THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 From the Library 
 of the 
 Diocese of Bx5ringfi0ld 
 Protestant Episcopal 
 Church 
 Presented 1917 
 
 H IB^ 
 
SERMONS. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 https://archive.org/details/miscellaneousthe31hamm 
 
THIRTY-ONE SEEMONS 
 
 PREACHED 
 
 ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS. 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY HAMMOND, D.D., 
 
 ARCHDEACON OF CHICHESTER, AND CANON OF CHRIST CHURCH. 
 
 " How shall they hear, without a preacher ? And how shall they 
 preach, except they be sent?" Rom. x. 14, 15. 
 
 " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every crea- 
 ture." St. Mark xvi. 15. 
 
 P AET 1. 
 
 JOHN 
 
 OXFORD : 
 HENRY PARKER; 
 
 M DCCC XLIX. 
 
OXFORD : 
 PRINTED BY I. SHRIWPTON. 
 
THE 
 
 CHRISTIAN'S OBLIGATIONS 
 
 PEACE AND CHARITY, 
 
 DELIVERED 
 
 IN AN ADVENT SERMON AT CAEISBROOK CASTLE, 
 Ann. 1647. 
 
 NOW PUBLISHED WITH NINE SERMONS MORE. 
 
 HENRY HAMMOND, D.D. 
 
 HAMMOND. 
 
FOR HIS MOST SACRED MAJESTY. 
 
 The sermon of peace and charity which your majesty was 
 pleased to call for about twelve weeks since, by which means 
 it had the favour to become one of the earliest addresses 
 made to your majesty after the recalling of those votes % 
 hath now taken the confidence to appear more public, that 
 it may demonstrate and testify the reality of your majesty's 
 inclinations to peace, (which alone could render this trifle 
 considerable to you), and the sincere desire of your most 
 private undisguised retirements, to make the way back to 
 
 " [Both houses of parliament had re- 
 solved (Jan. 3 and 15) that they would 
 receive no more messages from the 
 king, and that they would send no ad- 
 dress to him for the future, and that if 
 any other person should do so he should 
 be considered guilty of high treason. 
 This vote of non-addresses was repealed 
 August 3. The king probably sent for 
 the sermon about the end of June, 1648, 
 if we may judge from the expression 
 "twelve weeks since," compared with 
 the date of the dedication, Sept. 16. 
 Why it was not sent earlier than Au- 
 gust 3, it is not easy to say, but per- 
 haps Hammond, who was at that time 
 under confinement, had not access to 
 his papers. The sermon itself was 
 preached on St. Andrew's day, 1647, 
 " the third of Advent," but was proba- 
 bly intended for the previous Sun- 
 day, the text being taken from the first 
 lesson for evening service. The last of 
 these ten sermons was prepared proba- 
 
 6 
 
 bly for the morning service of the same 
 day, and perhaps Hammond did not 
 arrive at Carisbrook in time to preach 
 them. Hammond had been removed 
 from his attendance on the king Deo. 
 27 of the previous year, and upon his 
 expulsion from his canonry in March, 
 1648, was with Sheldon kept in close 
 confinement, in Oxford, though most 
 of the other expelled members of the 
 University had been banished from 
 Oxford. The reason of this no doiibt 
 was to prevent their having access to 
 the king, over whom it was feared that 
 they might exert too much influence. 
 Their imprisonment was afterwards as- 
 signed as a reason why their attend- 
 ance could not be granted to his ma- 
 jesty at the treaty of Newport, Charles 
 having requested their attendance in, 
 a letter dated August 28. It is to the 
 refusal of the House of Commons that; 
 he alludes in the concluding sentenqQ 
 of the dedication.] 
 9 
 
4 
 
 FOE, HIS MOST SACRED MAJESTY. 
 
 your throne by none but pacific means, even then when 
 others thought it their duty by the sword to attempt it for 
 you. 
 
 The other few sermons added to the volume have no 
 errand but to attend this, that it may with a little more 
 solemnity approach your sacred presence, and enjoy that 
 liberty which is denied to 
 
 Your majesty's most obedient, 
 and most devoted subject and servant, 
 
 Sept. 16, 1648. 
 
 H. HAMMOND. 
 
SERMON 1. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAX'S OBLIGATIONS TO PEACE AND CHARITY. 
 
 Isaiah ii. 4. 
 
 They shall heat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears 
 into p)T lining -hooTcs, 
 
 The day is the third of Advent, designed by the Church 
 for the celebration of the closer and nearer approach of the 
 Majesty of heaven to this lowly sinful earth of ours, that 
 ev\o^y]lxkvr) ip-^oijuevr] ^aaiXeLa, " blessed coming kingdom/^ 
 as it is styled, Mark xi. 10. And the text is a piece of an 
 Advent chapter, the very contents bespeak it so, Isaiah pro- 
 phesying the coming, i. e. Advent of Christ^s kingdom. All 
 the unhappiness of it is, that this part of the prophecy about 
 transforming of swords seems not yet to be fulfilled in our 
 ears, that after so many centuries, Christ is not yet so effec- 
 tually and throughly born amongst us, as was here foretold, 
 that those glorious effects of His incarnation are not yet come 
 to their full date, i. e. in effect, that Christ is come to His 
 birth, and with Him all the well-natured charitable qualities, 
 all the unity and peace and bliss in the world, and through 
 the contrivances of the enemy-power, there is not liberty or 
 "strength to bring forth,^^ all the precious issues of Chris- [Isa. 
 tianity are resisted and obstructed and stifled in the womb, ^^^^ 
 the temper of the pretending world being so strangely dis- 
 tant from the temper of Christ, the prophecies of His coming 
 having so little of the sword in them, and the practice of 
 Christendom so nothing else. Blessed Lord, that we might 
 once be able to reconcile these contrary (j^atvofjueva, that we 
 might one day celebrate an Advent indeed, and that the com- 
 pletion of the prophecy of this text might be an ingredient 
 
6 THE christian's obligations 
 
 s E R M. in the solemnity, that this of ours might be one of those 
 nations and people judged and rebuked, i. e. convinced and 
 
 converted by the incarnate Saviour, for then would these 
 [Isa. ii. 4.] words of the text be verified of us, "They shall beat their 
 
 swords,^' &c. 
 
 The words are the character or effect of Christ's kingdom, 
 of the state and power of His gospel in men's hearts ; and 
 I shall view them, first, absolutely, in the several parts or 
 branches of this character : and then relatively, as they are 
 peculiarly verified of the state of the gospel, or as they are a 
 character of that. 
 
 In the absolute view you have, 1. The swords and spears 
 on one side. 2. The plough-shares and pruning-hooks on 
 the other. 3. The passage or motion of one of these into 
 the other, by way of beating. 
 
 In the relative view we shall, 1. have occasion to vindi- 
 cate the truth of this prophecy against the contrary appear- 
 ances. 2. To shew you how, and by what means Christianity 
 undertakes to work this great work, to beat the swords, &c. 
 
 I begin with the absolute view, and in that, with the most 
 formidable part of the prospect, the swords and spears. 
 Sharp assaulting piercing weapons found out and forged by 
 the passions and wits of men, to arm their rage, to satisfy 
 their covetings and ambitions, to manage all the quarrels 
 that the carnal or diabolical affections of men have com- 
 menced or inflamed through the world. These are the gross 
 elements made use of by the prophet figuratively to express 
 the instruments of our hostilities that lie more covertly in 
 our hearts, these invisible swords and spears, animosities, 
 uncharitable, unpeaceable humours, that Christ came to 
 allay and temper, to transform and beat into other shapes. 
 And to put off the figure, and give you plain words instead 
 of it; three sorts there are of these quarrels or hostilities, 
 which seem all to be comprehended in these words. 
 
 1. Though more improperly, our hostilities against God, 
 our rebellions and resistances against His will, our contrary 
 walkings to Him, the throwing off that yoke of moral or 
 Ps.ii. [3.] Christian duties, "breaking those bands, casting off those 
 cords," and that either, 1. In an universal dislike of His 
 [Luke xix. government, a direct nolumus hunc, that professed atheism 
 
TO PEACE AND CHARITY. 
 
 7 
 
 that begins to set up to gather disciples and proselytes S E R M. 
 
 abroad in the world, that chair of the scorner, that disclaims — 
 
 religion as a pusillanimous thing, a ridiculous pedantic 
 quality, that hath in their opinion dispirited and emasculated 
 the world : or else, 2. By particular oppositions to His com- 
 mands in the retail, sinning over all the precepts on either 
 mount, taking part with the law of the members, against all 
 the empires of the law of the mind, and under a Christian 
 profession doing as much despite unto Christ as he that hath 
 shut Him out of his mouth, and brain also ; and in relation 
 to these hostilities it is, that we ministers are posted from 
 heaven like so many heralds at the news of a battery, or ap- 
 proach of the enemy, to demand a parley, before men proceed 
 any further in their giantly Oeofxa^la, or fighting against 
 God, and our embassy is very submiss, as though God did be- 
 seech you by us, as Lot doth the Sodomites on their assault 
 of the angels, " We pray you brethren, do not so wickedly,^' 
 we pray you in Christ's stead that you will not proceed in [2 Cor. v. 
 your course, that you will be pacified and reconciled unto ^^-3 
 God ; and sure these are formidable slaughtering weapons, 
 very bloody threatening enemies, that make God think fit 
 to send out embassies for treaty, and not venture His heaven 
 to be stormed by them. 
 
 A second sort of hostilities possibly here meant are these 
 against ourselves, the fatalest and bloodiest in the world, the 
 piercing and wounding, and butchering our own poor souls, 
 deforming and enfeebling them with our wasting habits of 
 sin, exhausting the very principles of civil ingenuous nature, 
 leaving never a vital spark or seed of humanity behind, but 
 violating and grieving and quenching all, a direct felonia de 
 se, murdering and assassinating these divine creatures which 
 God had prepared to people heaven, and casting them out 
 to the noisomest dunghills, employing them to the meanest 
 ofiices in the world. Nay hostilities to the flesh itself; those 
 sins that undertake to serve the grosser part of us, to have 
 special fidelities and kindnesses to the flesh in all their war- 
 rings against the soul, are not yet so faithful in their per- 
 formances, work oft the greatest malices to that very flesh, 
 cast it sometimes into the fire, sometimes into the water, [Mark ix. 
 despoil it of all the honour, beauty, spirits, joys, and life ^^'-^ 
 
1 
 
 SERM. itself, leave it the piteousest, disfigured, rifled, wasted 
 flesh imaginable, and so have their malices and treacheries 
 
 against that also. But the truth is, these are but the Trpo- 
 TTvy/jLac, or crKLa/jLaxlaL, the prelusory lighter brandishings of 
 these swords : the uncharitablenesses here especially designed 
 are in the third place, those that (as our material swords and 
 spears) are ordinarily employed against our brethren, or 
 fellow Christians, either upon their lives, or their reputations, 
 or their souls. 
 
 1. On their lives, when either our ambitions, or revenges, 
 or which is the worst of all, and the bloodiest assassinate 
 (when it is set on it, when it is gotten into the Jesuit 
 
 [Jas, iii. chamber of meditation) our TTiKpos ^fjXop, bitter envying or 
 ^^'■^ zeal, when that I say, like the blood of the mulberries to the 
 elephant, shall inflame us to a brutality, a thirst of our 
 brethren's blood, turning the Christian into a Nimrod, a 
 [Gil.. X. mighty hunter before the Lord ; giving the Church that new 
 '^'-^ notion of militant in shedding as much of other men's blood 
 
 (and triumphing in that eff'usion) as in the primitive times it 
 poured out of its own veins, when the heathen persecutors 
 called for it ; when Christians shall design God sacrifices, 
 bloody cannibal oblations, and, in that other stern sense of 
 [Rom. xii. the Apostle's words, XoyL/ca9 Ova las, "rational human sacri- 
 '■^ flees," whole herds and hecatombs at once, and think to 
 
 avert judgments, to work expiations, to perform superero- 
 gating services to God by that means. 
 
 2. On their reputations, whether in the language of the 
 [Ps. Ivii. slanderer and reviler, " whose words are spears and arrows, 
 ^'^ and his tongue a sharp sword," in the Psalmist's dialect, the 
 
 preparative to that former practising on the life, putting men 
 into wild beasts' skins, that they may be worried, and torn 
 to pieces in their disguises ; or whether yet in the higher 
 strain of the censorious anathematizer, that breathes out 
 woes and damnations, passes that bloody sentence upon all 
 that walk not in his path toward Canaan ; this spiritual 
 assassinacy, this deepest dye of blood being most satanically 
 designed on souls, and (because they cannot get those into 
 their power) practising it in eflfigy, slaughtering them here 
 in this the other Calvary, the place for the crucifying of re- 
 putations, turning men (upon any, upon no occasion) out of 
 
TO PEACE AND CHARITY. 
 
 9 
 
 the communion of their charity, when they cannot out of SERM. 
 
 bliss, and no doubt rejecting many whom the angels enter — 
 
 tain more hospitably. 
 
 Lastly, on men^s souls, whether by terrors or by invita- 
 tions, by the sharp or by the soft weapon, working ruin and 
 destruction on them : by the sharp, forcing to violate their 
 consciences in hope to get their bodies or estates off from 
 the torture, — as the Englishman is observed through impa- 
 tience of any present pressure, to venture the vastest future 
 danger that will pretend to ease or rescue him at the instant, 
 and therefore they say the use of the rack was superseded in 
 this nation, — and they that can be instruments in this savage 
 enterprise, that can thus operate under the great Abaddon, in 
 this profession of assaulting and wounding of souls, for which 
 Christ was content to die, are sure some of the ^^^^ "the 
 sons of bloods,'^ in the plural, as the Hebrews call them ; 
 and so he also that is so skilled at the soft weapon, that by 
 the fair insinuating carriage, by the help of the winning ad- 
 dress, the siren mode or mien can inspire poison, whisper in 
 destruction to the soul, — as the poetic present that had secret 
 chains in it, fettering and enslaving of him that was pleased 
 with it, Tjadr) tm Scopo) koI iSeOr), kol 6 Xvccov ov/c rjv, in the 
 orator, the delight brought shackles, the beauty bands along 
 with it, but no man to loose him that was presently ensnared 
 by them, — he that can tole^ on the tame, well-natured, easily 
 seducible into all the luxury, and the hell, the sin and the 
 damnation imaginable, he is one of the fair-spoken sword- 
 men, that David speaks of, " whose words are softer than [Ps. iv. 
 
 211 
 
 butter, and yet are they very swords." You have had a view 
 of the artillery in the text, the interpretation of the hostile 
 weapons, " the swords and spears," the furniture of the hea- 
 then's armoury before Christ's coming, (good God, that in 
 their travel round about the world, they were not at length 
 all transported hither, and like the teeth of old, sowed and 
 sprung up a whole harvest of swords and spears, of animosi- 
 ties, and uncharitablenesses in this our land !) I hasten to 
 the more innocent tools, the weapons of the husbandman's 
 
 a [Johnson says of this word that it grees. It is used by Locke and Fletcher 
 seems to be some barbarous provincial and others,] 
 word meaning to train, to draw by de- 
 
10 
 
 THE christian's OBLIGATIONS 
 
 S E R M. warfare against his enemies, barrenness and unprofitableness, 
 
 the " plough-shares and the pruning-hooks" on the other side, 
 
 my second particular. The signification of these emblems or 
 hieroglyphics you will soon discern, when you but consider 
 them, first, in the general notion, wherein both of them agree, 
 instruments of husbandry; and then in their several particular 
 proprieties. In the first, they both accord to express unto 
 us the spiritual industry and skill, the office and the craft of 
 dressing and cultivating of souls : we are God's husbandry, 
 His beloved plantation, entrusted ministerially under Him to 
 our own, to our brethren's diligence. 
 
 1. Every man to take the care of his own field, his own 
 soul, to help it to all the dressing and improving, to water it 
 with his tears, when it is a dry soil, drain it with action and 
 business, yea, and mix it with new mould, affiance and com- 
 fort in Christ when it is too moist, (the dissolving or weeping 
 earth,) and when it is too beggarly and lean, to enrich it with 
 all the whole mine of fatness that lies treasured to that pur- 
 pose in the Word of God, to ply it through each season from 
 the seed-time of repentance (that sowing in tears), to the 
 
 [Ps. cxxvi. harvest in joy and cheerfulness, the bringing our sheaves 
 ^'-^ with us, these worthy meet-fruits of that repentance; this 
 
 earth of ours, I say, is thus to practise upon itself, or when 
 it can do nothing else (the driest parched unregenerate soul) 
 yet still, with that, to cleave, and open, and gasp toward 
 heaven, to be ready to receive and suck in those showers, 
 those influences which that is ready to aflPord us, and after 
 all the planting and watering, to acknowledge all to be God's 
 [1 Cor. iii. KapTTocj^opla, His fructifying or giving of increase. And not 
 ^'^ only thus every man to be his own husbandman under God, 
 
 but, 
 
 2. Every man again to help in his brother's field, to make 
 his art and trade of husbandry as communicative and gainful 
 as he can, not as the manner is of the covetous worldling, to 
 enclose his skills for fear any man else should be as pros- 
 perous as he, but to diffuse our charity, and not only, as the 
 ancients did, write books of husbandry (our spiritual geor- 
 gics and geoponics), but go bodily and labour in the vine- 
 yards by our aid, and by our example encourage all the 
 neighbourhood into this trade of thriving, set to that glo- 
 
TO PEACE AND CHAHITY. 
 
 11 
 
 rious work of civilizing deserts, banishing briers and thorns SERM. 
 
 (to which the lapsed Adam was condemned) quite out of the '- 
 
 country, weed out all the ferity and barbarity out of men^s 
 minds, bring the whole region from the neglected waste to 
 the trim fruitful inclosure, from the wilderness to the garden, 
 and as far as it is possible towards some degree of return 
 towards Eden, towards paradise again, I mean towards the 
 innocence and fertility of that : and if ever there was a time 
 when the province was large (I would I could say the har- 
 vest great) and need to pray to the Lord God of the harvest [Matt. ix. 
 to send a whole army of labourers, not with their military, but Lu]fe\' 2 ] 
 their husbandly instruments for the epya (jyiXavOpcoTTiaSf ov 
 aTpaTr]ylas, the grand charitable act, which Cyrus in Xeno- 
 phon ^ preferred before the military, to dress a wild people, 
 and plant some seeds (of Christianity shall I say ? nay) of 
 honest civil nature amongst Christians, to make men in- 
 genuous heathens, one pitch above savage or cannibal, to 
 give a little Europe breed instead of a whole Afric of wilder 
 creatures, and so in some measure to take away Christ's 
 reproach, which the most unchristian lives of the generality 
 of Christians have cast upon Him, this certainly were a season 
 for such prayers in Christendom, and all the plough-shares 
 and pruning-hooks in a country would be little enough for 
 that purpose. 
 
 But then somewhat is here noted by the particular pro- 
 prieties of the plough-shares and the pruning-hooks: the [Jer iv. 3 ; 
 plough-shares, they are for the breaking up our fallow ] 2°]' ^' 
 grounds, wounding and tearing asunder our firm fast hard- 
 ened habits of sins, that quarry of earth and stone, with the 
 fair green even surface over it, fetching up the root of the 
 weeds and thorns, our corrupt customs of atheism and pro- 
 faneness, that grew so voluntarily and so fast, nay, the very 
 green sward, as we call it, the more innocent, blameless face 
 of unregenerate morality, which though it have no great 
 hurt in it, yet must give place to this seed of Christ, furrow- 
 ing and turning it up all, that there may be the bare earth, 
 as it were, the solum subacturriy the broken humble con- 
 trite heart ready for this new sower, for the infusions of 
 grace, which will never thrive if there be any thing left to 
 
 " [Xen. Cyr. viii. 4'. 7. J 
 
12 
 
 THE christian's OBLIGATIONS 
 
 s E R M. encumber or resist, to overtop or wrestle with it : and so you 
 have the interpretation of plough-shares here, the rend- 
 ing of the impenitent heart, the preparing it for grace, the 
 humbling the proud sinner ; and fitting, and softening, and 
 emptying him for Christ. 
 
 Then for the pruning-hooks, if that be the exact rendering 
 of the Hebrew, you have then under that colour the dressing 
 of God's plantations, the supervenient work of pairing and 
 cutting all excrescences, in the regenerate child of heaven, 
 — parallel to the washing of His feet, which were cleansed 
 [Johnxiii. already, in Christ's answer to St. Peter, — lopping off the 
 ^^■■^ suckers, the luxuriances, that will still return, as long as we 
 have that root and fomes of flesh about us, and if they are 
 suffered to grow too lavishly, will soon suck away all the 
 vital fructifying juice from the branches, at least exhaust 
 very much of that heavenly store, which would be husbanded 
 at the best advantage, every dram more preciously employed. 
 
 But if our margin have made the better conjecture, as 
 many times it doth, and the scythes, which you meet with 
 there, carry away the importance of the original from the 
 pruning-hooks, you have then God's calling for His fruits in 
 [Matt. xiii. the time of harvest, sending His mowers into the field. His 
 si] strict requiring and earnest expecting the plentiful issues of 
 all His care, the growths and fructifyings of His graces ; and 
 then put all these together, — as indeed the various readings 
 may both stand good, or the hook or sickle, which may pro- 
 bably be the yet fitter rendering of the word, will supply the 
 place both of text and margin, be accommodable to either, 
 to both uses, — and then you have here the entire positive 
 [Isa.v. 2— business of all Christianity, sometimes to break up, some- 
 ^'■^ times to prune, sometimes to prepare the fruits for God's 
 
 barn, to begin, to advance, to perfect that great work of fruit- 
 bearing, that only design of all God's methods and dispen- 
 sations amongst us, the kindly vintage which He expects so 
 passionately after all His husbandry. And, O what an ex- 
 probration will it be to us, the ecce labruscas there, our 
 nothing but wild grapes, our sour unsavoury fruits of un- 
 righteousness after all this dressing ! And let that serve for 
 the second particular of the absolute view, there is only the 
 third behind, the motion or passage from one of these to the 
 
TO PEACE AND CHARITY. 
 
 13 
 
 other, from the swords to the plough-shares, from the spears s E R M. 
 
 to the sickles or hooks, and that by way of beating ; " they 
 
 shall beat," &c. 
 
 The same individual metal, which was even now a sword, 
 having suffered some change in the fire and anvil, comes out 
 new forged in the other shape ; the same affections that were 
 even now maliciously acted by Satan, formed and whet at the 
 Philistine's forge, oVXa aSifclas, weapons of all the villainy in [Rom. vi. 
 the world, the disquieters of the honour and peace of Christen- 
 dom, the only boutefeux " abroad, our passions and appetites, 
 let them be but transformed by the spirit of Christ, let the 
 fire and hammer pass on them, and without being destroyed 
 in that fire, they come out new moulded, instruments of 
 righteousness, zeal for the reforming our own lives, emula- 
 tion for purity, and for fructifying; that Saul that was even 
 now an Apostle or messenger of the Jewish consistory to 
 Damascus, and had then such a heart full of swords and [Acts ix. 
 spears, was so furious a blasphemer of Christ, and persecu- 
 tor of Christians, may continue his metal still, his title and 
 almost his name and office, and be the gallanter Apostle of 
 Christ, the more abundant labourer for ever after. Christi- 
 anity doth not mean such enmity to nature, such scorn and 
 contumely to our human souls, as to throw all away as dross 
 and refuse, to mortify any other members upon earth, but 
 those which signify our sins, "fornication, uncleanness, [Col. iii. 
 envyings, seditions," &c. As for the affections or faculties ''^•^ 
 themselves, have they been never so profane and unhal- 
 lowed, a breathing on them, or a consecrating them anew, a 
 putting them to purer and more honourable uses for the fu- 
 ture, will serve the turn : the censers of Corah, with a little [Numb. 
 
 . xvi. 39.1 
 
 change, will become excellent plates for God's sanctuary. 
 
 Let that love that even now was transported and lavished 
 
 out on the sensual object, "be baptized with the Holy Ghost [Matt. iii. 
 
 and with fire," come out a pure ethereal love, fastened on 
 
 "the beauty of holiness," — that angelical purity to be tran- [i Chron. 
 
 scribed into thine and thy brethren's hearts, — and the more ' 
 
 flaming this love is, the more gracious and more acceptable 
 
 it is like to be. Let but the hostility that is now let loose 
 
 [Johnson says this word means an discontents. It is used in the works of 
 incendiary; one who kindles feuds and King Charles.] 
 
14 
 
 THE christian's OBLIGATIONS 
 
 s E R xVr. upon the persons, the sins, the personal affronts, nay, per- 
 
 '- haps the graces and virtues of other men, be retrenched and 
 
 retired, and reflected on our own sins, and then let there be 
 as much steel in the weapons, as much zeal in the revenges 
 and indignations as ever ; may but the ambitions and aspir- 
 ings of the worldling — that, like air, pent up in too close a 
 coop, works such o-eca/juovs and tempests, such shaking palsy 
 fits in the regions about us, — be fastened accordingto St.PauFs 
 advice on a new object, transformed into the hu^Kere [rriv] 
 [1 Cor.xiv. ayaTTrjVj "pursuing of charity/' as of a prize in the Olympic 
 [ l^Thess S^i^GS, into the (fxXoTLfieto-Oe Tjcru^^afetz^, taking as much pains, 
 iv. 11.] striving as emulously to contain himself and others in quiet, 
 to restore a battered kingdom to peace again, as contentious 
 men use to put the world into a combustion, and then our 
 swords may become very edifying weapons, our contentions 
 very excellent, profitable contentions, every man striving to 
 surpass and exceed the other in meekness, patience, con- 
 tented taking up the cross of Christ, — those more than 
 Olympic dycove^, to which the incorruptible crown is as- 
 signed, — overcoming men in charity and well doing. Do 
 but you enter into the school of Christ, — the most boister- 
 ous raw uncultivated you, that have least of this sacred 
 temper about you, — and that will be able to infuse it : which 
 brings me to my second general, the relative aspect of 
 these words, as they are a character of the gospel state of 
 the kingdom of Christ, and so the fitter for an Advent ser- 
 mon. And in that we are, 1. to consider what truth there 
 is in that prediction to justify and vindicate this prophecy 
 against all the contrary appearances, " they shall beat,'' &c. 
 One objection it is clear there is against the truth of this 
 prophecy, and it were more for the credit of Christendom 
 that there were an hundred others so this might be super- 
 seded, the contrary practice of the generality of Christians. 
 [2 Pet. iii. Blcsscd Lord ! where is this promise of Christ's coming, this 
 ^*-' consequent of His birth and kingdom among men ? for since 
 
 swords came once into the world, since the sweet of revenge 
 and the advantage of spoiling others was once tasted, since 
 that bloody issue once began to break out, what hath all our 
 Christianity done to stop or staunch it ? It is true, what his- 
 torians tell us, that at the time of Christ's birth there was a 
 
TO PEACE AND CHARITY. 
 
 15 
 
 notable cessation of arras over the whole world, and the arro- s E R M. 
 
 ypacfir}, not taxing but enrolling that brought Christ^s parents h 
 
 up to Bethlehem, and so occasioned His birth there, was an ^ 
 effect and immediate product of that cessation, and it was a 
 remarkable act of providence, that upon a former peace and 
 so command for that enrolling, in the same Augustus^ time, 
 proclaimed at Tarracone in Spain, as Sepulveda tells us, — 
 which if it had succeeded Christ in any likelihood had not 
 been born in Bethlehem, — there brake out some new broils 
 that deferred the peace and enrolling till this very point of 
 time, when Christ was carried up in Mary^s womb to obey 
 the prediction of His birth in Bethlehem. But sure all this 
 would be but a very imperfect completion of this other pro- 
 phecy in my text; this peace was soon at an end, and be- 
 sides, was rather the midwife to bring Christ into the world, 
 than Christ to bring this peace. And yet to see how some 
 observers have been willing to pitch upon this one passage of 
 story, the shutting of Janus^ temple about the birth of Christ, 
 — the catholic peace in that part of the world at that point of 
 time, — as the main thing that was pointed at in this verse. 
 
 Their reason is clear, because as for a long time before, so 
 since that time there was never any such completion of it ; 
 Christ born in an halcyon hour, had scarce ever any one after- 
 wards whilst He lived : and for His posterity He makes the 
 profession, " He came not to bring peace, but a sword,^' that [Matt. x. 
 is, He foresaw this would be the effect of His coming ; Chris- 
 tianity would breed new quarrels in the world, some men 
 really hating one another upon that score of difference in 
 religion, — and they say no feuds are more desperately impla- 
 cable, no swords more insatiably thirsty of blood than those 
 which Christ brought into the world, — but most men making 
 this the TTpocfiao-Ls, the pretence and excuse of all their bloodi- 
 ness. It was Du Plessis^ account to Languet, why he had 
 not a mind to write the story of the civil wars of France, be- 
 cause if he had said truth, he must render new originals and 
 causes of these wars, hound that fox to a kennel which would 
 not willingly be acknowledged, charge that on an emulation or 
 rivality of state, which (like the harlot, that coming fresh from 
 her unclean embraces, had wiped the mouth) came demurely 
 and solemnly, and superciliously out of the Church, the only 
 
16 
 
 THE CHRISTIANAS OBLIGATIONS 
 
 R sanctuary to give impunity and reputation, apology at least, 
 
 ~ to the blackest enterprises ; and between the irpo^aais and 
 
 the air la, the true and the pretended causalities, the effect, 
 God knows, is generally too sad. Mahomet that professed to 
 propagate his religion by the sword hath not brought such 
 store of these bloody weapons, so rich a full-stocked artillery 
 into the world, hath not kept them so constantly employed, 
 so sharp set, so riotous in their thirsts of blood, as hath been 
 observable in Christendom. I am sure that Csesarean sec- 
 tion, practising upon our own mothers, our own bowels, fel- 
 low Christians, fellow Protestants, fellow professors, — shall I 
 add fellow saints ? but sure sanctity, if it were sincere, would 
 turn these swords into plough-shares, — was never so familiar 
 among Turks, or savages ; nay, as Erasmus hath sweetly ob- 
 served, among the wildest beasts in nature, — which are not 
 beast enough to devour those of their own kind, — as it is 
 amongst Christians of this last age almost in every part of 
 the world. Only the bladder of snakes in Epiphanius hath been 
 our parallel, they were there but few hours together but one 
 of them had devoured all the rest, and when — to try the ex- 
 periment how solitude and want of prey would discipline the 
 devourer's appetite — he was shut up alone in the bladder, his 
 vulturous stomach lets loose upon himself, and within few 
 minutes more one half of him devours the other; so many 
 divided and subdivided enmities, and when all others are 
 wanting such bloody practisings upon ourselves, that if it be 
 true which Psellus saith, that the devils feast on the vapour 
 that is exhaled from the blood of men, sure the Christian 
 devils, and of late the English, are the fattest of the whole 
 herd, the richliest treated of any, since whole tables were 
 furnished for them of the blood and flesh of their worship- 
 pers. And thus far I confess myself unable to vindicate 
 this prophecy in this sense of it, that so it should actually 
 prove that Christianity would really drive swords out of the 
 world ; I should be glad to be secured by the millenary, that 
 ever there would come an age when this prophecy would thus 
 be completed, but more glad if this nation might have the 
 happiness within some tolerable term to enter upon its mil- 
 lennium, that the Pacem Domine in diebus nostris, " Peace in 
 our time, our age, O Lord," were not such a desperate non 
 
 m 
 
TO PEACE AND CHATIITY. 
 
 17 
 
 licet form, and that for " deliverance from battle and mur- s E R M. 
 
 der/^ as scandalous a piece of litany, as that other " from sud ^- — 
 
 den death" hath been deemed among us. 
 
 I have sufficiently shewed you in what sense these words 
 have no truth in them ; it is time I proceed to shew you in 
 what sense they have : and that will be either, 
 
 1. By telling you that this prophetic form is but a phrase 
 to express the duty and obligation of Christians ; " they shall 
 beat their swords into plough- shares," i. e. it is most certainly 
 their duty to do so. Charity is the only precept, peace the 
 only deposituniy that Christ took any care to leave among 
 them ; and then, be there never so many swords in Christian 
 nations, yet it were more obediently and more christianly 
 done, if they were beaten into plough-shares : there is a 
 thousand times more need of amending men's lives, than of 
 taking them away, of reforming ourselves, than of hating or 
 killing our brethren; one broken heart is a richer and more 
 acceptable sacrifice to God, than a whole pile of such bloody 
 offerings, such Mosaical consecrating ourselves to God upon 
 our brethren ; and then, as Clemens^ speaks of seals or rings, 
 that those that have the impressions and sculptures (as of 
 idols, so) of bow, or sword, must not be worn by the disciple 
 of Christ, the pacific Christian ; or as the Polonian, being 
 asked concerning two brethren that desired to be of his con- 
 gregation, — as being of a trade which was suspected to be 
 unlawful, the making of images or faces to put upon guns, 
 or ordnances, — gave answer, that he knew no great danger 
 in those images; if there were any thing unchristian, it was 
 sure in the guns, which they were used to adorn : so certainly 
 that Christ that came to cast idolatry and heathenism out of 
 the world, desired also to cast out that heathenish custom of 
 wallowing in one another^s blood, of hunting; and worrying, 
 and devouring one another, and with the Christian faith to 
 introduce the brotherly charity into His Church, this being 
 the most strict, and most frequently reiterated command of 
 
 [ai 8e (X<ppa'y7Z5s rjfuj/ icrrwu ireXsias, (TTrto/ieVcoi' iraiSlcav' ov yap elSccKcap irpSs- 
 
 h 'X^^^' ^^I'ci's oupauoSpafxovcra' ^ Avpa ouiva ivaxoTuirwTfow oTs Kai rh irpose- 
 
 IxovaiKT], fi KexprjTo^ UoAvKparris- 'ay- ■)(€lv aTretprjrai' oi»5e jx^v ^L(pos, t) t6^ov, 
 
 Kvpa yavTLKT] l,e\evKos eVexpaTTero to7s f:ip-r]V7]v didoKOvaiu i) KVTreXAa to7s 
 
 rrj y\v(j)r)- kUv aXievcou rls ^ aTTQar6- aw(ppovovaiV — S. Clem. Alex., Paeda- 
 
 \ov jxefxprjaeTai, koI rSiv e| uSotos iuva- gog.,] lib. iii. cap. 11. [torn. i. p. 289.] 
 
18 
 
 THE christian's OBLIGATIONS 
 
 S E R M. Christ, and that the importance of this prophecy, in the first 
 place. 
 
 2. The truth of this prophecy will be most clear, if you 
 observe the "They" in the front, and the reflection of that 
 
 [Isa. ii. 4.] on the former part of the verse, " Christ shall judge among 
 nations, and rebuke many people/' He shall set up His king- 
 dom in men's hearts, subdue and conquer them ; that is the 
 meaning of judging, — as the administrators of the Jewish 
 nation, and they that subdued their enemies, were called 
 judges for some time, — and He shall mould men anew into 
 an evangelical temper, that is the interpretation of re- 
 buking ; and then, " They," i. e. these subjects of this 
 kingdom of His, these malleable tame evangelical new crea- 
 tures, that are effectuaUy changed by the spirit and power 
 of Christ's doctrine in their hearts, they that are His dis- 
 ciples indeed, they shall beat their swords into those more 
 edifying shapes, shall profess more christianly trades, and 
 if they do not, be sure they are at the best, if not anti, yet 
 pseudo-christians, either professed enemies, or false friends 
 
 [John xiii. of Christ ; "By this shall all men know that ye are My dis- 
 ciples, if you love one another no other character of dif- 
 ference to distinguish a disciple of Christ from any man else, 
 but the ecce ut se invicem diligunt^ " behold how they love," 
 how they embrace, not how they pursue, or slaughter, " one 
 another and so there yo\x have the difficulty cleared, how 
 it comes to pass that there is so little charity among Chris- 
 tians; why? because there is so little Christianity among 
 Christians, so much of the hypocritical guise, of the form of 
 Christian piety, but so little, so nothing of the power of it 
 discernible among us ; had but Christ the least real influence 
 on our hearts, i.t would inflame and animate us with love; had 
 
 Mark ix. we any of that " salt within us," the only preservation from 
 putrefaction and rottenness of spirit, it would be as the 
 naturalists observe of it, ivcort/cov, unitive, and bring along 
 what our Saviour hath joined with it, the peace with others ; 
 it is the propriety and peculiarity of the gospel, where it is 
 entertained, to impress this well-natured quality ; and wher- 
 ever it is not impressed, it will not be censorious to affirm, in 
 despite of all the glorious appearances to the contrary, that 
 those men have received the gospel, the name, the grace of 
 
TO PEACE AND CHARITY. 
 
 19 
 
 Christ in vain, which will be demonstrated to you, if I pro- SERM. 
 
 ceed to my second, or last particular, to shew you by what ■ — - 
 
 means Christianity undertakes to work this great work, to^j^"^'^^' 
 beat our swords into plough-shares, and our spears, &c. 
 And that is by three strokes, as it were, and impressions 
 upon our souls, 1. by inculcating a peculiar strain of doc- 
 trines; 2. by prescribing a peculiar spirit; 3. by setting 
 before us a peculiar example. Every of these very proper 
 moral instruments to this end, though (God knows) the 
 stubborn unmalleable weapons of our warfare have too too 
 often the honour of resisting and vanquishing them all. 
 
 For the first, his peculiar strains of doctrines, they are of 
 two sorts ; either they are the direct contrary to these swords 
 and spears, or else such by way of consequence and result. 
 Directly contrary; such is that of "not avenging ourselves,^' [Rom.xii. 
 the avTLo-Trjvat tw TTOvrjpa), not retributing of trouble or ^ 
 violence to the injurious, but leaving God and His vicege- [a9.] 
 rents to work all these necessary acts of revenge, or repay- 
 ment ; such is that of loving, blessing, praying for enemies; [Matt. 5. 
 and, let me tell you, not only our own, but (which is worth 
 the considering) our God's enemies: for, 1. such are all the 
 cursers and persecutors of disciples ; the true Christian's 
 enemies there spoken of, they are all God^s enemies also, 
 as SauFs persecuting of Christians was the persecuting of 
 Christ : there is no possible separating the hatred of the 
 brethren from enmity to Christ, and therefore Polycarpus 
 an apostolical person and bishop and martyr, one of the 
 first angels of Smyrna in the Revelation, commanding to 
 pray for them that persecute us, takes in not only the 
 heathen powers, and princes, the greatest enemies of God 
 then living, but in plain words the i^Opol aravpou, the re- fPhil. iii. 
 nouncers and enemies of the cross % i. e. certainly of Christ ^^'^ 
 Himself. 2. Such were the Samaritans, direct enemies of 
 Christ, and yet such it will not be permitted the disciples to Luke ix. 
 curse. 3. Because the commandment of mercifulness lying 
 on us proportion ably to God's pattern, — to be merciful as 
 our Father in heaven is merciful, — it is there said, that He [Luke vi. 
 
 ^ [S. Polycarp. Ep. ad Philip, cap. principibus, atque pro persequer.tibus 
 
 12. The passage does not occur in et odientibus vos, et pro iniinicis crucis, 
 
 Greek. Tlie Latin version is, Orate ut fructus vester manifestus sit in om- 
 
 etiam pro regibus et potestatibus et nibus, ut sitis in illo perfecti.] 
 
 c 2 
 
V 
 
 20 THE CHRISTIANAS OBLIGATIONS 
 
 s E R M. is merciful to the evil, as well as to the unthankful, to those 
 '- that have sinned against virtue, in general, as well as against 
 
 that particular of gratitude; and it is clear, God loves His 
 enemies as well as ours, and out of that love gave His Son 
 for those that had sinned against the first, as well as the 
 second table, and consequently, so are we obliged to do also. 
 Lastly, because St. Paul's reason against avenging ourselves 
 is grounded on God's sole prerogative of punishing male- 
 Rom, xii. factors. " As it is written. Vengeance is Mine, I will repay 
 it," saith the Lord ; and this privilege of God's sure extends 
 to the punishing of His own, as well as our enemies. Having 
 named this, I need not mention any more plain doctrines of 
 direct contrariety^ to these hostile weapons ; if God hath left 
 us no kind of enemies to hate, neither our own, nor His, the 
 first, the ordinary object of our animosity and revenge; the 
 second, of our very piety and zeal : and so the furious and the 
 [2 Kings pious sword, the Jehu-zeal for the Lord of hosts, as well as 
 ^* ^^''^ that other for ourselves, the slaughtering of Christ's or the 
 Christian's enemies, be quite excluded out of our commis- 
 sions, then sure there is no excuse for keeping so much pro- 
 fitable metal in that unprofitable, cutting, piercing shape; 
 there is far more use of those materials in another form, 
 in that of the plough-share and pruning-hook, the work 
 of repentance being still as necessary, as that other of un- 
 charitableness is unchristian. But then this is not all that 
 Christ hath done by way of pacific doctrines, some other 
 doctrines He hath as efi'ectually contrary to swords and 
 spears, though not so directly and visibly, some mines more 
 secretly to supplant this bloody temper ; such are His 
 teaching His disciples humility, and meekness, and pa- 
 tience, and contentedness with our own, four graces, which 
 [Ps. xlvi. if once received into our hearts, are the " breaking the bow," 
 ^•-^ the " knapping the spear asunder," the rending up all un- 
 
 peaceableness by the roots. What are the roots of strife 
 [Jas.iv. 1,] and contentions among men? or in St. James' style, "from 
 whence come wars, and fightings among you?" TroXe/xo/. 
 and {Jid'xah of the greater and lesser size, the piracies 
 of the first or second magnitude, "are they not from the 
 lusts that war and rage in your members?" what be 
 those lusts? why, the spawn of those two great sensual 
 
TO PEACE AND CHAKTTY. 
 
 21 
 
 principles, anger and desire, sometimes pride, sometimes SER 
 
 stomach, sometimes impatience of injuries, and sometimes, 
 
 and most especial^, covetousness, the desiring to have some- 
 what which God had not made my lot ; and nothing but hud- 
 dling, and blending, and confusion of proprieties, throwing 
 the lots into the helmet again, can give me hope of attaining 
 it; all the irregular swords and spears in the world are in 
 the hands of these lusts, both to forge and manage, and the 
 graces that Christ prescribes, are sent to drive these all out 
 of the field : the humility that Christ prescribes is directly 
 contrary to that pride ; the meekness or obedience to su- 
 periors, so inculcated in the New Testament, is the mor- 
 tifying that stomach ; the patience, and taking up the cross, 
 and denying myself that hellish piece of sensuality, that of 
 revenge, avrtTTapardrrerat, is sent out to dwell with that 
 impatience ; and contentedness with whatever lot, with that 
 of ravening and coveting. O let but the beatitudes in 
 Matt. V. plant these blessed seeds in us, and our swords will 
 presently be out of fashion, and within a while assaulted and 
 eaten through with the tamest creatures, the rust that them- 
 selves beget ; your carnal affections will lie useless by you, 
 or else be undiscernibly transformed into calmer and more 
 profitable shapes ; and that is the first part of Christ^s 
 method in working this change, by a new strain of precepts 
 or doctrines. 
 
 His second way is b}^ a new kind of spirit, whether by that 
 we mean the spirit of Christ, or the spirit of the gospel. 
 
 1. The spirit of Christ, taken almost in the naturalist^s 
 acception of the word '^spirit" for a kind of vital or animal 
 spirit. For this flowing from Christ our head, and passing 
 freely through all the members, unites not only to Him, but 
 one to the other also in a vital fellow-membership, to which 
 you know nothing is more contrary or destructive than the 
 sword, division or separation ; and this is the argument in 
 St. Paul for the strictest charity, not so much as to tell a 
 falsity one to another, — which is sure less than drawing of 
 swords, calling down fire from heaven one upon another, — 
 because, saith he, you are members one of another all [Eph. 
 members are united in one spirit. And then though some '^'^'^ 
 members are sometimes corrupt and diseased, and therefore 
 
22 
 
 THE CHRISTIANAS OBLIGATIONS 
 
 SERM. offend and grieve the other members; nay, 2. though one 
 
 member sometimes work real injury to the other, the petu- 
 
 lancy of the hand or tongue bring mischief to the whole 
 body : and 3. though the members generally differ in opinion 
 one from the other, the smell liking that which the taste 
 ■utterly dislikes; yet is neither one nor all of these ground 
 sufficient for any member to bear malice, revenge, any thing 
 but love and tenderness of care and bowels towards the 
 other, because of the uniting spirit that passes through them, 
 and gives them joys and sorrows in sympathy one with 
 another, but never animosities, or indignations, undermin- 
 ings or betrayings one of the other. 
 
 But then, 2. that which I chiefly^ mean by the new kind 
 of spirit, is, the spirit of the gospel. In Luke ix. there is a 
 reference to this, — as to a consideration that all disciples of 
 Christ are much concerned in, and from ignorance whereof 
 all our bloody, and fiery, and thundering designs against our 
 own, or the enemies of Christ do proceed, — ov/c ocSare oXov 
 [Lukeix. TTvevfiaTos v^els, "you know not," or consider not, "what 
 kind of spirit you are of:" the gospel spirit, it seems, was 
 peculiarly qualified, a spirit of a special temper, nothing 
 favourable to tlie proposals of the Boanerges; and if you 
 would know the kind of it, you shall have it, first positively, 
 then negatively ; positively the gospel spirit is (a jewel, will 
 you call it, or) an asterism made up of all those celestial 
 gems even now touched on, poverty of spirit, mourning, 
 meekness, purity of heart, hungering and thirsting after 
 righteousness, not after the cannibal-feast of fellow Chris- 
 tians' blood; again, of mercifulness, peace-making, being per- 
 secuted and reviled, — and irav irovr^pov prj/na, not a piece of 
 [2 Kinws Rabshakeh^s railing rhetoric to be had in hell, which is not 
 xviu. 19.] pQ^jj.g^ them, and endured cheerfully by them in obe- 
 
 dience to Christ, — put all these together, and mix with them 
 such a proportion of self-denial, and cheerful following of 
 Christ, whithersoever He leads, and the quintessence, the 
 elixir that by the help of the alembic is fetched out of all 
 these in union, or refraction, is, in the chemist^s style, the 
 spirit of the gospel, the spirit of Christianity. If you will 
 yet more perfectly understand it, you must then look on it 
 negatively, as it is in that place by Christ set opposite to the 
 
TO PEACE AND CHARITY. 
 
 23 
 
 spirit of Elias; Elias' spirit you ma}^ discern by the five con- S ERM. 
 siderations or respects that his person is capable of. '- — 
 
 1. Elias was under the law. 
 
 2. Elias was a prophet. 
 
 3. Ehas was a zealot, as the author of the book of Mac- [i Mac. ii. 
 cabees calls him and Phinehas, and so he was peculiarly in ^^'-^ 
 that passage to which the disciples refer. 
 
 4. Elias called for judgments from heaven. 
 
 5. That judgment was particularly fire. 
 
 And proportionably to these five Elias' spirit was 
 1. A legal spirit. 2. A prophetic spirit. 3. A zealotic 
 spirit. 4. A cursing spirit. 5. A fiery spirit. And by the 
 opposition to each and all of these five, you will be able to 
 make up the new qualified spirit, the spirit of the gospel. 
 
 1. The legal spirit is that which was observable in the time 
 of the law, especially in order to the planting of the Israelites 
 in Canaan, and rooting out of the inhabitants, and that was 
 a rough, bloody, hating, eradicating spirit ; and that legal is 
 certainly outdated and abolished now, and in its place the 
 spirit of the gospel, a smooth, loving, planting spirit, quite 
 contrary to that, 
 
 2. The prophetic spirit was that which received immediate 
 directions from Heaven : I mean not from the supernatural 
 influences and motions of grace preventing, or exciting, sanc- 
 tifying or assisting in the heart of the regenerate man, but 
 (as the spirit of sanctification and the spirit of prophecy are 
 very distant things, so) I say, from the extraordinary revela- 
 tions of His will by Urim and Thummim, by vision, by dream, 
 by coming of the Spirit, or of the word of the Lord upon 
 them, or to them, 06o<f>opovjJLevoL9, acted and carried by God. 
 And the gospel spirit is that which after the out-dating of 
 prophecies, pretends to no such special revelations, to no 
 other direction, or incitation, or impulsion of the Spirit, than 
 that which lies visible in the New Testament, — verbum vehi- 
 culum splritus, and Sta/covla irvevfiaTos, the word is it that 
 brings and administers the Spirit unto us, — the Spirit that in- 
 cites us to perform those duties that the word hath prescribed 
 us, — and if to any thing else, contrary to that, hath then need 
 
 of the exorcist to bind or cast out that spirit, — the spirit which [i John 
 when it comes to be tried whether it be of God or no, pre- ^'^ 
 
24 
 
 THE christian's OBLIGATIONS 
 
 SERM. tends not like Mahomet to be a talking with God, whilst he 
 
 ■ lies foaming in an epileptic fit, but is content to be judged 
 
 and discerned by the old plain doctrines of the gospel, a 
 regulated, authorized, ordinary, sober spirit. 
 
 3. The zealotic spirit was a thing peculiar among the Jews, 
 introduced and settled by the example of Phinehas and Elias 
 by way of precedent and standing law to that nation, whereby 
 it was lawful when a man was taken in some notorious facts, 
 (specified by their law, idolatry, &c.) to run him through, to 
 kill him in the place, without expecting any legal process 
 against him. This was expressly commanded by Moses, 
 
 Numb. " Slay ye every one the men that are joined to Baal-Peor," 
 ^^^* ^' and accordingly practised by Phinehas upon incitation from 
 God ; and when it was done so by a Jew, in the cases pro- 
 vided by the Jewish law, and by divine impulsion, and the 
 person assured that it was so, there was then no harm in it; 
 but when that incitation from God was but pretended only, 
 not true, when in any ease but that prescribed by the law, 
 then it was perfect butchery and villainy even among those 
 Jews : and unless in those few precedents of Phinehas and 
 Elias, and the Maccabees, i. e. zealots, — for so the word Mac- 
 cabee signifies in the Syriac, — it will be hard to find either in 
 Scripture or Josephus, — where there were whole multitudes of 
 such men, — any one example of this practice justifiable even 
 in a Jew ; and in opposition to, and not compliance with that, 
 is the gospel spirit quite contrary to the heights of the Jew- 
 ish practice, never sheds blood upon any but regular com- 
 missions, an obedient, orderly, temperate, cool spirit. 
 
 4. The cursing spirit, that may be of two sorts; either in 
 passing judgments on men's future spiritual estates, a cen- 
 sorious damning spirit, such as hath been usual in all kind 
 of heretics almost that ever came into the Church ; — nos spu 
 rituales, " we the spiritual," and in the king of China's style, 
 Jilii coelif " sons of heaven,'^ and all others animales et psychici, 
 
 " animal carnal men;" — or 2. in wishing, praying, calling for 
 curses either on God's or our enemies ; and you may know 
 the gospel spirit by the opposition to these, a hoping, cha- 
 ritable, merciful, deprecating, blessing spirit. 
 
 Lastly, the fiery spirit is a vehement, violent, untractable, 
 unreconcilable spirit, sets all, wherever it comes, into a 
 
TO Pf:ACE AND CHARITY. 
 
 25 
 
 flame and combustion, and will never have peace with any SERM. 
 
 thing which it can possibly consume ; nay further, it infaseth ^' - 
 
 warmths, and distempers, and turbulencies into all that come 
 W'ithin any reach of it, communicates and diffuses its violences 
 to all others; and the gospel spirit is direct antipodes to 
 that, an allaying, quenching, quieting, cooling spirit. And 
 so you see this new spirit, the spirit of the gospel, of what a 
 temper it is in all these respects, a spirit more fit than light- 
 ning to melt the swords in our scabbards, to new forge these 
 hostile weapons into those that are more civil and profitable ; 
 and that was the second course by which Christianity was to 
 work this metamorphosis, to beat these swords, &c. 
 
 3. And lastly, our Saviour hath contributed toward this 
 great work by the exemplariness of His own practice in this 
 kind; not only, in the first place, in refusing to have the fire 
 from heaven, that the Boanerges would have helped Him to, [Luke ix. 
 against the Samaritans, — professed enemies of Christ, and of ^^'^^*-' 
 all that had any kind looks toward Jerusalem; and besides, 
 notorious heretics and schismatics, and yet pretenders to the 
 only purity and antiquity, against all sense and reason, and 
 so most arrogant hypocrites also ; and yet all this not enough 
 to inflame Christ^s Spirit into that of Elias^, or to change 
 His temper into any thing of zeal or anger against these : — 
 nor only, in the second place, in reprehending and trashing 
 of St. Peter's zeal, when it drew the sword in his Master's [Matt, 
 defence against the high-priest's servants, and indeed against 53^' 
 the very crucifiers of Christ : nor only, in the third place, in 
 refusing the aid even of angels from heaven (when they were 
 ready upon His summons) against the heathens that attached 
 Him : but fourthly, and above all, by that answer of His to 
 Pilate, " If My kingdom were of this world, then should My John xviii. 
 servants fight," &c., — which was certainly part of that good 
 confession before Pilate mentioned with such honour, 1 Tim. 
 vi. 13, — inferring that because His kingdom was not of this 
 world, because He was not a worldly or an earthly king, 
 therefore His servants were not to fight for Him against a 
 legal power of heathens, though it were but to save Him 
 from crucifying. It is clear it was one of His accusers' main 
 hopes to find Him in Judas Gaulonita's doctrine, that it 
 was unlawful for God's people (and so for Him that under- 
 
26 
 
 THE CHRISTIANAS OBLIGATIONS 
 
 SERM. took to be God^s Son) to be subject to idolaters," making 
 
 advantage of piety (as the Gnostics after did) toward their 
 
 secular ends, the freeing themselves from subjection in this 
 world : but our Saviour every where disclaims that doctrine ; 
 Matt. xxii. both vindicating Csesar^s prerogative by his coin, and in that 
 ?!' . . erood confession to Pilate ; from which it is demonstrable, 
 
 [1 Tim. vj. ^ ' . 
 
 13.] that what was not to be done in defence of Christ when He 
 was in that danger and under that persecution, is no more 
 to be attempted in that case for religion, for Christianity it- 
 self. I shall shut up this by leaving in your hands that most 
 glorious lively image of His whole soul and life, delivered to 
 
 [Matt. xi. us in one medal, that " Learn of Me, for I am meek and 
 
 ^^•^ lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. To 
 which if you add the sealing, and the practising of this, in 
 the giving up His soul, laying down His life, an offering of 
 charity even for enemies, and yet further for those enemies' 
 souls, this one amulet hung about your necks, one would 
 think were sufficient to charm all the weapons of our war- 
 fare, that are so unmercifully carnal, to exorcise and conjure 
 all the swords and spears out of the world, to work new 
 transfigurations and metamorphoses among us, to return the 
 bears and vultures into their old human shapes again, and 
 proclaim an universal truce to all the military affections we 
 carry about us, to our wraths, our covetings, our aspirings, a 
 Sabbath, a jubilee of rest and peace, like that which Jambli- 
 chus talks of in the spheres, a KaOoXiKr} dpfjuovca ^, a catholic 
 constant harmony and accord, a present pacification of all our 
 intestine broils, and so a quiet and rest unto our souls ; and 
 till this be done, till this Advent prophecy be fulfilled in your 
 ears, you must know there is little of Christianity among us, 
 little of evangelical graces, or evangelical spirit, nothing but 
 legal at the best. That in God's good time there may be 
 more, not in the brain or tongue to elevate the one or adorn 
 the other, but in the ^dOos Kaphias, the depth and sincerity 
 of the heart, more of the work and power, the spirit and 
 vital energy of the gospel, God of His infinite mercy grant 
 us all, even for the sake and through the operation of His Son 
 Jesus Christ, that wonderful counsellor, that mighty God, that 
 
 [Isa. ix.6.] Father of this evangelical state, that Prince, and that God of 
 
 f [Vide Jamblich. de Vita Pythag., p. 52. 4to. Amst. 1707.] 
 
TO PEACE AND CHARITY. 
 
 27 
 
 peace; to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be as- s E RM. 
 
 cribecl as is most due, the honour, the glory, power, praise, - — — 
 
 might, majesty, and dominion, which through all ages of the 
 world hath been given to Him that sitteth on the throne, to 
 the Holy Spirit, and to the Lamb for evermore. Amen. 
 
SERMON II. 
 
 CHRIST'S EASY YOKE. 
 
 Matt. xi. 30. 
 
 My yohe is easy, and My burden is light. 
 
 SERM. That the Christianas heaven should be acknowledged his 
 
 ^li only blissful state, and j^et they which pant for bliss never 
 
 think fit to enquire after it : that Christy the way to that hea- 
 [Hag ii. ven, should be truly styled by one prophet, " the desire of all 
 '^'^ nations and yet they that iook on Him be affirmed by an- 
 
 [Isa. liii. other prophet, " to see nothing in Him that they should de- 
 sire Him that a rational creature should be made up of 
 such contradictions, as to desire life most importunately, and 
 yet as passionately to make love to death ; to profess such 
 kindness to immaterial joys, and yet immerse and douse him- 
 self in carnal; to groan and languish for salvation, i.e. an 
 eternal state of purity, and yet to disclaim and fly it, when- 
 soever any impure delight is to be parted with; might have 
 leave to exercise and pose a considering man, were there not 
 one clear account to be given of this prodigy, one reason of 
 [Num.xiii. this fury, the many "evil reports that are brought up of the 
 se/s?!] "^^y to t^is good land,^^ the prejudices, fatal prejudices, 
 infused into us, the vehement dislikes and quarrels to all 
 Christian practice, that only passage to our only bliss. We 
 have heard of an angel with a flaming sword at the gate of 
 paradise, which our poetic fear and fancies have transformed 
 into a serpent at the door of the Hesperides^ garden, — that 
 [Num. angel fallen and turned into a devil, — we have heard of the 
 I)eut!tx. cannibal Anakims in the confines of the promised land, that 
 2.] devour all that travel toward that region : and our cowardly 
 
 sluggish aguish fancies have transplanted all these into 
 
Christ's easy yoke. 
 
 29 
 
 Christendom, made them but emblems of Christ^s duri ser- SERM. 
 
 mones, the hard tasks, unmerciful burdens that He lays on '■ — 
 
 His disciples, yea and conjured up a many spirits and fairies 
 more, sad direful apparitions, and sent them out all a com- 
 manded party to repel or to trash us, to intercept or encum- 
 ber our passage toward Canaan, to pillage and despoil the 
 soul of all Christian practice, of all that is duty in disciple- 
 ship. 
 
 Three of these prejudices our Saviour seems to have fore- 
 seen and prevented in the words of this text. 
 
 1. That there is no need of doing any thing in disciple- 
 ship ; Christ came to free from yokes, to release from bur- 
 dens, the gospel is made all of promises, obedience to pre- 
 cepts is a mere unnecessary; and for the preventing of that 
 prejudice, you have here as a yoke, and a burden, so both 
 of Christ^s owning, ^vjos juuov and (j^oprlop fzov, "My yoke 
 and My burden.^' 
 
 A second prejudice of them that being forced to confess 
 the necessity of Christian obedience, do yet resolve it im- 
 possible to be performed, discerning the burdens in my text, 
 must have them unsupportable burdens, no hope, no possi- 
 bility for us to move under them ; and then studium cum spe 
 senescit, their industry is as faint as their hope, desperation 
 stands them in as much stead as libertinism did the other, 
 they are beholden to the weight of their burdens for a super- 
 sedeas for taking them up : and for the preventing of that 
 prejudice, you have here this character of Christ's burden, 
 not only supportable, but light, "My burden is a light 
 burden.^^ 
 
 A third prejudice there is yet behind, of those that having 
 yielded the both necessity and possibility of Christian obedi- 
 ence, are yet possessed of the unpleasingness and bitterness 
 of it, like those in the prophet, cry out, " The burden of the [Jer. xxiii. 
 Lord, the burden of the Lord,'^ the yoke a joyless melancholic 
 yoke, the burden a galling pinching burden ; and to them 
 hath our Saviour designed the xpV^'^op here, as the most 
 significative epithet to express the nature of the Christian 
 yoke : we have rendered it but imperfectly, " My yoke is 
 easy it signifies more richly, " My yoke is a benign yoke,^^ 
 all pleasure and profit made up in the word Kvpios xpl^^^^) 
 
30 
 
 CHRIST''S EASY YOKE. 
 
 S E RM. ^' the Lord is gracious to xpV^^^v rov Oeov, signifies, " tlie 
 - — bounty," we render it, the " goodness of God," that which 
 Rom ii 4 ii^^iediately before is, "the riches of His bounty," and pro- 
 portionably the ^^70^ ')(^pr)a-Tos, " a gracious bountiful yoke," 
 a mine, a treasure of bounty, a good, a joyous, and a gainful 
 yoke. 
 
 And he that is thus answered in all his objections, confuted 
 in all his fears, and prejudices, and excuses for libertinism, 
 if he do not acknowledge the reasonableness of Christ's ad- 
 vice, "take My yoke upon you," take it for its own sake, 
 though it were not laid upon you by Christ, My neces- 
 sary, My light. My gracious yoke ; he that will not accept of 
 some office in the house of so good a master, I know not 
 what kind of address to make to him, I must leave hitn to 
 Pythagoras' spondes, that could cure a madman, koI inra- 
 vopOovv, rectify the errors of his appetite first, and then his 
 mind, first of his spleen, and then his brain, before any por- 
 tion of this bread of life will be diet for him. 
 
 I have drawn you the lines which lie folded up in this 
 text; the filling each up with colours in the shortest manner 
 I could devise, would prove a work of more time than is now 
 my portion. The expedient I have resolved on is, to leap 
 over the two former, and only fasten on my last particular, 
 as that which includes and supposes the two former, as that 
 which will bring its reward with it, invite and feed your 
 patience, and in all probability obtain your belief, because 
 there is never an interest, never a passion about you that it 
 contradicts. 
 
 Your patience being thus armed with a sight of the 
 gesses% but one stage, and that the smoothest you ever 
 passed, I shall presume you ready to set out with me ; and it 
 is to consider that anticipation of the third prejudice in the 
 epithet affixed to Christ's yoke, in the fulness of its signifi- 
 cancy, l^vjos fiou xpV^'^os, " My yoke is a benign, a gracious, 
 a pleasant, a good, and a gainful yoke." 
 
 * [This word, which is often used by Richardson's Dictionary speaks of it 
 
 Hammond, is said in Todd's edition of also as the same word as gest, deriving 
 
 Johnson'sDictionary to mean" astage: it from ^/sfe, a couch or place to rest 
 
 so much of a journey as passes with- in, and this from the word gesir, to lie, 
 
 out interruption." It is not as Todd which he further traces to the Latin 
 
 supposes an error of the press for * gest.' Jacere,'] 
 
CHRIST^S EASY YOKE. 
 
 31 
 
 Yea, and that in this life, at the taking the yoke upon you; s E RM. 
 a present goodness in it here, though there were never a 
 treasure of rewards, never a heaven after it : at least as the 
 present paradise of a true disciple is considered apart, ab- 
 stracted from that future expectation, " My yoke is a good 
 j^oke,^^ is for the present ; the eVr^, " is,^^ hath an influence 
 on the 'y^pr^aros, as well as on the iXacppov, on the gainful- 
 ness of the yoke, as well as the supportableness of the bur- 
 den. And so you see the full of my scope, the utmost of 
 my design, the present advantages of a Christian course, the 
 instant goodness of Christ^s service beyond all other callings 
 and preferments in the world ; a yoke, but that a good one, 
 a yoke that shall never be repented of by him that bears it, 
 whatever it be apprehended to cost him at the taking up. 
 
 And 1. you may please to observe that a yoke hath nothing 
 of hardship in it, it is smoothed and fitted to the neck, rather 
 to ease than press, rather to defend than gall ; not as a 
 weight or burden, but only an instrument of advantage, to 
 make the burden that is to be undergone more easy and 
 supportable; and therefore our Saviour counts of it as that 
 which a rational man would be content to take up of his own 
 accord, if he knew the benefit of it, " take My yoke upon [Matt. xi. 
 you,'' and be richly rewarded in the taking, ^^and you shall 
 find rest unto your soul." The entrance on discipleship, 
 making the new vow, converting to God, is this taking 
 Christ's yoke upon us, (as the performing the vow, the 
 practice of the several duties, is the moving under the bur- 
 den.) And, to prevent mistakes, to forestal all possible 
 objections, I shall acknowledge to you that there is some 
 difficulty in that taking, though not in that yoke, Tprjx^s to 
 nrpcoTov, some difficulty in the first setting out, in the break- 
 ing ofi" from the former course whatsoever it were, somewhat 
 of fancy, somewhat of interests against it. 
 
 Of fancy : to take leave of an old familiar, to carry out the 
 whole body of sin to its funeral, — that pompa mortis ^ so much 
 more grievous than death itself, — to give up the earth to 
 earth, corruption to corruption, with all the pompous so- 
 lemnities attendant on an hearse; this, I say, hath some- 
 what of sadness in it, especially to the inferior brutish part 
 of the man, like the Persian commander in Herodotus, his 
 
32 
 
 CHRIST^S EASY YOKE. 
 
 s E R M. fall is lamented by the horses, and oxen, and Boeotians, all 
 
 — the bestial rude herd of man joining in the dp7)vco8la. 
 
 So besides, there is somewhat of interests, some uneasiness 
 again in the motion necessary to so vast a change, some 
 injury to the old possessors, aliquid iniqui, somewhat of pres- 
 sure in the change itself; some pain in spiritualizing of flesh, 
 racking it, fetching it from the lees, rarifying and attenuat- 
 ing the TTvevfia Tra-^vvojjbevov airo ixo')(6r]pas hiaLrris, the 
 spirit incrassate by vicious diet, as Philoponus calls the habi- 
 tuate sinner, of returning the gross habit of sin to a spareness 
 and slenderness of stature, an exinanition of that carnal appe- 
 tite which hath brought in all the grosser joys which hitherto 
 we have fed on ; and the truth is, this even with St. Paul 
 1 Cor. XV. himself goes for a mysterious piece, " Behold I shew you a 
 mystery, we shall all be changed;" the change of the natural 
 to a spiritual body is a greater work than the raising of the 
 dead : no wonder then that the natural man generally is not 
 so well satisfied with this. Saul is fain to be struck down 
 in the place ; a kind of XetTro-v/rL'^ta, or " swooning fit,^^ an 
 piration of the animal man necessary to so great a change ; 
 as the LXXII have cast Adam not into a sleep (as the 
 [Gen. ii. Hebrew text) but into an eKCFTaaLs, a being hurried out of 
 ^^■^ himself to make him capable of an helper. Thus when Christ 
 [Matt. ii. was first born in Bethlehem, Herod the king was troubled 
 '^'^ and all Jerusalem with him. Such great stupendous felicities 
 
 are not brought forth without some pangs at birth, some 
 unpleasant throes at the delivery; the very earthly Canaan is 
 not come to, but by passing through a prooemial wilderness. 
 Thus much by way of concession of the some difficulty to the 
 carnal man in taking up of Christ's yoke, the minute of the 
 new creation. But that being supposed. 
 
 Let me now tell you, this is all that is of hardship in the 
 Christian's life, all the unacceptable even to flesh and blood, 
 the instant of putting on the yoke, of entering into the traces, 
 [Acts ii. of harnessing for the future race, o^hlves Oavdrov, as the Greek 
 ^ ^•^ in the Acts reads it, " the child-birth pangs of dying to sin, of 
 mortifying'^ 7rd6r) iirl yrjs, the aff'ections that are so fastened 
 on the earth, that like a plantagnus torn from its soil, they 
 bleat and roar again ; the concussion or flesh-quake that fol- 
 lows the sudden stop in the vehement course, the vertigo that 
 
CHRTST^S EASY YOKE. 
 
 33 
 
 the forcible turn in the rapid motion begets, the smart that s E R M. 
 
 the passing through the purgative fire costs us; and the fear 
 
 of this one sharp minute is that that betrays us to all the 
 drudgery and torments in the world, that which makes us so 
 shy of piety, so afraid of all spiritual conceptions : as, you 
 know, that one terror of dying, parting of such ancient 
 mates, makes some good men not over-willing to be with 
 Christ, though they acknowledge it never so much a more 
 valuable state ; whereas could we but arm ourselves for this 
 one act of spiritual daring, the pain of ascending the mount 
 Tabor, and being transfigured with Christ, we should soon re- 
 solve of the bonum est esse hie, "it is good for us to be here,^^ [Matt. • 
 and set presently to build us tabernacles, never to return to ^'^ 
 our old shapes or tents again ; could we but resolve to set out 
 on this voyage, encounter this one giant, son of Anak, the 
 breaking off from our old customs, there were then nothing 
 but Canaan behind, that ovOap apovp7]9^, as once Homer 
 called Greece, "the pap of the earth,^^ that fountain of milk 
 and hive of honey, — all the bees and hornets driven out 
 of it,— a succession of uninterrupted felicities streaming 
 through it. Could we but repel the fancy, or support the 
 pangs of one short travail, in contemplation of the joy which 
 the man-child will within a few minutes bring into the world 
 with him, pTjiSiT) 8' yireira ireXeu^, I am confident Christ would 
 be once more not only TrposSoKia eOvCyv, in Jacobus prophecy, [Gen. xlix. 
 not only the expectation, but withal the joy, the sensuality ^^'^ 
 of the very Gentiles, that which flesh and blood, man in every 
 of his most inferior capacities, the rational, the moral, yea, 
 and the carnal man would thirst with more joy, taste with 
 more ravishment, devour with less satiety than aught which 
 his present confections of luxury did ever yield him, and 
 thence break out into the Virgin Mother's Magnificat^ a 
 transportation of joy for the approach of the birth of so 
 much blessedness ; or into old Simeon's Nunc dimittis, desire 
 no more joy in this life, than that which infallibly attends 
 the taking a Saviour into his arms, those intimate embraces 
 of Christ in the regenerate heart. 
 
 To make this more visible and acknowledged in the retail 
 
 h [II. ix. 141, 283.] 
 
 ' Hesiod. [Op. et Dies,] lib. i. [290.] 
 
 HAMMOND. T) 
 
34 
 
 Christ's easy yoke. 
 
 SERM. tlian it is in the srross. in the coin than it is in the bullion, 
 II. . . 
 
 ^ — I shall require your patience but to these two heads of pro- 
 bation : one, by viewing severally some of the chief duties of 
 Christianity : the other, by enumeration of the special good 
 things which have ever been prized by mankind. 
 
 The first, I say, by surveying the duties of a Christian, the 
 tasks that are prescribed him by Christ, the particulars of his 
 yoke and burden. Consider them a while, and if they be not 
 the object of all other men's envy, if his toils be not demon- 
 strably the vastest pleasures, his exercises the most joyous 
 divertisements and highest rank of entertainments that any 
 mortal hath arrived to, I shall be content with Cassandra's 
 fate, never to be credited in my affirmations. 
 
 For instance, well-doing in general, in the first place, the 
 conscience of any degree of that, of having discharged any 
 
 [Matt. part of duty, that euge hone serve, from the god within thee, 
 
 XXV. 2L] ^i^j^^ ^ ravishment is it to any the meanest undertaker, what 
 an olio of all high tastes compounded together ? Their very 
 enemies could say it of the Athenians in Thucydides, that 
 " there was nothing that they could count feast or banquet, 
 but the having done what they ought J." And the Persians^, 
 when they beheld the solemnity of the Grecian Olympic 
 games, such courage and patience of the combatants, and 
 no reward expected but an olive crown, expostulate with 
 Mardonius, why dost thou bring us to fight against those 
 who fight not for money, but virtue ? A conscience of having 
 done well, served in with a few leaves about it, was it seems 
 the daintiest dish, and most animating, emboldening reward 
 in nature. And if a Christian cannot outvie those heathens, 
 if it be not in our breasts, as it is in the translations of our 
 
 [Prov. XV. Bibles, '^a merry heart," all one with "a good conscience," 
 
 ^^'^ and the attribute of that ^^a continual feast" to thee as it 
 
 was to Solomon, believe it, thy taste is mortified, thou art 
 
 no competent judge of dainties : and that is one part, or in- 
 
 [Heb. xiii. deed the sum of all Christ's yoke, ayaOrj avvelhTjaLs ev Tracnvj 
 18 1 • 
 
 "in all things a good conscience." 
 
 In the second place, not to lead you out of the most vulgar 
 
 j yit^Te eoprV aXXo ri 7)y:;7a6aL f] rh ireu] ay aOos [ow] Tracrav fi^epav eopirjp- 
 
 ra Seopra npa^at. — [Thuc. i. 70.J And 7jye7Tai; 
 
 Diogenes in Plutarch, de [animi] tran- ^ Herod., lib. viii. [cap. 26.] 
 quill, [torn. ii. p. 477 C] auTjp e?- 
 
CHEIST^S EASY YOKE. 
 
 35 
 
 road, tliat our discourse may be the more demonstrative, tlie s E R M. 
 
 TT 
 
 trinity of theological virtues, faith, hope, and charity, what '- — 
 
 are they but so many elevations of the soul above all that is 
 mean and painful ; so many steps of entrance into obedience 
 and bliss, into discipleship and paradise together? 
 
 For faith," it is St. Peter^s expression, iriarevovTes ayaX- i Pet. i. 8. 
 XtaaOe, "believing, you do exult for joy;" faith naturally 
 hath that acquiescence and joy in it, and that a ave/c- 
 \aXr]T09 fcal heho^aafjuevrj, an inexpressible and glorified joy, 
 even in this life. Take it but in the meaner of its offices, as 
 it is a trusting God with our temporal weal, a full submission 
 not only to the will but wisdom of God, a resolution that 
 God can choose for us better than we for ourselves, that 
 whatever He sends. His hottest or bitterest potion, is fit for 
 our turns, and so, absolutely better, and even to us (when we 
 see it is His will) more eligible, more desirable than any 
 thing we could have prayed for. That cheerful valiant re- 
 signation of all into God^s hands, with an old Eli's Dominus 
 est, "It is the Lord," let Him do what seemeth Him good, [) Sam. 
 what a blessed pill of rest is this unto the soul ! what a ^^*'' 
 sabbath from all that servile work, those horrid perjuries, 
 those base submissions, that the covetous mammonist or 
 cowardly trembler drudges under ! Though the earth shake, 
 or the hills be carried into the midst of the sea, he is the 
 cube indeed that Socrates pretended to be, he hath a basis 
 that will not fail, his feet stand fast, he believeth in the 
 Lord. He hath gotten a superiority of mind, that all this 
 region of meteors cannot disquiet; he hath rifled all the 
 sects of the old philosophers, robbed each of them of his 
 master-piece, the sceptic of his d^LaipopLa and drapa^ia, in- 
 difference and untroubledness, the Stoic of his firj Troielv 
 TpaycoSLas\ he hath none of the tragical complaints how 
 tragical soever his sufferings be, and Epicurus of his fyaXrjvr], 
 tranquillity or calm of mind, to the acquiring of which all 
 his philosophy was designed, a thing so hugely pleasurable, 
 that he hath been taken for a carnal voluptuous swine ever 
 since, upon no other merit but for seeking out those great 
 composers of the soul, so much beyond all other sensuality : 
 those boasts, I say, and prides, those dreams and wishes of 
 
 1 [Vide Antonini ad Seipsum, lib, iii. cap. 7.] 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 CHraST S EASY YOKE. 
 
 SERM. those philosophers, are now the reality and acquisition of a 
 '- — Christian, an epicurism which faith, and only faith^ under- 
 takes to furnish us with. A thing so deeply considerable, 
 that I cannot but resolve all the differences of men's estates 
 and fortunes as well as souls, their secular felicity and in- 
 felicity, as well as piety and impiety, to proceed from this 
 one fountain opened by Christ to the house of David. No 
 prince more happy than the peasant in the present advan- 
 tages of this life, but as he hath more faith than he, the 
 spring of our daily misery as well as our sins is the w oXcyo- 
 [Matt. vi. TTccTToi, " O ye of little faith.'' 
 
 30 1 'J 
 
 And so certainly for hope, that second Christian gem, that 
 royal high-priest of ours that enters within the veil, takes 
 possession beforehand of all that is rich or secret, brings 
 down all the treasures of another world to be our daily por- 
 tion in this, hope of eternity, hope of heaven, you will not 
 wonder if I assure you it is a far pleasanter companion than 
 the possession of all worldly preferments. You would be 
 amazed to hear a papist describe his purgatory flames so 
 scorching, and yet go cheerfully out of this world into the 
 midst of those flames ; but he will satisfy your wonder when 
 he tells you that the expectation of the heavenly joys that 
 those flames do confirm and ascertain to him, though after 
 never so many hundred years, " the precious hope that dwells 
 there"", and the assurance of a title in heaven", a portion in 
 that glorious aTToypacfyr), or enrolment, is richly sufficient to 
 allay those flames, to make those scorchings supportable." 
 And then judge what a confluence of pleasures is this one 
 grace supposed to be, which is resolved sufficient to sweeten 
 and recommend a Tophet, to make torments desirable; like 
 the kind gales and benign vapours under the line that 
 Manardus tells of °, which make the torridest clime habit- 
 [Dan. iii. able ; and the presence of that fourth in Nebuchadnezzar's 
 ^^•^ furnace, which makes the three children sing in the midst 
 of flames. 
 
 [1 Cor. As for charity, that is certainly the /jueli^cov toutcov, superior 
 xiii. 13.] either faith or hope, for joy and pleasure, as well as use 
 and excellency. Can there be any thing so ravishing as love, 
 
 IX0VU7] S' avToOl iXiris. — [Hesiod. " rovvopi.a iv Aihs avAy. 
 Op. et Dies i. 96.] " Papist, medicin. 
 
CHUIST^S EASY YOKE. 
 
 37 
 
 love of so for ever-satisfying a beauty, that heroical improve- SERM, 
 
 ment and elevation of soul, the want of which is as great a ' — 
 
 punishment as it is a sin, as much of hell in the extinction of 
 this flame as in the raging of that, in the chill numbed as in 
 the raving tormented spirit, as fatal a lethargy from the one 
 as fever from the other. " If any rhan love not the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha,'^ saith St. Paul, [i Cor. 
 
 xvi 22 "1 
 
 Blessed Apostle, I cannot imagine thy gospel spirit could 
 permit thee to deliver those words as a wish or prayer for 
 curses on any even enemy of Christ ; may not this form of 
 speech be a scheme of apostolic rhetoric ? " If any man love 
 not the Lord Jesus,^^ he is, and shall be, for the very present 
 he is the interpretation of those thundering sounds, " ana- 
 thema maranatha," a miserable accursed creature; the very 
 not loving, the chilling of that blessed passion within his 
 breast, is the saddest curse that the devil could design his 
 hatedest enemy. 
 
 Add unto this that other branch of charity, that ray which 
 Prometheus in the figure stole from heaven to inspire and 
 warm the world with, that inferior elementary fire, love of 
 our fellow-men, our fellow-Christians, and tell me if there be 
 any thing so capable not only of the quam bonum, but the 
 quam jucundum too, that hath so much of the pleasant as 
 well as the virtuous in the composition. The ground of all 
 pleasure is agreement and proportionableness to the temper 
 and constitution of any thing; the reason, saith Boethius, 
 
 that men love music so well, is the answerableness of the 
 notes in that to those observed by nature in the fabric of our 
 bodies and say we, is there any thing so agreeable and 
 harmonical, so consonant to our reasonable nature, to the in- 
 genuity of our kind, and consequently so universally delight- 
 ful to all, that have not put off man in exchange for panther 
 and tiger, as that which Christ hath left us our duty, yea 
 and our reward, the loving of the brethren ; that language, 
 that song of love that we are to practise here, that we may 
 chant it in heaven eternally ? It is said to be a speech of 
 Christ's which the Nazarene Gospel hath recorded, though 
 our Bibles have not, — and it seems by St. John, all was not [John xx. 
 written which Christ spake to them, — Nunquam Iceti sifis nisi 'j 
 cum fratrem in charitate videritis, " There is no spectacle of 
 
38 
 
 CHRIST^S EASY YOKE. 
 
 s E^R M. delight to a Christian/' nothing of vahie sufficient for a dis- 
 
 ■ ciple to rejoice at, " but to see his fellow-disciples embracing 
 
 one another in love and they say Mahomet was such an 
 admirer of this quality, that "he once resolved to have in- 
 serted a precept of good-fellowship among his laws, because 
 he thought he had observed" (though most ridiculously mis- 
 taken) " that that which is indeed the bane, was a promoter 
 of this charity/^ I conceive I have the suffrage of all man- 
 kind, that " charity is a pleasing grace," and of the wisest 
 and most pondering observers, that " friendship is the only 
 sweet neighbour and companion of lifeP," that which being 
 drained from its baser mixtures, — which would otherwise 
 cause satiety, — becomes the prime ingredient in the glorified 
 saints, of whose state we understand little, but that they 
 are happy and love one another, and in that for ever happy, 
 [1 Cor. that they for ever love one another; charitas nunquam ex- 
 xni. 8.] Qi^ii^ gQ their bliss nunquam excidit neither. And then, 
 behold and admire the goodness of this yoke; Christ^s design 
 even in this life to set up charity, friendship above all virtues, 
 as high as it is above all felicities, to settle that for the prime 
 Christian duty which hath most of present blessedness in it, 
 to make that our burden which is our bliss, our yoke which 
 is our boon, and withal to separate it from all those mixtures 
 which would either embitter or shorten, cool or satiate our 
 love, the lusts and excesses and the prides, that would make 
 the most ingenuous delight either less ingenuous or less 
 delightful; that love of my brother^s virtues, love of his soul; 
 love of the nature that Christ assumed and died for, and carried 
 to heaven with Him; love of the image of God in Him, that 
 most transporting durable pleasure ; and all this will be abun- 
 dantly sufficient to make up a second instance of the 'x^prjo-ros 
 ^vyd9, the graciousness and pleasantness of this yoke. 
 
 A third shall be by referring you to the most extemporary 
 view of the commands of the Decalogue, which Christ came 
 not to destroy, but to fill up and perfect. Temperance is the 
 only epicurism; continence or conjugal chastity the only 
 supersedeas to that black flame that is the incontinent's daily 
 hell even in this life : but above all, that precept of the Old, 
 [Ex. XX. and mystery or craft of the New Testament, " Thou shalt not 
 
 ^ P r)5vs yiLTWP rrjs rjfxirtpas ^wyjs. 
 
chiust's easy yoke. 
 
 89 
 
 covet," that of contentment with whatsoever lot, the prohi- SERM. 
 
 bition of all desire (3, which seemeth such a galling restraint — 
 
 to the carnal man, with his bored tub of insatiate desire^, as 
 Jamblichus calls it, about him, but to him that hath taken 
 this yoke upon him, is the gainfuliest, not duty, but dona- 
 tive, not burden, but purchase, and preferment, that any 
 mortal is capable of. The philosopher could resolve it the 
 way to help an}^ man to whatever he wanted, detraliere cupi- 
 ditatibus, to pare so much oW from his desires, as his desires 
 were larger than his fortune. To bring down his ambitions 
 to his lot, would be as rich a prize as the compassing and 
 acquiring all his ambitions : contentment is (in earnest) the 
 philosopher's stone, that makes gold of any thing ; the Pan- 
 dora's box, that hath all wealtli, and honour, and pleasure in 
 its disposing ; makes the poorest eremite, the richest posses- 
 sor ; the most scorned abject, the most honourable person ; the 
 recluse, or the mortified Christian, the most voluptuous liver 
 in a kingdom ; every diminution that can come by the malice 
 of men or devils, a pleasurable calamity^; whilst the largest 
 possessions in nature, without this one skill, e/juadov koI [le- 
 fjbV7)iJLaL, this sovereign piece of alchymy, are still the perfect- 
 est beggary imaginable. The devil's whole map or landscape 
 of all the kingdoms and glory, if (as liberally offered, so) 
 actually bestowed, is not able to satisfy the lusts of one eye ; 
 much less to fill up the angles and vacuities of one heart 
 without it. That one prudent instruction of 
 
 Quod sis esse velis nihilque mails 
 in one poet, or 
 
 Permittes ipsis expendere numinibus 
 in another, or 
 
 aX\! e;^e cri^f) jjuvOov, eiriTpe^ov Be Oeolai 
 in a third ^5 "stand still and see the salvation of our God," is [Ex. xiv. 
 a far richer provision than all their more glittering fictions of 
 golden apples, and golden showers, and golden fleeces, and 
 
 »1 iracra iinQvjJiia. 
 
 ' tt'lOos T€Tpr]/j.euos anepai'Tos iinQvjxia. 
 
 ^ \_Tois S' eSoi; avT\ Trvphs Scocrw] KaKhv, w ksv [aTraj'rey] 
 T^pnoouTai [fcara Qv^hv, tov icaKhu aj^Kfjayairoii/Tes.^ 
 
 — Hesiud. Op. et Dies i. [58.] 
 ' [Martial, x. 47.j " Juv. x. 347. * Od. t'. [-502.] 
 
40 
 
 Christ's easy yoke. 
 
 SERM. golden rods, that could make such sudden metamorphoses, 
 
 — — yea and of the 'x^pvaea SUrva^, the golden nets, the golden 
 
 [Luke XX. ages can afford us. ^' In heaven,'^ saith Christ, they neither 
 ^^'^^'^ eat, nor drink, marry, nor are given in marriage,^' and yet 
 are better satisfied and pleased than they below that are fed 
 in Mahomet's dining-room, or lodged in his seraglio : the 
 not desiring those pleasures of life is to them the same thing 
 with advantage that the enjoying them is to others, — as the 
 poet that begs two things of Mars^, "either valour for war, 
 or peace that he may not need that valour,'' would be richly 
 provided for, which soever was granted him : — and this is, in 
 Christ's language, being la-dyyeXoi, "equal to the very 
 angels." It seems it is the angels' special advantage above 
 us men, that they desire not the ravra irdvTa, the "all these 
 things," which the luggage of flesh about us makes to us so 
 necessary ; and no such crane, such engine to elevate our 
 nature to this lo-ayyeXla, to this so " angelical a state," as 
 /jLT) iTTcOv/jbetv, this so liberal a "science of contentment," 
 which not only makes romances creditable, finds mines in 
 our closets, under every cushion we kneel on, rains down 
 both the Indies into our treasury, satisfies all our needs, fills 
 all our vacuities, but is withal the noblest act of wisdom, of 
 superiority of mind, of prowess, and conquest of ourselves, 
 that any book but that of life, any place but heaven can give 
 us story of ; and therefore sure a ^vybs XPV^^'^^^) " ^ yoke," 
 a command of Christ, but that a benign and gainful yoke, in 
 the third place. 
 
 A fourth instance I cannot omit, though I suppose the 
 most vulgar fancy hath prevented me in it, — because Aris- 
 totle hath a note in his Rhetorics that " some kind of auditors 
 are most wrought upon by such," — and that is from the 
 catalogue of the blessing graces, in the fifth of Matthew, 
 " Blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek," &c. In the pre- 
 sent they are blessed, yea and would be so, though there 
 were never a heaven of blessedness behind for them. Will 
 you examine the truth of this in a few of them ? 
 
 1 . Poverty of spirit : whether a preparation of spirit to he 
 
 ^ [xp'^o'ea 8«pa — Horn.] Od. tt'. [185.] 
 
 z Odpffos 
 
 5bs /naKap, dpi'iurjs re [/uev^iu if a.iT'{)no(n 6^(Tfxois.'\ 
 
 Horn. hyma. in Mart. [15.] 
 
CHRIST^S EASY YOKE. 41 
 
 poor, and then it is blessed contentment that just now we s E R M. 
 parted with; or whether it be humility, blessed humility, 
 and then, beside the advantages it hath toward another life, 
 "grace to the humble, to the humble more grace,^^ and at [Jas.iv. 6.] 
 last heaven to the humble, yea, and more heaven, — as in the 
 learned rules of husbandry they are appointed " to plough, 
 to sow, and to reap too all naked humility portrayed by 
 that nakedness, being the only auspicious posture, the only 
 catholic qualification for all seasons : — beside these advan- 
 tages, I say, it is over and above, even in the eye of the 
 world, an amiable graceful quality, hath a present secular 
 blessedness in it, a calm of soul to itself, a controlling love- 
 liness in respect of others, and a world of conveniences attend- 
 ing it. It is that wherein heaven and earth are met as rivals : 
 God Himself a making court to it, " With him will I dwell,^^ [Is- Ivii 
 and in the oracle, f^avvybai roaov oaaov ^OXufjuiTw' there are 
 two residences, palaces, thrones for God, heaven and an 
 humble soul; and for men, a plain (piXrpov and 6e\Krr)piov, 
 to them, an enchantment or charm of respect and love, wher- 
 ever it is met with; whereas in the mean time pride goes 
 alone in state, only with a train of menial scorns and curses 
 after it; it is a kind of excommunicating sin, drives away 
 confidants, counsellors, servants, graces, the very credit and 
 reputation which it courts, all kind of company but devils 
 and parasites, that pessimum genus inimicorum, that worst 
 kind of devil of the two. So true is that of Solomon, "Better Prov. xvi. 
 is it to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide 
 the spoil with the proud the comparison there is set as 
 betwixt the lowly and proud, so betwixt the humble spirit 
 and dividing the spoil; there is no need to mention any 
 benefit of humility, the humble spirit, it seems, is reward 
 enough to itself, and all the proud man's prizes are not com- 
 parable to it in this life. 
 
 So for meekness, it is a lovely grace again; "the orna- IPet. iii. 4. 
 ment of a meek and quiet spirit,^^ a more gallant embroidery, 
 more enamouring dress, which hath more of the agreeable in 
 the look of it, than all the other helps of beauty can afford 
 that sex which is there spoken of : but especially that notion 
 
 yvjuLvhu 8' a/xdadai. — Hes,, [Op„ et Dies] lib. ii. [10.] 
 
42 
 
 Christ's easy yoke. 
 
 SERM. of meekness that consists in obedience to our lawful superi- 
 — ors, whicli^^beside the other many conveniences of it, " that 
 
 _Ex. XX. ^^^g ^^^^^ long in the land/' &c., long life in a Canaan, 
 
 — is a most advantageous gainful duty, such as if it had ap- 
 plications made to it, would infallibly leave the prince the 
 only uneasy person in the kingdom, because he only were 
 assigned the task, the painful, thankless, yet necessary task 
 of commanding, and deprived of the obsequii gloria, that far 
 more glorious, I will add, and pleasant way of obeying. The 
 glory of it such, as that Gerson having discerned in the an- 
 gels two habitudes, one "of waiting upon God^,'' the other 
 "in the ruling and managing of things below,'' resolves, that 
 if that angel were to set himself out in a lustre, to triumph in 
 a magnificat, it would be certainly in the Virgin Mary's style, 
 humilitatem famuli, that he were a meek servant of God's, 
 rather tlian a prince of so many myriads of subjects. And 
 for pleasure, I shall profess my sense so far from doting on 
 that popular idol, liberty, that I hardly think it possible for 
 any kind of obedience to be more painful than unrestrained 
 liberty : were there not some bounds of magistrate, of laws, 
 of piety, of reason in the heart, every man would have a fool, 
 they say, I add, a mad tyrant to his master, that would mul- 
 tiply hira more sorrows than the briars and thorns did Adam, 
 when he was freed from the bliss at once, and the restraint 
 of paradise, and was sure greater slave in the wilderness than 
 he was in the enclosure. Would but the Scripture permit me 
 that kind of idolatry, the binding my faith and obedience to 
 any one visible, infallible judge, or prince, were it the pope, 
 or the mufti, or the grand Tartar, might it be reconcilable 
 with my creed, it would be certainly with mine interests, to 
 get presently into that posture of obedience. I should learn 
 so much of the barbarian ambassadors in Appian'^, which came 
 on purpose to the Romans to negotiate for leave to be their 
 servants : it would be my policy, if not my piety, and may 
 now be my wish, though not my faith, that I might never 
 have the trouble to deliberate, to dispute, to doubt, to choose, 
 (those so many profitless uneasinesses,) but only the favour 
 
 ^ Mentemque profundam circum- Boetliius.] 
 eunt. — Boeth. [This is a mistaken re- " [This is probably a mistake for 
 ference, no such pas.saoe occurring in Livy. Vide Liv. vii. -'31.] 
 
Christ's easy yoke. 
 
 43 
 
 to receive commands,, and tlie meekness to obey them ; so SERM. 
 demonstrably true is the fia/cdptoc ol irpaels, — the very 
 meekness is their blessedness, — and from thence this part of^^^*^'^* 
 the gainfulness of this yoke. 
 
 I will detain you but with one more of that catalogue, that 
 of mercifulness, the pleasurablest burden in the world; there 
 is no such kind of inward delight, and sensuality, as it were. 
 Liberality is a kind of tickling to the soul^, it is hard to con- 
 ceal the pleasure of it, to keep it from boiling over, from 
 running out at mouth in vain-glory. To make a poor man 
 happy, and by a seasonable alms to reprieve and rescue him 
 that was as it were appointed to death, is that godlike 
 quality, as Pythagoras agrees with Christ, that kind of crea- 
 tive power, that of all things men are best pleased with; and 
 therefore naturally they love those better, as their creatures, 
 whom the}^ have thus obliged, than any their liberalest bene- 
 factors : this the good-natured tyrant Phalaris, if his image 
 be truly drawn in his epistles, took more joy in than in all his 
 other greatness, designed that tyranny (that cost him and 
 others so dear) to no other end, than that it might yield him 
 that one pleasure, the power of obliging many ; and accord- 
 ingly he woos and beseeches to be allowed this favour, nay, 
 quarrels and threatens his bull to those that would not af- 
 ford him this joy of pouring out his largesses upon them. 
 This so delightful a piece of duty, so perfect voluptuousness 
 to any ingenuous man, is withal, let me tell you, be it never 
 so incredible, the gainfuUest trade, the thrivingest wa}^ of 
 merchandize for the wealth of this world, that any projector 
 can direct you to. Give me leave for once to interpose in 
 secular affairs thus far, as to assure you of that, that I will 
 pawn my whatever is mine for the truth of it^ — and for which 
 I conceive I have so many plain promises in the Scripture, 
 that it were infidelity (in me, I am sure) to doubt of it, — 
 that the exercise of this duty of alms-giving was never the 
 impoverishing of any family, but constantly the enriching. 
 Let it be tried, and I will once set up the insurer's office, 
 that whatever goes out on that voyage, shall never miss to 
 come home with gain ; there is no man that parteth with any 
 
 ^ fxiv ydp [/f€i' aj/')jp sfleAct);/] jneya Sw??, 
 ^a'lpsi dl^py Koi ripurzrai [cv naia 6v/j.6v.] — Hes., lib. i. [355,] 
 
44 
 
 Christ's easy yoke. 
 
 s E R M. thing for Christ's sake/' saith He, " but he shall have an 
 — ^— — hundredfold more in this life." Add but this ypvo-tfiov to 
 30.] ' the ')(^prj(TTov, this of gain to that of delight, the policy to 
 the even sensual ravishment of it, and you will resolve that 
 Christ was a good master; that if you had been called to 
 counsel at that great parliament, had had your negative in 
 that power of making laws for mankind, you would not have 
 chosen a smoother and more agreeable yoke for yourselves, 
 than this that Christ hath designed for you. 
 
 I promised to make this as evident by another head of 
 probation, the enumeration of the special goods that have 
 ever been prized by mankind ; but that were a new deep, 
 and you have no stock of patience to hold out that voyage. 
 Among all that have ever pretended to that title, I will sup- 
 pose that of honour hath gotten the primogeniture, sup- 
 planted all other pretenders in an ingenuous auditory. And 
 therefore one word to that, and I shall think I have made 
 good my undertaking. 
 
 Honour I conceive to be the daughter of heroic action, 
 and specially of victory : and is there any such sweeping 
 triumphant conqueror in the world as the regenerate Chris- 
 [iJohnv. tian? viKa Koafjuov, "he overcometh the world overcomes 
 [i"'sam. himself, that lion and that bear that David combated with, 
 xvn. 3.).] j^jg furious rageful passions, Achelous in all his shapes; and 
 is always in pursuit of that victory, vlko,, still in the present, 
 he is always overcoming; overcomes enemies, the injurious 
 person by not retributing of injuries the very tyrant per- 
 secutor, — whose adoration he hath when he can get none of 
 his mercy, whilst the other that is frighted out of his con- 
 science and integrity, is scorned and kicked into hell by him, 
 — yea, and the devil, that to irovrjpbv, "the evil one," whom 
 [Jam. iv. when the Cliristian resists, he conquers, — fugiet, "he shall 
 '^'^ fly from thee," — yea, and overcomes, and reproaches, and 
 
 triumphs over all the world besides, practises those duties 
 upon Christ's commands, w^hich neither Jew nor heathen 
 ever thought themselves obliged to. Athenagoras ^ can chal- 
 lenge all the philosophers and lawgivers of the world to 
 equal Christ in one precept, or Christians in one practice of 
 theirs, that of blessing of enemies ; and no Goliath of Gath 
 
 e Tvovripuv ayaOcf. ' [p. 42. ed. Dechair, Oxon. 1706.] 
 
CHRIST^S EASY YOKE. 
 
 45 
 
 being able to answer his challenge, no uncircumcised Phi- SERM. 
 listine of confidence to meet him, — — — — • 
 
 [jLovvos dvrjp (TvXfjcrev okov arpaTov, 
 
 the Christian is the only victor, he conquers the whole world 
 about him, yea, and those glittering courtiers of the superior 
 world, outvies and conquers~augels in that one dignity of 
 suff"ering for Christ, and so becomes the renownedest cham- 
 pion under heaven. 
 
 To this I should add again, if I had not said so much of 
 it already, and if it were not a baser earthier consideration, 
 the profit and secular advantage of which the Christian life, 
 let the insensate worldling think what he will, hath the 
 peculiar only promise from Him which hath the sole dis- 
 posing 'of it. Some mistakes there are in judging what 
 worldly prosperity is ; let it be rescued from these mistakes, 
 as particularly from that of signifying a present few months 
 vicissitude of power and wealth, — so sure to be paid (and 
 confuted from deserving that title) by that of the prophet, 
 " When thou ceasest to spoil thou shalt be spoiled," — let it [Is. xxxiii. 
 signify, as alone it doth truly signify, that competency, not ^'^ 
 that superfluity, which hath all the advantages, and none of 
 the pains of wealth in it, and no question the doing our 
 duty, though it be the present leaving of all for Christ's 
 sake, is that which doth not use to fail of the liberalest sort 
 of harvest, the hundred-fold more in this life, i. e. all the 
 true advantages of those possessions, without that addition 
 which would be bare profitless encumbrance; and which, if 
 it were added, would prove a most disadvantageous diminu- 
 tion. I shall venture the brand and punishment that be- 
 longs to the most infamous cheat, whenever any disciple of 
 Christ shall think fit to call me his underminer or enemy for 
 this doctrine, when he shall think fit to tell me really that 
 honesty is not the only prudence, the surest foundation and 
 treasure of worldly bliss. 
 
 I have done with the particulars I promised : and now put 
 all together, and you will never think the preacher a tyrant 
 more, never pity the melancholic, but envy the ravishments 
 of him that hath taken up this yoke, — yea though it have a 
 cross annexed to it, — to follow Christ ; you will never put in 
 
46 
 
 chuist's easy yoke. 
 
 s E R M. for your part in Mahomet^s paradise, exchange your purer 
 
 ' — gospel for a grosser Alcoran, having in this very yoke of 
 
 Christ a satisfaction to all your longings, a richer harvest of 
 joys in the present possession, than all the false prophets and 
 false Christs could feign for their clients in the latest rever- 
 sion. And having thus fortified you, I shall now challenge 
 the rival Satan to come out to thee, to bring forth his pleas 
 and pretensions for thee, to interpose his exceptions if he 
 have any, why this hour should not be the solemn era, the 
 date of thy long farewell to the kilns and fleshpots of Egypt, 
 why this minute should not be that of the blessed shrill 
 trumpet's sound, that of proclaiming a jubilee, a manumis- 
 sion for thee, — and all thy fellow-captives, — never to return 
 to his galleys again, who art offered so far a more gainful, 
 more easy, more pleasant, and more liberal service. Satan, 
 I am confident, dare not say his wages are comparable to 
 those that here I have tendered thee from Christ ; let him 
 shew me in all his kingdoms of the earth, in his treasury of 
 gold, or gynseceum of beauty, any thing fit to be a rival with 
 the graces, not which the poets feign, but which the sermon 
 on the mount prescribes, — ingredient and constitutive of a 
 Christian, — both for the gain and pleasure, the commodity 
 and the delight of them even to flesh and blood, — when the 
 one bedlam heat of youth or lethargic custom of sin is over, 
 — and I shall no longer pretend to get any proselyte out of 
 his hands. 
 
 And if after all this I must be content with the fate of 
 [1 Cor. ix. other sermons, to have played a vain-glorious prize, aipa Be- 
 ^^'-^ pcov, wounding none but the air this whole hour together; if 
 I must miscarry in this so charitable undertaking, and may 
 not be heard when I come but to comply with you in all your 
 interests, to direct you through one Canaan to another, to 
 lay you out a paradise here for your road to an eternal hea- 
 ven, I confess I am fallen upon a peevish auditory, a com- 
 pany of sick fancies and crest-fallen souls. For whose cure, 
 I might yet further set off all this, and improve it into little 
 less than a demonstration, by the view of the contrary not 
 only unpleasant and unprofitable, but even painful torment- 
 ing trade of sin ; those so many limbos in passage to the 
 deeper hell ; that Sodom of filth and burning in the way to 
 
Christ's easy yoke. 
 
 47 
 
 a Tophet of worms and flames. But I had rather fancy you SERM. 
 
 the sheep in Aristotle which the green bough would lead, Hi . 
 
 than the goats in the same philosopher, that the nettles must 
 sting, whom the cords of a man might draw, than the whips 
 of scorpions drive into paradise, into Canaan ; being confi- 
 dent that I have at this time revealed such precious truths 
 unto you, that he whom they do not melt and charm, and 
 win to enter into this so necessary, so feasible, so gainful a 
 service, father Abraham's divinity would prejudge and con- 
 clude against him, that "neither will that man convert, [Luke xvi. 
 though one should rise from the dead and preach unto ^^'^ 
 him." If there be any here of this unhappy temper, the 
 only reserve I have to rescue him is my prayer, that God 
 would touch his heart, that he would say Ephphatha, that if [Mark vii. 
 there be any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any ^p^ii, jv. 
 virtue, any praise, any such thing as paradise here, or heaven ^-l 
 hereafter, we may every of us think of these things, and hav- 
 ing entered into the blessed family of this good master, we 
 may all serve Him acceptably here, fight under His banner, 
 overcome by His conduct, and reign with Him triumphantly 
 hereafter. 
 
 Now to Him which hath elected, created, redeemed, called, 
 justified us, will consummate us in His good time, will pros- 
 per this His ordinance to that end, will lead us by His grace 
 to His glory ; to Him, &c. 
 
SERMON III. 
 
 EPHR AIM'S COMPLAINT. 
 
 Jer. xxxi. 18. 
 
 / have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus ; Thou hast 
 chastised 7ne, and I was chastised , as a bullock unaccustomed to 
 the yoke : turn Thou me, and I shall be turned. 
 
 s E RM. This text is a sad soliloquy of a provoking afflicted people. 
 
 — Ephraim transmigrantem, reads the Vulgar ; and sure ^llJn^D, 
 
 which we read bemoaning/^ would be better rendered thus, 
 " the ten tribes sealed up in a black night, a fatal last cap- 
 tivity." 
 
 To parallel our state with Israel in the transmigrant em, is 
 not my design, much less in the bemoaning ; that is but a 
 piece of unseasonable pusillanimity that our English hath 
 imposed upon the text, and our Saviour hath inspirited us 
 into a more cheerful guise in suffering, the yaipere. koX 
 
 [Matt. V. a'yaXKiaaOe, rejoice and be exceeding glad," the most bliss- 
 
 ^^'^ ful joyous condition of any. 
 
 The parallel, I fear, will prove too perfect in the words 
 themselves, which Ephraim then was overheard to utter, and 
 perhaps some infidel hearts may be a whispering now ; and 
 that I may prevent this parallel I have pitched upon these 
 words, " I have surely heard Ephraim," &c. 
 
 The sense of Ephraim's fiovwhia thus sadly muttered, it is 
 possible you may not articulately understand : I shall briefly 
 be his interpreter, by giving you a plain paraphrase of the 
 verse. 
 
 ^ I heard the ten tribes in a melancholic reflection on their 
 state, thus whispering within themselves ; We have long been 
 punished by God, and no more wrought on by those punish- 
 
EPHRAIM^S COMPLAINT. 
 
 49 
 
 ments than a wild unmanaged bullock/ i. e. not reformed or SERM. 
 
 mended at all by this discipline,— the Targura hath cleared 
 
 the rendering i^^^hi^ i6), "We have not been taught," and 
 the Septuagint's ov/c iBiSd'x^drjv^ hath done so too, — but then, 
 ' turn Thou me, return my captivity, restore us to our liberty 
 and our Canaan again, and then no doubt we shall be turned, 
 reformed and mortified by that change 
 
 Having thus laid bare the words before you, you will pre- 
 sently discern the sum of them, a people unreformed under 
 God^s rod, petitioning to be released from that smart, be- 
 cause it did not mend them, pretending that prosperity would 
 work wonders on them. 
 
 And this you will dissolve into these three specials, each 
 worth our stay and pondering. 
 
 1. God^s judgment, what course is fittest to reform sin- 
 ners, not the delicate, but the sharp, that of smiting, Tu per- 
 cussisti, " Thou hast smitten." 
 
 2. Man's judgment, or the sinner's flattering persuasion of 
 himself, quite contrary to God's ; a conceit, that roses are 
 more wholesome than wormwood, that prosperity will do it 
 better, and a bribing God with a promise that it shall do it, 
 
 ^ And accordingly St. Chrysostome's &c. — i. e. I am so troubled at my pun- 
 Greek copy must be corrected, and ishment, that I can have no leisure to 
 read thus, iiraLh^vads jue Kvpie kuI ovk mend. 20. " Is Ephraim My son ?" 
 iiratScvOw, aAA' iyev6fX7]v [xoffx'^s — Filius honorabilis mihi, saith the 
 aStSa/cTos. "Thou hast instructed me, Vulgar, — "is he My darling? — Filius 
 Lord, and I was not instructed, but I delicatus, " My fondling ?" — i.e. sure 
 became as an untauglit, unmanaged ox he must thus think of himself, and be- 
 or heifer." — Tom. vi. [p. 413.] Serm. lieve of Me, that lam so fond that I 
 Eundem esse Deum Vet. et Nov. Test. cannot live without him; for else sure 
 [This is tlie reading in the edition of he would never say thus, that he will 
 Ducaeus, as well as in that of Savile and not repent unless he be well used, un- 
 the Benedictine editors, who all agree in less I bring him back to his country 
 considering this homily spurious. It again. " When I have spoken enough 
 occurs in each of these editions in the with him," — admonished, advised him 
 sixth volume.] sufficiently, — "I will in anywise re- 
 That this is the meaning of the member him," i. e. his impenitence, 
 words will appear by the consequents, and chastise this obduration of his, — 
 when they are once rendered and un- "therefore My bowels are troubled 
 derstood aright, which now seem to re- about him," — i. e. I am very angry with 
 sist this interpretation, and that is him, for bowels note any violent affec- 
 caused by the ill rendering of them. tion. " Can I in any wise have mercy 
 They are to be read thus, verse 19. on him?" — when all My chastisements 
 " Surely when Thou shalt have turned work not upon him, when he will not 
 me (or brought me back) I shall re- amend without prosperity. That this 
 pent, when Thou shalt shew me (Thy is the sense, and not that which our 
 mercies) I shall strike my thigh," — a English inclines to believe, appears by 
 ceremony which was used by the Jews this, that these ten tribes returned not, 
 in the days of atonement or expia- and therefore the next verse, 21, must 
 tion, diebus D''"IDD> — " I am ashamed, be applied to the twelve tribes, not the 
 yea and confounded, because I bear," ten. 
 
 HAMMOND. T? 
 
50 
 
 EPHRAIM^S COMPLAINT. 
 
 s E R M. converte et convertar, " Thy smitings have done no good on 
 — i^i^ — me : turn Thou me, and I shall be turned/^ 
 
 3. The stating of this difficulty betwixt God and man, and 
 in that, the falseness of man's judgment; and the fallacious- 
 ness of such his promise: 1. In respect of God, who will 
 never send them prosperity, that adversity wrought no good 
 on. And 2. of prosperity itself, which would never do that 
 work on those, if God should send it, intimated in the pro- 
 phet's recounting and upbraiding this speech of Ephraim, 
 " I have surely heard Ephraim," &c. 
 
 I begin first with the first, God's judgment, what course 
 is fittest to reform sinners^ not the delicate but the sharp, 
 that of smiting. 
 
 And all the proof I pretend to have from this text for this 
 is the percussisti in the front. It is clear God had smitten 
 Ephraim, and God's actions are a declaration of His judg- 
 ment. His smiting a sufficient assurance that nothing else is 
 judged by God so likely to reform Ephraim, and that upon 
 these two plain heads of probation. 
 
 1 . That whatever is, whatever is come to pass, is certainly 
 God's will it should be. 
 
 2. That what was thus God's will, was designed to some 
 benign end, and in short, to nothing in Ephraim, but his 
 reformation. 
 
 1. That whatever comes to pass is certainly God's will. 
 Not still His will, so as to be matter of decree, — save only 
 of permission^ — that thou shouldst do it, and therefore even 
 those things that are most necessarily to come, shall be 
 Matt, xviii. matter of the greatest guilt, and woe to those by whom they 
 ^* come. But His will, His overruling decretory will, that I 
 
 Acts iv. 28. should suff'er it. His hand and His counsel, irpoopi^wv ye- 
 vkaOaiy "predetermining that to be done" which none but 
 Herod and Pilate, gentiles and devil, against the express will 
 of God, and His child Jesus were gathered together to do. 
 All the sin and furies, guilt and damnation of hell may be in 
 the TTotetv, the doing or executing God's will, — as believe it, 
 there is not a more formidable trade in the world than that 
 of which Satan alone hath the patent, and men do but en- 
 trench on hell whensoever they exercise it, that of the lictor 
 et carnifeXj of being God's rods, God's executioners, — but 
 
EPHE.AIM^S COMPLAINT. 
 
 51 
 
 then all the mercy, and all wisdom, bounty, and divinity, SERM. 
 
 sometimes the redeeming of a world, in the ^eveaOaiy " the 
 
 being done.^^ Not the softest affliction or bloodiest tyranny 
 had ever come into the world had not God permitted, and for 
 our sins decreed to permit the doors to be open for it. Not 
 the lightest wound or deepest furrow on a poor Christian's 
 shoulders, but hath characters of God's hand in it, super- 
 scribing him vofju-afjia XpLarov"^, in Ignatius' phrase, "the 
 coin of Christ,^^ a stamp of His impressing ; . and as the 
 painter had so interweaved his own face in Minerva's picture, 
 that you could not behold one without discerning the other, 
 so when the image of Christ is impressed on us, I mean the 
 image of the crucified Saviour, the thorns on the head, the 
 spitting on the face, the sponge of vinegar and gall at the 
 mouth, and the one wound on the whole body, " when the Rom. viii. 
 conformity to this image of the Son is sealed upon us," that 
 seal of the Tiphereth, or the Magnus Adam, (as the cabalists 
 are wont to call it,) I mean of the archetypal sufferer Christ, 
 is impressed so hard that it prints quite through the bottom 
 of him, leaves the impression on the malcuth, the bride, the 
 house of Israel, the poor crucified Church here below ; when 
 I say that sad original is thus copied upon us, there is no 
 avoiding the sight, no escaping the acknowledgment of that 
 great Painter's face that drew these parallel signatures both 
 on Christ and us, or in St. PauFs phrase, " predestined us to 
 be conformable to that image of His Son," avTavairXrjpovv, Col. i. 24. 
 by way of correspondence, of antitype, " to fill up the re- 
 mainders of His sufferings in our flesh," and as punctually 
 elected us to this avaravpcoat.^, this " co-suflPering" for, and [Rom. viii. 
 after Christ, as to the avvho^d^eaOai, we trust He hath, to the 
 also " being glorified with Him." 
 
 These are the GTi^ybara 'Irjaov, literally and exactly, the 
 prints or brands of Christ, the works of His hands as well as 
 the transcripts of His suflPerings; and as this may give us a 
 perfect satisfaction in whatsoever the most smitten condition, 
 a iraaav %<x/oaz^, all joy when we are thus vouchsafed and dig- 
 nified*^, especially if we shall have transcribed the active as 
 
 [oSsTrep 7ap iariv voin'icr/xaTa Svo, h Sia ^Irjaov XpioTov, St' ov iav fx^ av6ai- 
 
 fiev 0eoG, & Se Koajj-ov, Koi '(^Kaarov ah- percas e'xw/iei' airoOaueiv els rh avrov 
 
 Twv 'Ihiov x'^P'^'^'TVP"' iTTiKeifievop ^x^'j Trddos, rh ^fjp avrov ovk 'iariu eV ri^'iu. 
 
 OL 6.TricrToi Tov K6a/j.ov rovrov, ol 8e Trttr- — S. Ignat. ad Magn., cap. 5.] 
 
 Tol iu oryaTrri ^apaKriipa ©eoC Uarphs Kara^iovfievoi, Acts v. 41. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 EPHRAIM^S COMPLAINT. 
 
 S E R M. well as passive part of His image, or if this suffering teach us 
 
 — — to transcribe it, so will it be a first proof of the point in hand, 
 
 a declaration of God's opinion by His prescriptions, that 
 nothing is so fit for our turn as smiting. 
 
 But then this first proof will not perfectly come home to 
 the conclusion, unless we improve and sharpen it with the 
 second, that this smiting, as it already appears to be God's 
 will, so it is by God designed to Ephraim's good, the great- 
 est good for rebellious Ephraim, the bringing him to repent- 
 ance, and that if any thing else could have tended so directly 
 to that end, Ephraim had never been thus smitten. The 
 foundation of this lies in the superlative love of God extended 
 even to enemies, and that evidenced by His manner of pre- 
 scribing that to us, with an ab exemplo from the example of 
 Matt. V. His own perfection ; who, it seems by that argument, is a 
 benefactor and blesser even of enemies, and whatever He 
 sends to the most hostile Ephraim, it is method of deliberate 
 charity, the bitterest recipes designed on purpose, — neither 
 by chance nor malice, those two heathen principles of theo- 
 logy, Tv^V ^"^^ (fiOovos BaljjbovoSf but, I say, on purpose, — 
 from love and pondering, from judgment and from bowels, 
 as that which as long as there is any hope of recovery, will 
 do it, if any thing, and therefore cannot in charity be with- 
 drawn while there is hope ; and when there is none, is then 
 to be spared, not lavished out, like Galen's generous medica- 
 ments, that must not be dishonoured, or cast away on the 
 desperate patient, but preserved to do noble and signal cures 
 on those that are capable and worthy of them. 
 
 Such are these caustic plasters preparatory to the incarna- 
 tive, the knife and the lance that Hippocrates reckons among 
 the fiaXayfjudrcov yivea, the mollifying preparations that the 
 physician must always carry about with him : this is the new 
 and, as late artists tell us, the truer notion of the fever, not 
 as of a disease, but an endeavour and strife of nature to cure 
 one, as when there is a thorn in the hand, or burdenous ex- 
 crement in the body, nature heaves and plunges, puts itself 
 into a passion and flame to thrust it out ; and then to cure 
 that fever, to quench that flame, to allay or trash nature in 
 that march, is to disarm the friend, and side with the adver- 
 [2 Cof. xii. sary : and such it seems was the messenger of Satan to St. 
 ^'■^ Paul, that medicinal thorn in the flesh, to prick the rising, 
 
EPHRAIM^S COMPLAINT. 
 
 53 
 
 and let out the putrid humour, that he might not be puffed s E R 
 
 up, and exalted above measure, and God would not be so un- — 
 
 kind as to hearken to his importunity, in giving it leave to 
 depart from him. 
 
 If you will further see the opinion and judgment of God 
 in this matter, I shall mention but one evidence more of 
 it, the notes of His constant practice through the whole 
 Scripture. 
 
 The briers and thorns were immediately designed by God 
 to the first sins, to repair the errors and crimes of paradise. 
 
 Afterward the rod was the only engine by which Moses 
 was to work all his miracles on the rock, on the Egyptians, [Exod 
 on the more obdurate Israel ; all the exchange and variety 
 was only this, the rod sometimes transformed into a serpent, 
 or else multiplied into an army of frogs, and flies, and locusts, 
 when an obdurate rebellious sinner, a Pharaoh was to be 
 softened : and if you mark it, when upon the importunity of 
 Moses God was persuaded to withdraw that rod, to intermix 
 deliverances, these never wrought any good upon Pharaoh, 
 
 When Pharaoh saw that there was respite, respite but for a Exod 
 minute, he hardened his heart,^^ &c. An observation that 
 made St. Basil resolve that " it was God's patience," or fxaKpo^ 
 6v[jila, that hardened Pharaoh's hearty the removings of His 
 plagues, intercalations of mercy : the taking of the water 
 from the fire, and letting it cool again, that as Aristotle 
 saith, makes it freeze so hard and so speedily. The devil 
 and the magicians would have been better at the cure of a 
 hard heart than Moses and his prayers ; they could only con- 
 jure up more blood, and more frogs, but could not remove 
 any, and that it seems was the most likely means to have 
 kept him humbled, and therefore in the New Testament it is 
 
 e [StoTrep eTretSy; eSet (Tvvrpi^rivai av- 
 rhi', 6 <pp6uijxos KoX ao(phs roov y\)vx^v 
 oiKovojxos BtcfKTjaaTo avrhv irepicpavri 
 yevtadai Koi Traaiu i^aKovaroy, 'iva '6.\- 
 Xois yovv ox^eAi/Uos Sta rox) iraQovs 7e- 
 vrjrai, iireiST] avrhs virh rrjs ayau KUKias 
 aviaros iiV iaK\r]puue Se aurou tt? /xa^ 
 KpoOvfiia Koi Trj ttjs Tifxiapias ava^oArj 
 iinTeLVCou avrov rr]u KaKiav, 'iva. els rbv 
 errxaTwi/ '6pov au^r]de'KTr]s avrov ttjs tto- 
 vr)plas, rh ZiKaiov ctt' avr^ ttjs 0etas 
 /cptVecos diacpavfj' Sta tovto anh fxiKpo- 
 Tepuu irX'qywv aei TrposTJ^ets, koi ini- 
 
 Tciuoou Tas fxaariyas, ovk e/j.d\a^ev av- 
 rov rh avvTToraKrov, a\X' evpicTKev av- 
 rhi/ Ka\ Trjs avoxvs tov 0€ou Kara- 
 (ppovovura Ka\ rois ivayo/xeuois avr(p 
 deivo7s virh rrjs avUTjde'ias e/^jueAeTTjfrav- 
 ra' Ka\ ov5h ovrcos avrhv Trap45(ioK€ rc^ 
 Qaudrcp, ecos avrhs kavrhi' iivoLriaeu vtto- 
 fipoxi-ov iv rfi vTvep-qtpavia rrjS KapBias 
 avToC, rrjs rwv hiKa'iouu iropeias Kara- 
 roX/jL-qaas, Kai uo/XLaas Sosirep r(f Xac^ 
 rod &€ov, ovroo Kal avrai ^dai/xou eae- 
 adai rT)v ipvQpav BdXaacrav. — S. Basil., 
 H'linil. ix de Divcrsis, torn, ii. p. 77.] 
 
54 
 
 ephraim's complaint. 
 
 SE RM. the Apostle's saving method in such great cures to call in 
 tTT; — '~T'-^ i^^o consultation, to deliver men up unto Satan as 
 
 [lCor.v.5.] Ill 
 
 the last and surest remedy ; the continued stripes and the 
 no respite, to give the impenitent to drink of the aKparos 
 [Rev. xiv. K€K€pao-fjbevos, in the Apocrypha'', that hath so posed the 
 ^^'^ interpreters, the unmixed mixed wine, the all myrrh but no 
 water, the all manner of embittering, heightening, but none 
 of the allaying, cooling mixtures in it, and so still the potion 
 of our crucified Master, i. e. by the way of this text, all 
 smitings and disciplining; real, corporeal inflictions of Satan, 
 to the diseasing and destroying of the flesh, and it seems no 
 popular empirical means so probable, for the Tva Truev/xa crcoOfj, 
 [1 Cor. V. " that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord." 
 
 And then, my brethren, to bring down this first particular 
 unto ourselves, was there ever such a course of sour dis- 
 cipline, such a delivering up unto Satan, as this nation of 
 ours hath for some years been under ? Was there ever such 
 real buff'etings, not like that in St. Jerome's dream, to con- 
 vert the Ciceronian into a Christian, but as upon a waking 
 bedlam, a daily constant exercise of stripes, or like that on 
 [Luke ix. the posscsscd in the Gospel, the spirit taking us and tearing 
 ^^'■^ us till we foam again, — and our base reviling and slandering 
 one another is that foam, — O how many sad falling fits hath 
 this poor demoniac been wrestling under, and unless an over- 
 ruling mercy interpose, perhaps the bitterest part of the 
 agony still to come, in the struggling of life to return again ! 
 Is not this the antitype of a smitten Ephraim ? I speak not 
 this particularly of those that have been the sufl^erers under 
 this rod; believe it, the catalogue of the smitten is larger 
 than so : you may mark it that the rod itself is smitten 
 whensoever it smites, at every blow wounded and torn by 
 way of repassion. 
 
 And so the most distant atoms of this kingdom are once 
 united in this one sad notion of stripes and wounds, fit to 
 become one common e^ap')(os dprjvov, precentor in the first 
 note of this sad anthem, the flagellasti me, "Thou hast 
 smitten me.'^ O that we could get but one word further, join 
 all in the a/juoL^alov, or counterpart, et flagellatus sum, in the 
 real passive, and " I was smitten.'' 
 
 ' [An evident mistake fox Apocalypse.] 
 
EPHllAIM^S COMPLAINT. 
 
 55 
 
 This were but justice unto God tliat hath taken all this s E R M. 
 pains with us^ been at such an expense of coulters with these — 
 stony fallow hearts of ours. You shall see how rhetorically 
 He expostulates it, "Will a lion roar in the forest to have no Amosiii. 4. 
 prey?" shall My chidings, and threats,, and thunderbolts 
 tearing your ephod and your altar, rending not the veil, but 
 the temple itself from the top to the bottom, be spent all to 
 no purpose ? Will a young lion give forth his voice from 
 his den that he may take nothing?'' — that is the best render- 
 ing of the place, — shall all this tragical scene designed and 
 acted by God (all but our sin-parts in it) be but a beating of 
 the air, or a scourging of the sea, unprofitably ? no one sin 
 in such a legion brought down, or vanquished by all this 
 storming ? 
 
 Nay, shall we at once evacuate and reproach, frustrate and 
 defame His methods? pronounce unto all the world that 
 God hath lost His design for want of conduct ? shall we set 
 up for the master wits ? get proselytes away from heaven to 
 Ephraim's heresy ? preach back again to God's rod, and tell 
 Him that afflictions are very improper engines to make 
 batteries on souls ? If so, then we are just the indomiti 
 juvenci in this text, so perfectly untamed after all this smit- 
 ing; I wish we could say as true in that that follows, the 
 " turn Thou us, and we shall be turned," that the resolved- 
 ness not to benefit by stripes were not so like the blasphemy 
 against the Holy Ghost, that when this hath failed, any other 
 method might hope to prove successful. That prosperity 
 might do it, was Ephraim^s fancy, though distant enough 
 from God^s, which brings me to my second particular, man's 
 judgment, or the sinner's persuasion of himself, that roses are 
 more wholesome than wormwood, that prosperity will do it 
 better, and a bribing God with a promise that it shall do it ; 
 converte et convertar, " turn," &c. 
 
 And this we shall not fully carry away with us, if we do 
 not view it distinctly in three notions : 
 
 1. As it was a persuasion or act of belief in Ephraim, that 
 so it would prove : " turn Thou me," &c. 
 
 2. As a promise that it should be thus: ''turn" and "I 
 will," &c. 
 
 3. As in truth it was, an excuse to get olF the rod, or to 
 
56 
 
 epheaim's complaint. 
 
 SE RM. procrastinate the repentance, the present method of smiting 
 
 '■ — may be superseded^ " turn Thou me," &c. 
 
 The first, an act of judgment in Ephraim. The second, of 
 temporary resolution. The third, of artifice and design. 
 In each of these Ephraim may chance to prove our mirror, 
 it will be worth your patience that I shew you how. And 
 
 1. As it was a persuasion, or act of judgment in Ephraim, 
 that prosperity was the way to make them better. 
 [Is. lv.8.] It was a truth of God^s own pronouncing, that His 
 thoughts are not like our thoughts," consented to by the 
 philosopher, 
 
 ovTt Se/xas" Ovrjroiacv 6/jbouo9, ovBe vorj/jua^, 
 saith Xenophanes, " God hath no more of our fancies than 
 of our shapes," heaven and earth are seldom of an opinion. 
 It will be most pertinent and visible in matters of His pro- 
 vidence. 
 
 When God hath designed the cross, the constant post and 
 stage in our guesses to heaven, wc must needs set up another 
 economy, fancy it a kingdom of uncompounded felicities, 
 <jrowd all the godly into one throne, and the ungodly into 
 one footstool, bring Christ unto this earth again on a second 
 more prudent errand, to have an age of reigning, not of 
 sufi*ering, among a world not of followers, but of fellow- kings, 
 and so, in the Apostle^s judgment, enclose Him in a kingdom 
 of bastards, whom we are resolved, quite contrary to God's 
 pronouncing, to be the only sons and saints of the millen- 
 nium. To this end must prophecies be precipitated, and 
 what belongs to the future (perhaps long ago past) conver- 
 sion of the Jews, or our yet more future bliss, shall be all 
 anticipated presently, the cross condemned and banished out 
 of the world, and none like to be of the order of the new dis- 
 ciples, but he that will cast off that unchristian luggage, and 
 so not follow Christ. Can there be a greater contrariety 
 unto Christ's judgment, a more perfect antipodes to all that 
 hath hitherto been gospel, than that which by pulling out 
 one pin in the scene, hath been thus shifted into its stead ? 
 [Phil. iv. And as in the general, so in the particular too, " In what 
 ^^'^ state soever I am, therewith to be contented," is not to be 
 
 S [Xenophan. fr. i. ap. Steph. Poes. Philos. ed. 1573.] 
 
EPHllAIM^S COMPLAINT. 
 
 57 
 
 had, by St. Pau?s own confession, without a fjb€/Mvr)fjbai, a SERM. 
 great deal of mysterious instruction, such as in the Eleusinia 
 sacra cost the client so many sighing patient years of at- 
 tendance and purgation, before he could ascend to the 
 reXeral and iiroTrrelai, "the heights of Christian content- 
 ment but especially to have any good opinion of afflic- 
 tions, when they are actually on our shoulders, to be so 
 tame as to think such a proportion of earth, with worm- 
 wood imbibed, can prove useful or medicinal to any. 
 
 Will not a brave golden shower of cordials dispel poisons, 
 raise a collapsed habit of soul, infuse a new stock of spirits, 
 more probably far than a course of steel or quicksilver? 
 Would not an army of sun-beams, that have light as well 
 as warmth in them, subdue and thaw the most hardened 
 heart in the whole quarry, dissolve the most icy crystal 
 spirit better than a stroke of Moses^ rod, or a crack of 
 thunder ? 
 
 Thus hard it is for flesh and blood to believe that God can 
 choose best for us : " Are not Abanah and Pharpar, rivers [2 Kings 
 of Damascus, better than all the waters of Jordan ? May ^" ^'^'^ 
 not I wash there and be clean V Would not a little kind 
 usage, a few fatherly kisses and embraces, an inheritance, or 
 portion given me in my hand, a fair demesne to keep hospi- 
 ) tality upon, be more likely to work upon well-natured sin- 
 I ners, that do not love to be forced, will be as thankful as 
 j any man living, if they may be courteously treated, but 
 I "with a froward handling cannot choose but shew them- 
 j selves unsavoury V This driving and forcing men to repent- 
 I ance, is a violation of the gospel-liberty, a kind of constrain- 
 ing and violencing of the spirit, if it be enslaved to these 
 beggarly rudiments of stripes and terrors, and savours much 
 of the spirit of legal fear, that " Hagar or mount Sinai, that [Gal. iv. 
 engendereth unto bondage," quite contrary to the free-born 
 Sion, or Jerusalem spirit, "whereby we cry Abba, Father." [Rom. viii. 
 Further yet, I have heard Ephraim a murmuring as well 
 i as a bemoaning, I am so encumbered with the pressures of a 
 villainous world, such a hurry of passion, of indignation and 
 impatience, of a tumultuous grief and shame, that I have 
 I neither heart, nor joy, nor leisure to mend any thing. Thus 
 it follows, ver. 19, "I am ashamed and confounded, because 
 
58 
 
 EPflHAIM^S COMPLAINT. 
 
 s E R M. I bear the reproach of my youth no possible reforming in 
 
 ^ — such a state of confusion, such a kind of Tophet and hell as 
 
 this. 
 
 And I heartily wish I did not speak to men that can 
 think Ephraim in the right all this while, that with Jonas 
 [Jonah iv. ou the withering of the gourd can justify against God Him- 
 ^ self, that "they do well to be angry even unto death/' that 
 
 can really persuade themselves that afflictions are not for 
 their turn, that they are as noxious to their souls as to their 
 bodies, that as Hippocrates resolved of the Scythians, that 
 the Kehfjuara, if they came from God, that all the curses and 
 ill-turns that Heaven had to spare, would be confined to the 
 poor, because their wants set them always a murmuring, and 
 a blaspheming of God : so, I say, I wish we had not some of 
 that atheist's conceit, that cannot tell how to imagine that 
 stripes should bring forth any thing but clamours and execra- 
 tions, more ferity, more sullen atheisms, more bestiality to 
 drown, opiate potions to benumb the sense of our calamities ; 
 and many of us do this out of pure judgment that affluence 
 is far the more probable way toward mending, that a Canaan 
 were able to inspire Israelites, as the good soil in Plutarch 
 was thought to infuse poetry into the oracle : and having 
 experience to demonstrate the first part of Ephraim's speech, 
 being no more wrought on by all God's smiting, than the 
 most untractable steers, they go on with a presumption of 
 the truth of the second, "that prosperity will do all that 
 adversity hath not done : turn Thou me,^' &c. 
 
 But then 2. I told you there was a second notion of these 
 words, as they are an act of promise and temporary resolu- 
 tion, that "if God will but turn our captivity, we will infal- 
 libly amend. '^ 
 
 And it is very possible at a distance for a man to think 
 himself in earnest when he so promises : it was Die's obser- 
 vation of Nero's mother, — that professed herself content to 
 be killed by her son, on condition he might be emperor^, — 
 that it is very ordinary at a distance to enter such obliga- 
 tions; we will venture any the sorest payment from Satan 
 after this life, so we may get but his kingdom of the earth, 
 his seraglio of carnal felicities at the instant. The hypocrite 
 
 I' [Dion. Cass. Hist., lib. Ixi. cap. 2.] 
 
ephraim's complaint. 
 
 59 
 
 or false-hearted professor will make any bargains with God SERM. 
 for the future^ will not doubt but to be a disciple of Christ, so — ^ii: — 
 he may but first "go and bury his father," or with Jephtha's [Matt. viii. 
 daughter, " have a month or two to go up and down the [judg. xi. 
 mountains, and bewail her virginity; she and her fellows:'^ 37,38.] 
 be it the cloister or the altar, chastity, or death itself, as you 
 know it is not resolved which it was that that vow belonged 
 to, a little present felicity will be sufficient payment for 
 either of them; only when the date of the undertaken re- 
 turning begins to commence, when the sore part of the bar- 
 gain comes to be performed, the Nero to kill as well as to 
 reign, the cloister, to be actually entered, and with that the 
 dfjb€TafjL6\7]ro<; jjuerdvoia, a vow never to return ad sceculum 
 again, then the votary begins to understand himself better, 
 finds it as improper to turn penitentiary in a palace as it 
 was in a prison, as irrational to be condemned to Tantalus' as 
 to Prometheus' fate, to be abstemious in a river of delights 
 as patient of fastening to a mountain of torments : and had 
 he known it, that he should thus have been taken at his 
 word, have had his turning required as soon as his captivity 
 was turned, his mortification expected at the restoring of 
 his peace, and with the festivity and rest, the holiness also 
 and services of a sabbath and jubilee, he would have even 
 courted his rod, embraced his pleasanter gyves, or dunghill, 
 have continued a slave in Egypt, rather than thus be cir- 
 cumcised in Canaan; have been bored through the ear by 
 his old master, rather than thus dignified with the title of 
 -freeman, and denied the libertinism that belongs to it. 
 
 But the truth is, there is a third notion of these words, 
 which will be a supersedeas to that of a promise, and that is, 
 as this art of promising is only an excuse, or shift, or pre- 
 tence to get off the present smart of the rod, or the impor- 
 tunity of the prophet to escape the smiting, or the being 
 smitten, the cross or following of Christ. 
 
 Should the unmanaged horse, instead of the bullock in 
 the text, desire his rider to put off his spurs and whip, and 
 at once to ease him both of bit and saddle, and then promise 
 to be the tractablest beast in nature, bat till then profess that 
 all those instruments of discipline should never tame him, 
 I beseech you, what would be thought of this oration? would 
 
60 
 
 EPHRAIM^S COMPLAINT. 
 
 SERM. you certainly be persuaded that the beast spake reason, that 
 
 ■ it was a serious design of a generous obedience, a gallantry 
 
 of a voluntary unconstrained virtue ? If so, you may believe 
 the beast within you, that makes the same proposal to God, 
 and you. In the mean time it will not be amiss to resolve, that 
 he that hath exceptions to God^s methods, hath some other 
 master to whom he is more inclinable to retain ; he that will 
 not serve God for nought, that is all for the thriving piety, 
 the gainful godliness, that must have his reward just as he 
 is a doing the work, a payment in hand even before he sets 
 about the duty, will sure bring in little profit to God be he 
 fed never so high, very thin returns of good life for all his 
 donatives. He that will not now mend under the rod, edify 
 by so many doleful lectures as have been read us out of a 
 rzech. V. Zachary^s and a Jeremy's roll, that hath arrived to Theodo- 
 f}er. ret's vovv olvtItvitov, a mind that can reverberate judgments, 
 xxxvi. 2,] and make them rebound, in more provoking sins against the 
 hand that sent them, is of the Pharaoh, the anvil-temper, 
 and, let him pretend, or promise, or flatter himself what he 
 please, by holding out his white flag for treaty, he desired to 
 be in case to maintain his fort still against God, and it is not 
 victualling, and bribing, but starving and storming, must 
 help to driv^e him out of it : which brings me to the third 
 and last particular. 
 
 The stating of this difiiculty betwixt God and man, and in 
 it the falseness of man's judgment and fallaciousness of such 
 his promise, both in respect of God, who will never send 
 them prosperity that adversity wrought no good on, and of 
 prosperity itself, which would never do the work if God 
 should send it. 
 
 For the first, in respect of God, who will never send 
 them prosperity, that adversity wrought no good on. This 
 you may judge of, not only by that great rule of state in 
 [iPet. V. heaven of " God^s resisting the proud," and '^surely God 
 [John ix. heareth not sinners," compounded into one gospel aphorism, 
 "the incorrigible beggar can never have audience in heaven, 
 nor returns from thence, save only of stones and thunder- 
 bolts," but especially on that wise ground of divine economy 
 on which all these stripes are sent. 
 
 God's first method of calling us ofl" from the world, is the 
 
EPHRAIM^S COMPLAINT. 
 
 61 
 
 soft and friendly, the "having therefore these promises, let SERM. 
 us cleanse ourselves," a heaven, a paradise, and a Canaan, to — 
 confirm angels, and bring men to bliss, to draw with the i,] 
 cords of a man, with the bands of love ; and if that prevail, lHos. xi. 
 afilictions are superseded, — and were it not that there is 
 another special use of them, to illustrate our Christian vir- 
 tues, and improve our crown, and withal to confute Satan 
 when he accuses us of insincerity, the reformed Christian 
 should never be thus exercised. But when prosperity will 
 not work, when the calmer physic is digested into nourish- 
 ment of the disease, then, and not till then, the vomit comes 
 in on the reserve, the tempest and deluge to drown those 
 serpents that had engendered and thriven in the shallow 
 and still waters, as to them that are sick of perfumes the 
 noisomest smell is the only cordial: and then, as Cusanus' 
 observes, there is in God coincidentia contrariorum, this 
 severity is the only mercy, these wounds the only balsam, 
 the hostile approach the most obliging charity; and as by 
 the heathen artifice in Hero's irvevfjuarLica, as soon as ever the 
 fire was kindled upon the altar, the plummets fell, and the 
 doors flew open, and the god appeared upon the chair of 
 state; so by this rarifying power of flames and judgments 
 the earthly obstacles are oft removed, and the deity set up 
 and enthroned in the heart ; and then sure it was good for that [Ps. cxix. 
 man that he was in trouble. And generally the rule is true 
 in Gerson, Omnes poence non exterminantes sunt medicinaleSy 
 all mulcts that are not undoing, and our law admits not of 
 any but such as are salvo contenemento, are a piece of charity 
 1 and physic in the judge. For this cause are many sick and [l Cor. xi. 
 ! weak, nay many fallen asleep, if we will believe the Apostle, 
 ! and all these judgings of the Lord the only antidotes against 
 I that fatal poison, the being condemned and ruined with the 
 i world. 
 
 And then you will not blame the wit or piety of the old 
 heathens, who deified all their benefactors, that they had 
 temples for such fevers as these, the friends that had so 
 obliged them ; I am sure St. Augustine makes it his wonder 
 that upon that score they had not erected one altar more, 
 impietati hosiium, to the impiety and rapine of their enemies, 
 
 I ^ [De Conjecturis, lib. ii. cap. 1. p. 94.] 
 
62 
 
 EPHRAIM^S COMPLAINT. 
 
 SERM. which was constantly, if they had but the grace to make use 
 '- — of it, so royal a benefactor. 
 
 The sovereign power of this receipt being thus considered^ 
 you will give it leave to be the last in God's prescribing, and 
 the most depended on ; and the patient being not fit for the 
 cost or trouble of any further experiments, when these have 
 proved successless, the greatest mercy of the physician is to 
 leave him with these cupping glasses at the neck, that if 
 there be ever a spark of vital spirit within, it may by this 
 assistance discharge itself of that poisonous vapour, and yet 
 possibly overcome and quit the danger, but if not, it is sure 
 too late to divert to any new course ; the fetching out the 
 cordials will but enhance the bill, and maintain the lamp a 
 little longer, will never beget a new stock of spirits, or spring 
 of life, when it is once so quite exhausted ; and therefore the 
 conclusion is clear, and the prophet Amos hath expressed it 
 Amos iii. by an apt resemblance, " Shall one take up a snare from the 
 earth, and take nothing at all?" Shall God remove His 
 judgments from a nation, while the sins are still at the high 
 water ? Infallibly He will not do it : if He do, it is a sad pre- 
 sage ; His soft hand is but absolute desertion, the leaving to 
 ourselves is the giving us up to our bloodiest enemies, that 
 iinseasonable heaven is the far worse Tophet of the twain. 
 
 Let but the present calamities work the cure on us, and 
 then all the Canaans in the world are ready at hand to per- 
 fect it, the old peaceable flourishing England, hid under that 
 heap of thunderbolts, is ready to be our bath and palasira 
 once again, to refresh and confirm what was thus acquired, 
 and to beget a whole treasure of health in us ; but till then, 
 prosperity is quite beside the purpose, a mere ignorant em- 
 piric prescription which hath nothing of purging or medicinal 
 in it, should it be administered, it would never reform or 
 convert any; the demonstrating of which is the undertaking 
 of the last minute of my last particular, that in respect of 
 prosperity itself, which in this case will never do the work if 
 God should send it. 
 
 The beast that is not tamed or humbled by the whip or 
 goad, the rich pasture in all reason will never break or work 
 on. The liberty of that field is a new temptation, and the 
 plenty strengthens for a sturdier resistance, and both liberty 
 
ephraim's complaint. 
 
 63 
 
 and plenty, respite and peace are apt to be mistaken for a S E R M. 
 
 reward of the former stubbornnesses, far from any restraint — * — 
 
 of them. 
 
 Will you see it exemplified in the most eminent stories of 
 deliverances and prosperities that the Scriptures take notice 
 of? that will enforce the conclusion a majori. 
 
 You have Lot of Sodom, and Noah of the old world, the 
 remnant preserved from that double deluge of fire and water, 
 and as soon as they are landed in their fair havens, the same [Gen. xix. 
 
 . . • 33 35 "1 
 
 calm shipwrecks both, and their prosperity is branded by [Qen. Vx. 
 holy writ for the mother of their two bestial sins, incest and 21.] 
 drunkenness. 
 
 Look back from thence into Eden, and there that happy 
 at once and innocent pair, are not by plenty secured from 
 coveting ; beauty, and sweetness, and desire of knowledge, 
 the perfections and temptations of paradise, are the ruin 
 to innocence itself; and then what do you think the swine 
 would have done there, when the lambs committed such 
 early riots ? what an havoc would an army of roysters have 
 made in that garden, where Adam himself (if you will believe 
 the Rabbins^ rendering of the Psalmist^s ^) abode not 
 one night in that state of bliss and honour?" 
 
 Pass we from paradise unto heaven itself, where there is 
 neither eating nor drinking, marrying nor giving in mar- [Luke xx. 
 riage, and so no room for carnal sins to do any thing but ^^"^ 
 starve in, yet even there was matter for the filthiness of the 
 spirit to feed on ; the angels can grow proud and ambitious 
 there, stumble and fall in plain heaven ; adore and worship 
 (and so damn) themselves in the absence of all other idols. 
 And therefore from these experiments it would be no boast 
 or hyperbole to affirm, and perhaps worth your pains to con- 
 sider it, that if a profane impenitent should, upon an im- 
 possible supposition, be so prosperous as to enter heaven 
 itself, it would be very far from reforming or converting him; 
 such a gratifying and rewarding of sinners would but confirm 
 them in their course; as when an habituate demure adulterer, 
 oppressor, or the like, gets confident of his salvation, with 
 these crimes unreformed about him, there is not an engine 
 imaginable to fetch him off from his sins, but by first rob- 
 bing him of his assurance ; he must be thrown out of his 
 
64 
 
 ephraim's complaint. 
 
 SERM. imaginary usurped heaven, before he will be really capable 
 
 '- — of coming thither. It is true there will be there in those 
 
 sacred courts some good motives and attractives to reforma- 
 tion, examples of all the contrary virtues, if he were malle- 
 able enough to be controlled by such ; the seraphim's pure 
 divine flames of love, to reproach and upbraid his profane 
 unclean fires of lust and rage ; a quiet calm subordination of 
 saints and angels under that great theocracy, to shame that 
 petulancy of his 6 hrjfjios, the irregularity of his rebel lusts 
 against the vovs avroKpdrcop, the monarchy of that divine 
 beam within him ; the principalities and powers, to make him 
 blush and glow at those vile servilities and mean submissions 
 to the paltry sins that he stands guilty of ; a whole volume of 
 patterns of all holiness in every saint, to reproach and libel 
 his impurities : but when he hath in himself that one great 
 example, that lust and pride, the filthiness of the flesh and 
 spirit can inherit life, as suppose the impenitent in heaven, 
 and he hath this example, he will then rather expect to be 
 imitated himself, to gain proselytes to his delicate popular 
 thriving heresy, to set up a new faction or society in heaven, 
 all for prosperous liberty, than conform to that old regular 
 subordination, that prelacy or hierarchy of archangels, and 
 cherubims, and saints. In a word, we should have in such 
 a new supposed platform, more hope to bring over and de- 
 bauch angels, were they not confirmed, than danger of being 
 disciplined or reformed by them ; even raise Lucifer's expec- 
 tation, that he might return to his old country again, at least 
 give him more ground for that hope than Origen's charitable 
 heresy could ever aff'ord him ; and all this though impossible 
 enough, yet far more probable than for unclean atheists or 
 hypocrites, remaining such, to enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven, and then begin to reform when they are entered. 
 
 That divinity that first instates impenitents in pardon, 
 and so in bliss, and then will have them mend by way of 
 gratitude, supposes a degree of piety and generosity in those 
 impenitents that nothing but a thorough conversion can 
 plant in them. He that having a false graceless debtor to 
 deal withal, will first absolutely cancel his bond, and then 
 expect that payment from gratitude which law and sergeants 
 could not extort from him, shall be allowed to be of Ephraim's 
 
EPHRAIM^S COMPLAINT. 
 
 65 
 
 mind, that tlie sunbeams may dissolve that stone that the SERM. 
 hammer could not. The Platonists and the papists have - — — 
 been a little more rational in ordering their fancies, placing 
 their imaginary purgatory in their way to heaven not at the 
 journey^s end : and, if you mark it, they are not purgatory 
 streams, but flames which they dream of, a caldarium, or 
 scalding bath, or furnace, to fetch out and burn up dross, not 
 a flowery Elysian field or paradise, only to upbraid it. 
 
 I shall make challenge to jour memories and experiences, 
 did you ever see any man flattered and gratified out of his 
 sins by the increase and amiableness of his temptations? 
 And yet it is certain that prosperity, and ease, and peace 
 abound more with these than any other state, acrioribus 
 stimuRs animum explorant^ in Tacitus'^, and as he, felicitate 
 corrumpimur ; so "because they have no changes, therefore [P-^. iv. 
 tliey fear not God,'^ could David say, their uninterrupted fell- 
 cities first made atheists of them : is it likely that a few more 
 hours of those joys would return them saints ? 
 
 The eremites indeed in Theodosius the younger's time, left 
 their solitude, and came to study perfection in the king's 
 palace; but sure it was because they were (or else conceived 
 themselves to be) advanced and arrived already to a spiritual 
 height, to a full pancratic habit, fit for combats and wrest- 
 lings, and so came out to practise in these agones, that is, not 
 because there were conceived to be less, but more tempta- 
 tions : and yet even for such, I should not be overforward to 
 commend the design. Without question the still privacy had 
 been the more prudent course. For so Licetus, that tells us 
 of some lamps which under ground continued light for sixteen 
 hundred years, concludes his observation, that as soon as ever 
 they were brought forth into open air they went out imme 
 diately. And I need not tell you how many zealous-burning 
 or fair-shining votaries the world hath had, whose imprisoned, 
 retired, cloistered piety hath done so too. 
 
 And do not think that it is an appetite to other men's 
 possessions, or an insidious praising of a lost treasure, that so 
 they that have taken it up may return it again, if I tell you 
 that which it is not these times have taught me, that affluence 
 
 [Secundge res acrioribus stiiimlis rantur, felicitate corruinpimiu'. — Tac. 
 animos explorant : quia miseriue tole- Hist. i. 15.] 
 
 HAMMOND. ' p 
 
66 
 
 EPHRABl^S COMPLAINT. 
 
 s E R M. and abundance of riches^ of ease^ of even peace itself, is gene- 
 — ILL — rally no safe commodity; there is not one of a hundred but is 
 [Deut. less Christian for it. Jeshurun waxed fat, began to thrive in 
 xxxu. lo.] ^-^g £^-j^. pasture,, and, it follows, he kicked presently. And 
 it is Aristotle^s maxim, ttXoutos v^pLari/covs Trotet^, 'riches 
 make men insolent^ and intolerable. Nay we have mention 
 Esther of the TToWol Tov Kopov ov hwdfjuevoL (f>ep€iV3 and ferre for- 
 tunam^ in Horace. It is a weight that many are not able to 
 move under, the talents of gold are the saddest lading, ready 
 to sink old Charon^s boat in Lucian. It is sure that very 
 bunch in the cameFs back that made it so hard for him to 
 enter that strait passage; and unless you have some con- 
 fidence and some experience of your extraordinary^ gifts, or 
 faculty of conquering the temptations of wealth and rest, par- 
 ticularly of taking out the sting and teeth that are peculiar 
 to that serpent, the exact skill of allaying this quicksilver, 
 believe me that piece of ancient advice would be no unsafe 
 [Ps. ixii. counsel to mam^ of us, when riches increase, instead of set- 
 ting the heart on them, not so much as to lend them an ear, 
 to be deaf to the knocks of riches, when they are most im- 
 portunate at the door. All the joys and high tastes that 
 they can help you to, being not able to requite you for the 
 damning sin of one insolence, one luxury, one impiety, nay 
 for the pains that not only Petrarch but Aristotle, the heathen 
 as well as Christian moralist, tells you it will cost the rich or 
 idle man to resist those temptations, much less to repair the 
 wound of a wasted conscience, that the courting of wealth 
 [1 Tim. vi. when it is shy or coy, the jBovXeaOai ifkovrelv, the resolving 
 ^•1 to become rich, or continue so, doth constantly cost us. 
 
 This is the most perfect earnest in the world ; never was 
 there Christian of any extraordinary proficiency, but was re- 
 solved of it as of a principle, and therefore put it into his 
 prayers, not only under the petition against leading into 
 temptation, but interpreted his daily bread to that sense, 
 TOV rfj eKacTTrj ovaia -t^jxcbv dp/jLo^ovra, that which is most 
 agreeable to every of our conditions, the neither poverty nor 
 [Prov.xxx. riches, with Solomon, but the panem dimensi nostri, that 
 ^'-^ which is just even to the wants or cravings of a regular ap- 
 
 petite, which is the only wholesome diet in the world. 
 
 ' [Arist. Rhet. ii. 16.j [Hor. Od. Hi. 27. 7-5.] 
 
ephiiaim's cosiplaint. 
 
 67 
 
 And as this hath sufficiently demonstrated the doctrine, so s E R M. 
 
 will it prove the most advantageous rise for use and applica — 
 
 tion, and the conclusion of the whole matter. And that is 
 in the Prophet Micah^s phrase, to " shew thee, O man, what is [Mic. vi. 
 good good to thee as thou art a man, in all thy capacities, 
 to put thee upon a project, give thee a patent and monopoly 
 of the greatest treasure and riches of the world, a secret that 
 the worldling hath not known; for had he known it, he 
 would never have disquieted the neighbourhood for such a 
 warm prize snatched just out of the mint, such a singeing 
 weight of gold that will so soon fire its passage, and fly from 
 him again. And it is that treasure of Christ, shall I say ? 
 nay, of Epicurus^ philosophy, — as, for want of his own 
 writings, the Greek scholiasts on Aristotle are fain to tell us. 
 In the one, the yakrjvov koI aTdpa')(ov rrjs -^v^rj^ Kardo-Trjfiaj 
 the calm, untroubled constitution of mind, that all the rd 
 e^co, the present or possible tempests of this world, — which 
 are all extrinsical, perfectly extrinsical to a Christian, — have 
 not had in their power to afflict or disquiet, to put out of that 
 magnanimous pace of equable constant piety : in the other, 
 that, not effect or fruit of faith, but faith itself, 77 'jrlaris vUr], 1 John v. 4. 
 " Faith the victory and triumph over the world," using it as a 
 tame conquered captive creature, contemning and defying it, 
 and against all our tempters vindicating and maintaining that 
 title of ours, which the blood of Christ helped to purchase for 
 us, that of superiority and conquest over the world. Not 
 only that of contentment with a little, a tame privative con- 
 tentment, — which yet the Spaniard thinks fit to make rival 
 with Jupiter, enough, when it is attained on earth, to get 
 away all the love and value from heaven, — but of preferring 
 the conveniences and advantages of that little, — nay, that 
 admirably-valuable condition of the nothing at all, — the quiet 
 and dignity of being fed immediately from God's own hand, 
 of being a special part of His solicitude, nay, of rejoicing in 
 tribulations, the glorifying and magnifying God in that be- 
 half beyond all others, and so being as in a state of ascend- 
 ancy still, a yet more glorious condition, that of being under 
 God's managery and discipline, a part not only of His retinue, 
 but His skill, a piece of His craft and workmanship, hewed 
 I and squared and carved by those keen sharp instruments of 
 
G8 
 
 epiiratm's complaint. 
 
 s E R M. His, to become so many a^ak\xaTa Beov, ^ incarnate statues 
 '- — of His divinity.' And I beseech you to tell me, is this a for- 
 midable condition ? is not that of the prosperous atheist far 
 more formidable? Tell me as men, as Christians, and not 
 only as cattle of the herd ; look but upon it with those eyes 
 [1 John that hope one day to behold the face of God, — and " he that 
 1". 2, 3.] jj^^.^ ^j^lg hope must purify himself,'^ — and pronounce if there 
 be anything in the smitten Ephraim's fate, beside Ephraim's 
 sins, that may discompose or terrify a servant of such a master, 
 much less drive us into tempests and rages of fear, with oaths 
 and curses, and damning of ourselves, that we know not that 
 Christ that would lead us or bring us into this condition ; a 
 condition (look it never so sadly) which (believe me, or believe 
 your Saviour upon His mount. His pulpit, or but believe your 
 own souls, whenever you come to try it) shall prove a mine of 
 comfort to you, even in this life, the true fountain, from 
 whence the old rjSovLKol, the voluptuous or pleasurable, drew 
 but drops or lappings, but will yield the illuminate Christian 
 full streams of all the real joy and epicurism in the world. 
 
 Which as it shall be the sum of my present address to 
 you, so of my prayers to God for ever for you, that He that 
 knows best how to choose for us, will not suffer us to do it 
 for ourselves, will answer the necessities of our health, and 
 not the importunities of our appetites, that He will take our 
 soul's part against our enemy flesh, and not our bodies, our 
 estates, our satans against our souls; will teach us that 
 patience and that joy, that tranquillity and that serenity, 
 that courage and that anthem of his three martyr-children, 
 that we may sing also in the midst of flames ; denudate us of 
 all when that may fit us for our prizes ; prescribe us any the 
 scorchingest furnace here, which shall prove most instrumental 
 to our present reformation and future bliss, to our life of 
 obedience here, and of glory hereafter : which God of His 
 infinite mercy grant us all, for His Son Jesus Christ His sake ; 
 to whom with the Father, &c. 
 
SERMON IV. 
 
 JOHN BAPTIST'S WARNING. 
 
 Matt. iii. 2. 
 
 Rej^entjfor the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 
 
 Two difficulties there are in these few words ; what is s E R 
 meant by the kingdom of heaven, and what by repentance : — 
 and then one plain matter of practical divinity that results 
 from the union of them. The difficulties must be explained, 
 or else the doctrine will not be come by ; the earth removed, 
 ere the ore be sprang 3 the veil be rent, and then the oracle 
 will appear. 
 
 The former, what is the importance of the kingdom of 
 heaven, as being more disputable, I shall propose more civilly 
 and tenderly and unconcernedly, as willing to give an ex- 
 ample of that meekness and that charity that in matters of 
 opinion will keep a Christian from noise or quarrel : but the 
 latter, being more practical, to which your eternal weal is more 
 closely consequent, — a little mistake in repentance being like 
 the losing of a pin in a watch, the actions and motions of 
 the whole life, even the success of every temporal enterprize 
 or hope, depending on it, — you must give me leave to be more 
 dogmatical, to affirm confidently, and, if need be, contend 
 and quarrel you out of such errors. To begin with the first 
 difficulty. 
 
 The kingdom of heaven in this place, I conceive to have a 
 peculiar critical sense, diff'erent from what belongs to it in 
 many other places ; and to signify the destruction of the 
 Jews, that remarkable vast iravwXeOpCa, or small subversion 
 of that Church and state, wherein the power and so king- 
 
70 
 
 JOHN baptist's warning. 
 
 SERM. dom of Christ was most illustriously visible against His per- 
 
 ^ — secutors. And if you must have the reasons of my conceit, 
 
 I will give you a taste of them. 
 
 First, the parallel use of the phrase in some other places ; 
 not to trouble you with many. In Luke xxi., where our 
 Saviour having mentioned the beginnings of sorrows, ap- 
 XO'S odBlvcov, beginnings of their throes of travail, and prolu- 
 sions of this so bloody day, — " Jerusalem encompassed with 
 armies/' and the prodigies that should be observable about 
 that time, "the signs in the sun and moon,'' &c., ver. 25, 
 parallel to the relations in Hegesippus and Josephus, and 
 [Joel ii. predictions in Joel, " the sun shall be turned into darkness, 
 ^^•^ and the moon," &c., — he then concludes in the words of this 
 text, " When ye see these things come to pass, know ye that 
 the kingdom of God is nigh at hand." [ver. 28.] 
 
 A second argument you may take from the Preacher, the 
 Baptist, whose office it was to warn the Jews of this destruc- 
 tion, as you may see Mai. iv. 5,6; " Behold, I will send you 
 Elijah the prophet," i. e. John Baptist a prophesying, " before 
 the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he 
 shall turn the hearts of the fathers," &c., directly the sermon 
 of repentance, conversion in my text, " lest I come and smite 
 the earth," — rrjv yP/v ^ni^rt, i. e. in the Scripture phrase, pecu- 
 liarly the land of Judea, — " with a curse ;" the clear interpre- 
 tation of this kingdom. 
 
 A third argument you. may have from the consequents in 
 this text, where the Baptist saith it over again to the Pharisees 
 in other words, the fieWovaa opyrj, "the wrath ready to come," 
 [Matt. iii. and the " axe laid to the root of the trees :" and so it seems 
 this kingdom was a heavy, slaughtering, hewing kingdom. 
 
 And so indeed the propriety of the word will bear, — which 
 will serve for a fourth argument, — there being two notions 
 of a kingdom ; the one as it signifies reigning, the other as 
 executing judgment ; the first ruling, second coercing or 
 punishing ; the first the golden sceptre, the second the iron 
 rod; that hiaKovos Oeov, royal "officer of God," being e/c- 
 Rom. xiii. SiKo<; eh opyrjp, " an avenger or executioner for punishment." 
 ^"^'^ And for the matter in hand the case is most clear; Christ was 
 never so demonstrably a King as in that royal act of revenge 
 upon His crucifiers ; then was His standard set up, His en- 
 
JOHN BAPTIST^S WARNING. 
 
 71 
 
 sign displayed, the sign of the Son of Man appearing in SERM. 
 
 heaven ; " and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the 
 
 clouds of heaven with power and great glory." ^q^^' 
 
 Once more, there is but one interpretation of this kingdom 
 of heaven that can pretend against that which we have now 
 given you, and that is, that it should signify the preaching of 
 the gospel, which at John Baptist's sermon was not yet present, 
 but Tj'y^LKe, " was at hand." But how could that be the thing [Matt. iii. 
 meant, when Christ Himself — who was this King, and His ^*-' 
 preaching this kingdom — doth still continue the same style ? 
 " Jesus began to preach and say. Repent, for the kingdom of Matt. iv. 
 heaven is at hand;" the other kingdom was already come 
 in Jesus^ preaching, but still this kingdom is to come, yet 
 future, though it were at hand. Yea, and when the Apostles 
 were sent out a preaching, which sure was the presence of 
 that kingdom, the same style was still continued by them, 
 rjy'yiKev i(f> vixas, " the kingdom of God is at hand upon Luke x. 9. 
 you," and then immediately, to give the interpretation of 
 that kingdom, they shake off the dust against them, a dire- 
 ful ceremony, ^^and it shall be more tolerable in that day for ver. 12. 
 Sodom than for that city," the destruction that Sodom met 
 with was more supportable than this. 
 
 I will now flatter myself that I have given you some hints 
 (and it is in kindness to my auditory that I do no more) to 
 acknowledge it not improbable that the kingdom of heaven 
 may have a peculiar separate notion in this and some other 
 few places, from that which it ordinarily signifies, and so de- 
 note the fatal final day to the Jews, and that will give our 
 Baptist a preacher of repentance, just as Jonas and Noah were, 
 God^s economy the same, and the style but little changed. 
 " Repent, for within an hundred and twenty years the world Gen. vi. 3. 
 shall be drowned," was the sum of NoaVs sermon; " Repent, [jonah iii. 
 for within forty days Nineveh shall be destroyed," was Jonah's 
 sermon ; and " Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand," [Matt. iii. 
 — within the compass of this generation shall Jerusalem be 34 j^^^^* 
 destroyed, — was the Baptist's, the Christ's, the Apostle's ser- 
 mon. And so I have done with my first difficulty. 
 
 The second will not detain or importune you so long, what 
 is here meant by repent : it is in a word the amending of our 
 lives, that iierdvoia ciTrb veKpoiv epycov, repentance not for, Heb. vi.l. 
 
72 
 
 JOHN BAPTIST^S WARNING. 
 
 SERM. but from dead works, the giving over the sins of the former 
 
 life. The versicles before our Confession in the front of our 
 
 liturgy have directed and authorized this interpretation, 
 Amend your lives,^^ &c., and all other languages agree in 
 this divinity ; fxerdvoia in Greek, ^a change of mind / nnit^n, 
 in Hebrew, 'returning' or 'conversion / resipiscentia in Latin, 
 a ' return' to our wits again ; and reformation or amendment 
 of lives in English. 
 
 Having thus passed through the rougher part of your task 
 of patience, seen what is most probably meant by the ap- 
 proaching kingdom of heaven, and what undoubtedly by re- 
 pentance, — the first of which hath brought home the text 
 very near the present condition of this kingdom : blessed 
 Lord, that the latter might bring us home proselytes unto the 
 text ! — there is but one syllable left behind to exercise you, 
 and that is the ''for'^ betwixt this kingdom and this repent- 
 ance, and the importance of it comprehends these two things : 
 1. That repentance is the only proper use of such direful de- 
 nunciations, it is the only design of God's threats to ex- 
 tort repentance from us; the same Baptist that denounces 
 the approach of the bloody slaughtering kingdom, requires 
 repentance of his auditory ; " Repent, for the kingdom of 
 heaven is at hand.'' 2. That repentance is the only way of 
 averting that that is now at hand, and will otherwise un- 
 doubtedly invade them, " Repent, for it is at hand." 
 
 You see the double aspect of the fjueravoelrey " repent 
 one upon the jSaaiXeia, the ^' kingdom the other upon the 
 7]yyLK€, "it is at hand:" the double propriety of this grace, 
 first, as the use of the doctrine, secondly, as the means to 
 avert the judgment; to answer God's importunity, and to 
 deprecate His wrath : a duty of justice to Him, and of pru- 
 dence to ourselves : an aphorism of divinity and policy too, 
 they will both come seasonably to our wants. We had need 
 to make better use of the impendency of God's judgments, 
 than, God knows, hitherto we have made; and we had need to 
 find out some stronger antidote, some more approved dXe^t- 
 rrjptov, than hitherto we have taken: the Baptist's ''for" will 
 be instrumental to you for each of them. I begin first with 
 the first, that repentance is the only proper use of such dire- 
 ful denunciations. 
 
JOHN baptist's WAIINING. 
 
 73 
 
 And that I must infer through these two steps or degrees : S E R M. 
 
 First, that no other use is sufficient but repentance ; and '- — 
 
 then that no repentance is sufficient but the fierdvoLaj ' the 
 change/ which is here defined. 
 
 First, no other use sufficient but repentance. 
 
 To pass by those so frequent, but abominable, uses which 
 are made of these present calamities; in one, a supine stu- 
 pidity, a constant wretchlessness, an intermitting all the 
 duties of our callings till the times be better, and so making 
 it impossible without a second miracle, that peace should 
 prove peace, i. e. bring prosperity after it : in a second, the 
 relieving his melancholic thoughts with a cup of Lethe, a 
 sleeping pill of good fellowship, calling to the ocean to drown, 
 when the hills will not be so kind as to fall upon him ; like 
 Saul sending to the minstrel, when the evil spirit came upon [i Sam. 
 him ; or like his second address, that to the witch, — for such ^j'^^^s.] 
 is the cup wherein he divineth, — to charm the judgment that xxviii. 8.] 
 is ready to invade him : in a third, the multiplying of sins as 
 fast as God multiplies judgments, like the elephants by the 
 blood of the mulberries in the Maccabees, the more enraged [l Maccab. 
 in our Oeofxa^iaL, our fightings against God, by the bloodiness 
 of the spectacle before us, advancing even to profaneness and 
 atheism, like the emperor that, instead of reforming or tremb- 
 ling, would thunder back against Jupiter ; all which I cannot 
 compare better than to the effect of the famous plague in 
 Thucydides% that saith he, " was pestilential to their souls as 
 well as bodies, made them OrjpicoSeL^; and dyptovs, swept away 
 civility and humanity as well as men, left nothing but ferity 
 and savageness among them.^^ To omit these, — which sure 
 are no sufficient use, none of that Kaipco SovXevetv, " serving 
 the time," which can be mistaken for Kvpico, " serving the 
 Lord,^^ — many other uses there are, with which men are will- 
 ing to content themselves ; many inferior vulgar graces the 
 devil can allow us to be taught by these calamities, if by that 
 means he may keep us off from this one grand necessary of 
 repentance. When the whale approaches the ship, it is the 
 mariner's stratagem to throw him out a barrel or two to sport 
 with, to keep him from that nobler game he came for, the 
 tossing and drowning the ship. When Xerxes was in danger 
 
 I ^ [Thuc. ii. 52, 53.] 
 
 i 
 
74 
 
 JOHN BAPTIST^S WARNING. 
 
 in the tempest, Herodotus'^ tells us of his nobles, irpos- 
 Kweovras iKTrrjSietv is rrjv OdXaaaav, "they made their 
 obeisance and leaped overboard to save their prince's life.^^ 
 And so when the Leviathan in the text, a devouring denun- 
 ciation makes toward us, that naturally dehghts in that 
 charitable cruelty, the tossing and drowning the sinner-part 
 of the man and state, wounding the vessel through the ribs, 
 shipwrecking the affections, the lusts, the reigning sin, the 
 heathen prince, the devil in it, — that grand important work, 
 that joy of such angels or messengers of heaven, that (to 
 them so delightful) game of repentance, — some lower meaner 
 vessels we have to cast out to it, some inferior contents to 
 sacrifice, some nobles to leap overboard, some very virtues 
 and graces we can have our great pilot Satan's leave to retri- 
 bute to these storms, these denunciations, so the body of 
 reigning sin may be kept unshipwrecked, so that fatal work 
 of repentance may not be required of us. 
 
 One or two not inconsiderable graces these times may 
 already have wrought in the most of us. In one man perhaps 
 contempt of the world, having by our present miseries learned 
 so much of the contemptibleness of it, and by the world's 
 contemning and affronting of us, had provocations to all re- 
 turns of contumely and revenge on a villanous world ; and 
 he that upon such unworthy usage, such barbarous, reproach- 
 ful, incensing behaviour, can but hold up a slight quarrel with 
 this petulant enemy, charge it with some unkindness, and in 
 that pet break off that strict league of friendship, vow never 
 to love the unkind, treacherous, false world so well again, per- 
 suades himself he hath made a most excellent sanctified use 
 of these times. 1 confess I am glad to see such quarrels, 
 glad that any thing can allay that mad passion, that XiOo/Ma- 
 via, as Isidore calls it, that fury of love and doting on our 
 earthen gods, glad that they that have been so long tor- 
 mented in their own galleys, suo calculo damnati ad metalla, 
 by their own tyrannical covetous minds condemned to that 
 old Roman punishment, a digging and hewing in the mine- 
 rals for ever, are by the bounty of these ill times returned 
 from their thraldom, their captivity before their year of 
 jubilee, expelled from these galleys, banished out of this in- 
 
 " [Heiod. viii. 118.] 
 
JOHN BAPTIST^S WAllNING. 
 
 75 
 
 quisitiorij glad that the Avorld's forsaking of us can work any SERM. 
 degree of cure on our fits of spleen, our hypochondriac — — — 
 passions to the world. It is possible that the man thus dis- 
 possessed of his own familiar may at length have hospitable 
 thoughts for some nobler guests^ that the ill usage from the 
 harlot may bring the spouse into favour again, that the sense 
 of the ill master that we have drudged under so long, may 
 make us seek out some more gainful service, that the unpros- 
 perousness of the arm of flesh, the several failings of the 
 second causes which we have idolized so often, the many de- 
 lusions and ill successes we meet with in the world, may 
 make some forsake those atheistical colours, and bring in 
 proselytes to heaven, and so this contempt of the world may 
 be a piece of prooemial piety, an usher or baptist to repent- 
 ance; but till it be thus improved and built upon, till this 
 excellent piece of philosophy be, as Clemens saith of the pagan 
 school, reXetov/jbivr) Sea Xpiarov, baptized by that Baptist, 
 christianized by the addition of repentance, till the thorns 
 that are now in the flesh enter to the pricking and wounding 
 of the heart, to the letting out all worldly trusts and airy 
 hopes out of it, till he that is fallen out with this world, and 
 his Egyptian master there, come with him in the gospel unto 
 Christ in quest after the blessed heavenly Master, " running, [Mark x. 
 and kneeling, and asking. Good Master what shall I do^^ to ^^-^ 
 get my portion in another world ? and pursue Christ's direc- 
 tions to the utmost in that design ; that contemner of the 
 world must still know, he hath not yet taken out the Baptist^s 
 copy, not made such use of the doctrine of the rod as is ex- 
 pected from him, he is not yet advanced so far as to John's [Acts xix. 
 baptism, to that ev oXlyw Xpianavos, the so much as almost 'I'} 
 
 ^ , / <. r y [Acts XXVI, 
 
 a Christian, which the Baptist could have made him. O 28.] 
 then let him go on to the perfection of the text, not satisfy 
 himself with that use of it. 
 
 In another perhaps the complexion of the times hath had 
 a yet nobler influence, inspired him with a perfect valour, an 
 athletic habit of soul, a contempt of life itself, brought him 
 to a dreadless approach of that supreme terror, and that not 
 only the martial man, whose calling is to beard that lion, 
 but even the soft courtier, who had imbibed no such bold 
 principles ; it is now no news to hear death kindly treated. 
 
76 
 
 JOHN baptist's WAIJNING. 
 
 StjRM. "VVe can think of death as of a preferment, of the grave as 
 
 '■ — one of the greatest dignities in the Church, and not only 
 
 iTraivelv, but jbLa/capL^eiv, bless this enemy, — when we have 
 not so much meekness or charity for any other, — count them 
 happiest and blessedest that come earliest to it. Each dis- 
 [ Jonah iv. contented Jonah hath his "Take, I beseech thee, my life from 
 me;" the whole kingdom is become wilderness, a many prickly 
 juniper-trees scattered every where in that wilderness, and an 
 [1 Kings Elijah sat down under every one of those juniper-trees, " a 
 -"^i"^- 4'J sighing out his request for himself, that he may die ; It is 
 enough now, O Lord, take away my life:'' and I see this 
 passeth with some for a special piety and mortification ; 
 which let me tell you, considered aright, is an act of the sul- 
 lenest atheism, a felonious intent against themselves, which 
 [1 Sam. because (like Saul) they are too cowardly to execute with 
 XXXI. 4.] ^ijgjj. Q^yj^ hands, God must supply the armour-bearer's place, 
 be called in to do it for them. But I am not so uncharitable 
 to think that all our thoughts of kindness to death are the con- 
 gelations of such black melancholic vapours ; it is, I hope, in 
 some an obedience to Plato's precept, the ireLpacrOai ei'o-^^Ty/xo- 
 velv, the endeavouring to behave one's-self comely in whatever 
 fortune, a Christian submission to God's will in either of the 
 holoL TTLdoi, which way soever the economy of providence dis- 
 poses us, even as far as to death itself, no hatred or satiety of 
 life, but an indifference to either lot, the hating life only as 
 [Luke xiv. we are commanded to hate our parents, not with an absolute, 
 but comparative hatred, — the denotation of the Hebrew — 
 only choosing the rest, preferring the dormitory, the being 
 asleep in Christ, in paradise with Christ, rather than to be 
 in those uneasy postures, laborious marches, that a hill on 
 earth provides for us ; and then I shall commend your right- 
 eous judgment, but yet still not flatter you, that this is a suf- 
 ficient use of this Baptist's sermon, of the present impendency 
 of God's punishments. Thou mayst not only be content, but 
 [Pliil. i. wish to die and be with Christ, which is far better, more 
 
 23 1 
 
 desirable even to the carnal man, most gladly exchange the 
 torments of a brittle life for the joys of an eternity, and yet 
 not have deposited the lust and basenesses of this nauseated 
 life : the former is but an act of the judicative faculty, a con- 
 clusion that such premises once considered cannot choose 
 
JOHN BAPTIST^S WARNING. 
 
 77 
 
 but extort from us, but the other is an act of the will, which s ERM. 
 is not so easily brought to perform its duty, to mortify the — — — 
 flesh with the affections and lusts, the work of repentance 
 here required of us. And I beseech you let us not be too 
 confident that we have performed our task, though we could 
 resolve to be content, nay glad to die with Christ, — for so 
 you know Peter could do, and deny and blaspheme Him after 
 it, — unless we have that second martyrdom, — that Cyprian % 
 or somebody in his disguise, hath writ a book of, — that vital 
 martyrdom of our exemplary, saintly, penitent lives to im- 
 prove and consummate the other : and so still we are not 
 got so far as repentance; we require more storms, more 
 thunder-bolts, more rousing tempests, more pressing calami- 
 ties yet, to drive us thither. 
 
 A third sort may have arrived to a third and greater de- 
 gree of proficiency yet in the school of judgments, to a reso- 
 lution and practice of patience under God^s hand, how heavy 
 soever it prove, and yet let me tell you, come short of repent- 
 ance still : for, I beseech you observe, there is a double sub- 
 mission unto God, to His will, and to His wisdom ; that to 
 His will revealed as well as secret ; revealed for the duties, 
 secret for the sufferings of this life; the first in an active, 
 the second in a passive obedience to heaven. The submitting 
 to God^s will in suffering what He lays upon us, — the utmost 
 degree of patience that the most of us attain to, and when 
 we have done that, think ourselves champions and martyrs of 
 the first magnitude, — is but a very moderate degree of Chris- 
 tian fortitude, that which Christ needed not have ascended to 
 the cross to preach unto us : a man must be a kind of mad 
 atheist to come short of that, for what is it but atheism to 
 think it possible to resist His will? and what but madness 
 to attempt it? It is that high philosophy of submitting to 
 His wisdom, the acknowledging God the best chooser for us, 
 the stripes which He sends, far fitter for our turns than all 
 the boons we pray for. His denying of our demands, the 
 divinest way of granting them, and, in a word, the resolving 
 that whatever is, is best, whatsoever He hath done, best to 
 be done, whatsoever permitted, best to be permitted, — 
 oif^ oy avevOe Oeov rahe ^alveraL ^, 
 
 •= [De laude martyrii ad Moysen et Maximum vulo;o inscripta oratio.l 
 ^ [Horn. II. e'. 185.] o 1 J 
 
78 
 
 JOHN baptist's warning. 
 
 SERM. that very fury and madness of earth and hell, is a piece of 
 — — — God^s economy, — whatsoever is revealed to be His will by its 
 coming to pass among us_, is (though the actors in that tragedy 
 shall pay dearly for it, yet) better and more desirable and 
 eligible for us, than all friends and patron guardians in heaven 
 and earth, yea, and our own souls, could have contrived and 
 [2 Kings chosen for us. The good Hezekiah^s " Good is the word of the 
 19.] jjQY^ which He hath spoken,^^ when it denounced destruction 
 to his whole family ; old Nahum^s i^nto'? It DJ, " even this for 
 good," to the heaviest news that ever came, so oft repeated, that 
 we find him in Elias Levita,surnamed Gamzo, "even this," the 
 firm adherence to the truth of that apostolical aphorism, that 
 [Rom.viii. "all things tend to good to them that love God," from tribu- 
 ^^'-^ lation through seven degrees to sword or death itself, and the 
 forming all our lives by the plastic virtue of this one article ; 
 this submission, I say, to His wisdom, superadded to that 
 other to His will, and that attended with its natural consequent, 
 [Rom. V. " a rejoicing in tribulation," is the lesson God's rod must teach 
 ^•^ us ; yea and submission in actions as well as sufferings, to 
 
 His precepts as well as to His decrees, doing cheerfully, as 
 well as patiently enduring His will, or else we are still but 
 punies in St. Paul's academy, but triflers in the school of the 
 cross of Christ. 
 
 Once more, denunciations of God's wrath may set us a 
 praying oftener than we were wont before, make us assiduous 
 [Jonah i. and importunate in that duty ; the tempest in Jonah may 
 ^•J cast the heathen mariners upon their knees, crying every 
 
 man unto his God, and yet for want of the clean hands 
 to spread forth towards heaven, of the new soul to exhale 
 and breathe forth those prayers, the liveliest of those flames, 
 like all those which our earthly fire brings forth, faint and 
 extinguish long before they come to that region of purity. 
 [John ix. It was the blind man's divinity, " Now we know that God 
 ^^■-^ heareth not sinners," a principle of blind nature; and Hierocles 
 a philosopher descants excellently upon it, " the sacrifice of 
 such unreformed fools is but irvpos rpocj^rj, but a feast for the 
 fire to prey on, their offerings to the temple lepoavXoLs X^PV' 
 jca, a prize for the sacrilegious to seize on ; the wise man is 
 the only priest, the only friend of God, fiovos elBoys ev^acrdat, 
 the only man that knows how to pray, offering up himself 
 
JOHN BAPTIST^S WARNING. 
 
 79 
 
 for a sacrifice, hewing his lower soul into an image, his upper SE RM. 
 into a temple of his deity/^ '- 
 
 I might shew you some more of these inferior uses, imper- 
 fect sudden motions, that these judgments may have forced 
 from us : and so still like chymics in the pursuit of the phi- 
 losopher's stone, we meet with many handsome experiments 
 by the way, please ourselves in our journey, though never at- 
 tain to our journey^s end : these sad times, and this forced 
 study and contemplation of God in His judgments, may have 
 cast us upon some considerable Christian virtues, and yet not 
 advanced us within any ken of that great transcendant trea- 
 sure, to which all the ignis and the sulphur, the fire and the 
 brimstone of His judgments, that vast expense of thunder- 
 bolts, to the emptying of His armoury, was designed. Re- 
 pentance is a higher pitch than any or all of these, and it is 
 only repentance is the proper use of this sad doctrine ; and 
 not all kinds that pass under that title neither : and that 
 must be shewed you in our next stage. 
 
 And first, the repentance we speak of is not sorrow, whether 
 for misery or for sin. For misery, that sluice which lets out 
 such rivers of tears, which gets away all the custom from 
 godly sorrow or humiliation : such sorrow as this, is admir- [2 Cor. vii. 
 ably described by God, and called " assembling themselves 
 for corn," fasting and praying only upon the loss and for 14. 
 the recovering of worldly plenty, and this, it seems, very 
 reconcilable with all the impiety in the world, for it follows, 
 ^^and they rebel against Me." Nor bare sorrow for sin neither, 
 that which some men call repentance, and by so doing have 
 filled hell with none but penitents, for I am confident there 
 is not an unhappy creature there which hath not both these 
 parts of sorrow, both for his misery, and for his fall that be- 
 trayed him to it; had he not, hell were not half so much hell 
 as it is, two of the sorest tormentors would be missing, the 
 sense of the flames, and the gnawing of the worm, the one 
 extorting the tears, the other the gnashing of the teeth. 
 
 Nor, secondly, humiliation alone, though that were a great 
 rarity to be found among us; for though that might prevail 
 to avert or defer secular calamities from a kingdom, as it did [l Kings 
 from Ahab, — and therefore our Satan that accuses this nation * ' '-' 
 day and night before God, will not allow us this common 
 
80 
 
 JOHN BAPTIS'l's warning. 
 
 SERM. grace; after all our sufferings the whole nation, God knows, 
 — is as unhumbled as ever, — yet will not a bare humiliation 
 
 under God's rod be accepted for a sufficient return, when 
 
 repentance and change is called for. 
 
 No, nor thirdly, the sudden passionate motions toward 
 [Matt. xiii. reformation, the shooting up of the seed in the stony ground : 
 ^'"^ many such weak false conceptions there are in the world, 
 
 and an e/cpvais, or speedy abortion, the common fate of them 
 
 all, like the goats in the philosopher, that give milk when 
 fPs.lxxviii. thev are stunar, but never else. " When He slew them they 
 
 34.] * fc5> ^ J 
 
 sought Him, and turned them early and enquired after God." 
 Every one of these is but a poor imperfect payment of that 
 great arrear, that God's terrors and imminent judgments are 
 come, like the vTrijpiTTjs in the Gospel, to arrest us for; and 
 
 [Matt. V. if do not presently make our peace with our adversary, by 
 rendering him that only royal tribute, the sincere, impartial, 
 uniform obedience of our whole age to come, and counting 
 
 [i^Pet. iv. the time past of our lives sufficient to have wrought the will 
 of the gentiles, give ourselves up an early and voluntary 
 sacrifice to Christ, first to be slain before Him, then brought 
 forth, — like Antinous in Plomer, 
 
 'AX)C 6 jjuev rjhrj Kclrai 09 alrtos eirXero iravTcov^, 
 
 " there lies the sin, laid out a spotted corpse, that hath brought 
 all the misery upon us," — and then offered up upon His 
 altars, so many devoted mortified new creatures that have the 
 addition of fire to that of air and water in the mixture, the 
 active, vital, as well as the sighing, weeping penitentiaries, — 
 the imitation of the sacrifices of old, 
 
 ^/3f(Joz/ Kepacrl 'n'epL')(€vas ^, 
 
 gold poured about the horns of the sacrifice," — not only 
 [Dan. iv. the OX or bestial part slain, but righteousness and mercy 
 to the poor used as the ceremonies of breaking ofi* our 
 sins, of slaying that sacrifice, — as in the primitive times 
 no penitent was re-admitted to the Church without a'ya- 
 Ooepycai, or alms-deeds, and for him that was in the Church 
 there was yet no coming to the Sacrament without an ofi'er- 
 tory, — then still after all this passionate variety hath God's 
 
 « [Horn. Od. x'. 48.] 
 
 f [Horn. Oil. 7. 384 ] 
 
JOHN BAPTIST^S WAUNING. 
 
 81 
 
 message not yet had audience from us, and till God may be SERM. 
 heard by us, there is small hope that we shall ever be heard — — — 
 by God ; for repentance is not only the only use of the de- 
 nunciation, but withal the only preservative or phylactery, 
 the only way of averting the judgment which is now at hand, 
 my last particular, "Repent, for it is at hand/^ 
 
 And here I shall be able but only to draw you a scheme of 
 what I had designed you, a rude draught of dead lines, and 
 not venture to importune your patience with a ^(oypa(j)r](n<;j 
 but only tell you that I had purposed, 
 
 1. To explain to you that mystery of Scripture, the dis- 
 tribution of God^s judgments into reversible and irrever- 
 sible. 
 
 And 2. to give you the mark or character in Scripture 
 discriminating the one from the other; the reversible under 
 God^s word only, the "Nineveh shall be destroyed," and yet [Jonah iii. 
 Nineveh repents, and Nineveh is not destroyed ; the irre- ^' 
 versible under God's oath also, "though these three men [Ezek.xiv. 
 were in it, Noah, Daniel, and Job, as I live, saith the Lord, 
 they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters,^' &c. 
 
 3. The commonness and frequency of the motion, of the 
 TTpoKOTTT), OY proficicucy of one of these states into the other, 
 the change that some addition of judgments, and years, and 
 sins, and intercalary mercies, may make in God's decrees, 
 their improvement into irreversible. Thus it is very possible 
 that upon the first breaking out of these judgments upon 
 this land, the beginning of this rousing sermon, the fate and 
 state of this kingdom might be a reversible mutable state, 
 like the souls of men in Maximus Tyrius, dixcpia^TjrijaL/jLOL 
 Kol iv jjuerpLw, in a "pendulous middle posture/^ But since 
 the prodigious unkindly working of these medicinal inflic- 
 tions, as of the bitter water in the trial of jealousy, making [Numb. v. 
 the thigh to rot and the belly to swell; since to all the sins 2i>'^'^-27.] 
 that before we had borrowed from our neighbours we have 
 added so many more from the fiends and furies, to the rifling 
 and impoverishing as it were of hell itself; since those armies 
 of high uncleannesses, of lies, of crafts, of multiplied oaths, a 
 strange discordant grating harmony in the ears of God, of 
 sacrilegious rapines and profanations, of — , (I beseech you save 
 me the pains of confessing them for you) that sin might bQ 
 
 HAMMOND. 
 
82 
 
 JOHN BAPTIST^S WARNING. 
 
 S E R M. exceeding sinful^ and destruction exceeding destructive, and 
 '. — — after some intermission of judgments but none of provoca- 
 tions — since a dove-like emblem of peace hath been hovering 
 over our heads, but not permitted to rest upon us, disclaimed 
 and driven out of our region as a vulture or screech-owl, the 
 most ominous hated enemy; since the concurrence of all 
 these, I say, it is also as possible we may be now improved 
 and advanced to our full measure. 
 
 But then 4. I should have shewed you also the indis- 
 cernibleness, to the eye of man, of the difference of these 
 distant states, till God by His promulgate sentence have 
 made the separation; — we have not such skill in palmistry 
 as to interpret the lines and strokes in God's hand, which 
 hath been long upon us, nor in symptoms, as to judge 
 whether oXeOpiov Kapra Xiav, whether it be infallibly mortal 
 or no ; — and from thence the possibility yet, that it may not 
 be too late for us to return and live, to set God a copy of 
 repenting. But then 
 
 5. Till this be done, every minute we breathe we suck our 
 poison, we run upon all the spears and cannons in the world ; 
 nay, if God should hear us before we have answered Him, if 
 mercy should interpose before repentance and reformation 
 make us capable of it, that very mercy were to be deprecated 
 as the greatest judgment in the world, a kind of hell of deser- 
 [Is. i. 5.] tion, a " why should ye be smitten any more?" a not vouch- 
 safing us the medicinal stripes, a delivering us up to our- 
 selves as to the fatallest revengefullest enemies, the most 
 merciless bloodiest executioners. God may spare us in wrath, 
 relieve us in fury, give us a treacherous settlement, a palliate 
 peace, — the saddest presage and forerunner imaginable ; — and 
 such it is sure to be if the surface of the flesh be healed be- 
 fore the pdOos KaphLas, the depth of the wound in the heart, 
 be searched and mollified, if God repent before we repent ; 
 and against such mercies we have more reason to pray than 
 against all the irupcoaLs and intestine flames, all the Tophets, 
 and purgatories, and hells, that the fury of men or devils can 
 kindle within our coasts : the same motive that made St. 
 Basil call for his fever again, to wit, if the recovering of his 
 health were the reflourishing of his pride, may move us to 
 pray for the continuance of this state fever till our impeni- 
 
JOHN baptist's warning. 
 
 83 
 
 tent hearts be humbled. I will make you my confessors; till s ERM. 
 
 this kingdom be really and visibly the better for stripes, I — — 
 
 cannot without some regrets, some fears of uncharitableness, 
 pray absolutely for peace for it. Lord, purge us, Lord, cleanse 
 us with Thy sharp infusions, cure and heal our souls by 
 these caustics of Thine, and then Thou mayest spare that 
 charge, pour in Thy wine and Thine oil instead of them ; 
 but till then, Domine nolumus indulgentiam hanc, Lord, we 
 are afraid of Thy indulgence," we are undone if Thou be too 
 merciful, we tremble to think of our condition if Thou 
 shouldest give over Thy cure too early, if Thou shouldest 
 tear off our plasters and our flesh together, restore our 
 flourishing before Thou hast humbled and changed our 
 souls. 
 
 I have done with my last particular also. 
 
 Please you now but to spell these elements together, the 
 sad threats of a direful kingdom, the but one word between 
 us and that, only repentance, to sanctify it to us, and avert 
 it from us, the Baptist miraculously born to preach it to 
 them, and the same voice now crying in the wilderness to 
 this nation, in the midst of a whole Africa of monsters, a 
 desert of wilder men j and if this raven sent out of the ark, 
 the place of God's rest in heaven, thus long hovering over this 
 earth of ours, — going to and fro only on this errand, to see 
 whether the waters be dried up from off the earth, whether 
 the deluge of sin be abated, — may not yet be allowed some 
 rest for the sole of her foot : if at the heels of that, the dove- 
 like Spirit moving once more upon the waters, may not find 
 one olive leaf among us to carry back, in token that we are 
 content to hear of peace, to be friends with God ; if having 
 Moses and so many prophets, the rod of the one so long on 
 our shoulders, and the thunder of the other in our ears, we 
 cannot yet be brought this day to hear this voice, this (^wvr} 
 Kpd^ovaa, this clamorous importunate voice, " Repent'' or 
 perish irreversibly, T must then divert with that other pro- 
 phet, with an " O altar, altar, hear the word of the Lord," [l Kings 
 because Jeroboam's heart was harder than that, with an O '* ^*"' •• 
 
 ' [Jer. xxn. 
 
 earth, earth, earth," with a "Hear, O heaven, and hearken, 29.] 
 O earth," fly to the deafest creatures in the world, because I U^-'^- 2-] 
 can have no better auditors. In this case preaching is the 
 
 g2 
 
84 
 
 JOHN baptist's warning. 
 
 s E R M. most uncharitable thing, apt only to improve our ruin, like 
 
 '■ — breath when it meets with fire^ only to increase our flames. 
 
 There is nothing left tolerably seasonable but our prayers, 
 that our hearts, being the only whole creatures in the king- 
 dom, may at last be broken also ; that by His powerful, con- 
 trolling, convincing Spirit, the proud atheistical spirit that 
 reigns among us may at last be humbled to the dust ; that 
 in the ruin of the kingdom of Satan, his pride, his sorceries, 
 his rebellions, may be erected the humble heavenly kingdom 
 of our Christ, that meekness, that lowliness, that purity, that 
 mercifulness, that peaceableness, that power of the Gospel 
 spirit, that we may be a nation of Christians first, and then of 
 saints ; that having taken up the close of the angels' anthem, 
 [Luke ii. " Good will towards men,'' we may pass through " peace on 
 earth," and ascend to that Glory to God on high," and 
 with all that celestial choir ascribe to Him the glory, the 
 honour, the power, the praise, &c. 
 
SERMON V. 
 
 GOD IS THE GOD OF BETHEL. 
 
 Gen. xxxi. 13. 
 
 / am the God of Bethel. 
 
 The story of God's appearing to Jacob at Luz, is so known SE RM. 
 
 a passage^ so remarkable even to children by that memora- 
 
 tive topic, the ladder and the angels, that I shall not need ^^"•^'^vm 
 assist your memories, but only tell you that that passage at 
 large, that vision and the consequents of it, from the twelfth 
 verse of the twenty-eighth to the end of the chapter, is the 
 particular foundation of the words of this text, and the rise 
 which I am obliged to take in the handling of them. That 
 hard pillow which the benighted Jacob had chosen for him- 
 self in Luz, — and became so memorable to him by the vision 
 afforded him there, — he anointed and christened, as it were, 
 named it anew, on that occasion, into Bethel, the " house'' or 
 residence " of God," consecrated it into a temple, solemnized 
 that consecration, endowed that temple with a vow and reso- 
 lution of all the minchalis and nedabahs, acts of obedience 
 and free-will offerings, duty and piety imaginable ; and the 
 whole business was so pleasurable and acceptable to God, 
 God's appearing to him, and his returns to God, that in the 
 words of my text, — twenty years after that passage, — God 
 puts him in mind of what there passed, and desires to be no 
 otherwise acknowledged by him than as He there appeared 
 and revealed Himself, " I am the God of Bethel," &c. 
 
 For the clear understanding of which it will be necessary 
 to recollect the chief remarkable passages that are recorded 
 in that story, and seem to be principally referred to here, 
 i and then I shall be able to give you the survey and the 
 
86 
 
 GOD IS THE GOD* OF BETHEL. 
 
 SERM. full dimensions of Bethel, the adequate importance of this 
 text. 
 
 And the passages are more generally but three. 
 
 1. God's signal promises of mercy and bounty to Jacob, 
 emblematically resembled by the ladder from earth to heaven, 
 God standing on the top of that, and the angels busy on 
 their attendance, ascending and descending on it ; and then 
 in plain words the emblem interpreted, the hieroglyphic 
 ver. 13— explained, " I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, 
 and the God of Isaac : the land whereon thou liest, to thee 
 will I give it, &c. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the 
 earth, &c. And behold,^' — there is the signal promise I 
 told you of, that belongs to every pilgrim patriarch, every 
 tossed itinerant servant and favourite of Heaven, that car- 
 ries the simplicity and piety of Jacob along with him, though 
 he be for the present, in that other title of his, the poor 
 Syrian ready to perish, — " behold I am with thee, and will 
 keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee 
 again into this land : for I will not leave thee until I have 
 done that which I have spoken to thee of.'' 
 
 The second passage is, Jacob's consecrating of this place of 
 God's appearance, anointing the pillar, and naming it Bethel, 
 in the eighteenth and nineteenth verses. 
 
 The third and last is Jacob's vow unto God, on condition 
 ver. 20. of that His blessing him. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, 
 If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I 
 go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so 
 that I come to my father's house in peace, then shall the 
 Lord be my God, and this stone which I have set for a pillar 
 shall be God's house, and of all that Thou shalt give me, I 
 will surely give the tenth unto Thee." 
 
 These are the three principal passages in that story, and in 
 relation to each of these, I am now obliged to handle the 
 words, and consequently to divide them, not into parts, but 
 considerations, and so look on them as they stand. 
 
 First, in relation to God's promise there made ; and so 
 first, God is the God of Bethel, 
 [ver. 17.] Secondly, in relation to this dreadful, this consecrated 
 place, as Bethel signifies the residence, the house of God ; 
 and so secondly, God is the God of Bethel. 
 
GOD IS THE GOD OF BETHEL. 
 
 87 
 
 Thirdly, in relation to Jacob's vow there made, and so SERM. 
 thirdly and especially and most eminently God is the God — — — 
 of Bethel, as it follows in the verse, "I am the God of 
 Bethel, where thou anointedst a pillar, and vowedst a vow 
 unto Me/' 
 
 I begin first with the first of these, the relation of the 
 words to God's appearing and making promise to Jacob; 
 so Ego Deus Bethelis, God is the God of Bethel." 
 
 And in that first view you will have tender of three seve- 
 rals ; I will give you them as they rise. 
 
 1. That God takes a great deal of delight in making and 
 recounting of promises made to His children ; the free omni- 
 potent donor of all the treasures of the world, is better 
 pleased to behold Himself our debtor than our prince, tri- 
 umphs more in His punctual fidelity than His superabundant 
 mercy towards us ; He that loves us passionately, that once 
 put Himself into a dropping sweat in a mere agony of love, 
 poured out His heart-blood in that passion, that delights to do 
 us good, joying more in dispensing favours and obligations than 
 any man living in receiving them, doth yet more affectionately 
 rejoice and triumph in seeing Himself engaged and obliged to 
 us, in being faithful and just, — which relates to His perform- 
 ing His engagements, that which by promise He hath bound 
 Himself to do, and so becomes His righteousness and His pay- 
 ment of dues, — than in the honour of being unlimitedly free 
 to pour out acts of all mercy and unexpected bounty, matters 
 of absolute choice whether He will do them or no. In the 
 very story of which this text is a part, God certainly might 
 have enriched Jacob by what means He pleased, conducted 
 him home to his country upon that one score of His free 
 mercy, — as well as He may bring His chosen to heaven merely 
 by acts of free grace, — but you see He chooses to do it on 
 that other style, as He is the God of Bethel, that ever since 
 the mutual compact betwixt Him and Jacob there, hath stood 
 obliged to this poor Syrian, and must deny Himself if He be 
 not constant to Jacob. Thus Deut. vii. 9, " The Lord thy God 
 He is God and the only attribute that there he proclaims 
 Him in, is that of the faithful God ; the faithful, and that 
 further insisted on, which keepeth covenant and mercy ; first 
 covenant, and then mercy : and so Isa. Ixix. 7, " Because 
 
88 
 
 GOD IS THE GOD OF BETHEL. 
 
 SERM. of the Lord that is faithful/^ And how many times is 
 
 '- this style repeated in the New Testament^ " God is faith- 
 
 [1 Cor. X. ^^j^ ^^-j^^ ^^^.jj suffer you to be tempted above what you 
 
 [Heb. vi. are able and " God is faithful, which will not forget your 
 labour of love," &c. ; is as exact and punctual in perform- 
 ing covenants, as strictly accurate in fulfilling of bargains, 
 as the most covetous griping merchant on earth would re- 
 quire his chapman to be. And the reason or design of this 
 method of Heaven, the aim of this economy, is presently 
 discernible also. 
 
 First, to regulate and moderate the expectations and hopes 
 of men, whicli are apt to be very sanguine and very precipi- 
 tous, hoping proportionably to God^s power, i. e. infinitely, 
 unlimitedly, whatsoever our carnal hearts can aspire to, to 
 have sins pardoned before they are mortified, to see God 
 without any kind of purifying. Whereas this God of Bethel, 
 that will be looked upon only as such, must be required to 
 do no more than He hath promised to do, our hopes must be 
 terminated in His revelations of His will, not whatever He may 
 do by His infinite free power and grace, but what He in wis- 
 dom hath thought good to promise, as the rector of the uni- 
 verse, not as an absolute irrespective donor ; and that is so 
 far from a confinement or restraint, that it is a mighty en- 
 hancement of the mercy. His promises being generally condi- 
 tional promises, and so exacting all manner of sincere honest 
 endeavours towards cleansing, reach out to us, together with 
 the mercy off^ered, an engagement of that purity and that 
 sanctity, which, if it may be wrought in our hearts, is far the 
 greater blessing of the two, hath more of divine and heaven- 
 ly treasure in it, than the rescuing out of a sullen Laban's 
 clutches : and so, as it is observed of Pomponius Atticus% that 
 by lending to the poor, and requiring payment again of the 
 loan at the day appointed, he did more good than if he had 
 absolutely and freely given, taught them justice and indus- 
 
 ^ [Praeter gratiam quae jam adoles- 
 centulo magna erat, saepe suis opibus 
 inopiam eorum publicam levavit. Cum 
 enim versuram facere publice necesse 
 esset, neque ejus conditionem sequam 
 haberent, semper se interposuit, atque 
 ita ut neque usuram unq^iani ab iis 
 
 acceperit, neque longius quam dictum 
 esset, eos debere passus sit. Quod 
 utrumque erat iis salutare. Nam ne- 
 que indulgendo inveterascere eorum 
 alienum patiebatur, neque multiplican- 
 dis usuris crescere. — Corn. Nep. in vit. 
 Att. 0. 2. p. 154.] 
 
GOD IS THE GOD OF BETHEL. 
 
 89 
 
 try, as well as relieved their wants^ — and the two former the S E R M. 
 
 far richer donatives, — so God by this course of promises, con- — 
 
 ditional promises, conditional liberality, gives us duty and 
 piety also into the bargain, all manner of obligations to it ; 
 and so is a thorough Paraclete, an exhorter and comforter 
 both, puts Jacob in mind of his vowed necessary obedience, 
 by the mention of the promises made in Bethel, and that 
 is one prime aim of this method, of God^s magnifying Him- 
 self in this relation. 
 
 A second (benefit at least to us, and consequently) aim in 
 God there is, to teach us by this copy, discipline us by this 
 example, that we take care to allow God our proportionable 
 returns, to be as just with God as punctually faithful in all 
 our promises to Him, as forward to put God in mind of what 
 we have obliged ourselves to perform to Him, as He by pro- 
 claiming Himself here " the God of the promises in Bethel,^^ 
 and in so many other places the God of Abraham,^^ i. e. 
 that God that made so many promises to Abraham, — in [Gen. xvii. 
 which all the people of the world are concerned, — hath done ^^^^ 
 unto us. This were an admirable lesson from hence to be 13.] 
 transcribed into our hearts, to have our frequent set (weekly 
 or monthly) audits with God, to tell Him freely how much we 
 are in His debt ; not only to recount those desperate arrears^ 
 the sins committed for which we come now for pardon, but 
 especially the obligations entered which we might set our- 
 selves bodily to perform, most freely and cheerfully com- 
 memorating before Him not only the Oecai TrapayyeXiat and 
 iepol vofjioL, the divine admonitions and holy laws whispered 
 inarticulately in our hearts, which the heathen Porphyry 
 tells of, the obligations that lie upon us as men and creatures, 
 and must be discharged by us if ever we aspire to the dignity 
 of Christians or saints, Trpcorov Set dvOpwirov elvai, koX rore 
 Oeov, we must approve ourselves men first, and then Chris- 
 tians, live a reasonable before we are ever capable of the 
 angelical life, — first that which is natural, and after that 
 which is spiritual, — but also the promises and engagements 
 of an higher indenture, those of the Christian, either that 
 one standing obligation entered at the font, which must be 
 resolved to have a close influence upon every minute of the 
 age after, or moreover all the many penitential resolutions. 
 
90 
 
 GOD IS THE GOD OF BETHEL. 
 
 s E R M. all the occasional quarrels against sin, the indignations and 
 
 ■ ' vowed revenges on those boutefeux that have so disturbed 
 
 our peace with Heaven. Would we but spend our time in 
 this recounting and discharging of promises and obligations, 
 pay God His plain dues of obedience, that which we are 
 most strictly bound to by the law of Christ, and for which 
 our own hands are so many times producible against us, we 
 should not need much to take up our thoughts with the 
 pride or confidence of our free-will oblations, the boasts of 
 our charities and alms toward Heaven ; he that would but 
 consider that to be faithful, — as in God toward men, so in 
 man toward God, — signifies not so much to believe the pro- 
 mises of others as to perform our own, that the faith by 
 [Rom. i. which the just do live, consists in the paying of our vows to 
 ^''•^ Christ, as well as depending on His blood or promise for sal- 
 vation, would endeavour to recover Christianity and faith 
 to a better reputation in the world than now ordinarily seems 
 to belong to it, would live more justly and more christianly 
 than he doth. And let that serve for the first part of your 
 prospect, the first observable in the first view. 
 
 The second thing from this title of God^s, as it refers to His 
 promises of mercy to Jacob, made in Bethel, and repeated 
 now at his departure from Laban, is this, that God would 
 have us consider the blessings we enjoy, and observe parti- 
 cularly how and whence they descend to us. This is the 
 ver. 11, 12. direct end of this vision to Jacob, "Lift up now thine eyes, 
 and see, all the rams,^^ &c. The thriving of that stratagem 
 of Jacob's, the invention of the peeled rods, whereby he was 
 chap. XXX. grown so rich in despite of Laban's malice, God will have 
 ponderingly considered, and imputed as an act of His spe- 
 cial interposition or providence, partly in justice, that the 
 covetous Laban should not too much oppress him, " I have 
 seen all that Laban doth unto thee," partly to make good 
 His promise at Bethel, made then, and now most particularly 
 performed, " I am the God of Bethel.^' And believe it, there 
 is not a duty more necessary, and yet more negligently per- 
 formed, more fruitful and nutritive of piety, and yet more 
 wretchlessly despised and intermitted, than this ; this of ob- 
 serving this ladder from heaven to earth, of beholding all 
 the good things that we lawfully enjoy, descending in an 
 
GOD IS THE GOD OF BETHEL. 
 
 91 
 
 angeFs hand, and that filled, — as the pitcher out of the well, SERM. 
 
 or as Aaron's son's hands from his father at the entering on — — 
 
 the high-priest's office, — from the hand of God standing on ^"^'^ 
 the top of the ladder. He that would thus critically examine 
 his estate upon interrogatories, put every part of it upon 
 the rack and torture, to confess without any disguise from 
 whence it came, whether down the ladder from heaven or up 
 out of the deep, — for there, it seems by the poets, Plutus or 
 riches hath a residence also, — by what means it was convey- 
 ed, by whose directions it travelled into that coast, and what 
 the end of its coming is, and so learn the genealogy, as it 
 were, of all his wealth, would certainly acknowledge that he 
 were fallen upon a most profitable enquiry. For beside that 
 he would find out all the ill-gotten treasure, — that gold of 
 Toulouse that is so sure to help melt all the rest, that which 
 is gotten by sacrilege, by oppression, by extortion, and so 
 take timely advice to purge his lawful inheritance from such 
 noisome, unwholesome acquisitions, and thrive the better for 
 ever after the taking so necessary a purgation, — he will, I say, 
 over and above, see the original of all his wealth, all that is 
 worthy to be called such, either immediately or mediately 
 from God ; immediately without any co-operation of ours, 
 as that which is left us by inheritance from honest parents, — 
 our fortunes and our Christianity together; — mediately, as 
 that which our lawful labour, our planting and watering, hath 
 brought down upon us, wholly from God's Kapirocj^opia or [i Cor. Hi. 
 evohia, His prospering or giving of increase. And when we 
 have once thus discerned the peculiarity of our tenure, only 
 that of allodium, not from any aXX! 6k AloSj but from God, — 
 as the lawyers have derived that word, — all that we have held 
 in capite from Heaven ; as this will be the sweetening of our 
 wealth to us, give it a flavour or an high taste whensoever we 
 feed on it, more joy in one well-gotten morsel, — the festival 
 of a good conscience, — than all the rofxai or fxepihes, the por- 
 tions fetched from the bloody polluted heathen idol altars 
 ever would afford us, so will it enflame our souls towards so 
 royal a benefactor, teach us piety from our fields and coffers, — 
 as even Aristotle can talk of his evrvyia (j)iX66€os^\ " that rich 
 men will love God, if for nothing else, yet because He hath 
 
 b [Aristot. Rhet. ii. 17.] 
 
92 
 
 GOD IS THE GOD OF BETHEL. 
 
 s E R M. done them good turns and Hippocrates, that " though the poor 
 
 — did generally murmur and complain, yet the wealthy would 
 
 be offering sacrifice/' — yea and inspire our whole lives with an 
 active vital gratitude, by the use of this wealth to demon- 
 strate and acknowledge whence we have received it, by refund- 
 ing and employing it not on our own ways, our own humours, 
 our own vanities, but as that which God hath conveyed into 
 our hands as into an ecclesiastic treasury or corban, a store- 
 house of God's, whence all His poor family is to be victualled ; 
 that which God pours out of heaven into our hands, being as 
 particularly marked out for charitable, pious, i. e. heavenly 
 uses, as that which by the bounty of men is entrusted to us 
 particularly for those ends, and every rich man as directly and 
 properly a steward of God's, to feed His household when they 
 want it, and as strictly responsible for this stewardship as 
 [I Cor. xii. ever the avriXrjylrei^i and /cv^epvyo-eis were, the auxiliary 
 ^^*-' governments, the deacons in the ancient Church, ordained by 
 the Apostles for that charitable ministry. You remember the 
 nTT(o')(oheKdT7], the poor man's tything among the Jews every 
 Deut. xxvi. third year, and till that was paid in " and given to the Levite, 
 the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat 
 within thy gates and be filled,'^ their estates are to be counted 
 profane and unhallowed, no looking for a blessing from God's 
 ver. 15, holy habitation. He that sacrifices all to his own desires, be 
 they in the eye of the world never so blameless and justifi- 
 able, to his own belly, his own back, nay his own bowels, — 
 as his own good nature and not Christian charity suggests to 
 him, — he that hath not a month Abib, a green stalk, a first- 
 fruits for heaven, an eflPusion of bounty, to consecrate and 
 bless all that is kept for his own necessities, is either very 
 unkind or very imprudent, either sees not from whence he 
 hath received, and that is atheistical stupidity, or else never 
 thinks of securing his tenure by the payment of his homage, 
 of making so much as acknowledgment to this God, whose 
 providence hath so wholly enriched him, the God of this 
 Bethel in the text, and that is the unthriftiest piece of ingra- 
 titude, the wildest and most irrational ill-husbandry in the 
 world. 
 
 The third and last observable in the first view in order to 
 the promises of Bethel, is this, that our prayers and humble 
 
GOD IS THE GOD OF BETHEL. 93 
 
 dependence on God is the means required to actuate God's SERM. 
 promises, to bring down His blessings upon us. In Bethel — — — ■ 
 
 there were ascending angels, parallel to which must be those 
 two ambassadors or nuncios, i. e. angels, of every honest 
 Christian heart, before any messages from God, any descend- 
 ing angels are to be expected thence ; and as it was then 
 typified there, so God ever loves and appoints to have it still, 
 " I am the God of Bethel and therefore whatever we want 
 of either outward or inward accomplishments, secular or 
 spiritual good successes, prosperities of kingdoms or of souls, 
 would we but look critically into ourselves, we should go 
 near to find imputable to the want in us of one or both these 
 ascending angels, either that the things we would have, we 
 dare not justify the asking or expecting them from God, be- 
 cause they are such only as we desire to spend on our lusts, [Jas. iv.3.] 
 and then we have not because we ask amiss ; or else we are 
 so over-hasty jn pursuit of them, that we utterly forget the 
 dependence and waiting upon God, the " stand still and see [Exod.xiv. 
 the salvation of the Lord.'' If He be not ready with His ^^*-' 
 auxiliaries on our first call, deliverance shall come in some 
 other way ; the witch must prevent and supply the Samuel's 
 place, the first creature that will look a little kindly upon us, 
 shall get away all the applications from heaven, — as in some 
 countries, whatsoever they chanced to see first every morn- 
 ing, they solemnly worshipped all the day after; — the most 
 airy appearances of relief from the improbablest coast shall 
 be able to attract our hopes and trusts, and unbottom us 
 utterly from God, as Socrates is brought in by the come- 
 dian with his M SeaTTOT dyp"^, a making his addresses to the 
 air or clouds, when he had turned out all other worships out 
 of his heart. The thing that makes a worldling such a pite- 
 ous creature, such a meteor in Christ's, such an unstable wave 
 of the sea in St. James' style, tossed perpetually betwixt ebbs [Jas. i. 6.] 
 and floats of hopes, — even without the association of any 
 wind to drive him, — while the only poor, patient, waiting 
 Christian that hath sent out his good genius on his message 
 up the ladder, and waits contentedly and calmly for his re- 
 turn again, is the only fixed star in this lower firmament, his 
 
 c [Aristoph. Nub. 264.] 
 
94 
 
 GOD IS THE GOD OF BETHEL. 
 
 s E R M. feet stand fast, be the pavement never so slippery, he believ- 
 ^' eth in the Lord. That Orpheus that in his life-time had 
 made his applications to as many gods as there be days in 
 the year, — and thence perhaps it was that Mexico had so 
 many temples, — grew wiser by more observation, and left in 
 his will eva elvai fxovov, 'Hhat there was but one." It were well 
 if we might do so too, profit by his experience, divest our- 
 selves of all our airy poetic dependences betimes, and roll our- 
 selves wholly upon God ; it were the only probable thriving 
 policy in the world. 
 
 I have detained you too long in the first isle of this Bethel, 
 that which gives you a view of God's promises there made. 
 I hasten to the second, the atrium intetius, to consider God 
 in relation to this dreadful, this consecrated place, as Bethel 
 literally signifies Beth El, the house, the temple of God, and 
 so God hath a peculiarity of respect to that, " I am the God 
 of Bethel,'^ in the second sense, i. e. the God of God's 
 house. 
 
 And here were a copious theme indeed should we take a 
 view of the material Bethel, and in it observe 
 
 1. The voluntary institution and dedication of temples 
 even before the law was given to the Jews, — as after it the 
 iyKalvia, or feast of dedication, being of a mere human 
 
 [Esther ix. original, instituted, as the feast of Purim, and the fast of the 
 [Zech vii ^^^^ seventh month in Zachary, by the Jews themselves, 
 3. 5 ; viii. and not by God's immediate appointment, was yet cele- 
 i^Macc iv ^^^t^d^ consequently approved by Christ; — and after 
 ,Tohn X. the Jewish law was laid asleep, yet the building and set- 
 [22, 23.] ^jj^g apart of synagogues, and oratories, and upper rooms j 
 and since basilicce and KvpiaKal, the parallels of the Bethel 
 here, the palaces of the great King and Lord, appropriate 
 to His public worship whenever persecution did not drive 
 it thence. 
 
 2. The vowed dedication and payment of tithes toward the 
 endowing of Bethel before there was any such thing as 
 Judaism in the world, which therefore it were strange that 
 God's subsequent command to the Jews, His own people, 
 should make unlawful to a Christian, which otherwise, had 
 He not commanded it, must have been as commendable now 
 as it was in Jacob. 
 
GOD IS THE GOD OF BETHEL. 
 
 95 
 
 These, I say, witli divers others, are the so many branches s E R M. 
 
 of this second consideration of these words, of the relation — — 
 
 of God to Bethel : but I have not that unkindness to my 
 auditory as to pursue them with such a shoal of unseason- 
 able subjects. 
 
 There is another Bethel, the flesh of man, wherein God 
 Himself was pleased to inhabit, ctktjvovv, saith St. John, to 
 pitch His tent or tabernacle there, to consecrate it into a 
 very temple; our bodies are the temples of that Holy Ghost, [i Cor. vi, 
 by which Christ was so long ago conceived among us; and 
 thence it is that His eyes and His heart are set so particu- 
 larly upon this flesh of ours, to cleanse, and to drain, and to 
 spiritualize it, to expostulate with us whenever we put it to 
 any common profane uses, as if we violated and ravished 
 Christ Himself, and forcibly joined Him to an harlot, and 
 at last, if it prove capable of such dignity, to array it in 
 all holiness and glory, to clothe it upon with beauty and [i Cor. v. 
 with bliss immortal : and so God is the God of this Bethel ^' ^'-^ 
 also. 
 
 Beside this, there is yet one more invisible house of God 
 wherein He delights to be enthroned, and by God^s own 
 confession, more than either in the temple of His own build- Isa. Ixvi. 
 ing, or the heaven of His own exalting, even the poor con- 
 temptible 'this man,' for whom nobody else hath any kind [ver. 2.] 
 looks, he that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and that 
 trembleth at His word ; this is that lovely dress that is so 
 ravishing in God's eyes, that sets out every cottage into a 
 temple, the poorest peasant into the consecrated delight of 
 Christ, the most abject stones in Luz, once anointed with 
 this grace, into an awful royal Bethel, the " ornament of a 
 meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great 
 price,'' 7ro\vT€\7]9. God is content to be at a great deal of 
 charge in the purchase of it, to pardon the absence of a great 
 many other excellencies which may possibly exalt us above 
 measure, so He may acquire but this one desired beloved 
 meekness instead of all. Let us but possess ourselves of this 
 one jewel, the 'meek' in opposition to the proud, the 'quiet' in 
 opposition to the tragical or turbulent, murmuring, impatient, 
 atheistical spirit, and the God of Bethel hath a peculiar pro- 
 priety to us : He that owns and defends His temples, that is 
 
96 
 
 GOD IS THE GOD OF BETHEL. 
 
 s E R M. the refuge of the very sanctuary itself, and never, but for the 
 
 — — pride and insolencies and provocations of His Church, suffers 
 
 the Philistines to seize on the ark of His glory, will be a 
 refuge and sanctuary to us; the angels at Bethel shall become 
 
 [Ps.lvii.1.] thy guardians, the cherubim- wings thy overshadowing, until 
 this tempest, this tyranny be overpast. 
 
 I have done with the second view also, as the Bethel here 
 is the dreadful house of God, though it be not the dread of 
 it that hath made our stay so short there, but only my desire 
 to hasten to my last, as my principally designed particular, 
 as Bethel refers to Jacob's vow there made, as it follows in 
 
 [ver. 13.] the verse, " where thou vowedst a vow unto Me;'^ and God 
 hath a most particular respect and relation to such vows, and 
 so in the chief though last place. Ego Deus Bethelis, " I am 
 the God of Bethel.'^ 
 
 A vow is a holy resolution, and somewhat more ; the matter 
 of both is the same, a piece of holy valour or courage, enter- 
 ing under God's colours into a constant defiance of all the 
 temptations and affrightments, invitations and terrors in 
 nature. Only the bare resolution hath not the formality of 
 a vow in it, is not made so immediately and directly to God, 
 with such a particular invocation of Him as is required to 
 the formality of a vow. Yet will not this difference be so 
 great but that in all reason the good resolution ought to be 
 allowed its title of pretension to God's owning — as He is the 
 God of Bethel — as well as the vow, i. e. the material as well 
 as the formal vow ; God is a God of all such of either kind. 
 I shall consider them undistinctly ; whether resolutions or 
 vows, they are of two sorts, either the general necessary vow, 
 or resolution, that God shall be our God, as in chap, xxviii. 
 21, "And Jacob vowed a vow, saying. If God will be with 
 me, &c., then shall the Lord be my God," a vowed resolu- 
 tion of universal obedience unto God ; or whether the matter 
 of it be particularly qualified and restrained to free-will 
 offerings, things that he was not otherwise bound absolutely 
 to have done, but yet were very fit matter of resolution and 
 vow, especially in such case as this, " If God will keep me in 
 this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment 
 to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in 
 peace, then this stone shall be God's house, and of all that 
 
GOD IS THE GOD OF BETHEL. 
 
 97 
 
 Thou shalt give me I will surely give a tenth to Thee a s E R M. 
 free-will liberality this, the business of this vow. ~ 
 
 We shall look upon these two separately, and first on the 
 former kind of them, and shew you how God is the God of 
 such, the near respect and close relation He beareth to them, 
 and that most eminently expressed in three particulars : 
 1. In approving and applauding the making of them. 2. In 
 prospering them when they are made. 3. In looking after 
 them as His own property and goods, most severely requiring 
 the payment, the performance of them. 
 
 For the first sort then, the general necessary resolution or 
 vow that God shall be our God, the solemn ceremonious 
 entering ourselves into His family, the giving up our ears to 
 this new master to be opened in the Psalmist^s, bored in [Pg, xl. 6.] 
 Moses' phrase,' to part from the benefit of all sabbatical years [Exod.xxi. 
 or jubilees, to disclaim all desire of manumission, and to be- ^-J 
 come His vowed servants for ever ; this is that great duty of 
 repentance, or conversion, or new birth, that is the sum of 
 all Christianity, that spiritual proselytism to which the Jew 
 was wont to be washed, as the Christian is baptized, and 
 both to take upon them new names, new kindreds and rela- 
 tions, as if they had entered into the mother's womb again, j-jqi^^^ 
 and come out in new families, new countries, born neither of 4-.] 
 blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, i.e. [john i. 
 none of the principles of this world, aroix^la koctixov tovtoVj 
 the natural, the carnal, nay, nor the moral virtuous philo- 
 sophical elements, but of God, of a supernatural, heavenly 
 origination. 
 
 In a word, the cordial renouncing of all the impure, scan- 
 dalous doubtful ways that either ourselves or any of the 
 vicious company about us, — the Lacsedemonian servants that 
 God hath permitted to be drunk and bestial before us, to 
 practise all villanies in our presence, that we might detest 
 and abominate them the more, — have at any time formerly 
 been guilty of. Such was Job's covenant with the eye, that [job xxxi, 
 that should not run its riotous courses over the beauties or ^-^ 
 wealth of others ; such the covenant with the tongue, to 
 break it off its customary oaths and loose language. 
 
 It were infinite to number up the several branches of these 
 so necessary resolutions ; that this God of Bethel is the God 
 
 HAMMOND. TT 
 
98 
 
 GOD IS THE GOD OE BETHEL. 
 
 SERM. of suchj is the thing that we are obliged to demonstrate. 
 
 — — And 1 . In respect of God's approbation of such resolutions as 
 
 these. There is no such snare or artifice of taking and oblig- 
 ing God to us, as our dedicating and consecrating ourselves 
 to God. If Solomon consecrate a temple to God, God binds 
 Himself to be present there, to hear and hearken, and answer 
 [2 Chron. what prayers and supplications soever smj sinner shall make 
 vii ^14-16 ] ^^"^^^^ ^^i^t temple. And sure the same privilege belongs to 
 the animate as well as dead temple, to the temple of flesh 
 as well as of stone, to the anointed pillar at Luz, when that 
 turns Bethel, I mean, to the stony heart of man, when by the 
 unction of the spirit that is mollified and fitted and squared, 
 vowed and consecrated into an habitation for God, when out 
 [Mat. iii. of these stones a child of Abraham, the faithful resolved new 
 ^■^ creature, is raised up. No such good news to heaven as this ; 
 
 [Luke XV. not only approbation, but joy in heaven over one such con- 
 ^^'^ vert prodigal : the music that Pythagoras talks of in the 
 orbs, was that of the minstrels which our Saviour mentions 
 at the return of that prodigal, to solemnize the euge's, the 
 passionate welcomes of heaven poured out on penitents. 
 
 And if you please, I can do more than the Pythagorean 
 would pretend to, make you auditors of one of those airs. 
 No sooner doth the poor penitent votary begin to God in the 
 [Ps. xi. 7.] Psalmist's note, Then said I, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O 
 my God," — and let me tell you, could you hear those words 
 in the language that David sang them, there were without a 
 figure, rhythm and harmony, numbers and music in them, — 
 but you may presently hear God Himself answering in the 
 ajjLoi.^alov, or counterpart, echoing back a Venite, one in 
 Isa. Iv. 1. Isaiah, " Ho ! every one that thirsteth, come," &c. ; another 
 in the Gospel, Christ taking up His part in the concert, 
 [Mat. xi. <( Come unto Me all ye," &c. ; yea, and to make up the 
 Rev xxii. ^^^^thcm Complete, the third Person comes in also, the 
 17. Spirit saith. Come;" and after that, all the inferior orbs are 
 
 called in to bear their part in the chorus, "the Bride 
 saith. Come; and let him that heareth say. Come; and 
 let him that is athirst, come : and Quicunque vult is the 
 title of the hymn that they all join in. Whosoever will thus 
 come, — let him be sure of the hospitable reception, — " Let 
 him take the water of life freely." One signal evidence we 
 
GOD IS THE GOD OF BETHEL. 
 
 99 
 
 have of God^s special approbation of such vows, in Abraham^s S E RM. 
 
 circumcising himself and posterity ; that, you know, was the — 
 
 solemnity of his coming to God, the ceremony of his prosely- lo.]" 
 tism, the sacrament and seal of his resolute vowed obedi- 
 ence unto God, of his renouncing that aOefjuros elhwXoXa- 
 Tpeia, those abominable gentile impurities, the irepLcro-ela ica- 
 Kias, the unnatural excrescences of lust, which the rest of his 
 idolatrous countrymen had long been guilty of, and which 
 brought that fire and brimstone from heaven before his eyes 
 upon some of them. Abraham it seems resolved and vowed 
 against those heathen abominations, covenanted with God a 
 life of purity, and to that end a going out of that polluted 
 country ; then sealed this covenant to God, — as the custom 
 of the eastern nations was in leagues and bargains, — sealed 
 it with blood ; and see what an obligation this proves to God, 
 not only to call him and account him a friend of God, to 
 style Himself by him, as He doth here by Bethel, I am the 
 God of Abraham," through the whole book of God; but the 
 obligation goes higher upon God, it prevails so far that He 
 comes down Himself, and assumes flesh on purpose to seal 
 back the counterpart of that indenture to Abraham in blood 
 also, and in that, that He is his shield, and an exceeding great [Gen. xv. 
 reward to all that shall but resemble him to the end of the ^'^ 
 world, in that faithful coming, that vowed resolution of obe- 
 dience to His commands. The short of it is, these resolutions 
 and vows, if they be sincere, not the light transient gleam, the 
 sighs only that we are so ill, or wishes that we were better, 
 but the voluntas firma et rata, the ratified, radicated, firm pur- 
 pose of new life, even before it grow to that perfection as to 
 bring forth the Kapirovs a^lovs, the worthy, meet, propor- 
 tionable fruits of such change, are instantly accepted and 
 rewarded by God, with pardon of sin and justification; and 
 so God is the God of Bethel, hath a particular respect to 
 these vows and resolutions at the very making of them ; and 
 that was the first thing. 
 
 \ And so again, secondly, for the prospering them when they 
 are made. He that gives himself up to God becomes by that 
 act His pupil, His client, part of His charge and family, an 
 orphan laid at His gates, that He is bound to provide for, 
 engaged by that application, if once accepted, to be His 
 
 H 2 
 
100 
 
 GOD IS THE GOD OF BETHEL. 
 
 SERM. patron-guardian; as among the Romans lie that answers to 
 — — the Kpa^eiv a^l3d, to the client's calling him father, is sup- 
 posed to adopt, undertakes the protection of the hceredipeta, 
 obliges himself to the office and real duty of a father. And 
 I remember the story of the Campanians*^, that could not get 
 any aid from the Romans against a puissant enemy; they 
 solemnly came and delivered themselves up into the Romans' 
 hands by way of surrender, that by that policy they might 
 oblige the Romans to defend them, and espouse their cause, 
 with a si nostra tueri non vuUis, at vestra defendetis^ if you 
 will not lend us your help, preserve our region, yet now 
 we are your own, you are obliged to do it, quicquid passuri 
 sumus, dedititii vestri patientur, whatsoever from henceforth 
 we suffer, it will be suffered by your clients and subjects : 
 and so certainly the resigning ourselves up into God's hands, 
 the penitent sober resolution of ^' the Lord shall be my Lord," 
 giving ourselves up not as confederates, but subjects, to be 
 ruled as well as to be aided by Him ; no such way in the 
 world as that to engage God's protecting and prospering 
 hand, to extort His care and watchfulness over us. He that 
 comes out but resolutely into the field to fight God's battles 
 against the common enemy, God and the angels of heaven 
 are ready to furnish and fortify that man. Resolution itself, 
 courage but upon its own score, is able to break through 
 most difficulties, and the want of that is the betraying of 
 most souls that come into Satan^s power; but then over and 
 above, the prospering influence of heaven that is still ready 
 to assist such champions, the Kpvcjyaia which the 
 
 LXXII puts in into the last verse of Exod. xvii., the secret 
 invisible hand, by which God will assist the cordial Joshua, 
 and have war against Amalek for ever, fight with him as 
 long as Joshua fights, the co-operation of the Spirit of God 
 with all that set resolutely about such enterprises of valour. 
 His avvepyeip to our epja^eiv, this is a sure fountain of relief 
 and assistance to such resolutions. Do but try God and 
 
 d [Ad ea princeps legationis, sic e- agros, delubi-a Deum, divina humana- 
 
 nim domo mandatum attulerant, Quan- que omnia in vestram Patres conscripti, 
 
 doquidem inquit nostra tueri adversus populique Romani ditionem dedimus ; 
 
 vim atque injuriam justa vi non vultis, quicquid deinde patiemur dediticii ves- 
 
 vestra certe defendetis. Itaque popu- tri passuri. — Liv. vii. 31.] 
 lum Campanum urbemque Capuam, 
 
GOU IS THE GOD OF BETHEL. 
 
 101 
 
 your own souls in this particular^ for the vanquishing of any SERM. 
 
 sin that your nature and temper is most inclined to. Take X: 
 
 but the method of this text ; come into God's presence, re- 
 solve sadly and advisedly in that Bethel never to yield to 
 that sin again; resolve not only on the end, but the means 
 also that are proper to lead thither ; foresee and vow the same 
 resistance to the pleasant bait that to the barbed hook under 
 it, to the fair temptation, that to the horrid sin itself; and 
 then those weapons that may be useful for the resistance, 
 the fasting and the watching, — that are proper to the exor- 
 cising that kind of devil, — be sure to carry out into the 
 field with thee, and in every motion of the battle let the 
 Moses' as well as the Joshua's hands be held up, the sword 
 of the Lord with that of Gideon, implore and importune that 
 help of God's which hath given thee to will, to resolve, that 
 He will continue His interposition, and give thee to do also, 
 that having begun the good work in thee. He will not lose [Phil. i.e.] 
 the pledge, bat go on also to perfect it: and whenever thou 
 art next tempted to that sin, recall and remember this reso- 
 lution of thine, bid that very remembrance of thine stand 
 by on thy guard, and, if you please, by that token that this 
 day I advised you to do so ; and withal consider the tempta- 
 tion, that it is an express come just from Satan, that sworn 
 enemy of souls, against which in God's presence the first 
 time thou ever camest into the Church thou didst thus vow 
 and profess open defiance and hostility, that this disguised 
 fiend shakes a chain in hell, be his address to thee never so 
 formal, and is now come on purpose to supplant or surprise 
 thy constancy, to see whether thou considerest thy reputation 
 with God or no, whether thou makest scruple of breaking 
 vows and resolutions ; and then, instead of treating with that 
 sin, cry out to God to defend thee against it, either to give 
 strength, or remove the temptation ; and deal honestly and 
 sincerely with thine own soul, betray not those helps that God 
 thus gives thee in this exigence : and then come and tell me 
 how it hath proved with thee. In the mean time, till thou 
 hast made this experiment, be not too querulous of thine own 
 weakness or the irresistibleness of sin; believe it, a few such 
 sober trials and practisings upon anger, lust, and the like, and 
 the benefit that would infallibly redound from thence, might 
 
102 
 
 GOD IS THE GOD OF BETHEL. 
 
 SERM. bring the ancient Church order of episcopal confirmation 
 ' into fashion and credit again ; which had it but its due in- 
 gredients and advantages restored to it, — every single Chris- 
 tian, come to years of knowledge and temptations, in the 
 presence of God and angels and fellow Christians repeating 
 that vow in his own name which was made by his proxies at 
 the font, and the blessings of heaven powerfully called down 
 by those who have a title to the promise of being thus heard, 
 — as it would by the way fully satisfy all the pretensions and 
 arguments of the anabaptist, so would it also be a more pro- 
 bable effectual restraint for sin, than those which have so 
 solemnly decried, or but formally practised, that institution, 
 have taken care to afford us in its stead. 
 
 But then, thirdly, God is a God of resolutions, to exact 
 performance of them ; the paltering trifier in this kind hath 
 all the vengeance of the God of Bethel belonging to him, all 
 that pertains to the sacrilegious profaner of that temple 
 which Himself had consecrated, the censure and reward not 
 Eccles.v.4. only of the impious, but the fools. " When thou vowest a vow, 
 Prov. XX. defer not to pay ; God hath no pleasure in fools and, " It 
 is a snare to a man to devour that which is holy,'^ to profane 
 that heart which is once consecrated to God, and after vows 
 to make enquiry. To doubt of the performing, to falter in the 
 execution of what is thus solemnly resolved in God's service, 
 is the fetching the sacrifice from the altar, and is sure to 
 bring the coal of fire along with it, the perfectest treachery 
 to a soul that any sacrilegious enterprise can design it. And 
 yet God knows how many such fools there be in the world, 
 that solemnly resolve themselves to His service, come to the 
 font to make, to the table of the Lord to repeat these vows, 
 and all their lives after do but busy themselves to wipe 
 off the water of one, vomit up, disgorge the other ; bequeath 
 themselves to heaven in the presence of angels, and then 
 repent of the fact, and labour all their lives long to retrieve 
 and recover themselves back again; and the Apostle hath 
 [2Pet. ii. given those men their doom, "it had been sure better for 
 them not to have known the way of righteousness,'^ never to 
 have raised an expectation in heaven that they meant any 
 kindness to it, than thus to cheapen it, and not come to the 
 price of a little perseverance and constancy to go through 
 
GOD IS THE GOD OF BETHEL. 
 
 103 
 
 the purchase. Had they never undertaken God's business, SERM. 
 never put in for the title of friends and votaries, with a - — — — 
 " Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest," they [Luke ix. 
 had not been perjured, though they had been profane : but ^'^'■^ 
 now the affront is superadded to the crime, the contumely to 
 the impiety, and all the spiritual desertion, withholding and 
 withdrawing of grace, and consequently the dSvvarov ava- [Heb. vi. 
 Kaivi^eLv, the impossibility for such to renew or recover ^' ^'^ 
 themselves, without some prodigy of new bounty from heaven, 
 — which provokers have little grounds to expect, — is directly 
 become their portion. 
 
 I have dwelt too long on the portal to Bethel, the general 
 necessary resolutions or vows that are precursory to those 
 other particularly qualified ; I must in the last place be so 
 just to the text and auditory, as to reserve a few minutes 
 for those vows of building and endowing a house for God, 
 which was but a free-will offering in Jacob, designed by him 
 as a return of acknowledgment for God's care over him, if 
 He shall bring him again to his father's house in peace; and [Gen. 
 so God hath a peculiar respect to such vows beyond all 
 others, and in that relation, in the last place, Ego Deus 
 Bethelis, "I am the God of Bethel.'' 
 
 He that hath a long and a doubtful journey before him, a 
 voyage of uncertainty and danger, and considers how little 
 he hath of his own to contribute towards his convoy, how 
 nothing but the benign gale from heaven to waft him safely 
 thither, — and such certainly is the condition of some of us 
 here at this time, — may well be allowed to call in and con- 
 sult at Bethel, take directions from old Jacob here, how to 
 set out and begin his journey ; and that is with vowing a vow 
 unto the Lord. This, I confess, was the main of my errand, 
 which hath been thus prepared for and prefaced unto you all 
 this while; and there is not a more prudent at once and 
 Christian course, that hath more of piety and stratagem in 
 it, nor a more agreeable, seasonable, proper use of the present 
 distress, and an engagement on God to deliver us out of it, 
 than thus to take ourselves now in the pliable season, and 
 indent some acts of voluntary piety with heaven, most cer- 
 tainly and solemnly to be paid Him hereafter, whenever God 
 shall so be with us as to return us home in peace, to restore 
 
104 
 
 GOD IS THE GOD OF BETHEL. 
 
 US those "halcyon days after which we are all so impatiently 
 gasping. I say not with Jacob literally to build houses for 
 God, material Bethels ; — to design such stately structures in 
 an age of destroying, were but a romance-project for any of 
 us ; nay, blessed be God, we need not a Solomon to erect, or 
 Zorobabel to restore ; a prop to preserve from falling will yet 
 serve the turn ; — but from this blessed copy every emulous, 
 though weak hand to transcribe somewhat, at the distance 
 and in proportion to strength. One to undertake the building 
 one room of such an house, a private irposevxh oratory 
 for God j I mean, to vow unto God the so many daily close 
 retirements, by confession of sins and deliverances, to ac- 
 knowledge in prostration of soul — if not of body also, to bear 
 it company — the provocations that have whet God's glitter- 
 ing sword against us, — every man the plague of his own 
 heart, the ifiov eyK\r)iJLa, in the style of the ancient liturgies, 
 "my fault, my exceeding great fault," — and the fatherly 
 goodness that shall have sheathed it again ; and never to 
 give over those constant returns of devotion, — with Daniel, 
 three, nay, — with David, seven times a day, to keep some poor 
 kind of proportion with such a deliverance : another, to vow 
 the building a porch of such an house, when God shall fur- 
 nish him with materials, where the poor may have but a 
 dining place sometimes ; I mean not the loose formal scat- 
 tering of the crumbs of the table among them, but seques- 
 tering a set, and that a liberal part of all the revenue that 
 God shall ever bestow, or now rescue out of the devourer's 
 hand, and provide or preserve for us, that God in His poor 
 members may have a first-fruits, a twentieth, a tenth, a fifth 
 of all ; every man out of the good treasure of his heart, not 
 in obedience to any prescript quotum, — I shall be sorry to 
 wrong any man so much, as so to change it from being his 
 perfect free-will off'ering, — but as out of a heart attracted by 
 heaven, a liberal, cheerful, heaven-like efi'usion; the constancy 
 and equability of which, yea, and the performing it upon 
 vow or promise, will yet be no blemish to it, or make it less 
 like that of heaven, of divinity itself. But among all the 
 epitomes of this Bethel, the domicilia, little (tents rather 
 than) houses of God, which we are thus to consecrate and 
 vow unto Him, here was one at Bethel that would never be 
 
GOD IS THE GOD OF BETHEL. 
 
 105 
 
 wanting^, never left out in our thrivingest, sparingest vows^ I 
 mean that pure crystal breast of Jacobus that God so de- 
 lighted to dwell in, — as He was by the poet supposed to do 
 in poor Pyramus' cottage, — that plain, honest, well-natured, 
 undisguised heart both toward men and God, emblematically 
 expressed by those smooth hands of Jacob, the fair open 
 Campania of even, clear, unintricated designs, far from the 
 groves and meanders, the dark depths, the intrigues^ the 
 dexterities and subtleties and falsenesses of the merchant 
 worldling. Might but this judgment that hath preyed and 
 gnawed so long upon the bowels of the kingdom but pare 
 the heart of the Englishman into such a plain equable figure, 
 leave never an angle or involution in it, make us but those 
 direct-dealing honest fools that we are reproached to be, — 
 but God knows are not guilty of that gracious Jacob-like 
 quality ; — might it but have that benign influence upon us 
 here present ; might it return us home with this one vow in 
 every of our mouths and hearts, to be for the rest of our 
 lives the English Nathanaels, the true Israelites, in whom 
 there is no guile; might but this last minute of my hour 
 make this one impression, I shall not hope on a rude mul- 
 titude, but I say on my present auditory, to be content to 
 live and die with downright honest Jacob, thrive or perish 
 on clear direct Israelitish principles, — which will, I doubt 
 not, one day have the turn of thriving in this world, when 
 every thing else hath the reproach of imprudent and impros- 
 perous, as well as unchristian, the dove advanced when the 
 serpent is licking the dust, — and with Drusus^ in Paterculus, 
 instead of the artificer that would provide for the deep pri- 
 vacy, — that scevi animi indicimn in the orator, — send for him 
 that could design the diaphanous house, wherein there might 
 be all evidence, every man thought fit to behold that without 
 an optic or perspective, which will never be disguised or 
 concealed from the eye of heaven ; might we by the help of 
 a fast vow now stricken, and with the blessing of God prac- 
 
 "= [Cum sedificaret doinum in palatio 
 in eo loco ubi est quae quondam Cice- 
 ronis, mox Censorini fuit, nunc Statilii 
 Sisennae est, promitteretque ei archi- 
 tectus, ita se earn aedificaturum, uti 
 libera a couspectu, immunis ab omni- 
 
 bus arbitris esset, neque quisquam in 
 earn despicere posset ; tu vero inquit 
 siquid in te artis est, ita compone do- 
 mum meam nt quicquid agam ab om- 
 nibus perspici possit. — Veil. Paterc. ii. 
 14.] 
 
106 
 
 GOD IS THE GOD OF BETHEL. 
 
 s E R M. tised every hour of our lives after, come home to our father's 
 '■ — house, old honest Jacob's plain tent, with peace and simpli- 
 city, cleanness, uncompoundedness of spirit, — a quality that 
 vrould be able to commend and improve, christianize and 
 bless that peace to us, and make it like that of God, a true 
 and durable one; — I should then with all cheerfulness dis- 
 miss you with old Jacob into the hands of this God of 
 Bethel, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, 
 that owned and blessed the simplicity and fidelity, the plain- 
 ness and the trustiness of those three patriarchs, before all 
 the glorious wisdom and politics of the world; whose sin- 
 cerity and whose reward, whose uprightness and acceptation, 
 integrity and crown, God of His infinite mercy grant us all. 
 To whom with the Son, &c. 
 
SERMON VL 
 
 THE NECESSITY OF THE CHRISTIAN'S CLEANSING. 
 
 2 Cor. vii. 1. 
 
 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse 
 ourselves. 
 
 There is not, I conceive, any piece of divinity more un- SERM. 
 luckily mistaken, more inconveniently corrupted and de-__Zi_ 
 bauclied by tlie passions and lusts of men, made more instru- 
 mental to their foulest purposes, than that of the promises of 
 Christ ; whether by giving them the inclosure and monopoly 
 of our faith, — the commands of Christ and the threats of 
 Christ, which have as much right to be believed as they, His 
 kingly and prophetic office, to which He was as particularly 
 anointed as to that of our priest, being for the most part set 
 aside as unnecessary, and by many steps and degrees at last 
 not only left quite out of our faith, but withal fallen under 
 our envy, become matter of quarrel against any that shall 
 endeavour to obtrude them not only so impertinently, but so 
 dangerously, either on our gospel, or on our practice, — or 
 whether again by persuading ourselves and others that the 
 promises of Christ are particular and absolute, confined to 
 some few, and to those howsoever they be qualified ; when the 
 whole harmony and contexture of Christian doctrine proclaims 
 directly the contrary, that they are general and conditional, 
 a picture that looks every man in the face that comes into the 
 room, but cannot be imagined to eye any man else, unre- 
 strained to all so they shall perform the condition, and an 
 iacj^pdjicTTat rafiteta, those diflPusive store-houses sealed up 
 against all who do not perform it. 
 
108 THE NECESSITY OF THE CHRISTIANAS CLEANSING. 
 
 SERM. Shall we therefore have the patience, and the justice, and 
 
 — — the piety awhile to resist these strong prejudices^ to rescue 
 
 this sacred theme from such misprisions, to set up the pro- 
 mises of Christ in such a posture as may have the safest and 
 kindest influence, the benignest and most auspicious aspect 
 upon our lives, not to swell and puff up our fancies any longer 
 with an opinion that we are the special favourites to whom 
 those promises are unconditionally consigned, but to engage 
 and oblige our souls to that universal cleansing that may 
 really enstate us in those promises, either of deliverance here 
 or salvation eternally ; that may, like the angel to St. Peter 
 in prison, even to God Himself, shake off those gyves and ma- 
 nacles which have even encumbered His omnipotence, made it 
 impossible for Him to make good His promises, temporal or 
 spiritual, to such unclean uncapables as we ? To this purpose 
 there is one short word in the text which hath a mighty im- 
 portance in it, the ravras, the ' these^ annexed to the pro- 
 mises. What is the interpretation of that you must enquire 
 of the close of the former chapter ; and that will tell you, that 
 upon coming out from the pollutions and villanies of an im- 
 pure profane heathen world, — and such is our unregenerate 
 estate, I would I could not say, such is the condition of many 
 of us that most depend on God^s promises, — on our going out 
 of this tainted region, our strict separation from all the pro- 
 voking sins of it, all the mercies of heaven and (which some 
 have a greater gust and appetite to) of earth also^ are be- 
 [2 Cor. vi. come our portion, a most liberal hospitable reception ; " I will 
 17,18.] receive you, and I will be a Father" to all such proselyte 
 guests, ^^and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the 
 Lord Almighty as if His almightiness, which is here pawned 
 for the discharge of these promises, could not bring them 
 down upon us, unless by this coming out of Sodom, — to 
 which this angelical exhortation was sent to rouse us — we 
 should render ourselves capable of them. 
 
 In a word, the promises here, as all other in the Gospel, 
 are not absolute, but conditional promises, on condition of 
 "cleansing from all impurity," and not otherwise; and if 
 there be in the whole world an engagement to cleansing, an 
 obligation to the practice of the most defamed purity that a 
 
THE NECESSITY OF THE CHEISTIAN^S CLEANSING. 
 
 109 
 
 profane age can scoff or rail at, this certainly may be SERM. 
 
 allowed to pass for it. " Having therefore/' &c. ^ — 
 
 The words are an exhortation to cleansing, and in them 
 you may please to observe these three particulars : 
 
 1. The ground. 
 
 2. The address. 
 
 3. The exhortation itself. 
 
 The ground the fittest in the world for this turn when 
 you shall consider it thoroughly ; eTrayjeXlas ravrasj " these 
 promises." 
 
 The address, adding somewhat of sweetness to that of 
 rational advice, " Having these promises, dearly beloved.^' 
 
 And the exhortation itself, in the remainder of the words 
 at large in the whole verse. We shall content ourselves 
 with the contraction of it, KaOapL^w^ev eavrovsj ^^let us 
 cleanse ourselves." 
 
 I begin with the first, the ground or foundation of the Apo- 
 stle's exhortatory to cleansing, iira'^yeXlas ravras, "these 
 promises." 
 
 1. Promises. 
 
 2. And particularly, conditional promises. 
 
 And yet 3. more particularly, the conditional promises 
 of this text, the " these promises" as they are set down in the 
 end of the former chapter, are the most competent, most 
 engaging, effectual arguments or impellents to set any 
 Christian upon the work of Christian practice, that especially 
 of impartial universal cleansing. 
 
 It will be best demonstrated if we take them asunder, and 
 view them in the several gradations. 
 
 1. Promises are a very competent argument to that pur- 
 posCj a bait to the most generous passion about us, our emu- 
 lation or ambition, drawing us with the cords of a man, the 
 most rational masculine allectives, I shall add, — to an in- 
 genuous Christian man, as that signifies neither saint in 
 heaven, nor beast on earth, but that middle imperfect state 
 of a Christian here, — the most agreeable proper argument 
 imaginable to set us a cleansing. 
 
 Two other arguments there are, both nqyj considerable, I 
 confess. 
 
 1. The love (in the moralist of virtue, but in the Chris- 
 
110 
 
 THE NECESSITY OF THE CHRISTIANAS CLEANSING. 
 
 SERM. tian) of God Himself, and that love, if it be gotten into our 
 ^ — hearts, will be very effectual toward this end : " the love of 
 
 [2 Cor. V. ^ . A . „ . 1 , A 1 
 
 14.] God constrains us, saith the Apostle. 
 
 2. The fear of those threats, those formidable denuncia- 
 tions which the Gospel thunders out against all unmortified 
 carnal men,- that horrid representation of our even Christian's 
 God, as He is still under the gospel, — to all unreformed, ob- 
 [Heb. xii. durate sinners, — a consuming fire and consequently, what 
 [Heb X direful thing it is to fall into the hands of that living God 
 31.] and "knowing these terrors of the Lord, we persuade men,'' 
 [2 Cor. V. saith the same Apostle. There is some rousing oratory, some 
 awakening rhetoric and eloquence in this also. And let me 
 tell you, though it be but by the way, that I am not alto- 
 gether of their opinion that think these terrors of the Lord 
 are not fit arguments to work on regenerate men ; that fear 
 is too slavish a thing to remain in a child of light, a Chris- 
 tian. I confess myself sufficiently persuaded that our Apo- 
 stle made choice of no arguments, but such as were fit to be 
 made use of by Christians, and those terrors are more than 
 Heb.xii.28. oncc his chosen arguments, even to those that " had received 
 the kingdom that cannot be moved," and are exhorted x^P^^ 
 ex^iv, " to have grace," to make use of that precious talent re- 
 ceived, — which supposes a gracious person, — or possibly 
 exeiv, " to be thankful" to this munificent donor for this ines- 
 timable gift, yea, and this duty raised to the highest pitch that 
 a Christian is capable of, to serving God evapearcos, whether 
 that refer to the persons, and signify " serving with all cheer- 
 fulness" and alacrity and well-pleasedness, or to God, as we 
 render it, " serving Him acceptably with reverence and godly 
 fear ;" you have still in this Apostle these terrors immediately 
 annexed to enforce this duty, "for our Godis a consuming fire." 
 And so again you cannot but remember the advice of " work- 
 [Phil. ii. ing,"and "working out salvation," and emphatically "our own 
 ^^'■^ salvation, with fear and trembling ;" not only with love and 
 faith, but peculiarly "fear and trembling," this trembling fit 
 enough to accompany the saint to heaven gates, to salvation 
 itself; and therefore the d(/)o/5ft)S', "without fear," in the first 
 of Luke, which we ordinarily join with the Xar/oeueti^, as if we 
 were thereby obliged to serve Him without fear, is in ancient 
 74^7^ 1* c^^pi^s and editions joined with the pvaOevras, " that we being 
 
THE NECESSITY OF THE CHRISTIANAS CLEANSING. 
 
 Ill 
 
 delivered without fear/^ — i. e. without danger, — " might serve S E R M. 
 
 Him in holiness/' &c. And so I think it is a little clear, that '- — 
 
 the fear which is so cast out by perfect love, that, as the 
 Apostle saith, 1 John iv. 18, "there is no fear in love," is not 
 the fear of God's wrath, but of temporal dangers and perse- 
 cutions. For so that love to Christ, if it be perfect, such as 
 Christ's was to us, chap. iii. 16, — and is referred to again, 
 chap. iv. 17, "that as He is, so we should be in this world," ^ — 
 will make us content to adventure any thing for the beloved, 
 even death itself, the most hugely vast formidable, — as it is 
 there, ras ^^v^cis TiOevai, "to lay down our lives" for Christ, — > 
 but sure not the displeasing of God, and torments of hell ; 
 that were too prodigal an alms, too wild a romance valour, 
 would have too much of the modern point of honour for St. 
 John to prescribe, and so certainly is but misapplied to this 
 business. And so still I cannot but think it wisdom and 
 sober piety in him that said, he would not leave his part in 
 hell, — the benefit which he had from these terrors, — for all 
 the goods of this world ; knowing how useful the flesh of the 
 viper was to cure his poison, the torments to check the temp- 
 tations, the apprehension of the calenture that attended to 
 restrain from the pleasant but forbidden fruits that were al- 
 ways a soliciting his senses ; and she that ran about the 
 city, — that Novarnius tells us of, — with the brand of fire in 
 one hand, and a bottle of water in the other, and said, " her 
 business was to set heaven on fire with the one, and quench 
 hell-flames with the other, that there might be neither of 
 them left, only pure love to God to move or incite her piety," 
 had certainly a little of the flatus thus to drive her, her 
 spleen was somewhat swollen or distempered, or, if one 
 may guess by her appearing in the street, she was a little too 
 wild and aerial in her piety. But this by the way, as a con- 
 cession that there is (not only love, but) fear also that may 
 set men a cleansing, as well as the promises in the text ; the 
 denunciation of punishments is as considerable an act of 
 Christ's kingly office, whereby He is to rule in our hearts by 
 faith, as that of proposing rewards, that other act of regality, 
 Rom. xiii. And the truth is, all is little enough to impress 
 the duty : and happy is he that hath this threefold cord, this 
 threefold obligation, paternal, and both kinds of regal, each 
 
112 THE NECESSITY OP THE CImISTIAT^^^S CLEANSING. 
 
 s E RM. actually in force upon his soul ; and eternally happy if either 
 — — — or all may effectually perform the work on him. 
 
 But then still, if we observe distinguishingly, and exactly ap- 
 ply and proportion the arguments to the imperfect Christian 
 state, you shall find that promises are the most proper, con- 
 gruous, agreeable argument, most apt and hopeful to do the 
 deed, to have the impression upon the heart. 
 
 Fear is an argument, but to an ingenuous nature not alto- 
 gether so appropriate. 
 
 Hope, the relative to promises, is more generous than that, 
 more noble, more worthy of the Christian's breast, a person of 
 so royal an extraction. 
 
 On the other side, the love of God, for His own sake, love 
 of His attributes and excellencies, that admirable, dazzling, 
 amazing beauty of His divine essence, O ! it is a w^arming 
 grace, infinitely melting and ravishing to those that have 
 their hearts truly possessed with it. 
 
 But is not this, again, a little above the proportion of the 
 imperfect, inchoate, very moderate state of the Christian in 
 this life? is it not a little more proportionable to that of the 
 future vision? The Christian, you know, here is made up 
 of two contraries, the flesh and spirit, iv crvvcoplSi, combined 
 and yoked together ; and as the fear may be too degenerous 
 for the spirit, so the love of so transcendent a spiritual object 
 will be far too elevated and generous for the flesh, it is not 
 capable of so pure, angelical a guest. 
 
 This of hope is of a middle temper, and so a little more 
 congruous and apportioned to the middle state, more in- 
 genuous than fear, and not so elevated as love. Let hell be set 
 open wide upon us on one side, and it is apt to swallow us up 
 with horror and despair, and so that fear may miscarry and 
 ruin us; let the transcendent excellencies of God be let 
 loose on us on the other side, and they swallow us up again 
 in ecstacy and amazement. When our Saviour comes into 
 Peter's ship, clothed but with one ray of this infinite beauty, 
 — the gracious miracle of the fish, — poor creature ! he falls 
 [Luke V. down at J esus' feet with a " Depart from me, for I am a 
 sinful man and the text gives the reason, for he was 
 astonished" at such a presence of His. And you know what 
 Moses thought of seeing God's face, ut videam et vivam ! he 
 
THE NECESSITY OF THE CHEISTIAN's CLEANSING. 
 
 113 
 
 should be never able to outlive it. And as the beholdinoj SERM. 
 
 VI 
 
 and the presence, so the high pitch of love let in by that '. — 
 
 beholding, fastened on the divine lustre ; it is most-what too 
 high for our earthly state, even for the regenerate Christian 
 in this life. The beholding Him in the reflection, and the 
 dark beholding, is that which in the Apostle's judgment is 
 the richest portion we can aspire to in this life; and that is 
 the beholding Him in His graces and in His promises, as 
 hope is but a glimpse of vision ; and thus we cheerfully and 
 with delight to our very flesh, expect that glory which shall be 
 revealed ; not which is revealed already, or if it were, would 
 burn up and calcine this flesh of ours, turn the natural into 
 a spiritual body, could not consist with such tempered or 
 constituted tabernacles as now we carry about with us. And 
 let that serve for the clearing the first step in the gradation, 
 that promises are a fit and proper argument to work upon 
 cur present state, to set us a purifying. 
 
 And O that this might be our use of promises ! no flatter- 
 ing ourselves into hell with a claim of heaven, but as a crane 
 or engine to raise us from the depth, fetch us from the lees 
 of sin, and like the sun-beams on this earth of ours, to 
 attract and force us up toward its region of purity ; that as 
 the philosopher in Eunapius was taller in his study, in time 
 of speculation, than at any other time, so this meditation and 
 study of this part of the book of life, the promises of Christ, 
 might be able to raise us above our ordinary pitch or sta- 
 ture, to rarify and so to cleanse. Having therefore these 
 promises, let,'' &c. 
 
 2. Of all promises the conditional are fittest for this turn, 
 to oblige and engage us to purifying. It is the property of 
 conditional promises never to belong to any but those that 
 perform the condition. That which Christ requires of us in 
 the great indenture between Him and us, as the homage to 
 be performed to Him on our part, be it never so slight and 
 inconsiderable, never so despicable a peppercorn, so pitifully 
 unproportionable to the great rent He might require, or to 
 the infinite treasure of glory that He so makes over to us, 
 that mite of obedience, of faith, of love, of purity, is yet most 
 strictly required by Christ, even now — under the eineUeLa of 
 the gospel — to be performed to Him, The mercy and the 
 
 HAMMOND. T 
 
114 
 
 THE NECESSITY OF THE CHRISTIANAS CLEANSING. 
 
 SE^RM. pardon and tlie huge moderation of that court, though it 
 
 — hath mollified the strict law into never so much chancery, 
 
 will not proceed further, and mollify obedience into liber- 
 tinism ; it hath treasures of mercy for those who have not 
 obeyed the law in the strictness of perfect unsinning obedi- 
 ence ; the evangelical righteousness shall serve turn where 
 the legal is not to be had ; but then still there must be 
 honest punctual payment of the evangelical; and without 
 that, the gospel is so far from being gospel, message of 
 mercy, embassy of promises, that it is but an enhancement 
 and accumulation of much sorer punishments on them that 
 []| Pet. iv. have sinned against that, that have not obeyed the gospel of 
 Christ. Our Saviour hath brought down the market, pro- 
 vided as easy bargains of bliss for ns as could be imagined ; 
 but this being granted^ you must not now fancy another 
 further second Saviour, that must rid you of these easy gain- 
 ful tasks, which the first in mere kindness and benignity to 
 you hath required of you. 
 
 Be heaven and the vision of God never so cheap a pur- 
 chase, yet the vofxos TrlcrTecDs, the law of faith, of gospel, is 
 [Rev. xxi. fis that of the Medes and Persians, that no unclean thing 
 ^'^'J shall enter therein ; and that without holiness, — ayiaafjios, all 
 one with the KadapLo-jjuos in the text, — without that sincere, 
 though never so imperfect, sanctification, without cleansing, 
 mortifying here, no man shall ever see the Lord. Should 
 any boisterous, unclean, unqualified invader, /Sid^ei^v ovpavoVf 
 break in on those sacred mansions, commit such riots, such 
 burglary upon heaven; heaven must be unconsecrated by 
 such violence, cease to be the palace of God, a place of 
 purity or of bliss : and if this be not an argument fit to im- 
 press this duty, the necessity, but withal the ease of the per- 
 formance, the no heaven without it hereafter, and yet the no 
 grievance by it here, if this be not an obligation to cleansing, 
 I know not what may be counted such. He that hath taken 
 down all the promises of the gospel as absolute, uncon- 
 ditionate promises, that sees his name written indelible in 
 the book of life, I know not through what tube or perspec- 
 tive, and resolves that all the provocations, and sacrileges, 
 and rebellions against heaven, shall never be able to resist 
 his nativity, to disturb his horoscope, to reverse his fatal 
 
THE NECESSITY OF THE CHRISTIAN'S CLEANSING. 115 
 
 destined bliss, may well be excused, if he be not over-hasty S E^R 
 to cleanse or purify. '■ 
 
 It is an act of the most admirable power of the divine re- 
 straining or preventing grace, that some men that do thus 
 believe this doctrine of unconditional promises, are yet re- 
 strained from making this so natural use of it, from running 
 into all the riots in the world. 
 
 And certainly it is as irrefragable a convincing testimony 
 of man's free will to evil, even after his reason and the spirit 
 of God have offered him never so many arguments to the 
 contrary, that many men which believe the conditionate pro- 
 mises, do not yet set resolutely a cleansing, the obligation 
 hereto from reason being so direct and conclusive, that all 
 the devils in hell cannot answer the force of it. Only our 
 stupid, undisciplined, absurd, illogical hearts have the skill 
 to avoid it, running headlong and wilfully after the old im- 
 purities, even then when they are most fully without all 
 dubitancy resolved that all the joys of heaven are forfeited 
 by this choice. 
 
 I have done with the second step in my gradation, the 
 special convincing energy of the conditional promises to 
 enforce cleansing. 
 
 Come we now to the third and last step in the grada- 
 tion, the particularity of the ^ these conditional promises,' 
 in this text, promises of God's receiving us upon our se- 
 parating, His being our Father, and we His sons and 
 daughters, upon our coming out, &c., in the end of the for- 
 mer chapter. 
 
 God will not receive any uncleansed, polluted sinner, will 
 not be a father to any, be he never so importunate or con- 
 fident in his Kpa^6Lv a^^d, will not own him to any degree 
 of son-ship, that doth not bodily set a purifying. 
 
 It was a virulent objection and accusation of the heathen 
 Celsus against Christ, that He called all sinners to come 
 unto Him, publicans, harlots, all, and had an hospitable re- 
 ception for such ; from whence his ignorance and malice was 
 willing to conclude Christ's Church to be a sanctuary for 
 such uncleannesses, a kind of Romulus' asylum, to be filled 
 only with those inhabitants which all other religions had 
 loathed and vomited out ; and it was Zozimus' descant upon 
 
 I 2 
 
116 
 
 THE NECESSITY OP THE CHEISTIAN's CLEANSING. 
 
 s E R M. Constantine, that he turned Christian because he had com- 
 
 — — mitted those crimes for which no other religion would admit 
 
 expiation. But Origen in his admirable writings against 
 that heathen's objections makes a distinction of invitations : 
 " There is," saith he, " the invitation of the thief, and the in- 
 vitation of the physician ; of the thief, to get as many com- 
 panions ; of the physician, as many patients as he can ; the 
 first to debauch the innocent, the second to recall the lapsed, 
 to cure the diseased; the former to continue and confirm 
 them in their former impure courses, the latter to purge out 
 and to reform all their impurities and the latter only was 
 
 [Matt. ix. the interpretation and design of Christ's call, 'that of sin- 
 ners to repentance,' the very language in this text, the " come 
 
 [2 Cor.vi. out and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing." 
 
 ^^'■^ And so Christianity in Zosiraus' style, but another sense 
 than what he designed it, is Sofa ttolo-tjs ajjuaprdhos dvat- 
 periKrj, ^' the strongest purgative in the world," the angel a 
 
 [Gen. xix. hastening and leading out of Sodom with an escape, "fly 
 
 ^^■^ for thy life, neither stay thou in all the plains," and then, 
 and not till then, /cdyco elshe^ofjbai v/mds, " and I will receive 
 you." 
 
 And so still the peculiarity of these promises, these of our 
 being sons, or our being received, hath a most persuasive 
 quickening force toward the duty of purifying. Will any 
 man be content to be that abject from God, that loathed, re- 
 fuse, reprobated creature, such an one that all the prayers of 
 all the saints on earth, intercessions and sufi'rages of mar- 
 tyrs and angels in heaven, yea, the very gaping wounds and 
 vocal blood of Christ upon the cross, 1 shall add, the minutely 
 advocation and intercession of that glorified Saviour at the 
 riglit hand of His Father, cannot help to any tolerable recep- 
 tion at God's hands? Can you have fortified yourself suffi- 
 [Matt.xxv. ciently against that direful voice of the Go ye cursed into 
 41] everlasting fire ;" and not only not God, but not the so much 
 [Luke as mountains or hills willing or able to receive you into any 
 Rev vf ' tolerable degree of mercy, not one Lazarus with one drop to 
 16.] cool the tip of a flaming tongue, but only the gaping insati- 
 24 ^b^^ pi^^ irreversible abyss of pollutions and of horror, 
 
 that region of cursings and torments, of sin and flames, the 
 only hospital to receive thee? If thou canst think com- 
 
THE NECESSITY OF THE CHKISTIAN^S CLEANSING. 
 
 117 
 
 fortably of this condition^ be well pleased to venture all this SERM. 
 for the enlarging of thy carnal fruitions one minute longer, — ' — 
 and withal disclaim the whole birth-right of thy Christendom, [2 Cor. vi. 
 the dignity and inheritance of sons and daughters of the ^^'-^ 
 Lord Almighty ; if thou dost not repent of thy long, tedious, 
 prodigal march into the Egyptian, far country only to ac- 
 company with swine, and be fed with their Kepdna, to which 
 the advantages of sin are compared, — that wooden, unhealthy 
 fruit of the Carobe or arbor Ceratonia, as Dioscorides and 
 Pliny describe that wbich we render husks in the Gospel, — 
 if, I say, we can upon deliberation prefer this starving and 
 pining in the herd, before feasting and being embraced in 
 the father's house, this portion of swine before that of sons, 
 we have then a sufficient fortification against this argument 
 in this text, a serious supersedeas for purifying : but upon no 
 cheaper condition than this can it be sued out ; you must 
 give yourselves up to the certain fire and brimstone of Sodom, 
 if you will still continue in the impurities and burnings of 
 Sodom ; not the least gleam of hope upon any terms but those 
 of purifying. "Whosoever hath this hope on him,'' the this, 
 that is, the conditional hope of seeing there, or here of being 
 received by God, if it be eXirh iir avrw, "hope on God," 
 "he purifies himself," saith St. John. If he do not purify, iJohniii.s. 
 it is either, 
 
 1. Not so much as iXirh, absolute throwing off, disclaim- 
 ing all hope, perfect fury and despair ; or if he have any 
 hopeful thought about him, it is 
 
 2. None of the iXirls avrrj, none of the rationable, 
 grounded, conditional, but a flattering, fallacious, foundation- 
 less, because unconditionate hope, which the bigger it swells 
 the more dangerous it proves ; an aposteme or tympany of 
 hope, made up either of air or putrid humour : and then fi 
 ifKeov iXirl^ovat, ravrrj fj,dWov Ka/CMs €')(^ovcn, like the con- 
 sumptive patient, the more he hopes the further he is gone, 
 the more deeply desperate is his condition. 
 
 Or 3rd, no iXirh iir avTw, hope on Him, on God. It is a 
 dependance on some fatal chain, — some necromantic trick, 
 of believing thou shalt be saved, and thou shalt be saved, — 
 nay, on Satan himself, some response from his oracle, that 
 iyyaaTpifjLvdos, that wizard flesh within us, that hath thus 
 
lis THE NECESSITY OF THE CHRISTIAN'S CLEANSING. 
 
 SERM. bewitched us to its false pleasures first, and then its falla- 
 
 '- — cious hopes, the fatallest, horridest condition in the world : 
 
 you may excuse the preacher and the Apostle, if it carry 
 them both into a kind of TrdOosy an outcry of love, and 
 pity, and desire, to prevent this unremediable ruin to which 
 thou art posting, to catch thee when thou art nodding thus 
 dangerously, with a most affectionate, compassionate com- 
 pellation of a "dearly beloved, let us cleanse/' Which 
 brings me to the second general, the address, adding some- 
 what of earnestness and somewhat of sweetness to the exhor- 
 tation. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved/' 
 
 The exhortation to purifying, reforming, mortifying of sins, 
 is an effect and expression of the greatest kindness, sin- 
 cerest love, and tenderest affection imaginable. You shall 
 see this exemplified by the most earnest lover that ever was 
 [John XV. in the world. Will you believe the Holy Ghost ? Greater 
 ^^'^ love than this hath no man shewed, than to lay down his life 
 for his friend.'' Now our Saviour you know laid down His 
 life, — somewhat more than the life of a mere man, the life 
 of the OedvOpcoTTos, that divine celestial person, — on purpose 
 to fetch back this divine, but scorned, purity into the world 
 Tit. ii. 14. again : " He gave Himself for us," saith St. Paul, '^that He 
 might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Him- 
 self a peculiar people," laid down His life for that only prize 
 to which the Apostle here exhorts, this of purifying. You 
 Actsiii. 26. shall SCO it again, " God having raised up His Son Jesus, sent 
 Him to bless us, in turning every one from his iniquities :" 
 this turning from iniquities, the purifying in the text, was 
 the prime end and design of Christ's coming into the world, 
 of all His glorious offices, and the exercise of them, and that 
 the most blessed work of mercy that could ever be meant to 
 polluted souls ; this turning is there the interpretation of His 
 blessing of us, " to bless us in turning," &c. It were super- 
 fluous further to assist this truth, in shewing you what an act 
 of benefaction and mercy, of charity and real blessing it is, 
 to contribute in any the smallest manner to the mortifying 
 of any sin in any ; it is the rescuing him from the most noi- 
 some, miserable, putrefied, piteous condition in the world. 
 The plagues of Egypt, the frogs, and flies, and lice, and 
 locusts of Egypt, and the murrain and death of the first- 
 
THE NECESSITY OF THE CHRISTIANAS CLEANSING. 
 
 119 
 
 born, were but the imperfect emblems of these unclean hated SE RM. 
 
 vermin in the soul, that devour all the fruit and corn of the '- — 
 
 land, all the Christian virtues and graces, despoil and de- 
 populate all that is precious or valuable in it ; and then 
 what proud Pharaoh would not fall on his knees to Moses, 
 to make use of his power with Heaven, to deliver him from 
 such plagues as these ? 
 
 And yet to see how quite contrary it is ordered in the 
 world ; God is fain to send suppliants to us, that we will but 
 be content to part with an impurity, that we will but endure 
 so huge a blessedness. You know we are ambassadors for [2 Cor. v. 
 Christ, and what is the nature of an embassage? why, set- ^^'-^ 
 ting up this impure unmortified sinner in a throne, — to have 
 an embassy addressed to him, is an argument of a prince, — 
 and not only men, but God Himself, as it were, prostrate be- 
 fore his footstool, the King of heaven to this proud reigning 
 sinner on earth, to beseech him but to part with these wea- 
 pons of his hostility against God, these provoking impuri- 
 ties ; "as though God did beseech you by us," — God Himself 
 becomes the suppliant, and then we ministers may very well 
 be content with the employment, — " we pray you in Christ's 
 stead, be ye reconciled unto God.'' Thus through the whole 
 book of Canticles is the beloved husband of his Church most 
 passionately a wooing her to this duty, to this opening to 
 him, giving him an admission, all upon this score, that he 
 might come in to bless and purify ; and O what rhetoric is be- 
 stowed on her! far beyond the "dearly beloved" in this text, [Cant.v.2 ] 
 
 Open to me, my love, my dove, my undefiled, my fair one 
 he calls her fair and undefiled on purpose that he may make 
 her such, and O that we had but that Saviour-like passion, 
 that blessing kindness to our own poor perishing souls, some 
 of those bowels of love to our own bowels ! That we have 
 not, is the greatest defect of self-love, the most contrary sin 
 against our grand fundamental principle, that of self-preser- 
 vation, — which can combine with the devil for the undermin- 
 ing and ruining and subverting of whole kingdoms, on that 
 one commanding design of getting off the cross from off our 
 own shoulders, on whomsoever it be laid, but cannot think 
 fit to assist Heaven in purging out one refuse impurity out of 
 the soul. Yet shall I not on such discouragements give it 
 
120 THE NECESSITY OE THE CHRISTIANAS CLEANSING. 
 
 SERM. over as a forlorn impossible hope, but proceed one stage fur- 
 
 ^ — ther on this errand, to the last general, the exhortation itself, 
 
 /ca6apLt!cojii6v iavTous, &c., "Let us cleanse ourselves." 1. 
 cleanse, 2. ourselves, 3. us ourselves ; the verb is active, the 
 pronoun reciprocal, and the verb and pronoun both plural. 
 And so, beside the duty itself of cleansing, two circumstances 
 of this duty we must learn from hence, namely, 2, that it 
 is the Christian's task upon himself, this of purifying : then, 
 3, that it ought to be the common united design of all 
 Christians, the Apostle and people together, to assist one 
 another in this work, this of purifying. 
 
 For the first, the duty itself, KaOapH^wfieVj " cleanse.' ' 
 This is not the actual acquiring, but the motion and pro- 
 ficiency and tendency toward purity. 
 
 And so there again you have two things : 
 
 1. What this purity is ; 
 
 2. What this motion toward purity. 
 
 The purity is of two sorts ; the first opposed to filth, the 
 second to mixture : as the wine is pure, both when it is 
 fetched off from the lees and dregs, and when it is not 
 mingled with water. In the first notion, the purifying here, 
 is the purging out of carnality ; in the second, of hj^pocrisy ; 
 the first is the clean heart of David ; the second, the right or 
 sincere, single or simple spirit: the first from the filthiness 
 of the flesh ; the second, of the spirit : and you will never be 
 prosperous alchymists, never get the philosopher's stone, 
 never acquire the grand Christian hope, if you miscarry in 
 either of these. 
 
 The first kind of purity again, that of the flesh, is twofold, 
 proportionable to the two fountains and sources of carnality, 
 eTnOvjuLLa and Ov/jlos, "lust and rage," that jcaKLo-rr] (rvvwpl^, 
 " infernal pair," that hath so undermined the peace of souls 
 and kingdoms. 
 
 Lust, the common parent both to all fleshly and all world- 
 ly desire, to the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye ; the 
 lust of the flesb again, either the warm, or the moist car- 
 nality, the burnings of the incontinent, or the thirsts of the 
 luxurious ; that deluge of fire and water, that had and shall 
 have the honour to divide betwixt them the first and second 
 ruin of the world. And for the lust of the eye, that cold dry 
 
THE NECESSITY OF THE CHRISTIANAS CLEANSING. 
 
 121 
 
 piece of sensuality, that strange kind of epicurism, that mad SE RM. 
 raving passion after stones and minerals, the deifying of that — — — 
 forlorn element, which, saith Aristotle, /lovr) Kptrrjv ov/c 6^X77^6, 
 could never get any advocate to plead for it, that which 
 struck Moses into such a passion, these people have com- [Exod. 
 mitted a great sin, have made them gods of gold this " love j"^^^^-"' 
 of the world and things of the world,^^ extravagant desire, 15.] 
 hot pursuit of such cold embraces, — like the embalmers in 
 Herodotus, that had flames toward the chilled earth, the 
 carcasses before them, — this dry juiceless sin, is yet able to 
 pollute and defame the soul, as earth, you know, is as apt 
 to foul and sully as any thing ; covetousness is as irrecon- 
 cilable with purity, as incontinence and intemperance, and 
 all with the eTvayyekias Tavras, the " these promises" in 
 the text. 
 
 So, in the second place, for that of rage, it is a fruitful 
 teeming mother, which contains all the more sublimate kinds 
 of carnality, pride, and ambition, and all the generation of 
 those vipers, " hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, se- Gal. v. 20. 
 ditions, heresies, envyings, murders, and the like," all prime 
 "works of the flesh," though somewhat more volatile and ver. 19. 
 aerial, i.e. have more of Satan and Lucifer in them than the 
 other. Even he that but sides in religion, that makes that 
 band of all charity and humility, an engine of faction or 
 pride, that saith, " I am of Paul," &c. ; is he not carnal? the 1 Cor.iii.4. 
 most undoubted carnality in the world. A multitude of sins 
 there are under this one head, able to bespot a man, a na- 
 tion, into a leopard ; and those spots are far from being the 
 spots of sons, reconcilable with the promises of this text. 
 But above all, one that pollutes in grain, that crimson dye, 
 the guilt of blood, in which those souls that are rolled, — as 
 every malicious, unpeaceable spirit certainly is, though he 
 never had the courage to shed any, — look so direful in God's 
 sight, that in comparison with them, the mire and mud of 
 the basest swine may pass for a tolerable beauty ; the blood 
 of men, saith Psellus, yielding a fume or nidour that the 
 devils, — and sure none but of their complexion and diet, — 
 are fed and fattened with ; and Maimonides to the same pur- 
 pose, that it is the food of devils ; that he that can feed on 
 it, is a guest DHS^'n \rb^ hv, at the table of devils," and 
 
 i 
 
l£2 THE NECESSITY OF THE CHRISTIANAS CLEANSING. 
 
 S E R M. literally guilty of that which St. Paul mentions so sadly, " I 
 - — — would not that ye should have fellowship with devils/^ par- 
 ' take of that Cyclops feast prepared, like hell, peculiarly for 
 the devil and his angels, — those great Abaddons and Apol- 
 lyons, — and cannot without injury and riot be snatched 
 out of his hands, be swilled and wallowed in by us; those 
 Gveo-reca helirva, — that were so scandalously charged on 
 the primitive Christians, and cost Justin Martyr and Athe- 
 nagoras such Apologies, — their feasting on one another's 
 flesh : which charge should it be now resumed, and brought 
 in by Turks or Indians against us Protestants, — as they 
 say it is, but certainly will be, when it is told in Gath 
 and Askelon, — good God ! what should we do for an 
 apologist ? 
 
 Come we then in the last place to the last degree of purity, 
 that which excludes hypocrisy or mixture, the sin which hath 
 so dyed this nation, given it an heir-apparency to all the 
 Pharisees' woes. Not only that notion of hypocrisy which in 
 our ordinary speech hath engrossed the title, the vain- glori- 
 ous publishing all our own acts of piety ; Oh ! that is but a 
 puny degree of this sin ; I know not whether I should not 
 do well to give it some good words in comparison to its con- 
 trary, the desiring to appear more impure, more impious 
 than we are, — that gross, confident, bold-faced devil, the far 
 more dangerous of the two : — but, I say, the other more 
 secret nice hypocrisy, the falseness to God, taking in rivals 
 into the heart, the partial, halting, mutilate obedience, that 
 which keeps a reserve for Satan, for mammon, for myself, 
 when all should be given up to God; but above all, that 
 yet profounder piece, the Egyptian temple, a most glorious 
 fabric most piteously inhabited, nothing but cats and croco- 
 diles within instead of gods ; that of the painted sepulchre, 
 the noisome, poisonous secrecy under the loveliest disguise, 
 the vault or charnel-house of rottenness, of all the impurity 
 in the world, — the deep-digged Golgotha and Aceldama, — 
 under the fairest and most inviting inscription ; that histrio- 
 nical piece of the beasts' tragedy, the couchant, but ravening, 
 [Matt. vii. wolves under the sheep's clothing, the god brought in for 
 ^""■^ the basest services, the impurest contrivances in the world, 
 and never pretended to, or thought on, till we had those vile 
 
THE NECESSITY OF THE CHRISTIANAS CLEANSING. 
 
 123 
 
 employments for him; and this you will acknowledge suffi- SERM. 
 
 ciently inconsistent with the purifying in this text^ and so ~ — 
 
 with the " these promises." 
 
 Having given you the severals of this purity by the con- 
 trary branches of the impurity, we come now to the KaOapL- 
 ^6Lv, the notion of cleansing or purifying, that is here so 
 vehemently required of us : and that is not the having ac- 
 quired this purity, having attained any perfection of this 
 state in either kind; but only the being on the way, the 
 constant motion and growth, a setting out, and progress and 
 proficiency in it, a daily purging and rinsing of the soul, 
 that good innocent kind of ri[jLepo(3dirTLcrfjbos, that pardonable 
 Pharisaism of assiduous washings ; a daily slaughtering of 
 the great defilers one after another, one day of execution 
 for lust, another for rage; one for the impurities of the 
 tongue, the oaths, the lies, the profanations, the blasphemies, 
 the noisome unsavoury discourses, — blessed Lord, that this 
 might but be the day of demolishing that Babel of strange 
 heathen languages, the least degree of which is intolerable 
 among Christians ! — another for the impurities of the eye, 
 and a whole ocean of purgations little enough for that ; but 
 above all, an every-day care for the drying up the great 
 fountain of leprosy in the heart. In a word, a firm ratified 
 resolution of mortifying and crucifying, a devoting and con- 
 secrating all, and making as much speed with them as we 
 can. To that end, though the perfect purity be not acquired, 
 yet must these three essays be made toward it, these three 
 degrees of ascent and proficiency observed : 
 
 1. Barring up the inlets, obstructing the avenues against 
 all future breakings in of the great polluters, the resisting 
 all fresh temptations, — by the remembrance how dear they 
 have formerly cost our souls, what floods of tears, if we have 
 done our duty, what a whole shop of purgatives to get out 
 one spot so contracted, — but especiall}^, stopping the recur- 
 rence of the old profane polluted habits, that 5? els (36p[3o- [2 Pet. ii. 
 pov, the cleansed swine returned to her old beloved wallow- ^^"^ 
 ing again. 
 
 2. Our daily, minutely recourse to that digitus Dei, "finger 
 of God," which alone, say the Jews, can cleanse lepers, with 
 
 a Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make us clean;" Thou [Luke v. 
 
124 
 
 THE NECESSITY OF THE CHRISTIANAS CLEANSING. 
 
 S M. canst prepare new J ordans of grace beyond all our rivers of 
 
 — ' — Damascus, new banks, new treasures of purity. 
 
 And then 3, taking the seasonable advice of the Syrian 
 servants, going down and washing in that Jordan, acting 
 upon ourselves by the power of this grace, thus fitly co- 
 operating with God to the utmost of our derivative strength ; 
 not lying like cripples on the bank when we have a Bethesda 
 before us, which yet will cleanse none but those that go into 
 it. And that brings me to the former of the two circum- 
 stances, — belonging to this duty^ — denoted by the eavT0V9, 
 cleanse ^ ourselves,' that it is the Christian's task upon him- 
 self, this of purifying; KadapL^wjxev iavrovsj "let us cleanse 
 ourselves." 
 
 It is the prerogative of the grace of Christ, that he that 
 is vouchsafed his portion of that, is thereby thus enabled to 
 mortify sin, and advance toward purity; and it is the duty 
 of all that are thus vouchsafed and dignified, to make use 
 of that strength to that end, to purify themselves. For as 
 Aquinas observes out of Aristotle, that those things are pos- 
 sible for us, which are possible by our friends, so what we 
 are enabled to do by the grace of Christ, we are able to do. 
 He that is born of God, is born an athleta and victor, the 
 whole world is but a pigmy before him ; this is the privilege 
 of that high descent, that be he the impotentest creature in 
 the world, considered in his natural, carnal, or moral princi- 
 
 [John i. pies, either as " born of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of 
 the will of man,-" he hath yet an acquisition of a kind of 
 omnipotence, from the derived communicated strength of 
 
 [Phil. iv. Christ, as he is born of God; iaxvet nravTa, "he can do all 
 
 ^^'^ things through Christ that strengthens him.'' God by His 
 preventing and subsequent grace, works in the Christian to 
 will and to do merely of His good pleasure of bounty ; and 
 
 [Ibid. ii. then the exhortation belonsrs to that Christian, to "work, 
 
 12.j . 
 
 and work out his own salvation." 
 
 And were but the care and pains employed in the using 
 and improving those talents which God hath given us, and 
 calling to heaven for supplies, which is mis-spent and paltered 
 away in pleading our impotencies and disabilities, and wants 
 of grace, — that is, in accusing, in the old heathen style, God's 
 illiberal dealing with His children,— charging Heaven with 
 
THE NECESSITY OF THE CHRISTIANAS CLEANSING. 
 
 125 
 
 all our failings, — we might certainly reap better fruit of our SERM. 
 time, be fairer proficients in this art of purging ; and in the 
 mean may spend our spirits most profitably in calling and 
 hastening one another to this so possible, and withal so 
 necessary, task ; and that is the last particular, that it ought 
 to be the united design of all Christians, the Apostle and 
 people together, to aid and assist one another in this work 
 of purifying, by entreaties, by exhortations, by all the en- 
 gagements of love and duty; KaOapi^cofiev eavrovsj "let 
 us cleanse ourselves." 
 
 The work, it is acknowledged, though possible to be gone 
 through with, in such a measure as shall be sure of accept- 
 ance, is yet of some more than ordinary difficulty. How long 
 hath this poor nation been about it ? So many years in the 
 refiner^s fire, in God's furnace for purifying, worn out and 
 rent to pieces under the fuller's soap ; and yet, God knows, 
 as full of dross and spots as ever, the poor leper-kingdom 
 thrust out of the camp, — the temple, — banished from the old 
 privileges of the Israelite, the oracle and the service of God, 
 God spitting in the face of it, in Moses' style, — a kind of 
 excommunicate state, — all on that charitable purpose, that 
 it might be ashamed and apply itself to the priest, to God 
 for His purgatives; I shall add, looked upon, prayed over by 
 that priest so many years together ; and that cure still as far 
 from being perfected as ever, the leprosy spreading in the 
 skin, the sins multiplying under the priest's inspection, under 
 God's rod; at the end of a seven years' rinsing, — not with 
 soap, but nitre, — a thousand times more odious spots, more 
 provoking sins, more hellish impurities, than before. I re- 
 member what poor Porphyry was fain to do in pursuit of 
 purgatives, the same that Saul after the commission of his 
 sin that rent the kingdom from him, betake himself els 
 deovpyiav koI 'yoTjTeiav, to magic and conjuring, make 
 friends to the devil to help purify him. O that we, having 
 met with luckier prescriptions, — recipes from heaven, that 
 would be sure to prove successful, — would not betray all, for 
 want of applying them, that while it is called to-day, while a 
 poor spotted kingdom lies a gasping, the benefit of the last 
 plunge, the (j^vaeis Irjrpal, might not be quite let slip, that 
 this of purifying, the only true expedient yet untried,^ — whilst 
 
126 
 
 THE NECESSITY OF THE CHRISTIAN'S CLEANSING. 
 
 s E^R M. all others are experimented to be but mere empirical state 
 
 ■ — moantebankery, — might at length be thought on/ prosecuted 
 
 with some vigour, every man entering into the retirement of 
 his own breast, there to search and view the spotted patient, 
 
 viii^38^]^ the plague, the leprosy of his own heart ! and again, every 
 man making his arts of cure as communicative and diffusive, 
 as charitable and catholic as he can; that as David was 
 
 [Ps. cxxii. ravished with joy, when they said unto him, " Let us go into 
 the house of the Lord," — that pleasant news and spectacle, a 
 conspiration for piety, — so we for that only errand that sends 
 us all to that house, the beginning and advancing of purity ; 
 every man, like an Israelite in his flight from Egypt, not 
 only going out in haste, — a passover toward purity, — but 
 also despoiling his Egyptian neighbours, robbing one of his 
 lusts, another of his detractions, one of his atheistical oaths, 
 another of his swinish excesses, one of his infidel tremblings 
 and basenesses, another of his covetings and ambitions, his 
 jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiments, his most 
 valued precious sins, — the curses with which he hath clothed 
 himself as with a garment, and which would one day, if they 
 were not snatched from him, come like scalding water into 
 his bowels, and oil into his bones, — and so yet, if it be pos- 
 sible, come out a troop, a legion of naked wrestlers, a whole 
 shoal of candidates toward purity. Till somewhat be done 
 this way, more than hitherto hath been done, peace may 
 hover over our heads, express its willingness to light upon 
 us ; but ad Candida tecta columbce, that dove will not enter 
 or dwell ^vhere purity hath not prepared for her : or if she 
 should so unlearn her own humour, it were danger she w ould 
 turn vulture, that most desirable blessing prove our fatallest 
 curse, leave us in and to a state of all impurities, to depre- 
 cate and curse those mercies that had betrayed us to such 
 irreversible miseries. Lord, purge, Lord, cleanse us; do 
 Thou break those vessels of ours that will not be purified ; 
 cast us again into what furnace Thou pleasest, that we may at 
 length leave our dross, our filth behind us : and having used 
 Thine own methods toward this end, and purged our eyes to 
 see that it is Thou that hast thought this necessary for us, 
 that hast of very mercy, very fidelity thus caused us to be 
 troubled, work in us that purity here, which may make us 
 
THE NECESSITY OF THE CHRISTIANAS CLEANSING. 
 
 127 
 
 capable of that vision, that peace, that fuhiess of sanctity SERM. 
 and glory hereafter ; which God of His infinite abyss of — — — 
 purity grant us all; to Whom, with the Son, that image of 
 His Father's purity, and the holy, sanctifying, purifying 
 Spirit, &c. 
 
SERMON VII. 
 
 BEING A LENT SERMON AT OXFORD, A.D. 1643. 
 
 CHRIST AND BARABBAS. 
 
 John xviii. 40. 
 
 Not this Man, but Bar abbas, 
 
 s ERM. This passage of story not unagreeable to the time, — every 
 — ^^-^ — day of Lent being a TrpoirapaaKevr) to the passion week, — 
 hath much of the present humour of the world in it, whether 
 we consider it as an act of censure, or as an act of choice : 
 both these it is here in the Jews. 
 
 1. An act of popular censure, i. e. most perfect injustice, 
 very favourable to the robber, and very severe to Christ ; Ba- 
 rabbas may be released, the vilest wretch in the world, one 
 that was attached for robbery and for insurrection, may be- 
 come the people's favourite, be pitied and pleaded for, and 
 absolutely pardoned: dat veniam corvis^, the blackest devils in 
 hell shall pass without any of our malice, our indignation, our 
 animosities ; but an innocent Christ, or any of His making, 
 one that comes from heaven to us, upon errands of holiness, 
 of reformation, that by authority of His doctrine and exam- 
 ple would put vice out of countenance, discover our follies, or 
 [Wisd. ii. reproach our madnesses, and in the Wise Man's phrase, up- 
 12, 14.] \yx?adi our ways, and reprove our thoughts,'' He that hath no 
 sins to qualify Him for our acquaintance, no oaths, no ri- 
 baldry to make him good company, none of the compliances 
 or vices of the times to commend him to our friendship, at 
 least to our pardon, none of that new kind of popularity of 
 being as debauched and professedly vicious as other men, shall 
 
 a [JuV. ii. 63.] 
 
CHRIST AND BAEABBAS. 
 
 129 
 
 be suspected, and feared, and hated, the most odious, unpar- SERM. 
 donable, unsufFerable neighbour, " grievous unto us even to 
 
 behold/' Innocence is become the most uncomely degener- ^^sd.ii.i5. 
 ous quality, virtue the most envious, censorious thing; the 
 not being so near hell as other men, the most ridiculous 
 scrupulosity, and folly in the world. And the misery of it 
 is, there is no discoursing, no reasoning this humour out of 
 us, they had cried once before, and the crossing doth but 
 more inflame them ; the charm, that should have exorcised, 
 doth but enrage the evil spirit, " Then cried they all again, 
 saying. Not this man, but Barabbas." 
 
 But besides this, I told you, these words might be taken in 
 another notion, and under that it is that we are resolved to 
 handle them, as an act of the Jews' choice, of their absolute 
 unconditionate decree, their loving of Barabbas, and hating of 
 Jesus, not before they had done either good or evil, but after [Rom. ix. 
 one had done all the evil, the other all the good imaginable ; ^^'^ 
 then hating the Jacob, and loving the Esau; electing the 
 robber, and rejecting the Saviour ; the Barabbas becomes a 
 Barabbas indeed, according to the origination of the name, 
 a son of a father, a beloved son in whom they are well 
 pleased, a chosen vessel of their honour, and Christ the only 
 refuse vessel of dishonour, the only unamiable, undesirable, 
 formless, beautiless reprobate in the mass : Non hunc, sed 
 Barabbam, " Not this man," &c. 
 
 In the words under the notion of the choice, you may 
 please to take notice of these severals : 
 
 1. A competition precedaneous to this choice, presumed 
 here, but expressed in St. Matthew, rLva Oekere eV royv [Matt. 
 hvo, which of the two will ye," &c. ^^'^ 
 
 2. The competitors, Barabbas and Christ. 
 
 3. The choice itself, not only preferring one before the 
 other, non hunc, sed, but 1. absolutely rejecting of one, non 
 hunc, not this man ; and then by way of necessary refuge 
 pitching upon the other, Non hunc, sed Barabbam, Not this 
 man, but Barabbas." 
 
 And of these in this order. 
 
 And first, of the first, that there is a competition, before 
 what the competitors are, or what the choice. 
 
 1. I say that there is a competition, a canvass, or plying, 
 
 HAMMOND. K 
 
130 
 
 CHRIST AND BAllABBAS. 
 
 SERM. before we come to clioose any thing; this is a truth most 
 — — constantly observable, in all which we are most concerned in^ 
 in that transcendent interest, the business of our souls. Were 
 there but one object represented to the faculty, one Christ, 
 one holiness, one salvation, the receiving Him would be any 
 thing rather than choice ; chance it might be, or necessity it 
 might be; chance it might be, that such a thing had the 
 luck to come first, to prepossess and forestal us, to get our 
 favour when there was nobody else to sue for it ; and indeed 
 he that should be godly, or Christian on such a felicity as 
 this, through ignorance only, or non-representation of the 
 contrary, he that should give his voice unto Christ, because 
 there was nobody else to canvass for it, that if Mahomet had 
 plied him first, would have had as much faith for the Alco- 
 ran, as he hath now for the Bible, been as zealous for a car- 
 nal, sensual, as now for a pure spiritual paradise ; he that if 
 he had been born of heathen parents, or put out to nurse to 
 an Indian, would have sucked in as much of Gentilism, as by 
 this civil English education he hath attained to of the true 
 religion, that hath no supersedeas, no fortification against 
 worshipping of sun and moon, posting from one heathen 
 shrine, — as now from one sermon, — to another, but only that 
 Christianity bespake him earliest, that idolatry was not at 
 leisure to crave his favour, when Protestancy got it ; is, I con- 
 fess, a Christian, he may thank his stars for it, planetarius 
 sanctuSy a saint, but such an one as a Jew would have been, 
 might he have been a changeling stolen into that cradle, or 
 the most barbarous China infidel, had he had (as he of old, 
 fortunam Ccesaris, so) fortunam Cliristiani, the Christian's for- 
 tune to have tutored him. And so for virtue and sinlessness 
 also, he in whom it is not conscience, but bashfulness and 
 ignorance of vice, that abstains only from uncreditable or 
 unfashionable, from branded or disused sins, swears not, 
 only because he hath not learnt the art of it, hath not yet 
 gotten into the court, or into the army, the schools where 
 that skill is taught, the shops where those reversed thunder- 
 bolts, so tempestuously shot against heaven, are forged; he 
 that is no drunkard, no adulterer, no malicious person, only 
 quia nemo, because he hath no company to debauch, no 
 strength to maintain, no injury to provoke the uncommitted 
 
CHRIST AND BARABBAS. 
 
 131 
 
 sin ; is all this while but a child of fate, born under a benign SERM. 
 
 aspect, more lucky, but not more innocent, more fortunate, — 
 
 but not more virtuous than other men. 
 
 Again, if there were no competition, as it might be chance, 
 so it might be necessity too ; thou art fain to be virtuous, 
 because thou canst be nothing else, goodness must go for 
 thy refuge, but not thy choice, were there no rival sin, no 
 competitor lust to pretend for thee. 
 
 It is therefore not only an act of wisdom, but of goodness 
 too, observable in God^s wonderful dispensation of things 
 under the Gospel, to leave the Christian, iv jmeOopla), in the 
 confines of two most distant people, improvable into good, 
 and capable of evil, like Erasmus^ picture at Rome, or that 
 vulgar lie of Mahomet^s tomb at Aleppo betwixt two load- 
 stones, afi(f)isl37]T7]fia Oeov Koi haijJLovwv, as Synesius calls 
 it, a stake between God on one side, and all the devils in 
 hell on the other, made up of a Canaanite and an Israel- 
 ite, a law in the members as well as a law in the mind, 
 or as Antoninus^, irela-eLs ev jjuopiois, persuasions in the[Rom. vii. 
 members, many topics of rhetoric, manj'- strong allectives to ^^'-^ 
 evil in the lower carnal part of the man, as well as invita- 
 tions and obligations to good in the upper and spiritual. 
 Thus did God think fit to dispose it, even in paradise itself, 
 the flesh tempted with carnal objects, even before the first 
 sin had disordered that flesh; a palate for the sweetness of 
 the apple to please, and an eye for the beauty to invite, as 
 well as an upper masculine faculty, a reason for commands 
 to awe, and threats to deter; yea, and it seems in heaven 
 itself, and the angels there, where is no flesh and blood, that 
 officina cnpidinum, shop or workhouse of desires, yet even 
 there is an inlet for ambition, though not for lust, a liable- 
 ness to the filthiness of the spirit, though not of the flesh, or [2 Cor. vii. 
 else Lucifer had still stood favourite, could never have for- 
 feited that state of bliss. And so it is ever since in this in- 
 ferior orb of ours, Behold, I set before thee life and death, [Deutxxx. 
 blessing and cursing,^' on one side all the joys of heaven to ^^'^ 
 ravish and enwrap thee, the mercies of Christ to " draw thee [Hos.xi.4.] 
 with the cords of a man, with the bands of love,^^ to force and 
 violence thy love by loving thee first, by setting thee a copy 
 
 [ala6T]TiKu>u TretVewK Antonini ad seipsum, lib. iii. cap. 6.] 
 K 2 
 
CHRIST AND BAEABBAS. 
 
 SERM. of that heavenly passion to transcribe, but then Avithal death 
 
 '- — in the other scale, death which it seems hath something 
 
 amiable in it too, it would not be so courted else, a 7rop(f)vpa 
 Tov (TKorovs, as Macarius styles it, a gallantrj^ of hell, a 
 purple garment of darkness, that such shoals of men, and I 
 tremble to think and say, so large a quantity of baptized 
 Christians are so ambitious of, sell all that is comfortable and 
 valuable in this life, to purchase it : and were there not both 
 these set before us by God, life on one side, and death on 
 the other, blessing on one side, and cursing on the other, a 
 double canvass for thy soul, a rivalry, a competition, and 
 somewhat on both sides amiable to somewhat in thee, life to 
 the immortal, death to the perishing part of thee, blessing 
 to the rational divine, cursing to the bedlam brutish part of 
 thee, the man of God could not go on as he doth in that 
 
 Deut.xxx. place, ''^ therefore choose life, that thou and thy sons may 
 live/' Were there but one in our reach, it were necessity 
 still and not choice, and that most absolutely destructive of 
 all judgment to come; hell might be our fate, but not our 
 wages, our destiny, but not our reward, and heaven any thing 
 
 [2 Tim. iv. more truly than a crown of righteousness/^ 
 
 A piece of the philosopher there hath been a long while in 
 the world, that hath had a great stroke in debauching the 
 divine, that the understanding doth necessarily and irre- 
 sistibly move the will, that whatever hath once passed the 
 judicium practicum, got not only the assent of the judgment 
 that it is true, but the allowance also that it is good and fit 
 to be chosen, cannot choose but be desired and prosecuted 
 by the will; from whence the divine subsumes, that where 
 faith is once entered, though that but a speculative (I wish it 
 were not sometimes but a phantastical) faith, there works 
 must and will infallibly follow. I confess it were admirable 
 
 [John xiii. news if this were true, if all that know these things were 
 sure to do them, if there were no such thing possible as sin 
 against light, sin against gospel, sin against conscience; if 
 the lives of believers could not prove infidel, the actions of 
 those that acknowledge God, that make no doubt of the 
 truth of Christianity, could not avoid or escape being God- 
 like and Christian, if it were but a flash of St. Augustine^s wit, 
 that the wicked infidel believes contrary to faith, the wicked 
 
CHRIST AND BAIIABBAS. 
 
 133 
 
 believer lives contrary to it; there were then but one care serM. 
 
 left a Christian, to be catechized aright, which the Solifidian — — 
 
 calls faith ; or to be confident of his own election, which the 
 
 fiduciary calls faith ; and then Quis separabit ? any thing 
 
 else will be wrought in me by Christ, or that any thing else 
 
 will be unnecessary to be wrought. Instead of this pagan 
 
 principle that ties up all in the chains of inevitable fate, if it 
 
 be examined, give me leave to mention to you one aphorism 
 
 of Christian philosophy, which is but the interpretation of 
 
 the competition that now I speak of; that the will is no more 
 
 necessitated to obey the suggestions of reason, than of the 
 
 sensual appetite, of the upper than the lower soul, that it is 
 
 an indifferent middle faculty, able to choose the evil and [Is. vii. 15, 
 
 refuse the good, or, — to satisfy the philosopher's importunity, ^^'^ 
 
 which resolves it impossible to choose the evil, unless under 
 
 the appearance of good, you may take it in a clearer notion, — 
 
 able to choose the pleasant and refuse the honest, to choose 
 
 the sensual carnal, and refuse the intellectual spiritual good. 
 
 And that you may see the ground of this, observe that the 
 
 whole man is made up of three parts, spirit, soul and body, [l Thess. 
 
 1 . The body or flesh lusting against the spirit. And 2. j-'^^^' ^ 
 the spirit again lusting against the flesh. Those two ex- 17-] 
 tremes perfectly contrary one to the other in their appetites, 
 and therefore called by the ancients, appev, and 6fj\v, one 
 the masculine, the other the feminine part, one the monarch 
 in the soul, the other the 6 Stj/jlo?, or commonalty ; one the 
 TraiSaycoyos, the master, the other the iraihlov, or child ; 
 one the Seos iv 'rj/xlv, the voice and image of God in us, 
 the other the Orjpia, the bestial part ; one the man, the 
 other the rerpdiroSa, the four-footed creatures in us. And 
 these are contrary the one to the other, so that you can- 
 not do, or, as the Greek, iva firj TroLrjre, so that you do 
 not, this is a consequent of that contrariety, you do not the 
 thing that you would; i. e. perhaps perfectly, purely without 
 some tack or mixture, however I am sure, not quietly, stilly, 
 without some opposition of the other. And then comes in 
 in the third place, ^vxh> soul, the elective faculty, i. e. 
 the will betwixt them, courted and solicited by both, as that 
 which hath the determining casting voice ; if the beast can 
 carry it, if the sensual suggestions get the consent of the 
 
134 
 
 CHRIST AND BARABBAS. 
 
 s E R M. will j obtain the embrace, have its carnal proposals yielded 
 to ; then in the Apostle's phrase lust conceives, and within 
 
 [Jas.i. 15.] j^^j^-jg proceeds from consent to act, bringeth forth sin; but 
 when the spirit prevails, when the reason, the conscience, the 
 God within thee, is allowed to be heard, when that chaste, 
 sober, matronly spouse gets the embraces, the consent of the 
 will, then the spirit conceives, and from thence spring all the 
 
 [Gal. V. Kapirol irvevfjuaTo^, which the Scripture speaks of, the fruits 
 
 ^^•^ and productions of the spirit. You see now the competition, 
 the constant importunities and solicitations, the rivalry for 
 thy soul, not an action of moment or importance in thy life, 
 but the house is divided about it, the spirit for one way, and 
 the flesh for another, and that that prevails, i. e. gets the will 
 of its side, denominates the action, and the action frequently 
 and indulgently reiterated, denominates thee either flesh or 
 spirit, either captive to the law of sin, or obedient to the 
 commands and dictates of Christ, a carnal sinner, or a 
 spiritual disciple. 
 
 And then my brethren, by way of use : 
 1. You see the answer to that hard problem, what is the 
 reason and ground of the infiniteness of those punishments 
 that await sinners in another world : here you have the oil 
 that maintains that accursed vestal fire, so much beyond 
 TuUiola's or Pallas' lamp in Licetus, burning so many ages 
 under ground and not consumed; I mean, this competition 
 in this text, — the riva OeXere eV twv Bvo, which of the two 
 infinites will you, — and that other we mentioned of life and 
 death, blessing and cursing, set before us by God, the leaving 
 to our option whether of the two infinites we will have ; this, 
 and nothing hut this, hath made it most perfectly reason- 
 
 [Acts xiii. able, that despisers should perish eternally, that he that will 
 
 ^^*-' contemn immortal life, that rov ev %6/)crliy alcova^, as Clemens, 
 St. PauFs contemporary, calls it, that eternity put into our 
 hands by Christ, and make his deliberate covenant with 
 death, that his immortal part may die eternally, should be 
 
 [Wisd. i. thought worthy, as the book of Wisdom hath it, to take his 
 
 ^^•^ portion or part with it. And then, 
 
 [55sT€ ouv adeA^oi fJ-ov, aywvicrta- rai, el /jlt] oi ttoWo. noindcravres Kol 
 
 fxeOa elSSres '6ti eV x^pcr'" o aliaf' koI koAws ayeauiadfj.€uoi. — S. Clem. Ep. ii. 
 
 oTi els Tohs (pdaprovs aywyas KarairXe- cap. 7. ayoov seems to be a probable 
 
 ovaiv TToWol, dAA' ov nduTts aTe<pavovv- emendation of alwv in this passage.] 
 
CHRIST AND BARABBAS. 
 
 135 
 
 2. 0 liow much the more care, and caution, and vigilance SERM. 
 will it require at our hands, to keep guard over that one — — 
 faculty, that spring of life and death, that fountain of sweet 
 and poisonous water, that of choosing or rejecting, willing or 
 nilling; never to dispense those favours loosely or prodigally, 
 never to deny them rashly or unadvisedly, but upon all the 
 mature deliberation in the world ! " keep thy heart with all Prov.iv.23. 
 diligence," the heart this principle of action, keep it above 
 all keeping, " for out of it are the issues of life." That when [Rom. vii. 
 I would do good, evil is present with me," temptations of the ^^'-^ 
 carnal appetite to the contrary, it matters little, so I hold 
 off my consent, resist their importunity ; and that all the 
 devils in hell are a whispering blasphemy within me, it 
 matters as little, so I reject the suggestions. Resist, and he 
 shall fly ; that he is loose to tempt, this is my infelicity per- 
 haps, but not my guilt, aye and that mishap improved into a 
 blessing, iSoO?] crKoXo'ylr, this tempter a kind of donative of 
 heaven, to busy my patience, and exercise my vigilance, to 
 set out my Christian valour, to make me capable of the 
 victory first, and then the crown; the nations left ^* to prove Judg.iii. l, 
 Israel," yea and to teach them war, at least such as before ^* 
 knew nothing thereof." Only be sure that those nations get 
 not the upper hand ; to that purpose that they be not pam- 
 pered and fed too high, till they grow petulant and unruly, 
 that this jumentum honiinis, as St. Jerome calls it, this ass, or 
 beast-part of a man, prove not the rider^s master : this is the 
 greatest danger first, and then reproach in the world, which 
 you will more discern if you proceed from the competition 
 to the competitors, and consider who they are, in us spirit 
 and flesh, God and devil, as in the Jews Barabbas and 
 Christ, my second particular. 
 
 It is none of the least of God^s mercies among His dispen- 
 sations of providence, that the competition falls to be betwixt 
 such persons so acknowledgedly distant, and hugely contrary, 
 a Christ and a Barabbas ; the one so precious, and the other 
 so vile, the Prince of peace, and the author of an insurrec- [Is. ix. 6.] 
 tion, a acoTrjp and an diroWvcov, "a Saviour" and "a de- 
 stroyer ;" had it been betwixt a Christ and a Nicodemus, a 
 carpenter's son and a rabbi or ruler in Israel, the choice 
 might have been more difficult, or the mistake more pardon- 
 
136 
 
 CHRIST AND BAllABBAS. 
 
 s ^^j^- able ; but " so God loved the world/' such were the riches of 
 
 p ^ His goodness to an infatuated rebellious people, He sets 
 
 16?]""^* before them a beautiful Christ, and an odious foil to make 
 Him more beautiful, to make it impossible for them to be so 
 mad, as to refuse and finally to reject Christ, that was on 
 such grounds, and in such company, a suing and importuning 
 for their favour; none but a Barabbas to pretend against 
 Him, that that notion had of Him might serve instead of 
 [Tobitvi. the fish's gall to recover the blind Tobit's sight, help the 
 ^'^ blindest natural man to discern somewhat tolerable, if not 
 
 desirable in the Christ, that in so poor a choice, an under- 
 valued, prejudged, scandalous Jesus might have leave to be 
 considered, and owe a preferment alienis vitiis to the faults 
 of the other, though not virtutibus suis to any thing amiable 
 or estimable in Himself. The same economy you may gene- 
 rally observe even from the first of paradise to this day; 
 when our first parents were the prize, the competitors were 
 of somewhat a distant making, God and the serpent, not the 
 King of heaven and one of Plis chief courtiers, God and an 
 archangel of light, but God and a damned spirit, a black 
 prince, and he but in very homely disguise, but of a ser- 
 pent, which though he were then a rerpaTroSov, as Cedrenus 
 out of some of the ancients will have it, somewhat a taller 
 and goodlier creature than now the serpent is, that his legs 
 be cut off*, yet the text saith^ a beast for all that, aye and that 
 [Gen. iii. bcast branded for craft, infamous for the subtilest creature, 
 and so not likely to prove the most honest and solicitous of 
 their good; and this cunning Pytho had made friends to 
 speak, contrary to his kind, there was sure some sorcery in 
 that; and all this, one would think, was enough to have added 
 authority to God by such a prejudged competitor. And just 
 so was it to the Israelites at their coming out of Egypt, God 
 and a cruel Pharaoh, a deliverer and a tyrant, one to have them 
 slaves in Egypt, the other to have them princes in Canaan ; a 
 sufficient inequality betwixt the pretenders, that it might be 
 impossible for any to prefer the onions and the garlick, be- 
 [Exod. fore the manna and the kingdom. After, it was betwixt God 
 [2 Klings ^ golden calf, a calf still, no very honourable creature, 
 
 xviii. 4.] though it were of gold ; and anon betwixt God and a brazen 
 serpent, serpent and brazen too, neither form nor metal to 
 
CillllST AND BAEABBAS. 
 
 137 
 
 commend it; and all along through the heathen world the SERM. 
 competition was yet more unequal, betwixt the God of — ^^^i — 
 heaven J and wood and stone of the earth, the most glorious 
 Creator, and vilest creature, nay the piece of wood, as the 
 prophet sets it, that was not fit for any use, not so much as 
 to be burnt, the very refuse of the refuse is the thing the 
 idol was made of, and none but that idol thought fit to be a [Is. xHv. 
 competitor with God for the adoration. If you look back to 
 Judea again, at the time of the great competition for the 
 hearts of Israel betwixt Rehoboam and Jeroboam, it was still [i Kings 
 
 xii. 27 ' 
 
 of the same making, betwixt a king^s son and a servant, a xiv. 30!] 
 right heir and a cunning seducer, a kind of serpent again ; 
 yes, and betwixt the glorious temple of Jerusalem on one 
 side, and the upstart Dan and Bethel on the other, the high- [Ibid. xii. 
 
 • 29 1 
 
 priest on one side, and the basest of the people on the other, 
 betwixt the calves at that Dan, and the cherubims at that 
 Jerusalem; and so still there was advantage enough, one 
 would think, on God^s side, against such competitors. And 
 if we look now abroad into the most idolized adored Dianas, 
 the sins that get all the custom away from Christ, the only 
 rivals with Him for our souls, we shall find them but little 
 advanced above that old pitch, little lovelier than the serpent, 
 just such are our crafts, our unsanctified counsels, our wily 
 artifices, that have nothing but serpent in their composition ; 
 little honourabler than the calf, just such are our gods of 
 gold, which I cannot mention, but in Moses' passion, " O this [Exod. 
 people have committed a great sin, have made them gods of^''^"*^^'^ 
 gold \ all piety transformed and contracted into the worship 
 of that one shrine, our gain the only godliness we can hear [i Tim. vi. 
 of : and then a multitude more, of a yet viler making, fit ^'^ 
 only for a competition with that knotty refuse piece of wood 
 of which the idol was made : the more shame they should 
 outvie a most glorious God, a Christ, that if He had nothing 
 in His life amiable, yet hath died for us, and so hath dearly 
 purchased a title to our love, yea and a blessed spirit, come 
 down on purpose to sublime our judicative faculty, to con- 
 vince the world of the unreasonableness of sin; yea, and a 
 poor thirsty panting soul, — which hath some reason to expect 
 kindness from us, — a heaven and. an immortal bliss. 
 
 Consider but a few of that glittering train of reigning sins 
 
138 
 
 CHRIST AND BARABBAS. 
 
 s E R M. in this our laud, iu this my auditory, and be astonished, O 
 
 '- — earth, that they should ever be received in competition with 
 
 Christ. The oaths, that all the importunity of our weekly 
 sermons turned into satires against that sin, cannot either 
 steal or beg from us, what gain or profit do they aflPord us ? 
 which of our senses do they entertain, which of our faculties 
 do they court? an empty, profitless, temptationless sin, sen- 
 suality only to the devil part in us, fumed out of hell into 
 our mouths in a kind of hypochondriacal fit, an affront to 
 that strict command of Christ, His ego autem to His disci- 
 [Matt V. pies, "but I say imto you,^^ Christians, "swear not at all the 
 ^^'■^ best quality that it can pretend to, is that that Hierocles of 
 old mentions with indignation, irpo^ avaiT\7]pwcriv \6yov, to 
 fill up the vacuities of the speech, to express and man a rage, 
 i. e. to act a madman the more perfectly. And of him that 
 hath in his time sworn over all the hairs of his head, I would 
 [Rom, vi. still ask but this one question, riva rore fcapirov, "what fruit 
 "^•^ had he then of this sin,^^ — then, when it was full in his mouth, 
 a swelling his cheeks, — " whereof he is now ashamed," cannot 
 choose but blush, his ears glow, or be in some pain till I 
 have done speaking of it : and yet beyond this, the end of 
 those things is death, a several fiend in hell most sadly to 
 come, the payment of every of those gainless oaths. It were 
 but a i/ru^^poz^, or cold address to this kind of sinner, to be- 
 [Matt. xvi. speak him in that expostulating style ; " what advantageth it 
 to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" it were 
 more to his purpose to demand, what advantageth it him to 
 gain not one atom, or most diminutive part of the world, not 
 the least acquisition of any thing desirable even to the carnal 
 man, satisfactory to any part of his appetite, save that (in a 
 manner, Platonic) designless love of sinning, and ruining 
 his own soul, and yet to do that as sure, as if he had Satan^s 
 totum hoc, his whole exchequer of wealth and honour in ex- 
 change for it ? I shall rather add, what shall that man give 
 in exchange for his soul to get it back again, which he hath 
 [Is. Hi. 3 ; parted with so cheap without any barter, sold it for nought 
 12 ]^^^^* taken no money for it, in the Psalmist's phrase, and 
 
 now cannot redeem it with all his patrimony? It would 
 grieve one, I confess, that did but weigh this sin in this 
 TDan. v. balance, and observe the tekel in the wall over against it, 
 
 5, 27.] 
 
CHIllST AND BAllABBAS. 
 
 139 
 
 how light and kexy and impertinent a sin this is, to hear S E R M 
 
 that any body should be damned for it in another world, ^ ^ — 
 
 part with such treasures for such trifles, make such African 
 voyages, carry out the substantial commodities of a good 
 land, and return with a freight of toys or monsters, pay so 
 hugely dear for such perfect nothings; and yet it would 
 grieve one more, that this sin should glitter in a protestant 
 court, become part of the gallantry and civility of the place, 
 aye and defame and curse our armies, that the improsperous- 
 ness, ruin, perhaps iravoXeOpia, of a whole kingdom should 
 be imputable to one such sin, and all our prayers to heaven 
 for you be outsounded and drowned with that most con- 
 trary eloquence. It were the justest thing in the world, that 
 he, that upon my present instance, — this more than hev- [Tit. iii. 
 Tepa vovOeala, second admonition, — will not now vow to ^^'^ 
 part for ever with this one sin, so threatful to his sovereign, 
 his country, his own soul, to the hosts gone forth against the 
 enemy, to all that is or should be precious to him, and so 
 absolutely gainless to himself in his vilest capacity, even as a 
 sensual brute, should never be admitted within these doors 
 again, never be preached to more, never be considered a 
 Christian so much as in profession, that Avill part with his 
 true Christ or Jesus, rather than with the names of them to 
 blaspheme by; that he should be delivered up to Satan, as 
 the primitive offenders were, /SacravC^ecrOai, to be corporally [i Cor. v. 
 tormented by him, ets* oXeOpov crapicos, to the tearing that ^'^ 
 foul tongue, that noisome piece of flesh out of his mouth, 
 that by that means at least, TracBevdy fxr] /SXaacjiTj/jbeLv, he[lTim. i. 
 may be disciplined or taught not to blaspheme. 
 
 Will you look into another sin, — a time of humiliation 
 may be an excuse for the digression, — that of uncleanness, 
 whether of the eye, the libidinous look, that men are so 
 hardly persuaded to believe to be a sin, — i. e. in efl'ect, that 
 Christ forbad any thing under that phrase of looking on a [Matt. v. 
 woman to lust, — or whether that of the tongue, that oris 
 stuprum, unsavoury discourse, rotten, putrid, noisome conver- 
 sation, which makes it so absurd for that man ever to pray, 
 — to bless God in the church, with that part that was so pol- 
 luted in the chamber, — or whether the grosser sin, the making 
 the members of Christ members of a harlot, — meant by the [i Cor. vi. 
 
140 
 
 CHllIST AND BAllABBAS. 
 
 s E R M. Apostle as a huge expression, members of a swine, a toad, 
 had been nothing to it, — what is this, but a Barabbas still, a 
 
 robber in competition with Christ for that body, which is, saith 
 lCor.vi.i3. the Apostle, "for the Lord, and not for fornication." A vile 
 infamous crime, that stays not, for the most part, for its hell, 
 its punishment in another world, meets with its Umbo, its 
 Tophet here, torments and curses enough in this life, if 
 they might have leave to be considered. 
 [Acts XV. It is worth observing in the New Testament that the name 
 
 20 • xvii 
 
 16; XX. 25- idolatry, not often mentioned there, doth most times very 
 J^^^^J^-^^' probably denote this sin of uncleanness or carnality; the 
 X. 7,14;' observation might be made good at large, if it were now 
 Epli^v^s- seasonable; and. I would to God my auditory would be per- 
 Coi. iii. 5 ; suadcd thus to keep themselves from idols, to fly from this 
 Rev. ii. 14, kill d of idolatry, that men's natures have a thousand times 
 Yr j^' ^ore temptations to, than that other sin that bears the envy 
 of all our misery, the idolatry that the sacrilegious so declaim 
 at : believe me, there is not a sin more incompatible with 
 the gospel mercy, a more irreconcilable rival of all godli- 
 ness, a greater waster of conscience, griever and quencher of 
 the spirit, a more perfect piece of atheism and heathenism, 
 be it in the fairest outside Christian ; nor withal a greater 
 blasting and curse to a nation, an army, a garrison town, 
 than the permission of this one sin, the voice of it crying to 
 heaven, as loud as Sodom, for fire from heaven, for judg- 
 Numb. ment upon the place. Remember the fierce judgment in 
 ^' Shittira, upon the people's joining to Baal Peor, that filthy 
 heathenish idol, expounded by committing whoredom with 
 the daughters of Moab ; the heads of the people, remem- 
 ber that, the heads of the people, the principal men in 
 Israel, either because they were most guilty, or because the 
 matter required such an expiation, must be hanged up 
 against the sun, that the anger of the Lord might be turned 
 away from Israel, — and I believe it would pose a man to give 
 any reason why this sin (of adultery at least) in this land, 
 as well as stealing of a trifle, should not be awarded in the 
 style of that text with hanging up against the sun, — and the 
 command there is to them in the place of judicature to see 
 ver. 5. the execution of the law against them, " Slay you every 
 one his men." But this is a judaical out-dated punish- 
 
CHRIST a:nd barabbas. 
 
 141 
 
 ment among us^ and it hath been the cunning of Satan that s E R M. 
 
 it should be so, who having prospered so far for his clients, — 
 
 would not be quiet till he had gotten all kind of restraint or 
 discouragement of this sin to be so too, till he had made the 
 foulest incest a far cheaper sin and safer possession, than the 
 practice of some Christian virtues; nay, which is observable 
 to the lasting shame of this land, till the injured man thus 
 despoiled and robbed by the adulterer, be made, by a kind 
 of national custom, the only infamous person, and the Barab- 
 bas that robbed him punished only with that curse in the 
 Gospel, of having all men speak well of him. O what is this, [Luke vi. 
 but as the Psalmist saith, "to bless them whom God abhors," ^ ^ -j 
 or as the prophet, "And now we call the proud, happy; and Mal.iii.15. 
 they that work wickedness, are set up!" Believe it, one or 
 two such ponderous guilts as these, are able to keep the 
 justest cause from buoying up itself, and our ferventest 
 prayers from their ttoXv tV^t;et, from working any saving 
 miracles upon a land. 
 
 I wish there were now no more Barabbas^s amongst us, a 
 canvassing against Christ, but I must not flatter you with so 
 short a catalogue; look on your indevotion, that heartless, 
 zealless behaviour in this very house of God. Your hearing, 
 which is mostly the fairest part of you, what is it but as of a 
 rhetor at a desk, to commend or dislike, the same which you 
 have as well for the stage as the pulpit, a plaudit or an hiss ; 
 and for that other of prayer, though it be for those blessings 
 of peace, of safety, the Shalom that many men have more 
 devotion for, than that other great sense of that word, the 
 salvation of their souls, and which ardent prayer is the only 
 means to bring down upon us; yet what cold addresses, 
 what w^andering eyes and thoughts, what irreverent negli- 
 gent motions, what yawning instead of sighing out our parts 
 of it, what absolute indiff'erence, if God will take our own 
 witness, whether we be heard or no ? This want of ardency 
 in us, this no fire on our altar of incense, is certainly the 
 thing that hath provoked God to deliver up our liturgy to 
 Satan, to oppose and malign, to calumniate and defame as at 
 this day ; the Lord pardon us our part of this sin. This is 
 the preferring of a Barabbas too, a robber, a devil perhaps, 
 that steals away our hearts from Christ, even when we are in 
 
14a 
 
 CHRIST AND BAllABBAS. 
 
 s E RM. closest converse with Him. As for fasting, what is that but 
 
 • ' — an empty, formal, unsignificant name? The scorn of the 
 
 xvii!^i2.] Pharisees twice a week, hath quite driven it out of our 
 calendar. O consider this, and but once more consider ; 
 look on the Sermon in the Mount, the several graces and 
 duties that there make up the Christian somewhat above the 
 pitch of a scribe or Pharisee, and then every of the contrary 
 vices, nay the very Jewish or heathen, the moral or natural 
 man's virtues, that come short of that high philosophy, are 
 every one the Barabbas in the text, directly this Jewish 
 choice ; he that cannot forgive an enemy, bless him, pray for 
 him, heap all the hot burning coals of charity upon his head, 
 and melt him by that artifice, rather than break him, ruin 
 him, damn him by any other, what doth he but prefer his 
 own revengeful lust, that hellish piece of sensuality, that food 
 for the wolf, the vulture, the salamander, the devil in him, 
 directly before the commands, not only counsels of Christ ? 
 and so non hunc, sed Barabbam, a Barabbas is still the choice, 
 and the Christ the reprobate still ; which brings me to the 
 third particular, the choice itself, not only preferring one be- 
 fore the other, but 1. absolutely rejecting of one: and then 
 2. ad evitandiim vacuum, to fill up the vacuity, pitching upon 
 the other, non, sed, not this, but,'' &c. 
 
 And 1. absolutely not this, a downright reiterated nolumus 
 hunc, most vehement dislikes to Christ as soon as ever He is 
 mentioned : the Jews had particular quarrels to Him, IcrKav- 
 haXiCpvTo, they were many times scandalized at Him," but 
 not they only, but it seems, we Gentiles too, the natural man 
 [1 Cor. ii. receives not the things of the Spirit, whether the graces or 
 ^^*-^ the promises, ov Se^j^erat, *'he receives them not," not only 
 that he cannot attain to them, for that is said in the latter 
 words, neither can he know them," but ov hkyeTai, "he 
 receives them not," will not accept them when they are 
 offered, for they are foolishness to him, not worth taking up 
 in the streets, he cannot stoop to such trifles ; and in another 
 [1 Cor. i. place, the same Apostle saith it of Christ crucified, " To the 
 ^^•^ Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Gentiles foolishness;" 
 
 the things of the Spirit are foolishness, and the Christ foolish- 
 ness too, we not only not choose Him, when any other comes 
 in competition with Him, but not take Him^ when none; an 
 
CHRIST AND BAEABBAS. 
 
 143 
 
 antipathy to Christ as Christ, an absolute aversation, rejec- SERM. 
 tion of such merchandise, though there were no price to be — ^^^^ — 
 paid for them. This is a mystery of hell, let us view it 
 awhile, and to that end consider Christ, in the two main 
 parts of Him, in which He shines most illustrious towards us, 
 His graces and His promises, the diet all the year long for His 
 servants, and the wages at the end of His service ; the viati- 
 cum He affords in the voyage, and the reward in the haven. 
 
 For the former of these, for grace, the bridegroom^s feast, Luke xiv. 
 which so many were bid to, see there what difficulty there 
 is to bring men to it, not one comes on the first invitation, 
 though it seems all were really expected, and the entertain- 
 ment provided; when all is ready, the servants are again 
 sent out to tell them they are stayed for, and the issue is, 
 '^they all with one consent began to make excuses/^ the 
 feast was ready, grace ready to be spoiled for want of guests, 
 and yet neither civility, nor pity, nor common gratitude 
 can work upon them, or extort the acceptance of such a 
 donative ; the field, the oxen, the wife, are like the Barab- 
 bas here, not the reasons but excuses of their contempt, 
 pretences only and opportunities of getting off more cleanly, 
 more handsomely from Christ; and if you mark it, so it 
 is. There is nothing that we have learned so perfect from 
 Adam as that art of excuses; and withal, nothing that 
 we so vehemently desire to be excused from, as the power 
 of grace, when it makes toward our souls, when by the 
 preaching of the word powerfully applied, with an " Awake [Eph. v. 
 thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead,^^ and " O con- J^j^ ^ . 
 sider this, ye that forget God, lest He tear you in pieces,^' 
 and "Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish when [Acts xiii. 
 by the message of that angel come up close to us, the ^^'^ 
 Holy Ghost begins to overshadow and beget Christ in us, 
 that procreative light of heaven darting its beams, and those 
 attended with some conceptions of holiness in a carnal breast, 
 O how uneasy we are, how encumbered, till we can get rid of 
 this burden, like so many harlots that live by the trade of not 
 conceiving, or when that will not be done, force an abortion 
 if it be possible ; we must be excused from that austerity, 
 we are impatient of being so attenuated, and spiritualized, 
 wrecked, though it be but from our lees ; the last flash of 
 
144 
 
 CHllIST AND BARABBAS. 
 
 SERM. the candle, pangs of the expiring soul, are time enough for 
 
 '■ — this bearing fruit unto God. Lord, make us chaste, make us 
 
 [Numb, sober, make us humble then, let me die the death of the 
 xxm. 10.] pig^jj^gQ^g^ Ij^s^ gjj(j i[\^Q his," let me have a shower 
 
 of sanctity, a clinic^s baptism, some good wholesome wishes 
 or ejaculations to bathe me before my last journey, an Elias' 
 fiery chariot of zeal then to hurry me to heaven, sed noli 
 modo, Lord, none of this purity yet, the fctpBupevec elvai 6\7]- 
 'yfrvxV} ill Eunapius, the danger of being all soul, all holiness, 
 all heavenly-mindedness so early, is a sad frightful thing 
 for a young courtier, a young soldier, a young academic, for 
 any that are under the age, or not come to the infirmities of 
 the clinici in the primitive Church, — those that would not be 
 baptized till they were ready to die, and so were literally 
 [1 Cor. XV. ^aiTTcl^o/jLevoL virep vefcpcov, baptized for dead, then and not 
 ^^'■^ till then desired to be baptized. Holiness is a dull melan- 
 choly thing, fit only for a hypochondriac to be entertained 
 with. Thus when the crest-fallen Israelites were to be re- 
 deemed from an Egypt to a Canaan, they cry out upon 
 Exod.v.2l. Moses and Aaron, chide with their saviours, abominate their 
 deliverers; thus the harassed degenerous emasculate slave 
 is ofi^eiided wdth a jubilee, a manumission, servitude is his 
 Exod. xxi. sensuality, he will not go out free, brings his ear to his 
 '"^ master and desires to be bored through it, that he may be a 
 
 slave for ever. Once more, thus the man possessed with no 
 [Mark ix. Icss than a legion of devils, casting him sometime into the 
 Liike ix ^^^^ sometime into the water, tearing him till he foameth 
 yi^-] again, is passionately fallen in love with that legion, hath not 
 the patience to be rid of these devils ; when Christ comes to 
 cast them out, he is most out of charity with that Christ, rl 
 [Markv.7; e/xol Kol aol, "what have I to do with Thee?" not thou 
 Luke vni. ^gy-|^ ^^^^^ jj^g^ tormented me all this while, but " Thou Jesus 
 the eternal Son," or Thou piety the precious grace " of God, 
 art Thou come to torment," i.e. to sanctify or dispossess, "me 
 before my time ?" torment me by delivering me from the tor- 
 mentor, disease by curing, poison me by Thy balm or balsam, 
 wound me by Thy mollifying plasters, condemn me to hell 
 by bringing me into a sight of heaven ? thus when the be- 
 loved comes and knocks at the door of the espoused soul, 
 [Cant. V. Open to me my sister, my love," and there waits without doors 
 
 2, 3.] 
 
CHRIST AND BARABBAS. 
 
 145 
 
 most unseasonably and beyond all patience, "till his head be SERM. 
 filled with the dew, and his locks with the drops of the night/^ — — ■ 
 all the answer that is to be had is no more but this, "I have 2^3^' ^* 
 put off my coat, how can I put it on? I have washed my 
 feet, how shall 1 defile them I have put oif righteousness 
 like a garment, denudated myself of all that looks like holi- 
 ness, and all the wooings of the true-beloved cannot give me 
 patience to put it on again, I have washed my feet in mire 
 or ink, doused my carnal affections in all the vileness of the 
 world, and how shall I defile them with grace, pollute them 
 with chastity, defame or profane them with any thoughts of 
 holiness ? thus doth the swine wash herself in the mire, and 
 he that comes to cleanse, defiles her ; the sinner never so well 
 pleased as when he is given up to all vile affections, the offers [Rom. i. 
 of Christ, the importunities of grace, go for the only oppres- ^^'■^ 
 sion, and usurpation, and tyranny in the world, and so non 
 hunc, not this man, not Christ, as Christ signifies grace, that 
 inchoation of sanctity that He came to bring among us. 
 
 And non hunc again, as that signifies the promises which 
 Christ brought with Him, though those promises be of all 
 that is valuable to immortal souls, of nothing but heaven and 
 bliss, non hunc, none of Christ, when He comes but a herald 
 of these. For even against this, we have two dislikes. 
 
 1. This bliss is of a new spiritual making, — and that is 
 one reason why we despise the promises, — consists in the 
 vision of God, contemplation of heavenly excellencies, no- 
 thing of the Turkish carnal paradise in it, nothing that this 
 flesh and blood, the habitual sinner can tell what to make 
 of. I remember Philoponus' conceit that "to have a 
 right apprehension of God, it was necessary to study the 
 mathematics men naturally cannot understand any thing 
 but by phantasms, and those still mixing in the contempla- 
 tion of God, make men fancy God yu-e^' vXrjSj with matter 
 and corpulency ; and the mathematics are a necessary means 
 to help us to abstract from that. I would to God we had 
 some such engine, or crane, or pully to elevate our fancies, 
 to make it possible to think any thing pleasure which is not 
 corpulent and carnal. A madness, believe it, that we wrong 
 
 Prsefat. in lib. de an. [Joan. Philoponus in Arist. lib. de Anima Procem., 
 p. 2. Venet. 1535, quoting Plotinus.] 
 
 HAMMOND. T 
 
146 
 
 CHRIST AND BARABBAS. 
 
 S E R M. the Epicureans to think any of that ancient sect was ever 
 
 '■ — guilty of it ; no^ they could please themselves with spiritual 
 
 beauty, as far as they apprehended there was any ; witness 
 Epicurus himself, who though he were under those pains of 
 strangury and dysentery that were not capable of increase, 
 of which, it seems by Laertius^, he died, yet, saith he, in his 
 will, avTLTTaperdTTeTO iracn tovtols to Kara xlrvx^rjv '^alpov, 
 'Hhe joy of his soul was able to hold out against all these 
 only the Mahometan, and the carnal Christian, is the true 
 Epicurean swine that Horace^ prophesied of, that can find no 
 pleasure but in the mire and dunghill, and that is one main 
 reason of the non hunc, as he refers to promises ; because 
 they are celestial invisible felicities, that he cannot find any 
 juice or taste in. 
 
 But besides that, there is another reason of it, another ob- 
 jection the carnal Jew-Christian hath to those promises, be- 
 cause indeed they are but promises, because of the futurity 
 of them ; he is a man of sense, and not of faith, filius hujus 
 sceculi, all for present possessions, nothing for advowsons 
 
 [Hos.xii.] and reversions. ^^Ephraim is like the heifer,-'^ saith the Pro- 
 phet, " that loveth to tread out the corn,^^ the reason of that 
 
 [Dfutxxv. love was, because of that law, that the mouth of the ox or 
 
 4 1 
 
 heifer must not be muzzled at that time ; she is allowed to 
 eat at the instant that she doth the work, is not put off to so 
 long a date, so tedious an expectation of sweating here, and 
 being fed and rewarded in another life, and that made 
 Ephraim love to toil so well. A little present payment will 
 go further with her, than the richest most glorious futurity. 
 Poor short-sighted creatures ! who cannot see a hand-breadth 
 before us, like Socinus, huge enemies of prescience, will not 
 allow it possible for God Himself to see any future, further 
 than He hath decreed and determined it. For God to know, 
 or us to believe any thing but what is before us, is a prodigy 
 that carnal reason cannot consent to ; and so you see the 
 grounds of the non hunc, the no Christ absolutely at a 
 venture, because there is nothing in Him to be esteemed, 
 neither "form, nor comeliness, no'' carnal or present " beauty, 
 Isa. liii. 2. that WO should desire Him,^' and therefore it follows, " He is 
 despised, and rejected of men non hunc, '^not this man.'' 
 
 « Diog.Laert., lib. x. p. 721. [c. 10. torn. ii. p. 459. ed.Huebner. Lips. 1831.] 
 ^ [Horat. Epist., lib. i. iv. 16,] 
 
CHRIST AND BAEABBAS. 
 
 147 
 
 But then this is not all ; the disaffection to Christ is so S E R M. 
 great, that rather than have Him, the Barabbas shall be re- — XiL — 
 leased : this, you are mistaken, if you think any large ex- 
 pression to Barabbas, they could value their own lives better 
 than to desire impunity for murderers. The short is, they 
 are so bent against Christ, that seeing there is a necessity of 
 choosing one for release, of sacrificing some part of their 
 malice and revenge to their present festivity, they will part 
 with any the most reasonable part of it, rather than that was 
 pitched on Christ. Barabbas was a notorious prisoner, one 
 that had troubled the whole city, and every man^s appetite 
 was up to have Barabbas crucified ; and yet, rather than 
 Jesus shall live, Barabbas shall not be crucified ; more insur- 
 rections, more blood, more seditions, more any thing, rather 
 than be in danger to have Christ for their King. You may 
 see it in St. Peter's meditation upon that part of the story, 
 "But ye denied the Holy One, and the Just, and desired a Actsiii.i4. 
 murderer to be given unto you, and killed the Prince of 
 life the Holy One, the Just, the Prince of life, holiness, 
 justice, life itself, are things not to be endured, to be hunted, 
 pursued, driven out of the world, and in comparison with 
 them, the murderer turns saint, the most abhorred sins shall 
 pass for most desirable rarities, ApoUyon the only friend, and 
 hell itself the vastest preferment. 
 
 You see from hence that we may draw toward a conclu- 
 sion ; what hath helped Barabbas to his favour, what it is 
 that hath brought most of the sins of the world into fashion 
 among men : not any things esteemable or desirable in them- 
 selves, no not sa much as to flesh and blood, till a habit and 
 custom hath smoothed them to our throats, sweetened them 
 to our palates, disguised their horror, and given us some to- 
 lerable pleasure in them. Believe it, there are few sins but 
 ingenuous nature, when once the fury of youth is over, hath 
 sufficient dislikes unto, that avfjui^vTos XoyoSj the light of 
 natural conscience, that opKos ivovaiovixevos rots \oyiKOL9 
 fyev€cn, in Hierocles^, iiTayyeXia avOpcoirov, in Arrian's style^, 
 that oath or promise, that sacrament in the mother's womb 
 
 ^ [roiovTos fjL^v ovv 6 Tois KoyiKois SiopiaOcfTas v6fxovs. — Hierocl. in Py- 
 
 ycveaiv ivovaiovixevos '6pKos, exff^at thag. v. 2.] 
 
 rov irarphs avrwv koX Troirjrov, Kol fx^ ^ [Epicteti Dissert, ab Arriano di- 
 
 irapa^aiveiu fxriZafxy rovs vir 4k^ivov gest., lib. ii. c. 9. § 1.] 
 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 CHRIST AND BARABBAS. 
 
 s E^R M. that every man takes to God, when he hath first kave to be- 
 
 — come a man, can help us to hate them perfectly. Exemplo' 
 
 quodcunque malum committiiur, ipsi displicet : that one auxi- 
 liary in our breasts is abundantly able to fortify against 
 them, so far, that the man shall say really and in sobriety, 
 [Eccles. he hath no pleasure in them ; but then, in many others, there 
 is a keen tooth, a stinging tail over and above the no plea- 
 sure, many tormina and twinges superadded; the drunkard 
 that follows that trade of bestiality most close, finds it a very 
 painful joyless calling ; I will reveal this secret of his con- 
 fession, though he fall into it oft, he hath no pleasure in it, 
 no joy in those daily vomits, were they not physic against 
 something else, against that burden of time that lies so in- 
 supportable upon his hands, against melancholy, against 
 pangs and twinges of conscience, like Cain^s building of 
 cities, and his children's inventing of music, that the noise of 
 the hammers and the melody of the instruments might out- 
 sound the din within him, or at least to take up quarter be- 
 fore Christ, to help stop the ear from that r)pep.a crakin'y^, 
 that still whispering trumpet in Appian, fit for the secret in- 
 vasion of the soul, to keep him from the pain, or perhaps the 
 reproach of being too precise : and most other sins are of the 
 like making, we fly to them as to our refuge to save us from 
 Christ, as the horns of our altar to keep us from that goal 
 which we dread, as the revenger of blood, our only enemy 
 and persecutor in the world. It is not any prime quality, 
 any special excellence we find in our carnal entertainments, — 
 those not only vanities but vexations, not only unsatisfying, 
 but wounding acquisitions, those gainless torments, those 
 painted flies with barbed hooks under them, — that makes us 
 so passionately dote upon them, — the Jews were not in love 
 with Barabbas, — but only our prejudices to Christ, our vehe- 
 ment dislikes to holiness, our impatience of any thing that 
 may do us good, our league with perdition, our covenant 
 with death, our zeal to hell, and absolute resolvedness to be 
 miserable eternally. 
 
 Such malice hath every sinner to his own soul, such hat- 
 ing to be reformed, that the painfullest uneasiest sin, the 
 most prodigal expenseful lust, a very Sodom of filth and 
 
 i [Juv. xiii. 1.] 
 
CHRIST AND BARABBAS. 
 
 149 
 
 burning, not only the sins of Sodom, but the fire and brim- 
 stone rained down and mixed with the sins, gotten into their 
 composition, shall be abundant pleasure and epicurism to 
 him that hath found no other to stay his appetite. I appeal 
 to your own consciences, whether many of you have not suf- 
 fered more hardship in Satan^s service, than any man hath 
 in God^s ? whether your very sins have not cost you dearer, 
 than ever any martyr paid to get to heaven ? Tell me, hath 
 not your lust had martyrs of you, many passed through the 
 fire to Moloch ? hath not your ambition had martyrs of you, 
 many a base submission, a toilsome pluck, a climbing or 
 crawling up that hill of honour? Believe it, the poet jeered 
 you in that not truth but irony, that sarcasm and bitter 
 taunt against you, facilis descensus Averni\ the descent to 
 hell is an easy passage ; if he spake what he thought, I am 
 confident you can give him the lie, produce yourselves so 
 many visible demonstrations of the contrary truth, that you 
 can shew him by your scars as it were by the half moon in 
 your breasts, what a tyrannical, Turkish task-master, Satan 
 hath been to you. It is an ordinarj^ passage in the story of 
 Julian, that when he received his death^s wound, he fell a 
 railing at Christ ; but Philostorgius seems to rectify the 
 story, tells us^", it was his own gods, i. e. devils, that he railed 
 at, that he took his blood in his hand out of his wound, and 
 cast it against the sun, his deified idol, with a KopeaOr^ri, be 
 thou satisfied yea, and called the rest of his many gods, 
 saith he, KaKovs re koI oXtrPjpas, — so the manuscript hath 
 it, — evil and execrable persons, rovs avrov 6€ov9 Ka/coXoycop, 
 cursing and declaiming at his own gods, and not at Christ : 
 the application is plain, the devil he is the bloody master, his 
 is the coarse service, and sad wages, not Christ's ; none is so 
 fit to be cursed by his own clients as that prince of darkness, 
 ap'xwv alcovos tovtov, the monarch ruler of this age of ours. 
 I have reason to believe there are no fitter judges to appeal 
 to in this particular than my present auditor}^ It was a 
 
 j [Virgil. JEn. vi. v. 126.] 
 
 [aAA' '6 ye deiXaLOS 'louKiai/hs rov 
 Tpav[xaros reus xeprrli' vTco^exoixevos rh 
 aijua irphs rhv 7]Kiou aireppaiue diapp-fjdrfu 
 TTphs avrhy ?^eycuu KopeadrjTL' KOi drj Kul 
 rovs aWovs Oeovs icaicous re Koi oAexTj- 
 pas e/caAei koI ovtos (xeu els jhu 
 
 yjXiov atvoppaiveiv rh aJixa Ka\ rovs avrov 
 Qeovs KaicoXoyelv, oi 5e irXeiaroL roov 
 laropovvroov, els rhv Kvpiov ^^ixwv '\ii](Tovv 
 Xpiarhv rov aXr)9ivhv ®ehp eKarepov 
 ypd(povaiv euanoppi^pai. — Philostorg. 
 Hist. Eccles., lib. vii. cap. 15. Eccl. 
 Hist, torn. iii. p. 520.] 
 
150 
 
 CHRIST AND BAEABBAS. 
 
 s E R M. French friar's conceit, that courtiers were of all men the 
 
 VII 
 
 ' — likeliest to bear him company to his convent, not only fittest, 
 
 but likeliest to forsake the world, and turn penitentiaries. 
 He judged it, because such an one of all others had most 
 reason to be displeased with the pleasures of the world, he 
 hath seen to the bottom of sensual delights, found the empti- 
 ness and torments of those things, which the distance and 
 ignorance that other men are kept at, makes them behold 
 with reverence and appetite ; the courtier hath made the ex- 
 periment, and sees how strangely the world is mistaken in 
 its admired delights, and with Solomon, after a glut of vexa- 
 tious nothings, is now fit to turn Ecclesiastes, or Preacher. 
 I wish you would be but at so much leisure, as to think of 
 the friar's meditation, that you would try what mortifying 
 sermons you could make out of your own observations, con- 
 cerning the vanity of sensual miscalled pleasures. I am con- 
 fident you would be very eloquent, able to out-preach all the 
 orators you ever heard from the pulpit, to write more pathe- 
 tical descriptions of the madness of a carnal life, than from 
 any more innocent speculator could be hoped for. That you 
 may begin that useful, edifying, lasting sermon, I shall close 
 up mine, having at length run through the particulars of my 
 text, shewed you yourselves in the Jewish glass, if it were 
 possible to put you out of countenance, to shake you out of 
 
 [2 Sam. all tolerable good opinion of yourselves. And now let every 
 man go home with a tu es homo, he is the very Jew I have 
 preached of all this while. 
 
 O that he would think fit to hate that Jew, humble him, 
 labour his conversion, bring him down into the dust, if so be 
 there may yet be hope. And that God that can bring from 
 the dust of death again, open this door to us, a forlorn 
 destitute people ! so shall we see and praise the power and 
 seasonable bounty of our deliverer, and ascribe unto Him, 
 — as our only tribute, — the honour, the glory, the power, 
 the praise, the might, the majesty, the dominion, which 
 through all ages of the world have been given to Him that 
 sitteth on the throne, to the Holy Spirit and to the Lamb 
 for evermore. Amen. 
 
SERMON VIII. 
 
 BEING A LENT SERMON AT OXFORD, A.D. 1645. 
 
 ST. PAUL'S SERMON TO FELIX. 
 
 Acts xxiv. 25. 
 
 And as he reasoned of ngUeoiisness, and temperance, and 
 judgment to come, Felix trembled. 
 
 The words are tlie notes taken from a sermon of St. PauFs ; s E R M. 
 and the success it met with among the auditors, the tremb- — 
 ling of one heathen officer that was at it, is entirely the con- 
 sideration that commended it to me at this time, in hope it 
 might help to perform that strange work, beget a spiritual 
 palsy or soul-quake in the Christian sinner, that worser kind 
 of heathen, at the repetition. 
 
 There is matter enough, God knows, of trembling abroad, 
 — though there were never a judgment to come, — to put us 
 all into Belshazzar^s paralytic posture, — the countenance [Dan.v.6.] 
 changed, the thoughts troubled, the joints or the loins 
 loosed, and the knees smiting against one another, — and we 
 bear it with a strange constancy, continue still in as perfect an 
 unconcerned tranquillity, as if it were but a scene, a romance, 
 a news from Germany all this while ; the J onas that is gone 
 down to sleep in the sides of the ship, and is the cause of all 
 this tempest, must not be awaked after all these billows, our 
 lethargic habits of sin not disturbed, only a few cowardly 
 mariners may be allowed to pray every man to his God/^ [Jon. i. 5.] 
 and that is the utmost that all these prodigies of vengeance 
 can extort from us. 
 
 You will therefore give me leave to count it a prize, that I 
 
152 
 
 ST. Paul's sermon to felix. 
 
 S E R M. have here found a clap of thunder, that could awake some- 
 
 VIII 
 
 — body, a sermon that set one Felix a trembling ; I should be 
 
 too happy, if the repeating of it might have the same effect 
 on any here present. "And as he reasoned of," &c. 
 In the words I shall but observe, 
 
 1. The matter of St. PauFs sermon, "righteousness, and 
 temperance, and judgment to come.^' 
 
 And 2. The form of it by way of reasoning. As for 
 the trembling, that must be God's work on you, while I treat 
 of these. 
 
 The matter I must consider, 1. absolutely; then as it is 
 here clothed in a double relation, 1. to the text on which it 
 was preached, and that you shall see in the verse preced- 
 ent, to be the faith of Christ ; 2. in relation to the prime 
 auditor, Felix, whether as an officer of Caesar's, or as a 
 heathen, or as one peculiarly guilty of these sins to which 
 the discourse is accommodated. 
 
 I begin first with the matter, considered absolutely, 
 "righteousness," &c. 
 
 Three grand particulars, which though they are common 
 places and vulgar themes, may yet have leave to give you 
 divertisements awhile. 
 
 The SLKacocrvvrj, whether justice, or righteousness in the 
 front, — if you had the fathers' wish, to see and hear St. Paul 
 in the pulpit, a pressing at large what you have here only in 
 brachygraphy, — would look very sternly upon the most un- 
 righteous oppressions of the many ; that trade of subtlety 
 and intricacy, that hath gotten the inclosure of all, not only 
 the wealth and greatness of the world, but of the credit also, 
 the reputation of wisdom, yea and of virtue too, the only 
 honourable handsome quality, that all our respects and esti- 
 mations are paid to ; that new body of morality, that instead 
 of the old out-dated despised rules of justice and uprightness, 
 hath set up that one beloved law of self-preservation, — that 
 other Antipheron in the Rhetorics that always seeth his own 
 picture before him, and if health or security may be acquired, 
 can say to himself, as Paracelsus to his scrupulous patient, if 
 the cure be wrought, what matter is it whether it be by God, 
 or the devil ? — instead of the comfort of a pure immaculate 
 conscience, the pleasure of satisfaction of having out-witted 
 
ST. PAULAS SEHMON TO FELIX. 
 
 153 
 
 and overreached our brethren ; the joy and ravishment, the SERM. 
 high taste and sensuality, as it were, of an indirect action, — 
 being to him far above the advantage and gain of it ; and 
 either of them able to outweigh the mystery of godliness, 
 the (whether conscience, or) reward pf blameless souls. 
 
 O ! it is a fatal character of an accursed rebellious people, 
 when in the prophet's style, "he that abstaineth from evil [Is.lix.l5.] 
 maketh himself a prey," when all those generous Christian 
 virtues of meekness, and innocence, and charity, and not re- 
 taliating to enemies, shall become both undoing and scanda- 
 lous qualities, a lawful prize for every harpy to seize on, and 
 ex abundanti, over and above, matter of contumely and 
 reproach to any that shall have so learned to be fools of 
 Christ. 
 
 And it weVe a glorious and a royal design, worthy the 
 gallantry of this congregation, and that which would bring 
 Christianity into some credit in the heathen world, would 
 give us more hope of proselytes from thence, than the apo- 
 stle of the Indies, — Xaverius with his double gospel; one 
 • of Christ, the other of St. Peter, — ever brought back his 
 masters ; if sincerity, and uprightness, and dove-like inno- 
 cence, — those good-natured rarities that our Saviour could Mark x. 21. 
 not behold without loving the owner of them, although he 
 were no Christian, — might be brought in fashion in a court, 
 or kingdom ; if oppression and the grosser acts of piracy 
 might be driven out like wolves, and bears, and beasts of 
 prey; and disguises, and crafts, and cheats, and all kind of 
 artifices and stratagems, have as many names of vermin 
 allotted to them, and all in one herd pursued, and hounded 
 out of the world ; if the examples of a Jacob, a David, a Na- 
 thaniel, a Christ, might be permitted to rescue the guileless 
 heart and lips, at least, from reproach, and scorn, if not 
 from the vulture's talons, if it might be esteemed but as infa- 
 mous and vile to act, as it is to suffer injuries, as ungentle- 
 manly a thing to thrive by fraud, as to perish by good con- 
 science. And till this be set afoot among us, — this that an 
 heathen Socrates would, if he were alive again, venture an- 
 other martyrdom to replant among his Athenians, — may this 
 first point of St. Paul's sermon be for ever ringing in your 
 ears, irepl BcKaioo-vuTjs, " of righteousness," and a thundering 
 
154 
 
 ST. PxiUL's SERMON TO FELIX. 
 
 s E RM. " ludfirmeut to come,^ for all those that are not edified by that 
 
 VIII. / ^ . 
 doctrine. 
 
 2. For temperance, or, as the word iyKpdreLa, both here 
 and elsewhere^ more properly signifies "continence/^ and 
 command of passions and lusts, the to iv Kpdrei ex^iv, 
 the mastery over a man's self." One cannot, in charity to 
 Christendom, but stay upon it awhile, and recommend it to 
 men's favour, so far at the least, that it may find the ordinary 
 justice, to be preferred, — in their judgments, if not their 
 passions, — before bestiality and villainy, before the drtfjia 
 TrdOr], the infamous aff'ections which nature itself hath re- 
 proached and branded, that the preserving our bodies the 
 [1 Cor. vi. temples of the Holy Ghost, may be but as creditable a thing 
 ^^'■^ as any of those /juecrTj/jL^pLva Sai/juovca, "noon-day devils," in 
 Gregentius' phrase^, those impudencies that have put ofi* the 
 veil, that are become so daring and confident, fornication, 
 adultery, uncleanness, i. e. in the New Testament dialect, 
 [1 Pet. iv. dOefiLTot elScoXoXarpeiai, outlared abominable idolatries j 
 ^'^ that chastity may be kept in some countenance, not pass 
 
 either for such a strange or such a ridiculous, such an im- 
 possible or such a scandalous rarity. 
 
 Beloved, there was once a piece of discipline in the Church 
 of God, of sending the devil into such swine, of delivering up 
 the incontinent to Satan's smart, his real corporeal stripes, 
 and inflictions in the Apostles' age ; and after this smart was 
 commuted for shame, casting them out of the Church, out 
 [2 Thess. of the society of all civil men, iva ivrpaTrcocrij " that they 
 ^^-^ might be ashamed." 
 
 It seems it was then a more fashionable creditable thing to 
 be a prayiag in the Church, than a dallying in the chamber. 
 Continence was recommended to Christians, not only among 
 the crefjuvd and d'yvd, " the venerable and the pure," but the 
 Phil, iv, 'iTpoa(f)i\ri and evcfyTj/na, " lovely and commendable." Em- 
 ^^'^ braced by men of quality upon the same motives, on which 
 now all the contrary vices are taken up, in adoration to 
 that great idol, civility and reputation ; virtue was then the 
 
 a 1 Cor. ix. 25, et Ignat. ad Philip., [Gregentii Episc. Tephrensis Dis- 
 
 elris ayvkv^L tj iyiKpuTeverai, speaking put. cum Herban, Jud. ap. Gallandii 
 
 of men and women.] S. Ignat. ascript. Biblioth. Patr., tom. x. p. 624. See Ps. 
 
 Epist. ad Philipp., c. 13. ap. Patr. xc, (xci.) 6. LXX.] 
 Apost. ii. 119.] 
 
ST. PAULAS SERMON TO FELIX. 
 
 155 
 
 more splendid title, the more courtly name ; and it is none s E R M. 
 of the meanest sins and plagues, provocations and venge- — 
 ances of this kingdom, that the measure of honour and gal- 
 lantry among us is taken from fools and madmen, and by 
 that means shame so prodigiously transplanted ; the chaste 
 man is the only leper to be separated and thrust out from 
 the camp, modesty the only scandalous thing ; the three de- 
 grees of the new-fashioned excommunication are denounced 
 and executed, like the Athenian ostracism, upon the seve- 
 ral gradations of that virtue; the purity of the body, the 
 tongue, the eye, have a kind of Nidui, Cherem and Sca- 
 matha^ proportioned to them, no man is civil enough for 
 ordinary converse, till he hath renounced such pusillanim- 
 ous innocencies, and brought forth fruits worthy of that re- 
 pentance, a whole knight-errantry in that sin, confession [Rom. x. 
 with the mouth, glorying of their masculine enterprises, — ^^'^ 
 enough to fill a romance, — and even martyrdom itself, and 
 many sad encounters, and real hellish sufferings in that ser- 
 vice, and all this penance, of the least to expiate the crime of 
 bashfulness, to reconcile the modest puny, to make him fit 
 for society with men. 
 
 I remember a conceit of Herodotus^, when the Greeks 
 besieged Troy, he believes Helena was in Egypt, because 
 otherwise had she been in the city, they would certainly 
 have delivered her up, and saved themselves : so strange did 
 it seem to him and irrational, that men should choose rather 
 to die, than part with a lust. And yet to the shame of us 
 Christians, when God's judgments make such direful ap- 
 proaches to us on this great quarrel, for our vile and re- 
 proachful lusts, when a black grim cloud hangs just over our 
 heads, gathered from the vapours, which this one dunghill 
 hath exhaled, — as Rome, they say, and others as well as 
 that, is enabled to oppress countries by the pensions it re- 
 ceives from them, — 'When the voice is come flashing out 
 of that cloud, and the business driven to a close issue, re- 
 pent or perish irreversibly, — the kingdom used by God at 
 this time, as Antiochus of old by the Roman ambassadors, 
 
 c [The three kinds of excommuni- Din> and i<nD2^-] 
 
 cation according to the Rabbins. See u [Herod. Euterp. 120.] 
 Buxtorf, Lexicon Rabbinicum ad verb. 
 
156 
 
 ST. PAULAS SERMON TO FELIX. 
 
 s E R M. put into a circle^ as it were, and not suflPered to come out till 
 — we shall give our answer, — we desert and renounce estates 
 and lives, honours, and souls and all, rather than retrench or 
 abate aught of this accursed superfluity. 
 
 And to this unsavoury humour and custom of the world, 
 one use may be brought home from St. PauFs sermon, 
 though taken in cypher, Trepl iyKparelasj " of continence," 
 I beseech you save me the pains, resume and enlarge it to 
 yourselves. 
 
 3. For judgment to come, 1. that there is such a thing, 
 2. that it descends to such mean particulars as justice, and 
 continence, I cannot but in passing be your remembrancer. 
 
 1 . That there is such a thing. 
 
 Injustice and incontinence are two main supplanters of all 
 belief of the judgment to come ; when a man hath once set 
 up that infamous trade of the povXofjievoi irXovrelv, of re- 
 1 Tim. vi. solving to be rich," in spite of all those objections, and stops, 
 ^^'^ and incumbrances of honesty and direct dealing, when he is 
 come to a contemning that pedantry of justice, of observa- 
 tion of oaths, that shall interpose so uncivilly to resist his 
 thrift and advancement in the world, believe it, the miTKB 
 vatuniy the news of the judgment to come, in the preacher's 
 mouth, will be under a heavy suspicion of fraud and cheat, 
 and in fine pass, but for fictions and mormos, too weak to 
 outlook a brave glittering temptation. The taxes on the ec- 
 clesiastics in Florence, which nobody else dare collect for fear 
 of the pope's thunderbolts, the Jews will exact undauntedly. 
 Now the covetous worldling is that Jew, whose soul being 
 gone down into the bowels of the earth, Trpos rrjv rod xp^^^ov 
 fieraXXelav, in Diodorus' phrase % to an eternal drudgery in 
 the gold mineral, is out of the reach of sounds from heaven, 
 out of the awe, or noise, of thunderbolts. The mammonist 
 is in your danger, at your mercy to turn atheist, whensoever 
 you bid him, whensoever the lure of gold shall be at leisure 
 to tempt him, ready to renounce all hope, all fear of another 
 world, whensoever your goods are so put within his reach, 
 that an easy perjury will bring them into his inven- 
 tory. 
 
 And for the lusts of the flesh, it was Aristotle's^ observa- 
 
 e [Diodor. Sicul Bibl. Hi^t., lib. iii.c. 12.] f [Aristot. Eth. Nic.,lib. vi. c. 5.] 
 
ST. PAULAS SERMON TO FELIX. 
 
 157 
 
 tion, that they are cj^Oaprc/cal tmv apxMV, they debauch and s ERM. 
 
 corrupt our principles, they send up more heathen fumes 
 
 into the brain, than any other distemper can do. St. Cyrils 
 tells us of some idolaters, that would have only a day God, 
 because the night was a time for revelling, and to have a 
 God then would destroy their game, and therefore they 
 pitched upon the sun; Lva Kara top vvktos Kaipov aOeoifjuevcoo-L, 
 that they might be atheists all night, and then they take it 
 out to purpose, a[xvv6fjbevoi rrjv rj/jiipav, — as St. Basil^ saith 
 of the glutton^s fasts, — revenging themselves on their day- 
 devotions by their night-revels, never acknowledge a God, 
 when a lust is to be lost by it : and Athenagoras' hath given 
 it for a rule, that the denying of the resurrection, the re- 
 solved concluding the world with this life, and believing no- 
 thing of another, is the koivov hoyiia, koI vofjuos eh aKoXdarois 
 KoX \dyvoLs <pL\o9, the only-beloved doctrine of the voluptuous. 
 He that hath once transformed himself into that swine, hath 
 his optic nerves so changed in his forehead, that, — as Plut. 
 observes of that creature, — he never sees heaven again, till 
 he be laid on his back. And I fear the race of such heathen 
 swine, is likely within a while to prove the prime staple com- 
 modity of the land. 
 
 We are fallen into peevish times, wherein all God^s me- 
 thods are quite perverted ; the powerfulest means that were 
 ever afforded for the casting such devils out of a kingdom, 
 are debauched into matter of improvement and heightening 
 of the humour, and even dethroning God, if He will not com- 
 ply with it ; the very angels that came to Sodom to visit for [Gen. xix. 
 villainy, are once more assaulted and violated by our lusts ; ^"^ 
 I mean, those judgments from heaven upon a vicious gene- 
 ration, that would have inspired a colony of Scythians with 
 some piety, by a strange kind of antiperistasis, or contrary 
 working, have made men more profane, and godless, than 
 ever they were before; the storm so close over our heads, 
 that in other kingdoms they say sets them a ringing bells, 
 shooting guns, lifting up voices to break and dissolve the 
 cloud that threatens them, hath set us upon the same design 
 
 e [S. Cyril.^ Hieros. Catech. iv. 6. Op., torn. ii. p. 9, D.] 
 p. 54, B.] i [Athenag. de Mort. Resurr, 19. 
 
 ^ [S.Basil, de jejunio Homil. i. § 10. apud Galland., torn. ii. p. 53.] 
 
158 
 
 ST. PAULAS SEEMON TO FELIX. 
 
 S E R M. by oatlis and blasphemies^ and those accursed KeXevaf^ara, 
 — the shouts of our soldiers, have broke the cloud indeed, 
 
 brought down (not the dove flying over our heads, as his- 
 torians tells us a shout in an army once did, and an army of 
 united prayers may do so again, but) the eagle to a car- 
 case, the night raven to the funeral of a consumptive Church 
 and monarchy ; an hell from heaven upon an abominable 
 people. 
 
 ^Avala6rjT0<i 6<;tis 'ttoWo, iraOoyv ou (TccxjypovL^eTaL, could the 
 tyrant Phalaris say, He that is not made sober by many 
 sufferings, is absolutely insensate. And yet God knows, 
 out of this rock the greatest part of this age seems to be 
 hewed : the thunder about our ears that could teach the 
 most barbarous nations to believe and tremble, the breaking 
 in of the lions that disciplined the Assyrians in Samaria to 
 2 Kings seek out instruction in the manner of the God of the land,^^ 
 2g"2pj*' God^s using us as the physician in the epigram did the 
 lethargic patient, putting a lunatic into the same room with 
 him, to dry-beat us, if possible, into sense and life again ; 
 His proceeding to that great cure of the \v6lv e^ovj dissolv- 
 ing the habit of the body politic, and to that end, letting 
 blood to a deliquium, which Hippocrates'^ resolves so neces- 
 sary to abate the 97 eir aicpov eve^la, the high, full, athletic 
 health, that is so dangerous in his Aphorisms ; the driving out 
 into the field with Nebuchadnezzar, which infused reason 
 into that \vKdv6pc07ro9, which untransformed him again, and 
 Dan. iv. raised up his eyes to an acknowledgment of Him that " liveth 
 for ever," have, God knows, wrought the quite contrary on us, 
 wasted the seeds of natural piety within us, erected acade- 
 mies of atheism, endowed them with schools and professors, 
 where the art of it may be learned at a reasonable rate ; a 
 young sinner of an ordinary capacity may within a few 
 months^ observation set up atheist for himself, profane, scoff 
 at the clergy, be very keen and witty upon Scripture, have 
 exceptions against the service of the Church, and all with 
 as good grace as if he had served an apprenticeship in Italy ; 
 or at the feet of that great master, that martyr of atheism, 
 Vanninus. 
 
 He that at the breaking in of this torrent of misery upon 
 
 [Hippocrat. Aphorism, i. 3 et 23.] 
 
ST. Paul's sermon to feltx. 
 
 159 
 
 the land, had but walked in the counsel of the ungodly, serm. 
 was but upon probation and deliberation whether he should — 
 be wicked or no; that after some months, when the waters ^' ^*-' 
 began to turn into blood, was yet advanced to a moderate 
 proficiency, a standing in the way of sinners, and found it 
 but an uneasy wearisome posture, a standing upon thorns or 
 flints ; is now fairly sat down in the chair of the scorner, or 
 profane atheist, in cathedra, as a place of ease or repose, can 
 blaspheme without any regrets of a petulant conscience ; in 
 cathedra, as a seat of state, profanes with a better grace than 
 he can do any thing else, is become a considerable person 
 upon that one account, is valued among lookers on by that 
 only excellency; and in cathedra again, as a professor's 
 chair, a doctor of that black faculty, ready to entertain 
 clients, to gather disciples, to set up an independent church 
 of rational blasphemers, and, — beings himself a complete 
 convert, sufficiently approved to Satan, — to confirm and 
 strengthen those puny brethren, that are not arrived to the 
 accursed measure of that fulness, fit them with MachiavePs 
 capacity for vast undertakings, by that excellent quality 
 of being wicked enough, the want of which, saith he, hath 
 been the undoing of the world. ^^And shall not God visit [Jer. v. 29, 
 for this, shall He not be avenged on such a nation as this ? ^^'^ 
 A wonderful and horrible thing is wrouglit in the land,'' the 
 judgments that were sent to awake, have numbed and petri- 
 fied us, the fire in the bowels of this earth of ours hath turn- 
 ed us into perfect quarry and mine, and, as Diodorus^ tells 
 us, in Arabia the ice and crystal is congealed viro 6eiov nrvpos 
 BvvdfjL€a)9, ovK cLTTo '>^v')(ovs, " by the power of divine fire, and 
 not by cold ;" so are these icy crystal hearts of ours frozen by 
 that fire from heaven, that shall one day set the whole uni- 
 verse a melting. 
 
 But besides these atheists of the first magnitude, other in- 
 ferior pretenders there are, that cannot shake off all appre- 
 hensions of all judgment to come, but yet upon distant tamer 
 
 ' [Ov fiSuof S' €v ravTais rais x^^k'S ^X^*-^ '^'^^ (rvaracnv vSaros KaQapov 
 
 ^wo y^vvarai tois Ideais el^jAAay/ieVa irayeuTos, oiix virh \pvxovs dAA' virh 
 
 Sta tV d^' r]\iou cruvepyiav koI hvvaaiv, Beiov Trvphs Svvdiu€cci^, 5i' %v a(T7]Trrovs 
 
 aWa Koi X'lOcav Trot.vroi(av iK(pva^is 5ia- ^jlIv avrovs Siafxeueiu, fiacprivai Se ttoAv- 
 
 (popoi TCiS xp(^ais Ka\ ra7s Xa/j-irpSTrjai fiSpcpoos avaOvixid(T^i irv^viiaros. — Dio- 
 
 tia<pa.vus' TOVS yap KpvaTaKKovs XiQovs dor. Sicul. Bibl. Hist., lib. ii. c. 52.J 
 
160 
 
 ST. PAULAS SERMON TO FELIX. 
 
 SERM. principles, can do Satan^s business as well; for sucli trifles as 
 
 '— this text takes notice of, the contraries to justice and conti- 
 nence, they have an anTdXvTp coats, like Marcus in Irena^us™; 
 that charmed shield from the mother of the gods, which shall 
 render them aoparoc tm /cpcTrj, invisible to the judge ; the 
 judicature erected by Christ, takes not cognizance of such 
 moral breaches as these, there nothing but infidelity proves 
 capital, or if the breaches of the first table may be brought 
 in collaterally under that head, yet for these venial defail- 
 ances against the second, this toy of circumventing our 
 brethren, of defiling the flesh, — as its consequent in St. Jude, 
 
 [ver. 8.] " speaking evil of dignities,^' — Christ came to make expiation 
 for such, not to receive bills of indictment against them, to 
 be their priest, but not their judge. I remember a saying of 
 Picus Mirandula, that a speculative atheist is the greatest 
 monster but one, and that is the practical atheist. And yet 
 this is the darling of the carnal fiduciaries, that can help him 
 to reconcile his grossest sins, his anything with faith ; how 
 well, you will have leisure to see, if you please to descend 
 with me from the absolute to the relative view of the matter 
 of St. Paul's sermon, and consider first the relation which it 
 hath to the text on which he preached it, and that you shall 
 see in the former verse, Trepl Trjs eh XpLcrrov TTLo-recos, con- 
 
 [Actsxxiv. corning the faith on Christ, and that is my next stage. 
 
 ^^'^ 'H els XpLGTov iriCTTis, "the faith on Christ,^' the phrase that 
 
 some nice observers have laid such weight on, to denote the 
 special act of justifying faith, as it is an affiance on Christ ; 
 of a far higher pitch than either the believing Christ, or be- 
 lieving in Christ ; and yet it seems, those so despicable moral 
 
 HI [Atb KaX iXevOepcos irdvra irpdoff^iv 
 lx'(]B4va 4v /AT^Seri (pofiop e-\ovras Sia yap 
 rrjv airoXvTpoocriv aKpaTr)T0vs kol aopd- 
 Tovs yiv^ffOai rqj Kpirfj. Ei Se Koi eVtAa- 
 fioiTO avTcHi/, TrapaaroLvres avr^ fxera 
 rr)S airoXvTpcocreocs raSe e'liroiev' & ndpe- 
 5pe Koi ixvariKTis irph aioivos '2,L'yr}S, 
 
 %v TO. ixeyeOf) SiaTTaprhs ^X^irovTa rh 
 TTpSacoiroi' TOO Trarphs, uSrjycf aoi koi 
 irpoaaycoyeT ^pw/jLeOa avaffTrSxTiv &v(ti- 
 ras avTuv fxop'pas, hs 7] fMeyaXSroXfios 
 e/ceiV??, (pavraaiadelaa, Sid rb dyaQhi/ 
 Tov irpOTraTOpos TrpoejSaAeTo rj/xds rds 
 
 elKduas, t6 re 4u6vfiiov ruv Ikvco cos 
 ivvTTVLov exovffa' ISov 6 Kpir^s iyyvs, 
 Kal 6 Krjpv^ fxe KeAcvei diroKoyeicrBai' av 
 Se cos iincTTaixevT] rd d/JLCporepccu, rhu 
 VTrep d/j.(por4pccv rj/xoop K6yov, els %va 
 bura, rcfi KpLrrj TrapdcTrjcrov' r) 5e fJi.r]T7]p 
 rax^oss .diiovaacra tovtoov rrju '0/ji,r]pLK7]v* 
 "A'iSos KvverjV avrdis TrepieOrjKe, irphs rh 
 dopdrcos iK<f)vye7u rhv KpniiP' Koi napa- 
 XpVM'^ dvaa-izdcacra avrovs, els rhu vvfi- 
 <poi)va elarjyaye, koi direSooKe to7s eavrcou 
 vvficpiois. — S. Iren. adv. Hser., lib. i. 
 c. 9.] 
 
 * [Horn. n. E. V. 844.] 
 
ST. PAULAS SEEMON TO FELIX. 
 
 161 
 
 virtues^ — those that so few think necessary, and some have s E R M. 
 affirmed destructive and pernicious to salvation, — are here - 
 brought in by St. Paul, — I hope not impertinently, — under 
 this head, "justice, and continence, and judgment to come," 
 parts of a sermon of the faith on Christ. 
 
 So 1 Cor., where St. Paul had fastened his determina- 
 tion, ch. ii. [2.], '^to know nothing among them but Jesus 
 Christ, and Him crucified in the very next chapter 
 [iii. 3.] he charges them with sins of carnality, " strife, 
 envyings, factions in the fifth [ver. 1.] with fornication 
 or incest; in the sixth [ver. 1.] with "going to law before 
 infidels :" all these, it seems, the prime contrarieties to the 
 faith or knowledge of the crucified Saviour. Thus in St. 
 James, you may mark that works of charity and mercy are 
 called OpTjaKela, "religion," and being authorized from Jas. i. 27. 
 such great Apostles, I shall not fear to tell you, that the 
 prime part of the knowledge, and faith, and religion of Christ, 
 the life and power of Christianity, is the setting up and 
 reigning of these virtues in our hearts : you may see it. Tit. ii. 
 11, "The grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men, 
 hath appeared,^' X^P^^ crcorypLos nraaLv, the Catholic salvifick 
 grace, be it Christ Himself, or the Gospel of Christ ; and the 
 end of this Epiphany follows, Traihevovaa, to discipline, or to 
 teach us, [ver. 12,] "that denying ungodliness and worldly 
 lusts, we should live soberly and righteously,^' the very virtues 
 in this text, with the addition of one transcendent one, " and 
 godly, in this present world :" a strange catalogue of fundamen- 
 tals, one would think, for Christ to ascend the cross to preach 
 unto us ; we expect other manner of doctrines from Him, 
 doctrines of liberty, jubilee and manumission, — as the merit 
 and acquisition of His sufferings, — of security and protection 
 from sin, that a little carnality shall not hurt us, of freeing 
 us from this bondage to obediences, at least, from any judg- 
 ment to come, for such errors as these, that flesh and blood 
 makes so necessary and incorrigible : we have generally a 
 smoother scheme of Christianity than Salvian" dreamed of, 
 
 " [Sed videamus tamen quid sit considerare debemus. Quid est igitur 
 
 Deiiin fideliter credi. Qui enim tarn credulitas aut fides ? opinor hominem 
 
 magnam credulitatis et fidei mercedem fideliter Christo credere, id est, fideli- 
 
 in hoc saeculo esse volumus, qualis ter Dei mandata servare. — Salvian. de 
 
 credulitas aut fides ipsa esse debeat, Gubern, Dei, lib. iii. c. 2. apud Gal- 
 
 HAMMOND. ]\j 
 
162 
 
 ST. Paul's sermon to felix. 
 
 s E R M. in his quid est fides, nisi prceceptis Christi obedire ? " what 
 - is faith, but obedience to the commands of Christ The 
 
 necessity of purifying, or mortifying of lusts, goes for an 
 heresy of this nicer age, which must superadd works to faith, 
 our own obedience to the righteousness of Christ, and so in 
 Simon Magus his phrase, homines in servitutem redigere, 
 make slaves of free-born men, have them live as well, as if 
 Christ had never died for them. 
 
 The truth is, the doctrine we have now in hand, if be- 
 lieved and obeyed, is so certainly destructive of the deviFs 
 kingdom, — and none other so certain but this, — that you 
 cannot blame Satan and his instruments to cry it down as 
 the vilest heresy in the world. 
 
 He may hope for some tolerable quarter from any other 
 principles, especially from those of the Solifidian and fiduci- 
 ary, brave, delicate, inoffensive doctrines, that have nothing 
 in them contrary to passions, and that gets them such 
 zealous advocates, for by this divinity they have their lusts. 
 And though it pleases God, by the power of His grace to 
 preserve some men, that have imbibed these principles, from 
 those do-cj^aXrcoSr) pev/jbara, in Epiphanius' phrase, those 
 streams of brimstone, that naturally flow from such mines as 
 these, I mean from the pernicious and poisonous effects of 
 them, though some that conceive obedience unnecessary to 
 justification, live very strict and gracious lives in spite of all 
 those advantages and encouragements to the contrary, yet 
 now, God knows, the truth is too grossly discovered; the 
 Gnostics' divinity begins to revive a great deal of carnal, I 
 am sure of spiritual filthiness, yea all the profaneness and 
 villainy in the world, is now the most natural spawn of those 
 infusions ; and to look no further than the glass, and those 
 foul selves which that reflects unto us, The cause of God, 
 and the faith of Christ,'' of which we are seriously such 
 champions, is, I fear, as much dishonoured and renounced 
 by our faithless, apostate, atheistical actions, by our hellish 
 
 land., tom. x. p. 14. Christi mandata conculcat, ac per hoc 
 
 Nam cum ut diximus, hoc sit homi- totum in id revolvitur, ut qui Chris- 
 
 nis Christian! fides, fideliter Christum tiani nominis opus non agit, Christia- 
 
 credere, et hoc sit Christum fideliter nus non esse videatur. — Salvian. de 
 
 credere, Christi mandata servare, fit Gubern. Dei, lib. iv. c. 1. apud Gal- 
 
 absque dubio ut nec fidem habeat qui land., tom. x. p. 18.] 
 infidelis est, nec Christum credat, qui 
 
ST. PAULAS SERMON TO FELIX. 
 
 163 
 
 oaths and imprecations, — that poltroon sin, that second part s E R M. 
 of Egyptian plague of frogs, and lice, and locusts, the basest — 
 that ever had the honour to blast a royal army, that casts us 
 into such epileptic fits, such impure foamings at the mouth, 
 and will not be bound, no not with chains, — in a word, by 
 our going on in such sins, against which the denunciation is 
 most punctual, that " they which do these things shall never [Gal. v. 
 enter into the kingdom of heaven,^^ and yet flattering our- 
 selves, that we shall not fail to enter, as by all the species of 
 infidelity, all the Judaism and Mahometism, and barbarism 
 in the world. And therefore as it is the mercy of the Apo- 
 stle thus to disabuse his besotted Corinthians, " know ye [i Cor. vi. 
 not,^^ and " be not deceived, neither fornicators," nor any ^' ^^'^ 
 of that bestial crew, "shall inherit the kingdom of heaven," in 
 ihesi, so is it the justice of his charity to make it a prime in- 
 gredient in an apostolic sermon ; scarce any other article so 
 necessary to be preached, especially to a Felix, whether as a 
 commander, or as a heathen, or as one peculiarly guilty of 
 those sins : and that is the second part of the relative aspect 
 of these words, as they refer to the auditory, my next par- 
 ticular. 
 
 And 1. as Felix was an eques Romanus, procurator of 
 Judaea, whose power gave him opportunities to be unjust, 
 and his splendid life temptations to incontinence, no part 
 of Christian religion, no article of the Creed is so proper for 
 his turn, as the doctrine of " the judgment to come," for 
 such sins as these ; that palliate vulgar cure of healing and 
 not searching of wounds, of preaching assurance of present 
 pardon, before reformation is wrought, of solacing but not 
 amending of sinners, is not the method in St. PauFs, in 
 Christ's dispensatory ; it is the scandal rather and reproach 
 of Christianity in Julian^, ostls ^Oopevs, ostis [XLai^ovos elalrco 
 Oappoovj security, and protection, and place of confidence 
 from Christ to the most polluted villain, the defamation of 
 Constantino in Zosimus^, that he turned Christian, because 
 
 " [Juliani Csesares ad fin. Op. p. dedorai Kadapjxov rpSnos dvcro-ePrjf^aTo. 
 
 336, A. Lips. 1696.] rrjXiKavTa Kadrjpaidwd/j.ej/os, Alyv-jmSs 
 
 P [ravTa crvyiTria-Td/xcvos kavr^, koX tis 'll3r)pias ets rrju 'Pdo/x-qv iXOwv, 
 
 irpocTiTi ye SpKcou Karacppov^aeis, irpo- Kol rats ets ra jSacrtAeta yvyai^l avuiidrjs 
 
 crrjei to7$ hpevai Kaddpaia rwv TjfMxpTT]- yevSfjLeuos, 4vtvx(>ov KoovaTavTlucf) 
 
 fxivuv alruy' ^lirdvruv 8e, ws ov irapa- Trdo'rjs afxaprddos avaiperiK^iv iJvai i^v 
 
 m2 
 
164 
 
 ST. Paul's sermon to felix. 
 
 S E R M. he was guilty of such sins, for which no other religion allow- 
 — ed expiation ; no, the only safe medicinal course is, to apply 
 [2 Cor. V. corrosives and caustics, the " terrors of the Lord,'^ and " the 
 xii.' 29.] ' consuming fire of the Lord, the judgment to come," when 
 any mortified flesh is to be gotten out; and to accept the 
 face of a Felix in this kind, to withhold those saving medi- 
 cines in civility to the person to whom they are to be admi- 
 nistered, and so suffer that sin upon my splendid neighbour, 
 that my charity requires me to rebuke in any meaner per- 
 son, this is the unjustest rudeness in the world, the most 
 treacherous senseless compliance, the most barbarous civi- 
 lity, cruel mercy, the telling him in effect that he is too 
 great to be cured; this, saith Procopius^ is the saluting 
 [2 Kings by the way, which Elisha forbids Gehazi, and Christ the dis- 
 Lukex.4.] ciples, the one when he went to cure, the other to preach : 
 and it is his observation there, that such civilities Oavfjuarovp- 
 r/lav KcoXvovai, keep preachers from working any miracles, 
 the gentle handling of the great man's sins, is many times 
 the damning of him, and debauching all the neighbourhood ; 
 the Lord be merciful to our whole tribe, for our uncharita- 
 ble omissions in this matter. 
 
 And for once I may chance to deserve your pardon, if I 
 do not conceive the flatteringest addresses to you, to be al- 
 ways the friendliest : if in mere charity to some auditors I 
 imitate my Saviour, and tell you of woes even under a Savi- 
 [Mark ix. our, of " Casting into utter darkness, where the worm never 
 43—48.] (jigth, and the fire is not quenched," with all the variations 
 and exchange of accents, three times repeated by our Savi- 
 [Heb. X. our, within four verses ; of an horrendum est, what a fearful 
 [Mat xxi ^^^^S ^^^^ ^^^^ God's hands, and be ground to powder 
 
 44 ; Luke by that fall ; if I bring out all those topics of so true, and 
 p!^'^^-'... withal such amazing rhetoric, with "who can dwell with 
 14.] everlasting burnings ?" and all little enough to rouse you out 
 of that dead prodigious sleep of sin, to retrench the fury of 
 one riotous lust. 
 
 Twi/ KpicrriavSiv Si^fiaiuxraro So^aV Kai Sou, rrjs aafie'ias rrju apxv^ eTroirjcraTO, 
 TOVTO exfii' e7ra776A|Ua, rh tovs dcreySets r^v fxavTiKT^v exeti/ eV viro-i\ila. — Zosim. 
 fieTaXajx^duouTas avT7]s, ndaris afxaprlas Hist., lib. ii. c. 29.] 
 
 €|w Trapaxprif^a KaOiaraaOai. de^afxe- ^ [^Se: avrov rh (piXoTiixov. rj 5e 
 
 uov Se paara KasvaravTiuov rhu K6yov, Kevobo^ia rrju QavfiaTOvpyiau KcoXvei — 
 Kol o(|)e/xeVov ftev tcov iraTpiicv, fiera- Procop. Scliol.-in Reg,, lib. iv. 4. 29.] 
 ff^iiyTos Se Siv 6 Alyiirrios aiir^ ^ereSi- 
 
ST. Paul's sermon to felix. 
 
 165 
 
 I beseech you tell me, is there ever a judgment to come, SERM. 
 
 ever an account to be given for moral virtues ? Do you so 1— 
 
 much as fear, that for every unclean embrace, or dalliance, 
 every shameless loud riot, for every boisterous rage or exe- 
 cration, that I may not add, for every contumelious rude ad- 
 dress to the throne of grace, every base contempt of that 
 majesty that fills this place, God shall one day call you into 
 judgment ? if you do, and yet go on in these, believe me, you 
 are the valiantest, daringest persons in the world : and if 
 death be not more formidable to you than hell, you are fit 
 for a reserve, or forlorn hope, for the cannon's mouth, for 
 cuirassiers, for fiends to duel with : and let me for once set 
 up an infamous trade, read you a lecture of cowardice, and 
 assure you that a judgment to come may be allowed to set 
 you a trembling ; that it may be reconcilable with gallantry 
 to " fear Him that can cast both body and soul into hell,'' [Mat. x. 
 and put you in mind of that which perhaps you have not xii.' 5.] 
 considered, that you are not atheists enough to stand out 
 those terrors when they begin to come close up to you, in a 
 death-bed clap of thunder : Cain that was the first of this 
 order, was not able to bear that near approach, he went [Gen. iv. 
 out from the presence of the Lord and the Rabbins'^ have ^^'^ 
 a fancy of Absalom, that when he was hanged by his hair in 
 the midst of his rebellion, he durst not cut it, because he saw 
 hell below him, but chose to die, rather than adventure to 
 fall into that place of horror, that his attached conscience 
 had prepared for him; they are, believe it, such unreformed 
 atheistical lights as these, that have made it so indiff*erent a 
 choice, whether the kingdom be destroyed, or no ; whether 
 it be peopled with satyrs, or with wilder men, become all de- 
 sert, or all bedlam. 
 
 This heaviest judgment that ever fell upon a nation, ex- 
 treme misery, and extreme fury is, I confess, a most direful 
 sight, but withal a more inauspicious prognostic, a sound of 
 a trumpet to that last more fatal day, with an Arise thou 
 dementate sinner and come to judgment ; when all our 
 most bloody sufferings, and more bloody sins, got together 
 into one Akeldama or Tophet, shall prove but an adumbra- 
 tion of that heavier future doom, after which we shall do that 
 
 ' [Vid. Jarchi Comment, in 2 Sam. xviii. 9. apud Euxtorf. Bib. Heb.] 
 
166 
 
 ST. PAULAS SERMON TO FELIX. 
 
 S E R M, to some purpose, which we do now but like beginners, by 
 
 . way of essay, " curse God and die," suffer and blaspheme, 
 
 [Job 11. 9.] blaspheme and suffer for ever. 
 
 But then secondly, this doctrine of j ustice, and continence, 
 and judgment to come, is most necessary, as to awake the 
 courtly governor Felix, so in the next place to convert the 
 unbelieving heathen Felix. 
 
 Will you see the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, 
 when they are to be infused into such an one, or as the ori- 
 
 Heb. vi. 1. ginal hath it, Xoyov apxi^ tov XpLarov, " the doctrine of the 
 beginning of Christ," the laws of the /jbvrjcrLs, or initiation of 
 a heathen convert, the elements of his catechism they are 
 
 Heb. vi. 2. in that place, 1. ^'Repentance from dead works;" and 2. 
 
 «' Faith towards God;" 3. " Resurrection ;" and 4. "Eter- 
 nal judgment :" and believe me, for him that thus comes 
 unto God out of his animal, heathen unregenerate life, ra 
 avay/cala avvro/jia, the catalogue of the necessario credenda 
 
 Heb. xi. 6. is not ovcr large ; " he must believe that God is, and 
 that He is a rewarder ;" this, and it seems no more but this, 
 is the minimum quod sic, the sum of the faith without which 
 it is impossible to please Him : and therefore perhaps it was 
 that Ammianus Marcellinus^ expresses his wonder, that Con- 
 stantius should call so many councils, whereas before. Chris- 
 tian religion was res simplicissima, a plain religion without 
 contentions or intricacies, and Epiphanius* of the primitive 
 times, that dcre^eia and evae^eca, divided the Church into 
 its true and erroneous members, impiety the only heretic, 
 good life the orthodox professor. 
 
 Next the acknowledgment of the one God, and His eternal 
 Son, the crucified Messias of the world, and the Holy Ghost, 
 those one and three authors of our religion, into which we 
 are baptized, — and those few other branches of that faith, — 
 the judgment to come, and the practice of Christian virtues 
 in the elevated Christian pitch, is the prime, if not only ne- 
 
 ^ [Christianam religionem absolu- tibus per synodos quas appellant, dum 
 
 tarn et simplicem anili superstitione ritum onmem ad suum trahere co- 
 
 confundens ; in qua scrutanda per- nantur arbitrium, rei vehiculariae suc- 
 
 plexius, quam componenda gravius, cideretnervos. — Ammian. Marcell., lib. 
 
 excitavit discidia plurima, quae pro- xxi. c. 16.] 
 
 gressa fusius aluit concertatione ver- * [S. Epiphan. adv. Hoer., lib. i. 
 
 borum: ut catervis Antistitum jumen- c. 5.] 
 tis publicis ultro citroque discurren- 
 
ST. Paul's sermon to felix. 
 
 167 
 
 cessary. And though there be more to be known, fit to ex- s E R M. 
 
 ereise his industry, or his curiosity, that hath treasured up . 
 
 these fundamentals in an honest heart, yet sure not to serve 
 his carnal mind, to purge his spleen, to provoke his choler, 
 to break communions, to dilapidate that peace, that charity, 
 that Christ, beyond all other inheritances, bequeathed to His 
 disciples. Let us but join in that unity of spirit in those 
 things which we all know to be articles of faith, and the pre- 
 cise conscientious practice of what we cannot choose but know 
 to be branches of our duty, and I shall never lead you into 
 any confounding depths or mazes, divert you one minute by 
 a walk in the gallery from that more Christian employment 
 and task in the workhouse : and that will be the improve- 
 ment of the second particular. 
 
 Lastly, as the Felix was guilty of those sins which those 
 virtues did reproach to him. 
 
 This Felix is to be met with in our books presented to us 
 on a double view of Tacitus and Josephus ; Tacitus" ren- 
 ders him an eques Romanus that Claudius had sent procura- 
 tor of Judaea, to manage it for a time, and saith, he did 
 it per omnem savitiam et libidinem, " in the most cruel arbi- 
 trary manner/' and then see the difference of an apostolic 
 preacher, from Tertullus the rhetor, the one at his humble 
 address and acknowledgment of the obligations that the 
 whole nation had received from this "most excellent Felix," [Actsxxiv. 
 
 2 3 1 
 
 but St. Paul, in a pricking close discourse, "of justice, and ' 
 (upon neglect of it) judgment to come.^' 
 
 Josephus^ he looks nearer into his actions, and finds him a 
 tyrannical usurper of another man's wife ; Drusilla, seduced 
 to his bed from her husband Azys the king of the Emes- 
 seni. And then the sermon of the faith on Christ presently 
 lets loose at this adulterous couple, and so you have the 
 season ableness of the Trepl iyfcpareias too, of chastity to 
 the unchaste Felix, and of judgment to come on such wast- 
 ing sins. 
 
 This will certainly teach the preacher, the combatant of the 
 Lord, the vo/jblficos aOXelv, the regular manner of his duelling [2 Tim. ii. 
 with sin, not the aepa Sepetv, wounding the empty air, lash- ^'^-'^ 
 ing those sins or sinners, that are out of reach of his stripes, 26.] 
 
 " [Tac. Hist. V. c. 9.] » [Joseph. Ant. Jud., lib. xx. c. 7.] 
 
168 
 
 ST. PAULAS SERMON TO FELIX. 
 
 S E R M. but the closer, nearer encounter, the directing his blows at 
 those crimes that are present to him, most culpable and visi- 
 ble in his auditory; and thus grasping with the Goliah of 
 Gath, the tallest Philistine in the company. 
 
 There is a wide distance betwixt reproaching of present 
 and absent sinners, the same that betwixt reproof and back- 
 biting, the boldness and courage of a champion, and the de- 
 tractions and whispers of a villain ; the first is an indication 
 of spirit ; the second, of gall ; the first, that a man dares at- 
 tempt the loving and saving of his brother, when he shall en- 
 danger being cursed and hated for it ; sacrifice your opinion 
 to your health, your kindness to your souls ; the second is a 
 character of a solicitor fee^d on none but Satan^s errand, an 
 orator to set you a railing, but not a trembling, one that 
 can write satires on condition they shall do you no good ; 
 incense, but not reform, that if it shall be possible for hell to 
 lose by his sermon, will never preach more ; the one mean- 
 eth to transform his auditory into converts and saints, the 
 other into broilers and devils ; the one hath all the cha- 
 rity, the other all the mean malice and treachery in his 
 design. 
 
 And having such a copy before our eyes, suppose a man 
 should divert a little to transcribe it, and instead of pru- 
 dence, and tempering, and reviling of those that are out of 
 our reach, reason a while of one branch of justice, yea, and 
 of the faith of Christ, in which it is possible we may some of 
 us be concerned ; and enquire, whether there be not a piece 
 of Turkish divinity stole out of their Alcoran into our 
 creed ; that of prosperum et felix scelus virtus vacatur, whe- 
 ther the great laws of virtue and vice be not by some poli- 
 tici taken out of the Ephemerides, nothing decreed honest 
 but what we can prognosticate successful, the victa Catoni, 
 the liking that cause which the heavens do not smile on, is 
 a piece of philosophical sullenness, which we have not yet 
 learned of Christ; what is this, but as St-Bernard^ complains 
 in his time, that those images had the most hearty adorations 
 performed to them, which had most of the gold and gems 
 about them ; the god obliged to the image, and the image 
 to the dress for all the votaries it met with ; have the Roman- 
 
 y [Vid. S. Bernard. Apol. ad Gul. Abbat., c. xii.] 
 
ST. Paul's sermon to felix. 
 
 169 
 
 ists* marks of the Church so convinced us, that we must SERM. 
 presently forsake our Saviour, because we see Him in danger — — 
 of crucifying, tear our Gospels, and run out with horror as 
 soon as we come to the twenty-sixth of Matthew, "the multi- [Mat.xxvi. 
 tude with swords and staves for to take Him Was the ^^'^ 
 cause of God worth the charge and pains of kilHng men for- 
 merly, and is it not worth the patience and constancy of suf- 
 fering now? Is there any condition in the world so hugely 
 desirable, as that of suffering for, or with Christ, 'ISoi), 
 fiaKapi^ofjuev rov9 viroiMevovTas, " behold, we count them happy 
 that suffer,'' was gospel in St. James his daj^s, — the [xaicapL- jas. v. 11. 
 i^eiv denotes the state of the ol fjudfcapes, the dead saints in 
 their country of vision, as you know St. Stephen at the 
 minute of his sufferings "saw the glory of God, and Jesus [Acts vii. 
 sitting," — the state of suffering is a state of bliss, I may add ^^'^ 
 a superior degree of a glorified state, a more than lo-ayyeXla, [Luke xx. 
 a dignity above that orb that the angels move in ; for they ^^'^ 
 for want of bodies are deprived of the honour of suffering, all 
 that they aspire to is but to be our seconds, our assistants in 
 this combat ; only Christ and we have the enclosure of that 
 vast preferment. And if there be any need to heighten it 
 yet further, is there any prize more worthy that masculine 
 valour, than that venerable sacred name, " Jerusalem the [Gal. iv. 
 mother of us all," that brought us forth unto Christ, begot 
 us to all our hope of bliss, and now, for no other crime but 
 that, is a struggling under the pangs and agonies of a bitter 
 combat with the ungratefulest children under heaven ? The 
 Church of England, I mean, which whosoever hath learning 
 and temper enough to understand, knows to be the brightest 
 image of primitive purity, the most perfect conjuncture of 
 the most ancient and most holy faith that for these twelve 
 hundred years any man ever had the honour of defending, 
 or suffering for. And should the provocations of an ungra- 
 cious people, the not valuing or not walking worthy of the 
 treasures here reserved, the rude continued iniquities of our 
 holy things, tempt God to deliver it up, as He did once His 
 ark to the Philistines, His Christ to the Pharisees and the 
 soldiers, the zeal of the one, and the fury of the other ; yet 
 sure this would not be the confuting of what now I say, it 
 would not, I must hope, be an argument of God's renouncing 
 
 I 
 
170 
 
 ST. PAULAS SERMON TO FELIX. 
 
 SERM. that ark, and that Christ, which He did not thus deliver. 
 The Turks having conquered and torn out of the Christians' 
 hands the places of the birth and passion of Christ, did after 
 this way of logic infer that God had judged the cause for 
 Mahomet against Christ ; and Trajan could ask the primitive 
 martyr Ignatius'', Et nos non tibi videmur 6€0(j)6poLf &c., 
 Have not we as much of God in us as you, who prosper by 
 the help of our deities against our enemies ? Let me pur- 
 loin or borrow this heathen piece out of your hands, and I 
 shall be able to give you an ancienter piece in exchange for 
 it, a thorough Christian resolution of abiding by God, of ap- 
 proving ourselves to Heaven, and to our own breasts, whatso- 
 ever it costs us, of venturing the ermine's fate, — the very 
 hunter's liand, rather than foul her body, — the pa ti, et mori 
 posse, the passive as well as the active courage, which will 
 bear us up through all difficulties, bring us days of refresh- 
 ment here, or else provide us anthems in the midst of flames, 
 a paradise of comfort here, and of joys hereafter : and let 
 this serve for the exemplifying the point in hand, the fitness 
 of our Apostle's discourse to Felix's state. 
 
 I might do it again by telling you of the dreadful majesty 
 [Is. ivi. 7; that dwells in this house, the designation of it to be a house 
 Jonah 111. ^£ prayer to all people, a place of crying mightily to the 
 Lord at such times as these ; should I let loose a whole hour 
 on this theme in this place, it would be but too perfect a pa- 
 rallel of St. Paul's discourse of chastity before Felix, which in 
 any reason ought to set many of my auditors a trembling, 
 but it seems we have not yet sufferings enough to do so : 
 and there is one particular behind that will rescue you from 
 this uneasy subject, the manner of St. Paul's handling this 
 theme, by way of reasoning. And when he reasoned," &c. 
 
 The importance of this reasoning I shall but name to you, 
 which I conceive to be, 1. The proposing to a very heathen's 
 consideration the equity and reasonableness that there 
 should be a judgment to come to recompense the unjust and 
 
 '[Tpdiavus elirep' Koi ris iffriv 0eo- TrXavco/aevos' eTs yap ioTiv ©ehs, 5 ttolt]- 
 
 ip6pos ; 'lyvoLTios aireKpiuaTO 6 Xpiarhv (ras rhv ovpavhv Kal Trju yrjv Kal rrju 
 
 ^X^'^ (TrepvoLs. Tpa'iavhs elirev Tj/JLels QaKacrffav, Kal irdvra to eV avrols' Kal 
 
 ouv (Toi SoKovfxev Kara vovv /nrj ^X^'-^ Xpicrrhs 'ItjctoOs, h v'lhs rov 0eou 6 
 
 ®eous, oh Kal XP^I^^^'^ (Tvfxixaxois irphs iJ.ouoyevi)s, ou ttjs fiaaiXelas ovaiixr)v. — 
 
 TOWS iroX^ixious ; 'lyvdrios ^Imv' ra Sai- S. Ignat. Martyr., c. ii.] 
 lidvLa Tuv iQvuv 06Oi/s 'rrpoaa'yopeveLS 
 
ST. Paul's sermon to felix. 
 
 171 
 
 incontiuent person. And 2. The charging home to each SERM. 
 sinner's heart, the extreme unreasonableness, that for so poor — 
 advantages as either of those sins bring in to any man, he 
 should think fit to venture that dismal payment in another 
 world. 
 
 And now my brethren, to conclude this reasoning, and 
 your task of patience together, when you are likely to have 
 so little excuse in perishing, so no colour of reason for so 
 wild an option, of choosing death in the error of your ways, 
 when you must be so out of countenance when you come to 
 that place of darkness, so unable to give an account to any 
 fiend that meets you, why you should cast away all the trea- 
 sures in the world for that so sad a purchase, and act that 
 really which the Rabbins ^ feign of the child Moses, prefer 
 the coal of fire before the ingot of gold, chop it into your 
 mouths, and so singe your tongue, not to make you stammer 
 with him, but howl with Dives for ever after, and not get 
 one drop to quench the tip of that tongue, which is so sadly 
 tormented in those flames ; when, I say, you are likely to 
 come so excuseless to your torments, so unpitied, and so 
 scorned, so without all honour in your suff"erings, as having 
 but your petitions granted you, advanced to your venge- 
 ance as to your preferment, optantibus ipsis, whilst heaven 
 was looked on as a troublesome impertinent suitor, and you 
 would not be happy, only because you would not ; O remem- 
 ber then the disciples' farewell, when they gave over the 
 Jews and turned to the Gentiles, " Behold, you despisers, [Acts xiii. 
 and wonder, and perish but before you do so, if it be possi- ^^'-l 
 ble give one vital spring, and if but for Pythagoras's^ tttcr%u- 
 veo cravTov, for the reverence, if not the charity, for the 
 honour and awe you owe to your own souls, if not to save 
 them, yet to save your credits in the world, to manifest that 
 you are not such abject fools, retract your choice, call back 
 
 * [Quelques Rabbins enseignent que prenoit le charbon, on le laisseroit 
 
 cette difficulte de parler etoit venue k vivre. On en fit sur le cbamp I'essai. 
 
 Moise, de ce'qu' a I'age de trois ans,ete Le jeune Mbise vouloit porter la main 
 
 presente an Roi d' Egypte, et les De- k la pierre ; mais un Ange la conduisit 
 
 vins s' ecriant que la vie de cet enfant au charbon, et le lui fit mettre a sa 
 
 seroit fatale au pays, on convint qu' on bouche ; ensorte que sa langue en fut 
 
 eprouveroit son esprit, en lui presen- brulee, et qu' il demeura begue toute 
 
 tant une pierre precieuse, et un char- sa vie. — Fable. — Calmet. in Exod. iv. 
 
 bon ; que s' il choisissoit la pierre pre- 10.] 
 
 cieuse, on le feroit mourir; que s' il ^ [Pythag. Carm. Aur. v. 12.] 
 
17a 
 
 ST. Paul's sermon to felix. 
 
 s E R M. the hostages you have given to Satan, and set out on a more 
 — rational, more justifiable voyage. You have heard of the 
 rich Spaniard that had put all his estate into jewels, how he 
 was ready to run mad with the fancy of thinking what a 
 condition he should be in, if all men next morning should 
 awake wise, that he should become not only the arrantest 
 beggar, but the most ridiculous fool. And believe it, that 
 last trump when it begins to sound, will have the faculty 
 thus to make all men wise, to disabuse, and inspire the 
 whole world with a new sense : those that are in the flames 
 before you, will reproach your madness, count you but bed- 
 lams to come thither ; poor Dives, if he had but a messen- 
 ger, would long since have sent you a hideous report and 
 admonition, that whatever it cost you, you should not ven- 
 ture coming to that place of torments; O let St. PauFs 
 reasoning do it to us here, that we make not such piteous 
 bargains, pay not so sad a price for so pure a nothing. Let 
 us be wise now, that we may be happy eternally ; which wis- 
 dom, the only way to that happiness, God of His infinite 
 mercy grant us all : to whom, &c. 
 
SERMON IX. 
 
 BEING AN EASTER SERMON AT ST. MARY's IN OXFORD, A.D. 1644. 
 
 THE BLESSING INFLUENCE OF CHRIST'S RESURRECTION, 
 
 Acts iii. 26. 
 
 God having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to hless you, in 
 turning away every one of you from his iniquities. 
 
 It were but a cold, unequal oblation to so blessed, so glo- s E R M. 
 rious a festivity, to entertain you with the story of the day, — ^5: — 
 to fetch out the napkin and the grave-clothes, to give you 
 that now for news, that every seventh day for sixteen hun- 
 dred years hath so constantly preached unto you. It is true 
 indeed what Aristotle^ observes in his ybr)yaviKa^ that the 
 every-day wonders are the greatest, the perfectest miracles 
 those that by their commonness have lost all their venera- 
 tion ; he speaks it of a circle which is of all things most com- 
 mon, and yet of all things most strange, made up of all con- 
 traries, and so the mother of all prodigies in art, of all the 
 engines and machines in the world. And the same might 
 be resolved of this yearly, this weekly revolution, the great- 
 est, but commonest festival in the Christian's calendar, ySao-t- 
 \Lcraa rj/juipa, " the queen-day,^' as St. Chrysostom calls it'^, 
 aye, and that " queen all glorious within,^' a many saving [Ps. xlv. 
 miracles inclosed in it, and yet this queen of most familiar 
 condescendings is content to be our every week's prospect, 
 and after all this as glorious still as ever, no gluts, no 
 satieties in such beholdings. 
 
 * [ Aristot. Mechan. Prolog. § 5, ad torn. i. p. 348, E. The expression does 
 
 init ] not appear id be used by St. Chrysos- 
 
 ^ [See S. Greg. Naz, Orat. xviii. c. torn.] 
 28, 7] ^acriKiaaa twv rifx^pwv rjix^pa. Op., 
 
174 
 
 THE BLESSING INFLUENCE 
 
 s E R M. But supposing this, I must yet tell you one precious gem 
 
 — there is in this jewel, one part of the great business of this 
 
 day, which is not so commonly taken notice of, and that is 
 the blessing, saving office of the day to us, the benign aspect, 
 the special influence of the rising of Christ on the poor sin- 
 ner's soul, the use, the benefit of the resurrection; and to 
 discover this unto you, let me with confidence assure you, there 
 is not a vein in this whole mine, a beam in this whole trea- 
 [Mal. iv. sure of light, a plume of those " healing wings'' of the " Sun 
 of righteousness," a text in this whole book of God, able to 
 stand you in more stead, than this close of St. Peter's sermon : 
 that our justification is more dependent on His resurrection, 
 than His death itself, is sometimes clearly affirmed by St. Paul, 
 Rom.iv.25. " He was delivered up for our off'ences, and raised again for 
 Rom. viii. our justification." ''It is God that justifieth, who is he that 
 [33,] 34. condemneth ? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen 
 Heb. V. 9. again." And so for salvation itself, " And being made per- 
 fect, He became the Author of eternal salvation," TeXetcodehf 
 being consummate and crowned, — as TekelwcrLs aOXrjrov is the 
 crowning of martyrs, — or TeXeLcodels, being consecrated to His 
 great Melchisedech-priestly office, — as the context enforceth, 
 and reXeiovcrOaL in the Septuagint imports, — in either sense a 
 denotation of the resurrection of Christ peculiarly; and in 
 this capacity considered, He became the alrios o-corrjpia^, '' the 
 Author of our salvation :" but for all this compacted to- 
 gether, and the distinct explication of the manner how all 
 this is wrought by Christ's resurrection, this is a felicity re- 
 served, the peculiar prerogative of this text, brought out now 
 and prepared for you, if you can but have patience till you 
 see it opened. " God having raised up His Son Jesus, sent 
 Him to bless," &c. 
 
 In these words one fundamental difficulty there is, the 
 clearing of which will be the first part of my task, and 
 ground-work of my future discourse ; and that is to enquire 
 what is meant by sending Christ to bless, which when we 
 have opened, there will remain but two particulars behind, 
 the time of this sending, and the interpretation of this 
 blessing ; the time of this sending after His resurrection, 
 God having raised up, sent Him. The interpretation of this 
 blessing, or wherein it consists, ''In turning every one," &c. 
 
OF chiiist's resukrection. 
 
 175 
 
 I begin with the first of these, to clear the fundamental s E R M. 
 difficulty, or explain what is meant by sending to bless. — 
 
 All sorts of arts and sciences have their Te^z^oXoyi^/xara, 
 their peculiar phrases and words of art, which cannot be in- 
 terpreted fully but by the critical observing their importance 
 among those artists. Casaubon^, I remember, observes it 
 among the Deipnosophists, that they had their eTriKuXi/cca 
 TexvoXoyTjfiara, that none but Athenseus can interpret to us : 
 and certainly the book of God and Christ that " spake as never [John vii. 
 man spake,^^ must not be denied this privilege; among the ^'^'-^ 
 many that might be referred to this head, two here we are 
 fallen on together, the matter of our present enquiry, send- 
 ing and blessing. The word nb^, to " send,^' and the Greek 
 parallel to it, if we look it in common dictionaries, and in 
 many places of the Scripture itself, is a word of most vulgar 
 obvious notion, but if you will ask the Scripture-critic, you 
 shall find in it sometimes a rich, weighty, precious import- 
 ance; to design, or destine, to instal, or consecrate, to give 
 commission for some great office, " How shall they preach [Rom. x. 
 unless they be sent?^^ and a hundred the like. Thus we ^^'^ 
 hear of the sending of kings, judges, prophets; but especially 
 of our spiritual rulers under the gospel : no other title as- 
 signed them, but that of ti^n^'h^ or airoaroXoi, the mmi, the [2Cor.viii. 
 sent, or the messengers of Christ, — the more shame for those '^^'^ 
 that contemn this mission, lay violent hands on that sacred [2 Kings 
 function, the meanest and lowest of the people, — to make ^^'^ 
 one parallel more betwixt Jeroboam^s kingdom, and ours, 
 those wapaxapajfjiaTa, in Ignatius' phrase ^, brass coins" 
 of their own impressing, so contrary to the royal prerogative 
 of heaven, ISlas iirCKvaewsj in St. Peter's agonistical style, [2 Pet. i. 
 that run without any watch-word of God's to start them ; yea, ^^'^ 
 and run like Ahimaaz, outrun all others that were truly [2 Sam. 
 sent. The defect in our tongue for the expressing of this, is ^^'^ 
 a little repaired by the use of the word commission," which 
 if you will here exchange for the word " sent," and so read it 
 thus, " God having raised up His Son J esus, gave Him com- 
 mission to bless us," you will somewhat discern and remem- 
 ber the importance of this first phrase. 
 
 c [Is. Casauboni animadv. in Athe- ^ [S. Ignat. Epist. Interpol, ad 
 ntei Deipnosophistas, see c. ii. p. 7.] Magn. c. 5. Patr. Apost. ii. 55.] 
 
176 THE BLESSING INFLUENCE OF CHRIST^S RESUREECTION. 
 
 S E R M. And SO again '^12, to " bless/' and the evkoyeiv in the text, 
 - — ^— — so fully answerable to it, though it be a vulgar style in all 
 authors, yet a propriety it hath in this place, and in some 
 others of Scripture, noting the office of a priest, to whom it 
 peculiarly belongs to pronounce and pray for blessings, i. e. 
 in this eminent sense, to bless others. 
 
 For there being two sorts of priests in the Pentateuch, or if 
 you will, two acts of the same divine function, the one of 
 blessing, the other of sacrificing, the one observable in the 
 fathers of every family, in Genesis, — who therefore use 
 solemnly to bless their children, — and after the enlarging of 
 families into kingdoms, belonging to kings, and eminently 
 Gen. xiv. and signally notified in Melchisedech ; the other more con- 
 spicuous in Aaron, and his successors in the Jewish priest- 
 hood : both these are most eminently remarkable in our 
 Christ, the one in His death, the other ever since His resur- 
 rection. The sacrificing part most clearly a shadow of that 
 one great oblation on the altar of the cross for us, and 
 in spite of Socinus, such a priest once was Christ, though 
 but once, in spite of the Papists. Once, when He oflPered 
 that one precious oblation of Himself, the same person both 
 priest and sacrifice; and but once, no longer priest thus, 
 than He was thus a sacrificing ; this is His irapafiaros lepco- 
 Keb.vii.23. auvTj, or fzr) irapafievovaa, a priesthood not sufi'ered to con- 
 tinue, the same minute determined Ilis mortal life and mor- 
 tal priesthood, buried the Aaronical rites and the Priest to- 
 gether. But for the Melchisedech priesthood, that of bless- 
 ing in my text, that of intercession, powerful intercession, 
 i. e. giving of grace sufficient to turn us ; this is the office 
 that now still belongs unto Christ, the peculiar grand office, 
 to which that notion of XpLcrros (to which Christ's durable 
 unction) belongs, by which He was rereXetcofxevos eh tov 
 Heb. vii. al5>va, consecrate for evermore,'' parallel to that so fre- 
 cx^s^^eb ^^^^^ style of his, "a priest for ever after the order of 
 V. 6, 10; Melchisedech;" not that Melchisedech was a priest forever, 
 3! n^ 'i7," Christ like him in that, but that Christ was to continue 
 21.] for ever such a priest as Melchisedech, in Genesis, was ; or 
 that His Aaronical priesthood had an end, one sacrifice, and 
 no more ; but His other Melchisedech priesthood was to last 
 for ever; which you will more discern if you proceed to the 
 
THE BLESSING INFLUENCE OF CHRIST^S EESURRECTION. 177 
 
 second particular, the date of this sending, the time of His SERM. 
 
 instalment into His priesthood, after His resurrection : " God — 
 
 having raised up, sent/^ &c. 
 
 That the resurrection installed Christ to His eternal priest- 
 ly office, — or to that part of it which was to endure for ever, — 
 is a truth that nothing but inadvertence hath made men 
 question ; there is nothing more frequently insinuated in the 
 Scripture ; were not my text demonstrative enough, first 
 
 raised up,^^ and then thus '^sent" or installed, the fifth 
 and seventh to the Hebrews would more than prove it : so 
 in that fundamental grand prophecy, to which all that is 
 said there refers, that in the one hundred and tenth Psalm, 
 the priesthood of Christ is ushered in with a " Sit thou at 
 My right hand,'^ verse 1, ruling in the midst of enemies, 
 verse 2, the day of His power, verse 3 ; all these certain evi- 
 dences of His resurrection, and then, and not till then, verse 
 4, " the Lord hath sworn, &c. Thou art a priest for ever 
 a mortal dying determinable priest He was before in His 
 death, but now after His resurrection from that death, " a 
 priest for ever/^ Once more, perhaps there may be some 
 emphasis in the dvlararai., 'ariseth,^ "there ariseth another Heb.vii.l5. 
 priest,^^ or He ariseth another, an Aaronical priest in His 
 death, but erepos lepevs, a Melchisedech (i. e. another kind 
 of) priest in His resurrection. Add to this that the Mel- 
 chisedech priest must be like the type, a king as well as a 
 priest, — which Christ as man was not till after His resur- 
 rection, — and so that other famous type of our Jesus, 
 
 Joshua the son of Josedek the high-priest, he shall be a Zech. vi. 
 priest upon the throne, and the counsel of peace,^^ — that^^^'^^^* 
 grand consultation of reconciling sinners to God,—" shall be 
 betwixt them both,^' in the union of that sceptre and that 
 ephod, that mitre and that crown, the Xptaros ^aaCkevs, and 
 lepevs, the regal and sacerdotal office of Christ ; and as one, 
 so the other, both dated alike from after the resurrection ; 
 oTrep eSei Bet^ai,, the thing that by this accumulation of 
 Scripture testimonies, it was necessary to demonstrate. For 
 the clearing of which truth, and reconciling or preventing 
 all difficulties about it, please you to take it in these few pro- 
 positions. 
 
 1. That the crucifixion of Christ was a sacrifice truly pro- 
 
 HAMMOND. 1^ 
 
178 
 
 THE BLESSING INFLUENCE 
 
 s E R M. pitiatory, and satisfactory for the sins of the whole world, — 
 — ^ — and there is nothing further from this text or our present ex- 
 plication of it, than to derogate from the legality, the ampli- 
 tude, extent, or precious value of this sacrifice. 
 
 Yea, and 2. that Christ Himself thus willingly offering, 
 delivering up Himself for us, may in this be said a priest, 
 or to have exercised in His death a grand act] of priest- 
 hood. 
 
 But then, 3, this is an act of Aaronical priesthood which 
 Heb.vii.27. Christ Avas never to exercise again, having done it once, and 
 so far distant from His "eternal priesthood." Or, to speak 
 more clearly, an act of Christ this, as of a " second Adam,'^ a 
 [Is.iiii. 5.] common person, ordered by the wisdom of God to "bear the 
 chastisement of our peace," the " scape-goat'^ to carry all our 
 [Lev.Jxvi. sins on His head into the " wilderness, into a land not in- 
 
 22 
 
 habited," the aSr]9f in our Creed, to which He went ; and so 
 though it were typified by all the sacrifices of the priests, 
 and though in it that whole body of rites were determined, — 
 no more Aaronical priests seasonable after this " one sacri- 
 fice,'^ — yet still this is no part of the " eternal regal Melchise- 
 dech priesthood," that of powerful intercession, that of bless- 
 ing us in the text ; for though the death of Christ tend 
 mightily toward the blessing of us, though there were a 
 [Luke ' wonderful act of intercession on the cross, "Father, forgive 
 xxm. 34.] j;}jg^^" yg|. ^]^^^ powerful intercession, that for grace to 
 make us capable of mercy, that blessing in this text, the 
 power of conferring what He prays for, this it was to which 
 the resurrection installed Him. 
 
 4. If all this will not satisfy, why then one way of clear- 
 ing this truth further, I shall be able to allow you, that the 
 death of Christ considered as a sacrifice, may under that no- 
 tion pass not for an act of a priest in facto esse, but for a 
 ceremony of His inauguration in fieri ; thus in the eighth of 
 Leviticus at the consecrating of Aaron and his sons, you 
 shall find sacrifices used, "the ram, the ram of consecra- 
 tion," verse 22nd, and apportioned to that, this " Lamb of 
 God" that by dying " taketh away the sins of the world," 
 may pass for a lamb of consecration, the true critical im- 
 Heb. ii. 10. portance of the reXetwo-ai hia iradrfyLaTOiVi that the Captain 
 of our salvation was to be consecrated by sufferings. This 
 
OP cheist's hesurrection. 
 
 179 
 
 death of His, that looks so like an act of Aaronical priesthood, s E R M. 
 
 is the preparative rite of consecrating Him to that great — — — 
 
 eternal priesthood, "after the order of Melchisedech," and 
 
 this preparative most absolutely necessary both in respect of 
 
 Christ and us, of Christ who was to " drink of the brook of the [Ps.cx. 7.] 
 
 way" before "His head" should be "lifted up," "humbled to 
 
 death," &c.; " wherefore God hath also highly exalted Him," Phil. ii. 
 
 for that suffering crowned Him ; yea, and in respect of us 
 
 too, who were to be ransomed by His death, before we could Heb. ii. 9. 
 
 be blessed by His resurrection, delivered from the captivity 
 
 of hell, before capable of that grace which must help us to 
 
 heaven, which seems to me to be the descant of that plain 
 
 song, "Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made Heb. ii. 17, 
 
 like unto His brethren," i. e. as the eighteenth verse explains 
 
 it, to " suffer being tempted," to undergo the infirmities and 
 
 mortality of our flesh, " that He might be a merciful and 
 
 faithful high-priest ;" &c. ; His infirmities and effusion of His 
 
 blood are not this priesthood of itself, but the qualifying of 
 
 the second Person in the Trinity to become a high-priest, and 
 
 that a merciful and faithful one, merciful to pardon slips, 
 
 and faithful to uphold from falling, and so a priest such as 
 
 it is most for our interest to have. And so once more the 
 
 dream is out that Artemidorus® mentions of one ; he dreamed 
 
 he was crucified, and the consequent was, lepevs avekri<^6rj, 
 
 " he was taken up to be a priest of Diospolis ;" and by the 
 
 way, let me tell my clergy brethren, if that shall prove the 
 
 consequent of our priesthood, which was the presage of 
 
 Christ's, the pains, the contumelies, yea and death of that 
 
 cross, what is this but a blessed lot that hath brought us so 
 
 near our Christ, and a means to consecrate us too to our 
 
 PaaiXeiov lepdrevfjuay "to be kings and priests for ever" in [lPet.ii.9.] 
 
 heaven. 
 
 I have thus far laboured to clear this doctrine, calculated 
 the time of Christ's instalment to His eternal priesthood, 
 and found it exactly the same with the era here in this text, 
 not till after the resurrection, to which I shall only add one 
 final grand proof of all, which will sum up all that hath 
 
 ^ [Meuavdpos iv'Eh\ddLe5o^€v iarav- AafiTrpSrepos iyeuero koI eviropicrcpos. 
 pwaOai e/jLTrpoadev tepov Aihs IloAiews, Artemidor. Oneirocrit., lib. iv. c. 49.] 
 Kol tepei/s airodcLxOeU iK^ivov rod deov, 
 
 N 2 
 
180 
 
 THE BLESSING INFLUENCE 
 
 SERM. been hitherto said, that parting speech of Christ's, "All 
 ^^^^ — power is given unto Me both in heaven and earth/' that 
 [xxviii. you know was after the resurrection, and so from thence 
 ^^•^ that power was dated, and that commission of blessing that 
 here we speak of, — the act of His eternal priesthood, — is 
 His intercession, that His powerful intercession, that His 
 giving of that grace which He intercedes for, that the bless- 
 ing in this text ; and so the commission of blessing was 
 given Him, not till after the resurrection. And believe it, 
 though it look all this while like a rough sapless speculation, 
 there is yet somewhat in it, that may prove very useful and 
 ordinable to practice, a hint if not a means of removing one 
 of the harmfulest scandals and impediments of good life 
 that is to be met with. We are Christians all, and by that 
 [Actsxiii. claim, T€Tay/jL€vot eh ^corjv alcovtov, on rank, and on march 
 ^^'■^ toward eternal life ; and yet many of us live like so many 
 Mahometans or China infidels, quite out of all form of obe- 
 dience to the commands of Christ, we do not reverence Him 
 so much as to pretend toward serving Him, not advance so 
 far as but to be hypocrites in that matter, live in all the sen- 
 suality and vileness in the world, and yet live confidently, 
 resolve we have done what is required of us by Christ, can 
 justify our state for such as God is pleased with ; and if we be 
 called to account, the anchor of all this unreasonable false 
 hope of ours is most constantly this, that Christ our Priest 
 [1 Johnii. hath propitiated for us, we fly to our city of refuge till our 
 [Josh XX ■'^^^^^^ dead, and then we are quit by proclamation, out of 
 6.] the reach of the avenger of blood. It is the death of Christ 
 
 we depend on to do all our task for us ; His priestly, not regal 
 office, we are resolved to be beholden to, in that we have 
 Christ the Sacrificer, Christ the Keconciler, Christ the Satis- 
 fier, and these are Christs enough to keep us safe, without 
 the aid of Christ the King, that judaical unedifying notion 
 of a reigning Messias, and then, quis separabit ? what sin, 
 what devils, what legion, what act, what habit, what custom, 
 [Rom. viii. what indulgence in sin, i. e. what Tophet, what hell ^' shall be 
 able to separate us from the love," the favour, the heaven 
 " of God?" 
 
 He that hath Christ the Priest, hath all ; he that believes 
 in the sufferings, hath Christ the Priest, though not the 
 
OF CHRIST^S RESURRECTION. 
 
 181 
 
 King; hath the faith, though not the works, i. e. the righte- SERM. 
 
 ousness, though not the heathenish morality ; the protes- ^ — 
 
 tant, orthodox part, though not the popery ; the anti-chris- 
 tianism of a Christian, and so, is but the richer for that 
 M^ant ; hath the greater portion in the sufferings of Christ, 
 by the abundance of those sins He suffered for ; the more of 
 the priest is ours, by how much the less of the king is dis- 
 cernible in us. Having driven our unchristian lives to this 
 principle, this solemn conceit of ours, that the priestly office 
 of Christ, — to which, if rightly understood, we owe all our sal- 
 vation, — is nothing but the death of that Christ, methinks it 
 were now possible to convince the secure fiduciary of the 
 error and sophistry of his former way, to rob him of his be- 
 loved cheat, now that we have proved so clear, that Christ 
 commenced His eternal priesthood, — that on which all our 
 blessedness depends, — from the avaa-TTjcras, not till after His 
 resurrection. For " Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth,^' [Cant.i.7.] 
 and mourneth and bleedeth for in secret, thou carnal confident, 
 that hast wearied thyself in the greatness of thy way, thy [is. ivii. 
 profane wild-goose chase of sin, and yet hast not said, there ^^'^ 
 is no hope, thou that wilt profane and be saved too, riot and 
 be saved too, reconcile faction, rebellion, sacrilege, oppres- 
 sion, oaths, carnality, all the unchristian practices in the 
 world, — the confutation of the whole gospel, — with salva- 
 tion : tell me, I say, what Christ it is, thou wilt be tried or 
 saved by ; by Christ the King ? I am confident thou wert 
 never so impudent to venture thy rebellions to that cogniz- 
 ance : well, it is Christ the Priest thou so dependest on ; and 
 why Christ the Priest ? Why ? because He hath sacrificed 
 Himself for thee. Now let me tell thee, 1. That some have 
 guessed shrewdly, that though Christ died for all the sin- 
 ners and sins in the world, yet His sufferings being but 
 finite in duration, though infinite in respect of the person of 
 the sufiPerer, will not prove a Xvrpov laoppoirov, a proportion- 
 able ransom for thy sins ; I mean, the impenitent sinner's 
 sins, in duration infinite, being, as they are, undetermined, 
 uncut off by repentance. Thou must return, reform, confess 
 and forsake, or else thou hast outsinned the very sufferings 
 of Christ, outspent that vast ransom, outdamned salvation 
 itself : that may be a conviction ad hominem perhaps, and 
 
182 
 
 THE BLESSING INFLUENCE 
 
 SERM. therefore I mentioned it in the first place. But then, 2. 
 '- — thou art, it seems, all this while mistaken in thy priest. 
 
 thou art, it seems, all for the Aaronical, and hast not yet 
 thought of the Melchisedech priest; thou art all for the 
 sacrificer, and never dreamest of the blesser. Thou layest 
 all thy weight on the cross of Christ, and art ready to press 
 it down to hell with thee, with leaning only, but not cruci- 
 fying one lust on it; never thinkest of being risen with 
 Christ, the condition so indispensably necessary to give us 
 claim to the benefit of His death, and so in efifect thou 
 leavest Christ in the grave, and thyself in that mournful 
 [Luke case of the despairing disciples, speraveramus, "we had 
 XXIV. 2L] j^Qpgjj^^^ 1^^^ never lookest after a resurrection. It was St. 
 [1 Cor, XV. PauFs saying, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, 
 14—19.] were of all men most miserable." I suppose it is in 
 this life only, not of us, but of Christ on this earth, for it is 
 brought to prove Christ's resurrection there, and it follows 
 ver. 20. immediately, " but now is Christ raised," and if that be the 
 sense of the ^wfj ravrrj there, the "this life of Christ" con- 
 tains also His death under it, for both those together it is, 
 that must make up the opposite to the resurrection. And 
 then I shall enlarge the Apostle's words, though not sense, 
 If in the earthly life and death of Christ we had hope only, 
 a sad life, and a contumelious death, if there were no such 
 thing as a resurrection to help bless us, " we were of all 
 men the most miserable ;" hadst thou no other priest, but 
 the sacrificer, the mortal finite Aaronical priest, nothing but 
 the ransom of Christ's death, — which though it be never so 
 high a price, is yet finally unavailable to many for whom 
 2 Pet. ii. I. it was paid, He bought them that are damned for denying 
 Heb. X. 29. Him, the wilful sinner " treads under foot the Son of God, 
 profanes the blood of the covenant by which he is sanctified," 
 and so there is destruction enough still behind for the impe- 
 nitent wretch, after all that Christ hath suflPered for thee, — 
 what forms of ejulation and lamentation were enough for 
 [Jer. xxii. thee, " alas my brother ! ah Lord ! or ah his glory !" what 
 ^^■^ mourning or wailing were thy portion ? Tell me, wilt thou 
 be content to leave thy father before he hath blessed thee ? 
 [Gen. Jacob would not do so with the angel, but would wrestle his 
 xxxii. 26.] joint, rather than thus part with him, and even 
 
OF CHRIST^S IIESUIIRECTION, 
 
 183 
 
 che profane Esau will run and weep bitterly for it ; and then S E R M. 
 art thou more nice and tender than that smooth Jacob, — — 
 wretchless than that profane Esau^ if thou contentest thyself ^^^^""2^ 
 only to have brought Christ to the grave, that state of curse, 34.] 
 and never lookest out for the blessing provided for thee in 
 the resurrection : mistake me not, I would not drive you 
 from this cross of Christy discourage you from that most ne- 
 cessary act of faith, the apprehending the crucified Saviour ; 
 no, if my lot had fallen on a Good-Friday, I would have 
 spent my whole hour on that one theme, and " known [i Cor. ii. 
 nothing among you but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified ^*-' 
 only my desire is, that you will not allow one act of faith to 
 turn projector, to get all the custom from the rest, that you 
 will permit Christ to live in you as well as to die for you, to 
 bless as well as to satisfy, to rise again for your justification,^^ [Rom. iv. 
 as well as " to be delivered up for your oflFences that you ^^*-' 
 will attend Him at Galilee as well as at Golgotha, think 
 of the triumphant as well as the crucified Saviour, the Mel- 
 chisedech, as well as the mortal Aaron, priest. And not 
 only to think of His rising, I must tell you, but count of a 
 work, a mighty important necessary work, that of turning, 
 in this text, to be wrought on us, and in us by that resur- 
 rection now, after the pardon impetrated by His passion ; I 
 say, not only to think of and believe Him risen, the devil 
 hath as much of that thought, as frequent repeated acts of 
 that belief as you, and there is not such magic in that faith, 
 or fancy, as to bear you to heaven by meditating on His jour- 
 ney thither, to elevate you by gazing on His ascension. No, 
 that faith must be in our hearts too, that principle of action, 
 and practice, they must open to him as the tulip to the 
 rising sun, or as the " everlasting doors" to that " King of [Ps. xxiv. 
 glory," give Him an alacrious hospitable reception, as the '^'■^ 
 friend to the friend ; as the diseased to the physician ; de- 
 liver themselves up most willing patients to all His blessing 
 warming influences, to all His medicinable saving methods, 
 that He may sanctify, and reform, bless and turn, " live and [Eph. iii. 
 reign in our hearts by faith," and prove a Shiloh in the ^ 
 critics^ notion of the word, from r6^> fortunatus est, " the liii. 
 work of the Lord," for which He raised him, thrive and ^^'^ 
 " prosper in His hands." We must rise with Christ as well 
 
184 
 
 THE BLESSING INFLUENCE 
 
 SERM. as die with Him, do as "the bodies of the saints that 
 — . slept," arise and come out of our graves of sin, go into 
 xxviti. the holy city and appear to many. Our resurgere must 
 [52,] 53. be attended with an zVe, — an ire of obedience. " Go, and he 
 goeth f an ire of motion too, an active stirring vital life, not 
 [Ps. cxix. sit only or creep, but go and walk, and " run the way of God's 
 ^^•J commandments," — and then 2. we must have a term for 
 that motion, a matter for that obedience, an ubi for that ire, 
 and that civitatem sanctam, 1 . the city, and then the holy ; 
 the life of the man, the citizen, the common-wealth's man, 
 " risen with Christ," in every of these capacities ; and then 
 the sanctarriy a superaddition of all sanctity, of all that is 
 Christian, and in all these notions we must ire and prceire, 
 go before as a hahovxosy and so do that great act of charity, 
 attract others after us by exemplary lightsome actions, appa- 
 rere multis, conduct the stray multitude to heaven. That 
 this is the benefit of Christ's resurrection, and that there is 
 no faith or belief in this article to be counted of, but that 
 that is thus improved, thus evidenced, is the special thing 
 that I meant to persuade you from these words, which I 
 shall endeavour to do by reserving the remainder of the 
 time for the third and last particular, the interpretation 
 of this priestly office of Christ, to which the resurrection 
 installed Him, or wherein this blessing consists, " in turn- 
 ing," &c. 
 
 For the equal dealing with which, I conceive myself obliged 
 to shew you these three things. 
 
 1. What is meant by " turning away every one from his 
 iniquities." 
 
 2. What the dependence is betwixt this and the resurrec- 
 tion of Christ. 
 
 3. How this turning is an interpretation of blessing, 
 " God having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless us, 
 in turning," &c. 
 
 For the first, every syllable will be a hint of direction for 
 this matter, 1. "Turn," that one syllable is the best descrip- 
 tion of the great saving grace of repentance, fMeraOea-Ls rov vov 
 in Athanasius'^ phrase, the inverting, the transposing, or the 
 
 ' [/ierai'om 8e iinXv ovx v tu>v youd- rh ttovuv, koI OprjveTu, koI SeeaOai tov 
 rwu kA'ktis, aW' airoxv rod kukov, koI ©eoG vnep Trjs ruu itpo-qixaprjiKOToov acpe- 
 
OF Christ's resurrection. 
 
 18b 
 
 turning of the soul, and less than that will not prove suffi- SERM. 
 cient; humbling, and confessing, and grieving, and hating 
 will not serve the turn, these are but initial preparatives to 
 that last hand, but dull lines, but lifeless monograms, which 
 that vital pencil in this text, that of turning, must fill up ; 
 the want of this one accomplishment is the ruining of all, 
 makes that vast chasm as wide as that betwixt Dives and 
 Abraham's bosom; the sorrowing, confessing, self-hating 
 (if unreformed) sinner may fry in hell, when none but the 
 returning prodigal can find admission to heaven : and that for 
 the " turning." The manner of which will be worth the observ- 
 ing also ; the word airoa-rpe^oi here is common to Christ and 
 us, but in a difi*erent power and sense. He by way of effici- 
 ence, we of non-resistance, active in Christ, and but neutral 
 in us. He to turn us, and then we to turn, not to resist that 
 power of His grace, not to go on when He turns : so in other 
 phrases of Scripture, He to draw, and then we to run after 
 Him ; God to work in us both to will and to do,'' and then [Phil. ii. 
 we to work out our own salvation He to knock, and we ' 
 open ; He to rouse the sleeper, and we to " awake,'^ and [Eph. v. 
 " rise from the dead we to obey His grace, but His grace 
 most necessary thus to turn us : or yet more plainly, Christ 
 to use all the means of turning us, that can belong to God, 
 dealing with reasonable creatures, and such as He means to 
 crown, or punish ; His call, His promise. His threats. His 
 grace, preventing, exciting, assisting, in a word, all but vio- 
 lence and coaction, — which is destructive of all judgment to 
 come, — and we not to resist, to grieve, to quench those 
 blessing methods, to turn when He will have us turn. Then 
 ^' every one of you," the extent of that grace, consequent to [Eph. iv. 
 that resurrection, He is gone up on high, hath led capti- ^^^^^ ^ ^ 
 vity captive, and gave gifts unto men," men indefinitely there, 
 and all flesh in the other prophecy, — " I will pour out My [Acts ii. 
 spirit on all flesh," — and here every one of you, i.e. primarily ^'^'^ ^ 
 every one of you Jews, " unto you first," in the beginning of 
 the verse, but then from them difi'usively to all others ; the 
 awTTipLos xapis, "hath appeared unto all men," iraihevovaa, Tit. ii. ii. 
 
 [ver. 12. J 
 
 trews* Sm yap tovto Xcyerai fxeravota, cxxx. in Script., inter spuria Ed. Ben., 
 oTi fx^Tar'iOriai rhu vovu airh rod kukov torn. ii. p. 335.] 
 irphs rb ayadou, — S. Athanas. Quaest. 
 
186 
 
 THE BLESSING INFLUENCE 
 
 SERM. &c., taking them all into the school of discipline, teaching 
 
 ■ — them to live soberly, and justly, and piously in this world; 
 
 and again every one," this turning is indispensably neces- 
 [1 ^^'J^' ^^^Yi therefore to every self-flatterer, " O be not deceiv- 
 iii. 8, 9.] ed," &c., and " bring forth fruit," &c., and "think not to say 
 within yourselves. We have Abraham," &c. There is no dis- 
 pensation for Abraham^s children, for the elect, for men of 
 such and such persuasions, no special privilege for favourites, 
 no postern gate, or back stairs for some choice privados, all 
 their prerogative is the vjMv irpoyrov, earlier grace, or more 
 grace, and consequently so much the more obligation, but 
 [Luke xiii. then "except you repent," and return, "you shall all 
 ^'^ perish." Thirdly, "from his iniquities." Iniquities, first, 
 
 and then " his" iniquities ; not the TrapaTrrco/xaTa, every legal 
 breach, or declination, the resurrection and grace of Christ 
 will not thus return us to a paradise on earth, will not thus 
 [2Cor. V. sublime us quite out of our frail 'sinner-state, "till ourmor- 
 ^'^ tality be swallowed up with life," but the irovr^piai, villanies 
 and wickednesses of the carnal man, the wasting acts and 
 noisome habits of an unsanctified life, from these, Christ died 
 and rose, that He might turn us. There is not a more 
 noxious mistake, a more fatal piece of stoicism amongst Chris- 
 tians, than not to observe the different degrees and eleva- 
 tions of sin, one of the first, another of the second magni- 
 [1 Cor. XV. tude, one ignis fatuus, or false " star differing from another," 
 in dishonour, though not "in glory," some spots that are spots 
 of sons, that by a general repentance, without particular vic- 
 tory over them, by an habitual resolution to amend all that 
 is amiss, without actual getting out of these frailties, are 
 capable of God^s mercy in Christ, reconcilable with a regene- 
 rate estate, such are our aaOevelai, our weaknesses, ignor- 
 ances, and the like ; and some that are not the spots of sons, 
 [Gal. V. they which " do them, shall not," without actual reformation, 
 ^^'-^ and victory, and forsaking, enter, or "inherit the kingdom 
 of God," after all that Christ hath done and suffered for 
 them ; such our deliberate acts and habits against light, 
 against grace, the irovripiaL in the text ; and let me tell you, 
 the not pondering these differences, not observing the grains 
 and scruples of sin, how far the acrOeveiat extend, and when 
 they are overgrown into irovrjpiat, is the ground (that I say 
 
'of Christ's Iiesuiuiection. 
 
 187 
 
 no more) of a deal of desperate profaneness ; we cannot s E R M. 
 keep from all sin,': and therefore count it lost labour to en- — — — 
 deavour to abstain from any : having demonstrated ourselves 
 men by the aaOevetai, we make no scruple to evidence our- 
 selves devils too by the wovrjpiaL ; the desperation of perfect 
 sinlessness makes us secure in all vileness, and being en- 
 gaged in weakness, we advance to madness ; either hope to 
 be saved with our greatest sins, or fear to be damned for our 
 least ; and having resolved it impossible to do all, resolve se- 
 curely to do none ; our infirmities may damn us, and our 
 rebellions can do no more ; our prayers, our alms have sin in 
 them, and our murders and sacrileges can be but sinful : 
 and so if the devil or our interests will take the pains to soli- 
 cit it, the deadliest sin shall pass for as innocent a creature, 
 as tame a stingless serpent, as the fairest Christian virtue, 
 and all this upon the not observing the weight of the ttovt]- 
 plat here, which Christ rose from the grave on purpose to 
 turn us from, and from which whosoever is not turned, shall 
 never rise unto life. Add unto this the avrou, the " his'^ 
 iniquities, as it refers to the author of them, and this is the 
 bill of challenge and claim to those accursed possessions of 
 ours; nothing is so truly, so peculiarly ours as our sins ; 
 and of those, as our irovripiaL ; our frailties, our lapses, our 
 ignorances, the diseases and infelicities of our nature, which 
 may insensibly fall from us, vix ea nostra voco ; but our wast- 
 ing, wilful acts, and indulged habits, those great vultures 
 and tigers of the soul, they are most perfectly our own, the 
 naturalest brats, and crudest progeny, that ever came from 
 our loins; nor Zevs, nor ixolpa, nor ipLvvvsj in Aga- 
 memnon's s phrase, nor God, nor fate, nor fiend, are any way 
 chargeable with them : the first were blasphemy, the second 
 stoicism and folly to boot, the third a bearing false witness 
 against the devil himself, robbing him of his great funda- 
 mental title of Sid/3oXos, calumniator, and proving those that 
 thus charge him the greatest devils of the twain ; and all this 
 is but one part of the avrov here, the " his" &c. as it refers to 
 the author. AndauroO again, the " his" as it is a note of emi- 
 nence, his peculiar, prime, reigning sins, that all others like 
 the 6 hriiJLos, or communality are fain to be subject to, some- 
 
 g [Horn. II. T. 87.] 
 
188 
 
 THE BLESSING INFLUENCE 
 
 s E R M. times a monarch-dictator-single sin, the plague in his own 
 — ~ — heart/' a principality of ambition, of pride, of lust, of covet- 
 viii^ssff ousness, that all others at their distance administer unto ; 
 
 sometimes an optimacy of a few, all prime coequal in their 
 power ; and sometimes a democracy, or popular state, a whole 
 Egypt full of locusts in one breast, a Gad, a troop or shoal of 
 sins, all leading us captive to their shambles ; and thus our 
 sovereign sins, as different as our tempers, and every one the 
 auTov here, every man from his iniquities. The sum of this 
 first prospect is briefly this, " the turning every one from his 
 iniquities," wherein Christ's blessing us consists, is His giv- 
 ing of grace sufficient to work an universal, sincere, impar- 
 tial, thorough change of every sinner, from all his reigning, 
 wilful sins. The sincerity, though not perfection of the new 
 creature, and the dependence betwixt this and the resurrec- 
 tion of Christ, is the second, or next enquiry. 
 
 The resurrection of Christ in the Scripture style signifies 
 not always the act of rising from the dead, but the conse- 
 quent state after that rising, by the same proportion that 
 [2 Cor. V. fcaivr) ktlctisj the new creation,'' and the being regenerate 
 ^^'^ or born of God, signify the state of sonship, and not the act 
 of begetting only ; so that in brief, the avaarricra^ here, the 
 raising up of Jesus, signifies the new state, to which Christ 
 was inaugurate at His resurrection, and contains under it all 
 the severals of ascension, of sitting at the right hand of 
 power, of the mission of the Holy Ghost, and His powerful 
 intercession for us in heaven ever since, and to the end of 
 the world ; and this is the notion of the resurrection of 
 Christ, which is the blesser, which hath that influence on our 
 turning ; it will not be amiss to shew you how. 
 
 And here I shall not mention that moral influence of 
 His resurrection upon ours, by the example of Plis powerful 
 raising out of the grave, to preach to us the necessity of our 
 shaking off the grave-clothes, that cadaverous, chill, noisome 
 [Coloss. estate of sin, /cal o-vve^elpeaOao tw Xpiarco, to " rise again 
 ^'^ with Him /' this is the blessing in the text ; but this, the ex- 
 ample of Christ might preach long enough to dead souls, be- 
 fore it would be hearkened unto, although the truth is, the 
 ancient Church by their setting apart these holy days for the 
 baptizing of all that were baptized, and the whole space be- 
 
OF CHRIST^S RESURRECTION. 
 
 189 
 
 twixt this and Pentecost, and every Dominical in the year, s E R M. 
 
 for the gesture of standing in all their services, that no man }^ 
 
 might come near the earth, at the time that Christ rose from 
 it, did certainly desire to enforce this moral on us, that our 
 souls might now turn, and be blessed, rise and be con- 
 formed to the image of Christ's resurrection. Blessed Lord ! 
 that it might be thus exemplary to us at this time. But to 
 omit this, the special particulars wherein the resurrection of 
 Christ, as our blesser, hath its influence on our turning, are 
 briefly these three : 
 
 1. The bestowing on us some part of that Spirit by which 
 Christ was raised out of the grave. Consider Rom. viii. 11, 
 and it is all that I shall say to you of that first particular. 
 " If the Spirit of Him that raised^ up Christ from the dead 
 dwell in you. He that raised up Christ shall also quicken 
 your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you," that 
 Spirit of power by which Christ was raised out of the grave, 
 is the very efficient of our turning, our new birth, the author 
 of our present blessedness, and the pledge of our future 
 immortality; God having raised His Son by His Spirit, 
 anointed Him with that Spirit to work the like miracles 
 daily on our souls, in " blessing, in turning every one," &c. ; 
 and that is the first thing. 
 
 2. Christ's resurrection hath a hand in blessing, in turning 
 from iniquity, in respect to that solemn mission of the Holy 
 Ghost promised before, and performed immediately after His 
 ascension. This not person, I mean, but office of the Holy 
 Ghost, in settling a pastorage in the Church, and to it the 
 consequent power and necessity of preaching, administering 
 Sacraments, governing, censuring, all which were the eff'ects 
 of the Holy Ghost's descending, and the direct interpretation 
 
 of the \d(3eTe Trvevijua, then, and ever since then. To which [John xx. 
 if you please to add the promise of the annexion of the ^^'-^ 
 Spirit, and the invisible grace of God to the orderly use of 
 these, so far that the preaching of the gospel, — not only 
 that manner of preaching among us, that hath gotten the 
 monopoly of all the service of God into its patent, the only 
 thing that many of us pay all our devotion to ; but any other 
 way of making known the gospel of Christ, the doctrine of 
 the second covenant, — is called hiaicovia Trvev/jLaTos, the ad- 2 Cor. ill 8. 
 
190 
 
 THE BLESSING INFLUENCE 
 
 SERM. ministration, or means of dispensing tbe Spirit to us, and 
 ^ ^ — the Sacrament Koivwvla alfxaros, the communication of the 
 
 16.] blood of Christ, yea and the censures, no carnal, weak, blunt 
 
 2 Cor. X. 4. " weapons of our warfare," but " mighty through God," &c. ; 
 
 you have then a second energy of His resurrection toward 
 our turning, so great, that He that holds out against this 
 method of power and grace, and will not turn nor understand 
 after all this, shall never be capable of any other means of 
 blessing, of working that great work for him : and so you 
 see the second ground of dependence between the resurrec- 
 tion, and blessing, or turning. O that it might work its de- 
 
 [Ps. xcv. sign upon us, that " to-day we would hear the voice," that 
 7, 15.] cries so loud to us out of heaven, the last perhaps numeri- 
 cally, I am sure the last in specie or kind, the last artifice, 
 this of the Word, and Sacraments, that is ever to be hoped 
 for to this end, " to bless us, to turn us every one from 
 our," &c. 
 
 3. The resurrection hath to do in blessing, and turning, 
 in respect of Christ^s intercession, that prime act of His 
 Melchisedech priesthood, His powerful intercession, i. e. in 
 effect conferring of grace on us ; thus Rom. viii. 34, where 
 that weighty business of justifying is laid more on the resur- 
 rection than death of Christ, "It is Christ that died, yea 
 rather that is risen again." It is thus enlarged in the next 
 words, " who is even at the right hand of God, who also 
 maketh intercession for us ;" His intercession, powerful inter- 
 cession " at the right hand of God," — a consequent of God's 
 " raising up His Son Jesus," — hath a main influence on turn- 
 ing first, and then justifying the ungodly : and so Heb. vii. 
 25, " Wherefore He is able to save them to the uttermost," 
 aca^eiv els to nravreXes, to save them for good and all, deliver 
 them from all kind of assailants, from sin, from themselves, 
 from wrath, from hell, though not absolutely all, yet those 
 that come unto God by Him, those that turn when He will 
 have them turn, " seeing He ever liveth to make intercession 
 for them." Will you see this more clearly ? why then thus. 
 There are three degrees of grace, preventing, exciting, assist- 
 ing : the first for conversion, the second for sanctifying, the 
 third for perseverance. And two acts of turning, being 
 already premised, for the beginning of that blessing work, 
 
OP Christ's resurrection. 
 
 191 
 
 1. by the power of that Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead; s E R M, 
 
 then, 2. by the descent of the Holy Ghost, — the first as '- — 
 
 the seed sown, the second as the rain and sunshine to bring 
 it up, — there is yet a third required for the earing and 
 hardening of the corn, that of God^s giving increase, for the 
 consummating this weighty affair, , for the confirming and 
 estabhshing those that are initially blest and turned into a 
 kind of angelical state of perseverance : and to this^ it is that 
 Christ's continual intercession belongs, for that is peculiarly 
 for disciples, for those that are believers, Christians already, 
 that they may be preserved and kept in that state, — as for 
 St. Peter in the time of shock, of tempest, when Satan is 
 at his ewpetivit, — that if we be permitted to be tempted, yet 
 our "faith may not fail." Another copy of this intercession Lulcexxii, 
 you have John xvii. ; the whole chapter is a prescript form of 
 it, a platform of what He now daily performs in heaven. 
 Look in the eleventh verse, "Holy Father, keep through 
 Thine own Name," own power, " those whom Thou hast given 
 Me," those that are believers already : and in the fifteenth, 
 " I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, 
 but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil one ;" not 
 for immunity from temptations, for an impeccable state, but 
 for a sufficiency of grace to keep, to sustain them in time 
 of temptation, that they may be able to stand. So that this 
 intercession of Christ is apportioned and adequate to the 
 irpoKoiTTovTes, " proficients," those that are believers already, 
 disciples, — or others to come that shall be such, and when 
 they are prayed for are considered under that notion, as it is 
 clear, ver. 20, " Neither pray I for these alone, but for them 
 also that shall believe on Me through their word," — a direct 
 notation who they are that this daily intercession for keeping, 
 for perseverance, belongs to, the believers, faithful disciples, 
 and none others, " I pray for them, I pray not for the world," 
 ver. 9. Other prayers He can allow for the world, the veriest 
 incarnate devils in it, the very crucifiers, " Father, forgive [Luke 
 them ;" but this prayer for perseverance, for keeping, is only ^^'-^ 
 for the " them," the believers there : the impenitent unbe- 
 liever cannot have his portion in that, unless he would have 
 Christ pray to damn him irreversibly, to keep him in his 
 impenitence, " to seal him up unto the day of perdition." [2 Pet. iii. 
 
192 
 
 THE BLESSING INFLUENCE 
 
 s E R M. You see from hence by way of result or corollary, what it is 
 • — that our perseverance in the faith and favour of God is im- 
 putable to, not any fatal contrivance for some special confi- 
 dents, that their sins shall not be able to separate them, not 
 any such aTroXvTpwa-Ls, as Marcus his scholars in Irenseus^ 
 pretended to, that by it they were <j)vaei TrvevfiaTLKol, " natu- 
 rally spiritual," that all the debaucheries in the world could 
 no more vitiate them, than the sun-beams are profaned by 
 the dunghill which they shine on, or the gold by the sluttery 
 it may be mixed with, that by the shield of the mother of 
 heaven, whatever they did, they were aoparoi rm Kpcrfj, 
 ^' invisible to the judge." No such comforts and hopes as 
 these, of perseverance in sin, and favour with God at once, 
 of making good our union with God, when we are in the gall 
 of bitterness, of being justified, when we are not sanctified ; 
 that magical spell, that fastens us in a circle, — and then what- 
 ever we do there, the devil cannot approach us, — is the very 
 [Job xxvii. hope of the hypocrite in Job, and that hope as hypocritical as 
 8—10.] himself, perisheth, and vanisheth, when he hath most rest to 
 set upon it. Neorys iXTrlBos ifKrjpT^s, saith Aristotle^, the de- 
 bauched young man can entertain himself with such daring 
 courageous hopes as these, jrjpas Be SvaeXTn, but old age and 
 death-beds are not of so good assurance. There is but one 
 principle, I say, of our perseverance to be depended on, that 
 of Christ's daily intercession for the true humble disciple, 
 that his faith may not fail, and that intercession, an act of 
 power in Christ, to give what He thus prays for, "all power is 
 given unto Me," and so in eff*ect, a doing and giving whatever 
 is required on God's part to the working of this blessed work 
 upon our souls, a concurrence, an actual donation of mi- 
 nutely assistance to them that humbly wait and beg for it, 
 and that, secondly, receive it, and make use of it when it is 
 given. That double condition is indispensably required on 
 our parts to the obtaining of this grace, as you may see it 
 in the habenti dabitur, the parable of the talent: and Heb. vii. 
 25, " He is able to save them that come unto God by Him, 
 
 [S. Iren. adv. Haer. i. 9. vid. note KaOdirep rj vcStt^s rovs iraTSas' rh fiev 
 
 in p. 160.] yap yripas SvaeAiri icrrlv, 7) 5e v€6t7)S 
 
 * [/col 8ta TovTo irphs rh irlvnv ets i\irl5os TrAifjpTjs. — Aristot. Probl. xxx. 
 
 fieOrjv TTOLVTes exovai irpoOvfioos, Zri irdu- 1. 27.] 
 Tas 6 olvos 6 iroAvs eutATrtSas Troiet, 
 
OF Christ's resurrection. 
 
 193 
 
 seeinff He ever liveth to make intercession for them the S E R M. 
 
 . IX 
 
 ability to save and deliver out of the tempter's hand, to give '- — 
 
 perseverance, is explained by His continual intercession, but 
 that only to those that " come unto God by Him/' the pious 
 disciple, and true Christian, the worshipper of God that doth 
 His will, that first begs, and then doth not resist and grieve 
 that Spirit of His, — as Heb. v. 9, He is author of salva- 
 tion;" to whom? to all those that obey Him," — He is "able [Matt. xi. 
 to save them;" as if Christ were not able to save any others, vi.'s.] 
 to give any other perseverance, — as He could not do miracles 
 in His own country, because of their unbelief. The truth is. 
 His decree and oath hath manacled Him, not to work such 
 miracles of mercies, prodigies of perseverance for the profane 
 impenitent, the either spiritual or carnal presumer. You see 
 now the dependence betwixt the avacTT^qaas, on one side, and 
 the evXo'yelv and airoaTpe^eLv, on the other; the rising, on one 
 side, and the blessing and turning, on the other. I proceed 
 to my last particular, that the turning is but a periphrasis of 
 blessing, "to bless us in turning," &c. 
 
 And I would it were in my power instead of demonstrat- 
 ing to your brain to preach this home to your affections, to 
 persuade you and convince you of this great truth, the belief 
 of which your felicity here, and eternity hereafter, so much 
 depends on ; could you but acknowledge the ort, that there 
 is any such thing as blessedness in a regenerate life, discern 
 this mystery of godliness, the present joyous estate, that lies 
 folded up in the new creature, it is impossible you should be 
 any longer in love with perishing. There may be perhaps 
 some smooth, pleasant parts in sin that the beast about you 
 may delight in, some entertainment for that carnal brute ; 
 but what a poor acquisition is that delight, to tempt thee 
 out of blessedness, to rob thee of such inestimable treasures ! 
 A piteous exchange this, make the best of it : but when that 
 momentary joy is not to be had neither, when there is so 
 little, so nothing even of transitory carnal pleasure in it, then, 
 " Return, O Shulamite, return,'' let not the prodigal outwit [Cant. vi. 
 
 13 1 
 
 thee, out-thrive thee, rise up in judgment against thee, and '-' 
 condemn thee ; he, after the exhausting not only of his patri- 
 mony, but of his flesh, a crest-fallen degenerous prodigal, a 
 kind of Lycanthropos Nebuchadnezzar, — but in worse com- [pan. iv. 
 
 HAMMOND. O ^^'^ 
 
194 
 
 THE BLESSING INFLUENCE 
 
 S E R M. pany, — driven from men to swine^ which of all other crea- 
 — ~ — tures are iinfittest to preach returning, — their ocular nerves, 
 saith Plutarch, are so placed, that they can never come to 
 see heaven, till they are laid upon their backs, — yet even 
 this (guest of swine) prodigal can at last think fit to re- 
 turn to his father ; O let this prodigal turn preacher, — as 
 such sometimes, when they have run out of all, are wont to 
 do, — I shall give him the text on which I shall be confident 
 [Ps. cxvi. he will be very rhetorical, " Return unto thy rest, O my 
 soul.'^ 
 
 Again consider the r/, what blessedness is, and that may 
 possibly work upon you ; other excellencies there are, that 
 may set you out in the eyes of men, generosity, obligingness, 
 wisdom, learning, courage, &c., and every of these can be 
 thought fit to be some sober man^s idol. And yet the utmost 
 that can belong to these, is to be praiseworthy : and then 
 what proportion is there betwixt all these, and one such 
 heroic excellency, of which the philosopher can sayj, " praise 
 is too poor a reward for them, we count them blessed/^ 
 
 [Phil.ii. 1; O then if there be any consolation in Christ, any virtue, 
 ^'^ any praise, if any so noble a quality as ambition be left in 
 you, if any spark of that vestal flame, any aspiring to that 
 which will ennoble and sublime your natures, any design on 
 blessedness, behold and remember the turning in this text, 
 nay, if you are but so well-natured as to wish a poor piteous 
 accursed kingdom out of the jaws of so many hells, and 
 
 [Phii.ii.2.] capable of some return toward blessedness again, " fulfil you 
 my joy/^ Away with those objections and prejudices we have 
 to repentance, that it is a rugged, thorny, galling way, a 
 dull, melancholy, joyless state ; whatever you can miss, what-, 
 ever quarrel in it, it will be abundantly repaired and satisfied 
 in this one of blessedness ; send me all the torments and 
 miseries of this malicious age, the inventions of wit, and 
 cruelty, all the diseases, that the heathens^ fear had deified, 
 and in the midst of these a present, instant blessedness, and 
 I shall certainly defy them all ; give me blessedness upon the 
 rack, upon the wheel, and if you will suppose it possible, in 
 hell itself, and I will never ask father Abraham's favour or 
 allay to those flames, I shall not doubt but to enjoy that any 
 
 j [Aristot. Eth. Nic, lib. i. cap. 12.] 
 
OF CHRIST^S RESURRECTION. 
 
 195 
 
 thing, that hath blessedness in it. The very heathens, saith S E R M. 
 St. Austin^ had a great design upon one treasure that they — — — 
 found they had lost, used all means they could think would 
 contribute toward the recovery of it ; and in that quest went 
 at last, saith he, and gave their souls to the devil, to get 
 purity for those souls. It were then but reason that you 
 would give your souls unto God to purchase it, that you 
 would set a turning, a purifying, when the same compen- 
 dium renders you pure and blest together, when the being 
 happier than you were before, is all that you pay to be so 
 for ever. 
 
 I have tired you with preaching that, that would have 
 been more seasonable to have prayed for you, that God 
 having, as on this day, " raised up His Son Jesus,^^ will 
 vouchsafe to send Him into every of our hearts, to bless us, 
 to bless this accursed, miserable kingdom, this shaking, 
 palsy Church, this broken state, this unhappy nation, this 
 every poor sinner soul, by " turning^^ all, and every one 
 from his iniquities," by giving us all that only matter of 
 our peace and serenity here, and pledge of our eternal feli- 
 city hereafter ; which God of His infinite mercy grant us all, 
 for His Son Jesus' sake, whom He hath thus raised. To 
 whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be ascribed, as 
 our only tribute, the honour, &c. 
 
 k [S. August, de Civ. Dei, lib. x. c. 10. Op., torn. vii. p. 247, C] 
 
 o 2 
 
SERMON X. 
 
 PREPARED AT CARISBROOK CASTLE, BUT NOT PREACHED. 
 
 GOD'S COMPLAINT AGAINST REVOLTERS. 
 
 Isaiah i. 5. 
 
 Why slioidcl you he stricken any more ? you will revolt more 
 and more, 
 
 S E R M. It is a heavy complaint of God^s, and though expressed 
 
 5: without much noise, yet in a deep melting hearty passion, 
 
 not only in the verse next before my text, with heaven and 
 earth called to be witnesses of the complaint, but with a 
 little varying of the expression, every where else throughout 
 the Prophets, that " Israel doth not know, God's people doth 
 not consider." All the arts of discipline and pedagogy had 
 been used to teach them knowledge and consideration, i. e., 
 to bring them to a sight and sense of their estate ; lectures, 
 warnings, chidings, blows, shaking and rousing, and hasten- 
 ing them, if it were possible, to awake them out of that 
 lethargic, senseless condition. The whole people used like 
 that proud king of Babylon, driven from men, set to live and 
 converse with the beasts of the field, — such were the Chal- 
 deans, whither they were carried captive, — if so be as it 
 fared with him, so it might possibly succeed with them ; the 
 field be a more gainful school than the palace had been, that 
 Dan. iv. by that means at least they might lift up their eyes to 
 heaven, and their understanding return to them turned 
 from men into beasts, that that stranger metamorphosis might 
 be wrought on them, a transformation from men into men, 
 from ignorant, brutish, into prudent, considering men ; nay, 
 [1 Cor. V. delivered up even unto Satan by way of discipline, that 
 ^'^ Satan might teach them sense ; the plagues of Egypt, of 
 
 Sodom, of hell let loose upon them, to try whether like the 
 rubbing and the smarting of the fish's gall, it might restore 
 these blind Tobits to their eyes and souls again. To work 
 the same work, if it be possible, upon us, is, I profess, my 
 
god's complaint against revolters. 
 
 197 
 
 business and only errand at this time. There hath been a SERM. 
 
 great deal of pains taken by God to this purpose ; doctrine — — 
 
 and discipline, instructions and corrections, and all utterly 
 cast away upon us hitherto, the "whole head sick, and the [Is. i. 6.] 
 whole heart faint,^^ in the words next after my text ; which 
 you must not understand as ordinarily men do of the sins 
 of that people, that those were the " wounds, and bruises, 
 and putrified sores," — give me leave to tell you that is a mis- 
 take for want of considering the context, — but of judgments, 
 heavy judgments, diseases, piteous diseases, both on head 
 and heart, epilepsies, racking pains in the head ; the whole 
 kingdom may complain in the language of the Shunamite^s 
 child, " O my head, my head nay, in the prophet's, " the [2 Kings 
 crown is fallen from our head,'' the crown of our head torn and ^^'-^ 
 fallen from our head, and the heart in terrible fainting fits, 
 every foot ready to overcome j from the " sole of the foot to 
 the crown of the head," from one extreme part of the nation 
 to another, nothing but distress or oppression, suffering or 
 acting direful tragedies, misery or impiety, — the latter the 
 more fatal symptom, the greater distress of the two, — and 
 yet " no man layeth it to heart,'' England " will not know, [Is. i. 3.] 
 will not consider." 
 
 The truth is, the deformities which are in ourselves, we are 
 such partial self-parasites that there is no seeing in a direct 
 line, no coming to that prospect but by reflection ; shall we 
 therefore bring the elephant to the water, and there shew 
 him and amaze him with the sight and ugliness of his pro- 
 boscis ? The state of the Jews is that water where we may see 
 the image of this present kingdom most perfectly delineated 
 in every limb and feature ; its prosperity, its pride, its warn- 
 ings, its provocations, its captivities, its contumelious using 
 of the prophets, stjorning the messengers from God that came 
 to reprieve them ; at length its fatal presages, the deadly 
 feuds, ^TjXcoral and aLKapiot, zealots and brothers of the 
 sword, ploughing it up to be sowed with salt and brimstone, 
 and all this chargeable culture and discipline cast away upon 
 them utterly, mortifying — instead of sins and impieties — 
 nothing but the relics of piety, and civility, and ingenuous 
 nature ; a strange pestilential fever, seizing upon their very 
 spirits and souls ; and now nothing but a Roman eagle or 
 
198 
 
 GOD*S COMPLAINT AGAINST REVOLTBRS. 
 
 S E RM. a hell, a Titus or a fiend left behind to work any reformation 
 
 — — on them. Thus all God^s thunderbolts being exhausted. His 
 
 methods of discipline posed, and non-plused, and frustrated, 
 there is nothing behind but calling in and retracting those 
 rods, the no longer vouchsafing those thunderbolts, a news 
 that perhaps you would be glad to hear of, a respite of punish- 
 ments, but that the most ominous direful of all others, the 
 most formidable of all God^s denouncings, the last and worst 
 kind of desertion, " Why should you be," not embraced and 
 dandled, but " scourged and smitten any more ? You will 
 revolt more and more/' 
 
 These words will afford you these four fields of plain and 
 useful meditation : 
 
 1. God^s custom of striking sinners, and increasing stripes 
 on them, in order to their reformation. 
 
 2. The prime proper seasons for such striking : 1. in case 
 of revolt : 2. in case of revolting more. 
 
 3. The one only case in which striking becomes uncha- 
 ritable, when the more and the more God smites, the more 
 and the more the sinner revolts. 
 
 4. And lastly, the pitiful estate of the sinner when he 
 comes to this, when in this case God removes smiting, for 
 though it be an act of mercy in God, yet it is that which 
 bodes very ill, it is an indication of the most desperate 
 estate of the patient ; " Why should you be stricken any 
 more ?" 
 
 I begin first with the first, — which lies not so visible and 
 distinguishable in the text, but is the foundation that is 
 supposed under it, and on which all that is visible is super- 
 structed, — and that is, God^s pious and charitable design in 
 smiting sinners, and increasing stripes on them; though 
 now, on more prudential considerations, they shall not be 
 any more smitten. 
 [Ps.lxxxix. " If My children forsake My law, &c., I will visit their 
 30, 32.J offences with the rod, and their sins with scourges," saith 
 God by the Psalmist. God hath His visits for distempered 
 [iCor. iv. children, not only like that of St. Paul's, ^'in the spirit of 
 ^^'^ meekness," but also iv f)d/38a>, " with the rod and if that 
 single engine of discipline will not do it, there are sharper 
 and more behind, the flagella, or scourges," in the plural. 
 
GOD^S COMPLAINT AGAINST REVOLTERS. 
 
 199 
 
 And this by the way of prudent medicinal process, of solemn s E R M. 
 
 deliberate dispensation, according to rules of art : you will — 
 
 presently discern it, if you but look into the nature, and 
 causes, and process of the disease. I shall give you but one 
 way of judging of these, by remembering you that all sin is 
 founded in bono jucundo, in the pleasing or delighting of 
 the carnal faculty : "every man is tempted when he is drawn [Jas. i.i4.] 
 away of his own lust, and enticed," when his carnal pleasur- 
 able faculty, i^iXKec koI SeXed^ei, draws him out of his road 
 of piety by an amiable pleasurable lure or bait. Of this 
 kind, if you will look into the retail, you shall find every sin 
 in the world to be, — some law of the members, some dictate 
 of the flesh, which is all for sensitive pleasure, a warring, a 
 contending, arguing and pleading before the will against 
 the adversary law of the mind, against the dictates of the 
 honest or virtuous, of the rational or Christian, which is a 
 pretending and contending on the other side. Three repre- 
 sentations there were of the apple in the first sin, and every 
 of those under this notion of pleasure. The woman saw, 1. 
 " that it was good for food," pleasurable to the taste : 2. " a 
 desire," (as it is in the Hebrew,) [which we render again 
 "pleasant to the eyes :" and 3. *'that it was to be desired to 
 make one wise i. e., according to the same Hebrew notion, 
 pleasurable in this, that it would make them know more than 
 they did before, a kind of satisfaction, and so pleasure to 
 the understanding, as you know knowledge, though it be 
 but of trifles and news, is a most pleasurable thing. And so 
 generally, every sin is begotten after the image and likeness 
 of that first ; the pleasures of lust, the pleasures of revenge, 
 that huge high epicurism ; the pleasures of pride, the great- 
 est that Aristotle, or the author irepl koo-jllov, conceived that 
 the old heathen gods could pretend to in their recesses % their 
 not vouchsafing to see or hear any thing but by perspectives 
 and otacoustics ; or again, the pleasures of heresy, of schism, 
 which he that is guilty of, saith the Apostle, " is he not car- [1 Cor. iii. 
 nal?" the pleasures of singularity, and being head of a faction, ^"^ 
 they say the hugest sensuality and voluptuousness, the most 
 
 ^ [Aristot. De Mundo, vi. 9. Ham- were buildings so constructed with 
 
 mond has misapprehended the meaning guards called wraKovcTTai, ws ttu 6 fiacri- 
 
 of the passage, which is a description Aei/s avrhs SeairoTTjs Kol 6ehs ovo/xa^Sije- 
 
 of the palace of Ecbatana, where there vos iravTa ^ikv ^Xenoi, ndura S' aKovoi.~\ 
 
200 
 
 GOD^S COMPLAINT AGAINST REVOLTERS. 
 
 s E R M. bewitching ravishment of any ; and even covetousness and 
 
 '- ambition, the sins which seem to be particularly fastened on 
 
 two other notions of the forbidden fruit, the profit and hon- 
 our, the wealth and greatness, the baits of the world, and 
 not of the flesh, — and may have smitings of God propor- 
 tioned to them on our estates and honours, as well as on our 
 flesh, — yet, I sa}^, even these would certainly never be able to 
 w^ork upon us, if there were not a notion of pleasure in them ; 
 and therefore one of them is called the lust of the eye,^^ and 
 the worldly pomp and greatness the object of the other — 
 as that in Moses, of the " honour of being called the son of 
 Heb.xi.25. Pharaoli^s daughter,^-' — is distinctly styled the pleasures of 
 sin,^^ in the plural. And indeed the matter is clear and demon- 
 strable, there being but two contrary faculties about us, the 
 rational and the carnal principle, the inward and the out- 
 ward man, as every virtuous and Christian thought and 
 Rom. vii. action is a avvrjheaOat tw vofjuw tov Beov, a ^^complacency" and 
 delight of the upper nobler spiritual faculty in the law of God, 
 the object apportioned to that ; so is every sin that is ever 
 committed, a avvrjSeadac tm vofjucp [ev rots] fieXeai, a " com- 
 placency,^^ or conjunction in liking, a being pleased with the 
 law of the members, a choosing of that which may be most 
 agreeable and proportionable to the designs of the flesh, i.e., 
 most desirable and pleasurable to that. 
 
 Having given you the character of the disease, the distinct 
 nature of sin, the propriety of the distemper, that some 
 either true or false sensual pleasure, something that is really 
 delectable to the flesh, or that either by a false glass of pas- 
 sion or custom, or else by an imperfect half light, appears to 
 be pleasurable, is the foundation and matter of every sin, 
 (never any revolts from God but when we hope to enjoy our- 
 selves better in some other company, some revenue or in- 
 come of aiTokavats, or "joy" to the flesh expected, and aimed 
 at in every extravagance or out-lying,) you cannot now 
 choose but acknowledge the propriety of the physic which 
 we have here before us, the usefulness of the strokes, or 
 smitings, for this recovery. When a man is in the pursuit of 
 a mere pleasurable object, which he confesses to value for 
 nothing else but that it is sweet to taste, could he but dis- 
 cern or espy the whole sweetness and pleasurableness of it 
 
GOD^S COMPLAINT AGAINST REVOLTERS. 
 
 201 
 
 secretly let out, or spilt upon the ground, or evaporate before SERM. 
 
 his eyes, or but a scourge held over his head, or a vial of gall ^ 
 
 or wormwood imbibed, that for every dram of pleasure shall 
 give him a terrible proportion of bitterness at the present, of 
 instant pain and smart : it is not imaginable that any man in 
 his senses should advance one step further in this pursuit ; 
 the more sensual and carnal man he is, the more he must 
 abhor such marches as these, which are so treacherous and 
 malicious to the very flesh ; he that can satisfy himself with 
 the empty name of sin, though it taste never so sour or 
 loathsome ; that will not in this case compromise and com- 
 pound with innocence, take purity on Christ's terms, rather 
 than venture on present racks and torments, had need be a 
 sublime, aerial, spiritual sinner indeed ; like Lucifer himself, 
 who, we know, is all spirit, he must have nothing left of 
 sense or flesh about him. Were but the thousandth part of 
 that hell which expects the indulgent sinner in another 
 world mixed in the very cup of his pleasurablest sin here, 
 the least present whip, instead of all those future scorpions, 
 it would be almost impossible for the most magnanimous 
 sinner to venture so deep for that empty honour, the bare 
 opinion, or fanc}^, or credit of having assaulted and rebelled 
 against heaven and gained nothing by it ; to pay so dear for 
 that " which is not bread,'' hath nothing of substance or [is. Iv. 2.] 
 satisfaction in it. And therefore this is the design of God's 
 rod. His smitings. His punishments, to give us a little of 
 that hell beforehand, — which our infidel senses apprehend 
 nothing of as long as it is future, — to help us to some dis- 
 relish to sin at the present, to give us some part of its por- 
 tion, of the odiousness and bitterness of it, in the very 
 mouth, that we may not have any joy in chewing or swallow- 
 ing down so abhorred a mixture, which hath such a certain 
 arrear of horror and bitterness in the stomach ; to rain down 
 some fire and brimstone into our throats whensoever we are 
 gaping after that forbidden tree; thus to discourage, if not 
 to allay our hydropic thirst, to encumber and trash us in our 
 violent furious marches, to pluck off* the wheels of our Egyp- [Exod. 
 tian chariots that they may drive more heavily ; that finding ^^'^ 
 the most pleasurable sin such a sad yXv/cvTrt/cpov, a compost 
 of more bitter than sweet at the very instant, we should 
 
god's complaint against revolters. 
 
 SERM. never be sucli blind obedient votaries of Satan, never so per- 
 
 '- fectly renounce and deny ourselves, our own ease, our own 
 
 all kind of interests and advantages, never be such professed 
 enemies and tyrants against our own flesh, as to go on in 
 such chargeable ways of sin, when we see and feel so sadly, 
 how without and before the certain cures of a chilled old age, 
 by this charitable anticipation of God^s smiting hand, the 
 [Eccles. days are come upon sin, that we can truly say " that we 
 ^'"^ have no pleasure in it." And so you see the grounds of 
 this medicinal method, the charity and piety of God^s de- 
 sign in smiting, my first observable. I proceed briefly to the 
 prime, proper seasons of this charity, this smiting: 1. in 
 case of revolt, 2. of revolting more ; my second particular. 
 
 God's first season of punishing is instantly upon revolt, at 
 the first breaking off*, or aversion, or departure from God; 
 and sure he that is not suffered by God to enjoy one easy or 
 comfortable hour in sin, that is presently called to disci- 
 pline, taught what a jealous God he hath provoked, that is 
 roused and awaked at the first nod, watched over by the most 
 vigilant monitor, — that he cannot move out of his posture of 
 piety, but presently God in heaven is a calling out to him, 
 to reduce him to his rank again, — cannot choose but acknow- 
 ledge himself a prime part of God^s care and solicitude. The 
 first day of going out into the field, as in God^s, so in Satan^s 
 service, is generally a nice and a critical day ; according to 
 the successes or discouragements we meet with then, we 
 have more or less mind to the trade for ever after ; should 
 but our beginnings of revolt from God, our first treacherous 
 intentions against Him, prove lucky, and smooth, and pros- 
 perous, it were easy and prone, and not at all improbable, 
 for us to glide insensibly into all rebellions and impieties, 
 to swear fealty to Satan, that hath entertained us so hos- 
 pitably, and suddenly to engage so deep under his colours, 
 that there would be no retiring with honour, no returning 
 to God without being infamous, without undergoing the 
 brand of apostates from Satan, of a kind of fcedifragi, cove- 
 nant-breakers and deserters ; our repentance would go for 
 the more scandalous thing, our reduction to our allegiance 
 to heaven would be the forfeiting of a trust, and within a while 
 appear the more ill-favoured reproachful revolt of the two. 
 
god's complaint against revolters. 
 
 203 
 
 Whereas if we meet with some checks and discouragements SERM. 
 betimes, some rousing brushes at the first entrance into the 
 service, it is possible we may discern our error, especially if it 
 were the flesh that helped to seduce us, if the hope of advan- 
 tage that brought us into it, because the wicked goes un- [Eccles. 
 punished, therefore the heart of man is wholly set to do evil,'' ^^'^ 
 saith Solomon ; and therefore that God may not be thought 
 to desert them presently at the first revolt, to deliver up that 
 heart of theirs to that hell upon earth upon this first single 
 provocation, God is concerned in faithfulness to cause them [Ps. cxix. 
 to be troubled," not to lead them into this temptation, to pro- ^^"-^ 
 fane continuance in sin, but to give them this grace, this 
 gift of punishment, to reduce and recall them presently as 
 soon as they are revolted, to let Satan or his instruments 
 loose, to disease and awake this drowsy servant of his, who 
 therefore to such purposes, though he be cast out of heaven, 
 from being God's menial servant, is still v7T7]p6T7)9 Oeov, God's [Kom. xiii. 
 officer and minister, retains so much of his old angelical p'J^^'^^' 
 title of being a ministering spirit, and that, if we be not 
 wanting to ourselves, to the greatest advantage of our souls, 
 €09 olKo8ofjLr]v, not €19 (pOopav^ a piece of edifying, not san- [2 Cor. xiii. 
 guinary discipline. And let me tell you my opinion, that J j^"'" 
 for that which is called punitive justice, severity or revenge 
 on sin, that part of the magistrate's office among men, to be 
 6/c8lko9 €19 6pyr]v, "an avenger for wrath," were it not in mere [Rom. xiii. 
 necessary charity to them that are punished, or to them that '^'■^ 
 are warned by others' punishment, there were no reason for 
 any man to inflict it upon another, it were wholly to be left 
 to God's tribunal. 
 
 From this hint two things I desire to commend to my 
 auditory, by way of application. 
 
 1. The care that they are to have, to take special notice of 
 every the softest degree of smiting that ever befalls them in 
 their lives ; be it a sickness, or a miscarriage, a thousand to 
 one it is an application of God's to some special distemper of 
 thine, to some degree of revolt from Him. This I will not say 
 is perpetually true, because I know there be other uses of 
 smitings, for the exercise of many Christian virtues, — which 
 would rust and sully and come to little, and so Christ lose 
 all the glory and renown, and we all the reward of them, if 
 
204 
 
 GOD^S COMPLAINT AGAINST REVOLTEES. 
 
 SERM. we had not sucli occasions to exercise them, — but I say the 
 
 — odds is so great, when the rod of God comes, that it comes for 
 
 some such revolt of thine, that certainly it is thy duty so far 
 to distrust thine own excellencies, as to doubt that it comes 
 not to thee merely as to an athleia, or combatant, or perfect 
 Christian, irpos BoKLfiaalav, "by way of trial" only, but as to 
 one guilty of some kind of revolt, and so els KuXacnv, for pun- 
 ishment and reformation. And though I cannot be confident 
 it is so, yet believe me, thou hast so much reason to suspect 
 thyself, that it will be worth thy pains to examine, upon 
 every stroke on thy body, thy estate, nay on thy reputation, 
 [2Sam.xvi. every cursing of a Shimei, every approach or terror, bran- 
 5, &c.] dishing the rod or sword against thee, that it is some pre- 
 sent sin of thine, some degree of instant revolt that hath 
 [Jas.v.l4.] brought this stroke upon thee. El tl9 aaOevel, saith St. 
 
 James, "if any man be sick," &c. The whole text supposeth 
 it strongly probable that he that is thus visited hath com- 
 mitted some act of revolt, either of greater or lesser moment, 
 either against God or his brother, to which that sickness 
 hath some relation ; and there is a notable place, Ecclesias- 
 ticus xviii. 21, "Humble thyself before thou be sick, and in 
 the time of sins shew repentance,^' supposing the time of sins 
 to be the forerunner of sickness, and he that would but thus 
 examine himself, whensoever he hath any such bitter po- 
 tion sent him from God, ask his own conscience, his best 
 adviser, the question, to what former disease it is to which 
 God, 6is larpos, not as an enemy, but a physician, hath 
 accommodated this application, he might perhaps forty years 
 hence thank me for this admonition, and be able to tell me 
 that from this day to that he hath experimented the truth of 
 the observation, never received a corrosive plaster from God, 
 but upon enquiry he found a piece of dead flesh in himself 
 to which it clearly belonged. I doubt not but a few good 
 memories might presently bring me in a catalogue of proofs 
 to my observation ; I desire you will be your own confessors, 
 and do it to yourselves ; and then do the duty that in such 
 case belongs to you. And that is, in the second place, not 
 only to acknowledge the disease before God most freely, and 
 apply His physic and our diligence to the cure of it, but 
 withal to look upon these strokes as the sovereignest mercies. 
 
god's complaint against eevolters. 
 
 205 
 
 so many beams of mere grace^ sermons from heaven, the very S E RM. 
 
 " Bath Col/' the voice from heaven of old, that seldom came '■ — 
 
 but with a clap of thunder along with it, methods of God's 
 restraining and exciting Spirit ; and thank God as heartily 
 for them as for the richest boons, the warmest sunshines 
 that you ever received from the Sun of righteousness,, and 
 being once " made whole," rescued, upon thy return, from 
 one such first smiting, it concerns thee nearly for ever 
 after, to " go, sin no more, lest a far worse thing happen [John v. 
 unto thee." 
 
 For so I told you, there is a second season of smiting, and 
 that of doubling the blows; viz., upon our revolting more. 
 God doth not presently upon the first recidivation or relapse, 
 give up the sinner for desperate ; He concludes indeed most 
 justly and deliberately, that the KaKO')(ijfjLLa, or disafi*ection, is 
 the stronger when it breaks forth again ; the leprosy more [Lev. xiii. 
 dangerous that it spreads in the flesh after it hath been ^' ^^''^ 
 looked on by the priest; that the former physic, if it were 
 sufficient to set him on his legs again, was not yet able to 
 make him a hale, sound man ; some venomous humour was 
 left behind, and in all probability a stronger physic is now 
 necessary, perhaps a whole course of steel : a physic, God 
 knows, that this kingdom hath been under five or six years ; 
 I would I could say the patient prospered under it ; nay, 
 that it had not grown far worse, gone backward in all auspici- 
 ous symptoms ever since, as if that steel, not sufficiently pre- 
 pared, were turned into the habit of the body, and now 
 wanted some higher chemical preparations to work it out 
 again. If this be the case, as God knows it is too sus- 
 picious it is, I am then fallen on my third general, the 
 only case wherein this sharp physic becomes unseasonable, 
 when the more and the more God strikes, the more and 
 more the sinner revolts, and to that I must now hasten. 
 
 Why," &c. 
 
 A nice subtle question and dispute there hath been among 
 divines, which may in part have its decision from hence, con- 
 cerning a peculiar middle third kind of knowledge in God, as 
 whether, on supposition that such a thing should come to 
 pass, which never shall, God knows what will follow by way 
 of consequence. To this purpose many notable passages of 
 
206 
 
 god's complaint against reyolters. 
 
 SERM. Scripture there are: the oracle that David received about 
 
 '■ — the men of Keilah, the assurance that they would deliver 
 
 xxifi! Ti.] if entrusted himself to them ; though the truth is 
 
 he never made the trial of their sincerity, but believed God 
 the searcher of their hearts, without that more costly ex- 
 [Matt. xi. periment. So when Christ affirms of Tyre and Sidon, that 
 if the miracles done in Bethsaida, had been done among 
 them, they had infallibly repented. And so St. Paul, in his 
 [Acts voyage by sea, that told the mariners how certainly they 
 seTv 22 ] should be cast away if any went out of the ship, though 
 they neither went out nor lost one life. And so here, where 
 God by the prophet foretells that in case He now should 
 " smite them any more, they would revolt more and more,'' 
 and therefore resolves to give over smiting. To enter into any 
 part of that subtle debate is not my design, as remembering 
 that of Gregory Nazianzen that the Ammonites and the 
 Moabites were not permitted to enter into the Church of 
 God ; i. e., saith he^, BtaXeKrtKol, koI KaKoirpdyiJioves Xoyoi, 
 ''curious and subtle discourses," which are not very apt to min- 
 ister grace or edification to the hearers. The utmost that will 
 be of use or profit to us, is to observe this positive aphorism of 
 God's methods of discipline, of His gracious economies ; sel- 
 dom or never to send punishments on any, but when they 
 are probable to do some good, to work reformations on them. 
 Two cases there are in physic, when the physician in all rea- 
 son withdraws his hand and his drugs, 1. when the patient 
 is desperate, and the physic of a high nature ; for then such 
 costly drugs should neither be poured out nor defamed, 
 neither lose their virtue nor adventure their reputation on 
 the desperate patient ; as long as there is hope they must be 
 plied, be it never so chargeable or painful, even to cup- 
 [Job ii. 4.] ping and scarifying, even skin after skin," — as those words 
 in Job would be rendered, those things that are nearest to 
 us one after another, — " and all that he hath will he give 
 for his life :" and when there is no hope, some easy physic, 
 some indifferent, tame cordials may be allowed till the last 
 gasp, but the nobler drugs must not be thus riotously dealt 
 with ; and so in like manner to the desperate revolter ; the 
 sun may shine, and the rain may fall on him, as well as on 
 
 " [S. Greg. Naz., Orat. xlii. § 18. Op., torn, i. p. 760, C] 
 
god's complaint against revolters. 
 
 207 
 
 the most hopeful ; some indifferent ordinary ways of cure, S E R M. 
 
 such are prosperity, affluence of fortune, and the like, but — 
 
 for the magistrals of nature and art — such are God^s smitings 
 
 and punishments, which cost God dear, as it were: He is fain [Is. xxvi. 
 
 . 21 • Jer iv 
 
 to fetch them from far, to go out of His place for them, 7.'Micah 
 in the prophets' style — God will not be so prodigal of these^ ^- ^-J 
 but when there is hope that they may prove successful. 
 
 And so again, secondly, when the condition is more hope- 
 ful, yet in case the kind of physic is become too familiar 
 with the body, when it ceases to be physic and proves diet, 
 turns into nourishment and increase of the disease, it is then 
 more than time to change the bills, to set the patient to 
 some new course ; and this is the case in the text again ; and 
 I heartily wish to God it were not the very case of the king- 
 dom ; I will not say it is a desperate patient, that no method 
 of God's could possibly work good on us, — no, I will hope [Ps. cxli. 
 and pray yet against our wickedness, and do it on this very ^'^ 
 score ; for although some part of the nation have had, for a 
 long time, little of this bitter physic administered to them 
 by God; yet sure some of us are still under this cure of 
 the rod, have not all our caustic plasters torn off from us, 
 from whence I think I may conclude that God is still a 
 wrestling with our disease, hath not yet given us quite over 
 unto death, — but this I am afraid I may too truly say, that 
 of those that are still under this sharp and sovereign course 
 of physic, this of punishments, it is become too familiar with 
 most of us j we look not on our afflictions as on medicines 
 sent us immediately out of the special dispensatory of hea- 
 ven, but as the ordinary diet and portion of mortal mutable 
 men ; I wish I could not add that our malady hath most 
 highly thrived and prospered under our physic, more new 
 kinds and varieties of sinning, from all the nations about 
 us, nay from hell itself, taken in, incorporate and naturalized 
 among us, in a few years of God's sword being drawn, His 
 thunderbolts scattered among us, a greater progress towards 
 atheism made generally in this nation under this preaching 
 of the rod, than in many ages before had been observable 
 among us ; let it be considered with some sadness, and it 
 will certainly appear to the eternal shame of a provoking 
 people, that to every degree of oppression and injustice that 
 
208 
 
 god's complaint against reyolters. 
 
 SERM. this nation was formerly guilty of, the thousand-fold were 
 
 '. now a very moderate proportion ; to every oath that was 
 
 formerly darted against heaven, there are now whole volleys 
 of perjuries; never did so coarse and sturdy, so plain and 
 boisterous a sin, so perfect a camel go down so glib, and go 
 over so easily. To omit that prodigy of lying and slander- 
 ing, — a vapour that comes visibly out of hell, as soon as it 
 was there resolved that innocence must suffer, — some sins as 
 wasting as any in the whole inventory have of late grown so 
 frequent and fashionable in the world, that they have quite 
 put off the nature of sin by being our daily food, digested 
 and converted into other shapes ; as if swallowed by a pious 
 man, — who, God knows, must answer the dearest for his re- 
 volts, — they should turn into his substance, become acts of 
 piety of the highest size : one such metamorphosed, trans- 
 figured sin is become able to commute and expiate for a 
 hundred more, that have not had the luck of that disguise : 
 and in a word, our revolts are so prodigiously increased, im- 
 proved into such a mountainous vastness, such a colony of 
 none but giantly shapes, that though I cannot undertake to 
 foretell our fate, or affirm that we are those very men come to 
 that very crisis, upon which God by the purport of the doom 
 in my text will soon give over smiting any more, — which 
 perhaps some might be so mad as to think a happy news, 
 if they could but hear of it, and would be content to venture 
 any hazard that this could bring on them, — yet this I shall 
 from hence be able to pronounce dogmatically, that should 
 such a fate befall us, either the nation in general or any 
 of us in particular, should there be a respite of the rod, 
 before any laying down of the sins that called for it, a cessa- 
 tion of arms betwixt heaven and earth, before a cessation of 
 hostilities between earth and heaven, this were, as the last, so 
 the worst of evils, a calm to be dreaded beyond all the loud- 
 est tempests, which will be the better evidenced and demon- 
 strated to you, if we proceed to the fourth and last particu- 
 lar, the pitiful estate of the sinner, when in this case God re- 
 moves smiting. Why,^' &c. 
 
 To discern the sadness, and deplorableness of this estate, 
 I shall need give you no sharper character of it than only 
 this, that it is a condition that forceth God to forsake us in 
 
god's complaint against IJKVOLTERS. 209 
 
 mere mercy, to give over all thoughts of kindness to us, and S E R M. 
 
 that the only degree of kindness left whereof we are capa — 
 
 ble. In plain terms^ to that man or people that is the worse 
 for stripes, these two most unreconcileable contraries are 
 most sadly true : 
 
 (1.) The removing of these stripes is the greatest judgment 
 imaginable. 
 
 And yet (2.) secondly, the greatest judgment is the only 
 remaining mercy also. 
 
 Consider these two apart, you will see the truth of them. 
 
 1. The removing the physic before it hath done the work 
 is the greatest judgment, even subtraction of all grace, 
 downright desertion, and nothing more fatal than that to 
 him that cannot recover, or repent himself, without the 
 assistance of that physic ; strokes are not sent by God but as 
 a last and necessarj^ reserve, when a long peace and prospe- 
 rity have been tried, and not been able to make any impres- 
 sion on sin ; nay, perhaps, have gone over to the enemies' side, 
 taken part with sin, proved its prime friend, furnished it with 
 weapons and ammunition, enabled it to riot, and grow luxu- 
 rious, and to think of being final conqueror over the Spirit 
 of God, which had it been kept low it could not have done ; 
 and in this case the weight and fortune of the whole battle 
 lies on stripes, and if those be commanded away by God, if 
 called upon a first or second repulse, if all God's thunder- 
 bolts, the only remaining hope, have the retreat sounded to 
 them, what a destitute, routed, forlorn estate is the soul 
 then left in ! Had sin been wounded or worsted in the 
 fight, brought to some visible declination, yet this withdraw- 
 ing of those forces that gave this lusty assault would pre- 
 sently restore it to some heart and courage again, would give 
 it space to rally and^ recover strength ; and so oft it falls out, 
 that when afflictions have done their work, mortified our 
 excesses, and so march home again to God, in triumph over 
 the enemy, yet within a while, after the smart is forgotten, 
 the very vanquished lust returns, and gets strength again, 
 and, as it is oft in Thucydides' story % by that time the tro- 
 phies are set up, the baffled enemy regains the field and vic- 
 tory. But when on the other side sin, after the combat with 
 
 <= [e.g. lib. i. 105.] 
 
 HAMMOND. p 
 
210 
 
 GOiyS COMPLAINT AGAINST REVOLTERS. 
 
 SE RM. God^s rod, comes off unwounded and hale, and the bruised 
 
 — — and battered rod is seen to have retired also, then this is the 
 
 greatest fleshing of sin imaginable, a perfect bloodless victory 
 over grace, over God^s merciful Spirit striving with us ; and 
 nothing but haughtiness, and triumph, and obduration is to 
 be looked for after such successes. And this is that sad state 
 of desertion I told you of, a leaving the poor soul, like him 
 [Luke X. that had fallen among thieves, wounded and half dead;" 
 
 and not so much as one good Samaritan near to bind up, or 
 pour in the least drop of oil into the wounds ; for it is not 
 imaginable that ease, or peace — so calm, so soft, so pusillani- 
 mous a creature as affluence or prosperity is — should ever 
 come in to the rescue, should do such valiant acts, when so 
 much stouter, sterner instruments have been so utterly re- 
 pulsed. And yet in this sad case, the matter is not yet at 
 the highest, but — which was the second part of the true but 
 doleful paradox — this very desertion is the only tolerable 
 mercy now behind. Should God continue stripes, and they 
 still make the sinner more atheistical, this, I say, would but 
 increase the load in hell ; every improsperous stroke on the 
 steeled anvil heart will but add to the tale of oppositions and 
 affronts, and resistances, and so to the catalogue of guilts 
 and woes, that sad arrear which another world will see paid 
 distinctly; and so the calling off, or intercepting of these 
 strokes, i. e., these our unhappy advantages and opportu- 
 nities of enhancing our score, or reckoning, is a kind of 
 mercy still, though but a pitiful one ; and if God do not 
 think fit to afford us this mercy, if God do not give over 
 smiting in this case, this is then His greater severity yet. 
 
 And so I conceive the impenitent's state brought to an 
 extraordinary issue, that whatsoever God deal out to us, the 
 consequent is of a nature most exquisitely miserable. If 
 He take off His punishments we are in a desperate estate, 
 there is nothing left in any degree probable to do any good 
 on us j and if He do not take them off they do but accumu- 
 late and heighten our future torments ; the mercy is a cruel 
 mercy, and the severity a cruel severity ; the first leaves us 
 in a palsy or lethargy, a dead, stupid, mortified state, and the 
 second increases the fever, adds fuel to the flames. If He 
 strike not, we lie dead in sin, as so many trunks and car- 
 
god's complaint against revolters. 
 
 211 
 
 cases before Him ; if He strike on, He awakes us into s E R M. 
 
 oaths and blasphemies, and so still more direful provoca- > : — . 
 
 tions. 
 
 And so, as we are wont to say of an erroneous conscience, 
 in case the commands are lawful which that thinks un- 
 lawful, it sins which way soever it moves, by disobedience 
 against the duty of the fifth commandment, and by obedience, 
 against the dictate of conscience ; a sad exigence, no way in 
 the world to be avoided, but by getting out of the prime 
 fundamental infelicity, getting the erroneous conscience in- 
 formed and rectified. So is it, in a manner, with God to- 
 wards this unhappy creature of His, that hath not, nor is 
 like to edify under stripes, He wounds it mortally, whatso- 
 ever He designeth toward it ; His desertion is cruel, and His 
 not deserting is cruel too. Lay but the scene of this king- 
 dom at this time, — of which I may say it is a stubborn un- 
 nurtured scholar of God^s, a very ill proficient under stripes, 
 far worse, and more hopeless now than when first it came 
 under this discipline, — and I shall challenge the prudentest 
 diviner under heaven to tell me rationally what it were but 
 tolerably charitable to wish or pray for it, in respect of the 
 removal of God's judgments. Should we be respited before 
 we be in any degree reformed, thrust out of God's school 
 now we are at the wildest ? This were a woeful change, remov- 
 ing of Canaanites, and delivering us up to the beasts of the 
 field, breaking down the inclosure and letting us into the 
 wilderness, rescuing us out of purgatory and casting us into 
 hell ; and never any orate pro aniraa, prayer for deliverance 
 out of those poetic flames, was so" impious, so unkind as this. 
 And whilst I have this prospect before me, methinks I am 
 obliged in very charity to pray, " Lord keep us in this limbo 
 still, these but transitory afflictions of this life, which in com- 
 parison with spiritual desertion, or delivering up to ourselves, 
 is a very cheerful and comfortable condition." And yet should 
 God thus hearken to that prayer, continue us under this dis- 
 cipline longer, provide a new stock of artillery, and empty 
 another heaven, another magazine and armoury upon us, 
 and all prove but hruta fulmina still, another seven years of 
 judgments thrive no better with us than the last sad ap- 
 prenticeship hath done : O what an enhancement would this 
 
 p 3 
 
212 
 
 GOU S COMPLAINT AGAINSI' REVOLTERS. 
 
 s E R M. be of our reckoning ! What a sad score of aggravations, — 
 
 — that isj of so many mercies and graces, so many wrestlings 
 
 of His Spirit with sin, all grieved and repelled by us, — and 
 consequently what a pile of guilts toward the accumulating 
 of our flames. What is the natural and the only salvo to this 
 intricacy, I suppose it is prone to any man to divine ; why, 
 to reform the fundamental error, which can no otherwise be 
 repaired after; to begin, if it be but now, to edify, and to 
 be the better for stripes ; to set every man to this one late, 
 but necessary resolution, and not to be content to have done 
 somewhat at home in private, every man in mending one, 
 as they say, — though if that were done uniformly it would 
 serve the turn, — but every man, " whose heart the Lord hath 
 stricken" to be a convert-humble-mourner for the iniquity of 
 his people, for the provocations of this Church and king- 
 [1 Kings dom, and for the " plague of his own heart," — to go out, and 
 vui. 38.] ^^j^ ^^^^ by-standers in the field, to draw as many 
 
 more as it is possible into that engagement, and in this 
 sense to bring into the service a whole army of covenanters 
 and reformers, every man vowing hostility against those 
 wasting sins of his that have thus long kept a tortured, broken 
 kingdom and Church upon the wheel, which can never get 
 oft', till we come whole shoals of suppliants and auxiliaries to 
 its rescue ; nay, till the sins that first brought it to this exe- 
 cution become the avTi-^vxoi, be delivered up cheerfully to 
 suft'er in the stead. That this work be at length begun in 
 some earnest, you will surely give God and His angels, and 
 your friends leave to expect with some impatience ; and it 
 were even pity they should any longer be frustrated. If they 
 may at last be so favoured by us, our state will be as great 
 a riddle of mercy and of bliss as it was even now of sadness 
 and horror. Let God do what He please to us for the turning 
 or for the continuing our captivity, it will be matter of infi- 
 nite advantage and joy to us. If He continue us still upon 
 the cross, after the consummatum est, after the work is done, 
 after it is a reformed, purified nation, O that is a super- 
 angelical state, a laying a foundation in that deep, for the 
 higher and more glorious superstructure of joy and bliss in 
 another world; nay, if He should sweep us away in one 
 akeldama, this were to the true penitent but the richer 
 
god's complaint against revolters. 
 
 213 
 
 boon, a transplantation only, a sending us out a triumphant, SERM. 
 
 not captive colony to heaven. Or if we be then taken — — 
 
 down from the cross, and put into the quiet chambers or 
 dormitories, if there be seasons of rest and peace yet behind 
 upon this earth in these our days, O they will be rich sea- 
 sons of opportunity to bring forth glorious proportionable 
 fruits of such repentance, a whole harvest of affiance and 
 faithful dependance upon heaven, a daily continual growth 
 in grace, in all that is truly Christian ; in a word, of ren- 
 dering us a kingdom of angelical Christians here, and of 
 saints hereafter ; which, whether it be by the way of the 
 wilderness, or of the Red sea, by all the sufferings that a 
 villainous world can design, or a gracious Father permit 
 and convert to our greatest good, God of His infinite 
 mercy grant us all, even for His Son Jesus Christ His sake, 
 to whom with the Father, &c. 
 
SOME 
 
 PROFITABLE DIRECTIONS 
 
 BOTH 
 
 FOR PRIEST AND PEOPLE, 
 
 IN 
 
 TWO SERMONS, 
 
 PREACHED BEFORE THESE EVIL TIMES: 
 
 THE ONE TO THE CLERGY, 
 THE OTHER TO THE CITIZENS OF LONDON. 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY HAMMOND, D.D. 
 
These two following Sermons were subjoined by the Author to the 
 review of his Annotations on the New Testament, published 1657, 
 with this Advertisement. 
 
 TO THE READER. 
 
 My fear that these additional notes may fall into some hands, which 
 for want of sufficient acquaintance with the larger volume, may miss 
 receiving the desired fruit from them, hath suggested the affixing this 
 Auctarium of two plain, intelligible discourses ; the one prepared for an 
 auditory of the clergy, the other of citizens or laity, and so containing 
 somewhat of useful advice for either sort of readers, to whose hands this 
 volume shall come. That it may be to both proportionably profitable, 
 shall be the prayer of 
 
 Your Servant in the Lord, 
 
 H. HAMMOND. 
 
SERMON XL 
 
 A SERMON PREACHED TO THE CLERGY OF THE DEANERY OF SHORHAM IN KENT, 
 AT THE VISITATION BETWEEN EASTER AND WHITSUNTIDE, A.D. 1639, HELD 
 AT ST. MARY- CRAY. 
 
 THE PASTOR'S MOTTO. 
 
 2 Cor. xii. 14. 
 
 For I seek not yourSy hut you. 
 
 This text liath somewhat in it seasonable both for the SErm. 
 
 XI 
 
 assembly and the times I speak in ; for the first, it is the '- — 
 
 word or motto of an Apostle, non vestra sed vos, not yours 
 but you," transmitted to us with his apostleship, to be tran- 
 scribed not into our rings or seals of orders, but our hearts, 
 there, if you please, to be engraven with a diamond, set as 
 the stones in our ephod, the jewels in our breast- plate, glori- 
 ously legible to all that behold us. And for the second, con- 
 sider but the occasion that extorted from our humble saint 
 this so magnificent elogy of himself; you shall find it that 
 which is no small part of the infelicity of his successors at 
 this time, the contempt and vileness of his ministry, a sad 
 joyless subject of an epistle, which would have been all spent 
 in superstruction of heavenly doctrine upon that precious 
 foundation formerly laid, in dressing of those noble plants, 
 that generous vine, that had cost him so much care to plant, is. v. [2.] 
 but is fain to divert from that to a comfortless irdpepyov, a 
 parenthesis of two or three chapters long, to vindicate him- 
 self from present danger of being despised, and that even by 
 his own children, whom he had begotten in the Gospel, but 
 other pseudos, made up all of lying and depraving, had de- 
 bauched out of all respect to his doctrine, or estimation to his 
 person. I should have given a St. Paul leave to have hoped 
 
218 
 
 THE pastor's motto. 
 
 s E R M. for better returns from his Corinthians, and now he finds it 
 
 ' — otherwise, to have expressed that sense in a sharper strain of 
 
 passion and indignation than Tully could do against Antony % 
 when on the same exacerbation he brake out into that stout 
 piece of eloquence. Quid piitem 7 contemptumne me ? non video 
 quid sit in moribus aut vita mea, quod despicere possit Anto- 
 nius. But there was another consideration, which, as it com- 
 poses our Apostle's style, so it enlarges it with arguments, all 
 that he can invent to ingratiate himself unto them, because 
 this contempt of their Apostle was a most heinous, provoking 
 sin, and withal that which was sure to make his apostleship 
 successless among them. And then, though he can contemn 
 reputation, respect, any thing that is his own, yet he cannot 
 the qucero vos, seeking of them," that office that is intrusted 
 him by Christ, of bringing Corinthians to heaven. Though 
 he can absolutely expose his credit to all the eagles and vul- 
 tures on the mountains, yet can he not so harden his bowels 
 against his converts, their pining, gasping souls, as to see 
 them with patience posting down this precipice; by despis- 
 ing of him, prostituting their own salvation. And therefore 
 in this ecstatic fit of love and jealousy in the beginning of 
 chap. xi. you may see him resolve to do that that was most 
 contrary to his disposition, boast, and vaunt, and play the 
 fool, give them the whole tragedy of his love, what he had 
 done and suff'ered for them, by this means to raise them out 
 of that pit, force them out of that hell, that the contempt 
 of his ministry had almost engulphed them in. And among 
 the many topics that he had provided to this purpose, this 
 is one he thought most fit to insist on, his no design on any 
 thing of theirs, but only their souls ; their wealth was petty 
 inconsiderable pillage and spoil for an Apostle in his warfare ; 
 too poor, inferior gain for him to stoop to ; a fiock, an army, 
 a whole Church full of ransomed souls, fetched out of the 
 [1 Sam. jaws of the lion and the bear, was the only honourable re- 
 xvu. 34.] ^^^^ foj. pitch design on, non queer o vestra sed vos, 
 
 " I seek not yours, but you." 
 
 In handling which words, should I allow myself licence to 
 
 * [Quod putem? contemtumne me? mediocritate ingenii quid despicere 
 non video nec in vita, nec in gratia, possit Antonius. Cic. Orat. Phil. ii. 1.] 
 nec in rebus gestis nec in hac mea 
 
THE PA STORES MOTTO. 
 
 219 
 
 observe and mention to you the many changes that are rung SERM. 
 
 upon them in the world, my sermon would turn all into satire, '. — 
 
 my discourse divide itself not into so many parts, but into so 
 many declamations : 1. against them that are neither for the 
 vos nor vestra, the ''you," nor "yours;" 2. those that are for 
 the vestra, but not vos, the "yours" but " not you ;" 3. those 
 that are for the vos, "you," but in subordination to the vestra, 
 " yours," and at last perhaps meet with a handful of glean- 
 ings of pastors that are either for the vestra, " yours," in sub- 
 ordination to the voSj "you ;" or the vos, "you," but not ves- 
 tra, " yours." Instead of this looser variety I shall set my dis- 
 course these strict limits, which will be just the doctrine and 
 use of this text; 1. consider the to prjrov, the truth of the 
 words in St. Paulas practice ; 2. the to Xoyc/cov, the end for 
 which they are here mentioned by him ; 3. the to rjOiKov, 
 how far that practice and that end will be imitable to us that 
 here are now assembled ; and then I shall have no more to 
 tempt or importune your patience. 
 
 First of the first, St. PauFs practice in seeking of the vos, 
 " you." That his earnest pursuit of the good of his auditors^ 
 souls, though it have one very competent testimony from 
 this place, rihio-ra BaTravijcrco Koi 6/cSa7ravr]0'^(7o/jjaL virep rcov ver. 15. 
 '\]rvx'Oov vfiMv, " most willingly will I spend and be spent for 
 your souls," even sacrifice my soul for the saving of yours, 
 yet many other places there are which are as punctual and 
 exact for that as this in this text ; nay, it is but a ^rjrco, "seek," 
 here, but you shall find it an aycovL^o/juat, "contend," in many 
 other places ; all the agonistical phrases in use among the [i Cor. ix. 
 ancient Grecians culled out and scattered among his epistles, 30 1 Coi. iL 
 fetched from Olympus to Sion, from Athens to Jerusalem, .^.5^1 Tt^e^^^. 
 and all little enough to express the earnest holy violence of xii. 4.] 
 his soul in this koXos aycov, " good fight ;" as he calls his [1 Tim. vi. 
 ministry, running and wrestling with all the difficulties in the ly^ 7.^]^™* 
 world, and no jSpa/Secov or aOXov, "price" or "reward" of all 
 that industry and that patience, but only the vijuas, " you," 
 gaining so many colonies to heaven. But then for the non 
 vestra, "not yours," his absolute disclaiming of all pay for 
 this his service ; this text and the verses about it are more 
 punctual than any that are to be met with. In other places 
 he can think fit the soldier, i. e. minister, "should not war 7,9; iTim*. 
 
 V. 17, 18.] 
 
220 
 
 THE pastor's motto. 
 
 SERM. at his own charges/' that the "ox's mouth should not be 
 
 — muzzled/' and that the "labourer should be thought worthy 
 
 of his reward/' and a "double honour for some of those 
 
 [Heb. xii. labourers/' the Trpcororofcia, "elder brother's portion/' the 
 privilege of primogeniture for some, and that consisting not 
 
 lTim.v.l7. only in a wpocrraala, "precedence/' but StTrXrj Ttfjur), " double 
 honour/' and that of maintenance too, as well as dignity. 
 But in this chapter to these Corinthians the Apostle re- 
 nounces receiving, or looking after any such revenue, or en- 
 couragement to his apostleship ; what he saith here ov ^v^co, 
 " I seek not," for the present, he specifies both for time past 
 
 ver. 13. and to come, ov fcaTevdpKrjo-a, " I have not," and ov Karavap- 
 
 ver. 14. Krjaony "I will not/' i. e., saith Hesychius^ that best under- 
 stood the Hellenists' dialect, KarevdpKTjaa, i^dpvva, it signi- 
 fies to lay burdens on others, and the Apostle in that very 
 
 ver. 16. word ov Kare^dprjaa v/jud?, " I have not laid weights on you /' 
 
 ver. 17. and yet further, ovk iirXeove/cTrjaa'', " I have not coveted," all 
 to this same purpose, that St. Paul, on some special consi- 
 derations, would never finger one penny of the Corinthians' 
 wealth, but still used some other means to sustain himself, 
 that he might be sure not to be burdensome to them. What 
 these means were will not be easy to say exactly, yet I think 
 one may collect them to be one or more of these three : 
 1. " Labouring with his own hands," earning his maintenance 
 
 Acts xviii. on the week-days by his trade of making tents, as we read, and 
 J that particularly at Corinth ; 2. receiving pensions of other 
 Churches, which furnished him with a subsistence, though he 
 had none from Corinth ; and that is more than a conjecture, 
 
 [2 Cor. he mentions it himself, and calls it the " robbing of other 
 ^*-' Churches, taking wages of them to do your service /' and per- 
 haps, 3. being relieved by some Christians that accompanied 
 and ministered to his necessities ; for that was the practice of 
 other Apostles, whatever it was of St. Paul ; and that I con- 
 
 1 Cor.ix.5. ceive the meaning of that mistaken phrase, " Have we not 
 power," dBe\(l)r)v yvvaiKa Trepcd'yeLv, "to carry about a be- 
 lieving or a sister woman," or matron, (for so aSeXc^os', " a 
 brother," is every where a believer, and dSeXcjirj, " sister," is 
 but the varying the gender or sex,) as many others did, to 
 
 " [Hesych. Lex. in verb. p. 508.] 
 
 * [fxf) Tiua wv airiaTaXna Trpbs v/mas, Si avrov 4iT\^ov4KT7)(Ta vfias 
 
THE pastor's motto. 
 
 321 
 
 maintain and defray the charge of their journey, that so they s ERM. 
 might firj ipydt^ecrOai, forbear working, and yet eat and 
 
 drink," not starve themselves by preaching the Gospel. Such ^• 
 an one was Phoebe, who therefore is called Sid/covo?, "a ser- ^^^* 
 vant of the Church of Cenchrea,'' i. e., one that out of " her Rom.xvi.i. 
 wealth,'^ SirjKovet, " ministered to the Apostles,^' and sustained 
 them, and particularly St. Paul at Corinth, as will appear if 
 you put together that second verse of Rom. xvi. and the date 
 or subscription in the conclusion of tbe epistle. In ver. 2. she is 
 called irpocrrdrLs ttoWmv koI avrov ifiov, Trpoardris, i.e., 7rp6~ 
 ^evos, " entertainer" and " succourer of many," and of St. Paul 
 himself, and this it seems at Corinth, for there she was with 
 him, and from thence she went on St. Paul's errand to carry 
 this epistle to the Romans, as it is in the subscription. The 
 same he affirms distinctly of the brethren, i. e., the " faithful 
 that came from Macedonia," varepTjud /jlou irpoo-aveTrXrjpw- 
 aavj "they supplied my wants." And so still the Corinthians [2 Cor. 
 had the Gospel for nothing. By these three means the ^-^ 
 Apostle kept himself from being burdensome to them. But 
 you will wonder, perhaps, why St. Paul was so favourable to 
 these Corinthians, so strictly and almost superstitiously care- 
 ful not to be burdensome or chargeable to them. This I 
 confess was a receding from a right of his apostleship, and 
 more than will be ^obligatory or exemplary to us ; nay, more 
 than he would yield to, as matter of prescription to himself, 
 in other Churches, for there, it is apparent, he made use of 
 that privilege ; but then it is still the more strange he did it 
 not at Corinth. The reason I can but guess at to be this; 
 the Church of Christ in other parts at that time, particularly 
 in Jerusalem, was in some distress, and it was committed to 
 St. PauFs trust to get a contribution out of all other parts 
 for them ; this contribution is called by an unusual phrase, 
 Xdpi9, " grace," I know not how many times in chap. viii. of ^^^^ ^ ^ 
 this epistle, which I conceive the very word which in Latin 6,7,9,19.] 
 and English is called charity, caritas, diro rrjs '^(dpLTos, in a 
 sense that Aristotle uses 'x^dpis^; and as it is all one with 
 KOivodvla, " communication," " distribution," ministering to ^gj. 4^ 
 the saints," and as in the benediction %apfcs', grace," and 
 Koivcovla, " communion," are words of the like importance. 
 
 d '^u 6 fx^^ Aeyerai X'^P"' virovpyeTu deoiJL4u(f. Rhet. ii. 7. ^^^^* ^^'J 
 
222 
 
 THE pastor's motto. 
 
 s E R M. Where by the way let me put you in mind of one special 
 — 51: — part of the minister's charge, wherever he officiates by doc- 
 
 trine and by cheerful example, by preaching the duty and 
 the benefits and setting them lively copies of it, to raise up 
 the charity of his people, and from that to see to the liberal 
 provision of all that are in want in that place ; yea, and if 
 need be, that it overflow its own banks (if they be narrow) 
 and extend to the watering of others also. In the primitive 
 times the offertory was the constant means of doing this, no 
 man of ability ever coming to the Sacrament without remem- 
 bering the Corban, and out of that treasury the irpoecncbSi 
 or "priest," being enabled % irdaLv avrXcos iv XP^^^ ^^^^ ktjBe- 
 licbv 'yLverai, " became the common guardian of all that were 
 in want the weight of which task was so great in the Apo- 
 stles' times that they were fain to erect a new order in the 
 Church to assist them particularly in this, hiaKovelv rpairi- 
 
 Acts vi. 2. ^at9, "to furnish tables," i. e., distribute maintenance out of 
 that bank to all that were in need. I wish heartily our care 
 and our practice may not fall too short from such a venerable 
 example. Well, there being need more than ordinary at 
 that time for our Apostle to quicken his Corinthians' libe- 
 rality to the poor brethren of other Churches, was the 
 reason, I conceive, of his renouncing all part of their libe- 
 rality to himself, inflaming their charity by that means, shew- 
 ing them first in himself a pattern and example of bounty, 
 bestowing the diviner food of their very souls upon them, as 
 freely as the sun extends his beams or the stars their in- 
 fluence, pouring down heaven upon them in a shower, and 
 yet to exceed the clouds in their bounty, never thinking of 
 any means to draw from them to his own sphere any the 
 least tribute out of their fatness, abundantly satisfied if those 
 clouds that have been so enriched by him will melt or sweat 
 out some of their charity to others, give poor Christians 
 leave to be the better for their fulness. Having given you an 
 account of the Apostle's practice in this non vestra, renounc- 
 ing, disclaiming any profit or gain from his labours among 
 the Corinthians, I proceed to enquire why he boasts of it in 
 this place, and keeps it not secret betwixt himself and God, 
 
 [2 Cor. xii. but in several phrases mentions it over and over again, ov 
 
 ^^'^ ^ Just. Mart. Apol. [i. c. 65. p. 83, A.] 
 
THE pastor's motto. 
 
 223 
 
 KarevdpKrjaa, ov /caTe^dprjcra, ov/c iTrXeove/CTTjaa, "I liave SERM. 
 not overcharged you, I have not burdened you, I have not — — — 
 coveted^' any thing from you, and ov ^yrco, " I seek not 
 yours/' 
 
 The plain truth is, the Apostle is fain to boast, to recite, 
 and rehearse his merits towards them, to demonstrate how, 
 above what strict duty exacted, he hath obliged them, and 
 all little enough to vindicate his ministry, to bring them into 
 any tolerable opinion of him. He had been reproached by 
 them, counted weak, a fool, in the former chapter, and by 
 that means he is compelled thus to glory. The thing that I ver. 11. 
 would have you make matter of meditation from hence, is 
 the constancy of the devil, and his indefatigate perseverance 
 in this grand fieOoheia rfjs 7rXdv€9, "artifice of deceit," in steal- [Eph. iv. 
 ing away men's hearts from their Apostles and pastors, and ^'^"^ 
 the mighty successfulness that this meets with, debauching 
 whole nations and Churches at once, particularly all Corinth, 
 — a most numerous populous city of forward Christians, and 
 metropolis of Achaia, — from all love, respect and estimation 
 of their spiritual father, and that within few years after their 
 spiritual birth, by that very Paul begotten in the Gospel. 
 Thus is the present ministry of this kingdom, that very same 
 subordination of bishops, presbyters, and deacons, that so 
 near the Apostles as in Ignatius's time could not be violated 
 without profaneness, and even disclaiming of Christianity, 
 — by him most clearly and distinctly set down almost in every 
 of those epistles, which Vedelius^ at Geneva, a severe Aris- 
 tarchus, could not 'doubt but they were his, — that ministry of 
 ours, the very same that planted the protestant religion 
 among us, watered it with their blood, our Pauls and our 
 ApoUos's too, to whom God by that prolifical teeming mar- 
 
 ' [The hook referred to is entitled 
 'Apologia pro Ignatio, et Versio ac Notae 
 ad opera ejus,' Genevs, 1623. Pearson 
 in his Vindicise Ignatianse (Prooem. c. 
 3,) says of it, 'Nicolaus Vedelius Pro- 
 fessor Genevensis rem totam ad examen 
 revocavit, Apologiam pro Ignatio scrip- 
 sit, novam editionem adornavit, exerci- 
 tationibus et appendice epistolas illus- 
 travit. Tres igitur ille Latinas omnico 
 rejecit quod nimis aperta ipsarum 
 suppositio ei videretur, Reliquas duo- 
 
 decim in duos libros distinxit, quorum 
 prior continet epistolas genuinas, pos- 
 terior supposititias. Genuinas tantum 
 agnoscit septem illas ab Eusebio me- 
 moratas; reliquas quinque aut perpe- 
 ram inscriptas aut plane supposititias 
 esse statuit. Praeterea in ipsas septem 
 genuinas non pauca irrepsisse stellio- 
 rum audacissimorum vestigia testatur, 
 quae notulis quibusdam in margine po- 
 sitis jugulavit. — Patr. Apost., ad calc, 
 torn. ii. p. 267.] 
 
224 
 
 THE pastor's MOITO. 
 
 SERM. tyrdom of theirs hath since raised up a most numerous^ 
 — — learned, orthodox seed, ready, I doubt not, in defence of our 
 religion, to fill up the sufferings of their fathers ; to dye their 
 garments in the same winepress; to run, if occasion should 
 be, and crowd into that fiery chariot, and there like the 
 ancient aTro^drat in Athenseus^, fight, and shoot out of those 
 [Jude 3.] warm seats, /cal dycovl^eaOai, " and contend earnestly for that 
 faith that was once delivered to the saints^' in this kingdom: 
 this so learned, puissant, orthodox ministry of ours ; — yet how 
 is it by the sons and daughters of their love, their sweat, their 
 prayers, their tears, their lungs, their bowels, sorry am I to 
 sa}^, by some sons of the very prophets, defamed and vilified ? 
 I speak not this either to raise or envenom any passion in my 
 fellow brethren, but, God knows, out of two other more useful 
 designs; 1. from the common fate of others, and even this 
 Apostle before us, to leave ofi^ wondering at this act of God^s 
 providence in permitting, and Satan^s malice in attempting 
 [1 Pet. iv. it. " Think it not strange," saith the Apostle, concerning 
 "'■^ the fiery trial this I cannot call by that title, it is rather 
 the airy trial, a blast of poisonous vapour, that Satan in a 
 kind of hypochondriacal fit hath belched out against the 
 Church, yet are we to think as little strange of it; it is as 
 familiar for that mouth of hell to breathe out smoke as fire, 
 [Mat. xi. slanders as slaughters against the Church ; Christ was de- 
 famed for a glutton, and one that had a devil, crowned with 
 John vii. rcproachcs as well as thorns, first wounded with the sword 
 ^s' 52^. tongue, and then after with nails and spears, made 
 
 20.] viler than Barabbas by the people^s cry before condemned 
 [Mat. X. to the cross by Pilate ; and when the Master of the house 
 *■' hath been patient to be called Beelzebub, well may a disciple 
 of His retinue digest the title ; and therefore methinks St. 
 [1 Cor. iv. Paul can write it calmly, " we are become," cos- irepiKaOap- 
 ^^'^ ^ara^ "as the off'-scouring," and ttclvtcov Treplyfrrj/jLa, it is a 
 phrase of mighty intimation, like a man that in a plague- 
 time is chosen out, the vilest, unsavouriest in the city, carried 
 about in the guise of nastiness, then whipt, then burnt in a 
 ditch, or cast into the sea, every man giving him a jevov 
 nTepi-^rifjba, and 'yevov icdOappba, "Let the curse of the whole 
 city light on thee." And thus, saith the Apostle, are we 
 
 g [AtheDaei Deipnos., lib. xiv. p. 638, C. ; et annot. p. 801. ed. Casaubon.] 
 
THE pastor's motto. 
 
 225 
 
 become, we Apostles, we ministers; yea, and Oearpov tm SERM. 
 fcoa/jiQ) zeal dy<y6\oi9 koI dvOpdoiroLs, " a spectacle to the — — 
 world, and angels, and men," Oearpov, "the theatre'^ for all 9^j^°^' 
 the 67)pioiJia^[ai Kar dvOpcoTTCdv, as some, I say not how well, 
 have lightly changed the phrase, "combating with men as with i Cor. xv. 
 lions and bears,^' or else Oearpov, the stage and scene for the 
 whole world of fiends and men to act their tragedies upon, and 
 no manner of news in all this. Even among the heathen, the 
 grammarians^ tell us, that never any comedy of Aristophanes 
 took so well as his Clouds, that was spent all in reproaching 
 of Socrates, and under that title involved the whole condition 
 of learning; though through Alcibiades^ faction, excidit, it 
 miscarried, missed its applause once or twice, yet when men 
 were left to their own humours it was cried up extremely. And 
 therefore not to think it strange, that is the first thing ; yea, 
 and secondly, to make it matter of rejoicing and triumph- 
 ing, of a x^ipere /cal dyaWtdaOe, a plain shouting for joy. Mat v. 12. 
 or, as we render it, exceeding gladness, that they are worthy 
 of this degree of Christian preferment, to suffer shame for 
 Christ's name ; that woe of Christ^s we have been generally 
 secure and safe from, "Woe unto you when all men speak Lukevi.26. 
 well of you," we have had in all ages friends,' good store, that 
 will not let this curse light on us ; and blessed be God, if it 
 prove T^yctets* eo-^^arot, "we of the last age" peculiarly, that that [1 Cor. iv. 
 great blessing is reserved for. MaKapiot orav oveihiawatv /cal ^'^ 
 Si(o^co(TO, Kol 6LiT(OG-L iTCLV TTovTjpov prjfiay " blcsscd arc ye when Mat. v. 11. 
 men shall revile and persecute and say every evil word against 
 you;" but withal let us be sure to take along with us the 
 '\jr€vS6fjL€vot, " falsely," that follows, that it be our innocence 
 that is thus reviled. The devil is most ready to do it then, 
 being Karr/yopos rcov dSeXcjycov, "accuser of the brethren," [Rev. xii. 
 the best Christians, that he may exercise two of his attri- ^^'^ 
 butes at once, accuser and liar both. If he do not so, I am 
 sure it will be small matter of rejoicing to us, small comfort 
 in "suff'ering as a thief," saith the Apostle, though all joy in [i Pet. iv. 
 suff'ering " as a Christian;" and so small comfort in the ovei- ^^'^ 
 Biacoaiv, being reproached, unless the ylrevSofievot, " falsely," 
 be joined with it. And therefore you must add that caution 
 
 i» [Grammat. Aristopli. virSOeais 5. Trjs oA-qs iroi^a-eoos KaWiarov dual (prja-i. 
 ad Nub. ed. Dind. t6 5e dpa/j-a tovto koI T€)(uiKcl}TaTOv.^ 
 
 HAMMOND. rv 
 
226 
 
 THE PASTOU^S MOTTO. 
 
 SERM. to joiiY comfort, that they be your good, at least 3rour justifi- 
 [M^ri^ — ^^^^ deeds, that be evil spoken of, or else it will not be a sic 
 12.] prophet as, the prophets were used like you. The clergyman 
 that in such a time as this, when the mouth of hell is open 
 against us, shall think lit to open any other mouth to join 
 in the cry against the Church, to give life or tongue to any 
 [Gen. iv. scandalous sin, and set that to its damans de terra, '^crying 
 from the ground that shall with any one real crime give 
 authority to all the false pretended ones that are laid to the 
 charge of our calling ; that by drunkenness or incontinence, 
 by luxury or sloth, by covetousness or griping, by insolence 
 or pride, by oaths or uncomely jesting, by contention or in- 
 [1 Pet. iv. temperate language, by "repaying evil for evil, or railing for 
 defamations;" shall exasperate this raging humour, and give 
 it true nourishment to feed on; what doth he but turn broiler 
 and boutefeu, make new libels against the Church, and by 
 that means persuade credulous, seducible spectators, that all 
 are true that have been made already. I know not what 
 climax or aggravation of woes is heavy enough for that man ; 
 [1 Kings all the lamentations and 6pr]V(oSlac in the Bible, "Alas my 
 Mat. xv'iii. brother," will not reach unto it ; that of the " millstone about 
 the neck," or the Melius si nunquam natus esset, "it had been 
 ^Matxxvi. |^g^|.gj. ^£ never been born," are the fittest expressions 
 
 for him. St. Paul for the vindicating his ministry from vile- 
 ness, was fain to mention all the good deeds he had ever 
 done among them. O let not us bring our evil to remem- 
 brance by acting them over afresh, but think it most abun- 
 dantly sufficient that we have already thus contributed to the 
 defaming of our calling. He that hath done so formerly, that 
 by the guilt of any one scandalous sin (and it need not be of 
 the first magnitude to deserve that title in a minister) hath 
 contributed aught to the vilifying of the whole order, it is 
 [1 Kings now time for him to see what he hath done, been a troubler 
 xvni. 17.] Israel, set the whole kingdom in an animosity against the 
 clergy ; and when will he be able to weep enough in secret 
 to wash out this stain, incorporate into the very woof of our 
 robe ? I shall no further aggravate the sin upon him than to 
 prepare him to seek out for some remedy, and to that end to 
 bear me company to my last particular, how far we are con- 
 cerned in the transcribing St. Paul's pattern, how far that 
 
THE PASTOH^S MOTTO. 
 
 227 
 
 practice and that end is imitable by us that are here as- SERM. 
 
 sembled. '■ — 
 
 This practice consists of two parts, a positive and a nega- 
 tive. The positive part of this practice, the dWa vjuds, " but 
 you," hath no case of scruple or difficulty in it; the "you" 
 are the Corinthians' souls. As in other places the souls sig- 
 nify the persons, so " many souls went out of Egypt i- e., so 
 many men ; so here, by way of exchange or quittance on the 
 other side, "you," i. e., your souls, according to that of Pytha- 
 goras •> of old, 97 -yjrvxv "thy soul is thou." And then add 
 the ?7?Ta), " I seek," to it, and it gives you the uncontradicted 
 duty of a minister, to be a seeker of souls, the spiritual 
 Nimrod, the "hunter before the Lord," hunter of men, hunter [Geii.x.9.] 
 of souls : and that indeed as wild and untameable, subtle a 
 game, as any wilderness can yield ; so unwilling to come into 
 our toils, so wise in their generation to escape our snares, so 
 cunning to delude all our stratagems of bringing them to 
 heaven, that a man may commonly labour a whole night and [Luke v. 
 catch nothing. " He that winneth," or taketh " souls, is p^-"^^ 
 wise," saith the Wise Man. A piece of wisdom it is not 
 suddenly learned, a game wherein all the wisdom of the 
 world, the <^p6vrjcn9 crapKosj the " prudence of the flesh," and 
 the cunning of hell, are all combined in the party against us, 
 for this dfjb^Lal3r]Tr}[jia 6eov /cat BaLfiovcov, as Synesius'^ calls 
 the soul, "this stake betwixt God and devils." And the 
 game must be very carefully played, and dexterously managed 
 on our side, if we think ever to win it out of their hands. 
 The manner of pastors, as of shepherds among us, is much 
 changed from what it was in the eastern parts of the world, 
 in Greece and in Jewry. The sheep, saith the philosopher 
 in his time, would be led by a green bought and follow 
 whithersoever you would have them ; and so in the Scripture 
 is still mention of leading of sheep, and of the people like Ps. Ixxvii. 
 sheep ; but now they must be driven and followed, yea, and '■^^'^ 
 sometime by worrying brought into the fold, or else there is 
 no getting them into the fairest loveliest pasture. The sheep 
 
 ' [Gen. xxvi. 46; the words are, 
 "came into Egypt."] 
 
 [Hierocl. in Aur. Carm. Pythag., in 
 ver. 24.] 
 
 Q 
 
 k [wot iTpos4QriK(v, &s ■}]iJ.<f)is&'nTif]crav 
 7)fx7u TTphs dehu Saifioves. Synesii Epist. 
 57. adv. Andronicum.] 
 
 1 [Platon. Phaedr., p. 238, C] 
 
 2 
 
us 
 
 THE PASTOR^S MOTTO. 
 
 s E R M. were then a hearing and a discerning sort of creatures, could 
 
 — hear the shepherd, and know his voice -from all others, and 
 
 [3,] 8. when the thief and robber came, the sheep did not hear them ; 
 
 but now it is quite contrary, either not hearing at all, pro- 
 faneness and dissoluteness hath possessed our souls with the 
 [Rom. xi. TTvevfia KaTavv^ews, "spirit of slumber," torpor, absolute deaf- 
 ^'^ ness, that all our hearing of sermons is but a slumber of such 
 
 a continuance ; or else having no ears for any but the thief 
 and robber, if any come on that errand to rob us of our 
 charity, of our obedience, of our meek and quiet spirits, and 
 infuse calumnies, animosities, railings, qualities that ipso facto 
 work metamorphoses in us, change sheep into wolves; his voice 
 [Actsxii. shall be heard, and admired, and deified, like Herod^s, "the 
 
 22 ] . 
 
 voice of God and not of man," though nothing be so contrary 
 to God or godliness as that voice. In this and many other 
 considerations it is that the f/^ro), " I seek," here is so neces- 
 sary. All our pains and industry, diligence and sagacity, are 
 little enough to bring men into the true way to heaven, so 
 many bye ways on every side inviting and flattering us out 
 of it, so much good company persuading, nay, so many false 
 leaders directing us into error, that a minister had need fasten 
 liimself into the ground, like a Mercury's post in this division 
 of waj^s, and never leave holloaing, and calling, and disabus- 
 ing of passengers with a " This is the way, walk in it ;" or in 
 [Heb. xii. the Apostle's words, "Follow peace with all men," — hi(OKere, 
 "pursue" and follow it, — "and holiness, without which no 
 man shall see the Lord ;" peace and holiness, two such stran- 
 gers, such prodigies in the world, — having taken their leaves 
 so solemnly with Astrsea for heaven, — that unless they be fol- 
 lowed with a St(OK€T€, " full speed," as in a hue and cry, there 
 is small hope of overtaking or bringing them back again to 
 the earth. And yet without them heaven must be fain to 
 turn an unhabitable part of the world, pars globi mcognita:^ 
 as empty of saints as it is full of glory ; without them nemo 
 Deum, " no man shall see God." Could I imagine it possible 
 for me to be instrumental to you in this work, to advise or 
 direct you in this course, this method of seeking your people's 
 souls, so that God might one day find them in this temper, 
 in pace et sanctitate, " in peace and holiness," I should put off 
 all the reverence that I bear to this assembly, all considera- 
 
 14.J 
 
THE PASTOK's motto. 
 
 229 
 
 tion of the business of this day, and venture to be unseason- SERM. 
 
 able that I might be useful to you in this point. But T know — 
 
 there be no general rules that can promise themselves such a 
 successfulness ; the variety of tempers must have different 
 accommodations, and well if after using of all means we can 
 be able to save any. The way most probable in my conceit 
 is the bringing men acquainted with the difference betwixt 
 the first and second covenant ; then pitching on the second, 
 as that that belongs to us Christians, to shew them the con- 
 dition of this covenant in the gross, the vofjuos Trlareco^, "law [Rom. iii. 
 of faith,^^ made up of commands as well as promises, all the 
 gospel precepts that join together to complete that codex, 
 that law of repentance, self-denial, charity, the new creature, 
 which St. Paul interprets Tria-Tts ivepyov/juevr] Bt ayaTrrj^, 
 "faith consummate by love,^^ or, as St. James, reXetovfievr] [Ga\. v. 6; 
 So epycov, "perfected by works,^^ sincere, impartial, constant, '^^'^ 
 though not unsinning, perfect obedience. And then, if you 
 will have it in the retail, the sermon in the mount will give Mat. v., vi. 
 it you completely. Were men but possessed that those 
 duties there mentioned, with the ego autem, " but I say to 
 you,^' were duties indeed, not only phrases and forms of 
 speech, that they are not only by grace made possible to a 
 Christian, — an easy yoke, light burden, and a command nigh [Mat. xi. 
 unto thee, i. e. ov^ virepoyKos, as the LXXII render that ^^^^ ^ ^ 
 place of Deuteronomy from whence it is cited, — but also most [Deutxxx. 
 indispensably necessary, without which nemo Deum^ " none 
 shall see God," God^s oath being gone out against all others, 
 with a nunquam introibunt, "they shall never enter into His [Heb. iii. 
 rest;" it would, I conceive, within a while be found neces- ^^'^ 
 sary either to give over pretending toward heaven, or else to 
 observe those gesses"", that alone of all others can bring us 
 thither; and so the world of Christians be once more divided, 
 as Epiphanius" saith it was in the first ages, not into ortho- 
 dox and heretical, — for those are titles that every man will 
 apply as he lists, the one to himself and his adherents, the 
 other to all others that he disfancies, — nor again into spiritual 
 and carnal, — for those were abused too in Tertullian^s time, 
 as soon as ever he turned Montanist, then straight nos spirU 
 
 [See above, p. 30, note.] 
 " [S. Epiphan. adv. Hser., lib., i. c. 5, See above, p. 16G.J 
 
230 
 
 THE PASTOH^S MOTTO. 
 
 s E RM. tualeSy "we spiritual/' and all others animales psychici^, mere 
 — — — "animal men," — but into eva-e^ets fcal aae^els, "godly and un- 
 godly livers/' and so impiety, injustice, and uncliaritableness 
 be the grand heresies to be anathematized, and peace and 
 holiness the most orthodox Christian tenets in our religion. 
 But then for the achieving this aim, let me tell you that men 
 must have more than sermons to lead them; the visible 
 preachings of your lives must avvep^elv, "co-operate," and join 
 in the work of drawing sinners to God, or else it will hardly 
 prove successful. You know the story in Gellius, when that 
 excellent counsel was given at Lacedsemon by one that was 
 vita defamatissimus, "infamous for a very ill life,'' they were 
 to take the counsel out of his mouth, and appoint a good 
 man to deliver it, though a worse oratorP. Two things the 
 gospel was first planted by, teaching and miracles, and those 
 miracles in Scripture phrase are called "works," and "mighty 
 works." Now though the miracles be outdated, yet the epya, 
 " works," in the other sense, must never be antiquated, it is 
 they that the Suva/j.c9, " power," belongs to, the efficacy, and 
 force, and mightiness of our preaching, which if it be not 
 added to our sermons, our threats will be taken for mormos 
 our promises for delusions, our exhortations out of Scripture 
 [Mat.xxiii. for acts of tyranny and oppression, laying those burdens on 
 ^'^ other men's shoulders which we will not touch with our own 
 
 fingers. But if our lives bear witness to our doctrine, by 
 letting them see us write those copies with our own hands 
 which we require them to transcribe, then, as Polybiusi saitli 
 of Philopoemen, that good orator and good man, (and the 
 goodness of the man was the special piece of his orator}^,) ov 
 /jbovov airoTpeirei, aWa kol Trapopfjua, " we shall not only per- 
 suade but enforce our auditors /' this is the only honest way 
 of insinuating ourselves into our people's aff'ections, by letting 
 them see how hearty our exhortations are, by our zeal to ob- 
 serving them ourselves ; by shewing what miracles of reform- 
 ation the Gospel is able to work on them, by an essay of 
 its efficacy on our own breasts. And if this positive part 
 of St. Paul's practice be perfectly conned, the negative will fol- 
 
 o [Vid. Tertull. de Monogamia, p. p [ Aul. Gell. Noct. Att., lib. xviii. 3.] 
 525, passim. J « [Folyb. xi. I O.J 
 
THE pastor's motto. 
 
 231 
 
 low, the non vestra, "not yours.'' He that heartily and affec- SERM. 
 
 tiouately seeks the souls of his auditors, will never pitch de — 
 
 sign on any thing else that is theirs ; the crown that belongs 
 to him that converteth many to righteousness, is too rich to [Dan. xii. 
 receive lustre or commendation from any inferior accession, 
 or acquisition from any thing that the vestra, " yours,'' can 
 signify. He that hath any consideration of the vestra, " yours," 
 in this work of a pastor, is the ^lctOcotos, the "mercenary 
 hireling," that Christ so prejudiceth with the cjievyei. and oi) Johnx. 13. 
 fjiiXei TTpoffdrcov, " he flies, and he cares not for the sheep," 
 from no other topic of proof, but only on fjnaOcorbs, " because 
 he is an hireling." And of what ill consequence it was fore- 
 seen this would be in the Church, you may conjecture by that 
 one act of the administration of God's providence in this be- 
 half, constantly observable through all ages. That no minister 
 of God's might be forced to such viler submissions, driven out 
 of that apostolical, generous ingenuity, ("freely have you re- [Mat.x.8.] 
 ceived, freely give,") into Gehazi's meanness and mercenari- 
 ness, selling and bartering that sacred function, the gifts of 
 the Holy Ghost, or the exercise of those gifts — it is, no doubt, 
 that God's providence hath in all ages so liberally provided 
 for endowing of the Church. Among that people where 
 He Himself so immediately presided, that, saith Josephus'", 
 it could not be called by the style of any other nation, 
 monarchy, aristocracy, but deoKparela, neither administered 
 by kings or senates, but immediately by God Himself ; there 
 the Levites, without any of their own arts or pursuits, were 
 much the richest tribe of the twelve, lost nothing by having 
 no portion among their brethren : not to mention their parts 
 in sacrifices and ofi'erings, and their forty-eight cities with 
 suburbs, made over to them, the Lord's being their inherit- Num. 
 ance, i. e., the instating the tithes upon them was demonstra- ^^^^-L^-] 
 tively as large a revenue to them, as, supposing an equal 
 division, the remainder could be to any other tribe, yea, and 
 larger too, as much as the twelve tenth parts which they re- 
 ceived exceeded the nine that remained to each tribe after the 
 decimation ; i. e., by one third part of what was left to any 
 tribe. And among Christians in the infancy of the Church, 
 before the ministry was endowed with any certain portion^ 
 
 [Joseph, contr. Apion., lib. ii. c. 16.] 
 
THE pastor's motto. 
 
 s E RM. yet sure the Koiu.cavla tcov dyl(ov, "the Christians selling their 
 ^ — lands, and bringing the price of them to the Apostles^ feet/^ 
 42; iv. 32 though not for them to inclose, yet for them to partake of, 
 ^^^-^ as well as to distribute, kept them from any necessity of the 
 quaro vest7'a, seeking that which was other men's. Nay, 
 where that provision was not to be expected, as in their 
 Mat. X. 10. travels and journey ings, yet the staff and the scrip are inter- 
 dicted the Apostles, and under those two phrases, the qucaro 
 vestra, the making any gain by the Gospel, the staff in that 
 place was, according to the custom of the Jews, baculus pau- 
 pertatis, " the staff of poverty,'^ which Jacob intimates when 
 [Gen. he saith, " with my staff I went over Jordan,'' i. e., in another 
 Deut. xxvi. P^^^^s^^ a poor Syrian ready to perish, particularly pd/SSos 
 5-] TTTOi^eLas, the sign of a mendicant, — which the Germans call 
 
 at this day, battelstab, from the Greek alrelv, this begging 
 or craving staff, — and this, with the scrip, was forbidden the 
 [Mark vi. Apostles in St. Matthew, though in Mark's relation, another 
 kind of staff, the staff for travel, be permitted them. To 
 shew God's absolute dislike of qucero vestra in Apostles, even 
 before any certain provision was made for their maintenance, 
 [Ps. cxlvii. God, that "feeds the young ravens," sustains the destitute, — 
 ^'■^ and believe it. His exchequer is no contemptible bank. His 
 
 table in the wilderness is served with quails and manna, — 
 undertaking to provide for them sufficiently by some other 
 means. And since by that same providence the Church is 
 now endowed again in most parts of Christendom, and God's 
 severe denunciations against sacrilege set as an hedge of 
 thorns about Levi's portion, sure to prick, and fester, and 
 rankle in his flesh that shall dare to break in upon it, what 
 is this but still a continued expression of God's dislike of the 
 qucero vestra, who hath therefore made over His own portion 
 on us, that therewith we might be contented, and provided 
 [2 Cor. for, without the irXeoveKTeiv, without letting loose our hands 
 17. ^^j. appetites on other men's possessions ? You see then, 
 by the way, the error of those, that from this practice of the 
 Apostle are ready to prescribe us absolute poverty, that will 
 have all the lawful proper revenues of the Church prohibited, 
 under the vestra, and then claiming of tithes or any other 
 ecclesiastic endowment shall get under that style, and the 
 Apostle's non qucero urged for a precedent against us ; with 
 
THE pastor's motto. 
 
 233 
 
 how little law or logic you will perceive, when you remember s E R M. 
 
 that the tithe, or what else is consecrated, is by the very laws , 
 
 of this kingdom (to derive the pedigree no further) as much 
 the minister's own, held by the same tenure of donation first, 
 then of parliamentary confirmation, that any man's inherit- 
 ance descends unto him, and therefore to demand them is no 
 more a qucEvo vestra than to demand a rent of a tenant ; in a 
 word, a direct mea, not vestra, a "right," and not a "gratuity." 
 Nay, the learned Jews have gone further '' ; that if the tithe be 
 not paid the whole heap becomes God's portion, and cite it 
 as a speech of God's, that if " thou pay the tithe it is thy 
 corn, if not, it is God's corn," and therefore, saith he, it is 
 said, " therefore I will return and take away My corn in the Hos. xi. d. 
 time thereof, and My wine in the season thereof ;" like that 
 land that is held in capite, with a rent reserved, the non-pay- 
 ment of the rent or homage is the forfeiting of the tenure. 
 But I desire not to follow this Jew in his meditation, but 
 rather to come home to ourselves, and not only to interdict 
 ourselves, the queer o vestra, but even regulate us in the quoero 
 nostra, purge out of this assembly whatever may savour of 
 the Jew, all griping, or rigour, or sourness, or summum jus, 
 even in the qucero nostra, " seeking that that is our own." 
 To this purpose in the first place, not to seek all that is our 
 own ; though it were not a fault in the lay Pharisee, {aTro- Mat. xxiiL 
 Befcarovre rjSvocr/j^Qv,) "to pay tithe of cummin," and the 
 smallest herb, yet perhaps it may be in the priest to require 
 it; a fault not of injustice, or the quaro vestra, but of sordid- 
 ness and meanness in the qucEro mea. Aristotle* I am sure 
 would condemn it under that style of cpecSwXol, jKtaxpol, 
 Kl/x^tK€9, too much poorness and tenuity of mind, ry hoaeu 
 eXkeLTTetv, roiv he aWorpicov ov/c i^teaOat, " though not in 
 desiring other men's," the quaro vestra in the text, yet in 
 want or defect of that liberality, ingenuity, that is required 
 of the moral man, which he there specifies by the kv/hlvo- 
 iTpiaT7]s, "exactness" even to the partition of a cummin seed, 
 a fault, if observable in a heathen, then sure censurable in a 
 Christian, and in a minister vile and scandalous. When this 
 is resolved against in the first place, as illiberal, degenerous, 
 and beggarly, contrary to that generosity and superiority of 
 
 s R, Bechai on Deut. xiv. [comment, in Legem,] ' Eth. iv. 1. [o9.J 
 
234 
 
 THE PASTOR^ S MOTTO. 
 
 s E R M. mind that our profession should be thought to infuse into us : 
 
 XI • • 
 '- — the next thing I must require of you in the qucero mea is a 
 
 fl Cqr.vii. general unconcernedness in the things of this world, "using 
 ^^'^ the world as if we used it not"/' possessing the wealth we 
 have, but not being possessed by it, — for then it turns our 
 devil or familiar, — as able to part with it at God's call as to 
 receive it at His gift, pouring it out upon every His intima- 
 tion, seeking and projecting for advantages to be the better 
 for this false mammon by being "rich in good works,'' and 
 when we see it a parting from us of its own accord, taking a 
 cheerful unconcerned leave of it, retaining so much of the 
 sceptic as the arapa^la amounts to, an untroubleduess with 
 these inferior events, and of the stoic or wise man in Antoni- 
 nus^, as ou TToielv rpayaySla^;, "to act no passionate, lugubrious, 
 tragical'' part, whatever secular provocation cross us on the 
 stage. Then thirdly, an entire contentedness with our lot, that 
 duty of the last commandment, which is absolutely required to 
 the non queer o vestra, or as our Apostle interprets himself, the 
 ov/c eirXeoveKTTjaa, not, as we render it, " not making a gain," 
 but not desiring, coveting any thing that is another's. To 
 this purpose excellently Epictetus'' of old, that he that tastes 
 and carves to himself of those dishes only that are set before 
 him, reaches not after those that are out of his distance, 
 avTo^ 6vT(Ds Oecov avixiroTr]^, is fit for a guest at God's table ; 
 which you may make, if you please, a periphrasis of a minis- 
 ter. Did I not fear that this were a duty of too great per- 
 fection for some of my auditors, an unusquisque non potest 
 [Mat. xix. caper "every one cannot receive it," I should go on with 
 ^^'^ that divine philosopher, that he that abstains from that 
 which is set before him, contemns that riches that comes 
 knocking at his door, ov fxbvov avfJb7r6T7]s tcov decov, dWa koL 
 avvdpx'^v, "is not only a guest at His board, but a compa- 
 nion in His throne," and that is the pitch that I would com- 
 mend unto you, if I might hope you would endeavour after 
 it. But then fourthly, and lastly, the minimmn quod sic, — 
 that that I must not leave you till you have promised me, 
 [Gen. wrestle till break of day, except you will thus bless me, — the 
 
 xxxii. 26.] 
 
 " I MS /xri KaTaxp^aixivoL, E. V. "as ' [Vide Antonini ad Seipsum, iii. 
 
 not abusing it." Hammond's version 7.] 
 
 is now generally adopted,] ^ [Epicteti Enchiridion, cap. 21.] 
 
THE PASTOE^S MOTTO. 
 
 235 
 
 lowest degree that can be reconcilable or compatible with SERM. 
 
 an Apostle, is the not suffering your qucero vestra, "your '■ — 
 
 hope^^ or design of secular advantages, gaining of gratuities, 
 gaining of applause, to have any the least influence on your 
 preaching, to intermix never so little in your seeking of 
 souls. This is the KairrfKeveLv rov \6yov rod 6eov, "dashing^^ [2 Cor. il 
 or " embasing the word of God,^^ corrupting it with our un- 
 worthy mixtures, making it instrumental to our gain or 
 popularity, the meanest office, the vilest submission in the 
 world. I remember a note of Procopius ^ on 3 Kings, [2 Kings 
 that Elisha sending his servant to cure the Shunamite's 
 child, forbids him to pass any compliment with any by the 
 way ; I had thought it had been for speed, but he saith, fihei 
 TO (fiikoTLiJbov' Tj Se ^iXoSo^ia rrjv Oav/j^arovpyCap KcoXveij " he 
 knew his popular humour, and that popularity hinders work- 
 ing of miracles and then by the same reason we may con- 
 clude that that must needs enervate the word of God, and 
 make it heartless and lifeless in our hands, and the minister 
 that is given to it will hardly ever work wonders in the 
 curing or recovering of souls. But that servant you know 
 had another fault, cf)L\apyvpLa, "desire of money,'^ t^s- [ i Tim. vi. 
 KaKLas fjL7)Tp67ro\LSj " the mother city whence all wickedness 
 comes forth," said Bion^ of old; and Timon^ puts them 
 both together, airXriarLa /cal (pcXoBo^la rcov KaKOJV arotx^la, 
 "insatiate love of wealth and honour are the elements of 
 evil and it is strange to see how truly those wise men 
 were called vates, what prophets they were, what direct 
 satires those words of theirs are against the times we live in. 
 Our a7r\7](7TLa and (pcXoSo^la, " covetousness and popularity," 
 are the elements of all the ruin, the seeds of all the desola- 
 tion that is threatened against this Church ; some of us by 
 the notorious scandalous guilt of those two crimes, tempting 
 rash uncharitable spectators to resolve that those sins are 
 the formalis ratio of a clergyman, accidents of the essence, 
 and inseparable from the order ; and it is not the illogical- 
 ness of the inference that will excuse them that have joined 
 with Satan in temptation to make that conclusion, nor de- 
 
 ^ [Procopii Schol. in libb. Reg. et torn. i. p. 293. ed. Gaisford.] 
 Paralip. ad loc, p. 285, ed. Meursius.] » [Ibid., n. 54. p. 29().] 
 ^ [Apud Stobaeum, tit. 10. n. 38. 
 
236 
 
 THE pastor's motto. 
 
 SERM. liver us from the destruction that follows it. Others of us 
 XI 
 
 — on the contrary side, but from the same principles, decrying 
 
 all due either of maintenance or respect to the clergy, divest- 
 ing themselves of all but contempt and drudgery, hoping — 
 we have just reason to suspect — by flying both to be courted 
 by them both, to have them more sure at the rebound than 
 they can at the fall, to run from them here most violently, 
 that they may have them alone to themselves when they 
 meet at the antipodes. What imprudent bargains such men 
 are likely to make if they should be taken at their words ; 
 what skittish things popular benevolence and popular ap- 
 plause have been always found to be, experience hath taught 
 others. I desire even they that make that choice may never 
 pay so dear for that knowledge ; but whatever the error 
 prove in the transitory commodities of this world, it matters 
 little, for wealth and honour are, sure, things that we may 
 go to heaven without, and so, for as much as concerns our 
 individuals, are not necessary to us as Christians ; yet can I 
 not assure you, but that they are necessary to us in some 
 degree as ministers ; wealth in a competence to rescue us 
 from contempt ; and respect, at least so far as a ne quis te 
 
 [Tit.ii.i5.] despiciatf "let no man despise thee,'^ to keep us from being 
 utterly unprofitable; some revenue of our own, to keep us 
 from the qucero vestra, and some authority of our own, to 
 enable us for the qucEro vos, somewhat of either from the 
 character of our office, that we be not tempted to seek either 
 by unlawful means to purchase the vest r a by the sale of vos, 
 to acquire the favour of our auditors by the exposing of their 
 souls. Think but how probable a fear this may be, when 
 things come to such a complication that he that hath a sin 
 to be preached against hath a benevolence to be preached 
 for; he that hath a wound to be cured, is able to be thank- 
 ful if he may be kindly used, yea, and to mulct the chirurgeon 
 if he be too rough; when he that hath somewhat to mend, 
 hath also somewhat to give, a commutation to escape his 
 penance ; whether this may not prove a temptation to him 
 that hath no other livelihood to depend on, and consequently 
 whether rankling and gangrening may not be looked for as 
 an ordinary title in our weekly bills, when the skinning of 
 wounds is become the gainful craft, and compliance and 
 
THE pastor's motto. 
 
 237 
 
 popularity the great Diana, that trade by which men have SERM. 
 their wealth. But perhaps the most of this is an extrava- — — 
 gance, I wish and pray it may prove an unnecessary one. 
 
 There is yet one branch of the application behind; the 
 end why St. Paul delivered this text of mine, that I told you 
 was the vindicating his ministry from contempt, the gaining 
 some authority with the Corinthians. And let that be our 
 method also, to come to that end by the non vestra sed vos, 
 not to acquire that thin blast of air that chameleons are wont 
 to feed on, but that solid substantial estimation that dwells 
 only in the account of God and the hearts of true Corinth- 
 ians ; that that may disperse those fumes of prejudices that 
 Satan is wont to blast the minister with when any saving 
 effect is to be wrought by his ministry, that unblemished 
 reputation here, that when it is to be had is a precious bless- 
 ing, very instrumental to the edifying of others, and is a 
 kind of coronet here in this life, preparatory to that crown 
 hereafter. And sure there is no work of ours that we can 
 justly hope God will think fit to reward with such a crown, 
 but the sincere labouring in the word and doctrine, filling 
 our souls with the earnest desire of saving others, espousing 
 it as the sole felicity of our lives, the one promotion that we 
 aspire to, to people heaven with saints, to send whole colo- 
 nies of inhabitants thither. It was the excellence and pride 
 of the ancient Jews, yea, and the craft peculiar to them, 
 saith Josephus, TeKvoTrotrjTCKr}, "getting of children, propa- 
 gating miraculously," and the barren was the most infamous 
 person among them, " Behold I go childless, the saddest [Gen. xv. 
 lamentation,^' and " Give me children or else I die,'' and 23 .^Luke 
 
 Take away our reproach," most pathetical Scripture ex- i- 25.] 
 pressions; yea, and among the Romans the jus trium libero- 
 rurriy "the right of three children," you know what a prero- 
 gative it w^as. This is our trade, my brethren, to beget 
 children to heaven, and according to the law of the Goel in 
 Deuteronomy, now our elder Brother (Christ) is dead, we are [Deut.xxv. 
 the men, who by right of propinquity are obliged to raise up ^'^ 
 seed to our elder Brother. O let it not be our reproach to 
 go thus childless to our graves, at least our guilt and just 
 accusation to bereave our Saviour of that seed He expects 
 from us; you know what a sin it was to repine at that duty; 
 
238 
 
 THE pastor's motto. 
 
 SERM. let net us be wanting to Christ in this so charitable a ser- 
 XI . 
 
 ' — vice ; charitable to Christ, that His blood may not have been 
 
 shed in vain ; charitable to others, whom we may by God^s 
 blessing convert unto righteousness, and the charity will at 
 last devolve on ourselves, who by this means shall " shine as 
 
 [Dan. xii. the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever 
 
 ^•^ md ever/' 
 
SERMON XII. 
 
 PREACHED IN ST. PAUL'S CHURCH BEFORE THE LORD MAYOR AND ALDERMEN 
 OF THE CITY OF LONDON, ON APRIL 12, A.D. 1640. 
 
 THE POOK MAN'S TITHING. 
 
 Deut. xxvi. 12, 13. 
 
 When tJioii hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine 
 increase the third year . . . Then thou shalt say before the Lord 
 thy God . , . 
 
 That the first sound of this text may not possess jou with s E RM, 
 an expectation of a vicar's plea, a discourse of tithes, and 
 querulous invective against sacrilege; and consequently by 
 this prejudice your ears and hearts be fortified, impenetrable 
 and impregnable against the speaker and the sermon ; that I 
 may reconcile the choice of this text with the imploring and 
 hoping for your patience; I shall immediately deliver you from 
 your fears, by assuring you that the main of this text is, and 
 the total of my discourse shall be, bent quite toward another 
 coast, that which in the sincerity of my heart I conceive may 
 best comply with your designs, either as Christians, or as 
 men, most tend to your serving of Christ, and enriching of 
 yourselves with the increase of your wealth here and glory 
 hereafter. And when I have told you this, I cannot choose 
 but say that I am your friend, and for that may claim not as 
 an act of favour, but justice, the payment of this debt, the 
 return of your patience in receiving, and care in practising 
 what shall be delivered. 
 
 There was a double tithing among the Jews, the every 
 year's tithing and the third year's tithing ; the every year's 
 tithing you know whose patrimony it was ; but after that was 
 set apart and presented unto the owners every third year, there 
 was another to be raised, over and above, for the stranger, 
 
no 
 
 THE POOR MAN^S TITHING. 
 
 s E RM. the fatherless, and the widow, as you may see it enacted. This 
 : — was called bv the rabbins the second tithing, and in another 
 
 cti3.p, xiv» *^ 
 
 29. ' ' respect the third by some of them, — the tithe for feasts going 
 Deut. xiv. for the second, and the tithe of the tithes, which the Levites 
 
 23 
 
 paid the high -priest, going for the fourth, in that account, — 
 but most significantly '•iy ntJ^y^D "the tithe for the poor," tttcoxo- 
 SeKarr)^ in Josephus, the " poor man^s tithing," or in the words 
 of the text, the compleveris decimare anno tertio, the making 
 an end of tithing the third year." Till this were done there 
 wanted a compleveris; whatever other dues were paid the work 
 was incomplete, and upon the performance of that, here is a 
 stock of confidence toward God for him that hath done it, a 
 [Deut. right invested on him to all the abundance of Canaan, a justi- 
 XXVI.] lo. gj^i^ig pretension to all temporal blessings, which he may de- 
 pend on and challenge at God's hand ; it were but a cold ex- 
 pression to say he might expect by petition, I will add, he 
 may require by claim, and produce his patent for it here in 
 my text. Cum compleveris, ^c, "When thou hast made an 
 end," &c. 
 
 This text I have upon advice resolved not to divide into 
 parts, but my discourse upon it I shall, by setting it these 
 bounds and limits ; 1. That it presents unto you the duty of 
 almsgiving by occasion of these words, Cum compleveris deci- 
 mare anno tertio, " when thou hast made an end of tithing . . . 
 the third year." 2. The benefit arising from the performance 
 of this duty from the rest, Dicas coram Domino, " then thou 
 shalt" or mayest "say," i.e., hast right and power to say, 
 "before the Lord thy God." In our progress through the 
 first of these we shall observe these gesses^; 1. We shall 
 begin with the on, consider alms-giving simply, deducing 
 the practice of the Jews down to us Christians, and so in a 
 manner give you the history of alms-giving. 2. We shall 
 look into the irdaov, what portion ought to issue out of every 
 man^s revenues, taking our rise from the practice of the Jews, 
 " a tithe of all increase every third year." 3. We shall pro- 
 ceed to the OTL Set, consider it as a duty, and then we shall 
 have done with the first general. 
 
 a [This word is used by St. Jerome, Josephus seems to be a mistake.] 
 Comm. in Ezek., lib. xiv. c. 45. Op., b [See note at p. 30.] 
 torn. V. col. 565, C ; the reference to 
 
THE POOR man's TITHING. 
 
 241 
 
 In the second general we shall shew you, 1 . In thesi, that s E R M. 
 confidence or claiming any thing at God's hands, must take — — 
 its rise from duty in performance, " Then thou mayest say 
 then, but not before. 2. In hypothesis shew you the connection 
 between this confidence and this performance, claiming of 
 temporal plenty, upon giving of alms. These are the several 
 posts and stages of my future discourse, the monogram drawn 
 in coal, as it were, wherein you may discern the lines and linea- 
 ments of the whole body ; I must now descend to the filling 
 them up, and giving you them a little more to the life, taking 
 them in the order proposed, very loosely, and very plainly, 
 making provision for your hearts, not your ears, for your 
 future gain and not your present sensuality, and begin with 
 the first general, and in that, the on, or alms-giving, simply 
 considered, deducing the practice of the Jews down to us 
 Christians, and so give you in a manner the history of alms- 
 giving. 
 
 Though we assert not an equality of worldly riches from 
 any decree either of God or nature, find not any statute of 
 iravra kolvcl, any "law of community'' in any but Plato's in- 
 stitutions, and those never reduced to practice in any one city 
 in the world, — attempted once by Plotinus, through his favour 
 with Gallienus, who promised to reside in his Platonopolis, 
 but soon altered his purpose again, as Porphyry tells us, — 
 yet I may suppose it for a granted maxim, that the extreme 
 inequality that is now so illustriously visible in the world, is 
 not any act of nature's primary intention, or God's first and 
 general providence ; Aristotle^ may tell us of some (}>v(7ei 8ov- 
 \oLj some that nature hath bored through the ear to be slaves 
 for ever, and we may believe him if we can find any ground 
 for it, but of any <j)vaei irrwxpl, " colonies of men,^' sent into 
 the world without any claim or right to any part of the world's 
 goods, he hath not left us any thing upon record. Nor hath 
 the book of creation in the Scripture, the Beresith, or natural 
 philosophy of the Bible, given us any hint for such a resolu- 
 tion, that some should be born to riot, and others to famish, 
 some to be glutted, and others to starve, that mankind should 
 be thus dichotomized into such extreme distant fates, some 
 to reign in paradise for ever, others to be thrown over the 
 
 c Porph. in Vit. Plotin., [cap. 12.] ^ [Arist. Polit., lib. i. c. 5.] 
 
 HAMMOND. T> 
 
242 
 
 THE POOR MAN^S TITHING. 
 
 s E R M. wall^ as out of tlie Adamites^ stove, to pine and freeze among 
 thorns and briars. This were an absolute degree of election 
 and reprobation, improved further than predestinarians have 
 ordinarily extended it. As we are wont to say of sin, that it 
 is not to be found in God^s Hexameron, no fruit of His six 
 days^ labour, but a production of a later date, engendered be- 
 twixt the serpent and the woman, that incubus and succuba, the 
 devil and the lower soul ; so may we say of extreme want and 
 [Ezek. xvi. poverty, that its nativity is of the land of Canaan, its father 
 ^' an Amorite, and its mother an Hittite : Satan and covetous- 
 
 ness brought it into the world, and then God finding it there 
 — whose glorious attribute it is to extract good out of evil — 
 as He did once a acoTrjp out of an aTroWvayv, '^redemption^^ of 
 mankind out of the fall of Adam, and so made the devil an 
 instrument of bringing the Messias into the world ; so hath 
 He in like manner by His particular providence ordered and 
 continued this effect of some men^s covetousness to become 
 matter of others' bounty, exercise of that one piece of man's 
 divinity, as Pythagoras called liberality, and so ex his lapi- 
 [Mat. iii. dibus, " out of these stones,'' out of the extreme want and ne- 
 ^'^ cessity of our brethren, to raise trophies and monuments of 
 
 virtue to us, of charity, liberality, and magnificence, of mercy, 
 and bowels of compassion, that most beautiful composition of 
 graces, that most heroical renowned habit of the soul. So 
 that now we may define it an act of God's infinite goodness 
 to permit, though before we could scarce allow it reconcileable 
 with His infinite justice, to decree the extreme inequality of 
 earthly portions, the poor man gasping for food, that the rich 
 may have a storehouse or magazine where to lay up his trea- 
 sures ; the careful labourer, full of children, suffered to wrestle 
 with two extremities at once; hunger on the one side, and 
 natural compassion to the helpless creatures he hath begotten 
 [1 Kings on the other ; that thou by thy wealth mayest be that Elijah 
 '^^"'^ sent from heaven to the famishing forlorn widow, that godlike 
 man dropped out of the clouds to his relief, and by the omni- 
 potent reviving power of thy charity usurp that attribute of 
 [Ps. cxlvii. God's given Him by the Psalmist, that ^' feeds the young 
 ^*"' ravens" exposed by the old ones, sustain that destitute sort 
 
 of creatures that call upon thee. Admirable therefore was that 
 contrivance of God's mercy and wisdom, mentioned to the 
 
THE POOR MAN^S TITHING. 
 
 243 
 
 Jews, not as a threatening, but a promise of grace, one of tlie s E R M. 
 privileges and blessings of Canaan, " the poor shall never cease ^y"^ — 
 out of the land/^ that thou mayest always have somewhat to n. * 
 do with thy wealth, some sluice to exhaust thy plenty, some 
 hungry leech to open a vein, and prevent the access of thy 
 fever, and withal, that thy wealth may ennoble thee, as Xeno- 
 crates told his benefactor^s children, that he had abundantly 
 requited their father, " for all men spake well of him for his 
 liberality to Xenocrates,'^ or as benefactors among the heathen 
 were adored and deified, that thus thy faithless, fading false- 
 hearted riches, — which the Evangelist therefore styles " mam- [l<ukexvi. 
 mon of unrighteousness,^' only as ciSl/cov is opposed to aXrjOi- 
 vouj to true durable wealth, — may yield thee more profit by 
 the profusion than by the possession, — as silver doth by melt- 
 ing than by continuing in the wedge or bullion, according to 
 that of Clemens^, ovk 6 e^wv koI ^vXclttcov, dXka 6 fieraSc- 
 Bov9 7r\ov(7Los, " thc rich is he that distributes, not he which 
 hath and possesseth;" and Lactantius% Vivites ' sunt non qui 
 divitias habent, sed qui utuntur illis ad opera justitice, " the rich 
 are they, not which have riches, but use them to works of 
 righteousness," — purchase thee by being thus providently laid 
 out, a revenue of renown here and glory hereafter. You see 
 then the pedigree and genealogy of alms-giving, how it came 
 into the world ; covetousness, and oppression, and rapine, 
 brought in emptiness, and beggary, and want; then God's 
 providence and goodness, finding it in the world, resolves to 
 continue it there to employ the treasures and exercise the 
 charity of others. 
 
 Now for the practice of the world in this great affair, 
 we cannot begin our survey more properly than from the 
 text, there to behold God's judgment, in this point, by 
 the rules He hath given to be observed in the city of God, 
 His own people of the Jews, whilst they were managed by 
 God Himself. The priesthood was the peculiar lot of God, 
 and therefore may well be allowed the irpwTOKXKrla, " feeding 
 
 [S. Clem. Alex. Paedag., lib. 3. ch. signes, nisi quod possunt bonis operi- 
 6. p. 275 (Potter), ware ovx 6 e'xwj' koX bus facere clariores. Divites sunt enim, 
 <pvKaTTc>}v, aW' 6 fieraBiSovs ivXovaios, non quia divitias habent, sed quia utun- 
 KoX^ 7} /xerdSoais to fiaKapioi/, ovx V tur illis ad opera justitise. Et qui 
 KTrjais SeiKwac] ^ pauperes videntur, eo tamen divites 
 ^ [Lactantius, Divin. Instit, lib. v. sunt, quia et non egent et non con- 
 ch. 16. Divitise quoque non faciunt in- cupiscunt.] 
 
 R 3 
 
244 
 
 THE POOR man's TITHING. 
 
 s E RM. first at God's feast and the poor next after tliem were taken 
 
 XII 
 
 ! care of by God Himself, Lazarus, as it were, in Aaron's, as 
 
 [Luke XVI. Qj^gg Abraham's bosom, next to the priest in the temple as 
 to the patriarch in heaven ; a tithing for the priest, and when 
 this was done, every third year, a tithing for the poor. The 
 withholding of the former was sacrilege, and of the latter, 
 furtum interpret ativum, say the schools, "interpretative theft,'' 
 and the casuists to the same purpose, that though our goods 
 be our own, jure proprietatis, " by right of propriety,'^ yet they 
 are other men's ^wre caritatis, " by right of charity the rich 
 man's barn is the poor man's granary, nay murder too, as we 
 [Ecclus. may conclude from the words of the Wise Man, " the poor 
 xxxiv. 21.] jjjj^j-^'g i3];.ea^ is }iis life^" — and that is sometimes thy dole, on 
 
 which his life depends, — and then, as there it follows, he that 
 deprives him of it — so doth the unmerciful, as well as the thief 
 — is a murderer. Nay further, that murder one of the deepest 
 dye, ^ fratricidium, like Cain's of Abel his brother, and there- 
 [Gen. iv. fore as that is a damans de terra, " crying for judgment from 
 Deut XV 9 ground," so hath this a clamet ad Deum contra te, " cry 
 to God against thee." I will add, at least so long as the state 
 of the Jews lasted, it was sacrilege too. Shall we proceed then 
 and ask when the state of the Jews expired did alms-giving 
 expire with it ? was charity abrogated with sacrifice ? turned 
 out of the world for an antiquated, abolished rite, for a piece 
 of Judaism? The practice of some Christians would persuade 
 [Mat. X. men so, that the sword that Christ brought into the world 
 ^'^•j had wounded charity to the heart, that He had left no such 
 custom behind Him to the Churches of God, that Christianity 
 had clutched men's hands, and frozen their hearts into an 
 airdXiOwcris, as Arrian^ calls it, inverted that miracle of 
 Christ's, returned the children of Abraham into stones. Phy- 
 sicians tell us of a disease converting the womb into a firm 
 stone, and the story in Crollius of a XiOoTraL^iov, " a child of 
 a perfect stony substance," is asserted by many others. Now 
 the unhappiness of it is, that the Hebrew Dn^ that signifies a 
 'Vomb,"by a little varying of the punctuation, signifies "mercy" 
 also, and " bowels of compassion," whereupon the Septuagint 
 Amosi. 11. instead of eXeos- have put /uiTjrpa, instead of "mercy," a "womb;" 
 
 and alas the same disease hath fallen upon the Dm in that 
 
 ^ [Epictet. Enchirid,, lib. i. c. 5. § 3.] 
 
THE POOR MAN^S TITHING. 
 
 215 
 
 other sense, the bowels of mercy in many Christians are petri- S E R M. 
 
 fied, transubstantiate into stones, pure mine and quarry, and '~ 
 
 so we ministers, damnati ad metalla (that old Koman punish- 
 ment condemned to dig in those mines, and by all the daily 
 pains of preaching and exhortation, able to bring forth nothing 
 but such XcOoTraLSla, stones instead of bread. [Mat. vii. 
 
 But I hope, my brethren, the practice of those some shall 
 not be accepted as authentic evidence against Christ, to de- 
 fame and dishonour our most glorious profession, whose very 
 style is "brethren,'' whose livery "charity,'' and character that [.9°]^^; ^ ; 
 " they love one another." I know not how unmerciful and john xiii. 
 hardhearted the Christian world is now grown in its declina- ^^-^ 
 tion, as covetousness is generally the vice of old age, I am 
 sure it was open-handed enough in its youth, witness that 
 most ancient primitive apostolical institution of the offertory 
 in the Sacrament, that which was so considerable a part of 
 that holy rite that it gave denomination to the whole, the 
 Eucharist styled KOivwvia, " communion," distinctly from this 
 custom of bringing every man out of his store, and communi- 
 cating to the necessities of the saints, as it is 2 Cor. viii. 4, 
 Kotvcovta Tr}9 hiaKovias els tovs ayiovs, "the communion," or 
 " fellowship" as we render it, more fully " the communicative- 
 ness," or "liberality of administering to the saints," and is there- 
 fore by us rendered " liberality." Many excellent observations iCor.xvi.3. 
 might be presented to you on this occasion, necessary for the 
 understanding many places in St. Paul, especially of chap. xi. 
 of 1 Cor., but you will easily forgive me the sparing this pains 
 in this place. Let it suffice that we find in that chapter, that 
 at those holy meetings there was always a table furnished out 
 of the bounty of communicants for a common feast unto all 
 the faithful ; the rich might have leave to bring more than 
 his poorer brother, but not to take place by that bounty, not 
 to pretend any propriety to what he had brought, which is 
 the meaning of the ihiov Selirvov, " every man his own supper," [1 Cor. xi. 
 and the 'TTpoXa/j./Bdvetv iv tS (f)a<yelv, "taking precedence of ^^'-^ 
 others in eating," the rich to eat all and the poor none, one 
 to be hungry and the other drunken, the fault which he there 
 found with the Corinthians. Nor did the custom of liberality, 
 
 8 [Sueton. Calig. i. 27, et Digest, lib. 48. tit. 19. leg. 8. ap. Corp. Jur. 
 Civ.] 
 
246 THE POOR MAN^S TITHING. 
 
 SERM. annexed to the Sacrament in those days, expire or vanish 
 — with the Apostles ; the practice rather increased than abated 
 
 16. 
 
 among their successors; witness that iTpos(j)opa^ or "obla- 
 tion/^ first of all the fruits of the season, as an offering of 
 first-fruits; afterwards only aprov koL Kpajxaros'^ "of bread 
 and wine mingled with water/' which the brethren or faith- 
 ful, i. e., in the ancient style, the communicants, are said to 
 bring, and present at the altar or table of the Lord, for the 
 furnishing of the table with part, and refreshing the poor 
 with what was left. These are the ek^opal, "oblations^' in 
 the Constitutions^, at least one sort of them, one being for 
 the priest, the other for the poor, and again, al eh tovs Seo- 
 Heb. xiii. fjuevovs evTTouaL^ "the doing good to them that want,^' the 
 very word in St. Paul evirouas koI KotvwvLas, "to do good 
 and communicate,'^ and ra els^epoijieva eirl TrpocpdaeL irevrj- 
 Tcov eKovata, "voluntary oblations for the poor.''"' These are 
 contained under his general head of KapiTO(f)opiaL, " bringing 
 of fruits,^' of which he hath a chapter'^, and KvpiaKoX gvv€L9' 
 <f)oplai^\ "the Lord's offerings/' and eXerj^juoavvT), " alms," and 
 otherwhere kKovoia tols irevrjai yopri^ovyievaj " voluntary gifts 
 distributed to the poor;" and observable it is from those and 
 other ancient constitutions, that it was a punishment for some 
 men, used in the Church, not to receive them to the offertory 
 who yet were not so great malefactors as to be kept from some 
 other privileges of Christians. This was called tcoivwvia X'^P^^ 
 TTpoacpopds^, "communicating without the offertory," fre- 
 quently in the Ancyran and Nicene councils ; and therefore 
 EpiphaniusP, having mentioned the faults for which offenders 
 were excommunicated, as iropveia, p^oiyela, " fornication, adul- 
 tery," &c., he adds, irpoa^opas Xafx^dvei irapd tojv ovk aSt" 
 
 ^ [Canon. Apost. iii., iv. Concil., Koiu (xcrex^iv <rvv€L%<popcav. Ibid., lib. 
 
 torn. i. col. 25, B, C. See Concil. Trull. iv. c. 4. col. 117-] 
 
 can. 28 ; ibid., torn. vi. col. 1154, 1155.] \^-xu)p\s 'Kpos(popdLS KOivcauiqaArwcrav. 
 
 ' [See S. Justin M., Apol. i. c. 65. Concil. Ancyran., can. viii., ix , &c. 
 
 p. 82, D, and Cone. Carth. iii. can. 25. Concilia, torn. i. col. 1460; x^P'^^ irpos- 
 
 Concil., torn, ii, col. 1181, A.] cpopas Koivcovrjcrovai toS Aaai rcbv irpo- 
 
 ^- l^Kvpios . . . ov SrjTTov Kai rwv ds- (x^vx(iov. Cone. Nic, can. xi. Concilia, 
 
 (popwv vfxas i\€v9epcaaev, o^eiAere torn. ii. col. 33, D. Hammond misappre- 
 
 rols Upevcriy, Kal ruu els tovs deofievovs bended the sense of irpoafpopas, which 
 
 ivTTouiav. Apost. Const., lib. ii. c. 35. evidently means the Eucharistic Obla- 
 
 Concilia, torn. i. col. 272,] tion ; the penitents spoken of were 
 
 ^ [Ibid., c. 25. col. 260.] allowed to take part in the prayers, but 
 
 [Trepl KapiTocpopiwv diara^eis. Ibid., excluded from the Holy Communion.] 
 
 lib. vii. c. 30. col. 431.] p [S. Epiphan. adv. Haer., lib. iii. 
 
 » [yuera iro'iov <p6fiov xph t<*>v Kvpia- t. 2. Op., torn. i. p. 1107, B.] 
 
THE POOR man's TITHING. 247 
 
 KovvTCdV ovBe 'TTapavofjLOVVTCov, dWa hiKaiods (3iovvto)v, SERM. 
 Church receives not offerings from the injurious/' &c., but — — 
 from just livers, noting that all but the StKaicos ^lovvrey, 
 " those that live justly/' were interdicted the privilege of offer- 
 ing or giving to the Corban. Thus in Clemens was not the 
 oblation received from the '^unjust publican who exacted'^ 
 Trapd TO SiaTeray/jbivov, " above what was appointed/' and so 
 for executioners, whose oblation being the price of blood was 
 not suffered to come into the Corban, no more than the thirty Mat. xxvii. 
 pieces of silver that Judas took to betray Christ. An excellent ^' 
 consideration for us to meditate on, that the being excluded 
 from the offertory, being denied the privilege of giving alms 
 or being bountiful to the poor, went for a very great punish- 
 ment ; and so sure the duty, a special part of piety and public 
 service of God. And therefore the custom being either neg- 
 lected or intermitted at Constantinople, St. Chrysostom'i took 
 care for the restoring it again, and thereupon made that 
 excellent oration upon that subject, where from antiquity he 
 proves the use of the offertory on the Lord's day, and men- 
 tions the Corban or treasury, where it was wont to be put. 
 
 I have been the more large on this particular, because it hath 
 in all ages been accounted a prime piece of Christianity, — a 
 special part of divine worship, saith Aquinas^, — the observa- 
 tion of which is yet, thanks be to God, alive among us, espe- 
 cially if that be true which Pamelius^ cites out of Honorius, 
 that instead of the ancient oblation of bread and wine, the 
 offering of money was by consent received into the Church, 
 in memory of the pence in Judas' sale. Only it were well if 
 we were a little more alacrious and exact in the performance 
 of the duty, and more care taken in the distribution, especially 
 that that notorious abuse of this most Christian custom, which 
 they say — I hope unjustly^ — some part of this city is guilty of, 
 
 1 [S. Chrys. Homilia de Eleemo- oblatione farinae denarios ofFerrent, pro 
 
 syna, Op., torn. ii. p. 248. The circum- qiiibus traditum Dominum recognosce- 
 
 stances referred to occurred at Antioch, rent, qui tamen denarii in usum paupe- 
 
 not Constantinople, See Montfauc. in rum, qui membra sunt Christi, cede- 
 
 Homil. ed. Bened. ibid.] rent, vel in aliquid quod ad hoc sacri- 
 
 »■ [Ad secundum dicendum, quod tri- ficium pertineret. — Honorius Augusto- 
 
 plex esthominis bonum . ..Tertium est dunensis, Gemma Animae, de antique 
 
 bonum exteriorum rerum, de quo sa- ritu Missse, lib. i. c. 66. ap. Bibl. Magn. 
 
 crificium offertur Deo, &c. — S. Thorn, Patrum, tom, xii. par. i. p. 1026, D, E, 
 
 Aquin. Summa Theol. Secunda Secun- Colon. 1618, quoted by Pamelius in 
 
 dae, Qusest, Ixxxv, art. 3, ad 2,] S. Cyprian, de Op. et Eleemos., c. 14. 
 
 s [Statutum est , . . ut populus pro not. 33. p. 360, ed. Par. 1593.] 
 
248 
 
 THE POOR MAN^S TITHING. 
 
 s E R M. in converting this inheritance of the poor into a feast of enter- 
 tainment for the officers of the Churchy may be branded and 
 
 banished out of ken. It is yet but a sin, which, like some in 
 Aristotle hath never a name, had never yet the honour to be 
 forbidden, if it should chance to live to that age, thrive and 
 prove fit for an ovofJuaOeala, the imposition of a name, let me 
 have the favour to christen it, a new-found sacrilege, a most in- 
 human at once, and unchristian profanation ; and if you want 
 an emblem for it, that ancient piece of Nathan's designing 
 [2Sam.xii. will scrvc the turn, the rich man feasting on the poor man's 
 ^' ^'^ ewe lamb, his luxury maintained by the other^s blood. It 
 were an admirable work of ecclesiastic discipline, some way 
 or other to bring the Corban in such favour with us that it 
 might prove a bank or storehouse in every parish, able to 
 supply the wants of all ; but much better, if we would fall in 
 love with it ourselves, as a way of binding up both the tables 
 of the law into one volume, of ministering both to God and 
 man, by this one mixed act of charity and piety, of mercy 
 [Mat. vi. and of sacrifice, and so, in the Wise Man's phrase, " to lay 
 ^^*-' up our riches in God's storehouse,'^ without a metaphor. But 
 if it please you not that anybody — though in the resolution 
 it be Christ Himself — should have the disposal of your alms, 
 as charity now-a-days is a pettish wearish^ thing, ready to 
 startle and pick a quarrel with any thing that comes to meddle 
 with it, then shall I not pursue this design any further. So 
 thou art really and sincerely affected to the setting out of the 
 third year's tithing, thou shaft have my leave to be thine own 
 almoner, have the choice of the particular way of disposing 
 and ordering it thyself. And yet three things there are 
 that I cannot choose but be so pragmatical as to interpose 
 in this business ; 1 . For the quando, when,'' this tithe should 
 be set out ; let it not be deferred till the will be a making, 
 till death forces it out of our hands, and makes it a non dat 
 sed projicit, only a casting over the lading, when the ship is 
 ready to sink, nor yet till our cofi'ers be ready to run over, 
 till a full, abundant provision be made for all that belong to 
 [Mat. XV. us, for that is to feed the poor like the dogs, only with the 
 ^^•^ orts^ of the children's table ; but as other tithes are paid just 
 
 ' [Aristot. Eth. Nic, lib, ii. c. 7.] malicious, evil, shrewish.] 
 " [Wearish; weak. Johnson. But ^[Orts; refuse, things thrown away. 
 Richardson more to the point here, Johnson.] 
 
THE POOll man's tithing. 
 
 249 
 
 as the increase comes in, presently after the whole field is SERM. 
 reaped, so must the poor man's tithing also ; set out, I say — 
 then, dedicated to that use, that we may have it by us at hand, 
 told out ready, when the owner calls for it. It was a thing 
 that Antoninus recounts as matter of special joy, and that which 
 he numbers amongst the felicities for which he was beholden 
 to the gods, that he was never asked of any that he thought fit 
 to give to, that he was answered by his almoner, ort, ovk eari 
 XPV/^ciTa 606V yivrjrai,^, "that there was not store at hand 
 to perform his will.'' A most joyous, comfortable thing, in that 
 heathen emperor's opinion, and yet that that will hardly be 
 attained to, unless we take some such course as this, men- 
 tioned in terminis by St. Paul, "Upon the first day of the lCor.xvi.2. 
 week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath 
 prospered him, that there be no gathering when I come;" 
 a weekly provision laid in, and ready in numerato for this 
 purpose, that you be never surprised on a sudden, and so dis- 
 abled to perform this duty. 2. For the quibuSj I would answer, 
 to all whom Christ hath made our neighbours and brethren, 
 and I know not that any are excluded from this title. But 
 you would then think I were set to solicit against the laws 
 of this realm, and plead the cause of the idle wandering beggar, 
 that most savage, barbarous, unchristian trade among us, set, 
 a man would think, in the streets by the devil, on purpose to 
 pose, and tire, and nonplus men's charity, to dishearten, and 
 weary them out of this Christian duty. No, we have a counter- 
 mand from the Apostle against these aTaKT7]aavTe9i " dis- 2 Thess. 
 orderly walkers," that if any " would not labour, neither ^'^^ 
 should he eat," the best alms for them, the seasonablest 
 provision, and charity to such, is the careful execution of 
 laws upon them, to set them every one single in an orb to 
 move in, by that means perhaps to teach them the skill in 
 time to be alms-givers themselves, at least to become fit to be 
 receivers ; for such, of all others, is the fixed, stationary, dili- 
 gent, labouring poor man, whose motion is like that of the 
 trembling sphere, not able to advance any considerable matter 
 in a whole age, be they never so restless, whose hands, with 
 
 * [tJ> ocraKis i^ovX-hQw iiriKovpriffal -xpiiiiara (iOeu yevrjrai. — Antoninus ad 
 Tiui TT^uoiiivco ^ eis SaAo ti xpV^^vtl Seipsum, lib. i. cap. 17.] 
 /urjSeTTOTe aKovcal fA.e, on ovk eVrt Ijloi 
 
250 
 
 THE POOR MAN^S TITHING. 
 
 S E R M. all their diligence, cannot give content to tlie mouth, or yield 
 
 any thing but stones many times to the poor child that calls 
 
 [Mat. vu. bread. All that I shall interpose for the quibus shall be 
 [Gal. vi. this, that seeing a ^'do good to all,^^ is now sent into the 
 ^^'^ world by Christ, and that but little restrained in any Chris- 
 tian kingdom, by an " especially to the household of saints," 
 — all Christians being such, — and seeing again, no man hath 
 hands or store to feed every mouth that gapes in a kingdom, 
 or particularly in this populous city, we may do well to take 
 that course that we use in composing other difficulties, refe- 
 ratur ad sortem, let the lot decide the main of the controversy, 
 and reserving somewhat for the public, somewhat for the 
 stranger, somewhat for common calamities, somewhat as it 
 were for the universal motion of the whole body, somewhat 
 for eccentrics; let the place whereon our lot hath cast us 
 be the principal orb for our charity to move in, the special 
 diocese for our visitation. And when that is done, and yet, 
 [Luke xiv. as it is in the parable, there be still room, store left for 
 ^^'■^ others also, then to enlarge as far as we can round about 
 us, as motion beginning at the centre diffuses itself uniformly, 
 sends out its influence and shakes every part to the circum- 
 ference; and happy that man who hath the longest arm, 
 whose charity can thus reach farthest. The third thing is 
 that my text obliges me to, the how much out of every man^s 
 revenues may go for the poor man's due, which brings me 
 to the second particular, the iroaov here mentioned in these 
 words, " tithing all the tithes of thy increase the third year.'' 
 That there was a iroaov defined by God to the J ews' charity, 
 a proportion for every man, not which they might not exceed, 
 — for there were other ways of vent for their charity men- 
 tioned, beside this, — but which no man was to go under, is 
 manifest by the text, and chap. xiv. of this bock; the propor- 
 tion, you see, a tithe, or tenth part of all the increase, not 
 yearly, but only every third year, to raise a bank, as it were, for 
 the maintenance of the poor, till that year came about again. 
 This if we would dissolve into a yearly rate, and so discern 
 the Jewish iroaov more perfectly, it is equivalent to a thir- 
 tieth part every year; the Jew whose yearly revenue amounted 
 to thirty shekels, was every third year to pay three of them 
 to the use of the poor, that is, in efi'ect, one for every year, 
 
THE POOR MAN^S TITHING. 
 
 251 
 
 the triennial tenth being all one with an annual thirtieth: SERM. 
 the account is clear,, and no man but hath arithmetic enough — 
 to conclude, that a thirtieth part is the third part of a 
 tenth, and so a tenth every third year is all one with a thir- 
 tieth every year. I shall insist on this no further than to 
 tell you that God's judgment in this aflPair is worth observing, 
 that alms-giving or mercifulness being a dictate of nature, 
 but that like other such laws, given only in general terms, 
 for the ort, but not so as to descend to particular cases. It 
 pleased God to His people the Jews, to express His judg- 
 ment at that time, in that state, for the iroaov, how much 
 was by law to be laid aside for use out of every one's 
 increase. 
 
 Now^ if I should press this practice of the Jews as matter 
 of obligation or prescription to Christians, that you are not 
 in conscience to do less than the Jews were bound to do, 
 every man to set apart a thirtieth of his yearly revenue or 
 increase, for the use of the poor brethren, I know not how 
 you would take it ; many would startle at the news of the 
 doctrine, many more when they came to the practice of it, 
 many quarrels you would have against it ; he that were mer- 
 ciful already would think his gift would become a debt, his 
 bounty duty, and so be wronged and robbed of the renown 
 of his charity by this doctrine ; and the covetous, that were 
 not inclined to giving at all, would complain that this were a 
 new kind of ghostly stealth, a way of robbing him out of the 
 pulpit, of burdening his conscience and lightening his bags, 
 and both join in the indictment of it for a Judaical, antiquated 
 doctrine, that hath nothing to do with Christians. And there- 
 fore to do no more than I shall justify from the principles of 
 the Gospel, I shall confess unto you that this precept, as it 
 was given to the Jews, is not obliging unto Christians, and 
 therefore I have not told you it was, but only gave you 
 to consider what God's judgment was for the nroaov to His 
 own people. Only by way of application to ourselves, give 
 me leave to add these four things, which I shall deliver in 
 as many propositions; 1. That mercifulness, or charity, or 
 giving alms, is no part of the ceremonial law, which is pro- 
 
 ^ [See this further enlarged on in the author's Practical Catechism, lib. 
 iii. sect. ].] 
 
25a 
 
 THE POOR mane's TITHING. 
 
 SERM. perly Judaism, but of the eternal law of reason and nature, 
 
 — 5£i part of the oath or Sacrament that is given us when the^a^ 
 
 homo is first pronounced to us, a ray of God^s mercifulness 
 infused into us with our human nature; in a word, that 
 mercifulness is all one with humanity, a precept of the na- 
 ture, the God, the soul we carry about with us. 2. That 
 being so, it comes within the compass of those laws, that 
 [Mat. V. Christ came ov KaTcCkvGaii aWa TrXrjpwaai,, not to destroy 
 but to fulfil," i. e., as the fathers before St. Augustine ^ gene- 
 rally interpreted it, to improve it, set it higher than it was 
 before, require more of Christians than ever was exacted of 
 the Jews or heathens by the law of Moses or of nature. 
 Thus Irenseus"^, mentioning Clirist^s improvement of the law, 
 pi'o eo quod est, Non mcechaberis, nec concupiscere prcBcepit, 
 " for. Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not look to 
 lust," he adds, jjro eo quod est decumare, omnia quae sunt pau- 
 peribus dividere, "instead of tithing" — this third year's tithing 
 — thou shalt divide all thou hast to the poor," give them 
 some plentiful part of it. And this, saith he, an act of 
 Christ, non solventis, sed adimplentis, extendentis, dilatantis 
 legem, "not loosing, but filling up, extending, dilating the 
 law." And St. Hierome% on 2 Cor. viii. 20, "avoiding this 
 that no man should blame us," explains it thus, " lest any 
 should say, how did Christ fill up or fulfil the Law," cum vi- 
 deamus Christianos non tantam eleemosynam facere quantam 
 fieri in lege prcBceptum est, " when we see Christians not give 
 so much alms as was by the law of Moses prescribed to be 
 given." 3. That there were among the Jews two sorts of 
 mercifulness, the first called literally righteousness, and by 
 the Septuagint, when it belongs to works of mercy, is ren- 
 dered sometimes hLKaioavvr], "righteousness," sometimes eXe?;- 
 puoavvT], " mercy," and this is that mercifulness that Moses' 
 law required of the Jews, and so was part of their righteous- 
 
 y [See note e in the Practical Gate- prgecepit, et pro eo quod est, Non occi- 
 
 chism, p. 110.] des, neque irasci quidem, et pro eo 
 
 [Et hoc autem quod praecepit, non quod est decimare, omnia quae sunt 
 
 solum vetitis a lege sed etiam a con- pauperihus dividere. S. Iren.] lib. iv. 
 
 cupiscentiis eorum abstinere, non con- cap. 27. [p. 313.] 
 
 trarium est, quemadmodum praedixi- * [Ne quis dicat, quomodo Christus 
 
 mus, neque solventis legem, sed] adim- legem implevit, &c. Comment. Pelagii 
 
 plentis et extendentis et dilatantis. ... (S. Hieron. ascript.) in Epist. ii. ad Cor. 
 
 Et propter hoc Dominus pro eo quod viii. 20. inter Op. S. Hieron., torn. ix. 
 
 est Non mcechaberis, nec concupiscere co]. 969.] 
 
THE POOH MAN^S TITHING. 
 
 253 
 
 ness, he was a breaker of the law that did neglect it, and so S E R M. 
 
 XII 
 
 opera justiticR in Lactantius^\ the works of righteousness/^ '. — 
 
 meaning works of charity, by that phrase. The second was 
 mercy, i. e., a higher degree of charity, rather benignity, 
 mercifulness, being full of good works, and this was more 
 than their law exacted, and was therefore styled goodness, 
 as that was more than righteousness. 4. That by force of 
 the second proposition, and by the tenure of evangelical per- 
 fection that Christ commended to His disciples, this highest 
 degree of mercifulness among the Jews is now the Christian's 
 task, and that to him that will be perfect, yet in a higher 
 degree, not only that degree which the law required of the 
 Jew, a little raised and improved by us, for that will be but 
 the Christian's righteousness, but even the benignity of the 
 Jews, " abundance of mercy,'' improved and enlarged by us 
 also. And from these premises if I may in the name of 
 God take boldness to infer my conclusion, it can be no 
 other than this ; that the proportion to be observed by the 
 Christian alms-giver, to speak at the least, must be more in 
 any reason than the thirtieth part of his revenue or increase ; 
 the thirtieth is but equivalent to the third year's tithing of 
 the Jews, which was their righteousness, that which they 
 were bound to do by the law; the Pharisee did as much, 
 and Christ tells us, "that except our righteousness," hiKaio- [Mat. v. 
 crvvT] v/jLMP, the very word that signifies the legal alms- ^^-^ 
 giving many times in the Bible, and who knows but it may 
 do so here — of this there is no doubt, but it belongs to charity, 
 or duty towards men in its latitude, of which alms-giving is 
 one most special part, and — " except our righteousness exceed 
 the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees we shall in 
 no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven," the text on which 
 that heavenly gospel-sermon was preached upon the mount. 
 If we have any design toward evangelical perfection, toward 
 the Christian pitch, the abundance of goodness and merci- 
 fulness, as that is improved by Christianity, then this third 
 year's tithing will prove but a beggarly, thin proportion, that 
 that a Jew, if he were a religious one, would have been a- 
 shamed of. But be our alms never so moderate, if a door- 
 keeper's place will serve our turn, to be one of the nethinim, 
 
 ^ [See above, p. 243, note e.] 
 
254 
 
 THE POOR man's TITHING. 
 
 s E R M. of the meanest rank in the kingdom of heaven, yet still we 
 — ^il^ — must exceed that proportion of the Jews' righteousness, their 
 third year's tithe, that they were bound to, or else we are 
 strangely mistaken in Christianity. I am unwilling to de- 
 scend to the arraigning, or indicting, or so much as ex- 
 amining any man here for the omissions of his former life 
 in this kind; my humble lowliest request is, that jou will 
 do it yourselves, and if either through ignorance you have 
 not reckoned of it as a duty, or through desire to thrive in 
 the world you have omitted to practise it heretofore, you 
 will now at last at this instance, take it into your conside- 
 ration, and remember that there is such a thing as charity 
 — a pale, wan, despised creature — commended to Christians 
 by Christ; not to suflPer it any longer to go for one of those 
 magicians' serpents, which faith, like Moses' rod, is ap- 
 pointed to devour; if it do, know that this rod is the verier 
 serpent of the two; and for the quickening that resolution 
 in you, I shall proceed unto the third particular, the ore Sel, 
 to consider it as a duty, and so to make an end of my first 
 general. 
 
 In this slothful but confident age of the world, it were 
 admirably worth one's pains to instruct men what duty is, 
 now under the gospel, what the very word signifies in a 
 Christian nomenclature. There are so many descants of 
 [Rom. vi. fantastical brains on that plain song of the Apostles, " We are 
 ^^'■^ not under law but under grace," that it is scarce agreed on 
 among Christians what it is to be a Christian, nothing more 
 unresolved than what it is that is now required under the 
 second covenant, as necessary to salvation. One thinks that 
 the believing all fundamentals is the ev avayKalov, the ^^only 
 qualification" for a Christian, and what hath duty to do with 
 that ? Another makes the gospel consist all of promises of 
 what shall be wrought in us and on us by Christ, and so 
 gives an absolute supersedeas for duty, as a legal out-dated 
 thing, that is utterly antiquated by grace. Another con- 
 tents himself with purposes and resolutions, thin, airy incli- 
 nations to duty, and is utterly indifferent for any perform- 
 ance, doubts not but to pass for a Christian, as regenerate as 
 Rom. vii. St. Paul, when he wrote to the Romans, though he never do 
 14, seq. ^j^g ^oodi that he resolves, live and die carnal and captived 
 
THE POOR man's TITHING. 
 
 255 
 
 and sold under sin. A fourth dissolves all to a new-found SERM. 
 
 faith. A full persuasion, an absolute assurance, that he is 511: 
 
 one of God's elect, is abundantly sufficient to estate himself 
 in that number, a piece of magic or conjuring, that will help 
 any man to heaven that will but fancy it, enrol their names 
 in the book of life, in those sacred eternal diptychs, by dream- 
 ing only that they are there already. Others there are that 
 seem kinder unto duty, are content to allow Christ some re- 
 turn of performances for all His sufferings, yet you see in the 
 gospel, it is in one but the patience of hearing Him preach, 
 a "Lord, Thou hast taught in our streets;" "we have heard so [Luke xiii. 
 many sermons'' passes for a sufficient pretension to heaven; ^^'^ 
 in another, the communicating at His table, " We have eat [Ibid.] 
 and drank in Thy presence," a sufficient viaticum for that long 
 journey, a charm or amulet against fear or danger; in a 
 third, the diligence of a bended knee, or solemn look of for- 
 mal, outside worship, must be taken in commutation for all 
 other duty, and all this while religion is brought up in the gen- 
 tleman's trade, ffood clothes and idleness, or of the lilies of the [Luke xii. 
 
 • • 27 1 
 
 field, vestiri, et non laborare, " to be clothed, and not labour;" 
 
 duty is too mechanical a thing, the shop or the plough, the 
 work of faith or labour of love, are things too vile, too sordid 
 for them to stoop to ; heaven will be had without such soli- 
 citors. Shall I instance in one particular more ? that Satan 
 may be sure that duty shall never rescue any prey out of his 
 hands, one thing you may observe, that most men never come 
 to treat with it, to look after, to consider any such thing, till 
 indeed the "time comes that no man worketh," till the "tokens 
 be out upon them," till the " cry comes, that the bridegroom 
 is ready to enter," that "judgment is at the door," and then 
 there is such a running about for oil, as if it were for ex- 
 treme unction, and that a sacrament to confer all grace ex 
 opere operato on him that hath scarce life enough to discern 
 that he received it ; the soul sleeps in its tenement as long 
 as its lease lasteth, and when it is expired, then it rouseth, 
 and makes as if it would get to work ; the Christian thinks 
 not of action, of duty, of good works, of any thing whilst life 
 and health lasteth, but then the summons of death wakes him, 
 and the prayers which he can repeat while his clothes are 
 putting off shall charm him, like opium, for a quiet sleep. 
 
256 
 
 THE POOR man's TITHING. 
 
 SERM. Thus doth a death-bed repentance^ a death-bed charity, a 
 — — parting with sins and wealth, when we can hold them no 
 longer, look as big in the calendars of saints, stand as 
 [Matxxiii. Solemnly and demurely in our diptychs as judgment and 
 ^^'^ mercy and faith, that have " borne the heat and burden of the 
 day our hearts are hardened, while it is to-day, against all 
 the invasion of law or gospel, judgments or mercies, threats 
 or promises, all Christ's methods and stratagems of grace, 
 and just at the close of the evening, the shutting in of 
 night, we give out that the thunderbolt hath converted us, 
 the fever came with its fier}^ chariot, and hurried us up 
 to heaven; surdus et mutus testamentum facit, quite against 
 Justinian's rule^; he that hath sent out most of his senses 
 before him, and retains but the last glimmering of life, is 
 allowed to make his will and reverse all former acts by that 
 one final. Satan hath all the man hath to give, under hand and 
 seal, all his life- time, the spring especially and verdure of his 
 [Jer.xxxii. age, the "children pass through the fire to Moloch," and just 
 ^^'^ as he is a dropping out of the world, he makes signs of can- 
 celling that will, and by a dumb act of revocation bequeaths 
 his soul to God, and his executor must see it paid among 
 other legacies; and all this passes for legal in the court, 
 and none of the canons against the ancient clinici can be 
 heard against them; the greatest wound to dut}^, that ever 
 yet it met with among Christians. Thus do our vain fancies 
 and vainer hopes join to supplant duty and good works, and 
 dismiss them out of the Church ; and if all or any of this be 
 orthodox divinity, then sure the duty of alms-giving will prove 
 a suspected phrase, hceretici characteris, of an heretical stamp, 
 and then I am fallen on a thankless argument, which yet I 
 must not retract or repent of, but in the name of God and 
 [Actsxxiv. St. Paul, "in this way that these men call heresy," beseech 
 and conjure you to " worship the God of your fathers." For 
 this purpose shall I make my address to you in Daniel's words, 
 Daii.iv.27. " Break olBP your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by 
 shewing mercy to the poor," righteousness and mercy, the 
 two degrees of alms-giving that I told you of; I hope that 
 will not be suspected, when he speaks it. Shall I tell you 
 what duty is, what is now required of a Christian, and that 
 
 c [Digest., lib. 28. tit. i. leg. 6; ap. Corp. Jur. Civ.] 
 
THE POOR MAN^S TITHING. 
 
 257 
 
 in the prophet Micah's phrase, And now what doth the Lord S E R M. 
 
 thy God require of thee, but to do justice, and to love mercy, — ^ 
 
 and to walk humbly with thy God,'' justice and mercy, the 
 two degrees of alms-giving again that I told you of, and I 
 hope it will not prove offensive when he speaks it. Shall I 
 tell you of a new religion, and yet that a pure one, and the 
 same an old religion, and yet that an undefiled, — for so the 
 beloved disciple calls this duty of charity, a '^new command- 1 Jolm ii. 
 ment,'' and an " old commandment/' — it shall be in St. James ^'^ 
 his words, " Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Jas. i. 27. 
 Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widow in their 
 affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." 
 Shall I tell you in one word, that though heaven be given us 
 freely, yet alms-giving is the consideration mentioned in the 
 conveyance, that men are acknowledged the blessed of God, 
 and called to heaven, upon the performance of this duty ; that 
 although it pretend not to any merit, either eoe congruo or 
 condigno, yet it is a duty most acceptable in the sight of God, 
 that alms-giving is mentioned when assurance is left out, 
 charity crowned when confidence is rejected? I love not to 
 be either magisterial or quarrelsome, but to speak the " words 
 of truth and sobriety," to learn, and if it be possible to " have 
 peace with all men only give me leave to read you a few 
 words that St. Matthew transcribed from the mouth of Christ, 
 "Then shall the King say to them on His right hand" — who Mat. xxv. 
 should the King be but Christ Himself? — " Come, ye blessed 
 of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the 
 foundation of the world. For I was an hungred and ye gave 
 Me meat." Tell me in the name of truth and peace, who 
 now were they for whom the kingdom was prepared from the 
 foundation of the world; who were there the objects of that 
 great doomsday election, His Venite benedicti? If Christ do 
 not tell you neither do I, the text is of age, let it speak for 
 itself ; " For I was an hungred and ye gave Me meat." If all 
 this will justify the doctrine and make this text Christian, 
 persuade your judgments that charity may be the queen of 
 heaven — maxima autem harum- caritas, "the greatest of these [i Cor.xiii. 
 is charity" — without affront or injury done to any other grace. "^^"^ 
 I hope it will be seasonable for your practice also, as it hath 
 
 HAMMOND. «} 
 
258 
 
 THE POOR man's TITHING. 
 
 s xn^' ^'^^^ meditation, become your hands as well as it 
 — doth now your ears. 
 
 And to infuse some life, some alacriousness into you for 
 that purpose, I shall descend to the more sensitive, quicken- 
 ing, enlivening part of this text, the benefit arising from the 
 performance of this duty, dicas coram Domino, "then thou 
 shalt" or mayest " say before the Lord thy God/' And in that 
 I promised you two things; 1. to shew you in thesi, that 
 confidence or claiming any thing at God's hands, must take 
 its rise from duty in performance ; 2. in hypothesis to give 
 you the connection betwixt this confidence and this perform- 
 ance, claiming of temporal plenty upon giving of alms. 
 
 1. Li thesi; that confidence or claiming any thing at 
 God's hands must take its rise from duty in performance. 
 
 If there be any doubt of the truth of this, I shall give you 
 but one ground of proof, which I think will be demonstrative, 
 and it is that that will easily be understood, I am sure, I hope 
 as easily consented to ; that all the promises of God, even of 
 Christ in the gospel, are conditional promises, not personal, 
 for the law descends not to particular persons, — and in this 
 [Rom. iii. the gospel is a law too, vo^jlos iricrTews, " the law of faith," — 
 ^^'■^ nor absolute, as that signifies irrespective or exclusive of 
 qualifications or demeanour, for that is all one with personal, 
 and if either of those were true, then would Christ be what 
 [Acts X, He renounces, a irpoawiroXrjiTTTjSy " an accepter" of persons 
 ^"^■-^ and individual entities, and so the mercies of heaven belong 
 to Saul the persecutor as truly as Paul the Apostle, Saul the 
 injurious as Paul the abundant labourer, Saul the blasphemer 
 as Paul the martyr. It remains then that they be conditional 
 promises, and so they are explicitly, for the most part, the 
 2Cor.vi.i7. condition named and specified, " Come out and be you sepa- 
 rate, and touch not the unholy thing;" a condition you see 
 set foremost in the indenture, and then, " I will receive you," 
 and therefore most logically infers the Apostle in the next 
 word, the beginning of chap, vii., " Having therefore these 
 promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the 
 flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." Had 
 the promises been of any other sort but the eTrayyeXlas rau- 
 ras, these i. e. conditional promises, the Apostle's illation 
 of so much duty, cleansing and perfecting, had been utterly 
 
THE POOR man's TITHING. 
 
 259 
 
 unconclusive, if not impertinent. So Rom. viii. 28, ''All SE^RM. 
 
 things work together for good to whom ? " to them that ' — 
 
 love God/' Kara irpoOeatv KKrjTols ovai, to them that are 
 called according to purpose f the word " called" a noun in 
 that place, not a participle, noting a real, not only intentional 
 passion, those that are wrought upon by God's call, and are 
 now in the catalogue of the ayaircovTes tov ©eov, "the lovers 
 of God/' and that is the condition in the subject ; and then 
 to them that are thus qualified belongs that chain of mercies, 
 predestination, vocation to a conformity with Christ, justifica- 
 tion, glorification, immediately ensuing. You see the proof 
 of my ground by a taste or two. Now what condition this 
 is that is thus prefixed to gospel promises, that is not obscure 
 neither. Not absolute, exact, never sinning, perfect obedience, 
 that was the condition of the first covenant made in paradise, 
 when there was ability to perform it, but a condition propor- 
 tioned to our state, sincerity in lieu of perfection, repentance 
 in exchange for innocence, evangelical instead of legal righte- 
 ousness, believing in the heart, i. e., cordial obedience to the 
 whole law of Christ, impartial without hypocrisy or indul- [Jas. iii. 
 gence in any known sin, persevering and constant without ^^'-^ 
 apostacy or final defection, and at last humble without boast- 
 ing. If you will come yet nearer to a full sight of it, some - 
 times regeneration or new life is said to be the condition, 
 " Except you be born again you can in no wise enter." [john iii. 
 " Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, but a new crea- ^^^-^ 
 ture." Sometimes "holiness, without which 7iemo Deum, no le.] 
 man shall see the Lord :" sometimes repentance in gross, " nay, [Heb. xii. 
 but except you repent /' sometimes in the retail, repentance ^^^^^^ ^^jjj 
 divided into its parts, " he that confesseth and forsaketh shall 3, 5.] 
 have mercy/' sometimes repentance alone, "but now com- C^^p.Y- 
 
 in T < • n T XXVlll. leJ.J 
 
 mands all men every where to repent,' as if all duty were j-^^ts xvii. 
 contained in that; sometimes in conjunction with faith, 30] 
 "repent you and believe the gospel sometimes faith, some- [Mark i. 
 times love, sometimes self-denial, sometimes mercifulness, ^^-^ 
 sometimes hope, but that an iXTriSa raurrjv, a "this hope" Sf^xiiT* 
 that sets us a purifying; every one of these, when you meet 
 them single, goes for the only necessary, the adequate con- Lukex.37; 
 dition of the gospel, to teach you to take them up all as f^^- 
 you find them, leave never an one neglected or despised, [i joim iii. 
 
 s2 2.] 
 
260 
 
 THE POOR man's TITHINC4. 
 
 s K R M. lest that be the betraying of all the rest, but make up one 
 
 '■ — jewel of these so many lesser gems, one body of these so 
 
 many limbs, one recipe compounded of so many ingredients, 
 which you may superscribe ira/uLcjiap/jLa/cov, catholicon, or the 
 whole duty of man. From this general proposition, without 
 the aid of any assumption, we may conclude demonstratively 
 enough, promises of the gospel are conditional promises, there- 
 fore all confidence must take rise from duty. Duty is the per- 
 formance of that condition, and to be confident without that 
 is to conclude without premises, and consequently to claim 
 justification or pardon of sins, before sanctification be begun 
 in the heart, to challenge right to heaven before repentance 
 be rooted on earth, to make faith the first grace and yet de- 
 fine that assurance of salvation, to apply the merits of Christ 
 to ourselves the first thing we do, and reckon of charity, good 
 works, duty, as fruits and efi*ects, to be produced at leisure 
 when that faith comes to virility and strength of fructifying. 
 What is all or any of this but to charge God of perjury, to 
 tell Him that impenitents have right to heaven, which He 
 swears have not, or to forge a new lease of heaven, and put 
 it upon Christ ? the calmest style I can speak in is, that it is 
 the believing of a lie, and so not faith but folly, an easy cheat- 
 ableness of heart, and not confidence, but presumption. Hope 
 a man may, without actual performance of duty, because he 
 may amend hereafter, though he do not now, and so that 
 possibility and that futurity may be ground of hope ; but then 
 this hope must set us presently upon performance, He that 
 hath this hope purifies himself," or else it is not that grace 
 of hope, but an avddSeia a "youthful daringness" of soul, a 
 tumor, a disease, a tympany of hope, and if it swell further 
 than it purge, if it put on confidence before holiness, this hope 
 may be interpreted desperation, a hope that maketh ashamed, 
 an utter destitution of that hope which must bestead a Chris- 
 tian. O let us be sure then, our confidence, our claims to 
 heaven, improve not above their proportion, that we preserve 
 this symmetry of the parts of grace ; that our hope be but 
 commensurate to our sincerity, our daringness to our dutj^ 
 A double confidence there is pro statu, and absolute ; pro statu 
 when upon survey of my present constitution of soul I claim 
 right in Christ's promises for the present, and doubt not but 
 
THE POOR man's TITHING. 
 
 261 
 
 I shall be blessed if I be found so doing: absolute, when at SERM. 
 the end of life and shutting in of the day, I am able to make — — '- — ■ 
 up my reckonings with St. Paul, " I have fought a good fight, [2 Tim. iv. 
 I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, henceforth ^' ^*-' 
 there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,^^ a crown of 
 felicity. I have done what I had to do, and now 'Xolitov airo- 
 KeiTai, there is nothing behind but to receive my pay. 
 
 I have been too long upon the general consideration of 
 the connection between confidence and duty ; if it were an 
 extravagance, I hope it was a pardonable one; I descend 
 with speed to the hypothesis, the connection betwixt this con- 
 fidence and this performance, claiming of temporal plenty 
 upon giving of alms, my last particular. And that I shall 
 give you clearly in this one proposition ; that alms-giving or 
 mercifulness was never the wasting or lessening of any man's 
 estate to himself or his posterity, but rather the increasing 
 of it. If I have delivered a new doctrine that will not pre- 
 sently be believed, an unusquisgue non potest capere, such as [Mat. xix. 
 every auditor will not consent to, I doubt not but there be ^^'^ 
 plain texts of Scripture, more than one, which will assure 
 any Christian of the truth of it. Consider them at your lei- 
 sure. Psalm xli. 1, 2 ; Psalm cxii., all to this purpose, Prov. 
 xi. 25, and xii. 9, and xix. 17, and xxviii. 27. Add to these 
 the words of Christ, Mark x. 30, which though more gene- 
 rally delivered of any kind of parting with possessions for 
 Christ's sake, are applied by St. Hierome^ to the words of 
 Solomon, " There is that scattereth and yet increaseth,'' quia Prov.xi.24. 
 centuplum accipient in hoc tempore ^ "because," saith he, "they 
 receive an hundred-fold in this world.'' And that no man 
 may have any scruple to interpose, it is set in as large and 
 comprehensive a style as the art, or covetous, scrupulous wit 
 of man could contrive for his own security ; " there is no 
 man who shall not. . ." 
 
 All which being put together must, to my understanding, 
 make it as clear to any that acknowledges these for Scrip- 
 ture, as if the "pip ni " daughter of voice" were come back 
 into the world again, and God should call to a man out of 
 heaven by name, bid him relieve that poor man, and he 
 
 d [Comment, in Prov. S. Hieron. ascript. lib. ii, ad loc. Op., tom. v. col, 
 547, ed. Beu.J 
 
262 
 
 THE POOR man's TITHING. 
 
 SERM. should never be the poorer for it» It is not now to be ex- 
 
 — pected of me in conscience, having produced this kind of 
 
 proof, the express texts of Scripture, to add any second to 
 it j I might else further evidence it from examples, not such 
 as Moschus's ^ Xeifjuoavapiov will furnish you with, for I know 
 not of what authority they are ; nor yet from St. Hierome's 
 observation, who is said to have turned over histories on pur- 
 pose, and never found any merciful man which met not with 
 some signal blessing in this world as the reward of that 
 virtue; but even by appealing to yourselves, and challeng- 
 ing any man here present to bring but one instance of a 
 prudent alms-giver, that hath yearly or weekly consecrated 
 some considerable part of his revenue or increase to that use, 
 and can say that he ever found any real miss of that, any 
 more than of the blood let out in a pleurisy ; nay, if he have 
 done it constantly and sincerely from the one true principle, 
 compliance with the command and example of God, let him 
 speak his conscience, if he do not think that all the rest 
 hath thrived better than that, as phlebotomy hath saved 
 many men's lives, letting out some ounces of blood been the 
 securing of the whole mass, that it hath a secret blessing in- 
 fluence, a vital auspicious infection upon the remainder, by 
 this art of consecrating our estates, entitling God to the 
 fence and safeguard of them, as of His temples and altars, 
 that thieves, and oppressors, and devils conceive a reverence 
 due to them, and a kind of sacrilege to approach or purloin 
 from them, as they that put the crown into their entail do 
 thereby secure it to the right heir, that it can never be cut 
 [1 Kings off. The poor widow of Sarepta, what a strange trial she 
 made of this truth ! when the last of her store was fetched 
 out to make the funeral feast for herself and family, that 
 they might eat and die, that very last cake, that all that was 
 left, she gives to Elijah in his distress, and this is so far from 
 ruining her, that it brought a blessing on her barrel and her 
 cruse, that she and all hers were not able to exhaust; I 
 might add the poor widow in the Gospel, that, if we may 
 [Mark xii. believe Christ, cast in all that she had into the corban, even 
 her whole substance ;" the Christians that " sold all and laid 
 
 e [Joan. Moschi Ebirati Pratum Spirituale ap. Bibl. Patr. Giaec, torn. ii. 
 p. 1055, &c. Par. 1624.] 
 
THE POOE man's TITHING. 
 
 263 
 
 it at the Apostles' feet/' and yet we never read of any of s E R M. 
 these that brought himself to distress by this means. But — ^^li — 
 
 these are ex abundanti, more than is required for the vouch- 
 ing of my present proposition, and of a higher strain than 
 what I design for your imitation. 
 
 It is time that I begin to retire, and wind up with some 
 application which you cannot imagine should be any other, 
 after all this preparation, but a ''go and do thou likewise.'' [Lukex. 
 And if you can but believe this one thing, that I have '^^'^ 
 brought many witnesses from heaven to testify that your 
 goodness shall not impair your plenty, that your store shall 
 never be lessened by so giving, I doubt not but you will be 
 as forward to go as any man to have you. The only hold- 
 back is the affection and passionate love that we bear to our 
 wealth, that lust or sensuality of the eye, as the Apostle [i John ii. 
 calls it. It is ordinarily observed of young men and disso- ^^'^ 
 lute, that they have many times a great aptness and inge- 
 niousness, and withal patience, to any speculative knowledge, 
 the mathematics^ or any such the abstrusest studies, but for 
 moral precepts, rules of good life, they will not be digested ; 
 and, my brethren, give me leave to tell you in the spirit of 
 meekness, that the like in another respect is observed of this 
 auditory, any thing wherein their wealth is not concerned is 
 most readily entertained, none more attentive ingenious 
 auditors; but when their profit is entrenched on, their be- 
 loved golden idol, of which I may say with Moses, " Oh, this [Exod. 
 people have committed a great sin, made them gods of gold," 
 when this, I say, begins to be in danger, as the silver shrines 
 at St. Paul's preaching, then, as it follows in that place, the Acts xix. 
 whole city is filled with confusion: like that young man in ^^'^'^'^ 
 the Gospel that would do any thing that Christ would re- 
 quire. Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" [Markx. 
 
 • • 1 7 1 
 
 So far as that Jesus loved him, when He beheld him; yet 
 
 when Christ proceeds to the ev aol varepec, " one thing is [ver. 21.] 
 
 wanting to thee, go sell, give to the poor;" then follows the 
 
 (TTvjvda-as and Xvirov/bLevos, " he went away sad and sorrow- [ver. 22.] 
 
 ful," sighing and groaning, as if he had been to part with 
 
 blood and bowels; and this is the ground of Christ's most 
 
 considerable observation, ttcoj Sva/co\op, " how hard," and [ver. 24, 
 
 27 
 
 f [Arist. Eth. Nic, lib. vi. c. 8.J 
 
264 
 
 THE POOR MAN^S TITHING. 
 
 s E RM. TTMs aSvvarov, " how impossible, is it for a rich man to enter 
 
 XII • • 
 '■ — mto the kingdom of heaven," for a worldly-minded man to 
 
 be a Christian. Could you but reduce into order this one 
 mighty exorbitant humour, purge out this %o\?) rrjs TriKpias, 
 [Actsviii. as St. Peter calls it, this "overflowing of the gall," this 
 ^^'"^ choler and bitterness, that lies caked upon the soul, that 
 (TvpSea-jjios ahiKiaSj as he goes on in the aggravating of covet- 
 ousness, we english it " band of iniquity," but it signifies a 
 complication of wickedness bound up all in one volume, min- 
 gled into one hypostasis j this legion of earthly devils that come 
 out of the tombs to enter into thee, and there continue 
 crying and cutting thee with stones ; I should then proceed 
 with some heart and spirit, and tell you that, that every man 
 knows but such demoniacs, that alms-giving is in itself a 
 thing that any man living, if he have but the relics of unre- 
 generate nature, and the notion of a deity about him, would 
 take pleasure in it were he but satisfied of this one scruple, 
 [Acts XX. that it would not hinder his thriving in the world. "It is 
 more blessed to give than to receive," is the apophthegm of 
 St. Paul quoted from Christ, though it be not rehearsed 
 in the Gospel; and Clemens^ hath turned it into a maxim, 
 jjuerdhoa-is ixaKapiov, ov KTrjais Beifcvvai,, " it is giving, 
 not possessing, that signifies a man to be happy," and 
 this happiness the highest and most divine sort of hap- 
 piness, " it is a blessed thing to give." And of the same 
 inclination in the worst of you I will no more doubt than I 
 do of your being men, of your having human souls about 
 you, could you be but fortified against this one terror, were 
 but this one trembling spirit exorcised and cast out, this 
 apprehension of impairing your estates by that means. Now 
 of this an ordinary Jew makes so little doubt, merely upon 
 authority of the places of the Old Testament which I cited, 
 that he may read thee a lecture of faith in this particular. 
 Paulus Fagius^' assures me of the modern Jews, who have 
 not been observed to be over liberal, that they still observe 
 the payment of the poor man^s tithe, merely out of design to 
 enrich themselves by that means, and tells us of a proverb of 
 Rabbi Akiba', imvh ^'^0 ni"i5^yDj "tithes are the hedges to our 
 
 ^ [See note p. 39.] Patrum in Lat. ver., et scholiisque il- 
 
 [Fagius in Deut. xiv. 23, apud lustrat. per Paulum Fagium, c. 3. p. 
 
 Crit. Sacr. p. 94. (torn, ii.)] 56. Isua?. 1541. J 
 i Perk Avot. [r\)2H ^pia Capitula 
 
THE POOR man's TITHING. 
 
 265 
 
 riches," and on the contrary, that'' there be seven kinds of serm. 
 judgments that come upon the world for seven prevarications, Xli. 
 and the first is famine upon not tithing; and the second again, 
 another kind of famine upon another not tithing, and that 
 second plainly belongs to the poor man's tithing, when, as it 
 follows 1, "some are full and others are famished;" and the 
 third is a plague upon " not obeying the law concerning the 
 fruits of the Sabbatical year," which you know were to be 
 left to the poor. And again, that there are four seasons 
 wherein the plague was wont to rage especially, in the fourth 
 3^ear upon the non-payment of the poor man's tithe the third 
 year, or the seventh upon the like default in the sixth, in the 
 end of the seventh upon default concerning the seventh year's 
 fruits that were to be free and common, and the last yearly, 
 in the close of the feast of tabernacles, upon the " robbing of 
 the poor of those gifts that at that time were left unto them," 
 the gleanings of the harvest and vintage™, the corners of the 
 field, the fallings, &c. Add to this one place more of Kabbi 
 Bechai"; "Though," saith he, "it be unlawful to prove or tempt 
 the Lord, for a man must not say 'I will perform such a j^^^ jq. 
 commandment to the end I may prosper in riches,' yet there Piov. iii. 
 is an exception for payment of tithes and works of mercy," in- ^^'^ 
 timating that on the performance of this duty we may expect 
 even miracles to make us rich, and set to that performance 
 on contemplation and confidence of that promise. And it is 
 strange that we Christians should find more difficulty in be- 
 lieving this than the griping reprobated Jews ; strange, that 
 all those books of Scripture should be grown apocryphal just 
 since the minute that I cited those testimonies out of them. 
 This I am resolved on, it is want of belief and nothing else 
 that keeps men from the practice of this duty, whatsoever it is 
 in other sins we may believe aright and yet do contrary, — our 
 understanding hath not such a controlling power over the will 
 as some imagine, — yet in this particular this cannot be pre- 
 tended ; could this one mountain be removed, the lessening 
 of our wealth that alms-giving is accused of, could this one 
 scandal to flesh and blood be kicked out of the way, there is 
 no other devil would take the unmerciful man's part, no other 
 
 " Ibid, c. 5. [p. 104.] 
 ' Ibid., p. 105. 
 
 °' Ibid., p. 109, 110. 
 ° In Deuter. xxvi. 
 
266 
 
 THE POOR man's TITHING. 
 
 temptation molest the alms-giver. And how unjust a thing 
 this is, how quite contrary to the practice at all other sermons, 
 I appeal to yourselves. At other times the doctrine raised 
 from any Scripture is easily digested, but all the demur is 
 about the practical inference ; but here when all is done, the 
 truth of the doctrine still, " that we shall not be the poorer 
 for alms-giving," is that that can never go down with us, lies 
 still crude unconcocted in our stomachs ; a strange preposses- 
 sion of worldly hearts, a petitio principii that no artist would 
 endure for us. I must not be so unchristian, whatsoever you 
 mean to be, as to think there is need of any further demon- 
 stration of it, after so many plain places of Scripture have been 
 produced ; let me only tell you that you have no more evi- 
 dence for the truth of Christ's coming into the world, for all 
 the fundamentals of your faith, on which you are content 
 your salvation should depend, than such as I have given you 
 for your security in this point. Do not now make a mockery 
 at this doctrine, and either with the Jew in Cedrenus", or the 
 Christian in Palladius, throw away all you have at one largess 
 to see whether God will gather it up for you again, but set 
 soberly and solemnly about the duty, in the fear of God and 
 compliance with His will, and in bowels of compassion to thy 
 
 " [cttI tovtov 5e ai/OpcoirSs tis iyv(x>- 
 pt^6T0 eV TCf) "laparjK, ttXovctios Ka\ dve- 
 X^7]ix(>3V, i\dwu TrpSs riva toov SiSa- 
 aKaKwv Ka\ avaivTv^as r)]v ao(plau 2oAo- 
 fxSivTos, €vpey €u9vs' 6 iXecou irTWXOi', 
 Sauei^et ©e^J* koI els kavrhv yeuSfi^uos, 
 Kal Karauvy^ls, dTreXOuiv TreVpa/ce iravra, 
 Kai Si^veifxc TTTwxors, firiBeu eavT^ Kara- 
 \eL\pas itXt)v uoixicrfidTuv Suo* Koi tttco- 
 Xeytras Tra.vv, kou virh ixrjSephs e'/c delas 
 SoKifxaaias iXeov/nevus, varepov iu kavr^ 
 Ae^ei /j.iKpo\pv)('f]0'as' direXevaoiJ.ai iu 
 'lepovaaX^fj. kol ZiaKpivovjxai rca 0665 
 ixov '6ti inkdi/rjae SLaaKopTricraL rd 
 virdpxovTd fiov' Tropevo/uLevov 5e avrov, 
 6i5ei/ dvSpas 5vo jtxaxo/J.euovs -rrphs dAArj- 
 Xovs €up6pTas KiQov TijxioV Kal (prjal 
 Trphs avTOvs, "va t\, dSekcpoi, [xdx^crQe ; 
 Sore fxoL avrov, Ka\ AajSere v o/xi a /xar a 
 Suo' Twv Se fxeTa xapas rovrou irapa- 
 Gx^vTwv, ov yap r]deaau tov kIOov rh 
 VTrepTi/XLOu, dirriKO^v els 'lepovaahTj/j., rhv 
 KiQov iirKpepoixevos' Kol deltas avrhv 
 Xpvaox^V T^oLpaxprtiJia rhv XiOov iKilvos 
 iScof', dvacnds ivposeKvvr\(T€' Ka\ eKdafxl3os 
 yev6[xevos envvOdueTo irov rhv -koXvtl- 
 fjiov, Keycov, KOL Qelov X'lQov tovtov evpes ; 
 
 iBov yap eTTj rpia crrjinepov 'lepovaaXyjiJ, 
 dovilrai Kal dKaraaTanl did rhv irepi- 
 P6r]T0v K'lQov tovtov' -koI direXQciov, Shs 
 avThv Tu> apx^^pei Kal (TipoBpa TrXovrr}- 
 (Tets" TOV 5e direpxofji.€vov, dyy ekos Kvpiov 
 6?7r6 TTphs Thv dpx^epea' vvv iXeuacTat 
 dvOpcoiros TrpSs ere rhv diroXeadevra 
 TToXvdpvKK'qTov X'lQov 4k ttJs BiirXdiBos 
 'Aapwv TOV dpxi^pecDS ex^^' Xa^wv 
 avThv, Bhs tQi iveyKavri avrhv, xpvC'-ov 
 TToXv Kal dpyvpiov dfxa. 5e Kal pairia'as 
 fieTpicos, eiVe'" fir) diaTa^e iv rrj KapBla 
 aov, fiTjde dirlarei ru} Sid Trjs ypacfy^s 
 XeyovTL' 6 iXeci)v tttcox^v, Savel^ei ©et^* 
 Idov yap iv to} vvv alcovi i^eirXiipcacrd 
 aoi TToXXairXaaLova virep a>v iddveiads 
 fxoi' Kal el TTKTTeveis X7]fp7) koI iv t^ 
 fieXXovTi irXovTOV dvvirep^XrjToV Kal 6 
 fiev dpxi^pevs rd SLaT€Tayfi4va iravra 
 ireiroirjKe irphs rhv duOpcoirov Kal XeXd- 
 Xr]K€v' 6 5e aKOvTas Kal evrpofios yev6- 
 fievos, TrdvTa idaas iv t^ vaw i^rjXOev, 
 evxapiaruv, Kal TriaTevwv Kvpiw, Kal 
 TvdvTa rd iv tt} deia ypacprj Sirjyopevfifva. 
 — Cedreni Hist. Compend,, torn. i. p. 
 109.] 
 
THE POOR man's TITHING. 
 
 267 
 
 poor brethren that stand in need of thv comfort, those emeralds s E R M. 
 
 " IT T T 
 
 and jacinths that MacariusP persuaded the rich virgin to lay '- — 
 
 out her wealth upon ; and this out of no other insidious or 
 vain-glorious, but the one pure Christian fore-mentioned de- 
 sign, and put it to the venture, if God ever suffer thee to 
 want what thou hast thus bestowed. Dorotheus^ hath ex- 
 cellently stated this, BiSaaKaX. tS. There are,'' saith he, 
 "that give alms," Sea to ev\oy7]6rjvac to x^piov, "that their 
 farms may prosper," koX 6 Qeos evkoyeX to 'x^plov, " and God 
 blesseth and prospers their farms ; there be that do it for the 
 good success of their voyage, and God prospers their voyage ; 
 some for their children, and God preserves their children ; yea, 
 and some to get praise, and God affords them that, and frus- 
 trates none in the merchandise he designed to traffic for, but 
 gives every one that which he aimed at in his liberality." 
 But then "all these traffickers must not be so unconscion- 
 able as to look for any arrear of further reward ; when they 
 are thus paid at present, they must remember ovhev iav- 
 T0I9 Trapa tm Qew, they have no depositum behind laid up 
 with God for them ;" and therefore it is necessary for a 
 Christian to propose to himself more ingenious designs, to 
 do what he doth in obedience to, and out of a pure love of 
 God, and then there is more than all these, even " a king- Mat. xxv. 
 dom prepared for him." ^^^'-^ 
 
 I must draw to a conclusion, and I cannot do it more season- 
 ably, more to recapitulate and enforce all that hath been said, 
 than in the words of Malachi, "Bring you all the tithes into Mai. iii.io. 
 the storehouse," — no doubt but this comprehends the duty 
 in the text, the compleveris anno tertio, the poor man's tith- 
 ing, — "that there may be meat in My house, and prove Me 
 now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you 
 the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there 
 shall not be room enough to receive it." If this will not open 
 the miser's hand, unshrivel the worldling's heart, I cannot 
 
 P Palladii Historia Lausiaca, cap. 5. 0ebs a(a^€i koX (puAdrrei to, reKua avrov' 
 
 [Bibl. Patr. Grsec, torn. ii. p. 907. ^AAos Trote? Sia rh So^aaOTivai, Koi 6 
 
 Par. 1624?.] @ehs 5o|a^e: avrhu, Kol ovk aOere^ 6 0ebs 
 
 <l [efTTt yap t\s iroicav i\er}iJLO(rvvr)v, nua. aWah 64\eL€KaaTos irap€)(€i avrtp , 
 
 Sia rh cuAoyridrivai rh x^^pi^of avrov, Kal . . . dAA' ovtol 'irdvT€S aivexovai rhv jxi- 
 
 6 0e^y evXoye? rh xwpi'oi' avrov' aWos adhv avroov, ovdlv yap aiv^Qivro kavTo7s 
 
 TToie? i\er)fxo(Tvf7}u, Sia rh -nXdiov avrov irapd r(f @ecp. B. Dorothei Abb. Doc- 
 
 Ka\ 6 &ehs aw^^i rh irXdlov avrov' trill, xiv., ibid., torn. i. p. 837.] 
 dWos TTOte? 5ia ra r^Ki'a avrov, Koi 6 
 
268 
 
 THE POOR man's TITHING. 
 
 ^ x?i^* ^^^^^^ engine cunning or strong enough to do it. Thou 
 
 ~ that hast tired and harassed out thy spirits in an improsper- 
 
 ous successless pursuit of riches, digged and drudged in the 
 mines, thy soul as well as thou, and all the production of thy 
 patience and industry crumbled and mouldered away betwixt 
 thy fingers; thou that wouldest fain be rich, and canst not get 
 Plutus to be so kind to thee, art willing to give Satan his own 
 [Mat. iv. asking, thy prosfraveris for his totum hoc, to go down to hell 
 ^'-^ for that merchandise, and yet art not able to compass it, let 
 
 me direct thee to a more probable course of obtaining thy 
 designs, to a more thriving trade, a more successful voyage ; 
 not all the devotions thou daily numberest to the devil or good 
 fortune, not all the inventions, and engines, and stratagems 
 of covetousness managed by the most practised worldling, can 
 ever tend so much to the securing thee of abundance in this 
 life, as this one compleveris of the text, the payment of the 
 poor man's tithing. And then suffer thyself for once to be 
 disabused, give over the worldling's way, with a hac non siic- 
 cessit, reform this error of good husbandry, this mistake of 
 frugality, this heresy of the worldling, and come to this new 
 insurer's office, erected by God Himself, " prove and try if 
 God do not open thee the windows of heaven." Shall I add 
 for the conclusion of all, the mention of that poor, uncon- 
 sidered merchandise, the treasures of heaven, after all this 
 wealth is at an end,''the riches of the celestial paradise, which 
 like that other of Eden is the posing of geographers, pars globi 
 incognita, undiscovered yet to the worldling's heart. Methinks 
 there should be no hurt in that, if such friends may be made 
 of this mammon of unrighteousness, this false-hearted un- 
 [Luke xvi. faithful wealth of yours, that " when you fail, they may re- 
 ^'^ ceive you into everlasting habitations;" sure this may be 
 
 allowed to join with other motives to the performance of a 
 well-tasted wholesome duty. In a word, if earth and heaven 
 combined together be worth considering, the possession of 
 the one, and reversion of the other, abundance and affluence 
 here, the yearly wages of alms-giving, and joys and eternity 
 hereafter, the final reward of alms-giving, a present coronet 
 and a future crown, a Canaan below and a Jerusalem above; 
 if the conjunction of these two may have so much influence 
 on your hearts, as in contemplation of them to set you about 
 
THE POOR MAN^S TITHING. 
 
 269 
 
 the motion that nature itself inclines you to^ and neither SERM. 
 
 world nor flesh have any manner of quarrel to feign against ?hH: 
 
 it, then may I hope that I have not preached in vain, that 
 what I have now only, as a precentor, begun to you, the whole 
 chorus will answer in the counterpart ; what hath been now 
 proclaimed to your ears be echoed back again by your hearts 
 and lives, and the veriest stone in the temple take up its part, 
 the hardest, impenetrablest, unmercifulest heart join in the 
 aixoi^atov. 
 
 And this shall be the sum not only of my exhortation but 
 my prayer, that that God of mercies will open your eyes first, 
 and then your hearts, to the acknowledgment and practice of 
 this duty, direct your hands in the husbanding that treasure 
 intrusted to them, that mercy being added to your zeal, cha- 
 rity to your devotion, your goodness may shine as well as 
 burn, that men may see and taste your good works, glorify 
 God for you here, and you receive your crown of glory from 
 God hereafter. 
 
NINETEEN SERMONS 
 
 PREACHED 
 
 ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS, 
 
 BY THE REVEREND AND LEARNED 
 
 HENRY HAMMOND, D.D. 
 
SERMON XIII. 
 
 EzEK. xvi. 30. 
 
 The worJc of an imperious whorisk woman. 
 
 Not to chill your ears by keeping you long at the doors ; 
 not to detain you one minute with a cold unprofitable pre- 
 face ; this chapter is the exactest history of the spiritual estate 
 of the Jews, i. e. " the elect of God," and the powerfulest ex- 
 probration of their sins, that all the writings under heaven 
 can present to our eyes. From the first time I could think 
 I understood any part of it, I have been confident that never 
 any thing was set down more rhetorically, never more irdOos 
 and v-^os, more ^'afi'ection" and "sublimity of speech," ever 
 concvirred in any one writing of this quantity, either sacred 
 or profane. It were a work for the solidest artist to observe 
 distinctly every part of logic and rhetoric that lies concealed in 
 this one chapter, and yet there is enough in the surface and 
 outward dress of it, to affect the meanest understanding that 
 will but read it. For our present purpose it will suffice to 
 have observed, 1. That the natural sinful estate of the Jews, 
 being premised in the five first verses ; 2. The calling of them 
 in this condition, in their pollutions, in their blood, and be- 
 stowing all manner of spiritual ornaments upon them, follow- 
 ing in the next ten verses ; the remainder is mostwhat spent 
 in the upbraiding and aggravating their sins to them in a 
 most elevated strain of reproof; and the aKfjurj or " highest 
 pitch" of it, is in the words of my text, "the work of an im- 
 perious whorish woman." 
 
 For the handling of which words, I first beg two postulata 
 to be granted and supposed, before my discourse, because I 
 would not trouble you to hear them proved. 
 
 HAMMOND. T 
 
274 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 
 I. That the elect chosen people of God, the Jews, were de- 
 generate into heathen, desperate, devilish sinners. 
 
 II. That what is literally spoken in aggravation of the Jews' 
 sin, is as fully applicable to any other sinful people, with whom 
 God hath entered covenant as He did with the Jews. 
 
 And then the subject of my present discourse shall be this; 
 that indulgence to sin in a Christian is the *^work of an 
 imperious whorish woman." And that, 1. Of ^^a woman," 
 noting a great deal of weakness ; and that not simple natural 
 weakness, through a privation of all strength, but an acquired, 
 sluggish weakness, by effeminate neglecting to make use of it. 
 2. Of " a whore," noting unfaithfulness and falseness to the 
 husband. 3. Of ^^an imperious whore," noting insolency and 
 an high pitch of contempt. 
 
 And of these briefly and plainly; not to increase your 
 knowledge, but to enliven and inflame the practical part of 
 your souls; not to enrich your brains with new store, but 
 to sink that which you have already down into your hearts. 
 
 And first of the first, that indulgence to sin in a Christian 
 is the work of " a woman ;" an effect and argument of an in- 
 finite deal of weakness, together with the nature and grounds 
 of that weakness : the work," &c. 
 
 And this very thing, that it may be the more heeded, is 
 emphatically noted three several times in this one verse. 
 1. ^'The work of a woman," in my text, a poor, cowardly, 
 pusillanimous part that any body else, any one that had but 
 the least spark of valour or manhood in him, would scorn to 
 be guilty of, an argument of one that hath suffered all his 
 parts and gifts to lie sluggish and unprofitable, and at last 
 even quite perished by disusing. As the weakness of women, 
 below men, proceeds not only from their constitution and 
 temper, but from their course of life ; not from want of natural 
 strength, but of civil manlike exercise, which might stir up 
 and discipline, and ripen that strength they have : for if their 
 education were as warlike, and their strength by valiant un- 
 dertaking so set out, viragos and amazons would be well- 
 nigh as ordinary as soldiers. And so will the comparison 
 hold of those womanish, sluggish, abusers of God's graces. 
 Then in the first words of this verse, How weak is thy 
 heart ! " noting it to be a degree of weakness below ordinary, 
 
SERMON XIII. 
 
 275 
 
 as we call one a weak man that hath clone any thing rashly 
 or unadvisedly, which, if he had but thought on, he could 
 never have been so sottish, his ordinary reason would have 
 prompted him to safer counsels. In brief; any frequent, 
 indiscreet actions, argue a weak fellow : not that he wants 
 strength of discretion to do better, but that he makes no use 
 of it in his actions. Thirdlj^, "How weak is thy heart!" 
 thy heart, i. e. the principal part of the man, — as the brain 
 is the speculative, — the fountain of good and evil actions, and 
 performances. Now the word in the original, signifying 
 " the heart,^^ being naturally of the masculine gender, is here 
 set in the feminine, out of order, perhaps emphatically, to 
 note an unmanlike, impotent, effeminate heart ; all its actions 
 are mixed with so much passion and weakness, they are so 
 raw and womanish, that it would grieve one to behold a fair, 
 comely, manlike Christian in show, betraying so much im- 
 potency in his behaviour, — even like the emperor a spinning, 
 — one who had undertaken to be a champion for Christ, led 
 away and abused and baffled by every pelting paltry lust. It 
 is lamentable to observe what a poor, cowardly, degenerous 
 spirit is in most Christians; with how slender assaults and 
 petty stratagems they are either taken captive or put to flight ; 
 how easily in their most resolute undertakings of piety or 
 virtue they are either vanquished or caught. The ordinariest, 
 coarsest, hard-favouredst temptation that they can see, affects 
 and smites them suddenly ; they are entangled before they are 
 wooed, and the least appearance of any difficulty, the vizard 
 or picture of the easiest danger, is enough to fright them for 
 ever from any thought of religion or hope of heaven. 
 
 For a mere natural man that hath nothing but original 
 sin, or worse in him, that hath received nothing from God and 
 his parents but a talent in a broken vessel, a soul infected by 
 a crazy body, diseased as soon as born; for a heathen that 
 hath nothing to subsist on but a poor pittance of natural 
 reason, but one eye to see by, and that a dim one; for a 
 mere barbarian or gentile to be thus triumphed over by every 
 devil, — as an owl by the smallest bird in the air,— might be 
 matter of pity rather than wonder. And yet few of them 
 were such cowards; those very weapons that nature had 
 furnished them with, being rightly put on and fitted to them, 
 
 T 2 
 
276 
 
 SEEMON XTIT. 
 
 stood many of them in very good stead. There were few 
 passions, few sins of an ordinary size, but a philosopher and 
 mere stoic would be able to meet and vanquish. And there- 
 fore it is not so much natural, as affected weakness ; not so 
 much want of strength, as sluggishness and want of care ; not 
 so much impotency, as numbness and stupidity of our parts, 
 which hath so extremely disabled those that take themselves 
 to be the weakest of us. 
 
 The truth is, we are willing to conceive that our natural 
 abilities are quite perished and annihilate, and that God hath 
 no ways repaired them by Christ, because we will not be put 
 to the trouble of making use of them. We would spare our 
 pains, and therefore would fain count ourselves impotent, as 
 sluggards that personate and act diseases because they would 
 not work ; or the old tragedians which could call a god down 
 upon the stage^ at any time, to consummate the impossiblest 
 plot, and therefore would not put their brains to the toil of 
 concluding it fairly. 
 
 Certainly the decrepitest man under heaven, if he be" but 
 a degree above a carcase, is able to defend himself from an 
 ordinary fly. It is one of the deviFs titles to be Beelzebub, the 
 prince of flies; and such are many of his temptations; he 
 that hath but life in him may keep himself from any harm of 
 one of them ; but the matter is, they come in flocks, and being 
 driven once away they return again. Musca est animal inso- 
 lens, and the devil is frequent in these temptations, and though 
 you could repel them as fast as they come, yet it would be a 
 troublesome piece of work ; it will be more for your ease to 
 lie still under them, to let them work their will. So in time 
 fly-blows beget noisomeness and vermin in the soul ; and then 
 the life and death of that man becomes like that of the Egyp- 
 [Exod.viii. tians, or Herod, and no plague more finally desperate than 
 xu! 23.]^^ those two of flies and lice. I am resolved there be many temp- 
 tations which foil many jolly Christians, which yet a mere 
 natural man that never dreamt of Scripture, or God's Spirit, 
 might, if he did but bethink himself, resist, and many times 
 overcome. Many acts of uncleanness, of intemperance, of 
 contempt of superiors, of murder, of false dealing, of swear- 
 
 * airh finxavris. Prov. cf. Plat. Cratylus, p. 425, D. Erasm. Adag. 
 
 591. Cic. de Nat. D. i. 20.] 
 
SEllMON XIII. 
 
 277 
 
 ing and profaning, tliat cheap, unprofitable, that untempting, 
 and therefore unreasonable sin ; many acts, I say, of these 
 open abominable sins, which either custom or human laws 
 make men ashamed of, and the like ; the very law of reason 
 within us is able to afiront, and check, and conquer. That 
 €fjL<f)VT09 Kol (jyvatKos v6jjL09, as Methodius'^ calls it, "that law 
 born with us naturale judicatorium, saith Austin against 
 Pelagiusc; lux nostri intellectus, say the schoolmen out of 
 Damascen'^; nay, iTrayjeXla avdpcoTrov, saith the stoic^ the 
 promise that every one makes to nature, the obligation that 
 he is bound in when he hath first leave to be a man, or as 
 liierocles on the Pythagorean verses^, "OpKos ivovaLoy^evos 
 T0L9 Xoytfcols ykveoriv, " That oath that is co-aitaneous, and co- 
 essential to all reasonable natures,^^ and engages them [JjI] 
 irapa^aiveiv, k.t.\., " not to transgress the laws that are set 
 iliems.'' This is, I say, enough to keep us in some terms or 
 compass, to swathe and bind us in, to make us look somewhat 
 like men, and defeat the devil in many a skirmish. But how 
 much more for a Christian, who, if it were by nothing but his 
 baptism, hath certainly some advantages of other men. For 
 one that, if he acknowledge any, worships the true God, never 
 went a fooling after idols, which was the original of the hea- 
 thens "being given up to vile affections for one that lives Rom. i. 26. 
 in a civil country, among people that have the faces and hearts 
 of men and Christians, made as it were " to upbraid his ways, Wisd.ii.i4. 
 and reprove his thoughts for one that is within the sound 
 of God's law and light of His gospel, by which he may edify 
 more than ever heathen did by thunder and lightning; for 
 one that cannot choose but fear and believe, and love, and 
 hope in God, in some measure or kind, be he never so unre- 
 
 b In Pilot., p. 91, b. [Methodius de piov (pvaiKht/, St' ov ra KaXa rwu Trovr)- 
 Resurrectione ap. Photii Bibl. n. 234. pwv ZiaKpivofxeu, k.t.X. The reference 
 et ad calc. op. S. Amphilochii, p. 316. to S.Austin seems to be a mistake.] 
 
 ed. Par. 1644.] 
 
 "= [Wiggers (In primam secundae D. 
 Thomae, qujsst. 19. art. 6. v. 19) 
 says, " Ita nomine conscientife utitur 
 D. Hieronymus in cap. i. Ezechielis, 
 et D. Basilius in Comment, de Pro- 
 verb, circa initium, quando conscien- 
 tiam vocat naturale judicatorium, item 
 Damascenus, quando earn dicit esse lu- 
 cem noslri intellectus.^' The passage 
 in S. Basil is (HomiL in Princip. Pro- 
 verb. § 91. Op., torn. ii. p. 106, B), 
 
 s vSjxos &ypa(pos koI deios. Porphy- 
 rins de abstinentia, lib. i. p. 10. [c, 28, 
 p. 46; ed. Rhoer.] deiai irapayyeAiai, 
 ibid. lib. ii. p. 26, [c. 61. p. 212.] hpol 
 v6ixoi, lib. iv. p. 50. [c. 21. p. 266,] 
 
 ^ [Epicteti Dissert, ab Arriano di- 
 gest., lib. i. c. 9. § 7.] 
 
 f [Hierocles in aur. carm. Pyth. ver. 
 2. p. 34. ed. 1742.] 
 
 S. Joan. Damasc. Dialect, cap. 1. Op., 
 tom. i. p. 7, B.] 
 
278 
 
 SEUMON XIII. 
 
 generate; for him, I say, that hath all these outward re- 
 stramts, and perhaps some inward twinges of conscience, to 
 curb and moderate him, to be yet so stupid under all these 
 helps as never to be able to raise up one thought toward 
 heaven, to have yet not the least atom of soul to move in the 
 ways of godliness, but to fall prostrate like a carcase, or a 
 
 [1 Sam. statue, or that idol Dagon, with his feet stricken off, not able 
 
 ^' ^' ^'^ to stand before the slightest motion of sin; or if a lust, or a 
 fancy, or a devil, be he the ugliest in hell, any thing but God, 
 appear to him, presently to fall down and worship. This is 
 such a sottish condition, such an either lethargy or consump- 
 tion of the soul, such an extreme degree of weakness, that 
 neither original sin, that serpent that despoiled Adam, nor 
 any one single devil, can be believed to have wrought in us ; 
 but that 6 hrjjjbos, — as the Platonics call it^, — "a popular go- 
 vernment of sin," under a multitude of tyrants, which have for 
 so long a while wasted and harassed the soul, so that now it is 
 
 Mark v, quite crest-fallen, as that legion of devils which dwelt among 
 ' ■ the tombs in a liveless, cadaverous, noisome soul; or more 
 
 Mark i. 23, truly that " evil spirit,^' that made the man disclaim and re- 
 nounce Christ and His mercies when He came to cure ; " Let 
 us alone, what have we to do with Thee By which is noted, 
 that contentedness and acquiescence in sin ; that even stub- 
 born wilfulness and resolvedness to die, that a long sluggish 
 custom in sin will bring us to ; and that you may resolve on, 
 as the main discernible cause of this weakness of the heart, a 
 habit, and long service and drudgery in sin. But then, as a 
 ground of that, you may take notice of another, a fancy that 
 hath crept into most men^s hearts, — and suffers them not to 
 think of resisting any temptation to sin, — that all their actions, 
 as well evil as good, were long ago determined and set down 
 by God; and now nothing left to them but a necessity of per- 
 forming what was then determined. I would fain believe that 
 that old heresy of the stoics, revived indeed among the Turks, 
 concerning the inevitable production of all things, that fatal 
 necessity, even of sins, should yet never have gotten any foot- 
 ing or entertainment among Christians; but that by a little 
 experience in the practice of the world, I find it among many 
 a main piece of their faith, and the only point that can yield 
 
 »> [Cf. Maximus Tyr. Dissertat. xxxiii. § 6. p. 397. ed. Davis.] 
 
SERMON XIII. 
 
 279 
 
 them any comfort ; that their sins, be they never so many and 
 outrageous, are but the effects, or at least the consequents, 
 of God^s decree ; that all their care and solicitude, and most 
 wary endeavours, could not have cut off any one sin from the 
 catalogue ; that unless God be pleased airo iJLr]j(avris to come 
 down upon the stage by the irresistible power of His con- 
 straining Spirit, as with a thunderbolt from heaven, to shake 
 and shiver to pieces the carnal man within them, to strike 
 them into a swoon as He did Saul, that so He may convert [l Sam. 
 them ; and in a word, to force and ravish them to heaven j 
 unless He will even drive and carry them^, they are never likely 
 to be able to stir ; to perform any the least work of reason, 
 but fall minutely into the most irrational, unnatural sins in 
 the world, nay, even into the bottom of that pit of hell, with- 
 out any stop, or delay, or power of deliberating in this their 
 precipice. This is an heresy that in some philosopher-Chris- 
 tians hath sprouted above ground, hath shewed itself in their 
 brains and tongues : and that more openly in some bolder 
 wits ; but the seeds of it are sown thick in most of our hearts, 
 I fear in every habitual sinner amongst us, if we were but at 
 leisure to look into ourselves. The Lord give us a heart to 
 be forewarned in this behalf. 
 
 To return into the road : our natural inclinations and pro- 
 pensions to sin are no doubt active and prurient enough 
 within us ; somewhat of Jehu^s constitution and temper, they [2 Kings 
 drive very furiously. But then to persuade ourselves that 
 there is no means on earth besides the very hand of God, 
 and that out of our reach, able to trash or overflow this 
 furious driver; that all the ordinary clogs that God hath 
 provided us, our reason and natural conscience as men, our 
 knowledge as Christians; nay. His restraining, though not 
 sanctifying graces, together with the lungs and bowels of 
 His ministers, and that energetical powerful instrument, the 
 " gospel of Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation, [Rom. L 
 even to every Jew,^^ nay, and heathen ; to resolve that all ^^'^ 
 these are not able to keep us in any compass, to quell any 
 the least sin we are inclined to; that unless God will by 
 force make saints of us, we must needs presently be devils, 
 and so leave all to God^s omnipotent working, and never 
 
 ' deo<popovix(i'ou 
 
280 
 
 SPmMON XIII. 
 
 make use of those powers with which He hath ah'eady fur- 
 nished us. This is a monstrous piece of unchristian divinity, 
 a way, by advancing the grace of God, to destroy it, and by 
 depending on the Holy Ghost, to grieve, if not to sin against 
 Him ; to make the corruption of our nature equal to, nay, 
 surpassing the punishment of the devils; a necessary and 
 irreversible obduration in all kinds and measures of sin. 
 
 This one practical heresy will bring us through all the 
 prodigies of the old philosophical sects, from stoics to epi- 
 curism, and all sensual libertinism, and from thence to the 
 fi6T€fi\lrv)(^co(ris of the Pythagoreans. For unless the soul 
 that is now in one of us had been transplanted from a swine, 
 or some other the most stupid, sottish, degenerous sort of 
 beasts, it is impossible that it should thus naturally, and 
 necessarily, and perpetually, and irrecoverably, delight and 
 wallow in every kind of sensuality, without any check or 
 contradiction, either of reason or Christianity. If I should 
 tell you that none of you that hath understood and pondered 
 the will of God wants abilities in some measure to perform 
 it, if he would muster up all his forces at time of need ; that 
 every Christian hath grace enough to smother lusts in the 
 womb, and keep them, at least, from bringing forth ; to quell 
 a temptation before it break out into an actual sin, you 
 would think perhaps that I flattered you, and deceived myself 
 in too good an opinion of your strength. Only thus much 
 then ; it would be somewhat for your edification to try what 
 you could do : certainly there is much more in a Christian's 
 power, — if he be not engaged in a habit of sin, — than we 
 imagine ; though not for the performing of good, yet for the 
 inhibiting of evil. And therefore bethinking ourselves, ore 
 Jtos" viol ecTfzev, saith Arrianj, ^^that we are the sons of God," 
 fjLijSev raireLvov koL a<yevve9, "let us not have too low and 
 degenerous an opinion of ourselves.^' Do but endeavour re- 
 solutely and courageously to repel temptations as often as 
 they solicit thee, make use of all thy ordinary restraints, im- 
 prove thy natural fear and shamefacedness, thy Christian 
 education, tender disposition to the highest pitch ; do but 
 
 j \_'yi'y6va}i(v virh rod deov irdures 
 TrporjyoviJLevoos, Kol 6 6ehs Trar^p iari 
 
 Hti ovdev ayevues ou5e Taimvhv it/9v/j.7i- 
 6r](T€Tai irepl eaurov. Epict. Dissert, ab 
 Arriano digest., lib. i. c. 3. § 1.] 
 
SERMON Xlll. 
 
 281 
 
 hold sincerely as long as thou art able, and though I will not 
 say that all thy sins shall be confined to those two heads of 
 original (a branch of which are evil motions) and of omis- 
 sion; yet I will undertake that thou shalt have an easier 
 burden of actual commissions upon thy soul, and that will 
 prove a good ease for thee. Those are they that weigh it 
 down into the deep, that sink it desperateliest into that 
 double Tophet of obduration and despair. Final obduration 
 being a just judgment of God, on one that hath filled up the 
 measure of his iniquities, that hath told over all the hairs of 
 his head, and sands of the sea in actual sins ; and a neces- 
 sary^ consummation of that, despair; the first part, the pro- 
 logue and harbinger to that worm in hell. 
 
 It were easy to shew how faith might afi'ord a Christian 
 sufficient guard and defence against the keenest weapon in 
 the deviPs armoury, and retort every stroke upon himself. 
 But because this is the faith only of a wife, not as we now 
 consider as a woman at large, but in a nearer obligation, as 
 a spouse, we shall more opportunely handle that in the next 
 part, where we shall consider indulgence in sin as the work 
 of a "whorish woman;" where whoredom, noting adultery, 
 presupposes wedlock, and consists in unfaithfulness to the 
 husband, the thing in the next place to be discovered : " the 
 work," &c. 
 
 That Christ is ofi'ered by His Father to all the Church for 
 an husband ; that He waits, and begs, and sends presents to 
 us all to accept of the proposal, the whole book of Canticles, 
 that song of spiritual love, that aff'ectionate wooing sonnet 
 will demonstrate. That every Christian accepts of this match, 
 and is sacramentally espoused to Christ at his baptism ; his 
 being called by the husband^s name imports : for that is the 
 meaning of the phrase, "Let us be called by Thy name," is. iv. l. 
 i. e., marry us. That faith is the only thing that makes up 
 the match, and entitles us to His name and estate, is observ- 
 able both from many places of Scripture, and by the opposi- 
 tion which is set betwixt a Christian and all others, Jews and 
 infidels, betwixt the spouse and either the destitute widow or 
 barren virgin; the ground of which is only faith. 
 
 So then, every Christian at his baptism being supposed a 
 believer, and thereby espoused sacramentally to Christ, and 
 
282 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 
 SO obliged to all the observances, as partaker of all tbe privi- 
 leges of a wife ; doth at every unchaste thought, or adulterous 
 motion, offend against the fidelity promised in marriage, by 
 every actual breach of this faith, is for the present guilty of 
 adultery, but by indulgence in it, is downright a whore ; i. e., 
 either one that came to Christ with an unchaste adulterous love 
 to gain somewhat, not for any sincere affection to His person, 
 but insidious to His estate ; and having got that, is soon weary 
 of His person : or else one that came to Him with pure virgin 
 thoughts, resolving herself a perpetual captive to His love, 
 and never to be tired with those beloved fetters of His em- 
 braces; but in time meets with a more flattering amiable 
 piece of beauty, and is soon hurried after that, and so for- 
 gettetli both her vows and love. 
 
 Thus shall you see a handsome, modest, maidenly Christian, 
 espoused to Christ at the font, and fully wedded by His ring 
 at confirmation : nay, come nearer yet to Him, and upon 
 many solemn expressions of fidelity and obedience, vouch- 
 safed the seal of His very heart in the sacrament of His 
 blood. Another that hath lived with Him a long while in 
 uniform, constant loyalty, noted by all the neighbourhood 
 for an absolute wife ; a grave, solemn, matronly Christian ; 
 yet either upon the allurements of some fresh sprightful sin, or 
 the solicitations of an old-acquaintance lust, the insinuations 
 of some wily intruder, or a specious show of a glorious glit- 
 tering temptation ; or when these are all wanting, upon the 
 [Heb. iii. breaking out of ^^an evil heart of unbelief,^^ — which some 
 ^^•J outward restraints formerly kept in, — departing from the 
 living God,^^ profess open neglect and despite against the 
 husband which before they so wooed, and flattered, and made 
 love to. It were long to number out to you, and give you 
 by tale a catalogue of those defections and adulterous prac- 
 tices which Christians are ordinarily observed to be guilty 
 of, — which whether they go so far as to make a divorce be- 
 twixt the soul and Christ, or whether only to provoke Him 
 to jealousy, whether by an intercision of grace and faith, or by 
 an interruption and suspension of the acts, I will not now 
 examine, — I will go no further than the text, which censures 
 it here as a piece of spiritual whoredom, of treacherous un- 
 faithful dealing, to be light, unconstant, and false to Christ, 
 
SEKMON XIII. 
 
 283 
 
 whose spouse they are esteemed, whose name they bear, and 
 estate they pretend title to. And so indeed it is, for what 
 greater degree of unfaithfulness can be imagined? What 
 fouler breach of matrimonial covenants, than to value every 
 ordinary prostitute sin before the precious chastest embraces 
 of an husband and a Saviour ? to be caught and captivate with 
 the meanest vanity upon earth, when it appears in competi- 
 tion with all the treasures in heaven? Besides, that spiritual 
 armour which faith bestows on a Christian, sufficient to 
 "quench all the fiery darts of the wicked,^^ or, as the Greek Eph.vi. 16. 
 hath it, Tov irovripov, that "wicked one,^^ the devil, methinks 
 there is a kind of moral influence from faith on any wise and 
 prudent heart, enough to enliven, and animate, and give it 
 spirit, against the force or threatenings of any the strongest 
 temptation, and to encourage him in the most crabbed, un- 
 couth, disconsolate undertakings of godly obedience. For 
 what sin didst thou ever look upon with the fullest delight 
 of all thy senses, in the enjoying of which thy most covetous, 
 troublesome, importunate lusts would all rest satisfied, but 
 one minute of heaven, truly represented to thy heart, would 
 infinitely outweigh ? A Turk is so aftected with the expecta- 
 tion of his carnal paradise, those catholic everlasting stews, 
 which he fancies to himself for heaven, that he will scarce 
 taste any wine all his life-tim^e for fear of disabling and de- 
 priving him of his lust ; he will be very staunch from sin, that 
 he may merit and be sure to have his fill of it. And then 
 certainly one clear single apprehension of that infinite bliss 
 which the eye of faith represents to us, were enough to ravish 
 a world of souls, to preponderate all other delights, which the 
 most poetical fancy of man or devil could possess us with. 
 Were but the love of Christ to us ever suffered to come into 
 our hearts, — as species to the eye by introreception, — had we 
 but come to the least taste and relish of it, what would we not 
 do to recompense, and answer, and entertain that love ? what 
 difficulty would it not ingratiate to us ? what exquisite plea- 
 sure, or carnal rival, would not be cheap and contemptible in 
 its presence? If thou hadst but faith to the size of "a grain [Mat.xvii. 
 of mustard-seed,'-' speak to this mountain, and it shall be re- '^^'^ 
 moved, the tallest, cumbersome, unwieldy temptation which 
 all the giants in hell can mould together, — as once they are 
 
284 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 
 feigned to do the hills to get up to heaven, Pelion Ossce^, &c., 
 — if thou dost but live, or breathe by faith, shall vanish at 
 the least blast of thy nostrils. The clear representation of 
 more valuable pleasures and more horrid dangers than any 
 the flesh can propose, certainly attending the performances 
 or breach of our vow of wedlock, is enough to charm and 
 force us to perpetual chastity, to fright or scoff all other 
 wooers out of our sights, to reprobate and damn them as 
 soon as they appear : there is in this husband of ours a con- 
 fluence of all infinite imaginable delights, which whosoever 
 hath but once tasted, but from a kiss of his mouth, he is not 
 unconstant but sottish, if he ever be brought to any new em- 
 braces. But then openly to contemn, to profess neglects, to 
 go a wooing again, to tempt and solicit even temptations, to 
 Ezek. xvi. give gifts to all thy lovers, to hire them that they may come 
 unto thee on every side for thy whoredoms this is a degree 
 of stupidity and insolence, of insatiable pride and lust, that 
 neither the iniquity of Sodom, nor stubbornness of Caper- 
 naum, nor the rhetoricalest phrase almost in the very Scrip- 
 ture can express, but only this in my text, which comes in 
 the last place with a marvellous emphasis, "imperious/^ 
 " The work,'' &c. 
 
 In which one epithet many of the highest degrees of sin 
 are contained. 1. Confidence and shamelessness in sinning, 
 " an imperious whore," mulier impudicce libldinis, one that is 
 better acquainted with lust than to blush when she meets with 
 it ; modesty and coyness are but infirmities rather than good 
 qualities of youth ; efi^ects of ignorance and tenderness and 
 unexperience in sin, a little more conversation in the world 
 will season men to a bolder temper, and in time instruct them 
 that this modesty is the only thing they ought to be ashamed 
 of. It is not ingenuity but cowardice, a poor degenerous 
 pusillanimous humour, to go fearfully about a vice, to sin 
 tremblingly and with regrets : this country disposition, or soft 
 temper, when we come abroad into the world amongst men, 
 it is quite out-dated. Thus is impudence and a forehead of 
 steel grown not the armour only, but even the complexion 
 of every manlike spirit. He is not fit for the deviFs war, 
 that is so poorly appointed either with courage or munition, 
 
 ^ [Virg. Georg. i. 281.] 
 
SERMON XIII. 
 
 285 
 
 as to be discomfited by a look ; it is part of his honour not to 
 fear disgrace, and his reputation not to stand upon so poor a 
 thing as reputation. 
 
 2. " Imperious/^ taking all authority into her own hands, 
 scorning to be afraid either of God or devil, qucs regno posita 
 neminem timeat, having fancied herself in a throne, never 
 thinks either of enemy to endanger, or of superior to quell 
 her; but sins confidently, et in cathedra, in state, in security, Ps. i. l. 
 and at ease, and never doubts or fears to be removed. 
 
 And this is most primarily observable in the Jews, depend- 
 ing on their carnal prerogatives, as being of Abraham^s seed ; 
 and yet thus also may we suspect do many among us, some 
 tying God^s decree of election to their persons and individual 
 entities, without any reference to their qualifications or de- 
 meanours ; others by a premature persuasion that they are 
 in Christ, and so in such an irreversible estate, that all the 
 temptations, all the devils, nay, all the sins in hell, shall 
 never dispossess them. Others resolved that God can see 
 no sin in His children, in imitation of Marcus in Irenseus^, 
 whose heresy, or rather fancy it was eavrov hi airoXvTpwo-iv 
 aoparov ylveaOat tw fcptry, ^Hhat by the redemption they 
 were become invisible.'^ Upon these I say, and other grounds 
 — how true, I will not now examine — do many rash presumers 
 abuse the grace of God unto wantonness ; never fear to sin, 
 because they need not fear to be punished ; never cease to 
 provoke God, because they are sure He is their friend; and 
 being resolved of Him as a Saviour, contemn Him as a 
 Judge. Multi ad sapientiam pervenissent, ^c, saith he, 
 "Many had come to learning enough, had they not be- 
 lieved too soon they had attained it." No such hindrance 
 to proficiency as too timely a conceit of knowledge. Thus 
 might we ordinarily guess some men to have been in good 
 towardly estates, had they not made too much haste to con- 
 ceive so ; and having once possessed themselves of heaven on 
 such slight grounds, such as not a solemn examination of 
 themselves, but some gleams of their fancy had bestowed 
 upon them ; it is no wonder if all the effects of their assur- 
 ance be spiritual security, and supine confidence in sinning : 
 they have hid their heads in heaven by their vain specula- 
 
 ' [S, Tren. adv. Haer., lib. i. c. 13. p. 60 ; quoted above, p. 160.] 
 
286 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 
 tion, and then think their whole body must needs be safe^ 
 be it never so open, and naked, and bare to all temptations. 
 Nay, be they up to the shoulders in carnality, nay, earth, 
 nay, hell, yet seeing, caput inter nubila^, " their head is in 
 the clouds,^^ there is no danger or fear of drowning, be it 
 
 Rev. iii. 17. never so deep or miry. This was Laodicea^s estate; she 
 fancied herself great store of spiritual riches, and brought in 
 an inventory of a very fair estate, " I am rich and am in- 
 creased in goods, and have need of nothing any more 
 accession, even of the graces of God, would be but super- 
 fluous and burdensome, not knowing all this while, "that 
 she was wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and 
 naked.^' There is not a blessing upon earth that can any 
 way hope or seem to parallel a sober well-grounded assurance 
 here, that in time we shall be saints in heaven ; it is such a 
 paradise upon earth, that heaven itself seems but a second 
 part of it, differing from it rather in degrees and external 
 accomplishments, than in any distinct specifical kind of happi- 
 ness : — the Lord of heaven by His mighty working, when it 
 shall please Him, begin and consummate it in us ! But then 
 to make use of this patent of heaven to engage us further in 
 the deep, to keep us not from the devil's works, but from his 
 attachments; ontyas a protection to secure our misdemeanours, 
 not to defend our innocence : for a man thus appointed to 
 venture on a precipice, as the Turks, saith Busbequius", are 
 wont to try the goodness of a horse by riding him post down 
 the steepest hill ; to outdare the devil in his own territories, 
 
 [Eph. iv. — as Christ is said to descend thither to triumph over him, — 
 
 8 9 1 
 
 ' to besiege and set upon hell, presuming of our interest in 
 
 heaven as of a magical charm, and aXe^UaKov to keep us 
 safe from death or maims in the midst of enemies, nay, of 
 friends ; this is a piece of spiritual pride of Lucifer^s own in- 
 scribing, an imperious majestic garb of impiety, a triumphant 
 or processionary pomp, an affected stately gait in sin, that 
 nothing but a violent rending power of the Spirit, or a bois- 
 terous tempestuous judgment, can force us out of. Such a 
 profane fiduciary as this, which hath even defiled heaven by 
 
 [Virg. iEn. iv. 177.] arduo monte per praeceps inofFenso pede 
 
 n [Busbequius, Epist. iii. p. 113. ed. decursu.] 
 Oxon. 1640. Bonitatis periculum fit ex 
 
SEBMON XIIT. 
 
 287 
 
 possessing it, such an hellish saint is like to be torn out of 
 the third heaven into which his speculation hath rapt him, 
 and after a long dream of paradise, find himself awake in hell. 
 And from this degree of religious profaneness, this confidence 
 in sinning on presumption that we are under grace; from 
 this premature resolution^ that no sin, no devil, can endanger 
 us ; from this imperious whoredom, as from the danger of 
 hell, Good Lord deliver us.^^ ^ 
 
 3. "Imperious^^ signifies more distinctly a tyrannical lord- 
 ing behaviour, usurping and exercising authority over all. 
 And this the apostate Jew and Christian libertine doth : 
 
 1. by tyrannizing over himself, i. e., his faculties and estate : 
 
 2. over all that come near him. Over himself, by urging and 
 driving on in a carnal course ; not patient of any regrets and 
 resistances that a tender disposition, motions of God^s Spirit, 
 or gripes of conscience, can make against it, goading and spur- 
 ing on any of his faculties, as being too dull and unactive, and 
 slothful in the ways of death, even forcing them — if they be 
 any time foreslowed and trashed by either outward or inward 
 restraints — to sin even in spite of them, and hastening them 
 to a kind of unvoluntary disobedience. Thus will a stone 
 when it is kept violently from the ground, being held in a 
 man's hand, or the like, press and weigh towards the earth 
 incessantly, as if it were naturally resolved to be revenged on 
 any one ; to tire him out that thus detained it from its place ; 
 nay, when it is let down, jon may see it yet press lower, make 
 its print in the earth, as if it would never be satisfied till it 
 could rest in hell. The sinner is never at quiet with himself, 
 instat et imperat ; " he is urgent and importunate upon him- 
 self to satisfy every craving lust." Not the beggarliest affec- 
 tion, or laziest, unworthiest desire of the flesh, but shall have 
 its alms and dole, rather than starve, though it be an atom of 
 his very soul, to the utter undoing and bankrupting of him 
 that gives it. 
 
 And for his tyranny over his estate, whether temporal or 
 spiritual, his goods of fortune or gifts of grace, they must all 
 do homage to this carnal idol. All his treasures on earth are 
 richly sold, if they can but yield him the fruition of one be- 
 loved sin. And for spiritual illuminations, or any seeds of 
 grace, he will lose them all ; and even shut himself for ever 
 
288 
 
 SER^rON XITT. 
 
 into the darkness of hell, rather than ever be directed by their 
 light, out of those pleasing paths of death. 
 
 A restraining grace was but a burdensome, needless en- 
 cumbrance ; and a gleam of the Spirit but a means to set 
 conscience a working, to actuate her malice and execution on 
 sin ; and it were a happy exchange, to get but one loving de- 
 light or companion for them both. Let but a sin be coy and 
 staunch, not to be gained at the first wooing, and all these 
 [Gen. together, like Jacob's present out of all his goods, shall be 
 xxxiii.] little enough for a sacrifice or bribe, to solicit or hire it. 
 
 Ezek. xvi. And this the prophet notes here distinctly, "Thou art con- 
 33, 34. tj-ary to all the whores in the world.'' In other places "Men 
 give gifts to all whores, but thou givest gifts to all thy lovers." 
 None follow or bribe thee to commit whoredoms : " Thou 
 givest a reward, and no reward is given to thee; therefore 
 thou art contrary." 
 
 The sinner in my text scorns to set so low a value on sin, 
 as that profit or advantage should ingratiate it to him ; it is 
 so amiable in his eyes of itself, he will prize it so high, that 
 any other treasure shall not be considerable in respect of it : 
 it is part of his loyalty and expression of his special service to 
 the devil, to become a bankrupt in his cause, to " sell all that 
 he hath,'' both God and fortunes to " follow him." It is the 
 art and cunning of common whores to raise men's desires of 
 them by being coy, difficultate augere libidinis pretium, to hold 
 Ezek. xvi, off, that they may be followed. But this sin is not so artificial, 
 her affections are boisterous and impatient of delay ; she is 
 not at so much leisure as to windlace, or use craft to satisfy 
 them ; she goes downright a wooing, and if there be any diffi- 
 culty in compassing, all that she hath is ready for a dowry, 
 and prostitute before her idol, lust. 
 
 Lastly, "imperious" over all that come near him, either 
 men or sins : every man must serve him, either as his pander 
 or companion, to further or associate him. I told you he 
 Ps. i. 1. sinned in cathedra, that is, also doctorally and magisterially; 
 
 every spectator must learn of him, it is his profession, he sets 
 up school for it, his practices are so commandingly exemplary 
 that they do even force and ravish the most maidenly tender 
 conscience. And then, for all inferiors, they are required to 
 provide him means and opportunities of sinning, to find him 
 
SEllMON XTII. 
 
 289 
 
 out some game ; and no such injury can be done as to rouse 
 or spring a sin that would otherwise have lodged in his walk. 
 It was part of the heathenish Romans' quarrel against the 
 primitive Christians, saith Tertulliano, that they drove away 
 their devils. These exorcist Christians had banished all their 
 old familiars out of the kingdom, which they were impatient 
 to be deprived of. And thus careful and chary are men of 
 their helps of opportunities to sin; it is all the joy they have 
 in the world, sometimes to have a temptation, and to be able 
 to make use of it ; to have the devil continue strong with them, 
 in an old courtier's phrase, " it is their very life,'' and he that 
 deprives them of it is a murderer. 
 
 And for the sins themselves, Lord, how they tyrannize 
 over them; how they will rack, and torture, and stretch 
 every limb of a sin, that they may multiply it into infinites, 
 and sin as often at once as is possible ! Adam in the bare 
 eating of an apple committed a multitude of sins. Leo in 
 his eighty-sixth Epistle, Augustine de Civit. Dei P, and other 
 fathers,, will number them out to you. 
 
 And thus far this tyrant over impiety and lust will be a 
 Pelagian, as to order all his deviation by imitation of Adam's. 
 Every breach of one single law shall contain a brood or nest, 
 into which it may be subdivided ; and every circumstance 
 in the action shall furnish him with fresh matter for variety 
 of sin. 
 
 Again, how "imperious" is he in triumphing over a sin 
 which he hath once achieved ! If he have once got the 
 better of good nature and religion ; broke in upon a stub- 
 born, sullen vice, that was formerly too hard for him ; how 
 often doth he reiterate and repeat, that he may perfect his 
 conquest, that it may lie prostrate and tame before him, 
 never daring to resist him ! And if there be any virgin 
 modest sins, which are ashamed of the light, either of the 
 sun or nature, not coming abroad but under a veil, — as 
 some sins being too horrid and abominable, are fain to ap- 
 
 o [See Tertull. Apol, c. 23, and 43.] tie from S.Aug. Enchir. c. 13. (al. 45.) 
 
 P In illo uno peccato possunt intel- See Quesnel's note, Op, S. Leon., torn, 
 
 ligi plura peccata, &c, — S. Leo, Epist. ii. 803. ed. Par. 1675. And this ap- 
 
 86. [ed. Par. 1618. (Ep. 1. ed. Venet. pears to be the passage of S. Augustine 
 
 1753.) The passage from which these referred to by Hammond; it has not 
 
 words are taken is omitted in later edi- been found in the De Civitate Dei. See 
 
 tions,havingbeen inserted into the Epis- S. Aug. Op,, torn. vi. p. 212.] 
 
 HAMMOND. U 
 
290 
 
 SET?;\rON XTTT. 
 
 pear in other shapes, and so keep us company under the 
 name of amiable or innocent quahties, — then will this vio- 
 lent imperious sinner call them out into the court or market- 
 place ; tear away the veil, that he may commit them openly ; 
 and, as if the devil were too modest for him, bring him upon 
 the stage against his will, and even take hell by violence and 
 force. 
 
 Thus are men come at last to a glorying in the highest 
 impieties, and expect some renown and credit as a reward 
 for the pains they take about it ; and then certainly honour 
 is grown very cheap when it is bestowed upon sins, and the 
 man very tyrannical over his spectators^ thoughts, that re- 
 quires to be worshipped for them. This was a piece of the 
 deviFs old tyranny in the times of heathenism, — which I 
 would fain Christianity hath out-dated, — to build temples 
 and offer sacrifice to sins under the name of Venus, Priapus, 
 and the like; that men that were naturally heicnhalfjuoves, 
 superstitious adorers of devils, or any thing that was called 
 God, might account incontinence religion, and all impieties 
 in the world a kind of adoration. Thus to profess whore- 
 doms, and set up trophies in our eyes, "to build their emi- 
 nent place in the head of every way,'^ in the verse next to 
 my text, was then the imputation of the Jews, — and pray 
 God it prove not the guilt of Christians, — fromVhence the 
 whole Church of them is here styled, "an imperious,^^ &c. 
 
 Thus hath the apostate Jew represented to you, in his 
 picture and resemblance, the libertine Christian, and Eze- 
 kiel become an historian as well as prophet. Thus hath 
 indulgence in vice among professors of Christianity been 
 aggravated against you, 1. by the weak womanish condition 
 of it j nature itself, and ordinary man-like reason, is ashamed 
 of it; 2. by the adulterous unfaithfulness, 1. want of faith, 
 2. of fidelity bewrayed in it; 3. by the imperiousness of 
 the behaviour, 1. in shamelessness, 2. in confidence and 
 spiritual security, 3. in tyrannizing over himself and facul- 
 ties, by force compelling, and then insulting over his goods 
 and graces, prodigally misspending them in the prosecution 
 of his lusts, and lording over all that come near him, men or 
 sins ; first pressing, then leading the one, and both ravishing 
 and tormenting the other, to perform him the better service. 
 
SERMON XTII. 
 
 291 
 
 Now that this discourse mtiy not have been sent into the 
 air unprofitably ; that all these prophetical censures of sin 
 may not be like Xerxes^ stripes on the sea^^ on inanimate 
 senseless bodies ; it is now time that every tender open guilty 
 heart begin to retire into itself ; every one consider whether 
 he be not the man that the parable aims at, that you be not 
 content to have your ears affected, or the suburbs of the 
 soul filled with the sound, unless also the heart of the city 
 be taken with its efficacy. Think and consider whether, 1. 
 this effeminacy and womanishness of heart, and not weak- 
 ness, but torpor and stupidit}^, 2. this unfaithfulness and 
 falseness unto Christ expressed b}^ the spiritual incontinence 
 and whoredoms of our souls and actions, 3. that confidence 
 and magnanimous stately garb in sin, arising in some from 
 spiritual pride, in others from carnal security ; whether any 
 or all of these may not be inscribed on our pillars, and re- 
 main as a (TTTfKLTevTiKov against us, to upbraid and aggravate 
 the nature and measure of our sins also. I cannot put on 
 so solemn a person as to act a Cato or Aristarchus amongst 
 an assembly that are all judices critici, to reprehend the 
 learned and the aged, and to chide my teachers : you shall 
 promise to spare that thankless task, and to do it to your- 
 selves. It will be more civility perhaps, and sink down 
 deeper into ingenuous natures, fairly to bespeak and exhort 
 you ; and from the first part of my text only, — because it 
 would be too long to bring down all, — from the weakness and 
 womanish condition of indulgent sinners, to put you in 
 mind of your strength, and the use you are to make of it, 
 in a word and close of application. 
 
 We have already taken notice of the double inheritance 
 and patrimonj^ of strength and graces, which we all enjoy, 
 first, as men ; secondly, as Christians ; and ought not we, 
 beloved, that have spent the liveliest and sprightfulest of 
 our age and parts in the pursuit of learning, to set some 
 value on that estate we have purchased so dear, and account 
 ourselves somewhat the more men for being scholars ? Shall 
 not this deserve to be esteemed some advantage to us, and a 
 rise, that being luckily taken, may further us something in 
 
 [Herod, vii. 45.] 
 
 u 2 
 
292 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 
 our stage towards heaven ? That famous division of rational 
 animals in Jambliclms out of Aristotle'", into three different 
 species, that some were men, others gods, others such as 
 Pythagoras, will argue some greater privileges of scholars 
 above other men : that indeed the deep learneder sort, and 
 especially those that had attained some insight irepl Oelwv, 
 "in divine affairs,^' were in a kind of a more venerable 
 species than ordinary ignaros. 
 
 And for the benefits and helps that these excellencies 
 afford us in our way to heaven, do but consider what a great 
 part of the world overshaded in barbarism, brought up in 
 blind idolatry, do thereby but live in a perpetual hell, and 
 at last pass not into another kind, but degree of darkness ; 
 death being but an officer to remove them from one Tophet 
 to another; or at most, but as from a dungeon to a grave. 
 Think on this, and then think and count what a blessing 
 divine knowledge is to be esteemed; even such a one as 
 seems, not only the way, but the entrance ; not only a pre- 
 paration, but even a part of that vision which shall be for 
 ever beatifical. And therefore it will nearly concern us 
 to observe what a talent is committed to our husbanding, 
 [Mat. XXV. and what increase that "hard" master will exact at His com- 
 ^^'-^ ing. For as Dicsearchus^, in his description of Greece, saith 
 of the Chalcidians, "that they were ixaOrnjuaTcov ivros ov 
 fjLovop (pvaeL dWa koI (j^covfj, born, as it were, with one foot 
 in learning, and both by the genius of the place and lan- 
 guage" which they spake, being Greek, even sucked the arts 
 from their mothers' breasts, at least were prepared for, and 
 initiated in them by nature ; and therefore it would be a 
 great shame for them not to be scholars. So most truly of 
 those of us that are learned, full, illuminate Christians ; the 
 very language that we speak, and air we breathe in, doth 
 naturally infuse some sacred instincts into us; doth some- 
 what enter us in this spiritual, heavenly wisdom ; will be 
 
 r [iVropet Se Koi ^ ApiffroT^Xris iu iuoiKovuT€s"EX\-r]V€S, ov yeuei iii6uou, 
 
 ToTs Trept T^s UvdayopiKris (piXocrocpias, a\Ka Kai rfj cpwufj, twu fiaOrjindTcov ivrhs, 
 
 Siatpeaip riva TOidvde virh rwv auSpcou (piXairoh-qixoL, ypapLfiariKoi, ra irposirlir- 
 
 eVroTs irduv avopprjTois SiacpvAdrTeaOat' roura 4k Tqs irarpiSos Suax^PV y^vvaius 
 
 Tov AoyiKov ^u)ov /xeu icrrl dihs, rh (pipour^s. — Geograph. Scriptores, ed. 
 
 &udpwiros,rh ^"k ohv UvQay6pas. — Jam- Hudson, Oxon. 1703. torn. ii. p. 20. 
 
 blichus de vita Pythagoras, c. 6.] Hammond has obviously misappre- 
 
 * [ The words of Dicasarchus are, Ol bended the meaiiing of the passage.] 
 
SEllMON XI II. 
 
 some munition for ns, and not suffer us to be so pitifully 
 baffled, and befooled, and triumphed over by that old sophis- 
 ter. And if for all these advantages we prove dunces at 
 last, it will be an increase, not only of our torments, but our 
 shame ; of our indignation at ourselves at the day of doom ; 
 and the reproach and infamy superadded to our sufferings 
 will scarce afford us leisure to weep and wail, for gnashing 
 of our teeth. And therefore, as Josephus* of the Jews, that 
 they prayed to God daily, ottco^ Sw, k.t.\., not that He 
 would bestow good things on them, for He did that already on. 
 His own accord, pouring out plenty of all in the midst of 
 them, but oirays Be')(^ea6at Svvcovrai, Koi Xa^ovres ^uXdrroycrt, 
 that they might be able to receive and keep what He 
 bestowed." So will it concern us to pray and labour 
 mainly for the preserving, that we be the better for this 
 great bounty of God's : that neither our inobservance of His 
 gifts suffer them to pass by us unprofitably and neglected, 
 being either not laid hold on or not employed; nor the 
 unthrifty mishusbanding of them cause the Lord to call 
 in the talent entrusted to us already, because unworthy of 
 any more. 
 
 It was a shrewd, though atheistical speech of Hippo- 
 crates^, "that sure, if the gods had any good things to 
 bestow, they would dispense them among the rich," who 
 would be able and ready to requite them by sacrifices : " but 
 all evil presents, all Pandora's box should be divided among 
 the poor," because they are still murmuring and repining, 
 and never think of making any return for favours. 
 
 The eye of nature, it seems, could discern thus much of 
 God and His gifts, that they are the most plentifully be- 
 stowed, where the greatest return may be expected : and for 
 others, from whom all the liberality in the world can extort no 
 retribution, but grumbling and complaints, it is not charity 
 or alms, but prodigality and riot to bestow on them. These 
 are to be fed, not with bread, but stripes ; they are not irevrfres, 
 
 Sia T^s ^vxvs Ka\ Serjcris, ovx Svrcos SiS^J 
 TO. ayaOd' SeSw/ce yap aiirhs €Ku>v, Kal vra- 
 atu €is p.4aov KaTiQriKiV aW' ottcos Sexec- 
 6ai Svi/w/Liida, koI \(xfi6vr€s (jyvXarTw/xeu. 
 Joseph, cont. Apioneni, lib. ii. c. 23.] 
 
 " [iLKds yap Tovs fjievirXova'iovs Qvnv 
 TToXXa TOLS 6so7s Kai avarid^vai avaQy]- 
 (xaTa ouTcav xpTj^aro)!/ Kal TiiJ.au, rous 5e 
 Trevrjras -^affou Sia rh fir] exeii/. Hip- 
 pocrates, torn, i, p. 563. Medic. Graec, 
 vol. xxi. ed. Kuhn.] 
 
294 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 
 [Gen.xli. but 7rTft);)^ol, rather "beggars^' than " poor/Mike Pharaoh's 
 
 20, 21.] jg^^ kine, after the devouring of the fat ones still lank and 
 very ill-favoured. And the judgment of these you shall find 
 
 [Mat. XXV. in the Gospel, ''from them shall be taken away even that 
 which they have." And therefore, all which from God, at 
 this time and for ever, I shall require and beg of you, is 
 the exercise and the improvement of your talent ; that your 
 learning may not be for ostentation, but for traffic ; not to 
 possess, but negotiate withal ; not to complain any longer of 
 the poverty of your stock, but presently to set to work to 
 husband it. That knowledge of God which He hath allowed 
 you as your portion to set up with, is ample enough to be 
 the foundation of the greatest estate in the world ; and you 
 need not despair, through an active, labouring, thriving course, 
 at last to set heaven as a roof on that foundation : only it 
 will cost you some pains to get the materials together for 
 the building of the walls ; it is as yet but a foundation, and 
 the roof will not become it till the walls be raised ; and there- 
 fore every faculty of your souls and bodies must turn Beza- 
 
 [Ex. XXXV. leels and Aholiabs, spiritual artificers for the forwarding and 
 
 30, 34. J perfecting of this work. 
 
 It is not enough to have gotten an abstracted mathemati- 
 cal scheme or diagram of this spiritual building in our brain; 
 it is the mechanical labouring part of religion that must 
 make up the edifice; the work, and toil, and sweat of the 
 soul; the business, not of the designer, but the carpenter; 
 that which takes the rough, unpolished, though excellent 
 materials, and trims and fits them for use ; which cuts and 
 polishes the rich, but as yet deformed jewels of the soul, and 
 makes them shine indeed, and sparkle like stars in the fir- 
 mament. That ground or sum of Pythagorean philosophy, 
 as it is set down by Hierocles in his x/ofcra eiri], if it were 
 admitted into our schools or hearts, would make us scholars 
 and divines indeed ; that virtue is the way to truth, purity 
 of affections a necessary precursory to depth of knowledge, 
 irpwTov dvOpcoTTov elvai fcal rore Oeov, the only means to 
 prepare for the uppermost form of wisdom, the speculation 
 of God, which doth ennoble the soul unto the condition of 
 an 7]p(09 or deb^, of an heroical, nay sacred person, is first to 
 have been the person of a man aright, and by the practice of 
 
SERMON XIII. 
 
 295 
 
 virtue to Lave cleared the eye for that glorious vision. But 
 the divinity and learning of these times floats and hovers 
 too much in the brain, hath not either weight or sobriety 
 enough in it to sink down, or settle it in the heart. We 
 are all for the fxeOohiKr], as Clemens^ calls it; the art of sort- 
 ing out, and laying in order all intellectual store in our 
 brains, tracing the counsels of God, and observing His 
 methods in His secrecies ; but never for the irpatcrtKr], the 
 refunding and pouring out any of that store in the alms, 
 as it were, and liberality of our actions. If Gerson's defini- 
 tion of theology, that it is scientia effeciiva non speculativa^, 
 were taken into our consideration at the choice of our profes- 
 sions, we should certainly have fewer pretenders to divinity, 
 but it is withal hoped more divines. 
 
 The Lacedsemonians and Cretians, saith Josephusy, brought 
 up men to the practice, but not knowledge of good, by their 
 example only, not by precept or law. The Athenians, and 
 generally the rest of the Grecians, used instructions of laws 
 only, but never brought them up by practice and discipline. 
 
 But of all lawgivers,^^ saith he, " only Moses," diicfxo ravra 
 (TvvTjpiJbocrev, dispensed and measured both these propor- 
 tionably together." And this, beloved, is that for which that 
 policy of the primitive Jews deserved to be called Oeo/cparia, 
 by a special name, the government of God Himself. This is 
 it : the combination of your knowledge with your practice, 
 your learning with your lives, which I shall, in fine, com- 
 mend unto you, to take out both for yourselves and others. 
 1. For yourselves, that in your study of divinity you will not 
 behold God's attributes as a sight or spectacle, but as a copy, 
 not only to be admired, but to be transcribed into your 
 hearts and lives ; not to gaze upon the sun to the dazzling, 
 nay, destroying of your eyes, but, as it were, in a burning- 
 glass, contract those blessed sanctifying rays that flow from 
 it, to the enlivening and inflaming of your hearts. And 2. 
 in the behalf of others ; so to digest and inwardly dispense 
 every part of sacred knowledge into each several member 
 and vein of body and soul, that it may transpire through 
 
 ' [S. Clem. Alex. Paedag., lib. i.e. 1.] r [Joseplius cont. Apionem, lib, ii. 
 ^ [Joann. Gerson, Op., pars i. p. 566, c, 16, 17.] 
 D. See Practical Catechism, p. 1.] 
 
396 
 
 SERMON Xlll. 
 
 hands, and feet, and heart, and tongue; and so secretly 
 insinuate itself into all about you ; that both by precept and 
 example, they may see and follow " your good works," and so 
 glorify here your Father which is in heaven," that we 
 may all partake of that blessed resurrection, not of the 
 learned and the great, but the just ; and so hope and attain 
 to be all glorified together with Him hereafter. 
 Now to Him, &c. 
 
SERMON XIV. 
 
 Phil. iv. 13. 
 
 / can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me. 
 
 Those two contrary heresies that cost St. Austin and the 
 fathers of his time so much pains; the one all for natural 
 strength, the other for irrecoverable weakness, have had such 
 unkindly influence on succeeding ages, that almost all the 
 actions of the ordinary Christian have some tincture of one 
 of these : scarce any sin is sent abroad into the world without 
 either this or that inscription. And therefore parallel to these, 
 we may observe the like division in the hearts and practical 
 faculties between pride and sloth, opinion of absolute power, 
 and prejudice of absolute impotence : the one undertaking 
 all upon its own credit, the other suing, as it were, for the 
 preferment, or rather excuse of being bankrupts upon record ; 
 that so they may come to an easy composition with God for 
 their debt of obedience : the one so busy in contemplation of 
 their present fortunes that they are not at leisure to make 
 use of them, their pride helping them to ease ; and if you look 
 nearly to poverty too, the other so fastened to this sanctuary^ Rev.iii. 17. 
 this religious piece of profaneness, that leaving the whole 
 business to God, as the undertaker and proxy of their obedi- 
 ence, their idleness shall be deemed devotion, and their best 
 piety sitting still. 
 
 These two diff'erences of men, either sacrilegious or supine, 
 imperious or lethargical, have so dichotomized this lower sphere 
 of the world, almost into two equal parts, that the prac- 
 tice of humble obedience and obeying humility, the bemoan- 
 ing our wants to God, with petition to repair them, and the 
 observing and making use of those succours which God in 
 Christ hath dispensed to us; those two foundations of all 
 
298 
 
 SEEMON XIV. 
 
 Christian duty, providing between them that our religion be 
 neither aOeos aperrj, nor avepyijros ev^V) " neither the virtue 
 of the atheist, nor the prayer of the sluggard," are almost 
 quite vanished out of the world : as when the body is torn 
 asunder, the soul is without any further act of violence forced 
 out of its place, that it takes its flight home to heaven, being 
 thus let out at the scissure, as at the window; and only the 
 two fragments of carcase remain behind. 
 
 For the deposing of these two tyrants, that have thus 
 usurped the soul between them, dividing the live child with 
 [ 1 Kings that false mother, into two dead parts ; for the abating this 
 pride, and enlivening this deadness of practical faculties; for 
 the scourging this stout beggar, and restoring this cripple to 
 his legs ; the two provisions in my text, if the order of them 
 only be transposed, and in God^s method the last set first, 
 will, I may hope and pray, prove sufficient. " I can do," &c. 
 
 1. Through Christ that strengtheneth me." You have 
 there, first, the assertion of the necessity of grace ; and 
 secondly, that enforced from the form of the word €pSvva= 
 fiovvra, which imports the minutely continual supply of aids ; 
 and then, thirdly, we have not only positively, but exclusively 
 declared the person thus assisting ; in Christo confortante, it is 
 by Him, not otherwise, we can do thus or thus. Three parti- 
 culars, all against the natural confidence of the proud atheist. 
 
 2. The la^vcd iravra, I can do all things." First, the 
 la^vo), and secondly, the Travra; 1. the power; and 2. the 
 extent of that power: 1. the potency; and 2. the omnipo- 
 tency; and then 3. this not only originally of Christ that 
 strengtheneth, but inherently of me, being strengthened by 
 Christ. Three particulars again, and all against the con- 
 ceived or pretended impotence, either of the false spy that 
 
 Numb.xiii. brought news of the giants, Anakims, cannibals, in the way 
 to Canaan; or of the sluggard, that is alway afiPrighting and 
 keeping himself at home, with the lion in the streets, some 
 IJLop[jLo\vK6iov or other difficulty or impossibility, whensoever 
 
 Prov. xxvi. any work or travail of obedience is required of us. 
 
 ^*^* It will not befit the majesty of the subject to have so many 
 
 particulars, by being severally handled, jointly neglected. Our 
 best contrivance will be to shorten the retail for the increas- 
 
 » 
 
SEKMON XI V. 299 
 
 ing of the gross, to make the fewer parcels, that we may carry 
 them away the better, in these three propositions. 
 
 I. The strength of Christ is the original and fountain of 
 all ours ; " Through Christ that," &c. 
 
 II. The strength of a Christian, from Christ derived, is a 
 kind of omnipotency, sufficient for the whole duty of a 
 Christian. " Can do all things," &c. 
 
 III. The strength and power being thus bestowed, the 
 work is the work of a Christian, of the suppositum, the 
 man strengthened by Christ. " I can do," &c. 
 
 Of these in this order, for the removing only of those pre- 
 judices out of the brain, which may trash and encumber the 
 practice of piety in the heart. And first of the first. 
 
 The strength of Christ is the original and fountain of all 
 ours. The strength of Christ, and that pecuharly of Christ the 
 second Person of the Trinity, who was appointed by consent 
 to negotiate for us in the business concerning our souls. All 
 our tenure or plea, to grace or glory, to depend not on any 
 absolute, respectless, though free donation, but conveyed to 
 us in the hand of a Mediator; that privy seal of His annexed [Acts vii.] 
 to the patent, or else of no value at that court of pleas, or 
 that grand assizes of souls. Our natural strength is the gift 
 of God, as God is considered in the first article of our creed, 
 and by that title of creation we have that privilege of all 
 created substances, to be able to perform the work of nature, 
 or else we should be inferior to the meanest creature in this ; 
 for the least stone in the street is able to move downwards 
 by its own principle of nature : and therefore all that we have 
 need of in the performing of these is only God's concurrence, 
 whether previous or simultaneous ; and in acts of choice, the 
 government and direction of our will, by His general provi- 
 dence and power. However, even in this work of creation, 
 Christ must not be excluded, D'Ti^i^ ^^Gods," in the [Gen. i. i.] 
 plural, all the persons of the Deity, in the whole work, and 
 peculiarly in the faciamus hominem, are adumbrated, if not [Gen. i. 
 mentioned by Moses. And therefore God is said to have ^^'-^ 
 made all by His Word, that inward, eternal Word in His [John 1.3.] 
 bosom, an articulation, and, as it were, incarnation of which, 
 was that fiat et factum est, which the heathen rhetorician so 
 
300 
 
 SEllMON XIV. 
 
 admired in Moses for a magnificent sublime expression*. Yet 
 in this creation, and consequently this donation of natural 
 strength, peculiarly imputed to the first Person of the Trinity; 
 because no personal act of Christ, either of His satisfaction 
 or merit, of His humiliation or exaltation, did conduce to that ; 
 though the Son were consulted about it, yet was it not h 
 %e6/)l fiealrov, " delivered to us in the hand of a Mediator.^' 
 Our natural strength we have of God, without respect to 
 Christ incarnate, without the help of His mediation ; but that 
 2Cor. iii. 5. utterly unsufficient to bring us to heaven. "Not that we are 
 sufficient of ourselves to think any thing,^^ i. e., saith Parisi- 
 ensis^ any thing of moment or valour, according to the dialect 
 of Scripture, that calls the whole man by the name of his soul, 
 — so many souls, i. e., so many men, and so 97 -^vxv ^^^} the 
 Pythagoreans' word, thy " soul is thou,'' — counts of nothing, 
 but what tends to the salvation of that. , But then our super- 
 natural strength, that which is called grace and Christian 
 strength, that is of another date, of another tenure, of another 
 allay ; founded in the promise, actually exhibited in the death 
 and exaltation of the Messias, and continually paid out to us, 
 by the continued daily exercise of His offices. 1. The cove- 
 nant sealed in His blood, after the manner of eastern nations, 
 [Gen. xvii. as a Counterpart of God's, to that which Abraham had sealed 
 ^^■^ to before in his blood at his circumcision. 2. The benefits 
 made over in that covenant were given up in numerato, with 
 a kind of livery and seisin at His exaltation ; which is the im- 
 Eph. iv. 8. portance of that place, " Thou hast ascended on high." There 
 fiV]'^"' is the date of it upon Christ's inauguration to His regal office^ : 
 " Thou hast led captivity captive." There is the evidence of 
 conveyance unto Him, as a reward of His victory and part of 
 His triumph \ "Thou hast given gifts," or as the Psalm, "re- 
 ceived" "gifts for men." Both importing the same thing in 
 [Matt. divers relations, received from His Father, — "All power is 
 xxviu. 18.] giygj^ Me," — that He might give, dispense, convey, and 
 steward it out to men ; and so literally still, iv %et/ot /meaLTov, 
 " in the hand of a Mediator." And then that which is thus 
 
 ^ Longinus de Sublim. [c. 9. circa ^ [Hierocl. in Pyth. Aur. Carm., ver. 
 
 med.] 25.] 
 
 [Gulielmus Alvernus Parisiensis d As Swpoi/, and \ri/j.fxa, fipa^e7oy, and 
 
 de Meritis, Op., torn. i. p. 310. b. H. aeXou, in Greek, 
 ed. Par. 1674.] 
 
SERMON XIV. 
 
 301 
 
 made over to us is not only the gift of grace, the habit by 
 which we are regenerate : but above that account, daily 
 bubblings out of the same spring, minutely rays of this Sun 
 of Righteousness, which differ from that gift of grace, as the 
 propagation of life from the first act of conception, conserva- 
 tion from creation ; that which was there done in a minute 
 is here done every minute ; and so the Christian is still in fieri, 
 not in facto esse : or as a line which is an aggregate of infinite 
 points, from a point in suo indivisibili ; the first called by the 
 schools, auxilimn gratice per modum principii, the other per 
 modum concursus. And this is noted by the word hoaeis, 
 "givings," neither e^ets as the heathen^ called their virtues, Jam. i. 17. 
 as habits of their own acquiring ; nor again so properly hoipa, ^J^^'^^^q^ 
 
 gifts,^^ because that proves a kind of tenure after the receipt. 
 Data, eo tempore quo dantur, fiunt accipientis, saith the law : 
 but properly and critically hoaeLs, " givings," Christ always 
 a giving, confirming minutely not our title but His own gift ; 
 or else that as minutely ready again to return to the crown. 
 All our right and title to strength and power is only from 
 God^s minutely donation. And the ivhwajjuovvTi, in the pre- 
 sent tense, implies all depending on the perpetual presence 
 and assistance of His strength. Hence is it that Christ is 
 called " the Father of eternity,^^ i. e., " of the life to come," isa. ix. 6. 
 — jjL€XXovto9 alcovos say the LXX, "the age to come," — the 
 state of Christians under the gospel, and all that belongs to 
 it; "the Father" which doth not only beget the child, but 
 educate, provide for, put in a course to live and thrive, and 
 deserves far more for that He doth after the birth, than for 
 the being itself; and therefore it is Proclus' observation of 
 Plato, that he calls God, in respect of all creatures, irotr^Trjv, a 
 " Maker ;" but Trarepa, a " Father," in respect of man. And 
 this the peculiar title of Christ, in respect of His offices ; not 
 to be the Maker only, the architect of that age to come, of 
 grace and glory, but peculiarly the Father, which continues 
 His paternal relation for ever; yea, and the exercises of 
 paternal offices by the pedagogy of the Spirit, all the time of 
 nonage, minutely adding and improving, and building him 
 up to the measure and pitch of His own stature and fulness. 
 
 e [Arist. Eth. ii. 4.] 
 
302 
 
 SEEMON XTV. 
 
 Mat. i. 21. And so again that sovereign title of His, Jesus/^ i.e.^ larpos 
 and acoTrjp, avros yap crcoaei. This title and office of physician 
 is peculiar to the second Person, to repair the daily decays and 
 ruins of the soul^ and not only to implant a principle of health, 
 but to maintain it by a BiaLrrjTCKov, and confirm it minutely 
 
 [Mal.iii.2.] into an exact habit of soul : and therefore, that Sun of righte- 
 ousness is said to have His healing in His wings ; i.e., in those 
 rays which it minutely sends out, by which as on wings, this 
 fountain of all inherent and imputed righteousness, of sancti- 
 fying and justifying grace, takes its flight, and rests upon the 
 Christian soul ; and this still peculiarly, eV Xptcrrw evhvva- 
 /uLovvTL, not in God, koivcos, but KvpKDs, in Christ ; " in Christ 
 that strengtheneth.^^ 
 
 The not observing, or not acknowledging of which dif- 
 ference between the gifts of God and the gifts of Christ, the 
 endowments of that first and this second foundation, the 
 hand of God and the hand of a Mediator, is, I conceive, 
 the ground of all those perplexing controversies about the 
 strength of nature and patrimony of grace. Pelagius, verj^ 
 jealous and unwilling to part with his natural power, "lest 
 any thing in the business of his salvation should be accounted 
 due unto God,^^ they are his own words, if Jerome^ may be 
 credited, Mihi nullus auferre jioterit liheri arbitrii potestatenij 
 ne si in o-peribus meis Deus adjutor exstiterit, non mihi de- 
 heatur merces, sed ei qui in me operatus, Socinus again de- 
 nying all merit and satisfaction of Christ, making all that 
 but a chimera, and so evacuating or antiquating that old 
 tenure by which we hold all our spiritual estate. The Ro- 
 manists again, at least some of them, bestowing upon the 
 blessed Virgin after conception, such jurisdiction in the tem- 
 poral procession of the Holy Ghost, that no grace is to be 
 had but by her dispensing^^ ; that she, the mother, gives 
 Him that sends the Holy Ghost, and therefore gives all 
 
 ^ [S. Hieron. Dial. cont. Pelag., lib. Christo fuit plenitudo gratise sicut in 
 
 i. c. 6. Op., torn. ii. col. 686, D.] capite, influente in Maria vero, sicut in 
 
 ^ [A tempore enini, a quo Virgo ma- collo transfundente. Unde Cant. vii. &c. 
 
 ter concepit in utero Verbum Dei, quan- Ideo omnia dona, virtutes, et gratiae 
 
 dam (ut ita dicam) jurisdictionem, seu ipsius Spiritus Sancti, quibus vult, 
 
 auctoritatem obtinuit in omni Spiritus quando vult, quomodo vult, et quan- 
 
 Sancti processione temporali : ita quod turn vult, per manus ipsius adminis- 
 
 nulla creatura aliquam a Deo obtinuit trantur. S. Bernardini Senensis de B. 
 
 gratiam vel virtutem, nisi secundum M.V., Serm. v. Art. i. cap. 8. Op., torn, 
 
 ipsius piam dispensationem .... In iv. p. 92, 93. cf. art. iii. cap. 2. p. 81.] 
 
SERMON XIV. 
 
 803 
 
 gifts, quibus vult, quomodo, quando, et i^er manus ; that slie 
 is the neck to Christ the Head: andi Sublato Virginis patro- Cant.vii.4. 
 cinio, peyinde ac halitu infercluso, peccator vivere diutius non 
 potest : and store enough of such emasculate theology as 
 this. And yet others that maintain the quite contradic- 
 tory to all these, acknowledging a necessity of supernatural 
 strength to the attaining of our supernatural end, and then 
 ask and receive this only, as from the hands and merits of 
 Christ, without the mediation or jurisdiction of any other, 
 are yet had in jealousy and suspicion as back-friends to the 
 cause of God, and enemies to grace ; because they leave 
 man any portion of that natural strength which was be- 
 stowed on him at his creation. Whereas the limits of both 
 of these being distinctly set, there may safely be acknowledged, 
 first a natural power, — or if you. will call it natural grace, 
 the fathers will bear you out in the phrase ; Illius est gratice 
 quod creatus est, St. Jerome*^; Gratia Dei qua fecit 7ios, St. 
 Austin^; and C7'earis gratia, St. Bernard™: — and that properly 
 styled the strength of God, but not of Christ, enabling us 
 for the works of nature. 
 
 And then above this, is regularly superstructed the strength 
 of Christ, special supernatural strength made over unto us, 
 not at our first but second birth ; without which, though we 
 are men, yet not Christians, "live,^^ saith Clemens, idviKov 
 KoX TTpMTov IBiov^\ " a kind of embryon, imperfect heathen,^^ 
 of a child in the womb, of the gentle dark uncomfortable 
 being, a kind of first draught, or ground colours onlj^, and 
 monogram of life. Though we have souls, yet in relation to 
 spiritual acts or objects, but weak consumptive cadaverous 
 souls, — as ^t^, the Old Testament word for the soul, and 
 '^vxn ill the LXXII signifies a carcase or dead body. Numb. 
 V. 2, and otherwhere, — and then by this accession of this 
 strength of Christ, this dead soul revives into a kind of om- 
 nipotency; the pigmy is sprung up into a giant, this lan- 
 guishing puling state improved into an aOXTjTtfcr} e^ts; he 
 
 ' [Viegas Comment. Exeget. in Apo- iv. col. 1616, D.] 
 
 calypsin, cap. xii. de B. Virg. comment. [S. Bernard, de gratia et libero 
 
 2. sect. 3. num. 6.] arbitrio, c. xiv. § 48, 49. Op., torn. i. 
 
 [S. Hieron. Epist. cxl. (al. cxxxix.) col. 628, A, C] 
 
 ad Cyprianum, Op.,tom.i.col. 1046, C] n [S. Clem. Alex. Strom., lib. vii. p. 
 
 ' S. August, in Ps. xliv. [§ 10. torn. 752, C] 
 
304 
 
 SERl\rON XTV. 
 
 that even now was insufficient " to think any thing," is " now 
 able to do all things;" which brings me to my second pro- 
 position. 
 
 The strength of a Christian, from Christ derived, is a kind 
 of omnipotence sufficient for the whole duty of a Chris- 
 tian ; l(T')(y(o irdura, " can do all things." 
 
 The clearing of this truth from all difficulties or preju- 
 dices, will depend mainly on the right understanding of the 
 predicate, ra irdvra, in my text, or the whole duty of a 
 Christian in the proposition : which two being of the same 
 importance, the same hand will unravel them both. Now 
 what is the whole duty of a Christian but the adequate con- 
 dition of the second covenant ? upon performance of which 
 salvation shall certainly be had, and without which salvare 
 nequeat ipsa si cupiat salus, the very suflPerings and saving 
 mercies of Christ will avail us nothing. As for any exercise 
 of God^s absolute will, or power, in this business of souls 
 under Christ's kingdom, I think we may fairly omit to take 
 it into consideration ; for sure the New Testament will ac- 
 knowledge no such phrase, nor I think any of the ancients 
 that wrote in that language. Whereupon perhaps it will be 
 worth observing, in the confession of the religion of the 
 Greek Church, subscribed by Cyril the present patriarch of 
 Constantinople", where having somewhat to do with this 
 phrase, of "God's absolute dominion" so much talked on here 
 in the west, he is much put to it to express it in Greek, and 
 at last fain to do it by a word coined on purpose, a mere 
 Latinism for the turn, diroXeXv/jbivTjv Kvpiorrjra : an expres- 
 sion I think capable of no excuse but this, that a piece of 
 new divinity was to be content with a barbarous phrase. 
 Concerning this condition of the second covenant, three 
 things will require to be premised to our present enquiry ; 
 
 1. That there is a condition, and that an adequate one, 
 of the same extent as the promises of the covenant ; some- 
 thing exacted at our hands to be performed, if we mean to 
 John i. 12. be the better for the demise of that indenture, "as many as 
 
 ° [Cyril Lucar is the person al- Orien talis, ed. Kimniel, p, 26. ris 
 luded to ; Cyrilli Confessio fidei, cap, eViS^ eVl rrju airo\e\v/xevr}v tov &eov 
 iii. apud Libros Symbolicos Ecclesiae avdei/relav koI KvpiSrrjTa.] 
 
SERMON XIV. 
 
 305 
 
 received Him, to them He gave power/^ &c. To these, and 
 to none else, positively and exclusively : " To him that over- Rev. ii. 7- 
 Cometh will I give;" "I have fought a good fight," &c. 
 " Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown then begins 2 Tim. iv. 
 the title to the crown, and not before : when the fight is 
 fought, the course finished, the faith kept, then coslum rapi- 
 unt, God challenged on His righteousness as a Judge, not on 
 ground of His absolute pleasure as a Lord, which will; but 
 upon supposition of a pact or covenant, which limits and 
 directs the award and process, for according unto it, God, 
 the righteous Judge, shall give." And in Christ^s farewell Mark xvi. 
 speech to His disciples, where He seals their commission of 
 embassage and preaching to every creature : " He that be- 
 lieveth not shall be damned f this believing, whatever it 
 signifies, is that condition here we speak of, and what it im- 
 ports, you will best see by comparing it with the same pas- 
 sage set down by another amanuensis in the last verse of 
 St. Matthew, " to observe all things whatsoever I have com- [Mat. 
 manded you a belief, not of brain or fancy, but that of ^^'^ 
 heart and practice, i. e. distinctly evangelical or Christian 
 obedience, the iravra in my text, and the whole duty of a 
 Christian in the proposition ; which if a Christian, by the 
 help of Christ, be not able to perform, then consequently he 
 is still uncapable of salvation by the second covenant; no 
 creature being now rescuable from hell, stante pacto, but 
 those that perform the condition of it, that irreversible oath 
 of God, which is always fulfilled in kind without relaxation, 
 or commutation, or compensation'of punishment, being already 
 gone out against them ; " I have sworn in My wrath that they Heb. iv, 3. 
 shall not enter into My rest." And therefore when the end 
 of Christ^s mission is described, "that the world through Him John iii.l7. 
 might be saved;" there is a shrewd ^but' in the next verse, 
 " but he that believeth not, is condemned already :" this was 
 upon agreement between God and Christ, that the impenitent 
 infidel should be never the better for it, should die unrescued 
 in his old condemnation. So that there is not only a logical 
 possibility, but a moral necessity of the performing of this 
 ra iravra, or else no possibility of salvation. And then that 
 reason of disannulling the old, and establishing the new cove- 
 nant, because there was no justification to be had by the old, 
 
 HAMMOND. Y 
 
306 
 
 SERMON XIV. 
 
 Gal. iii. 21. rendered Gal. iii. 21, would easily be retorted upon the Apostle 
 thus, Why, neither is any life or justification to be had by this 
 second ; the absurdity of which sequel being considered, may 
 serve for one proof of the proposition. 
 
 The second thing to be premised of this condition is, that 
 it is an immutable, unalterable, undispensable condition. 
 The second covenant standing, this must also stand ; that 
 hath been proved already, because a condition adequate, 
 and of the same latitude with the covenant. 
 
 But now secondly, this second, both covenant and con- 
 Ezek. xvi. dition, must needs stand an everlasting covenant. No pos- 
 sibility of a change, unless, upon an impossible supposition, 
 there should remain some other fourth person of the Deity 
 to come into the world. The tragic poets, saith TullyP, 
 when they had overshot themselves in a desperate plot that 
 would never come about, ad deum confugiunty they were 
 fain to fly to a god, to lay that unruly spirit that their fancy 
 had raised. Upon Adam's sin and breach of the condition 
 of the first covenant, there was no possibility in the wit of 
 man, in the sphere of the most poetical fancy, fabulce exitum 
 explicare, to come off with a fair conclusion, had not the 
 second Person of the Trinity, that Qeos airo fjbr)^avrj<}, come 
 down in His tire, and personation of flesh, not in the stage 
 clothes or livery, but substantial form of a servant upon 
 the stage. And He again having brought things into 
 some possibility of a happy conclusion, — though it cost Him 
 His life in the negotiation, — leaves it at His departure in the 
 trust of His vicegerent, the "spirit of His power,^^ to go 
 through with His beginnings ; to see that performed, — which 
 only He left unperfected, as being our task, not His, — the con- 
 dition of the second covenant. The Spirit then enters upon 
 the work, dispatches officers, ambassadors to all nations in 
 Mark xvi. the world, irdorr) KTiaeiy to " every creature.^^ And Himself 
 Mat.xxviii. the " end of the world," goes along to back them in their 
 20- ministry. And then the next thing the Scripture tells us 
 
 of, is the coming to harvest after this seed time, and he "that 
 belie veth not, shall be damned;" and so that sacred canon is 
 shut up. 
 
 P ("Ut tragici poetae cum explicare gitis ad Deum. — Cic. de Nat. Deorum, 
 argumenti exitum non potestis, confu- lib. iv. c. 20.] 
 
SERMON XTV. 
 
 307 
 
 The issue of this second prcBCogniUim is this ; that if there 
 still remain any difficulties, any impossibilities to be over- 
 come, so they are like to remain for ever, unless there be 
 some other person in the Godhead to be sent, to make up 
 Pythagoras his TerpaKrvs^, there is no new way imaginable 
 to be found out; and that perhaps is the reason of those 
 peremptory denunciations of Christ against them that sin 
 against the Holy Ghost, against that administration of grace 
 entrusted to Him, that there shall be never any remission [Mat. xii. 
 for them, in this world or in another, i. e. either by way of 
 justification here, or glorification at that grand manumission 
 hereafter. And that may serve for a second proof of the 
 proposition, that if for all, the duty of a Christian is not 
 feasible, it must remain so for ever ; an adumbration thereof 
 you may see set down Heb. x. comparing the sixteenth with 
 the twenty-sixth verse. In the sixteenth you have the 
 second covenant described, and the condition of it in the 
 verses following ; and then, verse twenty-six, if after this we 
 sin wilfully, then our estate becomes desperate, " there re- 
 mains no more sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful looking 
 for of judgment and fiery indignation and he that takes 
 not then quarter, accounted an adversary for ever ; the apos- 
 tate, whether he renounce his faith in fact or profession, 
 must be a cast-away. 
 
 The third thing to be premised is, wherein this condition 
 of the second covenant consists ; and that is not in any rigour 
 of legal performance, — that was the bloody purport of that old 
 obligation that soon concluded us all under death irreversibly, 
 — not in any Egyptian Pharaoh's tasks, a full tale of bricks 
 without straw, without any materials to make them ; no pha- 
 risaical burden laid on heavy, and no finger to help to bear it ; [Matxxiii. 
 but an " easy yoke," a " light burden,^' and not only light, ^^^^ 
 but alleviating : he that was laden before is the lighter for 
 this yoke, " Take My yoke, and you shall find rest." And ver. 29. 
 therefore Christ thinks reasonable not to lay the yoke upon 
 them as an injunction, — as the worldly fashion is, — but to 
 commend it to them as a thing that any prudent man would 
 be glad to take up ; in the beginning of the verse, " Take My 
 yoke upon you.'' 
 
 [Cf. Jamblich. vita Pythag., c.l50, 162. et Carni, Aur. ver. 17. ct II ierocl. in eimd. ] 
 
 X 2 
 
308 
 
 SERMON XIV, 
 
 In a word, it consists in the embracing of Christ in all His 
 offices, the whole person of Christ; but especially as He is 
 
 Zach. vi. typically described in Zachary, a crowned Jesus, a Priest upon 
 a throne ; His sceptre joined to His ephod, to rule and receive 
 tribute, as well as sacrifice, and satisfy, and reconcile. Consi- 
 Hum pads inter ambo ea, those two offices of His reconciled in 
 
 Luke i. 74. the same, our Priest become our King, '^that being delivered, 
 we may serve Him," — in the other Zachary's phrase, delivered 
 without fear, serve Him, — "in holiness and righteousness the 
 performance of that duty that Christ enables to perform; the 
 sincerity of the honest heart ; the doing what our Christian 
 strength will reach to, and humbly setting the rest on Christ^s 
 score. And then when that which can be done is sure to be 
 accepted, there is no room left for pretended impossibilities. 
 Nay, because those things which there is a logical possibility 
 for us to do, and strength sufficient suppeditated, it is not yet 
 morally possible to do all our lives long without any default ; 
 because, as Parisiensis^ saith, even the habit of grace, in the 
 regenerate heart, is, as long as a man carries flesh about him, 
 as an armed man, posifus in lubrico, set to fight in a slippery 
 place, all his armour and valour will not secure him from a 
 fall; or again, as the general of a factious or false-hearted 
 array, a party of insidious flesh at home, which will betray to 
 the weaker enemy that comes unanimous ; or as a warrior on 
 a tender-mouthed horse, impatient of discipline or check, is 
 fetched over sometimes for all his strength and armour ; be- 
 cause, I say, there is none but off'end sometimes, even against 
 his power ; there is therefore bound up in this new volume of 
 ordinances, an eirivofiis, a " new testament," a codicil of re- 
 pentance added to the testament ; that plank for shipwrecked 
 
 [Num. souls*, that city of refuge, that sanctuary for the man-slayer, 
 
 XXXV. 6.] g-^ committed. And then, if sincere obedience be all 
 
 that is required, and that exclude no Christian living, be he 
 never so weak, but the false, faithless hypocrite ; if repent- 
 ance will repair the faults of that, and that exclude none but 
 him that lives and dies indulgent in sin, the common prosti- 
 tute, final impenitent infidel : if whatsoever be wanting be 
 made over in the demise of the covenants, and whatsoever 
 
 * [Gulielmus Alvernus Parisiensis prope fin. Op., torn. i. p. 299.] 
 De tentationibus et resistentiis, cap. i. » [See Pract. Catech., sect. v. p. 129.] 
 
SERMON XIV. 
 
 309 
 
 we are enabled to do accepted in the condition of it; then 
 certainly no man that advises with these premises, and so 
 understands what is the meaning of the duty, can ever doubt 
 any longer of the irdvra Icr^vw, the "omnipotence of the 
 Christian/^ his sufficiency from Christ to perform his whole 
 duty. Which is the sum of the conclusion of the second Arau- 
 sican council held against Pelagius^, c. ultJ Secundum fidem 
 Catholicam credimus, quod accept a per baptismum gratia om,' 
 nes baptizati Christ o auxiliante et cooper ante quce ad salutem 
 pertinent possint et debeant {si fideliter labor are voluerint) adim- 
 plere. The not observing of which is, I conceive, the fomenter 
 of all that unkindly heat of those involved disputes, whether 
 a regenerate man in via, can fulfil the law of God ; of that 
 collision concerning merits, concerning venial and mortal sin, 
 justification by works, or faith, or both ; all which upon the 
 grounds premised, will to any intelligent sober Christian, a 
 friend of truth and a friend of peace, be most evidently com- 
 posed. To bring down this thesis to these several hypotheses, 
 this time or place will not permit ; I shall be partial to this 
 part of my text, if I pass not with full speed to that which 
 remains, the third proposition. 
 
 That the strength and power being thus bestowed, the work 
 is the work of a Christian, of the suppositum, the man 
 strengthened and assisted by Christ. " I can/' &c. 
 
 I, not I alone, abstracted from Christ, nor I principally, and 
 Christ only in subsidiis, to facilitate that to me which I was not 
 quite able thoroughly to perform without help, — which deceit- 
 ful consideration drew on Pelagius himself, that was first only 
 for nature, at last to take in one after another five subsidiaries 
 more ; but only as so many horses to draw together in the 
 chariot with nature"^, being so pursued by the councils and 
 fathers, from one hold to another, till he was at last almost 
 deprived of all ; acknowledging, saith St. Austin divines 
 
 " Vid. Vossii Histor. Pelagian., p. taphor is used.] 
 
 315. [lib. iii. pars 2. This council is ^ [' Nos,' inquit (Pelagius), *sic 
 
 quoted in Epicrisis. 7.] tria ista distinguimus, et certum velut 
 
 ^ [Concil. Arausic. II. (A.D. 528,) in ordinem digesta partimur. Prime 
 
 can. ult. ; Concilia, torn. iv. col. 1672, loco posse statuimus, secundo velle, 
 
 B.J tertio esse. Posse in natura, velle in 
 
 ^ [See Vossii Hist. Pelag. ubi su- arbitrio, esse in effectu locamus. Pri- 
 
 pra, Theses, ii., iii., iv., where this me- mum illud, id est, posse, ad Deum pro- 
 
310 
 
 SERMON XIV. 
 
 gratice adjutoy'ium ad posse ; and then had not the devil stuck 
 close to him at the exigence, and held out at the velle et 
 operari, he might have been in great danger to have lost a 
 heretic ; — but I, absolutely impotent in myself to any super- 
 natural duty, being then rapt above myself, strengthened by 
 Christ^s perpetual influence, having all my strength and ability 
 from Him, am then that strength able to do all things my- 
 self. As in the old oracle the god inspired and spake in the 
 ear of the prophet, and then the Vates spoke under from 
 thence, called viTO(^r)Trjs, echoed out that voice aloud which 
 he had received by whisper, a kind of scribe, or crier, or 
 herald, to deliver out as he was inspired; the principal, 6eos, 
 a god, or oracle; the prophet evOeos, evdvaiaafjuevos, an in- 
 spired enthusiast, dispensing out to his credulous clients all 
 that the oracle did dictate ; or as the earth, which is cold and 
 dry in its elementary constitution, and therefore bound up 
 to a necessity of perpetual barrenness, having neither of those 
 two procreative faculties, heat or moisture, in its composition ; 
 but then by the beams of the sun and neighbourhood of water, 
 or to supply the want of that, rain from heaven to satisfy its 
 thirst, this cold dry element begins to teem, carries many 
 mines of treasure in the womb, many granaries of fruit in its 
 surface, and in event, la')(yei Travra, contributes all that we 
 can crave, either to our need or luxury. Now though all this 
 be done by those foreign aids, as principal, nay, sole efficients 
 of this fertility in the earth to conceive, and of its strength 
 to bring forth, yet the work of bringing forth is attributed to 
 the earth, as to the immediate parent of all. Thus it is God^s 
 work, Karacfivrevo-ao /cat Trorlo-ai, saith Cyril^, to plant and 
 water, and that He doth mediately by ApoUos and Paul : yea, 
 and to give the increase, that belongs to Him immediately; 
 neither to man nor angel, but only ad agricolam Trinitatem, 
 saith St. Austin^; but after all this aov Be KapiroipopTjaac, 
 
 prie pertinet, qui illud creaturae suse 
 coutulit : duo vero reliqua, hoc est 
 velle et esse, ad hominem referenda 
 sunt, quia de arbitrii fonte descendunt. 
 Ergo in voluntate et opere bono laus 
 hominis est : immo et liominis, et Dei, 
 qui ipsius voluntatis et operis possibili- 
 tatem dedit, quique ipsam possibilita- 
 tem gratias suae adjuvat semper aux- 
 ilio.' — Pelagii verba citat. ap. S. Au- 
 
 gustin., lib. de Gratia Christi, cap. 4. 
 vid. cap. 5. Op., torn. x. col. 231, 232.] 
 y [aiiTOv fxkv Qvv eVrt rh Kara<pvT€v- 
 crai Kal irorlcrai, (xhu Se Kapwocpoprj- 
 (Tai. — S. Cyrilli H. Catech. i, c. 4. p. 
 18, B.] 
 
 ^ [S. August, in S. Joan. Evang., c. 
 XV. Tract. Ixxx. § 2. Op., toin. iii. col. 
 703, A.] 
 
SERMON XIV. 
 
 311 
 
 though God give the increase, thou must bring forth the fruit. 
 The Holy Ghost overshadowed Mary, and ^^she was found Mat. i.i 8. 
 with child/' evpeOr}, she was found ; no more attributed to 
 her; the Holy Ghost the principal, nay, sole agent in the 
 work, and she a pure virgin still ^: and yet it is the angel's 
 divinity, ^^that Mary shall conceive and bring forth a son.'' Lukei. ai. 
 All the efficiency from the Holy Ghost, and partus ventrem, the 
 work attributed, and that truly to Mary, the subject in whom 
 it was wrought ; and therefore is she called hj the ancients 
 not only officina miraculorum, and ipyao-rr^ptov dyiou irvev- 
 fjiaros, " the shop of miracles,'' and " the work-house of the 
 Holy Ghost," as the rhetoric of some have set it, but by the 
 councils^, that were more careful in their phrases, ')(^pl(7tot6kos 
 and 6€ot6ko9, not only the conduit through which He passed, 
 but the parent of whose substance He was made. And thus 
 in the production of all spiritual actions, the principal sole 
 efficient of all is Christ and His Spirit; all that is conceived in 
 us is of the Holy Ghost : the holy principle, holy desire, holy 
 action, the posse, et velle, et operari, all of Him. But then Phil.ii. 12. 
 being so overshadowed, the soul itself conceives; being still 
 assisted, carries in the womb, and by the same strength at ful- 
 ness of time, as opportunities do midwife them out, brings forth 
 Christian spiritual actions ; and then as Mary was the mother 
 of God, so the Christian soul is the parent of all its divine 
 Christian performances ; Christ the father, that enables with 
 His Spirit; and the soul the mother, that actually brings forth. 
 
 And now that we may begin to draw up towards a conclu- 
 sion, two things we may raise from hence by way of inference 
 to our practice. 
 
 1. Where all the Christian's non-proficiency is to be charged, 
 either, 1. upon the habitual hardness, or 2. the sluggishness, 
 or 3. the rankness of his own wretchless heart. 
 
 1. Hardness; that for all the seed that is sown, the soften- 
 ing dew that distils, and rain that is poured down, the en- 
 
 * [Forma prsecessit in came Christi Sic ergo in hominis corde nec concipi 
 
 quam in nostra fide spiritaliter ag- fides poterit nec augeri, nisi earn Spi- 
 
 noscamus. Nam Christus filius Dei se- ritus Sanctus infundat et nutriat. — 
 
 cundum carnem de Spiritu Sancto con- Fulgentius Ruspensis de Incarnatione 
 
 ceptus et natus est. Carnem autem et gratia, c, 20. ap. Bibl. Pair. Galland., 
 
 illam nec concipere Virgo posset ali- torn. xi. p. 243, C] 
 quando nec parere nisi ejusdem carnis b [e.g. Concil. Ephes. et Constant. 
 
 Spirit'us Sanctus operaretur exortum. II.] 
 
312 
 
 SERMON XIV. 
 
 livening influences that are dispensed among us, yet the o-kXt]- 
 poTTjs vdTYjpas, the hardness and toughness of the womb/' 
 yrj ov irdvv iKTpecpovaa, that dry unnutrifying earth in 
 the philosopher's, or in Christ's dialect stony ground, resists 
 all manner of conception, will not be hospitable, yield any 
 entertainment, even to these angelical guests, though they 
 
 [Gen.xix.j comc as to Lot's house in Sodom only to secure the owner 
 from most certain destruction. This is the reason that so 
 much of God's husbandry among us returns Him so thin, so 
 unprofitable an harvest, ceciderunt in petrosa ; and it is hard 
 finding any better tillage now-a-days ; the very Holy Land, the 
 milk and honey of Canaan is degenerate, they say, into this 
 composition; and herein is a marvellous thing, that where 
 God hath done all that any man, if it were put to his own 
 partial judgment, would think reasonable for Him to do for 
 His vineyard, gathered out stones, those seeds of natural hard- 
 
 Isa. V. 2. ness, and, which deserves to be marked, built a wine-press, a 
 sure token that He expected a vintage in earnest, not only 
 manured for fashion, or to leave them without excuse; 
 yet for all these, labruscaSy wild, juiceless grapes, heartless 
 faith, unseasoned devotion, intemperate zeal, blind and per- 
 verse obedience, that under that name shall disguise and 
 excuse disobedience; tot genera labruscarum, so many wild 
 unsavoury fruits is the best return He can hear of. 
 
 One thing more let me tell you ; it is not the original hard- 
 ness of nature to which all this can be imputed ; for, for the 
 mollifying of that, all this gardening was bestowed ; digging 
 and gathering out, and indeed nothing more ordinary, than 
 out of such "stones to raise up children unto Abraham." 
 But it is the long habit and custom of sin which hath 
 harassed out the soul, congealed that natural gravel, and im- 
 proved it into a perfect quarry or mine; and it is not the 
 preacher's charm, the annunciation of the gospel, " that power 
 of God unto salvation," unto a Jew or heathen; it is not 
 David's harp, — that could exorcise the evil spirit upon Saul, — 
 not the every-day eloquence, even of the Spirit of God, that 
 can in holy Esdras' phrase, "persuade them to salvation." 
 
 2. Sluggishness, and inobservances of God's seasons, and 
 opportunities, and seed-times of grace. God may appear a 
 thousand times, and not once find us in case to be parleyed 
 
SEEMON XIV. 
 
 313 
 
 with : Christ comes but thrice to His disciples from His Mat. xxvi. 
 prayers in the garden, and that thrice He finds them asleep. 
 Christ can be awake to come, and that in a more pathetical 
 language, sic non potuistis liora una^ as the vulgar most fully 
 out of the Greek, " were you so unable to watch one hour T' 
 The Pharisee can be awake to plot, Judas to betray, their 
 joint vigils and proparasceue to that grand passover the slay- 
 ing of the Lamb of God, and only the disciples they are 
 asleep, " for their eyes were heavy,^^ saith the text ; and this 
 heaviness of eyes, and heaviness of heart — whereupon jSapv- 
 /cdpStoo in the LXXII is ordinarily set for sinners — is the [Ps. iv. 3.] 
 depriving us many times, not only of Christ, but of His Spirit 
 too. So many apologies and excuses to Him when he calls, 
 "a little more sleep and slumber, and folding of the hands [Prov.xxiv. 
 such drowsy-hearted slovenly usage when He comes, that no 
 wonder if we grieve Him out of our houses; such contented- 
 ness in our present servile estate, that if a jubilee should be ^ 
 proclaimed from heaven, a general manumission of all ser- 
 vants from these galleys of sin, we would be ready with 
 those servants for whom Moses makes a provision, to come 
 and tell Him plainly, "we will not go out free," be bored 
 through the ear to be slaves for ever. Ex. xxi. 6. 
 
 3. Eankness, and a kind of spiritual sin of Sodom ; " pride [Ezek.xvi. 
 and fulness of bread," abusing the grace of God into wanton- ^^'^ 
 ness ; either to the ostentatious setting themselves out before 
 men, or else the feeding themselves up to that high flood of spi- 
 ritual pride and confidence, that it will be sure to impostumate 
 in the soul. Some men have been fain to be permitted to sin, 
 for the abating this humour in them by way of phlebotomy ; 
 St. Peter, I think, is an example of that. Nebuchadnezzar 
 was turned a grazing to cure his secular pride ; and St. Paul, 
 I am sure, had a messenger sent to him to that purpose, by [2 Cor. xii. 
 way of prevention, that he might not be exalted above mea- '^•^ 
 sure ; and when he thought well of it, he receives it as a pre- 
 sent sent him from heaven, eS667] [xol o-KoXo^jr, reckons of it 
 as a gift of grace, or if you will, a medicinal dose, or recipe, 
 but rather a plaster, or outward application, which, per anti- 
 peristasifij would drive in his spiritual heat, and so help his 
 weak digestion of grace, make him the more thriving Chris- 
 tian for ever after. 
 
314 
 
 SERMON XIV. 
 
 The issue of this first inference is this, that it is not God's 
 partial or niggardly dispensing of grace ; but either our un- 
 preparedness to receive, or preposterous giddiness in making 
 use of it, which is the cause either of consumption or apos- 
 thume in the soul, either starving or surfeiting the Christian. 
 
 The second inference, how all the Christianas diligence is 
 to be placed ; what he hath to do in this wayfare to his home. 
 And that is the same that all travellers have, first, to be alway 
 upon his feet, advancing minutely something toward his next 
 stage. See that we be employed, or else how can God assist ; 
 [Phil.ii. we must ipyd^eiv, or else He cannot crvvepyetv; and see that 
 ^2, 13. J employed aright, or else God must not, cannot assist. 
 
 The sluggard^s devotions can never get into God^s presence ; 
 they want heat and spirit to lift them up, and activity to press 
 and enforce them when they are there. It was an impression 
 in the very heathen, Porcius Cato in the history ^, that watch- 
 ing, and acting, and advising aright, and not emasculate 
 womanish supplications alone, were the means whereby God's 
 help is obtained, Ubi socorclice atque ignavioi tradideris, frustra 
 Deos implores. And Hieroclcs'^ to the same purpose, that their 
 sacrifices are but irvpos rpocjyr), ''food for the fire^^ to devour; 
 and their richest offerings to the temple but a spoil to the 
 sacrilegious to prey on. And the sinner's devotions must not 
 be entertained there ; they would even profane that holy place. 
 John ix.3l. He that was born blind, saw thus much, "Now we know that 
 God heareth not sinners ; but if any be a worshipper of God, 
 and doth His will, him doth God hear." 
 
 And then secondly, to get furnished, whatever it cost him, 
 of all provision and directions for his way; and so this will 
 conclude in a double exhortation, both combined in that of 
 ] Chron. David to Solomon, when all materials were laid in, and arti- 
 xxii. 16. facers provided for the building of the temple, and wanted 
 nothing but a cheerful leader to actuate and enliven them, 
 "Arise therefore, and be doing, and the Lord be with thee." 
 
 1. To set about the business as thine own work, as the task 
 that will not be required of the Spirit of God, of the Scrip- 
 
 c [Sallust. de Catilin, Conj., c. 52.] eiice was Hier. in Aur. Car. Pyth. ; in 
 
 ^ [Hieroclesin Aur. Carm. Pythag. , Fulnian's edition *'f. Hierocles" was 
 
 ver. 1. In the first copy of the Sermons added in the margin. — The text has 
 
 the name in the text was Jerome, by an now been corrected.] 
 obvious mistake ; the marginal refer- 
 
SEUMON XIV. 
 
 315 
 
 ture, of the preacher, but of thee. When it is performed thou 
 
 wouldst be loth that God should impute all to Himself, crown 
 
 His own graces, ordinances, instruments, and leave thee as a 
 
 cypher unrewarded. And therefore, whilst it is a performing, 
 
 be content to believe that somewhat belongs to thee, that thou 
 
 hast some hardship to undergo, some diligence to maintain, 
 
 some evidences of thy good husbandry, thy wise managing of 
 
 the talent ; and in a word, of faithful service to shew here, or 
 
 else when the euge bone serve is pronounced, thou wilt not be 
 
 able confidently to answer to thy name. Ov to, biika laxos 
 
 dvBpcoVj aWa tcov oirXcov ol avhpes, said the Milesians to 
 
 Brutus^; All the weapons in the world will not defend the 
 
 man, unless the man actuate, and fortify, and defend his 
 
 weapons.^^ Thy strength consists all in the strength of Christ, 
 
 but you will never walk, or be invulnerable in the strength 
 
 of that, till you be resolved that the good use — and so the 
 
 strength of that strength to thee — is a work that remains for 
 
 thee. If it were not, that exhortation of the Apostle^s would 
 
 never have been given in form of exhortation to the Christian, 
 
 but of prayer only to Christ, " Stand fast, quit j^ourselves like i Cor. xvi. 
 
 men, be strong.^^ 
 
 Lastly, or indeed that which must be both first and last, 
 commensurate to all our diligence, the viaticum that you 
 must carry with you, is the prayers of humble gasping souls. 
 Humble, in respect of what grace is received ; be sure not to 
 be exalted with that consideration. Gasping for what supply 
 m2ij be obtained from that eternal unexhausted fountain ; and 
 these prayers not only that God will give, but, as Josephus 
 makes mention of the Jews' liturgy, cos Se^ecOat Svvaadac, 
 "that they may receive.'' And as Porphyry^, of one kind of 
 sacrifice, Blo, ')(^peiav a'yaOo^v, '^that they may use;" and every 
 of us fructify in some proportion answerable to our irrigation. 
 
 Now the God of all grace, who hath called us into His 
 eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after that you have obeyed 
 awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. 
 
 To Him, be glory and dominion, for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 'ETTiO-T. V. 
 
 ' [Porphyrivis, De Abstiuentia, lib. ii § 24.] 
 
SERMON XV. 
 
 Prov. i. 22. 
 
 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity ? 
 
 That Christ is the best^ and Satan the worst chosen master, 
 is one of the weightiest and yet least considered aphorisms 
 of the gospel. Were we but so just and kind to ourselves as 
 actually to pursue what upon judgment should appear to be 
 most for our interests, even in relation to this present life ) 
 and — without making heaven the principle of our motion — 
 but only think never the worse of a worldly temporary bliss, 
 not quarrel against it for being attended with an eternal ; 
 were we but patient of so much sobriety and consideration, 
 as calmly to weigh and ponder what course, in all probability, 
 were most likely to befriend and oblige us here^ to make 
 good its promise of helping us to the richest acquisitions, the 
 vastest possessions and treasures of this life, I am confident 
 our Christ might carry it from . all the world besides, our 
 Saviour from all the tempters and destroyers ; and — besides 
 so many other considerable advantages — this superlative tran- 
 scendent one of giving us the only right to the reputation 
 and title of wisdom here in these books, be acknowledged the 
 Christianas, i. e. the disciple's monopoly and inclosure ; and 
 folly the due brand and reproach and portion of the ungodly. 
 
 The wisest man, beside Christ, that was ever in the world, 
 you may see by the text had this notion of it, brings in wis- 
 dom by a prosopopceiaj — i. e. either Christ Himself, or the sav- 
 ing doctrine of heaven, in order to the regulating of our lives, 
 or again, wisdom in the ordinary notion of it, — libelling and 
 reproaching the folly of all the sorts of sinners in the world, 
 
SERMON XV. 
 
 317 
 
 posting from the "without in the streets'^ to the assemblies of [ver. 20.] 
 the greatest renown, "the chief place of concourse/' i.e. clearly [ver.21.] 
 their sanhedrim, or great council, from thence to the places of 
 judicature ; for that is, " the openings of the gates," nay, to 
 " the city," Kar €^oxv^, the metropolis and glory of the na- 
 tion ; and crying out most passionately, most bitterly against 
 all in the loudest language of contumely and satire that ever 
 Pasquin or Marforius were taught to speak. And the short 
 of it is, that the pious Christian is the only tolerable wise ; 
 and the world of unchristian sinners are a company of 
 the most wretched, simple, atheistical fools, which cannot 
 be thought on without a passion and inculcation, " How 
 long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity ? and ye scorn- 
 ers," &c. 
 
 The first part of this verse, though it be the cleanest of 
 three expressions, hath yet in it abundantly enough of rude- 
 ness, for an address to any civil auditory. I shall therefore 
 contain my discourse within those staunchest limits, "How 
 long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity ?" And in them 
 observe only these three particulars. 
 
 1 . The character of the ungodly man's condition, contained 
 in these two expressions, simple ones, and simplicity ; " How 
 long, ye simple," &c. 
 
 2. The aggravation of the simplicity, and so heightening of 
 the character, and that by two further considerations. 
 
 First, from their loving of that which was so unlovely, that 
 they should be so simple as to love simplicity. 
 
 Secondly, from their continuance in it, that they should 
 not at length discern their error, that they should love sim- 
 plicity so long. 
 
 3. The passion that it produceth in the speaker — be it 
 wisdom, or be it Christ, or be it Solomon — to consider it ; 
 and that passion, whether of pity, that men should be such 
 fools ; or of indignation, that they should love and delight in 
 it so long. " How long," &c. 
 
 I begin first with the first ; the character of sin and sinners, 
 i. e. of the ungodly man's condition, contained in these two 
 expressions : simple ones, and simplicity. " How," &c. 
 
318 
 
 SETIMON XV. 
 
 Four notions we may have of these words, which will all be 
 appliable to this purpose : you shall see them as they rise. 
 First, as the calling one simple is a word of reproach or con- 
 [Afat. V. tumely, the very same with the calling one paKa, i.e. empty, 
 ^^*-' brainless person," the next degree to the yu-wpe, or " thou fool," 
 in the end of that and this verse. And then the thing that 
 we are to observe from thence is, what a reproachful thing an 
 unchristian life is ; what a contumelious, scandalous quality. 
 
 A reproach to nature first, to our human kind, which was 
 an honourable reverend thing in paradise, before sin came in 
 to humble and defame it ; a solemn, severe law-giver, avcrTrifia 
 XoytKcov vorj/jbdrcov, in Clemens ; the system or pandect of all 
 rational notions, avjjLyjrrjcfios tw &ea>, that either likes or 
 commends all that now Christ requires of us, bears witness 
 to the word of God that all His commandments are right- 
 [Roin. i. eous ; and so is by our unnatural sins, those arifia Trddrj, 
 llifjU^as.] ignoble dishonourable affections of ours, — which have coupled 
 [Rev. xxii. together sins and kennels, adulterers and dogs, — put to shame 
 ^'^'^ and rebuke, dishonoured and degraded, as it were. Not all 
 the ugliness and poison of the toad hath so deformed that 
 kind of creatures, brought it so low in genere entiunij as the 
 deformed malignant condition of sin hath brought down the 
 [Eph. ii. very nature and kind of men, making them reKva opyrjs, the 
 ^'■^ children, i. e. the objects of all the wrath and hatred in the 
 
 world. 
 
 2. A reproach to our souls, those immortal vital creatures 
 inspired into us by heaven, and now raised higher, super- 
 inspired by the grace of Christ ; which are then, as Mezen- 
 tius's invention of punishment, bound up close with a carcase 
 of sin, tormented and poisoned with its stench, buried in that 
 noisomest vault or charnel-house. It was an admirable golden 
 saying of the Pythagoreans^ the ala')(vveo aavrov, what a re- 
 straint of sin it would be if a man would remember the reve- 
 rence he ought unto himself, and '^vxn (^^^ was their own 
 explication of it ; the soul within thee is that self to whom 
 all that dread and awe and reverence is due. And O what 
 an impudent affront, what an irreverential profaning of that 
 sacred celestial beam within thee, — that diravyaafia 6eov, as 
 
 a [Pythag. Carm. Aur., ver. 12.] " [Hierocl. in Carm. Aur. Pythag. ad 
 
 ver. 25.] 
 
SERMON XV. 
 
 319 
 
 the philosophers call it, — is every paltry oath, or rage, or lust, 
 that the secure sinner is so minutely guilty of! Every sin, 
 say the schools, being in this respect a kind of idolatry, an 
 incurvation and prostitution of that heavenly creature — or- 
 dained to have nothing but divinity in its prospect — to the 
 meanest, vilest heathen worship, the crocodile, the cat, the 
 scarabee, the dii stei'corii, the most noisome abominations 
 under heaven. 
 
 3. A reproach to God, who hath owned such scandalous 
 creatures, hath placed us in a degree of divinity next unto 
 angels, nay, to Christ, that by assuming that nature and 
 dying for it hath made it emulate the angelical eminence, 
 and been in a manner liable to the censure of partiality 
 in so doing; in advancing us so unworthy, dignifying us 
 so beyond the merit of our behaviours, honouring us so un- 
 proportionably above what our actions can own, " whilst those 
 that are in scarlet embrace the dunghill,'' as it is in the Lam. i v. 5. 
 Lamentations, those that are honoured by God, act so dis- 
 honourably. It was Plato's^ affirmation of God in respect 
 of men, that He was a Father, when of all other creatures He 
 was but a maker; and it is Arrian's^ superstruction on that, 
 that remembering that we are the sons of God, we should 
 never admit any base degenerous thought, any thing re- 
 proachful to that stock, unworthy of the grandeur of the 
 family from whence we are extracted. If we do, it will be 
 more possible for us to profane and embase heaven, than for 
 the reputation of that parentage of ours to ennoble us : the 
 scandal that such a degenerous, disingenuous progeny will 
 bring on the house from whence we came, is a kind of sa- 
 crilege to heaven, a violation to those sacred mansions, a pro- 
 claiming to the world what colonies of polluted creatures came 
 down from thence, though there be a nulla retrorsum^, no 
 liberty for any such to return thither. 
 
 Lastly, it is a reproach to the very beasts, and the rest of 
 the creation which are designed by God the servants and 
 slaves of sinful man ; which may justly take up the language 
 of the slave to his vicious master in the satirist^, Tune mihi 
 
 c [See Plat. Sophist, i. p. 234.] ^ [Horat. Epist. i. 1. 75.] 
 
 [Arrian. Dissert. Epictet, lib. i. [Horat. Sat. ii. 7. 75.] 
 
 c. 3.] 
 
320 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 
 dominus 7 Art thou my lord, who art so far a viler bondslave 
 than those over whom thou tyrannizest ? a slave to thy passion, 
 thy lust, thy fiends, who hast so far dethroned thyself that 
 the beast becomes more beast when it remembers thee to 
 have any degree of sovereignty over it ? 
 
 Put these four notions together, and it will give you a view 
 of the first intimation of this text, the baseness and reproach- 
 fulness of the sinner's course : and unless he be the most ab- 
 ject, wretchless, forlorn sot in the whole creation ; unless he 
 be turned all into earth or phlegm ; if he hath in his whole 
 composition one spark of ambition, of emulation, of ordinary 
 sense of honour ; the least warmth of spirit ; impatience of 
 being the only degenerous wretch of the earth now, and of 
 hell to all eternity ; if he be not absolutely arrived to Arri- 
 an's^ airoXiOcocTLs rov irpaKTCKov, — his practical as well as 
 judicative faculty quite quarried and petrified within him, — 
 
 Markiii. 5. to that TToopwais in the Gospel, that^direct ferity and brutality, 
 in comparison of which the most crest-fallen numbness, palsy 
 or lethargy of soul, were dignity and preferment ; if he be not 
 all that is deplorable already, and owned to be so for ever ; 
 he will certainly give one vital spring, one last plunge, to re- 
 cover some part of the honour and dignity of his creation ; 
 break off that course that hath so debased him, precipitated 
 him into such an abyss of filth and shame, if it be but in pity 
 to the nature, the soul, the god, the whole creation about 
 
 Isa. iv. 1. him j that like the seven importunate women lay hold on 
 this one insensate person in the eager clamorous style of the 
 lansm PiDX "take away our reproach.^' And let that serve for 
 a first part of the sinner's character, the consideration of his 
 reproachful, scandalous, off'ensive state, which might in all rea- 
 son work some degree of good on him in the first place. 
 
 A second notion of this phrase, and degree of this character, 
 is the giddiness and unadvisedness of the sinner's course ; as 
 simplicity ordinarily signifies senselessness, precipitousness, as 
 Trismegistus defines it, fjuavias elSos, a "species of madness'' 
 in one place, and rU fjiedrj, a "kind of drunkenness" in an- 
 other, a wild irrational acting, and this doth express itself in 
 our furious mischieving ourselves, in doing all quite contrary 
 unto our own ends, our own aims, our own principles of 
 
 Lib. i. cap. 5. [§ 3. eVrpeTrri/cov.] 
 
SERMON XV. 
 
 321 
 
 action ; and this you will see most visible in the particulars, 
 in every motion, every turn of the sinner^s life. As 
 
 I. In his malices, wherein he breathes forth such JEtnas 
 of flames against others, you may generally mark it he hurts 
 neither God nor man, but only himself. In every such 
 hellish breathing, all that malignity of his cannot reach 
 God ; he is aTretpaaTos KaKOdv^ untemptable by evil in this [Jam. i. 
 other sense, I mean impenetrable by his malice. All that ^^'^ 
 was shot up towards God comes down immediately on the 
 sinner^s own head ; and for the man against whom he is en- 
 raged, whose blood he thirsts after, whose ruin he desires, he 
 does him the greatest courtesy in the world, he is but blest 
 by those corses ; that honourable blissful estate that belongs 
 to all poor persecuted saints — and consequently, the ;^<2/peT6 
 KoX a^yaWLacrOe, matter of joy and exultation — is hereby be- [Mat. v. 
 come his portion; and that is the reason he is advised to do 
 good to him by way of gratitude, to make returns of all 
 civility and acknowledgments, not as to an enemy, but a be- 
 nefactor, to bless and pray for him by whom he hath been thus 
 obliged. Only this raving madman's own soul is that against 
 which all these blows and malices rebound; the only true 
 sufferer all this while ; first, in the very meditating and de- 
 signing the malice, all which space he lives not the life, but 
 the hell of a fiend or devil, — that e^Opos aur/p, that " enemy- [Mat. xiii. 
 man," as he is called, — his namesake and parallel. And again, j"^^**" 
 secondly, in the executing of it ; that being one of the basest 
 and most dishonourable employments ; that of an dyye\o9 
 Xarav, "an angel or officer of Satan^s," — to buffet some pre- [2 Cor. xii. 
 cious image of God, — which is to that purpose filled out of '^•^ 
 Satan's fulness, swollen with all the venomous humour that 
 that fountain can afford to furnish and accommodate him for 
 this enterprise. And then, lastly, after the satiating of his 
 wrath, a bloated, guilty, unhappy creature, one that hath fed 
 at the deviFs table, swilled and glutted himself in blood, and 
 now betrays it all in his looks and complexion. 
 
 And as in our malices, so, secondly, in our loves, in our softer 
 as well as our rougher passions, we generally drive quite con- 
 trary to our own ends and interests ; and if we obtain, we find 
 it experimentally the enjoyment of what we"pursue most vehe- 
 mently proves not only unsatisfactory, but grating, hath to the 
 
 HAMMOND. Y 
 
322 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 
 vanity the addition of vexation also ; not only the rlva rore 
 [Rom. vi. KapiTov, no manner of fruity then at the point of enjoying an 
 empty paltry nothing, but over and above, the vvv ala^vveaOe, 
 shame and perturbation of mind, the gripings and tormina of 
 a confounded conscience immediately consequent; and it 
 would even grieve an enemy to hear the Apostle go on to the 
 dear payment at the close for this sad nothing, the to rekos 
 [Rom. V. ddvaros, ex abundanti, and over and above, the " end of those 
 
 23 1 . . ..... 
 
 things is death/' And oh what a simplicity is this ! thus to 
 seek out emptiness and death, when we think we are on one 
 [Jam. V. of our advantageous pursuits, in this "error of our ways,'' as 
 the wise man calls it, is sure a most prodigious mistake, a 
 most unfortunate error ; and to have been guilty of it more 
 than once the most unpardonable simplicity. 
 
 From our loves proceeding to our hopes, which if it be any 
 1 John iii. but the Christian hope, than this " hope on Him," i. e., hope 
 ^' on God, and that joined with purifying, it is in plain terms 
 
 the greatest contrariety to itself, the perfectest desperateness ; 
 and for secular hopes the expectation of good, of advantages 
 [Is. xxxvi. from this or that staff of Egypt, the depending on this, 
 ^■-^ whether profane, or but ordinary innocent auxiliary, it is the 
 
 forfeiting all our pretensions to that great aid of heaven, — as 
 they say the loadstone draweth not when the adamant is near, 
 — it is the taking us off from our grand trust and dependence, 
 setting us up independent from God ; and that must needs be 
 the blasting of all our enterprises ; that even lawful aid of the 
 creature, if it be looked on with any confidence as our helper, 
 [Rom. i. irapa rbv KTia-avTa, beside, or in separation from the Creator, 
 ^^'■^ is — and God is engaged in honour that it should be — struck 
 [Acts xii. presently from heaven, eaten up with worms like Herod, when 
 once its good qualities are deified; broken to pieces with the 
 brazen serpent, burnt and stamped to powder with the golden 
 Isa. i. 31. calf : and " the strong shall be as tow," the false idol strength 
 is but a prize for a flash of lightning to prey on. And as 
 [Acts xiv. St. Paul and Barnabas are fain to run in a passion upon the 
 ^^•^ multitude that meant to do them worship, with a "Men and 
 Rev. xxii. brethren,'' &c., and the very angel to St. John, when he fell 
 ^' down before him, vide ne feceris^ "see thou do it not;" for 
 
 fear if he had been so mistaken by him he might have for- 
 feited his angelical estate by that unluckiness ; so certainly 
 
SERMON XV. 
 
 323 
 
 tne most Honourable promising earthly help, if it be once 
 looked on with a confidence or an adoration ; if it steal off. 
 our eyes and hearts one minute from that sole waiting and 
 looking on God ; it is presently to expect a being thunder- 
 struck from heaven, as hath been most constantly visible among 
 us ; and that is all we get by this piece of simplicity also. 
 
 And it were well when our worldly hopes have proved thus 
 little to our advantage, our worldly fears, in the next place, 
 might bring us in more profit. But alas ! that passionate 
 perturbation of our faculties stands us in no stead, but to 
 hasten and bring our fears upon us, by precipitating them 
 sometimes, casting ourselves into that abyss which we look 
 on with such horror, running out to meet that danger which 
 we would avoid so vehemently; sometimes dispiriting and de- 
 priving us of all those succours which were present to our wisd. xvii. 
 rescue ; the passion most treacherously betraying the aids 
 which reason, if it had been allowed admission, was ready to 
 have offered ; but perpetually anticipating that misery which 
 is the thing we fear, the terror itself being greater disease 
 sometimes, constantly a greater reproach and contumely to a 
 masculine spirit, than any of the evils we are so industrious 
 to avoid. It is not a matter of any kind of evil report, really 
 to have suffered, to have been squeezed to atoms by an un- 
 remediable evil, especially if it be for well-doing; but to 
 have been sick of the fright, to have lavished our constancy, 
 courage, conscience, and all, an Indian sacrifice to a sprite or 
 mormo, ne noceat, to escape not a real evil, but only an ap- 
 prehension or terror; this is a piece of the most destructive 
 wariness, the dcr6<pcov d/cpl^eca, the greatest simplicity that 
 can be. 
 
 I shall not enlarge the prospect any further, as easily I 
 might, to our unchristian joys that do so dissolve, our un- 
 christian sorrows that do so contract and shrivel up the soul ; 
 — and then, as Themison and his old sect of methodists re- 
 solved, that the laxum and strictum, the immoderate dissolu- 
 tion or constipation, were the principles and originals of all 
 diseases in the world, so it will be likely to prove in our spiri- 
 tual estate also ; — nor again to our heathenish eVt^at/oe/ca- 
 KLaL\ rejoicing at the mischiefs of other men; which directly 
 
 i [Arist. Rhet. ii. 9, 5 ; Eth. ii. 7, ad fin.] 
 Y.2 
 
324 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 
 transform us into fiends and furies, and wreak no malice on 
 any but ourselves, leave us a wasted, wounded, prostitute, 
 harassed conscience, to tire and gnaw upon its own bowels, 
 and nothing else. I have exercised you too long with so 
 trivial a subject, such an easy every-day's demonstration, the 
 wicked man^s contradictions to all his aims, his acting quite 
 contrary to his very designs, a second branch of his character, 
 a second degree and advancement of his simplicity. 
 
 The third notion of simplicity is that of the idiot, the 
 natural, as we call him, he that hath some eminent failing 
 [Eccles. in his intellectuals, the Icesum pinncipium, the pitcher or 
 w^heel, I mean the faculty of understanding or reason, broken 
 or wounded at the fountain or cistern ; and so nothing but 
 animal, sensitive actions to be had from him. And of this 
 kind of imperfect creatures it will be perhaps worth your 
 marking, that the principal faculty which is irrecoverably 
 wanting in such, and by all teaching irreparable and unim- 
 provable, is the power of numbering ; I mean not that of say- 
 ing numbers by rote, — for that is but an act of sensitive 
 memory, — but that of applying them to matter; and from 
 thence that of intellectual numbering, i. e. of comparing and 
 measuring, judging of proportions, pondering, weighing, dis- 
 cerning the differences of things by the power of the judica- 
 tive faculty ; which two seem much more probably the pro- 
 priety and difference of a man from a beast, than that which 
 the philosophers^ have fancied, the power of laughing or dis- 
 coursing. To reckon and compute is that which in men of 
 an active clear reason is perpetually in exercising per modum 
 actus eliciti, that naturally of its own accord, without any 
 command or appointment of the will, pours itself out upon 
 every object. We shall oft deprehend ourselves numbering 
 the panes in the window, the sheep in the field ; measuring 
 every thing we come near with the eye, with the hand ; sing- 
 ing tunes, forming every thing into some kind of metre, — 
 which are branches still of that faculty of numbering, — when 
 we have no kind of end or design in doing it. And this is of 
 all things in the world the most impossible for a mere natural 
 or idiot. And so you have here the third, and that is the 
 prime, most remarkable degree of simplicity, that the un- 
 
 ^ [ Porphyrii Isagoge, cap. 4. ] 
 
SERMON XV. 
 
 325 
 
 christian fool, the dvrjp y\rvxiicos, whether you render it the 
 animal or natural man, is guilty of; that piteous Icesum prin- [i Cor. ii. 
 cipium, that want of the faculty of weighing, pondering, or H^^^^^^^' 
 numbering ; that weakness or no kind of exercise of the judi- 
 cative faculty, from whence all his simplicity and impiety pro- 
 ceeds. The Hebrews have a word to signify a wise man, 
 which hath a near affinity with that of weighing and ponder- 
 ing, ^''DJi^D from ^3^, which hath no difference in sound from 
 that which signifies ponderavit, whence the shekel, the known 
 Hebrew word is deduced, to note, as the Psalmist saith, that 
 " He that is wise, will ponder things.^^ All the folly and un- [Ps. cvii. 
 christian sin comes from want of pondering; and all the ^^'^ 
 Christian wisdom, piety, discipleship, consists in the exercise 
 of this faculty. Whatsoever is said most honourably of faith 
 in Scripture, that sets it out in such a grandeur as the greatest 
 designer and author of all the high acts of piety, and as the Heb. xi. 
 conqueror over the world, is clearly upon this score, as faith iJohnv. 4. 
 is the spiritual wisdom or prudence, — for so it is best defined, 
 — and as by comparing, and proportioning, and weighing to- 
 gether the promises, or the commands, or the terrors of the 
 gospel on one side, with the promises, the prescriptions, and 
 terrors of the world on the other, it pronounces that hand- 
 writing on the wall against the latter of them, the " Mene, [Dan. v. 
 telcel, upharsin.'' They are weighed in the balance and found ^^"^ 
 most pitifully light, in comparison of those which Christ hath 
 to weigh against them; and so the kingdom, the usurped 
 supremacy, — that they have so long pretended to in the in- 
 considerate simple precipitous world, — is by a just judgment 
 torn and departed from them. 
 
 Will you begin with the promises, and have but the patience 
 awhile to view the scales, and when you have set the beam 
 even, removed the carnal or secular prejudices, — which have 
 so possessed most of us that we can never come to a right 
 balancing of any thing ; the beam naturally inclines still as 
 our customary wonts and prepossessions will have it, — when, 
 I say, you have set the beam impartially, throw but into one 
 scale the promises of Christ, those of His present, of His 
 future bliss ; of present, "such as eye hath not seen, nor ear 1 Cor.ii. 9. 
 heard, nor entered into the heart of man to conceive," pre- 
 pared for them that love God, and that at the very minute 
 
326 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 
 of loving Him, — the word r^TOifiacrfjLeva, referring to the manna 
 of old; the Hebrew deduced from n'i'O) prceparavity^n^ there- 
 Wisd. xvi. fore described bv the author of the book of Wisdom, accord- 
 
 20. . . " 
 
 ing to that literal denotation of the Hebrew, apros eroLjxos 
 air ovpavov, bread baked, as it were, and sent down ready 
 from heaven to the true Israelite, — the gust of every Chris- 
 tian duty being so pleasurable and satisfactory to the palate, 
 as it were, of our human nature; so consonant to every 
 rational soul, that it cannot practise or taste without being 
 truly joyed and ravished with it : and so that which was the 
 [Ex. xvi.] Israelites^ feast, the quails and manna, being become the 
 Christians' every day ordinary diet, you will allow that to be 
 of some w^eight or consideration, if there were nothing else 
 but that present festival of a good conscience in the scale 
 before you. But when to that you have further cast in the 
 [Rom. ii. "glory, honour, immortality," which is on arrear for that 
 ^'•^ Christian in another life, that infinite inestimable weight of 
 
 that glory laid before us, as the reward of the Christian, for 
 his having been content that Christ should shew him the way 
 to be happy here and blessed eternally. And when that both 
 present and future felicity is set off and heightened by the 
 [llom.iL contrary, by ^' the indignation, and anger, and wrath," that is 
 ^'^ the portion of the atheistical fool, and which nothing could 
 
 have helped us to escape, but this only Christian sanctuary; 
 when the bliss of this Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, is thas 
 improved by the news of the scorching of the Dives in that 
 place of torments; and by all these together, the scale thus 
 laded on one side, I shall then give the devil leave to help 
 you to what weight he can in the other scale, be it his totum 
 hoc, all the riches and glory of the whole world, — and not only 
 that thousandth part of the least point of the map, which is all 
 thou canst aspire to in his service, — and what is it all but the 
 bracteata felicitas, in Seneca^; fjLvOtfcrj jjuaKapia, in Nazianzen™; 
 a little fictitious felicity, a little paltry trash, that nothing but 
 the opinion of men hath made to difi'er from the most refuse 
 stone, or dirt in the kennel ; the richest gems, totally behold- 
 ing to the simplicity and folly of men for their reputation and 
 value in the w^orld. Besides these, I presume the fancies ex- 
 
 ^ [Seneca, Epist. llo.] 
 ■ [S. Greg. Naz. Epist, xxvi. ad Ainpliiloch. Op., ♦om. ii. p. 23, B.] 
 
SERMON Xy, 
 
 327 
 
 pect to have liberty to throw in all the pleasures and joys, the 
 ravishments and transportations of all the senses ; and truly^ 
 that is soon done ; all the true joy that a whole age of carnality 
 affords any man, if you but take along with it — as you cannot 
 choose but do in all conscience — the satieties, and loathings, 
 and pangs, that inseparably accompany it, — the leaven as well 
 as the honey, under which the pleasures of sin are thought Lev. ii. 
 to be prohibited, — it will make but a pitiful addition in the 
 scales, so many pounds less than nothing is the utmost that 
 can be affirmed of it; and when you have fetched out your 
 last reserve, all the painted air, the only commodity behind 
 that you have to throw into that scale, the reputation and 
 honour of a gallant vainglorious sinner, that some one fool 
 or madman may seem to look on with some reverence ; you 
 have then the utmost of the weight that that scale is capable 
 of ; and the difference so vast betwixt them, such an incon- 
 siderable proportion of straw, stubble, to such whole mines 
 and rocks of gold and silver and precious stones, that no man 
 that is but able to deal in plain numbers — no need of loga- 
 rithms or algebra — can mistake in the judgment, or think 
 that there is any profit, any advantage " in gaining the whole [Mat. xvi. 
 world/^ if accompanied with the least hazard or possibility of 
 'Hosing his own soul:" and therefore the running that ad- 
 venture is the greatest idiotism, the most deplorable, woeful 
 simplicity in the world. 
 
 The same proportion would certainly be acknowledged in 
 the second place, betwixt the commands of Christ on one 
 side, high, rational, venerable commands, that he that thinks 
 not himself so strictly obliged to observe cannot yet but revere 
 Him that brought them into the world, and deem them vofjbov 
 /3acn\LKov, a royal and a gallant law," whilst all the whole [Jam.ii.8.] 
 volume or code of the law of the members hath not one in- 
 genuous dictate, one tolerable, rational proposal in it, only a 
 deal of savage drudgery to be performed to an impure tyrant, 
 — sin and pain being of the same date in the world, and the 
 Hebrew signifying both, — and the more such burdens un- 
 dergone, the more mean submissions still behind ; no end of 
 the tale of brick to one that is once engaged under such 
 Egyptian kiln and task-masters. 
 
 And for the terrors in the last place, there are none but 
 
328 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 
 those of the Lord, that are fit to move or to persuade any : 
 the utmost secuUir fear is so much more impendent over 
 Satan's than God's clients, — the killing of the body, the far 
 more frequent effect of that which had first the honour to 
 bring death into the world : the devil owning the title of 
 [Rev. ix. destroyer, abaddon, and cltto'Wvcov, and inflicting diseases 
 ^^'^ generally on those whom he possessed, and Christ, that other 
 of the larpos and acorr^p, the physician and the Saviour, that 
 hath promises of long life annexed to some specials of His 
 service, — that if it were reasonable to fear those that can kill 
 [Mat. X. the body, and afterwards have no more that they can do, — 
 
 no "1 
 
 ■-' i. e. are able by the utmost of their malice, and God's per- 
 mission, but to land thee safe at thy fair haven, to give thee 
 heaven and bliss before thy time, instead of the many linger- 
 ing deaths that this life of ours is subject to, — yet there were 
 little reason to fear or suspect the fate in God's service, far 
 less than in those steep precipitous paths which the devil leads 
 us through. And therefore to be thus low-bellied with panic 
 frights, to be thus tremblingly dismayed where there is no 
 place of fear, and to ride on intrepid on the truest dangers, 
 as the barbarians in America do on guns, is a mighty dispro- 
 portion of men's faculties, a strange superiority of fancy over 
 judgment, that may well be described by a defect in the power 
 of numbering, that discerns no difference between ciphers and 
 millions, but only that the noughts are a little the blacker, 
 and the more formidable. And so much for the third branch 
 of this character. 
 
 There is yet a fourth notion of simplicity, as it is contrary 
 to common ordinary prudence, that by which the politician 
 and thriving man of this world expects to be valued, the great 
 dexterity and managery of affairs, and the business of this 
 world ; wherein let me not be thought to speak paradoxes, if 
 I tell you with some confidence that the wicked man is this 
 only impolitic fool, and the Christian generally the most dex- 
 terous, prudent, practical person in the world ; and the safest 
 motto that of the virtutem violenter 7'etine, the keeping virtue 
 [Mat. xi. with the same violence that heaven is to be taken with. Not 
 ^^•^ that the Spirit of Christ infuses into him the subtleties 
 and crafts of the wicked, gives him any principles, or any 
 excuse for that greater portion of the serpentine wisdom j 
 
SERMON XA^ 
 
 329 
 
 but because honesty is the most gainful policy, the most thriv- 
 ing thorough prudence, that will carry a man further than 
 any thing else. That old principle in the mathematics, that 
 the right line comes speediliest to the journey^s end, being, in 
 spite of Machiavel, a maxim in politics also : and so will prove 
 till Christ shall resign and give up to Satan the economy of 
 the world. Some examples it is possible there may be of 
 the prosperum scelus, the thriving of villainy for a time, and 
 so of the present advantages that may come in to us by our 
 secular contrivances ; but sure this is not the lasting course, 
 but only an anomaly or irregularity, that cannot be thought 
 fit to be reckoned of in comparison of the more constant pro- 
 mises, the long life in a Canaan of milk and honey, that the 
 Old and New Testament both have ensured upon the meek [Ps.xxxvii, 
 disciple. V'h]^^^' 
 
 And I think a man might venture the experiment to the 
 testimony and trial of these times, that have been deemed 
 most unkind and unfavourable to such innocent Christian 
 qualities; that those that have been most constant to the 
 strict, stable, honest principles, have thrived far better by 
 the equable figure than those that have been most dexterous 
 in changing shapes, and so are not the most unwise, €v yevea [Lx^ke xvi. 
 ravTy, if there were never another state of retributions but ^-^ 
 this. Whereas it is most scandalously frequent and observ- 
 able that the great politicians of this world are baffled and 
 outwitted by the providence of heaven, sell their most pre- 
 cious souls for nought, and have not the luck to get any 
 money for them ; the most unthrifty, improvident merchan- 
 dise, that ho:i, " folly,^^ which the LXXII render a/cavSaXov, ps. xlix. 
 " scandal the most piteous, offensive folly, the wretchedest 
 simplicity in the world. 
 
 You would easily believe it should not stand in need of a 
 further aggravation, and yet now you are to be presented 
 with one in my text, by way of heightening of the character, 
 and that w^as my second particular, that at first I promised 
 you, made up of two further considerations ; first, the loving 
 of that which is so unlovely ; secondly, the continuing in 
 the passion so long, " How long, you simple ones, will you 
 love," &c. 
 
 First, the degree and improvement of the atheist's folly 
 
330 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 
 consists in the loving of it, that he can take a delight and 
 complacency in his way : to be patient of such a coarse, 
 gainless service ; snch scandalous, mean submissions had 
 been reproach enough to any that had not divested himself 
 of iugenuity and innocence together, and become one of 
 Aristotle^s" cl)vo-€i BovXoc, natural slaves,^^ which, if it sig- 
 nify any thing, denotes the fools and simple ones in this 
 text, whom nature hath marked in the head for no very 
 honourable employments. But from this passivity in the 
 mines and galleys to attain to a joy and voluptuousness in 
 the employment, to dread nothing but sabbatic years and ju- 
 bilees, and with the crest-fallen slave to disclaim nothing but 
 liberty and manumission, i. e. in effect, innocence, and para- 
 dise, and bliss; to court and woo Satan for the mansions in 
 hell, and the several types and praeludiums of them, the 
 [Mat.xxiv. opx^' ooBlvcov, "the initial pangs in this life,^^ which he hath 
 ^*-' in his disposing, to be such a Platonic lover of stripes and 
 
 chains, without intuition of any kind of reward, any present 
 or future wages for all his patience, and as it follows, to hate 
 knowledge and piety, hate it as the most treacherous enemy 
 that means to undermine their hell, to force them out of 
 their beloved Satan^s embraces : this is certainly a very 
 competent aggravation of the simplicity ; and yet to see how 
 perfect a character this is of the most of us, that have no- 
 thing to commend or even excuse in the most of those ways, 
 on which we make no scruple to exhaust our souls, but only 
 our kindness, irrational, passionate kindness and love to- 
 ward them ; and then that love shall cover a multitude of 
 sins, supersede all the exceptions and quarrels that other- 
 wise we should not choose but have to them. Could a man 
 see any thing valuable or attractive in oaths and curses, in 
 drunkenness and bestiality, (the sin, that when a Turk re- 
 solves to be guilty of he makes a fearful noise unto his soul to 
 retire all into his feet, or as far off as it is possible, that it 
 may not be within ken of that bestial prospect, as Busbe- 
 quius tells us°;) could any man endure the covetous man^s 
 
 " [Arist. Polit. i. 5.] cur ita faceret, respondebant ewm liis 
 
 ^ [Vidi senem quendara Constanti- clamoiibus coinmonitam velle animam, 
 
 nopoli: qui quum calicem sunisisset ut se reciperet in aliquem corporis an- 
 
 in manuni ut biberet, magnos prius gulum, aut prorsus emigraret, ne rea 
 
 clamores edebat. Kogati a nobis amici nerel ejus delicti, quod ipse erat ad- 
 
SERMON XA'. 
 
 331 
 
 sad galling mules, burdens of gold, his Achan^s wedge that 
 
 cleaves and rends asunder nations, — so that in the Hebrew 
 
 that sin signifies ^'wounding" and '^incision,^^ and is alluded to Joel ii. 8. 
 
 by his '^piercing himself through with divers sorrows," — his l Tim. vi. 
 
 very purgatories and limbos, nay, hell, as devouring and per- 
 
 petual as it ; and the no kind of satisfaction, so much as to 
 
 his eye, from the vastest heaps or treasures ; were he not in 
 
 love with folly and ruin, had he not been drenched with 
 
 philters and charms, had not the necromancer played some 
 
 of his prizes on him, and as St. Paul saith of his Galatians, 
 
 even "bewitched him to be a fool;" would we but make [Gai.iii.i.] 
 
 a rational choice of our sins, discern somewhat that were 
 
 amiable before we let loose our passion on them, and not 
 
 deal so blindly in absolute elections of the driest unsavoury 
 
 sin that may but be called a sin, — that hath but the honour 
 
 of affronting God and damning one of Christ's redeemed, — 
 
 most of our wasting, sweeping sins, would have no manner 
 
 of pretensions to us ; and that you will allow to be one 
 
 special accumulation of the folly and madness of these 
 
 simple ones, that they thus love simplicity. 
 
 The second aggravation is the continuance and duration 
 of this fury, a lasting, chronical passion, quite contrary to 
 the nature of passions, a flash of lightning, lengthened out a 
 whole day together ; that they should love simplicity so long. 
 
 It is the nature of acute diseases either to have intervals 
 and intermissions, or else to come to speedy crises ; and 
 though these prove mortal sometimes, yet the state is not 
 generally so desperate ; and so it is with sins ; many, the 
 sharpest and vehementest indispositions of the soul — pure 
 fevers of rage and lust — prove happily but flashing, short 
 furies, are attended with an instant smiting of the heart, a 
 hating and detesting our follies, a striking on the thigh in [Jer. xxxi. 
 Jeremy, and in David's penitential style, a so foolish was I Jp^^ 
 and ignorant, even as a beast before Thee." And it were 22.] 
 happy if our fevers had such cool seasons, such favourable, 
 ingenuous intermissions as these. But for the hectic, con- 
 tinual fevers, — that like some weapons, the ayya)ve^, barbed 
 shafts" in use among the Franks in AgatliiasP, being not 
 
 niissuriis, nec vino, quod infusurus p. 1].] 
 
 erat, poliueretur. — -Busbeq. Epist. , i. p [dAAa TreAt/^eJs y&p afx-fa^TT 6f.(avs 
 
332 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 
 mortal at the entrance, do all their slaughter by the hard- 
 ness of getting out, — the vultures that so tire and gnaw 
 upon the soul, the (tvvo')(^oI that never suffer the sinner fool 
 to make any approach toward his wits, toward sobriety 
 again : this passionate love of folly improved into an habi- 
 tual, steady course of atheisticalness, a deliberate, peremp- 
 tory, final reprobating of heaven, — the purity at once, and 
 the bliss of it, — the stanch, demure covenanting with 
 death, and resolvedness to have their part, to run their for- 
 tune with Satan, through all adventures ; this is that mon- 
 strous brat, that — as for the birth of the champion in the 
 poet — three nights of darkness, more than Egyptian, were to 
 be crowded into one — all the simplicity and folly in a king- 
 dom — to help to a being in the world. And at the birth of 
 it you will pardon Wisdom if she break out into a passion 
 and exclamation of pity first, and then of indignation^ " How 
 long, ye simple ones V &c. ; my last particular. 
 
 The first debt that wisdom, that Christ, that every Chris- 
 tian brother owes and pays to every unchristian liver, is that 
 of pity and compassion ; which is to him of all others the 
 properest dole. Look upon all the sad, moanful objects in 
 the world, betwixt whom all our compassion is wont to be 
 divided ; first, the bankrupt rotting in a gaol ; secondly, the 
 direful, bloody spectacle of the soldier, wounded by the 
 sword of war; thirdly, the malefactor howling under the 
 stone, or gasping upon the rack or wheel ; and fourthly, the 
 gallant person on the scaffold or gallows ready for execution; 
 and the secure, senseless sinner is the brachygraphy of all 
 these. 
 
 You have in him, 1. a rich patrimony and treasure of 
 grace — purchased dear, and settled on him by Christ — most 
 prodigally and contumeliously misspent and exhausted; 2. a 
 soul streaming out whole rivers of blood and spirits through 
 every wound, even every sin it hath been guilty of, and not 
 enduring the water to cleanse, much less the wine or oil to 
 be poured into any one of them ; the whole soul transfigured 
 [Liikexxii. into one wound, one Opojjb^os aifiaros, congelation and 
 ^'^•^ clod of blood then thirdly, beyond this, all the racks and 
 
 Ka\ Tol's ayy(j3vo.s, oXshy] Koi rh irK^7ar0. lib. ii. p. 40. apud Corp. Hist. Byz. 
 KaTip')(x^ovTai,K.T. \. — Agathias, Hist., Paris. 1660.] 
 
SERMON XV. 
 
 333 
 
 pangs of a tormenting conscience, his only present exercise ; 
 and lastly, all the torments in hell — the officer ready hurry- 
 ing him to the judge, and the judge delivering him to the [Mat. v. 
 executioner — his minutely dread and expectation, the dream ^^-J 
 that so haunts and hounds him. And what would a man give 
 in bowels of compassion (to Christianity ? or but) to human 
 kind, to be able to reprieve or rescue such an unhappy crea- 
 ture ; to be but the Lazarus with one drop of water to cool 
 the tip of the scalding tongue, that is engaged in such a pile 
 of flames ? If there be any charity left in this frozen world, 
 any beam under this cold uninhabitable zone, it will certainly 
 work some meltings on the most obdurate heart ; it will dis- 
 solve and pour out our bowels into a seasonable advice or ad- 
 monition, — that excellent recipe, saith Themistius'i, 'Aptl Kav- 
 aecov Koi tojucov, that supplies the place and does the work of 
 the burnings and scarifyings,^^ — a cry to stop him in his preci- 
 pitous course ; a tear at least to solemnize, if not to prevent 
 so sad a fate. And it were well if all our bowels were thus 
 employed, all our kindness and most passionate love, thus 
 converted and laid out on our poor lapsed sinner-brethren's 
 souls, to seize upon those fugitives, as Christ is said to do, 
 €TTLka/jL/3dvea6ai, to catch hold and bring them back, ere it [-jjeb. ii. 
 be yet too late ; rescue them out of the hands of their dearest 
 espoused sins, and not suffer the most flattering kind of 
 death, — KaKorex^la virohvovaa ovoixari aefivw in Gal. de 
 Athl.'', '^'the devil in the angelical disguise," — the sin that 
 undertakes to be the prime saint, — the zeal for the Lord of 
 Hosts, — any the most venerable impiety, to lay hold on 
 them. Could I but see such a new-fashioned charity re- 
 ceived and entertained in the world : every man to become 
 his brother's keeper, and every man so tame as to love and 
 interpret aright, entertain and embrace this keeper, this 
 eirlrpoTros SaL/mcov, this guardian angel, as an angel indeed, 
 as the only valuable friend he hath under heaven, I should 
 think this a lucky omen of the world's returning to its wits, 
 to some degree of piety again. And till then there is a very 
 
 1 l^ex^is Koi (ri) (papf^aKois avrl Kav- yXuK^7s Koi Trphs xaptj/, k .t. A.. — The- 
 
 aeu)!/ Kol TOfjLwu €15 t)]v iarp^'iav K^XPV- mistius, Orat. xxii. Trepl (piAias, p. 335. 
 
 ordai. ra 5e (papfxaKa ravra xSyoi etVi ed. Dindorf. ] 
 ix^aroi ^hvoias kou Trapprja-'ias, oux oi ^ Solon. 
 
834 
 
 SKRMON XV. 
 
 fit place and season for the exercise of the other part of tne 
 passion here^ that of indignation, the last minute of my last 
 particular^ as the '^how long" is an expression of indigna- 
 tion. 
 
 Indignation, not at the men, — for however Aristotle^s^ 
 Bel vefieaav, " a man ought to have indignation at some per- 
 sons/^ may seem to justify it, our Saviour calls not for any 
 
 [Phil.ii.i.] such stern passion, or indeed any but love, and bowels of 
 pity, and charity toward the person of any the most enor- 
 
 [Gal.vi.l.] mous sinner; and St. Paul, only for the KaTapTi^ere, the 
 " restoring,^' setting him in joint again, that is thus " over- 
 taken in any fault, — but indignation, I say, at the sin, at 
 the simplicity and the folly, that refuse reproachful creature, 
 that hath the fate to be beloved so passionately and so long. 
 And to this will Aristotle's season of indignation belong, the 
 seeing favours and kindness so unworthily dispensed, — the 
 upstarts, saith he, and new men advanced and gotten into 
 the greatest dignities, — knowledge to be professedly hated, 
 and under that title, all the prime, i. e. practical wisdom, 
 and piety, and simplicity, i. e. folly, and madness, and sin, 
 to have our whole souls laid out upon it. 
 
 O let this shrill sarcasm of Wisdom^s, the " How long, ye 
 simple ones," be for ever a sounding in our ears. Let this 
 indignation at our stupid ways of sin transplant itself to that 
 soil where it is likely to thrive and fructify best, I mean, to 
 that of our own instead of other men^s breasts, where it will 
 appear gloriously in St. Paul's inventory, a prime part of 
 
 [2 Cor. vii. that a/iieTa^i\r/T09 /merdvoLa, the durable, unretracted re- 
 pentance, an effect of that godly sorrow that worketh to sal- 
 vation. And if it be sincere, O what indignation it produ- 
 ceth in us ! what displeasure and rage at our folly ! to think 
 how senselessly we have moulted and crumbled away our 
 souls ! what unthrifty bargains we have made ! what sots 
 and fools we shall appear to hell, when it shall be known to 
 the wretched, tormented creatures what ambitions we had to 
 be but as miserable as they ! upon what Gotham errands, what 
 wild-goose chases we are come posting and wearied thither! 
 O that a little of this consideration and this passion betimes, 
 might ease us of that endless woe and indignation ; those 
 
 " [Arist. Rhet. ii. 9.] 
 
SERMON XV. 
 
 335 
 
 tears and gnashing of teeth quit us of that sad arrear of 
 horrors that otherwise waits behind for us. Lord, do Thou 
 give us that view of our ways ; the errors, the folHes, the 
 furies of our extravagant, atheistical lives ; that may, by the 
 very reproach and shame, recover and return us to Thee ! 
 " Make our faces ashamed, O Lord, that we may seek Thy [Ps.lxxxiii. 
 Law give us that pity and that indignation to our poor, 
 perishing souls, that may at length awake and fright us 
 out of our lethargies, and bring us so many confounded, 
 humbled, contrite penitentiaries, to that beautiful gate of 
 Thy temple of mercies, where we may retract our follies, 
 implore Thy pardon, deprecate Thy wrath ; and for Thy de- 
 liverance from so deep a hell, from so infamous a vile con- 
 dition, from so numerous a tale of deaths^ never leave praising 
 Thee, and saying, " Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts ; 
 heaven and earth are full of Thy glory ; glory be to Thee, 
 O God, most high." 
 To whom, with the Son and the Holy Ghost be ascribed, &c. 
 
SERMON XVL 
 
 Matt. i. 23. 
 
 Emmayniel, ivMch is hy interjoretatioii, God with us. 
 
 The different measure and means of dispensing divine 
 knowledge to several ages of the vrorld, may sufficiently ap- 
 pear by the gospels of the New, and prophecies of the Old 
 Testament; the sunshine and the clearness of the one, and 
 the twilight and dimness of the other : but in no point this 
 more importantly concerns us than the incarnation of Christ. 
 This hath been the study and theme, the speculation and 
 sermon of all holy men and writers since Adam's fall; yet 
 
 Mat. iii. 3. never plainly disclosed till J ohn Baptist, in the third of 
 Matthew and the third verse, and the angel in the next 
 verses before my text, undertook the task, and then indeed 
 was it fully performed ; then were the writings, or rather 
 the riddles, of the obscure, stammering, whispering prophets, 
 
 Isa. xl. 3. turned into the voice of " one crying in the wilderness, Pre- 
 pare ye the ways of the Lord,'^ &c. Then did the cry, yea, 
 shouting of the Baptist, at once both interpret and perform 
 
 ver. 4. what it prophesied ; at the sound of it, " every valley w^as 
 exalted, and every hill was brought low : the crooked was 
 made straight, and the rough places plain,'' that is, the hill 
 and groves of the prophets were levelled into the open cham- 
 paign of the gospel; those impediments which hindered God's 
 approach unto men's rebel hearts were carefully removed ; the 
 abject mind was lifted up, the exalted was depressed, the in- 
 tractable and rough was rendered plain and even ; in the same 
 manner as a way was made unto the Roman army marching 
 against Jerusalem. 
 
SERMON XVI. 
 
 337 
 
 This I tliouglit profitable to be premised to you^ both tliat 
 you might understand the affinity of prophecies and gospel, 
 as difFeriug not in substance, but only in clearness of revela- 
 tion, as the glorious face of the sun from itself being overcast 
 and masked with a cloud; and also for the clearing of my 
 text. For this entire passage of Scripture, of which these 
 words are a close, is the angeFs message or gospel unto Joseph, 
 and set down by St. Matthew, as both the interpretation and 
 accomplishment of a prophecy delivered long ago by Isaiah, 
 but perhaps not at all understood by the J ews : to wit, " that 
 a virgin should conceive and bear a son, and they should call 
 His name Emmanuel.^^ 
 
 Where first we must examine the seeming difference in the 
 point of Christ^s name, betwixt the place here cited from 
 Isaiah, and the words here vouched of the angel, and proved Mat. i. 21. 
 by the effect. For the prophet says, " He shall be called Em- j^^' 
 manueV^ but the angel commands He should be, and the 
 Gospel records He was named Jesus. 
 
 And here we must resume and enlarge the ground pre- 
 mised in our preface, that prophecies being not histories, but 
 rude imperfect draughts of things to come, do not exactly 
 express and delineate, but only shadow and covertly veil 
 those things which only the Spirit of God and the event 
 must interpret. So that in the Gospel we construe the words, 
 but in prophecies the sense ; i. e. we expect not the perform- 
 ance of every circumstance expressed in the words of a pro- 
 phecy, but we acknowledge another sense beyond the literal ; 
 and in the comparing of Isaiah with St. Matthew we exact 
 not the same expressions, provided we find the same substance 
 and the same significancy. So then the prophet's, " and call 
 His name Emmanuel,^' is not, as human covenants are, to be 
 fulfilled in the rigour of the letter, that He should be so 
 named at His circumcision, but in the agreement of sense, 
 that this name should express His nature; that He was 
 indeed " God with us," and that at the circumcision He 
 should receive a name of the same power and significancy. 
 Whence the observation by the way is, that Emmanuel in 
 effect signifies Jesus," ^*^God with us," "a Saviour;" and from 
 thence the point of doctrine, that God's coming to us, i. e. 
 Christ's incarnation, brought salvation into the world. For 
 
 HAMMOND. 7 
 
388 
 
 SERMON XVI. 
 
 if there be a substantial agreement betwixt the propliet and 
 the angel; if Emmanuel signify directly "Jesusj" if "God with 
 us/' and Saviour," be really the same title of Christ ; then 
 ■was there no Saviour, and consequently no salvation, before 
 this presence of God with us. Which position we will briefly 
 explain, and then, omitting unnecessary proofs, apply it. 
 
 In explaining of it we must calculate the time of Christ^s 
 incarnation, and set down how with it, and not before, came 
 salvation. 
 
 We may collect in Scripture a threefold incarnation of 
 Christ; 1. in the counsel of God, 2. in the promises of God, 
 3. in a personal open exhibiting of Him unto the world; 
 the effect and complement of both counsel and promises. 
 Rev.xiii.8. 1. In the counsel of God; so He was as "slain,^^ so in- 
 carnate, before the foundation of the world.'''' For the 
 word slain, being not competible to the eternal God, but 
 only to the assumption of the human nature, presupposes 
 Him incarnate, because slain. God then in His prescience, 
 surveying before He created, and viewing the lapsed, miser- 
 able, sick estate of the future creation, in His eternal decree 
 [Heb. xii. foresaw and pre-ordained Jesus, the Saviour, the "author and 
 ^*-' finisher of'^ the world^s salvation. So that in the counsel of 
 
 God, to whom all things to come are made present, Emma- 
 nuel and Jesus went together; and no salvation bestowed on 
 us, but in respect to this, " God w^ith us.''^ 
 
 2. In the promises of God ; and then Christ was incarnate 
 Gen. iii. 15. when He was promised first in paradise, "The seed of the 
 woman,^^ &c., and so He is as old in the flesh as the world in 
 sin, and was then in God^s promise first born when Adam 
 and mankind began to die. Afterwards He was, not again, 
 but still incarnate in God's promise more evidently in Abra- 
 Gen. xii.3; ham's time, "In thy seed,'' &c., and in Moses's time when 
 xxU 18 addition of the passover, a most significant repre- 
 
 Exod. xiii. sentation of the incarnate and crucified Christ, He was 
 more than promised, almost exhibited. Under which times 
 it is by some asserted that Christ, in the form of man, and 
 habit of angel, appeared sundry times to the fathers % to give 
 them not a hope, but a possession of the incarnate God, and 
 to be prceludium incarnationis, a pawn unto them that they 
 
 ^ [Vid. Bulli Def. Fid. Nic, I. 1, 2, sqq.] 
 
SERMON XVI. 
 
 339 
 
 trusted not in vain. And here it is plain tlirougliout^ that 
 this incarnation of Christ, in the promise of God, did per- 
 petuall}^ accompany or go before salvation : not one blessing 
 on the nations, without mention of "thy seed;" not one en- 
 couragement against fear, or unto confidence, but confirmed 
 and backed with an "I am th}^ shield," &c., i. e. according to [Gen. xv. 
 the Targum, "My Word is thy shield;" i. e. my Christ, who 
 is 0 X6ryo9, "the Word;" not any mention of righteousness [Johni.l.] 
 and salvation but on ground and condition of beHef of that 
 Jesus which was then in promise, "Emmanuel, God with us." 
 
 3. In the personal exhibiting of Christ in form of flesh 
 unto the world, dated at the fulness of time, and called in 
 our ordinary phrase His incarnation; then no doubt was 
 Emmanuel, Jesus ; then was He openly shewed to all people 
 in the form of God a Saviour, which Simeon most divinely Luke ii. 30. 
 styles " God's salvation," thereby, no doubt, meaning the 
 incarnate Christ, which by being " God with us," was sal- 
 vation. 
 
 Thus do you see a threefold incarnation, a threefold 
 Emmanuel, and proportionably a threefold Jesus. 
 
 1. A Saviour first decreed for the world, answerable to God, 
 incarnate in God^s counsel ; and so no man was ever capable 
 of salvation but through " God with us." 
 
 2. A Saviour promised to the world, answerable to the 
 second " God with us," to wit, incarnate in the promise ; 
 and so there is no covenant of salvation but in this " God 
 with us." 
 
 3. A Saviour truly exhibited and born of a woman^ answer- 
 able to the third Emmanuel ; and so also is there no mani- 
 festation, no proclaiming, no preaching of salvation, but by 
 the birth and merits of " God with us." 
 
 To these three, if we add a fourth incarnation of Christ, the 
 assuming of our immortal flesh, which was at His resurrec- 
 tion, then surely the doctrine will be complete, and this Em- 
 manuel incarnate in the womb of the grave, and brought 
 forth clothed upon with an incorruptible seed, is now more 
 fully than ever proved an eternal Jesus ; for " when He had 
 overcome the sharpness of death. He opened the kingdom of 
 heaven to all believers," as it is in our Te Deum ; as if all that 
 till then ever entered into heaven had been admitted by some 
 
 z 2 
 
340 
 
 SERMOX XVI. 
 
 privy key ; but now the very gates were wide opened to all 
 believers. This last incarnation of Christ, being accompanied 
 ■with a catholic salvation, that Jesus might be as eternal as 
 Emmanuel, that He might be as immortal a Saviour as a God 
 with us. It were but a superfluous work further to demon- 
 strate that through all ages of the world there was no salva- 
 tion ever tendered but in respect to this incarnation of Christ ; 
 that the hopes, the belief, the expectation of salvation, which 
 the fathers lived and breathed by, under the types of the law, 
 was only grounded upon, and referred unto, these promises of 
 the future incarnation; that they which were not in some 
 measure enlightened in this mystery w^ere not also partakers 
 of this covenant of salvation ; that all the means besides that 
 heaven and earth, and which goes beyond them both, the 
 brain of man or angel, could afford or invent, could not ex- 
 cuse, much less save any child of Adam ; that eyery soul 
 which was to spring from these loins had been without those 
 transcendent mercies which were exhibited by this incarna- 
 tion of Christ's, plunged in necessary desperate damnation ; 
 3^our patience shall be more profitably employed in a brief 
 application of the point ; 
 
 First, that you persuade and drive yourselves to a sense 
 and feeling of your sins, those sins which thus plucked God 
 out of heaven, and for a while deprived Him of His majesty ; 
 which laid an engagement upon God, either to leave His 
 infinite justice unsatisfied, or else to subject Plis infinite 
 deity to the servile mortality of flesh, or else to leave an 
 infinite world in a common damnation. 
 
 Secondly, to strain all the expressions of our hearts, 
 tongues, and lives, to the highest note of gratitude which is 
 possible, in answer to this mystery and treasure of this 
 ''God with us;" to reckon all the miracles of either com- 
 mon or private preservations, as foils to this incomparable 
 mercy, infinitely below the least circumstance of it; without 
 which thine estate, thy understanding, thy body, thy soul, 
 thy being, thy very creation, were each of them as exquisite 
 curses as hell or malice could invent for thee. 
 
 Thirdly, to observe wdth an ecstasy of joy and thanks the 
 precious privileges of us Christians, beyond all that ever 
 God professed love to, in that we have obtained a full revel- 
 
SERMON XVr. 
 
 341 
 
 ation of this ^' God with us;" which all the fathers did but 
 
 see in a cloud, the angels peeped at, the heathen world 
 
 gaped after, but we behold as in a plain at mid-day : for 
 
 since the veil of the temple was rent, every man that hath 
 
 eyes may see sanctum sanctorum^ the holy of holies, " God Mat. xxvii. 
 
 with us/'' 
 
 Fourthly, to make a real use of this doctrine to the profit 
 of our souls, that if God have designed to be Emmanuel, 
 and Jesus an incarnate God, and Saviour to us; that then 
 we will fit, and prepare, and make ourselves capable of this 
 mercy ; and by the help of our religious, devout, humble* 
 endeavours, not frustrate, but further and promote in our- 
 selves this end of Christ's incarnation, the saving of our 
 souls; and this use is eflPectually made to our hands in the 
 twelfth to the Hebrews, at the last, " Wherefore we receiv- Heb. xii. 
 ing a kingdom that cannot be moved i. e. being par- 
 takers of the presence, the reign, the salvation of the incar- 
 nate God, " let us have grace, whereby we may serve God 
 acceptably, with reverence and godly fear." And do Thou, 
 O powerful God, improve the truth of this doctrine to the 
 best advantage of our souls, that Thy Son may not be born 
 to us unprofitably; but that He may be God, not only with 
 us, but in us ; in us, to sanctify and adorn us here with His 
 effectual grace ; and with us, to sustain us here, as our 
 Emmanuel; and as our Jesus, to crown and perfect us here- 
 after with glory. 
 
 And so much for this point, that Jesus and Emmanuel 
 import the same thing, and there was no salvation till this 
 presence of " God with us." We now come to the substance 
 itself, i. e. Christ^s incarnation, noted by "Emmanuel, 
 which is by interpretation," &c. Where first we must ex- 
 plain the word, then drive forward to the matter. The 
 word in Isaiah, in the Hebrew, is not so much a name as a 
 sentence describing unto us the mystery of the conception 
 of the Virgin, ••^Dy, "with us God;" where or rh^, 
 " God," is taken in Scripture, either absolutely for the nature 
 of God, as for the most part in the Old Testament, or per- 
 sonally ; and so either for the person of the Father in many 
 places, or else distinctly for the person of the Son. " And will Hos. i. 7. 
 save them by the Lord their God," Dn\ni'^, their God, i. e. 
 
342 
 
 SEBMON XVI. 
 
 Christ : and so also most evidently in this place, ont of Isaiah, 
 where bi< signifies the Son incarnate, God-man/' deavOpw- 
 TTos, and many the like ; especially those where the Targum 
 paraphrases Jehovah, or Jehovah Elohim, by D^n^x '•n xnD^D, 
 Johni. 1. ''the Word of the Lord,'' i. e. Christ Jesus. As for in- 
 Gen. iii. 22. stance, "that Word of the Lord said/' and "the AVord 
 ■ created." Secondly, cy, which signifies in its extent " near," 
 " at," " with," or " amongst." Thirdly, the particle signify- 
 ing "us," though it expresses not, yet it must note, our 
 human nature, our abode, our being in this our great world, 
 "wherein we travel, and this our little world, wherein we 
 dwell ; not as a mansion place, to remain in, but either as 
 an inn to lodge, or a tabernacle to be covered, or a prison to 
 suffer in. So that the words in their latitude run thus ; 
 Emmanuel; i. e. the second Person in Trinity is come down 
 into this lower world amongst us, for a while to travel, to 
 lodge, to sojourn, to be fettered in this inn, this tabernacle, 
 this prison of man's flesh ; or briefly, at this time, is con- 
 ceived and born God-man, Oedvdpwiros, the same both God 
 and man, the man Christ Jesus. And this is the cause and 
 business, the ground and theme of our present rejoicing : in 
 this were limited and fulfilled the expectation of the fathers, 
 and in this begins and is accomplished the hope and joy of 
 Lukeii.28. US Christians ; that which was old Simeon's warning to death, 
 the sight and embraces of the Lord's Christ, as the greatest 
 happiness which an especial favour could bestow on him; and 
 therefore made him in a contempt of any further life, sing his 
 own funeral. Nunc dimittis, " Lord, now lettest Thou," &c. 
 This is to us the prologue, and first part of a' Christian's 
 life; either the life of the world, that that may be worthy to 
 be called life ; or that of grace, that we be not dead whilst 
 we live. Eor were it not for this assumption of flesh, you 
 may justly curse that ever you carried flesh about you; that 
 ever your soul was committed to such a prison as your body 
 is ; nay, such a dungeon, such a grave : but through this 
 incarnation of Christ, our flesh is or shall be cleansed into 
 a temple for the soul to worship in, and in heaven for a robe 
 for it to triumph in. For our body shall be purified by His 
 body. 
 
 If ye will be sufficiently instructed into a just valuation of 
 
SE1{M0N XVI. 
 
 343 
 
 the weight of this mystery, you must resolve yourselves to a 
 pretty large task, — and it were a notable Christmas employ- 
 ment, I should bless God for any one that would be so 
 piously valiant as to undertake it, — you must read over the 
 whole book of Scripture and nature to this purpose. For 
 when you find in the Psalmist the news of Christ's coming, Ps. xl. 7. 
 " Then said I, lo I come;'^ you find your directions how to 
 track liim, In the volume of the book it is written of Me/' 
 &c., i. e. either in the whole book, or in every folding, every 
 leaf of this book, — thou shalt not find a story, a riddle, a 
 prophecy, a ceremony, a downright legal constitution, but 
 hath some manner of aspect on this glass, some way drives 
 at this mystery, " God manifest in flesh.'' For example, — 
 perhaps you have not noted, — wherever you read Seth's ge- [Gen. 
 nealogies more insisted on than Cain's, Shem's than his elder j'^^ron i 
 brother Ham's, Abraham's than the whole world besides, ii-, &c.] 
 Jacob's than Esau's, Judah's than the whole twelve pa- 
 triarchs ; and the like passages which directly drive down 
 the line of Christ, and make that the whole business of the 
 Scripture; whensoever, I sa}^ you read any of these, then 
 are you to note that Shiloh was to come ; that He which was 
 sent was on His journey ; that from the creation till the 
 fulness of time the Scripture was in travail with Him ; and by 
 His leaping ever now and then, and as it were, springing in 
 the womb, gave manifest tokens that it had conceived, and 
 would at last bring forth the Messias. So that the whole 
 Old Testament is a mystical Virgin Mary, a kind of mother of 
 Christ ; which by the Holy Ghost conceived Him in Genesis ; Gen.iii. 15. 
 and throughout Moses and the prophets carried Him in the 
 womb, and was very big of Him ; and at last in Malachi was Mai. iii. 4. 
 in a manner delivered of Him. For there you shall find 
 mention of John Baptist, who was, as it were, the midwife of 
 the Old Testament, to open its womb, and bring the Messias 
 into the world. Howsoever, at the least it is plain, that the 
 Old Testament brought Him to His birth, though it had not 
 strength to bring forth ; and the prophets, as Moses from [Deut. 
 Mount Nebo, came to a view of this land of Canaan. xxxiv. l.] 
 
 For the very first words of the New Testament being, as it 
 were, to fill up what only was wanting in the Old, are the 
 book and history of His generations and birth. You would Mat. i. i. 
 
344 
 
 SERMON XVI. 
 
 yet be better able to prize the excellency of this work, and 
 reach the pitch of this day^s rejoicing, if you would learn how 
 the very heathen fluttered about this light ; what shift they 
 made to get some inkling of this incarnation beforehand ; 
 how the sibyls, heathen women, and VirgiP, and other hea- 
 then poets in their writings, before Christ's time, let fall many 
 passages, which plainly referred and belonged to this incar- 
 nation of God. It is fine sport to see in our authors, how the 
 devil, with his famous oracles and prophets, foreseeing by his 
 skill in the Scripture, that Christ was near His birth, did 
 droop upon it, and hang the wing ; did sensibly decay in his 
 courage, began to breathe thick, and speak imperfectly ; and 
 sometimes as men in the extremity of a fever, distractedly, 
 wildly, without any coherence, and scarce sense ; and how at 
 last about the birth of Christ, he plainly gave up the ghost, 
 and left his oracular prophets as speechless as the caves they 
 dwelt in, their last voice being, that their great god Pan% 
 i. e. the devil, was dead, and so both his kingdom and their 
 prophecies at an end ; as if Christ's coming had chased 
 Lucifer out of the world, and the powers of hell were buried 
 that minute when a Saviour was born. 
 
 And now by way of use, can je see the devil put out of 
 heart, and ye not put forward to get the field ? can you 
 delay to make use of such an advantage as this ? can ye be 
 so cruel to yourselves as to shew any mercy on that now dis- 
 armed enemy ? will ye see God send His Son down into the 
 field to enter the lists, and lead up a forlorn troop against 
 the prince of this world, and ye not follow at His alarm ? will 
 ye not accept of a conquest which Christ so lovingly offers 
 1 3. yo^ ^ It is a most terrible exprobration in Hosea, look on 
 it, where God objects to Ephraim her not taking notice of 
 His mercies ; her not seconding and making use of His 
 loving deliverances, which plainly adumbrates this deliver- 
 ance by Christ's death ; as may appear by the first verse of 
 the chapter, compared with Matthew xv. 2. " Well," saith 
 God, ''I taught Ephraim to go, taking them by their arms; 
 but they knew not that I healed them. I drew them with 
 
 ^ [Vid. Oracula Sibyllina, et Virg. ^ [Cf. Plutarch, de Oraculorum De- 
 Bucol. iv.] fectu. Op., torn. vii. p. 651. ed. Reiske.] 
 
SERMON XVI. 
 
 345 
 
 the cords of a man an admirable phrase, — with all those 
 
 means that use to oblige one man to another, — " with bands 
 
 of love/' &c., i. e. I used all means for the sustaining and 
 
 strengthening of My people : I put them in a course to be 
 
 able to go, and fight, and overcome all the powers of dark- Mat. xv. l. 
 
 ness, and put off the deviFs yoke : I sent My Son amongst 
 
 them for this purpose. And all this I did by way of love, 
 
 as one friend is wont to do for another, and yet they would 
 
 not take notice of either the benefit or the donor, nor think 
 
 themselves beholden to Me for this mercy. 
 
 And this is our case, beloved, if we do not second these 
 and the like mercies of God bestowed on us ; if we do not 
 improve them to our souls' health ; if we do not fasten on 
 this Christ incarnate ; if we do not follow Him with an ex- 
 pression of gratitude and reverence, and stick close to Him 
 as both our friend and captain. Finally, if we do not en- 
 deavour and pray that this His incarnation may be seconded 
 with another; that as once He was born in our flesh to jus- 
 tify us, so He may be also born spiritually in our souls to 
 sanctify us : for there is a spiritual ivadpKcoaos, or mystical 
 incarnation of Christ in every regenerate man, where the 
 soul of man is the womb wherein Christ is conceived by the 
 Holy Ghost. The proof of which doctrine shall entertain 
 the remainder of this hour : for this is the Emmanuel that 
 most nearly concerns us, " God with us," i. e. with our 
 spirits, or Christ begotten and brought forth in our hearts. 
 Of which briefly. 
 
 And that Christ is thus born in a regenerate man's 
 soul, if it were denied, might directly appear by these two 
 places of Scripture, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth Gal. ii. 20. 
 in me." Again, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by Eph.iii.i7. 
 faith," &c. 
 
 Now that you may understand this spiritual incarnation of 
 Christ the better, we will compare it with His real incarna- 
 tion in the womb of the Virgin ; that so we may keep close 
 to the business of the day, and at once observe both His birth 
 to the world and ours to grace; and so even possess Christ 
 whilst we speak of Him. 
 
 And first, if we look on His mother Mary we shall find her 
 
346 
 
 SERMON XVJ. 
 
 Mat.i.ls. an entire pure Virgin, only espoused to Joseph; '^but before 
 they came together, she was found with child of the Holy 
 Ghost," and then the soul of man must be this Virgin. 
 
 Now there is a threefold purity or virginity of the soul ; 
 first, an absolute one, such as was found in Adam before his 
 fall ; secondly, a respective, of a soul, which like Mary, hath 
 not yet joined or committed with the world, to whom it is 
 espoused ; which though it have its part of natural corrup- 
 tions, yet either for want of abihty, of age, or occasion, hath 
 not yet broke forth into the common outrages of sin; thirdly, 
 a restored purity of a soul formerly polluted, but now cleansed 
 by repentance. 
 
 The former kind of natural and absolute purity, as it were 
 to be wished for, so is it not to be hoped; and therefore 
 is not to be imagined in the Virgin mother, or expected in 
 the virgin soul. The second purity we find in all regenerate 
 infants, who are at the same time outwardly initiated to the 
 Church and inwardly to Christ ; or in those whom God hath 
 called before they have engaged themselves in the courses of 
 actual, heinous sins ; such are well disposed, well brought up, 
 [Mark xii. and to uso our Saviour^s words, have so lived as "not to be 
 Ittl X. 1, f^^' fi'oiii the kingdom of God ;" such haply, as Cornelius ; 
 
 and such a soul as this is the fittest womb in which our Saviour 
 delights to be incarnate ; where He may enter and dwell with- 
 out either resistance or annoyance, where He shall be received 
 at the first knock, and never be disordered or repulsed by any 
 stench of the carcase, or violence of the body of sin. The re- 
 ps, li. 10. stored purity is a right spirit renewed in the soul, a wound 
 cured up by repentance, and diff'ers only from the former 
 purity as a scar from a skin never cut, wanting somewhat of 
 the beauty and outward clearness, but nothing of either the 
 strength or health of it. Optandum essef ut in simplici vii^gini' 
 tate servaretur navis^^, ^C; "it were to be wished that the ship, 
 our souls, could be kept in its simple virginity, and never be 
 in danger of either leak or shipwreck." But this perpetual 
 integrity, being a desperate, impossible wish, there is one only 
 remedy, which though it cannot prevent a leak, can stop it. 
 
 ^ Tertull. [de Pcenit., c. 4. p. 146. glum" occurs in that passage, but the 
 see Practical Catechism, p. 129. The words quoted here by Hammond are 
 metaphor of the ^'tabula post naufra- from S. Ambrose ad Virg. Laps.] 
 
SERMON XVI. 
 
 347 
 
 And this is repentance after sin committed^ post naufragium 
 tabula, a means to secure one after a shipwreck, and to deliver 
 him even in the deep waters. And this we call a restored 
 virginity of the soul^ which Christ also vouchsafes to be con- 
 ceived and born in. The first degree of innocence being not 
 to have sinned^ the second to have repented. 
 
 In the second place, the mother of Christ in the flesh was 
 a Virgin, not only till the time of Christ's conception, but 
 also till the time of His birth, " He knew her not till she had Mat. i. 25. 
 brought forth,^^ &c. And further, as we may probably be- 
 lieve, remained a Virgin all the days of her life after; for to 
 her is applied by the learned that which is typically spoken 
 of the east gate of the sanctuary, " This gate shall be shut, it Ezek. xliv. 
 shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it, because ^* 
 the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it ; therefore 
 it shall be shut.'^ A place, if ap pliable, very apposite for the 
 expression. Hence is she called by the fathers and councils 
 aeiirapOevos, a "perpetual Virgin," against the heresy of 
 Helvidius^. The probability of this might be further proved 
 if it were needful. And ought not upon all principles of 
 nature and of justice, the virgin soul, after Christ once con- 
 ceived in it, remain pure and stanch till Christ be born in 
 it, nay, be aeiirapOevos, a "perpetual Virgin,^^ never indulge 
 to sensual pleasures, or cast away that purity which Christ 
 either found or wrought in it ? If it were a respective purity, 
 then ought it not perpetually retain and increase it, and 
 never fall off to those disorders that other men supinely live 
 in ? If it were a recovered purity, hold it fast, and never turn 
 again, " as a dog to his vomit, or a sow to her wallowing in [2 Pet. ii. 
 the mire For this conception and birth of Christ in the ^^^'-^ 
 soul would not only wash away the filth that the swine was 
 formerly mired in, but also take away the swinish nature, 
 that she shall never have any strong propension to return 
 again to her former inordinate delights. Now this continu- 
 ance of the soul in this its recovered virginity, is not from the 
 firm, constant, stable nature of the soul, but as Eusebius^ 
 saith in another case, airo [juel^ovos koX Kparepov heafiov, 
 
 e [Cf. S. Hieron. Tract, adv. Hel- 
 vidium ; Op., torn, ii.] 
 
 ^ Euseb. Praep. Evang., lib. xiii. p. 
 
 412. [His words (quoted from Plato, 
 Timasus, p. 41,) are fx^l^ovos er: Seer- 
 jxov Kai KvpiwTcpov \ax6vTes.} 
 
348 
 
 SERMON XVI. 
 
 from a more strong, able band/^ the union of Christ to the 
 Ezek. xiv. soul, His spiritual incarnation in it : " Because the Lord, the 
 
 2 ... 
 
 God of Israel, hath entered in by it ; therefore it shall be 
 shut/^ i. e. it shall not be opened either in consent or practice to 
 the lusts and pollutions of the world or flesh ; because Christ, 
 by being born in it, hath cleansed it ; because He the Word 
 of God, said the word, therefore the leprosy is cured ; in whom 
 He enters He dwells, and on whom He makes His real im- 
 [Eph. iv. pression " He seals them up to the day of redemption/^ un- 
 less we unbuild ourselves and change our shape we must 
 be His. 
 
 In the third place, if we look on the agent in this con- 
 ception, we shall find it, both in Mary and in the soul of man, 
 to be the Holy Ghost, that which is conceived in either of 
 Mat. i. 20. them "is of the Holy Ghost;" nothing in this business of 
 Christ^s birth with us to be imputed to natural power or 
 causes, the whole contrivance and final production of it, the 
 preparations to and labouring of it, is all the workmanship of 
 the Spirit. So that as Mary was called by an ancient, so 
 may the soul without an hyperbole by us be styled, " the 
 shop of miracles," and " the workhouse of the Holy Ghost ^ 
 in which every operation is a miracle to nature, and no tools 
 are used but what the Spirit forged and moves. Mary con- 
 ceived Christ, but it was above her own reach to apprehend 
 Luke i. 34. the manner how ; for so she questions the angel, " How shall 
 this be?" &c. So doth this soul of man conceive and grow 
 big, and bring forth Christ, and yet not itself fully perceives 
 how this work is wrought ; Christ being, for the most part, 
 insensibly begotten in us, and to be discerned only spiritually, 
 not at His entrance, but in His fruits. 
 
 In the fourth place, that Mary was chosen and appointed 
 among all the families of the earth to be the mother of the 
 Christ, was no manner of desert of hers, but God's special 
 favour and dignation; whence the words run truly inter- 
 Luke i. 28. preted, "Hail, thou that art highly favoured ;" not as the 
 K^japira). y^igar read, gratia plena, " full of grace." And again, " Thou 
 Ve7 30.65- bast found favour with God." So is it in the case of man's 
 pes xaptf. soul; there is no power of nature, no preparation of morality, 
 no art that all the philosophy or learning in the world can 
 
 8 [See above, p. 31 L] 
 
SEPcirON XYI. 
 
 349 
 
 teacli a man, which can deserve this grace at Christ^s hands, 
 
 that can any way woo or allure God to be born spiritually in 
 
 us, which can persuade or entice the Holy Ghost to conceive 
 
 and beget Christ in us, but only the mere favour and good 
 
 pleasure of God, which may be obtained by our prayers, but 
 
 can never be challenged by our merits, may be comfortably 
 
 expected and hoped for as a largess given to our necessities 
 
 and wants, but can never be required as a reward of our 
 
 deserts. For it was no high pitch of perfection which Mary 
 
 observed in herself as the motive to this favour ; but only the 
 
 mere mercy of God, which regarded the lowliness of His Luke i. 48. 
 
 handmaid." 
 
 Whence in the fifth place, this soul in which Christ will 
 vouchsafe to be born must be a lowly, humble soul ; or else 
 it will not perfectly answer Mary^s temper, nor fully bear a 
 part in her Magnificat ; where in the midst of her glory she 
 humbly specifies the lowliness of His handmaid." But 
 this by the way. 
 
 In the sixth place, if we consider here with John the 
 Baptist, His forerunner, coming to prepare His way, and 
 his preaching repentance as a necessary requisite to Christ^s 
 being born and received in the world ; then we shall drive 
 the matter to a further issue, and find repentance a necessary 
 preparation for the birth of Christ in our hearts. For so the 
 Baptist^s message, " Prepare the ways," &c., is here inter- 3 
 preted by the event, ^' Repent, for the kingdom of God is at Mat. iii. 2. 
 hand ;" as if this harbinger had no other furniture and pro- 
 vision to bespeak in the heart that was to receive Christ, but 
 only repentance for sins. I will not examine here the pre- 
 cedence of repentance before faith in Christ, though I might 
 seasonably here state the question, and direct you to begin 
 with John and proceed to Christ ; first repent, then fasten 
 on Christ ; only this for all, the promises of salvation in 
 Christ are promised on condition of repentance and amend- 
 ment, they must be weary and heavy laden, who ever come j^^j. 
 to Christ, and expect rest. And therefore whosoever ap- 28. 
 plies these benefits to himself, and thereby conceives Christ 
 in his heart, must first resolve to undertake the condition re- 
 quired, to wit, " newness of life," which yet he will not be 
 able to perform till Christ be fully born and dwell in Him by 
 
350 
 
 SEKMON XVT. 
 
 His enabling graces ; for you may mark, that Christ and 
 John being both about the same age, as appears by the story, 
 Christ must needs be born before John's preaching : so in 
 tlie soul there is supposed some kind of incarnation of Christ, 
 before repentance or newness of life ; yet before Christ is 
 born, or at least come to His full stature and perfect growth 
 in us ; this Baptist's sermon, that is, this repentance and 
 resolution to amendment, must be presumed in our souls. 
 And so repentance is both a preparation to Christ's birth, and 
 
 Mat. iii. 2. an effect of it. For so John preached, " Repent, for," &c. 
 
 Mat. iv. 17. And so also in the same words Christ preaches, "Repent," &c. 
 
 And so these two together, John and Christ, repentance and 
 faith, though one began before the other was perfected ; yet^ 
 
 Mat. iii. 15. 1 Say, these two together in the fully regenerate man ''fulfil 
 all righteousness.'' 
 
 In the seventh place you may observe, that when Christ 
 was born in Bethlehem, the whole land was in an uproar. 
 
 Mat. ii. 3. Herod the king ''was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him;" 
 
 which whether we apply to the lesser city, the soul of man, 
 in which, or the adjoining people, amongst whom Christ is 
 spiritually born in any man, you shall for the most acknow- 
 ledge the agreement : for the man himself, if he have been 
 any inordinate sinner, then at the birth of Christ in him, all 
 his natural, sinful faculties are much displeased, his reigning 
 Herod sins, and all the Jerusalem of habituate lusts and pas- 
 sions are in great disorder, as knowing that this new birth 
 bodes their instant destruction; and then they cry oft in 
 
 Mark i. 24. the voice of the devil, " What have we to do with Thee, 
 
 [Matt. viii. Jesus, Thou Son of God ? Art Thou come to torment and 
 
 29 1 . r 
 
 '■^ dispossess us before our time?" If it be applied to the 
 neighbour worldlings which hear of this new convert, then are 
 they also in an uproar, and consult how they shall deal with 
 Wisd. ii. this turbulent spirit, " which is made to upbraid our ways 
 ^^^'"^ and reprove our thoughts," which is like to bring down 
 Acts xix. all their trading and cozenage to a low ebb, like Diana's 
 silversmith in the Acts, which made a solemn speech — 
 and the text says there was a great stir — against Paul, be- 
 cause the attempt of his upstart doctrine was like to undo 
 [ver. 25.] the shrine-makers : " Sirs, jq know that by this craft 
 we have our wealth." And no marvel that in both these 
 
SERMON XYl. 
 
 351 
 
 respects there is a great uproar, seeing the spiritual birth 
 of Christ is most infinitely opposite to both the common 
 people of the world and common affections of the soul;, two 
 of the most turbulent, tumultuous, wayward, violent na- 
 tions upon earth. 
 
 In the eighth and last place, — because I will not tire you 
 above the time which is allotted for the trial of your patience, 
 — you may observe the increase and growth of Christ, and 
 that either in Himself, ^''in wisdom and stature,^^ &c,, or else Luke ii. 52. 
 in His troop and attendants, and that' either of '^angels to Mat. iv. 11. 
 minister unto Him," or of disciples to follow and obey Him ; 
 and then the harmony will still go current. Christ in the 
 regenerat eman is first conceived, then born, then by degrees 
 of childhood and youth grows at last to the "measure of[Eph. iv. 
 
 " 13 1 
 
 the stature of this fulness," and the soul consequently from '-^ 
 strength to strength, from virtue to virtue, is increased "to a 
 perfect manhood in Christ Jesus." Then also where Christ is 
 thus born He chooses and calls a jury at least of disciple- 
 graces, to judge and sit upon thee, to give in evidence unto 
 thy spirit, " tliat thou art the son of God." Then is he also [Rom. viii. 
 ministered unto, and furnished by the angels with a perpetual ^^'-^ 
 supplj^, either to increase the lively, or to recover decayed 
 graces. So that now Christ doth bestow a new life upon the 
 man, and the regenerate soul becomes the daughter, as well as 
 the mother of Christ ; she conceives Christ, and Christ her ; 
 she lives, and grows, and moves in Christ, and Christ in her. 
 So that at last she comes to that pitch and height and 
 clk/jlt], that St. Paul speaks of, " I live, yet not I, but Christ Gal. ii. 20. 
 liveth in me ; and the life which I live in the flesh I live by 
 the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Him- 
 self for me." 
 
 And do Thou, O Holy Jesus, which hast loved us and 
 given Thyself for us, love us still, and give Thyself to us. 
 Thou which hast been born in the world to save sinners, 
 vouchsafe again to be again incarnate in our souls, to re- 
 generate and sanctify sinners. Thou which art the theme of 
 our present rejoicing, become our author of perpetual, bring 
 forth, spiritual rejoicing; that our souls may conceive and 
 and Thou mayest conceive and regenerate our souls ; that 
 we may dwell in Christ, and Christ in us: and from the 
 
352 
 
 SEEMON XYI. 
 
 meditation of Thy mortal flesli here, we may be partakers 
 with Thee of Thine immortal glory hereafter. 
 
 Thus have we briefly passed through these words, and in 
 them first shewed you the real agreement betwixt Matthew 
 and Isaiah, in the point of Christ's name, and from thence 
 noted that Jesus and Emmanuel is in effect all one ; and that 
 Christ's incarnation brought salvation into the world. Which 
 being proved through Christ's several incarnations were ap- 
 plied to our direction : 1. to humble ourselves ; 2. to express 
 our thankfulness ; 3. to observe our privileges ; 4. to make 
 ourselves capable and worthy receivers of this mercy. Then 
 we came to the incarnation itself, where we shewed you the 
 excellency of this mystery by the effects which the expecta- 
 tion and foresight of it wrought in the fathers, the prophets, 
 the heathens, the devils : and then by way of use, what an 
 horrible sin it was not to apply and employ this mercy to 
 our souls. Lastly, we came to another birth of Christ, be- 
 sides that in the flesh, His spiritual incarnation in man's 
 soul ; which we compared with the former exactly in eight 
 chief circumstances ; and so left all to God's Spirit and your 
 meditations to work on. 
 
 Now the God, &c. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
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