, depart the Congregation. Yet Optatus writes, the Donatists threw Christs body unto Dogges. joseph wrapped Christs body in a clean linen cloath, {αβγδ}. So ought the Communicants conscience be clean, saith Greg. Nyssen. If sin have bespotted it; wash it away with the tears of Repentance. Will I wash my hands, err I touch that, which shall go into my Body; and not clean my Heart, when I take that, which must go into my soul?  
The Heathen Priest cried, when he sacrificed, {αβγδ}, who comes hither? It was answered, {αβγδ}, righteous and good men. Say not, all men are sinners; and so no man may come thither. Tis true, they are. But if they grieve, because they are, Sorrow for their sins: thats the thing is required here: repent them of them, truly repent them; thats required here too: Come they may, they must; Christ calls them. And yet they are not. Repentant Sinners are no Sinners, none in Gods sight. God upon their Repentance, absolves them instantly. If David cry Peccavi, I have sinned: the word is no sooner out of his mouth, but the Prophet answers presently, Peccatum abstulit, God hath put away thy sin. God looks on thee through Christ, clothed with his righteousness. Thou art just so; if penitent, truly penitent. Seneca could say, Quem poenitet peccasse, pe●e est innocens; I will say, plene est innocens: God fully quits him, that repents, that repents truly; add that, or come not.  
The God of truth requires truth in all things; in the other Objects also here meant so, though not mentioned; true Faith, true Love, true Purpose of new life. There is a false, a feigned repentance. Truth in all things hath her counterfeit. Christ abhors such, accurseth them, six times vae vobis in one Chapter, Woe be to you hypocrites. The Christians Faith and Love must be {αβγδ}, without Dissimulation. Saint Paul saith it twice of both. So must Repentance be: All must bee {αβγδ}, Pauls words too, in Simplicity and Sincerity. Examine thine, whether it be such. Hath thine Eye wept for thy sins? hath thy heart groaned for them? Peter wept bitterly. Davids tears wet his bed, washed it. weep haply thou canst not: Sigh and groan thou canst. Saint Augustine saith, true Repentance is vix sine lachrymis, hardly without tears, but never without groans.  
The next Particular, is Purpose of new life. Next; for Repentance is idle without it. The Catechist hath coupled them; because they are individui, unseparable companions, cling so close together, that the latter is indeed a limb of the former. he Repents not, that Amends not, means not at least to mend his life. Death may defeat the performance of his purpose; or God may suffer satan to tempt him afresh presently and powerfully. But there must be in his heart a Resolution at least, an intent of Reformation. It is not else true repentance. It is one part of repentance,( it hath two) Praeterita plangere,& plangenda non committere saith Saint Grego. not to grieve onely for sins past, but to Resolve also not to do them any more. Repentance( I should have noted that before) is a sorrow for sin past. Am I sorry for an Act, which I mean to do again? repeat, what I repent? Thats Repentance of Repentance. Saint Paul saith {αβγδ}, 2 Cor. 7. No man should repent, that he repented.  
There is ever in Repentance a Detestation of sin. Surely, I do not loathe, but I rather love that sin, which I leave not. To the Lazar of Bethesda, and again to the adulteress, Christ cried, {αβγδ}, bad them, sin no more. he that doth, proves himself both a dog, and a Swine; and so unfit( as you heard) for Holy things. he returns, as the one doth, to his vomit, and as the other, to his wallowing in the mire. To end this, the true Repenter looks( as the Poet speaks) {αβγδ}, both behind him, to bewail sins past, and before him, to beware of sins to come. Say not, with the Drunkards, Cras sicut hody, I will do to morrow, as I did to day; but with Eliphaz in job, If I have done wickedly, I will do no more.  
The third is Faith, without which, Repentance is unprofitable. Not so onely, but dangerous; a degree to desperation. Iudas repented, and Ca●n, but despaired both. Repentance sorrows for sin; but stays itself by Faith, comforts itself with Confidence on God, believes his gracious promises in Christ, and applies them to itself. Want of Faith weakens God. Pardon the Word. God is Omnipotent; theres no weakness in him. But want of Faith doth Ponere Obicem, is a boult and bar against Gods Grace. Saint Matthew saith but, Christ did not, but Saint mark saith, Christ could not do many works, for the peoples unbelief. The Non-posse is from Mans incredulity, not from Gods imbecility. The Father of the demoniac said to Christ, if thou canst do: but Christ answered him, if thou canst believe. Tis Faith, that enables: but whom? not God to Give Grace, but Man to Receive Grace. Omnia credenti possibilia, Christs self said, All things are possible; but to him, that believes.  
The Sacrament signifies; not so onely, but gives too; represents not onely, but presents grace to man, great Grace from God, confers, exhibits it. That point hath been learnedly taught you in this place. Yet gives it not; but offers it, reaches it out to All. But they receive it onely, that believe. Faith onely apprehends it; is as, manus, Oculus, saith Saint Ambrose, the Eye, that sees Christ, the Mouth and Hand that take Christ; Credere est Edere, say the Fathers, to believe on Christ, that is, to feed on Christ. Christ is present in the Sacrament; but to them onely that believe. They receive him, and all benefits purchased by his Death. They All, but they Onely. God tenders Grace; but all men are not capable. They are onely, that believe. Gods Love is the fountain; Grace doth flow from it. But Mans Faith is the Conduit; it must run through it. It is Grace that brings Salvation, Saint Paul saith, {αβγδ}, Titus 2. 11. saith it twice. Ephesians 2. You are saved by Grace. Thats on Gods part. But there is somewhat on Mans' too: he must believe. Faith must lay hold on Grace. Christ hath said four times, Fides tua servavit to, thy Faith hath Saved thee. Christ meant but of the Body; but it is as true, more true of the soul.  
Examine this Thou, that comest to Christs Table. It is needful ever, but then most. Thy Faith must be examined. But what Faith? Not Fides Historiae; whether thou believe the Scriptures. Iewes do that; yet deny Christ. Agrippa did, Saint Paul said. Iewes do? Devills do, Saint james saith; believe, but tremble: believe God to bee just, Christ to have suffered. Devills do; Men do not; many men, Christian men: many in the Country; some( I doubt) in this City; believe not Christ. Not of incredulity; but of ignorance; know not, what or why he suffered; what or who he was God or Man, Man or Woman. read they cannot; hear they do not; or if hear, yet not heed. And how can they believe having not heard?  
But the faith, thou must examine, is fides misericordiae, my Text saith, Faith in Gods mercy through Christ. Not bare fides, but fiducia, confidence on God. Examine( I say) not fidem assentientem, a believing faith, that assents to truth in general; but fidem sentientem, a feeling faith, that applies the grace in the Sacrament to ones self. What if I believe, that Christ dyed, dyed for sinners? satan doth so. That faith will not save me. But the discreet Catechist hath used a word, which differenceth saving faith from that, terms it a lively faith. When thou comest to Christs Supper examine thy self, whether thou have that. Whether thou believe, that Christ hath dyed for thee, hath given his body, shed his blood for thee.  
The fourth is thanksgiving; an office meet for every Communicant. Wee term our coming to Christs Table, a receiving. It is fit that a receiver return thankes. {αβγδ}, benefits require thankfulness. This Sacrament {αβγδ} is called the Eucharist, of this office of thanksgiving. And the Priest, reaching the wine, bids drink it in remembrance of Christs blood  shed, and be thankful. There is cause. It is the sign, the seal of the greatest benefit, God ever bestowed on man, his redemption and salvation. {αβγδ}, saith Saint Basil, the greatest, and the royalest, {αβγδ}, the divinest of all the works of God. Nihil tam dignum Deo, saith Tertullian. Nothing so worthy of God, as mans salvation. And of the liturgy in the Sacrament, the greatest part is thanksgiving. And the Priest concludes it with the Anthem of the Angels, Glory be to God on high; Wee praise thee, wee bless thee, wee worship thee, wee glorify thee, wee give thankes unto thee, O Lord God, lamb of God, son of the Father, &c.  
Surely if Angells sung Glory; wee must more. They fell not, needed not to bee redeemed; were confirmed onely. Wee fell all once in Adam, fall still daily. Christ redeemed us, shed his blood for us. Tis meet wee thankfully receive so great salvation. Tis meet, right, and our duty to bee thankful at all times for all graces: but especially for the precious death of our Redeemer; with Angels and Archangels, and all the Company of heaven, to laud and magnify Gods most glorious name, evermore praising him, and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of thy glory; glory bee to thee, O Lord most high. Man is prove enough to pray for things he wants; but forgets thankes, having received them. Of ten lepers cleansed, but one returns to Christ, to thank him. Prayer is of nature, thankfulness of grace. Want forceth open every mouth to crave; Religion opens few to render thankes. Children can sing Hosannah, help Lord; the boyes cried so to Christ. But Hallelujah, praise the Lord, is the song of the Elders in the Apoc.  
To end this, the Sacrament is a commemoration of Christs Passion, a remembrance of Christs death. The Catechist here craves that remembrance to bee thankful. Atheists remember it; Lucian doth, when he calls Christ, {αβγδ}, the crucified, the staked God. The Devills remember it; but they thank him not. Pardon them; twas to their pain. But twas for our good, the greatest good, that God, God of all goodness could do for us. Tis meet, that wee not onely remember it, but be thankful.  
The last thing is charity; next to glory unto God, follows peace towards men. Christ bids, when I offer my gift upon the Altar, go first unto my brother, and bee reconciled to him. Christ craves more then the Catechist; and it is a point worthy our observing. The Cathechist requires but our love towards our brethren. Thats charity active. But Christ craves more, our brothers love to us. Thats charity passive. My brother is offended, I have wronged him. I love him; I have reason, should I do him wrong, and hate him too? Hating him not, I make no scruple of going to the Sacrament, to offer there to God, my prayers, and thanksgiving. May I do it? I may not. Christ gives me an Apage; tis in the Text, {αβγδ}, both are one, bids, get me gone, and be first reconciled.  
Tis Durus sermo, a hard saying; durus, but verus, hard, but to bee heard, heard and obeied. Right first the wrong, thou hast done him, and come then: but not till then. Will he not be satisfied? or malignes he thee without a cause? Liberasti animam tuam, thou hast done thy duty; thou mayst come, if thou malign not him. Bee thou reconciled to him,( Christ bids thee) if thou canst. If not: hate thou not him, not any; the Catechist here bids that. Tis in thy power to pardon them, that trespass thee: do that. Thou cravest pardon of Christ, cravest it on that condition; prayest God to forgive thee, as thou dost forgive others. If thou dost not, thou meanest revenge. Then bearest thou malice, and art not in charity. Thou art no guest for Christ: thou lovest not him, hating thy brother. That Disciple, whom Christ loved, saith, he loves not God, that loves not man. Censures him further, calls him a liar, a man slayer, shuts him out both of light and life, eternal life. This made the Christians in the primitive Church to kiss each other at the Sacrament; called Osculum pacis, the kiss of peace, in sign of love.  
To end this, nothing resembles God better then love; God is love: nothing the devil more then malice. satan signifies spite. Come not with it to Christs table. Quid mihi& tibi? Waht have I to do with thee? said the devil to our Saviour. What hath the man of malice to do with Christ the God of love? And therefore I beseech you in the fear of God lay all these particulars to heart, and do what our Church here enjoins you: examine yourselves, not others; and in special examine your repentance whether it bee true: your purpose whether it bee steadfast: your faith whether it bee lively, your thankfulness whether it be real, and your charity whether it bee with all men: And the God of love the giver of all grace, give to all that come unto Christs Supper, this sorrow for sins past, purpose of new life, faith, thankfulness, and love, bless that holy Sacrament to the comfort of their souls, for his sake that ordained it; cvi cum patre, &c.   

notwithstanding SERMONS. A SERMON INTENDED FOR THE LADY ELIZABETHS PASSAGE THROVGH CANTERBVRIE. The first Sermon.  GEN. 2. 24. For this cause shall a man leave Father and Mother, and shall cleave unto his Wife. 
OR this cause? What cause? It is twofold in the Verses next before; 1. Deus adduxit, God brought the Woman to the Man; 2, Et caro de carne mea, Shee is flesh of his flesh.  
It is a right in marriage, a Ceremony in matrimony, some one to give the woman to be married. God performs that; he delivers her to Adam; and the Priests office too, in joining the Man and Woman together, he also performs that, Matth. 19. Quod Deus conjunxit, &c. Marriage is Gods coupling. The Wife by Solomon is called Gods gift. Are not all things so, wee have? Quid habes, quod non accepisti? What hath any man, but of gift? And whence the gift? {αβγδ}, Every gift is from above, from God. But as if Gods hand were more special in this gift; the wise King calls other things, other gifts; but the Woman, Gods. House( saith he) and Goods, are from the Parents; but the Wife is a Domino, shee comes from the Lord.  
The other Hoc, is {αβγδ}, the identity of substance, the 〈◇〉 〈◇〉, if I may so term it, not the same substance onely,( brethren are so) but the mans own very individual flesh, found in the woman; flesh and bone. So is the Iewes proverb, {αβγδ} A mans Wife is his own body. Who is nearer, than a brother, especially of the same womb? Yet there is a friend nearer than a brother. The child more near than he. The Parent nearer yet. But the Wife unto the Husband is nearer than all these; then Brother, Friend, or Child, or Parent. Thy brother is but thy Parents flesh; but thy wife is thy own flesh; not {αβγδ} onely, as Saint cyril calls her, of the same flesh that thou art, but Caro de carne mea, saith Adam; she is the very flesh; for shee is a rib of thy side. Thy friend is but tanquam tu, as thyself; so Moses terms him: but thy Wife, ipsetu, thy very self, Ephes. 5. 28. Thy child is but a dorp of thy seed: but thy Wife thy one half. Thy Parents bodies are in thee; but thy Wives soul is in thee. I have heard some say, that a woman hath no soul. Tis no such strange paradox, if they mean a wife. Is it not in her husband? Her soul( saith Seneca) Spiritus illius in meo vertitur, the soul of the wife, lives and moves, and is in the soul of the Husband.  
These are the premises to this Conclusion. For that cause, and for this, a man shall leave his Parents, and cleave unto his wife. Tis in Latin, Propter hoc; it might be Propter haec; the Latin doth but turn the Septuagints. The original is better. Propter sic; that phrase respects both Reasons. Tis not for dowry, for person, or for birth, things worthy respect too: but they are Praeter propter. Man must not, woman must not, leave their Parents, and adhere, he to his wife, she to her husband Propter haec, for this cause: no, though it be, then which more honour can it be, to be son in Law unto a King. But for that God brings the woman to the man; and for that the woman is the extract of man, De viro sumpta est; propter hoc, for this cause shall a man leave his Father and Mother; which is the next point in my Text.  
For this shall a man leave father and mother: shall leave them, tis not, shall forsake them. The word in the original indifferently sounds both. But the Churches discretion weighing both words, made choice of this. To forsake the Parents counsel, were undutiful, but their lessons onely. But their persons, great ungraciousnesse. Such a son doth Solomon adjudge his name to shane, and his eyes unto the Ravens. To forsake a Parent, a child to forsake him, that begot him, her that bore him: who, that which Paul saith, wee have of God, I may almost say, he hath from them, {αβγδ}, life and breath, and all things; to bandon these, there is no Hoc, no cause to warrant this: save onely one. There is no cause, no worldly cause; Ghostly one is. Question comes haply between God, and thy Parents, that thou must forsake the one: thy Parents then must pardon the. Yea thy wife, for whom God here gives thee leave to leave thy Parents, must excuse thee too. Forsake them both, thou mayst, thou must, For Christs sake, and the Gospells. Christ approves that Propter; not approves it onely, but rewards it too, rewards it richly, in hundred fold in earth, infinitely in heaven. House, Brother, Child, Parent, Wife, thyself, thou must forsake for this, propter hoc, for Christ: Else thou art not worthy Christ. For this, but for this onely.  
There are, that add a second, or that at least rack this, beyond the reach: that will have here comprehended, the mass under the gospel, and Christs Vicar under Christ. That not onely propter hoc, for the Gospells sake; but propter Hu●c,& propter hanc, for the Popes sake, and the mass, forsake not Parents onely, the fathers of their flesh; but their sovereigns too, the fathers of their country. Not forsake them onely in affection; but plot both the disturbance of their states, and destruction of their Parsons. Persons avouches it. But Christ is not the Pope, nor is the mass the gospel. Forsake our Parents, but propter Deum onely, we may not, but for God alone, for Christ. Popes are but Vice-Gods, but Vice-Christs. Christs warrant is but propter me; for himself, not for his Vicar. To forsake Parents for his sake, is gross impiety, if but natural Parents: but if our Parents Father, Caesars self, tis sacrum scelus, execrable lewdness. Tis here then but a leaving onely, For this a man shall leave.  
It is but a removing onely of the Person, not the Affection; a departure from the Parents, not in filial duty, but in body; a ceasing to reside with them. The son but leaves his Fathers house; and foundes him a new family. So doth the daughter. For my Text is for the woman, as well as for the man. Shee shall leave her Parents, to cleave unto her Husband. Not leave to love, to honour them; that both the man and the woman must do still; both leave to live together. But he and she must leave them; that is, as the Chaldee Paraphrast glosses it, their chamber, house, and family, and begin one of their own.  
Nor is this so light a matter, as seems haply. Not so unkind, so unnatural, so vast, as the forsaking was, the disclaiming, the denying, the renouncing of ones Parents, nay the wishing and working their destruction. But even this too, this onely leaving them, but a local leaving them,( tis little more) is with some loathness, yea even with agony to a virtuous child, especially a daughter to leave the Parents quiter, that bread, that fed, that fostered her: the Father her honour, and the Mother her grace; they both, her crown and countenance; his face her comfort, and her eyes her joy: and the greater the Parents, the greater grief so too, and the farther the remove, the passion greater still.  
The Passion in the Parents as well as in the child: the Daughter loathe to leave them, they as loathe shee should, but that shee must. Shee is now, as Epictetus saith of a daughter, aliena possessio, no longer theirs, but another mans possession; her husbands, not her Parents they have past away their right, and therefore may not hold her. Their loves will make all lets they may. Rebeccaes mother prays that her daughter may stay but ten dayes with her. The Levits wives father Iud. 19. entreats his son in law, hasting to go home, to stay three dayes with him. When the fourth was come, and they ready to depart, he praies him stay that night. When the fifth was come; he delays delays him then till noon, and fain would draw him on, to tarry one night more. But after all their loathness, after all their loves, and for all the right, that they had in her before; Propter hoc, for this cause, God hath given her to a husband, and she now is of his flesh, she must, she will, {αβγδ}, loathe, but yet willingly, leave Father and Mother, and cleave unto her husband. Father and Mother? thats not all; though God say here no more. Zorobabel in Esdras, adds to them, Country too; a man will leave his Country for his Wife. That which Plato saith is {αβγδ}, dearer to him then his Parents, a mans Country: It will he leave for her. So will shee for him: not Rachel onely and Rebecca, women of meaner birth; but even a Kings Daughter, great King Pharaohs Daughter, leave her own people, Psal. 45. 10. travel from Egypt to jerusalem, from Nilus to jordan, as it were from Thames unto the Rhine, to mary Solomon, forsake her native Country, not forsake onely, but forget her own people.  
There is no wrong done to the Parents. Are not themselves accessaries in this Act? Have not the Spousals their assent, the Nuptials their joy, the truest joy and freest of all their life? Is not the whole business of their childrens thus leaving them transacted by themselves? The daughter is indeed aliena possessio; but the Alienation is the Parents Act. Are House and Goods the Parents gift, a Wife the Lords? So Solomon said. Surely the Wife is the Parents gift too; not indeed my Parents, who do mary her; mine give me to her; but her Parents, that is married; they give her to me. The Wife to the Husband, and the Husband to the Wife, both are the Parents gift. Both are, or should be, where Parents are. Love delays the delivery, but it hinders not the grant. son or Daughter, the Parents give them willingly, cheerfully.  
Surely the child is dear unto the Parent; the breath of it( as saith the tragic) the breath of my child, nothing so sweet, as it. My life not dearer then my child: as judah said of jacob and Benjamin, the soul of the Father hangeth on the soul of the child. Yea {αβγδ}, a greek Historian saith, Children dearer to the Parents then their lives. That David showed, O Absalon, my son Absalon, would God I had dyed for thee, O Absalon my son, my son. And will love let the Parent give away the Child? Will a man part from the fruit of his body? Will a woman give away the child of her womb? The basest beggar will not do it; shee will rather bear it at her back. Yet in this case they will, all will, from the beggar to the King, Propter hoc, for this cause. The Father even in person, in the open Congregation, will give away his daughter. The Mothers heart haply earnes at the present Act; but the passion over, shee likes well of it. Yea though as Christ saith of his Spouse, she be the Mothers unica, her onely daughter, and therefore very dear to her; yet she is content. The Child was their Possession, God had given her them Eve saith both, of the first child in the world, Possedi a Domino; the child their right, the justest right from God. That right the Father surrenders there again to Gods Commissioner: all propter hoc, for God, to give her to the man, and to make them both one flesh.  
To end this second point, A man shall leave both Father, and Mother, for his Wife, not to be a Husband, is to cease to be a son, or a Wife to be a Daughter. But that the bond of wedlock is the closest of all bonds. It excels them, but dissolves them not. I say, this leaving of the Parents looseth not the duty, which the Law lays on the child. Rachel though married to jacob, yet prayeth pardon for her duty of Laban her Father. Shee did it not: but in praying pardon she acknowledged it. joseph did it; though in power and honour next the King, yet did reverence to his father, great reverence, pronus in terram, even with his face down to the ground. Not in case alone of Reverence, but also of relief, obedience, Protection, and whatsoever duty is comprised besides, within that general term of Honour. But still with this Proviso, that the duties to be done of the child unto the Parent, disturb not the conjunction between the married couple. They must give place to this, as both the straighter bond, and the more ancient. The Decalogue is younger then this Institution. Husband and Wife were before child and Parent. Sinai must yield to Paradise. That which God bids, doth dispense with that, which Moses bids. Or say, that God bids both; Moses was but Gods mouth. God commands not contraries. The one includes the tacite exception of the other. That abrogates not this. Say the most you can against it, that God speaks not Praeceptive, but Permissive onely: yet so it is an Indulgence. The latter is the Law; and a man is tied to that. But wedlock hath a privilege; and the married man by it, say, it be not,( shall leave,) yet tis( may leave) at the least, both Father and Mother, and cleave unto his Wife; the last point in my Text.  
Which whether it describe the Marriage Bond, or define the Marriage Duties, I will not define. Say it be the first. Christ hath but called it a conjunction; it is more. Conjunction is sometimes of things remote, The sun and moon are far asunder, even in their conjunction. Saint Pauls term hath more Emphasis, and the Evangelists have it too, {αβγδ}, tis an Agglutination. glue joins two bodies as but one. My Texts term is significant: can things be closer, then cleave together? But Saint Pauls term is more pregnant. glue not closeth onely, but fastens too, fastens so firmly, that the bodies joined together will rather rend in the whole, then sever in the joint. The Bond of Marriage is Indissoluble. Of two things glued together, the one will pull away with it, a piece from the other, rather then twill part from it. See wee it not in this very Subject? Death offers violence to this Bond, and will dissolve it. The Man and Wife must yield. They must, but will not. Death sunders them by force; but how? The one pulls away with it a part from the other: and the part is the heart. The corpse of the dead carries away with it even the soul of the survivor. Not the soul onely, but the body too sometimes. Doth not one month, one week, sometimes one day, bury both Wife and Husband? Not in contagious times,( then tis no marvel) but merely through the tenacity of this glue, the bond of wedlock; it hath so soldered their souls together, that the man will say of the woman, as jacob did of joseph, surely I will go down into the grave unto my Wife sorrowing.  
So strait, so firm is the bond of marriage, that not onely not Christs term expresses it, a conjunction, to bee joined together; but not my Texts term neither, an adhesion, to cleave together; no nor yet that of Saint Pauls, an agglutination, to bee glued together. glue but makes two things as one, quasi unum: but marriage makes two, merely one; the words next to my Text, and they twain shall bee one flesh; meant not in the children of their bodies, that the parents shall be one in them, as the Greek Fathers mostly construe it, moved by the phrase, in carncmu●um. Christ hath removed that scruple, una caro sunt, they are one flesh. The Wife and Husband, though they never have child, or if they have, yet before they have, yea before one know the other, for the very instant of the marriage, {αβγδ} saith our Saviour, they are no longer two, but even then are one flesh. And therefore Saint Paul calls the womans flesh, her husbands, and a mans wife, himself. And this not Religion onely teacheth, but Law too; which reputeth the wife, and the husband but one person. As when God formed Eve of Adam, he made one two: so when he brought her to Adam, he made two one.  
But say this member rather mean the marriage duties; that this is the project of that propter hoc; the man shall leave his parents, but to cleave unto his wife. A new bond, but a straighter; vinculum maritalc, straighter then parentale; a straighter, but a sweeter; but because he is bound, as it were, but to himself; and for that it binds the wife as well him, to perform as much as he, in her place, and to her skill. And what is that? Three duties, each word one, tria sunt omnia, love loyalty, and society. For there are here a verb, a pronoun, and a constrain. The constrain claims love, it is a wife, the mans own flesh, own self, Ephes. 5. The pronoun loyalty, shee must bee his, else the glue lets go; in that onely case, the solder yields. The verb society, the mutual enjoying each of others presence, he must cleave to her. Nay indeed the verb alone implies them all. Love; cleave I to her, whom my heart hateth? loyalty; he that haunts strange women, leaves he not his wife? society; whom I debar my bed, my board, my house too haply, shall I say, I cleave to her? But to lay {αβγδ}, one word but to one point. Bee the first but onely for society.  
The Psalmist holds it seemly, brethren should dwell together. Tis then unseemly, tis absurd, man and wife should live asunder. Absurd for the man; shee is his crown of glory; more absurd for her; he is her light. he as the sun, shee as the moon; shee cannot turn her body from him, but with her own disgrace. For whose mutual enjoying each of others company, Moses Law exempted the new married man from warfare, and all services, that should sever man and wife. That scuse in the gospel he might pled by Law, uxorem duxi, he had married a wife. Thy wife is thy dove; Christ so calls his Spouse. The Dove having chosen once his fellow keeps with her till shee die. Thy wife is thy companion; so the Prophet calls her. shouldst thou then not live with her, dwell together, eat together, sleep together, shee in thy bosom, that is Moses phrase, thou between her breasts, as Christ did with his Spouse. Leave not her, that left, Parents, Friends, Country, all, to follow thee. Christ Pauls type of marriage, is ever with his Spouse the Church; in body with the Church Triumphant, in spirit with the militant. The Pope would bee his vicar in his absence. But husbands use not deputies.  
The second thing was loyalty. There is a cleaving to an harlot, 1 Cor. 6. There is a woman, but a stranger. Yea there is a wife, but another mans, a neighbours wife. Salomon and Moses forbid a man their company. His company is confined. Tis a wife, whom he must cleave unto: but it must be his own. If to anothers, tis adultery. Fornication a ●oule sin, single fornication. Adultery far worse. This is double adultery; he a womans husband, shee a mans wife; an hyperbole of absurdity, Chrysostome calls it. What sin greater? what so great? not theft, the wise man saith it, Salomon. Not perjury, a wise man too saith so, twas Solon. Not idolatry; Chrysostome durst say that. Theft not greater then adultery; for in adultery is theft, theft of a high nature, Plagium, double Plagium; he robs too; the womans husband, and his own wife. Say not, he cannot rob his wife; for shee is himself. One may bee fellow dese. perjury not greater. The lecher will forswear: the court presumes it, that puts him to compurgators. Nay, idolatry not greater. I know not Chrysostomes reason, why he said so. But I find in Scripture above five and twenty thousand slain in one day in revenge of this sin; almost ten times as many as fell for idolatry, that famous idolatry of the molten calf. Endures a man his wife to trespass him? Forsakes he not her instantly? For her he left his parents; but for it he will leave her. But he teaches her disloyalty by his example. If thou thirst, drink; but of thine own cistern. As thou wouldst thy waters should be thine onely; so onely drink of thine. But what( will you say haply) if he have a second wife? as Lamech had; nay sa an holier man, then he had, as jacob had, as David had, shall he not cleave to her? Shee is a wife too; and his wife too. Wee live not by examples, but by laws. Saints have their sins, earth-Saints. Gods Law forbids all polygamy. And yet theres one maintains it, no mean man neither, a Kings fellow, a cardinal: it is Cajetane. God made but one Eve for one Adam: and Christ faith not, they three, but they two shall be one flesh. And my Text hath here of purpose used the number singular, he shall cleave unto his wife, not to his wives. Thats the last word of my Text.  
The duty that word tendereth, I said was love. Love is a little word, and speld but with few letters. But within the few letters of this little word, are couched all the duties, that man doth owe to man; yea that man doth owe to God: much more, that this man here, the husband owes the wife. Let him but love her; and he will both live with her, and bee loyal. This is the unum necessarium, the main point in marriage. Let the wife have house, apparel, jewels, all things, that the man can give her: If bee love her not, if shee bee chast, the All is nothing. This as it is sweet to her to have; so it is meet for him to give. Nature, Reason, and Religion bind him to it.  
Nature, shee is his flesh. Did ever man( saith Paul) hate his own flesh, but nourish and cherish it? Reason; Shee loves him: and magnets amoris amor, love draws love to it, like a loadstone: He is unworthy it, that will not render it. Her care, her pains, pains active with his person, with his state; passive more, to bring him children, many merits more, deserve his love. Religion; God hath given him her; here comes in( Propter hoc) again, for this cause, he must cleave to her, cleave in heart to her, that is, must love her. And he that gave her, bids to love her too, bids it often, diligite exores, love your wives.  
To conclude, that a man should love his wife, Paul held it reason strong enough, to say, shee was his flesh. And it is the Propter hoc, a part of it at least my Text intendeth. Her materials are from man. But from what part of him? is't not from his side? That makes Pauls reason, and our ( Propter hoc) yet stronger. From his side, where lies the heart, the seat of love; sumpta est de viro, shee was made of man. Not of his foot, lest he might have scorned her. Not of his head: so shee might have scorned him. But of his side; that the two next neighbours, the heart and arms might, the one affect, the other embrace her: as Christ in the Canticles doth his Spouse, the Church; his left hand under her head, and his right arm clasping her. That the mans soul, there sited too, might, as Sichems did to Dinah, cleave unto his wife; the soul might love her neighbour, as herself.  
My brother is dear to me; my friend is more; not nearer onely, as Salomon said, but dearer also then a brother. A mans wife is both to him, as Christ calls his Spouse, amica mea, soror mea, both his sister and his friend; and therefore worthily called also there, called often his beloved, pulchra mea, dilecta mea, his faire one, and his love; his eyesdelight, the Prophet calls her. In her he must joy, joy jugiter, continually. So Salomon bids; especially, if shee be uxor adolescentiae, the wife of his youth. Shall I say yet more, but one thing more, and end with it? The Apostle bids him love her, even as Christ loved the Church. He gave himself for it. So must the man for her, if she shall need. David would for his soon. he must not love her less, then his own life: not be loathe to lose even it, even to set light his life, to rescue hers. For is he not her Saviour, as Christ is the Churches? Paul saith he is, Ephes. 5. 23. and the Geneva Translation is too superstitious, and the Rhemists too, to put in his for hers, that it might bee meant of Christ, not of the husband. Two honourable titles, proper unto Christ, in regard of his Church, her head and her Saviour, the holy Ghost hath communicated them unto the husband. Not onely his wives head, and so the woman headless without man: but even her Saviour also, the Saviour of her body. And must therefore like our Saviour, give his body to save hers. Christ the Saviour of his Church, save both the bodies of this Princely couple, raise joyful issue of them both, bless them with honour and all happiness; and let all that love the gospel and the King, say hearty, Amen.   

A notwithstanding SERMON PREACHED VPON THE HEBREWES. The second Sermon.  HEB. 13. 4. Marriage is honourable among all men, and the bed undefiled. 
THE Argument of this Scripture, is the excellency of Marriage, advanced by the Apostle by two worthy attributes. In the one he graceth it with terms of Reputation; it is Honourable; in the other he quitteth it from stain of imputation; it is undefiled; both of them common to all sorts of people; it is among all men. So the Text containeth three distinct points touching the state of wedlock; the first the dignity; the next, the purity; the last, the generality. I will speak of them severally, and briefly, &c.  
For the first; Things that are good, are not all esteemed alike. The moral Philosopher ascribeth praise to some, and honour unto some. There is laudabile, and there is honorabile. All things of worth are worthy praise; but honour is appropriate to things pre-eminent. Saint Pauls high estimation of this holy institution hath caused him to instile it with ●a transcendent title; to call it, not {αβγδ}, but {αβγδ}, not Laudable, but Honourable; not barely commendable, but merely honourable. The achievement of this style is grounded upon sundry due and just regards.  
The first of the Founder. devices are credited by their inventors, and Actions countenanced by their Agents. The worth of works is weighed by their Authors; their reputation is their valuation; Exod. 31. The ark and the Tabernacle, are both commended by the cunning of the crafts-men, Psal. 78. Manna is commended by the ministery of Angells, Heb. 8. 6. The gospel is preferred before the Law, as for sundry other reasons, so for this one; that Moses was the messenger of the one, but Christ of the other. Now marriage hath no meaner inventor, than Gods self. wedlock is Gods work; and he to whom all honour belongeth, himself did institute this honourable ordinance. Yea the Lord yet further graced it; and whereas others of his ordinances were presented to us by the mediation and ministery of Angells or men; he hath honoured marriage with his own Person. And as it is the custom of the Church, that some one must give the woman to be married, so Gen. 2. 22. The Lord giveth her; and the office of the Minister, of joining the man and the woman together, the Lord also performeth that, Matth. 19. 6. It is Gods coupling, House and goods, saith Solomon, Prov. 18. are the Parents gift, but the wife is the Lords gift.  
The second regard is of the Solemnizer, John 2. Christ himself in Cana of Galilee honoured marriage with his own presence. It is a custom among men, to credite their feasts and solemn meetings with the presence of high personages, 2 Sam. 13. Absolom invited the King unto his house. The Prophets of God in former ages were of such account, that Noble men, yea Princes, thought themselves honoured by their presence. Naaman a great man, and honoured in the Syrian court, waited with his horses and charets at the door of Elisha; and yet could not speak with him neither, in person, but was answered by a messenger. Saul entreated Samuel to honour him with his company, 1 Sam. 15. If these Prophets were a countenance and honour unto persons of so high estate; what then is Christ, whose shoe latchets John the Baptist, who was more than a Prophet, was not worthy to untie? Nay more than that, it pleased Christ to do the greater honour unto marriage, to show forth there the first fruits of his Godhead; he graced the bridegroom with the handsel of his miracles.  
The third regard, is the approbation of the Spirit, I mean the holy Ghost, who in this Text and divers others,( as all Scripture is inspired by him) hath honoured marriage with sundry commendations: and Saint Paul telleth us, 2 Cor. 10. that that is indeed honourable, which God doth honour. And thus we see in these three first regards, even all the Persons of the Godhead, the whole trinity to concur and join together in honouring of this happy and holy state of matrimony.  
A fourth regard may be of Place; a circumstance much tending oftentimes to the increase of the credit of Things and Persons. It was disgrace to Christ to be brought up in Nazareth. They used to speak inscornefull proverb, can any good thing come out of Nazareth. The Lords promise unto Israel, to give them the lands of their enemies in possession is graced by the place; it was Canaan, a land that flowed with milk and hony. The place where marriage was first instituted, was the most honourable place of the whole world, even Paradise, Gods Eden, Gods delight; whose beauty one of the ancient Fathers saith was {αβγδ}, unexpressible, unconceivable; the garden of the earth; of such especial excellency, that it was, as it were, the Heaven of the world. Nay Christ calleth the Heaven of heavens, the receipt of the Saints, and of the holy Angels, yea the place of Gods own Mansion, by the name of it; hody mecum eris in Paradiso.  
The next regard shall be of the use, the main commender of all things to man, and the principal proportioner both of their praise and price. The uses of Marriage are both very excellent, and very manifold; but I will for shortness sake reduce them to three heads; the comfort of man; the procreation and education, id est, the bringing forth and bringing up of Children; and the remedy for unlawful lust.  
For the first, Comfort of life; The Chaldees had a proverb, {αβγδ} either company or death. Vae soli, saith the Preacher, Eccles. 4. And so saith the Lord, Gen. 2. It is not good for man to be alone. And so not onely Adam was, but even all men among us, if they be unmarryed, are termed alone men. And therefore the woman is called there, adjutorium, an help. And that have all the inveighers against that sex of force confessed, that women at the least are mala necessaria; if a wife be an evil, yet a necessary evil. The proverb hath ranked them among unruly things, but such as mankind may not miss, {αβγδ}. Fire, Water, and Women, three evils, but all necessary; at some times harmful, but at all times needful. But howsoever, some writers, either many ages since, or in these daies, have exercised the vanity of their wits to the disgrace of that sex; yet Christians must know this: that he that disgraceth the creature, dishonoureth his maker. All the works of God were good; Gen. 1. Whereof one, and the chiefest, was man both male and female, v. 27. nay they were very good, v. 31. man, the Lord over all Creatures, and woman his helper; created with him, and of him; to be his companion in all fortunes; his partner in his joy, his comforter in grief, his cherisher in sickness, his adviser in distress; the pleasure of his eyes, Ezechiel 24. and the spouse of his bosom. Deutero. 13. nearer and dearer unto him then his friend, his brother, his child, yea then his parents.  
Thy Brother is but thy mothers son, and thy fathers flesh; but thy wife is thy flesh, Gen. 2. And so the Iewes have a proverb, {αβγδ} a mans wife is his own body; Saint cyril calleth her {αβγδ} of the same flesh with him. I say, thy brother is but thy Parents flesh, but thy wife thine own, for shee is a rib of thy side. Thy friend is but tanquam tu Deut. thy wife not tanquam, but ipsetu, thy children they are but a drop of thy seed; but thy wife is thy half. Thy parents not to be forsaken, Prov. 19. but yet rather then thy wife, Gen. 2. pen.  
On the other side, the man is a mutual help unto the woman; the husband, the wives stay, as being the weaker vessel. What thing so dear unto her, as the child of her womb? yet the husband better to her then ten children, 1 Sam. 1. 8. yea the two titles, proper unto Christ in regard of the Church, her head and her Saviour; the holy Ghost hath communicated them unto the husband. he is the head of his wife, Ephes. 5. as Christ of the Church; and so the wife {αβγδ}, headless without man. Nay that which is most honourable, he is his wives Saviour, Ephe. 5. 23. as Christ is the Churches. And therefore as the Church taketh the name of Christ, and wee are called Christians; so is it the custom in marriage, the woman to bee called by the name of her husband.  
To shut up this first use; that marriage unto many hath( as the Poet speaketh) plus aloes, quam mellis, more bitterness, then sweet, the fault is not in marriage, but in man. The wife is haply a wasp or a wanton, the husband is haply not sober or not chased. Marriage of itself is a comfort unto man, and that comfort so great, that jacob meeting with Rahel that should be his wife, through the vehemency of his joy, burst forth into tears, and was contented for her sake to endure a double prenticeship, twice seven yeares service under a churlish master.  
The second use, childbearing: nature hath planted in the beasts, in the birds, in all the brute creatures a desire of young brood for the preservation of their kind. But in man, this desire as proceeding from reason, and from God is far more excellent; and the motives, as more, so more excellent, the maintenance of mankind, the continuance of their name, the honour of their house, the comfort of their life, the staff of their age, and that which is the chiefest, the increase of Gods Church, and of the Saints.  
The third use is the remedy of inordinate lust; the sin the more vile, the more common, the more accursed it is of God, the more honourable is marriage that yeeldeth means to medicine it. First, man the most excellent creature under heaven, little lower then the Angels, Psal. 8. 5. created after Gods own image, by unlawful lusting after strange flesh, disparageth his state, and metamorphiseth himself into a bruit beast: turning, as Theodoret speaketh, {αβγδ}, Gods likeness into beasts likeness; that, that which God said ironinically, behold man is become like one of us, the beasts may say in sad soothe, behold man is become like one of us. And therefore the Scripture in regard of this sin, applieth unto man terms borrowed from beasts; as to neigh after women, jer. 5. and compareth them to beasts, judae, ver. 10. Secondly, whereas sundry other sins are for the most part found among the wicked onely; this snareth the holiest of the Saints on earth, and hath surprised the Patriarks, and the chiefest of Gods children. Lots incest, Iudahs fornication, Davids adultery, are known stories in Scripture. Thirdly, the Lord cast a double curse upon this sin, Prov. 6. 33. {αβγδ} both a plague, and a reproach, both a stripe and a shane; both on the sinners self; the boy pointeth at him in the street, and the maiden moweth at him in the house; and on his seed, his child, called in disgrace, the son of the harlot, and the daughter of adultery. That is for the shane: and for the stripe, it lighteth both upon his person; a passive stripe the parts of the body, which the lecher abuseth to his filthy lust, are smitten with loathsome and infectious diseases; and on his posterity, an active stripe, the base born child commonly proving a very wicked body, and a plague unto the virtuous. I cannot stand to follow this. Now for the remedy of this foul, common, and accursed sin, the Lord hath ordained marriage; the man to have his own wife, and the woman her own husband.  
The rest of the regards, as the examples of holy men, the laws of Nations, and sundry other such, I am forced to omit. These few may suffice for the truth of this Title; let us pass unto the other.  
hitherto have you heard, how Marriage is Honourable; it followeth now to show it is holy; for what is the meaning of the phrase, the bed undefiled, that is, the marriage bed, by a Figure put for wedlock, it is undefiled, that is, it is holy. The Church hath ever had, even from the Apostles times many vile revilers of the marriage bed. Saturninus and Bafilides said it came from satan; and so did Tatianus, as Theodoret reporteth, make it the devills ordinance. The Marcionites admitted no married folk unto their Sacraments. Nay some shamed not to say, as Epiphanius witnesseth, that the woman wholly is the devills work, and that they which used marriage, wrought the devills craft. Yea some of the learned and ancient Fathers of the Church have been but heavy friends to marriage. Origen, Tertullian, and Saint Hierom, have irreverently disgraced it. As for the Papists, how holy do they hold it, it is apparent by the Priests; whom therefore they permit not for to marry; because their service is about the holy things. Pope Syrici●s termeth it fleshly pollution. HIldebrand preferred whores before wives; fornication, adultery, yea incest itself before matrimony. Yea some are so shameless of that sort, that they will allow the Priest rather centum prostibula, an hundred harlots, than one lawful wife. And as they hold all marriage impure, so second and third marriage they profess plainly to be fornicatio,& prostitutio, i. whoredom and brothelrie. Nay the jesuits are yet more impudent, who hold the womans sex to be so wicked, that they spit at the name of them.  
To all these I say in general, that these are the spirits, of which, Saint Paul did prophesy many ages since, 1 Tim. 1. that should forbid to marry; whose unholy censures of this holy state are there expressly termed the doctrine of devills.  
For the Fathers in particular; Origen, his learning mervellous, but his errors perilous. Many of his opinions, Saint Hierom calleth Venenata dogmata, poisonous opinions. And it was said of him, Quando benè, nemo meliùs, quando malè nemo pijus. When he did well, no man more excellent; when he did ill, no man more pestilent. Of Tertullian I will say no more, than Hierom also saith, that he was not home ecclesiae, he started from the Church, and being malcontent became a Montanist. For Hierom himself; his writings are reverenced in the Church. But that his book against I ovinian, wherein he is so eager against marriage, was written in his mood; overmastered with it, he would sometimes maintain some Paradoxes. But in his settled judgement he held it holy, as appeareth by sundry other speeches in his books. As for his reasons against marriage more in number, than in weight, no fewer than 56. they are all answered one by one by Beza, in his book of Polygamy.  
The rest of the Censurers of this honourable ordinance, wee are not to respect, because they were heretics. As for the Papists, they confute themselves; who holding marriage so unclean a thing, do yet make it a Sacrament. Now therefore leaving them, that hold it is not holy, it resteth now, I show, that it is holy.  
My first proof in this point I fetch from the efficient. All the creatures of God, and all his ordinances, they are good, they are sanctified, they are holy. Marriage Gods own institution, who is himself holy, must also be holy. For such as God is, such are all his works. Yea the Lord, saith the Psalmist, is holy in all his works.  
My second proof is the blessing of the Lord, by which himself hath hallowed his Ordinance, Gen. 9. 1. For the Lord, is not as man, to call good evil, and evil good; but as he nurseth nothing that is clean; so he blesseth nothing that is defiled. The Lord that is himself blessed for ever, benedictus in secula, blessed to the worlds end, hath blessed marriage from the worlds beginning. And therefore if Isaac could say of jacob, I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed; I may say unto the Papists, that reckon marriage a polluted thing, as sometime the voice said unto Peter, that which God hath hallowed, let not man call unholy.  
My third reason is from the effect. Marriage, it sanctifieth the man, it sanctifieth the wife, it sanctifieth the children, 1 Cor. 7. Now as it is absurd to look for grapes of thorns, or figs of thistells, so is it as unreasonable, that any thing should be made holy by that, which is itself defiled. Were marriage unclean, then were it sin to marry. But Saint Paul saith plainly in the same place, that neither the man sinneth, that taketh a wife, neither the woman that marrieth a husband.  
The first Institution of this honourable state, was it not before mans fall, even before there was any unclean thing in the world? How rash then is the unheedy Papist, to bring pollution into the world, before sin began? For that must needs follow, that if marriage be unclean, be polluted, be sin, as some of them writ, then Adam sinned, in his perfect state, he sinned before the fall, he sinned before he sinned.  
Shall I press this point yet further, and show the marriage bed to be unspotted, by Types and by Testimonies? What meant the ancient Heathens to bear before the Bride, Fire and Water; but to signify purity? Water the washer of all unclean things, and Fire the trier of all impure things: And what means now in marriage the Ring among us Christians? But to represent the holy duties between the married parties? The Ring is one, not many, put on the fourth finger, the figure round, and the metal gold: to teach them that their love, it must be single, it must be hearty, it must be endless, and it must be pure. That is for Type.  
Now for Testimonies; Dionysius of Halycarnassa, a Heathen Historian calleth it {αβγδ}, holy wedlock; and the Iewes term marriage, Kiddushin, that is holy things. What city I Iewes and Gentiles? The learnedest, the ancientest, the precisest of the Fathers, Ignatius, Saint Chrysostome, S. Austine, and many others avouch as much as our Apostle? Doth the Pope himself charge marriage with Pollution? Ignatius answers him, that who shall say, that lawful wedlock is a thing defiled, Hospitem habet Draconem Apostatam, satan is within him, and he is Host unto the devil. Doth the Papist press yet further, that marriage is unclean, because it is unchaste; and that Virginity is the onely chastity? Saint Austin answers that, that there is Castitas conjugalis, as well as virginalis, chastity in wedlock, as well as in Maidenhood.  
To shut up this point; marriage may be made unholy, but itself is not unholy. There is no holy thing, but mans profaneness may unhallow it. Marriage is holy, as it was by God ordained, but it is unholy, as it is by man abused. The ways are many to unhallow it, the nonage of the parties, the forcing of their wills, the non-consent of Parents, the matching in degrees prohibited, or with infidels, things common, but unchristian;[ all these, weighty points, are worth the prosecution, and very behofefull in these presumptuous dayes; but the time neither serveth to perfect this point, or to proceed unto the next.] All these, and more than these, which I cannot stand to prosecure, dishonour this honourable-ordinance of God, and pollute and defile this undefiled state. But of itself it is a chast, it is a pure, it is an holy institution; the Author holy that ordained it, the parties holy that received it; and now not to be made among us that be Christians, but by an holy person, and in an holy place. And therefore I conclude, that Matrimony is Sanctimony; that marriage is honourable, and the bed is undefiled.   

funeral SERMONS. A SERMON PREACHED ON THE KINGS. The first Sermon.  1 KING. 19. 4. It is enough, now O Lord take away my soul, for I am not better then my Fathers. 
THE Prayer of a Prophet, weary of his life; longs to end it, ver. praeced. prays God to take it, in this verse; gives two reasons, he had lived long enough; and he was no better then his Fathers: puts his Prayer between both. I must begin with it. First, what craves he? and then why? I pray your patience, Gods assistance. Gods name jehovah, and the word of time, lie in aequilibrio, indifferent, whether to the reason, or the prayer. Transtations point them diversly; the Hebrew accent sways them, lays them to the prayer. I omit them both. The one here hath small Emphasis, the other, jehovah, hath been often here expounded.[ As for the doctrine, it here offers, that Prayer is proper unto God onely, it is a beaten argument.] The Petition is compendious; show who can a shorter, take my soul.  
By soul, he means not his spirit, but his life. The word in Scripture means so mostly. A strange Petition. To beseech God, at point of death to take the soul, i. the spirit, every man ought. Saint Steven did, Christs self did. But to pray him, take my life, I may not. It is a strange prayer of a Prophet. I must preserve my life; nature bids me. God doth. That nature bids, the brute creature shows, which will not die, if it may choose; will strive to live, what it is able. God bids more; made man immortal, to live ever, would have him like to God in that. So was he, till he fell. But though sin subjected him to death; yet die wee must not, till God call. Mans spirit is Gods gift. Life both comes in, and goes out with the soul. It is manners, if a man give me a gift, to give it him again? God gave it me, to do him service: shall I serve him no longer then I list? Dominus dedit, Dominus abstulit, God gave, and God must take away; but not till himself will.  
Not bruit creatures alone, man too, the natural man will not die, if he may choose. Skin for skin, saith satan; a man for his life will endure any thing. maecenas was wont to say, Debilem facito pede, debilem facito manu, have foot-goute, hand-goute, hippe-goute, the Sciatica; vita dum superest, been est, he cared not, so he lived. Domitius in cowardice wished death, drunk poison to work it: but instantly repenting, cast it up again. Twas but one mans opinion, a strict Philosopher, that death is, Naturae Inventum optimum, the best thing merely, that nature ever devised. Who ere said so, but Seneca? A man( I yield) learned and wise. But by his learnings leave, tis against all philosophy, to make death, natures device. Nature hates nothing more. As learned and as wise a man, as he, calls life {αβγδ}, the best thing in the world. Philo judaeus doth. You will say, he was no Christian. Nazianzen was, he saith, {αβγδ}, nothing more precious to any man, then life.  
I will not be partial, or peremptory. Death is Gods ordinance, as well as life. Both are {αβγδ} Chrysostome saith, {αβγδ}, his term too; both things indifferent, good or bad, as God blesseth them. Death is a blessing, I deny not; mori, lucrum, saith Saint Paul, twas gain to him to die. But to desire to die, that to be lawful, I deny, especially in a Prophet. A Prophet to ask in prayer, what he ought not? A man of God? So he is called often. David did not so, a Prophet too. I will not die, but live, saith he. Why will ye die, saith another Prophet, twas Ezechiel. ieremy saith so too, quare morieris? why wilt thou die? Paul indeed an Apostle, and so a Prophets peer at least, desired to be dissolved. Thats but votum, not precatio, a wish, no prayer. I do not simply condemn desire of death; but desire of it in prayer. Pauls was an holy wish, to be with Christ; a lust, he terms it, {αβγδ}, A lust so longing, that it makes him speak incongruè, multò magis melius, Phil. 1. 23. But he made it not his prayer; did not petition God, to bee dissolved. Nay, he corrected that wish instantly with a better desire, to live to preach the gospel. His wish was but comparative. Paul set not life so light, to wish death simply. Why appealed he unto Caesar, but to scape death? used policy at another time, set the Pharisees and Saducees at jar to escape too; sent another time to the captain to bee rescued from the Iewes, who purposed to have slain him. Surely tis height of happiness to bee with Christ. But let me do my work before I ask my wages. It is Magis melius, better to preach Christ, then to be with Christ. If I be with Christ, I shall bee glorified; but if I preach Christ, God shall be glorified. Woe be unto me if I preach not the Gospel. I will preach him while I live; and when I die, I will pray to be with him. I will then say with Elias, Now O Lord take my soul.  
What then thus made this man of God to make this Prayer? For so this is, not votum, but precatio; not a desire onely, in the clause before my Text; but bee said, i. he prayed; not {αβγδ} wished not onely, craved it too, Now O Lord take my soul. Yea it is express in the original. Tis in English, he desired, but in Hebrew, he petitioned. But why? what ails he? It must be some great passion that transports him. So it is. he is a man of God; but yet a man. A Prophet, but yet subject( as Saint james saith) to the like passions with us. The queen had threatened his death, sworn it. He flies for fear; travels, and is weary; hungry too, it seems; faint both in body, and heart too, he prays God he may die, die presently, Now, O Lord take my soul. David saith in the psalm, O tarry the Lords leisure. he will not; but will die instantly, Tolle nunc. more Prophets besides him, have been weak thus. Moses was before him; jonas after him. Moses in his grief cried to God, I pray thee, kill me. jonas in his anger will needs die, prays it hearty, Ion. 4. 8. reasons too there, as Elias doth here; It is better for him, to die then to live: argues wisely; he could tell what was best for him, better then God.  
Thus even Prophets themselves speak in their passion unadvisedly. Many good men in their impatiency mutiny against God; and in the weakness of their spirits, shrink under their cross, and desire to be dissolved before their day of death; not wish it onely, work it too sometimes untimely and unkindly. But to pray to die, at least to wish it, many a cross will force a good Christian. A son is one, a Cain, a Cham, an ishmael, an Esau, a graceless, lawless, incorrigible son will force a father to desire to die. If Iosephs death will make jacob rend his clothes, mourn so, that all his sons shall not bee able, daughters too, to comfort him, yea to cry out, surely I will go down unto my son into the grave sorrowing: a son, lost to God, thats worse then dead, especially if the first born of his father, and brought up carefully, will force him, ought not, but it will; not to pray onely as Elias did, to die, but to die indeed; not to say onely, as old jacob did, I will go down, but to go down indeed with sorrow into the grave. This is one cross; tormenting pains another. What need I city many particulars? Extreme misery will make job to cry, Taedet animam meam vitae meae. All this will work pitty to the Prophets case; but it warrants not his act. he cries, sufficit, to God; but this is no sufficit to him. hear therefore one thing more for his apology.  
I will not think Elias so faint hearted to fear death. For he durst not then have affronted Ahab so, when he asked him, If it were he, that troubled Israel, to tell him, not was he. He might have a stout spirit, that will answer a King so. It must have cost him haply his head. It was not that. He were not heartless, senseless rather, to fly from death, and pray to die. It is said the verse before, he fled for his life: and prays he God in this, to take his life? he to whom God gave power to shut and open heaven, to rain or hold up at his pleasure, to command fire from heaven, to raise the dead, fears he to die? I cannot tell. You heard Saint james subject him to our passions. Peter so courageous, as to dare draw a sword on a band of armed men, a silly maids question made him turn dastard, and deny Christ. Haply jezebel had daunted the Prophet more then the King. Shee had threatened him, he had not, had vowed his death with impecation. Yet will I not censure Elias for all this. I think it was not death, he feared, but the kind of death, the foulest likely the queen could device. The kind of death is often worse then death. Thats not all.  
I think the zealous Prophet respected more Gods glory, then his life. To die, he cared not; but die he would not by a woman, an idolatress: he would not fall by the hand of Baals worshippers. Then should God be dishonoured in his death; Baal should triumph over God. He prays him, take his life; he would not have them have it: and therefore adds the adverb, Now, Now O Lord, take my soul. So Saul would have his armor bearer slay him rather, would rather, he refusing, slay himself, fall on his own sword, then the philistines should kill him, Gods enemies. Had Elias this religious sweet conceit; minus peccatum habet, his sin was very venial. In so short a Prayer why am I so long? To end it, life is let thee by God, let, I say, not lent. Were it lent, thou mightst pay it, when thou wouldest, as soon I mean, as thou wouldst. But it is let thee by God; but without lease; no certain term; thou arttenant at will, I mean Gods will, not thine own. Thou must leave it, when he will; but thou must hold it, till he will; not keep it longer, nor leave it sooner. Thou must go, when God cries, Come again ye sons of men. But if Christ will have thee stay till he come; what is that to thee? And so Elias doth, he stays Christs coming, is not dead yet. Enoch and Elias live unto this day, and shall until Christ come.  
You have heard the prayer, hear the reasons. But a word of the first, because it is no more; and yet it is enough. Quod satis est, sufficit: thats the first reason, sufficit, it is enough. What is enough? Enough that he hath lived till now, and thats the next word here, Now O Lord take my soul. Enough, that long enough. How long? Scripture tells not; tells where he was born, not when. So is Elias like Melchisedek, of whom Paul saith to the Hebrewes, his dayes had no beginning, nor his life end. He means neither was recorded in Gods book. How long Elias had lived, wee know not. he saith here, long enough. A mans age, David saith, is threescore yeares and ten. Haply so long. Sometimes ten more in a strong and hole body. Say, so long. Some Hebrew writers say, Elias was Phinees, son to Eleezar Acrons son. Then had he lived long indeed, 500. yeares. None in those dayes lived a quarter of that age. A jewish fable. Elias and Phinees were not of one Tribe. But were his yeares never so many; yet ought he not say, Sufficit. God must say it, not Man. God meats to every man his term, gives him that length of life, he lists; to some an hundred yeares, to some not half an hundred dayes, not half half hundred houres. The shortest life is long enough; the longest is no more. The babe that dies unborn, dies not untimely, lives out his full stint, hath Gods Sufficit. fullness of dayes is old age in Scripture phrase. But the shortest liver hath fullness of dayes too, Gods fullness. he hath lived long enough, that hath done all that service, God appointed him. Who can tell, when he hath done that? No man is so old,( once Seneca said) Vt improbè speret unum diem, but he may honestly hope to live one day more. God may have some thing for him to do, even on that day, on that one day. Let him cry never, tis enough. Elias ought not, he had much work of Gods to do, he knew not of. He was to anoint two Kings, and one Prophet. he must denounce destruction to Ahab and jezebel, death to Ahaziah; call for fire from heaven to consume two Captaines with their fifties, and to divide jordan. Tis not yet time to cry, Sufficit, It is enough.  
One of this Prophets worth would not have every word sifted too near. he might mean haply well. He had lived long enough, Satis naturae in regard of his yeares, which( it seems) were many, as many, as his ancestors before him. Might it so please the Lord, to whom he prayed, he had lived long enough. Not as loathe yet to labour further in Gods cause. But he haply felt his spirits spent. The peoples impiety had teazd his soul, and his toil and travel tired his body. Long life is a blessing, age a crown of glory. For that( I doubt not) he was thankful. But misery might make him cry with job. Taedet animam meam vitae meae, my soul is weary of my life. If it pleased God, Sufficit, he had lived long enough. Fire cries not Sufficit, Solomon saith, never saith, Enough. Youth is fiery hot, and loves life. But that fire is out in age; and old Elias will cry Sufficit, tis enough. Surely it should seem by the Chapter next before, that he was fiery hot. He had newly slain more than 400. men, Baals Prophets all, with his own hands, for ought I find there. There, like the fire, he nere cried Sufficit, he spared not one. But Gods fire was in that Act: not onely on the sacrifice from heaven, but in the Prophets heart, from Gods Spirit. could he might be by age; but he was hot by zeal; zeal signifieth heat: and in that fiery heat he wrought that Act. If with his own hands, it might well weary all his aged limbs, and make him the more to cry Sufficit, tis enough. Yea and haply his Sufficit looks back unto that Act, means not his age, but Baals Prophets. He had rescued Religion from idolatry, slain all the idol Prophets. Baal was confounded, and the people cried, The Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God. Sufficit, that was Enough. Enough of Sufficit; come to the other Reason, I am no better, &c.  
How far doth one mans spirit differ from anothers? One Prophets spirit from anothers? jonas desired to die, as Elias doth, but not in that spirit, that Elias doth. jonas moodile and frowardly, Elias sweetly and humbly. jonas should be the Dove; so his name signifies. But Elias is indeed, gentle, and meek. jonas wrangles with God. Elias reasons too, but with humility. jonas preferred his credit before the lives of all the men of Nineveh. Elias will not be better, than his Fathers. Where is his spirit now? What son is now, strives not at least to be better then his Father? then all his ancestors? Rehoboams little finger is stronger than his Fathers loins, who though bread in the dust, deems not himself worthy to sit with Princes? A point too tender, to apply. Let every man imitate the Prophets humility, and remember the rock, out of which he was hewn. Strive not to outstrippe thy Ancestors in honour, but in virtue and grace.  
I am not( saith the Prophet) better than my Fathers. Who are they? Heres Melchizedech again, without Father, without mother. Scripture reckons none. You will reply, it doth; for Elias was Phinees, the Iewes say; and Phinees Father and Grandfather are there. I answer; first, it is a fable. Secondly, say he was Phinees, whose Father is recorded. So was Melchisedech. Melchisedech was Sem, Hebrew Writers say, and Sems Father is in Scripture; he was Noahs son, and Noah Lamechs son. But Sem under that name, the name of Melchisedech, hath no genealogy. think the like of Elias. Who his Forefathers were, wee do not read, nor doth it skill. Most Prophets came of mean Progenitors. mark this Prophets spirit, stout in Gods cause, humble in his own; makes himself in his modesty, no better than his Fathers, mean, it should seem by the Scriptures silence. Men of name are lightly name. They were low, he is no higher, no whit better than they.  
I would not press the pride of many sons, ashamed of their Ancestors to shun offence. That touch would seem too personal, and some would haply say, such an one so. I will lay my charge more general. In some things( saith S. james) we offend all, in many things. This one. Apply it, if you please; but be not partial. No man needs look on others; tis himself, every man is so. Who is not better than his neighbour, thinks himself so, in worth, in parts, in zeal, in understanding? We tax the womans sex, as weak this way. It is, I may not flatter; but thats but mostly in precedency. Men areso, every way, every man. Every soul is soured with that leaven of the Pharisee, I thank God I am not as other men are. It is true, for I am worse. Every mans penny is of finer silver, than his fellowes; his defects fewer, his deserts more than his, for preferment, for employment, for advancement, for what not? Fitter than he. Learn this Prophets lesson, alter but one word, for Fathers, put in Brethren. Say every man, every woman, to themselves, of themselves, I am no better than my brethren. God will like thee better, man will love thee more. Not God onely, but man too, every man, loathes a proud person. I leave this; tis but Aloes.  
look we back to Elias; he is no better( he saith) then his Fathers. Thats his humility, to underprise himself. He saith, he is not; but he is. Shall I show you how? Tis fit, he be exalted, that thus humbles himself. Very excellent things are spoken of thee, O thou man of God. Be that first, a man of God, an eminent appellation; higher than a Prophet. Moses was the first called so, Samuel the next, then David, the next, then David, very few more. Rector of the college of the Prophets in his time. Out of whose school came that Oracle in the Talmud, that the world should last six thousand yeares, two before the Law, two under it, and two after it. An affronter of Kings in Gods cause. A destroyer of Balls Priests. A worker of great miracles; divided jordan with his mantell, stayed heaven from raining three yeares and six moneths, raised the dead, the widows son of Sarepta, said to be jonas the Prophet; fasted like Christ and Moses forty dayes, fed by an angel, by Ravens morning and evening. His Spirit in John the Baptist, the greatest man( Christs self said) among the sons of women. He, and Moses thought worthy to confer with Christ in his glory on mount Thabor. But which transcends all honor done any man, save Christ, taken up to heaven, {αβγδ}, in his body, Epiph. Enoch was translated; but how, wee red not. Elias was, like Christ, visibly, in a chariot of fire went up to heaven, {αβγδ}, saith S. Chrysost. in the flesh; lives there to this day. This man, this great man, great Prophet, {αβγδ}, surnamed God for his greatness, saith a greek Father; whom God thus magnified, vilifies himself, saith here, Non sum melior, I am no better than my Fathers.  
To end this and All, his humility is admirable, but his Reason not allowable, God gives us All his Spirit; but his Argument is weak. What Elias was, compared to his Progenitors, better or worse then they, for condition, or for grace, it skills not to his Prayer. Were he greater then his Fathers, were he less it will not follow either way, that God must take his soul. Death looks at no mans state. Seneca saith wittily, Non citamur ex censu, death doth not summon us by the subsidy book. Sit I, like job in ashes, or like Solomon, in a throne, God will take my soul, if he think good, will not, unless he please; and will, when he will, will not, till then. Tis neither {αβγδ}, as Saint Paul spake, any mans more betternesse, nor {αβγδ}, his more meanernesse, that God looks at. Why he takes one soul, one hour old only, why not another, till an hundred yeares of age, he knows, not we, and therefore I may not cry Sufficit, tis enough, the Prophets first reason. Why he takes the better, leaves the worse, or takes the worse, and leaves the better; he knows that too, not we. And therefore I may not cry neither with Elias, Lord take my soul; for I am not better, then my Fathers. I will not sing with Simeon, Lord, now let thy Servant depart in peace according to thy word. He had the Spirits warrant to sing so. And thus have I as briefly and perspicuously as I could handled the former branch of the Man of Gods Prayer; to wit, that the Lord would be pleased to take away his life, together with his reasons; wherein I have shewed you the strangeness of this his request; as being both against nature, religion, &c. Against nature, for the brute creature will not die if he may choose: against religion, for God made us to serve and to glorify him: and life is Gods gift; and to give it him again, argues unmannerlinesse, and not to serve him, as long as we may, argues ungratefulness: as also the weakness of his reasons: as if he could tell what were better for him then God; who is the Almighty, and puts a sufficit to every thing when he pleases: My Prayer shall be onely, Lord, let thy humble Servant depart in peace according to thy will. Lord, let me, let us all, at the instant of death, put Nunc too to Dimittis, say all this Prophets Prayer, Now, O Lord, take my soul: but till then, with patience possess our souls, say, but at the most, as Christ did, Not my will, Father, but thy will be done. The Lord, the lover of souls, at the happy hour of his appointed time, take all our souls. The Lord Iesus receive them then; the holy Ghost comfort them till then; to all which sacred Persons of the blessed Trinity, be jointly ascribed, All honour glory, &c.   

A funeral SERMON, PREACHED ON ECCLESIASTES. The second Sermon.  ECCLES. 12. 7. And Dust return to the Earth, as it was, and the Spirit return to God that gave it. 
THe return of mans parts at his decease: his body to the earth, because that came from it; his spirit unto God, because it came from him. How from him? he gave it. Death returns them both to their beginnings. Of the several words in order. Dust is the first. What means the Preacher to debase mans body so, to call it Dust? He might have used Iobs word, Man shall return; or his own fathers phrase, return ye sons of men. Or at least he might have called it flesh; Esay doth, all flesh is grass. God doth, I will not strive with man, for he is flesh.  
Mans body Gods own workmanship. Other creatures, Plants, Fowles, Fishes,& Beasts, he bad the earth and waters to bring forth. But he made mans body with his own hands, Thy hands made me( saith David.) Saint Paul honours it yet more, saith our bodies are the temples of the holy Ghost. It is great grace to it, to be domus ainae, the souls house, so Tertul. The soul an Angels fellow. But it is Gods house, if the spirits temple, as Saint Paul said. And doth Salomon here slight it so, to call it Dust? He doth, and doth discreetly. There is a Time when I may magnify it; to do God glory. But there is a time when I must vilify it, when it magnifies itself. The wise man cries then to it, Quid superbis terra& cinis? why art thou proud, thou Dust and Ashes? The lowness of our mould must humble the highnesse of our mind. God put in mans name a mark of his materials: what is Adam but Earth? Homo ab humo.  
Me thinks I hear one answer, the Preacher doth us wrong. Adam indeed was earth, God made his body of it; but his onely. All other issue from the wombs of women spring from the loins of men, so are flesh and blood, not Dust. Proud clay-clod, wilt thou teach Gods Spirit to speak? and whom makest thou thyself? art thou better then Abraham? he cried to God, Pulvis& cinis ego, he was but Dust and Ashes. He was? We are, we are all, David saith. The mightiest Monarch is of no better mould. The cynic said it to Alexanders self, that Kings are Gods on earth; but they are but Gods of earth. The goodliest man, but {αβγδ}, neat and trim day, Epictet. An earthen vessel may bee gilded, yet is earth still. Saint Paul calls us earthen vessels; but China dishes painted and gilded, but day. Man is but {αβγδ} and {αβγδ}, spirit and Dust, saith the Philosopher.  
Not Adam onely; All men are, Siraks son saith. Yea because Adam was, therefore wee too, we all Originaliter. Say not so: yet Finaliter. The Preacher wrongs us not, to call us Dust. Bee flesh and blood our beginning: Dust is our end, and the end sometimes denominates things. said not Anaxagoras, snow was black? think you he was so mad to call white black? No, but he considered the colour of the water, when it resolved; he meant snow melted. Mans body is indeed, blood, flesh and bone. The Genesis is so; but the Analysis is earth. A Corpse kept above ground many yeares, or in dry mould in grave, touch it, you shall find it powder, mere dust. Let a Poet( with your favour) expound a Preacher once, {αβγδ}, saith Phocylides, bodies resolved are ashes all. To end this, bee Salomons word here Dust, either as the first mans substance, or as all mens end; wee are both vile and frail. Make wee but that use of it; and I leave it. Verbum sapienti; I go on, And Dust return.  
terms have returns; so hath mans life. For thats a term, terminus vitae, the term of life, an usual term. Man hath two returns, Repentance one; the other is Death. return, return, saith the Prophet, i. turn from your sins.[ That return is proper to the righteous.] return ye sons of men; thats meant of death,[ and is general to all] Salomon means that here. Obitus is Reditus, Death is mere return. That return is here twice; first of the Body, then of the Spirit.  
For the former, mans life is a pilgrimage, old Iacobs term, Davids too. Saint Paul calls us, Saint Peter too, {αβγδ}, traveillours. The grave is our home, the bodies home. The verse next before but one calls it our house. The vulgar Latin I like not, domus aeternitatis, our everlasting home. It is not so: that denies the resurrection. The English is better, our long home. The travelour at the end of his journey returns home. The body first sprung from the earth, and the soul first issued from the Lord, both meet in man, and live lovingly together all the dayes of mans pilgrimage. That ended, each returns to his first founder. Life is but a loan; God lent it us; It must be repaid. Debemur morti, we are own to die.  
The term next following hath affinity with this; take wee that to it. Whether must the Dust return? to the earth, as it was. Dust it was, and to Dust it must go; Ashes to Ashes. Man is Microcosmus, a little world. The worlds motion is circular, ab eodem puncto ad idem, from Dust to Earth. Man is {αβγδ} from the earth, saith David, and to earth he must return. It seemed to Nicodemus an absurdity, that an old man should go again into his mothers womb, and it was so in his sense. It is not so in Salomons. It is an old man he here speaks of, a decrepit aged man. He saith, he must go into his mothers womb again. He must, all must, old and young when God cries, Revertimini. The earth is the mother of us all, Sirac. From her we came, and shee looks for us again. God hath appointed her that bore us, to bury us; her womb must entomb us.  
To the earth, as it was? Is not Salomon deceived? All go not to the grave: some perish in the air; Fire consumes some. Fishes, Fowles, wild Beasts do devour many. The Dogges did jezabel, bears 42. boyes in Bethel. All these for all this return unto the earth. Or bee such excepted, the Preacher means utplurimum, most bodies do. Yea where Scripture saith, All; yet even there sometimes are some excepted. Had it been added here; yet must wee have excepted Enoch and Elias; they went up alive to heaven, are both there {αβγδ}, in their bodies, saith Saint Basil. Of Dusts Returning, enough; come wee to the Spirits.  
The former was almost {αβγδ}, confessed of all men, a sensible truth; needs no dispute, tis obvious to the eye, to every eye. Wee all see all men, mortal: The latter hath some knots; wee shall loose them, as we light on them,( and the spirit return to God.) Mans soul hath his return, as well as his body. They were in life( as it were) wedded together. Death divorceth them. The body the souls jail, Tullies term, Carcer ainae; death delivers it. Man gives up his Ghost, yields his spirit; its free from him, and it goes. But the going is returning, Dust and the spirit return both.  
The Atheist denies that, and the Sadducee. They hold the soul perisheth, mans soul like the beasts. For they differ not, a mans soul from a swines, one mad heretic said, Manes. One Pope once doubted of the souls immortality, Pope John 22. Indeed tis not expressed in any Christian creed: but it is implyed in all; almost in every Article. Christ ascended not, rose not, dyed not, was not born, nor conceived, if mens souls perish like beasts. For why was Christ incarnate, but for the souls salvation? Theres no Saints, no Resurrection, no life everlasting, if souls perish. An opinion which gives leave to all kind of licentiousness. What will a wicked man not dare do in his life, that thinks he shall not suffer for it after death? If the spirit expire; cancel the creed: rase all religion; for ainae causa omnis religio est, Augustine. This conceit is mere heathenism.  
But there is another among Christians, that the soul indeed dies not, but it sleeps, sleeps till the resurrection. The heresy termed by Divines {αβγδ}, anciently held in Arabia, and revived lately by some Anabaptists. Calvin hath written a large and learned tract against these dreamers. The deceased soul sleeps not: but either suffers pains in hell, which will not let it sleep, or sings in heaven a continual Hallelujah, which requires waking too. It returns.  
But what if Scripture say nay? The wise man saith, the spirit returns not, exit spiritus,& non revertitur, Sap. 16. If we answer, thats Apocrypha, David sath it too, Psal. 78. wrested Scriptures both, they mean not this Returning. The wise man means, that the soul departed returns not to the body, that a dead man revives not. And David means mans breath, not his soul. His breath from mouth or nostrils once gone forth, comes not back again; It runs out into the air, and there vanisheth. go wee on to the next term; the spirit returns, but whether? To God?  
The body and soul in life were individu's, unseparable companions, went always together. Why not also in Death? A question not worth answer. Two friends will walk all day together, but at night will return each to his own home. The souls home is heaven, the righteous souls; the bodies is the grave, the earth. But saith not the Psalmist, that the spirit returns to the earth too? Psal. 146. spiritus exit,& revertitur ad terram suam, speaks( to appearance) punctually. Ad terram,& ad terram suam, to the earth, to his own earth; he both saith, it returns to it, and also, tis his home. To a rash reader it may seem so: but weigh the words well, and they mean no such matter. It is indeed in the vulgar, egredietur& revertetur. But both words are not meant of the same subject: both verbs have not the same nominative case. Tis the spirit, that goeth forth, but tis the dead man, the corpse, that returns to his earth. Tis obscure in the Latin, but plain in the original; so plain, that no scholar can mistake it, and the English is indifferent plain, He returneth; not, It returneth not. It, the spirit, but He, the man, the dead man, thats the body.  
The spirit returns to God; he means the just mans spirit. For the wicked mans goes to Abaddon, to Gehenna. The Preacher adds not that: twas odious. Or say, he means the sinners soul also: It returns too to God, to receive sentence. Haply Angels, one or more, bring it before God, and he bids, tradite tortoribus, go and deliver it to the tormentors. Some jewish writers conceive so. O the riches, the exceeding riches of Gods grace, that calls the soul of a miserable sinner up unto himself: Loved it so, while man lived, that he dwelled with it on earth, while it had a house there; dislog'd thence, assumes it to himself into heaven, to dwell with him! God, and a just mans soul will ever cohabit. Ruth●old Naomi, nought should part them, but death. But not deaths self shall part the soul and God. That which parts all things, shall not them. They indeed are Individu's.  
Theres a great Philosopher cries, non credo, to this, Pythagoras, a man of such authority, that the bare, ipse dixit was enough to prove any thing. He taught a {αβγδ} transmigration of souls. That the spirit departing returns not unto God, but goes into some other body; and that, not a mans always, a brute creatures sometimes. Lactantius calls him a doting old man, and Epiphanius his conceit, {αβγδ}, a Mountebanks guile. Great Alexanders soul was in julian the Apostata. Empedocles said, he had been {αβγδ}, a boy, a girl, a shrub, a foul, and a fish. Some jewish writers say, that a righteous mans soul hath three devolutions, a wicked mans immediately goes into a Beast, and at last becomes a devil. Adams soul was afterward in David, and again in Christ. That they find in Adams name, in their cabalistical subtlety. A. means Adam, D. David, M. messiah. This Pythagorian guile, as one Philosopher founded it, so another hath confounded it. Seneca, as wise a man as ere Pythagoras was, said, Sursum vocant illam Initia sua, the souls beginning calls it up to God; and thats the last thing in my Text, to God that gave it.  
The lover of souls, Gods Epithet, Sap. 11. ult. is here the giver of souls. What a noble creature is man? wholly Gods workmanship. David saith, Minorasti, thou hast lessened him, paulo minorasti, a little lessend him below the Angels. May not I say, Majorasti, thou hast graced him, multò majorasti, much graced him above the Angels. God made them but with his word, but Adam with his hands. Yea which I guess more graceful, Adams soul with his breath. When Christ bad his Disciples, Receive the holy Ghost, he laid not his hands on them, but breathed on them. Mans body was Manus Dei, his soul Afflatus Dei, Tertul. Gods hand framed Adams body; his breath inspired his soul. Saint Austin seconds Tertullian, calls the soul, Flatum Dei, Gods breath the souls first generation, was Gods immediate inspiration, saith a Bishop, sometime of this Church. Caelestis origo, Virgil could say, it comes from heaven. Mans spirit, Gods gift.  
Would you think the Preacher had opposers in this point? he hath many. If Heathens onely, twere no marvel; they consult Reason, not Faith, Nature, not Scripture. But Christians cross it too, say, mans soul is ex traduce, by propagation, like the body; comes from the parents, not from God; bread from them, not given by him; not Created, but Begotten. A profane and gross assertion; yet hath many maintainers, mighty too, the greater part( Saint jerome saith) of the Latin Fathers. Aquinas for all that saith, it is flat heresy. The catholic Tenet is, that when the body is fully fashioned in the womb, then God puts the soul in it. Not that all souls were created together at the first, as Origen held. But God then makes them, when he gives them, Creando infundit,& infundendo creat, makes, and gives them at once.  
The opposite opinion is both base and absurd. Base, that such a substance as mans soul, so divine and angelical, should be bread ex spermate. Debase the body, to abate mans pride, as much as you please. Be it sperma foetidum, as Saint Bernard terms it. But disgrace not the spirit, the noblest, next the Angels, of all creatures. Absurd, that a corruptible body should be able to beget an incorruptible spirit. Or if you will reply, tis the soul begets the soul, thats as absurd. Spirits beget not one another: not onely not Angels, but not souls neither. It agrees not( saith Saint Ambrose) with souls, ut vel generent, vel generentur, either to beget, or to be begotten. Will you say they do, or may haply, and that the childs soul comes from the parents? Then either from the mans alone, or from the womans, or from both. If from the mans; whence then was Christs, who had no father? If from the woman; whence then was Eves, who had no mother? If from both; then are there twins: for each soul must have his issue. again, if my parents give me my soul from theirs: either they give me their whole souls, and so have none themselves; or they give me but part; and then the soul is Secabile, a gross absurdity. Spirits having no quantity, admit no partition. I love not to be long upon one point; I am forced to be in this. For the Reasons on the adverse part would not be slighted. I will city but one or two of the most weighty.  
One threatens our salvation. Woe bee to our souls, saith one, if Christ took not his soul, his human spirit, as well as his body, from the Virgin. For Nazianzen saith, {αβγδ}, whatsoever of our nature Christ assumed not from our nature, that he hath not healed, he means not saved, not redeemed. But this man will make Nazianzen, mean more in English, then he saith in greek. He saith, what Christ assumed not; not what he assumed not from our nature; he adds that. Christ assumed a soul; but not by propagation from his mother, but by creation from his Father. Nec absurdum est, ut qui primo homini animam creavit, crearet et sibi. Aug. Ep. 99. S. Austin feared not that woe, said, Libentius responderim, he would rather answer, Christs soul came, Non de Adam, quam de Adam, not from Adam, then from him: that is, not from his Mother, but from God. And lest you may reply, that Christ might by prerogative have his soul from heaven, though wee have not: he saith of Levi too, nec Levi, nec Christus, neither Christ, nor Levi were in Abrahams loins, secundum Animam, in respect of the soul. If not Levi, then no man. Levi had no prerogative.  
Another reason weightier then this indeed( the former weighed but in words) is the propgation of original sin. Which how can it descend from Adam to his sons, unless as all mens bodies come from his, all mens souls do so too? Since that original sin is as well in soul, as body, yea in soul most. For if God do give the soul, as my Text saith, if he create it new, and put it in the body, and yet it be tainted with sin, when it is born: either God made it so, and is then author of sin, which is blasphemy; or itself sinned in the womb;( which to say, is absurd, for it could not, it had no use of reason) or the body, being itself conceived in sin, infects the soul; which is more absurd. For a spiritual substance cannot take taint from a corporal. This lead those learned Fathers into this error, that the soul comes from the seed. They conceived not the conveyance of original sin, but so. The scruple a long time stumbled Saint Austin to: he knew not how else to answer the Pelagians. Now what say wee to this argument, this knot? How doth God give the spirit, create the soul; and yet it bee born with original sin?  
There are two things considerable in original sin, Adams disobedience imputed unto us, then in his loins, and the corruption of our nature, inclinable to evil, the pain of Adams disobedience. When we say the soul by conjunction with the body is defiled with sin; wee mean not that the body works upon the soul, and so infects it, as Pitch will defile with the very touch. But that at the same instant, at which God gives the spirit, puts it in the body, Adams disobedience is then imputed to the whole person; and so by consequent, corruption of nature, and inclination unto evil, the pain of Adams sin, by Gods just appointment follows. For that sentence of Gods, morte morieris, thou shalt surely die, was given on us in Adam, as well as upon him. For the sin of Adam was not merely personal: he sinned not as one private man, one Individuum, but as the corpse of all mankind. There were in uno universi: his sin was the guilt, non tam personae quam naturae, not his sin onely, but all his posterities, the sin of all his seed for ever after him, {αβγδ}, Naz. my forefathers fall was mine.  
But one reason more, theres no Scripture against propagation of souls. There is beside my Text, divers in the Psalms,& in the Prophets. I have no time to city them. To end the point, Heathens may check Christians, Poets and Philosophers subscribe to Salomon, not some but all. To the Latin Fathers I oppose the greek; they all assent to Salomon too. Yea and Latin Fathers many, Saint jerome, Ambrose, Lactantius, Prosper, and Arnobius, of the ancient; but of the latter, all. modern Divines most. I pray your pardon, I have tired you with a craggy question, Questio obligatissima, Saint Austins term, a perplex argument I determine it, God gives the soul, mans soul, he is the father of spirits, Saint Pauls term: gives all things Saint Paul saith too, but mans soul {αβγδ}, makes it, creates it. That he did all things once; but mens spirits still, quotidie fabricat, that he daily creates them, is( saith S. Hierom) dogma ecclesiasticum.  
To conclude, what if now after all this said on the Preachers side, the Preachers self be his own adversary. He seems, cap. 3. at 21. ver. and the 19. to supplant himself, both touching the Spirits Maker, and the return of it to God. In the one, he confesseth, he knows not, he, nor any, whether the spirit of man ascend or descend. There he doubts. But in the other he saith flatly, categorically, peremptorily, that there is Idem spiritus, the same spirit of beast and man, the one no better then the other. But for the first, Quis scit. Who knows? saith he; thats an Hyperbole, no man knows, i. very few. Sense and Reason hardly discern the things concern the soul. They crave deep understanding. And for the second, he means mans vital soul; his vegetative soul; whose powers are but sense, motion, and generation, the brute creature hath that, tis the same in man and beast. But the rational spirit is proper to man onely: and Salomon means that here. That God gave, and that returns to God, cvi cum filio, &c.   

A funeral SERMON, PREACHED ON ESAIAH. The third Sermon.  ESAIAH 40. 6. All Flesh in grass 
THat Flesh is grass, that All flesh is as grass, is no great point of divinity. An Humanist, an Heathen may discourse this Argument. Would you like a Preacher should take it to his Text: Why not? Tis Scripture. And lest you think the Scripture may have haply some sayings, not so fit for Texts: God commends this to the Preacher, commends it for a Text, Esay 40 6. A voice bids, cry. The Prophet asks, What? The voice answers, and tis Gods; that, All flesh is grass. The Corpse before us saith as much; but saith it softly, we hear not it. God therefore bids the Preacher cry it. The Corpse cries it to the Eye; thats but one sense. God cries it also to the ear; to force us to attend, he adds Oracle to Spectacle, that we may both hear and see at once the frailty, the vanity, the mortality of man.  
The Proposition is Comparative; the things compared are Flesh and grass. The Note that should unite them, is expressed in the next clause, but suppressed in this, the note of Comparison. Paul hath subjected all creatures unto vanity, Rom. 8. 20. So did the Preacher before him, All things, sub sole, under the sun. Yea sun, and all, and somethings superior than the sun, as the Firmament and stars, Transibunt, saith our Saviour; heaven is not excepted; all have their mortality. But the voice commands me not to cry so much. Quae supra nos, nihil ad nos. It bids but cry, All Flesh. That term may be mistaken too: it may mean more, than here it doth. Wee must confine it to the voices sense. There is a Flesh of Beasts, and there is a Flesh of fowls; and Fishes also have their Flesh: Paul ●aith it, though it needs no Text, a thing of sense. The voice here means not these. Tis true of these, of all these; they are subject too to vanity. But this voice in this place means onely man. It saith, All Flesh; the note is universal: but universalls have their bounds. That man is here meant onely, appears by the next verse; it expoundeth this; here All flesh, there All people. And Saint Peter glosses it so too, 1 Pet. 1. 24. The Subject then of this mortality is Man: Man onely, but man wholly; none excepted, all. All Flesh, that is, all men; is grass, that is, as grass: three words, no more in the original, Omnis caro foenum; all three considerable severally.  
The subject must be first; for the Note is but a waiter. And the Trope would not be balked, but that it is so frequent: and yet it is more remarkable here; wee shall note it afterward. Man is meant here by Flesh. Man Gods immediat workmanship: the Plants, the Fish, the Beasts, the Earth and Waters brought forth them. Yea all the other creatures, God but said, Let them be. But man God made himself; Thy hands( saith David) fashioned me. Gods works all good: but man the grace and glory of them all; the perfection of the Creation. Is so excellent a creature, destinate to death? he for whom they all were made, the end of all the creatures, must he end like other creatures? He whom God held worthy, to put all things under his feet, doth he match him with the grass, under the Beasts feet? Man, whom David makes little lower than the Angels, Christ equal to the Angels; the grass lower than the Beasts, is it equal unto him? Of whom Gods son saith, Sunt sicut Angeli, men are as the Angels; of him doth Gods self say, Caro sicut foe●um, Man is as the grass?  
Man the worthiest of Gods works; not better onely than sparrows, and then sheep in Christs comparison in the tenth and twelfth of Matthew, but then all Gods other creatures; for he is Lord of All, Vniversitatis Dominus, tart. and in that, above the Angells: for God gave them but Ministerium, they are ministering spirits; but he gave man Magisterium, Lordship over all: Gods {αβγδ}, as Philo calls him, Gods Vice-roy of the world: himself a little world; {αβγδ}, a little heaven, tis Philoes too, a little God, {αβγδ}, a mortal God, saith Trismegist; higher I cannot go; {αβγδ}, Oppian. nothing more high, then he, this creature to be Foenum, sicut foenum, to be as the Grasse? {αβγδ}, Gods Image, saith the Poet in Lactantius,( What needs a Poet? Scripture saith it) Man Gods resemblance to the grass? Man, {αβγδ}, thats Philoes too, a plant from heaven, to a plant on earth? Tis much, that what God said of him, said in scorn, Behold man is become like one of us; the Beasts should say of him, say in earnest, Behold, man is become like one of us; Comparatus est jumentis, Psal 49. he is compared unto the beasts that perish. But the disparagement is greater, that the plants much base creatures should say of him, Behold, man is become like one of us; Scut foenum, dies hoins, mans dayes are like the grass, man made by God, who lives for ever; wrought of earth, which stands for ever; quickened by a soul, which never dies, and created for Gods glory, which never never ends; Can of causes so firm, so continuing as these, come an effect so weak, so withering as grass?  
Now note, I pray you, the term here in my Text. Tis not for nothing, that God speaks in Trope. He could have said, all men, as easily as all fl●sh. But bidding the Prophet to proclaim mans mortality, he would style him by a term, which should imply the reason. A man consists of soul, as well as Flesh; and the soul sometimes is put for man. Da mihi animas, said the King of sodom unto Abraham, give me the souls, i. the men. Not mans phrase onely, but Gods too, Anima quae peccat, the soul that sins shall die, that is, the man. But here he calls man flesh, purposedly; his frailty comes from it: the soul is immortal; tis the Flesh makes man obnoxious to mortality. You will say, sin makes him; so it doth; but in the flesh: Spirits die not. Mans soul, which God breathed in them, was it not {αβγδ} a spirit of life? True as well subjectivè, as effectivè. But the body disadvantaged by his materials, the flesh being made of mould, might suffer death: and so did, and so it doth. Man made of it must needs be mortal.  
For what is man? Iobs question. Is he a sea, a Whale? His strength is it ston, or his substance is it stelle? Our hearts indeed are haughty, and our spirits strong, like the Amorite in the Prophet, High as the Cedar, sturdy as the oak; every one as the son of a King. But as the Lacedemonian said of the Nightingale, hearing her so shrill, and seeing her so small, Vox est praetereà nihil, she was nothing but a voice: so may I say of man, Cor est, pratereà nihil, he is nothing but a heart. In the strength of it, he strouts him like a giant, swells, boasts, frets, threatens like a pett●e King, makes stirs and garboils in the world, builds, hoards, aspires like a demi-god, plays the worlds young master. Not Iobs Leviathan and Behemoth put together make such a din and do among the creatures But as God said of the Egyptian horses, so I may say of men, are they not flesh? That subjects him to mortality; that makes him call Corruption, Father, and the worms, his Sisters and kinswomen.  
To end this, humanity, and mortality are individually linked. Can a man not remember the name of his Father? Or say, haply he do, can he forget his own? My Fathers name was Adam,& homo sum, as Mitio said, I myself amman. Both words are from the earth. From it we are come, to it we shall go. I may forget my name as soon as my mortality. The Note hath waited long; come wee to it. All Flesh is grass, that is, every man is mortal. Tis an idle Theme, you will think, and needless to press the generality of death. But the voice hath put it too in the cry; and I may not smother it.  
Man but thinks he is a King, but plays Rex only, he is none, none lightly. But death is one indeed. Not a King only, but an Emperour, a right Pambasilcus, catholic King more truly, than ever was King of spain, an universal King. All Cesars his subjects, an ecumenical King, Terrorum Rex, job hath it; he might have said, Terrarum Rex; death is a Prince paramount, the supreme Monarch over all mankind on earth. sex, Age, Condition, are dispensed with, in some cases. Death favours none. For sex; I have heard some say, that women have no souls; but none, they have no bodies. Flesh they are, Eve was. Adam said it, of whose flesh shee was, Caro de carne mea, the womans flesh of mans, and so grass, as well as he.[ Nay; and of the two, the woman was grass first, mortal before the man; for she fell first,] If sex have any privilege; tis the mans. There are two exempts of men, Enoch and Elias, that died not, not one of women; no not of Christs own mother. Some say, she sinned not; none, she died not: And they say, she was taken up in heaven bodily; but they grant, she died first, if they did not; we would prove it.  
For age, the bud is blasted as soon as the blown rose; and the lamb comes to the shambles, as well as the grown sheep. Seneca saith elegantly, Non citamur ex censu, death looks not in Church Book, or chequer rolls, to see mens yeares, and so to summon them. The Cradle protects not; Infants die in it. Nay the womb protects not; many die in it. My son, or my daughter, Post me mori debet, ante me potest, they must die after me, they may before me. The child but a span long is born to burial; and the Iewes say in their proverb, In Golgotha are gaols of all cises.  
For condition, death puts no difference between mens states, respects no persons, takes no gifts. indeed the Grave, like the Horseleeches daughters, cries Da, Give, give: But whats the gift? My Text names it, it is Flesh. The Greekes hence call the Grave, Sarcophagon, a flesh eater. Not the flesh of Fowles or Beasts: it is a Canniball, it eats mans flesh. And mans flesh without difference; death is no distinguisher. The Bagger died, Christ saith in the Parable, {αβγδ}, but the rich man died too. The rich, the mighty, the honourable man, none comes amiss to death. Magnus& parvus illic, saith job, the grave receives them all. Sarcophagus is Pamphagus, it eats, devours all flesh. Even Kings and counsellors, job saith, it takes them too. Princes are Gods, God saith it, Dixi, Dii est is; they are gods on earth; but they are gods of earth, as the cynic said to Alexander. The mightiest, though he be greater {αβγδ}, in authority, is no better than his brethren, {αβγδ} in his substance; flesh as well as they, and so grass as well as they. fool or wiseman, learned or ignorant, bond or free, none free from death.  
To end this second point, saith the Apostle, Mors intravit, death but entred only into the world? It did more and Paul saith it, Rom. 5. 12. not {αβγδ} onely, but {αβγδ} too, it hath gone thorough it; not( Invasit) onely, set upon the borders and outward skirts of it, but( pervasit) too, hath peirst into the inland, into the heart of it. Heathens are rich in this; but we need them not. Death like a Deluge hath overflowed all flesh. It passes Noahs flood: Eight persons scaped it, death not one. Like sin, it seized on all. Nay, it hath past sin too. Paul saith, All men have sinned; but one hath not. One scap't; David saith, No not one. But one hath, and one near to David, even his son. One hath scap't sin, Christ hath; but death not one; not Gods one, Dei unicus, Gods beloved one. God hath exempted him from sin, but not excepted him from death. Onely Christ died, Quia volvit, because it pleased him so: Every one else, Quia debuit, because he ought( do so.) Death is a debt, own by us all. {αβγδ}, saith the Poet, wee all are own to death. For we all are dust, and dust( saith the Preacher) must return to that it was. And there is no way to it, but death; called therefore by Iosua, via omnis terrae, the way of all earth. It was our womb; it must be our tomb; It bore us, and must bury us. It must us all, all flesh. Be it flesh of jew or graecian, infidel, or Christian, Priest or people, holy or profane, Caesar or Lazar, be it whose flesh soever, finis est cinis, ashes is our end. Enough of the Note; a right Criers note; they lightly begin so.  
The Predicate remaines, the thing to which, Flesh is compared, tis grass. Mans life is likened to many things in Scripture; to none more fitly, than to grass; and therefore to it often. Other things haply fit it but in one point, some one point onely, this in many. For the false delights of it, tis likened to a dream; for the shortness, to a Tabernacle; for the swiftness, to a Cloud, to a Weavers shuttle, to a Post, to a Ship, an Eagle. But mans whole state is figured in the grass, Quis, Qualis, Vnde, Quo, his Breed, his Growth, his Chances, and his End; grass represents them all. From out the earth springs it; out of the same came he. Man is {αβγδ} from the earth, faith David and Moses {αβγδ} from the ground; alls one. Rise he nere so high; job saith, His foundation is in the dust. For Growth, the holy Ghost in Scripture, as it likens man to grass; so flourishing man to the green grass. And Saint Peter compares as bare Flesh, to bare grass: so the glory of man to the flower of grass. For Chance and End, the grass, haply the beast croppeth it, or the worm wasteth it, the drought starveth it; the hail smiteth it; or the wind blasteth it. Or, if it last out his full time; yet the Sithe at last cutteth it down. So is mans life at every creatures mercy. Fire, Water, sickness, thief, poison, famine, Sword. And though he scape all casualties to the utmost of mans age; yet then comes a mower. Why should Death be pictured with a Sithe, if man were not as grass? Man live he long is as grass, gramen prati, meadow grass; or die he soon, yet gramen tecti, the grass on the house top, which antè arescit, quàm maturescit, withereth, saith the Prophet, Even before it be grown up.  
But the Point, the Scripture menanes mainly here, is the frailty of man onely; the comparison of grass is used but to show that: that as the grass, so man, in the morning groweth and flourisheth, saith the Psalmist, in the evening is cut down, and withereth. Mans life is like a leaf; job saith, a faded leaf, and his substance, as the dry stubble; {αβγδ}, but a sparkle, Chrysost. soon extinct. So tender, so fickle, so tickle a thing; that a poor raisin ston, a crumb, a fly, a hair can stop the breath.  
To conclude, God graces man, to call him grass; far weaker, far more momentany things would have served to have compared him to. He that likened him to a vapour, tis Saint james, thought him more frail than grass. But the proverb passes him; {αβγδ}, man is but a bubble. Saint Basil passeth it, {αβγδ}, man is nothing. Esay saith little less, Quasi nihilum, but as nothing, {αβγδ} Nay he saith somewhat more, verse 17. of this Chapter. Wee are {αβγδ} less than nothing. Man is as nothing; for Fumus est, he is but a vapour, Saint james said so. Yea he is plain nothing, Fumi umbra, but a vapours shadow, Aeschilus calls him so. Nay he is less than nothing; he is but umbrae somnium, but the dream of a shadow; Pindarus calls him so. So the Psalmist is not satisfied in calling him vanity: he thinks that too much for him. He saith, he is lighter than vanity itself. And who can descend lower? less than less than nothing, I think nothing is. Davids Epiphonema shall conclude my Text as a parallel to it, to every word of it, Psal. 39. 11. certainly, every man is vanity. The Lord of his great mercy, by his holy Spirit, humble our hearts, with the remembrance of our frailty; pardon our sins, the onely cause of it; cloath us with Christs righteousness, the onely ease of it; and hasten his sons coming, the final end of it; to which three sacred persons of the blessed Godhead, be all honour and glory, praise and thanksgiving, &c.  Blessed are the dead, that die in the Lord, they shall rise to immortality.  

A funeral SERMON, PREACHED ON S. MATTHEW. The fourth Sermon.  MATTH. 25. 46. And These shall go into everlasting pain. 
theres a {αβγδ} an end of all men, Salomon saith. Whats that? Death, he means there. It is; but not their utmost, their last end. I shewed you the last funeral, Paul hath a {αβγδ}, something that followeth death. Whats that? It is Iudgement: and of that I treated then. But there is yet a plus ultra, something that follows it. Whats that? Tis execution. Thats my Theme now. Sentence went before at the 41. verse, Discedite, Depart; executed here. Three terms, the doomed persons, These. Their Remove from the judge, they go away. The pain, to Torment, Torment eternal. Of each briefly. First for all jointly.  
The wise man bids but Remember the end, Eccles. 7. ult. He seems to mean but death there onely. But the word plural both in the greek and Latin, {αβγδ}, Novissima, reckoning heaven for one. But Saint Bernard but three, Death, Iudgement and Hell. Our funeral Theme is then first mostly. Tis fittest then to preach of death. But the Epicure will take advantage at that argument; cry {αβγδ}, Let us eat and drink, for to morrow wee shall die. Paul therefore puts to, a post hoc; statutum est, It is appointed, that men do die once. But thats not all; red on, and after that Iudgement.  
The sensual man, though loathe, yet because he needs must, is contented to die. But Iudgement is but a swore subject, pleaseth no sinner. Death was Timendum, we fear it; Iudgement is Tremendum, Saint Gregories term, wee quake at it. Felix himself a judge, trembled when Paul preached of Iudgement. Yea and by Salomons leave, death is not all mens end, will Lucian say, by Gods leave haply too, he saith Gen. 6. universae carnis, the end of all flesh. Enoch was but translated, did not die. Elias went up in body into heaven, {αβγδ}, saith Saint Basil, with his flesh. Saint Paul saith plainly, Wee shall not die all, 1 Cor. 15. 51. But appear before Gods judgement seat wee shall all, Rom. 14. some scape mans judgement, none shall Gods.  
Yet some strong heart hath some hope for all this. Say the sin bee sentenced, judgement past. How many condemned persons, doomd to die, have obtained pardon, and have lived? The repreev'd prisoner oft escapes. But my Text hath instant execution? Christ repreeves none, hath no sooner sentenced, convicted sinners; but legions of executioners, the devills run on them, hale them( obtorto collo) immediately to hell. This is no plausible theme. Their feet are beautiful( Paul saith) that preach peace, you will haply wish my tongue were silenced, that come to preach judgement and execution. But is the Preachers office, to please, or to edify? enough in generality.  
Take we now the terms apart, the subject first, These. Who These? Tis but a relative, refers us to some term before. See the 41. verse, Those on the left hand of the judge. Thats but a relative too to the 33. there they are called Goates. That term is obscure yet. All expositors understand by it, the wicked and ungodly.[ go no further for proof, then to the words following, But the righteous into life eternal.] {αβγδ}, by Goates( saith Oecumenius) are meant sinners. Saint Austin saith it too. These shall go into pains; the son of David saith it here. His Father said it before, Psal. 9. 17. be turned into hell. Thats( as Saint Luke saith of Iudas, Act. 1. 25.) {αβγδ}, their proper and due place.  
It should seemē by the 42. and 43. verses, that all sinners are not meant, but onely the merciless, that feed not, that cloath not, that harbour not the poor. It pleased our Saviour to give instance but in them. But all sorts of sinners shall receive the same sentence, all impenitent sinners. The Righteous in the next clause, that are adjudged to life, were sinners too sometimes. But God had given them grace to repent. The graceless are meant here that repent not; they onely, but they all. Not onely the non-releevers of the poorē, but also the nonobservers of the Law, in whatsoever kind. The lecher, the idolater, the extortioner, the thief, the drunkard, the blasphemer; Saint Paul hath a long Catalogue; the lot of them all is in the Lake of fire.  
The argument is strong, à Minore, in this form. If the omitters of good offices shall not escape pain; then the committers of evil shall be punished much more. Cain that slay his brother, Cham that dishonoured his Father, Esau that sold his birth-right, Iudas that betrayed Christ, julian that renounced him, these haply shall led, have the {αβγδ} the deepest room in Hell. But there shall also follow punee sinners too. As in God the Fathers kingdom, so in the devils too, are many mansions, room enough for all reprobates, for them all, but for them onely. Life, life everlasting is prepared for the righteous; but eternal pain for these. These have denied God, defied Religion, persecuted Christ, robd widows and Orphans, corrupted others, defiled themselves; have served satan here, shall burn with satan there. Salomon asks, cvi vae? to whom is woe? The Prophet answers, vae genti peccatrici, Esa. 1. 4. Woe to sinners. Vae impio, Esay 3. 11. Woe be to the wicked. Vae Desertoribus, Esay 30. 1. Woe to the Rebellious. Another answers, Vae to the covetours of evil, Woe to the builder by blood; Woe to him that makes his neighbour drunk. Osee and ieremy shall end this, Vaeistis, Woe to These. And so I leave the persons executed, and come to the act of execution, they shall go, {αβγδ}.  
The brief of both Christs sentences is, item, Venite; come, to the righteous, go●, to the wicked. In this act of execution are two terms; the one more close, A quo, couched in the preposition, {αβγδ}, not simply to go; item hath no hurt in it. But it is Abibunt, they shall go From. From whence? or From whom? From the place of Iudgement. Thats no harm neither: Those that are quit at our Sessions, do that. Yea at Christs assizes too, the righteous go from the bar. But from whom must these go? Thats suppressed here, but expressed in the 41. verse, discedite à Me, they must go from Christ.  
The execution hath two vehs; this is the first, and worst, far worse then the second, then the Terminus ad quem. Thats fearful, to pain, eternal pain. This passeth it, to go from Christ. The righteous go too; but with him into heaven. These are commanded away, must go from him into hell. Into hell? thats not so much. It were happiness to go to hell with him. No joy to the righteous to go without him into Heaven. Heaven is hell without Christ; hell with him is Heaven. The blessedness of the Saints lies not so much in the place, as in the company; not onely the society of Angels, but the presence of Gods self, the fruition of Christ, the beholding the incomparable beauty of Gods countenance. The privation whereof is the extremity of misery, exceeds the pains, the matchless, the endless pains of hell; passes mill gehennas; 1000. hells, saith Saint Chrysostome. The Poena damni is worse then Poena sensus; more ease in sense of Torment, then in loss of Christ. In coelum jusseris ibit? Bid me go to hell; I will to be with Christ. As the scribe saith in the Gospel, sequar te, quocunque ieris, I will follow Christ, whethersoever he goeth. under his wings, the shadow of his wings, no flames can scorch me, no worm gnaw me, no fiend touch me.  
The queen of Sheba held it happiness to stand before Salomon, to hear his wisdom. What to stand before God, to see his glory? A bigail thought it honour to be but Davids handmaid, but to wash his servants feet. What to wait on God, and to behold his face? Christs self calls them blessed, that shall see God, Matth. 5. 8. Thats indeed( as the school terms it) visio beatifica, a sight that makes true blessedness. There bee many Beatitudes, Divines reckon eight. The most blessed of them all is to see God. The society of the Saints, Martyrs, Apostles, Patriarks, Gloriosum hoc, this is great glory, saith Saint Augustine. But to be present with God, to behold him, thats {αβγδ}, a weight of glory, {αβγδ}( as Paul speaks) an excellent, a most excellent, a far most excellent eternal weight of glory. To see God, not in specie,( the Patriarkes saw him so, saw him in resemblance) but infacie, face to face; we shall see him so, Paul saith. Not as it pleased him to appear to mans weak sense; but as he is indeed. Not as now in speculo, in a glass, but in seipso, in himself. The Fathers power, the sons wisdom, the Spirits goodness, the incomparable beauty, the unutterable majesty, the unconceivable glory of the whole Trinity. From this shall these, these in my Text be driven and depart. For to see God, is sanctorum praemium, Augustine, a Reward, a Prerogative proper to the Saints.  
Saint Paul is not content to say, they shall be punished, 2 Thes. 1. 8, 9. punished with flaming fire and eternal perdition, the terminus ad quem, but adds the Aquo too, from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. To be shut out of the choir, but of the Saints and Angels, so they might be with Christ, they should be happy. he were unus instar omnium. But he drives them from his presence, Matth. 7. 23. Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. The height of all unhappines, the privation of Gods presence; called so( S. Aug. saith) even by Plotinus, an heathen Philosopher, infelicissimum, the extremity of all misery.  
The other Terminus is Ad quem. you have heard, Vnde, whence they go, hear now Quo, whether, into pain everlasting. First what pain 
{αβγδ}.  means he? It should seem to be light, by the long lasting; Dolor si longus, levis. That rule holds not in hell. Among Origens errors jerome notes this for one, that the pains of the devil and the damned are but the conscience of sin. But what is it? look again at the 41. verse, tis Fire. pain hath magis& minus, some much sharper then other. Fire is worst. toothache, ston, cholicke, womens pains, are all grievous, all extreme. And yet for the first three, the heart of a man will not lightly shrink; and the fourth, though it force the woman to cry out in the weakness of her sex; yet shee bears it with some patience. But the strongest courage of the stoutest man, will fail at the feeling of a little fire. If foot, or finger, any part bee but held in it nere so small a while: the exquisite anguish will wrest strong cries from him, and force him to fare like a man beside himself.  
In all those pains and other, there are some Intervalla; the patient hath some rest. Like agues, they have fits come and go, give often breathing and release. There is some pitty with the pain. But Fire( we say in proverb) hath no mercy. This merciless torment must the sinner go unto, from the presence of the judge. A sad sentence, but the judgement just. he had no pitty on poor souls in earth; It will have no pitty on his soul in hell. Nay the wise man bidding him, Miserere ainae tuae, O pitty thine own soul, would not do that Misereri sui, pitty himself here, he shall cry to the Tormentors, Miserere mei; they will not there.  
Some so lighten the pain, say, tis but Fire in metaphor. That I cannot stand to argue. But they shall find it no figure, that shall feel it. Nay is it but Fire? is it not a worse thing? Christ calls it Fire; wee must rest in his term. But not ordinary Fire. I think, the hottest, fiercest fire on earth, compared unto it, is but as a flamme painted on a wall.[ Our Fire hath light, that hath not. Clemens calls it {αβγδ}, it shines not; it Calidus, but not Lucidus, Saint Basil is {αβγδ} but not {αβγδ}, burns, but is black; there is utter darkness for all it.] The torture so intolerable, exquisitely great, that the damned sinner shall gnaw his tongue for grief, and blaspheme God himself in his unsufferable anguish.[ Fire, but {αβγδ}, not material, Damasc. but such as God knows onely.]  
This is not all, the kind of pain, what must bee endured. Said I, the execution had two vehs? It hath three; hear a third worse then the 
{αβγδ}.  second. The pain is endless. The quandum worse then the quid; everlasting Fire. Never was pain heard of, but had end. Long lasting torments Tyrants have devised: but death in spite of them hath ended them. The sinners doom is pain eternal. Theres a worm, a prison, chains, darkness, and fire, all {αβγδ}, all everlasting. Kill the worm they cannot: Christ saith, it dies not. break jail much less; the Gates are Iron, the bars brass, Acheron is {αβγδ}, the heathen Poets said, no getting out of hell. The chains everlasting, Saint Iude saith. The darkness {αβγδ}, Philoes term, endless too; and the Fire unquenchable, Christ saith here; John Baptist said it before. Paul calls it in gross, {αβγδ}, Perdition everlasting. Bernard, perpetuumvae, everlasting woe.  
First, how so? The school disputes it, I will not. Christ hath said it; thats enough. What he says, I believe. Fire indeed ends with the object, devours it, and goes out. But Fiers object in hell shall have no end. souls and bodies shall burn, but not waste. Did not the bush so on mount Sinai? burnt, but consumed not? The fuel of hellfire, sinners souls and bodies, by Gods supernatural provision shall not consume. How can the flames then still fed, go out?  
Secondly, why so? Is that Gods mercy; will lewd Lucian say, to award perpetual pain to temporary sin? Nay, is that Gods justice, that the censure shall exceed the sin? Summum jus,( we say) is Injuria, the rigour of the Law is wrong, to punish the delinquent to the utmost extremity. This is more, the pain to pass the crime. Peace Atheist; God for all this is not unjust. Tax not his mercy neither. Time of mercy is past; God proffered that in this world, and twas despised. Christ is now come to judge. {αβγδ}( Saint james saith) is {αβγδ}, judgement is merciless, the last judgement. Gods judgements here are mixed with mercy: look for none there, but mere justice. And yet there is; Christ even there too is merciful; the sinners pain is short of his desert. wickedness is worthy worse punishment, then the damned shall suffer even in hell.  
Say it be not; say Gods mercy end there; yet challenge not his justice. Tis no wrong to the sinner, that his pain is everlasting, a never dying worm, and fire unquenchable. For it is for never-dying sin, and lust unquenchable. Mans sin had his Aeternum, as well as Gods Fire. Had the sinner lived world without end, his sin too would have lasted world without end. Nay though he dyed, sin dyed not with him: he sins still even in hell; hates God, blasphemes him, curses, despairs. Malice, envy, all sins perpetrable there, worse and greater in hell, then they were here. God is not unjust, if he punish eternally, those that trespass eternally. Poets show, Heathens held this, hell pains eternal.— Sedet aeternum queen sedebit Infelix Thescus. Nay, say sin ended in earth, or were not eternal; yet may pain be endless, and God just. For sin trespasses God, who is infinite; and therefore m●rits a pain infinite.  
To end this, tis strange, what Heathens believed, Christians should question. Origen one of the Fathers did, held hell pains are not eternal; all there, not men onely, devils too shall at length be enlarged. If he did, I say with Photius, he was {αβγδ}, but he was also {αβγδ}, he wrote much, but he erred much. Haply he is wronged; some heretics might corrupt his writings. For I find him say expressly, not once, nor twice, that hell torments have no end. Indeed the Priscillianists said, they have; grant them Aeterna, because Scriptures say so; but yet prove, they end. Will you hear how wisely? Because eternity is not perpetuity, as the greek {αβγδ}, means, unless unto Aeternum there be also added, & in seculum seculi. This I read in S. Austin. They are not worth the answering: instance against them is infinite. indeed Aeternitas is sometime but diuturnitas, {αβγδ} means not always everlasting. But that it doth here, appears by the parallel. Hell fire is called unquenchable. Will they say, Inextinguibilis needs to have added too, In seculum seculi, or else it will go out? Christ saith flatly, Hell Fire never goeth out.  
To conclude, as the promise of the gospel is eternal life, so the Law threatens everlasting death. If it be false, Quod minatus est, that God threatens, then tis false too, Quod policitus est, that he promises, saith Saint Gregory. If Supplicia reproborum shall have end, then Gaudia Beatorum shall end also. But what if examples confute us? Tis said, Pope Gregory rid Trajan out of hell; Tecla, Falconilla, Perpetua, her brother, Saint Dunstan, King Edwin, Fr. Xavier too a Pagans daughter. four examples, one as true as another; shameless lies all. yield them true. Though God release some in this world: after judgement he will not. Then will be ex inferno nulla redemptio. I wonder none of the Patriarkes, none of the holy Prophets ever did the like, men as gracious with God, as Xavier, S. Dunstan, or Pope Gregory. Only I forget, the Pope may plead prerogative, to let when he lists, any soul out of hell. Hath he not the keys of it? But there will be no Pope after the day of judgement. I end; These, i. sinners shall go, abibunt, go from Christ, whose presence is true happiness; go into Fire, torment which cannot, and yet must be endured; into Fire everlasting; and who can dwell( saith Esay) in everlasting burning? from that pain everlasting, the Lord deliver us, cvi, &c.   

A funeral SERMON, PREACHED ON THE HEBREWES. The fifth Sermon.  HEB. 9. 27. 
Et post hoc, judicium.  
But after this, the Iudgement.  
we make our funeral Sermons mostly of Death; It is a fit Argument. And our Corpses are not Mutes, mere Mutes; They too in their Dialect bid us see our end. But not our last, our utmost end. Theres a {αβγδ}, Saint Paul saith, something, that follows death; It is Iudgement. Be that( if you please) my Position at this time, Heb. 9. 27. Paul saith, It is appointed unto men to die once; Et post hoc, judicium, And after that, Iudgement. The Translation to make sense, in the Geneva Bibles, inserts a word, in smaller Characters, After( cometh) Iudgement. That small insertion helps you to undersTand, Me to divide my Text; The thing that Comes, and the Time of the that coming. Not at what hour; Angels know not that; but in what Order; After death. First of the Order; Order so craves.  
Mans judgement goes before, and death follows, if the crime be capital. Sentence goes ever before Execution. No Magistrate first hangs, burns, or beheads, and then sits down to judge; plays hysteron, proteron. Christ is in Pilats Hall, before he goes to Golgotha; arraigned first, and then Crucified. judex before Carnifex, trial before Death. Gods Iudgement is not so, the latter Iudgement. Man must first die; and then comes it. Death goes before; Iudgement is {αβγδ}, after death.  
Heathens knew not this; they stretch mans life, but Sepulchro tenus, to the Grave onely, saith Theodoret: Especially the most of them, Epicures and Atheists. Death( they say) is, Vltima linea rerum, the last line of all things. It is not. It is of things, of living things, All, saving men. The beast dies, theres his end. Fish, foul, every brute creature end with death. Man doth not, ends not, when he dies. Theres a Plus ultra, something beyond death.  
Surely besides Heathens, others have made death mans end, utmost end. Sadducees did, a sect of Iewes. Seneca did, whom I hold not an Heathen, a mere Heathen; but half a Christian. he said, Post mortem nihil est, theres nothing after death. Simon and Cerdo did, Manes and martion; All these, heretics, not Heathens. One Bishop did, Synesius, Bishop of Ptolemais, held all points of Christian Religion, saving that, stuck at the Resurrection. Yet not just as Heathens did, that death determined All; but mens bodies onely, not their souls, granted them immortal. Said I but one Bishop? Ecce autem alterum, a Bishop of Rome did too, did just as Heathens did; made death end all things, souls and all. Pope John 23. did. Not he alone; Pope Paul the third did too, if story may be believed. indeed Scripture( to seeming) saith as much, the Preacher doth, Eccles. 7. 4. calls death {αβγδ} all mens end. Gods self doth, Gen. 6. Vniversae carnis, end of all Flesh. It is {αβγδ} the end of all men in this world. The last thing befalls man here is death. But there is●t a {αβγδ} an after-world. When life ends, it begins. The souls estate till Christs second coming; the day of judgement; and the joint-condition of soul and body both, after that day, are three lines more after our death; death is not the last, and therefore Divines reckon Quatuor novissima, four latter ends; and the wise man bids, remember them, Memorare novissima, Eccles. 7. ult. It is in the English, but, remember the end. But it is plural in the Greek and Latin both, {αβγδ}, Novissima, death and judement, heaven and hell. The angel cites three of them, Apoc. 9. 12. One woe is past; but behold two other woes come after; theres the {αβγδ} in my text, Iudgement and damnation follow death.  
They think not so, that say,( tis twice in Scripture) Edamus, bibamus, Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die. To morrow ends not all. It may our life; perhaps to day. But theres more behind, a thousand times more after, then before. My life, live I an hundred, nine hundred yeeres, as some have done, is nothing to the world to come; but as a day, an hour unto eternity. Death is an end, but an end that hath an end. We shall live again at the Resurrection, {αβγδ} is not {αβγδ}. But the world to come is a world without end.  
The Preacher and the Prophet, Salomon I mean, and ieremy, the one terms death Somnum seculi; the other the grave, Domum seculi; which haply you will English, an eternal sleep, an everlasting home. But then you force the words both Hebrew, greek, and Latin, further than you need. 〈◇〉 〈◇〉, and seculum signify indeed eternity, but not always, {αβγδ}, saith Theodoret. They all sometimes mean but a certain space, oft-times. The rigid Grammarian must not urge the Etymon, {αβγδ}, thats, {αβγδ}, ever enduring. use is the judge of words, not the etymology. And therefore your Bibles, the last English Translation calls the grave, a long home, not an everlasting. You must expound it so, or deny the Resurrection. So is death {αβγδ}, a long sleep, saith Saint Chrysostome, long, but not eternal. Theres an Evigilatio, a waking out of that sleep, Dan. 12. 2. Then comes this {αβγδ}, ●auls post hoc in my Text, Gods day of general Iudgement.  
Death is not eternal, death on earth, the first death; the second indeed is, thats {αβγδ}, as the comic speaks, a death immortal. Poets, all Heathens reckon the first so. Hell, whether Heathens held all souls descended, is( saith the tragic) Invius retrò lacus, no regress thence; Acheron is {αβγδ}, no egress out of hell. That a dead man should {αβγδ}, live again, you must pardon Heathens that. They think the dead Nusquam esse, ne esse quidem, that we quiter cease to be; that we shall be being dead, as we were before we lived, have no existence. This made the swinish Epicures cry, {αβγδ}, Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die. Thou brutish bellygod, dost thou with to pickaxes death, defend to dayes drunkenness. learn better logic of divinity. Religion on that Argument will conclude the quiter contrary. To morrow thou mayst die; therefore to day be sober. They made their Enthymeme upon the supposition of no other world, but this. Say, Saint Pauls {αβγδ}, be not ye deceived, will not persuade; they scorn Scripture. Let them hear Heathens; Plato teaches that, {αβγδ}, they shall pay for it in hell. Theres a {αβγδ} and a {αβγδ} both. Hell is for sin as well as after it.  
To end this, death discharges all debts, cancels all bonds, frees all censures, ends all suits, quits all accusations. Thats but in matters between man and man. But if man be Gods debtor, as we all are, unless Christ have payed for us; death is but Gods Arrest: his Declaration, his whole prosecution, and execution too, follow long after, all at the day of Iudgement. Onely a part of the pain the soul suffers in the Interim; but all {αβγδ}, after death.  
You see, Quod sit, that somewhat follows death; see Quid sit, What it is, Paul saith, Iudgement, thats deaths Post hoc, his after-comer. But whats that? Christs summons of the dead, dead and living both, All of both, to receive sentence( All) according to their works. All this, Atheists deny, Sadducees too, Heathens too All, in this manner. Christians some, a great sum, as seems by our lives. The Sadducees saying was {αβγδ} there is neither Iudgement nor judge. That men deny it, tis no marvel. For Saint John calls it a mystery, Apoc. 10. 7. And S. Paul saith the Resurrection was not believed, was {αβγδ} incredible, Act. 26. Then this too; for it is the end of that. The dead rise therefore to be judged. Tis called even by Christs self, Resurrectio judicii, John 5. 29.  
To satisfy the Sadducee, the Pagan, or the Atheist, I seek not. Ridemur, saith tart. they laugh at us, Dechachinnamur, laugh a loud at us, urging this Article. I leave Heathens to heathen Oracles; the Sybills long before Christ prophesied of Iudgement. I but pray to persuade you, to whom I preach. I therefore say to you, as Paul did to Agrippa, do you believe Scripture? I know you do. The Doctrine of Iudgement is there both plain and plentiful. Christ often mentions it in Saint Matthew: Some Prophets too; All the Apostles in their Epistles. Take but one for a taste. appear before Gods Iudgement seat, wee Shall, Rom. 14. theres the certainty. We must, 2 Cor. 5. theres the necessity. And All is in both; we shall all, wee must all; theres the generality.  
First for the last, the generality, Antichrists Iudgement seat summons all; exempts not Kings, not Emperours. himself must appear here, before Christs Iudgement seat. All shall? What if some Scriptures have the flat contradiction, say, some shall not? Sinners shall not, David saith, Psal. 1. 5. Non resurgent in judicio. Then not some. believers shall not, Davids son saith, joh. 5. 24. Non venit in judicium. Then not any. Put them together, they spell flat contrariety; thats more than Contradiction. Davids phrase dazzled Lactantius, a learned Father, but not skilled in the Hebrew, made him writ, sinners shall not rise. For latin Fathers red it so, Non Resurgent, a bad Translation. The original word hath more senses than one, signifies to stand, as well as to arise. Septuagints indeed turn it, {αβγδ}. They were Iewes; and many Iewes held an heresy, that sinners souls die with their bodies. R. Kimchi saith plainly, in locum. They might have left the Preposition out, have translated it, {αβγδ}, David meant it so. Sinners shall not stare in judicio. Thats all one, you will say. It is not. Stare in judicio, Thats all one, you will say. It is not. Stare in judicio, is to be quit in trial, to be found upright. Sinners shall not so; they shall Cadere in judicio, not Stand, but Fall. i. be found guilty.  
For the other place, John 5. 24. In all your English books, even the last Translation too, it is, The believer shall not come into condemnation. Which I marvel at. Thats to Expound, not to Translate. The original is {αβγδ}, thats Iudgement, not Damnation: and words are to be turned, not as they mean in Trope, but as they signify. Christ indeed meant in Trope {αβγδ}. So Saint Augustine. utique judicium pro Damnatione posuit, the Genus for the Species; the faithful shall not come into Damnation. But the proper sense is Iudgement; and the Remists red it so.  
job is objected too; he saith of good and bad, neither once asleep, i. once dead, shall ri●e, shall ever wake again, Chap. 14. 12. But take all; and tis answered: Till the heavens shall be no more. The heavens shall fail at the day of Iudgement. Then Iobs Donec is done; they shall wake then. But Saint Augustine saith plainly, that Iewes, Pagans, and heretics shall not come there. Thats in a Sermon De Sanctis, haply none of his.[ The reason there savours not of S. Augustine, because such( Christ saith) are judged already. So are all sinners, {αβγδ}, judged and condemned by their own consciences.] Let Solomon a wise King, and a just judge determine it; justum& Impium God( saith he) shall judge, both the just and wicked man, Eccles. 3. 17. To end this. Some scape mans Iudgement, none shall Gods. Gods too some escape here; none shall there. Romanists say, Christs Resurrection harrowed hell: Limbus Patrum was then emptied. Surely Christs coming to judgement shall harrow it, Hell and Heaven too for a little time. Not a devil, or a damned ghost shall be left in hell, not an angel or a Saint in heaven. All shall assemble before Christ. Some doubt whether Angels shall bee judged. Yet shall they wait on the judge at least, all of them; the Iudges self saith it, Matthew 25. 31. All the holy Angels.  
Next for the necessity, Paul said Oportet. Both Oportet on Gods part, he must bee proved just, will have the world to witness it, the whole world assembled together at one time, to see Gods reward is according to mans works. Paul calls it the day of the declaration of Gods {αβγδ}, Rom. 2. 5. of the manifestation of the justice of Gods judgement. Thats Gods main end in it, & opertet on mans part, he must appear, whom God summons. Wilt thou not come? God will bring thee, saith the Preacher, Eccles. 11. 9. will make the come, the original word is. Nay, God shall not need; the devil will. he must bring his jail before the judge: and they must go, whom the devil drives. Gods unchangeable decree doth necessitate it too.  
And for the certainty, who will question a Creed Article? Christ, Prophets, Apostles have( as you heard) avoucht it. Nay, theres one saw it, though a thing to come, yet hath seen it already, seen it already, seen it {αβγδ}, by Revelation, S. John did, Apoc. 20. 12. Yet as in things of nature, nothing is so sure, but some sceptic will question it, some deny it quiter; as who doubts, snow is white, yet one Philosopher said, twas black: so in things of faith, even points of greatest certainty have found opposers. Heathen denied, all, the resurrection, Christians some too; how say some among you, saith Saint Paul to the Corinthians, said flatly, non est, there is none. You heard one Non est before; heres another. But all granted a judgement. None deny it, save Sadducees and Atheists. But Gentiles meant not Pauls judgement here, a general judgement at the worlds end. Theirs was a particular of every soul presently after death. They held all souls descended into hell, and were instantly examined by three Iudges there, and doomed, as they deserved, some to torments, some the joys. Theirs was post hoc too; but it was immediately: Ours attends Christs coming. Thats indeed quickly, but not presently. Pardon Heathens that: you heard of some Christians that were more heathenish. To end this; for the two Non ests before, Damascen hath two Erits, {αβγδ}, certainly( saith he) there shall be a judgement.  
There shall be, is that all? The son of Belial will bear that. God saith, it shall be; tells not, when. Time to come hath great latitude. The world hath seen 5000. yeares already, may 5000. more, many five thousands more, if Platoes Magnus Annus hold, 48000. yeares, and continue not things still in the state God first created them? Iudgement shall be, you say: but before the worlds last day, it shall not bee. That day will never come, nor such a sum of yeares ever expire. Thus sensuality begulls itself with giddy arguments, profane and false. yield them true; Say the world last so long, and that Christ come not till then. Yet particular judgement follows death instantly. The soul must suffer torment all the time, until Christ come. Nay death is called Christs coming too, one kind of coming. Ad te venitur, cum vita finitur, Augustine, Christ comes to thee, when thou departest, judges thy soul then. The day indeed of the worlds general doom shall add unto thy pains: because thy body shall then suffer too. But thy anguish in the interim shall be so extreme, that hadst thou a tongue, thou shouldst gnaw it in thy torment, and blaspheme God himself through thy unsufferable pains. But Gods suppressing of the certain time, proves not, it will be long, ere Christ will come; bids us expect him rather every day. A bond to pay a debt naming no day, may bee sued when I will. Christ saying he will come, and not expressing when, may mean as well to morrow, as 5000. winters hence.  
My Text, Post hoc, judicium, and after that, judgement, hath haply no verb purposedly; lest the libertine might take advantage at the tense. But the spirit hath richly provided for this scruple: and though the definite day of Christs coming bee not added; yet that he will come speedily, Scripture is express, many Scriptures. Christs self saith, I come quickly, saith it three times in one Chapter; twice with a note of demonstration, behold I come, and behold I come; once with a term of protestation; verily I come quickly. Damnation sleeps not, saith Saint Peter. The Lord is near, prope est, Paul saith. Praeforibus, saith Saint james, even at the door. The Prophet doubles it. It is near, it is near, Soph. 1. 7. rests not so; adds it hastes exceedingly; makes Christs Citò superlative, valdè citò. So is Saint Austin too, superlative, saith judgement is in Proximo. Cyprian exceeds him, with a grand Hyperbole, Christ is supra caput, so near, that look but up, you shall see him over your head.  
The Fathers fourteen, fifteen hundred yeares ago thought it would bee in their dayes. Tertullian called his time, Clausulum seculi, the worlds full point. Saint John long before him cried, Hora novissima, then was the last hour. Then how near is it now, so many ages after? Surely, the more time is past, the lesser is behind; and the longer Christ hath stayed, the sooner he will come. The signs of his coming, foretold by himself, not to bee already past, wee are not sure; saving those, which must go immediately before it. And who knows whether this present day shall have any night; or wee, who to day morning arose from our sleep, shall ever sleep again: but even before wee part from this place, may hear the last trump sound; and the voice of an archangel crying in the clouds, Surgite mortui, venite adjudicium, Arise you that be dead, and come unto judgement. Saint Paul shall shut up all, Heb. 10. 37. It is but Adhuc paululum, a double diminutive, a little little while to it, and Christs word is remarkable in the last of the Apocalypse, not {αβγδ}, I will come, but {αβγδ}, I do come, as if he were now coming. Behold I come quickly. Even so Lord Iesus, come quickly. His coming not speedy onely, sudden too; as a thief, Paul, Peter, and Christs self saith; like Noahs flood, while men were Bibentes& Nubentes, in the depth of their delights; like the lightning, like a womans labour; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.  
A fearful day: one calls death {αβγδ}; the most fearful of all things, Aristotle doth. This exceeds that: thats but Timendum, we but fear it; this is Tremendum, Saint Gregories term, wee quake at this. Felix himself a judge, trembled, when Paul preached of judgement. The very expectation of that judgement is fearful, Heb. 10. 27. what will itself be? Christs self, who shall bee then the judge, gives it a fearful name, calls it, jud cium gehennae, the judgement of hell. Matth. 23. 33. Tis Horrendum( saith the Apostle) a most fearful, dreadful thing to fall into Gods hands Paul calls it, Gods terror, 2 Cor. 5. 11. Let job call death, the King of terrors, job 18. 14. Thats in the worlds conceit. Iudgement is more terrible, men shall not tremble onely, but they shall {αβγδ}, Saint Lukes term, their hearts shall fail them, lose breath and Ghost, to see the judge frown, the earth burn, hell smoke, and the devills rage. Iudgement seats are to malefactours fearful all; Christs more then all, {αβγδ}, saith Chrysost. a fearful judgement seat. Paul saith, the Law was given with burning Fire, darkness and tempest. Moses adds more, smoke, thunder, lightning, a trumpets sound exceeding loud; that Moses himself was {αβγδ}, shooke and trembled for fear. This day exceeds that far. The judge will be more terrible to the transgressors of the Law, then he was then to the receivers of the Law. Gods judgements here are fearful, though but temporal. Thats called, eternal judgement, Heb. 6. 2. The doom there, whether of the just to joys, or the wicked unto pains, is everlasting. pains unsufferable, but unavoidable; no ease in them, and yet no end of them. Dolor, si longus levis; si gravis brevis, pain is lightly, light if long; short, if great; is a rule, holds not in hell. darkness, gnashing of teeth, bands that break not, worms that die not, fire that goes not out. Thou shalt howl, but none shall hear; roar but none shall help; look round about, but see no comfort; see thy son, thy brother, thy friend in the same torment; thou torturd the worse, because by thy corrupting them, they came thither.  
Tis fit, wee press this point, force the belief of it. Theres else no living here, no living in this world, if wee think, there is no other, and a judgement after death. Which who believes not, will make conscience of no sin. For all Religion is ainae causa, for the souls sake, saith Saint Augustine. If the soul shall not, not be judged, according to the things it hath done in the body; what will not a man do, a wicked man? Edamus, bibamus, Let us eat and drink? Epicures, are sillie Atheists. Will I do no more? pass my dayes so poorly, my life so idly? in base belly cheer, in palate pleasure onely? Furemur, adulteremur, I will rob and ravish; bribe, extort; forswear and murder; stab a King; blow up a Parliament house; burn Dianaes temple; poison a whole conclave; set all Rome on fire, and sing Homers verses while it burns; {αβγδ}, what care I being dead, if all mankind do perish, if the whole world end with me? But I am afraid of the Goates in the Gospel, and the left hand of the judge, saith Greg. Naz.  
To conclude, death scares not sinners, judgement doth. Saint Paul calls it deaths Post hoc. So doth Saint John, Apocalypse 6. 8. Deaths follower there is hell. Thou hast a follower too, many followers after death; Not thy corpse onely, kinsfolks and friends; but thy soul thy sins. Our works( Saint John saith) follow us. They will then say to thee, Tua sumus opera( tis Saint Bernards conceit) wee are thy works, thou hast wrought us: wee will not leave thee, but will bring thee unto judgement. There were two bringers before, God and satan; heres a third, sin. God of his mercy rebuk satan, and forgive sin; and then call us unto judgement, cvi, &c.   

A funeral SERMON, PREACHED ON THE APOCALYPSE. The sixth Sermon.  APOC. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead, that die in the Lord. 
THe Argument of my Text is the blessedness of the Saints, avoucht by voice from heaven, the clause before; averred by Gods own testimony, the clause next after this; propounded in my Text, Blessed are the dead, &c. And expounded in the latter part of the verse; their rest, and their reward; they cease from their labours, and their works follow them. One voice bad Esay cry, All flesh is grass. That concerned but the body, every mans mortality. I have preached that heretofore. Heres a voice bids Saint John writ, Blessed are the dead: It concerns the soul, the godly mans felicity. Thats my theme now. Blessed are the dead, which die, &c. The condition of the righteous after death.  
A proposition, but with an exposition; It had need; tis not else true. The dead are not all blessed. The voice adds therefore a clause of inhibition, of restraint: it shows, what dead he means, that die in Christ. First of the proposition, Blessed are the dead. Thats a Paradox in philosophy, a flat flasehood in divinity. For the former; death to be happiness, a natural man will nere believe it. Some melancholic malcontent may say it haply; none else. The Prince of Philosophers calls life {αβγδ}, the most excellent of all things. Seneca seconds him, Naturae inventum optimum, the best thing merely, that nature ere devised. What can bee Melius optimo, better then the best? Yet one exceeds even this superlative, Philo makes more of it, {αβγδ}, good beyond all comparison, hyperbolically good, more then man can conceive. Here and there a man in misery may haply wish death; torment may make men cry, {αβγδ}; prefer death before life. Passion never was good judge; even an holy man in mood will pray to die, jonas did, and Elias. grief and fear made the one, anger the other. Such are weary indeed, not of life, but of cross: ease but it, and they will be willing to live still. Nay, a stout spirit will endure torment too rather then die. maecenas would say, Facito debilem pede, facito debilem manu; vita dum superest, been est, have foote-goute, hand-gout, any pain whatsoever, let me live, and I will bear it. Onely one or two petty Poets oppose this, hold the dead the happier; I omit them. Let Heathens go, hear Divines, Saint John the Divine here; the divinity itself, the holy spirit, Blessed are the dead.  
Then belike theres no hell: or if there be, the worm there gnaws not, and the fire there burns not. And Christ, that said, they do, and that the rich man there was tormented, made us but believe so. Or say, it was so then: yet Christs descent to hell harrowed hell, not Limbus Patrum onely, as Papists say, but Infantum too, Purgatory too, thē nethermost hell too. When the voice bad Saint John writ this, belike all the dead were blessed. For indeed the next word here is A modò, from henceforth; then and thenceforth Blessed are the dead. Then is Cain saved, and Saul, and Herod, and Achitophel; Iudas is. Why live we then, many in pain, more in misery, all in sin? Why slays not every man his friend, his self? how easily, how soon may a man be happy? do but die; and thou art instantly; Blessed be the dead.  
It skills then that this proposition be restrained; it is not universal, but indefinite, true of many, false of more; true but de quibus datur, of those whom the voice means: It expounds itself immediately, you shall hear anon. The dead are blessed, but not all. Put Omnes to it, and tis heresy, a worse heresy, then Origens. He held all should bee saved at last; this saves them now, A modò instantly. There cannot be a conceit more absurd. Death came by sin. Pelagius said no, but by the law of nature, that Adam, though he never had sinned, yet should have dyed. That heresy was condemned in a solemn Synod twelve hundred yeares ago. I say, God ordained death for sin; tis sins wages Saint Paul saith. When God  told Adam, if he eat of the forbidden fruit, he should die; did he threaten revenge, or promise reward? meant he death for a blessing, or a pain? Saint Paul calls it {αβγδ}, a punishment, Saint Iude too. pain so allied to sin, that in the Hebrew tongue, one word signifies both: that in Caines speech, the translator knows not, whether he shall English it, My fin is greater, then can be forgiven, or my punishment is greater, then can be born, {αβγδ}. Sin is every where in Scripture threatened with a woe, with judgement, and destruction. Never was man so mad, as to make death happiness, as it looked on sin. Accidentally it is: Gods grace and wisdom have turned it to a blessing, unto some, to them in the next clause. But simply it is a curse. How can the dead then be blessed, qua mortui? I am too tedious in this term. The Dead, for sin descend to hell; Death and it. Mors& Infernus, I find thrice coupled by Saint John in the Apocalypse, death and hell. There is gnawing of tongues, gnashing of teeth. certainly the dead there are not blessed. Enough, too much of the proposition.  
Hitherto you haply marvel what I mean, to take a Text, onely to confute it. Proceed we therefore to the Exposition; that interprets this. Blessed are the Dead? What dead? that die in the Lord. The Proposition, because it is not generally true, is cohibited by this clause. The like is in the 145. psalm, The Lord is nigh to All, that call on him. Is that true? tis not. Many pray, that are not heard: David therefore adds a cohibitive exposition, To All, that call upon him faithfully. So doth the restraint here expound the proposition, those that Die in the Lord. But itself needs expounding. The phrase is somewhat dark, and is diversly interpnted, because the preposition is ambiguous. They die in the Lord, that either suffer death for Christ, or end their life in firm faith on him; that suffer martyrdom, or that Die any way in state of Grace.  
Ribera a great Iesuite, though he confess that the common current of expositors runs with the latter sense, yet is more earnest for the former, that Martyrs be meant specially, that( In) is put for( Propter) as oft in the old Testament. He cites sundry instances, and some also in the New; In the Lord, i. for the Lord. I grant it may be: but he should prove, it is. I admit it for one sense, but not the onely one. He were not worthy to have part in Christ, that would doubt of their blessedness, that do die for Christ. But that they are Blessed too, that die in Christ, i. in faith on him, and hope of Heaven, it seems even by the Popish liturgy; in which, this Scripture is red for the Epistle in the daily mass for the dead. That Ribera, and most Romanists, though not daring to deny the other sense, yet are earnest for this, I marvel not. For that puts out their purgatory fire; the quenching of which, is the starving of Popery. For if not Martyrs onely, but all believers die in Christ, and be blessed: then theres none to be purged. For to fry in that fire, is no blessedness. The Rhemists answer, they are blessed for all that, as being assured to be saved in the end. But the Spirit here provides against that evasion too, adds A modò, they are instantly delivered from all labours, and receive their reward. This is not worth so many words.  
First for the former sense; Surely the Martyr is blessed. A point so little doubted, that Saint Austin saith, Injuria est, they do the Martyr wrong, that pray for him. For they seem by that to doubt of his Salvation: so sure to them that suffer for Christs sake, that the number of Martyrs under the roman Emperours is incredible. So many, that Saint jerom saith, 2000. and more are reckoned to every day throughout the year, save on the first day onely: none might die on it, for Ianus sake, first King of Italy. The world calls them unhappy. Be it so in their sense; but they are feliciter infelices, happy for that unhappiness, Augustine. The world, who( as Saint Paul saith) was not worthy of them, reckons them mad men and fools; to suffer misery, torture, and death, when they may choose;[ Plura supplicia, quam membra, Cyprian saith.] But God rewards their temporal pains with eternal weight of glory. And to lose life so, Christ saith, is to find it. Luther saith, the Persecutor doth vitam transfer, not auferrc, doth but exchange their life, help them to a better for a worse, a joyful life in heaven for a painful life on earth. Pharaohs and Neroes are against their wills the Martyrs benefactors. They do( as justin Martyr wrote to the Emperour,) {αβγδ}, Kill him, but not hurt him; help him, and hasten him rather to heaven. They cry, as the People did at Saint Paul, Tolle, tolle, up with him. So God does, takes him to heaven. To end this, martyrdom is Amarum, but Salubre, Amb. bitter to the body, but works Salvation to the soul.  
But the Martyr must be sure, that he die Propter Dominum, for the faith, for the truth, for the gospel, in Christs quarrel. Death in a wrong cause is no martyrdom. Papists, saint rebels, and traitors, Campian, Garnet, and others. They dyed for treason, not for Christ. Suffice this for the former sense; leave it, and hear the latter.  
Martyrs die in the Lord, but not alone; all the Righteous do. Both ancient and modern interpret the phrase so. All holy men, fearers of God, obeyers of his word, Die in the Lord, and are therefore blessed, I may not say, as much, but as well as the Martyrs.  
There are degrees of blessedness. I will prefer the Martyr before some other Saints. Haply his glory may be more then theirs, because he suffered more then they, shane, loss, Death, Torture, for Christ. But I doubt not, but some godly man may be more glorified in heaven, then some Martyr. I think Saint John no less blessed, that died in his bed, then many Saints, who have suffered on the cross. The righteous all die in Christ in earth, and reign with him in heaven. Tertullian a learned Father, but not sound, said not well, that Sanguis Martyrum is Clavis Paradisi, as if none but Martyrs came in heaven. For so he means, saith, tota clavis, in his phrase, i. sola clavis, martyrdom the onely key to Paradise. All others souls were sequestered, laid up in Abrahams bosom, till Christs coming. This he wrote in his zeal to Martyrs, himself affecting to be one. I must say of him, as one doth of Origen, he was {αβγδ}, but he was also {αβγδ}, a learned man, but full of errors.  
But what if I should say, that Righteous men are all Martyrs? I know a martyr in common use of speech, means one, that seals his witness to the gospel, with his blood, suffers death for Christ. Thats a maytyr {αβγδ}, in the highest degree. But the word in ●●rammar sense means but a witness: and so are all the faithful, witnesses to Christ. testimony to his truth is born by all the godly, by faith and holy life. Every true Christian is a Martyr. Say I this onely? Learned and ancient Fathers have before me, Saint Cyprian hath, and Saint Austin. A godly mans life, Tota Martyrium est, Cypr. Yea Saint Bernard hath; To mortify the flesh( saith he) is one kind of martyrdom. Nay even Tertullian too, calls confessors of Christ, Martyrs. Theres Martyrium incruentum, as well as Sacrificium: all martyrdom craves not blood.  
I say, not Martyrs onely, in the strict sense, die in the Lord; but every true believer: faith incorporates into Christ; and whosoever is in Christ, dies in Christ. He that lives in the Lord, dies in the Lord. he that carefully obeyeth Gods Precepts, and faithfully believeth his Promises, he liveth in the Lord. And if in this obedience of the Law, and belief of the gospel, the continue to the end; though the frailty of the flesh, the allurements of the world, and the suggestions of the Tempter, may haply make him sometimes fall, fall perhaps foully: yet if he rise again by repentance, and at his time of his death, with faith fast fixed on Gods promises in Christ, yield up his Spirit into the hands of his Redeemer; he death in the Lord; and blessed is such a one that so death in the Lord. And thats the last term in my Text, though the first word, Blessed. It is the Predicate of the Proposition.  
The Subject of it thus expounded, this remaines. Twas first in place, but last in sense and construction. I meant, not to omit it, but reserved it, to conclude with: as in feasts, the daintiest things are served in last. It is the sweetest word, that the language of men hath, Iesus excepted. The sight of God, heaven, comfort, mercy, salvation, sweet words oll: this contains them all. Blessed, blessed, saith Christ, eight times together. Blessed they that mourn; for they shall be comforted. Blessed the merciful; they shall obtain mercy. Blessed the pure in heart; they shall see God. Blessed the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of heaven. happiness, a pleasing word, the thing wished of all men, the Summum bonum, end and aim of all Heathens. blessedness excels it, a diviner term, far sweeter than it. Musicke-sweet to the ear; Melos in aure, as Saint Bernard saith of Iesus; hony-sweet to the mouth, mell in ore; Iubilum in cord, for want of a better word, he takes that, the delight of it even ravishes the heart.  
The Object of the Blessed in Gods book is manifold. Christs eight Beatitudes in the gospel, have almost as many several respects: some blessed for this cause, some for that. The dead here in the Lord, Why, or how are they blessed? Thats a wide and a deep Ocean; the time too short, and mans wit to shallow for this Theme. This Verse shall confine me. It affords two Reasons, why the dead in Christ are blessed, their Rest, and their Reward. Theres but one little clause betwixt my Text, and them; They rest from their labours, and their works follow them. A word of each, and I end; I have treated of them amplely here before.  
For the one, the labours of mans life are infinite, by the brows sweat to earn our bread; the worlds molestations, the lusts inquietations, Satans solicitations. By death he hath a Quietus est from All; no man hath before; not the son of man himself. He was a fool, God calls him so, that said to his soul, Requiesce, while he lived. Requiems be funeral Anthems. Theres a souls rest indeed in ieremy, and in the gospel, Matth. 11. 29. Requiem animabus, by godly life, and holy faith. Thats but peace of conscience, an internal rest. But a total release from all disquie●, even of the body too, a rest from all labours, is not had in this life. For man( job saith) is born to labours; {αβγδ}, wee are( Saint Paul saith) ordained to it, Vita perpetua Crux. Death is the sole and final discharge from all disturbance.  
For the other, works here by metonymy mean Reward, as else where often. It is so glossed plainly in Boaz speech to Ruth, The Lord render thee thy work, and a reward be given thee. For Gods reward is according to mans work: thats frequent in Scripture. Not that works merit; but because they come from faith, which makes Christs merits ours. Their reward is our salvation, i. eternal life and glory. This shall follow them, that die in Christ. Not follow afar off, which Papists grant, but say, Fire must purge us first, purgatory fire. But the Spirit here saith, A modò, immedialty. Or because they elude that word many ways; the phrase here means better, than it is translated, {αβγδ}, their works, not follow, but, go with them. The words well weighed sound so. This is the blessedness of the godly, when they die, admirably great, remove from restless labours unto endless joys, and infallibly sure: the Spirit says it, bids writ it, even Gods Spirit, the holy Ghost; cvi cum Patre, &c.   

A funeral SERMON, PREACHED ON THE APOCALYPSE. The seventh Sermon.  APOC. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead, that die in the Lord, &c. 
MY Theme is the happiness of holy men deceased, assured by the testimony of the holy Ghost, Even so, saith the Spirit; and expounded partly, in their relaxation from the miseries of the world, For they rest from their labours; and partly in their retribution in heaven, and their works, &c. four several clauses, and as many several points. First, what it is to die in the Lord. The second, the verdict of the holy Ghost. The third, the riddance from the wretchedness of this life. And the last, the fruition of the recompense of our Faith. For the first.  
The quality of the greater part assembled requires, I should be plain: the more intelligent will( I hope) pardon me. They indeed more specially die in the Lord, who are slain by the Beast spoken of in this Chapter; that suffer death for Christ, and for the gospel; that persecuted by Antichrist seal up the truth of Gods word and Religion with their blood. The Lord in the first dawning of the world, put enmity between the Serpent and his Seed, and the Woman and her Seed. satan was the Serpent, and his Seed are the ungodly. The Womans Seed was Christ, and his members, all believers. The Dragon and his children have always fought against God and his children: sometime by policy and allurements, as Balak had preferments for Balaam to curse Israrael, and the Scribes 30. silver pieces for Iudas to betray his master: and sometime by main force, as the Iewes had scourges for the Apostles backs, Paschur had stocks for Ieremies feet, and jezabel an Axe for Elias head.  
For satan being the Prince of this world Saint Paul saith, the God of the world, he saith too, and challenging the gift of all the kingdoms thereof, Luk. 4. 6. cannot abide Gods Church to bee in his dominions: but first assaieth by temptations to make it his; and if they fail, then by persecutions to roote it out. So that there hath been in all ages continual war in the Church, either to pervert or to subvert the Saints on earth, either to make them of the world, or to thrust them out of the world. Now such as having manfully stood in Gods field against the enemies of his truth, and fought courageously under Christs ensign in defence of the faith, have at last lost their lives in the quarrel of the Gospel, willingly offering their heads unto the block, or their hearts unto the sword, yea their whole bodies unto the fires of the persecutor, these are said more specially to die in the Lord, and blessed are these men. For their bodies yielding up the ghost in earth, sendeth up their spirits a sweet smelling Sacrifice into heaven: where for the momentany lightness of their afflictions in this world, shall be given them in the world to come a far most excellent eternal weight of glory. Here they received doom of death from the judge; there they shall receive a crown of life from God. For the blood of Martyrs is the key of Paradise, tart. He meant not soundly, but we may; and he that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it, saith Christ.  
These most kindly indeed die in the Lord. But they also die in him, that retain constant faith to the last gasp of breath. And therefore S. Cyprian makes two sorts of martyrdom; one the confession of Christ with our blood; the other the profession of his gospel by good works. To moderate wrath, to master lust, to repress avarice, to humble pride, pars magna martyrii est, is a great part of martyrdom, Saint August. That wee may bee called Martyrs, and said to die in the Lord, not onely by bearing witness to the gospel by our death, but also by subscribing to the Law by our life. For they that live in the Lord, do also die in the Lord. he that carefully obeyeth Gods precepts, and assuredly believeth his promises, he liveth in the Lord. And if in this obedience of the Law, and belief of the gospel, he continue to the end: though the frailty of the flesh, the allurements of the world, and the suggestions of the tempter may haply sometimes make him fall, fall perhaps foully: yet if he rise again by repentance, and at the time of his death, with faith fast fixed on Gods promises in Christ, yield up his soul into the hands of his Redeemer, he death also in the Lord; and blessed is such an one, that so dieth in the Lord. I leave this first point.  
The second is the testimony of the holy Ghost, meant here by the Spirit. I might observe two things in it; one, the truth of the witness, the other, the difference between the verdict of God, and the opinion of the world. But the former I omit; no man doubts of Gods truth. For the latter; martyrdom, the special kind of dying in the Lord, hath lightly three things in it, shane, torture and death, all three enemies to flesh and blood. For shane; the malefactor sentenced by the judge to suffer open discipline, will be well content, either to fine half his worth, to redeem the same, or to have his stripes doubled treble, so it may bee in secret. For torture, the stoutest spirit will shrink at pain, and the sense of exquisite torment will force the strongest hearted man, to cry out like a woman in her travel. For death, the Merchant in a tempest, be his freight never so precious, will cast it out, to save himself. The devil though a liar, yet in this he said truth, that a man will give all that he hath for his life.  
Now the Martyr not moved with any of these respects, refuseth none of these three; but willingly yeeldeth himself unto death, bee it never so shameful, be it never so painful. The infidel, or Atheist noting his resolution, esteemeth his estate to be wretched and unhappy, and the person himself to be out of his wits. The sensual Epicure, that placeth his happiness in life, pleasure,& ease, and reckoneth death to bee the mainest evil, especially when ignominy and torment been joined with it, judgeth the Martyr a mere mad man. he weigheth not the cause, which is Christs quarrel, but looketh onely on the punishment. And indeed, were it not that he dyed in the defence of Faith, he were of all men the most miserable. But the verdict of Gods spirit is much differing from the worlds opinion; and pronounceth them happy, that die in the Lord. Blessed are they( saith Christ) that suffer persecution for righteousness sake. For he that loseth his life for the gospel shall find it. Yea he shall gain by his loss. For he loseth but a temporal life, and that soured with much sorrow: but he shall find an eternal life, and that full of all joys, in the kingdom of heaven.  
But to come to the second kind of dying in the Lord, which is after the long leading of an holy life, the happy attaining to a godly death. For he that liveth in Gods fear, shall die in God favour. It is a plain, but a true proverb, Qualis vita, finis ita. For as it is said of the sinner, who after dissembled repentance falls into relapse of his wickedness, that the end of that man is worse then the beginning: so it is as true of the good Christian, that remembering his creator in the dayes of his youth, and growing up in virtue, and Religion, as he grew in yeares, at length departeth in the faith of his Saviour, that the end of that man is more blessed, then his beginning. Now how differs the worlds judgement, and spirits concerning these? do they better agree here?  
The profession of Christ and of the gospel in the primitive Church seemed to the Gentiles a notable sottishness, and was therefore persecuted in all places, and Christians accounted the scum of the earth, in Saint Pauls phrase, the off-scouring of the world. Not onely Prophets in the time of the Law, and Apostles, of the gospel, and now the Preachers of both, were and are esteemed of irreligious Atheists, and profane Christians, mad men and idiots: as Iehu's ruffianly companions said of one, wherefore came that mad fellow? and Festus to Paul, thou art beside thyself: but in every private Christian, the more zealous profession of Religion is counted folly; and to be wise and precise together is thought a thing impossible. wisdom is put in riches, in honour, in policy, in Princes favours, in providing for the continuance of our names, by leaving our lands to our posterity, and much substance to our children. godliness is left for the dregs of the people, and for the mean wits of base and simplo men. And though in our Christian Common wealths, partly for fear of severity of laws, and partly through the great light of the Gospel, preached so many yeares, and in so many places, there are but few found, that denying God, and defying all Religion, say with the Sadducees, that there is no resurrection: yet the lewd lives of the greater part of Christians, bewray our secret opinions: to wit, that Religion is but a mere policy, to keep men in awe; and that neither happiness standeth in living in Gods fear, nor blessedness consisteth in dying in his faith: That the young man is to rejoice in his youth, and to let his heart bee merry in his green yeares, to enjoy all the pleasures of his eyes, and to walk in all the lusts of his heart: and that the old man is to cherish his age, and to take his ease in his gray hairs; to enjoy the world, while his dayes do last, and to eat and drink, for to morrow he shall die: that it is a vanity to serve the Lord, and there is not profit in obeying of his laws. Thus saith the world.  
Now what saith the spirit? godliness is profitable every way, 1 Tim. 4. hath the promises of both this life, and of the life to come. asks the worldling in job, what gain is there got by being godly? The Spirit answers in the psalm, Verily there is a reward for the righteous. This point needs pressing more then proof. The fearful examples of the wicked, when they die, and their consciences, while yet they live, do yield clear evidence to the spirits testimony.  
For the former, the book of scriptures, and the history of the Church, are as it were two great offices of record, wherein are enrolled infinite instances of this kind. To let Church story pass, because you are better acquainted with the Bible, Herod in the Acts, and Anti●chus in the Maccabees, after their impudent blasphemies against God,& their savage slaughters of his Saints, smitten by Gods Angels, and the wrath of the Lord in just vengeance seizing on them, that the worms issuing from their entrails, and the flesh rotting and falling from their bones, neither souldiers, servants, nor themselves could endure the intolerable stench of their bodies, are monuments of the miserable end of the wicked. Iudas his example is more fearful, who after his betraying unto death the Lord of life, felt the pangs of despair so tormenting his soul, and the gnawing worm of conscience so freting his heart; that not able to abide them, he hung himself. Nay when he was dead, his body could not hold them; but they so raged within him, that he burst asunder, and his bowels gushed out. Come to the other evidence, their own conscience.   

yet at least his, as well as Christs. That is often, Grace and Peace from God the Father, and the Lord Iesus Christ. The Father is the spring of it, and the son is the means of it, à Patre, but per Filium. That Grace means Mercy and goodness. But Christs Grace here, some will have to mean Christs merits, all the benefits of his Obedience. It is worth the wishing, Mans whole whereupon. But then heres an other scepticism, Order is broken again, and worse then before. Be Saint Paul pardonned, in that he put Christ first, the Father after him; because in Trinity is no Priority. It is all one to the three Persons, who is name first. But between the Love of God, and the grace of Christ, as we construed it, there is Priority. Gods Love is the Ancienter: Christs grace came after it. First, the Fathers Love elected us; and then the sons sufferings redeemed us. Saint Paul therefore plainly inverts order here. For Gods Love is the cause of Christs grace, and should therefore be put first: for the Cause precedes the effect, Scriptures may seem to oppose one another.  
Saint Paul saith, there was enmity between God and us, till Christ had reconciled us. So should Christs grace seem first. Christs self saith cross to that, that God so loved the World, that he gave his onely son; first Loved, and then Gave. So is Gods Love the former. I find some expositors, curious in according these two Scriptures. But I think grace and love to be here but Synonymaes. I wish not to be more acute, then the Apostle. And as grace sometimes is ascribed unto the Father, so is Love unto the son. To end this, Grace is the gift. It being but one word, why are so many names heaped on the Giver? The greatness of his grace is well worthy of them all. I will not examine them; you have heard them oft expounded.  
The second is Gods Love. Say, Grace and Love be one; yet Christ and God is not. O heretic? would a Papist cry, Christ and God not one? thats arianism; Is not Christ, God? He is. yet Christ and God here are not one. For God here means the Father, does so often. Though in the sacred Trinity, every Person be God, and the Word( God) in Scripture do mostly mean all Three: yet the term sometimes singles out one alone. Heb. 1. 1. God spake unto the Patriarkes, thats God the Father. 1 Tim 3. God manifested in the flesh; thats God the son, Act. 5. 4. Thou hast lied unto God; thats to God the Holy Ghost. The word is here not {αβγδ}, not substantial, but personal, is so often, the Father. To take hint here to treat of the Trinity, of their personal proprieties, and consubstantiality, were but digression; or if seasonable, not much profitable, points too dark for many here. Onely Saint Pauls zeal to the Churches general good would Obiter be observed: that whereas in all other his Epistles, saving this, he commends the Churches, unto which he writes, to the Grace of Christ onely; here he conjoins with Christ, God and the Holy Spirit, all the Persons of the Deity. They are safe {αβγδ}, thrice safe, that have such Keepers, such, and so many.  
jacob trusts Iosephs sons to the blessing of an angel, Gen. 48. A Romanist thinks a Saint sufficient to preserve him, especially if Christs Mother. Saint Paul wrote to romans, but never taught them that: he commended them to Christ, to the grace of the Lord Iesus. So doens he all the Churches, not to Gods Mother, but to Gods son; not to Gods angel, but to Gods self. Yea here, not to one Person onely, though that would have sufficed, but jointly to all three, Father, son, and Holy Ghost. If Christ could say, Father, of those whom thou hast given me, I have not lost one: they are sure to be safe, who be kept by all the Persons. Indeed by one, as well as by them all, by any one, as well as by all three. But it sounds to sense more sweetly, to foolish flesh and blood, by All, then by one onely. If some weake-witted Christian, that did not conceive the parity of the Persons, hearing Christ call his Father greater then himself, Pater mayor me est, and that the Holy Ghost doth but proceed from them, would wish God the Father to take the charge of him: even such a silly soul Saint Paul doth here satisfy by the Love of God the Father.  
Now what is that Love? His Grace, his goodness, his Patience, his Mercy. His Grace; for it is free. Thou hast not bought it, nor deserved it. Merit is the idlest opinion in all Popery. His goodness, for it is bountiful, {αβγδ}; Saint Pauls term, exceeds for Amplitude, in all dimensions, breadth, length, depth, and height, Ephes. 3. 18. Such, as you may cry of it, as Saint Paul does of Gods wisdom, O Altitudo! His Patience, for he forbears to punish. His Mercy; for he pardons all our sins. Its not that Love, that first elected us, before the world, foreordained us to Salvation; but a sprig springing from it; crowning us with all blessings. Nor yet that his general Love, common to the Reprobates, conferring many favours even on them. But his especial kindness, in keeping from us nothing that is good, in guiding, in preserving, in blessing and assisting us.[ There is a Love of God too, not meant here; for the phrase suffers two senses, may mean either actively from God to man, or passively from man to God. Our Love to God, as well as Gods to us, is called the Love of God. The Passive sense is not meant here; it were non-sense.]  
To end this; the things of God are many, useful to us too, Gods Power, his wisdom, his Iustice, and his Truth. But as Saint Paul said of our Love, Now abide, Faith, Hope, and Love, these three; but the greatest of these is Love: so will I say of Gods, the things of God are many, but the sweetest is his Love. So sweet, not unto us onely, but also to himself, that he makes it his own name. God is Love, saith the Apostle. Christ said, Ego sum Veritas, but God cries, Ego sum Charitas. God hath many excellencies; but they All are in this One. If I call him King, I show his Glory; if Lord, his Power; if judge; his Iustice, saith a greek Father. But if I call him Love, {αβγδ}, I call him All. What doth the Lord require of thee( saith Moses) more then thy Love? What can Saint Paul commend thee to, commend the Church of God unto, more then to Gods Love? Barely to God? thats too general; we do so one another, bid but Adieu onely, God be with you.[ Saint Paul did the Elders of Ephesus in the Acts, And now( Brethren) I commend you to God. Nay, we do not so much, bid but Farewell onely, name not God. Heathens did that, valet, {αβγδ}, Saint Paul does that too in this Chapter ver. 11. Fare ye well; wrote to the men of Corinth in their own phrase; they were but newly won from gentilism. But he restend not( you see) in that, concludes in a more Christian form, with the words of my Text.] Onely to the almighty? So is our style too in our letters. That haply means somewhat more, insinuates Gods power. But gracious est nomen pietatis, quàm potestatis, tart. the term of love, is sweeter than of power. Not sweeter onely, but also of more force to confirm faith. For power is couched in love; love is not so in power. Not what God can do, that he will; but what God will do, that he can; Domine, si vis, potes, saith the Leper. Gods love, alone is enough to be commended to. I have been long in this, long in Gods Love; God hold me ever in it, and you all.  
The third is the Communion of the Holy Ghost. he is God as well as the Father, and the son Saint Paul here calls but one of them so onely. Which with some other Scriptures, hath stumbled many heretics, hinted them to deny both the other to be God. simplicity of infidelity do cause some Quaeres here; which I will not argue, but touch onely. I would not do so much, but that they come not often. The first is, An sit, Is there such a thing? Some disciples in the Acts, tell Paul, they had not heard of any holy Ghost. But thats meant metonymicè, most Expositors say, of the gifts, the extraordinary gifts of the holy Ghost. The second is Quis, who he is, or rather first, Quid, what it is? For of old, Samosatenus, and Servetus but of late, have held, he is no substance, but an Act onely, Gods Energeia, his working power in us. The Angells speech to mary seems to sound so, Luke 〈◇〉. 35. The holy Ghost shall come unto thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. Say, Person; yet a Creature, the blasphemy of Arius and Macedonius. They denied him to be God, called him in scorn {αβγδ}, Naz. an unwritten God; Scripture makes him none, they say, falsely say. Grant him God; yet the same Person with Christ and the Father. yield him distinct from both, a third Person; yet another God. Some heretics held three Gods the Tritheitae.  
Some jeered and jested Lucian-like; hearing, he proceeded from the Father, called him therefore his son, and so Christs brother. But hearing he proceeded from the son too, they called God his Grandfather. These are the Arian blasphemies in ●thanasius and Epiphanius. Some have profanely made him of feminine sex, and called him Christs sister.  
His title here hath two terms, Holy, and Spirit. Each apart belongs to both the other Persons. God is a Spirit, saith Christ; and the Seraphims in Esay cry, Holy, Holy, Holy, one Holy to each Person. But put them both together; then they spell the third Person alone by himself. Yet are Angells called so too, holy Spirits; and so are Saints. For what are souls, but Spirits? And what means Saints but holy? But the holy Ghost is titled so {αβγδ}, highly with an Article, for distinction, {αβγδ}, the Spirit; yea two Articles, {αβγδ}, the Spirit, the holy Spirit.  
First, why a Spirit? Because he is breathed from the Father, and the son, proceeds from both; called therefore by Saint Augustine, Spiritus Amborum; the Spirit of them both, Of the one, It is not you that speak, saith Christ, but the Spirit of your Father. Of the other, God sent the Spirit of his son, saith the Apostle. I said, a Spirit, because breathed from God. From the Father, David saith, Psal. 33. Spiritu oris ejus, omnis virtus eorum, the host of heaven by the breath of his mouth; Saint Basil and Cyril say, he means the holy Ghost. From the son, Saint Paul saith, Wohm the Lord Iesus will confounded with the breath of his mouth, Oecum. and Genadus say, he means so too. Angells, mens souls, and winds, and some more things are called spirits, but created spirits all. But this spirit is no creature. The great council of Chalcedon defind him to be God.  
Secondly, why Holy? Not Ob sanctitatem Immanentem, the schools term, for holinesse in himself; the Father and the son, both have that also, but rather Emanantem, the Holinesse, he works in man. Both do distinguish him from satan, a Spirit too, but Immundus, an unclean Spirit and unholy, both subjectivè& effectivè, works all uncleanness and unholiness in man. The holy Ghost doth the contrary: as himself is holy, so makes he us so to, called therefore by S. Paul, {αβγδ}, the sanctifying Spirit; for all sanctification is from him.  
But what means the Communion of the holy Ghost? Thats in my Text the hardest term. Christs Grace, the first thing here, and the Love of God, the second, are in estimable mercies, even mans heaven on earth, his hight of happiness here. They give and grant them us; but their seisin and delivery is by the holy Ghost. The Concession is from them; but he puts us in Possession. They Collate, but he Inducts.[ Father and son do dwell in holy men, as well as the Spirit, Christ saith it. Why? Because they both work in the faithful by the Spirit.] Their gifts and Graces are conveyed to them by him. He is Digitus Dei, Gods finger, saith Saint Augustine, his hand, to reach us all Gods blessings. Hence have Divines called him Gods {αβγδ}, Gods virtue and his power. The enlightening of the Mind, the inclining of the Will, the enkindling of the heart, is all his operation. The son Reconciles us to his Father offended. That Reconciliation the Spirit assures to us, and seals unto our souls the pardon of our sins. All the Churches good, it is from God, from all the Persons jointly. But the Communicatio, that is, the Distribution, the dole of it to every man is by the holy Ghost. This Grace, Love, and Communion, Saint Paul wisheth to the Church, to be with the Corinthians, Vobiscum.  
Will Saint Paul wish pearls to Swine, holy things to Dogges, {αβγδ}? Gods love is a pearl, Grace an holy thing: and drunken men are Swine, unclean Persons Dogges. Will he bid Salvere in the front of his Epistles and valere in the foot of it, to schismatics and heretics. Tis against S. Iohns rule, Bid not such an one, God speed. S. Pauls self saith more, Haereticum hominem devita, avoid the heretic, nay, Devita, take his life from him, by some Papists construction, burn him at a stake. Such were these Corinthians; schismatics, I am Pauls, I am Apollos, I am Cephas, I am Christs. heretics, grand heretics; they denied the Resurrection. Some of them drunken, and that at the Lords Supper. Fornication there too, Incestuous fornication, thats far worse: the highest Incest too, such as is not among Heathens, a man to have his Fathers wife.[ Scelus inauditum, Tully calls it, and incredible.] Is Saint Paul so solicitous to salute such with {αβγδ} Grace and Peace? And to commend such to the Love of God, and the Grace of the Lord Iesus? I could muster more sins, enormous sins of theirs, 1 Cor. 6. 10.  
But hear there the Apostles charitable charge, and such( saith he) were some of you. See how he salves the sore. They were but some, not many; and the some, but were, not are. Some sinners in so great a city, no great wonder. Among Christs twelve Disciples was one Iudas; in Noahs ark but eight persons, one Cham; of but four in Adams family, one Cain; of but two in Rebecchaes womb, one Esau. And tis eratis, they were, they had been such. Who hath not been a sinner.— Semel insanivimus omnes. But they were now washed, justified, sanctified. Saint Paul grievously chargeth them, but as graciously dischargeth them; and that at once, accuseth and quitteth them both with one breath. Say they were such yet still: yet were Saint Pauls wish here warrantable. Christs Grace, Gods Love, and the working of the Spirit, as the faithful need them, to confirm them; so the sinful want them, to convert them.  
Lastly, tis Vobis omnibus, the blessing, which Saint Paul wisheth them, is unto them all. He excepts not the schismatics, though they preferred Peter and Apollos before him: not the Incestuous person, though before he had censured him with excommunication. They had repented All, and therefore he commends them All, to the Grace of the Lord Iesus, and to the Love of God, and to the sweet Communion of the holy Ghost. And that with an Amen: not saith it onely, signs it too, even from his soul. unto these three sacred Persons of the blessed deity, be jointly ascribed all honour, &c.  
FINIS.